Chapter Text
It was a quiet day on Dragon's Edge. But quiet days sometimes mean trouble. The Dragon Hunters were still out there somewhere intent on getting the Dragon Eye and the Dragon Riders knew that they had to make sure that the hunters weren't planning any surprise attacks. But first there was something else that needed looking into. Something was getting in to their storage areas and stealing their food.
"What ever it is, it went this way," Hiccup said after studying the drag marks. Tracking was the one thing he had been good at prior to making peace with the dragons.
"Could it have been a dragon?" Astrid asked. She and Stormfly had gone with Hiccup and Toothless leaving the others back at base.
"See that?" Hiccup said pointing to something in the drag mark. "That's a paw print. Dragon's don't leave paw prints like that. What ever it is, it isn't a dragon."
They followed the drag marks into the forest right up to a clump of bushes. A growl came and something jumped out. It was bigger than a Terrible Terror but smaller than Toothless and Meatlug. It was also jet black with yellow markings and big, red eyes. It reminded Hiccup of a picture he saw in a book he had recently acquired from Trader Johan.
"What is that?" Astrid said.
"I think...I think it's an Umbreon," Hiccup said.
"What's an Umbreon?"
"It's a creature that lives far to the east. I read about them in a book I got from Johan. He said he got it from a trader from the east."
"If they live in the east, what's it doing here?"
"I don't know."
Five more creatures came out of the bushes. One was the same size as the Umbreon only slightly daintier with lavender colored fur, big, purple eyes, and a red dot in the middle of it's forehead. Two were yellow and looked like rabbits (one with red marking, the other with blue ones). A forth was a dark gray with red markings and almost looked like a fox. The last one looked like a strange dog with an orange pelt, black stripes, and cream hair.
"What are those?" Astrid said.
"I think that's an Espeon and that's a Plusle and the other's a Minun. And I'm pretty sure that's a Zorua and that's a Growlithe."
"Are they from the east, too?"
"They are but I have no idea how they got here."
All six looked hungry and the Umbreon was limping on what looked like a badly injured leg. Not wanting to leave them to starve (or be killed by a dragon), Astrid and Hiccup decided to take them back to the Edge.
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It had been a week since Astrid and Hiccup had discovered what Hiccup's book claimed were Pokémon and it was clear that bringing them to the base was a good idea. All six Pokémon each bonded with one of Riders. The Plusle and Minun bonded with the twins who named them Lo and Ki and shared their love of pranks. The Zorua had a special relationship with Fishlegs who named him Erik and the Growlithe became attached to Snoutlout who named him Beowuf. As for the Umbreon and Espeon, they were almost always with Hiccup and Astrid and they named the pair Thor and Sif.
It was clear right from the start that Thor was the leader of the little group of Pokémon with Sif acting as second-in-command. Even Thor's injury didn't keep him from letting Beowuf know who was boss. After bringing them back to base, Hiccup had checked Thor's injury and discovered that the lower half of his left hind leg had been broken and hadn't healed properly. To help the Umbreon move around without having to limp or drag his injured leg, Hiccup had made a brace for it to help support Thor's weight.
The Pokémon didn't seem bothered by Toothless and the other dragons either; each one bonding with the dragon partner of their chosen human. But the question still remained: how did they get this far west and how did they end up on Dragon's Edge?
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Heather watched the Riders and their dragons and Pokémon from a distance. She knew she had made the right choice bringing them to the Edge when she rescued them from Viggo. Why the Dragon Hunters had Pokémon in their possession she had no idea but she knew that she had to get the six of them out of there. They were being abused and starved and the Umbreon had had his leg broken by Viggo's Houndoom Ragnarok when he tried to protect the Espeon. If they had stayed much longer, they would have been killed. Fortunately, she knew her friends would take them in and look after them; offering them a much better life than they had. However, she knew sooner or later Viggo would discover where his mission Pokémon had gone. She could only hope that they would have their strength back to help the Dragon Riders when that time came.