"Mother, I don't want to get married! I don't need to!" yelled Merida. The fight was old and stale, but kept getting repeated more and more often as the day when the suitors arrived drew nearer.

Her mother bristled and stated, "You will be wed to a worthy suitor as is tradition."

Her mother then began to clean the room, saying nothing else. Merida knew this was the queue that the conversation was over, at least for now. In a last desperate hope, Merida said, "If I outshoot them, can I stay unmarried?"

Her mother turned to her. "It is unladylike to take part in archery. The suitors come tomorrow and you will pick a husband."

Merida flopped onto her bed, in exasperation. Eventually she fell asleep, her sleep filled with nightmares of brutish men towering over her and laughing. When she woke up in the morning, she was tempted to roll over and go back to sleep, but her mother burst into the room and began picking out the dress that Merida was to wear.

Without putting up much of a fight, she allowed her mother to help her dress until finally she tried putting Merida's hair into a covering.

"No. I am not wearing that!"

"Yes you are! A lady covers her crazy mess of hair," replied her mother tersely. Soon, Merida was all dressed and brought down to the arena where the suitors would come. She sat down in a wooden throne and covered her eyes, trying to go back to sleep. The first suitor was announced. "Dolyn of the McAllister estate."

A young, but stupid looking man stepped forward. Merida rolled her eyes and pulled her head covering over her eyes. She zoned out for a good many other suitors, only hearing their names.

"Hiccup of the Haddock estate."

Merida's father leaned over and said, "You remember Hiccup? Look how he's grown."

Indeed Merida did remember Hiccup. He was an awkward young boy who had no knowledge of weapons when they had last seen eachother a few years ago. She looked up, wondering how he had turned out. Probably into an awkward teenager.

She peaked out from underneath her covering. The first thing she saw was a metal leg. That was definitely uncommon. As she continued to look up, she saw a scrawny, but solid body and at the top was an attractive man with waving brown hair and kind eyes, filled with a bit of mystery. If this was Hiccup, it must have been more years than she thought since they had last seen eachother.

He looked at her and smiled, his shy smile showing that he was the same boy she had made fun of more than five years ago. Then it was onto the next suitor and disinterest grabbed her again.

As soon as the ceremony ended, she took off her head covering and roamed the castle. Suddenly, she bumped into someone heading the opposite direction. Upon looking up, she saw that it was Hiccup.

"Sorry, I didn't see you," he said with a smile. She smiled too. "No it's no problem. I wasn't looking."

"Hey, not sure if this is too forward, but would you like to see something? I don't usually show it to people because they get scared, but this place, no offense, is boring and if I remember correctly, you love adventure."

Merida smiled and said, "Lead on Sir Hiccup."

He led her out of the castle, slowly since he didn't know the way very well. Merida helped him along the way. As they reached a gate, she heard from inside a shrill call of "Merida!"

Merida looked at Hiccup and whispered, "Let's run."

The two of them ran from the castle and finally reached the edge of the forest where they stopped, laughing and trying to catch their breath. Hiccup gasped, "So what is your mother like? From how she sounds, a bit uptight."

Merida rolled her eyes. "That's an understatement. So what is it that you were going to show me, or were you just making up an excuse to get me alone?"

"No, really, come this way," Hiccup said, taking her hand and leading her deeper into the forest. After a good few minutes of walking, they reached a clearing and Hiccup let go of her hand, to her disappointment. He walked around a bit, looking to the sky for a bit then whistled loudly. A deep rustling came from the far side of the clearing and a black shape shot from the top of the distant trees. It zoomed closer and Merida saw that is was some sort of creature.

With a rumble and sounds of a few cracking twigs, the thing landed next to Hiccup who proudly gestured to what Merida now saw was some sort of flying lizard, or maybe a dragon. She had thought dragons were myths from the Welsh, but here one was.

"This is Toothless. See he has no teeth," Hiccup said, gesturing to the dragon's mouth. "I trained him myself. He saved my life a few times and I saved him from my village. They used to hunt dragons, but I convinced them to train them and not kill them."

"That is… incredible. Can I touch him?"

Hiccup smiled at this and exclaimed, "Touch him? You can ride him!"

