5 The Stealth Dragon

5. THE STEALTH DRAGON At first sight, there appeared to be nothing at all in the stable. Stealth Dragons are chameleons, which means that they turn exactly the same colour as the background around them. And they are particularly good at it, so good that, even as large as they are, their camouflage makes them practically invisible. Which means that they can sneak up on a Village, or indeed, a Library, without anyone realising they are there. It took a few seconds for their eyes to adjust and to see the faint ghostly outline of a very large, sleeping dragon, the bottom of it exactly the colour and texture of the pile of hay he was sleeping on, the top just precisely the pattern of the wood he was leaning against, knot-holes and all. 'Isn't this just the coolest thing you ever saw?' sang Camicazi excitedly, running her fingers along the creature's invisible side. 'I've always wanted to ride one of these things!' 'WOW,' breathed Hiccup admiringly. 'WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW. Look at its tail spines, they're gigantic… But we can't possibly steal this dragon, Camicazi.'

'Why not?' asked Camicazi, vaulting on to the dragon-shaped block of air that seemed to be the Stealth Dragon's back, waking it up with a start. 'Why not?' squeaked Fishlegs. 'Why not??? This isn't just any old riding-dragon, this is a Secret Military Weapon! Madguts the Murderous and those scary Warriors in his Tribe are going to be turning over every stone in the Archipelago looking for this dragon! And I don't want to be sitting on its back when they find it!' 'Well, whether you lot come with me or not, I'm going to steal this dragon, and pilfer that book, and be back in time for tea,' said Camicazi, doing up the seatbelt on the saddle, and gathering the Stealth Dragon's reins in her hands. 'What are you Hooligans made of?' she said teasingly. 'You're not AFRAID, are you?' Of course Hiccup was not going to admit that he was afraid to a small blonde girl a whole head shorter than he was. 'I know I'm going to regret this,' said Hiccup, climbing on to the shimmering mirage of the Stealth Dragon. 'Not half as much as I'M going to regret it,' said Fishlegs between gritted teeth, jumping from foot to foot in his anxiety. 'What if Madguts CATCHES us?

He's only the scariest Chief in the entire barbarian world…' 'He can't catch us, that's the whole point,' grinned Camicazi, 'because we'll be riding on the back of an invisible dragon, and invisible dragons are un-trackable, that's what makes them such great Secret Weapons. Stop worrying for once in your life, Fishlegs, and get up here and live a little!' Fishlegs sighed, and followed Hiccup on to the Stealth Dragon's back and the two boys fastened themselves into the seatbelts on the saddle. The Stealth Dragon's tall, aerodynamically curved back-spines soared up on either side of them, so that they were now as invisible to any onlookers as the Stealth Dragon himself. 'Could we possibly go to the Meathead Public Library? It's just to the right of the Meathead Islands, on a small island called Forget Me?' Hiccup asked the Stealth Dragon politely. If anybody knows how to train a dragon, it's the Murderous Tribe, and the Stealth Dragon stood to attention and answered with military promptness. 'Absolutely, SIR! Anything you say, SIR! Will that be all, SIR?' 'What a goody-goody,' muttered Toothless.

'And… off… we… GO!' yelled Camicazi, giving the reins a wild shake. 'YOOOICKS!' The Stealth Dragon leapt into the air the moment the command left her throat. And once Hiccup had caught his breath and begun to peer over the edge of the Stealth Dragon's back fins, the dragon was flying so fast that Berk was a pale purple shadow far behind them, and they were halfway to the Meathead Islands already. 'Will you look at the ACCELERATION on this thing? WAHOOOOOO!' whooped Camicazi above the roaring wind. 'You've got to admit, Fishlegs, this is a ride of a lifetime!' But Fishlegs was too busy concentrating on not getting dragon-sick to admit to anything of the sort. Toothless held on to Hiccup's shoulder like a disgruntled robin, his ears flapping in the wind, muttering, 'Us d-d-don't HAVE to go so f-f-fast… don't HAVE to… this g-g-guy he's j-j-just showing off…'–as if he had never shown off in his life before. Stealth Dragons do fly fast. They fly so fast that by the time they caught sight of the Library itself and Hiccup had realised that Camicazi had not told the truth about the Hairy Scary Librarian being the only guard, and that the place was

in fact absolutely crawling with hundreds of heavily armed Meathead Guards and their Driller-Dragons. By this time… it was TOO LATE. The Stealth Dragon had already sailed sheer over the blackened battlements, as quiet as a whisper. The invisible creature then hovered next to a window three hundred feet up the Main Library Building, and one by one the Vikings crawled across his invisible wings and on to the window ledge. Hiccup whispered to the Stealth Dragon to hang about and wait for their return, and the dragon nodded obediently. 'Absolutely, SIR! No problem, SIR! All you have to do is call, SIR!' the dragon whispered back, and he drew back to hover a respectful little distance away. Camicazi was the first to crawl through the Library window, followed by Fishlegs and then Toothless, so that only Hiccup remained, standing on the tiny, crumbly window ledge. There he stood for a few seconds, until his attention was momentarily distracted by a passing wild dragon called a Lesser-Spotted Squirrelserpent, and he lost concentration, and slipped off the edge of the window with a shriek.

And this is how Hiccup was left hanging at the end of Chapter One. Only five hours after he woke up on his twelfth birthday, Hiccup found himself dangling by one hand from a window ledge, three hundred feet up in the air, with the Meathead Warrior Guards down below fitting their silver-tipped arrows to their Northbows, and bending down to let their Driller-Dragons off their chains.