Ghost's Fury Chapter 30: Tested Again and Again Every Day, a How to Train Your Dragon + Big Hero 6 Crossover fanfic

Chapter 30, everybody! Sorry for missing last week but FFN didn't want to play ball. :\

Anywho, in this chapter Obake references Greek mythology and we see some of the results of his research…and yeah, kinda going with Obake knowing something of Greek mythology, since he used it in his little speech to Hiro in canon. Also Older-Brother references Ratatouille.

Obake spent the next day testing to see if the Nadder reacted to the same stimuli the other dragons did.

The answer to that was yes, and that it was a very bad idea to show the yellow and black pattern of an eel to a dragon with magnesium fire breath. At least the other dragons had scolded it as Obake picked himself up from behind the stalagmite he had dove for (years of watching for tells had alerted him to the fire attack coming).

Other than that, progress with the Nadder went smoothly. It seemed interested in the runes, yes, but didn't show any inclination to learn those or the other tricks the dragons were learning (there was now a group of Terrors who happily imitated Hiro during his exercises in the hopes of fish). In all, his suppositions of Nadder behavior were showing themselves to be correct: they were vain and aloof and not interested in doing what you wanted.

The first in that list was definitely proved when he finally procured a mirror to test self-awareness with the dragons.

Here was how the basic test worked with animals: you took a smear of paint and put it on the animal, then put it in front of a mirror. If the animal tried to clean the paint off the mirror, then it simply registered the reflection as another member of its species. If it tried to clean it off of itself, then it registered itself as an individual and was aware of that fact.

Of course, at the moment he was having to deal with introducing the dragons to a new item in the cave—it was very entertaining to watch them posturing in front of it and barking like they thought there was a new dragon in the cave. So maybe they all failed the test.

Except after the initial shock, when they'd bump against the mirror (fortunately very strongly anchored) and registered that it was a flat surface, they started playing around with it. The Terrors kept circling around it, trying to peer behind, apparently convinced the mirror hid a passageway. Hiro kept posturing and posing in front of it, sniffing curiously at his reflection and realizing it wasn't another dragon when he tried to lick it and left slobber on the surface (which didn't wash out, as Obake was starting to realize). The Gronkle seemed interested, kept angling around to look at itself—probably wasn't aware of itself, considering its head didn't have the good turn radius the other dragons had.

The Nadder he was seriously considering calling Narcissus, considering it totally fell in love with its reflection. Of all the dragons, it was the one who spent the most time preening in front of the mirror, using it to address ragged bits of scale or admire its own contours, chiding any curious Terrors away while it focused on itself.

"Narcissus wasted away in front of his own reflection," Obake observed after the third day of this. "I wonder how many Nadders have starved to death in front of reflective surfaces."

The Nadder didn't seem to care much for his comment, ripped the blanket that he had tried covering the mirror with away, went back to preening.

"So we've figured out how to get rid of Nadders, at least," Obake muttered, already considering this trap as he sharpened his pencil (it had taken a while to get the dragons accepting of the little penknife). A flash of light reflected from the fire bounced off of it, onto the mirror—

All the dragons started, looked around like they were hunting for something—Obake angled the knife again, intrigued—

Several Terrors knocked their heads together pouncing for the little shard of light.

Stifle a laugh, send the little flicker of light dancing around the Nadder's feet, making it bounce around trying to stomp on it—got Hiro in on it too, sending the little Fury racing around the cavern trying to catch it. Even the Gronkle tried stomping on it, would huff in dismay when that failed.

He had a very exhausted group of dragons by the time he had tired of the little game.

He also had a fresh idea, which he happily machined up in the forge when everyone was distracted with the kill ring. Yes, he should feel bad about yet another dragon dying instead of potentially being used to further research this, but he thought he had enough of a testing pool to work with now.

The only problem, of course, was the fact that he'd need to figure out a way to rescue the remaining dragons if he wanted to keep the dragons he had under his thrall.

Now there was a thought.

But for now, a fresh trap to use against the dragons—a couple of small balls that he could toss, that would flash and attract their attention, and then lure them into a spot where nets could easily drop on them. Testing on the dragons in the cave showed that this would work quite well.

It also made him question doing this. He certainly didn't need to improve his clout in the Yokai, no matter what that pink-haired idiot tried. He had better things to do now than hunt and kill dragons.

It was also why he was once again trying to ward the dragons away from the island—like that had ever worked. The banners hadn't kept them at bay, but it had made the Monstrous Nightmares waste their dangerous fire. Mirrors might distract the Deadly Nadders, make them land elsewhere and admire their reflections. The rest of them would be distracted by the little mirror-balls.

The next raid was the perfect time to test this.

