Author's note: Hello everyone, I had a dream and it sparked the Idea for this story. It's based off monster hunter and I hope you all like it. Also Nuchal Crest is a term for a retails spikes/horns on its head, to the spikes at its tail. Anyways please tell me what your thoughts are in the reviews. Thank you, now enjoy the story.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Monster Hunter games, CAPCOM does.

Chapter I: The Hunters

It was dark foggy day in this forest. It had only just finished raining, the fog was so thick that one could only look a few feet before them, after that the white had settled in and covered the rest of the landscape like a cloak.

Though, this did not seem to hinder the hunter as he slowly stalked his prey. He was careful where he stepped, making sure to not step on any branches, since it would startle his prey and it would be much more troublesome to kill them.

He sniffed the air; he could almost taste their flesh in his maw. He shifted his wings, so that he was more comfortable as he crouched; ready to pounce on them at any given moment. Though, he paused and watched his group of prey do something he was not quite familiar with. They were putting some items together and made a fire in the middle. They put some kind of creature into the fire to burn; he recognized the creature to be a fish. He watched as his group of prey left one of their members alone, to what he thought was guarding the items that they laid out across the ground. He let a low growl escape from his throat as saw a gaggle of felines walking away with his prey.

He decided to go after the group first and then the lone one. He was going to enjoy this, including the part where his rids the planet of those felines.

"Ugh, I can't see anything here!" one of hunters in the group exclaimed.

"Oh just get over it, Hector, it's not going to change anything. The sooner we defeat that dragon, the sooner we go home." Another person stated in irritation. Since that was the tenth time he said that, that day.

"Oh yeah? Maybe I will say it a thousand more times, Valerie." Hector snapped back. Both Hector and Valerie had turned it into a little squabble, though it was steadily escalating into a heated argument.

Francesco, the largest person in their group, had enough of those two. They had been walking for hours and both Hector and Valerie had been in one argument after another. Francesco was ready to bash heads with them. He moved his hand so it was lightly touching the hilt of his sword. Though, he stopped when a small hand touched his. He turned his head down to the other girl in the group. Sylvia, she was a foreigner; anyone could tell. Since she had an angular face, bright white hair, and sapphire colored eyes that could easily calm anyone no matter how angry they were. What made her different from the others, was the fact that she was wearing Silver Rathalos Armor.

Her eyes bore into his hazel ones. "Okay, I won't hurt them; I am just playing with the idea that I should tie them to a tree and use them as bait to bring the dragon out of his hiding place." He said with a wave of his hand as looked to the said individuals that were fighting at the moment.

Sylvia chuckled, "Well, I guess that doesn't seem like a bad idea…" She mused as they strolled into an open area in the forest.

"What are you guys planning?" Valerie asked suspiciously, narrowing her eyes at the two hunters, since Hector was ahead scouting the area for any potential dangers.

Sylvia cocked her head to the side, "Whatever do you mean by that?" she said innocently.

"Yeah sure you not planning anything" Valerie said sarcastically.
Before she could say anymore, Hector came back from his recon. "We can set up here; I did not see anything out of ordinary."
They all nodded in response and started to set up camp. It took a bit of time, but it was needed since if they could not find the monster, they would need to rest for the night and try again in the morning or if they did find it, they would be too tired to return to town.

"Okay, so who is going to stay? We only need one person to watch the camp." Valerie asked with an authoritative tone.

Sylvia raised her hand timidly, "I guess I will stay this time, since I went hunting with you last time." She said quietly.
Valerie nodded in acknowledgement. "Okay boys, let's go hunting," she stated as she started walking in a random direction. The men were quick to follow. Within a few moments they were gone, their forms shrouded by the fog.

Sylvia let out a breath that she had not realized she was holding. "Guys be safe, I don't want any of you to get injured." She muttered to herself

The great metal dragon watched his group of prey slowly walk into his trap. If he could, he would be smiling wildly. Within a few more moments they went pass a few rocks and into another clearing. The dragon used that as the signal to start-up his trap. He let air hiss out from his mouth slowly and shifted his wings again. A thicker fog was then created, surrounding his prey.

He heard their panic exclaims as he let his tail brush up against one of them. He presumed it was the female. He decided to attack her first.

He wiped his tail at her, sending her into a tree, where she laid unconscious. He then whipped his head around in time to see one of the males try to attack him, with sword that could do little or nothing to him. He snorted at him as he slammed one of his claws down on the male with the sword, thoroughly squashing him into bloody,fleshy muck between his talons. The dragon was distracted at the moment relishing the scent, that he did not notice the female escape as the last male tried to attack him. He only charged at the last male, swiped his claw upward; sending the man into the air. The dragon opened his jaws and let the human land in his maw and abruptly shutting it and swallowed the man. He noticed the felines starting retreat, but before they could he froze them with his breath of ice and to make sure they were dead, he stomped on them.

He then turned to where the girl was, only to see the spot vacant. He growled in annoyance as he took to the skies. He knew where that human was going.

It was going back to its camp.

Sylvia had decided to take out her book and start reading, while she waited for her comrades to return. She had been reading for hours and she was starting to get really worried.

Right when she was about to go and find them, she heard panicked footsteps in the distance. Not a moment too soon she saw the figure of her friend Valerie. She looked white as a ghost with blood spatter on her face and armor. When she finally reached Sylvia, she stopped.

