Ghost's Reign Chapter 38: Muirahara Island, a How to Train Your Dragon + Big Hero 6 Crossover fanfic

Chapter 38, everybody! Happy Leap Day!

So I read up on syrup of Ipecac while writing this chapter, and…yes it's a plant but it's also been debunked as a purgative due to the fact that Ipecac itself can be poisonous and doesn't often help. What I read suggested charcoal adsorption instead—which is different from absorption, as apparently the former has surface adhesion while the latter soaks the stuff up.

In other news…so in other fics I've written Bessie as disorienting bird-people and frying Obake due to the glowface, but since said glowface doesn't have a technological source in this fic…I guess drunk Obake, basically. And also gives us some fun references—pestering detectives and mad scientists is a reference to two other properties Obake's VA has been in, Sherlock and Victor Frankenstein. Watched the latter twice, first time for Daniel Radcliffe, second time because I was looking at the info and went wait what do you mean Andrew Scott; didn't like it either time, honestly. The mouse is, of course, a reference to Disney and one of the theories I've seen bandied around as to why Obake never made a comeback after the end of Season 1. Also yes Obake I have, for all it was marketed as a great painkiller Midol didn't do it for me and gave me brain fog on top of it. As for his last question, that comes from Tracy Butler's Lackadaisy Cats, specifically the one currently listed as "Lackadaisy Preview 0029"—personally I remember it being labeled as "Bunny Hugs," but it might have gotten shuffled around when the site got updated. Also yes that's a Castaway reference.

As for Ned…Buck Wilde from the third Ice Age movie, although considering how he is in canon that's not too far off from his usual behavior. Momakase, meanwhile, references the first Puss in Boots movie and The Emperor's New Groove. Meantime Hiro's quoting the Balto movie.

Momakase was the one getting everything ready for a fire and dinner—Obake, meanwhile, was tasked with trying to figure out what had gone wrong with the dragons.

Specifically, the fact that all three of them had gone loopy.

"Could it have been something they ate?" she asked him when she came back from collecting firewood. "It could have been something on that last island, they did go hunting without us."

"Digestion could explain the delayed reaction," Obake mused—stopped Hiro from staggering away, watched as the little Night Fury turned and ended up flopped on his side. "Which leads us to a litany of problems: it could be it just needs to get out of their system, in which case we wait it out. Or it needs to be purged from their system, in which case we need to induce vomiting. Unless, of course, that just makes it worse."

"Okay say we do induce the vomiting," she said. "Next question is how."

"In people it'd be with syrup of Ipecac," he said, scrubbing at his head. "Or triggering the gag reflex, but I know I'm not jumping up and down volunteering to stick my hand down a dragon's throat."

Yeah that'd be problematic. "You could try it on Hiro, pretty sure he'd let you."

"And then Tadashi kills me, which is probably why you recommended that action."

"Not saying I wouldn't find that entertaining, but." Wave that off. "Ipecac's some sort of plant, right?"

"Yes but I don't know what it looks like," Obake groused, massaging his head with both hands now and looking like he was nursing one mother of a headache. "Wait—charcoal adsorption! That can be used to deal with poisons and it's much easier to produce—"

"And we know what it looks like," Momakase said with satisfaction, dumping an armful of wood into her makeshift fire pit. "I guess the main problem now is our lighters are on the fritz—gimme a minute to find a good flint."

"I'll—" Help was probably his intended phrase, but him trying to stand ended with him staggering against Tadashi, who groaned before shoving him off, sending him tumbling back.

"Yeah, no, you already took two headers today you weren't supposed to," she said, arching an eyebrow. "Well, two and a half. I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself."

"I wasn't implying you couldn't," he groused, gingerly rolling to his hands and knees and pushing himself up, one arm wrapped around his injured ribs. Look him up and down…well if he wanted to try and prove he wasn't made of glass and ended up breaking himself further, that was on him.

"Suit yourself," she said, heading into the woods and scouring the ground—mostly thick with pine needles, stubborn bushes and saplings pushing through here and there. Look up, had to take a moment to marvel at the huge trees around them.

"You know it might be a better use of your time to stuff that fire pit full of these pine needles," she pointed out, watching him stagger after her. "They're dry enough, they'd work as good tinder."

"Oh yes let the sap get covered in sap," he grumbled, wincing as he crouched to grab a handful.

"You said it, not me," she said, grinning—paused in her turning away when he ended up tumbling to the ground again from bad balance. "Or…seriously, go back to camp."

