Chapter 21
Windswept
A girl was standing alone in a field, casting a warm glow around her. She was on fire. Her long hair crackled and sparked up fireflies. Her skin was made of small licking flames, rolling up her slight figure and burning a golden bright colour. She had her back turned as she stared into the dark night folded like a curtain in front of her. The world around was silent, apart from the crackling of the girls skin. But suddenly a growling began. It seemed to tremble the entire world, shaking the green from the grass and the warm velvet from the dark sky. As the growling grew the world turned grey, the only light or colour coming from the girl of fire. Then something moved in the curtain of night, a mountainous motion that ripped at the darkness and shifted a horrible something hiding inside.
The girl appeared very small now; her flaming figure looking minuscule compared to the almighty something moving just out of sight. The growling grew even louder. Then erupting from the darkness came the charred shape of a dragon. It was larger than castle walls and bore jaws great enough to crack through rock. The grey scales seemed to have been burned and blackened by fire and its ghostly blue eyes looked blind and smoky. The dragon roared, cracking the earth and blowing the dead grass back. The girl of fire watched the nightmare emerge, her golden flames glowing bright even as the dragon moved forward towards her. Just as the beast was bearing down on her the girl turned her head, gazing piercingly behind her. Her eyes of flame stared for a moment, but then the dragon of burning char and smoke swept over her and the girl of fire went out.
Hiccup's eyes shot open. His heart was racing in the aftermath of the dream, the image of the girl of fire sticking to his retinas like sunspots. His head still hurt from the witches words, and he could taste dried blood on his lips. But the horrible voice was gone, and the Viking felt considerably better since the last time he was awake. Blinking away the last clinging cobwebs of the dream Hiccup sat up, realizing as he did so that he had been lying on grass.
The beginning of morning was building in the sky. A cold purple was condensing near the rim of the atmosphere and shots of gold were iced over top. The heavy cloud cover had broken slightly, revealing sleepy looking star's peeping tired eyes at the pale Viking.
Looking around Hiccup quickly noticed they were no longer in Berk. There was too much green and moss for this to be anywhere but Scotland. Hiccup was sitting in tall grass, on what looked to be the cliff side he and Merida had climbed five days ago just before they had bumped into Seamus. Hiccup smirked at the memory, wondering where the bandit party was now.
The sudden shifting beside him however caused the boy to jump, hoping the burned angry men didn't suddenly amble out of the woods. The noise however was just Merida kicking her leg in her sleep. The princess was curled up like a cat beside Hiccup, half her face lost in the wild tangle of long red hair. Toothless lay just behind her, eyes shut and fast asleep. Occasionally his ears and tail would twitch, drawing a smile to Hiccup's lips.
Stretching his arms the boy crossed his legs and turned towards his sleeping friends, waiting for them to wake up. After the dream his heart was racing too fast to fall back to sleep again. Hiccup sat waiting in the grass, occasionally checking behind him in the forest for any movement from dragons or witches. A cool wind began to blow down his neck, rippling the grass and running through Merida's red hair. The princess shivered against the chill, frowning in her sleep. Hiccup wished he had a blanket to throw over her.
Half an hour later Merida's eyelids began to flutter. Her skin felt waxy and the head cold from yesterday was back. Groaning the princess considered opening her eyes, but decided after one failed attempt that it was too much work. "Oh good, you're awake." Nerves flared and Merida shot up, pulling a bow out from behind her and raised it to her cheek, string drawn. Hiccup dropped the lilac flower he had been playing with, eyes widening as the glint of an arrow's head winked at him. "G-Good morning Merida," The Viking said shakily, going cross eyed to keep the arrow in his line of sight. Merida blinked the rust from her reddened eyes, vision focusing on a startled looking Hiccup.
"Oh!" Merida gasped, immediately lowering the weapon and dropping the bow in the long grass. "Dammit, sorry Hic." Hiccup shook off the hostile morning greeting, smiling warmly as Merida rubbed wearily at her eyes.
"Its okay, Toothless has given me worse wake up calls," Merida seemed to relax at this, glancing behind her to the drowsy dragon. The Night fury seemed to be chasing something in his dream, because his front paws were running weekly on the spot.
"Where did you get a bow anyway?" Hiccup narrowed his eyes at the weapon, noticing a familiar looking crest carved into the wooden handle.
"Ah that," Merida replied slowly, looking sheepishly at her hands. "I stole it off someone's back porch at Berk, after you fell asleep. Think they will notice?"
