A/N: I sort of experimented with Stoick's accent on this one, because he does kind of have that Scottish drawl to it (just a bit.

I have to say that this is one of my favorite chapters so far and it was really fun to write. Since this is chapter 6 (7, if you count the prologue) I just wanted to say the the story is almost half done. It will probably have 15 chapters at most. Just something to think about...

"Fate is never fair. You are caught in a current much stronger than you are; struggle against it and you'll drown not just yourself but those who try to save you. Swim with it, and you'll survive" ― Cassandra Clare

After Hiccup had taken Merida to Old Wrinkly's he made his way back to his house, meeting his father along the way. "I was beginning to wonder where ya were. Did ya find the girl?" he asked.

"Yea, I took her to Old Wrinkly's. She was bit by a venomous dragon."

"What good will he do? Th' man's half mad."

"He's still a good doctor, dad."

"I suppose. Go on and head home, I've got to finish up here."

~:~

When Hiccup reached his house he went to the kitchen and pulled out a bowl and began to make himself some breakfast.

Upon hearing the door close he expected his father, but it was Merida instead.

She walked past him without saying a word, not out of spite Hiccup figured. Her eyes were half open and she didn't walk as fast as she normally did. She began to go up the stairs.

"I'm fixing me some breakfast, do you want some? I could bring it up to your room so you don't have to eat down here."

"No, I juist want tae sleep." she said waving the offer away. She turned toward him, Hiccup braced himself, nearly every word she had said to him had been a threat or an insult. They didn't bother him like she probably would have hopped; he had been called worse from much closer people.

"Before I forget, Old Sprinkly-"

"Old Wrinkly"

"Right, him, he wants tae talk tae ye later."

"Okay. Um, are you alright?"

"Yea, I'm juist tired," she held up her bandaged arm "and side effects I guess."

He nodded understanding and she continued up to her room.

~:~

Hiccup felt like he was going in a circle, he had just left Old Wrinkly's and now he was back again. Not that he minded much, he seemed to be the only one in the village that actually understood Hiccup.

When he entered the hut he saw the old man sitting at his table drinking from his mug.

"Hiccup, you wanted to see me?" he said without even turning around.

"Merida said that you wanted to see me." he said while walking over to the table.

"I had her deliver that message because I knew that you wanted to talk to me."

"How did you know that?"

"Retired or not I'm still a soothsayer. And I'm also your grandfather."

"You know that you're not supposed to do that anymore."

"Bah! I'm just dabbling; as long as I don't tell anyone my predictions it's fine."

Old Wrinkly had been known for causing a bit of trouble with his predictions when Hiccup was younger.

He used his walking stick to push out a chair for Hiccup to sit down in. As he did so Old Wrinkly pushed another mug across the table. "Gotta have my morning tea" he said "Now then, what's on your mind?"

~:~

"And I don't even know what I'm going to do about Toothless. I tried to tell her about him. I don't even know where to begin."

"How about instead of telling her, you show her?"

"Just take her to the cove and say 'here's my pet dragon'. That's crazy!"

"And how does crazy usually work for you?"

"Normally pretty good. But it won't work. I told you already, I've tried to make her feel welcome, but everything I do fails. She won't have anything to do with me."

Old Wrinkly paused "Try again, you won't know unless you try. Things might be different this time."

"But-"

He held up a hand stopping his sentence. "Try again."

~:~

Hiccup promised Old Wrinky that he would keep trying. However there wasn't much he could do in the next couple of days because Merida was still recovering from the venom. Old Wrinkly's medicine wasn't an immediate cure, but it did keep it from killing her and helped speed up the process of getting it out of her system. She was left with cold sweats, high fevers and over all just feeling miserable.

On the third day around noon Merida came down stairs. She went to the kitchen to find some food, having not eaten anything for two days she was starving.

After rummaging through the cabinets she finally found some fruit. Merida gathered as many as she could carry in her arms and meant to head back up to her room and eat them. But as she exited the kitchen, Hiccup was just coming in.

"I see you're feeling better."

"Aye."

"How's your arm?"

"I don't know, I haven't looked at it yet."

"Right. So I was thinking that um maybe you'd..."

"That maybe I'd what?"

"Well you've been in that room for two days, and maybe it would be nice to get some fresh air?"

"Ye mean with ye?" he nodded. "Why should I go anywhere with ye?"

"Because I have something that I want to show you."

"What is it?"

"I can't tell you. I have to show you."

