AN: Here's another exciting one for y'all. I hope you enjoy it! Lot's of war stuff and feels.

Music: "Learn Me Right" by Birdy, Mumford & Sons (from Brave)

NOTES!: "This is for you. I'm setting you free."

Chapter 21: Learn Me Right

She was surrounded by blues flames, a hundred tiny voices whispering to her and calling to her. A sharp wind made the fires flicker and dim a she turned to the source, finding Jack commanding the winds and ice in valiant battle. The winds faded and warm light flooded the area, bringing her gaze to the side again. Rapunzel stood amongst flourishing trees and flowers, the sun shining brightly behind her as it slowly moved down towards the horizon. The warmed, but cast long shadows as it dipped to a late afternoon position. Rapunzel's gaze shifted to something behind her, and she followed the Sun Princess's gaze.

She turned around and was surprised to see the Lake outside of Hogwarts by the old rope swing they used to visit. She was back in time during their second year it was their first time there. She was standing next to Rapunzel and they were watching the boys. She saw Hiccup with a full, bright smile on his face, his form silhouetted in the sparkling gold light that reflected off the lake. His eyes were the brightest green she'd ever seen, it was almost inhuman.

Then, just like it had on that day so long ago, her vision changed. She Saw Hiccup standing in the middle of fire and darkness. He was pale; bruises, scrapes, and bleeding cuts and gashes littered his body. There was screaming and pain.

The vision continued further than the last time as he dropped to his knees, curling in on himself as the shadows closed in. She reached for him, but she couldn't move no matter how hard she tried. The shadows lunged towards him, threatening to overtake him. A soft, white light created a small dome in his place, and the shadows circled all around it and over it, but could not touch it.

Finally a light broke through the darkness in the distance. A pinprick of light that was steadily grew bigger and bigger. The shadows and darkness were chased away, but the light and Hiccup were nowhere to be found.

She looked up towards the light, trying to see through the golden glow, and she could just barely make out the silhouette of a person standing at the center...

Merida gasped as she started awake. She sat up in her bunk, rubbing at her pounding forehead. Her vision was fresh in her mind, as well as the feelings it brought up, but mostly she was just left with a heavy confusion. Calming her breathing as best she could, Merida sighed heavily as she rubbed the back of her neck.

"What are you trying to tell me, Lady Fate?"

Merida walked along the muddy, snow-cleared path to the main tent of their encampment. Her boots, leggings, and even the edges of her tea-length riding skirt were wet and smeared with mud from her ride with Angus. She passed by rows and rows of tents; the soldiers resting by small fire-pits and talking, some cleaning equipment, some tending to the animals, and others still on patrol or helping in the everyday chores.

In the weeks since they made it to the Inland Sea, the battalion had settled in quickly and efficiently. After the first two weeks, the camp was set up and fully operational, which allowed the troops more downtime in between shifts. Despite keeping up double lookouts spread out along the coast and all around their camp, there had been no sign at all of Pitch or his forces. Actually, since they'd cornered him at the lighthouse months ago now, Merida wasn't sure anyone had seen much of Pitch himself at all. She certainly hadn't heard any reports. It made her wonder what exactly the shadow man was up to.

Merida reached the largest tent and stepped inside. Sandy and Lord MacGuffin were at the table, looking over the map of the coast with the markers indicating their men set out on it. They looked up and Sandy nodded to her while Lord MacGuffin bowed respectfully as she joined them.

"How goes the patrols, your Highness?" Lord MacGuffin inquired.

"Not a twig out of place." Merida replied, crossing her arms and pursing her lips.

"Hehehe, you're getting restless, lassy." MacGuffin chuckled, shaking his head at her in his amusement, and she shrugged.

"I started helping with patrols to try and use up some energy, but even that isn't helping anymore." Merida admitted. "I wish there was something we could do."

"War can be that way. Lots of waiting. But we must be patient." He assured her, and Sandy nodded in agreement.

"I understand." Merida sighed, but then looked to Sandy. "What about the news from Hogwarts? The scout said there was something urgent."

Sandy frowned as he reached for a scroll resting on the table beside him. He handed it to her, and Merida gave him another glance before opening the scroll and reading the content.

"The Dragon Rider is still at large. Jack and the others didn't find him then?" Merida asked, looking at Sandy first and then MacGuffin.

