Actually, I had Pascal. He's a chameleon, which actually worked out great for when he had to hide from Mother. [Does KO know what those animals are? Better explain just in case.] Um, chameleons do this thing where they can blend into any surface and any color. He's actually quite the little character... I wish you could meet him.

[But it seems terribly unlikely the small fellow will be showing anytime soon.]

Anyways, I really don't think there's anything she had to hide. Sort of. I mean...

[Rapunzel looks a little lost for words and more than a little emotionally conflicted. She takes a deep breath and looks down at her hands, entwined in a strand of her long hair.]

I know she stretched the truth a lot and I know she withheld other truths about the world. While I wish she didn't and while I wish she would have just trusted me enough to let me see some of the world and learn things for myself... she did what she did to protect me and my gift. And to keep our tiny family together. That has to be why.

[However, her words aren't entirely certain in their tone; in fact, she's saying it not to help KO to understand, but to convince herself that Gothel was indeed a good, trustworthy person. After all, that's all she had ever known her to be. Even despite current evidence to the contrary, she wants to believe the one family member she had ever known was still all that in some form.

She wants to believe it badly.]