"Greetings. This is the portal that leads to the world of the monsters."

A strange voice echoed around me as I sleepily looked around. All I could see was a bright light, speckled with a multitude of colours. Everything sounded hazy and indistinct.

"Ohhh..." I sleepily said. "That's nice..."

The voice laughed. "You sound excited. But before we go, I'd like to ask you a few questions. Ready? Then let's begin!" said the voice.

It asked me a few questions, which I groggily answered. The swirling lights in the dreamscape seemed to be going faster and faster as I answered each question. They were mostly random and trivial things, like "what would you do if your wallet was stolen" and things like that. Things that didn't seem to matter.

"Only a few more now," said the strange voice.

"You've just been told that you can't buy something you've been lining up to get for hours! What do you do?"

"Line up for more hours, duh," I said. I felt like I was talking underwater. Forcing the words out was hard, and I couldn't truly hear myself.

"Hmm... I see. Finally, I have one more question. Are you male or female?"

"I'm a girl," I said. "Can't you tell by the sound of my voice?"

"I'm afraid not. But thank you for answering all of those tedious questions. I think I've gotten a feel for the sort of person you are.

"You're very determined. No obstacle will get in your way, and if it does you'll just climb over it. You never give up, not even when the odds seem stacked against you.

"So, a determined person like you..."

As the voice trailed off, a mirror appeared in front of me. I could see a blurry shape that I guessed was supposed to be me. As I stared, the shape in the mirror seemed to change.

"...will be a Tigrex!"

"That me?" I asked, still feeling like I should be asleep rather than talking to strange dream voices in strange dream worlds.

"Indeed. Now, we're ready to go! A grand adventure awaits in a new world, filled with wonder and excitement! Are you ready?"

I tried to nod but I couldn't feel my head. So I settled for a simple "Yes".

"Welcome to the world of monsters!"

The colours reached fever pitch and the light grew so bright and intense that I would've covered my eyes if I could feel them.

Suddenly, the blinding light vanished and was replaced by a clear blue sky. Clouds rushed past me at a terrifyingly fast pace. Limbs that felt too big and a neck that felt too long twisted as I tried to look down.

Below stretched a picturesque landscape. A vast forest spread out below, broken only by a pristine river. In the distance mountains reached for the sky, and rolling green plains dotted with patches of colourful flowers arrayed themselves below me. Just on the edge of the forest I could see a little village, nestled amongst the trees.

All of this beautiful scenery was approaching me at a blisteringly fast rate as I realised that I was falling. I knew that no amount of flailing would make me fall any slower, so I opted instead to go limp and brace for impact.

I came in hard and fast, crashing through tree branches to land in a small clearing. The jarring impact took my breath away. Somewhere nearby I could barely hear the river, over the ringing in my ears. Leaves fell all around me as I tried to push myself up from the ground, but try as I might I couldn't even keep my eyes open. The world blackened at the edges as I fell into unconsciousness.

"Hey..."

A voice was calling out to me. It sounded like a boy. His voice seemed to be coming from somewhere in the distance.

"Can you hear me?"

He sounded closer now. Was he walking towards me?

"Hmm... No response. This isn't good."

The voice was right on top of me now, and I could feel gentle breathing on my face. Mustering the effort to open my eyes was a lot harder than it should've been. The voice had stopped talking now, and I could hear shuffling, like someone rummaging in a bag of some sort.

The bright sunlight assaulted my senses when I opened my eyes, and so did the fiery red that filled my vision. As my sight came into focus, a lump of dread settled in my stomach as I beheld the creature in front of me.

It was covered in red scales, with spiky shells and plates covering its whole face. A large mouth with terrifyingly sharp teeth hung menacingly above my head. Huge wings were held folded at the beast's sides, and a great spiked club decorated its tail.

Ohhh, I thought. That's a Rathalos, and I'm about to die...

The monster must've already eaten the guy that was talking. Poor sucker. Now it was my turn. The beast opened its mouth...

"Oh! You're awake! Good, I was starting to get worried. I've never seen anyone fall from that high up before. You're lucky I was out here gathering herbs."

