Horizon Chapter 24

A/N: And its come...the "I'm getting sick of this story" bug. It makes it more difficult to write and the inspiration is beginning to fade. I'm trying to ignore for it as long as I can, because eventually it does go away! By the way I lied, there's definitely going to more than ten to fifteen chapters. I just realized that. Maybe I need a break...I couldn't last that long without my writing though XD This is a funish chapter, so its shorter ;) I'm ready to write the next chapter and you're ready to read the next chapter...so lets go!

Meatlug and Fishlegs zoom by us, I see the sheep in Fishleg's hand and gasp, "It was back there!?"

"Of course it was," Fishlegs yells over the wind. Meatlug speeds up and they throw the sheep into Ruffnut's basket. I could have sworn the next sheep was by Sven's farm, of course I've been wrong before. Another point for the twins.

Astrid and Stormfly race past us as we head into the stables, "Later!"

I hate it when someone does that to me, "Glad you could join us," I exclaim as Hiccup and Toothless appear beside us, "but I have to admit, you're racing skills are a bit rusty."

Hiccup laughs, changing something with his foot on Toothless's pedal and races in front of us towards Astrid.

"Snotlout!" I exclaim, he's right behind me. I could see his shadow below, "I don't want help. I can beat you without your help. In fact, how am I suppose to beat you if you keep helping me?" In my basket are five sheep, two of which were tossed in by Snotlout, "it's not a team competition."

"Whatever you want Snotlout gets for you."

"Do you mean that?"

"Of course."

"Then stop helping me," I grin, "I don't want to win that badly. I'm not competitive like you. I don't need to be competitive to win. Are you afraid that I'm going to beat you? I bet that's why you're helping me!" We leave the stables.

"No!"

I laugh, "That must be the reason. Otherwise you would have at least one sheep in your basket," I smile, "I bet you can't get two points."

"I can get more!"

"Sure you can," I shake my head, "how about a wager? To make this interesting."

"What kind of wager?"

"Loser does whatever the winner wants for twenty four hours."

"Whatever they want?"

"Yeah," There is no way he's going to get any points in the last quarter of the race, "whatever they want."

"Deal," And Snotlout races ahead.

I laugh, "Don't bet on winning Snotface." We follow him

The next sheep would be on Sven's farm, unlike the last one which was really in the forest. I messed it up, but after the forest was the farm so Raefor and I barrel it towards Sven's farm, "See it?" The other riders are searching as they race, I keep my eyes on the ground and Raefor keeps us on track, "I still don't..." Found it, "there!" It stands with the other sheep within the perimeter of the fence, "C'mon Raefor. Lets grab it before anyone else."

We dive down towards the sheep with the target painted into its wool. I smile, we were going to finally get the sheep without having to steal it from anyone else. But when I look around, I see that everyone else has caught on. Toothless and Hiccup are closing the space between us. We can't let them get to the sheep first, but I had flown on Toothless. I knew he was faster than we were. However we were very close to the sheep, closer than anyone else.

Sure enough, before Toothless can get close enough to the sheep, Raefor grabs it with his feet and we ascend towards the sky at lightning speed, "Good job Raefor!" I exclaim, "now lets keep this away from the rest. Lets take the shortcut." There were some well known shortcuts in the race that we could use, though most chose not to. I on the other hand, would only use them during desperate times.

They were also risky.

"If we can do through the forest we may be able to get past Fishleg's. Snotlout won't have a chance if he attempts to catch up," I pat Raefor, "then there's the black sheep...if we can keep him from getting it, I win the bet."

Raefor makes a parrot noise.

"I know, i'm getting competitive. I don't want Snotlout winning, who knows what he'd do to me. Clean out Hookfangs pen..." I shudder at the thought, "he doesn't do that anymore. I can only imagine whats in there..."

A growl.

"Fine, i'll stop. Its disgusting just thinking about it."

When the path comes, Raefor and I take a sudden turn , aiming for the risky shortcut.

"You're not going to make it!" Astid calls.

"Watch me," I'm beginning to get really cocky, I know it. But I've practiced many times before, even if not with Raefor. We could do it. As we dive into the forest, heading for a thin crack in the rock of the stone wall, I can hear the sound of laughter. Probably Snotlout, believing he could beat me because I'm making a mistake or something. But I don't believe it. I'm going to beat him, "once we get to the wall, we need to angle ourselves. Its tricky. But we can do it!"

The dragon looks at me and we begin.

Raefor does a good job of weaving in between the tree's. I knew he would do well. But its the rock i'm concerned about. As we get closer, I balance myself on the saddle. That's when I realize how difficult this is going to be. I had to balance a sheep, and make sure my fake arm didn't get caught on anything. Landing would be an interesting experience, "Here's hoping I don't fall."

The rock wall is ahead of us, and now its time. I fix the fingers so my arm is no longer attached to the saddle and just as Raefor angle's himself, I jump, holding the sheep tightly in my one arm. It feels like I'm in slow motion. My body flying through the air, the riders watching me as I fly above the tree's for a split second and plunge down towards my dragon saddle.

I land, close to falling off, but I use my legs to keep myself anchored on Raefor, "It worked," I mutter, "it actually worked." Raefor roars, quickly descending towards the baskets. I throw my sheep in and laugh, "good job Raefor. Lets try and keep Snotlout from getting that black sheep." The horn sound echoes, and I know its time.

The twins take little time to catch up to us, but as I feel them begin to take the lead, the dragon comes close to us, pushing us enough to slow us down.

"Hey!" I exclaim as Raefor speeds back up, "that's not fair."

"Its perfectly fine," Tuffnut snickers.

