How to Be a Dragon Star 1

Chapter Two - The Downed Dragon

Hiccup tramped through the forest, his blank book open. He was trying to map out this area of the woods, so he could find it again, but whenever he looked between the lush plants and his x's and upside down v's, he felt his patience ebbing. He did not know where to look— he just knew doing this was better than sitting in the house, seething with the injustice of it all. If he were to come back with a Night Fury's heart on his sword, they'd have to treat him better, wouldn't they! How did they know he hadn't shot it down?

Though it was more satisfying to blame it on them, Hiccup knew that he never should have been able to bring it down. It was pure luck— or maybe his eyes had just been playing tricks on him. Hiccup's heart sank. Yes, that was it. The dragon had been as black as the sky above him— of course Hiccup had hallucinated it. And just like him, too.

"Oh, they'll hate me even more," he groaned aloud. "Just my luck. Some people lose an axe, a favorite sword—" He stormed through bushes— "But not me! I managed to lose an entire dragon!" His mouth in a thin, furious line, his eyebrows lowered angrily, his green eyes slitted with exasperation, he subconsciously thwacked a thick, hanging branch drooping above him.

He had done it out of anger; he never would've expected it to thwack right back at him. But it did, right in the face. "Ow!" he snapped at it, holding his eye and squinting up.

The branch was not a branch at all. It was a limb from a tree that had been split right down the middle, like lightning. Most of the tree had drooped and was lying on a downward path, out into misty darkness. The path, now that Hiccup looked at it, looked like soil or dirt had been torn down, instead of being naturally made.

If anything was a sign of a fallen dragon, this was it.

Hiccup felt for his dagger suspended in his belt. He took a deep breath and slid jerkily down the loose dirt on the slope. It was fairly steep, with arching roots that he used to steady himself on the way down. He noticed that one particularly large root, protruding out of the side of the ditch had three sharp claw marks, like a dragon had fallen out of the sky, torched the tree in half, and slid down this ditch, trying to stop its fall by clawing desperately at the roots.

Hiccup came fully to a stop behind a boulder bigger than him. He took his dagger out and, eyes wide, peeked around the boulder, afraid at what he would see.

And when he saw the stilled, black figure stretched out just feet away, he jumped out of his skin and stumbled back behind the boulder again.

His heart thumping so hard he felt nauseous, he took a deep breath to gather himself, and inched around the large rock again, clutching his dagger in front of him.

This time he barely flinched, but his eyes still couldn't believe it. It was a huge, midnight-black dragon, not moving. Hiccup scanned its smooth, glossy scales for a movement. There was none.

"Oh, my gosh, I hit it," Hiccup realized. "Oh, my gosh, I did it!" To savor the moment, he proudly took a foot and fearlessly placed it on the dragon's side. "I have brought down this mighty b— AAHHH!" He stumbled backward as he felt the dragon move below him.

I just pushed it, he thought wildly. But as he pressed his back against the boulder, terrified, he saw the beast's chest begin to move in slow, dramatic movements. It's alive.

Hiccup tightened his grip on his dagger so that his hands grew as pale as the silver blade. He stepped forward again, his nerves jangling.

He scanned the black body from the bottom upward. A long, curled tail, huge, magnificent wings, about eight ears— and then he saw that its eye— huge and jade-green— was open.