Even without a proper bed, you'd slept rather well. On your bedroll under the wings of the dragons keeping you safe. The view where you'd set up camp was rather nice too, overlooking the sea. You'd made good distance in the past week, passed through a small settlement and chatted with the locals, got some insight into what dragons were in the area and answered a lot of questions about Toothless and Cloudjumper. You'd had some mixed reactions from the Romans regarding you being with two foreigners.

Most assumed that you were some sort of high ranking authorities since you had tame dragons from far off lands with you, and your status as a hybrida gave you a level of respect since you're mere presence was seen as an omen to a lot of people.

But, the Roman's were indeed, conquerors. And not everyone was kind to outsiders. Although given your perceived status to the locals, those who held lesser opinions seemed to just glare and not say anything. It was known that Romans had been fighting the Celts over the years, and while the Vikings weren't Celtic, they were close as Nordic people. Perhaps some people assumed Hiccup and Valka were Celtic?

But so far, your encounters had been rather smooth and pleasant. You hoped it stayed that way.

Your peaceful sleep was cut short earlier than you'd have liked through, by the sounds of horses hooves on the ground, the creaking of carts and of course... loud chanting. The Roman army.

"Verti est sua aeterni, Corda nostra solum tibi, Verti est sua aeterni, Vita nostra solum tibi..."

You sat up, rubbing your eyes and groaning in annoyance. Way too early for your liking, it was still a bit dark. The noise had woken the others too, who sat up and groggily looked around for the source of the noise, the dragons groaning in annoyance themselves.

"Of course the army are up this early..." you complained.

"Roma, Roma, O Roma! Legio, aeterna, aeterna victrix!" Sounded through the woods not far off, slowly approaching.

"That's the army? Of course an army would make that much noise..." Valka muttered, still half asleep.

"That's their victory chant, must be back from the borders" you replied.

Getting up and stretching your limbs out, your wings fluttered shaking off the stiffness of sleeping on the ground. Toothless stretched himself out like a cat, yawning wide as his teeth retraced.

"Aw, biiig stretch" Hiccup commented.

The night fury shook the drowsiness off, quickly taking to nudging his rider to get him out of his makeshift bed.

"Ok ok! Let me put my leg on first, demanding lizard"

You snickered, watching Toothless pick up Hiccups' prosthetic and drop it into his lap to hurry him up. Clearly eager for the morning flight and breakfast.

From the sounds of the marching chant, the army were heading your way. And you were admittedly a little nervous about it. They may be kind to you, but you had two foreigners with you... and two dragons that weren't native to the land. Although people around the world did know about night furies, they had quite the reputation. You knew you'd cross paths with the army, so you decided it was best to suit up. Make yourself look as professional as possible to ensure a civil talk rather than a sword fight.

"Suit up, just in case" you told the others.

"What, will the army try and attack us or something?" Hiccup asked.

"Not... necessarily. But they HAVE been fighting the celts soo..."

"Ah- right yes, we did get a few looks from some of the towns people the other day" Valka said.

"How can you mistake dragon riding Vikings for dragon slaying Celts?" Hiccup muttered.

"Similarities in cultures I suppose, we are from similar areas"

Luckily it wasn't too hot, since it was still quite early. So you weren't going to boil in your armour. Packing up your campsite and getting the dragons saddles on, you weighed out your options here. If you could sweet talk the army... they could be a massive help in getting you go the city sooner.

"Hang here a moment, I'm going to fly up and see where about they are" you said, warning a nod of understanding from the Haddocks as they tightened their saddles.

You took off, up above the tree line where from the sky you could see the road and surrounding areas. The army weren't far off, and from the looks of things they had a pretty big haul of loot with them. Lots of carts of supplies and food, you estimated from sight there were maybe 200 or so soldiers in this expedition. You wondered what they were coming back from, clearly there was some form of a victory if they were chanting it over and over again. The general was at the front of the March, atop a horse and draped in his cape and adorned with his fringed helmet. Beside him his second in command, and behind him the long line of soldiers. Most importantly though, you couldn't see any evidence of a slayed dragon. Good... you definitely wouldn't be getting along with them if they were out here killing dragons.

Some Roman's did, most stayed clear of them since they were seen as more of a 'you'll die if you even try' risk no one wanted to take. But they weren't exactly hated, just not trained or actively hunted. Just another animal in the wilderness. Some breeds seen as a danger, some seen as any other normal animal. It really depended on the type and situation.

Heading back to the ground, you carefully touched down by the Vikings.

"They're not far off, seem in good spirits. I'm willing to take a chance and get their aid" you said.

"I don't see the harm if they're willing to cooperate, having an army escort would make the trip much easier" Hiccup replied.

"As long as we have an escape plan if things go south..." Valka added.

You agreed with that, and decided that if things did turn south it was best to just take to the skies where they couldn't get you and make good distance between them. You didn't need them on your backs when you already had the risk of Dagurs crew, if they knew were you were you'd be in massive trouble.

You wondered how Astrid and Heather were doing back on Berk actually... if they'd managed to get the hunters off your trail. And if they finally got some time together, Hiccup did mention there was some rather not straight tension between them.

So it was decided, you'd try and approach the army for their aid. And from the sounds of things, they weren't far off. As they said in their chant, their duty was to father Mars, Ares in Greek. God of war. And while war he may be, he was also a protector, protector of the people.

On the good side of the army, and the good side of Mars, you'd have quite the advantage.