brave in the heart. vikings

CHAPTER TEN

Chapter ten

The feeling that spread through Merida was strange. She felt warm and full, as if she had sat around the hearth and ate a large meal. But all that she had done was help her father build an agreement. To her, it was a great accomplishment, especially given that she was a princess and, more often than not, she had been told to 'shut her gob'. Now that she had opened it, she had helped.

Merida hoped that her actions may have proved that she was more mature and capable than what many had thought of her in the past. Her pride was shared, though only by her father. He expressed it as the Queen day on her throne, scowling stiffly.

"I am proud of you, Merida. You handled yourself well back there." King Fergus congratulated his daughter with a clap on the back.

It was a motion that made Merida beam widely. He had often done that to her brothers, mainly when they were fighting or hunting. It meant a lot to her, almost as if it was symbolic of her growth. But her mother watched it with a glare. She shot up from her seat, hurrying to place herself next to Merida.

"Enough of that." She said, and Merida frowned. "You disobey me and embarrass me. Do you aim to humiliate me?"

Merida moved around her mother, refusing to look her in the eye. "You left me no choice."

"No choice? No choice but to shoot your bloody arrows and embarrass our important guests!" Elinor's eyes widened as she shouted. "A princess shouldn't have a weapon, never mind be able to use it."

Merida whipped around to stare daggers at her mother as she felt the bow be ripped from her hands. The slim wooden structure slipped from her grasp and into the firm imprisonment of the Queen's clutch.

"And a Queen shouldn't be the one making speeches, but you still do that!" Merida fires back and her mother was seething.

"I won't speak any more of it. You will marry Jacobus Dingwall and you will behave." Elinor ordered.

"Dingwall?" Merida groaned at the mention of his name.

"He's the least trustworthy of the three. We have to keep them close." Her father explained, though he was looking at Elinor rather than her.

"But have you seen him. He can't figure out which foot is which!" Merida tried to protest, but Elinor would have none of it.

"Haven't you embarrassed them enough?" She questioned, shaking her head in disbelief.

Merida stopped her frantic movements and stared at her mother. Her chest was heaving quickly as she tried to calm herself down. But she knew that, if she didn't say something, her anger would grow further- the hot tears had already begun to prickle in her eyes.

"I'm sick of it! All you care about are the other clans mother! You have a whole Kingdom at your feet!" Merida screeched, and Elinor looked horrified. "Do you ever ask father, the King, if he wanted to go through with it?"

"I'm taking my freedom back and there's nothing you can do to stop me." Merida reached forward to take her bow back, but Elinor shifted backward.

Her eyes had turned red with fury. Elinor turned around swiftly, flinging her arm out and casting the bow into the fire in the middle of the hall. Large and biting flames engulfed the weapon while. Like a snake, it hissed and cackled as they wood sizzled and cracked.

"No!" Merida screamed as she dived for the bow.

But she was too late, as her hands carelessly reached into the burning flames, the weapon had already burned, leaving a charcoal stick in its place. She cried out as her hands were burned both by the flames and the wood, but she pulled her destroyed bow from the fire, letting it sizzle on the floor.