"Toothless!" Hiccup yelled, the dragon jumped on top of Merida, he growled at her, sniffing her hair and face before stalking back to Hiccup, his eyes narrowed. "I am so sorry." Hiccup said slowly, unused to speaking the monk's language.

The girl looked up at him, her eyes wide with fear. "You have a dragon! They were right!"

"Wait, who was right?" Hiccup asked her. Merida began scrambling away, stumbling to her feet. "Please don't leave. He didn't mean to do that!" Hiccup said, walking quickly after her.

"Your dragon attacked me!"

"No! No he didn't, he didn't mean to startle you!" Hiccup grabbed her by the wrist; she struggled but was unable to slip out of his grip.

"Let go of me!" Merida yelled head-butting Hiccup and stamping on his foot. He let go of her wrist and she ran through the trees.

Merida jumped onto Angus' back, riding hard back to the henge where the guards were. "To the castle! The raiders are here!" She yelled, waking up a few. She glanced up at the sky, half dreading that the dragon would follow them, but so far it hadn't. It had been huge, black and scaly. She had never seen anything like it, there certainly weren't any dragons in Dunbroch or the Highlands, the last one had been killed hundreds of years ago in the south of England by a king and had become legend. The guards jumped on their horses, following Merida's lead. They rode hard, the horses snorting and stamping, sensing their riders fear. Merida rode through the outer gate to the castle first, the captain of the guards yelled to shut the gate and arm the walls. Merida leapt off Angus, handing the reins to a stable boy. She managed to walk quickly to the reception hall, calming herself down so she wouldn't scream.

Her mother and father were sitting on the throne, listening to a complaint from a farmer. Or rather, her mother was, her father was staring off into space. Elinor looked quickly from Merida to the farmer, noting the look on her daughters face. "We shall deal with your problem shortly," Elinor said. "You shall have your compensation for your sheep shortly." The farmer looked rather disgruntled at Elinor's shortness with him, but couldn't say much as the guards led him away. The captain of the guards stood behind Merida. Merida stopped in front of the throne. Taking a deep breath, she looked at both of her parents.

"Father, mother." She said.

"What is it dear?" Fergus asked.

"The raiders are here, I've seen them. They have dragons." Her parents exchanged looks.

"Darling are you sure you saw a dragon?" Elinor asked. "Did you hit your head on a branch?"

"No mother, I swear I saw a dragon, it was huge and black and there was a man too. The thing jumped on me but the man called it off. The thing had a bloody saddle on it. They're here!"

"Did you see this?" Fergus addressed the captain.

"No your highness, but if you would allow it I would take my men back to search the forest. Even if there are no dragons, there are northmen." He said, half bowing before Fergus. Fergus nodded, "Ay, I'll allow it." The guard nodded curtly, turning and walking out of the hall, his men following him.

They arrived back late at night to the camp site. Several of the Vikings were drunk again; others were eating agaric mushrooms they had brought with them from the island. Stoick was in the chief's tent as Hiccup could see from the small fire lit inside the tent along with the monk and the most important men from his hird including Gobber and Spitelout. Hiccup petted Toothless on the head, walking towards the tent alone; Toothless had re-joined the other dragons feasting on several cows. Hiccup opened the tent, standing there awkwardly. Spitelout handed Hiccup some mead and pushed him into a chair.

"Where were you?" Stoick asked.

"Exploring the land." Hiccup responded innocently.

"The others were back hours ago. Where were you?" Stoick asked again, his eyes boring into Hiccup; this was as close to worried fathermode as Stoick got.

"I uh, ran into a local woman. Toothless jumped on her and she ran away." Hiccup said quickly. "But don't worry, we found a castle and some villages that are close by," He added, noting the look of anger on Stoick's face. "She ran away, she couldn't have found our site. She looked important, she was wearing rich clothing. Maybe we could a ransom for her."

Stoick turned to his men. "We shall have to move quickly. Change our location so they don't find us. After that we'll go on a raid and leave. What was the castle like Hiccup?"

"Defended. Strategically located so that it would be hard for land based armies to attack it and on a cliff so it can't be taken by sea, but it'll be easy, it's large but there's also an open field and they've holed up their villagers there. That means they'll have all their valuables there. Plenty of food and gold." Hiccup said feeling slightly disgusted at himself for telling his father this information. The girl hadn't seen Hiccup and Toothless follow her, but they had; too see if she had raised an alarm for the kingdom. Hiccup hated the raids but he had to tell the Vikings to safe guard them from a potential surprise attack, they were his family.

