Meet Me At the Halfway Point

The Land With No Dragons

(Year one) (End of Summer)

It was past midnight on a warm summer night in the kingdom of DunBroch. As Merida laid her head onto her arms,resting by her bedroom window, while watching the wind blow threw the trees. Several days had passed since Hiccup and Toothless had flown back to Berk, and it would be some time before they would meet again. As she continued to watch the forest slowly move back and forth, Merida was in deep thought about a mystery she just couldn't solve. For a while now she wanted to ask for father about several things "why don't dragons travel to this part of the world?" " when was the last sighting of a dragon at these parts?", and "when did the war between us and the Berk even begin?". However Merida knew better than to ask any of these questions to both of her parents, in fear that maybe they would draw suspension. It would have to be herself to find these answers, and she had an idea where to find them.

Pushing herself up from the window, she went to her bedside table and grabbed a small candle, then softly pulled the latch to opened her bedroom door. Looking down both sides of the hallways she softly stepped out and heading towards the grand throne room. Once in the throne room there were a series of ordinary looking doors, while some led to the different parts of the castle, Merida walked towards a specific door, the kings' war room. As she stepped through the doorway Merida had to walk carefully down the long spiral stairway as the only light came from her candle. Even though she had been down in the war room many times with her father, King Fergus had a set of rules that everyone needed to followed.

If ever in a meeting with any of the clans, no one was allowed to interrupt.

Don't touch or move anything.

And lastly, nobody- not even the servants, are allowed to be alone in the war room.

Merida could hear her heart beating as she was reaching the end of the staircase, she only hoped that she could find what she was looking for- and quick. Holding the candle up close to stone walls she found several wall torches and carefully lit them all to bring full light into the room. Finally Merida examined the war room, it was a small space with a rectangular wooden table at the center, right behind the table was a small unlit fireplace with swords and weapons of very sizes hanging from above. Merida walked over to the left side of the room, holding the candle up high ,this is what she was looking for- her father's library, the entire left side held shelves that was filled with big and small books , scrolls, and documents- everything that she needed.

Then she went over to the right side of the room- it was a map that stretched to each end of the wall. Carefully placing down the candle on the table, she crossed her arms tight against her chest and looked over at the map. At the center of the map was DunBroch, and surrounding it were its many vast lands and oceans. Merida reached out and felt over the pieces of scrap paper being held by small knives, they were drawings of boats that represented armed forces. Then looking more closely, some spots of the map were crossed off or ripped out by force, enemies lands who have tried to attack DunBroch before and were perhaps taken care of. Merida thought for a moment if she would show Hiccup this war room, would he like it? Or be fearful?

Drawing in a big breath, "Let's get to it," she said. Turning back to the bookshelves Merida started to pull books and scrolls from its shelves, stacking as many as she could onto one arm, then carried them over to the table. She took a seat on her father grand chair and pulled the small candle closer and opened the first book.

For awhile she couldn't find anything, most books and scrolls only entail trading deals with other lands, and loads and loads of tax information from the villages dating back years. And others had transcripts of past meetings and battle strategies with the four clans, even old bedtime stories Merida mum use to read to her.