Ghost's Reign Chapter 57: Travel Hiccups, a How to Train Your Dragon + Big Hero 6 Crossover fanfic

Chapter 57, everybody! We are so BACK! :D

So as you might have seen me mention on Tumblr, we've got the next sixteen chapters done, which means we're good for steady updates until the middle of July. Basically means we're eating good and I'm able to give myself a break on writing for this one to 1) finish other works, 2) rewatch the shows, and 3) get that stinkin' outline down because I got a lot of thoughts about this story, ngl.

Moving on...getting company in bed and getting woken up at stupid-o-clock in the morning is a pet owner thing, there's no avoiding it, if the dogs let us sleep past 7AM we consider that a good day. Also feel like Obake's quoting Beetlejuice there. And you ever have a moment where once you're on the road you feel immensely better? Obake's there right now.

Had to actually look up the formula for distance travelled (speed x time) because it's been a while since I was in a class that covered that (baffling to believe that I'll have been out of college for six years this year). Also back in the day it was very common for sailors to navigate via star readings, which is just one reason I have major beef with PotC 5.

In other news, actually did see a video outlining how extracting maple syrup works—basically you extract the sap and then boil it down to syrup consistency, two big buckets rendered down to half a pint so syrup extraction is actually pretty resource-heavy. On another note, there is a canon HTTYD dragon that likes sweets—the Snaptrapper. And have tried enoki mushrooms, they're nice but like all (edible) mushrooms they work best in a dish. Meantime, Obake's complaint of it'd be nice if it wasn't north is a common one when Mom looks at houses.

Also hey, we know these guys—had this bit written way ahead in advance, you guys have no idea how happy I am to get to it finally. :D Den lille is the little in Norwegian, I think, it's been a while since I looked it up.

Part II: Yokai Versus The World

Spring was here, alongside a certain level of restlessness—mostly because Obake was once again reaching the end of his limits, people were annoying and there was no getting around this. Calhoun was wanting approval to start having the Yokai fight each other on dragonback, trading and scouting were still prickly topics, Helga was having little luck tracking down more information on the twisted-ladder tribe, and baby dragons on top of it all...well to him, his declaration was justified.

"I need a break," he told the Furies that night—waved Tadashi's glare off. "No, the last two times didn't count—last time I had no access to decent food and the time before Momakase followed me; I need a break where I'm properly alone and can cook for myself. We can fold in looking for a Whispering Death while we're out," he added when Tadashi huffed and rolled his eyes. "Or I can ask someone else to fly me," he teased, remembering how huffy Tadashi had gotten when he tried flying on Diego.

That did succeed in getting Tadashi to glare at him, saw the Furies grumbling at each other even after Obake retired for the night.

"Have they made up their minds yet?" he asked when he felt the smaller bulk of Hiro hopping into bed, not opening his eyes until the little Fury flopped down on him with a huff. "Is that a yes or no?"

"Hrffbrgle," Hiro grumbled, which was likely an either-or.

Obake nodded as though he had gotten a decent answer. "If it's yes, wake me up early—and I do mean before the sun early. If it's no, let me sleep in for once."

"Hrr-rrgh."

The answer turned out to be yes, which saw Obake up at bleary-o-clock in the morning, Tadashi saddled and them gone while the dawn was still just a gray threat on the horizon, Obake leaving a note for Carl only really at Tadashi's insistence.

"Them tracking me down defeats the purpose of a vacation," Obake told Tadashi after directing him north; Tadashi gave him a low glower. "Yes, yes, I know, I don't get vacations," he grumbled. "But if I don't have some time to myself I will explode and take a good chunk of the village with me, and trust me when I say that wouldn't be pretty."

Another irritated grumble, but by then Obake had settled in for the flight, leaning back on one hand, the other hugging a still-drowsy Hiro to him to keep him from falling off. Already he was feeling better from the flight, more so when he factored in a few days to himself. Two or three days, and he'd be back all...okay fine let's not exaggerate but anything above prickly would be an improvement.

"This also gives us a chance to map out some of these islands to the north, we might have another accidental boon like the glass or rabbit islands," he offered, which made Tadashi loosen slightly; couldn't resist the dig. "And north is the last place anyone would look for me."

