Aquaria laughed as she threw her arms up.

"This is so much fun!"

She was sitting on Varian's shoulders as they walked through the castle. Ruddiger had situated himself on Aquaria's shoulder happily.

"Ha! It's fun to carry you around!" Varian held her legs so that she wouldn't fall.

"Hey, guys!" Rapunzel waved when she saw the two.

"Hey, sis! What's up? What are you up to?" Aquaria asked her sister curiously.

"I'm about to head out to Neserdnia with Angry and Catalina," Rapunzel said which made both Aquaria and Varian perk up.

"Neserdnia? Would we be able to go to the Neserdnian market?" Varian asked excitedly.

"If you come with us, yeah!" Rapunzel smiled.

"Let's do it!" Aquaria said to Varian who nodded.

"Let me get my bag from Aquaria's room and I'll be right out!" Varian said as Aqua got down from his shoulders.

"Alright! Come on!" Rapunzel took Aqua and Ruddiger out to the cart.

🧪

Varian was sitting on the cart with Aquaria in front of him. She was sitting on the step to the cart with Ruddiger in her lap.

Varian smiled while he played with Aquaria's hair as they rode to Neserdnia.

Suddenly, Pascal and Hamuel were flung at them into the wagon.

"Oop! Careful you two. We we don't want to break this stuff before we get to Neserdnia," Rapunzel said as she hopped into the back of the cart to make sure the two animals were okay.

"That's right, 'cause once me and Catalina return this last sack of stolen loot, we will have officially put our thieving days behind us," Angry said with a small smile.

"Oh, I can't wait to get my hands on a copper-plated alembic from the Neserdnian market!" Varian said excitedly and Aqua nodded quickly.

"Do you have any idea how many poly-alchemical substration tests we'll be able to run?" Aqua asked, looking at the others with a bright smile as she and Varian geeked out a bit, but Angry just rolled her eyes.

"Anyone wanna switch seats with me?" Angry asked as she looked away from the two nerds.

"Hmm, we're happy to have you both along," Rapunzel said to Varian and Aqua as she sat beside Varian. "Plus, I'm hoping once Max and Ruddiger spend some time together, they can finally become friends."

"Hopefully," Aqua said before Ruddiger jumped from her lap. "Ruddiger?"

The raccoon raced up a tree that had a shiny red apple and grabbed it before Max could.

The cart jerked and Aquaria nearly fell off the step. Varian pulled her up, letting her sit in his lap.

"Woah! What happened?" Rapunzel looked at the animals. Max had the apple in his mouth while Ruddiger was still holding onto it.

"What's this?" Catalina asked from the back of the cart. "I don't remember stealing it." She held up a beautiful shell necklace.

"Oh. Whatever it is, it's... beautiful," Rapunzel said as they all looked at the pendant.

"And I bet it's pretty valuable," Angry added.

"Uh, gang, hi, hello, speaking of valuables, we uh might wanna stow the loot. We're comin' up on Deadman's Curve. Yeah, it's a hotbed of highway robbery," Varian said nervously.

Aqua hummed before Varian grabbed Rapunzel's hair and held it in front of them for protect which made her laugh a little.

"Relax, V. Real thieves don't waste their time out here," Angry said calmly with an amused smile. "It's mostly for hacks and knuckleheads."

Suddenly, a familiar crook jumped in front of them. "Hand over the goods!"

"Or in this case, both," Catalina said.

"Hi, Dwayne," all the girls said unenthusiastically.

"Ah, nuts. 'Ello, princesses," Dwayne hid his machete after giving a little wave.

"Dwayne, what did we talk about last time you were caught trying to steal?" Rapunzel looked disappointed.

"To not to," Dwayne said as he kicked a rock in shame. "I-I promise. I'll never steal again! In fact, I'm gonna look for an honest job right now!"

Aquaria rolled her eyes as he ran towards a bush.

"Nice runnin' into ya! Enjoy your trip!" He dove into the bushes.

No sooner than Dwayne disappeared, the cart jerked forward and they started racing around a tree.

"Guys, cut it out!" Rapunzel shouted and Max halted to a stop, glaring at Ruddiger who was up in the tree. The sneaky raccoon held the shiny apple triumphantly.

"Ruddiger, get down here!" Varian looked up at his companion who frowned when he saw that Varian wasn't happy with him.

Ruddiger then had the apple snatched from him by Pascal. Ruddiger chased Pascal and Max tried to get at the apple.

"Come on, you guys!" Rapunzel held on as the cart started to swing around wildly.

The apple was thrown and Hamuel used the shell necklace to pull it over to him.

The four animals then started to fight over the apple some more.

"ENOUGH!" Rapunzel shouted as she stood up which caused the four creatures to freeze.

"Maybe it's time for you all to just shake hands and get along! I mean, shake hoof and tail or beak and paw- is that what raccoons have? Paws? I can never remember if it's paws or feet," Rapunzel said.

"It's paws, sis," Aqua said quickly.

"Oh, well. Just shake what you've got and get on with it," Rapunzel said with exasperation in her tone.

Hamuel tried pulling the pendant out of the apple. Ruddiger ran over and tried to get the apple away from him, but a glowing stream of gold and blue encircled the five humans, sucking them into the pendant.

Aquaria yelped as she was thrown into a couch with pillows. She sat up and immediately looked at Varian, happy to see that he was okay as he smiled at her.

"Okay... either we've somehow been magically shrunk down and imprisoned inside the shell pendant..." Rapunzel trailed off.

"Or?" Catalina looked at the elder princess.

"Or... yeah, sorry. I was hoping I'd think of something more positive sounding by the time I finished that thought, but I've got nothing," Rapunzel said to which everyone frowned.

"It's okay! It's okay! We'll find a way out of here!" We have been in much worse situations! Definitely not weirder, but worse," Rapunzel said as she got up yo explore.

"Speak for yourself. I once turned myself into water and couldn't turn back into a human for hours," Aquaria said and Varian nodded, remembering how he thought that he had killed her all those years ago. "I also made friends with a bunch of trolls who are living rocks."

"What have I ever done to deserve this?!" Angry complained.

"Di-didn't you steal from, you know, dozens of people?" Varian questioned.

"Oh, right. We're doomed," Angry said as she picked up pillow before throwing it at Varian.

He grabbed the pillow and went to throw it. His face twisted in confusion when he realized that he hadn't thrown the pillow.

"Chin up, guys. I bet Max and the others are already on their way to get help," Rapunzel said as Varian glared at her when he realized she had taken the pillow from him and he pouted. "I'm sure we will be free in no time."

"I hope so but this place is kinda cool. But hey, why don't we try and find a way out in the meantime?" Aqua said as she stood up.

"Yeah! That's the spirit! Let's see if we can see out of that jewel!" Rapunzel said and Aquaria nodded.

"I'll use my magic to get up there," Aqua said and she made a cloud- nothing happened.

"Um, Blue?" Varian raised an eyebrow.

"Why is nothing happening?!" Aqua started to freak out. "I don't have my powers!"

"Calm down, it must be whatever weird magic trapped us in here," Varian tried to reassure her as he hugged her.

"You're probably right. I just... wow... I actually don't have my magic..."

"It's alright. We'll get up there another way!" Rapunzel said with a smile.