"Oh, for Thor's sake..." said Hiccup. "I thought that was just a story..." "Stories come from somewhere," said the witch. "The past haunts the present in more ways than we realise."

~How to Break A Dragon's Heart

~O~

Forbidden Friendship Part I

~O~

Merida rode through the barracks, the wind wrestling her hair as Angus galloped towards huge stalwarts spearing up from the ground. She looked harder the moment she noticed it. Weren't those the same rocks she encountered last night? She held up the reins, causing the dark, gray steed to reel back.

The rustling ether was different. Besides, it was daytime. The birds were out of their nests singing away, the rabbits scuttled in the bushes and absolutely nothing suspicious seemed to crawl in skeptical movement. She didn't know any other way to ride deeper. Merida gave a jolt to the reins. So off they went.

A little deeper than what people might have gone through, "This seems far enough." Merida said as she skidded Angus to a stop. The suitors would have started looking for her around this time. The rules allowed her to only remain in the Far East, somewhere in Gairn Loch. She dismounted and decided to walk on from there to stretch her legs.

Tucked in foothills and blanketed by trees, it was hard to see almost anything. As she walked beneath the forested canopy, she drew a sharp breath. The air around her was so still she realized she entered a field of unnatural silence. Angus seemed to sense this as he whinnied his anxiety with a toss of his mane. Gripping his rein a bit more tightly, she made his whines die down, and listened.

Something terrible seemed to wander here. Otherwise, nothing would have been so still. Merida could feel the weight of the low, swollen clouds burdening her back. She began to reach for her quiver. The sound of her drawing an arrow to her bow was so blasphemously loud it made her jump.

She decided to quell her anxiety by shooting at particularly anything. She spotted an apple, about as tiny as your thumb when you look at it from her distance. Carefully, she drew her arrow all the way to her cheek…

Hiccup fought the urge to look down. He was already up very high on a tall cliff hundreds of feet above a magnificent sweep of a gorge, where Toothless lay sleeping. He was only kept from falling by the grasp of his elbow on the vines that slithered around the sheer piece of black shining rocks.

The ground underneath his left foot [1] crumbled when he stepped on it. There was a scrabbling of rocks ousting from the cliff as Hiccup perilously clung on the shrubs around him. Luckily, he grabbed them just in time to hoist himself up and onto the forest floor. Doing things without Toothless sure seemed difficult. He wiped his vest and looked at where he had gotten himself.

He could've sworn this was where he got off his dragon in the first place. He was desperate because that helmet was one of the only things he had left of his mother.

"Great Thor, will you please find me that breast helmet?" He asked. But the Great God Thor might have been temporarily deaf for the moment because it's been quite a while since he first set foot on the forest. He never really wore it while flying Toothless since it has gotten the habit of always slipping off his small dome.

Besides, he had bigger problems. He had this grave task of spying on the Highlanders. He kept thinking all day how he was to do such a thing, because to be able to know about the people around you, you'd have to personally know one of them. You'd have to get one of them to teach you their ways, to share with you their secrets, to earn their trust.

But how? He wasn't really good with making friends with humans in Berk. He was better off with dragons. How much harder would it be to make friends with enemies?

He smacked a branch with a wallop of his palm, only to find it slapping him right back in his nose.

He winced as he cupped his face. But upon looking at the tree where the said branch slapped him, he noticed four talon marks that scraped its bark. He placed a palm over it, feeling the deep cut in coarse lines. The mark was new. It couldn't have been for more than days. He took out his dagger, the Endeavour, and chipped the mark off to get a better look. Hiccup looked closely at the chip mark, just when his point of vision alit on the small area.

The dagger slipped from his grasp, clattering on the ground. The familiar sway of grasses, the positions of the falling trees, the foothills and rocks milling about in the open spot seemed like a replica of something that he doubted had happened.

Eyes widening, he withdrew from the tree in long treads, his mind slowly setting the scenery he had in mind.

He was back from last night. He could remember it now. Hiccup was actually standing on the crested ground, where he first saw an actual Scott. The immense amount of trees scattered made it difficult for him to realize, but thankfully, the large fallen trees destroyed by Barf and Belch placed obvious markings.

Quickly, he ran to the spot where he landed off Toothless, trusting his memory into retracing his tracks. But a flicker in his vision caused him to stop. Something draped in blue and white was veiled in strews of leaves and branches. Squinting his eyes, he carefully shoved the branches away to get a better view.

