speech ever again!”
‘That was the last time I saw the boy cry.
‘He turned the Secret of the Jewel on me,
told me to be gone or he would destroy all the
dragons, banished me from his kingdom.
‘And he was true to his word.
‘The new Boy-King banned the speaking
of Dragonese. He shut up his ancestors’ library.
He built a great city on the island of Tomorrow, a
city of a hundred castles. The boy who was once
Speedfast became the most feared Viking of all
time, striking terror as far as the edges of the Rus
and the borders of Rome.’
Silence in the underground treehouse, as everyone
realised who this Speedfast must be.
‘The boy who was once Speedfast?’ asked
Hiccup. He knew the answer even as he asked the
question.
‘He changed his name,’ said the dragon. ‘He
changed his name to…’
‘Grimbeard the Ghastly,’ finished Hiccup.
There was a long, long pause.
Hiccup felt slightly sick.
‘Grimbeard the Ghastly. And as is often the way
of these things, the gods set out to punish Grimbeard.
Grimbeard had his own son, who was a runt, and also
called Hiccup, Hiccup the Second. Grimbeard learned
to love this son the best of all his children, but was
tricked into killing his son because he thought he was
stirring up a Dragon Rebellion against him. It was only
then that he realised what a terrible mistake he had
made, how he had betrayed both his own ancestors and
his own son.
‘That was why Grimbeard hid the Things. He
threw them to all quarters of the Archipelago so that
only a true Hero could find them. A new King must
be worthy. He set up a terrible bodyguard of almost
superhuman Warriors and otherworldly dragons, to
133
ensure that only a Hero with the ten Lost Things can
be crowned King, and these dreadful bodyguards are
known as the Guardian Protectors of Tomorrow.’
Hiccup shivered. ‘I have heard bad things about
those Guardians.’
The Wodensfang nodded. ‘Yes, they must be
terrible indeed, to have guarded Tomorrow for so
many years.
‘The Guardian Protectors of Tomorrow pass
the Secret of the Dragon Jewel on from generation
to generation.
‘Only the Hero with the ten Lost Things can
be crowned the King and live. Only he or she can
be told the Secret.
‘But that Hero must be worthy.’
‘Why are you telling us this?’ said Hiccup.
‘It’s just a story,’ said the Wodensfang. ‘So
that Snotlout can realise that the Slavemark was
not always the Slavemark.
‘And how quick good things can be lost.
‘And how a boy can change from being
Speedfast to being Grimbeard the Ghastly…
‘… and also the other way around.’
Silence.
134
‘Can somebody tell that ancient old dragon to
SHUT UP?’ said Snotlout rudely. ‘I’m TRYING to
sleep.’
Silence in the cave again.
One by one, the exhausted humans and dragons
fell asleep, despite the noise from outside, despite their
fears for Camicazi.
But Hiccup remained awake, tossing and turning
and worrying, about Camicazi, about the Rebellion,
about whether Snotlout was a traitor or not…
These were the last thoughts he had before he
drifted off to sleep.
Much, later, Snotlout awoke. He reached into his
ragged breast pocket, behind his armour, and drew out
a Black Star.
Snotlout had won that Star for outstanding
bravery in the Battle of Lucky Thirteen* years
ago, when Snotlout and Hiccup first met Alvin the
Treacherous. Gobber the Belch, his old teacher, had
told Snotlout it was one of the proudest days of his life,
to see a pupil of his win such an honour.
Snotlout’s face was expressionless as he looked
at the star.
The Deadly Shadow, who happened to be awake
at that hour, let out a small warning growl, just to let
* See How to Be a Pirate.
Snotlout know that he was being watched.
Snotlout put the Black Star back in his pocket,
and turned over so that the dragon could not see his
face.
Snotlout was crying.
7. TOOTHLESS’S DREAM
Much, MUCH later that night, Toothless had
a terrifying dream.
It was terrifying because it felt so real.
He dreamed he woke up, and in front of him
was the underground treehouse where they
were sleeping – but at the same time it was
not quite the treehouse. It merged
into somewhere else, in that
way of dreams, and that
somewhere was very cold.
The Wodensfang was awake too, and
staring straight in front of him. His eyes had
turned a very strange sort of purple colour. The
scar on his chest almost seemed to be glowing.
Toothless had a scar too, in almost exactly the
same place, and it suddenly itched and burned
as if he had received it yesterday.
And there, in the treehouse, very loud,
was the sound of a voice Toothless recognised.
It was the voice of the Dragon Furious.
Toothless lay still, trembling.
