Ghost's Reign Chapter 52: Winter Weathered, a How to Train Your Dragon + Big Hero 6 Crossover fanfic

Chapter 52, everybody! Man I haven't updated this since last year! *bricked*

So this next batch makes me regret not having everything done so I could post last month but eh—get ready for the Yokai version of Gift of the Night Fury! XD

Look if you own pets you have to resign yourself to having a timeshare on your own bed, it's part of the pet parent rules, as is throwing snowballs to trick your dogs. X'D Dibs is quoting Mickey's Christmas Carol, by the way, while Momakase's saying a line that Gogo says in regards to the Mayoi in the episode "Something Fluffy."

Obake deeply regretted the fact that his brain never let him go back to sleep.

Today, it was mostly because it was nice and warm, and it took him trying to crawl out of bed to realize that Tadashi had apparently decided that part of the bed was now his. With Hiro against Obake's chest, that was him sandwiched between two Furies and that was really nice and toasty compared to the rest of the house.

Why the rest of the house was chilly became clear when he opened the door.

"Ah," he said flatly, glowering at the blanket of white. "Why couldn't I live somewhere warmer."

"Keee!" Hiro cheered, leaping into the snow—and then bounding around a little before running back in and shaking himself off.

"That's about my feelings on the matter too," he told Hiro, considering—much as he'd like to go back to bed and pretend this stuff never happened, there were things his hyperactive mind demanded he do. And unfortunately, he had told Carl he'd give this chiefing business a proper try. Unfortunately.

Carl also found him still dithering on his front step several minutes later, trying to reason himself through that mess and to someplace warmer. Like the Dark Continent. "Need a lift?"

"I'm working on it," he said stiffly, huddled up on himself—Tadashi had already flown off, Hiro following after discovering that the snow wasn't cold if you were flying over it. Glowered at Carl when he held up a steaming mug. "I'd like to see about moving somewhere more tropical."

"I thought you were going to give chiefing an actual go," Carl said as he finally freed an arm up to take the mug—oh that felt good in his hands—

"No one said we had to stay here," he pointed out. "There's plenty of real estate south of us—hopefully where it's warmer."

"It's a lot to ask for everyone to pick up and move," Carl said, following Obake as he picked through the trail Carl had forged in the snow.

"Oh please—maybe five people have any emotional attachment to this place," Obake spat. "It's a location, nothing more." Look at some of the gutted buildings the dragons were using as roosts. "I'm sure some people wouldn't mind never laying eyes on this place again."

"And would you be one of those people?"

"I top the list," he groused, stalking faster as he reached paths that more Yokai had trod. Noticed that a few of them had convinced some of the dragons to very carefully flame paths through the snow, a few of the Gronkle riders figuring out that if the Gronkles held their fire in their mouths and then waded through the snow they'd have a nice path melted—

Had to skid to a halt from his full steam, Carl narrowly avoiding running into him—backtracked to glower at some fresh idiocy. "What. Are you even. Doing."

"What does it look like?" Dibs asked.

It honestly looked like Dibs was precariously perched on a Monstrous Nightmare's face for the sole purpose of decorating his house. "This is an eyesore," he said finally.

"And a bah humbug to you too," Dibs countered, now with his legs wrapped around Fred's snout and one hand hanging on his horn—Fred moved his head so Dibs was closer to his target. "Ah, thanks—"

"I suppose waiting to hear you of all people explain the wisdom of your actions is a stretch," Obake decided.

"Well…I mean I know Callaghan didn't care about any of this stuff, but uh…he's gone now, right? And you want us to not be mercenaries anymore, so this means I can finally drag out all the decorations!" Dibs announced, hanging upside-down from Fred's head to pump deliriously. "Ooh wait lower me down the box is right there."

"You are a cause for much concern," Obake announced when Dibs was close enough. "I want you to know that."

"Okay just for that I'm going to make my house the gaudiest in the village and you can't stop me."

"Well I have good news, you're well on your way," Obake said drily. Looked at Carl. "And you're fine with this? Last I checked this was your house."

"Dibs rooms with me," Carl said. "And yeah, I'm fine with it—nice and festive."

"I give up," Obake sighed, stalking for the forge.

Another downside of winter: it made flying bracing.

"Wrr," Tadashi noised as Obake huddled close against his back.

"I'm going to need extra layers for this," Obake muttered—looked as Honey Lemon flew up, warbling. "Where's the rest of your little team? I wanted to practice going from dragon to dragon again."

Tadashi and Honey Lemon exchanged alarmed looks, drifted apart with Honey Lemon flying higher.

"Yes, well, I've decided against launching myself on her again," Obake informed them. "But if that's off the table, I'm sure we can figure out something."

