Contests and Challenges part 2

Let the... 'Challenging Contest'... begin!

"Oh it's so on!" Snotlout

shouts. "Wait! It happened again! And why am I still shouting?!" The others looked at him strangely again for a few moments, and then realize that Hiccup and Toothless aren't there!

         The twins cackled to each other a moment, thinking again that Hiccup might be converting to their side. Then they flew off, leaving Snotlout and Fishlegs spluttering at Hiccup's apparent audacity. Astrid just shook her head and smiled a moment before leaving herself. Fishlegs, realizing that everyone was leaving, got Meatlug to start flying off while he lost himself in a mess of numbers and strategies. Snotlout finally got his head around the fact that yes, it would appear that Hiccup got a head start by leaving while they were still talking, and yes, that did mean that his cowardly fishbone of a cousin had grown a spine, and some nerve to go with it. The order of the world had changed, it is true (It hadn't, he was just catching up to it... again), but he understood, and he was still better, so it was okay.

"Alright, Hiccup, you're so on," Snotlout started his monologue to the others, before realizing that he was the only one still there. "Oh come on! Again? Fine! Hookfang, let's go win this thing!"

         Mere moments after Snotlout finally leaves, Ruffnut flies back on Barf&Belch. Sven, standing in the middle of the pasture to act as scorekeeper, notices that Tuffnut is strangely absent, but tallies the two sheep in B&B's claws under Ruffnut's name regardless. She flies off to find her brother.

         "There you are, bro," Ruffnut calls out to her brother as she circles down. He comes to meet her, leading two sheep.

"I think I heard some more to the west, sis. I'll look for you there when I get back."

"Alright, cool. They're never gonna beat this strategy!"

"Nope! Bet they didn't even consider we might tally our scores separately, but count them together at the end!" Tuffnut cackled a bit as he flew off alone with the sheep. Ruffnut ran west to find her own.

         Astrid is the next rider to bring sheep to the pasture. She comes flying in low and fast, Stormfly dropping the two sheep in her claws as she wheels back around. Astrid tosses the sheep that had been quivering behind her before they speed off. Sven takes a moment to make sure his poor sheep are okay, before marking down Astrid's three sheep.

         Hiccup swoops in shortly after Astrid leaves, bringing an impressive five sheep. He has two huddling on Toothless's back behind him, and Toothless is carrying one sheep in his hind-claws and one in each forepaw. They set their sheep down gently, before flying off again, an exhilarated look on both of their faces.

         "Alright bud, let's find some friends to help us with the next lap. I'm not sure we can manage more than five by ourselves" Toothless warbles agreeably as he speeds off, on the lookout for sheep and friendly dragons who might be interested in helping them win a game. As the two are flying around, they speed over the Cove. Fishlegs is there, leading a group of four sheep he had tied together. The brothers glide silently closer, wondering what he might be up to. As Fishlegs leads his sheep into their Cove, Hiccup realizes his friend is planning on gathering all his sheep there, and then bringing them back in carefully calculated increments. He smiles to himself, and then subtly adjusts the tailfin. Toothless understands what his brother wants even as he does it. Silently they glide closer to listen to Fishlegs.

"I'm sorry, Hiccup, please forgive me?" Fishlegs muttered to himself as he entered the cove, knowing it was Hiccup and Toothless's, and that he was no less a trespasser than if he had snuck into their bedroom. He knew that they would understand, and he would tell them later. They would probably forgive him for sneaking into their room, actually... Hiccup and Toothless smiled to themselves listening to him continue.

         While Hiccup and Toothless are watching Fishlegs, Tuffnut flies into the pasture, two sheep clutched in Barf&Belch's claws. Sven tallies them under his name as he flies off looking for his sister.

         Snotlout flies up as Tuffnut leaves, and he and Hookfang drop off three sheep before turning to leave. Sven asks him what happened to the seven he had been bragging about when he left, but Snotlout pretends not to hear him.

         Astrid arrives just in time to hear Snotlout's muttering, before dropping off another three sheep.

"You know those sheep don't count Astrid, right?" Sven asks, marking them in an 'unscored' column.

"What! Why not?" Astrid says as she turns around confused.

"You have to bring back more sheep than you did last time, which means, for you, at least four. This is only three. The rules say, if you don't bring back more, you don't get points for them."

