"Well, no," admitted Hiccup, "but neither have you, and y ou haven't a shred of evidence. Let's go and get some lunch and forget this rubbish."
That conversation sowed a little seed of doubt in Hiccup's mind.
He was already feeling uneasy because he knew that he and all the other boys were going to have to join in this suicidal quest to the Isle of the Skullions, which would set out just as soon as Stoick and Alvin had worked out a Plan to avoid the Tiny Problem of everybody being eaten alive the moment they landed on the island.
[Image: A dragon.]
And he knew that he, Hiccup, as the Heir to the Hairy Hooligans, was supposed to be the one
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to find the treasure. So when he wasn't doing his swordfighting, or being shouted at by Gobber on the Training Program, he was bustling Toothless out of the door to practice sniffing for treasure.
The first morning was typical. Fishlegs turned up with his dragon Horrorcow, and they stood watching in polite astonishment as Hiccup went through the elaborate game of getting Toothless out of the front door.
Firstly, Hiccup went through the house shouting Toothless's name.
No answer.
Next, Hiccup stole a mackerel from the pantry.
"Ohhhhh, Toothless," he sang craftily, waving the fishy stench around a bit to get Toothless's interest. "I've got a lovely piece of mackerel for you."
A very muffled but thoughtful voice replied, "T-t-toothless sick. T-t-toothless can't come out 'cos he's V-V-VERY VERY sick."
"Then you won't want this mackerel then," sang Hiccup.
Another pause.
"M-m-mackerel good for the sick. Have mackerel but NO GO OUT."
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Hiccup had worked out where the voice was coming from. He peered up the chimney, and there was Toothless, hanging upside down in a cloud of smoke.
"NO, Toothless," said Hiccup in his firmest voice. "You have the mackerel , you have to go out, THAT'S the deal. And you have to PROMISE."
"Okay, then," said Toothless, flapping out of the chimney, "Toothless p-p-promise."
Hiccup held out the mackerel.
With a shriek of "T-T-TOOTHLESS CROSSED HIS CLAWS!" Toothless grabbed the fish, pushed Hiccup heavily in the chest, and disappeared at high speed into the other room, leaving Hiccup to topple over into the fireplace in a cloud of ash.
It didn't take long for Hiccup to find him again.
A telltale drift of bluey-gray smoke was curling out from the end of Stoick's bed.
Hiccup tiptoed up and dragged him out from under the covers.
With a squawk of outrage, Toothless grabbed hold of one of the bed knobs in his powerful jaws.
Hiccup got him by the tail and pulled.
"Come ON, Toothless," said Hiccup, "time for
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LEARNING TO SPEAK DRAGONESE
Dragonese is punctuated by shrill shrieks and popping noises, and sounds
MOST EXTRAOROINARY when spoken by a human. The word " pishyou," for example, is pronounced very like a sneeze.
MORE COMMON DRAGON PHRASES:
Pishyou na munch-munch di miaow-miaow
Please do not eat the cat
Hoody chuch-it-up un di jum-jams di pappa?
Who has been sick in my father's pajamas?
PARKA DI BOTTY, forsakes di Woden, or me do di girly boo-hoo.
SIT, for Woden's sake, before I burst into tears
(To big dragons): Mi wobblediguts bigtime .
I am very poisonous
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sniffing practice...."He tickled Toothless under one wing. Toothless wriggled a bit, going red in the face. Hiccup tickled him under the other.
Toothless let go, giggling, and there was a short kerfuffle, in which Toothless bit Hiccup several times, before Hiccup finally got him under control, tucking him under one arm and holding his mouth shut with the other.
"Now," said Hiccup, "you know we have to practice the sniffing. You want us to find the treasure, don't you , not Fireworm or Seaslug? You want us to show everybody what amazing sniffers Toothless Daydreams really are, don't you?"
Toothless nodded, still with Hiccup holding his mouth shut.
"Well, tien," said Hiccup, "we have to practice. Promise you won't bite me anymore, and no claw-crossing?"
As soon as Hiccup had removed his fingers, Toothless went all limp and floppy.
"T-t-toothless so w-w-weak... can't sniff when he's so w-w-weak...," he moaned pathetically.
"RIGHT," said Hiccup, "you can have the
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other half of the mackerel if you BEHAVE FROM NOW NO."
"Okay, then," grumbled Toothless, shaking his wings. "T-t-toothless Daydreams such g-g-g-good sniffers they don't have to p-p-practice, but OKAY."
Hiccup and Fishlegs scraped the disgusting mess of the rest of the mackerel from the bottom of Stoick's bed -- Stoick was NOT going to be pleased -- and fed it to Toothless, as well as a small haddock pie and three or four oysters.
"He won't be able to FLY at this rate," said Fishlegs.
They set off into the hills and bogs of Berk, Toothless whining the whole way, "C-c-carry me, c-c-carry me, my w-w-wings ache..... Are we n-n-nearly there yet?"
Berk was always a wild-looking place, tree-less and boggy, heather-blown and fern-filled. And, of course, it was practically always raining, anything from a light, persistent drizzle to a drenching downpour. (There are twenty-eight words that mean "rain" in the Hooligan language.)
But if you like your landscapes bleak and dramatic, Berk was attractive in its own way, and
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this was now spoilt by the great muddy holes the Hooligans were digging everywhere, ever since they had become obsessed with hunting for treasure.
What with avoiding the holes, and wading through waist-high gorse and bracken, it took the boys an hour or so even to get up into the hills to practice. And by the time they got there, Horrorcow had fallen into such a deep sleep on Fishlegs's shoulder it was impossible to wake her.
Hiccup brought out an old gold bracelet of his mother's for Toothless to sniff.
"That's the smell you're looking for," he said.
"N-n-no problem," said Toothless. "Easy-p-p-peasy..."
After two hot and breathless hours of running around after Toothless and digging where he said he could sniff something, the boys surveyed what they had found.
1 turnip
3 rabbits (couldn't catch them)
1 small broken spoon
Um ... that's it, really.
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Hiccup shook his head mournfully. "It's not good, is it?"
"Not good? NOT GOOD??" exclaimed a jeering voice behind them. "It's pathetic, that's what it is."
Hiccup turned round, and there was Snotlout, laughing so hard Dogsbreath had to hold him upright.
"I mean, a VEGETABLE and a PIECE OF CUTLERY?" Snotlout wiped the tears from his eyes. "It's just so brilliantly Useless...."
[Image: A man.]
"Do you really think," tittered Snotlout, once
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he had recovered somewhat, "that microscopic amoeba," Snotlout pointed at Toothless, "is going to lead you to TREASURE? He couldn't sniff his way to his own bottom."
Toothless bristled angrily.
"But then he's just a mongrel Common or Garden ...," scoffed Snotlout.
"Toothless-not-repeat-not-a-Common-or-Graden-D-d-dragon!" Graden-D-d-dragon!" howled Toothless. "Toothless VERY RARE breed c-c-called a Toothless Daydream...."