Welcome home

I'm sorry

The smell of different herbs hit Ingrid out of nowhere and the softness of the fur blankets was welcoming and confusing.

How was she under fur blankets? Or blankets at all? And where did the smell of herbs come from? Did Grimmel decide to mend her wounds and take her to a healer?

Healer. Who use herbs so much that it smells like Gothi? Gothi. Was she home? On Berk? At Gothis? Who foundd her? Who rescued her?

Ingrid slowly opened her eyes and was met with a poorly lit room, or rather; Gothis poorly lit healer room. A candle was alight on the table to her left, making her see her mother sitting in a chair beside the bed with her head in her arm that laid on the bed.

Ingrid felt tears and a smile coming, feeling relieved that she was home.

She placed a hand on her mother's arm and Ruffnut woke up with a jerk. Her eyes landed on the hand on her arm to her daughter. A smile spread on her face and she held Ingrid's face between her hands.

"Ingrid, you're awake!" Ingrid nodded eagerly with a tight smile and tears streaming down her face. "I shouldn't have let you go. I'm so sorry."

Ruffnut pulled Ingrid in a tight hug and Ingrid happily hugged her back.

"I'm sorry I left." Ingrid sobbed.

Ruffnut pulled back and held her arms in her grip. "No, this is not your fault." She said sternly.

"It is!" Ingrid snapped, coughing her mother off guard, "If I didn't leave I- I wouldn't be hurt, Grimmel wouldn't have known about Berk or... or Kyria wouldn't be dead." She broke down. Sniffing, tears, heavy breathing and shaking came over her and Ruffnut hugged her again. Stroking her blonde hair and rocked her.

The next time Ingrid woke up she heard voices. More specificity the voices of Hiccup, Astrid, Stoick and her father.

"He gave you three choices?" Fishlegs began, sounding confused. "And now we're at war with him?"

"I only got a glance at him and he looks like someone you don't want to start a fight with." Stoick started. "But I want to punch him in the face for what he did to Ingrid and Kyria."

"I second that." Fishlegs agreed.

"His name is-." Hiccup began but was cut off by Ingrid.

"Grimmel," Ingrid said and sat up in the bed making every face in the room turn to her. "His name is Grimmel the Grisly and I would gladly punch him straight to Niefelheim, where he belongs."

Fishlegs ran to his daughters side when he saw she was awake. "How are feeling?" He asked gently.

"I've been better," she simply said and moved her attention to the rest of the people in the room. "What choices did Grimmel give you?"

"We don't need to talk about that now," her father started and laid a hand in her shoulder, "You need to rest and let your wounds heal."

Her wounds, Ingrid had almost forgotten about those. She felt with her right hand where the jawline to the collarbone wound was and felt bandages wrapped around her neck. The wound on her knee and shoulder was also patched up. Someone had bathed her and dressed her in new clothes and her hair was loose.

The memories of the knife and the pain came back to her and then Kyria. The face of Kyria closing her eyes and the axe hitting her body echoed inside Ingrid's head and she started breath heavy. Panic washed over her and she could feel her father's hand tightening on her shoulder.

Ingrid jumped away from her father and almost fell out of the bed.

She needed to get out of here. Now!

"Ingrid." Fishlegs said and reached out to his daughter, but she jumped out of the bed and ran to the door.

She was stopped by Stoick, who said something she couldn't hear and she gasped out the word "air" to him. Stoick let her go and she ran past Hiccup and Astrid and threw the door open. She was met by Toothless, Stormfly, Meatlug and Egil and she felt an emptiness in her heart.

Kyria was gone and it was all her fault! If she only have given Grimmel the information he wanted or if she had thought harder to keep her alive or if she hadn't flown away from Berk in the first place or if Stoick had come with her or if SOMEONE had just come with her!

"Baby," her father's voice was calm, but Ingrid could hear a faint of worry in it, "You need to breath."

Ingrid didn't remember when she had started holding her breath, but now her lungs was screaming and she needed to breathe.

She let out a breath and inhaled.

"That's it. You're going to be fine."

Ingrid threw her arms around her father and he hugged her back, "I want to go home." She whispered.

Fishlegs nodded. "Of course. When Gothi says you can."

Ingrid imminently started shaking her head in disagreement, "No, I want to go home now!"

The sound of a wooden stick tapping the steps of a old woman was heard and Gothi came up from the stairs to her house.

"Gothi, Ingrid wants to go home, but I want your permission before she does." Fishlegs said to the old woman and she started writing in the sand.

Fishlegs carefully let go of his daughter, but still had her close to him. "How many treatments does she need?" He asked worried.

"I want to go home." Ingrid mumbled and Stoick caught that.

"Fishlegs why don't you stay here and talk to Gothi and I'll take Ingrid home?" Stoick suggested.

Fishlegs glanced at Ingrid, who was now hugging herself. "Just, get me out of here." She said and Fishlegs sighed.

"Fine." He said to Stoick who nodded and gestured to Ingrid to Egil so they could fly away from here. Not caring what Gothi had to say.

While in the air and on the destination to the Ingerman house, Ingrid told Stoick to turn to the woods instead.

"No, Ingrid you need to go home and rest." Stoick argued.

Ingrid grabbed Stoick's right arms and steered Egil to the right. "No, I need to get away from dragons and houses for a while. I was planning to run out from the house to begin with! But I'm more glad you're here instead."

Stoick sighed and shook his head. "Fine."

They landed in their place. By the rock they had their first night with each other, after the battle of Drago and the death of Valka.

Ingrid climbed of Egil and walked a few steps before she took a deep breath of the clean air that surrounded her.

"This may not be a good idea." Stoick began.

Ingrid turned to her boyfriend and took his hands and started inspect them. Even if she had been holding his hands for two years now and for the last year having them all over her body, she still was fascinated how soft they where even tho he had worked in the forge for years. His fingernails had sot between them but she didn't mind that.

"Do you still love me?" The question came out of nowhere and left Stoick off guard. This was not the topic he thought they would talk about when they would reunite.

"What? Why are you asking me that?" He asked her confused before his eyes widened and held her by her upper arms. "What did they do to you? I know they torture you and left you to die in that room we blasted in. Did they do anything else to you?"

"You saved me?" Ingrid looked into his blue eyes, totally ignored the last question he asked.

Stoick nodded. "Yeah, Toothless felt when Kyria died and heard you scream. I'm so sorry what happen to Kyria, Ingrid."

Ingrid could feel the tears coming again and she tried to hold them in. "Don't be." She whispered. "And no, they didn't do anything else to me. They just... left me with no food or water. They-they cut me and let me see Kyria die and-"

Stoick hugged her and she buried her face in his shoulder as she sobbed.

"I'm so sorry for what you have gone through. I wish I had gone with you and of course I still love you. Nothing can stop me from loving you." he kissed the side of her head.

"Not even that Grimmel has the dragon eye and could find the hidden world if he figure out what key he needs to open it?" She sobbed and held Stoick's fur coat tight in her grip. "Or that Berk could go up in flames when we go to war with them?"

Stoick shook his head. "No, not even then."