Curious, I sneaked closer to the edge of the ledge to get a better look. Valka and Emerald's human seemed to get along well, almost too well; then it hit me: he must be Valka's son! Reigning in my curiosity and making sure I maintained my coloring and shape, I glided down to Cloud Jumper's side. The boy seemed surprised as he saw me land just before Cloud Jumper took off to join the rest of the thunder in an aerial welcome. Any other day I would have joined him; however, the squishy intrigued me. I could sense he knew a great deal about dragons, although not half as much as Valka. I heard her mention what I could only assume was his name, "Hiccup." He smelled like a multitude of humans, Valka, dragons, and something else... walking closer, I continued to sniff the air, trying to determine what the last smell was. Before I knew it, I was right in front of Hiccup, nose to nose. That's when I understood what that last smell was, a scent I had not known in a long, long time... Horrified, I backed away as fast as I could, realizing that he had at some point been in contact with Eret son of Eret and, in some way, with Drago. Growling softly, I took off to halfheartedly join the aerial welcome, alerting Cloud Jumper to what I had learned.

"I'm sure it was just a passing or chance meeting with Drago. He is Valka's son; he would not ally himself with either traitor," Cloud Jumper reassured me. Valstram, my brother, reinforced that sentiment, and I ultimately decided to explore the new whispering death tunnels while they went out to eat. The scent of Drago still lingered in my senses, warning me that the time of war and chaos that Valstram had predicted would soon be upon us. The challenger I had spent most of my life with would come for us and would... would replace Valstram. If this challenger was not overthrown by savage winter's end, the ocean and lands would turn red, overflowing with the blood of dragons and humans alike.

"The Alpha protects them all," the first part of the Supreme Alpha oath echoed through my mind as I glided through the tunnels. The few hatchlings who coexisted in these tunnels knew to avoid me when I was like this and quickly darted out of my way when I came down their tunnel. My brother wanted me to sucede him as supreme alpha, but I knew the pureblood dragons would never stand for that. He claimed to see me play a primary role in the vie for leadership in the coming wars, but I never could see that part of my destiny. I had no doubt that I could defeat the challenger in battle. The problem was the aftermath. The purebloods would attack me, likely driving bewilderbeasts into extinction, as I was rumored to be the last female. Ironically, I could easily stand up to a bewilderbeast, but would be overrun and most likely killed by a thunder the size of legends if they turned on me. No, if I played a role, it would be more as an advisory position. I laughed; who ever heard of a half-blood avising the supreme alpha? It simply was not done. Then again, Emerald's return seemed promising. He was the same age as me, but far more eligible in terms of social order. Most night furies could not become alphas of a thunder, much less their entire race, until they were at least in their mid-forties. However, as Emerald was an heir to a prominent thunder of night furies, the pure bloods might accept him as their leader. I shook my head, berating myself for such wistful fantasies; Emerald would have to become a titan at least once in order to defeat the challenger. No night fury has ever transformed like that before they were 60 years old.

I sensed the thunder and Valstram coming back, making me realize that I had been exploring the tunnels for hours. Using a shortcut I recalled from an old map Valka made a few months ago, I darted back into the main cavern just as I sensed Gruff and a few other Hobblegrunts alerting us to intruders. Two humans and dragons with intricate saddles were approaching from the southeastern corridor. Sensing a strong connection to Hiccup and Emerald, I decided to approach the intruding dragons to incquire why they were here. I could sense Cloud Jumper, Valka, and a few rescued dragons moving to intercept the humans as they tried to leave with Hiccup and Emerald. The lazy hotburple was already asleep, so I turned to the rumblehorn, Skullcrusher.

"We are here to rescue my rider's son and his dragon. Get in our way, and you will perish." I never did like Rumblehorns very much. They were typically abrupt and extremely rude when you first met them. I could sense this one had a soft side for his rider, though, so I let his insult pass.

"As I am sure you are aware, this is the sanctuary of the Great Bewilderbeast. We only wish to make sure you are not a threat and bid you a good day." He seemed to relax a bit at this, which immediately told me that he had never encountered a bewilderbeast before. Most dragons never had the good (or mis-) fortune of meeting one, so I casually asked Skullcrusher if he would care to join me in the main hall. Wapping the Hotburple, Grump, with his tail, Skulcrusher followed me to the main cavern. Dragons and humas are alike in that they tend to be impressed by grandiose words and excessive use of polite language. In reality, no one talks like that, but it was a nice facade to put on for guests. After catching a glimpse of Valstram, we sensed our respective humans in emotional turmoil and rushed to the tristing fountain to help. We arrived just in time to watch them come together in a beautiful harmony. Their inner songs intertwined, and I could sense broken hearts beginning to heal. "They're mated," I quietly exclaimed in awe. I had never seen a human couple have such a sacred bond to call them a mated couple. To humans, this would merely indicate having a child together. But to dragons... to dragons, this was the most sacred of bonds, one that was not even broken in death. We mated for life with the one we would spend the rest of our lives with. This was the bond Valka and... Stoick shared, and it was a beautiful reunion to behold.

Silently, I slipped out of the hall to give them privacy and turn my mind towards preparing for the battles to come. I sent out scouts - smokebreaths, terrors, and a few specialist changewings who could blend in with the sky to determine how far away Drago and his dragon army were from our home. I put the dragons on high alert and strengthened our defenses along the shores. Drago's challenger had no free will, so we could not arrange the rules of combat and other technicalities beforehand. This left us scurrying to prepare on every front for how much and when interferance could be taken into account. The weakest point in the sanctuary was where Valstram would have to emerge, so I placed a few hundred sentries around that point to find pressure points and places Drago might try to hit to force Valstram to destroy part of the sanctuary to get out. In this event, I enlisted several titan class whispering deaths to combine many of their tunnels and enlarge their entrances on both sides. I also enlarged the underwater entrance on the main cavern's side, but kept the outside entrance small enough that only Valstram could get through. The challenger was about 15 years older and so was much larger than my brother.

For a moment, I was distracted by a beautiful melody coming from Valka and Stoick, but then the scouts came back. Drago and his dragons were only a few minutes away. I called all the dragons who had not eaten to grab some fish or grubs from the reserves and prepare for battle. Weaving my way back to my personal cave, I prepped war paint and put on my human and dragon armor. This time, I adapted my war form. I was the size of a hatchling bewilderbeast; about 100 ft tall (twice the size of Cloud Jumper) with stormcutter wings, sea dragonus maximus (red death) tail with nadder spines, gronckle-tough hide and legs, night fury body, and my natural head. My head was as deadly an instrument as a Scauldron's venom, with wicked spikes that could just out and kill in an instant. At the same time, I could instantly streamline my head so it was nearly flat with a top speed of 400 miles per hour, beyond the sound barrior. My human armor consisted of thin, but gronckle-tough metal that could easily bend, but had not so much as cracked in the two years and countless battles in which I had used it. In dragon form, the plates transformed into underbelly and armpit armor to protect the softest parts of my body. Hearing the calls of Gruff and the other hobblegrunt sentries, I calmed myself and sped out into the open, whipping my wings back to catch the familiar updraft that took me high above the clouds. This vantage point made my heart flutter as I now began to understand just how high the stakes were. As far as I could see, about 1000 miles, ships the size of broadwing scauldrons made the ocean look brown with dots of blue. Sensing the challenger at the front of the armadas, I sent the majority of our tidal class dragons to go around the back of the armadas and try to mitigate the number of dragons and humans attacking while maintaining a relatively safe distance from the challenger.

It has begun.