Maybe it was him. Not something he did, but who he was. This was the third time somebody he knew vanished in town. Was every girl or woman he knew bound to disappear? Obviously not, Astrid was right that it was pointless wondering what he had to do with this, even though he didn't make anything better in his last exchange with Merida. Nothing had ever happened to Ruff or Astrid, after all (but who or what would try something with them?). It was just two people before Merida. One returned after several years... The other never did.

Still, he couldn't convince himself she could be in any danger. The wild dragons were rarely hostile and were hibernating now, after all. It wasn't fear he felt about the disappearance, but nagging curiosity. If it weren't for that curiosity, maybe it would mean he was just ignoring the issue out of bitterness toward her. He really did want her to be safe and to go home eventually, not only to calm the nerves of everyone in town, but to know what happened. Where does somebody like that go?

Was it a choice, or a mistake? Either way, someone was away from her friends and family in some unfamiliar place.

And he'd walked away.

It was true that it didn't matter what he thought about her. There's no point in anyone being in her situation.
Toothless pulled him out of his thoughts with a low growl of concern.

"You can't just let me feel shitty, can you?"
Toothless grumbled a 'No' back. Fine, then, Hiccup knew just the right place to keep dwelling.

It almost felt wrong to step ahead. He wondered if he was trying to get himself lost too. At least half the trees leaves had dropped, placing a cushion on the forest floor. Along they trudged through the mounds. Toothless, in a decent mood himself, leaped in and out of the biggest piles, blown up against felled trees.

The wind picked up, throwing leaves into the air. Hiccup watched as they swirled with the breeze, then settled about. As the fell out of the air, he spotted something moving behind them. Suddenly feeling he was watched, Hiccup's heart skipped two beats, and made up for them quickly. Whatever he saw was like no living creature he had ever heard of. It had eyes, but it was hard to tell if it had a body. He blinked over and over, waiting for his vision to clear, but the bright, undefined shape remained. It looked as though it was moving, in fact. Balancing in mid-air, waving arms of mist.

"I cannot be seeing this..." He backed away. Toothless groaned and shifted uncomfortably, and any other noise in the forest had muted. Those were good signs to leave, but also begging his curiosity. It idled with a bouncing motion and shushing sounds. Hiccup stepped with as little noise possible, taking slow and deliberate paces toward the odd shape. When there was finally just a few feet between the two, the shape dissipated without a trace. "What?"
Toothless, now behind him, crooned in confusion. There were a few seconds of peace. Then, when Hiccup's eyes drifted further forward, the blue thing was back, just moved ahead. For all he knew it could be a different one, he thought, or the same illusion. Still, he and Toothless stepped further. This shape poofed away like the last, and reappeared to lengthen their path. As wrong as it seemed to follow mysterious lights further from home, the irresistible urge to be near them conquered all natural trepidation. One disappeared after another.

After one vanished by a tree's trunk, Hiccup couldn't see any more. He walked around it, scanning the ground. In every direction, there were only the trees and brush. Toothless even sniffed around, nosing into ferns, wondering what had stopped them.

Suddenly breathing heavily, Hiccup though, 'They float, don't they?', still unsure what 'they' were. Just like the ground, he didn't see them at eye level, higher up, or anywhere at all. He looked up at the tree and saw no blue, but a different odd shape. A rusty red like that of the maple leaves. He circled around for a better view of it, but it didn't look like mist. It wasn't fire, either.

"Oh my god, is -?"

He yelled up at her. "Merida?!"

He didn't see her face, just her arm clutch the tree when she flinched in surprise.

"Merida!" he repeated. "What are you doing here?"

She looked down at him, her face incredulous. "I'm... in a tree."

He shook his head. "I see that, but why?" The reality of the situation was dawning on him as absurd. "Get down here!"

As he waited, she leaned her head against the tree and groaned, visibly giving up. "Fine, then," she called out.

