Chapter 9
Lucky Shot
Morning dew was oozing into the soles of Hiccups fur boots. His small pale fingers were wrapped clumsily around the splintered shaft of a wooden bow, unconsciously rolling the weapon slowly between his fingers. The other suitor boys stood a little ways away from Hiccup, their eyes trained on the small figure of Merida as she passed in front of them, her own bow strung along her back. She was smirking ear to ear with wicked intent, her ruby red hair crackling with excitement. Behind the pacing princess were four lone targets, their painted faces pointing at the boys. Hiccups stomach was churning with pre embarrassment as he squinted over at the targets. Even though they were not ten paces away Hiccup could already tell that he had more chance sprouting wings and flying then he did hitting the target.
Hiccup groaned to himself as his headache bit harder at his temple. All around the small party were quarrelling and yelling Scotsman. Hammers and other tools shouted their complaints as the Scots built stands and tents for the games that would commence that afternoon. Hiccup rubbed his hand over his forehead and against the helmet still resting upon his head, its cold metal nipping at his skin.
"Right!" Merida sang in a falsely military voice. "Ma mother, the queen has said that we are to become more acquainted with one another." The princess shot a nasty grin. "I of course can think of nothing better to do with ma morning then be with you lovely lads, and have come up with a game for us all to play together." Hiccup watched the other suitors brighten up with interest, obviously not noticing the sarcasm.
"And of course Ma lady." Macintosh said smoothly sinking down into a low bow. "We would love to except your game." The black haired boy looked up from his bow with a raised eyebrow, smirks securely sewn into place.
"Yes thank you Macintosh for your input." Merida growled, pulling her bow from her back and twirling it expertly in her hand. "I wager that I can beat all four of you in an archery competition." The princess declared with confidence, blue forget me not eyes digging into the boys eyes like fishhooks. They skated over Hiccups own green once however, Merida pointedly ignoring the small Viking and focusing her attention on the other Scots. Hiccup sighed grudgingly at this and looked over the painted targets to look instead at the flashing green leaves of the Ravenswood forest. His mind slowly drifted to Toothless as the others began their competition, seeming to forget that he was there.
Three Scottish boys stepped forward as Merida crossed her arms to watch, her bow once again secure over her shoulder. Macintosh was clearly the better shot of all of them. His first arrow sunk deep into the second ring, causing the young prince to shoot Merida a dashing smile. The princess responded with all the dignity of her status, sticking her tongue out to blow a raspberry at the cocky boy. His second shot was thrown off by young Dingwall giving him a poke in the ribs, causing it to hit the very outer ring. However his third shot hit dead center, burying it up to the shaft. Feeling he had stated himself as the clear winner Macintosh turned to watch the others go. Dingwall seemed much more interested in a butterfly that had landed on his nose so his turn was forfeited. MacGuffin gave Merida a shy smile before raising the bow and pulling the string back so far that the wood creaked. His aim was terrible but he buried every arrow up to the shaft, which was impressive in itself. Macintosh gave a chuckle as Merida swung her bow off her shoulders and stepped back so she was a good five paces behind the scots.
"You sure you know what your doing Ma Lady?" Mackintosh snickered as Merida rearranged her dress so the arrow wouldn't catch on it. "And what are you doing all the way back there?"
"I'm making it a fair competition Macintosh." Merida said slowly as she drew the arrow back to her cheek with a practiced twang of the string.
"Wait! You're going now?" Mackintosh shouted as an arrow was sent singing from Merida's bow and flew right past his head, causing him to stumble back and trip over his own feet. Merida's arrow hit his target with a crack, splintering the wood of the prince's arrow and taking its place in the bull's eye. "Bloody hell Merida! You almost hit me!" Macintosh panted as he slowly picked himself off the ground.
"Don't worry lambie. If I was aiming for you you'd have an arrow in your eye." Merida smiled as she loaded another arrow and walked with it down to the next target. She shot right above Dingwall's shoulder, startling the butterfly off the boy's nose. That arrow also sunk into the empty bulls eye, quivering in its place. For the final shot she let MacGuffin get out of the way before letting lose her final arrow, its red-feathered shaft burying itself in the bulls eye.
