Chapter Thirteen: The Big Glass Box of Fun

"Come on, Merida, time to get up."

Merida rubbed her eyes and sat up. She blinked a few times.

"Good morning." Peter was standing in her doorway, already ready for the day.

Merida looked around, disoriented.

"Oh, right." She thought to herself. She had stayed at Peter's last night.

"Good morning." She replied back. Peter smiled at her.

"Hawk Eye just called and gave us instructions on where the cage is."

Merida looked around the room.

"Okay, just give me fifteen minutes."

Once Peter was out, she walked into the bathroom and quickly took a shower.

She dried off and looked around. There was a stack of clothes neatly folded on the counter for her. Merida smiled. Tiana must have brought them over. She put them on and went downstairs.

Peter was sitting at the kitchen table drinking a glass of milk. Merida smiled at him.

"French toast or pancakes?" Peter's eyes brightened.

"Pancakes. Can you make the chocolate ones again?"

Merida walked to the cupboard.

"Yup."

She got out the ingredients and mixed them together. After she had made about a dozen, Merida carried them to the table. Peter excitedly dropped some on his plate.

"Hey, Merida?" Merida put a pancake on her own plate and then looked up at him.

"Yeah?" She popped a piece of pancake inter her mouth

"How come you never told me your last name was Dunbroch?" Merida chewed thoughtfully.

"I don't know. We've never really talked about my old universe." Peter shoved more pancake bits into his mouth.

"Will you tell me about it?" Merida smiled.

"Well, the kingdom I lived in was called Dunbroch." Peter laughed.

"That's funny, it has the same name as you do." Merida laughed, too.

"Well, it was named after my family." Peter's eyes widened.

"Really? Why?"

Merida could see her little brothers asking these questions so long ago. She felt a small pain in her chest, but ignored it and continued.

"Well, all of the kingdoms are named after the ruling clans." Peter looked confused and chewed his pancake slowly.

"Ruling clans?"

Merida looked out one of the windows. She had told Peter about her family many times, but had always left out the fact that they were royalty. It just didn't seem important here.

"Yes, my father is the king of Dunbroch." Peter's eyes widened and he stared at her.

"Your father is a king?" Merida looked at Peter carefully. He seemed to be having a hard time processing this new information.

"Yes…"

Peter swallowed his food and cleared his throat.

"So you're a princess then?"

Merida felt another stab of pain in her chest. The only person who ever really called her a princess was her mother.

"Yes."

Suddenly, a grin stretched across Peter's face.

"That's so awesome! Why didn't you tell me?" Merida rolled her eyes.

"I don't know, I didn't really think about it." Peter raised his eyebrows at her.

"You didn't think about the fact that you're a princess." Merida felt old memories stirring in her mind.

"I do that a lot." Peter shoved the rest of his food in his mouth.

"Aren't princesses supposed to be all frilly and girly?"

She sighed and thought back to a time when that was her biggest concern in life.

"Tiana is a princess, too." Peter looked at Merida like she was crazy.

"Yeah, but she wasn't born a princess."

She rose and took Peter's plate and her own to the sink.

"Well, I'm just different then." Peter smiled at her.

"Different is a good thing."

Merida thought about the bear incident a few years ago, and how her mother had finally accepted that there had to be change in the kingdom.

"Yes, different is a good thing."

Peter got up and scrubbed the dishes that Merida had in the sink. They walked out on the porch and he pulled a piece of paper out of one of his many hidden pockets.

"So, Hawk Eye said to go look at the cage before we bring Jafar to it." Peter looked at the paper. "We need to go to… Oh."

"What?" Merida asked, and Peter smiled.

"They put it underground." Merida stared at him.

"Underground?" He was looking at the paper in his hand.

"Yeah, there's a bunch of underground tunnels underneath Wonderland. It looks like the entrance is north of Tiana's house. Ready?"

Merida stared at Peter for a second, absorbing this new information. What in the world were underground tunnels doing here?

"Yeah."

The two rose off the ground and flew in the general direction of Tiana's house.

"Why are there underground tunnels?" Peter made a thinking face.

"I'm not sure. They've been here longer than I have."

Merida thought about this and nodded. If Peter didn't know, then it was probably just a mystery.

They landed just north of Tiana's house, like Peter had said. Merida looked around, and Peter pointed at a spot of lighter dirt. If Merida focused on it, she could see the slight outline of a trap door.

"We just have to go straight through the main tunnel and we should run into it eventually." Merida nodded.

"Let's go."

Peter tugged the door open, revealing a ladder that looked like it was about to crumble into sand. They both looked at each other.

"Ladies first." Peter said, motioning for Merida to lead.

She stuck her tongue out at him but began to descend into the cave. To Merida's great surprise, the ladder felt sturdy under her hands. After she had gotten down a few rungs, Peter followed her.

"Can you see the ground yet, Mer?"

Merida rolled her eyes, but looked down anyway. The tunnel was so impossibly dark that she could barely see her own hands.

"Not yet, Peter."

The two continued climbing in silence. Merida began to let her mind wander. There wasn't much to keep her focused when she couldn't see anything.

Her hand began to slip. She felt a scream climb up her throat, but was able to grab the rung before she fell more than a few inches.

She stopped climbing to catch her breath.

"Merida! Are you okay?"

Peter had also stopped climbing.

"I'm okay, I just slipped."

He let out a huge breath.

"Be careful."

Merida took a deep breath and then resumed climbing.

After a few minutes, she felt the ground beneath her feet.

She looked around, but couldn't see much of anything, so she started to feel the walls around her. The tunnel seemed to be extremely narrow.

Peter landed on the ground behind her.

"Merida?"

Merida could hear his feet crunching the rocks on the floor.

"Over here."

Merida tried to walk to Peter, but they crashed into each other. He grabbed her waist to steady her.

"Oops. Sorry." He said, letting go of her. She felt her face grow warm.

"It's okay. Let's go."

Peter grabbed her arm and began to lead her down the small path.

Merida kept waiting for her eyes to adjust, but it was evident that it wasn't going to happen. How could it be so impossibly dark?

Her foot caught on something and she fell forward on top of Peter. They both crashed onto the ground.

"Careful." He said.

"Sorry."

It took a few minutes, but they managed to get up and begin walking again. Merida shook her head. She really needed to start paying more attention.

After another half hour, Merida noticed that the path was slowly widening.

"Here." Peter said.

He stopped walking. Merida strained her eyes to try to see anything.

"I can't see anything."

"Hold on a sec." Peter said.

Merida could hear him digging around in his backpack. Suddenly, there was light. She looked in Peter's hand and felt her eyes widen.

"You had your flashlight this whole time?" Peter smirked.

"Maybe."

Merida rolled her eyes and looked toward the area that was now illuminated.

Straight ahead, the light was gleaming on something glass. Peter pointed the flashlight to their right, revealing a switch on the wall. Merida flipped it on, and the entire cave was lit up.

The cave was large, but most of it was taken up by a giant glass container, which was surrounded by a guard rail. Against the rail was a large board of buttons, switches, and dials.

"Is that what we need?" Merida asked, staring at the board. What was the use of all of those switches?

Peter smiled.

"I think so."