━━ chapter seven
zero to hero
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━━Ever since Valkyrie could remember, she felt like she needed to prove herself to her name. It was quite intimidating as a young Viking to be named after the warriors of Valhalla; she felt like she was supposed to live up to it, to become it: a warrior so powerful, so graceful, and yet so deadly. A Valkyrie. Her parents didn't say anything, but she could see it━her father wanted her to be the best she could be, and the best for Valkyrie was the very best. She didn't know why, but she just couldn't handle being a step behind someone, even if it was a small step━and by a small step, she meant the step of a runt named Hiccup Haddock the Third.
Valkyrie was supposed to be the best━to grow to be the best Viking warrior Berk has ever seen; the best dragon warrior. Now, at fifteen, she wasn't sure anymore whether that was something her parents pressured her to do, or whether she pressured it upon herself, but it became sewn into her very being. It was who Valkyrie was. She was quiet, determined, angry, stoic, and very competitive. She trained her arms sore, she memorised anything she could, she was supposed to be the best. And the best shouldn't worry about the likes of the worst. They weren't supposed to be on the same level. She was supposed to be up high, while Hiccup was supposed to be stuck down the bottom. He wasn't supposed to rise up to her height. That wasn't how the world worked.
She had wanted to prove Astrid wrong, but Hiccup had been the one to prove the blonde right. The same boy she had pushed off the docks when they were little because he annoyed her so much, the same boy who couldn't lift his shield straight, was quickly becoming a threat to Valkyrie's success, and she didn't like it━one bit.
After the tale of what he had achieved with the Hideous Zippleback, more and more villagers came to watch Dragon Training━for Hiccup. That only made Valkyrie even more furious. Hiccup, who didn't take this seriously. Hiccup, who couldn't fight even if his life depended on it. Hiccup, who couldn't hold a shield or sword or even run straight. He wasn't supposed to be a threat!
And so, as Dragon Training progressed, a new side to Valkyrie was shown━a more determined, more loud, more aggressive and frustrated side. She was Valkyrie the Vicious for a reason━but never the reason she was showing recently. That anger that had escaped that day in the ring towards Hiccup after the Nadder seemed to just show up everywhere━and it was affecting her performance! Whenever she messed up, she only got more frustrated, which messed her up more. Her strikes and throws were getting sloppy, her tactical decisions were fuelled by a biased determination━and it was all Hiccup's fault! He was making her sloppy, making her bad. He was destroyed her chances of winning this thing and he wasn't even holding his axe the right way on the handle!
From across the ring, Valkyrie scowled in his direction. Hiccup stood alone by one of the barriers, awkwardly tapping his shield against the ground for it was still too heavy for him. How could someone like him get better at Dragon Training?
Out of nowhere, Astrid rolled into a crouch beside her, the two holding up their shields in defence of the Gronckle that was chasing the twins around the arena. Much like the first time they fought the beast, it was a frenzy of running around in circles, shouting, arguing and Snotlout trying his best to impress Astrid only to nearly get his hand blasted off ... again.
"I told you so," Astrid said through gritted teeth, watching Tuffnut taunt the dragon with a:
"Hey! Ruffnut weighs less than you!"
(His twin threw her shield at him for that comment, which hadn't been the smartest move, Valkyrie will admit).
Valkyrie's grip on her mallet tightened. She flicked her braid off her shoulder, and some petals off her flowers fell to the ground. "I know," she grumbled. "Don't need to remind me."
"No, I think I do need to remind you," said Astrid, checking the Gronckle's whereabouts again. "We can't afford to let Hiccup beat us."
Together━in sync━the two friends rolled across the rocky ground, bypassing the Gronckle to try and stay in its blind spot. In a whisper, Valkyrie replied back a harsh, "What━are you suggesting we team up against him? That's very un-Astrid of you."
"Just think about it!" said Astrid. "We team up against him until the final fight before the winner is decided, that way we can make sure he's not in there and we can just have a fair fight between us."
(Considering their ambitious and competitive personalities, Valkyrie had a feeling that it wouldn't end up a fair fight, but she knew she wanted to win━and she knew she didn't want Hiccup to ruin that chance for her).
"Let me think about it," she instead said. And while the Gronckle was distracted with Hiccup, she was quickly on her feet and━with her mallet up━she stormed at the beast. Ready to attack, she bent her legs to pounce, only for the Gronckle to just fall at Hiccup's feet.
