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Merida pulled the cloak further onto her head. It was easy to hide her face among the hoards of people as she pushed through the market crowds toward the outer huts of Kattegat. It was her flaming red hair and the obvious limp to her walk that what cause for concern. But no one gave her any notice as she hobbled toward the Seer's hut.

She ducked through, brushing the drapes of the doorway to the side. Merida was enveloped with the silence as she stepped around the fire, welcoming the warmth beneath her cloak. The mangled face of the Seer brought her back to the last time she'd visited in search for answers. Staring back at the stitches that wrinkled his ancient skin, Merida had been left with more questions- both about her future and that of her place in Kattegat.

Sitting down in front of him, the Seer seemed to inhale sharply as he leaned back as if he were looking directly to her with his eyeless face.

"Ah, the Princess Merida. No protector with you?"

She didn't know why the statement surprised her so much. Everyone had heard about Bjorn's nickname by now, and it was no doubt that the Seer had already heard it before it had first left someone's lips. But hearing it so officially, by the eyes of the Gods, took her back.

"I wanted to come alone," she said.

"What question do you have for me today?"

"I want to know about my future."

The Seer barely paused for a minute before he listed the words, the same words from all those months ago. He did it blatantly as if no thought had to be put into it. "A band of knots, a waterfall stained red, a bear's fur, matted with blood and an orange city."

"What you say now is no different to the last time I spoke to you," Merida said harshly, attempting to rein in her patience.

The Seer remained perfectly still. "Because my answer to your question is the same. Perhaps another question would give you the answers you are looking for."

Merida considered his words for a moment. There was so much she wanted to know, yet at the same time there was so much she was scared to find. She wanted to know how she would die, if she would be the princess that Bjorn would marry and if she would ever be anything more.

Once, Merida had screamed at the thought of letting her life come down to the will of destiny, but here she was, asking the Seer for information about her fate, coming from Gods she still wasn't sure she truly believed in. She thought of her mother, about what she and her father would say: 'just try, no harm can come from best efforts'. That had always been about her princess duties, but the rules were transferable, she supposed.

'I believe in the gods. I believe in my father'. Perhaps Bjorn could place blind faith, but she certainly couldn't. Merida would always favour her freedom, even if that meant cutting the ties she'd come to hold tightly to. But then there was the fact that freedom didn't have to be alone. Freedom could be found anywhere, had she looked for it.

"Bjorn will marry the daughter of a King. Does that mean my fate will entwine with his as everyone says it will?" she asked, feeling as if the room had suddenly grown colder. But the crackles of the fire filled the quiet space before the seer replied.

"The will of the gods cannot be changed."

"That is not an answer," she said, her voice coming out as a plead.

"The will of the Gods cannot be changed. I have seen your futures," the Seer began. "I have seen the great ending and all that comes before it. Bjorn's destiny will lead us all to the point in which you will lie on the sands and watch your roles unravel."

It made no sense. Behind his voice, Merida could hear the tails of sadness seeping through.

"What does that mean?" she asked, leaning forward until the fire was hot against her neck. "There must be something more! Something that can tell me straight."

"Your belief in my words, Merida of Dunbroch, is most unlike you," the Seer said, a sneer in the sentence. But he continued nonetheless. "I will say these words one last time. A band of knots. A waterfall stained red. A bear's fur, matted with blood. An orange city. Your fate will lead you to a point where you will lie on the sands and watch your roles unravel."

She breathed out in frustration. "But what does it mean?"

"It is not for me to say."

"So the Gods do not want me to know?"

The Seer turned away, face staring into the fire she leaned across. "Perhaps it is better if you don't."

"Perhaps they can also become Christians! Why not?" Floki's voice echoed around the large room, filling up the silence.

"Whatever they choose will be up to them."

"Who asked you, priest?" He barked back.

Merida pushed through the heavy doors to the hall, beating greeted for. the second time that day with the heat of a great fire. It crackled in the centre, surrounded by thick logs, where sat Floki, Athelstan, Helga and Lagertha.

"Floki!" Helga complained.

"What?" Floki said, a smirk pulling at his thin lips, the charcoal paint around his skin only making his eyes look dangerously darker. "He is a Christian. He's always been a Christian. I don't know why Ragnar listens to him."

"It's true. I don't know why Ragnar listens to me."

Merida walked slowly across the room toward a small table behind the ring around the fire and poured herself a drink. The Seer's words still clung to her memory.

"Not when he can listen to you Floki," Athelstan said, pushing himself up and away from the fire. "Goodnight. May the gods keep you." He nodded once again as Merida passed. "Goodnight, Merida."

"Goodnight Athelstan," she said before raising her brow, sitting down in his place by the fire pit. She glanced to Floki, shaking the Seer's words from her mind. "You've scared him off before I could even sit down. I think that is a new achievement Floki."

He grinned, letting out his little giggle. "And you? Would you go and settle beneath a Christian king?"

"I will not settle Floki. There is more to life, I think," she said. "And if I did need to settle, I would not do it in England. I have another home, remember?"

"Why do we not settle in there?"

Lagertha shook her head. "It is not our place."

The doors opened again, and in came Bjorn, storming through toward the drink on the table.

"Bjorn," Lagertha greeted her son, moving to speak lowly for a few seconds. Bjorn nodded tipping a drink back before heading back out again.

Merida stood abruptly, calling out for his attention. "You aren't staying?"

He smirked, raising an eyebrow. "You can last without me for one evening."

Merida smiled as she sat again, watching as Lagertha moved closer.

"You and my son are getting closer."

"He saved my life," she said.

"Ragnar has not changed his mind, you know. He still wishes to see you and Bjorn married," Lagertha said, waiting for some sort of reaction. Merida kept her face still. "He believes it is fated."

She shook her head. "I do not believe in fate," Merida said. She still didn't know whether that was still true or not. Only time would be able to tell. "If I marry Bjorn one day, it will because I want to. Not because some God wants me to."

"And will you?" Lagertha asked, suddenly eager. "Do you want to marry Bjorn?"

In all truth, Merida could see it: a match born from friendship, a metal band around her finger like the one her mother wore to match the band around her husband's arm and she could see Bjorn, always by her side, protecting her as they travelled the oceans. Lagertha waited patiently, watching the crackling flames as they began to die out, covering the soft muttering of Floki and Helga at the other side. And though Merida could see it all, as clearly as the hands in front of her face, she feared it.

And so she said: "I will favour my freedom first."

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