Toothless could hear the roaring of the
Dragon Rebellion outside, screaming and raging at
full catastrophic force. But, to Toothless’s absolute
terror, it sounded as if the voice of the Dragon
Furious was coming from inside the treehouse. But
how was that possible? The Dragon Furious wasn’t
there, and he was too big to fit inside.
Maybe he had lifted up the
mountaintop, and was looking down at
them from above?
Rigid with anxiety, Toothless slowly,
slowly tipped his head upwards.
No, the ceiling was still there. Phew.
So where on earth was the voice coming from?
It was a mystery.
‘TRAITOR!’ roared the Dragon Furious,
‘TRAITOR!’
For one heartstopping moment Toothless
feared the Dragon Furious was talking to him, and
he gave an unhappy whine and hid his head in his
paws. But no. The Dragon Furious was talking to
the Wodensfang.
‘Why are you letting my thoughts in now,
Wodensfang?’ screamed the Dragon Furious, in
an apocalyptic rage. ‘Have
you changed your mind
about your treacherous
behaviour? Are you
ashamed of betraying
your dragonhood for
the second time?’
The voice of the
Wodensfang replied. Both
Wodensfang and the Dragon Furious
were speaking in Norse, not Dragonese.
But the Wodensfang, though awake, did
not move his lips. How was that possible?
‘Now, now, Furious,’ replied the
Wodensfang. ‘Calm d
own. This anger is
exhausting you. And do not be so quick to
think I am betraying us.’
The Dragon Furious quietened
his rage for a moment, but his tone
was still bitterly resentful. ‘You are
a Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus,
Wodensfang, and a very old one. So you
can see into the future even better than
I can. You know that the boy will be the
end of us all, if we let him live.’
The Wodensfang sighed. He did
not contradict the Dragon Furious.
‘BUT I WILL NOT LET THAT
HAPPEN!’ roared the Dragon
Furious. ‘I have pledged that
Hiccup the Third shall not reach
Tomorrow. And he is near, I
sense it, I smell you both
in my heart, although you are
protecting him. I will not give up, I will
stay here until I hunt you out, however
long that takes.’
The dragon paused in his rage for
a moment, and tried to reason with the
Wodensfang.
‘There is no time any more for the
foolish hopes of a silly old dragon. Do you
think you are the only one who has ever
loved a human? I loved one once myself.
His name was Hiccup the Second. But
in the end, these Hiccup boys, wonderful
as they are, will not be able to defeat
the strength of the evil that runs through
humanity. Look how the kingdom of Hiccup
the First fell into the hands of the boy
who was once Speedfast, and ended up
Grimbeard the Ghastly? And see how
this boy, Hiccup the Third, finds the Lost
Things, and they fall again and again
into the hook of the evil one, Alvin the
Treacherous.’
The Wodensfang sighed. ‘That has
been worrying me, I confess.’
‘Fate is trying to tell you
something, Wodensfang. We have to
learn from the past, as well as the future.’
The Wodensfang sat still, looking into
the Future.
‘You are mistaken if you think this has
not occurred to me,’ said the Wodensfang,
almost as if he were talking to himself. ‘In
part, I am doing this because I want to believe
in the impossible, and young humans are so
touching in their belief in the impossible.’
‘When we are old we must be wise,
and give up what is unrealistic,’ said the
Dragon Furious. ‘You had the chance to kill
the boy in the Fire Cavern. You could not
do it, so bring the boy to someone who CAN
do it. I will kill him for the sake of all of us.
I am the King of the Dragons, and a King
has to act for the greater good.’
‘That is the way the witch talks,’ said
the Wodensfang softly.
‘You may love humans, but you
are, in the end, a dragon. You have to
put your dragonhood first. Bring the
boy to me, as you know you
must,’ said the Dragon Furious.
‘Furthermore, you know you will.’
The Wodensfang sat silent for a long
time. Toothless had the impression that
he was playing some game of chess with
the possibilities in his mind. Eventually
he said, ‘All right, Furious. I will betray
whoever is made King.’
Toothless stiffened in horror.
‘But not yet,’ said the Wodensfang.
‘I want this story to play out to the very
final moment. I want the boy to have the
chance to be the biggest Hero he can be
before the story ends where it
must…’
‘He is so close now, to being a Hero.
I do not want to bring him down before he
makes it there. Once I helped a boy become
a King. Let me do this one more time before
I die, for this one human, even if it ends in
the destruction of a species. I will make you a
bargain. Stop stalking us. Call off your hunt,
take your Dragon Rebellion north to prepare
for the War on Tomorrow…’
‘Why would I do that?’ scorned Furious.
