This is set after HTTYD 1 so Hiccup is in his late teens here, but Merida is nearly 17. The time periods are different but I think it'll work.
Her parents were arguing again, Merida could hear it from her apartments. It had been like this for several weeks now, there were tales being told about dragons and strange men raiding up and down the coast. This had happened several years before, the northern men coming in their strange long ships with beasts from hell as their figure heads. They didn't believe in the same religion that the people of Dunbroch did, not that Merida cared much, but they were ruthless and showed no mercy to anyone. Lord Macintosh would tell anyone who would listen; they were tall, as big as giants, with helmets and furs and spoke a different language. Apparently. Merida had never seen any of these northerners, she had seen drawings from the monk's tales of the ships and what the men looked like, but she doubted they were accurate. The monks liked to embellish stories, turning everything into a story about how people needed to repent and pray.
Due to the danger, Fergus had ordered all of the surrounding villagers into the castle or neighbouring forts if they were too far away, along with any valuables they had until they could find out what to do. Resources were starting to be stretched; it just wasn't practical that the castle keep could hold such a large amount of people for an extended period of time. It was becoming overcrowded; there were reports of stealing food most days, with some slaughtering of animals. Merida chose often not to go outside.
The triplets were with Merida, she had been trying to read them a story to drown out her parents shouting, but they could still be heard. Merida closed the book, setting it on her bedside table. "Stay right there, I'll be back soon." She told the boys, kissing each of them on their heads. She closed the door to her apartments lowly and hurried down the corridor.
"I don't know what we can do!" Fergus' voice came from down the corridor.
"We must wait, gather information, send scouting parties." Elinor's more rational voice said.
"How can we send a scouting party when none of the men want to go? We don't know what we're up against; we could get attacked on the field or anywhere!" Merida waited outside the door, her heart racing. Should she open the door? Shouldn't she? The last raid was only a few weeks ago from a town close to Dingewall's lands. They had killed all of the villagers except for a few and all of them claimed that the northern men had massive beasts of hell with them that rained fire down upon everyone. They were labelled as mad, but still, if Merida's mother could turn into a bear from a spell and magic did exist, it was hard not to believe in hell beasts too. Merida cautiously pushed open the door open, causing it to creak. Her parents fell silent.
"Merida." Her mother began.
"Mum, dad. The boys can here you"
Fergus sighed and sat down in his chair, looking at the maps of the kingdom. Merida sat down next to him.
"Are there more raids?" Merida asked.
"Yes, increasingly." Elinor said.
"Ay don't tell her that." Fergus butted in.
"Why not? She's a grown woman now; she's needs to know Fergus." Elinor turned her attention to Merida. "Yes, there are more raids. We're going to send out a scouting party tomorrow to survey the coast. Yes, Fergus. We are. We need to know what these raiders want, if we can trade with them."
"You mean be diplomatic?"
"Yes. Maybe we could set up a truce with them, they could become powerful allies." Elinor stated.
"You don't want me to marry one of them do you?" Merida joked.
"If the time comes for it." Fergus said gruffly. Elinor hit him playfully on the arm.
Hiccup stared at fire in the great hall. Did they really have to go on more raids? Surely they had enough money in the coiffeurs to sustain them for a while? Did they really have to inflict more pain and suffering to innocent people? Apparently they did as Stoick was already planning their next one. They had stolen a monk several raids ago who had drawn up maps for them to use. The monk, Mark, had proved extremely useful so far, Stoick had made sure to keep the monk close at all times at home or on raids and had led them to some of the more profitable raids on the coast. The first time the monk had seen dragons he had prayed to his god in some strange gibberish, throwing himself onto the floor about "unholy demons from hell." He still called them that, but only in his language, which he had been kind enough to teach Hiccup and several other villagers. The monk had also been teaching Hiccup to write in Latin, though Hiccup was still very bad at it and in return Hiccup had taught the monk his language.
