Hunters of Artemis (short stories)

How Merida Changed Her Fate

How Merida Changed Her Fate

The day Merida joined the Hunt was one of her favorite days. It was a day where she could pretend that she wasn't a princess with duties to attend to, expectations to live up to, and classes to sit through. She remembered running the castle, hearing her mother's call of "A princess does not run in the halls!" and her father's defense of "Oh, let her be, Eleanor."

The young girl, but fourteen years old, had indeed ran through the halls as fast as her legs could carry her. She had ran to the stables where, much to her chagrin, she was helped onto her horse, Angus, before she had galloped him away from the castle, away from her overly strict but loving mother. Away from her classes, expectations, and example-setting. She galloped her horse into the woods where she could simply...be.

She remembered shooting at the targets she and her father had set some years ago, hitting close to, but quite in, the center. Some day, she had once vowed, she would be the best archer in all the realms.

It had been after she had hit all her targets that she had spotted them for the second time in her life. "A will-o'-the-wisps," she remembered gasping. She had steered Angus carefully to follow the small lights, never daring to take her green eyes off them.

When the path disappeared into what could only be a portal, Merida had been confused. "Why would the wisps bring me here?" she had wondered, her Sottish accent thick with confusion.

Merida had carefully dismounted Angus, and had cautiously approached the portal, pausing only to spare but one glance over her shoulder, towards her kingdom, before she disappeared into the swirling nothingness.

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Even until her last day of life, Merida never quite knew what she had been expecting to find on the other side of the portal, but it definitely wasn't finding herself in yet another forest. She had looked about herself, wondering why the wisps would lead her to a forest of all places. After all, the wisps were supposed to help her change her future.

It hadn't been long before she spotted a light not far from where she stood. She had decided to approach the lights to sate her curiosity of what the light could possibly be. She hadn't made it very far when she had heard a small, barely noticeable sound, alerting her to the presence of another being.

Merida hadn't bothered thinking it through, she added simply grabbed one of the two arrows she had left, and whipped around to face her attacker. It had been an incredible surprise to find herself pointing her arrow at a girl who couldn't have been much older than her. To add to Merida's surprise, the girl had been pointing an arrow at her as well, albeit a silver one.

"Who art thou?" the girl had demanded. "What is thy business here?"

"I don't know," Merida had replied. "The wisps led me here."

The girl had stayed silent for a while, studying Merida, her horse, before her eyes finally focused on Merida's notched bow. "You are an archer?" she had asked.

"Yes," Merida had replied cautiously.

After another moment, the had lowered her weapons, and Merida, after a moment of hesitation, had followed suit.

"What is thy name?" the girl had requested.

"Merida," the redhead had replied, still defensive.

"Come with me," the girl had all but ordered, "I would like to introduce to my lady." She had then started towards the light Merida had seen earlier, her bow and arrows having disappeared when she put them away. When she noticed Merida wasn't following, she had turned back to the princess and said, "Do not worry, I will not hurt thou."