Courageous

by VictoriMoose

Years have passed since Merida chose her own fate, now she has married and has her own son and daughter, Clotilda and Liam. But when her husband dies in a battle Merida must leave her two children to be raised by their grandparents, so that she can keep the kingdom from falling apart. So what now of her unruly daughter, who only wants to be as brave as her mother?

1. Chapter 1

Courageous

"Courage is resistance to fear; mastery of fear- not absence of fear." –Mark Twain

There was a time in my childhood where my heart stopped, my breath went still, and my mind fell to a calmingly peaceful serenity. I've only felt this once, and I've been searching my whole life to find it again. This one time move my very being, my soul, to something. Some deep bond that was lost, some feeling of connection and belonging that I had never felt before. But the one and only time that I found it was while I was staring down the eyes of a bear.

I was very young, about seven or so, when I ran off into the woods surrounding DunBroch castle, and surprisingly I had gotten myself lost, which for me was a very great insult since my father and I took pride in our keen sense of direction, any other day I could have been blinded, binded, and dropped into any part of those woods and instantly known where I was or which way the castle would be. However, by some twisted humor of fate I had gotten myself lost, and alone, in the eerie light that sun cast through the trees.

It was getting to be dusk when I happened upon a stream that cut into a hill of craggy rock spotted with a few firm pines. I was so parched and rattled from wondering around all day, that I rushed over to it without a second thought and spilled huge gulps of the cool water down my gullet, pausing only to catch my breath and fill my mouth again. Once my thirst was quenched I made to sit on the shore and try and figure out where I was when a cacophony of noise invaded the gentile stream that startled me so bad that I screamed and fell back into the shallow swell. When it seemed to have come to a stop I raised my head up a small fraction and peered through my long dark hair to see what had made such a crash.

Along the opposite bank a small sapling had fallen on to a shrub that grew along the water's edge, and among the heap of tangled foliage something terrible was clawing to make its way out. I froze at the sight and tried my best to silently climb the bank before it was freed, when a low cry called out from it and halted me in my tracks. The noise I heard that day, I'll never forget, it was a cry of pain caused from being alone and afraid something that I was very able to understand. I looked up again and saw a small nose breaching the pile, a wee black little thing no bigger than a black berry, and watched as a wee black furred head emerged with it.

Thanks for reading! More to come I PROMISE! I wrote the story out, I just have to type it on to my computer!