Capítulo 13: Chapter 13

"You seem to be in a good mood," Gobber looked at my direction, giving me a puzzling look.

"Haha, something good did happen alright," I said. "I won't tell you yet though."

"Is it something to do with you borrowing the forge tonight?" He tried to piece together some sort of reason. "I really can't figure you out." He said finally giving it up.

"You'll know soon enough Gob," I reassured him, "Don't worry about the forge, I won't burn it down."

"If you say so." He was satisfied enough to hear that. "But I know for sure that it's got to do with this morning, I'm not going to judge but does killing really bring you that much joy?"

"Don't remind me about that," I complained, "And no it doesn't. Half the village avoided me when they heard about it."

"If it wasn't for your already established title I wouldn't be surprised if they started calling you Mal the slaughterer, that's got a better ring to it than Mal the protector actually." He thought.

"Don't you start." I warned him, "I'll steal your right socks at night."

"I'm already having a problem with trolls stealing my left ones, now I have to deal with you? No thank you." He retreated.

"Mal! Are you here!" I heard Spitelout's voice outside of the forge.

"Ah, you better see him," Gobber said, "When you ran off somewhere he told the chief, and he got punched so hard in the face because he wouldn't tell where you went."

"Stoick did that?" It didn't sound like something he would do.

"No, it was that lass, Valkyr. She really wanted to come after you." Gobber explained, "But Spitelout wouldn't say a word to anyone."

"Ah, right." I completely forgot about telling Spitelout to keep everything a secret, I gotta give it to the guy though. He didn't say a word. I walked out to see a black eyed viking standing in front of me.

"Ah, there he is!" He happily gave me a big hug. "I kept everything a secret, just as you asked." He proudly stated, "Aren't you happy to have a rival like me?"

"Very happy Spitlout," I patted him, "Do you still have that horn from that rabbit?" I asked.

"Oh, that. I stashed it away, I wanted to give it to my betrothed as a gift, but I thought you might want it." He said. "Do you want it back?"

"Oh not at all. But if you want me to make it into something good then I can do that. It's the least I can do, for giving you all that trouble." I said.

"What trouble!" He said in shock, as if he never expected me to think of him so low. "I had Valkyr beat when she tried to pick a fight with me."

"Then what's with the blackeye?" I pointed out.

"This? I fell down the stairs," he explained. "Anyway, since you offered to make it into something, how about a dagger? This thing was a lot tougher than most materials."

"Alright, I'll have it ready for you by tomorrow. Bring it to me this afternoon, I'll be at the forge." I told him, "I've still got some things to do, so I'll see you then."

"Okay! Thanks Mal!"

After bidding Spitelout farewell I went back into the forge to finish my work for the day. Since I have some other things to make later today.

—

Later that afternoon, I had no choice but to grab some tools from my old chests again. Materials from dungeons can vary, majority of the time they're much tougher than any material found in the real world. So I need to use tools created in dungeons to mould these things to what I want.

First off, the antlers. These jewel like keratin still maintained a surprisingly dense amount of mana. It seemed that the stag lived for quite some time or it focused solely on building up mana on its body rather than the core. I cut one of the antlers into a small portion, since I only needed so much and stashed the rest away.

With some precision I carved into the bone hollowing it out while still trying to preserve most of the materials. The item soon formed into a crescent moon like shape, this was going to be a piece of a necklace. I carved the leftovers into beads and triangle shapes, piercing holes into them to sow in a string.

I also quickly made a ring from some metal lying around and dusted antler dust onto it. Creating a volley of greens, blues, and a hint of red that glowed occasionally. I then took out the glands from the predator plant and sliced it open, revealing a dark brown crystal inside of it. This was what produced that chocolate scent from the plant, it had a hint of sweetness into it which helped calm the mind. Attaching the crystal into the crescent moon, I finally finished the project after. The next thing to do was to craft an ornamental piece from the rabbit horn for Spitelout.

—

6 months have passed since that day. I woke up early in the morning to prepare myself for the big day today. The snow had begun melting away a month ago, so today's weather was perfect.

After washing up I geared up to go about my day, as usual. After working with Gobber in the forge for a while, Stoick finally decided it's time to give me the official position as Berk's protector. Although It's still unfortunate that most of the villagers are still quite fearful of me, most of the people that I've met prior to the incident still are quite good to me. However the others dare not get too close, although they still showed their respect.

