Searching for a place to stay (tag: Merryweather)

Kenai had been walking for days. Weeks even maybe, he had lost track of time. The only thing on his mind was Koda, he had to find him, and he was determined to stop whoever got in his way. "Just hang in there Koda, I'm coming for ya" he whispered under his breath as a breeze picked up from behind him, sending shivers down his back. "It's getting dark again, I should find a place to stay for the night," Kenai sighed and continued "what I wouldn't give for a bed right now...or even a nice patch of grass and leaves...like back home". As He let himself drift off into his own thoughts, the fact that a cabin was coming up quickly, totally evaded his sight.

Merriweather crouched in the branches of one of the trees around her cabin. She had sensed someone enter her forest, a stranger, but human. The darkness was quickly closing in. Some found it oppressive, but since the war. Merriweather had learned to thrive in it. After all, hunters prowled at night. Her eyes narrowed as a young boy moved wearily through the trees. Her short dark hair hung loosely about her. She had given up wearing the customary fairy hat, it had just gotten in her way when attacking trespassers. She watched the boy stumble over a root. Silently, she extended her wings and pulled her wand from her sleeve. It was time to "greet" the stranger. She fluttered down from the tree branch, her plump body landing silently on the damp earth.
Pointing her wand at the boy's back, she demanded menacingly, "You are either brave or foolish to travel through these woods stranger."

Kenai instantly tensed, feeling the sharp tip of the wand in his back. This was the moment he regreted his spear breaking a few days back. He was weaponless and had no way of defending himself. "who are y..you?" he couldnt help but stutter, something between the freezing cold and the raw fear he was feeling, made him lose his words.

"Stranger," she stated. It wasn't a question but an observation. She added some pressure to the wand. She glanced sideways at the groups of stone creatures lining the clearing around her cabin. Most were goblins and trolls, obvious creatures of Maleficent's. But some were regular forest animals she knew or suspected to be her spies.
"I am the Guardian of the Forest of Dobryn. But who exactly are you? And who do you serve?" Her voice was low and dangerous.

At this statement, Kenai couldn't help but be confused. Who do you serve? "I..." he took a deep breath and arched his back, hoping to get away from the wand, "My name is Kenai...I'm looking for my brother, he...he was taken from me". Tears prickled in his eyes and he tried to force them away, but it seemed useless, he was just glad she was behind him and couldn't see the pain in his eyes. "I don't serve anyone...I dont know what you are talking about" The last part of his sentence was carried off by the wind, leaving the two of them in an eeire silence.

Merriweather didn't move for a moment, thoughts whirling. He seemed genuinely confused. Maleficent's cronies had used ruses about stolen loved ones before, in an attempt to get through the forest, to find her. He WAS a scrawny thing really...and he looked awfully cold. The silence deepened around them, the odd silence of the forest around the cabin disconcerting. None dared come near the place. That alone told her he was not HER agent. She lowered her wand slowly.
"Turn around. Let me see your face."
He did so, slowly. She looked up into his eyes which were dark with pain, and more than a little fear. His face looked haggard and weary. Merriweather sighed. Had her heart hardened this much? that she would threaten a boy.
"Only fools enter this forest. Or those who wish to never move again." She gestured at the statues surrounding the clearing. "Where are you heading that you would enter such a dark forest as this?"

His gaze followed her hand to the statues and froze with a deeper fear. Seeing the poses they were in frightned him, some blocked their faces as if to sheld them from the spell that had turned them into cold stone and others were frozen in mid run. Kenai desperatly wished he would be able to talk himself out of the same fate, but weeks of having no one to talk to but himself was making it hard for him to find the right words. "I honestly don't know where I am going..." his gaze shifted to his feet as he shuffled them sadly, "I come from a village near the Mountains of Arella, and I saw the hun.." he stops himself from saying hunters and quickly presses on "men that took my brother run this way, they could be long gone by now though." His face was both sad and angry at the same time, but the anger that was boiling his insides where subdued by the fear that has staked his heart at the moment.

