Dragon Racing:

It was late morning over the farthest reaches of the Northern Hemisphere in early summer. Snow had just about melted away in the southern-most islands of the archipelagos that were dotted around the area and the trees shone emerald green on the land, lush and dense. One island in particular was a bustle of activity during this time of year– it rose from clouds of sea mist with mountains that stretched to the clouds like proud spires. Its forests cloaked its back like a wad of green velvet over the dark grey-brown rock that made up the island.

This is Berk. The best kept secret this side of...well...anywhere. Granted, it may not look like much but this wet heap of rock packs more than a few surprises.

Within the village, a small group of sheep scuttled in between the houses fearfully as shadows shot past overhead. They bleated in mild terror as they ran among the buildings, trying as much as possible to stay out of the mid-morning sunshine.

Life here is amazing, just not for the faint of heart. You see, while most folks enjoy hobbies like whittling or needlepoint, us Berkians enjoy a little something we like to call…

One sheep was accidentally nudged out of its hiding spot by its fellows as the shadows flew past again. For a moment its eyes widened in a horrified acceptance of its fate before a pair of clawed paws snatched it from the ground.

Dragon Racing!

Hoots and screams of triumph and competitiveness sounded among the roars of both speeding dragons and the watching crowds in the stands below. It was a day of racing again on the Isle of Berk and the original Dragon Riders were the day's competitors. Each of the riders and their dragons had their team colours painted on their faces and along their dragons and currently five of the six Riders were actually in the race. Fishlegs Ingerman, the dragon statistics nerd of the group who was now a young adult of nineteen, currently had the sheep grasped in his dragon's claws – the dragon in question was a Gronkle named Meatlug (team colours: orange and green). Fishlegs hollered triumphantly and he sped around the track faster than Meatlug had ever been able to go when he was a younger teen but his victory was short lived as a bright red Monstrous Nightmare crashed into him from behind, stealing the sheep from him (well, they're Vikings. No one ever said they played fair).

"Oh, I'm sorry, Fishlegs!" the young man mounted on the Nightmare sneered. It was Snotlout Jorgenson, now twenty, with his dragon, Hookfang (team colours: red and yellow). "Did you want that?"

"Snotlout! That was mine!" Fishlegs yelled irritably as he tried to steal the sheep back but Snotlout braked so that the guy shot straight past him. Instead, he slowed down enough for a green Hideous Zippleback to catch up before he tossed the sheep up to one of its riders.

"Here you go, babe!" Snotlout called to Ruffnut, the female of the Thorston twins who was riding on Barf, one of the heads of the Zippleback (colours: blue and yellow). She caught it easily although her brother, Tuffnut tried to snatch it on Belch's head (colours: yellow and black). "Did I tell you that you look amazing today?" Snotlout asked smoothly. He'd been trying to get Ruffnut's attention for quite some time now given that she was the only single lady around his age left on Berk. "Cos you do," he smiled.

"Ugh..." Ruffnut huffed, glaring at Snotlout over the sheep. "Come on, Barf," she muttered in disgust. "It's starting to stink around here." As the twins urged Barf-Belch on, Tuffnut leered at Snotlout whilst Barf began setting off a stream of gas that Snotlout failed to notice.

"Nope, still hates you!" Tuffnut snapped dryly. "Let's blow this place, Belch!" he yelled as the Zippleback set off an explosion that sent Snotlout tumbling through the air for a moment, giving the twins time to finish the lap and throw the sheep into their respective net. The only other net that had anything in it was the one with the Deadly Nadder symbol.

"That's nine for the twins!" Stoick the Vast, the chief of the Hooligan tribe, announced from the stands, where he was observing from his chief's throne. "Hiccup lags with three; Snotlout and Fishlegs trail with none..." Stoick took a quick glance around the stands and the air before sitting down in disappointment. One dragon and rider team had failed to show up to the races. "And Astrid is...nowhere to be found," he grunted. His close friend, Gobber the Belch, leaned over with a dry smirk on his face.