What did I just see? I thought. That thing opened its mouth and spoke!

"Are you alright? Wait, stupid question, of course you aren't. It's just that you're staring at me..." said the Rathalos.

"You're a Rathalos," I stated simply. My voice sounded a little...stronger than usual.

The Rathalos blinked. "Uh...yes. You're a Tigrex. Is there something wrong?"

"What? No I'm not!" I said. I wasn't a Tigrex. Last time I checked, I was a human.

Now the Rathalos had a look of concern etched on his face. "Uh-oh. I hope you don't have a concussion. Hold on..."

For the first time, I noticed the bag hanging from a strap on his neck, with a badge pinned onto it. With surprising dexterity for something with no hands, he opened it and took out what looked like a flashlight. Holding the device in his mouth, he looked at me.

"I'm gonna shine this in your eyes, ok?" he said, though it came out a but muffled.

He shone the flashlight in my eyes, briefly blinding me.

"Ow! Stop that!" I said.

"Well, your reactions are normal. Are you feeling strange in any way? Sick, dizzy?" asked the Rathalos.

"I'm confused that there's a talking Rathalos trying to diagnose me with a concussion, but other than that, no, I'm fine," I said. I still hadn't tried to move yet. I tried to get my arms underneath me to push myself up, but the Rathalos put his wing on me and held me down.

"No, don't try to get up. Let me check you over first," he said, lifting his wing from my back and moving behind me.

I wasn't too sure how I felt about having a fire-breathing predator 'check me over', but I forced myself to stay still. He didn't seem to want to eat me. In fact, he seemed to be surprisingly well trained in first-aid.

"Hmm... Wings seem normal. One claw is a little chipped but that's nothing that time won't fix. No visible damage to the spine, no signs of concussion... Hind legs are fine, no signs of breaking or spraining. And your tail looks uninjured as well. Wow, you're something special, eh? Dropping from the sky like a stone, but not a scratch on you."

I was less concerned with the fact that I was apparently healthy than the fact that he was analysing the states of my claws, wings and tail. As far as I remembered, I wasn't supposed to have those.

"Now you can try getting up. Slowly, please, and let me know if anything starts to hurt or if you start to feel weird at all, ok?" directed the Rathalos.

"Ok," I said, and did as instructed.

I did feel a little odd, but not necessarily in a bad way. My body naturally stood me up on all fours, with my arms spread out a little wider than my legs. My head kept fairly low to the ground. This didn't feel right at all, yet it somehow also felt perfectly natural.

"Nothing's hurting?" asked the Rathalos.

I chose to ignore him in favour of twisting my strangely long neck to look at my hands. Or rather, my lack thereof. Where hands should be were a set of brutal looking claws, attached to a wing and an arm covered in yellow scales and blue stripes.

"Wha..." I said, trailing off. "It's true! I really have turned into a Tigrex somehow!"

"Uh...if I may ask, what do you think you're supposed to be?" asked the Rathalos, somewhat delicately. I got the distinct impression that he thought I was crazy.

"I'm a human. Definitely not a Tigrex," I said. When and how did this happen? I vaguely remembered a weird dream world and a voice mentioning a Tigrex, but that was about it. Nothing to that could even begin to explain this.

The Rathalos frowned. "Humans? Those aren't real. They only exist in fairy tales and legends."

"It's true!" I insisted.

"You're kind of strange..." said the Rathalos. "Maybe I should check if you have a concussion or not again..."

"I don't have a concussion! I'm telling you the truth."

"Well... Ok. I choose to believe you, even though it doesn't exactly make sense to me," said the Rathalos.

"Wait, really?" I asked. "Just like that?"

The Rathalos shrugged with his wings, a very odd gesture. "Stranger things have happened in this world. Who am I to say you're lying?"

"Oh...um..." I stammered, not entirely sure what to say. "Thanks, maybe?"

The Rathalos laughed, a surprisingly pleasant sound. "You're welcome, perhaps. My name is Gentle Glow, by the way. Pleased to meet you."

