Valkyr's POV
It's another good day today, I wonder how he's doing?
"Valkyr, are you and Mal going to be betrothed?" Asdis suddenly asked me. I felt myself turn hot hearing her, "You shouldn't be saying stuff like that to people so suddenly." I gave my little cousin a glare.
"Why not? Everyone's talking about you two being together. Who hasn't seen you leave his home at the dead of night almost everyday?" She smirked.
"That man can't cook to save his life, since he's given me the chance to study various cuisines, I naturally must repay the favour by cooking for him." I explained, "Plus aren't you always coming over to my place to get some for yourself?" I pinched her nose.
"I always come to your place for food." She rubbed her red nose, "Plus you two are practically a married couple at this point. Just living in separate homes, didn't he let you sleep over after you got a little too drunk that one time?"
"We don't talk about that," My neck turned hot thinking about that night, "Get back to training you rascal!" I chased her away and continued to watch the other children spar with each other. After this month they will be ready for proper dragon training, meaning that one of them would be able to officially kill a dragon. I'm quite excited as to who it might be? I wasn't able to have that honour when I graduated dragon training.
"Stop running away and fight like a viking!!" I heard Meadhead's angry howl as he tried to swing his sword towards Vallerie who avoided his attacks with perfect timing. Everytime he missed an attack she effectively used his momentum against him, causing him to fall on the ground.
"Maybe if you use your head a little more you wouldn't be missing so much," She snickered at him. "Didn't Mal tell you that you should keep your cool when fighting? Did you get angry cause you couldn't get me, how sad."
"That's enough Vallerie," I called out to my other cousin, "You shouldn't mock your classmate like that."
"Aw, but sister, Mal said that part of fighting is getting on the enemy's head. I'm only practising before the real thing." Vallerie pouted.
"There's got to be a limit to this." I sighed at her, "And Meadhead, don't let others get to your head so easily. What are you going to do in the middle of a battle if you can't think straight?" I lectured the kid.
"It's her fault for being so irritating." He complained, "I'm going to find another sparring partner." He humphed.
"Bleeeh~" Valerie didn't waste a chance to mock him again.
"That's enough," I smacked her head, "Go spar with your sister."
"Okay~" She headed over to Asdis who was beating another poor classmate of theirs. Looking at the children I felt quite proud of this batch, they were all adept at what they did and listened to instructions well. This generation of vikings sure is going to be one of the best.
As I watched I noticed a figure entering into the arena, the man waved at me and I happily returned the gesture. He wore a simple leather shirt and dawned basic body armour to keep him light. His tanned skin now lighter compared to when he first arrived here was a spectacle to most. He stood no taller than my shoulders yet he had a very strong aura around him, I suppose that's what made me so interested in him.
I inspected him further before my eyes naturally focused on his lips, which made me remember that night of the oath taking. If I wasn't wearing my helmet right now everyone would probably see how red my face had become. Taking a breath in, I calmed myself down.
"You're early today," I greeted him as he got close. "Did Gobber finally get sick of all your inventions?"
"The man loves me, what are you on about?" He raised his eyebrows, "I'm cut from forge duty now, especially since I have to tag along with you and Spitelout in the defence setup."
"Ah right, the chief briefed me about the details this morning." I sighed, it looked like the village might now be peaceful in the upcoming days. I groaned inwardly, those damned berserkers and outlaws. Thinking that we've become easy targets just because they got their hands on some new fancy weapons? I'll show them.
"What do you think?" He asked.
"We'll just have to give them what's coming. Defeat." I simply stated.
"Sounds about right," He chuckled, "Want me to take over now?"
"Do what you want." I waved him away, "They seem to like what you teach more than me anyway."
"Don't say that, I teach the fancy stuff. You teach them how to survive." He tried to comfort me, "Come on, how about we teach together this time?"
"Alright, fine." I relented, these days I did find doing things with him to be more enjoyable.
"Alright kids!" He yelled out, "I'll finally show you how to beat Valkyr!"
"Yeah!!!!"
