Ghost's Reign Chapter 32: Versus the Moss-Huts, a How to Train Your Dragon + Big Hero 6 Crossover fanfic

Chapter 32, everybody! Okay now the boys are doing better.

So I have fortunately never broken a bone but my Dad has broken ribs in my lifetime and I can work from his descriptions. And oh look, I'm sure that there won't come back to bite the protagonists later….

Okay, on the list of things he didn't want to do, having to fight his way through a village was chief among them. Doing so with broken ribs and an aching…everything? Yeah no just throw him over the cliff there that was probably better.

But he didn't really have a choice—stagger after Hiro, leaping ahead and barking and snarling, aiming bites at arms and legs and occasionally launching himself at someone's head, distracting them for long enough for Obake to do something to keep the little dragon from being turned into a handbag—he couldn't keep this up, he was dizzy from hunger and pain and….

No one was coming for him, no one cared, he was nothing, nothing—

A little wrr, look—

A little dragon that had impossibly found its way out of its own imprisonment, now here to help him out of his—

A little dragon that had seen him in these depths before, had dove in after him to drag him back out—

He couldn't die now. He had to get Hiro out of here at least, or at least convince Hiro that he had done everything he could so he'd abandon his broken husk.

He had to keep fighting.

The only problem was, his body was most likely going to fail before he could do anything more—ribs screaming, limbs stiff, everything in pain, could barely see out of one eye—

But he had to at least make a dent on his way out.

Hiro was trying to break through, trying to angle in a straight line—he could get what the little dragon was after, figuring that the boats were their best bet off the island—

It would have been a good idea, really, if they had been able to get out of the chief's house without raising an alarm.

Someone grabbed Hiro by the scruff of the neck, knife flashing—dropped the knife in favor of trying to close the fresh gash in his neck, Obake snatching Hiro back and dodging through the thinnest of openings, forcing himself past the pain of bones grinding together—everything was getting fuzzy and tilting and he didn't think he'd last much longer—

A meaty hand seized the collar of his coat, yanked back—that was it, he was dead, he'd be drawn and quartered for killing the chief—tried to throw Hiro free, only for Hiro to spin around, dig his claws into his sleeve and launch himself at whoever had him—Obake went tumbling, cried out at the jagged bolt of pain that shot through him—rolled to his feet—momentum, had to keep his momentum, couldn't afford to stop, not now, not now—

Screaming—fire—

Grab Hiro, dodge—zigzagging stumble sideways, fire licking here and there, beams dropping—collapse, breathing ragged, Hiro squeaking and pawing at him, trying to get him back up—couldn't—did have anything more to give—Hiro cried out—

Movement, something jumping through the flames—spin, knife out, shoving Hiro behind him—

Blink, blink again, trying to clear his eyes, trying to make sense of the shifting appearance, the blue eyes narrowed, the snarling maw—

Dropped the knife when he recognized the Light Fury before him as Cass—

Sagged, relief and exhaustion pulling him down, when he heard the angry bellows of dragons. They were here…were here for Hiro….

He could stop fighting now.

Older-Light-Fury and Older-Brother easily pulled ahead of the rest of the group when the little island showed up on the horizon, angled up to examine it carefully—looked almost abandoned from the sky, mostly hills with one or two not-dragon-nests—

And a random fire boiling in those hills.

They exchanged confused glances, circled high above as they waited for the rest of the flight, the faster dragons joining and circling—they would need to wait for the Yokai Greenscales or Longflight had to confirm—

And then the commotion, the screeching—another exchanged glance, startled this time—

Little-Brother.

Older-Light-Fury wasted no time—bellowed, prompting the rest of the flight to redouble their efforts, Older-Brother already diving—

One of the identifiable nests exploded in a burst of plasma, her angling and destroying the roots that anchored the water-travelers not-dragons used—

Older-Brother had something interesting to report when they swooped back up to the others.

"There's nests inside the hills!" he barked. "And not-dragons moving between them—we heard Little-Brother—"

That was all the prompting the dragons needed—she swooped around again, picking out the details, seeing what Older-Brother had mentioned—

Blinked in surprise at the Yokai eagerly entering the fray.

Of course, she thought. They love to fight—they've been wanting to fight, they've missed it—their alpha wouldn't let them for so long—

Their alpha wouldn't let them fight dragons.

Her scales rippled uncomfortably at a new thought. They're here to rescue their alpha, that's why they were so eager.

Is it so strange to think that they value their alpha? Were we so long without a good alpha that willingly dying for one that isn't your nephew so strange?

Shake her head vigorously—forget the Yokai-alpha. She, personally, was here for one thing and one thing only.

Roar for Little-Brother, shooting overhead, ears flared, wings angled—bounced off a hill, strange and hollow beneath her paws, shot a blast at a door she spied—

Heard a panicked hatchling cry.

