Update Thread 41: Not quite the answer to life, the universe, and everything

[Mamorien]

Thank you for your patience.

The draconic mating period is primarily instinctual, although that is not to say that dragons are completely ruled by their instincts during this time.  The mating period is triggered approximately two weeks before the Autumnal Equinox by hormonal changes; dragon populations living in the tropics often have idiosyncratic mating periods as a result of the region's reduced/eliminated seasonal cues. During the mating period, all sexually mature adults in a flock of sufficient size go into a mating frenzy for a period of six to nine days.  A variety of secondary factors play into the mating trigger, including nutrition levels, access to a suitable nesting site, and the size of the flock.  Below a certain threshold of any of these factors, the mating instinct effectively does not trigger for the affected dragons, beyond perhaps some pair-bonding and reduced levels of mating that will result in undersized clutches, if any eggs at all. 

That's right, new A Thing of Vikings! At Al Jazīra Al-Khadrā, Viggo and Fishwings put pleasure before business. In the Kurfürstentum Köln Rathaus, Hiccup meets with Emperor Henry the Black. On Berk, Jonna contemplates one religion of her new neighbors, discusses politics with a member of the Old Tribes, and witnesses our epigraph in action. Back in Köln, Fishlegs and Heather take an initial meeting with the local rabbi, a meeting which looks like getting extended. In Glenfinnan, Alba, Kerr is on his last legs, possibly even his last elbows. On the Great Steppes, Drago prepares for a new kind of dragon-hunting. In Köln again, Hiccup and Henry discuss politics and religion in their own way, while Hiccup resolves to let his bud properly participate in the mating season; Toothless, for his part, his best is trying. And we close in Constantinople, on Sigurd's new estate, where he continues the discussion with Gunnar and Gudmund from last time and gets more than one additional surprise...

https://archiveofourown.org/works/104089.../44182387/
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12639117/84...Of-Vikings