The Gift Of Power | Wattys 2020 (Dance of Power Trilogy: Book 1)

Epilogue 3

The morning after the feast dawned with a distinct taste of sweet and sour. Now that the Red Death had been defeated it was time for the allies to head back to their own islands. New treaties would be drawn up and signed at The Thing next year, but right now it was time for tearful goodbyes.

The fear and uncertainty of the looming battle had brought the tribes together in a way they had never thought possible. They were all returning home with deeper ties to each other. As well as the knowledge that they were released from the constant threat of dragon raids. They also now had their own troops of highly skilled dragon riders to protect them from any other threat that may come along.

During the night, the call of "raid" had been sounded as a group of dragons were spotted flying towards the village. It had turned out to be a false alarm however. There were indeed dragons coming to Berk, but not to raid. The wild dragons that had now been freed from the queen had come to seek a new home with their rescuers. Astrid was only slightly surprised as she watched the Vikings welcome them with open arms.

Now that it was morning, the refugee dragons were being divided up amongst the tribes. Everyone offering space and resources to shelter them. Meanwhile, Hiccup and Ilweran had called a final meeting at the academy. Apparently they still had one last lesson they wanted to teach the riders before leaving. As Astrid walked to the academy with Minden and the boys, she kept trying to pester them to tell her what they had planned, but no matter how hard she tried they kept their silence. A familiar wicked gleam in their gorgeous eyes. They were clearly up to something.

When they got there it was to find the floor covered with an assortment of beautiful new weapons. Every single one of them bearing the telltale decorations of Hiccup's own work. After allowing everyone to gape longingly at the arrangement for a while, he laughed and said, "these are for you. Consider them a graduation present. They will not break or loose their edge easily and will resist the natural decay of time. Pick whichever one suits you the best to keep as your own. The remainders will be divided up between the tribal chiefs for future riders."

Astrid stood to the side and watched everyone clamber to grab their favourite from the array. Her axe was already a perfect weapon. Even stronger than those Hiccup had made for the riders, and his own shield magic woven into it gave her a constant feeling of safety and love. Kept him with her wherever she went. No, she had no desire for a new axe. Ever. Instead, she leaned closer to Hiccup and asked, "when in Hel's name did you find the time to make all of these?"

He gave her one of his shifty sideways glances. "Well, remember all those nights that I was avoiding you. I was using that time to make these."

This seemed like a very reasonable answer to Astrid. Until she took another look at just how many weapons there were. "You made every single one of these over the span of a couple weeks in between training and sleeping," she asked him skeptically.

"Maybe..." he hedged. She gave him a look. "Can we talk about this later? Ilweran and I really do have something planned for the day and it will be terribly distracting for me if I upset you right now." Astrid crossed her arms huffily at his words, but conceded. Hiccup just laughed as Ilweran stepped forward to address the riders.

"Now that you all have your fancy new weapons, we are going to do something a little different today. The final lesson that you must learn is humility. Hiccup and myself both feel that the best way to do this is by breaking in those weapons with a little sparring match..." Everyone looked at him in alarm and began muttering quietly. Were they really going to be expected to spar each other with these extremely sharp blades? How was that going to teach them anything except how to find Gothi's hut? Ilweran's next words shocked everyone into silence. "...Against us."