Path Of A Lifetime
It was bright that night, when nothing block her view of a beautiful night sky, with stars dancing just for her, and for her only, the moon sings a song of light, combine with the loud silence of night, the trees slowly rustling in the wind without no ones to notice, she sighed, it was clear tonight, but her mind was in turmoil.
Worries, not from her, but from her family, even after that little incident, she was still refusing to grow up, why would she want to grow up?, Time was not her or anyone best friend, but she still wanted to live a life of freedom while she still can, like all she ever said, felt what not something she can decide, but her life is hers alone to live, and there is no one who could stop her doing whatever she wants.
But why they are still worried?, Because of time, time was passing away, out of her grip, Merida knew she wasn't young anymore, but even with her appearance change, her spirit still the same, of a carefree princess who once turn her kingdom upside down for changing her mother into a bear because of her wish and dreams, but in time, she learns that tradition what not something that she could break that easily, not what from what other lords in the land have to say, there are many other lords against her idea of change, maybe it's not her that being old.
But her land is, too old, but too stubborn for a change.
Merida knew she was going to marry someone soon, but no one falls into her eyes, all the wee boys from other land calling themselves heroes, calling themselves legends, but all she can hear were lies when they write her poems to ask her hand in marriage, but they all held their heads down in shame, and their guardians in rage, some of those kingdom threatened to call in a war, but what a war for?, Wasting men and resources for a meaningless war for her hands only?, How nice, but not everyone in her kingdom thought the same with her, maybe aside her brothers.
Merida had read about those stories of the prince came to rescue the princess before, it was always ends with a kiss, a marriage with a man the princess just met and lives happily ever after, but is a fairy tale, this is real life, she doesn't need a prince to save her, if it comes to it, she would be the one to save him.
Maybe there is no happily ever after for her in love really, Merida already planned to live the rest of her life alone, free and nothing to bother about, she won't care what her parents would say, but after that incident, they softened a little bit for her, maybe it's time they showed some respect of her choice, maybe the other part of her said that she was just waiting, for someone she could trust, someone she could laid her back to and fight without worries about being backstabbed, but men like that are rare, or they found their true loves already, men like that only appear in fairy tales and dreams of women her age.
But life was short, she knew it, and she tries to live fully in it with no worries of pains and lost, she just want happiness, a happiness that lasted all of her lifetime, and for her family too, right now, they are all she needs, no prince, no worries, no burdens, just live and smile while she could.
Until she let those thoughts carry her away in its arms of softness, she looks at her surroundings, it was here, 7 years ago, it was all its begin, the stones crafted in the writings she could not understand, and the stone where Mor'du passed away still there, sometime she visited him, clear away the growing grass, and give him some fruits, she knows he doesn't eat, but it's a way to remember the one who passed away, cherish those memories about them until you can't remember any longer, and finally is your turn to be remembered.
She wonders how they will remember her?, A rebelliousness princess who likes to do things her own ways, turn her kingdom upside down for her wish and defeat Mor'du and live happily ever after?, She smiles at that thought, before laying her back in one of the cold stone behind her, those thoughts made her want to close her eyes, and let her mind drift into another reality.
It was always the best place to talk to the stars and the moon in her sleepless night, but tonight, something was different, it was somehow, the moon had heard of her wish, and so are the little blue mystical light of the forest.
They found her sleeping, by the moon's guidance they ignite all around her surrounding, and moving wildly like dancing, before the invisible circle on the ground started to shine, and the writing somehow blistering with the light hidden inside them, and the fires move faster, until the circle become a moon itself, so bright that in the other kingdoms could see a column of light rising from the ground, before disappear into thin air.
Little does Merida know, it was an exit, an exit to the afterlife, to rest, to forget, and to be forgotten, and those lights whose dance in the circle around the circle was the soul who was ready to leave this reality behind, as they shed their final form of existence and disappear leaving only memories about them behind.
But somehow, a little essences of the gate between this reality and the other, drifted into Merida's heart, it was just white light that sneak in while the gate was open, but the princess never knew what happened that night, that night that even fate changed her existence, changed her future.
Changed the rule of nature itself, with her
A sound of the bird calling wakes her, along with new sun light pouring down the grass before her, shielding her eyes, she stands up, stretched herself a little, before heading back to the castle, and waiting to hear her mother's scold, sneak out at night to looking at the stars.
Hearing the children giggling, she knew that something was not right, before she realized that the little girl pops out from nowhere, and knocks her down to the ground, and in her face, Merida crept a smile, she just like her father when he was young, sneaky, and loves to make a day out of the maid.
Merida lifted her up to face her, the red messy hair just like her when she was young, but the face was looking a lot like her brothers, Merida let her nose touch the little girl's nose, and hearing the warm giggling from the little girl making her heart filled with warmth.
