Summary: Years prior to the peace between Vikings and Dragons, little Hiccup gives a Snoggletog gift to someone who'll be very important to him when he grows up. The first gift of many to come.

I had this idea after seeing some pictures of the Art Book with young Hiccup and Astrid in winter clothes, so maybe they planned on featuring Astrid in one of the flashbacks…

Just so you know, yeah, I'm aware the title is not very creative, sorry… I'm not good with titles… lol

That Snoggletog Gift

"Mom, please!" Astrid said for what felt to be the hundredth time that week. "You promised I'd be able to get one when I turn eight!"

Both were stomping through the snow that covered the ground basically all the time in this time of the year.

"I know, Astrid, but you're still so young to have a blade… I know you're good at your training-"

"I'm the best my age!"

"Don't interrupt me." She said sternly. The girl lowered her head.

"Sorry, mom…"

Her tone switched to a more motherly one. "I know you are one of the best, but you know how dangerous it is? Start training with blades is not an easy task. You need to train a bit more before I give you a blade. You could get cut, hurt, or even lose a finger or a limb."

"I am ready, mom. I know I am…" She whined to make her point and then remembered seeing someone her age that recently started wearing a weapon hanging from his belt. "I mean, even Hiccup has one now! I saw him with a dagger."

"That's probably because he works in the forge, Sweetie." Hilda explained understanding. Astrid crossed her arms and pouted. "Speaking of him, why don't you go talk to him? You could ask him to see his dagger."

Astrid shook her head. No one wanted to get close to the boy…

"Why not? He's a good boy."

It was not only the fact that he was the smallest Viking his age; he was weird, clumsy and could 'help' dragons raiding… Even Fishlegs, his friend was starting to avoid him, especially after Hiccup distracted Sven who was about to throw an axe at a dragon last raid. Sven missed the target and the axe ended up falling onto ropes that was holding another dragon and so the reptile escaped; both dragons took off with a sheep and a yak. All because of Hiccup…

The boy was a mess…

"You know why, mom…" She sighed and then her eyes found the boy in question just a little ahead and just in ear range, his attention on them, maybe for a long time, or at least long enough for he looked down and turned to change his path, moving as far away as he could from the two. Astrid looked up at her mother, but Hilda was waving at someone, so she didn't even see the boy.

Astrid didn't like it that he heard it; she didn't want him to feel even worse than he was already probably feeling… Of course, that didn't mean she wanted to go talk to him, they were just too polar opposites to be friends.

Hiccup's new dagger shined under the sunlight as he moved it in front of him. It was the first weapon he did by himself, with Gobber's supervision and occasionally assistance. The boy's been in the forge since he could remember and he asked to do it alone as he felt it was about time for him to do something by himself.

He had observed Astrid training many times, when he could skip his work in the forge for a few minutes or when he tried to practice as well. He admired her skills. Astrid was right; she was ready for an upgrade on her combat training. Besides, if he not only had permission to have a dagger but also worked in a forge, surrounded by fire and molten steal all day – being the clumsy mess that he was – she could have a blade. She was Astrid, after all!

She had been training for so long… she deserved a blade. Yeah, her mother said 'no', but it could also have something to do with the financial rumor he had heart about the Hoffersons… and even if it weren't, her mother could still prevent Astrid from using it at training.

Therefore, he didn't feel as if his plan was a bad thing, so when he arrived at the forge, he couldn't stop fidgeting as he searched for the right way to ask for Gobber's help. He didn't need to wait long, for blacksmith knew the boy all too well to know he wanted something.

"Go on, Boy. Spill. What do you want?"

"Hm… Could you help me craft another dagger?"

Yes, of course Hiccup could try to do it by himself, but if he was being honest he knew he wasn't ready to handle molten steal alone… He wasn't that stupid. And he almost burned himself when he was crafting his dagger; he only didn't because Gobber was there to assist him.

"A new dagger?" He raised an eyebrow. "Does it have anything to do with Snoggletog coming around?"

"No…" The boy's voice faded and he looked away for a moment, but as soon as his eyes met Gobber's suspicious expression, he gulped. "Maybe…" The blacksmith's stare remained the same and Hiccup couldn't handle the pressure. "Ok, yeah…" He sighed. "It's a gift."

"I thought we'd give Stoick a new sword together, wouldn't we?"

"We sill are… This dagger is for someone else…"

Gobber's raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Hiccup… You can't buy friends by giving them stuff…"

"What? No!" He shook his head. "I don't want that. I just want to give someone a gift…" He looked down. "I don't even want to tell this person I'm the one who gave her the present…"

"Her?" Hiccup's cheeks instantly got as read as a Monstrous Nightmare. Gobber laughed. "Oh, I see, Boy… Don't worry. I'll help you."

He smiled, but bit his lower lip before he asked one last thing. "Promise not to tell anyone?"

"Alright, Lad… I promise."

Three days later, Snoggletog Eve finally arrived. Hiccup had built a small box to put in Astrid's present, the new dagger with a sheath. Now, he wrapped a single string around the box, putting a piece of paper between them.

With the package in hand, he left the empty forge and headed to Astrid's house, hiding the box in his fur coat, even though the streets were fairly empty. Almost every one started gathering at the Great Hall in the en of the afternoon for the feast. So on his way there, Hiccup quickly stopped by at her house and left without being seen.

