2 Why They Were There in the First Place

2. WHY THEY WERE THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE I'll take a little breather while the dragon pauses, just to recap on what had brought Hiccup into this situation in the first place. It's always very irritating when you get hurtled into the middle of a story without any explanation as to why the heroes got there, and how they got there, and what on earth they were doing camping three quarters of the way up the Hard Way of Angry Mountain in the middle of the winter in the first place. It was a perfectly barmy idea, surely? Here is what happened. Bright and early that morning, the Tribes of the Archipelago had gathered at the foot of Angry Mountain, in a great noisy jostling crowd of tents and sledges and skis, greeting old friends and enemies with a bump of their massive bellies, hunting-dragons wheeling above them in the air, riding-dragons getting into dragon fights. Perched right on the top of Angry Mountain was Flashburn's School of Swordfighting. The Tribes were

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travelling there for the annual three-week celebration of feasting, fighting and festivities, which ended on New Year's Day with a swordfighting competition and the New Year, New Warrior Ceremony, in which youngsters across the Archipelago finally crossed over from childhood into adulthood, and became Warriors of their Tribes. There are two ways to climb Angry Mountain. There is the Easy Way, a gentle, pleasant incline that you can stroll up quite merrily without even getting out of breath. That is the way the adult Warriors would take, with their sledges and tents and riding-dragons and Driver Dragons and weapons and provisions. And then there is the Hard Way, a sheer vertical cliff-face of rock that takes two days to climb. That is the way the young Warriors-to-Be would take, to prove their worthiness to be admitted into the Tribes.* *The test had first been set way in the distant and dangerous past when Vikings did not have riding-dragons to aid them. So the rule was, the cliff must be climbed without dragonly assistance. The Warriors-to-Be were looking up at the gigantic rock face rather dubiously. They were a motley crew of pimply adolescents, all of them much larger and more muscly than Hiccup and Fishlegs. (Apart from Camicazi, who was a good friend of Hiccup's: a tiny, fierce little Bog-Burglar

with a great deal of blonde hair that looked as if she had carelessly combed it with a pitch-fork.) Gobber the Belch, teacher in charge of the Hooligan Pirate Training Programme, was giving the Warriors-to-Be a quick pep talk. Gobber was a six-and-a-half-foot man-mountain with lungs like a fog-horn and ears like deformed cauliflowers. He didn't have a sensitive side. 'OK, Warriors, listen up!' he shouted. 'This is a stroll in the park! All you have to do is spend the next day and night climbing this sheer vertical cliff-face. Once we get to the school, you will be practising for the swordfighting competition on New Year's Day. This is your chance to learn and get tips from the greatest swordfighter in the Archipelago, Flashburn himself!'

Ooohs and aaahs from the Warriors-to-Be. 'Oh, I can't wait to meet Flashburn in real life,' Camicazi chatted excitedly to Hiccup and Fishlegs. 'He's supposed to be the perfect Hero…' 'Here he co-o-o-omes!' called out Thuggory the Meathead, pointing upward. A gorgeous Red Tiger dragon, with Flashburn crouched very low on its back, dived down out of nowhere from above. Camicazi let out a 'Wow!' and punched the air as the dragon zoomed over their heads, so low that they could feel the wind of its wings. The dragon swooped so very low that Flashburn leant over and very cheekily grabbed Stoick the Vast's helmet off his head before flying upwards again. Stoick the Vast, Hiccup's father, was built in the traditional Viking mould, with muscles like footballs, a beard like a thunderstorm, and about as many brain cells as would fit into a teeny tiny teaspoon. He was not amused. 'Oh, that Flashburn, he hasn't changed one bit!' snorted Stoick as everybody laughed and the youngsters ooohed and aaahed. 'COME DOWN, YOU SHOW-OFF!' yelled

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