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Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons: Convergence 1

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“C’mon Mum, let’s go!” Merida exclaimed excitedly, grabbing her bow and quiver and quickly slinging the weapons onto her back. The movements were mechanical, as if she had performed the same actions hundreds of times since childhood, which of course, she had.

“Honestly, Merida,” the queen sighed, calmly packing her things into a small leather satchel. “I don’t see why you have to drag around that thing with you everywhere. It is not like we will be going on a hunting trip.”

Merida knew that what she said was true, but she ignored the comment anyways. It had become a monthly event, the two of them going out together exploring the vast forests that surrounded their kingdom. Ever since an event concerning a tapestry, several warrior clans, a magic tart, and a bear, Princess Merida and Queen Elinor had become closer and closer.

“I’ll be at the stables!” Merida cried, racing down the stairs. Mother would catch up. Sometimes she could be so slow!

The young princess smiled as she recalled the events that had occurred several months ago. She could smile at those memories now, but at the time, nothing had been more frightening. After all, her mother had been a bear! But now that everything was safe and well, the only thing she had to worry about was looking regal in front of the kingdom.

It was only a short run through the castle to the stables. She had lived inside the castle her entire life, but despite being vast and extravagant; it seemed cramped and confined compared to the outside world that the princess loved so much, which made her glad to be spending the day outside rather than inside.

Finally, Merida burst open into the stables, where her midnight-black stallion, Angus, was waiting. The noble horse gave a gleeful whinny at the sight of his master, and Merida nuzzled his snout, feeling the soft fur of his pelt.

“We’ll be goin' on an adventure again today, Angus,” Merida said to him softly. “Ready ta go outside?”

She wasn’t sure if her horse understood her, but he nuzzled her scarlet hair again nonetheless. Merida laughed. “I’ll feed yeh afte', we haven' even gone anywhere yet!”

“You’re so impatient, Merida,” a voice said behind her. Merida turned to see her mother again. She had saddled up and mounted her horse so quietly that Merida had not even noticed. Merida was slightly impressed, but her impressment was far drowned out by her excitement.

“You can’t keep bringing your weapons everywhere you go,” Elinor fussed as her daughter mounted Angus. “It’ll give a terrible impression. You are a princess, you know, people have certain expectations for you.” The two horses started trotting along at a brisk pace, faster than a walk, but Merida guessed that she could easily outdistance their speed with a sprint.

“I kno', I kno',” Merida said exasperatedly, stretching her arms and yawning. “We’ve been over this a million times! But you said it was important ta have freedom as a princess. Remember?”

“It’s important to improve your image as well,” she insisted, “Besides, you don’t want people to think you are too crude, do you?”

“I don' know if ‘crude’ is the right word,” Merida muttered. The two had entered into the main part of town, where merchants were selling their wares and children were running around. The sounds could sometimes be heard even from the castles, as the laughs, yells, and shouts resonated from the small area. It was a happy place, and a place that she loved to hang around. But today she would be going outside.

However, as the two trotted past, something caught Merida’s eye. A man, perhaps in the earlier stages of his adult life, was being guided around by a modest family. He looked around in amazement, as if a newborn baby born into the world, beholding and soaking in everything around him as if he couldn’t believe the sights and sounds. Not only that, but Merida realized that his clothing was rather odd, nothing of the design around their parts, certainly foreign.

“What’s wrong?” Elinor asked, leaning to see what Merida was looking at.

“That man,” Merida said, pointing, not caring if it seemed slightly rude. “Does he not seem a bit…. Odd?”

It was a few seconds before her mother answered. She turned away. “It’s rude to point, dear.”

Merida rolled her eyes. Why couldn’t Mother be more direct?

“C’mon, Mum, I know you know something about this. How come I don' know about this? Who was that man over there?”

“I honestly don’t know.” She still wasn’t looking at her.

“Mum!” Merida protested. “This is supposed to be time for us ta get along! Why won’t yeh tell me about this? Is it important?”

