Magnus could only stand and watch as the queen violently dragged her daughter away while addressing to both the lords, their sons and the entire crowd to go about their business while she had a few words with the princess. Merida was sending worried glances towards Magnus as if to say 'help me'. But he only shrugged, reminding her silently that it's not in his place to interfere with her family affairs.
"Magnus!" The king bellowed as he zoomed in and hoisted Magnus up onto his shoulder from out of nowhere, as if nothing happened. The teen wanted to ask about what just happened with the queen and the princess, but it seems as though they don't care. The crowd roared back Magnus's name, cheered him on and brought him into the castle to rejoice his great victory. Everyone danced, sang songs and even drank themselves silly with booze, but all Magnus could think about was what Merida had done and what could happen to her. He thought back to the story where Merida interferes with the games, has a heated argument with her mother before running off.
"If y'all pardon me. I need to be alone." Magnus replied to everyone before he ditched his mug of half-finished beer to disappear to the stables. He used to drink in his days, but unlike Newton who would mostly drink until he gets dead drunk, Magnus knows when enough is enough.
Everything seemed okay at the stables, it's just that Magnus needed time to think for a moment. But that was interrupted with he noticed Merida charged outside over to Angus, face streaming with angry tears and sobbing her heart out. Instantly, Magnus realized that she and her mom didn't depart to talk of anything pleasant and that the queen must've done something horrible. Just to make sure, Magnus reentered the castle halls, marched up the stairs to hear soft crying. He followed it to the tapestry room where Elinor was laying on the floor in front of the fireplace where the burnt remains of Merida's beloved bow sat before her, charred and singed like overcooked meat. The queen sat there sobbing, utterly ashamed of what she has done before looking up to see she had company.
"Magnus." She spoke in a broken voice and a tear-stricken face. "Please bring her back."
"I don-" He was about to say before Elinor finally stood up and made her way over to him.
"Magnus, I understand you know her more than I would. I just want my little girl back. Please go get her. I beg of you." Elinor pleaded, gripping his arms and giving him a slight shake.
He agreed to the saddened queen's terms and rushed outside into the woods, running through the trees and bushes on hot feet, attempting to locate the princess. The forest was huge and Merida could be anywhere. Finally, he caught a glimpse of Angus and ran towards him. That's when he found Merida standing in the dead center of the ring of stones. Her awful dress was even worse now, ripped and torn and stained with dirt.
"Magnus!" Merida cried running over to him, embracing him tightly and crying her eyes out. Magnus blushed and hugged her back.
"What happened back there?" asked Magnus.
Merida sighed to herself and replied, "Ah just wanted to prove that Ah can change me own fate. Ah wanted to prove to me mother that Ah don't want to marry some person Ah barely know. Then my mother went on and on aboot how I embarrassed her in front of everyone. Then she...she burned mah bow!"
"I saw. I'm sorry about that." He replied comfortingly.
"That was my best and only bow." Merida weeped.
Magnus brought his arms around her in a consoling fashion, hoping to give her a shoulder to cry one when they both heard a familiar sound. One that filled the silent air like a loving melody. Both teens looked and gasped when they saw a small blue flame floating there beckoning them forward as it emitted a gentle call. Magnus and Merida were both mouth agape, gobsmacked by such an otherworldly, yet beautiful sight. So beautiful, in fact, that they both wound up walking toward the will-o'-the-wisp with cautious curiosity. But when they came within an inch and Merida reached over to touch it, it vanished from sight, startling the two.
"Magnificent." breathed Magnus.
"Aye." Merida nodded in agreement.
Just then, more of those wisps appeared, creating some kind of line along a trail ahead of them, looking as if to guide them somewhere. Magnus was starting to get a very funny feeling about all this. However, Merida was even more curious at this point that she wanted to follow them to see where they could possibly lead them. She gestures to her horse to come with them.
"Come on, Angus." She urged. When the horse snorted in refusal, she shouted strictly, "ANGUS!"
But he was just too afraid to go any further, causing Merida to roll her eyes in annoyance before following Magnus down the wisp trail. Angus finally gained the courage to tail behind the two, presumably since he hated being left alone. Each wisp disappeared as the teens got closer as a means of edging them further along the trail. After a few seconds of following the wisps and when there were no more of those little guys in sight, Magnus saw that they were at a strangely, familiar cottage that he first happened upon when he woke up in this world. How curious, how peculiar.