He had leaned forward for the jest, which unfortunately put him within slapping distance of one of Tadashi's ear flaps; ah well, it was worth it.

The rest of that first day was spent idly cruising, finally arcing down for a landing on an island on the upper north edge of the Ghost Archipelago. Spent the rest of the day poking around, taking stock of what was on the island, them stretching their legs as Tadashi rested his wings.

Wasn't too terribly impressed as he jotted down his findings that night.

"I'm not even certain if this island even had a village before," Obake admitted, angling his notes a little to better read them by the fire. "And the sheer cliffs would have made ravaging it too difficult." Indeed, the whole island was a forested spire, thin plateaus supporting tall straight trees, stubborn bushes, and not much else. "I suppose at best it'd make a good outpost for riders—station someone I really don't like out here so I don't have to deal with them," he muttered.

"Mrr," Tadashi noised, stretched out next to the fire and dozing; he had done some fishing for them, and he and Hiro were busy sleeping off their meal.

"Fair enough," Obake said, leaning back against his haunch. "I am supposed to be taking a vacation."

"Rrr."

"I've been informed that working myself until I drop isn't healthy." Nor was reflecting on the time period those memories came from—everything about that time was well and truly out of his reach, from the woman who told him that to the theoretical innocence he had back then.

When you can, come find us.

Was this the true root of this need to pick a direction and fly off? Perhaps that first time it was just him running away, as Momakase accused...but at the same time, maybe there was still some small fragment of that shattered boy who had wanted one singular thing, that hadn't given up just yet.

"Rrr?" Hiro noised, stretching and pushing his back against Obake.

"Just thinking," he said, staring through the trees at the night sky thick with stars. Say she was out there, somewhere, still waiting for him to catch up after he got his head on straight...then what? That was a whole lot of world to search, with no clear clue as to where to look. South, was the direction her ships had sailed—south, where shipping channels lay to shuttle them off to any point in the Greater Archipelago.

Pick out constellations, idly wondering if dragons had their own versions or if they simply didn't bother due to navigating based on magnetic lines. Her wording implied that she thought he was clever enough to pick up her trail and follow...but that had been twenty years ago, now; any trail would have gone cold, and if she had any sense she would have given up long ago.

He wondered if she had replaced him—found some other foundling that the village actually approved of. It was probably very likely she had replaced him—not even a fool held onto a hope that long, believed so strongly that someone put their whole life on hold, just for one person.

What did that make him, he wondered.

"Wrr."

Start, look at Hiro, now with a paw and his head on Obake's arm, looking up at him with big green eyes. "Just thinking," he told the little dragon again. Sigh, look away. "Maybe Carl's right—maybe chiefing is good for me. It certainly leaves me with less time to think dour thoughts."

"Rrr?" Tadashi noised.

"That does not mean I want to head back now."

"Rrr."

Sigh, sinking further back against Tadashi, wondering at the difference in personalities; if Tadashi were human, he'd probably be one of those aggravatingly nice and helpful people who greeted the morning with birdsong and ran themselves ragged helping everyone else. With the particular exception of Obake, whom he had personal beef with but would still help to an extent because he knew it would be grating.

"How on earth did I end up with you as a dragon?" Obake asked finally.

Tadashi's dismissive snort likely meant that he wondered the same thing.

They continued north early the next day, flying high and scanning the horizon for new islands, Obake entertaining himself with calculating flight speeds and distances travelled as they went.

The next island they camped at was more a collection of islands that likely flooded during storms, the largest ones the only ones with trees and only wide enough for a couple of Tadashi's bounds. The trio entertained themselves with going from small island to small island, Obake frequently needing the dragons' help so he didn't take an unintended dunk. Doodled it quickly when Tadashi circled above, continue north, until the setting sun highlighted a sea stack big enough for Tadashi to rest on.

Curled up under Tadashi's wing that night, Hiro hugged to his chest and Tadashi curled around them, Obake regretted the idea of flying north in the spring. Alas, avoiding the others required going in the last direction any of them would expect him to head. Was able to eat some rations he had packed when they woke up, Tadashi catching a couple of fish for himself and Hiro, and then it was back in the air for them.

