A/N

Hi Everyone! Sorry for the massive delay. I actually had this chapter nearly finished when I had posted chapter 3 but then I re-read it and something just didn't sit well with me. I kept fighting with myself over a particular scene but with the help of NightsAnger, I was finally able to come to a decision that I think I am finally okay with. Thank you Nights! Anyway, I have chapter 5 plotted out and its going fairly well. Just so you all know, I just started senior year of college so chapter 5 may be a little delayed; however, it should be out a lot sooner than this one was. I am going to try for Friday (4th) or Saturday (5th) but if there are any issues that cause me to delay, I will put up a notice on my profile (on Saturday, 5th) about the progress of the chapter. If there are any issues you find with the current chapter, let me know and I will go back in and fix it (decided to rush it out tonight!) Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Also, my Beta says Hi!

MugetsuPipefox: A stupid grin? Then I guess I achieved my goal! Actually, at this point Arthur would not try to kill a dragon though he would be nervous around one if Merlin wasn't nearby!

Ambiguous Cake: I thank the writing g-ds every time someone tells me I managed to keep the characters true to themselves! If it was just one of these two fandoms it would be much easier but trying to bridge the gaps between the two has been quite the challenge! Hope you like this next chapter!

Megwar: Hi Megwar! Glad you liked the new chapter 1. :D I didn't want to change it at first but I'm happy with how it came out. When I read your review I couldn't help but imagine the dragons as puppies with Merlin and it certainly made my day! As for the reveal, not to worry! It won't be this chapter but I can guarantee it will happen in either the 5th or 6th chapter. How did you like "Race to the Edge?" I watched them all in two days and immediately demanded more!

IWasNeverReal: I certainly appreciate the toothless plushies! Glad you loved it! I'm finishing this up and writing more of chapter 5 instead of doing school work ;)

FlyingLovegood123: My original thoughts when I first decided on the plot: "How could it not be a misunderstanding when these two fandoms are involved?" XD The location of the other dragons will be explained here! Hope you like it!

Unformal Sorrelle: Gwaine and Apples. How could I not? ;P I'm glad someone else got as much enjoyment out of that little detail as me! Then again, that part wrote itself. Now, here is the Viking side of things!

Reminder

"Norse"

"English"

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Merlin or How to Train Your Dragon

With a sigh, Hiccup let the door to the Great Hall slam behind him as he trudged inside. Luckily the day had been nowhere as nerve wracking as when Dagur had first visited. However, he couldn't help but feel weird every time he lied to the Camelot party. The feeling only increased whenever it was a lie directed towards Merlin. The man confused him in more ways than one, he seemed to have such a grace about him and yet had changed drastically once they got closer to the dragon academy. He could not think further on the issue as a grape suddenly flew by his head, missing him by about an inch. Looking over to the tables, he saw the other dragon riders seated around Snotlout whose entire upper body was draped on the table as he flicked grapes in random directions.

"Uh, whats going on?" Hiccup said as he got closer, moving to the left slightly to avoid another mis-aimed projectile.

"Nothing! That's the issue!" Snotlout threw his hands up in the air, the bowl of grapes that he had been using spilling over onto the table's surface at his sudden movement. Knowing that he wasn't going to get a clear answer from his cousin, Hiccup looked towards Astrid who was seated across from said annoyed Viking. Fishlegs was seated on her left and the twins on Snotlout's right.

"He misses Hookfang," the smirk on her face was hard to miss and Snotlout quickly rounded on her in his tantrum.

"No! He obviously is missing me! Why couldn't I go with you earlier?" he said, his gaze returning to Hiccup's face even as he crossed his arms and his face took on the look of a petulant five year old.

"I'd say it was because we couldn't afford to let Hookfang react to your presence, but on second thought he actually probably would have just ignored you," Hiccup said, knowing the fact to be true when said dragon and his master were involved. Snotlout rolled his eyes and sat back down on the bench, his head falling onto the hard surface with a loud thud as he began to roll one of the grapes around with his finger.

"How is Merlin? He looked very pale…" Fishlegs asked as Hiccup sat on Astrid's other side. Before Hiccup could respond, Ruff quickly stuck her head over.

"How's Sir Percival?" Hiccup raised an uncertain eyebrow and she quickly mimicked Snotlout's position on the table with a groan. "The man…" Knowing where she was going, Hiccup quickly tuned out her ramblings about the handsome Knight and turned back to Fishlegs.

