Thoughts of Guilt: Chapter 45, Part 2: This is Berk

Thoughts of Guilt

Chapter 45, Part 2

This is Berk

          “Are your teams ready?” Stoick asked.

          Hattori, Meen, Ashley, Hiccup, and I all answered, “Yes.”

          “One more thing, to tag your teammate to continue the race, the first rider must tag the other rider.  This way, in-flight collisions should not happen,” Stoick then pointed, “Mount your dragons and go out for your practice lap.”

          We were arranged by team and went out one team at a time for our practice lap.  Our team, Team Yellow, went last.  I said a few things and showed them the line I would take, but I left it up to them for the way they would race.

          I did however mention how we should tag, “There are three ways we can tag, but let’s just stick with this one to be sure and no confusion:  Stay on your dragon and high, side, or low five the other for the tag.  It is a little risky as we might miss, so slow your dragon down slightly if you feel you must to get a clean tag.”

          While on the backstretch, Elsa flew up beside me and whispered, “I don’t want to let you guys down, but I’ll try my best.”

          I looked over at Elsa and said, “I don’t expect anything else.  As long as you do your best, you’ve done your best today.  I’ll do my best too.  I might do better tomorrow, but as long as I did my best and gave it all I got today, tomorrow or the next time will take care of itself.  Just concentrate on today, concentrate on the task at hand.”

          Elsa smiled and said thank you, “I just feel like this will be our break out race too.  I just hope I don’t mess it up.”

          I then thought of something, “With Gronckles having one of the best accelerations of any dragon, use that to your advantage.”

          We came back around to the start-finish line and all the racers got off the main track except for those who were in the first line.  Jack’s Deadly Nadder, Nightwing; Elsa’s Gronckle, Meatballs; Navaro’s Deadly Nadder, Kallik; Thoreous’s Gronckle, Meteorblast; and Fishlegs’ Gronckle, Meatlug; stayed up to line up for the start of the race.

          The crowd had progressively gotten louder in anticipation of the race.  Stoick yet again had to quiet them down, but now he just simply said, “On my signal, Spitelout will sound the horn to start the race.  READY?”

          You would think the crowd would get really loud here, but they stayed quiet.  So quiet you could hear sheep bleating.

          Stoick had raised his right hand and held it…

          Each second felt like a minute…

          Stoick dropped his arm, the horn sounded, the race is on!

          Probably the fastest start of a race I have ever seen.  The crowd exploded with cheers, hoots, howlers, and anything else you can think of.

          My average for each lap is about a minute and a half.  So I expected Elsa to be at the most fifteen seconds longer than my average lap.

          The crowd quieted down some as the racers were out of sight.  But it seemed as quickly as the crowd went to a hush, they sprang back up again as one of the lookouts said they saw them come through the “Donut Hole”.  Within the next half a minute the racers flew past the start-finish line.  Navaro is in the lead.  A couple Nadder lengths back to Fishlegs.  Elsa is a close third, but Thoreous and Jack are right behind Elsa in fourth and fifth.  Lap One is complete.

          About two more minutes gone by for the second lap and Navaro is still in the lead, but Fishlegs has closed in while Elsa, Thoreous, and Jack are all neck and neck going three wide.

          Once they flew by, the Round Two racers got into positions: Pat and his Monstrous Nightmare, Black Night; Angie and her Skrill, Nina; Faith and her Deadly Nadder, Shira; Cullan and his Deadly Nadder, Nimhe; and the Twins and their dragon, Barf and Belch.  That is another thing, so that there would be no confusion, Gobber had placed team flags in their respective starting lanes with each team’s color.  So when the racer came around to complete Lap Three, they would know what lane to be in to tag.

          When the Round One racers had come back around to complete their final lap and tag their teammates, Navaro is still in the lead and tagged her teammate Faith.  But Jack had actually made up the ground and gotten in second; he tagged his teammate, Pat, a second or two after Navaro did hers.  Then all practically at the same time, Elsa tagged Angie, Thor tagged Cullan, and Fishlegs tagged the Twins.  Fishlegs did not have to tag both of them, but he was able to tag both of them… or should I say, the Twins “tagged” him; meaning, Fishlegs is going to look like he is going to have a black mask on for a while, if you get what I mean.

          With each proceeding round, each round will get faster.  Within the same amount of time of my average lap, the racers came back around to complete their first lap.

          Team Green still in first with Faith, Team Orange is close in second with Cullan, Team Yellow quickly made up the time and is now in third with Angie, Team Red is in fourth with the Twins, and Team Blue is in fifth with Pat.

