15 I DIDN’T MEAN TO COME HERE

15. I DIDN'T MEAN TO COME HERE Meanwhile, Humungous had spent an anxious half hour down on The Peregrine Falcon, shading his hands over his eyes and trying to spot the progress of the three young Vikings as they slowly climbed the Volcano Mountain. What he discovered was that it was FAR more tense watching somebody else performing a Quest than it is to do the Quest oneself. He felt quite sick with nerves. Most of the time he was talking to himself as he peered upward, trying to convince himself he was doing the right thing. "Now, I was right not to tell Hiccup that Terrific Al wanted that Stone too, wasn't I? And nobody could expect me to go with them, could they?... After fifteen years of slavery on this very island... but I guess nobody else is going to do it, but for

Thor's sake," Humungous slung his bow and arrows around his shoulders, "a guy should get to retire SOMETIME, shouldn't he? UP now, White Dragon... I mean, why is it always ME who has to be the Hero? "It's... not... my... fight..." complained Humungous, taking his foot out of the stirrup again. He turned his face to the heavens and howled up to the uncaring sky, shaking his fist in frustration: "WHAT... SHALL... I... DO????" And as if in answer to his question, out of the clear blue sky, DOWN swooped an exhausted little Toothless, and dropped upon the deck a golden something. A something that rolled around the deck in ever- decreasing circles, and came to rest with a clatter. Humungous bent down and picked up the something. It was the golden dragon bracelet that twisted around Alvin's good arm. He knew it well, for he had made it for Alvin himself, in the Jail-Forges when he was supposed to be making swords, as a thank-you after Alvin agreed to take the ruby heart's stone to Valhallarama many many years ago. This was the first time in a long while that he had seen it close up. And as he picked it up, he thought, That's funny, there's something in the dragon's eye. I didn't put

that there when I made it... And as he held it closer, a blast of lightning lit up the sky, and the flash of light caught the bracelet, and the dragon's eye winked at him. One small, sly, red wink, as if it were amused. The dragon's eye was his ruby heart's stone. In that single moment the Truth rushed upon Humungous all at once. She had loved him. She had never got the message. Terrific Al had never given it to her. He had kept the ruby heart's stone... he had even had the cheek to fit it into the bracelet that Humungous had made him, which he had then been wearing right under Humungous's nose the entire time... which made him a whole lot less Terrific than Humungous had thought. Maybe it even made him the Treacherous Villain that Hiccup had been describing... and perhaps throwing him to the Sharkworms was a THOROUGHLY good idea and what a shame they had only taken his leg and hadn't gotten rid of him completely. A fifteen-year-old memory popped into his head. It was a memory of his Love, handing him this very stone so very many years ago. With these words:

"When you hold this stone, you hold my heart. But if you find yourself captured or in trouble, send me this stone in the mouth of your hunting dragon, and I will come and rescue you." Humungous gave a half laugh, half cry, as he looked first at the heart's stone, and then down at Toothless, collapsed on the deck in exhaustion. Isn't Fate artistic? But what this all meant was that Hiccup was in trouble up there on the mountain, and that Hiccup had never in his life been more in need of his Bardiguard. Humungously Hotshot the Hero pulled the bracelet onto his own left arm. He leaped onto the back of his White Dragon, drawing his sword and shouting, "Come on, Windwalker! Hiccup needs us! This IS our fight! TO THE VOLCANO!" "Oh, b-b-brother," moaned Toothless, sprawled on the deck, "we aren't going up again, are we?" The Windwalker swallowed hard, and picked Toothless up in its mouth, and took off up to the Volcano after Humungously Hotshot.