Ghost's Reign Chapter 37: Crash Landings, a How to Train Your Dragon + Big Hero 6 Crossover fanfic

Chapter 37, everybody! Today's Washington's birthday, so happy birthday, George.

Yeah considering the ribs circle important organs like lungs and the heart, if they progress to majorly broken there's a good chance they could puncture said organs, so yes, that's all she wrote. And as I've been saying, while never breaking the bones myself I remember when Dad did—yes, existing hurts with broken ribs.

So that first little island is based on Shelly Island in the Outer Banks, which only lasted a couple of years before the vagaries of weather and currents erased it again—did get to visit it while it was there, and I can tell you there were so many absolutely perfect shells…you know how some characters are shown dying in movies because they got too greedy with the treasure? Yeah that was me the island wasn't exactly accessible at high tide and I kept going one more one more—the conch shell comes from the Outer Banks trips too, as does the hermit crab (also looked it up why is that edible?). I miss going there….And yes, the sound of the ocean is technically the echo of your own blood pumping. And theoretically, warmer global temperatures could lead to larger plants and animals….

It took another day to convince Tadashi to move on. Regrettably, this didn't also go hand-in-hand with leaving when Momakase was asleep.

"So where are we going?" Momakase jeered from Gogo's back.

Oi. "What is this we business?" he demanded, trying to find a spot that was comfortable on his ribs.

"Oh right so that vacation spot wasn't good enough for you," she teased, watching him. "You know it was working just fine, right? Plenty of food and space to lounge around so you didn't kill yourself by turning too much."

Maybe laying along the length of Tadashi's back would work better—gingerly stretch back, wincing as that made his ribs twinge. At least it wasn't him slouching on them, although he wasn't sure if this was an improvement. Of all the bones to injure….

It was him once again strapped to a bed, breathing hurt even—

"You can't kill a ghost." No matter how much he wished the opposite were true.

Crack an eye open at the shade cast over him, look up to see that Gogo had angled so Momakase could look down on him. "I'm fine, leave me alone."

"Oh sure," she said. "That's why your color looks so good. Seriously, the other island was fine—or are we finding someplace to raid so I have a pot for the turtle soup?"

Oof. "We're not raiding."

"Well, you're not," she agreed. "Gogo and I could. Couldn't we?" she asked, leaning forward so she could scratch the Nadder's jaw. "We're a lot sharper than those goons—"

"Don't touch there!" Obake yelped, jolting upright as he realized she was too close to—

Gogo suddenly dropped out of the sky, Momakase hollering—Tadashi jerked, dove after them, Obake scrambling for a better hold—

Managed to catch Gogo and angle for a sandy spit of land—hit and started rolling, Obake barely able to unlatch from the saddle and leap for safety—

Regretting these decisions when he hit and kept rolling, shells digging into him sharply as the impacts reminded him that yes, his ribs were cracked and in retrospect staying on that one island was the better idea.

"Gogo? Gogo! Hey!" Heard crunching as Momakase ran over to him. "What happened is she okay—are you okay?"

Short answer was no—the main issue was getting that out to tell her, currently the pain was white-hot and stabbing and all he was really capable of doing at the moment was attempting to ride it out, one arm wrapped around the ribs while the other propped them up off the ground, attempts to get further upright aborted because the pain was taking precedence and he couldn't get a decent breath in.

"Ah great," Momakase noised, glancing back at Gogo as Tadashi nudged the Nadder, warbling and barking worriedly—Obake managed to wave Hiro off before he could do the same to himself, that would hurt, plain and simple. Well, worse than he already did. "Should I be putting you out of your misery? Jian said that if your ribs progressed to majorly broken that was all she wrote."

He had heard that rumor too—finally managed to push himself up a little, get enough of a breath in to hiss "Fffine" out.

"Yeah no that's not fine," Momakase said—looked back over at Gogo. "But you know what I'll take it—now what's wrong with her she's still breathing."

Deep breaths were still a concept and not a reality—shook his head when Hiro tried to paw at him.

"Dragons…have…off switch," he managed finally.

As he finally managed to explain to her, dragons had a bundle of nerves under their jaw that acted as an off switch—and seeing as how they had fifteen minutes to kill, he was happy to elaborate as he stretched out on the shell-soaked beach, Hiro occasionally running an interesting shell he had found up to them to deposit on Obake's chest.

"Wait a minute—that Nadder we all thought dropped dead in the kill ring," Momakase said, cottoning on to the example she had already seen. "That was you—and this—a trick."

"Yes," he said simply. "About that time I was interested in trying to get more dragons for the experiment, killing them wasn't conductive anymore."

She grumbled at that. "I'd be more peeved at that if it weren't for the fact that it was at Yama's expense." Look over at Gogo, still out, Tadashi laying alongside her with ears up, constantly scanning for danger. "You're sure she'll get back up."

"You said she was breathing, so yes."

Huff, not sure she'd be happy with that until Gogo was actually up and running again—look around the small sandbar starting to shrink with the rising tide, at Hiro when he nudged her.

"Whhf," he noised around a big conch shell—deposited it and nudged it at her.

"Yes that's nice," she said, picking it up and looking inside. Empty. Not that there was anything to cook it with, but that'd be nice. Put it to her ear to listen to the echo of the ocean inside.

"Anyone picking up?" Obake asked, eyes closed and him trying for calm repose. Wasn't selling it, he was still too tight around the eyes and his breathing was still too hitched.

"Just the ocean," she told him. "Hey—hey you," she told Hiro. "See if you can't find one of these with the snail still inside." Point inside the shell so he got the gist of it, watched as he wandered off again, scanning the shells.

"You know that's not really the ocean you're hearing."

