She was far from home, she knew that much.

Merida had taken an especially long ride with Angus today; she didn't have any lessons to attend and she took full advantage of this freedom. This forest she'd ended up in wasn't dissimilar to her own one she was used to, but subtly different. She was marvelling at her surroundings, eyes wide, when something caught her attention and she nearly squealed with surprise.

The red-headed princess stumbled over a log and slipped on some moss in her excitement. Right in front of her was an electric blue flickering object; it whispered words that she couldn't quite make out but she was compelled by some other-worldly force to follow it.

"Ah knew they'd come back!"

Reaching out to touch it, she gasped as it disappeared. Another appeared a few paces away, and she followed the trail to a clearing, surrounded by hundred year old ever-greens and a dark lake in the centre. She looked around the unfamiliar place, brow furrowed and bow loaded. She shivered slightly in the cool air; this place must snow nine months of the year or something. Wherever she was, it was colder than Scotland..

"Why woul' the wisps lead me here?" she wondered aloud. She sat down upon a rock overlooking the lake, and sighed. She was tired, exhausted from the ride, the adrenaline from seeing the will-o-the-wisps diminishing tenfold. Wearily, she leaned on her bow and allowed her eyes to drift to a close.

Suddenly, a pair of bright green eyes appeared and were just inches from her own and without thinking she screamed. What was this thing? A dragon? No, dragons were legends, just like her mother's stories of ancient kingdoms... But if it wasn't a dragon - what was this?

"TOOTHLESS!"

A young man's voice cried out as he pulled the - thing - away from Merida.

"Down boy, come on now, she's a friend, you see, a friend! Oh Gods, I'm so sorry, he's never usually like this, he never jumps on people like that - are you hurt?"

"No," Merida stood up shakily, her legs still quaking and not looking up at who was speaking. Her initial terror changed to anger. "But wha' in all the seven hells was tha'? You control that thing? If so - you're doing a pretty crappy job of it ain' ya?"

She finally looked up into his face and registered  an auburn haired young man with the same intensity of green in his eyes as his - pet - if you could call it that. He wasn't particularly masculine, but he was odd charm about him. He had clumps of freckles all over his face which was rectangular but his chin was still curved. Much to her irritation she found herself intrigued. She wanted to know about who he was, where he came from, but most importantly where the hell was she and what the hell attacked her.

"I'm so sorry," he apologised, "I didn't think we'd end up here, I saw these blue floating things, never seen them before in my life, they're not in the Book of Dragons or anything, not in any of the registered books on Berk at least, and they led me and Toothless here -"

"Wai'," Merida backed up, "yeh saw the wisps too?"

"Is that what they are?" he asked, "I thought they were just legends."

"Will-o-th'-wisps," she explained, "they're supposed to lead yeh to your fate, Ah don' believe that o' course but I saw 'em when I was young as well."

"Interesting that," he muttered, more to his dragon than to her. Merida was almost irritated.

"I though' tha' dragons were legends," she said, a little louder than she might normally, "until..." She gestured to the dragon that looked more like a cat to her.

"Nope, Toothless is very much real," the young man said, smiling.

"Toothless?" Toothless. What a ridiculous name for a dragon, she thought incredulously.

"He has retractable teeth," he said as by way of explanation. "I named him when I was younger, I had a bit of a weird mind."

"Yeh don' say," Merida grinned He shrugged and his lips curved into a smile. She stared him in the eye and placed her hands on her hips. "Go on then," she said, "Wha's yeh're name?" He sighed and looked away.

"Please don't laugh at me," he asked and Merida grinned.

"Well that depends on the name, doesn' it?" The young man sighed and smiled again.

"Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, pleased to make your acquaintance."

He held out a hand and Merida shook it, smiling slightly, holding back a laugh. Her mother would tell her laughing at any point during a formal introduction was incredibly unladylike, but realistically, she thought, what part of this introduction had ever been formal?

"Ah told yeh I would'nae laugh at yeh!" 

"And you?" Hiccup asked. "What's your name?"

"Princess Merida of Dunbroch," Merida said with an air of sarcastic grace, curtsying deeply.

