"Angus, come here an' eat an apple." Merida sat in the grass over looking the mountains, her hair blowing in the wind and her horse trotted over to her. She smiled up at him as he reached his head down and ate the apple out of her hand. Her hand softly brushed on the horses muzzle. She sighed, falling back and landing in the grass as her horse laid beside her. "Isn' this wonderful, Angus? Just layin' out here, not a care in the world." She closed her eyes for a split second and sadness immediately followed her, her eyes opening quickly. The only thing that came out of closing her eyes was that dark face and his wicked smile. She sat up again, running her fingers through her red locks and gripping tightly onto them, letting out a small scream. Her eyes fluttered towards the sky, and suddenly went wide.

In the sky above her, was an outline of a creature that wasn't so hard to recognize. His wings spread in the air, and part of his tail was red. Her heart fluttered, beating so fast her breathing couldn't catch up with it. "Can it be?" She whispered to herself. "Angus!" The horse stood up and Merida jumped upon the horse, pointing towards the shadow in the sky. "Follow him!" She yelled, Angus using all his strength to run in pace with the creature above him. Her eyes dripped wetness down her cheeks, and at that moment, she didn't care. Her eyes stayed on the figure above her, noticing it's decent onto the ground in front of her. They were a mile away from Dunbroch castle, and a thought ran through her mind. War. She took in a deep breath and stopped Angus at that mile mark, and stood next to him. She used her sleeve on her dress to clean the wet spots off her face. The figure above made it's way to the ground directly in front of her, and the dragon's eyes lit up with excitement. Merida's eyes noticed the dragon, but stayed on it's rider. The dragon rider hopped off the dragon and stood next to him, taking his mask off slowly and brushing his hair before looking up at the princess. Her breathing stopped as well as her heart. Woah, she thought to herself. These years have been good to Hiccup. He was more mature, had more muscle, his peg leg was newly improved, and only one word escaped softly from her lips.

"Hiccup."

He looked at her with his bright green eyes, shaking his head a little and looking at her with confusion. "Do.. Do I know you?" He spoke softly, his reaction changing her appearence. She remembered that night, that he won't remember her, and that he will despise her. She felt the emptiness inside of her once more, and then took a deep breath. "No," she spoke softly. "A'least, ye shouldn't." Her sentence was a meer whisper, to where she thought only she could hear, but Hiccup had heard it. "Shouldn't?" He spoke again, moving a little closer to her. She closed her eyes and stared at him, her Scottish accent thick. "What brings ye here, dragon rider?"

Hiccup looked at her confused again. She knew my name a second ago, now it's dragon rider? So far, his visit wasn't making sense. He brushed off his confusion and spoke to the woman in a clear tone. "I'm here to speak to Fergus Dunbroom?" Merida rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Dunbroch," she spoke to Hiccup gently. She crossed her arms and stared at the rider. "Why must ye speak to me father?"

She's the princess?! Hiccups eyes went wide for a split second, clearing his throat he spoke to her once more. "I, uh, sorry, uhm, princess. I would like to speak to your father, Fergus Dunbroch, because I heard he was to declare war on my island, Berk." The princess looked at the young Chief confused. She thought for a moment and then looked at him with pride. "Follow me to my castle, ye will be able to speak to my father there." Merida hopped on her horse as Hiccup hopped on his dragon, the princess leading them towards her castle. She was nervous. What did he mean by war? It puzzled her. Wouldn't her father discuss war with her present?

They had reached the castle and Merida hopped off her horse, pulling him towards the stables as she looked over at Hiccup. "Yer dragon should stay in th' stables. I don' think anyone is goin' to take kindly to yer dragon." He looked over at Toothless and spoke gently. "Well, go on bud. I won't be long." Toothless pounced over toward the stables as rubbed up against Merida, her hand lightly brushing against his head as she whispered so softly only the dragon was able to hear. "It's good to see ye too, Toothless." She sighed softly, walking away from the dragon and towards his rider, leading him to the castle. Hiccup stared at the princess briefly.