With that, he lifted Merida up and put her in the saddle and climbed on behind her. As soon as they were secure, Toothless took off, soaring high into the air so fast that Merida's ears popped. Toothless flew far over the forest and to the right, Merida saw the castle in the distance. Suddenly, the dragon dropped almost straight down and Merida let out a yell of delight. Behind her, she felt Hiccup wrap his hands around her stomach and he yelled over the wind, "Put you arms up! I got you!"

Merida turned around just to check that he was indeed keeping her safe. Then slowly, she lifted her arms up. Toothless soared underneath her, still going down. She could see individual trees now and right as it looked as if they were going to crash, they pulled up and glided along the treetops. Finally, Toothless landed back in the middle of the clearing.

Hiccup dismounted then helped Merida do the same. Toothless then flew off back into the forest where Merida assumed he had his den of sorts.

"So what did you think?"

Merida looked at him. "Are you kidding me? That is the most fun I have ever had! I felt so free!"

"I'm glad you liked it. I hoped it would be a good escape from the stuffiness of the castle and those suitor choosing ceremonies."

"Ugh, I don't even want to get an arranged marriage. If I ever get married, I want it to be because I love someone, but right now my mother is being so horrible about this. She says I need to act like a lady and all this other ridiculousness."

"I'm sorry. My father dragged me here too. Although this is a lot more fun that I'd expected in coming down here."

Then without any warning, Hiccup took her arm and pulled her close, then gently touched his lips to hers, quickly pulling away. Merida was stunned. This was the first time she'd ever been kissed. She looked at Hiccup who was now looking down at his hands. Then she smiled, not knowing what else to do. She smiled and gently shoved him. He looked up at her confused, but she just smiled.

"Lets get back before anyone starts asking questions," she said, still smiling playfully. Still confused, Hiccup led her back through the forest and after walking in silence for a while, they reached the castle walls. Merida then said, "Wait two minutes before following me so as not to draw suspicion."

He nodded, and then she looked around and pulled him close and kissed him quickly, accidentally pushing him against the castle wall in her speed. He barely had time to kiss her back, before she hurried back into the castle, not looking back to see his reaction.

As she hurried through the castle, she knew she was being frivolous. Kissing someone she had just met? Ridiculous. Except that it wasn't because she did know him and she felt something. In fact, if she was going to ever marry someone, she wanted it to be Hiccup, out of her own choosing and not to satisfy tradition. God, if her mother knew, she'd think it was because of tradition. Before reaching her room, she grabbed a piece of paper and wrote a quick note to Hiccup, telling a servant to give it to him.

A few hours later, Merida stood in an abandoned corridor. After a minute or two, Hiccup came around the corner and smiled, waving the note.

"Glad you got the note," she whispered once he was close enough. He smiled, "So what is it that you wanted to show me?"

She grabbed his hand, hoping that wasn't too forward and pulled him gently along with her up a few flights of stairs until they reached a door. She listened at it for a second then pushed it open, revealing the starry sky.

They sat down together, still holding hands, to her happiness. She looked over at his face, staring serenely at the stars above, stretching onward deeper into the blackness until they were a blur of light.

"Why did you come here?" she whispered. He turned to look at her, his hair obscuring his face.

"I remembered you from many years ago and thought that marrying you might prevent me from having to marry one of the older Viking women my father had set up for me."

Merida tried to understand his tone, but he was speaking very flatly, as if to hide his true feelings, but he continued, "It's become more than that though. I thought if you chose me, my life would be set. I'd get freedom and my father's approval, but now I realize you never really wanted to get married."

"I don't. But I don't mind being with you too much," she muttered, her hand sweating in his, "And I like running."

"Then lets run!"

"We're on a roof, there's nowhere to run," she chuckled. He stood up and extended his hand to her. A quiet smile on his lips, he mumbled, "What if we ran away?"

"Together?"

"Your mother would have a fit."

"Too bad I'll miss that. Let's do it! Let's go!"

"Are you sure?" he asked, now hesitant. She smiled, "You'll miss your father, won't you?"

He shrugged and said, "We can always come back and risk our skins, but lets go have an adventure!"

So she took his hand and they ran.