3Chapter 02 The first day as a bear
Quanktumspirit's eyebrow twitches at the side of me, "Do you know how much research I have done to make this tale have some 'logic' behind it?... lots. GAH! Anyhow another re-write is done and I hope once more that it's better. First written date: Tuesday 3rd June 2014, re-written date: Wednesday 10th April 2019. Oh, and I'm going to change Mor'du's reasoning as to why he was hurt since I've sent King Fergus away on this European tour, I need a different reason as to why he would be hurt."
The night went by without any more problems. Mor'du was lying in one half of his bear cave where he lived, and he offered Elinor and the three cubs the other side of the cave. He taught Elinore how to lie down and hold her three children to keep them warm through her massive body index. Before the five bears fell asleep Hubert looked across to Mor'du.
"Good night Lord Mor'du. And thank you." Hubert called out.
Queen Elinor, Hamish and Harris looked over to him too, "Thank you and good night."
Mor'du blinked as he watched the three baby bears and Elinor close their eyes and fell asleep, the cubs rubbed a bit into Elinor's body before drifting off to sleep. He blinked and rolled his eyes, all that 'mushy' mother to son's treatment could make Mor'du throw up.
He doesn't remember a single time his own mother used to hold him, show him or his four younger brothers any love or devotion, and only his father showed 'occasionally' compassion for his son.
'But you need to keep an eye on the four for now.' Mor'du thought to himself, 'If any of the wild bears find them... then she and her three kids will be harmed.'
Mor'du shuttered at his memories over the wildlife in Scotland. His first few years as a bear he was forced to fight against various wild bears in the Scottish forests. They had harmed and hardened Mor'du. And especially during the mating season, the bears can go completely ballistic on one another.
Mor'du drifted off to sleep and wondered how long he could keep them safe and out of harm's way.
The next morning, Elinor woke up and yawned, stretching her hands and legs out. As her eyes adjusted to the light, she noticed she was lying in a bear cave, in the form of a bear, and three smaller bears were nestled into her body form. Sniffing the air a bit, Elinor could detect her three sons in the cubs' form. Looking at them in her embrace Elinor smiled a bit.
"Good morning my sons," Elinor smiled at the three cubs.
Carefully Elinor licked over their heads, waking them up. Hubert, Hamish and Harris blinked, was this a way bears showed their children they loved them? The three cubs giggled and hugged Elinor back.
Hubert smiled, "Morning mum. Did you sleep well?"
Elinor nodded her head, "I did my dears."
Suddenly Elinor grew silent as she looked up and around the cave. It was quite a big cave she could detect, but who's cave? Elinor sniffed the air, and it confirmed her that another creature was not too far from them.
Elinor pointed back to the side of the cave and instructed her three baby bears to hide, the kids wanted to protest but did as she asked. Quietly Elinor sniffed the air once more and followed the odd odour of another bear
She froze in her movements as she saw the huge black shape of a bear, with a scar over his eyes and claws as large as kitchen knives.
'Oh no, Mor'du.' Elinor thought shocked.
Then one plus one made for Elinor two, this was Mor'du's bear cave she and her kids were in. The downside, Mor'du is strong enough to kill her and her children. Mor'du sensed the four were up but decided not to scare Elinor, or he hopes he isn't scaring her away from him.
Elinor quietly walked backwards and looked back over to her children.
"We've been staying in Mor'du's home the entire night?" Elinor asked worried.
The triplets nodded their heads, Elinor nodded her's and scooped her children quickly up in her arms and placed them on her large back.
Elinor walked out of the cave, "We got to get away from here as fast as possible. I have to keep you three safe before he kills us."
"No, mum wait-" Hubert said, but Elinor didn't listen.
She left Mor'du's cave and ran into the forest of Dun Broch, wanting to run as fast as possible, and as far away as possible from Mor'du, the triplet baby bears didn't get a chance to explain anything to her.
It didn't take long for Mor'du to wake up, he has heard everything Elinor said and felt a little hurt that she would turn and run from him if she didn't even know him that well yet.
'You got to find her Mor'du.' His heart was telling him, 'She can't protect herself or her children very well, if anyone would find her then she will be in even more trouble, as well as her three sons.'
But Mor'du's brain was scowling at him, 'Why should he lift a paw to help that ungrateful female bear? Sure she is still part human under that flesh and fur, but if she doesn't wish to have his help then that's her problem and not yours.'
'But she's scared Mor'du.' His heart told him again, 'She doesn't know what she's doing, so she needs a guiding 'paw' to help her on the right bear way.'
