Friendly competition

The day had arrived.

As agreed, both competing parties would meet just after class to begin preparations for the main event, and allow their small audience to get there and even go for some food. So was the case with Sandbar and Silverstream —they were hurrying up to get to the field in time, but with a long walk ahead of them, they made some small talk to pass the time.

"So tell me Silver', what do you think about this race thing?" Sandbar asked.

"I'm surprised they haven't done it until now, but it'll be interesting".

Sandbar nodded in agreement, but something else worried him "And what about that scoreboard Gallus wants? Don't you think they might get a little carried away, trying to one-up each other?"

"Maybe" but then something occurred to her "But it could be fun if we get involved, what do you say?".

"Uh- well- yeah, maybe. I would participate in their race if I could fly, or if It was on the ground".

They kept walking and soon arrived at where the race would take place. An empty, mostly flat grass field that ran between the face of the mountain north to the school and road far to the south; and a forest further down the friend to the east. Ideal for their little race, with little to no air traffic or obstacles.

Three they saw that some of their friends were already there. Ocellus and Yona were seated on top of a small hill overlooking the field, eating their lunch. But when they saw their friend they got up to greet them.

"Yona happy to see friends!" She said while hugging them a little bit too tightly.

"Glad to see you too Yona" said Sandbar struggling to breathe until Yona let go of him and Silverstream. After catching his breath, he reached for his backpack. He shuffled through his things looking for something, exclaiming "Ah Huh!" when he found what he was looking for.

"Check this out".

Yona's eyes widened in excitement. "Did Sandbar's mom make more threats for us?!".

"Nope, but it's something just as cool". He then gently pulled a grey plastic case out of his backpack, confounding his friends, except Ocellus, who gasped knowing exactly what it was.

"Is that a–" Ocellus stuttered.

"Yes, yes it is!" He said, opening the case, and revealing what was inside.

"Here be the HCC–100, the first equestrian digital video recorder!".

"Wooow" his friends said in awe as he showed it to them. But he wasn't done showing off his toys. He reached for something else in his backpack, pulling out a foldable trípod for his camcorder.

"Where did you get one of these?" Asked Ocellus.

"My father bought a filming set with this stuff and an editing program, which was the most expensive thing besides the camera".

While he was setting up his camera, the girls decided to settle down on the grass. It was then that Silverstream asked them where Gallus and Smolder were; after all, they were the ones who summoned them there. To the surprise of both her and Sandbar, their friends explained that they were the first to arrive and went out to set up the 'track'.

"So where are they?" asked Silverstream.

Yona pointed to where they went "Friends are just over near the forest–" she paused, just noticing they weren't three anymore, or anywhere they could see.

Silverstream squinted her eyes, scanning the tree line and the sky for their friends. "Maybe they went into the forest, I'll go and check on them".

She proceeded to take off. She flew close to the ground before reaching the edge of the forest, where she stopped to look for their friends through the threes, without success. So she took off again and flew into the forest, just above the trees, to look for her friends. Soon enough, amid the sounds of the forest, she heard some voices in the distance, and she followed them to a dried riverbed. She landed at the bottom, but after looking around for a bit, couldn't find her friends, but the voices were closer and were definitely her friends'. She followed them, and at last, she found them; Smolder was sitting on a fallen tree over what used to be a small stream, and Gallus was at the bottom, and of course, they were arguing.

She called out to them as she took off to sit on the same tree as Smolder. "Finally I found you guys!" she said as she sat beside Smolder, who welcomed her with a fistbump.

"Hi Silver', what brings you here?". Smolder asked her.

"Well, we were wondering what you two were up to in the middle of nowhere" she answered.

Gallus shook his head "Well, we already agreed on the route we'll take, but Smolder insists we should fly on this fringe, but I strongly believe it's better and safer that we just follow it while flying close to three top level".

"More like boring" Said Smolder "There's enough space for both of us to fly side by side and still have some to spare!".