"Oh. Huh, I thought I just couldn't bring back fewer. Oh well, guess I'll have to do better next time if I'm going to catch up." That said, She flies off to find at least four sheep.

         Ruffnut is next to return, by herself again, but with three sheep. Sven tallies her sheep, bringing her total up to five. She laughs a little bit as she leaves, which worries Sven, but honestly, her not laughing would be even scarier.

         Snotlout is flying towards the pasture with a sheep in his lap and two in Hookfang's claws when Astrid sees them. She only has the two in Stormfly's claws right now, half of the four she needs, but Snotlout isn't minding his surroundings very well...
She's doing him a favor, anyway: He's going back with three, and Sven will tell him the same thing he told her.
Wait, why is she rationalizing terrorizing Snotlout Jorgenson?? Hiccup must be rubbing off on her. Time to prove once more that she still deserves her name: Astrid 'The Fearless' Hofferson. She shifts her position on Stormfly's back and they silently dive behind Hookfang. Astrid dives off of Stormfly and grabs both sheep out of Hookfang's claws, landing in a roll. Then she runs the rest of the way to the pasture, Stormfly flying behind her. They get to Sven before Snotlout even notices the sheep are missing.

         As Snotlout flies up to Sven, he sees Astrid running away with a smirk on her face. He throws his sheep down to Sven, who catches it, and tells Hookfang to drop his. In the middle of adding to Astrid's tally (she has a total of seven now), Sven notices Hookfang jerking in alarm as he notices that his sheep are gone. Sven marks another sheep in the 'unscored' column as Snotlout flies off, berating Hookfang, who looks as confused as his rider is angry.

         Tuffnut arrives with his three sheep, but not his sister. Sven marks them down, bringing his total to five, and wonders why he and his sister keep laughing, and if it has anything to do with why they aren't together. He does not see Tuffnut land where Ruffnut has gathered three sheep, and he does not see Ruffnut fly away while Tuffnut walks. That is what happens, though, whether he saw it or not.

         Snotlout arrives angrily, having realized that Astrid must have stolen his sheep. Hookfang, on the other hand, is relieved as they drop off their sheep, because it is Astrid his rider is angry at, and his sheep were stolen, not mindlessly dropped. Sven tallies the two sheep in Hookfangs claws, and then looks further up to see Snotlout reaffirming his manliness to himself by doing a few curls with a sheep in each hand. Sven adds those to Snotlout's tally as well, bringing his total up to the seven he had been bragging about. After a few moments, Snotlout mutters "beat that, Astrid; Hiccup," before he droppes the sheep and leaves.

         Ruffnut managed to grab a fourth sheep on her way to the pasture, so she has four when she completes her third lap. Sven marks them down, bringing her total to nine, and watches as she, predictably, flies off laughing without her brother. He does not understand what they are doing, or why it is funny, but he would probably be more disturbed if he did, so he turns his attention to the next rider flying up.

         Or, riders? He sees four dragons carrying sheep headed his way. As they get closer, he understands: Hiccup and Toothless have returned, carrying five sheep again, but this time they have friends. A Monstrous Nightmare leaves two sheep with him, and a pair of Deadly Nadders each leave one. Hiccup takes the time to give Sven a brief, smug greeting before he leaves again, 'friends' in tow. Sven just shakes his head a bit, realizing that they all should have expected that Hiccup and Toothless would recruit some dragon allies. As he marks Hiccups nine new sheep down, bringing his total up to fourteen, Sven acknowledges that as long as the dragons are carrying his sheep to him, instead of taking them from him, he really doesn't care why.

         Fishlegs finally shows up, Meatlug herding four sheep. Sven marks them down, and realizes that these are Fishlegs' first sheep! Fishlegs doesn't really seem worried by this however, and he flies off with a knowing look on his face.

         Astrid finishes her fourth lap as Fishlegs finishes his first. Stormfly is carrying a sheep in each of her talons and one on her back, and she is using spine shots to guide another two on the ground. Astrid exclaims in delight as they drop off their sheep. Sven can't help but smile with the pride of Berk's teenaged generation as he marks these five sheep, bringing her total up to twelve.

