How to speak Dragonese (4 page)

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around his hand and picked up the Electricsquirm very, very carefully by the tail.

As its name suggests, the Electricsquirm gives a truly terrible electric shock if you touch it in the wrong place. The tail is fine, because it is made of some sort of horny material that does not conduct electricity. But every other part of its body is likely to electrocute you.

Hiccup dropped to his hands and knees and softly pushed aside the curtains of the canopy.

The Thin Prefect and the Fat Consul were still deep in conversation.

The Fat Consul had nearly finished his nanodragons-in-honey. There was only one nanodragon left on the plate, struggling to escape. No one was looking at it; the two men were far too busy talking.

Hiccup crawled forward, reached up and removed the nanodragon, putting it in his pocket. At least he had saved one of the poor creatures. He replaced the nanodragon with the Electricsquirm, which was almost exactly the same size.

Hiccup then crept away toward the cage of dragons.

Still talking, the Fat Consul reached out with one fat hand to grab another portion of nanodragon. His

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porky fingers scrabbled around in the honey for the final juicy morsel... and closed around the stomach of the Electricsquirm.

All thirty-eight stone of the Fat Consul soared quite one meter in the air.

His hair stuck up and out like a hedgehog, sparks flew out of his ears and his great blubbering mounds of flesh lit up with a strange blue light and quivered and shivered and wobbled and jiggled hysterically like a truly gigantic pink jelly that has been struck by lightning.

A few seconds later he fell to earth again. His toga turned to ashes around him and the vast flabby acres of his enormous stomach went on wobbling for the next ten minutes.

While everybody's attention was being drawn to the Fat Consul doing a one-man impression of the northern lights, Hiccup quietly lifted the wooden bar of the dragons' cage.

The next moment there was pandemonium aboard the deck of the Roman ship as the dragons poured out in a furious, shrieking, snapping and flaming river of beaks and wings and talons and tails,

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attacking the Romans, setting fire to the sails and causing no end of damage.

The Thin Prefect climbed on top of his couch in order to have a better view of what was happening.

"Hiccup!"
he said to himself under his breath. "This is the work of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third or I am a freshwater crayfish -- which I'm not of course. Well,
I'll
flush you out of your hiding place, my fine fellow, you see if I don't... CENTURION!"

This command was directed at the Roman soldier who was still holding Fishlegs upside down by his left ankle.

'Trepare to execute the prisoner!"

The centurion drew his sword with a flourish and swung it up over his head.

"HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICCUP!'' screamed Fishlegs, absolutely terrified.

This was not part of Hiccup's plan.

"TOOOOOOOOOTHLESS!" screamed Hiccup.

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4. TOOTHLESS TO THE RESCUE

Toothless had spent the last ten minutes muttering to himself at the top of the mast. At first he was so full of self-pity he had no time to worry about what was happening to his masters. "NOBODY loves T-T-Toothless," he said to himself. But then the noises from the Roman ship got louder, and the boys did not reappear, and he started to get worried.

When he heard Hiccup's YELL for help the little dragon called off his strike.

He zoomed off his perch and flew to the ship, and even from the height he was flying, his sharp little eyes immediately spotted that way down below on the deck there was a large Roman centurion who was holding Fishlegs by the leg. The centurion was about to execute Fishlegs with his sword.

Toothless folded his wings back and went into a dive, just as he might do if he were hunting mackerel or herring. His target was the centurion's head, and by the time he reached it, he was going so fast he was a little dragon blur. He tore into the helmet, sending

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feathers from the plume flying in all directions, and bit and scratched as hard as he could.

The centurion let out a yell of surprise and rage. For a moment he was knocked off balance, but he recovered when he realized his attacker was only a very small dragon. Fishlegs swung desperately from side to side, trying to break free; but the centurion was made of tough stuff. He tightened his grip on Fishlegs's ankle and swung his sword around, trying to hit Toothless with it.

So Hiccup grabbed a passing Slitherfang and shoved it up the centurion's tunic. The centurion let out a bellow and dropped Fishlegs.

Wouldn't you?

A Slitherfang in the knickers is no laughing matter. The centurion hopped from foot to foot, clutching his bottom and squealing like a pig as he tried to catch hold of the nibbling, wriggling, scratching Slitherfang in his underwear.

