Chapter 5: The Wisps
In the land of Scotland there was the kingdom of Dunbroch. Home to the mighty clan of Dunbroch lead by the proud and fierce Bear King Fergus. Ruling at his side was the wise and sharp Queen Elinor. The pair were a formidable force to anything that could possibly threaten the peace within the Kingdom and ruled with a firm but righteous hand. They had four children. There were the cunning, devious, and trouble making triplets Hamish, Hubert, and Harris. Then there was the eldest and future queen, Merida, whose fiery passion matched her wild flaming red hair.
Two years had passed since the regretful incident where Merida turned her mother into a bear. The once selfish girl had blossomed into a mature and responsible young woman. The years had added couple inches to her frame and she had also filled out some and become more womanly. The baby fat had melted from her face making it less round and more defined. Her mass of red hair had become even bushier and grown out to reach down to her hips.
Currently she was walking to the castle looking for mom to ask permission to stroll around the interior of the castle wall before her daily lessons. Coming to the door of the tapestry room she knocked gently three times. Listening to for a reply she heard a quiet, "Come in."
Opening the door gently she entered and shut the door behind her. Finding her mother sitting on a stool in front of a new tapestry project she approached.
Elinor was wearing her usual green dress along with golden emerald crown and her head was down intently going over a letter she was holding in her hand. On her lap there were more letters which Merida noticed had stamps of the allied clans, Dingwall, Macintosh, and MacGuffin.
Coming to her mother side Merida waited for her mother to acknowledge her. When no action came Merida decided to speak, "Mum. Ah was hoping to go into town for a little stroll before my lessons. Only if that's ok with you of course."
"Hm," was Elinor's response. Still intently reading the letter she was holding she wasn't paying much attention to her first born.
"Mum?" Merida asked placing her hand on her mother's shoulder to get her attention.
Finally turning her gaze away from the letter she looked to her daughter. Giving her a warm smile she said, "Oh. Yes that would be fine love. Just be back within an hour."
Merida beamed at her mother and nodded in agreement. Just as she was turning to leave she decided to inquire about the contents of the letter her mother had been so keen on. "Mum. What does the letter say?"
Elinor averted her gaze for half a second before schooling her features and folded the letter and placed it in her lap. "Oh nothing dear. Never you mind."
Merida raised an eyebrow. Obviously her mother was hiding something and didn't want to worry her daughter. But Merida being the intelligent being that she was figured out what it most likely was. "It's about those raiders isn't it?" She asked.
Elinor sighed and nodded her head. "Yes. Another town has been attacked within the kingdom. Burned to the ground. Even worse is that we can't seem to find a trace of them," Elinor said rubbing her temple.
"Are we expecting an attack on us soon?" Merida inquired.
"We aren't sure. Your father and I are working on it," placing a reassuring hand on Merida's should Elinor gave her a small smile. "Don't fret over ma dear."
Merida searched her mother's eyes to see if she was holding back anything else. When she saw none she returned her mother's smile and walked out of the room. It bothered her about these raiders. They just suddenly appeared out of nowhere a few months ago and began attacking small towns. Luckily the casualty count was always minimal but people's livelihood was being put in jeopardy.
"Let em' come to Dunbroch. I'll skewer them with ma' arrows," she muttered to herself confidently.
Exiting the doors to the castle she passed the castle main gates before walking into the lower districts where the villagers lived. Elinor taught Merida it was important to empathize with the people that served you. In actuality it is us that serves them. She remembered her mother say. She took the lesson to heart and thus made an attempt to interact with the villagers and ask how the overall state of things were as often as she could. Walking through town the villagers would bow slightly to her in passing and greet her with a warm smile. She would smile back and return their greeting with a cheery "Hello" of her own. Continuing on she noticed a small crowd gathered around what looked to be the local village tailor. Curious she approached the crowd and heard a loud shout that sounded like, "Dragons! They're real ah tell ya'. They come to burn us alive and devour us all!"
Her curiosity spiked she began to push her way through the crowd muttering the occasional pardon. Finally reaching the front she saw on old man. He appeared to be in his late sixties and he wore a plain brown kilt. He was stumbling around the crown in hysterics raving about dragons. When he passed by Merida he stopped quickly stepped towards her grasping her hands in surprise. Merida froze and stared wide eyed as the man continued on with his rambling.
"Oh princess it was awful. I saw a dragon," he paused and took a deep breath before looking straight back to Merida and continuing. "It was this huge black beast with wings this big!" the man shouted while releasing Merida's hand and flinging his arms out to his side for emphasis.
Merida tried to take advantage of the distraction by slinking back into the crowd and disappearing, but as if sensing her intention he grabbed both her hands in his again. "I took my sheep out to the Northern plains to graze and that monster swooped down and flew off with four of ma' sheep. The beast would have grabbed me too if it wasn't fur' this," he said taking his right hand and patting the sheathed sword than hung on the left side of his hip.
