Ghost's Fury Chapter 23: Spelunking and Speculating, a How to Train Your Dragon + Big Hero 6 Crossover fanfic

Chapter 23, everybody! FFN is being a jerk about updating chapters if you're not using the app, so just so you know this one's crossposted to AO3 as well. *gives FFN the stink-eye*

Now, I told y'all that I did a lot of work on this last month to get it up and running again—love writing because Obake brings up a key plot point in Book II and I'm just sitting here going "Ooh, tell me more." XD

Also might have given him his lair from the show but up high instead of underwater don't know yet.

Getting up the next morning was more of a process than anything else, and he had to remind himself that wishing Carl would show up with a cup of coffee was counterintuitive to the whole plan.

Moving on…breakfast. Small breakfast, cold tea, work on getting woke up while the dragons dozed.

Dragons. As in plural.

He sat there, considering the Gronkle in the dim lighting. Seemed quick to warm up to him thanks to whatever Hiro had 'said.' Probably helped that he wasn't actively trying to kill it.

That wasn't the secret, was it?

No. No, the dragons had attacked them for ages, well before any of them tried fighting back. And yet these two were perfectly well-behaved, for dragons, considering he had survived a night with them.

And there was Hiro, off the leash and out of the harness, still here.

Maybe the Night Fury was the key. The Gronkle would have attacked if not for Hiro. Maybe that was why no one had ever been able to accomplish this before—no one had ever seen a Night Fury before, therefore they lacked the key needed to tame dragons.

At least, no one living had.

There was one person, over an age ago, long enough that her work had fell to myth and been lost to the sands of time—Lenore Shimamoto. According to the stories, she had tamed and communicated with dragons, turned them peaceful and lived in coexistence with them in a gleaming city-island of her own design.

But if any of that did happen, it had happened over a thousand years ago. There were bits and pieces of her documentations, most famously her journal, but the rest had about as much weight as the celestial dragons of the Middle Kingdom, that had descended from the high mists of their mountains to impart wisdom upon their people.

And yet….

He wanted to dismiss it—he had been obsessed with Shimamoto as a child, enough that their old chief had given him anything that came through on her to him for study. The closest he had ever gotten to her journal was a collection of copies of various pages—the journal itself was as lost to time as Shimamoto was.

But at the same time….

Such a pity he didn't have those documentations still—he was certain she had taken them all, not wanting to dare risk them falling into the hands of someone who had declared his intent to kill dragons. He'd either have to rely on his own blunted memories of them or start from scratch.

A momentary drift where he pictured fielding this current experiment by her, forget the rest of the tribe for a moment—how would she have reacted? With fear and trembling? Or would she have been intrigued once he demonstrated Hiro's obvious intelligence?

Probably not—she had that thing about limits. This would have been declared too dangerous at best.

Sigh, shake his head. Again, no point on dwelling on what-ifs. The past was set in stone, and thus he would make the future his.

Which meant he needed to get started with that important stage of planning ahead: observation, information gathering, and plain old plotting.

While he was at it, probably plan for some traps as well—again he had to remind himself that no amount of agonizing on how he could have done last night better would change the fact, he simply had to plan ahead on what had happened. Pull the screen aside so more light could come in, stick his head out to see if anyone was skulking about outside, duck back in and go to his rucksack.

He was finished with his second cup of tea when Hiro finally stirred awake, rolled to his stomach and looked at him with a squeak.

"Morning," he greeted, still focused on the task at hand. This was the closest he had ever gotten to a live Gronkle, and so he figured he might as well document the event.

Two dragons could be a good thing—he could find out if what worked on Hiro worked on Gronkles—and if two such disparate dragon species shared the same quirks then—

Then he had something to work with.

Hiro discussed the events of last night with Boulders-on-Hill as Obake continued to make sand-pictures on dry-leaves with squid ink. Yes, that was weird, but apparently it was how Yokai entertained themselves and entertained Yokai didn't eat dragons.

"So there's another Gronkle in the area?" she asked. "Maybe I ought to catch them, start a flight in the area."

"I'd be careful about flying around today," he warned. "The Yokai are probably looking for Gronkles right now."