"I'm fine."

"You're up to three tumbles, remember what Jian said about your ribs."

"Will you leave me alone!?" he demanded—grimaced when that pulled on his ribs again.

"Fine, suit yourself," she said, mouth in a thin line. Didn't really want to leave him like this, but if the dragons died that'd be them both stranded. Go back to scouring, glancing up at the darkening sky—dangit she wanted this done before night fully set in—

Deep sigh when she felt eyes on her. "You know what, forget it, if you're going to be this bullheaded YIII!" Yelp and leap back, dagger whipping out when she saw something big and hairy—oh great bears they couldn't handle bears right now—

"What what—" Obake blurted, stumbling for her—balked at something that wasn't what she was facing—

What she was facing leaped out, arms up and screaming "BOOGA-BOOGA!" Start back, swinging—Obake stopped her—

A confused snort made her glance back, saw the bear, shuffling back in confusion as some really hairy guy leaped around them, still waving his stick around and screaming.

"Okay new plan: run," Momakase hissed at Obake—whipped her knife back around when the guy turned back to them.

"Now that bear was within its right to eat you," he said, like they were having a conversation in a tavern somewhere. "Why shouldn't I let it get back to that?"

"I'd give it indigestion and she's too pretty to die," Obake said, which was baffling enough to make Momakase give him a dumbfounded look. "What?"

"Did you mean to say that out loud?" she had to ask.

"What?" Balked at the man shoving his staff in their faces.

"Who are you two? What are you doing here?" the crazy bearded guy asked.

"Ah," Momakase noised. "Travelers—just stopped over for food and fresh water—"

"On vacation from pestering detectives and mad scientists," Obake offered.

"Okay, you know what, you," Momakase said, turning her attention to Obake. "Until such time as you start talking sense again, stop talking."

"What?" Obake asked, looking affronted.

"Nevermind. You, hairy guy—why don't we ask you the same questions? Maybe tack on where are we as well this island didn't have a name."

"My name is Ned Ludd, and you're on Muirahara Island," the man said, taking his staff away from their faces—

Started walking away with no explanation, to their bafflement; turned back to look at them. "You dum-dums coming or what?"

"Er, do what?" Momakase noised. "We uh—don't want to impose—"

"Guess you'd rather go to dinner with the bear then."

Not really—evaluate the guy, debating…maybe she could take him—

"Seriously?" she asked when Obake walked past her. "Good grief am I the only one with any sense around here?"

Hairy guy laughed at that. "If you had any sense, you wouldn't be beating around the woods in the middle of the night!" he said, walking off. Which, fair.

But back to her bigger concern.

"What are you doing?" she demanded of Obake.

"Refresh my memory, he's walking away from the dragons, correct?" Obake whispered. "We want that."

"Yeah but you stopped talking sense a while ago so forgive me if I don't trust your judgment right now."

"You keep saying this."

"Because you keep talking nonsense—is this a ploy? You want the guy to think you're a nut so he underestimates you?"

"I'd suspect Dibs of this but for the fact that he's never broken character."

She could attest to that—looked around, back at him—caught him when he stumbled again.

"We're pretty far in the woods now," she muttered quietly. "My guess is he's taking us somewhere to kill us."

He snorted. "He won't kill us, unless the mouse decides it's too cheap to hire us back."

Momakase shot a look at Obake, who was making a face now.

"All right, I heard it that time," he groused.

"Good," she said warily. "Are you sure you're feeling okay?"

"No," he said, shaking his head before scrubbing at it. "It's like—have you ever been fed something that's supposed to be for pain but all it does is make your head fuzzy?"

"A couple of times."

"It's like that."

"Or maybe it just knocks you down here with the rest of us peons," she teased, glancing at the crazy hermit they were following.

"If this is the case, I feel sorry for you all."

"What's that?" Ned barked, causing them both to stiffen—saw that he had his back to them, a rock to his ear. "No no—I know they're following me. No listen we're heading for the Chasm of Death I'm going to lose you."

"So yeah, taking us somewhere to kill us," Momakase observed. "Also, that's what you sound like right now."

"I can't be in that company," Obake said, staggering a little as they continued on. "I can't grow facial hair."

"Will you stay with me?" she hissed, elbowing him—winced when he drew in an aggravated hiss, face flaring. "Sorry, forgot about the ribs."

"You sure that wasn't intentional?"

"Pretty sure." Think—"You didn't get whatever the dragons ate, did you? What'd you eat while we were on that island?"