Stoick looked at him. "Thank you Hiccup. You are excused, we need to look over this information, and we'll tell the Vikings the plan in the morning." Hiccup nodded and put the cup down, unfinished onto one of the tables and backed out of the tent straight into Astrid.

"Hiccup!" Astrid said, smiling.

"Astrid." She threw her arms around him, squeezing him tight; this was very uncharacteristic of Astrid. Hiccup hugged her back briefly before dropping his hands. She let go, her smile wide and her pupils dilated. She had eaten some mushrooms.

"Astrid, did you eat the mushrooms?"

"Yes. Tuffnut told me to. Oh, it's amazing Hiccup. The gods are talking to me." She wrapped her arms around him again; her head nestled on his shoulder. Hiccup could feel his heart speed up. "I think we should get you to bed Astrid." He said.

"I don't want to." Astrid said and placed a hand on Hiccup's neck. She reached up and kissed him sloppily on the lips, Hiccup pulled away, thinking for a moment before kissing her, his hands placed on her hips. He felt like he was half taking advantage of her but she had kissed him first, so it was ok wasn't it? Hiccup felt Astrid move her hand down to grab his ass. Hiccup deepened the kiss, opening his mouth, slipping his tongue into Astrid's mouth. He broke the kiss and picked her up in one swift movement. Astrid giggled, "Are you taking me to bed?"

"No. I'm putting you to bed." Hiccup said, trying to keep his voice steady.

"Do you remember the first time we rolled in the hay?" Astrid asked him, she sounded drowsy. Hiccup carried her toward her tent. "Rolling around in the hay" was not actually an innuendo for them, it had actually happened, the first time to be exact. Hiccup laid her down gently onto her sleeping pallet. He stayed with Astrid for the night, talking to her for several hours before she finally feel asleep and stayed with her to make sure nothing bad happened to her. Eventually he nodded off himself, getting several hours of sleep.

Hot water poured over Merida's head. Maudie scrubbed at Merida's head mercilessly. "Ow!" Merida said, trying to squirm away.

"Stop moving or you'll be here forever!" Maudie warned.

"I can wash me own hair!" Merida argued, Maudie raised an eyebrow at her and continued to pour water and soap on Merida. Maudie turned to throw in some cloves into the bath and rosemary. Merida sank into the bath, leaving her eyes above the surface before sinking in completely. She rose up again after a moment, pushing her hair back from her face.

"Maudie, you believe I saw a dragon didn't you?"

Maudie made a strange sound; Merida looked over her shoulder at Maudie. "Your highness, I have seen bears in this castle, and the triplets, I've seen things I have never wanted to see, a dragon is one of them. A princess doesn't speak of such things."

"But ladies and princesses were always captured by dragons in stories; they had to be rescued by knights." Merida pointed out.

"Those are just stories."

"But where do stories come from? True events."

"Or an overactive imagination," Maudie countered.

Merida pulled a clean chemise and sat down at her table to brush her hair. Really she shouldn't be bothering; it was a tangled mess, wet or dry and never did what she wanted. Merida wished sometimes she had her mothers' hair, manageable, straight hair. But she had gotten her father's genes and that was curly unmanageable hair. Merida set the brush down, only managing to half brush her hair. She'd leave it; it wasn't like it was actually going to not be curly. She moved to her window, closing it. The villagers were singing another bawdy song that she'd care not to hear. Merida crossed the room to her bed, blowing out the candle and laying down. Dragons were real. It half scared her but also half excited her. She wanted to get closer and see what dragons were like. What would her mother say? Dragons are not for a princess? Merida smiled to herself. She wanted a dragon, maybe. Going wherever she wanted, flying? And if anyone got in her way then her dragon would sort them straight.

Hiccup woke up bleary eyed and groggy, he looked over at the bed, Astrid had left already. Rubbing his eyes, Hiccup exited the tent; everyone was about, saddling up the dragons, polishing their weapons. Toothless jumped on him and licked his face.

"Easy boy!" Hiccup said, laughing and pushed Toothless off him. Hiccup got up, Astrid walked towards him, she looked worse than Hiccup felt.

