━━ chapter two
yaknog! come get your yaknog!

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━━There were no dances that night, or singing, or Snoggletog cheer. The Great Hall was filled with the despairing questions of where all their dragons had gone. The kids all went to bed without any pre-Snoggletog celebration, sniffling and crying in their beds. Valkyrie had to deal with Erik crying because his Terrible Terror was gone, and she gave him a big hug before he went to bed with their mother and the rest of her siblings. Asrifth stayed, wanting to hear the conversation. He was not in a good mood, already missing his Gronckle. Valkyrie already missed Zephyr, terribly.

As the adults all conversed around the large table, trying to understand what had happened, the teens all sat in the shadows behind them all, sharing their own misery together. Valkyrie had an arm around Asrifth's shoulders, giving them a rub as he stared gloomily at the floor.

"They're going to come back," Valkyrie tried to assure him. "I'm sure it's just only for a little while..." she wasn't sure, but she hated seeing her younger brothers upset. Her usual stoic posture faded away when that happened.

Asrifth just stepped away, rubbing at his nose and sniffling. "I think I'll just go to bed, skip the whole talk. See you in the morning, Val..." he lumbered away, head hung low and shoulders slumped. Valkyrie watched him leave, twidling her thumbs and wishing she could make everything better.

Something fell onto her hands, and she blinked to see it to be a petal from her flower crown. Her matching flower crown with Zephyr. She turned the blue petal around in her fingers and sniffled herself.

"Where'd they go?!" she heard her father demand.

"Snoggletog is ruined!" cried Mulch to Bucket.

"It's not ruined!" Stoick the Vast stepped up onto the large, round table. The Vikings all looked up at him, quiet. He demanded a presence━and a very strong one at that. Everyone listened to Stoick, and followed him, he had that effect. Valkyrie saw that effect in Hiccup; it was small, still growing, but it was there. "We're Vikings! We've been perfectly happy celebrating without dragons for generations! And there's no reason we can't do it again!"

Valkyrie continued to play around with the petal, and she felt Astrid place a comforting hand on her shoulder. Tuff gloomily set his chin on his arms that crossed over the back of the chair he sat on, his helmet falling lopsided. He made no effort to fix it. Even Snotlout was down in the dumps, and was showing it, which was a strange sight to see. They were all devastated over their dragons; each and every one of them. The only one who didn't seem to show it, was Fishlegs, who watched the exchange between cheif and village with an impatient shuffle of his feet. (And Hiccup, but he was devastated for them all).

"Now," went on Stoick, "we don't know where they've gone off to. But we have to have faith that they'll be back again soon. Am I right?"

There were a few mumbles of agreement. The loudest, however, was Gobber, who threw up a hand covered in decorations (much like the rest of his outfit; the horns of his helmet, his arms, his belt...) "You're right!" he announced. "We are Vikings! We are tough!" he saw the incredulous looks at his outfit, and Gobber winced sheepishly. "Most of the time..."

Snotlout scoffed, and with a nudge to Tuff, he led the rest of the teenagers out. Valkyrie's feet shuffled as she walked, leaving lasting footprints in the snow. The walk out in the cold was silent and sombre, filled with sighs and sniffles as the teens returned home. Until, finally, Tuffnut let out a weak, "Well, that was depressing..."

This sparked an outraged exclaim from Astrid, "I know!" she threw her hands up, frustrated. "I was looking forward to spending the holiday with Stormfly."

Valkyrie sighed and crossed her arms. Her brows furrowed as her mind travelled away, wishing Zephyr was here to wrap her up in his neck and nuzzle his horn against her cheek to make her smile. Her wallow in misery was interrupted by Fishlegs's whistling.

Immediately, her glum face turned into a harsh glare, looking past Astrid and Tuff to scowl at Fishlegs who walked with a skip in his step. She wasn't the only one. Tuffnut narrowed his gaze at the boy beside him, suspicious. "What are you so happy about? Don't you miss Meatlug?"

Fishlegs stopped in his path, his eyes widening. "Meatlug?" he let out, surprised. Realisation crossed his features, "O━Oh! Yeah!" Suddenly, Fishlegs wailed out a sad cry, wiping away at his dry cheeks as if there were tears. Valkyrie's frown deepened. "I miss him so much!" he croaked, and then, he was fine. "Well━goodnight!"

