AN: Wow! This chapter is super long, but I finished it really early, and I'm posting it really early, and I feel very productive and on top of things, and it feels really good! I think you guys are gonna really, really like this chapter...

NOTES: "Could these Walls come Crumbling Down? I want to Feel my Feet on the Ground. And Leave Behind this Prison We Share. Step into the Open Air..."

REVIEWERS!:

BrawlerGamer: It's like a tradition! That old gag is probably one of the best, and it had to be done at some point while they're all still tiny little itty-bitties! The link won't work for some reason, but I think I may know the video, if it's the one I'm thinking about... Yeah, Jack and Hiccup are pretty decent babysitters.

C: Thank you so much for another kind review! Rapunzel wouldn't let Merida go on her own no matter what, the boys are close, but the girls are too. Hiccup is a huge klutz, but Jack, Merida, and Rapunzel don't mind a bit. Sometimes they get worried he might hurt himself. Elinor was a fun character to write because you never really get the opportunity to write/read things from the point of view of the parent, so it was a lot of fun to write. And here's another extra long chapter for you! Hiccup's amazing, and I'm really nervous about what I'm planning to do with his story/character... Hopefully I won't screw it up too bad... I have no idea why I don't get reviews for February 29. I guess it's because most reviewers only review multi-chapter stories and that was a one-shot? Maybe people don't like it? Maybe they forget? The world may never know... No worries! I love reviews of all shapes, lengths, and sizes! It's just the fact that you took the time to write down some kind words that means so much to me! Thank you for being an awesome reviewer, and never worry about how short or long your review is because I love them all -from the two word reviews, to the essay-long reviews! They are all lovely and amazing! And thank you for having so much faith in my writing abilities! I hope your week is wonderful as well! :)

Arwen Eledel: SSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! ;)

Guest: No worries, friend! A new update for you!

Music: "Into The Open Air" by Julie Fowlis (Brave 2012 soundtrack)

Chapter 14: Into the Open Air

Rain pelted the windows of the castle as the room glowed with the warmth of the fire. Her mother sang softly as she worked on her sewing, and Merida held up her wooden toy horse, rocking it back and forth with her hand so it would look like it was running across the sky.

A sharp flash of lightening and a booming crack of thunder made Merida flinch violently and scream, grabbing the end of the tapestry that lay on the floor with her tiny, three-year-old hands she lifted it up and crawled underneath it, trying to hide from the awful sound.

"Oh," Her mother cooed softly, moving the end of the tapestry that lay on her lap so she could see Merida, and then pulling the little girl onto her lap. "Brave, wee lassie, I'm here. I'll always be right here." Her mother soothed as she brushed Merida's hair back from her face.

Her mother hugged her close as she continued singing Merida's favorite lullaby, and Merida started singing with her, smiling brightly up at her mother as the fire kept the room warm despite the pouring rain outside...

Merida blinked awake slowly to find herself curled up on a somewhat flat rock. She groggily pushed herself to sitting and pulled the hood of her cloak off of her head, blinking a few times to try and wake herself up.

Feeling a hand rest on her shoulder, Merida peeked over to see Rapunzel sitting next to her with her long, golden braid a bit messy from the long night. The taller girl pointed out of their shelter, and Merida's brows furrowed slightly before she silently sighed and stood up, grabbing her bow as she went.

"Good morning," Merida said slowly as she approached her mother who was, in fact, still a bear dashing any hopes of the night before being a very strange nightmare. Her mother gave a chipper roar in reply to her greetings, and Merida peered around her to look at the setting her mother had created. Part of what used to be a wall of Ms. Carver's cottage had been placed on it's side on top of some rocks to create a table, and various pieces of wood and stone were used for the bits and bobs on top. "Soooooo, what's all this supposed to be?" Merida asked curiously, chuckling lightly at the scene before her.

Her mother motioned to the stone next to her, but Merida wasn't quite sure what she meant by that. Rapunzel walked up to stand next to her, and smiled. "I think your mom found us breakfast." Rapunzel guessed, and Elinor nodded appreciatively.

"Oh," Merida struggled to keep in a chuckle as she slid onto the stone-seat her mother had motioned to, dropping her bow on the table as Rapunzel slid onto the stone next to her. Elinor huffed, and started grumbling at her again. "What?" Merida asked, not understanding a thing.