Merida climbed down, once slipping and making him hold his breath. At the bottom, she turned and scowled at him. "What?"

He opened his arms. "This is where you've been?"

"You noticed I was gone."

"Quite a few people have noticed."

She frowned at him, and looked small in the oversized coat she wore. Even with that, her cheeks were beet red in the cold. "I've been gone less than two days."

"Yeah, well, some people are gone for years, if they ever come back."

Her sour expression faltered. It wasn't exactly fair of him to say that. He was wearing terribly close to where she had made a mistake, and she noticed.
"I'm just saying, everyone has been expecting the worst. I think it's about time you go home."
"You think?" she asked. "Well, I'm fine, and you're not taking me back with you. I didn't come out here so you can play hero."

"Hero? I'm..." He ran his hand down his face. "I'm just suggesting a reasonable course of action."

"I'm not a big fan of 'reasonable'..." She folded her arms. The huge sleeves crossed her chest like a shield.

"I could tell."

"-or the half-arsed hero logic you're pretending not to use. Am I the only one that can see how pitiful it is?"

"Do you ever even think of how you affect others?" He shot back. "How you can hurt them?"

Merida scoffed, "What does that have to do with anything?"

"You don't realize, or seem to care, that you're scaring people. Your friends, your family..."

"One friend," she muttered.

"And she's worried sick about you."
"Is that why you're here?"
The implication that Astrid being upset eventually set him in the woods was partially correct, which he elected not to admit.
"I'm here because I like being here. Letting everyone wonder if something happened to you isn't right."

"Nothing I do is right!" she yelled at him.
Hiccup tried to de-escalate the argument. "Look, I didn't say that-"

She stood firmly with fists clenched. "When I screw up volleyball, it's my fault a girl's hurt. If I'm doing poor in classes, I'm stressing my mum out. When an arrow goes astray, I scare you, you rant to your father, who rants to mine, and then my bow is taken away. I understand, yeah, everything I do is inconveniencing everyone, hurting everyone. Even out here, leaving you all be, I'm still causing problems. I thought I could take a wee break from ruining all of your lives, but I suppose I do that no matter what."

While she caught her breath, Hiccup took in what she said with her harsh look. He didn't want to fight with that, or apologize to it. The thought came back to him, how wandering into the forest alone, past the frost date, was out of choice. No reason that had to happen, no matter what he felt. And honestly, he felt terrible. It was obvious she did too.

After several possible replies presented themselves in his mind, he stuck to his previous statement, "You still have to go home."

"Then rat me out! Save the day, get me into more trouble, what does it matter?" Apparently finished dealing with him, she freed her hair from the coat and stomped off deeper into the grove.

For the fervor with which she told him the opposite, she seemed to give up quickly on her plan to stay. Though, the permission to pass on her whereabouts, he knew, wasn't sincere and wouldn't be considered valid explanation if he chose to exercise it. If he told, the game everyone lost at would never end. He walked in her direction.

"One more night. If you're back by tomorrow," he tossed up his hands, "This never happened. If I don't hear from or about you by then… I'm going to talk."

She had turned to listen to him, and thought for a few seconds. "Fine," she said, her casual attitude surprising him.

"Really?"

"I'll be back at eight."

Staying out until it was that dark wouldn't do. "Four," he offered.

"Seven."

"Six."

"Six-fifteen." And there was her obsession with feeling the champion.

Trying not to groan, he said, "Sure. Six-fifteen," but silently kept the time limit at six.

"One more thing," he called, and tossed his cell phone at her as soon as she turned back around. "It's locked, but you can emergency dial. You know, police, Astrid... your parents," he emphasized.

"You trust me with this?" It sounded more like a question of motive than of trust.

"Not really, but I don't want to lead them back to a body."

She put her hands along with the phone back into the coat. "You'll not be leading them anywhere," she said, and left heading north.

Now... now I've reached the chapter I was inspired to do.