The mountains of Arella...distant memories of her childhood flashed through her mind. It had been quite some time since she had been back to the place of her birth. She looked at him thoughtfully. He was hunting. She grinned wryly. He was an innocent, simply trying to save his brother. She could accept that.
She slipped her wand back up her sleeve.
"Well, you're not getting anywhere tonight. And you look like you haven't eaten anything substantial for quite sometime. Follow me." She said bruskly.
She turned and walked briskly into her cabin. Pulling her wand out again, she flicked it towards some cabinets. Quickly two plates and cups flew to the center table. She spun around and waved her wand towards another set of cupboards and a hunk of bread and slice of meat zoomed to the plate.
"Sit. eat." she snapped. "And tell me exactly what's happened. How did you make it through these lands with a war going on?"

He followed her up into her cabin, looking at all the statues as they passed, thinking that he may have just gotten saved from a fate as terrible as theirs. Kenai's eyes lit up as he saw the food fly onto the plate, he let it slide that he had never seen flying food before and sat quickly, tearing into the food. "A war," he asked, face stuffed with food, "wha do ya mean?". He swallowed and frowned, thinking hard. "Is that why they came into our...our village? We had always been save where we were. Protected from any travelers but with enough resources to keep us alive...and then" his eyes tilted down to his plate, "thats when they came. Middle of the night, when everyone was sleeping."

"Cowards..." she growled under her breath. She plopped down on the seat opposite the young man and began delicately shredding her bread. Her eyes watched him carefully. He had obviously not eaten for quite some time.
"Yes a war." she said simply. "Evil has returned once again to the land. Innocents left and right are being hunted, tortured for HER use." Her eyes flashed dangerously, filled with barely restrained anger. "There are few left to resist." She grinned madly, eyes glazed over with a twisted glee. "Yet I have made her fear this forest."
She slipped a small piece of bread delicately in her mouth, her eyes never leaving his face.
"It is possible that the refugees from this land have become desperate. Or they could be more of HER agents."
She shrugged. It didn't truly matter to her.
"What is your name, child?"

Kenai watches her face for a moment as the different emotions flash on it. Is she just a crazy old woman? Is it possible that I can trust her? He sighs, unable to find an answer to his own question and shrugs, "names Kenai..." He touches the bear necklace over his chest and fidgits with it for comfort, "but, who is this HER you keep talking about? I dont know whats happening around here. I'm...afraid i've been away from people for quite some time." All of this was true, he had no idea what was happening in the land of humans any more. Kenai had since blocked himself away from human contact since his decsion to move back with the bears. The only people he had really seen was his brother and the people from his former village. But even then, he never stayed long, the langauge barrier was hard to over come and playing one big game of charades was never his form of entertainment.

Merriweather's face darkened.
"Have you heard the tale of the sleeping beauty?" She asked solemnly. "Of the maiden put under a spell by an evil sorceress, cursed to sleep until true love's kiss should waken her?"
She paused and slipped another piece of bread between her lips. "That is the heart of this land. The story of our Princess Aurora and the evil Maleficent. Several years ago, we were able to defeat Maleficent. Prince Phillip killed her with help from I and two of my....colleagues," she said carefully. "We thought that was the end. But not long ago, Maleficent returned to the land of the living with the help of some dark magic no doubt." Her eyes clouded with sadness. "She has overrun the castle. I have heard she has killed the king and queen. And my dear Rose and Phillip..." She sighed sadly. "I still do not know what has become of them.---But Maleficent's evil has spread across the land, waging war on any good left here."
Her eyes locked with Kenai's. "So yes, young Kenai. A war wages here."