"Maybe at some point we contemplate adjusting course," Obake said, noting the bite in the air. "I have a limit as to how far north I can tolerate." Which also brought up the question of if the dragons had a limit to the temperature extremes they could tolerate—he suspected they were quite fine with extreme heat, he had seen more than a few taking dips in that boiling water on the nesting grounds with no problem, so it wasn't heat tolerance they had a problem with. "Maybe west, east just runs the risk of swinging us towards civilization." West, which was mostly uncharted and thus provided a tantalizing risk. Tap Tadashi on the head. "Next island we head west."

Tadashi huffed like he thought Obake was being nonsensical, but by then there was a new island on the horizon for them to examine.

Said island was little more than a sandbar, but it gave them someplace to kick back, stretch their legs, and in Obake's case document where they were—or at least, his best guess.

"Hrr," Hiro noised, leaning in to eyeball what he was doing.

"I doubt dragons have any need for cartography, do they?" Obake asked him. "What about distance travelled? Usually we calculate that by multiplying the speed at which we're travelling by the time it takes, but I'm having a hard time calculating that with no landmarks." Pull out his sextant and put it on the map he was working on, sketching a few constellations in the sand. "Thus far I've been able to calculate relative distance between these points via star readings taken here and here—" This punctuated by a couple of taps on two of the islands they had camped on, the areas next to them thick with notes—"But that brings up other questions. Distance travelled by Gronkle isn't comparable to distance travelled by Night Fury, for example. So the distance between here and here—" Tap the first island and the last sea stack they had camped on. "Might be too far for a larger group to travel. You're only as strong as your weakest link, to use the common parlance." Contemplate the map as he turned this over, pulled out the map dedicated to the Ghost Archipelago and rolled it open next to the one he was working on. "This, unfortunately, might complicate some of the things I was wanting to do."

"Wrr," Tadashi noised, sitting up enough to look at what they were doing.

"I know, I know, I said I was on vacation," Obake grumbled, rolling to his back and scrubbing his face, keeping a heel on the maps to keep them from blowing away. Gave Hiro a little glower when he stood on his chest to look down at him. "No, I do not like chiefing. I'm surrounded by idiots who can't think for themselves on any given day and who panic at an acorn falling."

"Wuff," Hiro noised—bounced off of Obake to tackle his brother, who simply rolled over and pretended like he didn't notice the little dragon leaping all over him and biting at elbows and ear flaps. Probably as much help as he could expect from dragons; Tadashi could probably roar and get what he wanted from the dragon flight.

Couldn't really get to sleep after packing everything away, though, still staring up at the darkening sky as he turned everything over in his head. Against his better judgment, he was starting to take this whole chief role seriously... was that such a good idea? Worst case scenario was he'd accept the role, seize it with both hands, and actually do something with it.

He knew his own track record, and he doubted having that much power would end well for anyone. The head of a band of murdering marauders, the best in the business? That was bad enough. Putting those selfsame marauders on dragonback? Oh now he was visiting a potent cataclysm upon the Greater Archipelago. None of them would know what hit them, and that wasn't necessarily a good thing.

No...probably, for the good of the greater island chain, it was best if he convinced Carl of the necessity of taking the chief role, saying that it had been fun, but after careful consideration such a spot was not for him, better that he take a role as second. Forget the fact that the idea chafed at him, if he let himself fully accept this role...well that was just asking for trouble.

"Hrr," Tadashi noised at him, making him look back down—ah, right, high tide. Possibly, it'd engulf this little sandbar, which meant they must needs be going. Pack everything away, sort a few things around so he could more easily get to his sextant while they were flying, hop on Tadashi's back and make sure that Hiro was set as well before tapping the back of Tadashi's neck and sending them shooting back into the air.

"I'll need you to cruise a little slower at some point so I can take a reading," he told Tadashi. Would have to do the calculations in his head, but that was the sort of brain teaser he enjoyed.

Maybe he'd be able to enjoy this vacation despite himself.

Had some brief disorientation upon waking up the next morning to find himself tucked under Tadashi's wing, blearily connected the dots as he recalled them finding a dark landmass late in the night. By then, they had all three been tired enough that they quickly flopped down to sleep as soon as Tadashi found a safe enough spot.

