Princess Fantasy D X-2

A/N: I have never been inspired enough to write stories about any fanart before, until I saw the work of deviantart artist Skirtzzz, specifically her Final Fantasy Disney Dressphere series. With her blessing, this will be the first of a series of final scene rewrites, using the powers of the dresspheres to possibly change the script, or failing that, make the scene worthy of a Final Fantasy series. Replicating the feel for such an incredible franchise will be a challenge, but I swear I'll do my best!

If you haven't seen any of the movies or their endings, this could be a little spoilerific, but if you have or don't mind, hang on for the ride!

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.

The Redhaired Ronin

Hooves pounded the ground as the massive Shire stallion Angus raced through the Scottish woods, pursuing the shouts and yells only distantly audible several leagues away. He snorted; his little mistress had done many crazy things over the time that he'd known her, but this had to be the craziest ever by far.

"Steady, Angus!" Merida cried from the stallion's back, somehow managing to stay on his back and lace up a tear in a tapestry that she somehow managed to keep from flying away, all at the same time. "Hubert, Harris, help Hamish!"

The horse grunted as two sets of bear cub paws scrambled all over him, tugging too lightly for his liking as they tried to keep him on course and keep the light steady for their untransformed sister to sew. Those three rascals were the bane of him and his friends back in the DunBroch stables; the day they became old enough to actually learn how to ride would be a dark day for all of them.

He tossed his head in agitation. This was not a time to dwell on that. His mistress's needed him to save her mother, and it was his duty as her friend and steed to do it.

He heard Merida give a yelp of triumph and felt the tapestry rustle on his back, probably meaning it was finished. But his attention was suddenly diverted by a bright light appearing out of nowhere in front of him, causing him to rear up in surprise.

Merida looked at the will-o'-the-wisp, waiting for more to appear to show her where to go as it had done before. But when six more did appear, they curved around Angus to either side. Confused, Merida turned around to find that three more had appeared behind her, the 10 wisps completely surrounding her in a circle.

"What the devil?" she murmured, looking back and forth. "Where do they want me to go?"

It was at that point that a low – and familiar – cackle reached her ears, and she turned around abruptly to find the stooped old witch that had started this whole mess walk out of a small copse of trees, her ever-present raven sitting on her head and three more floating balls of blue fire hovering around her feet. "Well, well, child, fancy meeting you here," she chuckled.

Merida was flabbergasted. "Y-you? What are you doing here? You said you'd be gone till spring!"

"The old druid and his rusty silverware were getting on my nerves, so I packed up early," snorted the old woman disdainfully. "So full of himself, him and his medicines…"Abruptly, her grumbling turned into her regular gummy smile. "The Wicker Man's Festival was truly fantastic; you really should've come along, got so many nice things… saw the old pig again… oh, the memories…"

"Yep, old lard-butt hadn't changed a bit!" squawked the scruffy black bird, taking a snap at the wisps, which hovered just out of reach. "Why you slept with him I have no idea-" His rambling was abruptly shut off by the witch snatching him off her head by his throat.

Strained beyond all belief at the past few days, upon hearing the old crone and her eccentric rambling, Merida's Scottish rage completely boiled over. "You dare show your face to me after what you did to my family?!" she screamed, snatching for her bow. An arrow whizzed by the witch's face, cutting her off mid-sentence.

"Well now, what was that for?" she asked indignantly.

"You gave me that cake knowing what it did!" the princess shouted, leaping off her horse, another arrow notched to her bow. "You stood there, doing all that wishy-washy magic stuff, and handed that cake to me without even telling me what it would do!" She released the string, sending the projectile spinning right for the raven, which his owner managed to pull out of the way in time.

"Well, I thought you knew what you wanted!" she snapped, halting the next arrow with a snap of her fingers. "You told me you wanted your ma changed. Wasn't my fault you didn't say exactly what needed changing!"

"Not your fault?" yelled Merida back. "My mum's a bear, and my da' wants her head on our wall, and likely my brothers once he sees them!" She pointed to the three cubs now huddling in fear on Angus's back. "My family's being torn apart, and I'm doing all I can to save it, and now you and your torchlights are in my way! I'd say that bloody does make it your fault, just like it was with Mor'du!"

