Ursa Minor
Disclaimer: I do not own Brave or any of the characters there within, they are property of Pixar!
The weather had not been kind that week.
Midwinter was often dreich in the Highlands, but the bitter winds and incessant rain seemed intent to drive the arrested House of DunBroch mad with boredom.
After years of effort, Queen Elinor had begun to work the finer details of the family tapestry, but when she realized she had sewn the stitch over Fergus' flaming eyebrow three times, she shook off the heavy haze and stood.
Queen Elinor threw a heavy cloak about her shoulders and drew it tight. She had never been fond of winter's chill and its icy drafts always seemed to find its way into the castle. She headed down the quiet corridors and into the chaos of the main hall.
Fergus had taken to re-hunting his trophies, the boar head was so full of arrows it resembled a porcupine. The triplets had tripled their efforts at mischief and stolen several platters of desserts. No one knew how they got up to the cast iron chandelier, but they were swinging on it and desperately trying to knock each other off with wooden swords. The dogs were on the table gobbling whatever scraps had been left from an early dinner. The servants were deep in the throes of an arm-wrestling match, cheering their wagered opponent.
"I haven't seen a single torch lit or fireplace stoked around the castle; the sun has set, get to it!" The servants went silent and scattered to their tasks at once. "Ashelin, have you and your girls clear and wash the table. Boys, bed! Maudie, see that they get there and stay there this time. Fergus, that boar is thoroughly dead." The maids tackled the table, the dogs shooed away. The triplets dropped from the chandelier, ran circles around the nurse maid and sprinted away to their rooms. The main hall emptied as quickly as it had been filled.
King Fergus stretched sideways in his throne and scratched his chin, grinning amorously at his wife.
"I love the way you do that."
"I don't know how it gets that way in the first place." Elinor raised a dubious brow at him. He shrugged innocently.
"Your guess is as good as mine."
The queen shook her head, smiling despite herself.
"Where is Merida?"
"I thought she was studying with you." Fergus sat up a bit straighter at his queen's anxious look.
"I haven't seen her all day."
A crash upstairs startled them both.
"BOYS!" Fergus roared. A distant scream followed a second crash. Fergus lumbered to his feet and stomped toward the staircase.
"Don't worry yourself, lass, she's probably out shooting in the courtyard."
The queen nodded to herself and walking with purpose, made her way to the courtyard.
She pushed the heavy wooden doors open and a blast of cold welcomed her stinging eyes and nose. But to be fair, this was the warmest day they'd had in weeks. The days were so dreadfully short these dark winter months and the last traces of sunlight scattered as the deep violet of twilight stretched its hand across the sky. To her surprise, the sky had finally shaken off its dreary gray cloak and a crispness had replaced the damp. It would be a brisk evening.
Queen Elinor descended the steps and rounded the castle wall toward a spare paddock for the horses. At the queen's urging, Merida's archery targets had been moved into the paddock so the princess could practice close to home. The sun set too early for a little girl of eight to be wandering the forest and lochs. This winter was certainly one of the nastiest House DunBroch had weathered in awhile. The improvised archery range was tight, but it would do until the grass turned green again.
The hoarfrost from that morning had made the grass stiff so that it crunched under her feet. The horses snorted in their enclosure, stuffed with straw to keep them warm; if only the same could be done for the castle. Elinor saw her every breath as she exhaled. The early evening was still and peaceful.
Queen Elinor came to the paddock and stopped.
It was empty.
The queen's throat tightened as a chill that had nothing to do with the weather seized her.
"Merida?" she called. "Merida!"
Silence.
The crown princess had not been seen all day. The last few days had been the harshest and the wolves had been heard howling nearby more than once.
"Merida!" A strain had entered the queen's tone. She hurried back to the front of the castle and looked toward the gates. Open? White knuckles pulled up the queen's skirts as she rushed out of the gates and over the stone bridge. She could only make out the nearest row of trees and the black hem of the treeline.
Queen Elinor stopped at the end of the bridge, turning this way and that. Where could her daughter be? Which path would she have taken? Merida knew better than to stay out past dark, Elinor was always lecturing her about timeliness and safety. Had those lessons fallen on deaf ears? No child of hers was so foolish to tempt the half-starved beasts of the winter glens. The queen took a deep, frigid breath.
"MERIDA!"
"What, mum?"
A flash of red popped into Elinor's line of sight from behind a nearby pine. The girl replaced her knocked arrow and walked to her mother. Relief swept over the queen and made her knees stop quaking, but it was quickly replaced with reproach.
"I've called and called you—you're dressed like that? It's freezing!—what are you doing outside the castle walls?"
"Shooting." She said simply, sporting that same innocent shrug of her father's. Elinor pointed heatedly over the bridge.
"We set up a practice range for you inside."
"I can't practice there, I'm standing two feet from the targets! I draw my bow and the arrow is already in."
"We have to work with what we have. It's not safe out here, Merida."
"Mum, I'm just outside. I didn't go far, I could see the gate the whole time."
Queen Elinor shut her eyes, took a steadying breath and changed tack.
"We'll discuss it later. It's dark and time you went to bed."
"But I can still see." Merida drew and knocked an arrow in one motion, took aim and released. The arrow went wide of the tree she'd aimed for. Merida frowned. "I'm not tired, mum."
"Be that as it may, you still have to come inside." The queen insisted and started back toward the castle. Merida leaned on her bow.
"I've been inside two whole weeks. I'd rather be eaten by wolves than go back in the castle."
"Merida!"
"Come on, mum, I know you're tired of it too. You check the horses three times a day. You've gone up and down the stairs looking for a book you had in your hands. I saw you count the winter stock seven times yesterday—I don't want to go back in and neither do you."