Elinor looked directly at her and started groaning a long string of accentuated bear noises at her, and Merida could hear Rapunzel giggling softly into her hand next to her. When Elinor finished, she was looking at Merida with a pointed look, and her ears perked up expectantly.

"Sorry," Merida shrugged helplessly. "I don't speak bear."

Elinor gave her a dry look, and then proceeded to make a few motions to indicate her bow and pointing to the ground.

"Oh," Merida said, resisting the urge to roll her eyes and moving her bow off of the table.

Satisfied, Queen Elinor picked up two sticks and started to use them as a knife and fork to cut the berries on her wooden plate. Her 'fork' slipped, and the berry shot off her plate, hitting Merida right on the forehead, and Merida gasped as Rapunzel snorted and rushed to smother her giggles behind her hands. Elinor gave a horrified look, and then put the utensils down, opting to use her paws instead. Delicately, she used her claws to slip one between her teeth, and she winced after tasting it, but continued to eat anyways.

"Find those by the creek, did you?" Merida asked, reaching across the table and picking up one of the darkly colored berries.

Queen Elinor gave a proud nod as she reached for another berry. Merida handed the berry to Rapunzel, and the golden-haired princess's eyes went wide once she got a good look.

"They're Night Shade berries." Merida informed her mother with a bland look. Her mother just continued to slurp up another berry. "They're poisonous."

Suddenly, Elinor's eyes went wide as she paused for a moment, and then she was spitting out all of the berries she'd eaten, gagging and spluttering. She tried to wipe her tongue off with her paws, and then she grabbed a dented pot to pour herself some water, proceeding to drink it all in one huge gulp.

Merida slowly reached over and peered inside the pot. "Where did you get this water? It has worms."

Queen Elinor spewed all of the water she'd drank, letting her paws fall to the table in defeat as she drowsily tried to collect herself. But, she placed her paw too far on one side of the table, flipping the wooden top off of the stone pedestal and sending their entire "breakfast" flying through the trees with a loud crash that sent a flock of crows scattering into the forest.

Merida struggled very hard to keep her chuckles low and quiet, while Rapunzel looked on with wide, worried eyes. Queen Elinor sat back, hanging her head in tired defeat, and Rapunzel decided to step in and help her.

"Merida, why don't you help your mom find a real breakfast, and I'll go tell the boys what's happened. I'm sure they're worried about us, being out all night as we were." Rapunzel suggested.

"Uh..." Merida hesitated quietly, glancing quickly at her mother's hunched figure as all of her chuckles dried up suddenly.

"I'm sure you'll be fine. I'll be back in a couple of hours with the boys, and then we can come up with a plan, but we all need to eat something to keep our energy up. I'll grab something when I sneak through the kitchens, and I'm sure you can hunt something with your bow." Rapunzel reassured her as she stood and dusted herself off.

Merida stood with her, and after a few words of goodbye for the time being, Rapunzel was walking off into the forest, heading straight for the Hogwarts castle. Meanwhile, Merida was left to look over at her mother again.

Merida couldn't help it, she had to chuckle at the ridiculous pout that had settled across her mother's bear features. Practically skipping over to her, Merida nudged her mother playfully to get her attention as she passed.

"Come on." Merida said over her shoulder, making the Queen look up at her curiously.

A fish floated peacefully in the calmer waters of the river, the sun reflecting gold on the rivers surface. Merida stood in the shallows, her stance wide and her bow poised at the ready. The fish paused for a moment, and, taking a breath, Merida released the arrow straight into the water. With a plunk, the arrow gave a small splash, and then wiggled slightly as the pinned fish tried to escape.

Merida grinned, pulling the arrow out of the rocky bed and holding it up to showcase the large, limp fish on it. "Breakfast." She smiled.

Her mother pulled back slightly, surprised, and then smiled widely and applauded Merida's catch.

"Oh, wait." Merida smirked slightly. "'A princess should not have weapons' in your opinion."

"Uh-huh." Elinor nodded, making a noise that sounded almost human as she smiled agreeingly, and then she paused. She seemed to catch up as she shook herself out and glared at Merida with a light growl.