"Did we?" She asked, her voice hushed.

"No."

She sighed, "Thank you." She half smiled and opened her mouth to say something else but she shook her head and walked away again. Hiccup felt sort of like he had been punched in the gut. He knew they were over and had been for a while but he still had some kind of feelings for her, she was his first love after all. Hiccup shook it off, they weren't together and besides they had bigger things to think about. Another raid, another merciless slaughter of people all in the pursuit of money and wealth and material possession, the Vikings climbed onto their dragons, a few staying behind to defend the camp just in case someone decided to attack them.

Stoick climbed onto the back of his dragon, turning so they were facing the Vikings. "We are going to attack the castle and we're going to take slaves." He announced. "I will have mercy for these people, but if you can take hostages then you will. Don't kill everyone; if this is a profitable raid then we shall come here again. Am I understood?" He asked, the Vikings roared back, but Hiccup felt like he had lost the use of his vocal chords.

They set off, taking only 10 minutes to get to the castle. Stoick flew ahead on his dragon, Thunder Drum to deliver the first attack on the castle. The dragon bellowed first, a loud and deafening screech, Hiccup was sure the people in the castle would be in for the surprise of their life. Following Stoick's lead, Hiccup and Toothless flew close to the castle, sweeping down low enough to set a bale of hay on fire, just to cause more panic. Hell had definitely opened, the villagers were completely unprepared, most of them were probably still in bed.

Snoutlout's dragon, Hookfang was crawling up one of the towers, breathing fire in through one of the windows. Hiccup looked down, an angry man with vivid red hair and a wooden leg was shouting something incomprehensible and threw a spear at one of the Vikings. They fell off their dragon to the ground with an awful crunch. Hiccup and Toothless flew high above the carnage. Though the castle had formidable archers and were setting up a catapult they were no match for the dragons.

Merida sat bolt upright in bed. She had heard a loud bellow, nothing like she had ever experienced before. She opened her window and peered out of it. It was dragons, they were attacking the castle. Quickly she pulled her dress on, leaving half of the buttons undone and grabbed her bow. She ran down the corridor swerving through the mass of people. Being inside of the castle probably wasn't the best idea. They'd be better outside, running for their lives to the forest, inside there was more of a chance of being killed by a dragon ripping the place apart, or by fire, or simply by being trampled to death. Merida ran down to the entrance hall.

"Elinor, get the children and get out of here!" Fergus yelled, arming himself with a spear and a sword. Elinor had grabbed the triplets and was running down to one of the secret exits under the kitchen. "Merida!" she yelled. The ceiling shook, the dragons were climbing the castle.

"Go!" Fergus yelled at both of them. Merida shook her head. "I'll fight them with you!"

"You can't Merida, you have to go!" Her father protested. Merida ran back up the stairs, wrenching open one of the doors up to the patrol walk. She ducked behind one of the merlons, are more protected and less decorative version of a parapet. She drew an arrow and turned around. One of the dragons was flying close to where she was, she let the arrow go, hitting the dragon in one of the eyes. Quickly she drew another arrow, hitting the dragon's head again. It noticed her, hissing and flew towards her. She loosed another one as it opened its mouth, hitting it in the throat. The guards loosed arrows into the dragon as well, killing it. Merida flicker hair out of her eyes, breathing hard, they would never be able to fend off all of the Vikings, let alone all of the dragons. She drew another arrow and shot one of the Vikings in the back. This was no time for mercy. Her kingdom was under attack and her family were in danger. They were facing a losing battle.

Merida ran down into the courtyard, swinging her bow onto her back and picking up a sword from a fallen warrior. She swung it, hacking into an unsuspecting Viking. Merida felt no remorse for her actions, this was war, there was no time to be a princess, she had to defend herself or else she would be killed, or worse. She grabbed a shield as well, charging through the sea of fighting people, a dragon landed in front of her, preparing to breathe fire, she jumped out of the way behind a cart and ran. The young man she had seen yesterday was fighting with the captain of the guards, but he looked reluctant to fight the man, fear evident on his face. He was fighting more defensive than offensive, rarely swinging at the guard but trying to get away from him. Merida left the guard to kill him.

