Right now, Merida and Magnus have to scavenge for answers to their current situation and try to figure out how to rearrange it or else Elinor will be stuck as a bear forever. For place to start was the circle of stones where Magnus and Merida first discovered the trail of wisps after her argument with her mother, which is how they came upon the witch's cottage in the first place. Now they'll just have to find it a second time. That is, if the wisps were willing to cooperate. While Elinor stood there in the center with the best of her patience to the imagination, Merida searched high and low all around the circle, one monolith to another, for the wisps, hoping there was a way to summon them to her. Sadly, though, she was having no luck.
"Where are these wisps?" She grumbled, looking all around for any one of those tiny blue balls of fire to lead her to the cottage. "Come oot, wisps. Come on out! Lead me to the witch's cottage! I'm here! Fine, don't come oot now that my mum is watching."
Elinor let out a grunt towards her daughter, as if to say that she's offended. Magnus, however, looked like he was ready to give up.
"Look, it's not like they're just gonna come running to you when you call their names. They're not dogs." nagged Magnus who was leaning against one of the monoliths in boredom.
"If ye got a better solution, I'd like tae hear it."
"I'll tell you what I wouldn't do. It's turning my mom into a bear." answered Magnus in a snarking manner.
"Oh, you're being so helpful right now." Merida jeered sarcastically, crossing her arms.
"That's why I'm here." Magnus shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly before Elinor let out a series of bear noises to remind the two teens that she was still there in their presence.
"Mum, we were standing right here and the wisps appeared right there, then a whole trail of them led us off into the forest!" Merida tried to retrace their steps in the best verbal way possible until her mother held a paw up to silence her as the transformed queen appeared to catch on to something, at least to her that is, and the two puzzled archers tentatively watched as she began to saunter off into a random direction in the woods, seemingly attempting to rely on chance to locate this cottage her daughter was talking about.
"Oh, does she think were just gonna happen upon the witch's cottage?" Merida breathed in exasperation towards Magnus.
"Beats me." He answered with a heavy sigh. "Can't hurt to try, though."
Merida and Magnus both reluctantly followed Elinor close behind as she continued in the direction was heading for about a couple minutes or so. So far, it appeared as though they were going down an opposite trail and there was still no cottage in sight and an annoyed Merida was beginning to think that this was all just some wild goose chase. Magnus, too, was having his own doubts. Supposedly, the wisps don't appear when you want them to. You'd have to have truly lost your way and then they'd appear to lead the way. When you're in the wrong place at the wrong time. In Merida's case, the wisp came to her when she needed a way to escape from her royal responsibilities, especially marriage, or something like that.
After what felt like an hour or two, Merida began to observe their surroundings and the sudden look on her face indicated that the spot they were standing in looked vaguely familiar.
"Wait, Magnus, I know this place." Merida replied with a semblance of hope in her voice. "The witch's cottage…." Then she finally remembered, bringing a smile to her face. "...it's this way! Come on! Hurry!"
"Wait, Merida!" Magnus yelled as she dashed into where the witch's cottage was sure to be. Cursing to himself for not being as fast as Merida, he tailed close behind, dodging branches and ducking under tree trunks until they both finally stopped just above a hill where they managed to find the witch's cottage standing there just as they found it earlier as if it never disappeared before.
"Ah can't believe it! We found it!" Merida cried excitedly.
"About damn time, too." added Magnus agreeingly. "Let's just hope this witch is still there."
As Elinor only voiced her surprise and concern with groans and such, the two teens burst through the cottage door to have a word at this witch and demand a spell to undo the one Merida asked for to change her mother, they were only stunned with bewilderment and disappointment the second they found that the inside of the cottage was completely empty. No wooden carvings, no talking raven and there was definitely no old witch to be seen. Only things present were a stool with vials placed on it and the cauldron, but that was all.
"What the actual fuck?" blurted Magnus with confusion and frustration, but not the least bit surprised. Of course the place would be empty the second time they showed up. It was never easy. Merida, on the other hand, was the most gobsmacked to find no witch after all her tiresome efforts to relocate the cottage on their own.
"No. She was here." She denied as they both turned to face Elinor after Magnus slammed the door in anger. "No, really, she was….just here."
