A/N-Another fun-and-games chapter, but everyone likes snowball fights! For those of you really aching for a change of pace, that's about to begin. There will be plenty of fun chapters to come, but the introductory phase of the series is basically done. Now, the real storylines begin.

As always, read and review! I'd hate to have to put a "review limit" on my postings, but with 24 chapters and not quite as many reviews, it's a little disheartening...

Chapter 24

Winter Antics

"Heads up dragon boy!" PAFFF! "Hey! That was my nose! You're asking for it Lout!" "Like you could hit the broadside of a barn with that thing."

When Hiccup said in the movie that Berk was only "a few degrees south of Freezing to Death," he wasn't just talking about a rather aptly name village. For the Viking village, the real onset of winter began to take hold around mid October, even while my home was bathed in 60 and 70 degree weather, and so I often ended up with the gang over at my house on my free days whenever it was possible. Despite their claims that they could take anything, even Vikings still enjoy warm weather. Of course, the dragons didn't mind it as much in Berk, what with them naturally having body temperatures that work like personal ovens. That is, unless you're talking about a water dragon, then they just drop their body temperatures to near freezing and deal with the cold that way.

However, when snow comes, you try to deal with, or in some cases, enjoy it when you can. That's what we were doing when the snow finally began accumulating around my house, finding different ways to pass the cold winter months without going nuts. Nearly every time I went to Berk, and nearly every time they came to my yard (if there was snow at my house), you could count on a major snowball fight. This time, too, I had a couple of friends along with me.

I already mentioned how Leighton had found out about my secret, but I doubt it would come as a surprise that the other kid I hang around with, Cameron, would unearth my little mystery as well. It took him about a month and a half, but eventually I had to tell him, and soon enough both him and Leighton were visiting my house on a regular, if uncommon, basis to have a little fun. Today, it was a snowball fight in one of Berk's small fields.

I wound up with the snowball in my hand, intent on showing Snotlout just how well I can throw when I want to, and let loose, nailing him in the chest with a snowball big enough to make anyone smaller go flying. Snotlout, however, was not as affected, but still got knocked on his butt. "Oooofff! Alright, I take it back," he wheezed. "You win that one." I smirked and turned, only to jump to the side to avoid a snowball coming from Astrid. She was dangerous enough with an axe or sword, but if she has a snowball in her hands, she rarely misses. Luckily, I was not her target, and turned in time to see Ruffnut get whitewashed. "Yeah! Direct hit!" Astrid yelled, scooping up another ball of snow, and threw it at Tuffnut, taking him down for the count as well.

Suddenly, the air was filled with falling snow, and I looked up to see Toothless and Hiccup flying by, Toothless flinging snow everywhere with his tail, and Hiccup using the cover to nail everyone with his own stash of ammunition. Then they landed, and Hiccup got off, scooping up snow and pelting everyone he could. Years of always being picked on had made him fast and accurate, better even at snowball fights than Astrid. His specialty: hit his target in the hand, unarming them, then pelt them with as many snowballs as he could before they got out of the way.

I smiled, as Hiccup wasn't paying attention to me, and used my wings to scoop up a huge batch of snow, then spun and released it, completely burying him. I turned to see Toothless get the same idea, only he went after my visiting friends, who only barely got out of the way. I laughed and picked up another snowball, pelting Toothless on the back of the head for good measure. ::Hey! I thought they were open targets as well!:: he complained. ::They are,:: I replied, ::but that doesn't mean going after them keeps you out of the fight either.: I started to say something else, but a snowball hit me in the side of my head.

I turned to see my sister grinning at me, having also come along to join the fun. Nobody wanted to hit her, thinking they would get me mad, so she had almost perfect shots at everyone. I shook my head. "You asked for it Holly!" I yelled, scooping up snow with my tail and flinging it at her, turning her completely white. "Ahh! That's cold!" she yelled, as some of the snow went down her shirt. I started laughing again, but was cut off when suddenly I heard growling all around the field.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked around, seeing dragons come out of the trees all around us. We all started backing toward the center of the field as they advanced. Once we were in one big group, I noticed Toothless smile, followed by Fireworm, then Thorn, and the rest of the dragons as they bent down toward the snow. "Oh, no," was all I could say before the dragon-initiated blizzard hit, burying all of us under the snow.