Stoick pointed to something on the map, but the monk shook his head. Hiccup looked over, getting up from his bench to sit next to his father on the high table. Stoick looked at his son.
"I told you, father up north are too dangerous for raiding." The monk said, keeping his eyes cast down to the floor. "The people are too dangerous they have no fear of death."
"Because they haven't met us yet." Stoick proclaimed.
"Sire I don't think it would be wise-"the monk began. But Stoick had pushed himself back from the table. "We shall leave in a weeks' time." He announced to the villagers in the hall. "Make sure to pack lightly and bring your best weapons." He walked out of the hall several people following him.
Hiccup looked at the monk. "Are we really going to attack again?"
"It would seem so."
"I hate these raids. We've got enough wealth, why can't we just leave people alone?"
The monk sat on the bench next to Hiccup. "Your father is filling a void I would say. You once went on raids for dragons. Now you go on raids for humans. It's not so different."
"But we're raiding your home land!" Hiccup yelled. "How can you not feel the slightest bit annoyed by it? Aren't you sickened by us? Don't you want to kill us all in your sleep?"
"No. At first I was afraid of you people, but once I got to know you, you people you aren't so different. I do feel sorry for the people that you raid, but it is an act of God. It's punishing them for their sins." He said solemnly. "When you are chief you can change this." He said quietly, more like a mantra to himself than encouraging words to Hiccup.
"When I am chief." Hiccup said, looking down.
Hiccup clipped Toothless' saddle into place. He didn't know why his father insisted on taking him on these raids, he wasn't very useful, what with his leg and all. Toothless nuzzled Hiccup affectionately. 5 years, it felt like only yesterday.
"You ready Hiccup?" Astrid said, already riding on the back of Stormfly.
"Almost." Hiccup replied. They had been courting for a while when they were younger, but after long enough they both realized that what they felt wasn't true love. They had called it off about 2 years ago, but Hiccup still felt awkward around Astrid. She was perhaps sometimes too competitive for Hiccup, she was firmly rooted in the here and now whereas Hiccup liked being able to dream about far off lands and myths and legends. They remained friends all the same. It was impossible not to bump into each other on the small island of Berk, even though Hiccup still sometimes tried,
Hiccup climbed onto Toothless' back. "Ready boy?" He said, Toothless growled in response. Hiccup looked around; all of the other riders were ready and armed to the teeth. Stoick would lead, the monk would be second, chained obviously, to Gobber and then chained to the dragon so he wouldn't be tempted to throw himself off, if he did then he would be left hanging mid-air. They would fly for a few hours, make camp and then rest for a while, and lay low so as not to attract attention. They would send out a scouting party to survey the land and see if it was worth pillaging. It was most during night they would then attack, when people least expected it, and then in the morning they would go. It was quick, effective and deadly.
They took off, Hiccup in the front alongside his father. They could stay in the open for now, but once land came into sight they had to stick to the clouds lest they be detected. Hiccup normally enjoyed the feeling of cold air on his face, but recently it had been spoiled for him by what lay at the end of the journey. The first raid the Vikings had gone on, Hiccup didn't go. It wasn't until 2 years ago that Stoick has allowed him to join them. He remembered the first time he saw someone die. It was awful, and gruesome. The man, a farmer, had been pleading for death, blood spilling from his mouth and stab wound from his stomach, but the men taunted him, made his wife watch. The man eventually died, without honour and in pain, a slow torturous death. Hiccup swore he would never kill a man and he had lived up to that promise. Even when people who had been left, he couldn't bring himself to end it for them. He patted Toothless' head absentmindedly. Toothless gave a soft growl in response, one of his eyes moving up to look at Hiccup.
They landed a few hours afterwards in a place that looked much the same like home. It was brisk, not too cold but not too warm either with lavender strung across the landscape and High Mountains. Toothless lent down to drink some of the water from a stream nearby. Hiccup jumped off of his dragon's back and knelt down next to him, cupping water from the stream in his hands and washing his face.