"I don't know. I offered to take him to Gothi but he said he just needed some rest so I just brought them back to the house." Tuff started flicking grapes at Ruff and Snotlout who were bemoaning the surface of the table when they all stopped at the sound of the door to the Great Hall opening. Turning on the bench, Hiccup watched as his father came striding into the room with Gobber and Gothi following in his wake. Recognizing the expression his father wore for what it was, Hiccup got up with a sigh and went to meet Stoick in the middle of the hall, the others following him quickly from behind.

"Oh, Dad! Great news, the tour went great, no problems what so ever!"

"Actually, son, we have a completely different issue." Hiccup's stomach fell as his father turned abruptly and filed back out of the hall with Gobber and Gothi. Hiccup fell in behind Gobber, knowing his father expected them all to follow.

It did not take long for Hiccup to realize where they were heading: back towards the academy. As they crested the hill that overlooked the bridge, he felt an uncomfortable feeling begin to crawl up his arms. He immediately banished the feeling from his mind. As a child, he had tried to explain the uneasy feeling to others in his village, but no one else had been able to understand or sense it. It was one he always felt whenever he got close to the arena and so had chosen long ago to just ignore it. Now that they were near the academy, Hiccup could easily make out the noise of three distressed dragons. Before he could warn against it, Snotlout, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut had already shoved passed him to run into the academy.

"Dad?"

"I was coming by to check on Bonecrusher," his father said. Hiccup only raised an eyebrow, deciding it was not the time to ask why his father wasn't following his own orders to stay away from the dragons. "When they suddenly started to, well, do this," they got through the gate and Hiccup stopped in shock. The dragons that were currently housed in the academy were Hookfang, Barf and Belch, and Bonecrusher. The remaining dragons, both those that belonged to the dragon riders and those that just belonged to members of the village, were all within the secret hanger that they had just finished building on the side of Berk. Normally, the other dragon riders would have kept their dragons in the academy as well but lately more and more dragons were acting up whenever they were near the place.

"I don't get it," he started as they watched Hookfang snarl and spray a jet of flames at Snotlout through the bars of his enclosure.

"I mean, that isn't unusual behavior…" Astrid said only to watch as Hookfang then proceeded to ram his head into the side wall, "on second thought…" The other two dragons were behaving just as viciously. The word 'feral' was a good way to explain it.

"Uh, guys, a little help here?"

Running over to the cage that held Barf and Belch, Ruffnut and Tuffnut had squeezed themselves through the bars and were now hanging onto each other in the back corner as a very angry two headed green dragon towered over them.

"Here you can eat Ruff," Tuff quickly pushed his sister forward only for the two heads to growl in anger at the sudden movement. Ruff quickly sprang backwards into the corner, slapping her twin in the face before she and Ruff were shoved back into the wall by the dragon's tail. Hiccup looked towards Astrid and at her sharp nod, they both lunged towards the cage. Astrid flipped the lever so that the cage door opened up slightly, allowing Hiccup to roll under it. As the cage slammed shut behind him, in tandem with Stoick's panicked call of his name, the two heads immediately swiveled around to lock on him as he stood up. The yellow eyes seemed murky and glazed over, just as Stormfly's had been when she had been kept in the academy a few weeks prior after her stable attached to Astrid's house was 'accidentally' burnt down.

"Hey, it's okay," he said softly, putting his hands up with his palms out as the two heads dropped down to be at eye level with him. Barf's mouth was slowly drawing open and Hiccup could easily see the green gas starting to form around his lips. Looking to the back corner, he saw that Ruffnut and Tuffnut were still being held against the wall by the dragon's tail. If the gas was ignited within that small space, the dragon would, of course come out unscathed, but he and the twins would not be so lucky. Snapping his gaze back to Barf and Belch, he felt something spark at the base of his throat. "Barf. Belch. Stop. Now." He saw Barf and Belch seem to flinch at his tone and after a second they both blinked. Shaking their heads simultaneously, the cloud in their eyes almost instantly vanished and Hiccup quickly sighed in relief even as Barf and Belch stuck their heads up against either side of his body in an affectionate manner. Rubbing under their jaws, he looked over as the twins quickly scurried out from the corner to take Hiccup's place. Indicating for Astrid to let him out, he ducked under the slightly raised gate only to have an arm suddenly hoist him up into the air in a tight embrace. The air was quickly expelled from his lungs before he was redeposited onto the ground. Stumbling slightly as he caught his breath, he looked up to see his father's prideful yet disapproving gaze.

