How to train your dragon Read Online Free
Author: by Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III; translated from the Old Norse by Cressida Cowell
Tags: General, Humorous stories, Historical, Children's Books, Juvenile Fiction, Medieval, Animals, Dragons, Mythical, Vikings, Fairy tales; folk tales; fables; magical tales & traditional stories
lines into his arms. Gobber bashed the dragon on the nose with the handle of his axe, and the dragon let go and flapped away.
But a whole wave of dragons replaced him, pouring into the canyon with awful, rasping cries, fire shooting from their nostrils and melting the snow before them, talons spread wickedly as they swooped downward.
Gobber stood, legs wide apart, and whirled his big, double-headed axe. He threw back his great,
32
hairy head and yelled a terrible primeval yell, that echoed down the sides of the gorge and made the hairs on the back of Hiccup's neck stick straight up like the spines on a sea urchin.
Individually, dragons tend to have a healthy sense of self-preservation, but they are braver when they hunt in packs. They knew now that they had the advantage of massive numbers, so they didn't check their flying for an instant. They just kept on coming.
Gobber let go of the axe.
Spinning end to end, the axe soared up through the softly falling snow. It hit the biggest dragon of the lot, killing him instantly, and then kept on going, landing in a snow-drift hundreds of feet away and disappearing.
This made the rest of the dragons think a bit. Some of them scrambled over each other in their haste to fly away, yelping like dogs. The others came to
33
a halt, hovering uncertainly, screaming defiance but keeping their distance.
"Waste of a good axe," grunted Gobber. "Keep going, boys, they could come back!"
Hiccup needed no encouragement to keep going. As soon as he got out of the gorge and onto the marshy land behind it, he broke into a stumbling run, every now and then falling flat on his face in the snow.
Some time later, when Gobber reckoned they were a safe distance from Wild Dragon Cliff, he yelled at the boys to stop.
Very carefully he counted heads again, to check he hadn't lost anybody. Gobber had spent an unpleasant ten minutes standing at the mouth of the dragons' cave wondering why there was such a terrible racket and what he was going to say to Stoick the Vast if he lost his precious son and heir for good.
Something Tactful and Sensitive, he supposed, but Tact and Sensitivity were not Gobber's strong points, and he took the first five minutes to come up with "Hiccup copped it. SORRY," and then spent the second five minutes tearing his beard out.
Consequently, although secretly mightily relieved, he was not in a Good Mood and, as soon as
34
he could get his breath back, he exploded all over the place, as the boys stood, shivering violently, in a bedraggled line.
"NEVER ... in FOURTEEN YEARS .,.
have I come across such a load of HOPELESS
BARNACLES as you lot. WHICH OF YOU USELESS MOLLUSKS WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR WAKING UP THE DRAGONS????"
"I was," said Hiccup. Which wasn't strictly true.
"Oh, that's BRILLIANT," bellowed Gobber, "just BRILLIANT. Our Future Leader shows off his magnificent Leadership Skills. At the tender age of ten and a half he does his best to annihilate himself and the rest of you in A SIMPLE MILITARY EXERCISE!"
Snotlout sniggered.
"You find something amusing about that, Snotlout?" asked Gobber, with dangerous softness. "EVERYBODY IS ON LIMPET RATIONS FOR THE NEXT THREE WEEKS."
The boys groaned.
"Smart work, Hiccup," sneered Snotlout. "I can't wait to see you in action on the battlefield."
"SILENCE!" yelled Gobber. "THIS IS YOUR
35
INITIATION, NOT A DAY OUT IN THE COUNTRY! SILENCE, OR YOU'LL BE LUNCHING ON LUGWORMS FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIVES!"
"Now," continued Gobber, more calmly, "although that was an absolute mess, it wasn't a total disaster. I PRESUME that you do all HAVE a dragon after that fiasco . . . ?"
"Yes," chorused the boys.
Fishlegs took a sideways glance at Hiccup, who was staring straight ahead.
