Lois Letchford reads chapters 16 and 17 of Cressida Cowell's How to Train Your Dragon. The Green Death dragon throws Hiccup into its mouth, where he hangs from a spear inside the creature's throat, surrounded by acidic digestive juices and the sound of its internal fire-holes, facing certain death.
Chapters
Chapter 16, The Fiendishly Clever Plan Goes Wrong. Hiccup had been listening for the Green Death's death song, but he wasn't singing it yet. The Green Death was dying, but he wasn't dead yet. What he was was very Very angry indeed. Out of his bleeding mouth he hissed weakly, Where is he? Then he heaved himself onto his feet and hissed a little more strongly, Where is he? Where is the little supper? I knew I recognised him. He was my doom. No wonder, the little supper. has made a supper of me! The Green Death himself! As the dragon spoke, he was inching forward very slowly and painfully, his eyes fixed on the clifftop where he could see little human beings beginning to run inland again. The dragon threw back his head and screamed, a blood-chilling scream of pure, horrid revenge. Dark and torturous. I'll supper him before I go, I will! said the dragon, and he leapt forward. Run! shouted Hiccup, but everybody was already running as fast as they could. In the distance, Hiccup could see 400 warriors from the tribes of Hooligan and Metod coming towards them from the highest point. They must have been wondering at the boys' absence and come out to find them. But they won't get here in time, thought Hiccup. And even if they do, what can they do? Just then the dragon landed with a crash on the clifftop, and suddenly the sun was blotted out. 20 boys ran towards the shelter of the ferns. The dragon picked up the nearest with one claw and turned him over. It was dog's breath by the time the dragon had tossed him aside, muttering, Not you! The other boys had disappeared into the bracken. The dragon was sick, but he laughed weakly. You're not safe there, oh no! For though I can't see you to kill you, I can use my fire! And the bracken caught fire with the dragon's first breath, and the boys ran out of it as fast as they could. Pick Up stayed a little longer because he knew The dragon was waiting for him. Finally, the heat became unbearable and he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and ran out into the open. He had run hardly 100 yards before 2 of the dragon's talons closed around his middle and he was lifted up, way, way up, so the other boys looked like little specks beneath him. The dragon held Hiccup In front of him. We are both supper now, little supper, he said, and he tossed Hiccup high, high into the air. As Hiccup somersaulted for the second time, he thought to himself, now this really is the worst moment of my life. Then he was falling. He looked down. There was a dragon's mouth. Wide open like a great black carnivorous tunnel. He was going to fall into it. Chapter 17, In the Mouth of the Dragon. Hiccup fell into the dragon's mouth, then its teeth snapped shut behind him like Prison doors. He was falling through complete darkness, surrounded by a smell so awful it was suffocating. He jerked to a sudden halt as the back of the shirt caught on something and held. Hiccup hung there in the darkness, swaying gently. By a thousand-to-one chance, his shirt had caught on a spear still stuck in the dragon's throat. Since his Roman banquet. Hiccup's foot brushed against the wall of what he presumed was the dragon's throat. The dragon's digestive juices stung like acid, and he snatched his foot away. Above him, Hiccup could hear the dragon's great tongue slotting and lunging about his mouth, trying to find Hiccup so he could crunch him to death. He hadn't intended to swallow him whole. A disgusting river of green goo dripped down the puffy red insides of the dragon's throat. Just across from where Hiccup was hanging, a greeny-yellow stream was still puffing out of 2 small holes in a slimy wall. Every now and then, a small explosion Sent little flickers of flame shooting out of the holes. How interesting, thought Hiccup, who was strangely calm because he couldn't quite believe that this was really happening. Those must be where the fire comes from. Viking biologists had wondered for years where the fire that dragons breathed came from. Some said the lungs, others the stomach. Hiccup was the first to discover the fireholes, which are too small to see with the naked eye in a normal-sized dragon. Way down below him, Hiccup could hear the distant rumbling of singing from the dragon's previous meal. A Sea Dragonus Giganticus obviously takes a long time to digest, thought Hiccup. It was indeed still going strong. Humans can be bland, but if you have some salt to hand, one a little bit of brine will make them taste divine. The spear was gradually bending over with Hiccup's It was only a matter of time before it broke and he fell to join the breezy optimism in the stomach below. What was worse, the fumes and the heat and the smell were starting to confuse Hiccup so that he no longer really cared. The terrible noise of the dragon's heart beating, had entered into Hiccup's chest and forced his own heart to follow the same rhythm. A dragon has to live, after all, he found himself thinking. And then he remembered the dragon's words to him as he stood on the clifftop. You'll find that you come around to my point of view once you're inside of me. Oh no, thought Hiccup. Dragon's Digestion! It's already working! I need to live! I need to live! He repeated to himself over and over again, trying desperately to block out the dragon's thoughts. There was a horrible creaking noise as the stout Roman spear began to split into 2.
