The Dragon Boy - Part 15 - Snow Dragons
Frostcup fanfic

Authors note: sorry almost forgot about this. don't have time for anything else gotta go- enjoy!

Jack was wandering round the village. He'd decided not to go to the academy today, even with the Nadder coming. He wanted a breather, fresh air. A day where he didn't have to worry about giving himself away. The riders agreed, if anything, glad to have a break from the weirdness of yesterday. So, after a quick check up at Gobbers, and with the request that they tell him if the Nadder left half a fish behind- a sign she had accepted his peace offer- he'd stayed.

As he walked, Jack thought. What would he do today? Perhaps he'd go for a flight. He would welcome the freedom it brought.

He was heading towards the forest, where he'd be out of sight, when he overheard some kids talking.
"I don't want to make the head! You make the best ones." One voice, a boy, pleaded. Another, girls, voice answered.
"I'm busy with Raptorslash! Besides, I can't do Gronkles."
"Yes you can! I saw you, yesterday!" The boy countered. The girl scowled.
"Go and get someone else to do it!" The boy stomped his foot.
"No! I want you to do it!"... and so it went on. Apparently stubbornness was an inherent part of being a Viking.

Jack chuckled, and peeped round the corner of the hut he was standing by. The kids were standing in a snowy piece of land beside the huts, building dragons out of snow. The Nadder and Gronkle were the only ones close to being completed, but their builders were locked in a heated argument. Grinning, Jack looked at the headless snow Gronkle, measuring up it's size, and set about making it's head.

The finished product wasn't that bad actually, he thought he'd done pretty well, if he did say so himself. Holding it up, he walked over to the kids, still stubbornly locked in their argument. Jack whistled to get their attention. They spun round and looked at him, eyes wide, like they'd been caught doing something they shouldn't, staring up at the stranger.
"Will this do?" He asked, presenting the Gronkle head.

Normal kids wouldn't have got over their shock so quickly, and been all shy and whatever, but these were Viking kids, they were made of sturdy stuff.
"Wow, yeah!" The Gronkle kid yelled, almost collapsing as he took the giant head. Placing it it position with a big "umph".
"Ha ha!" He gloated, "I finished Groundshaker first!"
"Hey! No fair, you cheated!" The girl retorted. Suddenly, Jack was getting dragged towards the almost finished Nadder.
"Come on! Help me finish my Nadder, I'm calling her Raptorslash!" she announced, proudly, "But I don't know how to do the wings." She looked at him for ideas. Jack thought for a bit.
"How about we make two piles at each side, then attatch them to the body." He suggested.
"Yeah!" She agreed, excitably.

Soon enough, Raptorslash was finished; and then, no sooner was Groundshaker and Raptorslash built, than they were followed by Lavablaster, the Nightmare and Poise'n'Ivy the Zippleback- Jack had to praise the genius of that last name. One for each of the four kids. By then, they'd got the snow building bug, and were insisting they made Jack one. They followed his instruction, and, with his help, made a decent replication of the Sky Dragon. The kids even named it for him, Iceclaw- Ice for short.

As they were finishing, he noticed Freya, creator of Raptorslash, was missing. Leaving the kids to add the finishing details to the dragon, he went looking for her. Of the four kids there, Freya was the only girl, so she often got left out by the boys and went off by herself. He soon heard her voice, she was by her snow dragon, and hadn't seen him yet.

"Oh no! The evil dragons are coming after us! Faster, Raptorslash, faster! Come on, let's shake 'em!" She ran round in a complicated series of turns, miming aerial spins dives and climbs. "Yeah, we lost them!" She continued. "Ahhh, there's some in front of us! They've got us surrounded!" Jack grinned, and ran forwards, scooping up some snow as he went.
"-and here comes Iceclaw, to save the day!" He yelled, throwing the snow in three clumps, making sound effects to match. She was staring at him in horror of being found out, so he carried on. "Oh no, they're coming after us!" He called, running away from her. "Save us, Freya!" She grinned at him.
"Don't forget Raptorslash! Come on, Raptorslash, get 'em!" She took off after him, throwing blasts of snow at the imaginary dragons persuing Jack.

At this point, the other kids had noticed what they were doing, and with yells of "Go Lavablaster!", "Get 'em Groundshaker!" and "Come on Poise'n'Ivy!" they threw themselves wholeheartedly into the game.

