She was born in a fire.
She died in one too, but she didn't know that. All she knew is that she awoke in the smoldering ruins of a once-magnificent castle, a dusting of ashes covering her like a blanket.
Her eyes blinked open and she gulped air in through her mouth. Gasping for breath, she stood and brushed the ashes off her olive green dress. The sky was gray and smoke curled up into the air. Her feiry red hair bounced slightly as she examined her surroundings. Her pale blue eyes swept over the land with the precision of a hawk. It was the first place he remembered and the place she would always return.
"Home," she breathed, her voice thick with a Scottish accent. "Ah'm home."
She inhaled deeply and closed her eyes. She felt a warmth dance accross her face and opened her eyes again. A sliver of sunlight appeared over the horizon, illuminating the world around her and throwing it into a new perspective. She stared in awe. She blinked in the sun and spun around, relishing the feeling of warm air on her skin. When she stopped twirling, she looked up to the newly risen sun.
It blinked a few times and a voice whispered something behind her, soft as the rustling of the leaves on the trees. She turned, unafraid, and searched for the source of the voice.
"Merida," it whispered. "The Sender of Summer."
Merida. It seemed right. It seemed to fit her. Of course it fit her, it was her name!
"Merida," she said, letting the name roll around on her tongue. "Merida. Merida! MERIDA!" she said, her voice rising to a joyous shout. She began to run, kicking up ashes and cinders behind her as she went. She laughed and ran and laughed some more, until she came to the edge of the ruins. Her laugh abruptly stopped, and her eyes grew wide.
A sprawling feild of emereald hues glittered in the early morning sunlight. She tentatively pulled a foot out of the ashes and placed it gingerly on the grass. The cold dew seeped through her thin shoe. She shifted her wieght and placed the other foot on the grass. As she stood, the sun glinted accross her face and warmed her skin. She grinned, and began to spin. She relished the feeling of the warm morning air on her face.
As she spun, her feiry red hair began to smoke. Merida was oblivious to her smoking hair, unti it burst into flames. She stopped dead and began to frantically bat at her locks. When she realised it was fruitless, she brought her hands down to her face, expecting blackened and charred hunks of meat.
But they weren't.
They were only slightly red from the heat. Merida felt her heart calm down and felt her hair again. It was still on fire, but it didn't burn. It was more of a tickling sensation. A trill of excitement ran through her. She could create fire!
She could create... fire.
Fire, a destructive thing of pain and heat, capable of taking out towns and even forests in a matter of minutes. The thrill of excitement was replaced by a prickle of dread. Her hair smoldered down as she grew more and more afraid of her newfound power. Calm down, she told herself. Find a village and maybe get some help.
Maybe lots of all people had them. Maybe her powers weren't all that different. And maybe..
Maybe they were.
