renegades, httyd

xl. Grudges

renegades
chapter forty

It was quiet in the stables at Dragon's Edge. Even if the Twins were joking around, ignorant to the seriousness of this whole situation, and Wartihog was wrestling with Clueless outside, the stable was empty and quiet aside from me and Astrid.

She was giving Stormfly a scratch and some chicken for good job, but there was tension in her shoulders. In the way she glanced briefly at Revna leaving the stables without a glance or a word, I had a feeling it had to do with what Astrid had said without realising how it would hurt her friend.

I pursed my lips and slipped off Winglash's saddle. Hanging it up on the spare hook in Astrid's stable, since she let me, I glanced briefly at her and murmured, "You okay?"

"I'm fine," grumbled Astrid moodily. "Revna just takes things too seriously sometimes. It's fine. We're fine."

I wanted to tell Astrid that she had been insensitive earlier, but at the way her shoulders tensed and she threw her saddle up a little harshly, I decided to keep it to myself. But in seeing her clenched hands and her huffed breaths, it told me that maybe something━some argument━had been going on between her and Revna for a while now.

I knew Astrid. She always took things too far before she realised. Even when we were kids, she grew excited, or too involved in our tricks and in her determination to win, she'd do something in her favour that later on, it hit her━mainly when I'd start crying and calling for Mum. She was like that in arguments, too.

So, I let it slide for now and pulled some chicken over to Winglash as well. Through the open stable doors; sheets of metal pushed aside, I searched for Hiccup and Toothless returning. It was coming to the late afternoon, and they still hadn't arrived. I was getting really worried. He's done this more than you, I reminded myself, he's fine. But it didn't change anything.

Astrid leaned against the wood of the stable door, crossing her arms. She sighed, frustrated. "He's going to come back with everything solved, it's going to be okay."

I set my jaw, scuffing my boot on the floorboards that were slightly chared. My sister quirked a brow, and she soon realised, "This is about what happened with Harald, isn't it?"

I sighed, shrugging, "Of course, it is..." I propped my hands on my hips. "I just want something to work out after it all ..." I turned to her, pursing my lips. "Everyone keeps saying it wasn't my fault, but I still feel like it is. I feel like I let it happen. I could have sent him off the island when I had the chance, I didn't. I told him about the eggs. I wasn't around."

"You weren't the only one he tricked," Astrid told me. "The blame can't be put on your shoulders alone, okay?" I scratched Winglash as she ate, listening. Astrid pushed herself off the wood of the stable door. "And yes, you weren't around. Yes, you could have sent him off the island. Yes, you told him about the eggs. But wallowing about it isn't going to do anything━you can't change what happened. All you can do is just focus on what's ahead, and deal with it bit by bit. He's getting exactly what he wants with you being so glum and defeated about it right now."