Astrid told the group what happened, albeit a condensed version of it: Hiccup and her broke up and Hiccup and Merida are now married.

"Woah, woah, wait, a minute--I don't think I'm following," Fishlegs said while massaging his temple. "Could you please give us more details?"

"Merida and I are together now," Hiccup replied.

"We sort o' eloped, without the runnin' away part," Merida added.

"While we were fighting that wizard, I was injured, like, really bad. We thought I wouldn't make it. But Merida had these magic rings, she saved me. They only work if love is what ties the two people wearing the rings. Well, as you can see they worked. Heh. Merida wanted to forget about it to spare Astrid's feelings, but it just felt right to me. I didn't mean for Astrid to find out the way she did. She saw us, and tried to leave, but I caught up with her and we talked it over. She sort of forgives me," Hiccup explained while glancing at Astrid who met his gaze, but turned away. 

He then turned his head to look at Merida before continuing, "Ryan said we could end the marriage before sunrise tomorrow, but we didn't want to. I don't want to let her go."

"Okay, recap time," Ruffnut told them.

"So. You two aren't engaged anymore," Heather repeated and pointed at Hiccup and Astrid.

"Because you found those two canoodling," Snotlout added while pointing at Hiccup and Merida.

"Canewdoling?" Merida whispered confusedly.

"What does that even mean?" Hiccup asked.

"And now you two are married," Ruffnut ignored the question and continued.

"But you said it's not official 'til sunrise," Eret said and pointed at Young MacIntosh.

"But you don't want to break it off?" Fishlegs finished by asking Merida and Hiccup.

Merida and Hiccup held hands and shook their heads. The rest of the group nodded slowly letting an awkward silence take over. They had a lot to say about the ordeal, but no one felt like it was their place to say anything. Well, except one.

"You're kidding me right? I can understand why Astrid fell for you with Toothless and all, but Princess, what do you see in him?" Snotlout asked in disbelief.

Heather slapped the back of his head making his helmet fall off.

"Okay, maybe, that was uncalled for," Snotlout groaned and rubbed his head.

"You think? And, you're supposed to be my cousin," Hiccup replied with a slight pout.

"Hic makes me feel safe, and happy. I knew him since we were kids, and although we were separated for years, and we forgot about each other for a while, the moment I saw him on the ship I felt exactly the same as I did back then," Merida answered then turned to look directly at Hiccup before finishing. "Like I would do anything to make him happy."

Not even Astrid could stop herself from smiling at her statement. In that moment, she knew that he was in good hands, and felt a sense of relief wash over her. Ryan noticed her relaxed posture and smiled.

"Alright, enough of that mushy love fest, let's head back," Astrid told everyone, her voice sounding much lighter than before.

"Alright. Eret! Looks like it's your lucky day. You get to take me back," Ruffnut declared and clung to his arm.

"What? Skullcrusher doesn't like having other people on him, and don't you have your own dragon?" Eret made excuses while trying to push her off.

"My bro took him," Ruffnut replied, still holding on to him.

"When did he leave?" Fishlegs asked.

"Why did he leave?" Snotlout questioned.

"He's off to stop his runaway bride," Astrid told them with a slight smile.

"How romantic," Heather declared with a chuckle.

"Ruffnut, wouldn't you rather fly with someone else?" Eret asked her, annoyed.

Ruffnut thought about it and nodded.

"Huh, I would actually," Ruffnut mused and let him go thinking about how uninterested Eret was in her, how clingy Snotlout and Fishlegs had been, and how there was one guy that seemed to be right in the middle. Not too clingy yet definitely cares for her well being.

"Ruffnut, you okay?" Heather asked her.

"Huh? Yeah. Hey, Heather, can I ride with you?" Ruffnut asked after snapping out of her thoughts.

"Oh, uh, sure. I don't think Windshear would mind," Heather replied in surprise.

"Okay, let's go," Astrid told everyone.

Windshear put out the fire and everyone hopped on their dragons. Hiccup and Merida felt relieved that the interrogation was over. Toothless nudged Hiccup, telling him to hurry up or else they'd be left behind. Hiccup patted his head and helped Merida get on. It was still dark out so they had to rely solely on their dragons.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Tuffnut, if ye leave now I can go back home and we won't have to get married. Ye won't have to worry about what to eat after the ceremony," Aileas explained softly. "Ye can be free."

Tuffnut stood still, surprised at her mention of his name without the title of "Sir". Everything was always so formal with her that he was thrown off guard when she just used his name. It felt kind of nice.

"Right, of course, but what about you?" Tuffnut asked. "Won't you be marked as a 'runaway bride' or something?"

"Is that why you agreed? Da told ye I'd be 'unweddable' after?" Aileas sighed and began to push him out the door. "Tuff, ye don't have to do this for my sake. Da can't force you to marry me if I leave, and I can always join a monastary."

