“…You come around and the armor falls

Pierce the room like a cannonball

Now all we know

Is don't let go

We are alone, just you and me

Up in your room and our slates are clean…”

I ran my hands through my hair being careful not to ruin the hairdo, which was tighter than necessary and brought back bittersweet memories. I approached the mirror and inspected my figure in that tight dress that made it difficult for me to breathe, and I couldn't help but feel déjà vu.

The difference being that, now I am not being forced into marriage, and that this time I was able to avoid wearing the part of the dress that squeezes the life out of my head.

But as I looked at a fixed point on the floor I also realized that I was alone, the presence of my mother wasn't there to bother me. I smiled ungracefully, remembering how hard she used to comb my hair and how my only wish was not to have to go through that again.

I could still hear her voice telling me to stop complaining. Fix your posture, Merida.

I laughed soundlessly; I was really alone now.

I took a breath, still seeing my reflection, smoothed out my already perfectly straightened dress and gathered my will to go downstairs. To see my father, my brothers, and everyone. After the mysterious kidnapping of my mother, my father has become a merciless being, they say. That we must invade Berk immediately, that the Vikings have her locked up.

Vikings. They can be so handsome.

With those green eyes, that lopsided grin and unkempt hair, so endeaing, so...

“Hiccup?!” After seeing his reflection behind mine I turned around so fast I almost lost my balance, and he seemed to notice it too because he came over with his hands ready to grab me.

I could almost hear his teasing reply before he said it. “Only for you, milady.”

“Are you insane?”

“Insane because if they see you they'll kill you. You fool,” He let out a chuckle at the last, but soon after his amusement faded and he stood up straight in front of me, taking my hands in his.

“Merida, I think we both know that a senseless war is about to break out,” He arranged that big curl, simply brushed it away from my face to take my chin gently “That's not what I want for Berk or what you want for DunBroch.”

His green eyes had the most beautiful forest inside them and could see through me easily, every secret, every imperfection.

“I hear you, dragon boy.”

“You're the one who always said that our fate lives within us. Years ago you forged yours because you knew it was what you had to do, and I think this time we have to do the same,” he swallowed, his Adam’s apple twitching nervously. “Together.”

Before I could ask, he cradled my face.

“Let's run away,” What? “Let's forge a better future, let our parents work things out the right way and come together to find us. It won't work if I do it alone and I think it's the only solution.”

My lost eyes moved between his, shifting from one to another trying to make sense of what he was saying.

“My father won't listen, and I know that after what happened to your mother, neither will yours. There will be more deaths than we can count if we don't do something,” He looked down at my mouth and pressed the sides of my lips with his thumbs. “I ask this of you as future chief, and as Hiccup. Your majesty, future queen, Merida. Let’s run. Let’s seek peace and find it together, be brave with me.”

I stared at him for a couple more seconds and broke away; quickly looking around the room. Throwing things behind me and shuffling everything.

Paper, paper, paper.

I could feel his spirits dropping from where he had frozen.

“Ah, you beauty!” I quickly dipped the quill in ink, picked up the sheet and rested it on Hiccup's back just for the hell of it.

I marked the final dot hard and he turned around.

“Where did you hide Toothless?”

He smiled, one of the most genuine smiles I had ever seen on him, and told me he was waiting for us on the terrace.

I didn't hesitate to ask him to help me get out of this monstrous dress and I wanted to roll my eyes when he was careful not to tear it. I put on the dark one I love so much, took my cloak, bow and arrows and left the note where they would easily see it.

I was already heading for the door when Hiccup turned me around, giving me a chaste kiss before taking my hand to leave my room together.

You didn't believe me when I told you mom was a bear, but believe me now. The Vikings don't have her, and we disappeared together by choice. If you start the war, you will never see us again.

Show this to Stoic, his son wants a better future for Berk than this.

“…So you were never a saint

And I've loved in shades of wrong

We learn to live with the pain

Mosaic broken hearts

“Adventure is out there!” we shouted, bringing our faces closer together.

She threw her head back laughing, and I tried to keep looking at her in the midst of my own laughter, my narrowed eyes making the task almost impossible.

“You intimidated me the first day we met,” I said, trying to get her attention. And it worked; those light blue eyes were now looking at me, as she covered her mouth with one hand. “And you made me swear crossing my heart that I would fly you in a blimp to the place of your dreams.”

She peeled her palm from her freckled face.

“Paradise Falls,” She whispered softly, gazing at the floor tenderly. Her nostalgia was mine too.

Gods, I love her.

“You also forcibly joined me to your club and practically broke my arm, but those are only details,” She laughed again and I settled a little more on the bed, trying to look as casual as possible.

Her crossed legs were very close to mine, facing each other, sitting on what today officially became our married bed.

“You, also,” I poked her, “insulted my prosthetic leg, but that's just another detail” This time she pretended she wasn't amused, giving me an offended shove.

“I remember it very differently.”

I ran my hands up and down her legs instead of answering, that white, smooth skin, full of beautiful ginger freckles. They drove me crazy.