"Scared her off with the big talk this mornin', didn't ya, Stoick?" he remarked. Stoick sighed – true, he'd been giving both his son and foster-daughter a lot of pep-talks as of late and just this morning he'd given Astrid an announcement about her future in the village. True, she was prepared to become Hiccup's wife – in fact, the wedding wasn't far off now – and accepted that she was expected to help him run the village from time to time but Stoick had decided she was ready for something more – something even more significant than just 'the Chief's Wife'. The thing is, Astrid had left the house almost as soon as Stoick had mentioned it this morning, unlike Hiccup who was readily preparing for when his father retired as chief.

Oh, and speaking of Hiccup...

CLUNK!

"OW!" Snotlout yelped as someone's fist became best friends with the back of his head. He turned around to see the face of his cousin, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III (twenty; proud; headstrong; secretly a dork) glaring at him.

"What are you doing, Snotlout?" Hiccup snapped as he flew up next to Snotlout on his Nadder, Stormfly (team colours: blue and orange). "They're gonna win now!" he added irritably, frustrated that Snotlout wasn't even trying to win as he had done when they were younger. Hiccup himself was highly competitive and hated it when people didn't even try.

"She's my princess!" Snotlout protested. "Whatever she wants she gets!"

"Ruffnut?" Hiccup spluttered. Okay, it was better than Snotlout constantly hitting on his girlfriend (not to mention, betrothed), Astrid Hofferson, as he had done after the battle with the Red Death (well, going between hitting on her and hating on her at times) but seriously? "Didn't she try to bury you alive?" he pointed out.

"Only for a few hours!" Snotlout laughed as he tagged the weather-vane to start the next lap. Did that really justify it?

Now, dragons used to be a bit of a problem but that was five years ago. Now they've all moved in and, really, why wouldn't they? We've got custom stables, all-you-can-eat feeding stations, a full service dragon wash...

As the racers passed overhead, a baby Gronkle sneezed, setting off a fireball that hit the roof of a nearby house. Hiccup inhaled sharply and quickly set off a contraption that held a bucket of water which tipped over and doused the flames before they could spread out of control. He was not having another house set on fire on his watch!

Even top-of-the-line fire prevention, if I do say so myself.

Meanwhile, in the stands Stoick and Gobber clapped with the rest of the crowd as the Riders flew past before Stoick patted Gobber's arm.

"It's time, Gobber," he muttered. Gobber nodded.

"Righty-ho," he replied before waving at a Viking standing by a large horn on a podium near the scoring baskets. "Last lap!" he called as the horn went. Hiccup's head pricked up – he knew what that meant.

"The black sheep!" he exclaimed. In Dragon Racing, the black sheep was worth ten points. If Hiccup could just get that sheep into his basket, he could raise his total to thirteen and trounce the twins. "Come on, Stormfly," Hiccup urged his dragon. "We can still win this thing!"

On the ground, Gobber stood by the catapult which launched the sheep into the air. Currently the black sheep had no idea what was coming and was lazily chewing some grass as a yellow streak was painted on its nose.

"This is your big moment," Gobber chuckled, readying the catapult. "Have a nice flight!"

That was when the sheep caught on and bleated loudly before it was fired into the air. Hiccup kept his eyes trained on the animal.

"Up! Up! Up! Up!" he encouraged as Stormfly extended her claws but just as they were about to grab the darn thing, Fishlegs grabbed it first. "DAMMIT!"

"Yes!" Fishlegs cheered. "Good job, Meatlug." However, instead of flying towards his basket, he threw the sheep to Ruffnut. Like Snotlout, Fishlegs was also trying to win Ruffnut over. Needless to say, she ignored him. "Here you go, darling! Mine's worth ten!" he called as Ruffnut caught the black sheep gleefully.

"Yeah! The black sheep!" she cheered. "I'm totally winning this thing!"