         Snotlout is chanting victoriously as he brings Sven five sheep. Four of them look fine, but the one on Hookfang's back appears to be unconscious. Sven gives Snotlout a disapproving glare, but he doesn't notice shouting "Snotlout, Snotlout, Oi, Oi, Oi!" as he leaves. Sven shakes his head in disapproval, but marks the sheep anyway, bringing Snotlout's total up to twelve.

         Tuffnut arrives after Snotlout, but he only has three sheep. Sven starts to tell him that they don't count, but Tuffnut cut's him off. "I know, I know: they don't count, I needed four. May I ask, however, my good sir, how many sheep are left?"

Sven blinks at him for a moment before replying, "Uhh, let's see, I had a hundred and forty-eight missing sheep when this started, so..." He marks Tuffnut's three sheep in the 'unscored' column as he tries to figure out how many are still missing.

"Great! That means there are eighty-five missing. That's more than half of them." Tuffnut left Sven wondering how he had figured that out so fast, especially seeing as the twins can't count past twenty (they have twenty fingers between them). He was even more concerned for his sanity when he realized Tuffnut hadn't seen the scores, so he couldn't have known how many sheep the others had brought back...

         Hiccup distracted a very worried Sven. He was accompanied, of course, by even more dragons this time. "I know, its's not enough sheep, I don't get the points," Hiccup started. Sven didn't know what he was talking about for a moment. On top of the Monstrous Nightmare and pair of Nadders, there was a Hideous Zippleback carrying three sheep. Seemed like more than last time to Sven. "I had to come back to remind them why we were playing," Hiccup continued, and Sven noticed that Toothless was only carrying two sheep this time. As he marked nine in the 'unscored' column, Hiccup left.

         Sven watched Fishlegs approach with six sheep next, but before he could make it to the pasture, Snotlout and Hookfang swooped down shouting and roaring, scattering the sheep. Fishlegs complained for a moment, and then they both went around trying to gather the scattered sheep.

Not much later, Snotlout flew up with half of the original six sheep. Surprisingly, he did not throw much of a fit when Sven reminded him that they would not count. He just flew off...

Fishlegs showed up in the meantime, herding five sheep. Sven tallied them in his column, making his total nine, after he added three to the 'unscored' column.

Snotlout returned as Fishlegs was leaving, carrying a single sheep. Sven told him that it counted as another lap, and that it wouldn't have been enough even if it had not. Now Snotlout threw a but of a fit, but he stopped and flew off when he saw Astrid coming.

         Sure enough, Astrid finished her fifth lap then, Stormfly carrying three sheep and guiding another three on the ground. before they get to the pasture though, Astrid jumps off, runs down a cliff, vaults off a branch, and runs a short way into the forest. She rejoins her dragon a moment later, and herds the four sheep they now have on the ground the last stretch before they get to Sven. Sven marks these seven off as Astrid and Stormfly leave, bringing their total to nineteen.

         Ruffnut and Fishlegs arrive at the same time, but with very different flocks. Ruffnut drops off her one sheep first. "Are there even any more out there?" She asks, before noticing Fishlegs coming up behind her with six. "What, no fair! Where did you find those?"

"Umm, in the forest, mostly?" Fishlegs responds, slightly unsure if she actually wnated him to answer. It sounded like a rhetorical question, but only one of the twins even knew what questions of rhetoric were, and he couldn't remember which one.

"Ugh," Ruffnut groaned before turning back to Sven. "Nevermind, I have to go get Barf&Belch back to my brother"

Fishlegs and Sven watched her fly off for a moment, and then Fishlegs realized Tuffnut wasn't present. "Where is he, actually" He enquired.

Sven shrugged. "I don't exactly know, actually. They haven't arrived together a single time. They're usually laughing at me, too, but I haven't figured out what the joke is. Did I only wash one side of my face or something?"

Fishlegs thought for a moment, then shrugged. "No, both sides of your face look clean to me. I better get back out there, though."

Sven watched him leave, and then remembered to mark Ruffnut's sheep in the 'unscored' column, and Fishlegs' six in his own, bringing his total up to fifteen.

         Hiccup was the last to finish his second-to-last lap, with, Sven guessed it, another friend. Toothless carrying two plus one Nightmare carrying two plus two Nadders carrying one each plus one Zippleback carrying three plus one Timberjack carrying one sheep adds up to a total of ten sheep. Sven tallied each of the sheep off as Hiccup tried to keep his flock of followers organized. Eventually, all the sheep were on the ground, and all the dragons were following Hiccup and Toothless out of the pasture. Sven decided to recount, just to be sure. Hiccup's total was indeed up to twenty-four, and no amount of recounting changed that.