"You stole it?" Hiccup blinked, watching Merida twist her fingers around a long red curl of hair.
"Yeah . . . along with twelve arrows," The princess nodded her head to a dozen sharply glinting arrows bound loosely in leather. "I'm sure they won't spot them missing. Berk as a lot of weapons just lying about," Merida shrugged her shoulders and straightened up, rolling her neck as she did so. Hiccup shot a look from the stolen bow to the girl and then back again, something the princess picked up on. "I needed something Hic. You were out and there was a dragon the size of a mountain after us. I needed some sort of weapon." Hiccup nodded quickly in understanding, trying to calm Merida's nerves. There were still some parts of the princess he was getting use to. "So what happened then?" The redhead asked seriously, catching the boy's attention. "Why couldn't you move or speak? What happened to you?" Hiccup ran a hand through his hair as he thought for a moment just where to begin.
It turned out that explaining a witches kidnaping to Merida was far easier than Hiccup had expected. Merida had not asked a question throughout the entire retelling of the Queen of Dragons one on one conversation with him. She made a small "Oh" when Hiccup had described how the witch had possessed him when he had made eye contact with her, and had began grinding her teeth when the Viking had told her about the Queen's intention of killing him.
"Ugly imp faced pilfering privateer," Merida mumbled when Hiccup had finished.
"Yeah. I didn't get the best impression of her either," Hiccup said dryly, picking another lilac from the grass. Over the past few days the small flowers had spread like poison over the hillside.
"Why was she so curious about you and Toothless?" Merida asked, looking thoughtfully at the still sleeping Night Fury. "You're just a boy and one dragon, why would you matter?"
"I don't know. But she mentioned Mars. She seemed to think I had made a deal with a god to gain control over Toothless," The Viking muttered, spinning the lilac flower between his fingers. Merida looked up to see Hiccup's eyes narrowed, the green of his irises appearing darker than usual. "She's been killing Dragons. One's that don't bring in enough kill, probably ones that try running away."
"Do you think she can train dragons too? Like the way you did with Toothless?" Merida asked, watching the play of emotions that past over the pale Vikings face.
"No," Hiccup answered stiffly, remembering the way the dragons reacted in the nest. All of their pupils were dilated to slits, something that only happened to Toothless when he was very angry or afraid. "She hasn't trained them, she doesn't even seem to like them. She probably just uses the Red Death to keep them all under her. If that thing wasn't there the dragons would probably eat her." Hiccup made a face at this, seeming torn on whether to smile or not.
"That's it then," Merida gasped. Hiccup frowned, wondering what Merida appeared to be so happy about. "You just need to train the Red Death. If you do that the other dragons-"
"I can't do that," Hiccup said quickly, interrupting Merida. "Train that thing! That- that's a Queen. Its as ancient as the stones of DunBroch castle, she won't listen to me!" Merida frowned at the boy's outburst, not seeming convinced.
"Don't be so bloody humble about this Haddock," The princess snapped, shooting colour into the Vikings cheeks as she glared at him. "You trained a Night Fury! On a whim! Because you knew you could."
"No. Because I thought I could," Hiccup said heatedly, not enjoying the rising guilt he felt as Merida glared at him. "Toothless and the Red Death are nothing alike."
"How?" Merida bit back.
"Well I can reach Toothless's nose for one thing," Hiccup replied dryly, smirking at the scorching look Merida shot him.
"Hiccup," Merida began; voice sounding muffled as she grinded her teeth together. The twinge of guilt grew in the Vikings chest, but he stubbornly pushed it aside. Merida was looking ready to shout at him as a hot tinge of red grew over her cheeks. "Your being a-" But her words were interrupted by a loud cracking noise. Both Hiccup and Merida looked up quickly as the sound of breaking wood halted their fight. Something appeared to be running blindly towards them, the dim light of the forest distorting the unknown assailant to look like a mass of moving shadows. "Mordu," Merida said blankly, eyes widening with a long forgotten fear as the thing stumbled in the dark, shape still indistinct. Shaking hands searched blindly for her stolen bow, the princess's wide blue eyes still trained on the forest. "Hiccup get behind me," Merida said sharply as her fingertips brushed against cool wood. But in his normal fashion Hiccup completely ignored the order. The Viking scrambled to his feet, stepping protectively in front of the princess still crouched in the grass.
