When princess Rapunzel and prince Eugene came together in marriage, the kingdom of Corona celebrated their long awaited union.

In time, their union bore twins. Heirs to the crown and beloved grandchildren doted on by their grandparents. King Frederic and Queen Arianna of Corona and the ruler of the Dark Kingdom, King Edmund.

As a father watching his son from the sidelines, Edmund could only imagine what a younger Eugene had looked like, playing with his favourite crow toy. Now he didn't need to. He could experience such a moment with Ray, who had taken a liking to Eugene's wind up crow toy.

How was the bird moving with just a twist of a hand? The boy wondered and flipped the toy upside down to observe its shifting, mechanical feet operating upside down.

Something inside Hamuel clicked in that moment, as he watched his charge turn over his wooden brethren. The crow had stars in his eyes. Smitten by Ray's approximation of a crow flying using the toy. Following his instincts, Hamuel glided over to the boy and began heaving something in his throat.

"Daddy come! The bird went burp!" The impressionable boy called out to Eugene with delight.

"Dad, what is your bird doing?" Eugene asked, alarmed by Hamuel's head bobbing up and down with his beak wide open.

"It looks Hamuel is a fan of the little tyke. I believe he is trying to feed him, like a mama bird. Or a papa bird. Both of which have been known to participate in the parental duties." Edmund pondered the complexities of crow chick rearing, as Eugene raced over to lift Ray away from the upchucking bird.

Well, that was a close one, Eugene shuddered at the thought of his first born child getting a taste of digested seeds. A mouthful of dirt or bugs was to be expected if a toddler was ever foolishly allowed on a patch of dirt, unsupervised. But this was not a garden and boundaries needed to be set.

"Dad, you need to tell your bird that there will be no regurgitating in this room. Or any room for that matter!" Eugene sternly instructed his father, feeling like the roles of father and son had reversed.

"Save your worms, Hamuel. The kid's already full!" Edmund joked, prompting Hamuel to fly away and making Eugene groan at his father's poor taste in jokes.

After playing for some time, Ray reached his chubby little arms out for someone to hold him. Finding his grandson in a cute white and yellow outfit to be irresistible, Edmund made a humble request, that his missing arm had made necessary.

"Son, would you mind placing Ray close to me?"

"Okay, dad." Eugene relented and placed his little ray of sunshine in Edmund's lap, while he lay on a bed with his legs stretched out.

Ray felt snug in the nook of his grandfather's arm, like the warm, protective hug of a papa bear.

"I didn't get much time to do this with your dear papa. But now that you're here, I can be there for the both of you." Edmund confided to his grandcub, his soft words as sweet as honey.

On the other side of the double bedded kid's room, Princess Stella was painting a picture at a desk littered with jars, paint brushes and sheets of paper. An art station decorated with painted drawings of birds and flowers, that added an artistic flair fit for a budding artist.

"What are you painting there?" Arianna asked her granddaughter with interest, as Stella painted two brown strokes of paint on a sheet of paper.

"A horsey!" Stella exclaimed, glowing with joy from sharing her artistic plans. The young girl had chosen to bring her equine creation to life, beginning with a pair of legs. Strong legs that would allow the proud horse to gallop across a field of... black?

"CAW!" Hamuel squawked right in Stella's face, after landing in the middle of her painting in progress, leaving brown crow feet marks all over what could have been the painting of a magnificent horse.

"My picture..." Stella dropped her paintbrush on the table, while grandma Arianna came to her rescue.

"Shoo, shoo!" Arianna waved the feathered ruiner of art projects away with her arms, and placed her hand on her granddaughter's shoulder.

"It's okay. Accidents happen sometimes. But do you know what we could do to fix it?"

"Maybe." Stella mumbled and wiped her nose on her sleeve. Her resilient nature from a nurturing parenting, making her willing enough to hold back tears and hear out a solution.

"We can turn the horsey into a tree, like this." Arianna painted blobs of green paint around the brown crow tracks, which now resembled branches with the new addition of leaves.

"See, isn't that better?" Arianna asked with an upbeat voice.

"Yes! Thank you, nana." Stella cheered. Arianna's timely intervention, putting a smile on her face once more.

—

"Poppa, where'd your arm go?" Ray asked inquisitively. Most of the time, Edmund's missing limb was out of sight, covered by the furry cloak. But when he had lifted the stub to demonstrate his tale of destroying statues with axes to defeat ghosts. The material had adjusted to reveal the absence of an appendage, he would now have to lie about.

"Well, you see…"

"I can't lie to him that a bear a swiped it off, because then he'll develop a crippling fear of bears. But if I tell him a statue fell on it, he'll never be able to walk around a village again!" Edmund weighed his options out loud. While Ray frowned, questioning the silly dialogue grandpa was saying to himself.

Luckily Edmund didn't need to answer Ray's question, because Arianna came over with some sensible advice.

"A word of advice, Edmund. I wouldn't bring your bird to family gatherings anymore. He nearly caused some tears by trampling all over a painting."

Edmund turned his head in response and saw brown paint marks on his cloak, where Hamuel was now perched. Ah. So Hamuel had been up to his usual shenanigans. In his defence he was new to this parenting thing. But if he had gotten the hang of being a father to Eugene, then surely he would get things right with his grandcubs, eventually.

Ever since the Tangled finale, I wanted to write a story with Hamuel thrown into the mix of Arianna and Edmund spending time with their grandkids. And here it is!