Toothless stops licking me, and pops his head up, and turns and sits quickly beside me. I get up, attempting to wipe off my face, and plop a hand on Toothless' head. "Merida, meet Toothless. Toothless, Merida. He is really just a big old moron." And with that, Toothless flips his head a little, smacking me with part of his head. Merida giggles as I tackle him, and I'm reminded of her presence. I'm latched to Toothless' neck, hanging like a sloth, and tilt my head back, and smile. "Wanna go for a ride?" and the fear in her bright blue eyes dissolves into pure excitement.

"A ride? On the dragon?" She jumps a little, like a child almost. I laugh and drop to the ground on my back, and pull myself up.

"I mean, I have the saddle and tail already on. And you are the one insistent on getting medical advice on my new piercing." So I walk over to her, and grab her wrist, putting her hand out in front of her, slowly scooting her forward to Toothless. "Dragons are all about trust. If they can trust you, you'll be their best friend. Where I used to live, we got dragon raids all the time. I was trying to make a name for myself, besides the scrawny pathetic blub. I was trying out a new device for shooting down a dragon, and I saw a darkness in the sky and shot. I heard Toothless go down, and when I found him, I cut him free and noticed his tail got messed up. So I tried to gain his trust and learned their ways, and managed to get a saddle and tail on him. And we've been inseparable ever since." As I finish talking, I position her hand a few inches from Toothless' nose. She looks at him in the eyes, and he slowly closes his, and bumps his face into her hand.

She lights up, getting all giddy. "Did ye see that Hiccup! I touched a dragon! A real life dragon!" she stopped and looked at her hands, then me. "Does that mean he trusts me? Enough for me to ride on him?" I just laugh at her childish ways, and nod. She laughs and jumps around in circles, and soon Toothless starts wagging his tail. He starts bouncing around with her, both enjoying their new found trust. I just sit on a stump, and pull out a sketchbook and charcoal and start drawing the two new friends.

"Whatcha doing Hic"

"NOTHING." I slam my book shut and look over at the girl. She looks an absolute mess. There is grass all in her hair, and dirt on her dress.

"Ye drawing me and Toothless, weren't ye?" she says with that accusatory look she gave me earlier. I can feel my cheeks going bright red, and fumble around before getting up.

"No, um, of course not, I wouldn't, uh," Wow, real smooth. "Dragon! Lets go ride the dragon. Cause my arm has a hole in it, um, let's go!" and I awkwardly walk to Toothless, followed by a laughing Merida. I hop up onto his back, and Merida slowly approaches him. I reach out a hand, and pull her up behind me.

I hear her laughing from excitement, curls bobbing. "Let's go fly! Can he go fast? Can we go fast? Let's go let's go LET'S GO!" a very excited Scot yells from behind me.

"Calm down Mer." I say. Turning to Toothless, I silently ask for permission, and he nods. I help up Merida, and I hop on in front of her. I lean down to Toothless and pat his head. "Gently, Toothless." I hear Merida make a 'hmph' and reach down to pet his side.

"Give it all you got, Toothless."

"Nonononono wait!" I attempt to stop him, but Merida had already kicked his sides like a horse, and he was shooting straight out to sea, Merida screaming wildly behind me, having what sounds like the time of her life. After a few minutes, Toothless had slowed down, and Merida has too. She slips her arms around my waist, and rested her head between my shoulder blades.

"Thank you, for showing me this." Merida says with a contented sigh. We slowly coast through the clouds back towards the castle. We get pretty close to the shore, when she starts noticing my suit. "What's this do?" I feel her tugging at the strap that loosens my back fin, and I twist to grab her hand so it won't hit her in the face. An odd shot of electricity shoots through my hand, and I awkwardly hold it for a second before realizing what I'm doing and let it go.

"Uh, haha, that, uh, wait, I can actually show you. You wanna see?" I say, not really knowing how to explain that I use the flap for solo flying. The bright girl nods quickly, and I smile and start pulling levers to prep Toothless for his solo flying. I do a quick final glance, and being satisfied with what I see, pull my feet out of the stirrups and sit up on the saddle. I turn around and face her, "Hold on. You ready?"

