Tuff Love (A How To Train Your Dragon Fanfiction | Astrid x Tuffnut)

"Sorry I'm late."

During Hiccup's speech about the wonderful, magical, and joyous holiday of Snoggletog, Hiccup balanced a ceremonial, tiny baby lamb to his chest who had long, spindly, pinkish legs of white fur that both spilled out Hiccup's arms and ended in small hooves. Below the baby's fine, velvet, furry head with black doe eyes, it wore a collar of wild leaves from the forest meant for special occasions. It also had blood-red, spherical beans from the woods that were threaded around the attachment of two twin bells made of tin.

Hiccup chuckled at the little lamb in front of his council that consisted of his eldress, Gothi, his father Stoick, his mentor Gobber, and a panel of his tribe advisers who had all arrived handsomely for the last morning of the winter months with decorative apparel, stately jewelry, and rings, and with helmets that had been oiled and cleaned until the silver reflected under the scattered rays of the Sun which had been hidden from the many clouds that sent flaky snowfall on the village. The snow was noticeable on Hiccup's furry cape with dark-brown and inch-long fur from a bear, the kind of coverage that only chiefs wore because the fur was very rare to find. After all, bears hardly roamed far into Berk's hillsides from other lands. The snowfall made it look like his cloak had been tussled in flour by the white flakes' appearance on the item.

Hiccup talked steadily to the audience of his tribe about the ancient meaning of Snoggletog. He elaborated that the holiday was more than a time to give one another gifts and devour fudge treats from the favorite shop of sweets in the town. It was more than the festive or story-telling carvings of wood, metal, and whalebone in geometric shapes or in models of mythical creatures and gods that ruled the holiday, which had all been tacked for display throughout the village to welcome Snoggletog through the expressions of the tribe artisans. It was also much more than the ribbons and decorations of red, gold, white, and green that had been draped just in time for the holiday around mostly everything in the village, even in the elaborately braided hair of some women and men.

For numerous generations on the island, Snoggletog had been celebrated by spending quality time with friends and family and remembering the importance of kindness and thanksgiving that too often went ignored and forgotten by the monotony of daily life for the villagers that consisted of sowing crops in time for reaping in the proper seasons, or raising healthy livestock to support their farms and leave an inheritance for their loved ones. Among the youth, fairer virtues that Snoggletog represented could have been forsaken by honing fighting skills to be prepared for any siege that could befall the people, and during their time of learning the writings and culture and history of the village to be faithful stewards and educated members of the Hooligan Tribe.

While Hiccups speech, simply delivered yet inspiring to hear for its humanitarian themes, drew to a close, the lamb in his grasp became increasingly restless. It bayed once more in Hiccup's hold and squinted its eyes as it did. A wave of laughter rippled through Hiccup's council and his listeners, who were all clad in festive dresses and outfits under their nicest over-clothes that were only brought out for memorable days. At last, in front of many giddy and anticipating faces of the crowd among impatient or bored expressions by the tribe's children, Hiccup marked the beginning of Snoggletog Fest by lowering the trembling lamb in his harms to the frigid ground by the water well in the center of Berk's main square.

The lamb scampered forward instantly when the human who had held it lightened its grip on her stomach. Its bells against its throat jingled busily as it bolted through the houses and market fronts with shrill clops of its barely-developed hooves while the gathered tribe cheered. The animal symbolically spread the spirit of Snoggletog through every street-corner in Berk as it ran. Sooner or later, the lamb would be intercepted by a herder who would kindly remove the red sprouts and leaves from around its neck and release the baby sheep back into the flock that it rightfully had been lent from for the opening ceremony.