"Then show me 'ere."

"I can't, it's not here."

"Then where is it?"

"The forest..."

Merida stood there thinking for a moment and then walked by him and up to her room.

"You were wrong Wrinkly." he said to himself "She won't have anything to do with me. So much for trying."

A few minutes later Merida came back down the stairs. She had a belt that her sword was hooked to and a small bag to put the fruit in.

"What's with the sword?" Hiccup asked.

"I never leave wi'oot a weapon, and Raysnare would like some fresh air too."

"You don't really need a sword."

"I'll be th' judge of that."

~:~

They walked in silence, except for the sound of Merida eating the fruit. She noticed that Hiccup was fiddling for something on his side when he suddenly slowed his pace.

"What?" Merida asked after she heard him mumble something.

"Nothing, I just forgot something. Can you wait here while I go get it? It won't take long, I'll be right back."

She nodded and he went back the way they came. But Merida wasn't about to wait around for him to come back. She wanted to see what he was up to, so she continued down the man-made path. Eventually she came across a tree that was nearly torn in two. She placed her hand on the pommel of her sword for reassurance. The scratch marks on the sides of it indicated that it wasn't a natural occurrence.

The top of the broken half lay near a ditch, which broken and dead trees' roots were exposed. At the end of the ditch was the top of a hill, as Merida continued farther in, she wondered what could be out this far that Hiccup wanted to show her.

She had never been this deep into the forest before, back home she did all the time, but she knew her way around those trees. These were foreign trees; ones that wouldn't help her find her way back if she got lost.

Two large boulders leaned onto one another, leaving a large enough space to pass through and into an enclosed space surrounded by larger boulders than Merida ever imagined. The tops of them spilled vegetation and gigantic roots from hundred year old trees into the area. At the bottom was a sizable body of water with a few fallen branches and moss covered rocks.

Merida jumped down from one rock to another until she reached the ground. As she picked up an apple that had fallen out of her pouch, something caught her eye of to the side where the sun's light didn't reach.

Something moved.

~:~

All of Toothless' riding gear had been stored at the Cove. However Hiccup had forgotten his part of the gear and remembered it when they were almost halfway there. Even if Merida didn't like Toothless there was no reason why they couldn't finally go flying after she left.

"Sorry about that. Alright, then-…Merida?" Hiccup had reached the spot where she was supposed to wait, but she was nowhere in sight. "Merida?" he called her name a few more times trying to locate her.

Then he heard the scream, which of course came from the direction of the Cove. "Oh no."

~:~

He got there as fast as he could, but by the time he did he saw that Merida's sword had been discarded to the side, now she held a spear-like stick in defense and Toothless was closing in on her. Hiccup tried to draw Toothless' attention away from Merida as he got to the ground by calling his name.

As Merida was backing away she didn't see the raised root behind her and she tripped. There was no time to get up so she had the stick pointed out so that if the dragon jumped onto her it would kill him, even he killed her first.

"No!" Hiccup yelled. He managed to get in between them just before Toothless was going to attack; he took the stick from Merida and flung it away and then focused on calming Toothless down.

All Merida knew was that her defense was gone, but she was still alive. She didn't even notice Hiccup until after he helped her up. Once her senses were regained she yanked her arm from his grip.

"What th' hell is wrong with ye?!" she yelled at him. "Or was this yer plan? Take me far away from th' village and have a dragon attack me?!" Not that she had a strong belief that anyone would save her.

"No, that's not why I brought you out here. Let me explain-"

Merida's attention was brought back to the dragon when he growled at her. She wondered why it wasn't attacking him. Hiccup turned to face the beast and looked back at Merida.

"Merida, Toothless. Toothless…Merida." He said while making the appropriate gestures. The dragon snarled at her and she took a few steps back.

"Wait, Toothless? It has a name? Ye mean that thing is yer pet?"

"Well I wouldn't say pet…"

"Yer aff yer heid!"

"What?"

"Ye'r crazy!" Merida quickly looked around for her sword, keeping her eyes on Toothless as she picked it up.

"Whoa, whoa, where are you going?" Hiccup asked when she started making it to the way out.

"I'm nae going tae stick aroond and get attacked again."

"Merida," he reached out and grabbed her arm, "please, he won't, you just scared him."

"I scared him?! He's a dragon!"

"Please, just stay for today, and…I'll never bother you again."

"Give me one good reason why I should."

