I had to. I really couldn't resist. It just seemed like so much fun to write. I'm just hoping I get their personalities right with their scenes. Enjoy.

Prologue: Forbidden Lands

.

.

Biting into an apple, Merida looked off from an overhang towards the forbidden lands that she and Angus had never ventured into before, far past the border of Dun'Broch's country, and a forbidden vicinity to her, until today. The vast land, known as "the Bear's Tooth," was a mystery to all as it cut in one jagged hook formation out towards the sea lined with sudden cliffs and drops, littered with all sorts of wildlife, and the only man-made thing that could be seen from Merida's high view was a clutter of mossy and cracked stones of an abandoned kingdom's castle.

Technically, all of this was still forbidden by her mother, Elinor, but Merida had already traveled through the far reaches inside the borders of her kingdom in her few years of life, she loved it all. Every tree, every cliff, every waterfall, every stream, every forest trail, every road, every village, every town was a part of her illustrious world. But, there had to be something new and riveting out there, just beyond the horizon and far into the forests and mountains that were left unexplored and untouched by any citizen of Dun'Broch.

Travelers, believing the ruins of the once-great-castle in Merida's sights to be cursed and inhabited by Red Cap*, and that Kelpies* frolicked freely in the lakes and rivers that cut through the land, took longer ways around and scarcely wandered through the land, leaving a complete open wilderness for Merida to face. With Scotia* as her witness, Merida vowed between bites that she would travel to the sharp tip of those lands in the far distance and return home without a single scratch!

How did she plan to accomplish this? By asking the right parent, that's how. Her father, King Fergus of Dun'Broch, was more approving of Merida's wild side than her mother. After the entire bear "incident," as it was popularly known now, died down a little, Merida and her Mother were closer and able to communicate better, but that still didn't mean they saw everything eye to eye. Exploring vast unknown woods still sent her mother into one of her "moods," as Merida had dubbed them, and earned her a relentless amount of nagging when she came home.

So, to avoid such an issue, Merida asked her father to go on a hunting trip, alone, in the far reaches of their western kingdom, with the excuse of it being a rather fruitful hunting province to pose as her explanation for going so far. Her father, although a jokester and rather layback man, wasn't careless with his own daughter, and took his time (an entire agonizing week) to think it over. About halfway through that week her mother heard about it, but since Merida came to her father first, it was mainly his decision. The alone part is what put both her parents most on edge, but after agreeing to having an escort, who Merida could easily avoid, she was free to go for two weeks. It took three days just to get here, so Merida only had eight or so days to explore!

Her escort had set up camp about a mile away, at least, from where Merida was currently standing beside Angus, and he had the uncanny ability to make himself scarce at the most appropriate of times. He wouldn't follow her, by her own request, but he knew her general direction she was going in and how to find her if she didn't return the next day. All that was left for the princess of Dun'Broch to do was to escape into the forests and see all the sights that only a few whispered legends ever told of. Lost in the whirling tide of her own excitement, she eagerly pursued the adventure that awaited her. How was she supposed to know that she'd be getting much more than an encounter with an easily out-smarted Kelpie?

.

"Okay, Buddy, I'm almost completely sure we're going in the right direction this time," Hiccup said looking at his clumsily drawn charts through the thick fog. Toothless let out an unsatisfied growl. Hiccup rolled his eyes and looked back at the notebook he tried to keep flat in his hand. A pencil could only be so steady on the constantly shifting back of a dragon, and the paper shifting constantly in the wind wasn't a help either.

Toothless had been flying for a day and a half now, and the poor guy wasn't going to make it much longer. In retrospect, flying into that cloud wasn't the best idea. For one thing, there had been a storm brewing inside, which Hiccup was completely unaware of at the time, which caused them to start into a frantic zig-zag of panic and adrenaline. For another, it lasted …a very long time…it was sort of ridiculous. Thor* probably had it in for Hiccup. For the last, there was no logical reason for him to have gone in there, he just did. It probably had something to do with the "incident," as Hiccup had dubbed it, getting to his head again.

Anyway, somehow, the storm cloud had landed the both of them in the middle of nowhere over the distant sea and there was nothing but water everywhere and fog high in the skies. They couldn't even fly past it without Hiccup suffocating and freezing. Toothless probably could have climbed higher, but he wasn't going to risk his friend's life because of something as petty as fog.

Toothless couldn't even use his instincts to take them back, because everything was too strange and the few scents and sounds were nothing that triggered a feeling deep in his gullet and through his ears that'd give him any sort of signal to turn around . Nope. It was just Hiccup and a hand-drawn map of a few markers (mostly a bunch of rocks that led to uninhabited islands) they had taken a break on. Yep, they were doomed.

"I know you're tired buddy. If we don't find Berk soon, we'll just try and find one of those islands again and we'll figure something out later," Hiccup said encouragingly. They had done the same thing yesterday and by now Hiccup's stomach was starting to talk to him. He didn't want to wait out this fog. It seemed to be lasting forever! They didn't have any food and even when Toothless did catch fish (and not that much while we're at it), all Hiccup really had on him was the notebook and he was not planning on ever having raw fish ever again. He starved yesterday, but that plan was probably going have to change if things started to get desperate. With Odin as his witness, Hiccup was not going to get that desperate!

Toothless suddenly let out an excited roar and accelerated. Hiccup hadn't been paying attention to the skies and instantly jerked his head up searching for something that went wrong. Something always went wrong. To his relief, there wasn't any sort of evil sea creature or large bolder, just some land in the distance…

Wait! Hiccup's eyes widened as he saw the horizon of pure, lush, green land only a few miles away. Finally! Thank the gods! No fish!

There was only one problem. It looked absolutely nothing like Berk. Instead of one large sturdy mountain-like island, it was a vast terrain that stretched on until it faded in with the overhead fog on both ends. The particular corner of land before them stuck out like a sharp dragon's tooth and cut straight into the water. What was this place?

.

.

*Red Cap is a mythical creature that looks like a short old man with a blood-stained red cap and haunts old castles and his only weakness is if his victim says quote from the Bible.

*Kelpies are horse-like water devil creatures that will trick passing travelers that pass by and drown them. But, they have a soft spot for millers and help them with business by keeping the mill wheel running at night.

*Scotia is the main Scottish god and Scotland is named after her. I don't know if Merida is Christian or not, didn't catch that in the movie, so I'm going with this.

*Thor: go watch the Avengers.

Comments, criticisms, tips, questions. I'd like to know what you guys thought about it.