The Great Beyond

Chapter 23: Shock and Awe (Hiccup)

                The morning fog hung so thick in the air, I could barely see out the windows of the clubhouse. Shadows and flashes of sunlight that managed to break through were really the only discernable things out there, not that we really needed to worry at the moment. Hopefully, our latest tussle with the Dragon Hunters would keep them away for quite a while, giving us some time to focus on other things. For once, Reign actually seemed calm about the whole thing, not really viewing her family as a threat anymore.

For the first time, I was starting to understand the way she looked at them. The two of us had a long talk right after the last Dragon Hunter attack, lasting all the way through to the night. She raised a good point about it being difficult for me to understand what it's like to have siblings, and she appeared to understand when I explained just how much it hurt that she lied. Other things pervaded as well, including the understanding that there might be things we go to other people about first, but we'd always go to the other when we were ready; at first, I tried to bring up the idea of pulling Heather out again, but the moment Reign mentioned Viggo, I remembered just why we were doing this in the first place.

We weren't quite back to the point we'd been at before, despite both knowing that we loved each other, but we were getting closer. And, right now, we were getting back to spending time with just the two of us.

"You in there?"

Reign's voice snapped me out of my daze, bringing my attention back to her. She blinked at me with a smile on her face, her head leaning down to the point where her hair threatened to fall into the fire.

"Oh, uh... yeah, sorry, I just got lost thinking," I stuttered.

"What about?" I straightened a little, not quite sure I could answer that question honestly yet. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't have thought twice about blurting it out, but right now? It might be a little touchy.

"How quiet it is," I sighed, stirring my breakfast slightly. "How we don't have to worry about Dragon Hunters. How, for the moment, everyone's getting along." I resisted the urge to take her hand. "It's almost perfect." Her eyebrow went back up toward her hairline.

"Almost?"

Before I got the chance to say anything on that, I heard the flapping of Meatlug's wings, and sure enough, Meatlug and Fishlegs were barreling toward us, the latter hyperventilating with wide eyes. The two of us immediately jumped to our feet, concerned about his panicked state. Clearly, we caused quite the commotion, because the other Riders were drawn toward us as Fishlegs began to explain.

"Sea... monster..." He kept on gasping until Reign brought him a mug of fresh water. "There's a creature in the cove!"

"Whoa, whoa, Fishlegs, calm down." He took a moment to catch his breath. "Can you describe it for us?" My words definitely seemed to help, which was always encouraging.

"It had two heads, maybe three. And it made this weird sound, like nothing I'd ever heard before." At this point, Fishlegs was bouncing on his feet, the realization that he'd discovered something new hitting him. "It was like a..." He let out some sort of strange roar; there was something vaguely familiar about it, but I couldn't quite place the source.

"Oh, my Thor. That's incredible, Fishlegs," Snotlout gasped, clutching his helmet tightly.

"I know, right?" Once the question left his mouth, Snotlout's enthusiastic façade dropped away, leaving the normal snarky and sarcastic Viking we all knew he was.