Ghost's Fury Chapter 26: Eeling Out Of Trouble, a How to Train Your Dragon + Big Hero 6 Crossover fanfic

Chapter 26, everybody, and happy Thanksgiving! Figured I might as well so I could have updates every day this month (except Sundays, but those are my day off). :D

This chapter was actually written after the upcoming chapters—spent a lot of time writing this month and running through everything to make sure it all works nicely. Good news, we're good for the rest of the year, although we won't be updating Christmas Eve, I don't think. Maybe New Year's Eve, I don't know. *shrug*

The next day Obake risked going into the village after he was certain they were busy at the kill ring, collected a bag of fish and some more supplies for the cave he was planning to renovate, circumnavigated his traps before heading up to the cave and slipping in.

Hiro was sitting there waiting, looked around eagerly before settling on him.

"We're going to have to discuss you sitting right there to wait for me," Obake told him. "And no, no new dragons today."

Hiro sagged, huffed—looked at the one bag with interest.

"Why doesn't that surprise me," Obake said, emptying the bag onto the floor. "This one is mine, the rest are yours. Go nuts."

Hiro cheered, started nosing about in the fish—

Reeled back screeching in alarm, looking absolutely terrified.

"What? What?" he demanded, looking around for the source of Hiro's terror—finally settled on the pack of fish as the only possible source. "What? It's fish—you like fish—ah." This was new—pull an eel out of the pile, to a fresh wave of draconian horror. "Are you serious? Eels are good eating." Either that or it had been too long for him to be concerned about being picky. Shrug, move to throw it on the fire—

Hiro screeched, charged—rammed into him, causing him to go sprawling and the eel to go flying—Hiro pounced—

Blasted the eel into oblivion.

"Seriously?" Obake demanded when his ears stopped ringing. "All that fuss over an eel?"

Hiro was too busy celebrating his vanquishing of an obviously terrible beast to care.

"You are a ridiculous dragon," Obake huffed, dusting himself off—considered before writing that into his notebook. Dragons didn't like eels, did they?

He could use that.

Letting himself get caught again had the added bonus of him being able to get more supplies together—he was heavily debating the merits of just disappearing into the caverns once he got enough set up and never dealing with the village proper again until Hiro was grown, was pretty sure the main obstacle there was someone coming to look for him. Made sure to have a dour look as he was thrown into the ring again.

"Wow," Ralph noised, edging Felix away from him. "You uh…fancy seeing you here. A second time."

Despite being Carl's size, Ralph actually was considerate enough to shy away when Obake glared at him. Get up, ignoring the jeers, his current colleagues, Calhoun loudly yelling WHAT have I TOLD YOU about risking essential workers you do NOT just throw the contractor and the blacksmith to DRAGONS—

A Hideous Zippleback came storming out, already blasting out its noxious gas—everyone backtracked, dove for some form of cover, not wanting to be too exposed if it decided to spark and set the gas on fire—well except for Vinnie, apparently, who finally seemed to notice that at least two people were glaring at him.

"Maybe I finish this later, huh?" he asked, indicating the explosive he was working on.

"If you can bring yourself to," Obake said, voice heavy with sarcasm.

"Eh, would have worked if it was a different dragon," Vinnie said, shrugging—the fifth poor sap ignored them, started trying to sneak closer to where the dragon used to be—idiot, a dragon with any sense would use this as a blind—need a plan, need…ah.

Slip over to the gate, trip the lever that opened it from inside, whistle for Calhoun's attention—

She looked like she was debating heavily before finally throwing a rock at Ralph's back, causing him to yelp in alarm and fall as he tried to twist around—shake her head, indicate that they head her way.

Obake was already slinking the other way, considering. If he were a dragon—and it seemed sensible enough to assign them at least some level of intelligence—if he were a dragon surrounded by hostiles, he'd be using this gas as cover as he tried to find a way out. It would have heard the gate, maybe, so—

The shape in the gas suddenly resolved itself when the Zippleback's right head bumped against his chest, causing both of them to flinch back.

"Ah," he noised, as both heads focused on him, one grinning as it worked its jaw, the hint of a spark starting—

The one goon found it too, charged its side screaming, causing both heads to whip up and around—

Best time to enact his plan.

