Heyo. So, first off, to my guest reviewers that I couldn't respond to personally:

Guest: I want to set the record straight. I love Astrid. And if it weren't for Merida, Hiccup and Astrid would be my favorite thing ever. But Astrid is a Viking. Hiccup has mentioned Viking stubbornness before and that's always apparent when he's on the outs with someone. (Also, Bless.) You're right, she is no Hans. But she's a female. She's hurt. Would you like to see the man, er, boy you love being married off to some princess? Probably not. And here's Hiccup. Now he's won? He's engaged to Merida. In his mind, why would Astrid want him back? So, I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to trash Astrid. And she will come into play again later so I hope that will be alright. Also, I've recently started watching Riders of Berk (I know, behind the curve) and so I'm getting a lot of Hiccstrid feels again. But as I am trying hard to avoid Hiccstrid in this story I'm trying to get her out of the way in the only way I know how: simply not be in the picture.

shalalala: Yes it is technically a Mericcup fic. It's my idea of how they met. Considering they're both from Scotland, it just seemed fitting that they met each other before meeting Jack and Rapunzel. I ship all ways with the big four. But Jackunzel and Mericcup are my biggest. (Hijack is second.) Stay tuned for the sequel (after I finish this one) to see when they meet Jack and Rapunzel.

Okay, are we good with that? Good. Here's my next chapter. It's kind of a thing that needed to be done but I didn't really want to write it.

I took a deep breath and looked at Hiccup. This was our plan it was going to work. I knew it was. I mean, I thought of it after all. Why wouldn't it work? He nodded at me, allowing me to steal my courage and we shoved the great doors open and walked into the grand hall. Instantly, Mother's attention was on me. I marched forward with a confidence that helped me to lie to my mother.

"Mum," I stated using the powerful princess voice which she taught me. "We have come to a decision. I will marry Hiccup on the condition that we get to make all of the decisions about the wedding."

"All of the decisions?" she questioned.

"Everything." If I wasn't insistent she would follow through.

She glanced toward Dad and Stoic. They both shrugged, obviously not caring about the detail of the actual marriage itself. "Very well," she nodded, crossing over to us. "You two may do whatever you like for your wedding." She smiled warmly and hugged me. "I'm so proud of you my wee lass."

As she pulled me away I tried to smile up at her, feeling a pang of guilt. Stepping away, I looked once again at Hiccup who merely smiled. Stoic, however, didn't looks so pleased. This is the conclusion they were all hoping for, right? I mean, if he didn't want his son engaged to the princess, why did he let him compete? Why bring him to the castle at all for that matter?

"We should probably get going," Hiccup suggested with a cough, the tension radiating from his father growing uncomfortable.

"Why don't you go introduce him to Angus," dad suggested with a bright smile. He knew what I loved. He knew that riding Angus was one of my favorite things to do. Dad could sense the unease around the room and at least tried to make it easier for me. I always appreciated that about Dad. I'd have to do something for him soon. Eager to get to what I knew, I grabbed Hiccup's hand and practically dragged him along to the stables.

At the mention of this 'Angus' Merida got really excited. She had such a spirit within her that really did remind me of Astrid. I pictured Astrid finding something in the forest and getting really excited about it, dragging me through the trees with a bright smile on her face, her blonde braid blowing behind her with the speed of her run. She'd pull me through trees and over logs almost causing me to trip and fall on my face but her strong grip stopped that from ever happening. We'd get to the small cove where I met Toothless and she let go of my hand, gesturing to the pond and rocks behind her.

"Hiccup, this is Angus."

The thick accent made me think twice about what I was seeing. I blinked a few times and my normal vision returned to me. It wasn't Astrid, it was Merida that was leading me around. And it wasn't the cove we had gotten to, it was the royal stables. Merida was gesturing behind her to the giant black horse sitting in the stall closest to the entrance to the castle. The horse whinnied at me and brushed my face with his nuzzle.

"Hey there," I cooed, scratching his chin gently. I had to remind myself that this was a horse and not a dragon. You couldn't scratch a horse's skin as hard as you could scratch a dragon's scales. I'd forgotten what it was like to have a squishy pet. Toothless' biggest weakness was inside of his mouth. If you hit him virtually anywhere else he'd come out relatively unscathed. With Angus it wasn't like that. If I dug my nails in hard enough I could probably make him bleed.

At the same time, however, dragons and horses seemed to have a lot in common. With the right thing you could get them to flop down in glee. Dragonnip was just grass but I honestly couldn't tell you what it was for a horse. Scratching under their chin seemed pleasurable for both species. The difference was that a dragon was basically at your mercy when you hit just the right spot. And I'm sure there were plenty of things you could use to scare a horse into submission. For dragons, that leverage was eels.

