The plan had been for Merida to follow Ariel around for the day. But, apparently, that was not the way things were going to work out.

She stood at the edge of the walkway outside the attraction, arms crossed, watching the morning crowd pass her by. There was no way to tell where Ariel had gotten off to; by this point she could be just about anywhere in either Park. All Merida knew was that she wasn't there, and she wasn't back in her castle on the other side of the façade. That left her with no real plan as to what she was supposed to be doing. She hadn't intended to go over to the other Park as herself and meet with guests, and at this point she didn't feel like it at all. That left her with the option of going back to Ariel's castle for the day, or wandering around DCA. Maybe she'd check in on the boys. The last one seemed like as solid a plan as any, so she turned in the direction of the street that would lead her back around to Grizzly Peak.

Merida hadn't even made it halfway down the walk before she saw a boy in a brownish-yellow hoodie heading in the opposite direction as her, toward the Pier. She stopped. A second later Kenai caught her eye and slipped his way through the guests toward her.

"Hey. Where are the boys?" she asked as he reached her.

He shrugged, hands in his pockets. "Off somewhere. I was supposed to be watching them today, but I guess they ditched me."

She brushed some stray curls out of her face with a sigh. "I know the feeling."

"Ariel gone, too?"

"Aye. No idea where."

He nodded. When he said nothing else, they both just stood there in the middle of the street, guests walking around them. Merida heard tsks from a few of them. Once she thought the silence had stretched on long enough, she started to turn away to go back the way she'd come, ready to offer a wave and a goodbye. There was no sense in hanging around if the boys were off as well.

"Hold on a second."

She stopped and turned on her heel to face him, one eyebrow raised.

"Do you… do you want to go over to the other Park?" He stumbled over the words, rushing them, and he rubbed the back of his neck in a self-conscious way.

She stared at him. "And do what?"

"I don't know. Normal stuff, I guess." At her continued bemusement, he added, "Or what we would do if we were normal. Like everyone else that comes through this place."

"Pretend to be guests," she said.

"We pretend plenty of other things every day. What's one more?" When she hesitated, he said, "I know they dropped you in the deep end the minute you got here. They always do. You deserve a day where you don't have to be paraded around on-stage."

Merida stood there watching him, vaguely aware that they were still blocking foot traffic. She missed riding wild through the woods on Angus' back. She still wanted that, felt it as a keen, aching sort of longing. What Kenai was proposing wasn't the same. It couldn't be, she knew that. But it was something at the very least. So she nodded and his face broke into a grin.

The two of them turned back, looping around Grizzly Peak and making for the front of California Adventure. After passing through the front gates, they crossed the plaza to the entrance of the other Park and presented their conjured brightly-colored slips of paper to the Cast Members.

Once they were through and making their way up Main St., Kenai asked, "So, where do you want to start?"

Merida looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "I have no idea where anything actually is here. Besides, it was your idea."

"Fair enough." He stared into the distance, eyes narrowed in thought. Then he gave a decisive nod and sped up. "Come on. I have an idea."


A few minutes later they were entering a part of Disneyland Merida had never been in before, around the far side of the water Ariel had called the "Rivers of America". She looked over at the wooden sign set into the bushes to their left, which was surrounded by a variety of woodland animals and read "Critter Country."

"What are we heading for?" she asked.

Kenai pointed up, past the sign, at the rocky, tree-covered hill that rose above them. As she watched, a log full of people slid, screaming, down the waterfall set into its front. She half-stopped in surprise, and had to hurry to catch up with him.

"There?"

"It's as good an introduction as any," he replied with a shrug. She eyed the line to their left as they walked, one that looped around the hill for a good way before vanishing into a two-story wooden building.

"So that line won't be an issue for us, will it?" she asked skeptically.

"Nope. Watch this."

He took the lead up to a sign up by the front doors that read "Splash Mountain — Fastpass Entrance". Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out two new slips of paper. Merida barely got a glance at them before he'd held them out to the Cast Member waiting there. She looked at the papers, then at them — perhaps for a bit too long — before ushering them forward. They hurried past and into the cool shadows of the building. There, Merida was immediately hit with the smell of old, dusty wood. Along the back wall of the building, on the other side of the crowd of guests, hung rusty bits of farm equipment. Kenai ignored them, instead leading her up a flight of stone stairs, through the second floor of the building, and out toward the mouth of a tunnel lined in red-brown earth. The Cast Member waiting there took Kenai's slips of paper, again with a too-long look, and they stepped inside. There, they finally caught up with the line. So they waited, leaning against the walls of the tunnel as they slowly inched their way onward.

