Chapter 10: Dreamscapes
"Toothless!" Hiccup called as he made his way through the village, looking for the Night Fury, the new prosthetic fin resting on his shoulder,"Toothless, where are you!?"
"Hiccup!" Merida's voice floated over the village, bringing Hiccup's attention towards their house, where he saw Merida sitting on the front steps, bundled up in furs next to Toothless, the Night Fury curled up on the ground, "Over here!"
Smiling, Hiccup made his way up the hill to the house, Toothless raising his head to look at the young man as Merida smiled and pat the Night Fury on the head.
"Shouldn't you be inside?" Hiccup questioned as he looked at Merida with concern, "You're still fighting off that cold."
"Ah'm fine," Merida reassured him with a small sniffle, "Ah'm feelin' much better and saeme fresh air will dae me good."
"If you say so," Hiccup replied as he set the artificial fin down and leaned it against the house, "Did North end up stopping by?"
"Yes," Merida replied, her eyes gleaming with excitement, "Ye'll ne'er believe whit he showed me!"
"What?" Hiccup questioned as he sat down next to her on the steps.
"Ah'm a magi, Hic," she replied with a grin, "Jist like him an' Hilde!"
"Really?" Hiccup questioned in surprise, "So, you can talk to spirits and stuff?"
"Ah guess," Merida answered with a shrug, "Ah mean, nae yet, Ah daenae think. North jist kind o' showed me ma potential. He showed me whit was inside me ma whole life."
"Well, you didn't need North for that," Hiccup said with a grin, "I've always known you're pretty magical."
"Ye're such a flirt," Merida replied, rolling her eyes before leaning over and kissing Hiccup on the cheek, "'At's why Ah love ye."
"And here I thought it was my winning personality," Hiccup joked.
"'At helps too," Merida responded as she leaned against Hiccup, resting her head on his shoulder.
"Things are so different now," Hiccup commented with a slight shake of his head, "You're a magi, I've been blessed by a god, we both know how to ride dragons and we're preparing to face the return of an evil god who wants to take over the world."
Hiccup sighed before smirking.
"I remember when my biggest problem was getting you to like me," Hiccup continued as he glanced at Merida.
"Well, ye did a fantastic job with 'at," Merida said, reaching up and grabbing Hiccup's head before pulling him into a quick kiss, "This other stuff shud be easy."
"I certainly hope so," Hiccup replied as he smiled down at her.
"Sae, whit's all this?" Merida questioned, gesturing to the new fin that Hiccup had brought with him, "Did ye make Toothless a new fin?"
"I did," Hiccup answered with another sigh, "With this, he should be able to fly on his own."
"Ye're jokin'," Merida stated in surprise as she sat up straight and looked at Hiccup.
"Nope," Hiccup replied as he stood up and grabbed the fin before turning to show it to Merida, "It attaches to Toothless' good fin and the gears I made make it so that when he flexes his real fin, the artificial one will flex with it."
"'At...at's ingenious, Hic," Merida said in awe before a concerned look crossed her face, "Dae ye think it's a good idea though? Whit if…"
"I know," Hiccup finished for her, his face falling as he spoke, "I've already thought of that and if it comes to that, I'm just going to have to hope he comes back."
"Okay," Merida replied with a nod, a worried look still on her face, "Well, there's nae time like th' present, right?"
"Right," Hiccup replied with a nod before he turned to look at Toothless, the Night Fury watching the two curiously, "Hey bud, I've got something for you."
Drawing closer, Toothless looked at the artificial fin as Hiccup held it out to him, the Night Fury giving the prosthesis a curious sniff.
"What do you think of that?" Hiccup questioned with a chuckle as he made his way over to Toothless' tail, "Let me get this on you."
Straddling Toothless' tail, Hiccup quickly latched the fin onto the Night Fury, clicking it into place on the dragon's good fin.
"There," Hiccup said with a small smile as he patted Toothless' tail, "You are going to love this."
As Hiccup stepped off his tail, Toothless pulled it towards himself with a confused grunt. Growing agitated at the alien feeling of the new fin, Toothless roared as he began to thrash around, trying to knock the prosthesis off of his tail.
"Toothless, stop!" shouted worriedly as he dodged out of the way of the Night Fury's thrashing, Merida letting out a surprised gasp behind him, "Toothless, please wait!"
Before Hiccup could do anything, the artificial fin suddenly snapped open, causing Toothless to freeze as he looked at it in surprise. Studying it for a few moments, Toothless calmed as he flexed his tailfin experimentally, watching as the artificial fin moved with the real one.
"There, see?" Hiccup said with a smile as he caught his breath, "Pretty cool, right?"
Slowly, Toothless turned and looked at Hiccup with wide eyes, silent except for his breathing. For a few moments, Toothless did nothing but stare at Hiccup, causing the young man to look at the Night Fury in concerned confusion.
"Toothless?" Hiccup questioned as he reached out towards the Night Fury. As he did, Toothless suddenly flinched away before spinning around a leaping into the air, kicking up a cloud of snow in his wake. As the snow settled, Toothless' roar brought Hiccup's attention skyward, giving him a brief glimpse of the Night Fury before he disappeared into the clouds.