Given the context, Elinor's expression and response clearly indicated that she was undoubtedly groaning with aggravation and annoyance at this stressful turn of events. Getting turned into a bear, all this talk of witches and spells and after all this trouble, no witch. But then Merida thought of something.
"Wait." She insisted, taking a few steps away from the cottage, snapping her fingers and headed back inside, hoping that this time, the witch would be there and everything would be back in place. Sadly, though, her efforts were in vain as the place was still bare inside, much to her chagrin.
"No. No. No, no, no!" Desperate, she tries this a few more times, opening and closing the door over and over again, but to no avail.
"Merida, it's not working!" Magnus snatched her from the door and forced her to look at her. "Listen to me, maybe she left something behind to give us some insight."
"Like what, Magnus? Like what!?" demanded Merida, who was under a lot of pressure by their lack of progress.
Magnus took a quick peek inside, his eyes following every nook and cranny until he peered downward to notice a string by the tips of his feet. That certainly looks promising, he thought. Curious, he decided it was worth a shot and gave the string a good push forward with his foot and just like that, it triggered a Rube Goldberg-style contraption around the cottage. Objects slamming into each other and one thing leading to another and a knife that got propelled straight into the wall so dangerously close to Merida's head, catching her by surprise.
"That could've killed me!" She complained with a glare.
Before Magnus could retort anything back, the cauldron began to bubble and glow a bright moss green, illuminating the cottage as the two Scottish teens slowly stepped forth with Elinor making her way inside. Then all of the sudden, both were startled when an illusion of the witch's head appeared above the cauldron.
"Welcome tae Crafty Carver, home of bear-themed carvings and novelties." announced the illusion, much to the confusion of the three. Apparently, Magnus figured this must be like a recording of sorts made by the witch to any potential customers in case she was absent. "Ah'm completely out of stock at this time. But if you'd like to enquire about portraits or wedding cake toppers, pour vial one in the cauldron. If you'd like the menu in gaelic, vial two. If yer that red-haired lass or that stocky lad, vial three…"
Merida instantly perked up when she subtly mentioned her and quickly, but nearly carelessly snatched up the aforementioned vial on the stool and poured it inside the cauldron. The illusion halted it's speech to replay the message the witch left for her.
"Princess, I'm off to the Wickerman Festival in Stornoway and ah won't be back 'till spring."
"Well, that's perfect." Magnus muttered, only for Merida to shush him.
"There's this one bit ah forgot to tell ye about the spell. By the second sunrise, yer spell will be permanent."
Merida gasped with shock and fear while her mother sent her a well-deserved glare.
"...unless ye can remember these words." The green glow of the cauldron swapped to a more ominous red color as the witch started to speak in an eerie tone, "Fate be changed, look inside, mend the bond torn by pride."
"'Fate be changed'? 'Mend the bond'? What does that mean?" Merida was confused and a little impatient. None of this seemed to make any sense, given that she only asked for a spell to change her mother's mind about the marriage. What she got was a cake that turned Elinor a bear.
"One more time: Fate be changed, look inside, mend the bond torn by pride." The witch reiterated before coming to the message's conclusion as Merida was currently deep in thought about the whole thing with the spell. "That's it. Ta-ta! Oh, and thank ye for shopping at the Crafty Carver."
With that, the illusion dissipated, but Merida was not satisfied as she was having trouble understanding the meaning behind the witch's words. There had to be something else to the spell. Something useful and something she could understand more fluently.
"No, no! Where'd ye go?"
Panicking, Merida frantically started grabbing more vials and just dumped each one into the cauldron, trying so hard to find better answers. This, of course, proved futile as she was only causing various messages to overlap in the cauldron until Magnus finally decided to step in and calm her down before it got worse.
"Merida! Merida! Stop!" Grabbing her arms and her body, Magnus struggled to get the red-haired girl away from the mess she was inadvertently making. "Please stop! Stop it! You're just making it worse!"
"Maybe there's a book of spells! Look around! We'll need more vials!" Merida ordered her mother and Magnus, persistently messing with more vials. While Elinor kept her distance, Magnus kept trying to get Merida to get a hold of herself.
"There's nothing else here! Give it up already!" Magnus practically screamed at her. Unfortunately, the damage was already done as Merida's reckless meddling and tampering with the cauldron's concoction had triggered a negative reaction. As the bubbling contents glowed brighter and the messages continued overlapping each other, Elinor instantly swooped in and wrapped her bear arms around the two protectively to shield them from the magical explosion.
