A.N.: Back for the second chapter. Hope you like it.
There is one thing, I find necessary to tell you: I will not write the Scottish accent of Merida and her family for two reasons:
I live in Hungary, so I saw the movie in Hungarian.
Even if I saw it in English, with the accent, I don't think I could get it right.
But I hope you still like it.
Chapter 1: The Calm Before the Storm
Being located in the northern parts of Europe, Dunbroch always had a rather chilly climate, even during the summers. The end of July was nearing and it was barely above 16 degrees, which was unusual. Even in the North. The usual summer temperature in Dunbroch was around 22-23 degrees. Not only that, but the sun, which was used to warm the land – even if only slightly - was covered by the fairly overcast sky and there was a chilling wind hoovering over the entire kingdom.
But there was something different about this wind. It wasn't only stinging the faces of everyone it came across and sending shivers down on their spines, but it was also carrying a feeling of misgiving with itself and it also gave it to every people in the kingdom. It was like this wind was foreshadowing an event that would soon take place in the Scottish kingdom and this wind was the predictor of that event.
Feelings like this were usually far from troubling Princess Merida. The heir to the throne of Dunbroch was not one to bother with such gut feelings, but when she was awoken from her sleep by this chilling, foreshadowing wind that morning, even she had to admit to herself she had a bad feeling about this day. Even though, she did not really have things to complain about nowadays. Her life finally went into a direction she wanted it to go.
Ever since that bear incident, which she and her mother finally managed to get over and forget after a year, she and her mother, Queen Elinor finally made amends and fixed their troubled relationship. The Queen finally understood how much her daughter wished to be free and Merida also understood that as the crown princess of the kingdom, she had her duties that she can't abandon. Ever since then, the two came to understand each other better it made it easier for them to tolerate the other's behavior. Merida still had her escapades to the woods to do archery and other not so ladylike stuff, but she also had her fair share of her mother's lectures. Elinor also understood her daughter was a free spirit and there was nothing she could possibly do to change that, so she respected it and gave Merida more freedom than before, but she still educated her in the way of a princess and she still got rather upset when her husband or her daughter put her weapons on the table. Yeah, some things never change.
But Merida didn't mind. Now that she and her mother started seeing eye to eye she was certain that her life was finally on the right tracks. So when she woke up, she simply brushed it off and got ready for her day. This day would be a big one for her, her family and her kingdom. Well, definitely her family and her kingdom. The freshly crowned Queen of Arendelle was coming to Dunbroch to deal with some political matters.
To Merida, Arendelle wasn't saying a lot. As the princess of Dunbroch, she was well-aware of the bad history these two kingdoms shared, but she also knew that in the recent years, the kingdoms' relationship improved greatly. She had met King Adgar and Queen Idunn before and she knew they were righteous rulers. They did everything within their powers to fix the relationship between the two kingdoms and she had no doubts that their daughter will follow their ways.
However, Merida could not shake off the feeling of some suspicion about this mysterious new Queen. In Arendelle, the word was that she was extremely seclusive and spent most of her childhood and teenage years in her castle, which was locked down when she was eight. It was reopened a while ago after her coronation, but Merida found it strange that after all those years of isolating herself, she suddenly just decide to open her palace and give Dunbroch a visit. Her parents seemed to ignore this fact. They seemed pleased about Queen Elsa visiting them.
But the Queen would only arrive in the afternoon hours, that left Merida some free time to spend as she pleased. Elinor had to spend this day with preparing everything for the Queen's arrival, which meant no lessons for her today. So her plans included the usual routine: grabbing some breakfast, hopping on Angus to ride into the woods, do some archery, exploring and other unladylike stuff.
Upon making her way into the dining room, she wasn't even surprised to see that her mother wasn't even there. She probably went to make sure everything was perfect for the by the time Queen Elsa arrives. After taking her usual amount of breakfast from the kitchen, she settled down at the table, where her father and younger brothers were sitting at.
"Good morning, Merida." her father, King Fergus of Dunbroch greeted her with his usual cheerful grin. "You slept in today, you know." he said, referring to the fact that her daughter recently started to adapt to the waking with the sun thing her mother talked to her about.