That something was mostly practicing Tadashi's upside-down flight, although there were a few sharp turns and spins and a flight around Calhoun's obstacle course to practice Obake's shots from dragonback—it was diverting enough that while yes he was cold when they finished, he felt happy with the outcome and was already sorting through what they could do next.

Tadashi had a look of longsuffering amusement when Hiro landed on his head, dumped him in the snow and sent the little Fury yipping and wailing.

"Haven't you ever seen snow before?" Obake asked him—smirked as he realized a way to have fun at his expense. Scoop up a handful of snow, ball it up—"Oh, Hiro?" Show him the snowball. "Fetch."

Hiro perked up, chased after the snowball, snuffling around where it impacted—gave Obake a suspicious look when he held up another one. Glance at Tadashi, who was watching him with half-lidded eyes and an ear askew—

At the very least, Tadashi was willing to play along, catching the snowball in his mouth when Obake lobbed it at him. Hiro screeched and bounded over, Tadashi warbling and possibly laughing at him—chased another snowball that Obake threw.

"How long before he figures it out?" Obake asked Tadashi in an undertone.

The answer was the fourth snowball—after that Hiro pawed himself together a snowball and did his best to get aloft with it, Obake making a precipitous retreat to under an awning when he started winging over, which left an unfortunate Tadashi to receive the brunt of his brother's ire. Tadashi's response to that was to shake the snow off in Obake's general direction, which did dampen his mirth somewhat.

"Oh come now, that was funny," Obake offered, brushing the snow off—Tadashi's response to that was to flip snow on his shoes. "Well if you're going to be that way."

Hiro yipped at Tadashi as Obake started to head for the forge, mostly with the intent to warm up—

Peculiar dragon bugles echoing across the island made him pause and look up, saw that several dragons were flying high overhead—migrating, absenting themselves for the winter. Wait a minute—

Look back to see Tadashi watching the dragons with eyes pinned, ear flaps up as more dragons started bellowing—

Slapped a paw to the saddle and slipped out before bellowing as well, scooping Hiro up before leaping into the air.

"No wait—" And what was he supposed to do, pray tell? Tadashi was already a black speck in the sky, circling as the other dragons launched into the air, and unless he felt like shooting him back down and undoing all his hard work, he was helpless in this situation.

He hated that feeling, hated the irritation at them leaving (and taking Hiro too!), hated that he had taken for granted that the dragons would stay here or take them along, hated that he was soon swamped with idiot people asking idiot questions that he couldn't give good answers to.

So much for happy holidays.

The Yokai really had no business being this gloomy.

"Oh for—the dragons leave this time every year!" he railed at a moping Dibs—it had been three days by now, and they had to realize that this meant they would be gone for the full winter season. "They're like birds, they migrate."

"But what if they don't come back?" Travis asked.

"Okay that's enough," Calhoun said, stomping through and fortunately saving Obake from this question. "Obviously flying training is off the table so we're back to the usual training—laps, now." Waited until the others were out of earshot before glancing at Obake. "It's a fair question."

Obake sighed, acknowledging the issue. Forget the fact that he missed having the dragons around—yes, even the murderous Furies—forget the fact that the dragons always left during this season and that some of the celebrations this time of year had that as an extra reason for celebrating—forget the fact that some of the Yokai seemed genuinely upset that the dragons were gone!

The simple fact of the matter was, without the dragons Obake's 'role' as chief was tenuous at best. He was almost certain that the reason he had lasted so long was because no one wanted to risk incurring the dragons' collective wrath. It didn't matter that they wouldn't retaliate—what mattered was that the Yokai thought they would.

He had just lost his safety net, basically.

Stupid stupid stupid—why had he finally broken down and accepted the role why had Carl insisted why had this whole fool village decided he was in charge why him WHY—

Stumbled backward after colliding with Dave, busy hauling a sizeable container of fish.

"What are you doing?" Obake demanded, looking the man up and down.

"Uh…nothing," Dave offered. "Gotta go."

Obake watched him go, suspicious…decided to follow him. It wasn't like he had anything better to do right now.

And considering the way Dave had been sneaking around, the huge tote of fish he had…enough to feed a dragon.

It was worth investigating.

Tail the man, keeping a respectable distance away, watch as he ducked into a building, ducked back out without the fish. Hmm, so that might negate the concept of the dragon staying of its own free will….

Go up to the door, press an ear against it, listening…did he hear chains? Tug the door open—

Right as a Gronkle powered forward, snapping its chains and ramming into him—scramble for purchase as he felt himself go over the edge—

Unfortunately, that purchase was on the Gronkle, who was now buzzing straight out and over water and way too high a height for him to jump off—

Wait, he knew this Gronkle.

"Enoka!?" he squawked, recognizing the dragon he and Hiro had spent all that time with in the caves. Said dragon seemed startled at his presence, didn't slow down, soon left the island in the distance. He finally had to crawl up onto its back and cling there, hoping that wherever it was planning on going, it got there soon.