"You could have been killed, Hiccup!"

"Actually, he seems to be the only one who can stop the dragons whenever they get like that," Gobber said, rubbing his chin.

"Figures," Snotlout grumbled from in front of Hookfangs cage, "Hiccup slayer of Red Death, Hiccup the dragon calmer, Hiccup the…" before he could finish his rant, another jet of flames flew from the cage behind him and set his fur vest a flame. Eyes suddenly filled with panic, the man quickly rushed by the group towards a water trough that sat on the other side of the arena. As Snotlout passed by, Hiccup heard a quickly mumbled "A bit of help!" before watching him dive into the water with a sigh of relief. Shaking his head, he quickly turned towards Hookfangs cage only to be forcibly pushed out of the way by Ruff and Tuff. Astrid's hand on his arm allowed him to keep his balance as he watched the twins rush over to Snotlout and 'help' him by pushing and holding him under the water. Hiccup quickly repeated the process on Hookfang and Bonecrusher, having very similar results, before returning to the group at the center of the arena.

"It's becoming more and more dangerous to hold dragons here," Fishlegs said as Hookfang, who no longer had glazed eyes, instead began to circle his cage in agitation.

"Any idea Gothi?" Gobber asked and everyone waited with baited breath as the woman slowly began to write in the dirt with her staff.

"Uh, she says that the air is filled with day mail," a grunt of pain quickly followed as Gothi's staff made contact with the helmet on Gobber's head. Holding his helmet to keep it from reverberating, he re-read what she wrote, "sorry, the air is filled with dark magic she says."

"Dark magic?" Hiccup asked, not comprehending.

"She says that the dragons are sensitive to it, whatever it is, and that they are becoming pollenated... sorry, polluted… honestly woman you need to work on your staffwriting," the man flinched as she threatened to hit him once more.

"Is there anyway for this 'dark magic' to be removed?" Stoick asked and Gothi just shrugged her shoulders before erasing her previous drawings with the bottom of her staff and writing something new.

"She says to ask the human that is of dragon kin."

A long pause occurred as everyone looked around, as if expecting someone in the group to come up with an answer to this person's identity.

"Who?" Snotlout asked, having finally pushed the twins away and pulled himself from the trough. He was pulling singed pieces of soaked fur from his side as he joined the group.

"She says the one who is sickened by the dark magic… could you be any less descriptive?" Gobber quickly moved backwards as the short tempered woman took another swipe at him before huffing in annoyance and leaving to return to her home. Stoick sighed before turning back to Hiccup.

"Do everything you can to keep them calm and move them to the hangar. We will deal with this issue once our visitors have left," he said before turning with Gobber and leaving the arena as well. As Hiccup and the other riders moved Hookfang, Barf and Belch, and Bonecrusher to the hangar, he could not help but stop in shock as a pale, raven-haired advisor came to mind, it couldn't be…but how to be sure…

After leaving the dragon arena, Arthur had quickly asked to be excused for the morning after observing Merlin's discomfort. The men enjoyed a private meal in their borrowed home before relaxing for the remainder of the afternoon. They were grateful that the house they resided in was in a more remote area of the village as they rarely heard others roaming about. A nice sense of peace was able to fall over the house compared to the usual chaos that seemed to define the Vikings. Now, having rested out of sight of the arena, the Warlock emerged from the room he shared with Arthur.

"What did you think?" Arthur quickly cut to the chase as Merlin came to the table where the others now stood.

"This entire situation is strange," he said, "It seems as if they are hiding something from us." A nod from Arthur was all the agreement he needed on the matter. However, the confused look from Gwaine prompted him to continue his thought; "Their reactions don't seem right… They jump whenever dragons are brought up…"

"Perhaps the village's hatred for them has truly pushed their paranoia over the edge?" Leon questioned but the room at large stayed silent, unable to think of another reason.

After a moment, Merlin decided to break in again, "Those dragons are very different from Kilgharrah and Aithusa as well. I don't think they can even speak."

"They may not be able to speak to you, but they certainly seem to know you," Gwaine said with a devilish grin, prompting Merlin to roll his eyes at him in response. Merlin saw Arthur straighten and resigned himself for whatever command the prat was about to give.

