Toothless alerted Hiccup to the ships below. He looked down and swallowed the fear lodged in his throat at the sight of six ships baring the mark of the Alban leaders. The one at the front bore a symbol of a sword within a circle, which Peadre had shown him earlier to be the symbol for Merida's clan.

He turned Toothless around and flew back to Peadre's boat, he was about a half hour or so away from meeting with this King, also Merdia's father, if the winds held. Toothless let out a chirrup in greeting as he landed on the vessel. Peadre hailed them and anchored the rudder.

"Did ye see them?" Peadre asked in Gaelic, Hiccup gave him a tight smile.

"Yeah, we saw them not too far. I didn't fly too close though, I didn't want to give them a scare. Your king is on the first boat, at least I assume according to the banner."

Peadre smiled at Hiccup and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Don't be so nervous boy, ye'll do just fine and you have Merida's blessing and mine. M'lord will listen to ye at least, can't say if he'll agree to yer treaty idea though."

Hiccup nodded and turned to look in the direction of the Alban ships. He wanted to get this settled as quickly as he could, it had already taken them nearly the whole day to find them. He was just grateful that the skrill hadn't made an appearance yet.

"I just want to get this sorted and get back to Berk. I don't like the idea of Merida there on her own."

Peadre frowned "Aye, nor do I. However, Merida is a resourceful lass, she'll be fine and Yngvild isn't due to set foot on Berk for another few days."

Hiccup nodded and pat Toothless' side before checking his saddle to distract himself. There was something gnawing at his gut, something didn't feel right, but he didn't know what it could be. All he knew is that he wanted to get back to Berk as soon as he could.

"Er, Hiccup?" He looked up from a gear he was tweaking to face Peadre.

"Yeah?"

Peadre seemed to hesitate, and looked to the side for a moment before glanced back at him: he felt a stone turn in his stomach as he grew tense. Peadre fingered the ivory hilt of the dagger tucked into his belt before he spoke.

"I know this might be a bit of a forward question, but ye have to understand, I care very much for Merida and her family" he sighed and scratched the back of his head before he dropped his hand and continued. "The Dunbrough clan gave me shelter when I needed it and helped me find a purpose in this unforgiving world. As such… I need to know what yer intentions are towards Merida."

Hiccup felt his face grow warm and he found himself focusing on Toothless once more, the dragon peered up at him with curiosity, as though equally interested in his response.

After a moment he cleared his throat "I'm… I've… I haven't really thought about it, to be honest… I mean, I feel… something, but I know she is a princess and has her own duty to her people… I.. I'm not sure." He ended lamely, looking forlornly at Toothless. His friend made a sound of support and nudged his head into Hiccup's arms.

He took a breath to steady his nerves and then looked towards Peadre. The man was looking out towards the speck of colour in the distance; they were coming up to the Alban ships now.

"She likes ye, more then she'd ever admit to. Merida has never allowed herself the chance to feel anything around any lad, despite fighting for her freedom of choice, marriage is still not something she views favorably."

Hiccup swallowed and looked up at the skies. "I can understand that. Marriage is, for her, a duty. It isn't something that she has the freedom of choice in. While she can choose who, she can't choose not to." He sighed and looked down "I will be chief one day I guess… It is something that is expected of me, but…" he looked at Toothless "I'm just not sure if it is who I am…"

Peadre offered Hiccup a small smile "Ye have time lad, I for one think ye'll make a fine Chieftain one day." Hiccup snorted, but didn't say anything more. "As for you and Merida… Well, I wouldn't bury it all away. As I said, I want her to be happy, but I don't think marrying one of those lord's pups back home would do that. I ask this of ye, find some way to keep her from choosing marriage as a way of helping you."

Hiccup looked at him "I have no issue with that, but I ask for your support in my cause then. I need all the help I can get to convince your King."

Peadre held his arm out and Hiccup grasped it "it's a deal then."

Merida jolted up when the door to her small holding opened abrubtly. She winced as a flood of light blinded her. After a few moments she looked up into the eyes of Astrid, holding a lantern and looking down at her.

The Viking woman moved in and closed the door behind her before she placed her ear against it for a few moments. There was no further sound save for the iron ring of the lanter grating as it swung a bit. Astrid sighed and hung the lantern up on a hook next to the door.

