Ghost's Reign Chapter 26: Fish, Fleas, and Family Talk, a How to Train Your Dragon + Big Hero 6 Crossover fanfic

Chapter 26, everybody! Today (still the 7th when I wrote this) is not only Pearl Harbor Day, but also the first day of Hanukkah and the day that Delaware became the first state to ratify the Constitution. Contrary to what idiots online would have you believe, Delaware does in fact exist and is first in everything.

So anyway this one is late because I wasn't anticipating this part being a thing and then I wasn't expecting the story threads that led from this one...finally got to a point where I could split it and still make decent chapters, so you can see what I was working on next week.

Moving on...so apparently some people eat sand fleas (genus Emerita) and apparently they're like tofu where they take on the flavor of whatever they're cooked in…saying that, my family uses them for fish bait and you can definitely hunt them up by seeking those little bubbles in the sand; since they don't bite, you can dig them up with your fingers. As for eating eggs that already have chicks developing in them…gonna say don't do that. You can sort of candle the eggs by holding them up to the sun, I've done that a couple of times.

…Okay so apparently yes you can eat unborn bird embryos they're called Balut and I was happier not knowing this. This is also an Asian dish and since sand fleas are considered a dish over there as well…wtf are you guys eating WHY. D:

Moving on again…yes that's a reference to The Good Dinosaur it's got some good moments but I do have some beef with that film (actually went on a tear today sketching up a similar concept but with the improvements I would have rather seen, might do something with that). Also referencing that one fan theory that circulated before The Hidden World came out, that Light Furies were female Night Furies and just had some sexual dimorphism going on. Skalds were Nordic poets, I've seen this term referenced in HTTYD fics before and gotta admit it has the pun bonus going for draconic Skalds.

Good news, Tadashi finally decided he was okay with flying Obake around some. Matter of fact, Obake was taking advantage of this by going flying on him every morning—lot faster than coffee, and a lot less scarce too.

Today, however, he sensed that his presence would be required—hence him packing up a saddlebag to tack and tie onto Tadashi's saddle and then skivving off with Hiro in tow. On the list of things he wanted to do, brushing up on Hiro's lessons was high up there, and chiefing wasn't even in a place where the list could be seen.

They found a small island with a wide sandy beach after they had flown long enough to properly wake Obake up, he and Hiro dismounting to find a proper breakfast as Tadashi flew off to go fishing. Perchance, he might come back, but if he didn't Obake had plenty of survival gear in his saddlebag. Deposit it on the beach, gather up some firewood, and then go off hunting the wet sand for telltale bubbles.

In his experience, sand fleas could be edible if one were desperate enough, and the Yokai often were—Momakase would fry them up in a wok with seasoning, but it was possible to put them in the fire and cook them that way. Oftentimes they were used as bait for a larger meal.

Tadashi seemed bemused when he came back with a mouthful of fish to see Obake standing at the edge of the wet sand with a line, slowly reeling it in in the hopes of tempting a larger meal in.

"Yes, well, I'm trying to be unavailable today," he told the larger Night Fury—spun the hooked sand flea around again before flinging it into the surf and trying again.

By the third time he decided that trying to mooch off the dragons was the better bet—walk up the beach to see a stuffed Hiro dozing in the sun and Tadashi reclining as he licked his paws clean.

"I don't suppose you saved me any," Obake tried.

Tadashi huffed, expression saying that he'd rather do anything but—glanced over at Hiro, who at this distance was sleeping next to a large fish. Hmm….

Untie the string from his finger, dangle the hookless end near Hiro's nose, tickling it along his jawline until Hiro snapped at it, growling—flipped his ear flaps up at Obake's cackling.

"Fat dragon," Obake teased—Hiro growled, sensing the slight, moving so his body was blocking the fish from view. "Now unless you have pockets there's nowhere you can really put that fish."

Hiro flopped down on the fish, nose in the air and head turned away from Obake—Obake sat down next to him, continued to tease him with the tip of the string, Hiro growling at him and occasionally huffing at Tadashi when the latter started growling. Hmm….

Leave him alone for a bit, tending to the fire—saw what he expected: Hiro glancing to see if he noticed himself being ignored. Debate a bit, reflecting on what he already had in the saddlebag…ah.

Snap his fingers above Hiro's head a couple of times before writing the rune for fish in the sand between them. Hiro looked at it—glowered at Obake when he folded his arms and gave Hiro a smug look. Seemed to debate…finally decided to match him and write fish next to his rune.

Obake waited a few beats before repeating the action.

Hiro sat up, making a noise that could be translated as complaining—Obake responded by writing fish again and then very pointedly indicating the fish Hiro had. Hiro growled, grumbled, complained—caterwauled at Tadashi when he rumbled something at the smaller dragon—finally relented and pawed the fish over to Obake, still grumbling.

