18 Dying Like a Hero

18. DYING LIKE A HERO Meanwhile, back up at the Berserk Treetop Village, Fishlegs was having his own problems. Alvin had insisted that HE should be the next to go. 'Good luck, Fishlegs!' shouted Humungously Hotshot the Hero, as Fishlegs's cage was winched over the green abyss. 'Remember, you die a HERO, and a Fiancé of Tantrum O'UGerly!' 1st Fiancé: 'YOU BETCHA!' 3rd Fiancé: 'TOO RIGHT…' 9th Fiancé: 'YESSIREE!' 'I die a Hero, I die a Hero,' muttered poor terrified Fishlegs, as the Scarers swarmed six-deep around his cage, shrieking: 'He's go-o-o-oing to di-I-I- I-ieeee… He's go-o-o-oing to di-I-I-I-ieeee…'– 'I die a Hero… oh… for Thor's sake…' 'HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!' roared the watching Berserks. 'Look at all those Scarers! He's terrified!' 'Please… just let me die a HERO,' said Fishlegs to himself. 'And not a BIG JOKE…' To Fishlegs's immense surprise, he heard what he thought was the sound of CAMICAZI's voice shouting

louder than all the rest (which would be typical of Camicazi, for she had a particularly penetrating pitch when she wanted to be heard). 'SING!' shouted the Voice-That-Sounded-Like-Camicazi, 'SING YOUR TRIBAL ANTHEM!' And Fishlegs remembered that Hiccup had done just that, when he was about to die on the slopes of the Volcano.* But what Tribal Anthem should he sing? Where was he from? Who knew from whence Fishlegs's lobster pot had set sail thirteen and a half years ago? Again, Fishlegs found out who he was while sitting in the dark, in a moment of dreadful peril. I am a Hooligan, thought Fishlegs, by adoption, if not by birth. And he began to sing the Hooligan Tribal Anthem, which he discovered for the first time was strangely appropriate to himself:

I didn't mean to come here. And I didn't mean to STAY. It's just where the sea wind BLEW ME. ONE ACCIDENTAL DAY.

The Scarers lessened around Fishlegs's cage as he was winched above the abyss. They began to fly off as the singing made Fishlegs less scared and therefore less smelly. Seeing this, Fishlegs's voice grew stronger, and he began to shout the words out defiantly, pushing the Scarers away as he yelled out the words. 'It wasn't where I meant to be, And it wasn't where I had my start, But now I'll never leave these rain-soaked bogs Because Berk is where I left my heart!'* Seeing the Scarers leaving the cage in great grey drifts, gradually the Berserks stopped laughing. As the cage moved lower down, the last of the Scarers rose up like butterflies, leaving Fishlegs clearly visible, chest out, shouting the words at the top of his voice. There is nothing the Tribes of the Archipelago admire more than bravery. Even mad-as-a-hatter Tribes like the Berserks can appreciate and respect it. So a lone Berserk shouted out, 'He IS a Hero!' And the Berserks and the Fiancés began to cheer, with rapturous applause and appreciative howls as the cage moved inexorably lower, taking Fishlegs to what

everybody thought would be his Doom. And that was when it happened. A great shaking below them all. Massive trees, of a circumference as broad as a house, shivered like grasses in a meadow, sending unsure-footed Berserks raining down, screaming, into the green abyss below. 'What's happening?' screamed Humungous, as the trees heaved and creaked and the whole forest seemed to lurch beneath them in a slow green wave. 'Is it an earthquake?' 'I don't know…' the Fiancé-Before-Last yelled back, taking a strong grip of the bars of his cage. The jungle trembled to the excruciating sound of trees being torn out by the roots, and then right before their unbelieving eyes, through the green canopy below, there thrust an impossibly large dragon's head, mouth open wide in a magnificent roar. It broke screaming through the canopy as if it were breaking out of its egg. Another wild and terrible scream, mighty trees crashing down all around it, and the mighty dragon burst out of the forest, blotting out the moon. It began to beat its torn and ragged wings, and the wind sent a hurricane blast through the trees before the Great

Creature launched itself up and into the air. 'For Thor's sake… for Thor's sake…' whispered Fishlegs, shading his eyes as he looked upward at the great dark cloud of dragon above, 'for Thor's sake…' And on its back, perched high on the back of the Great Creature, was the first human being to ride the Dragon Furious in one hundred years. It was Hiccup.