The Great Beyond

Chapter 31: Buffalord Soldier (Hiccup)

The wiki says that the Scourge of Odin is spread through blood, but I call BS because they said it wiped out whole villages and I find it hard to believe that a blood-borne disease could do that so quickly. So, I'm changing it to just through bodily fluid (WHICH TECHINCALLY INCLUDES BLOOD) to make it make more sense

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So far, it had been quite a productive morning.

Reign and Astrid had decided to go on patrol for today, offering me the chance to work on projects around the Edge. In just the span of a few hours, Fishlegs and I had made repairs to all the watch towers, Snotlout helped with slowly replenishing the Monstrous Nightmare gel he'd aided in depleting, and the twins used Barf and Belch's explosions to gather up more projectiles for the catapults. Everything had gotten finished so quickly, I had time to work on improvements for Toothless' tail... and, in the process, test out something new I'd been tinkering with.

I set two pieces of metal that needed to be fused together onto the table at the clubhouse, but before Toothless used his plasma to weld them, I reached into my pocket.

"Ah, one second, bud." The moment I placed the goggles over my eyes, the entire world turned orange, and all the lights around me significantly dimmed. "Okay, Toothless. Spark it up."

Toothless fired a long, close-range plasma blast, slowly welding the two metal pieces together. Just like I'd hoped, when I stared directly at the light, I wasn't blinded and left with spots across my vision. Instead, I could actually see the two objects in front of me coming together.

"Interesting material." I turned to see the outline of Fishlegs, significantly less clear because of the light filtration. "Seems organic in nature." Toothless let up his fire, and I passed the goggles off to Fishlegs, allowing him to take them for a test run.

"Deathsong amber, hammered thin," I informed him. "This is strong enough to stare into the eyes of a Flightmare."

"Fascinating."

This time, when Toothless shot out a plasma blast, I was forced to cover my eyes, but Fishlegs could stare directly at it, causing him to bounce with excitement. It was nice to be sharing this with someone who got so giddy about every little new improvement. Sure, Reign supported what I came up with, despite the jokes she made that might suggest otherwise, but Fishlegs and I could practically speak the same creative language.

All of my attention got drawn away from the work in front of me when I heard footsteps on the wood floor. Reign and Astrid had returned from patrol, but they didn't look too good. Astrid had an arm slung around Reign, whose skin had practically turned a literal shade of white, and she had one of her hands wrapped around her elbow. Both their eyes looked drained of life, and neither of them managed to look up for very long. Any excitement or joy was instantly replaced by overwhelming worry, and I rushed over to the pair, reaching out to grab Reign's free hand.

"Are you guys okay?" My voice warbled as I asked the question. Reign tried to look up at me, but the moment our eyes met, she flickered them over to Astrid, then onto the floor. "What's wrong? Did you see something on patrol?" Just barely, the two of them nodded.

"Hunters? Trapped dragons? Viggo?" Something told me Fishlegs' questioning wasn't helping.

"Oh! I love this game." I flinched at the sound of Tuffnut's voice. When had everyone else gotten here? "Okay, now it's my turn. Everyone quiet. Reign, is what you and Astrid found bigger than a yak box?" Both of them hesitated, then Reign pushed away and started to move away from the group.