‘I am close to you now, I feel it.’
‘But you are wasting your strength
in these angry attacks,’ the Wodensfang
pointed out, ‘and you need to save it for
the Final Battle. You are frightened of
Tomorrow; you fear it, Furious, do you not?
So go back north and prepare. The twelfth day
of Doomsday is only three days away, and you
need to be at full strength.
‘This way, you get a little breathing
space, and I get some last
precious hours with the boy,’ wheezed
the Wodensfang, with a deep and longing
melancholy.
The Dragon Furious considered this.
‘If I were to give you this time,’ growled
the Dragon Furious, ‘if I were to halt my
Rebellion, only to strike with greater strength on
the day of Doomsday of Yule itself, what would
you offer me in return?’
‘I would swear to you, by the word of a Sea
Dragon,’ said the Wodensfang, that if a King is
crowned on the Doomsday of Yule, on that very
same day, I will bring that King to meet you in
single combat.’
The Dragon Furious grunted. ‘That is no
use to me, if the King is carrying the Jewel.’
‘But before the King rides out to meet
you,’ said the Wodensfang, ‘I shall take the
Dragon Jewel from them, and bring it to you.’
The Dragon Furious growled in
satisfaction.
‘So this puny human King, will be forced
to meet me, the Dragon Furious, in single
combat with no Jewel to protect them?’
‘That is correct,’ said the Wodensfang.
‘I TAKE YOUR BARGAIN!’ cried the
Dragon Furious, and Toothless jumped to hear
the thunderclap of his jubilation.
‘Swear you will bring the Jewel to me, and
then the King,’ said the Dragon Furious sternly.
‘I swear on the word of a Sea Dragon
that I shall bring them both to you,’ said the
Wodensfang, sighing miserably. ‘But it is a bitter
bargain.’
‘No!’ shrieked Toothless in his thoughts.
‘The word of a Sea Dragon cannot be broken.
No! No! No! No! No!’
‘And I swear that I will call off the hunt
in return,’ said the Dragon Furious. ‘You are
right, I confess that this anger is exhausting. It
will be good to rest for the final conflict.
‘Dragons of the Rebellion!’ called the
mighty beast. ‘HALT THE RED-RAGE!’
And Toothless could hear the sound of the
Dragon Rebellion outside quietening down.
Then the Wodensfang smiled. ‘And now
at least you can stop tracking us, Furious,
through the thoughts of the gummy one, and
I can stop blocking you, which will be more
relaxing for both of us…’
The Dragon Furious laughed. ‘Such
thoughts as they are! I can’t believe he’s a
&nb
sp; Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus, the little
stammering toothless one! He’s so stupid, and he
seems to think of nothing but food!’
‘He’s just young,’ scolded the Wodensfang,
‘he doesn’t yet know what he is…’
‘Here I s-s-say!’ protested Toothless, and
he was so distressed he spoke aloud. ‘You’re
n-n-not talking about Toothless are you? How
can Toothless be a Seadragon? That’s even
s-s-sillier than the Wodensfang being one!
Toothless doesn’t want d-d-dragons listening
into his thoughts! And Toothless does know
what he is! He’s a Common-or Gar– actually,
no, he’s a Toothless Daydream…
‘Well, whatever he is, Toothless N-N-NOT
a Seadragon, he’s far too small – this is a very
bad dream!’
The Wodensfang
turned his head
towards Toothless.
‘That’s right, it is
a very bad dream,
Toothless,’
said the
voice of the
Wodensfang,
still without
opening his mouth, but
looking straight at Toothless
with his hypnotic eyes. ‘But
you can go back to sleep now,
and when you wake up you will
have forgotten all about it…’
‘A very bad dream,’ said the
fading voice of the Dragon Furious.
Toothless yawned.
Slowly he closed his eyes and
went back to sleep.
When he woke up in the morning, he shivered.
The sound of the Dragon Rebellion outside had
gone.
That was a VERY bad dream he’d had last night.
But what was it about?
He couldn’t remember for the life of him.
8. YOU WOULDN’T FIND
ALVIN’S SECRET CAMP EVEN
IF YOU SEARCHED FOR A
HUNDRED YEARS
The next morning, to Hiccup’s surprise, the dragons
of the Dragon Rebellion had vanished. Outside, the
landscape was a smoking, burning ruin, but there was
no sign of human or dragon life. The rain poured
down relentlessly.
‘They’ve gone…’ breathed Hiccup, unable to
believe their good fortune. ‘Now we can go and
How To Train Your Dragon: How to Betray a Dragon's Hero Page 7