Honestly Hiccup couldn't think of a real reason. Toothless wasn't exactly a secret, so if she ran into the village and told anyone it wouldn't really matter. The only reason why Merida should stay was so she could get to know Toothless, that was the whole reason he had brought her here.

He didn't have an answer.

Hiccup let go of her arm and turned away.

"Go then. I'm sorry about what happened." he said as he walked away.

Merida realized that Hiccup hadn't intended for her to get hurt, he never had. He was only doing what he felt was the right thing to do.

"Fine," she said after a moment's hesitation. "I'll stay."

Hiccup turned around. "What did you say?"

"I said, I'll stay. But if tha' beast does anything-"

"He won't." he said assuring her. Although Merida was still a bit uneasy, because how do you stay around a creature who already tried to kill you?

~:~

"Sae how'd ye dae it?" Merida asked.

"Do what?"

"Get a dragon who is, I quote, th' unholy offspring of lightning 'n' death itself, tae not kill ye?"

"It wasn't that hard really, considering I'm not much of a threat, but it was no picnic either." He paused. "A fish."

"A fish?"

"It was a peace offering."

"Dae ye think that could work with me? I don't exactly want tae be on a dragon's bad side"

"You could try it. But I didn't bring any with me."

She looked at the lake behind her. "Where there's water there's fish, right?" She got up off the ground and walked over to where the water was shallow. Not even caring that the bottom of her skirt would get wet she walked in. She placed he hands in the water and stood still, waiting for the fish to come to her.

As she was doing this Hiccup didn't notice until it was too late that Toothless had crept up behind her.

"Toothless, no!" Hiccup yelled just before Merida was pushed into the water.

When Merida resurfaced the dragon snorted and made an animal-like laugh.

"Ye devil beast! Are ye laughing at me?" she moved to get out and Toothless ran.

"Are you okay?" Hiccup asked half laughing. He offered a hand to help her up but she didn't take it.

"I'm fine. It's juist water after all."

"Too bad about the fish though, they probably won't come back this way for a while."

"Who said I didn't get th' fish?" She revealed the hand that she had hidden behind her back. She held it by the base of its tail, and it started flapping in the air, clinging to the rest of its short life.

"How did you…"

"Did ye underestimate mah skills laddie?"

The fish must have mustered up all the energy it could, because with one flap it caused Merida to lose her grip and it smacked her in the face and went back into the water.

Hiccup tried not to laugh. "I don't think you have to worry about a peace offering though. It seems that he realizes you're not a threat."

Merida rolled her eyes and began wringing the water out of her hair.

"Ye'r lucky, ye know."

"How's that?"

"Ye hae all of yer family and even yer pet 'ere." she said as she walked over to a nearby rock to sit on.

"Well he's not really a pet, he's more like a..." he held the syllable shortly as he tried to find the right word.

"A best friend?" Merida finished for him.

"Ya, he's like my best friend. The bestest friend I ever had. I know that it sounds weird, but-"

"I don't think it sounds weird. Mah best friend is a horse named Angus."

"A horse? I've never seen one in real life before."

"Really?" Merida asked amazed. "Ye should've seen him, he's such a beauty. But I wasn't allowed tae bring him with me, sae he had tae stay home."

Hiccup hesitated before asking "What's your home like?"

Merida was completely caught off guard by the question. "Um, well it's nae that different than here really. Lots of trees fur one. Only I lived in a castle, instead of a hut. Maybe ye'll see it when they realize that this treaty business doesn't benefit them and I get tae go home."

"Merida-"

"They're not…going tae change their minds…are they? I'm not going tae get tae go home am I?"

Deep down she knew the answer, she didn't want to believe it. She needed someone to tell her what she already knew; she had to hear it from another person.

"I'm sorry" Was all he said.

~:~

The day was now coming to an end and Merida and Hiccup were heading back to the village.

"I don't think that was too bad." Hiccup said "Considering it was your first time meeting him I think it went pretty well."

"Are ye saying tha' if it hadn't gone well then I would hae been eaten?"

"It's a possibility..."

"And what would ye hae done if that had happened?"

"I don't even want to think about that."

They walked a little more and Merida kept eyeing him.

"I've been meaning tae ask, what's with th' getup?"

"Oh this?" Hiccup said pulling at his harness. "It keeps me from falling off Toothless when we're flying. Although we didn't exactly get to do that today, but I brought it in case we did."

"Ye'r telling me that not only have ye trained a dragon, but ye fly on it as well?"

