A/N: I am soooo sorry that this took me so long to update! DX I really got into an obsession with the BBC show Merlin and hardly worked on this story. I swear, I will not forget or abandon this story, and I'll try to make updates a bit more frequent. Again, very sorry!

Also, in this chapter, I refer to Merlin as a "prince" quite a bit in the beginning part of the chapter, cuz I do kinda view him as a prince in a way. And I've seen some other fanfictions that have referred to him as a prince as well, so... I don't think I'm the only one. My sister also agrees with me on that whole thing, so... yeah!

Please enjoy!

Chapter Four

He stared at his reflection in the mirror, looking over himself once again. Over his nicer green tunic, which had a fur-lined bottom, he wore a deep brown shawl, the bottom and the collar lined in fur, instead of his usual vest. Matching fur cuffs now wrapped around his wrists and he wore his usual boots. His hair had been combed neat and straight with a fishbone, parted in the usual spot, and his bangs covered some of his right eye. He sighed when he saw himself, almost dreading what he knew was to come that night. He slowly and carefully picked up the necklace that rested on his table, reaching his arms back to secure the hook and loop at the back of his neck. The necklace hung down across his chest, with five silver medallions spaced evenly from each other by various colored beads.

As he looked at himself once again, his outfit now complete, he could almost see the prince that he was supposed to be. Most of the time, he was just another goofy kid that happened to have the chief as his dad. But whenever he put on his tribal necklace… he was Prince Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III.

He wasn't quite sure how he felt about that.

Without another glance in the mirror, he slid his dagger underneath his belt and descended the flight of stairs inside his home. His father wasn't at the house, as he had left to help set up the Hall a couple of hours earlier, and so Toothless was fast asleep on the large bed in the main room. Hiccup smirked at the sleeping dragon, walking over quietly. When he approached his pet dragon, he began tickling the creature's upwards stomach, immediately waking him. Toothless chortled out the dragon equivalent of a laugh, and then pounced when he realized who it was that had woken him from his slumber.

"Ah! Alright, bud, alright!" Hiccup laughed, trying to block his face from the giant tongue that came at him again and again. "You're gonna' mess up my hair!"

A sudden knock on the door made both dragon and Viking freeze, and Toothless was off of his master in a second. Hiccup struggled to his feet and practically tripped over to the door, using the metal handle as a support to keep himself upright. He quickly composed himself, smoothing his now messy hair, before pulling the door open.

The pale moonlight highlighted her blonde hair that fell in ringlets around her neck and shoulders, flowing half way down her back. She wore something similar to her usual shirt, though it was made of a smoother fabric, only contained one shade of blue, and had a plunging neckline that revealed more of her chest than usual. A white cape that only reached down to the bottom of her spine was held on by two light red besagues, restricting the cape from falling in front of her shoulders at all. An attached hood fell down her back as well. She wore her usual dark blue pants, but wore a skirt much like the one he had seen Kaida wearing but red with white fur, tucked into her usual boots, and the only difference about her red headband was that it was now bordered by white fur.

Even Astrid was trying to make a good impression to the Vikings of Lakota.

"Oh, h-hey… Astrid," Hiccup stuttered, still taking in her outfit. He had seen her wear formal clothing before, but never had he seen her in this particular outfit. The yellow gloves that usually covered half of her arms had been replaced with smaller, red and white wrist bands to go along better with the rest of her outfit.

"Hi Hiccup," she replied, gracing him with a small smile. She noticed how his eyes were locked on her outfit, and she punched him lightly in the arm.

"Ow!" he complained, grabbing his arm. "What was that for?"

"This was not my doing, it was all my mom's," she explained to him quickly. "Apparently the Lakota Tribe is more important than any other tribe we've had visit in the past few years, and so I have to look my absolute best." She rolled her beautiful blue eyes, and Hiccup let a small grin slide onto his face.

"Well… let me be the first to say that you look beautiful," he told her, feeling his cheeks begin to burn as he nervously moved his gaze to the ground. Astrid smiled again and took Hiccup's hands in her own.

"And you look very… handsome," she struggled for the right word. "You actually look like the chief's son," she added with a quiet chuckle. Hiccup let a small smirk slip onto his face as he took her words in and registered them. So he wasn't the only one who thought that… that made him feel a little better, but at the same time a little worse.

"Thanks," he murmured.

Toothless bounded over behind Hiccup then, nudging the Viking in the back with his large nose. Hiccup turned his head to throw his dragon a look, but his lips turned up in a smile when Astrid tugged him close to plant a kiss on his suddenly hot cheek.

"Come on, we don't want the chief's son to be late," she said, chuckling lightly. Hiccup nodded his agreement, and once Toothless walked out of the house, the teenager closed the door behind them.

