Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons [COMPLETED]

Chapter 6

        Merida slowly opened her eyes and rolled onto her back as she stretched. The sun shone down brightly on her face, warming her cheeks. She smiled and sat up, massaging her back. A whole night of going without eatin', shiverin' in the chill of night, and sleepin' in the grass with a pebble in my back. Aye, this is the life...except maybe the no-food part. Right on cue, her stomach growled. She heard a murmur and looked up to see Hiccup sleeping on the other side of the fire pit. A trail of drool was slowly making its way down his hand, and he was saying something in his sleep about porridge pots. Merida quietly chuckled.

        "It's about time you got up." Merida turned around to see Jack land in the campsite.

        "Shh!" She pointed at Hiccup and glanced over her shoulder at the sleeping Rapunzel. "What did you bring?" she whispered.

       "Breakfast," he replied tossing two fish at Merida. They slid a short way across the grass and bumped against her side. 

        "I don't suppose you have a knife on you? Y'know, for scalin' the fish? Oh, wait. Hiccup has one." She crawled around the fire pit and shook Hiccup awake.

        "Wh-Whasron? Whassamatter?" Hiccup turned his head back and forth and blinked his bleary eyes. His hair stuck out in odd directions.

        "It's all right. It's all right. Easy, laddie. I just need your knife to scale the fish for breakfast."

        He fumbled in his back pocket and brought out his dagger. As soon as Merida took it, he plopped back down on the grass to sleep.

        "Oh, no y'don't," Merida grinned. She began shaking him again. "C'mon. Get up."

        "Why?" Hiccup groaned and buried his face in his elbow, hiding a smile.

        "To fetch wood for the fire." Merida shook harder. "Y'can't eat raw fish, silly!"

        "All right. All right." Hiccup sat up, still groggy. "I'm up. I'm up. I'm up. I'm up."

        "I get it. You're up." She grinned and gave his shoulder a hearty pat. Hiccup grunted. She made her way back to the fish and began to scale one. "I'm not hearin' any movin'," she called to Hiccup.        

        "Yeah, yeah. I'm on it." He rubbed his eyes. "Why can't Jack do it?"

        "Because he's already helped out."

        "Yeah? What did he do?"

        "Well, where do you think we got the- AAARGH!" Merida dropped both the fish and the knife and grabbed her left thumb. Toothless fell out of his tree with a startled squawk. Rapunzel woke up and frantically searched for danger. She saw Merida rocking back and forth, grimacing in pain. Hiccup and Jack had gathered around her to see what was wrong. "Get back!" Merida jabbed them with her elbows. "Just give me some space, all right?" She slowly released her thumb and examined the wound. A line of blood flowed down her thumb. Her right palm was covered in blood from holding the injury.

        "What happened?" Rapunzel crawled closer to the huddle.

        "It's nothin'. I just," Merida gasped in pain. "I just slipped with the knife."

        "Here," Rapunzel said calmly. She pulled her large braid around and grabbed the end of it. "Let me." She reached for Merida's hand.

        The princess brought both her hands to herself. "Thank you, but your hair isn't going to work as a bandage."

        "Trust me. I know what I'm doing."

        Merida hesitated, but eventually relinquished her hands to Rapunzel's care. The girl quietly wrapped the ends around Merida's hands and began to sing.