Here it is, the conclusion to Merida's arc where she finally finds her calling. It's so obvious you'll go "DUH!"

Tales of Your Calling
An upset Merida was finally back at DunBroch but she did not get a heroine's welcome. In fact, she did not think she deserved a welcome at all. So she came back to her homeland very early in the morning when no one could possibly be out waiting for her. Merida rode Angus to the forest where she practices her archery. She just wanted to be alone right now.

Damnit! She thought to herself. Stupid mutant gorilla! Stupid everything!

Merida fired her bow at a branch and the arrow it dead center.

Oh, who am I kidding? I really messed up. Some of my friends' choices would not have been so bad. But I just had to be stubborn to accept some of them.

She really did feel upset that she was too headstrong and impatient when Rapunzel, Elsa, and Hiccup had tried to help her. While she doubted there would be any hard feelings, she felt as if she should have left them on better terms.

Sadly, Eugene showing her the ropes ended in disaster as well. Just because one guy recognized her meant she had to be cut loose? Merida could have altered her appearance. She was even willing to… ugh… cut her hair. THAT'S how desperate she was becoming.

With her chance of being an auxiliary Guardian, she had gotten close to becoming one. The worst part is that, while she had no clue on what an auxiliary Guardian would actually do, she could have enjoyed it. For some reason, she really liked hiding those eggs. But once again, that cursed abominable snowman. Oh— and that stupid Prince Hugo opening his mouth when he did not need to.

Merida calmed herself down by firing another arrow. Once again, her aim was dead on as if she had the eyes of a hawk.

Of course, the worst part was that she felt as if she had failed her mother and herself. Elinor trusted that her daughter could find something to do. Mother was going to be so disappointed who knew what she was going to do when she found about this. And Merida herself was envious of her friends. How could they have found their life callings but she had not yet? Now she was doomed to never find hers.

Looks like I'm never going to be able make my mark in the world.

Angus trotted to Merida and his owner hugged him for comfort.

"Let's practice a few more shots before I have to go home and get an earful," Merida said.

Taking another arrow gingerly from her bag, she aimed her bow at an apple high above a tree. And when she let go….

It's Merida. Of course she managed to use her skills to get the apple down from the tree without ruining it.

A few minutes later, Astrid, riding Stormfly, naturally, came into the forest. She was on a top secret mission and the fate of the world depended on her completing… okay Hiccup simply told her to find Merida and apologize for the fight they had. Apparently, attacking people who insulted your entire way of life is considered bad for some reason. So Astrid was going to simply apologize and head back home. But when she saw Merida looking upset, her loyal, kinder nature took over and she wanted to know how she could help, because in their circle of friends, Astrid had the least screws loose.

"Hey, Merida?" she called. "Are you alright?"

"Oh I'm fine," Merida said in a sarcastic tone.

Well Astrid tried. "Okay then. Bye."

"Wait. Wait," Merida called back. She felt the need to talk to someone so she might as well pour out her feelings to Astrid. "Sorry, I'm just a bit crabby."

"I can see that," Astrid smirked as she hopped off Stormfly. "What's on your mind?"

Merida told her about the entire situation. She explained how her mother wanted her to find something. Merida admitted that her feelings of inadequacy became stronger because she had not found her calling. Finally, she relayed her emotional collapse while talking to Santa.

"He actually exists? Jack was telling the truth?" Astrid pointed out.

Merida let out a bitter laugh, "Yeah. To think, I was denied work by Santa Claus."

Now that she knew the whole story, Astrid could give her infamous "honey and the hatchet" advice.

"Well, in a sense, anything that works for us is not always going to work for you. So yeah, me and our friends are sort of at fault here," Astrid explained.

Merida smiled and Astrid gave a slight smirk. She gave Merida what she wanted to hear. That was the honey part.

Now here comes the hatchet swinging down, "Of course, you could have tried a little bit harder to make it work. I mean, I still have occasional stomach pains from your so called spaghetti-pudding. Did you even read the instructions?"

"I know. I know," Merida sighed in admittance. "It's just that… I didn't want to let my mom or even myself down."

"Merida, I don't think your mother is going to disown you if you don't find something at sixteen."

