The following morning, the group prepared to leave for Iolcos. They bid farewell to the Amazons before flying off. In the air, Snotlout looked down over the land.

"Are we going to try to blend in again?" he asked.

"We probably should," Hiccup mentioned. "We won't get as much information if we show up and seem like we're going to change everything."

"What if someone knows who we are?"

The inventor got quiet. "I don't think they'll know us yet. Hopefully, Jason didn't see any of the people here. I think he's the only one who'd be able to recognize us or give some details that would make us stand out."

Dagur glanced at his friends. "Hate to break it to you, Hiccup, but going around with a Pegasus and Phoenix is a pretty great way to draw attention."

Toothless let out a soft noise of agreement. Even Hookfang seemed to concur.

"Well, maybe the attention we draw will just make people want to talk to us more?" Hiccup asked hopefully.

The others shrugged and continued flying. It was not much longer before they arrived in the city. It was…tense. There was no better way to describe the place. Toothless adjusted, soaring more than flapping to keep from attracting too many eyes so soon. When he sent a meaningful glance to Hookfang, the bird did the same. Snotlout saw a clearing below them and pointed.

"Let's land here."

Agreeing, the others lowered to the ground. It somehow felt stranger when they did.

"You could hear a bone drop here," Dagur commented.

Hiccup looked at him with mild concern, then glanced towards the kingdom. "I wonder why it's so quiet. There aren't any other gorgons here, right?"

"Not as far as I know. There is a lot of fear, though," Dagur informed him. "A whole lot. There's a lot of anger too. It's like the mortals here are either feeling one or the other. There's no in between."

Snotlout squinted to try to get a better look at the area. As far as he could tell, nothing was wrong.

"Let's keep walking," Dagur suggested.

He went forward and the others joined him. The closer they got to the main part of Iolcos, the more they started to notice sounds.

"Finally," Snotlout muttered. "Took them long enough."

His relieved expression faded when he heard the sounds more clearly. The voices were furious.

"I told you it's worth twenty drachmas!" someone yelled.

Quickly, the team approached the scene. There were two men near a stand. One was clutching the front of the other's tunic. An aggressive expression was on his face.

"You thought you could cheat me out of this. I ought to get those monsters back here."

"No! Please! I really thought they were worth fifteen!"

The aggressor raised his fist. Before he could hit the would-be buyer, Snotlout caught his arm. Angrily, he turned to the warrior.

"Who do you think you are?" he questioned harshly.

Some of his anger faded when he saw that Snotlout was not alone. Still, the rage was not fully gone.

"This can probably be resolved without fighting," Hiccup said. "It sounds like he just owes you five additional drachmas. That's a simple enough solution."

The furious man glared at the other. "This beggar? It took him over a month to pay fifteen. It's why we need to just get rid of scum like him. Iolcos would be a beautiful kingdom if the monsters ever finished the job."

"What job?" Dagur asked, eyes narrowed.

"You know, getting rid of problems like this guy."

The team regarded one another curiously.

"Do they come here often?" Hiccup asked.

"As often as needed."

"Who sends them?" Snotlout inquired.

The stranger began scowling again. "You three ask a lot of questions. There's only one question that interests me. How am I getting my money?"

A brief silence followed his words, the Dagur held out his hand. In his palm were five drachmas.

"Just take this, so the debt's paid."

Suspiciously, the seller snatched the money and left. When he was gone, the buyer shakily bowed his head.

"Th-thank you all f-for getting involved."

"No problem," Snotlout said. "Now, what's all this about monsters?"

The other mortal kept his head low. Snotlout began to cross his arms.

"We aren't asking you to pay us back or anything. Since we got involved, the least you can do is answer some questions."

Somehow, the man's voice was even lower than his head when he spoke. "We aren't supposed to talk about them."

"We won't tell anybody," Dagur stated.

He attempted an encouraging smile, but it was more terrifying than anything else. Seeing that the duo were going to scare the man off before they got anything out of him, Hiccup stepped forward.

"We get it," he assured him. "There are probably rules here that we haven't learned yet. Could you tell us about those at least so that we won't get into trouble?"

Hesitantly, the man nodded. "Don't talk about the mo…those. Don't talk about the leaders either. It's easy to say something that they find offensive, then you wouldn't like what happened afterwards. Besides that…just keep your head low. It's safer that way."

He scurried off before the friends could ask him anything else. Snotlout huffed in disappointment.

"Well, at least we know there are 'leaders' now instead of it just being one again. I guess that's better than nothing. Barely, but still."

