How to Be a Pirate



This book, the sequel to How to Train Your Dragon, begins with Hiccup and Fishlegs finding a coffin out at sea. When they open the coffin, they find that it contains Alvin the Treacherous who will become Hiccup's worst enemy. Alvin tells the Hairy Hooligans a riddle that shows where to find the treasure of Grimbeard the Ghastly, the worlds greatest pirate and Hiccup's great-great grandfather.

The Hairy Hooligans go to the island mentioned in the riddle, the island of the Skullions, and find a small chest filled with treasure. However, Grimbeard the Ghastly has booby-trapped the chest with a smell that will wake up all of the Skullions, huge earless, eyeless dragons with an unusually keen sense of smell. Hiccup is nearly killed by a Skullion, but is saved by his father, Stoick the Vast. Hooligans and Alvin the Treacherous run to the ship with the treasure and begin fighting over the loot. As they fight, their ship is boarded by cannibalistic Vikings, and the ship sinks. Everyone jumps ship except for Hiccup, Fishlegs, Alvinthe Treacherous and Toothless.

The ship sinks to the bottom of the sea, and they all escape into an underwater cavern filled with air. Toothless finds a door that opens into a cavern full of gold and jewels, and Alvin tries to kill Hiccup to keep him from taking any treasure. Fortunately, in the middle of the battle, Alvin steps on a pile of treaure that rears up and grabs him. Hiccup realizes that there is enormous Mounstrous Strangulator, an octopus-like dragon creature, in the cave. Alvin is quickly eaten, but Hiccup tricks the Mounstrous Strangulator into poisoning itself. They escape the cave, and Hiccup decides that the world isn't ready for the treasure. Hiccup and Fishlegs soon surface with Toothless's help, and they all return safely to the village.