How to Twist a Dragon's Tale (Hiccup) (3 page)

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[Image: A dragon.]

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somersaults in a row.
"S-s-stay and
f-f-fight, you t-t-tree-headed COWS!" he shouted insultingly after the disappearing reindeer bottoms.

Hiccup and the Windwalker came panting up and halted with a screech.

"Too late!" sang Toothless. "S-s-slowpoke! D-d-did. you see? T-T-Toothless got them ALL, with one shot, Toothless is b-b-brilliant,
Toothless
is the winner, Toothless is--"

"Toothless is VERY NAUGHTY," finished Hiccup. "I told youto stay calm, Toothless; I told. you NOT to chase the reindeer, REMEMBER?"

Ooooh, yes...
Toothless remembered now. He stuck his tail between his legs.

"Toothless was h-h-herding..." he said in a small voice.

"That was not HERDING, Toothless, that was CHASING!" scolded Hiccup.

[Image: Hiccup and Toothless.]

Gobber was not pleased, to say the least.

"HICCUP has

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very kindly given us an exhibition of how
NOT
to herd reindeer. That is absolutely the
OPPOSITE
of what you should be doing.
RIGHT.
We'll just have to start ALL over again, won't we? From the beginning."

"Oh Hic-cup," groaned the boys, glowering furiously at Hiccup. "Hiccup shows how
USELESS
he is, yet again," snorted Snotlout triumphantly.

That was the start of an exhausting couple of hours.

Toothless got hot, and overtired, and hungry. As the afternoon wore on, the midges came out in great, biting clouds, and Toothless crawled under Hiccup's helmet to get away from them, from where he kept up a constant stream of echo-y complaints.

"Toothless go home now... is no f-f-fun anymore..."

As the day wore on, however, the reindeer seemed to be re-forming into larger groups and the boys began to get the hang of working together with the hunting dragons to guide the reindeer in the right direction. They were riding and herding much more expertly, and they were feeling extremely proud of themselves.

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[Image: The little Chicken poxer bucking Fishlegs off for the 15
th
time...]

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Fishlegs hadn't fallen off the Chickenpoxer for at least half an hour. And they had just managed to get control of a larger group of about sixteen or so reindeer, and were herding them down the mountain to the shore in a really rather professional manner.

Wartihog, Clueless, and Tuffnut Junior were driving the herd from the back, calling and whooping and clapping to get the reindeer to move forward. And the other boys had split up and were riding on the right and left flanks in semi-circles, so they were pushing the reindeer group along the path they wanted them to follow.

Snotlout whistled to Fireworm as a big stag made a break away from the group. And Fireworm swooped down, talons outstretched, trailing warning smoke, and the stag trotted away to fall back in with the rest of the crowd.

This was the life.

They were all wishing their fathers could see them now.

Hiccup rode along, nice and easy, with no hands, feeling ten feet tall.

The reindeer poured down the mountain in a

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gleaming brown river, moving at a nice even pace. They cleared a small, dried-up stream, and bounded on downwards, into the woods, moving easily, evenly, very relaxed ...

When SUDDENLY, the Leader of the Herd reared up in alarm as the woods in front of him burst into flames.

A long line of flames springing out of nowhere.

The reindeer bellowed in alarm and terror, and in a flurry of flaring nostrils, hooves, and horns, they swerved past the fire and on down the mountain.

The Vikings were not so lucky.

By the time they reached the fire it was already burning three meters high.

"Quick!" yelled Gobber. "Down to the shore! Run around the flames and down to the shore!"

But it was already too late.

In front of Hiccup's eyes the line of flame swooped across the entire landscape, moving faster than a man could run.

And then Hiccup saw the truly terrifying thing that he had been most afraid of all along. Every single hair on his neck stood up like the spines on a sea urchin.

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There was something dark shooting through the trees, something that was making those flames.

Hiccup caught a brief glimpse of them.

Something like large black winged panthers, bounding low in the forest.

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3. THE FIRETRAP

Only Gobber was riding a dragon big enough to fly him over the fire and out of the danger.

But there was no question of him abandoning his pupils, who were riding on dragons whose wings were TOO WEAK to take off.

[Image: A field.]

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They were trying desperately to do so, but only Snotlout's Devilish Dervish could muster up enough strength to carry him any height at all, before it collapsed to the ground again.

The Vikings on their dragons galloped down the line of flame, hoping to find a place weak enough to jump through.

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But the woods were dry as a bone, and the fire burned fierce and quick.

On and on the flames ran, and then they began to bend around in a circle, forcing the boys back and herding them up the hill, just as they had herded the reindeer only moments before.

The herders were becoming the herded.

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Both ends of the circle of fire joined together.

They were now trapped on the top of the mountain.

All at the same time, the boys removed their swords from their scabbards.

Even the stupidest among them realized that they were now under attack.

The dragons were not terrified of the FIRE of course, for dragons' skins are fairly fireproof,* and most dragons play in fire as joyfully as dolphins in water.

What the dragons did not like was those black shapes prowling IN the fire.

This
is what terrified them, and sent them snarling backwards, their hackles rising. The boys dismounted their riding dragons, for if they remained on their backs, there was a real danger the dragons would plunge them straight into the inferno in their fever to get away, for dragons are only obedient up to a certain point, and they will not stay and fight if their lives are in danger.

And, indeed, the instant the boys got off, the

* sometimes completely; it depends on the dragon

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dragons fled upward, making Hiccup's heart sink even lower, for dragons have a strong instinct for the presence of mortal danger.

