Maybe I'm Afraid... (Mericcup)

Chapter 2

They came back to where Astrid was comforting the girl. She was about their age, maybe younger. Her hair and eyes were brown like her tattered old dress. She seemed to be muttering something that Astrid couldn't quite understand. Something about a 'him' and that that's all she has left. She did understand one word clearly: Please.

"Don't worry," Astrid said trying to comfort the girl, "They'll get it back." Just as she said those words, Merida, Hiccup, and Toothless walked up with the girl's duffle bag. Merida handed the girl her bag. The girl let out a cry of relief as she took her bag. Her tears turned into tears of joy. "T-Thank you... Thank you so much...," she cried, clinging the bag close. "Here," Merida said as she took out a small cake from her pocket. The girl struggled to find her voice but was obviously grateful. She hugged Merida, catching her off guard. "I will never forget this," she said. With that, she stood and left, going into a nearby inn.

Silently, the group continued to walk toward the castle grounds. "Here are the stables," Merida said, swinging the gate open. She turned to a black horse with a single white streak down its nose that seemed reluctant to let them closer. "Now, Angus, these dragons are our guests and will be greeted as such," she said, scolding her horse. Angus whinnied in disagreement. "It's only for a few weeks," Merida said, "Its not that long." She turned to Hiccup and Astrid. "I'll have some servants bring them some fish and chicken," she said as she closed the gate. "That's fine. Just as long as there's no eel," Hiccup replied. "Don't worry," Merida said, "We don't have many eel around here."

When the group walked into the dining hall everyone else was seated, waiting for them. "Ah, there you are!" Elinor said, standing to greet them again, "The boys were just telling us about how you had a run in with a thief in the square." The group walked over to their seats. Merida's father was at one end, her mother to his left and the triplets to his right. There was a place for Hiccup at the end, Astrid to his right and Merida would be between her and her mother. "Only some kid trying to take a woman's bag. He was fast but we caught him," Merida said.

"Merida, I do wish you would stop with your wild adventures," her mother said, "Next thing you know, you'll be back at that witch's cottage and then who know what will happen." Merida hadn't told her mother that she'd been going to the witch's cottage during her free days to learn magic. She was scared of how her mother would react.

They ate in silence for a few minutes before Elinor broke the silence. "So, Chief Hiccup, how did you lose your leg?" The question seemed to catch him off guard, but he quickly recovered. "Oh, well I, uh," he stuttered, "Where to start? Um, let's see. Well, as you probably know, we were at war with the dragons, so at the time we trained to kill them, and I guess you could say that I wasn't the best at this. And that I may or may not have burnt down the village a few...hundred...times." Astrid cut him off, "He was really bad. I remember once he tried to cage a gronkle, when we were, like, eight, and he had made the cage out of graphite. I mean seriously. Gronkles eat graphite!-"

Now it was Hiccups turn to cut her off, "Thank you, Astrid. Anyway, I had wanted to prove that I was good enough to be chief, so I made a machine that would shoot a net into the air and I had caught a nightfury, the most dangerous dragon that we knew of at the time, but no one believe that I had actually hit it, so I went off into the woods by myself to find and kill it. Well, when I found him I felt guilty about what I had done and let him go and he let me go and I could've just left it at that, but I went back to find the nightfury to discover that the net had ripped off part of his tail. I made him a new tail, trained him and called him Toothless. Eventually, everyone found out, so my father took him prisoner and forced him to lead them to the Dragons Nest. Long story short, we fought the Red Death, the Queen, and the only permanent injury was that I had lost my leg when the beast came crashing down on top of me." The triplets gasped in awe. "Yeah, I woke up about two weeks later to find that the dragons and Vikings had made peace and I now have a metal leg."

"I bet your parents were worried sick about you," Elinor said, imagining the same think happening to one of her children. "Oh, my father was. He almost wouldn't let me out of the house for about a month," Hiccup said, laughing at the memory. "And your mother?" Merida inquired. "Oh, she wasn't around at the time. She had been taken by the dragons to forbidden waters. We weren't reunited until last year, the day before my father died..." The mood of the table had shifted dramatically. Astrid noticed Hiccups discomfort and hurriedly changed the subject. "So, King Furgus, I noticed that you're also missing a leg. How'd that happen?"

Happily, Furgus started telling the story of how he had lost his leg. The triplets and Merida started mouthing along, word for word, to the story. Eventually, they had stood up to act out the story. The triplets stood on each others shoulders on the table pretending to be Mordu while Merida pretended to be her father, using a chicken leg as her sword. Elinor sent disapproving glares their way while Hiccup and Astrid were happily watching. Furgus was to wrapped up in story telling to notice. The act ended when the triplets fell off the table trying to bite off Merida's leg. They all lay in a pile of laughing royalty, while the dogs rush over to eat the food that had fallen off the table. Soon everyone was laughing. Even Elinor let out a slight giggle. "Well, you've obviously told this story before," Astrid said to Fergus, trying to control her laughter. "Well..." he said with a look that told them all they needed to know.

They had finished supper before sundown allowing Hiccup and Astrid to check on their dragons. Merida tagged along because she was eager to meet the dragons. Angus needed a bath anyway.

"Hey bud!" Hiccup said as he walked up. Toothless gave him a look that just said, 'HOW DARE YOU LEAVE ME ALONE WITH THIS CREATURE!' Hiccup, being the dragon mind reader that he is, seemed to know exactly what he meant. "Awe, come on Toothless. You had Stormfly to keep you company, didn't 'cha?" Hiccup said, inspecting the fish they had been given. Toothless rolled his eyes. Stormfly was inhaling the chicken she had been given, not noticing Toothless' attitude.

Merida had noticed that Angus refused to look at the dragons. "I think they had a disagreement," Merida whispered. "Probably over what was okey to eat," Astrid whispered back. "Or over who should get the better stall," Merida snickered. She gave Angus an apple. At that point she noticed how cramped the dragons were. Even in the bigger stalls, the dragons had little room to move around. "Now that you mention it," Hiccup started, "They do seem a bit cramped." Merida had noticed this too. She wished that they could provide a better place for the dragons to stay. "You don't suppose that we could have our dragons stay in our rooms with us, do you?" Astrid asked. Toothless perked up upon hearing this, excited to stay with his rider. "I don't know," Merida hesitated, "Most people in the castle kill black bears for sport and your dragon could be easily mistaken for one." She grabbed the bucket of soapy water and a brush, setting to work on Angus. "Plus, I don't think my mother would allow it. She's not really the negotiating type when it comes to rules," she said. The Vikings were disheartened upon hearing this, until Astrid had an idea.

"Who says she has to know?" she said. Merida looked at her for a moment to see if she was serious. "Are you suggesting that we sneak your dragons into the castle?" she said. To be honest, she liked the idea. Ever since the 'Bear-Queen' situation, Merida's life has gotten a little quite. She secretly longed for a little adventure. It took little convincing to get Merida in on the plan. Hiccup was another story. They had spent nearly fifteen minutes trying to convince him before they won. The plan was simple. They go in through the back door and sneak them to their rooms, like Merida had done with her mother. Hiccup and Astrid were in the same hallway as Merida and her brothers, so finding the rooms wouldn't be an issue. Now all they had to do was hope it go's according to plan.