The Great Beyond

Chapter 35: Tone Death (Hiccup)

Good god, the amount this episode makes me absolutely CRINGE. Not gonna lie to y'all, writing this one's gonna be rough for me. I'm going to skip over most of the singing/ lyrics because I can't, I just can't. It's just such a weird episode. I feel like the tone doesn't fit the rest of the show.

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"Okay, gang!"

I turned Toothless around to face the rest of the Riders, hovering underneath the night sky. We'd been tracking a network of Dragon Hunters and smugglers for a while now, and after quite a bit of exploration, figured out where we could most likely pin them down. Unfortunately, the location turned out to be an entire network of islands, so we'd have to change up our plan in order to find where the next drop of items and dragons was going to be.

"Stay with your teammate and lock down your specific island."

"This Dragon Hunter is sneaky," Reign continued. "He comes in, transfers his cargo, and slips out under the cover of darkness. Very mysterious."

"Very boring," Snotlout yawned. "Can we get to it?"

Due to the uneven number of dragons, Reign, Snotlout, and I ended up as a trio. Under normal circumstances, that would've likely increased our chances of finding this guy, if it wasn't Snotlout. It's not that I didn't have faith in him, he just had a tendency to get a little... overly confident, which usually led to someone getting hurt or captured. Still, despite his history, Snotlout had matured quite a bit in the last year.

"So, I need you to put in a good word for me, Reign." She raised her eyebrow at Snotlout, wary of his request.

"What? With who, Astrid?" Snotlout waved his hand dismissively.

"Please," he scoffed. "I'm so over Astrid. Someone else can have her."

...And there went any of the respect I had for Snotlout's growth. Moving fast, I grabbed Reign's arm and pulled on it slightly, keeping her from charging toward him on Shriek. While the comment was most definitely misogynistic and rude, but we couldn't afford for any slip-ups right now.

"Listen, I know Heather has been dying to approach me but her fear's got her 'scurred.'" Reign groaned as her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

"Yeah, I don't think Heather gets 'scurred', Snotlout." The smirk that crossed Reign's face didn't exactly make me feel content. "Besides, I'm not sure you're ready for a woman like Heather. She's far too, uh, sincere, honest, brave." Interestingly enough, those were probably the three words I'd use to describe Reign to other Vikings; definitely something that ran in the family.

"I can fake honesty, I can fake sincerity, I can fake all those things," Snotlout quickly defended.

"Oh, yeah, and by the way, she's smart, too." Yet another thing she had in common with her sister.

Not wanting to entertain that conversation anymore, Reign and I pulled Shriek and Toothless upwards a little more, making sure we were still at a point where we could at least see Snotlout. Once we were over our island, I turned to Reign and offered her a comforting smile.

"I'm guessing you feel pretty great about having Heather on the Edge, huh?" Reign's cheeks turned red.

"Is it that obvious?" she laughed.