Ghost's Reign Chapter 6: Rocks and Hard Places, a How to Train Your Dragon + Big Hero 6 Crossover fanfic

Chapter 6, everybody! Other laptop died so now I'm on the beefy one but good news, the desktop should be back by this time next week. When will my computer come back from the war….

*ahem* Anywho, back to the fic…considering dragons are forever in the buff they probably don't understand the concept of clothing. Also Obake's experiences with dragons in bed mirrors our experiences with dogs in bed. What is this sharing you speak of?

In other news…I guess lore time since we get to see some of the rumors circulating. Also if I ever use the phrase what's the plan then, understand that I am referencing Aardman Studio's Chicken Run (as a chicken owner, that movie speaks to me on a deep level—they are indeed Up To Something).

Obake spent the rest of the day lying in bed with the windows open, his earlier outfit airing on the sill as he tried to get that horrible smell out of them and his sinuses.

He didn't think he was succeeding.

He also didn't think Hiro had firmly grasped the concept of clothes (or modesty, thank goodness for doors and locks), was currently walking up and down his poor spine and trying to figure out Obake's current outfit. Not that it was much different from his other outfit, sans a vest he didn't currently have an inclination to pull on. Or boots, and his mind was drifting and this was why he hated working with that stuff, dangit. On the positive side, it would make nearby fishing a bit easier without fishing up that junk, wouldn't have to worry about garbage that crumbled to pieces when you picked it up or filled an animal's stomach with its indigestible mass.

Idly, he wondered if it affected dragons.

Later, he had a bigger problem to attend to—mostly, that meeting of the mercenary tribes.

It was a customary thing, a courtesy between barbarians who preyed on other tribes and villages, arguing over and splitting up the archipelago for the hunting so they could avoid wasting time fighting each other for pickings made slim by overhunting. The last time he recalled going with Callaghan had been years ago now, when he was freshly an adult and had long since earned his mask and coat—the leader of the Yokai had debated and deliberated with the other tribes for more territory, pointing out that no matter what they all had a common enemy: the dragons.

"Wuff," Hiro noised, finally giving up on trying to figure out his clothes to flop down next to him on the bed. He lifted his head enough to see the little Night Fury was currently laying on his back, wiggling back and forth a little before starting to snore.

What had caused this one-eighty in the dragons' behavior? He didn't think it was simply the act of taming Hiro, and the delay in shooting him down and big brother Tadashi coming in full force to invade Yokai was questionable considering his protectiveness….

Hiro looked up at him, patting his drawing in the sand—one that detailed dragon shapes flying, being harried by a huge monster.

"I hope that's not to scale," he observed.

Perhaps….

Tadashi was the dragons' alpha—that much was clear. Tadashi had led all the dragons to attack them at once, had stopped them at Hiro's insistence…had taken months to do so….

What if there had been a different alpha, one that Tadashi had bested?

If so, wow, Obake did not like thinking of the sheer size Hiro had intimated.

But back to brass tacks: there was the minor issue of this meeting of the mercenary tribes, and them without a chief. If they went to the meeting with no chief, they'd paint themselves as sitting ducks. If they didn't go, they'd paint themselves as sitting ducks. If they went and announced they weren't marauding anymore, they might as well pluck and cook themselves now. Yokai a la orange, anyone?

No, they needed a plan if they were to get out of this alive.

Obake, as chief, only had one standing order right now: do not attack the dragons.

That it was the same sort of order that the chief before Callaghan had given was not lost on those who remembered this detail. But for everyone, the major piece of information worth noting was that unlike before, the dragons were not attacking them—loitering in the village and forest and on the mountain for the most part, eyeing them cautiously, but not attacking.

And the one dragon—or rather, type of dragon: the offspring of lightning and death itself, the Night Fury. the smaller version kept cantering around the village, stopping frequently to watch one of them intently before scurrying off, leaving another dragon to slip over and closely monitor them.

The larger one, when it wasn't keeping a stringent eye on the smaller one or ordering dragons about, stayed perched on the lonely house on the hill.

Obake's house.

There really was no denying the thoughts that went through everyone's minds, that they very cautiously whispered to themselves only when they were certain no dragons could hear—that everyone's suppositions were right all along, that Obake really was his namesake, and he had finally done what he was always purported to be working towards and let the other obake in.

Granted, these other obake were dragons, but considering the standing opinion of those, it still fit.

Especially considering their obvious fierce intelligence—watching and monitoring carefully, spark of intelligence evident in the eye once they stopped attacking. They were observing the Yokai, probably at the behest of their leader. Some Yokai were accepting of this new normal, of the mind that at least they weren't battling anymore.

Others were worried that they should have gone with Callaghan when they had the chance.

Helga was of a third mind—they should have fled the island when the opportunity presented itself, using the means they had planned. Now, with the island overrun by dragons, that opportunity was gone.

Unless….

Stroke some hair back, considering. Let's just…start off with seeing if escape was feasible, was still desirable even.

And to do that…she needed to check in with the others, see what they had observed.

Calhoun, at least, had been keeping her eyes open, had plenty to say when she asked.