"With space to spare, she means like a meter or less on each side, and that's the case on this stretch, over there's less than a meter for just one of us" Gallus snapped back "And as far as I know dragon wings take a long time to heal, a lot longer than a griffon's".

Their argument went back and forth, even Smolder stood up on the three she was sitting on, and it started to get loud. So Silverstream, wanting to defuse the situation, gave them a proposal. "While you two think about that, can I ask you something?".

Gallus and Smolder paused their bickering to listen to her "Sure, go ahead" Smolder told her.

"Is it too late for me to join the race?".

They glanced at each other and agreed to let their friend in. "S-Sure, absolutely!" said Gallus, a little too excited to have another competitor in the race. But Smolder, with a wide smile on her face, saw an opportunity to get her way in their dispute.

She sat back down, wrapping her arm around Silverstream, and asked her "Well now that you are on the race... what do you prefer, flying through the forest or above it?".

But Silverstream wasn't sure. She thought about it for a moment, but with her roommate hugging her and Gallus making puppy eyes, she couldn't decide. But it was then that she got an idea.

"I think I need to see the rest of the track to decide".

Smolder rolled her eyes but agreed with her, but before she or Silver' could stand up, Gallus took to the air with a jump and started climbing —"Follow me, you'll see everything from up here" he said, while his friends took off. They climbed to where they could see the surrounding area unobstructed. Then Gallus cleared his throat before showing the track to Silverstream.

"So, we take off from where Yona and Ocellus are, then we fly straight to the forest heading towards that big old three lying on another one. Then we come to the first left turn to follow this fringe we were just in until it ends, and then we turn to the left to follow that trail. We follow it until that wooden fence, where we do a sharp turn to the left until we are parallel to that stonewall. Again, we follow it 'til it ends, and finally, we head back to the starting line. Which comes up to a 4 and a half to 5 kilometers of flying, give or take —got it?".

She hovered there, taking a good look at the path he just laid down. It took her a moment to decide, but she finally made one —"Yeah, I got it".

Her friends were anxious to know her answer, so they got closer, flanking her, to hear her —"I think we can fly through the forest". One could've seen Gallus' smile washing off, while Smolder celebrated getting her way, but then Silverstream said "But".

"But what?!" Exclaimed Smolder, startling Silverstream, but she continued.

"But, he has a point. There isn't enough space to safely overtake in that stretch, so how about we just don't overtake there".

They thought about It, but Smolder argued against it.

"Why not overtake from above or below?".

Gallus shook his head —"And shove the others into the ground at full speed with the downdraft, great idea". Smolder scuffed, but ultimately backed down —"You don't have to say like that".

"So... do you guys agree?" Asked Silverstream. They, although reluctantly, agreed with the compromise. Now that they were on the same page, they quickly flew back to the starting line with their friends.

But when they got there, they found their friends either sleeping or on the verge of. Yona was lying on the grass and Ocellus lying on her left side, both deeply asleep, while Sandbar was just dozing off on her right side. When the trio landed he was the only one to notice, but with his vision already blurry, it took him a good second or two to realize his griffon friend was standing right in front, calling for him. He snapped out of his slumber, his sudden jolt waking up Yona and in turn Ocellus.

Gallus let out a little laugh as he helped him get up —"I told you all-nighters are a bad idea". But then Sandbar surprised them with something.

"Hey, I wasn't the one to go missing for an hour".

"What?!" The now three competitors exclaimed. They hadn't realized how long they'd taken to set up their path —"Next time scope out the area before the actual race" said Ocellus, just waking up.

"Anyway, can we get on with this? We've taken long enough" Smolder urged them, so they got to work the final details of their race. Gallus helped Sandbar set up his tripod while Silverstream got the camera, and Smolder, Yona, and Ocellus quickly carved a starting line in the ground, making sure it faced the intended direction. When they were done double-checking everything, the competitors proceeded to their starting positions, with Gallus on the right, Smolder on the center, and Silverstream on the left, with enough space between them to fully spread their wings. Then Sandbar started recording, making final adjustments, and giving an introduction, as if he was an announcer, of what was about to unfold, to the amusement of his friends. Now that everyone was in position, Yona moved to one side to start the countdown.

