Chapter 21, everybody! In which Hiro and Obake make themselves comfortable in their new digs…look, someone dug it out, it still counts.
As I've said, we're definitely going to be seeing more of this and my other fics soon—I'm knuckling down on active fics this month, and a conversation the characters had has now jumpstarted some stuff and put other things in motion and Obake is just really going to have a frustrating time. ^^;
Also, Hiro trying to figure out nonverbal communication continues to be entertaining for me. XD
Big Hero 6 © 2014 Disney
How To Train Your Dragon © 2010 DreamWorks
Okay, the view was fair enough, location was nice…Obake just questioned the neighbors.
Especially considering it was a full-grown—or at least close enough—Gronkle that was following them around now, watching with interest when he relit the torch and then trotting after them as they made their way back through the winding cave.
"I mean, you could work," Obake told it after a while. "But you look like you'd be uncomfortable to ride on for any length of time." It might have to do in a pinch though—
Okay hold it go back he was considering using a Gronkle he just met to fly off yes he had gone off the deep end tie him to a mast he was done. Sigh as he reached the main cavern—
Pause before going down the other tunnel.
"Wrr?" Hiro noised.
"We haven't seen down here yet," Obake informed him. "And I'd rather know which tunnel to watch, if it's all the same to you." Let's see, what did he know of Whispering Deaths besides the fact that they liked to tunnel? Extensive warrens, would often reduce an island to swiss cheese just for the fun of it, more than one village had slid into the ocean because a Whispering Death had undermined the very rock they were sitting on. Also, if this tunnel was anything to go by, the jaws on this particular one were huge.
These musings and eventual puzzling over how to take one down if he had the misfortune to encounter it led them to a tunnel that angled straight down into the heart of the mountain. Maybe even under the village. Consider it, pull a bit of tinder from a pocket, light it—drop it in the hole—
It burned out well before it could reach the bottom. Glance around, spotted some small rocks, kicked one in, listen—
Hiro was listening too, he noted with amusement, ear flaps out as they waited for the sound of impact—count the seconds, calculating….
"I'm going to say that's beyond our means," he decided finally. "And hopefully the Whispering Death that made these tunnels is long-gone. Come on then."
Retreat to the main cavern, set up a temporary camp, head out as Hiro chuffed at the Gronkle, prompting it to leave back through the caverns—might be a sign that the tunnels were empty, he couldn't imagine a Whispering Death hosting other dragons.
Speaking of things he couldn't imagine: Hiro talking down a Gronkle that had seemed perfectly fine with the idea of killing Obake.
"I almost want to know what you told that dragon," he said to Hiro as they headed back towards the treeline. "Except I'm almost certain it was something insulting. Let me guess: you don't want him, he's all tough and gamey."
Hiro looked at him, confused—barked as he recognized their current mission as collecting firewood.
"Just because I'm roughing it doesn't mean I must freeze to death doing so," Obake told him. "I've no desire to repeat that action."
Hiro chuffed, followed after him with a decent-sized log in his mouth—okay, walking up and down this would obviously hurt after a while. On the positive side, he couldn't imagine Yama coming up here, which had been part of the rationale behind this location.
And in the quest to keep this a secret, besides keeping away from the ledge—rig up a frame, set it up near the entrance, throw a blanket over it.
"Wrr?" Hiro noised.
"So we won't be seen when we light a fire," Obake explained. Stretch a little…."Well, back to the other task at hand."
So yes, he had to hike back and forth anyway—hopefully he wouldn't be too sore tomorrow. Find a spot where two stalagmites grew close, arrange the wood between, treating the rocky points like a wood rack, start unpacking his rucksack with the intention of trying to make things vaguely comfortable—
"Acht!" he snapped upon seeing Hiro nosing into the basket—startling the dragon backwards. "I'd like to actually eat sometime, thank you."
Hiro huffed at him, went to the end of the leash and tugged.
"And what do you want?" he asked. "I'm not going back to the village. Not so long as I can help it."
Hiro sat and looked at him, with that expression that made him think the dragon was trying to figure him out somehow. Definitely intelligent.
