The Great Beyond

Chapter 60: Wings of War, Pt. 1 (Reign)

THUD!

I shot awake as my body went tumbling to the floor, hitting the wooden boards below with an impressive amount of force. Disorientation caused me to panic momentarily, questioning why I was staring at such a high ceiling. Still unsure of where I was, I ignored the dull throbbing and pushed myself up onto my feet, taking a quick scan of my surroundings before my mind finally relaxed. I was in exactly the same place I'd been last night: one of the Defenders of the Wing's common halls. The only difference was I'd been thrown from the bed I'd been sleeping in, something made clear to me when I looked back down and saw Hiccup glancing up at me with a sheepish grin.

"Sorry," he muttered, trying to shake the sleep from his mind. I sighed and took a seat beside him.

"It's fine. I needed to get up, anyways." Despite my best attempt to make a joke, Hiccup's worried expression remained unchanging.

Although the Edge had only been captured by Flyers last night, it already felt like a thousand years had passed. No one had slept well the night before, occasionally engaging in conversations with each other if we were up at the same time, but we managed to get through to the morning. Granted, that didn't make it any better. We'd still lost our base, which was now crawling with Flyers who were looking for Odin-knows-what, and since Fishlegs had rescued our Dragon Eye parts, Hiccup and I were grappling the fact that we'd destroyed our hut for absolutely no reason. Not to mention, the other Riders were still mad at us for essentially abandoning them, assuring them things would be fine, and returning too late to fend off an attack.

"Well, time to face the music."

Admittedly, I was impressed Hiccup took the lead on leaving. He'd been up the most in the middle of the night, frequently pacing the length of the hall or slipping out for a while. Offering him a small smile, I took his hand and followed him out the front doors, arriving at the depressing scene. The rest of the Riders were sat around with their dragons, picking at pebbles or laying there, staring at the sky. Only Astrid had the energy to stand, and even then, her eyes were focused on the horizon, completely spacing out.

"I-I've seen worse." I raised an eyebrow at him as we made our way over to the rest of the group.

"Remind me when that was." Sighing, a ran a hand through my hair, attempting to pull my own mind together. "So, should we talk about our next move, Hiccup? I was thinking, we should probably try to get the Edge back."

Maybe it was a bit obvious, but at least it was more than anyone else had come up with.

"Can we get the Edge back?" I could barely hear Snotlout's voice, his energy so drained that he could barely hold himself up.

"I mean, guys, how many of those Dragon Flyers are out there?" Unfortunately, there wasn't a really good way to find out the answer to Fishlegs' question.

"And, what is your favorite part of the human face, and why?" Everyone turned and started at Tuffnut, eyebrows raised and jaws slightly agape with confusion. "What? We're not playing 'ask the guy next to you an awesome, yet completely unrelated question'?"

I shook my head at him, but his sister took the bait, as usual.

"I'll play." Ruffnut's voice remained completely devoid of any emotion. "The eye socket."

"Why's that?" Tuff asked enthusiastically.

"Come closer and I'll show you." She raised her fist, preparing to punch him in the aforementioned place, but she just ended up dropping it after a couple seconds, losing her motivation to even harass her brother. "Not even fun right now."