"Faster, Grem, faster!" Sato quietly urged his friend as they ran through the Jagras pens, being as stealthy as they could. "If we're found we will be swapping floors for weeks." Grem warily commented. "That's why we we're not going to get caught, silly." He reassured him as they rounded a corner in the dark corridor made of stone and wood. It had dirt floors. Yapping Jagras made Grem jump and glance warily into the dark stalls, the only thing between the them was a sturdy wooden gate.

"Trust me. We can learn a lot here and maybe we will be able to get into the school." Sato said, his back to Grem. We can surprise Miss Laura with all we know about monsters and she'll be all like 'Wow! Where did you learn all that?' and we'll just shrug and be like 'we're smart." Grem was skeptical about Sato's plan but whatever he went, Grem loyally followed.

The boys reached a wide metal double door. Sato turned to Grem in the gloom and have him the 'hush' signal. Grem nodded. Sato turned back and slowly pushed one of the heavy doors open. Sunlight poured in, making the boys recoil as their eyes adjusted to the light. Even before their eyes were acclimated, Sato creeped out into the light. Taking a breath, Grem followed his friend out.

A wide space opened in front of him. A large, circular, sandy floor led up to very high stone cliffs. The top of the cliffs flattened out to create a circular platform going around the sandy basin. Beyond that, brown stone walls shot up hundreds of meters. A large metal gate, ten people tall was on the far wall. Cannons and big crossbows were placed all around the circular platform.

"Woah." Was all Sato said as he stood just outside the door. Grem sat there, wide-eyed as he took in the large space. "The arena." He whispered to himself. Grem had only heard of this place. He didn't think it would be so big. He was skeptical about coming with Sato here but now…

Grem stepped out into the arena, the door closing behind him.

Suddenly, a horn blared high up on the stone wall. It seemed to come from a collection of wooden buildings suspended on the side of the cliff. "What was that?" Sato asked aloud. Grem had no clue. Just then they heard a loud mechanical noise and giant metal chains gain tension.

Sato looked around as the noises echoed around the hollow arena. "Huh?"

'Oh no.' Was all Grem could think. "S-Sato…"

"What?!"

"The door…"

Sato's gaze slowly drew over to the large metal doors on the far side of the arena. They were starting to open. The boys sat there, frozen. The dark interior was too dark for them to see anything yet. Grem's breaths came out in short but heavy gasps. Although he couldn't see what was inside there, he could feel it. Goosebumps spiked all over his skin. He became fixated on the opening.

"Calm down." Sato said calmly. Sato pulled Grem out of his shock. "Reach back and open the door, Grem."

'That's right!' Grem scrambled back to reach for the handle…there was no handle. "There's no handle, Sato." Sato's head shot back, fear flying across his face. "There's no handle?"

"Can you push it open?" Grem tried. It didn't budge. A slight tremor was felt underfoot.

Panic finally set in.

"Try pulling it!" Sato yelled as he stood up and tried to dig his fingernails in between the steel doors.

"It's not working!" Grem yelled. He began to cry.

Another tremor.

Suddenly a horn blasted in quick succession, coming up high from the wooden structures up on the wall. They boys could hear yelling.

Another tremor.

Sato lunged against the door. "Try pushing harder!" Grem joined him. Nothing was happening.

Suddenly the large gears they heard earlier were heard again. Grem looked back to see the colossal doors closing slowly. Relief started to flood over Grem. But could he see something in there…

The sound of Sato kicking the doors distracted him. "Sato, look!" He pointed at the large doors. "They're closing." The doors were almost completely closed.

Then.

The doors were thrusted open in a violent explosion of metal and dust as a heaping mass flew out of them. The boys screamed as they were pelted with pebbles and dust, an abusive roar piercing their eardrums.

