Lost and Found: Family

The Race

Hiccup woke up to Natalia knocking on his walls. Toothless roared angrily at his waker, but quickly lost the hostility.

They walked out to the balcony where two dragons and two riders stood. Willow had taken all the trading bags and extensions off of her dragon, and Hiccup decided to quickly go back into his room and do the same. This way, in the race, they wouldn't be slowed down by all the extra weight. Toothless said he couldn't remember ever being that light.

"Morning, you two," Marina greeted them when they headed back outside.

"Come on, I'll take you to a place where you can freshen up."

Natalia and Goldstar led them to another tree that was home to a taller building. The roof seemed to be about four feet thick.

As it turned out, this building had running warm water. Hiccup had a quick shower while Toothless and Marina played around in the dragon bath.

He soon learned that there was a massive, Gronkle Iron tub built into the roof that collected rain water. Tree Terrors heated the water and gravity brought it down through Gronkle Iron pipes. Hiccup was extremely amazed at this technology.

Once Toothless was finished playing, Hiccup dried him off the best he could and reapplied his saddle, tail, and rigs.

Natalia had told them to meet her at the kitchen, so they walked around and asked some unwilling Tree Terrors to help. Eventually, they found the right tree and were greeted by the most delicious smelling food they had ever smelled.

Willow and Marina were already there, chowing down on fruit tarts and pastries. Marina even had a plate full of something Natalia called "fish cakes". Toothless got a plate of them too, and the best Hiccup could tell, they were just disks of batter with fish blended in. Although, according to Toothless, they were better then anything Hiccup had ever given him.

After they had breakfast, and Hiccup had complemented Natalia on her cooking skills, they had the Tree Terrors set up a clear race course through the rainforest. Hiccup checked all of Toothless's rigs to make sure nothing unnessisary was still attached.

Toothless was ready to go and they met Willow and Natalia at the starting point, which was a landing strip on the edges of the tree house. The Tree Terrors made it clear which way to go, and a green and yellow Tree Terror would start them.

"Get ready to be flattened, Natalia," Willow taunted. "You have no idea how fast these two are." she gestured to Toothless and Hiccup.

"Alright, but we've never met a dragon who's faster than Goldstar!"

The Tree Terror got their attention and told them, when they hear the squawk and the jet of green flame, they were free to go.

"Racers, take your mark," the Tree Terror spoke from above them.

All dragons leaned back, ready to shoot forward.

The Tree Terror let out a sharp squawk and green fire arched above them. They shot off like rockets. Toothless let out a roar of excitement. This was the first time he had flown without his trading bags in a while.

Marina and Willow quickly fell behind. Goldstar was easily twice as fast as Marina, and this surprised Hiccup. This Dragon and her rider was going to give them a run for their money. But they wern't done yet.

"C'mon, bud. Let's show 'em what we got!"

Hiccup clicked the tail into position and they pulled ahead of the Scuttleclaw. But not by much. As they made their way to the river, Natalia began to gain on them. They made it to the waterfall, neck to neck, but Goldstar was smaller, and the upward climb was easier.