“Alright, alright,” Elinor said. The two were approaching the gates of the city, into the great forest surrounding the castle-town. Not too long ago, her father had tried chasing the queen as a bear inside the same forest that they were riding into right now. It was a very long story.

“You see, Merida,” the queen said slowly, slowing down her horse even further. “Strange things are happening in the kingdom. Very strange things.”

“Like what?” Merida said quickly. “Is it more magic? Does it have something ta do with the clans? Are there bears? Are there more bears? Because I’ve had enough to do with bears by now. Is it Mor’Du? Is he alive? Did we finish him? What is it?”

Elinor almost cracked a smile, then turned and continued riding. By now, the two were already deep in the forest, the mossy trees and rocks slowly moving past them as they followed a well-tread trail carven into the woods. “Slow down, slow down. I never said anything about bears, and we should all sure hope that Mor’Du is gone for good. What we have here is a little bit stranger, and it very likely does have something to do with magic. We have-”

“Is it-?” Merida interrupted.

“Let me speak!” the queen said crossly. “You’re just like your father in this regard, always wanting to know more and not wanting to wait for the answer.” She eyed her daughter closely. “May I continue?”

The scarlet headed princess sighed. “Yes, Mother.”

“As I said, strange things have been happening over our kingdom.”

“Yes, yeh’ve said that three times now.”

“Let me finish! People and objects have just started to appear. They’ve come up, and we don’t know where they’ve come from.” The queen glanced at her daughter, who now seemed intently interested. They’re trek had slowed to an almost complete standstill now, barely a walking pace.

“What do yeh mean?” Merida asked.

“I mean that man likely does not know anything about our kingdom because he has just appeared. We think that they have either suffered from terrible memory loss, or they are here as a result of magic. Either way, I would suspect magic to be quite involved.”

Merida stared down at her reins, stroking Angus’ soft fur. She had experienced magic before, even meeting a witch. But as far as she knew (which wasn’t a whole lot) magic had everything to do with potions and not much to do with people appearing out of nowhere.

Merida frowned. Then again, her mother had been turned into a bear. That witch was a crazy old coot anyways. Fat chance she was going to be a return customer.

As she stared at Angus’s black fur, a blue glow flickered at the corner of Merida’s eye. She looked up to see a tiny blue flame, no larger than Merida’s hand, float ahead of her. The flames had two distinctive shapes to make it look like a tiny person, with a small sphere as the head and a twinkling body below it. A Will O’ the Wisp.

As if on cue, more wisps began to appear, each identical to the last, their blue flames sparking an obvious trail for the two to follow.

Merida grinned. Perhaps today’s adventure would prove more exciting than even she had hoped.

“Mother!” Merida said, tugging on the queen’s sleeve. She pointed excitedly in the direction of the wisps. “Look! It’s them! The Will O; the Wisps!”

“Oh no,” Elinor said, urging her horse to back away. “We are not following those odd flame things. They’re too dangerous.”

“Too dangerous?” Merida said incredulously. “The last time I followed them, I was able ta help get yeh out o' danger from Dad when yeh were a bear!”

“And the second to last time you saw them, they caused me to become a bear in the first place!”

“But they lead us to our fate!” Merida protested.

“We’ve gone out far enough,” the queen insisted. “Let’s go back.” With that, she curtly turned, having her horse face the trail they had come from.

Merida grimaced, and then flicked her reins, urging Angus to rush forward with a burst of speed in the direction of the wisps. She could hear her mother’s cry of surprise fading into the rush of wind, but Merida couldn’t think on that now. It seemed that some sort of magical phenomenon was occurring in their kingdom, and if there was anything about the Will O’ the Wisps, they were definitely magic. Merida could not just leave a chance like this behind. Yes, the wisps had led her to some disaster before, but they had also helped her as well. Hopefully, the latter would occur.

