How Merida meets Hiccup and their fates are woven together- like a cloth. Its not a love story, but it is their story.
Prologue
‘Mum!’ Hiccup Haddock the III whispered as he nudged the sleeping figure awake slightly; ‘Mum I had another nightmare again.’ The little boy whimpered as his mother rolled over, her mess of dark brown hair tumbling around her beautiful face. With a tired smile she sat up and drew her five year old son onto her lap. Her husband slept snoring peacefully beside her.
‘What was it about my little one?’ she asked, for a female Viking, she had a large soft side, the biggest part was for her husband and her scrawny son.
‘The dragons came and ate you all up!’ Hiccup said with a pout, hiding his face in his mother’s chest, she sighed; the dragon toy she had made him a few months ago was giving him nightmares again. Adding to that, sleeping in a new place most likely wasn’t helping him. All she could do was hold him close until his slight sobbing stopped and she tilted his chin towards her, making his green eyes meet hers.
‘Listen to me, Hiccup.’ She had his attention now. ‘I will always be here for you, no matter what. I will never leave you.’ She started to tickle him on the stomach, making him giggle and try and bat her larger arms away; ‘And no dragons could ever gobble me up!’ she threw him up into the air and he laughed in joy, kicking his legs out.
Their noise woke up Stoick up, the huge Viking chief rolled over, rubbing his eyes as his snoring stopped. Right away his wife looked over at him as he took her hand and kissed it softly. ‘Your son has had another nightmare.’
Stoick sat up and stretched before taking Hiccup in his arms, ‘Aye, you have to get over that fear if you want to be a big and brave Viking!’ he rumbled and touched foreheads with his son who laughs and touches his father’s cheeks. He was a small boy for his age, not like the other children on Berk. That’s why they were somewhere different. A small group of Vikings had decided to go on a trip, somewhere new and different. Away from the fighting of the dragons and the wars with the others. Somewhere of peace.
‘I’ll be big and strong like you one day dad!’ Hiccup grinned and crossed his arms, acting tough.
‘Aye, or your mother! She’s the best warrior I know!’ Stoick added in as he sat Hiccup on his lap and kissed his wife lovingly, making Hiccup squirm in-between them and yawn a little. It was rather late.
‘Can I sleep with you two tonight?’ he mumbled as his eyes closed.
Stoick looked at his wife, for Hiccup to become a strong and healthy Viking, he should say no right then and there. He needed to get over this fear, but his wife would have none of it and was already laying down with their boy. The chief knew there was no arguing with his strong and beautiful wife and simply curled up with them.
‘So where are we?’ the little Hiccup whispered.
‘In a land far away from Berk, and tomorrow we’ll explore it.’ Hiccup’s mother whispered back, kissing her son on the forehead and wrapping her arms around her family. Stoick looked worried, gazing at his wife with love, with something that he could not tell her.
‘I.. I think it’s best if you stay near the ships at camp tomorrow.’ The Viking Chief muttered, knowing he would do anything to keep his family safe. But it was to late- the pair had already drifted off into dream land.
~ ~ ~
Hiccup rose before everyone else that next morning, quickly slipping out of his parent’s embrace who still slept soundly. He got dressed and was out the door in a flash, sneaking past the other Vikings who had come with them and out into the forest.
He had no idea where he was, but he didn’t mind it at all. He had a small blank book with him and a charcoal pencil. Hiccup was a horrid drawer, but he hoped in years to come that he would get better- he wanted to impress his parents in every way possible!
Wondering around the beautiful forest he found himself following animal trails, rabbits and foxes, in the distance he saw a bear but kept well away. He didn’t know what a bear really was, but it was big like a dragon and lumbered around. And he was small and quite weak; he was smart enough to know to keep away from it.
The forest was beautiful as the sun rose up and blazed through the trees. It sparked on the streams and woke up the flowers; the dew reached out to his clothes and damped his boots. The birds sung beautiful melodies and the trees whispered in the wind high above him. Hiccup could only gaze around in wonder, his eyes darting everywhere. From the sky dappled above him from the leave to the grass, bugs and flowers. The moss on the logs and the rabbits nibbling. It was so much like Berk yet at the same time completely different.
‘Merida! Where are you my wee lass!’ a faraway voice came, drifting on the wind. Yet enough to make Hiccup pause and turn. So there was someone out there as well? His family and tribe was not the only ones? ‘Merida my lass! Come quickly back now!’
There was a rustle of a bush beside him and Hiccup stumbled back, perhaps these other people were Scottish! The people his father had told him about, big and evil and will kill you before you can blink! The Vikings and the Scottish men and woman had been at war for as long as the Viking and Dragon war had been going on.
