Elias II Stoick Fiersome's first birthday wasn't really a big celebration but to the little guy, it sure was.
"Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday, sweet brother…Happy birthday to yoooouuu!" Zenna and Elias practically woke him up with a birthday serenade that very morning.
El yawned and gave his big sister and brother a sleepy smile.
"You're officially one whole year old, El! Let's celebrate! Yaaaay!" Zenna cheered, lifting her sweet baby brother out of the crib and dancing around the room with him.
El squealed with delight and patted his sister's cheeks with his little hands. "And since it's your birthday, we get to have cake!" Elias grinned.
"Yay! Cake!" El giggled as his sister brought him downstairs.
"Happy Birthday, my little man!" Edgar boomed, giving El an affectionate noogie. Henna smiled brightly as she set a little chocolate cake with a little candle on top.
"Make a wish, sweetheart. Anything your sweet little heart desires," she smiled lovingly as Zenna set El down on his high chair. El smiled, knowing exactly what he wanted for his first birthday, and blew out the candle.
"What'd you wish for, little bro?" Zenna asked curiously.
"A helmet," El answered politely.
That made Henna, Edgar and Zenna look at each other in surprise.
"A helmet? Like the one the Chief wears?" Edgar asked his son.
"No…I wanna dif-fer-ent helmet! Something u-u-unique!" El stuttered.
"Well, what kind of unique helmet would you like, dear?" Henna asked, amused. El thoughtfully put his hands on his head, his thinking pose.
After a minute or two, El took his hands off his head and said, "I don't know…" slightly disappointed.
Elias smiled and gently kissed El on his forehead.
"You'll find inspiration for your unique helmet, El. But, right now, you gotta eat a nice big breakfast. Birthday boys need their energy to celebrate their first birthdays, after all," she told him before she and her family proceeded to eat a good and hearty breakfast.
El loved the little chocolate cake and, after he had licked his plate clean, he looked at his mother with a cute puppy dog face.
"Can I have more cake please, Mama?" he asked sweetly. Henna smiled, knowing that her baby boy had inherited his big sister's pathological obsession with chocolate, and wagged a finger.
"We'll have an even bigger cake later, El. For now, you need to eat some of this oatmeal…" she told him gently as she placed a little bowl of oatmeal in front of El.
The littlest Fiersome grinned, excited at the possibility of getting more cake later, and quickly finished his oatmeal.
"Zenna! Let's play with Stryka!" he giggled, waving his little arms up in the air. The Dragon Doctor smiled and helped El get out of his high chair.
Stryka was taking a catnap when the two left the house.
"Stryka, let's play!" El giggled, waking the one-eyed Night Fury up. Stryka yawned and, then, perked up when she saw her Rider's little brother and cooed. El smiled and petted Stryka, the dragoness crooning softly. Then El looked closely at Stryka's ears and his eyes lit up.
"Zenna! I want a Night Fury helmet!" he exclaimed excitedly. Zenna immediately caught on her baby brother's idea and smiled. "A helmet that makes you look like a Night Fury! El, that is so creative!" she gushed.
"Let's go see Grandpa Gobber!" El squealed.
"Okay!" Zenna smiled, picking El up and getting on Stryka. Elias got on Flare and the two dragons flew up into the air.
"Whee! I'm flying! Yay!" El shrieked with delight as they flew the short distance to Gobber's Dragon Armory. Eret was there, busy with saddle orders when the trio dropped in.
"Okay, 43! High seater with built-in crossbow!" the ex-trapper held up a new saddle he had made. "That's me!" Mulch hollered, running up to the front of the line. Eret handed him the saddle and Mulch tipped a few pieces of hack silver into his palm.
"Uncle Eret!" El called out, waving his tiny arms at the man. "Just a moment, folks," Eret excused himself and went over to El and Zenna.
"Hey there, love," Eret smiled at Zenna who giggled and kissed him on the cheek. "Hello Elias."
"Hi Eret." Elias greeted with a smile.
"And a very Happy Birthday to you, little warrior!" Eret greeted El, tousling the toddler's black curls.
Gobber then shouted, "Eret, we've got orders up to my skivvies! Get back to work!" as the line grew longer.
"Yikes, you're busy," Zenna remarked.
"Yeah…" Eret sighed, glancing at the long line.
"Uncle Eret, I want a Night Fury helmet!" El said excitedly.
"El, you forgot something," Zenna reminded him.
"Oh, I mean, I would like a Night Fury helmet please," El corrected himself.
Eret looked a bit unsure.
"Night Fury helmet…I don't know…Gobber and I have never made a helmet that looks like the top of Stryka's head. Plus, we're pretty busy at the moment…" he said thoughtfully.
El's face fell and his shoulders sagged. Seeing this, Eret quickly came up with an idea. "Okay, El, how about this? You go see Hiccup and ask him to help you design your helmet. Come to the Armory later and Gobber and I'll see what we can do. Sound good?" he suggested.
El immediately brightened up and said, "Yes!" toddling over to Eret and hugging his leg, which was as high as he could reach. Eret laughed and picked the little boy up to give him a hug. Zenna and Elias smiled gratefully as Zenna took El back.
"We'll see you later once we've come up with a design," she told Eret. "Looking forward to it," Eret smiled before heading back to work.
"See you later, Uncle Eret!" El waved bye-bye. "See you later, El! And Happy Birthday!" Eret cheerfully waved back.
