Jarida Drabbles

Wisp Queen

Merida, Wisp Queen. The words swept over her. They hadn't come by sound, she had just... Felt them, for lack of a better description. She was confused and alone. She didn't know where she was or who she was, but the moon had spoken to her. The moon had told her a name. A title. Her title.

The newly christened Merida looked around her wooded setting. Giant pillars, beaten down and yet still majestic surrounded her. Stonehenge... The word leapt up from the depths of her own mind, rather than from the moon.

It must have rained recently, for there was a puddle beside her in which she could see her reflection. In Merida's hair sat a copy of the monoliths surrounding her, glowing blue with runes carved into them.

Merida was curiously touching the items in her hair when a voice floated in with the wind. It screamed in pain, filling the brisk night air with thick emotion. Although most of it was only mangled cries, she heard one distinguishable word: "Merida!"

Merida's head snapped up in recognition. Someone, someone who knew her, who could maybe explain this to her, was looking for her!

Eagerly, Merida compulsively jumped onto the wind to travel. She made it a few feet into her journey before she realized what was happening and fell to the group with an "oof" and became a tangled mess of limbs.

As she sat on the ground, her fur cloak becoming matted with mud, she marveled at her newfound flying abilities. She may not remember, but she was near positive that wasn't normal.

The voice had stopped, but the following sobs were coming closer and closer.

Merida struggled to get up, tripping over her deep blue dress, and when she finally did, there was a small blue flame in front of her. She reached out to touch it. As soon as her hand collided with the little light, she was overwhelmed. Images of the past, present, and future came over her in chunks and long waves. Merida quickly drew back her hand before all of it could overpower her.

The wisps, the moon spoke again, they are your helpers. They lead to one's fate. Merida looked at the orb with even more fascination.

She began to speak to the moon out loud, "So I am to lead others to their destiny?" She waited for the moon's response. There was nothing.

Merida just wanted to sit down and sleep or eat or maybe relax and process this insane information. She was to lead people to their destiny with these "wisps", but didn't know how. She could apparently fly, and she might have even more powers. It was confusing as could be, and her source of answers was gone.

A twig snapped. Merida compulsively reached for the bow hanging over her shoulder and grabbed an arrow from the quiver sitting on her hip, drawing the bow and aiming it at the noise.

A thin boy with white hair holding what appeared to be a shepherd's crook stared back at her.

"Merida," the word was a prayer, whispered in impossible thanks and awe. "How are you-" he cut off his speech when he caught sight of the runes in her hair and the thick fur cloak, as well as the wisps that seemed to be completely surrounding her, "Merida," He looked amazed, as if a miracle had occurred. "You- You're a spirit? But that means- Oh, this is wonderful, just think..." He was crying.

When he attempted to step towards her, she pulled her bow straighter and tighter. She snarled with vigor, in hopes of covering the confusion and lack of confidence she was feeling in these unfamiliar settings, "Who are you?"

The boy looked with disbelief, "Merida, it's me, Jack! Why..." He trailed off, the happiness departing from his face as quickly as it had arrived.

His tears doubled as he screamed at the moon, "Leaving me alone wasn't enough, was it? You had to take the one good thing in my life and after she had already died, you had to just rub it in! A curse worse than death! Why? Why do you do this? Do you enjoy watching me suffer?"

The boy, apparently called Jack, looked as though he had more to say, but he was out of strength. He fell to the floor and wept. Merida relaxed the grip on her bow, unsure what to do. She sat down next to the boy.

Merida was discovering that she wasn't a big people person. She awkwardly reached over to pat him on the back, "Hey. It'll be okay."

The boy mumbled into his knees inaudibly. "What?" Merida's brow scrunched in confusion as she tried to work out what he had said. He drew his head out of his knees and all but yelled at her, "It won't be because I've lost you!"

Rather than putting his face back into his bent legs, he grabbed her closer to him and cried into her hair, gripping her tightly as he did, as if he was afraid that if he let go, she would disappear.

Although her first instinct was fight or flee, he didn't seem to mean any harm. He just seemed… broken. Merida patted him on the back again.

Jack whispered, "The moon had been such a jerk to me."

Merida allowed a slight smile to creep onto her face. "Yeah? Well, welcome to the club."

The boy laughed heartily and her curls shook with him. He looked at her, lightly grinning through his tears, "At least I know you're still you."

Merida returned his smile gently. They could figure this out. Whatever this was, she wasn't quite sure, but she knew they would.