With what energy they had left, Carl, Rapunzel and Russell dragged the house to the spot on top of Paradise Falls, just as the helium finally ran down in the balloons. Rapunzel perched herself on the bottom step of the porch, gazing over the Falls. It was beautiful, and she could see now why it had been her mother’s dream to move the house there. Carl glanced down at the picture of the Falls and smiled in relief. They had done it.

“Here.” Russell broke the silence and Rapunzel turned in time to see him throw his sash to the floor. “I don’t want this anymore.”

He turned and stalked away and sat on a nearby rock. “Russell,” Rapunzel murmured, getting to her feet and then she decided that it would probably be best to let him cool off before approaching him. Carl picked up the sash and walked past her, back into the house. Rapunzel followed him and sighed at the mess left by the constant dragging of the house around the South American jungle. She quickly made herself useful by tidying up, putting things back where they belonged and sweeping up the broken glass around the photograph of her mother before picking that up and re-hanging it. She smiled, feeling like Ellie was still watching over them.

Carl helped her, finally picking up and pushing his and Ellie’s favourite chairs back into place and seating himself in his own. Rapunzel drew up the footstool and sat near his feet. Neither of them spoke for a moment. Then Rapunzel took a deep breath. “Daddy; that woman..?”

She didn’t know how to go on. Carl looked at her, gravely. “When Ellie and I found out that we couldn’t have children, naturally, we decided on adoption. Neither of us met the woman who gave you up, but we were told her name, once. I’d forgotten about her until now.” He leaned forwards. “I know we should have told you at some point, but, well...it was easy to forget, sometimes. And then after Ellie...”

He sighed and hung his head. Rapunzel took his hands. “Daddy, she was my mother.”

“I know. And she gave you up.”

“No, not that Gothel woman. Mom. She was my real mother. She brought me up, with you. She cared about me and loved me and made sure I was happy. She loved us both so much.” She smiled, reassuringly. “She was my mother. And you’re my father.”

Carl smiled and squeezed her hands. “And I’ll always be your father, Rapunzel, for as long as you need.”

Rapunzel nodded. “I am Rapunzel Frederickson and I always will be. Nothing’s changed.”

She hugged him and Carl breathed a sigh of relief. She would always be their daughter. The fact that she was adopted didn’t mean anything. Letting go of him, Rapunzel noticed her mother’s Adventure Book lying beside them. She picked it up. Carl smiled and took it from her. “We should put this back,” he said, holding up the drawing of the house on the Falls and sliding it into place inside the book.

Rapunzel moved to perch on the very edge of her mother’s chair, knowing that her mother wouldn’t have minded, and looked over his shoulder. She sighed. “I just wish she could have filled this up properly.”

Even as she said it, Carl was closing the book when he noticed that a page that had always been empty wasn’t. Flipping the book open again, he turned the page marked Stuff I’m Going To Do and he and Rapunzel stared down in surprise at the black and white photograph of he and Ellie on their wedding day.

“Oh...” Rapunzel whispered as they both gazed at the photograph. She met Carl’s eyes. “Mom looks so beautiful!”

Carl turned the page. There were more photographs; of he and Ellie dancing, out on a picnic, of the three of them in the car, celebrating birthdays, just living their lives the way they always did; one of Ellie and Rapunzel redecorating Rapunzel’s room, one of them feeding ducks in the park, one Rapunzel had taken herself of her parents laughing over their morning coffee one day in June, one of Rapunzel bringing Carl homemade cookies in hospital that time he broke his leg, with Ellie giving him a “Trust You” look, a lovely one of Ellie on her own, gazing out of the window, and finally a much favoured picture they had had taken specially, of the three of them in the living room; Carl and Ellie in their respective chairs, holding hands and Rapunzel kneeling on the floor between them, her eyes bright and wide in happiness.

Underneath the photograph was a message in familiar swirly writing. “Thanks for the adventure, both of you. Now, go have a new one. Love, Ellie.”

“These were her adventures,” Rapunzel said, finally. “She lived every day with us like it was an adventure.”

Carl closed the book, slowly, and thoughtfully, and then got to his feet. “Come on.”

“Where are we going?” asked Rapunzel.

Carl picked up Russell’s sash. “I promised Russell we wouldn’t let anything happen to Kevin. We’re going to get her back.”

“Really?” Rapunzel sprang to her feet at once. “Great! Let’s get Russell!”

“Russell?” they both called, running outside. But Russell was gone. Rapunzel frowned. “Russell?” she called, turning around and then she gave a gasp and clutched Carl’s arm. Carl turned and saw what she had seen. Russell was dangling above them from a bunch of balloons, with a leaf blower in his hands.

“Russell!” cried Carl.

“I’m going to help Kevin even if you won’t!” Russell called back, and he revved up the leaf blower.

“No, Russell!” cried Rapunzel. “It’s too dangerous!” She turned to Carl. “What do we do now?”

“Come on!” Carl darted back into the house. “We need to get all the furniture out of the house!”

“The furniture?” Rapunzel repeated, running after him. “Daddy, now is not the time for a yard sale!”

“The house won’t lift now, unless we lighten the load!” Carl replied, shoving a chair off the porch.

“But...the furniture...”

“Rapunzel, it’s just furniture.”

Rapunzel nodded. “Right. Russell’s more important.”

Together they shoved everything, chairs, beds, tables, even Carl and Ellie’s two chairs and the footstool out through the doors and just when Rapunzel was wondering whether she ought to throw out her paintbox too, the house lifted into the air. “Ok, hold on,” Carl said, seizing the controls. Rapunzel desperately scanned the skies but there was no sign of Russell.

