2. Artistic ability is required for pumpkin carving

"I cannot believe we got talked into this," Ruffnut grumbled. Normally, the female twin was all for activities that involved the possibility of chaos but it was rather cold, windy and a bit rainy and the pumpkin carving was being held in Sven's barn, which was windy and cold. And probably leaked.

"Ah, but sister mine, we have the unparalleled opportunity to observe the act of creation, surely the most pure and sacred of all the artistic interactions," Tuffnut enthused. He was wearing a large floppy beret and a white smock as he bounded along eagerly. She glanced at her twin. Tall, lanky and unmistakable with his long blond dreads, there was no way he could be mistaken for anything other than an artist. And indeed, he was a talented interior designer...but the fact was that he couldn't paint or sculpt anything to save his life. Their art teacher had joked there were corpses with more artistic ability in their little (skeletal) finger than Tuffnut had in his whole body. Of course, Ruffnut knew she was no Picasso either but then she had no such pretensions. Joining the others in a pumpkin-carving competition at Sven's Farm wouldn't be her choice of activity but it was always fun to spend time with the others, since every competition they ever took part in was always a scream. Though the only reason she would admit to as to why she hadn't turned back was the opportunity to watch Snotlout possibly cut his own hand off by accident.

"You do realise that it means Astrid will have brought her knives with her," she reminded her twin. She was his eerily female version, with three fat blonde braids and an identical lanky body and long face. Tuffnut slowed down noticeably for a moment and then nodded.

"It's a risk I'm willing to take!" he announced and bounded up the hill.

Soon the six of them were collected in the barn, along with about a dozen other Berkians, mainly with children, facing the row of heavy duty wooden tables laid out with large orange pumpkins. Astrid had a suitcase with her knives in, Hiccup had his satchel containing his art supplies-including knives-and Fishlegs had brought a shopping trolley laden with various sealed plastic containers containing paper, pens, various tools, a radio, his computer, spray cans...while Ruffnut and Tuffnut had grabbed their best (only) carving knives. But at least they felt better prepared than Snotlout, who had brought a hoe.

Everyone stared as he ambled up, the garden tool slung across his shoulder. Astrid paused and then said what everyone was thinking.

"Why have you brought that, Snotlout?" she asked. The stocky dragon rider rolled his eyes as if she was asking a dumb question.

"Well, I broke my vegetable knife unscrewing the back of the TV so this was the only sharp thing I could find," he told her sulkily. She frowned.

"Why didn't you use a screwdriver?" she asked him, puzzled.

"Obviously...because I snapped mine when I was prising the hubcaps off Dad's truck to replace the brake discs last week," he replied.

"But why not use your hammer to prise..."

"I threw it at Hookfang when he set me on fire when I was fixing Silent Sven's fence," Snotlout retorted. "He ate it."

"Oh Gods," Hiccup groaned. "Snotlout, you realise you will take your eye out or cut your hand off trying to use a hoe to carve a pumpkin?"

"Yes. No. Shut up, Hiccup," Snotlout grumbled.

"I'll lend him one of my less favourite knives," Astrid sighed. "You had better not damage Rafael or I'll come after you and gut you with Theodore."

"I...you name your knives?" Snotlout asked, surprised. Astrid pressed her lips tightly together and nodded, scowling.

"Gobber names all his tools-female names, I hasten to add, despite everything-so why shouldn't I name my knives? I have Daniel, Xerxes, Theodore, Rafael, Roger, Sven, Olaf, Lars, Stoick, Mikey, Bilbo, Priappushnikil and Sam." She huffed, opened her case and reverently lifted out a wickedly sharp heavy duty knife that would easily carve a pumpkin-and could probably be used for extensive surgery and possibly as a short sword. "This is Rafael. You damage him and you are dead...seriously, I will hunt you down and..." Hiccup grabbed her and pulled her away.

"You get the idea," he interjected, soothing her. "Easy, Milady. He'll be fine. Snotlout wouldn't dare harm your knives!"

"He'd better not or I'll..."

And then they turned to their own pumpkins and considered the task. Sven fired a starter's pistol which everyone ignored. Two small children went to the toilets, Sven's cousin, Not-Very-Loud-Neil, came round with plastic cups of weak sugary tea and the twins began to squabble over who was the better artist. Astrid stared thoughtfully and lightly traced the lines of the cuts she planned onto the orange exterior. Fishlegs had got out a protractor, a ruler and an indelible marker. Tuffnut frowned.

"Um...Fishy...this looks rather like one of those projects in High School," he commented, stabbing his pumpkin straight in the middle of the 'face'. Thoughtfully, he sawed out a ragged circle for a nose.

"And that looks like every one of your projects since," his sister commented, watching Fishlegs carefully measure out the distance between each facial feature. "Fish. You do know this is only a one-day event?"

"I've been researching possible designs and got down to a shortlist of four," he explained. "It's only by measuring the dimensions of this pumpkin that I can assess which is the most feasible..."

Hiccup was already working, his left-handed style a little awkward looking but each cut deft. Snotlout sighed and removed the top of his pumpkin.

"I don't suppose we get to take this home?" he asked and produced a container from his pocket. "Just in case," he mumbled and started to empty out his pumpkin.

For a while there was companionable silence, broken only by the squelch of pumpkin being scooped out or, in Tuffnut's case, thrown at his sister. Astrid was sawing away with the assurance of someone who was used to wielding sharp objects for a living. The twins managed to make identical pumpkins and accused each other of copying. Fishlegs seemed happy with his dog-face cut into his pumpkin while Astrid had made a fair representation of her Deadly Nadder, Stormfly, even making the top cut of the pumpkin jagged to mimic the golden spines that crowned her head.

Snotlout looked at his with satisfaction.

"There," he said and glanced at his. Then he yelped.

"I think yours may have been upside down," Fishlegs pointed out, for there was one nose cut out above the two eyes and a jagged mouth. The twins burst out laughing.

"Oh Thor-it's even worse than mine-and I got a Z in Art," Tuffnut gasped, holding his chest as he couldn't breathe while laughing.

"Is not!"

"My four year old niece could do better," Fishlegs pointed out. "And actually has..." He showed a picture on his mobile phone.

"He's right, you know," Astrid commented.

"I hate you-you know that..." Snotlout grumbled. "But at least it's better than Hic..." And then he stopped and his jaw dropped. For Hiccup's pumpkin had a beautiful silhouette of a Night Fury carved out, the shapes of the other dragons in the gang cut out around him. On the other side of the pumpkin, the Night Fury symbol-a modified Strike Class symbol-was carved. It was breathtakingly beautiful and skilled. Hiccup wiped his brow as he placed the LED candle inside the perfectly carved masterpiece.

And the candle twinkled beautifully.

"Wow-I wasn't sure it would work but Toothless deserves to be part of the holiday," he said with a grin as the others stared at him. Snotlout folded his arms, ready to sulk, knowing he would come last...even after the three years old who had fallen asleep on his pumpkin..

"I would have been better with the hoe," he muttered.