"They did, but he slipped away again. They're not sure where he'll go next, so we've been ordered to keep an eye out." MacGuffin supplied and Sandy stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"Should we be worried about an attack?" Merida wanted to know.

Sandy shrugged, and letters appeared above his head. "It's always a possibility."

They all turned when the heard the tent flaps being thrown aside. Jim Hawkins stood before them, panting slightly. Tadashi's team had returned just a day before from assisting Viggo's fleet, but despite Merida suggesting they take a day to rest, they insisted on being placed back onto patrols as quickly as possible. Knowing the Jim was assigned to patrol with Tadashi for the second shift, Merida's heartbeat started to quicken.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"We spotted a fleet a few miles off of the seastacks." Jim reported. "Tadashi and Gogo are scouting for more details, but it looks like at least twelve ships are heading straight for us. They'll be here before sunset."

"Spread the word to the others. We need to fortify our defenses and gather the men." MacGuffin ordered calmly as he took long strides towards the tent entrance. "An attack from the sea will require heavy aerial assistance."

"Sandy and I will take care of that. You should stay here and lead the defense." Merida suggested with Sandy nodding in agreement with her strategy.

"Understood. Hawkins, see about contacting your patrol companions. See if they've gathered any more intelligence." MacGuffin added.

"Yes, sir!" Jim gave a salute before running off to carry out the order.

"Looks like you're finally getting that excitement you were lookin' for." MacGuffin remarked as he, Sandy, and Merida marched into camp to perform their respective duties.

"Yeah, lucky us." Merida replied dryly.

Things hadn't exactly been going smoothly since Hiccup came back to the Allied Kingdoms. His initial mission to return the teens from Berk went perfectly fine for the most part, and Hiccup admitted that it had felt a bit strange that everything turned out so easily. Then, of course, things started getting out of hand.

First his visions of Emma dying made him hesitate leaving so quickly, and he decided to take a look around to see if he could find the young girl. After a week of searching, he found the hospital she'd been transferred to as well as Bluewhistle. An adolescent Dramillion that had been captured by the Dragon Hunters. He'd been brought to Hogwarts and apparently Emma had befriended him. Unable to save her from being captured during their attempted escape, the dragon just followed her. Not too surprising; the Dramillions were very good tracker dragons with the ability to camouflage. Following Emma as she was taken from Hogwarts to the asylum would've been fairly easy. After conversing with the Dramillion and promising him that they were there to free Emma, Hiccup took a day to watch the hospital and figure out the best way to extract Emma while hurting the least amount of people.

Said extraction did go pretty well, a few more guards and doctors were injured than strictly necessary, but after seeing the inside of the asylum, Hiccup didn't much care. Once they had Emma, they fled into the clouds. Hiccup's immediate instinct was to get them all out of the Allied Kingdom's territories and back to Dragon's Edge as soon as possible.

That didn't happen.

Instead they were ambushed by a gaggle of Pitch's nightmares out by the coast, which alerted Viggo Grimborn of all people to their presence. Hiccup ordered Emma, who was still feeling weak from her time at the asylum, to hide and stay safe while he tried to break through the wall of forces preventing them from leaving. That didn't happen though because the Guardians then showed up! Because of course they would!

With Toothless's injury and Emma struggling to remain conscious at times, they were forced to go south and stay low until they healed. They were lucky that Emma had apparently made another friend while at Hogwarts because a troll assassin by the name of Angor Rot came to find them. He lead them to the crystal caverns, saying they would be safe there for a day or two. When Hiccup inquired why he was helping, he simply shrugged and remarked that he owed Emma a debt, though he stayed with their group willingly.

The Guardians second appearance was expected, but not great. Hiccup was still shocked by the outcome of his meeting with Jack, and the little fire of hope still burned in his chest. Hiccup would catch himself dwelling on possibilities occasionally and he would either temper it or shove it aside entirely to remind himself that they were still in some pretty deep shit at the moment.

After leaving the crystal caverns, they decided to slowly travel back up the coast to see if they could sneak past anymore unexpected battles. The results were less than pleasant as Hiccup realized Pitch was purposefully using his forces to keep them from going north again. The Nightmares would only engage them if they tried to cross a specific line, and the fight would draw the attention of anyone nearby, bringing the Allied forces within minutes.

Hiccup had a sinking suspicion he knew exactly what Pitch was trying to do, but Hiccup refused to play his game.

