The Brave and the Bold

A Mericcup Fanfiction

Meeting the Clans

AN: Thanks for waiting and thanks for the reviews, guys! Loving the feedback so far and I am very excited to carry on the story but first two announcements: 1) Updating new chapters will now be less frequent, but I HAVE NOT abandoned this story. 2) I've changed some of the rules and traditions of the contest from the movie Brave to fit my story better so please don't kill me. Anyway, without further ado...

Merida was more than nervous as she approached the giant tent that awaited her. She felt her heart pounding inside her chest so hard that she was amazed that no one else could hear it. Just the doorto the tent made her want to run away and hide
herself. The tent itself was not so threatening, it consisted of a simple red canopy with a flag bearing the symbol of the Hairy-Hooligans tribe on it. What, or who, Merida was nervous of however was currently inside and awaiting her visit. Merida
saw that her usually steady hands that she constantly used for archery were now shaking violently. She had never been this anxious in her life. One the other side of the thick canvas of the tent was one of her only childhood friends, this would be
the first time she had properly met him in three years and that scared her more than anything else.

The reason she was doing this was because it was traditional for the king, queen and princess of the land to meet the each of the suitors and their family in their suitor's quarters before the contest the next day. This year each suitor and clan leader
stayed in a canopy tent each wearing their own colour and crest. So far she had been through three, each as awkward of embarrassing for her as the last.

She decided to start off with the MacGuffin clan. Their son was silent for almost the entire time and when he did speak even Fergus could not understand his deep Scottish accent. The only thing the young MacGuffin had going for him was his size and strength,
anything else was 'subtly' overlooked.

Next Merida and her family met the Macintosh clan and the young Macintosh was very lucky that her dress was constricting her otherwise he would have ended the evening with a black eye. He would constantly attempt to flirt with Meida and whenever her eyes
wandered his way he flexed his pretty unimpressive muscles. He seemed to radiant a conceitedness that Merida inwardly groaned at. But now matter how the heir to the Macintosh clan tried to wow Merida, she seemed unconvinced that he was the warrior
that his parent were making him out to be.

Ever since Hiccup had entered on his dragon, the Macintoshs had tried to spread as many stories about their son's amazing defeats of dangerous creatures such as snakes and bears to try and compare to Hiccup's defeat of the Red Death and in their defence
Merida could see why.

The Red Death was one of the many reasons that the Scots never travelled North and Berk was left alone for the Vikings to take over. Even Merida had heard of the Red Death; it was THAT infamous. So imagine everyone's surprise when Hiccup pulled out a
tooth from the Red Death's mouth as proof of his endeavours. However the Macintoshs' son had no other proof of the massive amount of killer bears that he had slain apart from a 'bear fur' cloak that he had pulled out of his travelling bag which Merida,
from her many hunts in the forests around the castle, instantly recognised as rabbit fur.

Merida then moved on to visit the slightly dim son of the Dingwalls. Merida was constantly trying to keep a straight face whenever she saw wee Dingwall's vacant expression that clearly exhibited his massive front teeth. Not only this but whenever Lord
Dingwall finished his stories about the 'legendary warrior' that was his son he would usually poke his heir with his elbow and say "Right, son?" to which the wee Dingwall would just give a sleepy nod and and go back to being enchanted by a fly in
the roof of the tent.

Overall Merida had been uninterested in the each of the suitors and thoroughly bored until she reached Hiccup's tent. Even now she was struggling to bring up the courage to open the entrance to his quarters and her family was getting bored quickly.

"Merida, please go inside before-" Elinor had started before her face was one of pure terror. Merida quickly turned around and came face to face with a red dragon with flames emanating from its nostrils. Its head and shoulders were sticking out of the
entrance menacingly as it towered over everyone, including Fergus. It looked riled up and was about to open its mouth when a sudden shout came from inside the tent.

"HEEL, BOY! GET BACK INSIDE, RIGHT NOW!"