“You barged into my club house when I was in the middle of an exploration, and you weren't talking! at all!”

I shook my head in amusement.

“You never gave me room. With that crazy hair,” I ran a hand through her curls, tucking them behind her shoulders. “Those medals made out of soda pop caps and those missing baby teeth, which most likely didn't fall out on their own—”

She pushed me back, harder this time, making me lay back on the bed.

“Besides, you were... too much. Taller than me, braver, more alive.” She settled down next to me, resting that curly head on my chest. I ignored the heat on my face because, for Thor's sake, we were already married. “I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you when you left out the window that night, Mer”

She settled further into me, as if I were a pillow, and we laid in comfortable silence. Just feeling her breathing and mine slowly synchronize. I closed my eyes and hugged her, remembering the time she had announced her presence by tying my blue balloon to a stick and sending it in my direction.

The night she sent me the balloon I hit my face twice with my own cast and made an oath I couldn't take back.

I didn't want to, anyway.

“You know, Hiccup?” I answered with a hmm, too comfortable to open my eyes “My dream was always to go to Paradise Falls, land lost in time," she said the whole name, and as she said it, I did in my mind too. ”But I think I already found another one”

Before I could ask, she added; “Another dream.” She passed one of her legs over mine “Kill me for being corny, but being here, in your arms, is my land lost in time. Only we're not lost, because I find myself in you, every day,” I smiled, knowing that our lives had become an adventure ever since we met.

I took the stick I had tied a blue balloon to earlier and stuck it in the ground next to her headstone.

“Let’s go buddy,” I caressed his little head and he purred, that beautiful, soft vibration being the only comfort I have left.

Merida DunBroch

A loud bear roar echoed through the forest, loud enough to give me goose bumps and send several birds flying out of the trees.

“Gods,” I said to myself, shaking my head low.

Toothless is somewhere in this eternal forest and now it turns out there are bears. This is really the last thing I need right now. With any luck, that bear is as far away as heard and my very enthusiastic and curious dragon has nothing to do with it.

“Toothless!...” I lengthened his name as I called him without raising my voice too much. The bastard should be able to hear me perfectly.

I don't even know what happened to him, he seemed to detect something in the distance and by the time I saw his ears straight up it was too late; he had taken off, half flying and I lost him in the bushes.

I kicked a small rock, where are you, buddy?

My concern was put aside as I heard rapid footsteps, coming closer and closer to me. I turned, in the same direction as the roar.

I squinted and in the distance I could see an... orange ball.

When it was close enough I distinguished that it was hair, and that it belonged to a woman. I stopped analyzing it when I noticed the three bears behind her and completely ignored something that appeared to be a blue light that disappeared when they passed through it.

I didn't know how to react.

But she did.

They were getting closer and closer and when she ran past me, grabbed my hand and practically dragged me away, it felt like waking up.

I screamed loudly as we ran as fast as we could, I ended up dragging her and gulped for air when suddenly my feet caught on something and we fell.

One of those long falls that you know it's going to hurt before you hit the ground.

I let out a groan and tried to catch the air that left my body, after falling backwards into what seemed to be the hardest rock in the world.

Some dirt fell on my face and as I looked up and saw the three bears; standing on the edge of the huge pit. They stood there a bit longer, touching the surface with their paws before ultimately leaving.

“Damn it!”

Oh right, the girl.

“Are you all right?” I got up after checking my prosthesis and making sure everything was in order.

“Damn you, little monsters!”

I looked at her quizzically; she was sitting on the floor, legs outstretched and staring at a fixed point. She didn't seem to really care about the situation, as if it was nothing more than a casual occurrence.

“...Are you all right?”

Only then she seemed to notice my presence, but still didn't answer me, the only sound in the cave was our heaving breaths.

I looked at her, this time with more attention and noticed that her dress was torn and stained in more than one part, my eyes passed many places before reaching hers.

She stood up, pulling out a twig sticking out of her hair and approached me after tossing it dismissively.

“Who are you?”

“Excuse me?”

“Who are you? And what were you doing in the woods,” she grabbed her waist with both hands, “just walking around?”

I blinked, was she really interrogating me, with that accusatory tone?

“To be fair, I wasn't the one being chased by three bears.”

She seemed satisfied with my answer.

“… Come.”

I looked at her incredulously, but followed her anyway.

“This is all way too confusing. I have about a thousand questions—”

She covered my mouth with one hand, squelching a “What's your name?” as we both frowned; me at her and her at something she seemed to be seeing in the dark.

Officially entering my top of strangest interactions.

A ray of sunlight hitting us where we were standing, illuminating our heads and half of her face.

Her eyes were light blue, one has a slight hint of green around the pupil.

“Did you hear that?” She kept looking for something in the shadowy part of the cave, while I admired her side profile and her full, slightly parted lips.

I pretended I was also looking for something in the dark when I felt the heat on my cheeks.

