Free How to speak Dragonese by Cressida Cowell

they are hardly ever grateful. This was the first time in Toothless's life he had thanked Hiccup for anything.
    He soon recovered himself, and to make up for this moment of weakness he gave Hiccup an embarrassed nip on the ear.
    He then became thoroughly overexcited and twirled himself around Hiccup's neck three times, before diving down Hiccup's shirt and running all over his chest and round his back and under his armpits, which made Hiccup laugh a lot, because the light pattering of a dragon's feet and the swirl of its tail is almost unbearably ticklish.
    "Stop it!" shouted Hiccup, in between gasps of laughter. Toothless emerged from the shirt and scurried onto Hiccup's head, his little green paws making Hiccup's hair stand up on end even more than it did already. Sitting high up on Hiccup's forehead, Toothless puffed out his chest and crowed three joyful
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    "Cock-a-Doodle-Doos" of triumph.
    Camicazi watched all this with interest, particularly the strange pops and whistles that Hiccup made with his mouth when talking back to Toothless in Dragonese.
    "Oh, I've heard about you," she said, "You're the geek who talks to dragons..."
    "Talking to dragons is not geeky" said Hiccup crossly. "Dragon-whispering is a very ancient and rare skill."
    "OK," said Fishlegs. "So if we've rescued Toothless, I have just one question -- who's going to rescue US?"
    "We're going to rescue OURSELVES, of course!" cried Camicazi, drawing her sword again. "We ESCAPE or we DIE!" she shouted with a mad gleam in her eye. "As it happens, I am the master escaper. This isn't the first time I've been kidnapped, you know."
    "The MASTER ESCAPER," snorted Fishlegs. "You Bog-Burglars are very pleased with yourselves. Who's kidnapped you before?"
    [Image: Hiccup and dragon.]
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    "Oh ... other Viking Tribes, mostly," replied Camicazi carelessly. She hummed a little tune and happily swung her sword around her head.
    "The Meatheads ... the Visithugs ... us Bog-Burglars are always quarreling with EVERYBODY ... we have anger issues ... Anyway, I escaped from the Visithugs, no problem ..."
    "No problem?" said Fishlegs. The Visithugs were supposed to be TOUGH.
    "I think you'll have a problem escaping from a Roman Fortress," said Hiccup, stroking Toothless, who was beginning to purr. "Roman Fortresses are built to be impossible to get into and impossible to get out of. Have you noticed the four perimeter fences? The four observation balloons? The guards at every watchtower? Not to mention the bars on this cell and the locked door. I don't think you've got a hope of escaping."
    Camicazi smiled confidently. "Nothing is beyond the powers of a master escaper," she assured them. "You can't keep a Bog-Burglar under lock and key. No prisons can hold us -- we're as wriggly as eels ..."
    "So why are you still here then if you're such a great escaper?" said Fishlegs.
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    "I suggest that we wait for my father to send a War Party to rescue us," said Hiccup.
    "He didn't send a War Party to rescue Toothless," Fishlegs pointed out.
    "Yes but I nearly persuaded him to," replied Hiccup eagerly. "I think I really got through to him ... And I am his SON after all, and not just a dragon ..."
    Toothless gave him a reproachful bite.
    "He'll come, I know he will," said Hiccup. "I think I'll just sit here and wait for him." And Hiccup sat down on a stool by the barred window that looked out over the sea in the direction of Berk. It was raining, a dull never-ending sort of rain that would have you soaking wet in two seconds if you went out in it. "He will come, I'm telling you."
    But Hiccup was anxious. His father had been so disappointed with Hiccup's report. Maybe his father thought that Snotlout, who always got 10 out of 10 in everything, would make a better Heir than Hiccup ... Maybe his father was relieved Hiccup had gone ... Maybe, just maybe, his father wasn't coming at all...
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    13. BACK ON BERK
    Back on Berk, Stoick the Vast sat in front of the table in his Chiefly Hut with