Author's Note:
Hello everyone and welcome to another chapter. This one gives us far more info on how summonings work in this verse as well as properly introduce the first two to appear. This story will actually lead into a cross-over with Fire Emblem 9 and 10 (the ones starring Ike) and there'll be a connected story appearing in that fandom as well so please give it a look. Thank you those who've shown their support of this story and I hope you enjoy the chapter.
I own nothing.
Chapter 3
The woman swung her hands down and the ice-dome shattered, its pieces flying towards the beast.
It roared and flames surrounded its body, melting the shards before they even struck home. The woman moved forward, placing herself between the beast and the terrified Snotlout.
"Ifrit, calm your rage!"
At her words, the beast snarled, "SHIVA!"
He sent a wave of flame towards her which she blocked with a wall of ice, she glanced back at Snotlout, "Child, I will engage Ifrit. The moment I have him subdued, you must go and junction him, that is the only way he'll be freed from the madness that has claimed him!"
The boy jumped up in panic, "WHAT! What are you talking about!?"
She deflected another fire blast, "This is not the time! Just do as I ask!"
Not waiting for a reply, she shattered the wall, launching its pieces as she had before. She moved forward with them and blasts of cold air sprung from her hands, the beast used fire to block the shards but the moment the flames died, she sent the freezing air swirling around him. Ice formed around his body, somehow not melting from the intense heat of the lava, and encased him. The woman continued blasting him with the icy winds but called out to Snotlout.
"Now child!"
Not knowing what he was doing, Snotlout sprinted towards the beast. Using an ice bridge created by the woman, he reached the beast and without a second thought, thrust his left hand forward with his palm open. The moment he touched the mighty body, flames swirled around him but they did not burn. They whirled and billowed, focused around his body, then around his arm. They rapidly shrunk and vanished, appearing to fade into his very skin and with them went the beast.
As the beast vanished, the bubbling lava cooled and hardened, turning back into the rock it had once been. It groaned and cracked and the cavern rumbled then, subsided into stillness and silence.
Snotlout stood there, arm still outstretched, panting heavily and feeling more drained than he'd ever felt. Slowly, he pulled his arm back and examined it, not comprehending what he'd just done, and looked to where the beast had been mere moments before.
"What…?"
Exhaustion seized him and he fell into unconsciousness.
He awoke slowly, his eyes seemingly very heavy, and found himself in his own bed at home.
Snotlout sat up and looked around his room in confusion, how had he got home? Wasn't he in a cave a minute ago? Had everything just been a dream?
His door swung open and he faced it to see Hiccup come in. His cousin smiled, "Snotlout!"
Snotlout blinked, "What happened?"
"You went missing from the beach so we went to find you." Hiccup answered, "We found you unconscious in the forest, Gothi thinks you overheated."
"Oh, okay."
Snotlout frowned, is that what happened, he overheated and collapsed? Perhaps the cave and everything in it had been nothing but a deluded dream, caused by the heat.
"Not quite little one."
The teen jumped at the sudden voice, "What!"
"Snotlout?"
He looked back at Hiccup's face, seeing concern all over the other boy's face, and he quickly blustered, "Err…nothing!"
"Are you sure?"
He folded his arms, "Yeah, I'm sure. Why wouldn't I be?"
He put his attitude fully into his words and he saw Hiccup roll his eyes, "Yeah, you're fine." His cousin started walking to the door, "Just be at the Academy as normal tomorrow, Berk seems to have finally cooled down so we'll be doing training drills."
"Whatever, I'll be there."
He heard Hiccup's sigh and he waited until he was sure the boy had left the house before speaking out loud, "Who are you?"
"You mean you don't know? I'm the one you just junctioned!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Ifrit, please. It's not the child's fault, he didn't get the training he should've done."
A second, female voice joined the conversation and Snotlout rubbed his forehead tiredly, okay, its official. He was going mad!
"Actually, you're perfectly sane." The female responded, "Everything you experienced in that cave and our voices are very much real."
"Then who are you? What's going on?"
He'd hate to admit it, but he was starting to seriously freak out. He wanted answers and, hopefully, a solution. It was the female voice that answered, "Firstly, I am called Shiva, I'm the one who helped you in the cave."
"And I'm Ifrit." The male voice added, "I'm the one you junctioned in that cave."
Shiva continued, "We are what are known as 'summonings'. We've had many other names as well but that's probably the simplest one to use. We're powerful beings that are summoned to fight for whomever we are 'junctioned' to, those who command us are called 'summoners' and we're both currently junctioned to you."
"Wait! I'm a summoner?"
"Yes child, as was your mother."
"What!"
Snotlout's mind was thrown into confusion, his mom had been a summoner! There was no way that was true! How could he have never known?
"That can't be right, I would've known!"
"I can't say why she never told you, I was never junctioned to her, but I know she was a summoner as well." Shiva answered, "The ability of summoning can only be inherited and all summoners receive their first summoning at a very early age, that is how you can tell whether they have the gift or not. Your mother recognised my mark on your body the moment she saw it and I could sense she had a summoning junctioned to her as well, she most certainly had the gift."
