Sorry it's taken so long to update this! With a lot of setbacks with Growing Pains, I thought I'd do my best to keep something updated to satisfy you as you wait. This fic has been co-written by amyboomerang, who has also agreed to take up some of the slack in the next fic so EmmerzK has some time off to do other things. This fic, unlike some of the others, is actually fairly important to the future of the series, if only to make a few jokes in it a bit funnier. So without further ado, here is your next Fearless Fable!

The Dragon Fairy

Benen had always loved snow. The thick, crisp whiteness of the landscape outside his window made his heart feel freer than it had in a very long time. Snoggletog morning had come at last and he was excited to spend it with loved ones and new friends. Not wanting to waste a second of the holiday, he quickly rose from bed and put on his heavy jacket to brave the cold outside. As he exited the building, he was surprised to run headlong into a small, red haired blur rushing up to the door to greet him. The child hurled himself into his friend's arms, already chattering incoherently.

"Slow down, Fearless Finn!" Benen exclaimed with a cheerful smile, returning the rather impromptu hug.

"Sorry!" Finn chirped. "I'm just really excited because guess what, it's Snoggletog!"

"So I've heard." Said the elderly man through a laugh. "It's all anyone talked about for a month."

"Yes but this one is special!" Finn grasped his best friend's hand. "'Cause now you get presents too!" he tugged on Benen's arm. "Come on, Dad says you have to be there before we start opening them."

"Ahh so there is an ulterior motive." Benen winked at the boy. "Well, I guess there's no point standing around in the snow. Lead the way!"

The little boy skipped alongside his friend, trying to keep up with Benen's much longer strides. As they walked, he continued to ramble about the many traditions shared by the villagers during this special time of the year. Benen listened patiently, a smile on his face. He liked to see Finn happy, especially considering what he had gone through four months previously.

The Haddock house looked more like a decorated confection than anyone's dwelling. The Snoggletog lights were draped around its front, the coating of snow sparkling in the sun's rays. Benen was not given much time to enjoy the idyllic scene before a little girl threw open the door and, echoing her brother's footsteps a few minutes before, plunged into the man's arms.

"Happy Snoggletog, Anna." Benen patted the girl's head, which came up to his stomach.

"You're here! Finally!" she squealed. "Now we can get started!"

"Their devotion to you is very touching." Hiccup deadpanned from his position in the doorframe.

"Isn't it?" Benen smiled widely. "Well let's not keep them waiting any longer!"

"Hear hear!" Finn nearly dived into the house, his sister at his heels.

"Hello there, Benen." Astrid greeted him as he walked into the house. "Let me get your coat."

"Thank you but I can manage. I'm not wasting away just yet." Benen hung his coat on the stand next to the door.

He turned to the Snoggletog tree, which was nearly buried under the wrapped parcels beneath. Gobber was already sitting at the kitchen table with a large tankard filled with what Benen guessed was some very strong tea. He sat down next to the tree and watched Finn, who already had a present in his lap, fidget as he waited for everyone to sit down and watch him tear into it.

"All right, you two, I guess you've waited long enough." Hiccup said through a chuckle. "Go for it."

There were several loud ripping noises as the twins got started on what promised to be a very exciting morning.

And it was an exciting morning. Besides the new, properly fitted armor for Finn and four new books, filled with colorful pictures, for Adrianna, as well as the regular weapons collection from Gobber, updated wardrobe from Astrid, bizarre inventions from Hiccup, and hand carved sculptures from Benen, there was also one tooth mysteriously found in Finn's breakfast, which he claimed was not the reason for the gaping hole in his mouth, and a precursory look into Adrianna's hand gifted birthday present for Erick (a picture book of one of their adventures that she had written and illustrated with some help from Hiccup).

"It's really awesome. They're all going like BOOM and BANG!" Finn exclaimed very suddenly with no lead-in.

"They… what?" Benen asked in confusion.

"The eggs!" Finn explained as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. Benen eyed the eggs from breakfast suspiciously. "Not those eggs! The dragon eggs!"

"Oh." Benen said, his curiosity mounting. "That sounds exciting."

