"Aderyn!"
"Are you still sleeping?!"
"Wake up, lass!"
"We're goin' to be late!"
But a sleepy groan was all Aderyn could accomplish at the moment.
"Where are we goin'", she managed to say after some major effort, before opening her eyes and looking up at her obviously stressed out mother.
"The Gathering! Don't you remember?" Her mother almost tore the curtains from the window, before running off to get her daughter's clothes.
The Gathering! How could she have forgotten? Aderyn sighed and got out of her bed. She didn't even want to go! All she would get to do was stand there and look pretty, while her brother showed his muscles off for the princess!
A couple of minutes later her mother returned with the dress she wanted Aderyn to wear. Aderyn looked at the silky, pink damnation.
"I'm not goin' to wear that thing", she looked up at her mother with stubbornness in her eyes, but as usual, her mother always got what she wanted. She was now standing there, in that horrible dress and a corset, so tight she barely could breathe, or move for that matter.
"You look so beautiful", her mother said and smiled.
"Do I really have to wear this thing?" Aderyn pointed at her head, at the white piece of fabric that was covering her short, raven black hair and neck.
"Yes."
"And this?" She looked down at the dress.
"Yes! Let's go, Aderyn, your father and brothers are already waiting for us!"
"Oh, look who decided to show up! All pink and pretty!"
Aderyn glared at her brother and would probably have punched him in the face, if not their father had gotten between them.
"We don't have time for this now!" he said and pushed the two teenagers aboard the ship. "We have to go!"
XxXxXxX
"Merida, you know the rules, no weapons on the table", queen Elinor said to her daughter.
"But, mum! It's just my bow", she replied, but removed it after a moment before sitting down and poking her breakfast with her fork, while watching the triplets playing with their food.
"Fergus," Elinor started. "You know what day it is today, yes?"
Merida's father looked up from his plate.
"No, what day is it, love?" he asked with sort of a confused face.
"The clans will be arriving today, dear."
"Oh… I knew that!"
"What is it they want this time?" Merida sighed, without looking up from her food.
"Just to visit us", her mother replied with a slight smile on her lips.
After being tortured by her mother for at least an hour, Merida was now standing in the middle of the room, dressed in a light blue dress, corset and that king of white fabric on her head. ((I don't know what the hell it's called, OK?)) Her mother looked upon her daughter with a proud smile.
"You look absolutely beautiful."
"I can't breathe..!" she gasped and looked back at her mother.
"Give us a turn."
"I can't move."
"Stop whining, lass, just… remember to smile and you'll be fine."
Merida sat down, carelessly, on the chair beside her father's throne, but when her mother gave her the evil eye, she straightened her back. She sighed and poked out a curl of red hair from where the white head clothing, where it met her forehead. She took a deep breath and looked at her father, before the doors to the throne room opened.