Ghost's Reign Chapter 59: Viking Hospitality, As It Were, a How to Train Your Dragon + Big Hero 6 Crossover fanfic

Chapter 59, everybody! Now with 100% less cold! :D Obake's not doing too good though.

So for the record I enjoy writing Ruffnut and Tuffnut—the forked tongue bit was something I read a while back and it seemed like the sort of wordage that would end up here, although the call me hand sign would be considered anachronistic but for it being established that this is taking place post-cataclysm. As for the pinky being for those who don't deserve the best...you can thank my Mom for that one. X'D Which side of the fence, meanwhile, is a Dad-ism.

In other news...technically Hiccup did bring some guy named Bob if we consult BH6 canon—it's just that Obake never got stuck with that name here. Also BH6 canon: Obake having opinions about names. As for the bit with Alvin, I saw that in a different fic and apparently it was a reference to the books—finally got them, I need to start reading them through.

So at this point Obake was really hoping that Hiccup didn't talk his father out of killing Obake. Mostly because that would get him out of this mess.

Specifically, the pair eyeballing him and apparently oblivious to Tadashi's low growls.

"So you're an obake," the girl said. "Did you come to raid us?"

"Haven't decided yet," Obake said flatly. Which was a lie, picking fights with Vikings was on the low end of his to-do list.

"Do you have a forked tongue?" the guy asked.

"Metaphorically."

"But do you actually?"

Obake's response to that was to stick his tongue out at them.

"Meh, looks normal," the guy said.

"Bogus," the girl muttered.

"Maybe when the sun goes down and the full moon comes out—hey wait when's the next full moon how long do we have to wait for this?"

"Still a while," the bulky boy said, all doe-eyed over Hiro and taking notes as the little Fury posed, apparently thinking he was helping the whole situation. Flick his attention up to the next-closest Viking, a stout boy who was leaning on a mace and apparently thought he was intimidating.

"I'm not falling for it," he said staunchly. "You want to try anything with our village you're going to have to get through me."

Obake arched an eyebrow, looked behind the boy at the circle of villagers eyeballing him with murder planned. "You're going to have to take a number." The blonde girl with the Nadder even was more intimidating, at least she was keeping a weapon stealthily ready.

"Okay, next question," the one guy said, raising a finger—Obake was starting to get the impression that this pair were twins. Probably fraternal. "When you totally destroy our village, can you give us a heads-up first? We want to get good seats."

"And refreshments," the girl said.

"Oh good grief," he muttered—perked along with everyone else when Stoick the Vast came muscling over, Hiccup tucked behind. "Oh goody, an end to this suffering." Tap Tadashi on the head when he growled at everyone again. "It's not you, it's me—apparently I have a reputation."

Tadashi eyed him as if to say so this is YOUR fault. Which, fair.

"As chief of Berk, I have decided to grant you Hospitality," Stoick announced when he was close enough—held up a hand at the protests. "Under ONE condition."

"My death?" Obake guessed, deadpan.

"We need to see you bleed, ghost."

"So this very much does not sound like the conversation we just had," Hiccup said.

"Ghosts don't bleed," Stoick said. "If we—" here he gestured to the crowd. "See that you do, then we won't have to worry about having let an actual obake into the village. And then, perhaps, we can trust you to not cause trouble while you're here."

"But if you do decide to, call us," the one twin said, the other waggling their hand with thumb and pinky extended. "Like we said, good seats."

Obake rolled his eyes, pulled a little dagger out—debated on pricking his middle finger before deciding that was beneath him. Besides, everyone knew that the pinky was for those who didn't deserve the best. Did have to wince at Stoick grabbing his wrist and yanking his hand up to look, not even remotely intimidated by Tadashi's growls.

"Do I pass muster?" Obake managed through gritted teeth as Stoick wiped a finger against the red welling up.

"He bleeds," Stoick announced, rubbing the blood between his pointer and thumb. Finally let go. "You have Hospitality. But, you will also have an escort while you're here."

"That wasn't the point of the blood?" Obake asked, resisting the urge to rub his aching wrist.