"There you go," Merida said with a light undertone of smugness as she held up the arrow with the fish. Elinor leaned in, sniffing at the fish. "Oh, go on." Merida told her, slightly annoyed with how long her mother was taking. Then the fish gave a violent wiggle, and Elinor jerked back with a disgusted noise, waving the fish away with one paw. "How do you know you don't like it, if you won't try it." Merida tried using her mother's own words against her again, but the Queen merely gave her an incredibly dry look that reminded Merida of Hiccup.

After a little while, it became utterly clear that Queen Elinor would not eat a raw fish, so Merida gathered some tinder and a couple of stones to start a small fire. She roasted the fish for her mother on a spit, and once it was finished she moved it onto a large leaf on a stone in front of her mother. Queen Elinor gave an appreciative sound and, using her utensils again, cut a tiny piece of fish and ate it. Elinor nodded to Merida, letting her know that her camping cooking skills were good enough to impress the Queen, and then she dove.

Merida jumped back as her mother tore into the fish with nothing but her large teeth, devouring the whole thing in less than a minute. When she finished, she noticed Merida's wide-eyed staring, and sat up, looking a little sheepish and dabbing her mouth with a leaf. She gave a small burp, and Merida swore that if the Queen were human in that moment she would have been blushing.

Elinor held up two claws, her eyes sparkling with a hopeful smile, so Merida repeated the task once again, catching two fish and cooking them on a spit. When she placed them in front of her mother, Elinor dove in immediately, and Merida yanked her hands away so she wouldn't end up with a missing finger. Within moments, the fish were gone and Elinor was holding up four claws with a bright smile. Merida gave her a bland look, and then pointed to the river, silently telling her to do it herself.

Elinor's eyes went wide, and she looked out at the river, but after a moment, she drew herself up, removed her crown to place it carefully on a rock, and then started towards the river.

Her first attempts were quite amusing for Merida to watch. She stood at the top of the rapids, swiping at a couple fish as the jumped passed her, or trying to wrap one up in her big bear arms, but her delicate tries lead to her losing her footing and falling over into the water. Merida couldn't help but laugh as her mother surfaced, getting hit in the face by a fish, and then immediately getting a hit by a second fish on the other side.

Taking pity on the Queen, Merida decided to help her out some. She caught a fish and tried to show her mom how a bear would catch a fish with their mouths. When her mother got an idea of what she was supposed to do, she stood with her mouth open, waiting for a fish to come out. A fish jumped out of the water and straight into her mouth, getting stuck in her throat. She gargled a bit, and then spat the fish out as Merida laughed. As Elinor recovered, another fish jumped out of the water, and she snapped at it, catching it in her teeth. She looked over at Merida excitedly, holding the fish in her mouth, and Merida laughed as she clapped happily for her mother.

Her mother dedicated all of her focus to catching fish after fish as Merida watched from her perch on a rock near her. Her mother caught fish as they jumped over the rapids, and dove through the calmer waters trying to catch others. Eventually, Merida decided to try catching a few more too, and she did manage to catch one fairly quickly, but it wiggled violently in her hands as she held it up, causing her to slip on the rocks and fall over into the water.

Hearing a low grumbling sound, Merida pushed her hair out of her face to see what her mother was worrying about, but was surprised to see her mom laughing a chuckling bear laugh, and Merida couldn't help the grin that stretched across her face.

Soon trying to catch the fish turned into simply chasing them around the calmer waters with great splashes, and that quickly turned into Merida and Elinor trying to splash each other as they laughed and yelped and shouted happily in the warmth of the afternoon sun.

At some point Merida turned around with the biggest smile, pushing back her sopping wet curls, and looked over at her mom who was holding a raw fish, and eating it, too. Merida paused, thinking deeply as her mother licked her paws clean. How long had it been since she and her mom did anything like this together? When was the last time she saw her mom do anything so spontaneous and crazy? It felt like forever, but Merida felt something warm growing in her chest in that moment, and she was suddenly extremely grateful for this moment. For this time with her mom.

Looking up, Merida noticed Elinor climbing out of the water and lumbering towards the forest on all fours. "Hey!" Merida called lightly, chasing after her with plenty of splashes. She made sure to grab her cloak and bow when she was out of the water, and then followed after her mom. "Where you going?"

Neither Merida, nor her mom, noticed the golden crown that had been left on a stone near the river.