The wisps all seemed to bristle at that insinuation. The witch blinked, before she frowned, her gold eyes suddenly gaining something all the more sharper. "Watch your tongue, young lady. As I recall, you're the one who asked for the spell, and so did he." Three more clicks knocked down three more arrows.

"And aren't you the one to keep using that stupid bear spell?" Merida countered, her red hair making her look like she was literally burning in fury. "You knew exactly what that spell would do, you old hag! My family wouldn't be hunting each other down if not for it, and Mor'du never would've destroyed his family if his bear instincts didn't take him over! You changed our fates, you ruined our families, and you're destroying our kingdom! Of course it's your fault!" One more arrow was loosed, this time directly at the witch's face.

"I said… WATCH YOUR TONGUE!" the witch suddenly screeched out, her voice suddenly echoing with the cries of crows and ravens. She snapped her fingers so hard it seemed like they broke, and Merida's weapons flew out of her hands to land in the grass, as she herself fell on her rear. At the same time, her hunched, elderly form exploded in a dark flurry of black feathers, as the cawing grew louder and more cacophonic. The triplets gave a squeal/cry as they buried their faces into Angus's fur, the horse rearing up in terror and trying desperately to hold his ground.

All of Merida's anger changed instantly into fear as the feathers blew away, revealing a figure who bore no resemblance to the old lady standing there a moment ago. A tall, regal, incredibly dangerous-looking lady now stood before her, with flowing hair as black as crow's wings and a feather-like cloak to match. A black and red dress with a silver-accented corset outlined a voluptous but wiry female figure, and peering out from behind a silver-steel wire facemask in the form of a crow's beak, were two baleful golden eyes glaring straight at her. "You dare to speak to me that way? You go too far, child!"

"The Mor… the – the Morri…" Merida stuttered, completely lost for words.

The figure took one stalking step towards her, the glint of steel appearing from under her cloak, when suddenly she halted and her eyes widened in some sort of realization. "NO! He was right! I don't believe it!"

Merida blinked, a small part of her fear turning to confusion. "I'm sorry? What?"

"That stupid pig bet me a week of companionship with him if I lost my temper during the rest of my holiday, and I couldn't even last a day, much less a decade!" the woman griped, whirling around in frustration. "When I get my hands on the Dagda…"

Merida's eyes instantly widened again as the reality hit her. "Then… you really are…"

"Aye, the Morrigan," the now-confirmed-to-be goddess answered, as her agitation ebbed. "The Phantom Queen, the Washer at the Ford, whatever you wish to call me. But you should be more concerned now with admitting you were wrong now, shouldn't you?"

"I… I…" Merida started backing up as the Morrigan began advancing again.

"Normally you'd be food for my crows right about now for your comments," the Morrigan said grimly, as her ever-present raven landed on an outstretched finger, "but I've been in a good mood lately, and franky… you intrigue me, Princess."

"I… I do?" Merida asked, unconscioulsy making sure she was between the goddess and her three brothers at all times.

"Trying to change your own destiny by your own whims? I understand that quite well," the Goddess said, lightly stroking her pet with her free hand. "Corvids are free spirits. Never liked to be chained down to anything, and if they happen to be pets, they do so by their own will. " With a flourish, she cast the raven into the air, where it flapped into the air and out of sight. "But even so, they still know their place in this world, and their responsibilities to keep the world stable. Mischief is one thing; outright destruction is another. The oldest prince learned that the hard way, when his choice to change his fate ended in disaster, despite my misgivings."

"Mor'du?" said Merida in astonishment. "But I thought you wanted him to go mad…"

"The fact that he did and his later fate is only one half of the tale," the Morrigan explained. "The other half is what happened when he came to see me. After the prince fell out with his brothers and entered into war with them, the kingdom was held at a stalemate for several years. Hoping to break the stalemate, the prince traveled to the ring of stones, before the wisps guided him to me in the guise of the woodcarver. I saw his potential to create a better future, and agreed to his wish for the strength of 10 men, but I advised him to rethink his choice, for it would lead to a stronger kingdom that would last for many more generations."