"I think so? What for, exactly, am I getting ready for?" she asks, and I just crack a grin.

"This." and with that, I just roll off Toothless, and Merida screams.

"Hiccup, what on earth are you doing! Hiccup are you ok?" I hear the first bit, but her words are whipped away by the wind. I hear another scream, and I look up to see toothless in a nosedive. We even out, face to face, in a free fall. I can see Merida on his back, wild red hair flying around as fast as her words are. I twirl over to her, and wave. She is still frantically asking about my state of being, and I give her a thumbs up, and reach to pull the flap, and my 'wings' appear, and I slow down to a gentle glide down.

Toothless also evens out, and it's only seconds before I'm flying next to Merida. She's freaking out, but looks over at me, and her jaw drops open. I just chuckle, but my body wobbles, so I reach and snap the cord that pops out the back fin. We slowly glide our way to the shore, which is growing ever bigger and more detailed.

I managed to land myself safely, but not gracefully, on a small beach near the cabin. Toothless landed a few feet away, and Merida jumped off of him and slammed into me in a hug.

"Wha, what?" I say, slowly losing air from the bone crushing, arm ripping, bear hug.

"You scared me, jumping off. Tell me next time, ok? I got scared you would die." She says into my chest.

"Well, I would return the hug, but I can't move my arm, one of which still has a hole in it, remember?" I personally don't mind it, it just is a small rubbing and an ache, but she was really concerned, so I wanted to get it checked so she could sleep at night.

"Oh, yeah." She says absentmindedly. I feel her face crunch, probably from realization, and she immediately lets me go and looks at my arm, then me. "Did I hurt it? I'm sorry, I forgot, all caught up in you dying and stuff, I mean I already shot you, it'd suck if you died. Bad day." She awkwardly shoves a mass of curls behind her ear.

"Hey, it's fine. Just a dull ache. Where is this medic you kept talking about?" I ask, curious at where we're going. The sun was starting to make its way to the horizon while we were up in the clouds, so it was sitting on top of the ocean now.

"Oh, we should be near it. I go here a lot, and there's a trail somewhere…" she trails off as she looks around. I turn to Toothless, attach my flying gear to the saddle and tell him to go home, and he starts through the forest, and I soon hear the warble signifying his arrival. It isn't too long before I hear a triumphant laugh from Merida, and she turns to me. "Found it! C'mon, Hic!"

She walks along the path, and I jog to catch up to her. "What's with the whole 'Hic' thing? New nickname?" I say, not really there, but off in space, wondering about everything.

"I guess. I could say the same for you? Is 'Mer' my new nickname?"

"Absolutely." I come back to earth, and turn from the trees to her and find her watching me. She shoots her bright blue eyes to the trees behind me, and I just chuckle and arch a quick eyebrow, and she turns the color of her hair. "What'cha doing, Mer? Basking in all my absolute dragon riding, lifesaving handsomness?"

"Lifesaving?" she says with a smug look.

"Oh, come on. You would have gotten eaten by a wolf or a bear or something if I left you unconscious on the ground. I saved your life"

"Yeah, you think that." She looks to the ground, and since I have an excuse to, I look at her. I mean really look. From the right angle, her hair looks like a burning fire, framing her face. Her clear, very pretty, blue eyes are focused on the ground, large and full of wonder. She has a lopsided smile, and I'd guess she was almost 18. I could tell, from experience, she used to have a rounder face, but it slimmed out recently. She wore her bow over her shoulder, creasing into her hair and dark green-teal dress. She looks graceful and pretty, I never noticed it until today. She shoots her eyes over with that smug look. I feel a little bit of heat in my cheeks, and mess with my pockets.

"What'cha doing, Hic? Basking in my amazing arching skills and my beauty?" she playfully shoots back at me for my last comment.

"Yep." Her face gets all funny, clearly not expecting for me to agree. "Also, you never said no to my question." I chuckle as she stops abruptly and I just keep walking past her. Around a bend, the trail ends, and it opens into the castle field. I stop and wait for Merida to catch up. She just keeps walking and I follow her towards the castle.