          Granted this is what place they were two wide for first and second and then fourth and fifth; Angie, in third, cannot quite get there to contest for the lead, but is not being pressured from those behind her.

          Now the first lap of the Second Round done, the races came back still about a minute and a half later for the Lap Two.  Faith and Cullan were still competing for first, neither gaining or losing any ground.  Angie is still in third, but the Twins were right on her tail… actually Nina’s tail… but you get what I am saying.  However, the Twins were getting a lot of pressure from Pat.  The Twins seemed more concentrated on not being fifth then there were passing Angie for third.

          With the Lap Two of the Second Round in the books, the Round Three racers flew up and sat down in their respective places:  Team Blue, Garth and Riptide, the Tide Glider; Team Yellow, Cazi and Electic, the Skrill; Team Green, Repteil and Pastel, the Deadly Nadder; Team Orange, Tory and Jade, the Deadly Nadder; and finally Team Red with Snotlout and Hookfang, the Monstrous Nightmare.

          Rounding the last turn, Cullan must have pulled ahead of Faith as he was the first to be seen.  But like the previous round, second through fifth were all within a few seconds of each other.  Cullan tagged Tory.  Then by my count, Angie had ran a similar lap time as Laps One and Two, but she is neck and neck with Faith.  It seemed like Faith had a slower lap, instead.  Angie tagged Cazi and Faith tagged Repteil.  One more second later Pat tagged Garth followed by the Twins tagging Snotlout.  This time the Twins smacked their teammate in the back of the head.

          The excitement, energy, and enthusiasm could be seen and heard everywhere, even those who had completed their leg of the race were cheering.

          Stoick had been calling the race as best he could each lap, but no one could really hear him, I did though now, “Lap One of Round Three is completed.  Tory Skyman has the lead, followed closely in second is Repteil Abisson, Cazi Olson in third but closing on second, and Snotlout and Garth are neck and neck with Garth.”

          The laps were now seeming to go faster and faster.  Everyone from Round Three ran a One - Twenty-two for the first lap.  My fastest lap with Fredrick on this track, including the shortcut, is a One - Twenty-eight… but that was practice.  The first lap for a race like this will always be your longest lap as you are starting off from a complete stop.  With each lap, each racer and dragon should get faster and faster.  If everyone did a One - Twenty-two… on the first lap… while my fastest against their “worst” lap is slower by six seconds…

          I began to worry a little bit about it, but not too much as I kept reminding myself, “That was practice.  You weren’t pushing yourself as much as you could and Fredrick wasn’t going as fast as he could either.  Plus, that was with picking up sheep during the lap.  Cut that out of the equation, you should be right on with everyone else.”

          In racing, I am always crunching the numbers of lap times.

          After Lap Two flew by, Cazi had passed both Tory and Reptiel, but Cazi was still in third.  Why?  Garth and Snotlout had passed Cazi.  Garth now has the lead with Snotlout in second, Cazi third, and then a small break off to Tory and Repteil basically tied for fourth.

          Garth keeps on telling people that Riptide is abnormally athletic and strong for a Tide Glider dragon, and he is proving that today.  Though when Cazi gets back, I want to ask her why she is still in third; something must have happened.

          Annabeth was getting ready for the her leg of the race, tightening Anora’s straps and making sure everything is secure.  She looked extremely nervous as this will be her and Anora’s first race together and a great opportunity to show Anora off to Berk.

          I walked over to Annabeth and turned her around, grabbing both of her shoulders, and looking her square in the eye, “Annabeth.  You can do this.  Anora’s a great dragon.  You’re a great rider.  Show these people that just how good… great you two are and will be.”

          Annabeth just smiled and nodded her head.

          Annabeth still looked nervous.  That being said, I immediately then said, “Give me a side five… okay, come back… give me some fist… nice… now bang our heads together and hold.”

          As hit our helmets together, I grabbed the back of Annabeth’s head with my right hand and said again, “You.  Got.  This.  Now what do you got?”

          Annabeth then replied, “I got this race!”

          I let her go and exclaimed to be heard over the crowd, “Now get on that dragon and show ‘em what you made of!”

          I doubt if Annabeth really heard me anyway as now she looked like in a zone all her own.

          All this took only a minute.

          Now all Round Four racer got into their positions: Hyrith on Sun Rose, Deadly Nadder; Annabeth on Anora, Razorwhip; Sapphire on Seabreez, Deadly Nadder; Explodantor on Hazor and Sparko, one Zippleback not hideous; and of course Astrid and Stormfly, Deadly Nadder.

          The lookout called out again to say they were on their way.  Moments later, all the racers crossed the finish line while tagging their teammates.