Astrid wasn't as far away from him as she could have been, but she certainly wasn't as close as Hiccup would have liked her to be. Of course, he wasn't going to argue or complain – that's not how the chief's son behaved. And, of course, it was required that he sat with his father and the visiting tribe's chief family. And so, at the head of the Hall, he sat at the longest of all the tables between his father and Kaida. Ragnar was on his father's other side, and Skule was next to Ragnar; now that he thought about it, this seating arrangement was a little strange. Then again, he supposed Ragnar was as much into the idea of Hiccup and Kaida marrying as Stoick was.

"Your dragon is very… enthusiastic," Kaida giggled as Toothless put his head in between their chairs. Hiccup grinned and patted the dragon on top of his head a couple of times.

"He just wants attention," he explained. He reached forward and picked up one of the many steaming fish from a large platter and threw it up into the air. Toothless stood back on his hind legs and opened his mouth wide, staying under the fish as it came back down. He caught it effortlessly in his mouth and swallowed it whole, lowering back down onto all four legs. Kaida grinned and laughed quietly while Hiccup smirked in pride. Toothless gave both teens a wide, toothless grin before lying back down on his stomach and allowing the two to turn back around.

The Hall was more crowded than Hiccup had ever seen it before. Larger tribes of Vikings had visited Berk before, sure, but tonight, there weren't only two tribes of Vikings eating and laughing and yelling at one another; many different dragons crowded the perimeter of the large room, occasionally getting food tossed at them by their owners. Every dragon was completely calm and tame – though Hiccup had to chuckle at Gobber's Terrible Terror continually landing on the man's shoulder and chewing on his braided mustache.

Hiccup looked over at Kaida just as she chomped down on her thick and juicy chicken leg, and she turned her head towards him, the leg still penetrated by her teeth, and they both stared at each other. She tore the meat from the bone and chewed it harshly, keeping her eyes on Hiccup. When she swallowed, she placed the remainder of the leg back on her platter and wiped her mouth on her arm, finally looking away from the other Viking.

"You seem, um… hungry," Hiccup stated a bit awkwardly. Kaida put on an almost defensive face.

"I'm a Viking; I was raised to eat like all the men I grew up around. Do the girls in your tribe eat properly and neatly?" Hiccup found himself surprised at the shadowed annoyance behind her soft voice. He hadn't meant to offend her at all, and he found her slightly bitter tone almost unnecessary.

"No…" he began hesitantly, subconsciously twiddling his thumbs in his lap under the table. "I just… Nevermind." He decided to try to sidestep the minefield, and Kaida must have decided to let him. She picked up her chicken leg again and began gnawing at the meat, and Hiccup slowly began nibbling on his own. It seemed to go on like this for an eternity until Stoick pushed himself to his feet, laughing and pounding his large fist continually against the table. The entire Hall gradually became quiet and all heads turned towards the Hooligan chief.

"It is a fine day when two tribes can come together and a time like this can be had," Stoick announced, his booming voice echoing off the walls of the large room. "It has truly been too long since the Hairy Hooligans and the Lakotians have been reunited. To further tonight's festivities, Jaggard and Helga are prepared to play for us. Feel free to let yourselves move to the sound – dancing has always been great fun to my village, and I hope it has been to our guest's as well." The whole room erupted into cheers as two large Vikings, one man and one woman, made their way over to a table next to one of the walls. The man picked up a large horn while the woman readied an instrument with the shape of a violin.

Hiccup wanted to disappear right then and there. If he knew his father (and he most certainly did), then Stoick was going to try to make Hiccup dance with Kaida in front of everybody, including Astrid. He found himself dreading it when the music started to softly play, crawling into his ears as it were taunting him. He usually loved to hear Jaggard and his wife play their two instruments, but at that moments in time, he just wanted to get away from it.

"Hiccup." Hiccup jumped when his father's voice blew into his left ear, and he slowly turned his head to face him. A huge smile occupied his cheeks and his eyes were scrunched into little slits because of it, and he seemed to not be able to stop chuckling as he spoke. Hiccup hadn't seen his father drunk many times before, but he hated being this close to him when he was – his breath reeked. "I want you to… dance with Kaida… tonight, alright son?" Stoick told him between laughs. Hiccup bit the inside of his cheek.

"Um… sure thing, Dad," he replied nervously, knowing that it would do no use trying to argue with him. Stoick laughed again, bringing back his wide open hand and clapping Hiccup on the back. The teenager gasped with discomfort, having had the wind knocked out of him, but tried to offer his father a slight smile.