We popped our heads up, then started cracking up, and couldn't stop. This was how it was most of the days we got together, but it never got old.

Snowball fights weren't the only things we had fun with. Vikings already had an idea of how to make snowmen, and what with 5 feet of snow or so usually covering Berk, there was plenty to work with. Add in a couple of enthusiastic dragons, and those things could get huge! However, one of our first attempts didn't go too well, as it started without Toothless being around, a rare sight in and of itself, seeing as how Hiccup was helping us and the dragon almost never leaves his side. I can only imagine what was keeping him busy.

But anyway, we were nearly done and Hiccup was climbing up the side of the giant snow sculpture, working on putting in the arms, when Toothless showed up. Naturally, he thought that Hiccup was in trouble, and being attacked by some sort of monster, so our snowman ended up with a steaming hole through his middle, and Toothless looking ashamed when he discovered what we were actually trying to do. We just laughed it off and had him help us build the next one, no big deal. Sad day for the first snowman, but we found out melting them was almost more fun.

Then, came winter break, a wonderful two and a half weeks where I could do whatever I wanted. Plenty of time for me to visit Berk, and also plenty of chances for everyone to visit me as well. It also gave me another chance to show Hiccup a little more of my world. Everyone knows I am not a fan of Christmas, or really anything that it entails, but I still sometimes admire some of the light shows that are put on, and naturally Hiccup was completely enthralled by such electrical art. So after many times of him asking "Are there more? Can we go look?" my mom and I relented and decided that it wouldn't hurt to show him more. We drove him around for a little while (after some tedious explanations about how a car works), and Hiccup was blown away at even the littlest displays. Then again, he did come from a world where the only known electrical power was in the form of lightning bolts, so it wasn't too surprising that he was enamored with all of it. It did give me and my mom a few laughs, though.

The last thing I expected to come of it, though, was Hiccup to end up for the next two months trying to recreate a light bulb of his own. His attempts never really worked, of course, as he really didn't have the proper tools or resources to make it happen, not to mention the technology was a good 500 years ahead of his time. On the other hand, some of Hiccup's ideas ended up really entertaining, and fit right in with his walking disaster image.

His most memorable attempt was when he tried putting a superheated piece of metal into a small glass container he had somehow gotten his hands on. Naturally, when hot metal touches cold glass, bad things happen, and both shattered, sending tiny pieces of glass and metal shards all over the forge. Gobber was not happy with the end result, and even after having Hiccup clean it up, they still found glass shards in their boots for another 2 weeks after that.

On another subject: like I mentioned earlier, dragons are well known to be able to withstand ridiculous temperature extremes thanks to a number of things, not the least of which their scales and ability to breathe fire, so to an extent, I inherited that ability too. The looks I got when I walked into school on a 10 degree day in nothing but a short sleeve were enough to revert to my usual clothing regime in mid winter (even if still a bit lighter than normal), but they were almost worth it. Luckily there were only a few people who knew the reason why, and I intended to keep it that way.

Nevertheless, I have never been fond of winter weather, and had always found myself to be happiest in the middle of summer: hot weather, everything alive and growing, more fun things to do of my interest, etc. So needless to say, I was ecstatic when spring finally rolled around, and the temperatures started warming up. On top of that, my 18th birthday came around the same time, and the epic birthday party I had did plenty to liven my spirits up after the cold weather. Even in Berk, there were signs of spring greenery, but as always when you're that far north, the end of their winter was still a little ways off.

At school, things had been quiet, or at least as quiet as you can get when in senior year of high school, and though I had managed to keep my secret under wraps with the help of Leighton and Cameron, there's always at least one person who finds out when you slip up, so my other good friend Josh managed to find his way into our secret friend group. However, as with anything this monumentally outlandish, it wouldn't be able to be kept under wraps forever, and it wouldn't be long before something finally happened to make me release my world-changing secret. Little did I know that once that happened, the avalanche of connected events that would come to pass would change the way both worlds work forever.