Trial and Error

King Toothless was currently with his second-in-command and personal adviser, Stardust, and Nightrainbow. They're presently inside the assembly hall that would host the peace talks negotiations.

At the moment, Stardust was going over with him some of the proper protocols for hosting such a meeting. Since this was such a crucial gathering, they needed to make certain there weren't any unanticipated complications.

"Now everyone has an assigned seat, based on their clan and origin. We've decided to make sure we don't have more chaos then we need everyone is to be seated in alphabetical order. Based on name and location," she elucidated as they leisurely strolled through the empty hall.

"Sounds like an excellent system, Stardust. Now once everyone is seated, what is to happen next?" The King questioned his second-in-command, who promptly answered.

"The main table is where you, Queen Moon Shadow, Prince Aaron, and Crown Prince Hiccup's family will be seated. For the opening speeches, you and the other delegates will walk up to the podium.

You'll each get to make a five-minute speech. The speech is to consist of welcoming the others, followed by saying what clan you represent. The rest of the statement should be about telling what you hope to achieve and then ending with you thanking everyone for coming once more."

"Well, I hope I can come up with a good speech. Also, no-one gets stage fright from not being good at public speaking."

"I've taken care of that, King Toothless. I've sent our best linguists to assist all emissaries with writing their speeches. I've even come up with some prepared ones in case you didn't have time for it." Nightrainbow informed his King and friend.

"Well, it sounds like everything is coming along magnificently. Now, what about security?"

"The guards have been going through a strict training regiment for the last three weeks. Ready to act on a moment notice. Our handmaidens have also trained in self-defense along with their normal duties." Stardust supplied.

"So Captain Safeguard and his lieutenants Search and Protect have already assigned everyone their duties?"

"Yes, my liege," Nightrainbow answered this time. "The Royal Guards

Stormfly, Day Glider, Meatlug, and Granite are assigned to protect those attending the peace talks. Hookfang. Ember Barf, Belch, and Clover and Thistle will be doing stander shifts around the rest of the Palace."

"What about their human partners?"

"Their human partners will be working side by side with them. The rest of the guard will be doing different shifts patrolling and maintaining order with the rest of the kingdom."

"Well, it's good to know that security is in top form for these peace talks."

"Thank you, my King. Everyone is seeking to do their best to make sure these peace talks are successful."

"Well, let's hope so, King Toothless. Why don't you spend some time with your wife in the Palace spa? You should be relaxing before tackling something so stressful," suggested Stardust.

Smiling his toothless smile, Toothless nodded, "Yes, I think I'll go do just that. Please finish your own duties as quickly as possible so you may join us."

"Will do!" the two of them said as their King smiled again and left to join his queen in the natural hot springs housed behind the Palace and used for relaxing."

In the meantime, Princess Mims was carrying out her own obligations. She had already visited the public educational institution as well as had some afternoon tea with the royal tutor Soulwings.

Now she was heading to the Church to have a serious discussion with Sister Pearl. After all, the religious belief of the Draco Beings was her responsibility. Furthermore, she didn't desire to let down her in-laws by not checking into the house of prayer.

The majestic Royal Chapel was adjacent to Palace. It sat on a lovely grass-covered light-green hill with a beautiful garden ringing the outside of the holy building. The inside was just as impressive as the outside.

Countless various individuals operated the Church. After the end of the first conflict that Hiccup and his siblings had resolved, the Church had expanded. Now both humans and Draco Beings held positions within the Church. The faculty held the same positions as an ordinary church building on Earth. They just wore different articles of clothing and peculiar jewelry to identify their ranks and positions.

The place of worship was overflowing with several holy icons, along with silk tapestries, candles, and pews. There was a place for musical entertainment and an altar.

At the moment, a music practice session was going on. The choir was a blending of both humans and Draco Beings of all ages. The Draco Being's church choir was as good as the Dragon Choir Una had assembled in her first life back on Berk.

The Church also did have confessionals to bear one's heart secrets. Right now, practitioners have occupied lighting candles and offering their prayers up at the altar. Instead of the crucifix, there was a giant sculpture of White King and Silver Queen embracing in a loving kiss

The Head of the Church was Sister Pearl. An enchantingly beautiful Nightmare who was the sister of Hookfang's wife. Unlike the nuns of the Earth dressed in black and white, she was in pink and gold.

Due to Draco Beings' unique physiology, ever species still retained some characteristics of their dragon selves. Due to her horns, she didn't wear the headdress of a human nun. Instead wore a glittery pink veil. Her earrings fashioned from blue kyanite and purple fluorite.

She was busy talking to the choir teacher when Princess Mims approached her. "Sister Pearl? May we speak?"

Turning around the Draco Being nun exclaimed, "Princess Mims! Oh, what a delight to see you! You've only grown more beautiful since I last laid eyes on you!" as she rushed over to hug the human princess.

"I assure you it's a delight to see you as well. Is there a private place we can go and talk to?"

"Yes, my chambers, come, please come," as she ushered her out. She only paused a moment to tell one of the other nuns they were in charge while she was in a meeting.

