The Great Beyond

Chapter 54: Sandbusted (Reign)

Okay, so I actually have to give a warning for this chapter. Yikes. There are some more mature themes at the end of the chapter that will be references throughout the rest of this section. Some discussion of monthly womanly functions at the beginning (if you catch my drift), and a quite heartbreaking ending. I'd like to state here and now that I am NOT attempting to exploit such a tragedy, but am instead trying to bring awareness to the emotional aspect of it that goes so commonly overlooked for the sake of creating drama. I made sure to put dedicated and thorough research into this, consulting a multitude of sources and stories. No SA or R anything along those lines, though.

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Emotions overwhelmed my body, forcing my body back and forth around Astrid's hut. She watched my movements with wide eyes, still attempting to process what I'd unceremoniously laid on her. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to throw open her door and just blurt it out without really explaining, but it was threatening to climb out of my body and spew to the one person I didn't want to talk about this with, leaving me without much room. I couldn't sort any specific feelings out, but dread and fear definitely made themselves quite apparent.

"Are you sure?" Astrid asked after several more moments of silence, her expression still shocked.

"Of course not!" I cried out, my arms flailing as I came to an abrupt hard. "It's really hard to— "

Both of us stopped our conversation dead in its tracks when the door flew open. Thankfully, when I turned around, it was only Fishlegs. Sure, he wasn't someone I'd want to purposefully pull into this, but if he was here to listen, I'd trust this information to him with my life.

"Hey..." he greeted warily. "I thought I heard yelling. Everything okay?" I hastily gestured for him to close the door and beckoned him closer. He approached with hesitance, but still came close enough to hear me without the screaming. "Is this about Hiccup's betrothal gift? Do you have anything yet?"

For a moment, my worries were dispelled, but the adrenaline-spurred annoyance remained firm in place as I crossed my arms at him.

"What kind of question is that?" I demanded, not thinking about my words before they came out. "I've been dating the guy for four years. You think I don't know what to get him?"

I roughly reached into the pouch on my belt and removed the small item inside: a couple of thin cords had woven themselves together, forming the merged colors of the Night Fury and the Thunderdrum. With Gobber's help, metal charms in the shape of each of the symbols for each dragon class were carefully placed along the cord, with a black charm representing the Night Fury right in the middle. It wasn't much, but he could wear it on his wrist, tie it to Toothless' saddle, string it to the end of the Dragon Blade... it had quite a lot of possibilities.

"Wow, Reign," Fishlegs gasped, staring at the gift. "He'll love it." Smiling, I put it back into the bag, ensuring it wouldn't get lost. "Wait... but if this isn't about the betrothal gifts, then what exactly's going on?"

I took in a deep breath, glancing back at Astrid for the little bit of strength I needed to talk about this. Unfortunately, it didn't come out as smoothly as I'd hoped.

"Well, you see, there's a little... well, I wouldn't necessarily say it's a problem, but I mean it kind of is because of the stupid outdated laws of Berk and... well, you know, Fishlegs, there's a little thing, and that's..." I completely cut myself off at that point, trying to psych myself up.