About a week before this exchange a hundred Roman ships sailed towards an island in the Nordic Archipelago.

Aeliana Archiater was the newly appointed praetor of the fourth Roman Legion. She'd previously been a legionnaire, running one of the nine groups in her legion. She'd received more praise than she expected and now understood that to mean she did her job well, because when word came that the prior two praetors of her legion had been killed by dragons she was immediately promoted.

They hadn't given her a co-praetor as is customary, this was due to the fact that praetors were only supposed to be instated after a great victorious battle or at the Feast of Fortuna, which had yet to occur for the year. She was only promoted out-of-tradition because the legion needed a praetor. Romans stuck to tradition, mainly out of respect for them but also out of fear of the gods. She was pushing those traditions by her new leadership, seeing as they weren't in serious battle she and her higher ups weren't willing to risk retribution by appointing a second one.

And that fear made her uneasy as she lead a mission to the dragon nest in the north. She was co-leading it, with a more seasoned praetor from the fifth, which gave her some sense of security. It also helped that that praetor was a friend of hers, Charlotte Manius. She had support in this, and it wasn't just the 100 ships sailing with them.

Some had told her not to worry about the gods. The great thing about them, they'd said, was that they barely tended to show up. Although that wasn't so great when they were needed. But Aeliana could not believe them.

Not when she had seen them show up. Personally.

Her brooding was cut off when another of her friends rushed into the captain's cabin.

Atticus Mare was the spitting image of a Roman soldier. Blonde, well-built and loyal to every moral that could be associated with his station. He was legionnaire of the fifth legions first cohort, one of nine. Aeliana had once had the same job except in the fourth.

"the island is within sight, Char asked me give this to you." He handed her a spyglass, thinner than her old one and with SPQR engraved in the bronze- one of the many standard pieces of equipment a praetor was issued with. She hadn't been able to get hers before she left, she hadn't even been officially instated in the capital like she was supposed to. More traditions she was breaking. "she had a spare from... you know."

She did. She wished she didn't.

She accepted the spyglass with a nod and he followed her out of the cabin onto the deck.

As she passed her soldiers fell in line, including the legionnaires she used to be comrades to. They were now her inferiors. It twisted something in her gut.

"prepare to disembark, ready yourselves." She dismissed, standing at the bow of the ship. She could see the island the nest habited already, a giant dark lump of rock rising from the sea. She unfurled the spyglass, focusing on the rocky shore first, looking for the best place to land. Then up to the mountain. It was a natural fortress of rock. They'd have to use their catapults to break down the walls. They would lose the element of surprise if they did that, though. And be swarmed by an uncountable amount of dragons. Something in her ached at the thought of killing dragons. They were just as innocent as any other animal at the mercy of a horrific ruler.

She'd seen dragons be peaceful, be gentle, be honourable even caring. She did not enjoy the prospect of going in and laying waste to an entire civilisation of them. She told herself she was being heroic, avenging the praetors that came before her. The dragons surely had attacked Nordic civilisations around here. She was doing more good than bad.

But it didn't stop her from regretting all of this.

Her spyglass wandered to the tip of the mountain, nondescript, but steam seemed to be rising from the inside, suggesting a hole into the centre of the mountain.

Her theory proved true when a rush of colour filled her view.

She gasped as she removed the spyglass from her eye, watching as thousands of dragons poured out of the mountain like a coloured waterfall disobeying gravity.

She heard her fellow soldiers yelling as they caught sight of the dragons as well, Atticus exhaled slowly and mumbled a short prayer.

And then the rush tapered off and a small black dragon rose from the mountain, a dark teardrop of shadow against the greying afternoon sky. It floated in the air momentarily, staying above the mountain, unlike all the dragons that now seemed to be... fleeing?

Yes. They were fleeing. Taking flight in every direction. They rose high in the sky, some hiding in the clouds. But the black dragon stayed.

There was a quiet, as the dragons grew distant, their squawks and roars growing further away.

And then the mountain exploded with a mighty boom.

The sound was all encompassing. It rushed past Aeliana like an avalanche. It set the waves crashing, tumbling over themselves in answer to the cacophony. Her hair swept slightly in the breeze and a cold chill raced its way up her back.

With the tearing down of the mountain came a dragon bigger than any Aeliana had ever seen. Bigger than anything Aeliana had ever laid eyes on. It was so huge it reworked her understanding of the word huge. Only mountains and oceans should be that size.

But no.

The dragon drew it self up and roared with a ferocity that set every hair on Aeliana's skin standing. Atticus gripped the rail of the ship to support him, his knuckles turned white. Aeliana's likely did the same on her spyglass.

And after that roar came another, tiny in comparison. It came from the small black dragon, which now flew past the larger one's head like a fly to cattle.

Aeliana almost pitied the poor thing. So stubborn it would not back down. She couldn't judge though, as she and her small army were about to do the same thing.

And likely die trying.

But then the dragon flew along the spine of the queen, letting out a series of bright glowing plasma bolts. A high screech filled the air as the dragon spun and tumbled by the queen effortlessly.

Her breath hitched.

"night fury," Atticus whispered, voice almost dying in his throat.

"everyone to the oars, turn us around!" Aeliana jolted back to life at the sound of Charlotte's voice, only a ship between them.

She was about to repeat the order herself, but her eye caught on something.

They'd grown closer to the shore, not close enough to give an order to make land, but closer.

And because of it she noticed something clinging to the night fury's saddle.

It took a steep turn to avoid a swipe from the queen, and with the twist something on the night fury shifted and almost fell. Barely staying on, but clinging regardless, till the dragon evened out.

Aeliana flicked out her spyglass again and tried to focus on the night fury. It was difficult from how fast it was moving, but Aeliana could tell one thing for sure.

Someone was on the dragon. There was a person riding that dragon.

She flicked it closed again and ran to the port railing, yelling orders to stay on course. Atticus was at her heels, questioning that decision.

Her ship was close to the one on the port side, so close she didn't think twice about vaulting over the rail and landing with a roll on the next boat's deck.

She kept going, giving the same order again, making her way to Charlotte's ship as fast as she could.

It was already moving, a bit far from this ship and not well lined up but she wasn't going to let Charlotte go without showing her what she'd seen.

She vaulted over the rail.

Air whipped around her, the sea crashed beneath her and a quiet filled her ears as she grit her teeth in preparation to hit the freezing water.

She didn't.

Her hands hit the rails of the next ship. Her shock let her slip, her elbows hit the deck before her hands did, but they eventually gripped the wood with a tenacity she had never achieved before. Her fingernails cracked as she gripped the wood and hauled herself up. Her hand found the top of the rail and she dragged her body over it. her armour clanged and her chest ached but she sprinted to Charlotte before her brain could catch up. The adrenaline in her system was running, she needed to take advantage of that.

She grabbed Charlotte by the shoulder, dark-blonde hair whipped around as Charlotte faced her, mid-way between giving an order.

Aeliana took such a deep breath it hurt like knives raking down her throat, but she swallowed it down and gasped out, "we need to land."