The Great Beyond

Chapter 20: Snow Way Out (Reign)

Bite your tongue, Reign. Keep it up. You can do this. Remember, it's not for you.

I'd never felt such an intense gnawing against my heart. I'd been caging this truth inside me for weeks, allowing it to consume me. I couldn't just keep it in, but I'd been given specific instruction not to tell Hiccup, so instead, it fell to Astrid.

Thankfully, she was in her hut when I landed.

"Hey, you're back." One look at the way my face contorted, and she knew something was wrong. "What's going on?" I made sure to glance behind me, checking for any of the others, the I shut the door.

I couldn't even make it to her table, collapsing onto the floor in a heap of emotions.

"I can't keep this up, Astrid!" I cried. She set aside her axe and sat next to me, placing a supportive hand on my back. "Every time I'm out until morning, and I have to be with him, it's like someone's tightening a bola in my chest." I sniffled loudly, wiping some of the tears from my eyes. "We've never kept anything from each other before; at least, nothing like this."

Astrid let me cry out everything welled up inside of me, overwhelming her hut with sobs and sniffles until there was nothing left.

"I know there's nothing I can say that'll make this better," she sighed once I'd finally calmed at least a little bit. "And I know everything that's been said before has just made you feel guilty. And, maybe seeing his face will just make it all worse, but I think we should go and find Hiccup. I know he's missed you."

After allowing me enough time to pull myself together and look normal, Astrid and I got on our dragons and flew around the Edge. We ended up finding everyone at the stables, recapping after a training exercise, according to Astrid.

"It's a good thing for you guys I'm on your side," Snotlout boasted.

Upon hearing that, Astrid prompted Stormfly to jostle her head, 'unintentionally' knocking him down.

"You are? Honestly, sometimes it's hard to tell," I teased.

"Reign!" Something jarred in my stomach as Hiccup smiled brightly at me. "You're back from Berk already?"

"Never made it there." Technically, that was the truth... even though Berk had never been the intended destination. "I ran into Trader Johann along the way and he had some interesting news. Hiccup, we need to talk."

"Of-Of course."

He jumped onto the back of Toothless, determined to get down to business, but the moment we got back to our hut and shut the door, he practically jumped on me, kissing nearly anywhere he could.

"What happened to needing to talk?" I laughed, doing nothing to stop him.

"You were gone for three days," he whined. "I missed you."

I sighed, closing my eyes and relaxing for a moment, until the guilt came crawling back up.

Moving away, the two of us focused again, allowing me to relay the information I'd received. I started to tell just him, but both of us quickly agreed this was information everyone needed to know, so we rounded up the rest of the group, and I stood before them in the clubhouse.

"Johann flagged me down on the way to Berk to tell me that he'd seen Ryker, Heather, and the Dragon Hunters in the Northern Markets buying all the cold weather gear they could get." Thankfully, no one questioned the source I'd chosen; I knew the rest of them trusted Johann.