"Well, that obviously didn't work out as planned," muttered Merida, her earlier fear starting to ebb away.

"The spell I gave him was in the form of a drinking horn. If the prince had followed my advice, he would've shared the spell amongst his brothers, blessing them all with the same strength while keeping their minds whole, thus healing the bonds between them and bringing their kingdoms together again." The Morrigan tightened her hand into a fist. "But he instead consumed the spell whole and lost his body in the bear you know as Mor'du. Still set on his goal as the sole ruler, he slew his brothers, and with them, any chance he had of mending their bonds."

"And," the Morrigan's eyes glimmered in the light of the shifting will-o'-de-wisps, "with the bonds destroyed by his own hands, he lost any chance he had of regaining his humanity. And the rest, as they say, is history."

The Princess was silent as she absorbed the story. Slowly, she turned and pulled the tapestry with the mended seam off her horse's back, to look at it mournfully. "So… it wasn't about the tapestry at all? To repair my family, I will have to repair the bond with my mum… that I tore with my pride and selfishness?" She reached up to stroke one of the triplets' heads where they were looking down at her quietly.

The dark goddess nodded. "And you'll have to do it before sunrise, lest what happened to Mor'du, happens to your mother."

Merida gasped. "Then why are you keeping me here telling stories?! I have to go save her!" In a moment she had retrieved her bow, jumped back on Angus and prepared to ride off, but one hand on his muzzle made the horse freeze in his tracks.

"I wasn't quite finished," the Phantom Queen interjected, as the three wisps who had been floating around her patiently moved closer. "See, there's something else I need your help with, and it's about Mor'du himself. After all these centuries, his soul needs to return to Tír na Marbh for there to be balance and for him to finally have peace… and as a seer, I have seen that I am not the one to defeat him."

"…then… you want me to… how am I supposed to defeat a bear like Mor'du?" sputtered Merida as she grasped what the goddess wanted. "Arrows aren't going to work!"

"Which is exactly why these three are here," said the Morrigan, gesturing to the three wisps. "These three spirits have decided to bind themselves to your service until your days have ended. They shall give you the strength to slay the beast, channeled through this." Reaching beneath her cloak, she withdrew something that shouldn't have fit underneath it. To Merida, it looked like a sword, but it was more than half as tall as she was and had a strange curved shape.

"What is that?"

"Just something I picked up at the fair. I believe it will serve you well." The Morrigan was about to explain further, when her raven suddenly flew back into the clearing.

"Mistress, the murder did all they could, but the men have chased them off. They can't delay them any further, and they'll catch up with the woman in a few moments," croaked the raven worriedly.

The goddess frowned. "You can't spare any more time. You need to go rescue your mother." In one smooth motion, she tossed the blade at Merida. As it arced through the air, the three wisps flickered briefly, before shooting into the sword's blade like small shooting stars. As soon as Merida caught the sword by the handle, energy flooded through her small body and her clothes lit up as the remaining will-o'-de-wisps rose from around Angus to spin around the Princess at a dizzying speed.

When the excitement finally ended, the balls of blue flame split off and arranged themselves into a path leading off into the distance. "Follow the wisps to reach your destiny," said the Morrigan. "I wish you good luck."

"Thank you so much, my lady," Merida nodded, not thinking too much yet about what had happened to her, before snapping Angus's reins. With her brothers still staring in astonishment at her, the Princess galloped off into the woods along the path lit up by blue fire, intent on saving two families from their destinies.

The goddess watched her go, before resuming her older, hunched form, and tottered off, wondering if she should've told the girl about the potential future that would've happened if she had lost her temper enough to leave mortal wounds: a father slaying his family in his confusion and grief, a country weakened from internal strife, and overseas invaders that would eventually tear the land apart…

Hidden amongst the trees, a scarred face watched the mass of red hair ride away into the distance. His prey had gotten away once, and that was one time too many…

King Fergus leapt off his steed to observe the trussed up bear lying on the ground in front of him, as the ropes held by the members of the reunited four clans held it firmly down. Face contorted in a vengeful snarl, he drew his sword, intent on only one thing: vengeance for his slain wife.

