Chapter Three: An Age of Discovery

~M~

Merida rustled from her sleep, confused to find herself unaware of where she was or what had happened to her. She lay in a small cot in the corner of a two room cottage. Her hair was a knotty disaster and a raging headache was forcing her to lay back down. With a strange overpowering urge, Merida lifted her hands out from under the blankets. She gasped when the white scar like markings of a will-o'-the-wisp on each palm flashed a vibrant blue.

"You're awake. Good, the soup is almost ready." a bearded and burly young man said as he carried in firewood from the other room and placed it next to the rough stone fireplace across the room.

"What happened?" Merida asked as she sat up in the bed.

"I am not sure, honest. I was hunting in the forest near the Pillars of Ancestry and heard a scream. I followed the sound to find you in the middle of the Pillars." He spoke as he prepared bowls of what appeared to be soup from a cauldron hanging over the fire.

"What about my horse, Angus? Was he there when you found me?" she asked as she grasped the warm bowl of soup in her hands. She realized how ravenous she was with her first sip.

"No, I didn't see a horse but I did see the tracks. I'm guessing he went back to the castle." the young man pulled up a stool next the cot and settled in the eat his soup.

"Do you know who I am?" she asked, wondering how long she had been gone.

"Yes I do. Your name is Merida and we used to be the best of friends. My mother worked in the castle as a cook. Do you remember me?" he said as he mopped up some soup on his slice of bread. Merida sat and pondered her childhood. She didn't have many friends because she spent so much time in the classroom with her mother but there was one boy who stuck out in her memories. He had a warm smile and a kind heart.

"I do remember you…Your name is…Beiste isn't it?" Merida looked at him when he gave a dark chuckle.

"Ah yes, Beiste. A great name for a young son with great potential to be a mighty beast after all. I haven't been called that name in years." with a sigh he stood up, collected Merida's empty bowl, and trod off with dishes in hand to the other room. She looked after him with an odd and frightful panic rising in her chest. She found it odd that he laughed at the name he was given by his parents. Beiste was an honorable name, mighty and strong. Her thoughts were interrupted by his large shadow blocking her view of the fire.

"I go by Cruim now." he stated with a wicked grin on his face. His stature over hers reminded Merida she must be careful. She hadn't realized how large he'd grown from the time they were children.

"That's the name of darkness…" she said as she estimated in her head how fast as she would have to move to get around him and to the door.

"Why do you look so worried your Highness? Do you really think I would hurt you?" He turned from the cot and walked to the fireplace to give it a good solid poke. "I didn't choose this name Merida. It was given to me." He crouched down and added another log before he finally sat down on the hearth. "My mother was the best person I ever knew. She died a few years ago." he paused to run his hand down his beard. "She worked her fingers to the bone to take care of me. The trek to the castle from here is a long one. She would drag me with her, unwilling to leave me with my father. We would play games on the walks we took and she would teach me things I would never learn from a governess. It was usually the only time I got the spend with my mother uninterrupted by others. My father was a good man in my young years but work slowed and money got harder and harder to produce. His greed for a higher life turned his heart wicked and he became a wicked man. My mother feared for my life and would often hide me in the castle overnight before returning home. Once when she came to work, I met her at the kitchen door as usual and she was bruised from head to toe. I was eight years old." the seriousness of his words sunk in to Merida's heart through his lengthy pause. Her heart broke for him.

"I knew what had happened. The drunk bastard had hit her over and over again. I wasn't a halfwit. I was eight years old when we stopped playing together. I never got the chance to explain why to you, but I'm sure your mother was overjoyed by our separation." His hands clasped and unclasped rapidly in a succession Merida couldn't keep count of. "See, I went to your father. Fergus was an extraordinary man, may he rest in peace. I went to your father and asked that I be allowed to start training for the duties to my country. I asked to join the war force. And even at eight years old, he accepted. He took special care himself to train me and to guide me in the art of swordsmanship and archery. I learned how to fight like a man. I spent years by your father's side, learning and training with the best of them. He told me once he saw a fury, a special fuel within me, that needed teaching and he did that. He trained me until I was perfect. I was sixteen by the time my training was almost complete." Merida got out of the cot and crossed the room to be closer to Cruim.

