The Black Dragon Legion

                                    

                                          
You were lying by the fire place, drinking some cider you tried to distill. You'd simply gathered as many apples as you could, thrown them in an empty barrel. Still tasted better then the bitter ale the vikings preferred, even if it was of the lowest possible quality. 
                          
Astrid and Stormfly were asleep upstairs, tired from the days racing. Satan had flown off somewhere, uncomfortable around people and the tight areas around buildings. As a result you were on your own, enjoying the sun set through the window as the warmth of the fire touched your skin. 
                          
There was a knock on the door, one you hadn't expected. You cautiously rose and opened the door, before you was a boy with two separate coloured eyes.
                          
"I came like you said." Rogannon told you from outside, you were surprised since you doubted he'd actually come. Though you suppose it didn't matter either way, there was no way he'd stay after he heard what it took to become a knight.
                          
"Come in, take a seat." You told him and opened the door more for him to step in, the boy walked in through while looking around. He seemed a little disappointed, he clearly wasn't expecting what seemed like a perfectly normal house. "It's not my house, I've been staying with Astrid since I arrived." He nodded, clearly looking for the armour.
                          
"So how do I join the legion?"
                          
"Direct kid aren't you." You sat back down in your chair, sipping your cider some more. "Tell me Rogan..."
                          
"Rogannon."
                          
"Whatever. Do you know what a warrior is?" He nodded, sitting cross legged on the floor. 
                          
"It's someone who fights when he needs to, we had many warriors against the dragons."
                          
"Very good, now do you know what a solider is?" The child shook his head. "A solider is someone who fights all year round, they fight whoever they are told to."
                          
"That sounds stupid. Who farms his land when he's away fighting? How does he look after his family?"
                          
"He doesn't have a farm, he's paid little gold coins for fighting. He then uses these gold coins to buy food, or clothes or weapons." It was difficult trying to explain currency to a village of people who have no need for it, rather berk was a community that had a barter system then a capitalist one. Instead of paying money for someone to work with you, you instead payed him in food or in whatever it was he wanted in return. Further more, berkians had no need of any kind of army. Instead they just got together to fight any threat they needed, the concept of going to conquer others lands and taking slaves was a foreign concept to them.
                          
As it should be.
                          
"What's the point?"
                          
"To be the strongest, each solider works for a house, each house belongs to a legion, trying to destroy or assimilate the other in a complex game to become the strongest. Only the strong can survive, it's how things are in Ashfield are, how they always were. The same is not said about berk, you work together to survive. To join the black dragon legion, you have to be willing to train, to kill and eventually die in service to the legion. It will require years of servitude as well as training both mental and physical to even get the point where your considered an adult. You'll be expected to learn millennia of accumulated knowledge, you'll have to forge your own armour and swear oaths you'll have to follow until the day you die." There was no way the kid would elect to continue with this endeavour now, you know you'd have scared him off. 
                          
"I accept." He defiantly stood with his chin up, ready to face whatever came his way.
                          
What?!
                          
You were shocked, even a little aghast. You didn't think he'd actually accept! You were barely a knight yourself, there was no way you'd be able to train a youngster like this to full graduation.