"We got lucky that they didn't question us. We will have to be more careful in the future." The order was given as if spoken to all but Merlin knew it was directed primarily towards him. "Do you think you will be able to command them?"

Merlin thought about it for a moment and came to the conclusion that, if he is able to give commands to Wyvern, then he should be able to have some sort of influence on the unusual dragons of Berk though it was only a theory. Looking at Arthur and the Knights to provide an explanation, it took him a moment to register that the looks he was getting was because he had spoken his thoughts aloud.

"You… can control Wyvern?" Elyan said slowly, as if unable to process the thought. Deciding that it would be a waste to try and take back his words, he merely shrugged.

"They are relatives to the dragons. I do not have complete control over them but I can give commands and they do follow them," he said firmly then under his breath added, "however, begrudgingly they may do so…"

"Regardless, we should be able to continue as planned then," Arthur continued, though the expression he wore told Merlin he had some more explaining to do. The whirlwind activity since his big reveal had kept many of the conversations that they needed to have on the side in terms of importance and moments like these were beginning to grow more normal each day.

"It was hard to feel the link with all the dark magic in the air, but I was able to feel a connection between us. We could feel each other as kin." Gwaine opened his mouth at this point and Merlin braced himself for whatever impertinent comment the rogue man had thought of when there was a knock at the door.

Percival, the closest, waited for Arthur to nod his head before quickly moving into the next room to answer the door. Merlin could just make out Percival's voice before the door was shut and two sets of footsteps were heard making their way towards them. Percival reentered first followed quickly by Hiccup. The Chief's son seemed uncomfortable in the space, especially standing next to Percival. As they entered the room, Merlin noticed that Hiccup's eyes seemed to scan the space only to settle on him for a moment before snapping towards Arthur with a smile.

"The Chief would like to invite you all to dinner in the great hall."

"We would be glad to join you all," Arthur responded without hesitation before gesturing for Hiccup to turn and lead the way.

Dinner was much like the night of their arrival. Stoick and the elders were seated at the largest table in the room. As they entered, a hush came over the room and Merlin just noticed a few of the Viking men quickly putting down massive legs of what he now knew was yak before continuing to eat in what they probably thought was a more civil manner. Hiding a smirk, he redirected his gaze towards Stoick who halted his own conversation with Spitelout in order to stand. "My friends, please join us for food and entertainment," he said, gesturing to the tables laid out with food as Merlin quickly translated. Dinner began with simple pleasantries of which Stoick spoke in Norse, with Merlin translating, in order to prevent his people from feeling left out. As the night wore on, members of the tribe eventually began to get up from their feasting in order to talk and mingle. A few even appeared with bone flute instruments and harps, the room beginning to fill with music and noise. Leon was listening, with a raised eyebrow in unconcealed amusement, as Elyan spoke excitedly with Gobber and Hiccup from across the table; the blacksmith turned Knight asking question after question about the man's unusual arm. Merlin watched as Leon then grimaced when Gobber removed his wooden hand and passed it over the table to Elyan. Smiling, Merlin turned his attention to listening to Gwaine and Percival argue over which of them would win in a log toss, Percival putting his muscled arm up against Gwaine's smaller one for comparison. Suddenly, Merlin felt a kick under the table. Jumping slightly, he turned in his seat to meet Arthur's gaze. The man quirked an eyebrow before taking a sip of his wine; before Merlin could ask or inquire into his friend's actions, Arthur faced forward.

"How long have those dragons been caged for?" The question was directed to Stoick who was speaking with Spitelout about an issue with the fish reserves. Merlin wanted to smack the man for his lack of tact as Stoick straightened and seemed to tense as he understood certain words; however, he could not help but admire the man's ingenuity. Merlin quickly looked at Hiccup and Gobber and watched as both men halted in their conversation with Elyan to also jerk at the dreaded word. Hiccup was the person that Merlin could not fathom. He seemed almost familiar. Merlin knew the man had no magic of his own so the possibility that it was a familiarity based in magic had immediately been thrown out. Before Merlin could try to again put words to it, he heard his name being called.

"Merlin," a tense Stoick began and Merlin quickly directed his attention to the Chief, "Would you translate?"

"King Arthur wishes to know how long the dragons in the arena have been caged for," he said though he kept his voice relatively low. Despite this, he noticed how the others at the table, particularly Spitelout and Astrid all jumped as well.

"They have been here for a full 6 cycles," Stoick began and Merlin noted the stiffness of both his voice and profile.