"My father's abuse got worse throughout the years of my training. My mother never let me return home after the first night he destroyed her lovely spirit. She was never the same after that night but one thing remained in her heart and that was to protect me, love me, and take care of me to the best of her ability. While she got weaker and smaller in his eyes, I was getting faster, stronger, and bigger in her eyes. The fury King Fergus spoke of was rage. A pure and holy desire to return my father's gift to himself. When I was ready, long after the other servants had gone home, I took off on my horse towards my childhood home. I unmounted and approached the door to hear my father screaming and my mother urgently apologizing. There was a loud crash from inside and then my mother whimpered another apology. My father called her something so despicable I am unable to repeat it, and then he hit her." His hands balled into fists and his eyelids slammed shut.

"I kicked the door in and grabbed his disgusting body and threw him out the door. My mother was frantic, screaming for me to run, begging that dirty bastard not to hurt me. He rose from the ground and smirked as he yelled at my mother to shut up. Even though I was only sixteen, I was much larger than him and I knew how this would go. As my father and I fought there in the yard of our cottage in the middle of the night, the neighbors from our small village emerged from their homes to watch. In the moonlight my eye caught the flash of a knife my father pulled from his belt. The battle continued and I let him get a few cuts in. Then I disarmed him and turned the knife on him. I killed my father. Right there in that yard outside, all the people of my village watching. I had hoped that my bravery would be met with cheers and celebration but I was wrong. My mother was shunned and I became Cruim, a dark and twisted soul, lost to the hope of my people. I did what I would expect any son would do for their own devoted mother, I saved her life and I was shamed for it. One by one the village families moved away from us, closer to the castle. They took everything and burned their homes to the ground before they left. My mother's job at the castle remained and I returned as a serviceman for your father rising quickly through the ranks. We stayed here in our cottage. Soon, I was in a position to be involved in militia meetings. Just before my mother died the dragons became a problem for our people and the battle with them began. I fought next to your father until the day he died. I've even fought next to you, a face among many of the sea of people." He paused to stretch his muscles, tensed from the long story of his past.

"There was once a fisherman who traveled far and wide to capture elegant and delectable fish for royal dignitaries. While eating lunch with your father and some other servicemen, he told a story of a strange land he once visited within the year of a strange people. They were disgusting and ugly and more crude than us but they had something he had never seen. They had control of dragons. They housed them, fed them, trained and armored them, and even rode them. They weren't just part of the land and the culture, they were a part of the people. It was astonishing to think of what strength they must have had to control such a mighty beast. They call themselves Vikings."

Merida stood to her feet and grabbed her coat. "Get whatever you need from here because you won't be coming back. You are now my second in command and I need you in the castle. Hurry and grab your coat. We must go." Cruim packed a small bag and saddled his horse. Before they rode off to the castle, he took one look back at his home where so much had happened. With a nudge from Merida he was brought back to reality and they raced off to the castle.

~H~

Hiccup braced himself against a tree, out of breath and out of his mind with confusion. The panic that blurred his vision wouldn't subside and he needed to run. The muscles in his body ached for him to run, run far. He pushed off the tree and put one foot in front of the other, then again and again, gaining speed. He burst through to door to his house, startling Toothless from his sleep. Toothless cocked his head to one side and watched as Hiccup nearly unraveled from sheer terror. Hiccup grabbed a sack and rummaged through the house shoving things into the bag with no particular neatness. He threw the bag over his shoulder and motioned for Toothless to follow. Hiccup peeked out the door to check the coast, seeing that it was clear, Toothless and Hiccup made there way to the tackle room on the back side of the house. Toothless sat still as Hiccup saddled him and strapped himself into his own armor. The bag was secured to the saddle and Hiccup mounted his best friend, then gave him instructions to fly to the boat house. Hiccup unstrapped Toothless from his gear and set aside the rations in the boat, then got in. Toothless sat on the deck and watched Hiccup's frantic movements, curiosity on his face.

"Come on Toothless, get in the boat." Hiccup said as he motioned for Toothless. He looked at Hiccup and gave a small moan as he looked back at the village above, still enjoying the festival.

"Get in the boat now Toothlesss, we don't have time for this." he said desperately as he reached out to grab onto Toothless. The dragon took a step back and watched as Hiccup, defeated, slunk to a seated position on the floor of the boat.

"Please, bud. We have to go." He said and Toothless reluctantly stepped into the boat to nudge Hiccup. Hiccup released the docking rope, pulled up the anchor and set the sail. The pair settled in to the small vessel together, as they laid side by side for warmth. The village was barely a pinpoint in their line of view behind them when the rustling of dragon's wings in the air caught Toothless' attention. He jerked his head up and nudged at Hiccup to wake up. Stormfly was coasting just ahead of the long boat and Hiccup panicked because he knew Astrid had followed them. Stormfly landed on the boat and Astrid hopped off.