At the very least, the mess left behind was entertaining.

"What do you mean you were keeping that dragon locked up!?" Helga demanded of Dave, when he had not been quick enough to school his dismay at the Gronkle flying off.

"W-w-well—with them all flying off I didn't want mine flying off so—"

Helga beaned him. "Idiot. That wasn't your dragon! These beasts are Obake's! And him actually finding what you did—"

"You're lucky it took him with it," Momakase decided to offer.

Helga's expression was sour. "And you'd better hope he doesn't bring them all back in a foul mood."

"Uh, guys?" Juniper called. "I think you'd better take a look at this."

They did so, Dibs holding up one of the shapes he and Juniper had dug out of the straw.

"Can you confirm this for me?" Dibs asked, holding it up for Carl.

Carl peered at it. "That is an egg."

"See that's what I thought—wait hold up—"

"Those can't be eggs, Enoka's a boy," Dave insisted.

"The evidence speaks otherwise," Carl said.

Dave thought about it. "You know actually that clears up a lot of things—"

Helga finally had enough, shoved Dave out the door.

"So this could have gone better," Momakase decided.

Helga rested her head on the door, gusting out a sigh. "Okay," she said finally, waving a hand at the rest of them. "Okay." Turned to face them proper, smoothing her hair before continuing. "Okay. What's our status?"

"Obake and all the dragons are gone?"

"Well, technically," Dibs started, holding up one of the eggs.

"You shush."

Helga paced, debating. "The dragons are usually gone for several months, but I'm certain we can bank on the dragons and Obake coming back, and coming back soon." Scrub at her face. "We just have to hope he's in a fine mood when he comes."

Momakase winced at the wording. Hope he's in a fine mood—how often had they said that about Callaghan? And he almost never came back in a fine mood.

"So what do we do with these in the meantime?" Dibs asked, looking at the egg he was holding.

"Leave them," Helga said. "If something happens to them it'll be our heads."

"Bigger question," Momakase said, looking at Carl. "What do we do about being chief-less?"

Juniper looked concerned at that. "We can't go chasing after him—all the dragons are gone."

"And we don't know to where," Dibs added.

Carl and Helga exchanged glances at that.

"I don't think people will start attacking each other for the job just yet," Carl said.

"Did they when we went on that walkabout?" Momakase asked.

"No, but we also had the dragons here. With them all gone and Obake as well…."

"We'd better be ready for the possibility," Helga sighed, already stepping out. "I'll go find Calhoun."

Momakase huffed, watched her go—

Blinked when she turned to see Dibs and Juniper busy loading the eggs into a couple of baskets. "Uh, hi, what was the whole discussion about those? I'm curious to see if you remember."

"Well see, we were having a thought," Dibs said. "Everyone's bummed about the dragons leaving, correct?"

"That's still weird, but yes."

"So, dragon eggs would be a nice gift, right?"

Momakase looked at Carl. "So everything goes in one ear and out the other with him, huh?"

"You could at least be a little supportive."

"I could, but what fun would that be?"

"I'm with Dibs on this one," Juniper said, picking up the basket. "Besides, we're past killing dragons now, right? No one would actually destroy a dragon egg now."

Momakase didn't think so, but this wasn't going to be her head on the chopping block. Look at Carl again….

Carl considered it before shrugging. "It couldn't hurt."

The nesting grounds were as bright and colorful as Tadashi remembered, pool of water in the middle bright blues and yellows like a Nadder and boiling hot enough to sear the flesh off of anything that wasn't a dragon. Surrounding it were pools of clear water for hatchings, nests everywhere for families to take care of their babies until they could carry them back to their usual nest. This was the one he had hatched on, that Hiro had hatched on, and Tadashi had many fond memories of the place.

Hiro wasn't as impressed.

"I'm bored," he protested. "Why did I have to come along again?"

"Because you would have been the only dragon in the Yokai-nest and that would have been a problem?" Tadashi tried.

"So? I was before."

Wince at the mention of that time, nudge him so he rolled over. "You'll be saying different once the eggs start hatching—which they should today. Baby hatchlings are fun."

"Yeah," Hiro muttered, resting on his back without enthusiasm—probably because this was the first time he had been back here since his own hatching years ago. "Hey, then I can teach an entirely new generation about training Yokai!"

"Uh…yeah, let's not," Tadashi said, ear flaps lowering at that fixation being brought up again.

"Why not? We'll be taking them back there in a few months—these are important things to know."

Were they? They had the whole flight here—there was nothing dictating that they head back to Yokai once the hatchlings were ready to fly. They could take off for parts unknown, the fabled Hidden World even, never giving Yokai a backwards glance.

It was tempting enough that he planned to field it by the flight when Hiro was asleep.

