Despite how secure they were, the Révélation was, first and foremost, a research layer.
Amber the Light Fury learned of this when she studied its structure. The Révélation was incredibly advanced. From identification, communication, analysis and research, they used crystals for everything.
The place was incredibly secure. Everyone was required to have Identification Crystal before entering. Guards would often patrol around the place, making sure no one tried anything funny while being so close to the layer.
It was impossible to sneak into the place, let alone getting out.
When Amber planned the operation last year at Dragon Island, Toothless said it was possible to enter the place. While Révélation was incredibly secure, it was vulnerable in different way. They were also sloppy when handling their own infrastructure.
After few months of investigation, Amber was inclined to believe her.
For example, there were communication crystals in patrol outposts just outside the layer. Amber found an abandoned outpost with a fully functional communication crystal, but she needed Identification Crystal to communicate with it.
They were supposed to destroy the crystal, not left them there for anyone to try.
Toothless told her that Identification Crystal was a special kind of Stone Book crystal. It had her mana sample, authority level and a blob of not-so-random text called Cypher Key. Every inhabitants were required to have them to wander inside.
Acquiring one was not that difficult. The Révélation layer took researchers from different layers under Wodensfang. They usually wiped the background of their permanent employees for their own safety. It was common to see dragons thought dead inside the Révélation.
Funny enough, their travel policy contradicted this. Amber saw some dragon researchers going back to their home layer. Some would fly incredibly far from Révélation. They did not really care if anyone saw them or not.
What was the point of erasing their background if they were going to go back anyway?
Regardless, it was a flaw that Amber managed to exploit. She followed a Light Fury dragon scientist to a different layer. When he went to a brothel nest, she used her reputation to catch him as a client. After thoroughly draining her client, she duplicated his Identification Crystal for herself.
It took her five minutes to get the crystal.
After getting one, Amber worked on altering the Identification Crystal. It was easy enough. She simply altered the mana sample and authority level. There was nothing special in those two things.
However, the Cypher Key was tricky. According to Toothless, the key was unique to every dragon. She would have to get her own blob of text from Révélation.
Thankfully, she had a plan for this.
Specifically, Toothless came up with this idea for her. Using her Identification Crystal and Toothless' mana sample, she created something that she never knew existed until her best friend taught her.
Trojan Crystal.
It was a type of malicious crystal that Toothless came up with. The name came from an old human literature about the Greeks. It was said that they used a wooden horse to enter the city of Troy and win the Trojan War.
They did this by putting soldiers inside and gifted the horse to the inhabitants as part of their 'surrender'. After the Greeks left, the Troy inhabitants brought them inside as a victory trophy. Later that night, the hidden soldiers crept out of the horse and opened the city gate, allowing the rest of Greek army to enter the city.
At least, according to Toothless. Amber wondered how humans came up with that.
Regardless, the crystal was similar in its idea. It would piggyback another crystal and remain dormant until certain condition was fulfilled. When activated, it will run commands through the crystal it sponged itself to.
Toothless had provided her with the conditions and commands. It used some sort of 'Logic Overflow' vulnerability that Amber barely understood. She just have to trust that it would work.
She regretted not learning Crystallography with Toothless.
After making the Trojan Crystal, Amber followed another dragon scientist from Révélation. She followed him to a gambling nest. The nest policy requires clients to deposit all their crystals to prevent cheating.
That was lucky for her.
From there, she simply bribed the nest organisers. After promising not to steal anything, she gained access to the deposit. She injected the malicious crystal into their Identification Crystal. When it left no trace on the crystal, Amber knew she had succeeded.
It would take some time until the dragon scientist return to Révélation. Toothless recommended waiting for a month to avoid suspicion in case they caught the malicious crystal. Amber opted to wait much longer than that.
The last thing she needed was getting caught before even getting inside.
Couple months later, Amber visited the abandoned outpost to try the communication crystal. Instead of outright rejecting her, the crystal overwrite the Identification Crystal in her mana pool. It gave her a new Cypher Key to use.
After that, she was able to communicate with everyone connected to it. She was granted access to everything, except for things reserved to the arch alpha.
The plan worked. She was ready to enter.
The white-scaled dragoness was flying alone in a large, empty chamber. There were giant crystals on top and bottom, illuminating her path. She was deep inside Hidden World, travelling to the Révélation through a flightway. It was the front main entrance of the layer.
Eventually, Amber reached her destination. There was a crystal cave entrance with large clearing, guarded by five unknown dragons in different spot. There was no one else at the entrance.
The Light Fury carefully adjusted her flight, before landing at the centre. She took a breath, before walking to the entrance.
Two dragons moved to stand in front of the entrance. "Halt."
The Light Fury stopped. She inspected the dragons in front of her. They were large, long-snout, quadruped dark grey dragons with horns and backward spikes along their spine.
They had claws on their wings and its tip, and pair of straight horns on their head. Interestingly, their forelegs seemed to have thumb-like structure.
Amber noted that the guards were the same species. She sat on her hindlegs, before showing her right paw. Concentrating, the white-scaled dragoness formed a tiny bluish-white flame on her claw.
It was a common way to show her mana signature without handing any sample.
"Elisabeth Amber. Light Fury." The white dragon identified herself. "Level 4 Psychology Researcher."
There was a pause as the guards inspected her appearance. Their underwing briefly shimmered as they cast some spells. Amber hid her nerve as she felt something. It was non-intrusive, but she did not know what spells they used.
Eventually, one dragon near the entrance touched a white crystal. It shimmered for a moment, before changing to green. The others relaxed upon seeing that colour.
"Elisabeth Amber." The guard dragon started as they moved aside. "Everything looks good. Welcome back, Miss Amber."
Amber felt relief. She stopped concentrating; vanishing the flame. The white dragoness stood from the ground, before walking through the entrance. She was finally inside the Révélation.
The Révélation was a massive place.
It was an enormously bright cavern, illuminated by white crystals from above. There were large makeshift mountains with colourful crystals and giant holes on them. Those were the nests and roosts of the layer.
Other than that, the ground had all sorts of giant mushrooms. There were massive oyster mushrooms at the walls; huge coral mushrooms on the ground; and giant bracket fungi that looked like trees. There were bright crystals poking out from the ground, presumably there to illuminate the place.
There were thousands of dragons all around the place. Some perched at the mushrooms, but most were flying to reach their destination. There were even dragons crowding around a bracket fungi full of wooden signs.
The Light Fury was not sure where to start. It was easy to remember the name of the place, but finding that place was a whole another matter. Amber had to reach the Record Chamber. It was where they kept information about Révélation staff members.
Thankfully, she did not have to navigate that much. The wooden signs were actually navigation signpost. The Record Chamber was located inside the Dragon Resource nest. After getting rough direction on where it was, the Light Fury went off to reach the nest.
'This reminds me of my uni days.' Amber thought as she flew closer to the nest. The Light Fury was heading for the main entrance of the nest. 'Bring in coffee stands, public fish reserve, sleep deprived dragons, and that's basically Lomia.'
Flying into the main entrance, she entered a massive room full of beryl-like green crystals. Landing inside the room, Amber noted some dragons there. She also noted two dragons arguing with each other in front of the broken crystal.
The white dragoness approached a green crystal shard. She carefully pressed her right paw onto the crystal. It was already powered with mana, meaning she only need to connect her circuit to it.
Amber saw illusory transparent screen appeared from the crystal. It showed her identity. Dismissing that, she opened the employee records. It revealed that there were millions living inside Révélation.
She sat on her hindlegs as she prepare for the long, arduous, bureaucratic search.
'Dragons in Révélation relied too much on Logic Crystals.' Amber thought as she stared at the long list of employees. 'This makes their life easier when processing information. At the same time, it makes them vulnerable from the inside.'
Amber could use the search function, but Toothless advised against using it. She had to do it manually. Thankfully, the records were sorted by mana signature. It was a matter of comparing them with Charcoal's mana signature to find the record.
Because of how many records there were, it took her ten minutes to find them.
Unfortunately, the record was blank. The crystal indicated that it was redacted. Amber realised she need 5th level authority to access them. It was impossible to get that authority level without alerting everyone, because it was reserved for the arch alpha.
