Home-Bound: The Beginnings (HTTYD)

23 - A Lesson In Latin

With a nod, Hiccup left with Allen to the cliffsides, where the archers were perched in front of fires. After making sure everything was alright, he flew back to Luneah, who ordered him to leave Toothless in the air with Midnight, and join the front lines.

Luneah stood there, quiescent, watching the battle take place. She had a guard of about fifty solders protecting her. Guards who were ordered to protect the future Elite with their lives. Several times Luneah was tempted to run into the battle with her comrades, but knew that it was not her duty. Her job was to observe the battle and only help when the Isunder army seemed to be loosing.

Luneah was too valuable of a person to lose to a lowly Roman soldier.

But apparently, all her friends were not so valuable...

Allen was somewhat safe, being up on the mountain with Sunset and the archers, up on the mountain, where the rugged terrain would make it impossible for the army to get up, especially since they don't know the island like the people on Isunder do.

Elise was acting as a surgeon for this battle, so she was arguably the safest one of them all.

Jeysannia was near the hills, at the middle of the army. She was to step ahead and spear any invader through the heart, in case anyone got through the flesh and metal wall that was the sword-fighting bodies.

Even so, she were being protected by the other spearmen, so Luneah wasn't worried about her.

It was Hiccup she was worried about.

He was at the very front, leading a battalion of swordsmen towards the Romans, holding his unlit sword in his hand, the others following suit. The Roman army continued growing in size, and Luneah espied Hiccup's hand jerk towards the flame button, but soon remove it.

The Isunder army walked forward, slashing blades and shooting arrows. The Roman army was nowhere near as organized as they were when Luneah was a child.

Something was off.

Luneah looked around at the fog, straining her eyes to see the fleet that was most certainly there, hidden behind the fog.

But there wasn't anything there...

The boats were empty and tied to the ships in front with rope. There were no soldiers on them. It was simply a trick. To make their army seem larger than it actually was.

It all made sense to Luneah now.

The Romans were desperate for food and shelter, so they attacked the place that's culture was closest to theirs. Isunder just happened to be the closest victim. The Roman Republic was falling.

Luneah immediately ordered a capture-all and handed out the rope she kept in her pack to those that needed it.

After all that she had done, only a mere hundred survived from the two thousand that showed up. All were tied up, and thrown into the arena. All the villagers came out of the bunkers, along with Andreas, and his pregnant wife, Ava.

As she walked up the path to where all the Roman soldiers were standing, Hiccup walked up to her, soon falling into step.

He held black fabric in his hand. "Remember when I first took you to Berk?"

"Of course I do! That place was really great." She thought for a moment. "And cold. Very cold."

"These are the cloaks we wore. They should still fit. I thought you might want to look intimidating, and pitch black clothes do the right thing."