AN: This chapter ended up being twice as long as it was supposed to be... I'mma roll with it! Enjoy, Comment, Peace, Love -All very good things. But in all seriousness: I hope you guys enjoy the new chapter! :)

NOTES: Fate be Changed, Look Inside, Mend the Bond, Torn by Pride.

REVIEWERS!:

BrawlerGamer: Yeah... I would have included Jim, Flynn, Camicazi, Eep, and several others. There would've been, like, twenty characters to keep track of. But there were many more reasons, other than the number of characters, that my original drafts changed and developed. Honestly, I've overthought every last detail of this story, and I think that's why I'm having such trouble deciding where it should go... I think too much. Ms. Carver is that teacher who randomly goes off on some lecture that has nothing to do with what you're doing and makes absolutely no sense. All of the students know her by this trait. Even some of the other teachers. Bunnymund finds her creepy, as you may remember from first year... Oh, the joys of fiction! The main characters never learn! :)

C: Don't worry! Jack, Hiccup, and Rapunzel are going to be around a lot more after this chapter. And I've still got plenty of tricks up my sleeves! I'm so happy! I love it when people enjoy my ramblings about characters! And, yes. I thought about Every. Single. Detail. I'm a perfectionist. But I think because I've been working on this story so long all of my over-thinking is making it hard for me to make decisions... But no worries! One way or another, I'll finish this project! This is pretty much the only story I've ever even considered a deleted scenes spinoff for, and I'm actually really excited about it. But, you are right, it would have to wait until the series itself was finished. The problem with the plot is that I have a point A and a point C, but I have about three different point B's that I could use to get from A to C, so I can foreshadow really easily, cause I know what's coming no matter what. I just don't know how I want to get there because, again, I HAVE TOO MANY THOUGHTS! I don't mind working on my own. I really just do this for fun. So I probably wouldn't want a Beta reader for every single chapter, but having someone to bounce ideas off of without having to worry about spoilers and stuff might be nice. I've never worked with anyone on a writing project before, so I have no way of knowing if I would like it or not. Right now, I'm feeling pretty indifferent about it, though. Hahahaha... haha... ha... There's that point B rearing it's ugly head... Nah, I'm just kidding! I know what I'm doing for Hiccup's story... for the most part...

HanyouExorcistAlchemist48: Yep :)

Arwen Eledel: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! WELCOME TO THE MADNESS! -Awww, you're so sweet! Thank you! It's good to know people are reading February 29th. I don't get reviews for it, so I only hear about it when people favorite it (which doesn't happen too often...). Hiccup is my favorite, too. He's amazing. Also, yes, I spent quite a bit of time developing not just the plot for the series, but the individual stories of the characters. I really wanted each of them to grow through their own experiences and individual challenges. SELKIES ARE SO FREAKING CUTE! And, please! Speculate as much as you want! I love hearing the theories about what might happen next! I post every Tuesday, usually pretty late in the evening. Hope you enjoy the new chapter! P.S. Jack and Hiccup's friendship was one of the top motivators for this entire series. It's one of my favorite parts about it, so thank you for noticing! I'm really happy that so many people love it as much as I do! :)

Chapter 13: A Bear?!

Merida sat on her parent's broken bed, her arms crossed and her brow narrowed, as her mother paced back and forth in front of her, groaning and grumbling in her unknown bear language. It was quite apparent she was giving Merida some form of lecture and ranting to her about how irresponsible she was, no doubt.

"There's no point in having a go at me!" Merida finally interrupted her mother's endless growling. "The witch is to blame! Goggly old hag." Merida muttered angrily. "Eyes all over the place! ...Gah! Just -Unbelievable!" Merida stood up in her outrage. "I'll get her. I'll get her, and I'll fix this!" She swore determinedly under her breath.

Pausing in her muttering for a moment, Merida realized her mother had placed her crown back on her head and was testing the colors of her ruined gown against her black fur, and then the colors of the blanket that had been pulled off the bed. She sighed in defeat, and proceeded to wrap herself in the blanket while leaving her green gown on the stone floor.