"So that's me winning, would you like a rematch?" Merida asked the startled scots sweetly, her cheeks flushed with excitement. The stunned boys looked at her with shock, their own cheeks paling over with dread of being used for target practice. Hiccup however was biting his lip to stop himself from laughing at the ridiculous looks the boys were giving. Finally a snicker broke past which led to the rest of his smothered giggles spilling out of his sleepy lips. Curling his hands around his chest Hiccup doubled over in laughter, his own bow clattering to the ground. Merida's blue eyes crinkled with a smile at the drunken laughter coming from Hiccup. The pink in her cheeks deepened. It was like being back in the forest with him again. Macintosh however shot a glare at the giggling Viking. Hiccup stopped his laughing and Merida look away from the two boys, eyes trained on a caterpillar crawling over her shoes.
"What's so funny Haddock?" Macintosh bit out, his eyes as dark as blood stains. Hiccup paused for a moment, debating with himself the wisdom of his next few words. He decided to risk it.
"You really don't need me to tell you that Macintosh." A smirk curled around the freckled cheeks of the Viking as he watched the Scottish prince turn red. But then his smile faded as Macintosh notice something.
"You haven't shot an arrow yet Haddock." A smirk of his own was on the Scots face as he walked carelessly over to the shrinking Viking. "That's not sportsmen, you need to have a go."
"Ah but-" Hiccup stammered as Macintosh reached him. He shot a pleading look over to Merida, but his fear rose as he saw her back was turned. "N-no. I would really rather just watch I mean, you lot are much better then me and I really don't do well with sharp objects." His normal casual tone was laced with hesitation and Macintosh heard it as clear as glass.
"Oh nonsense." The Scot laughed, wrapping a tight arm around Hiccups slender shoulders and pushing him hard in the direction of the targets. "Lets just see what you can do. You have the whole kingdom as an audience and you clearly found are attempts so funny, so I would love to see how you shoot."
"Oh I'm sure you would." Hiccup muttered bitterly. But he was then pushed in front of Macintoshes empty target; in the same spot the prince had been standing earlier.
"Fire away Haddock, but try not to kill anyone." Macintosh laughed as he backed up to stand next to his other fellow Scots. When the prince glanced over to Merida he was slightly taken aback by the glare shot his way.
"What are you playing at Macintosh?" Merida snapped in an angry whisper. "Your making yourself look more a prat then you already have."
"Yeah well not as much as he's going to." Macintosh sneered back, gesturing with his head to Hiccup who was looking very small five paces in front of them, giving the Scots an annoyed glance before he focused back on the targets.
"Oh this is going to be catastrophic." Macintosh snickered as Hiccup pulled an arrow out of the quiver holstered to his hip.
"You don't know that." Merida snapped, her eyes trained fully on Hiccups figure as she bit anxiously on a fingernail. When Hiccup tried fitting the arrow into the bow his hand slipped, causing him to cut his thumb on the arrows head.
"Yeah I really do." Macintosh giggled as he watched Hiccup struggle with bright eyes. "That's the pointy end Haddock!" Macintosh yelled. Hiccup turned his head to glare dryly at the ass of a prince. "You don't touch that end, it go's in your target."
"This whole thing is stupid." Hiccup spat as he turned back to his bloody thumb.
"Now Haddock that's just not-" But he was cut off as Merida elbowed him in the ribs.
"Ouch! What was that for?" Macintosh snapped. But he stopped his berating of the princess when, to all the Scots surprise MacGuffin stepped in front of Macintosh and gave him a deep cold glare. That glare was the most the boy had done in the way of communicating all day and it was all too clear to the shrinking Macintosh what his companion was trying to say. Shut up and let him have a chance. It was hard to argue with MacGuffin, partly because he never spoke. But mostly it was because he could break your leg in half like a twig.
Hiccup however was seeing none of this because he was busy trying to pull the string of the bow back. Gritting his teeth the boy slowly bent the wood of the bow and pulled the arrow back to about his chin. That was as far as he could get it. Blowing the loose bang out of his line of sight Hiccup straitened his gaze to the target, smiling a cracked face at him. Narrowing his eyes he lifted the arrow to aim just above the third ring. He could aim with an unholy offspring of lightning and death itself, but with this, he already knew he was going to miss. With that happy thought in mind he let loose the arrow. It sunk into the ground, three paces from the target.
"Well that was fun." Hiccup said dryly. "I'm going to stop now." He then turned to face the other scots, his helmet slipping in front of his eyes again.
"I guess you better Haddock." Macintosh laughed. "Your likely to shoot off your left foot if you try any more." Hiccup gave Macintosh a steely glare but he couldn't stop the blush rising to his cheeks. His helmet slipped in front of his eyes once again.
