Ghost's Reign Chapter 13: On the Topic of Edibles, a How to Train Your Dragon + Big Hero 6 Crossover fanfic

Chapter 13, everybody! In which Hiro is busy with the feed it of the I'll walk it and feed it and take care of it thing.

So reading up on the HTTYD wiki and apparently dragon nip has a garlic smell but also is inedible to humans. Jimson weed, meanwhile, is so poisonous that it actually kills plants near it as well as anything that eats it. Also known as Devil's Snare (HP fans might recognize that), the seeds can hibernate in the ground for up to forty years and sprout because the seeds were disturbed. This, I learn because I dug out part of the ditch a few years back and went oh I'll put this in the garden that's good mulch, right? What is this plant? I literally woke an ancient evil. D:

Also the irony of Hiro's beef when there's a lot of stuff humans can eat that most animals cannot, like chocolate and caffeine. XD Also is that a HTTYD character I spy?

So the next attempt at Tadashi taking Obake flying went about as well as the rest of them, which was LAME Tadashi was totally doing this on purpose instead of acknowledging that this could be totally awesome if he gave it half a chance.

Unfortunately Momakase waylaid Obake shortly after he stashed the saddle, and that meant Obake was probably going to need an extra day to recover. No big, Hiro could find something else to occupy his time—like seeing how everyone was settling in and if anyone needed some help with the whole thing.

Enoka, the dragon formerly known as Boulders-on-Hill, had obviously taken to this well, having picked a big hairy Yokai named Dave who had totally subscribed to the awesomeness of dragons alongside several other similarly-built Yokai. These other Yokai had mostly taken to Gronkles—which to be fair, the Gronkles were the first ones after maybe the Terrors to subscribe to this whole thing—but at least one had a Nightmare hovering around it and peppering Hiro with questions about Yokai-care.

"So mostly these guys are self-sufficient," Hiro pointed out. "And they much prefer eating fish and plants instead of dragons—they drink this weird leaf-water too that's a thing."

Okay so this was going to require Hiro having to actually find out what kinds of plants Yokai ate because this information saw a wash of dragons bringing bushes and branches and in one memorable case a whole tree to the Yokai, sometimes just mouthfuls of leaves or grass, which generally just resulted in bafflement on the Yokai's part.

"No no no," one Nadder said of her mouthful of grass she had retrieved—picked the Yokai up by the scruff of the neck and put it back down next to the grass, which was probably going to have to be the sort of thing Hiro needed to discourage, considering the look on the Yokai's face. "This is the good stuff look at this smell." Flop down, rub her head and neck in the grass, rolling onto her back a few times before righting herself. "Now you."

The Yokai had crouched down and picked at the grass carefully, was sniffing a bit of it—

The smell hit Hiro's nose too, cluing him in on why she was insistent.

"Is that dragon nip?" he asked, padding over. "Where did you find that?"

"Couple of islands over," the Nadder reported. "Think we finally found something that interests them?"

Apparently, considering the way the information spread like wildfire through the Yokai. About a week after this one of the water-travelers came back with big bales of the stuff distributed amongst the Yokai—weirdly, this was intended as something to give to the dragons. Which, yeah, but why go to all that trouble to get it?

Obake he could get—Obake had apparently put figure out dragon nip on his to-do list, considering all the examining and testing he was doing with the stuff, presenting it to Hiro in regular, ground-up and paste form to see what he'd do with it.

"What baffles me," he told Hiro after jotting everything down on his bound-leaves, sitting in that weird cross-legged way he did that never looked comfortable. "Is the bringing it here to begin with. It has a calming effect on dragons and has a smell similar to garlic, but humans can't eat it."

Well there went that for supplementing Yokai diets.

"That's not true," Momakase said, leaning into the forge and startling Obake into tossing his bound-leaves away. "Remember that one guy who tried to use it as a substitute for rice? Whatever happened to that guy anyway?"

"It had a psychological effect on him and he had to be tied to a mast and shipped off," Obake told her, patting his chest like he had to make sure his heart was still there.

