Cressida cowell - How to seize a dragon’s jewel

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the
authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons,
living or dead, is coincidental.Text and illustrations copyright 2012 by Cressida Cowell
Cover art 2013 by Red Hansen
Cover design by Kristina Iulo
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First ebook edition: September 2014
ISBN 978-0-316-29952-7
E3

~ CONTENTS ~

Did I Already Mention that the Past Has a Way
of Catching Up with the Present?......................................

PROLOGUE BY HICCUP
HORRENDOUS HADDOCK III

Courage.

You, dear reader, will need courage to read on.
This is NOT the last of my memoirs. But the
story has become darker now, so dark that I need all
my courage just to write it.
I am looking back to that time when I was
fourteen years old and an Outcast.
The Red-Rage had taken over all the dragons in
the land and the Dragon Rebellion had begun. The
Great War between humans and dragons had started.
The Vikings were being led by that dreadful
villain, Alvin the Treacherous, guided by his even
more-dreadful mother, the Witch Excellinor.
The Dragon Furious was in charge of the
dragon forces, and his aim was nothing less than the
extinction of the entire Viking race.
And the Dragon Furious was winning.
The Vikings only hope was for a new King to
be crowned King of the Wilderwest. A King who,
according to ancient prophecy, would have all ten of
the Kings Lost Things.

THE PROPHECY OF
THE KINGS LOST THINGS

The Dragontime is coming
And only a King can save you now.
The King shall be the
Champion of Champions.You shall know the King
By the Kings Lost Things.
A fang-free dragon, my second-best sword,
My Roman shield,
An arrow-from-the-land-that-does-not-exist,
The hearts stone, the key-that-opens-all-locks,
The ticking-thing, the Throne, the Crown.And last and best of all the ten,
The Dragon Jewel shall save all men.

1. THE WARRIOR

One cold moonlit winter night in the Forgotten Forest,
a gigantic Warrior sat high and still in a treetop, like an
Angel of Death.
The Warrior was out hunting. It had been on the
trail of the Outcast for many days. It was intending to
kill this Outcast, this enemy of the Wilderwest.
Its metal visor was down. Its sword was ready in
its hand, looking for the kill. It was still as a statue, only
its bright blue eyes looking down on the path winding
through the woods far below it.
In those times, the humans and the dragons were
at war, so it was strictly forbidden for humans to ride
dragons any more.
But surprisingly, this Warrior was seated on the
back of a dragon, lying lazy but alert along the length of
the tree branch. The dragon was an Air Dragon of the
purest silver; very, very rare and very, very dangerous.
It too looked down at the snowy path below, only
its pointed tail moving, slowly and rhythmically, like the
tail of a cat.
All was quiet. After a little time, a noise was
heard. The Warrior had closed its eyes, but now, buried
in the black visor, they snapped open.