When he stopped in front of the bear, sword raised above his head, he saw his victim looking up at him with what was undoubtably fear and pleading and… humanity?... in its eyes, and for a split-second, he almost felt he should spare it. But the feeling was lost in his rage; if this bear was to expect mercy from him, for what it did to his family, it wouldn't receive a drop of mercy. His muscles tightening, he brought the blade down with a yell of vengeance…

… only for it to turn into a yell of pain as an arrow grazed his hand and struck his blade, knocking it to one side and ruining his attack. Suffused with indignation, he spun around, intending to confront the blithering sod who interrupted him – and his jaw dropped three feet.

Leaping from her horse and glaring him right in the face was his own daughter, bow drawn and an arrow aimed straight at him. But what had him gawking and the crowd gasping was exactly what she was wearing now. Her mass of fiery-red hair was now tied back with something halfway between a helmet and a circlet, forged out of bronze and leather. Over a tight-fitting reddish tunic, she wore a turquoise shoulder cape edged with Gaelic embroidery, with what appeared to be metal-plated leather armor hidden under it, fastened with a sash and a belt. Connected to the armor were long, loose beige silk sleeves, and connected to the belt was a two-tiered back-covering skirt, made of dawn-covered silk and rougher travelling cotton. Hidden under the skirt, she wore a pair of sturdy, thigh-length, black travelling breeches hemmed with white, and completed the ensemble with knee-length red leather boots with open toes, revealing white cotton socks.

"Get back!" she barked, interposing herself between her father and the bear, which also looked completely taken aback by her new clothing. "That's my mother!"

Now Fergus was completely baffled. "Are you out of your mind, lass? And where on earth did you get that getup?"

Merida seemed less concerned about him though, and instead focused on the bear. "Mum, are you hurt?" The bear gave a groan in response, halfway between forlorn and perplexed.

Fergus didn't know what his daughter was doing calling the bear her mother, but he was not going to stand for it tainting Elinor's memory. He would have to deal with his daughter and her madness later. With one arm, he shoved her out of the way into Lord Macintosh, who helpfully secured her with his spear, while he raised his sword once again over the beast's head.

But whatever Merida had gotten in her head, she wasn't about to let it go. Deftly, she grabbed hold of the spear, threw her weight forward and flung the war-painted Lord clear over her head and onto his back. In the blink of an eye she was moving forward and drawing something secured on her back and hidden beneath her hair. Fergus only saw a flash of light before his daughter was once again in front of him, blocking his sword with a blade he'd never seen before. It was oddly curved, a foot longer than his, forged out an odd, glowing turquoise metal, and engraved with black Gaelic lettering.

"Merida!" he exclaimed in disbelief. With her father taken off guard, Merida retaliated, wielding the enormous blade like a toy. In two smooth movements, she had utterly disarmed him and sliced clean through his wooden leg, sending him toppling embarrassingly to the ground.

While the king was still blinking at being bested by his own daughter, Merida stood over her with a vengeful look on her face. "I'll not let you kill my mother!"

Before Fergus could make sense of what his daughter was saying, he was suddenly mobbed by three furry black shapes, snuffling and sniffing all over him. He yelled, trying to shoo them off.

"Boys!" Merida snapped, in the tone she only used… when ordering around the triplets. The three identical bear cubs glanced back at her and scrambled off. Fergus looked between them, her daughter, and the bear, before his mind finally caught up with what she had been saying and made the connection.

"Boys?" he sputtered, looking at the three now-all-too-familiar cubs.

Merida finally relaxed when her father finally seemed to realize what was going on, but the moment shattered when a footstep echoed through the clearing like thunder. Her eyes locked with a pair of glowing red eyes from outside the circle, and her knuckles whitened when the familiar, terrifying shape of the demon bear Mor'du emerged from the darkness. Its bellow sent a chill through every warrior's blood.

"Mor'du!" she gasped. Beneath her fingers, the saber seemed to shudder.

