Snotlout gazed around the room he had been given, wrinkling his nose slightly. It was warm, he had to admit, warm and sturdy, in what was probably the biggest building that ever existed, all made out of stone. And there was a bed – a really nice, really comfortable bed, nothing like the ones they had back on Berk. And a fireplace, and a large window with glass in it.

It was nothing like Berk, but somehow he liked it.

He glanced out the window, the sun sinking gently over the horizon. Dinner had been good, even though they'd been forced to listen to King Fergus' story about the time he'd lost his leg to the bear Mordu. Which, in turn, had been an invitation for Hiccup to share his own story about how he'd lost his own leg. Luckily Astrid had told the story for him instead – Hiccup was a good chief, no doubt about that, but he was much too modest to tell the story properly.

Yes. Hiccup was a good chief. Which explained their presence, here in the heart of the Scots.

It was no secret that the Scots and Vikings hardly got along. But Hiccup was all for peace, and so he'd written letter after letter to King Fergus and Queen Elinor of the clan Dunbroch, appealing for peace between them, for negotiations. No longer would Vikings attack the Scots, and no longer would the Scots attack the Vikings.

And so had come the invitation to stay with them.

Eret, Fishlegs, Ruffnut, Tuffnut and himself had all been called to stay, while Valka and Gobber looked after Berk. Astrid, naturally, came – that was without question. So they'd come on their dragons, with the Scots being well warned of their mode of transportation, and had settled to stay in the castle with the King and his wife and his three sons and his daughter.

His daughter. Who'd been missing not only from the welcoming reception (the Vikings had had to control their laughter when they saw the fear in the Scots' eyes at the sight of the dragons; it was lucky that King Fergus and Queen Elinor had decided to trust them, and had chosen not to see the Vikings as a threat), but the dinner as well.

Snotlout wondered about her.

He supposed she was exactly like her mother, some ridiculously proper lady.

Or maybe not. He recalled the story that the three brothers – Hamish and Hubert and something like that – and Queen Elinor had told them, of the brave archer who had chosen to decide her own fate.

Of course, he doubted that she was that good an archer. And she'd started off the story as more or less a spoilt brat, only caring about herself and not thinking about the consequences (yes, despite what his cousin and the rest of Berk thought, Snotlout had matured. He could recognise a spoilt brat when he heard one.). But she'd come around in the end, apparently. It'd been a good story. Although Snotlout wasn't very sure he believed in it. Witches, and will-o'-the-wisps, and magical transforming bears? Please.

Not like it really mattered. He and Fishlegs and Eret and the twins were only here because Hiccup (and Astrid) believed it would be good for a couple more Vikings to come and interact with the Scots.

Which would start tomorrow. Tomorrow, Snotlout thought sleepily, making his way over to the bed. Tomorrow, which was more or less a free day while Hiccup and Astrid worked out the details of the negotiations or something like that. And then a party, in the evening. He wondered how they'd end up intereacting - these two enemies, trying out for peace after years of bad blood.

But the Scots weren't that bad. Their weapons were good. And they looked like they enjoyed getting into fights.

Snotlout yawned and collapsed onto the bed.

"Are you feeling better, darling?"

Merida looked up at her mother, smiled wearily. "I'm fine, mum. I'll be out riding Angus in the morning before you know it."

"Don't you dare – "

"Oh, c'mon, mum, I'm fine!"

"I'd rather not take any risks."

"Please. There's nothing wrong with me! You were the one who insisted I stay in bed. And miss meeting the Vikings. And their dragons. C'mon, mum! Dragons!"

Elinor laughed lightly. "I can tell you're fine now. But we had to be on the safe side. We've explained it to their chief, and he just laughed it off. He's got quite a retinue."

"Tell me!"

"Well. As you know, their chief is called – "

"Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third," Merida repeated dutifully.

"Very good. And his – his girlfriend? I think that's the phrase. Yes, a lovely girl, with very light-coloured hair. Astrid. And then there's a boy called Fishlegs – "

"Fishlegs?"

"He looks very shy, dear. Please be nice to him."

"I get it, I get it – "

"And then there are a pair of twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut – "

"What kind of names do these people come up with?"

"Merida! Ruffnut's the girl, I believe, and Tuffnut the boy – "

"Oh, wonderful."

"There's Eret, and you know, dear, he really is very handsome, and very muscular – "

"Mum – "

"Oh, all right, dear. And then there's the last one, quite muscular as well, you know, darling, and he isn't very bad looking, though I do think Hiccup and Eret look much better – "

"Mother!"

"Sorry, dear. His name's Snotlout."

Merida snickered. "Snotlout? His name's Snotlout?"

"Merida, please be nice."

"On my best behaviour, mum. I'll see them at the party tomorrow and apologise to all for not being here today."

"That's my girl."

"Did you expect anything less?"

They laughed, the two of them, before Elinor kissed Merida's forehead and rose to her feet.

"Goodnight, dear."

"Goodnight, mum."

Snotlout didn't think he'd ever seen someone so beautiful.

Flaming, fiery red hair in a mess of curls, bright, sharp blue eyes, a splatter of freckles across her round face. He heard her let out an ecstatic yell as she raced forward on her horse, firing arrow after arrow into targets along the pathway, once even twisting back to hit yet another bulls'-eye.

He'd never seen anyone ride like that. He'd never seen anyone shoot like that.

He'd never seen anyone more amazing.

