Chapter Three: Friendly Façade
The mood around the Great Hall had turned from battle ready to cautious curiosity. Ameilianus Augustus Aemilius had just come to Berk in a beaten up Roman trireme with a promise of Berk's 'salvation.' Needless to say, the confusion of the Vikings was evident! What they thought was coming to bring death and destruction had promised to save them! Given Berk's past encounter with the Romans, this promise was taken with a grain of salt, especially since there did not seem to be anything special about the visitor or his ship, other than being Roman!
Inside the Great Hall, Ameilianus and several of his crew members were sitting on one side of the great table, while the most important of Berk, including Hiccup and Stoick, sat on the other side. Ameilianus's cat, an Egyptian Mau, lay in front of his owner, taking a nap, seemingly oblivious to its surroundings. The silence was tense, and the only one completely calm was Ameilianus, as if he knew something everyone else didn't…
"So…um…" began Hiccup, not quite sure what to ask in this situation or how to politely point it out, "I…that is…we would like to know…um…"
"Why are you here?!" demanded Spitelout Jorgenson, angry that the Romans had not been run through when they landed. The Jofferson family had a lot of bad history surrounding the Romans…surrounding the Romans' last visit to Berk! So Needless to say, Spitelout was not happy about the current situation!
Many of the crew members of the Roman ship glared angrily at Spitelout; apparently they held their captain in high regards. Paradoxically, Aneilianus gave a small chuckle at Spitelout's behavior, before saying, "I feel there is a lot of…unfinished business between your friend and my people Hiccup. Regardless, I will be happy to speak to him about it after this gathering."
Standing up, Ameilianus look over to the assembled Vikings, Hiccup especially, the calm easy attitude of a door-to-door salesman and said, "The reason I have come to Berk is for no other reason than to help you with your current…situation. Now I suppose you are wonder 'just what could this little Roman brat know about Berk's troubles?!' Well, I know that you are currently facing a combined assault by the Outcasts and Bezerkers led by Dagur the Deranged, a well titled psychopath! I also know that a Screaming Death, a giant white sub-breed of Whispering Death, is set to attack Berk again, and you have yet to formulate a strategy to beat it! But most important of the things I know about Berk…I know that the Vikings of Berk have the ability to train dragons!"
Looks of shock and, in certain case ('cough' 'cough' Spitelout 'cough') horror, became etched on the Vikings faces. Berk had made it a point to keep the fact that they had the ability to train dragons a secret from all but their closest of allies. They were not always successful but the Outcasts and Bezerkers had no desire to share this information, as they want the power and glory for themselves! It was startling that Ameilianus could learn any of this on his own!
Smiling at their confusion, Ameilianus elaborate more, "I managed to cobble together some information about Berk from rumors sailors tell in their travels. Normally, I don't give much credence to such…idle gossip. But the fact that I keep hearing about so often and frequently, I just had to come to Berk and see it for myself! Of course on the way I learned about your troubles and I just had to come and offer my services!"
"And how far exactly have you travelled to get here?" asked Gobber, wonder how far rumors of Berk had truly spread. Truthfully, they had only been training dragons for a year; there was no way word could have spread that far!
"My family has travelled from the Mediterranean to Londinium(1), where as I have kept my travels mostly between Britannia and the Emerald Isle(2)! It was during my times in the Court of the Bear King, where I met the lovely Princess Merida that I first heard of Berk! Aaah, Merida(3)…." sighed Ameilianus, with a look of longing before composing himself and continuing.
"Anyway, I immediately began a journey up to the Barbaric Archipelago in search of Berk! Truthfully, I have run across…opposition due to the last visit my Roman ancestors made to this region, but I assure you that you have nothing to fear in that regard! For you see…as of fifty years ago…the Roman Empire has ceased to exist!" exclaimed Ameilianus dramatically.
For the Vikings of Berk, the reaction to the news of Rome's fall was surprisingly mixed! For years all the Vikings had ever heard of was the 'unconquerable, unstoppable, Roman Empire' and all the wonders and horrors that they brought with them. For Spitelout, he took the news with a grin on his face: finally his family's long time enemies were dead! He was only upset that they could not have brought down the final blow! Hiccup on the other hand was distressed. As a person who forged new ideas and concept, he had heard much about the good things the Romans had made, such as roads and libraries. And now all of that was just gone! Sure Romans were tyrants, but that made their fall only bittersweet!