In this case, Arch Alpha Wodensfang.
'If I can find the crystal that stored the record, I might be able to directly see them.' The Light Fury thought as she severed the connection. The illusory transparent screen disappeared. 'The question is; where can I find them?'
Looking around, she noticed a cave path around the corner. It was relatively small; dragons could not fly through that. She wondered where that path would lead to.
"Parlez-vous norrois?!"
Amber turned her attention to see the argument getting intense. There were guard dragons this time. The first one, an unknown male green quadruped dragon, was snarling at the other. "Comment allez-vous ici si vous ne connaissez pas le norrois?! Les instructions sont en norrois!"
The second dragon, a young unknown male green quadruped dragon, was cowering under his glare. "Je ne sais pas! Je suis stagiaire!"
"Come on, Armel." One of the guard dragons stood between them. He was facing the older one. "He's just an intern. This is his first day."
"He only speaks Dragonese-French. He doesn't even know how to read Norse!" The older green dragon expressed his frustration. "How is he supposed to fix this when he can't even read the manual? We don't have any French translation for this one! What were they thinking?!"
Using distraction to her advantage, Amber sneaked to check the cave path. The hole was large enough for medium-sized dragon like her. It was leading to somewhere. Taking the risk, the white dragoness carefully walked into the path.
The cave path led to a massive crystal cavern.
It was full of bright orange, prismatic-shaped crystals, as far as eyes could see. Some were glowing, others looked dormant, and their intensity changed every now and then. The crystals were stacked up together at different heights, with some forming mountains.
There was no one there. Amber recognised them as massive cluster of Storage Crystals.
Amber had seen Storage Crystal cluster before. They were used to store information for Logic Crystals connected to it. Storage Crystal was used because it was reliable for other crystals when compared to Book Stone.
However, she had never seen a cluster this massive.
Taking off into the air, Amber could not help but wonder. 'How many dragons they used to maintain this place? Five thousand dragons? How does the network look like? What about other nests?'
Regardless, she had a work to do.
Searching around the place, Amber spotted a small beryl-like greenish crystal shard on top of a crystal mountain. The white dragoness landed there. She searched around for possible trap that could trigger the alarm.
Seeing none, she approached the Logic Crystal. Amber placed her paw and connected her circuit to it. Just like before, an illusory transparent screen appeared from the crystal. It showed a long list of Révélation staff members.
There was no identity check whatsoever.
It was a direct access to the records. The Light Fury was amazed by this gross negligence. 'How did I get here?' She wondered. 'Did they not know that there's a hole that leads to here?'
"... closing the maintenance hole now..."
Just then, Amber heard crackling crystals behind her. She looked back to check what it was. Far from where she was, the cave path had closed itself. The dragoness realised that the path was open due to maintenance.
It meant that she was trapped inside.
'Bugger. I need to find another way out.' Amber thought, before focusing back on her connection with the Logic Crystal. 'But first... find the record... got it.'
The Light Fury found what she was looking for. The identity of Charcoal's second circuit. The illusory screen showed a picture of a Night Fury with greenish yellow eyes. It had the name at the top.
Mimir
'What do we have here...' The Light Fury thought as she read the content.
According to the record, Mimir was former Head Researcher of HECATE research department. The department name was an acronym for Hagiology, Ergokinetic, Corrology, Alchemy, Technology and Exobiology.
'That's a very long name.' Amber thought. 'I don't even know half of that.'
The record stated that Mimir had been working in Révélation for hundreds of year. He was roughly 500-year-old when he went missing. He was last seen in Barbaric Archipelago about 200 years ago.
Révélation authorities had declared him 'presumed dead'.
Regardless, his background was interesting. Before joining Révélation, he was formerly Merciless' second-in-command. He served for about a decade under him, before being discharged with honour. There was nothing else before that.
'When did he serve under Merciless?' Amber thought. She scrolled to see the time frame. Her eyes widened. 'Three?! Who sent their dragon to serve under Merciless at three-year-old? He's barely an adult!'
Checking the family background, the Light Fury realised why.
Mimir was Furious' son. He was the only child of Furious, the current Greater Alpha of Barbaric Archipelago. His mother, Delia, died when he was 3-year-old. According to the report, she died shortly after escaping with her hatchling.
Amber was heartbroken to read the entry. 'I'm sure his mother was proud of him.'
The white dragoness ejected something from her mana pool. With bluish-white flame, a small dull greenish crystal plate appeared in her claws. She placed the Stone Book crystal on top of the beryl-like crystal.
After some time, they melded themselves together. Amber willed the crystal to duplicate all information about Mimir into the Stone Book crystal.
However, the illusory screen requested some sort of eight-digit number. The Light Fury was confused. She did not know the code. 'What could the password be? And why here of all places?'
Amber thought it was strange. The crystal interface had completely bypassed the authority requirement. There was no point in putting password on things already protected by authority level.
Unless it was done by arch alpha to prevent duplication.
'That means he was the one who set the password.' Amber realised. 'But what could it be? Maybe Toothless' hatchday? It was in 11th of September 1829.'
The Light Fury inputted the number and submitted it. The illusory screen flashed green, indicating that it was accepted. It had duplicated the information from Révélation into her Book Stone crystal.
'Her father did care, after all.' Amber thought as she absorbed the crystal plate into her mana pool. 'Or this is just his way to remember her hatchday.'
Amber detached her connection with the Logic Crystal-
BEEEEEEP!
Loud noise suddenly rang the place. The lights turned red; all crystals dimmed; the alarm had been triggered.
'Of course that would trigger the alarm.' Amber cursed herself. 'I forgot you had to sign out first.'
A point in the ceiling in front of her began to move. It slowly deployed a large crystal contraption. The contraption was a long hollow tube-shaped metal covered in dragon scales.
It looked familiar. Amber had seen them before in Greater Archipelago. It was a cannon. What she never seen before was the draconic appendages.
It was a draconic cannon.
The barrel swivelled and took aim at the Light Fury. Amber quickly jumped behind the hill. The draconic cannon fired.
There was a high-pitched bang as it shot a black reddish blast. It struck the place where the white dragoness had been before.
BOOM!
The explosion shook the ground. The cannon had hit the cluster, sending crystal shrapnel all over the place. Amber stayed down to avoid the raining shards. When it was over, she looked up to see more draconic cannons slowly deploying from the ceiling.
Amber knew her time was up. The white dragoness took off into the sky. She rushed to one of the deploying cannons, before squeezing herself between its mechanism. It was her only way out.
There was a rock cover at the top. Since it was part of the mechanism, that would crush her in between. The dragoness pushed through anyway. Amber kept climbing in hopes of getting out from the place.
Boom!
Thankfully, Amber went through before that happened. The descending rock cover had almost severed her tail. The Light Fury felt relief that it was over. 'That was close.'
After making sure that she was safe, the white dragoness continued her journey up to the top. Amber used the rough surface to climb up. It took her some time to actually reach the end.
There was a metal cover at the top. Pushing them over, she carefully crawled out from the hole. Feeling relief, she closed the metal cover behind her.
The dragoness arrived in a large, low-ceiling cavern. The surface was flat and there were metal covers in different places. The room was completely dark. Given the appearance, it must be the maintenance area.
'Everything was so perfect. I almost got away with it too.' Amber grumbled as she looked around. She was alone there. Her eyes could see the dark in black and white. 'Why do I always get caught near the end?'
There was a small Logic Crystal at the corner of the room. Next to that logic Crystal was a cave path blocked by sharp crystal spikes. Amber approached the blocked cave path before realising what it was. She slapped the crystal as she pulsed her mana.
The crystal spikes shrunk into the walls, allowing passage through the cave path. The path was very long; it looked almost endless. Amber rushed down the path, eager to get out from Révélation.
'There are three secret passage to get out from this place.' The Light Fury thought as she ran. 'The nearest one is at the top. It leads to the ocean at the surface!'
Amber eventually reached the end. Exiting the path, she entered a large cavern with small piles of crystals. There were dragons there, scrambling around to move the crystals around the pile.