"Ah, thank you," Obake cackled, scooping the fish up—Hiro huffed, padded away a little with his nose up in the air. "What's the matter, sour grapes?"

Hiro decided that he was going to spend the entirety of Obake's meal on Tadashi's back and facing away from Obake with his nose still in the air, still undermining his indignation by glancing at him frequently. Tadashi seemed to be taking this with a longsuffering air, and considering Hiro showed no interest…hmm….

Scoot as close as he could before Tadashi growled at him, write fish in the sand before pushing the offal next to it.

Tadashi seemed distinctly unimpressed, huffed at Hiro and got a lot of noise in response—Obake could just imagine what the little dragon must be saying. NO I am IGNORING HIM leave me ALONE. Try it again, got another huff from Tadashi. Well, he only got Hiro started on this through repetition…write it again, indicate the offal. "Fish."

Tadashi remained unimpressed, turned and warbled at Hiro—finally got the little dragon to glance over, raise an ear flap as he registered what Obake was trying to do.

"Yes, exactly," Obake told him. "Care to help, or are you still busy sulking?"

Hiro grumbled at him, but if he had to guess the need to one-up his brother still persisted even for dragons. Hop down, write fish while warbling in Tadashi's direction—snapped up the offal when Obake pushed it his way.

Tadashi didn't seem remotely sold on this even as Hiro bounced and warbled at him—growled a little when Obake stood and retrieved his saddlebag, was watching carefully when Obake sat back down and smoothed the sand out, writing out several different runes, some of which he hadn't taught Hiro yet. Hiro's ear flaps flipped up—copied the ones he knew before tapping at the first one he didn't know.

"Sand," Obake said, writing out that rune. "Add this one—" Tap the one Hiro indicated. "For beach." Indicate their surroundings.

Hiro's ear flaps were up in interest at this—dragons definitely seemed to prefer concrete meaning versus abstract thought—watched with interest as Obake continued through adjectives and how to turn words like water into ocean or differentiate between palm trees and pine trees, Tadashi watching with feigned aloofness that gradually developed into interest that he was struggling to tamp down. Time to move in for the kill, so to speak.

Write out Tadashi, tap Hiro's head to make sure he was paying attention, tap the runes and then indicate the larger dragon. "Tadashi."

Hiro perked up at this, copied it down for as many times as it took to get right—barked at Tadashi before tapping the runes. Consider them, wrote Tadashi Hiro.

"You want this one in the middle," Obake said, writing the rune for and. "Maybe we should cover conjunctions next."

That was an interesting diversion, even as the midday sun burnt the tops of his ears—trying to figure out the best ways to explain the different words and the situations they were used in, providing visual examples such as rock or shell or drawings that best demonstrated the concept, long enough that he had the feeling Hiro's breakfast had worn off (his own certainly had). Contemplated, finally wrote Hiro and Tadashi would fish but for the storm, and when Hiro copied it he pulled a small fish from his pack and put it in front of the little dragon.

"One of these days I'm going to have to see how much of this is comprehension and how much of it is just copying," he decided as Hiro slurped up the fish. "But in the meantime."

Walking around the island showed it to be a small one, half-buried boulders attesting that the middle spire used to be taller. Mostly it was the sort of greenery that one would expect to blow or float to an island, biggest animals present being birds. Hiro darted after some seagulls they accidentally flushed out of a rocky crevasse—took a beat to lament not having a crossbow before checking the vacated crevasse to find what he was hoping for.

"Wrr?" Hiro noised, padding back over to him.

"I'm hoping these aren't too far along," he said, holding the eggs up to the sun to make sure there was nothing gestating inside—not that that had stopped the Yokai before, protein was protein, but in his experience it affected the flavor. Good news for these, however, at least for him.

Tadashi was giving him the usual hairy eye when they completed the circuit of the island, several fish lined up on the sand and apparently waiting for Hiro. And while he wouldn't mind another fish, he hadn't really been exerting himself today and would rather get back to the initial concept he had been toying with, that of teaching Hiro new runes and hopefully edging into a beneficial side effect. At the very least, hopefully it got Tadashi acclimated to him—seeing as how he was doing nothing but scribbling in the sand, hopefully this qualified as behaving.

Reviewed the morning's lesson after burying the eggs next to the fire and raking some of the coals over them, investigated them once he was assured that Hiro had at least a general idea going, reflected after his moment of silence and while he peeled the eggs. Hiro always seemed fairly willing to learn, but he had noticed that after so many new runes he'd start muddying them. Better to focus on reinforcing the ones already covered.

Although he couldn't resist adding two when he went over Hiro and Tadashi again.

"Little brother," he said, tapping the rune and then Hiro. "Older brother." Tap the rune, indicate Tadashi.

