So... I had like, most of this already written and then everything went wrong in december, I finally felt better in January/February and then I had work and then the whole covid stuff that had my mom decide hey let's redo the garden, I turned into a plant mom somewhere in this whole process and miraculously only one of them died... My life is such a mess Rn.

Anyhoeties, this is a bit of a longer chapter, we get to learn some more about gale and stuff.

Who had decided for Gale to go to the expo would be up to discussion, but she did find herself on the edge of the crowd. Barely managing to get a view of the stage by positioning herself on a wall. She'd missed the first few inventions, though she wasn't really interested in those.

To her surprise, the curtains opened to reveal Rapunzel. Though she really should have seen it coming. The princess was always involved in whatever activity she could partake in.

Rapunzel cleared her throat, silencing the audience. "Dangerously wet hallways, Cold, wet clothes. Wet hair that takes forever, " she paused pushing ever very long hair over her shoulder for emphasis. "and I mean forever to dry. All of those are yesterday's problems. Say hello to the Mega Dry! Assistant!"

The curtains opened to reveal a very large contraption, akin to a very large fan hooked up to a large treadmill with Max standing on it, ready to go whenever the order came.

Eugene walked forward and tossed a large bucket of water over himself.

"The Mega-Dry uses cutting edge equine technology to release a powerful, focussed stream of air." The blonde mentioned to Max, and he started running, powering on the machine.

"The result? What used to take hours to dry, now takes seconds."

The audience audibly gasped as Eugene ran a hand through his now dry hair, though that quickly turned to laughter when his hair frizzed out.

Rapunzel let out a bashful laugh. "I think I still had it calibrated for my hair."

The judge gave her an unimpressed once-over and scribbled something down. "next."

The princess nodded and disappeared from the stage, taking her invention with her.

Varian was the next to step onto the stage. "Behold! The power of Alchemy." he hadn't even finished the sentence when the curtains behind him started to move, someone trying to get through whilst shouting. The crowd laughed when one of the local thugs finally broke through, Gale vaguely remembered his name was Shorty. The young alchemist composed himself and cleared his throat, drawing the attention back to him.

"I give you, The elemental Remogrifier!" with the signal given, the thug pushed the invention into the light. His was way smaller than the princess's was, looking more like a trapezoid barrel on wheels with a handle on the side. "Assistant?"

The short man awkwardly pulled the handle down. The compartment started to whirl and spin.

"The rotation causes friction, " Varian started and dumped some sand into the opening. "which heats the same, while the counter-centrifugal force promotes particle compression. The result? Fifty pounds of sand turns into... This"

The boy turned off the machine and reached in, grabbing whatever was in there and held it up into the light.

A bright purple crystal.

"wow." Gale jumped, knocking Salem off of her lap. She'd been so focussed on the stage she never noticed the princess walk up on her.

Letting out a breath Gale had to agree. "It's impressive."

Varian grinned. "I call this new element: Cassandrium!"

Any kind of awe the crowd had for the presentation faded as Shorty tumbled backwards off the stage. Setting in a chain reaction, scaring a goat that dashed into the baker Atilla, who, in a startled reaction chucked the knife he was toying with, aimed directly at the judge.

It was Cassandra's reaction, as she'd been standing behind the judge the entire time, that saved the day, grabbing onto the handle at the last possible second.

Heavy silence followed as St. Croix composed himself, giving the teen a dangerous look. "Despite it's lack of flair and panache, I was almost inclined to give your device a mediocre assessment."

Salem let out a soft growl, not raising his head, making clear the black cat had heard the unfair judgment. "I know." Gale muttered, running her fingers over his head.

"However! Considering your assistant nearly lanced my nasal cavity, I've no choice but to disqualify you."

Cassandra stepped forward, sharply whispering something to the judge as gas filled the stage, forcing Varian off the stage. Gale huffed and jumped down putting Salem on her shoulders. She tried to force her way to the crowd but most people had been too enthusiastic about the next contestant to let her trough.

The redhead huffed and narrowed her eyes at the people in front of her, before she made her way back to the princess, this time jumping on the wall and using it to get around, trying to dodge flying candy or whatever it was the woman on stage tried to gain any favours with.

