The Great Beyond

Chapter 56: Snotlout's Angels (Reign)

              Rage burned deep in my stomach as I took another step forward, swinging my arms out in an attempt to strike the Rider in front of me. This fight had been going on for several minutes by that point, but somehow, Snotlout managed to make things worse for himself with every passing second. For the third time that week, he'd completely ignored my orders and just laid around in his hut, acting as though he didn't have to contribute to the effort of the team at all. Not straightening up the Clubhouse and not gathering boulders to fortify one of the watch towers I could at least let vaguely pass, but he'd completely skipped patrol this time around, which veered straight into unacceptable.

"Snotlout— "

"Oh, Reign, stop!" he scoffed, dodging out of the way. "You're so bossy." I whipped around as my feet firmly planted themselves again.

"Bossy?" I growled. "Snotlout, I'm one of the leaders around here. It's my job to tell people what to do sometimes."

"Yeah, but lately it's just been you droning on and on and on," he snapped. "Gods, its like you think you're the only one in charge around here."

"Well, Snotlout, Hiccup's been a bit busy lately, so he's left me in charge of making sure all of you get your jobs done. And guess what? You consistently haven't been doing yours, you've been brushing me off, and in the process, you've inconvenienced everyone else on the Edge. Someone else has to do your jobs when you don't do them, which ends up distracting someone from watch."

"But they get done! And I'm sure literally anyone else on the Edge could get them done better than I could." I wasn't about to take that bait, as badly as I wanted to.

"Snotlout, you skipped patrol! That's quite possibly the worst task you could try to leave to someone else."

"Okay, but the Hunters—"

"I don't want to hear it about the Hunters," I interrupted, sticking a hand up right in his face. "We've got proof there may be a group of them still trying to go after dragons. Besides, even if the Hunters weren't something we had to worry about, there are still plenty of other threats out there for us to keep watch for. You put everyone in danger, both human and dragon, by not doing your job."

Snotlout remained silent a moment, his arms crossing over his chest, and for a second, I thought I'd finally gotten through to him... until he uttered quite possibly the worst thing that had come out of his mouth.

"Gods, you're just like every other woman—so unbelievably emotional over something that doesn't matter!"

My muscles snapped tight together. Every terrible, sexist, ignorant thing he'd said in the past paled in comparison to that. How he could possibly stand there, cocky and confident, after dealing such an unbelievably terrible blow completely baffled me. I stood there a second, trying to process the fact he'd said that, and once it made its way through my system, I reached out and grabbed onto his tunic, holding him as close to my face as I could.

"Did you really just say that to me?" Suddenly, all that confidence melted away.

"Yes," he quivered. "Please don't hit me."

I so desperately wanted to, but that would be stooping down to his level on this. Fighting against my instincts, I dropped him onto his floor and just stormed toward the doors, throwing them open to find the others waiting outside, their eyes wide in panic. That was an issue all of its own, but I chose to just ignore it and hopped up onto Shriek's back, heading for Hiccup and my hut.