New island could mean new resources, maybe dragons.

Work out from under Tadashi's wing, the Night Fury grumbling a little but not waking up, lift the wing once he was mostly out to free his leg and reach back in to poke Hiro awake.

"Mrr," Hiro groaned, pawing at his face and looking like he wanted to get back to sleep.

"So I take it you don't want to explore this new island?" Obake asked, prompting an ear flap to go up—if there was one thing he could count on, it was that Hiro's curiosity easily matched his own.

Hiro was bounding around him as he stretched a moment later.

"We won't be wandering too far, go back to sleep," he said when he noticed Tadashi watching them with those big green eyes. Answering chuff suggested that this was unlikely, possibly they'd get into trouble that Tadashi would have to get them out of, but in the meantime, he was curling back up for a longer rest.

In the meantime, that was them somewhat without supervision for once.

"Finally," Obake gusted once he thought they were out of earshot, them following a game trail. "You'd think he didn't trust us."

Hiro made a noise that might have been agreeing, spent the next couple of minutes grumbling and caterwauling the failings of distrusting brothers, by which point they had found a good peak to examine a chunk of the island they were on.

This one, to his delight, was vast and sprawling, stony peaks and formations arcing and jabbing up, forming fascinating promontories that would be very entertaining to fly around once Tadashi was fully awake. Resist the urge to go do that, instead scanning the rest of the island, closely examining the branches of one of the trees behind them. Evergreens could be seen here and there, with one rather large patch off in the distance outsizing most of its neighbors, but the main trees seemed to be a variety of maple, busy blooming out red flowers and small leaves. The island would be a sea of red come autumn.

"Hrr?" Hiro noised when Obake crouched to scratch at one of the trunks with a knife.

"Maple means potential syrup," Obake told him. "That could be a resource for us to either use or trade." Would have to be a treat or something sold during high demand, considering a round trip would be at least a week. Lick at the knife tip—perk up when he recognized the flavor. "Syrup," he told Hiro, indicating the bleeding trunk. Hiro sniffed at it, licked—

Obake fell back laughing at the look of disgust on Hiro's face. "What, do dragons not like sweets?" he cackled as Hiro flailed back, shaking his head hard enough to make his ear flaps slap against his face. "I suppose that is a little intense," he conceded, cleaning his knife and putting it back as he sorted through what he had brought; ham soaked in syrup would be the sort of thing the Yokai would kill over. Hmm, better not.

The rest of their little escapade was spent hunting for a stream, the two of them foraging as they went. Hiro proved accomplished at sniffing out mushrooms, would bark and distract Obake from whatever plant he was examining, bob his head when Obake examined the mushrooms and told him yea or nay. Was quite pleased to find a small collection of enoki mushrooms at one point, made a note of that once they were at a stream, busy sketching out a small map as Hiro cantered up and down the shallow stream, trying and failing to catch fish.

By the time Tadashi caught up with them Obake had distracted Hiro with showing him how to flip rocks over, enabling the little Fury to hunt for frogs as Obake tried his hand at line fishing with a thorn and string.

"Hopefully you have better luck with this," Obake said when Tadashi chuffed. "We found some good stuff and I don't want to waste it."

Tadashi chuffed, eyed the stream before slipping upriver a bit, eyes fixed on a spot in the shade of an overhanging tree—fired a small bolt into the water before wading in, slurping up a few of the fatter fish that floated to the top and letting the rest of the stunned school flow down to Obake and Hiro.

"Showoff."

They spent a couple of days exploring the island, Obake quite satisfied with their discovery and happily adding to his map, making several notations on what could be found here. Even had several nice nooks and caves that could easily be expanded into proper living quarters...a pity it was further north, it'd make a good island to live on.

"Wrr?" Hiro noised, noting his shift in mood.

"Nothing," he told Hiro as he gathered his things; amended that when the two Furies gave him a look, made a note that dragons could likely be counted on as lie detectors. "Fine, I had a chief thought and that annoyed me, happy?"