He scuttled off into the night; the best run Fishlegs could manage. The others stared after him, bewildered at his strange behaviour. (Well, stranger...) Valkyrie might've said something about it, but all of a sudden, like someone had hit her over the head with a mace, she was struck with an idea, and Fishlegs weird reaction was gone from her mind. She let out a high-pitch gasp that made the others jump.

Turning to face them all, the usual stone-faced Valkyrie was back to her Snoggletog Cheerful self to grin and throw her arms out. "Guys! I've got an idea!" On the balls of her feet, she brought her hands to her chest giddily to say, "What if we come up with a bunch of new holiday traditions! You know━to bury the sadness!"

Tuffnut and Ruffnut stared at her, almost in disgust. They shared a glance. "You're right," Tuff said to his sister. "I do like angry, moody Valkyrie better."

"Yeah," Ruff agreed. "This one's way scarier."

"Oh, shut up," she told them, her glare back and Hiccup was quick to step in.

"Actually━guys," he stood next to her, and Val's grin returned to realise that he was on her side. "Val might be on to something."

"Easy for you to say," grumbled Tuff. "Your dragon can't go anywhere without you━" he gestured to the Night Fury still standing at the icy cliff edge, gazing out into the distance after the rest of the dragons with a lonesome moan escaping his throat.

Ruffnut scoffed, following her brother who continued the trek back home. "Must be nice..."

Snotlout followed, leaving Valkyrie and Astrid with Hiccup. At the guilt suddenly plastered on his face, Val was more determined than ever to fix this Snoggletog. For her brothers, her friends, and for Hiccup. She will have her dance. She will have a good Snoggletog. And so, she linked arms with Astrid and dragged her away into the night.

"Come on," she said, shaking Astrid lightly. "Do you have any ideas? Anything that could be a new tradition?"

Astrid sighed sadly. "Val, it's great that you want to do this━I know how much Snoggletog means to you. But ... but the whole appeal of it this year was that it would be a celebration of peace, of new found friendship."

Valkyrie frowned, "But if we stay cheerful, and positive, we can keep the happiness going! My mother always tells me that people feed off other peoples emotions. If they're sad, they're sad. If they're happy, they're happy."

"I don't think that's how it works ..."

"Oh, come on," Valkyrie walked backwards, trying to pursuade her best friend. "Look━I'll show you." Determined to prove her wrong, Valkyrie's competitive nature came into play and she linked arms again with her. She started to skip in a circle, and Astrid frowned.

"What're you doing?" she tried to pull away, but Valkyrie wouldn't let her, continuing to dance.

"Come on!" she laughed and swapped arms, going the other way. "Feel the happiness, you know you want to."

Astrid let her fling her around under the lights of that hung over them from the village houses, scoffing in disbelief at her actions. "I'm going to agree with Ruffnut, you are scary when you're all cheerful like this."

"I'll start singing if you don't be happy with me."

This caused for her eyes to widen. "Wait, what?"

Valkyrie swapped arms again, and skipped faster, dragging Astrid along. With a deep breath, she opened her mouth and began, "I'll swim and sail on savage seas━"

Realising what she was doing, Astrid threw her head up in annoyance, "Val, stop it━"

"━with ne'er fear of drowning━"

"━this is a betrothal song━!"

"━And gladly ride the waves of life━"

"━Stop, you're being embarrassing━"

"━I'll stop if you laugh━if you would marry me━"

Astrid couldn't keep it in any longer, she let out a burst of laughter and pulled Valkyrie to a stop. The two best friends giggled in the night, with Astrid shaking her head at Val's antics. Victorious, Val held her chin up and said, "You believe me now?"

Her best friend rolled her eyes. She punched her in the shoulder, and Valkyrie laughed again. "Whatever, fine. You're right. But if you seriously think we're all singing a betrothal song to the entire village━"

"No, of course, not!" Valkyrie said, and ideas began to form in her head. "I'll show you what I have in mind tomorrow━Happy Snoggletog!" she called as she continued skipping her way home.

Astrid watched her, still shaking her head in disbelief. Snoggletog Cheerful Valkyrie was certainly something else.