"The point of the blood is to ensure we didn't let a ghost in." The Viking chief narrowed his eyes at Obake. "But that doesn't mean we leave a Yokai unattended."

Joy. Keep his expression neutral as Stoick stomped off, probably to grumble with a few others about his current situation and how to properly pop the head off of a mouthy beanpole.

"So," Hiccup gusted, swinging his arms around a little like he was trying to ward off the awkward hostility still roiling around. "That went well."

"Glad one of us thinks so," Obake said drily. The feeling would return to his hand eventually, right?

"Still lame," the female twin said. "You bring in an obake and it's not even a real one! It's just some guy named Obake."

"Yeah," her male counterpart agreed. "You might as well just have brought a guy named Bob."

"Uh, hello, Yokai?" mace-guy demanded, gesturing. "Am I the only one here who remembers that?"

"Turn around, you might find some people who agree with you," Obake said, still taking note of the now-abbreviated but still hostile crowd.

"Oh no I'm not falling for that one."

"So we're all just going to ignore the two Night Furies," Hiccup said, pointing.

"I'm not," the guy who had spent the whole time absolutely besotted over Hiro said, raising a hand.

"Thank you, Fishlegs, at least someone is paying attention."

"So this is your fault," Obake said to Tadashi.

Tadashi's expression suggested that he still felt this was Obake's fault and had no intention of letting him forget anytime soon.

"So this is your fault."

"Which part, exactly?" Hiccup had to ask, adding to the map in the great hall; currently Obake was at the tender mercies of the twins and Gobber while Fishlegs did up comparisons between Tadashi, Toothless, and Hiro.

"Hello," Astrid said, throwing her hands up. "You skip out on training, chiefing, and dragon racing—"

"Which I hear you won handily, milady."

"Because the only decent competition flew off," Astrid huffed. "And then you come back with the Yokai's trained obake! Do you know nothing about those!?"

"Funnily enough, my dad asked the same question," Hiccup said, leaning a little to add to Itchy Armpit. Possibly they were looking at a territorial dispute with the Yokai over that, and after today he had the feeling Obake wouldn't be feeling generous.

"Hiccup, they bribe their way into villages to raze them—don't you think it's a tad odd that one shows up on a Night Fury, the one guaranteed way to make you, of all people, throw common sense out the window?"

"Honestly I've been wondering if maybe Night Furies and obake come from the same place—like maybe Lightning and Death live next-door to Ghost or whatever."

"Hiccup."

"Look, obakes don't bleed," Hiccup pointed out. "And I spent a day talking to him beforehand, the guy is a real guy. Just, you know, a really murderous one," he muttered, going back to his painting.

"Again, no red flags?"

"I've already had this conversation." And he had, with his father. Had stood not ten feet from where they were now and argued this whole thing in a circle, Stoick questioning everything from his logic ("What were you thinking!?") to his lineage ("What misbegotten troll married into our family to pass this on to you?") to his parenting ("Odin where did I go wrong?"). Hiccup had only gotten him to calm down by telling him about what had gone down on Yokai, which had prompted the man to ask the same question Astrid was currently asking him.

"And you believe what he told you about the Yokai," she told him. "You know he could be lying."

"I'm aware," Hiccup sighed. "I'm also aware that he could be using me so he can learn about Berk and get the Yokai to attack us while we're still softened up from the Berserkers, I already had this conversation with Dad."

"And you brought him here anyway?"

Look at her. "Yes."

She arched an eyebrow. "I need a good reason for the crazy this time, Hiccup."

"Toothless trusts him."

"That's it? That's the best you've got?"

"Hey, dragons are excellent judges of character," Hiccup countered. "Toothless has picked up on guys being screwy before—you remember that time Alvin tried to sneak in, and both Toothless and Stormfly picked up on that right away?"

"Okay fine so maybe this guy is okay—that still leaves the rest of Yokai."

"Did I mention I had the distinction of bringing in the current chief of the Yokai? Feel like that got left by the wayside with all the focus on me screwing up and bringing an obake in."