          Garth had stretched his lead out a little, but if this race trends the way it has been, nothing is set in stone yet until the race is over; Garth tagged Hyrith.  Snotlout in second tagged Astrid and man, did she ever bolt out of there like there was a Flightmare on the horizon.  One second later, Cazi tagged Annabeth and… boy does Anora have a quick first burst of her own.  Then a few seconds later Tory tagged Explod, from fourth; and in fifth, Repteil tagged Sapphire.

          After the Round Four racers had left, Cazi flew over to me while I was tightening every strap on Fredrick saddle… just to make sure history will not repeat itself.

          Cazi dismounted and right then answered my question before I asked it, “Ugg that Snotlout gets on my nervous!”

          “So he was the reason you were still in third,” I stated.

          “Yeah,” Cazi said, quite irritated.  “While I was making my move second place at the while see I could during the shortcut… Garth flew quicker to my inside on the left and got next to me before I could block him, so I had to make my turn a little wider… but then all of sudden Snot-Lug shot the gap between me and Garth and nearly took me and himself out.  I probably would have done the same move, had I been in his position; but Snotlout made his turn a little wider than he should have and made me go wider.  Then I lost a tad bit of momentum trying to miss the top of a tree coming out of the shortcut.  I was able to make up some ground, but Snotlout and especially Garth broke off some from me.”

          Just then the racers blew past us in a rush of air.  Astrid just passed Garth on the outside as they cross the line; was that ever a beautiful pass, she set that up nicely coming from her exit of Turn Eight.  Garth obviously now it second, trailing behind but closing is Annabeth in third, and again fourth and fifth are tied with each those two being Sapp and Explod.

          Getting on my dragon, I maneuvered Fredrick up to the grandstand’s edge of where the racers have been setting up for each tag in the race.

          Coming back around for their Lap Two, the Round Four racers came.  Astrid is in first now.

          “Go, Go, GO, Annabeth!” I shouted as Annabeth is getting ready to pass Garth coming out of Turn Eight.

          Annabeth kept in her bank from the last turn, Garth looked back and saw Annabeth had the momentum, and so he and Riptide went to the inside to block.  But the moment they did that, Annabeth had Anora break off the bank and dive to the outside of Garth and passed him as the crossed the start-finish line heading into the first turn.

          “You go girl!” I shouted.

          Explodantor and is in fourth, but only by a Zippleback’s head.  Sapphire and Seabreez, in fifth currently, I know will not go down without a fight.

          Finally, the last round is here; The “Money” Round as I see it.  In this final round are the following: Hattori and Shadow Strike, a Monstrous Nightmare; myself and Fredrick, a Thunderdrum; Meen and Spined, a Deadly Nadder; Ashley and Megan, a Deadly Nadder; and none other than Hiccup and Toothless, the Night Fury.

          All of us got into our positions on the bridge.  The trap doors for the sheep bins were closed.

          My heart is pounding, which felt like it is going to leap from my chest at any moment… My breathing is deep, trying to keep myself calm… Nervousness and excitement chills running down my spine…  Counting down each second when the lookout will call out they are coming…

          I thought I am being cool and calm, but looking at my dragon I saw that he is more so than I am.

          When the lookout called out, “Here they come!”

          The thought of lap times of others, my lap times, the positions of who is where, what round it is… all went away from my mind.

          To me, everything was as quiet as ever.  The crowd is screaming and yelling, but I did not hear them.  I am completely zoned out of everything around me… better yet… I am completely zoned-in on the race.

          I looked back and saw both, Annabeth and Anora, Astrid and Stormfly fly out of Turn Eight side by side.

          Grabbing my saddle horn with my left hand and raising my right arm… I waited.

          Toothless looked over at Fredrick and gave a short roar as if to say, “You ready?”

          Fredrick replied with a two shorter sounds which were like drum sounds that sounded like he said, “Oh yeah!”

          Plain as the nose on my face I heard Annabeth yell, “GO!” as she slapped my hand.

          That is what I was going to say to Fredrick to signal him to go with two nudges, one from each foot.  But Annabeth can say it too.

          Fredrick took off at the same time Toothless took off.  I noticed with each round before, the racer being did not have to worry about running into their teammate tagging them, because every tag was done from the side or diagonal.  But Annabeth had carried so much speed that she flew over top of me.  I got out from under Anora just in time as she and Annabeth flew down behind me after tagging.

          Now at the start of the Final Round, each rider making the necessary commands to their dragons for them to maneuver through the first two turns.  Even though we launched at the same time, Toothless and Hiccup easily took the lead by the first straightaway.

