A/N: Happy St. Patrick's Day! I hope you all are wearing green. Anyway, lets get back to our story!
It's been a month since Unn told Valka about the pregnancy. Spitelout was over joyed hearing the news that same day Valka found out. Unn and Valka have gotten closer because she kept asking Valka for advice about pregnancy. The two women bought so many baby supplies even though she was four months along.
When they two women were out buying some food, they noticed a man dozing off in the middle of town. Valka walked over to him and tapped him on the shoulder. The man jumped at her touch and looked at her in drowsy eyes.
"Sir, are you feeling okay?"
"Oh I'm fine," He coughed. Valka tried to move away from him when he coughed in his hand.
"You look ill, maybe you should to home," She suggested. The man scoffed and walked away.
"I'm fine woman; I don't need you or my wife telling me what to do."
Valka stood there in shock. That wasn't the response she expected. Unn walked over and put her hand on Valka's back. "Hey, don't worry about him. Let's just go back to shopping."
Valka nodded and they walked to a cart filled with apples. After they got their apples, Unn stopped and grabbed Valka's arm. The brunette let out a chuckle; she knew something must have caught Unn eyes.
"Valka, don't you think we should buy a bludgeon?"
"For Spitelout?"
"No, for the baby."
"You want to buy your baby a bludgeon?!" Valka cried out in shock. Unn shrugged off her reaction and walked to the little shop.
"Oh hush, it's a little one. It would be perfect for a warrior in training."
"Yeah, until the child smashes your toes for fun." She grumbled to herself seeing Unn buying the little bludgeon. Valka rolled her eyes seeing the bludgeon in Unn hands and putting it in her bag. "You do know you're going to regret buying that, right?"
"Hey, whatever it takes raising a warrior." She said proudly with a smile, but her smile went away when she saw people running to Gothi's hut at the tip of Berk. "What do you think is going on, Valka?"
"I'm not so sure, maybe Stoick knows." Then the women walked off together to find their chief.
They found Stoick trying to calm some people down shouting around him. The two women looked at the situation in question. They tried to walk through the crowd to get to their chief. Once they were standing next to him, Valka tried yelling at them to be quite, but it didn't work. Unn had enough and stepped in front of them and shouted at the top of her lungs "SHUT UP!"
The people started to quiet down and the shock of a little woman yelling with a loud voice. "I don't know what's going on, but you do not want to make a pregnant woman angry! Some of you know what it's like to make a pregnant woman angry, and it's UGLY! Now shut up and let your chief talk!"
Stoick was just as shocked as the crowd by Unn's outburst. Stoick cleared his throat and put his hand on Unn's shoulder. "Uh, thank you Mrs. Jorgenson."
Unn gave him a proud smile and stepped back so he could be in the middle of the crowd.
"Now, as I was saying before. You have nothing to worry about. Gothi is sending people out to search for the ingredients for the medicine before it becomes an outbreak. Go back to your homes and anyone who is having symptoms must go to The Great Hall!"
The crowd mumbled and whispered as they departed away. Stoick took a deep breath and turned to his wife and sister-in-law.
"What's going on Stoick? Did you just say something is spreading around the village?" Valka asked him as the three of them walked back to the middle of the village.
"A handful of people have eel pox. It's spreading rapidly but I didn't want them to know that. I just want them to calm down and go to the hall if they start of feel the symptoms of the pox." He answered for her.
"I want the both of you to go home and stay healthy. Especially you Unn, pregnant women get it the worse." Unn nodded at her chief and left them to go home.
"Are you seriously putting me under house arrest until Gothi gets the medicine?" Valka asked looking up at her husband and placed her hands on her hips.
"You're not under house arrest; I just don't want you to get sick."
"It will take days for them to get all the ingredients!" she shouted back. Stoick put his hands on her arms to get her attention.
"Val, just go home and take care of yourself." He watched her groan then nodded.
"Alright fine, but only because I don't want to get sick." She said and left him to walk home.
