Brave Twins

Chapter 1

"Merida... C'mon, Rida... It's time to get up..." I could hear my sister's voice at my ear, and could feel the dip in the bed, knowing that she was sitting on the edge of my bed, trying to get me up before Mum had a chance to give me an earful. Somehow I didn't care. I wanted to sleep, and I was going to do it. She always did this anyway, trying to wake me up before Mum did so the hag wouldn't yell at me, and usually I did get up. But last night there was a banquet, and I insisted, probably stupidly, to stay up late and sword fight every man at it. It was easy, even with my terrible skill with swords, because Dad brought out the wine and ladies couldn't have any.
"Merida, if I haveta carry ya down the stairs like a damsel, I'll do it."
"Ye don't have the upper body strength..."I mumbled, turning away from her. She was bad at threats unless she was furious. She got it from Mum.
"Come on, Rida. Do you want to hear the same ol' speech agai--"

"A PRINCESS wakes up early!"

"I warned yoo."Erin smiled weakly, and I opened my eyes, and I groaned loudly.
"I hate ya both."
--
My name is Merida. I'm a twin, and I have three triplet brothers. Ya, my mum's had it rough. My sister, Erin, well, I love her, but... Sometimes she acts way too much like Mum. 'She's right, ye know!'She'll pipe up, and she has no sense of humor. She doesn't laugh at anything unless that thing is me. She's all about tradition too, about how one day, we'll be married off to some ugly guys we don't even know. Well, that's a lie. She hates the marriage part too.
She's more about the other stuff, about what a princess 'should' be. A princess should always be dressed cordially, well, she wears that stupid thing everyday, even though it seems extremely tight on her. A princess never snorts, and I hate how mad she gets at herself when she does. A princess should not have weapons, and she refuses to fence, even though she's fantastic at it. It's just aggravating, and it seems like there's nothing I can do to make her stop being what Mum thinks a princess should be.
Most the time. But once in a blue moon, there's a day where I can make her stop being a princess, and she won't scold me for it. Like today.
"Erin! Up and at 'em! D'ya know what day it is, cause I do!"I yelled with excitement, literally dragging her out of bed and to her feet. No more stuffy outfits, no more scolding, nothing. Just me and the true Erin. I threw my hair brush at her and was racing around the room, trying to find her sword and my bow.
"Merida! Wait! At least let me find--"
"Nope! Your hair will be seen today!"
"Merida!"
I just laughed at her groan, but I could see that my excitement was catching, and she giggled, and began to brush her hair. I let her for a few minutes, but she knew what was going to happen next. From the very first time we were given a free day, I would always take the brush out of hand and drag her along without a care for her complaints, screaming happily that she didn't need to brush her hair today. But in these three minutes, I decided to take in the sister that only I would get to truly see. To take in just how alike we were.
We really were twins. Same eyes, same skin, same many, many freckles. Our hair color was the same, but, maybe because she brushed it out more, maybe because it was constant under confines, her hair was a bit more tame than mine, hanging along her back obediently, unlike mine, which pooled out in directions no one thought possible and made it look shorter than it actually was.
Soon, I would get to take in her personality too, and that was when I tossed the brush aside, picked her up, and piggy backed her downstairs, jumping down the stairs to make her bounce and squeal. Mum scowled, but no one said anything about us, and I one mentioned the fact that we weren't coming down to eat breakfast. We would hunt for it.
I dashed to the stables, practically tossed Erin up onto Angus, then climbed on myself, on front. Erin barely had time to wrap her arms around my waist so she wouldn't fall before we were off, dashing through the forests. I had my bow out as we went, her sword in a sheath hanging off her waist. I shot all of my hanging targets right in the center, some going right through them into the trees behind them. I'll replace those later with smaller targets-- gotta give myself a challenge!
"Show off."Erin murmured against my shoulder, and I laughed, even though I knew she was smiling.
And from then, it was just another great off day. We arrived at our favorite creek, and hunted. Erin took down a rabbit, and I caught us a couple fish, and we split it with wild herbs and onions. And then we made three more servings of it each because both of us are complete pigs. Like usual, I assured her that I wouldn't tell Mum she'd eaten so much.
Then, we went to one of our favorite places as kids, the area with the best climbing trees, and competed to see who could get highest, grinning at each other as our heads popped out of the tree tops at the same time. We went to the cliff that overlooked the plains, and we carved a matching symbol into our weapons, mine on my bow, and hers on the wooden hilt of her sword. It was supposed to be a bonding symbol that would connect us. We used lots of those to connect us even deeper.
Then, it was time to go on our next big adventure, that I would spontaneously choose, and that she would giggle and go with. This time, I wanted to go the fire falls. I climbed up the rocks, Erin and Angus watching with worry from below. I rolled my eyes and pretended to slip, laughing as Angus reared and fell backwards and Erin screamed curses at me from below. And when I got there, just when the sun was starting to set, I went back down.
"Merida, what are you--"I picked her up on my back again.
"Hold on tight."I grinned, and I started to climb again, challenging myself to go faster, using the same route I used the first time to get us to the top, while Erin clung on tight and refused to unbury her face from my hair. And when we got their, and the sun was about to take the fire from the water, I cupped my hands and got some of the orange water in it, and offered it to my sister. She gave mea look, but she drank it from my hands, and I drank the rest, and we screamed nonsense in victory, trying to be louder than the other.
And then, it was time to go, riding through the forest, giggling and obnoxiously singing old hunting songs Dad had taught us, peering at the moon happily. We were holding hands as we ran in, both sleepy and awake from such an exciting and exhilarating day, and starving. I picked up an entire tray of cakes without anyone noticing, and Erin rolled her eyes despite munching on a stolen apple. We came in and sat at our usual chairs besides each other, and we gathered plates filled with food.
"Merida, Erin! Princesses do not stuff their gut!"Mum scolded, looking at my tray of cakes and Erin's total of three plates of food that she would more than likely finish in two minutes before asking for 'seconds'. Erin began to put back some of her food, before I stopped her.
"Give her a break, we've been running all day! Plus, you never let her eat enough."I said haughtily.
"Oh-- my goodness Merida, with your influence she's going to get fat!"I felt myself get angry.
"With your influence, she's going to starve herself-- oh wait, she's already practically doin' that, ain't she?"I growled.
"Rida, please, I'm fine." Erin tried to interrupt, but mum and I hushed her at the same time, having our usual angry staring contest. But just then, Maudy came in to break it, carrying letters, and mum turned her attention to the servant. I just huffed, and slid my cakes under the table to my brothers. They were the ones who really wanted it anyway. I signaled for Erin to eat all her food.
"Merida... You don't always have to defend me. I'm not that hungry."She tried to tell me, and I snorted,
"Erin, your stomach is always growling. Eat."I told her with a smile, and she shrugged, sighed, and did as told, eating like a savage, otherwise known as eating like me. But she was interrupted again as Mum held up the three delivered envelopes.
"They've accepted."