The one head squawked in startlement at the bola wrapping around it, too light to do any damage but light enough to easily throw—the other head whipped around—

Screamed in alarm when it realized what was tied to the bola.

Obake flattened himself against the wall as the Zippleback rampaged in its panic—frantically started edging around the ring again as it crashed everywhere, found the gate as the Zippleback continued thrashing—

And somehow managed to blunder through the gate, knocking the outer portion off its hinges as it screamed through the village, collecting several pursuant Yokai as it got airborne.

Immediate threat gone, Obake looked the gate over—the hinge pins would have to be refired—noticed Vinnie plastered against the wall.

Vinnie noticed him too. "I was thinking I let him go first, yeah?"

"It seems the more prudent approach," Obake agreed drily.

Also prudent: making himself scarce once again.

Hiro was smart enough to be dozing off to the side of the cavern when Obake returned, perked up upon seeing him slip in after checking once again that he hadn't been followed.

"I bring good news," he announced. "A Zippleback made a successful break for it. Unfortunately, this is again an example of a trick that will only work once, and with certain dragons."

Hiro stopped bouncing to make a disapproving wuff noise at Obake—probably scolding him for dampening his glee. Looked at the fresh bags of supplies he had set down next to the others.

"Well," he explained, mentally tallying what he had now up here. "I think we have enough to start work on that cavern, don't you? Interested in a fancified den?"

Even if he wasn't, Hiro was obviously intrigued by the various tools Obake used while building the cavern up—using the backs of the stalagmites to give a further blind to their work, using drills and levels and various other means to drive in small posts that could then support shelves that he tapped together with pilfered nails—if anyone commented on the loss he'd blame the lack of renewable resources.

Regrettably, that was a persisting problem.

It was difficult to tell how much time had passed without consulting the sky at the end of the tunnel, but eventually hunger and sore muscles drove him to break for a meal. Hiro would have enough fish for a few days, and Obake had managed to gather some supplemental food for himself. And tea, most importantly, although judging by the stores he'd have to make the next several pots weak and watery.

"We'll need a water source in here as well," Obake mused. "To avoid exposure on the mountain. And a more reliable light source…pity we don't really have options."

"Mrr," Hiro noised, dozing.

That was a fair point, and at the very least, he had been smart enough to pick up a small lamp this time—have it ready, stretch his back, lay down for a minute, he told himself.

Had to reevaluate that estimation when Hiro woke up enough to crawl over and lay on him. Fine, fine, he'd wait until the dragon was more deeply asleep and then go from there.

Didn't remember falling asleep himself.

Momakase's plan for the day was to track down where Obake had been hiding.

It seemed an interesting enough pursuit, got her away from the village and let her skip on the whole lucky lottery thing—pick on someone else for a while. Went to the forge, then his main house (the fool kept sticking to one house, idiot)—both fireplaces were stone cold, meaning he was elsewhere.

The question was just where.

She was going to rule the village out for now by dint of wanting to avoid it herself—no need to be grabbed and thrown in the kill ring. Wander into the woods, mindful of traps—

Felt she was on the right track when she stumbled upon the first one.

Careful examination of the area showed it had been well-trafficked, had more traps lurking—slowly and cautiously circle around, keeping an eye out for more traps or anything that looked even remotely suspicious—if there was one thing Obake was good at, it was building a better mousetrap.

Another thing: he probably wasn't too concerned with killing someone out here.

Found the remains of a campfire and camp, but they were cold too—too close to the village anyway.

Consider—where would Obake try to hide from people? The mountains were treacherous, but they might have caves….

Brushed that one off when she reached the first major pinch point and encountered no traps. If he were hiding up here, he would have definitely made sure to rig this spot up at least.

No…no, he was hiding elsewhere.

Retreat back down the path, gingerly poking along with a long stick, lost the stick to a trap—ah, much better.

This trail didn't lead her anywhere promising either though, and by then she was having to retreat to avoid getting tripped up in the dark. The important thing was, she avoided the kill ring.

The next several days also yielded no results, despite her following many traps to many dead ends.

