Soli Deo gloria
DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own How To Train Your Dragon.
The Vikings on the Isle of Berk were very serious. They were stern warriors always ready to fight, always determined to save their village and their honor; always ready to spill blood. They didn't regard anything of worth unless it aligned with their Viking code. They didn't like people who didn't try to always fight someone, or prepare for war, or who didn't know how to handle a dragon. They were demanding, ruthless cutthroats without a playful bone in them.
"Would you doofuses hurry up?" Snotlout demanded.
"Yeah, we're trying to. Ruffnut is taking forever," Tuffnut said, sounding bored.
"Hey, how about you shut up?" Ruffnut said, glaring at him and throwing herself on him.
"Ow!"
Yeah, completely mature.
Hiccup looked at Astrid, a wooden stick in his hand with a pair of shedded dragon claws at the end of it, and leaning on it, said, "Why, exactly, are we doing this again?"
Astrid smirked as she used one of the contraptions to scrap up leaves toward a larger growing pile. "Because, Hiccup, making leaf piles are one of life's great joys." She added her leaves to the pile and said, looking quizzical as she leaned against her own stick, "Wait, no. Jumping in leaf piles is one of life's great joys."
"Yeah, that's why I'm going to be the first one jumping in," Snotlout said, pointing a thumb at himself. He nodded to himself as he added more dark brown, red, orange, and auburn leaves to the monstrous pile they all compiled together. It was on the edge of the woods, near the village. It was a white fall day, the cold wind blowing with a promise of a cold winter. None of the six Vikings or the Night Fury seemed to notice as they worked on their leaf pile.
Fishlegs put up an index finger and said, "Um, and why exactly should you be jumping in first, Snotlout? You've barely done anything."
"Hey, I've done more than them," Snotlout said, pointing to the twins, who wrested into the small pile of leaves they were working on grafting into their bigger one.
"Well, that definitely doesn't just mean that you can jump in first," Fishlegs said, resuming his raking.
"Yeah? And who should jump in first? Huh?" Snotlout wanted to know, launching into a pointless argument with Fishlegs.
Astrid rolled her eyes and asked Hiccup, "Well, what do you think?"
"What do I think about what, Astrid?" Hiccup asked, shoving some leaves in the pile. Toothless came around him and using his tail, gently shifted a pile over and patted it into the new pile. Hiccup smiled and patted Toothless's back, saying, "Hey, thanks, bud."
"Who should jump in and ruin our hard work first?" Astrid said, sweeping back her bangs from covering her eyes.
Hiccup shrugged, not really having an opinion about it. It was just a leaf pile, wasn't it? And, unfortunately, it was his first. The younger kids of Berk used to always make leaf piles when fall came around. They'd make these guhugic things that'd take tons of kids to make. Nobody ever invited him to join their group, so he'd sit on a log in the forest, drawing things in his book and glancing around if he heard a noise, presuming it to possibly be a troll.
So Hiccup didn't care so much as who entered first as long as he was part of the process and fun. Toothless bumped him with his scaled body; Hiccup turned back to him, saying, a little annoyed, "Hey, what, bud?"
Toothless nodded toward the pile of leaves; Hiccup and Astrid noticed that Snotlout and Fishlegs were in each other's faces, pointing fingers and calling out names and accusations. Ruffnut and Tuffnut were still trying to bury each other's faces in the mud around their leaf pile. The leaf pile was pretty open; Astrid smirked at Hiccup with a mischievous gleam in her eye.
"Oh, waittttt, what are we doing now?" Hiccup wanted to know, immediately wary. Sometimes Astrid got an idea. It always wasn't a bright idea (and that was the reason Hiccup never brought up the baby dragons on Snoggletog), which made Hiccup on edge.
Astrid laughed and her slim arm grabbed his rake and threw it from him as she said, "Well, go in!"
"Now?"
Astrid rolled her eyes. "Of course not, Hiccup. I meant on New Year's. Hiccup!"