The Light Fury ignored everything around her and continued running to the large cave path in front of her. No one stopped or even noticed her her; everyone was too busy moving the crystals. Amber made sure not to bump into anyone on her way out.
She managed to enter the large cave path. There were dragons running around as well. After some more running, Amber finally got out from the path.
Amber was relieved when she saw the sight of the cavern sky crystal. She was finally out from the nest.
"That's the intruder!"
The dragoness whipped her head. There were quadruped, grey-scaled dragons couple metres away from her. She had been standing right next to a guard post. The guard dragons were running towards her.
'Shite!' Amber thought, before taking off into the sky.
The guard dragons were chasing her. The Light Fury pushed herself to keep their distance. While flying, Amber searched for the path she was looking for. 'Where the fuck is that exit?!'
Eventually, the Light Fury saw what she was looking for. It was a small cave path around the illuminating crystals in the ceiling. Instead of heading there, Amber flew to the main front entrance.
'I need to get rid of the guards.' The Light Fury thought as searched for something to do. 'But how?!'
The guard dragons were coming closer. Amber narrowly avoided bolts of fire coming from behind. She retaliated by charging up her plasma blast, turned around and fired at the crowd of guard dragons.
BOOOOM!
The explosion struck the small group, forcing them to scramble. Amber quickly dove into ground level, before flying to opposite direction. She used the mushrooms to shroud her flight path. At the same time, she cast some spells to shroud her scent. The dragoness desperately hoped she actually lost them.
Fortunately, the guard dragons did lose her. Amber flew around the mushroom forest, avoiding clearing and obstacles. Glancing up, the Light Fury noted many guard dragons looking for her in the sky.
'I'm not going to make it through that.' Amber mentally grumbled. 'The other secret passage is safer. Toothless snuck in through that before. It leads to some place deeper in Hidden World.'
The Light Fury did not have much choice. She had to take the long route.
The dragoness adjusted her flight path. She hoped for uneventful escape from Révélation, but considering the situation, it was a bleak one.
The secret passage was a cave entrance mostly blocked by dirts and pebbles. It was hidden amongst the thick mushroom forest. When Amber reached the entrance, she had to squeeze herself to reach the other side.
When she reached the other side, the Light Fury took her time to look around. It was a massive clearing with rows of stacked dusty crates, some of which were already open. There were no crystals on sight. 'What is this place?'
Amber carefully walked down the area. There was a cave path at the far end of the room. The Light Fury navigated her way there. 'These crates looks to be made by humans.' She thought. 'This is ten layers deep in Hidden World. Why would they need them?'
The Light Fury stopped as she came across something. There were dark upright open crates next to her. She cast a spell to produce a floating point of light. She concentrated as the light floated close to the crate.
Those were wooden dress forms. Amber recognised them as human fashion thing. Half of them had no clothes, while the other had grey European formal suits. They were identical in appearance.
'Why would they need human clothes?' The Light Fury wondered. She slowly moved on, before stopping at the next row. There were wooden planks, wheels and ladders put on a pile. They looked discarded. 'Are those remains of a wooden box cart?'
"Hello."
Amber immediately turned around. She stared at a massive black claw, before looking up to see the newcomer. The point light revealed a massive Night Fury with deep acidic eyes. She could feel the sheer power radiating from him.
The white dragoness cowered and slowly backed away. She recognised who he was.
It was the Arch Alpha of Scandinavia and Nordic World.
Wodensfang.
"H- Hello." The Light Fury nervously replied.
The arch alpha was not amused. "Will you surrender yourself?"
Amber nervously nodded. Wodensfang simply nodded back. "Good."
The Light Fury felt her point light spell break. The arch alpha had dispelled them. Instead of her usual black and white vision, Amber saw nothing.
Then, she realised could not move her body. She had also lost her sense of smell, hearing and touch. The Light Fury panicked at the loss of her senses. The arch alpha did something to her, and she did not know what!
For the first time in her life, Amber felt true fear.
Meanwhile, at the village of Berk.
The 15-year-old Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third was busy at the forge. The boy was inspecting materials he obtained last year. They were sheet of shed scales from unknown dragon, and small part of Alatreon horn. There were also his books and journals on the table.
Hiccup was comparing the materials with descriptions on the books. They had no information on those materials. However, he was trying to find closest matches to their classification. The boy wanted to know what those materials could be used for.
It had been a year after his failed hunt. While his father considered this a success, since the deviant was dead, Hiccup was disheartened. His defeat against Alatreon revealed that he never stood a chance against intelligent dragon.
Despite this, Hiccup felt encouraged to overcome this obstacle. He was afraid of the Alatreon, but instead of doing nothing, the boy doubled down and furthered his training.
The boy practised with his weapons, drank more alchemic concoction, and did more dragonsmith experiments to become stronger. Hiccup accelerated his training to try and become strong enough against something like Alatreon.
In this case, the boy was searching for information about what the certain materials could be used for. It had yet revealed anything useful so far.
"Hmm..." Hiccup hummed as he read the papers. 'There's not much I can use for this quantity.'
According to his research, the Alatreon horn was good at converting types of elements. For example, almost all draconic weapon had their own element, such as his sword. It had dragon element, which was extremely effective against deviant dragons.
It could also convert different types of energy. The horn piece could turn heat energy into force and vice versa. Hiccup had some fun playing with the piece; he almost burned down the forge when he tried to power a furnace with it.
The horn piece was not useful in on itself. It was more useful when combined into different things, such as air-powered heater and alternative cannon propellant. Hiccup was still trying to learn how the piece did those things.
The horn piece also revealed that elements could be forged into draconic weapons. That was useful for his research. Instead of guessing the material combination, Hiccup learned how to pick the right ones for specific element.
'The material is too small for draconic weapon.' Hiccup thought as he read the large book. 'Then again, it's more useful for tools instead of weapon.'
However, the shed scales from unknown dragon was incredibly valuable. It could store incredible amount of energy, before releasing them at once. When combined with the Alatreon horn piece, Hiccup could heat a furnace within seconds.
'Maybe I need to experiment with something else other than heating the furnace.' The boy thought. 'Then again, I don't know any experiment that wouldn't burn down the forest.'
He did made something with them. Using tiny cut piece of the horn and couple inches of shed scales, Hiccup created a two-litre draconic kettle. Possibly the first of its kind.
The horn piece was used to collect energy from its surrounding, such as heat. The collected energy were stored in the shed scales. Both horn piece and shed scales then used the stored energy to maintain the temperature inside the kettle.
It was very useful for exploration.
'Convenience aside, it's an example of what the combination could be used for.' Hiccup thought. 'No other dragon moults to have this kind of power. At least not in my stash. It's interesting how powerful dragon moult could make for powerful effects.'
There were still plenty of materials left to make something with it. Hiccup could make draconic weapons with that combination. However, given the vast potential, it would be a waste if he turned it it into a bow or sword.
That left him with draconic armour. It could make for highly durable armour. There was also the thought of using them to augment his mobility. Hiccup imagined a draconic armour that could make him move and react faster.
That would be powerful.
Unfortunately, there was not enough material to make something like that. He would need three times of what he have to make them. Any less would make them ineffective; he might as well did something else with it.
'Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way.' Hiccup pondered. He flipped his large book, revealing a sketch of draconic weapon concepts. 'Every weapon design we know are all hand weapons. They are the most effective against deviants, but not against other targets.'
Everyone in Europe had moved on to muskets since 17th century. If he went further back, crossbows were common since 14th century. Draconic weapons never went past that advancement. The main reason was its effectiveness.
Latest conventional weapons were designed to fight against humans. Cannons were used to shoot down castle walls. Muskets were used to shoot their enemy from over a hundred metres away.
However, draconic weapons still use swords, spears and bows. It never really went further than that. The reason was reliability; they were true and tested methods of fighting against deviant dragons.
Another reason was the cost. It was difficult and expensive to forge, and dragonsmith was incredibly rare. Because of this, draconic weapon production never reached industrial scale. As such, there was little room for innovation.
'As time went on, conventional hand weapons became obsolete. They were replaced by muskets and cannons.' Hiccup thought. 'Draconic weapons still have its place as deviant hunting equipment.'