"But everyone else found their calling just as young," Merida pointed out.

"It wasn't really easy for us. It did take some of us awhile to find our callings. With pain and tragedy thrown in."

Astrid was right. Merida recalled her friends' pasts, or as much as they were comfortable telling her. Rapunzel probably would not be as good of a party planner if she was not taken from her family and forced into isolation which caused her to learn to never take people for granted. Hiccup would not have become a dragon trainer if he was actually good at killing dragons. And Jack would not have been a Guardian if he had not died.

"But I don't want to wait until something BAD happens to me," Merida pointed out.

"My point is that the grass is always greener. And then you find that the greener grass was recently covered in ticks," Astrid explained.

She continued, "If nothing else. You should find something you're good at. What are you good at?"

"Nothing!" Merida yelled as she perfectly fired her bow. "I'm not good at anything."

Astrid raised an eyebrow as she figured that Merida must feel really low right now. "Seriously, nothing?"

"No."

Astrid slightly nodded her head towards Merida's pile of arrows. "Are you sure that there isn't ANYTHING you're good at?"

"No… just no," Merida sighed.

As Merida fired another arrow, Astrid realized how exceptional the redhead was at archery. Everything about Merida's archery was perfect. Shrugging about Merida's answer, Astrid asked to use the bow for a bit. Merida complied because she had no reason not to. Astrid took aim and whereas Merida's bow handling was fantastic, Astrid's was abysmal. The arrow kept moving back and towards the bow. Merida could feel herself in slight pain from Astrid horribly holding a bow. HER bow.

"No no nonono!" Merida said, not taking it anymore. Getting up and walking towards Astrid. "You're holding it all wrong. Let me show you."

So Merida proceeded to teach Astrid how a bow properly. And even how to shoot on. (The way Astrid was aiming, she might had hit Angus instead of a tree.) After a few minutes, Astrid's skills improved.

"Thanks," Astrid said.

"Meh," Merida shrugged.

"I would rather hear you say 'you're welcome', but I'll settle for that."

"Why should I say you're welcome? You're not exactly incompetent with the bow."

Astrid took a step back with her mouth agape.

"Yep, you're not good at being bad with a bow."

"Well… I…" Astrid stammered. Had she been caught?

However, Merida was lost in her rant, "Why would you do that? It doesn't make any lick of sense. Did you want me to teach you how to fire a bow or…"

Merida stopped when realization blew into her like the wind.

"…you," Merida pointed to Astrid. "You… you magnificent, stupid cow!"

"Cow?" Astrid wondered but Merida was too excited and she fired another arrow. This arrow, of freaking course, hits its target. "That's it. That's it! THAT'S IT!"

Happiness was officially back with Merida when she let out a high pitched squeal. Angus and Stormfly winced in annoyance.

Merida plopped down on a fallen log due to being exhausted from joy. Astrid sat next to her.

"Not bad," Merida smirked.

Astrid playfully punched the princess' shoulder, "Not bad yourself."

"Ummm sorry about all those Viking insults."

"Don't worry about it. Sorry for punching you in the face."

"It's the only way I ever learn anything," Merida chuckled. "Come on, I still need your help."

So the two ladies proceeded to head to Castle DunBroch where they would tell Merida's mother EXACTLY what she was going to do.

Three days later, Merida sent out invitations to all her friends and they were able to arrive two day after that.

Walking towards Castle DunBroch, our heroes had no idea what Merida was doing because none of them had heard anything from her for the past few days.

"What do you think she wanted us to know?" Elsa wondered.

"Maybe she's becoming Queen of DunBroch," Anna brightened.

"Maybe she's declaring war on Berk," Hiccup darkened.

"Maybe she died and she came back from the dead," Rapunzel suggested.

That earned all her friends' eyes on her.

"What? It could happen," Rapunzel shrugged. "I mean who knew that Astrid would say that Jack was telling the truth that he knew Santa?"

"Really? Do I give off a liar vibe to you guys?" Jack groaned.

"Of course, not Jack," Anna chuckled. "You give off a CRAZY vibe."

"You have to admit… Santa?" Eugene countered.

"His real name's North, by the way," Jack muttered.

