The Great Beyond

Chapter 26: Maces and Talons, Pt. 2 (Reign)

So, I'm creating two new Maces and Talons pieces: one that's part of the actual set, and one that Reign creates herself.

...the thing is, one of them is going to be a red herring (look that up for those of you that don't know. It's important). After all, only one piece can represent each person. You'll just have to wait to see which one she really is.

Oh! And, unrelated but important later: the way I chose to spell Reign's was historically the male version of "Rain", though the meanings are different. Among other things, its meaning is "little king". Nowadays, it's considered unisex. And, yes, I did this on purpose. It's actually very important to her character

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With wide, panicked eyes, all of us rushed back to Dragon's Edge. Even with our dragons pushed to their maximum speed, it took until morning to reach our base... though I wished we wouldn't have had to look at the scene we'd been left. The entire place had been ransacked, with the arena and all our training equipment smashed up and shattered. Hiccup's hut had suffered the worst damage, given that Hunters likely would've assumed the Dragon Eye was there, but Astrid's place, where I was still living, wasn't exactly left in peak condition, either.

"Look at this. I feel violated," Fishlegs shuddered.

"This was the last part of Viggo's plan." Hiccup just stared off into the horizon, his face completely hardened. I reached a hand out toward him, but hesitated, then dropped it completely. Now was not the right time for that.

"Lead us away so the rest of the Hunters and armada could stay behind and come after the Dragon Eye." I whipped around and glared at Snotlout, immediately silencing him.

"How did I not see it?"

My stomach dropped when we finally got around to checking the hiding place for the Dragon Eye and Hiccup fished around, only to find it completely empty.

"It's gone." He could barely get the words out, his voice strained. "They got it." Not wanting to face that any longer, he slammed the lid of the trunk shut and stood, turning back to face Snotlout and I.

"Are you sure you put it away after you got it from the twins?" he questioned. Hiccup and I exchanged a confused glance for a moment, shaking our heads at each other.

"Got it back from the twins? What are you talking about?"

Once Snotlout finished with his lame attempts at explaining what he meant, better known as lying, he caved, got the rest of the group, and led us to a cave on the other side of the island. I was about to chew them out, when I got one look at the state of the place, and my jaw just dropped. The entire place was turned upside down, and there was a strange liquid over in one corner. Somehow, it was worse than the rest of the island.

"Wow," was all I could get out at first. "They really wrecked this place."

Tuffnut and Snotlout stepped forward, getting a good look at the damage to the hideaway they'd made while Hiccup and I had been gone.

"This is pretty much how we left it," Snotlout shrugged.

"Except, I don't remember that sword being there!" Tuffnut pointed to a sword run through the middle of an apple, which was keeping it secured in a boar head's jaw.

"No, no, no, no." Snotlout shook his head vigorously. "Remember, we were playing Pirates vs. Vikings and Bjorn was the pirate captain?

"Oh-oh. Right," Tuffnut chuckled. "That is one great game." Tuff also shrugged his shoulders as he looked at us. "Yeah, this is pretty much how we left it."