The Guardian of Halloween [A Disney Fanfic]

𝔐𝔬𝔯'𝔇𝔲 [𝔓𝔞𝔯𝔱 1]

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Mor'du x fem! reader

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The war of the four brothers was unlike anything Y/N had seen. It had seemed only yesterday that she had been tending to her farm on the northern end of the kingdom, calling her herd back in for the night and putting them in the barn for the night, and now her barn and home had become a refuge for the poor souls who had been forced to flee from the towns and villages surrounding the castle.

Once, her life had been simple. Wake up, tend to the cows, send them out to graze for the day in pastures guarded by the other farmers, make her rounds, help the women in the surrounding homesteads work the wool for spinning and weaving, and return home to call her cows back. And now, she was working day and night to care for the citizens of the kingdom, tending to wounds, patrolling the borders of her farm, and forever keeping one eye and ear open in case one of the princes decided to make an appearance.

Though it seemed only yesterday that she had been working her farm, carefully tending to the needs of her cattle, the war seemed to have lasted forever. She wasn't anywhere near the fighting, across a great loch and through the dark forest, and yet she could still smell the blood and smoke rising from the battlefield, and hear the sound of fighting as it echoed through the land. Days had turned into weeks and still, there seemed to be no end in sight. Each day brought news from another village that had been collateral damage in the brother's war and Y/N was running out of provisions. There was only so much to go around, and though many of the people had moved on after a day or two in hopes of finding land far enough away for them to start anew, some were too wounded or sick to leave.

One man, in particular, had been a deserter from the army of the eldest brother and had lost his leg in the battle. His wife and children refused to leave without him and Y/N had put them all up in a spare room in her house, telling them they could stay as long as they wanted. But Y/N wasn't sure how much longer she could care for them and the handful of other families who had asked for a place to stay. Her stores for winter were running dangerously low, and so were the stocks of the farmers in the area. Y/N had asked them for help when the families first started turning up but had stopped soon after. She had decided to take in these people, and she wasn't about to put the strain on her neighbours. She had only herself to feed in the depths of winter. Most of her neighbours were families of four.

Still, Y/N wasn't about to turn away a person in need, even if it was only for a short while.

One woman by the name of Ainsley had offered to stick around and help Y/N with whatever she could while her husband went on to find a place for the two of them to live. Y/N had been all too happy to accept the help and she and Ainsley had quickly started working together, taking shifts to tend to the wounded and sick while the other tended the farm.

But sometimes, when the visitors were asleep, Y/N confessed to Ainsley that she wasn't sure how much longer she could keep tending to the people who came knocking. Ainsley, however, never gave up hope that one day the brothers would cease their feud and that the people could return to the land that they had called home. Y/N often wished she had a fraction of Ainsley's hope.

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It was a dangerous task to go foraging in the woods so close to the battlegrounds, but when food was scarce, Y/N didn't have much choice in the matter. She refused to let Ainsley or anyone else go foraging for fear that they might not come back and she would be forced to relay the information that they had been caught in the battle. So, Y/N always left at the crack of dawn, leaving a note for Ainsley to tell her where she went, venturing into the forest in search of berries, mushrooms, and wild game for her to take home to the people who depended on her.