Dark Wings

Chapter 7: Astrid VS Ruffnut

Astrid's POV

I woke up to a start. My head was throbbing and my side was aching like crazy. I slowly sat up and the pain intensified. I looked around to see where I was and I saw Gothi stirring some liquid in a bowl. She must have heard the bed squeak since she turned around and looked at me. Before I could ask her what was going on, she smacked her staff on my arm which caused me to stifle my words. I glared at her and she took the bowl from the corner and offered it to me. I immediately pushed it away, since the smell caused me to gag.

"You need to drink this, you lost a lot of blood Astrid." She said. "That Nadder spike did a number on you."

My eyes widened at her words and I tossed the blanket that was covering me and looked at the damage on my side. The bandage covered the wound, but from what I could tell, there was a nasty red mark surrounding the bandage and there was dried blood still covering my skin. I looked at Gothi and she shoved the bowl at me once again and I grimaced. I wrinkled my nose in disgust and quickly shoved the green liquid down my throat before I vomited it back up. I ran a hand through my hair, which was tangled and oily due to the sweat I was laying in in Gothi's out.

"How long have I been in here?" I asked her. I needed to be out there and back in training; there was no way I was going to lose my spot in training because of some Nadder spike.

"A few days." She said in a calm manner. My mouth dropped open and my face was turning red with anger. A few days!? Before I could say anything, the door to Gothi's hut slammed open and I looked up to see my mom staring at me with a mix of emotions on her face before she finally settled on one: Anger.

"Astrid Freya Hofferson!" she started. "What in Thor's name provoked you to challenge a fully grown Nadder by yourself in one of the most deadly raids possible!? You're lucky Gobber ran out of his stall to come and get you and give you to Gothi immediately. You could've died! A Nadder's spike was lodged into your side and you were bleeding like crazy! How did you think I felt when I saw my daughter, my only daughter, lying in a pool of her own blood in the dirt!? Did you take into consideration of what I was feeling!?" Her voice broke at the end and it looked like she was going to cry. My mom, Brenna Hofferson was one of the fiercest warriors on the island. She rarely cried, and the only time she ever did was at my father's funeral so many years ago. I bowed my head down in regret as I took her words to heart after she spoke.

"I know you want to be recognized as a great shield maiden Astrid, but don't put your life in danger for some recognition from the village. If Stoick can't see how great of a warrior you are, then screw him. You're a Hofferson, we don't need anyone's approval, we fight and climb our way up to get what we want when we want no matter what. You did a good job killing the Nadder, but if you ever put yourself in that much danger again, you'll have to fear me. I didn't spend a day and a half screaming my head off to bring you into this cold world for you to get yourself killed recklessly." I nodded in agreement, since my mother's temper was something not to be trifled with.

"So can I get out of here, or do I have to stay in this bed for Gods know how long?" I asked. My mom looked at Gothi and she sighed in defeat. She knew I would fight tooth and nail to get out of this hut before I go mad.

"Let me clean the wound and redress it and you'll be good to go." She removed the bandage and the wound was healing quite fine. There was a small hole from where the spike was and there was a slight infection, but it was nothing that couldn't be fixed. My mom grimaced at the sight of the wound as Gothi was cleaning it. It stung from what liquid she just put on there and cleared off the last bit of infection. There was no more blood and she was stitching up the hole and redressed the wound and gave my mom some herbs and warned her for me to take them every day, or else the infection would return. I cleaned myself up and put my hair back into its usual braid.