Thud.

Thud. 

Thud.

Merida cursed, realizing that she was out of arrows. Two dozen fired in rapid succession do go rather quickly. She was the only one in the disused archery range, everyone else was helping with the rebuilding effort after several support beams fell, and almost the entire North Pole collapsed. They all had everything under control, and didn't need Merida's help. Which was fine by her. 

She put her bow on the ground, and started getting her arrows. She turned around to move the line back further, and saw Hiccup, green shirt, brown belt, holding a bow in his hand. 

"Do you mind if I join you?" he asked.

"I didn't know that you could shoot."

He shrugged. "I've been shooting fish for a long, long time."

Hiccup walked forward, and something creaked. Merida looked down, and saw a mechanical peg leg. Hiccup followed her gaze. "That. I'm getting tired of saying this, but I don't remember how I got it."

"Ye too?"

"Yup." He took an arrow out of her hand. "Good quality. See these markings here? It allows your fire power to travel down the arrow and set the tip on fire."

She looked at the arrows. "Aye, so the arrow isn't made any heavier by adding burlap or something else to make it flammable."

Hiccup nocked her arrow in his bow. "Wanna try it out?"

He shot, and got just shy of the bulls-eye. 

"Close," said Merida.

"Ah, I can never get the bulls-eye, even if I stand two feet in front of the thing. Well, what are you waiting for? Shoot."

Merida knocked her arrow, and summoned her fire abilities. Hiccup was right, the fire coursed down the arrow, coming to a stop at the tip, lighting it on fire.

She shot.

And the target was set on fire.

"Wow," Hiccup whispered. "Definitely a bulls-eye."

The two alternated shooting, and with Merida's instruction, Hiccup got a bulls-eye.

"Yes! Oh, thank you, Merida!"

"What's going on in here?" The two turned to see Rapunzel, leaning on the doorway. "Feels like an inferno."

"Oh, we've just been shooting arrows," said Merida.

"And setting targets on fire," added Hiccup.

Rapunzel smiled. "Well, I'll just leave you two alone, then. Sounds like you were having fun."

She left.

Hiccup laughed, giving Merida her arrows back. "You shoot good."

"Aye, and you too."

Hiccup left, and Merida was alone again.

* * * 

Merida was scared to go into her room again. She had spent three days in a nightmaric state, and had no desire to do it again. Björn was at her side, nuzzling her hand. "I'm fine," she whispered. "I'm not scared of a wee room." But no matter how hard she told herself that, she would just not believe it.

Merida felt a hand slip into her own. She looked and saw that it was Rapunzel's. "I'm scared to go to sleep," she whispered to Merida. "After what happened to you, I don't want to go into any bedroom."

"Aye."

Rapunzel pulled her hand away, and hugged herself. "I got a memory back," she said after a while. "It was faint, but there was a man, and he was dying. I sang a song, cried a little, and there was this light show, and he came back to life."

Rapunzel looked at Merida in the eye. "But the thing was, I had short, brown hair. I mean, look at my hair now. At least twenty feet long, and blonde. How did it get short and brown?"

"I had a dream too," said Merida. "There was a little girl, I guess she was me, and there was a thunderstorm outside. A woman sang me a song in a different language, and I calmed down."

"My guess that was your mother, if she sang you a song. But don't take my word for it, as apparently the only mother that I've ever had is now made of dust, and tried to kill you last night. Well, Good night, Merida." Rapunzel turned and walked away, hair following her. 

"Good night," Merida whispered back, and went into her room. Candles were lit, and there was golden sand around the four-poster bed. She smiled. It was from Sandy, to keep the dreams at bay. 

She changed into a nightgown, and with Björn at her side, went to sleep. "

* * * 

"And I'll be shooting for my own hand!"

The crowd gasped in surprise, and Merida took mark at the first target. Perfect shot. Than the second. Same.

The third target, though, already had an arrow in the bulls-eye. Merida took a deep breath.

"Merida, stop, I forbid this..."

The arrow loosed, and Merida tensed up. If this failed...

"Merida!"

No. Her shot was true. It split the other arrow down the side, and with such force, came to a stop, having gone right through the target. She turned to see the faceless woman again, anger in her eyes. With a sudden force, a hand was around her arm, and she was being dragged through the crowd. 

"Do not make a scene. Do not make a scene Merida, or ye will regret it."

Up through familiar stairs, through familiar halls, and into a familiar room, except this time it was well furnished, and a fire was blazing in the hearth. 

"What were ye thinking? Ye embarrassed me, ye embarrassed all of us!"

"I didn't break any rules!"

"Ye don't know what you've done!"

The woman came at her again, and forcefully took the bow off of her back and threw it into the fire.

Merida reached for it, but decided better of it. Holding sobs back, she charged out of the room, tears spilling out of her eyes, and she didn't know why.

* * * 

Merida snapped awake. She was safe. She wasn't running anywhere. She was in her bed, and Björn was staring at her, worry in his eyes.

"Hey," she cooed, "it's all right. Just a memory, okay? Are ye done with yer whining?"

She just received a flat look. 

"Yeah, ye are. Come on, let's find something to eat, I'm starvin'."

Merida and Björn left the room, and went into the dark hallway. "Do ye know where the kitchen is?" whispered Meida. "No, well then --"

Björn raised his head in the air, and started sniffing. He walked in the direction of the globe, and Merida followed him.

"Are you sure that we can trust her? After all, she was asleep --"

"Tooth, stop worrying. If we can't, well, then we'll just have to kick her out. No big deal."

"I know, Bunny, but she seems so lost, and goodness knows that I was like that for long enough..."

"What are you bickering about? If girl cannot be trusted, we will know, no? Besides, Manny chose her to --"

"But Tsar Lunar has been wrong before. Don't you remember the Cold War?"

