12-第十一章：蓄须王的信(10)

‘This is nobody! Nobody at all!’ screeched the Witch. ‘He is just a runt like the Hiccup! We shouldn’t listen to him…’ ‘My name is Fishlegs No-Name, and I have CONCRETE EVIDENCE that Hiccup is the King, in the form of a letter written by Grimbeard the Ghastly himself, written in his very own hand!’ shouted Fishlegs. Suddenly it seemed as if Destiny might be listening and taking a hand in the affairs of the humans after all. A letter written by Grimbeard the Ghastly, written in his very own hand! ‘You do?’ gasped Hiccup. ‘Let the boy approach the Throne!’ ordered the Druid Guardian. Trembling, Fishlegs came forward. He took out the ragged remains of a letter from the tattered lobster-pot that he had converted into his Running-Away Suitcase*. A letter that had been torn by dragons’ talons, burnt by volcano lava, drenched in Slitherfang saliva, and been through all of Fishlegs’s and Hiccup’s adventures with them, but somehow, like Fishlegs and Hiccup themselves, it had survived, a little raggedy and burnt at the edges, but more or less intact. ‘Hiccup was going to leave this letter where we

found it in the underground Cavern with Grimbeard’s Treasure,’ Fishlegs said, ‘but I secretly took it with me, in case we ever needed to prove that Hiccup was the true Heir to the Hooligan Tribe.’ Fishlegs adjusted his glasses so that he could see out of the non-smashed parts. ‘This is the relevant bit here,’ he said, reading from the letter. ‘Grimbeard the Ghastly says: ‘A Dragon-whisperer can only really refer to Hiccup, because Hiccup is the only one here who can speak Dragonese.’ It was impressive evidence, there was no doubt of it. ‘This boy Hiccup speaks Dragonese?’ exclaimed the Druid Guardian in surprise.