Fishlegs was seized by a horrible thought.
‘He didn’t recognise us… He does know the Dragon
Guardians are there, doesn’t he?’
‘Of course he does, and he’ll have a plan! Hiccup
ALWAYS has a plan,’ said Camicazi confidently.
Let us hope he does have a Plan.
For the little figure of Hiccup had already
staggered halfway up the beach.
7. ONLY THE ONE WITH THE
KING’S LOST THINGS CAN
LAND ON TOMORROW AND
LIVE
Hiccup had no idea what was going on in the skies
above him. The attacking dragons were fighting among
themselves, with such violence that lightning bolts and
darts and flames rained down around his sinking boat
as he paddled desperately towards the white beach with
his broken oar.
Nearer, nearer, nearer.
When he got within twenty yards, the boat sank
entirely, and he had to swim the last bit with only one
arm, for the left one was now so swollen and numb he
could barely move it. Thor, the water was cold. Hiccup
almost passed out from the icy shock of it.
And then he nearly drowned in the last hundred
feet of his journey, which would have been ironic.
The sea to the west of Tomorrow is a great
ocean that stretches far to the west until you get to
America-the-Land-that-Does-Not-Exist (or you fall off
the edge of the world, of course, whatever you happen
to believe).
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So the waves reaching this coast are gigantic, and
come rolling in with great violence on a windy winter’s
day like this one.
As Hiccup swam in to the beach, a great wave
took him, and tumbled him over and over for such a
long time that his lungs were bursting for lack of air,
before grinding him down on the sand, and as the
water retreated, he staggered to his feet, gasping and
retching and limping, wading thigh-high through the
icy water before collapsing on the sand, exhausted,
trembling and gasping for breath like a poor stranded
fish. But even in his bedraggled, numb state, he felt a
weary sense of conquest.
He had made it to Tomorrow! Although he still
could not remember much of his life before waking up
on Hero’s End, something told him that he had been
searching for a long, long time to get to this place,
this spot, this wild and windy shore on the edge of
nowhere. And he was here! He had made it!
Tomorrow. There was something hopeful, even
about the word.
Hiccup let himself enjoy the triumph of it for
one victorious moment, before forcing himself to get
up and stumble onward. He looked over his shoulder
at the continuing commotion of the Dragon Rebellion
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dragons. They might yet come after him. He had to
get out of here… The little brown dragon Wodensfang
had said he must find a ruined city where the King was
going to be crowned…
He staggered forward, so bruised and battered
that it was painful to make each step, but forcing
himself to move nonetheless.
The beach stretched out for miles to his left and
right, and there was something about that beach that
made him feel very uneasy, and lurch even faster in his
limping, rollicking gait.
Perhaps it was the way that, under his feet, the
sand didn’t feel entirely firm. It was shaking, just a tiny,
tiny bit, and shifting, as if the very grains of sand were
alive, like tiny wriggling worms. Hiccup looked down
at the sand in horror, as he shambled faster, and ever
faster, trying to get to the top of the dunes and off the
beach. There was something very peculiar going on.
‘I think I might just go in your backpack if you
don’t mind,’ said the Hogfly nervously, diving into the
backpack next to the snoring Wodensfang, and half
shutting the lid so that only his eyes were peering out.
‘That sand is a little SPOOKY…’
The sand was indeed a little spooky.
It appeared to be singing.
An unearthly, terrifying
song, that seemed to come
from another world.
A song that hissed and
hummed with menace.
Hiccup broke into
a shambling run, panting
hard, and crying, and he
had nearly made it to the
edge of the beach when, to
his absolute horror…
Three yards in front
of him, a colossal figure
stepped out from behind a
rock.
Hiccup stopped dead with shock.
The figure was huge, and hooded, and his arms
were crossed. He strode towards Hiccup, one, two,
three steps, and threw back his hood.
His face was as stern and unyielding as a granite
cliff, and he was blindfolded.
He drew a gigantic axe from his belt, and he held
it directly above Hiccup’s head, as if he could actually
see Hiccup despite the blindfold.
‘I am a Guardian of Tomorrow,’ roared the blind
Axeman. ‘I, and my father, and my father’s father, and
my father’s father’s father, have for nearly a century
guarded these shores from those who are unworthy.
‘ONLY THE ONE WITH THE KING’S LOST
THINGS CAN LAND ON TOMORROW AND
LIVE.
‘Who are you who dares to risk Death by Airy
Oblivion by landing on our beach?’
Hiccup swallowed. ‘Death by Airy Oblivion’
didn’t sound good.
