Battle Scars (Mericcup Story)

Chapter 9: A Heavy Heart

Merida felt the breeze pass overhead before she saw the beast. It landed behind the twins, teeth bared and gleaming like daggers in the sunlight. Her breath caught in her throat, tasting sour and bitter all at once. At the same time her heart seemed to stop, crushed beneath some unfamiliar weight. When reality caught up with her, Merida grabbed at her lungs, pressing a hand to her chest as if trying to break stone.

She heard a distant voice somewhere behind the newly formed veil covering reality. It echoed through her mind. "Merida!" It called, trying to reach her, but it was like smoke and disappeared just as quickly. "Merida!" it called again. The princess sunk to the ground, crouched with her head facing the stone beneath her. She was afraid to look up and meet the two-headed demon. "Go get the Queen. Anyone." She heard the voice call, faintly, but still there. "I was afraid this would happen." her stomach churned, and her breath was still caught between her lungs and lips. She felt another whip of air pass her as her brothers swept by,

"What should we do?" Ask a pair of voices, almost at the same time. The twins. Hiccup looked up at them, then back at Merida. Her ears were still ringing and she still faced the ground.

"Get Belch and Barf out of here. Then try to find Fishlegs, maybe he can help." They're dragon -one head named Belch, the other Barf- didn't fuss and Hiccup knew it could probably tell what was going on.

There was a quick reply of "We're on it boss," and "You can count on us." Before they were gone. Hiccup looked back at Merida and knelt beside her. 

"Merida." He was sure it was the hundredth time he'd said her name, but he didn't care. Kneeling beside her, he could see through her twisting red hair that fell like a curtain. He could see the pale girl that hid underneath, appearing truly weak, and fragile for the first time since they'd met. "You're going to be ok. The dragon's gone, alright?" He said reassuringly. He had hope she would at least respond, send him one of her notable smirks, although this proved not to be the case.

Hiccup moved his hand, shifting his weight to balance on his false leg, and moved the hand he'd been leaning on to Merida's own, entangling their finger's lightly, "Merida. You're OK." He tried again. This time he earned a small side-ways glance. He let himself smile for a moment and take  a sigh of relief. A few more minutes past by before he heard the sound of leather wings outside. A second later Fishlegs was there, Astrid a few feet behind him,

"How is she?" He asked, rushing in at a pace that could've rivalled a Speed Stinger*. He brought with him a small container of water.

Hiccup stood before speaking, sending an unknowing look to his friend. "She's getting better, I think. Thanks for coming, so the twins found you."

"Yeah, you should've seen them." Astrid interjected. "I got the impression you would send Toothless after them if they didn't get anyone...they wanted me to tell you they were sorry about what happened. If they had known-"

"It's not there fault. I was hoping to handle this on my own, but now I know that was a mistake." Hiccup responded. It was clear he was being honest, if nothing else. He should have made sure anyone with dragons knew exactly what was going on. "Beside's I don't think Belch and Barf would like it if I went after their riders." He heard Astrid give a small laugh, although Fishlegs was still to focused on Merida to pay attention to them. He had been able to get her to stand.

"Up we go," He said, almost as if talking to someone much younger. He raised her up on still shaky knees. "Let's move you somewhere less dragon-esc." With that he lead her outside to the familiar cliff face again, then down the path to the beach below. Hiccup and Astrid followed them down the small path to the rocky beach, the sea air was cold, but refreshing after such an ordeal. "See, this is better right?"

Merida sent him another small smile. "Aye, but it'd be even better if one of you stopped my mum. I'm sure she'd be sick over this for days." She sent a look to the three other members of the group. "I promise I'm fine, the queen however is a different story." She was clearly egging them on, but it was enough to get Astrid to raise her hand and volunteer.

"I think we can give Fishlegs a few more minutes to play doctor," Astrid whispered to Hiccup. He let out a laugh that was a bit to loud, although neither Fishlegs or Merida seemed to notice. "I'll be back in a little while to check up on you're new girlfriend." She teased, it  took less than a second for Hiccup's face to turn a scarlet red. He quickly brushed a hand through his hair to try to cover it, but he was sure Astrid had noticed.

As she turned around the corner of the beach Hiccup heard another loud whistle, then saw a flash of blue scales dive down. Stormfly -Astrid dragon- sent out a similar whistle as it took to the air. Hiccup watched the two fly off before turning back to Merida. When he reached her on the beach he notice she had began playing in the sand, etching out her own small drawing of Belch and Barf.

"So," She said after a moment, her voice an excited whisper. "That was a dragon."

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* - the Speed Stinger is a dragon found on the HTTYD:Riders of Berk TV show. Similar to a velociraptor, it is the fastest dragon on land (so I was obviously joking in the text) and are flightless dragons.