A/N: Written about a month before Monster Hunter World released. Not finished, really, and not to my standards. This story may disappear very soon.
"What are you- Are you crazy! I'm not letting you in with that thing!" said the guard at the gate to Astera.
A young woman stood before him, helmet hanging from her belt, with a baby Odogaron on her back. Even as a baby, it was nearly her size, and it was unconscious. Not to mention heavy.
"I'm not leaving until I at least get to my airship and retrieve my things! He'll be asleep for another few hours!"
"If you agree to cage it, out here, you can wheel it around with you."
"Are you serious?!"
She took a step forward… And heard bowguns brace to fire at her. She looked around, anger clear on her face.
"Fine. Hurry up and bring a cage, then."
The guard backed up to the gate and talked to another man who wandered off, but the men on the walls never looked away from her and the Odogaron.
Hours earlier…
"We're good to go down here!" yelled Falenkor. "The hell're you doing?!"
Olivia looked down over the ridge she was on.
"I'll be right there, just head back to camp without me!" she responded.
"Not gonna happen!" he yelled back. "I'll go get her, y'all wait here."
He shot a line from his slinger and left their other two party members, Mia and Jak, to guard their spoils.
Olivia quickly backed away and drew her sword, shield up, her Seregios armor bristling slightly in response to her heartbeat rising. Falenkor crested the ridge, pulled himself over, and found her guarding a baby Odogaron from him. The Odogaron itself was snarling and backed into a wall of the cavern, looking gaunt and weak.
Falenkor looked at the monster, then Olivia. He sighed.
"We're either killing that thing and putting it out of its misery, or we're getting it out of here before something eats it."
Olivia didn't drop her guard right away, but she relaxed slightly.
"So go get some meat for it. I'll stay here and watch it."
Falenkor raised his helmet's visor and whistled for their Palicos.
"You guys go get the meat. We'll guard it. Radobaan is still out there, and I'm not gonna leave you to fight one while trying to guard that thing."
The Palicos left as Falenkor took his hunting horn off the straps on his back. The Odogaron snarled more sharply when he did.
"Oh-ho! It knows."
"Of course it does," said Olivia. "We killed its parent a while back. No idea how it survived this long."
"Yeah, well… We just did our job. Can't take it back now, and I'm not going to stop and check for babies every time we get sent on a hunt. These things happen. We'll do what we can for now, though."
The Palicos returned shortly with sides of meat from smaller local monsters. They threw the meat between the Odogaron and the hunters. It took time, even in its starving state, before the Odogaron had the courage to step up and eat.
While it did, the four hunters talked amongst themselves.
"What, uhh… What's the plan with that thing?" asked Jak, hidden in his Seltas armor.
"I'm taking it with us," said Olivia, boldly.
"I… Kinda figured you would say that."
"I'm down," said Mia. "Worst case, we end up releasing it somewhere we've cleared of larger monsters and it gets to live to fight another day. Best case, we've got a sweet pet or partner."
Falenkor yawned. "Look, I just wanna go home, already. Let's get set up to leave, tranq the thing, and be on our way, huh?"
Olivia looked back at it. The Odogaron was chewing a large bone to crack it open, even though it had clearly overeaten already.
"Agreed," she said.
A few years later…
Deep thrumming horns sounded the alarm.
"Deviljho spotted! Deviljho spotted! It is raging in the Ancient Forest area! Available hunters, respond!"
An approaching airship swooped low suddenly, to the quest platform. A large man in Zinogre armor jumped down.
"My party can handle it. We just got back from a gathering mission, we're good to go."
"Falenkor, Mia, Jak, Olivia, and Astraeus, right? I've got you recorded! Go!"
Falenkor grabbed a free line hanging from the ship and started climbing hand over hand. Jak helped him back up and the airship rose immediately.
"Get back inside, guys! Here we go!" said Mia, strapped in at the helm turning the airship toward the Ancient Forest. She was still in Nargacuga armor from their mission.
Jak and Falenkor went back into the protected interior and shut the door. They found Olivia already working on cooking a meal for the mission and mixing up potions. Astraeus, now a fully grown Odogaron, took up the entire rear wall inside the airship, and he looked keyed up and alert.