"Mom?" Merida questioned as her mother looked about the room and then started towards the door. "Mom!" Merida repeated, hurrying after her as she opened the door and squeezed through the too-small doorway. "Mom, you can't go out there!" Merida hissed, following after her. "Mom! Wait!"

Of course, the Queen-turned-bear didn't wait. She kept walking down the corridor, the blanket wrapped around her, and knocked over a hall table. Apparently the Queen was not quite used to her new size and bulk, but Merida skirted around the fallen object and ran after her mother until she managed to scoot in front of her, making her stop.

"What are you doing?" Merida demanded, wondering what on earth her mother was thinking. Elinor returned her question with look that clearly stated 'what does it look like, I'm doing?', and Merida's eyes only widened farther. "Dad! The Bear King?" Merida said, trying to remind her mother about the potential dangers of walking around so openly in the castle. "If he so much as sees you, you're dead." Merida warned her.

A loud, complaining voice made Merida jump and gasp as she whirled to look down the corridor where she could barely see the beginnings of the stairways. More voices followed, and she recognized them to belong to each of the Lords as her father appeared at the top of the stairs, a legion of men behind him.

Merida drew back from the corner she'd peeked around and turned to look back at her mother, only to find that she had decided to wander off in the opposite direction.

"Mom!" Merida screamed as best she could while not raising her voice above a whisper, and ran to catch up, pausing only long enough to fix the fallen table, and then she rounded the corner at the other end of the hall, chasing after her mother as he father and his men entered the hall behind them.

Merida rushed after the looming form of her mother, already feeling slightly out of breath as she, once again, hurried around to stand in front of her mother. This time she placed her hands on her mother's fur-covered belly and pushed her backwards a little. Not that it did much, seeing as how big and strong the Queen was now.

"Mom! Wait!" Merida said, keeping her voice hushed. Her mother gave her a narrow-eyed look that told Merida the Queen had no intention of listening to her in this moment, but Merida continued on trying anyways. "We have to -"

Merida stopped as her mother brushed passed her, knocking a candle holder against the stone wall as she did so. Merida managed to catch it before it fell on the floor, but not before it had made a horrible clanging sound against the wall.

Her mother just kept going as if the horribly, echoing loud sound didn't matter at all in their current situation.

Merida righted the candle holder, officially fed up with her mother's behavior, and chased after the Queen angrily. "Stop." She said, reaching out to her mother. When Elinor ignored her again, Merida did the only thing she could think of. "STOP!" She hissed, yanking the blanket off of her mother's fur-covered body.

The Queen instantly stopped and looked down at herself, and then she used her arms to try and cover herself as she gasped. She looked at Merida in mortified horror, and then leaned towards her, as if asking for her to return her clothes.

"You're covered with fur! You're not naked!" Merida snapped, still keeping her voice at a whisper. "It's not like anyone's going to see you!"

It was immediately after the words escaped Merida's mouth that she and Elinor noticed the side-hall that connected to the one they were currently arguing in, and the fact that Maudie, their head maid, stood there, staring at them, or, more specifically, the Queen with eyes the size of dinner plates.

Merida simply stared, unsure of what to do at this point, and Elinor smiled as best she could with her bear snout, giving her maid a tiny wave.

Maudie screamed, throwing the basket of bread she was carrying in the air and scattering loaves of bread across the floor as she turned and ran away faster than Merida had ever seen the plump woman run.

"Now you've done it," Merida said, not bothering to keep her voice lowered as she motioned in the direction Maudie had run.

Elinor huffed a large sigh, and then turned and started walking again, which made Merida groan openly with frustration. She was very close to being convinced that her mother was trying to get caught.

Merida glanced nervously down the hall that Maudie had disappeared down, but ultimately turned and started chasing after her mother, again.

