How to Train Your Dragon 9
Cressida Cowell
1. Hiccup wakes up in a patchwork hammock halfway up a cliff face to the sound of dragons in a human-hunting party. His Windwalker was supposed to be watching for danger, but the riding dragon has trouble staying awake during hibernation season. The vicious dragons head for the more colorful hammocks of the other warriors above them. A Tonguetwister dragon sticks it’s tongue into Snotlout’s hammock to start ripping off his limbs. Hiccup pulls out his bow and arrow and aims for the dragon. Due to Snotlout bending Hiccups bow and arrows, it goes a bit wild and hits Snotlout in the calf. He is startled awake and falls out of his hammock. Hiccup tries to catch him as he falls, but Snotlout catches himself on a tree a bit below Hiccup. Still trying to help, Hiccup tries to find a climbing rope in his hammock, but the smoke from Toothless’ snoring smoke rings has fogged everything up and he accidentally grabs his sword and ends up slicing through his hammock. Hiccup hangs by the tattered cloth and yells up that there is a dragon attack. Fishlegs and the others wake up. The dragons turn their atrention to Hiccuo and make a prey dive towards him. Toothless tries to wake up the Windwalker, but he is having a lovely dream about playing with a butterfly. A tonguetwister lasses him and uses the cliff to stop itself and turn around. It uses his tongue to grab his sword arm as the hammock pieces continue to give out slowly.
2. The youngsters in the training program were to spend two days and a night climbing the Hard Way of Angry Mountain (the elder Vikings would take the gradual sloping Easy Way) to get to the sword fighting festival that would be held at the school on top of the mountain. Flashburn, said to be the ideal hero, swoops down in his Red Tiger dragon to great them as they gather at the foot of the cliff. He steals Stoick’s hat and returns it with a flourish when he lands. He continues to insult the tribe leaders and Madguts charges him. Flashburn is able to take him down in less than 10 seconds with a spoon. He points out not everyone will make it to the gold belted Flash Master ranking and takes off to return to his school at the top of the mountain. Stoick wishes his son luck and tells Hiccup he earned his gold belt by the time he was 18. He then joins the other adults heading up the mountain the Easy Way. Old Wrinkly steps up to Hiccup. He tells him terrible danger awaits him at Flashburn’s School for Sword Fighting. He warns him to to keep his stuff in excellent condition because they are the King’s things. He then takes off with the group returning to Berk to keep the home fires burning. Snotlout announces he will be leading the climb up the cliff face because he is the leader. When Fishlegs points out Hiccup is the son of Stoick the Vast, Snotlout starts making fun of them. He uses his sword to cut up their hammocks, breaks most of their weapons and scatters the remains. He then starts the climb up with the others. Hiccup decides they will have to make their blankets into hammocks. They gather what they can of their things and do their best to repair them. Hiccup suggests to the Windwalker that he could go up the easy way with the others, but the riding dragon is a bit insulted, so Hiccup allows him to follow along with them. They start up the mountain about a half hour after the others. When Hiccup goes to sleep that night, Old Wrinkly’s words echo in his mind.
3. Hiccup’s arm is entangled by the tonguetwister’s tongue. Toothless realizes the Windwalker isn’t going to wake up and bites the end of the Tonguetwister’s tongue. It is hurt and starts to fall. This give Hiccup enough time to abondon his blanket hammock before it rips the rest of the way and he makes it to a small ledge. The dragons are recovering and coming back for another attack. He realizes they want his sword. He makes a big show of throwing Fishlegs’ sword into the gorge and they follow. This gives Hiccup enough time to get his grappling hook and rope over a ledge and down to catch Snotlout just as he loses his grip. Hiccup sends Toothless to the school for help. The dragons come back, but the young Viking’s hunting dragons are able to fight them off. They all look to Snotlout for what to do next, but he is a bit stunned and still hanging by his waist. He calls out for the boys to be strong. Camicazi yells back that they are not all boys and asks Hiccup what they should do. He tells them to tie their ropes to the biggest boulders they can find around them and make sure their grappling hooks are attached at the other end. When the dragons are close, he will tell them when to throw them. Most of the young Vikings hit their marks and the dragons fly up past them with ropes and boulders following. They are too afraid of being captured or chained and become frantic. They flee and that is how Hiccup won the battle of Angry Mountain.
