Chapter 13: Wakeup Calls

''While she tends to be somewhat overshadowed in the stories by Hiccup Haddock's intellectual and political accomplishments, his partner, Astrid Hákonsdoittor, is frequently and explicitly credited in both the popular tales and in Haddock's own journals as his closest friend and intellectual associate. While Ingerman was responsible for much of the educational and archival infrastructure that resulted in the retention of Haddock's innovations, their primary partnerships were in the area of recreations of Roman mechanisms and methods. In contrast, Haddock's journals specifically state that, without her guidance, discipline, and partnership, the vast number of his original creations would have remained as undeveloped ideas, to the point that many are credited primarily to her. ''

This is in addition to her own independent innovations in the area of draconic military applications, to the point where her own authored text, The Wing And The Ax, on the uses of dragons in martial settings, was the standard primary text on the subject for nearly two centuries, and is still used and viewed as one of the foundational texts in the field.

—A History Of The Isles, Oxford, England, 1591

Chapter Overview
Stoick is swamped with petitions from lords seeking to hire his people as mercenaries, as well as marriage offers for him and Hiccup. Hiccup and Astrid wake up together for the first time, and Snotlout gets warned off from starting another war. Religious differences start to make their first waves, and formal negotiations begin.

Back on Berk, Ragnell comes back with tribute in apology, including thralls (slaves). Stoick makes his opinion on that quite clear. In Rome, news of Berk's taming of dragons is dismissed as wild rumour.

Foreshadowing
When Stoick and Gobber discuss what Hiccup will pay for Astrid's bride price, they joke it'll be a king's ransom, literally. They're right, but just don't know it yet.

Epigraph Tie-In

 * The epigraph mentions Hiccup and Astrid were inseparable partners for the rest of their lives. The chapter shows the aftermath of them losing their virginities to each other.

Links to the Chapter
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