Ruffnut nods, "Yeah, don't be a spoil sport."

I glare, "If that's fair, then so is this." We ascend so we're behind the twins, but higher up. Raefor flicks his tail and I duck, barely missing the spikes as they fly towards the twins.

Ruffnut and Tuffnut are able to dodge the spikes, but I can see that Barf and Belch are spinning towards Berk.

"What is up with this thing?" Tuffnut exclaims, "where's the stop button?"

"There is none!"

Barf and Belch crash land in the middle of the square, "What did we hit?" Tuffnut touches the top of his helmet, looking at me, "Hey! You guys don't play fair. And I'm talking to all of you. All four dragons and vikings."

"Remember, its fair!" I throw at them, "see you later." And we zoom away. The black sheep was never at the same place, most times it would be at the end of the race.

"I'm going to win Snotlout," I turn around, smiling, "that day is mine."

"Is not! I'm going to win; you have no chance."

"Oh I do. And I'm going to use it."

Astrid and Stormfly catch up to us minutes later, "Looks like its mine."

"Take it. As long as Snotlout doesn't get it."

"Do I sense something here?"

"A bet. And he's going to lose," I smile, "unless he gets that black sheep."

She gives me the evil grin, then is ahead of us.

"Don't mind her Raefor. As long as Snotlout doesn't get that black sheep we're good," I turn to see what's going on behind me. Hiccup and Toothless are soon to pass us, he can wrestle Astrid for the sheep if he wants it so bad. I laugh as they pass us. Winning wasn't important...as long as Snotlout didn't get that sheep.

I decide my fights not with Astrid so I slow down and allow the two to fight for the sheep.

Rather, I'm going to throw Snotlout off so he doesn't get it.

What could I do?

Disorientating him would do some good...but I had done that recently. I need something new, something risky. Something that would really shake him up.

That's it.

I laugh, I would have never done this before. But with what I felt was a limited supply of time, I don't see why I shouldn't try.

Time to gross him out. I pull back and Raefor slows down. Fishlegs passes us, and then we're next to Snotlout.

"Too slow?"

"No." I pat Raefor, playing with my fake fingers so my hand is no longer clenching the iron bar. I then jump on Hookfang. He doesn't seem alarmed, still racing as usual.

"What are you-?"

"Strategy," I smile, "good strategy." I link my arms around his neck. Awkward, since the saddle Snotlout sits on is huge.

"Hey! Stop that."

"Is it working?"

"What...whats working?"

"Distracting you," I murmur, "its working right."

"No...stop doing that!" He exclaims, "there are...people all over the place."

I glare, "Everyone's sitting in the stands. The only people around are riders," I glance back at the twins, "and the twins are too busy fighting to even notice."

"Go away!"

"No."

Snotlout's face is going red, "Ew...don't come so close to me."

"You were fine with it the other day,"

"We were trapped,"

"Yeah. We were," I smile, "and now we're not. Kind of. If you want to be technical, we're trapped on Hookfang."

"Its not the same-" He glares, "don't get so close!"

My arms are around his neck, "Hey! I can so, you can't stop me. You're driving."

"Seriously!"

"So am I," I murmur, "what should I call you now? Honey bunch?"

He gags, "Don't say that! Its disgusting."

"Does Sweetie-pie work then?"

"That's even worse," He gags again, "would you stop? You're grossing me out."

Plan succeeded. Hopefully he would make mistakes.

I sigh, "Fine..." I unhook from my arms from his neck and jump back on Raefor who had been flying beside us, "but seriously. You're going to lose."

"What-?"

And we speed away.

Hopefully my plan has worked.

From behind I see Hiccup and Toothless have caught to Astrid and Stormfly, the two are saying stuff to one another but they are so far ahead that I don't say anything. I remind myself that the plan of revenge was taking place tonight...it was going to be sweet.

I can hardly wait.

Astrid tosses the sheep in her basket half an hour later; it was a struggle between her and the twins and Fishlegs, but Astrid is crowned the winner of the race. I smile, but it fades.

This would be my last race. In two days I was being shipped to who knows where to marry a man I never met. I was going to try and convince my mother otherwise, and I would never give up if every breath in my body was screaming at me to stop.

I wouldn't give up until it was time to.

"You owe me a day," I exclaim to Snotlout as he crosses the finish line, "you failed it."

"You didn't win..."

"I never said I had to..." I smile, "tomorrow, you're all mine for twenty four hours."

"Snotlout belongs to no one."

"Tomorrow you do," I glare, "and you'd better listen."

"Fine, whatever."

"We're still doing that thing, right?"

"What thing?"

I look at Hiccup for a moment then back at Snotlout.

"I don't get it."

"The revenge plan," I muttur.

"Oh. Why didn't you just that to begin with?"

I roll my eyes, "We're doing it though, right?"

"Of course we are,"

"You work on Hiccup, I'll work on Astrid."

He nods, and we get to work.

"Astrid," She has already done her victory dance with Stormfly, "Nice job."

"You too," She throws some chicken at Stormfly, "though the outcome was always obvious."

"Oh you think so? So me purposely slowing down was predictable too?"

"That was just silly," She smiles, "but even if you had put in some effort i would have won."

"Hahahahaha..." I'm sarcastic of course, "very funny. I have beat you, ya know."

"Luck."

"Nah, skill," I laugh, "and it was on a dragon I was not use to."

"Sure it was..."

"Do you want to go for a ride?"

"A ride? I don't know..."

"C'mon. Its just to the stables." The older, abandoned part of the stables...but I won't tell her that.

Astrid looks at Stormfly, "Alright. I guess I have enough time."

This is gonna be awesome.

Word Count: 2,377