I. LOVE. THIS. CHAPTER. MORE. THAN. ALL. OF. THE. REST. AAAAH THIS CHAPTER IS SO...OH, I WON'T TELL YOU! JUST READ IT AND YOU WILL FIND OUT! :D This is my SECOND update today, and this story's done after this chapter! :D Shout-outs, as promised:
Silver Electricity: YAY COFFFEEEE THAAANKK YOOOOUUUUU! :D
midnightsky0612: Yay happy Snoggletog! :D
silverwolvesarecool: Thanks! I'm glad you like it, Sil! :D
Edlover23: Yes, I'm so glad Valka had a talk with him. :D
Now, I will see you awesome guys soon! I have another Christmas fanfic I want to start posting sometime, so...TWO DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS WHAT IN THE WORLD!? I can't believe it! Time has flown! Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year! :D
The next day, Hiccup was walking through the plaza. The snow had deepened in the night, and was now up to his calf. He looked to the side and saw Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut and Tuffnut rolling up balls of snow.
"Hiccup!" Astrid called to him. "Come on! Get over here!"
"Why?" said Hiccup, running over.
"We're building a snowman!" said Astrid. "I voted we wait for you."
"I voted we start without you," said Snotlout.
Fishlegs glared at the boy for just a second. "We got a start, but we wanted you to do it with us!" he said to Hiccup.
"Pleeeease?" Ruffnut begged.
"Yeah, where's your sense of fun?" said Snotlout.
"I never said I wouldn't," said Hiccup. "It sounds brilliant."
After they built a very, very, very, very, VERY weird looking snowman (courtesy of Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Snotlout, who thought it would look better if they made seven eyes, carrots for ears, and just pretty much mixed everything else up), Hiccup was about to leave to go do his chiefing duties.
Snotlout grinned as he walked away, scooped some snow off the ground, and formed it into the perfect ball.
"Watch this," he whispered to Tuffnut, and hurled the snowball straight at Hiccup. It smacked him in the shoulder, and he whipped around. The others giggled, trying (and failing) to contain it.
"Okay, who threw that snowball?" said Hiccup.
"He did!" said Snotlout, pointing to Tuffnut.
"Alright," said Hiccup, a somewhat evil smile flashing on his face.
"Whut?" said Tuffnut, before a snowball smacked into his face, thrown by Hiccup. "Hey, no fair!" said Tuffnut. "I don't have any ammunition!"
"It's on the ground in front of you, weirdo!" said Ruffnut. "This is war!"
"Astrid's on my team!" said Snotlout.
"No I'm not!" said Astrid, throwing a snowball at Snotlout's face.
Hiccup threw one at Snotlout, hitting its mark. Snotlout threw one back at his cousin, hitting Hiccup's hands when he held them up for protection.
The snowballs started flying back and forth like crazy. It was so crazy, it was almost unbelievable. Then, Hiccup threw one at Ruffnut, but she ducked. It sailed over her head, and hit Valka, who was just dismounting Cloudjumper.
"Oh man..." said Snotlout. "Guess who won't show up tomorrow?" He elbowed his cousin.
"Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third," said Valka.
"Oooh, she said the full name," said Tuffnut. "You're dead."
"Wellp, nothin' to see here," said Snotlout, taking one step away from Hiccup.
"Mom, I am so sorry," said Hiccup. "I didn't mean to-" Before he finished his thought, a snowball slammed into his face, thrown by...Valka? Valka laughed as Hiccup spat snow out of his mouth. Hiccup smirked and threw one back at her.
"This is war!" said Ruffnut. "Again! Every man for himself!"
The snowballs continued flying like mad, this time, with Valka joining in.
"Okay, time out the whole game!" said Hiccup, making a T with his hands. "We are going to make teams. Fishlegs and Astrid, you two are team Fishstrid. Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, you three make up team Snotnuts. Mom, me and you are team Haddock."
"Fun," said Valka.
"But shouldn't we technically have an even number of players on each team?" said Astrid. "I mean...Snotnuts is made up of three players. We need one more."
"Chief Haddock!" called a voice. Turning around, they saw Eret running towards them.
"Guess who's the 'one more'?" said Hiccup fiendishly. Eret stopped in front of them.
"What...is going on?" said Eret.
"Eret, you have been recruited in our snowball fight!" said Hiccup. "If you want to, that is."
"Sure," said Eret. "I can't remember the last time I participated in a snowball fight."
"Yay!" said Ruffnut, clapping her hands together. "He can be on my team! Team Ernut!"