"Ready? 3... 2... 1... Go!".

They instantly took off, leaving a cloud of dust behind them. They accelerated as fast as they could to get good positions before reaching the forest, but so far, only one was at the front. It didn't take long for Gallus to take the lead; he took a quick look behind and saw a... not so happy dragon. Smolder was trying her hardest to overtake him, and while everyone thought they were close, she didn't seem to get closer by the time they reached the forest.

They took the forest sharp turn to enter the fringe at full speed, skimming the top of some threes as they quickly descended. Now it was all about maneuvering. The first half was easy, with many continuous turns, but with a lot of space to take them. The problem was after the widest part, where the fringe narrowed and the turns became tighter. And on the very first turn of that section, all three of them almost crashed into the threes, forcing them to slow down. But soon Gallus managed to get back up to speed, widening the gap between him, Smolder, and Silverstream.

After coming out of the forest, they quickly picked up their speed. Smolder again flapped as fast as she could to catch up with Gallus, but at the edge of her sight, something caught her attention. She saw a shadow of someone; she glanced behind her and saw Silverstream right on her tail. She tried flying faster, but Silverstream not only kept up but was also moved to one side, preparing to overtake her, so she tried to block her by maneuvering, not giving her an opening. It seemed to work, but Silverstream still stuck too close for comfort—she was biding her time.

They quickly reached the wooden fence and the sharp turn to the left. Gallus, still on the lead by a good margin, wanted to keep it that way, so he entered the turn at full speed; he stopped flapping and kept his wings wide open and angled in such a way to quickly make the turn conserving as much energy as possible, and even tho the trying to hold that form would exert a great force on the wings, Gallus managed to complete the turn. But right behind him, a battle was raging.

Smolder was still trying to fend off Silverstream, blocking her continued attempts to get ahead, which caused her to notice the turn a little too late. In an effort to make the turn she tried to slow down, but it was too late for that; she had no option but to widen her turn, wide enough for Silver'. She seized her chance, slipping inside and above Smolder's turn with a maneuver similar to that of Gallus, only that she accelerating now that Smolder was going slower, swiftly getting ahead of her. When Smolder saw her appear ahead of her, she shouted "Dangit, Silverstream!" in frustration. As for Silvestream, she was off to her next target—Gallus.

After pulling off such a maneuver, he thought he could relax before the last turn, just maintaining his speed and energy. But as the turn was coming up, he looked behind, and saw Silverstream now in second place, and rapidly approaching. He immediately picked up the pace to keep her at a safe distance as he entered the turn at full speed, even tho it seemed to work at first, Silverstream wasn't giving up on passing him. She gathered all her energy and pushed herself to fly faster, slowly gaining on Gallus.

At the final stretch, it was looking like a very tight race, with Silverstream already on Gallus' tail; he thought of blocking her, much like Smolder did, but he said to himself "Let's see if she keeps it up". Still, he wasn't just going to give the win to her, so he forced himself to fly faster, even though he was getting tired. Moments from the finish line, Silverstream managed to get beside Gallus, an arm's length away from getting ahead of him; both were pushing themselves to their limit, completely focused on getting every last bit of speed they could.

Their friends, observing the spectacle, cheered them on as they approached the finish line neck-to-neck. But seeing their speed as they neared, they quickly dove for cover, with Yona protecting Ocellus while Sandbar held on to his tripod, just as the flyers crossed the finish line at tremendous speed, creating a strong gust of wind and blowing dust and debris everywhere.

The pair dug their claws and heels into the soft ground to try to stop themselves, almost falling over, but with such speed, they ended up far behind the finish line, coming to a stop face-to-face.