The rustling in the trees grew louder and Hiccup wished greatly he had stolen a dagger from his father as a figure flew out of the brush and kept running, only stopping as a small foot caught on a root and face planted into the soft dirt.
Hiccup’s green eyes went wide as he watched the mass of red hair moved from the dirt and rolled over, giggling slightly at the mess up they had made. It was then that Hiccup saw it was a small girl, at least a head smaller than him. Perhaps a little younger as well.
As the new comer sat up, her eyes locked with Hiccup’s and a small gasp escaped her lips as she stumbled up and Hiccup got ready for a fight. If she WAS Scottish, then she would try and kill him for sure.
‘Who are you!’ she demanded, her accent was so strange to him, but pretty at the same time. As if it was something the land had dug up and gifted to the child. ‘You’re not from here!’ she added quickly, grabbing a stick and banishing it in front of her like a sword.
‘I am Hiccup Haddock the III!’ The small lad announced proudly, ‘And I am a Viking!’ he curled his hands up into fists, ready for the fight that was about to come. He had now openly admitted he was a Viking. And Enemy. He was sure his father would be proud.
The girl tilted her head to the side. ‘I’m the best archer in the world!’ she frowned, ‘Though I keep losing my arrows…’ was this girl trying to hint of how she was going to kill him?! Though of course he would not let her defeat him! He was at least a year older than her! ‘What’s a Viking anyway lad?’ she added and Hiccup frowned.
‘A Viking is-‘ he was cut off as a scream filled the air, shattering the peaceful forest morning around them. The two looked up in fascination as the sound of fighting could be heard, shouting and screams of pain.
‘MERIDA MY LASS! Come to me!’ the young girls head shot up in confusion and fear.
‘That’s me mum! She must be in trouble!’ the red head cried and glanced over at Hiccup. ‘Twas nice meeting you lad!’ she gave a small smile, something about him was different, but in a good way. Quickly she bounded off into the woods right as Hiccup heard his name being called by his own mother.
Running as fast as he could, he tore through the trees back the way he came, yet when he reached the shore where his camp once was, he found it ablaze, people he knew were laying on the ground and not moving, blood coming from their bodies.
‘MUM!’ he cried as people ran past him, arrows flew over his head and the sound of swords clashing came to his ears. When he couldn’t take it anymore, when the smell overwhelmed him, and the smoke clogged his lungs- he ran to the edge of the shore and hid behind and in-between some rocks at the end of the cove and curled up in a ball.
When the fighting subsided- or at least the sound went away, the smoke wasn’t as thick and the crying and shouting had gone, Gobber found him. Gobber didn’t have one hand, it was just a stump, but he was nice and a friend of his fathers.
Slowly the blonde Viking picked him up and held Hiccup close so he couldn’t see what was around him.
‘Gobber, where is mum and dad?’ little Hiccup asked, scared and shaking, his tears were dry but his fear was still there. What had just happened, he couldn’t see a thing but he didn’t want to. IT was like after a dragon attack but worse, it smelled different, the normal smell of fire wasn’t like that it was now. It was bad, a bad smell. A bad feeling.
‘Your..y-your dad…’ Gobber’s voice cracked and he held Hiccup to his chest as he clambered back onto one of the ships, ‘Your father won’t be coming home for a while, he has business to tend to… and your… mother.. won’t be..’ he didn’t know how to respond to the five year old looking up at him with so many questions in his eyes. He quickly cleared his throat and hit his chest lightly.
‘The main thing is, Hiccup, that you are okay.’ He gave a small smile. ‘Where did you go anyway?’
‘I followed a rabbit…’
‘your mother was worried… she went looking for you….’ Was all Gobber said in return. Hiccup bugged him as the ship sailed on back to Berk, about what he meant by that, but the older Viking wouldn’t say a word. In fact, no one would.
It was a week later when his father returned to Berk with the rest of the men that had gone with them, Hiccup’s first question had been if they were to ever go back to the strange shores, then the second question was asking where his mother was.
Neither of his questions got a reply, and something in his father had changed. His mother never came home.
Hiccup sat bolt upright in his bed, breathing heavily and his eyes adjusting to the dark. Toothless’ head popped up from his sleeping stone to check that his friend was okay. When Hiccup waved him away and dragon soon fell back into a slumber.
Yet Hiccup could not sleep, that nightmare…. No not a nightmare, a memory of when he was younger plagued him. His mother died because he had wondered off and she had run into trouble. So much had happened and he hated to think about that day- he had been so young, so silly to think that his actions would not cause something.
After a while, his breathing became under control and Hiccup lay back down, it was the middle of the night after all. Yet his thoughts still remained on that one memory. Of that terrible day that he lost the person who was closest to him, where his father changed and he became cold and he the un-perfect son, and the day that a strange girl in the forest made him more curious of the world.
