There was a dark, melancholy feeling to knowing that in a few short hours Hiccup was going to be fighting on a battlefield like no other he'd previously crossed.

The quick decisions they'd made and the eighth legion's ability to hold off Drago had given them plenty of time to dig their trenches. They were a good seven feet deep and eight across. The floor lined with wood planks and the sides reinforced with stakes and sandbags.

They had outlook trenches as close to the shore and sand they dared get them and behind their main ones stood several catapults and ballistae, taken apart and hidden, ready for when the initial surprise attack had begun.

They had drilled, planned and prepared. Now all that was left was the battle.

Hiccup inhaled, cleared his mind. the air smelled like salt, but he couldn't focus much on how distasteful he found it. he was grounding himself, connecting to his powers before the battle started. He couldn't be sure how much help they'd be, but his senses always heightened when he could use his powers, and on a battlefield that'd be useful. He'd just have to make sure that he wasn't distracted by people dying.

Because they would.

He could feel the approaching battle looming, every second that ticked on he grew a stronger grip on his abilities. The advance of death was stark to him, standing out like a thumb. he almost wanted to siphon it off, his chances of being distracted were too high.

Someone clapped his hand on his shoulder and he jumped.

"pre-fight fever?" Aeliana asked. Her armour was dark, and under normal circumstances he probably wouldn't be able to see her, there was no moon and the sun was just barely reaching the horizon. From inside the trench there was very little light.

But Hiccup could see just fine now, "not quite fever, really."

Aeliana leaned against the trench wall, hand slipping from his shoulder. She crossed her arms, "you sure you don't want to hang back for the start? Most of the legionnaires are. It's good to have people organising the back lines as well as the front, otherwise we'd be struggling with back-up."

"there's enough of them back here, we still need people running the show up front. You can't lead the whole of the fourth legion on your own."

"true," she sighed, "that's why there's supposed to be two praetors."

"maybe now that we're in actual battle the emperor will appoint someone." Hiccup said, grateful for something to distract him.

"and risk the gods wrath? No. we'll have to wait till the feast of Fortuna for a new praetor," she smiled, confusing to him considering this year's feast was done and they'd have to wait almost a whole year, "unless someone proves themselves at a particularly difficult battle."

"you trying to drop hints or something?"

"possibly."

"I'm not really praetor material." Hiccup said, noticing Toothless finally coming back from a further down section where the fifth were stationed. He didn't have a note to pass on, so instead curled up against the side, out of peoples' way.

"whatever you say mister chief's son."

"I left Berk because I was bad at being a chief's son." Hiccup snickered, noticing the sky growing lighter as the sun approached.

"suuuuure." Aeliana smirked lightly.

"what's that supposed to m-"

Several dragons rushed past, taking their place in the bigger trenches and ready for battle.

"the dragon hunters are on their way."

Hiccup inhaled deeply and peered over the edge of the trench, wincing when the wooden step creaked.

He could see the ships coming in, just barely. There was a thin fog over the water, dispersing more and more as the sun rose further.

He took his spyglass from toothless's saddle and focused on the ships side's, looking for landing ships.

"I don't see any landing teams or ships," Hiccup mumbled, scanning again, "no wait, there they are." The ships were surrounding them and now they were closer to the shore they were parting to allow them to land.

"how many?"

"maybe thirty? No, forty. A good twenty per ship, although it looks like they've squeezed closer to twenty-five in some." He sighed, "and I can see more ships in the distance with their landing boats still tied on and empty."

"so we'll be fighting close to a thousand." Aeliana waved over a messenger, "where are you headed?"

"the fifth, sir."

"tell them we estimate about a thousand soldiers shore-bound, have someone pass along a reply if they estimate otherwise. If we hear nothing we'll assume our own numbers." She ordered.

"yes, sir."

"Hiccup," she took her shield from behind her. It was one of the smaller ones, designed for manoeuvrable battle not the large shield walls that every soldier was taught to do, "I'll swap you."

"excuse me?" his hand drifted to his shield, a larger one made for the shield wall he was supposed to be taking part in.

"I'll take your place at the front, you fight behind."

"you're kidding."

"no," she handed him the shield, taking his, "Charlotte is swapping with Atticus, too."