"I'm, uh..." I started, but trailed off. What was my name? More importantly, why was I drawing a blank?

Glow watched me for a moment, his face creasing into a frown. "What's up?"

"I... can't remember my name. Why can't I remember my name!?" I said frantically.

"Calm down," said Glow, going back into medic mode. "Is there anything else you can't remember, or is it just your name?"

"Hmm..." I said, thinking. It hadn't occurred to me before, but the only thing I could reliably remember was that I used to be a human.

"Everything," I said. "No memories are coming to me at all."

"Retrograde amnesia. Can be caused by head trauma or traumatic events. I doubt that your whole life was one big traumatic event, and so far as I can tell you aren't suffering from any head trauma. So what else could have caused this?" pondered Glow.

Meanwhile, I tried my hardest to remember something, anything, about my life, but to no avail. Absolutely nothing even half came to me.

"I'm not entirely sure what to do here. But I suppose I can't leave you in the woods by yourself. And I need something to call you," said Glow. He glanced around, seemingly looking for inspiration while I tried not to have an existential crisis.

"For now, I'm going to call you Aether. Is that alright? It seems fitting, since you fell out of the sky and all..." said Glow.

"Sure. I guess that'll do for now," I said. I was more than a little bit confused, but astoundingly unafraid.

"Ok then, Aether. There's a village nearby, and from there we can head over to Cloudrest, where I live. I'm guessing that you don't have anywhere else to be," said Glow. "I'll...figure out what to do with you when we get to Cloudrest."

"Well, lead the way, I guess," I said, still not sure what to make of this whole situation. I was in a strange place, having fallen out of the sky with no memories, and in a body that wasn't my own. How and why does something like this even happen?

Glow turned and began to lead me out of the small clearing (which looked a lot more like a crater now, courtesy of my landing) and into the trees. For a while, everything was normal. Birds sang in the trees, and sunlight dappled the ground as Glow wove a path through the trees, which I followed. He seemed to know where he was going, but I did find myself wondering why he didn't just take off and fly out. Too hard to get through the trees, maybe? Or maybe he didn't want to leave me behind. I had wings now, sure, but I wasn't too keen on trying them out.

After a little bit of silent waking through the trees, Glow stopped suddenly.

"What is it?" I asked him.

"It just occurred to me that you probably don't know what a dungeon is, and we've reached the entrance to one," he said, looking into the trees ahead.

"Isn't a dungeon like a prison? That just looks like normal forest to me," I said.

"Look a little closer. See how the air is a little warped? It's almost like something is twisting it. That's how you spot the entrance to a dungeon," said Glow, gesturing with his wing.

"Ok, but what is a dungeon?" I asked. Now that he had pointed it out, I could definitely see it. There were subtle distortions on the trees ahead, like looking through a glass. The spatial distortions seemed to be moving as well, slowly but surely changing positions, and the way the forest looked.

"A mystery dungeon, or just a dungeon for short, is almost like a maze. They're very weird places that just don't make sense no matter how you look at them. See, the big thing is about them is that they change every time you go in. You can go through the same dungeon a hundred times and never have the same experience," explained Glow.

"Wait, what? That's just impossible. I'm pretty sure physics doesn't allow that sort of thing," I argued.

"I know, but it's true. Top scientists have spent decades trying to understand the dungeons, but they've come up with nothing. Anyway, dungeons can be fun to explore, because there's usually money and other random bits of treasure just laying around in them. But they're also dangerous, because they're full of ferals," said Glow.

"Ferals? Are those like wild animals?" I asked. I was still having difficulty wrapping my head around the idea of a place that changed between visits.

"Well, not exactly. Ferals are monsters who, as their name would imply, have gone totally wild. They'll just attack you randomly if they happen to come across you while you're exploring. Usually, the only way to get rid of them is to either fight back, or find a way to scare them off. Running away is also an option, but there are so many that I find it usually doesn't work. You'll always run into another one eventually, and then you'll be surrounded. It's not very common, but sometimes you can slap some sense into a feral and they'll stop attacking. They might even ask you to help them leave the dungeon," explained Glow.