"Your cooking, mostly," he slurred. "I knew it, I knew you were going to kill me."

"Will you stop?"

"Well here we are!" Ned declared, turning to them and indicating a treehouse on the other side of a narrow ravine. "Home sweet home! Watch your step here by the way—been meaning to fix some of those planks but you know how that goes."

Momakase leaned a little, looked into the chasm the little rope bridge was spanning…it wasn't quite deep enough to kill a person on impact, but it would be enough to grievously injure them, and if left down there would die. Seemed in line with what she was expecting. Look over—

"Uh," she noised, running over to Obake and grabbing his arm, looping it over her shoulder as his ability to stay upright steadily degenerated. "Maybe you stick with me for the moment."

"I'm not that into you, miss," Obake slurred.

"Okay you know what? Whatever it was you had, I want a gallon of it," Momakase said, crabbing across the bridge with Obake in tow. "Because it must have been a doozy."

Ned was waiting on the other end. "What's the matter with him?"

"Uh…ate some rotten berries," Momakase said. "You wouldn't happen to have a hangover cure in that treehouse, would you?"

Ned shrugged. "I got a little something fortifying. Come on."

Not that she really had much of a choice at this point—heft Obake a little more onto her, haul him forward and ignore his attempts to walk himself. She had the distinct impression that if she let him he'd just faceplant at this point. Follow Ned onto a platform—start when it started going up into the tree.

"Hey, snap out of it, you're missing something interesting," Momakase said, jostling Obake.

"Not that interesting," Obake managed.

"Boyfriend's hard to impress, is he?" Ned asked as they reached the door.

"Ew, no," Momakase said, grimacing. "O—I mean look at him, does he look like boyfriend material to you?" Definitely helped that he was disoriented and dizzy and no longer talking sense.

Ned snorted, disappeared into the treehouse—it was lit and nice enough, she'd give him that. Deposit Obake on a nearby batch of cushions and grab his collar, trying to shake some sense back into him. "Oi, you mind shaping up in the next five minutes?"

"Probably," Obake slurred—collapsed when she let go of him, massaging his head. "When do I get my brain back?"

"Please tell me you snuck something after we landed." No think—something had disoriented the dragons, they had steered for this island because the alternative was crashing into the water…maybe it was something about the island. Maybe it was something growing here and she just hadn't been affected yet—

"Here," Ned said, coming in with a wooden cup. "Have him drink this."

Momakase made it a point to dip her finger in it and test it right after taking it from him, glaring at Ned the whole time—didn't taste anything out of the ordinary, more like the hair of the dog that Jian was good for sometimes. "Is there anything that grows here that you don't see on other islands?" she asked—might as well get the big question out of the way.

"Why you ask?"

"I'm wondering if my friend here is allergic to something."

"He have any reactions to herbs?"

"Not that I know of."

"Then he can drink that," Ned said, waving a hand at the mug. Momakase grimaced…sat down crosslegged next to Obake and offered him the cup.

"No thanks," Obake slurred. "I'm driving."

"Just drink the stupid tea," Momakase said, before returning her glare to Ned, who was sitting across from them now on a log that looked like it was turning into a chair through sheer attrition.

"Now, you wanna explain why you're really here?" Ned demanded.

Oh good grief. "We're travelers. We got lost," Momakase said, indicating the world as a whole. "Storm blew us off course, the usual reasons you end up lost on an island. Now why are you here?"

Ned affected a distant look. "It was a night much like tonight."

"This isn't going to be a life-story thing is it? Because I have other things to do."

"We don't interrupt when someone has the story snake," Ned said sternly, lifting an arm.

Momakase winced and leaned away from the snake wrapped around his wrist and hissing at her. "Fine, go on."

"Ahem. Like I said, it was a night much like tonight. I was a young merchant sailor, thinking to get ahead in life…when one day a storm dashed my ship against the rocks of this island. Soon the dangers of the place whittled us down, until I was the lone survivor. I too would have perished, but for Bessie's intervention, falling from the sky and saving me from mortal peril. She's protected me ever since."

Okay, the man was certifiable and possibly not alone. Glance at Obake, nudge him. "What do you think?"

"I think Tom did it better," Obake muttered, head cradled in his hands.

"Who?" Okay forget it Obake was about useless right now—redirect her attention to Ned. "And who's Bessie? The snake?"

"No," Ned said, putting the snake aside. "That's Julivern. Bessie is over here."