"Alright that's it!" Merida yelled. Turning to Macintosh she slugged him hard across the jaw, sending the boy reeling backwards and falling once more to the grassy ground. Then spinning on her heel Merida marched away from the shouting prince and towards the wide eyed Viking.
"Come on Hiccup." She growled, grabbing Hiccups hand and dragging him back to the targets again.
"Uh Merida . . . I think you broke Macintoshes jaw." Hiccup stammered as he looked over his shoulder to the moaning Scottish prince.
"Oh the wee lamb I barely brushed him." She retorted sharply, pulling Hiccup harder and snapping his attention away from Macintosh. "I hit you even harder and you didn't make quite a fuss." With that she stopped at the targets and let go of Hiccups hand. She then walked briskly forward and yanked the arrow Hiccup had shot from the grass.
"Merida- what are you doing?" Hiccup asked dazedly, his eye brows raised.
"Fixing." Merida huffed as she scooped up her violet skirt and jogged back to the confused Viking. "You have a horrible shooting stance." The princess snapped, the arrow gripped in a tight fist. Hiccups brows furrowed.
"This is fixing?" Hiccup asked with a bite of annoyance.
"No." Merida snapped again, her cheeks flushing pink. "This is me acting irrational but that's okay."
"Oh really?" Hiccup said slowly, his eyebrows rising to disappear into his bangs. "Okay?"
"Yes Okay." Merida said firmly, pushing Hiccup to face the target. "Because it's not your fault you didn't hit that target, it's your rubbish stances fault." Hiccup watched Merida from the corner of his eye as she took a few steadying breathes. Her face was so red it matched her hair and in all of the previous conversation she had been talking twice the speed and volume of a normal human. She looked really flustered.
"You all right Merida?" Hiccup asked seriously as the princess flicked a stray curl from her face, growling as she did so. But at Hiccups concern she looked up, her irises dilated.
"Yeah I'm fine." Merida sighed, the red from her cheeks fading slightly.
"Promise?" Hiccup pushed. Merida took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
"Promise." Merida's eyes fluttered open to focus on Hiccups smiling face. "Stop smiling like that Hiccup." Merida deadpanned, taking his bow from the Vikings slack grip.
"Why?" Hiccup said smugly.
"You look like an idiot."
"At least I don't look like a tomato." Merida's eyes widened and she went even redder.
"Don't make me regret talking to you again Haddock." She snapped at Hiccup who still had that stupid smile on his face. But it slowly wilted at her words, the ice threatening to climb into their chests again at the memory of their painful conversation that morning at breakfast. Merida bit her lip, and Hiccup rubbed the back of his neck bitterly. "Look Hiccup." Merida said finally. "I-I don't have a lot of friends. I don't make them easily and-" She cut off again, running a hand through her hair. "I was scared." She looked up at him, the boy's face had paled with surprise. But then a flash of understanding passed over him.
"Are you still?" Hiccup asked softly. Thinking for a moment Merida shook her head. "Why were you in the first place?"
"Because-" Merida paused for a moment to think again. "Because if we become friends, you'd still have to fight a dragon in four days time and I don't want to send my only friend into a dragons fight knowing I was the cause of it." Merida didn't say the second reason; she was far too stubborn and proud to do so. Hiccup blinked in surprise.
"You-your scared I'm going to die in the challenge with the dragon?" Hiccup said baffled. Sighing Merida nodded. "I'm not." Hiccup laughed, with much more conviction then Merida thought the situation deemed appropriate.
"Y-your not?" Merida repeated, her eyes crinkling in confusion.
"No trust me, when I go into that fight, its definitely not going to be the dragon I'll be worried about." Merida gazed at Hiccup in complete shock.
"What?" Merida said slowly, her eyebrows knitted. Hiccup saw her obvious puzzlement and leaned forward's tell their faces were very close.
"I'm actually really good at fighting dragons." Hiccup stage whispered, his lips curling. Merida was still showing no signs of understanding.
"I'll explain it later." Hiccup lied. He was starting to wonder just what he would tell the princess, the truth was certainly out. Merida however seemed to snap out of her daze and brushed the topic off for later.
"All right Haddock." Merida sighed, pulling her bow off her shoulders.
"Thank you DunBroch." Hiccup responded smoothly. Merida simply rolled her eyes. With a flick of red hair she thrust her bow into Hiccups chest, tossing his old one aside.
"What was wrong with that one?" Hiccup asked slowly, looking like he really did miss his old bow.
