Author's Note:

Hello everyone and welcome to the next chapter. Apologies for being gone for a while but I got a Nintendo Switch with 'Legend of Zelda', enough said really. This chapter is entirely set in the present and goes through a variety of perspectives as we approach Thawfest. I have another AU called 'Lost Family' if anyone is interested and I'd really appreciate any feedback on it.

Thank you all for your continued support and I hope you enjoy the chapter.

I own nothing.

Chapter 14

Isle of Berk-Present

"HOOKFANG!"

SPLASH!

Snotlout surfaced spluttering and he glared at his far too amused dragon, "You just had to do that, didn't you?"

The Nightmare simply grinned unrepentantly as his rider hauled himself out of the pond he'd been dropped into, "C'mon Hookfang, we need to get this trick sorted for Thawfest."

He heard laughter from the other side of the pond as Hiccup and Toothless found amusement in his unplanned dip, Snotlout gave them a mock scowl, "Just because you guys have your trick sorted."

Hiccup grinned, "C'mon Snotlout, you two have yours sorted as well, Hookfang's just having fun the way he always does."

The younger boy was wringing water out of his shirt as he answered, "I know but it's not perfect yet, we have to get it just right."

"Perfect?" Hiccup raised an eyebrow, "You're starting to sound like Astrid."

They'd discovered that Astrid always wanted to do things just right, be it warrior training or dragon training, less than her best was never acceptable and she was always trying to improve herself. To her credit, she was more than willing to put in the countless hours, day after day to do just that, her Nadder, Stormfly, shared her sentiments and their dedication was admirable, though her seeming obsession with self-improvement could be trying.

Snotlout frowned, "Please tell me I'm not that obsessed with this?"

Hiccup looked thoughtful, "Well…"

His cousin flung his soaked shirt and the older boy dodged it with a grin, "Okay, you're not that bad, but you do seem pretty focused on Thawfest."

The younger boy sighed, "I know, and it's kind of stupid really."

Hiccup sensed something was up, "Is the clan being pushy about it?"

Snotlout rolled his eyes, "Oh yes, they're being pushy. They keep reminding me about how my dad never lost once and talking about how this is the year the Jorgensons would take back the title." His expression darkened, "Like they're the ones actually competing."

"But surely your dad isn't being like them?" The older boy asked, "He's always the one that's calming them down and keeping their pride in check."

The younger cousin smiled, "Yeah he's doing that all right, he's even said that he doesn't care how well I do, just that I try my hardest." His smile fell slightly, "But I can tell that he really wants me to win, he always wanted me to continue his winning streak and time was he would've been as desperate for the glory as the rest of the clan. I think he's finding it hard to not give in to his competitiveness and pressure me."

Hiccup shrugged, "Of course he wants you to win, every parent wants their child to win. I know my dad does and he's even tried to subtly hint it." He grinned slightly, "Though it wasn't exactly that subtle and I think mom told him off for it afterwards." He smiled, "Either way, it's not something you need to worry about."

Snotlout sat down, "To be honest it's not so much the result as the games themselves I'm worried about." He began tossing rocks into the pond, "The whole village will be watching and I know people will be analysing everything we do, what we do right, what we do wrong, how well we compete…the list goes on." He leaned back, "The games are supposed to be when Berk's young people show off their 'Vikingness', everyone will be measuring us against the others to confirm or disprove their own conceptions of us." He sighed, "What they decide about us could remove or cause a lot of problems in the future."

Hiccup sat beside him, "Snotlout, worrying about it isn't going to change much, do you really believe that what the village thinks is going to change how our important family members treat us."

The younger boy smiled slightly, "No." He frowned, "But what about the other Dragon Riders?"

Astrid was at her usual spot in the woods, going through her own training for Thawfest.

Over the last few years, she'd been the reigning champion, usually winning with a perfect score. Her family had been incredibly proud of their daughter and she'd enjoyed the achievement but it soon became clear that it wasn't exactly a major thing for her, and that wasn't her being arrogant.

In all honesty, her competitors were hardly up to her standard, though it wasn't for the lack of trying.

Fishlegs was hardly the type for the events Thawfest provided, he used his brain far more than his muscles and use of weaponry was far from his area of expertise. He did his best but his best would never compete against Astrid's own, natural, advantage, a situation that never actually seemed to bother him.

The twins were their own worst enemy, continually letting themselves be distracted by their fights or desire for devastation. They usually ended up dead last simply because they did the events entirely wrong or became more interested in wreaking havoc. That being said, one year they'd been determined to beat each other because of an argument of theirs, the desire to beat their sibling lent them focus and Astrid had to fight hard that year to claim victory, showing her that they were a force to be reckoned with when properly motivated.

This year however, Hiccup and Snotlout were competing and they were a big unknown.

She'd seen first-hand how quickly they could move when they'd knocked out Stormfly and they were far from unfit. She hadn't seen them perform any of the Thawfest tasks but she wasn't going to write them off this early on and that wasn't taking into account the Dragon Events.

They had a clear advantage in those events, they had close bonds with their respective dragons and had been riding them far longer than the other riders. In terms of flying skills, Hiccup and Toothless were leagues ahead of them though she wouldn't be surprised if Snotlout and Hookfang had some tricks of their own to challenge them, she and Stormfly would be hard pressed to keep up.

Which was far from a bad thing.