"Wait he's what?"

Hiccup gave her the abbreviated version of what he himself felt was an abbreviated version, gesturing a little with the paintbrush as he did so and accidentally sending a few splatters across one of the nearer tables.

"So that's...okay, wow," she said, sitting down at one of the benches, heedless of the wet paint. "No wonder you trust him, that sounds...weirdly familiar." Squint at him suspiciously.

"Did an obake spy on me while I was in the woods and then whip up a similar story?" Hiccup asked her, guessing at her thoughts.

"Fine, I guess that's a bit far-fetched," she huffed, crossing her arms. "But I still think you're asking for trouble."

"Trust me, Obake is fine—"

"The twins, you dolt."

"Oh. Oh."

In other news, Obake herewith resolved to never believe that someone actually thought nicely of him. Firstly because that perception might be wrong and a means to screw him over.

Secondly...because they might know people like the Thorston twins, whom Obake regretted meeting. Possibly, this Ruffnut and Tuffnut were an improvement over Snotlout Jorgenson, who was more bluster than anything else and cemented his opinion that everyone above a certain latitude had stupid names. Possibly caused by frostbite on the brain.

Case in point Gobber the Belch, Stoick the Vast's second and apparently the man in charge of keeping an eye on the ghost in their midst and pretending it was Hospitality. Obake, meantime, was politely pretending to not notice the recent damage to the village, evidence of a previous attack that was slowly being erased by repairs. This did not mean he wasn't taking a certain perverse pleasure in very nearly looking directly at said damage, if for no other reason than to watch this Gobber sweat at the knowledge that an obake was evaluating their village and debating on whether or not it was ripe for the taking.

Saying all that, he really wished that Tadashi was here, at this point he'd take Hiro he at least knew for certain the little Fury would spend his one shot protecting him—being separated from his dragons, likely on purpose, suddenly highlighted how much he had grown to depend on them to watch his six. Suddenly, all up and down his spine was prickling in anticipation of the knife coming to bury itself between his vertebrae.

The end result was him being a bit pricklier and ramrod straight than he had grown used to, having to constantly remind himself that going for the sharp-tongued retort was not smart at the moment, he needed to have an out before he crossed that line.

"Very nice, lovely amenities," Obake said finally, interrupting Gobber's pitching of the different aspects of Berk that would heavily emphasize that attacking it was a bad idea. "Saying all that, at this point I think it would be a good idea for me to check on my dragons."

"Oh trust me, they're fine," Gobber said. "At this point, the main worry would be Fishlegs spoiling the little one rotten."

And in the continuing saga of stupid names from Berk. "Am I allowed to verify this, or have we been calculating how far we have to be before they don't hear me getting stabbed?" Allow his bland expression to flatten into a glare. "The distrust goes both ways."

Gobber was bristling at the implied insult. "I don't know how you conduct things in Yokai, but up here we have a bit more class than that."

"Bold words from someone who goes by the name Gobber the Belch."

"I say we put that one down as one for him," Ruffnut told Tuffnut, elbowing him and pointing at the slate he was holding.

"Don't you two have anything better to do!?" Gobber demanded of the twins.

"No," they said in unison.

"Don't worry Gobber, I still got your back," Snoutlout declared, hefting his mace.

"Ooh ooh—if you're going to hit me with that, I want us to get on the cliff first," Tuffnut told him. "I want to see how far you can fling me."

"Oh, give me strength," Gobber sighed, a hand to his head and squeezing like he was nursing a headache. "All right, we'll detour around to Fishlegs, he's probably got them in the training arena," Gobber said, stalking off. "That's where he's got all his equipment, at least."

The training arena had not had quite enough renovations to disguise the fact that it had formerly been a kill ring, although he could see the start of a larger aerie for the dragons being built into the crags above it; observe that out of the corner of his eye, mentally filing away how to improve upon the concept as he followed the chief's second into the training arena.

"Fishlegs!" Gobber called. "Aren't you done yet?"