It seemed like a ghost returning to haunt you in the past (in this case, the past was merely yesterday). It was hard to believe it was her again. In fact, he even had to rub his eyes and blink to make sure she was really there. She was a little far from him, but he could still see the contours of her face. The red haired girl drew an arrow all the way to her cheek as she aimed at something not visible to Hiccup.

Trying to stay as low as possible, he drew his pocketbook out of his vest and began scribbling down. He drew the mass of her wild, curly strands, down to her waist and arms gripping the bow. It seemed as though she was waiting for him to finish drawing, because her fingers still gripped the end of the arrow by the time he ended.

"Why don't you just…shoot?" He asked as if she could hear him. The minute he spoke the words, she released the arrow. He gasped in astonishment as he watched it hiss right past him and hit a small object, causing it to topple on the ground. She grinned in satisfaction as the apple rolled down the hill with an arrow poking out of it.

Hiccup glanced at his notebook to make a few more outlines when suddenly, the charcoal slipped out of his grasp and tumbled loud enough for the archer to be quickly alarmed.

Plop. Plop. Plop. Thud.

Hiccup ducked low and cursed himself for not being undetectable. Little did he know Merida could see his head just peeking out of the ground.

Immediately, she held up her bow in a swift motion and prepared to shoot whomever this 'spy' was, but the kirtle she was wearing forced her to suppress her actions.

"Curse. This. Dress!" She muttered to herself. She bended over, and stretched her arms as far she could, splitting her corset in halves. Now that her hands were finally unrestrained, she released the arrow and purposely missed the stranger by a few inches. He ducked lower. Merida could almost hear his breath ragging from panic.

She released another arrow and let it whistle over his head, just to let him take the hint she knew where his location was and to quit hiding.

It was quiet for a moment.

"Ah know yer in there, so quit yer hiding!"

Hiccup held his breath as he peered to find the owner of the voice. "Okay, okay! I'm coming out," he said as he raised one hand. "Just, please don't shoot!"

Slowly, he rose to his feet while holding up his hands. As the arrowhead still pointed to his nose, he looked up to see an approaching angry Scott; wild strands of red curls fell down to her waist and deep, icy blue eyes stricken in both surprise and confusion were fixed on Hiccup's scrawny figure. She had a small, red nose and constantly flushed cheeks.

She seemed so helpless when he first saw her, and she looked as frightened as he was when the Zipplebacks pinned her on the ground, ready to incinerate her head off, just like what Toothless almost did to him. Maybe that was why he couldn't kill her. Maybe he did see a part of him in her. Maybe she wasn't so bad after all.

But apparently, she seemed to have…ungratefulness issues, seeing she wasn't afraid to finish him off with her weapon. Her long strides took her near Hiccup as he stared at the arrow pointing at his nose.

O Bending Biceps and Quivering Quadrupeds and Twitching Toenails and Little Hairy Curly Bits of Thunderous Thor! His first day on the job, and it might already be his last.

But it might have been a blessing in disguise. What were the chances that he asked for Odin's help in aiding him with gaining the trust of the Scott and as it turns out, she happened to appear out of nowhere! Odin must have set this up himself. All he needed to do was gain her trust…eventually.

"Don't shoot." He managed to repeat, despite of his quaking voice. The arrow was still pointing at him and he knew he could be killed any second now. Merida's eyes widened when she looked a bit closer at the contours of this boy she was facing.

"Ah don't know who…but ah know what ye are…" she spoke in a low growl.

"I'd be glad to tell…really, I would," Hiccup finished. "So, can't we be a little civil in the introduction?" How on earth was he supposed to gain her trust? He's precisely three inches away from death.

Merida wasn't planning on putting her bow down. "Who are ye and how did ye find me?" Hiccup swallowed. "Ah said who are ye, and how did ye find me?"

"Let's not get excited," he murmured but the teasing lilt of his voice vanished. "I wasn't trying to find you."

She was beginning to get frustrated with him. "Ye were here last night and yer here again. Don't patronize me with yer Viking trickeries." She walked faster, making Hiccup walk backwards a whole lot faster as well to keep the arrowhead away from his nose.

"Trust me, you don't want me backed up against a wall…" he said, talking along the way. "I'm like this really wild animal when cornered…."

Merida wasn't convinced (there was a very clear reason why she wasn't of Hiccup's warning). She glanced at him from head to toe. He wasn't the kind of Viking depicted in the books. Knobby knees, thinnish runner bean of a boy with bright auburn hair and green eyes, although tall but quite lanky. He was very ordinary looking and had a face that was easy to overlook in the crowd.

"If you'll just put the weapon down…" he breathed, "It'll make me feel better."

Merida frowned, distrustful air feeding her senses.