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━━The despair that had befallen the village of Berk the night before was even worse in the morning. Children were out in streets, making their reptilian friends out of snow, trees, fruit and old flags for wings. But Valkyrie was here to bring back the cheer. She walked through the morning, snow-covered streets with a great big smile on her face, and a shield full of Snoggletog cheeriness just waiting to be given.

And sure, her family might have hated it, and her brothers may have spat it out, and Erik may have vomited at the smell, but they're just being party-poopers. Everyone else was surely going to love her homemade━

"Yaknog! Get your Yaknog!" she called out to the people of Berk. The kids making their snow dragons frowned at her in passing, their noses scrunching up at the stench of her drink. "Come on! Get a frothy, delicious cup of cheer!"

She saw her friends walking down the street, ignorant to the cheeriness she was about to bring to them. With a happy grin, she huddled her way over as quick as she could, careful not to spill the Yaknog she had made early that morning. Hearing her, the twins, Snotlout and Astrid all glanced back. Seeing the look on her face, Astrid shot a quick prayer up to the Gods for what they were about to get into.

"Hey, you guys!" she jumped into step with them, heaving the shield higher up against her chest. They stopped, turning to face her. "Try this tasty new beverage I made━all by myself━for the holidays!"

Tuffnut leaned in closer curiously, before he reared away, letting out an, "Eurgh! What's that smell?" he turned to his sister, "Is that you━?" he shoved her away from him.

"No," Valkyrie rolled her eyes. "It's Yaknog!" she held it out to them, and the twins and Astrid all stepped back, disgusted. Completely oblivious, Valkyrie poured them a mug, and Tuff turned up his nose.

"Urgh━" he covered his nose with his hand, "━if I drink that I'm gonna yak-nog all over the place!"

Valkyrie narrowed her eyes at him. She held up her fist, "Maybe you'd rather taste a punch in the face?"

Astrid arched a brow, "This was your idea to spread Snoggletog cheer? Where'd you get the yak-milk from━Mildew's farm?"

"Oh, ha━ha," said Valkyrie, "━No. I got it from my Dad's old stash! It was already fermented!" she held up the tray again proudly.

Ruff sniffed at the drink, and recoiled again. "Gah!" she coughed. "For how long? From the beginning of time?"

"You're so funny," she rolled her eyes. "How did you come up with that joke? I thought there was nothing left in your head to even come up with a coherent insult."

Ruffnut fixed her helmet angrily. "Hey! You know I can come up with good insults!"

Snotlout pushed past them, and cracked his knuckles. "Valkyrie, it sounds delightful. I'd love a mug."

He took one, and Valkyrie grinned. She sent a smug look at the others as Snotlout downed in all in one mighty gulp. She didn't see him almost gag up the drink━holding his hand to his mouth, Snotlout's eyes watered as he tried to swallow it, forcing it down his throat and into his stomach. "Oh━" he let out hoarsly, handing the mug back. Valkyrie met his gaze again, smiling, "━you can━uh━really taste the yak!"

"Oooh!" Fishlegs hurried over to them, seeing the tray Valkyrie held. "Mm, yum! What is that?"

Valkyrie gasped, happy someone else was eager to try her beverage. She held it out towards Fishlegs. "Oh! You wana try some? You'll absolutely love it. It's my new traditional drink I made all by myself━my own recipe and everything!"

Astrid coughed into her hand, "That explains it all."

Snotlout quickly shook his head behind her back at Fishlegs, and the Viking winced. "Oh!" he stepped back and laughed nervously. "You know━Ehm ... I have ... suddenly inexplicably changed my mind!"

She narrowed her eyes at him, and Fishlegs sent her a strained smile. Valkyrie pursed her lips, why doesn't anyone like her drink? She liked it! "Well ... um ... well, you don't know what you're missing!" she declared. Hoisting the shield up above her hip again, she turned towards the armoury, "I bet you Hiccup will love this," she said, and continued on her way.

As soon as she was gone, Snotlout doubled over and held his stomach, gagging. Astrid arched a brow at him, her arms crossed and chuckled, "Are you crying━?" he retched out into the snow, "━Oh, gross━Snotlout!"

