"So, how was it?"
Ingrid rolled her eyes and threw the blanket on the chair. She and Stoick had come home 20 minutes ago and now Frida was in her room watching her unpack her bag she had with her while Frida laid on the bed waiting for Ingrid to tell her everything about the trip.
"It was great. We made a campfire by the wooden lake, had fun in the water, well I think Egil had the most fun with that because after Stoick threw me into the water, Egil pushed us both in making him roaring with laughter."
"And what did you and Stoick do in the water?" Frida teased.
Ingrid shrugged and open the closet door to place the bag in there. "We just played."
Frida raised her eyebrows and waited for more than that.
"And we may have kissed until we were out of breath." Ingrid continued and closed the closet door before walking to Frida.
Frida nodded slowly, "Yes, but it's not that I'm referring to."
Ingrid rolled her eyes and sat down beside where Frida lay, "We are betrothed, not married."
Frida flew up from the bed and stared at her cousin with big eyes, "You're what?"
Ingrid took the betrothed necklace out from the shirt where it hanged around her neck and proudly showed it to Frida. "He asked out of nowhere and of course I said yes."
The brown eyes looked like they were going to pop out of Frida's head as she stared at the necklace. "Wow. This was not what I expected to happen, well it was going to happen someday but I didn't think it would happen so soon." she grabbed the pended gently, like it was made of thin glass and was about to break by her touch.
"I know! I didn't think he would either. I-I didn't even have this in mind!"
Frida snapped her head up and her hand went away from the pended and asked; "What did you give him?"
Ingrid sighed and bit her lip. "Nothing. Of course I didn't give him anything, this was not planned. He planned it and made it a surprise so I gave him nothing."
"You gave him a yes, which means you gave him yourself." Frida pointed out, which made Ingrid frown.
"That makes me sound like some kind of prize or something."
"But he gave you himself, so you gave each other….each other."
"I guess…"
The room became quiet after that and Frida could see that Ingrid was overthinking it. Stoick and Ingrid had given their future to each other and even if Stoick had given her a necklace to… prove he was hers, Ingrid didn't give Stoick anything in Frida's opinion. Wasn't Ingrid enough? Wasn't Ingrid he wanted? They had now a future together and would live happily ever after. Or so Frida hoped. Marriage could lead to misery, it doesn't matter how happy they were as betrothed. People change like the seasons, you thought you knew what was coming, sometimes you are right that the sun will shine and sometimes you are wrong and rain comes instead.
Frida cleared her throat and changed the topic and to get her mind straight. "And where is your betrothed now?"
Ingrid jumped a little in surprise and turned her head to Frida. "Oh, in the great hall waiting for Vylma to come with the information about… Grimmel."
Frida pressed her lips together and wanted to change the topic again. She didn't want to speak about Grimmel and Frida knew Ingrid didn't either when she heard her say Grimmels name. Frida didn't want to know what went through her head when she heard or spoke his name. No happy thoughts, Frida was sure about that.
The sound of someone coming down to the secret room made Finn look up from the book he was reading and was ready to close and get up from his seat when he saw who was in the room.
"She's here?" Finn asked his mother.
Astrid shook her head and made her way towards the chair that stood on the other side of the desk. Finn stopped his actions when she shook her head. He let the book be open and him be seated.
"I wonder what takes her so long to get here and tell us how the meating with Grimmel went." Finn wondred.
"I don't know. I only hope nothing bad has happened to her," Astrid frowned and tried to take her thoughts away from Vylma being treated like Ingrid had been treated by Grimmel.
Astrid had been mad and relieved when Stoick came back with a damaged Ingrid in his arms and she had to tell Fishlegs to not go to Grimmel at that moment. The anger and hurt on his face was something she had never seen and seeing Ruffnut that sad and broken, was something Astrid had never seen either. Astrid wanted to give Grimmel a piece of her mind herself, but had two friends to give support too and when Ingrid's brothers had been informed about what had happen to their sister, she had two more people to make sure they didn't fly straight to Grimmel and beat him up.
"I'm sure she's fine," Finn began and tried to assure his mother that Vylma was not in danger, "She probably just… talking with her council or something. I don't know, there's a lot of things for why she's late -and it doesn't mean that she's in any type of danger." he ended.
Astrid pressed her lips together and nodded slowly. "You're probably right." she said quietly.
Finn saw that his mother was still over thinking about the subject of Vylma being late because she might be in danger, so he decided to change topic.
"Mum?"
"Yes?"
"Do you know who Disa Gundesson was?" he asked her.
Astrid raised her eyebrows at that question. "Yes, she your grandmothers sister, why?"
Finn smiled and wrote it down on a paper. "Perfect."
