When in Rome

decisions

Hiccup stared at the wood ceiling, tracing the grain with his eyes.

Under him, Verlin lay in his bunk, reading some book by candlelight. To Hiccup's left was the wall, his right rows of other bunks. There were romans in several of the beds, some reading by candlelight as well, others sleeping. Against the wall, at the foot of the bottom bunk, Toothless was curled up. The night fury was rather grumpy that the only available bunk had been a top one and therefore couldn't be closer to his rider.

Hiccup was still wrapping his head around the day's events. He'd been given a short tour of the camp he was in and Aeliana Archiater explained how most things worked. She had sent word to the emperor the day before about him and was awaiting a response. But if all went as she expected, he could join the fourth legion.

Hiccup didn't know why, but he wanted to join. He wanted to become one of these centurions, wanted to fight to protect these people who were welcoming him in, wanted to... live in Rome? the idea was almost funny with how ridiculous it was, except unlike most ridiculous ideas this was possible.

He didn't have to be a soldier. He could open a forge, a library, could teach people about dragons, for the first time in his life he had every option he could think of. But... there was something drawing him to the military.

And Aeliana and Atticus- the blond guy who's hair was so bright it could be molten Gronkle lava- were both excited about his ability to befriend dragons and wanted to learn everything. Aeliana expected the emperor would be, too, so had also asked if he could take trainees and teach them about dragon riding. His blessing and letter from Pluto was giving him some good chances.

It was a lot.

And now he was sleeping in a Roman military barracks, everything alien and different to him. He needed to talk about this to someone. But everyone here was... well, they were nice and welcoming, but they didn't have the added experience of living in the archipelago for years.

So he crawled out of bed, getting a warning from Verlin that monsters lurked in the dark, and snuck to the forest around the camp. He found a terror quicker then he expected, quietly thanking what ever deity existed that the Romans didn't kill dragons every second they lived and won it over with some dried meat and made it smell the spyglass he had.

It took some time and a lot of over-communication, but eventually the terror seemed to understand what scent to follow and that it had to keep hold of the letter. As it flew off Hiccup shivered, it was a lot warmer here than Berk, but the night seemed to have an unnatural edge to it here. Or maybe it had something to do with that Pluto guy and his cryptic warnings and ramblings about power and blessings.

Regardless of how much Hiccup really should be thinking about all that, he decided instead to hurry back to the barracks and snuggle under the blankets before Toothless woke up and realised he was gone. That dragon could be a real mother hen.

On his way back he stopped by a fire pit, rubbing his arms and shivering.

"I think you have underestimated the chill of a Roman winter night, Viking."

Hiccup jumped and whipped his head around, behind him a woman stood, wrapped in a shawl, tugged over her hair, and a flowing long-sleeved dress. Her hair was fiery red, unnaturally really, and her skin dark. Her eyes glowed- the fire seemed to have moved from the hearth to her eyes, flickering like it lived there.

"take a seat, I'd like to have a chat," she moved around him and sat on one of the logs around the hearth, Hiccup did the same, watching her warily.

"who are you?" he asked, "how did you know I'm from the north?" he refused to call himself a Viking. It was a title he couldn't claim, and also one he didn't really want.