War Diplomat

Lunch

A/N: oh guys I'm sorry this took so long :( no dragons in this chapter, but she does kind of meet the httyd group people, and the next chapter is definitely gonna have dragons :) sorry that nothing really big happens in this chapter, and it's kind of lame, and it has a lame title, and an extremely lame ending, but enjoy anyway! :)

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The Great Hall was a huge room lit dimly with torches mounted on the walls. There were wooden tables and benches placed around the room. Vikings swarmed in and began to help themselves to food on the tables. They grabbed plates and piled them high, then grabbed a cup of yak milk or mead and sauntered their way back to the tables and benches where their peers were already tearing into their food.

Still looking around the great hall, Merida hesitantly made her way toward the table with the trays and plates stacked with mutton, chicken, and some other unidentifiable food. She grimaced as she spotted a steaming pot full of - something green with orange chunks floating around in it.

Merida took a plate from a stack and placed a chicken leg, and a piece of mutton on it. Then she turned around and surveyed the room, looking for an empty seat.

Her eyes landed on a boy, a plate in his hand, heading toward an empty table. She decided to join him.

They arrived at the table at the same time, and the boy slid into a seat.

"Er, can I sit here?" Merida asked, standing by the table holding her plate uncertainly. The boy looked up from his food, surprised.

"Uh, yeah, yeah, go ahead," he said, gesturing to the empty seat across from him.

Merida stepped over the bench and sat down carefully. Almost immediately, the teens at the table next to them got up, and shoved their way onto a seat at their table.

"It's a wee bit crowded here for 7 people don't you think?" Merida managed as she was sandwiched between a large boy and another boy with straight black hair that reached his ears.

"Oh, right, sorry," the large boy next to her replied with a sheepish smile. He scooted away from her, pushing a girl off of the side of the bench.

"Hey!" The girl got up and slammed her fist into the boy's face. Merida forced her gaze back to the others and smiled weakly.

"So," Merida tried making conversation, "Vikings, eh?"

"Yeah," a girl with a braid replied, smirking. "What about you, princess?"

"What..about me?" Merida replied, confused.

"You know, what's your name, what do you like to do?"

"Well, my name is Merida, and I like to practice archery," Merida struggled to remember what a proper princess would like and wouldn't. A proper princess wouldn't know how to handle a sword or shoot an arrow, or ride a horse so fast that the world around them became a blur. A proper princess wouldn't climb the Queen's Tooth, wouldn't throw her hands up, and laugh gleefully as she twirled around next to a raging waterfall on a platform that wasn't very wide. A proper princess reads, knows how to make conversation over tea with the Queen of Ithatiny, and sits in oversized chairs with cats at her feet.

"Wow, archery huh? Have you ever set an arrow on fire and shot it at something?" A boy leaned over the table to look at her.

"Have you ever set anything on fire?" A girl asked her.

Merida looked between the twins, unsure if she was supposed to answer them. "Uhh...." She looked to Hiccup for help.

"Oh Thor," Hiccup groaned.

Merida turned back to the twins. "Have you..?"

"Oh yeah, lots of times. We cause trouble wherever we can," the girl sneered.

"Oh yeah, right. Hey, remember that empty room?" The boy added and they smirked.

"Right."

A half hour and several narrowly avoided food fights (started by the twins) later, Merida excused herself and walked out of the warmth of the Great Hall and outside. The air was cooling down as the sun set, painting the sky a fiery red.

Merida took a deep breath, letting the cool air fill her lungs. She missed her family, her brothers, her dad, her mother, and Angus of course. But all the same, the freedom was exhilarating. This was a whole new place, full of dragons that could rip anyone's leg off! Merida nearly smiled, thinking of the story her dad always told at dinner of how he had lost his leg.

She heard footsteps behind her and she turned around, spotting the boy staring back at her, as if unsure whether to continue walking.

"Hello," Merida said. "Your name is Hiccup, right?"

"Yeah, great name, I know." He managed a half-laugh. "My parents thought it would frighten away trolls and other creatures."

Merida smiled and the thought of dragons suddenly bolted into her mind again. She looked straight at Hiccup, a smirk on her lips and a glint in her eye.

"So, I hear you have dragons."