Chapter 2

Someone was calling her name. There were flashes of battle, Vikings against the men of her Clan. She was at the helm firing arrows into her foes, red hair streaming like a banner in the wind, finally free of its constraints. She had abandoned her cloak to make firing easier. She heard one of her men call an alarm, but it was already too late: a ship appeared to her left, aiming straight for the center of her vessel. Her craft made a bone-chilling crunch, as the blue waters of the ocean seeped in through the wound.

Merida called out to her men "Get to the other vessel!" Her Father had already directed his men to bring his ship closer to them. Merida's crew leapt overboard and swam towards Fergus. He was yelling for her while firing arrows at the Viking ship ahead of him.

She made to jump, but was caught by the sudden pull against her dress. Glancing down, she saw that she was caught between two broken boards of the floor. She tugged, but couldn't pull the fabric from the crushed wood. Water rushed in, soaking her and dragging her down further as she struggled for a post to grab hold of.

She looked over the rim of her ship and saw that the waves had started pulling her sinking ship farther away from her dads. Before she lost view of her father she saw a body dive off his ship. Moments later Peadar surfaced, pulling his knife from his waist and hacking at the fabric binding her to the ship. He pulled her upright as the ship began to keel over. They leapt up to the starboard side, hauling themselves over the railing and onto the exposed side of the ship.

Peadar flashed her a smile, his teeth white against his dark skin, relaxing Merida instantly. "Looks like we're in fer a bit o'fun lass" he commented as the ship groaned, continuing its slow sink into the sea.

"We can make it to mah Fathers ship from here!" She stated, readying to dive. Peadar held her back.

"Wait ye wild child, yer skirts will go-a pullin' ye under as soon as ye land in the water" he stated, grimacing as he tried to keep his balance on the slippery side of the ship. "Yer Father is bringing his ship closer, he'll make it in time."

As he said that a very different ship heaved its' self between hers and her father's. The Vikings on the ship roared, what she assumed, were insults. The leader at the helm was large; he had a full grey beard braided in two. His thick arms flexed, the sleeveless top revealing scars and ink marked patterns along his biceps. He looked between Fergus and Merida before a light of joy reached his eyes.

"Well, well, if it isn't fable King and what, I think, is daughter" he said, his thick accent and broken Gaelic making it harder to understand him. Merida glared at him, Peadar's hand on her shoulder keeping her steady. The boat beneath them groaned again reminding her of the time limit the two of them had.

"Peadar, hand me yer knife quickly" she whispered to the man next to her. Knife in hand Merida didn't think twice before beginning to hack away at the thicker parts of her dress, her leggings and shift underneath would keep her modest enough while granting her a better chance at swimming towards her fathers ship.

The Viking lord laughed at this sight. While pointing at Merida he looked back at Fergus "Your daughter is maybe interested in Yngvild" he said using his hands to beat his chest. The men on the ship laughed aloud. Merida did her best to hide the blush of embarrassment forming at her cheeks.

Fergus growled a string of insults and notched at arrow at the Viking, Yngvild, but stopped short of shooting when several of the archers on the Viking's ship took aim at Merida.

"Yngvild will take her, you will hold fire, yes?" he said, his men pulled out long poles with hooks on the end. They extended the hooks towards her sinking ship and pulled themselves closer to her. Merida fought the panic rising within her. The smell of fish and rot emanated from the Viking vessel causing bile to rise up in her throat.

She forced herself to stay focused, to come up with an idea as fast as she could. She looked towards the top of her ship, thinking to move farther away from the Vikings, but stopped when she saw a small blue flame. It whispered gently, bobbing up and down as it hovered over the prow of the ship before disappearing. "A will-o-the-wisp" she whispered in awe. She had not seen one since the time her mother had been turned into a bear.

There was a large crack from above, causing everyone to jump and look up. The sky was darkening quickly: the storm they had been fleeing had grown back towards them during the battle.

"Merida, we must jump now!" Peadar said, gesturing towards the sinking end of the ship. "They'll have to focus on getting outta this storm, we can take our chance and swim fer yer father's boat before the storm comes round." Merida nodded in agreement and, without looking back, leapt off the ship and into the cold waters below.

She fought against the chill seeping into her bones, the current toying with her, pulling her farther away from her goal. She focused on her father's ship and swam hard. Peadar was next to her; keeping his pace even with hers; even though she knew he was a better swimmer.

They struggled against the growing waves, her lungs burning with the effort, but she felt relief pass through her as she saw her father moving the ship towards them.