The dragon jumped and turned back inside the tent. Merida and her family rushed in after it to see a group of six teens each with their dragon sitting around a fire. The Scottish royalty would have been amazed by each of the dragons had their attention
had not been drawn to the flaming inferno that was the dragon in the middle of the tent. Merida looked around and saw Hiccup standing authoritatively up to the dragon.

"CALM DOWN, BOY," Hiccup commanded loudly as he held a stripy eel up towards the now retreating dragon, "Don't make me use this." Once the terrified dragon was settled down Hiccup threw away the eel, took what looked like ordinary grass from his pocket
and started rubbing it on the dragon's snout. "Good boy, there we go," Hiccup soothed as the dragon relaxed.

Merida stood speechless as she watched the boy that used to be scared of the local horses easily tame a huge ferocious dragon in front of her very eyes. Fergus however was laughing heavily and started clapping, drawing the attention of everyone in the
tent, including Hiccup and his dad.

"Very well down, lad," Fergus congratulated Hiccup as he gave him a firm pat on the back. Merida also noticed how the last time she saw Hiccup a pat like that would have knocked him to the floor but instead he stood firmly and shook Fergus' hand.

"It's nothing really once you know how," Hiccup chuckled as he flushed a light shade of red. That flush only grew darker when he saw Merida standing by the entrance way. She too blushed as he approached her. "Hello again," he greeted her as he held out
his hand nervously.

Merida simply looked at his hand and knocked it out of the way as she ran to embrace her old friend in a rib crushing hug, which he gladly reciprocated. Her mother beamed at the two young friends as they parted, still holding each other closely. Merida
then noticed how much he had grown. He was now at least six feet tall and she only just came up to his eye line. His face was also thinner and had a light stubble growing along the jawline.

"I missed you," Merida whispered as tears threatened to flow. Hiccup simply chuckled and kissed her forehead, causing her to flush a deep shade of crimson to match her hair.

"I missed you too," Hiccup replied softy. His expression then turned to one of great amusement as he added, "Comfortable in that dress?"

Merida sighed at him and whacked him affectionately as he laughed.

"Speaking of ridiculous attire, what are these?" Merida asked as she held a small braid that was in Hiccup's hair.

"Those were Astrid's idea," Hiccup said loud enough for a girl on the other side of tent to reply:

"I thought they would look cute!"

"I'm a Viking!" Hiccup replied, "We don't do cute!"

"Oh shut up, I like them," Merida said as she hugged Hiccup again.

"Ooh, looks like Hiccup's got a girlfriend," a voice chortled from the entrance way. Hiccup's face immediately hardened as he strolled up to the entrance way and slapped the short, chunky, dark-haired Viking that had appeared on the shoulder. "Oww, what
was that for?"

"That was leaving your dragon in such a sorry state! He could have killed someone, he was so annoyed!" Hiccup scolded. Merida definitely liked this new authority that Hiccup had come to easily command.

"Well I'm sorry but these three," the teen said as he pointed to the ginger triplets that were holding onto his legs and giggling, "Stole my helmet and my saddle and my mirror!"

"Little legends!" another Viking boy with blonde dreadlocks shouted with smirk.

"Why do YOU have a mirror?" a teen girl with smooth blonde hair that she had braided into a platte and who was sharpening a huge battle axe asked incredulously.

"I...uh..." the raven haired boy blushed embarrassedly as everyone in the tent laughed. Merida chuckled as she picked up her three laughing brothers.

"Sorry," she said to the boy who angrily stuffed his helmet back onto his head, "These are my brothers: Harris, Hubert and Hamish."

The three boys in her grip smiled and waved innocently. The blonde from before ran over and beamed at them.

"Aww," she said as she carried them over to her dragon, "They're adorable!"

Hiccup just laughed at his friend.

"I should introduce you to everyone else," Hiccup said as he lead Merida and her family over to the blonde Viking who was now showing the fascinated triplets her battle axe, "This lovely and terrifying warrior is Astrid, my best friend and closest thing
I have to a sister. And her blue dragon there is Stormfly, she's a Deadly Nadder."

He then lead the group over to a shy chubby blond boy who was holding a huge book under his arm. "This is Fishlegs, our resident dragon manual expert and tactician, and his dragon is Meatlug, a Gronkle who loves rocks by the way."