"Why would the wisps lead us here?" asked Merida.
"I don't know." Magnus shrugged.
Without any hesitation from either of them, the teens make their way into the cottage. A bell chime going off as Merida opened the door, now taking the lead. The princess took in the strange trinkets within the cottage all around her. Carvings of bears, bear-like objects, puppets and toys of wooden bears, statues and sculptures and even just simple wooden objects littered and hanging around the entire place. Magnus follows her after waiting for her to get further inside and facepalmed to himself.
"Oh boy..." Magnus mutters grabbing Merida's attention.
"I see you've come back for more, eh lad?" An elderly voice offers casually. "Glad my gift caught your interest. You looking for something for the lady as well? Look around and we'll talk about the price."
Merida gives Magnus a suspicious look.
"What is she talking about?" The princess questioned.
"Why, not too long ago I gave your mate a free souvenir. Now tell me, are you two looking for something more on the romantic side." The old woman gestures and a large figure of two bears towering over and leaning towards each other to form a heart.
Merida scoffed, "Ugh, no that's-!"
"Oh, what about something more personalized, I don't suppose ye have a bun in the oven." She teased with a wink.
The two teens looked in disgust and awkwardness before they each yelled!
"NO WAY, LADY!" Magnus warned.
"Not in this lifetime!" Merida responded in frustration. "Ugh! Why would the wisps bring us here?"
"Well, it's not like it matters. Maybe we should just bring you home, Mer." Magnus tries to suggest in vain.
"I'm not going back there. Not when I'm going to be forced to marry." The redhead refused and glared at him.
Of course, he'd try to find the easy way out.
"If you're not going to help me, then you migh' as well go back and play prince." Merida continues bitterly.
The elderly woman rolls her eyes at the pair, quickly getting tired of their arguing. You'd think a married couple would be easy to sell. Teenagers. Now granted, Magnus was offended and hurt by the redhead's hurtful words, almost like the venom of her statement spiked through his heart like a spearhead, but he wasn't going to back down easily. Merida needed to understand that life was just full of disappointments. But before he could retort a response, Merida's attention shifted towards something unexpected for both of them.
"Yer broom!" Merida shouted with utter shock, pointing directly at a broom that was sweeping the floor on its own. Magnus, himself, was taken aback by this strange phenomenon. But just then, the old woman snapped her fingers and as if in reply, the broom fell lifeless onto the floor.
"It was sweepin'...by itself." Merida was so gobsmacked by what she had witnessed, she could barely make out a concrete sentence.
That's when Magnus noticed a black crow perched upon something and got a closer look at it with expectant curiously, ready for anything. Now Magnus had watched a lot of movies as a child where witches had animal servants that would talk. Suddenly, his untold theory was proven correct when the bird snapped its head toward the boy, catching him off guard.
"Staring is rude." The crow remarked as Magnus fell to the ground in shock.
"The crow is talkin'!" Merida screamed.
"That's not all I can do." replied the bird before he started to sing a little tune, almost as if to taunt the redhead until finally the annoyed old crone snapped her fingers and silenced the babbling crow with the floating broom, knocking it unconscious and ordering the broom to sweep him up. At that moment, Merida finally understood.
"Yer a WITCH!"
"Woodcarver." The old lady chimed innocently, now suddenly carving away at a piece of wood, trying to look inconspicuous. But after everything that she had just seen with her own two eyes, Merida was not deterred by her false claims.
"That's why the wisps lead us here!" Merida stated excitedly like a child at Christmas before turning to Magnus. "We don't have to get married. Ah don't have to get married, aha!"
"WOODCARVER!" The witch tries once more to deflect, failing miserably as she made an intricate carving in seconds.
"You'll change my-Ah mean, our fates!" Merida said as if trying not to make it all about her and thinking it would benefit Magnus as well.
"WOODCARVER!" The witch proclaims once more, slicing a log in half as if to prove her non-magical woodworking skills.
Merida pays no mind to the witch's denial as she begins to explain the problem as if talking to a therapist, "You see, it's mah mother-"
Magnus, noticing the witch holding an ax she was using, stands in front of Merida as if he were a shield.
"I'M NOT A WITCH! Too many unsatisfied customers!" She warned the two, surprisingly tossing the ax aside to just give a mere finger wag like they were naughty children.
