Read How to speak Dragonese for Free Online

time anything like this happened they would be expelled from the Program.
    At home, it wasn't much better.
    During supper, Hiccup explained to his father about the unfortunate accident of boarding the Roman galley by mistake, and about the kidnapping of Toothless, and how the Prefect had got hold of half of How to Speak Dragonese, and how Stoick really should send a war party to rescue Toothless and the book. Hiccup showed the sad remains of How to Speak Dragonese and the Roman helmet to his father to prove his story was genuine.
    "Mmmmmmm," said Stoick thoughtfully. Stoick was a great giant of a man with enough red, haystacky beard and barrels of belly to equip at least two decent-sized Viking chieftains.
    He wasn't really concentrating, because he was reading Hiccup's Pirate Training report, which was the
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    worst report he had ever read. Thumbnails of Thor, he was thinking, how can anybody get --4 for Advanced Rudery? And nothing at all for Beginner Burping and Hammerthrowing Studies, which had been Stoick's favorite subjects when HE was a boy.
    Stoick was trying very hard not to feel disappointed in his son. He kept telling himself that Hiccup was just a slow developer, and would soon start getting muscles and nose hair, and scoring the winning goal in Bashyball games like Stoick had himself. But what was he doing, earning reports like "Hiccup is the worst sailor I have ever taught in twenty years"? How could he have come back from a perfectly straightforward training exercise having misplaced both his dragon and his boat? And how could he possibly have got lost and accidentally boarded a Roman ship rather than a Peaceable fishing boat?
    Vikings didn't get lost.
    Stoick opened his mouth to bellow at his son.
    And then he closed it again.
    Small, skinny, freckled and unsatisfactory, Hiccup's worried face looked up at him. He was clearly desperately anxious about that laughably tiny
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    [Image: Report card.]
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    dragon of his. Stoick didn't have the heart to be angry. He crumpled up the report in one gigantic fist.
    "Son," he said gently and gravely, "I am sorry you have lost Ruthless --"
    "Toothless!" Hiccup interrupted indignantly. "He's called Toothless."
    "Toothless," Stoick corrected himself hurriedly. "But I am about to tell you something very important."
    [Image: Stoick the vast reading Hiccup's report.]
    Stoick took Hiccup by the shoulders and looked him in the eyes. "You," he said solemnly, "are the son of a Chief. You have lost your pet, but you must be
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    brave. You must be a MAN about it. There will be other dragons ..."
    "Not like Toothless!" objected Hiccup, in distress. "That dragon trusted me and I let him down!"
    "Silence!" said Stoick sternly. "What does a Chief feel, son?"
    "A Chief feels no pain," replied Hiccup obediently. "But Father --"
    Stoick was just getting into his stride. "A Chief feels no pain. A Chief feels no fear. A Chief must be above mere weak, personal feelings. There is no question of putting together a War Party to rescue your dragon. It would be a waste of our warriors' time. The Romans are probably halfway back to Rome by now and they'll have turned Useless into a handbag -- "
    "Toothless," corrected Hiccup again, "and that's what I'm telling you, Father, I overheard them talking and I think they're not just passing through."
    "Talking?" roared Stoick, his eyebrows lowering. "What do you mean TALKING? How did you understand these Romans?"
    ''Ah," admitted Hiccup. "Old Wrinkly's been teaching me some Latin, you see --"
    "Latin? LATIN?" Stoick exploded. He crashed
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    his fist so hard on the table that the oysters they'd been eating did a couple of cartwheels in the air. "My son, my son, has been speaking LATIN!"
    He controlled himself with an effort. "Hooligans do not, I repeat, DO NOT, speak Latin. What are they teaching you in your Frightening Foreigners lessons? When a Hooligan meets a foreigner he shouts at it loudly and slowly. That's the only language a foreigner