A sudden knock on the front door made them both jump. “Russell?” called Carl, rushing to the door, Rapunzel in his wake.

“Dug!” she cried as the door was flung open. In all that had happened since the last time she had seen him, she’d forgotten that she had hidden him under the porch.

“Dug!” cried Carl, sounding happy to see him.

“I was hiding under your porch because I love you,” Dug confessed, his head lowered. “Can I stay?”

Rapunzel looked pleadingly at Carl. “Can he stay, Daddy?”

“Can he stay?” Carl put his hands on his hips. “Well, he’s our dog, isn’t he? And I’m his Master!”

“You’re my Master?” Dug’s eyes lit up with delight as his ears pricked up and leapt forwards, knocked Carl to the floor and began to lick his face. “Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!”

Carl laughed. “Good dog, Dug! You’re a good dog!”

Rapunzel began to ruffle Dug’s fur in delight and hugged him. “Good boy, Dug!” she laughed and then grinned at Carl. “I’m sure Mom would have let us keep him.”

Carl laughed and got to his feet. “Come on, we’ve still got to save Russell, and Kevin.”

Together they ran back into the living room and that was when Rapunzel looked up to see them coming upon the Spirit of Adventure, and then, to her horror, she saw that sliding down a small ramp directed towards the ground, tied to a chair, was-

“Russell!” she shouted.

Carl quickly steered the house closer to the dirigible and ran to the porch. Seizing the end of the hose, he threw it towards the ramp railing. Then, using his cane to slide towards the ramp, he seized Russell’s chair just as it left the ramp. Rapunzel breathed out in relief, her heart racing. “Dug, bring her around!” she cried, running to the porch.

Dug seized the winch in his teeth and turned it, steering the house towards the ramp. Carl dragged the chair, with Russell still in it, into the hall and Rapunzel knelt down beside him. “Russell, are you alright?” she asked, quickly untying him.

Russell grinned at them both. “You came back for Kevin! Let’s get her!”

“No!” Carl said. “We’ll get Kevin! You stay here!”

“But I want to help!” Russell argued.

“I don’t want your help,” Carl replied, hotly. “I want you safe!”

He jumped back onto the ramp, Dug at his heels. Rapunzel quickly seized her frying pan. Something told her she’d need it. “Look, Russell, please just stay here in case we need you to move the house or something,” she begged, before sprinting after her father and their dog.

“But I want to help!” Russell insisted, running to follow, only he slipped and grabbed the end of the hosepipe as he fell. The hose unspooled, leaving him dangling from below the house. “Phew!” he breathed. But now the house was drifting away from the dirigible.

Rapunzel lost track of her father and Dug. The Spirit of Adventure was far bigger than she had imagined. “Daddy?” she hissed, creeping along the corridor, looking left and right for any sign of Alpha, or the other dogs. “Dug?”

“Rapunzel!”

Rapunzel froze and then pivoted. Gothel was beaming at her. “So you decided to come home to your real mother, then?”

Rapunzel brandished the pan. “Never! My real home was our little house with Carl and Ellie Frederickson; my real parents! You might have given birth to me but you also abandoned me!”

Gothel’s expression darkened. “They wouldn’t have let me explore or go on adventures with Charles if they knew I had a child out of wedlock! And before you even ask, no, he isn’t the father!”

“I’m glad!” Rapunzel snapped. “You giving me up was the best thing that ever happened to me! Because I got to live my life with Mom and Daddy; and we were happy together!”

“Rapunzel, you’re being ridiculous!”

“Am I? You don’t know me! You only want me back now because you think I’d be useful to your little scheme in keeping Kevin under lock and key! You never loved me; not the way Mom did!”

A sudden growling caused her to look down. Several of Muntz’s dogs were gathered around Gothel’s ankles. Swallowing hard, Rapunzel turned on her heels and fled back down the corridor.

“Bring her back!” Gothel ordered, and the dogs began to race after her.

Rapunzel ran as fast as her legs could carry her and as she turned a corner, she almost collided with Carl and Dug. “There you are,” Carl commented.

“Daddy, there are dogs right behind me,” she exclaimed.

“Point!” Dug exclaimed, pointing with his nose at the ventilation shaft in the wall. The trio had barely scrabbled into it and pulled the grate back into place when the dogs came hurtling around the corner.

“Lost her,” one grunted in disappointment.

Carl, Rapunzel and Dug shuffled along the shaft on their fronts until they found themselves looking down through a grate into the room where Kevin was being held in a cage.

“Kevin!” Carl called down.

Kevin glanced up and called out in response to them.

“Shh, Kevin, we’re coming!” Rapunzel hissed.

The trio ducked out of sight as Alpha and some other dogs walked into the room. “Allow no one to enter through these doors,” Alpha instructed them. “Guard the bird well, my minions.”

“What do we do now, Dug?” Carl murmured.

Rapunzel turned to see Dug in ecstasy chewing on a tennis ball on the end of Carls’ cane. She grinned. “Daddy, I’ve got an idea!”

Quickly the trio dropped from the vent and into the room. Carl pulled a ball from the end of his cane and held it in the air. “Who wants the ball?” he grinned.

“Me!” came the eager replies. “I do! I want the ball!”

Rapunzel had to grab Dug’s collar to keep him from running after the ball too as Carl threw it and the dogs ran, falling over themselves in their eagerness to get it as it rolled out of the room. “I got it!” Gamma cried in delight.

“Enjoy!” Rapunzel called as Carl quickly slammed and locked the doors on them.

“I’m sorry, Kevin,” he said, turning to the cage. “Let’s get you out of here.”

“We’d better hurry,” Rapunzel agreed. “Gothel knows we’re here; no doubt she’ll have alerted Muntz by now.”