"Toothless!" The boy shouted, watching the black shape stumble again, its movements growing more erratic as it moved towards them. The Night Fury blinked his eyes open sleepily, a mixed expression of annoyance and tired curiosity passing over his scaly features. However the dragon immediately started up when the stinging smell of blood came to his attention. Shaking his head once the Night Fury turned towards the smell, his two humans huddled behind him. The apple girl was on her knees, a bow pointing towards the forest. Hiccup was standing in front of her, his empty hands curled into fists. Toothless growled deeply as the shadow finally stumbled into sight, his teeth unsheathing and a build up of green gas billowing in the back of his throat. But only a deer stumbled out of the woods. The poor animal was panting heavily, his eyes wide as he stared at the dragon. The animal appeared to be shaking, and looked like it had been spooked badly by something. There was a pause as Toothless retracted his teeth to look curiously at the furry animal, but then the deer dashed in a panic down the steep hill. More loud cracking and scraping noises followed the animal as he stumbled ungracefully away from the small party, his long spindly legs shooting out from under him as he slid down the hillside and out of sight.
Merida stared at where the deer had vanished, lowering her bow as she did so. "I'm beginning to hate this forest," Merida said bitterly. Hiccup nodded shakily, and slowly sank back down into the grass. Merida watched him, not liking how pale he was getting. "Hiccup," The princess said soothingly, putting a hand on his shoulder. The Viking was staring blankly in front of him, familiar black spots collecting at the edge of his vision. Taking a deep breath Hiccup moved a trembling hand to cover the one Merida had on his shoulder. "It wasn't her, Hiccup, it's all right." The Viking nodded weakly at her words and pressed his eyes shut for a second, steadying his breathing. He didn't have time for this now. Merida slowly sank into the grass in front of the Viking, still holding her hand reassuringly on the boys relaxing shoulder.
Toothless shot a curious glance over his shoulder at Hiccup. He moved to curl up beside the boy, however the dragon paused as the familiar linger of blood curdled in the air. Narrowing his eyes the Night Fury turned his attention back to the forest, baring his teeth again as he did so. There was still something hunched in the dark watching the Princess and Viking from the dim light.
Behind the growling dragon Hiccup blinked his green eyes open again. They crinkled into a weak smile as they met wide blue irises. "Sorry I was just . . . scared," Merida mirrored the boy's weak smile, as she visibly relaxed, the tension in her hand loosening so it was no longer biting into Hiccups shoulder. "I thought she followed us back from Berk or something."
"And your plan was to fight her?" Merida asked, raising an eyebrow. "You didn't even have a weapon," Hiccup smirked at this, a blush crossing his face.
"Nah, my plan was to push you in front of me and use you as a distraction to make my courageous escape," The Viking joked, calming the Princess nerves even further.
"Oh really? How brave of you. Where were you planning on escaping to? Over the cliff?" The redhead asked, matching the boys joking tone.
"I'm sure I would have thought of something. I mean, when have I ever made questionable decisions in the face of danger?" Merida stifled a giggle at this.
"Does last night with the bandits not count? Because I think there were a couple points where you may have bungled it up a bit." Hiccup snickered at this, running a still shaking hand through his hair. Merida's smile wilted slightly at that, but she knew not to press him any further about it. The princess let go of Hiccups shoulder and fell back into the long grass. Her eyes were stinging from lack of sleep. Rolling onto her side so she was still facing Hiccup Merida propped her head up on her hand, the other ripping absentmindedly at the grass. She was going to have to talk about what Hiccup had said just before he had passed out, but by the looks of things the Viking could not remember it. That, or he was in even more denial than she was. However, before the girl could bring it up, Hiccup spoke, and on a topic equally as troubling.
"So what are we going to do about the Red Death?" Merida bit her lip at the question and darted her eyes to the ground.
"Are you sure you can't train it?" Merida asked, still not looking up.
"Yes. I don't think it's possible. It's a Queen, and they're not overly inclined to do what others tell them." Merida smiled weakly at that, her mind wondering dully over thoughts of home. "I think the only way to free the Berk dragons . . . is to kill the Queen." This finally drew Merida's eyes up to Hiccups. The green had grown cold, his joking demeanour from before lost. Hiccup looked, for the first time, older for his age.
"How are we going to do that? It's just . . . us. We're nothing like the hero's in my books, and I thought you said you couldn't even kill a dragon?" The princess asked shakily. Hiccup frowned, silently agreeing with Merida's words. Anxiety began building in his chest as he flashed back to the Queen rising like a ghost out of the mist of the Dragons Nest. How were they going to kill the Red Death? In its usual annoying fashion the answer made his head buzz with apprehension. You're going to need help.
