━━ chapter three
the frode family
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━━The evening was spent in the dining hall. The group of young dragon fighters━save Hiccup because he was off Thor knows where━sat together with Gobber at one of the centre tables, enjoying dinner as they discussed their time at the arena today. Valkyrie played with her soup, making the lines of leaves with her spoon before she'd eat some. The light was dim, flickering with the fire of lit torches sided along the walls.
"Where did Astrid go wrong in the ring today?"
Astrid looked at the water in her horn-cup, "I mistimed my somersault dive," she said easily. "It was sloppy. It threw off my reverse tumble."
"Yeah," scoffed Ruffnut, "we noticed."
"No! No!" Snotlout was quick to assure Astrid, "you were great. That was so Astrid." She rolled her eyes at him, her fingers tightening around her drink as if contemplating whether to throw it at him or not.
"She's right," said Gobber. "You have to be tough on yourselves, but that was not where I was aiming, Astrid," he picked up the chicken leg with his hook and took a bite. "Valkyrie, how about you tell me where you went wrong in the ring today, and perhaps it can help both of you understand."
Valkyrie stopped playing with her food to arch a brow. She had a feeling she knew exactly what Gobber was aiming, but she didn't want to admit it, and she was sure Astrid would scoff it away if she admitted it, too. Still, Valkyrie gritted her teeth and answered, "We focused on our own agenda instead of focusing on the dragon."
"Correct!" Gobber pointed the chicken leg at her. "You may call this a competition, but in the real world, in the world of killed or be killed, you're not fighting one another to reach the top, and if you do, you'll both end up dead. You gotta focus on yourself just as much as having each other's back. That's a real warrior's motto."
Valkyrie and Astrid shared a glance from where they sat next to each other. Now out of the ring, they were best friends again. It was how they worked. Whenever there was a competition, it was every friend for themselves. But Valkyrie didn't think that was the same for fighting dragons outside the ring. That wasn't a competition to Astrid, was it? Or to Valkyrie? They would have each other's backs when it came to it, surely. Valkyrie wouldn't let a dragon kill Astrid ...
Until she realised that she could have caused Astrid to die in the ring today by the Gronckle from her own selfishness, and the same went for Astrid to her, too.
(That definitely gave the two of them something to think about. To themselves, obviously. Not in front of anyone else, because that required showcase of emotion, which Valkyrie does not do in public).
The door to the dining hall opened, and out of the storm, shuffled in Hiccup. Finally. Valkyrie arched a brow at him, eyes dark and narrowed as she watched him slowly make his way up to them. He was completey drenched━head to toe. She pursed her lips, and as if knowing she had a suspicious gaze on him, Hiccup met it. The two had a staring contest for a few moments as she tried to figure out where the Hel he had been, and as Hiccup felt his whole throat tighten. She's looking at him! He thought to himself. Oh, you idiot, it's because she hates you!
So, with a glum sigh, he picked up the left over chicken and didn't give Snotlout a second glance as he shuffled up the seat to act as if there was no room. Valkyrie continued to watch Hiccup as he walked his way to the next table, sitting alone.
Seeing him, Gobber gestured to Hiccup, "Where did Hiccup go wrong?"
It was an open door for the row of insults that followed from the teens.
"Uh, he showed up," said Ruffnut.
"He didn't get eaten," added Tuffnut.
"He's never where he should be," frowned Astrid.
Still glowering at him, and watching Hiccup quickly look away, Valkryie stated: "He only relies on others to help him."
"Thank you, Valkyrie," in passing, Gobber shoved the twins's heads down for their comments. Not roughly, but just enough to get their long noses dipped into their food. "You need to live and breathe this stuff." Out of his vest, Gobber pulled the Dragon Manual, a book about everything they knew about every dragon they knew about, in summary. Valkyrie has read it plenty of times before, but she didn't say anything, just watched it with her usual stone expression as it was dropped onto the table. "The Dragon Manual. Everything we know, about every dragon we know of."
Thunder rumbled outside like a sleeping Gronckle with a stomach ache. Gobber growled back, annoyed. But soon sighed and said, "No attacks tonight. Study up."
Tuffnut stopped playing with his dagger and let it fall onto the table with a thunk, "Wait," his gaze followed Gobber as he left. "You mean read?"
"While we're still alive?" let out Ruffnut, and her brother threw his head back to whine.
Snotlout scoffed, "Why read words when you can just kill the stuff━" he slammed his fist on the table, "━the words tell you stuff about?"
"You can't kill the stuff without knowing the stuff, Snotlout," Astrid glared at him, and flicked one of her left-over chicken bones with extreme accuracy. Snotlout screeched when it hit his nose.
"Oh!" Fishlegs's face lit up. "I've read it like seven times! There's this water dragon that sprays boiling water at your face! And there's this other one that buries itself for like a week━"
Tuffnut snapped his fingers together in front of Fishlegs's face, a quick gesture to tell him to shut up. "Yeah. That sounds great. There was a chance I'd read it ..."
"But now ..." his twin sister finished, and Fishlegs's shoulders fell.
Letting out another scoff, Snotlout stood up and flexed his arms. Valkyrie rolled her eyes at returned her attention back to her soup. "You guys read. I'll go kill stuff."
He led the way out of the dining hall, and the twins and Fishlegs quickly followed. The latter spouting out information that was completely ignored for the twins were too busy hitting and pushing each other over to give Fishlegs the time of day. The only ones left were Astrid, Valkyrie and Hiccup━who decided it would be a good idea to join the girls at the table.
