Hi guys! So, I finally watched Gift of the Night Fury again. (It only took a few years to find it.) I figured the only way to tell this story was from Hiccup's point of view first person. It'll be a bit different from how I normally write, but hopefully it'll be just as good. So, without any further ados, here the Race to the Edge Snoggletog special. :) Enjoy!

The winter holidays are always a crazy time of year. Families are decorating, shopping for gifts, and baking all sorts of things that are bound to add a few excess pounds in one place or another. Our holiday is no exception. We call it Snoggletog. Why choose such a stupid name, you ask? Well, honestly, it is a mystery that will remain uncovered by man, but considering that my name is Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III -yes, there have been others- and my friends' names are Fishlegs and Snotlout, that would suggest that we Vikings are severely lacking the naming department. Every Snoggletog was memorable, some more than others. There was one that will be forever engraved in my mind, for reasons both good and bad.

I was eighteen to be turning nineteen in just a few months(but that's another story). It had been a few weeks since the Shellfire. Everything started out as a perfectly normal, beautiful winter day on Dragon's Edge. But then I've found that the crazy days always start out normal, and then the crazy sneaks up on you and then ambushes you like a Thorston twin. Boy, if I knew what craziness awaited me that day, I'd have never gotten out of bed that morning.

But of course, I did.

With excitement, I threw back the heavy covers and jumped out of bed. Rushing across the room, I pulled on my flight suit and headed to Toothless.

"Psst!" I whispered, poking him. "Hey, bud!"

Toothless whined groggily, and hid his face with his tail. Go back to bed, you crazy nut.

But I didn't take no for an answer. "Come on, bud, no sleeping in. You usually get up in the morning. Why're you-"

Toothless responded with a low growl. I'm tired. No patrols today.

"We're not going on a patrol. It's a morning flight before we secure the Edge and leave for Berk-"

Toothless jumped up and bolted towards me. Well, why didn't you say so?

"You didn't really give me the chance to- agh!" I exclaimed as he slobbered me. "Agh! Toothless, it got in my mouth! Oh, man, what did you eat last night?"

Toothless laughed crooningly and promptly darted down the stairs. I followed, wiping the slobber off with the back of my hand. Excitedly, I flung open the door and breathed in the crisp, winter air. Turning my eyes left and right, I saw the beautiful land of Dragon's Edge enveloped in an immaculate, white blanket of snow. There was always something so wondrous about snow to me. The fact that such delicate, little things like snowflakes were able to gather and collect on the ground to completely cover and almost remake the world into something so pure and dazzling was always amazing to me.

Then, coming out of my daze, I climbed onto Toothless and grasped tightly onto the handles of the saddle. "You ready, bud?"

Toothless roared affirmatively and took off at full Night Fury speed. The wind rushed past us as we zipped up to the clouds. When we reached the sky, we leveled off and zoomed off towards the water. If there was something I never got sick of, it was flying. It was amazing every time. I used to dream as a boy of flying. Now that I could ride on the back of a dragon as magnificent as Toothless was, I loved every minute of it. It felt so freeing. You were higher than any man had ever been. You weren't tied down to anything, and you could go anywhere you wanted at lightning speed. You could actually touch the sky.

Divebombing, Toothless zoomed down to the water and glided over the surface of it. Looking down, I saw my watery reflection. Reaching out my hand, I let it trail across the aqueous film. Then, with a quick spin, Toothless darted back up to the clouds.

With a whoop, I threw my arms out. "Yeah, baby!"

Toothless roared joyfully.

Then, when we leveled off with the clouds, I looked down at Toothless. "Alright. What do you say we try the flight suit again?"

Toothless growled surprisedly. What? That's never been a good idea. You crashed last time!

"Toothless, it'll be fine," I reassured him, unhooking the safety rope that connected to the saddle. "Okay. Here we go!"

I jumped off his back and began diving down towards the sea below, Toothless following. Upside down, we circled around each other, screaming with delight. Then, hooking my hands into the attachments, I held out my arms, and the wind pushed me up. We glided in the sky.