"Huh?" she asked, looking sharply at Obake's statement. "What do you mean?"

"When you hold the shell to your ear. You're not actually hearing the ocean."

"Okay wise guy, what am I hearing then?"

"Yourself. Specifically, your blood flow—you'd achieve the same result cupping your hand over your ear."

She tested this—scowled at him when he was right. "How do you know this?"

"I read. A lot." Open his eyes when Hiro deposited another shell on him. "Think that one was in a medical journal from a village we pilfered, don't think any of the other Yokai were ever interested in reading material."

"Yeah, you were the standout weirdo in that regard." Look at Hiro when he huffed at her, accepted the shell he gave her. "This is way too small to be a conch—" Cut off when she peered into the shell and saw tiny legs. "Okay so technically that's edible but that's too much like work to bother," she said, putting the hermit crab back down and nudging it away. "When it gets this size," she added, tapping her conch shell. "Come talk to me."

"Also megaflora and fauna were thought to be extinct for a while."

"Now you're making up words."

"Giant plants and animals."

"And they were supposed to be dead why?"

"Because for a while the environment didn't support that size," Obake said. "Apparently the Ancients went and worked themselves into a tizzy about the world they lived in not supporting large animals."

"Uh-huh," she said, fishing out a chunk of Ancient trash that was buried under the shells. "I'm really supposed to believe they cared about the world they lived in."

"Apparently they were worried about the earth heating up too fast and killing them all, and then when that didn't pan out they claimed another ice age was coming," he said as she flung the trash away. "I suppose when you're living high on the hog you have to make your own problems."

"Yeah—made 'em so big they ended up wiping themselves out." Look up when Gogo stirred—was over there and checking her over when she realized the dragon was awake, hugging her snout once she was assured she was okay.

"Oh thank you—don't you ever do that to me again," she told Gogo, who made a noise that might have been angry. "Don't blame me, blame him."

"How is this my fault?" Obake asked, struggling to roll upright.

"You could have told me dragons have an off switch."

"And how will you ever learn?" he asked primly—made himself wince when he tried dodging the handful of seashells she flung at his head.

"Ha ha, serves you right," she said as Gogo stood and shook her wings out. Got ready to get up in the saddle—

Doubled back for the conch shell. "This one is mine."

"Sap," he muttered—got another handful of shells to his head for his trouble.

Okay, so not that he was actually worried, because he didn't want to be, but maybe he had aggravated his ribs worse because he could not get himself a comfortable spot now.

"You sure I shouldn't put you out of your misery?" Momakase asked as Gogo swooped close.

"No," he groaned, stretched out along Tadashi's back again and trying to find a way to hold his arms that didn't pull painfully. "Ask me in an hour, I might take you up on that offer."

She made a dismissive noise at that, scanned the late afternoon sky. "Think we'll find an island before sundown?"

"Doubtful." Yes he could account for draconic speed but there hadn't been a speck of land in sight when he tried laying down again. Held up a hand when she made to talk again. "Do me a favor—for the foreseeable future just assume I can't contribute to the conversation."

"Why? Talking hurt?"

Breathing hurt right now. Debate on giving a crude hand signal, decided she'd probably cut the offending finger off if he did.

"Oh this is great," she said, grinning. "Now you have no choice but to listen to me."

Oh he was going to regret this.

He did.

"And then why did we leave those other islands?" she demanded after a good hour of her weighing forth on anything that interested her—apparently his many failings were very interesting. "That one island had plenty of food and water—the one before had all those rabbits! All those rabbit furs—do you have any idea the killing we'd make with that? Heck we go back to Yokai with a dozen each strapped to our saddles and we have the run of the place—well you already do but you know what I mean."

"Please stop talking," he wheezed finally, struggling upright—trying to roll to his uninjured side didn't quite do it and risked him rolling off completely; whether or not Tadashi would catch him or not, that promised to hurt.

"I thought you weren't contributing to this conversation," she said, loosening a canteen from her pack and taking a long draw. "Go back to that, I was enjoying this."

"I'm already dying slowly, I don't need you adding to my suffering."

"You're dying slowly because you wouldn't stay put on a perfectly serviceable island. Pretty sure riding around on a dragon counts as exertion."

Dangit please stop making points. Also while we're at it he'd really like it if the dragons stopped eyeballing him like she's right, you know. Opt to ignore them all, try to take a star reading in the late twilight—let's see, they had flown west and south, he thought, and towards the center of the Archipelago was where civilization was more tightly clustered…granted that wasn't a hard and fast rule, there were still wide swathes of land that only belonged to the animals living on it—

"Aha," she noised, sliding down on Gogo's saddle enough to whack him in the shoulder—wince when he started, look where she indicated to see the dark outline of an island before them. "Okay this one looks nice, maybe we spend more than two days here."

"What is with this we business—"

The rest of his irritated snipe was cut off by Tadashi staggering in flight—grimace as he hung on, one arm wrapped around his ribs—ow—

It was a peculiar enough occurrence, but Gogo having the same stagger shifted him blaming tiredness to something environmental.

"Okay no I didn't touch anything this time," Momakase said, hanging on for dear life—

Obake's greater focus suddenly had to be on keeping Tadashi from taking a header straight into the water—managed to yank his head up, keep him flying for the island—

Tadashi's wing clipped a tree on the way down, sending them spinning around—

On the list of things he didn't need, another crash landing was chief among them—managed to once again keep from being under Tadashi when he rolled, was laying there gasping and trying to ride out the pain making him fuzzy-headed when Momakase crashed nearby. Felt a hand to his shoulder—

"Fffine," he managed.

Momakase made a noise that might have been a sigh of relief. "You know, we really need to work on your landings."