The Witch and the Viking (Mericcup fanfic)

Chapter 4: Two Paths

Merida's cheeks flushed at the feeling of the cool wind against her cheeks, as she raced on her horse Angus. He had clobbered through the bluebells that surrounded the house, but Merida's was to elated to notice. The freedom of riding through the woods was better than any source of magic. She tossed her head up towards the sky as the wind made ripples through her long curly hair. The scent of pine trees was a symbol of home. She was herself in the forest. Her teacher never understood her need to be outside. If her teacher got her way Merida would never wander past the bluebells.

Angus began to slow his pace as the path became more narrow.

"Angus," Merida said catching her breath, "What are you doing? We've barely started,"

Angus' pace grew slower until he came to a halt. His ears twitched as his eyes frantically began to search the perimeter. Merida turned her head seeing nothing but trees and the path.  She then sat very still, her hair was the only thing that moved against the breeze. The river was like music to her ears, but not what she was trying to focus on. Angus could hear something that she could not. Merida turned her head slowly listening in. She could hear a whooshing sound, like the biggest sheet in the world was getting flounced in the wind. She looked towards the sky but there were too many clouds, she could only see slight shadows ripping through the clouds. 

"Astrid wait!..." she heard a voice shout faintly from the clouds. 

She knew what it was immediately...Dragon riders. She had never seen them, but her teacher had spoken about them. They were humans who captured dragons and forced them to be vessels of transportation and weaponry. They were the worst humans for taking a magical creature and forcing it into submission. 

She didn't need to hear any more. She took hold of the reins in her hand and Angus shot off like an arrow. Merida could feel her blood turning cold and as her fear had taken over the bliss she felt moments ago. She realized they could probably still see her if they were that close. She reached for her satchel that hung across her chest. She brought out the spell book that her mother had given her. She tried to turn to the emergency section but Angus was running too fast. Angus jumped quickly over a log and the spell book flew from Merida's hands. 

"Shit!" She took her the reins and made Angus stop so suddenly she herself almost fell off the saddle. She got down and ran towards the book, she could still hear the humans, they were getting closer. She picked it up and began frantically turning the pages until she got to the transport spell. She held touched Angus' side while her other hand held the book. 

"Lacus Domum" she recited. She could feel the magic flowing through her body. Her hands began evaporating from the air, her dress, the book, Angus all slowly started to fade away. Magic always had a slow burn to it. It usually crept up your body building up as it went until finally your body became covered from the inside out with it. 

Merida opened her eyes and she was in her home...as was Angus. 

"Oh no boy I'm sorry I should have said to go to the stables," she said stroking the horse's mane. 

She put the book down on the dinner table and guided Angus outside. He could barely fit through the door as she tried to gently pull him through. Eventually she was able to get him out and back to the stables. She went back inside her house, and saw her book on the table. 

The binding had withstood the fall but some of the pages had gotten wet from being dropped in the wet grass. No spells had smudge thank goodness. This was her lifeline to her magic and she had carelessly dropped it. Merida could not perform magic without the book. You graduate from the book after you come of age and become a full witch. Since she never did, she would have to rely on this book in order to do magic as long as she lived. Merida picked up the book and held it close to her chest. She would never let it go from her sight again. 

...

Hiccup was happy to be back in the skies again. Toothless seemed happy too as he would take his time to do some tricks in the sky. 

"Easy there boy, we don't want to get off course," Hiccup had told his dragon/ 

"What are we looking for again?" Astrid asked, appearing from the clouds on her dragon Stormfly. She had finally agreed to go on this adventure with Hiccup if it would mean she could keep him safe. Astrid knew Hiccup could take care of himself, but it was her responsibility to make sure the chief of their village was not in any danger. 

"Adventure! " he said proudly. "I just want to get out of the house and go somewhere I haven't been, maybe we'll find trolls who have been collecting those bluebell flowers,"

Astrid rolled her eyes, "There is no way trolls are collecting bluebells," 

"Why not? Maybe a handsome troll has a girl troll he's trying to impress and each day he is taking flowers from this field for her," 

"Hiccup, that is very sweet, ridiculous and highly unlikely, but sweet," 

Hiccup smiled, "That huge gap in the field just doesn't make sense, it looks to organized. I just want to check out beyond that point, I feel like there is something there that I'm just not seeing, plus this is the first time riding in weeks," 

Astrid understood, he need this today, he needed something to get his mind off the state of the village for once. 

"Well let's make this more interesting, Stormfly and I will race you to the bluebells," she challenged. 

Hiccup's face lit up like a dragon's flame. "Really? Well it wouldn't exactly be fair Toothless being a night-" 

Astrid blasted off with Stormfly heading north towards the clearing,

"Astrid Wait! That's not fair!" Hiccup yelled chasing after her. He could feel the water from the clouds splashing his face as the cool air whipped around him. 

"Alright Toothless let's show her how this is done," Hiccup smiled bigger than he had in weeks. 

Toothless chirped in agreement just happy to be out with his human again. Toothless dived down below the clouds using them as a shield. As Toothless flew lower he could hear something running down below. Toothless peered down and a redheaded human with her horse galloping quickly. She looked like a human, but Toothless could smell the magic around her all the way up from the sky. He looked up at his own human who was too blissfully unaware to notice the ground below. Toothless looked down again but the girl and her steed were gone. 

"Come on Toothless, Astrid is going to win if we don't keep up!" 

Toothless shook his head and flapped his wings harder and glided with the wind. Astrid and Stormfly came into view, Hiccup could hear Astrid's laugh bellowing into the clouds like thunder. 

"You little cheater!" he shouted, 

"I see it as a creative strategy," she responded. 

Astrid could see the bluebells down below. He was right the pattern was out of the ordinary with straight lines and corners. However, she refused to believe his trolls theory without serious proof. 

"Hiccup let's move past the bluebell field and land by the south part of the river, Stormfly could use a victory drink," She smiled, 

"Fine, but I want a rematch when we fly back," he said. 

Astrid had not seen her friend, the chief, that happy in a long time, and she was glad she could be apart of it.

Author's note:  Merida and Hiccup will be meeting soon and I cannot wait to be done with the backstory/exposition phase of this story, but I do believe it is important to establish, but action scenes/dialogue are more fun for me to write haha. Hope you enjoyed it please comment and vote! 

-Firegirl