Momakase eased to her feet as Ned crossed the room, wary and on edge—right now it'd be two against one, Obake was terrible in a straight fight and right now he wasn't doing too well anyway. Lean around to look as Ned opened a small cabinet—

Momakase was able to register that there was a large green glowing rock sitting on a cushion and wearing a small crown in there when an agonized scream cut through her observations. Spin around, already whipping out a knife—

Had to take a stunned moment when she realized that cacophony was coming from Obake, who had fallen backwards clutching his head—

The one half of his face was glowing uncomfortably bright, what looked like sparks crackling along it and compounding the problem.

"Obake!" she barked, terror squeezing her innards as she reached for his shoulder—what—how—

Caught movement out of the corner of her eye—jumped upright, slipping sideways just enough to avoid the staff jabbed at her—

Ned brought it back, ferocious in his stance.

"You must think I'm the king of dum-dums!" he snarled. "Everybody knows black coats mean Yokai!"

Yay, thank you Callaghan for reinforcing that branding.

"So?" she demanded, bristling and adjusting her hold on her unsheathed knife. "If that's the case, why bring us here? You had plenty of opportunities to kill us earlier."

"Bessie told me," the crazy hermit said.

Right. The glowing rock told the crazy guy to bring them to his treehouse.

Except…bringing them here separated them from their dragons and had Obake just about senseless, opening that cabinet had him writhing on the ground in pain. Whatever that thing was, it had cut them down to just her.

She'd be enough.

"Right," she snarled, twirling her knife. "When I'm through cutting you up, I'm using that stupid rock to bash the pieces."

Threatening the rock was the right move—Ned screamed and lunged—

She already had a sword out, blocking his swing, sliced at him with her knife—he dodged back, stabbed forward—she batted it away. This was his turf, but it was still an enclosed space. She had experience fighting in enclosed spaces.

So did he.

It helped that they were both protecting something, unfortunately keeping both of them from maneuvering well—if she went for the rock, he'd go for Obake, and vice-versa. She needed a distraction, one big enough that she could grab Obake and get out of here—

Risk the briefest of glances back to see Obake trying to drag himself backwards, still writhing in pain but mobile—

That's what gave her the advantage—hers was mobile.

His was not.

Fall back a step into the space Obake had freed up, swing so he'd block—

Whip a hand back and throw a knife at the glowing rock, already lamenting the loss of the blade—

"Bessie! NO!" Ned yelled, leaping back to protect the rock—

And the second he was distracted, she ran, hauling Obake up and dragging him to the little elevator and lamenting the fact that he was totally dead weight right now.

"You know, it's a good thing you're not some huge fat guy or we'd be in some real trouble," she groused, slicing through the counter-rope that let the elevator get lifted up—toss her sword over as they rocketed down, didn't want to risk getting impaled—

The impact knocked her off her feet—recover, hauled Obake back up, grabbed her sword, dragged him back the way they had come and hoping the dragons at least had stayed in the same place—

The dragons!

"Hey!" she barked, jostling Obake a little. "Think that stupid rock is what's affecting the dragons? I mean it affected you…come on, say something, we've got distance."

No response—she hoped it was that the pain had knocked him out and not something…worse.

Grimace—look around, biting her lip—away from the treehouse was a priority, she had nicked the trees with a knife on the way over but couldn't pick them out in the gloom now…she just had to pick a direction and hope for the best.

Here was hoping that guy was distracted and the dragons were ready to go.

Tadashi had not needed the pounding headache that fouled up his sense of direction and Hiro trying to wander off in the woods just compounded that aggravation.

"Little-Brother, no," he said, putting his paw down on Hiro's tail—after several failed attempts. "Stay here."

"But they've been gone for ages!" Hiro protested. "Something's wrong!"

"Little-Brother, chill," Gogo muttered, head buried under a wing. "Let me get some sleep."

"How can you sleep at a time like this?"

"Being dizzy helps."

Dizzy—one thought tried to latch its claws in another to fly together like a flight of dragons—

"So dizzy you can't tell where north is?" Tadashi asked, glancing at her, hating how that made him feel sick and tilting—

The slow way Gogo pulled her head out from under her wing and looked at him told him everything he needed to know.

"So see? I'm right!" Hiro barked. "There's something BAD about this island and we have to catch—" Shake his head. "We have to find Obake and Momakase!"

No they didn't, they'd buzz back to their nest on their own—shake his head hard against the nonsense thought, trying to knock his brain out of the fuzz it had flown into.