Jack decided it was time to take things to a whole new level of fun.
"Look out!" He yelled, pointing towards the forest. "It's an entire army of them! RUN!" He bellowed.

The kids immediately grasped the idea, and ran, screaming, towards the village. Jack leading the charge into the cluster of huts.
"Let's split up!" One of the kids yelled, and they all went down different streets.

As Jack weaved through the houses, dodging any startled passing Vikings, he caught glimpses of the other kids, and, more than once, found himself running with one, before they split again. He laughed, he couldn't remember when he'd last had so much fun.

They all met up in the main square, where Jack saw a suitable-looking statue to stir up some drama. He ran towards, and crashed, into it.
"Ahhh! I've fallen off! Help!" The kids practically tripped over each other, trying to get to him first.
"Got you!" The triumphant kid yelled.
"Wait, what about Iceclaw!" Freya yelled. "Dont worry Jack, I'll get him." She yelled, heroically plunging into maze of houses. Jack smiled she was a sweet kid, Freya.

She returned with the imaginary lost dragon, and a surprise.
"Oh no, we've woke up a Sea Dragon! He's going to destroy the village!" She exclaimed, as she ran. Jack jumped back into the non-existent saddle on the invisible dragon.

"Operation Hiccup!" Freya yelled. Operation hiccup? Jack thought, what was that? The others obviously knew, as they started banging their hands against their helmets. Freya, seeing his confused look, shouted over.
"Jack, distract it!" He grinned, and ran to the head of the beast that wasn't actually there. He pulled faces, waved his arms, and generally made a fool of himself- drawing bouts of laughter from the children. Freya threw a snowball at it.
"Quick, it's up in the air, get out of it's way!" Everyone starting running round randomly. Jack still didn't have a clue what was going on, but joined in anyway.
"Now fire at it's wings!" War cries echoed around the square, as an onslaught of snow assaulted the beast.
"Dive!" One of the boys yelled. Instantly, everyone leant forwards into a dive so steep, some of their noses touched the floor. Jack was just thinking that they must be pretty high up, when another kid yelled
"Pull up!" and everyone shot upwards. "Look out for it's tail-" Freya shouted, before freezing and staring at one of the streets.

The rest of the kids did the same, then ran down a different side street.

Jack followed, puzzled. Until the six real life dragon riders came waltzing into the square. Jack turned to the kids, grinning, as he packed a handful of snow into a deadly projectile weapon. The other kids saw, and looked at him with wide eyes. He pointed to each one of them individually, and directed them to different points around the square. They scampered off.

Whilst they got into position, he stocked up on ammo. Soon, four heads popped up around the edge of the square, the riders were almost in the middle. One hand grasped his first round bullet, the other held up three fingers... two... one.

Screams of war sounded in the area once more, as the riders were attacked, mercilessly, from all sides. Snotlout landed face first into the snow, the twins ran into each other, and Fishlegs screamed like a little girl, whilst Hiccup and Astrid looked round, for the source of all this commotion.

When Jack ran out of ammo, he ran in, making some more on the run. The riders were in disorder, but soon got ahold of themselves, and retaliated.

Jack fired at all the riders, aiming at Snotlout especially- and anyone daring to target little Freya. Until, that was, he felt the need for a twist.

Turning away from the riders, he threw a snowball at one of the kids, receiving an indignant "Hey" in return. A few more got the snow treatment, before one of them shouted
"Get 'im!" ,and he knew he was in trouble.

Before long, all four of them were chasing him through a village they knew far better than he did.

It wasn't long before, in a slightly more open part of the village, a snowball finally hit it's target.

The kids let out a cheer, as he stumbled around clutching his throat, giving as dramatic a death a possible, before toppling back into the snow. The kids laughed.
"Let's get 'im!" the same one from earlier shouted.

Jack had just enough time to think "uh oh" before they tackled him. He tried to muffle the cry of pain that escaped him, but they still heard it.

They immediately dropped off him, looking horrified. His hand reached under his shirt, and pressed gently against one of the bandages.
"Wooooaaa!" One of the boys marvelled, "How did you get that?" He paused, unsure of how to answer, when Freya looked up at him.
"I'm sorry." She apologised, "I didn't mean to hurt you." He smiled, reassuringly.
"Hey, it's okay." he said, "Tell you what, how about I tell you a story?" Four heads nodded, happily, and settled down to listen.

"Well, it started the night before last..." He began.