The Lost Boy V - Short stories

Thawfest

(set after the first chapter of Book 2)

Among all the traditions rythming vikings' like on Berk, there was one making quite the commotion. The Thawfest. It was a great festival occuring at summer equinoxe, consisting in a serie of trials for vikings to compete for glory and fame among the village.

There were a lot of trials, dispatched on several days, and several competitions going on at the same time, for competitors from different ages. Among the teenagers, the dragon riders, Snotlout had been the champion for years, and Hiccup always last. But this years, the chief's son had good hopes everything was going to change, because this years, a couple trials with dragons had been replaced and added.

If Hiccup had been the looser for all the physical trials and ended up last again, he had gained back score from the first trial with dragons. Snotlout, who had been making fun of Hiccup and belittling him as usual, had started to get worried for his title of undefeated champion.

By the end of the third day, making use of the arena being empty, Snotlout was staring at the scores with a displeasant weight on his chest. He had three points, Hiccup had two, and all the others had none. There was only one point left before Hiccup caught up with him, and it worried him. It had never happened before, Snotlout had always been the only one to score points. He had already lost two because of the talking fishbone, and said fishbone even dared to retort to his tauntings.

''Oh, Snotlout.''

Speaking of the devil.

The dark haired viking turned around to face his oppponent, clenching his fists and frowning his bushy eyebrows.

''Your dad looks really mad.'' Hiccup smirked.

''What do you know ? He always look like that !''

Silence surrounded them for a short moment, then the Jorgenson son found back some of his confidence, and some of his venom.

''Do you really think you have any shot at beating me ?''

''As a matter of fact, I do have a shot at beating you.''

''Do not !''

''Do too.''

''Do not !''

''Do too ! Think about it ! Toothless is a Night Fury, and I'm the best rider, how can I possibly loose ?''

Obviously, this over-confident reply was not what Snotlout wanted to hear. Tension incresed between the two and they were so focused on their arguing they didn't even noticed someone entering the arena, and staring at them with sorry.

'''Cause that's what you do !'' Snotlout barked. ''I win, you loose !''

''Check the scoreboard, Snotlout ! Not anymore !''

The short-tempered viking looked back to the wall, as if realising it was real, then grunted before leaving. He even bumped Joke's shoulder as he left.

The white haired boy stayed there for a little while, torn between astonishment and disappointment, then walked to his boyfriend who was smirking and seemed satisfied with himself.

''Mind telling what was that ?'' He hesitated, wary of Hiccup's reaction.

''Just rattling cages.'' Hiccup casually said, as if everything was normal.

He didn't say more and left too.

''Since when do you rattle cages ?'' Joke mumbled in concern.

And things only got worst with the competition, even more when Hiccup score another point and, for the first time in the Thawfest's history, there were seeding points. Exceptionally, one more day of trials was added so there would be a champion.