Merida and Björn froze. They were talking  about her.

"I told you never to bring that up again."

"Bunny..."

The sound of sand swirling made them all stop.

"What do you mean, she's right there?"

Merida climbed on Björn. "Go," she whispered as quietly as she could. Silently, Björn ran, and came to a stop at the place where Hiccup and Rapunzel were planning for the new North Pole. They were still there. They looked up from their planning. "What's wrong?" asked Hiccup.

"No time to explain," panted Merida. "We need to go. Now."

"But why...?" Rapunzel started, then stopped. Very slowly, she moved to the open door, and listened. "They're getting Jack," she said after a while. "I can go."

"No, Toothless is faster." A shaggy black dog with a red leg looked at Hiccup, then transformed into a raven, and flew out of the room.

"I hope he gets there in time," Rapunzel said. "It didn't sound good what they were saying."

"Rapunzel, open that window," Merida said, pointing to the window, "and let yer hair out. If it can get any longer, get it so that it gets close to the ground."

"We have blankets and other things," Hiccup said, gathering papers on a different table.

"Um... Merida, my hair can't get any longer. It's at least thirty more feet to the ground."

"That will have to do."

A raven flew into the room, followed by Jack. He looked around the room. "What's going on?"

"The Guardians weren't being very Guardian-ly," said Merida. "Drat. No weapons."

"I'll get those," said Jack.

"No, we need you here to make up that last thirty feet, don't we, Merida?" said Rapunzel, head already outside.

"Aye. Get started. I'm getting the stuff."

"Mine is in the archery room where we were earlier," said Hiccup, "and I know that Rapunzel's are in one of the Yeti's workstations."

"You need to be quick and silent," said Jack. "If what you say is true, then we need to get out of here. And fast. Oh, and don't take the bear. He's too loud."

Merida made a face. "Wasn't thinking about it. Make sure Björn makes it out if I don't come back."

"Be safe," said Rapunzel. Merida didn't respond. She was already gone.

Breathing heavily, she made her way to the workstations of the Yeti. It was out of her way, but the archery room was on the way back. Slowly and silently as a trained hunter, she slinked in the shadows, keeping her breathing down. Hiccup had better be right as to where Rapunzel's stuff was, for if he wasn't...

Merida almost tripped over a satchel with a patch. She looked inside, and saw some paints, paint brushes and a frying pan. Seemed legit. It also looked about to be the right size of Rapunzel's present from the Guardian ceremony.

She grabbed it, and headed to the weaponry. Her sword and other things were there, all in their own bag. She reached the room, entered it, and stalked over to where her things lay. She strapped the quiver of two dozen arrows on her back, and bow inside, and hooked her sword on a belt, and tied it around her waist. 

Moving quickly to the archery room, she had just gotten Hiccup's things when all of a sudden...

"Found you." 

Merida spun around to see Bunny. He was leaning against the doorway, twirling a boomerang in each hand. "You're good, for a human. I would've heard you sooner or later." He stepped into the cold moonlight of the room. "But by then you would've already been caught."

"What are ye doing here?"

Bunny smiled. "Those nightmares of yours, were they real? Were you lying about them? Did you lead Gothel straight to us?"

"I don't know what yer talking about."

"Oh, yes you do."

He threw a boomerang, but Merida whipped out her sword and cut it out of the air. "I would never lie about nightmares like that, little rabbit. Ye should know that."

"A Pooka only falls asleep once every thousand years, little girl. I don't  know."

And they were in hand-to-hand combat. Bunny was quick, but Merida used her senses. Every thrust he threw with a practice sword, she counter-acted with her own. They were evenly matched. Too evenly matched. But it wasn't long before Merida gained the upper hand. 

She switched from defense to offense, spinning Bunny around so that he was facing the charred targets. Moonlight glinted off of Merida's sword, and she felt a surge of strength rise within her. 

Switching from offense to defense, she let Bunny push her out of the doorway.

Weak support beams, she remembered. Useful.

With that extra strength, she thrust upward, slicing the doorframe in half, and almost sliced through the support beams that held the snowy ceiling up. Bunny's eyes widened as three tons of snow fell on him, but Merida was long gone.

Not caring about stealth, she tore through the North Pole. Yeti's and little Tooth Fairies chased her until she was back in the planning room. Only Rapunzel and Björn were left. 

"Just in time," Rapunzel said. "He was getting worried."

"Yeah, yeah," panted Merida. She climbed onto the windowsill, Björn following her. "Once I'm gone, follow me down."

"Did you..."

"Yeah, I got the stuff. Now hurry! The entire pole is awake, and after us!"

Merida jumped out of the window, sword in one hand, bags in the other. Björn and Rapunzel passed her. She landed on ice, and slid the rest of the thirty feet down to the cold snow. As soon as the snow touched her, it started steaming. 

"Go!" yelled Merida. The three other Spirits and Toothless ran as far away from the North Pole as possible.

Merida knocked a bow, and lit it on fire. "Come on, come on, give me something to shoot at, give me something to shoot at..."

There. Eight Yeti's leaned out of the window, and Merida released, her dream coming back to her. I'll be shooting for my own hand indeed, she thought, and climbed on Björn, and together, they raced to where the other Spirits were, the North Pole ablaze behind them.

A/N: Hey all. Luckily for you, I decided to update early. So I can just update in two days anyway...

Going off topic, this is dedicated to laurelfan for writing THE CUTEST ROTBTD ONE-SHOT OUT THERE. Check it out, it's called RotBTD: The Big Four: Bedtime Stories. It takes, like, two seconds to read but it was the best two seconds of my homework-loaded evening.

Vote, comment, and happy reading!

~Allie