Hiccup's house wasn't too far from the Dragon Armory so Elias, Zenna and Stryka decided to just walk, the former of the two holding an excited little boy in her arms. "I wanna Night Fury helmet so I can pretend to be a Night Fury like Toothless and Stryka!" El giggled in his big sister Zenna's arms.
"And you're gonna go pull some pranks on the villagers?" Elias asked coyly.
"Maybe…" El grinned cheekily as they reached the Haddock residence. Hiccup was outside with Toothless, making a few modifications to the Night Fury's tail fin when Zenna set El down on the ground and the littlest Fiersome sprinted over to the Chief and grappled with his prosthetic leg.
"Hi, Uncle Hiccup!" El cooed adorably.
Looking down and seeing his sweet nephew, Hiccup grinned and made the final adjustments to Toothless' tail before picking El up.
"Hey, birthday boy! How's your special day so far?" he smiled, bouncing El on his lap.
"Really great! Mama and Papa gave me this little chocolate cake with a candle for breakfast, Stryka and I played tag in the front yard and I'm gonna get an even bigger chocolate cake later!" El said enthusiastically, making expressive hand gestures to show his excitement.
Hiccup smiled and playfully ruffled El's curly black hair.
"That's great, buddy! Did you make a wish on your little birthday cake this morning?" he asked.
"Uh-huh! I wanna get a Night Fury helmet. One that looks like Toothless' head. Uncle Eret said he and Grandpa Gobber will help me make it after Zenna and I made a design. Can you help us?" El asked, looking up at his Uncle Hiccup with big pleading eyes.
"Please, Hicc? It's the only thing he wants for his birthday…Pleeeeaaaaaassssseee?" Zenna asked, putting on her best puppy dog face. Even Toothless and Stryka looked to the young Chief with big, pleading, adorable green orbs.
Hiccup knew that he was no match for four darn cute faces and sighed.
"Good thing I don't have much to do today," he said and Zenna, El, Toothless and Stryka all cheered, "YES!"
"Can I make a suggestion, Hiccup?" Aurora's voice came as she and the Night Lights landed near the group.
"Yeah Aurora?" Hiccup questioned.
"How about you make El a Night Light helmet instead of a Night Fury helmet?" Aurora suggested.
"Night Light? Like them..?" El pondered before he grinned. "Yeah, Night Light helmet then I can play with both Toothless Stryka and the Night Lights and the others. Yeah..!"
The four 20 year olds chuckled.
For two whole hours, Hiccup and El sat on the grass and drew and drew and drew. El wanted his helmet to look just like a Night Light's head so he and Hiccup had to design the helmet very carefully while looking at Ruffrunner as a reference, which was simple since the dragon was asleep, as always. Finally the design was complete and El immediately brought it to the Armory, where Eret marveled at the design.
"I must say, El. This is quite a unique helmet," the former dragon trapper said as he carefully measured El's head. "A special helmet for a special lad's special day," Gobber chuckled as Eret handed him the measurements and, along with Hiccup, got to work.
A few hours later…
"Can I open my eyes now?" El said excitedly, his eyes shut and hands over them for good measure, while Zenna propped up a mirror in front of him.
"Okay, El. Take a look," the one-eyed Dragon Doctor smiled. Elias II Stoick Fiersome opened his eyes and gasped.
"You like it, buddy?" Hiccup asked hopefully. El's whole face lit up with a super big smile.
"I LOVE IT! Thank you, Uncle Hiccup! Thank you, Uncle Eret! Thank you, Grandpa Gobber! Thank You Auntie Aurora. This is the best helmet ever!" he giggled.
Indeed, El's helmet was something else. It was made of high-quality Gronckle Iron and had been forged into the likeness of the top of a Night Fury's head. And, to add to the helmet's uniqueness, black and white scales, Snow, Toothless and Stryka had shed were glued onto the helmet.
"Wait till Mama and Papa see this…" Zenna grinned.
"Sweet Freyja, El, you look so adorable!"
Turning around, the gang could see Henna and Edgar beaming at little El with Valka and the rest of the Dragon Riders holding up a cake for the birthday boy.
"Now that is quite the helmet. Gobber, you and Eret have outdone yourselves," Edgar smiled.
"Actually, Dad, El designed the helmet," Zenna told him.
"With some help from me of course," Hiccup grinned, earning him a small smack from Aurora, "What am I chopped liver?" she pouted.
"Fine, Aurora helped too.." Hiccup corrected.
Dart, Pouncer, Toothless and Stryka came to the Armory and El toddled over to them. "I'm a Night Light! Rooooaarr!" the little Fiersome hatchling giggled. Both Night Furies and Night Lights cooed and nuzzled El lovingly as if he were their own hatchling.
"Already walking, talking and coming up with great ideas…They grow up so fast," Eret chuckled.
"It won't be long now until he's a Dragon Rider…" Zenna sighed, leaning against him.
"And he just might be better than all of us combined…El's gonna do great things, I'm sure of that," Hiccup nodded in agreement as they watched El blow out the candle on his birthday cake.
That night, after a small but incredibly fun party, one-year-old Elias II Stoick Fiersome jumped into bed and took off his helmet. "Best birthday ever…" he yawned, shaking his curly black hair before he fell asleep with his helmet clutched close to his chest.
As he dreamed, Elias II Stoick Fiersome smiled, knowing that he would never forget his first birthday.