'No she does not. She's a strong independent woman and can look after the three baby bears as well.' Mor'du's brain scowled.
'OH, NO THE CHILDREN!' Mor'du's heart suddenly turned itself back on, 'Mor'du if anything would happen to the three kids... Elinor would never forgive herself and maybe drive herself insane. You have to find them an get them back home. NOW! Or their blood and Elinor's will be on your own paws because you've failed to protect them.'
Mor'du looked outside of his cave, he sighed and nodded his head. Quickly putting his nose down he sniffed the air and started tracking Elinor and the triplet bears back down again. Then try and persuade them to stay with him.
Meanwhile, Elinor and her triplet baby bears have gotten completely lost. Luckily it didn't seem to be snowing or too cold, but Elinor knew she has to find a new bear cave for shelter to keep her babies warm and fed. So far she only saw hundreds of bare trees in the Dun Brock forest, and nothing seems to be big enough or warm enough to hide her and her three sons.
"Mummy..." Elinor heard suddenly.
Elinor sighed and stopped, she carefully bent down and allowed her three kids off her back, before facing them. Elinor saw that Hamish, Hubert and Harris were all shivering, it was getting cold.
"I'll find us some shelter soon my dears," Elinor sighed, "But we can't return. And we can't go home, your father's guards are most likely going to kill us if anyone would find us."
Hamish whipped a tear falling from his face, "Why didn't you just stay with Mor'du? He did offer us his home and his protection for us four."
"I can't trust him my dears." Elinor explained shaking, "You know his legend, he can destroy entire armies if anyone opposes him, I can't allow him to raise a paw against me and you three. I'd rather wonder the woods forever lost than be hurt by him."
But just as they walked further, coming across some massive lake they walked onto it to cross it. Now they were about 2 miles from Mor'du's cave. Elinor stopped her son's and looked out towards the lake, in the distance she saw another cave in a different mountain sight, that could provide them shelter and protection.
"We got to cross the lake my dears." Elinor said, "Be careful, and one step at the time."
The triplet bears looked at each other, this lake was a joke. It wasn't that long ago where the water was liquid, and the storm from last night wasn't strong enough to make the lake be a firm ice layer.
"Mum... please no..." Hubert said, but Elinor didn't listen.
She placed the three cubs on her back and walked onto the lake. It felt firm, a bit wet, but firm enough. Elinor looked left and right and continued her walk over the lake.
The further she walked onto the ice, the more cracks were appearing, the louder and more often they occurred and her infant bears on her back were shaking, looking left and right from her body.
Harris was also shaking, "Mummy, please turn round, we won't make it across."
Elinor was about to agree, as a mighty roar frightened her right out of her own fur.
"ELINOR! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Mor'du's voice boomed across the lake towards them.
Elinor turned around so fast that the ice didn't have a chance. Just as she and her three children saw Mor'du on the other side of the lake, the ice gave way underneath her paws.
Elinor plunged with the kids straight into the lake. Mor'du's eyes widened and he quickly smashed the ice with his paws as well, diving into the lake himself he caught the three cubs out of the water and carried them on his back to the safer side of the lake.
"Wait, our mother." Hamish panicked.
Mor'du didn't see Elinor come back up again, quickly he took a deep breath and dived right to the bottom of the lake, he saw Elinor and grabbed her flailing paw. With all his might Mor'du kicked as hard against the cold water as he could, heaving Elinor onto his stomach and keeping her mouth above the water.
Elinor wasn't calming down and almost brought herself and Mor'du back under water, Mor'du growled and held her hands with his own back.
"Elinor calm down this instant, or you are going to kill us both." Mor'du growled into her ear.
Elinor had no choice but to calm down, Mor'du sighed and with the last of his energy he swam them both back to the safer edge, the triplet cubs heaved Mor'du and Elinor back onto dry land, and Mor'du snapped and breathing harder and harder air into his lungs, before collapsing to the side of the lake.
Elinor and her three cubs blinked, they looked over to Mor'du, who was still trying to catch his breath, and then all four hugged him.
"Thank you Mor'du... thank you so much." Elinor smiled and sighed, catching her breath.
Mor'du just growled a bit and sighed, nodding his head. It was his pleasure. But just as he was trying to get up, he hissed, Elinor and her kid's gasped, as Mor'du came up once, one of the ice edges in the ice hole has dug into his only exposed skin on his body, it was now leaking blood.
"Crap." Mor'du whispered as he stretched and touched his wound, that was his only weak spot, and now it was hurting him again.
Elinor quickly made Mor'du face her, she lay him down on the ground.