I gingerly walked throughout the village helping out here and there when people asked. The position of protector doesn't hold much responsibility aside from ensuring the general safety of Berk, but with the people being as hardy as they are they wouldn't really need much protection unless it's a human raid.

Making my way towards the academy I ran into Stoick who was at the viewing deck watching some of the new recruits train.

"Stoick," I called out, "Any promising ones?"

"Hmm, they're all decent, they'd make good vikings for sure." Stoick answered. "Although some of the kids do stand out a bit. I'm excited for the warriors that they've become."

"I heard that Valka and you are going to get married?" I said. "Congrats."

"Haha, It was bound to happen." He happily laughed. "You however, I must say, rejected every notion of being with Valkyr, yet the two of you announced your betrothal just a week in."

"Hah, fate has its weirdness I suppose." I said. "I never would've thought that it would turn out like this."

"Hmm, such is the beauty of love don't you think?" Stoick said. "You never know when it will come. Well, I saw what I needed to see, today's the day right? I hope you have something good planned." He patted me and left.

As he left Valkyr's class also ended, I hopped along down to the ramps going into the arena and waited for her there.

"It's Mal!" Meadhead pointed at me at the entrance.

"How are you all?" I greeted. I had been coming here a lot for the past months, so the kids were no stranger to me. I even instructed some classes for Valkyr a few times.

"Are you gonna teach us some tricks today?" Meadhead asked. "I wanna learn how to use that longsword you showed us that one time!"

"I want to learn the greatsword." Munnr said.

"No, the rapier was the best one. Teach us that one!" Asdis said.

"Alright calm down everyone," I laughed at their enthusiasm, "Unfortunately I'm not here for you guys."

"Aw man," Meadhead complained, "Let's get away from here guys before teacher and Mal get all smoochie smoochie."

"Ew!" All the kids giggled and ran away from me.

"I told you not to show me affection in front of the kids," Valkyr came up to me complaining. "Now they won't stop talking about it whenever you get mentioned."

"I'm sorry, but you were too cute." I defended myself. "It's not my fault."

"That you have no self control?" She raised her eyebrows at me.

"No," I said, "that you were made to be a goddess."

"Alright, that's enough," She shoved me away. "Let's go before I get embarrassed."

The two of us walked slowly, our hands interlocking as we enjoyed each other's presence.

"Can you believe it's already been six moon cycles?" She asked.

"Nope, sometimes I still think I'm dreaming sometimes," I honestly said. "But it lets me appreciate each day I spend with you just a little bit more."

"You're quite glib aren't you." She giggled. She rested her head on mine, our breathing synced to each other. "You still won't answer that question yet though."

"Not yet," I knew what question she was talking about, but I wasn't so sure if she's prepared for it yet. "I promise, you'll be the first one to know."

"Alright, I believe you."

—

Valkyr and I found ourselves walking along the sandy beaches. I wasn't quite sure how long we walked but we didn't really care too much. The sun was still up, but the skies had turned an orange hue.

As we walked, something strange caught both our eyes in the distance. It was a dragon fighting something. Instinctively both of us grabbed our weapons and inspected the fight in the distance.

"It's a person?" Valkyr asked, "But he looks too big compared to anyone normal."

"That," I froze as I saw the thing the dragon was fighting. "Get back to Berk! I'll deal with that." I shouted, my gears quickly turned as to what to do. This wasn't a human, rather it was an ape. A giant one at that, roughly standing at 2 metres as it grabs hold of the dragon's neck.

Boom!

"Raghhhhhh!" The dragon had shot two blasts into the apes face, however it merely burnt a few bits of its fur. Mad the ape threw the dragon into the cliffside creating a small crater. Using this chance I snuck up behind the ape and slashed on its back. This was more of a threat than the dragon, since it didn't belong in this realm.

The ape swung it's fist towards me, barely dodging the strike I wobbled due to the force of impact created by the punch.

"Mal!" I heard Valkyr's voice call out.

"I told you to go back to Berk?!" I said, "It's dangerous here."

"And have you run off again. No, I can fight whatever that thing is too." Just as she finished saying that the ape ran straight to her. Being caught off guard, Valkyr was grabbed in one hand as the ape made for his escape. Which was a green coloured portal just a ways away from here.

I quickly gave chase, but the ape disappeared into the portal, without any hesitation I jumped right in. As the gate was about to close, the golden figure dashed right into it as well.