Hiccup…’
‘Yes, Mother?’
‘Don’t be too hard on yourself, Hiccup,’ said
Valhallarama, and perhaps her smile was slightly
sad now, ‘if things do not turn out well in the end.
I have learnt the hard way that Heroes can only
do their best…’
Hiccup climbed on to the Deadly Shadow
dragon. ‘Camicazi! Fishlegs! COME ON!’ he
shouted down.
‘Are we coming too?’ asked Camicazi.
‘Of course you’re coming,’ said Hiccup.
‘I can’t be an Outcast on my own again.
Besides, the Deadly Shadow isn’t mine, it
belongs to Fishlegs.’
There was one more thing to do.
Hiccup steered the Deadly Shadow above the
head of King Alvin, fleeing as fast as he could, step
TAP, step TAP, step TAP, through the battlefield
towards the fleet.
Over Alvin’s shoulder, bump bump bump, he
carried the long poles of the Librarian’s Heart-Slicers
holding the two little dragons, the Wodensfang and
Toothless, who were peering out, terrified, from the
nets.
The Deadly Shadow hovered, perfectly
camouflaged, above.
Hiccup
leant down
from the back
of the Deadly
Shadow and cut
the nets so that
the Wodensfang
and Toothless
flew free,
shooting
joyfully upwards,
Toothless
trumpeting
his rooster-crow of
triumph.
And in the very same moment,
Alvin looked up, clawed automatically
with his hook, and caught the chain of the
Jewel, swinging from Hiccup’s neck.
‘Shoot him!’ screamed Alvin to his
Warriors. The camouflaged Deadly Shadow rose
up in a rain of arrows, the chain on Hiccup’s
neck broke…
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Toothless and the Wodensfang and the Deadly
Shadow rose up to the battlements, arrows pouring
upward after them… and…
‘GOT IT!’ shrieked Alvin, catching the Jewel in
his other hand.
So after all that searching, all that drama, all the
gazillions of words of this Quest, let’s face it, the Jewel
ended up in Alvin’s horrible hooky hands after all.
Annoying, huh? Just one second, one false move
on the part of the Hero, one lapse of concentration,
that’s all it takes, for everything to fall apart.
‘NOOOOOO!!!’ shouted Hiccup.
It was a scary sight
to see the witch’s face,
as she saw the warm
golden splendour of the
Dragon Jewel dropping
into the hook of her
darling boy at last.
The witch Excellinor let out a high, exultant
cackle, and there, in the middle of the death and
destruction of that battle she spread wide her bat-wing
arms in jubilant conquest.
‘I knew my predictions could not be wrong!’
screamed the witch. ‘I knew I had to be this brilliant
for a reason! Thank you, O powers of death and
darkness in whom I put my trust! Thank you, O
fortunes most foul and most glorious! See!’ she
screeched, shaking her bony fist up at the heavens, ‘see
how we triumph!
‘Let me see it, Alvin, my darling, let me have it.’
It was piteous to
see the fragile amber
beauty of that Jewel,
glowing from within
as if it were fire,
cradled in the vile
crooked hands of
that fiend
the witch.
She kissed it with her dry lips… crooned over it
with a wicked whisper… and here is what she hissed as
she held it in her hands at last:
‘Watch out,’ whispered the witch. ‘Watch out,
small innocent things growing in the sunshine…
Watch out you splendid dragons with your giant
spreading wings… for we can bring you down now,
you who think you are so mighty… we can tear you
from the sky and watch you shrivel in the mud…’
She grinned and that grin was truly terrifying.
‘Watch out, dragons,’ whispered the witch
softly, ‘for the dragons’ days are numbered now…
Watch out… watch out… watch out…’
She handed the precious Jewel back to her
repulsive son, Alvin the Treacherous, and he put it
carefully away in his armoured breast pocket.
So Hiccup had found the Dragon Jewel all right,
but it had not stayed with him very long.
Alvin had the Jewel now and, step TAP, step TAP,
step TAP, step TAP, he hurried to the east, his mother
bounding after him on all fours, like a wolf-skeleton
come to life, and the ticking-thing swinging from
Alvin’s waist ticking out a new and twisted tune.
Ti-i-i-ick-to-ock… ti-i-i-ick… to-o-o-ick…
ti-i-i-i-i-ick… to-ii-ick…
380
Toothless was happy though, all unknowing as
he was, of the malevolent intent of the witch and her
horrible son.
The little dragon was just delighted to be
reunited with his master once again.
‘Cock-a-doodle-doo!’ crowed Toothless.
