2 Sharkworms!!!

2. SHARKWORMS Just as the sound of the bugle died away, the fog lifted, for a second giving a glimpse of the entire bay. Over to the right, further towards the grey outline of the Peaceable Country, there were the shadowy shapes of four or five Peaceable fishing boats, surrounded by clouds of screeching Blackbacked Seadragons. 'Over there!' yelled Sharpknife and Tuffnut Junior, turning their boat, The Raven. 'It's all under control, Fishlegs!' shouted Hiccup excitedly. 'I can see where we're going!' Hiccup yanked the rudder of The Hopeful Puffin so sharply that Fishlegs lost his balance and fell face first into the water at the bottom of the boat. The wind caught the sails at exactly the right speed and The Hopeful Puffin surged forward after the others… But Hiccup hadn't noticed Snotlout's boat, Sparrowhawk, steaming up behind him at great speed. Sparrowhawk was as lean and mean and hungry as Snotlout himself. Beautifully built out of elm wood, she came to a point so sharp at the prow that she sliced through the water as easily as an axe through a

scallop. She was being steered by Dogsbreath the Duhbrain, Snotlout's best friend – a great, hairy bully of a boy with a ring through his nose, who was snorting so hard with laughter that snot flew in all directions. 'Get him, Fireworm,' whispered Snotface Snotlout, and his dragon, a glistening blood-red Monstrous Nightmare, leaped from Snotlout's shoulder and dive-bombed Hiccup from behind with a furious shriek. Fireworm swooped down and pushed Hiccup's helmet down over his eyes with her talons. Hiccup took his hands off the rudder in surprise, and at the same moment, Sparrowhawk rammed into the port

side of The Hopeful Puffin, denting her severely. 'So sorry, Useless!' jeered Snotface Snotlout, as Sparrowhawk sailed on, completely unhurt. 'Your pathetic raft is so small we didn't see you!' 'Har har har,' guffawed Dogsbreath the Duhbrain. The ramming sent The Hopeful Puffin into one of her spins. For a long time she spun round in wobbly circles, like a confused

sea-urchin. Eventually, Hiccup regained control of the rudder and Fishlegs picked himself up from the bottom of the boat, moaning slightly. The Hopeful Puffin completed her final spin and began moving swiftly forwards. But the fog had come down again, if anything even thicker than before. After all that spinning,

Hiccup had absolutely no idea which direction they were facing. And when the last faint echoes of Snotlout and Dogsbreath's jeering had faded away, they sailed on in spooky silence. 'Where is everybody?' asked Fishlegs. 'Ssssh,' scolded Hiccup. 'I'm trying to listen.' The boys were quiet for ten long minutes. The only sound to be heard was the lapping of water against the sides of the boat and a brisk wind filling out the sail. They were gliding along at quite a rate now, but where were they going? Hiccup and Fishlegs strained their eyes into the fog and their ears into the silence, desperate to see or hear something, anything at all. But there was nothing. It might have been Hiccup's imagination playing tricks on him, but it seemed to him as if the air suddenly felt just a tiny bit warmer, and when he trailed a finger briefly into the water it felt just a tiny bit less icy than it should have done. And then he got to thinking about the Summer Current and Sharkworms and a prickle of fear ran all down his back, and everywhere about him the drifting, ghostly fog seemed to be taking the shape of Sharkworm fins…

'Just out of interest,' asked Fishlegs casually, 'how does a Sharkworm attack you, exactly?' 'Well,' replied Hiccup, changing direction yet again in the hope of getting back to the safety of the bay, 'Sharkworms should only attack if you are wounded. Even if you're not in the water they can smell the blood and that drives them crazy. And then, because they have legs as well as a fishy tail, they can actually CLIMB ABOARD a ship to get you. That's where they got their nickname of "Pirate Dragons", because, although they can survive at least ten minutes in the air, they generally drag you back into the water to kill you.' 'Oh, brilliant,' said Fishlegs, frantically checking himself all over to see if he had any grazes. 'Do you think eczema counts or does it have to be an actual cut?' 'I'm not sure,' said Hiccup. 'I've never actually met a Sharkworm.' 'Better and better,' said Fishlegs. 'It's at times like this that I am so glad that I was born a Viking and not a Roman.' (The Romans were the Vikings' deadly enemies – a very bossy lot who wanted to take over the world and had jolly nearly got there.) 'Think how BORING it would be to be a Roman. All those warm