She skidded to a stop. Her mallet dropped. Valkyrie stared at Hiccup who met her gaze sheepishly. The Gronckle grumbled contentedly at his feet. Her shock soon turned to fury, and Valkyrie gritted her teeth, "Are you serious?!" she shouted at no one in particular, and slammed her hammer on the ground. "Damn all the gods━damn you━damn everything━"
Her mood only got worse as everyone exited the arena. Valkyrie trailed back with Astrid, her fists clenched. She hoped her glare could send daggers into Hiccup's spine as the others━Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Snotlout and Fishlegs surrounded him with claps of congragulations, questions, cries of, "Whoa━how did you do that?!" Valkyrie and Astrid were no longer the progidies of the group, no longer the leaders ... Hiccup was stealing more than just Valkyrie's win.
Hiccup tried to push them away, scrambling back with a stammer, "I━uh━I left my axe back in the ring. Uh━you guys go ahead━" he almost ran straight into Valkyrie, and she yelped, jumping out of his way. Hiccup quickly ran past, "I━I'll catch up with you!" he called back to them, and hurried back to the arena.
Valkyrie's scowl followed him. Astrid was right━there was something up with Hiccup. There was no way Hiccup the Horrendous could go from zero to hero overnight like he had. He had to be cheating or something━Valkyrie didn't know! All she knew was that she was losing, and she hated it. The one person who shouldn't be a threat, had suddenly become her biggest.
Astrid came to a stop next to her, watching Hiccup leave as well. She met Valkyrie's glare and said, "Deal?"
Val didn't need to be asked twice this time. She nodded, grinding her teeth. "Deal," she spat before spinning on her heel and leading the way back to the village.
✿✼:*ﾟ:༅｡.｡༅:*･ﾟﾟ･⭑
━━Teaming up seemed to absolutely nothing to Hiccup's rise in power and fame. Instead of tripping each other over in Dragon Training, Valkyrie and Astrid tried to trip Hiccup over. They distracted him, they lured the dragons away from him, they blocked his path, his steps, accidentally ran into him. But nothing worked. Hiccup only just got back up, he only just continued on his way, he only just seemed to make the dragons fall to his feet. Nadders, Gronckles, Hideous Zipplebacks, he handled them like a master, never even raising his weapon━and the Village loved him for it.
The crowds grew by each training session. Larger and larger until they were shoulder-by-shoulder at the wired net above the training arena. Valkyrie saw families, Gothi, farmers, men and women, young and old, even old and annoying Mildew had come to join the fray. Seeing her family amongst the spectators, Valkyrie felt more of a need to prove herself, to show Hiccup up━to remind everyone who truly was the best warrior out of the group. She was Valkyrie the Vicious! He was Hiccup the Horrendous. Don't any of them recall how he almost set the village aflame because he wanted to poke a Monstrous Nightmare? Apparently not! Even Valkyrie's mother seemed impressed; her brothers became obsessed like everyone else, and Valkyrie felt the lowest she's ever had. Hiccup stole her friends, her power, her authority, her success ... and now he stole the pride from her family.
Valkyrie's whole figure just slumped in hearing her brother's yell his name in victory over their battle with the Nadder. Looking up, her heart dropped to her stomach. She was supposed to be their hero, their role model. Her brothers should be cheering her name. Looking back at Hiccup, her pain was quickly masked into anger, and she stormed out of the arena, another loss on her belt; another failure.
The one thing Valkyrie still had, though, was Astrid, and she'll forever be grateful for that, and perhaps it was the same way the other way around. The two girls stuck together. While the others left and ran towards Hiccup with no hesitation, Valkyrie's and Astrid's friendship seemed to really be tested, and succeeded through. Maybe it was the only good thing coming out of all of this. They started to work together more, be at each other's side more (emotionally, rather than physically), and both shared a desperate need to throw Hiccup off his high cliff. (What a better friendship bonding experience?!)
They stood together next Dragon Training, glaring at the cage door they all circled around. Valkyrie arched a brow at Hiccup, gaze narrowed who stood awkwardly next to Fishlegs as if knowing she was glaring at him. With a pull of the lever, Gobber unlocked the door, "Meet the Terrible Terror."
It wasn't the large door that opened. Instead, it was the small metal flap at the bottom. Valkyrie's brows rose in surprise at the small green dragon that scampered out. It's eyes were way too big for it's little head, with two little spiky horns up and angled on either side. It didn't look like it deserved the name: The Terrible Terror.
Tuffnut seemed to agree. He scoffed out a laugh, "Ha! It's like the size of my━" Before any of them could even blink, the small dragon leapt up and encased it's little razor sharp teeth around Tuffnut's nose. He fell back, and they all scrambled away in surprise. None of them tried to help him as he tugged and pulled the mini dragon from his face. "Oh━Get it off! Get it off!" the Terrors gaze flickered onto something moving along the stone. Valkyrie's frown returned, watching it leap away from Tuffnut's nose and after the ball of light that darted back and forth. Tuffnut rushed away, clutching his nose. "Oh, I'm hurt!" he wailed. "I am very much hurt!"