"It is!"

"But why would there be dragon eggs in all this snow?" Benen asked.

"Because-" Finn began but a louder voice cut him off.

"All right, you!" Astrid called. "It's time for your bath!"

"What?" Finn shouted indignantly. "No it's not! I bathed last week!"

"And that was one week too long ago." Hiccup said, making a face. "Listen to your mother."

"But mooooom-"

"You aren't allowed in the Great Hall if you haven't bathed for more than three days. It's the law." Hiccup said quite seriously.

"No it's not!"

"Well it will be when I get to the Great Hall for the party." Hiccup crossed his arms and stared down at his son. "You wouldn't want to miss the Snoggletog party for something so petty, would you?"

Finn scowled but did not respond. "Fine." He grumbled, following his mother to the washroom.

"Well now I have to go home and take care of some… things." Gobber sounded irritated made a face at Hiccup's now amused expression. "Meet you there." He left the house without another word

Adrianna turned to Benen. "They got the eggs!" she attempted to explain. "From the Dragon Fairy!"

"The what?"

"They have an easier time of it because they can fly." Adrianna said quite seriously. "Can I go to Erick's now?"

"Party is at four, Addie." Hiccup reminded her. "Don't go running off with him all day or I'll send out the entire Berkian fleet to look for you."

Adrianna nodded once and bolted out the door, running as fast as she could toward the village, her book clutched to her chest. Benen watched her run through the window for a moment before turning back to Hiccup.

"Should I ask questions or just accept the explanation I've been given?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Hiccup laughed. "Well…"

The Great Hall was packed. Ordinarily, Hiccup enjoyed these harvest festivals because of good food and fellowship. Unfortunately, this one just had to fall on a rainy day, which trapped every single Berkian inside with very little to except east, talk, and, in the case of the younger ones, ask lots of questions.

"And that's why ships need masts." Gobber was saying.

"Oh." Finn said, significantly wiser in his limited knowledge of ship building.

"Yes." Gobber said in a tone of finality that went completely over the three-year-old's head. "Now why don't you go play with those nice looking boys over there."

"But I was gonna ask why you is your hand a hook?"

"You know, Finn," Hiccup interrupted, thinking that dismemberment was not an appropriate topic for a child so young, "those boys really do look nice. Go play with them. You don't want to listen to all the boring adults talk."

Finn nodded and scampered away. Snotlout and Heather laughed as they watched him go, the latter shaking her head.

"You're so good at this." Heather said, eyeing Hiccup with an expression of admiration. "How do you do it?"

"Practice." Hiccup replied. "Lots and lots of practice. And getting to know your own children."

"Shouldn't be too hard then." Snotlout slipped an arm around his wife. "If Hiccup can do it, I mean."

"Thank you for the vote of confidence." Hiccup deadpanned. "And right in front of my daughter too. Your tact astounds me."

"Of course it does." Snotlout said, not missing a beat. "And Anna here doesn't mind learning new things about her dad."

Adrianna grinned and leaned on her father's side. Hiccup instinctively put an arm around her.

"I'm hungry." Heather stood up and patted her husband on the shoulder.

"Again?" Snotlout asked rather loudly.

Hiccup, Adrianna, and Gobber grinned amusedly when Heather cuffed her husband across the head. Snotlout made a face at her but she blew a kiss at him and turned toward the banquet, leaving Adrianna to be the lone female in a table full of men. Which was not altogether unusual for her.

"Daddy," Adrianna asked very innocently. "Why does Aunt Heather have a big tummy?"

"Well she's going to have a baby." Hiccup explained.

"Did she swallow it?" the girl's eyes widened in concern.

Snotlout let out a guffaw that he quickly turned into a hacking cough. Hiccup kept a straight face, though only barely.

"No, sweetie, babies can't breathe or eat by themselves so they have to grow inside their mommies so she can help them get ready to be born."

"Oh." Adrianna nodded. Her brow suddenly furrowed. "How do they get there."

Hiccup blanched. This was an even less appropriate topic for his innocent little princess. "Well… ummm…"

"Yes, Hiccup!" a booming voice from above the Hooligan heir's head made everyone jump. "How do they get in there."

