Chapter 2: One Year Later…
IMPORTANT: Alright, so after getting pretty far into this chapter, I realized a "small" detail that I'd need to add in order to help this story along in the way that I want it to. So, before you start reading this chapter, go back to the previous one and re-read it. I ended up changing quite a bit in terms of Michael, so you're gonna need to know just what it is that I've changed…
Author's Note Part 1: Alright, so at this point, I only have about half an hour left of the movie to watch before I get started on this, but I figured I'd at least get started on the first Author's Note. With that being said, I can already tell you guys that there will be quite a few changes to the movie and the way that certain scenes occur thanks to Michael now being a part of this. A few prime examples being the festival, the situations that involve Mor'du, as well as quite a few scenes that happen while Merida's mother is a bear.
Now, because I've returned to this after more than a year, and my plans for this story have changed, it's gonna take a little while for the chapters to get out, especially with all the other stories that I have posted on this site. However, since this Fanfiction is based on a movie, I should hopefully be able to focus on it for a little while, as opposed to when I write my stories about TV shows / Animes since they're broken off into episodes, which allow my ADD brain to go off in a completely different direction once I finish watching through one episode.
But anyways, since I've let this sit for a while, I guess that I'll just finish up watching the movie, and then get to writing this chapter so that you guys can actually read it. So, here you go!
Michael's POV:
365 days… For some, that's a very long time that seems to stretch on forever until they reach the end. For others, the time seems to go by too quickly to make sense of it. As for myself, I guess you could say that I'm somewhere in the middle. Being thrown who knows how many years into the past tends to do that to you. And being thrown halfway around the word? That boggles the mind even more. But at this point, I've learned to just live with it and continue on with my life.
It's especially helpful that by making quick friends with Merida, I apparently managed to get on her father's good side immediately. The triplets, her little brothers, were a bit more difficult to convince, but after helping them with a few pranks, and teaching them a few ways to avoid getting caught, I got on their good side fairly quickly. Now, Merida's mother, Queen Eleanor, was the most difficult to convince.
Needless to say, the woman had a mindset about how the "proper" princess should behave and what they should do. And spending time with a "plebian" was not one of them. She was generous, and very nice to me, make no mistake. The Dunbroch clan was very accepting of outsiders and those who needed a helping hand with the only exception being known criminals that they believed were actually criminals.
Luckily for some people, the king and queen were good judges of character, and were able to tell if someone was wrongly accused of a crime, as a few specific servants in the castle can prove… However, I digress. To the queen, the sight of the princess of the clan spending a good deal of her time with a "commoner" could have raised a few "unsavory" rumors… Not that I would have minded them.
When it came down to it, I managed to find a way to convince the queen to let me spend time with her daughter out in public, while at the same time stopping the possibility of those rumors. Although, Merida wasn't too happy with the idea, and I could understand why. See, the idea that I came up with after a few weeks of staying at the castle thanks to their generosity was to find myself a job. And what other job would help me spend more time with my only friend here than to become her bodyguard?
Now, that's not to say that when I came up with this idea, I believed that Merida needed a bodyguard, quite the opposite in fact. Any princess that could shoot a bullseye on a target hanging from the branch of a tree while riding on the back of a horse, in my opinion, didn't need one to begin with, nor would she probably ever need one. However, I managed to phrase my argument in a way that appealed to the queen's beliefs. And that argument was that "A princess should have a bodyguard to protect her from the less-than-noble humans and monsters that may plan at any point to try to take her hostage for a ransom against the kingdom, or kill her outright."
While Merida fumed a bit at that line of thinking, and King Fergus seemed a bit disgruntled about it, the queen thought it over and agreed. Though… That's not to say that I didn't need to prove that I could be a competent bodyguard. With that being said, I was put under a bit of a test. And let me just say… It was disappointing.
*Test Flashback*
"So, basically what you're saying is that all I need to do is keep any of these guys from getting to Merida?" I ask the queen, who was sitting on her throne beside Fergus and her triplets. Currently, I was standing in the middle of the throne room while Merida was standing behind me with her arms crossed and a frown on her face, and all around us were the castle's guards, each armed with different wooden weapons. In response to my question, the queen nods.