It wasn't long before they came across a particular hallway that Merida knew all too well because it lead directly to the moving staircases. One of the most trafficked areas in the whole castle, and no matter where you went you were visible to anyone in the stairwell from nearly any angle. Hiding a full-sized bear would be impossible!

For a moment, Merida's mind began to panic, but she firmly set it back in place as she noticed a spacious four-way corridor not far down the hall. She quickly ran ahead to stand in front of her mother and blocked the Queen's path by spreading her arms out wide, backing up a few steps as her mother continued walking, despite her protests.

"Just listen to me!" Merida argued with her, and was thankful that her mother stopped and looked at her. "We can't go this way! You'll be seen!" Merida told her.

Before Merida could continue arguing with her mother, she backed into the four-way corridor just as another figure came around the corner, and the two collided. Merida let out a yelp of surprise and whirled to face the other person, coming face-to-face with Jack, Rapunzel, and Hiccup.

Her three friends, much like Maudie, spent a short moment simply staring at them with wide-eyed expressions, and Merida, unsure of what to say or do, simply stayed silent and offered them a grimace-like smile.

Hiccup was the one to finally break the silence as he leaned over slightly to Jack and Rapunzel and asked, "You guys see the bear, too... Right?"

That snapped them out of it.

"Of course we see the bear! Merida, why is there a bear?!" Rapunzel burst out, her expression beyond confused and slightly terrified as she spoke much faster than usual.

"I found Ms. Carver in the woods and she gave me a potion and it turned my mom into a bear!" Merida rushed to explain.

"Why a bear?!" Jack exclaimed.

"I don't know! I didn't ask for a potion to that changed people into bears! I just asked her to change my mom, and now my mom's a bear, and we need to find Ms. Carver so she can fix this, but first we need to get my mom out of the castle before anyone see's her!" Merida blurted out all in one breath, and her mother gave a small roar of agreement.

Rapunzel, Jack, and Hiccup all looked at each other, unsure of how to respond or what to do. Hiccup simply shrugged, and Rapunzel gave a rather lost expression, completely unprepared for a situation such as this because, really, who would be?

"You know, our group has done some pretty crazy stuff, but I'm pretty sure this takes the cake!" Jack said, pointing at Merida and Elinor with the curved part of his staff.

"Jack!" Rapunzel admonished, giving him a firm look of disapproval.

"What?! We were all thinking it!" Jack defended himself.

"Well... Maybe, but... Well, none of us were saying it out loud." Rapunzel told him, crossing her arms over her chest with a sense of finality.

"Guys," Hiccup said somewhere in the background.

"Well, it isn't my fault!" Merida snapped. "If there's anyone to blame, it's Ms. Carver! She's the teacher in this whole mess, and she's the one who gave me the bad spell!"

"Guys," Hiccup said again, but Merida and the others were to caught up in their current conversation.

"Alright, well, where did you two meet each other? Ms. Carver may be a bit... uh, eccentric at times, but I'm sure she had no intention of turning Her Majesty into a bear, of all things." Rapunzel spoke up, the voice of reason in the middle of so much chaos.

"Well..." Merida trailed off.

"Merida?" Rapunzel inquired carefully, looking rather nervous about what the answer might be.

"I wasn't thinking clearly!" Merida defended herself. "I was riding, and then suddenly I was in the forbidden forest! Then a Wisp appeared, and they lead me to Ms. Carver's cottage in the forest!"

"You've got to be kidding me!" Jack cried, throwing both his hands onto his face as he stumbled back a bit.

"GUYS!"

"WHAT?!" Merida, Jack, and Rapunzel all asked, and even Elinor let out a rather aggravated huff at the boy.

Hiccup simply pointed farther down the corridor where large shadows flickered in the torchlight and screaming voices were growing louder by the second.

"The Bear King!?" Hiccup reminded them.

"Quick, this way!" Merida said and took off down the right corridor with Jack, Rapunzel, and Hiccup right on her heels, but the four came to an abrupt halt halfway down a set of spiral stairs.