They were each covering their eyes and heads as the sudden shock on their senses persisted. Shaking, Grem couldn't bring himself to look up, tears finally breaking down his face. Grem heard loud huffs and deep growls. Besides that, the only sounds he heard were loud noises coming from the wooden structures and the gasps coming from Sato.

"I don't wanna die…" Grem whispered. That's when he heard Sato stop his gasping. His breaths became slightly calmer. Grem didn't want to look up.

"Grem." Sato called.

Grem shook his head profusely, starting to sob.

"Grem." Sato grabbed the back of his shirt, making Grem yelp, and pulled him up to face him.

Sato's face was scared but intense. It was covered in dust. "Don't move." Grem couldn't peel his eyes away from Sato. He didn't want to look to the right. But at the same time…he couldn't resist. He slowly turned his shaky head to his right; his eyebrows drew together and up. Standing in the middle of the arena as a massive monster. It had a pink scaly head with fangs sticking out of its big mouth. It stood on two legs and had darker, gray fur on its back and tail. It was looking directly at them. It huffed again.

"Grem, I am going to draw it away, run the opposite direction."

Grem shot his scrambled, frenzied gaze at his friend. "What!?"

"They're no doubt sending hunters down now. They've seen us. That's why the alarm horns went off and why they tried closing the gate. If we stay here, it'll get both…" he trailed off. "If we split up we'll confuse it. It won't be able to choose which one to attack, right?"

Grem shrugged, not wanting to move from their spot. "On the count of three, we run—" Sato was cut off when the monster reared back then let out a massive roar. It began to charge straight at them. The boys screamed and clutched each other. It was about to reach them.

Suddenly, a shadow flew over them as someone jumped off the ledge behind them, straight at the monster. They wielded a giant hammer. The man wound up his swing then swung with inhuman force. The weapon collided straight with the monster's cheek, throwing it off course. The hunter landed on the ground and swung upwards again to connect with the monster's chin as it whipped its head back.

"Get out of here!" The armorless hunter yelled in a strained voice as he wielded the hammer. Suddenly the door behind them flung open. The boys scrambled for the entrance. Two beefy hands reached out and grabbed them by their arms and threw them inside. The person slammed the doors shut behind them.

"What in da flyin' hell do ya littla' shits think you're doin?!" The large man screamed at them. Sato nor Grem could respond. They were in shellshock as they sat there on the ground. "Where are your damn parents?" Still, neither could get out any words. The tall, bald, muscular, mustached man looked as if he eats testosterone for breakfast. "Do ya realize how many professional hunters die in there on a regular basis? And how many limbs I've had ta pick up with my own two bare hands? I don't want ta add children to my resume. I can't believe ya guys did that. Because of ya, not only I, but a hunter is riskin' 'is life right now just so he could save ya two turds. He did not even have time ta throw armor on. He doesn't even use a bloody hammer. That was just da closest weapon."

After another minute of getting yelled at, a large roar was heard through the metal double door, followed by a heavy tremor. Another minute passed, this time filled with silence.

Someone knocked five times on the outside of the door. "You little turds are lucky he was able to topple the beast. If something happened to him—"

The beef man went and opened it. Sun shone in, a silhouette of a person blocked their view of outside.

"You okay, Matatchi?" The beef man asked.

"I'm fine." The man responded as he stepped inside, breathing heavy.

Matatchi. Where have I heard that before?

Grem looked out the door to see the monster that had nearly killed them, dead or unconscious on the ground. Other, geared hunters rushed around it, calling to each other and pointing every which-way.

"Are you guys okay?" The man named Matatchi asked the duo huddling on the ground. They still couldn't see his face.

"Of course they're okay. They didn't get hit by anything but dust, thanks to you. Don't be so nice to them. They deserve ta spend the next month cleaning da broiler pits."

Matatchi laughed. Stunned, everyone looked up at him. "You are being pretty hard on them, Dearen."

The beef man huffed, unamused. "I'll leave them to you then. Just remember, turds. If it weren't for dat man, you would both be in an Anjanath stomach right now."