"Hiccup."
The boy turned to face the newcomer. Gobber had arrived with Stoick into the forge. The two Vikings had entered through the back door. "Hey, Gobber, dad."
Stoick paused when he looked at his eyes. He was standing at his eye level. Looking up and down, the chief realised Hiccup was bigger than last year. His large frame, broad shoulder and muscles were definitely bigger.
'Why do I have a feeling that Alatreon is responsible for this?' The chief thought exasperated, before asking. "Are you busy?"
"I have some time to spare." Hiccup closed his large book. He turned his full attention to them. "What do you need?"
"We're want to modernise our fleet." Stoick explained the problem. "Gobber told me to talk with you first."
"Modernising fleet." The boy repeated. "You mean getting ships with cannons."
"Aye."
That was surprising. There were many reasons why Vikings rarely used gunpowder weapons. The first reason was the cost; they were expensive in the region. Saltpetre and sulphur were the two main ingredient for gunpowder, and they were not easy to find in Barbaric Archipelago.
That was not to say nobody used gunpowder in Barbaric Archipelago. There were reports from eastern Barbaric Archipelago about hand bombs used to clear covers and buildings. It was also used to perform underwater blasting to clear shipwrecks on shallow water.
Vikings avoided using gunpowder for battle because of its danger. Dragons tend to target those carrying gunpowder weapons during dragon raid. Cannons often end up as slags and metal scraps; and cannon warships were sank into the ocean.
In short, the costs outweighed the benefit when dragons were involved.
They definitely knew the risk.
"If you want to modernise the fleet, you need to make new ship designs." Hiccup explained the task. "The main problem would be gunpowder weapon. We don't have any deposit for saltpetre and sulphur."
Stoick grimaced at that. "We can buy them from merchants."
"That's going to be expensive."
"I'm not asking the cost."
The boy gave him deadpan expression. "What kind of ship are you looking for exactly?"
"Gobber." The chief turned to face the blacksmith. "Did you remember our visit to the mainland?"
"When we went to grab Alex?"
"Aye. The Danish had a large naval demonstration for the crowds to see." Stoick explained what they saw. "I saw a ship that looked like a longship. She has cannons on her broadside. A frigate, I think."
Gobber decided to add. "She looked like a shrunken warship." He commented. "Very fast. She turns quicker too. Some sort of British captured ship; she could sail here just fine. I think her name was Médée?"
Stoick turned his focus to Hiccup. "Can you design one?"
"I think you're talking about the Napoleon French Médée." Hiccup answered. "They have 46 cannons. I can draft a longship redesign similar to that in a few weeks."
"Good. I want their draft and the cannon design." The chief responded. "Hand them to Gobber when you're done. We'll work out the rest."
"I'll work on that then."
Stoick nodded, before turning around to leave the forge. That left Hiccup and Gobber alone. The boy exhaled his breath. "This is going to be expensive."
"Always like that when it came to war." The blacksmith remarked. He moved to check the furnace. It was lit with fire, and there was a large kettle inside. The kettle had red dragon scales on them. The large man moved to grab the draconic kettle out. "It's the people that changes."
"What made him change his mind?" Hiccup questioned.
"He's anticipatin' foreign European invasion." Gobber answered. He placed the kettle onto an anvil, before moving to change his prosthetic. "He said we need gunpowder if we want to win."
That reminded the boy of something. There was that idea of using two certain materials to create a draconic cannon.
Some of his books described a type of energy that dragons had. Mana, they called them. Using Alatreon horn fragment and shed scales of unknown dragon, it was possible to create alternative propellant for a cannon with it.
'I still have plenty of materials from last year.' Hiccup thought as he grabbed a large parchment from under the table. 'I can make this cannon happen.'
Meanwhile, Gobber was pouring hot tea from kettle into his tankard prosthetic. He watched the boy unfurling large parchment on the table, and began drawing on them with charcoal pencil. The blacksmith put the kettle back into the furnace fire, before moving to check on Hiccup.
Hiccup was drawing a cannon design. However, something looked off. Instead of familiar looking cannon he had seen before, the boy was drawing something draconic. It took him a while to realise what he was doing.
"Draconic cannon?" Gobber questioned. "We can't make them, lad. Too expensive."
"I just need to get this out of my mind first." The boy responded. He focused on getting as much idea as he could on paper. "I'll work on that after I'm done with this."
"Ehh..." The blacksmith stroked his beard. "If ye could get everything done first, we'll talk about making that draconic cannon for the new capital ship."
Hiccup paused. He looked back at Gobber, before smiling. "Thanks, Gobber."
"Anytime, lad."
"Snotlout! Astrid!"
Astrid, Snotlout and Fishlegs were sitting behind the Mead Hall, watching Vikings walking around. It was technically the kitchen, where the village cook would be cooking food for everyone.
The place had open crates around the place, and there was a large open hut not far from them. That hut was the village kitchen.
Tuffnut and Ruffnut were running towards the other teenagers. They all had grown considerably since last year. It did not matter now, however, since the twins had something to tell them.
"What is it 'tuff?" Astrid questioned.
"It's Hiccup." Ruffnut informed them. "We heard something from the forge."
Snotlout brightened upon hearing it. "What is it?"
The twins leaned closer towards them. "We heard... that Hiccup is making something to kill a dragon." Ruffnut whispered.
"But not just any dragon." Tuffnut added, smirking. "A deviant one."
"Deviant dragon?" Astrid, Snotlout and Fishlegs repeated.
It had been a talked topic since the encounter last year. Because of their dangers, the Dragon Manual had to be updated for additional entry about deviant dragons and how to spot them. They wanted to be more prepared this time.
"Yeah!" Ruffnut nodded, staring at the three teenagers in front of them. "The chief and Gobber believed he could do it. They said Hiccup can prove himself."
Hiccup had been rather sensitive topic for them. Ever since that attack during peace treaty signing, they had been looking for ways to subvert him, to no avail.
It was difficult to undermine him when everyone was paying attention. It was easy to be done before, but now, things were different. He was slowly proving himself.
Snotlout was especially angry. It was unfair for him not to have anything, while the boy he considered useless gained a lot all sudden. His father, Spitelout, had been pressuring him about keeping up. He needed to do something about it.
Astrid, however, was rather sceptical. "Did they have a name for them...?"
"Nothing yet." Tuffnut was the one to answer. He shook his head. "But I heard it can explode."
"Big explosion." The female twin added. "To kill... a giant deviant dragon."
"Imagine the fame we'll get by killing it ourselves." Astrid breathed out as she imagined that scenario.
"Uh... I don't think it's going to be useful." Snotlout sounded rather dismissive, before smirking. "We should destroy it."
"... not a bad idea." The petite girl nodded in agreement. They did not want another repeat of last time. It was best to play them safe. "It's easier to break them."
"So, I guess it's the usual wait and break?" Tuffnut questioned. "'cuz if it is, it should be ready in a month."
"Of course!" Snotlout scoffed at him. "I want to break that thing. I'll chop its head off and rip its heart out." He gestured to his face. "With my face!"
Ruffnut snorted. "Sure." She shook her head. "Just don't get killed when you do destroy it."
The work of messenger dragon was often underappreciated.
The payment was low; the demand was high; and most dragons became one at the promise of adventure. Charcoal did not even know they were meant to be paid until someone brought that up.
When Charcoal brought it up to Furious, he granted him many different benefits. He would get food delivery and protection detail for his nest. He could also hire hatchling sitters for free. The young Night Fury accepted that offer.
Unfortunately, Toothless disagreed with that arrangement. Other than food delivery and protection detail, she rejected the idea of hatchling sitter. The mother dragon did not trust anyone to raise them except him and her family.
It did not mean Charcoal got off easily. Toothless gave him an earful after that arrangement.
Night Furies were meant to have more protection, because they were incredibly rare. It was Wodensfang's policy for rare dragons to be protected. Those things were meant to be available in the first place. The mother dragon thought Furious had tricked him into accepting that.
She even threatened to contact messenger dragon union group deep inside Hidden World!
