Merida pulled up the hood of her cloak as she boarded trader Johann's ship. Aside from her bow, quiver full of arrows, and silver clan necklace, she had nothing with her. The night before, Merida had bribed Johann to bring her along, insisting she would help to hunt for him whenever they made port. Johann agreed, as long as no one ever found out he helped the princess leave her homeland.

She leaned against the wooden railing of the small vessel, staring at the place she once called her home. In recent years it had begun to feel more like a dungeon with her mother's incessant pressuring to marry one of the lords' sons. 

Merida didn't want to get married. 

She didn't want to rule. 

And that was why she left. Her mother's constant nit-picking had driven her mad. The lessons that had only started off as once a week, soon grew to six days a week. She was perfectly fine with Hamish, Hubert, or Harris taking her place as heir and having to deal with their mum.

Merida mulled over her thoughts about her family for the next five months. Both she and Johann kept to their agreement. Every time they came to a different island, she would hunt while he would sell and trade his goods. She would, once in a while, steal from the richer people of the islands, holding onto the items until they made port again, then she would give gold bracelets or silver rings to poor children she came across in the streets of the villages.  There were days she wished she hadn't left, maybe she could've helped people more than she was, but there was no turning back now, she would be on her own for the rest of her life.

"Trader Johann is here!" Shouts arose as the small ship neared the docks of the island. Johann had said it was one of his favorite places to visit, previously calling it Berk. Once Merida heard the name, she understood why the trader liked to come to there--it was the land were the Vikings had befriended dragons.

Merida would have to play it extra safe when hunting, she didn't want to run into any of the fire-breathing beasts.

While people crowded her friend to ask what he had to trade, Merida yanked the hood of her navy cloak over her fiery mane and silently wove through the mass of Vikings. As inconspicuously as possible, she wandered the village until she got to the edge of the forest. Twenty or so feet into the thick brush of the wilderness, Merida took out her bow and nocked an arrow. She stumbled across a few squirrels, shooting each through the eye.

After an hour, Merida decided to head back to the docks. She had just stepped over a fallen tree when she spotted something glimmering behind a bush. Cautiously creeping over to investigate, she nocked another arrow and aimed at the lush foliage. Merida slowly pushed a branch aside with the tip of the arrow. She sighed in relief when she realized it was only a knapsack with spilled contents.

Putting the bow and arrow back in their correct places, Merida bent down to examine the sprawled items. A shiny expensive-looking spyglass, a notebook, some parchment, and a strange looking cylindrical item had fallen out of a satchel that was hanging in the brush. 

She picked up the metal cylinder to examine--there were several buttons on the side. Curious, she pushed the top button.

Green smoke blew out of the bottom, causing her to drop the canister and fall backwards coughing. 

Merida stared in awe and got to her feet to pick it back up once the gas had dispersed into the air. She pushed the second button, a spark shooting out at what she assumed was the top. "Good fer startin' fires," she shrugged, then went on to press another button. 

A long blade ejected in the blink of an eye. She was lucky to have moved the weapon away from her in time, otherwise she could have been impaled by the sword. Merida grinned; the device was genius. There was still one more button to try, learning her lesson from the first few, she held it away from her before pushing down on the fourth metal circle. 

Merida gasped as the blade immediately caught on fire. Her eyes were filled with wonder for the person to create such a weapon. How could they think come up with such a thing was beyond her. 

She waved the sword around, testing the balance and to see if it would stay aflame. It did--and it was perfectly balanced.  Merida pressed the third button again, the blade retracting and flames disappearing into the metal canister. 

"Find'rs keep'rs,"Merida grinned before stuffing the item into her small game bag. It wasn't often that she kept treasures for herself, but she couldn't see herself without this. 

Before heading back to the docks, Merida looked through the sketches of dragons in the notebook, leaving it under the bush, but grabbed the spyglass. She would give the glass to a child in the next village. 