With that, he walked away, back down the Jagras stall hallway. The boys turned back toward the hunter. Matatchi. He grabbed a nearby lamp and lit it, illuminating his face. He was pretty young. Maybe early thirties. He had short but messy silver hair, his face was chiseled but at the same time he didn't look like a statue, like many hunters. There was a scar running up his left cheek into the outside corner of his eye. He had light, but tanned skin. He wasn't beefy like beef man, but the boys could tell he was extremely fit. He sat back against the wall and folded his arms coolly. The hunter looked down at them, his humorous demeanor from before, gone. His stare was as solid as stone and he had a nearly uninterested look in his eyes. He seemed almost analytical and just stared at Grem and Sato for a long minute.

"So. What was your first impression of Anjanath?" The question caught Grem off guard.

Sato spoke; "Did you kill him without armor?"

The hunter looked down amused and said "Hmph. That one's a she, and yes, I did."

A moment of silence followed. "How?" Sato asked.

"Through dozens and dozens of pairings against Anjanath and through hundreds of hunts overall. That's the simple answer."

"It was a lot scarier than I thought it would be." Sato admitted. "I didn't expect to be so frozen…"

"But you weren't!" Grem spurted out, finally gaining back the nerve to speak. "You suggested a plan to save us. It just came at us before we could do anything."

"Is that so?" the hunter asked. Grem nodded. The hunter leaned back, seeming interested.

"We're sorry." Sato said full-heartedly.

"You should be." The sudden change in the hunter's tone of voice threw them off. You made eight people risk their lives just to save you."

Shame flew over Grem's skin. He didn't mean to!

"How old are you two?"

"Ten." Sato responded.

"Both of you?"

Grem nodded.

"Why did you do that?" The hunter asked.

Sato looked down at the floor before responding. He struggled with the first few words. "We wanted to learn more about monsters so that miss Laura at the academy would be impressed with us."

"Aren't you already learning all that stuff at the hunter academy?"

"We are at the normal academy. Miss Laura won't let us take the hunter academy entrance exam. So we were going to try to impress her with what we learned about monsters, so she'd let us take the exam. This year is our last chance. Ten is the age cutoff."

The hunter took in Sato's words for a long moment. "Maybe you shouldn't be allowed to enter the hunter academy if your teacher doesn't even recommend you."

That comment made Sato angry. "Miss Laura doesn't want us to join the hunter academy! She says becoming a hunter is too dangerous. She withholds all the monster books from us at the library, she shields us from hunters when we walk by them in the street, and anytime any other students are talking about hunter stuff, she tells them to stop. The stupid thing is, she is only stopping us two from knowing about monsters!" Somewhere in his rant, Sato had stood up and was throwing his arms around.

The hunter responded calmly "Why don't your parents get involved if this is such an unfair situation?"

"Our parents all died together in a hunt!" Sato screamed his last words.

The hunter was taken by surprise and his eyes widened. He didn't speak for a minute. He closed his eyes and bowed his head in thought. A few more moments passed. "How bad do you two want to become hunters?"

"More than anything." Grem said more confidently than he had ever said anything else before. Sato nodded in vigorous agreement.

"What are your names?"

"Sato." "Grem."

The hunter's eyes flicked from one boy to the other. "Go home and go to the academy tomorrow just like you would any other day."

Their hearts sank.

The man stood up and ushered Grem and Sato up and out of the stall area. "You never know." He said as he escorted them to the exit of the arena. They were getting accusing glares from all the arena workers and hunters as they passed. "Things may just work out for you guys."

They made their way down the three-hundred-meter underground tunnel leading to the arena then came up into the fancy, main lobby of the arena. He opened the front doors to reveal the town beyond. The boys stepped out. Grem turned around to face the hunter. "Thank you, sir." The hunter held his hand up in a halt motion. "Call me Matatchi."