"Kill it!" barked Fergus, the sight of his rival igniting his blood once again. With a combined yell, the warriors of the four tribes charged for the behemoth, weapons drawn. But for all their tenacity and skill, they were no match for the beast, who cast each wave aside like raindrops. The tribes' best warriors were thrown into the stone pillars or sent sprawling across the grass.

Fergus leapt to his feet and laid a meaty punch right in the bear's muzzle. "Come on!" he bellowed. "I'll take you with my bare hands!" Weaponless and missing two inches off his wooden leg, he leapt at Mor'du. The transformed prince didn't even blink. With one paw, he swatted the Lord into the dirt, before taking his limb into his jaws and hurling him clear across the circle.

As Merida watched the carnage, she suddenly felt her blade heat up in her hand, and she instinctively slashed at the air, barking out the words that instantly came to her head, "Sparkler!". On cue, one of the wisps flew out of her blade and shot towards Mor'du where it exploded into a mass of blue fire. Mor'du roared in agony as the wisp flew back out of the inferno and disappeared back into the sword.

"Great Gods…" she whispered, staring at the blade in amazement.

Unfortunately for her, despite being scorched, the beast was far from brought down. With another ferocious roar, he charged for the princess. As he raised his paw, Merida brought her sword forward with a yell.

Enchanted steel met enchanted flesh like hammer and anvil. In the hands of its only user, the massive saber, Three Kings, weighed less than a brush, but to anyone else, it might as well have been a 1-ton warhammer. Blood gushed as the blade bit deep into the bear's paw, deflecting it.

But although thrown off balance, Mor'du still had another paw. It swept through the air and backhanded the Princess, knocking her backwards across the grass. Although her chestplate absorbed the worst of the blow, the impact with the ground drove all the breath from her lungs, although she somehow managed to retain the hold on her weapon.

She barely had time to take a breath before the rabid monster was upon her. Desperately, she interposed her sword between the beast and her, using every ounce of strength to hold off the bear as its slavering jaws gnashed an inch from her face. Fear and strain warred on Merida's face, and she screamed from the exertion of keeping her throat from being ripped out.

But just when she thought her arms were going to give out, a series of roars, men's yells and snapping ropes reached her ears, and a second black shape slammed into Mor'du, knocking it off her. The Princess clambered to her feet to see, to her horror, the black bear that was her mother now free from her bonds and facing off against Mor'du!

Catching sight of his prey, Mor'du snarled and loped towards her, but the Queen interposed herself between them and roared her own challenge. With a snarl of confirmation, the two mountains of muscle and fur went at each other, swiping and snapping with claw and tooth, bellowing with every blow.

However, from the very get-go, it was clear that Elinor's tenacity and drive was outmatched by Mor'du's size, strength and experience in his bear form. With a brutal paw to the face that left Merida crying out in fear, the smaller bear was hurled into one of the stone menhirs making up the circle, as the larger beast bore down on her.

"Get away from her!" shrieked Merida, raising her blade once again. "Fireworks!" The blade shimmered with blue flame once again, and when she swung it, all three wisps shot out through the air to detonate violently against the bear's back, stunning it enough for Elinor to shove him off with a roar.

Fergus, for his part, was utterly flummoxed by the chain of events, but with his daughter's life at stake and the other bear protecting her, there was one thing he was certain of. "Archers! Spearmen! I don't care what it takes; bring that monster down! But watch your aim!"

A second later, a shower of steel-tipped wood came down upon the beast from every able-bodied man holding a bow or a spear, but all it did was infuriate him and add on to the already-impressive collection of weapons lodged in his back. While he was shaking off the barrage, the smaller bear charged in again to smash him hard in the face, and Merida delivered a vicious cut to his rear leg with a mighty swipe.

The enchanted steel slashed right through the beast's hamstring, causing its left leg to buckle. But even lame, Mor'du's ferocity would not be stemmed, and it sezied Elinor with his jaws and hurled her clear across the ring to crash into another stone menhir, causing it to crack. Now unhindered, the behemoth once again turned his full attention on his prey, stalking towards her to finish the job he started in the ruins.