Stoick, on the other hand, had other concerns which he sought to address, "How exactly did Rome fall? From what I was given to understand, they were highly formidable adversaries."
Forming his hands to rest his chin on them, Ameilianus began his explanation, "The fall of Rome could attributed to a lot of reasons, but the one that always stood out in my mind is simple: Rome just got too greedy. Allow me to explain, with each new emperor, Rome expanded into new territory as a show of those emperors' worth. Unfortunately, it got to a point where Rome had too much territory to properly guard and protect. This also led to another problem: the barbarians at the border."
Ameilianus took a moment to compose himself, as the subject he was discussing caused him undue stress. Letting out a sigh, he continued, "It is said that the best warriors learn from their enemies, what they don't mention is that the best enemies learn from the warrior as well! You see the Visigoths and other Germanic tribes learned from the Empire's legions; their tactics, their strategies, and even the Roman language. Part of what kept the barbarians from uniting was the lack of a common language, which Rome, unfortunately, provided. This allowed them to take advantage of the poorly guarded borders of the Roman Empire.
"It was years and years of fighting between the Roman Legion and the Barbarian Horde! To make matters worse, the eastern half of the Empire decided to split from Rome, over some religious disagreement! I don't know the whole story; the point is Rome was in bad shape! My family was among those who managed to charter some ships in order to find safe haven elsewhere! Now my family was loyal to Rome, even had a few Centurions in the past, but there was no way to save Rome expect one: preserve our knowledge!
"You see, my grandparents, along with several other minor families, had gathered together many documents about Roman culture, history, and science! They loaded onto various ships and headed off to safe haven! Now the journey was long and treacherous, we started out with about fifty triremes, when we reach Londinium, we only had thirty left! After that, they all decided to settle down and start a life, I was the…'ahem'…result some years later by my parents! After that, the rest is history!" finished Ameilianus with a flourish.
The Vikings around the table looked at each other, unsure of what to make of the story. Spitelout was suspicious of a Roman trick, while Gobber simple thought it was a lovely story. Hiccup wanted to believe the story the most because…well because it would be nice for a visitor to come the Berk without an ulterior motive, like with Dagur or Heather (though that one led to good results, come to think of it)!
In the end, Stoick took it upon himself to respond to the Roman's 'heartfelt story,' "Your story is…quite moving. But I have to point out that it does call your proposal into question?"
"How so?" asked Ameilianus, still sporting a confident grin.
"From your story, your family and remnants of Rome do not have a lot of manpower or weapons to offer. So how are you going to help in Berk's defense?" asked Stoick, hoping to get an idea of what Ameilianus was offering.
Spitelout sported a smirk of his own at that question. At last, they had a reason to kick the Roman to the curb! Berk did not need nor want the help of a Roman, or so Spitelout thought! So when Ameilianus gave his reply, Spitelout's hopes sank, "What if I could give you a rough date on when and how Dagur was planning to attack Berk?"
This cause Stoick to lose his stoic expression for an instant, before return to it and asking, "How would you have come by this information?"
Ameilianus leaned back in his chair, causing it to creak and his Mau to straighten up and stretch. Then he replied, "I'm sure your scouts could tell you I just arrived from Bezerk Island. During my usually trades, I heard Dagur discussing, or rather bragging, his plans to another Viking. He was a bit leaner than your usual Viking with a goatee and mustache that looked like the ends of a broom(4)."
"Savage!" Hiccup exclaimed alarmed. For Ameilianus to give such an accurate description, he had to have seen the Viking in question. Former second-in-command to Alvin the Terrible, he switched loyalties after Alvin's apparent demise. Hiccup was still unsure if that wily enemy was truly dead, but he had not shown up for months now! Anyway, this confirmed that Ameilianus was telling the truth, because while Dagur was infamous, Savage was more of a behind the scenes type of enemy.
