This is a fanfic of the fanfic Once a Year by Jessicac6. Thank you for the inspiration.
Roiben and Merida paced outside of a door. Merida's parents sat in chairs nearby watching the couple go back and forth waiting for news on their child. Eventually, a door opened and a maid came out. King Fergus and Queen Elinor got up and walked to the maid.
"Well?" Merida asked.
"Well, after we got it to a place we could save it, we did everything we could do to save her, and-," the maid began.
Another maid came bursting in with a clean blanket, "She's gone."
Roiben walked up to the maid, "What do you mean she's gone? Did she die?"
"No, your majesty, I left to get the princess a blanket and then Ruth left to tell you she made it, but when-when I came back she wasn't there and the window was open," the maid stammered. Roiben's green eyes widened. He ran down the stairs and out the castle's door.
After he left the castle's grounds he turned into a bear and began tracking the scent of the kidnapper. Roiben ran into the forest as it began to rain. He tried everything to get the scent back but he'd lost it. His first child was gone! He roared in frustration as a woman watched from the shadows.
She was old but she held the just born princess in her arms as she watched Roiben run back to the castle roaring with all his might. The woman smiled, turned and ran to her cottage that was hidden deep in the forest.
Back at the castle Merida and Roiben had the guards look everywhere for their daughter. When the guards came back with no news they wept and hoped that their little girl would come back one day.
The princess was lying in a cradle seeing the old woman walk around small cottage but instead seeing the maids walk around trying to save her from something she couldn't see. And her mind kept going back to the image of the woman with fiery hair that seemed untamed and remembered seeing the hope and fear in her eyes.
She wondered if she would ever see the maids or the woman again. The little princess reached out her hand and imagined she had caught one of the fiery strands of hair. She giggled which caused the old woman to come to the craddle.
"Now, now, Niervana, you shall not giggle. When you're old enough you'll be taken out of my care. But for now you're my daughter," the old woman crooned. The princess giggled and the lady scowled and walked away.
Outside waited the Beast. A huge creature with tentacles coming out of it's back. It waited for the right moment to strike.
Sorry it was short but the next chapter will be longer, I promise.