"Yes. Now, are ye' ready?" She asks, and I take a few seconds to look around at the men surrounding me, before turning back to the queen with a nod, which she returns, before looking at the same men that I'd looked at a few seconds ago. "Begin." She says. As soon as the word leaves her lips, a few of the men rush towards Merida, raising their wooden swords above their heads. At the sight, Merida instinctively reaches for her bow, only for nothing to be there since Fergus had speculated earlier that the princess may have attempted to defend herself.
When the redhead's hand feels nothing but air, her frown deepens into a scowl as the men close in, before I rush past her and slide between two of the charging men, using my arms to take the legs out from under them, before quickly leaping back onto my feet, wrenching the wooden swords from their hands as I do this, and then turning and throwing those same wooden weapons into the heads of the two other men rushing Merida. The wooden swords hit the backs of their heads, and they're quick to fall to the ground while two kicks to the heads of the guards already on the ground render them unconscious. However, I don't take the time to admire my handy work as I lean back to avoid a wooden spear that was aimed at my head, and then grab onto the handle, which I use to pull the man wielding it towards me.
A few seconds later, he's sprawled out on the floor with a decent sized lump on his head as I use the wooden spear as a means to knock a good number of the wooden weapon wielding men to the ground with swirls in their eyes, and then turn and use it to block a strike that was aimed at Merida with a wooden blade. However, my eyes widened when I saw the blade itself, before a menacing grin spread over my face as I quickly spun the spear and hit the man wielding the blade's wrist, causing him to drop said weapon, just before I lashed out with the spear in my left hand and knocked him out, while grabbing the falling weapon with my right hand.
When my hand wraps around the handle of the blade, I almost feel myself become a completely different person as I drop the spear I'd been holding, and fall into a familiar stance, my newly acquired wooden dagger held at my side, pointing at the crowd of armed men in front of me due to my arm bending at the elbow, while my feet are spread apart, and my left arm is held out to my side. And the men in front of me seem to realize that I've changed as well, since they're suddenly hesitant to attack. After a few seconds of waiting, one of them finally charges with a yell, and I tense for a split second…
Before letting myself go.
At the time, I hadn't realized that Fergus had started paying more attention to what was going on after I'd grabbed the small weapon, and was eyeing me with surprise, and a bit more respect than before. Although, I suppose that the reason that I didn't notice was because I was too busy taking care of the amateurs in front of me. Honestly, when it came to swordplay, they should have just stuck with their real spears. Although I suppose that even then they wouldn't have had a chance against me. After all, living on the streets for a good eight years teaches you how to wield this kind of thing, and then having two years where knowing how to use it can literally mean life and death also helped. Now, if only I had two…
Needless to say that within a minute of me grabbing onto the dagger, the rest of the men were knocked out all around me, and I spun the weapon expertly in my hand for a few seconds, before attempting to sheath it at my waist due to habit. When the dagger wasn't placed in a sheath like it usually was, my eyes widened for a second, before I blushed in embarrassment, turning around to face the ones watching. When I did this, I was met with six faces of shock and awe. "Eh-heh… I… Have some explaining to do… Don't I?" I mutter with a nervous grin.
*Test Flashback End*
After that, I managed to explain to them the reason that I knew how to wield a dagger in that way was because of the many years that I lived as a street rat. I'd already given Merida a brief overview when I first met her, but I went into a bit more detail when I was talking to her parents, explaining how around where I lived, there were quite a few groups of people who weren't as "kind hearted" as I was, and I'd learned how to defend myself because of this. I left out the two years that also came into play, but with how that was set up in my timeframe, I'm not entirely sure that I would've been able to explain without sounding like a loon…
Anyways, over the months that followed, I was given the job of being Merida's "bodyguard", and pretty much given the freedom to do whatever I wanted around the castle, as long as I was around the princess. At night, I was given a room beside her own so that I was never too far away, and I usually used this time to do a few things besides sleep. One such thing being "inventing".