~oOo~
The next day, Valka noticed Stoick coughing all morning. She told him to go to the hall with the others who are ill, but he said no to her offer because he believed it was just a cough. She noticed him having fatigue and a little pale. After a few hours of arguing, he went to The Great Hall and made Valka acting chief.
After Stoick went inside in the hall, Valka went out to the tip of Berk. She walked all the way to the top to Gothi's hut. The young woman knocked on the door and Gothi opened it.
"Morning, Gothi. I was just wondering if you had all the ingredients yet."
The elder shook her head for her answer. Valka sighed and put her hand on the door handle. "Well, alright. I was just curious. Stoick is sick and it looks like I'm taking over until he's well again." Gothi gave her a nod and escorted her out. Valka went back to the middle of the village and saw that a few people were out in the village. She wondered when those people were coming back with the ingredients. She started to feel ill herself, but it was her turn to take care of the village.
She had to ignore what her body was telling her and to help out for only a day or two. She couldn't wait for the people Gothi sent out to come back. As much as she wanted to rest with the others, she couldn't let the village worry since Stoick was sick. She just walked around to see if anyone needed help, or if someone was getting sick. There wasn't much activity in the village, so she just went to see Gobber.
Valka walked into The Forge and saw her friend face down on the floor. "Gobber!"
"Oh what?" Valka heard Gobber speak with a higher pitch voice. She lowered her brows trying to figure out why Gobber's voice sounded different. The Blacksmith got up from the ground and looked up at her. "Oh, hello Ms. I'm sorry I can't talk right now I'm looking for my little Gobber." He said with his voice pitched up.
"What?!" She cried out. Valka wasn't so sure why Gobber was acting like this, and then she remembered. The fever makes it hard to think straight, and you start to act differently than yourself.
"My little great nephew Gobber, I lost him. I don't want his parents to get mad at me." He said walking around the room like he was in search for something. Valka wasn't so sure how to react. She just stood there with wide eyes watching her friend acting like his deceased aunt. She had never seen him act so ridiculous, even for Gobber this was weird.
"Uh….I think I saw him go in The Great Hall. Why don't you look there?"
"Oh, thank you so much dearie." Gobber said and he stumbled to the hall. Valka watched him go in The Great Hall, she felt sorry for the guy who had to deal with that.
~oOo~
Later that night, the ingredients were finally on Berk. Gothi took her cauldron and ingredients to the hall to make the medicine. Once the medicine was made, everyone got a bowl and slurped down the bitter tasting medicine.
Valka took a seat while everyone else was getting their medicine. She was glad she had gotten the eel pox early so the medicine should take effect soon. Then her husband took a seat next to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
"Sorry you had to be cooped up here," She said.
Stoick shrugged, "it was okay. Until Gobber showed up." Valka let out a nervous laugh and rubbed the back of her neck.
"Yeah, sorry about that….so who did he think he was as a child?" she asked.
Stoick groaned and pitched the bridge of his nose. "While eel-pox-ill-Gobber thought he was Great Aunt Rose, he thought I was him."
Valka let out a snort and covered her mouth trying to hold her laugh. Stoick rolled his eyes at her. "Oh yeah ha ha ha laugh it up. The next time Gobber has the eel pox and thinks I'm him as a child, make sure he stays away from me." He said dryly.
"What exactly did he do?"
Stoick groaned again before speaking. "Let's just say he acted like a doting grandmother."
Valka let out a light laugh. She could only imagine what it must have been like for him. "Oh I'm sorry hon; I was just doing my job. I didn't think he would bother you."
"Oh please, you hoped he thought I was him." Valka smiled up at him making him pull her closer to him. He let out a soft chuckle and rubbed her arm. "Are you ready to go home?" he asked her. Valka smiled and got up from her seat.
"You have no idea." She said and they walked out of The Great Hall to go home.
A/N: Who would have thought that Eel-Pox-Gobber would be so much run to write? Oh who am I kidding, I just love writing Gobber. He's just a fun character.
Anyway, I'll see you guys next week and have a nice and safe Spring Break!