The Great Beyond

Chapter 61: The Wings of War, Pt. 2 (Hiccup)

              One of Reign's hands instinctively raised over her head, holding her shield out in front of our bodies as a large, orange Singetail trapped the two of us directly beneath it, its mouth opened wide as it readied a flame to burn the two of us alive. Admittedly, this was technically my fault the two of us were stuck in that situation: I'd been the one to decide studying Singetails up close was a safe idea without really figuring out a way to defend the both of us in case of an emergency. Shriek and Toothless still hadn't appeared, meaning we likely couldn't rely on them, and there was absolutely no room to duck and roll out of the way without hurting the Singetail.

By that point, we were just as good as dead.

I slammed my eyes shut, preparing for the impact of the fire... but, instead, I suddenly felt my body yanked out from beneath the dragon, and Reign began to grunt and struggle as we were rapidly dragged through the forest. Though we'd been saved for the moment, the current situation did absolutely nothing to ease my panic until the two of us were finally let go inside a cave and faced with quite possibly the last person either of us expected to be saved by.

"What are you doing here?" Reign demanded, her voice laced with an odd amount of venom.

"What am I doing here?" Spitelout scoffed at her, his arms crossing against his chest. "What are you two doing here?"

Reign's eyes simply drifted over to me, one brow raised high against her forehead. I knew she was expecting me to explain, but I couldn't keep my mind off our dragons. They were still out there with the Singetails, possibly injured and defenseless, and certainly lost and disoriented. We had to figure out a way to rescue them above all else. As I racked my brain, I began to pace back and forth, attempting to sort out even one comprehensive thought. Despite the earlier hostility, Spitelout offered Reign and I some of the food he'd been cooking; my stomach churned too much for me to even attempt and keep it down.

"Did I mention I was grateful for you saving my life? Well, o-our lives."

"You did," Spitelout answered shortly, shifting out of his relaxed position. "And as repayment, how about standing still? You're making my dinner come up with all that pacing back and forth."

I stopped dead in my tracks and glanced sheepishly at Spitelout.

"Right, sorry." I shook my head. "I'm just worried about Toothless."

"Oh, well, if you miss your dragon, have a pet of mine," Spitelout offered, gesturing toward his Nadder. "He won't mind."

That wasn't really the bigger issue, but as I gave Spitelout's Nadder a couple scratches, I found my worries easing at least a bit. With that out of the way, I turned back to the other two sitting in the cave, and I swore I caught a little smile on Reign's face as she watched me.

"Spitelout, what's the deal with this place, anyway?" she inquired, shifting to rest her arms on her knees. "You've got all these provisions. You could survive for months."

"Well, in case you forgot, those bleeding blowtorches destroyed my brand new, perfectly located storehouse, and nearly charbroiled my son in the process." Now Spitelout was pacing the cave's floor, his attention fixating on the stacked crates lining the walls. "You both were there. It was an ugly day in Jorgenson history."

Reign and I exchanged a confused glance. Really, we should have seen this coming with Spitelout, but it still seemed strange that he had so many provisions set up for something so surface-level.