Merida sighed as she notched an arrow and sent it flying towards the dragon that her brothers were harassing. She really wanted to see what Hiccup had in mind with his contraption, but her troublesome brothers had other plans.
"Harris, Hubert, and Hamish! Get away from that beast!" Merida sent another arrow flying as she yelled at the boys. They were having to much fun to pay her any attention. Merida let out an exasperated sigh and sent another arrow flying. Why did her brothers have to be so difficult to maintain? She stormed over to her brothers, loosing arrows as she went. She scooped them up into her arm and ran off away from the dragon. She shoved the three boys into a building and went to look for Hiccup after telling her brothers to stay inside. She didn't have to look long before a scream of terror echoed through the village. As she looked up, she noticed that the screamer was Hiccup, and a dragon was chasing him… a rather large one at that. She watched in complete horror as Hiccup was nearly burnt to a crisp. Thankfully a Viking managed to defeat the creature. Merida was about to run out to Hiccup, but a building fell and gave her pause. She slowly worked her way towards Hiccup, and as she got closer she began to realize that Hiccup and the Viking who had saved him were fighting. As Merida reached the two she caught the tail end of the argument.
"Why can't you follow the simplest orders?" The man asked in an exasperated tone, the same one Merida's mother often used with her.
"I can't stop myself. I see a dragon and I have to just... kill it, you know? It's who I am, Dad." Merida was hanging off to the side now. The entire village had gone silent and was listening to this conversation.
"You are many things, Hiccup. But a dragon killer is not one of them." Stoick seemed to have noticed Merida and the rest of the village watching. He turned to Gobber, "Get these two back to the house." He said with a gesture to Merida and Hiccup. Gobber nodded. As the teens were lead away Merida heard Stoick grumble something about cleaning up Hiccup's mess. She noticed Hiccup slump forward a little more. She wanted to reach out and comfort him, but she couldn't. Just then the group of teenagers Merida had asked about earlier emerged from the crowed.
"Quite the performance." The one called Tuffnut said with a smug grin.
"I've never seen anyone mess up that badly. That helped!" Merida was pretty sure this one was Snotlout…
"Thank you, thank you. I was trying, so... I really did hit one…" Hiccup's defence was weak as he shuffled off.
The sun was peaking up over the mountains by the time the trio had reached Hiccup's house. Hiccup had been going on about how he had hit a dragon and Gobber kept making snide remarks, which Hiccup mostly ignored.
"And when he does, it's always with this... disappointed scowl. Like someone skimped on the meat in his sandwich." Hiccup depend his voice as he tried to impersonate his father, "Excuse me, barmaid. I'm afraid you brought me the wrong offspring. I ordered an extra large boy with beefy arms. Extra guts and glory on the side. This here. This is a talking fish bone." Merida stifled a giggle, which Hiccup acknowledged with a halfhearted grin.
"You're thinking about this all wrong. It's not so much what you look like. It's what's inside that he can't stand." Gobber's attempt at sympathy was overlooked by the crude manner in which he had stated the obvious.
"Thank you, for summing that up." Hiccup replied sarcastically as he began to push the door to his house open.
"Look, the point is, stop trying so hard to be something you're not." Merida nodded in agreement with Gobber.
"I just want to be one of you guys." Was all Hiccup said before he went inside. Gobber sighed as he turned around, leading Merida to the house her family was staying in. Merida gave one last look over her shoulder and noticed the shape of a young boy slipping through the trees. Merida smiled to herself as she walked forward.
"I recon this isn't the first time this has happened." Merida attempted as she trudged behind Gobber.
"Wasn't the first, and wont be the last. Hiccup is just not a dragon killer. The sooner he learns that, the longer our buildings will last." Merida thought back to what he had said earlier.
"Maybe he just wants to belong…" She mumble, half to herself.
"What's that?"
"Nothing…" They walked in silence the rest of the way, giving Merida's mind time to wander. She had been drawn to Hiccup, she wasn't sure why, but maybe it was because she sensed a familiarity. In any case, he was sweet. She was intrigued by the way he talked, it was a slurred speech, but cute. It accented his essence. All Merida knew for sure was that she liked him. He was kind, she could tell. So the idea of him being a killer just didn't fit in her mind. But maybe it didn't have to, after all Hiccup was a Viking and he would have expectations.