She spared a glance towards the Viking vessel and saw that Peadar had guessed right, they were focusing all of their effort to dislodge themselves from the nearly sunken ship in order to steer their boat so that it faced the wind.

Yngvild bellowed harsh, clipped words while pointing towards them. The crew tried to respond, but some of the hooks were trapped in the ship, delaying them. The Viking lord glared towards her, his eyes burning an oath of pain to come.

Merida forced her attention away from Yngvild and made a last push towards her father. His hands reached down, grabbing hold of her and pulling her aboard, leaving her side only long enough to help Peadar onto the ship as well.

Once they were both aboard Fergus called out to his men to get the ship as far as they could from the Viking one. He pulled Merida close to him in a fierce bear hug, relief pouring into his voice as he thanked the Old Ones, something Fergus rarely did. She took a moment to process what had happened, her legs shaking; but whether from fear or the chill she didn't know.

Fergus wrapped her in his bear cloak and stood tall to focus on sailing the crew through the on coming storm.

"Men! Pull out the oars! Bring the sails up and get her facing the wind, last thing we want is to keel or lose our mast!" Fergus signaled the drum to beat, its sound dampened as rain broke from the clouds and began soaking them from above.

The waves increased in size and Merida found it hard to orient herself on the shaking boat. She held herself true though, and glanced towards the Viking ship. They had managed to pull themselves free of the wreckage and were preparing for the storm. She couldn't see Yngvild anymore through the wall of grey created by the falling rain. Slowly, the Viking ship was also swallowed and she was blind to their condition.

"I hope they keel over," she muttered. She would have a hard time forgetting the Viking Lords face and leering eyes.

As the storm raged on, the ship screeched in protest, but she held true. This was the first real storm Merida had ever experienced. She found herself clinging to the mast and gasping for air as waves buffeted those on board, the ocean in a rage reminding her of Maudie kneading dough. A spate of homesickness filled her bones in that moment and she found herself praying they would make it through the storm.

Time seemed to crawl as they fought the elements. Merida saw the fear grow in some of the men, while the rest felt exhaustion stifle their effort. Fergus was alongside them working to keep the ship afloat while Peadar told her to rest as he took over making calls.

Merida could only guess where they were located now.

When they had first tried to flee the storm they had been close to the east coast of the Orkney Isles, but had detoured to avoid the oncoming storm. Being waylaid by Vikings hadn't helped with that and now she was convinced they were lost at sea. She didn't allow her fear to show, she was the king's daughter, and she had to display courage.

While the others focused on sailing through the storm Merida went about making sure their supplies were secure under the oiled cloth. The last thing they needed was to lose their food and fresh water. As she was tightening up another knot when she heard a whisper, as clear as though it had been spoken in calm weather. Merida shot a glance to the top of the supplies and saw another will-o-the-wisp floating and beckoning towards her.

"What de ye want? Ye foolish devil!" She muttered fiercely. "I canna follow you over board if that's what yer thinkin'."

The wisp drifted a bit higher, Merida glanced around to see if anyone else was looking at it, but they were all focused on the task at hand. The wisp disappeared for a moment and then reappeared right in her face. She cried out in shock and fell back onto the ship floor, causing one of the men to look at her in concern, but she gestured that she was fine; however the man's mouth fell agape. Merida frowned, but realized that he was looking, not at her, but behind her.

She heard a scream come from one of the other men, she looked in the direction the crew was facing in time to see a great shadow blunder right over the ship.

Chaos broke. Fergus bellowed orders, some of the men followed, but the great shadow was turning back towards them. Through the haze of the rain she made out the figure of a giant creature, lightning coursing along its body. It screamed as the men on the ship began to hail arrows in its direction, many arrows fell short of their target due to the wind, however, some found their mark.

The creature screeched again, she heard an intake of breath and watched in horror as bright flames bloomed from its mouth. She felt the fire in the air, so hot the rain sizzled and evaporated instead of putting it out. It had set the mast aflame. She glanced at the other side of the ship, her father was looking at her, panic in his eyes, he reached out for her, but the flames stretched higher causing a fissure to open between the floorboards. The ship tore in two.

Merida screamed for her father, her hand out stretched, but waves forced them apart. She fell back towards the end of the ship, smacking her head against the railing. She heard someone call her name before darkness took her.

Thank you for reading so far! I've written a decent amout of the story already, but I figured I would begin posting it up. I will be releasing a new chapter every Sunday night until it is finished. I posted two chapters to begin though just to, hopefully, get some interest! I hope you have enjoyed it so far!

I don't own any of the characters or Worlds, this is purely for fun and not profit.