After spending more time with them she'd really warmed up to the two cousins. She'd admittedly been rather unconvinced when they'd first returned but she'd found them to be genuinely good to be with, despite their bizarrely close relationship. Hiccup had actually taken on his role as head of the Academy very well and Snotlout had acted as his second with ease, they weren't perfect but she was hardly going to hold that against them, dragon training was still a large unknown to them all so incidents and mishaps were bound to happen. She was now at the point where she would much rather have either of them in charge than anyone else, even if she still knew very little about their past.

Because of this, she found herself greatly anticipating the Thawfest Games, the cousins were almost certainly going to prove serious competitors for her and it was a challenge she relished. She would need to be at the top of her game to win and even if she didn't, she'd hardly consider one of them winning a serious problem.

No matter what other people thought.

"C'mon Meatlug, faster girl!"

Buzzing through some sea stacks, the Gronckle panted happily as she rounded the obstacles, Fishlegs whooping on her back.

It was far from the fastest of flights but for the boy and his dragon, it was pretty fun. Meatlug swung around another stack and blasted a target on another one with her lava blast.

"Perfect shot girl!"

She wagged her tail happily and hovered upwards to land on the nearby cliffs, Fishlegs dismounted and immediately showered her with fuss, "Who's a good girl Meatlug, who's a beautiful Gronckle princess?"

For once, Fishlegs was actually looking forward to Thawfest. Every year he dreaded it because it involved everything he couldn't do and had long since accepted he'd not be the best at. Regardless of this, members of his clan had still expected him to somehow do well and the disappointment from them at his inevitable loss always hurt. His parents had never pressured him and they'd always made him feel better afterwards but he still disliked the whole thing.

Now though, Dragon Events had been added and he felt he could at least do well, even if he still didn't win. The other dragons may be faster and seemingly more spectacular than Meatlug but he knew how to play to her strengths, the trick competition could be where she'd really shine with her ability to fly any direction she pleased and they'd mostly been working on perfecting a killer move.

In all honesty, he'd never have had the courage to even try what they'd come up if Hiccup and Snotlout weren't around.

While his love of dragons and his memorising of their facts had annoyed others before, Hiccup had actively encouraged him to bring them up and they'd often geeked out over them together. Snotlout had also encouraged him to try more risky things and while not as gentle with it as Hiccup (see shoving him down the hill when he'd been sat in a sledge dithering about whether to go or not) Fishlegs had found his methods to sometimes be exactly what he needed to just try something.

Their influence had also been a big improvement on his relationship with the other teens. As about the only ones of the same age, they'd sort of hung out together more because there wasn't any other option, they each had their own things they'd rather be doing and their friendship had been loose at best. Ever since the Academy started though, they'd actually begun to want to spend more time together, dragon training giving all their varied interests a common ground in which to come together. He'd found himself training with Astrid, helping the twins to play a prank (just a minor one), teaching Snotlout some of the things about Berk he'd never got the chance to learn and geeking out over dragons with Hiccup. They'd gone from 'sort of friends' to 'close friends' in a very short space of time and it was purely because the cousins had brought about so many changes in the village.

Of course, there were those who weren't happy with the way things were going but Fishlegs was liking this new Berk, as far as he was concerned, it was a major improvement on what it had been and was only getting better. For once, he was actually looking forward to Thawfest and though he was still very unlikely to win it wasn't going to bother him as much this year, no matter what some of his relatives said.

He also couldn't wait to see some epic, new dragon moves.

Spitelout sat down with a groan and Helga spoke up from where she was making dinner.

"The clan giving you trouble again?"

He groaned a second time, "How does Stoick manage a whole village? I have enough trouble handling my own relatives."

She came over and gently rubbed his shoulders, "I'm guessing that they're all het up about Thawfest."

He sighed, "As always, one moment they're declaring that Snotlout is going to reclaim the Thawfest title for the Jorgensons and the next they're muttering about how much of a 'disappointment' he is. Of course, their constant bragging is annoying everyone else and more than a few of the other clans will probably pressure their own youths into winning in response, I'm doing my best to keep a lid on my lot but I can't really stop them since they're not actually doing anything wrong." He smiled, "But it looks like the kids are largely staying above it all." He frowned, "Though I think its bothering Snotlout slightly."

She hugged him round the neck, "I wouldn't worry too much, Hiccup's probably already put his mind at ease and he'll always have you no matter what happens."

He smiled, "You're right, but I still need to keep a tight leash on this, Spinelout's major supporters seem to be getting more discontented and Spinelout himself seems to have a slightly lax idea of 'acceptable methods' of getting what he wants."

Worry crossed Helga's face, "You think he'll try something?"

"Maybe." He patted her arm comfortingly, "But me and Stoick are keeping a close watch on him, we'll make sure to stop him if he does."

She sighed, "Why can't they just be happy that Snotlout's finally back home? He and Hiccup have done nothing but improve Berk since they arrived so why be so hostile to them?"

He squeezed her hand, "Because they've been taught that they have to be the best, no matter what. Generations of that kind of pressure makes some people blind to what they really should be. I should know, I wasn't that different before Snotlout disappeared."

She smiled, "Yet you learned." She kissed him, "Something I'm very happy about."

He smiled lovingly, "Thanks dear."

PS-While the teens are happy, the Jorgensons are not so convinced. Please let me know what you thought and I'll hopefully update soon.