Merida stood inches away by Magnus' side as the two teenagers both gave each other confused, yet "what the hell?" looks to one another. The witch, now seemingly calm, gave the two an ultimatum.
"If neither of you are going to buy anything, get out." She threatens in a sudden irate tone, snapping her fingers as thousands of dangerously sharp carving instruments levitate as they slowly stalk towards the teenagers to the door.
The two wisely backed away out of fear of getting skewered or something way worse as the witch inched them towards the door. However, Merida blocked their opening much to Magnus chagrin.
"Mer, c'mon!" He panicked at the potential stabbing, feeling the points of the weapon nearing his neck, still trying to protect the princess while she was behind him.
"I'll buy it all!" Merida exclaims, making their attackers stop in their tracks.
Dammit Mer!
"Wha-what was that?" The witch questioned flabbergasted, as Magnus slowly edge his body to the side to let Merida speak.
"Ev'ry carving." the princess clarifies before the weapons turn to their summoner like they were daring her to say no. Still, shock and now anxious at objects now suddenly against her the witch knew what this would mean. Laughing uncomfortably in sorts of small coughs she had to think of something.
"And how are you going to pay for that, sweetie?" The witch counters, weapons now directed at the princess, while Magnus now on the side tried to look for something to fight with that wasn't already floating.
"With this." Merida offered as she pulled something hidden in her dress, a specially made pendant with a circular Celtic knot pattern of three bears facing the other in a clockwise swirl.
Both the witch and her crow, perching himself on her head, marveled at the valuable pendant, so much so that the craving tools all drop at once.
"Mer, your mom-" Magnus injected trying to stop the deal from going through.
WHACK!
The broom smacks him, while the witch tries to snatch the pendant away from Merida's teasing dangle. Of course, the princess was too quick for the witch as she clarified her conditions.
"Ev'ry carving and one spell."
The witch hesitates once more at the request, trying to give this girl one more chance to back out, "You sure you know what yer doin'?"
"We want a spell that will change mah mum." Merida clarifies.
"We?!" Objected Magnus as he was now certain that she was clearly not in the right mind right now. Sure, she wants to be liberated from her posh life of responsibilities and strict rules, but honestly, this was pushing things a tad too far and he doesn't want her doing something she may regret.
"And will change me fate." Merida continued, ignoring her friend's apparent concerns.
The witch immediately swiped the pendant away with an excited squeal as she dashed out of her house, passed the teens and confusing them both.
"Where are ye goin'?" asked Merida before the witch snapped her fingers and the door slammed shut behind them, startling them and as she brushed the two aside, she gave them a small tip.
"Never conjure where ye carve. Very important."
Once she opened the door, Magnus and Merida took a moment to take in the interior's strange new sudden appearance. To their shock, the hut was pitch black and lit with candles all around as well as the smoldering orange glow of burning wood underneath a cauldron. Now it was beginning to look like a real witch's cottage in Magnus's personal opinion. Yet it didn't hinder the eerie vibe it gave him as he wondered the extent of this witch's power.
"Last time I did this, it was for a prince." The witch told the teens as they were taken by the witch as she guided them back in.
"Easy on the eyes, tight pants." the crow chirps, eying Magnus in judgment. "Could stand to get more muscle."
Magnus rolled his eyes at the bird's comment, turning his attention back to the old woman waddling as she continued her tale.
"He demanded I give him the strength of ten men and he gave me this." She explains showing the teens a bronze ring with the signet of twin cross ax as if they were a crest. "For a spell, a spell that would change his fate."
Merida bent down closer to the witch, espying the sorceress' previous deal.
"And did he get what he was after?"
The witch chortles as she answers, "Yes, and then he made off with an especially attractive mahogany cheese board."
Magnus could only raise his eyebrow at that added bit before the witch started her work.
The old woman started crawling and creeping around her den, grabbing bits spices, a living, but immobile newt, his small screams being heard as was thrown in the boiling cauldron, blue smoke boiling from the cauldron. Yelps are sounded as the crow pulled two strands of Merida's hair and dark strand from Magnus with the bird only trading one of the princess' hairs to the witch, releasing it into the cauldron where it turns into molten lava. The other two strands are being held in a jar. It seems as though the witch had gotten the last of her ingredients as she grabs a large wooden spoon and stirs the brew like the liquid isn't a glimpse at the fires of Hell. Pulling it out the brew, the spoon's bottom half had disintegrated, tossing it aside like it was she expected, pulling out a welding mask for herself and the crow. Adding in a pinch of whatever mysterious spice she has to the boiling cauldron it seemed like the only thing to do now was to wait.
