12 Will Toothless Save the Day

12. WILL TOOTHLESS SAVE THE DAY? Meanwhile, up on the roof, Toothless and One Eye had flapped off and hidden in The American Dream when they heard the noise of Hiccup falling into the Onion Soup, and the Hysteric Warriors charging outside to look for other Assassins. When things grew quiet again, they flew back to the chimney. Both dragons were cold, hungry and tired. One Eye's eye gleamed golden-yellow in the darkness. 'Shall we leave them?' One Eye mused to himself. 'It looks like they haven't found the cure for Vorpentitis after all… and I'm not hanging round here just to save the skin of a couple of stinking Humans…' 'S-s-selfish Humans!' grumbled Toothless. 'They n-n-never think of poor, cold H-H-H- HUNGRY Toothless!' One Eye snorted. 'Well, I don't blame them for that. You're just a lap-dragon, an overgrown rat. And YOU shouldn't be hungry anyway. Who ate all the snacks in the sleigh on the way here I'd like to know?

'…I'll give them till morning,' One Eye decided, letting the rope attached to his leg flop down the chimney and into the Great Hall again, and settling himself in the snow to sleep on the roof. 'My aunt Snaggletooth died of Vorpentitis, and it's a nasty way to go.' 'Toothless not s-s-sleeping here!' moaned Toothless, outraged. 'Iss too cold! Toothless D-D- DELICATE, sensitive…' He checked whether the big dragon was really asleep. One Eye gave a deep rumbling snore and Toothless carried on, '…not like YOU, you big, white, gormless mountain gorilla…' One Eye's one eye snapped open, and his big Sabre-Tooth jaws lashed out towards Toothless… but they shut on thin air, for Toothless had the reflexes of a bluebottle, and he had already tumbled down through the hole in the roof. Toothless soared into the Great Hall, over the heads of the sleeping, mumbling Hysterics, and landed on top of Hiccup's cage. The cage swung violently to the right, and Hiccup's head banged sharply on one of the bars, waking him up. 'Ow!' protested Hiccup, looking straight into the upside-down greengage eyes of his pet dragon. 'Toothless!' he whispered joyfully. 'Thank Thor you're here, you see how right I was to bring you–

you can save the day!' 'HA!' grunted Toothless crossly. 'Just flap over to that big frozen Viking over there, will you, and nick the potato, and then we'll be off…' whispered Hiccup. Toothless looked where Hiccup was pointing, to Norbert's Papa, Bigjob, and the casket, and gave a shriek of terror. 'S-s-squealers!' he gasped, and jumped into the cage, burying his face in Hiccup's leg. 'Oh, goodness, yes, I'd forgotten. Squealers can kill a dragon as small as you, can't they?' remembered Hiccup, soothing the little dragon by stroking him on the back. 'OK, DON'T steal the potato, but the key to this cage is in Norbert the Nutjob's pocket, and if you could just flap off and get it…' But Toothless had smelt the Onion Soup on Hiccup's leg, and he gave it a lick. 'Onion S-s-soup!' said Toothless accusingly. 'You bin eating Onion S-s-soup!' 'Yes, yes,' said Hiccup hurriedly, 'I fell in the soup, but about the key—' But this was the last straw as far as Toothless was concerned. He was FURIOUS, and he swelled up to nearly twice the size with anger, and flew out of the cage

like an infuriated little balloon. 'SNOT fair! SNOT fair!' snorted Toothless. 'You been stuffing yourself with Onion S-s-soup and poor T-t-toothless STARVING and now you want Toothless to f-f-face a whole load of Squealers with no food in his t-t-tummy? TYPICAL! Well, you can just WAIT, that's all… Toothless'll have his supper and THEN maybe he'll help you out…' 'TOOTHLESS!' whispered Hiccup, as loud as he dared, 'THIS IS IMPORTANT! GET THAT KEY RIGHT NOW OR I'LL… I'LL… I'LL…' 'You'll what?' jeered Toothless cheekily, flapping out of Hiccup's way as he desperately tried to grab Toothless's tail through the bars of the cage. Sticking out his little pink forked tongue, Toothless hopped down on to the banqueting tables and tucked into the roast buffalo pie, ignoring Hiccup's furious, frustrated whispers from the cage swinging a couple of metres above. 'Toothless can't hear!' sang Toothless through a mouthful of pumpkin. 'Got s-s-something in his ear! Oooooh, that rhymes… Toothless ca-a-an't he-ar, got something in his e-ar! Toothless ca-a-an't he-ar, got something in his e-ar!' And for the next five minutes, Toothless

pretended to be quite deaf, and took his time hopping from plate to plate, gorging himself on deep-fried mackerel, turkey wings and sweetcorn fritters. Eventually, he swallowed the last remains of the pie, took a big swig of the Home-made Nettle Champagne, burped and rubbed his stomach contentedly. 'That's b-b-better. Toothless can hear now. Wossat you saying?' 'WILL YOU GET THAT KEY FROM NORBERT THE NUTJOB'S POCKET BEFORE HE MURDERS THE LOT OF US?' hissed Hiccup at the top of his whisper. 'S-s-say pretty please…' sang Toothless. 'Pretty please,' whispered Hiccup through gritted teeth. 'OK, OK, keep your hair on,' said Toothless, and he took off (rather wobbly, because he had eaten so much), and crashlanded on Norbert the Nutjob's chest. Luckily, Norbert was so dead to the world he merely grunted, and hugged his axe a little closer. Giggling, Toothless snipped off both of Norbert the Nutjob's fancy moustaches with two bites of his sharp little gums, and then he staggered into Norbert's pocket and pulled out the key.

Toothless marched across the banqueting table with the key in his mouth, spitting it out every now and then to make pointed remarks to Hiccup. 'Is TYPICAL,' snorted Toothless. 'T-t-typical. Poor old starving T-t-toothless, woken up from his H- h-hibernation Nap just to save the day YET AGAIN.' Toothless put the key back in his mouth, and this time, his large, overfull belly prevented him from seeing exactly where he was putting his feet, and he tripped over