          I say this I do not know how many times, Thunderdrums have poor accelerations, especially from complete stops, and you must work from behind.  By now, I am used to it… and actually like playing from behind.  Whatever the leader does, it will dictate what I do.  Whatever moves the leader makes, I can react and change my line to get a better angle at them.  On the other hand, I have said this a bunch of times too:  Thunderdrums are one of the best, if not the best, at keeping all the speed and momentum they build up.  The rider then must do all they can to put their dragon in the best position possible to keep this speed and momentum, because one false move and your whole race could be over.

          Scrunching up into my racing crouch, I nudged Fredrick to the left a little to get right behind Hiccup and Toothless.  I found out if you get right behind another dragon, who is flying at high speeds, your dragon will not have to work as much but will fly just as fast if not faster than the dragon in front of you.  We used this technique to fly to and from The Golden Isles.  Though, I am not sure how many know how to convert this technique to racing.

          I hardly ever glance back at who is behind me on straightaways, but I did just now as we flew over the Academy.  It looks like it is a three way battle for third between Hattori, Meen, and Ashley.  All three of them, thanks to Annabeth’s and Anora’s last lap, are a little over two hundred and fifty feet behind me and Hiccup.

          I stayed behind Hiccup throughout Lap One.

          Each time I came to a turn, I started somewhere in the middle of the entrance of the turn, banked enough into the turn for each specific turn to the point where I had to duck a few times and hit my head, and was able to be in good position to do the same for the next turn.

          By the time Fredrick and I had gotten back around to the last village turns on the track, both dragons look to be at their top speeds.  But it looked like Hiccup is holding back something, so I held Fredrick right behind Toothless.  I kept the pressure on Hiccup so he would have to push Toothless to go faster more than Hiccup wanted to.  As I entered the village turns, we are going so fast that all is need was a couple flaps of Fredrick’s wings to change directions.  Fredrick banked and used the momentum he had built up to keep his speed.  Out of my preifial vision, I saw Hattori and Ashley with Meen right there, in that order, now coming into Turn Five while Hiccup and I were exiting Turn Eight to Turn One.

          Hiccup and I went One-Two over the start-finish line to complete our first lap of the last round.  So, it is a three way battle for third and a two way battle for the win.

          Flying back over the docks and past the Academy again, we entered the shortcut.  Both Hiccup and I made short work of the forest areas after the shortcut.  Neither one of us had any problems traversing over, under, or around any trees.  I kept right behind Toothless to keep in his draft of air flow.

          While trying to accomplish this after flying through the “Donut Hole”, I noticed Hiccup and Toothless dove down quickly to the ocean and flew right above it.  Fredrick and I are close enough to Hiccup and Toothless that the water wake that was made by those two flying so close to the water, Fredrick and I were not affected by it.  I could feel a mist hit my face, but that was it.  However, this game me an idea for the final lap.

          Again, Hiccup and I went One-Two over the start-finish line, although this time Toothless and Fredrick were both practically touching tail to nose.

          Hiccup dove right and then left like he normally did through Turns One and Two.

          I however, did my special move.  I gave Fredrick the necessary nudges to execute the move:  As Fredrick banked right into Turn One, he continued to roll over to the position he could bank left into Turn Two; basically doing a gradual barrel roll.  This brought Fredrick and I on Toothless’ and Hiccup’s outside.

          “Just where I want to be,” I thought.

          Nearing the shortcut, Hiccup and Toothless banked left early into the shortcut.  I held Fredrick until a second after they did their bank to do our bank left.  My dragon and I entered the left turn a little late, still because of the degree of the turn and our lateness into it, Fredrick and I came out on the inside with Toothless and Hiccup to our right, on the outside, and slightly ahead.  Fredrick and I are now past Toothless’ tail.  Flying through the “Donut Hole” Hiccup let Toothless go to now his full speed, and those two pulled ahead of us coming out of the “Donut Hole.”

          Again Hiccup and Toothless dove down to the water level below, I held back some on the reins and instead had Fredrick gradually, little by little, fly downward.  Even then, I did not let Fredrick go down all the way to water.  I had him level off about three hundred feet above the water and Hiccup.

          When Hiccup and I approached the fifth turn to the left past his house, our dragons were… side by side.  Toothless to my right, and I on Hiccup’s left.

          Both dragons banked sharply into each turn remaining turn, still side by side.

          Turn Five, bank left.

          Turn Six, bank right.

          Turn Seven, bank left.

          Turn Eight, bank left.

          Right as I came out of Turn Seven to continue banking left into Turn Eight, I felt Hiccup coming up on my outside.  So I nudged Fredrick once in the left side to continue to a roll over.  This made Fredrick do one quick flap of the wings as we crossed the finish line, upside down, looking at Hiccup and Toothless to see the other.

