Ghost's Reign Chapter 35: Stealing Kills, a How to Train Your Dragon + Big Hero 6 Crossover fanfic

Chapter 35, everybody! And good news, as part of my working with BH6 Month, I finished up a chapter that was dragging its heels on me and hooked it up to another chunk that was already finished, we're good through to the end of March. \.o./

Yeah it does take a few months for ribs to heal because…pay attention to your breathing. Every time you breath, your ribs move—so these bones that are supposed to be still and healing are constantly shifting, which doesn't help. In other news, Obake understands dog owners perfectly they will try to guilt you into sharing and if guilt doesn't work drool does. And yes that's a reference to a Panic! At the Disco song.

On the turtle hunting…we have a pond in our backyard that the geese and ducks like, and we also have turtles—snapping turtles, which is what the boys run into. Big one laid its eggs there a few years back and there's a handful that survived my chickens, they're about eight inches from one of the shell to the other now. I see the tracks Tadashi describes, and I've seen them hiding in the water if I get the right angle—and yes they're quite adept at flipping themselves over, they will hiss, and they will bite parts of you clean off. As for the head account…had an older gentleman who lived through the Great Depression tell me about that one. He also told me that they were good eating, and apparently an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives confirms it.

Momakase woke up to find Obake sitting by the fire, head propped up in his hands as he glared at Tadashi.

"Now what did he do?" she asked, blearily feeling around for her saddle—pretty sure Carl had packed a kettle to go with the tea.

"He's lying on his saddle," Obake grumbled.

"Well that bum," she said, making a triumphant noise when she found the kettle. "Anyone feel like helping me find water?"

Hiro barked, hopping up and sniffing at her.

"Traitor," Obake muttered.

"You did say Furies were smart," she teased. "Come on, we can hunt for something to go with the rest of the rabbits."

"Terribly sorry, I'm supposed to be taking it easy."

"You can walk and pick herbs—doesn't Calhoun say walk it off?"

"Jian informs me that doesn't work with cracked ribs."

Oof cracked ribs were a doozy—if Callaghan was still in charge he would have ordered Obake killed rather than wait a couple of months for him to knit back together…okay maybe that was why he took off.

"We'll meet the two in the middle," she said, collecting a couple of other essentials before standing and cracking her back. "Or do you mean to tell me you planned to just sit there all day?"

He grumbled, probably because he didn't have a counter there, finally levered himself up and staggered after her and Hiro, wincing as he went.

They were at the bottom of the slope and poking around for edible mushrooms when Tadashi padded down to join them.

"Is Gogo up yet?" she asked him, keeping Obake in the corner of her eye; currently he was eyeing the slope like he was wondering if he could get back up there before Tadashi could flop back down on his saddle. "Pretty sure that'd count as overexertion."

Obake sighed, winced when that aggravated his ribs, followed after her as she followed the valley along.

"So how far away from Yokai do you think we are?" she asked him. "This doesn't look like someplace we've ever been."

"If the Yokai have ever been here it was probably to load back up on fresh water," he said, remaining standing and keeping watch when she made a pleased noise and filled the kettle at the little stream they found. "We're several weeks' worth of sailing away by now."

Okay so she was seriously understanding his idea for using dragons to travel if they covered that much ground in only a couple of days—granted Gogo had run herself ragged trying to catch up, but that was also accounting for a Night Fury having a head start. Look at Hiro sniffing at the water before lapping some up, looked up at Obake. "I don't think this place has a decent beach, but maybe there's a pond or something where we can fish—"

"Hold it," Obake cautioned, hand out—she was tempted to scold him—

Heard it too.

Motion for silence, pulling out her knife—Obake got his crossbow, gestured to Hiro, who swarmed up his coat to huddle on his shoulder, draping down like a separate section of coat. Work their way forward across the shallow stream, being mindful of the wind….

Saw it, up ahead—a deer.

The idea of red meat for once jumped on her head—gestured at Obake, crouched; he followed suit, kept a wary eye on the deer as she outlined what to do. Went one way, she went the other…careful, careful, one foot at a time….

The deer lifted its head, like it sensed their presence—started to bound away from them—

Yowling screech cut through the air, blackness leaped out of the underbrush to tackle the deer—

She had never even seen Tadashi when he splintered away, hadn't seen nor sensed him circling around—

Was certainly aware of him when he caught the deer by the neck and broke it in one smooth movement, shook it a little as it still twitched and kicked before dropping it. Look up, chuff—

Hiro sprang from a dumbstruck Obake, cheering and carrying on as Tadashi padded back and forth, looking like he was giving a lecture before lowering his head and ripping into it.

"Hey," she finally protested. "That's mine."

Tadashi huffed at her, looked at Obake, her, Hiro chuffing at him—finally lowered his head, grabbing the back leg firmly and bracing himself against the body before ripping out the haunch. Pad over, drop it next to her—

Pad back over and go back to eating.