After a few minutes, Kenai shot a glance back at the tunnel entrance, then leaned in and said conspiratorially, "We're technically not supposed to be in here."

"Why not?"

"You're supposed to get permission before entering someone else's attraction."

Merida thought back to that first day in California Adventure, when she'd jumped the fence and ended up in the woods inside Grizzly Peak without a speck of permission beforehand. Oh.

"Why are we doing this, then?" she asked.

"We're just normal guests, remember?"

"And I suppose 'normal guests' get those looks from Cast Members as well."

He waved it off. "Details. Besides, life's no fun if you don't break the rules every once in a while."

The two of them eventually made it down to the loading docks, where the guests ahead of them climbed in and out of those log boats, in seats arranged in a single line. Then they were ushered forward to the next boat.

"After you, Meri," Kenai said, nodding toward it.

Her brows shot up. "Meri?"

"Your full name's kind of conspicuous right now, so I figured we'd better find a nickname for you. Sounds normal enough. Unless you've got a problem with that?"

"Meri it is, then."

Merida took the seat the Cast Member indicated, grimacing at the water that immediately soaked into the back of her shorts, surprised to find that it wasn't made of wood at all. Whatever it was had an odd sort of spongy texture. She heard Kenai clamber into the spot just behind her.

"You ready?" he asked into her right ear.

She snorted. "Have I ever not been?"

With a rumble, the log-boat slid forward into the water. A voice overhead told them to stay seated as they floated past boulders and barrels and more rusty old equipment. They climbed up a clacking chain lift, looped past a massive thicket of tangled thorns, then went up another lift. A yellow-eyed owl hooted at them from a pipe on the wall. All the while, odd, bouncy music played from somewhere nearby. That's when the log tipped forward over a waterfall she hadn't noticed previously. Water sloshed over the sides and soaked through her boots. Merida pulled her feet up from the floor with a sharp gasp. Behind her, she thought she heard Kenai stifle a laugh. She whipped around her head to shoot him a look, hitting him across the face with her curls as she did.

"Watch it!" he said, still laughing.

They floated along into another cavern, this one opening up to reveal thick woods filled with animals singing along to the same tune she'd heard outside. Birds, mainly, and a couple frogs. To her surprise, they were all wearing clothing. Shirts, hats, scarves… things like that. She looked back at Kenai again.

"How come you don't do that in your other form?" she asked.

"Because I'm a bear."

"Like that bear?" She gestured to what was, in fact, a bear wearing clothing. He also appeared to be caught up in some kind of rope trap over the water while a graying fox yelled at him from the shore.

"That bear really doesn't need to know we're here," Kenai replied, and she noticed he'd sunk down in his seat a little.

"So, again, why come here in the first place?"

"I like to live on the edge."

Merida rolled her eyes. They passed more trees, more animals. That same bear again, this time with his head stuck firmly in a hole.

What was it about bears and always charging headlong into the thick of things?

The log dropped, rose, and dropped again, the rest of the guests around them letting out whoops and screams as it did. With another slosh of water, they turned into a neon cave full of buzzing hives of bees, multicolored mushrooms that glowed in the dark, and jumping fountains of water.

At some point, several animals in dresses to either side of the boat began singing dire warnings to their children. Whatever grander narrative was happening around her, Merida had missed it in her concerns over short-sighted bears and wet socks. They climbed another dark, clanking lift, with a bright spot of sunlight at the top.

As the log tipped forward and pitched down the waterfall waiting there. She threw up her hands with a loud whoop as the air rushed past her face. At the bottom, a torrent of water cascaded over the boat, soaking her to the skin. With a soggy laugh, she blinked away the droplets that clung to her lashes and pushed her now-damp curls out of her face.

Kenai put a hand on the back of her seat and leaned forward, saying, "Congratulations, you survived your first ride, and one of the Mountains."

The log floated through another scene of singing animals, many of which were perched on the deck of a boat with a big, turning wheel on the side and the word "Zip-A-Dee Lady" in purple lettering. Finally, they slid back into the docks and Merida climbed out, boots squelching with every step they took. She followed the other disembarking guests out of the attraction and into yet another building.

"Wait a sec," Kenai said from behind her.

