A New World, Complicated

Chapter 39: Cast Out, Pt. 1 (Reign)

"You have no idea what you did, do you?" he shouted.

"Yeah. Hookfang and I made the coolest trick shot ever." His dragon squawked in agreement.

"You almost got Reign killed!" Hiccup got up from my side and stormed over to Snotlout, getting close to his face.

"Come on, she's fine. Look at her." Fishlegs attempted to help me stand, but I stumbled back a bit. But his words struck something in me, and an anger caused me to stand up straight.

"Yeah, no thanks to you." I lunged forward, attempting to punch him, but Hiccup grabbed my waist and managed to hold me back.

"Okay, all right, easy there, Reign."

"I'm gonna kill you!" With a huff, I realized Hiccup wouldn't let me get anywhere near Snotlout, and pushed away. The moment he let go of me, he returned to glaring at Snotlout.

"That's it, I'm tired of this."

"I'm tired of this!" Snotlout blinked at Hiccup, confused. "What are you tired of?"

"You always have to do things your way," Hiccup clarified.

"Yeah, well, guess what? I look out for number one." In response, Hookfang spat out a quick flame, forcing Hiccup and Snotlout to duck so they wouldn't get burnt. "And one-a."

"How can we rely on you if you don't do what we ask?"

"What are you saying, Hiccup?"

"I'm saying, until further notice, you're suspended from the Academy."

Everyone's eyes went wide, and they looked over in Hiccup and Snotlout's direction. None of us thought Hiccup would actually do something like that, and yet... here we were. A part of me felt... wrong, knowing Hiccup had done this because of something that happened to me. But at the same time, he'd had it coming.

"What?"

"You're grounded."

"You can't ground me!" Snotlout argued. "You're not my dad."

"Yes, I can."

"Oh, really?" Snotlout leaned back, feeling the weight of Hiccup's glare. "Watch!"

With the attitude of a five-year-old, Snotlout stormed over to Hookfang, hopped up on him, and flew away, completely leaving the rest of us behind. I sighed and leaned against Shriek, meeting eyes with Hiccup.

"Ground this, dragon boy!" Snotlout cried as he flew away.

"Uh, am I wrong in thinking 'grounded' means staying on the ground? That looks an awful lot like, uh..." Tuff flapped his arms as though they were wings. "Flying."

"You didn't have to do that for me, Hiccup," I sighed, moving closer to him. He looked at the ground a moment before turning around.

"If we can't count on him during training, how can we possibly count on him the next time we run into Dagur?" The mention of my brother's name caused my face to contort bitterly. "Oh, uh--"

"Don't even start to apologize." I held my hand up, trying to get him to stop in his tracks. "You shouldn't apologize for saying a name. That makes no sense." He continued to stare at me for a moment, then reached out and started to examine the arm that had been struck.

"Are you sure nothing's broken? You don't feel anything off?" I chuckled and pushed his hand away.

"I promise you I'm fine. You caught me before I could hit the ground, right?" He nodded. "So then don't worry. If anything, I need to be alert. One of these days, you're not gonna be able to just swoop in and save me."