She was halfway trough the wall when someone pulled her back. Rapunzel pointed to the direction Varian had gone to. Cassandra had beaten Gale to the punch and seemed like she was trying to cheer the teen up.

"We'll go see them afterwards." The princess told her friend with a small smile.

"Alright." Gale's expession turned amused. "You need any help putting away your oversized fan?"

Rapunzel didn't rise to the bait, instead choosing to nod and lead the younger girl away.

The two of them, and moments later Eugene, (Who'd managed to fix his fair back to the way it was.) and decided to drag the Mega-Dry back to the castle. Though Gale's ribs didn't agree as she lifted the wooden bottom.

They didn't get farther than a few meters when Varian's shouts to stop rang out.

Gale turned around as Salem jumped down and ran towards the Alchemist, who got tossed to the ground by St. Croix.

The large man huffed and pulled down the handle as the black cat launched himself at his hands turning on the machine. Gale took off after her familiar.

"Oh this is bad." The alchemist exclaimed as Cass helped him stand.

"How bad is bad?" Gale asked as she reached him, scooping Salem in her arms to prevent the animal from going after a fight he'd lose.

"Well.." Varian took a deep breath and started to ramble an explanation. " Introducing counter-centrifugation to the magnetism could result in well..." A pause as the wind started to pick up and the whirling of the machine managed to create a whirlwind that kept growing. "That! Its angular momentum is rapidly approaching critical velocity. Once that happens, it'll suck up everything in sight. Us, The castle!" Midway trough his sentence, Varian managed to trip, falling over and being sucked towards the large whirlwind.

Cassandra jumped into action, grabbing the Teen's leg and pulling him back. He apparently didn't weigh very much because the whirlwind still managed to pull him towards the centre.

"Okay, so that's bad."

"How do we stop it?" Gale interrupted the two, feet steadily on the ground.

Varian nodded, being snapped back to the problem on hand. "There's only one way to stop it! I need to get close enough to pull the break!"

Gale was about to ask how they were supposed to do that when the Remogrifier was currently in the middle of a giant vortex when the teen was pulled closer to it from within Cassandra's grasp.

"I can't get close enough!" He called down, trying to get himself heard over the volume of the whirlwind. "The vortex has gotten too strong! We need an equally powerful wind source to counteract it!"

Rapunzel gasped. "The Mega-Dry! The Mega-Dry can generate that kind of wind speed and blow against the Vortex."

The princess grabbed Gale and her boyfriend so the two could help the large contraption into place and help Max onto the treadmill.

"He needs to create a counterpoint to the vortex's critical velocity!"

Gale groaned, either from hurt ribs or annoyance. Shouting out an "English!" at the same time Rapunzel turned to Max. "He means you have to run backwards!"

The white horse nodded and did as he was told, resulting in the Mega-Dry vacuuming back what the vortex had swallowed. The Remogrifier slowly lowered to a point Varian barely managed to reach the handle.

The moment he pulled it down, the vortex closed, tossing the young alchemist and everything else to the ground without warning. Cassandra managed to catch him, quite awkwardly as she had been holding onto his ankle.

Eugene let out a cheer and gave Rapunzel a chaste kiss. "We did it! Blondie, hands down, your best invention yet."

Gale had dropped to the floor, spread out like a starfish, earning amused chuckle from the few bystanders.

"You okay?" The redhead just gave Cassandra a thumbs up as she and the Alchemist joined the group.

"I'll be fine... in a few hours."

Sometimes Gale hated herself for letting herself getting roped into helping. - bloody princess with her bloody puppydog eyes. -

Salem wasn't really helping, instead he jumped at every thing that moved, trying to catch it. The redhead sighed, just keeping to herself as the other four had their private conversations in pairs. The young girl just kept her attention to her broom, dodging the judge and other contestant who was begging for a victory.

"Serves them right." Was het only thought as Salem stopped his playing for a second to hiss at them.

"Salem." The girl chided, pretending to be mad at her companion, but the cat just gave her a look and then went back to chasing strings.

Though it was about a minute later when she heard Cassandra from where she stood with Varian.

'Black Rocks?' From the looks of it, Cass hadn't meant for it to be as loud as she was, though it appeared Varian didn't notice. But Gale's interest had been piqued.

'They just sprouted up a couple of weeks ago.'

Gale interrupted.'Near Old Corona?' Varian gave her a quick nod.