The Gronkle and the Terrors were too.
Bark in surprise when the Gronkle came back, jaws unhinging—
Spilling a bunch of fish across the cavern floor, sending them sliding wetly up to the kindling he was getting ready to start. He couldn't help the dumbfounded stare—shot a look at Hiro's triumphant bark—
"The basket is still mine," he said crossly, tugging the basket away from Hiro. The little dragon huffed, slurped up one of the fish. "But this does reduce the need to sneak back into the village anytime soon." Look when a fish bumped against his leg, realized the Gronkle was nosing another one over. "Thank you, I suppose." Yes, definitely intelligent.
This either simplified or complicated things beyond recognition.
Hiro happily sprawled next to the fire, belly full, explaining as much as he could about Yokai-training to Boulders-on-Hill as they watched Obake feed the tame-fire and share his food with it.
"Maybe they have a relationship with fire," Boulders-on-Hill guessed, watching as he laid a fish in the hot coals. "Like how we breathe fire and have it in us. Maybe they can make it like we can, but they don't pull it from inside themselves, they just…pull it out of nowhere somehow."
Hiro hummed pensively, considering. "Every time he's made fire that I've seen he uses rocks," he told her. "Maybe Yokai can pull fire from rocks?"
"Maybe they're like Gronkles," she mused, scratching her neck. "We eat rocks to help make our fire."
"Yeah, but he doesn't eat the rock—he hits them against each other."
They both had to puzzle that one out.
"Sometimes if a dragon hits their claws against rocks too hard they make sparks," she said finally. "Maybe that's it?"
"Maybe," Hiro said, watching Obake tug ground-plants out of the fire, obviously painfully aware of their attention and doing his best to ignore them. "Although I wonder how they figured out rocks could make sparks. Is it any rock?"
"Right now I'm more curious about his diet—why is he eating plants? Is he sick? Is he not getting the right nutrients?"
"My thinking is Yokai have different stomachs than we do—he drinks leaf-water and eats rotten fish on maggots."
"EW."
"I know, right? At least he's eating fresh fish this time—but maybe we don't keep any around long enough to go bad that still seems like bad dietary choices."
"And who's egg did he steal to get that?" she asked, sniffing at the metal egg sitting in the fire—which Obake moved.
"I'll thank you to leave my tea alone," he said sternly.
"He'll fill that egg with water and leaves and put it in the fire and then drink the whole thing," Hiro told her. "It's weird and kind of gross."
"Still think he's missing something in his diet."
Hiro couldn't argue with that, but Obake seemed to be nearing the end of his fish—shuffle closer, trying a different variation of the cute-face oh he would defeat him—
"And I should give you this after you've been gossiping about me why?" Obake asked.
In response Hiro sat up—and then did Sit Up, the thing where he was supposed to sit on just his haunches and tail. Obake considered him…finally relented the fish.
"So he shares his food with the fire and you," Boulders-on-Hill mused, turning everything over. "Maybe they think of fire the same way they do dragons?"
"Not sure," Hiro said, licking his chops. "This is still a work-in-progress, you realize."
They lapsed into silence then, absorbing the heat from the tame-fire as Obake sipped at his leaf-water.
"Unless I miss my timing, there should be a dragon raid tonight," Obake said finally. "Another reason I wanted to make us scarce. We should be hearing it soon, actually."
Hiro pricked his ears, listening, both welcoming and dreading the news. Dreading because dragons died on these raids, welcoming because maybe this would be the raid that brought Older-Brother.
"What did he say?" Boulders-on-Hill asked, looking up from staring into the tame-fire.
"He says that a raid is coming," Hiro said.
The Gronkle dug her claws into the rock, tension and worry flickering across her. "I'm…not sure if…I think I'd rather stay in here, if it's all the same. I don't want to risk being dragged back to the queen."
"I don't blame you," Hiro told her, still listening. "I'm just…kind of hoping my brother comes. I miss him."
She made a pensive noise at that, didn't speak for several long moments.
"Why do we fight them?" she asked, sounding more reflective than anything. "Here we are, sitting in a cave with a Yokai, the monster you're supposed to kill on sight before they kill you, and yet nothing happened after that first lunge."