"The sword, sir?" Merida questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"Aye lass. Me grandfather once slayed a dragon with this here blade. Named it 'Worm Stabber'. That beastie must have smelled the blood of its kin on the blade and fled in terror," the old man said with a proud smirk.
"Uh huh," was all Merida could think to say. She was more focused on figuring how to get away from the crazy old man without having to punch him in the face. Luckily she was saved from the mad old man when a young man stepped out from the crowd and glared at him.
"Uncle, really? Dragons now? Last week it was kelpies, the week before that it was the Faye, what's next? A selkie perhaps?" The man said.
He then walked over and yanked the old man away from Merida before turning to her and apologizing, "Beg pardon princess. My uncle…well he's not all there anymore. Ye ken? I assure you all of our sheep are accounted for. He's not supposed to go out to the fields alone anymore," he gestured to his uncle before bring his finger up to his ear and making a circle.
Merida nodded in understanding. "Aye. It's no problem," she gave a small smile.
The man nodded before giving her a quick bow and turning away. The crowd began to disperse seeing that the man was just daft. Sighing in relief Merida looked down for a moment before raising her head and jumping back a step with a yelp. The man was very suddenly within her personal space with a serious expression on her face.
He leaned in and with a whispered quietly, "Dragons be real princess." He then grabbed her right hand before placing something into her palm and then curling he fingers around it.
"UNCLE!" came the shout of the man's nephew.
The old man quickly turned from the princess before walking away. He shouted in annoyance, "Shut yer' gob lad I heard ye'. Am old ah ain't deaf," before disappearing into the passing villagers.
Shaking off the bewilderment of the eccentric old man Merida slowly opened her palm to see what the man had given her. In her hand appeared to be a black stone. Upon further inspection is had a bluish hue to it. It was round in shaped and covered in slight bumps. Deciding she had enough of the village for the day she slipped the strange stone into her pocket before making her way back to the castle.
After finishing her princess lessons for the day she went to the stables to water, feed, and brush Angus. He faithful horse cares for she cleaned up his stable and promised him to go on a ride tomorrow. Going back inside the castle her mind kept drifting back the events of the day involving the strange old man. The stone in her dress pocket seemed to have gained weight as she continued to wonder what exactly it was. She had never seen a stone like it before. Making her way to the great she heard her father telling the familiar story of his battle with the Demon Bear, Mor'du.
With turkey leg in hand Fergus animatedly acted out the story as he told it while Merida went to take her seat on the side of the table opposite her brothers. Her mother was busy going over more papers and not interested in the story her husband had told at least a thousand times. The triplets were bored out of the minds at their father's story and the pre-teens just listened on trying their best not to fall asleep.
Merida continued to ponder about the possibility of dragons and decided to ask her father about what he though.
"Ah drew mah sword. AAAANNNNNDDDD!" Fergus said raising his turkey leg to mimic a sword as he reached the climax of the story.
He wouldn't finish it tonight though because this is when Merida decided to interrupt. "Da. Have you ever seen a dragon?" she asked.
Fergus stopped his story and raised his eyes at her in confusion. "No lass. Can't say ah' have. Probably cause they aren't real," Fergus said with a shrug.
"Are you sure?" Merida pressed.
"Oh Merida dragons are just fairytales. Nothing more," her mother said from her end of the table with a scoff.
"Well given what happened two years ago," Merida said while looking at her mother to make her meaning clear. "Can we really be so sure?"
Fergus and Elinor locked eyes at her reasoning. Magic after all was just a fairy tale but that was proven to be real. So why not dragons then. The thought made them both shudder a little at the thought of a fire breathing beast from myth.
Fergus looked to Merida before conceding her point, "Well…ah suppose its possible love. But besides myth and legends ah can't say I've heard of anyone actually seeing one."
Merida just shrugged before turning to her dinner. After dinner Merida made her way to the castle library. Looking through the shelves and glossing over the spines of hundreds of books she found one she was looking for. It was a book of myth and legends that spoke of the various monsters that roamed the land. After turning the pages of the old dusty book she found dragons. The book described them from the viewpoint of different cultures. In some they were creature of evil who hoarded jewels and took young maidens for evil devices. In other they were creatures who protected the land from evil forces like the Faye. Then there was the more common folklore describing them as reptilian in nature, who breathed fire, had wings, and some were water dragons. Finding nothing of particular interest in the book any more she closed it with a thud. Reaching into her pocket she pulled out the stone and looked at it.
