Hiccup sat on his workbench, flicking a pencil across the rough wood. He glanced over at his girlfriend Merida. She was leaning back in a chair, looking at the ceiling in boredom while blowing a strand of her red curly hair out of her face. He sighed. They had been sitting there for the past half hour, trying to find a way to pass the time. Toothless was of with some other dragons and Astrid and Fishlegs were probably trying to stop Snotlout and the twins from causing too much trouble in the village. He sighed again and flicked his pencil.

"Aha! Ah got it!" exclaimed Merida, as she jumped up from her chair.

The sudden movement across the room made Hiccup yelp in surprise and fall off his stool. He looked up at her from the floor with hope of the prospect of actually doing something.

"What?" said Hiccup.

"Ah know what we can do!" she practically screamed to him. " Ah can teach you ta ride Angus!"

"What! Where'd you get that idea!"

Merida looked at him like he was supposed to know the answer.

"Well isn't it obvious? You taught me how ta ride a dragon, so now Ah have ta teach you how to ride a horse! Ah mean, Ah know you'll just love Angus, and we have nothin' to do. So why not?" she explained to him with a questioning look on her face.

"Okay, fine! You can teach me to ride a horse," He said. "It shouldn't be too hard. I mean, I ride dragons on a daily basis for Thor's sake. It shouldn't be too different. "

"Merida, I think your horse ate another horse."

Hiccup and Merida were standing in the stables in front of Angus's stable. However, Hiccup certainly thought that this mountain of fur could not be a horse. 'It's bigger than Toothless!' He thought. Contrary to Hiccups belief however, Angus was a horse. Said horse was contentedly munching on oats when Merida confidently walked over to him and patted his head. Angus pulled his head out of his oat bucket to nuzzle Merida, before letting her easily swing onto his back, blowing Hiccups mind in the process at her ability to climb onto something twice as tall as she. Once she was comfortable she turned to Hiccup.

"Your turn, dragon rider," she said confidently.

Hiccup did not move.

"Merida, I don't think you understand. I will break my hips if I get on that thing. There are dragons smaller than that. Toothless is smaller than that!" he exclaimed.

"Och, come on Hiccup, Ah guess he's a little wide, but, so wha'?"

"Merida, I-," he started

"Hi, I'm Hiccup, and I ride dragons on a daily basis! Riding a horse won't be hard at all," she mocked him, while giving him an superior look.

"But that was befo-,"

She grunted and glared at him.

Hiccup sighed. He had lost this battle, and there was nothing he could do about it.

To say Hiccup was having a bad day would be an understatement. It was nothing like riding any dragon. Riding a dragon was relaxing, with the rhythmic wing beats and the sense of freedom. Riding a horse however, was a completely different case. You couldn't connect to a horse in the same way you could with a dragon, not in the way where you can trust you life with it. Well, at least not this horse. Hiccup constantly had to keep his leg muscles tense and the rest of his body alert. He was bumping up and down with every step, which not only made it hard to stay on but it also made his metal prosthetic hurt. Not to mention the fact that it felt like his legs would be ripped sideways from his body at any moment.

He rode through the village with Merida right behind him, a pained expression on his face. All the villagers would stop what they were doing and look at him in shock as he passed by. He hated it, but it was livable. However, his opinion changed when he passed by Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout, and the Twins. The second they saw him they cracked up, not bothering to hide their laughter.

"Bwahahah! Look…at his…face!" Tuffnutt said through his laughter.

"Hey Hiccup," Snotlout sniggered, " Ya know, I hear there's something called side saddle."

"Shut up, Snotlout," Hiccup said through gritted teeth, focusing his eyes on the dirt path ahead of him. The fact that Merida was trying to hide her chuckles behind him was not helping.

"It's for ladies," He teased again, before falling back into laughter.

"Shut up."

By the time Hiccup got back to the stable he was thoroughly exhausted. The sun was setting in the distance which meant he had been out riding for at least two hours. He somehow made it off of Angus and set his foot and prosthetic firmly in the straw. Merida however, jumped off of Angus with ease. She turned to Hiccup and smiled.

"So, how was tha'?" she asked him.

He used rest of the strength he could muster to drag his feet towards Merida. When he reached her he put his hands on her shoulders and looked into her crystal blue eyes. He took a shaky breath.

"Merida, as much as I love spending time with my girlfriend, I have to be honest with you. That was undeniably one of the worst experiences of my life."

And with that he groaned and passed out in Merida's arms.

So this was inspired by a comic I saw. The setting is much different, and originally it includes all of the Big Four in it, instead of it just being part of the HTTYD/Brave universe. The beginning and end are different too. I do not own the comic so TONS of credit to whoever made it, 'cause they're awesome.

-Trouble Cleft