"Mom!" Merida called as they walked deeper into the woods. "Come back!" She pulled on her mom's back, trying to get her attention, but pulled back a second later as her mom turned around.

Elinor's eyes were completely black and beady, too. She snorted and growled at Merida, advancing on her as Merida backed away, frightened but trying desperately to swallow it down. What was wrong with her? What was happening to her mom? Why was she acting like this?

For a moment, the bear stopped advancing, and Merida looked at the snarling creature with large eyes. "Mom?" She murmured, slowly reaching out towards her mom. "Is that you?"

The beast gave a roar and lifted a large, clawed paw as it started to lunge towards her. Merida screamed and looked away, screwing her eyes shut and preparing for the terrible pain that was sure to come, but it didn't.

"Uh..." Merida said shakily, looking up she could see her mom's eyes were back to normal, and she looked between Merida and her own raised claws with confusion and fright. "Mom?" Merida finally asked, and Elinor looked at her and then pushed herself up onto her back paws. "You changed... Like you were a..." Merida paused, and her mom grumbled worriedly. "Like you were a bear on the inside."

Elinor looked worried, and kept looking down at her paw, but suddenly her ears perked up and she looked at something over Merida's head. Turning around, Merida looked at whatever it was that had caught her mom's attention, and paused. There, in the clearing, was a floating blue light, whispering to them quietly.

"A Wisp." Merida breathed, and a second later her mom darted passed her. Elinor pounced on the Wisp, trying to catch it, but it only disappeared, and then reappeared next to her. "Mom!" Merida shouted. "Stop it!"

Sensing something, Merida and Elinor glanced up at the same time, and there was the Wisp, floating right above Merida's head. "Mom, no!" Merida ducked, and Elinor clapped her large paws together just above Merida's head in another attempt to catch the Wisp.

"Mom!" Merida called again as her mom ran off chasing the Wisp through the trees. She darted back and forth until the Wisp flew through a large stone and, because she wasn't looking where she was going, Elinor ran head first into the rock and slumped against the ground. Merida muttered angrily as she stalked over to where her mom was struggling to get to her feet and stood beside her. "Mom, I know you're scared, you're tired, you don't understand, but we've got to keep our heads. Rapunzel, Jack, and Hiccup will be here to help us soon. Just calm down. Listen."

The two stopped and waited, listening carefully as they looked all around them. The forest was silent, not a sound to be heard. And then, a whisper. The two turned around, following the sound, and just a few feet down the path was a Wisp, floating peacefully in the air. More appeared behind it, creating a trail for them to follow, and Merida turned to her mom.

"They'll show us the way." Merida told her quietly, softly. Elinor seemed to be calmed and gave a small nod of understanding, and then, together, they set off into the trees, following the Will 'O the Wisps.

They followed the Wisps for a very, very long time. Eventually the sun began to disappear and a heavy fog covered the land, giving Merida a few chills, but she ignored them. She could smell salt in the air, so she knew they were somewhere close to the ocean, but she had never traveled this far into the forbidden forest. At some point Elinor dropped onto all fours, her paws hurting from walking so long, and Merida had to wonder where exactly the Wisps were taking them, but those thoughts were quickly chased away as the trees changed from lush and green, to empty branches and dead. The fog curled around everything, and it was all rather unnerving, but a stone archway appeared through the fog, and Merida gasped.

"Look!" She said as she and her mom approached the arch. At the top of the arch was a symbol of crossed axes, and Merida recognized it almost immediately. Ms. Carver had shown her a coin with the same symbol on it, and now Merida looked up at the arch with wide eyes.

Passing through the arch, they entered a sight full of old runes of a very old castle. possibly ancient.

"Why would the Wisps bring us here?" Merida asked, and her mom only replied with an equally confused roar as they wandered farther into the runes, climbing the broken stairs to reach the top. When they reached the top of the runes, Merida could see the ocean stretching out in three directions, leaving only a little open to the land. An excellent spot for defending against invaders, the warrior part of her noted. "Whoever they were, they've been gone for a long, long time -AHHH!" Merida screamed as the ground beneath her gave out, and dropped her into a secret chamber below the runes.

She landed hard on a steep, stone pile, and rolled to the bottom, hitting stone a second time as she came to a stop. Elinor roared and whined worriedly, looking down from the hole Merida had fallen through.