Stoick turned to the monk. "Should we stay here monk? Or should we move on?"
"Stay." The monk said, looking at his feet again. "There is a castle nearby and slightly south there are other settlements."
There were excited murmurs at the word castle. Not many of the Vikings new about castles, the best that they had were extravagant longhouses. Thankfully, the monk had a degree of knowledge on castles and had explained to them as plainly as he could what they were.
"It will be well defended." The monk continued. "I would expect hot tar to be thrown over the walls and catapults."
"We are not taking the castle by foot. And we shall not take it until we have enough jewels to secure that this journey was not a failure." Stoick said darkly. Hiccup hated this, his father was obsessive, once it was hunting dragons and now it was raids. Hiccup wished his mother was here, she could perhaps persuade him otherwise. "We will send out a scouting party." Stoick announced.
There was a moment of silence. "I would like to go." Hiccup offered.
"Are you sure?" Stoick asked. "We don't know these lands well."
Hiccup shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck. "You know me dad, I'll be fine." Stoick sighed then nodded.
"Very well. Gobber, Astrid, I would like you to go with Hiccup. Take the monk with you." Stoick added.
Merida had snuck out of the castle again. Anything to be out of there with the crying people and her parents bickering was a blessing. She had taken Angus out in the early hours of the morning when most people would still be asleep and had left a note for Elinor. Merida had taken several of the castle guards with her, just so that her mother wouldn't worry.
Merida rode ahead of her guards, feeling more alive than she had in weeks, the cool morning air wiping around her face. Angus snorted happily, stomping at the ground. They stopped near the henge where they had killed Mordu. She jumped down from Angus lightly, leading him into the circle. The men caught up with her, slightly out of breath.
"Your highness." One of the chief guards said to her, bowing his head slightly and passing her a wine skin. She drank a bit of the wine before passing it back to the guard. It was too sweet for her taste. Besides she didn't like wine much anyway. She sat next to Angus, leaning against him. They would have to go back to the castle soon, but not yet. She wanted to forget being a princess at least for a little while.
Merida was preoccupying herself making a chain of flowers when she saw it. A wisp! Merida got up slowly, looking around. The guards were half asleep on the outside of the henge. Merida walked towards it quietly, not wanting the guards to scare the wisps off. Merida knew she probably shouldn't follow the wisps, the last time they had they had led her to a witch and gave her that spell, but it couldn't hurt just to see where they would lead would it? Angus whickered softly, trying to get her to come back.
"Oh come on Angus!" Merida said softly. She continued to walk through the forest stepping over the branches.
Hiccup and Toothless had separated themselves from the group. They were making far too much noise to be sneaky and kept talking about all the potential riches they would get. Hiccup had said he felt slightly sick, he had gone off to be "sick" but really he had just wanted to get away from them. Hiccup and Toothless were just about to go and find the rest of the group when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He stopped, turning back. Down a small path leading into a forest was a blue flickering light. He rubbed his eyes. It was still there. Hiccup turned to Toothless, the dragon lowered himself to the ground, his eyes fixed on the light too.
"Toothless no," Hiccup began to say. Toothless pounced on the light; it disappeared only to reappear further along the path. Toothless swiped at it, it disappeared again. Hiccup followed Toothless down the path, trying to grab hold of him to make him stop but failing. The lights led them further into the forest, Hiccup tried to avoid the branches snagging at his clothing and the brambles.
The wisps stopped, Toothless turned to look at Hiccup, growling as if to say "now what?" There was an audible gasp, Hiccup looked up. A young woman stood there, hands over her mouth, wild red hair flying everywhere. Toothless growled, baring his teeth.
"It's real!" She yelled.
"Toothless don't!" Hiccup said, trying to grab hold of his dragon, but Toothless leapt for the woman. She screamed, falling to the ground.
Ooh so what's going to happen guys? Please rate and review with any constructive criticism!