One by one they fled, all of the riding dragons -- the Devilish Dervish, the Marsh Tiger, the Rocket Ripper, and with a final bad-mood, Shetland-ish snort, the Chickenpoxer.

All of the hunting dragons -- Fireworm (Snotlout's Monstrous Nightmare), Seaslug, Horrowcow, Forktail, Snakeheart, Bogflyer.

Until only Goliath was left.

And the Windwalker.

Rather surprisingly, for he had been running away all afternoon, now that there really
was
a reason to flee, the Windwalker stayed by Hiccup's side, its wings trembling and shaking nervously and looking over its shoulder.

Toothless, too, remained, hidden under Hiccup's helmet, and his muffled muttering could be heard echoing through the metal. "D-d-don't know
why
we're here anyway... t-t-too midge-y... Toothless being bitten to death
...
Toothless thirsty... Toothless hungry... issa way fast Toothless's bedtime, but
n
-n-nobody thinks of p-p-poor thirsty T-t-toothless,

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oh no, they're all so
s-s-selfish
, worrying about their own. s-s-silly problems..."

The Vikings peered into the flames, up into the smoke-filled sky, waiting, waiting, waiting for the first strike.

It didn't take long.

There was a petrified scream from behind them.

They whipped around, just in time to see a reindeer fall down dead on the spot, from what looked like a long sword wound to the throat.

"What was that?" asked Fishlegs, quivering.

But no one could answer him, for it was too quick to see what had happened exactly.

"I think I saw something," whispered Clueless, "something black, a dragon maybe, came shooting out of the flames, killed the deer, and sprang back out of the circle again..."

Silence again, and the boys were rigid with tension, peering from left to right in the circle of smoke to try and guess where the next attack would come from.

Hiccup was sweating so hard he had to wipe his left palm on his waistcoat, because his sword was slipping in his hand.

And then there was another scream from

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another reindeer, and again the boys whirled round, and again the reindeer was already dead, this time from sword wounds both to the heart and the head.

"OK," said Gobber, "we need to evacuate this area NOW."

"How many of us can you take on your back at once, Goliath?" asked Hiccup.

"Two, I'd. say
"
grunted the big Bullrougher. "One if it's a fatty
like that
one," and he pointed a wing at Dogsbreath the Duhbrain.

"He said he could take two," Hiccup told Gobber.

Interestingly, Gobber did not tell Hiccup off for speaking Dragonese in this emergency.

"Fishlegs and Speedifist," ordered Gobber, "get up on Goliath's back."

The two boys scrambled up, and the big riding dragon spread its wings and took off, up over the flame barrier, and out of the firetrap.

Now the remaining Vikings had their work cut out trying to avoid being trampled to death by the hooves of the terrified reindeer, or speared by their antlers, as they panicked and stampeded around the circle, rearing up at the flames and squealing in terror.

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Silence again, and the boys were rigid with tension, peering from left to right of the circle of smoke.

Was it Hiccup's imagination, or did the circle of fire appear to be closing in on them?

By the time that Goliath returned, the flames were definitely inching forward, making the circle they were standing on ever so slightly smaller.

"Snotlout and Wartihog, you go next," yelled Gobber the Belch.

Five times, Goliath flew out of the circle, with two boys on his back each time.

The sixth time he could only carry Dogsbreath the Duhbrain.

And the flames were burning higher than four tall trees on top of each other, terrible great towers, flaming all around them in a fiery circle so close that Hiccup's eyes watered and his cheeks burned as hot as if they were on fire already.

"Me tired," complained Toothless from under Hiccup's helmet, still unaware of what was going on. "W-W-when we going h-h-home?"

"I think y
ou
should, go home
now,
Toothless, while you still can," said Hiccup, trying to take his helmet off, but Toothless held it down with his

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gripping little claws and squealed in indignation. "G-g-go away
m-m-mean Master
, is too midge-y for poor Toothless out títere; Toothless be eaten alive if he go out there!"

"Come on, Goliath, come on," muttered Gobber the Belch, "you great SLUG of a reptile, we're going to be Viking hamburgers at this rate, get a move on ... ah, here he is, thank Thor."

The great beast flew out of the flames up to the scrabbly pinnacle of mountaintop where the boy and his Master were kneeling. The boy's dragon, his Windwalker, was pressed up beside them both, with its wings outstretched, trying to protect them from the heat of the flames.

"On you go, boy," growled Gobber the Belch, helping Hiccup onto the mighty dragon's back. He gave the boy a half smile, and the Hooligan salute.

"See you on the other side," said Gobber the Belch, as cheerfully as if he didn't know perfectly well that there probably wouldn't be time for Goliath to come back and rescue him as well.

That's
a Viking Hero for you.

For perhaps, when Death was burning so close and so fierce only feet and minutes away from him,

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perhaps even Gobber was more frightened than he seemed to be.

But you couldn't have told it from his face, as he whistled carelessly and slapped Goliath on the backside for the last time. "Off you go, you Alligator-Featured Slowpoke!" he roared.

"Out of my way then, Red-Sprouting, Jelly-Bottomed. Walrus-Face!" snorted Goliath in reply. The great Bullrougher spread his wings and prepared for takeoff.

Nobody saw the black shape sneaking out of the fire, leaping toward Goliath with a flash of swordlike silver held out in front of it, and springing back again.

It was as quick as that.

[Image: Painting.]