The Beginning of it All
7 years earlier; the Dragon gang, sixteen.
"Haha! Betcha can't catch me!" Hiccup's smile burst onto his face. He was ahead in the race, and Astrid was determined to beat him. It was the last race before devastating winter hit, and they were tying. If he won, he would be gloating about it all the time until summer hit, and she would do the same. But she didn't care- she was enjoying the fast paced flight, whilst Stormfly dodged and weaved at everything that came their way.
"You just wait, you bean sprout!" she called forward.
"Who are you calling a midget that's too small that even a Terrible Terror would not consider it a decent meal?!"
"I DIDN'T EVEN SAY THAT!"
"WHY YOU…."
With a sudden tail flick, Toothless wrenched a branch from its tree, and whipped it towards Stormfly. However, Stormfly spiked it to the nearest bush, and gave a dragon-toothed smile as Toothless looked back disgruntledly. "You can't beat me, Astrid; I'll give you my boots if you do!" Hiccup called back, in an attempt to tick off Astrid.
"I wouldn't bet on that- you've only got one. Plus, what you gonna do if I do win; borrow Gobber's boots until winter ends?"
Just the very thought of that made both Astrid and Hiccup sick. Everyone in the village knew that if Gobber ever took off his shoes, they would all most likely come down with some ghastly disease, caused by the terrible odours. "Ok, ok, maybe can you just take repair pins? I'm sure my leg will be fine in the hall over winter!" "You're on!" Astrid smiled gleefully as the two came round the last bend. "Come on Stormfly! COME ON!" "You can do this buddy! Just a little longer, Toothless!"
Toothless smiled his gummy grin, but doing so caused him to slow down, only a fraction, letting Stormfly reach her snout over the finish time before him.
"And Astrid is our winner with a win of 207-206. Seems Toothless may have some competition for the fastest dragon!" Fishleg called as both contestants swooped down to terra firma.
"Bu..But…. No! Toothless is… muh!" Hiccup spluttered, in shock, as the twins sauntered over.
"Wow, Astrid, I'm impressed- he is only normally like that when you hit him in the head" Tuffnut taunted.
"What, like this?" as Ruffnut swung round and hit him on the head… repeatedly.
Give me strength, Astrid thought as she ran over to Hiccup.
"I gotta get going to Gothel's- she told me she needed to tell me something important. But you know Gothel…. She may just be predicting another early winter storm- but I'll be back later, OK? Love you!" and without another word, she skipped off, avoiding more speechless words from her… sometimes still surprised her that the boy she teased for so long, taunted, disrespected and overall despised was now her boyfriend. Anyways, there was no time for being sentimental- she did lie to Hiccup earlier, but she knew that he saw through that. If Gothel needs to talk to her, it was for a very important reason- she was just afraid of why she was needed by the tribe's most important elder.