'Maybe I should ask for Nature Shards or Amethyst Scales.' Charcoal thought, remembering the talk with his mate. 'Messenger dragons carrying high profile package usually get paid a lot.'
"Mister Charcoal?"
The black dragon snapped out from his thoughts. He was at Dragon Island, standing on a cliff in front of the volcano. It was night-time, and there were not many dragons flying around.
Charcoal turned to face the newcomer. It was a pair of male Light Furies standing behind him. The two dragons were larger than him; they looked very powerful. Confused and intimidated, he responded. "That's me."
"My name is Mathew." The yellow-eyed Light Fury on the left introduced himself. "And this is Avisha, my partner. We are Imperial Arbitrators of Longfin Empire. We have some questions for you."
The Night Fury knew what arbitrators were. It was just another word for law enforcement. However, something confused him. "Longfin Empire?"
"The dragon empire ruled by Arch Alpha Wodensfang." The yellow-eyed Light Fury, Mathew, answered. He looked understanding. "You are living in one."
The red-eyed Light Fury, Avisha, snorted. "What kind of dragon doesn't know about the place they live in?" He remarked. He had some sort of eastern Slavic accent. "You are a messenger dragon, yes?"
Charcoal seemed to shrink under their stare. "Yes?"
"Then you should know where we are."
"We're in Barbaric Archipelago, Dragon Island, 5th Floor." The Night Fury gave his response. He did not know what else to say. "This is Furious' territory."
Avisha was about to say more when a white wing hit his side. Mathew gave the red-eyed Light Fury annoyed look, before speaking to the black dragon. "We have some questions for you."
Charcoal straightened himself. "Ask away."
"Were you at Caldera in 15th of September 1833?"
That was last year. The Night Fury remembered. "I was there."
Avisha seemed to hum. "What was your business?"
"I was delivering a message for Arch Alpha." Charcoal explained. "The content is classified."
The red-eyed Light Fury frowned at that. "Did you pass the message to someone?" He questioned. "Perhaps to a diplomat?"
"No." The Night Fury answered. "I dropped the message to his public office."
Mathew glanced at his partner. "There was no record of him passing the checkpoint." The yellow-eyed Light Fury recalled. "Nobody saw a male Night Fury of his description."
Charcoal was incredulous. "What?"
"Detectives."
The three Furies noticed a newcomer. It was Nemo the titan wing Deadly Nadder. He did not look happy to see them. "I thought I made it clear not to approach him."
Mathew the yellow-eyed Light Fury turned to face him. "Arbitrators are above greater alpha authorities." He coolly responded. "We could have you arrested for obstructing justice."
The tension was high. Charcoal did not understand anything, but he knew something must be done. "Wait, hold on." He interjected, getting their attention. "I want to hear this."
Nemo moved to interrupt. "Charcoal-"
"Nemo, it's fine." The Night Fury assured. "I want to know why they're here."
The titan wing Deadly Nadder exhaled his breath. "Garr..." He relaxed a bit. "I will be watching."
Charcoal gave him grateful look, before looking back at the Light Fury detectives. "I think it's better if you tell me what's going on." He reasoned. "I can tell you what I know."
Mathew and Avisha glanced at each other, before looking back at him. The red-eyed Light Fury began to speak. "An exotic egg went missing during transit to Imperial Egg Storage." He explained. "It was last seen at a checkpoint in Caldera."
Charcoal had heard of egg storage before. It was where dragons would send their eggs when they had too many hatchlings to care for. They called them orphaned egg.
The orphaned eggs would be rated depending on rarity, and then frozen with crystal casing to prevent hatching. Any dragon could go there and adopt an orphaned egg. There had been records of decades long orphaned eggs adopted after a long time.
While it was good in theory, Charcoal personally disagreed with its implementation. Dragons tend to adopt the most desirable species for their own benefit. From what he recalled, there was an abundance of Terrible Terror eggs because of this.
Avisha continued speaking. "It was unearthed from central Africa by a group of dragon researchers." He elaborated. "The egg was frozen in a protective crystal casing during transport. According to witnesses, the egg was last seen at the checkpoint."
Charcoal softened his expression. "How did it go missing?"
"The egg was dropped from the sky during security check." The red-eyed Light Fury further explained. "From what we gathered, the casing protected the egg, but it shattered on impact. The egg was safe, but it hatched on its own."
That was surprisingly convenient. "What kind of dragon are you looking for?"
"It's a Valstrax." Avisha answered. "Silver dragon. Inverted wings."
Charcoal's eyes lit up in recognition. "You mean like Aymar the Valstrax."
That made them pause. Mathew was the one to speak. "You know Aymar?"
"I talked to him before." The Night Fury nodded. "He checked on my mate from time to time. He hasn't come to visit for quite some time."
"Harr..." The yellow-eyed Light Fury remembered something. "You are Toothless' mate."
"That's right."
"You know what Valstrax look like."
"I know what they look like. Yes."
"Have you seen another Valstrax?" Mathew questioned.
"No. I don't think I've ever seen a Valstrax other than Aymar." Charcoal answered, before pausing. "But I've seen blue comets flying around before. It looks similar to Aymar's flight signature."
That garnered their attention. The yellow-eyed Light Fury pressed on. "When was the last time you see them?"
"About few weeks ago in central Barbaric Archipelago." The Night Fury answered. "I was returning home when I spotted it. I thought it was foreign dragon going back and forth."
The two Light Furies glanced at each other. They looked concerned. After some time, Avisha spoke up. "We'll be going now." He responded, before expressing his gratitude. "Thank you for your information."
"Glad to help."
"Helena, stop hitting your brother!"
"But he took my fish!"
Toothless was at her nest with her hatchlings. They were at the main chamber. It had been a year since their eggs hatched, and the presence of small Night Furies had made the nest rowdy.
The hatchlings were getting bigger, and a whole lot smarter. It was difficult to supervise them, considering there were six of them, and there was only so much attention she could give.
Not to mention all sorts of things they inherited from them. Everyone seemed to have inherited Charcoal's intellect, creativity and curiosity. It made the already hyperactive hatchlings even more difficult to handle.
Toothless was glad they did not inherit much of her traits. Considering she was rebellious by nature; the mother dragon was happy not to deal with any of that. It was one of the few times she could relate with her late mother.
"There are more fish in the pile." The mother dragon lectured Helena, before glaring at Winter. "And Winter. Do not take your sister's fish."
The snow-green eyed hatchling simply sat there. "Okay mom."
Meanwhile, Amelia and Iris were running around the ramp. The two hatchlings had been playing tag all over the nest. The spring-green eyed hatchling was chasing the emerald-green one. Eventually, one of them leaped and grabbed her sister. "Got you!"
"Whoa!" The two hatchlings tumbled and rolled down the ramp. They reached the end, before falling off the ramp. "Kraa!"
Toothless moved her tail just in time to feather their fall. The two female hatchlings simply giggled as they safely bounced away from her fins. "Yaay!" They exclaimed, before running off to play another game.
"Amelia! Iris! Be careful!" The mother dragon exclaimed, before looking around for others. Calian and Hamish were rough-housing at the corner. Ignoring that, she focused on the hatchlings she had been scolding, only to find them gone. Looking at the nearby pile of fish, the two were playing tug-of-war with a cod fish. "Winter, Helena, stop playing with food!"
Toothless had to admit, it had become very chaotic ever since her eggs hatched. There were plenty of things to do in her nest. She could never complain about not having anything to do anymore.
The hatchlings had too much energy, but not enough time to spend them. Even at sleep time, she had to wrestle them to sleep.
"Kraaa!"
Calian and Hamish tumbled and crashed onto the two female hatchlings, right into the pile of fishes. The rough-house had turned into a full-blown fight, which Winter and Helena were quick to join in. At the same time, Amelia and Iris fell from the top of the ramp.
Toothless rushed to catch the two dragoness hatchlings when everything suddenly froze.
The hatchlings were suspended in motion. There was purple outline around their body. The mother dragon felt relief as she looked up to the entrance. "Charcoal."
The father dragon had arrived. His forest green eyes were shimmering bright purple, indicating his use of telekinesis. The adult male dragon was carrying large fishes in his maw. He moved to land at the ground level, before dumping the fishes into the pile.