"You know he doesn't do so kind to strangers, I don't know if I could figure out why he's so comfortable around you." Merida blushed lightly, running her hand through her wild red hair and looked ahead as they entered through the doors. "Maybe he senses I'm a good person or somethin'." Her Scottish accent really captivated Hiccup's ears. He coulnd't figure out why he felt like he should know this princess, or why her voice was special in his ears. His thoughts were interrupted when she yelled for her parents.

"Mother! Father! This is important!" Her mother walked down the stairs slowly and laid eyes upon the dragon rider. Her eyes flickered between Merida and the boy, her voice speaking ever so softly that it reminded Hiccup of his own mother. "Merida, who is this boy?" Her mother was at the bottom of the stairs before she went over to her chair, sitting politely as her daughter brought Hiccup over. "Mum, this is-"

"Go on boys! I'll tell ye the story later of Mordu! I know it's one of ye favorites, but-" Her father stood at the top of the stairs, looking down at the boy beside his only daughter. "Well now," her brawny father walked down the stairs as quick as he could with his peg leg and walked over to his daughter and the boy. Hiccup's eyes looked at Fergus' leg and then to his face. His brawn reminded Hiccup of his father's. Must be a Scottish thing, he thought to himself. "Who is this strapping youn' man with me daughter?" Fergus spoke, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Father I-"

"Fergus, please sit down. Ye've been doin' enough runnin' around all day. Ye need yer rest." Elinor spoke to her husband in a heartly but serious manner. Fergus turned around and sat down next to his wife, looking at the young man and then to his daughter. "Why, have ye finally found a suitor for yerself, Merida?" Merida and Hiccup both shook their heads and hands and said a few no's, their faces both red from embarrassment. Hiccup slowly walked over to them.

"I am Hiccup Horendous Haddock III, son of Stoick the Vast and young Chief of Berk." Fergus' eyes lit up. He had known Stoick from a long time ago so listened to his son speak. "It was brought to my attention today on my island from another dragon rider, that you have declared a war against my island and your land, because of our dragons." Fergus and Elinor both looked at each other with confusion, both of them turning their heads back to the young Chief.

"We were told ye delcared war against our land because ye didn't like the fact we didn't have dragons." Elinor spoke softly to the boy, Merida's face full of confusion. She wanted to know what exactly was going on. "A dark person came to our home here an' told us ye were goin' to bring the war to us without preparation." The queen had spoken politely to Hiccup, who looked at the princess and then looked back at the king and queen. "This, dark person.. What exactly did he look like? Can you remember?"

Elinor looked worried as her husband spoke. "He was dark. Ye couldn't see his face, only his eyes. Yellow, I believe. An' he had dark hands. I don' know if he was wearin' gloves or if those were his hands." Merida looked at her parents and then at Hiccup, who spoke abruptly. "That was the same person who came to my island." Merida's thoughts all circled together. A war? Dark figure? Yellow eyes? Dark hands? Her head shook as she looked at her parents.

"What do we know of this 'dark figure'? He coul've been anyone! Maybe he was just startin' a war because there isn't one now." She was standing between her parents and Hiccup as she spoke, looking between both of them. "Did this dark figure ever say who he was?" She spoke to Hiccup, but her head and eyes flickered back and forth between him and her parents. Hiccup shook his head slighty. "No, he never did. But he had a dark voice. Kind of raspy but he was mysterious."

It then hit Merida.

Dark figure. Dark voice. Only one person who was dark and had a dark voice.

Pitch Black.

Merida stared at Hiccup, who looked confused as well as her parents, and she shook her head, running out of the castle and outside into the air. She looked around, searching for the one person she knew who could help her.

This is impossible. Merida gripped her hair once more and was about to scream when a pair of soft, small hands gripped at her wrist and pulled her hands out of her locks.

"It's okay," the princess of Corona spoke. "We're here."