"I take every second of sleep I can get. When mum's not pestering me with her lessons, I can finally get some." she said. She then looked over her little brothers Hubert, Harris and Hamish, not liking the look they were giving her. Those three were always up to no good. She started to dig in her breakfast, not paying attention to the things going on around her.
When she finished, she was about reached for some sweets she hoped to top off her breakfast with, only to find that they were gone. She looked back to her brothers seeing them happily chewing on the cakes that were supposed to be hers. The little thieves must have taken them from under the table while she was busy devouring her breakfast.
Merida sighed in annoyance. "You know that our deal of you getting my dessert for a year is over, right?" Instead of her brothers, the response she got was laughter from her father.
"I told you she won't notice it!" Merida was shocked to see her father partaking in one of her brothers' scheme.
"Dad, how could you?!" she yelled at him in shock. He just chuckled in response.
"Oh, come on, Merida, you won't die from eating a little less. I really don't know how can you eat so much and stay in such a great shape." he said. Merida crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair with a huff. Her father stood up. "Now, I have to go and help your mother with the preparations for Queen Elsa's arrival." and with that, he left the room to find his wife.
Merida turned to her little brothers with a light glare. "I hate you guys, I hope you know that." They only nodded, knowing she didn't really mean it, then stood up and fled the room, leaving Merida to herself. Merida sighed again, shaking her head with a smile, knowing she could never hate them – even though, sometimes she felt like she could try.
With her breakfast finished, Merida stood up and left for the stables. While walking towards the castle's exit, she saw the maids working extremely hard to get the castle in top shape. Merida didn't remember ever seeing Maudie move so fast, not even when she was running from her mother in her bear form. Just before exiting the gate, she heard her mother's voice calling for her.
"Merida!" she turned around to see her mother, Queen Elinor of Dunbroch walking towards her. "Where are you going? The Queen of Arendelle could be here anytime. I don't want her to think that our family is so disrespectful that we are not here to greet her when she arrives." Merida sighed. Her mother always wanted to make everything perfect. Nothing less than that was satisfying to her.
"Mum, it's okay. She only will arrive in the afternoon, it's not even noon yet. I'm just going out for a while." she tried to convince her, but seeing her expression didn't soften a bit, she could tell she wasn't doing a very good job at it.
"Couldn't you stay and help me with getting this place ready?" Elinor tried desperately to convince her daughter to stay and help her with some royal duties for once, but she had a feeling that no matter how hard she tries, her efforts will be in vain.
"Mum, we talked about this." Merida told her. Elinor sighed, aware of that she lost this argument.
"Fine, but please promise me you will be back by the time she arrives." Merida smiled, glad that she got her mother to soften on her.
"You have my word, your majesty." she said on a regal voice that Elinor was teaching her. The Queen chuckled at this.
"That was actually really good. You're finally learning something." Merida rolled her eyes at his. Her mother chuckled and ruffled her mess of a hair. "Alright, off you go. But please, try not to turn anyone into a bear while you are out there."
"Oh, come on, mum! That only happened once!" Merida joked as she walked away from her. She walked to the castle stables where Angus greeted her cheerfully.
"Hey, boy! Ready for our morning routine?" she asked with a bright smile. The horse whined loudly as if voicing his agreement. Merida giggled and hopped onto her horse and rode out straight to the woods.
Meanwhile close to the shores of Dunbroch, three ships were sailing towards the Scottish kingdom under the banner of Arendelle. The main ship, which was surprisingly the smallest was between the other two ships, which were big enough to easily carry a battalion of soldiers. But their passengers were only the Royal Guards of Arendelle. The Queen's personal bodyguards who were loyal only to her and took orders from her only. The Queen was confident that Dunbroch would not take it a hostility if she would arrive with that many armed men. After all, she didn't have any intention of using them in any aggressive actions against Dunbroch and the King and Queen had no reason to believe otherwise.