"What?" Hiccup asked. Why was she so annoyed by a name? "It's a really nice name!"

"Ah dunnae min' my name," Merida sat down, fiddling with a piece of grass, "wha' Ah min' is my title."

"What, princess?" He bit back a smile

"Yes!" Merida groaned, sitting back down on the rock where she'd left her bow and quiver full of arrows. "Do yeh knae how horrible it is? My mother tryin' ter make me inter the perfect heir, tryin' ter make me be like her..."

"It doesn't sound ideal," Hiccup nodded, sitting down beside her. "My father's the Chief of Berk and I'm his heir, so I have to be -"

"Wait - wha'?" Merida's heart stopped. BERK? This boy, this Hiccup, or whatever his stupid name, was a Viking? 

She had to leave. Now.

"What?"

"Ah hae to go."

Without pausing for explanation, she snatched up her quiver, buckling it as she pelted to the edge of the clearing and slinging her bow onto her back. She ran out as fast as she could, calling for her horse and sprinted into the trees. 

Hiccup stood there, shocked. Then everything clicked into place. Dunbroch. Berk Scots. Vikings. The war, the great war that had caused the death of thousands of his people. The reason Hiccup's mother was dead and Merida's father was missing, presumed dead. Yet somehow that fell away when they were together. Before, they were talking fine. Nothing mattered about who they were or where they came from, just about the wisps and discovering who they were. He was intrigued by this fiery princess and her passion for weapons. He wanted to know who she really was beneath the facade her mother had placed there.

He whistled for Toothless and leaped onto his back, catching up with Merida in a matter of seconds. At the sight, her horse reared and she struggled to contain him, eventually dismounting, loading her bow and drawing it, raising it at Hiccup who climbed off of Toothless, holding his sword ready.

"Wait!" His shouts became lost on her ears which had been deafened by the loss of her father.

"Why should I wai' fer yeh?" Merida cried. "Yeh're the reason mah father is missin'!"

"And you're the reason my mother is dead!" Hiccup yelled, his eyes tearing up a little. "But I need you to listen to me!"

"Why? Wha's the poin'?"

"Because we could make this work!" Hiccup implored her.

"Make wha' work exac'ly?" Her voice was bitter and stricken with grief.

"Peace!" Hiccup lowered his sword and threw it to the ground.

"Ah don' wan' peace with yeh!" Merida raised her bow higher as tears streamed down her face.

"Then what next?" Hiccup shouted, kicking his sword aside and stepping towards her. "My father dead too? Your mother? Your brothers? My whole island dead as your soldiers pillage and rape and kill our people, our livestock? Or will it be your castle that falls to the fires of our dragons? I don't want any of that to happen and neither do you. This feud has been going on decades and generations, so long we don't even know what we're fighting for. All we know is that we hate each other Who else will it take to fall to convince you that we don't need wars?"

"Tha's not the poin'!" Merida yelled back, even though he was standing directly in front of her. "Ah know yeh have my father, and Ah will figh' for him until Ah die! If you tell me where he is an' maybe then Ah'll consider even lookin' at scum like yeh!"

"Will you just listen to me?" Hiccup implored, pushing down her bow and gripping onto her hands tightly so she couldn't fire.  "We don't have any idea where your father is! You think I'm going to know anything? I'm not a Viking!"

"Of cours' yeh are yeh idiot!" Merida squirmed and tried to get out of his grip but it was just firm enough to hold her. "Yeh have a helmet an' yeh come from Berk! Yeh're the damned heir to the throne of Berk for God's sake! I could kill yeh now and take yehr head home as a trophy!"

Hiccup let Merida's hands go, but she didn't draw the bow again. He reached up, clasped his horned helmet.Definitively and decisively, he threw it to the ground and it bounced off the rocks with a clang. He picked up his fire-sword, lit the gas, and watched as the blade caught fire. he plunged the sword through the helm of the helmet and they both watched as the helmet melted and contorted with the fire. He withdrew the sword, kicked the helmet away. Merida stood there, stunned as he lifted his head to meet her gaze and he said with his eyes narrowed, the mark of a real leader permeating his gaze:

"I'm not one of them."