"Are you kidding?" Fishlegs asked, doing as Gobber had predicted and completely ruining Hiro; from the way the little Fury was preening, he had been the subject of many a word of praise. "This is the sort of things that could take weeks to properly compare and contrast and—"

"I don't have weeks," Obake hissed, making Fishlegs squeal in alarm.

Tuffnut elbowed Ruffnut. "Hissing, sun's going down. Good sign." Oi vey.

"Why, do you have someplace to be?" Snoutlout demanded.

"Oh yes, I'm sure the Yokai will sit pretty while their chief goes missing for an extended period of time." This was actually very likely, but they didn't need to know this. "Also I have opinions of my dragons functionally being held hostage."

The way Tadashi hooted at that suggested that this had occurred to him as well; Toothless rolled his eyes and hooted back, indicating that this had been a continuing argument before the latter Night Fury bounced around, trying to bait Tadashi into a game.

"Er—w-well, I'd really like to compare uh, T-Tadashi to Toothless, but...I don't think he's really interested," Fishlegs said, looking at Tadashi sitting there and eyeing them pointedly.

"So this is your fault," Obake told Tadashi, unable to resist the dig. Tadashi huffed at him, irritated, glanced pointedly away—

Obake noticed it too, a subtle weakness in the chains that hadn't yet been addressed. Slight nod, directed his attention to Hiro. "And then there's you."

"Hrrf," Hiro noised, arching his back and leaning against Obake's leg.

"Oh Hiro's been real great—haven't you been a good Night Fury?" Fishlegs asked, crouching to address Hiro.

"Refrain from baby talk in my presence."

"What, can't handle it?" Snoutlout challenged.

"Ah, you know how some people are," Hiccup said, coming into the training arena. "There's a certain level of seriousness they try to maintain, all that fun jazz. Gonna show your new friends the accommodations, bud?" he asked, addressing Toothless—the Night Fury barked, hooted at Tadashi before tossing his head at the tunnel to the back, bouncing a little as he padded that way. "Took some work but we connected that to the aerie up there, nice cozy accommodations for the dragons. Also quieter than the great hall right now," he added out the side of his mouth.

"Which reminds me," Gobber said, a finger up as he circled around for the exit. "Seeing as how we're extending Hospitality for a visiting chief—" This with a sarcastic tone aimed square at Obake. "Your presence is required. Part of the whole diplomacy thing."

"Is the escort required?" Obake asked drily.

"Well, we don't want you getting lost."

Obake very pointedly looked at Snoutlout and the twins.

"Not a chance, I'm security," Snoutlout said firmly.

"For who?" Hiccup asked, baffled.

"We just want to have good seats," Tuffnut offered.

"It's gotta happen eventually," Ruffnut agreed.

On the positive side, Hiro stubbornly stayed with Obake, perched on his shoulder and looking around at everything with interest. It made that tight tangle of muscles between his shoulders loosen a little, having someone he did trust implicitly keeping an eye out.

"So are you sure there's no girl Furies I could introduce Toothless to?" Hiccup asked, tone teasing. "I'm starting to see the appeal of shoulder Furies."

"It depends on if you consider Light Furies a subspecies or sexual dimorphism," Obake told him—grimaced and sagged when that got Fishlegs started again, felt that tightness returning when they got to the great hall and about got blown back down the stairs when Gobber opened the door to a roar of noise.

A roar of noise that immediately died in a growing ripple when Obake stepped in, all eyes on him; was tempted to say boo to see what happened, decided that would likely result in his death.

"Okay that's enough gawping," Gobber declared, shooing a path through the rubbernecking crowd. "Move along, move along—Snoutlout, get the door."

"Don't worry about finding a seat, you get to eat at the chief's table," Hiccup told Obake, leading him after Gobber. "Very exclusive, definitely where all the action is."

"The twins are still following me," Obake observed.

"He's not going to turn into anything, guys."

"You don't know that," Ruffnut said.

"Are you?" Hiccup asked Obake.

"I'm reasonably certain that if I was going to, I would have done so by now," Obake said flatly.

