CH3

The bed she was laying in was as a soft as a stone floor. Merida, lying on her back, carefully rubbed her hand on the wood she was laying on. She considered maybe she'd fallen asleep on a boat, on her way home.

The princess was partly right: like how she felt only part of her left leg. Sitting up, Merida ran a hand down her leg; the first weird part was the pants she wore weren't satiny. The second was she was wearing pants.

When Merida put a hand on the wooden stub and felt the metal foot-thing at the end. She put a hand over her mouth to cover a shriek. The princess realized her insane dream was still real and she was still wearing the wrong skin.

And now she was in the wrong ship, or at least a ship Merida had never seen before and that wasn't a good start. Before she could properly freak out, Merida heard the door creak open. The archer grabbed the blanket from her side, and lay back down to pretend to sleep.

The twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, creeped in as quietly as they could, closing the door behind them.

"He still sleeping?" Tuffnut whispered.

Merida felt a finger jam into Hiccup's shoulder. She didn't move; the trapped girl didn't know these people she waited to see if they were friends or fiends.

Ruffnut grinned and told her brother, "Yep, unless you want me to ask."

Taking the bowl of water from behind his back and walked to the table next to Hiccup's resting place.

Gently taking his arm, Ruffnut carefully lifted it and placed it in the bowl.

Biting her fist to keep the laughing down, Ruffnut heard her brother say. "We should sneak into rooms more often."

Okay, not friends; Merida thought, then with the hand in the water she grabbed bowl, sat up and threw the water in Tuffnut's face.

Even with their plan spoiled, it was an interesting surprise to the tall girl. "Well someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed."

On deck, the other teens, their dragons and Fishlegs' uncle Crackpot were seeing Berk coming to view.

Astrid and Fishlegs were leaning against the ship's side. Snotlout was twiddling a stick to be a sharper stick.

"Is something missing?" Fishlegs asked because things seemed too quiet on board.

He was answered by seeing the door to the lower deck open and Tuffnut being thrown onto his back.

The others looked over at him but not excitedly.

"Couldn't you find a place for Ruffnut to kick your butt where unconscious people aren't sleeping?" Astrid asked, annoyed that the twins went into Hiccup's room.

"He's conscious. And I think Loki's got in him." Tuffnut rubbed his bruising right cheek.

Snotlout was impressed by the color of the smack. "Whoa, your sister's getting the better of you. Weak, man."

The long haired boy said, "Like hellheim, and this wasn't her it was-"

From the same door, Ruffnut and Hiccup came out holding on each other's shirts and using their right hooks to smack each other.

The others didn't take seeing Hiccup smack a girl weird; they took him smacking anyone out of this world.

"You gammy little-" in the light of day, that wasn't available in the lower deck, the girl 'Hiccup' saw was- shockingly enough- a girl!

"-girl?" in his shock, he let Ruffnut smack him hard in the shoulder. Deciding to support equal treatment, Hiccup pulled the long-horned helmet down- not for blinding Ruffnut, more to let her brain spin. Hiccup beat on the helmet enough time to disorientate her; the helmet was starting to squeeze around her forehead, so when Ruffnut reached out to grab or punch she met only air. She didn't know Hiccup was behind her, but she figured it out when he kicked her down with his shoe-wearing foot.

Hiccup watched the girl rub her back, the fight out of her. "Okay, you win."

Never before had Hiccup (actually Merida) seen another girl in a fight before. Queen Eleanor didn't count because she wasn't a human woman at the time of her great battle.

Both the twins were rubbing their wounds, leaving Hiccup the victor and the center of some wide eyes.

Hiccup looked at the faces staring at him; they were Vikings but remembering Hiccup was a Viking, Merida decided these were friends.

"Umm….hey?" Hiccup waved a little hand to the other three.

They turned their back to him and huddled.

"What do you think it is this time?" Snotlout asked, hoping it was something he could adapt and be cooler at.

"What's bigger than a dragon? Uhh, a unicorn? A griffin?" Fishlegs wondered to the other; not particularly interested in new animals.

"What's a unicorn?" Snotlout asked, imagining a cob of corn…then feeling hungry, wondering what was waiting at home.

"It's a majestic animal that like poking eyes out and outrunning others." Fishlegs explained; thinking of its picture…yeah, nowhere near as cute as Meatlug.

Snotlout nodded, then put on an alluring smile. "Oh, like Astrid."

Rolling her eyes for the fifteenth time that day, the blonde turned to Hiccup; her eyes suspicious but underneath concerned.

"Hiccup, are you feeling alright?" Astrid walked up closer than he'd anticipate her to be.

Hiccup's eyes went up and down her body: not for its shape, but for the decorations and style.