But before they could catch their breath, Smolder came tumbling, almost crashing into them if they hadn't ducked when they heard her coming. She rolled several times before finally coming to a stop some distance away from them, and when they looked up, she was lying on her back. So her friends quickly scrambled to her aid, Gallus and Silverstream being the first to get to her.

"Smolder! Are you alright? Does anything hurt?" Silverstream asked frantically while she and Galus helped her get up.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, guys" said Smolder to reassure them "As fine as I can be coming in last anyway" She then spat a piece of grass that got into her mouth during the crash "I think I dug my feet too early, and yeah I fumbled that landing".

"Well, good thing you dragons are literally tough, shame it doesn't help with flying" said Gallus mockingly, but Smolder didn't quite like that comment, so she took advantage that he was still holding her hand to teach him a quick lesson in humility, by squeezing it hard enough to make him flinch.

"You keep talking like that and we'll see how tough griffons are" She then let go of him. Now that she was content, she asked the obvious "Who won anyway?". Neither of them knew; they were so focused on their speed and flying outside each other's field of view when they crossed the finish line that they couldn't see if either was ahead.

They wouldn't have to wait to get an answer, as their friends just arrived. They asked Smolder if she was okay, and she reassured them that she was fine, and told them about the dispute between Gallus and Silverstream. Fortunately, Sandbar brought his camera with him, and not only that, just before Gallus and Silverstream soared through, he pointed his camera towards the finish line and recorded the moment they crossed it, and he could show it to them right there. They gathered around him while he tried to find the video.

"Did you save the video?" Said Gallus getting a little bit impatient

"Of course! I- I think, dam I should have brought the manual" said Snadbar, struggling with the camera to find it, but last he finally got the video and proceeded to replay it.

He fast-forwarded from the moment of take-off 'till they appeared from the woods, surprising them with his quite good camera work. Silverstream impressed them with her overtake of Smolder on that turn, to the annoyance of their dragon friend. Finally, they got to the home stretch; from their perspective, Gallus and Silverstream were indeed neck-to-neck, going extremely fast as they approached. And just before they flew by, Sandbar pointed the camera to the finish line... recording their blurry fly-by.

"Wait, rewind it. We can pause it frame by frame, right?" asked Silverstream.

"I guess. Let's see what we can see" said Sandbar.

He did just that, replaying it while pressing the pause button every other frame. They could see... very little besides Gallus, who was on the same side as the camera, obstructing most of the shot. But still, they could just about make out Silverstreams' shape on his left. They inch forward a couple of frames, trying to discern what was or wasn't a blurry artifact. So when they got to the moment when they crossed the finish line, the results were indisputable.

"And by a literal claw, Gallus Is the winner!" Announced Sandbar.

They all cheered for him, even Silverstream giving a sweat-soaked hug —not that he minded, he was socked on his own sweat!

"That's got to be the closest race of my life!" said Gallus.

"I bet" said an unimpressed Smolder standing on the side.

"Hey, no hard feelings, okay?" said Gallus, extending his folded claw, offering a fist–bump of good faith. She did respond to his fist–bump reluctantly, but not without a warning.

"We are not done yet".

"I know, I know" he said "I'll leave it up to you what we do next, it's going to be a busy two weeks for me".

Smolder smiled "Alright, I promise not to go too hard," she said letting out a little evil laugh. But then two of their friends chimed in.

"Don't forget about us" said Sandbar.

"You also want to participate?" asked Smolder.

"Yup, wouldn't want to miss all the fun!" said Silverstream. Gallus and Smolder looked at each other, and with a nod, they happily let them in.

"Well, I think we'll have to reset the scoreboard for this" said Gallus "At least we were tied".

"I guess we'll start from scratch, but right now I just want to lay down and rest" said Smolder, promptly making herself comfortable on the ground. The rest did much the same, spending the rest of their afternoon just hanging around and talking.

One last afternoon before getting trapped in their dorms and the library studying for the marathon of exams they have ahead of them, putting their little competition on halt... for now at least.