But it made no difference.

The smell was getting stronger by the minute, an unimaginably horrid stench.

If the Skullions caught just one WHIFF of that horrible smell, it wouldn't take long for them to wake up and ... the thought was too awful to contemplate.

And then Hiccup realized that the awful scritch-scratch of the sleep-sharpening had stopped ... and that meant... that meant...

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"R-R-R-U-U-U-U-U-U-U-U-U-N!" shouted Hiccup.

[Image: A man.]

At exactly the same moment Fireworm shrieked, "D-E-S-E-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-T!"

"Let's get out of here," said Stoick the Vast. He and Gobber the Belch carried the box together. The Hooligans didn't need the order. They were already running as fast as they could towards the beach where the boats were....

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"Leave the box here, Father," panted Hiccup as he jogged along beside his father. "They'll go for the box, not us."

"NO WAY," said Stoick, his eyes still shining with that glow Hiccup hadn't seen before. "Think of Alvin's disappointment. Besides, this is my chance for GREATNESS," he huffed, knocking over a big tower of limpets as he blundered along.

"You are great ALREADY, Father," urged Hiccup, "you don't need this treasure. ..."

But Stoick wouldn't leave it behind.

As they passed the burrows Hiccup could begin to hear horrible snuffling noises coming from inside.

He ran a bit faster.

His heart pounding in terror, he bounded through the heather and crashed through the ferns, at one point falling flat on his face.

The smell was now so strong that it was becoming visible, drifting out of the dents and cracks Gobber had made in the chest in a thick greeny-yellow vapor.

The cliffs of the beach were in sight. They had passed the last mound of Skullions. Maybe they would make it after all.

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And then Hiccup heard a noise that made his stomach turn double-somersaults in terror. The noise of animals like big dogs or lions padding behind him, bounding through the heather.

"R-r-r-r-r-r-r-run!" shrieked Toothless, who was flying three or four feet above Hiccup's head.

Hiccup, Fishlegs, Stoick and Gobber were trailing behind the others, Hiccup and Fishlegs because they were not fast runners, Stoick and Gobber because they were hampered by the box they were carrying.

"So they'll get us first," thought Hiccup.

The Skullions were now so close behind them that they could hear the horrible snotty snuffling noises they were making in their noses and the clicking of their teeth.

Hiccup reached the brow of the dunes and launched himself off it in a huge jump onto the sand below. He landed okay but tripped over his too-large Stretchapoint sword. He rolled over onto his back to look up at the ghastly sight of a gigantic slobbering Skullion, claws outstretched, leaping right on top of him. Its great head was just inches above Hiccup's face.

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It was the most dreadful thing Hiccup had ever seen, and it would give him nightmares until he was an old, old man. It was a face that wasn't a face, no eyes and ears, just that vast nose and slobbering mouth, punctuated by sparkling silver teeth Black saliva dripped down onto Hiccup's face in a disgusting dribble. The Skullion was holding him down with one clawed paw, while he sniffed down the rest of his body, searching for the tendon in his ankles, the sunlight glinting on that one ludicrously overgrown talon....

Hiccup fumbled for his sword, but the Stretchapoint had fallen out of reach.

Hiccup opened his mouth to shout for help, but no noise came out.

"Help me," he mouthed soundlessly. "HELP ME."

Somebody appeared from nowhere, grabbed the Skullion around the throat and killed it with one blow from his sword.

It was Stoick the Vast.

The strange grip the treasure had on Stoick loosened as soon as he saw his son's life was in danger,

He left Baggybum the Beerbelly to carry the

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chest to the ship. He was holding the Stormblade in his right hand and an axe in his left.

"MOVE!!!" yelled Stoick the Vast.

Hiccup moved. He stumbled across the sand.

He could hear more of the creatures bounding after him.

"I'm not... going ... to ... make it... to the boats in time," he thought to himself.

There was a hollow tree trunk sunk into the sand in front of him.

"Climb under the t-t-tree! Climb under the tree!" screeched Toothless.

Hiccup scrambled under it in the nick of time. He could hear a Skullion's jaws clanging together just as he pulled his ankle through the dip in the sand below the tree.

The Skullion was too large to follow him but it pushed its revolting quivering nose through the gap and it started to gnaw at the wood around the hole.

Hiccup grabbed a bone lying on the ground and shoved it as hard as he could up one gigantic nostril.

The Skullion fell back with a howl of anguish.

There was a sickening crash from above as a Skullion landed on top of the tree ... and then

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another ... and another.... Hiccup could hear horrible scratchings as they worried away with their teeth, trying to break through the wood.

Way above that, Toothless was screaming continuously, "H-h-help! Help! H-H-H-H-HELP!"

Hiccup swiped at another nose appearing at the hole....

All around him at the edges of the tree trunk he could hear the scrabbling sound of creatures digging through the sand.

It was only a question of time before one of them broke through....

Through a crack at eye level Hiccup could see his father fighting his way towards him up the beach. His dragon hadn't deserted him. Noble Newtsbreath was recklessly tearing into the back of a Skullion three times larger than himself that was about to leap at Stoick.

C-R-U-N-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-CH

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A Skullion talon pierced the tree trunk, so close to Hiccup that it grazed his chest as it went through.

The head and shoulders of the Skullion appeared in the gaping hole the talon had made. It opened its jaws so wide Hiccup could see right down its black throat.

Hiccup screamed and fell backwards.

Just as the creature lunged forwards to kill him, Hiccup was grabbed around the ankle by one of Stoick's hairy hands, and pulled back through the hole he had climbed in.

Stoick dragged him out, and lifted him up.

"Put your arms up!" bellowed Stoick.

Newtsbreath, hovering overhead, took hold of Hiccup's arms with his talons and carried him up into the air. Toothless grabbed one leg, struggling to help.

Newtsbreath spread out his great wings to their fullest extent.

The Skullions chased after them as they flew, leaping up to bite at Hiccup like dogs after a tidbit. Newtsbreath groaned with the strain of trying to get enough height to keep Hiccup out of range of their mapping jaws.

Every now and then, the effort became too much

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for him, and to Hiccup's terror, he plunged suddenly downwards towards the beach. There was one very close call when Hiccup swung his body out of the way just in time as one of the monsters made a tremendous leap and nearly took his legs off at the knee.

By the time they got to the sea, Newtsbreath's strength had gone, and Hiccup's ankles were dragging in the water.

But they were safe.

Skullions cannot swim, and they loathe the water.

A few more beats of Newtsbreath's wings, and he dropped Hiccup sprawling the deck of the Lucky Thirteen. He then whirled round wearily, and flapped back to try and help his Master.

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Stoick was doing surprisingly well without his help, considering he was fighting a lone battle against increasing numbers of Skullions. Normally, this would have resulted in one dead Chief in about ten seconds flat. You have to remember that Stoick was forty and very, very fat.