"Don't move. Hamish, Harris and Hubert, go straight back into the forest and find me a flower with small white blossoms and a green stem. Its called Yarrow. We will need it to stop Mor'du's blood flow." Elinor instructed.
But Mor'du growled and tried to let Elinore let him go, "I don't need any medical treatment, Elinor. Now let me go."
Elinor glared at Mor'du and pressed her paw against Mor'du's old wound, Mor'du roared in pain and collapsed once more. That was enough proof for him that he does need treatment for the wound. The cubs dashed away and as instructed dug through the snow to find some of these plants.
Elinor kept a watch on Mor'du and made him lie down. Mor'du wanted to protest, but he didn't have the energy anymore.
"Did you ever get any treatment for your spear wounds Mor'du?" Elinor asked concerned.
Mor'du rolled his eyes and shook his head, "No I never did. I just swallowed the pain and ignored it as best as I could."
"I see. Well, we are going to help you, like how you helped us." Elinor explained.
Mor'du blinked, he grabbed a hold of a thick tree, and Elinor started pulling one spear out after the other. All along whiles Mor'du was screaming his head off.
Meanwhile with the triplets.
The tree bear cubs raced through the forest and did as Elinor instructed them. They did see some flowers around the place, but they couldn't find the Yarrow anywhere. After digging and searching for some time they came to the edge of the Scottish forest, it was leading out to an open meadow and the bear cubs recognised it as the riding path Merida and their mother used to take as humans.
By a walking path, that was set up by some humans many decades ago, the bear cubs walked along it, trying to make sure not to come across any humans or other predators. They scanned the edge of the forest and the wide open meadow and soon found hundreds of wildflowers growing ruggedly picky around the place.
"Now remember guy's." Hamish said facing his brothers, "We are looking for small white flowers on the top and a long thin green stem."
Harris and Hubert nodded their heads and looked around the grass grown area, after a while, they came to a trail in the edge of the forest.
They suddenly had flashbacks, of their father, mother and sister, as all of them were riding horses along these tracks. The cubs smiled at the memories and remembered that King Fergus explained to them and to Merida what for herbs grew around the forest and by the riding track. One of such flowers they remember learning about was Yarrow.
"Yarrow's." The Cubs called out, spotting the plant.
The yarrow plant was growing in bundle wises up and down the entire path, quickly the three cubs yanked and ripped as much of the herbs out as they could, but too not make it look like an unusual flower theft, they rolled around the place and pulled only a few flowers out every few miles.
After all three cubs had their paws full of the yarrow, and it still looked as normal as they arrived, the three bears quickly carried the bundles of yarrow's in their arms and ran back to Mor'du and Elinor.
By the time Hamish, Harris and Hubert returned to Mor'du and Elinor, they saw Elinor has cleaned the wound out with water and pulled at least 5 spear parts and splinters of wood out.
Through this entire treatment, Mor'du didn't stop screaming and roaring in pain, several times he almost passed out, but the pain was too much, and his blood was leaking from his wounds out fast.
"Mum, we got the Yarrow," Hamish called out to Elinor.
Mor'du screamed once more as Elinor had ripped the last spear out, Elinore wasn't attacked or hurt by him, just had to tolerate being roared at all the time.
"Good job my dears, quickly you have to crush the herb up and then put the mixture into Mor'du's wounds." Elinor said as Mor'du screamed once more, "Until I got the last spear out."
"IT HURTS!" Mor'du roared as Elinor ripped the thickest spear out.
The triplets quickly grabbed a flat and heavy thick rock, they placed some of the Yarrow leaves onto the flat stone and with the heavier stone, they hammered against it, getting the Yarrow's juices out of the plant.
Mor'du sighed as he bit his teeth one ontop of the other as Elinor picked up the mushed Yarrow, Hamish picked up the last of the plant and handed it to Mor'du. He understood that he had to chew the plant to help with the healing formula.
"Now, one last sting Mor'du and you should be better in no time. Stay calm." Elinor instructed.
Mor'du just grumbled and chewed the disgusting yarrow through his sharp teeth, Elinor sighed, picked a bit of the medication into her paws and placed it over all of Mor'du's open wounds. Mor'du bit harder down on the plant and swallowed parts of it down, whiles trying not to scream for the third time.
As Elinor was done, Mor'du and Elinor were both tired from the long day, and the hours-long argument they had at roaring at each other over removing all the dangerous spears. But the Yarrow was helping Mor'du with the pain and the blood flow, as well as speeding up his healing way on his bear body.
