Chapter 1: Snivels
This was originally a much longer story, but I split it into different seasons so it doesn't end up ridiculously long in the future. Consider this as a sort of reset.
The Four Trainers Prophecy
Turn your eyes, your mind, your heart
To all Arceus can see
Where shadows are spreading, where heroes are falling
And no one can ever be free
The Fire of Three burns bright
The Grass of Five never backs from a fight
The Water of Six moves fast out of sight
The Sun in the day, the Moon at night
Open your eyes, your mind, your heart
To all the creatures that thrive
Face the darkness united as one
Or the light will never survive
Hiccup had finally received a Pokémon of his very own. It was loyal to him, despite that they had only been together for a day. It followed him wherever he went, and it obeyed his every command, big or small. But there were a few drawbacks. It was a Snivy, a Grass-Type, and weak to fire and aerial attacks. And even worse, all the other teens' Pokémon had already evolved to their second stage. But there was one thing that Hiccup's Pokémon could do that many other Pokémon couldn't. It could talk.
It was a male Snivy, that went by the name of Snivels. He had spent a lot of time around humans, and had eventually learned how to communicate with them. He knew more about humans than any other Pokémon in the village. And that was because he had been owned by more trainers than any of the others. The truth was, Snivels had actually abandoned all of his previous trainers, because they didn't have any of the qualities he was looking for in a trainer. Snivels had just recently chosen Hiccup, to which the Vikings all believed was suitable, since, according to them, Hiccup and Snivels had "the same level of experience."
All the same, Hiccup was happy to finally have a real friend.
That night, when Snivels had decided to ask Hiccup about where they were, and why they all lived there.
"Pardon me for asking, but what exactly is this place?"
Hiccup brought him downstairs and set him down on the table. He then began to tell Snivels all about their home.
"This is Berk," Hiccup said to him, "It's five days north of hopeless, and a few degrees south of freezing to death. It's located solidly on the Meridian of Misery." Snivels shivered at the thought of freezing. Grass-Types did not like the cold, since they were weak to Ice-Types. "It's my village," Hiccup continued, "In a word – sturdy. It's been here for seven generations, but every single building is new. We've got fishing, hunting, and a charming view of the sunsets. The only problems are the pests."
"What kind of pests?" Snivels asked, and jumped up onto Hiccup's shoulder. "You see, most places have mice or mosquitoes," Hiccup said, walking to the door. "We have..."
He opened the door, and the outline of a huge beast appeared, hovering outside. Noticing them, it spat a wave of fire in their direction. Hiccup barely managed to close the door before he and Snivels were incinerated. Both of them shared a look of surprise and fear. Hiccup finished his statement in a whisper. "...Dragons."
The two of them made their way outside, looking around and watching the chaos that was taking place. A Monstrous Nightmare scorched the ground, followed by a Salamence, who did the same by using Flamethrower. A Deadly Nadder swooped down and snatched a sheep in its talons, a Viking jumped up and held onto the sheep as the dragon took off. A Flygon came out of nowhere and began using Dragon Claw to try and get the Viking to let go. A Gronckle then flew by, holding a Viking in its jaws. The Viking hit the Gronckle over and over with a hammer, as a Sliggoo on the Gronckle's back tried to get the Viking to stop.
"Most people would leave," Hiccup explained, "Not us. We're Vikings. We have stubbornness issues." Snivels nodded to show that he understood. Hiccup nodded back and introduced himself. "My name is Hiccup." Snivels looked surprised. Even though they had been given a day to learn about each other, they hadn't really been given a chance to introduce themselves.
Hiccup rolled his eyes. "Great name, I know. But it's not the worst. Parents believe a hideous name will frighten off gnomes and trolls – like our charming Viking demeanor wouldn't do that."
Hiccup tripped and fell on his back. A Viking warrior suddenly stooped down and howled in his face, then gave them a cheery, "Morning!" Hiccup rolled his eyes again as he got up. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Hiccup," Snivels said politely. He then introduced himself. "My name is Snivels."