4. The warriors-to-be look to Snotlout for directions, but he doesn’t know what to do. Camicazi asks Hiccup what they should do. He convinces Snotlout to ride the Windwalker up to the school because he is injured. He then suggests they keep climbing until the reach the top before the dragons can regroup and attack again. It is slow going because they had to throw a lot of grappling hooks and ropes at the dragons. They make it to the top around six in the morning, but the huge castle is completely quiet. They use their grappling hooks to scale the walls and find the inside empty. When to go out the other side, they find the Viking warriors and other tribe members just finishing their climb up the Easy Way because they were also attacked by dragons. They are worried that Flashburn, his men, and his red tiger dragons are all gone. They make their way into the banquet hall where they find the food is still warm. Suddenly, there is a loud knocking. They figure out it is coming from inside the big golden cauldron. While most of the Vikings have grown up with stories of cauldrons being used to bring skeletons to life, they are not enthusiastic to open it. The chiefs gather round. Stoick, Mogadon the Meathead, and Murderous lift the lid off. At first, a chicken flies out. The Vikings are relieved until a human hand tipped in iron comes out after
5. Alvin the Treacherous’ mother, Excellinor, crawls out of the cauldron. She tells them the dragons attacked and carried off Flashburn and his men. She says she only survived by hiding in the cooking pot. Hiccup looks around at how everything, including the feast, is still in tact and knows she is lying. She tells them the dragon rebellion was prophesied and the only way for the humans to survive is to find their new King of the Wilderwest. She lists off what of the King’s list items the new king will posses. Hiccup grows increasingly uncomfortable as he has most of the items. Fishlegs and Camicazi know this as well, but he signals them not to say anything. The Vikings are confused by the prophecy and don’t hold much stock in it. The witch sees their hesitation and suggests they elect a new king through a sword competition open to all, including the Outcasts that have been slowly creeping into the room. Bertha objects, but when asking the eldest elder, he cannot deny that Alvin is a descendent of Grimbeard through his oldest son. The elder writes up a pledge stating all the tribes will follow the new King. They sign with their own blood. The witch leaves to stay in a hit Flashburn had been letting her stay in. The Vikings turn the feast into Flashburn’s funeral while the Outcasts watch.
6. Two weeks later the Viking warriors are practicing for the sword fighting competition that will determine who is the next King of the Wilderwest. Fishlegs’ dragon, Horrorcow, has been attached to his head since the attacks. She puts her claws over his eyes in the middle of the match and Hiccup has to fly down on the Windwalker to save him. They return to the tower where their group has been spending most of their time. Camicazi is worried about her hurt foot (stung by a sea urchin that was put in her boot) is going to impact her fights. Many of the other great sword fighters have come down with various injuries and illnesses. Hiccup believes Excellionor and the Outcasts are behind the misfortunes so her son will become king. Stoick calls Hiccup to him to tell him he needs to practice his sword fighting and stop being friends with Fishlegs because they are already embarrassed enough by Hiccup being the one to have freed Furious. Hiccup suggests they free all dragons. It would be more difficult for them to have a revolt if they were already free. Stoick ignores his son’s advice and storms off in frustration. Hiccup tries to warn him not to appear to be too good of a sword fighter lest he also have misfortune come upon him, but Stoick is gone too fast.
7. Hiccup again tries to tell his father that the witch is making the best sword fighters disappear or become injured. Mogadon the Meathead suggests they leave the cursed place, but the witch points out they have all signed an agreement in blood to have the tournament to determine the new King of the Wilderwest. The day before the sword fighting competition, the witch gets Stoick and he disappears. Baggybum tries to plead his case to be the interim chief, but the elders decide the job belongs to Hiccup. His first order is to have the witch’s hit searched, but she is expecting them and they don’t find anything. The Hooligans are embarrassed at the taboo they performed at Hiccup’s order. Hiccup doesn’t sleep that night. As everyone is lining up for the competition, Stormfly convinces Toothless to sneak into the witches hit through a hole in the back and steal some of the fortune cookies. After he grabs some, he immediately flies to Hiccup. While eating the cookies, he tells Hiccup some of the missing Vikings’ artifacts are in the witch’s hut, including Stoick’s sword. While the witch is in the banqueting hall for dinner, Hiccup starts out to her hit with the intention of searching it. Fishlegs tries to warn him it will lead them to one disaster or another. Camicazi thinks it is a great idea and she will be needed to find what the witch is hiding. Toothless is trying to stop them, but his mouth is full of fortune cookies and he cannot tell them what he desperately needs to say. Hiccup unlocks the door.