Awkwardly, he gave them a smile, "So ... I'll guess we'll share?"
Astrid immediately stood up. "Read it," she shoved it his way before marching out of the building.
A stiff silence settled between Hiccup and Valkyrie afterwards. She didn't glance at him, continuing to eat her soup. She expected him to just take the book and read at another table, but he just pursed his lips, shuffled his feet and sat down opposite her at the table. Valkyrie gritted her teeth. Great.
Hiccup the Horrendous went to open his mouth to say something, but she quickly snapped, "You know I don't like you, right?"
His mouth slowly closed, and he visibly gulped. "Uh ..." he treaded carefully on what he said, "yeah?" Her glare hardened, and he cleared his throat. Reaching for the book, he watched the beautiful━and yet very scary━Viking warrior finish her soup with a final mouthfull. "So ... should we read it together, or...?" his voice fell away at the scowl she sent him. "O━or not. That━that's cool, too. I can━I can just sit here and read it, that's fine. More for me!" he chuckled nervously, but Valkyrie showed no sign of amusement.
"Whatever," she instead said and stood up. Grabbing her mallet, she spun it around and said, "Don't trip on your way home, Your Highness."
Hiccup frowned, watching her walk away. It was a quip to his parentage, son of the chief, whatever ... But it was the first time she actually called him something, even if it was an insult. Was ... was that like ... progress, or something? Could it be called progress? (If it's progress, he thought bitterly, it's in the wrong direction). To himself, he muttered, "Point taken, Milady."
He didn't think she heard it, but he saw Valkyrie falter in her step. Hiccup's breath hitched. Oh, Gods, he was most definitely going to get it now ... but she just continued on her way, acting as though she hadn't heard him at all.
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━━"Erik━you stupid sea erchin! Get off!"
"You get off!" Valkyrie walked into her home to see her brothers fighting ... which was the usual. Erik, the youngest━a boy of nine years and very much like their mother in the auburn hair department (and Valkyrie) with a strong viking chin and temper━wrestled his older brother, Mak by the fireplace. Mak was much smaller, even though he was two years older━in fact, he turned twelve this upcoming winter. Though that didn't change his viking stubborness, or the fact that he was growing rapidly. They all expected him to out-height them all once he was a man.
Near them, was Hott, he was the second eldest of all the boys, and the third eldest of the children. He paid his fighting brothers no mind, busy trying to draw the dragon head above the fireplace: a yellow Deadly Nadder. It was quite the sight to walk past dead in the night with just a dimly lit candle for company. He took more after their father, with hair more on the blonder side and small beady blue eyes (which made Valkyrie wonder how he saw what he drew).
Finally, was Valkyrie's brother closest in age. Just eleven months younger than her, Asrifth was to start dragon training next autumn. He reminded Valkyrie of Hiccup, except much less annoying. He wasn't the biggest fighter there was, or the strongest Viking. He preferred to stay inside, and made sure their younger brothers didn't sneak out to see all the dragon fighting. Every family has the outsider, Valkyrie supposes ... they didn't exactly get along. Do you see how Valkyrie treats Hiccup? Or rather, how much he annoys her? Well, her brother might not be as infuriating, but they didn't share an interest in dragon killing. It made them butt heads.
Returning from outside, Valkyrie's mother blew her auburn braids off her face and broke out into a smile. She was drenched from the rain outside, much like her daughter, holding a basket of freshly picked flowers they had that only bloomed at night. "Val! There's my vicious warrior! How was your first day of dragon training?!" seeing Erik and Mak, she soon snapped. "Boys! Stop fighting or you'll have no dinner!"
Immediately, they stopped. Mak gave Erik a final shove to have the last word.
"It was okay, s'pose," Valkyrie acted as she usually did: mysterious and casual, swinging back and forth her mallet before setting it on the weapon hanger Hott had built himself. "All though, Hiccup had to go ahead and ruin it all."
"Hiccup?" her mother's brows furrowed, and she set the basket of herbs, flowers and other flora onto the small family table. They didn't have a big house, like other vikings (she means Hiccup). They all lived in one room. It got quite━er━stuffy when all of them were around. But it was Viking life. "Stoick's son?"
"Know any other Hiccup?" muttered Valkyrie, spotting some fresh berries. She grabbed some before her mother could tell her not to snag before dinner━she already had dinner! "Yeah━we fought a Gronckle, had to nearly get himself blown up, so ..."
Mak gasped, and soon grinned, "Cool."
"Well," her mother dusted her hands together. "Since you're back, you can dry yourself off in the bucket and then help me with these flowers. Asrifth━stop sitting and doing nothing, go and help clean. I don't want this house to become a living yackstye."
Asrifth rolled his eyes, but stood up. Passing Valkyrie, he muttered, "You probably aggravated the dragon━scared it so it had no choice but to defend."
Valkyrie narrowed her eyes back at him, "I'd like to see you in the ring for a day. You'd be even worse than Hiccup."
"What? Being peaceful?"
"No," she said. "Being ignorant and naive to think that dragons are peaceful creatures. You know what they have done. Open your eyes and grow up."
"What if I'm right and you're wrong?"
"You're not."
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a/n: erik and mak are my favs u can't change my mind I'm sorry i love the two rascals.
also, if you do have an idea what dragon val will get, what name ideas have y'all got? I've got a name idea, but who knows, I might like one of y'all's better. (and no her dragon will not be a night fury or light fury i am sorry even I won't step down that cliche route)
(also hiccup and valkyrie are already like omg ahahaha)