"Ye were spyin' on me, weren't ye!"

"I...I wasn't!" He immediately countered. "I was looking for something, crashed here, end of story."

"I dewt ye speak the truth,"

"Just hear me out, please!" He was starting to regret saving her, because he didn't want to beg for his life. That was the last thing the future chief of Berk wanted.

"Ye came here for something," Merida took a few steps closer, so close, Hiccup's back was already against a rock so he stepped on a few stones near him to climb higher. "And Ah'm going to find out one way or another. So ye better do what ah say before ah start decidin' whether ah should let ye live or shoot yer mouth."

"If we're taking a vote, I'm with the first option," he quickly muttered.

Merida could tell this boy was getting on her nerves. She wasn't getting anywhere while she was threatening this smart-mouthed Viking.

Then, quickly, she sensed something moved.

She stopped when a shadow loomed over the forest. Keeping her bow up high, she aimed upwards; ready to shoot anything that was a sign of festering threat. All of a sudden, an eerie, high-pitched scream bellowed in a swaggering distance just before the tree standing beside her was hit by a purplish gleam of bolt and soon erupted into flames. It made Merida jump, making her throw her weapons as she catapulted to the other side of the moor.

The bow slid towards the lithe figure, and it didn't think twice about scorching the weapon with one blaze.

"Mah bow!" Merida widened her eyes in horror upon seeing her weapon rotting slowly in red glints. The flames drained the curves of the bow and rapidly ate the strings.

Toothless was about to pounce on Merida after finishing off the weapon when Hiccup blocked the dragon with a wave of his hands to catch his attention. "Woah, easy bud." Toothless growled and hissed at Merida. Hiccup leaned to whisper to his dragon. "We need her to trust us."

"Wha' is tha'!" Merida had completely forgotten about the creatures of last night. It was absurd she remembered an innocent harmless Viking while she had forgotten about really cool fire breathing creatures.

It was maybe because she had mistaken it for a land dwelling type of kelpie. A kelpie was a large, reptilian water horse that haunts the loch and other dark waters of Scotland. Its head was quite similar to that of dragons, especially to the Hideous Zippleback. Only longer, and it merely had one head. Still, it was bad omen for her to talk, or even think about the kelpies that could have killed her. the Scott's have always thought the presence of kelpies meant something bad was going to happen.

So imagine her shock when it's mouth was steaming due to the fact it released a ball of purple fire.

Merida's face was wracked in fear. She was down on her back, facing the odd, dark creature spreading his wings protectively over Hiccup. It was about to bellow at her when another figure leapt out from a foothill and barged into the scenery. The stallion stood on its hind legs and pumped its front hoofs into the air to show its dominance.

When it comes to protecting a human, horses were very loyal and unafraid, and even possessive. Angus whinnied and kicked his legs back and forth to repel the dragon. Toothless shot a mouthful of his fire towards the horse, missing him by the head but still managed to scorch a handful of hair on its mane. Angus teetered back and gave one more frightful neigh.

"Easy, Toothless! It's just trying to protect her." Hiccup told him, making Toothless fold his wings like a cloak over his back and sit upright like a good dog. The momentary feud between the two animals died down.

"Toothless…acquaintance." He gestured to Merida, "Acquaintance...Toothless."

Hiccup rubbed the nape of his neck. "I…I didn't get your name."

He didn't bother to. Merida quickly rose to her feet, mounted on Angus, and rode away.

"And… there goes our cover." Toothless snorted, and began walking the opposite direction.

"Toothless, you come here this instant!" He yelled at the stubborn dragon, which only flicked one side of his wing and began waving it up and down, almost as if to say, Talk to the wing.

"You come here right now, or NO HADDOCK." Toothless stopped, savouring an image of freshly caught fish swimming around his head in circles. He licked his mouth, and flew towards his rider.

Meanwhile, Merida set off Angus with a dead run, but soon lathered with the pace. She looked over her shoulder, watching the spot where the Viking and his odd creature was shrink with distance. Looking away with a twinge of fear, she urged her horse forward, when suddenly she felt scales and claws grasp her forearm, and in a matter of seconds, Merida was lifted from Angus. The horse, upon feeling the weight of his rider diminish, looked up to see her being carried away from a distance.

"Oh, sweet old gammy collywobbles and cakes and swatched oranges…" Merida looked down at her feet dangling above the forest and almost scraping the tips of pines as the dragon zigzagged like a drunken pelican to keep her from taking any of the weapons at her side. She too, had a dagger, but was far too sick just by Toothless' relentless spinning torture.