‘Don’t worry, H-h-hiccup! Don’t p-p-
panic, everybody, Toothless is here! The most
important Thing of all!’
Toothless, the Wodensfang and the Shadow
rose up to the battlements of Darkheart as the great
doors opened and the humans poured out to make
their escape below.
Above their heads, for the first time in a
thousand years, the dragons took Darkheart.
The Dragon Rebellion poured through the
corridors of the Prison. There were Tonguetwisters in
the courtyard setting fire to the long tables. They tore
down the towers, sending them tumbling and crashing
into the dungeons where their dragon ancestors had
been kept in chains for centuries.
In the bay of the Dragons’ Graveyard, the
Dragon Furious crouched amid the chaos, his
eyes scanning the skies above relentlessly in great
searchlight beams, ignoring the Viking ships with their
381
burning sails slaloming through the dragon skeletons
all around him, sending out their Exploding Things as
they shot their way out in retreat.
‘The boy…’ hissed the Dragon Furious. ‘Where
is the boy called Hiccup?’
The Dragon Furious was right, of course; the boy
was there, soaring invisibly above the great dragon’s
head on the back of the Deadly Shadow.
For one second, the Dragon Furious saw him.
A burst of Exploding Thing Fire must have caught
the Shadow off-guard. For one moment he turned
visible with the shock, and there he was, with Hiccup
on his back, right in the Dragon Furious’s searchlight
eyebeams.
The Dragon Furious saw the Deadly Shadow…
he was sure he saw it… and gave a cry
of astonished ra
ge.
The dragon that he had sent to kill Hiccup, the dragon
who claimed he hated humans as strong as acid, had
turned his allegiance and was now helping the boy!
How could this be? He had chosen this dragon
most particularly for his hatred of human beings…
He had chosen this dragon particularly because
he was so like the Dragon Furious himself…
But there was Hiccup, clearly outlined on the
back of the Shadow, Camicazi and Fishlegs beside
him, three little hunting-dragons hovering above like
flies, and the three heads of Innocence, Arrogance and
Patience sending out lightning bolts in three different
directions.
How did the boy do it?
What was it about him?
The Dragon Furious spread wide his great blue
wings, and made a final despairing leap.
One second the Hiccup-boy on the back of the
dragon was there. The next the dragon turned the
exact stormy grey of the sky.
Dragon, boy and companions simply
disappeared, as the now-invisible Deadly Shadow
streaked across the sky.
Dragon Furious’s great jaws closed on nothing.
His gigantic claws tore only on the air.
He crashed back down into the Dragons’
Graveyard, boy-less, and in despair.
The Dragon Furious howled, and plunged
through the bay, flinging great boulders around,
uprooting any living vegetation he could find, tearing
up the airy grasses on the islands that contained no
boy, his own Tonguetwisters and Rageblasts of the
Rebellion whimpering like terriers, and trying to stay
out of the way.
Finally, in one screaming blast of white-hot
fire, the Dragon Furious incinerated the whole
bay, annihilated it in the blaze of his defeated
and baffled fury.
And then crouched down, panting, in
the middle of the blaze like a great blue cat, lying in
the centre of the great night-time graveyard of his
fellow dragons’ bones. Fear was in the blazing eyes
now.
Gone…
The boy was gone.
As the Dragon Furious’s rage died down, he
seemed to shrink in front of your eyes.
That brilliant blue faded from his skin, and
became a more ordinary shade. He even curled up
into a defensive ball, like an ordinary fireside cat,
hiding his head in his dragon hands, as if he did
not want to use his own power of looking into the
Future.
A human with a heart might have felt sorry for
the great creature, leaning his poor scarred head on
the blazing fire of his own making like it were a
pillow.
‘One more chance gone,’ the dragon whispered,
hissing to himself. ‘Surely we cannot be facing
extinction?
‘Surely that cannot be the dragons’ fate at
last?’
A great Sea Dragon, a Thunderer, came joyfully
to tell the news to Furious.
‘The day is won, Furious! Darkheart is
fallen!’
It was a glorious moment for the dragons.
The Vikings had escaped – just.
The Vikings were lucky that any of them made
it through the white hot fury of the Dragon Rebellion
assault that day.
Only by valiant fighting, with the utmost skill
of sword and shield and spear did the Viking fleets
escape, shooting and blasting their way through
the numberless talons and teeth, the scorching
devastation of the dragons’ flames.
Even then, it was with bloodied burning boats,
sails on fire, and many of their numbers lost.
The Company of the Dragonmark made their
way to the Bog-Burglar Islands, and the witch and her
Warriors to the Uglithug lands in the east.
But the dragons had Darkheart at last.
