第五章：门的另一边(14)

‘Um… Stoick the Vast, sir,’ said Hiccup politely. ‘Is there a boy called Fishlegs in the Company of the Amber-Hunters?’ Stoick looked uncomfortable and sad. ‘Fishlegs?’ he said. ‘No, I’ve never heard of a boy called Fishlegs, have you, Gobber?’ Gobber the Belch shook his head. ‘No, I’ve never heard that name before, either.’ Never heard of Fishlegs? What were they talking about? Fishlegs had been memorably bottom of absolutely everything in Gobber’s Pirate Training Programme for about five years – Bashyball, Badd Speling, the lot. Gobber used to say that he was going to get Fishlegs up to Warrior status or die in the attempt. Hiccup’s father had spent most of Hiccup’s life a little annoyed that Hiccup had such a little weirdo as a friend. How could they possibly say they’d never even heard of him? There was something very odd going on round here. Hiccup was about to ask another question when Snotface Snotlout, the new Chief of the Hooligan Tribe, came strolling up to the table.

Snotlout was looking in excellent shape. If he hadn’t been such an unpleasant character, it would have been a pleasure to see him come into his own like this. Snotlout had always wanted to be a Chief and now that Fate had given him his dearest wish he was loving every second of it. In the sunshine of everyone’s admiration, he seemed to have grown about a foot. He swaggered around, joking with his friends, glowing with a new relaxed consequence. ‘Nice fighting against the dragons yesterday, Snotty!’ called out one of Snotlout’s mates, Vandal the Visithug. ‘How many did you kill, was it nine?’ ‘I think it was eleven,’