"They must be using the monsters to keep people in line," Hiccup surmised. "Sort of like Sisyphus, but…" His eyes widened as he thought more about this. "Monsters? If they've got multiple beasts under control, they've got to be working with some gods. Maybe they use that suddenly appearing orb to bring them in."

"Or they're keeping them in some special place to let them out whenever they want. It's like the Minotaur, but instead of throwing the mortals in with it, they all get let out into the kingdom."

Hiccup shuddered. "If that's what's going on, no wonder everyone's mad and scared. Not knowing if you're going to wake up and get attacked by a horde of monsters on any given day is enough to stress anyone out."

Fascination shone in Dagur's eyes. "If they're going with that plan, it's new to me. I've never seen a place that could contain so many monsters. Let's see if we can find it."

"We should find out who's in charge too," Snotlout commented.

"Definitely," Hiccup agreed. "Maybe we could track down the monsters first. If we see someone going to them, we might even trace them back to the leaders."

With this new plan in mind, the group started their search. They did not get very far before Dagur noticed Snotlout frowning at him.

"What?" he asked.

"I just realized, you made drachmas appear."

"Yeah? So?"

"So! You could do that all this time?"

"I'm a god, Snotlout. I've done harder stuff than that."

"We could be rich right now!"

Dagur shrugged. "You're rich in adventures. I think that's better."

"I don't."

Hiccup chuckled at them as they continued to argue over this. While they did, a much more serious discussion was taking place in the palace of Iolcos. There was a group inside. One man with his dark hair pulled back was speaking.

"We could share the kingdom this way," he stated. "Our group could represent the people."

"How would you do that?" another individual asked.

"By going out to speak with them. I'll enter the kingdom as a regular man, see what needs to be done, then come here to inform you all."

The group looked at one another.

"It could work," someone mentioned.

"I think it would," the first man stated confidently. "If we do this, we would be able to have the kingdom be the best it could possibly be. It would be a place where we wouldn't even need the mons—"

He stopped talking when a cup was heavily returned to a table. Nervously, he looked towards one man who was seated away from the others. He was much larger than the rest.

"Neleus," he said, "we aren't getting rid of the monsters."

"B-but, Pelias, they're risks that we can't afford. They're uncontrollable."

"I can control the monsters," Pelias snapped, eyes blazing. "Don't question my ability to."

"Never. I…I just thought this would be easier for us if we didn't have as much work to do."

"Let him speak, Pelias," another member of the group commented, looking bored. "I've grown tired of seeing monsters in our kingdom. It's hard enough to feed them."

"You don't feed them. I do," Pelias reminded him bitterly. "The monsters have been my responsibility and that won't change."

"You aren't the only one in charge."

Pelias glared at the man, making him turn away. Neleus flinched slightly when he was addressed again.

"You think that you can undermine my position in this group."

"I don't! I swear that I don't."

"You wouldn't even be part of this council if it wasn't for me."

"I know, Pelias, and I'm forever indebted to you for that."

The older man's gaze remained hateful. He leaned back in his seat.

"Then prove it instead of opening your mouth."

Quickly, the man nodded and left the room. Another group member scoffed lightly.

"You're so harsh to the newer leaders," he mentioned.

Pelias scowled at him. "You're too lenient. They'll run us all out of the kingdom if we let them." His eyes narrowed, following Neleus as he left. "You might be satisfied with their leftovers, but I'm not."

Angrily, he rose from his seat and stormed out of the palace. The sun began to set over Iolcos. As it did, the team continued their search. Dagur stopped, frowning.

"This is taking forever." He turned to the animals. "Can't you two sense stuff?"

"Yeah," Snotlout added, looking at Hookfang. "You should be great at sensing monsters. Being a firebird, you're halfway there yourself."

Hookfang promptly pecked his head, making the youth yelp. Despite this, he glanced around, trying to sense anything peculiar. It was not as simple as it might have seemed. Even with the monsters, there were a lot of people in the city. The occasional heated argument made it difficult to listen for strange sounds. All the animals could rely on was sensing the presence of monsters. In a city as large as that, it was far from an easy matter. Toothless started walking in front, ears flicking with each new sound. He looked at Hookfang to see if he was also sensing this. The bird let out a small squawk, then they began walking off. Only, they were going in opposite directions.

"Okay, you two go with Toothless," Dagur suggested. "I'll follow Hookfang."

Speedily, the cousins went after the Pegasus as Dagur trailed behind the Phoenix. When both groups were done walking, they came to a similar destination. There were stone trap doors. It did not take any convincing for Snotlout to open the hatch. He hopped down first, then Toothless did the same with Hiccup on his back. On the other side of the city, Dagur opened it and Hookfang flew down. Inside was a tunnel. It was dark, cramped, and eerie. Hookfang provided much needed light. Sensing Snotlout, he started leading the way towards the warrior. Toothless was also leading the way to Dagur and Hookfang, so they met in the middle.