"Its shit." Merida responded bluntly, pulling Hiccup a little to the left as to place him perfectly in front of the target. "Now shut up and listen to me."
There was no arguing with that logic. Hiccup turned from the still flustered Scot to look at the painted faces of the targets, there distance still as far as ever.
"Now first things first." Merida said sternly and ripped her bow from Hiccups left hand and instead thrust it into his right.
"What are you doing?" The startled Viking asked, his attention pulled back to Merida.
"You draw with your left hand." Merida stated, looking at Hiccup like it was obvious.
"Yeah." Hiccup nodded back at her, his eyes wide with bewilderment. Merida made an exasperated noise.
"So if you draw with your left hand then you shoot with it too. That's your hand you do everything with."
"No its not." Hiccup replied. Merida blinked and did a double take. "I only draw with my left, I use a sword, axe and spear with my right."
"Yeah and how well has that worked for you in the past?" Merida asked crossing her arms. Hiccup seemed to pause at this, his eyes narrowing in stubbornness. "Yeah I thought so. Hiccup we had an agreement, shut up and do what I say." Merida then lifted Hiccups right hand so it stuck out in front of him and began lacing his fingers around the bow. "The reason you were so rubbish at using a sword before-" Merida began, now adjusting Hiccups shoulders so they were no longer so hunched up, "Was you were using your weak hand. I bet you could be a grate sword fighter if you are just given the proper chance." Merida then twirled around Hiccups body and pushed his feet further apart. "Now." Merida said straitening up, her long hair flicking Hiccup in the cheek as she did so. "Notch the arrow."
Hiccup seemed taken a back at this but did what he was told. Taking the dirt-speckled arrow that Merida handed him Hiccup pulled the projectile into the bow, his stance slipping back into the old one. "Oi! Yee damn wee dope! Get back into your stance." Hiccup sighed and grudgingly fell back into the improved stance Merida had shown him.
"Merry is this really necessary?" Hiccup moaned. Merida looked up at the nickname but then smiled. She liked it.
"Yeah Hic it is."
"Why? I know I'm a bad archer, its okay."
"No its not." Merida exclaimed her voice annoyed. "You're a lot better then you think you are Hic, you're just lazy."
"Yeah well your grumpy." Hiccup mumbled under his breath.
"We all have problems Hiccup!" Merida snapped back, moving to his left side so she could then tell him where to hold the arrow. The princess's outrage brought a smile to Hiccups lips. "Alright Hic pull the arrow back tell your thumb nail is touching the corner of that smug smile of yours." Hiccup did so, very surprised at how easy the bowstrings bent.
"That was a lot easier." Hiccup said with appreciation. "Way better then my bow."
"Yeah I know, its because that ones shit." Merida deadpanned, moving Hiccups hand slightly up so his hold was proper.
"You know for a princess you swear a lot." Hiccup complained as Merida helped him aim to three rings above the bull's eye.
"You know for a Viking you don't swear at all." Merida replied with a wink. She then brushed her hands off on her violet skirt and stepped back two paces. "Okay Hiccup just stay in that stance and keep your eyes on the target. You don't need to worry about the wind, there isn't any and your hand is steady so you're not gunna miss."
"You seem awfully confident." Hiccup said awkwardly as he fought to stay in position.
"Yeah well it's my work, I should be confident. Okay now the only thing we need to do is fix your breathing." Merida shouted over to Hiccup, her eyes narrowed as she looked at the Viking with concentration.
"My breathing?" Hiccup hissed, looking at Merida from the corner of his eye. Merida nodded, apparently coming to some sort of conclusion as she stared at Hiccups shoulders.
"What people normally do when they go to shoot is hold their breath." Merida began, beads of sweat starting to appear on her forehead from the sun. "Don't do that, it's a rubbish idea and makes your hand shake. Yee miss that way." Merida took a deep breath and then let it out slowly, Hiccup watched with a questioning look. "Just take a good breath, but push your stomach out not your shoulders up." Hiccup did so. "Good!" Merida said quickly. "Now breath out slowly, and let loose the arrow at the end of the breath." Hiccup turned his sharp green eyes to the targets, their cracked surface still smiling evilly at him. Slowly, just as Merida showed him, he let out the breath, his shoulders staying in place. Then, he let go of the arrow. It twisted through the air, and sunk into the second ring from the bull's eye, red feathers shaking.
"Oh my gods I actually hit it." Hiccup said slowly his eyes still staring disbelievingly at the target. Merida gave a happy and very un Merida like giggle.