"They're not doing anything," she said, leaning against a beam in the gutted house they had picked for this meeting, hopefully away from prying eyes and listening ears. "They're not attacking anyone, they go off fishing instead of raiding our stores…which bears asking the question of why they ever attacked us to begin with."

"Thoughts on the popular theory?" Helga asked.

"If you want to commit to it," Barb said thoughtfully. "The dragons were attacking us long before Obake ever lived here…but people could argue that he was playing a long game."

"Not you."

"Not me," she agreed, getting up. "Obake isn't the sort I want to associate with, but I doubt the working theory about him."

That he was a revenant like his namesake and snuck into the village with the intent to destroy it, she meant. "Really. Because most evidence says otherwise."

"I saw how he was before—destroying the village wasn't a priority. Now Todlin's house was another story—"

"Who?"

"Some idiot who died in a raid before you got picked up. My point is, I don't think he's an actual ghost."

"Then how do you explain the dragons?" Calhoun asked.

Barb's expression was sour at that—crossed her arms and looked away. "I can't. But seeing as how you can't either, I do have things to do."

"That still leaves us with the main problem," Calhoun observed as Barb left. "Theoretically, it's a change in chiefs and nothing more. In practice…we've traded one bad situation for another."

Yes, because at least with their prior situation having a head start in sailing would have made a difference. Now, with dragons that could easily fly them down….

"We don't know for sure yet," she pointed out. "And we still need to take a few days, maybe weeks, to wait for everything to settle down by then."

"We might not have even that," Calhoun said. "I heard from Dibs that a mercenary meeting is coming up—what will happen if Obake doesn't survive that?"

Probably nothing good. Helga considered, looked to Momakase, sitting up on a low crossbeam and sharpening her knives. "And what do you have to say about this?"

"How do you figure?" she countered.

"You've been trying to drum some swordsmanship into him—why?"

"Carl asked nicely," she said. Considered it. "It'd be a convenient spot for an accident."

Helga tipped her head at that, mentally running through the likely scenarios. What she concluded…honestly wasn't pretty.

Calhoun had evidently come to the same conclusions. "The dragons obey him, though," she pointed out. "If something happens to him…."

Then they were at ground zero with a furious flight of dragons—shake her head and gust out a sigh, trying to dislodge that mental image.

"So for now, at least, we need to make sure he stays in one piece," she concluded. "They don't seem to mind Momakase banging him up, but this meeting coming up…."

"We can't not go," Calhoun said. "That'd just make targets of us all."

She nodded. "We're going to have to go, and we're going to have to make sure Obake doesn't get targeted."

"You're going to have to figure out a way to do that without being obvious about it," Momakase called down, not looking up from her knives. "I overheard him talking to Carl—his plan is to act like Callaghan is still in charge of the tribe."

That got a moment of nonplussed silence from them.

"Without him showing up?" Calhoun asked finally. "That'd be an insult—is he insane?"

Momakase shrugged. "He seems convinced he can talk his way out of it."

Calhoun was growling when she looked back down at Helga. "So we either die here from furious dragons or we die there from vicious mercenaries—talk about being between a rock and a hard place."

"No kidding," Helga huffed. "We're going to have to navigate very, very carefully here."

She squinted at Helga. "What's the plan, then?"

The plan? What indeed—even if they ran with their old plan, the dragons could chase them down. If they hid in the caves, the dragons would corner them there. If they fought back, they'd be wiped out to a man.

Out of the frying pan and into the dragon's mouth, she thought drily, sorting through their options with a growing sense of dread—no way out was presenting itself.

They needed a new way out, and she had no idea which way that was.

Shake her head, look at Calhoun. "We have to play it by ear for now," she concluded. "Keep Obake from being messily killed, keep our eyes open. At some point, an opportunity is going to present itself, a way out of this mess—but until we find it, we're going to have to keep our heads down and soldier forward."

Calhoun sighed, shoulders sagging a bit at that. "Well," she said. "It's not like we don't have plenty of practice with that."

Unfortunately.

Their conversation had not gone unnoticed, however.

Okay, let's be real here: Gogo really had no reason to be nice to any of the Yokai. She was starting to like Momakase, but she wasn't liking the flight as a whole. Yes, they were humoring Hiro, and yes, the Yokai were acting like they were trying.

Plotting to kill Obake, or plotting to run off like their bad alpha did, seemed counterintuitive.

And one thing did stick out to her: that if Obake fell, the Yokai would go right back to their murdering ways. They viewed him as alpha, and as alpha he had given the command to not kill dragons. This one plotting against him could be trouble…but how to rout it?

Well there was one way, which Hiro wouldn't approve of. There was also another way, which he would.

She decided to try the latter first.

"Hey!" she barked after several minutes of circling, keeping one eye on the nest the plotting Yokai had been hiding in—the Nadder she had addressed slowed, circled around to join her on one of the nest peaks. "I have a favor to ask."

"What is it?"

In response, Gogo pointed her beak at the one Yokai leaving the nest, adjusting the fur around her neck before flicking a longer length of head-fur over her shoulder. "I need you to keep an eye on that one."