Astrid, however, wanted to leave the Great Hall, she was still sad that her parents didn't give her what she wanted the most and now was bored because they were focused on talking to other family members and friends. She had already eaten, and since she was a little tired, Astrid decided to go back home earlier.

When she got close enough to the door, she nearly stumbled onto something on the snow. There was a little wooden box lying by the door. There were footprints no bigger than hers, so probably someone small left it a while ago.

Curious and even a little suspicious, the girl knelt down and grabbed the box. There was a piece of paper in the string-wrap around the box; it was simple, with only her name written on it.

She entered home to open it. She couldn't help but wonder what was that and who'd put it there… why wouldn't the person give it to her straight away?

In need of answers, she ran to her room, where she quickly undid the string wrapping and opened the box. Her jaw dropped when she saw the beautiful dagger inside. She picked it so carefully one could think it would break just to look at it, but it didn't, obviously.

Astrid put it on the table and lit up her candle so she could have a better look at it. The sheath was brown and simple, the only decoration was the drawing of a circle and inside it, there was a pattern to represent fire and inside of it, a flying bird.

She drew the weapon from its sheath. The dagger was neat and beautiful, with the handle as brown as the sheath. The iron blade shone under the candlelight and she saw engravings saying 'The West Wind'.

The gift took her breath away… but who could have given it to her?

Hiccup was helping Sven catch his chickens back. It might be a Snoggletog morning, but the chickens still wanted to give the old man some trouble… Hiccup was around when he saw Sven's struggle and decided to help him. Stoick has been off to handle some problems because sometimes, not even during Snoggletog a chief could have a free day…

He caught the last one and gave it to Sven; the task was more like playing than working for the boy. He laughed as the man thanked him, saying it used to be fun when he was young, too.

Hiccup smiled and turned around to leave, but met Astrid right in front of his path; he didn't even notice her getting close. He glanced at the box in her hand, but pretended he didn't.

"Why 'The West Wind'?"

"What? I don't know what you're talking about…" He looked away, trying to look as innocent as he could.

"Liar." She put a hand on her hips. "You work at the forge, so you know all the weapons that are made on this island." Hiccup mentally slapped himself. "Besides, you heard my conversation with mom. Now tell me why you chose this name. How can I explain that to people when they ask me?"

He shrugged, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

"The winds of the west are considered the most favorable out of the four, so I thought it could be like a good omen… And it sounded nice."

Astrid smiled moving the box in her hands.

"That was very thoughtful…" Then her expression became serious and the extended the box to him. "But mom said I couldn't accept it… She said I should go look for Gobber to give it back, but I knew you had something to do with it."

He didn't reach for it and shook his head.

"No. It's yours. If she thinks it was a problem, it wasn't. We used some extra scrap metal and it was good for practicing."

"What do you mean?"

"I crafted it. But Gobber helped me. He's letting me start crafting new weapons, but for now, I can only do daggers."

"I see… So if your mom wants to, she can talk to Gobber. But we don't know who ordered it, so we can't give it back…"

"You do! It was you."

"We won't say a word anyway. So keep it."

She then embraced the box, holding it to open. There was a gleam in her eyes, she was happy she could keep it, and although she didn't say it, he could see it.

"Thanks… And, by the way…" She opened it and grabbed the dagger, looking at the beautiful yet simple detail on it. "What does this picture mean?"

"It's a flying sparrow and fire."

"But why?"

"They're symbols of the Goddess Freya." He answered plainly. Astrid's cheeks got hotter… Did he just relate her to the Goddess of beauty? He noticed the redness and shrugged. "Your name means 'divine beauty', right? It seemed fitting…"

"I love it."

It was his turn to smile in a proud way, his cheeks slightly turning a redder shade, too. Astrid closed the box and put it beneath an arm. They remained in silence for a few moments, until she hit him on the arm all of a sudden.

"That's for overhearing… It was very rude!" She said and looked around, checking if there wasn't anyone near them.

"What? But… It's not a secret you wanted a weapon, you…" He tried to defend himself, but was suddenly interrupted when she quickly kissed his cheek. Astonished was an euphemism to what he was feeling then.

"That was for… the dagger…" A little embarrassed as well for her sudden outburst, she took a step back. Her voice came soft. "Happy Snoggletog."

She turned to walk away, but before she distanced herself from him, she waved goodbye. He slowly raised his hand to wave in reply, observing her go back home.

I hope you all liked it and please don't forget to review! :D

BTW, since Zephyr means The West Wind, I thought about adding a small scene where Zephyr is told about this story and can't believe she was named after a dagger, but I decided on only a funny drawing that I posted on my instagram, go check that out if you're interested.

Interesting Curiosity: I found out that in old European Tradition, they considered the West Wind the most favorable one. And in Greek Mythology, Zephyros was the personification of the west wind and he was an attendant of the Cupid and brought him Psyche in the myth Cupid and Psyche, and it's kinda nice the symbolisms of it in this fic and that Hiccup and Astrid's daughter's name is Zephyr, which is a variation of Zephyros. (Source: Wikipedia, which is fairly reliable for non-academic purposes like this fic).

About Freya's symbols, I found out that she is related to a few animals like a sparrow, there was a myth that she turned into a bird to search for her beloved that had been lost. And the fire, it came from Episode 8 of Riders of Berk "Portrait of a Hiccup as a Buff Man", which one of the riddles to find the treasure was about Freya and related her to fire. I thought it'd be a nice Easter Egg, lol.