"We…We need to out of here now!" she said through labored breaths.

"Wait what happen, is every all right? Where is Hector and Francesco?" Sylvia asked worried about the others.

"They are not here anymore! Hector gave me a chance to escape, so I can get us both out of here. That dragon is…is… a true monster, a creature from hell itself." She said quickly as she panic and tried to move Sylvia by tugging at her arm.

Sylvia was in shocked; none of her friends had died before. Though, she could not linger on her thoughts for long, for the metal dragon that their people called "Kushala Dora", appeared; his eyes burning like icy flames in his sockets.

He roared, causing them to cover their ears and try to stable themselves so they would not fall onto the ground, since it shaking slightly.

Once the roar ended, Sylvia found herself staring right into the eyes of the beast as his face was before her. She saw in the corner of her eye Valerie retreating without her. She felt betrayed by her now ex-friend.

She was slightly reminded of her predicament as the dragon before her breathed on her. Though she could only admire its nuchal crest. She looked back into its icy flame like eyes, she thought for a second she saw curiosity in its eyes. She thought about what she would do next and deiced that an aggressive approach would end up killing her and she did not want to particularly die at the moment. She took a deep breath to calm herself and preparing herself the reaction she might get, whether it be good or bad.

"Um… Mr. Kushala Dora…I…um… like your nuchal crest, it looks really cool…" She said, in a combination of nervousness and timidity.

The dragon's eyes seemed too had widen at her statement a little, before it snorted and pulled away. It looked down at her with mild curiosity. He could not decide whether to eat her or study her.

He decided the latter.

Kushala Dora then laid down on his belly, staring at the female human. He noticed her shift a little from one leg to another; he could sense her nervousness like he could sense another Dragon in his territory. He let air escape from his mouth that resembled a human sigh. He then lifted his tail and wrapped it around her body, though she immediately tensed when he did, and deposited her next to his right front claw.

He saw her sit rigidly. He was getting irritated with this and sighed again; he knew this human would not be smart enough to understand the language of dragons, so he had to move his jaw and tongue into awkward positions to speak her language.

"I am not going to harm you female." He said in a deep regal voice.

He watched in slight amusement as the human started at him, her expression priceless. He started to laugh; his laughter rumbling like thunder.

"y..yo…you c-can s-speak?" she stuttered.

"Of course I can, I am not some mindless aptonoth." He scoffed.

"Oh I didn't mean that… I was just surprised, you know."

"No I don't, enlighten me." And when he said that Sylvia swore she could see him smirking.

"Oh…um…shit, look it's a saying we humans say. I know it does not make sense, but we say it anyways." She said nervously scratching the back of her head.

"Then you shouldn't say it, well actually I find it slightly annoying. So when you are in my presence you will not say "you know"." He stated

She looked confused for all but a moment, and then it dawned on her. "Wait, what do you mean "when I am in your presence"? " She demanded.

Kushala only chuckled at her. This only caused her to become angrier to the point where she got up and kicked his arm. Though, it only tickled the dragon and ended up causing Sylvia to hold her foot in pain. A string of profanities few out of her mouth as she was hoping up and down in pain. During this whole moment, Kushala could not stop laughing at her, she was just to amusing too him.

He looked down at her, deep in thought. He hadn't had this kind of amusement in a very long time and even though he would not admit it, he was kind of lonely since he was the last of his type of dragon and he appreciated the company, even if it was a human.

He was brought out of his thoughts when he felt the human rest against his claw. He looked down at her and to his amusement she was glaring at him, though he noticed her face was red, like that of a Rathalos's scales. He cocked his head to the side. Now that he really did look at her, he noticed that she had white hair and sapphire blue eyes. Her armor was made from a silver Rathelos. He was curious on how she hunted that unlucky dragon because it would take great skill to defeat it.

He was now weary of her, at any moment she could pull out her dual swords and probably injure him.

"How did you obtain that armor human?"

"It's Sylvia."

"What?"

"My name is Sylvia, not human. If you call me human I will not respond. "

He smirked "Oh really?"

"Yep." She replied back while glaring daggers at him.

"If this is a challenge, I accept." He said as he brought his head down to hers. She didn't back down nor did she break away her gaze, even though he was staring right back at her.

"This is not a challenge; I was just stating a fact." She said coolly. She noticed a glint of entertainment in his eyes, though she could not be sure since he pulled his head away from her fairly quick.

"Well then Sylvia let me rephrase. How did you obtain that armor?" He said in a mock tone.

She pulled a strand of hair from her face and then shrugged. "You probably won't believe me, but this armor was a gift from a family friend. Their daughter had passed away and they said she had wanted to give it to me, so I kindly accepted it and now here I am wearing it."

He visibly relaxed and snorted at her story. "And here I thought you were a force not to be tampered with."

She stuck her tongue at him. "Oh hush, you're just a meanie."

He chuckled at her childishness. "I have not had this kind of entertainment in a long time… It's decided I want you to serve me, come when I call for you." He stated as he lifted one of his front claws, which now crackling blue energy surrounding it.

Sylvia saw this and tried to escape from the dragon's claw. Though, unfortunately for her, she was not fast enough. She saw blue around her for a moment as well as searing pain in her back. After that, everything went black.