They considered going west to see if they could find a place where Pitch's forces thinned out more, but flying out to sea in the wide open with so many dragons would be just as dangerous for them. Not to mention, despite Angor Rot's heavy cloak, he still had limited movement due to his inability to go into direct sunlight. Eventually, Hiccup was forced to make the decision, and he figured the best way to get them all out would be to take advantage of Allied Kingdom controlled space.

That's how he ended up peering down at the Allied Kingdom encampment through his mini telescope, taking note of the double patrols and overwhelming amount of numbers they had.

The Inland Sea and connected trade route was still under their complete control, and Hiccup hoped that under the cover of nightfall, they could fly along the trade route and use the Allied Kingdoms' forces to scare off Pitch's. It wasn't a great plan, but it was the best they had under the circumstances, and Hiccup was somewhat confident that if they flew high enough, the sentries wouldn't notice them through the clouds.

"The ones on broomsticks could be trouble." Toothless rumbled beside him.

"In this weather? I doubt they'd risk their flyers in night patrols." Hiccup replied with a more positive tone, but Toothless just gave a rumble of skepticism. Hiccup was about to reply when he was distracted by movement in the camp. "Uh-oh..."

"What does 'uh-oh' mean?" Emma hissed from where she was standing beside Angor Rot at the foot of the steep hill they were on.

"They're mobilizing." Hiccup told them after jumping down from the top of the ravine. He landed between them and gave them both a grim look as Toothless jumped down to Emma's other side.

"A battle?" Angor Rot questioned.

"Most likely. One of the flyers came tearing in from patrol just a few minutes ago." Hiccup nodded. "The worst part is we have no way of knowing if this attack is because Pitch knows we're here, or if they've been planning it for a while."

"Merida was sent to this position to defend the Inland Sea against an attack that the scouts were predicting." Emma offered. "But in all honesty, it could be both."

"Well, that doesn't make me feel any better." Hiccup muttered, scratching the back of his head.

"So, we wait until the battle is over." Angor Rot shrugged and went back over to their small camp to sit down again. Apparently he didn't have the same moral dilemma that Hiccup was feeling.

Emma looked up at him for a moment, but then turned and followed Angor back towards all the other dragons. Toothless lumbered over and nudged his shoulder.

"He's right, you know. We have to get our pack to safety, which means we can't risk exposing ourselves to help them." Toothless pointed out.

"But Merida is down there. Tadashi and the others!... What if this attack is our fault? My fault?" Hiccup returned silently as he looked at his twin-flame.

"If it were just the two of us, I would let you make the choice. But the rest of the pack is depending on us. Emma is in no condition to fight." Toothless reminded him. "If we join this fight, there may not be another chance to escape."

Hiccup looked back at all the others. He knew Toothless was right, and that his responsibility was to the pack, but part of him still wondered if this was the right choice. He looked back at Toothless, sharing his feelings, and the Night Fury tilted his head thoughtfully.

They'd just have to wait and see what happened.

It all happened so fast.

Merida wasn't exactly new to battlefields at this point, and the initial first shock of war had long since faded in the past half-year they'd been fighting, but this battle was like a blizzard in the harshest parts of winter.

Merida watched from her place beside Sandman as the ships drew closer, a massive wave of dark sand rose up from them and rushed forward. Sandy nodded, and Merida gave the call to charge. Their opposing air forces clashed and suddenly they were all thrust into a sky full of gnashing teeth, furious howls, deadly explosions and spells. Occasionally blood would fly, or Merida would see one of their own fall from the sky, unconscious, just to be swept up by the few medics they had to catch injured flyers.

Merida had to shake herself back into focus after witnessing a particularly nasty fall that had the man's broom flying off in the opposite direction. A medic caught him just as a nightmare whizzed by Merida's head, snapping at her curls. Merida rolled to avoid it and took off like a shot.

Guiding her broom with her knees, Merida drew up her bow and shot two arrows at two oncoming Nightmares, striking one in the chest and the other in the forehead. Both shattered away, and Merida grabbed hold of her broom again, ducking just in time to avoid a Nightmare charging her on her right and dropping into a spinning dive. She managed to get control of herself and pulled to a stop for a moment, but just as she settled someone called out to her.

"Merida, lookout!" Gogo zipped passed her, taking out another Nightmare that had been charging at her back. Merida looked up at the speedy flyer and gave her a nod of thanks before they both circled back around to rejoin the fray.