For a few, long moments, Hiccup did nothing but stare up at the grey sky, a shocked look plastered on his face. As he watched the overcast sky, he barely registered the sound of Merida walking up next to him.
"Oh...Oh Hic," she said sadly, looking between Hiccup and the sky, "Oh Hic, Ah'm...Ah'm sae sorry."
Hiccup said nothing as he turned to look at her, a lost look in his eyes. Seeing him like that only made Merida sadder, prompting her to reach out and pull Hiccup into a hug, the blanket she had draped around her shoulders falling to the ground. For a moment, Hiccup simply let her hug him, his arms hanging limply hanging at his sides, before he slowly wrapped his arms around her and buried his face into the crook of her neck.
Later,
Night had fallen over Berk, a few stars managing to shine through the clouds that still covered the sky. Inside their house, Merida, dressed in her nightgown, stood outside of the doorway to Hiccup's room, leaning against the wall as she looked through the crack of his door, a flickering candle illuminating the room, allowing her to see him laying in bed with his back to her.
"Dae ye want me tae get th' candle?" Merida questioned, playing with one of her red locks that barely hung past her ear.
"No, I've got it," Hiccup replied, moving underneath his blanket before the candle suddenly gutted out.
"How did ye…" Merida began to say, a surprised look on her face.
"I've been practicing with Jack," Hiccup explained from the darkness of his room, "Good night."
"Night," Merida replied quietly before she reached out and closed his door. Merida stared at the door for a few quiet moments before sighing and leaning against the wall.
She hated seeing him like this. As much as she missed her own dragon, Merida knew that no person and dragon had a stronger bond than Hiccup and Toothless. She knew that if there was anything Hiccup cared about as much as her, it would be Toothless.
It ached Merida's heart to see Hiccup like this, but it hurt even more knowing there was nothing she could do about it.
"Ye'd think now 'at Ah had magic Ah cud figure oot where a flock o' bloody dragons went," she muttered to herself with a sniffle, looking down at her hands before sighing impotently and resting her head back against the wall.
"Nae use frettin' all night aboot it though," she said before yawning and heading to her own room. Rubbing her eyes, Merida crawled into bed and pulled her fur blanket up to her chin, falling asleep almost the instant her head touched her pillow.
As the world faded around her, Merida almost instantly noticed something different. Both the warmth of her blanket and the chill of the air fell away, as did all the sounds she associated with Berk at night. Instead of the feel of her bed beneath her, she felt weightless, as if she floating. It wasn't until she felt her feet come in contact with something that she snapped her eyes open.
Wherever Merida was, it certainly was not her room.
Before Merida was what looked like an endless desert made of golden, sparkling sand beneath a sky covered in shifting, purple clouds. As she watched, the sand dunes shifted before her very eyes, rolling across the desert like waves on the ocean. Merida watched in confusion as a dune rolled past her, the sand shifting beneath her bare feet as it passed. Reaching down, Merida scooped up a handful of sand before letting it slowly run out of her hand and back onto the ground, the grains feeling smooth and cool to her touch.
"Where th' bloody Hel am Ah?" Merida questioned as she looked around in confusion again, her voice echoing unusually. As the dunes continued to shift around her, Merida suddenly could make out a figure standing on top of one of the dunes some distance away.
"Hey!" Merida shouted, cupping her mouth with one hand while waving the other above her head to catch the stranger's attention, "Oi, ye over there!"
Merida could have sworn she saw the figure start to turn around but by the time they did, the dunes had shifted again, causing the figure to disappear as another dune swept by. By the time the dune had passed, the figure was nowhere to be seen.
"Damnit," Merida swore softly before sighing and looking around again, "Ah need tae figure oot whit's gaein' on here."
As Merida looked around some more, she noticed another figure walking by a short distance away from her.
"Hey!" Merida called as she began trotting over to the person, the sand feeling oddly spongy as she walked across it, "Hey, ye!"
As Merida approached the figure, she felt her heart skip a beat as she recognized the young man.
"Hiccup!?" Merida called as he increased her pace, rushing to catch up with the Viking as he slowly wandered in another direction, "Hic, is 'at ye!?"
"It's me!" Merida exclaimed as he ran around in front of Hiccup, "It's Meri…."
Merida trailed off, her expression changing to a look of surprise and confusion as she got a good look at Hiccup. He appeared to be asleep, with his eyes closed and his breathe slow. Merida could even swear she heard the slight sound of snoring.
"Whit in th' world," Merida muttered as she slowly reached out towards Hiccup as he wandered past her. Before she could touch him though, another hand suddenly latched onto her wrist and stopped her. Merida let out a small squeak of surprise before whipping her head around to look at the hand's owner.
Next to Merida was a little man who stood barely half as tall as she did. He was a plump fellow with a friendly, pale face and amber colored eyes. He wore a robe the seemed to wrap around his round form and which appeared to be made of the sand that swirled around them. Similarly, his wild, spiky also seemed to be made of the sand and stuck out in every direction.
