Hey guys! This prologue takes place before Miracles, when Hiro doesn't yet know that Tadashi is alive. I'm introducing Merida in this but she doesn't really become part of the story until much later. Please review and check out my other stories! Read Miracles if you haven't yet, this is the sequel so…
Thank you! You guys are the best!
—BH6ORBUST
HIRO
"Hiro, you have to eat."
I don't answer. I don't want to eat. Not with Dashi gone.
"Hiro," Aunt Cass insists. "You can't just starve yourself."
"I can."
"But you shouldn't! Really, Hiro, would Tadashi want you to starve?"
My gut twists at Tadashi's name. I don't know what he'd want. Because he's dead. My brother is dead. And he's not coming back. He comes back from everything. But not from this.
"Tadashi's gone," I mumble.
"I know, Hiro, but he wouldn't want this."
I say nothing.
"Hiro." Aunt Cass is starting to get mad now. "Eat."
I push the plate away. "I don't want to."
"Tadashi—"
"Tadashi's gone." I stand up. "He's not coming back."
"Hiro, please—"
"No."
Tears sting my eyes.
Hers shine with sadness.
"Hiro," she says, more forcefully now. "You have to eat. I will make you if I have to."
"I don't want to," I insist. "I don't want anything."
"Tadashi would be ashamed of you!"
The words burst out of her and hit me like a bullet. I stare at her and she stares back, silent for a moment.
I turn and run out the door.
I run down the stairs and through the café, not caring that we still have evening customers as I fling open the door. I get Tadashi's motorcycle from the garage and start it. I leave the helmet behind.
The tears start to fall as I ride, barely seeing where I'm going. I detour from the big city streets and wind up on a two-lane road along the edge of the forest.
I look back and see Aunt Cass's car following me, so I do one of the craziest things I ever have done. I nearly murder the throttle and steer off-road into the trees.
The ride is bumpy at first, but then the motorcycle hits a rock and I fly off it. I tumble down the hill, bouncing off trees and roots and rocks until my head slams into a rock and the world goes dark.
I wake up still in the woods, but something about it looks different. I can barely see with it so dark now, but that's not all. The trees are different, greener, mossier. But I've never been in this part of the forest before, so it might just be a different type of tree.
I stand up gingerly, rubbing the back of my head where it hit the rock. I have a splitting headache and probably a concussion. The whole rest of my body hurts from bouncing down the hill. I seriously regret not wearing that helmet.
I hear a soft growling sound from deeper in the woods and my body goes rigid. It comes again, louder this time. I slowly turn around to see a pair of eyes glaring at me from the darkness.
Another growl, then the biggest bear I've ever seen jumps at me from out of the trees, jaws open, claws bared. I yelp and jump back, only to fall over and land on my tailbone. The bear stalks closer, saliva dripping from its jaws. It raises a paw and swipes, slashing its claws across my shoulder.
Suddenly something flies out of the trees with a whistling sound, striking the bear in the neck. It roars and turns to the side, ignoring me.
I turn to see a teenage girl in the woods, aiming a bow and arrow at the bear. Curly red hair spills over her shoulders and down her back. She wears an old-fashioned dress, only older than old-fashioned. I'm not talking nineteenth century. I'm talking medieval times. It doesn't seem too practical for shooting bears, but she's more focused on the massive animal in front of her. I hear a soft whisper as she draws back her arrow— "Mor'du."
The girl looses another arrow, and while the bear is distracted, she sprints past it. She grabs my arm as she goes, pulling me up.
"Run!" she says in an accent I can't place. But I don't think twice. I get up and follow her into the forest.
After a few minutes, she slows down, and I get a better look at the girl's face. I stop dead.
She's gorgeous.
She wears no makeup, but she's beautiful. Blue eyes, freckles, full cheeks, light pink lips. Her red hair is tousled from running and her dress is torn at the hem. She's small, only a few inches taller than me, but nowhere near delicate. Her hands are calloused and she's obviously a fast runner. She has beautiful curves, but she's muscled. And her accent is either Scottish or Irish, I think. I can't tell which.
I feel suddenly self-conscious of my muddy clothes, cargo pants, messy hair, and various scrapes and bruises from my fall down the hill.
The girl flips her mass of curls off her shoulder and looks at me. "Who are you?" she asks in her strange accent.
"Who are you?" I counter. "Last I checked, no one lived in the woods."
She tilts her head. "Last I checked none of us had black hair, and we certainly don't wear clothes like that."
She points at my hoodie. I feel my face go hot.
"Well, who are you?" I ask, trying to turn her attention back.
"Merida. Firstborn descendent of clan DunBroch. Daughter of King Fergus and Queen Elinor."
I gape at her. "You're a princess?"
"Obviously. And you?"
"Hiro," I tell her. "Hiro Hamada."
"That's the strangest name I've ever heard."
I raise an eyebrow. "So far I've heard Merida, Fergus, Elinor, and Mor'du and that's the strangest name you've ever heard?"
She shrugs. "I'm used to strange things. My mum's a bear. So are my little brothers."