So the Thunderer was surprised to find Furious
in such abject misery.
‘Furious… What is wrong? Surely this is our
finest hour?’
‘You do not understand,’ growled Furious.
‘The boy Hiccup has escaped.’
‘But one human boy,’ said the Thunderer in
surprise. ‘Surely one little human boy, so small,
so pink, no talons, no fire… Surely one little boy
cannot matter so very much?’
388
‘This is no ordinary boy,’ replied Furious.
And then, he uncurled himself and rose up,
slowly, dangerously, like a phoenix from the ashes.
His body began to burn bright again.
‘He must never grow up,’ vowed the Dragon
Furious. ‘He must never reach the island of
Tomorrow.
‘Never again shall I make the mistake of
entrusting his killing to someone else,’ panted
the Dragon Furious. ‘This time I will kill him
myself…
I shall seek him everywhere. I shall tear the
world apart looking for him. Nowhere shall be
safe for him: no cave, no cliff, no rock, no island.
I shall turn this whole world to ashes, looking for
him.
‘Hear the pledge of the Dragon Furious!’
screamed the dragon, his whole body screeching
with fury, so much so that even his eyeballs began to
smoke and pour out flame, and then he bent his head
backwards, sending fire upwards with the scream, like
an erupting volcano.
389
‘THE BOY SHALL NEVER
REACH TOMORROW!’
31. THE SECRET HIDEOUT
Somewhere not very far away (I don’t want to tell you
exactly where, because it is Hiccup’s secret hideout,
and it really, really needs to be kept a secret) the
Windwalker was lying in front of a cave surrounded
by brambles.
He had been lying there, protecting the
entrance, for nearly three days now, and he was
a bedraggled, wet sight, his ears drooping sadly,
his spines all limp and floppy with loneliness as he
listened to the sound of the Dragon Furious’s rage.
And then…
He sniffed the air, he peered upwards…
… his ears pricked up in sudden apprehension.
And so too would yours if a semi-visible cloud
392
descended down out of nowhere, and slowly turned
into a terrifying-looking, heavily armed, three-headed
Deadly Shadow dragon.
However Hiccup peered over the side of the
Deadly Shadow’s wings and shouted down: ‘Don’t
worry, Windwalker, it’s only us!’
The Windwalker sprang to greet the horror of
the Deadly Shadow descending towards him, flying
round and round and round it, in wild excited joy.
So late that night, the little cave whose
whereabouts shall remain a secret, was very full
indeed, for even when the Shadow camouflaged
himself so well he looked invisible, he didn’t get any
smaller. He was a very large dragon, and once he was
inside the cave, there was barely room for everyone
else.
The Windwalker had gone out
every single day a
nd caught
plenty of fish, in the hope that
they would return. So that
was a joyful and triumphant
evening, with everyone back
together again recalling the
triumphs and successes of
the day.
>
‘Y-y-yes, Stormfly,’ sang Toothless happily.
‘Wodensfang the Desperado and I sh-sh-shot our way
out of those amber-nets. Peow! Peow! Peow! With
three bursts of our super-strong flame and…’
And so on.
Meanwhile, Stormfly flashed her wicked eyes at
him and ate half his mackerel.
‘Manners,’ sniffed the Wodensfang
disapprovingly.
The ten companions stuffed themselves full with
fish that night, ate until they could eat no more. What
with the food, and the emotion of the day, Hiccup and
the others were almost drunk with happiness, in fits of
laughter about the smallest things.
In times of war and deadly peril, these moments
of happiness are heightened: they become even more
pleasurable, even more precious.
Hiccup was one of the last to fall asleep.
But then he woke again, at the sound of the
Dragon Furious demolishing Prison Darkheart and
turning it to rubble. That woke him, and suddenly all
the warmth and the happiness of the evening seemed
to disappear, to be replaced by a cold dread and a
thumping of his heart.
The others were all so exhausted, they were
395
still fast asleep.
But blink, blink, the twin eyes of the
Wodensfang opened on Hiccup’s chest, and the
eyebeams shone comfortably into Hiccup’s own eyes.
The Wodensfang seem to guess immediately
what Hiccup was thinking.
He started chatting, to cheer Hiccup up.
‘You see,’ said the Wodensfang. ‘I told you your
Quest was quite simple. See what can be achieved if
your heart is in your Quest? You have found your
friend… You have found the Jewel… um… Even
though it has fallen into Alvin’s hands for the
moment, I am sure that it will come back to you
again… ’
(The Wodensfang tried to sound more sure of
How to Train Your Dragon: How to Seize a Dragon's Jewel Page 21