         When Astrid ran up, Hiccup lost the distinction of being the only rider competing with more than one dragon. Apparently, herding six sheep on the ground while Stormfly carried another three had proved a bit tricky for Astrid, because each of the six sheep had a Terrible Terror on it's back, helping Astrid herd them. As Astrid left and Sven marked her nine sheep, bringing her total up to twenty-eight; Gobber walked up with a prosthetic... horn?.. attached to his arm.

"Hiccup said you'd be needing someone to blow a horn when all you're sheep were gathered. I figured it would be a good time to try out my new arm," Gobber said in greeting. ...Sven just nodded at himself, unsure how else to respond.

         Tuffnut and Snotlout are the next to arrive. Both of them have enough sheep to earn points. Tuffnut is content with his four, but Snotlout tries to remedy that. Snotlout's six, after all, are, apparently, much stronger and healthier and Snottier? than Tuffnut's. "And did you notice there are Six of them? Huh? Well did you?" Snotlout continues, and the others just kind of let him have his moment, knowing that he'll get tired of talking to himself in a minute and leave.

Sure enough, sixty seconds pass, and Snotlout, abruptly bored, stops in the middle of his sentence and flies off, Tuffnut leaving moments after.

         Hiccup brings another friend with him this time; surprise, surprise. This friend, however, is not a new friend. Torch carries two sheep as he helps Hiccup and Toothless keep the other dragons on task. A considerable feat: Monstrous Nightmare, one, carrying one sheep. Deadly Nadders, two, carrying one sheep each. Hideous Zippleback, one, carrying three sheep. Timberjack, one, now carrying two sheep. Gronkles, two, carrying one sheep each. Torch the Typhoomerang, one, carrying two sheep. And finally, Toothless the Nightfury, one, carrying four sheep! Gobber and Sven try to count them all, but lose track of all the wings and talons. "Seventeen," Hiccup calls down to them, "Which brings my total up to fory-one."

"Yes, but how many dragons was that?" Gobber asks, admitting to himself that he's not actually all that surprised that Hiccup used a flock of dragons to win a competition.

"Oh, that's what you were counting? I only had nine dragons this time."

"Uh-huh... wait! ONLY nine?? and what do you mean 'this time'??" But their words fell on empty ears. Hiccup and his flock of 'only' nine dragons were already gone.

         Hiccup had not been gone long, however, before he returned. He was not alone, of course, but he wasn't even the only viking, this time. As he was flying around, he saw Fishlegs leading seven sheep towards the pasture. In order to stop Snotlout from stealing them, he had tied them all together in a string. Hiccup guessed that these were the last sheep, and that any time he spent searching would be wasted, so he offered to 'help' Fishlegs get his sheep back faster. Fishlegs was dubious that this was not some kind of trick at first, remembering Hiccup's stunt at the beginning. But when Hiccup said that he wouldn't be able to count them anyway, Fishlegs laughed a bit and accepted his 'help.' It wasn't that surprising after all, considering the number of dragons accompanying Hiccup.

         As Sven marked off the last seven sheep in Fishlegs' column, bringing his total up to twenty-two, Gobber blew his... arm? The other riders showed up soon after, Ruffnut and Tuffnut together for once.

"Alright, I'm going to announce the scores now, in order of who got the least sheep. Not points, sheep." *Blank stares from Snotlout and the twins* Gobber tried again "Most of you brought back more sheep than you got points for. I'm going to tell you how many points everyone got, in order of how many sheep you got, last place first, and work our way up to first" *Snotlout's still lost* "Ugh, just listen."

"Ruffnut, you brought back ten sheep, and you got nine points.

"Tuffnut, you brought back twelve sheep, and you got nine points.

"Fishlegs, you brought back twenty-two sheep, and you got twenty-two points.

"Snotlout, you brought back twenty-three sheep, and you got eighteen points.

"Astrid, you brought back thirty-one sheep, and you got twenty-eight points.

"Hiccup, you brought back fifty sheep, and you got forty-one points.

"That means, Hiccup, you're the Winner, Second Place goes to Astrid, Fishlegs takes Third, and the Thorstons come in last, whether they combine their points or not."