          Who won the race?

          Honestly… I could not tell you.  It was that close.

          Toothless was the first to Turn One, so I am thinking Toothless won.

          Hiccup and I slowed up our dragons over the docks and then Hiccup said, “Awesome race, Jarl.”

          “Thanks,” I replied.  “You are one of the great racers and dragon riders around.”

          “Thank you for the compliment,” Hiccup answered.  “Toothless and I were pushed to our limits.  I was holding back slightly on Toothless in the first lap, but you put on so much pressure that I had to just let Toothless go off sooner than I wanted him too.  Then when you pulled up alongside us right after we got the white flag for the final lap, I did everything I could to keep you at bay, but you and Fredrick just kept coming at me.”

          Just then Sapphire, Ashley, along with Hattori came up to us, I asked, “So who finished where?”

          Hattori spoke up, “While Ash and I were battling for position, Sapphire came from underneath us to take third.  Ashley and I are I bet tied for fourth.”

          Sapphire then asked, “You and Hiccup basically ‘checked out’ of the race in front of us.  Seabreez and I were too busy dealing with two of the greatest racers that we did not see who won?”

          “I believe Hiccup did,” I said.

          Hiccup then suggested, “Let’s go back and see.”

          All of us circled back around and went back to the place where we lined up before the race started.  We were greeted by fans, friends, family, and vikings alike cheering for one of the greatest and closest competitions to ever be on Berk; through all the Thawfest games and boat races, this has got to be the most exciting and closest finish to any contest in the history of Berk!

          Each team swarmed their Final Round’s racer.  The crowd is going nuts as pandemonium spread like wild fire with the crowd come storming off the grandstands.

          I saw Stoick, Gobber, Spitelout, and Elder Gothi in conference.  They must be deciding who won the race.

          As I look all around me, I saw to my left Toothless nudging Hiccup in the back; Hiccup mouthed the words I believe to be, “I know.”

          It is so loud that I could not hear what he said, but I am fairly good at reading lips.  Taking into consideration what just happened, Toothless’ nudge into Hiccup, and what we are all waiting for… and that it was short with simple words which I can see better… I could figure out what Hiccup said.

          Just as my family broke through the crowd to reach me, Gothi banged her staff on the wooden stage and Stoick used his weapon, hammer, to quiet the crowd down.

          “Okay folks, quiet down, quiet down now,” Stoick yelled to get everyone’s attention.  Once the commotion had died down, Stoick spoke normally, “In Dragon Racing history and also the closest finish in any contest or competition in the history of Berk… that was the most exciting thing I have ever seen.”

          The crowd gave a short roar.

          “After debating this over amongst the elders the past several minutes,” Stoick said.  “We honestly do not know who won.  It was that close!”

          The crowd gave another short roar.

          Before Stoick could continue, Hiccup spoke out, “Dad, could I say something?”

          “Go ahead son,” Stoick waved his right hand as Hiccup began.

          “I know with every competition and ever race, there is always that one person who knows the outcome of it,” Hiccup said.  “All of you are probably thinking I won the race.  I would too, if I saw from where you were.  But I cannot in good conscience do the same.  As Jarl and Fredrick did that last quickly little flap of the wings, I looked straight up to see who won.  What I saw was the middle of Fredrick’s back as we crossed the finish line.  Jarl won the race.”

          The crowd the erupted; Stoick was able to squeeze in before it go extremely loud, “Let’s head to The Great Hall for the winner’s celebration!”

          I then felt myself being lifted up off the ground… it is my dad.

          The whole entire crowd marched all the way to The Great Hall chanting, “Jarl, Jarl, Jarl…!”

          Once we were there, I was set down and everyone clamored over to get some food for supper.  Hiccup said in passing, “Second again.”

          I just chuckled.

          All my friends and family passed by congratulating me on my win and also congratulating me on a job well done in accordance with the mystery of The Golden Isles or the Legend of The Shadow Dragon.

          And then I looked at all the joyous and wonderful people in this grand hall.  I began to think about it all…

Now this…

This is Berk.

Berk is not just a speck of land in the sea.

Berk is not just a place on a map…

Berk is family.

Berk is friends.

Berk is dragons.

Berk is a way of life.

Berk is in your heart.

Berk.

Is.

Home.

I've got my title for my next story:

On the Edge of Mystery

What do you guys think?

I guess I forgot to post the next link to my chapter for my new book.

Well here's the link: http://forum.schoolofdragons.com/content/fan-fic-fridays-edge-mystery-chapter-1-reflecting#comment-434846