The clouds were grey, preventing the sunlight from lightening up the island of Berk with the suns colors. Hiccup was walking around the streets, enjoying the yearly preparing three days before Snoggletog. He passed by Astrid, enjoying the sight of her beautiful smile as she decorated something they'd like to call a snoggletree, where green planks was attached to a huge tree stump to make it look like a giant tree. It was placed in the middle of Berk, in one of the town's squares. Usually they would decorate the tree by attaching shields in a line, well, a line for a Viking which is not quite straight in that point. But it was good enough.
"You ready, girl?" Astrid asked, holding a shield in her left and two other shields in her right as she looked up at her dragon. Stormfly opened her tail, showing off the sharp spikes. Astrid threw them up one by one, as Stormfly used her smallest spikes to pin them as if it was a nail.
He continued walking, thinking everything was right with the world as dragons helped Vikings on decorating. This time he was sure would be the best Snoggletog ever. "Hey dad, need any help?" Hiccup asked, standing right beside him as he looked in the same direction as his father. Gobber was helping a Viking with some decorations, and Gobber being Gobber, had to have it perfect.
"Everything's fine. We're almost done decorating anyway. Any plans today?" Stoick asked, turning to meet is sons eyes as he petted his Thunderdrum's head.
"Nah, just a small flight with Toothless later. We just came back from our morning flight so it should keep him enough entertained for a few hours," Hiccup chuckled, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. "Are you going to help the village all day?"
"Not exactly, but me and Thornado here do have chiefing to do," Stoick said, referring to his dragon.
"Ah, so you've finally named him huh? Thornado… How are you boy?" Hiccup walked closer to Thornado, scratching his chin carefully not to make it collapse in delight. Thornado purred in happiness, giving in to the boys touch.
"It's the only thing he responds to. Besides he has the same strength as Thor himself, or in my opinion. Don't'cha boy?" Thornado roared in reply, showing off his sharp teeth.
"Okay dad. Gotta go, come on bud. I'll be back later!" Hiccup shouted as the duo set off to the sky, searching the ground for any familiar teenagers. After a while of searching he went to the great hall to get some food, and to his surprise, his friends were there. They sat in their usual spots, eating either fish or chicken legs. Hiccup went over to get his plate of fish before walking over to their table. "Hey guys."
"Hey Hiccup," Astrid said, smiling as she took another bite of her leg.
"Hey," Fishlegs said, looking up from the book of dragons with a smile. The twins were too busy fighting over who took the other's chicken leg, and Snotlout sat and admired himself in a mirror, also not paying attention to Hiccups arrival.
"We really should update that book," Hiccup said, gesturing to the Book of Dragons in Fishlegs hands. He looked at the old book as he noticed the old pages and front cover covered in layers of dust.
"Already ahead of you," Fishlegs replied, showing him his charcoal without taking his eyes off the pages. He was writing down new things he had learned from Hiccup and the dragons on Berk, giving each one of them one or two pages for their information. "There's only one problem, I can't draw," Fishlegs said, lowering his head in disappointment.
"Here, let me help," Hiccup said, taking the charcoal pen out of his hands along with the book. He sat down beside Fishlegs, laying down the book of dragons as Fishlegs pointed to where it should be. His task was to draw a monstrous nightmare, and already he could see some of the charcoal remains in the book. Probably made by Fishlegs.
"Alright," He muttered, scanning the great hall for any dragons but to his surprise there were no nightmares. He frowned for a few seconds before he got an idea. "Hold on," Before Fishlegs could question him, Hiccup was already out of the hall, looking for a dragon.
It didn't take too long before he came back with Hookfang and led him to their table, letting him rest only a few feet away. "Perfect," He silently cheered, sitting back down before he continued drawing. Fishlegs watched over his shoulder in awe, and at the same time jealousy for not being able to draw like that. But he was jealous in a good way, if that was even possible. Soon Astrid joined them, her watching over his other shoulder, fascinated.
"There you go 'legs," Hiccup said, making them jump back in surprise as he gave him the book back.
"Thanks Hiccup. I would've done it myself if only I knew how. Let's place this where it belongs for now," Fishlegs said, walking over to a door by the opposite end of the front door to the Great Hall, and opened it. In there was the towns library, and in the middle of the room, a wooden table was placed and had a golden nametag that said 'The Buk o Daguns'. After all, Vikings aren't known for their writing. "Someone should really fix that name tag," Fishlegs chuckled as he put the book down in the right place before heading back to the others.
