Burst into Stars [Merida/Any]

[Merida]

Merida

from the ashes, a fire shall be awoken

The memories flood back in bits and pieces, each one of them slamming into her with an unforgiving force. The memories are dusty and old, long forgotten on a shelf in her mind. It almost feels like her memories are not even hers, as if they were someone else’s entirely. But as her voice leaves her ebony lips, the normal curtness and sharpness receding, now soft and hesitant in the evening’s glow, Merida remembers. She remembers her darling daughter.

For a moment, however, her daughter does not remember her.

Dread turns her limbs cold, and the black mare’s ears fall back into her blazing red mane, her equally scarlet eyes falling downwards. She nearly takes a step back, nearly apologizes for intruding, but then, the recognition hits Kuma’s eyes and with the same hesitant and quiet voice, the now grown but still ever as beautiful girl whispers, Mom?

Merida takes a step forward, the chill of autumn’s wind brushing her tangled forelock from her face. The Reckoning had taken everything from the fierce little mare, and she had often hoped that all would be restored – but she quickly lost hope when she realized that any signs of her family still being in Beqanna were long gone. She had been left alone.

And though Merida holds no resentment nor bitterness towards her daughter (she never could harbor such feelings against her own blood, strangers were a different story), the time alone had been difficult and trying, and with a slow exhale, she realizes just how tired the whole thing had truly made her.

“Yes, Kuma,” she says gingerly, taking a few more steps towards the beautifully painted mare – she could hardly believe this was the same filly she remembers nurturing and caring for. She stretches her neck forward, her black muzzle searching to brush the auburn of Kuma’s forelock away from her eyes, but stops herself. Merida pulls her chin to her chest, tossing her head slightly as if to chide herself for wanting to exude such a gesture. “You’ve returned.” She states simply, for what else is there to say?

@[Kuma]