Bound for it, kicking and knocking not-dragons away, traced the sound to a burning not-hill that had been victim to the first flaming pass, saw a shape with a tiny dragon clinging to it break free of its attackers and stagger in. She burst through the flames, spotted the metal-claw flashing as the not-dragon holding it fell back—

Snarled fresh when she recognized the black hide and glowing face of Obake.

Said glowing face was a study in shock as he recognized her—

Surprised her when he dropped the metal-claw, sagging in total relief and exhaustion—

Little-Brother poked his head around.

"Older-Light-Fury!" he squawked, bolting for her and throwing himself around her neck. "You—you and Older-Brother—"

"We weren't losing you a second time," she said, wrapping a paw and head around him, returning the hug. "Are you okay?"

"Better than okay I'm AWESOME now I was awesome before though totally staged a daring escape and freed Obake too we were just on our way to get a water-traveler to find you guys when you found us and that's SO GREAT THANK YOU—"

And she had seen Obake fighting fiercely, had seen how he had been holding himself and who he had been protecting….

It wasn't lost on her how he had reacted to her.

"Come on," she said, nudging Little-Brother up onto her back—the sounds of fighting were dying down. Hesitate….

Nudge at Obake too.

"Come on, up you get," she ordered. "We're getting out of here."

"GOOD," Little-Brother said as Obake staggered upright—hesitant to put his weight on her until she nudged him again. "Because I never want to see this island again the hunting sucks and EVERYTHING SMELLS."

She couldn't help the amused huff at that, at what he fixated on—barked to get the others' attention—

Older-Brother bounded over, relief on every line of his body.

"You found him! Them," he amended when Little-Brother hissed. "Are you okay you could have gotten KILLED are you NUTS—"

"Oh wow Hiro it's so great how you escaped and then proceeded to outsmart a whole island of not-dragons THANK YOU big brother so glad you noticed," Little-Brother said, full of snark.

"I mean I'm glad of that too but rewind back to the part where you're giving me gray scales."

"Oops?"

"Why don't we put this on hold until after we're out of here?" Older-Light-Fury suggested. "Little-Brother's Yokai is dead on his feet and I need to eat something STRESS-EATING, BOYS."

"Sorry," the two brothers chimed, Little-Brother nosing at Obake.

"I'm fine," Obake protested. "I just need a minute."

Judging by the creaking wheezy quality of his voice, he needed more than a minute—it sounded like he had a rib or two at least cracked in there.

But by then the other Yokai had zeroed in on him, Carl was helping him up onto Wasabi—

Momakase asked what he wanted done to the place.

Obake looked around, still somewhat dazed it seemed—

Eyes cleared and hardened when they rested on a nearby not-dragon trying to scuttle away.

"It's been a while since we did a proper raid," he observed, before his voice turned hard. "Raze it."

Older-Light-Fury flattened her ears back, threw her head up and let loose a bellow. The dragons that had been harrying and distracting immediately changed tacks, some swooping down and stealing away food, others angling down and shooting fire down the warrens of the not-dragon nest. Sure, she should feel bad for raiding again, and taking an order from a Yokai was questionable.

Him defending Little-Brother, and then stopping, relaxing when he saw her? Not so much.

And these not-dragons had kidnapped Little-Brother.

This time, they were going to pay.

The Moss-Huts had really been reduced to some impressive rubble, he reflected as he stepped onto the remains of the docks.

"Let me guess," he said drily, looking everything over as a tribesman came over to offer Hospitality. "Things not go well?"

"The ghost cursed us," the man said.

"Okay….And your chief is?"

"Dead—Ortho is the new acting chief."

"And can I speak with him?"

Led through a smoking mess to a man trying to organize a broken tribe in the collection and disposal of their dead, looking harried and haunted even as he introduced himself.

"Aye, I remember your parley," the man said. "Why you'd want that ghost is beyond me—he's a pox!"

"Do tell," he said drily.

"This!" he said, gesturing at everything with the hand that wasn't broken in a sling. "Our chief captures him for your deal, brings him here to hold him—but he had bewitched one of the dragons to fight for him! The little monster escaped, freed him—and then he calls down more of the beasts, summons the Yokai for good measure! We're lucky we have people left—and all our stocked goods are gone."

"Ah," he noised, looking everything over. "Well, my mistress would be happy to give you asylum—"

"We're not leaving our island—we need supplies—"

"And your island is easily targeted by Yokai now—think, man."

Hesitate—he had watched his mistress work her charm on the old chief, could tell that this one was not nearly as canny, would fold to him soon enough…nodded finally.

"Good," he said, pointing out the ships. "Get your people loaded up, we'll take them to my mistress and get this all squared away."

Grateful nods—idiots.

And then this mess—one person should not have been this much trouble.

Well…at least he was able to salvage something from this—his mistress certainly couldn't complain about all the fresh bodies he was delivering, much improved over one man.

Besides, after this he doubted she'd be interested.