How to Break a Dragon's Heart recap

When Camicazi disappears in a storm, Hiccup, Fishlegs and the two tribes join the search. The trail leads to the feared island of Berserk, where strangers are taken prisoner and old secrets have been turned into traps. Hiccup and Fishlegs become separated from their families, encounter a dangerous three-headed dragon called the Deadly Shadow and discover that Alvin the Treacherous is working with a powerful Witch. The enemies want to use Hiccup and the history surrounding him, while Camicazi remains in danger. The Deadly Shadow's story becomes part of Fishlegs's own: it once belonged to his mother, Termagant, who protected him when he was a baby. Hiccup and his friends escape, Camicazi is rescued, and Fishlegs leaves with the knowledge that his mother loved him and with the Deadly Shadow as a living link to her. Alvin and the Witch survive to threaten them again.

Previously: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III is the unlikely heir of the Hairy Hooligans, a small boy who can secretly speak Dragonese and repeatedly survives by understanding what other Vikings attack. His closest companions are Toothless, Fishlegs and Camicazi. In the last book the three children were swept out of an inter-tribal swimming race, crossed the western ocean and reached the land Viking maps said did not exist. A frightened Windwalker dragon repaid Hiccup's kindness by carrying him home through a great storm. Hiccup defeated his enemy Norbert and reached the race finish in time. Alvin the Treacherous, an enemy from earlier adventures, has never been safely accounted for.

A violent storm separates Camicazi from the others, and she does not return. Big-Boobied Bertha and Stoick lead their tribes in a search, while Hiccup and Fishlegs refuse to believe that their friend is simply lost. The trail points toward waters and islands that sensible Vikings avoid. Hiccup has the Windwalker as well as Toothless, but even a flying dragon cannot make the weather or the search safe. Finding Camicazi means continuing toward Berserk, a place surrounded by frightening stories and old hostility.

The search reaches Berserk, where the island's inhabitants treat newcomers as enemies and prisoners. Hiccup and Fishlegs are cut off from the safety of their tribes and must keep looking for Camicazi while trying to avoid capture themselves. They encounter the Deadly Shadow, a huge three-headed dragon with a fierce loyalty rooted in its past. It is too intelligent to be dismissed as a simple monster, and its unusual interest in Fishlegs suggests that the island holds more than the answer to Camicazi's disappearance.

Alvin the Treacherous is alive and has joined forces with a dangerous Witch. They have used the secrets and fears surrounding Berserk to draw Hiccup into a trap. Camicazi is caught in the same scheme, so escape cannot come at the cost of leaving her behind. The Witch knows old history that Hiccup does not, while the Deadly Shadow's behaviour begins to reveal a separate secret about Fishlegs. The dragon is connected to the parent Fishlegs never knew, and its loyalty may be the one advantage Alvin and the Witch did not plan for.

Hiccup and Fishlegs rescue Camicazi and break out of the trap on Berserk. The Deadly Shadow helps rather than hunts them because it recognises Fishlegs's connection to its former human companion. That companion was Termagant, Fishlegs's mother, who acted to protect him when he was a baby. Fishlegs learns that he was loved and gains the Deadly Shadow as a link to the family he lost. The three children escape and Camicazi returns to Big-Boobied Bertha. Alvin and the Witch are not permanently defeated, and the old knowledge they possess remains dangerous, but they fail to take Hiccup or destroy his friendship with the others.

Hiccup and Fishlegs find Camicazi and escape the dangers of Berserk with her. Alvin and the Witch's trap does not give them control of Hiccup, although both enemies remain part of the larger threat around him. The journey also answers a question Fishlegs has carried all his life. The three-headed Deadly Shadow was bound to his mother, Termagant, and its recognition of Fishlegs preserves the link between them after her death. Fishlegs cannot recover the family he lost as a baby, but he learns that he was loved and protected rather than simply abandoned. The Deadly Shadow accepts him and leaves with the children. Camicazi returns to her mother and tribe, while Hiccup comes home with both friends alive. The old history uncovered on Berserk leaves Hiccup with more reason to distrust Alvin and the Witch and with a clearer sense that their plans reach into the past of the archipelago.