"Thank you Matatchi." Sato said. Grem nodded again before turning and walking toward the academy housing.

Matatchi watched them go, contemplating.

Grem and Sato sat at their desks in their classroom, sulking against their flat surfaces as the riled class created chaos around them as they waited for miss Laura to come in for the morning. As if on queue, the door to classroom opened and a scattered looking miss Laura came in. She was in her mid-thirties and had long red hair and a pretty freckle-speckled face. She wore glasses and was wearing a light blue, causal dress. Sato and Grem had known her almost their whole lives. Ever since their parents died when they were young, she took them in. She was pretty much a mother to them.

"Quiet class! Sit down!" The entire class snapped to attention and within a few seconds, everyone was sitting neatly at their desk. Miss Laura's word was absolute. "We have a busy day today." She seemed a bit off. A bit flustered. "But first, I would like to speak with Grem and Sato. Please come with me to my office, boys." Grem's heart his gut. Sato and Grem glanced at each other nervously. That isn't good. They were probably going to get an earful for what happened yesterday.

Miss Laura exited the room. The duo followed. Her office was just the next room over and was small and neatly organized.

"Close the door, Grem." She said, not looking up from her desk as the boys entered. He did. "Sit, boys." They each took a seat in the cozy seats in front of her desk. She took a deep breath.

"I heard about what happened yesterday."

"We are reeeeealy sorry—" Sato began.

"I don't want to hear it." She said firmly but non-aggressively. She still had not looked up from her desk at this point.

"But I apologize…" She trailed off as she let a sob escape from her mouth. She quickly covered it with her hand.

The boys gaped. They had never seen Miss Laura so vulnerable.

She recovered somewhat. "If I had let you two learn all you could about monsters maybe you wouldn't have been dumb enough to make such a stupid decision." She looked up at them, eyes red.

Grem felt horrible that they did this to Miss Laura "We're sorry." He said meekly.

"No! No, no. Don't say that Grem. It is my fault and that's why…why I'm going to support you two all I can, so you can pass the hunters preliminary exam."

Grem couldn't believe what he had just heard.

"Really!?" Sato nearly yelled.

"Yes."

"Yes!" Sato yelled.

"Calm down, calm down." Miss Laura almost let out a laughed through her tears.

"Thank you!" Sato and Grem said simultaneously then looked at each other, overjoyed. They were going to become hunters!

And these are for you two. She reached in her desk and pulled out two envelopes and handed them to Sato and Grem. They each had their name written on them. "He told me to tell you not to tell the other what was in your message."

"Who?" Sato asked.

"Just read it."

Grem opened his envelope and pulled out a piece of paper with handwriting on it. It read as follows:

Grem,

It looks as if Miss Laura had a change of heart. Didn't I tell you things might work out? Regardless, I've taken a liking to you and Sato, so I think I am going to test you guys out myself to see if you really are hunter worthy. Meet me at the entrance of the arena around four o'clock tomorrow morning before you start classes. If you are not there exactly at the specified time, I will assume you do not care about becoming a hunter and will make sure you never become one as it is a hunter's virtue to be on time. I am sure Miss Laura will be more than willing to make an exception for you to leave at that hour. Eat a good hearty meal tonight but do not eat anything before you show up tomorrow morning. Bring nothing but yourself and make sure to get to bed early tonight. Oh yeah, and don't speak or communicate to Sato in any way before tomorrow.

See you bright and early,

Matatchi

Grem and Sato finished reading at the same time and looked up and just smiled at each other, remembering Matatchi's words.

Miss Laura leaned over her desk and hugged the two boys. "Don't get hurt. Good luck." She stood back up straightened out her clothes. And gathered her things. Meet me in the classroom when your two are ready." She started making her way out of her office. Immediately after she exited, she turned back around poked her head back in. "Oh yeah, I left some hunter books on hold in the library for you two. Better get to studying." She said with what seemed like a relieved smile.