The Great Beyond

Chapter 17: Bad Moon Rising (Hiccup)

So, I know that Hiccup is there during the scene where Gobber's telling the story of Kessler, but, like, all of a sudden, he just disappears, and then he has no idea what's happening with Tuffnut in the scene after that, so I'm removing him from it because continuity.

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The deafening scream of a Thunderdrum forced everyone to cover their ears, allowing the uncomfortably loud sounds to die down. Despite the strength of the boom, the training dummy made of what Fishlegs claimed to be Gronckle Iron never dented or split, like any normal metal would have. Gobber, who had come to take a look at what Fishlegs had discovered, offered the boy next to him a high-five. The metal had passed the first test, which proved extremely promising.

Reign and Shriek touched down onto the stone of our training arena, signaling Toothless and I to take off and give it a shot. We circled around the arena once, trying to get a good enough angle on the dummy.

"Give it all you've got, bud," I encouraged. Toothless roared excitedly, then fired a plasma blast at the base of the dummy, knocking it over but once again leaving it unscathed.

As the two of us landed, Barf and Belch leapt on the thing, stomping their feet against the shimmering, highly-reflective metal. Reign flashed me a tiny smile, and I moved to stand beside her, resting an arm around her shoulders. Even after all these years together, when she leaned her head against my shoulder and held the hand I'd draped over her, I felt myself turn red.

"Looks like Fishlegs finally cracked the formula," she chuckled. "Who knew those Dragon Hunters would actually be useful for something?"

Even though she made the joke, I knew it touched on a tender spot she'd been trying to bury. On a few nights, I caught Reign up late at night, pacing the main floor or out of the hut completely, returning from some flight to a place she never disclosed. She was fighting her own war in her head, and all I could do was remind myself that when she was ready, she'd talk everything out. We never hid things from each other, at least not for very long.

Her small fingers twiddled with the silver necklace draped against her chest, only further worrying me.

"All right." Astrid stepped up to the dummy, snapping me out of my trance. "Let's see how your Gronckle Iron holds up against a close-range spine shot."

"Be our guest." Fishlegs stepped aside, allowing Astrid and Stormfly adequate space without hurting any of us.

"Stormfly! Spines!"

The Nadder squawked and stepped back, readying herself to fire a shot, when Tuffnut came shambling over toward the dummy, covered in streaks of dirt and his hair littered with branches and leaves. He was lost in an exhausted daze, completely unaware of the danger he'd wandered into.

"Tuff, no!" I cried. He didn't hear my plea, but thankfully, when Stormfly fired, she missed Tuffnut's head. The sound finally turned his attention toward us, but he failed to notice as the dummy started to list back and forth, threatening to tumble over.

"Thank Loki!" he sighed. "You guys are not gonna believe what just happened. It was—"

Before he got to finish, the dummy finally collapsed, knocking Tuffnut out cold as it slammed against his head suddenly. Flooded with worry, all of us rushed to his side, staring for a moment to make sure he was still breathing before all taking hold of a limb and lifting him. Even with all of us sharing the weight, it still proved incredibly difficult to move Tuff, taking us until nearly sunset to get him just to the clubhouse. When we reached the staircase up, he finally came to, and with some help, made it up the stairs and onto the bench of the table where we all ate.