"Yes! Excellent!" I cried. I looked over my shoulder. "What do you think, bud?"

Toothless growled approvingly.

I could hardly believe it; I was flying. The flight suit was working. then, from behind me, came a plasma blast. It exploded in front of me.

"Whoa!" Leaning up, I barely dodged it.

Toothless laughed mischievously.

I squinted at him. "You naughty reptile."

Toothless then stopped laughing and screeched warningly. Turning my gaze ahead, I saw it. I was about to hit the mountain. There was no steering around it.

"Oh, great. Toothless!"

The next thing I remember was Toothless wrapping his wings around me and then us tumbling. . .somewhere. I assumed it was down a steep, steep hill since it took a while before we came to a stop. After Toothless opened his wings, I only took one step before I fell face first into the snow from dizziness. Its freezing touch nipped at my face. Exhaustedly, I rolled onto my back and laughed softly.

"Oh, man," I panted. "That was. . .that was crazy."

"You always knew how to make an entrance," came a familiar voice.

Pushing myself up, I turned my head. Across the frozen stream, leaning against a tree was Astrid.

"Hi, Astrid," I said breathlessly. "What are you doing out here?"

"I could ask the same question," she replied with a small laugh. "You testing your flight suit again?"

"Yeah." I tucked the wings back behind me. "I'm still working on steering. One of these days I'll get it right."

Toothless scoffed. Yeah, if we don't die from crash-landing.

"Try to contain your optimism, will you, bud?"

"Come on over here," Astrid called. "I have a surprise for you."

"Surprise?" I repeated, my curiosity piqued. "What is it?"

Astrid chuckled, shaking her head. "That's why it's a surprise. Come on."

Toothless walked across the ice and met Stormfly on the other side. Gingerly, I tapped my right foot against the ice.

"It's frozen solid," Astrid reassured and took a few steps onto the stream towards me. "Come on."

Carefully, I took a few steps on the slippery terrain. If anyone ever wondered why I no longer ice skate, what happened next explained it all. My prosthetic slipped on the ice, causing me to fall backwards. As I was falling, I felt someone's arms catch me around the waist. Looking up, I saw Astrid smiling at me.

"Thanks for that," I murmured awkwardly.

"Why'd you slip?" she asked.

I looked sideways at her. "What kind of question is that? I did it on purpose. I needed some excuse for you to hug me."

"Alright, smart aleck," Astrid chuckled.

"I-I'm just saying," I laughed. "Don't ask stupid questions-"

"Stop talking." Then, she planted an ardent kiss on my lips. "Now, come on, will you?"

I watched her walk off the ice and rush up the snowy hill with a smile frozen on my face. We had been dating for only a few weeks, so things were still a little new. I was getting used to it, but I never felt more happy. I was dating the girl I had loved since I was five. I think I'd be wrong if I said that happened all the time.

Astrid was amazing. Everything about her was perfect. Her face, her laugh, and just her in general. I to this day do not completely understand how being alone with her made me feel indescribably flustered, but after gazing into her spellbinding eyes, I somehow calmed.

Contently, I sighed. "Oh, I'm in love."

Toothless smirked. Well, we all knew that.

I gave him a playful nudge. "Stop that. Come on, let's go."

I clambered up the hill quickly. When I reached the top, the next thing I knew something white and cold hit me in the face and laughter was sounding.

"Astrid!" I cried, wiping the snow from my eyes. "This was the surprise?"

"Yeah!" Ruffnut exclaimed. "Surprise!"

"Nothing starts out a day like a snowball fight!" Tuffnut chuckled impishly.

"Come on, join in!" Astrid insisted, her eyes sparkling.

Gathering a fistful of snow, I balled it up in my hand. "Alright. Snotlout, think fast!"

"What? Gah!" he shouted as the snowball smacked him in the face. "Oh, you!"