"I had no idea things had gotten that bad while I was a...away" Kenai whispered as he took another bite of his meat, savoring the taste as he didn't know when his next meal would come.
"How have you been able to...survive this long by yourself? I mean, I've always been on my own and thankfully I haven't come across many people" then he remembers her wand, "do you turn everyone into statues?"
His face grew less animated again and slipped back into silence, still not wanting to anger her again, thinking he could still be turned if she felt the need. And Kenai knew that growing a stone exterior would do nothing to aid him on his search for Koda.

Merriweather raised he eyebrows as he said the word 'away'. There was obviously something more behind that simple word. Her old curiosity wakened slightly. but was immediately dashed by his next question. She twirled her wand in her hand.
"I escaped Maleficent's clutches...though at a dear price." She looked thoughtfully at her wand.
"You say you are from the Mountains of Arella......so you have seen the midnight lights?"

Kenai nods, thinking carefully, wondering how much to tell her since he wasn't sure he could trust her just yet. "more than a few times, the people from my village told us stories growing up that the spirits of our loved ones went there when they died. I for one never believed them...until my oldest brother died while hunting a bear." He clings to the necklace tighter, wanting the memory to go away. "The lights were beautiful though, it never stopped amazing me..."

Merriweather's eyes softened with an empathetic sorrow. "I'm sorry for your loss. It is never easy to lose those you love before their time."
She thought of Flora and Fauna.
"It's true that the spirits dwell in those mountains. But that's only part of the source of the lights. Fairies dwell among the mountain tops. The lights are a sort of byproduct of Fairy magic. I escaped Maleficent's clutches...but at a dear price. I survive because of my magic. I survive to avenge what I have lost." her wings fluttered, accentuating her point. "I am able to defend the forest, protecting the innocents who live here." Her eyes darkened.
"do you turn everyone into statues?"
She grinned wickedly. "Only those who have let's say less than innocent intentions. Or are guilty of evil doings."
The nature of her magic didn't allow her to hurt anyone outright, though at times she wished it did. But she was able to turn them to stone. It was a sort of...preservation. Her eyes flashed angrily.
"Let's just say...I've picked up enough tricks to make her fear this forest."

Kenai nodded, still weary of her but deciding it would do well for him to go along with her, he may even get a good nights rest and some more food out of this.
"It was my fault you know...why he died. I got in the way and he was saving me," he tears up again at this, "but, when I...went back up there before I started looking for my brother, Koda, he came down to see me." Kenai's face lit up in a sad smile.
"It had been a years since I saw him...but whenever I see and eagle" he motions towards his necklace, " that was his spirit animal, I think hes watching over me."
Kenai then lets her words about the fairies sink in slowly, never hearing this part of the story before.
"The eagle means wisdom. Sitka was always the wise one when it came to me and my brothers...I wish he were here now to help me" his eyes shift back towards hers, seeing the dark glint in them but sensing its not directed at him, sighs a breath of relief.
"Can you go there any time you want? If, that is, you were to leave the forest?" His question was hopeful, maybe she could help him find Koda!

Merriweather forced her eyes to soften. She had blamed herself for Flora and Fauna's deaths for the longest time. Now, that guilt was directed in anger towards Maleficent.
"It is a comforting thing to know your loved one is watching over you. The eagle is truly wise and a great guardian. You are blessed to be loved by one such as he."
She popped a piece of meat in her mouth and chewed thoughtfully.
"Once a fairy has grown, she is assigned to a person, land, or realm to watch over. We do not return there again. Nor do I wish to leave this forest. I have failed in protecting those entrusted to me. This is all I have left to protect. But tell me more about your brother and those who took him. Maybe I can direct you towards them."

Kenai's face falls slightly, his short lived hopes dashed in an instant. If she couldn't help that way...would it be possible for her to use her magic to aid him?
"I dont know what to tell you...These men came into our part of the woods, they never dared enter before. Sorta like these woods and you, they were scared of us." He frowned, picking his next words carefully.
"They were looking for...something I guess and they took as many of us as they could. I woke up first and picked up Koda then ran." Kenai lets one tear fall at the memory but quickly wipes it away, hating to cry infront of people.
" He was just a cub, why would they want him!"
He was so caught up in his emotions, Kenai had no idea what he said cub instead of kid, never having to say the other before, therefore it not sounding off to him.

