Hiccup heaved in a deep breath, brief shivers racked his shoulders, then he released every bit of air in his lungs.

The dark crept at him, shadows edging in his vision. Cold seeping in. he was not dressed for this, a long-sleeved shirt, pants and fur lined boots- he could get sick, or even hypothermia.

But that was the point- kind of. He was supposed to be testing his limits, letting the sharp edge of the chill focus him and the darkness around him calm him. wrap him up in shadows and protect him from the outside.

He was, however, having some difficulties.

"you need to relax."

"I'm trying." He ground out, teeth clenched from the cold. His jaw ached, shoulders tensed. He tried to force them to relax but it wasn't working the way he wanted it to.

"don't try, no one gets anywhere with this stuff by just trying." Pluto stood by a tree, melting into the shadows. His hair and clothes shifted as usual, but now Hiccup couldn't tell where they ended and the darkness began. The trees around them swallowed up every detail.

Hiccup sighed, "I can use my powers just fine, I don't see the point to this." His eyes drifted to Toothless, curled up under a tree to his right, his red tail the only thing with a chance at being visible. With how dilated his eyes were they were too dark to stand out. the dragon offered a supportive warble, head resting on his legs in front of him.

"yes, but you're only using them. Connecting yourself to them when you need to and only as much as necessary. It hinders you and makes it more difficult to use them, as well as more taxing." Pluto pushed off the tree he was leaning against and stood in front of Hiccup, a few metres away, "you've got to connect to your abilities in a way that allows you to constantly keep connected without attempting or focusing. It has to be natural. These abilities are apart of you now, siphoning them off and separating them from you can only lead to bad things."

"alright, okay, thank you for the exposition." Hiccup took another deep breath. And another. In and out. in. and out. he rested his hands on his legs, crossed in front of him. His eyes drifted closed. His sight turned a deeper black, no longer from the shadows but his lacking sight.

He breathed in.

He heard Pluto sit down, just barely. He moved so silently, like a wraith or a ghost. Honestly, Hiccup wouldn't be surprised if he actually was. But he heard his breathing.

He exhaled.

"let your mind drift into a meditative state. It's not about thinking of nothing, it's about letting yourself... be. let your mind wander, watch your thoughts come and drift. Don't focus on the once, or the soon. Just live in the now."

Hiccup breathed in. heard thoughts clamouring through his mind. Let them stream through without control. Wondering about possible illness, the workings of his legion, the twins' mischief making, his sudden friendship with Astrid, the issues in the north, his inventions..

He exhaled and he let the thoughts go. He didn't think of them much more than the initial notions.

"good, keep going." Pluto mumbled. Hiccup could tell he was meditating, too. Letting his thoughts sink deep, deep, deep down. All the way to the underworld Hiccup hadn't visited past the mental trip just over three years prior.

He kept breathing, noticed passingly that less thoughts drifted in. the cold seemed so far away. So distant. Why care about the chill? He was too busy sinking into himself. His mind drifted and he forgot about his surroundings. The dark edged in but he did not care.

He distantly heard toothless, shifting in the land of the physical. But he was far, far, far below. Mind sinking down, down, down.

He exhaled, and he felt something shift. He opened himself to his powers like he had many times before, the action easier with his mind so still.

He felt it. the shadows. The dark. The decaying life around him, the leaves deteriorating, animals hiding in the ground, in burrows, everywhere burning with life, others with something else. Not quite the opposite, but... something.

It was the same feeling he'd gotten on the few battlefields he'd stepped onto. Death. Lingering. Animals nearing the end, the cycle of everything constantly moving, changing.

The cold didn't touch him, the shadows shifted around him, the air he exhaled wasn't warm but chilled. He could feel Pluto in front of him, so different to everything around him, old and powerful and other.

And he could recognise his own self too. Something about him different, similar to the god in front of him, but still human. Very human.

And, gods, he could sense the camp nearby to. The many Roman soldiers bustling about, even at this late.

Juno's shawl, he could feel everything.

Everything.

"there you go." Pluto's voice brought him back, pulled him out of it by the neck.

He opened his eyes, but it was still there. The power. The feeling.

The dark didn't stop him from seeing, it shifted in a way hiccup could not just predict, but feel. Toothless warbled in surprise. He could feel him, too. That strange dragon signature, but also the dark one he recognised in him and Pluto. And something else, some other power.

"now use it." Hiccup focused back on Pluto, he was smiling and Hiccup couldn't stop himself from doing the same. "try something."

"like what?" he'd done the whole 'summoning bones' thing before. It helped when he needed to distract someone or trip them up on the battlefield, but that was it. and he'd been able to sense people dying and moving to the underworld, but he'd closed it off. It was distracting most times. what else could he do? It was too dark to noticeably move shadows around.

Pluto disappeared from in front of him, appearing again next to his tree, standing up, "try that."

Hiccup's eyebrows shot up, "what?"

"try it."

Hiccup almost scoffed, hands shifting from his legs in exasperation. He considered asking Pluto how, but he knew he'd get a similar answer to before.

"go on."

Hiccup sighed, sitting up straight. He was noticing the cold again, but distantly. There was cold, but he wasn't cold. Just like it was dark, but he could see. He couldn't really put how into words, just that he could.

He went back to meditating, eyes open this time. His mind calmed faster than before and the power he felt thrummed in his veins as naturally as his blood. He sat up straight by reflex, standard military procedure kicking in without anything else to rely on. He breathed, relying instead on his powers. They seemed to guide him through the movement, he focused on the spot next to Toothless, he'd leaned against him many times by a fire in the same spot.

He closed his eyes again, imprinting the spot in his mind's eye. He could smell Toothless, feel his warmth... even from here.