"Mmm…fair enough. But I'll start looking tonight I hope they didn't just fly straight back to wherever—is there an alpha dragon nearby who isn't totally awful?"

Hiro felt his face crumple at that—an alpha that wouldn't eat a dragon that came back late from a raid? Not likely at all. "No…I don't think so."

"Figures," she huffed, scratching absently at the rocky floor of the cavern. "Okay then, so my plan is to find them and maybe start a different flight somewhere else."

"We'd miss you if you left, though," Hiro told her. "And if you want other dragons, there's a flock of Terrors on one of the nearby sea stacks."

"Eh…I'm not that desperate yet."

Hiro snorted at that, padded over to see what Obake was doing. Pictures of him again, and then also of Boulders-on-Hill. Very cool.

"What is he doing now?" Boulders-on-Hill asked.

"He's making pictures," Hiro supplied. "And doing Yokai scribble-language next to them—they have a second language that involves them making scratches that mean things."

"Like marking territory?"

Good question—he'd have to figure out a way to see. In the meantime, paw a blank dry-leaf over. Dip a claw in the squid ink, gently scraping it on the side like he kept seeing Obake do, make the scribble-mark for fish, not as splotchy as his drawing last night. Chuff at Obake, who had been watching out of the corner of his eye. The Yokai made a pensive noise—dug in the thing he called a basket—

It was dry like it had been sitting in the sun for a few days, but it was still fish—scoop it up, gnaw on it a bit to get it slippery and swallowable, tip his head back.

"What is it with you and eating fish that's been dead for a while?" he demanded of Obake once the fish was in his stomach.

Boulders-on-Hill was intrigued, if the way she shuffled forward was any indication. "Why did he do that? What did you do?"

"It's this," Hiro said, pointing at the scribble he had made. "See, this scribble means 'fish'—if you write it, then he gives you one."

Boulders-on-Hill made a pensive noise, looking—Obake noticed, capped and took away his squid ink before either of the dragons could act further.

"We do have other things to do," he announced, getting up.

"I should probably rest up," Boulders-on-Hill decided. "I'll be looking for that other Gronkle tonight."

"Just be careful," Hiro offered, half-spreading his good wing so Obake could hook the harness back on.

The leash reminded him of something though.

"Hey," he barked, stopping Boulders-on-Hill from leaving just yet. "How'd you tug us up like that? Last night?"

"Hmm? Oh," she noised. "When you were running up you looked kind of panicked, and I guess I panicked too, so I ran back against the cliff face—and then I thought I should go back and help, but I noticed I ran around a rock when I came back, and that it was still pulling the not-vine, so I ran the other way so it would keep pulling."

"Cool," Hiro said, grinning—and it was, he needed to figure out how to use something like that, or if it'd be useful in the future. "Well, have a good nap! We're going to go out and do things. Cool things."

"You be careful too," she said, nudging Hiro when he made to follow Obake. Looked at him like she was debating asking another question…."I'll have more questions when I come back."

"We'll be here, probably."

She nodded, went deeper into the cavern.

"So that happened," Obake observed. When Hiro chuffed: "I think this is going down on my list of weirder days."

Hiro was inclined to agree.

Obake made sure to clean everything up and hide it before taking Hiro and sneaking out. The priority today was simply getting more firewood—he didn't want to stay exposed for too long after news of the dragons' escape broke. Chances were, the Yokai would be combing the island and the surrounding area, despite the waste of time that would be—if those dragons were smart, they'd be long-gone.

But regrettably, Yama was not, he'd be sending people out to search for the missing dragons, and if anyone agreed it would be either out of boredom or a desire to get away from the village. Either way, he didn't want to run into anyone.

Hiro seemed confused about having the exploration cut short but didn't complain, and had fortunately been antsy and cautious the whole time. Good, smart dragon.

Unfortunately, that didn't leave much else for them to do—put the screen at the far end of the cavern to hide the tunnel, spend a chunk of the day more thoroughly exploring what they could of the tunnels.

