How to Train Your Dragon: How to Seize a Dragon's Jewel

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by Cressida Cowell


  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…

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  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

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  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

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  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

 

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