AN: This is the newest chapter. Not much else. Please direct all questions to my inbox. And here we go.

I own nothing.

OF BOWS AND DRAGONS

Chapter 4

At the castle they were all directed to their rooms to freshen up before dinner. Hiccup and Toothless went into their room and Merida went into hers. Hiccup was stunned at the room. A large four poster bed with soft, inviting blankets sat next to a large fire place. In the far corner was a second mattress that was obviously meant for the dragon. He wanted to lie down and sleep peacefully, but his hunger told him wait. He walked over to the stone wash basin and mirror opposite of the bed.

Using the rag in the basin, he scrubbed the soot and grime off of his face and arms. Examining himself in the mirror he seemed satisfied. As he went to turn away, he saw stripes of red in the cotton bandages wrapped around waist. 'Maybe I should lay off the smithing for the time being.' There hadn't been pain while he had been working. But he didn't notice anything while he worked. And he had had worse. He walked over to Toothless and removed the bags from the saddle to lighten the strain. "We're in deep this time, bud. Who knows what they'll do if they figure out I'm a Viking. Maybe I should just tell the king. Let him know who I am. Maybe he'll let us leave alive." Hiccup's stomach gave a loud growl, "But we can worry about that after we eat."

Toothless licked his humans face. Whatever happened he would be by his side. The black dragon still believed that they could live here. Regardless of how the townspeople reacted to the two of them in town, the fire-head girl's family seemed to be rather nice. They were the Alphas so trust from them would filter down to the others.

The dragon and rider made their way to the dining hall which they passed on the way to their room. The three boys from the throne room earlier. They took all three seats on the far side. Each of them held a mischievous grin on their faces. They looked to be about seven or eight years old.

'Triplets. Why did it have to be triplets? That's got to be worse than Ruff and Tuff are. Well worse than they were at their peaks, anyway.' The two had grown up fast during the invasion. They all had, but not too much.

Opposite of the 'wee devils' were only two chairs and large space. Hiccup gestured a t the chair next to the empty space and asked the boys, "Is this seat fine?" All he received in return was three way non-committal shrug. Rolling his eyes he sat down in the old wooden chair with Toothless right beside him. Seeing as he had some free time before dinner and the boys didn't seem to be the talkative types, Hiccup drew his notebook from a fold in the cloth running around his torso. Opening up to the next available page, he began sketching a design for an updated bola launcher. He had a soft spot for it, it introduced him to Toothless.

They sat in silence until they heard audible thunking of the King's wooden leg on the stone steps. Hiccup quickly returned his sketch book to its place in the folds of his barrowed clothes.

"Ah. Lad I see you found the forge alright." The King and his wife took their seats at either end of the wooden table. The princess came running down soon after and slid into the empty seat on the far side of the Night Fury, just as the evening was brought into the grand hall. Hiccup then followed the lead of Fergus and the triplets and began to quickly pile his plate with food, while Toothless was given a large dish of fish and and Elinor forced Merida to eat with some sort of recognizable manners.

Fergus looked up from his plate with a leg of foul in hand, took a medium sized bite and said, "So, Hiccup where are you from lad?"

Hiccup swallowed his mouthful, "I'm from a village in the far North. On the edge of Viking Territory." It wasn't a total lie he figured. Berk was on the northern border.

"Ah now that is some dangerous country. Is that how you lost your leg?" The cries of "Fergus!" and "Dad!" were instantaneous. Fergus visibly flinched at the berating. "What? I was just trying to make polite conversation with the boy!"

Hiccup cleared his throat, "It's fine, reaaly. Vikings didn't take my leg," he smiled down into his plate, "I did something stupid and crazy to try and save some people and I paid a small price for it."

"Oh come on lad!" cried Fergus, "there has go to be one hell of a tale there!"

"I got the same answer earlier when I asked him," piped the princess from her seat.

Hiccup grinned and scratched his scaly friend behind his ears, "It's really a story that deserves much stronger drink."

The King's face lit up and went to order the required beverages when a look from his wife let the request die in his throat. "Ah, yes. Another time."

Elinor wiped her mouth and looked at the human guest at her table, "So is being a black smith a family trade?"

Hiccup gave his host a slight grimace that was masked by a small smile and shook his head, "I was the village mess up. I was apprenticed to the black smith to try and keep me out of harm's way."

This promted the one of the triplets to speak up to the rest of the table for the first time that evening, "Those scars aren't from smithing."

"No." said hiccup taking a large bite of the strange green food. "No they aren't. They're from helping my dad with the family trade."

The table was silent for a few moments as they absorbed the information. Merida finally broke the silence, "What is the family trade exactly, Hiccup?"

"Protecting the village of sorts." Hiccup quickly finished his food, "May I retire for the night?" He wanted to leave

The King smiled, "Of course, lad! You have had a hard day."

With a small bow he turned and went up the stair case and returned to his borrowed room. He walked over to the bags still tied to the saddle and removed his armor. The bear had done some serious damage to the armor he needed to repair. Setting the most of his it aside he took his torso armor and his repair supplies.

Hiccup sat on the bed with his leather scrap and damaged armor and started to repair it with skilled hands. Before he could make any meaningful progress on it however, he saw Toothless' ears prick up. Instinctually Hiccup tensed. Instead of an enemy crashing through the door, there was a knock at it. Confused, he called, "It's unlocked."

The door opened to reveal Merida, "I wanted to apologize for what happened at dinner. We didn't mean to make you uncomfortable." She said fiddling slightly nervously with her dress.

Hiccup gave her a small smile, "Don't worry about it. It was like a meal back home really."

Merida gave him a bit of an almost confused look 'What kind of place did the boy live?' "Then why did you leave so abruptly?" asked Merida.

'Because I didn't want to let it slip I'm a Viking Chief to the King of potential hostiles.' "I got homesick," he half-lied to her, "It's been three weeks since I've left my home and I'm worried about my people."

Merida came deeper into the room and leaned against one of the posts of the bed. With eyes blazing with concern, curiosity, and a hint of suspicion she asked, "How bad off is it?"

Hiccup sighed and stopped repairing his armor. Taking a deep breath he said, "A few months back we were attacked by a man named Drago. Now we had faced invasions before but, never like this. He had an army of dragons and mercenaries. We won and broke his control on the dragons," Hiccup paused and took a deep breath, "But he wiped out about a third of the village, burned our forests and sparse crops, andended our ability to fish with any success."

Merida as quiet. Unlike most things the boy told her this wasn't vague or strange. This was sincere. This was devastation. "I'm so sorry lad, lad."

Hiccup shrugged," It's way I'm out here." There was a stiff silence for the next few moments after that statement. Neither one of them knew what else could be said on the matter. "Well, I'm going to go to bed now. So…" Hiccup trailed off.

Merida turned to a shade of light red. "Of course. Of course." She made her way to the heavy wooden door and exited. Just before it closed, however, she stuck he head in, "Thanks for pulling be out of the water."

"Anytime. Good night Princess." Hiccup picked up his tools and went back to work. After an hour had passed he had repaired it to completion and then drifted off to sleep.

At the village on the Isle of Berk

Valka stood in silence by her husband's memorial. It wasn't large. It was a medium sized stone coming only to her knee and was identical to the stones of the former chiefs around it. It was adorned with only his name and a few words. 'Have Honor. Fear Nothing.' Valka brushed the small tear from her eye and wiped her hand on her side. She couldn't show weakness now. She was acting chief while her son was on this mission. The runes in the stone were her strength as of late. It was hell to watch her people suffer. ' My honor says to trust my son. I will not fear for him. He will return.'