Barvik didn't have a big funeral for the 18 dead people of their army. Not soon after their queen had come back from making sure her mother was alive, Barviks healers had awoken the people who had been asleep and together they brought every injured Barvikens on one of the six of their boats. The 18 dead people had been placed on one single boat and had been lit on fire after a few words of hope for them to have a great life in Valhalla.
Vylma had felt horrible for not giving her people, who had died in war for her, a worthy funeral. But the boat was lit on fire before she knew it.
The five boats moved alongside the wind on their way home and Vylma also felt horrible for not being at her brother and friends funeral. And also leaving her mother in the condition she was in. The rest of her family wasn't in a good condition either, but at least she knew they were alive.
Vylma looked up to Brie who flew over her. Barviks army had to share five boats after the sixth was made for the dead, and it was cramped. Making Brie not fit anywhere on deck and made Vylma sad for her dragon.
She wanted the warmth and comfort of her best friend and the people around her saw the longing in their queens blue eyes. They told her to go up there and fly with her. To fly home to Barvik.
But even with the temptation of jumping on Brie's back and flying straight to Barvik instead of standing on deck watching her best friend fly over them, she told them no. She couldn't just leave them out in the open sea with injured people to look after.
If anything happens, Vylma and Brie would be ready to fight again. Even if the possibility of anything to happen was minimal.
Vylma did however singal to Brie to pick her up when Barvik was seen in the horisont. She could see the people coming running to the harbour to meet them up and Vylma was already on her way.
Brie landed in the middle of the village, making people stop their running and asking her what had happened.
She gladly announces the death of Grimmel and of their victory.
She didn't get time to tell how many were injured, because the people started to shout in glee and a feast was already in plans.
Vylma looked around from where she sat on Brie. Her eyes scanned the sea of people and when they locked on one person, who stood on the small middle square scene in the village smiling at her with a warm smile, she jumped down from her dragon's back and ran through the crowd towards him.
Alvar looked happy and confused as to why Vylma was running at him, but got his answer when she flung her arms around his shoulders. He stood like a statue before slowly placing his hands on her back.
Vylma felt herself smile when he hugged her back. Maybe this was not good for them, showing their affection to other people, maybe this was the end of them being next to each other. Hell, she may have cost him his job for doing this.
But she was the queen. If the council or the people didn't want them to be with each other or if they didn't want him to continue with his job as a messenger boy, they had to go through their queen.
Vylma knew what they said about her future husband, their future king. He needs to be humble, strong and rule with honesty. People had tried to find her the perfect king for them, but she needed the perfect husband for her.
And he was right here in her arms.
Alvar might not really know what it means to be king, but Vylma had barely known what it meant to be a queen. And Barvik had been fine with her being their queen, so now they needed to be fine to have Alvar as their king.
Vylma leaned back from Alvars embrace, they still held each other.
Vylma didn't waste any more time and kissed him. The world around them became silent. The people had stopped shouting and making plans for the feast. Vylma and Alvar didn't care. This was their first kiss and gods, was it perfect.
When they stopped kissing, both smiled. Totally forgotten the quiet crowd around them until someone shouted; "ROYAL WEDDING!" and the shouts became even louder than the news of the winning war.
Vylma and Alvar looked around them and saw people clapping and cheering at them.
Maybe Vylma and Alvar had been wrong all along. Maybe Barvik didn't really care what kind of King they would get. Maybe the talk about Vylma finding a humble, strong and honest king was just because they thought Vylma didn't know how to find a man and where she needed to start looking for a man.
Little did they know that she had already found one right under their noses. Their future king had been on Barvik by the queen's side all this time and they had no clue about it.
As soon as the water in the bath was warm enough, Vylma told Svea to leave her alone. Svea placed the brush she just grabbed from the table, back to its former place and bowed quickly before she walked out of Vylmas room.
Vylma let out a shaky breath and felt the tears coming. She let them run free as she hugged her legs.
Scenes from the battle started swimming around in her mind. Delia, her father, her siblings, seeing Grimmel being killed by her father. Seeing Stoick laying dead by Finn's feet. Ingrids pale face and later seeing Thora crying over Bryant's dead body. And then Vylma saw her mother. Vylma thought she was sleeping at first until Magnhild started to talk about what had happened on the battlefield.
As soon as Vylma knew her mother was alive and probably was going to wake up, she walked straight to Barviks side of the mountain and helped them to get ready to sail home.
Vylma slid down under the water and immediately went up to the surface when she realized what she had done.
She gasped for air as memories from her 16 year old self came up. More specifically, the day her grandmother died. The cold water, the sand underneath her and the dead body of her grandmother.
Vylma shook her head and grabbed the stone necklace that hung around her neck. The necklace from her grandmother. She didn't know why her brain started to show her that memory, maybe it was from the trauma from the battle after seeing her loved one dead. Either way, it wasn't welcoming.
The door knocked and Vylma snapped her head toward the sound.
"Who is it?" She asked with a hoarse voice.
"Svea, my queen."
Vylma coughed and told her to come in.
Svea walked in and placed a folded dark blue dress on the bed. "A freshly washed and dried dress and the feast start in an hour."
Vylma raised an eyebrow at that. "An hour?"
Svea nodded. "Yes, my queen. The sun is about to go down."
Vylma turned her head towards the windows, which was of course blocked with thick curtains. No one was allowed to see the queen naked, apart from her four servant girls... and her future husband. Gods, she really needed to speak to him about the whole marriage thing. It literally came out of nowhere.