"Yep."

"Ye'r impossible."

"Not impossible, just improbable."

Merida was going to say something else but something caught her eye.

"Is that…smoke?"

They were close enough to the village that the amount of trees had thinned out and a tall pillar of smoke could be seen towering over them. In the distance shouting could be heard.

~:~

By the time they arrived to the scene there were already two lines of people, one to bring buckets of water in and the other to take the empty buckets back to be refilled. But any sensible person could tell that the house couldn't be saved in time.

Somebody yelled and began pushing through the crowd. Stoick stopped her before she could get close enough to the burning structure.

"Habert!" she called into the fire. "Please, he's still in there! Somebody save my son!" she continued crying out for help, but going in there was a suicide mission.

The front of the house collapsed, the water line had disbanded and now stood a safe distance away. The fire roared and the wind changed.

"Don't let it get to the trees!" someone said.

Everything slowed as Merida watched it unfurl before her, from the pleading mother to the others running to aid. They were no different than her. They had families whom they loved and strived to come home to, they had hopes and dreams, and failures that they had learned from. They were people.

Upon hearing the mother call her child's name again Merida saw an opening into the house. Before Hiccup, or anyone for that matter, could stop her, she ran into the burning house.

Hiccup moved to go after her but he was stopped by Gobber.

"Are ya out o' your mind? What are ya doing?"

"Merida went in there!"

~:~

The part she entered had not been completely engulfed by the flames. Instantly she was coughing as the thick smoke threatened to suffocate her. Through her gasps and coughs for air she called the boy's name. A log from the ceiling fell and Merida jumped back, bumping into something behind her. It was a small table that was surprisingly unburned.

"Mommy?" it had been almost a whisper and Merida would have missed it if she hadn't been listening hard enough.

Under the table was a little boy who couldn't be any older than five; his face was covered with ash, apart from the few streaks running down his cheeks from where he had been crying.

"Hey there wee laddie." he scrunched farther back under the table. "It's okay. I'm nae going tae hurt ye, I'm going tae get ye oot of 'ere." she offered her hand, after a short hesitation he finally took it. Just as Merida picked him up another part of the ceiling came crashing down, causing the boy to scream. She pushed his face against her shirt to shield him from the debris and to prevent any more smoke from entering his lungs. As for her breathing it was getting more difficult, and if she didn't make it out soon she wouldn't make it out at all.

The opening which she had came in through was now gone and it looked like there wasn't another way out.

The sound of a wall collapsing caught Merida's attention, and for a brief second before the smoke filled its place, she could see outside. There was only a small spot that the flames hadn't closed in on yet. But by the time Merida would get there it would be too late and they would be completely trapped.

"Hold on tight." She told him.

It was a long shot, but it was also the only choice left; jump over the fire.

~:~

The house collapsed on itself. The mother had stopped screaming and just stared at the ruins. The flames had shrunk considerably in size with nothing left to fuel them.

"What's that?" someone asked. There was something moving around amongst the piles of ash and burnt wood.

Merida swayed as she tried to keep her balance with the uneven ground and lack of air. The woman approached her and noticed the bundle she held close. It moved to reveal two eyes.

"Mommy?" the woman let out a cry of relief and took the child from Merida.

"Thank you. Thank you for saving my son."

Merida gave her a weak smile before she started violently coughing.

"Somebody help her!"

"Get some water!"

She was unsure who said what, but soon enough a large mug of water was in front of her.

Once her breathing was, for the most part, back to normal she overheard Stoick talking to the mother and son, asking them what happened.

"I just went out to gather from the garden for supper. Next thing I know the house is on fire!"

The little boy looked to the ground. "I just wanted to play. He tried to fly away but I wouldn't let him."

"Who's him, Habert?"

"The Terror." He said quietly.

"This is why all dragons are a danger to us! All they know is destruction!" Stoick announced, speaking loud were everyone could hear him, especially one person, who he glared at while he spoke; Hiccup. "Perhaps a lesson was learned here."

Trying to avoid his father's stare he went and sat by Merida.

"Why'd you do that? I thought you hated Vikings."

"I do. But she wasn't a Viking when she was trying tae get tae her son, she was a mother. And also, I thought, what if…what if it was one of mah brothers. I'd hope that yer people would save them if th' roles were reversed."

When she looked down she noticed that her skirt was singed in various places and covered with ash; the same went for her shirt with a few rips on the sleeves.

She would defiantly need some new clothes.

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