Brave 2: Curse of a Princess

Chapter 3: The Legend

"Mum, dad, it's not what you think. Okay, maybe it is, but please don't be mad at me." Merida tried to explain. "Could you at least help me get on my bed?"

 She held an out stretched hand showing her webbed fingers. Fergus recoiled slightly at the sight, but still helped her by cradling her in his arms and bringing her to her bedside and carefully set her down.

"You're a mermaid." Murmured Elinor with a wondrous look in her eyes.

 "I'm sorry, a what?" Asked Merida.

"A mermaid, if you were listening in your studies you would know the legend." Said Elinor with a mischievous look.

"What legend are you talkin' about because I remember a lot of legends from my studies." recalled Merida.               

"The one about the mermaids who live in our lake." Explained Elinor as she came to sit down by her transformed daughter. "A long time ago, there was a young woman who went pleading to a witch for her help because her daughter was dying of strange illness, but the witch refused. The woman begged and begged and the witch finally said yes, but only on one condition, to give the daughter to her after she was better."

"She wasn't going to do that, was she?" asked Merida skeptically.

"No she wasn't going to and doing so the mother would keep her precious love, but at a cost of angering the witch. With a flash of lightning from her hands, the witch cursed her daughter to become a mermaid on sixteenth birthday and to stay that old forever. As time passed the girl grew older and closer to the cruse. By the time she turned fifteen they told her about the illness, the witch, and the curse. The girl wouldn't believe them at first and ran away for a month and came back, but the girl wouldn't tell her parents of her travels, she just accepted her fate. When her sixteenth birthday came just as the witch said she would turn into a mermaid, so the parents took her to a lake, which is now the lake of Dun Broch and with a tearful goodbye, she swam away never to be seen again." Elinor finished with eyes full of sorrow and dismay, putting a hand on Merida's lap. Merida looked at her mother with dread welling up inside.

"So, what you're saying is that I've been cursed. By whom?" tears started to cloud her vision and streak down her face, she pressed close to her mum.

"I think I might know who did this to you." Said Elinor, gently she wiped away a few of the tears on Merida's face. She then stood up and started head for the door, angrily she pushed past everyone. "Come along Fergus, boys keep Merida some company, I have some business to take care of." She rushed out of the door with Fergus close behind, he turned back to close the door and looked at Merida and shrugged with a chuckle and smile on his face, finally closing the door behind him.

                Merida sighed as she layed back down on her bed and stared blankly at the ceiling. Questions swam though her head like a lake on a stormy night. Why would anyone curse me? I haven't done anything wrong, I think. Thought Merida confused, she tried to sit back up, but was having some trouble.  

"I can barely even sit up!" Her complaining was cut by a powerful cough that raked her chest and her throat was very dry all of a sudden. Her brothers came up on the bed and helped her up.

"Thank ya kindly boys." Said Merida in a crackly voice.

"Are you okay, Merida?" asked Hamish with concern.

"Yes, just a bit parched that's all."saying that caused the boys to think, how could they help their newly transformed sister?

"Hey I have an idea, why put you in some water. Since you're a mermaid and all." Suggested Harris.

"That's a grand idea Harris, but how will you get me threw the castle without anyone seeing me, you remember last time?" Merida thought of the last time they had to get something out of the castle, and smiled. The last time that happened was when their mum was a bear and Maudie eneded up finding them and ran off screaming somewhere.

"How about the rafters? There are plenty of them throughout the castle." Wondered Hubert out loud as he gestured to the ceiling.

"And how do you accept me to get up there? It's not like you can lift me." Chuckled Merida, then she had a thought looking throughout her room, at the way her furniture was placed... hmmm, if her arms were strong enough she might be able to lift herself up to them. Merida shifted her tail to where she could slide off the bed. Luckily her tail was just wet enough to help her easily drag herself across the floor.

"What are you doin'?" her brothers asked in unison, watching where she was going ready to move incase she needed their help.

"I'm tryin' to get to the rafters. The way my room is arranged it's practically a staircase with a few gaps." Merida remarked as she pulled herself up onto a chest.

"Do you want us to help you?" Harris asked already coming up to the chest and starting to push it. Hubert and Hamish came to help push it, but one push of all their combined fource was a bit too strong that it stopped suddenly after the push that it made Merida lurch to the side toward the gap, making her topple over with flailing arms as she started to fall.