They appeared, blinking like moles, into the daylight, for night had turned into morning while they were in the Hysterical Great Hall; the sky was no longer black but the blue-grey of a seagull's back, and the sun was coming up fast from behind the Mazy Multitudes.
Down below they could hear the roar of the Hysterics, the loudest of all being Norbert the Nutjob shouting, "MY VEGETABLE! THEY'VE GOT MY VEGETABLE!"
The Hysterics were already stampeding toward the door, in pursuit.
Hiccup knew they hadn't a hope of getting away on foot, and they didn't have time to find their skis again.
In such situations, being tough is not necessarily the way to stay alive, because however tough you are, if there are five hundred Hysterics on skis and only FOUR of you, you are not going to win the battle.
What you need in THIS kind of situation is a 191 Clever Idea, and luckily Hiccup was good at Clever Ideas.
Hiccup put the food tray down on the roof and sat on it.
"Come on, Camicazi, you sit behind me," ordered Hiccup.
"Oh, goody," said Camicazi, her eyes lighting up.
The roof of the Great Hall hung slightly over the village walls. From there a steep slope ran all the way down to the harbor.
[Image: A dragon.] So when the Hysterics poured out of the doors of the Great Hall in a shouting, angry river they had an excellent view of Camicazi and Hiccup tobogganing 192 down the roof and sailing over the walls of the village on board one of their silver food trays.
"AAAAIEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!" screamed Hiccup and Camicazi as they soared through the air.
By some miracle they landed the right way up on the slope below.
And then the lightning descent began.
Take it from me, there is nothing on earth that moves faster than two children going down a practically vertical slope on a highly polished silver food tray.
[Image: A man and a woman.] Hiccup had sledded before, but never on a hill so steep that it was practically a cliff. And in fact the exact 193 descent that they made has now become an annual competition on Hysteria. It is known as the Potato-Burglars' Run, and it follows the same route that Hiccup and Camicazi took, starting, as they did, on top of the roof of the Great Hall, and ending, less than two minutes later, in Hysteria Harbor.
The Potato-Burglars' Run is the most dangerous toboggan run in the Inner Isles, and for those brave enough to try it, accidents are common.
Hiccup and Camicazi were lucky not to break their necks. They screamed down that hillside, wildly out of control, yelling at the tops of their voices.
One Eye and Toothless couldn't possibly keep up with them, for it was like trying to catch a speeding arrow.
When they hit the ice of the harbor two bottom-bruising, hair-raising, eye-popping minutes later, they were going so fast that they wildly overshot the sleigh they had left there, and The Hopeful Puffin patiently waiting for their return.
They scrambled off the food tray and raced toward the sleigh. One Eye came soaring down, and they hurriedly hitched him up and set him going at a brisk trot toward the Harbor Exit.
"Oh my goodness," panted Camicazi, looking 194 back up at the Hysterical Village, where the Great Hall was now a gigantic bonfire. "Those Hysterics are going to be SO CROSS."
"My congratulations," growled One Eye to Hiccup, as he pulled them rapidly forward. "You are the first Human I have ever met who uses his brain and not just his museles."
"If he really use his b -b-brain," complained Toothless, catching up and collapsing, exhausted, on the seat of the sleigh, "we not h ere in. the first p-p-place."
In that very same instant, over the brow of the hill came the Hysterics.
They had put their helmets on and they were on skis, howling the Hysterical Howl like a pack of speeding wolves. They were already shooting arrows in their direction, trying to hit the sleigh. But they were too late. Once their skis hit the ice they traveled for a while, and then came to a halt. Hiccup and Camicazi were nearly at the Harbor Exit by now, and the arrows shot by the Hysterics fell harmlessly on the ice.
Looking over her shoulder at the furious Hysterics, Camicazi let out a whoop of joy as One Eye galloped out of Hysteria Harbor.
"We made it!" she yelled.
195 "We haven't made it yet" said Hiccup nervously. That sharp noise of cracking, like axes on a tree trunk, was even louder now that they were on the ice. And Hiccup was looking out for the Doomfang.
"Here's the Vegetable," said Camicazi, handing Hiccup the Frozen Potato with the arrow stuck in it. "And this other thing I found in the casket -- I'm sorry, I shouldn't have taken it as well, but once you start burgling, it's difficult to stop."
Hiccup took the Potato and the Other Thing, and stuffed them in his breast pocket, not really concentrating, for the great shadow of the Doomfang had appeared under the boat, and was following them under the ice.
"If we can just get to the Open Sea before the ice cracks we'll be all right," muttered Hiccup to himself. "The Doomfang won't leave the Wrath of Thor. The Doomfang hasn't left the Wrath of Thor in fifteen years ..."
The walls of the cliffs raced past them on either side. The Doomfang, dark and terrible, stretching out forever, swam slowly beneath them. And they reached the edge of the Open Sea without the ice cracking.
"You see!" grinned Camicazi. "We did it!"
196