RE: Update Thread 39: The Newer Beginning
11-04-2018, 03:32 PM (This post was last modified: 11-04-2018, 03:43 PM by Mamorien. Edit Reason: Missed a piece of color-coding. Here's hoping it stays gone. )
11-04-2018, 03:32 PM (This post was last modified: 11-04-2018, 03:43 PM by Mamorien. Edit Reason: Missed a piece of color-coding. Here's hoping it stays gone. )
Just in time for a Nanowrimo hiatus (which its author will spend working on Book III), A Thing of Vikings concludes its second volume!
Chapter Trigger Warnings: Explicit Acts of Bodily Mutilation (Blinding, Castration)
Over the Golden Horn, Sigurd plays high-stakes catch, with some success. On Berk, Fishlegs wakes up feeling bad, until he sees that Meatlug is looking even worse than he feels; Stoick lays some home truths on Father Dúnchad, who takes them with considerable grace; and Gobber helps Fishlegs with Meatlug's problem and its side-effects.* Back in Constantinople, Sigurd bends the knee to the new Empress, then prepares to help Harald bring back the Caulker. In Penn as Wlas, right on the tip of Cornwall, Hiccup gets the comfort he needs. Jonna and company arrive on Berk, raising the question of which side is less ready for the other. Back at the Golden Horn, Sigurd carries out his plan. Back on Berk, Stoick and Jonna discuss terms. Among the Pecheneg Khanates, Elder Khurşӑ thinks of his friend, the bloody-fisted dragon hunter** we've seen before, then finds those thoughts taking on an unexpected relevance. On Berk once more, Jonna learns of the benefits Berk will bring her and Reidun... but also learns some things that make her less comfortable. In Constantinople, Sigurd has a front row seat for our trigger warnings. Finally, in Cornwall, Stormfly spots a ship coming from one direction and Angle horsemen from the other, and Astrid decides the ship is safer for all of them.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/104089...s/38691572
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12639117/68...Of-Vikings
Chapter Trigger Warnings: Explicit Acts of Bodily Mutilation (Blinding, Castration)
In an undated draft of her seminal work The Wing And The Ax, quoted by permission of the Waterford University Archives, Queen Marshal Astrid Haddock I Wrote:The typical aims of dragon-rider versus dragon-rider battles in the air are often very different from battles of dragon-riders versus foot soldiers, for all that they can take place in the same battle. Dragon-riders against soldiers on the ground aim to destroy, rout, or contain the ground forces, but dragon-riders against dragon-riders often aim to capture the enemy's dragons instead of killing them or driving them off. Simply and pragmatically put, killing an enemy's dragons might deny their use to the enemy, but capturing them potentially allows for their recruitment to one's own side. The same cold logic applies to all dragon-riding forces, regardless of their affiliation—dragons are more valuable in warfare than men and far more expensive to waste, due to both their rarity and their capabilities.
As a result of that logic, capture weapons—nets, bolas, traps and more—have always been a component of dragon-fighting warfare, going back to before the end of the Dragon War, when capturing dragons meant that they could be killed cleanly for their parts, rather than risk them detonating. Since then, such weapons have been refined by all sides…
Over the Golden Horn, Sigurd plays high-stakes catch, with some success. On Berk, Fishlegs wakes up feeling bad, until he sees that Meatlug is looking even worse than he feels; Stoick lays some home truths on Father Dúnchad, who takes them with considerable grace; and Gobber helps Fishlegs with Meatlug's problem and its side-effects.* Back in Constantinople, Sigurd bends the knee to the new Empress, then prepares to help Harald bring back the Caulker. In Penn as Wlas, right on the tip of Cornwall, Hiccup gets the comfort he needs. Jonna and company arrive on Berk, raising the question of which side is less ready for the other. Back at the Golden Horn, Sigurd carries out his plan. Back on Berk, Stoick and Jonna discuss terms. Among the Pecheneg Khanates, Elder Khurşӑ thinks of his friend, the bloody-fisted dragon hunter** we've seen before, then finds those thoughts taking on an unexpected relevance. On Berk once more, Jonna learns of the benefits Berk will bring her and Reidun... but also learns some things that make her less comfortable. In Constantinople, Sigurd has a front row seat for our trigger warnings. Finally, in Cornwall, Stormfly spots a ship coming from one direction and Angle horsemen from the other, and Astrid decides the ship is safer for all of them.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/104089...s/38691572
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12639117/68...Of-Vikings
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