Rushing into the blacksmith's, Valkyrie peered around for a familiar fish-bone figure of a boy, her heart suddenly deciding to race. She really wanted Hiccup to like her beverage, she doesn't exactly know why, but she just does ... part of her wonders whether it had anything to do with the fact that she had wanted to ask him to dance for the Snoggletog celebrations. As friends ... obviously ...

"Hiccup?" she called into the small shop. "Hiccup, you there?"

"Yeah," she heard his voice from the back worship. "I'm over here, Val. Coming!"

A fresh grin on her face, she hopped inside and met him halfway by the wooden work table. His eyes brightened to see her, surprised by her cheefulness when everyone else was down in their stupor. She wore bright flowers in her hair today, red petals mixed in with green ferns, and with that huge grin, she held out her shield-tray of Yaknog. "Here you go!" she said. "Happy Holidays, from me, to you, Your Highness."

He gave her a smile and picked up a mug, "Thank you, Milady!"

She set the tray aside, gazing down at what she could guess to be Toothless's tail━at least, some form of it, it was different. Valkyrie didn't know the specifics, but she could tell that much. The colour itself was in stark contrast━all black much like the other end of Toothless's tail. "What're you working on?"

With one hand holding his Yaknog, and the other free for his various gestures, Hiccup explained, "Okay, youre gonna think I'm crazy━" Valkyrie tilted her head, giving him a look that said, come off it, "━but I couldn't stop thinking about what Tuffnut said last night," he sighed, and Valkyrie's amused look fell away. "Toothless can't come and go like the other dragons, and that's just not fair. I was up all night, and ..." he tapped the new tail in front of them with a sad smile, "I think I found a way to fix that."

Finished with his explanation, Hiccup took a swig of the Yaknog. Almost immediately, the taste hit him, and he nearly retched it all the way back up, but held on, not wanting to offend the girl he liked beside him who was completely distracted by the tail to even notice. "Wow ..." she murmured, leaning over the tail to poke at it and play with the lever. The tail expanded out, and folded back in. "You built him a new tail? So ... that means he's going to be able to fly without you, right?"

With a mouth full of Yaknog, Hiccup nodded, "Hmhm!"

She still hadn't noticed. Valkyrie breathed a smile, amazed by Hiccup's kindness. The bond he held with Toothless, it was something far more special than anything she's seen; she knew that from the beginning, but it continued to astound her. Just like how Hiccup continued to amaze her with his kindness, and selflessness, and humongous heart every day, making her wish she had given him a chance far earlier than she had. He made Valkyrie want to become a better person, and maybe part of her determination to make everyone feel better this Snoggletog stemmed from his good influence on her ... that realisation made her cheeks heat up.

Quickly focusing on something else, Valkyrie cleared her throat and nodded at the tail. "That's a wonderful gift, Hiccup." He hummed again, nodding along. "But ... what if he never comes back?"

She realised she shouldn't have said that, hearing the sad mumble amongst mouth-filled Yaknog. Valkyrie winced, oh, you idiot! You're not meant to make him feel worse! "Uh━uh, I mean," she chuckled nervously, tucking her hair behind her ears, "of course, he will come back!" Before she'd embarass herself more, Valkyrie swiped back up the tray, "Well━anyway━uh━I'm going to spread some more holiday cheer! You're amazing!"

She quickly ran away from that awkward situation she got herself in. As soon as she was far enough away so Hiccup wouldn't hear her, she threw her gaze up to the sky and groaned, "Ugh! Why do the Gods hate me? Oh, Valkyrie, what's the best way to make the boy you like feel better? Oh! I know! Tell him his best friend will never return! What a great idea━ugh! Stupid, stupid, stupid ..."

Back in the forge, Hiccup spat out all of the Yaknog onto the floor. "Eurgh!" he shook his out of his system, wiping the remanants from his mouth. "Note to self, Hiccup, don't accept drinks from Valkyrie ever again ..."

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a/n: valkyrie and astrid's friendship is so cute. also, yes, the yaknog is val's creation not astrid's, i swapped that up? why? because i wanted to. deal with it. it's funny for Valkyrie not to be good at something considering her character

also, falcon and the winter soldier.

no spoilers in the comments for those who haven't watched the first episode yet. but.

falcon and the winter soldier. that's it. that's all that is needed to be said.

(oh that and the obvious cute dorkiness that is hiccup and valkyrie).