The Dragon Rider

Chapter 10 ~ What really matters

Merida couldn't quite come to terms with what she'd just done. She'd threatened people at the point of a sword before but she'd never actually killed someone. Seeing the light vanish from his eyes and the strangled cry that emitted from his throat, she couldn't forget something like that.

Drago's body was pushed into the sea by the assembled Vikings who cheered delightedly, treating Merida as a hero. The bad guy turned good. While everyone celebrated and cheered, she slipped away, finding the dragon that used to belong to Stoick and giving him a small pat on the snout.

"How about you give me a ride out of here, yeah?" she asked him quietly. "Neither of us really fit in here, do we?" He nuzzled her hand in reply and she turned back one more time. No one seemed to be following her. Merida sighed and climbed onto the reptile's back, but just as she was ready to take off, she was distracted. Someone was running towards her, someone who had a distinctive style of running they must have had to adapt to due to a prosthetic leg.

"What're you doing?" Hiccup asked. His eyes were wide and his brow was furrowed. Merida didn't look at him.

"What does it look like?" She twiddled her thumbs between her fingers. "I can't stay here. I'm not like you. I don't have a family or a home to go to, without trapping I'm nothing. Now that's gone; I'm not complaining, but I don't have anything else credible about me."

"You're a good shot," Hiccup mumbled nervously but when he saw her eyes fill with tears he realised it was obviously the wrong thing to say. "What? What did I say?"

"I killed someone," she whispered, her head in her hands. "I did it and it, oh Gods, it was so easy, you just had to loose the arrow and it wasn't like it was anything different from shooting at a target but the heart is the bullseye and you had to do it or you'd die instead and it's whether you'd want to live with the guilt or die and I'm so selfish!" She broke down and slipped off Skullcrusher's back, sitting on the ground, crying. "I swear - he'd have killed everyone else and that was the only reason I did it! He'd - he'd have killed you..."

She couldn't speak anymore. Hiccup knelt beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder, looking at her with a gaze that seemed to flicker.

"I'd have done the same for you," he whispered. "I'd have done everything I could to save you. I'd have lived with the guilt for years after to save you. You are amazing Merida. You're one of the bravest people I know and please, please, don't leave Berk now. I don't think I - we - are ready to let you go. We can't lose you. Everyone here cares about you, so much."

"Except Astrid," she replied, looking at the ground. "She hates me. I swear, she'd see me banished for what I did to her dragon back when I met you."

"You didn't know what you were doing," Hiccup said gently. "Everyone on this island used to hate dragons as much as you did when they didn't know what a dragon's loyalty really means, her most of all. You should have seen her in training!" Merida smiled very weakly and Hiccup continued, spurred on, "I swear, she hated me too. She pretty much attacked me when she saw I was doing better than her."

"No," Merida whispered, shocked. Hiccup nodded.

"She threatened me at the point of an axe, dropped said axe on my head, kicked me in the face and punched me before kissing me."

"Kissing you?"

"Yes. I thought it was on the spur of the moment. Turns out it was really. She'd never really felt many feelings for me and we've been friends but I think she thought more of it than I dad. I guess that's why I've stayed single."

"Really?" Merida asked. "I'd have thought half the village would be after you, the famous dragon rider."

"Not exactly," Hiccup sighed. "I'm not exactly someone's idea of an ideal husband. Who'd want a man who's constantly talking about his pet dragon, riding off every hour of the day and night because they need the adrenaline rush so bad and the only thing they can offer them is home made trinkets they've made in the smithy?"