Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons [COMPLETED]

Chapter 12

The horse's hooves squelched in the mud as it trotted up to the Snuggly Duckling, a tavern built at the base of ginormous tree. Hiccup grimaced at the dilapidated building. "That doesn't look very stable."

"It's held up for this long," Merida pointed out, though equally uncertain. She halted the horse a few yards down from the other horses tied to the posts. "Would you like me to help you down?" she asked with a grin.

"No, no. I still have some of my . . . dignity intact." Hiccup gingerly lifted a sore leg over the saddle and carefully inched his way to the ground. "Wow. Riding a horse has to be the most jarring experience in my life." He stumbled when he landed, but didn't fall. "Thank goodness my tail bone went numb a while back."

Merida laughed and easily swung herself out of the saddle. However, she tripped on the edge of her skirt.

"Careful!" Hiccup caught her by the waist as she fell back towards him. Instinctively, she grabbed hold of his arms. They looked up at each other's faces, only inches apart now. For once there was no bickering between them as they stood silently in the rain.

"Ah," Merida stuttered nervously, "thank you."

"Uh," Hiccup quickly pulled away, "you're welcome." He cleared his throat awkwardly. "After you." He motioned to the Snuggly Duckling.

"Right." After adjusting her bow across her chest, Merida briskly walked to the tavern with the Viking following.

As they grew nearer to the tavern door, they could hear more clearly loud angry voices coming from inside. The cacophony only increased when they opened the door and stepped inside. Merida lowered her hood and wrinkled her nose. "Ugh, it smells like somethin' died in here."

"I bet something did," Hiccup muttered looking very disgusted at the tavern's occupants. Ria hadn't been kidding when she had said "ugly people." Many of them had disfigured features with scars, and lumps, and bruises; some from fights, others from birth. Others wore masks to hide those wounds. There were thugs with missing limbs (Hiccup was sure he saw one with an extra limb), and thugs with spikes on all possible areas of their clothes. Not a single one of them was without a weapon as they sat at their tables drinking or walking around, rough-housing.

The closest brutes glanced up when the door shut and did double-takes at the newcomers. As the children slowly made their way up the aisle, squeezing between and ducking past people, more and more outlaws took notice. By the time they had made it halfway to the bar, everyone was silently staring at them.

Hiccup saw a thug with metal over half his face picking his teeth with a dagger. The Viking didn't like how Half-face was studying Hiccup, almost like he was wondering if he could hit the Viking from this far away. "What do we do?" Hiccup whispered to Merida.

"My dad said," she whispered back, " 'never let the enemy see your fear.' Act confident." She straightened up and strode proudly up the center aisle; the thugs made way for her. Hiccup followed close behind looking less proud and more nervous than she did.

The princess chose to stand at an empty stool beside a group of three bandits with matching tattoos on their arms. She took no notice of them, but instead leaned her forearms on the counter top. A shorter man (a little taller than her), using a steak knife to sharpen his other steak knife, squinted at this sassy thing. "Are you in charge?" she asked in her best authoritative manner.

"Ain't nobody in charge," he replied gruffly. "We don't need nobody to tell us what to do." He spat a glob of some dark substance onto the floor.

Hiccup stood by Merida's other side safely away from the bandit trio and copied her stance by leaning on the counter. "Well, I'm sure you're aware by now that your country is in trouble."