"Ready the weapons! SAVAGE, get your sorry, low-life arse over here!" Boomed a voice from above, on a ledge overlooking the process of the dragon army. Savage, a grizzled-looking older man approached cautiously.

"Yes, Sir?" He stood a good five feet away from the ominous cloaked figure, his voice coming out gravelly but scared.

"How is the Final Call coming along?" The voice still boomed, albeit quieter. Savage gulped before nodding, but then stopped when he realized that wasn't a sufficient response.

"Good, sir," He rubbed his hands together. The figure gave a curt huff as a reply and turned, showing the elder man his scarred face. There was a wicked smile.

"Excellent. We're behind schedule, but this is good news," he said. "We'll be ready in a matter of a few weeks now, if we stay as productive as we are in this moment."

***

Meanwhile on Berk, Hiccup was currently having awkward interaction with Stoick.

Valka at stuck them together as she and Fishlegs went off to run errands about preparations and whatnot, in a pathetic attempt to get them to bond. Currently, they were strolling about the village, with Toothless on Hiccup's left side and Stoick on his right.

"So..." He looked around, and spotted a large statue in the middle of the plaza. It was of a dragon, a Night Fury, laying limp at the foot of a mighty-looking Vikings. "What's that?" He gave Toothless' head a reassuring rub.

"Oh, tha'? That's a memorial statue. For my son," Hiccup swore he saw the man's eyes grow dewy at the mention of him. "It's how it should've happened."

"Should've happened?"

"Well, ye see, we thought he was dead because of a Night Fury. I've already stated that. He was a very... adventurous type of lad, and he got in over his head. Even if he isn't deceased, we'll most likely never see him again. Not all the villagers were exactly the friendliest to him." He paused, before continuing. "I am not an exception. And I regret every year I tossed him aside or yelled at him for being a kid."

Hiccup's gaze fell to the ground, and Stoick coughed. "I shouldn't 've shared that much. Apologies, Rider." Hiccup shook his head.

"No, no. It's fine. He only spoke great things about you when the topic came up on our first interaction," He said, lying only partially. He didn't hate his father, he just didn't particularly like him. But hearing this, the fact he regretted so much of his role in Hiccup's childhood, gave him sympathy for the older man.

Stoick was feeling the same, in a sense. He'd felt a burning rancor for the Night Fury's rider the moment the dragon set foot on his land. But now that he knew that the Rider knew his son and wasn't evil, he couldn't say that anymore. Especially since his son had spoken good things about him to the Rider.

He blinked away the slight tear and kept walking, showing Rider around the village, and as he did so, he felt a small kinship forming with the dragon riders.

***

Astrid was so done with the twins. They usually weren't this bad, but good Thor. They were being worse than normal; disobeying direct orders, flying away from the others, scaring the residents of the nest. So she got one of the Zipplebacks to bond with Barf and Belch and keep them away from the twins for the duration of their break.

As she, Snotlout and Gobber flew out of the main cavern and out into the windy world outside the Nest, she calmly ignored their screaming that they hadn't done anything wrong.

"So what're we doing again?" Snotlout asked, Hookfang flying beside Stormfly at a reasonable distance. Astrid shrugged.

"Taking a little flight around to actually take this place in, I guess. We've done most preparing we could possibly do here without the other Berkians and riders," she replied. "Might as well, right?"

He nodded. Gobber flew ahead of them both, scouting for any interesting landmarks worth checking out. "Aye! Looks like a cave, one that don't lead into the nest," the older man called. Astrid perked up.

"Really?" At Gobber's nod, Stormfly picked up the pace until they were leading the group of three to the cave (once she spotted it, of course).

"Cooooool," Snotlout said when they stood in the entrance. It was small, but there was a long corridor leading to some unknown place. It

"So, shall we?" Gobber prompted, urging Grump to light his maw to act as a torch so they could see better. When the Hotburple complied, they saw that there were torches lining the long hall. Stormfly lit them as they went along.

As they walked, the temperature seemed to drop. Astrid began being able to see her breath. "It looks like we're under the nest," she noted. "We must be under a large mass of ice."

Snotlout nodded. "But what is this place?" He asked.

Everyone shrugged. "I'm guessin' this is a hideout, since there seems to be signs of someone bein' here," Gobber said.

Astrid came to a place where the tunnel turned, and as soon as she followed it she entered a large, dimly lit room. She looked around for any place that could be lit, and saw a large place on the ceiling that looked as if it had been lit many times before. "Fire, girl."

The room was brightened immediately, and they could see much more. The room was large, being able to fit all of them and their dragons including a bit of moving room. There were maps all long the walls, nearly wrapping around the entire perimeter. The maps covered about half of the wall, the parts without maps consisting of doodles of dragons and saddles and notes of many things.

Astrid looked at one of the notes below a drawing of a Seashocker, the scrawling handwriting barely readable. Its content was basically the name, eating habits, natural habitat, and there was a way to tame it below the rest of the information.

"So this isn't a spy's room, I don't think. But who's room could it be?"

(Y'all can prolly guess lmaoo

but hey hey hey i updated again because i won't have much time to be on wattpad tomorrow and saturday for important matters

also heres a tiny banner i made with the image i used for a past cover :)

okay i platonically love you all now bye)