Astrid stood up from the chair and walked around the desk to her son with a frown. "Are you still writing the family tree?"
He nodded and laid the pen away. "Yes. I started with dad's family tree and now I can't go any further. I started with yours and found a Disa Gundesson, that was the maiden name of grandmother."
"And what did you find about her?" Astrid asked and read the family tree that was hers.
Finn shrugged. "It was mention that she and grandma was sisters a few times in some of the books and sometimes it doesn't and I wasn't sure because… it says that she was married, but there's no record of her husband or children anywhere and I've never heard of her."
She turned to him. "That's because I've never met her and my mother only mentioned her a few times. About how Disa made a rash decision to get married to a man she just met and then she left Berk for good. My mother hated her for leaving all of the sudden. She tried to stop her, but was too late. Disa had already sailed away and no one knows if she's alive or not."
Finn nodded slowly and took it all in, while Astrid looked at the books and papers spread on the desk between them. Finn had told her the books in this room was about Berks history, family tribes and dragons. Things Finn found really interesting, while Astrid couldn't understand why it was interesting. Wasn't it enough for him to know about his parents and grandparents? And that was stuff she and Hiccup could tell him. But she couldn't really complain. Finn was happy being in here, reading about history and him being happy and well, was all she needed him to be.
"Found someone more interesting in the family?" Astrid asked and made an effort to start a conversation he wanted to talk about.
He started searching a pile of papers and took out one with his father's family tree on it. "I did found out that granddads grandfather was not the real heir when he was born." Finn pointed at the name Sten Haddock on top of the paper, "He was the youngest of seven, but they were all killed in the raids, so Sten was the only heir Berk had left."
Astrid read the names on the family tree. Some names she had heard of and some she had never heard of and when she came under by Hiccups name, she raised an eyebrow. "Why aren't my name on this?"
"Because you're originally not a Haddock, you're a Hofferson. But I have a family tree with both yours and dads." he quickly added when he saw she wanted to protest.
Finn stood up from the chair and went to wall to their left and he dragged the curtains away from the wall to relieve the wall that had branches drawn on it and on the branches was the names of the Haddock and Hofferson family.
At the bottom was Stoick, Finn, Vylma and Magnhilds names. Followed up by Hiccup and Astrid and their parents.
Astrid walked to the wall to follow the branches up to the ceiling, were they stopped.
Finn followed her glance until his eyes stopped at the Sten and his seven siblings. "Ever since I found out about the seven siblings death and Sten's fate, I've wondered where Berk would be now."
Astrid snorted. "You mean if your father was never born or wasn't born as Berk's heir?"
He nodded. "Exactly."
"If Hiccup was never born, we probably would still be fighting dragons and you three wouldn't exist."
Finn turned to her and asked carefully; "And do you know where you would be?"
Astrid shrugged. "Probably fight every dragon that would come my way." her eyes flickered down to the ground, "A dragon killer I was born to be. To fight my parents war, our ancestors war." she paused for a minute before looking up to her son and smiled. "But your father made sure we didn't need to fight the dragons ever again and I am grateful he made that crazy plan to go against the red death and that it worked."
Finn raised an eyebrow. "He lost his leg."
"Better than his life." she chimed in and clapped her hands before her, "Or I had to bring him back to the living so I could kill him on my own for his stupidity."
Finn frowned. "Wasn't it you who told him to go with the plan?"
"I did, but losing a limb was not discussed. Getting out alive and unhurt was, but not falling down right into the fire uncunsiness." she shook her head. "He gave us all a heart attack when we thought he was dead. But when Stoick said that he was alive," she smiled. "At that time, I've never felt so much relief and joy in my life."
Finn smiled and crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes back on the wall. He bit his lip and started thinking about how he was going to continue the tree from him and his siblings.
Finn had started this wall tree over a year ago, taking down the things that was already on the wall and drawing the branches had been work he didn't know would take 2 months to do. And having him and his siblings lowest on the wall was the only way it all would all fit. Now Stoick had asked Ingrid to marry him and she needed a spot in the tree, and their future kids. Of course he knew the tree would expand in time, but not so soon. The problem of expanding the family tree wouldn't come in years, or so Finn thought.
He of course was glad for his brother. Finn supported this married to his grave and he would be surprised if Stoick or Ingrid broke it up between them. They were way in love for anything come their way to destroy their love for each other.
Finn's thoughts was cut for his mum started rubbing his hair. He automatic moved his head away from her.
"You need a haircut." she said.
Finn shook his head at her. "I like my hair."
"Then start combing it."
"I'll just put it in a low ponytail before I leave this room, like I always do." he said.
Astrid sighed. "You still need to keep it out of tangles or you need to cut it when it can't be combed out."
"Fine, but I'm not cutting it." he pouted.