"He says that they have been caged for over 6 summers," he repeated to Arthur who merely nodded his head. Silence reigned for a number of minutes. The music in the room, which Merlin had not noticed had stopped, began again at a slower pace. The table returned to their food but the tension in the air was still thick for the Warlock as he waited for the last thread to break. However, what happened next he was not sure if he should have foreseen or not. After a while the tension had appeared to diminish slightly as the festive vibe returned to the room. However, the tension immediately returned when a loud crash from behind had everyone in the room quickly turning towards the disturbance.

"Take your eyes off my wife. Knight." The black haired man sneered and Merlin could not help but grimace. He had not noticed Gwaine or Percival leaving the main table to go and mingle with the villagers, nor had he noticed exactly how many goblets of mead the rogue had already drunk. Arthur never tried to prevent the man from drinking while on Patrol or on duty anymore simply because they all knew the man would never actually do anything to jeopardize a mission. However, though Gwaine was actually able to handle his drink far better than anyone else they knew, this fact still didn't prevent the rogue from being more reckless than he normally would have been if he was entirely sober. The issue, thus, was not that Gwaine was in anyway inebriated at that moment. No, the issue was that the Viking man he was addressing was by far more into his mead than Gwaine. The man staggered to his feet but though he was obviously drunk, his eyes were instead clear and sharp due to his anger. The man's chair lying on its back on the ground the only suspect for the loud noise that now had drawn the attention of the room. The brown haired Viking woman on his left side was clearly unsure of what to do.

Merlin could see that Gwaine had no idea what the man had originally said but blew it off and instead responded with a wide grin even as Percival seemed to tug his arm back. The Viking lifted a fist in Gwaine's direction and Gwaine responded in kind, laughing boisterously into the room, "Think you could take me in a fight?" The man's eyes clouded with confusion before his anger surged back to the surface. The man went to take a swing at Gwaine but before the strike could even follow through, Percival stood on the man's side, his hand catching the fist and twisting the man's arm around his back. Before anything could escalate further, Stoick and Arthur both stood at once.

"Enough!," Stoick barked into the room and Percival waited for the man he held to sag in his grasp before releasing him to the floor. The man glared up at the two red clad men before rubbing his shoulder.

"We do not settle our feuds here," Stoick said, his tone a reminder and the man he was addressing immediately looked down towards the floor as if scolded. "If you intend to fight, than do so with your honor intact and not swimming in your cups."

"Sir Gwaine," Arthur demanded and the Knight's head snapped towards the table. His amusement immediately died and he gave an imperceptible shake of his head. He then turned back towards the Viking who was finally fighting to his feet with the help of the brown haired woman.

"I apologize for my behavior, I meant no disrespect to you or your family." Merlin knew that Gwaine was fighting his own desire to brawl. Before he could rush to the man's aid and provide a translation, a voice from behind him spoke up.

"Sir Gwaine apologizes for his behavior," Merlin turned slightly so he could see Hiccup who was standing with a bit of a slouch. His eyes, on the other hand, were strong and determined and the man who was on the receiving end of both Stoick and Hiccup's gaze immediately looked away. "He says he meant no disrespect, we should give our guests the same in return." Though it was not the reason why Hiccup seemed so familiar to him, Merlin finally worked out a connection he had been trying to figure out. Glancing at Stoick, and then finally Arthur, he realized that Hiccup would one day make a brilliant Chief. Merlin then watched as Sir Gwaine held out a hand to the Viking who, after a moment, grasped his hand in return. Percival then extended his hand and the group of Vikings and two knights sat back down. The main table slowly sat with Stoick giving a sigh of relief and then a look of pride towards his son who immediately looked away. However, Merlin continued to watch his two friends and so did not miss the brown haired woman as she seemed to smirk as she said something softly to her husband and then to Gwaine who blinked in response. Merlin realized the woman was speaking English, though he could not tell how fluent she was as he was too far away to hear the continuing conversation. Gwaine then laughed again and gave a blinding smile before shaking his head. The woman responded to her husband in kind and the man gave a roguish grin that could have easily competed with one of Gwaine's. Merlin felt a sense of unease as he saw the woman continue to act as a medium for the two men as they continued to speak.

"It would seem as if your man is itching for a fight," He heard Stoick. Instead of translating for Arthur's benefit, who looked at him in annoyance for not doing his job, he instead just answered Stoick.