"Yes, I believe that was his name! Anyway, I managed to overhear that Dagur is planning to attack Berk within seven days of my arrival here! Not that he knew I was coming of course! I just subtracted the days I was out at sea!" reassured Ameilianus, after seeing some of the Vikings ('cough' 'cough' Spitelout 'cough') becoming hostile.
Stoick stroked his beard and replied, "We thank you for this information. It will help us prepare for the upcoming attack. But I think you should get out of here. The Bezerker fleet won't care who they hit when they attack and-"
"I'm afraid the situation is a little direr than you think it is." interrupted Ameilianus, "You see there is a reason why Dagur was so specific with his time of attack. His scouts have managed to locate another enemy of Berk…one that's as big as two longships…white as bone…with red glowing eyes…"
It took Hiccup only a moment to figure out what Ameilianus was describing, "The Screaming Death!" With that, every Viking grew concerned. A violent subspecies of Whispering Death, the massive dragon had shown the capability to destroy entire islands! Hiccup and the riders had only been able to beat it back two times by the skin of their teeth! Even then, there were a chain of islands lost to the creature's rampage and it had a fixed desire to destroy Berk!
"Exactly!" confirmed Ameilianus, with a somber tone, "Dagur has planned this attack to coincide with the Screaming Death attacking Berk! It will be chaos! That's why you need me!"
"Like I said before, what do you have to offer us?" asked Stoick getting a little sick of Ameilianus' attitude. He seemed to expect Berk to beg him for his help without any kind of proof!
"How about Greek fire?!" replied Ameilianus, reveling in the shocked looks of the Viking. Even in Berk, everyone had heard of the legendary naval weapon! The Greeks had perfected an incendiary substance that causes water to catch fire! Any navy that had such substance had not only the ability to block an armada of ships, but the ability to put fear into his enemies' hearts!
"You…you have that with you?!" asked Stoick, shocked. It was a very dangerous substance that had to be kept away from water…hard to do on a ship!
"The secret to creating Greek fire was one of the secrets my family took with them when they left Rome! I have about ten casks of it in my ships, but since some of the ingredients come from dragons(5)…" lead on Ameilianus, hoping someone in the crowd would finish his thought.
"We could make more…as long as it doesn't require harming the dragons!" warned Hiccup, protective of the dragons of Berk.
"Trust me, hurting your dragons is the furthest thing from my mind!" assured Ameilianus, before turning to Stoick, "All I ask in return for my help, is to learn from your son all that he has learned about dragons. Preserving knowledge has been one of the primary goals of my family since the Fall of Rome! If you like, my crew could help tweak your other defenses in addition! So…do we have a deal?"
Ameilianus extended his hand to seal the deal. Stoick pondered all of what Ameilianus had said. It seemed too good to be true! But if even half of what the lad said was accurate, Berk would be in for the fight of its life! Stoick seized Ameilianus' hand and shook it, sealing the deal!
"It will be up to my son how much you'll learn about dragons! We've already had too many people try to steal our secrets!" said Stoick firmly, to show he meant business.
"I completely understand! I will now leave you to your planning, while Hiccup shows me this…Academy I have heard so much about!" said Ameilianus, motioning for his men to mingle with the other Vikings, while the Mau jumped onto his shoulders as he stood. Walking over to Hiccup, they both walked out of the Grand Hall, presumably towards the Academy, talking animatedly. Ameilianus only looked back once and only Spitelout saw him, but from that day forward, he swore that Ameilianus had a dark glint in his eyes as he gave an easy smile towards the Vikings and his cat imitate the expression!
Disclaimer: I don't own DreamWorks Dragons franchise or the book series it is based off of. I also don't own the Pixar film Brave or any characters related to the film. As you can imagine, the snow storm has caused a lot of cabin fever; this story is my way of letting out the tension! Please remember to read AND review people. I live for your feedback on my writing!
1 Old name for London, originally a Roman colony
2 The Roman name for Great Britain and the locale name for Ireland
3 Merida and her father the Bear King Fergus feature prominently in the Pixar film Brave. Interesting side note, Merida/Hiccup is a prominent fan pairing that I support, though Astrid/Hiccup is good too!
4 That's how I have always thought of his mustache and goatee anyway
5 The actual ingredients of 'Greek Fire' have never been fully explained. I just added dragon based ingredients to fit in the story.