What I mean by this is that since there was no mention of anyone like myself being in Scotland at any time in the past, I'd come to realize that I must've been thrown into a different timeline entirely. Because of this, I'd taken it upon myself to "invent" a few things that were present in my world. Granted, none of them were things that would completely tip the balance of power one way or another, besides perhaps one invention that was a "last resort" kind of thing, and another few things that I'm almost done with that will only be for me… But other than that, they were simple things.
They included a few instruments, some agricultural advances, as well as a few suggestions for the defenses of the castle that was now my home, and many more inventions that helped everyone in different ways. Now, a few of my beliefs had also managed to make their way into the people that I now lived with, but nothing too drastic. And yet through the entire time… I remained single. I'll admit, there were a few ladies who tried to flirt with me, or even tried to have one night stands outright, but I turned them all down as gently as I could. Why you may ask? Well, two reasons.
The first, and less important one, is because each of them wanted me for one of two reasons. The first was that I was from a completely different continent, and that was what made me appealing to them. That's it. As for the other girls that wanted me, it was because of what I was doing for the kingdom. By that I mean it was because of all the inventions I'd made. None of them wanted me because of who I was, or my personality. And the second reason I turned them down…
I'd fallen for Merida.
Yup. Me, the former street rat, had fallen for the beautiful princess. Jeez, talk about taking from the plot line of Aladdin much… But, it was the truth. Not only was she absolutely gorgeous, but she could hold her own in multiple meanings of the word. Her hard-headed, stubborn personality played the biggest role in my feelings though. After all, if I liked her just because of her looks or anything like that, I'd be a hypocrite for turning away all those girls who wanted to get with me for similar reasons…
Anyways, I'm pretty sure that's Merida knocking on my door now. This is Michael, signing off.
I finish writing the last line in my journal, which I'd just started today, before closing it and stashing it in my desk. Then, I grab my black cloak off the edge of my bed, and make my way over to the door, opening it to find Merida standing there, ready to go at a moment's notice. "There ye' are. I've be'en knockin' fer the past few minutes now." She tells me, and I give her a small smirk in response as I walk through the doorway, closing the wooden door behind me.
"Sorry about that. Anyways, you ready for "Merida Day"?" I ask her, referring to the fact that today was Saturday. The one day of the week where she wasn't being lectured by her mother about what she "could and couldn't do" as a princess. In response, Merida gives me a wide smile that makes my heart skip a beat as she nods eagerly. God, I hate the fact that as a princess, she's not "allowed" to date a guy of my rank…
It also doesn't help that she has no plans of marriage at any point.
Yeah, that was like a stab to the heart when she told me that at one point. I think that I managed to hide my pain well over the next few days before I started to come to terms with it… Oh who the hell am I kidding, I know for a fact that I was able to hide the pain, but coming to terms with it? Ha! I still have a hard time getting over that little fact every time I even think about asking Merida out on a date or anything similar.
But, I digress. After nodding, Merida rushes down the hall with me following close behind, my cloak now tied around my neck as I chase after her. Over the past year, my outfit had changed to fit in more with the times, as well as the "color scheme" of the Dunbroch clan.
My boots were now dyed a dark brown, while my pants were dyed a midnight blue with my black belt still holding them up. My regular T-shirt had been replaced with a dark green, long sleeved T-shirt, and I kept my silver wristwatch, while I now have a couple sheathes at the right and left side of my waist. In each sheath was a Draco Dagger. They were both the same size, and fit perfectly into my hand. They weren't like the set that you'd usually get with one being half the size of the other, or even smaller. The best part? They had no connection whatsoever to Draco Malfoy.
As the two of us continue running, Merida looks over her shoulder with a smirk, a smirk that I'd come to recognize as the woman in front of me having a scheme. And I'm proven right as we round a corner, and she runs through the doorway, making her way between two of the servants, sliding along the banister as she grabs an apple off a tray, easily making her way past the other servants on the stairs, and then landing on a very tall candelabra, which she used to allow her to reach the ground floor without hurting herself, or breaking her stride. At the sight, I allow a small smirk to appear on my own face, before using my own method to get onto the ground floor.