Thankfully, no one was hurt, but once the mist cleared, the explosion had damaged the cottage entirely, blowing it up to a mess of wrecked debris, looking as if a bomb was dropped on it during WWII. The trio took a moment to regain their bearings before observing the wave of destruction around them. Sharing a dejected look towards one another, they realized that maybe everything they went through to look for a cure had been pointless and perhaps that they're maybe isn't a way to reverse the spell after all.
"I guess that's it, then." Magnus replied with defeat. Seeing the disappointed look on Merida's face, the boy came closer to put an arm around her in comfort, which the redheaded princess accepted, leaning her head on his shoulder as they came into a warm embrace while Elinor watched not with shock or scorn because it seemed to her that they were in a romantic relationship, but because she, too, was upset that she'll be a bear forever and their efforts to change her back had been no good. Elinor then joined in on the embrace, hugging the two with motherly compassion.
One thing was for certain, though, they can't return back to the castle now at this rate or else Merida's father and the other clans will murder Elinor on the spot the moment they see her like this. For right now, they'll just have to set up temporary camp in the woods until they get things figured out on a later date. Using some of the wooden planks from the wreckage, they managed to set up some makeshift shelter to rest under once it began to pour rain when storm clouds rolled in.
"We'll sort it out tomorrow." Merida futilely promised her mother, but the bear queen appeared to be less than confident in their endeavor as she rolled on her side to get some rest.
"How?" Magnus asked softly.
"I…..I don't know, Magnus. Ah juist don't know." Merida sighed as she leaned against Magnus's frame, trying to make herself comfortable.
"'Fates be changed, look inside, mend the bond torn by pride'." Magnus recited the witch's word, hoping to understand what she meant. "What could that possibly mean?"
"Ah wish I knew." spoke Merida, suddenly feeling a comforting warm radiating off of Magnus as she cuddled closer to him. "All I know is that we have got to fix this before it's too late. I don't want a bear as a mother. No matter how much she pisses me off, ah just don't know what I'd do with myself if something were to happen to her. I….I can't lose her. I can't."
Magnus tenderly and gingerly wrapped his arms around her, starting to enjoy their little embrace. Then the princess appeared to be getting a little heavy on him as he began to gently collapse onto a bark-covered surface on the ground since Merida had apparently drifted off to sleep in his arms as evidenced by her soft snores. Magnus didn't complain, though. Not only was he feeling a little tired himself, but the fact that here he was, resting with the princess, it had him feeling quite relaxed, using her black cloak as a blanket for both of them. The girl that he had known for quite a long while now, the girl he's been shooting arrows with, the girl with the wild, unruly and rebellious passion and spirit waiting to emerge and the girl with the vile habits, but still a considerable trait for her.
Even in spite of himself and their predicament, Magnus couldn't help but have a whiff of Merida's red, curly mane pressing against his face. It was an average aroma, nothing fancy and nothing awful, but it brought a certain degree of heat to his face, a lone beat to his heart and he could swear there were butterflies in his stomach. At that moment, Magnus was positive about his feelings right now. He was falling in love with the wayward Scottish princess.
With a clap of thunder above them, it made him think back to a time in his childhood when he used to be scared of storms. As his eyelids grew heavy and his bones grew weak, Magnus, too, drifted off onto a peaceful journey to slumberland. His mind started taking him straight into the past to an old childhood memory, to a time before he and his mother had moved to the states after the tragic passing of his father and before she remarried that filthy, dirty-mouthed rat he calls his stepfather.
It was around, say May, during the springtime when it was raining hard across the countryside. So hard that it was nearly difficult to see the trees in the distance clearly, almost like the forest was taking a long shower. Magnus was 9 at the time and was currently watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a timeless classic that his mother loved when she was young. He remembered his favorite part of the whole film being the scene where King Arthur and his knights being taunted by a French soldier. Just ask him and he could recite the entire scene word for word.
Then there was this abrupt clap of thunder, like the sky was angry and bombs on them from above. He rushed to his mother's side, scared and confused. His mother put a comforting arm around him and assured him everything was alright and as long as she was there, no harm would come to him.