Said Queen, Elsa of Arendelle was currently sitting in her cabin, preparing herself for the boarding in Dunbroch. She was finishing her hair in front of the mirror. Finishing, she stood up to take a look at herself, quiet satisfied with her look. She was wearing her coronation dress, she really liked that one. She did her hair in the exact same fashion as it was at her coronation ball too. She was surprised to admit that she thought she looked really good that day.
Just when she was done, there was a knock on her cabin's door. "Enter!" she called. One of her royal guards who was currently with her on her ship entered.
"Milady, we will arrive to Dunbroch in about twenty minutes." he informed her. Elsa smiled.
"Thank you. I assume they won't mind if we arrive a little earlier than expected." she mused as she sat down in her chair. "Now leave, and alert me immediately when we docked." she ordered.
"Of course, Milady." said the guard, then bowed slightly and left. Elsa smiled to herself and sat back in her chair. She looked at herself in the mirror, as she started to pondering about the many things that had changed in the past few weeks. She was now the Queen of Arendelle and she couldn't kept hiding in her room, she had a duty to her people and she was more than willing to fulfill those duties. The castle of Arendelle was reopened and the kingdom was open to other kingdoms as well. She no longer hid in her room like in the past thirteen years. Even though, this would be her first trip to another kingdom and she was a little nervous. But she knew she couldn't allow it to herself. She had to be strong, she was traveling to Dunbroch with a mission to her kingdom and she had to concentrate on it.
She was sitting in the cabin, alone. It was rather strange to sit in a room, all alone without being constantly bugged by her sister. Elsa almost missed her singing outside, begging for her to go out and build a snowman. Almost. In the past thirteen years, the silence in her room nearly drove her mad. Now she found it relaxing and calming. Elsa couldn't help but scoff at the thought of her sister.
'All you know is how to shut people out!' it echoed in her mind. Her sister actually had the nerve to throw it in her face. The memory made her hands clenching into fists. Her attention was only brought back to reality when she heard something crash on the floor. She opened her eyes and saw a glass that she was drinking from earlier shattered on the ground, due to a sudden burst of wind that suddenly entered the room from her cabin window.
Seeing this, Elsa decided to calm herself and concentrate on her mission in Dunbroch. She has to keep herself together, she can't lose the grip on herself. For now, that is. She must have been dazing out for a little longer than she thought, because a couple moments later her guard reported to her that they have arrived to Dunbroch. She smiled to herself. She reached for the last part of her accessories, a pair of gloves. She slowly pulled them on and whispered to herself. "Conceal, don't feel. Don't let it show. Wait for the right moment and then let it go."
"Oh, come on! I don't believe it!" The irritated cries of Princess Merida echoed through the forest as she missed her target for the umpteen time that say. It's not that her archery skills reduced recently, it was this damn wind that was blowing today. If Merida didn't have a reason to be concerned about it, she certainly had one now.
Angus noticed his rider's annoyance and went closer to her and gently nudged the back of her head as an effort to cheer her up. This action seemed to work, as the girl looked up at her horse with a smile, but her face went back into a frown as she once again felt the wind on her face. She scoffed.
"Let's go home, Angus, this isn't our day." She sulked. "Come to think of it, maybe we better go before a storm breaks out."
"Storm!" The princess widened her eyes and turned to the direction where the croak came from. She looked up and saw a strangely familiar looking crow sitting on a branch above her. It took Merida a moment to realize it, but a moment later it clicked. This was that woodcarving witch's crow. Merida was fairly surprised to see it here. She hopped on Angus to get a closer look of the bird.
"What are you doing here?" she wondered out loud. The crow just stared at her with those big eyes and croaked again. "Storm!" the crow flew away from the branch, only to sit down on another one near to it. After it sat down, it continued to stare at Merida. Merida wondered what could the bird's business be with her, but then she slowly came to a realization.
"Do you want me to... follow you?" the crow just croaked again, as if in agreement and flew away. Merida was hesitant. The crow would most likely lead her back to the witch's cottage and she didn't plan to return there anytime soon. But curiosity once again got the better of her and she told Angus to follow the bird. "Let's go, Angus!" The horse looked hesitant, but obliged.
