A Tangled Christmas Special

Author's Note: This story takes place in my Feral Princess AU, so I am going to post that story in here so the entire story is in one place for your convenience. I cleaned things up a bit with better grammar.

The premise is what if Gothel had been a truly heartless witch and locked the princess in the room under the stairs and treated her as merely a magical object and not a human being.

The story continues with some of the after effects and what Christmas might be like for the princess and the kingdom.

~ Flynn Rider and the Feral Princess

- Chapter 1

Flynn Rider slammed the shutters closed, finally safe from that stupid (okay, not so stupid) horse.

"Alone at last." Flynn said as he opened the satchel and pulled out the crown. He moved to a tall thin window and held it in the light, the jewels sparkling in the light. The three huge jewels that were most prominent on the crown were amazing. He found himself counting and categorizing all the lesser jewels that encrusted the crown as well. He had a buyer all ready and after ditching the Stabbington brothers he was going to take their cuts as well, more then enough for his island.

Soon enough though the excitement over the crown wore off and he looked around. The room was plain, there were a couple of chairs (the red one looked comfy enough), a wardrobe (he'd want to check that out for valuables), a spinning wheel (big deal), a neat little kitchen (he'd rummage through that, he was beginning to get hungry), a hole in the floor (he mentally kicked himself for not walking around the tower there must be stairs and an entrance on the back side), and yards and yards what what looked to be dirty blonde hair leading under a door under the stairs.

Flynn wandered over and gave some a tug. There as a gasp, a clank of chain and then a sweet angelic voice began to sing. He dropped the hair as it began to glow and backed away but tripped and landed on more, and found himself feeling a lot better.

The glow faded and now he was curious. He opened the door and found a girl, with chains on her wrists, huddled in the corner whimpering. She was pulling the hair around her trying to hide in it.

"It's okay, I won't hurt you." He crouched and held out his hand, but she whimpered and scrambled to a different corner, upsetting a small bucket that smelled of urine.

Eugene's heart was going out to this poor child. She looked so tiny and skinny, 12-14 years-old maybe. There had been a few children in the orphanage that had been taken from their parents who had been hurting them. What had happened to them had been heartbreaking. Trying to comfort their nightmares had been awful.

Parents should love their children, to hate and hurt their own children was wrong at the most fundamental level. A coal of anger began to glow in his belly, but first he knew he had to gain her trust a little so he could get her out of here. No one deserved this kind of life, no one!

Then he heard echoing steps from the hole in the floor. He closed the door, covered his mouth with a finger, she nodded and he dove under the girl's bed.

Soon the door creaked open again and he could see the hem of a red dress and some leather shoes walk over to the spill.

The shoes turned toward the corner of the mass of hair.

"You are a bad girl. A messy, disgusting girl. Why do I even bother taking care of you? Get over here and clean it up!"

Flynn felt his stomach clench as the girl scrambled over and began to lick up the urine from the floor. His anger was building. How dare that mother hurt her own child this way! But he didn't know if there was a father around here somewhere, he needed to be careful. He might want to pick up the bed and slam it down on the mother, but she could get the drop on him before he got out and then he wouldn't be able to get the girl out of here.

He had to wait just a little while and then he'd be able to get her out of here and sneak her into the orphanage, the headmistress had a heart as big as the kingdom and had been able to help some very hurt children, but they always had problems ever after. She would know how to help even this poor girl.

"Just to make sure you don't do that again, you are to get a punishment."

The girl was whimpering and moaning in fear. The mother was standing in front of the bed blocking him in and he could see the girl prostrate herself in front of the mother, hands flat on the ground between the mother's shoes, those huge green eyes full of fear looking right at him.

There was the sound of the leather belt coming down, the smack of it against the girl's bottom and a scream. "I'm a bad girl, one."

Eugene had thought the mother would stop at 25 which was the law in the kingdom, but she kept going. He put his hands out as close as he dared and laid them in front of the girls hands. He was praying she would stop at 40 which was the tradition from the Bible, but she just kept going. He was weeping as they past 100, but he couldn't avert his eyes as the girl just kept looking at him, holding his heart with her eyes.

He was weak with relief when they stopped. Five hundred lashes, he could hardly believe it. He'd been lashed a few times, but now he was wondering how this scrap of a girl could survive this. He'd been in other kingdoms that actually killed people by lashing and it didn't take that many.

"Sing!"

The girl began to sing, and the hair glowed and he could see her body heal before his eyes.

"Very good, you took your punishment well. Good girl." The happiness in the girl's face ripped his heart out of his chest. It was so utterly twisted and wrong. Eugene had to help this girl!

"It's your 18th birthday tomorrow, and for taking your punishment so well ...I think I'll give you something nice, how about some hazelnut soup, your favorite?" The girl nodded and crawled up to the mother and stroked her leg like a cat.

Eugene knew what hazelnut soup was, he had eaten enough of it himself. The poorest of the poor eat that because there was nothing else, but dirt to eat! What did this mother feed her child that made hazelnut soup a treat? She was 18!? She looked 14 tops. How could a mother do that to her own child, twisting even the body of her child like that?

Burning hate was trying to consume him, but he knew he had to get the girl to safety first, no other consideration outweighed that. He would deal with the mother personally later. Soon he saw the mother climb down the ladder and clatter down the steps.

He cautiously crawled out from under the bed.

"Would you like to leave?"

She looked at him puzzled.

"I can take you away from here."

She didn't understand.

"If you come with me, there will be no more punishments," he gestured.

That got her attention. She held out her wrists with the shackles on them.

"I can get you out of them." Flynn the thief said confidently. They sat on the bed and he opened the satchel and put the crown to one side as he dug around for his lock picks.

The girl was looking at the crown and gingerly picked it up. Eugene was just about to take one of her hands to start working on the lock when she plopped the crown lopsidedly on her head and gave a babyish giggle.

Eugene's mouth dropped open. "Solara?"

The girl looked at him in wide-eyed wonder, then giggled again.

He knew exactly who this girl was. 18 years old, blonde hair, green eyes. How often had he stared at the mosaic in the square?

She was the Lost Princess.

He had found the Lost Princess, one of his childhood dreams.

He had take her to the palace, he had no choice, praying the guards didn't kill him before he could tell them who she was.

Tears filled his eyes, because he knew that she would never be normal, and could never be the princess she had been born to be.

Author's Note: Rapunzel, Solara in this story, is one of those poor, feral, closet children that show up on the news from time to time.