Above him, Hiccup could hear the Dragon's great tongue sloshing and lunging about his mouth, trying to find Hiccup so he could crunch him to death. . . . He hadn't intended to swallow him whole.
A disgusting river of green goo dripped down the puffy red insides of the Dragon's throat. Just across
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from where Hiccup was hanging, greeny-yellow steam was puffing out of two small holes in the slimy wall. Every now and then a small explosion sent little flickers of flame shooting out of the holes.
How interesting,thought Hiccup, who was strangely calm, because he couldn't quite believe that this was really happening. Those must be where the fire comes from.
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Viking biologists had wondered for years where the fire that dragons breathed came from. Some said the lungs, others the stomach. Hiccup was the first to discover the fire-holes, which are too small to see with the naked eye in a normal-sized dragon.
Way down below him, Hiccup could hear the distant rumbling of singing from the Dragon's previous meal. A Seadragonus Giganticus obviously takes a long time to digest, thought Hiccup.
It was indeed still going strong:
Humans can be bland, but if you have some salt to hand, A little bit of brine, will make them taste div-I-I-I-ne. . . .
The spear was gradually bending over with Hiccup's weight. It was only a matter of time before it broke and he fell to join the breezy optimist in the stomach below. . . .
What was worse, the fumes and the heat and the smell were starting to confuse Hiccup so that he no longer really CARED. The terrible noise of the Dragon's heart beating had entered into Hiccup's
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chest and forced his own heart to follow the same rhythm.
A Dragon has to live, after all,he found himself thinking. And then he remembered the Dragon's words to him as he stood on the cliff top: "You'll find that you come round to my point of view once you're inside me...."
Oh no!thought Hiccup. The Dragon's digestion! It's already working!
"I need to live, I need to live," he repeated to himself, over and over again, trying desperately to block out the Dragon's thoughts.
There was a horrible creaking noise as the stout Roman spear began to split in two. . . .
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Chapter 18. THE EXTRAORDINARY BRAVERY OF TOOTHLESS
And that would have been the end of Hiccup, if it had not been for the extraordinary bravery of a certain Toothless Daydream.
Toothless, if you remember, had refused to join in the battle at Death's Head Headland. He was intending to fly off somewhere down the coast a bit and lie low till all was safe again, but he stayed at the Highest Point for a while, terrorizing birds and rabbits.
He must have been having a lovely time doing this, for he did not hear the approach of Stoick and the entire Tribes of Hooligan and Meathead until Stoick grabbed him around the neck.
"WHERE IS MY SON?" asked Stoick.
Toothless shrugged his shoulders rudely.
"WHERE IS MY SON???" bawled Stoick with an awe-inspiring yell so loud that Toothless's ears trembled.
Toothless pointed to Death's Head Headland.
"SHOW ME," said Stoick grimly.
I90
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Under Stoick's fierce eye, Toothless reluctantly flapped off toward Death's Head Headland, followed by the two Tribes.
They arrived just in time to see the Terrible Monster throw Hiccup high in the air and catch him in his mouth like a whelk.
So much for the Fiendishly Clever Plan,thought Toothless.
He was about to use the opportunity of Stoick's obvious distraction to sneak off to a place of safety when something stopped him.
Nobody knows what that something was.
It was a moment that changed the whole world-view of the Hooligan Tribe. For centuries we had believed it was impossible for dragons to consider a selfless thought or a generous action. But what Toothless did next is impossible to explain as being in his own best interests at the time.
All his fellow domestic dragons were now flying somewhere over the Inner Ocean. As soon as they heard Fireworm's cry of "Desert!" those who were hiding in caves or between crevices or crouched in the ferns rose up in a great swarm and abandoned their former Masters as fast as their wings could carry them.
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The wild dragons from Wild Dragon Cliff had left hours before.
But something kept Toothless from flying after them -- maybe it was Stoick's heartrendingly powerless cry of "N-N-N00000!!!" that caused him to pause. Or maybe somewhere in that self-centered green dragon heart of his, he really was fond of Hiccup and grateful for the hours that he had spent looking after him, not shouting at him, telling him jokes and giving him the biggest and juiciest lobsters.
"Dragons are S-S-SELHSH," argued Toothless to himself. "Dragons are heartless and have no m-m-makes. That's what m-m-makes us s-s-survivors."
Nonetheless SOMETHING made him turn right
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around and SOMETHING made him fold his wings back and fly like a dragon blur to the Great Monster on the cliff tops. Which reallywas notin Toothless's best interests, as I said before.
Toothless flew right up the Monster's left nostril and started flying up and down the inside of his nose, tickling it with his wings.
The Sea Dragon lunged up and down, wrinkling his nose like crazy and bellowing.
"A-A-A-AAAAAAAH..."
The Creature stuck his great talon up his nose in a disgusting fashion and tried to winkle out the tickling flea that was irritating him.
Toothless didn't quite get out of the way of the talon in time and it scratched him on the chest. He hardly felt it though, he was so excited, and carried on tickling regardless, dodging the probing dragon claw.
"A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-AAAAAAAAH..." bellowed the Sea Dragon.
Meanwhile Hiccup was being thrown this way and that inside the Dragon's throat as it shook its head from side to side. He was trying desperately to hang on to the spear, which was in danger of becoming dislodged any second.
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[Image: Toothless diving]
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"... choooooooooooi"
The Dragon finally sneezed and Hiccup, the spear, Toothless, and a great deal of perfectly revolting Snot were scattered over the surrounding countryside.
Toothless remembered, as he was shooting through the air, that boys can't fly.
He folded his wings and dived after Hiccup, who was rapidly heading toward the ground.
Toothless grabbed hold of Hiccup by the arm and tried to take his weight. Dragons' talons are extraordinarily strong and he was able to break Hiccup's fall, not entirely, but enough so that when Hiccup crashed into the heather he was traveling reasonably slowly.
Stoick came plunging frantically through the grass.
He picked up his son and faced the Monster, holding his shield over Hiccup's unconscious body.
Toothless hid behind Stoick.
The Green Death had recovered from his sneezing fit. He shuffled forward, bleeding horribly from fatal wounds to his chest and throat. He lowered his terrible head till it was on a level with the cliff top, and his evil, yellow eyes looked straight at Stoick.
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"Time to did for allof us," purred the Green Death. "You can't save hi slife now, you know. You are quite, quite helpless. My FIRE will melt that shield like butter...."