Looking back and forth between me and the horse, Merida's smile only seemed to widen. I could tell she was glad the horse and I were getting along. "D'you want to take him out with me?" she asked eagerly. I shrugged, not knowing what else we were going to do. She easily jumped right up onto the saddle, reaching her hand down for me as soon as she was set. It was weird riding behind someone and I'll admit, and it was a little awkward having to wrap my arms around her waist to stay on.

We rode out from the castle and straight to the forest. Along the way we passed targets strung from the trees, some of them with arrows still stuck in the center. She must have practiced here all the time. There was even one knot high in a tree that was just brimming with arrows. She didn't stop riding until we found ourselves surrounded by large boulders sticking straight out of the ground. Of course, where there were curious rocks there were sure to be curious Vikings.

"I bet I could break that open with my head," one of them said as we got into earshot.

"How about we don't try that theory out," I suggested, jumping off of the horse and over to my friends. Tuffnut looked disappointed as I shot down his idea.

Snotlout was instantly on my heels about the situation, not caring about the company. "So, Hiccup, Astrid's fair game now that you and her are completely over, right?"

"Very funny," I mocked. "Just you wait, I'll be back in Berk before you know it." He rolled his eyes and just walked away, trying to start a conversation with Fishlegs so that he didn't have to talk to me.

The twins came over to Merida and I then, a devious smile on their faces. "So how much trouble would we be in if Barf and Belch showed up right here?"

Merida looked at me curiously. "Who are Barf and Belch supposed to be then?"

I sighed. "That's the name of Ruffnut and Tuffnut's dragon," I told her, hoping and praying that the whole owning dragons thing didn't freak her out too much. She simply nodded with wide eyes, her mouth agape but not saying anything. "And you two would be in more trouble than any of us have ever been in our lives. Dragons aren't supposed to reach the mainland, remember? That's the deal with DunBroch."

"But doesn't that deal involve DunBroch not bothering us about anything?" Ruffnut asked.

"Yeah," agreed Tuffnut. "It looks like they didn't hold up their end of the bargain."

Before I could retort with some sarcastic remark, Snotlout shouted out for the edge of the glen. "If we're going to explore this entire forest before nightfall then we'd better get going!"

"If you hit the creek you've gone too far," Merida warned. "Past that is the land of the demon bear, Mor'du."

"Thanks for the tip," Snotlout dismissed sarcastically. Once again I rolled my eyes at him. Once the four of them had retreated farther into the woods, I resigned myself to a nice little rest on the grass. With a quick flop to the ground I felt like I could go to sleep right there. I heard Merida giggle but she didn't bother to stop me.

It was more than a little odd to see a Viking sleeping. He seemed so innocent and harmless. But then again, he was a scrawny little thing. I could probably pick him up with my pinky. There was something about him that made him not completely repulsive however. I couldn't quite place my finger on what it was. He seemed like most of the other suitors, but he was different, I could tell. Don't get me wrong, there was still no way I was getting married. But at least faking an engagement wouldn't be so terrible.

He was odd even for Viking standards. If I remembered correctly, Vikings named their children with pride. The toughest name went to the toughest child. The runt of the litter, not necessarily actually named, always had the nickname of 'a hiccup'. Stoic the Vast went so far as to actually name his son Hiccup. I couldn't tell if that was cruel or humorous.

I looked at him laying down and smiled, resigning to sit right next to him and look up at the clouds. There were so many different shapes and sizes to them. Some of them even looked like things. One looked like a bear and another near it resembled a fish. I saw an arrow, a spear, and even one that looked like me. Well, I guess any cloud that was out of control looked like my hair.

I sat there for what could have been a few minutes or a few hours, I wouldn't know the difference. It felt nice to just sit. Usually when I didn't have princess lessons, I would go out and practice archery. With the presentation of the suitors behind me, I suppose I'd have less lessons and more free time. But I looked at the ground next to me at the still sleeping figure and sighed. It seemed like all of my free time now would be expected to be with Hiccup.

I sighed and closed my eyes. No sooner than I had done so did I feel an arm snake around my middle and pull me closer. "You know, you're really beautiful when you're sad like that." He startled me a bit that I jumped and made him drop his arm. He looked at me apologetically as he sat up. "I'm sorry, Princess. I didn't mean to…I just spoke my mind. I'm sorry if I overstepped my boundaries."

"No, it's fine," I breathed out. "You just startled me is all. I thought you were still asleep."

He shook his head, running his fingers through his hair, making sure he didn't have bed-head. "I woke up just a few minutes ago. So, Merida, what's bothering you?"