She stopped and looked back in the direction he indicated. Little windows set into the wall showed images of the log-boats as they slid down the falls. He jabbed a finger at one. Merida peered up at it to see the two of them.

"Look at your face," he cackled, and she punched him in the arm.

With a shiver, she headed outside. She stepped out of the way and tried to squeeze all the water out of her hair.

"This'll take forever to dry out," she lamented.

"Eh, probably won't be that long." Kenai squinted up at the bright, sunny sky overhead. "Plenty of sunshine, and all that. Besides, how does one person actually have that much hair?"

She stopped her wringing to shoot him a look. "That's rich, coming from the one who's a great, furry bear most of the time."

"Point taken." He waited until she'd gotten most of the water out that she could, then added, "It's probably not a great idea to do one of the indoor rides while we're drying off. So, what do you want: fast or slow?"

"Fast."

He rolled his eyes with a smirk. "Why am I not surprised?"


They ended up on another of "Mountains" — Big Thunder Mountain, on the other side of the Rivers of America from the other attraction — through what Merida thought was probably a blatant abuse of those "fastpass" things Kenai was summoning to get them in. Not that she was about to complain. This one was faster than the last one had been, and certainly a great deal drier, with lots of bumps and turns. Her head was practically spinning by the time she climbed out of the car again, and she knew there was a grin still plastered across her face. She wondered briefly why Ariel had seemed so uncomfortable when she'd been near it.

From there they went back partway around the water again, looping up the path through Adventureland in the opposite direction Ariel had taken her during that first tour of the park. Near the sign at the entrance of the land, Merida was left to wedge herself between guests on a small rock wall. Kenai came back over from a small building nearby a few minutes later, holding two small, clear dishes. Perched atop were swirls of light yellow… something. She thought it looked vaguely like butter.

"What is that?" she asked, staring at it.

"Dole Whip," he said. "Plenty of the guests swear by it."

"But what is it?"

"You tried ice cream yet?"

"Yes."

"It's like that. Sort of. Vaguely." He held one of the dishes out to her. "Just try it."

She took it from him skeptically, along with the spoon he offered, and scooped up a bite. He was right; it was a bit ice cream-like. It was cold like it, but the texture was different. Softer, creamier. It had an odd sort of taste as well. Sour and sweet, and almost a little flowery. She paused with the spoon still stuck in her mouth.

"That's… something," she said.

"I know, right?" Kenai replied with a grin, digging his spoon into his own. "I vote we keep going with the tour of the mountains since we're halfway through. We've got Space Mountain left over in Tomorrowland and the Matterhorn in Fantasyland. Maybe. It's on the border and I think it might've used to be in Tomorrowland, too."

"Wasn't that where the final battle was last year?"

He shrugged. "So I've heard."

"I take it you weren't there."

"Nope. There was no warning. Everyone over in DCA got blindsided. One minute everything was fine, and the next…" He made a vague sort of gesture with his spoon. "Guests pouring out and the gates were sealed before we could even blink. Until the storm that rolled in with the Villains broke, we had no way of knowing what happened."

They both sat there quietly for a few minutes, eating their dole whips, before Kenai shrugged and got to his feet again.

"Yeah, this is depressing. Come on. Let's keep going and hope the Cast Members don't yell at me for the Fastpasses."


It got dark almost faster than Merida had expected it to. Even though the sun had gone down, the Park was still crowded with guests. It took a bit for her to realize that, aside from those first couple of days, this was the longest she'd stayed in the Main Park.

She'd thought they were going to slip out and back over to California Adventure around then, but then Kenai asked, "Have you seen fireworks yet?" When she shook her head, he steered her in the direction of the Hub. "Okay, one last thing."

The crowds were at their absolute thickest there, and she could barely see where she was walking through the crush of bodies that surrounded her. Still, they unconsciously moved aside as she passed, just like they usually did, oblivious to her presence. Except, of course, for the occasional child whose eye contact she tried to avoid. Faintly, she was aware that many of them looked right past Kenai.

He finally stopped her near the very center of the Hub, over by the statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse at the heart of it all.

"Should've staked out a spot sooner, but it's too late for anything else," he said once they were in place, eying the crowd between them and the castle critically. She thought she could guess what he was thinking.

"Hopefully you'll be able to see around them, since you're sure not going to see over," she said, ignoring the fact that if he couldn't see what was happening then she certainly wouldn't be able to.

"If I was a bear right now, I could," he grumbled.

"If you were a bear right now all these people would run screaming. Probably have a fantastic view then."