Queen Elinor studied her daughter, a light breeze lifting her tangled, burning locks. She leaned on her bow and stared doubtfully, content to stay out in the cold than suffer the stagnation of the constricting stone walls. Yes, Elinor had felt its suffocating squeeze too.
The queen looked up at the sky and the stars winked back at her. An idea formed.
"All right. Get your heaviest fur and meet me at the top of the tower. If you're staying up, you're going to be studying."
"Muuuum!" Merida groaned, trudging forward at the queen's guiding hand. Elinor broke a branch off one pine tree and followed her daughter.
They parted ways at the main hall; Merida for her rooms and Elinor to the kitchens.
The queen set water to boil and rummaged for two water skins. She placed a length of pine needles into each and poured the bubbling water carefully into the skins. It was an old trick her mother had taught her, a beverage to take the chill out of a cold night. Taking the skins and a bear hide from one alcove, Queen Elinor headed up to the tower.
Merida, dressed much more appropriately for the weather, was already there perched in one turret. To the girl's surprise, her mother carried no books, no quills, no maps. What sort of lesson was she to learn then?
The queen motioned her daughter down and spread the bear hide for them to sit and cover themselves with. Merida plopped herself down beside her mother, blinking when the latter handed her a water skin.
"Let it steep a few more minutes." The queen said.
"Steep?" Merida repeated, ruffling a hand through her wild hair. The queen smiled and pointed into the starry night sky.
"Do you see those stars there? The ones that look like a big spoon?"
"Which ones?" Merida leaned close and looked up the length of her mother's arm like one of her many arrows. "Oh, I see them!"
"That's the Little Bear, a wee mischievous thing what got into so much trouble they had to pin her tail to the sky to keep him from terrorizing Goose and Badger. See the end of her tail, that star there. That's the North Star and it never moves from that spot." Merida exhaled a breath of awe. "Though the sky may turn all around it, the Little Bear will always be pinioned to that point.
"Now, the Goose remembered Little Bear plucking all her tail feathers and the Badger still had a stripe on his face where Little Bear had stained it with burnt sumac. They decided to attack Little Bear while she was pinned"
"I'd like to see them try," Merida challenged, gaze rapt for contenders trying to harass the little spoon constellation.
"Little Bear saw her rivals coming and fought and fought to get free, but her tail held fast." Here the queen paused to sip at her water skin, it warmed her and quenched her dry throat. Merida bounced on the bear hide.
"And?"
The woman took one last drawn out swig to Merida's impatient cries, a teasing smile on her lips. She set the skin back to warm her ankles.
"Do you see those stars over there?" Queen Elinor outlined another group of stars.
Merida looked and she gasped.
"They make another spoon—another bear!"
"That's right!" The queen clapped her hands together. Merida laughed with glee, the tides had turned! She guzzled down half of her water skin, humming approval, and wiped her mouth on her arm before returning back to the night theater above. "Those stars make the mother bear, Elinor continued, "and she would have no one harming her little cub. So up she ran snarling and swinging her great paws, every claw a dagger as long as your arm. Goose and Badger took one look into Mother Bear's wild eyes and great fangs and ran as fast as they could to the opposite side of the world. Mother Bear gave one mighty roar that shook the heavens, but it did not loose Little Bear. So she decided to forever circle her cub in the night sky, protecting her until the day Little Bear was big enough to free herself."
Merida stared up at the blinking lights. One beam streaked across the sky.
"Did she ever get free?" Merida breathed.
"Not yet, but maybe someday she will."
They sat together for a moment, mother and daughter, their minds their own but their thoughts shared.
Queen Elinor stirred first.
"Well, I've kept you from bed long enough. I think it's time we—" but Merida clasped her mother's arm with both hands, pulling her back to her seat.
"Tell me another one. Please, mum! Just one more story and I promise I'll go to bed, no complainin'." The queen didn't budge. Merida pursed her lips and added a second offer. "I won't go outside the courtyard until spring."
Queen Elinor peered into those bright blue eyes and begging smile and her resolve broke. She shook her head and resettled beside her eager young daughter.
"Just one."
Author's Note: I've been excited for this movie for weeks and it wasn't what I expected, but it delivered. I have such a weakness for anything Celtic. I'd expected the film to be more action-oriented. Bear-knuckle brawling so to speak. I gathered pretty quickly it was more about a mother/daughter relationship which actually struck home, a little too hard. I don't readily admit to tearing up at, well, anything-but some scenes in this film just struck a chord and it's still resonating.
I loved Merida's fierce independence and tom-boyish ways. I literally wanted to find a Clydesdale and gallop around the woods. I loved Queen Elinor's elegance and poise, she just has so much control. The way she walked into the fighting clans and how they ALL bowed out. God, yes. I love their characters, I love their expressive faces, I love their flaws and how each conflicting side was explored equally. And they compromised, transformed and grew. That's a lot to garner from a "kids" movie. Pixar, you never cease to amaze.
Anyway, onto this story. I was so consumed by this film, I churned out their (sorta) quickie since the idea bit me and wouldn't let go. The Big and Little Dipper's are also called bears. Ursa. Mama bear kept going through my mind in the movie and this idea just clicked. It's a lot of fluff, but the fluff was what I was feeling! Now, I made up the story to go with the constellations, I don't know what ancient Scots named their stars. Forgive me on that point. In any case, I hope it was somewhat fun to read as it was fun to write on the spot.
Mama and her cub, destinies intertwined.
Anywho, please review and let me know what y'all think! I'll give you a bear hug if you do!
Blackfire 18