A more thorough exploration just showed that there was still very little available to them, all things considered—the other caverns were spherical, like something had burrowed it out for the express purpose of curling up in, could probably be converted into something useful. Apartments or offices, maybe—a whole secret lair, just for them.

Now if only he had more to stock it with.

But the other tunnels were too sheer to do much with—one did branch out at an angle they could explore, but quickly angled in such a way that gravity nearly claimed him and sent him shooting down, possibly to several broken bones and a hungry Whispering Death. No, that wasn't an option.

"How good is your capability to see in the dark?" Obake asked once they were recovered in the main tunnel, pointing at one of the side turnings. Hiro shook his head—ah, so his night vision relied on building on the little light he could get, not simply 'seeing in the dark.' "I'm guessing the Gronkle wouldn't be much better?" Another head shake. "I suppose that's out then."

Went to the opening that looked out over the ocean, noted the ships that usually didn't bother with this side and were currently fighting the wind. Hmm, so he was going to guess he was right, and that Yama had been stupid and sent people out hunting. And unless he was mistaken….

"Wrr?" Hiro noised, as Obake pulled out the small spyglass he had made sure to grab on the way out the door.

"It's called voyeurism," he explained, before peering through, shading the end with a hand to keep from catching the sun and alerting those below to their location. Yes, the Yokai on the ship were doing the closest their tribe ever came to a day trip, lazing on the deck and probably asking y'think it's been long enough for Yama to believe we looked? What a bunch of buffoons.

"Wuff," Hiro noised, pawing at him as he folded the spyglass up.

"I'm not sure how effective it would be for dragons," he told him, holding it so he could sniff at it and peer at the glass. "Considering you're built for stooping on prey from on high."

Hiro sat back, huffing as Obake pocketed the spyglass and retreated further into the tunnel. Came to sit next to him, huff again.

"Considering our options," he explained, staring at the opposite wall and ignoring the pebble digging into his thigh. "This would be a good place for a base, but it only has one viable exit. Granted, the cove does too, but it also has the minor weaknesses of flooding easily and having a space for others to shoot down in. Like fish in a barrel."

Hiro perked up at the mention of fish—well, there was one way to kill some time….

Go back to the cavern where he had stored the rucksack and basket, bring both with him after some debate—would rather use natural light for as long as he could to ration the wood…might definitely convert one of these round caverns, the more he thought about it the more he liked the idea and was already racing ahead to what he could do with it all.

Dump both in the closest cavern to the opening, pull out a few more dried fish before retreating back to the curve that let the light in. Hiro looked less than enthused at the proffered fish.

"Sorry, but going and getting fresh is going to have to wait," he said, gesturing to the opening to indicate the boat still out there. "I'd much rather lay low for now instead of getting killed just because you were feeling peckish."

Hiro huffed, but seemed to see the logic—sat down when prompted, went through all the little tricks he knew Hiro knew for sure, gave him the first piece and an apologetic look when Hiro gnawed on it before swallowing.

"Okay—stay," he ordered, pointing. "Put. There. Stay. Stay." Start walking away, Hiro watching him with confusion—

"That is not stay," he said, when Hiro trotted after him. Dangit he was definitely going to need Hiro to know this one if he was going to start operating out of here. Either that or rig up some sort of barrier to keep him in. Actually might have to have a few of those anyway for where the tunnels angled down and dangit now he was considering basically babyproofing a Whispering Death lair.

But working on stay carried them through the afternoon, finally called it quits when it started getting dark, had Hiro do lie down so he'd feel like he got something out of this whole thing, retreated back to the one cavern, pausing only to let the Gronkle buzz by. Seemed the prudent approach.

Hiro entertained himself with poking through the cavern to his heart's content as Obake got things set back up. Lit a fire, paced about considering where he'd put what and how he could arrange it to hide it best. Gray or dark blankets would be best to cover any tables he might make in here, would protect and hide it at the same time, continued to pace in a circle as he entertained this fancy. Let's see, pros would be nice location at a distance to the village that wouldn't flood and if he had found this as a boy no one would have ever seen him he would have skipped having to return to that annoying orphanage every night and certainly wouldn't have had to deal with anyone. Cons being that there was only one exit he could use, there were pitfalls if he weren't careful (might spend some time tomorrow pacing out the cavern so he could navigate in the dark if he had to), and if it were discovered it would be too easy to pin him in here. Also, there was no guarantee that the Whispering Death that made this warren was gone, just the fact that the dragons seemed calm enough in using the space.

