2 A Few Little Communication Problems

2. A FEW LITTLE COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS 'STOP! MOTHER! IT'S ME, HICCUP!' shouted Hiccup. But of course the visor on the beastly helmet was down, and so it came out more like: 'Mff! Mff! Mff!' Hiccup grabbed at the visor and tried to yank it up, but it was jammed absolutely tight shut. It would not budge. Oh for Thor's sake. This was not a good situation. Apart from anything else, Valhallarama was a truly magnificent Hero, one of the very, very best, so they were in big trouble if he couldn't tell her who he was. The thing was, Valhallarama was away questing a lot. Hiccup was never quite sure what she was questing for exactly, but his father, Stoick the Vast, always assured him it was very important. As a result Hiccup hadn't seen her in a very long while, perhaps for as long as two years now. So she very well might not be aware that her only son was the one who was now known as the Outcast and the Enemy of the Wilderwest. Let alone that Stoick was

now a slave, and Hiccup had the Slavemark himself, and a whole load of other things Hiccup was hoping to explain to her gently in a quiet moment. He had hoped that if he ever did get a chance to explain the whole thing to her, about how what he was really trying to do was save all the dragons from extinction, she might be one of the few people who would actually be on his side. (Hiccup had a hopeful nature.) Because Valhallarama loved dragons. Hiccup knew she loved dragons. At least, he thought he knew she loved dragons. It suddenly occurred to Hiccup, in that moment as they were screaming through the forest at breakneck speed in the dead of night with his mother shooting arrows at him almost continuously, that perhaps he did not really know his mother all that well. She had been away questing a lot. The Wodensfang and Toothless were both exceptionally speedy so they were flying not at their top speed but on either side of Hiccup's head, like twin dragonly guardian angels. 'You have to admit he is a marvellous Warrior,' quavered the Wodensfang admiringly.

'How big do you think he is? Six foot three? Six foot four? I don't think I've seen a better Warrior since Squidshanks the Frightening… It was a bit before your time, maybe six hundred years ago...' 'She's a she! Not a he!' Hiccup shouted back. But through the helmet it just sounded like 'Mff! Mff! Mff!' We've all been in this situation. Well, maybe not precisely in this situation. But we all know what it's like to have something important to say to a loved one, but something seems to be getting in the way. The truth is, it is often difficult to explain things to a parent. And most definitely it is particularly difficult when your mother is hunting you at top speed through a dark forest under the impression that you are the Enemy of the Wilderwest. The Windwalker had grown into an exceptionally fast dragon, and it was smaller than the Phantom, so its more manoeuvrable size meant it could just about keep ahead, flicking through the maze of trees.

该页暂无翻译

But still the Phantom was gaining. 'He's going to catch us if we stay down here,' said Toothless. 'Why d-ddon't we go up?' Over the past six months they had often eluded dragon pursuers by climbing up into the higher air, too high for other dragons to follow. Most dragons prefer shallow air, the air nearest the ground. Very few can operate in the higher atmosphere apart from the Silva, Phantom,

Hiccup wanted to tell them that this would be pointless. The Phantom was an Air Dragon. They were among the best flyers in the dragon world, and they flew the fastest and the highest. Valhallarama had trained herself not to pass out. But of course he couldn't tell them that because of the jammed helmet. The Windwalker slightly mistimed a slalom, swayed crazily, and the pursuing Phantom caught him by the leg, but didn't quite get a good hold, so the Windwalker wriggled desperately out of the grip and shot upwards in a blind panic. 'Oh no…' breathed Hiccup, desperately trying to get him to fly downwards again, but the Windwalker was crazed with fear and panicking madly, so he just climbed up and up and up.