"I'm fine, mom!" Merida called quickly. "Just fine." She murmured, looking around at her new surroundings as she pushed herself up to standing. "It's a... It's a Throne Room." She told her mom. "You suppose this could've been the kingdom in that story you were telling me?" Merida inquired as she peered around at the crumbling throne on the cracked and broken dais. "The one with the princes." Merida added as a large slab of stone next to the dais caught her eye.

It depicted some men, standing side by side. Merida could hear her mom grumbling worriedly, but she was hypnotized by the stone tapestry. "One... Two... Three..." She counted, and then there was an enormous crack in the stone, severing the tapestry into two separate pieces. "Four. The oldest." Merida muttered, her heart pounding in her chest as her mind worked to put the pieces together and her eyes stared at the claw marks that marred the fourth image. "Split." Merida said, reaching to touch the stone. "Like the tapestry!"

Her hand met cold stone, and suddenly her vision flashed. She saw her mom's tapestry with her own sword splitting it down the middle, and another flash brought the sight of an axe splitting the stone image of the four brothers. A giant man stood over the broken stone, snarling down at it, and then his head snapped towards her, looking straight at her-

Merida yanked her hands away from the stone with a sharp gasp, her eyes were struggling so hard to regain their focus that they hurt, and Merida could feel her stomach curling with nausea as she back away from the stone, breathing hard.

"The spell." She muttered breathlessly. "It's happened before." Only now did she see the claw marks on the walls, and the piles of human bones that lay on the floor, and her heart started to pound faster and faster. "Strength of ten men... Fate be Changed..." Merida's eyes drifted back to the broken stone image, and then she looked up at her mom. "Changed his Fate. Oh, no..." Merida's breath started to pick up again, despite having just smoothed out. "The Prince became..."

Merida heard something crack quietly behind her, and slowly she turned around, her eyes drifting up, up, up to come face to face with the largest creature Merida had ever seen.

"Mor'du."

Elinor roared loudly, but Mor'du bellowed even louder. Merida drew her bow within a single heart beat, and let the arrow fly, only to have it stick in the beast's fur with completely no effect at all. Merida scrambled backwards, tripping on stones and bones as she rushed to get away from the charging beast.

She let loose another arrow, but this one bounced off of his skull uselessly, and Merida screamed as she ducked around the crumbling throne. Mor'du smashed into the stone, and Merida was knocked off her feet as a large stone hit her back. She landed hard on her side, and Mor'du lunged at her, but Merida managed to roll away just as the giant claws came down, tearing her cloak, but not her flesh.

Merida grappled against the stone pile, climbing as fast as she could to get away from Mor'du and reach for her mom's outstretched paw. Merida reached as far as she could, but the gap was too far, and Mor'du was nearly upon her.

With a deep breath, Merida leaped towards her mom's paw just as Mor'du managed to take a swipe at her. Mor'du's deadly claws missed, but Merida managed to catch her mom's paw and Elinor pulled her out of the hidden chamber as fast as possible.

Mor'du roared furiously behind them. Merida looked back, and Mor'du burst through the hole that Merida had fallen through, ready to rip her to pieces. Elinor roared and, with a great shove, pushed over a large tower of unstable runes that crashed against Mor'du and pushed him back down into the chamber.

Elinor and Merida didn't stop, though. They ran as fast as they could, and Merida swung herself up onto her mom's back because Elinor could run much faster. They were out of the runes and running through the forest within a few heartbeats, and Merida looked back to make sure that Mor'du wasn't following them.

Looking forward again, Merida couldn't see a thing because the fog was too thick, but she was aware that they were passing very tall stones that looked like dark blobs in the fog. She looked side to side as they passed more and more, but then she looked front again and screamed.

Five voices screamed as Elinor collided with a white blur. Elinor flipped over whoever they'd crashed with, and Merida went flying, both of them hitting the ground hard and groaning as they very slowly started to pushed themselves up to see who they had run into.

"Merida!" Rapunzel's voice became clear in Merida's mind as the golden-haired girl ran to give her a hug and make sure she was all right. "We've been looking everywhere for you!"

"What?" Merida asked, unable to think of a better question to ask after everything that had just happened.

