━━ 𝐕𝐀𝐋𝐇𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐀
❝ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ᴡᴇʀᴇ ᴅʀᴀɢᴏɴꜱ ᴡʜᴇɴ
valkyrie frode was a girl
where they went? 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙖 𝙛𝙚𝙬 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 ❞
in which a young woman
has become one of the best
dragon riders there is...
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━━ chapter twenty-four home
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WHEN VALKYRIE was six, she broke her ankle. She had slipped on the ice after Astrid had dared them all to climb the slope to touch the tip of the catapult in the middle of one of the longest winters Berk has known. It was a stupid idea, but Valkyrie had been determined to do it. Her and Astrid always had competitions. And she had done it. She had climbed to the top when none of the others could. She had touched the wood, cheered, and then slipped. On the tumble down, she had snapped a bone, and it was one of the most painful physical experiences she's ever faced. But now, she laughed about it. They continued to climb the length to this day, sit there and watch over Berk━eat and laugh and tell stories while their dragons played and rested below. It had become their place. Now, it was nothing but ruin.
This was her home. This was where she was born, where she grew up━all of her memories, all of the laughter, and running across the streets, jumping and shoving people off the docks, threatening to drop those they hated into Old Man Björn's Well ... so many memories, so many chapters of a story Valkyrie wanted to continue until she passed. Adventure, growth, life. Places where she snuck off to with Hiccup, fields she ran after the Twins after they turned over Sven's yaks, places she and Astrid hid to avoid their parents after they jumped off the cliffs again. The arena Val met Zephyr, the Cove where she first saw Toothless, where she first kissed Hiccup on the cheek.
Berk was her home. Berk was her. It was her life, it was her heart, it was the place she got married, the place she gave birth to her daughter━the place she's defended ever since she could. The place she wanted Linnea to grow up, to run the fields, to climb the cliffs and to feel the morning air breathe through her hair.
It was never supposed to go up into fire, barely saved by the work of Vikings and dragons to douse it all. Homes burnt, defences destroyed, all that work, all that time, all of those memories━half of it turned to ash under Valkyrie's feet.
It felt as though Valkyrie had turned to ash with it. She tasted embers on her tongue, felt the smoke in her lungs, tried very had not to crumble apart when only one option was left: to leave.
She hugged Linnea tight to her chest, keeping her close and safe as the entire village of Berk argued under the dim torch light of the Great Hall. Valkyrie felt her daughter slowly cry herself back to sleep, terrified and hating all the loud noise. Valkyrie wished she could take her away, back to her home, but there was nothing left of the house she was going to grow up in. Nothing left for her to feel comfort aside from her mother's arms, and Valkyrie could tell that while Linnea might not know, she could feel it. She knew something wasn't right, and it made her sob until she hiccuped, and finally until she exhausted herself, still whimpering little sounds as she drifted off━eyelids heavy, probably with a headache, and no doubt pains in her stomach.
