8 The Wrath of Thor

8. THE WRATH OF THOR One Eye pulled the sleigh across the ice at a crazy speed. Once or twice Hiccup tugged on the reins to try and get him to slow down, but the big Driver ignored him, and so in the end, Hiccup gave up trying. 'The quicker we get to Hysteria, the better, anyway,' he reminded himself. The burningly cold wind slammed into his face, tearing at his eyelids as they careered across the ice. The Hopeful Puffin bounced crazily behind them like an ugly duckling desperately trying to keep up with its demented mother. Luckily, although she was not an attractive-looking boat, she was sturdy and used to the odd knock or two. Hiccup had brought along snacks for everybody that were supposed to last the whole journey, but Toothless finished all of them in the first three minutes, littering the sleigh with crumbs, chicken bones and winkle shells. 'Toothless c-c-cold…' he wailed. 'Toothless h-h-hungry… Toothless BORED. Ow ow ow ow…

Camicazi s-s-sitting on my ta-a-ail… Are we nearly there yet?' 'We only left five minutes ago!' exclaimed Hiccup. 'Toothless play I-Spy,' said Toothless firmly. At first Camicazi was horribly cheerful, chatting constantly, and singing loudly, her bright blue eyes prickling with excitement. But as the long hours wore on, and as they played their fifty-second game of I-Spy with Hiccup translating for Toothless, and as the sky turned pink and grey with the coming of the evening, and as they passed the Mazy Multitudes to their left and began to hear the first moans of the Doomfang under the ice, even Camicazi fell silent. Hiccup made One Eye wait for the evening to grow darker before they turned the corner into the Wrath of Thor, so the Hysteric lookouts wouldn't spot them coming. For a tense, stomach-churning half-hour they waited, until Hiccup judged it was safe, and gave a pull on One Eye's reins to get him going again. The gigantic sea cliffs of Villainy and Hysteria loomed above them scarily in the darkness. One Eye bounded into the Wrath of Thor, and the cliffs leapt up on either side of the little sleigh as it raced along, like

dizzyingly high prison walls. The eyes of dragons shine in the dark, and so One Eye's great eye acted as a searchlight, showing them the way. The ice in the narrow gorge was so clear that it was almost transparent, and in the beam of One Eye's eye, you could see right through it, as if it were a two- metre-thick pane of frosted glass, down into the sea below. How interesting, thought Hiccup as he looked over the edge of the sleigh, I can even make out a shoal of mackerel down there… The mass of tiny fish went on for ever, swimming slowly in their millions way down below them, until suddenly they scarpered, shooting away like tiny sparks in an explosion, as a great dark shape, infinitely large, suddenly appeared under the ice. It was the gargantuan shadow of a dragon the size of an underwater mountain, and it easily kept up with the speedy little sleigh, its long tail lazily

powering it along, its wings nearly brushing the edges of the Wrath of Thor as it beat them slowly to swim underneath. 'Issa D-d-doomfang!' whispered Toothless into Hiccup's ear. 'Let's go h-h-home…' Hiccup gazed downwards in fascinated horror as the great dragon turned its head to one side and Hiccup found himself staring into an enormous, bloodshot, green dragon eye, as long as the sleigh itself. It was as if all the green in the world, of peas, of grass, of spinach, of leaves, of beans and frogs, had been concentrated in that one eye and given it the intensity of a pure green acid. It was like looking straight into the sun at midday, through a great green microscope, and Hiccup was so dazzled he nearly fell off the sleigh, until he was brought back to his senses by a terribleTHUD! and the ice below them jumped up like

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an earthquake. The sleigh jumped too, and One Eye soared briefly into the air with a complaining yowl. THUD! went the ice again as the Doomfang butted his head against the thick transparent wall. With terrified relief, Hiccup realised the ice was so deep that it was holding strong, although it was now shot through with tiny little white cracks. The sleigh raced towards the entrance to Hysteria Harbour like a mouse streaking towards a mousehole. The dragon followed, thudding the ice underneath as they went, with terrible blows from its battering-ram head. When One Eye turned into the harbour, he was going so fast the momentum from the boat behind almost turned them round in a great screeching circle. The sleigh balanced wildly on one runner, before slamming back down and carrying on. Hiccup looked over his shoulder. The Doomfang was too large to fit through the narrow harbour entrance. It pushed its great head through and Hiccup could see, though not hear, its huge mouth opening in a roar of rage, its paw with the terrible talons tearing at the water. It blew out a great gush of underwater blue flame that shot out underneath the speeding sleigh and streaked forward in a straight line right up to the shoreline, almost as if it were a bright blue road telling them where to go.