Flared ear flaps said interest was piqued, angle suggested confusion was its bedfellow. How to explain this…ah. Put two pieces of eggshell together, draw a circle around it, repeat the runes…yup, Hiro recognized this, context would mean understanding. Yip at Tadashi, who finally looked like he was tempted to join in.

Proceeded to surprise Obake when he flipped in another piece of eggshell and yipped at him, considering before realizing this probably didn't quite make sense, drew something that vaguely resembled their own head shapes but with fewer ear flaps. Hmm, were they meaning that older Light Fury?

"This one?" he asked, rendering Cass with a bit more detail than Hiro had managed. When Hiro nodded: "I suppose she's either your aunt or mother?" Did Furies have sexual dimorphism and they had just translated the notable difference as different breeds? They wouldn't be the first creatures that had such a difference…but then again that usually required the females to blend in to better hide their young, and the Light Furies were generally more noticeable. Which then bore asking the question of if the males were the ones who guarded the nest, or if he had wildly misjudged the two Furies next to him and was actually dealing with a pair of sisters.

As he was pondering whether or not this explained certain things, Hiro flipped two more pieces of shell into the ring—yipped for his attention before indicating the three shells that didn't represent him or Tadashi before covering the two that didn't have a corresponding drawing or label. Tadashi's ears flattened, suggesting he knew what Hiro was trying to explain and possibly disagreed with him trying to explain it to Obake.

"Ah," Obake noised. Right. They had had this 'conversation' before. Write the labels. "Mother, father." Indicate the buried shards. "Aunt. Or uncle, I suppose—how are we supposed to tell with you lot anyway?" he asked of Hiro. Tack on explaining about gender which was a conversation he wasn't ever expecting to have and especially not with a dragon.

Hiro huffed, getting him back on track. "Older brother, little brother," he repeated, writing the runes underneath the two shells. Hiro copied the one for little brother, looked expectantly at Tadashi….

Tadashi finally humored him, sidling over before carefully etching older brother with a claw. Looked suspiciously at the fish Obake put in front of him, even with Hiro happily slurping his up.

Didn't matter—Obake was still counting this as a win.

Hiro was practically bursting with the need to tell the others when they got back, led the charge to their usual shelf after Tadashi made a quick circuit to make sure everything was still all right. Definitely going to confer with Older-Light-Fury though.

Hiro, meanwhile, had to get this out of his system, this whole thing about how scribbles in the sand actually meant something beyond Honeysuckle's artwork. Honeysuckle was interested, Fred was fascinated, Wasabi and Baymax and Older-Light-Fury were listening with polite interest, and Gogo was just coming in from tending to her Yokai.

"What'd I miss?" she asked, taking note of the situation.

"The latest aspect of Yokai training!" Hiro said brightly. "See, Yokai have a scribble language that they use alongside their speaking language—"

"Why do they need an extra language?" Wasabi asked, head tipped almost upside-down by this point in confusion.

"Maybe they've got terrible memories," Fred mused. "I mean sure not EVERYONE can perfectly memorize every saga of the great dragons of yore, that takes some talented Skalds such as myself, but still."

Hiro waved that off. "What it is is them being able to communicate without ever seeing each other—like they'll write some scribbles down and leave it for another Yokai, and that other Yokai can read it and know what they meant. For example." He made some scratches in the dirt. "This means 'give Hiro fish,' so like, if for some weird reason Obake's WAY elsewhere he can leave this message for the other Yokai."

"And you need them to feed you why?" Older-Light-Fury asked.

"It's an example. Come on guys, this is USEFUL. Like—like for example," Hiro said, pivoting to look at Fred. "We all know Yokai don't speak Dragonese, so they're missing out on some EPIC sagas—"

"This is true," Fred agreed, pensive.

"But if you translated it to their scribbles, not only would THESE Yokai know it, the sagas would be recorded for whole generations of not-dragons for AGES down the line!"

"OOH!" Fred noised, wide-eyed. "Tales of glory, forever preserved! Wasabi we need in on this."

"We do what," Wasabi said flatly.

"Told you Fred would be invested," Hiro jeered in Tadashi's direction.

"Okay my dude what's the learning curve on this 'cause I got a LOT of epic sagas to share including our own," Fred said, maneuvering himself so he could better look over Hiro's head.

"Uhhh so I've only really been working on this for a few months but…this one, this is 'fish,' this is the important one," Hiro said, sketching that squiggle out.

"I won't deny that meals are important—hey do they have scribbles for like AWESOME and MAJESTIC and TREMENDOUSLY IMPRESSIVE? Stuff like that."

"Uhhhh I'll have to check," Hiro said, having it slammed back in that he didn't know as much about this as he'd like to. "First we cover the basics. Like uh like fish, and then there's fire, and this one's mountain—"

"So this is going to take a while," Wasabi sighed.