5 The Bite of A Vampire Spydragon

5. THE BITE OF A VAMPIRE SPYDRAGON 'I saw it,' said Snotlout, quietly. 'She showed me in here, but just before she climbed in after me, a Vampire Spydragon swooped down out of nothing and nowhere and it took her.' 'Windwalker! Is this true?' Hiccup turned to the Windwalker, who was lying on the floor, his long shaggy body riddled with Razorwing stings. Hiccup had some vague desperate hope that Windwalker might deny it, but Windwalker gave a miserable nod, and continued that low, keening whining. 'No…' whispered Hiccup. 'Oh no…' He put his arms around his thin, white trembling body, trying to comfort himself. His arm sang with pain. ALL MY FAULT. Camicazi had trusted Hiccup's instinct over her own. She hadn't agreed with his decision, but trustingly, loyally, she had followed Hiccup into battle, and now she had been lost.

What had the Wodensfang said? 'If you try and save Snotlout,' he had warned, 'you will put us all in peril. By being kind to Snotlout, you may be endangering the lives of those who are loyal to you, who never betrayed you. Sometimes kindness can be cruelty. These are the kind of difficult decisions that a Leader has to take.' 'Well, what do you expect?' said the cold, hard voice of Snotlout contemptuously. 'You made a complete birds' nest of the entire operation. You woke up the dragons of the Dragon Rebellion. The noise probably told the witch's Vampire Spydragons that we were there. What did you think was going to happen?' Fishlegs was trembling with heaving anger, and he turned on Snotlout. 'We were only out there in the first place to save your poxy little life! Why didn't you at least try and go after her, Snotlout? She risked her life for you, and you

couldn't even be bothered to follow her?' 'Of course, I was dying to go after the dear little Bog-Burglar brat,' drawled Snotlout, 'and I'd have jumped on my trusty steed like a shot, you know what a gentleman I am, Fishlegs, but my own riding-dragon has most unfortunately been hit by Razorwing stings, and can hardly move his wings.' 'How do we know that YOU didn't hand over Camicazi to the witch? Maybe this has all been a trick to betray us to the Alvinsmen!' Fishlegs's hot angry words said aloud what Hiccup was thinking. 'Why did we listen to your cries for help? You probably gave her to the witch's Spydragon! And you,' shouted Fishlegs, 'are not worth even a tenth of that girl!' Snotlout said nothing. His face was in darkness, but perhaps there was a quivering in his fingers when Fishlegs said he was not worth a tenth of Camicazi. But then again, perhaps not. 'That little Bog-Burglar?' he drawled.

'Come on, she's only a Bog-Burglar after all…' It was as if Snotlout was deliberately trying to provoke them. That was when Fishlegs really lost his temper. Snotlout had bullied Fishlegs all his life. Anybody who has been bullied knows what that is like. Fishlegs had spent all of his first ten years in pure fear, too terrified to go out the door of his lonely little hut, in case he got caught by Snotlout and his bullying sidekick, Dogsbreath the Duhbrain, who would hit him, and kick him, and take no notice if he pleaded or cried. And now they had saved Snotlout's life, and Snotlout had repaid them by betraying Camicazi, who was one of the only two human friends Fishlegs had ever had. Fifteen years of being bullied, of hatred, of anger, welled up in Fishlegs. All of Fishlegs's anxiety about where Camicazi might be, the fear of what the Dragon Furious would do if he found them in that hideout, all of his rage at Snotlout came together in a white-hot rush. 'We should throw you out of the hideout!' roared Fishlegs. 'You are a LIAR! You are a TRAITOR! You have betrayed Hiccup and us all, time and time again!'

The three heads of the Deadly Shadow let out a simultaneous scream, and lightning ricocheted around the inside of the cavern, and the three heads inhaled, ready to strike, for Fishlegs was their Master now. BAM! Fishlegs hit Snotlout, plumb on the nose. Snotlout looked completely and totally astonished. He had never really thought much about that weed, Fishlegs, apart from thinking up clever ways to humiliate him. Fishlegs had never dared so much as to pinch Snotlout, let alone punch him. Snotlout raised his arms to hit back, and then paused as the gigantic Deadly Shadow's three heads screamed a warning BAM! Fishlegs hit him again. Snotlout half laughed, because however hard Fishlegs tried to hit, his scrawny weedy little arms were not really going to do any damage. That enormous three-headed monster of his, though… Well, that could do Snotlout some real damage. Snotlout eyed it fearfully. 'How does it feel,' said Fishlegs through gritted, furious teeth, 'to know you are completely at someone else's mercy?' Not good, as it happened. Snotlout looked at Fishlegs's howling, Berserk-like face, and at the dreadful roaring

three-headed nightmare of a Deadly Shadow beside him. He paled a little. 'Come on now, Fishlegs,' he said uneasily, 'you can take a joke now, can't you? I was always only joking…' 'Oh, it was a joke was it?' spat Fishlegs. 'Well then I'm just joking too! How does it feel to know that whatever you do, whatever you say, however you plead, someone is NEVER… GOING… TO… STOP?' BAM! BAM! BAM!