"Corse you did Hic you have an amazing teacher." Merida chortled running over to pull another arrow out of Hiccups quiver. "Go on do it again." Hiccups face cracked into his goofy smile as he accepted the arrow from the girl's small hand and notched it. Merida took her two steps back again and watched Hiccup pull the arrow back to his cheek, bouncing with excitement on her toes. This time however Hiccup forgot the breathing trick. The arrow was sent flying far over the target and just missed the large pile of wine barrels roped up behind the targets. Instead the small missile shot into the darkness of Ravenswood forest.
"Oh." Hiccup winced, watching as three black birds flew up from their roosting spot, obviously disturbed by an unexpected arrow.
"Hiccup!" Merida wined, her hands running down her face. "Don't hold your breath."
"Sorry Merida." Hiccup responded, a blush rising to his cheeks.
"Oh its alright." Merida sighed walking over and pulling another feathery shaft from the Vikings quiver. "You just owe me an arrow."
"I could run and fetch it-" Hiccup began but Merida pushed the third arrow into his hands.
"Nah its not worth it, yee'd never find it in there." Hiccup nodded and pulled the last arrow into Merida's bow. "Don't muck up your breathing again." The Viking nodded once more and pulled the arrow back, his muscles working in a practiced motion. Merida smiled at this. But when Hiccup went to let go of this arrow he noticed just before his fingers slipped off the string that there was something wrong with the wood that made up the shaft. This was proven painfully right a tenth of a second later when the faulty wood splintered in the Vikings hold, shooting a large fragment of wood into Hiccups palm. Letting out a gasp of pain Hiccups arm shook and shot to the left in surprise, causing the arrow to be aimed far off course. The red-feathered missile spun past the target, missing by a good foot and instead sunk into one of the barrels of wine that lay to the left of the targets, snapping the rope the bound the twelve barrels together.
Merida Hiccup and the three suitor boys, who had just now looked up to see what the two had been doing watched with wide eyes as all twelve of the barrels began to roll uncontrollably into the maze of half built tents and working Scots. Loud yells rose up as one of the barrels smashed into a tent, cracking open and spilling expensive wine everywhere. Another knocked over three men on ladders, sending them tumbling to the ground, all landing on other men working beneath. The last ten spread out in malicious intent, ripping down five more tents and crashing through three more stands. Finally they came to rest at the feet of a bright-faced Stoick the vast, flanked by a startled king Fergus and a shocked queen Eleanor.
"Ohhhhhhh." Hiccup moaned, his expression utter horror as he saw his father look up at him, the line of damage from the barrels leading strait back to Hiccup. "He's going to kill me." Hiccup said weakly as his red-faced father started stomping towards him, the king and queen at his heels.
"How did you do that?" Merida muttered with astonishment, looking at where Hiccup was standing to where the barrels once stood. "I couldn't even hit that rope. That was amazing."
"Oh yeah amazing." Hiccup gasped out, his voice cracking. "Lucky shot, really." The other suitors did the smart thing and bolted; however before Macintosh left he threw Hiccup a guilty look. Maybe he was human. Hiccup thought before looking back to Merida.
"I think you should probably take this opportunity to escape with your life." Merida looked like she had swallowed a lemon.
"What?" She hissed. "No way. It's my fault! I get the wring out." Hiccup stared blankly at her.
"Your fault? I shot the arrow."
"I gave you the shit arrow in the first place." Merida snapped back. Both children glanced down to Hiccups bleeding left hand, a piece of wood the size of his thumb imbedded into the Vikings shaking palm.
"That looks like it hurts." Merida fretted.
"Not as much as this is going to." Hiccup moaned, as the parents finally rounded on them, Hiccups father and Merida's mother looking icily down at their shrinking children.
"What happened?" Stoick growled. To the man's credit he was keeping his voice quite low, sparing his son the double embarrassment of him shouting at the top of is lungs. His son however was not doing much to help Stoick's rising blood pressure.
"It was my fault." Both Merida and Hiccup said at the same time. Then both teenagers glared at one another hissing "Shut up." In equaled amounts of protective anger. Queen Eleanor and chief Stoick eyed their children with various amounts of fury, embarrassment and worry. Then the queen seized Merida by the ear and pulled her away from the small Viking. Hiccup was then grabbed by the back of his fur vest and dragged away from the swearing Princess.
