Prologue

New Arrivals

Over the endless expanse of ocean, a single tiny boat bobbed along at the mercy of the waves. There was no clear destination – the boat had no sails, nor oars with which to steer. But still, the boat's occupants held onto the last remaining bits of hope they had left. The stars allowed them to navigate, while the full moon gave them enough light to see by.

Not that there was anything to see, except water in every direction.

The little girl, scarcely more than ten years old, shivered and wrapped her blanket closer around herself. She was used to thinking of the ocean as a rich bounty her people could forever rely on until the end of time. But now, stranded in open water without supplies, she realized a different truth. The ocean was like a desert, unimaginably barren and vast, with not even a glimpse of another living thing for miles and miles.

Well, that wasn't completely true.

A sneeze came from the other corner of the boat, making the girl snap out of her haze of hopelessness. Her newest acquaintance, a teenager, sneezed again and brushed her long brown hair out of her face whilst expressing annoyance. The child had found her just yesterday – adrift on a plank of wood, amongst the remnants of a shipwreck. With the help of the third and final passenger, the teen had been saved…

…but for how long? They had no food and were no closer to finding land than they'd ever been. They'd die out here, just three strangers in a boat with no destination, and no-one would remember their names. Heck, they didn't even know each other…

At that moment, the thought of dying – forgotten and unknown by even her current comrades, becoming food for seabirds and dragons – chilled the child to the bone.

"I'm Arachne," she blurted out, breaking the silence for the first time in… hours? Days? It was hard to tell.

"Arachne Philston!" she repeated. "My, uh… my home was destroyed. I escaped with some rations, but I doubt anyone else was as lucky…"

The other two passengers goggled at her in surprise, caught off guard by the suddenness of her introduction. She blushed, feeling self-conscious. She hadn't meant to put herself on the spot like that. Rather, she was just wishing for someone to miss her after she'd passed on. Her whole village was more than likely dead, so who was going to remember her, other than these two in the short time they had left?

"Grundenson. Snaketail Grundenson," the older girl from the shipwreck replied, drawing the other two pairs of eyes toward her. "I was out fishing when our boat got hit by a storm. When I woke up, everyone was gone, and the ship was destroyed. I grabbed the sturdiest plank I could find and swam as far away as I could before I could get eaten by sea monsters."

The two girls looked at the third passenger, waiting for him to speak. He stared back at them with bright blue eyes through matted blond hair. Even after days spent drifting in the sea, until they'd pulled his body from the water, he was incredibly handsome. However, the girls kept their distance as best they could in the cramped boat. From the unnatural additions of wings and claws to his physique, they could easily tell what he was – a Siren, blessed by Loki himself with the power of alluring song and shapeshifting, a dragon out of every Viking woman's worst nightmare.

Finally, the Siren sighed. "I'm Batwings. I'm from Siren Island, obviously. Like I promised after you rescued me, I don't like eating humans. I spent a lot of time hanging around the Peaceable tribe, learning from them and getting to know them. Then an… incident made me decide to leave."

"What do you mean?" Snaketail asked the obvious.

Batwings didn't reply with words – he simply raised his head, pulled back the scarf wrapped around his neck, and showed them a dark red scar that slashed across his throat like an ugly necklace. Arachne and Snaketail recoiled at the sight.

"It must have closed sometime while I was unconscious at sea," Batwings continued, readjusting his scarf. "I'm lucky I wasn't eaten by Sharqs… in fact, I'm lucky I didn't just bleed out. I guess he didn't quite reach the jugular, but I swear there was a lot of blood when I escaped…"

He no longer seemed to be talking to them, but his vivid reminiscing conjured up unpleasant images in Arachne's mind, and she felt sick to her stomach. Snaketail must have felt the same way, because neither of them responded to Batwings' remark.

"I told you, I'm not going to eat you," the Siren scoffed with newfound annoyance. He must have mistaken their discomfort for the persistence of their initial fear of him.

