A/N: In case you didn't read the summary of this story (or the title)... This is a teaser for a future collaboration with the wonderful Sev Baggins! I thought I'd post this as a belated way to honor the birthday of Frodo and Bilbo Baggins! (FYI - They both share the same birthday, September 22, for those of you who don't know this already. ;) )
Let me know what you think of this concept! As always... reviews are greatly appreciated!
Merida looked about her in the surrounding shroud of blackness. What was this place? A cemetery?
No.
It was something stranger, and... darker?
She shook her head rolled her eyes. She wasn't a frightened little girl. She was Merida, Princess of DunBroch - and there was no way in hell that she'd be running back to her castle with her proverbial tail tucked between her legs. No - especially not in front of the lairds.
Young MacIntosh was the one who'd proposed the challenge in the first place- one that she'd gladly taken, provided that he and the others would back off of courting her if she returned victorious.
She was to spend the entire night here.
If this is his idea of flirting or wooing me over, then he's downright pathetic.
Of course, the place she was in right now was just as heavily shrouded in mystery as it was in night. That undoubtedly led to a myriad of asinine horror stories surrounding it that sent children and hysterical peasants like Maudie, the family maid, trembling and ducking under their covers at night.
The dancing shadows sent chills up her spine. Yet, even in the midst of the ominous atmosphere and in their state of age and ruin, the statues and carvings were strangely beautiful - as though they had come from some ancient ethereal world.
A large relief the size of a full length mirror bore the portrait of a magnificent forgotten king. Another bore that of a beautiful woman in regal garb - presumably his queen. A three-quarter life sized statue of a graceful hooded lady stood stained and worn under the black shadows of an old tree. A smaller relief depicted a tree with seven stars floating above it. The rest of the place was a blur of stony faces and intricate artwork hidden amongst the blackness and the trees.
Merida's eye was suddenly drawn to another statue - one that blatantly stood out even from its peers in this strange yard of old sculptures.
The moonlight had bathed it in a way that made it look as though it were meant to be the focal point of the entire collection - although, perhaps in actuality, it was simply a trick of Mother Nature and the statue was in fact just another piece in the nocturnal artistic disarray.
It depicted what seemed to be a young man seated an elegant chair- perhaps a throne? His only crown, however, was a head full of tumbling curls that framed his chiseled face.
His gaze was downcast, as though he were meant to be captured in a state of perpetual deep thought. The fabric draped over him fell in stunning folds, adorning the graceful and subtly muscled body it garbed.
Her appreciative stupor was abruptly broken by the sensation of her foot blindly kicking something hard and heavy - the helmeted head that had broken off yet another statue. She instinctively grabbed it, leaving her to clumsily hop and hobble like an extremely inept stork - unwittingly right into the lap of the one she was staring at moments before.
Merida gulped once she realized where she was. Perhaps there was something more about this place than had initially met her eye. She now had an even clearer view of his face, which she now knew was graced with a straight, flawless nose and full, bow-shaped lips.
Its face, she silently and indignantly corrected to herself.
Referring to the statue as an it rather than a he was easier said than done. The work of art was even more striking up close. His face was now uncannily angled as though he were looking directly at her. His eyes, despite the fact that they were merely white, were so vividly detailed that she could've sworn they were searching hers behind the stony façade. If they'd belonged to an actual human, she was certain they'd be some vibrant, gemlike hue (although she wasn't exactly sure what color they'd be).
Her foot had stopped throbbing. She pressed her hand against his torso, planning to push herself off and spend the rest of the night huddled against one of the trees when she felt something against her palm - and not just the texture of a masterfully carved rock.
She felt a pulsing sensation beneath the smooth stone of his bare chest, as though he had... a beating heart?
Shocked beyond belief, Merida glared right at where her palm was.
No...! It... can't be...?! IT'S JUST A BLOODY ROCK!
As though in sheer defiance, the stone began to grow warmer, the texture changing from hard rock to soft skin over firm, living muscles. The chest was now blatantly rising and falling - in fact, it was almost heaving. It also began change color, transitioning from snow white with a few feint veins of grey to the fairest of flesh tones. The fabric he was draped in was now... well, fabric - and a very fine fabric at that. It was now a very deep, iridescent midnight blue and felt like silk.
When Merida dared to look at his face again, she watched in awe as those curls loosened and turned to a brown so dark it was almost black. The lips reddened with life and parted as the man who was now alive again took in a gasping breath of the night air. She watched him blink and shift his gaze back to her. She was indeed right about the vivid shade of his eyes- they turned out to be two piercing sapphire orbs bearing into her own, framed by long, dark lashes and shapely brows. She stared back, frozen in awe, until she was sure she was no longer able to stand the intensity of his gaze.
Too stunned to know what else to do, she mustered the strength to push herself off him. The striking man rose from his seat, dumbfounded as he watched her stumble a couple feet back.
She steadied herself by placing her hand on the statue of the king, and then looked back up at the man who had just come to life.
"Who are you?!"
"I was just about to ask you the same thing."