Selene

Chapter Forty: Brain Games

Trooper skid to a stop, snorting out his triumph in a little puff of smoke.

"Yeah, that's cool and all, but can you do this?" Camicazi and 'Stormfly' shot straight up, dove, and zipped between the tightly woven forest trees, loop da looping the last one and double back.

"Beat that!" Camicazi challenged, beaming in competitive triumph. Stormfly was breathing deeply, her scales rosy orange and head held high.

The terrible terror scratched out some friendly trash talk and wiggled his rump. He leapt from the ground in a burst of wingflaps, speeding not between the trunks of the trees as the Rocket Ripper had done but between, over and under the canopy of branches above. On the last tree he spiraled all the way up and back down, then headed back the way he came.

'Stormfly' noticed the way he looked back at her every time he did something impressive, and used her feminine charm to turn the competition around. She tilted her head downwards a little bat her eyes slowly, a very friendly smile on her face and long lashes bouncing lightly up and down.

It did the trick. Trooper's little heart skipped a beat at the attention she gave him, and his eyes focused only on the rocket ripper.

Thunk!

Scree!

He fluttered to the ground.

"Whoo hoo! We won!" Camicazi shouted from the rock she sat on, arms in the air as a disgruntled Trooper stormed up. Stomfly snickered... but in a sort of friendly way. "As if there was any doubt we would!" The wild haired girl finished proudly.

Scree! Scre scree! Grrrr scre scre scree, scree! The little dragon protested.

"Don't be a sore looser... or be one if you wish you are after all a boy dragon.

He growled.

"We'd be delighted to trounce you again! Name the place and time."

Before the Terror could get out a hiss they caught the distinct sound of someone being drug, against their will, through brush and grass. Mush was the first to be seen, steadily making his way toward Camicazi, with Hiccup in tow stopping and staggering every few seconds with objection.

"Are you kidding? Back where we started??" He groaned, seeing Camicazi.

"That was quick. You forget something?" The girl snickered.

"Yes." Mush answered without a hint of amusement.

"We made progress," The Chief grunted. "Got halfway there when MUSH decided to turn back around. Didn't even get within sight of the cave."

She gave him a dubious look and turned to Mush. "Did you?"

"No."

"Then the helmet didn't work."

"We never got close enough to see if it worked."

"Mush did you say the magic word?"

"Yes."

"Hiccup what was the magic word?"

"I don't know. WE NEVER SAW THE DRAGON."

"Oh like you would remember if you had,"

"That is the point of this thing!" He tried to pull the helmet off... but instead fell over and had to scoot out of it.

Camicazi laughed. "This is the best job I've ever had. Here's the next one!"

She hopped down from the rock and dunked another helmet on his head, a little smaller and dustier colored than the last one. "Myrddin doesn't have high hopes for this one, but said we should try them all anyways." A wicked look came to her eye. "Better start with the least likely and make our way up to the more."