Merida turned and poked her head back around the corner, the others following her example until they were leaning over each other to look around the same corner. "Mom?" Merida asked.

"Quick, this way!"

Elinor, with her heart racing and her mind panicking, darted down the hall on the left. She wasn't sure where she was going, but she was positive she didn't want her husband, or the Lords for that matter, to see her like this.

Oh, the whole Gathering had gone completely wrong the moment Merida had shot for her own hand with that blasted bow! That horrible scrap of wood that her husband had insisted on giving her for her fourth birthday. Merida had changed so much after receiving that bow. All she wanted to do was practice archery, never wanted to focus on the reading and writing lessons that would help her later on. Elinor had tried so hard, but that enraging, simple piece of wood that she hated so much had some how enchanted her daughter into a world of rebellion and resentment towards the traditions and the lessons that Elinor had waited so long in eager anticipation for the day she would get to pass them on to her own daughter. Oh, yes, that blasted piece of dead tree that infuriated her so much because it was the reason her daughter had changed so much. That... that wretched, horrid bow that she also loved... that she loved so much because it always made her sweet little girl so happy. It never failed to make her smile, and her eyes sparkle so brightly, and Oh! Why was all of this happening? What had gone so horribly wrong that they would end up here?

Elinor was ripped from her thoughts when she rounded a corner and crashed into another chest that decorated the hall. The piece of furniture tipped over, and Elinor cursed her larger size that made it near impossible to move as she backed into the dead-end hallway.

Where should she go? If she didn't find a place to hide quick, she'd be seen for sure.

Pressed into the corner, Elinor looked around with wide-eyes. She noticed a tapestry on the wall beside her and quickly pawed her way behind it. She pulled it to cover her face, but it pulled the other end off of her rear-end. Elinor groaned.

The next thing to catch her eye was a door, and, deciding she had nothing to lose, she pushed her way into the new room, letting the door swing shut behind her as she froze to look at the room and the people inside of it.

The room was a store room for different taxidermy animals and animal figures that the school used for educational purposes, but what really caught Elinor's attention was Hamish, Hubert, and Harris standing on top of a bear figure that had been given a pair of hawk wings, and they were sticking a deer head on top.

Elinor was so shocked she tilted her head and gave a confused gruff. The boys response after they looked up were wide-eyed terror and sharp gasps.

"Mom! Mom!" Merida called with a whispering note as she darted back and forth across the endless halls, peeking down corridors in the hopes of catching a glimpse of black fur darting around a corner.

"Your Majesty!" Rapunzel called as well, but kept her voice as low as she could. "Queen Dunbroch!"

"We are the only people I know who can lose an entire bear!" Jack muttered as he checked behind tapestries and certain doors.

"We're the only people I know who would have a bear!" Hiccup retorted. "No offense, Merida, but what is it with your family and bears?!"

Before Merida could reply, the echoing yells of her father's hunting party came racing down a hall to their right, and the four were tripping over themselves and each other as they rushed to duck behind a corner just a few feet down the hall.

Merida pressed her back against the wall with Jack and Rapunzel beside her, but Hiccup tripped over his own feet and landed on his rear just as the hunting party passed by their hiding spot, completely unaware.

After she was sure that the hunting party was gone, Merida turned to ensure that Hiccup was alright, and found that it wasn't his feet he had tripped over, but a chest that had been knocked over.

Merida and Rapunzel righted the chest as Jack helped Hiccup up, and then the four went to the door that was slightly ajar next to the chest. They pushed it open, peering inside as with Merida in the lead, and Hiccup in the back rubbing his lower back.

They stopped when they saw Queen Elinor directing Hamish, Hubert, and Harris as the boys carried a mounted deer head and placed it on the wall where it belonged. When they were done, the boys turned and looked at them. Hamish motioned to Queen Elinor, obviously looking for an explanation, and Elinor motioned back to the boys with an expectant look on her face.

