She had just finished another painting on her walls. Rapunzel looked up at it with fondness in her eyes. It was the painting of a star shape, something she always painted and was always in her dreams. She was clueless as to what it meant. Mother Gothel never praised her paintings, at least not the ones of the star. It was like she hated them, or they were invisible to her, because she never even looked at them.

Rapunzel sighed. Pascal squeaked and then patted her on the shoulder. The blonde walked over to her tower window and set on the ledge. She looked down and swallowed. It was a long way down. She knew that if she really tried, she could get down. Her hair alone would help her do so. Her hair was an oddity. It grew very fast and was so long that it had to be braided in just the right way if she wanted it to stay off the ground. Right now it flowed free, seeming to take up all the space in the tower. Mother Gothel said she could never cut it. Her hair was magical and if she cut it the magic would be gone. She did not understand why she was magical, but it had always been that way. She could heal any wound, using her hair and a magic song and could even make someone look young again. Mother Gothel was growing old, each time she this happened, she came to Rapunzel and asked to be made young again. She did not want to die. Rapunzel did not want her mother to die, either.

She loved her mother so much, but she wanted out of her nest, so to speak. She was ready. She really was, but it terrified her. All she knew of the real world came to her in the story books her mother brought her. The stories her mother told were also very scary. Bandits, thugs, evil beings, and the list went on.

"Will I ever get the courage to take the leap, Pascal?"

"Will I ever meet someone other than Mother?" She moved away from the window, set in her favorite chair and faced her wall of paintings. Pascal buried himself under her hair and started to snore peacefully. She wished she could feel as peaceful as the little guy. But than again, Pascal did come and go. Mother Gothel could not stop him from doing his animal stuff in the outside world. Oh how she envied him.