After making some tea, she and Mims got down to business. I was informing her that to a unique spell that Azurewings had cast a while ago. That letters were being sent from the Haddocks to the Dragon Kingdom.

"I indeed found one gift in particular truly captures my interest. As you know, we've our own 'bible' as they call it. But they sent me one of their own. Along with a book titled everyday prayers for everyday care. I had Azurewings use a duplication potion to make copies for your Realm's library."

"Thank you, Sister Pearl. I know that any holy book has words of wisdom. So what are some words of wisdom from the Earth's Bible?"

"Well, I wrote the more important ones down for our weekly sermon. Ever since we received it, we spent half an hour every Sunday reading some passages from the human Bible before reading our own."

"What are you gonna read to me?"

"Prayers about virtuous behavior." as the Draco Being flipped through her notes and began to read some of the highlight passages from the Human Bible.

"Be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun go down on your wrath. Ephesians 4: 26.

Forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors" Matthew 6: 12

Frustration "For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men." 1 Peter 2: 15

Mercy: "Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy." Matthew 5:7

Wisdom: "Wisdom is better than rubies, And all the things one may desire cannot be compared with her." Proverbs 8:11

"Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part, You will make me know wisdom. Psalm 51:6

Proverbs 6:16-20 "There are SIX things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in a community. My son, keep your father's command and do not forsake your mother's teaching."

"Those are very enlightening words, without a doubt. I'm sure my in-laws will take great pleasure in reading that book once we make it home.

Now I wanted to go over with you some of what I had written to be said as this Sunday's sermon."

"Sure, show me what you have, and we'll try and blend the two," as Mims handed Sister Pearl some of her notes.

"Because of the first step to changing the world. Is changing how people think and feel. All of us grew up with certain mindsets because of what we'd been taught in our childhood. You were raised to think and feel a certain way.

So now it's your turn to try and look through other eyes and see the world eyes that are unclouded by hate. You all began your journey by unlearning what you learned before and start anew. For it not just about seeing the world with eyes unclouded by hate.

Now all of you must be able to tell the more significant difference between what you and who you are."

"You must go from the east to the west no matter how rocky and far the trail is. Its the most dangerous of quests, but it's worth it if you want to answer the question of who you are.

There are many voices all around you to comfort and guide you. You'll find many different teachers, but you must listen most to the voice that sings inside you.

But never get scared and turn back around. Know your friends are they to help you. Don't think you need rest, for you must complete this quest. Because you got to know who you are.

And more importantly than just answering that question, you must also be able in the end not only to figure out who you are at the same time you must be prepared at the end of it truly See who everyone else is as well.

You can't even separate what you are from who you are, and if you fail to do that, you are abandoning one of the most important lessons of life itself." Sister Pearl finished reading what Princess Mims had written for her sermon.

It was also very enlightening and would do well for that Sunday's service. They continued to talk about other matters of religion.

For the younger generation who resided in the Palace, they're busy with both schoolwork and training. Valka and Astrid had agreed to join them, so their bodyguard Deadly Siren wasn't overwhelmed.

After all, watching so many children, both human and Draco Being, couldn't have been easy for just one woman, no matter how great a warrior she was. So they're in a private courtyard right now.

Soulwings was finishing with their schoolwork lessons. He was going over with them a detailed history lesson of how the Dragon Kingdom came to be as well as all the wars they ever had.

Maybe on Earth, school and Church were separate, but here they were very intertwined as they both went side by side. Right now, Soulwings was speaking of the first murder in their world that led to the first Holy War.

"As you can see, when White King's younger brother, who correct name we do not know, committed the most inhuman act there is by shedding the blood of his own family?

Though his older brother gave the younger Prince mercy, the anger from the younger led to many battles yet to come. While our knowledge isn't complete on all the events connecting the Realm of the Eternal Sun to the Pit of Black Flames, we can account for some of it.

That it was brother vs. brother when the younger forsakes his heart and ability to love, this leads to war to claim the divine right to rule all. We, the mortal children of White King and Silver Queen, were caught in the middle of a family feud.

As you all know, from studying our scriptures, there were many critical battles, but the overall loss of life was unforgivable. Over a thousand lives were lost on both sides, and much of our world was destroyed.

In the end, we can be thankful that Prince Aaron Morningstar was born, and a new dawn came. Even if due to the lack of understanding in mental health led to the war between humans and Draco Beings, I think we can safely say we now know why war must be avoided at all costs."

The children agreed and offered up their thoughts and read their essays on the subject. They also did a small pretend peace talk of their own about what they'd do if they're adults and joining in.

After another hour of schooling, it was time to train. Valka and Astrid had suggested some training exercises of their own for the children of the Dragon Kingdom.

Deadly Siren was a bit skeptical at first with the exercise they wanted to give the children. Though they assured that these were excellent skill-building exercises that everyone in Dragon City took part in during Family Night at the community center, they agreed.

As they walked to the training grounds, Deadly Siren addressed Valka. "Queen Valka, I do feel you have the best interest at heart for the children of the Dragon Kingdom, whether they be Draco Being or human.