8. As soon as they step in, the three young Vikings know they have made a mistake. Toothless had been trying to tell them the witch hadn’t actually left the hut but had sent another outcast to the hall in one of her cloaks. They try to turn and run, but they are frozen in the spot and the door shuts behind them on their own. Hiccup demands to have his father returned to him. Excellinor ofers him a game of hide-and-seem. If he can find the list crown of the Wilderwest, she will find his father. Hiccup asks why she thinks he can find it when she couldn’t. She points out how he already has six of the lost items. He asks where to look and she moves the fire to open a door to a well. She tells him that is the only known entrance/exit to the dungeon where it is supposed to be. Hiccup agrees to go knowing she’ll kill him (her iron tipped fingers are covered in poison). He says he never goes in a quest without his friends and she agrees to let them go. While they wait, she invites him to play a game of liar dice. She shakes the canister and says she has 4 skulls. He takes it and sees she was telling the truth. He picks up the odd dice and drops it back in. He hands it to her and says he has 5 skulls. She lowers them down into the dungeon and Camicazi calls to Stormfly, who joins them. The witch looks at the dice and sees Hiccup was also telling the truth.
9. As the three heroes are lowered further into the dungeon in their cauldron, morale gets lower as well. Camicazi hopes they won’t be late for the competition while Fishlegs doesn’t believe they will make it out of there at all. Hiccup starts listing all the dangerous types of dragons they could run into until the hit the bottom and tumble out of the cauldron.
10. The icy cavern is lit up by small glowing dragons. They make their way through a few tunnels, but end up back where they started. Luckily, most of the dragons they run into are still hibernating. Stormfly notices a chain and they decide to follow it. While using bones to skate down the tunnel, they run into a man hanging upside down in a stickyworm web. It is Flashburn and he hollers insults at them in whispers. He scolds them for picking up his chain and makes fun of each of them when they tell him they are looking for the crown. He has been searching for the crown for 20 years when Excellinor told him if he found it he would be the new King of the Wilderwest. Hiccup asks if he would release all dragons and slaves if he were king. He admits he wouldn’t and they decide to leave him tied up to prevent him from winning the competition. They hear the scrapes of riproarers coming their way. Fishlegs lies down on the ice too tired to go on. He tells them to leave him to die. Hiccup tried to convince him they still have a chance and to not give up.
11. Hiccup realizes the witch hadn’t taken the King’s lost things from Hiccup because he would need them to find the crown. He takes out the ticking thing and notices one of the arrows has a crown in fire scratched onto it. He shows Fishlegs it is a sign of hope for their quest. He and Camicazi are able to drag Fishlegs along and skate away from the approaching riproarers. Toothless spots a perfectly rectangular hole in the ground. They all go through, Hiccup last. He puts his shield over his head as he jumps in and it perfectly covers the hole. The riproarers try to get under it as Hiccup uses his body weight to hold it down. He tells for Camicazi to thrown electricstickies onto the shield. Hiccup is lifted out of the hole and stares a riproarer in the face. When the electric sticky lands in it, the riproarer is shocked and drops the shield and attached Hiccup. She throws two more on to keep the dragons from touching the shield again. They look around the cavern and Flashburn admits he had never found the hole previously. They find the fire pit and combine what is left of their fireproof suits for hiccup can climb down. He does and at the bottom is the crown. As he reaches for it, he sees a small dragon curled up sleeping in the middle of its ring. He tries to take the crown without waking the dragon, but it won’t budge. The dragon wakes up.
