During Hiccup's speech about the wonderful, magical, and joyous holiday of Snoggletog, Hiccup balanced a ceremonial, tiny baby lamb to his chest who had long, spindly, pinkish legs of white fur that both spilled out Hiccup's arms and ended in small hooves. Below the baby's fine, velvet, furry head with black doe eyes, it wore a collar of wild leaves from the forest meant for special occasions. It also had blood-red, spherical beans from the woods that were threaded around the attachment of two twin bells made of tin.

Hiccup chuckled at the little lamb in front of his council that consisted of his eldress, Gothi, his father Stoick, his mentor Gobber, and a panel of his tribe advisers who had all arrived handsomely for the last morning of the winter months with decorative apparel, stately jewelry, and rings, and with helmets that had been oiled and cleaned until the silver reflected under the scattered rays of the Sun which had been hidden from the many clouds that sent flaky snowfall on the village. The snow was noticeable on Hiccup's furry cape with dark-brown and inch-long fur from a bear, the kind of coverage that only chiefs wore because the fur was very rare to find. After all, bears hardly roamed far into Berk's hillsides from other lands. The snowfall made it look like his cloak had been tussled in flour by the white flakes' appearance on the item.

Hiccup talked steadily to the audience of his tribe about the ancient meaning of Snoggletog. He elaborated that the holiday was more than a time to give one another gifts and devour fudge treats from the favorite shop of sweets in the town. It was more than the festive or story-telling carvings of wood, metal, and whalebone in geometric shapes or in models of mythical creatures and gods that ruled the holiday, which had all been tacked for display throughout the village to welcome Snoggletog through the expressions of the tribe artisans. It was also much more than the ribbons and decorations of red, gold, white, and green that had been draped just in time for the holiday around mostly everything in the village, even in the elaborately braided hair of some women and men.

For numerous generations on the island, Snoggletog had been celebrated by spending quality time with friends and family and remembering the importance of kindness and thanksgiving that too often went ignored and forgotten by the monotony of daily life for the villagers that consisted of sowing crops in time for reaping in the proper seasons, or raising healthy livestock to support their farms and leave an inheritance for their loved ones. Among the youth, fairer virtues that Snoggletog represented could have been forsaken by honing fighting skills to be prepared for any siege that could befall the people, and during their time of learning the writings and culture and history of the village to be faithful stewards and educated members of the Hooligan Tribe.

While Hiccups speech, simply delivered yet inspiring to hear for its humanitarian themes, drew to a close, the lamb in his grasp became increasingly restless. It bayed once more in Hiccup's hold and squinted its eyes as it did. A wave of laughter rippled through Hiccup's council and his listeners, who were all clad in festive dresses and outfits under their nicest over-clothes that were only brought out for memorable days. At last, in front of many giddy and anticipating faces of the crowd among impatient or bored expressions by the tribe's children, Hiccup marked the beginning of Snoggletog Fest by lowering the trembling lamb in his harms to the frigid ground by the water well in the center of Berk's main square.

The lamb scampered forward instantly when the human who had held it lightened its grip on her stomach. Its bells against its throat jingled busily as it bolted through the houses and market fronts with shrill clops of its barely-developed hooves while the gathered tribe cheered. The animal symbolically spread the spirit of Snoggletog through every street-corner in Berk as it ran. Sooner or later, the lamb would be intercepted by a herder who would kindly remove the red sprouts and leaves from around its neck and release the baby sheep back into the flock that it rightfully had been lent from for the opening ceremony.

Ruffnut watched the goat disappear, and the mass of Vikings around her began to mingle in their own friend-groups or family-groups or by themselves to commence their experience in the annual holiday festival. To those that knew Ruffnut, they would say that she looked more becoming than normal. She fitted comfortably in her brother's less informal clothes that she preferred to wear, including his long, dark pants made of warm fleece and his dark-grey frock with black lacings on the chest. She had tied the end of her pigtails with red bows for the holiday, the only touch of brightness to her dull yet neat appearance, and she had combed a petite fan of bangs over her forehead.

Ruffnut spoke to her friend standing beside her, who had finished stiffly clapping to Hiccup's address to the village. "Hey, Astrid- -!" She pointed goofily to the darting lamb that quickly vanished out of their view. "It's you!"

"Knock it off," Astrid said with a slight smirk as Ruffnut chided her. She had already explained to Astrid why she had run from Tuffnut on their way to hear Hiccup's announcement with the village. The least Ruffnut could do was not poke fun.