"Harr..." Charcoal mentally moved the hatchlings and placed them close to the pile. After he ended the spell, the father dragon felt relief. "That was close."
Toothless simply collapsed on the ground. "Thank the skies, you're finally here." She mumbled. "This is exhausting."
The adult male dragon pitied his mate. "Alright, kids. Eat your food." He began. "We're starting your flight lesson soon."
That gained their attention. The hatchlings cheered at learning how to fly. "YAAY!"
"Eat your food." Charcoal raised his voice. "Or you're not coming for the flight lesson."
The hatchlings quickly rushed to the fish pile to eat. Amongst the larger ones, there were mixture of smaller fishes, such as mackerel and trout. The smaller food was something that Night Fury hatchling could eat straight away, while the bigger one needed to be chewed and regurgitated.
While the hatchlings were having their food, Charcoal noticed Amelia biting at a large cod from the pile. Unfortunately, her teeth were not developed enough to bit through the fish scales. The father dragon smiled at the sight. "Amelia, you can't eat that yet."
Charcoal grabbed the cod from her. He gulped the fish down his throat, letting it stay there for a moment. Few seconds later, he choked his throat and regurgitated the fish out. The regurgitated fish splatted not far from Amelia.
The female hatchling moved down to sniff on the fish, before biting it. The small dragon easily bit the flesh through the softened scales. She gulped one down her throat. "Thanks dad!"
Other hatchlings saw what happened. They rushed to the regurgitated fish, only for Charcoal to cover her with his wings. The father dragon stared disapprovingly. "Don't take your sister's food."
The hatchlings faltered upon hearing that. Charcoal had punished them before for doing bad things, like hurting their siblings. Unlike Toothless, who usually pin them with her weight for timeout, their father was more creative than that.
They did not want to clean the hot spring again.
However, Hamish had different idea. He went to grab a cod fish from the pile. The small hatchling dragged them right in front of his father. "I want to eat it."
Charcoal brightened at that. Just like before, he gulped the cod fish down his throat, waited for a moment, before regurgitating them out. Hamish happily dragged the tenderised cod fish away from others, who simply gaped at his problem-solving skill.
Eventually, others did the same thing. The father dragon tenderised cod fishes for the hatchlings to eat. Once that was done, everyone was preoccupied with their lunch. Charcoal moved to rest next to his mate, who had fallen asleep from exhaustion.
The adult male dragon wrapped his wings around his mate. "How are you feeling?"
Toothless simply glared at him. Charcoal felt pity. "That bad?"
"I wish you were here more to help me care for them." The adult dragoness mentally grumbled. "Skies above, this feels like four dragon job."
"Well, we are doing our best." Charcoal thought as he watched their hatchlings eat. "I know a place to teach them fly. It's a rock island with just a cliff."
"That would be great." The mother dragon seemed to purr. "... I think I'm going to just stand by and watch. I need to save some energy. It's exhausting to care for six hatchlings at once."
"Alright." Charcoal responded, before checking his hatchlings. Most had finished their fishes, and some were eating smaller fishes from the pile. "Okay, everyone. Are you ready for your first flight lesson?"
The hatchlings looked up with excitement. They jumped around and circled around the place. "Yes! Yes!"
"I want to fly!"
The father dragon chuckled at their enthusiasm. He lowered his head. "Come on, now."
The hatchlings moved to climb on top of his head. Once they were up and clutching on his scales, Charcoal stood from the ground. "O- kay..." He glanced at his mate. "Are you coming?"
"Of course." Toothless nodded, standing up from the ground. "This should be fun."
"Alright!" The father dragon nodded, before readying himself. "Hold on tight. We are going to fly!"
"YAAY!" The hatchlings cheered as Charcoal flapped his wings. He flew up to the top of the ramp, before heading out to the exit. The mother dragon following them behind.
It was night-time outside. After flying around to show their hatchlings the sky, Toothless and Charcoal finally landed at an empty island. Specifically, on top of a high cliff.
The place was high, and there was a large water pond down below. The wind was blowing hard to their direction. It was the perfect place for dragons to learn how to fly.
Charcoal lowered his head and the hatchlings jumped off from him. "Now, before we start our lesson. I want to tell you how we fly." He began his lecture. "There is one thing you need to understand about us Night Fury."
Toothless moved to rest at the corner. She would only be watching them. Charcoal continued his lecture. "We are the fastest and most manoeuvrable dragons that ever lived in the whole archipelago!"
"Hraa..." The hatchlings were happy to hear his praise.
Charcoal smiled at them. "We can make sharp turns that dragons could ever dreamed of doing. We can break the sound barrier and awe everyone you know!" He spread his wings to showcase them. "When you grow up, you can outfly nearly every dragon in the sky."
"Wow..." The hatchlings looked up to their father with awe. They stared at his father's large pair of wings. It was fluttered on the harsh wind, despite not flying at all.
"But because of that." Charcoal spoke as he folded his wings. "Our flights are the most unstable."
That confused everyone. "What?"
"Unstable?"
"Dad, what does that mean?"
"For every good thing we have in flight, there are bad things to balance it." The father explained to his hatchlings. "We are the fastest and most manoeuvrable, but small movement could instantly change everything."
The hatchlings began inspecting their own wings and tailfins. Charcoal continued explaining. "You can be flying peacefully, and suddenly, you start rolling around because you twitched your tailfin." He lectured. "You can make a really, really fast and sharp turn, and suddenly, you start flat spinning, and you have to stop and hover."
They began nodding their head, understanding what it meant. Their mother had told them some of the topics before. Hamish was the one to ask. "We have to be careful?"
"Yes." Charcoal nodded, smiling at them. "Everything I tell you will get easier the more you do it. And when you grow up, you will become the fastest and highest flier in the sky."
Hamish looked at his father with his wide, forest green eyes. "I want to be the fastest and highest flier."
Helena bounced forward. "No, me!"
The rest seemed to follow. "I want to be fastest flier too!"
"Me too!"
"Calm down, everyone. One by one." Charcoal briefly scolded, stopping their antics. "I need everyone to line up."
The hatchlings quickly lined up in front of him. The father dragon was amused. "We will do this one by one." He explained. "Calian, you're first. Move to the edge and face the wind."
The male hatchling did as he was told. He carefully moved to the edge, before facing the wind. There was a pause as others baited their breath. Charcoal then gave the next instruction. "Now spread your wings."
Calian spread his own wings. The wind instantly blew them back, but it simply passed through them. There was something in him that wanted to fly. "I want to fly!"
"Pay attention to how your wings feel." Charcoal glanced to his son.
The male hatchling flapped his wings. The moment he did that, it lifted him off the air. Unfortunately, because of the harsh wind, his wings blew him back like a kite. "KRAA!"
Charcoal leaped and grabbed Calian with his gum. The father placed his son back to the ground. The hatchling looked sheepish upon realising what happened. He looked up to the stern looking father dragon. "Sorry, dad."
"Listen and pay attention." Charcoal lightly scolded him. He moved to demonstrate by spreading his wings. "Spread your wings and feel them."
The male hatchling carefully spread his own wings. He could feel the wind blowing through his wings. It felt nice. However, he noticed that the wind was somewhat changing in direction. Sometimes, he would feel more wind passing under his wings, and sometimes on top of them.
"Did you feel that?"
Calian looked up to his father. He was glancing at him. "The wind?"
"It changes direction, is it?"
The hatchling looked ahead to the ocean. "... yeah."
"Remember that feeling well." Charcoal informed his son. "It will be important. Remember that tailfin control exercise I taught you before?"
"Uh-huh."
"Straighten your tail and let it feel the wind." The father advised.
Calian straightened his tail. He instinctually straightened his tailfins upon feeling the wind. It seemed to move on its own to adjust with the wind direction. "Daaad... it's moving on its own."
Charcoal smiled at him. "That's normal. Your body knows how to move from wind direction." He informed his son. "It knows how to fly, but the one flying need to know how to control them."
Calian looked at his father with questioning look. "I already know how to fly?"
"Your body knows how to fly, but the one controlling them doesn't." Charcoal explained to his son. "Now close your eyes."
