Chapter 12

Merida pov

I awoke bright and early to this new day. Luckily, I was able to finish Mum's lessons yesterday so I was free today. Since Wildfire would still be sleeping I decided to go find Hiccup. Any one that I have asked around the castle hasn't seen him around, so I'll just go to the only other place he'd be other than the sky.

The forge

Once the forge came into view I saw something that caught me off guard. Toothless and Hiccup's other dragons were lying around the forge sleeping. Strange, you would usually find the others in the stable or scarfing down some fish near the kitchen. I walked as quietly as I could between them so that I wouldn't wake them up. Once I entered the building I saw that instead of Hiccup pouring over designs or working metal, I saw him slumped against the wall on the ground, sleeping.

I moved over to Hiccup and leaned over him. Once I got a good look at his bed head, I pushed some hair out of his face. He was kind of cute when he was like this. I stood up in realization to what I just thought and shook my head. I didn't like Hiccup that way. I mean he's a Viking and I'm a Highlander. We couldn't be more different. Besides it not like he feels the same way.

What if he did though? Sometimes I would catch him looking at me when he thought I didn't see. I don't know. I've never felt this way before. Whenever someone tried to court me before speaking my mind came easy, but when it came to Hiccup…..I don't know. Something just held me back. Almost like, I was afraid that he might not feel that way. Oh by the wisps, if only I had a sign that he cared.

Then out of the corner of my eye I noticed something that shined in the light on the table. I couldn't tell what it was since it was covered over with an apron. I walked over to the table and I saw Hiccups journal open. I remember him saying he kept designs in it. The page it was open to….

"Compound bow?" I whispered as I removed the apron and what I saw made me gasp. It was a bow unlike any I had ever seen before. It wasn't the typical longbow, it was something else.

The center of the bow was made of beautifully carved wood; smother than any other I had felt. It didn't go up along the bow though. Attached to the wood were metal arms that made up of the rest of the bow. At the ends of the arms were pulleys with a night fury curled up on etched on each side of them. The bow-string itself even seemed to be far greater quality than any other.

I lifted it off the table and I found it was heavier that a normal bow, but not so heavy lift. Since I was trained with both bow and sword I felt I was strong enough to use it. If anything when I tried to flex the arms they barely moved, but when I pulled on the string it was incredibly easy. This bow was as strange as Hiccup was sometimes. Still I had to try it out. Having a bow around and not use it is just weird. I looked around the forge and found a quiver of arrows leaning one the side of the table. Strangely rather than being made of wood they were made of a strange metal that I didn't recognize. Rather odd, but it's what's available.

I grabbed the quiver, ran over to the doorway and I stopped just before it. I realized that it would be rude of me to take it without permission. I looked towards Hiccup. It would be just as rude to wake him up to ask permission though. I sighed, it's not like I can ask him for permission while he's asleep. I smirked mischievously. Or can I?

I walked over to Hiccup and leaned over him. I whispered "Hey Hiccup, can I go and take the bow out for a spin" Hiccup snored in response. "If you don't say no, then I'll assume you're said it's alright" I continued. Hiccup snorted. I whispered excitedly "You're the best!"

With bow and arrows in hand I ran to the archery range. To try out this strange new bow.

Hiccup pov

I awoke to the wind blowing against me face. I got on my feet and stretched. Funny, I remember closing that door. Maybe I just dreamt about it. I walked to the doorway and saw Toothless yawing and blinking sleep from his eyes.

"It's a great day isn't bud?" Toothless chirped in question. "The sun is shining, the birds are singing…" I looked over to the table. I continued "….and the bow is gone. THE BOW IS GONE!" I leapt over to the work table and looked all over for it. "No, no, no! It can't be gone!"

"Oh, it's not gone. I just borrowed it for a while" I heard

I stood straight up from shock and turned to the doorway to see Merida standing there with the bow in her hand. Oh Odin, this wasn't supposed to happen this way. I stammered "Hey Merida. I see you have that new bow I made"

She examined the bow "Yes, I do. After using this I've guessed that you made this specifically for me. Am I right?" I gulped nervously at this. Well, here goes nothing. "Yeah, yeah I did make it for you. D-Do you like it?" I asked, dread filling me up.

"Like it? I LOVE IT!" she exclaimed. She rushed over to me and gave me a great bear hug that lifted me off my feet. When she put me back down it felt like she had broken one of my ribs.

"This bow is amazing Hiccup! Come on, I want to show you." she grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the forge. I did my best to keep up so she wasn't dragging me all the way to the range. I felt like a rag doll the way there. When we were there she let go of my hand and took her place in front of a target.

She took out an arrow from her quiver. She began as she drew the bow "At first I found it a bit strange that the bow required so little strength just to pull, considering how stiff the limbs were. I wasn't sure if it was any good. When I fully drew the bow though….." She fully drew it to prove her point. The way I designed the bow was to take the stress off Merida when the bow was fully drawn. "It takes little to no effort this way, I could keep this up forever" She loosed an arrow and it flew to the target (to the center of the target).

"At first I thought that it wasn't that much different from other bows other than requiring less strength for the same result, but…." She aimed for the new target that hung from the tree (the one Wildfire hit) and loosed another arrow. The arrow flew through the air and hit the target. Though she only hit the inner ring.

"I could barely hit the target before. This bow is fantastic! Superior accuracy and range than any Bowyer in the land could create. With this bow I can hit any target whenever I want to" She held the bow up "I think this will be my last new bow" she said happily. I felt pride flow through me, like Gobber said "A blacksmith only truly know he's done a proper job when the customer is happy"

"I don't understand why you would make metal arrows though" she said obviously confused

I clarified "It's too dangerous to use normal arrows. Once you loosed them they would just break hurting you and not your target." Merida nodded in understanding. Sadly when I tried out the bow initially I found out wooden arrows won't work the hard way. Good thing there were only a few splinters though.

She walked over to me with a smile on her face "Well, I think this has earned you something. How would you like to go for a ride later?"

"What?" My mind instantly thought of something other than what she probably meant.

"Yeah, a ride over to the standing stones. The place where first met. Oh and bring your sword too."

"Ok, I have time today" I agreed

She smiled "It's a date then"

Originally this chapter was going to be longer but once I started writing it I decided it was too much content and just cut it in half. In other words, to make up for the long wait the next installment should be up pretty soon.