12-第四章：更大的麻烦(16)

Hiccup’s dragon into battle. Half the Tribes of the Archipelago had witnessed Snotlout fall into the sea with an arrow in his chest, so Stoick and Valhallarama believed that Hiccup had died and gone to the Viking afterworld. ‘This is not my fault, is it, Valhallarama?’ said Stoick, wearily looking out on the obliterated landscape, holding his shaggy head. Somewhere out there was his lost Chiefdom, his ships turned to ashes, his old world gone forever. ‘Is this a curse come down on us all because I would not put the baby Hiccup out to sea to die, when we knew he was a runt? Are the gods punishing us because I loved my son too much to follow the tradition? Should Hiccup – though we loved him so – should Hiccup not have lived?’ For it was Hiccup who had released the Dragon Furious and started the trouble in the first place. Valhallarama put her iron hand on Stoick’s shoulder. ‘We are Warriors, Stoick,’ she said gently. ‘We both know what War means, that our loved ones can pay the ultimate price by losing their lives, so Wars should never be undertaken lightly. ‘But the slavery of humans and of dragons was an abomination that could