Merida huffed a sigh and walked farther into the room, her friends right behind her. "A witch turned mom into a bear. It's not my fault." She told them. "We need to get out of the School, I need your help!"

The three boys gave her a matching set of dry expressions.

"Alright, you can have my desserts for two -Three weeks!" Merida offered them, but, once again, Hamish motioned for her to keep going. "Okay, fine! A year."

To that, the three boys nodded in agreement.

Within less than half an hour Merida had changed into her usual green dress and cloak, and the eight of them had come up with a plan to get Queen Elinor out of the school. Or, more accurately, Jack, Hiccup, and the triplets came up with the plan while Merida, Rapunzel, and Elinor watched them muttered excitedly to each other.

In the end, Jack and Hiccup took Harris and Hubert, and, with a giant rubber frog and medium sized pot from the storage room, disappeared into the secret passageways. Harris and Hubert created a distraction to lead the hunting party away, and Jack and Hiccup lead the younger boys through the secret passages of the castle.

Hamish stayed with Merida, Rapunzel, and Elinor. He made various noises and sounds as they moved through the corridors, and Merida could only guess that he was informing the others of where they were.

As they hurried along, Merida could hear the fake bear-roars and the screaming of the excited hunting party. She even caught a short glimpse of a bear's shadow, and eventually she managed to figure out that was the reason they had taken the frog.

Hamish lead them down many different corridors, and Merida followed right behind him. Elinor followed a bit more slowly, grumbling and gasping in distress as she knocked things off walls, out of place, and tore down tapestries by accident, and Rapunzel followed behind her, fixing all that she could in the halls without falling too far behind.

"Come on, mom!" Merida called over her shoulder as they came to the end of a hall that Merida recognized almost immediately because it was a dead-end with nothing but a portrait of fruit.

Hamish, being so short, couldn't reached high enough to tickle the pear, so Merida did it for him, and together they carefully eased the door to the kitchens open. They stopped when they saw Maudie and two other maids sitting on the benches.

"What did you see, Maudie?" One of the maids asked sympathetically.

"Oh, just spit it out, Maudie!" The other exclaimed, apparently having been there a while. "Oh, for goodness sake, Maudie, would you get a grip!"

Merida looked passed them, though, when she heard thumping noises coming from the chimney, and before she could even make a guess to what it was, one of her brother's dropped down, the rubber frog covering his entire head and the legs wiggling around wildly. Maudie screamed, shooting out of her seat and running out of the kitchen, and the two maids quickly followed, giving smaller yelps and shrieks of fear as they hurried out of the kitchens.

Hamish waved for them to keep coming as he pushed the door open wide for them. Merida was down the steps in a matter of seconds, waving for her mother to hurry up. "Come on, mom, quick."

Elinor tried to follow, but she hit her head on the top of the door frame. She rubbed her head with her large paw as she stepped into the kitchens and over to the small set of stairs, but she slipped on the first one and slid all the way down to the bottom. She reached, trying to pull herself up by using the shelves next to her as a support, but they collapsed underneath her and dumped their contents of bottles and jars on top of her.

Elinor scrambled to her feet, now on solid ground, and she managed to join Merida over by the door, but not with hitting her head against the pots and pans that were hanging from the ceilings.

Rapunzel joined them at the door as the triplets reunited with their arms over each others shoulders, beaming up at them. Harris and Hubert were covered in ash and soot, and Hamish gave a large sneeze, and a long string of snot came out of his nose. Hiccup and Jack weren't much better, seeing as they had just come down the chimney as well. Jack's white hair was grey from the soot, and Hiccup had ashes smeared across his cheeks, but they were both grinning as widely as the younger boys in front of them.

Elinor grumbled worriedly at the triplets as Rapunzel held the door open, but they didn't have time for this. Merida wasn't sure what the boys had done to throw the hunting party off their trail, but she was fairly certain it wouldn't last forever.

"They'll be fine, won't you boys?" Merida asked, and the boys' puffed up their small chests, trying to look sly and cool as they waved them off.

