Hiccup and Astrid

Memory of snow and creativity

"Hey,Astrid?" Ruffnut said to her friend while sitting atop of watch tower
"Hmm?"
"Do you remember when we were thirteen and you played with Hiccup in rhe snow?"
"Wha...how did you.."
Ruffnut snickered at the blond reaction.
"Well you see..." and started telling the story
...
"I am so bored." Ruffnut threw her head back in exaggeration so hard her helmet almost flew off. She lifted a hand just in time to settle in back down on her mass of thick blonde braids. She kicked out a foot covered in layers of skins sending a plume of snow ahead of her as she stomped through the woods, pulling her fur cloak tighter over her bony shoulders. The air entering her lungs was sharp as needles and turned visible on releasing a breath. She pursed her lips together to make the vapor into interesting shapes.
"I wish the dragons would come back already."
"It's not like there isn't a lot to do in winter. Wood isn't going to chop itself."
Ruff's face contorted into a look of dismayed disgust at her friend. Well friend was stretching the word a bit. Astrid was the only other girl in the village around her age and who shared her interests in fighting and weapons, the rest were off prattling about bread and tapestries and, ugh, boys. Of course Astrid wanted to put those fine fighting skills to practical use in saving the village from dragons. Boring! Ruffnut just liked to hurt things. Usually that was her brother, but in a pinch a dragon would do.
"Chopping wood? Seriously, you call that fun?"
"No, I call that a necessity. And the chore we were assigned, remember?"
There Astrid stood, hand on her hip with that look, that torturous look that said duty and honor and glory and boring!

Ruffnut dropped her axe and then fell backwards into the fluffy snow, then she slid her arms up and down while scissoring her legs and whipping her head back and forth.
"What are you doing?" Astrid asked with an exasperated tone of voice.
"Look," Ruffnut said with excitement as she leapt up and pointed down where she had disturbed the snow.
"It's a Timberjack! Let's make some more."
"Right," Astrid drawled. She adjusted her axe on her back and started walking. "Have fun with that. I'll just do all the chopping myself."
"Come on, Astrid!" Ruffnut yelled after the other girl's retreating back.
"Stop being such a stick-in-the-mud and make some with me!"
Astrid just kept walking until she disappeared among the thick of trees.
"Fine, be that way. Do you even know what fun is?!" She made a noise in the back of her throat and then muttered under her breath,
"Loser." Where was Tuffnut when she really needed to hit something?
She picked up the axe with a growl and whipped it around a few times. Like it wasn't bad enough being out in the snowy woods, now she had to be alone? The wet snow that had seeped into the spaces between her clothes began to melt leaving little cold wet trails on her body and she shivered involuntarily. Maybe chopping wood would at least keep her warm, she thought and morosely headed off in the direction Astrid had disappeared, thinking of all the ways to not apologize when she caught up with her.
The tracking wasn't hard as Astrid had left rather distinct footprints so Ruff took her time. The longer it took to get there the fewer logs she'd actually have to split. She started whistling a bawdy tune she'd heard , swinging her axe in time. So intent on the tune was she that she didn't notice the root of the big elm tree ahead and when her boot caught it she was sent flying face first into the snow.
Great, now her front was wet too, she groused to herself as she brushed the snow off. Her hands stopped in mid swipe, though, as the sounds of voices drifted to her and her eyebrows furrowed and she cocked an ear to catch the direction it was coming from. Shifting slightly to the left she was sure the voices were a little louder, which was coincidentally where Astrid's footprints veered off to so she tiptoed in that direction, completely forgetting her axe. After a few dozen paces and she was sure she recognized Astrid's voice, but who, or what, was she talking to?
She approached a large tree and pressed against it, slowly inching around its base to peer around to the other side. Ruffnut had to slap a hand across her mouth to prevent herself from laughing out loud. There in a small clearing was Astrid and she was talking with Hiccup, Chief Screw-up and Village Joke. He was speaking in his usual random manner while he was patting at a mound of snow. Astrid stood off to the side, both hands on her hips, which was like Odin himself passing Judgment, watching him.
"Sculpting snow? Why would anyone bother doing that? It's just going to melt."
Hiccup shrugged half-heartedly. "Because it's fun?"

"I'm not seeing the fun."

"Well," he responded and lifted a mittened hand to his head to unconsciously rake his fingers through his hair, but only managed to swipe a trail backwards and cause it to stick out at odd angles. "You make it look like different things. It's the making that matters, not how long it lasts."
"That's just silly," Astrid responded dismissively and turned. "I knew I shouldn't have even bother stopping. I have work to do."
"You could help," Hiccup said quickly and Ruffnut could easily see his pale cheeks flame up after. "I mean I'm having trouble keeping this part up while I add the next one. You know if-if you want to."
Ruffnut grinned wickedly as she anticipated the massive rejection Astrid was going to deliver. Hiccup's disappointment would be epic!
Astrid turned around and stared for a moment, no doubt finding just the right words to make Hiccup feel as small as a Terror. Then she opened her mouth and said, "Okay. But just for a few minutes. I have to get firewood back to the village and Ruff flaked out."

Ruffnut's face dropped in astonishment. She rubbed her ears thinking she must have just been hearing wrong, but there was Astrid walking back towards Hiccup and his silly snow mound.
"Well I could help you after we're done," he offered eagerly.
That only caused Astrid to snort, the closest thing she came to laughing.
"I don't know how much help you could be."
Hiccup lifted a shoulder and then grinned slyly.
"Let's see how much help you can be here first."

There it was, the challenge to Astrid's competence. It was like waving a red flag at a Nightmare. Ruffnut shook her head. Nice knowing you, Fishbone.
"Come on," Astrid said gruffly and placed her hands on the mound. "I don't have a lot of time to waste."
"Yeah, okay, here." Hiccup had leaned over and was gathering snow with his arms. Then he pressed it together firmly until he could lift the whole thing into the air with hardly any falling away. It was about twice the size of his head and he pivoted around in his awkward way and set on the original mound. "Hold it down, while I try mashing them together."

"Whatever," Astrid said wrapped her arms around it. "I don't need a running commentary."
Hiccup smoothed and scraped and dug around until the mound lost its round shape.
Ruffnut had no idea what he was trying to make.
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To be continued...
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