The moon had hung high in the sky when Merida arrived, the
night before the competition began. The doors of the looming
castle had been locked tight and so she settled herself in the
stables with Angus and drifted off against his stomach, rising
and falling with each large breath. So many times as a child
she'd done this - run off to escape her mother’s fury under
the faithful watch of her horse. They wouldd search all over
the kingdom for her when she'd wander back in with hay in
her hair, a sleepy look in her eyes.
She awoke the next morning to the birds chirping; the sun
was bright through the slits of the stable's wood planks and
she blinked sleep from her eyes. Angus stayed sleeping as
she stood, snatching up the rucksack she had packed full of
food and basic essentials.
The castle seemed even more grand in the daytime and the
smallest pang of homesickness clenched at her heart as she
stared up at it. They had to have realized she was missing by
now. Did her mother search for her in the stables only to find
an empty stall? She hadn't meant to worry them or to hurt
anyone, but she couldn't marry MacIntosh. How could they
make her?!
The whirling thoughts filled her head so loudly that when a
stick snapped close behind her, she reacted with her gut and
in a fluid movement had spun around, notched an arrow and
aimed it at her 'assailant'.