For every Nightmare destroyed it felt as though two more appeared in it's place, despite the fact that Sandy was reclaiming the dreamsand and adding it into his cloud towards the center of the battle. Merida wondered how on earth there could be so many Nightmares in one place when Pitch Black wasn't even there. If he was, Sandy would've sensed him and signaled to them by now. They'd obviously found a better way of mass-producing Nightmares, likely gifted to them by the amount of fear drummed up by the Dark Plague and the Dragon Rider rumors.

Shoving her thoughts to the side, Merida forged her way to where Sandy was twisting and turning on his clouds, whips flying to purify as many Nightmares as he possibly could. She circled around his position twice, helping to fend off an onslaught of attacks before drawing to a stop as close as she could get.

"There's too many! We should fall back into the range of the archers!" Merida suggested, and Sandy took out two more Nightmares before turning to her and nodding in agreement.

Gathering up all of his sand, Sandy sent out a shock-wave all around them, knocking away all the shadows and Nightmares. Taking advantage of the lull in the fighting, Merida motioned to the others and called for them to fall back. The response was almost immediate as all of their flyers began to retreat, but just as they were starting to head back towards their first line of defense at the encampment, several of the ships below drew in the shadows as dark portals opened on the decks. Out of the portals came herds and herds of more Nightmares, flooding the sky and cutting off their retreat.

Merida stared in horror as they were surrounded on all sides by the Nightmares they'd already been fighting, as well as a fresh wave of reinforcements for the enemy. There were shouts and screams as the flyers clashed into battle once again, overwhelmed by the sheer numbers that they faced. Merida rushed forward, desperate to help her comrades as the Nightmares went into an all-out frenzy.

She started strong, catching two Nightmares by surprise as she launched into the fray, but she almost instantly took a scratch to her arm. Merida twisted, raising her bow and muttering the words to ignite her three knocked arrows. She let them fly and they exploded, taking out three and injuring another. Another Nightmare charged at her, biting down on her good arm, and Merida whacked it with her bow. The Nightmare dropped her arm, and Merida kicked it in the face, causing it to yelp and whine as it fell away from her, but Merida drew another arrow and shot the beast before it could get away.

Her blood was boiling, and there was a ringing in her ear... No, more of a shrieking noise...

"DRAGON!" Someone screamed, but before Merida could turn to look, she saw a group of five galloping Nightmares explode with a blinding burst of blue fire. A slim, black dragon shot passed in the next heartbeat, circling around for another pass. Everyone scrambled, terrified and unsure of what this dragon was doing here and what it was going to do, but the Nightmares kept up their attack.

Merida shot a spell to shatter another Nightmare as it charged at her, and then she turned just in time to see the dragon's second pass.

Sandy was being overrun by Nightmares, his cloud slowly shrinking as the monsters surrounded him and took bites out of it. The dragon gave a shrieking roar, swooping upwards but then curling down at the last second as it's rider leaped from it's back. The dragon fired two more blasts, taking out several of the Nightmares, and it's rider brandished a flaming sword that cut through at least three Nightmares before he began to plummet towards the sea. The dragon swooped down then, catching the mysterious rider and the two took off again for yet another circle around.

Merida's eyes were fixed on them, her mind not comprehending exactly what she'd just seen. Her moment of distraction costed her, however. A Nightmare reared right next to her, startling Merida out of her thoughts. Hooves came down at her and without thinking, Merida shot a spell that caused the Nightmare to explode, but also sent her flying backwards and off of her broom.

Someone screamed. It might have been her, but Merida was more focused on trying to think of a way to save herself as she plummeted towards the ocean below. All of the medics were swept in the fight, to busy trying to protect themselves, and Sandy was still blocked off by at least seven Nightmares. Merida twisted, looking up towards the battle. The sun blinded her a bit, but she spotted a black dot growing very large very quickly.

The dragon was diving at her.

Merida felt panic rise up in her throat, but her mind questioned it. Unsure of what to think, Merida kept flailing. The rider crouched on the back of his dragon and then pushed himself forward into the air, getting even closer to her and slowly closing the distance. He reached out an arm to her, but Merida just stared up at him. He was outlined in golden light.

"You have to trust me!" He yelled over the wind that was roaring in their ears.

Merida searched his green eyes, trying to figure out why she hesitated in both ways. Part of her was terrified, and the other part hopeful. But he looked almost desperate as the seconds continued to tick by. Finally, he reached up and threw off his helmet. It went flying upwards, but his dragon managed to catch it in his mouth as the rider turned his eyes back to her. The air left her lungs and everything went silent except for the roaring wind in her ears.