Calian did as he was told. He closed his eyes. Charcoal continued speaking. "Stay absolutely still... not that stiff, you need to relax a bit... okay. Now, flap your wings just once."
The hatchling flapped his wings once. He felt more wind passing through his scales. Then, he heard his father speak. "Open your eyes."
Calian opened his eyes. He realised that he was flying. He looked like he was hovering in the air. The hatchling looked down and realised that his paws were not touching the ground. He was amazed to see himself fly. "Wow..."
Calian turned to look at his wings. That somehow turned his direction, and he went straight back to the wall behind them. "KRAAA!"
Charcoal caught his tail before he hit the wall. The father placed his son down to the ground. The hatchling slowly turned around to face his father. He was dazed from the experience. "Wow..."
The father dragon knew that Calian had felt the freedom of flight for the first time. It reminded him the first time he took off into the air. The feeling was incredible, and that freedom was insatiable. "Calian, move to the back so your siblings can learn."
The male hatchling slowly waddled to the back of the line. Other hatchlings stared at their dazed sibling, before looking up to their father. Charcoal saw willingness and determination in their eyes. They wanted to learn how to fly as well.
"O- kay..." Charcoal hummed as he pondered the next one. "... Winter, you're next."
Toothless watched as her mate taught them how to fly. She could only stare with forlorn expression.
Charcoal was a great father for them. Despite his flaws on some aspects, such as enforcing discipline early on, he did his best to be there for them. It reminded her so much of her own past.
She remembered taking similar lesson from her late mother. She had difficulties on learning her flight back then, since she had to learn them by herself. Her late mother spent most of her time trying to keep the family together. Her father and siblings were not any help either.
The dragoness watched as the father and hatchlings took off into a flight. They were simply hovering there, using the strong wind to fly without flapping their wings. The dragons were laughing and cheering, joyful for the hatchling's achievement. They were all making progress. Toothless felt happy as she watched them go.
It made her feel a little bit envious. She wished her own siblings were there for her.
"Now, remember." Toothless heard Charcoal instructed the hatchlings. All seven of them were floating up and down by the wind. "You have two sets of tail fins. First one at the end of your tail, and second one at the start of your tail. They control your pitch and roll. The spines on your back control your yaw."
The hatchlings were silent. They were busy focusing on their flight. The father dragon continued speaking. "This will be your first time flying." He explained. "For now, just remember this; don't turn too hard, don't move your tailfins too much, and pay attention to where you are going. Understand?"
"Yes, dad!" The hatchlings chorused.
"Good!" Charcoal was happy to hear that. "Let's go! Stay close with me!"
Charcoal and the hatchlings dashed forward and dove down the cliff. Few seconds later, they flew up high into the air.
The father and his children began flying around the place. Both were circling around the tall island. Toothless was happy to see them fly. It was a moment that they would cherish forever.
"Kraaaaa!" Toothless heard one of them roared. It was Iris, the emerald-green eyed hatchling. "I'm flying!"
Others began roaring as well. "Flying!"
"Kraaaa!"
The dragoness chuckled. It was tempting to take off and fly along with them. However, she still needed to recover her strength. Taking care of six hatchlings were exhausting, and it was best to take some rest whenever the opportunity presented itself.
Boom!
Toothless looked up as she heard familiar sonic boom. Others seemed to have noticed as well. The red comet had arrived at their place. Aymar the Valstrax swerved across the sky, before stopping and landing in front of the black dragoness.
The silver dragon bowed to the dragoness. "Greetings."
The hatchlings, who had been flying around, rushed to meet the new dragon. Helena was the first one to latch onto him. "Uncle Aymar!"
"Uncle! Uncle!" Iris exclaimed as she flew around the silver dragon. "Look! I'm flying!"
"I'm here, now I'm here!" Calian seemed to fly around the inverted wings. "Ooo! Cool wings!"
Aymar carefully pushed them away, to no avail. They were flying all over the place. "Hatchlings, please." He pleaded, before focusing on the dragoness. "Toothless, could you please call your hatchlings?"
Charcoal heard that one. He hovered close to the cliff. "Kids! You're still on flying lesson!" He barked, getting their attention. "We have one hour practice before we head back home."
The hatchlings were quick to fly away. They followed their father as he moved to fly around some more. Aymar felt relief when they were finally gone.
Toothless hummed in amusement; despite being a delegate and ambassador, the Valstrax could never handle constant attention from hatchlings.
"Aymar." Toothless spoke up, getting his attention. "What brings you here?"
"I have come under your father's orders." The Valstrax straightened himself. "Toothless, did you ordered Amber the Light Fury to infiltrate Révélation?"
The dragoness froze upon hearing that. She looked away from the silver dragon. "What if I did?" Toothless challenged, before asking. "Is she okay?"
"Amber the Light Fury is unharmed. We are still investigating how this breach occurred." Aymar expressed his concern. He seemed to drop his formality. "Toothless, what are you trying to do?"
"I just want to know the identity of someone." Toothless admitted. "Is it wrong to know?"
"The identity of that dragon is kept secret for the safety of everyone involved." The Valstrax explained the context. "That dragon is dead, Toothless. We are protecting our existing personnel."
The dragoness stood from the ground. "Aymar, this is something that I can't tell anyone else." Toothless spoke in low voice. "Can you keep this a secret?"
"You know I will report to your father."
"Can you and my father keep this a secret?"
There was a pause. Aymar finally responded. "... I was instructed to keep this meeting a secret."
Hearing that, Toothless took a deep breath. "That dragon I'm looking for is part of Charcoal. That's where we found the signature." She confessed, surprising him. "Amber and I discovered them few years ago. We're trying to figure out who it was."
The Valstrax stared with wide eyed expression. "... is he-"
"No. He's not the dragon. He's an anomaly, not a deviant. He's his own dragon." The dragoness corrected. "For some reason, Charcoal have two sets of mana circuit that works together in harmony. We don't know how or why this is possible, but we suspect that Furious has something to do with this."
There was a long silence. Aymar looked deep in thought. "... perhaps this might be related to recent deviant activity." He assumed.
"Deviant activity?"
"Last year, there were cases of reported deviant activities within this region." The Valstrax explained the context. "Wodensfang ordered us to investigate. We found traces and raided a nest owning and handling human livestock."
Toothless straightened herself. She knew what it was; she despised anything involving them. While she largely disliked humans, except for select few, she never wished anyone becoming dragon experiment. Especially breeding and raising humans for Life-Force experiments.
The dragoness took a deep breath, before exhaling them. "I guess that's why his army was here last year?"
"Yes. The redacted information has been declassified." Aymar gave his report. "If you wish to know the full knowledge, you need to ask your father."
"Harr..." Toothless rolled her eyes. "Just tell me what's on the public."
"We reported successful raid and investigation on human breeding and trafficking within Barbaric Archipelago." The Valstrax explained what the public knew. "Some dragons originating from Arab world had been smuggling stolen slaves into the region. Some of the locals cooperated when they offered access to Hidden World."
The dragoness realised the context. "The borders are closed for soldier dragons, including draftees. But almost everyone is drafted. They wouldn't allow us to leave." She whispered, remembering the Snow Wraiths betrayal few years ago. "Some are desperate enough to make a deal with the devil to escape."
"In addition, we found traces of dragon forging operation." Aymar slowly responded. "Nothing else was found in this investigation. We closed the case after successful raid."
"But that's the public knowledge, is it?" Toothless was insistent. "The investigation is still ongoing?"
"You must ask your father if you wish to know more." The Valstrax indirectly apologised. "However, I wish to know something."
"Ask."
"Who is Charcoal?" Aymar tilted his head. "You mentioned one of his mana circuits set belonged to us. We know their identity. However, we do not know the other one."
That was a good question. "I don't know." Toothless admitted. "Amber has all the samples. You need to ask her."
"We could ask the dragon himself."
"No. Don't. I..." The dragoness did not know what to say. "If we ask him that, he'd ask us about it. He doesn't trust his father. I don't want him to confront his father about it. Not yet at least."
"You do not wish to alert his father." The Valstrax nodded in understanding. "... very well. We will keep this a secret. I assume you want us to investigate?"