"why? We planned this already, why change now?"

"don't worry about it, I take it you were paying attention enough to know my orders?"

"yes, but-"

"don't worry. Charlotte okayed it, that means it's smart." She smiled, fixing the larger shield onto her left forearm, rolling her shoulder to acquaint herself with the weight.

"well, yeah, but it seems risky to mess with things now," he fixed the smaller shield to his own arm regardless, he trusted Aeliana's judgement, and Charlotte's.

Aeliana rolled her eyes, peering over the trench again, face going grim.

"they're close?"

"close enough to worry."

"brilliant."

"like you said, Hiccup," she tucked her spyglass away in Spark's saddle bag, scratching the spot behind his head absentmindedly, "we've planned this down to the very last obstacle. It'll be fine."

"yeah, I'm sure." But if that were entirely true, he wouldn't be sensing oncoming death so strongly.

It hung low over the trenches.

It sunk deep into his bones as the sun rose, chased away by the light.

Death whispered in his ears as the front-line soldiers made their way to the outlooking trenches. Hiccup scratched behind Toothless's ear-flaps and twisted the ring on his middle right finger with his thumb. His sword flicked into existence, the hilt fitting perfectly into his palm.

He stretched his senses out, breaking past the cold of the trenches to the cold of the ocean where more lives hovered with candle lights of life flickering as they approached their doom.

He looked down his section of the trench, drawing back in on himself. Everything sharpened into a wicked clarity, his ears twitched at the sudden influx of sound. At the end of his section of the trench, before it twisted back on itself, stood Jael. She gave Ex and Plode a pat on their saddle then sent them off to the back of the trenches where Verlin was. He was the master archer of their three legion's group of legionnaires, hence was leading all the archers from behind with the cavalry. Most of the archers had dragons and were becoming a middle ground of cavalry and archers, taking to the sky and shooting at the ships and the back of the enemy's lines. Verlin had teamed with a fellow archer who would take Jael's place as the second rider of Ex and Plode, Jael herself remaining in the trenches to call shots.

They hadn't been happy at the fact they'd be separating for this battle.

And now it loomed, big and dark and monstrous

The sun made halfway above the horizon as the dragon hunters hit the sand.

A hush fell over the trenches. Hiccup thought it had been quiet before, but now the only sound was the wind whipping over the sand and the shouts of the hunters as they ordered themselves on-land.

Hiccup took a deep breath and exhaled every bit of air he had in his lungs.

He thought back to his time on Berk, far simpler. He never would have made it here under normal circumstances.

He ran out of air and took another deep breath, in through the nose out through the mouth.

He stepped onto the wooden ledge, hunched below the sand so he wouldn't be seen. Behind him the men he'd be fighting with lined themselves along the trench. Aeliana had long since gone further up the trench-line with the other shield-wall soldiers- where originally he was supposed to be. He tried to imagine what she was thinking but couldn't. he could barely figure out what he was thinking himself.

He dug his sword into the sand, ready to use it as leverage to haul himself up over the edge.

There was a ring in his ears, high pitched and expectant.

There were fellow soldiers at his sides, ready, grim faced.

The ring was interrupted as a battle cry roared louder than any sound he could possible fathom. Louder than the dark, louder than the hunters.

Louder than the red death.

And then hundreds of roman soldiers sprung up from the trenches, just under a hundred yards from the awaiting hunters. The soldiers fell into line with ease and their shields clanged as they locked them together. Two lines of shield-walls. Their cue.

He sprung up from his trench, his fellow soldiers with him.

They lined up as well as the shield-wall advanced.

And so did the hunters.

They were insane.

But the shield-wall kept going.

And so did he.

And so did all the soldiers springing from the trenches.

Because they were romans and they would fight before their home was invaded. They would crawl their way to freedom, victory, safety. They would stare death in the eyes, teeth bared and spit at its feet.

And Drago Bludvist had threatened to take everything from them.

And they would not allow it.

A/N

'oh yeah guys, I'll do a monthly update schedule, blah-blah, love you, bye'

I can't even hold to one month, god damn XD.

anyway, re-written chapters? haven't heard any feedback yet y'all??