Whiles Elinor was washing her paws in the river and her kids were also getting cleaned up, Mor'du bowed his head down. He felt a small part of him, one part he thought he'd locked away a long time ago, was starting to warm up. Elinor seems to hold a kind personality and, despite the fact he had eaten her husband's leg, she didn't seem to hate him any more.
Elinor finished her clean up, and suddenly she felt as if her human mind had turned itself off, her bear mind was speaking now and asked her to turn round to Mor'du and look at him.
'He's very handsome and sweet as a bear.' Elinor thought and looked him over again.
Now that all the spears and pains were away from Mor'du's body, Elinor could see he was a big bear, huge paws, part of his eye was stiffened hard through so many battles, and huge teeth. But also, she knew now that he has a kind heart and would do anything in his power to protect her and her three children.
Mor'du noticed Elinor was looking at him in an odd way, he blushed and coughed a bit to get the cubs and her attention back to normal.
"We'd better head back home, all of us will need our rest for tomorrow." Mor'du explained and quickly avoided Elinor's eyes.
Elinor blinked and looked up, through taking care of Mor'du she hasn't realised how quickly the day has gone by, the five bears had a quick dinner and Mor'du slowly lead them back to his cave.
Meanwhile with Merida. (9 days later after her departure)
Merida reached the edge of Great Britain and looked out at the North Sea. Merida knew from her research that she has to cross the North Sea and get into Europ, then from there, ride along the other countries to get to India.
She saw hundreds of other people walking around the place and having hundreds of different jobs to complete. Through the way all of them were speaking, Merida detected she must be in the English nation now, and not Scotland any more.
"I have to find for you a new home Angus, I can't take you any further." Merida sighed and stroked her horse.
Angus sighed and bowed his horse head down, Merida walked along the port and found a horse stable area, with other horses being taken care of by a stable boy.
"Hello, can I please book my horse in here for a few months?" Merida asked the stable boy.
The young boy, who is about 17 years old, looked up and stared at Merida, he looked across and looked at Angus.
"Wow, the boy smiled, "This is a Scottish High land horse. Sure you can book him in. How long will you be away for?" the boy asked Merida.
Merida bit down on her lip and remembered her calculations, "I'll be away for about a year. And I can't take Angus with me this far."
"We will take good care of Angus, but you'll have to pay us £6.000 to take care of him for one year. Also, can we use him for some horse training and horse trips?" The boy asked and suggested, "He needs a lot of exercises and will be a great trip horse for our place."
"Sure you can, and here you are." Merida smiled.
The boy handed Merida a list and she wrote out what the caretaker had to look out with Angus, then she handed him the reigns and the boy could see that Angus was panting heavily, he seems to be very tired now and looked like he has hardly had a break for days.
Merida stared into her horse's eyes, "Please behave Angus, and I'll see you soon. I love you."
The horse snorted and the boy lead the horse onto a field by the port, Merida smiled as she saw the boy was also taking care of five other horses at the port. Angus sniffed and befriended the other horses, before looking one last time towards Merida.
Merida nodded and left the caretakers place. She walked along the port and looked around for a boat heading towards France, Calais.
Merida was a bit hungry and bought from a stand some sea bread buns and some mussels to eat. As she was sitting at a table, she heard how a man as talking about going on a business trip towards France and that his partner has jumped off and he was stuck with two tickets.
"A shame that no one needs to head towards France," The man sighed, "But I can't enter the boat alone."
Merida walked up to him, "Hi my name is Merida. And I come from Scottland. I've heard you have accidentally booked two tickets?"
"Indeed I have, and now I can't enter the boat without being accused over being a smuggler with these tickets." The man sighed.
Merida sighed and quickly explained to him her story. The man nodded his head and smiled a bit.
"Well Merida, do you have your pass with you as well? If yes I can offer you a stay on the ferry and it can get you towards Calais Europe were you need to go." The man suggested.
Merida reached into her bag and pulled her travel pass out, the man examined it and confirmed that it was a real pass.
"Ok, you can travel with his pass, oh by the way my name is Peter Travel." Peter Travel explained.
Merida smiled, "Thanks, Peter. I think we have to get going."
Peter nodded his head and he and Merida could board the ferry, Peter showed his pass and both tickets and Merida showed her pass, they got into the main area of the boat and an hour later the boat was ready to travel across the English Channel.
Quanktumspirit raising my own hands in the air, "I know, I know actually Elinor and Mor'du have mated at a different time, but after researching how long Elinor is supposed to carry the cub, which is about 180 to 270 days, and Merida will be away for 318 days, I have to impregnate Elinor sooner rather than much later. And what do you all think about Merida's brilliant scheme in getting towards Europe?"