"Lucky for you," said Gobber, ominously. "So you have all passed the first part of the Dragon Test. There are, however, still two parts that you have to complete before you can become full members of the Tribe. Your next task will be to train this dragon
But a whole wave of dragons replaced him, pouring into the canyon with awful, rasping cries, fire shooting from their nostrils and melting the snow before them, talons spread wickedly as they swooped downward.
Gobber stood, legs wide apart, and whirled his big, double-headed axe. He threw back his great,
32
hairy head and yelled a terrible primeval yell, that echoed down the sides of the gorge and made the hairs on the back of Hiccup's neck stick straight up like the spines on a sea urchin.
Individually, dragons tend to have a healthy sense of self-preservation, but they are braver when they hunt in packs. They knew now that they had the advantage of massive numbers, so they didn't check their flying for an instant. They just kept on coming.
Gobber let go of the axe.
Spinning end to end, the axe soared up through the softly falling snow. It hit the biggest dragon of the lot, killing him instantly, and then kept on going, landing in a snow-drift hundreds of feet away and disappearing.
This made the rest of the dragons think a bit. Some of them scrambled over each other in their haste to fly away, yelping like dogs. The others came to
33
a halt, hovering uncertainly, screaming defiance but keeping their distance.
"Waste of a good axe," grunted Gobber. "Keep going, boys, they could come back!"
Hiccup needed no encouragement to keep going. As soon as he got out of the gorge and onto the marshy land behind it, he broke into a stumbling run, every now and then falling flat on his face in the snow.
Some time later, when Gobber reckoned they were a safe distance from Wild Dragon Cliff, he yelled at the boys to stop.
Very carefully he counted heads again, to check he hadn't lost anybody. Gobber had spent an unpleasant ten minutes standing at the mouth of the dragons' cave wondering why there was such a terrible racket and what he was going to say to Stoick the Vast if he lost his precious son and heir for good.
Something Tactful and Sensitive, he supposed, but Tact and Sensitivity were not Gobber's strong points, and he took the first five minutes to come up with "Hiccup copped it. SORRY," and then spent the second five minutes tearing his beard out.
Consequently, although secretly mightily relieved, he was not in a Good Mood and, as soon as
34
he could get his breath back, he exploded all over the place, as the boys stood, shivering violently, in a bedraggled line.
"NEVER ... in FOURTEEN YEARS .,.
have I come across such a load of HOPELESS
BARNACLES as you lot. WHICH OF YOU USELESS MOLLUSKS WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR WAKING UP THE DRAGONS????"
"I was," said Hiccup. Which wasn't strictly true.
"Oh, that's BRILLIANT," bellowed Gobber, "just BRILLIANT. Our Future Leader shows off his magnificent Leadership Skills. At the tender age of ten and a half he does his best to annihilate himself and the rest of you in A SIMPLE MILITARY EXERCISE!"
Snotlout sniggered.
"You find something amusing about that, Snotlout?" asked Gobber, with dangerous softness. "EVERYBODY IS ON LIMPET RATIONS FOR THE NEXT THREE WEEKS."
The boys groaned.
"Smart work, Hiccup," sneered Snotlout. "I can't wait to see you in action on the battlefield."
"SILENCE!" yelled Gobber. "THIS IS YOUR
35
INITIATION, NOT A DAY OUT IN THE COUNTRY! SILENCE, OR YOU'LL BE LUNCHING ON LUGWORMS FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIVES!"
"Now," continued Gobber, more calmly, "although that was an absolute mess, it wasn't a total disaster. I PRESUME that you do all HAVE a dragon after that fiasco . . . ?"
"Yes," chorused the boys.
Fishlegs took a sideways glance at Hiccup, who was staring straight ahead.
"Lucky for you," said Gobber, ominously. "So you have all passed the first part of the Dragon Test. There are, however, still two parts that you have to complete before you can become full members of the Tribe. Your next task will be to train this dragon
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