Chapter 125: Wheels Within Wheels

### Story Date

Tuesday, 10 May, AD 1043/6551 ε.Κ/27 Ramadan 434 AH/27 Huai-Yue Huangyou Era Year 1/27 Harpa ÅrO -1

## Appearances

### Locations

Berk
Castle DunBroch
Constantinople
Costa da Morte
Azaq
Al Jazīra Al-Khadrā

***Death Song:** Mystery-class dragon*

***Overview:** Diurnal close support and economic dragon; primarily useful in civilian life, with tactical applications in non-lethal crowd control. Their acoustic skills can assist in calming even agitated combatants, and while the dragon is notably visually striking, most individuals have significant skill in stealth and ambush, and will hide if necessary, rendering them difficult to counterattack. On the modern battlefield they have little tactical use, but historically saw application in disrupting mass infantry formations. Furthermore, their ‘amber’ breath can be useful in immobilizing small numbers of closely packed targets.*

***Breath Type:** Rapid-setting binary polymer plastic. Historically this material was confused with fossilized tree resin (amber), as it closely resembles that material in coloration and gross mechanical characteristics. Death Songs are capable of ingesting and recycling this material, along with other plastic polymers, limited primarily by individual tolerance for taste.*

***Identification:** Large adult size. Gold to red coloration along the wings and main body. Single wing pair, two legs with grasping claws incapable of fine manual dexterity, long whiplike tail with barbs and small fins at terminus. Wings are scalloped inwards between the supporting ribs, and feature large eyespots and other patterns on the inner and outer surfaces. Large spines along the spine, and fins and long horns on the head. Distinctive songs (See Death Song Appendix C for audio recording).*

***Strategic Role:** Crowd control, non-lethal immobilization of high-value targets, tactical distractions, and morale support.*

***Known Weaknesses:** Extremely eye-catching; while skilled at stealth, these dragons find it hard to hide again once spotted. Counter-acoustics can distract or enrage them, making them break stealth with ease.*

***Phenotype Cluster:** B2FØS5+S4-S3!M4+TØTØ*

***Populations:** Small and scattered. Primarily located around the Aegean and Black Seas, Death Songs, also known as the Siren Dragon, have been reported in numerous nests scattered as far away as the northwestern Vestrilands, as well as individual isolates connected to no known nest. Note that isolated individuals tend to be undersocialized and hostile as a result, with recorded instances of cannibalism of other dragons by these individuals.*

*—North Sea Empire, Office of Draconic Intelligence, Dragon Breed Profiles (Declassified), 1822 Edition*

## Major Events

* Fishwings suggests to Hiccup a reorganisation of how mail routes are done and having several central hubs instead of several large loops.
* Hiccup's expedition discover and rescue the survivors of a shipwreck.
* Horsefeathers and Lile begin the process of converting to Judaism.
* Stoick shares with Bladewit and Esther his idea of adopting individuals into his clan for notable and exemplary service and using it as a way to give his Jewish vassals an allied clan without the pagan oaths normally involved in creating a new allied clan getting in the way of the Jew's own religious rules.
* Drago meets with his loyal Chiefs and briefs them on the assassination plots against him.
* Heather tells Stoick the news of his father Clodgall talking to the spies of the people responsible for Fritjof's death.
* Hiccup arrives in Al Jazīra Al-Khadrā and catches up with Viggo.

## Characters

### Humans

* Heather
* Atali
* Toiréasa
* Oswald Fishlegsson
* Fishlegs clan Ingerman
* Hoark Clodgallsson (first appearance?)
* Elinor Dunbroch
* Fergus Dunbroch
* Sigurd Trondsson
* Gudmund Hallvarsson
* Gunnar Bræsisson
* Hiccup clan Haddock
* Tuffnut Thicknutsson
* Dagur mac Oswald
* Fishwings clan Ingerman
* Esther bat Rivkah
* Stoick the Vast
* Bladewit Drorsdóttir
* Sophia Makris
* Kelebek
* Drago Bludvist
* Kasim
* Erdem
* Spitelout Clodgallsson
* Snotpout Spiteloutsson (first appearance?)
* Andrew Vsevolod Yaroslavich
* Igor Yaroslavich
* Vyacheslav Yaroslavich
* Serena clan Jorgenson
* Viggo Grimborn

### Dragons

* Unnamed Death Song (first appearance)
* Toothless
* Swift
* Inkpot
* Kingstail

## Analysis

### Epigraph Tie-In

* The epigraph is on the Death Song breed of dragons, and this chapter is the first to show the breed.