'I've never seen anything like it.'

'Yeah, My aunt wanted me to find herbs near he northern part of the river. They sprouted up out of nowhere.'

Rapunzel, who just joined the conversation and Cassandra gave each-other A careful look. "Could you guys show them to us.'

And that is how Gale found herself walking next to Cassandra, with Rapunzel and Varian in front of them, engaged in a deep conversation Varian had started.

Gale had taken Celeste with her, with the excuse of going out for a ride after, and Salem, lazy thing, was napping in the saddle basket.

'Will you be going to the Full Moon festival next week?' Gale snapped up, confused look on her face as she looked at Cassandra.

'Not likely.' She answered. "I still don't know why Corona even Celebrates it.'

Rapunzel stopped mid-sentence and both she and Varian gave her a weird look.

Cass on the other hand let out a huff more akin to a snort. 'I forgot you're not from Here.'

'Well Duh, have you even seen one other person with my hair-color in the entire city?'

'You've lived here long enough.'

'Still it-' Wait, where are you from and what has that to do with the Full Moon festival?' Rapunzel interjected, stabilizing Varian as he tripped over a root.

'I'm from Meria, and the Full Moon Festival is one of our traditions, It's our new year celebration, It symbolizes the height of ones powers and celebrates growth and is a reflection on how one has grown over the year.'

'That's a good thing, Why shouldn't we celebrate such a thing?'

'It's a festival Celebrating Magic? And I believe we all know Corona's stance on magic at this point.' Gale hadn't meant to sound as bitter as she did and quickly answered Cassandra's original question for the second time. 'Not that I'm going either way, Even if my aunt makes me go, I'll likely hang out by the docks.'

Luckily, they all went along with the subject change, even if Varian looked like he didn't want to.

Rapunzel raised another eyebrow and pushed some of her hair out of her eyes. 'Why the docks?'

'The square has way to many people, the dock is calmer and actually has their own small little orchestra.'

'But didn't you do fine in the crowds this morning.'

Gale gave Varian a small laugh at his statement. 'Because I could focus on one thing, I thought that was the point of your presentation.' She kept her tone light, trying to dispel the worried looks she got. 'the square just get's... loud, during festivals and there is so much going on at once...'

'And yet you're fine working in the stables during major event.'

'Oh I am, It can just still go wrong if I'm having a bad day, you can ask Cass about that.' Both of them pulled a face. 'But it's a lot less people and they're coming and going, big groups never stay long and I can hide away in the back if need be. Crowds in the square are a different thing. That's why I like the docks.'

'And you like avoiding Cal.'

Cale barked a surprised laugh at Cassandra's observation. 'Well, you're not wrong.' And with that the conversation was over, and they had reached the black rocks and the Silence could be cut with a knife. Rapunzel was the first to move forward, slowly inching closer, as soon as she stood in front of them the rocks seemed to react. Slowly glowing a bright blue, to which the princess' hair answered, glowing a bright golden.

'Fascinating.' Varian muttered as he walked forward, eyes taking in every detail he could as the others followed suit. 'The rocks are demonstrating an actual physical response...' He trailed off looking from the rocks to Rapunzel. 'To you.' He wasn't wrong. Gale could feel the energy stir in the air and, surprisingly, buzz under her skin, making her scratch at her arms. Rapunzel on the other hand practically slapped her hands on Varian's mouth, shushing the boy. 'I need you to promise to keep this between you and me okay? And them."

'Why?'

'Because my dad has forbidden me from talking about these rocks to anyone.' She explained, waving one of her hands between the four of them. 'We, collectively are going to figure it out. But i need to know if i can trust you, The both of you.'

'Your secret is safe with me, princess.'

Varian nodded as well.

'You can count on me.'

So Meria is located outside of the seven kingdoms. Just for people to know. Also Gale's explanation of her aversion to crowds is based on my own... kind of. I only have it in one specific supermarket, even with my headphones on my nerves just shoot trough the roof because the spaces between shelves are like minimal, everything is just stacked on top of eachother and Everyone takes the carts instead of baskets and i hate every second of it. everyone is basically on top of eachother...ugh.

Anyhow, I'll probably make the Full Moon festival be the centre of the next chapter, I like sprinkling in my own events between plot. But we'll see.