11 THE-QUEST-TO-STOP-THE VOLCANO-FROM-EXPLODING

11. THE-QUEST-TO-STOP-THE VOLCANO-FROM-EXPLODING The Peregrine Falcon was a very fast ship. It was still absolutely baking hot, but there was a feeling in the air that the weather was about to change, that it was building up for something stormy. For months, the seas around Berk had been as eerily flat and glassy as a puddle. But overnight, a hot wind had sprung up, carrying with it large flakes of soot from the scorched devastation of the Highest Point and sending them flurrying across the Isle of Berk and out over the Sullen Sea like autumn leaves. Only a couple of hours later, this sweltering wind had blown them right out of the Archipelago and into the Open Sea. There was a steady stream of dragons fleeing from Lava-Lout Island overhead, and they were joined by an ominous cloud of smoke

coming from the same direction. Every now and then there was a rumble, but it was not clear whether it was thunder, or the Volcano. I wish I could have explained to my father what I was doing... thought Hiccup, looking wistfully back at the outline of the Isle of Berk. Somehow, without meaning to, and while trying his hardest, he always seemed to be letting his father down. I wish he didn't think I was a traitor... if we don't succeed, he'll think I really DID run away... If only he had LISTENED to what I was trying to say. Stoick rarely listened. Fishlegs clung on to his Running-Away Suitcase, muttering to himself, "This is not a good idea... this is not a good idea... this is not a good idea..." "I'm not quite sure what the guy with the face like a fish is contributing to the Team, Hiccup," whispered Humungous. "You're the Leader, and the little blonde is the Stone-Carrier, but what is he doing? He seems rather a negative influence." "Don't be fooled by appearances," Hiccup whispered back. "He is a Berserk." "Really?" said Humungous, in great surprise. In his experience, Berserks were generally rather LARGER, and did not normally suffer from asthma, eczema, and knock-knees. Eventually the outline of Lava-Lout Island

appeared on the horizon, with its smoking Volcano, and this was such an ominous sight that even Toothless lost some of his cheekiness, and went to perch on Hiccup's shoulder. Misery seemed to have been trapped up in the island for so long now, the land was trembling in feverish shivers; great reverberating trembles that rocked the sea crazily around it. The roasted landscape was dotted with these greeny-yellow spots like pimples or pustules, as if they were symptoms of some deadly contagious disease, but as they drew nearer and nearer it became clear that these were not spots but Eggs, thousands and thousands of evil Exterminator Eggs, waiting for the Volcano to explode so they could hatch and spread their dusky devastation across the whole of the Archipelago. They found a long scoop of a beach to land on, curved like a horseshoe, and The Peregrine Falcon skimmed across the shallow waters, until its belly landed on the black sand, and the boat came to a sludgy stop. Clearly, the Windwalker was not going to set foot on the island. Humungous sighed. "I'll take the boat out a bit, and hang around, just in case... just in case..." Humungous never finished the end of that

sentence, but it lingered, unspoken, in the air... just in case, by some outrageous miracle, you DO come back here alive. "Good luck, guys," called Humungous. The three small unlikely Heroes began to trudge reluctantly up the beach. Fishlegs took his suitcase with him. He knew that it was stupid, but somehow he felt a bit safer with his Running-Away Suitcase. It gave him courage. As if he could leave at a moment's notice if he wanted to. And, of course, he'd have some nice clean socks and knickers to change into when he got to Valhalla.