How to Twist a Dragon's Tale recap

During a dangerously hot season, Hiccup discovers that fire dragons and the volcanoes beneath the Viking islands are becoming a threat. The famous hero Humungously Hotshot appears and is given the job of guarding him, seeming to be everything a Viking champion should be. Hiccup, Fishlegs and Camicazi learn that the danger is larger than a few dragon attacks: an eruption could destroy whole communities. Their efforts bring them into conflict with Exterminator dragons and carry them into the volcanic disaster itself. Hiccup survives by understanding the dragons and thinking past the obvious answers. Humungous, meanwhile, has to face Tantrum O'Ugerly, the woman he left behind years ago. The islands survive the eruption, and Humungous finally returns to Tantrum rather than fleeing his old promise again.

Previously: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, the undersized heir of the Hairy Hooligans, has repeatedly saved people who expected very little from him. He has a tiny and disobedient dragon called Toothless and a secret gift for speaking Dragonese. His closest friends are the anxious Fishlegs and Camicazi, a fearless young Bog-Burglar. Hiccup has survived Roman captivity, the treachery of Alvin, and a winter voyage to steal the only potato that could cure Fishlegs of Vorpentitis. That last journey made an enemy of Norbert the Nutjob. Hiccup is still a poor fighter by Viking standards, but experience has shown that patience, languages and careful plans can do what axes cannot.

An unusually fierce hot season has made ordinary Viking training more dangerous than ever. Hiccup encounters signs that the heat is not merely bad weather: fire dragons are moving, and creatures able to live around volcanoes are appearing where they should not. His warnings receive the usual doubtful response. The arrival of Humungously Hotshot changes the balance. Humungous is a famous hero of exactly the sort Hiccup is always told to become, and his strength makes him an impressive protector. Even so, Hiccup remains troubled by the pattern behind the dragon attacks and begins looking for the danger that everyone else is missing.

Hiccup, Fishlegs and Camicazi follow the evidence toward the volcanic islands. Exterminator dragons make the journey deadly, but the larger threat is the land itself: pressure and heat are building toward an eruption. Humungously Hotshot can defeat enemies in a fight, yet his past catches up with him when the group meets the Uglithugs. Their chief, UG, has not forgotten him, and neither has UG's daughter Tantrum O'Ugerly. Humungous once left Tantrum waiting for him, so the great hero's unfinished promise becomes part of the present crisis.

The volcano begins to turn Hiccup's warnings into fact. Fire dragons, smoke and molten rock leave no safe route that can be won by force. Hiccup has to rely on Dragonese, Toothless and the help of his friends while the adults struggle to protect their tribes. Humungous is forced to choose whether to keep behaving like a wandering legend or accept responsibility for the people he left behind. The group presses on through the eruption because escaping for themselves is not enough; the islands and everyone living on them remain in danger.

Hiccup, Toothless, Fishlegs and Camicazi make it through the volcanic disaster and help prevent the fire dragons and eruption from destroying the island communities. The solution depends less on fighting than on Hiccup's willingness to understand the creatures around him and act while the larger Vikings are still arguing. Humungously Hotshot also stops running from his own unfinished story. He faces Tantrum O'Ugerly, makes peace with her and returns to the future he abandoned. Berk survives, and Hiccup comes home still small and still unlike the conventional hero his tribe imagines, but once again responsible for saving people who underestimated him.

Hiccup's warnings prove justified: the volcanic crisis is real, and the fire dragons turn the islands into a place where strength alone is no protection. Hiccup, Toothless, Fishlegs and Camicazi survive the eruption, and Hiccup's ability to understand dragons helps him find a way through a disaster that the adults cannot simply fight. Humungously Hotshot also faces the promise he abandoned years before. He returns to Tantrum O'Ugerly instead of running from his past again, and the two are reconciled. Berk and its people survive, although the adventure leaves more evidence that Hiccup's quiet sort of heroism is the kind the archipelago actually needs. He remains Stoick's unlikely heir, with Toothless beside him and with most of the tribe still unaware of how important his Dragonese has become.