How to Train Your Dragon: How to Fight a Dragon's Fury

by Cressida Cowell

When Toothless flies to me next, it shall be for

  the last time.

  I am waiting for him now, just to see him one last

  time, just to remind myself, that, yes, he really does

  exist. The window is a black empty square, but the

  Dragon Jewel is a warm golden promise, heavy in my

  hand, that he will fly through that open window, he

  will shake out his wings and demand some food, some

  choice snack (I, of course, know all his favourites), and

  settle down in his old familiar place lying on my chest,

  blowing perfect violet-coloured smoke rings right above

  my heart.

  Here it is, the Dragon Jewel, and there they

  are, the two little dragons suspended in the amber:

  one dark, one light, each with a tail in the other one’s

  mouth, like the Alpha and the Omega.

  Here I am, watching, waiting.

  (When I die, I shall be buried at sea, in a proper

  Viking Funeral, just like the one we tried to give

  Toothless long ago when I was a child, when he wasn’t

  487

  really dead. The sword and the Jewel, I have asked to

  be buried with me, for the sea is a safe place for things

  to be buried. Things can be lost there, only to be found

  again when the time is right.)

  Once when I was a child, I dreamt that

  Grimbeard the Ghastly, on the deck of his ship The

  Endless Journey, threw the sword Endeavour up into the

  air.

  Up and up it spun, through the inky blackness,

  across the cavernous span of a hundred years, until,

  entirely of its own accord, my own left hand sprang out

  of space and stars and neverending time and caught it.

  Now that I am so very old, I am dreaming once

  again.

  And in my dream I am the one throwing the

  sword.

  It is spinning now, in the black starlit waters of my

  dream, right above your head, dear reader.

  A sword that may look Second-Best, and

  Second-hand, but carries the memories of a thousand

  lost fights, a history lesson in itself.

  Reach out, and catch it by the hilt.

  Swear, by its name, Endeavour, to do your utmost

  to make this world a better place than when you arrived

  in it.

  488

  For look! There will be dragons all around you,

  as camouflaged as a Stealth Dragon. Maybe they are

  hovering over your head, just out of your line of sight,

  looking after you without you realising, just as the

  nanodragons were for me. Put your head down in the

  heather, and lie very still, just as I did long ago. If you

  lie there long enough can you too see the faint outline

  of a nanodragon moving?

  Toothless will be out there, lying hidden and

  asleep in some water-fed cave by the cliffs, just as small

  and disobedient as ever, waiting to be found by a brave

  and kind human child of the Future.

  And maybe there are fiercer dragons too, sleeping

  down there in the unreachable depths of the ocean, in

  those trenches so deep that even humans of the future

  will not be able to explore them – and they may awake

  again.

  If those fierce dragons do awake, if they do

  open their bright cat eyes, and shake out their terrible

  wings, the Dragon Jewel will still be lost in the infinite

  vastnesses of the ocean.

  So you will just have to make sure that the

  dragons will awake in a better world than the one that I

  have lived in. I have made it a little better, but it needs

  to be much better still.

  489

  Or else there will be fangs and fire and everything

  that is awe-ful.

  And then we will need a Hero, and that Hero

  might as well be…

  … YOU.

  In my beginning is my end…

  There were dragons when I was a boy.

  490

  Books are like dragons… if we do not believe in them,

  and read them, they will cease to exist.

  How then will we learn the language and understand

  the stories of the dear dead ghosts of the past?

  SAVE THE DRAGONS.

  SPEAK DRAGONESE.

  READ A BOOK.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS,

  THANKS AND GOODBYES

  A wise person once said that a writing Hero needs three things:

  innocence, arrogance and patience, so maybe Fishlegs has found

  the right dragon. But no Hero can write alone. These are the

  peoples of my own Archipelago, who have loved and supported

  me – some for fifteen years, and even further back.

  The early Hachette Tribe:

  Marlene Johnson, Kate Burns, Les Phipps,

  Alison Still, Venetia Gosling, Claudia Symons,

  Harry Barker, Margaret Conroy, Mary Byrne,

  David Mackintosh and Erin Stein

  And the Warriors of today –

  many of them with numerous years’ service:

  Fritha Lindqvist, Rebecca Logan, Andrew Sharp, Nirmal Sandhu,

  Susan Barry, Helen Marriage, Sally Felton,

  Daniel Fricker, Hilary Murray Hill, Emily Smith,

  Jason McKenzie, Charmian Allwright, Camilla Leask,

  Jo Hardacre, Megan Tingley and Andrew Smith

  Special big thanks to Jenny Stephenson

  and Naomi Greenwood

  And most important of all, my long-time editor

  Big Chief Anne McNeil, Mighty Sword and

  Defender of all things Dragon

  The DreamWorks Tribe:

  High Chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, Chris Kuser, Bill Damaschke,

  Chris Sanders (who co-directed the first movie), Pierre-Olivier

  Vincent, Nico Marlet, Simon Otto, Will Davies,

  John Powell, Jay Baruchel, America Ferrara, Gerard Butler

  and the whole animation and acting team

  And most especially, Bonnie Arnold, Producer-Hero,

  and His Most Bardic Brilliance, Dean DeBlois

  Swords-for-Hire and Bardiguard Protection:

  Staunch Defenders and Protectors, my agents Caroline Walsh

  and Nicky Lund, and my lawyer David Colden

  With special thanks to Travelling

  Troubadour and Acting Genius:

  David Tennant, a one man Archipelago all on his own

  The Cheerers-on:

  Amanda Craig, Nicolette Jones, Julia Eccleshare,

  Nick Tucker, Peter Florence, Martin Chilton, Emily Drabble,

  Michelle Pauli and the team at Guardian Children’s Online,

  Lorna Bradbury, James Lovegrove and the teams at

  BBC Breakfast, Newsround and Blue Peter

  The Fiery Tribes of Knowledge, Wisdom and FUN:

  Booksellers, librarians and teachers everywhere

  The Friends-and-Family Tribe:

  My parents the Great Chieftains Michael Blakenham and Marcia

  Blakenham O Hear Their Names and Tremble Ugh Ugh without

  whom the whole adventure would never have started,

  Judit Kumar, Lauren Child, and the dear dead Heroes Alan Hare,

  Jill Hare and Nancy Blakenham

  The Hares who live in the Land-that-Does-Not-Exist:

  Caspar, Melissa, Thomasina and Inigo

  The Five Fearless Faccinis: Emily, Ben,

  Francesco, Delfina and Bay

  And last but not least

  The Cowell Companions of the Dragonmark:

  My True Viking Heroes,


  MAISIE, CLEMMIE and XANNY

  And most of all to Simon, who (of course)

  wrote all the best bits…

  BECAUSE:

  Love Never Dies,

  What is Within is More Important

  than What is Without,

  The Best is Not Always the Most Obvious

  and Once You’ve Loved Truly,

  Thor, then You Know the Way

  This is Cressida, age 9, writing on the island.

  www.cressidacowell.co.uk

  SEE WHERE IT ALL BEGAN!

  Find more adventures and play interactive games at

  HowToTrainYourDragonSeries.com