Swords and fire

The Will'o The Wisps

It had been two years since Merida had accidentally turned her mom into a bear, and although their relationship was far from perfect, the two had learned many lessons, and had grown closer to each other than ever. Merida could now go out to ride Angus every second day, and her mom would join her once a week. The princess had even gotten better at her political studies, knowing just how important it was. The two tried everything to make each other's lives better, and the entire castle could notice said improvement.

One could say Merida's life was a perfectly good happily ever after. But one knows those things don't happen all that often.

This adventure started on a perfectly usual day. Merida woke up and had breakfast with her family, then, she prepared her riding attire, her bow and quiver, and saddled Angus. She took the same path as always, through the castle bridge and into the woods. Everything seemed to be normal, she was happily shooting arrows at the targets scattered across the woods. Her entire mood shifted when a blue light, the most familiar will'o the wisp, showed up right in front of her. Angus, startled, threw Merida off her seating, her landing with a dry thud. She couldn't precisely blame Angus, she, too, was caught off guard. She got on her feet and tried to calm Angus down, carefully eyeing the ghastly light before her. Once Angus was calm enough, she led the horse toward the light, and as she expected, once she got close enough, the wisp disappeared, and a full trail of them reappeared a few meters forward.

She knew what she must do. She'd followed the wisps one too many times, and although questionable, they always proved to be helpful. Mor'du was long since set free, she knew he had to be one of the wisps in the trail, and she knew the wisps had never actively tried to harm her. Despite all that, she still hesitated. Her life was exactly what she wanted it to be. She could just ignore the will'o the wisps and turn back, ride Angus back home and never think of it again, she didn't need to change her fate, she liked her fate now. But she knew curiosity was stronger, and that, if she did in fact turn away, she'd spend the rest of her days pondering on what was it the wisps wanted to show her, and so, she led Angus down the wisps' path.

She walked until the sun was at its highest, past the rock circle she dreaded, down the creek and across it. At one point, her faithful horse refused to walk even one step further.

"Angus!" she said, stomping her foot, but the horse didn't bulge. "Fine, wait here"

Merida walked, now alone, a few minutes more, too immersed in the blue light to even notice her surroundings. She ran into something hard and thin, just a bit taller than her. For the second time that day, she fell to the ground.

"Ouch" she heard, now knowing it wasn't a something she had run into, but a someone. "Are you okay?"

Merida looked up from where she'd fallen, and before her stood a man. He had to be around his early twenties, with choppy brown hair, green eyes and a stubble under his chin. He was wearing an armor unlike anything she'd seen before. It was pitch black with leather straps tying it together. One of his shoulder pads had a red idiom on it, and she noticed his left leg was missing, being replaced by a metal prosthetic, far fancier and more intricate than the one her father wore.

"Sorry" she said, barely able to contain her fear.

Everything she knew about the outside world would indicate that the man before her was a Viking, her people's sworn enemy.

"It's okay" the Viking said, giving her a kind smile. He stretched his hand towards her, and, not wanting to seem rude, she took it and he helped her up her feet.

The moment Merida was up on her fit, a flash of blue light surrounded them, and, next thing she knew, the wisps had formed a circle around the two.