Valkyrie searched for the source of the light, and she grumbled to see Hiccup (again). With precision, he guided the Terrible Terror back to his cage with nothing but the reflection from his shield. The crowd watched in awe, as did Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Snotlout and Fishlegs while Valkyrie and Astrid fumed. The small beast scrambled after the light right back into it's cage through the small flap, and Hiccup placed a victorious foot against the iron.
"Wow!" Tuffnut pulled himself to stand, still rubbing his tender and sore nose. "He's better than you two ever were," he told the girls.
Astrid gritted her teeth and swung her fist behind her. She hit Tuffnut in his already swollen nose, and he moaned in pain, tumbling back down to the ground. Valkyrie was right with her, holding up her mallet and letting the butt of it fall onto his stomach. "No one asked you!" she seethed at the twin.
Valkyrie tried to get her anger out in the woods, finding her usual spot where all her favourite flowers grew and did her best to calm herself down in making herself a flower crown. It was most definitely a sight to see; a very angry Viking sitting down against a tree and ferociously tying together stems to make a dainty and beautiful accessory with her mallet sat down beside her. And if one were to pass, they would also hear her grumbles━many curses to Loki for making a laugh out of her failure as a Viking against the failure of all Vikings.
"Stupid, little, runt of a━horrendeous━" she was saying as she stitched two flowers together. "Oh, look at me, I'm Hiccup Haddock and I can make dragons fall at my feet━" she wiggled her shoulders for dramatic effect, something she has found out he always did when he talked. "What an idiot."
She could just imagine what her father will say when he came back from finding the Dragon's Nest to see his daughter, his little warrior, lose to the runt of the village. Putting on her best accent of her father's, Valkyrie mimicked him to herself as she made her flower crown, "Oh, what do yeh mean yeh didn't get ter kill the dragon? Get out there and be a Viking, Valkyrie━come on, you can do it!" she sighed and let go of her flower crown. Sitting back against the tree, Valkyrie froze to see another pair of eyes looking right back at her.
Hiccup gulped. Holding what looked to━is that a saddle?━to his chest, he quickly rushed away before Valkyrie could say a word. Blinkng away her surprise, Val was up on her feet. Hopping through the long grass, bushes and fallen branches, she tried to follow Hiccup. Reaching a set of boulders he disappeared behind, she peeked over the top ... he was gone. Her frustration returned, and she slammed her fist against the boulder. "Dammit!" she snarled.
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━━Back home, Valkyrie stared at the bread and yack's milk shared around the table. Her brothers were being loud━as usual, save, you know the quiet ones, so that's Hott and Asrifth ... so just Erik and Mak, but they make up for it. They're so loud━, but she paid them little attention. With her new flower crown on her head, and her fingers tearing at the bread, she glared at the cracks in the wood table and couldn't help but wonder what Hiccup was doing in the woods today. (With a saddle, no less?).
He had been acting weird recently. And while the others refused to acknowledge that fact, Valkyrie and Astrid had. Hiccup always acted strange, ever since he could walk and talk, it would seem, but recently, he was acting extra strange. Always disappearing off to nowhere, coming back tired, off in his own thoughts more than usual, actually getting better at Dragon Training ... Valkyrie wondered whether someone was training him. And if so, who? She wished she could find out so she could tell the whole village and have him disqualified for cheating. It was strange. Valkyrie had become so obsessed with trying to find out Hiccup's secret and destroy him for it, it was all she had been thinking about recently. Or rather, who. She learnt so much about Hiccup from a distance recently in trying to figure him out. She learnt he wobbled his shoulders when he talked, or moved his hands wildly to express what he was saying. She learnt his nose twitches to the right whenever he's being sarcastic, or doesn't particularly like something. He mimicked his father behind his back, got distracted fairly easily, pursed his lips whenever he was in an awkward situation ... She learnt more about Hiccup rather than what Hiccup was hiding in her observation, and that annoyed her.
(Everything annoyed her recently. Gods).
"Did you see the way Hiccup herded that Terrible Terror in the ring today?" Mak asked Valkryie, grinning with his two-front teeth missing. "It was so cool!"
"Yeah!" added Erik. "And the way he used his shield like━woosh━woosh━" he pretended to hold a shield, aiming it at different parts of the dining table as if navigating his own Terrible Terror around. Valkyrie gritted her teeth.
"Yes, of course, I saw," she tried to keep her anger down, ripping off a piece of her bread rather harshly. "I was in the ring."