"Hiccup, where are you going?" she said with concern. She moved closer to Hiccup who was still sitting in the boat.

"Go back Astrid. Take care of the village." He hung his head.

"That's not what I asked you. Where are you going?" She said more forcefully this time.

"I have to go Astrid. I can't stay here. Berk is better off without me." He barely whispered. Astrid walked over to Hiccup and sat down, lifting the edge of the blanket to scoot under it with him.

"Are you insane? Do you not realize what you've done for our people? Our village, or nation, or people and families would most likely be dead by now. If it weren't for you the dragons would have overtaken our livestock, burned our crops and our homes to the ground. You were exactly what Berk needed." she said with pure confidence in Hiccup's abilities.

"You should go back." He said not meeting her eye.

"Hiccup, where on Earth are you going? In all the time you've searched for other people on all the islands we've found, there has never been another person we've met. And why are you taking a boat? Is Toothless hurt?" she cast a worried glance at the two dragons sleeping together on the other end of the boat.

"I need the boat because it's too far for Toothless to fly. There are no islands to rest on between here and there." he stated as he fidgeted with a frayed hem on the wool blanket.

"Again, where are you going?" she said as she grabbed his hand to get his attention.

"Do you remember that fisherman who ported in the village a few weeks ago, asking about our fish? He stayed a few days and learned about our culture and people. He drew the different types of fish we ate and how they were served best. We were up late one night at my house sitting around the fire talking of discoveries and the outside world. He had so much to tell. The stories he told of far away places and different people were amazing. I was so intrigued. He told me of another land that was struggling with dragons and needed our help. He said to go due west and I would meet their shores but he said the journey was long and I would need a boat. The waters will be rough and we will most likely die because we are not seasoned travelers. That's why you need to go back. You know the plans I had for the village and what the people need. You do more running of Berk than I ever did. That's why I need you there. Because I know that with you in charge, my people will be safe. All my father's hard work was not just for the village to fall apart in my reign. I need you there, It's your home. But I need to do this. There is something greater out there than what Berk has to offer me right now and I need to find it." he let out a sigh and pulled his knees to his chest.

"This has nothing to do with my father giving you his blessing?" She asked timidly. Hiccup froze in his place and felt his face flush.

"How'd you know about that?" he asked as more panic clenched at his heart.

"Ruffnut overheard the conversation and told me. Why did you run away?" she looked out over the water to avoid Hiccup seeing the emotions on her face.

"Astrid… you are Astrid. I can't compete with that and I definitely don't want to even try but honestly I'm not enough for you. I know that you say I am but really I think it's just because we've known each other for so long you have no idea what else is even out there. We are best friends and to me that's all we are. Growing up I thought you were so beautiful and you still are but then I realized I wasn't attracted you because I wanted to pursue you. I was attracted to you because I wanted to be you. You were everything I wasn't and couldn't be but everything my dad wanted and needed me to be. I watched you and admired you because I needed to mold myself to be more of you and less of me. Then I met Toothless and I realized there is nothing wrong with being one of a kind. In fact its a good thing to be the only one of yourself. There is an unforeseen beauty in being less than what people want of you and more of what you need yourself to be, and that's what I did and what I'm doing, and its who I am." Hiccup took a pause and picked up Astrid's hand from on top of the blanket.

"You will find someone who will be perfect for you and when you know, you'll know it, but for now I can be whatever you need me to be. You are and always will be my best friend, but you need to go back." Hiccup gave her hand a gentle squeeze and let it go, as if saying it was time for her to return to Berk.

"Where you go, I go. What you do, I do. You are my best friend and I am not about to let you walk into the unknown alone. We are Vikings for crying out loud, Brotherhood is the code we live by, and what we live for. If you don't have family, what do you have? And as far as the village, again, we are Vikings. We haven't been thrown anything we can't handle so far have we? They will be fine. I am going with you." She smiled and picked up his hand. Hiccup smiled and leaned back to watch the sail whip in the wind as he drifted off to sleep, Astrid curled up next to him.

A/N: I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. It was fun to write. Thank you to Dracologistmaster for giving me some ideas for this chapter. All of you are free to message me with ideas you have and want to share for this story and I will try to work them in, with credit given of course. Leave a review to let me know what you think!