One Eye pulled the sleigh across the ice at a crazy speed. Once or twice Hiccup tugged on the reins to try and get him to slow down, but the big Driver ignored him, and so in the end, Hiccup gave up trying. "The quicker we get to Hysteria, the better, anyway," he reminded himself. The burningly cold wind slammed into his face, tearing at his eyelids as they careened across the ice.
[Image: A Island.] The Hopeful Puffin bounced crazily behind them like an ugly duckling desperately trying to keep up with its demented mother. Luckily, although she was not an attractive-looking boat, she was sturdy and used to the odd knock or two. Hiccup had brought along snacks for everybody that were supposed to last the whole journey, but Toothless finished all of them in 117 the first three minutes, littering the sleigh with crumbs, chicken bones, and nut shells.
"Toothless c-c-cold...," he wailed. "Toothless H-h-hungry ....Toothless BORED. Ow ow ow ow...Camicazi s-s-sitting on my ta-a-ail....Are we nearly there yet?"
"We only left five minutes ago!" exclaimed Hiccup.
"Toothless play I-Spy, " said Toothless firmly.
At first Camicazi was horribly cheerful, chatting constantly, and singing loudly, her bright blue eyes prickling with excitement.
But as the long hours wore on, and as they played their fifty-second game of I-Spy with Hiccup translating for Toothless, and as the sky turned pink and grey with the coming of the evening, and as they passed the Mazy Multitudes to their left and began to hear the first moans of the Doomfang under the ice, even Camicazi fell silent.
Hiccup made One Eye wait for the evening to grow darker before they turned the corner into the Wrath of Thor, so the Hysteric lookouts wouldn't spot them coming.
118 For a tense, stomach-churning half hour they waited, until Hiccup judged it was safe, and gave a pull on One Eye's reins to get him going again.
The gigantic sea cliffs of Villainy and Hysteria loomed above them scarily in the darkness. One Eye bounded into the Wrath of Thor, and the cliffs leapt up on either side of the little sleigh as it raced along, like dizzyingly high prison walls.
[Image: Fishes.] The eyes of dragons shine in the dark, and so One Eye's great eye acted as a searchlight, showing them the way. The ice in the narrow gorge was so clear that it was almost transparent, and in the beam of One Eye's eye, you could see right through it, as if it were a two-meter-thick pane of frosted glass, down into the sea below. How interesting, thought Hiccup as he looked over the edge of the sleigh; I can even 119 make out a shoal of mackerel down there ...
The mass of tiny fish went on forever, swimming slowly in their millions way down below them, until suddenly they fled, shooting away like tiny sparks in an explosion, as a great dark shape, infinitely large, suddenly appeared under the ice. It was the gargantuan shadow of a dragon the size of an underwater mountain, and it easily kept up with the speedy little sleigh, its long tail lazily powering it along, its wings nearly brushing the edges of the Wrath of Thor as it beat them slowly to swim underneath.
[Image: Fishes.] "Issa D-d-doomfang!"
whispered Toothless into Hiccup's ear. "Let's go h-h-home..."
Hiccup gazed downward in fascinated horror as the great dragon turned its head to one side and Hiccup 120 VIKING DRAGONS AND THEIR EGGS The DOOMFANG The Doomfang is a gigantic predator of the Open Ocean, very rarely seen by humans. It is armed not only with fearsome fangs and claws, but also a strange blue fire that "freezes' its victims to death.
STATISTICS COLORS: Always as black as your darkest nightmare.
ARMED WITH: Terrible jaws and fangs. Also have unusual frozen fire breath, with blue flames that kill by FREEZING you... 30 RADAR: Yes... 10 POISON: None...0 HUNTING ABILITY: Unbeatable skills...30 SPEED: Very, very fast...25 FEAR AND FIGHT FACTOR: Terrifying.....30 121 found himself staring into an enormous, bloodshot, green dragon eye, as long as the sleigh itself.
It was as if all the green in the world, of peas, of grass, of spinach, of leaves, of beans and frogs, had been concentrated in that one eye and given it the intensity of a pure green acid. It was like looking straight into the sun at midday, through a great green microscope, and Hiccup was so dazzled he nearly fell off the sleigh, until he was brought back to his senses by a terrible THUD! and the ice below them jumped up like an earthquake. The sleigh jumped too, and One Eye soared briefly into the air with a complaining yowl.
THUD! went the ice again as the Doomfang butted his head against the thick transparent wall. With terrified relief, Hiccup realized the ice was so deep that it was holding strong, although it was now shot through with tiny little white cracks.
The sleigh raced toward the entrance to Hysteria Harbor like a mouse streaking toward a mouse hole. The dragon followed, the ice thudding underneath as they went, with terrible blows from its battering-ram head.
When One Eye turned into the harbor, he was going so fast the momentum from the boat behind 122 almost turned them around in a great screeching circle. The sleigh balanced wildly on one runner, before slamming back down and carrying on.
Hiccup looked over his shoulder. The Doomfang was too large to fit through the narrow harbor entrance. It pushed its great head through and Hiccup could see, though not hear, its huge mouth opening in a roar of rage, its paw with the terrible talons tearing at the water. It blew out a great gush of underwater blue flame that shot out underneath the speeding sleigh and streaked forward in a straight line right up to the shoreline, almost as if it were a bright blue road telling them where to go.
"He's not pleased," joked Camicazi as the sleigh raced along the bright blue road. "That is one Doomfang in a VERY BAD MOOD." "Let's hope the ice holds long enough for us to steal the potato and get out 123 of here," shivered Hiccup. "That creature would kill us with one snap of its jaws!"
When One Eye finally came to a plunging halt at the ice's edge and Hiccup clambered out of the sleigh, his legs wobbling like jellyfish, the evening had become night. The bright blue road had turned palest turquoise and was gradually fading entirely.
The harbor, thank Thor, was entirely deserted. Pulled up onto the rocks, half-buried in snow, were hundreds of Hysterical boats. Even in their snow-covered state, you could tell these were ghost ships, that hadn't rocked on salt water for fifteen years. Rags of sails hung from drooping masts, oars and rudders jutting from the snow were rotting or snapped in half.
Hiccup sent Toothless off to have a look at the Hysterical Village, 124 and the little dragon reluctantly flapped off into the darkness.
"Why does T-t-toothless always have to do this?" complained Toothless.
"Because you're tie one with wings, Toothless," Hiccup explained for the umpteenth time, unhitching One Eye. Camicazi unpacked her burglary equipment, humming happily, shoving interesting-looking pointy instruments into her pockets, putting on her special shoes with spikes on the soles, winding length after length of stout rope around her middle.
Hiccup's usual companion on adventures was Fishlegs, who was always terrified and asking what on earth they were doing in YET ANOTHER life-threatening disaster? So it was quite a change to have Camicazi treating the whole thing as if it were an enjoyable outing.
They put on their skis and waited for Toothless to return from his trip to find out the whereabouts of the Hysterical Village. He gave them a shock when he flapped out from nowhere and landed on Hiccup's shoulder.
"Iss s-s-scary out there," panted Toothless, his eyes glowing luminously in the darkness.
125 "Them Hysterics is having a b-b-banquet for Freya'sday Eve...looksa SCRUMMY."
Hiccup explained what Toothless had said to Camicazi, and she got up.
"Excellent," she said. "Hopefully they'll be so distracted they won't notice us. Let's get going." The little party set off up the cliff path, One Eye pulling them, his one eye burning bright in the darkness.
[Image: A dragon.] 126