He had to convince the Gronkle to keep Hiro still (which involved laying on him, apparently), did have to deal with a curious Nadder following him. Extinguish the torch, slip out to watch the carnage.

The mirror-balls he had rigged so that they'd roll away from their hiding spots when a dragon rammed into certain structures, and it did succeed in getting several dragons chasing them away. The Nadders and Nightmares were absent, although a glowing from the cliff edge told him that the Nightmares were once again wasting their fire on the eel banners—judging by their flight trajectory, they had spotted them, narrowed their eyes, and drove right into the fray.

It also meant that when they flew up to join their fellows, they had very little fire left.

The Nadders, at least, were thoroughly distracted by the mirrors, didn't fly up until they noticed the other dragons retreating—there had been some brief fighting, but little damage to the buildings and very few dragons brought down.

"Well," he said. "This feels like a successful evening."

"Wrr?" the Nadder noised, following him. Reached the cave entrance—

The Nadder suddenly shrieked, knocking him down as it spun and blocked the cave entrance—

A very angry Nightmare had spotted them, was hissing and spitting and raging—flew off when the Nadder tried to flame it and it could only produce a weak spittle in response.

"Well," he gasped. "That could have ended badly."

Hiro was both thrilled to hear about the success of the distractions and mad that he missed it all.

"You stopped them from throwing themselves on the Yokai-nest and I missed it," he protested, giving Boulders-on-Hill the stink-eye.

"Your welcome for saving your life," she huffed.

Hiro grumbled—noticed Gleam-Scale curled up away from the mirror, looking downcast.

"Hey," he said, padding over. "What's bugging you?"

"I just—" Shake his head, start again. "I just fought someone from my own flight to protect him—to protect a Yokai!" Lift his head, spines flared in distress. "They kill thousands of us and I defended one!"

"Hey, hey! Calm down," Hiro said—glanced back to see Boulders-on-Hill stopping Obake from snatching Hiro away and simultaneously protecting him should Gleam-Scale charge. "It's okay—listen. Just tell us what went down. The whole thing."

Gleam-Scale was still breathing heavily, glaring at Obake…finally rested his head on the ground.

"I followed him out," he muttered. "I was curious about the flaming stick. And then—all those things he was doing…with the shiny hard-water and the eels and the balls of light-shards…he used them against us, against dragons…but it kept them from attacking the nest."

"So…keeping innocent dragons from becoming nest-raiders," Hiro said, spinning it into a positive. "Continue."

"And then a Nightmare spots us as we're going back in the cave—tries to attack the Yokai but I—I stopped him. Hissed at him to leave, and he…he called me a useless yellow-bellied traitorous lizard."

Hiro and Boulders-on-Hill both winced at that—being called a yellow-bellied lizard was one of the worst insults a dragon could levy at another dragon. And then traitorous…well he guessed he could see how this could be construed as traitorous, but….

"How many dragons actually made it to the nest and attacked?" Hiro asked. "How many…." Couldn't bring himself to finish that question.

Gleam-Scale shook his head. "Not many. Maybe a pawful."

Hiro bumped his nose against Gleam-Scale's. "I wouldn't call saving dragons traitorous."

"Let's go with 'the Nightmare was a jerk who had a throwing-claw stuck up his tailvent," Boulders-on-Hill offered, causing the other dragons to snort. "Nightmares tend to be nasty when their blood gets up and they can't destroy stuff."

"Yeah, rude," Hiro said. "At least Blue-Firescales isn't like that."

"Who?"

"Um…some of my brother's friends…my friends too."

He happily regaled them with stories after that, sensing they needed the distraction, went over to sit by Obake as he continued with the sharing, mostly to show Gleam-Scale that he wasn't dangerous, also to calm Obake down since he had been looking like he'd happily tackle the Nadder if he thought Hiro had been in danger.

Curling up to sleep that night, he had to take a moment to acknowledge how weird that was.

Can't get all argumentative at me over that one, he shot at Imaginary-Older-Brother.

"I'm sure I could," Imaginary-Older-Brother countered. "He's using you, and he can't use you if you're dead."

Just arguing for arguing's sake then.

Imaginary-Older-Brother huffed at him. "Of course I am—I'm a figment of your imagination. You think that the real Older-Brother would be arguing and against this at every turn, so why are you so surprised at me doing exactly what you think?"

Ugh, that was a point. Huff, sigh….

He missed Older-Brother.

I don't know where you are, but you'd better have a good excuse, he thought. I miss you, Older-Brother, and I need the real you to help figure this out.

But Older-Brother would have been here by now, he thought. If he was still—

No. No he was not thinking that. Older-Brother was coming.

He hoped.