"This place is weird," Snotlout commented, looking around.

"At least now, we know how they let the monsters out," Hiccup said.

He pressed his hand against the wall. It was not solid dirt. The material was like a cave. The entire time they had been walking, they did not see any openings. It was just a tunnel that led them to each other.

"The monsters have to be on the other side of this wall," Hiccup stated.

"We didn't see any doors," Snotlout added.

"We didn't either," Dagur admitted. "Hold on, I'm going to go in there."

The god shifted out of his physical form, becoming intangible. He carefully poked his head through the wall, then entered fully. When he did, his eyes widened. There were pins filled with monsters. Dagur's eyes trailed over the walls of the area before landing on doors. He was about to leave and tell the others when he heard a loud thud. Someone was prodding at the beasts with a spear. The monsters looked tired and malnourished, but that only seemed to amuse the handler more.

"You all aren't so scary when you're in cages like this," he said.

He moved to stab with more force, then something stopped him. A snake wrapped around his waist, throwing the man into a wall. Curiously, Dagur went forward and saw that the beast was not merely a reptile. Its body was that of a lion's, its second head was a goat's, and the snake was a tail. On its back was a set of powerful-looking wings. When the handler tried to get back up threateningly, the beast bared its fangs. Almost immediately, the man lost his viciousness. He lowered his weapon, but not before spitting in the animal's direction.

"With any luck," he commented, "you'll be the first to die when the leaders realize there are too many of you."

Dagur frowned after the man, then looked at the monster again. It had a tired expression on its face as it flounced back to the ground. Dagur saw that its body was covered in scars. He regarded the beast with pity, then returned to his friends.

"What did you find?" Hiccup asked.

"A chimera," Dagur revealed. "A lot more than that too. You were right. All of the monsters are behind this wall. They use hidden doors to let them out."

"They probably don't want anybody accidentally coming down here and releasing the monsters," Hiccup suggested.

"Makes sense," Snotlout said. "Only the people who are part of the leaders' group would know where to go to let the monsters out." He began to grin. "Only them and us now."

"Now, we just have to wait for the leaders to make their move," Hiccup said.

Stealthily, the team made their way out of the tunnel and laid in wait for the next person who entered. They did not see anyone else that night, but there was still danger in the palace. Neleus had gone to his chambers, resting peacefully. What ended this was when he sensed someone watching him. Instantly, he sat upright, squinting into the darkness. He tensed when a hand was clamped over his mouth, removing any chance for him to cry for help.

"Eret," Pelias growled, "these others might not know you and your background of poverty, but I do. I still let you be part of what I built here."

Eret struggled to get free, but the grip was unbreakable.

"You were supposed to control the subjects, not suggest new ways of leading," the attacker stated.

Finally, the younger man was able to make a muffled response. "I'm sorry! I wasn't trying to oppose you."

"But you did and this wasn't the first time. I've heard you talk that way before. It was my mistake for permitting it all this time."

A tremble went through Eret when moonlight shone off the steel of a blade.

"Please…Drago—"

The man went silent when the blade pierced his throat. Red covered Drago's hands, then he released the corpse, letting him slump back onto the bed. A glare was still on the leader's face.

"This is my kingdom," he growled. "I won't let you or anyone else take it from me."

Myth time! So, in the stories, Pelias and Neleus are actually brothers. Pelias was a son of Poseidon (I'm not doing that here because Alvin being Drago's dad is just too weird) and a king of Iolcos. Interestingly enough, he was the father of Medusa. When he and his twin, Neleus, were born, the queen, Tyro, tried to leave them to die because Poseidon had disguised himself as the king to sire these children with her. They were raised by a herdsman until they were older. Then they found their biological mother and killed her step-mother who had been mistreating her. At this point, they naturally knew that they were of royal blood, so they started to fight over the throne. Pelias wound up banishing Neleus. Admittedly, that was a much less bloody version of their falling out compared to what I just did. In this story, they aren't twins. Neleus does still die violently, though. So, that's the same. Ironically, Heracles is the one who kills him after he refuses to cleanse him of the blood-debt he got when Hera struck him with madness and caused him to kill his family. There's just something morbidly hilarious about being mad that someone didn't clean the metaphorical blood off your hands, so you add more. Anyway, I'm not saying Snotlout would have killed Eret if Drago didn't, but…you never know.