Prologue:

The demise of royalty

The forest and hills zone, Named after its great forest and its large hilly areas, usually referred to as the kokoto plains, is normally a quiet and peaceful place, with the only terror that goes there being the occasional herd of bullfango. However, wyverns (and bird wyverns) can be found here as well. Usually there will be a migrating wyvern or, in the worst case, the deadly duo of heaven and earth. The rathian and rathalos pair.

Today was once of those days.

Above the plains, above the mountains and almost above the clouds, the king of the wyverns circled. This was his domain, and no one could take it from him. Here, he and his mate would reap the land, claiming all by either tooth or fire. The anger of heaven and earth was a deadly combination.

He swooped down low and slammed into a straggling apatonoth from the heard and quickly devoured the small thing on a rock. Before spreading his wings and soaring yet again into the skies.

Something was wrong; he could smell it in the air. The apatonoth were too many, and the velociprey to few. No, instead jaggi had been spotted in the area, there pack being stronger and in more number then the velociprey. Whilst the prey had more size and strength, the jaggi had speed and precision. And when it came down to the dromes, the jaggi was a clear winner. They drove out the opposing pack from this area, and claimed this as their new home. However, although strong in numbers, they still could not match the might of the sky king. They flee before him.

There it was again, that smell in the air. It was the smell of smoke, but it had a tinge to it that the rathalos did not recognise. He chose to ignore it; his mate would take care of it if it was a nuisance. Again he flew down and grabbed at another apatonoth, a little larger this time. The herbivores took no notice. It was if they didn't care, they were too big in number to worry about just one of their herd. After he devoured it he flew to a nearby creek and drank. Only after he had drunk did he realise something was terribly wrong. Why had his mate not yet flown? Surly the clutch did not need that much protection. After all, they were both there and no one but the greatest hunters would dare face the two of them. He decided that a quick check in the cave would be a good idea.

As he drew nearer the cave, the smell increased. It smelled of burnt meat, and the rathalos concluded that its mate has caught an egg thief and roasted it alive. He entered at the top of the cave and landed. It looked to the side of the cave.

If its eye ridges could move they would have widened.

To one side of the cave lay his mates body, blackened and burning by dragon fire. A hole in her left side made it look like she had been run through by a diablos. Next to her, the egg clutch lay in pieces, yoke and small lifeless wyverns littering the floor. The king of the skies cried in mourning for his loss.

However, his morning attracted the attention of those on the other side of the cave. There were three of them. Humans, and they were standing in front of a giant ballista. Mounted in the ballista was what seemed to be the spike of a monster.

The spike of an elder dragon.

The rathalos spotted them and roared in outrage at them, before lifting off into the air, preparing a fireball, his eyesight red with rage.

He didn't get the chance. He suddenly felt as if his entire side had been ripped open. As fell fell he turned to see the dragon spine embedded in his side. The pain was excruciating.

He hit the ground, pain overcoming his senses. The humans quickly poured a liquid over him and set it alight. Dragon fire, a rathalos killer.

He knew he was dying, and didn't struggle. He looked at the burning remains of his mate. And noticed something. Out of the twelve eggs, only eleven bodies could be seen. He looked and found the egg; hiding under the wing of the great green beast. This was his last image, before his world went black…