"That is Gwaine for you. Prefers action to sitting still."

"He would do well as a Viking then," Stoick grinned before looking back over towards the table. Merlin followed his gaze and saw Gwaine and the Viking man nod as if they had come to an agreement. Gwaine then left the table and walked back over, with Percival on his heels and a half formed smile gracing his own features.

"Sire," Gwaine began and Arthur turned partially in his seat to give his Knight both a surprised and a level look at being addressed in the correct manner. "I would like to ask for leave from tomorrow's meetings," Arthur raised an incredulous eyebrow even as Gwaine seemed to be fighting off a smile. "Dag and I intend to spar for some personal entertainment," the grin finally made it to his face and Merlin watched as Arthur's eye twitched in annoyance though the King did not let any other sign show on his face. However, before he could give his obvious objection, Dag had appeared next to Gwaine to ask a similar question of Stoick. Merlin returned his gaze towards Stoick to see the man stroking his beard before sharing a look with Hiccup and Gobber.

"King Arthur," Arthur immediately looked away from his grinning Knight to meet eyes with the Chief, "I am sure you all wish to finish these talks as soon as possible in order to return home, but I wonder if it would be possible to move our next discussion until the day after next?"

Merlin tilted his head in question, surprised, but Stoick only gestured to Arthur and Merlin quickly acquiesced. "He wants to know if it would be possible for us to hold off on our next council meeting until the day after tomorrow," Arthur raised an eyebrow in question but at Merlin's shrug, he simply returned his gaze to Stoick.

"I see no problem with it," Arthur said after a moment of contemplation. Ignoring Gwaine who seemed to be bouncing on the balls of his feet, Arthur put his forgotten fork down in order to thread his fingers together on the hard wooden surface. "Might I inquire as to why?"

"Arthur agrees to the idea. Would we be able to inquire as to why?"

"As Sir Gwaine probably said, the desire for a competition has been requested and I cannot dissuade my people from finding enjoyment. On top of that, as I am sure Uther probably once mentioned," he said, pausing in order to let Merlin translate. However, as soon as Merlin completed the sentence, he was stopped as a loud noise broke out from behind yet again. Turning as if one body, the members of the table all caught sight of two younger vikings, who looked almost identical, as the female started to bash the male over the head with her empty goblet. Another man, who looked like a close relative of Spitelout, and Fishlegs were watching on as if it was a normal occurrence. "Vikings cannot be dissuaded," Stoick continued, no apology in his voice at all and Merlin could not help but smile. As they all turned back to the table, Merlin caught the slight grimace on Leon's face. The smirks fully formed on Gwaine, Percival, and Elyan's faces told a completely different story.

"I see," was all Arthur was able to say for the moment.

"In fact, perhaps an event for all to enjoy," Stoick continued but it seemed as if he was speaking more for his own benefit then to those at the table.

"What do you mean?" Merlin asked. Stoick then turned to address Gwaine and Dag who still stood near the table.

"What type of competition have you agreed too?" Merlin translated at Gwaine's prompting.

"We never got that far. What kinds of sport do you have here?" the man's smile seemed to grow as he asked the question and leaned forward on the table.

Merlin narrowed his eyes at Gwaine who simply gave a go on motion with his hand. He turned back to Stoick who already had a smile growing on his face before he even began to translate.

"A good many actually. Feats of strength such as the log toss and wrestling matches. We also pride ourselves on our weapon fighting," he said and, it was with this statement that Merlin almost groaned in annoyance. He felt more then saw Arthur straighten as he repeated the words.

"Perhaps we should include more individuals in this competition? Would the rest of your warriors be interested in testing their strength against ours?" he asked in a louder than necessary voice and this time Merlin did groan. The room at large had quickly gone silent at their Chief's words and Arthur turned to Merlin for a translation; however, before Merlin could respond, Stoick spoke up again. "King Arthur, your warriors against ours in a tournament of strength?" Though the accent was thick and some words were not perfectly pronounced, the words were easy enough to understand. Merlin groaned again at the determination that had immediately entered Arthur's eyes.

"We certainly haven't had much chance to work ourselves over these past few weeks," Arthur began and Merlin could not help but scoff even as he received a glare for his troubles. "We accept your challenge," Arthur continued before holding his hand out across the table as a sign of his agreement. Stoick laughed heartily before leaning over and grabbing Arthur's arm before releasing it and standing to face his people.