"If there's anything else you need?" Svea asked and Vylma turned back to her.
"Yes, send in Alvar, the messenger boy, in 30 minutes if you can find him."
Svea nodded, Vylma could see that she was fighting a smile. "Yes, of course."
"Thank you. And that's all. Take the girls to the feast, you all are dismissed for this evening."
Svea smiled. "Thank you, my queen." She bowed and left the room.
10 minutes later, Vylma stepped out of the bath and dried herself. Her body was still sore from all the fighting and brushing her hair had never been so exhausting. But she succeeded in the end and she slipped into the freshly cleaned and dried blue dress.
It was actually one of her favourite dresses. It's dark blue colour and it's golden arms hem and bottom hem made it simple but pretty. The brown and golden belt made her figure look more than just a stick.
She let her hair loose and looked at the crowns and tiaras before her, when an image of her mother and sister came to her.
It was the day her mother had showed her daughters her kransen and was worried who she would give it to. Vylma was glad she had argued with Magnhild that she should have it. Right now Vylma had so many headgear to choose from and Magnhild still wore that kransen that their mother gave to her to this day.
That was also the day Finn had left the house before anyone had woken up, like always and it was also the day Magnhild had asked Stoick to...
Vylma wiped away the tears that came down her cheeks.
Oh, her dear brother. The one who shouldn't have died, the one who she left behind just to grab bandages. If only she hadn't left him. She was the idiot one who told him about Finn not being safe and then she left him?! What kind of sister was she? Of course he would run out to see what Finn was doing. Of course he wouldn't obey her. Of course he would run for Finn's aid! Of course Stoick would...
Vylma slammed her fist into the table, causing one crown to fall to the stone floor with a crash. She didn't care if it was broken or not. Her brother was dead and it was her fault!
The knock on the door made Vylma let loose her fist. She was breathing heavily and her cheeks were wet from tears again. She wanted to shout to whoever was behind the door to go away, until they realised that it was probably Alvar.
She took a deep breath and told him to come in.
Alvar closed the door behind him and looked worried at Vylma. "You okay?" He asked softly.
Vylma shook her head and let her fist come loose and let her hand rest on the table in its place. "No." She whispered and closed her eyes.
Vylma felt her knees give out under her and felt a warm and gentle hand on her back.
"I..." Vylma sobbed and squeezed her eyes. "I can't."
She started to cry. Her body started to shake, tears came out like rivers and she had hard to breath. Alvar took her in his arms and laid one hand on her head and the other on her back. Vylma cried into his shirt, clenching it like her life depended on it.
They didn't know how long they stood like that, but Vylma eventually got her breathing even and leaned away from Alvar. She wiped her cheeks with her hands.
"I'm sorry." she sniffed.
"For what?" Alvar began and helped her wipe her tears away. "Leading Barvik to victory?" Alvar wondered and tried to give her a small smile.
Vylma breathing out and shook her head. "I'm only sorry for all the deaths and damage I caused." she whispered and avoided his eyes.
"They fought in a war to keep Barvik and Berk safe and they all died bravely. I would have done the same thing-"
"It's good that you weren't there. You may have been killed. I don't know what I would have done if you were killed too. I already lost 18 of my people, my friends and... my brother." She blinked to keep more tears from falling. "I can't lose you too."
He grabbed her upper arms and gave them a light squeeze. "You won't lose me and I'm sorry about Stoick." Vylma was about to ask him how he knew it was Stoick and not Finn who had died when he continued after seeing her questioned face. "People are already talking about it and that your mother is also... gone."
"No," Vylma said quickly. "No, my mother is...is fine. She's just... uncounsinus. She'll wake up." I hope so.
"Oh, so we have another rumor to correct"
Vylma narrowed her eyes at him. "What is the first rumor?"
Alvar shrugged. "That you're pregnant with my child and that's why you suddenly kissed me in public and that's why we're getting married.."
"But they were shouting 'royal wedding' and were happy that I kissed you?" she gasped and her eyes widened.
"Yeah, then they started to question why all of the sudden you made us public."
"Because I was happy to see you after a day of being in war and-and having so many people taking away from me! Can't I just be happy to see the man I love after a horrendous day in battle?!" Vylma didn't realize what she had said after she had said it. She slapped her hand over her mouth and felt her cheeks become red.
Alvar smiled and became red himself. "Well, that took a turn."
"I-I'm sorry." Vylma started with panic in her voice. "I'll tell them that the wedding won't be off. I should have asked you. That-that kiss came out of nowhere and the whole wedding thing and everything. You don't have to-"
Alvars lips silenced hers. Vylma literally melted into his kiss and his hands on her face.
He was the one who broke the kiss."I'm fine with it." he started. "Sure it was out of nowhere, but I have to admit that I've thought about us being a thing for some time now. I just never thought it would begin like...this."
Vylma bit her lip and took his hands away from her face so she could hold them. "But it's more than just being my husband. You will get the title and responsibility as a king."
"But I'll have you one my side and that's what matters."
Vylma smiled and hugged him. Alvar hugged her back and kissed her on the side of her head.
"I'm imagining a girl," he said.
Vylma frowned. "What? For our first born?"
"Yeah. A little princess who runs around being chased by her two irritated parents, because she doesn't want to go to bed."
Vylma snorted but couldn't help but smile at that thought.