He scooped up snow and pelted it near me, but luckily, I dodged it, probably because Snotlout is just a terrible shot. However, he did hit Fishlegs who was behind me. Fishlegs tried to get him back, but ended up hitting Astrid in the stomach.

"Oh, no, you did not!"

In a matter of minutes, we were all running around, dodging flying snowballs whooshing in the air. It was an all-out snowball fight. Every man and woman for themself. Alliances were quickly broken as the other person was often used as a human shield. Those who were smart enough hid behind tree trunks for cover.

"Hey, Haddock!" came Tuffnut's voice from behind me.

Looking over my shoulder, I saw the twins on Barf and Belch who were holding giant snowballs on their mouths.

Ruffnut and Tuffnut snickered deviously.

"Oh, no," I muttered.

Barf and Belch released the boulder of snow which came crashing down on me, knocking me down.

"Ohh! That's-that's cheating!" I cried, trying to get up, but to no avail since I was buried underneath a thick sheet of powder. "You can't use your dragons!"

"No one said we couldn't," Ruffnut returned, leaning over me. "Hey, you're really stuck, aren't you?"

With a scowl, I replied, "No, I'm just pretending. Of course, I'm stuck."

"Hey, Ruff," Tuffnut snickered, looking at his sister. "You think what I'm thinking?"

"Downward snowman?" Ruffnut asked.

"Downward snowman."

With a headbutt, they crouched down and started smoothing the powder on top of me.

"Hey-hey! What are you doing? You're burying me!"

Tuffnut laughed. "Uh, yes, that's the point! This is much more fun than regular snowmen 'cause you get to bury a person."

"Come on, guys, just let me-"

"Ooh!" Snotlout chuckled. "Burying Hiccup in snow? Count me in!"

"Just keep it off my face! Ahh, that's c-cold!" I shivered.

"Relax, H," Tuffnut said, scooping up more snow. "Why would we put it on your face?"

Then, after a pause, he and Ruffnut muttered, "Why wouldn't we put it on his face?"

"G-guys, don't- oh, really, the neck? Fishlegs, Astrid, you too?" I groaned.

"I got the foot! I got the foot!" Ruffnut exclaimed.

"Ha, ha," I said sarcastically. "Yes, more leg jokes. Guys, seriously, just let me- Astrid, please, can you tell them to-"

"Shut it, Hiccup," Snotlout snapped. "You don't get to cry to your girlfriend."

Astrid bent down, laughing as she scooped up a handful of white powder. "Oh, come on, Hiccup, it's no big deal."

"That's because you're not the one in a snowy cocoon," I shot back. "Honestly, this might be worse than being trapped in Deathsong amber."

"Hey, does anyone have a stick?" Tuffnut asked. "I want to draw lines on him so it looks like he's got a six-pack. You'll have those abs that you wish you had, H."

I squinted at him unamusedly. "I'm quite fit, thank you, Tuffnut."

Then, Toothless let out a surprised growl and began burrowing me out of my white cocoon.

"Oh, thank goodness-" I began, sitting up.

But Toothless growled at me again.

"Hey, buddy, what's wrong?"

Toothless jerked his head up towards the sky.

"Okay, I don't know what you're trying to say, but-" I climbed onto his back.

"Aw, man! I was going to give you a second foot! Maybe a third!" Ruffnut whined.

Toothless and I took off quickly, as I was eager to not be a downward snowman again any time soon. Looking around, I wondered what it was that had startled Toothless. Then, looking straight ahead, on the horizon, I saw it. It looked like a swarm of various different types of dragons. What was this? A winter migration of some sort? Why would dragons be coming here? It could not be to lay eggs. They migrated to a warmer climate for that, and Dragon's Edge was definitely chilly this time of year. Taking out my spyglass, I looked through it. Then, I saw it. Dragon Riders, every single Dragon Rider that lived on Berk, coming this way.

"What the Thor?" I whispered under my breath. "Let's go meet them and see what's going on."

Remember how I said the craziness sneaks up on you? Well, this was it. And Toothless and I were flying right into it.