Eating at the chief's table was about as miserable as he expected it to be, Hiccup the only one not giving him some variation of the evil eye (the twins watching him eagerly didn't count). At least he had Hiro with him at this point, the little Fury enjoying being the center of attention of a group of dragon-loving Vikings—Obake was fairly certain several people had made excuses just for the purpose of seeing Hiro up close, many of them more than once.

Even at that, with Hiro deflecting most of the attention, this was far more draining than he had wanted, made some excuse of wanting to make sure Tadashi was settled—

"I'll escort you," Stoick said, standing before Hiccup could get two words out. "We still have a few details to iron out."

"Joy," Obake sighed, knowing he was the one destined to be flattened—let Hiro climb up on his shoulder, figured when Stoick indicated that he go first that he was looking at having his neck broken on the way there, banked on it occurring as they left and headed down the front steps.

"I know of you," Stoick said once they were out in the moonlight.

Obake hesitated, turned to face the Berkian chief. "The black coat made it obvious, did it?"

"Not that," Stoick said, waving his comment off. "During our meeting of chiefs, word came of a Yokai, dangerous according to our lore."

"Considering the word means ghost—" Faltered under Stoick suddenly looming over him.

"I'm sure your former chief thought it a grand idea, to only need introducing as being a member of the Yokai," Stoick said, glaring down at him. "But everyone still has history. Except you."

Back up a step, confused. "I beg pardon?"

"You—the ghost of the ghosts. Brought in from the cold, no parents to show, no heritage, no history to shape you."

Evaluate him. "No limits to dictate how I should behave." Back up another step, so he was out of range should he choose to swing at him. "For eight generations, you fought dragons—because that's how it always was. It took your son to change things, because he made the decision to go against tradition. The way your past says you should behave. I see not having those limits as a benefit."

"I see. And what of your get, should you have any?"

He blinked, taken aback by that implication—he hadn't even considered having children, the concept just seemed...absurd to him.

That must have been evident on his face. "Even if you were to name someone as an heir, they would still have nothing to build upon," Stoick continued. "What traditions would they have?"

"What orders that dead people gave them, you mean."

"And no history to guide them."

"You can persist in this argument as much as you want; the fact remains is you have an opinion, I have mine. You talk of history—why don't we wait and see whose choice history vindicates?"

"Will your tribe even survive long enough for their history to be a question?" Stoick asked. "Even now, with their chief gone, what state are they in? Will they come looking for you, or have they already given you up?"

Hiro had been growling at Stoick, quieted when Obake looked away. "I think you already know the answer to that question."

"And yet I don't think you do." Blink, look back at Stoick in confusion. "I can tell—you think your chieftainship is a joke, something you used to avoid having your head lopped off the moment you landed here. And yet you got genuinely offended when I called it into question." Step forward, making Obake bristle and Hiro growl in sympathy to his response. "But no tribe can tolerate someone only half-invested—you're going to have to make the decision on which side of the fence you want to fall on, and you're going to have to make it soon."

"Are you threatening me?" Obake growled, letting his face flare.

"I'm telling you, flat out," Stoick said evenly; if he was intimidated by the skeletal light, he didn't show it. "If I'm supposed to tolerate Hiccup's suggestions about you—that you're actually someone who could be a worthwhile ally—then I'm going to have to see that you're serious about your job. Otherwise, it's a waste of time negotiating with someone who'll be dead by the next meeting."

Bristle, irritated by the implications...except he couldn't argue with them. Things might have calmed down on Yokai, but he was still painfully aware of how tenuous his position was, what little provocation would be needed to prompt a coup. He didn't doubt that Calhoun and Helga had a backup plan to be rid of him, despite him trusting them with important jobs—but not trusting them. Couldn't, every moment in his life had taught him that trusting people was a bad idea, and even now he was waiting for the knife in his back.

But at the same time he couldn't let this man know any of that, couldn't stomach the idea of him being right—opened his mouth to counter—

Was cut off by a Deadly Nadder coming in for a landing and a bundled-up Viking leaping down. "Chief Stoick! Chief Stoick!"

"What is it?" the Viking chief demanded. Obake saw the door crack behind him, tried to not notice Hiccup sticking his head out.