12. Hiccup is frozen on the spot. He asks the very old dragon, the Wodensfang, not to kill him. He asks him politely for the crown and explains he wants to free the dragons so they can live in peace with the humans. The Wodensfang wants to believe him, but he has been told a similar thing before by someone with his same name. The dragon Merciless looked into the future ti see he would be killed by someone named Hiccup. The Wodensfang was sent to kill Hiccup the first, but got injured and stuck in a tree. Hiccup the first pulled him out and nurses him back to health, including sewing up his wounded chest (same place both Toothless and Furious have scars). The Wodensfang went down into the fire pit to get the Dragonsword for Hiccup the first and showed him the dragon stone that was hidden in the handle. When Merciless came for Hiccup, his only defense was holding up the stone. Merciless was terrified of the stone and agreed to never return to the Archipelago. The dragon was living in isolation so long he became known as the Green Death. Hiccup says Merciless did return to the Archipelago and he killed him. The Wodensfang tells him Hiccup the first did was he promised. Humans and dragons lived as equals. After Hiccup the first died, his decedents were not so kind to the dragons until they were enslaved. Hiccup the third says he isn’t sure if he can change the world, but his grandfather told him those that try, like him and the two previous Hiccups, make the world at least a little better than it was before. The Wodensfang agrees to give Hiccup the crown as long as he makes sure it doesn’t fall j to the wrong hands. Hiccup promises to do his best which the Wodenfang thinks is good enough. When Hiccup picks up the crown, there is a terrible noise. It sounds like Furious the dragon is shouting for all of the other present dragons in the cavern to find and kill Hiccup. The Wodensfang says there is a second entrance to the dungeon that is large enough to admit a larger dragon. Hiccup picks up the Wodenfang and puts him in his waistcoat to escape.
13. Hiccup climbs out of the pit as fast as he can and his friends help pull him up. Toothless is not happy to see another dragon in his spot in Hiccup’s waistcoat. Hiccup tells them they have to hurry. As Camicazi pulls Flashburn along, he spouts his indignation at Hiccup finding and getting the crown he spent 20 years looking for. When they get back to the shield, Hiccup tells out that they are being attacked by brainpickers. He has Camicazi life the shield with her sword. When one of the riproarers sees Horrorcow clinging to Fishlegs’ head, they start to take off is fear. Fishlegs sticks his head through the opening and when the rest of the dragons see horrorcown attached to his head, they assume she is a brain picker and they stumble over each other to get away. Stormfly leads them back to the cauldron they rode down into the dungeon. Flashburn is so disappointed his impossible quest was achieved in about two hours by a bunch of “little weirdos.” Camicazi tries to cheer him up. Hiccup says he will go up alone since the witch probably wouldn’t be able to lift all four of them at once. Toothless goes with Hiccup even though another dragon is in his spot. Hiccup tells up to the witch to crank the lever to get him out. She wants him to toss up the crown first, but he isn’t willing to give up his only leverage. Hiccup now has nine of the king’s lost things
14. Once Hiccup back in the hut and out of the cauldron, the witch demands the crown and the other king’s list things. Hiccup insists she release Stoick first. She refuses and tries to attack him with her poisonous fingernails. She is surprised when they don’t work on him. He explains the most deadly dragon venom is vorpent venom and he is immune to it. He tells her to get the story from her son. Hiccup uses his key to open the cabinet where he finds Stoick and UG. Stoick and Hiccup embrace and are very happy to see each other again. He frees them both and has Excellinor get into the cabinet. He tells her she is good at being wicked, but she isn’t so good at chess. He moves a pawn on the board from her and UG’s game and calls out “checkmate.” He uses his sword, Endeavor, to cut her own key from around her neck before locking her in. Stoick and UG crank the handle to get the rest of the group out of the dungeon. Flashburn runs from the hut as quickly as possible and UG follows.