"On second thought..." said Eret.
"Come on, Eret!" said Snotlout. "We need another player!"
"Well...okay, I guess so," said Eret.
"Okay, Snotnuts...or, now it's Snotnut, since I guess Eret will be with Ruffnut," said Hiccup. "So the final teams are: Fishstrid, Snotnut, Ernut, and Haddock."
"Great!" said Astrid. "So, each team gets fifteen minutes to build their fortress. No firing until each team is ready, or the team that does so will have to stand still while I dump a bucket of watered down snow over their heads!"
They set to work building the forts in the middle of the plaza, ignoring all the villagers that passed and stared. Some of them stopped to watch, while others left to do their work while laughing and shaking their heads.
Fifteen minutes later, the teams were ready. Each fort was built about five feet away from each other, the four forts forming the four corners of an invisible square. The dragons watched from the sidelines, not wanting to get involved.
"We already?" said Hiccup.
"Ready as we'll ever be!" said Snotlout. "This is awesome!"
"Death or glory then!" said Hiccup. "GO!" The snowballs started flying in a rapid session. They were more like deathballs than snowballs; at one point, Snotlout grabbed a chunk of ice and hurled it at Hiccup, and Astrid picked up part of their "snowman" and dropped it on Fishlegs' head.
Hiccup created the perfect snowball, and then threw it at Fishlegs. It slammed into his back, and Hiccup laughed.
"Bingo!" he shouted. Then, he was pelted with snowballs from Astrid, Fishlegs, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Eret, and Snotlout. Hiccup and Valka ducked, putting their hands behind their head, hiding in the safety of their fort, listening as the other teams shouted for them to stop hiding.
"You know what, Hiccup?" said Valka.
"What?" said Hiccup.
"I love snowball fights," said Valka.
And then they started up again, even more crazily than before. Eventually, it got to the point where no one cared about their forts anymore, and decided that they would make good snowballs. So, they began lifting their forts off the ground, running over to someone, and bashing into them. And then it became like snow pillow fights, only the snow shattered upon impact, and they were only good for one use.
And not to mention the fact that the snow was nearly a foot deep.
Astrid threw a snowball straight at Hiccup. He turned around at the wrong moment, so it slammed into his face. He shook snow out of his hair and frowned in her direction.
"Aww, come on, Astrid!" said Hiccup. "Whose side are you on?"
"Mine," said Astrid.
"I feel like everyone's ganging up on me!" said Hiccup. He grabbed some snow off the ground, squeezed all the water out of it, so it was like a ball of ice, and then threw it at Snotlout. Snotlout winced and glared daggers at his cousin. Then, he threw an "iceball" of his own.
Eret felt bad throwing snowballs at his chief, but Hiccup was throwing snowballs at him, so maybe it was just as well. They continued for hours upon hours, throwing snowball after snowball, until eventually, they tired themselves out.
"That was the most fun I've had in years," said Eret.
"I know, right?" said Snotlout. "I especially liked it when that one snowball I threw hit Hiccup in the face."
"Boy, do I enjoy you're company," said Hiccup.
Astrid laughed. "It was just a snowball fight," she said. "No hard feelings, right?"
"Yeah," said Hiccup. "That was the best snowball fight I've ever taken part in."
"I can't remember the last snowball fight I was in," said Valka. "It's been around twenty years actually, Hiccup."
"That's a shame," said Hiccup.
"Yeah, cause we all love snowball fighting to the death," said Ruffnut.
"I suppose I should be going," said Eret. "Goodbye, you all."
"Goodbye, Eret!" the others called to him in unison as he took off on Skullcrusher.
"So, do you all want to go inside now, maybe make some hot cocoa?" said Valka.
"As long as I cook it," said Astrid.
"Actually," said Hiccup, "how about I make it." No one really trusted Astrid's cooking, and Valka wasn't really much better (although no one would say it in front of either of them).
"Sure," said Astrid. "As long as you don't burn it like you did the Yaknog last year."
"I won't," said Hiccup. "And I burnt the Yaknog on purpose."
"It tasted better burnt," Snotlout whispered to Valka. He shuddered. "No, seriously, it did."
"So, let's head up," said Hiccup.
It may have been simple; a snowball fight. But it was the most fun any of them had had since before the battle with Drago. Instead of dwelling on the loss of his father, Hiccup remembered all the good times he had spent with him. And maybe, because of that reason, Snoggletog had been that much brighter.
Happy Snoggletog.
Merry Christmas.
THE END