Kenai rolled his eyes, but she saw that he was holding back a smirk.

What felt like only seconds later, the whole place was plunged into darkness. As music played loud from somewhere nearby, the lights on the castle went back up, accompanied by the shrill cheering and whistling of the crowd all around them. Then, with a flash, bright colors lit up the sky behind the castle with a resounding boom. Merida nearly stepped back before realizing she'd probably trod on someone's toes if she did. She'd seen flashes of those lights — the fireworks — before, but only in distant glimpses. Never this clearly and never this close. She watched in fascination as what looked like showers of gold poured down through the dark sky, someone she thought might be named "Tinker Bell" floated past, and more colors exploded to life in the sky to the tune of a load of music and voices she thought might sound familiar. Yes, that was definitely Cinderella's voice she heard at one point. The tone was off, though, and she suspected this was from back when the Princess was actually young. It finished with a swell of music and a massive, blinding burst of fireworks that lit up the sky, almost as bright as daylight. She squinted up at them before glancing over at Kenai. He was grinning at her.

"What?" she asked with a laugh, but he just shook his head.

As the lights went back up and the crowd around them started to shift and move, Kenai grabbed her hand and pulled her through a gap in the crowd toward Main St.

"Stay with me," he called back to her. "It's too easy to get lost."

"Got it."

It was slow going, but they finally made their way through the Park's entrance and back out onto the plaza. DCA was already closed for the night by that point, and with the massive crowd of guests exiting Disneyland proper, Merida didn't think they'd be able to sneak back in without being noticed.

"Well, now what?" she asked.

"There's another entrance through the Grand Californian. Come on."

They followed the crowd partway down through Downtown Disney before taking a sharp left through a set of elaborately wrought gates over which was a sign that read "Disney's Grand Californian Hotel." The lantern lined tunnel on the other side let out onto a courtyard surrounded by foliage. The two of them stepped out of the way of the several families behind them and down into the courtyard's brick lined center. The guests mostly avoided it, choosing to loop around the sheltered walkway that looped around the area.

For a few moments, they both just stood there, neither of them saying a word as they waited for the crowds to ebb. Kenai rubbed the back of his neck.

"Hey, Kenai?" she said, finally breaking the silence.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks. For all of this."

He smiled and shook his head. "It's no problem."

"Really, I mean it. You were right. It was nice to feel just… normal again for a bit."

Before either of them could say anything else, a voice from behind them called, "Merida!"

They both turned, eyes wide, to see someone standing in the dimly lit entrance. Merida was shocked to see it was Ariel. How had she found her? The other Princess had her arms crossed and her lower lip jutting out. Merida sighed. She knew that look.

"Koda and the boys'll probably be wondering where I am, too," Kenai said, turning her attention back on him again. "So… I'll see you around?"

"Park isn't that big. I expect it'll be difficult to avoid you," she said, lifting a shoulder, and he let out a snort of laughter.

He started to turn in the direction the guests had all gone, hands in his pockets. On a pulse of pure nerve, and before even she was quite sure what she was doing, Merida caught his sleeve to stop him and kissed his cheek. For a second or two afterward, she was afraid his eyes would pop clean out of his head. And her face had probably just turned the same shade of red as her hair.

Merida stepped back then and cleared her throat. "Right. G'night, Kenai." As she ran off toward Ariel, she thought she saw him give her a small, startled sort of wave. A second later and he was finally gone.

Ariel was still staring at her as she came to a hasty stop in front of her.

"Where were you today?" was all the other Princess asked, her tone edged.

Merida stared at her. "Where was I? Where were you? I looked everywhere."

"Belle called me into Animation this morning. I was gone for maybe an hour."

"Well, how was I supposed to know that?"

Ariel blew her bangs out of her face and said, "Fine, okay. Next time I'll leave a note. But you still haven't answered my question."

"I was over in the other Park."

That certainly caught her off guard. "Why?"

"Because I could be," Merida told her with a shrug. "So I could just be me again for a day without expecting anything from me."

At that, Ariel blinked a couple of times, and Merida could see her lingering frustrations deflating. She shook her head and said, "You're right. There's a lot of stress being a Main and on stage all the time. You needed a break. Just let me know next time you're going to go off for a whole day, okay?"

Despite the girl in front of her looking no older than herself, Merida got the overwhelming impression of her mother. She shoved the thought away and nodded before hastily saying, "Let's go back to the castle. It's late."