Travolore Wrote:The fate of Phara Pyso is decided, Kara and Cal have a long overdue heart to heart and the Bare Squadron is born...

It took me over a year to get to the point the story was at when I first started writing it but here we are.

Hiccup Haddock, in his journal entry of June 22, AD 1059, Wrote:There are mountains on Magni's back.

I have just seen them for myself, and wonder at the literal new world that my son has just shown me.

Recording this now, so Fishlegs doesn't get upset with me later…

After dinner, my son Magni came to me, holding a synlengra clutched in his hands, and wanting to show me something. For a moment, I almost told him later, due to my duties, but I remembered being fifteen and my father not being interested in what I had to show him—and how I had vowed to do better.

So I did.

He took me up to the rooftop and told me to point the synlengra at the moon, which was a quarter full. I did so, after joking with him for a moment. And once I did so, I almost fell down in shock.

There are mountains on Magni's back. I could see their shadows, cast by the light of the sun. There are great circular scars on his flanks, caused by what, I do not know. I have done my best to sketch what I saw below.

But my son wasn't content with merely showing me his namesake. He told me to look at Odin next. Still stunned, I did so.

And I saw.

Odin's single eye peered back at me. Surrounding him were four others—who I can only assume to be Huginn and Munnin, and Geri and Freki.

I made these synlengra for looking down at the ground from dragonback. And all of this time, I never thought to look up with them.

Tomorrow, I am going to the lens-grinders, and we are going to plan how to make the biggest lenses we can and how to mount them in a synlengra tube.

My son opened my eyes, and I didn't even know they were closed.

I'm going to give him even better ones.

Raðsnjallamal, The Words of The Wise Counsel, from the Saga of Forseti, Reformed Norse Canon Wrote:A man of wisdom charts

through shoals of adversity

wracked by dark night waves

their motions unknown.



Tides rage, wind blows

rocks grasp and tear

sea foam and fog blind

hazards to good sailing.



But a course can be charted

the fears of the crew calmed

a steady hand at the rudder

and the foresight to go on.



Sailors unsteady themselves.

the face of the unknown, fear,

what is not understood, panic.

Snared beasts lashing out



Key is knowledge and insight

therein lies wisdom, direction.

A course plotted through danger

the final sinking forestalled.



Comprehend the battering waves,

learn of the scudding shoals,

watch the sky with a fair eye,

and consider their motions.



See the crew and know their fears.

The wise, the weak, the new, and the bleak.

Know your crew, know your course

And chart accordingly to never sink.

Alan Moore Wrote:There... Poor little things. You see them? Standing with their numbers on their blank, indifferent faces, Nuremberg in miniature, the ranks of painted wooden men... Poor dominoes. Your pretty empire took so long to build. Now, with a snap of history's fingers, down it goes.