Bond of Two Lands

9. Visitors From The North

"Mum, ya can't just leave off like that! Do ya have any idea about what the boys did in the kitchen this morning?"
Eleanor chuckled, stroking her horse's nose.  "I assume something naughty. And to be frank, that's yer father's problem today, which he very well knows. Ya see, I've got a surprise for ya."
The last sentence rinsed off the unamused expression in her daughter's face, and for a moment, the queen saw her as just the little girl who was afraid of thunder again. She smiled while tying her horse to a low oak branch.
A lot had changed during the year that had passed. Some things had been revived, other invented, but the biggest and most welcome change was that Eleanor finally had managed to reach out to her daughter. Finally they understood each other. This alone could of course not mend the bond that for long had been torn between them, but it was a start.
The queen breathed in the fresh sea wind and wondered how she'd ever been able to forget the freedom in doing so. Riding, climbing, sword fighting, playing... all the things she'd given up to raise her daughter into the perfect princess she'd never been herself. The realisation that nor Merida was so had been the cure for them both.
"What is it?" Merida said. "Is it a new cliff, because I'm rather sure that we've already found all of them in this area..."
"Patience, mi dear."
The two walked over the meadow's thriving vegetation, deeper into the forest at the seaside shore. Their horses neighed nervously behind them. This caused Merida to worryingly turn around towards her Angus, but her mother's steady arm made her continue to walk. And then, just as they entered the duskier parts of the woods, Eleanor lifted off the bow from her daughter's shoulders and covered her eyes.
"Mum, what're ya doing? I'm feeling rather dizzy, walking around in the dark like this... wait, what's that?"
"Ta-da!" The queen had stopped and revealed a mossy boulder, on which a weapon of the finest kind lay. "It's yer auld bow, the one I threw into the fire. I've tried to mend it as good as I can, by scraping of the burned wood and putting in a new string, but I understand if ya only want it hanging on the wall..."
She wasn't able to finish, for Merida hugged her to tightly to let any word escape her throat.
"Mum, this is... I don't know what to say. Thank ya."
Eleanor stroke her daughter's untameable curls, which had been braided into her own auburn locks in their embrace. "It was the very least I could do. I'm happy that ya like it, dearest."
Merida loosened herself and touched the restored bow with awe. The feeling when she hung it over her shoulders was similar to the one one gets while coming home from a long journey. And in that moment, she was certain that this really was a day when anything could happen.

The horses had calmed themselves when they came out at the meadow again. For what more was there to a horse in a day like this, than to eat thick straws of emerald grass? Merida hung her unrestored bow, the one McGuffin Junior had given her, carefully around Angus' neck. "There ya go. A bow for the both of us, Angus."
Their little moment was disturbed by a flock of Deadly Nadders flying by over the treetops, speaking like a bunch of chickens. The princess' eyes followed them like a hunter's, her hands instinctively grasping her bow.
"Are ya ready to leave, sweetheart? We can stop at Crone's Tooth if ya like."
She reluctantly let her sight off the dragons and jumped up on the saddle. "Only if we race there!"

It took a good few hours for the couple to return to the castle. So long, that the sun in fact had started sinking into the ocean once they got out of Merida's training route. The horses galloped no longer with their old eagerness, their bodies dying to rest in the castle stables ahead. Though in the last few hundred metres between the forest and the castle, Merida started pulling in Angus towards the seaside.
"Mum, pull over here for a second." She pointed at the bay as her mother obeyed her. "Do ya see that down there?"
"The boat, ya mean? It's probably one of yer father's fishermen coming home with tomorrow's dinner."
"At this time? It's like begging for the Rumblehorns to get them."
"And if they go any later they will be the victims of Changewings. There's nothing we can do for them, dear."

~~~~~

Down in the bay, Hiccup struggled the keep the sail straight. He stretched it further and further until he almost fell overboard, until he announced: "Astrid, there is no wind! I don't think we'll get any closer to the harbour than this."
"Of course we will! Just stretch it a little more and I'll steer us into the docks."
"Well, unless you wish to get rid of me through having me drowned, there's no more stretching this sail." The one-legged  peered at the castle, which was coloured brightly orange in the sinking sun's light. "Though, we could try signalling at them, even if that's not really the impressive entrance I'd like us to have."
"I wish we'd found a boat complete with oarsmen." 
"We wouldn't have had enough gold to pay them anyway. So, I guess..." Hiccup groped alongside the deck and threw a hackneyed oar towards the blonde, while pulling one up for himself as well. "... we'll have to row for ourselves."
"Great", Astrid muttered.
They both stack down their oars and started pulling and pushing at one side each of the small boat. It was not even grand enough to call a ship, and considering that some tribes called even hollowed trees ships, that said quite a lot.
Their rowing became more and more rhythmic, and they reached the beach next to the docks surprisingly fast, though the sun was already sunken for the night. 
Astrid gestured to the boat, which wasn't even high enough to step up from at the wharfs. "We should probably hide it, don't you think? In case we'll need a quick exit." 
"Good idea." Hiccup looked around in the darkness. "How about those bushes...?"

~~~~~

Merida and Eleanor had put away their exhausted horses in the stables, and was now taking a short cut through the kitchen towards the throne room. The queen had been somewhat resistant to the idea, due to her old habit to be proper, and nodded therefore appreciative at the cooks that prepared their meal. This was while Merida greeted the servants as her friends and pleaded to have an apple before the dinner (haggis, meaning sheep stomach, was not her favourite). A short woman with motherly looks was just about to hand her one, when she remembered the queen's presence.
"Do I have yer permission, Yer Majesty?"
"Only for this once I'll let it pass." Eleanor said. She winked at the woman, who returned the favour with some hesitation. "And while we're at it, ya haven't happened to have seen the princes snitching any food today?"
"It may have been so, Yer Majesty. I think I heard Maudie mention the vanishing of a plate of fresh cookies."
Merida chuckled, her mouth stuffed with apple. "That's about right. Although they're probably not so fresh anymore."
"I'll handle them later. Thank ya for the help...?"
The woman curtseyed. "Geneen, Yer Majesty."
Elenor smirked. "Geneen. Thank ya." She turned to her daughter. "Now, if Yer Highness approve, we shall return to yer father and make him find those boys."
Mother and daughter went out through the door that separated castle and kitchen and was already on their way through the halls, when Geneen suddenly remembered. She put down the internal organs she'd been salting. A few seconds later she was running the halls to catch up with the royalty. They stopped amazed at her eager cries.
"Geneen? Is something off?" Merida said.
"Not at all, Yer Highness." she panted. "But I just recalled that there are two visitors waiting for ya and the king in the throne room. They claim to come from the north, and they seem... rather young."

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