Falenkor raised his empty hand over his head and dipped it twice. "All clear," a hand sign they'd taught Astraeus. The huge wyvern only relaxed a little.
Falenkor walked over to Olivia.
"I think we should leave him at camp when we get there."
"Why?" said Olivia, not even looking up from what she was doing.
"We're fighting Deviljho. They eat anything and everything."
"Yeah. Including us. So let's get Astraeus saddled and armored again."
"You seriously think he'll be ok with this? This isn't like anything he's had to fight before. He's never been in a situation where the other monster thought of him strictly as food and not even a threat. Deviljho don't have turf wars… They have meals that don't go down easy."
"What, you think he'll freak out and run away in fear? Please. If anything, this is an important step for him. What if he has to fight an Elder Dragon one day? Or what if I die and he needs to fight on his own? What if he outlives us?"
"That's not going to happen and you know it," said Falenkor.
"Dude, chill out," said Jak. "He's been great so far. He's already fought an Azure Rathalos, Diablos, Anjanath… Hell, he's fought things that technically have a higher threat rating than Deviljho. It'll be fine."
Olivia stepped away from the food she was making to pull a large side of meat out of their oven and heave it back at Astraeus. The Odogaron snapped it out of the air, set it on the floor, held it down with one huge paw, and ripped it up in under a minute.
Meanwhile, the hunters ate their own meals and left one prepared for Mia. After that, they worked together to strap Astraeus' custom armor back on. Some of it was high-grade, treated metal, and it had a gap for a section of his left foreleg where his name was written in black-dyed scales. The rest were plates of bone from Diablos skulls painted red to match Astraeus' own color.
They were done and trying to strategize based on what they knew about a Deviljho when Mia pulled a cord to ring a certain bell. They were about to pass over the mission area. Falenkor stepped away, pulled a lever, and the floor of the airship opened up in front of him.
Without a word he took up a glider they had prepared made of monster bones, wing membrane, and rope, and jumped out. He glided down near the trees and disappeared.
Jak took up his own hammer and Falenkor's hunting horn, and Olivia climbed into her saddle on Astraeus. Their ship flew low near the beach and a second bell rang. Astraeus jumped down to the sand and the ship flew up again. Olivia and Astraeus waited there, watching for Falenkor's flare.
Jak closed the doors on the belly of the airship and waited by the door for the ship to stop moving. A third bell rang, he stepped out, closed the door behind him, then he and Mia rushed off the ship and into the forest, toward Falenkor's flare.
On the beach, Astraeus took off at a sprint and vanished into the treeline seconds later.
Falenkor was hiding on the other side of a tangle of vines, but the Deviljho was sniffing for him. They both heard bushes rustle, but nothing else. Falenkor kept still, but the Deviljho looked in that direction, then started walking quickly over, drooling.
Quietly over the soft ground, Mia and Jak appeared next to Falenkor, handing off his hunting horn. They both nodded, Falenkor nodded, he leaned out from behind the vines and punched a fist down twice. "Full assault."
He put the mouthpiece of his hunting horn to his lips and blew. Deviljho's head snapped to the side to look right at him, it roared- And was slashed across the top of its snout by Astraeus as he jumped out of the shadows and bushes.
Deviljho immediately tried to snap at Astraeus' head and received a stab wound on its forehead for trying, from Olivia on his back and her partizan.
Astraeus roared, Deviljho roared, and the hunt was on…
A/N: Based on "Monstie shots: The Nargacuga" by NCHProductions on YouTube, and the idea to have a Hunter "weapon" like the insect glaive where you just ride a small monster and the upgrades are the monster's armor. Unlike the insect glaive, upgrading the monster would be just like a weapon upgrade, just monster armor instead of something to wield. Same animations, same timing, etc. When knocked down, instead of rolling across the ground, getting thrown from the monster and you both getting up and mounting again. Same downtime, just a different way to show it. For items, healing and other personal use, just use the powder animation and loop it as needed (i.e. a mega potion may take two extra loops of releasing powder as opposed to our current Lifepowder animation). Your hitbox would be larger, though, so as a trade-off you would need to dodge further (go figure, monster jumping around with you on its back) and be able to sprint longer/faster (one or the other). Depending on how you describe the monster, it may have an elemental spit/breath attack that you could use like the insect glaive's marker shot.