They followed the crow for a while and just as Merida expected, the bird led them to the witch's cottage. The crow flew in on the window, leaving the princess to wonder what was going on. Judging by the many creepily unusual thing happening today, something wrong going on. And if magic was involved, there was something SERIOUSLY wrong going on.
"Wait for me here, Angus." she instructed her horse and slowly walked to the door. Merida wasn't sure if she should get into some magical again, but if the witch was seeking her out with her bird, she must have had a really good reason to do so. With a sigh, she entered.
She was surprised that she didn't see hundreds of small bear figures carved out of wood all around the place. In fact, she was in the cottage witch was used by the witch to cast her spells. Merida slowly entered and looked around for her. And it didn't take her long to find her sitting in a chair, nervously working on another carving. Merida raised an eyebrow.
"Uh, hello." she greeted her. Upon hearing her voice, the witch looked up and upon seeing her, her expression went from nervous to happy.
"Oh, you came. Thank God!" she exclaimed. "You are just the person I needed to see." she said as she went back to her carving.
"And why did you need to see me?" Merida asked, having a bad feeling about the answer she will give her.
"Don't tell me you didn't notice it, dear." she smiled. "Surely you saw the signs." Merida was utterly lost by this point.
"What are you talking about, what signs? You're not making any sense!" she complained. The Witch's eyes suddenly widened as she realized something.
"Oh, of course. You have to be experienced with magic to feel it!" she said to herself, causing Merida to frown.
"Well, I had enough experience with magic to last a lifetime. So get to the point, before I get tired of this and leave."
"Oh, hold your horses, dear!" The Witch shouted as she stood up from her chair, making Merida jump slightly. "Oh, young people these days! But back in my days..." she walked to a bookshelf by the wall and pulled out a thick book. Merida watched her bringing it to a table in front of them and put it down. "I can feel it in my bones. The wind, the cold." she mumbled as she searched through the pages of the book. "There is a storm coming, princess" she said, confusing Merida even more. She sighed in relief as she apparently found the pages she was looking for. "There was a prophecy, if I remember correctly about two thousand years ago. It was about a ruler, a ruler who would wield vast magical powers in order to bring a kingdom to greatness, ruthlessly destroying everyone who would stand in the way." Merida looked at the pages in the book, which showed her the picture of a land covered in snow. The Witch switched to the next page, which showed an enormous ice castle, towering above the lands and the mountains. "Only the bravest of hearts can possibly withstand such a foe." she finished as she closed the book. "The prophecy got buried in the sand of time, dear. There are only a few people knowing about it." Merida raised an eyebrow.
"I don't understand! What prophecy, what foe? Why are you telling me this?" the witch smiled.
"Like I said, only the bravest of heart can withstand such a foe. And you are one of the bravest people I know. If this prophecy comes true, our precious kingdom will fall under a terrible curse, which will bring darkness and cold. And that's really bad for business." Merida decided that she will end this conversation here.
"Okay. I think you have breathed in too much of your magical potions today. Now, I have to get back to my family to greet a royal guest with them or my mum will kill me. Later" she headed to the door, but the Witch stopped her.
"Don't be stupid, little girl. Haven't you listened to what I just told you?"
"I am not frightened by myths and legends. If this prophecy is real, then find another brave heart to deal with it, I've had my fair share of your magical businesses." Merida told her harshly. The witch frowned at her. She grabbed her hand and put something in it.
"Mark my words, princess." she said as she walked away from her. "There is a storm coming." Merida sighed and walked out of the cottage. Outside, she raised her hand to see what the witch gave her. It was another carving of wood, but it was not bear, or anything she saw the Witch carve before. It was the carving of a snowflake.
A.N.: I feel like this chapter is a little rushed, but I hope it meets your expectations. Chapter 2 will come before September and after that I'll try to focus back on "The Viking and the Snow Queen", but in September I will start 12th grade, which means my graduation is coming up next May, so I will have to study in every second of my life next year, but I'll try to take some time. Later!