It was a mixture of seeing the beast finally lamed and seeing his daughter in danger again that spurred Fergus into action again. Grabbing a discarded sword off the ground and cursing his damaged leg, the Lord of the DunBroch clan flung himself at the beast to stab it deep in its ankle from behind. The beast reared up with a bellow of pain, giving Merida the opportunity to leap forward, the word "Momentum" on her lips, to violently gash the bear across its stomach.

Blue flame erupted from the wound as the wisps' power was channeled from the blade into the transformed Prince, causing it to writhe in agony. His red eyes fell on Fergus, who was trying to haul himself away before he was crushed. His teeth bared, Mor'du lunged for him, but found himself hauled backwards by the transformed Queen.

As the trio of cubs scurried forward and dragged Fergus away, Mor'du turned back towards Elinor and staggered towards her with his good leg, but she threw herself aside just in time, causing him to crash into the damaged menhir instead. Now seizing her chance, Elinor slammed him over and over again into the stone, causing more cracks to appear with every blow. Merida's eyes widened, understanding what her mother was trying to do, and the wisps responded, filling her mind with knowledge of a certain technique.

Enraged beyond all belief, Mor'du thrust his head forward and bit down savagely on the smaller bear's shoulder, freezing her in pain, and a final swing sent her flying away from him. But before he could do anything else, something else came into view: that of the Princess holding her glowing sword aloft and racing towards him, despite the shouts of her father and the roars of the other bear.

"The thread of fate that keeps you alive is about to be severed!" Merida hissed, her eyes narrowed. As she ran, the world slowed down before her eyes, and energy flowed from the wisps, through her blade, and into her body. One tilt of the blade caught the moonlight just so to give it a silver-blue sheen, which resulted in a trail of iridescent light behind her as she leapt off the ground at the behemoth. Her hands tightened on the handle of Three Kings, as she yelled out the words of her last attack.

"Cnoc… BRIS!"

A flash of blue streaked past the behemoth and the menhir, carving a line of light that bisected both, before vanishing to reveal Merida standing behind the menhir, sword oustretched. A second passed, then almost spontaneously, the relentless Mor'du crumpled to the ground like a puppet with cut strings. As he lay there groaning, the massive menhir, weakened by the constant blows against it, finally toppled over like a felled tree, crushing the monster underneath it with a muffled crunch.

Merida let out a huge breath as the full impact of what happened finally hit her all at once, and she turned around to see the aftermath of her work. As she stared at the stone, a circle of blue smoke started blooming from the rock's surface, before coalescing into the ghostly silhouette of a tall, burly Celtic man with furs.

As Merida gazed at him, the sword in her hand started to shake, and the three wisps emerged from the blade, floating in mid-air in front of her. The next moment, they started to emit blue smoke and grow as well, until three more men with furs stood before the first. Merida sucked in a breath when she realized who the wisps that were helping her were: Mor'du's brothers when he was still human.

The four ghostly men stared at each other for a long moment, before the eldest bowed to the others in regret. The three exchanged looks at that, and then one put his hand on his shoulder. In the look they shared, no words were needed; in death, all his sins were forgiven.

The four brothers then turned to Merida, and nodded solemnly to her in thanks, before all four transformed back into will-o'-de-wisps in another flash of blue. The Prince's freed spirit rose into the air and disappeared into the night sky, as the rest flew back into the sabre now lying on the ground.

Instantly, the blade rose into the air of its own accord, before disintegrating into a mass of blue sparks. At the same time, Merida's armor started to glow and shimmer bright blue, as it started evaporating into blue flames and smoke. When all the effects died down, the Princess of DunBroch stood in her original teal dress, some sort of card now clutched in her hand.

As Merida stood there, looking at the card in contemplation, she suddenly became aware of the sun's rays peeking over the horizion. "The second sun!" she gasped. Hastily, she ran to Angus and pulled the tapestry off his back, before running to the bear and throwing it over her. "Mum, I understand now! I understand what happened. I was selfish, I was foolish, I…" Her words were suddenly cut off with a gasp, when she looked into her mother's eyes, and saw only the black, animalistic eyes of the bear.