"Let's get out of here!" howled Hiccup, hauling Fishlegs to his feet.

He also picked up a Roman helmet that was lying on the deck nearby. They were going to have some explaining to do to Gobber when they got back, and this might help.

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[Image: A slither fang in the KNICKERS is NO LAUGHING MATTER.]

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All around them there was chaos, with dragons attacking Romans and Romans attacking dragons and trying to put out the fires the dragons were making.

Hearts racing as fast as rabbits, panting and stumbling, Hiccup and Fishlegs ran as fast as they could to the spot where they had boarded the ship. The rope was still in place,
The Hopeful Puffin
would be waiting down below on the other side ... Fishlegs got to the edge first, and scrambled over. Hiccup was only a few steps away from him.... when a hand grabbed the back of his tunic, ripping out his pocket.

Hiccup's book,
How to Speak Dragonese,
fell onto the deck.

Hiccup stopped to reach down and pick it up ...

... and came face to face with the glitteringly triumphant eyes of the Thin Prefect through the iron visor of his helmet. Hiccup's heart turned to ice. The Prefect was holding on to the other end of the book.

"AHA!" spat the Thin Prefect.

They both pulled. "Let go!" hissed the Thin Prefect. "You can't win, you know. This is mine now ..." Hiccup could have let go but this was his book after

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all and despite his terror, some deep, indignant rage made him hang on strongly until...

... something sharp and iron shot out from beneath the Thin Prefect's cloak and cut into the back of Hiccup's hand.

Hiccup screamed and jumped backward.

The book split in two, and before the Thin Prefect could pull himself together and catch hold of him again, Hiccup scrambled away and over the edge of the ship.

There wasn't even time to climb down the rope. Hiccup swung from it, and then let go, crashing onto the deck of
The Hopeful Puffin
some way below

Fishlegs cut the rope that tied them to the ship, and their little boat was pulled away so swiftly by the current that she went into one of her spins.

"Where's Toothless?" asked Hiccup.

Toothless had been held up.

His foot was caught in the centurion's chin strap, and for a moment they were tied together -- and Toothless had quite a bumpy ride because the centurion was jumping up and down like an octopus

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with chicken pox, as he tried to get rid of the Slither fang in his knickers.

Toothless finally snapped the chin strap with his hard little gums, and to Hiccup's relief, as
The Hopeful Puffin
twirled around for the fifth time -- looking for all the world as if she was dancing -- Toothless came screeching up to the edge of the ship toward them at the speed of a flying arrow.

"Oh, thank Thor!" Hiccup exclaimed joyfully.

But one minute Toothless was flying through the air like a stormy petrel in a hurry; the next a net weighted with stones appeared out of nowhere, wrapped itself round the little dragon in midair and brought him back down onto the deck of the Roman ship as if struck by a spear.

"TOOOOOOOOTHLESS!" cried Hiccup.

Two figures appeared over the edge of the ship. One was the Thin Prefect holding half of the
How to Speak Dragonese
book. The other was a Roman soldier. In one hand he held a trident. In the other he held a net. ..

... and within that net, struggling and biting ,and turning wild somersaults in his desperation to be 'free, was ...

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.. . Toothless.

The Hopeful Puffin
made another crazy turn and Hiccup gazed at his captured dragon in despair until the Roman ship was swallowed up by the fog and Hiccup could see him no more.

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How to speak Dragoness by Hiccup horrendous Haddock III

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Bath time

When a dragon has spent the whole day in a mud wallow and they then want to curl up in your bed you have no option. YOU HAVE TO GIVE THEM A BATH. Good luck.

Dragon: Me na wash di bum. Me na wash di face. Me na wash di claws. Me na splashy oo di splashy ATALL.

I
do not want a bath.

You are going to have to be cunning and use PSYCHOLOGY

You: Na bathtime ever never ever never. Me repeeti. Na bathtime EVER NEVER.
On no account are you to get in the bath.

Dragon (whining): Me wanti splishy splashy

You: Okey dokey just wun time.

All right just this once.

Hoody drunken di bath juice?

Who has drunk up the bath water?

[Image: Hiccup.]

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