"We have to go back, don't we?" Hiccup said finally, soft green eyes ice locked with Merida's pale blue ones. "Back to DunBrock. Face our parents and our people. We need help." Merida's colour visibly drained at the prospect.
"But . . . no, w-we can't because-" There was a pause as the princess searched for a reasonable excuse, however it seemed that at last she had run out of them. Sitting up Merida ran a hand through her hair, but kept her staring contest with Hiccup. "You!" She finally said, her voice rising along with her panic. "They'll make you fight in the challenges! And they will want to know about how we got to Berk and- and . . ." She finally found her excuse. "They don't believe us!" Merida shouted, her cry pulling Toothless' attention from the woods to shoot startled yellow eyes at the two humans. "They don't! Not for or in anything we ever say to them." Hiccup glanced nervously at Toothless as he thought the princesses words over. "You know what your dad thinks of dragons. What would he do the second he saw Toothless?" Merida continued, watching Hiccups resolve begin to chip. "What would my dad do? He's not called the Bear King because of his kind nature towards things perceived as monsters." Hiccup flinched at the word, and glanced back at Merida. Slight desperation was entering his eyes. "Not every Scot is like me Hiccup," Merida stressed, "They can't all be convinced by one moonlit flight."
"So we don't take Toothless with us," Hiccup replied, almost defensively. "He stays back and we tell Dad and your Mum what we saw, they'll-"
"How did we get to Berk?" Merida broke in. "How did we escape?"
"We lie!" Hiccup yelled, bitterness flaring in his chest. "We lie. We do it all the time anyway."
"Not this time, not here," Merida replied quickly. "Lying won't get us out of this."
"So what? We just run away?" Hiccup asked in frustration.
"We were going to run away anyway!" The princess snapped, heat rising to her face.
"That wasn't-" But Merida cut him off.
"Yes it was! You know it was. If we had never gone to Berk, never met the Witch or the Red Death, would we have ever gone back home?" There was a pregnant pause as both children sat in the grass, their once pale faces bright red. Toothless had all but forgotten about the bad smell from the woods. His ears were pressed back and he had sunk like a cat into the grass, watching the humans stare at one another.
"No," Hiccup said finally, splintering the silence. "We would have never gone home." Hiccup let the silence breath again for a moment as he stared at Merida. She was shaking slightly. "Then I guess you could say the Red Death is the best thing that ever happened to us," The Viking said at last, watching Merida very carefully. "Because now we have no choice, we can't run from this any longer."
Merida's stubborn expression wilted and she looked down. She had her stolen bow cradled in her lap. What looked to be the Berk crest was carved into the woodwork, along with the sprawling design of a forest and mountains looping its way around the bow. We can't run from it any longer.
Sighing the redhead tossed the bow to the side. It landed with a thud next to the arrows, halfway between the cliff edge and the forest. "Alright," Merida answered, looking back up at the Viking. "We go home." Hiccup gave a small smile. "But I need to talk to you about something Hic. Before we go back." The Viking blinked in surprise but then nodded slowly. Merida's eyes darted to Toothless who was still watching them from the grass. "Alone," Hiccup seemed taken aback at this but nodded again. Standing the Viking walked over to the Dragon, scratching him behind the ears when he reached him. Merida heard Hiccup muttering something about the Night Fury finding himself some breakfast, however she was too busy thinking about what she was going to say to the boy to really hear him properly.
Dully Merida heard Toothless take off. He seemed to circle the forest as if looking for something but soon glided in the direction of a river, leaving the humans alone.
"Hiccup do you remember anything that happened after you woke up back on Berk?" Merida began, as the Viking flopped down beside her. They were sitting at the grassy edge of the cliff, facing the open forest beneath them. Merida had one leg dangling over the edge as Hiccup sat cross-legged beside her, leaning back on his hands. They were in the same spot as the last time they were here, though now they were facing dawn and not dusk.
"Uh feeling tired I guess," Hiccup answered, a slight frown creasing his brow. "Sort of like I was drunk. I remember lying on your shoulder, your hair was tickling me." The Viking smiled at the memory but when he saw Merida bite her lip he stopped. "What? Did I say something bad?" Bright blue eyes turned to stare at him, an unreadable expression clouding their colour.
"You said you loved me." If the situation had not been so awkward, Merida would have laughed at Hiccups reaction. The Viking first went pale then turned red, his mouth opening slightly and his eyes growing as wide as coins.