It was only five minutes later that she heard the growl of a dragon from near behind. Fear struck within her, her father having told her several gruesome tales about the beasts caused her to have a slight fear for them. Quickly scanning her surroundings, she found an easily climbable tree. She got as far as she could up the thick pine before stopping on a high branch and taking out her bow and an arrow.

A black dragon, like the one she had seen in the notebook, soon appeared beneath the tree she was perched in. The beast looked up at her and she was just about to shoot.

Then she heard a voice.

"Toothless," She could tell it was a male, maybe in his early twenties, "why would they be in a tree?" He must have realized it was a dumb question, because he called up to her. "Tuffnut, bring them down!" He sounded exasperated, but when he reached the trunk, he startled--maybe it was because she wasn't this "Tuffnut" person, or maybe because she had an arrow trained on him...or maybe both. Either way, the man was confused. "Um, could you lower the weapon--I'm unarmed, since you have mine."

Her eyes widened, "how did ya...?"

"The dragon," he rolled his eyes as if the answer were obvious.

"Rite,"Merida exhaled while glaring. 

  .

Hiccup stared at the figure. The person was so far up that he could barely tell it was a woman by the sound of her Highlandish accent. The hood of her cloak hung in a particular way that it casted shadows over her face. He knew she couldn't have been a woman that married into the village--he certainly would've been able to tell who she was, even from this far away. She was probably a stowaway on trader Johann's ship. 

"Who are you?" He yelled up to her.

The girl froze as if unaware of her own name, and he found that awfully suspicious.

"Mah naeme doesn't maett'r." 

 "Do you know your name?"

"Ah course aye--!" She stopped mid-sentence.

When she didn't say anything for more than a minute, he spoke up. "Would you come down? It's kind of hard to have a conversation like this."

It took a while for her to even begin to move, but he patiently waited as she climbed her way down. Sometimes she would stop and watch him, as if determining whether he were a threat or not. 

Hiccup wondered what she could have gone through to make her do that. 

When she finally dismounted from the lowest branch, she pulled off her bow and aimed an arrow at his head. Her electric blue eyes bore into him, daring him to make a move. Her lips creased into a frown. Her eyebrows were still hidden behind her hood, but he could tell they were furrowed in concentration.

Toothless growled, Hiccup held out his hand for the dragon to stay before he got any ideas to attack.

He wasn't phased by the weapon, Astrid having shoved her ax in his face too many times to count, in fact, he actually missed it. Missed her. He still couldn't believe she'd died two years ago after the fight against Drago.

"What's your name?" Hiccup persisted.

The girl refused to lower her bow, grunting in annoyance. "Alrite! Mah naeme is Me...Maggie."

He couldn't help but argue with her."You don't seem so sure about that."

She growled, pushing the weapon closer in a threatening manner. Hiccup's arms shot up in surrender. "Okay, okay, Maggie it is." Maggie slightly pulled the bow away. "So...can I have my stuff back?"

"Find'rs keep'rs."

Hiccup rolled his eyes again. "Are you five?"

"'Ave it yer waey." Maggie stepped backwards until her back hit the tree. Hiccup watched as she released tension on the bow, then held it and the arrow in her left hand while her right dug through a sack obscured beneath her cloak. 

She tossed him the spyglass, but withheld his sword. "'Ow do ah know ye won't try tae kill me once aye give it baeck? Mm?"

Hiccup studied her. Maggie was lean--much like himself--and short--like he used to be. By the way she held her bow, he knew she was as just lethal, if not more so, as Astrid had been with an ax. "I'm going to assume you can take me and not even bother trying. Also--" he pointed to Toothless "--I didn't let him kill you earlier. You'd be dead if I really wanted you to be." Maggie nodded in understanding then flung the cylinder his way. "Thanks."

"I'll be goin' now." 

She began treading back toward the village before Hiccup could protest. He stared for a few moments until deciding to follow her. "Maggie! Wait!" She kept her brisk pace, clearly ignoring his calls, he nearly tripped numerous times prior to catching up with her.