As Hiccup ran, with Snivels perched on his shoulder, Vikings all over yelled to him, "What are you doing here?" and "Get back inside!" Sighing, Hiccup turned a corner, only to have a passing dragon nearly scorch him as it shot fire at the ground in front of him.
A hand flashed out and snagged the back of Hiccup's shirt. He and Snivels found themselves staring at the bearded face of the biggest Viking of them all, and his partner, Beartic. "Hiccup!" he shouted. "What is he doing out again?! What are you doing out here?! Get inside!"
He sent Hiccup on his way, and Hiccup continued to run, Snivels still on his shoulder. "Who was that?" Snivels asked. Hiccup replied, "That's Stoick the Vast, chief of the tribe. They say that when he was a baby, he popped a dragon's head right off of its shoulders."
Snivels looked at Hiccup skeptically. "You believe that?" he asked. "Yes, I do," Hiccup said with absolute certainty.
Avoiding another fire blast from a dragon overhead, Hiccup ducked into the building that he was hoping to find. It was a blacksmith's workshop, and was already occupied.
"Oh, nice of you to join the party!" said the large Viking who was busy at the anvil. One of his hands was missing, replaced by a large hammer. "I thought you'd been carried off!"
Putting Snivels down on a nearby table, Hiccup replied, "Who, me? No, I'm way to muscular for their taste. They wouldn't know what to do with all this." He flexed his pathetically skinny arms, trying to show at least a little muscle.
"Well, they need toothpicks, don't they?" the Viking asked jokingly as he replaced his hammer with a set of tongs.
Hiccup opened the window to the forge, to be met with a boatload of weapons in need of repair. "The meathead with attitude and interchangeable hands is Gobber," he breathlessly told Snivels, who was waiting patiently. "I've been his apprentice ever since I was little – well, littler." Snivels leaped over onto Hiccup's shoulder to watch him lift the weapons onto the hot coals. The young Snivy did his best to stay away from the coals.
Outside, there were shouts – battle cries as well as cries of panic. Snivels and Hiccup looked through the window and saw a dragon blast a house, setting it alight. "See?" Hiccup asked Snivels, pointing at the destruction. "Old village, lots and lots of new houses." Snivels nodded and suddenly swung his head around, apparently catching sight of something.
"Who are they?" he asked, pointing to the group of teenagers and Pokémon who had rushed onto the scene to put out the new fire. "Oh, them?" Hiccup asked, and when Snivels nodded, he continued, "That's Snotlout and his partner, Magmar. Fishlegs and his partner, Lombre. The twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, and their partners, Nidorino and Nidorina..."
The group of eight was rushing to put out the fire with buckets of water. Ruffnut and Tuffnut started fighting over the same bucket, only to be knocked aside by the appearance of another. A feisty female Combusken pushed the twins and their partners aside, obviously making room for someone. "That's Blaze, the Combusken," Hiccup said. He then pointed to a new figure that had appeared. The new girl nodded at Blaze in thanks, and then doused out a small fire with her bucket of water, only for a dragon to reignite it, framing her magnificently in an explosion of red and orange flame.
"And that's her trainer," Hiccup paused and then called the girl by her name. "Astrid." He sighed as Astrid and the others rushed off to refill their buckets. Snivels caught a glance of Hiccup's expression, and smirked knowingly.
"Oh, their jobs are so much cooler," Hiccup commented, and leaned out the window for a better look at where they were going.
Suddenly, Gobber hoisted him away from the window and plunked him down inside the forge. "Oh, would you let me out, please?!" Hiccup exclaimed. "I need to make my mark!"
Gobber snorted. "You've made plenty of marks," he told Hiccup, jabbing him gently with his tongs. "All in the wrong places."
Before Gobber could continue the conversation, Hiccup jumped back in. "Please, two minutes," he pleaded. "I'll kill a dragon, and my life will get infinitely better. I might even get a date!"