15. The Eldest Elder does his best to delay the competition. Just as they are about to start, Flashburn and UG run across the arena and down the Easy Way of Angry Mountain. Stoick, Hiccup, Camicazi, and Fishlegs follow and the Eldest Elder decide they can join the competition. The bugle sounds and the fighting starts. Hiccup wins six swords within two hours (if you win, you get your opponent’s sword). He is so into the fighting, he doesn’t notice how his friends are doing. Fishlegs went out in the first round. Snoutlout made it to his fifth round. Camicazi made it to the quarter finals and was the youngest to ever earn a bronze belt. Hiccup notices Alvin fighting off to his left. He knows he has to win because the world and dragons may not survive with anyone else as king of the Wilderwest. Hiccup notices Alvin is defeated, but he is too busy with his match to notice by who. After he disarms Madguts the Murderous, the crowd goes wild. A gold belt is out around him and he is carried to the final round. He is shocked to find he will be facing his father.
16. Excellinor is able to get out of the cabinet (Hiccup should have put her down the well and dropped the cauldron in after her). She throws Hiccup’s pawn piece into the fire, flips over the chess board, and pours poison over it. She scurries out of the hit on all fours to see Alvin lose his match against Stoick. He thinks coming in third place was pretty good (he beat Madguts in points), but his mother points out he cannot be King if the Wilderwest by coming in third. He reminds her she was supposed to remove Hiccup from the competition. She gets an idea and thinks something inside the hut could help their situation.
17. While Stoick is no longer in his prime, spending a day or so in the witch’s cupboard gave him inspiration to fight like a much younger man. He is surprised and proud when Hiccup is brought before him for the final round. He has no doubt in his mind that he is going to win. As the match goes on, he is surprised at how good Hiccuo has gotten with the sword. He is blinded by rage. The witch sneaks over behind Fishlegs and predicts death. Hiccup and Stoick fight, but eventually, Stoick’s knee gives out from an old would when he was on his impossible quest to win Valhallarama as his bride. He tells Hiccup to end it quickly, and Hiccup takes his father’s sword from his hand. The crowd then carried Hiccup to the Eldest Elder who declares him the winner. The crowd is displeased with the gods’ choice of champion, but Camicazi yells out that he has everything the king needs and the heir to Grimbeard the Ghastly is said to have. He retrieves the crown from the Wodensfang. The Eldest Elder reminds them they made their oaths to follow him in blood and now must take him as king and listed to him speak.
18. Hiccup starts off his speech reminding his fellow Vikings that his being king was the choice of the gods. He tells them a war is in the way with the dragons. He wants to go to Furious the dragon to prevent it. In order for the dragon to listen to him, they need to free the dragons. Hiccup declares all dragons and humans need to be free. When there are complaints of the loss of their dragons taking away their livelihood, Hiccup reminds them an all out war with the Dragon Rebellion would probably cost them all their lives. He tells the Vikings they are a strong people and can live by standing in their own two feet. One Eye is skeptical that the humans will agree to change. He is pleasantly surprised when the majority of the tribes start cheering for Hiccup. The meaner tribes (for example the Vistithugs, Murderous, and Outcasts) were not impressed with the speech.
19. During Hiccup’s speech, Excellinor creeps through the crowd until she comes to Snotlout. She whispers in his ear. Snotlout throws a rock at Hiccup’s helmet and knocks it off his head to reveal the slavemark given to him by the Wanderers long ago. The Eldest Elder announces that Hiccup is ineligible to rule and is disqualified, making Stoick, the runner up, the winner and next king. Excellinor starts her argument that Stoick should also be disqualified. The Naming Dame had told Stoick and Valhallarama when he was born that he was a runt and they were supposed to send him out to see like many other parents were forced to do with their own babies. Excellinor calls for them all to turn their backs on Hiccup and Stoick. All do except Camicazi and Fishlegs. Fishlegs presents Hiccup with the two lobster claws that have been around his neck since he was found in the lobster pot as a baby. He declares Hiccup is still his king. Excellinor says Fishlegs cannot go where Hiccup is going and hits him with his stick. She announces the third place winner, Alvin the Treacherous is their new king.
20. The Wodensfang is surprised at how quickly the crown fell into the wrong hands, but now knows Hiccup truly is the Heir. Alvin wants Stoick branded with the slavemark. He orders Stoick and Hiccup to be chained up and sent to the Vistithug slavelands. He also makes clear his intentions to go to war with the wild dragons. In addition. he declares all domesticated dragons will have to be chained when not working for a human. All of the Viking tribes are skeptical about his decrees. Hiccup tries to tell the dragons to hold out for a few days until the tribes realize Alvin is not going to be a good king. One Eye immediately changes sides and goes to attack Alvin. He is taken down by 20 or so Outcasts. Alvin plans to blind him before he kills him, but before he can do anything, a geyser of fire erupts right where the witches hit is.