As I got to the first two servants that Merida had made her way between, I instead decide to use the walls on either side of me to my advantage, and jump off one to the other, and then leap over the two people. As gravity starts to pull me down towards the stairs, I instead land on the banister that Merida slid across, and then leap off that towards the ground floor. As I come closer to the stone, I let myself relax, and when I impact the ground, allow my legs to fall out from under me, and roll with the momentum. Because of this, I don't hurt myself, and I'm able to easily roll back into a standing position and follow Merida without a problem. And when she looks back and sees me, she simply laughs, having gotten used to my parkour skills only a few weeks after I started living here.
After a few more minutes, we reach the stables, and the two of us leap onto Angus, Merida's personal horse. I land on the steed right behind the princess, and Merida is quick to snap the reins to get Angus to run through the open gate, down the dirt path, and over the cobblestone bridge that connected the "island" where the castle was built to the mainland. Then, only a few seconds later, the two of us were riding through the same forest that the three of us had met in a year ago, the redhead in front of me wearing a large smile on her face as she takes her bow of her back, takes an arrow out of her quiver, and gets ready for a day filled with whatever she feels like doing.
Author's Note Part 2: And I'm cutting this chapter off here! This chapter was pretty much a brief overview of what Michael's been doing over the past year of him being in the Dunbroch castle, as well as a Segway into the actual plot from the movie. So, it might be a little short, but I figured that I'd start with the actual plot from canon next chapter, instead of having this one be a mixture of a time skip, as well as part of the story. This way, you guys can read about the time skip, and then focus entirely on the story in the chapters to come.
And as I'm sure you've all noticed, I'm only two chapters in, and I've already changed the background a bit! Yeah, I think it's become practically impossible for me to write out a regular story at this point in time, since I have too much fun writing out stories where my character has already gone through the events of a different media source, whether it's another movie, TV series, or even anime. And just from reading this chapter, and as well as the edited first chapter, I'm sure you can tell where Michael's from since I changed his last name…
Anyways, that's about it for this chapter I suppose. I'm currently at school, writing this during one of my free blocks. So, now that I've finished this chapter, I'm gonna go ahead and actually edit the first chapter, since I haven't done that yet. Once that's done, I'll get ready to go through a day of actually learning, before posting the edited chapter along with this one when I get home. Ugh, I honestly can't wait until this year is over, because then I plan on at least taking a gap year before college, or just not going at all. So, my writing time should increase, even if I do need to get a third job since my parents don't want me sitting around writing all day…
Now, I suppose that I can get to responding to the reviews that I've received for the last chapter, so, here they are!
Akira Himura:
Yup, it's definitely nice to be back in the swing of things. Although, in case you haven't noticed, I started updating again around 20 days ago… Are you saying that you don't follow all my updates? But in all actuality, it's definitely nice to be returning to one of my older stories.
Yeah, real life definitely gets in the way of things, but the life of a high school senior is not an easy one… As for the big four, it's an idea that's been around for a while, but it makes a bit of sense to me even though HTTYD and ROTG were made by a different company.
Kamen Rider Heisei:
No spoilers here, but I'm sure you can see the direction that I might take this after reading this chapter…
Anime PJ:
No spoilers… Although with how often we're now communicating, it's quite possible that I may bounce ideas off of you and see what you think of them… As for the plot hole, I don't really think that there was one in the previous version of the first chapter that I posted, but there was definitely a plot hole that showed up when I started to write the second chapter…
Yeah, after we watched the "cinema sins" reaction to this show, it got me back into the mood to write this out. Granted, most of the first chapter was already done since I started to re-write this a while back and then got sidetracked, but watching that video just helped me stay in the mood to continue it. I'm glad you're liking it so far, and I hope you continue to like it as I continue writing this!
SPARTAN-626:
Yup, and as you can see, my ideas have evolved even more after writing this chapter! I'll admit, the idea came to me during the flashback scene that occurred in this chapter, since I realized that in order to have Michael be her bodyguard, he'd have to be better at wielding a dagger than he would be if he'd just lived on the street for a good number of years. Hence, the fairly big change in his backstory… As for seeing more soon, how's this for timing?
Anyways, thanks for taking the time out of your day to read this, and I hope to see you all next time!