That last part made Snivels chuckle.
It was Gobber's turn to roll his eyes as he made a list on his fingers: "You can't lift a hammer, you can't swing an axe, you can't even throw one of these!" He held up a bola, which was grabbed by a Viking outside the window. The Viking threw the bola at a passing dragon. The weapon snared the dragon's legs and caused it to plummet to the ground with a dull thud.
"Ah," Hiccup said, moving over to a wooden contraption on wheels – one of his many inventions. "That is why this will throw it for me," he finished smugly, just before it unfolded and shot another bola at Gobber's partner, Probopass. Unfazed by the attack, Probopass folded up and went to sleep, clearly annoyed.
Gobber looked like he had enough. "Now this right here is what I'm talking about!"
"A mild calibration issue," Hiccup tried to explain, only to be cut off as Gobber continued.
"If you want to get out there and fight dragons, you need to stop all...this." He gestured with his hand and tongs.
"You just pointed to all of me!" Hiccup said, appalled.
"Yes, that's it!" Gobber said in a satisfied way. "Stop being all of you!"
Hiccup made an attempt to look intimidating, something that didn't exactly come naturally. "You, sir, are playing a dangerous game," he warned ominously. "Keeping this much raw...Viking-ness...contained – there will be consequences!"
Gobber didn't look convinced, naturally. "I'll take my chances," he said, bored. Then he handed Hiccup a dulled sword and ordered, "Sword. Sharpen. Now."
Hiccup groaned under the weight of the sword as Snivels rejoined him. "One day I'll get out there," Hiccup muttered to his partner. "Because killing a dragon is everything around here." Snivels listened as his new trainer explained to him the different kinds of dragons. "A Deadly Nadder or Flygon head is sure to get me at least noticed," Hiccup said as a group of the bird-like dragons, and their aides surrounded a sheep barn, looking for a way in.
"Gronckles and Sliggoo are tough," Hiccup continued, "Taking down one of each of those would definitely get me a girlfriend." Hearing that, Snivels tried once again to hold back a laugh. As Snivels tried not to laugh, a group of the portly dragons, with the snail-like Dragon-Types on their backs, grabbed some fish in their jaws and flew off like overgrown bumblebees.
"A Hideous Zippleback and a Zweilous? Exotic. Two heads each, twice the status." A dual-headed dragon blew a building to smithereens – one head sprayed flammable gas all over the vicinity, and the other ignited it with a spark or two from the back of its throat. It flapped off, its destructive work done. Its aid, Zweilous, rode on its back, using Protect to block off the flying debris.
"And then, there's Salamence and the Monstrous Nightmare. Only the best Vikings go after those. The Monstrous Nightmare has a nasty habit of setting itself on fire. And Salamence is usually the one that aids it." As Stoick the Vast stood at his battle station atop a massive catapult, he suddenly felt heat and light erupt from beneath him. Looking down, he saw that the structure had begun to burn rapidly, courtesy of a Monstrous Nightmare. Its flaming body burst through the wood, ending up with its reptilian muzzle right next to him.
Taking his large hammer in hand, Stoick repeatedly beat the dragon on its horned face. It snapped its huge jaws at him, the long, thin fangs missing him by inches. Deciding that there was better prey than this, the Monstrous Nightmare flew off, the fires that wrapped its body extinguishing.
"But the ultimate prize is the dragon that no one's ever seen before. We call it the..." All of a sudden, there was a piercing screech that rang out above the noise of battle, getting steadily louder and louder. "NIGHT FURY!" someone called in a panic. "Get down!" yelled someone else. All of the Vikings ducked, and a huge burst of blue flame shot down from the sky and exploded, taking an entire catapult down. There was a whistling noise as the unknown dragon shot by overhead, too fast and too dark to be seen.
Hiccup continued in a whisper to Snivels, now thoroughly spooked. "This dragon doesn't have a partner, it never steals food, never reveals itself, and" - another catapult exploded – "never misses. No one has ever killed a Night Fury. That's why I'm going to be the first."
