[Second Strand * Action]

[paintsthewalls]

[Rapunzel is glad today that she never goes anywhere without her trusty skillet. While picking berries, she was accosted by bandits! Horrible men with pointy teeth! She is bravely whacking at them and is surprised when even a slight blow causes them to disappear. This, of course, fuels her confidence. The sounds of skulls being crushed by iron

Comments

/writes a novel

[slatebreaker]

[ oh! what wondrous sights the day has brought; anne has been wandering wide-eyed through the village and its environs, captivated by the Shifting, flickering worlds. earlier, she had stopped and peeked 'round a tree and watched a pair of villagers beat back a creature she had no name for but thought that argos might do as it certainly seemed to be a doggish beast of epic, mythic proportions.

and miss shirley really ought to be getting home except in between the battle-filled glimpses here and there, she also found pieces of home. the village paths faded into a deep, iron-rusty red from time to time -- just like the soil back in prince edward island. a soil she was sure was cursed red by the drenching blood of an ancient family feud, though matthew had heard differently.

and lupins! she stoops to pick a handful but the wink out of existence the moment their stems are snapped. how tragical.

she murmurs as she continued to try, desperate for a bouquet of home: ] Come, sons of summer, by whose toil

/reads a novel

[paintsthewalls]

"Hello Anne! I'm fine!" the blond responded brightly. Rapunzel was a little short of breath, the skillet clutched in two tight fists, and her gown dirty and ragged at the edges. But all in all, she seemed proud and happy at her handiwork.

"Hey, did you notice how RED this path is?"

[slatebreaker]

"...It's meant to be the iron in the soil getting rusty, you know. But that is such a dreary explanation. Tell me, Rapunzel, what do you imagine could make a path so red?"

She chattered animatedly as she gave the girl a long once-over. Rapunzel had certainly been through some sort of...ordeal. She sank deeper into concern despite the blonde's insistence. "You have a pan. Rapunzel, are you quite aware that you are carrying a pan? That's an awfully curious thing to be carrying outside."

[paintsthewalls]

"What could make a path red?" Rapunzel considers. "I've never thought about where red COMES from. Spilled paint, maybe?"

Dreary, though---spilled paint was just as dreary as rust.

"And yes, I have a pan. It makes a very handy knock-people-on-the-head device."

[slatebreaker]

"Spilled paint from faerie painters." Oh, but she could swoon at the notion. It was ever so much more agreeable than a great family feud; however, a part of the girl still clung to that torrid but imagined history.

[paintsthewalls]

"Fairies? There are such things as fairies? I thought they were just in stories."

So skeptical, Rapunzel. And so naive about nearly everything else.

[slatebreaker]

"There has to be such things as fairies or -- or there is simply no hope for me. I don't want to imagine a world without fairies."

...Her world had no fairies. But coming here? Well, it had renewed Anne's faith in all things supernatural.

Does Anne know Jilly I hope? XD

[paintsthewalls]

"The way you speak of it sounds very....drastic. But okay--I don't want to imagine one either," was the firm reply. "We can both insist upon a world with fairies in it!"

[slatebreaker]

A satisfied nod. However: "...Those men that I caught sight of you hitting over their heads with the pan -- who were they?"

[paintsthewalls]

"Ummmm bandits? Criminals?" Rapunzel chewed on the tip of her index finger. "Mother always warned me about that type. But I didn't know any of them PERSONALLY," she was in a hurry to add.