Inspired by my current obsession: Mericcup aka Merida & Hiccup.
I do not own Disney/Pixar or Dreamworks.
CHAPTER 1
Returning from a ride through the glen, Merida caught her mother's eye as she walked into the room and remembered to hang her bow over the back of her chair rather than placing it on the table. After the whole bear incident, Merida and Elinor had both been trying to make changes, such as Merida trying to remember not to place her bow on the table, and Elinor had stopped complaining that her daughter had a weapon in the first place.
Taking a seat at the table, Merida helped herself to some dinner. Maudie chose that moment to enter the hall, carrying a tray.
"Letter from the Clan MacGuffin." Maudie announced.
"That'll be for me then." Merida said, rising from her seat and making her way around the table to pluck the letter from the tray before it reached her mother. The queen smiled at her daughter, sure that when she was ready to marry, Merida would choose Lord MacGuffin's son as her groom. Of her three suitors, it was young MacGuffin who wrote Merida the most, and she was always quick to reply.
The redhead turned over the letter to open it, and the expression on her faced changed from a pleased grin to disappointment. "Mum, it's the lord's seal. I think it's fer you." With a sigh, she handed the envelope to the queen.
"I'm sure he'll write soon, lady." Maudie said with a curtsy before scurrying from the hall.
"Aye." Merida said, her voice having lost the tone of excitement it had held only moments before. She dropped into her seat with a thud and picked up a chicken leg from the nearest platter. Taking a bite, Merida glanced sidelong at her mother, to see that Elinor's brow was furrowed. "What's the matter?"
"The invaders have returned." Elinor said, glancing past Merida to her husband, Fergus, who sat at the other end of the table with a chick leg in each hand. "They attacked and sunk a trading ship just off the coast of Fief MacGuffin."
The family fell silent, and everyone looked to Elinor, whose gaze was locked with her husband's. "They're sending out a fleet to strike back, and he's asked for our support – they want us to send troops."
"Hiccup!" Astrid's voice woke the viking boy from his slumber. Opening his eyes, he found that Astrid was in his bedroom.
"Morning Astrid." Hiccup greeted his girlfriend with a smile as he propped himself up on an elbow. But instead of giving him a kiss and engaging in some early morning flirting, Astrid threw something on his bed and left in a hurry. Hiccup glanced at the leather, iron and furs that lay in a heap on his bed – his armour.
His heart beating faster, he swung his legs over the side of his bed and pulled on his clothes at top speed before hurrying outside as fast as he could with only one flesh and blood leg. Sure, he had a metal prosthetic, but even after having had it for a few years, he still couldn't move as quickly as he once might have.
When he found that it wasn't even dawn yet, Hiccup felt cold dread in his stomach. Toothless leaped down from his perch on the roof, and Hiccup mounted the dragon and flew after Astrid. "Astrid, what's going on?"
"Stoick's back." Astrid said simply, hurrying into the great hall. Hiccup dismounted Toothless and hurried after her.
Pushing through the doors into the great hall, Hiccup paused when he saw his father seated with two other men, all three looking worn and defeated. Part of Stoick's beard seemed to have been singed off, and one of the men had a bloodied cloth tied tightly around his arm.
"Dad, what happened?" Hiccup asked in alarm as he hurried towards his father. "Rogue dragons? The riders and I can drive them-"
Hiccup fell silent mid-sentence when Stoick held up a hand. "Worse than dragons, son."
"Outcasts?" Astrid supplied as Gobber crouched down by the third man and began trying to pry what looked like half an arrow shaft out of his leg.
"Even worse than outcasts." Stoick said. "Celts."
"Celts?" Hiccup repeated. "But why? I thought we were at peace with the Celts."
"Don't be daft, son." Stoick said. "Ye can't make peace with a Celt."
"Well, not-war then. I thought we were at not-war with the Celts."
"Not anymore." Astrid said softly to Hiccup as Stoick rose from his seat and limped into another room with his brother Spitelout, one of Berk's top warriors and the father of Snotlout, who would be next in line for the chiefdom of Berk if anything happened to Hiccup.
"Ye'll be careful, won't ye?" Merida whispered to her father, as she pulled the Bear King into a close embrace.
"Aye, my darlin, I will." He told his daughter, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "And ye'll listen to yer mum, and do as she asks?"
"Daaaaaad." Merida complained.
"Fer me."
The redhead pouted, then sighed as she gave in. "Oh, aye, Ah will if Ah must."
And then she watched as her father turned away and made his way onto the ships. The king was taking a fleet up the coastline towards Fief MacGuffin to reinforce the Clan's claim to the rights of the land. Only that morning, they'd received another letter from Lord MacGuffin, informing them that a viking fleet had launched yet another attack.
The fleet that Lord MacGuffin had sent out in retaliation to the attack on the trading ship had returned with a lot of damage, and half of the fleet had been sunk in the battle that had ensued. But the vikings weren't finished yet, and had sent another fleet against the Celts.
Fief MacGuffin was gearing up to go to war, and just as they had two decades before, the clans would have to band together to drive out the invaders. Clan MacIntosh and Clan Dingwall had yet to respond to Lord MacGuffin's plea for assistance, but now that the king was pledging his forces to assist Lord MacGuffin, it was only a matter of time before they also arrived with their troops and their armoured ships.
"Good luck." Merida whispered as her father gave the command to raise the anchor and set sail.
And thus begins my first Mericcup story. I hope you've enjoyed this chapter and I'll try to update soon.
Let me know what you think!