Gobber suddenly abandoned his tongs and replaced them with a sharp axe. "Man the fort, Hiccup," he ordered. "They need me out there." Just before he stepped outside, he told them, "Stay. Put. There." Hiccup just looked at him. "You know what I mean." Then with a battle cry, he limped into the fray on his leg and a half.
As soon as he left their line of sight, Hiccup grabbed his homemade weapon and wheeled it to the door. "Let's go kill a dragon," he said to Snivels, and rushed outside, towing his invention before him like an oddly shaped wheelbarrow.
Soon, the two of them had reached Berk's outskirts. It was completely quiet, and there were no dragons in sight. Hiccup rapidly set up his weapon, which he called "the Mangler". Snivels perched silently on Hiccup's shoulder, his eyes scanning the dark skies. "Give me something to shoot at, give me something to shoot at…" Hiccup muttered, pointing the Mangler's targeting scope at an old, abandoned catapult.
They waited. There was no movement in the skies – or was there? Hiccup suddenly saw part of the night sky move, blocking out the stars as it flew. Instinctively, he knew that this was the dragon that he had been waiting for. The Night Fury.
A screech rang out as it prepared to strike. Diving towards the catapult, the Night Fury's shriek reached its peak as it spat a bolt of blue fire straight at the structure. The flame hit its mark dead on, tearing through the wood and exploding violently. Desperately, Hiccup fired a bola at the dragon, the force of the shot throwing him and Snivels backward. He was already waiting for the realization that his shot had missed.
There was a shriek, and the sound of rope slamming against flesh, and the outline of something caught in the bola began to fall off into the far-off forest. "I hit it," Hiccup breathed. "Yes, I hit it!" Snivels jumped off of Hiccup's shoulder to catch a glimpse of the dragon as it fell. "Did anyone else see that?" Hiccup called out, only to see a huge dragon clamber up over a hill, crushing the Mangler under its foot, and land next to him. A Monstrous Nightmare. And right next to it was a Salamence. "Except for you guys," Hiccup said with a groan.
Snivels jumped back onto Hiccup's shoulder as he took off running, the Nightmare and Salamence right behind him. The two friends managed to hide behind a giant torch, and the Nightmare's next blast hit the torch instead of them.
Hiccup cautiously poked his head back around the torch, now going up in flames, trying to see if the dragon was still there. It wasn't – but what he didn't realize was that it was right behind him, ready to bite his head off.
But it never got the chance. A sudden movement caught Hiccup's eye, and he turned to witness a shocking sight. Stoick the Vast had appeared from nowhere and was now battling the dragon in one-on-one combat. His Beartic was behind him, fighting the Salamence. The Monstrous Nightmare shot a pathetic blast of its fire, which didn't even reach him. The next blast was nothing more than a few embers.
"You're all out," growled Stoick, before letting loose with a series of kicks and punches. The Nightmare, deciding not to risk a fight without any of its fire, left. Salamence noticed its partner flying off, and took off after it.
Then Stoick turned his attention towards the torch, which had been severely weakened by the Monstrous Nightmare's fire. It snapped, then fell to the ground. Hiccup knew that he had been clearly revealed standing behind it. "And there's one more thing that you need to know…" he muttered to Snivels.
The great bowl of fire that sat upon the torch dropped off and rolled away, doing major damage as it went. Vikings, Pokémon, and dragons alike scrambled to get away from the runaway torch. Both Hiccup and Snivels winced as the torch continued to cause damage throughout the village. Hiccup glanced at Stoick, catching sight of his firm gaze. Hiccup sighed and apologized.
"Sorry...Dad."
So there you have it. Vikings and Pokémon co-exist, and so far Hiccup and Astrid's partners are the only Pokémon that have actual names. You'll be finding out more about Snivels and Blaze in the next chapter. In the meantime, leave a review and tell me what you think. Should I continue? Let me know ASAP!