"Don't worry. Hiccup and I will stay here and watch over them." Jack reassured her as well. "We'll make sure no one gets too curious about where you've gone."

Merida nodded gratefully towards Jack and Hiccup, and they smiled back. "Mom, we've got to hurry!" She insisted, gently pushing her mother back as Rapunzel lead her out the door.

"Jack and Hiccup will take good care them, you don't have to worry." Rapunzel told the Queen kindly as Merida pulled the door closed.

"We'll be back soon." Merida said to the boys, knowing they would be fine on their own for a while. "Go on and help yourself to anything you want. As a reward." She addressed this to her brothers, and then quickly shut the door, heading off with Rapunzel and her mother.

In the kitchens, the triplets looked around excitedly before they gasped, their grins widening as their eyes fell on a small cake with a tiny bite taken out of it. They hurried over to it, rubbing their hands together as they got a small knife and started cutting.

Jack and Hiccup looked at each other and shrugged, walking over to join the boys at the table and benches.

"Where are these Wisps?" Merida sighed heavily as she walked about the stone circle she had encountered earlier. Honestly, she was surprised she'd been able to find it. She would have thought it would be deeper in the forest with how long she'd been riding Angus for, but apparently not. "Come out, Wisps!" She called into the night fog. "Come on out!... Lead me to Ms. Carver's cottage!... I'm here!... Fine. Don't come out now that my mom's watching."

Elinor gave a questioning grumble, and Merida looked up at her, really unsure of what to do.

"I was standing right here! And the Wisp appeared right there! Then a whole trail of them lead me off into the forest!" She tried to explain, waving her arms about for emphasis.

"Are you sure you didn't use a spell of some sort?" Rapunzel asked gently. "Wisps are Spirits of Destiny, according to Professor Robinson, and she also told us that Seer magic can be very eccentric. Professor Robinson seems pretty confident that you have the Gift of a Seer, and maybe, somehow, you accidentally summoned the Wisps with your magic." Rapunzel theorized.

"But I wasn't even thinking about anything like that! And magic without an incantation? I've only ever seen Professor Sandman do that, and he's a Sorcerer!" Merida pointed out, feeling aggravated by the whole situation. The Wisps never came out when she needed them to.

Elinor held up a paw to stop the girls' conversation, and then she started walking out into the trees, following a partially overgrown trail as Merida and Rapunzel watched her go.

"Bah, what does she think? That we're just going to happen upon the witch's cottage?" Merida muttered to her friend. Rapunzel shrugged uncertainly, and the two had no choice but to follow the Queen farther into the woods.

They walked along for some time. With no real sense of direction, they were left to simply wander, following after the Queen who, even when hopelessly lost and changed into a bear, managed to look purposeful and regal with every step. Merida trailed behind, trying to think of a way to fix this mess, and Rapunzel stuck close to Merida's side, watching the treeline nervously. The Forbidden Forest was not a friendly looking place, and Merida had to agree that the cold and the heavy fog were not helping.

Eventually, Merida started noticing little things that seemed familiar, and slowly she came to realize that she had passed through here before. When she'd first found Ms. Carver's cottage!

"Oh, mom! I know this place..." Merida trailed off as she tried to remember where she had gone from there. "...Ms. Carver's cottage is... It's this way! Come on! Hurry!" She exclaimed, running passed her mother to take the lead.

Merida ran through the lush, green grass, she jumped over logs and ducked under low-hanging branches as she rushed in the direction she had traveled the first time. She came to a stop at the top of a rise and there, right in front of her, was the little cottage.

"I can't believe it!" Merida beamed as Rapunzel and Elinor came up behind her to join her in looking down at the cottage. "I found it!" Merida grinned, and jumped to it once again, rushing towards the cottage.

She ran to the door and threw it open, grinning happily as it opened easily to allow her inside, but the smile quickly fell from her face when she realized the cottage was completely empty. Cold and dark and bare. Ms. Carver was nowhere in sight.