The more he talked about this place, the less excited I was about going through it. "So are we going to get torn apart by wild Rathalos in there?" I asked, only half sarcastically.

"No," said Glow. "This is a relatively safe dungeon. The most you'll run into will be the odd Kut-Ku, but they're flighty enough that they'll just run away if you look at them funny. I still wish that the dungeons hadn't spread here though. This is still the best and safest spot I have to gather supplies, but the dungeon being here means it takes a bit longer than it used to."

"Wait, spread? You mean this place didn't used to be a dungeon?" I asked. That was a little frightening. Places could just suddenly become a physics-breaking maze filled with crazy monsters at the drop of a hat?

"No, it didn't. Used to just be a normal woods. I learned about the new dungeon one day when I walked on as normal but then found myself navigating a maze. That wasn't fun, since I wasn't prepared to deal with a dungeon. This sort of thing happens naturally over time, but lately it's been happening more and more often. I guess I'm just lucky that this place isn't too long or dangerous. Then I might have to buy stuff from Healing Remedy, and then I'd be out on the streets after one trip. Stupid bird charges way too much for basic salves..." said Glow, grumbling a bit at the end.

"I see," I said. I only kind of knew what he was talking about, but from what I could tell, dungeons were generally dangerous, but this particular one we were about to go through was less bad than others.

"There are a few other important things about dungeons that I need to explain, but I think I'll go through those as we go along. Are you ready to go in? I'll lead for the first floor, and then you can decide if you want to lead or go second. Just follow me as closely as you can, ok? I'll give you the map as well so you can check it if you get lost, " said Glow.

I nodded my assent, and Glow lead the way into the twisted forest. As soon as we entered I knew something was off. For one, the forest up until now had definitely not been laid out in long corridors and square rooms, with impenetrable walls of trees on all sides. Second, the map that Glow had given me seemed to be magical. As we walked, it filled in the layout of the parts we had visited, the path we followed being preserved on the map.

I followed Glow as he wandered around, clearly lost. I would've made suggestions if I'd known what he was looking for. As he had said, there were very few other creatures in the dungeon. Only a single Kut-Ku, which looked a bit skeptical of Glow, and took off squawking at the sight of me.

"So," said Glow as we walked down another long corridor. "This is the Sunwood, and we're currently on the first floor. Dungeons are broken up into floors, and one of the only things that stays consistent about a dungeon is the number of floors it has. Every floor has a set of stone stairs—don't look at me like that, I don't get it either—and that's what I'm looking for. Once you go up or down the stairs, you can't go back to the previous floor, so try not to leave anyone behind as you go along. This dungeon is very short, probably because the Sunwood itself isn't very big. It only has three floors. Follow me for a while longer until we find the stairs. Then, on the next floor, I'll let you lead for a while, ok?"

I was still trying to process the fact that this warped physics zone apparently caused stone stairs to sprout in random places. Including forests. I followed Glow as he continued to wander blindly through the twisted corridors. He lead us to a dead end more than once. Eventually, we came to a room, and I saw the stairs Glow was talking about. As I reached the base of the stairs, I looked up to try and get a glimpse of the next floor.

And my mind almost broke.

Instead of another floor like the one we were on, all I could see was a shifting mass of trees and colours, churning and twisting in impossible ways. I suddenly felt the urge to retch at the sheer wrongness of what I was seeing. Above me, Glow winced.

"Sorry. I forgot to warn you not to look straight up to the top of the stairs. My guess for what's going on there is that the dungeon hasn't stabilised its layout yet. So you just see...that. Try not to look at it again, ok? A friend of mine literally threw up one time, all over my tail, and then I had to clean him and myself up while an angry Congalala kept taking swings at us. It wasn't a fun experience," said Glow, cracking a small smile.

I could tell he was making jokes to try and make me feel better, which I appreciated. Careful not to look up, I climbed the stairs and made it to the next floor, which looked almost exactly the same as the previous.

"Do you want to take the lead? Or will I?" asked Glow.

"Maybe you should. Since you're more experienced and all," I said.

