At the sound of the massive horn, Toothless and Stormfly vaulted into the air from the new racing stands, their riders in saddle and ready for the flight. Hiccup laid low over Toothless's back as the dragon's powerful wings shot them forward through the air. Half a length behind them, Astrid, similarly crouched, urged Stormfly on.
The crowd roared in the stands.
The two riding pairs neared the first turn around an unpainted watchtower. Astrid took the inside turn, catching up to Hiccup and Toothless. In addition to her usual clothes, Astrid had on a fur cap tied under her chin. Only a few strands of her blonde hair peeked out from under it, the rest tucked back and out of her face that was painted with blue and orange lines. Stormfly's wings were similarly painted. Hiccup and Toothless wore their usual riding gear as well, but Toothless's wings were painted with a bright red that matched the color of his tail prosthetic.
She grinned at Hiccup as she and Stormfly caught up to him and Toothless. "Ready to get second place?"
Hiccup grinned back. "There's no way we'll take second! Toothless and I are the fastest fliers on all of Berk!"
"You sure about that?" With a beat of her wings, Stormfly pushed just ahead of Toothless. Astrid waved her hands flirtatiously in Hiccup's direction.
Toothless grumbled. "I know, bud," Hiccup said. "But we've got plenty of time to catch up." Together, they flew around the western side of Berk, neck and neck with Astrid and Stormfly.
On the main island itself, the crowd had settled somewhat as the two riders disappeared around the island. On the Chieftain stage, Valka stood with Gobber and Gothi. "I never thought I'd be there to see Hiccup get married," Valka said, fiddling with a baby Terrible Terror that crawled over her shoulders.
"Aye," Gobber agreed. "I always figured Hiccup would get himself killed before he did. What?" he said when Valka gave him a sharp glance. "You have to admit he's a bit reckless. At least there's no war anymore."
Valka nodded. "I suppose that's true." She sighed, then glanced at the statue of Stoick in its vigil over the village. "I just wish…"
Gobber followed her gaze. "Aye."
In the air above Berk, Meatlug carried Fishlegs on her back, who looked through a telescope at the distant racers. Meatlug's uneven wing beats meant that it was difficult to keep them in view, but he looked anyway.
"I can't tell who's in first. They're too far away!" Fishlegs called down to Snotlout. The other Viking was lounging on Hookfang's back, flicking splinters off a stick with his knife. The dragon himself was perched on the watchtower that the racers had flown by just moments before.
"It's once around the Outer Islands and back to Berk, right?" Snotlout asked.
"Yeah," Fishlegs said. "Who do you think will win?"
Elsewhere, Tuffnut said, "It's gonna be Hiccup, for sure."
"No way!" Ruffnut countered. "Astrid will beat him. She's the best racer on the island."
The twins, along with Barf and Belch, stood at the base of the stairs up to the Great Hall. Ruffnut ran up a few stairs, just enough to see over the roofs of the nearby houses, and gestured to Tuffnut. He and the two dragons followed. "Have you seen how fast Toothless can fly? It's definitely his race." Tuffnut said.
Ruffnut rolled her eyes as the four of them snuck up the stairs. "Hiccup will probably get distracted by some random dragon he sees and fly off."
At the top of the stairs, Tuffnut paused to look over the village of Berk. Many of the buildings lost in Drago's attack had been rebuilt, though some still lacked fully tiled roofs. Large boulders too big to remove littered the mountainside. The island almost looked like it did before the war ended: in between a constant process of destruction and rebuilding. At least nothing had happened in the few months since then. The late afternoon of the race saw clear blue skies with only a few clouds on the horizon. It was a good time as any to celebrate the marriage of the Chieftain. And that meant….
"Well, it doesn't matter right now. Everyone is down at the stands watching for them to get back. The entire Great Hall will be empty except for the food."
With Ruffnut guarding them, and Barf and Belch sniffing around in the grass, Tuffnut cautiously opened the massive door. "Yes! It's unguarded!" He darted inside.
The door had barely shut before Ruffnut heard a scream from inside. She yanked the door open and ran to her brother's aid. Barf and Belch followed, shoving the door open even further. They paused, halfway in the Hall, to find Ruffnut with a sword pointed at her throat.
"Don't think that no one planned for this," Eret, Son of Eret, said. On the floor behind him, Skullcrusher had Tuffnut pinned to the ground. The captured Viking groaned from his prison.
Ruffnut sighed in defeat.
Out over the open ocean, Berk was tiny in the distance behind the racers, the village hidden behind the island's highest peak. Toothless and Hiccup were several dragon-lengths ahead of Astrid and Stormfly. Astrid squinted into the wind and had her mouth drawn into a tight line. Stormfly flapped her wings a few times to keep her momentum going before settling into a glide. The first of the Outer Islands was nearing. It was their only chance to catch up.
Toothless and Hiccup flew further above the water than their competitors. Hiccup had moved from prone to sitting on Toothless's back while the dragon flew slower to conserve his energy on the longer flight. He looked back at Astrid and Stormfly. Their lead wasn't much. Hopefully they could grow it when they flew around the islands.
The Outer Islands were less "islands" than a cluster rocky crags that stuck a few dozen feet out of the water. No one lived on them except for gulls, a small nest of Terrible Terrors, and a few Berkians who had come to watch from the basalt columns. It was at the farthest island that was the turning point of the race. After that, back to Berk.
The first island passed by below Hiccup and Toothless. "Alright, bud," Hiccup said. "Ready to show off a bit?" Toothless snorted in agreement.
