17 The Leviathorgan Strikes

17. THE LEVIATHORGAN STRIKES The Hysteric nearest to Hiccup fell to his knees, gasping: 'Thor save us!' All they could see of the Creature were the spines on its back drawing closer and closer in the water. It was aiming straight for the boat. But at the very last moment, it changed direction, and swam alongside it. And it was only then that they realised how truly enormous it was. It was IMMENSE. As the Dragon passed the boat, it rolled slightly on its side, and one terrible yellow reptilian eye stared at Hiccup, pinpointing him, picking him out. There was a curious expression in that eye, of intelligent humour mixed with the purest fury. It was as if it hadn't forgotten the incident in the Ice Cave, and something in that eye seemed to say, 'You're going to pay for that, boy, and I'm going to enjoy it… You can't get away from me now.' And then it moved on, muscles rippling, as it swam sinuously as a panther through the water. It swam so close to the boat, that it was almost as if it

were showing off how big it was. That long, glorious back with the cruel, primeval spikes, went on, it seemed like, for ever… Oh for Thor's sake, thought Hiccup, his heart in his mouth, it must be twice, no nearly three times as long as this boat… It was a Leviathorgan, all right. Like all the ancient Sea-dragons, it had probably been alive since the age of the dinosaurs, and it had the look of something dug up from the past. Blackened crustacea festooned its spiny armour like rust. Parts of its body were so encrusted with coral, and trailing with long drifts of seaweed, that it was like a living, moving reef. The heart-stoppingly huge length of the Leviathorgan swam beside the boat. And then it turned away, and swam on past them, and disappeared below the water, the casual, contemptuous flip of its tail creating such a great white washing powerful wake that it swamped the deck with a wave that covered their knees.

'Where's it gone?' Many voices called out the same question from the ship. There had been a look in that Dragon's giant eye which Hiccup had seen in the expression of Toothless when he had cornered something smaller than himself, like a mouse or a rabbit.

Like cats, dragons have a cruel streak, and they like to play with their food, before they kill it. 'It's going to play with US…' thought Hiccup with foreboding. 'Grab on to something on the boat!' he yelled out, winding a rope attached to the mast firmly round his wrist. 'Oh brother,' moaned Fishlegs, as he did the same, 'how did this happen? We just went out for a simple little SWIMMING RACE, is there NO safe activity in this uncivilised world?' The dragon had dived under the water, and there was no sign of it, just the roaring of the wind, the crashing of the thunder, the drenching rain. 'WHERE IS IT? WHERE'S IT GONE?' someone shouted frantically. There was an explosion of white water to Hiccup's left, as the Leviathorgan LEAPT out of the sea. It flew right over the boat, and hovered there. Again, it was almost as if it were showing off how big it was. It was so enormous that hovering above the great ship's mast, the tips of its great wings just grazed the surface of the water as they beat downward on either side. Its eyes bored down at the Viking ship. Gently

it reached out its gigantic talons, and took hold of the mast of the American Dream 2, like an eagle grasping a stick. And then it lifted the entire ship completely clear of the water… It looked down into the boat to see the reaction of the inhabitants. Most of them were screaming. The great Sea-dragon gave the ship a little shake, sending the Vikings inside it catapulting around the deck like marbles… and then it dropped the American Dream 2 back into the water again. The Monster hung above them still, blotting out the sky, and now it stretched wide its great ancient mouth, far wider than would have seemed physically possible, so that it became a great black cavern, opening up in front of their eyes. Like an enormous spitting cobra, the Sea-dragon began to hiss. First a gentle sssssss… getting louder and louder, SSSSSSS, until it built up into such a sinister, angry intensity that it was as if the entire ship were crawling with nests of serpents about to strike. The sound sent goosebumps all over Hiccup's body, and every individual hair on his head stood up as if charged

with static electricity. The Creature's eyes bulged, its throat worked. It was looking straight at Hiccup, and instinctively, Hiccup ducked behind the mast. Something flew through the air, and sunk itself quivering into the wood. With round, terrified–no, petrified–eyes, Hiccup peered round the mast to look at it. It was the sting of the Leviathorgan. Hiccup had heard of this in legends. Like a gigantic bee, the Leviathorgan carries stings within its body, but in its throat, inside the fire-hole rather than its abdomen. It can propel these stings from its mouth at astonishing speed, like a rocket launcher. The sting of a bee is no more than a couple of millimetres long. The sting of a Leviathorgan is roughly the length of a spear. It had sunk quite eight centimetres into the wood, and remained there, shivering and on fire. It seemed to be made out of some kind of bone as hard as metal, but it was difficult to tell because the flames flickered along its length. A great scarlet-black stain was spreading out on the mast as the poison from the tip leaked out, and Hiccup was just taking off his jacket to smother the flames before they set fire to the