Next they moved onto a girl and a boy who Merida guessed where twins since they both had similar faces and blond dreadlocks. They stood next to a green, double headed dragon. "These are the twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, with their Hideous Zippleback, Barf
and Belch"

Finally they arrived at the stout viking that had disturbed the peace a few minutes before. He was casually standing next to his red dragon as they headed over.

"This is Snotlout," Hiccup groaned, "He's just an idiot that we took pity on-"

"Hey!" Snotlout protested.

"Yep, pretty much," Tuffnut teased.

"Hey, I was about to say that joke!" Ruffnut exclaimed.

"Bite me!" Tuffnut replied, sticking his tongue out at his twin who grabbed it and pulled him closer with it.

"Don't think I won't," she growled.

"Who," Hiccup continued as if nothing had happened, "Rides this Monstrous Nightmare who can spontaneously light itself on fire!"

Fergus looked especially impressed at that.

"Quite a special bunch then?" Fergus laughed.

"Indeed they are," Stoick said proudly as he patted his son on the back.

"But where's your dragon, Hiccup?" Merida asked.

"Oh, he just went hunting for dinner," Hiccup said just as the black dragon that he had arrived ran inside the tent and dropped a fish at Hiccup's feet. "Here you are! This, ladies and gentlemen is Toothless, the night fury."

Merida at first wondered why he had called the dragon that until Toothless smiled to reveal a mouth that was, well, toothless.

"I swear he had teeth the last time I saw him," Elinor said as she looked at the dragon's mouth.

"Oh, Toothless has retractable teeth," Hiccup explained as a fresh set of teeth appeared in Toothless' mouth. Merida gasped and looked awestruck at the Night Fury.

"Trade him for my horse?" Merida asked teasingly. Hiccup smirked back.

"Not a chance," he replied.

"It's a shame you can't use Toothless in the contest, Hiccup," Fergus said, "I would have love to see you two perform together."

Hiccup thought for a moment before answering.

"Tell you what," he said, "If I win, Toothless and I will do an aerial show."

Fergus smiled and shook Hiccup's hand enthusiastically.

"It's a deal," he said, "But until then we had better get going."

"Just a minute," Merida said, "I'll see you outside."

Fergus and Elinor looked at each and nodded.

"Alright," Elinor said, "But you better be out soon. Come on, boys," she called to the triplets who ran from underneath Hiccup and Snotlout's legs to their mother.

Soon the only red head left in the tent was Merida. She turned back to Hiccup and hugged him tightly.

"Good luck tomorrow," Merida said as they parted.

"Thanks," Hiccup said as they stared into each other's eyes, cherishing the time they had, however little it was, "I promise, I will win this for you."

"Well, you certainly deliver on your promises," Merida said as she started towards the entrance and slowly opened it, "I'll see you tomorrow."

"See ya," Hiccup replied as she walked out of the tent.

Once she was confident no one could see her, Merida squealed with delight and jumped for joy. Things were definitely starting to look up for her.

Meanwhile inside the tent, Hiccup was transfixed in a trance as he stared towards where Merida had just been. Then his eyes dropped and he frowned as he remembered the contest. Astrid noticed this and walked up to him.

"What's up?" Astrid said, noticing Hiccup's worried expression.

"What if I don't win?" Hiccup said, despair flooding his voice, "What if she's forced to marry one of the other suitors? What if I let her down?"

Astrid simply smiled and placed a small kiss on his cheek.

"Hey," she said encouragingly, "You'll be fine. I've trained you enough."

"Anyway," Snotlout interrupted, "I don't see what's the big deal. These Scots aren't too bad. I've dealt with worse. I could easily outsmart that Macintosh kid."

"Snotlout," Ruffnut called, "Where's your helmet?"

Snotlout looked confused until he felt around for his helmet to find an empty head. His eyes widened in realisation.

"H-How did they-" he spluttered as he felt around in his bags until he sighed in defeat, "I hate those little-"

"LEGENDS!" Tuffnut finished.