Finally did sit down on his little bed of blankets, Hiro padding over after a while.

"What do you think?" he asked the little dragon. "Shall we call this a secret base or does that sound too much like what a little boy would come up with?"

Hiro barked, bounded over to a stalagmite, reared up and scratched at it until deep claw marks crisscrossed it, rubbed his jaw against it before bounding back to him and yipping, bouncing up and down excitedly.

"I'm guessing that's your way of saying you like it here too," Obake said, considering the marred rock. Marking territory, perhaps? Well it was better than the alternatives other animals employed.

Hiro chuffed, the sort of noise that sounded agreeing enough, padded back over to curl up next to him.

"Sounds a little quiet tonight," Obake observed. "I wonder whatever happened to the dragons."

What indeed.

Honeysuckle started awake at being pawed at, sat up quickly—

Exhaled in relief when she saw it was Older-Light-Fury.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Older-Light-Fury huffed. "Don't ask me, you're the one who looks dead on her paws."

Older-Light-Fury looked dead on her paws too, and wrung out—

And like she was planning on charging into that cave and fighting Mountain-King herself.

Swift-Strike sensed it too. "Older-Light-Fury, we still need you."

Older-Light-Fury huffed again but relented, pawing forward a fish she had brought. Swift-Strike bit it in half, swallowed the tail and nudged the head to Honeysuckle.

"How's progress?" Older-Light-Fury asked, curling up on Honeysuckle's other side.

"Slow," Honeysuckle said, looking at her nubby claws. "We can't dig through fast enough—our claws aren't strong enough."

"One of Blue-Firescales' snapped," Swift-Strike said. "Healing-Talons thinks it's from not eating regularly."

Honeysuckle put a paw on Older-Light-Fury's at her growl. "We'll keep trying—we've got to, right? there's still a chance."

Older-Light-Fury sighed, rested her head between her paws and closed her eyes.

"Yes," she said finally. "Yes—we can't lose faith just yet."

"Um."

They looked up sharp at that noise, saw a couple of young Gronkles peering in.

"Nadder-Mother-to-Everybody said we should come and help," one said.

The other nodded. "And she said it was a secret and we had to be real sneaky about it."

"And that we were helping Older-Brother get out."

"And that you needed a break."

Honeysuckle felt warmth soaking under her scales, more when Nadder-Mother-to-Everybody followed them in, the two Gronkles scurrying to the tunnel in the ice—opened her mouth and spilled more fish out.

"Mountain-King's nice and full, so he'll not be bothering us about fishing for a bit," she explained, before getting a sharp look in her eye. "I spilled in some hard-seafoam with my offering—too greedy to notice at all." Tip her head, shrug. "Course, it won't do much, but it makes me feel better."

"Petty—I can dig it," Swift-Strike said—nudged a fish at Healing-Talons when he padded out, surprised.

"There are two Gronkles digging in the tunnel," he reported once the fish was in his stomach.

"We know."

"I figured you'd need a break and those two needed something to do," Nadder-Mother-to-Everybody said. "I'll see about which of my other children can be discreet and helpful with this while I'm working through them."

Honeysuckle exchanged blank looks with Healing-Talons, looked at Older-Light-Fury.

"We're getting Older-Brother out," she said in a quiet growl. "And then we're leaving."

Leaving—leaving like they fantasized all those turns ago, flying off into the unknown with its many dangers and no alpha—

But the alpha they had now was no help to them—they were better off throwing themselves into the dangerous yonder than staying here—Older-Brother was proof of that.

Okay, she thought, digging her claws into the ground and wincing when that aggravated the sore nubs. Okay. We can do this. Get Older-Brother out, leave Mountain-King, get Little-Brother, fly away. It's just the thing you always fantasized and planned about. We can do this. We have to make this work.

We don't have any other choice now.