"No... She was here!" Merida closed the door and looked back at her mother. "No, really! She was, just, here!"

Elinor groaned loudly, rolling her eyes up to the sky, and Rapunzel bit her lip. Merida could see it in her friend's eyes, she wanted to help so badly, but she had no idea what to do or how to fix any of their current problems.

"Oh, wait," Merida said, remembering something Ms. Carver had told her. She walked away from the door, gave a snap of her fingers, and then walked back over. Once again, she opened the door, but it was still completely barren. "No." She cried, closing the door and opening it over and over again. "No. No! No, No!"

She finally took a step into the cottage, and her ankle tripped a wire that started some contraption. Several moving parts creaked in the darkness, and suddenly a knife flew through the air and embedded itself in the wall beside her, making Merida yelp and Rapunzel shriek. A cauldron at the center of the room, however, bubbled to life with a green glow. Merida shared a nervous glance with Rapunzel, and then they started to slowly approach the boiling cauldron.

"Welcome to the Crafty Carver, home of bear themed carvings and novelties!" Ms. Carver's face suddenly appeared in the smoke of the potion, and her voice echoed over the top of the green-glowing water. "I am currently not accepting requests at this time, but if you'd like to inquire about portraits or wedding cake toppers, pour vial one into the cauldron. If you liked the Bedouin garlic, vial two. If you're that red-haired lass, vial three. If you -"

The floating head wasn't able to finish as Merida snatched up the third vial on the table, ripped on the topper, and poured the contents into the cauldron.

The cauldron, and then Ms. Carver's face appeared once again. "Princess! I'm off to the Wicker Man's Festival in Stornoway. I won't be back until Fall for the new school year. But there's one bit I forgot to tell you about the spell. By the second sunrise your spell will be permanent! Unless you remember these words: Fate be Changed, Look Inside, Mend the Bond, Torn by Pride."

"Fate be changed? Mend the bond? Oh, what does that mean?" Merida demanded.

"One more time!" The head announced. "Fate be Changed, Look Inside, Mend the Bond, Torn by Pride... That's it! Ta-ta! Oh, and thank you for shopping at the Crafty Carver!" The image called out to them as it faded back into the mist.

"No!" Merida blurted out, her hands trembling as the weight of the situation started to overwhelm her. "No! Where'd you go?" Merida grabbed another vial and poured it in. The head appeared once more, but started babbling about more carvings. "What?!" Merida yelped and, feeling so, so desperate, she grabbed more vials, pouring in mixture after mixture. "There -There's got to be a -a spell, or something to make this right!" Merida cried over the noise of the image repeating several different lines over and over in the background.

"Merida, stop!" Rapunzel shouted, pulling Merida back from the cauldron as the glow steadily grew more and more intense. The image sparked and babbled incomprehensibly as the three slowly backed away from it.

Realizing that the potion had been overwhelmed, Rapunzel and Merida immediately dove for the floor, and Elinor caught them both, wrapping them up safely in her fur-covered arms.

"Have a lovely day!"

A blinding flash of white light engulfed everything, and then suddenly it was quiet. The three slowly pulled away from each other and looked around to find that the cottage had been destroyed. Nothing was left. Merida looked up at her mother, and Elinor's ears fell back. The Queen and Rapunzel looked as hopeless as she felt.

Eventually, rain began to fall from the sky, forcing them to make shelter for themselves. Merida and Rapunzel used what planks of wood they could find in the wreckage to make somewhat of a shelter for them, and the three of them squeezed in together under the small shelter.

Elinor looked lost in thought, her expression rather dejected. Merida peeked at her from under the hood of her cloak. "We'll sort it out tomorrow." She offered weakly, trying to be optimistic.

Queen Elinor looked at her for a moment, but then turned her back to the two girls and laid down. Rapunzel placed a comforting hand on Merida's shoulder, silently promising that they would figure this out, and then she, too, tried to sleep.

Merida was left alone to look up at the thundering, black clouds that filled skies.