"She wanted none of those days to end, and it was always with disappointment that she watched the darkness stride forward."- Markus Zusak

~11 years later~

The ground thundered as the creature dashed by. Its rider let out a shout of joy as she let go of the reins and threw her arms out, her hair flowed behind her like flames in the wind. In moments like this everything else was forgotten, no responsibilities, no lessons; she could be herself, here she was free.

But sadly her freedom never lasted as long as she would have liked. The clouds were darkening and she would have to head home soon, but first she would gather a few arrows from the targets hanging from the trees to put in her quiver. She wasn't a three arrow girl anymore.

The weather conditions hadn't exactly been ideal for riding or for her archery practice, but that had never stopped her before.

As they entered the stables and Merida got off her horse thunder rolled, and drops of rain began to fall.

"Looks like there's gonna be a storm after all, huh Angus?"

She gave him some routine tending before going inside, and just as she did the rain poured down.

Shaking off some of the water and chills she made her way to the dining hall.

For once her dad wasn't telling the story of how the ferocious Mor'du took his leg. Instead he was toward the end oftelling of the tale of her bow's namesake, Naris. The young red headed triples listened eagerly to the new violent story.

She hoped that her lateness would go unnoticed; placing her bow on the back of the chair she sat quietly at the table and filled her plate with the food from the plates in the center.

"Nice of you to finally join us, Merida." her mother said without even looking up from the documents she was looking over, when she did look up she noticed Merida's hair was damp from the rain. "I hope you weren't outside in that storm, you'll catch your death."

"It's only a little rain," just then a clash of thunder was heard, as if to contradict her. "…was only a little rain."

She sighed "Beside the point, now that you're here your father and I have something important to tell you, Fergus."

He was giving a visual demonstration of the story and had the leg of meat in his hand mid-air like a sword.

He lowered his arm "Yes dear?"

"Don't you have something you'd like to tell Merida?"

She turned to her father.

"Well…um…th' three Lords arrived today."

"And why are the three Lords here?" Elinor asked, trying to get him to give more information on the subject.

He had dreaded this coming day for eleven years now, and he had to be the one to tell her? She wouldn't like the idea, not one bit. But it had to be done for the future good of the Kingdom, and the other three Clans.

"Well ye see," he began "there comes a time in everyone's life where…" he tried again with a different phrase "sometimes ye have tae make sacrifices…" looked to his wife for guidance.

She interfered when he continued to stumble over his words and got farther from what was trying to be said.

"What your father is trying to say is, there comes a point in everyone's life where you have to make personal sacrifices for the greater good."

Merida looked confused "What are ye talking aboot?"

"The Lords are here to support us and the kingdom when we leave for Berk tomorrow."

Berk, she had heard that name before, but couldn't put a location with it.

As if she had read her mind her mother filled her in.

"Berk is to the north, if you actually paid attention in your studies you would know that."

Something was strange about all this. Highlanders didn't just go to the north on a whim. It was unheard of, especially since one type in particular of their enemies lived there.

"But th' north is Viking territory." she said "Are ye going tae make a declaration of war?" It was the only logical explanation given the current information.

"Our reason for going is the exact opposite of war; we are going so we can finalize an alliance."

An alliance between Highlanders and Vikings, the idea was as crazy as it sounded. Had they both forgotten that they invaded the lands and would have taken over, had it not been for the three clans coming together? Of course there had been no wars between the two in her lifetime or even her father's, but the history was still there, and the idea was absurd.

"What makes ye think they'll keep their word? They're nae exactly th' most trustworthy people oot there. It cuid be a trap to ambush ye!"

"That's where you come in."

"Me? What have I got tae dae with this?"

"You're an important part of the alliance terms Merida; you and the chief's son that is." Merida suddenly got a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, she knew where this was going, but it hadn't completely registered yet.

The queen took her silence as a chance to further explain. "The terms to binding the alliance were that when you both were of age, you would marry the chief's son."

Shock cover her face "What, you hae tae be joking, right?"

"I wish we were lass." Her father said sympathetically.

"Merida this treaty has been pending for eleven years, we can't just back out now."

"Eleven years?" Her chair fell back as she abruptly stood up "Ye waited eleven years tae tell me this?! All that time ye knew that ye were going tae just sell me awa' tae some Viking in th' north?! I can't believe you would dae something like that! They are our enemies 'n' ye want me to marry one just so you can have a stupid treaty?! I won't go thro' wit' this, ye can't make me!"

Up until now her mother had been calm, but with the girl's outburst, it took effort to remain her composure. She turned to her sons whose eyes were still on Merida. "Boys, I think it's time for you to go to bed." They looked at one another and made some sort of silent agreement to leave. But of course that didn't mean they were going to bed when such excitement was going on. They would use one of their secret passageways to watch the rest.

After they had left the queen turned back to Merida who still glared at her.

"Merida," she said trying to keep her voice calm, but it was becoming more of a challenge. "try to understand how this can benefit us and the kingdom."

"It'll benefit you, nae me! Ye care more aboot th' kingdom than yer own daughter! "

"Merida, this alliance will-"

"I don't care aboot yer stupid alliance!" With that she stormed off "And I'm nae marrying a Viking savage!" she said before continuing to her room.

Her mother called her name as if it was an order for her to come back, she didn't listen.

~:~

When Merida entered her room she slammed the door shut. Finding her sword on the floor she clenched the handle in her hand and began swinging at the air, until it met one of her tall bed posts. She continued to cut into the post, pretending it was a number of things.

She didn't hear them sneak in but she saw their identical red hair. They stood near the fireplace, next to the hole in the wall, which they had entered in from. One held a small brown sack, and handed it to her.

Inside there was food from had forgotten that she didn't even have a chance to eat before she stormed off. Inside there were two legs of meat, a bread roll and three sweets. Of course they had gotten more sweets than anything else.

"Thanks" She smiled at them "Ye heard all o' that did ye?" she asked judging from the fact that they had brought her food. They all nodded.

Her smile fell. If she didn't so something she would have to leave them. The three little devils who always played pranks, some she had even helped with. Merida was one of the few that could actually tell them apart, even her own mother got them mixed up sometimes.

Merida shook her head.

How could her parents do this to her? Just uproot her from her life like this. Didn't she have a say in any of this? She was going to be force to live with a bunch of savages for the sake of peace.

She had always assumed that she would just end up marrying one of the young Lords; it would certainly beat marring a Viking any day.

This is not the fate she wanted.

But it didn't matter what she wanted; by the end of tomorrow they would be leaving for Berk, and it felt like her life would fall apart.

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