‘I think my name is Hiccup,’ said Hiccup. Out
in the bay between Hero’s End and Tomorrow, the
Deadly Shadow was flying as fast as it could towards
the beach, for now even Camicazi was a little worried
that Hiccup might not have a plan.
148
‘Who is Hiccup talking to?’
shouted Camicazi.
‘That must be one of
the human Guardians of
Tomorrow,’ said Fishlegs.
‘There are hundreds
of them posted all
along the coast of
this island. Oh
dear oh dear
oh dear…
Remember when we saw those Dragon Guardians
of Tomorrow ROCKETING out from underneath
the sands yesterday? Isn’t there some horrible saying
like: “Only the One with the King’s Lost Things Can
Land on Tomorrow and Live”? Can you go any faster,
Shadow?’
‘We’re flying… as… fast… as… we… can…’
snorted Innocence.
‘Are you saying you are He-Who-Would-Be-King?’
barked the blind Axeman.
‘I believe so,’ said Hiccup uncertainly. ‘That is
what I was told by this small brown dragon who said his
name was the Wodensfang, I don’t know if you know
him?’
The Axeman shook his head.
Hiccup was gabbling slightly, because he was so
frightened. ‘That same brown dragon gave me reason
to believe that there may be some k
ind of ruined city
on this island. Would you possibly mind showing me
the way?’
The blind Axeman looked impassively down at
him, with his blank blindfolded face. His axe was still
raised, which wasn’t a good sign.
‘The thing is,’ said the Axeman, ‘we already have
a man on the island who has passed the Test. And when
150
he is crowned in an hour’s time, we Guardians will be
released from ninety-nine years of bondage, ninety-nine
years of imprisonment on this island. Free!’ The blind
Axeman’s voice was hoarse with longing. ‘Free from
this island cage… free to roam the seas and skies of
the Archipelago and wander where we will… And I
shall take off my blindfold and see the wonder of
the world around me for the very first time, and gasp
to see the beauty of the things that I can only smell
and touch!’
‘That’s wonderful,’ said Hiccup.
‘It is wonderful,’ agreed the Axeman.
‘And I’m sure you deserve it,’ said Hiccup.
‘You’re a nice polite boy,’ said the blind Axeman.
‘And politeness is underestimated as a good quality in
a King. But if we have a King already on the island, it
follows just as night follows day, that you cannot be the
King as well.
‘Show me the Things,’ said the blind Axeman.
Hiccup swallowed again. His teeth were
chattering, but whether from cold or fear, he did not
know.
‘Yes, I’m afraid I don’t have any of the Things
right now,’ he admitted. ‘But the little brown dragon –
the one I was just telling you about – he told me there
151
was a man called Alvin the Treacherous who stole all
these Things from me, so even though he got here first,
I am in fact the rightful King…’
The blindfolded man stared down at Hiccup, if
a blindfolded man could be said to stare, his axe still
raised. Hiccup was uncomfortably aware of what an
unlikely, un-King-like figure he must make, as if he
were offering a drowned rat to be the King – although,
of course, the blindfolded man couldn’t see him
anyway.
‘So Alvin the Treacherous stole the Lost Things
from you?’ repeated the blind Axeman.
‘That’s right,’ said Hiccup. It sounded a rather
feeble excuse, out there on the wild and windy beach
of Tomorrow, with an axe being held above your head.
‘And you are the rightful King?’ asked the
blind Axeman.
‘That’s what the
Wodensfang said,’ said
Hiccup.
The blind
Axeman put his axe
back in his swordbelt.
Hiccup felt faint
with relief.
‘Thank you,’ he said, gratefully. ‘Now if you could just
show me the way to the ruined—’
‘I’m sorry,’ said the Axeman regretfully. ‘Truly
sorry, for you are only a boy, and a nice polite boy at
that.’
The Axeman lifted his arms up so that they
spread out like bats’ wings, and he shouted up to the
stormy sky: ‘BUT…
‘Only the One With The Kings Lost Things Can
Land on Tomorrow And Live…’
This didn’t look good.
‘COME GREAT POWERS OF DEATH AND
DARKNESS! COME MIGHTY PROTECTORS
OF TOMORROW ACROSS THE AGES! COME
DRAGON GUARDIANS AND TAKE THIS
UNWORTHY BOY AND GIVE HIM DEATH BY
AIRY OBLIV-I-I-ION!’
‘NO!’ screamed Camicazi, as the
Deadly Shadow flew as fast as it possibly
could towards the beach.
153
All around Hiccup the sand began to
bubble.
He looked around himself,
appalled.
