Free How to Twist a Dragon's Tale (Hiccup) by Cressida Cowell Page B

are we going to stop a Volcano from exploding? With our bare hands? Ask it, pretty please?"
    "If the Fire-Stone is powerful enough to keep a volcano dormant for thousands and thousands of years," said Hiccup, "maybe if we RETURN it to the Volcano, then we can stop it from erupting ..."
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    "Maybe!" squeaked Fishlegs. "What happens if not?"
    Hiccup said nothing.
    "Oh goody!" smiled Camicazi, absolutely delighted at the thought of a Truly Perilous Quest.
    And from the front of her waistcoat she produced the Fire-Stone.
    "Where did you get that?" gasped Hiccup.
    "I grabbed it from under Stoick's fat nose while he was busy singing," said Camicazi breezily.
    Humungous turned to go, but Hiccup stopped him.
    "Where do you think you're going?" said Hiccup. "I need you to show us the way to Lava Lout Island."
    "I suppose I am still your Bardiguard," said Humungous. "But I will only go with you as far as the island. Climbing up the Volcano is Hero work, and I am out of the Hero Business forever."
    "Right," said Hiccup briskly, "all we have to do now is borrow a fast boat, sail to Lava-Lout Island, chuck the Stone in the Volcano before it explodes, and sail back home again. Follow me."
    "That's all we have to do now?" squealed Fishlegs.
    They had to fight their way through the crowds of fleeing Vikings at the Harbor.
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    The ship they borrowed, The Peregrine Falcon, was the fastest Hooligan ship in the fleet.
    "We'll bring it back," said Hiccup to himself, feeling very guilty, "and if we don't... well, if we don't, it won't matter anyway."
    On that cheery note, with the sun climbing high in the sky on Sun'sday Sunday, Hiccup, Fishlegs, Camicazi, Humungously Hotshot the ex-Hero, Toothless, the Windwalker, and the White Dragon sailed off out of Hooligan Harbor on the Quest-to-Stop-the-Volcano-from-Exploding.
    [Image: Smoke.]
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    11. THE-QUEST-TO-STOP-THE VOLCANO-FROM-EXPLODING
    The Peregrine Falcon was a very fast ship.
    It was still absolutely baking hot, but there was a feeling in the air that the weather was about to change, that it was building up for something stormy.
    For months, the seas around Berk had been as eerily flat and glassy as a puddle. But overnight, a hot wind had sprung up, carrying with it large flakes of soot from the scorched devastation of the Highest Point and sending them flurrying across the Isle of Berk and out over the Sullen Sea like autumn leaves.
    Only a couple of hours later, this sweltering wind had blown them right out of the Archipelago and into the Open Sea. There was a steady stream of dragons
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    fleeing from Lava-Lout Island overhead, and they were joined by an ominous cloud of smoke coming from the same direction. Every now and then there was a rumble, but it was not clear whether it was thunder, or the Volcano.
    I wish I could have explained to my father what I was doing ... thought Hiccup, looking wistfully back at the outline of the Isle of Berk. Somehow, without meaning to, and while trying his hardest, he always seemed to be letting his father down. I wish he didn't think I was a traitor... if we don't succeed, he'll think I really DID run away... If only he had LISTENED to what I was trying to say.
    Stoick rarely listened.
    Fishlegs clung on to his Running-Away Suitcase, muttering to himself, "This is not a good idea ... this is not a good idea ... this is not a good idea ..."
    "I'm not quite sure what the guy with the face like a fish is contributing to the Team, Hiccup," whispered Humungous. "You're the Leader, and the little blonde is the Stone-Carrier, but what is he doing? He seems rather a negative influence."
    "Don't be fooled by appearances," Hiccup whispered back. "He is a Berserk."
    "Really?" said Humungous, in great surprise. In
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    his experience, Berserks were generally rather LARGER, and did not normally suffer from asthma, eczema, and knock-knees.
    Eventually the outline of Lava-Lout Island appeared on the horizon, with its smoking Volcano, and this was such an ominous