As Merida looked at him in surprise, he slowly shook his head at her before glancing at Hiccup as the young man wandered by.
"Who th' Hel are-" Merida began to say, before the little man quickly brought his finger up to his lips, urging the princess to be quite, catching the young woman off guard enough to get her to comply.
"Who are ye?" Merida questioned, her voice barely above a whisper as the little man released her wrist. The man seemed perplexed by the questioned, tapping his chin with his finger as he thought, a few times looking like he had an idea before quickly dismissing it with a shake of his head. As she watched the little man think, something occurred to Merida.
"Ye...Ye cannae talk, can ye?" Merida asked, earning a shake of the head from the little man, "Sae, how exactly are ye gaein' tae tell me who ye are?"
The little man thought for a moment before snapping his fingers as an idea came to him. Turning to Merida, he swept his hands upwards, causing a stream of sand to rise into the air in front of him. As Merida watched in awe, the little man swept his arms around some more, causing the snow to shift and change in the air and on the ground. After a few moments he stopped and the sand ceased swirling, revealing a classic snowman made out of sand sitting next to him.
"A snowman?" Merida questioned in confusion, "Ah daenae understand."
The little man quickly shook his head and waved his arms before reaching out to the snowman and taking a handful of the sand out of it before letting it run to the ground through his fingers.
"Aye," Merida said with a nod, "It's made o' sand."
The little man nodded his head before making a motion with his hand that urged her on.
"A snowman...made o' sand…" Merida thought out loud, "Sae, it's basically a…"
Merida's eyes lit up and she let out a small gasp as her mind put the pieces together.
"A sandman!" Merida exclaimed excitedly, "Ye're th' Sandman! Ye must be th' spirit o' dreams!"
The little man clapped his hands happily as he nodded his head.
"Sae...if ye're th' spirit o' dreams," Merida continued, "Then Ah must be dreamin', right?"
The Sandman nodded in reply.
"Sae, this is where people come when they're dreamin'?" Merida questioned, earning another nod from the Sandman, "This is really amazing."
Looking back over at Hiccup, she saw he had wandered off a fair distance, prompting another question to enter Merida's head.
"Why didnae ye want me tae touch him?" she inquired as she looked back at the Sandman. In response, the Sandman pointed at her, made a little walking motion with his fingers before pointing at his head.
"Ah wud gae...intae his dreams?" Merida surmised, earning a nod from the Sandman, "Aye, Ah daenae think Ah'm ready fer 'at. Maybe saemeday though?"
The Sandman smiled and shrugged his shoulders as another thought occurred to Merida as a sand dune rolled past.
"This is happenin' because o' whit North did tae me, isnae it?" Merida questioned, "Because Ah'm a magi, Ah can talk tae spirits, which means Ah can be awake while dreamin'?"
The Sandman nodded his head in affirmation.
"Well, Ah'm honored 'at ye're th' first spirit Ah get tae meet," Merida said with a smile, "Besides Jack 'at is."
The Sandman smiled and bowed to her in reply, causing Merida to giggle before giving him a curtsy.
"Sae, whit shud Ah call ye?" Merida questioned, "Ah feel like th' Sandman or th' Spirit o' Dreams is a little too formal, daenae ye think?"
The Sandman nodded in reply as Merida took a moment to think, smiling and snapping her fingers.
"Ah know!" she exclaimed with a smile, "Ah'll call ye Wee Willie Winkie! How's aboot 'at?"
The Sandman looked at Merida in confusion, narrowing his eyes at her as if he wasn't sure if she was being serious or not before shaking his head. Drawing some sand from up out of the ground, the Sandman quickly used his finger to to write a three letter word out of sand that hovered in the air in front of him.
"Ole?" Merida questioned, looking past the floating word at the Sandman, "'At's whit ye like tae be called?"
The Sandman nodded his head in reply.
"Ah thought mine was better," Merida said with a shrug of her shoulders, "Sae, whit else can ye show me?"
In response, Ole shook his head before pointing to his wrist.
"Huh?" Merida questioned in confusion, "What is 'at supposed tae-"
Before Merida could finish, her eyes suddenly opened and she found herself laying in bed with her covers pulled up to her chin. Sitting up, Merida looked around, the light of a new day filtering in through the window. Rubbing her eyes, she felt small lumps in the corner of her eyes. Pulling them out, Merida smiled as she found a few grains of sand sitting in the palm of her hand.
"Wow," Meirda whispered in amazement before slipping out of bed. Her feet moving quickly over the cold, wooden floor, Merida made her way out of her room to Hiccup's, opening the door a crack as she peeked inside.
"Hiccup?" Merida said, her voice barely above a whisper, "Ye awake, Hic?"
"Yeah," Hiccup replied groggily, rubbing his eyes as he sat up in bed and looked at her, "What's wrong? Did you sleep alright?"
"Oh, ye hae nae idea," Merida replied with a chuckle as she stepped into his room and closed the door behind her.
A/N: Bit of a shorter chapter this week, but I thought you guys would enjoy these two scenes. Like always, feedback and critiques are always welcome, so please review! Later!