How to speak Dragonese Read Free

of seawater coming over the side onto Hiccup's ankle felt definitely warm.
    "I'm h-h-hungry," said a deep little voice from Hiccup's chest, and both boys jumped at the sudden sound.
    The nose of Toothless, Hiccup's disobedient little dragon, poked out of the top of Hiccup's shirt, closely followed by the rest of him. He crawled sleepily up Hiccup's neck to his familiar perch on the top of Hiccup's helmet, where he shook out his wings, had a quick rummage for dragonfleas, and gave an enormous yawn, revealing a very pink forked tongue and the fang-free gums that gave him his name.
    Even though he was only a Common or Garden dragon, the most ordinary of the dragon species,
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    Toothless was a beautiful little creature. He was a deep emerald green in color, fading to shimmering pearl on his tummy like a mackerel, lightly sprinkled with pale brown freckles.
    Enormous, innocent, grass-green eyes peered out from between absurdly long eyelashes.
    Appearances, of course, were deceptive, for dragons are among the most selfish animals on the planet, and Toothless was, in fact, a shark in a baby seal's clothing.
    "You can help us, actually, Toothless," said Hiccup. "This is IMPORTANT. We need to find ourselves back to the bay. We're a bit worried that we might have accidentally got ourselves into the Summer Current and we don't want to bump into any SHARKWORMS, now, do we?" Hiccup laughed nervously. "So what YOU could do is flap around and look for boats so we can get back on the right cores."
    "Ask Horrorcow. Toothless h-h-hungry," said Toothless grumpily. He had woken up in a bad mood.
    [Image: Hiccup and dragon.]
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    Hiccup raised his eyes to the heavens before explaining patiently that Horrowcow was asleep and there was no way she was going to wake up.
    Horrorcow was Fishlegs's dragon -- a nice enough beast, but she spent most of her time asleep. She was lying, sprawled full length, underneath one of the rowing benches. Fishlegs had put a coat under her head to lift it clear of the water so she didn't drown.
    "T-t-toothless into m-m-moving." Toothless was in a big sulk now. "n-n-no food--no moving. Toothless on strike. Hiccup BOSSY BOSSY BOSSY. D-d-d-do this Do that. Toothless ad-d-dragon, not a slave. Work, work, work,, that's all you make poor Toothless do."
    "Toothless , you've been asleep since breakfast! protested Hiccup. "And that's the most unfair thing I've ever heard. I wait on you hand and foot, you know I do. I feed you constantly, I tell you jokes, I carry you everywhere..."
    "Toothless h-h-has w-w-weak wings," said Toothless pathetically.
    "You woke me up FOUR TIMES last night...."
    "Toothless had a n-n-nightmare." Toothless opened his big green eyes wider. "Great big fat horrible h-h-humans with BIG TEETH chasing poor
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    Toothless all through his b-b-bed, want to get Toothless because Toothless is so s-s-special..."
    [Image: Hiccup and dragon.]
    "You wanted OYSTERS!" howled Hiccup.
    "Oysters at three o'clock in the morning!"
    "Oysters g-g-good for nightmares," Protested Toothless.
    Hiccup ran out of patience
    "You wouldn't shut up! You perched on my father's bed and said you'd screech in his ear if I didn't get them! I had to get up, dressed, go down to the Oyster Hoard in Hooligan Harbor and then
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    when I got back again you wouldn't even EAT them because you said they were the wrong color or something!
    "They had b-b-black bits on them," whined Toothless. "Toothless h-h-hates black hits, they're YUCKY..."
    "Oh, don't be such a BIG BABY, Toothless," snapped Hiccup. "It was only bits of seaweed and even when I picked them all off you STILL wouldn't eat them!"
    "I hate to interrupt," said Fishlegs nervously, "but I'm pretty certain I saw the fin of a Sharkworm over there ..."
    But Toothless and Hiccup were so cross they didn't even hear. They were nose to nose, eyeballing each other. Toothless had puffed up to nearly twice his normal size and had turned an unpleasant mustardy-red color. Hiccup had forgotten you