Suddenly a thought struck her. Going back over the shelves she pulled out containing a bestiary of real animals. She paged though it till she found the section that consisted of reptiles. Looking through the books she skimmed over the images of the drawn anatomy parts of the animals before stopping at the illustration of a lizard's scale. It was very similar to the stone in her palm. She glanced back and forth between the illustration and the stone before accepting the evidence. It's not a stone. It's a scale. After looking through the book once more she could not find any mention of a creature that existed in Scotland that would have a scale like this.
Closing the book she excitedly ran to find her mother. Finding her in the tapestry room she walked over to her and as calmly as she could asked, "Mum. Is it okay if ah' have a day off tomorrow. Ah would really like to go riding with Angus."
Her mother didn't take her eyes off the tapestry and answered, "Sure dear. Just don't out too late."
"Ah won't mom thank you," she said giving her mom a small hug.
Rushing off to her room she decided to sleep early. For tomorrow she would get up at the crack of dawn and go on a little adventure. Tomorrow she was going to find a dragon.
Crouching low Merida examined the trampled grass for many unusual sighting. Having woken up at dawn she immediately packed two small meals for the day before saddling Angus and riding out to the northern plains. She had scanned the plains for a few hour on foot looking for any more of the black scale. But no matter how hard she searched she couldn't find any. She then started looking for unusual footprints but since the plains were usually visited by shepherds the ground was riddled with too many prints of sheep.
Having been at it for hours Merida stood up and stretched her arms out. Then rolling her neck she popped her back and sighed in defeat. Walking back to Angus who just grazed lightly on the grass she led him to the closest forest line to get some shade. Frustrated she muttered to herself before trying to contemplate her next course of action.
Not thinking of a single way to proceed she threw her hands up in defeat. "This was stupid. What was ah' thinking. Like ah would actually find a dragon. That stone is probably just a stone after all and ah was just daft enough to think it was a dragon scale," said to herself. Hugging her knees to her chest she simply sighed in acceptance and decided to just enjoy the rest of her day. Closing her eyes she began to doze off.
Suddenly a soft whispering sound made her eyes snap open and look around wide eyed. It was a sound she hadn't heard since two years ago. Listening with wide eyes she stood up and began to twirl around trying to find the origin of the noise. Suddenly she stopped when a few inches from her face was a small ball of blue light.
"Ack," she yelped jumping back in surprise. Placing a hand over her heart in an attempt to slow its racing she stared at the small blue flame hovering a few inches from her.
A wisp. A small spirit known for leading people to their fate floated in front of her and continued its whispering.
"Are you trying to kill me!" she cried. "You scared me half to death," she replied with a frown.
The wisp floated on the spot for a moment before beginning to gingerly dance away from and towards the direction of the plains. Following the wisp she stopped within arm reach after it stopped when it reached the forest line. Then it continued to just hover and continue its whispering. Merida slowly reached out her right hand and then it suddenly vanished and reappeared a few feet away from her now out onto the plains.
Merida was not the least bit surprised by the wisp's action. She contemplated following it but hesitated when she remembered what happened the last time she followed the wisps to her supposed 'fate'. Still, Merida had nothing better to do so with an excited smile she ran over to Angus and mounted before jabbing him in the side with her heels and straight towards the wisp.
When Angus and her were within a few feet of the wisp it vanish again and reappeared a few feet away. Merida continued to steer Angus forward toward the wisp keeping her eyes open for the location where it would suddenly reappear.
While chasing the wisp she noticed that it appeared to be heading towards a lone mountain surrounded by trees jutting out from the plains. Approaching the mountain the wisp suddenly stopped at the forest line forcing Merida to yank back on the reins to stop Angus. Angus reared up not pleased with the sudden action and shook his head in annoyance. Merida patted his head before apologizing. Frowning at the wisp she noticed it began to slowly move into the forest surrounding the mountain. Clicking her tongue Angus continued to move forward after the wisp. After following the wisp slowly they came to 10 foot stone face covered in moss with tree roots running down it. The wisps then began to slowly float upward until it was at the top of the wall. It paused for a moment before continuing forward and out of sight.
"Oh know ya don't. You wisps aren't shakin' me that easily," she said.
Dismounting Angus she led him to a nearby tree and tied him loosely to it. Just in case a predator came along Angus could run to safety.
"Stay here Angus. Ah gotta see what the wisps are leading me too," she said while patting Angus on the neck.
Angus bumped her head with his nose and she gave him a quick hug. Reaching onto Angus's saddle she pulled out and equipped a short sword she brought from home. Then she grabbed her bow and quiver of arrow and placed them securely over her shoulders. Then moving to the rock face she began to look for possible handholds. Rolling up her sleeves of her dress he grabbed at the tree roots running down the side of the wall. Slowly but surely she pulled herself up. Finding footholds for her feet and hand while using the tree roots as a security line she made her up the wall. Reaching the top she climbed over, took a breath and dusted some moss off her dress.