"It doesn't really matter. No matter how many times I come here, I'll never know my way around. Since it's different every time, and all," said Glow. "Might be useful to know at least a little bit about dungeon navigation for when we get to Cloudrest."

I raised an eyebrow at that but said nothing. "Alright, I'll lead then. And you'll just follow me?"

"Like I said, the leader doesn't matter. The wonder map will make sure we don't lose track of where we've already been, and there probably won't be any enemies. But I'll tell you if I spot any treasure. Always nice to come out with a bit of extra money, right?" said Glow.

With his words to bolster my confidence, I picked a corridor and walked down it. My first try took me to a dead end, so I had to squeeze past Glow to try another way. The next corridor proved a little more fruitful, and though I moved slowly at first, I got a little more self-assured and moved a little bit faster the more I went. Through random chance, I found the stairs in the first room I found, and, still careful not to look up, I ascended the stairs.

We started the next floor face-to-face with a Kut-Ku. Unlike the previous ones, this one didn't run away as soon as it saw us. It lowered its head and chirped as menacingly as it could at us.

"This one's a fighter, it looks like. You'll have to use a bit of force to dissuade it," said Glow.

"Me? Why don't you do it?" I asked. I couldn't imagine actually using these massive teeth or claws against something.

Glow turned his head to the side, avoiding eye contact. Was it just me, or did his face go just a little bit redder?

"I...don't like to hurt others. Even Ferals," he admitted.

"Ok, but I don't know how to fight. Like, at all," I pointed out.

"Well, you're a Tigrex. Why not try roaring? Kut-Kus hate loud noises, so even if it's not a particularly strong roar it should still run away," suggested Glow.

Not knowing what else to do, I sucked in a breath. To my surprise, it came naturally to me. I stood up taller and let out a roar. Not a hugely impressive one, in fact it was very quiet and quite squeaky, but the Kut-Ku flinched and ran off, squawking.

"Good job," said Glow, clapping his wings.

"That was awful. I sounded like a kitten throwing a tantrum," I said.

"You'll get better. You should see me trying to aim fireballs. It usually ends with everything but the target on fire," said Glow with a laugh.

The rest of the floor passed quickly. I led us in a few circles, courtesy of the dungeon layout, but I eventually got us to the room with the stairs. But as I walked over to them, Glow stopped me.

"Wait, before you keep going, look over there." He pointed his wing towards the corner of the room. A telltale sparkle told me there was more there than just dead leaves.

I walked over to the sparkly corner, and there on the ground sat a little pile of gold coins. I picked one up, examining the dragon emblem engraved on it.

"How did this get here?" I asked.

"No one knows. These dungeons don't even begin to make sense. You'll also come across herbs, salves, berries, mushrooms, and sometimes scarves or other valuables you can sell. No one is sure how exactly this stuff gets here, but some people think that it comes from people who failed the dungeon," said Glow.

"Wait, failed the dungeon?" I said. "What does that mean?"

"Basically, when there's a group of people in a dungeon and all of them get knocked out by enemies, or if they pass out from hunger or something else, they'll all wake up at whatever entrance they first went into, or at a waypoint if they happened to reach one. But half of their money will be gone, as well as a few random items from their bags," explained Glow.

He saw my shocked expression and chuckled. "Now do you see why we call these mystery dungeons?"

"But...what...how does something like that even happen?" I asked incredulously.

"Like I've said so many times before: nobody knows. It's a mystery. Anyway, those stairs should take us to the exit, so why don't you go ahead?"

Sure enough, when I climbed up the stairs, I was greeted not with the dark, claustrophobic corridors if the dungeon, but the normal, brightly lit trees of the forest. Through the trees I could see the little village that Glow had mentioned.

"That's Treehollow. A small place with only a few residents. It makes a nice stop when I just want to rest, but more importantly, there's a path from there to Cloudrest that doesn't have any dungeons on it. So this whole trip makes for a really nice gathering run," said Glow, walking up next to me.

"Are we going straight to this Cloudrest place?" I asked.

"Of course, unless you'd like to rest in Treehollow for a bit," said Glow.