I still feel a tad be skeptical about these exercises or how they will prepare the children for the challenges ahead."

"I know you have your doubts, Deadly Siren. But as much as you and their parents want to cultivate their natural powers, it's also vitally important that children learn about themselves and trusting one another."

"That is true. The rest of our friends, when they did these exercises back home, only made us have stronger friendships and a great deal more confidence. It also helps ensure that the five districts that makeup Dragon City continue to work together." Crown Princess Astrid stated.

"Well, given how many children we have, I trust you'll agree it's good if we break them up into smaller groups? There well over thirty children here we need to train!" Deadly Siren pointed out a matter of factly.

"Yes, we can do that. We'll make each work in groups of ten children making sure we have got a mix of humans and Draco Beings. We'll work each group for an hour each, and then we shall rotate them into the next group," Valka decided, and Deadly Siren agreed with the human queen.

"Very well, I shall be working with my group to improve their physical bodies. So we shall do exercises that focus on building up endurance, stamina and improve the body's flexibility and strength."

"I'll be working on helping them transform themselves. There are more then a few exercises that can help transform someone. And that doesn't mean they physically transform into another thing. Rather they transform themselves into better people," Valka informed the bodyguard what she was going to have her group work on.

"And I'll handle the trust exercises. Building trust is vitally important. If we have time at the end of the three hours, maybe we will work on their actual powers."

"Or we can work on those tomorrow. I agree with what your suggesting now that I've heard a bit more about it. But for the duration of the peace talks, we will spend one day working on these special exercises and the next day working on their actual powers."

"Sounds good. So let's divide them up and start, shall we?" Valka suggested. It wasn't easy dividing over thirty kids up. But they made sure again it was a mix of both humans and Draco Beings as well as boys and girls so no one accuses them of sexism.

Deadly Siren took her group to one of the larger areas of the courtyard to being her lessons with the children. Deadly Siren wasn't the fiercest and most deadly warrior in the Dragon Kingdom for nothing. When it came to her idea of training, one didn't just break a sweat no far from it. You sweated bloody tears because her training was the most intense you'd ever be put through.

It was anything but easy; in fact, it was demanding and rigorous. The Night Fury warrior woman didn't accept anything less then perfection from her students.

The first part of her training regiment was running five miles, followed up by climbing up and down the most prominent staircase they possessed ten times. She also made them do sit-ups, crunches, and push-ups.

She did this sort of training every day for herself, so it was second nature to her. She hoped, with more time, practice, and discipline, it would become as useful for her charges as it been for her.

To improve their balance, she had them stand on a small wall with a mat on both sides. They'd to learn to keep their balance and dodge at the same time as hard rotten food was thrown at them.

Her other idea of training was to make sure they could defend themselves no matter what. So she then blindfolded and had their ears plugged, to teach them to rely on instinct. She also would tie up an arm or leg to show what happened if one of your body parts failed you.

In later lessons, all of them would learn to use all manner of weapon ideally. She wanted them by the end of their training able to hit the mark every time, whether it be daylight or nighttime.

She also wanted them to be ambidextrous. And learn the vital lessons of using your opponents' weakness against them. But the ultimate experience was also to realizes a fight avoided was a fight won.

Once they'd achieved the level she desires, she would have them participate in a grueling race through an obstacle course. Deadly Siren was pretty hard with her students.

Valka's exercise was a little less hardcore. For starters, she had them engage in a rather unusual version of charades. She wanted them to look at the people around them and then 'transform' themselves into the other person. And then everyone would take turns guessing who they were portraying.

She also taught them the importance of how smiling dramatically improves your chances in countless different situations.

Astrid's trust exercises were very challenging but rewarding. First, she'd them learn to walk a very low tightrope, which isn't as easy as it looks. Then they had people pair off. One person was blindfold, and their partner had to lead them through an obstacle course.

After that, the partners were back to back. They had to do a few simple tasks while trusting the other to have done their job. This involved building a tower, drawing the same picture and successfully carrying a large object across a distance. The overall point of these exercises was to help develop belief, trust, and confidence.

So for the next few days, that's what the children and Mims were up too. When the peace talks started a few days later, they surely weren't going to be easy but hopefully worth it in the end.

As long as there was good communication, good manners, and people willing to listen and compromise, they shouldn't have any problems. It was essential to learn to listen. Not just repeat what someone said but actually HEAR them.

What they're thinking and feeling their thoughts, ideas, and opinions. But also, it was essential to work together and come up with the best approach by listening to many. That everyone was given a voice and that no one was treated more important then anyone else.

That what would make these peace talks successful. Though Liry's objective could ensure that didn't happen. She plans to sew the seeds of discord and make sure to drive wedges between people by playing on their weakness and pettiness.

She was also hoping to gain more people under her control during the peace talks. She wanted to persuade people to see things as she and her family saw them.

Though how likely she was to succeed wasn't for sure. It was all up in the air at the moment. And anything and everything could happen from this point on.