The Big Four - One Life

Chapter 9 - Weaponry

Merida fell silent and Hiccup turned to her, nodding at her to stay quiet. She scowled at her feet irritably but she didn't stay sour for long, for Rapunzel had descended the staircase, wearing one of Merida's rejected gowns. Her hair had been braided in a traditional Scottish style and tied in place with a piece of the DunBroch tartan. The gown was a deep shade of purple embroidered with silver Celtic knots around the hem and the sleeves were trimmed with fur. The bodice was laced with pale pink thread; the dress would have cost a small fortune but Merida was having none of it.

It had been presented by MacIntosh the Younger the previous year, as a 'compliment to the princess'; she had smiled and nodded courteously, but slipped into her well-worn dark green dress as soon as the visit was over, sighing with relief.

Jack was lost for words at the sight and had to find his breath when she smiled at him shyly when she saw him swinging his legs from the rafters. He dropped to the floor, leaving a tiny trail of snowflakes where his feet had touched the cold stone and walked over to her, smiling. Taking her hand in his, he looked up into her eyes and kissed her palm gently, not caring that Merida and Hiccup were looking at them with a grin.

"My princess."

The corner of his mouth twitched into a smirk and she blushed violently under her tanned skin. He stepped back, understanding she felt self concious. Merida, in turn, stepped forward.

"You look a lot nicer in that thing than I ever would." Rapunzel smiled.

"You could look lovely if you let someone have a go dressing you up!"

"I know," she sighed, "but I can't stand it. I live in my ordinary dresses, the ones where I can run and climb and shoot and ride. I couldn't live with someone changing that. I just couldn't."

Hiccup turned to look at her and realised just how trapped and confined this princess was. Though he had initially believed she was free - she was trapped by so many different aspects of society, confining her, restricting her and ultimately trapping her in the chains of social acceptability.

Rapunzel nodded, seemingly understandingly. She twirled, holding the dress so it flowed and danced of it's own accord when she twirled.

"It's so pretty though! Thank you for lending it to me."

"Keep it," Merida laughed. "I won't be using it. But don't let MacIntosh catch you in it or I'll have it in the neck." Rapunzel smiled and promised she wouldn't. "Hiccup," Merida said suddenly, making him jump. "How'd you make your suit?"

"Why d'you need to know?" Hiccup asked, confused. Merida rolled her eyes.

"Because you're the one with all the knowledge of dragon training here and basically have their whole life revolving around dragons so it's statistically more likely that you've adapted your clothing to suit your environment." The way she said it, it was like it was obvious. "I wanted to create outfits for all of us so we can fight properly. Therefore we need to figure out how best to do it - and you're the one with the gadgets dangling off him like creepers. You know most about them; teach us what to do and I'll do the combat."

Hiccup was left pretty speechless to that; Jack grinned at the flustered expression on his face. He nodded, reaching for his sketchbook for the designs he'd drawn a few months back.

Over the next hour the four of them sketched personalised armour and helmets for the upcoming battles and training; Hiccup's was just a revamp but Merida and Rapunzel needed full suits. Merida's had a built in quiver into the back and a slot for spare bow strings, just in cast one snapped. Hiccup stared at her bow which was laying on the table and picked it up, examining it in finer detail.

"Hey!" Merida snapped, "Give it back!" Hiccup held it just out of reach, checking how the bow string functioned. Eventually he set it back on the table and met Merida's glaring eyes.

"I have an idea as to how you can fight with a bow but with greater accuracy and much more power," he explained. "It'd mean a totally new design though and I don't know if your parents would let me try it."

"What?" Rapunzel asked, curious. Merida sat across from them, still irritated that he was man handling her most prized possession. Hiccup sketched out a rough design of what was still recognisable as a bow, but considerably shorter in length and with three different strings, two of which he labelled 'cables', the other labelled 'bow string'. It featured two wheels and pulley systems, all miniaturised and with a formidable looking mechanism on the front of the handle which didn't look like it served much of a purpose. He pushed the sketch over to her with a grin.

"It's similar to your bow, only much more powerful."

"How much more powerful?" Merida asked, leaning forward with a smirk.

"It should shoot a good few times faster than your original bow," he explained, "the pulleys and cables give it much more power behind the shot and this here," he indicated to a strange device on the bow, "is a sight. I invented it back home. You can adjust it depending on how you shoot, but it's bound to hit the gold every time if you're a good archer."

"How long will it take to make?" Jack asked, dangling from the rafters again. Hiccup shrugged.

"I don't know. We can get other people working on the spare parts but this is a brand new weapon. Something Drago will never have seen before."

"You made it?" Merida asked, stunned. "Just like that, you made it up?"

"Not exactly," Hiccup replied. "I'd toyed with the idea of a crossbow before and I made a shield that transformed into a crossbow type weapon so I knew the general rules of archery. I've been wondering how to make a new bow for a while but I haven't really been given the opportunity so when I heard about the dragon crisis and saw your bow I thought we could do with some new weaponry."

"What's it called?"

"A compound bow."

Notes: Hiccup is about 1000 years ahead of his time; compound bows were invented in the 1960s however I decided Merida would be able to fight Drago much better if she were equipped with a better bow (I shoot recurve, like Merida, and I've seen compound bows in action. They work much better, believe me) and it adds a nice perspective to the story, as Hiccup is teaching Merida to shoot and not the other way around, like most stories.

The sight Hiccup 'invented' is a device used on most recurve bows, unless the archer is shooting bare bow (like Merida when she splits the arrow.)

Also - if you don't believe me, recurve bows can shoot (at their best) at 150 mph. Compound bows can go up to 200 mph. Google it.