"Whaet do ye waent?" She sighed.

"I can tell you're from the Highlands because of your accent."

Maggie started walking faster, "Soh?"

"Did you stow away on Johann's ship?"

"Whaet's it tae ya?"

Then, out of nowhere, it all clicked into place. 

"You're the person that's been stealing jewelry." 

It was only the first step in getting her to admit who she truly was, but it was an important one. Any princess running away from her country had to have a good reason for it, right? Unfortunately he remembered that he didn't want to be chief of Berk, so maybe it would take more convincing than he originally thought.

     .

Merida halted, almost tripping over a root. How could he have figured that out just by knowing her for ten minutes? Were people discussing their stolen treasures across the sea?

The man stood in front of her now, only a foot and a half between them, his emerald eyes looking over her for anything else to give away. Obviously noticing her unspoken questions, he answered them."Not a lot happens in the archipelago. Boring news travels fast, semi-interesting news travels faster."

"Who ar' yoou?" She demanded, squinting her eyes at him.

"My name's Hiccup."

"...Horrendous Haddock III?"

Hiccup sighed, "Yeah...that would be me. Great name, I know."

Her jaw dropped. This was the first dragon tamer, the Chief of Berk. The black dragon glaring at her just twenty feet away was his Night Fury. She'd stolen from the Dragon Tamer and his Night Fury. She'd really done it now. She knew all the stealing would catch up with her, no matter how pure her intentions, now she was as good as dead.

Fast as lightening, she aimed an arrow at his heart. "Aye won' be put in a dir'y ol' cell. I'm goin' tae leave, an' yer not tae follow. Understan'?"

He held his hands up again, "Wow, I must have a terrible reputation back in the Highlands." She pushed the arrow tip so that it barely drew blood. "Okay, but trader Johann already left."

"WHAET?"

"Said something about a fox's parents catching up with him." He shrugged, appearing to fake confusion, but there was no way he knew she was a princess.

Merida knew the double meaning of Johann's words. Because of her hair, Johann often referred to her as a baby fox. And had recently more worried over her parents finding her. She immediately became very desperate, and lowered her bow. "Please. Aye need ya tae fly me tae 'is ship. Aye can't staey 'ere. If aye do, yer whole islan' will be overrun by the clans!"

"Who are you that an entire country would be looking for you?" She was too nervous to notice that he was looking at her like he knew exactly who she was.

"That doesn't maetter! Aye need tae get out a 'ere."

He grabbed Merida's shoulders to stop her from panicking. "Maybe I can help you."

She shook her head violently. "Nae. I need tae be on mah own." Without warning, Hiccup pulled her cloak away. Merida scrambled to grab it, but it was too late, her flaming hair made the Dragon Tamer recognize her immediately.

Hiccup wore  a triumphant expression. "I knew the missing jewelry and Princess were related somehow! They've been looking for you for months, Princess Merida."

Merida rolled her eyes, "Yah, ah noticed." She reached out to him again, "Now gimme mah cloak back! Aye need tae leave now."

"Hang on just a second." He held the cloak behind his back with one arm while the other made odd gestures. "Why did you run away?"

She might as well tell him. It wasn't like it would hurt anything, and telling him would probably convince him to let her go... "Aye'm not fit tae run a c'untry an' mah mum keeps tryin' tae maerry me off tae one a da lords' sons. Even though aye turned her inta a bear o'ver it a few years baeck."

"You what?"

"Long story. Now will ya help me? Or do aye 'ave tae find mah own waey off a this lizzard-infested island?" Toothless growled again. She placed one hand on her hip and held the other out. "An' aye waent mah cloak baeck. Aye don't need all a Berk knowin' who aye am."

He grinned, "You're really demanding, you know that?"

"Aye'm well aware." Why was he smiling like that? Didn't he understand what was going on? "If aye'm found 'ere da clans will declare war on Berk, an' yer just standin' 'ere smilin' like a yak in heat."