"Well, Dad," Hiccup said meaningfully, "you would know, now wouldn't you?"

Stoick chuckled. "Well yes but it's been a while and you're always so good at explaining technical things. You know, how… all those bits and pieces fit together in your workshop."

"Yeah… like pipes and such." Snotlout added conspiratorially.

"You built us in your workshop?" Adrianna asked, her eyes wide with innocent admiration. "Do you build all the babies in your workshop? Did you build Aunt Heather's baby?"

"He'd better not have." Snotlout said with a teasing dark tone. "He knows perfectly well who built that baby."

"Poppy, did you build Daddy in a workshop?" Adrianna turned to her grandfather.

"No, from what I remember, I built your father out in a cove somewhere…"

"Okay that was creepy!" Hiccup said, hoping the cove he was thinking about wasn't the one to which his father was referring. Although that would explain a few things…

"I wouldn't be surprised if your parents built you and Finn in the workshop." Snotlout muttered in a carrying voice.

"We didn't build them anywhere!" Hiccup shouted over his friends' laughter, his face as red as his father's hair. "They were… gifts."

"Like Snoggletog gifts?" Adrianna's face brightened up at the idea of being given to her parents at such a happy occasion.

"Umm, yeah, that's the general idea." Hiccup scanned the Hall nervously for something to help him, his eyes finally landing on a portrait of a Nano-dragon. "You and Finn were gifts from… the Dragon Fairy!"

"Wow!" Adrianna grinned widely. "Really?"

"Yeah. That's exactly how it works." Gobber chortled.

"So why don't daddies carry the babies?"

"Well," Hiccup's mind scrambled for an explanation. "Because the daddies have to… climb the mountain."

"You had to climb a mountain?" Adrianna gasped. "Was it hard?"

"Oh yes. It's a long and treacherous journey. Full of obstacles and stuff. But daddies have to do it because they have to prove to the Dragon Fairy that they will be good daddies."

"So Uncle Snotlout's going to be a good daddy?"

"Well," Hiccup deadpanned as Heather returned with a plate overflowing with food. "Someone thought so."

"What happens when you get to the Dragon Fairy?"

"Well, the daddies then have to… dance." Hiccup continued.

"I've never seen you dance! Will you show me?"

"No." Hiccup said firmly. "It's a dance you only do on top of that mountain. AFTER you get married. And NEVER before. Very bad things happen when you do that particular dance before you're married."

"Hiccup… she doesn't know the dance yet." Heather said reassuringly. "But she might learn a few things if you keep going on about it."

"Is there something wrong with the dance, Aunt Heather."

"No but you can't do it until you're older." Snotlout told her.

"And married." Hiccup added.

"Okay. Then what do you do after the special dance?"

"Then the Dragon Fairy gives you a… an egg." Hiccup told her.

"An egg?"

"Yes. Which daddies then carry down the mountain and makes omelets for their wives."

"Oh so that's what they're supposed to do, Snotlout!" Heather said rather loudly.

"Well I'm not making you another one until you're done digesting this one." Snotlout insisted.

"Oh. So then does the baby grow?" Adrianna asked.

"Yes. After the mommy eats the magic dragon egg, the baby starts to grow." Hiccup finished his story, feeling rather relieved.

"And then?"

"And then what?"

"How does the baby come out?"

"Oh, well… look at the time, I think maybe you should take your nap!"

"Daddy!"

"Now now, Hiccup," Stoick patted his son on the shoulder, "you can't leave your daughter with incomplete information. You've gotten this far, you might as well tell her everything."

"I don't remember you telling me everything, dad."

"Yes, I believe that duty was delegated to me." Gobber muttered darkly.

"And I'm still scarred for life." Hiccup deadpanned.

"Daddyyyy…" another whine reminded him of his task.

"Well… the thing is… I don't know. I wasn't there."

"Mommy said were there."

"Oh… right… I forgot."

"You forgot?" Adrianna looked scandalized.

"No, no, my mind went blank for a moment. I was there. You see… you and Finn just kind of popped out!"