"That's my boy!" Stoick chortled. He then turned his attention back to Ragnar, who looked almost as wasted as Stoick. Hiccup regained his normal breathing pattern, and then turned back to Kaida, who was patting Toothless' head softly.

"Hey, uh… Kaida…" Hiccup felt very uncomfortable as Kaida looked up into his eyes, and he almost retreated from the idea. But he didn't want to anger his father, especially when he was as tipsy as he was. "I was, er, wondering… if you'd like to maybe… dance… with… me…?" He noticed his voice got quieter and more hesitant with every new word that slipped past his lips, but he tried to give her an honest grin, as if this was what he really wanted to do.

Kaida knew that this was what he father wanted to happen, and so she smiled and nodded slowly. "Sure, I'd like that," she said. Hiccup returned her smile and held his hand out towards her. She hesitantly took it and allowed the Hooligans' future chief lead her out to the large open space inside the assorted tables. The tables had been set up in a large square, allowing there to be a large empty space inside of al of them, and this was where other Vikings were already dancing. The music had increased its pace, becoming an instrumental that could be danced to easily, and Hiccup and Kaida reached the center of the floor.

"Just to let you know, I'm really not the best dancer," Hiccup told her quietly, nervously tapping the wooden floor with the toe of his boot. "Especially since the defeat of the Red Death…" he added after a moment, even quieter. Kaida barely caught his words, but flipped her eyes down towards his left leg.

"Don't worry," she responded, giving him a small smile. "I'm a terrible dancer myself." Hiccup chuckled lightly, but then took her right hand in his left and put his own right hand on her waist as she put her own left hand on his right shoulder. They began moving along with the music, slowly at first, and at Hiccup's first stumble they both laughed quietly. After a few minutes, and a few more stumbles, they seemed to have gotten a better hang of it. They were both staring down at their feet, laughing every now and then as one of them forgot to step to the beat or made a wrong move.

"It's easier to do this looking down," Hiccup commented, daring a quick glance up at Kaida's face. She was staring downward, her concentration on her feet. "That way you don't have to see al of the people staring at you."

"Do you think everyone is staring at us?" Kaida asked quietly, lifting her brown eyes to meet with Hiccup's green ones. Her nodded quickly, but didn't look away from her eyes – he didn't want to try to prove himself right.

"We're the two chiefs' children; it's obvious that everyone will be watching us dance. We're probably the only two left on the dance floor."

As if trying to prove him wrong, a couple quickly whizzed by the two of them, clearly more comfortable at dancing in front of two tribes than they were. Hiccup decided to look up then to notice that the dance floor wasn't empty at all – rather, it was full. He looked all around the room and noticed that the two chief's still sat at the head table, watching all of the Vikings dance, still laughing as they chatted with each other. He turned his head again and noticed Astrid sitting where she had been earlier, talking quietly with Ruffnut, while Tuffnut and Snotlout chased Fishlegs around the dance floor.

"It seems you were wrong," Kaida told him quietly, causing him to snap his eyes back to her. He chuckled quietly.

"Yeah, I guess I was," he agreed. He spun her in a quick circle and then dipped her in his arms, wrenching her back up straight after a second of staring into her gorgeous brown eyes. His gaze returned to Astrid, who was now sitting alone as Ruffnut walked towards the dance floor with a boy that Hiccup recognized as one of the students that had completed Dragon Training two years before. He looked back at Kaida then, giving her an apologetic grin.

"I'm sorry, but can I ask to dance with another now?" he asked as kindly as he possibly could. "I have a friend over there who looks a little lonely right about now…" Kaida smiled and gave one small nod.

"Of course. I'd ask for the same if our positions were reversed." Hiccup smiled again at her, brought her hand up to his lips, and laid a gentle kiss on the back of it. They smiled at each other once more before they walked off in opposite directions – Kaida back towards her spot at the head table and Hiccup towards Astrid. Ragnar waved his daughter over to him when she returned to the table, and she walked over to him, immediately smelling the mead on his breath.

"Where's Hiccup?" he asked quietly. "I saw you go off to dance with" – he burped – "him earlier." Kaida took a step back and fanned her hand in front of her face.

"He's dancing with a friend of his now. He was worried they were feeling lonely," she answered. Ragnar turned his head to look out over the crowd of dancing Vikings and his eyes rested on Hiccup approaching Astrid's table.

"Hmmm," he sighed, settling back into his chair. He accidentally hit his head against the back of it, and both he and Stoick laughed while Kaida returned to her seat, rolling her eyes.

Hiccup extended his arm out towards Astrid before he even greeted her, and she frowned. She looked up his arm and into his sparkling green eyes, noticing the slight smile on his lips.