The shadows clung, he could sense them cocooning around him.

There was a rush in his ears, the cold spiked, the shadows stretched, wind whistled and Hiccup's breathing hitched. For a moment everything seemed vague. He couldn't feel the ground, he couldn't sense the animals around him, he couldn't smell the dirt and he couldn't hear anything past the wind in his ears.

And as soon as it came it went, and Toothless let out a surprised growl. Hiccup's eyes flew open, he was staring right at toothless's side, his wing folding out in surprise.

Hiccup laughed as he stood, "that's amazing!"

Pluto was smiling as well, Hiccup could see the pride radiating from it and he swelled at the thought of it.

"you can consider the shadows just as much your domain as the physical plane. As long as you can connect yourself to the shadows you can travel through them."

Toothless was brushing up against his hand, smelling him and warbling.

Hiccup scratched behind his ears, "what's wrong bud?"

Toothless licked his palm, cooing happily.

A dragon flew over-head, a nightmare judging by the wings, and settled in a clearing not far away.

"that'll be Aeliana, I should get going."

"true, yes," Pluto pushed off the tree and settled his hands on Hiccup's shoulders, "but for now, good job. You're progressing amazingly."

Hiccup nodded. Pluto disappeared into the shadows and Hiccup and Toothless started in the direction of Aeliana and Sparks.

Jupiter hated dragons.

He was god of the sky, god of thunder, god of lightning, god of power. He was king. A king among men and a king among gods.

He owned the domain of the sky, the largest domain, the most important and the most powerful, the one every human lived near, settled between the sky and the ground or even the sea. No one touched his domain except the birds he loved, soaring through it with majesty worthy of him.

No one touched his domain except the birds... and the dragons.

Unlike the birds he hated the dragons. Despised them.

They were disgusting beasts, bastards of the elements. Borne of every power known to man and unknown. A monstrosity created of dastardly origins. And they dared to live in his domain. Dared to sully his divine and sacred space.

But he could not destroy them, not in any way that mattered.

Their were other gods who loved them, who claimed specific breeds as their animals who watched for them. Delivered information. Minerva loved those Storm Cutters, Mercury had a soft spot for Razor Whips, Neptune liked Thunder drums, Vesta was often in the company of Terrible Terrors, etcetera, etcetera, so on and so forth.

He could not wipe out every dragon who entered his sky, he'd bring the retribution of every god under the sun. a few would not strike out against their king, but if all of them made a move? He'd be done for. He wasn't particularly inclined to wage a war over the worthless beasts.

So he had to be smart about this. Had to be cunning. Had to think his way through the problem.

He reminded himself of this every time he was within easy earshot of Drago Bludvist.

The man was insufferable. He was stubborn and arrogant and egotistical and self-obsessed and vain and...

Well the worst part of it all was that he reminded him quite a bit of himself.

The man couldn't see past his own endeavours. He was entirely focused on destroying any evidence of dragons being at all peaceful, taking down the dragon sanctuary, enslaving an army of the beasts and ruling with an iron fist over the archipelago and maybe even some of the nearby settlements. He thought he was the only one clear-headed enough to know what was right for civilisation.

His bull-headed attitude helped Jupiter lead him like an ass by a chain. All he had to do was plant ideas in his head in a way that let him believe he'd thought of it, then offer all the help he could. Schematics of Roman cities, information on their armies, standard weapons, everything he could give without raising suspicions or using any of his godly abilities.

That did not mean he enjoyed watching the man interrogate a good roman centurion. The woman didn't deserve it, she'd merely been in the wrong place at the wrong time. He wouldn't say he loved the humans, but those who fought in the name of the Roman Empire did not deserve this kind of treatment.

But he could not blow his cover.

So he stood there as the woman screamed. Clenched his jaw as he listened to it happen. It was a punishment to himself, a reminder as to why he was failing.

She did not tell Drago anything, Jupiter whispered a blessing to her spirit as it passed, she would make it into Elysium, for protecting her fellow soldiers in this way she would receive nothing else.

Then he drew himself up, pulled himself together, and he changed his plans.

Aeliana hated to be the bearer of bad news, but it seemed to have become her job.

She'd stood grim faced as the messenger rambled, panting by the end after giving the report. She'd called a meeting as soon as they'd finished, giving the order to find the legionnaires and praetors in the camp- the fifth and fourth, but the seventh had some of their members present- so they could have a meeting about what she'd learned.

Then she'd set out to find Hiccup, having been told earlier that day that he'd be off in the woods with Pluto.

He'd been beaming when he met up with her in the clearing, Toothless was bounding about with a facial expression as close to smiling as a dragon could get.

Aeliana sighed through her nose, "sorry to destroy the good mood, but we've got an issue."

Hiccup's face went stony, noticing the demeanour Aeliana was carrying. Straight back, hands behind, feet shoulder width apart, chin up. Praetor mode was activated.

"what's happened?" he entered his version of that mode as well, military procedure drummed into him already- he almost smiled at the thought that it only took three years. He was a legionnaire taking orders from his Praetor, friend or not.

Aeliana swallowed, breathing deep, not wanting to think about the shudder to it. she'd been on a battlefield before, she'd fought, she'd won.

A little voice at the back of her head whispered the truth though: this was different.

"we're heading to the North," she said, "the fourth and fifth legions are being dispatched."

A/N

I think it goes without saying that not all chapters are going to be almost 6000 words. In fact the last one was supposed to be two but I figured I'd be nice and give you all a lot of lovely words. sadly, I am not a writing machine that rivals Rick Riordan, and it doesn't help that I have school and a life.

But regardless, enjoy, prepare for some angst, blah, blah, bye.