21. The dragon Furious erupts from the ground and the entire castle starts to shake apart. The Vikings had been so distracted from their own drama they hadn’t realized they were slowly being surrounded by dragons. The Red-Rage starts their attack and Furious calls for the domestic dragons to join them in their rebellion. They do and the Vikings are being slaughtered at every turn. Stoick manages to avoid being killed by his riding dragon Bullheart when an arrow goes into its leg. Hiccup is still tied up and watching the one sided war. He calls out to Toothless saying he needs his help.
22. Toothless has been taken over by the Red-Rage, but hearing Hiccup’s voice pulls him out of it. Hiccup tells him to cut the ropes holding him and then to go find the Windwalker. The Red-Rage doesn’t affect the Windwalker and Toothless brings him to Hiccup. They three of them fly high above the battle. Hiccup spots the Wodensfang and they gather him up before taking back to the sky. Hiccup tries to come up with a plan as his fellow Vikings are loosing the battle. He flies into a small break in the clouds where the sun is shining. It catches Camicazi’s eye and she is certain Hiccup has a plan. Hiccup calls out to the Dragon’s that he has the jewel in his hand. Furious can tell he is lying, but takes a few seconds to look into the future. He orders all of the dragons to go after Hiccup.
23. The Windwalker zips around avoiding the other dragons and eventually takes off as fast as he can. All of the dragons follow. With all the dragons gone and the Vikings surrounded by their injured and dead tribesmen, Alvin declares war on the dragons. He ordered all dragons be killed on sight, no questions asked. He declares Snotlout to be the new leader of the Hooligan tribe. When his father, Baggybum, tries to object because he is supposed to be next in line, Alvin says the time of fat old Vikings is over. Anyone that objects will join Stoick as a slave. He orders them back to the boats and to go home and prepare weapons to face the dragons. The Viking cheer him on. As Camicazi is leaving with the Bog Burglars, she sees Fishlegs crying. He believes Hiccup is dead. She reminds him Hiccup always thinks of something. Fishlegs puts Hiccups helmet on his own head and straightens himself out to face life on Berk with Snotlout as their leader. No matter what he has to endure, he knows Hiccup will have to deal with worse.
24. Hiccup is terrified, but urges the Windwalker on. They fly as fast as they can through the maze of the gorge. Then Hiccup tells the Windwalker to fly as high as he can. Eventually he is able to lose the rest of the dragons in the high altitude. He lays down on the Windwalker’s back and goes to sleep. When he wakes up, he is in a cave with the three dragons who are not impacted by the Red-Rage. Hiccup puts his face in his arm and cries because he feels alone. The Wodensfang reminds him they are with him. He has earned the loyalty of two dragons so much that they were not overtaken by the Red-Rage. He has faith in Hiccup and will dare to hope one more time. He tells Hiccup they need to find the dragon jewel. He knows they cannot let Alvin find it because he will use it to destroy all dragons. Hiccup asks how they can find it without the sword. The Wodensfang tells him the sword wasn’t anything special, but what was inside the sword. Hiccup remembers he took the paper out of the sword and never got a chance to put it back in. He pulls the paper from his pocket. The vorpent venom that is still on his hands stains the page to reveal a new message. On the back, the venom stain reveals the map. Some distance away, the Viking ships are sailing home with the Outcasts leading. Excellinor takes the sword from Alvin and shows him the hidden compartment. She is furious when she finds it empty.
Epilogue
The little girl that found and started translating Hiccup’s memoirs is afraid Hiccup will have something to do with the disappearance of dragons.
How the Hook Survived the Flames
When Alvin and Excellinor fell into the flames, they landed in the only lake in Berserk. They swam for two days until they were able to crawl their way through the ashes to shore. It is unknown how they convinced a Vistithug ship to pick them up and take them to the Outcast lands.