Merida looked back at the dawn, before the real impact of what was happening hit her like Mor'du's paw. "No… no! Mum! You can't go!" She fell to her knees as the bear, blinking in what might have been confusion, snuffled at her face. "I haven't told you that I was sorry! That I shouldn't have tried to change you! That… that it was my fault…" Tears now started to flow freely as she wrapped her arms around the bear's neck.

The members of the four clans observed the scene with nothing but sorrow. Fergus miserably watched his daughter break down in tears at the beast that was evidently his wife. He was only partially aware of the triplets huddling around him, as he unconsciously picked one up in one arm, patted the head of the second, and let the third cling tightly to his good leg.

"…It was all my fault," the Princess wept, clinging to what should be her mother, "I did this to you… to us. The Morrigan was right. I don't care about my destiny any more! I don't care if I never ride Angus, or shoot arrows, or swordfight ever again, I don't care if I'm bound to my destiny until my dying day… I… I just want you back… I want you back, mummy…" Her words trailed off into a whisper as she sobbed into black fur and the morning sun slowly shone down on the two of them, illuminating the tapestry… and the repaired tear in its picture.

"… I love you," Merida finally murmured, praying that if nothing else, those words were the last thing her mother ever heard from her.

It was not until a hand started stroking her hair did she realize that they wouldn't be.

The Princess looked up in shock to gaze into the brown eyes of her mother, as they gazed back at her from a teary, human face. "Mum!" she gasped through her tears. "You're back!"

Queen Elinor smiled with eyes brimming with tears and emotion, as she began smothering her daughter's face with all the kisses she could. Every bit of love she couldn't show to her child in her bear form she now gave to her this moment.

"You changed!" her daughter finally said, staring at her in wonder.

"Oh darling," the Queen replied, practically radiating joy, "We both have." With a final kiss on her forehead, the two of them felt the bond between them return, stronger than ever before, as the world smiled down upon them.

From the top of a tree a few miles away, a black-clad woman watched the scene in the distance with raven's eyes, as the big burly father and his sons embraced their family, laughing in joy and relief, as the other clans smiled around them and trying not to break down as well.

"Well, all's well that ends well, eh?" her familiar squawked. "Does that mean our rest is over?"

"Unfortunately," said the Morrigan stoically, but with the tiniest hint of a smile. As her pet started griping about getting back to work and exhalting at losing the stupid bear disguise, she turned her attention to the will-o'-de-wisp now floating in the palm of her hand.

"Come along then, Prince," she said to it. "The Veiled Court awaits." With that, she shrank into the form of a large black corvid and took to the air, the will-o'-de-wisp clasped in one talon.

Her familiar flapped up alongside her. "So," it croaked, "Looking forward to seeing the Dagda again?"

An annoyed wing cuff knocked it out of the sky.

Once again, I hope this chapter passes muster. I might go through it again a few times if I feel it needs perking up. And I know some people may call these Ass-Pulls, what else are they going to be?

Skirtzzz, thank you so much for waiting again! Sorry I took so long, but you know how uni life is these days: all assignments and midterms and not much else!

For those who are curious, the name of Merida's final attack is in Gaelic Scottish, which roughly translates to "Hill-Break". It comes from the power of the Caladbolg, a sword from Celtic mythology which is capable of shearing the top of a hill off with one strike, and the Zantetsu attack from the Samurai Dressphere, which translates to "Iron-Cutting". And of course, the sword's name, Three Kings, comes from the souls of Mor'du's three brothers infused into it.

If you're wondering how I associated a raven goddess like the Morrigan with the bear-motif witch, I thought that for a goddess going incognito on earth, who would suspect the Morrigan to put so much emphasis on bears? The raven is just a small reminder of what she really is.

Like before, find Merida's samurai costume, created by the talented DeviantArtist Skirtzzz here (scrap all the spaces)!:

skirtzzz . deviantart dotcom / art / Samurai - Merida - 304708964

Review and Critique as you like; more support will inspire me to work faster! But please, no flaming!

Next Chapter: The Silent Sapphire