Hiccup shook his head, chuckling. "The king, your dad, came here last month, looking for you. I promised him I'd bring you home if you came here, but that I hadn't seen you." Merida took a step away from him, trying to understand why he was telling her this. He glanced over at his dragon, then back to her. "Look Princess--"

"Don't call me that."

"Merida then. Listen, I understand what you're going through, I honestly do. I was not, at all, open to the idea of being Chief. I thought I wasn't ready. I thought I could never have been as good of a ruler as my dad. You don't know how perfect you are for something until the time comes for you to do it."

He was trying to change her mind, and Merida knew it. She would not give in. She couldn't run a country, all she wanted was to be free of such drastic responsibilities. Responsibilities that, if done wrong, meant an entire nation could be burned to the ground. 

"Maeybe that's 'ow it w'rked fer yoou, but not me."

"There's no reason to be afraid of your destiny Merida. It's yours. Some elements of it are chosen for you, others are chosen by you."

"Aye'm not afraid a mah fate, aye just don' waent it," She replied stubbornly.

Hiccup sighed and leaned against a tree. "I'll give you two options Merida." She raised her eyebrows questioningly. "Either I take you back home on Toothless right now, or you wait here until King Fergus stops to resupply." Merida opened her mouth to argue but he sent a look that shut her up.  "I'm not taking you to Johann, nor will I give you anything to leave--"

"So yer goin' ta hold me against mah will?" She shouted.

"No!" He pushed himself away from the tree, making awkward gestures with his hands as he spoke. "I'm doing what you're dad asked me to do!"

"Why are ya helpin'? Are they tryin' tae maerry me off  tae yoou too?"

"No! All I'm trying to do is help. I don't want another war just because some stubborn princess is too afraid of her future!"

That made her blood boil. How dare he. "'Ow would ya feel if yer parents were tryin' tae maerry ya off to someun' ya didn' love? Someun' ya didn e'en know?"

.

Hiccup honestly didn't know how that felt. His father had been trying to get him to propose to Astrid, but he had loved her. 

"I can't say I've ever been in the situation."

"Exactly! Now, take me tae Johann!"

"Merida, I'm sorry, " he shook his head, "but I really can't afford another war right now--we're still cleaning up from the last one." He watched her cross her arms angrily. "You're going to have to stay here until King Fergus stops to resupply."

She did end up staying. After trying to escape multiple times, she'd realized that there was no point. Merida stayed in a spare bedroom in the Chief's home and often spent her days with him. After another month, she began to fall in love with him. By the time her father came back to the island of Berk, the couple were deeply in love. 

Hiccup asked for permission to marry her.

The king said yes.

Hiccup and Merida were married on Berk shortly after Eleanor and the triplets arrived.

Merida's responsibilities were now that of a chieftess instead of a queen, and she was happy with that. She was happy with Hiccup, and she was happy with their four children. She would never be alone. She would never run from her destiny again. From the moment she married Hiccup, she had chosen her own fate.

A good one.

So, a couple weeks ago I watched HtTYD2 for the first time in a long time, and it inspired me to finally finish this oneshot. I think I might make a second part to this oneshot eventually, I really liked this one...maybe I'll even turn it into a book like I did with the "Weekend at the Cabin". Anyways...love it? Hate it? Tell me what you think and comment below for what you want me to write next (cindai, wolflet, thress, wincin, everlark, fourtris, eugunzel, hiccelsa, jarida, jelsa, kristanna, merricup, clintasha, captain widow/romanogers, pepperony, Thane, Brutty, Tasertricks, captinswan, snowing, outlaw queen... You can tell me others and I will do them if I know who they are). I have a Wincin, Hiccelsa, Eugunzel, Clintasha, PotC, Jelsa, Captain Swan, and Avengers meet RotBFTD crossover in that order coming up next. I can't promise quick updates on this book since I have other stories to write.

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PrinsessSelene04