"I don't feel confident about navigating like this," he told Hiro, digging his claws into the task at hand. "We can't even have a straight conversation right now, and you want to try hunting in a strange forest at night?"

"Wait for the fish to go over," Gogo counselled, before shaking her head vehemently.

Tadashi blinked rapidly, third eyelids darting up and down, jerked back upright when he realized his nose was about to plant on the dirt. "We can't go running around looking for them when they'll probably be looking for us too. It'd be two moving targets and that's not smart."

Hiro huffed—

Bolted to his back when they heard crashing through the woods.

Tadashi arched his back, growling, trying to summon flames but only managing a glowing dribble—no no no that's not how it worked how did he make flame again? Try a deep breath, ended up coughing—

And then Momakase was bursting into the clearing, glancing over her shoulder, dragging—

"Obake!" Hiro barked. "What happened to him what did you do—" Ended up faceplanting on the ground when he tried to leap for her. "Kkk—claw your eyes!"

"Little-Brother," Tadashi sighed—

Focused more on how panicked the usually calm and snarky Momakase was as she ran for Gogo.

"Time to go time to go time to go," she chanted—dropped Obake and pawed at his face lightly. "Wake up wake up you need to hang on to your dragon you stupid—"

"Hey," Hiro protested, trying to stagger back up. "Hey no stop hitting him Uncle Boris stop hitting him!"

Tadashi forced himself to his own wobbly legs, claws digging in as the world canted and spun—

Snapped his head and ears up at the sound of something coming through the woods.

Momakase heard it too. "Okay time's up," she breathed—

Hiro squeaked at being thrown onto Gogo's back—claws dug into the saddle as Momakase ripped a line of not-vine out of her carry-thing and Tadashi had to fight real hard not to giggle at that unintentional rhyme—

Wrred in surprise when she wrapped the not-vine around his neck.

"You follow this," she told him, tying the other end around Gogo's leg. Hauled Obake onto Gogo's back, climbed up after him—grabbed two of Gogo's head-spines and held firmly, forcing her head up. "You go where your nose is pointing, got it?"

"Yes," Gogo slurred, sounding confused.

"Good, now go—gogogogogo now right now!"

Hiro squeaked and hung on tight, Tadashi just barely jumping into the air before the not-vine choked him, beating his wings frantically and out of sync—Gogo was flying nearly straight up into the air, both of them squawking as they tried to stay airborne—

"YOU GET BACK HERE!"

"Okay just—ocean," Momakase muttered, angling Gogo so she was still flying up but now towards the sea in the sky—no no that wasn't right—squeeze his eyes shut, blink them rapidly, flickering the third eyelid across to clear them—adjusted so he was flying right-side-up. Just—focus on following Gogo, follow her through the air—it was still air it had to still be air stop paddling your paws—

Finally evened out, finally started feeling sensible…well not sensible, but less like he was deep underwater and running out of air—Gogo stilled her wings, forcing him to as well, shook her head as much as she could with someone else holding it still.

"Are you starting to feel like yourself again?" Momakase asked, scratching behind her head-spines. "Are you back to me?"

Gogo was blinking rapidly, still twitching her head. "Swift-Strike?" Tadashi asked, worried.

"I'm here," she said, working her jaw. "I just—need a minute. What was that?"

Tadashi finally felt balanced enough to risk glancing back—the island they had left was just a smear on the dark horizon. "I…I don't know." Look forward. "But I don't want to run into it ever again."

"Good," she snorted. "We agree."

"Oh thank you," Momakase gusted, sagging onto Gogo's neck and hugging her tight. "Get us out of here—find somewhere else we can rest up on."

Tadashi watched her, baffled—looked at Hiro, pawing at Obake.

"What's wrong with him?" Hiro asked. "Why isn't he waking up?"

Momakase took note, leaned to feel for Obake's neck where life bubbled close to the surface on any creature—

"Hey," she said, pushing at his head. "Hey, we're gone, we're out of there—wake up."

Her worried look wasn't lost on any of them—even Gogo, who couldn't exactly see her back there, could sense it.

"Tadashi," Gogo said. "I don't know if there's any other islands nearby."

Sigh. "We're going to have to find one," he said, looking around. "Otherwise…this is going to be a long night."

Gogo sighed, continued to coast, Tadashi following her lead. They were going to have to conserve their energy. If not….

If not they'd be making some aquatic dragons very happy.