21 The Collapse of the Castle

21. THE COLLAPSE OF THE CASTLE It was the Dragon Furious. That was his fire exploding the witch's well. His fury that was shaking the castle to its very foundations. His shoulders that were squeezing their way upwards, breaking the stone around them. His shrieking anger that was making its way to the surface. The shock of the hut exploding distracted Alvin's attention for a moment. And One Eye broke free. And as the fury grew and grew the Vikings' towers did tremble. The solid stone moved

beneath their feet as if it had turned to ocean. Great cracks appeared in the ancient castle, like the splitting and breaking of an iceberg, lumps of stone raining down from the shaking battlements. The edges of the hole where the hut had stood just moments before fell in on themselves, as the Dragon Furious burrowed upwards with his powerful claws. His great fountain of fire and smoke went shooting up hundreds of feet into the air, sending dragons and humans scurrying and fleeing in all directions.

The gigantic creature's shoulders shook aside the stone as if it were water, his head burst through the gaping hole in the floor, and up, up, up he rose like a living earthquake, splaying one claw on the edge of the hole and heaving his body slowly upwards. With a last shrugging scream, he leapt free of the stone and earth, and into the air, his spreading wings bursting a trembling tower into pieces, his mighty wingspan darkening the sun like an enormous cloud. Petrified, the Vikings stared upwards at their terrifying enemy. And for the first time, they realized, too late, that while they were absorbed in their own human drama, and even the sentries at the castle were watching the battle for the Crown of the Wilderwest, dragons had been creeping across the sky towards the castle. Hostile dragons. Rogue and Red-Rage dragons. And now the sky above was dark with dragons. The Dragon Furious shot his flame to left and right in a screaming fiery river. "JOIN THE RED-RAGE and Rebel, Brother-Dragons, rebel!"

Now, if Hiccup had still been King of the Wilderwest, the domestic dragons would have replied to the Dragon Furious that they were already free, thank you very much, and the great Dragon Rebellion might have been stopped before it started. You cannot rebel if you are already free. You see how near Hiccup was to triumph. So near and yet so far. As it was, all around the castle, the dragons that had been quiet as cats became a nest of hissing serpents. Out sprang their claws, their teeth like knives, the hot fire flamed. "Rebel, brother-dragons, rebel!" came the trumpeting tones of One Eye. "The humans are our mortal enemies now! Join us, O my Brothers, in the Red-Rage and rebel!" All around the stadium, the echo came, "Rebel..."

Quiet at first, the whisper went, then louder still and louder. "Rebel" they spat, "Rebel!" they hissed, "Rebel, Rebel, REBEL!" And with one accord, like a dragon cloud, they turned upon their Masters. With surprised yells, the Vikings drew their weapons to defend themselves, as dragons leapt upon their backs, lion-claws raking, and the hot fire burnt their unprotected skin. All around Hiccup the battle raged. Dragon against human. The air was filled with the screams of the attacking dragons, the Vikings barely able to believe that they were being fought by the very same creatures who had fed from their hands and slept at their firesides. It was as if some alien wild spirit had got into them, as if they had been cornered by a previously unsuspected enemy. Stoick, abandoned by his captors but still unarmed, was faced by his own dragon, Bullheart, crouched down low like a tiger about to spring,

growling deep in his throat, the anger glands thick about his neck. 'DOWN, BULLHEART, DOWN!' commanded Stoick. But Bullheart did not appear to hear him. He kept his steady cat's eyes on Stoick as he crept slowly forward. He seemed to be growling, but if Stoick could speak Dragonese he would have recognised the following words: "Join the Red-Rage and REBEL. Make red your claws with human blood, Obliterate the Human Filth... Torch the Humans like a wood... The Rebellion is coming." Stoick swallowed. 'Down, Bullheart,' he said. Bellowing did not seem to be doing its usual magic, for the dragon crept on regardless.