Chapter 3: We're In Trouble

It slowly closed its upper eyelids again. Amazingly not one of the other dragons woke up; few grumbled groggily before making themselves comfy again But most were in such a stupor that they barely even stirred. Hiccup let out her breath. Maybe these dragons were so dead to the world that nothing would wake them from their slumber. She swallowed hard, muttered a prayer to Loki, the patron saint of sneaky exploits, and edged forward cautiously to grab the most unconscious-looking dragon, so she could get out of this nightmare as fast as possible.

It is a little-know fact that dragons grow colder the deeper they sleep. It is even possible for dragons to go into a sleep coma in which they are icy clod, with no obvious pulse, or breath, or heartbeat. They can stay in this state for centuries, and only a highly skilled expert can tell from looking at them if they are alive or dead. But a dragon who is awake or lightly sleeping is very warm indeed, like bread that has just come out of the oven.

Hiccup found one that was about the right size and fairly cool to the touch and maneuvered it into her basket as quickly and carefully as she could. It was a very basic Basic Brown, but at the moment she couldn't have cared less. Even tho it was barely half-grown , it was surprisingly heavy. At least she had a dragon; everyone seemed to have a dragon by now and were all making their way quietly toward the exit. Everybody, except for Fishlegs.

He was covered in a bright red, itchy rash, and was at the very moment approaching a tangled pile of Nadders on very loud tiptoes. Fishlegs was even worse at burglary than Dogsbreath. Hiccup stopped dead in her tracks. She knew what would happen if he reached the pile, and thought of a way to avoid it. A idea popped in her head when he was a couple of inches away from them. She soundlessly ran over to him.

"Fishlegs, don't move." Hiccup whispered to him in a panicked sounding voice. He stopped, afraid to move. Hiccup without a sound placed her Basic Brown in his basket. And continued with her act. "You shouldn't try and grab a dragon for me. You have yours, now head for the exit with the others. I'll find my own dragon."

"What are you talking about? I haven't gotten my dragon yet." He whispered back.

"Yes you did, remember? Oh, it's probably your allergy's; you had better get out as soon as you can and don't worry about me." she whispered cunningly.

"OK, if you say so Hiccup." Fishlegs said walking to the exit with Hiccup right behind him to stare him away from the torches. As soon as Fishlegs got away from the pile, Fishlegs let out four thunderously loud sneezes that went echoing and bouncing off the cavern walls. They looked behind them. A big Nadder stared sightlessly forward, frozen like a dragon statue. But ve-ry faintly, an ominous purring noise began in his throat. And ve-ry slowly... the third eyelid slid upward.

"Oh-no," Hiccup whispered. The Nadder's head suddenly whipped around to Hiccup, its yellow cat eyes snapping into focus on the girl. It unfolded its wings to there greatest extent. Hiccup know he was about to attack. It opened its mouth wide enough to show the forked dragon tongue and...

"R-R-R-U-U-U-U-U-N-N-N!" Fishlegs shouted grabbing Hiccup's wrist dragging her away.

They all ran for the exit tunnel. Hiccup and Fishlegs were the last to get there. There was no time for picking up the torches, so they were running in pitch dark. The basket with the Basic Brown in it was bumping on Fishlegs back. They had a three minute head start on the dragons because it took awhile for the first dragon to wake up the rest. But Hiccup could hear a furious roaring and flapping as the dragons poured into the tunnel after them. She ran a little faster. The dragons could move faster than them because they could see in the dark, but they were held up when the tunnel got smaller, and they had to fold their wings up to squirm through.

"Wait... you don't... have a... dragon." Fishlegs panted back to Hiccup, who was a few steps behind him.

"That," she said, as she scrambled franticly on her elbows through a narrow bit, "is the LEAST of... ow... of my problems. Their gaining on us!"

"No... dragon." Fishlegs said stubbornly.

"Oh, for THOR'S SAKE!" Hiccup snapped. "Wait here." And Hiccup turned and went back threw the narrow bit even though the roaring was getting louder and closer by the second.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" screamed Fishlegs, franticly dancing up and down on the spot. Hiccup came back through the hole precious moments later. Fishlegs grabbed hold of an arm to help haul her through. They could hear horrible snuffling that sounded as if the nose of a dragon had entered the other end on the hole. Hiccup bunged a rock at it and it squealed indignantly. They turned a corner and suddenly they could see light from the outside at the end of the final tunnel.

Fishlegs went first, but, just as Hiccup was kneeling down to follow, a dragon pounced on her with a flap and a shriek. Hiccup hit it and it fell back enough for her to crawl toward the light. Another dragon, or maybe the same one, sank its fangs into Hiccup's calf. She was so desperate to get out she dragged the animal through with her. As soon as Hiccups head and shoulders were through into the light, there was Gobber. He grabbed Hiccup under the armpits and hauled her out, dragons pouring after her.

"JUMP!" yelled Gobber, as he stunned a dragon with one blow from his mighty fist.

"JUMP?" questioned Hiccup, as she looked down at the dizzying drop into the sea.

"No time to climb down," panted Gobber, banging a couple of dragons' heads together, and bouncing three more off his gigantic belly. "JUMP!"

Hiccup closed her eyes and dived off the cliff. As she plunged through the air, the dragon that was attached to her leg opened its jaws with a squawk of alarm and flew off. Hiccup knew if she hit the water like that it would hurt more then the dragon bite. She twisted mid-air and got into swan dive position. Hiccup was traveling at such a speed by the time she hit the sea that, for a few moments, she didn't fell the water, just the cold. She popped up from the water and was immediately drenched by the gigantic splash of Gobber the Belch landing a couple of feet away from her.

Shrieking furiously, the dragons swarmed out of the cave and dive-bombed the floating Vikings. Gobber pulled his helmet down as far as it could go. Their were horrible scraping sounds as dragons' talons raked across the metal. Hiccup dived down into the ice cold water, choosing being frozen to being eaten. A dragon landed right on top of were Hiccup was, but took off again with a screech when it felt how cold the sea was.

The dragons didn't like flying through the snow and, with relief, Hiccup watched them as they flew back to scream terrible dragon insults in Dragonese from the warmth of the cave entrance. Gobber started to pull his ten students out of the ocean and back on the rocks. Vikings are strong swimmers, but it is hard to swim with a trapped, terrified dragon on your back. Hiccup was the last to be saved, just in time, the cold was beginning to put her to sleep.

'Well at least it wasn't DEATH,' Hiccup thought as Gobber grabbed her by the waist to save her. 'but it certainly wasn't GLORY, ether.'