"Ye get me down from 'ere, Viking!"

"You have to give me a chance to explain!"

"Get me down!" She yanked herself on Toothless, causing the dragon to tilt a little on the side. He hissed at the persistent human in response and stirred himself towards the gorge he was sleeping in not for hours ago. If you were a careful person, you would have taken extra caution when flying through this part of the forest for it was peppered with ragged crags and scarps of rocks underneath the cluster of dark rocks.

She looked dizzily, and beheld a wide expanse of the ocean and some horridly black and beetling cliff. Because of Merida's perpetual resistance against Toothless' grip, they stirred totteringly over the forest tips and crashed against boulder. Startled with the sudden lurch, the dragon dropped Merida on the edge of a cliff.

Her hands clung onto the craggy, rigid lines that were soiled in year's age. Her feet lay suspended above the misty and dark waters below her. There had also been hundreds of rocks in the vicinity of the bottom of the cliff. Within a few fathoms, she could see the waves as it lashed along its brinks and polished the sharp ends. Merida struggled to heave herself up, but her hand slipped each time they attempted to. As she grappled with herself, Hiccup and Toothless flew easily about her.

"Oh, gods," he sighed. "Can't that girl not give me a headache for five minutes?" He reeled his dragon to hover towards her. "Hop on!"

"Ah don't want yer help!"

"You did once and it kind of saved your life." He told her with an apologetic sneer. "Grab my hand!"

"Ah told ye to get away! Ah'm not going tae touch ye!"

"Do you have a death wish?" His vision pointed below the rocks as if they were lions looming to scuff their meal. "Just grab the hand! I'll catch you, trust me!"

Him saving her once did not make him any less than a Viking. He could still kidnap her, make her his hostage, and cause chaos within their kingdom and it would all fall apart just because she trusted him. But what made her extend her arm towards the enemy both hesitantly and willfully at the same time? Maybe she had no choice. Or maybe, she chose to do so.

Hiccup was a bit surprised she actually reached out towards him.

Merida's left hand, which kept her latched on the cliff, slipped just when her other hand almost had Hiccup's within a few inches. Her back pitched backward as she fell, a scream escaping from her mouth. As she felt the appalling sweep of descent, she instinctively closed her eyes and didn't dare look upward into the sky. But for a few seconds, she wondered why she hadn't already met the painful sensation on her back, or the ripples of the water crashing around her, The sense of falling had ceased, and that was when she realized the creature gave one final heave with his wings and grabbed her waist with his front paws.

At the same moment, the roaring noise of the waters hurtling at the banks of the rocks was completely drowned out with a shrill shriek from Toothless in an effort to yank himself up. He flattened out his wings before they crashed and the water hissed with the sudden buoy of Toothless' wings. They were so close over the waters that Merida's feet scraped the romping waves.

The sunset clambered down the horizon in lusters of bright cascading waterfalls, drawing light after it like how nets lure fish in dark waters. The sky was streamed in golden glory along the recesses of the clouds. Mountains and coppered archways stood back on silhouettes, and there were no foams along the bed of the ocean but rather faint lines pushed by a twilight breeze. Hiccup looked down to see Merida clinging on Toothless' paws.

Flying low, she was able to dip her finger into the ocean. The feeling of her hand carving the waves in traceless lines as the water pooled in her palm and slipped through the ends of her fingertips was breathtaking. She had always dreamed of flying. Somewhere her mother doesn't know, where there were no lessons, no expectations, just her being free. Toothless gently swooped his wings across the east, gliding all the way to the forest floor. To their surprise, Angus was still there, waiting for Thor knows how long.

His nails loosened their grasp on her waist as he set her on the forest floor; a little annoyed she survived the fall. Angus galloped towards Merida, but teetered back when he saw Toothless. His overprotective instincts left him now that he sensed nothing between his rider and the dragon, so now he was no more than a cowardly horse facing a giant beast. He hid between the pinecones and dug his face in the bushes while his entire body was clearly visible.

"Get out there, ye wee sappy spit." Merida shook Angus's mane. She pulled his head and muzzled the bridge of Angus' nose to calm him down. "It's okay, Angus." She cooed. "We can go home now." She looked up in the sky and realized the horizon drowned the sun with a bright flare of orange and yellow.

Toothless was now looking for that haddock Hiccup had promised him. He nudged his owner's chin and whimpered. Instead of feeling his hand scratching the underside of his snout, Toothless felt Hiccupless as his owner bluntly walked right past him to approach Merida. If Toothless hadn't been an ebony colored dragon, he would've turned pink in anger…and extreme jealousy.