"My friends! Our guests have agreed to a competition! Let us see who prevails: Viking or Knight!" Merlin's head dropped onto the surface of the table with a slight 'thunk' even as the room erupted into cheers. A large hand landing on his shoulder told him Percival was trying to be reassuring but it did little to help his already frayed nerves. He heard the Knights beginning to discuss the coming day but kept out of the conversation as he kept his head down.

"Not a fan?" A voice asked opposite him and he brought his head up to find Hiccup trying to fight off a smile.

"Can't really say I find people getting the seven bells knocked out of them fun," he said with a grin in Arthur's direction. The man narrowed his eyes at the look before returning to his own conversation with Leon.

"I have to say I agree," Hiccup said as Astrid shook her head.

"You do?" Merlin asked, his eyes scanning the room as he suddenly saw Gwaine getting into an arm wrestling match with the man now known as Dag; Percival and Elyan cheering him on.

"I'm not much of a Viking," Hiccup answered.

"That's okay, I'm not much of a noble," Merlin said, Hiccup and Astrid smirking at the information he provided earlier that day.

"Will not you fight?" Astrid said, her sudden switch to English confusing Merlin for a second as her heavy accent and her mispronunciation of a few letters made her speech slightly hard to follow.

"She's practicing," Hiccup supplied and Merlin's eyes widened as he watched Astrid blush and scowl at the table's surface.

"Never feel shame for that. I know it took me months just to figure out how you accent your 'i', he said before Astrid and Hiccup suddenly started laughing. Blinking in confusion, he analyzed what he just said before realizing he had messed up the 'i.' Grinning, he waited until they had stopped laughing.

"Never answered question," Astrid continued, before giving a small smile of thanks as Merlin quickly helped her correct her speech.

"But of course I will!" he said dramatically, waiting as Hiccup translated a word each time Astrid gave him a confused look "How could one such as me not compete" he finished, flexing one of his arms only to have Arthur slug him in the shoulder. The other knights began to laugh and Merlin joined in to show Astrid and Hiccup that it was not a real insult. "Besides, what you may lack in strength, one always makes up with other skills." He said, not missing the significant look that Astrid shot Hiccup before Merlin decided to return the subject to the competition, "and will you be taking part?"

Shrugging, Astrid gave a wide grin, "We are Vikings," she said before jabbing Hiccup in the side with her elbow in a joking manner, "we can never say no to a challenge. How about it then? Can you?" She again directed her gaze to Merlin and he felt the steady fire behind her eyes.

"I'm not very good at fighting," he said with a shrug.

"Well, what you may lack in fighting, you can make up with another skill," Astrid shot back and Merlin could not help but grin at the tenacity. He couldn't help but imagine Arthur using that exact method against him.

"If my father has his way, there will be plenty of different activities in the Arena, I'm sure…" Hiccup's voice seemed to cut out and it wasn't until Merlin realized it was because he had frozen at the word 'Arena' that he lifted his eyes to Hiccup's concerned gaze.

"The arena?" Merlin wanted to kick himself for nearly choking on the word as Hiccup gave him an unreadable look.

"You seemed very uncomfortable there earlier," Hiccup said; the barely heard question tacked on at the end. Merlin realized that Hiccup was a much more perceptive Viking then he had thought.

"Bit of a bad past experience with dragons," Merlin quickly answered, looking towards Arthur before remembering that the man could not understand the current conversation. Grimacing, he looked towards Hiccup and Astrid again to see them watching him carefully. Coughing into his hand and clearing his throat, he stood up abruptly. Arthur and the Knights, as if attuned to him now, immediately stopped their conversations and looked to the Warlock. Grimacing again he directed his gaze to Stoick.

"I find myself feeling still under the weather from this morning, if you will all excuse me?" he said.

"But of course, Merlin, I hope the nights rest sees you better come tomorrow," Stoick said after a moment of silence. Merlin then turned from the Vikings to look at Arthur who gave him a steady look. The question in the King's eyes was plain, 'Are you okay?'

"By your leave, Sire?" Merlin said, and Arthur paused before giving a quick nod of his head. He knew Arthur was uncertain of what he had just said to Stoick but at the moment he didn't care to translate. Besides, Hiccup could act as translator in his absence. He turned quickly on his heels and strode from the hall, intent on getting out as soon as he could even as he felt multiple sets of eyes on his retreating back.