The SpellPiper is in the house! Hey, guys, SP2213 here with a genderbent Mericcup story that LOGICALLY explains how Meridan (Merida) and Hicca (Hiccup) meet. Watch the plasma blasts and arrows fly in this...yeah, you've already heard stuff along those lines before, haven't you?

So, as it is, have fun, and may the odds be in Fate's favor, because, honestly, that's what's getting you through life. However, if you had the chance to, say, change your fate

...would ye?

Hicca's P.O.V.

It was a mark of the bad mood I was in that I barely talked to my dad during the trip to the Highlands. Sure, it was for diplomatic reasons, but I was mad for two reasons: one, because it would be only me and Toothless in a castle of potentially hostile Highlanders; and two, my dad was probably trying to find me a suitor.

Toothless hummed sadly, smelling my sadness. I scratched her on the side of the head glumly.

"What I wouldn't give to have wings," I said. "Then I could fly back to Berk."

"Hicca." Without my noticing, Gobber had come up behind me. He sat down next to me. "Ye don' have ta be so sad about leavin' Berk. Snotlout was getting' ta be a pain in the arse those last few days."

I sighed. "I don't even know if they'll be nice to me or not," I said. "I mean, I'm a Viking, and a runt at that, and I have a dragon as a friend."

Gobber chuckled. "I've been ta the Highlands once or twice, and they were always courteous. O' course, I wasn't sure if they were actually trying ta be courteous or if they were planning to poison me…"

I smiled wanly. Typical Gobber, using humor to lighten my mood.

"Anyway, I hear that the prince has a fast horse," Gobber continued. "Maybe even as fast as Toothless!"

Toothless snorted. I chuckled. "A horse, as fast as a Night Fury? I doubt it."

"Well, ye'll just have ta see, won' ye?" Gobber said, eyes twinkling with humor. "Oh, look, we're almost there!"

I looked up to see the entrance to a lake - or loch, as the Highlanders called them - fast approaching. I groaned as I realized what this meant.

"Aye, I know how ye're feelin'," Gobber said. "Dresses aren't especially meant for use by Vikings."

"Oh, no, dresses were meant for Vikings to wear," I grumbled sarcastically.

Meridan's P.O.V.

I hissed as my mother pulled a comb through a particularly unruly part of my hair. "Can ye be a little less hard with mah hair, please?" I asked.

"Ye've asked me that five times already, at least," Elinor said. "Et's just that yer hair is unruly. Just like yer father's," she tisked.

I sighed and steeled myself for the next jerk. It didn't come. I looked up at my mother, curious.

"What?" she asked. "Ah'm done."

"Ye are?" I asked, running a hand through my hair. Speak of the devil, so she was.

"Now trim yer beard," my mother said, the corners of her mouth twitching ever so slightly, eyes twinkling. "Carefully."

I stared at her. "Yer doin' this fer yer own pleasure now, arenae ye?"

My mother looked me in the eye and burst out laughing, covering her mouth. "Okay, maybe a wee bit. But ye really dae need tae trim yer beard, ye ken?"

I sighed, chuckling along with my mother. "Fine." After she left the room, still chuckling, I pulled out a knife and trimmed my beard a bit. Then I changed into my best clothes and went down to where my parents and triplet little sisters waited.

"Well? Shall we?" my father asked. Me and my mother both six of us went down to the docks, my mother keeping an eye on the girls at all times. Fortunately, they didn't hide away to plan how to cause mayhem. Which was a first, considering the chaos they initiated the last time anyone of importance first entered Castle DunBroch.

I could see a single longship coasting down the loch towards the docks. It had a dragon head decorating the prow, and its flag depicted a black dragon curling in a circle with a red tail. I wondered what the dragon was.

"Night Fury," my mother said in an awed voice, as if she'd read my mind. Which she probably had, don't get me wrong. "Ah've heard rumors, but Ah never thought they were true."

"What rumors?" my father asked.

"That Stoick's clan had befriended dragons," Elinor responded, "and that Stoick's daughter befriended a Night Fury with half a tail."

"Half a tail?" I asked, incredulous. "How does the dragon fly?"

My mother, to my surprise, shrugged. "Ah dae nae ken how. Well, time will tell."

As the ship got closer, I saw a man, easily as big as my father, on the prow of the ship. He had a long red beard, and had a helmet stuck onto his head. From the glint at his side, I guessed that he had a hammer or an axe at his belt.

When the ship knocked against the dock, the man hopped off and pulled a rope to one of the mooring posts. Then, as he straightened, I got my first good look at Stoick the Vast.

For all intents and purposes, he could be my dad's younger brother. Both of them were massive, red-haired, and leaders of their respective clans. Both of them were renowned warriors and leaders. In any case, even if they weren't related, they might as well be.

"Fergus!" Stoick cried.

"Stoick!" my dad roared. The two embraced like old friends.

"How are yeh, Elinor?" Stoick asked. "You look beautiful."

My mother blushed "Ah'm very well, thank ye, Stoick," she said, curtsying.

"And yeh must be the prince, Meridan," Stoick said, looking at me with interest. "Last time I saw yeh, yeh were barely bigger than your sisters." The Viking winked at my sisters, who stared back, enraptured.

"Ah met ye?" I asked.

Stoick chuckled. "More than once. Yeh and Hicca were best friends, when the time was, before, well…" His face fell.

"Valka," my mother said knowingly. "What happened tae her?"

"Dragon attack," Stoick said. "She was protectin' Hicca from a dragon. Last I saw her, the dragon had her in its claws, flying off while Hicca and I looked on, helpless while she screamed."

Fergus patted Stoick on the back. "Et's alright, Stoick. We should nae dwell on past times."

Stoick nodded. "What's done is done, much as I wish it weren't."

"Where's Hicca?" my mother asked in an attempt to change the subject."

Stoick brightened somewhat. "She's coming. She just has to get into a dress." He chuckled. "That'll help her mood," he sighed.

A chatter of Norse reached my ears. A short-haired girl appeared over the side, apparently arguing heatedly with someone I couldn't see. With a wail of irritation, she leaped over the side of the longship. For a second, I saw the glint of something on her left foot. But it was forgotten as a dragon followed the girl.

It was about thirteen or fourteen feet long, with jet-black scales and wide wings. It had a long tail of the same color, except for the left tail fin, which was bright red.

Oh, gods. What was I getting myself into?

Well, that's one chapter gone in my Mericcup fanfiction. Before people get vocal about it, THIS IS NOT RotBTD MATERIAL. Just Mericcup.