Sigh, scrub at her face. Well…some meat was better than none.

Momakase was quick to start a fire and get strips of the deer meat cooking, in the same clearing Tadashi had taken it down but not too close to the carcass as the dragons stuffed themselves.

Not that the Yokai didn't have similar problems—Obake was having to remind himself to pace himself, even though the break from fish was most welcome.

"So," Momakase said, spearing more strips of meat to fry in the fire. "Not that it's not appreciated, but that was terrifying."

It was—perfect predatory behavior, not even noticed until he already had the deer in his mouth and was killing it, one smooth motion. Quiet, efficient, deadly.

Hiro dragged a bone over, stomach bulging—settled down next to them and started gnawing on it.

"Hard to believe that grows into that," Momakase said, indicating Hiro before jerking her head at Tadashi.

"I'm sure most baby predators could be considered cute by someone," he observed, wiping some of the juice back into his mouth—red meat was enough of a rarity that he didn't dare waste that. "With any species, it's when they get older that they get dangerous."

Momakase made a pensive noise as she watched Hiro worry at his bone. "Not sure if that's intended as a compliment or a backhand."

Yes, he supposed they qualified, although he had a hard time picturing Momakase as a young innocent—it was much too easy to picture her as a terror chasing after the other kids with sharp objects. It also felt like he was supposed to comment, but he'd rather not. Fortunately, he had something else to fill his mouth and attention with.

Also fortunately, Momakase felt the same way, had a few more sticks set up before pulling a fresh one out of the fire, meat sizzling where the heat brought its juices out. Hiro paused in his gnawing, looking at the stick with ear flaps up and nose twitching.

"Oh no you don't," Momakase said, angling away from him to better protect her prize. "You had that whole deer to yourself, this here is mine."

Hiro freed up his jaw to squawk at her, swung his attention around to Obake before trying that puppy-dog look.

"I'm with her on this," he told the little dragon, proceeding to ignore the pawing to his knee. "If you eat any more you'll burst, Hiro."

"So I'm actually curious," Momakase said, as Hiro progressed to resting his head on Obake's knee, attention on him as drool soaked his pants leg. "Who's training who in this endeavor?"

"Me, although I'm sure certain dragons think otherwise," Obake said, pushing Hiro off. Hiro persisted, whimpering—"Fine, fine, only because that other stick is done."

"I'm inclined to agree with the certain dragon."

"Har har, very funny," Obake muttered, taking a fresh stick—flick Hiro on the nose when he tried for that one. "I reiterate the part about you being a glutton. Go back to your bone."

Hiro groused at him, did so, gnawing with such gusto that Obake didn't wonder if he was pretending it was a certain Yokai.

Cracks behind him made him turn, Momakase looking too, to see Tadashi gnawing on a different bone, licking the marrow out.

"Yeah," Momakase said. "That's cause for concern."

"Be glad it's on our side," Obake told her.

"Really," Momakase noised, as Tadashi stretched, rolled his wings, and started for them. "Because I'm not convinced the dragons are on anyone's side but their own."

Unfortunately, neither was he. Hiro, perhaps. That Nightmare Dibs had named, maybe. Tadashi? Not hardly. And Hiro probably didn't count because he was still a baby dragon, if the angry squeaks he made at his bone were any indication.

Tadashi came over, chuffed at him…Hiro gnawed with energy before finally sighing, glancing away as he mumbled something. Tadashi nudged him off, got the bone in his mouth—

Looked right at Obake before crunching down on it, increasing the pressure deliberately until the bone cracked.

Drop it for a cheering Hiro, who instantly set to worrying the cracks further—gave Obake a pointed look.

"A show of force is wasted on someone who already has your measure," Obake told him, taking a sip of the tea that had been boiling on the fire along with the meat. Was pleased to see that Tadashi looked confused by his lack of a reaction.

Momakase did too. "He just crushed a bone that belonged to something a lot sturdier than you and you're just sitting there."

"Yes," Obake agreed. "This dragon could kill me anytime he pleases. I might not be able to return the favor, but there's a real chance." Glance at Tadashi. "Apparently, he thinks there's a chance I might forget."

"Willingly jumping on the back of a dragon that wants you dead," Momakase said. "You are crazy."

"I'm told crazy equals genius," he countered, watching Hiro work at the marrow in the bone now. "And last I checked, you do the same thing."

Gogo chose that moment to come through the brush, chuffing at the Furies before opening her mouth and depositing a haunch of meat next to Momakase, nudging it at her before sitting down.

It took a lot of effort to keep his expression neutral at Momakase's smug look.

"No," she said, working the new haunch over. "I don't think I do."

They had retreated to the first camp that night, Tadashi still making a point to sleep on the saddle to keep Obake from trying to slip off. Not that he could really go anywhere on his own, but he had a point to prove.

