Chapter Four

Aife had glared at her guide for the last three hours. She had tried to tell him that she had never ridden a horse. He was more stubborn then her, and she was known for her stubbornness. As the two horses trotted through the forest, for the last quarter mile, Aife's guide stopped them in a clearing, declaring that this was where they were going to set up camp for the night.

"So tell me again why I couldn't just stay in Glasco?" Aife asked, getting off her horse, okay it was more of a falling off. "And my butt feels like I got rear ended by several bucks!"

"That'll go away with practice." He commented drily, starting a fire to cook some jerky with. "As for leaving you in Glasco, princess, well you're needed in DunBroch."

"Would you stop calling me Princess!" Aife demanded angrily, pulling out a stone to sharpen her sword on. "And what is Brenna needed for?"

"You act just like you twin sister, you know that?" He asked, sighing before continuing. "Dagur the Deranged, chief of the Berserkers demanded that when he arrives in DunBroch, that he will only talk peacefully if a woman with red hair and blue eyes, excellent in a sword and bow is present, claims she goes by the name of Blaire Jorgenson."

"You're saying Dagur will only talk if I am there?" Aife asked incredible. "I have never even met the man! Let alone even fought him, Mackintosh." She started to laugh at the man.

"Aye, lassie, that's what I'm saying. When I heard about you in Glasco, Queen Elinor sent me to bring you back to DunBroch." The young Mackintosh told her, trying to get his charge to stop laughing.

"What's so special about this Blaire Jorgenson anyway?" Aife asked, curiosity starting to get the better of her when hearing about the name Jorgenson.

"She's King Fergus' younger sister, destined to be the next ruler of the Celts, but she gave that up to marry a Viking named Spitelout Jorgenson and stay in Viking waters. She looks just like you, with some minor changes."

"Okay, this might sound really weird, but my name is Aife Jorgenson and I'm a Viking." Aife told him, halting in her sharpening. "The only thing I have left of my parents is this." She tossed him the sheathed sword, working on her hunting knife. "I've been trying to figure the crest out for a year."

Looking closer, Lachlan studied the crest in his hands. "I've seen this before. Merida showed it to me when we were kids and were playing around in the castle." He observed. "It'll come to me, it always does."

"Well while you're remembering. What was Blaire like?" Aife asked, trying to understand why a Celt would willingly marry a Viking. From her years of growing up in Scotland, the Vikings were cursed among them.

"I've only met her once or twice, but she could handle a blade like you do. If I'm not mistaken, she had a sword crafted especially to fit her small frame. Soft spoken, that woman was, but you injure or single someone out and try to fight, she turned into a regular momma bear. Scared the men so much that there were rumors going around that only one thing in this world was more terrifying then Vikings and it was the red haired baby sister of King Fergus."

"Sounds like someone I really want to meet." Aife told him, listening as he fondly told her tales.

"She was the youngest sibling of King Fergus, but even with seven brothers, she could still fight better with a sword then all of them." Lachlan Mackintosh remembered the first time he had met the woman. "Once, when I was seven or eight, she came tearing through the doors, her hair a flamed, eyes blazing and dragging two boys behind her. She was wearing a Celtic dress and she still made the men in the room cower, along with the two boys."

"Who was she dragging?" Aife asked, curious about more.

"Dagur and her son, Snotface? Snotlegs, Snot something or other. Found the two pranking another boy that went by the name of Hiccup. She was so mad, she dragged them through the castle courtyard by their ears."

King Fergus paced the throne room, impatient to talk with that young Mackintosh. He had gotten a message from the young man saying that he might have found the person he had sought most for thirteen years.

When he had gotten a letter from his sister's husband saying that Blaire had died and that their daughter, Aife was taken by a rogue Scotsman, he had been enraged. He had tried to find his niece within his kingdom's borders but there was only so much he could search and look, leaving sate matters to Elinor.

As Lachlan Mackintosh walked through the doors, leading a young woman with red hair and blue eyes, Fergus caught his breath in his throat. She looked like his sister when she was that age, almost perfectly. Even the sword on her waist looked familiar. The outfit was strange, but he had never seen his sister in anything but a proper Celtic style dress, even when she had come to visit with her tribe.

"King Fergus, may I present Aife Jorgenson." Lachlan told him, pushing the woman closer.

"After all these years…" He said, sweeping the girl into a bone crushing bear hug. It was kind of to be expected with him being the Bear King after all. "Aife Jorgenson, I haven't seen you in thirteen years and it turns up that you've been in Glasco!"

"Uh, do I know you?" Aife asked ribs hurting from the unexpected bone crushing hug.

"It was thirteen years ago, when I came to Berk to visit the child of my sister's, but you were taken shortly after I left returning home." Fergus told her, sorrow in his voice. "Your father and Brother will greatly welcome the news of you being found! They never gave up searching for you, especially that Spitelout!" He boomed, slapping her on the back.

Aife stumbled forward a few steps, her breath hitching in her lungs. Fergus had a really strong arm.

"If you excuse me, I believe that there are horses to be taken care of, your highness." Lachlan started rambling as he left the room, leaving uncle and niece to get to know each other.

As he walked out he ran into a mass of fiery curls and wildness. As the princess started to ask him why he was in DunBroch, Lachlan dragged the young woman with him to the stables.

"Lachlan!" Merida tugged her arm out of his grip. "What are you doing?"

"Keeping you from ruining a family moment." Lachlan told her, unsaddling his charger.

"What family moment?" Merida asked suspicious.

"You remember your Aunt Blaire?" Lachlan asked, putting the heavy saddle on the wall between Angus and him.

"Yes, but she died thirteen years ago." Merida told him, crossing her arms.

"Well she had a daughter named Aife, when I was riding through Glasco, I meant her and actually I mistook her for Brenna." Lachlan ruefully told her.

"Let me get this straight." Merida told him, leaning against Angus' warm hide. "My Da is in the throne room talking with a cousin I have never seen nor heard of and you want me to believe ya?"

Lachlan shrugged, "Yep. You heard Dagur, he will only talk if Blaire is there to mediate between the two."

"Who bloody listens to Dagur anyway?" Merida stood up her, temper showing. "He's just a Viking, a pushy, over demanding Viking at that!"

Lachlan silently agreed to Merida, but as he began brushing the sweat off his horse, he continued. "He's the one with a giant fleet of Berserkers, Merida. Better hold your temper while he's here."

Sighing, Merida understood where her life-long friend was coming from. "So how long are you here this time?" She asked.

"Oh, maybe a couple days. I don't want to leave Aife alone with nothing familiar. But father has been nagging me to come home and stay longer than just a month each time." Lachlan told her, remembering the elder Mackintosh.

"Not like you get all the fun anyways." Merida told him, eyes starting to gleam with a plan.

"Merida….Whatever you are thinking, forget it." Lachlan tried to have his friend stop, but that was impossible once Merida set her mind onto something.

"Why am I standing here trying to even best you?" He asked, as Merida shot yet another bullseye. "Thought we established I wasn't an Archer when the clans got together."

"Hahaha, says the wee lamb that lost to a girl." Merida grinned, her hair flying as she turned to face her friend. "All ya need is some more practice."