3 Centuries of Dawn

For a good friend who loves Jarida

Prologue

"The wedding shall commence!"

The cheers of the crowd roared. Flowers and accessories were thrown into the air as if something rare and triumphant had occurred. Well, it had. Unfortunately.

With hair compressed by the tight, rubbery elastic connected with her white gown, Merida stood behind the door of the furniture filled dressing room, uncharacteristically silent as the uproar continued. With shaking hands, she peeked through the slight opening of the door. There he was, Mathias Gallach, her so called 'beloved fiance' which she never asked for. His hair wild and dark even under the brightly lit sky, his poised stand, strict and rigid, juxtaposing with the wild tangent which surrounded him. He also remained in brooding.

There was fear that loomed over her as her mother sauntered by, gently closing the door. Elinor grinned at her daughter, firm but gentle eyes resonated through her brown irises and she cupped her hands on both of Merida's cheeks.

"Now, you know how much this means to us," Elinor spoke softly, caressing Merida's flesh, "But don't fret too much. Mathias is a good man, you'll grow to like him."

Merida clenched her jaw, and shifted her resilient blue eyes away from Elinor. However, she continued to be icy silent, and brushed the condescending hands off of her. Marching away, Merida grabbed handfuls of her gown which clung tightly around her waist, the corset made her wheeze and dizzy.

Her back still faced Elinor, but suddenly the serving girl rushed in. She rammed into the door before she swung it open, knocking the furniture beside it over. Merida turned around slowly, only to be met by a beaming face filled with ridiculous joy. That joy just made Merida want to shoot someone.

" It's time!"

Elinor jumped up frantically and dashed over to Merida. She brushed off every inch of dirt and dust from her daughter's body, briefly fixed the creases by hand flattening them, and violently shoved any loose curls back into the stupendously tight head piece. Within minutes, Elinor slid open one of the drawers next to them and pulled out a crown. It glittered under the dim sunlight that streamed from the small windows. Simple but sophisticated as the crimson rubies was tangled in a swirl of gold. Merida stared at it in awe.

With a proud smile, Elinor smiled, "Here, your father and I want you to have this. We've been preparing it since you were wee lamb, but now you're a beautiful grown woman," she paused in deep thought, "And we think, no, we know you are capable of being the best Queen there could possibly be."

The amount of pride in her mother's tone made Merida inhaled sharply. The pressure was like an iron slate smacked upon on her shoulders. She forced the tears back and stood up tall. Taking the crown, feeling the heavy weight of it pushing at her hands, she placed it upon her head.

There was no turning back now.

I've been sorta obsessed with Jarida because a friend of mine convinced me how beautiful this pairing was, so I decided to write this story just for her haha. Hope you enjoyed it, plus, I don't have a beta so if there are any grammatical or spelling mistakes (major and minor) they are all mine :). And of course, I do this for fun and for free so I don't own the characters in this story expect for a couple of OCs like Mathias.