Fate Forever Changed

C’mon... jus’ a few more stitches.

“Af’er te’ beast boys!” her father’s voice roared throughout the dense forest, accompanied by a hellish symphony of war horses and swords clanging with each gallop; blue irises darting back and forth from the tapestry to the rapidly brightening sky; it was ever clear that she was running out of time.

North of her, she could hear the mighty growl of a grizzly bear fleeing from the murderous rampage that was quickly gaining on them; the sensory overload that was bombarding her proved to make the current task of stitching the torn tapestry of her mother rather difficult, but she was ever determined to change her fate.

“Faster! C’mon!” the red haired archer demanded of her steed, who would promptly obey by galloping at the fastest speed it could muster; the young princess could only pray to the gods of old she would make it in time.

Thread would find itself mending the fabric at a much more accerlated rate now, the archer’s full attention glued to the task at hand so much so that she failed to pay attention to where she had been riding; with a startled scream, she and the tapestry would be ejected from the horse, her body coming to a crashing halt on the outskirts of the familiar clearing encircled by stone pillars. In the center, she would lay eyes upon the grizzly she had only heard moments ago, the creature in a clear hostile state as it looked for a way out of its current predicament.

The sun had nearly risen by now, and it would not be much longer until all the hard work the princess had put into lifting the witches’ spell was all for naught; all around her, she could hear the war party draw close to signal that they would arrive here any moment now. She struggled to rise to her feet, several groans of immense pain escaping her as it become quite clear she had broken at least a few bones in her body; fueled purely by adrenaline, the princess slowly limped her way over to the creature, her dead arm dragging the tapestry behind her.

Jus’ a lil’ farther...

As she drew closer, blue irises would meet the black ones belonged to the bear, sending the creature into a less hostile state; a few more hobbles would see her finally come face to face with the grizzly bear, the archer using the very last ounce of her strength to drape the creature in the tapestry.

“We did it mum’!” the princess would exclaim with joy, pulling the beast into a hug as the now fully risen sun began to slowly warm her skin.

One moment would pass, followed by another, it was growing quite clear that something wasn’t right; the red head would flutter her teary eyes open to realize the misfortune that had befallen her. At the very bottom of the tapestry tear lay a gap that would have been drawn shut with a single stitch of the thread; she had failed to mend the bond that had been torn by pride.

“M-mum...?” fear consumed her voice, eyes gazing up toward the face of the beast that was once her mother.

She was met with a deafening roar, followed swiftly after by a shove to the mossy ground beneath her.

“Merida!” a voice screamed out, clearly belonging to her father who was rushing to the scene with his longsword drawn.

Her eyes would turn back to the grizzly above her, the last thing her sight registering being a massive claw swinging downward towards her.

I jus’ wanted te’ change my fate...

Coldness of tears began to paint her cheeks.

Followed by a warmth flowing out and around her throat.

Finally, there was nothing left but silent darkness.