22 The Children are Found

22. THE CHILDREN ARE FOUND Stoick the Vast hadn't slept much the previous night, for he was worrying about his son Hiccup, who had not come home. At first light, a search party set out, and quickly found Fishlegs's note, and so they were already halfway to Berserk when they saw the island was on fire. 'FIRE! FIRE! BERSERK IS ON FIRE!' By the time the Hooligan search party reached the island, most of the Berserks had already escaped, in ships headed who knows where? Some prisoners were still trapped at the very tops of the trees, and had taken off shirts or trousers, and were waving them above their heads to make themselves visible to their rescuers. Soon the scene was one of shouting chaos, with the rescuers trying to spot the trapped Vikings through the smoke, and shouting orders to one another– 'I've found one here!' or 'There's two more down in that tree there!'– before flying down to safety. 'What an EXCELLENT bonfire,' smiled Snotface Snotlout, when he arrived at the scene of the

conflagration. 'I suppose it's too much to hope that the Useless was in the middle of it, and burnt himself down to a little Useless crisp?' It was too much for Snotlout to hope for. To Stoick's intense relief, right at the back of the beach was a semi-circle of Fiancés, blackened and weary, and in the middle of the semi-circle were Fishlegs, Camicazi, Hiccup and Humungously Hotshot the Hero. 'Humungous!' bellowed Stoick, for once deeply relieved to see the irritatingly perfect Hero. 'You saved my son's life AGAIN!' 'No,' said Humungous, putting his hand on Hiccup's shoulder. 'This time, he saved mine…' 'And we completed the Impossible Task!' said Fishlegs, proudly opening his lobster pot and pointing to five full pots of honey inside. 'And I've found eleven other people who actually WANT to marry Princess Tantrum,' said Hiccup, pointing at the Fiancés. Fishlegs looked at his lobster pot full of honey. And then he gave the lobster pot to Humungously Hotshot. 'Are you sure?' said Humungous. 'Yes,' said Fishlegs. 'The Fiancé-Before-the

Fiancé-Before-Last was who she really loved.' The other Fiancés found that their love for Tantrum O'UGerly had rather dwindled after their experiences on the island of Berserk. So in their case, it can't have been True Love, after all. 1st Fiancé: 'And we will stand beside you,

Humungous, when you go to claim your bride! I feel like a bit of a set-to with that UG the UGerly!' 'Ooh,' Camicazi said, swishing her sword. 'Me too! Yippee, I can't WAIT to spill some Uglithug blood.' 'No way,' said Stoick firmly. 'I am taking you back to your mother.' 'Whose Chief do you think you are?' howled Camicazi in disappointment. But Stoick would not give way. Looking for Camicazi was what got them in this mess in the first place and he wasn't going to take the risk of her getting lost again. 'Don't worry, we will rescue your Stormfly for you,' said Humungous. 'Word of a Hero.' 'You may need this,' said Hiccup. And he fished around his pocket, and took something out, and gave it to Humungous. It was a key. The key that opens all locks that Toothless swallowed in Hysteria.