22 Red-Rage

22. RED-RAGE Toothless was closer than Hiccup realized. The Red-Rage had entirely overtaken him, like a powerful drug takes hold of a feeble mind. The ancient primeval anger of the wild world took him over so crazily that he lost his sight in the dizzying force of it, and it numbed the sensible parts of his brain. Drunk with power and fury, he attacked the discarded shoe of a fleeing Viking, under the misguided belief that it was a real human child. 'RED-RACE!' he squeaked, ripping out the shoelaces. 'RED-RACE!!' he screamed, shredding the leather into tangled rags of ribbons.

'Hunt the human and throw him to the fire!!' he screeched as he tore out the sole and blasted it with flames. What was it about Hiccup's voice that cut through the fog of fury and made Toothless turn and stare, his mouth full of smoking shoe leather? The mist of the Red-Rage that had descended on the little dragon lifted as if by magic. Toothless turned. He dropped the shoe. He flew to where Hiccup was standing, bound with ropes. 'Toothless!' exclaimed Hiccup. 'Quick! Bite my ropes and find the Windwalker!' 'Do this! D-d-do that!' grumbled the little dragon. 'Toothless not your s-s-servant…' But he bit through the ropes with one quick snap of his sharp little jaws, and he flew to find the Windwalker with none of his usual laziness. The Windwalker was flying around in confused circles some distance away, searching for Hiccup.

The Red-Rage had not taken him over, but it had thoroughly disorientated him, interrupting his radar, and what with that, and the smoke, and dodging the arrows and spears, he was looping the loop, and bumping into other dragons, and accidentally chasing his own tail. 'Hiccup needs us!' squeaked Toothless, forgetting to be cool, and the Windwalker followed the little dragon, weaving expertly through the aerial battlefield, and crash-landed beside Hiccup in an untidy scramble. Hiccup leapt on the Windwalker's back in the nick of time, for a Tonguetwister was lunging his way, and the Windwalker climbed up, up, up into the air. What can I do? What can I do? What can I do? Hiccup guided the Windwalker down for a moment to the edge of the Battle Arena, and leant over to pick up the Wodensfang and his waistcoat. 'What are you bothering with him for?' complained Toothless. 'We don't n-n-need him!' 'Ah, I knew I wasn't wrong about you!' exclaimed the Wodensfang in delight. 'You ARE the Heir after all!' But Hiccup's view from the Windwalker's back,

as the black dragon swam higher and higher through the air, gave him a full view of the desperate tragedy of the situation. The castle was collapsing even further now, caving in on itself, crumbling into the great hole in the centre caused by the eruption of the Dragon Furious. The great dragon himself was right in the centre, breathing out flame almost continuously. Practically all the Warriors in the Archipelago had gathered at the castle, don't forget, so they were a mighty army indeed, and they were fighting back the dragons with enormous bravery. To the left he could see Snotlout, admittedly fighting with terrific skill and valour, urging on the Hooligans as if he were Chief already. In the centre was the fiercest fighting, for there was Alvin the Treacherous, and the majority of dragons were trying to get the sword Endeavour. Alvin was surrounded by a ring of Tribesmen, fighting to defend their new King, and he was giving a good account of himself, the Stormblade fixed into his attachment, the Endeavour in the other hand. To the right, the Bog-Burglars had got hold of a catapult and were constantly re-loading, blasting great

holes in the dragon attack. Things were looking dreadful, nonetheless. The casualties on both sides were horrific in number. And the Vikings were losing, Hiccup could see that, for they were unprepared, and they had no means of joining in the aerial combat now their own dragons had deserted them. The Red-Rage was terrifyingly loud now, a dreadful drumming sound that no human being should ever have to hear, a jungle noise that chilled the blood and choked the heart and sent the hairs on the scalp tingling with electric horror. They're going to destroy each other, thought Hiccup. But what can I do? What can I do? What can I do? I'm just one person, what can I do? Into Hiccup's frazzled brain there floated Old Wrinkly's words: 'And then the world will need a Hero, and it might as well be you…' 'Windwalker!' Hiccup whispered into his riding- dragon's ear, 'Windwalker! Head towards that patch of light over there!' There was a small clearing in the clouds, and narrowly missing a couple of arrows, Windwalker flew right into it. All around was blackness and smoke,

but in that tiny patch of bright blue sky, the sun glinted dazzingly off Windwalker's shining wings, and Hiccup's dragonskin fire-suit, so that they were clearly visible from down below. A ray blinked down into Camicazi's eye, and Camicazi saw him, though she was fighting hard, and despite the fact you could only see the outline of a human mounted on a dragon's back, she knew that it was him. 'Hiccup!' she whispered with passionate relief, forgetting that he had the Slavemark, and just grateful he was there. 'Hiccup! He's going to save us, I know he will, he'll have some clever plan…' To tell the truth, Hiccup had absolutely no plan at all, but as he hung there in the crack of light, the only piece of hope in a dark and dreadful world, a glimmer of an idea popped into his head. 'DRAGONS!' yelled Hiccup. 'DRAGONS!!!!! FORGET ABOUT THE SWORD, FOR I HAVE THE JEWEL ALREADY IN MY HAND!' He held up his clenched fist, way over his head. Dragons' hearing is so acute they can hear the nanodragons laughing to one another in the grasses. They heard this all right.