"So Astrid, I was wondering if you would go with me to the yearly Snoggletog-," Snotlout said, flexing his muscles but got cut off by Astrid.
"Sorry Snotlout, I'm taken," She smirked, crossing her arms. Hiccup chuckled at this, enjoying the priceless face on Snotlout.
"What?! By who?" Snotlout practically yelled in both anger and shock. This time Hiccup decided to step in.
"That would be me," He smirked, throwing the last of his fish to Toothless who ate it happily. When he looked back up, everyone was staring at him in pure shock, well, not Astrid. She tried to hold her laughter's in as she tried to wave a hand in front of Snotlout, but failed at getting his attention. She didn't laugh because of Hiccup, but she laughed at their expressions, mostly Snotlout. Hiccup couldn't contain the laughter in anymore and burst laughing along with Astrid, clutching their stomach as they barely kept themselves on the benches.
"What's so funny?" Fishlegs asked, looking back and forth at the two laughing Vikings.
"Y-you s-should've se-seen your f-faces!" Astrid said, laughing so hard she could barely speak. "But seriously, it's true," She confirmed once her laughter faded away, standing up from the bench heading for the front doors to the Great Hall. On her way she ran a hand through Hiccups hair, messing it up.
"Hey!" He yelled playfully, turning around to see her smirk just before the doors shut behind her. "Well, I'm out. See you later guys!" Hiccup said, walking to the exit along with Toothless by his side. Once they were both outside, he mounted Toothless and took a few laps around the island, discovering new places in the highest mountains and once he even took some time to greet Gothi in her hut. On their last lap, he passed by Mildew's place, hearing and seeing him shout out to no one in particular. The duo landed a few feet in front of him and his sheep, Fungus.
"Ehm… are you…two… alright? You kind of shouted to the sky," Hiccup said awkwardly, scratching the back of his head.
"These pesky dragons ruin everything! Look what they did to me cabbage field!" Mildew shouted again, pointing his stick with dragon teeth on the field behind him. Hiccup turned around, speechless when he saw what was in front of him. The cabbages that were supposed to be some of their supplies for the winter were torn to pieces and spread all around the field, almost looking like grass. He turned back around to face Mildew.
"See what I mean?!" He yelled in Hiccups face, spitting out saliva at the same time. Hiccup opened his eyes again, brushing his hand in his face in attempt to get the old man's saliva out of his face. One would have thought he'd gotten used to having it in his face, but that was mostly just Toothless's saliva, anyone else's was still more disgusting than ever.
"Okay, I'll help you build it up when the season for it comes, don't worry," Hiccup assured him, then flew off, leaving Mildew complaining about his suggestion and words 'don't worry'. They decided to land in front of his house and feed Toothless. Just as they landed, Toothless started roaring violently.
"Toothless! What's happening bud? You okay?" Hiccup tried to calm him down, approaching him slowly but he growled back. For a few seconds, slits made round pupils, and then he started roaring again. Only this time, every dragon on Berk did it with him.
The Vikings, who had watched the boy and his dragon from the bottom of the hill, turned to their own dragons as they started roaring together with the Night Fury. Every Viking tried to calm them down, but they failed miserably. Looking up, dragons from far south of Berk were flying north. Hiccup looked back at Toothless, meeting his slits once again. He had to admit he was frightened, but how frightened could you really be when it was your best friend?
Suddenly, all the dragons flew up in the air, a couple of feet out of their riders reach. Toothless kept his position for a few more seconds before he roared once again, making Hiccup jump back a little. Behind him, he could hear his friends shouting to their dragons, in hope to get them back on the ground, but all that mattered was him and his companion. He had no idea what would happen next, if the dragon he assumed as his best friend would attack him, and it was a possibility due to the Night Fury's expression and the space between its eyebrows narrowing due to the angry look.
Hiccup snapped out of his trance when he heard the shout's behind him get louder, but what caught his attention was the roars that got louder and louder as if approaching him from behind. Turning around, he saw two monstrous nightmares flying in top speed towards him. The two dragons stretch their talons, getting ready to take a grip of something. Just in time, he jumped to the side, falling with back down in the snow. He watched as the two large dragons carried Toothless away and flew high up in the sky to fly along the other dragons from south.
Only minutes later, the dragons were flying by the cover of the clouds, further away from Berk as they left every single Viking in confusion and sadness. What they had thought to be the best Snoggletog in years, turned out to be one of the worst. And as the yak horn blew three times, signaling an attack, this year's Snoggletog just turned darker and darker as the enemies were approaching the Island of Berk.