Chapter 7: A Chat with Old Wrinkly

After breakfast, Hiccup went out to sit on the front step beside her grandfather, who was smoking a pipe. It was a beautiful, cold, clear winter's morning, with not a breath of wind and the sea all around as flat as glass. Old Wrinkly blew out smoke rings contentedly as he watched the sun coming up. Hiccup chucked stones into the bracken. Neither of them spoke for a long time.

At last Hiccup said, "I got that dragon."

"I said you would, didn't I?" replied Old Wrinkly, very pleased with himself. Old Wrinkly was mostly unsuccessful in soothsaying. Looking into the future is a complicated business. So he was particularly pleased that he'd gotten this right.

"Something extraordinary, you said," said Hiccup. "A truly unusual dragon, you said. An animal that would really make me stand out in the crowd."

"Absolutely," agreed Old Wrinkly. "The entrails were undeniable."

"Well, in a way they were right." Hiccup said.

"Oh, really?" questioned Old Wrinkly.

"Yeah, a Night Fury." stated Hiccup.

"Night Fury, huh? The terror of the sky," Old Wrinkly said, gesturing to the sky above them. "It's said that Night Furies grow up fast. You might be flying before you're fifteenth birthday."

"Really," Hiccup chuckled. "maybe then I could finally get away from the morons on this island. I honestly don't see myself leading these people, let alone them listening to me."

"You might be just what this Tribe needs, Hiccup. Because the thing is, times are changing. We can't get away with being bigger and more violent than everybody else any more. IMAGINATION. That's what they need and what you've got. A Hero of the Future is going to have to be clever and cunning, not just a big lump with overdeveloped muscles. Their going to have to stop everyone quarreling among themselves and get them to face the enemy together."

"Grandfather, they've begun calling me HICCUP THE HOPELESS. That's not a great name for a Military Leader." Hiccup protested.

"You have to see the bigger picture, Hiccup," continued Old Wrinkly, ignoring her. "You're called a few names. You choose not to show how much of a natural you are at things like Bashyball. Who cares? These are very little problems in the grand scheme of things."

"It's all very well for you to say they are little problems," said Hiccup crossly, "but I have a LOT of little problems. I have to train this dragon in time for Thor's Day Thursday or be thrown out of the Hairy Hooligan Tribe forever."

"Ah, yes," said Old Wrinkly, thoughtfully. "There's a book on this subject, isn't there? Remind me, how does the great Professor of Meathead University think you should train a dragon?"

"He thinks you should yell at it," said Hiccup, chucking stones again. "Show the beast who is Master by the sheer charismatic force of your personality, that sort of thing. I have charisma, and can yell with the best of them, but..."

"But what?" Old Wrinkly urged.

"But I want Toothless to listen to me because he trust's me, not because he's afraid of me."

"Ye-e-es," said Old Wrinkly, "so you'll have to train your dragon the Hard Way. You know a very great deal about dragons, don't you, Hiccup? All that dragon-watching you've been doing over the years?"

"That's a secret," said Hiccup, uncomfortably.

"I've seen you talking to them," said Old Wrinkly.

"That's NOT TRUE," protested Hiccup, her face turning bright red.

"Okay, then," soothed Old Wrinkly, calmly smoking his pipe, "it's not true."

There was silence for a bit.

"It is true," admitted Hiccup, "but for Thor's sake don't tell anybody, they wouldn't understand."

"Talking to dragons is a highly unusual skill," said Old Wrinkly. "Maybe," he said, "you can train a dragon better by talking to it than by yelling at it."

"That's a sweet and very touching thought." said Hiccup. "However, a dragon is not a fluffy creature like a dog or a cat or a pony. A dragon is not going to do what you say just because you ask it pretty please. From what I know about dragons, I would say that yelling was a pretty good method."

"But it has its limitations, doesn't it?" Old Wrinkly pointed out. "I would say that yelling was highly effective on any dragon smaller that a sea lion. And positively suicidal if you tried it on anything larger, like a Sea Dragon.

"Fifty times as big as your Night Fury, a Sea Dragon from the bottom of the ocean can swallow ten large Viking ships in one gulp and not even notice. A real Sea Dragon is a cruel, careless mystery like the mighty ocean itself, one moment calm as a scallop, the next raging like an octopus."

"You're getting off the point, Grandfather." said Hiccup.

"Oh, yes, sorry," Old Wrinkly started again. " as I was saying, you might be able to add to Professor Yobbish's book. I've often thought that that book needs a little something extra... I can't quite put my finger on it..."

"WORDS," said Hiccup. "That book needs a lot more words."