"Oh," Rapunzel said, suddenly grimacing and then laughing nervously. "Well, you see, um..."

Elinor gave a grumble of confusion, and Merida and Rapunzel looked at her only to find that she was looking at a dazed, medium sized, blue-eyed Polar Bear that was still trying to get to his feet.

"Oh, no..." Merida covered her mouth with both hands, unsure of whether she should be laughing or apologizing.

The polar bear's head snapped up at the sound of her voice, and suddenly it was glaring at her. It got onto all fours and tromped over to her, proceeding to give a long and pronounced string of garbles and roars that Merida couldn't understand at all, but she was sure that it had something to do with her not warning Jack and Hiccup about the cake. The blue-eyed polar bear finished his rant with a snort.

"Jack?" Merida asked slowly.

Jack looked like he was about ready to bite her in that moment, but a loud squeak caught all of their attention, making them all turn to look at Elinor. The Queen looked as confused as they did, and then noticed a very puffy tail sticking out from under her front leg. She quickly stood up and released the incredibly adorable, tiny, raccoon-like creature that stumbled to it's feet and shook itself out, succeeding in making it's fur puff out more.

"Hiccup?" Merida inquired, and forest green eyes looked up at her with a very tired and annoyed expression. "You... -You're both bears!?" Merida exclaimed, unable to process the information after the near-death experience.

"Technically, Hiccup's a Red Panda, which isn't actually a bear. It's a relative of the Panda, but it has it's own unique family. They're sometimes called the Cat-Bear, which is kind of ironic if you think about Emma calling him Cat all the time..." Rapunzel laughed weakly as she walked over and picked up Hiccup who wasn't much bigger than a large cat.

Jack lumbered over to the pair, and Hiccup squeaked with indignation, climbing out of Rapunzel's arms and right onto Jack's head. Merida looked at the pair, and a large part of her wanted to laugh because Jack still had a grumpy pout on his polar bear face while Hiccup sat on top of his head with all four paws tucked underneath him and his ears drooped out to the sides.

"What happened to you?!" Merida questioned, but she was pretty sure she already knew, and Jack roared at her with an expression that clearly read 'isn't it obvious?'. Hiccup squeaked in agreement.

"Okay, okay!" Rapunzel stepped between them, calming down the annoyed boys and overwhelmed Merida. "I'm sure Merida had absolutely no intention of getting you turned into bears, and I'm certain that she's going to do everything she possibly can to get you back to normal before the second sunrise! Right, Merida?" Rapunzel turned to her, looking hopeful, and Merida nodded determinedly.

"I am so sorry. This is all my fault!" Merida told them, feeling awful about this whole big mess. Not only had she cursed her mom, but two of her closest friends, too. "But the only way to fix this is if we go back to the castle." Merida told them.

"What?" Rapunzel looked at her like she was crazy, and Elinor, Jack, and Hiccup gave similar grumbles of shock, looking at each other questioningly.

"If we don't hurry, mom will become like Mor'du! A bear! A real bear!" Merida explained, her hands shaking horribly. "Forever! And I don't even know what'll happen to Jack and Hiccup!" The other four looked at each other worriedly, ears dropping back in fear and worry. "Mend the Bond, Torn by Pride. Ms. Carver gave us the answer. The Tapestry!"

The others seemed to understand at this point, but Rapunzel looked uncertain.

"Merida, how are we going to get three bears into the castle? Your dad has guards posted everywhere for the games, not to mention the teachers." Rapunzel reminded her.

A soft roar made them look at Jack and Hiccup. They both sat tall and puffed out their chests, looking pleased with themselves, and Merida grinned.

"I bet you two know of a way to get us inside, don't you?" Merida smiled knowingly at them, and they shrugged, trying to look nonchalant about the whole thing. Elinor gave an appreciative roar and the boys grinned as best they could with their individual bear faces.

"All we have to do is get to the tapestry. Once we fix it everyone will turn back to normal." Merida was certain it would work. It had to.

"Alright, well, we're behind you one hundred percent." Rapunzel reassured her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "But I do have one question... Where are we?"

Merida looked around, and suddenly she realized that she couldn't recognize anything. Nothing in the surrounding trees looked even vaguely familiar. The only thing she was certain that she had seen before were the giant, tall stones that stood in a perfect circle all around them.