My jaw drops.
She smiles. "I get that a lot."
Before I can process that her mum is a bear, another question jumps into my mind. "Where are we? And what year is it?"
"Scotland. 2042."
I bury my face in my hands. "I've seen so many strange things today I think I'm just going to have to believe it."
"So, you're being strangely cryptic as you lead me through the woods to what is supposedly your home," I say to Merida as we walk through the trees.
"Well," she says, "as you're from ten years ago and on the other side of the world, I thought I'd show you instead of tell."
After around fifteen minutes, we emerge from the trees in front of a huge stone castle. I stop dead again.
"I live here," Merida says simply.
"Shut up."
She laughs.
I must have hit my head really hard to have hallucinated an entire kingdom. But I at least know my brain creates really hot Scottish girls.
Merida leads me through the gates, into the castle, and up three flights of stairs. When she opens a door, three small furry things run out.
I stifle a yelp. Bears. Young bears, but bears all the same.
"Hiro," Merida says calmly, "These are my brothers."
"Why are they bears?!"
She sighs. "It was a spell. I was trying to get out of an arranged marriage and I asked a witch for a spell to change my mum. It turned out to be a cake that turned her into a bear and my little brothers ate some of it. We had two sunrises to fix the spell and we were too late. So now they're bears. They're not vicious, though."
I stare at her, openmouthed. Bears. Witch. Spell. Magic. Either it's all real or I've suffered from serious brain damage. The latter is more likely.
But I want the former to be real.
I want her to be real.
"So," Merida says as we continue down the hall. "You can sleep in my room."
"Your room?" I splutter. "Sleep? I can't sleep here! And in your room? Wouldn't I be executed for seducing the princess or something?"
"Don't be stupid," she scoffs. "I've got a closed-off space where you can sleep. There's a window you can escape out any time you need to, and we won't be in the same room. Got it?"
"I can't sleep here! I can't stay overnight! My aunt will think I'm dead in a ditch somewhere or report me missing and then we'll get into a huge mess with the police—"
She puts a finger to my lips, silencing me. "One night, Hiro. Then you can go home. You can't get there in the dark anyway, and you're hurt."
I realize she's right. I am hurt, from the crash and Mor'du's attack. And it's pretty dark out there.
"Fine," I mumble.
She opens another door to what I think is her room, and true to her word, at the far end is a curtain pulled across the wall.
Merida points at her bed. "Sit down."
I flop onto the mattress. She rummages about in some drawers for a few minutes and comes back with bandages and ointment.
"Take off your shirt," she says calmly.
"What? No!" I splutter. "I'm not taking off my shirt!"
"I need to see if you're hurt. Nothing else. All right?"
"No!"
"Hiro."
I sigh and take off my shirt, suddenly extremely conscious of how pale and skinny my chest is—and the fact that Merida is staring intently at it. I know she's checking for injuries, but it's still very uncomfortable.
Merida takes a bundle of leaves from a basket and shoves them in her mouth.
I stare at her.
"Uh—is this the right time for a snack?" I ask.
She glares at me and spits the leaves into her hand. I crinkle my nose and she says, "It's medicine, idiot."
I blush. "Oh."
She slaps the ointment into my hand. "Put that on cuts or bruises. It helps numb the pain and prevents infection."
Still slightly disgusted, I rub the ointment on my various injuries. Merida gets a roll of what looks like Scottish gauze and starts tearing it into bandages. "We need to fix your head."
I hold still for once as she wraps gauze around my head. I have a rather enormous goose egg on the back of my skull.
When she's done, she shoos me into the other room. "Good night."
She sweeps the curtain shut. I sit down on the bed, which is incredibly comfortable. The window has a beautiful view of the highlands, full of forests and hills and swirling rivers.
Just before I drift off, I hear Merida's voice from the other side of the curtain, murmuring a soft, lilting lullaby.
A naeoidhean bhig, cluinn mo ghuth
Mise rid' thaobh, O mhaighdean bhan
Ar righinn oig, fas ais faic
Do thir, dileas fhein.
A ghrian a's a ghealaich, stuir sinn
Gu uair ar cliu'sar gloire.
Naeoidhean bhig, ar righinn og
Mhaighdean uasal bhan.
I don't understand the words, but she has a beautiful voice. And strangely, she keeps singing until I fall asleep.
—
I feel better when I wake up. My headache is still there, but it's not as bad, and everything else hurts less. Merida is already up and gone when I get up.
I stand up, realizing I slept in my clothes. Oh well. At least my hoodie didn't choke me in the night.
The curtain is flung aside to reveal Merida standing on the other side.
"I'm taking you home," she says. "Come on."
She leads me through the woods, armed with her bow and arrow, until we come upon the motorcycle. I pull it upright and check that nothing's broken.
I glance back at Merida. I almost don't want to leave.
Almost.
"Goodbye, Hiro," she says softly.
"Goodbye," I whisper.
I turn around and walk the bike back up the hill.
By the time I look back, Merida is gone.