Could I be so cruel to tell him that he was my issue? I mean, it wasn't really him that was the issue. It was the situation that was bothering me. I'm sure if I met him and was told to make friends on my own terms that he and I would get along just grand. But that's not how it was. He was my betrothed now. I was tied down to him until I could figure out a way to actually make this blow over. I just shook my head and stood up, going over to grab Angus. "We should get back to the castle," I sighed. "They'll be wondering where we went."

We rode back in mostly silence. I don't know what I was thinking when I woke up. I guess that was just it, I wasn't thinking. It was a moment where I felt like Snotlout. That is not a feeling I ever want to have again. We didn't get back to the castle until it was nearly dark. As we rode over the bridge, I could faintly see something hiding in the shadows. It looked as though there were two beady green eyes down there. Once back to the stables I hopped off of the horse pretty fast.

"Is everything alright, Hiccup?" Merida asked me.

I just waved her off. "Go ahead inside without me, I'll be back soon. There's something I want to go see first."

I could tell she questioned my sanity but she just nodded and went back inside. I had to sneak past a few guards to get back out to the bridge and then it was a little bit of a climb down before I was in the trench and away from the guards altogether. I looked around the bottom, knowing that what I was searching for would come to me soon enough.

Sure thing, in the blackest part of the trench I was the green eyes again. They lunged at me full speed and the creature knocked me flat on my back, licking my face over a thousand times.

It took a little bit before I could get him to back off but finally I could stand and see him. "Toothless," I hissed. "What are you doing here? Dragons aren't allowed on the mainland, especially not this close to the castle. If anyone finds you here we're both dead."

He looked at me curiously before his expression turned sad.

"What is it, Bud?" He turned his head back to the dark corner. Hiding there I saw two more beady eyes, wider set and with smaller pupils. At closer inspection I could see blue scales and large horns. "Stormfly? Great, so we have two disobedient dragons in DunBroch. Wait until Mildew gets word of this." Stormfly looked at me, troubled. The only logical reason I could think of them being here would be something wrong with Astrid. Normally Toothless wouldn't care too much about the emotions of others, aside from myself. For him to be concerned about Astrid, things must really be going south fast.

"Bud, I can't go home right now," I told Toothless. "I have to stay here and please my dad. But you two can't be here. I promise, I'll be back to check on Astrid as soon as I can. But right now, you need to get her out of here and go back home."

Sadly, he understood. With heads hung low, he and Stormfly started to walk out of the trench, away from the castle, and back towards Berk. Let's just hope no one else saw them.

"There you are!" I tried to sound enthusiastic and 'in love' as Hiccup entered the great hall. "Did you find what you were looking for?" He nodded, not bothering to speak.

Stoic cleared his throat from the other end of the dining table. "Son, I have something to discuss with you," he announced.

"Normally when you have something to 'discuss' with me it ends with my point of view being completely ignored by your stubbornness," Hiccup sighed as he sat down next to me. "But go on, I would love to hear it."

"As you know, I left Gobber and Spitelout in charge back in Berk."

Hiccup's eyes widened. "You left those two in charge? Why not just put another torch to the armory now?"

"That's exactly my point," Stoic said harshly. "I need to head back to Berk and make sure everything is still alright. You must remain here to continue with your wedding preparations." His eyes narrowed at the last two words. Again, if you didn't want to marry him off you shouldn't have let him compete.

"Dad, you can't just leave me here and go back to Berk," Hiccup argued. "It's not fair. I didn't even get to say goodbye, to anyone."

"You can say goodbye to everyone before the rest of the tribe heads back tomorrow."

"Dad, what about Astrid?" he asked. "She's still on Berk and I didn't get to say goodbye to her. You know she was my first friend after Toothless. I can't just leave Berk without saying goodbye to her."

Mum cleared her throat, earning the attention of everyone in the room. "Stoic, your boy is right," she said calmly.

"I am?" Hiccup questioned, the same time his father said "He is?"

"Why don't we all travel to Berk together to tell you tribe the news of Hiccup's betrothal?" she suggested. "That way, he can say goodbye to everyone and we get to deliver the news in person. Plus, I'm sure some people will want to meet the happy new couple."

"That sounds just grand, Mum," I sighed sarcastically. "Do I need to remind you that Berk is infested with dragons?"

"I wouldn't call it 'infested'," Hiccup corrected me. "More like integrated."

"Ina-what now?" Honestly, did he have to use such big words? For a hiccup, his brain was more trouble than it was worth.

Dad laughed as he looked eagerly at Stoic. "I think it would be fun to see a dragon first hand," he smiled.

Mum nodded. And much like it always was, that nod was the final say on the matter. Tomorrow we headed for Berk so that Hiccup could see his girlfriend and everyone could meet me. I guarantee tomorrow would be awkward.