14 Camicazi’s Escape Plans

14. CAMICAZI'S ESCAPE PLANS For the next week Hiccup sat by the barred window looking out for his father's War Party. Toothless came and sat on Hiccup's head. This was a familiar ritual to both of them, as it was Toothless's usual seat when Hiccup was dragonwatching at the Wild Dragon Cliff. Hiccup would draw and write in his Dragonese book, while Toothless perched on his head, one eye shut, the other half open, watching out for careless rabbits or small mice that he could catch. They could sit there for hours in

happy, companionable silence. Now they sat looking out the window, searching, searching, for the boats that were not there. They were being held in a barred tower room high in the air. The one good thing about being held prisoner was that they didn't have to go outside. Because outside it was raining. Not your ordinary, average kind of spitty little rain, but rain such as you only really get in the Barbaric Archipelago, one

of the wettest places on this good green earth. For the whole week it rained as if the sky above was one big endless bucket of water, pouring down without stopping on the poor souls beneath. The Romans are excellent travellers, but they are not used to this kind of weather. Nobody is. Hiccup watched with interest from his tower window high above as the soldiers' training grounds turned into one big puddly mess of black mud. The Consul's heated swimming baths overflowed into the horses' exercise yards. The kitchens were knee deep in water. Even the Tower itself seemed to sink a few centimetres as its foundations softened and oozed. The one good thing about the rain was that it silenced the screeching dragons being held prisoner in the giant cages down below. Dragons tend to sleep through rain. Their skin is waterproof, so they put up

their wings like umbrellas, and sleep underneath them. Inside the Tower room, although it was bare, it was at least dry. The young Vikings were allowed to keep their swords and shields to practise for their appearance in the arena on Saturn's day Saturday. A soldier brought them food every day. There was lots of it, although it was all a bit too rich for Hiccup's liking. Pig stuffed with dormice stuffed with baby frogs carbonara and oysters fried in cream is a bit of an acquired taste. They all refused to eat it when it was fried dragon pie or Common-or-Gardens in batter. Toothless hardly ate at all. Hiccup tried to persuade him but Toothless put his nose up. 'Roman f-f-food YUCKY,' he said. 'Too much g- g-garlic. Want some good f-f-fish. Want mackerel.' Camicazi carried on with her escape plans. They were all completely crazy. For the first one she persuaded Hiccup and Fishlegs to help her knit their waistcoats into two ropes and she attached one end of a rope to a fish head and the other to one of the bars in the window. She then spent three nights in a row throwing the fish head out the window, hoping for a passing dragon to catch it. Finally her patience was rewarded when it

was snapped up by a hungry Gronckle who flew off with it, the rope pulling out the bar in the window before it snapped. Camicazi squirmed out the window and down the rope, which dangled twenty metres above the ground. She held on for as long as she could, but eventually had to let go, and landed on a fat soldier playing dice under an umbrella with a dozen fellow soldiers below. They were then moved to another, supposedly more secure, cell on the ground floor.

Camicazi wasn't about to give up with this little setback, though. She spent four days tunnelling her way out of their new prison with Hiccup's helmet. Unfortunately the tunnel came out right slap bang in the middle of the Consul's bathroom. A naked Fat Consul screeched for reinforcements and they were moved back to the Tower room again, where the window had been repaired.