2 Inside the dragon nursery

2. INSIDE THE DRAGON NURSERY You have probably guessed by now that Hiccup was not your natural Viking Hero. For a start, he didn't LOOK like a Hero. Somebody like Snotlout, for instance, was tall, muscley, covered in skeleton tattoos, and already had the beginnings of a small moustache. This consisted of a few straggly yellow hairs clinging to his upper lip and was deeply unpleasant to look at, but still impressively manly for a boy not yet thirteen. Hiccup was on the small side and had the kind of face that was almost entirely unmemorable. He DID have Heroic Hair, which was a very bright

red and stood up vertically however much you tried to wet it down with sea-water. But nobody ever saw that because it was hidden under his helmet most of the time. You would NEVER have picked Hiccup out of those ten boys to be the Hero of this story. Snotlout was good at everything and a natural leader. Dogsbreath was as tall as his father and could do amusing things like farting to the tune of the Berk National Anthem. Hiccup was just absolutely average, the kind of unremarkable, skinny, freckled boy who was easy to overlook in a crowd. So, when Gobber blew the horn and moved out of sight to find a comfortable rock to sit on and eat his mussel-and-tomato sandwich, Snotlout pushed Hiccup out of the way and took charge. 'OK, listen up, boys,' he whispered in a menacing fashion. 'I'M in charge, not the Useless. And

anybody who objects gets a knuckle sandwich from Dogsbreath the Duhbrain.' 'Ugh,' grunted Dogsbreath, pounding his fists together in happy excitement. Dogsbreath was Snotlout's chief sidekick and a great, big gorilla of a boy. 'Bash him, Dogsbreath, to show what I mean…' Dogsbreath was delighted to oblige. He gave Hiccup a shove that sent him sprawling head first into the snow, then ground his face in it. 'Pay attention!' hissed Snotlout. The boys dragged their eyes away from Dogsbreath and Hiccup and paid attention. 'Rope yourselves together. The best climber should go first…' 'Well, that's YOU of course, Snotlout,' said Fishlegs. 'You're the best at everything, aren't you?' Snotlout looked at Fishlegs suspiciously. It was difficult to tell whether Fishlegs was laughing at him or not, because of his squint. 'That's right, Fishlegs,' said Snotlout. 'I AM.' And, just in case he had been laughing at him: 'Bash him, Dogsbreath!' While Dogsbreath pushed Fishlegs down to join Hiccup in the snow, Snotlout bossily ordered

everybody to rope themselves together. Hiccup and Fishlegs were the last to be tied on, just behind a flushed and triumphant Dogsbreath. 'Oh brilliant,' muttered Fishlegs. 'I'm about to enter a cave full of man-eating reptiles tied up to eight complete maniacs.' 'If we get to the cave…' said Hiccup nervously, looking up at the sheer black cliff. Hiccup put the lighted torch between his teeth to leave his hands free, and started climbing after the others. It was a perilous climb. The rocks were slippery with snow and the other boys were thoroughly over-excited, making the ascent far too quickly. At one point Clueless missed his footing and fell– luckily on to Dogsbreath, who caught him by the back of the trousers and heaved him back on to the rock again, before he brought the whole lot of them down. When they finally made it to the mouth of the cave, Hiccup looked down briefly at the sea pounding the rocks way below, and swallowed very hard… 'Untie the ropes!' ordered Snotlout, his eyes popping with excitement at the thought of the dangers

to come. 'Hiccup goes into the cave first because HE is the son of the Chief…' He sneered. 'And, if any of the dragons ARE awake, he'll be the first to know about it! Once we're in the cave, it's every man for himself. Only the strong can belong…' Although he wasn't your usual mindless thug of a Hooligan, Hiccup wasn't a wimp, either. Being frightened is not the same as being a coward. Maybe he was as brave as anyone else there, because he went to catch a dragon despite knowing what dragons are like. And, when he had climbed perilously to the mouth of the cave and had found that inside there was a long, twisty tunnel, he still went down it, despite not being too keen on long, twisty tunnels with dragons at the end of them. The tunnel was dripping and clammy. At times it was high enough for the boys to walk upright. Then it would close down into narrow, claustrophobic holes that the boys could only just squeeze through, squirming on their stomachs, with the flares held in their mouths. After ten long minutes of walking and crawling into the heart of the cliff, the stench of dragon– a salty stink of seaweed and old mackerel

heads– got stronger and stronger, until finally it became unbearable and the tunnel opened out into a ginormous cavern. The cavern was full of more dragons than Hiccup could ever have imagined existed. They were every possible colour and size, and they included all the species that Hiccup had heard of, and quite a few more that he hadn't. Hiccup started sweating as he looked around him at pile after pile of the animals, draped over every available surface; even hanging upside-down from the roof like giant bats. They were all fast asleep, and most of them were snoring in unison. This was a sound so loud and so deep that it seemed to penetrate right into Hiccup's body and vibrate around his soft insides, churning his stomach and bowels, and forcing his heart to beat at the same slow dragon pulse. If one, just one, of these countless creatures were to wake up, it would raise the alarm to the others and the boys would meet a horrible death. Hiccup had once seen a deer that had wandered too close to Wild Dragon Cliff torn to pieces in a matter of minutes… Hiccup closed his eyes. 'I will NOT think about it,' he said to himself. 'I WILL NOT.'