"All right," Hiccup said quickly, retreating to the edge of their cliff. He turned to face the leaf pile, only one other teen noticing him. He bent to one knee, his metallic leg bending at an angle with him, and exhaled. He sucked in another breath, and, determined, burst forward on a strand of speed. His prosthetic only slowed him down slightly as he ran over the sparse grass and took a leap into the leaves.
It wasn't a very big leap, and it wasn't very graceful or well planted, but it launched him into the leaves; it actually produced a satisfactory CRUNCH! that sent leaves flying into the air all around him. Toothless teasingly sent out tiny wisps of fire that caught the leaves and singed them, sending them to the ground in crumbled ashes.
"Whoo hoo!" Astrid said, dropping her rake and jumping in after him, making Hiccup laugh. She landed and flung out her arms and legs, lying on her back amongst the damp and stinky leaves.
"Ohhhhhh, yes," she said, exhaling happily. "This is great."
Hiccup softly smiled to himself and he too fell on his back. He opened his eyes to see the white but grey skies of Berk, a dragon flying overhead, and he instantly said, realizing, "It's not three o'clock, is it?"
"Nah, Hiccup, it isn't," Astrid said.
"Oh, good. 'Cause then we'd have to dash for it," Hiccup said.
Astrid smiled, and the two of them laid there for a moment before they heard Snotlout yell, "Hey!" Snotlout had finished arguing with Fishlegs and was looking angrily at them. "I was supposed to jump in first!"
"Missed that opportunity, Snotlout," Hiccup said.
"Should've jumped when you had the chance," Astrid said.
"Well," Snotlout said, straightening and rolling up his arms, "no time like the present, hey?" He whooped as he jogged and then tucked his legs in front of him and held on for dear life as he landed in the leaves. His jump caused more leaves to fly off than Astrid and Hiccup combined.
"Wait? We're jumping in now?" Tuffnut said, looking up from where he sat on Ruffnut's back.
"Sweet!" Ruffnut said. She instantly stood up, making Tuffnut slid to the ground; the two whooped as well as they jumped in feet first, stomping the leaves down satisfyingly.
Astrid shifted to the edge of the pile and called out, "Hey, Fishlegs, hurry up!"
"Yeah, jump in, Fishlegs!" Hiccup said.
Fishlegs gulped and said, "Well, all right," and sucking in a breath and closing his eyes, he ran toward the leaf pile, making Snotlout say, "Whoa, back up everyone."
Everyone shifted to the edge like Astrid, and Fishlegs landed with a fantastic THUMP! "Is it over?" he said, tentatively opening one eye.
"And you wanted to go first," Snotlout said, folding his arms over his chest as he shook his head in Fishlegs's direction.
"Yes, and now I'm in the leaf pile, so there is no more need to discuss it," Fishlegs said.
Ruffnut picked up a few leaves and let them fall from her hand, saying, "Wow. It's just like it used to be when we were kids."
"Yeah, it was totally childish then," Tuffnut said. He sat up from where he leaned on his arms and said in a serious voice, "But it's cool now."
"It always was cool," Hiccup said. He drew his knees up to his torso and hugged them to himself. He looked around and said, "This was really, really fun."
Astrid smiled and gently punched his shoulder, not even enough to hurt him. "Hey. Glad you had fun."
"At least one of us did," Snotlout said begrudgingly. Toothless shot him a look, making Astrid and Hiccup smile. Hiccup patted Toothless, who settled down like a cat next to Hiccup, snuggling his head in between his two folded arms.
Astrid proceeded to joke with Snotlout, who shot back sarcastic answers. Ruffnut and Tuffnut ripped leaves apart and threw them everywhere, and Fishlegs tentatively tried to tell them not to do that. As for Hiccup, he just fell back and leaned against Toothless, snorted and closed his eyes. Hiccup let out a contented sigh and thought wistfully of how this made up for nearly every time he didn't get to do this when he was younger.
Thank you for reading! Review?