Looking down at Angus she gave him a small wave and continued back up the mountain. Seeing no sign of the wisp she just continued to go straight. She found it strange the side of the mountain could be covered in trees and grass. She found it stranger still that she heard no animal noises. Not even birds. It was a little eerie if you asked her. The only sound that could be heard was what sounded like a spring somewhere in the distance. After walking for a few minutes she saw a clearing up ahead. Breaking the tree line she found herself in a meadow of tall grass. It was quite pretty she thought to herself.
Looking to her right and then to her left her eyes fell upon what looked like a tent near the tree line at the left end of the meadow. Advancing cautiously. Upon getting closer her suspicions were confirmed that she had seen a tent. Along with the tent there was what looked to be a fire pit along with a pot and a canteen of water. She also saw a few bags laying around. The campfire looked to have been used recently so she assumed that whoever it belonged to was still around somewhere. She wondered what a person would be doing out here. A hunter maybe? A hermit? She tapped her chin in thought when she suddenly she heard someone coming from the forest.
Whoever it was wasn't being stealthy at all and she could tell the sound was coming from the left of the camp in the forest. Backing up to the trees at her back she hid behind one. Peeking out, she stared intently at the direction of the approaching noise. After a few moments a figure came through. It was a man. Or at least it looked like one. She couldn't be certain with his face being covered by a strange spiked helmet. He was covered in black and red leather armor and was quite tall. Though he was skinny she could also tell he had good muscle tone. She suppressed a gasp at seeing one his legs appeared to be made of metal. The other foot had a leather boot. On his back he had a metal shield and there appeared to be a sword attached to his hilt.
The lad reached his arms up, stretched, and yawned. Then he stepped over the campfire to sit down in front of his tent. Merida just stared at the man and contemplated her next move. He could be dangerous. His outfit made him look like he was prepared for battle at any moment. He didn't look like he was from around here. Should she confront him she wondered?
The man suddenly turned his head back in the direction of the tree line he had emerged from and stood up. Walking over, his back was now towards her, he stopped just at the edge. Stepping out from behind her tree she readied her bow. She quietly approached and pulled an arrow from her quiver. She heard the man muttering to himself and then she notched the arrow. Standing a few feet away she pulled back on the drawstring and decided to make her presence known.
"Don't you move stranger," she said loud enough for him to hear.
The man's whole body tensed and stiffened and he held his arms tightly to his side.
"Turn around. Slowly. No sudden movements ya' hear. Move quick and ya' get an arrow. Understand?" she said as threateningly as she could.
The figured nodded his head. Raising his arms up; he turned around slowly. When he was fully facing towards her she saw that his eyes were green and they widened in shock underneath the helmet when they fell upon her bow and arrow.
Suddenly he flinched and held up arms defensively and twisted part of his body away from her. The action almost caused her to loose her arrow. But she saw that this was a cowering gesture, like when someone who didn't want to be hit with a punch flinched reflexively.
"OH GODS! Please don't shoot," the man said in a shrill nasally voice.
"Ah'm nae gonna shoot ya' as long as ya' answer a few questions. Understand?"
"Sure, sure, there's some gold, in that bag, right over there," he said pointing to a bag on the ground. "It's not much but you're welcome to it. Just please don't kill me," the voice pleaded.
Merida raised an eyebrow at what the man was implying. Did he really think she was robbing him? "Ah'm nae a bandit laddie," she said offended.
"Sure, I get it. Maybe you've just fallen on hard times and you need some money. I'm not judging," the man said still not looking at her.
Merida was starting to get annoyed. "Ah'm nae robbin ya laddie," she replied hotly.
The man relaxed for a moment before suddenly clenching up again. "OH GODS! You're just gonna kill me aren't you? Oh man so this is how it ends," the man went on rambling saying his earthly goodbyes.
"Och. Stop you're cowering ya' ninny. I'm nae a bandit or a murderer. I just want to ask you a few things," Merida replied.
The man seemed to believe her as he slowly started to relax and stood up straight. Seeing the man cowering for his life and acting so afraid of her made Merida lower her bow and relax the drawstring. It's wasn't likely that a man as cowardly as this one could be a threat. The man's shoulders sagged in relief as he brought his hand up to his chest and tried to regain his breathing.
Merida chuckled lightly when a gleam to her right caught her eye. Looking over she saw metallic object she quickly recognized as a helmet. On both sides of the helmet horns jutted out and curled upward. Instantly she recognized the helmet belonging to a people infamous for their raiding. Vikings.
She quickly pulled back on the drawstring and point the arrow right back at the man. The man eyes widened in surprise as he brought his arms up in surrender.
"Don't ya' dare move a muscle. Viking," she said saying the last part icily.
Oh man. Were the only word's that came to Hiccup's mind.