"He went crazy from grass?"

"Would you like me to remind you what Jimson weed does?"

"Nah, I'd rather trounce you in the ring instead."

Which left Hiro with the frustrating knowledge that yet another thing couldn't be eaten by Yokai why was this so hard!?

"Little-Brother," a Zippleback head greeted as the Zippleback itself followed a Yokai.

"Yokai-Tamer," the other head corrected.

"Right."

"We've found a way around hunting for supplemental foliage for the Yokai."

"Uh…okay?" Hiro noised, confused first by the words they were using and second by Zippleback talk in general—they had a habit of alternating lines and conversing between their heads and the end result usually left Hiro lost. "What is it?"

"We've found a Yokai," the one head said.

"That seems to be knowledgeable about the plants Yokai can safely interact with," the other head said.

"Yes, apparently one plant causes itching."

"Shame, that."

"But this one uses plants in interesting ways—"

"Which means that whatever plants they collect will be safe for Yokai."

"Hence our following it around."

"Is it an it? How do we tell what it is?"

"That is a question when they don't have frills or horns, isn't it?"

"Uhhh right," Hiro noised. "Better get after them, they're getting away."

"Ah drat—these don't wait around at all."

"Preferable to us waiting for them," the other head said.

"True—how are the tests for the Yokai-transporter going?"

"Saddle, he called it."

"Saddle, that."

"Still a work in progress," Hiro called after them as they headed after their retreating Yokai. "I'll tell Tadashi you asked!"

"See that you do!"

"Will be much more convenient then!" the other head agreed, tails flicking in goodbye.

Well that was going to make it easier to get Tadashi to play nice—plans to find him were derailed by Fred, however.

"We just need you to help us figure this thing out," Fred said, cantering around a tangled mess that might have been a net once upon a time. "Like we KNOW they catch fish with this but HOW."

"The same way they catch dragons," Wasabi muttered.

"Uhh…hmm," Hiro noised, sniffing at it. "Was it always like this?"

"It got a little tangled up when we tried to catch some fish with it," Fred admitted.

"Okay so you need an untangled one because I'm pretty sure you're supposed to throw it."

"We tried that—or well, as well as we could when we're throwing it down at the fish—so it was kind of like dropping it."

"It was dropping it," Wasabi said flatly.

Which led to them following a water-traveler out and circling around it to watch—and then finding a different one to circle and watch when it became clear the first one wasn't fishing. Both times the Yokai on the water-traveler seemed nervous at their presence, but after shooing away that Scauldron word had apparently spread and they weren't as nervous as they could be. Did seem convinced they'd take the fish when they swooped down close to see how the nets worked.

"Okay so MAYBE we've got a better understanding of it," Fred said as they winged back to the island. "Thanks Hiro!"

"No problem—have fun!" Hiro said, the last bit just a tad jeering at Wasabi's expression. Okay so that was a teeny bit mean but Wasabi looked SO done at Fred insisting on this that it was actually funny. Plus considering how several dragons were bringing in mouthfuls of fish for their Yokai, Fred figuring out the net seemed to be a moot point.

But at the very least, even factoring in the frustration with the plants, the Yokai now had plenty of food to eat once again and that meant that the other dragons could stop worrying about them potentially eating dragons instead. So that was a win. And seeing as how the kill ring was abandoned and Tadashi was on the roof of Obake's nest….

"Sky-Blue-Zippleback wants to know how the saddle is coming," Hiro jeered at Tadashi as he flew a wide circle around him, aiming for the open slip-hole.

"I blame you for this!" Tadashi shot back.

Hiro huffed at that, slipped in, bounded over to Obake's bed-nest and hopped up, walking up the Yokai's spine to huff in his ear.

"Go away," Obake groaned.

"So does she just not like you or what?" Hiro asked, flopping down on his back.

Another groan. "I think Momakase wants the chiefing job and either doesn't have the sense to ask nicely or is just toying with me first. My money is personally on the latter."

"Maybe she likes you," Hiro said, kneading Obake's back.