The fighting had ceased, the Vikings had raided the armoury and taken all of the weapons the Scottish had. They had corralled all of the survivors into the entrance hall and were guarding all of the exits. One of the men had tried to run; his body was lying on the floor, still bleeding. Most of the people were bloodied and bruised, one man had his arm chopped off and was holding it, whimpering quietly. Merida and Fergus sat there, looking at their captors defiantly; they were both stubborn as each other and refused to be belittled. The leader of the Vikings was talking with the young man who had had the dragon that attacked Merida yesterday; she was surprised he was alive. The leader nodded, standing there with his arms crossed. The stories were right; the Vikings were huge people, fierce warriors and were unafraid to die. However Merida couldn't help notice the similarities in the leader of the Vikings and her father not only in appearance but also in fighting style, as Fergus had taken a swing at the leader, the Viking leaders' face was still bloody. Elinor and the triplets were nowhere to be found, Merida desperately hoped that they had made it to safety, but she couldn't know for sure.

The young Viking walked towards the dais, he walked with a limp and as Merida looked closer, he only had one foot. She dreaded to think how he had lost that. He cleared his throat, wishing for silence from them, though no one had been talking anyway.

"We will not kill anymore of you as long as you cooperate." He said in slightly broken English, his accent was slightly strange. "We want to know where you keep all your gold. If you tell us we will leave quicker. If not then we will take everything apart." None of the people said anything, they only glared at him. He turned to the leader and shrugged. The Viking leader motioned to the other Vikings, they would rip the place apart top to bottom and take everything valuable in it.

Merida watched the Vikings take the gold out of the castle which took a lot less time than she thought it would. They were very thorough, she'd give them that. Some of the women were hauled off at this time by some of the male Vikings despite their being shield maidens there too. The shield maidens only turned a blind eye, letting the men do what they wanted. Merida felt like she was going to be sick, would one of the Vikings haul her aside too? The Viking with the one foot came back, she glared up at him. He walked away, pretending not to see her.

Stoick motioned for Hiccup to come to him, reluctantly Hiccup walked towards him.

"We're done here." Stoick said. "We've taken most of their gold. It's time to go. Take a girl."

"What?" Hiccup said, taken aback.

"Take a slave, preferably a girl. Odin knows the last time you laid with one."

"Astrid and I-" Hiccup began in protest.

"Are long over, everyone knows that. We're Vikings, we take slaves."

"They're a valuable commodity." Gobber added his usual cheerful self. Several other Vikings nodded in agreement.

"No." Hiccup said. "I don't want one."

Stoick rolled his eyes. "Fine, I'll pick one for you." He walked over towards the women, his eyes moving from one to another before picking up a girl roughly by her hair, the one Hiccup had run into yesterday. The king jumped up shouting something but was restrained by several Vikings. The girl screamed, clawing at Stoick's hand, earning her a hard slap across the face. She stopped her face red. Stoick marched her across the room and stopped in front of Hiccup. "Take this one. Apparently she's a princess judging by their king's response."

"I don't want a slave dad!" Hiccup repeated himself.

"Take her, or I'll kill her." Stoick warned. Reluctantly Hiccup hanged his head in shame, "Fine." He muttered. Stoick let go of the girl's hair, Hiccup grabbed hold of her arm tightly. She looked in fear from Stoick, to her father to Hiccup. Snoutlout passed Hiccup a length of rope, he bound her hands tightly, then bound her to the other slaves they had picked out to take back to Berk with them.

So Vikings used to eat hallucinogenic mushrooms to communicate with the gods or to fuel berserker rage. I'm not entirely sure what kind they used so I went for the generic red and white caped mushrooms as they're probably more common.

Also I decided that the scotts would speak English because I'm not sure what language they would speak but I think it's set in maybe 1200's to early 1400's so I would think primarily English whilst the northern highlands and Hebrides would speak gaelic.

I'm not trying to hate on astrid either I promise! I do like her and there will be some character development on her later on, but she strikes me as such a collected character that she probably would do something out of the ordinary and eat hallucinogenic mushrooms once in a while possibly just to wind down.

Sorry for the dark bits in it but I'm trying to keep it sort of realistic to what would actually happen in real life during a Viking raid. Obviously Stoick isn't as dark in the movie but in Viking society a earl or whatever he's considered would have to be tough and show no mercy otherwise he would be usurped by someone else and he would be challenged by his men. Also if I've made any mistakes in the technical words for things like Stoick's inner circle, I'm sorry!