8 You Wouldn't Find Alvin's Secret Camp

8. YOU WOULDN'T FIND ALVIN'S SECRET CAMP EVEN IF YOU SEARCHED FOR A HUNDRED YEARS The next morning, to Hiccup's surprise, the dragons of the Dragon Rebellion had vanished. Outside, the landscape was a smoking, burning ruin, but there was no sign of human or dragon life. The rain poured down relentlessly. 'They've gone…' breathed Hiccup, unable to believe their good fortune. 'Now we can go and

rescue Camicazi.' 'Do you think that this is a trick?' whispered Fishlegs. 'Surely we will still be ambushed on our way to Alvin's camp?' 'I have a sense that we will be fine,' wheezed the Wodensfang, in Norse. 'Don't ask me how I know, but the Dragon Furious will not attack us… for now.' But even with the Wodensfang's reassurance, it was terrifying to venture out of the hideout once again, with the worry that at any moment they might be attacked by the Dragon Furious, or by the witch's Spydragons. The tree above the underground treehouse was still burning when they left it, a blackened, smouldering stump.

Snotlout, on the back of the Hurricane, led them through the eerie landscape. Hiccup had seen woods destroyed before, but this was ten times worse. Everyone was silent, awed by the devastation. What had once been the half-burnt remains of a forest now looked like the smoking surface of the moon. If it hadn't been for the river, they would never have found their way, for the landscape was unrecognisable. Whole mountains had been demolished, shaken to rubble as if there had been an earthquake. Whole forests reduced to little toasted sticks of kindling and ash.

Every now and then the river itself was blocked, and dammed, by gigantic torn-up rocks from an obliterated hillside. Water spurted up and round the obstructions like blood from a wound, before reverting to its original course. The bite in Hiccup's arm was a constant reminder of the Vampire Spydragon. It could track him down through the tooth still buried in his flesh. It could appear out of nowhere, out of nothing, so Hiccup was constantly looking over his shoulder, feeling that at any moment he could be attacked once again. The bruise had spread so that the whole of the left side of Hiccup's body was purple in colour, right down to his knee. 'I look like a Mood-Dragon!' Hiccup joked, but that was to cover up how frightened he was. All the discoloured areas were so numb that he couldn't feel or use his left arm at all. It was hard

to cling on to the Deadly Shadow's back. He told himself that the Spydragon had been scared off by the scale of the Dragon Rebellion attack last night, along with everything else. They crept through the devastation, scurrying, terrified, to hide behind the corpse of one blasted tree, and then on to another, and even though they were shaded by the wings of the Deadly Shadow, they felt painfully visible– the only moving things in a wasteland of nothing. This must be what it is like at the end of the world, thought Hiccup. 'Wow,' breathed Snotlout. 'That Dragon really does want to get you, doesn't he, Useless? I wouldn't want to be in your shoes if he ever finds you…' 'But why isn't the Dragon Furious here?' muttered Hiccup, the tic in his eye working as he squinted all around them. 'Why isn't he stalking us? He knows we are in these mountains, somewhere. Why is he not hunting? That isn't like a dragon. It doesn't feel right.

When a dragon has something trapped, it goes in for the kill. Where has he gone?' The Wodensfang fluttered innocently above Hiccup's head. Out of nowhere, Toothless suddenly bit him. 'OW! Toothless! That isn't nice!' said Hiccup. 'Not good manners at all…' 'S-s-sorry,' whimpered Toothless, thoroughly bewildered. 'Not sure why Toothless did that… Is all a bit scary for poor Toothless…'