"That is not actually helping get off."

Huff, roll off and push up against Obake's side. The Yokai didn't really have a lot of heat—surprising with how hot-blooded the rest of the Yokai seemed. Probably something to do with being an alpha-Yokai, or a half-Yokai, he didn't know yet.

Just something to put on his to-do list, he guessed.

"You must think I was born yesterday."

"Oh dear, what happened now?" Trader Johann sighed, looking up from the notations he was comparing with several others to the point of contention a few stalls over.

The trader visiting the mercantile island—one of several scattered across the Archipelago and acting as hubs for the trade alliance—waved Trader Johann over, pointed at the man he was currently arguing with. "This rube here says he's got Night Fury scales."

"Oh? Bold claims," Trader Johann said. "Because see, I've seen the unseeable—I know for a fact what Night Fury scales look like, and these—" Looked like Night Fury scales, now that he looked at them.

"Are Night Fury scales," the guy said flatly. "I got them appraised before coming here."

"Did you now?" Trader Johann asked, pulling out his magnifier and examining the scales more closely. No, these weren't painted over or dipped in soot or tar—pick one up, scrape at it, feel it…yes, felt very much like the genuine article. "How did you come by these?"

"There was this island we stopped at to restock on water and food," the guy said. "General that-way direction—bunch of these were on the island. No sign of the dragon though."

"Ah, how convenient."

There was a sort of flicker, like the guy wanted to throw his weight around but thought better of it. "Listen pal, I didn't come here to be insulted, I came to trade. Now how much are these worth?"

"Not as much as they used to be," Trader Johann sighed. Which was true enough, now that he had a steady supply. Pity the Berserker chief wanted that particular Night Fury's head, but then again he was paying more.

But if he could provide an alternate Night Fury…well then he wouldn't have to deal with losing his golden goose, now would he?

"Where did you say you found these scales?" he asked the guy.

"What, so you can corner the market?"

"Oh you know how some gongs are—they'll want a whole cape studded with these and if I can't provide, then it's my head on the chopping block. I'll make it worth your while," he added, rubbing his fingers together meaningfully.

The guy hesitated, looked at someone else who had apparently come with him—nothing about the two really screamed same tribe. Pirates?

"Couldn't tell you if I wanted to," he said finally. "Storm blew us off course so…general that-way direction is the best I can do."

"I see." That he was being lied to—none of the other ships had reported a storm.

But fair enough—a Night Fury was a rare prize indeed, and he couldn't blame these two for guarding that jealously. Obviously they recognized a cash cow when they spied one…which also meant that they too had a tamed Fury.

So after doing business with them and seeing them off—didn't even bother to stick around for a drink and a chat—he monitored them for as long as it took them to reach the horizon as he had an associate sort through a book on tribal ships trying to pinpoint which one that was.

"Ehh, closest I can find is the Murt tribe," Trader Sigur said finally. "But they were wiped out about a decade ago—no one sails their ships anymore."

"Who wiped them out?" Trader Johann asked, still keeping an eye on the ship with his spyglass.

Trader Sigur made a sign to ward away evil before responding. "The Yokai."

The Yokai!

Oh every trader knew about them—they had raided this very island at least once, made a habit of salting the earth and razing whole villages to the ground, hunting down targets relentlessly and ruthlessly until they had everything of value and then whatever was not. Rarely left survivors, was run by cunning and conniving men…the Berserkers might be vicious, but they also fought in that trance-like state. The Yokai were arguably worse for being in complete control the whole time. The only thing they agreed on with other tribes was what all tribes agreed upon (with one recent exception): killing dragons.

So either the Yokai had succeeded in downing a Night Fury and didn't want that getting around, or….

Trader Johann snapped his spyglass shut decisively.

"I think it's about time I did my rounds in the Northern Archipelago again," he announced. "I do believe I have some information the Berserkers will pay mighty well for."

Because if those two started fighting…well if one won that'd be the other one out of his hair, and warring tribes always needed traders.

Either way, he was sure he'd come out on top with this.