"We're winning together!" Fishlegs smiled, his face starry-eyed. Ruffnut glared at him and kicked him away, sending him flying into Snotlout. The two dragons and their riders spun out of control for a while as Hiccup shot past, his face plastered with a confused stare.

"Those guys are fighting over Ruffnut?" he spluttered, half to himself and half to Stormfly who grunted in reply. Man, he was so glad that he didn't have to deal with this kind of thing. Meanwhile, back with the twins...

"Nothing can stop me now!" Ruffnut grinned gleefully. Tuffnut glared at her.

"Except me – we're attached, genius!" he scoffed as they began fighting over who would carry the sheep to the basket. "Quit trying to steal all my glory!" Tuffnut snapped. As they fought over the sheep, they failed to notice Hiccup fly up behind them.

"GO GET 'EM, HICCUP!" Stoick cheered from the stands. Hiccup grinned slyly upon hearing his father's encouragement – oh, he was gonna get them, alright.

"You're always ruining everything!" Ruffnut whined as she and her brother struggled over who was carrying the sheep.

"It's my glory! No sheep, no glory!" Tuffnut snapped back, stilling failing to notice Hiccup fly up behind them. The young man carefully balanced on Stormfly's back before taking a running jump onto Barf-Belch's back, running up Belch's neck, grabbing the sheep from Ruffnut's arms and somersaulting back onto Stormfly before either twin realised what was going on.

"Gotcha! Ha-ha!" Hiccup laughed in smug triumph.

"Hiccup!" Ruffnut exclaimed in frustration.

"Well played! That's my son!" Stoick bellowed proudly from the stands, punching Snotlout's father, Spitelout's shoulder as Hiccup raced around the final corners of the lap. However, just as Hiccup was about to dunk the sheep into his basket, Fishlegs rammed Meatlug into Stormfly, sending Hiccup and his dragon spiralling off course.

"Whoa!" Hiccup yelped, barely staying in the saddle as he clung to the black sheep – he was not about to let this one go. He recovered quickly but his eyes widened to the size of coins when he saw Snotlout and Hookfang right in front of his – Snotlout had a hammer raised above his head.

"Excuse me!" Snotlout snickered.

"STORMFLY!" Hiccup cried, ducking as Snotlout tossed the hammer in his direction. At the same time, he rolled Stormfly out of the way, not looking back when he heard the hammer connected with Fishlegs' face as the Monstrous Nightmare and Gronkle crash into each other for the second time during the race. The crowd collectively winced and a pained "Ooh!" sounded from around the stands but Hiccup paid little to no attention to it – he brought Stormfly out of their roll as they spiralled over the docks, looping back round to the finish-line. Hiccup's grin widened as he slam-dunked the black sheep into it as the horn went and the finishing flag began waving. Hiccup hooted, standing up on Stormfly's back and punching his fists into the air as he savoured his victory once again – he was actually the reigning champion of the races.

"That's thirteen! Hiccup takes the game!" Stoick cheered from the stands as Hiccup high-fived his admiring spectators, his green eyes glinting in triumph and his smile flashing as he did so.

Yep, Berk is pretty much perfect. All of my hard work has paid off and it's a good thing too, because with Vikings on the backs of dragons, the world just got a whole lot bigger.

And so it begins! Sorry this has taken so long to get here, guys. School has been manic lately. In fact, I'm posting this, as well as the latest chapter of How to Twist a Dragon's Tail, as a way of celebrating finishing all of my coursework (exams still to come...boo-hoo). Anyway, you've all been waiting for this so here you go – the next instalment of my Astrid-Hiccup Role Reversal series. The Riders of Berk stuff will be updated as and when I get a chapter finished, I'm not having many inspiration hits for that at the moment.

Few things to note about this story: Astrid will still be having an identity crisis á la Hiccup from the original HTTYD but with a different position of responsibility (explained in a couple of chapters). Also: BACKSTORY ALERT! This is going to have a LOT of it and not just limited to the flashbacks from the movie. That's all I'm going to say on the matter.