fifth arrow → VIDEO → both courts (backdated to the 10th)

[notyetlegend]

["Check for survivors. If there's any, we'll take them back to the fortress. They'll be safe there." "Yes, my Lady."

It's the early morning when the locket flicks on, the sun just beginning to peek but still quite dark, the silhouette of the creature in the distance. The sound of two voices comes over the network, one a familiar, if not thickened by emotions, Scottish brogue and what sounds like another woman. The way the locket is positioned shows a scene that's becoming all too common to some people - an entire village, ripped away by the path of the Jabberwock, fires lit and devouring the remaining houses. Bodies, rotted and decomposing thanks to the Jabberwock's aura, lay on the ground.

The image shakes as the sound of footsteps fades and Merida raises her locket to look at it. There's no denying the rage on her face and in her eyes, bright blue eyes usually so full of life and laughter narrowed to the point of seemingly glowing an electric blue in the darkness of the morning. Her voice comes out clipped and sharp.]

I hope th' lot of you are proud of yourselves. If you thought this battle would be kept to just th' opposin' factions, you're wrong. Innocent natives who have nothing to do with either side have been caught up in that thing's path of devastation!

[The more she speaks, the more it sounds like Merida is trying desperately to keep her anger under wraps, but it's obvious with the way her voice pitches higher and higher that she's about to snap at someone. She inhales, and by the grimace on her face it's obvious the stench of death and decay is starting to get to her. Raising her free hand, she pinches the bridge of her nose and sucks in her anger.]

I now have two children under my protection until I can get them to their uncle no thanks to this war. Gods know how many others. I want a headcount or a map with villages near Caer Glaem that I will send people to or investigate myself. An' for th' sake of all those above an' below, somebody take that creature out! I don't care whether it lives or dies at this point!

[The locket snaps shut with a mutter of "the Shuck's not going to be happy". but she'll respond.]

Comments

video » permaprivate

[skjalf]

I have thought as much since first we met.

( Ugh, this is entirely ridiculous. )

My question is the obvious: how could we not know that a creature so large existed right beneath our feet? To be entirely honest, Merida.. I feel sorry for it.

It is meant to be but a tool in this war. ( As we are. )

[notyetlegend]

It's strange. I never thought I'd be doin' this kind of thing back when I first arrived.

[It's an honest admission, one she felt a little ashamed to admit. She hadn't thought much about the natives when she came to the Drabwurld. They just simply hadn't been something that had crossed her mind.]

Because Morla didn't want us to know. You know th' stories as well as I do. [Lizzie had said so herself when they first met at least. She then lets out a small, angry sigh,] I am angry at it for the amount of people an' livelihoods that may have been destroyed in its path, but I don't blame it. It is, as you said, a tool in this war.

[skjalf]

I have thought of little else. My country was put through half a century of civil war thanks to my family's tendency to eat its own.

My people have suffered greatly as a result. It can be no different here, if only perhaps worse.

( Loyalty must be earned, not commanded. Her father had done so with his charm, good nature and incredible business sense. These monarchs think to move the hearts of those they have abducted here to a foreign land, who know naught of its landscape nor culture.

When the monarchs themselves may know or care for neither, as well. It is infuriating. )

I do. ( But she is agitated, exhausted and haunted by these events to the point where she even sees the faces of those she has killed while awake. There is no solace for her. )

Nor might I blame it. In the end, we have much in common with it. ( Because the monarchs see them all as disposable. Now she releases an irritated sigh of her own. )

What a God-forsaken mess. Please be safe, Merida.

[notyetlegend]

There's a legend, back home, about a man who became so absorbed in his greed he caused war with his brothers over th' land left to them by their king father. He came across a witch an' asked her for th' strength of ten men. [Merida gives a small sigh.] He became a demon bear we called Mor'du, his plight having tainted th' land since before I was born. He killed his brothers and the men that rallied behind him when they attacked him because they only saw th' beast.

[Her voice sounds bitter as she recalls the tale this time, just like it did a little each time she told it. Mor'du, in the end, had been a victim of his own greed and pride, the latter which Merida knew personally well. They grow arrogant, the Shuck had told her back during Samhain, and she couldn't have agreed more even now. They may just tear this land apart with their arrogance, greed and pride, she thought to herself, though she wouldn't say so across the lockets, even under the private lock. It simply wasn't safe.]

Aye, that we do. [The monarchs were to blame. For bringing people here into their personal war, for pitting family against family, for a whole slew of things she didn't want to think about right now. She was angry enough as it was.

She chuckles, the tone a little more wary than she'd intended.]

I'm always careful.

[skjalf]

( Elizabeth leans forward, quite intrigued. ) That is quite the tale. But is it only that, or perhaps more? I know that magic exists in our world as I bear it, myself.

( Yes, the monarchs are to blame. Two of them are sisters, for God's sake. And it makes her wonder, if this entire situation is a collusion between them and that perhaps the true aim of these monarchs may be something else entirely from the tale which has been told. Just as she suspects with the story Merida has just told her. )

We should be moreso, Merida. There is never such a thing as being too cautious in any given situation.

[notyetlegend]

Aye. Especially here.

[Her next laugh is lighter, if not a bit sheepish even as she looks a little delighted at the fact that Elizabeth has magic, reaching up to scratch her cheek.]

A couple of years ago now, I was to be betrothed. My mother had planned it all without my input, somethin' I didn't like. So I bested my suitors in th' games for my hand because I felt like they weren't adequate enough. [How wrong she'd been. She had fond memories of them now, but the point remained the same.] We fought, I fled. I came across th' witch's cottage, asked her for a spell to change my mother's mind about th' marriage.

[She gives a small shrug.]

Needless to say th' spell changed mum, but not her mind. She became a bear like Mor'du.

[skjalf]

Indeed.

( Oh what empathy this tale engenders in Elizabeth. Were she a different brand of reckless, she might have done the like herself. She shakes her head with a short laugh. )

I cannot rightly blame you for opposing an arranged marriage. I was brought up to believe it was my duty, and yet. Well. Your tale sounds like a faerie story unto itself! What happened next?

( She glances downward. ) My mother would see me wed the man who murdered my brother.