Snoutlout and Fishlegs approached the two of them from behind

Snoutlout stood before his female friends in a metal helmet of short, winding, sharp-ended horns from a ram and wearing a tunic with a decorative, black lacing on the chest for the season. He had a long wrapping that stretched to his shins and buckled by a gleamy, metal brooch at his shoulder. The wrapping was coated with poufy, flared animal hair in a tone of dark grey.

"Happy Snoggletog!" Snoutlout said grandly, holding his leather-banded arms out to the slightly taller two women and flaring his covering from his elbows in the process.

Ruffnut eyed Snoutlout cautiously. "Since when are you in the holiday spirit?"

"Since mine eyes hath laid upon your beautiful face!" he said, rushing to hug her tight. Ruffnut palmed his helmet and shoved him away, sending him snickering and in a hurry to right his cleaned helmet before it slipped into the dirty snow on the ground. Astrid shook her head and tittered. Snoutlout hadn't changed.

"Hi, Astrid," Fishleg's greeted with a timid wave.

Astrid acknowledged Fishlegs. Fishlegs looked just as spruced-up as Snoutlout in his heavy, brown pelt that was latched to his body in embroidered leather with snaps of copper studs. He wore a smaller helmet on his head with spry, tiny wings of silver the size of a baby bat. His bright-green eyes, nearly lime in the morning, crinkled warmly to Astrid's reply. Fishleg's blonde mustache was getting bushier by the minute. They were all getting older, Astrid knew. The thought was scarier to Astrid the more that she understood it was true beyond a doubt. She took notice of the front of Fishleg's waist pouch that was trembling and snorting smoke, and she asked, "what's in there?"

"Oh," Fishleg chuckled. "that's just Meatlug's newborn. Isn't he cute?"

"Like a moldy meatball," Ruffnut judged.

"He looks a little cold," Astrid said.

She looked closely at the offspring of Fishleg's dragon, Meatlug. She adored baby dragons because they were like miniature forms of their parent. The baby had the same eyes as its mother, colored with yellow sclera and positioned closely above its nearby brown snout that darkened at the tip. It had feeble ears on the top of its auburn head with hardened facial nodules along its chin and jaw and on most of its body, especially its tail, that would in later years be a defensive weapon to ward off predators. The baby's tail hadn't grown past a stub yet. Astrid grinned. It was cute. "Can I hold him?"

"Of course," Fishlegs said. "But he's very attached to me, so he might start crying soon if you hold him too long."

"I think that's a perfectly natural reaction for anyone that gets too close to Astrid," said Snoutlout.

"You know, Snoutlout, I suddenly remembered why I did my best to avoid you all year," Astrid said. The dragon's breath from its nostrils warmed her chest, and she patted its head and kept its tail scooped in her arms with its legs so it wouldn't feel off balance. As her friends became re-acquainted, she eventually returned Meatlug's young to Fishlegs before Snoutlout's proclamation was proven right.

"Where's Hiccup?" Snoutlout asked everyone, outstretching his arms again like it would make him any less short than the rest of them. "Isn't he done yet?"

"He probably didn't want to stay with the commoners." Ruffnut chuckled.

Fishlegs joined with her instantly, and Snoutlout laughed loudly, citing that Ruffnut had a larger vocabulary in her small brain than he had thought.

Astrid felt a pang in her chest, one of mild irritation. They were all supposed to be supporting Hiccup's promotion in the tribe-weren't they Hiccup's friends? It appeared that everyone secretly thought differently from what she believed, and maybe they even envied him. Many years had passed since they had been a close-knit group without Hiccup and freely bullied him as a collective, but obviously, some perceptions about Hiccup lingered. She knew they were only joking, for they had been faithful to Hiccup in recent years if he needed any one of them, and they had also grown to trust and depend on Hiccup during their multiple missions to rescue dragons of their island from ruffians. Astrid knew that she and Hiccup were not as close as they once were, so there was no need to end the merciless teasing that her friends could at times concoct to spite one another in pure, harmless fun.

Despite all of it, Astrid still felt uneasy by her friends' teasing of Hiccup when he wasn't around, and she felt that she should defend him.

"He'll come eventually," Astrid said neutrally instead. There would be more than plenty of time, she sharply reminded Snoutlout, to explore the streets of their hometown that served as a temporary fairground for the day. The group's attention quickly shifted when they spotted the missing member of their clique.

"What'd I miss?" Hiccup called from a not-too-far-distance away.