"Out of where?" Adrianna pulled her shirt up to look at her stomach. "Out of mommy's belly button?"

"Yes!" Hiccup exclaimed, glad that his daughter had supplied him with a good enough story. "It gets bigger and the baby comes out of it. There you go. That's where babies come from. Why don't you go play with your friends?"

Adrianna nodded, kissed her father on the cheek, and hopped off the bench. "So… why do boys have belly buttons?"

"Well… we'll talk about that some other time. Look! Why don't you go play with Taryn? She looks sad that she doesn't have anyone to play with."

Adrianna immediately scurried off to give Taryn some companionship and Hiccup breathed a sigh of relief.

"You did good, son." Stoick clapped Hiccup on the back, nearly making him do a faceplant into his food.

"Yes. Thank you for all your help." Hiccup grumbled at his laughing friends.

"Now you just have to figure out how you're going to tell her the real story when she's grown up." Heather grinned at the look of irritation on his face.

"I've already figured that out."

"How?"

"I'll let Astrid take care of it." Hiccup immediately took a large bite of chicken so that he wouldn't be able to answer any more questions.

"And that was that." Hiccup concluded through Benen's gales of laughter. "I don't think it's quite time to set her straight yet."

"I should say not." Benen agreed. "But don't wait too long or she might find out from someone else."

"As long as she's not going out and experiencing it, I can wait. I'm in no hurry." Hiccup shuddered at the thought.

"Well I can't fault you for lack of creativity." Benen said. "Although I wonder how she'll react when she finds out it was all a lie."

"Considering what the truth will entail, I think she'll be glad she didn't find out sooner." Hiccup shrugged. "It's not like I'll be telling her the sun never moves or something crazy like that."

"Very true." Benen agreed. "Finn, on the other hand, may experiment a bit so mind you explain things rather clearly."

"I'll leave that to you." Hiccup patted Benen's shoulder.

"Oh, is that why you brought me back to Berk?" Benen laughed. "I don't believe that's in my job description."

"I'll add it. Along with that law about bathing." Hiccup announced.

The door to the room suddenly burst open as Finn, half naked (fortunately his upper half), streaked through, looking wild with sopping wet hair.

"I don't want my hair cut!" he bellowed.

"It's coming down to your shoulders!" Astrid sprinted forward. "No girl is ever going to like you with that hair!"

"I don't wanna be liked by girls! That's gross!" Finn shrieked. "Girls are disgusting!"

"Well, maybe don't have to worry about Finn anytime soon." Hiccup said, laughing as he watched his wife grab his son and hold him down. "Let me give you a hand. Looks like you'll need one."

The Great Hall was bright and loud with uninhibited celebration. The taps were flowing, the children playing, and adults singing loudly. Adrianna and Erick were running in circles around the adults' table playing a strange mixture of charades and tag—catch, act, and run—while Finn was, quite animatedly, showing off the tensile strength of his new armor before an admiring crowd, and a playfully ferocious Terrible Terror. Olaf, Benen, Astrid, and Hiccup were in an intense discussion about the chances of Gobber defeating the Village Elder in an arm wrestling discussion using his left arm.

"I think they'd be rather evenly matched," Hiccup insisted.

"But all the Village Elder would have to do to win would be to twist off the attachment—" Olaf grabbed a hunk of bread off of the table to demonstrate, "and he'd have no leverage left to speak of."

"But her arms are as wide a Terrible Terror tooth!" Hiccup interjected.

"She's strong, though," Astrid added helpfully, "I once saw her wrestle a yak out of a storage shed."

"We were four!"

"And she was like a hundred!"

"Aye," Benen said, "and one should never doubt the power of a centenarian."

Hiccup opened his mouth reply that Benen could hardly know that while still in his spry sixties, but was cut off by Heather throwing the remainder of a tankard of ale on her husband.

"How DARE you speak that way to me!" She shrieked. "After all I do for you! After the children I have birthed, painfully, and raised, carefully, for you!"

The children's playing around the room came to a stop so that they could watch the unfolding theatrics. Even the adults seemed to quiet down somewhat so that they could spy, however indiscreetly, on their neighbors.