Hiro's wruff was likely a yes, although Tadashi's reaction was obviously a dismissive eye roll. Pack everything away as Tadashi continued to pointedly look south—yes, he could get the message, they had been gone long enough and one of them, at least, was anxious to get back.

Couldn't deny that he was somewhat eager to get back as well, if only to dangle some of the treats he had found in front of Momakase's nose. He had a small container of syrup he had rendered down and had dug up a small batch of enoki roots, he was reasonably certain he could buy himself a couple of weeks of peace with those. Ah, if only Calhoun or Helga could be bought so easily—

"Rrrr."

The rumble coming from Tadashi snapped him out of his thoughts, made him duck closer to the dragon's back as he spotted the issue in question, that Tadashi was circling wide to better observe—yes, the island had dragons, mostly Raincutters and the occasional Snaptrapper (who did like the sweet sap, as it turned out, and had been stalking Obake in order to get the treat with no effort). The local dragons had observed them as a curiosity, it seemed, smoothed over by whatever diplomacy Tadashi did, and had left them to their own devices for the most part.

The reason this dragon was worth noticing was because its silhouette didn't match either of those dragons. Matter of fact, Obake had only seen that silhouette on one other dragon, and he was currently on its back.

Another Night Fury.

Couldn't help but lock his joints as Tadashi angled higher for a better look, aware that the other Night Fury had spotted them and was angling closer, obviously intrigued—possibilities unspooling and tangling as he watched the other dark dragon, Tadashi still circling wide and trying to maintain a respectable distance. Could compare speed, maneuverability, so many other things if they could just tempt this dragon back with them—were Night Furies naturally solitary? Could they tolerate other dragons but not more of their own kind? This one was pitch black, was he right in that there was sexual dimorphism and the Light Fury was simply the female of the species? Maybe giving Cass a potential mate would cut down on that murder-face she had when looking at him—

Stiffened when the other Fury finally slipped close enough for him to see detail, immediately picking out the strange red fin on the tail—

And the rider on the back.

The other rider spotted him at the same time, startled—steered their Fury into matching Tadashi's circling instead of coming closer like the Fury obviously wanted, barked something at them that might have been one of the northern trading languages—

Obake scanned the ground below them, pointed at an outcropping, Tadashi growling—the other pair dipped, angling for the forested outcropping as they did, Obake already calculating their escape route if need be. Slipped his hand towards his crossbow as they landed, ready to react if this stranger did—

Someone else riding a Night Fury.

Said stranger was covered in a hodgepodge of armor, most all of it looking like it was made at different points and out of necessity, some sections looking like it had been an idea that had grown out of control—something he could respect, sure….

And by the way the stranger was hesitating, something weapon-shaped in one hand, Obake's outfit wasn't nearly so puzzling. Possibly the only thing keeping them from launching into a fight right now was the burning question of a person riding a Night Fury, the most dreaded of dragons—

"Fwuff."

Obake and Tadashi both had a moment of panic, looking away from the stranger and his dragon to see Hiro padding forward—Tadashi moved quickly, putting a paw down on Hiro's tail to stop him and earning a disgruntled squeak in response—

Except Hiro had attracted the stranger's attention too, human and dragon looking down—

And then dragon looking alarmed as the rider slipped off, weapon disappearing into a pouch on the side of the saddle, crouching down to better look at Hiro and babbling something that sounded like one of the northern dialects—from what Obake had learned of the dialogue, the stranger was repeatedly referring to Hiro as a cute little thing.

The strange Night Fury huffed and warbled something, prompting the stranger to glance at it—

"Aw, come on!" the stranger squawked, indicating Hiro, dialect slipping sideways into one of the trade languages—so wherever he was from, it was fairly well-connected, or he was higher in the pecking order. "Look at den lille—" back to something Obake wasn't certain about, but certainly sounded like gushing.

"Excuse me," Obake said sternly, leaning a little, forgoing his crossbow in favor of putting his hand on his hip—he was fairly certain this guy wasn't going to be a threat.

"Uh?" the stranger noised, apparently finally remembering he had company. "Oh—wait, is this your Fury?"

"Theoretically," Obake replied, earning a huff from Tadashi. "I'm in need of an explanation regarding you and yours before I go into any detail."