Merida, curious as to what this spell could do and started looking closer at it. Magnus rushes in tackling the princess to the ground, eyes tightening as a blinding light flashed the entire cottage, knowing that the witch and bird had protection from the spell. Despite the smoke and the explosion of light clearing up, Magnus still had his arms wrapped around Merida on the ground.
"Ha! Now let's see…..what have we here?" The witch grabbed a giant pair of tongs and reached into the boiling, green goop and felt around until she pulled out what she had just created with her powerful magic, a tart. She placed it on the table to let it cool for a moment when the crow poked at it curiously with its beak.
"Hey!" The old crone barked, smacking the annoying bird away.
Both Merida and Magnus were baffled beyond belief, especially Merida. She had paid for a spell that would help her get her way in life and make her mother change her mind about the whole marriage idea she was against in the first place and all she got was a measly little piece of dessert? How was this going to help her on her quest for freedom?
"That's it?" Magnus voiced his bewilderment at the expectation subversion.
"Eh….a cake?" Merida asked, equally confused.
"Ye don't want it?" The old woman raised her eyebrow at the princess suspiciously and intimidatingly.
"No, Ah want it!" spoke Merida immediately, shaking off her disbelief so as not to seem ungrateful. "Yer sure if Ah give this to ma mum, it will change mah fate?"
"Oh, trust me. It'll do the trick." laughed the witch before she escorted the two out of her cottage and into the darkness of night. "Expect delivery of yer purchase within a fortnight!"
But then suddenly, she snapped her fingers with a sudden realization as she headed back inside, "Oh! What was that thing aboot the spell?"
That captured the teens' attention almost instantly. Merida turned around asking, "Did ye say somethin'...aboot…..the spell?"
To their extreme shock, however, the cottage was there just a minute ago and now all of the sudden, it was now nowhere to be seen as if it was never there to begin with. It's like it had just vanished out of existence.
"This doesn't feel right." Magnus replied with concern.
"What do ye mean?" asked Merida, turning her gaze towards him.
"I just don't think this is a really good idea." He explained. "I'm not saying this woman shouldn't be trusted or that I know that her spells aren't good enough. I'm only that this won't be the answer to your current situation."
"Magnus…." The princess began walking over to him, looking at him with not fierce determination nor angered annoyance, but with desperation and worry. "Me mum wants me to marry someone Ah've never even met before. Ah just don't want to end up with the wrong person, someone who Ah don't love. I just need her to change her mind aboot the proposals. Come on, ye've known me long enough to know that this is not what I want. Ye have to help with me wit' this. I need ye to trust me."
Now Magnus took a long moment to consider this. He had read the story, so he knew which direction this decision of hers was going to take and yes, everything did turn out okay at the end, but he couldn't tell her that. It's not like things were going to get any worse than they already were.
"Well, alright." sighed Magnus, finally making up his mind.
"Really?" The redhead asked with hope.
"I still don't think this is a good idea, but I guess there's no harm in trying." Magnus explained, but still held onto his skepticism that this entire plan was going to go sideways either way.
"Well, et's only a cake. We just give it to her and she'll change her mind." Merida elaborated as if it was as simple as that.
"Yeah, like eating a cake is going to change things around." scoffed Magnus, shaking his head.
"Oh, really? Why don't ye try fer yerself and find out?" Merida sarcastically suggested as she tauntingly hovered the magic tart near his mouth, almost daring him to take a bite out of it, but Magnus only back his head away.
"No way. You try it." Magnus shoved the cursed thing away from his face.
"Yeah, right." Merida chuckled, in spite of herself. "Fer all Ah know, this thing could be spiked and Ah might have the runs for a week."
"But Mer, all joking aside, I really think we should worry about the results of this plan of yours." responded Magnus, staring at her with a stern glance.
"Results? Wha-?" Merida didn't understand until Magnus grabbed her shoulders, making her look directly into his eyes.
"Merida, if this whole thing goes south, and I have a feeling that it will, we have to take full responsibility over it, understand?"
Looking downward at the cake in her hands, Merida gave him a passive, but determined look before giving him a confirmed nod.
"Okay." She answered.