Merriweather listened carefully. She knew humans often hunted other humans. But Kenai's story sounded so odd. Why would humans 'take' other humans?
Her eyebrows shot upwards. "A cub? Have humans in your land began referring to their young as cubs?"
Her suspicion quickly resurfaced. Kenai was definitely hiding something.

Kenai gasped and quickly stood up, cursing under his breath as he did so.
"I...I should go!" he started backing up and even tripped over his chair but quickly caught his balance again.
"Thank you for the food, but I really should be getting back out there, I need to find him" Kenai didn't know why he had let it slip but knew it was the wrong thing to do and so he kept his eyes on her, trying to find the doorknob behind him.

Merriweather sighed exasperatedly and flicked her wand lazily in the direction of the door. A loud click sounded and the door securely locked itself. Her eyes narrowed at his sudden haste to leave and her suspicion grew. She stood, all four feet of her glaring threateningly up at him. Her blue skirts swished around her ankles.
"You won't be leaving until I say you can leave. The people who took your....brother....? will be resting for the night anyways."
She waved her wand again, and candles along the wall burst into flame, giving the room an eerie glow.
"Whatever you aren't telling me, I suggest you start talking. and quickly."

Kenai took a deep but shaky breath, knowing it would do him no good, he started his tale speaking quickly and seemilngly all in one breath.
"Remember that bear that killed my brother? I was mad and got revenge by killing it and the spirits were angry with me. The bear is my spirit animal and it means love. For acting out of hate rather than love, they punished me by turning me into a bear aslwell, so iI could know what it feels like. I am a human though! I swear! but then I found Koda, and he helped me. He was just a cub though and he was all alone so I was concerned for him. Turns out the bear that I killed was Koda's mom and I knew then that the spirits made us run into each other, i was meant to fix what I had done. I knew I couldnt bring his mom back though so I stayed with them even when the spirits turned me human again, so i was living as a bear."
Taking a large breath on the verge of tears again, he looked into her eyes to see if he was making any progress with her.
Dropping his voice to a whisper, he continued, "the men that took him were hunters....I'm afraid if i don't find him in time he could be..." he choked up and trailed off, unable to continue.

Merriweather slowly lowered her wand. His tale was extraordinary, it was true.
"It takes a gentle and giving heart to relinquish the life you knew."
She bit her lip thoughtfully and plopped once again onto her chair. Kenai continued to stand by the door, watching her fearfully.
"Oh for goodness sakes, sit down and finish your food. You're not going to rescue anyone looking as scrawny as you!"
She flicked her wrist and a pitcher of water zoomed over to the table. She didn't know what to do.
"I want to help you, truly I do. I do not stand for the harm of innocents. But I cannot leave this forest and its innocents for the sake of one."

{I don't think she'll leave the forest quite yet. He'll probably take off and later on she'll either take off after him, or somehow they'll meet up again. But for now, they'll just get to know each other.}

Kenai slowly made his way back to the table, wanting the food more than anything right now, she was right. He had lost a load of wait from all the walking and lack of meals over his journey. He sat and began eating quickly again, not speaking until he was done.
"I understand...you need to stay here. But I NEED to find my brother. He must be...so scared and lonely. I hope one of the other bears is with him at least, I can't bare to think of him alone, it hurts to much. He sighed a heavy sigh and looks back up at her.
"But...is there anything you could do? Use magic of some kind and help point me in the right direction? I have no idea where I'm going, heck I dont even know where I am!" There was more than a hint of desperation in his voice, and as much as he hated the idea of going off on his own again, he knew he needed too.
The only hope left was a bit of help.