The other Night Fury was glaring at them, about as suspicious of them as Tadashi was at any given time.

The rider had no such compulsions.

"Ah—sorry," he said, standing and pulling his helmet off, revealing a mess of auburn hair and a youthful face—whoever he was, he had maybe turned twenty recently; twenty-five would be pushing it, in Obake's opinion, but then again it had been years since he had seen anyone to compare ages to—no one in Yokai was under thirty at this point. "So—I'm Hiccup, yes I know but weird names keep trolls away—and this is Toothless. Say hi, Toothless."

The other Night Fury—Toothless, he supposed—huffed at them.

"So who's this guy?" the boy who had identified himself as Hiccup asked, crouching back down to look at Hiro.

Maybe Momakase was twenty-nine…twenty-eight? Conversations on age had never been high on his to-do list. No wait, Juniper wasn't twenty yet, he didn't think—

"Hiro," he blurted, realizing this Hiccup character was waiting for an answer. "That's Hiro. And this is Tadashi."

"Well hey buds," Hiccup said, looking up at Tadashi and showing exactly no fear at being nose-to-nose with am irritated Night Fury. Matter of fact, he looked so excited he could hardly speak. "This—this is amazing—I was seriously beginning to worry that Toothless was like—the last Night Fury ever—this is—I knew if we looked long enough we'd find some! How did you—how are you riding a Night Fury? Where'd you find them? Were there more?"

Okay, on the list of things he currently had problems with, being so summarily dismissed as a threat in favor of gushing over dragons was high up there. On the positive side, this wasn't fighting and this Fury-riding stranger seemed amicable enough…and besides, he had his own questions.

"A lot of determination, they found us, and as far as Night Furies go, it's just these two," he said, answering the questions in order. "There's a couple of Light Furies, but that's the extent of it. Now how is it you came by yours?"

"Ah, shot him down trying to impress my dad," Hiccup said, tracing a finger in the air over Hiro's head, getting him to sit up to bat at it. "Found him in the woods, didn't have the heart to kill him, unlikely friendship time, ended up changing the fundamental relationship between dragons and Vikings…you know, little stuff."

Obake blinked, looked the kid over again—Vikings?

Hiccup glanced up at him, as though guessing at his source of consternation. "Yeah, I know, I'm a fishbone. Granted, you look the same, so you get it." Look at Tadashi again—shift his weight when he noticed Tadashi's saddle. "Ah—did you make that?"

"Well I certainly wouldn't trust some other idiot to make it," Obake muttered. Tadashi flicked his tail around to bat him lightly in the back, obviously reproachful.

"That's—oh man. Oh yeah, you understand me," Hiccup said, wagging a finger at him as he stood up—missing his left foot, he noted idly, but missing limbs were a staple of the northern Vikings that fought dragons, so beyond that it wasn't really something to write home about. What looked like gears embedded in the leather armor was, but he wasn't really sure how to go about examining it without being either rude or murderous. "So. Maybe a more thorough introduction." Clear his throat: "I am Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, son and heir of Stoick the Vast, chief of the Hairy Hooligan Tribe of Berk. This is still Toothless," he added, indicating the other Night Fury, which gave him a stern look in response—so it wasn't just Tadashi, all Night Furies were naturally distrustful of strangers.

It took a beat of the boy-identified-as-a-chief's-son watching him before he realized that he was expected to give an equal greeting in return; it wasn't like he ever really had a need to give such an introduction before. Or anything to introduce himself as, now that he thought about it. "Obake."

Hiccup blinked at him. "That's it?"

"Pretty much."

"No tribe or anything?"

Obake sighed. "I'm pretty sure you already know where I'm from."

"Well yeah, but it's supposed to be polite to let you say it. Should I be concerned about the fact that the Yokai are riding dragons?"

"Should I be concerned that Vikings are riding dragons?"

Hiccup shrugged, acquiescing that point—glanced at Tadashi's saddle again, twitching, back at Obake.

Obake sighed. "I'll go over the saddle with you if you explain whatever it is that's going on with your armor."

Hiccup grinned. "Oh yeah, you and I are going to get along just fine."