"To be fair, you scared both of us—we weren't expecting a dragon."
"He's expecting them now," she said, indicating how Obake was looking towards the cave entrance. "Do they eat dragons? Maybe in befriending us he's decided against eating dragons and that's why he's eating all this weird stuff now—he's trying to fill that void in his diet."
Okay, that fell under gross and terrifying and he really didn't want to think too hard on that theory. "I mean, to be fair I really, REALLY hope that's not it."
"I do too—I'm a lot meatier than you are."
"Hush," Obake noised, getting up—Hiro followed suit, trailed after him as he slowly slunk towards the cave entrance, senses straining as he tried to pick up whatever it was Obake had heard…except he heard nothing. Follow as he slipped around the thing he had set up—okay so it did stop the light—step outside with him, scanning the starry skies, still listening for whatever he had sensed.
"I don't hear anything," he said finally, looking at Obake.
Obake was looking around, seeming confused.
"The moon set—it's late enough," he muttered. "I would have thought the dragons would have attacked tonight." Consider. "Well, I suppose I only have to avoid the village for a day for now—can't throw me in the kill ring if there aren't any dragons."
There was that kill ring again, the thing that sounded dangerous and deadly, like some form of Yokai-punishment. And—wait, what'd he say? And what'd he say earlier?
"Hey," Hiro chuffed. "Didn't you say something about a Gronkle in that nest? And didn't that other Yokai talk about Terrors?"
"What, Hiro."
Hiro padded forward, straining at the leash until Obake followed, went to the edge of their little cliff until he was looking down at the nest, chuff at Obake again before looking around, scratching at the ground until he had to concede that he wasn't getting anything to work with. Ah, didn't he pack….
Obake seemed pleased at heading back in, amused at Hiro bounding ahead.
"So what was it?" Boulders-on-Hill asked.
"Nothing—there's no raid," Hiro told her, before digging in the carry-tool.
"Hey!" Obake barked, hauling Hiro away. Hiro squirmed free, went back to the carry-tool, pulled free several dry-leaves—okay, think, the thing he used on the ones in the cove had always smelled of charcoal….
"HEY!" Obake barked again—snatched the stick that Hiro had pulled from the tame-fire away. "Let's not."
Hiro huffed at him, thinking—finally mimed drawing runes on the dry-leaves. Obake considered him, obviously debating.
"What's going on?" Boulders-on-Hill asked as Obake finally rooted in the carry-tool. "What are you doing?"
"There's ways to communicate more directly with Yokai—like pictures," Hiro explained as Obake took a tiny black thing and put it on the floor. Dip something in it, make the rune for fish. "Oh wow that's cool," he noised, dipping a claw in, pulling it out and watching it drip back into the blackness.
"Don't go crazy," Obake ordered. "I've only got so much squid ink and you wouldn't like the alternative."
What was this anyway that it made black marks? Lick—tasted salty and like the ocean but also like something else—offer it to Boulders-on-Hill to test.
"Tastes like when I ate a squid on a dare," she reported.
Huh. Dip again, touch it to the dry-leaves—aha!
"I'm glad you listen well," Obake sighed, watching as Hiro scrawled his concept as best he could. Okay, kill ring sounded like something round with sharp teeth that was bad, draw a dragon in there, draw an approximation of himself and Obake next to it, then draw the three of them away from the kill ring. Push the dry leaf over, wait until Obake looked at him again to point first at the Yokai-nest, then at Boulders-on-Hill, then at them, then back at the Yokai-nest.
"I've decided I don't understand you," Obake announced. "Because I don't like this alternative."
Hiro gave him a look, drew his concept again. Maybe it wasn't clear? What part wasn't clear? Where the dragon was trapped looked suitably deadly…maybe draw the Yokai-nest around it? That could be it.
"Stop that," Obake sighed. "I know what you're after—I just don't like it." Tip his head—ah, the idea struck him well, it seemed. "Although…I wouldn't mind giving those fools the shaft…."
That sounded like Obake was on board with this plan.
Perfect.