"Quietly." Toothless seemed to whisper. "Furious put extra guard dragons around our nest. It's for the safety of our hatchlings, because we're technically endangered species. But if he knew we knew something we shouldn't..."
The last part was left unspoken, but Aymar understood. He darkened his expression. "I will report this to your father immediately."
"Go."
BOOM!
The Valstrax did not need to be told twice. He shot up to the sky, appearing as red comet that he was famous for. Toothless watched as he travelled north-west from where they were. Once he was gone, the dragoness moved to rest at the corner.
"KRAAAA!"
"What now..." Toothless looked up to the sky. Iris the female Night Fury hatchling was flat spinning, desperately trying to hover by flapping her wings. She was falling from the sky, and she was panicking. Seeing danger, the mother dragon quickly dashed to her.
Boom!
The mother dragon used her jet pulse ability to reach her. She instantly went from zero to full speed. Toothless grabbed her daughter just in time before she touched the sea water. "Got you!"
After catching Iris, Toothless flew back towards the cliff. She landed there and placed her daughter on the ground. "Are you okay?"
"I'm..." The hatchling was shaking. "I'm fine..."
Charcoal and others had arrived as well. They landed close to them. "Iris!" The father dragon rushed to check. He felt relief upon seeing her unharmed. "Thank the skies... good catch, Toothless."
The mother dragon was not buying it. "What happened?"
Everyone paid attention to the emerald-green eyed hatchling dragoness. "I..." She looked embarrassed. "I turned too hard..."
Other hatchlings snickered behind their father. Iris simply glared at them. Charcoal exhaled his breath, before speaking. "Iris." He started, getting her attention. "I know you want to do flying tricks, but you need to be patient. Wait for your turn."
The father dragon turned to face the other. "This goes for everyone." He narrowed his eyes, making them falter. "All of you need to be patient. I can teach one dragon at a time, because I am telling you how to do it."
The hatchlings had some decency to look embarrassed. Some look at their mother, who was equally stern on her expression. "Listen to your father."
"Harr..." Charcoal exhaled his breath. He sat on his hindlegs. "We're taking a break."
"Aww..." The hatchlings whined at that.
"Hey. Don't whine."
They looked up to their father. Charcoal's expression was soft as he spoke. "You learned how to fly today." He remarked. "Tomorrow, we can practice flying. If you want to fly more, you can do it at the nest."
"Yaay!" The hatchlings cheered at that.
Suddenly, Calian the hatchling began choking. His throat began to glow blue. "Krrk!" He belched blue liquid from his mouth, which splashed harmlessly on the ground. It lit up in flames, burning the rock under it.
The hatchling looked down with surprise, before another one came out from his throat. "Krrk!"
Other hatchlings laughed at his demise. But then, Winter began choking as well, followed by the rest of them.
Toothless and Charcoal moved to massage their hatchlings; licking their back, encouraging them to get them out. They puked several times, before finally collapsing one by one. The hatchlings were left exhausted.
Thankfully, those were the last of them. The hatchlings slowly recovered as they checked what they had thrown up on the ground. It was some sort of blue burning liquid, which reminded them of their father's blue plasma fire.
Hamish poked the fire a bit, before reeling back. "What is that!"
"That's your fire." Charcoal answered, feeling proud of his hatchlings.
Others turned their attention to him. The smallest hatchling widened his forest-green eyes. "My fire?"
"Every dragon can make fire." The father dragon lectured. "It's a rite of passage. In a few days, everyone will learn how to hunt."
"Hraa..." That amazed the hatchlings.
"Can I learn how to hunt cod fish?" Amelia questioned, excited by the premise.
"I want to hunt fish."
Charcoal seemed to chuckle. "Slow down. You will learn how to hunt." He assured them. "... not tomorrow, but someday after you learn more flying tricks."
"I think I'll teach them how to hunt." Toothless spoke up, getting their attention. "I know a place to teach them. It's a shallow water pond with a lot of fish."
"You heard your mother." The father dragon was happy to hear that. "Do your flying lessons, and you'll learn how to hunt."
"Yaay!" The hatchlings excitedly bounced around. They were still a ball of energy, despite being exhausted from the flight.
"Now, it's time for us to go home." Charcoal stated the obvious, before sending thought to his mate. "Toothless, can you watch the back? I don't want them getting lost and left behind."
The dragoness stood from the ground. "Sure."
"Everyone, remember your lesson." The father dragon started as he readied himself to fly. The hatchlings did the same. "Now fly!"
Everyone took off into the sky. Toothless delayed her flight; she stayed back to watch the rear. The hatchlings were flying along in the middle, while Charcoal was leading them to their nest.
It was a pretty sight; father and mother dragons leading their hatchlings to learn their way back home.
While flying, Charcoal decided to strike conversation with his mate. "So... why did Aymar visit?"
Toothless physically exhaled her breath. "Amber was caught."
"Shite."
"She's unharmed, but everyone's looking into how she got in." The mother dragon further explained. "Aymar came to ask some questions about us, mostly the reason why I sent her there."
"Is there going to be a problem?"
"I... don't think so. At least, not to us." Toothless was unsure about that question. "Like I said, they're just investigating. They'll probably release her in a week or two."
There was a long silence. The dragoness looked ahead, wondering what her mate was thinking.
It reminded her of their conversation last year about her family. She hoped he did not push the topic again. Toothless did not know how to explain that without causing rift between him and his father.
"... Alright." Charcoal finally responded. "I trust your word on that."
"Thank you."
"But that reminded me of something." The father dragon continued his thought. "I'm considering on moving to Hidden World."
That surprised the mother dragon. "Why?"
"The future doesn't look bright. Living on the surface is getting more dangerous." Charcoal explained his reasoning. "Merciless is retiring soon, and I heard his replacement is terrible. Not that I doubt his judgement - I just think there was no other option."
"You think humans might win the war."
"As much as I said things about hope and courage, I know a swimming shark when I see it." The father dragon admitted. "Dragon soldier entrapment, excessive corruption, greater alpha that refuse to change - I came back here because I missed my father, not trying to adapt with all... this."
There was silence. Toothless paid attention to her hatchlings, who was cheering and laughing amongst themselves. It felt strange hearing that while the parents were having internal struggle.
Then again, they were communicating through their mana circuits bond. It was private; no one else could hear them.
Charcoal continued his thought. "... there was also that reward to me from your father." He further explained. "Aymar told me about it last year. They offered scholarships for all our hatchlings in prestigious and esteemed schools at Hidden World, regardless of goal and profession... those are his words."
"Really?" Toothless was surprised. Some education institutes in Hidden World were incredible. "Did you accept?"
"I did." The father dragon replied. "If we migrate to Hidden World, we'll be much closer to our hatchlings when they finally went to school."
"Some schools in Hidden World accept fledglings, but it's more of a basic school to teach them about how things work." The mother dragon pondered that decision. "But that's in two years. You want them getting used to Hidden World."
"I want our hatchlings to know more about the world below." Charcoal explained his thought process. "What do you think? Should we migrate?"
It was rather easy to answer. However, migrating to the ancestral home of dragons was no easy task. They need time to prepare. "Sure, but let's give ourselves few weeks to prepare." Toothless decided. " Remember that you're still wanted in Greater Archipelago."
"That is going to be a problem." The father dragon almost cursed. "You think help is coming?"
"Aymar is likely come back in a few days." The mother dragon explained her reasoning. "We need to ask for 'sanctuary under asylum' - you need to say that specific wording. We'll work out whatever consequence we get while under my father's protection."
"I guess we can wait." Charcoal was hesitant. "Let's take this slow. I have a feeling something will go wrong."
Toothless thought the same. However, they had been preparing for possible worst-case scenario.
If things were safe, her mate would not be building saferoom escape at their private nest. They had to cover every possible scenario somehow, because any critical mistake could result in their demise.
Regardless, they were heading to Hidden World soon. Toothless felt much lighter in her heart, mostly because she felt safer there. The dragoness could finally relax when she was finally under her father's protection. It was best for her to prepare.
'... I might need to say goodbye to my Precious Thing first.'