"Okay…."

"I'm not saying buddy up with it," she clarified. "Or maybe you should, con it into sharing information—that one's plotting something."

The Nadder's head-spines flared at that. "And we're not killing it because?"

"If we kill one then they all start attacking." It had been how she was rationalizing not killing Momakase to begin with, how she was rationalizing not killing that Yokai herself right now. "But they're plotting something against the alpha-Yokai, the one that told them not to attack dragons. You can guess the issue there."

The Nadder nodded, redirected his attention to the Yokai she had pointed out. "What about that other one?" he asked, indicating the bigger one that took a different route out.

"You focus on the one I pointed out—I'll find someone else to keep track of that one." It wasn't like there was a shortage of dragons—they outnumbered them five to one and had breath weapons and claws and teeth, how were the Yokai so destructive in comparison? "Give it five minutes or so, watch from a distance, and then proceed from there—you don't want to just drop in on them, they suspect we're spying on them."

"What makes you so sure?"

"The fact that they're meeting in secret, first of all—second of all, the first thing they did was check the skies. Be careful."

The other Nadder nodded, lofted off after the Yokai she had pointed out. She lifted into the sky too, intending to angle around and see where Momakase had slipped off to, was surprised when she spotted the blue Yokai slipping out of a hole in the nest and onto the top, looking like she was starting to gingerly slide down with the intent to leap to the next one.

Gogo landing on the peak made her change tacks.

"Were you spying on us?" she asked, tone and head tip indicating amusement.

"Yes," she answered flatly. Lack of a response told her she was right and Yokai didn't understand Dragonese at all. "So you're trying to help your alpha but plotting against him at the same time—why?"

Momakase didn't answer, of course—surprised her by sliding the rest of the way and leaping to the next roof, climbing up to sit next to her. No fear of dragons, this could be problematic.

"So if you are reporting back to Obake, tell him he's an idiot," she announced. "Also tell him he's a jerk for wasting all my time this week using the wrong hand in training. Also, he's an idiot. Yes I said that twice but it bears repeating he thinks he's too smart for his own good."

Gogo waited, was pretty sure she was done. "Should I mention the fact that you're plotting against him? Or should I bring up the fact that Yokai don't understand Dragonese?" Were Yokai flights matriarchal and that was the problem? Maybe, most of the females she had seen looked like they could take Obake out with ease.

"You know, I'm almost convinced you're talking," Momakase said, stretching and still sounding amused. "I'm almost convinced Obake did do some dealings with you to get you all to stop attacking us and stay here—but that's pretty ridiculous, don't you agree?"

"You know I understand like, half of what you're saying, right?" She had definitely heard Obake in there, but she doubted that Momakase would tell her what all she and those others had been doing. Maybe she was reading too far into this.

Except she knew what furtive looked like, and that definitely described their actions.

"I don't know what to do," Momakase sighed, staring out at nothing. "I'm used to fighting, but I'm used to going along with Obake's schemes too—he always comes up with something odd and convoluted that ends up being thrilling and successful…but I don't know about this one." Glance at her. "I mean I like you but I'm pretty sure you'd eat my face given the opportunity."

"Everyone knows Yokai taste gross," Gogo said, lifting her head primly.

"I don't want to go along with Helga's thing," she continued, looking back out at the horizon. "I didn't before, either—I got pressganged into it, same as with the Yokai. But I didn't want to stay under Callaghan's heel either. I don't know—you would have thought that Obake taking the chieftain title would have fixed things for me…except he doesn't want the title." Expression shifted as she fell silent, like she was trapped behind a tangle of briars with no option for flaming herself out. "I don't know. He was…odd, that night, before you all showed up…what am I supposed to make of this behavior?"

Gogo turned over what she was hearing, the concern in the Yokai's voice, the underlying tremor of fear—she had heard that tone a lot after Older-Brother had defeated Mountain-King, the voice that came from realizing you were no longer under a tyrant and now had absolutely no idea what to do with yourself. When you were controlled with an iron will, life was misery…but it was easy. There was no question as to what you were to do: obey.

Momakase had the same tone the dragons had once they were free: I don't know what to do and I'm scared.

That, more than anything—that moment when she felt that this not-dragon had something draconic in it…was this what Little-Brother saw, that made him so insistent?

It was enough to make her sidle a little closer and touch her wing to Momakase's side. The Yokai started, stared—gingerly leaned against her wing…sagged against it a few minutes later when it became clear Gogo wasn't going to snap at her.

"So Obake totally didn't send you," she decided finally. "Seeing as how he's about useless with emotions. You can still tell him he's an idiot though."

"I'll put it on my to-do list," Gogo said, watching her carefully before lifting her head up and looking out over the Yokai-nest. It was strange seeing it calm when she was used to seething Yokai everywhere. Maybe Little-Brother was right, and it had all been because they were defending their nest. Maybe he was right and they weren't so bad after all.

That didn't keep her from keeping her tail half-curled and ready to strike should she need to.

Someone had to be the sensible one, after all.