Okay, she thought, considering the carefully-concealed pit trap before her—someone who wasn't looking for it would miss it totally. She nearly missed it, and she had been looking for such a thing. Let's think. Obake is avoiding Yama and Sparkles. Makes sense. But where? It needs to be close enough that he can filch supplies, far enough away to evade detection…all the traps are centered on the southeast corners of the island, near where the docks are….

Is he trying to make a break for it?

She had to dismiss that one as soon as she thought it—Obake was about useless when it came to boats.

She also didn't think the area was a good one for hiding after evaluating it. Yes, it was protected from the fiercer northern winds, but it was still victim to southern storms, and most of the caves would either flood or were too chancy to try to access. No, he was hiding somewhere else.

Or is that what he wants you to believe?

It made sense, he was like that, would have you looking one place and then do something else entirely while your back was turned. It was the sort of thing that made him very, very dangerous on raids, in any situation where he had more than five minutes to enact a plan and put it in motion.

Huff at that—he was smart, she had seen that for herself. Fast as a whip, would often have a plan while people were still absorbing the information, would already be putting something together before people even realized he had already figured something out. After the first year or so, she had learned to watch him over what anyone else was doing, much to the aggravation of several others.

But, she reflected, scanning the first cave she was able to examine—she much preferred leaping into action, preferred it when she could also leap back out. Trying to see all the angles could leave a person paralyzed—she often settled for several angles and then diving into it, trusting her own wit and reflexes and swordsmanship to get her out.

Obake was the only person she had ever met who could see all the angles that quickly, and then know what to do with them beyond being frozen in indecision. Their ruler Callaghan might be, but she knew he relied on Obake's cunning just as much as the rest of them did.

It was a wonder Obake wasn't running the tribe, or at least was second in command.

She scowled at that as she examined the next cave, dismissed it for being too small. It wasn't for lack of ambition—the man had done his level best to overcome any obstacle and rise above everyone else, had started butting heads with Callaghan because of it. Would probably chafe at being second, she reflected—someone like that didn't settle until he was on top.

She paused, halfway to the next cave. By that logic….

By that logic Obake would be looking to rid himself of Callaghan.

She shook her head and continued looking, dismissing that thought as well. He might want the position, but he wouldn't want the responsibilities that came with it. Obake was not a people-person, full stop. Yes, he'd team up with her on schemes, but that was because she had inserted herself into them—after seeing that his plots worked out nine times out of ten, she'd go up to him while the others were still working things out, and if Callaghan hadn't bothered with him yet she'd ask him what the plan was. Unlike the others, she'd go along with whatever he cooked up because she could trust herself to get back out if something went wrong.

She had learned long ago that self-reliance was her greatest asset.

Huff at that, look over the myriad cave entrances still left to go…Obake wasn't this way. Even though she had seen plenty of traps leading down this path, something this narrow should have something, something small he could easily dodge but that would trip up anyone hunting him. Look back, look forward…no. Obake was definitely not hiding this way.

But where then? And for what purpose?

Grouse under her breath, kick a pebble off the thin path and watch it bounce away down to the thinner beach below, exposed as it was by the ebbing tide. Boredom, that's what this was—boredom and frustration at having been left behind while their chief took a bunch of other Yokai with him to raid. Probably a punishment, he had noticed her leaning more on Obake's counsel than his own.

Huff—that wasn't her fault. She would rather get in, hit fast and hard, and get out, absconding with whatever she had been targeting or accomplishing whatever she had decided to do. She had better things to do than dither about deciding on the whats and wherefores. The Yokai were a fearsome band of marauders, and yes, Callaghan had cemented that with his ruthlessness.

What really sold it was how they'd strike right where it hurt, and she knew that one could be attributed to Obake.

Look up at the sun, noting its location—the daily kill ring entertainment should be starting shortly. If she turned around now, she'd be back roughly in the middle of it, would have the run of the village.

Smiled at that, headed back with quick measured strides that took her around the traps she had marked on the way out, light and swift and moving with purpose. That stupid Sparkle had been insisting everyone be at the kill ring and everyone be subject to that 'lucky lottery,' something Yama was stupid enough to go along with.

Which meant the food stores would be unattended.

Which meant—if she hurried—she could find herself a nice abandoned cottage and make herself a proper meal for once. Very grand, would calm her down and let her organize her thoughts.

Maybe then she'd be able to figure out just what Obake was really up to.