The Night Fury slowed enough that Hiccup wouldn't be torn from his seat as he changed position to lay flat across Toothless's back. The pause gave just enough time for Astrid and Stormfly to almost catch up below as all four racers approached the farthest of the islands.
With a shift of his tailfin position from Hiccup, Toothless folded his wings tight along the sides of his body and dove towards the other racers. The air streamed against his and Hiccup's eyes, making them squint in their dive. Astrid and Stormfly grew closer and closer the faster the duo went. As they neared the others, Toothless let out the characteristic scream of the Night Furies. They flew at such a speed that by the time Astrid had turned around to see her boyfriend and his dragon's drama, they were already there.
Toothless twisted sideways and unfurled his wings at the bottom of the arc around Astrid and Stormfly, using his extra back spines to give him the tight turn. He and Hiccup timed it perfectly. In full view of the watching Berkians – who cheered and yelled as they passed – Toothless and Hiccup swooped in front of Astrid and Stormfly. The blue dragon squawked with surprise at their appearance, and Astrid sent a glare in their direction, though the smile on her face betrayed her affection. Hiccup gave a cocky salute, and with their bit of drama complete, Toothless beat his wings once and the Chief and his Dragon fell back into first place and disappeared out of Astrid's view.
As Toothless rocked back into a steady horizontal flight, Hiccup whooped with glee. "Hey, we did it!" He rubbed the top of Toothless's head and looked behind him. There was no sign of Stormfly and Astrid yet.
With no warning, Toothless spread his wings to slow his flight into a glide towards the waterline. Hiccup yelped. He sat up and pushed his helmet up, looking at the islands in front of them. "Toothless!" he said. "What was that about?"
The dragon grumbled low in his throat, a warning that Hiccup took to heed. He crouched down and tried to follow Toothless's gaze. The dragon's eyes darted back and forth across the land in front of them. This side of the island was pitted with caves and overhangs from centuries of erosion. Despite – or perhaps because of – the sunny afternoon, the island was filled with shadows that Hiccup's eyes could not penetrate from this distance.
But Toothless could. He angled himself towards the island, gliding to maintain silence. Hiccup followed the dragon's lead. As they approached the caves, an eerie, haunting moan echoed from the rocks. Toothless's ears perked up immediately and Hiccup shivered with the noise. They glided parallel to the island's small and rocky shore, looking for…something.
Out of the corner of his eye, Hiccup saw something move. He turned to look at it and saw Stormfly and Astrid fly past, a hundred feet above him and getting farther by the second. The race!
"Toothless!" Hiccup nudged the dragon, breaking him out of whatever had captivated his attention. The strange wail faded at Hiccup's words. "You okay, bud? What was that?" Toothless shook his head and snorted. He redirected himself towards the race's flight path. "I guess we can check it out later." With a last glance behind them, the Viking and dragon resolved themselves back to the race.
By the time they caught up to Astrid and Stormfly, the four racers had rounded the eastern edge of Berk and the village was in sight. The people and dragons on Berk had moved from the race stands to the stairs of the Great Hall, leaving the grassy area open for the winners to arrive. They cheered as they saw the dragons with their riders approach.
"Come on, Stormfly!" Astrid said. "We can win this!"
Hiccup and Toothless were fast closing in on the other duo, barely a few dragons-lengths away, but the others were too close. "We're not going to make it, Toothless." They'd have to swerve out of the way, taking valuable time, in order to get there before Stormfly landed. "Time for Plan B!"
Hiccup yanked the handle that stabilized Toothless's riding gear into place. In a practiced move, he shoved himself off Toothless's back into a freefall to the ground. At the right moment, Hiccup pulled the webbed wings out of his riding suit and angled himself towards the grass. The flight path took him down Stormfly's tail and right over Astrid's head.
Or so he planned. Stormfly flexed her wings to slow her descent, a move which thrust Astrid right into Hiccup's path. Hiccup flailed and tried to miss crashing directly into Astrid, but it was too late. She turned to see Hiccup right behind her just as his arm caught her shoulder and the force of their collision knocked her out of the saddle. Together, Astrid and Hiccup's momentum flung them to the ground in a tangle of limbs and yelps right before Stormfly's claws clutched at the grass as she landed.
Hiccup and Astrid rolled to a stop on the grassy hill. Astrid's cap had been ripped off her face and her hair stuck out at odd angles. Both were covered in clumps of mud and grass stains. Astrid lay across Hiccup's stomach with her feet near his head. The assembled Vikings watched from the stairs, not sure what had just happened.
Hiccup propped himself up on his elbows and Astrid pushed herself over so that their legs crossed. They looked at each other for just a moment before bursting out in laughter as Toothless landed somewhat clumsily next to Stormfly. With cheers and hollers, the Vikings and dragons of Berk surrounded the couple while they helped themselves stand up on shaky legs.
Gobber staggered over with a big grin on his face. He looked back and forth between the two racers in all their busted and muddied glory. With a shrug, he grabbed Hiccup's hand with his and Astrid's with his prosthetic, which inexplicably took the form of a pair of tongs. Gobber raised their hands in the air and shouted "To the winners!"
The crowd responded with even more raucous cheers. Not to be overlooked, Stormfly and Toothless shoved their way into the winner's circle, much to the delight of everyone involved.
As the cheering continued, Snotlout, Eret, and Fishlegs hoisted Hiccup and Astrid onto their shoulders. "To the wedding!" someone shouted, and they proceeded into the Great Hall.