Chapter two

"Angus!" Merida screamed as she was thrown from the back of her horse as he skidded to a halt, only meters from the stables that she was leading him too.

"Merida!" The red head gasped at the sound of her mother's voice. She flipped her hair backward, standing and wobbling slightly as she looked up to see her standing, hands on hips, with a pointed glare on her face.

If the Queen hadn't been mad already, the sight of her dress definitely made her angry. Elinor gasped loudly, her eyes trailing to the mud that was slathered across the green material. She gripped the fabric, pulling it up and inspecting it closely.

"Mother!" Merida groaned as she snatched it back, moving around to lead Angus back to the stables.

"Look at the state of you, Merida!" Elinor scolded, looking her up and down disapprovingly. "What will people think?"

"They can think what they like." She said, before she tossed an apple back to her horse and grabbed one for herself, taking a large bite.

"You're their princess, Merida. A proper Lady acts with-"

"Grace and decorum. I know, mother! You've told me about a thousand times!" She complained, as she slung her bow across her back, leaving her mother to follow her up to the castle.

"And it still hasn't sunk in!" She said after her, and Merida scowled in response.

"Dinner is ready and you, young lady, are late." Elinor said as she hurried her pace, moving to walk in front of Merida with her head held high.

"It's my day off, leave me be!" It was almost like a competition as Merida scurried in front, becoming the first of the two to arrive in the great hall.

She slumped down at her seat at the long table, still dressed in her muddy clothing. Rolling her eyes at the dramatic story telling of her father, she dumped her bow into the table next to her empty plate, letting it take up a large space.

"No weapons at the table." Her mother barked, startling Fergus, who still didn't stop with his story.

"It's just my bow." Merida exclaimed, as she placed a hand protectively over the weapon that her father had made her when she was younger.

"A princess shouldn't have a weapon." Her mother pointed, shaking her head.

Merida huffed, before turning to her father, a pout on her lips. "Tell her, father."

"I'm not getting between you two. But everyone must know how to fight, princess or not." He broke his single stage play to answer her, before he turned back to the boys that sat, bored and annoyed."

Elinor rolled her eyes at her husbands unhelpful response before turning back to her daughter, horrified. "A lady doesn't stuff her gob."

"Ugh! Father!" Merida whined, but it was left unanswered as the dinner table erupted into chaos.

"Fergus, get the dogs away from the table." Elinor screamed as the two large wolf-like creatures came barrelling into the side of the table, one biting in his wooden peg-leg, the other licking the food from his face.

"Come here, good boy." Merida said, patting her knees to get the first dogs attention. He sniffles slightly at the fake leg that he was biting before running toward the redhead, almost pushing her from her chair.

"Merida, stop encouraging him." Her mother shouted as she continued to play with the dogs with her father.

She was soon distracted by Merida's slightly younger brothers. "Boys, don't just play with your haggis, for god sake, you're seventeen."

"How do you know you don't like it, if you won't try it?" She mumbled.

"You said yourself, we're almost eighteen. Stop treating us like boys!" Hamish shouted.

"Don't speak time your mother like that." Fergus scolded, and the three boys groaned.

"It's just a wee sheep's stomach." Elinor muttered.

The stuttering of tiny feet alerted the queen of a new presence in the room. She turned, taking three letters from a tray that the woman beside her held out. "Thank you, Maudie."

"Ah, we have responses from the clan, Fergus." Elinor called out. Upon realising he wouldn't reply, she shouted, "Fergus!"

"What?" He exclaimed, looking around confused as he stopped his dramatics. "Sorry, love. What is it?"

"The clans have accepted." She said, her brow raised expectantly.

"Accepted what?" Merida asked, but her parents didn't answer and they instead glanced to each other before turning to her brothers.

"Boys, I need to speak to your sister." Elinor said, but the three didn't move as the bickered.

"Go do your training." Fergus called, and Elinor sighed as they moved for their father.

"What do I tell you, Boys?" He shouted after them, and they turned back, beating in pride.

"The Dunbroch clan are born with a sword in our hand and fire in our bellies!" The three screamed, tasing their arms as they ran out of the main hall and to the weapons room.

"Teaching them well." Elinor muttered.

"What have I done now?" Merida asked, confused. She hadn't done anything she wouldn't normally do.

"Your father has something to discuss with you." Her mother said. He stared, alarmed. "Fergus."

"Merida. You're mother- and I," He began stuttering at the end, not wanting to say it.

"The clans will be presenting their sons as suitors for your betrothal." Her mother finished for him.

"What? Father!" Merida exclaimed, standing up harshly, her hands banging firmly into the table and chair  sliding backwards. "You can't let her do this!"

"This is good, there's no need to complain." Elinor tried to reason with her but her face had flushed to be as fiery as her hair, out of pure anger.

"What clans?" She asked, as she leaned over the table trying to calm herself.

"Well there's Macintosh, Macguffin and Dingwall." The Queen picked the three letter up again as she read the names of them out, their waxed seals catching in the light of the fire lamps that surrounded the room.

"You're joking!" Merida threw herself back into her chair, her hands reaching to slide down her face. "But you hate Lord Dingwall!"

"That was years ago, Merida." Her father ensured, his hands lifting and brushing her exclamation off easily.

"But the stories!" Merida insisted, pointing animatedly.

"Yes but that's not the legend. We came together and defeated the northmen!" King Fergus was off his chair, leaning over the table with his arm raised in a brave stance.

"But marriage, father?" She continued further and Fergus' shoulders deflated.

"Not to Dingwall, wee lass." He said, his voice laced with sympathy. "Well, maybe yes to Dingwall, but the young one."

"His son, Fergus." Her mother corrected.

"Aye, his son." He repeated, his chest puffing out once again.

Merida paused, taking it all in. This would change her life forever. There would be no more riding Angus through the beautiful forests, not another single chance that she would have to climb the Devil's peak or travel along the glens that she hadn't yet discovered. Everything would be left behind- even her freedom.

In reality, Merida had always known that her life would come to this moment. However, she had always believed that she would find a way to curve her destiny, and change her awful fate. She had believed that she could make herself a new one, a destiny that grew from her need for exploration.

"What of my freedom?" She asked them, more quietly. Her timid voice must have startled her mother, as her mouth parted for a moment, before she straightened, readying herself to reply.

"You're going to take that from me too?" Merida said, interjecting before she could speak. "You want to know what I did today, mother?"

"I climbed Devil's peak." She staid, her voice holding strong, but her lip quivered.

"You what?" He mother exclaimed, her hands reaching out to grip the wooden table.

"Devil's peak?" Her father asked loudly, and she nodded.

"Do you think after doing that I'll settle for marriage?" Merida asked, her voice hurt and trembling.

"What makes you think you have a choice, Merida? I love you," Her mother began, but she was interrupted by the second screeching of a chair.

"If you loved me you wouldn't take away the only thing that means something to me." Merida said, a tear falling down her cheek. She couldn't keep it in any longer.

Queen Elinor raises quickly from her seat, her hands banging down on the table, the plates clattering after. She took in a deep breath, before saying, "The Lords are coming and that is final. Everything you do must be for the good of our people. You are the princess of Dunbroch. Act like it."

Merida lifted her chin, as she stared her mother down, her lip still wobbling, no matter how hard she tried to stop it. She paused silently for a moment, before turning swiftly away, grabbing her bow from the table and storming to her room.

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