"Fetching outfit ya got there! I didn't know girls could dress so braw!" Hiccup told her sincerely. Astrid wanted to accept the compliment but she could see the boy's eyes were on her boots, not her.

"You've really lost it this time, haven't you?" Astrid didn't ask so much; it was more of a challenge to be told she was wrong.

"Ouw, now that's a bit of alright." Hiccup fast-walked to the large sword behind Snotlout. It was just leaning against the ship, but Hiccup hadn't seen such a heavy, well-crafted piece of steal ever before.

He was about to hold the handle when a big, red, spiky tail took it out of sight. Following the path of the sword, he saw the tail connected to the huge, black spiked, and red body of Hookfang. The dragon's eyes were bored, and unthreatening; meeting the little black dragon earlier had taken the shock away from him, but Hiccup still wasn't use to huge reptiles with mouths bigger than his torso.

"Whoa, big boy aren't cha?" Hiccup walked backwards from the beast, continuing to confuse the others even further.

Hiccup turned his head over his shoulder to ask, "What do ya feed him? Fifty villagers a week?"

That little comment got a roar that would've knocked the boy over, if the Nightmare's rider weren't rubbing his back neck.

"How dare you sir! He's in the best shape of his life! " Snotlout cooed his dragon, who tried to act like he didn't like it.

Remembering that dragons were pets with these people, Hiccup went along with it. "Alright, don't bite me head off."

Taking a minute to soak in more than the warrior girls, cool weapons and the one huge red dragon, Hiccup noticed the ship was covered with the fire-breathing reptiles. Each had a unique shape, color pattern, face, and wing ratio; and all in all they were just….

"Beautiful…" Hiccup whispered, deep in the rapture of the sight of them.

Tuffnut had popped his shoulder back into place, and then stomped toward Astrid and Fishleggs.

"Yeah, that is not Hiccup! (Pointing at Hiccup, then louder) You're not Hiccup!" Tuffnut said louder.

Considering how weird was too old a word and had lost it's meaning, Fishleggs considered out-loud. "We could've picked up someone just similar looking…."

Toothless had woken up from his glee of paralyzingly nice scratches and went to his rider. Hiccup jumped a little when the dragon rubbed his elbow, but after a look into the creature's face, he was more welcoming. It wasn't as cozy as their friendship usually was but it was friendly enough to pacify the dragon.

Another unexpected nudge on the shoulder, Hiccup turned around to the blonde with the cool outfit.

"Who do you think you are?" the girl asked; not loving having to be reassured like this.

Looking at the Astrid's serious face, with just the tiniest hint of concern behind the eyes, Hiccup saw he needed to explain things. Telling the truth was one option; the worst they could assume was he was insane. Also, they could want their real Hiccup back and the Merida inside Hiccup wouldn't get the fun of living as a real warrior for a month…a month off of Princess duties, learning etiquette in turn for playing with swords and girls who like to battle; not to mention tall boys with thick muscles and no rules.

With a proud yet sad face, Hiccup told the Berk teenagers: "I know my name is Hiccup, I'm very attached to my dragon Toothy-"

Noogies the dragon's flat face while Astrid correct him with, "Tooth-less!"

Waves a hand off, "Close enough, I've got Father issues I'm working through- which have nothing to do with being 4.7 in a tribe of brawny Vikings- something that doesn't stop being funny-, "

The males nodded in agreement, then Hiccup let go of the pride a bit and said, "That's all I remember before I was hit by the potato."

Hiccup made his eyes go all wide and pathetic, "I don't remember anything else…"

Hiccup pouted, Toothless nudged his chest while Fishleggs snapped his fingers.

"I get it! The potato to the head gave you amnesia!"

"I could go for some amnesia; that stuff's the drink of the god's." Sntolout complained from the back. Ruffnut had her cracked helmet off as she rubbed her head.

"That's ambrosia, thought it causes memory lost so..." Astrid shrugged without care, then put her care went to looking at Hiccup. "Is that all true? Really?"

"Astrid, don't be heartless!" Fishleggs couldn't believe Astrid of all people doubted poor Hiccup's words. "Look at that sincere little face!"

Tuffnut and his sister went to hug Hiccup.

In the embrace of double forgiveness, Hiccup looked around to see everyone bought his little fib.

"I'm so lucky to have friends like you…."

He took a moment of silence in, and then clapped his hands together. "Alright, what's a boy gotta do to get a little fun around here?"

Snotlout and Fishleggs exchanged a look while the twins just smiled.

"He's like moist clay!" Ruffnut told her brother.

Tuffnut put an arm around Hiccup. "Welcome to the first day of the rest of your new life, our little mentee."

Hiccup saw the isle of Berk come into view. More dragons were hovering around the shores, all the people were square shapes of generous gumption and last he checked Vikings lived for pure melee…the little girl inside him resisted a squeal of delight.