"Ah," Astrid muttered quietly into her husband's ear, "is it my imagination or might it be *that* time of the month."

"I just meant that you are a very healthy size for a woman who's painfully birthed my children. It was a compliment!"

"You think I'm hideous!" She threw a drumstick at him, the meat flying into a fire behind him. "You wish that you had never married me!"

"No, I—" Snotlout struggled for a reply that would not end in one of the pies being smashed onto his face. "I was just trying to say that you're a strong, resilient type—"

"You think I'm masculine?!" Heather seemed to be on the verge of tears.

"No! I—"

"Perhaps not," Hiccup whispered back, "perhaps it's another baby."

"Should we start a betting pool?" Astrid asked conspiratorially as Snotlout continued to struggle for an acceptable explanation to why he had described his wife as "more filled out since marriage" while comparing her to the tiny bride in a newlywed couple at the adjacent table.

"Nah," Lara chipped in helpfully, "trust me in this one. She's had enough babies for one lifetime."

"You said the same thing, dear," Olaf interjected, "after Aud was born." He jerked his head towards Erick, who was creeping towards Hiccup alongside a confused looking Adrianna.

"Daddy," Adrianna whispered, trying to stay quiet enough that only the immediate company could hear her. Hiccup turned to her just as Heather stormed out of the Great Hall in tears, her husband left defeated amongst the remnants of his dinner.

"What is it sweetheart?" The noise in the hall began to return to usual, after the obligatory nervous laughter as the audience all suddenly realized that the spying had been a communal, and not particularly secretive, act.

"Erick and I were wondering," Adrianna began innocently. Hiccup felt relief flood him. She was not about to ask about the scene that they had just witnessed. "What's 'that time' of a month?"

Hiccup's mouth dropped. He couldn't believe the tiny ears had overheard that conversation over the noise. Olaf choked on the cinder he had just taken to drink.

"What? Oh, um… The Harvest—"

"No, not that, Chief Hiccup, sir. The time that the women in town talk about it. They always say that it's 'that time' or 'not that time' when they are talking about each other." Erick clarified helpfully.

"Children hear and see everything," Benen chuckled. Hiccup stared blankly ahead, desperately attempting to find a convenient way out. Suddenly it came to him.

"I don't really know, Addie," he said quickly, standing up from the table. "I mean, it's a woman's business, now isn't it? So, Astrid, Lara…" The other men at the table took the hint to quickly remove themselves from the situation. "Please, illuminate them. I have, uh, laws to go write."

"Laws?" Olaf whispered as they fled the table.

"About bathing," Benen replied quietly.

"And the duties of freed slaves on Berk," Hiccup added.

Astrid glowered after their retreating backs as the children turned their attention on the designated teachers of the evening. "I'll get you for this later, Hiccup!" She shouted after him.

"I'm sure you will," he shouted back, "but I think I'm gonna write a law about that as well!"

"Half of the Council is female! We will overturn your laws!"

"Yea," Hiccup turned to face his wife from the door leading out of the Great Hall, "but by the time you do that, you'll probably have forgotten what you want revenge for."

"I'll remind him Mommy!" Adrianna chirped helpfully. Astrid smiled at her, hoping she had managed to forget her question amidst the men's scramble to escape.

Her hopes were unfounded. As she reached for another swig of her yak's milk, Adrianna took the lull in the conversation as an opportunity to restate her question.

"So… what is 'that time' of the month?"

Astrid spat the milk across the table as she began coughing heavily. Yes, Hiccup was definitely going to pay for this.

"Well, sweetie," she said, wiping her mouth and turning to the two children at her elbow, "as a girl gets older…"

After this, both Adrianna and Erick learned never to ask their mothers questions about biology, or anything related to women. Ever.

Hope you enjoyed this one! Believe it or not, this one-shot was actually set up in Little Miracles but we never got around to writing it until now. I hope you like amyboomerang's writing because she will be coming onto the Growing Up Haddock project as a sort of tertiary writer and creative consultant. Hopefully this will speed up the chapters.

Don't forget to review!

~KateMarie999