"So not happening," she told him, smirking slightly.

"Come on Astrid, you don't even have to dance. Just… move your legs to the beat of the music."

"Hiccup, I can fight, I can run, I can ride a dragon, but when it comes to dancing, I have two left feet."

"Well, I have no left feet, and yet I just danced with Kaida." Astrid raised an eyebrow at him and his smile widened. "Come on, just for a little bit. You can punch me or do whatever afterwards." Astrid merely stared up into his eyes for a moment before sighing and taking Hiccup's outstretched hand. He smiled at her and led her out onto the dance floor, putting his hand in the same positions he had on Kaida.

"I can't believe I let you talk me into this," Astrid muttered, but a small smile was on her face so Hiccup knew she didn't totally hate it like she was trying to let on.

"Please don't plan anything too harsh for your revenge," he joked.

"No promises," she replied, smirking at him. He smiled, chuckled, and they both continued moving to the music, though all they were really doing was spinning in a slow circle.

The cool night air felt good on his face after being stuffed inside the Hall for the last three hours, crowded by a hundred or so huge Vikings. Hiccup hadn't expected the feast to last so long, but when a dance contest had broken out among the attendees, there was no stopping them until they were all too tired to continue. Hiccup smirked to himself as he remembered his own drunken father trying to stand on his own two feet, let alone dance on them.

But now, with the moon high in the sky, he and his father were wishing everyone a good night's rest as they exited the large doors of the Hall. Ragnar, Skule, and Kaida were the last ones to exit, and they stopped by Stoick and Hiccup instead of continuing on towards their guest home like everyone else had.

"That was some feast, Stoick," Ragnar commented, laughing. Stoick laughed with him as they both clapped a hand on the other's shoulder. As the three adults said their goodbyes, Hiccup approached Kaida and gave her a small smile, which she returned.

"Well, it sure was fun dancing with you earlier tonight," Hiccup told her quietly.

"Likewise," she replied.

They stood there in silence for a moment, listening to their two fathers continue to laugh with each other. Hiccup turned his head and saw Astrid standing a little ways away in the moonlight, scratching under Toothless' chin. He smiled at her, and then turned back to Kaida.

"Well, I guess I should let you get back to your house, then," he told her. "I hope you have a good first night's rest in your guest house – we prepared it at the best of our ability for you and your parents."

"Thank you, Hiccup," she responded, stepping forward to peck him on the cheek softly. She pulled away smiling at him, and then walked over to join her parents without another word. Hiccup stared after her in astonishment for a short moment, but then turned and made his way over to where Astrid still stood with Toothless.

"I often wonder why he likes you so much," he said nonchalantly as he approached them, and Astrid gave a light snort.

"He likes me more than you sometimes," she retorted, smirking over at Hiccup. He lifted his hand to his chest, pretending to be taken aback.

"Excuse me?" he said. "I set him free when I could have killed him, I fixed his tail, I protected him from the rest of my village, I freed him and the rest of the dragons from the Red Death's weird trance it had on them… I don't believe it's possible for him to like anyone more than me."

"Oh, alright then, I guess I should be going then." Hiccup caught her arm as she turned to leave and pulled her back around to face him.

"I never said anything about you having to go anywhere," he told her, smiling. She smirked again.

"I guess not. But I have nothing to do here, so I figured I'd go home and get to bed."

"Oh, well if you'd like to, I guess I won't stand in your way," Hiccup said, releasing her arm.

"Alright then. Goodnight."

"Come here."

Hiccup grabbed her arm again and pulled her lips to his, wrapping his arms around her waist. She quickly registered and wrapped her own arms around his neck, returning the kiss he gave her. Toothless chortled and then stood up on his hind legs, moving his head in towards the two Vikings' connected faces. He ended up pushing their faces apart and tackling them both to the ground, resulting in both of them laughing at him and attempting to push him off of them.

Ragnar stood up by the Hall, watching it all, as Stoick said a final goodnight. Ragnar returned the comment absentmindedly, staring as the two teenage Vikings gave each other another quick kiss before going in separate directions, the dragon following after the chief's son. He took his wife's hand in his own and his daughter's in his other and led them both back to their guest home, his eyes narrowed. It looked as though things would not be as easy as he thought they would be.

A/N: So there ya have it! Again, I'll try my hardest to get the next update to you quicker! Also, I'm not exactly sure if Vikings had music back when they were around, but for the sake of this, they have it on Berk. And as I was writing the dancing parts of this chapter, I kept imagining a song kind of like "The Vikings Have Their Tea" from the HTTYD OST being played by Jaggard and Helga. So that's the kind of music that they had.

Please review and let me know what you think! :)

(( Claire ))