Brave Reborn (OUAT/Peter Pan Fanfic)

Chapter 6

I made my way back to Angus and settled up camp in a meadow. 

The meadow was a glorious expanse of grass and meadow flowers, grass rustling gently in the breeze. There was a narrow brook flowing through. Tall water with pale lilac flowers, like dozens of tiny bells, were growing at the edge of the brook.

I place all the stuff in my old backpack into my new one. She was right about the bag. It feels and looks like it has nothing.

Then I stared at Angus. I always what to use my bear powers to see what he was thinking, but too afraid of the results. 

Angus's eyes were trained on some invisible specter, his heavy eyelids a fraction too slow to blink, his irises too stationary. It was as if his brain was suffering a massive short circuit and was struggling to compute. I moved into his line of sight, touching his cheek with the side of my thumb. His head tilted upward to my face, his eyes sliding into focus. 

Angus probably always knew what I was; yet he stayed with me in his own free will. He could have left me by committing suicide or running away when he had the chance; but he remain with me, happily.

I started to unsaddle Angus.

"Angus," I began, "I just want to let you know that you were the best horse an ex-princess could have. You stayed with me when I—I...well, you know. And for that, you deserve your freedom. If anyone in DunBroch found you, the horse of the beast, who knows what they would do to you."

When I was done, I smack Angus's rear end, "Go be free, find your own fate."

With that, Angus galloped away from me. I was now completely alone. I sent away probably my last friend. My only friend. I still remembered the first time I saw him. Angus was smaller than a doe when he was a foal. The veterinarian believed that he would not survive through the night. I stayed with him. I nurtured Angus through those long hours. I was ever so gentle with him, which was very rare. And now, he's gone. 

I felt emotionally bankrupt. The was nothing left to feel, nothing left to say, nothing left but the void that enveloped my mind in swirling blackness.

 I pulled out the bean from my pocket and studied it, wondering where I would go.

"Think, Merida, think! Think..."

I stared at it, using the fire glow to see. A fire crackled in the corner of the campsite, projecting long shadows on the surrounding area. The light cast by the flames danced across the dark trunks of the trees, twisting and curling in obscure shapes and providing a small radius of light. The fire itself was pulsating, the glowing embers seemed to move in rhythm with the flames, matching every dip and sweep. It was mesmerizing to watch, colours of orange and red gave way to yellow and white near the centre, where the emanating heat was the greatest.

As my consciousness ebbed, my mind went into free fall, swirling with the beautiful chaos of a new dream. When my thoughts became nonsense, and all the more interesting for it, I knew I falling asleep. Now all I had to do was let go.

My heart thumped in accordance with slow, shallow breaths. Serenity was plastered across my face as I slept. At peace, my consciousness swirled in the land of dreams, oblivious to the physical world.

While I was asleep that night I had the strange feeling that I was not in the meadow any more. The next moment I realized that I was standing in the middle of a forest. Then there was this sound, I can not explain. It sounded too lovely to be noise, but too fanciful to be music.

The forest was the orchestra of my mind, playing one enchanting symphony after another. Her leaves danced to an unheard beat, whispering their songs to the wind. In here, sheltered by the mighty trees, was every kind of life, from the humble beetle to enchanting birds of every color. I held my hands up to feel the cascading light, a brilliant white shaft illuminating the path that took me forward on the path.

The forest was an assault on all senses. The virescent hues were the foreground, the background and as high up as the eye can see. The heat and humidity pressed in on the skin making sweat pointless. The sounds of the insects, the birds and the larger animals created a symphony of nature calling you deeper. The leaves brushed up against me and my feet sprung up with each step. The air tasted both sweet and fresh, like flowers blooming on my tongue.

The sunlight streams in like it is purer than the light I felt in DunBroch, white, yet liquid gold at the same time. Nearby, on a rotting spindly tree, is a woodpecker hunting for insects, its brilliant red crest rocking back and forth as it pecked. Tiny chunks of wood fall to the leaf litter below, the sound dissipating into the woodland around.

There was a point where everything stopped, the wind, the scent of the flowers, even the flowing of the river—yet I kept on walking. A second or two later everything continued. 

 Suddenly, I started running, feet kissing the land. Perhaps a little while ago I would have balked at the idea of running so far and fast, now I relish the prospect. These feet were made to travel at speed and as light as the paws of a lioness. Breathing steady, heart strong—I was born to run.

Even though the dawn is still some time away, there is a light in my heart that was missing just yesterday. Right now it is a spark of hope, a ray of sunshine yet to be born, but it is there and I feel it. Perhaps that is optimism, the anticipation of good things to come. It is a feeling I haven't had in so long that if feels as foreign as it is welcome.

Then there were these sounds, more like whispers. Very soft yet intense.  A growling rasp carried on the winds of the forest. Soon those mess of the whispers turn into unison and started chanting into one word, haunting through my run. That was the moment when I knew what I should do. That one word told me everything I need to know.

Everything ended abruptly, as I was shaken back into reality. My eyes opened, my eyelashes faintly batting against my lids when I blinked. I laid on the log, debating whether or not I should get up. My muscles felt weak, just like my energy. I let out an exasperated sigh, groaning as I rolled off of the log I had been occupying. What time was it? How long had I been asleep? Did I have clothes on? All of these questions shot through my mind as I let out a loud yawn, ready to start the day.

The clouds were arranged as neatly as child's toys, scattered over blue, content to drift where they fell. The morning sun had the potential to bring a day as hot as yesterday, but those wonderful puffs of white radiated it back out into space. The air was cooler, the colors less vivid and all without a drop of rain.

Everything was so clear. I knew exactly what to do and where to go. If that dream was not a sign, then I do not know what is. I grabbed my new bag and threw the bean to the ground. A large vortex appeared. I took a deep breath, began to think of Neverland, and jumped in.