16 The Dead-of-Night Ceremony

16. THE DEAD-OF-NIGHT CEREMONY Hiccup and Camicazi followed the trail of winkles back through the maze of rope bridges, running as fast as they dared, with Toothless following at a slightly more leisurely pace as he ate up the winkles they left behind. There was a slightly unnerving moment when Hiccup's foot went through the rotten wood of a plank on the bridge. But all was well. And as they drew nearer and nearer to the Berserk Village, Hiccup's hopeful mood changed. They were very very close to the start of the Ceremony. The Full Moon was shining bright and expectant, the tree-dragons were chattering again, and even the bees, which had grown sleepy and quiet over the last couple of hours, were humming with a new urgency and excitement, as if something was about to happen. 'Quick, quick!' shouted Hiccup to Camicazi. 'We can still just make it…' Surely they would get there in time? Now that everything was so very nearly all right… But when Hiccup and Camicazi, gasping and panting, tattered and torn, finally reached the rope

bridge that would carry them across to the tree village of Berserk, the Scarers erupted in a cacophony of noise. 'Awake! Awake! It's Dead-of-Night! It's Dead-of- Night!' Just five minutes earlier, Hiccup could have unlocked every single one of those cages, and they could have slipped away into the darkness. But now there was no time. Hiccup threw himself across the last of the rope bridges and skidded across the mossy tree platform to the cages, where Humungously Hotshot and the Fiancés and Fishlegs were already awake. 1st Fiancé: 'Look! It's the latest Fiancé! He appears to be coming back!' 3rd Fiancé: 'You're going the wrong way, boy! Those nutters are waking up. Make off while you still can!' 1st Fiancé: 'YOU BETCHA!' 3rd Fiancé: 'TOO RIGHT…' 9th Fiancé: 'YESSIREE!' 'What are you doing, Hiccup? Turn back!' shouted out Humungously Hotshot. 'Unless, of course, you have a Plan…' urged Fishlegs from somewhere inside a cage so beset with

Scarers that it seemed like the cage was alive and covered with pale grey fur. 'A REALLY REALLY REALLY clever plan…' Hiccup could see the torches were already being lit inside the tree-houses. Cries of 'UP THERE, HO!' and clanking of chains, and a leg and arm emerging from a door. No time to free any of them. 'Camicazi! Go back home now!' shouted Hiccup. 'And miss all the fun? Who do you think you're giving orders to?' retorted Camicazi hotly. 'Go home yourself!' 'OK, climb a tree or something,' said Hiccup. 'Watchadoing? W-w-watchadoing?' squeaked Toothless in alarm. 'You're going the wrong w-w- way!' as Camicazi shimmied up the nearest tree with the agility of a cat and Hiccup jumped back IN to his own cage, and desperately re-locked the lock with the special key. And as Hiccup flung the animal skins over his head, and began to do himself up in the chains again, Toothless flapped around his head in a frenzy of alarm and anxiety. 'You're s'posed to be e-e-escaping! This not escaping! Escaping is when you get OUT of things! Not INTO things!'

It was only in the nick of time, for the Berserks were up and yawning, and a particularly large, fat one so covered in chains he could barely walk gave a toot on a curly-wurly bugle three foot long and shouted out: 'LET THE DEAD-OF-NIGHT CEREMONY… BEGIN!!' The Berserk Treetop Village was built around a clearing in the forest. An entire circle of bridges surrounded the clearing, forming a sort of tree amphitheatre, so that everybody could get a good view of the Ceremony. Clattering and chattering, the Berserks made their way to their places on the rope bridges in their hundreds. 'PREPARE THE FIANCéS!' yelled the Chief Berserk, and step, TAP, step, TAP, step TAP, clank clank– Alvin the Treacherous approached the cages. At this point, Hiccup had the great satisfaction of sitting bolt upright, swaddled in his chains like a little metal mummy. 'AAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!' screeched Alvin the Treacherous, leaping backwards as if someone had bit him. His eye popped. 'WHAT… how did you… when did you… you're supposed to be… what are YOU doing here???'

Hiccup yawned. 'Well, I'm hanging around waiting to be killed in some spooky Dead-of-Night Ceremony of yours, of course,' he replied. 'What did you expect me to be doing? Playing chess? Looking for birds' eggs? Practising my breaststroke? There's not a lot I CAN be doing, is there, when I'm chained up inside this cage.' 'But… but… but… but….' stammered Alvin the Treacherous, staring at Hiccup as if he had seen a ghost. 'HURRY UP, ALPHONSE! BRING ON THE FIRST VICTIM!' yelled the Chief Berserk. The drumming began, the same drumming that Hiccup had heard from a distance on the Beach of the Broken Heart. It seemed a lifetime ago. The entire Berserk Tribe had turned out to watch the Ceremony. They lined the bridges of the walkways, shaking their chains in excitement, howling up at the sky and generally making a tremendous racket. They were already beginning to lose themselves in a Berserker rage, and one or two of them lost it entirely in their excitement, and leapt over the edge of the bridge into the depths below. They began to stamp in unison on the rope bridges, chanting:

DEAD-OF-NIGHT! DEAD-OF NIGHT! DEAD-OF NIGHT! in time to the drumming. And then louder, 'Dead-of- Night! Dead-of-Night! Dead-of-Night!' And then louder still, 'DEAD-OF-NIGHT! FEED THE BEAST! DEAD OF-NIGHT! FEED THE BEAST!' they screamed. It wasn't the noise of the Berserkers that was so frightening, though. It was the low grumble of noise that was coming