"Hey," Stones-in-Sun said, padding up to them. "I know you said I probably keep missing her in the crowd, but I've seriously been searching the island for three days now—I don't think Boulders-on-Hill made it."

Tadashi flicked his ears forward at that. "Seriously?"

"Seriously! I've asked just about everyone, and no one remembers her flying here with us—we didn't leave her behind, did we?"

"We can't have—I don't think we could have," he muttered, considering…what if one of the Yokai had killed her? What if—

"Incoming!"

"Dragon coming in hot!"

He looked up sharply at that, saw the shape of a Gronkle barreling through the clouds—

"There she is!" Hiro barked happily—watched as she skidded into a landing—

Something dark went flying off of her, rolling several times before coming to a painful and crumpled halt.

"Obake!" Hiro barked, dashing over. "What are you doing here!?"

"Good question," Tadashi said, looking sharply at Boulders-on-Hill—

Who sped for the nearest hatching-pool before dumping a mouthful of eggs in.

"I'm sorry!" she barked, once her mouth was free. "I was kind of…delayed…and then when I finally got out I ran into Obake but I couldn't turn and drop him off I just barely made it here—"

Tadashi turned his narrow glare on Obake, busy trying to right his stiff self and rubbing at sore spots, Hiro unfortunately bounding all around him and asking if he was okay—

The Yokai finally took note of his surroundings and company. "Ah. So this is where you all wandered off to."

Tadashi snorted at that—looked back as the first of Boulders-on-Hill's hatchlings crawled out of the hatching-pool—

Immediately stepped between them and Obake, growling a warning.

"Excuse me, lame," Hiro countered.

Obake quickly schooled his expression. "Well," he hedged. "This actually answers a lot of questions."

"Let's see, let's see—mm-hmm, very nice," Fred said, angling his long neck around Boulders-on-Hill to look the hatchlings over. "Very cute."

Tadashi stole a glance—yes, very cute—arched his back when Obake stood.

"I haven't moved in over a day, give me a break," Obake snarled back, staggering a bit—seemed to notice something. "Oh hey you missed one—"

Boulders-on-Hill glanced up—

"No wait NO!" she barked, scrambling—

Which was when the dragon egg did what dragon eggs do when not in a hatching-pool: exploded.

Every dragon in the immediate area ducked except for Fred, who got a Gronkle hatchling to the face—Obake had been blasted clean off his feet, had gone skidding to a halt—and had said hatchling bounce off his stomach before finally coming to a halt.

"Is everyone okay?" Tadashi asked, standing back up.

"Dude, that was AWESOME!" Fred bellowed, looking around for where the hatchling landed—zeroed in on it as Hiro bounded around Obake again, currently curled up on the point of impact. "My dude, that was a most epic entrance into this world, congratulations!"

"Obake are you okay!?" Hiro squawked.

"Hiro you gotta say hi to the little dude I'm thinking…Faceblast."

"That's not a good Gronkle name," Boulders-on-Hill pointed out.

"Soot-on-Scales?"

"That could work."

"Yeah hi you BROKE MY YOKAI," Hiro barked.

"He's not broken," Tadashi said, mentally adding unfortunately to that assessment. "See? He's getting back up." And with a really interesting expression on his face, half-propped up and with a limb still wrapped around his stomach, smoke and soot all over him and that skull-mark flared bright and consistent.

"I," he managed to get out finally. "Am very glad you hatch those here."

It didn't take very long to distribute the eggs.

On the one hand, Momakase was disappointed in how people were staying in singular houses now. On the other, it meant it was easier for her to get rid of her quarter. Dumped one in Obake's house too, just in case he came back early.

"Now don't you feel better about yourself?" Carl asked her when they regrouped in one of the squares.

"No, not really," she said.

"Well I do," Juniper said. "Everyone's going to be so surprised when these hatch!"

Which was when a house exploded, something shooting out of it to knock Dibs flat.

"Surprise!" Momakase said when she recovered, unable to resist the dig. Whatever it was landed on Dibs when gravity reasserted itself—

The collective opinion on beholding a baby Gronkle was aww—which got her a few weird looks.

"What?" she demanded. "I have feelings."

Juniper put together the big problem first. "The…dragon eggs explode?"

Which was when the second house exploded.

"I'm going with yes," Carl said.

Dibs sat up abruptly, sending the baby Gronkle tumbling. "The eggs explode!?"

"Wow," Momakase said, grinning as chaos ensued. "This might have actually been your best idea yet."

This was not an opinion shared by others, specifically Calhoun and Helga, running through the village and trying to muster a fire brigade. Helga spotted them, ran over—

"WHAT is going on here!?" she demanded.

Dibs and Juniper both winced, hedging on answering, Dibs nudging the baby Gronkle behind him….

Momakase knew she was grinning too broadly to properly deliver the information, didn't much care. "The eggs explode."

Helga looked like her incoming migraine was going to be a doozy.