Hiccup looked down at her, reaching his arm out to her.

"Trust me." His tone was soft, Merida wondered if she'd actually heard it over the wind.

Merida was frozen for at least two more heartbeats, but then her arm shot forward and she grabbed his forearm.

"Hold on." Hiccup said into her ear as he yanked her to him and hugged her close. She didn't need to be told twice and kept her arms locked around his neck as tight as she could without hurting him.

She saw over his shoulder as the black dragon dove to the side of them, lining up perfectly besides them. He looked at her, and then opened his mouth with a wide smile, his tongue flapping in the wind. Before she could react, Hiccup twisted them around mid-air so he was facing the dragon. He grabbed onto something and pulled them both closer to the dragon. Merida curled in tighter, hoping she was making things easier for them, but then her heart and stomach switched places as the dragon snapped his wings out and they all went rushing upwards.

Later she would swear she didn't scream, but there was a massive rush just before the dragon swooped into a more steady glide just above the water. Merida opened her eyes and gasped, seeing water spray out underneath them as they raced along the waters surface. Her eyes snapped back up to Hiccup, but found he'd replaced his helmet at some point during all of that.

"That was amazing!" Merida shouted in her excitement, her eyes trying to take in everything at once. She was riding side saddle in front of Hiccup, who kept one arm on her back for support.

"Glad you think so." Hiccup chuckled.

"How -? What even -?!" Merida wasn't even sure what questions to ask, but her eyes just kept going back to Hiccup's green eyes behind the helmet. "You're Alive!" She beamed at him, grabbing both sides of his head in her hands in her excitement.

"For now, yeah. But I've got a feeling it won't stay that way long if I get caught." He pointed out, and Merida paused in her response, letting him go. There was nothing she could say. He was right. At the very least he'd be arrested.

"Then we'll just have to make sure you don't get caught." She finally sniffed, straightening up more so she could look around the battlefield and assess their situation.

"Thanks, but the last thing I want is you committing treason for my sake." Hiccup placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. "Your team seems to be winning now, so I'm gonna drop you off and then get out of here as fast as I can."

"Neither side will let you cross the border to go north." Merida warned him.

"I know." Hiccup replied. "But I managed to distract you all long enough to get the others through. Toothless and I can manage."

"His name is 'Toothless'?" Merida snorted her laughter, peeking down at the slim dragon as she remembered his gummy smile.

"Yeah..." Hiccup confirmed, but he trailed off. When he looked at her again, it was with shame. "Merida, I know there's not much time, but... I'm sorry."

"I don't know what for." Merida cut him off, giving him a nudge with her shoulder. "You saved my life, and now I know you're still alive. It's a pretty good day in my opinion."

"Merida." He gave her a look that told her to stop kidding around, so she leveled him with her own determined look.

"There's nothing to forgive. There's a lot of explaining you need to do. But there's nothing to forgive." Merida told him, resting one of her hands over his. "I'm a Seer, remember? Destiny is funny, and I won't be mad at you because it took you down a different path."

She heard him swallow hard as he turned back to watch where they were flying, though Merida had a suspicion he didn't necessarily need to. She just gave him another friendly nudge and decided to let him process it in his own time.

"Merida," He said, and she looked back at him once more. "One day, I promise, I'll tell you the truth."

"I look forward to it." Merida replied. With that, they both looked forward as Toothless angled directly towards the battling ships below.

"You okay making a bit of a jump?" Hiccup asked, and Merida grinned at him.

"Do you even need to ask?" She quipped back at him for the fun of it, and he rolled his eyes.

"Get ready. This is gonna happen fast." He told her.

Merida shifted as Hiccup directed, bracing her feet on one side of the saddle. As they drew up between the enemy ships, flying fast and low, Merida dropped down. Toothless caught her in his front paws, glancing down to make sure she was okay, and then he pulled up just in time to pass over the deck of one of the Allied ships. Merida dropped, taking a few running steps to slow herself as the wind swirling all around her.

She snapped around, shoving her curls out of her face as she looked up to watch the pair fly off towards the south, the setting sun painting the sky with brilliant colors. Behind them, Sandy and the other flyers were overcoming the last of the aerial forces, and the Monkey King was screaming at the ships to fall back.

Merida's cheeks hurt from how wide she was smiling.