"He didn't force me," Tuffnut replied and stood his ground.

"Pardon?" Aileas asked, surprised.

"I'm kind of the one who suggested it..." Tuffnut replied sheepishly.

"Why would ye do that?" Aileas wondered and took a step back.

"You know, I'm a lot smarter than people think," Tuff replied and posed with his hand on his chin, "I just put 2 and 2 together to get 8."

"8?" Aileas repeated bewildered.

"After your brother told your dad what happened in your room, and you were both asked to stay outside I made this thing up about how in my culture that is how we court someone, but I hadn't thought about the differences between yours and ours blah, blah, blah. In the end, I told him I'd marry you if you wanted," Tuffnut explained quickly.

"Ah, so ye did it out of guilt?" Aileas asked for confirmation.

"Yes and no," Tuffnut replied.

Aileas raised an eyebrow and tilted her head slightly in confusion. Tuffnut thought about how pretty it made her look and felt a slight burn at his ears.

He quickly pulled his hair over his face and said, "Oh my Loki, that's exactly why I'm confused."

"Confused? About what?" Aileas asked, still with the same expression.

"Oh Loki, please stop making that face," Tuffnut replied in embarrassment. He pulled his helmet down over his eyes before he continued.

"Listen, I'm not the mushy-feely good-word-knowing kind of guy. I don't know why, but I think being with you wouldn't be so, you know, so bad. At least, not boring," Tuffnut explained while trying to sound uninterested.

"Is this the Viking way of courting?" Aileas asked. "Saying marriage 'wouldn't be so bad'?"

"Nah, more of the Tuffnut way. But boring, I would have done something actually fun if things wouldn't have happened so fast," Tuffnut answered, removing his helmet from his eyes and feeling more confident.

"I see. Well, I apologize, but I will have to refuse yer proposal," Aileas told him while playing with her hands.

Well, there went his confidence. Tuffnut stood still, not blinking while he processed being rejected. Of course she'd say no to him, they only just met and there was no one there to pressure her. Why wouldn't she say no? It's fine, of course. He wasn't meant to settle down anyway. It was obvious that out of everyone in the group he was more of the fun, unmarried uncle type anyway. Taking the kids without their parent's permission and bringing them back when he was bored. His mind was racing so fast while trying to cope with her rejection that he almost didn't hear what she said after.

"...is that alright?"

"Wait-what? Uh, could you repeat that? I don't think I heard right," Tuffnut told her and tried cleaning his ear with his pinky.

Aileas slowly repeated her last statement, "I will have to refuse yer proposal... until I see the proper Tuffnut way, if that is alright?"

"Okay! Right, um, I mean, that's fine, cool," Tuffnut cleared his throat and clasped his hands together. "Well, uh, I guess I'll see you back at the castle... right?"

"Aye. I will ask them to turn the boat back," Aileas assured.

Tuffnut nodded and started to walk back up to Barf and Belch with Aileas walking beside him. They made it to the deck where they saw the rowers had move to one side of the boat. They were either afraid or feared the dragon would have tipped the small boat--at least small for a dragon-- over if they didn't move to the other side. Young MacGuffin was the only one brave enough to pet the dragon. Tuffnut stopped before getting on and turned to Aileas.

"Want a ride back?" Tuffnut asked before adding, "It's fun."

"Are you going to try anything while I'm on?" Aileas asked.

"Probably," Tuffnut replied with a mischievous grin and shrugged.

Aileas smiled at his honesty and nodded. Tuffnut hopped on first, and actually contemplated giving her a hand, but she just mimicked his movements to get on. She sat on the dragon's back and awkwardly held on to Barf's neck. She wasn't exactly sure what he was comfortable with, so she didn't want to push her luck with the giant reptile. Tuffnut did some sort of whistle which made them bounce Aileas into the air before Barf caught her again. Callum gave Tuffnut a warning glare to which Tuff just gave him a thumbs up.

"Woah!" Aileas squealed. 

As soon as she was caught by the dragon she grabbed onto his spikes. She heard her dress tear in a few places, but she didn't have time to worry about that now. 

"Ye know? I'm starting to regret this," Aileas admitted as only the pale light of the moon and the torched on the boat let her see.

"Too late!" Tuffnut replied.

Aileas suppressed the need to scream as the dragon zipped into the air and back toward Dunbroch. At least, it was going there before it took a sharp turn up into the sky.

"Where are we going?!" Aileas yelled as her voice wouldn't be heard otherwise.

"Don't worry about it!" Tuffnut replied just as loud.

Young MacGuffin could no longer see his sister, the dragon, or the man he'd be calling "brother" soon. He began to worry, ordering the ship to turn around immediately, but relaxed once he heard his sister laughing. If those laughs turned to screams of fear he would definitely be breaking some bones later.