"Our scouts were flying—to the northwest—another armada."

"How big, which direction?" he asked flatly.

"Big, coming this way." Hesitated. "Sir—they're flying Drago's standard."

Drago? That meeting of mercenaries from what felt like a lifetime ago sprang to mind—the name Drago had been mentioned in conjunction with comments of a dragon conqueror, which had been all the information he had been able to get before things went downhill. Maybe he'd be able to scrape some information together this time—big armada was certainly something to stay abreast of, chief or no.

Especially when this information had Stoick banging past Hiccup and bellowing for everyone to batten down, bring in the dragons, prepare for war with all certainty. Whoever this man was, he was clearly a threat.

And also a question mark to most, if Hiccup demanding "Hey wait a minute—who is Drago?" was any indication. Listen in on the account Stoick relayed to him, as he shot down any suggestion Hiccup had of parlaying with the man...slowly retreat and head for the dragon pens.

Chances were, right now they wouldn't be able to make an escape. Give himself a chance to get some sleep and let the guards settle down, and then...

Well, they'd be looking for an armada, not one solitary rider flying back to whence he came.

Well that was frustrating.

"See, this is why we flew off to begin with," Hiccup hissed at Toothless as they slipped through the aerie. "Sometimes you have to just do the thing before anyone around here gets over their stubbornness issues."

Toothless' muted warble suggested he thought the people with stubbornness issues were currently in the room with him.

"Don't worry, we're not going without backup this time," Hiccup assured him, leading him down one of the rows. "Now come on."

Tadashi growled as they approached, only silenced by Toothless' croon.

"Is this the part where I get murdered in my sleep?" Obake groaned, apparently still half-asleep and fighting hard to get the rest of the way there.

"No," Hiccup said, waving that off as he crouched near Tadashi's wing. "Listen—we're going after Drago."

"Good for you, have fun."

"Okay listen when I said we I mean you're coming with us."

Dead silence for a beat before the Yokai pushed Tadashi's wing up, apparently needing Hiccup to fully appreciate the dumbfounded glare he was giving him. "You do what."

"Dad doesn't want me going off by myself, he doesn't want us risking ourselves, but two Night Furies can get there and back quickly and I think it's pretty clear you can handle yourself if things go dicey. Not that they will, I'm sure if we just talked to Drago we could get him around to our way of thinking."

Obake stared at him for a long beat before nodding. "You are an idiot."

"Thank you for summing that up," Hiccup said, rolling his eyes as Obake pulled Tadashi's wing back down. "That still leaves the issue of Drago. So either you come with me, or the village wakes up tomorrow with the chief's son gone and a Yokai who could have helped but didn't. Can't say what would happen after that."

"Are you threatening me?"

"I'm just stating facts." And yes he was kind of bending it all around to suit himself but he was reasonably sure Obake was the only one who would go against Stoick's ruling and be helpful. Not saying the twins wouldn't do it at the drop of a helmet but…the twins.

Obake was quiet for long enough that Hiccup thought he had either fallen asleep or feigned as such—Tadashi huffed at his wing. "All right fine," he spat, shoving the wing back up and flailing upright. "It wasn't like I was getting back to sleep anyway."

"Such a nice guy," Hiccup said to Toothless, who nodded sagely. "And hey, when this is over you get to be in Berk's good graces for helping the chief's son. Did I mention he's also the heir to the Hairy Hooligan tribe? Lot less death threats that way," he pointed out as he hopped on Toothless' back.

"You're called what," Obake groaned flatly, looking dead in the saddle, half-cradling a still-sleeping Hiro as Tadashi stood and stretched.

"Well have you seen us? It fits." Shrug as Toothless snuck for a cliff edge. "Don't worry, I got Astrid running interference, we should have a good head start."

"My intent is to never come back."

"If things go south."

"Ever."

"Don't worry, bud, I'm wearing him down," Hiccup said, patting Toothless on the head as they flew off.

And hopefully, by this time tomorrow the threat of Drago would be effectively neutralized.