The teen clutched his head in his hands.
There was no possible way this was happening! It was all a dream, a nightmare, he was seriously ill and this was all a product of a fever! There were no such things as summoners so he had to be imagining the whole thing.
"I understand this is a lot to comprehend child but it is true, you're not imagining any of this." Shiva's voice spoke soothingly, "If you need more proof just look at your left arm."
Slowly, Snotlout turned his eyes upon his arm, his bracer was still sat where it always was and he tentatively started to remove it. A part of him wanted to just leave it where it was but his need to prove to himself that he wasn't crazy was greater and soon, the bracer was removed to reveal what lay beneath.
A new mark.
It was different from the one on his right arm, its pattern reminiscent of billowing flames instead of ice as his original one was, but it bore some similarities. However, he knew for certain that this mark had not been there that morning and it definitely wasn't a tattoo someone had slapped on him while he was unconscious.
Shiva spoke gently, "That is the mark of Ifrit, it shows that he's been junctioned to you."
"Yep." Ifrit added, "I'm now your second summoning, so congratulations."
Snotlout traced Ifrit's mark with his finger, trying to comprehend what was going on, "I don't understand. What does this mean, why is it happening!?"
Panic was starting to creep into his voice and Shiva seemed to pick up on it, "Snotlout, stay calm. We're both here and we can help you work this out. Normally, a summoner such as yourself would have a teacher, often the parent they inherited their gift from. I don't know why your mother didn't teach you but I'm sure she had her reasons, I myself couldn't help until now because you hadn't summoned me before and if it wasn't for Ifrit, you might never have done so. Now though, the combined knowledge of both of us is available to you."
Forcefully getting his panic under control, Snotlout took a deep breath and answered, "Okay."
"Good." Though she wasn't actually physically present, the teen seemed to sense that Shiva was smiling, "Now, we'll start at the very beginning with the basics."
There was a groan from Ifrit, "Really, you're starting there! Can't we just skip onto the cool stuff?"
"Ifrit! He's had next to no training so we have to begin with the fundamentals."
The fire summoning sighed, "Fine, but try and make it slightly interesting, or quick."
Snotlout was sure Shiva rolled her eyes, "Honestly." She continued, "Anyway, the basics. As I've already said, you are a summoner which is a person that can summon beings such as me and Ifrit whom the summoner has 'junctioned'. When a summoning is junctioned, their mark appears somewhere on the body of their summoner, thus indicating which summonings the individual has. Understand so far?"
"I think so."
"Excellent." She pressed on, "Now, a summoner can call their summonings into the physical world by using their own power to do so, you did this instinctively when we were fighting Ifrit."
"Wait!" Snotlout frowned in confusion, "I summoned you? I thought you came of your own accord?"
"No." Shiva answered, "A summoning cannot physically manifest with their own power, our magic doesn't allow it. It has to be an outside force to allow us to do that and it's that force's power that allows us to remain physically present, understand?"
"Basically, you need to use someone else's power to actually appear."
"Exactly." She resumed her explanation, "A summoner has a degree of power, commonly known as mana, magic power or MP, which is what they use to call their junctioned summonings. However, summoning us uses a lot of power and continuously drains the supply, that's why you collapsed after our battle with Ifrit."
"Yeah, about that." Snotlout scratched his head, "How did I end up in the forest? I'm sure I collapsed in the cave."
"I managed to linger long enough to carry you out of the cave." She replied, "It drained more of your magic than I'd have liked but I figured you'd be found quicker if you were in the forest. Luckily I was right." She continued, "Because of the immense magic drain, it's rare for summoners to call us for extended periods of time since it weakens them so quickly. Fortunately, there are other abilities we grant to deal with this issue."
"Other abilities?"
"Now this is the good bit!" Ifrit chipped in excitedly, "Since you've junctioned us both, you can use some of our powers as your own without summoning us at all!"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, that since you have access to my awesomeness, you can use fire magic!"
"How!?"
Shiva cut in, "I think it's best to leave that lesson until tomorrow. You've already had a lot to take in and your magic is still very low after what happened today. You need to rest more."
Ifrit sighed, "Spoilsport."
Though he shared Ifrit's sentiments, Snotlout could feel himself becoming greatly tired once again, he settled himself back in bed, "Okay, we'll continue this tomorrow."
If they responded, he didn't hear because he was asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.
Far from Berk, on a deserted rock of an island, the ground shook.
Cracks formed in the island's skin as boulders splintered apart. As suddenly as the shaking had started, it stopped and calm enveloped the area. A figure stood alone and examined the damage caused, they seemed to growl in discontent before holding up their hand and commandingly speaking one word.
"Quake!"
Immediately, the land shuddered once again, the rock cracking and splintering as it shook and writhed in one localised area. The effects however, spread beyond and the stone ripped apart causing damage in a wide area.
As before, the shaking stopped and this time the figure nodded in satisfaction before turning around and returning to the small boat that had brought him.
PS-There'll be more explanations on summoner abilities next chapter though the last section gives a bit of a hint. Please let me know what you thought and I'll hopefully update soon.