Astrid heard her friends call him over urgently, and Hiccup picked up the pace of his boots. Hiccup greeted everyone and laughed at a complaint from Snoutlout that Hiccup had kept them freezing in place for much too long. Fishlegs had thoughtful commentary on his speech, and Hiccup sounded grateful for it, and he shared that it had taken him many rewrites to get the oration to have the effect he wished it to have. Ruffnut didn't praise Hiccup's address, but she did admit it was as moving as Stoick's speeches had been in the past, and she made a point that Hiccup added humor to the speech that she had quite enjoyed.

Hiccup and Astrid greeted, finally, with stiff smiles.

"Hi," Hiccup commented to Astrid when their three other companions briefly engaged in their new complaints about Tuffnut's tardiness.

"Hi."

Hiccup's eyes lowered to Astrid's second unfamiliar dress. The dress had an undergarment that touched the toes of her snow boots and it was made of minty-green, thick, pleated linen with a scooped neckline that was laced in a golden dye which appeared also on the dress's wrist-length sleeves.

The overgarment was forest-green and had thinner straps belted to her bodice with miniature, embossed tortoise shells. Tying the two garments in the middle was a thin belt of leather that knotted at her waist and stretched to her thigh at her side. Her combed hair was loosely curled from the light moisture of the snow and fell a small distance past her shoulders. A portion of her lighter tresses from the outermost layer of her hair had been lifted over the older, muted locks of reddish-blonde and was bound by a green-dyed ribbon.

Hiccup, in caution that Ruffnut, Snoutlout, or Fishleg's were secretly listening to their exchange, refrained from questioning Astrid where she had gotten the outfit, for he had never seen Astrid wear something so gorgeous to Snoggletog with him before. Astrid was stunning, and even in the winter snow, Hiccup could smell the fragrance of flower-oil she had applied to her skin.

"You...I...uh...you look...decent." Hiccup said. He scratched his head awkwardly.

Ruffnut, Snoutlout, and Fishlegs exchanged meaningful looks.

Astrid looked down with a discontent lour and a sigh. Hiccup's flustered language had long lost its charm. She wondered why Hiccup was struggling to tell her one nice thing about herself after they separated. They were still friends, and she wouldn't take his words as flirtatious- -if that's what he was assuming. She feared that Hiccup thought she had spent the early morning combing her hair for his adoration

Astrid had thought Tuffnut would be the first one to tell her that her pretension had been worth the time, and yes, she had wanted to look good for him, even better than she had when they had spent time together in the tavern. It was her hope that Tuffnut hadn't felt too embarrassed to pair with her for the Fest because of the scrutiny he would face from their friends. She thought Ruffnut would make him feel more confident in arriving, but she could be incorrect. It was Hiccup and Snoutlout who were especially the issue. Snoutlout wouldn't wait to make a cringe-worthy joke about their pairing, and Hiccup's presence alone would keep any interaction between them more conservative than she wished for it to be.

Astrid shamed them both to herself if they had demotivated Tuffnut in the slightest from showing up to the festival for their first official date. Yet, if he had decided not to come, after all, she decided it wouldn't be a burden. There were other, less public times for them to get to know each other as more than friends. Nevertheless, he had been the one to invite her, and she had agreed, and she had faithfully arrived with the best intentions and expectations.

Astrid answered Hiccup's faulty praise with a low, "thanks."

At the next moment, Hiccup saw the girl he had invited to the festival approaching him and the group. He told everyone with a sly undertone to his voice, "there's someone I'd like you all to meet."

Astrid looked to Hiccup's gaze. Beyond a band of Hooligans was a smiling girl at her own age who waved at Hiccup from afar. What?, she thought. The person couldn't be anyone neither of them had met before. That was impossible. It was a small village, and everyone knew each other. That was unless the mysterious "someone" came from another island or territory. Ruffnut shrugged to Astrid and walked forward with everyone else to accommodate the unexpected guest.

Astrid began to trail behind everyone in bewilderment before the moving crowd of villagers distanced her from the group too far. She got only a few steps before a warm hand clemently grasped her elbow.

"Hey."

Astrid thought, who...? Her throat tightened, and her mind went blank.

"Sorry I'm late," the genial, boyish voice welcomed behind her.

Then, with ascertainment, Astrid's heart began to dribble, and a floaty feeling of desire swelled from her core to tease the corners of her mouth upward. She saved herself from mortification and stifled her smile by using her teeth to snag her lip. She was comforted that their first date would not be void after all, but she didn't want Tuffnut to know how much she had wished for him to come. Astrid turned to him plainly and showed him her trademark face that was apathetic and friendly.

Tuffnut blinked quickly at the sight of her, nearly speechless. "Astrid..." Tuffnut began.

Words: 2783

Note: Thank you so much Jdog4161 for the encouragement, and thank you Guest (1/10/21) for your motivation to continue.