Asrifth had to speak up, and make the situation worse by casually saying, "I'm surprised, Val━luring a dragon away with the light of a shield? I thought even you would know that."
At those words, their mother stopped eating and glared at her son, "Asrifth! That's enough!"
Valkyrie wasn't in the mood for his comments, however, and soon, she was standing up with her knife in her hand. "Oh, you got something to say, do you, Asrifth?! Come on━say it! I'll stab you right where I would've stabbed that Terrible Terror!"
He stood up, unafraid. "Oh, will you? Or will Hiccup win again?"
This set her off, and she would have climbed over the table to reach him, but their mother stood up and pushed both of them away with a hand each against their chests. "Both of you! Stop it━now! Out of this house! Out━now! Valkyrie, go and cool off! Asrifth━go and cool off!"
"Whatever!" he snapped and shoved her hand away. Brother and sister both stormed out of the house in opposite directions. Valkyrie slammed the front door as she left, while Asrifth took it upon himself to slam the back door. Erik and Mak shared a look in the silent house afterwards. Hott looked up from his food, used to all the fighting and watched his younger brothers high-five and say, "Awesome!"
Storming her way through the village at night, Valkyrie kicked at the cobblestone ground, and rocks flew up into the air. She would like to try and see her brother in the ring━oh, wait, she wouldn't, because he'd be dead before the first dragon would be let out of it's cage! Him and his stupid peaceful thinking━the dragons kill him! And with that ignorant thinking, he was going to get himself killed, too! All Valkyrie has done in her life is try to protect him, like all of her other brothers. She was there to pull his ass out of a line of fire, there to make sure he was okay whenever he fell and hurt his knee, or the time a small Gronckle had clubbed his knee when he tried to befriend it when they were littler, and he got it dislocated. And this was how he thanked her? Valkyrie has done so much for Asrifth, and he was not grateful for any of it━not one single bit.
Taking a harsh turn, she kicked the egde of the stone well. "Ow!" Valkyrie clutched her foot, that hurt! She thought about cursing the well, she had a great one towards Loki up her sleeve when she heard━
"Hiccup!"
It was a Viking's greeting in passing, and it made Valkyrie freeze. She let down her foot softly. Hiccup was here? Before she could think twice about it, Val rushed back towards the main street and towards the sound of the Viking. She grew close to the forge, and for a second, she thought━maybe I've finally got him, until she arrived and he was nowhere to be seen.
Again.
For the love of━
At the clatter from inside the forge, Valkyrie jumped. She felt her heart race with a sudden thrill of excitement. Could she catch him out? Could she finally get the advantage back? Valkyrie rushed to the door, ready to burst through, but she felt a hint of hesitation.
Why?! She cried at herself.
What if he's doing something in there? replied her thoughts.
That's kind of the point, Valkyrie sapped back. But her thoughts won. She didn't burst through the door with an accusing finger pointed at Hiccup, instead, she just shuffled closer to the door and called, "Hiccup? Hiccup, you in there?" There was no reply. Valkyrie frowned. I'm not in the right mood for this. "Hiccu━?"
The trading doors snapped open, and out jumped Hiccup. Valkyrie backed up, startled at the sudden movement. In seconds, the doors were closed again, and Hiccup stood out in front of them, arms spread out. His eyes widened, and quickly, he did the whole purse of his lips that told Valkyrie he didn't not feel comfortable at all. Good, she thought bitterly. Serves you right.
"Valkyrie!" he exclaimed, fixing his posture to seem nochalant. Oh, he was so hiding something. "Hey! Hi, Val━I mean, Valkyrie━I mean, uh, hi, Valkyrie."
Weirdo. She narrowed her eyes at him and crossed her arms. At the anxious smile he sent her, her scowl only deepened. She stepped forward, trying to do her best to be intimidating. "Look, Hiccup," said Valkyrie, and he shrunk back. "I don't usually care about what people do, but you're acting weird━" her voice broke off at the sudden tug of his torso back to the doors. She arched a brow. "Okay━um━weirder," she added at his nervous chuckle. "And I won't let you take away my victory━don't you dare ruin this for me!" she seethed, and Hiccup seemed to know he had messed up, because his face dropped.
That was until he started to rise up into the air. Valkyrie gasped, stepping back. What in the name of...? Up and up, Hiccup went, rugged and sharp till his feet were dangling off the ground. Seconds later, he was snatched back through the closed forge trading doors. Valkyrie let out another gasp, and hurtled herself towards the doors to see what had just happened. She jumped into the forge, searching around for his familiar twig-like figure ...
He was gone.
He was gone! Again!
*
a/n: asrifth is a secret little savage I love him. also, hiccup and Valkyrie have my heart 🥰