As they continued the philosophy debate of Santa's existence, Merida came up with a wide grin on her face.

"Hey, guys," She greeted.

Rapunzel walked up to her and shook her in joy, "Oh I'm so glad you're not a walking corpse!"

"Wha?"

"Nothing."

"Well what do you want to show us, Red?" Eugene asked.

"Follow me," Merida ordered.

So the gang followed the red-headed princess, each of them full of anticipation. As they were walking up a hill, Merida turned around to say her thoughts.

"As you all know, I've been trying to find my own calling."

"How could we forget? You only poisoned us," Rapunzel pointed out.

"And ran out on us," Elsa muttered.

"And insulted our very way of life," Hiccup concluded.

"Okay, okay," Merida said in annoyance. "I was a bit difficult to work with. But I realized that all those things weren't me. But now I've found something that is. And it's right over this hill."

Our circle of friends quickly walked up the hill to quench their curiosity. When they reached the apex, they could not wait any longer.

At the bottom of the hill was a vacant field littered with targets, sandbags hanging from trees, and bows. Astrid was down there putting the last target in place. Also there was Queen Elinor and several young children.

"I've decided to teach archery!" Merida squealed.

"But I thought the phrase was 'those who can't, teach'" Jack joked.

"No, she's pretty good at both," Astrid vouched as she walked up the hill. "She taught her brothers as practice and they got the hang of it."

"Wait…" Rapunzel said, "You've taught THOSE THREE?"

"Yeah I worry that's going to come back to haunt me as well," Merida laughed.

"We're very happy for you, Merida," Elsa congratulated.

"Yeah," Anna agreed. "Can I get in on these lessons? There's a Southern Isle prince I want to shoot in the…"

As that conversation continued, Hiccup skulked to himself. Astrid took notice.

"What's wrong?"

"She basically just stole our idea after criticizing our teaching skills," Hiccup said, grumpily. "She probably won't even thank us."

"You'd be surprised."

"The day Merida thanks us for something will be the day Toothless loses his wings."

Just then, Merida, who did not hear their squabble, walked up to Hiccup.

"Hiccup?" she asked.

"Yes."

Merida did the unexpected. She lunged at Hiccup and gave the Viking boy a great, big hug. "I got the idea of archery teaching based on your dragon training. So… thank you. And sorry for being mean to you."

Hiccup was left speechless and even his gasps lacked any distinct sound.

"Aren't you gonna say something?" Merida smirked.

"Well… you're welcome and all is forgiven. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to see that no one ripped off Toothless' wings."

Hiccup ran off then as Merida and Astrid laughed. Just then, Elinor came up the hill.

"I'm proud of you, dear," Elinor complimented.

"Thanks, mom," Merida answered. "To be honest, I'd thought you would end not liking this path."

"You're taking the gift you were blessed with and sharing your wisdom to others. How could I not be happy?"

"Not that. I mean when I didn't agree with any of friends' choices."

"Merida, you and your friends are very different people. What works for them would not necessarily work for you."

Merida stared at her mother, though she did mentally laugh to herself since she heard that reasoning a second time.

"Besides," Elinor continued. "There is one thing you can do that your friends can not."

"What's that?"

"Be my loving daughter. Now come here while I gobble you up."

Elinor hugged Merida and made a bunch of exaggerated eating sounds.

"No, mom! Not in front of everyone!" Merida protested. Not that she really cared since she was giggling.

After the loving mother-daughter affection, Merida started her teaching mode, which is just her normal mode except teaching. She sprinted the down the hill to meet her first students.

"Okay little ones," Merida began though she did notice some boys around her own age and wondered they were here. "Time for your first archery lesson."

Despite thinking otherwise, Merida also found her calling at a young age like her friends. She would proceed to teach archery to anyone who wanted to learn it even after she became the reigning queen. It would forever be her passion. It would forever be her gift.

And most importantly, it would forever be her calling.

That's it for Merida's arc. For the next arcs, Rapunzel's and Jack Frost's arcs will run roughly simultaneously with each other. With Rapunzel worrying that she might turn into Mother Gothel and Jack Frost looking for ways to find even more people to believe in him.