"I, what!?" Was the sputtered response.
"Loved me. Right before you passed out in Berk. You said it. Don't you remember?" Merida asked, slightly stung the Viking had appeared to have forgotten.
"Yeah well," Hiccup began. "A lot of stuff happened before that, I didn't know what I was saying."
"Oh." Merida did her best not to sound disappointed, but she still felt a blush warming her neck. "So you didn't. . ." She bit the inside of her cheek. Hiccup blinked at the reaction, worry and embarrassment churning painfully.
"What! No no no I uh. . ." The Viking began but his words faded as he looked at Merida. She was appearing more confused then sad now, mirroring his own expression.
"So you did mean it?" Merida asked, not knowing what else to say. A headache was beginning to build as she stared at Hiccup, trying to read him in the same way her mother could read people.
"Well I- I don't know," Hiccup stuttered, wincing as Merida narrowed her eyes.
"How do you not know? You said it," The princess asked in frustration.
"I know I know it's just. . . I've only known you for a week." The Viking darted his eyes to the lilac speckled grass, not wanting to watch Merida's reaction. The princess however only gave a drowsy sigh. Her head was throbbing now.
"I know," She said heavily as she turned to face the sunrise again. Hiccup mirrored her actions, a headache of his own beginning to prickle his temples. "Why did you have to say it?" Merida asked after a moment of silence. "Why? Now we have to talk about it."
"We don't have to." Merida blinked at this and then shot Hiccup a quizzical look.
"What?" She asked, her eyebrows furrowed.
"We could just pretend I didn't say it," Hiccup began, meeting Merida's gaze. "Just until we fix things with the Witch and the Red Death. If we need a back up, until you return the bow to Berk and I'm sure we can think of something after that if we need to." Merida looked tempted for a second, but then she narrowed her eyes.
"I thought we weren't going to run from things anymore?" The girl asked. Hiccups hopeful expression clouded at that. He turned back to the sunrise, rubbing his tired eyes as he did so.
"Oh yeah," The boy mumbled, resting his chin on his hand. "Forgot. So what do we do now?"
"I don't know, this is all rather new for me," Merida mumbled back, sinking into the same position as the Viking beside her. They both sat in silence and watched the frosted sky slowly melt to a warm pink. The sun had just blinked its sleepy eyes open, casting Hiccup and Merida in warm sunlight. Birds began to sing in the forest below them signalling the beginning of another day.
Merida glanced over in the direction of the castle, knowing the inhabitants had just begun to wake up. Sighing the princess slowly got to her feet, rolling her shoulders as she did so. Hiccup watched her out of the corner of his eye when he thought she wasn't looking. The sun was haloing her body in early morning light, outlining her shape in pale yellow. "We should get back to the castle before they begin to panic about us not being there," Merida said, a knowing smile brimming her lips. "Come on." She extended her hand to him, ready to help him up.
Hiccup hesitated for a moment. This handhold felt different than before, as he only now realized how intimate the action was. Her fingernails still had dirt trapped underneath them from the time they met in the forest. Slowly, a cold calloused hand slid into a warm wind chapped one, the motion as soothing as ice to a burn. Merida pulled the gangly Viking to his feet, the movement bringing him slightly closer then the girl had expected. The pair watched each other for a moment, an excited buzz built between them. Merida smiled first, her ice blue eyes crinkling. "I'm glad it was you," She said softly, her fingers still knotted with his. Hiccup echoed her grin, as the excitement built to a pitch in his chest.
Hiccup opened his mouth to reply to Merida, but a sudden new smell stopped him. Slowly the smile fell from the Vikings lips at the stink of salt and blood curdled in the air. "What the-" Hiccup mumbled, brow furrowing. Merida smelt it too, the blush on her cheeks dying.
"Is there something dead around here?" The princess pressed her free hand to her mouth, her nose wrinkling.
"Merida," Hiccup said shakily, eyes fixed on the forest behind her. His face had chalked and his fingers were biting into the redhead's wrist. "Merida where is your bow?" Spiders ran up the princess's spine as she just realized how empty her back was.
"In the grass," The girl whispered, chills running over her arms at the sudden sensation of eyes on the back of her neck. Slowly she turned, sweaty fingers clenching Hiccups hand. The grip tightened painfully as she finally saw just what the Viking had been staring at.
Notes: Sorry that took so long, but this was a surprisingly difficult chapter to write because it is the first time they are being openly intimate with one another. I did the best I could with the talents I have, let me know what you think. As always thank you for reading.