CHAPTER ONE: The nightmare

*MERIDA*

Wind, blowing my mess of hair away from my eyes.

Cold, reminding my skin over and over again that I'm not trapped anymore.

Horizon, luring me to keep riding forward.

Pain, repeatedly hitting my shoulder each time I stretch the arrow on the bow. Each time, forcing my muscles to stretch and get stronger for the next time I aim at the targets.

I had used three whole days of my two-hours-a-day freedom to hang up multiple targets in the trees in the forest. But it was worth it.

Every week I had a new goal I was supposed to master until the next week. Last week I was training for hitting the bullseye on the target highest in the trees while my horse jumped over a large rock. I barely managed it on the second last day of the week, but I did it.

This week it was a multiple challenge. The first challenge was hitting bullseye on every target, all the way to the waterfall. Then climbing up the high mountain next to the waterfall, and then climbing down again without falling.

Although this was one of the busiest weeks we had had in a long time, I managed to sneak out of the castle for a few hours to get the challenges done. My mother didn't quite fancy that, but this one thing was something she had no say in. This was all mine.

It was sunday, the last day of the week and I had still not finished the challenge. I almost thought about making this a two-weeks challenge, with the fact og I had an hour left until it was dinner time and I needed to return to the castle. My horse with me on the back, stood at the start line. Just over the bridge from the castle. My breath went calmly in and out of my lungs, making my mind focus and body relax. I counted the arrows I had left, just enough to make all the targets.

The adrenalin took over my body, and I kicked the sides of Angus and tightened my grip on his hair. Angus was the fastest horse around, making me almost fall off as soon as he started running. As my balance quickly returned I got a grip on my bow and aimed at the target just around the next tree. My reflexes took over me as we got past the tree, and they released the arrow hitting the bullseye.

There was no time for celebration, as the next target was right beside the last one. Five minutes later, I had already shot bullseye on half of the targets. Including the ones highest in the trees, where I had to shoot in the middle of a jump. My total focus and concentration had taken over my entire mind, leaving me in a trance-like zone. Noticing I was about to ride past the waterfall, I quickly signalized Angus to turn right and stop.

Without wasting any time, I began climbing the well familiar high rock. I had never fallen off of it when I was over two feet from the grown, which was odd but lucky. My hands and feet was on autopilot, as they stepped without hesitation on the rocks and cuts in the mountain that lead me higher and higher. Escaping the trance zone I had just been in, was like a strong out-of-the-blue wind smacked you in the face. And it happened just as I had reached the top of the mountain.

My breath turned more and more relaxed the longer I stayed on the mountain. I drank the water from the waterfall just beside the mountain. The water was icing cold, but fresh. I could feel it going through my body, giving me a wonderful feeling.

Then I noticed the sun, just over the horizon. Which told me dinner was just about to start, and I was late. Trying my hardest to climb fast down without losing any concentration, my adrenalin was stronger than ever. In my mind I thought always "Don't fall. Don't fall. Don't fall".

Guess what happened.

I fell.

Only like three feet from the ground, but still. I failed my challenge, which meant I had to turn it into a two-weeks challenge. Plus, I landed on my back, which hurt if you thought otherwise.

Angrily I jumped on Angus and kicked him on the sider a little too hard. I quickly apologized and brushed my hand over his neck. He made a noise, saying I was forgiven. Then he began running as fast as he could, for some reason. I got confused and curious of what reason he had for running that fast, but my thoughts were mostly occupied at my failor.

As we reached the gates of the castle, I delivered Angus to the stallboy, Androu. There was no time for a conversation, which he understood and sent me a "good luck" -look. I ran into the castle and up all the stairs to the Great Hall.

There was a loud creak when I opened the doors til the Great Hall, which caused my entire family to give me their full attention. My three little brothers gave me a wicked glare, while my father hardly gave me a "hello". My mother though... Yeah she was pissed.

"You're late" She said with ice in her voice. Shiverings went down my spine as I walked over to my chair on my father's side.

"Sorry, I ran out of time in the middle of a situation"

"What situation?"

"Ehm... I... Was... Kinda... OnTopOfAMountain" I nearly whispered, knowing mother didn't like me being reckless. And climbing to the top of that mountain was definitely reckless.

To my surprise though, mother was quiet. Like she approved my excuse, something she never did. Ever.

"Okay, what is it?" Everyone went quiet. As they knew I wouldn't like the next thing to be said.

A genuine smile grew on mothers face, another thing that gave me chills and made me wanting to crawl into my dress. Mother's eyes lid up and I held my breath automatically.

"The letters have arrived, and they have all accepted! The lords are presenting their sons as suitors for your betrothal!"

All color drained from my face, and I felt my heart sink to the floor. My hearing got a little blurry as all I could hear was my breath going faster and faster the more angry I became.

"WHAT!" I yelled, not exactly sounding as powerful as I tried to sound. I sounded more like a little child not getting her will.

"Merida! A lady does not yell" Mother said harshly with her intense eyes buried deep into mine. "Now. They are arriving in two days. There will be a lot of preparations..."

Mother's voice disappeared as my anger grew and took over my sight. I wanted to scream. I wanted to run to Angus and get out of reality. But it felt like doors had appeared around me, and they were already locked.

I felt suffocated. My breath disappeared. I felt dizzy, and sick. Afraid I was going to vomit, I removed myself from my chair and began walking out the doors.

But gravity turned on me and I fainted.

Or at least it felt like it. I opened my eyes from my trance and looked at the plate of food in front of me, which I hadn't touched. And I lost the interest to. Mother was still talking, but more to Father than to me now.