That sand… that sand that
earlier had seemed alive, now gave
birth to creatures of indescribable
horror. Who knows what they
were, dragons or monsters or
something worse. They were
so huge and so swift and
so deadly it was
impossible
to see
them. They burst from
the sand like some alien
force, shrieking otherworldly
vengeance, and they took hold
of the screaming, terrified Hiccup,
and they shot up into the air like
great grim shooting stars, carrying him
up, up UP, to drown him in the upper
atmosphere.
This was Death by Airy Oblivion.
‘Nooooooo!’ shrieked Camicazi and Fishlegs and
Windwalker. ‘No! No! No!’
Windwalker put his paws over his eyes.
No… surely not…
8. I BET YOU THOUGHT THAT
THIS WAS NEVER GOING TO
HAPPEN…
‘Nooooo!’ howled Hiccup, and he could feel his ears
popping, and a vice-like grip around his arms and
body.
I’m going to die… thought Hiccup.
And as he rocketed upward in a
tornado of sand, he was aware of
being lifted towards the eyes
of the creatures carrying
him up, up, up, but
he had to close
his own eyes,
so bright
was their
gaze.
In the throes
of Death, we cannot
lie, we have to speak
the truth, and Hiccup
shouted something that came
right from the very heart of him,
even though he had lost his memory,
and he could not even remember who
Toothless was.
These were the words he screamed:
‘Me hafta carefor Toothless!’
Which of course, means, ‘I have to save
Toothless!’
Hiccup’s stomach lurched as the unknown
monsters that were carrying him changed course for
a second, plunging crazily downward like a rocket
suddenly and erratically changing direction and Hiccup
felt himself slipping.
He was indeed a little slippery, for he was covered
in slimy mud from the ground at Hero’s End, and
greasy with seaweed from the beach here on Tomorrow,
so the creatures had probably relaxed their hold for a
moment, trying to get a better grip, perhaps?
Who knows?
But Hiccup slid, like a little slimy worm, out of
the creatures’ clasp and down, down, down towards
the marshy bog of Tomorrow.
Camicazi, Fishlegs, Windwalker and Stormfly
were watching, screaming, from the back of the Deadly
Shadow. They saw the terrible creatures emerging, and
the beach turning into a scene of horror, with Hiccup
swept up in a whirlwind of sand so choking that it was
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almost impossible to see any longer…
But then they saw, distinctly, the
creatures shooting back down again, madly,
like unimaginably huge fireworks that have
lost control, and zig-zagging low over the bogs.
Something dropped from their claws into the bog,
something small
and raggedy and insignificant.
‘Oh for Freya’s sake,’ gasped Camicazi.
‘That’s Hiccup, isn’t it? Isn’t that Hiccup?’
Down on the beach, the blind Axeman
sniffed the air, thick with sand. ‘I don’t believe it,’
he whispered. ‘The Dragon Guardians have made
a mistake… They never make mistakes…’
His freedom and his chance to see the world
might be taken away from him, if the Dragon
Guardians had made a mistake…
‘BROTHERS!’ roared the blind Axeman.
‘RISE UP! THE DRAGON GUARDIANS
HAVE MADE A MISTAKE, AND THERE IS
AN INTERLOPER ON THE ISLAND!!!!’
He took a great stick from his waistband
and rapped it on the ground in a weird tattoo,
stamping in time to the beat a message in code to
his fellow Guardians.
The western beach of Tomorrow had
163
looked entirely deserted.
But at the cry of the blind Axeman, all along the
beach, the human Guardians of Tomorrow revealed
themselves.
There were hundreds and hundreds of human
sentries secretly posted all around the island’s coast.
They stepped out from behind rocks, they burst
out of the grasses on the cliffs, they sat up from shallow
graves they had dug themselves on the beach, as if the
very sand itself were giving birth to them: tall, hooded,
grim men and women, all blindfolded.
Half of the Guardians remained at their posts,
guarding the island’s borders, the rest drew their axes,
and set off at a brisk trot towards the interior of the
island.
‘Quick!’ whispered Camicazi. ‘Hiccup needs us,
if he’s still alive. Shadow, you can get past the sentries
in all this chaos…’
The Deadly Shadow stretched out its three
necks, and flew low and straight over the heads of the
shouting human Guardians. Fishlegs held his breath,
expecting at any moment a cry from the troops below –
but no cry came. It looked like Camicazi was right.
Normally even a Stealth Dragon could not get
through the double defence of the human and dragon
164
Guardians of Tomorrow.
How to Train Your Dragon: How to Fight a Dragon's Fury Page 8
