The Hero that will not Die

One Step too Far

                   "I think we'll haf to turn back!" The Princess of Dunbroch shouted over the buffeting wind.

                   "Are you sure?" Pocohantas called back. She pulled her deer-skin shall tighter around her shoulders...squinting out into the darkness.
            
                   Something flitted past Pocohantas that startled Angus. Angus snorted a cloud of ice and reared. Pocohantas turned to the horse, and tried to calm the animal.

                  Merida tucked down closer to her horse's quivering neck, focusing intently on the place where the shadow disappeared. "Wher'd 'ee go..." She asked in a low tone while discreetly drawing her bow.

                  After a few tense moments, the warriors decided that the danger was gone. "What are we going to tell him?" Pocohantas asked. Merida sheathed her arrow and slung her bow over one shoulder.

                 "We'll jus' tell the Master as is. Besides...we'll be relieving thee poor lord's mine...." Merida replied.

                Pocohantas could agree that Mickey's mind was under pressure. Out of the cold eye of the storm, came a blast of thick snowflakes...driving the princesses apart.

                Pocohantas fell into the snow unconscious and Merida was thrown off Angus. Merida groaned as Angus worriedly nuzzled her arm. Merida grabbed the reigns and Angus carefully pulled her out off the snow. She clutched the reigns tightly as the horse set her down on another snowbank that was far less deep.

                She shivered and reached up to pat the horse's velvety nose. "Thank you Angus." She said huskily. She managed to climb back into the saddle with only a little bit of difficulty. "Where's Poco?" She asked the horse, looking worriedly around her.

                She raised her hands to her face and called out to the storm. "Mil' lady!" She waited a little bit, and then she spurred her horse in the direction where she fell. No sign. "Princess!!" She shouted.

                In response Merida heard a scream, that could only be the Indian heir. Merida dug her heels hard into the horse's sides, and sped into a gallop in the same direction as Pocohantas's scream.

               The warrior slowed when she saw something fluttering. She drew near and found that it was a swath of Pocohantas's deerskin shall. Merida dismounted and tugged it free. She dropped as once with a gasp, as visions of evil left her mind. "It'd be dark magic." Merida muttered, scooping up the piece of fabric in the folds of her dress.

               Merida mounted Angus and galloped back the way they had came, holding the part of Pocohantas tightly in her lap. All things considered...with the scream, and the cursed fabric...Merida couldn't help fearing the worst.
             
               The scottish princess knew that Pocohantas was able to holld out on her own...it just unsettled her to think that dark magic might be involved. Merida had fiddled with dark magic once...and it turned the queen into a bear. Pocohantas wouldn't be so foolish to seek out a sorceress. "Then what could have happened to the brave lass?" She asked to the wind. Merida came to the conclusion...that Pocohantas...had been captured by the enemy.