Wake up the next morning, stretch and claw at the ground, watch the two Yokai bickering over the last of the rabbits (Momakase was gesturing with tiny organs on a stick and Obake was adamantly refusing) before nudging Hiro awake.

"Mnnfh, five more minutes," Hiro groaned, pawing at his face.

"Wake up," Tadashi noised, nudging at Hiro again. "We're on an island where we can finally practice hunting for something bigger than rabbits—you want to learn how to do that takedown I did yesterday, right?"

Hiro went still, eyes still closed…obviously debating. Finally rolled to his feet and shook himself awake.

"Swift-Strike, you want to come with?" Tadashi asked the still-dozing Nadder.

"No, someone has to stay here and make sure the Yokai don't kill each other, go bond," she said, waffling a wing a little to shoo them off.

"Okay!" Hiro said brightly. "We'll be nice and bring you back a HUGE deer! Then maybe Momakase can stop trying to get Obake to eat the guts instead," he added, watching Momakase throw the organ-stick at him.

"We have to catch the deer first, Little-Brother," Tadashi pointed out, ignoring the bickering Yokai ("If you want it that badly then you eat it," Obake shot back, throwing the organ-stick back at her). "Now come on, we can go over the basics while we get to the stream."

They did so, Tadashi having them pause underneath some bushes when they got near enough to the stream to see it, watching and listening for several long heartbeats before padding out and drinking from it.

"Do you know why we did that?" Tadashi asked him.

"To make sure there's no predators?" Hiro offered. "No wait—to see if there were any deer."

"Both," Tadashi told him. "We did it for both reasons. A source of water is a great place to lay in wait because everything needs water eventually." Sniff at the stream, look up and downstream before settling on downstream. "Let's follow it this way—water gets richer the longer it flows, and deer like to lick up salt sometimes."

"Why?" Hiro asked, padding after him.

"I'm not sure," Tadashi admitted. "Maybe…well, we don't because we get salt water when we fish, but maybe some animals need salt and they can't get it from the ocean—you know some animals get dizzy when they drink salt water."

"So they can't drink salt water but they like to eat salt—prey animals are stupid," Hiro decided.

"I am pretty sure I've seen the Yokai put salt on their food—what's that you've been telling me about them being smart?"

"I'm sure they've got a reason."

"Right. Ah," Older-Brother noised, sniffing at the mud. "Little-Brother, here! I can teach you how to hunt for turtles."

"What's a turtle?" Little-Brother asked, bounding over.

That had been his question when Older-Light-Fury first posited this lesson to him. "It's meat inside a crunchy shell that likes to live in the water—like a clam, but with legs." Indicate a bit of mud where it was obvious one had slid through. "First, you look for tracks like this, then you look for oblong shapes in the mud—like, this shape," he added, sketching a circle with a claw when he realized Little-Brother might not get that.

"Okay," Little-Brother said, scanning the water. "Then what?"

Older-Brother was scanning the area too. "Ah. When you find one, you carefully approach…slip your paw under it…and then flip it up on land!" Did so, the turtle landing on its back and seeming surprised. "That's to get the mud off—and then—" Scoop it up, crunch down hard, drop it. "And then you pull the shell apart and get to the meat inside."

"Nice," Little-Brother said, rooting in the broken shell to get to the meat. "Hey—my turn!"

"Be careful," he cautioned, mostly out of reflexive habit—from the moment he hatched, that had to be the phrase Little-Brother heard the most.

It was also the phrase he regarded the least. "Psh, I'll be fine," he said, flicking his tail as he padded down the bank, sniffing at the mud, scanning the water—freeze, ear flaps up—mince closer…closer…Older-Brother padded up as Little-Brother worked a paw into the mud—

Little-Brother heaved something onto the bank that quickly righted itself and started hissing.

"Little-Brother NO!" he yipped, jumping forward and pinning Little-Brother's tail. "That's a dragon turtle! It'll eat YOU if you're not careful!"

Dragon turtles were different from regular turtles, which were slow and meaty and generally peaceful—dragon turtles were big, muscular, thick dragon's tail curling out from a jagged armored shell, beaked mouth more than capable of taking off a talon or two—more when they got bigger. Sometimes they got in an unlucky bite, got a sensory nub or an eye, or a chunk of the nose.

Little-Brother had gotten lucky in flipping it onto the bank, but he wouldn't get close enough to crunch down and kill it—this required fire. Paw at him to get him behind—

The dragon turtle hissed, lunged—

A flashing flicker of light, and the head came tumbling to a halt next to them—Older-Brother still pushed Little-Brother behind, knowing the head could dig its way out of the ground if you buried it nothing was stopping it from biting them still—

Momakase stood over the carcass, flicking blood off her metal-claw before sheathing it. Looked pointedly at them—

Picked up the carcass and started walking away.

Little-Brother recovered first. "Hey! That's OURS!"

Momakase grinned over her shoulder. "Call it even."