How to speak Dragonese by Cressida Cowell

Circus and marvel at the glory of the
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    Roman Empire! Your entertainment this afternoon is called THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST ..."
    The audience clapped wildly.
    Three hundred beautiful doves, dyed every color of the rainbow, were released into the arena. The doves fluttered through the stadium, cooing to each other.
    Suddenly the barred gates opened and the coos of the doves turned to cries of alarm. To the cheers and catcalls of the audience, fifty little Sidewinder dragons came slithering through the dust into the arena, their greengage eyes glistening greedily.
    The Sidewinders were not large but they were vicious pack hunters. They were also chameleons. Every one of them was exactly the color of the dust it was lying in.
    The doves desperately threw themselves against the metal nets covering the amphitheater, but there was no escape for them.
    The Sidewinders crept into the air like an army of cats stalking sparrows. As they rose up they gradually turned as pale blue as the sky above them, and the doves flew desperately hither and thither in confusion, until the leader of the Sidewinders gave the signal to attack.
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    Less than sixty seconds later the air was filled with blood and multi-colored feathers and there was not a dove left alive in that stadium.
    The Sidewinders celebrated by turning the color of the dove they had just eaten. They made a glorious multicolored sight, swooping and shrieking through the air in victory rolls, singing a song of praise and thanks for the meal they had been given.
    And then the barred gates opened again, the Song of the Sidewinders stopped abruptly and they instantly turned the color of the sky again. Now it was they who were throwing themselves at the metal nets above them and finding they were trapped.
    For creeping into the arena came twenty heavily armored black Flashfangs, their razor-sharp teeth glistening in the sunshine, their talons making slashing patterns in the dust. The audience laughed cruelly at the fear of the Sidewinders, who seconds ago were the hunters and had now become the prey.
    From his barred window high up in the Tower, Hiccup could watch no longer. He knew that a Sidewinder was no match for a Flashfang. He stepped away from the window with a heavy sigh.
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    Toothless had taken one look at the Flashfangs and was now hiding in Hiccup's shirt.
    The door of their prison cell opened with a crash. The First Kidnapper stepped in, followed by twenty heavily armed soldiers.
    "Is the timings for your big day in the Circus," beamed the First Kidnapper.
    "Here goes..." said Camicazi grimly. "Let us face certain death like HEROES." ' "It isn't certain death," protested Hiccup. "Don't forget my plan ..."
    "Would that be the plan where we get rescued at the last minute by a dragon the size of an amoeba?" asked Fishlegs.
    The soldiers led the boys down from the Tower, across several courtyards and then down many long flights of steps so slippery Hiccup fell and grazed his calf. The steps ended in an underground chamber, where a Viking boat was tethered on the ground. On one side of the boat was painted its name: The Valhalla Express.
    The chamber was beginning to fill with water -- a dam in one of the chamber walls was open, and seawater was flooding in.
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    "Please to jump in," grinned the First Kidnapper.
    Camicazi was astonished. "Are they setting us free, do you think?" she asked Hiccup.
    "No chance," replied Hiccup grimly. "Look, they've half opened the gates of the dam ... They think the ground isn't suitable for fighting on, like I said last night, so they're flooding the stadium. I thought they might do this ... We're going to be part of a Sea-Battle for the entertainment of those Romans."
    "What about the F-F-Flashfangs?" asked Toothless from somewhere inside Hiccup's shirt.
    "Tie water will kill the Flashfangs," said Hiccup. "Flashfangs can't swim... So who will WE be fighting, then? I suppose they'll put in a boat full of Roman gladiators -- I've heard