“Merida!” she heard her mother call. “Wait!” But by now, the surge of adrenaline kept Merida going forward, heedless of whatever calls were sought after her. She had to find what the wisps were leading her to. She had to follow her fate.

Angus ran up a large hill of stone, the steep boulders like stepping stones for her brave horse to traverse. The scene was getting darker as the trees overhead became thicker, blocking out the light. She could hear another horse traversing the rocky hill behind her, but Merida could only focus on staying balanced as Angus climbed the steep hill. Each wisp showed the best way to climb the hill, with a final wisp waiting at the top.

Finally, after hopping from boulder to boulder and stone to stone, Merida and Angus approached the top of the hill, to the final wisp. She had expected the wisp to disappear and reappear somewhere further, but instead, the small blue flame waited as if wanting the princess to be at that very place, on top of the hill.

“Whoaa, Angus,” she said, slowing her horse to a stop precariously on the hill. She took a few seconds to dismount her black stallion, and approached the small flame tentatively. She had never been this close to a wisp, the few times Merida had encountered them, they had simply disappeared the second she became close.

Driven by a pulse of recklessness and a surge of adrenaline, Merida reached out to touch it. She knew full well that it was made of ghostly flame, but that did not stop the young princess.

“Stop, Merida!” she heard Elinor calling from below. “You don’t know what that thing is!”

Just as Merida’s finger was about to touch the wisp, it vanished, as if a candle being blown out into the wind.

At the same time, Merida heard a splash of water, and realized that the other side of the hill led to a large pond, where ripples were appearing in the murky green water. Someone had fallen into the pond!

Forgetting Angus, Merida hurried to the bottom of the hill, half-leaping, half-running downwards. “I’m coming!” she called, hoping whoever was inside the pond could hear her.

She at last reached the bottom of the hill where the pond was. Grimacing, she stepped into the pond and shivered as the cold water chilled through her body. Undeterred, she tromped over to the far end of the pond where the shivering body was lying in the water. Merida reached a hand towards the person, who gladly accepted it, helping her rise up.

It was a girl. She seemed about Merida’s age, with short brown hair, a loose pinkish dress, and green eyes. Despite being soaked, her skin had a fair complexion, and there was a small splash of freckles across her nose, barely visible. She shivered from the cold.

“What in the world were yeh doing out here?” Merida scolded, leading the girl out of the pond. “Are you all out alone? How did you get here?”

“I-I don’t know,” the girl chattered. “Where am I?”

“Yeh’re in the kingdom ruled by the family of DunBroch,” Merida answered. Then it hit her. This girl must have been one of those people her mother had been talking about. That had just randomly appeared. “Wait. What’s yer name?”

“My name?” the girl looked up, her green eyes staring straight into
Merida’s. “My name is Rapunzel.”
Chapter 1: The Outside Girl

This is my first deviation, involving the first part of a very large fanfiction I like to call Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons: The Convergence. But that's too long to put in the title bar, so I guess I have to abbreviate.

The characters in this story are owned by Disney, and I do not own them in any way.

Part 2 - The Nightmare King
Part 3 - Jack Frost
Part 4 - Hans of the Southern Isles
Part 5 - The North Pole
Part 6 - Thief in the Night
Part 7 - Three of Four
Part 8 - Queen Elsa of Arendelle
Part 9 - Pitch's Lair
Part 10 - Storm Rising
Part 11 - The Battle of Arendelle
Part 12 - King of Shadow, Queen of Ice
Part 13 - What Now
Part 14 - Departure
Part 15 - Troll Advice
Part 16 - Respite
Part 17 - The Seven Sails
Part 18 - Duel of the Heavens
Part 19 - Left Behind
Part 20 - Druid's Landing
Part 21 - Aurun, Captital of Diastra
© 2014 - 2024 Axlen
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RasenganLucario's avatar
Convergence. In every book I've read that has that word, it always means multiple worlds coming together.
very good job.