"You have to listen to me," Hiccup approached her. "Nobody can know I'm a Viking."

"Why? Is there something yer tryin' tae hide?"

"That I'm a Viking? Yes," he said. "And how on Berk did you recognize I am one? I wasn't even wearing-"

"Yer helmet?" Merida finished. "I figured someone careless wouldn't have thought tae check if their satchel was with them before they took off."

His mind was split. One relieved someone found his helmet. One not relieved that it was a Scott who had found his helmet. "You have my helmet?"

"Aye," she answered.

Hiccup wiped the sweat running on the bead line of his hair. "Look, I need that helmet. You have to give it back to me."

"Are ye threatening me? Ye goin' tae use yer kelpies an'…" she looked around. "Where is the other one?"

"The other what?"

"The green two-headed kelpie!"

"Kelpie? Is that…is that what you call dragons?"

Merida's brows knitted. "Dragons? Those are…dragons?"

"Well, what else could he be? A flaming squirrel?" She glanced at the not-really-kelpie-creature.

"Ah though' they were just some myth."

Toothless snarled in response. Hiccup laid a hand on his snout. "He's sorry to disappoint."

She gave a wary glance at the dragon, who was staring eerily at her none stop with bright yellow eyes and dark murky pupils. Trying to avoid it, she looked at Hiccup instead. "So, wha' do ye do with those…dragons?"

"I…uh…I… " He scratched his head, wondering if she would believe him. "I train them."

Train? Beasts? Viking?

Now that was something no Scott has ever done in the games before. And just like that, mischievous little Merida had the gears in her brain working and propelling as soon as an idea came to her head when she saw a possible negotiation with this Viking. What if she was the one to win the challenges? She was a first born after all of a king. Maybe she could escape marriage by winning her own hand. And who could win the last test of archery other than her? It was amazing how they all seemed to connect with each other.

She can change her fate. She didn't have to go through marriage. All she had to do was get this boy to help her.

She'll need a Viking's help when it comes to slaughtering beasts, which was required of the second test. Of all the murderous tribes in the world, they were the best at conquering savages and the most formidable of creatures. And hasn't he also tamed a large two-headed kelpie? She needed his experience and was bent on doing so.

The other end of her mouth curved upward, like a cunning smirk. He seemed to be frantic about his helmet, making her plan a lot easier than she thought. Hiccup narrowed his eyes when he noticed the suspicious gleam in her eye. Something told him he wasn't going to like this.

"This is a little disturbing for me to see you smile like that," he said as he rubbed his temples.

"Look, mister," She pointed an accusing finger at his chest. "Ye have to do something for me before I give ye yer precious helmet."

"And that would be?"

"There's a tournament I must win," she inched closer. "And ye have tae help me."

"What's it for, anyway?"

"That's not important. What matters is that I win," she told him. "Ye will help me with this, and then, and only then will I return tae ye yer precious helmet."

"Was saving your life not good enough?" He said. "You can just give me my helmet, I get out of your way, never see each other again and part ways just like unlikely friends."

"Ah'm a Scott," she retorted. "We don't work tha' way. And besides, the only way no one's ever going tae know you're a Viking, is if Ah don't tell anyone."

Hiccup looked unconvinced. But the princess was persistent. "Look at i' this way. If ye help me do this, Ah win the tournament, ye get your helmet, no one will know yer a Viking, and ye don't have tae go back to tha' island of yers because Ah'll let ye stay here. It's a win-win deal."

"How long will this take?"

"To the point where Ah say so."

"Well, that's comforting," he sighed.

"So," Merida spoke once again, "Do we have terms?" He flinched. It was quite a tall order for a small Viking.

With a forced submission, Hiccup said, "Do I get day offs?"

A/N: [1] Yes, Hiccup still has his left foot in this story. I'm planning on another way for him to lose his foot

Is there going to be a sequel? –Jack Pche.

Hah! Hold your horses, buddy. I'm not even done with chapter 6. Stick around till the end and you get your answer:D

I'm really sorry for the late updates! Would you believe me if I told you I stapled my thumb? No, because how can anyone that stupid exist? Apparently I do. Let's just say I am never touching staplers again because I couldn't write/type for days.

Watch out everyone. The real story starts in the next chapter because I am abandoning the plot of Brave so it's gonna be full of twists and it'll build up into an original story. Stay tuned!

Ok, so, I'm literally broke. Please accept this humble sandwich. Any guesses on which possible villain could be in this story? Winner gets a virtual mojo! Thank you again for all your beautiful reviews!