He wanted to run after her, chase after her, find out her name, who she was, everything about her.

But he didn't, he couldn't – she was riding hard, riding fast, shaking that mane of fiery hair as she let loose another loud whoop.

He watched as she galloped into the distance, still letting out a loud holler as she raced along. She'd come out from nowhere, her red hair flying in the wind, and then she was gone, just like that.

He could only stand there and watch, his jaw slowly dropping.

"You've been quiet lately."

Snotlout looked up absently as Fishlegs walked into his room, looking at him.

"What?"

"You," Fishlegs repeated. "You've hardly said anything today, since you went out to explore outside early this morning."

"Stuff on my mind."

In his mind's eyes, Snotlout could see the red-haired girl, blue eyes bright in her laughing, happy face, her curls flying in the wind behind her, firing arrow after arrow.

Oh, gods. He had to find out who she was.

With hair like that, it couldn't be that hard.

"Well, okay." Fishlegs shifted from one leg to the other, obviously unsure of what to make of Snotlout. "Well – we'd better go down. The party's starting soon."

"I'll be down in a moment. You go down first."

Damn that girl. He couldn't get her out of his head.

These Vikings, Merida thought, were nothing short of hilarious.

She liked Hiccup. He was nothing but nice – he simply let out an aura of awkwardness and cheerfulness and was simply so easy to talk to. Astrid was wonderful. Merida had no other word to describe her. Tough, and fierce, and she knew just about everything about every weapon.

Fishlegs was nice enough; shy-looking, but charming, in a strangely awkward way. Ruffnut and Tuffnut had done nothing but make her laugh – it was obvious that they were used to fighting out over their bickering or any disagreements that they had, but they were controlling themselves well, resorting to verbal abuse instead. Eret had been very, very charming; she could see why her mother had given her a knowing look earlier, when talking about him. He was handsome.

She hadn't seen the last Viking yet, though. Snotlout.

She had to bite her lip to prevent a laugh. What kind of name was Snotlout?

"Well, it took you enough time just to get down here." Hiccup's voice was distinct, clearly audible as it became louder, somewhere behind her. "The princess was sick, yesterday, so she couldn't meet us, but I'll introduce you to her now."

"Yeah, yeah."

The second voice was decidedly unfamiliar. It had to belong to the last Viking of the group – the last of Hiccup's retinue.

"Princess Merida?"

Snotlout had to hold back disappointment as Hiccup led him through the crowd, to find the stinking Princess Merida. He had no time for stuck-up, snobby princesses – though he would admit that Queen Elinor wasn't exactly arrogant or proud, and neither was the rest of her family. No, all Snotlout wanted to do was to find that fiery-haired girl he'd seen earlier this morning. She had to be here, somewhere. The horse was a good one, and the dress, from what he'd seen of it, looked like good quality (definitely something a rich lady would wear).

She had to be here.

He could still remember her infectious laughter, her yell radiating pure joy, her red curls flying out in the wind behind her, the glint of blue eyes in a freckled face.

"Princess Merida?" Hiccup called, and Snotlout grudgingly dragged his eyes away from searching the crowd around him –

To land on a pair of sharp, piercing blue eyes in a round, freckled face, with fiery, explosive red curls piled around her shoulders, in a gleaming blue dress that matched her eyes.

Her eyes held no sign of recognition, but Snotlout recognised her immediately.

Beautiful.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you," the Princess said, dropping into a short, awkward curtsey that she looked unsure of.

"The pleasure, Princess," Snotlout said, bowing deeply, his eyes never leaving her face, "is all mine."

Hiccup raised his eyebrows.

Merida had to hold back a laugh. She wouldn't have used the phrase 'good-looking' to describe Snotlout – most certainly not. He looked awkward, and bulky, next to the tall, lanky Hiccup, and something in his gaze made Merida think of arrogance – just a little bit like MacIntosh.

(She and MacIntosh and MacGuffin and Dingwall had all soon become friends after getting to know each other properly, once the whole bear incident had ended. MacIntosh, or Neil, as she had discovered his name was, was still as arrogant as ever, though she discovered she liked spending time with him. Jamie and Elliot weren't too bad either, though no one could understand Jamie and Elliot was prone to staring into space.)

Merida gave another awkward curtsey-bob, and murmured something along the lines of "It's really very nice to meet you" as she backed away slowly.

Hiccup watched as Snotlout's face fell, as Merida disappeared into the crowd and was immediately asked to dance.

"Something caught your fancy?" he asked, amused.

"Shut it," Snotlout growled.

"Well, I suppose she is kind of pretty," said Hiccup, thoughtfully. "But what about Ruffnut?"

Snotlout waved a hand dismissively, and to Hiccup's surprise, he saw that Snotlout's gaze was still locked on the Scottish princess, who had escaped from her dance partner and was now talking to Astrid in a corner. Snotlout hardly seemed to have noticed the other girls scattered around – not even the girls who were looking at him and giggling. "She likes Eret. She can have Eret."

"Well," said Hiccup, "that's a drastic change of heart."

He looked over at Merida, who had let out a short, sharp burst of laughter at something Astrid said, which was instantly quelled by a quick look from Queen Elinor.

"You think she'll say yes if I ask her to dance?" Snotlout asked Hiccup, suddenly.

"Well – " Hiccup scratched his head, and tried for a smile: "You could ask, but – "

Snotlout didn't wait for the rest of the sentence. He was already walking towards Merida.