''Stop it Aunt, it makes me tickle''
It makes her tickle in her heart, seeing this little – Merida, but sometimes seeing her own niece make her heart ache a little when she looks back down the path she took, from that day, something in her changed completely, while knowing one fact that make her wanted to cry the most.
Her mother has passed away, and her father was no long after, it was 32 years after the incident, and 2 years after she heard her mother last words, telling her to live her life how she wished, because it's not her place to arrange her daughter's life anymore, Eleanor wanted something different from her daughter, after that incident, the queen was no longer have the intentions to make her daughter follow her path anymore, and until her last breath, she sang her last lullaby before drifted herself into her own sleep, maybe lullaby was not for Merida, but their memories shared together, to let it sleep forever with her, that the queen don't want her own daughter to cling on to those memories and use them to block her own way to happiness, her demise will be remembered, but in good memories, not her dying breath.
Before she let herself go into the afterworld, she needed to do her duty one last time, as a mother, before she let go of the hand of life, a hand that she was tired of hiding, too tired to hold on.
But another hand never wanted to let her go, that hand didn't let go of her, like life does, and Eleanor can feel the warmth emitting from it, before the coldness took her away, leaving a crying princess behind.
And after that was her father, and then her brothers, before the young little girl and her sibling grows and grows from the time that had passed, her family lived their life, her new one too, before she knew it, there was a silver line in her niece's hair.
Before she knew it, she knew, she can't rest, for so long she waited death to take her, but the hand of life, hold on tight to her, like when she tried to hold on to her mother's soul, life was holding her strongly in its grip, but she wanted to let go.
But she never changed, her messy red hair still has no line of silver, still have no sight of the age took her.
Before she knows it, it was 89 years after the incident.
Maybe fate changed her for some reason unknown to her, before she decided to follow her mother's wishes, to live her life, for 57 years she waited to leave this reality behind, but it was a waste of time, time that was kind to her.
Hugging her niece for one last time, as she waved her family, her extended family to be exact, before leaving into the path to the unknown, there was no point staying behind, watching another of her family died before her eyes.
She lived by the time that others don't have, she lived through the roughness of time and space, she lived through revolutions, and she lived through the changes in the world.
She walks the path that others can't, the road untraveled by her people of her time, she went everywhere she can set foot in, but do not stay for long, before she move on again, in her path she becomes myth, become legends of a heroine saving a whole village from a band of bandits, or the hero who challenged lords of their lands to a duel of arrows for the foods for the villagers.
Her old memories replaced by new, by her experience throughout the world of deception, of unfairness that whenever she goes, she will always see, and she will do anything in her power to stop it, but some just too much for her, for she is the only one who can see all of this, so many people were so lucky that didn't have to see what she have to see, but she bit her lips, and moved on.
Not long before something from the past catch up with her.
She was almost forgotten what her kingdom looks like, but she will always remember the smiles on her family faces, it kept her strong throughout the years of travelling the unknown, travelling through the wars that human raged for their own wealth and powers, their times were short, and she watched them dying one by one, all the tyrants of the world on the news or through whispers, and her remain, watching, and waiting for her turn.
But the past catches up to her, as she stands in front of an items she long to forget.
The tapestry with the silk's mark on it, because she is the one who cut it in the first place, without her notice, a tear stripping down her face and she look at her younger self in that tapestry, holding her mother's hand.
It was something she could never forget, that incident, that adventure, for the time that was so long she been living, before reading the information about the item hanging on the wall of the British's royal museum.
Here lies one of the last items of the known family of the Dunbroch clan, the clan was formed from an unknown time, and disappear in the 1800s, the last known ruler was Violet Dunbroch, in this tapestry here describe the relationship of the first royal family, the taller woman with dark hair was known by the name from the old document of Eleanor Dunbroch, and the woman to her right, presumably to be the princess Merida Dunbroch, the princess fate's was unknown by the lack of resources and to be presumably died before 1400s, the queen later died somewhere in the late 1470s.
Even in her dream she don't even dare thinking about how her kingdom disappear, but it did, for all the changes she wanted, the land was not so old any longer, replaced by revolutions that changed it through time, but one line that did strike her.
''Presumably died''
She was dead, everyone in this world believe she was gone along with her family, but then again, she was here, before this and let the quiet tears escaped her eyes, death was something that could not touch her, death was just a gateway, her body was just a shadow of reality, when in death, she shed it and move on to another world where she can truly be herself, her soul, leaving her body to rest, but she didn't have those privileges, she can just live in, silently watching, waiting for what fate has brought her through even the nature itself, even time itself.
But even in her journey, so many questions she could ask and have her answers, but there is one question that burning thought her even to this day.
How?
Maybe she just have to play along with fate, cherish those memories about her family, and live on for them, traveled the ways for them, and seeing new changes like she always wanted to, to be free from all the boundaries, but in this case.
She was free from death.
She walks the path of the lifetime.