"Mum!" Merida hissed, a few other choice words spilling from her mouth. She caught a glimpse of green eyes as Hiccup was pulled from her. Hiccup was desperately trying to look over his shoulder at Merida's retreating figure while also trying to explain the circumstances to his fuming father. Funnily enough both parents chose the same words as they finally dumped their charge in front of them. Far enough away from the field so they were out of earshot of the wine stained Scots men.
"Enough Merida!"
"Enough Hiccup!"
Both parents shouted. The response from the pink-faced children was also painfully similar.
"But please listen!"
And once again both children received the same retort.
"No you listen to me!"
However both parents also receive the same lack of listening as their stubborn, hot-tempered children.
Eventually King Fergus made his way over to where Eleanor was still lecturing Merida. He had been with the men, repairing the damage his daughter and the Viking had done. For two small children they some how managed to do more destruction then some army's he knew. He found his daughter looking pink faced up at her mother, hands balled into fists. She looked so angry the king was surprised her hair hadn't caught fire. Sighing the king walked up and placed a hand on his wife's shaking shoulder. Both hot-faced women looked at him.
"Merida love." The king said in a hoarse voice. "Go on now. I need to talk to your mother." Merida didn't even make eye contact with her father. She ducked her head in embarrassment and guilt and plucked up her skirts. Turning on her heel she sprinted away from her parents and headed in the direction of the hospital tent, were she hoped to find Hiccup.
Coming to a halt in front of the large white tent Merida quickly peeked around the slowly repairing games field. The scots men didn't seem to be too angry, in fact some had found goblets and started scooping up the large puddles of now free wine. One even waved merrily at her from a ladder, spilling a bit of grape coloured liquid on a servant girl passing beneath him. She gave a shriek but Merida and the man ignored her. Waving quickly back at the slightly swaying man the princess turned her attention once again to the tent. Grabbing onto the large white canvas flap Merida pulled it aside and peeked in on the medical bay. Hiccup was sitting on one of the benches in the vicinity, his left hand bandaged in white gauze. Merida was about to go and sit with him when a shifty glance the Viking gave the turn back of the healer caused Merida to pause. Hiccup then spun quickly on the bench and reached into the large box of first aid the women had obviously healed Hiccups hand with. The boy then pulled out a fist full of bandages and pocketed them. He also grabbed two bottles of herbal soothers and a jar of germ jelly. Merida faltered on the last theft. Germ jelly was a relatively new invention and was normally used for cleaning cuts. However the amount that Hiccup just nicked could heal a gash the size of a small child's arm. So why did he need it for something as small as a splinter? Frowning Merida pulled back and stepped away from the tent, moving so she was no longer in Hiccups eyesight.
"What was that all about?" The girl muttered to herself, absentmindedly twirling a curl around her finger. "He's bloody well hiding something." Merida puzzled further, her free hand coming to her mouth. The princess began chewing on her manicured fingernails but was brought out of her thinking by the sound of rustling fabric.
"Merida." Hiccups happy voice caused the princess to turn.
"Hiccup." They both smiled at each other.
The Princess and the Viking swapped their stories of parent's lectures as they walked side-by-side back to the castle. Hiccup had been submitted to the disappointment speech whereas Merida had received the guilt trip. It had been quite affective on both of them but they were pretending to one another that it hadn't. When the two had finally reached the castle gateway they paused, wondering what to do next. "I think there's lunch now." Merida said shiftily, turning to look at Hiccup. Hiccup nodded and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Yeah." They shared an awkward moment for a second. They both new that lunch meant angry Vikings and disapproving ladies and lords, they also new that Merida and Hiccup could not eat at the same table, not as Viking and Princess anyway.
"You know I'm not that hungry." Hiccup said finally.
"Yeah I'm not to peckish either." Merida agreed, a little to quickly. Another long paused passed again. It was Merida's turn to break it. "Do you like books?" The princess asked hopefully. The Viking looked slightly embarrassed.
"Were not really allowed books on Berk, strictly speaking."
"I'm not talking about Berk, I'm talking about you." Merida replied warmly. Hiccups embarrassment faded.
"I love books." The boy answered. Merida smiled.
"Do you wanna see my library? There's a whole section dedicated to fairy tails and I'm sure I could find you one about Dragons."
"Okay." Hiccup said happily and the two turned and walk through the castle gate. "Do they have any maps there?" Hiccup asked, not fully masking his excitement.
"Maps?" Merida retorted, her eyebrows raised. "Yeah sure I guess. It's a pretty good library." Hiccups face cracked into that goofy lopsided grin as he followed Merida into the main hall and up to the west wing of DunBroch castle.