"Stop" I said. Emotionless. Empty.

"A lady does not interrupt, Merida. Now, we have to talk about decorations. I'm thinking red curtains over there..."

"JUST. STOP" I yelled. "I don't want to marry anyone!"

Mother's face was neutral, almost monotone. Not surprised at all, that is true. Compared to my brothers and father on the other hand, it looked like they saw a bear.

"This is going to happen. You're going to be happy about it, and show the lords respect. End of discussion" The temperature in the room dropped by her voice, and all the faces in the room got pale. Except mine's. my face got red, burning red. And Mother was dramatic enough to exit the room after what she said.

With boiling blood and white knuckles, I turned the other way and walked the hall leading the opposite way from where Mother went. The way I took lead me to a lookout tower from the old wars, which was my special place in this castle where no one would know i were.

Okay, the hall wasn't exactly leading me to the tower. It was leading me to a window that lead to the tower, sort of.

I jumped out the window three feet down, to a fence of stone. That fence lead me to the tower, by me balancing over it. It wasn't far down to the ground from the fence, so I didn't have much to fear. Until I reached the tower wall.

You see, I couldn't just walk in the door and go the stairs to the top. Mostly because it was boring, but also because the door was locked and I didn't have the key. No one did. The key had been lost because it wasn't needed anymore.

The tower was built when there were wars and we needed to have lookouts all the time. But that is a long time ago.

So since I couldn't walk through the door, I had to climb the wall and push myself over the fence. Not that it scared me or anything. I had climbed to the top so many times, it was beaten into my muscle memory and I could do it with my eyes closed.

As always, when I reached the top of the tower, I fell to the stone floor when I pushed myself over the fence.

Inside the tower wasn't much "inside" since it wasn't any real walls. Only a fence and some thin beams that kept the ceiling in place a few feet over my head.

There were maybe three feet between the fence and the ceiling, but it was enough to see the whole forest and the horizon. I sat myself on the fence and leant my back on one of the beams, with my right foot dangling outside the opening between the fence and ceiling.

My eyes were glued to the bright, full moon. Somehow, it felt as if it shone brighter that night than any other. It's light lit up the whole forest, and made it seem magical.

The sky was filled with tiny, but millions of stars. I looked for star signs, but got distracted when a handful of stars just went black for a few seconds. It looked like a bat flying in the way, so I didn't think that much about it. The only thing that disturbed me was how big the bat must've been to cover all those stars.

I looked over the sky to see if I saw it again. Maybe it was a large bird? I had my bow in my hands already, without even noticing it, I put an arrow ready on the string and all I had to do was aim and release.

At one moment, something covered the light from the moon, which removed my sight on the stars to the moon. Something told me it was going to fly over it again, letting me see exactly how big the thing was. Some seconds went by, but my full attention were on the moon.

My heart nearly stopped beating when a bat looking-like creature flew past the moon. Yes, it was shaped like a bat. But what excited me was that it was a hundred times bigger than a bat.

A smile grew on my face, and I dropped my bow on the floor in the tower. I waited for it to show itself again, maybe I could see exactly what it was. But it did not take long for me to realize it was gone.

I got tired of looking at the world I would never get to explore as soon as I got married with one of the guests arriving in two days. The thought tugged at my heart. The disappointment was almost too much for me. I could already feel my breath increase the more I thought of it.

Trying to get away from the thoughts, I climbed my way down to the stone fence that lead to the window again. I jumped up to the window and pulled myself up it. My arm had enough muscles to pull myself up, but it hurt in my shooting shoulder for some reason.

I landed quietly on the floor inside the castle, since it was night and most of my family probably were already asleep. My feet walked calmly past the hall and into my chamber.

As soon as I closed the door, I nearly passed out on the bed.

My dream began with a bat flying towards my head, where I needed to duck fast for it to not scratch my eyes out. I turned around to see if the bat was going for another attack, but it was nowhere to be seen. In fear, I took out my bow and places an arrow nicely on the string.

The next thing that happened were the walls covering the room, began to move closer and closer to me. My shock was freezing me until the walls began pushing my body to shift. With my back pushing one wall and my feet pushing another, the walls kept coming closer.

Feeling as suffocated that I was, I screamed. My hands took on each side of the walls around me, and pushed with all my power. Using screams to boost my energy and strength, I broke the walls.

It all went in slow-mo from there. The walls collapsed so slow, I didn't realize arrows were shooting towards my head.

The second I ducked away from the arrows, everything went back to normal speed. I looked around for the person who shot at me.

I could feel my blood freeze and remove itself from my face, when I saw who it was.

It was me.

With a crown on my head, hair in a braid and eyes as cold as ice.

My other self was the princess part of me.

She aimed her arrow at me, and released. Once again I ducked, but I started running away from her this time. Like a coward.

A forest appeared in front of me, but I was too stressed out to notice. Not until I ran right into the pile of rocks. It was the mountain next to the waterfall. I climbed it and hoped my princess self would stay in the woods.

When I got to the top of the mountain I looked down. As my fear became reality, I saw the princess climb up the mountain with suck speed I didn't even notice before she was right in front of me. My heels were at the edge of the thin mountain, and the princess aimed her arrow at me.

She kept going closer until she was right in front of me. I know, I know. I could've pushed her bow down so she couldn't shoot me and then hit her so she fell down the mountain. But I couldn't move. All I could do was feel her arrow drill its way into my heart, and push me past the edge.

I remember screaming while falling from the two hundred feet high mountain. Just as I hit the ground I screamed my way out of the nightmare and stared into the mirror on the wall in my chamber.