22 What Happened Next

22. WHAT HAPPENED NEXT There was a pause on the red sands as the dragons finished telling their tale. 'Well, I will tell you,' said Hiccup, 'what happened to the baby after you lost sight of him. He was washed up on Long Beach, and the Tribe built a hut for him to live in. A Long-Eared Caretaker Dragon looked after him, and he turned out to be my best friend, Fishlegs.' 'You see?' said Innocence. 'I always said how he must have survived, and you two never believed me.' The three heads sighed. 'I have to say,' admitted Arrogance, 'I never dreamed that there could have been a happy end to that story.' 'There's always hope,' said Innocence. The Deadly Shadow's three heads were lying on the sand, looking back into the past. And then, quite suddenly, Hiccup thought that the sand below his knees was feeling just a little wetter than it had before. He looked at the horizon. The tide was coming in… Patience put down his head and nudged Hiccup's head upwards so that he looked at him. He

put one paw on one side of Hiccup's head and looked straight into Hiccup's eyes. They were so close, that you could just see the vague outline of the irises, the black of the pupils. Kind eyes. 'I think perhaps, you should leave us now,' Patience said casually. 'The Monster is coming, and the tide will come in, and so this is your last chance to go back on the sand-yacht. The Monster will not eat dragon-flesh. We are too tough for it.' How strange dragons are, thought Hiccup. This one can move from cruelty to selfless kindness in a heartbeat. 'Leave us,' said Patience. 'Leave usss,' repeated Innocence and Arrogance. 'We won't drown,' Patience assured him. 'We have gills.' Hiccup dropped his head from the mesmerising, hypnotising gaze and carried on working at the dragon-trap. 'You lie. You're not a Sea Dragon,' said Hiccup shortly. Trust Hiccup to know his dragon species. 'You're an Air Dragon. Those gills only work up to a certain point.' But after a minute he called out to Camicazi, who was patrolling around them with her fiercest Bog-Burglar expression, two swords drawn. 'Camicazi,' he said as casually as he could,

'maybe you ought to go back on that sand-yacht and fetch help.' 'What kind of an idiot do you take me for?' Camicazi yelled back, extremely affronted. 'I'm not a five-year-old! And I'm not leaving until you're leaving.' Hiccup worked on, shivering now, in the cold wind, fingers numb, his dragon-suit pathetically stained with red. On, on, Hiccup worked. Ten minutes had passed. The sand was definitely wetter now, the sea on the horizon was gleamingly near. Fifteen minutes gone… But he was so close now, he could feel it, so close… And oh joy! The pieces of the locks fell apart in his hands, and the trap sprang open. It is such a wonderful moment when that happens. 'Just in time,' Hiccup gasped. The Deadly Shadow let out three roars of triumph, beat his mighty wings and launched into the air and hovered there. He reached out to pick up Hiccup off the sand.

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Hiccup reached out his own hands towards the now airborne dragon, and he felt a horrible clammy something grab him with dreadful force around the ankle… 'Hiccup!!!!!' screamed Camicazi… …as a gigantic dragon claw, with huge eyes on the end of it, dragged Hiccup down, down, down, below the sand.