—
Mal's POV
After getting my ass handed to me, on purpose of course, Valkyr and I ended class to meet up with Spitelout. He was out helping gather some materials for building the defences, so we found him at the logger's where he was stacking logs.
"Well, if it isn't my sworn rival and the shield maiden!" Spitelout greeted us, "I heard from Stoick, it'll definitely help to have another head in this matter."
I was surprised for a second, cause I thought that he would make a competition out of this like everything else. I suppose he can get serious after all, setting up defences isn't a joking matter after all.
"Yes, how is the material collection going?" Valkyr asked.
"Everything's good, the loggers and the quarry workers are working overtime," He said, "I've been helping out wherever I can. We'll have to update our walls first, the berserkers definitely haven't been sitting still on their fleet, as well as the outlaws. We'll build a perimeter at the Hall first and secure it. Next would be the rest of the village."
"That's good, although I'm worried that the gronckles will get to the stones first before we could put it to good use." Valkyr said, "We'll have to get shifts every night to protect the quarry."
"Can't we just hide the stone in the shed?" I asked.
"No, they'll get to it either way," Spitelout explained, "Unless we have a way to completely dragon proof the shed from all types of attacks it's no use."
"I guess I'll have to leave the dragon defences to you guys," I sighed, "I'll look over the raid defence plans."
Spitelout explained that the Mead Hall would be the heart of our defences. Then we would wall up the exposed parts of the village where the enemy would be able to easily scale. Berk has a few catapults situated along the edges of the cliffs to ward off most raiders, but it wouldn't do well against a large fleet of enemies. All they have to do is get close or stay away from the catapult's range. To make up for that I proposed that we could build small movable ballistas to place on choke points. Like the bridge that connected the dock area to the main part of the village. The rest of the area that could be crossed by building bridges should be blocked off by walls and monitored by archers and artillery. The three of us talked some more before calling it a night. I promised Spitelout that I would give him a drawn plan tomorrow to make our jobs easier and so he can start construction. Valkyr would be responsible for instructing the other villagers about the defence plan, that way everyone could be prepared on what to do at the moment of the attack. While my job was to plan our defensive strategy against our human enemies.
"Are you feeling nervous?" Valkyr walked with me back to my place.
"Nervous I'm not sure," I took a moment to think, "Maybe. I guess. After all, it's my first time participating in something like this with the village. Although I'm confident that I can come up with a good defensive plan."
"I like your confidence," She chuckled, "But you shouldn't forget about the dragons. They're always there to ruin a good plan I can assure you."
"That's true, I'm not used to dealing with pests like them." I wanted to cry just thinking about the dragons. They were a new type of headache to deal with, especially when their appearances were extremely unpredictable. Just as we were doing our planning, a flock of gronkles flew by and nabbed a few limestones from the quarry, much to the dismay of the workers. "They're so unpredictable."
"That's just something you have to learn as you live here." She laughed at my frustrated expression. "If you do good, maybe I'll bake you a cake as a reward?" She incentivised.
"Well, if you put it that way," Her offer piqued my interest. Cake was a difficult recipe to master, we rarely had it back then too. If Valkyr really can make cake then my life would be closer to completion. I started to drool just thinking about it, "Deal, you better keep your word." I gave her a serious look.
She stared at me blankly after seeing how serious I was, she bursted into laughter, "If it's enough to give you that reaction it might be quite good. The recipe book said that it's mostly used for celebratory meals. I guess you don't have it much?"
"The recipe is difficult, and requires some special ways to make it. I've only had it a few times." I explained. "Also, I just thought about it. Are the kids going to be participating during the raid defence?"
"Hmm, they likely will." She thought about it," Since they'll be done with their basic training soon, if the raid happens after they'll be participating for sure."
"Well, I guess I'll have to be a little harder on them." I decided, being hard on them now will make sure they survive during their fights.
"Oh, Usually that'd be my job with how easy you go on them." She doubted, "I never knew you could be hard on people."
"Oh I can be hard all right." I declared with confidence.