Soon after she decided it was nothing and we kept moving through the cave. Wel, she walked and did things while I followed her and asked her every question I could think of.

She would answer vaguely, something about her brothers' oats and that it was “a long story”. But when I wanted to know if she had seen a black dragon around, her interest peaked.

Now she was the one asking, as I was looking for a way to make a ladder in the big stone wall that would lead us out of here.

“You must have something special,” I noticed she looked me up and down as I tried to make the wall more textured, with more things to step on. “Maybe it has to do with your dragon, and you don't look like any boy I've ever seen.”

I tore off part of a vine, leaving a single prominent branch; hard and stable.

“I'll take that as a compliment.”

This time, she didn't settle.

“So where did you say you came from?”

I swallowed hard, picking up a rock from the ground to break a hole in the old wall. It doesn't tend to go over well to say I'm a Viking in unknown lands, more than once I've been thrown into a dungeon, accused of theft, attacked, among other things. I remembered when, once, they laughed in my face because I don't look, at all, like a typical Viking and I rolled my eyes mentally.

“From far, far away.”

“Hmm,” She picked up another stone and started to do the same as me, but higher up. “And may I ask, why did you come from so far away?”

I am the son of a stubborn Viking chief, trying to prove that the inhabitants of other lands can be friendly, contrary to what we have been thinking since, well, the beginning of time.

“Why so interested?”

She shrugged.

“Curiosity. Just like you, a few minutes ago.”

Touché.

We finished trying to make some sort of makeshift ladder and decided that we should be able to climb by now.

“Ladies first.”

Taking her dress in both hands, she easily curtsied as she looked at me, sarcasm practically dripping from the expression in her face.

“A lady wouldn't let a stranger see under her skirt.” She took that branch, giving it a little tug to make sure it would hold, and pushed herself up.

Never before in my life had I turned red so quickly.

“No, not what I, I’d never mean—”

She looked down at me from above, over her shoulder, and let out a mocking laugh that sent the heat back up my neck.

When she had climbed high enough, I prepared to do the same.

I brought my right foot up, managing to get it into the makeshift crevice. I grabbed the branch, but stopped when I wanted to bring my left foot up. My very, very metallic left foot.

I wanted to be swallowed by a dragon, I forgot.

“Don't tell me you're afraid of heights,” She raised his voice from above.

I burst out laughing.

“No, but my prosthesis doesn't like climbing very much.”

She poked her head out, a huge bundle of curls making a cloud in the light coming through the hole and I simply stretched out my leg, pointing at her with both hands open. I could make out her curious eyes even though she was backlit.

I sighed, squeezing the branch tighter and resigned myself to a very difficult climb.

After a humiliating amount of near-slips, I made it a little more than halfway up until I heard movement above.

A scream, and then something lunged at her. Grunts, curses.

My whole body tensed and I scrambled up incredibly fast, ready for whatever was attacking her on the surface. Several pieces of the old wall popping out on the way up.

I leapt up instead of taking the last step and was met with the last thing I expected to see. I let out a huge gulp of air; Toothless was on top of her, running his tongue over her face and swatting at her as she laughed and squealed.

“I want to believe that this,” she was interrupted by another lick and I moved closer, “is the dragon you were talking about”

“That's enough, Toothless, leave her alone.”

He didn't listen to me and this time he stuck his head as far as he could into the curve of the redhead's neck, making a loud noise as he inhaled.

“Toothless!” I made sure to sound sterner and his ears perked up, moving away from her completely.

I looked away as, still laughing, she wiped her dress all over the places where he had drooled on her. I took the opportunity to pounce on my dragon in an attempt to tackle him.

“Where were you, huh?” he dropped to the floor, with me on him, “you think you can walk around by yourself? you're nothing but a whimsical” I scratched him in that place he likes on his neck “dragon baby!”

He looked even offended and I saw in his look that he was telling me “A twenty-one year old baby dragon” and I rolled my eyes.

“Yes, I'm twenty-one too but I'm not an immature—”

“Twenty-one?” I stopped scratching him, confused that I actually heard an answer and turned around, I had forgotten about her for a second. “I didn't think you were older than me.”

“Older?”

She nodded and I got off Toothless.

“By how much?”

“Barely three years.”

I took my hands behind my back and walked around her, unable to keep from smiling.

“So, I know you have siblings and you had a problem with them, their oatmeal and it's a long story. You're eighteen and about to turn nineteen, you seem to be half crazy considering you were chased by three bears and you were incredibly calm, but I still don't know your name.”

She almost laughs.

“You wear weird armor, you have a dragon that's the last of its kind and I'm pretty sure you're a Viking despite not really looking like one. You're also kind of crazy for coming to explore these lands and, from what I saw, your prosthetic and his chair,” She made pointed at the dragon, “have similar mechanisms. I take the liberty of assuming you're either an inventor or know a thing or two.”

By Odin's beard.

After that we spent our time trying to guess each other's names as we walked around a bit. Merida, her name is Merida.

... I didn't guess it.