It was the first time Merida had the chance to look around at her new surroundings. Once they had placed her in the small room they had shut the light out and left her in the dark.

It was a small room, clearly used for storage as there were several crates and barrels being kept nearby, spare ropes and netting adorned the wet wooden walls. A prevalent stench of ritting fish and mould permeated the air. Merida didn't know how long she had been below deck now.

Merida looked up at the woman "Astrid… I'm sorry."

Astrid raised her hand to silence her and then went behind her to cut the binding of her wrists free. Merida sighed, grateful, and rubbed the aching out of her bones. There were angry red marks along her wrists, but she would survive.

Astrid took a seat next to her and casually flicked at a piece of debries before speaking "I figured out why you probably kept your true identity secret: you were among people you knew nothing about, save that they were Vikings. I would have acted the same way if I could have. Why didn't you just say that you could speak though?"

Merida grimaced and responded in her slow Norse "I did not pay enough attention to Peadre's lessons back home. He did not want me to give us away. I still cannot speak well."

Astrid nodded at this. "I'm guessing that you were simply trying to escape when you could then?"

Merida nodded in response. "Yes, we were hoping to leave with the merchant, but the skrill…"

Astrid sat up straighter "skirll? You know what type of dragon has been causing trouble?! I thought you didn't know-! Hiccup" she hesitated, a tight smiled formed on her lips "Hiccup found out about who you were, didn't he?"

Merida nodded "yes, sort of, he was trying to figure it out. I confessed and challenged him to a dual to win a boat for Peadre and I" she snorted at the memory. Both woman looked at each other before they used their hands to hold back their laughter.

"Challenging Hiccup! It must have surprised you when he didn't take you up on that" Astrid said, knowing her friend well enough not to have to ask what had happened.

Merida smiled "I was very surprised. You surprised me too, you trusted me, even though you didn't have a reason to."

Astrid smirked "You may have been hiding your identity, but you weren't hiding your nature. When Yngvild told us who you were I was shocked, and at first I was angry about the lie. However, the more I thought about it the more I realized that you had never tried to harm anyone at Berk. Also, Hiccup made me promise to keep you safe, I was so confused why he had been so adamant about it, but the pieces started to fall into place. I realized that he must have known something, yet he trusted you, so I had to do the same."

She reached forward and tugged at Merida's tunic "that was why I gave you this, sorry about the punch by the way. I wasn't sure if Yngvild would let me see you again after we boarded, so I had to give you something to help. Punching you seemed like the only way to slip it to you."

Merida pulled back the collar of her tunic and reached down until her fingers touched a small metal object. She pulled it out and looked down at it in the firelight. It was a small knife, about the size of her tumb. It had a bone hilt wrapped in leather and a small gold sheath with engravings of runes on it. She pulled the dagger from the sheath and looked at it. It was a toothed dagger, the metal swirled with patterns on the iron.

"This is beautiful… Thank you, for trying to help me again." She offered it back to Astrid, the detail on it was a mark of the value it must have to her. Merida knew from experience that weapons like this weren't often made without purpose. She thought of her own bow that she had started on Berk, one that she hoped against all hope she would be able to finish.

"No, keep it Merida. It was made for me, the hilt is a tooth from Stormfly when she lost it in a battle with a wild dragon. It is important to me, but so are keeping my promises. Keep it for now in case trouble returns, and seeing as we're still on Yngvild's ship, I wouldn't be surprised if that is sooner rather than later."

Merida clasped the dagger to her chest, feeling ashamed for the mistrust she had for the people of Berk when in comparison they seemed willing to help her so easily.

"I will return this to you Astrid" she vowed. Astrid smiled and stood up, stretching a bit before cracking the door open to scout for anyone nearby.

"I should get back, I'm sorry I have to leave you in the dark for now."

Merida shook her head "no, it is fine. Go up and do not let Yngvild be suspicious of you."

Astrid nodded and grabbed the lantern before she closed the door. Darkness engulfed Merida once more, but she held onto the small dagger for moral support.

I know it's an inbetween chapter in terms of action, but I hope you're enjoying reading the story! : )