"Then why don't you just swim away?" Snaketail responded, her reply acidic. "You've got nothing to gain by hanging out with two girls with no food or water, who're probably going to die in a couple of days, except if you're planning to –"

"Swim to where? I've no idea where I am after drifting for who knows how long," Batwings interrupted. "Unless either of you know enough about sailing to navigate by the stars and point me in the direction of Siren Island…"

Arachne tuned out the growing argument, too tired to participate. Instead, she turned her eyes to the sky, peering up at the million glittering lights above her as if they'd point the way to safety. If the Philston girl was a little bit older, then she might've had enough experience to do what Batwings had suggested so bitterly. But no matter how hard she searched the sky, she couldn't make out any patterns that would tell her where to go.

But then, she gasped.

Snaketail heard her and broke off the cutting remark she'd been about to give Batwings. "What is it?" the older girl asked. "Is something wrong?"

"I thought I just saw something flying overhead," Arachne answered. She kept her face pointed upwards, her eyes darting to and fro as she tried to pick out any other traces of movement.

By some miracle, there came another black shape, giving away its presence by blotting out the stars in its path. And then, even more miraculous, there came more and more, until the sky was playing host to an entire flock of creatures.

A frightened squeak from Snaketail prompted Arachne to tear her eyes away from the fascinating and eerie sight above. When she saw what Snaketail had seen, she, too, let out a squeak of fear – there were sea monsters swimming past the boat, some of which had other monsters standing on their backs. One of them, a flat anglerfish-like beast, bumped against the boat and gave an annoyed growl in their direction before swimming onward.

"What the Thor…" Snaketail murmured, both awed and terrified by the unnatural procession of monsters.

Batwings stood up, causing the boat to rock a little. When Arachne glanced over at him, she saw that he wasn't looking at any of the monsters. Rather, his gaze was fixed on the horizon – and, when Arachne stared back out to sea, she saw why.

"They're all heading in the same direction," she murmured, fearful chills going down her spine. "They're all heading southeast."

"We're following them," Batwings said. It wasn't a question – it was a decision, made firmly and without hesitation.

Arachne and Snaketail looked at each other, dawning comprehension on each other's faces. There was no way that so many monsters, all different species, would be traveling in such an enormous group without a reason. They didn't know what that reason was, but wherever the monsters were being drawn to, there would certainly be land.

"We're following them!" the girls parroted, feeling hope flood their bodies with energy.

The unnatural, almost biblical gathering of monsters led the three castaways to an island under siege.

Arachne was the first to react, jumping to her feet with a horrified gasp, her hands covering her mouth. Snaketail stood up to join the ten-year-old girl, as silent as the grave as she drank in the sight of flaming buildings on the cliffs and flying monsters swooping overhead. Batwings lifted his head out of the water – even in his eel-like true form, into which he had shapeshifted so he could pull their boat along, shock was clearly visible in his eyes.

Their boat was drifting towards a large harbor at the base of the burning cliffs, but Arachne barely noticed. She couldn't look away from the cliffs, where the orange glow of raging fires emanated, accompanied by columns of black smoke that disappeared into the night sky. She could hear monster roars of a dozen different kinds, and the battle cries of the Vikings that desperately mounted a defense.

For a moment, Arachne's mind flashed back to the terrible catastrophe that had befallen her own village… the screams, the blazing inferno, the black clouds that blotted out the very sky…

Thud.

With a soft bump, the boat hit the side of the dock, enough to snap Arachne out of her reverie. Her head snapped upwards, surprised by the sudden awakening, and she found herself looking into the kind eyes of a stranger bearing a smile. The teenage boy was lanky, awkward, and the least Viking-like Viking Arachne had ever encountered, and he was holding out his hand to her.

Arachne didn't know it just yet, but by accepting his invitation, she was taking her first step out of the ruins of her old life and toward something new. Her brand-new home…

"This is Berk."

AN:

Greetings, and many great hellos! I'm Cottonmouth25, starting the newest entry in my "Monsters of Berk" series, a crossover in which the HTTYD universe features monsters from the Monster Hunter franchise.

The past half year has been filled with the worst case of writer's block I think I've ever seen. But I think I'm finally ready to move past it with this new story. "Monsters of Berk" focused on the "Riders/Defenders of Berk" series, introducing all-new characters as well as monsters for the old characters to ride – and I never wrote about how any of them met during the events of the first movie.

This story is my attempt to correct this mistake!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the How to Train Your Dragon and Monster Hunter franchises, nor anything associated with them. I do, however, own any and all OCs that appear in this story.

Next time: This is Berk