I thought about that for a moment. Cloudrest sounded exciting—even the name was cool and exotic sounding. But I was also tired. Still, I felt like I'd be better off getting to the city as fast as possible.

"No, let's keep going," I said.

"Alright. Then shall we away?"

I let Glow take the lead again. As we came out of the trees and into the village, I saw Glow giving the villagers waves and receiving a few in return, though I got a few stares. The villagers were mostly non-feral Kut-Ku, though I did see a Gypceros or two.

We didn't stop, and Glow lead me to a cobblestone path.

"This is a really easy road, and it's not too long either. We'll be at Cloudrest in no time," he said.

Our walk passed in comfortable silence, neither of us really having anything to say. I took a little time to ponder my situation. Somehow, someway, I'd been transformed into a Tigrex, and had my memories erased too. For some reason, neither of these things seemed to bother me as much as they should. I knew I should be horrified at what I'd become, and disgusted with whatever had stolen my memories. Instead, I found myself mentally shrugging and accepting it. A side-effect of whatever did this, maybe? Instead of dwelling on it, I found myself thinking, Well, for now you're Aether the Tigrex, so you may as well make the most of it.

As we walked along the road, slowly a gleaming city became visible in the distance. It appeared to be built into the side of a mountain. I could see where it had gotten its name—it was so high up that there were clouds sitting on parts of the city, and slowly rolling over the edges of others. None of the buildings looked overly fancy, but we were perhaps a little too far away to tell properly. The whole place seemed to be made of some sort of shiny pale blue stone.

Glow grinned. "Like what you see? That's home up there on the hill."

The city grew larger and larger as we approached, and I began to realise just how high up it truly was. Even the lower parts of the city required me to crane my neck to see them. Eventually, we were standing almost directly underneath it. I groaned as I realised the the path now changed into a set of way too many stairs, winding their way up the mountain and presumably into the city.

"Now we have a choice," said Glow. "We can take the appropriately named Five Thousand Steps, or..." He shook out his wings, "...we can take a shortcut."

Some dim memory in the far reaches of my mind caused me to say, "But can't Tigrexes not fly? I'm pretty sure they can only glide."

"That's true and not true. You can fly, just not very high and not very far. But you could make it up to the city if you tried it. I've seen other Tigrexes do it before," said Glow.

I was a little conflicted. I really didn't relish the prospect of climbing five thousand very steep looking steps. But I also wasn't too keen on the idea of falling out of the sky again by trying and failing to fly. So far, whatever had transformed me had been kind enough to give me the muscle memory required for walking, but flying was a whole other issue.

"I'll try it, but don't expect any miracles," I said.

"I saw enough of those earlier when you were somehow unharmed after your sudden fall," said Glow with a slight smile.

He unfurled his massive wings and took off effortlessly, hovering next to me. He made it look very easy. The thumping sound of his wings was even and rhythmic, and he didn't wobble, sway, or even subtly change altitude.

"Stop showing off," I grumbled at him.

He grinned in response. "Don't try and copy me. I don't know much about being a Tigrex, but from what I've seen they usually take off by jumping way up and then going from there. Just try whatever feels natural."

I squared myself in the ground, preparing to leap upwards, and doing my absolute best to not overthink what would come after that. Once again, my body seemed to know what to do, even if I didn't.

When I jumped, I went a lot higher than I expected to. I knew Tigrexes were meant to have strong muscles, but I rocketed into the air much faster and higher than I ever thought I would. I panicked for a moment, but then I instinctually opened my wings and started beating them. A lot less gracefully than Glow, who was already soaring up to the city, I rose upwards. Soon, I was slightly higher than the level of the city, which was good because my shoulders were starting to ache a little bit. It was time to start gliding. I held out my wings and glided with surprising speed down to the city.

Unfortunately, landings were an acquired skill rather than an intrinsic one, and I made my entrance by barrelling straight into a passing Great Jaggi. Me and the unfortunate victim tumbled over each other for a moment, ending with him on top of me in a heap. The Jaggi glared at me.

"Watch where you're landing, clumsy!" he snapped before walking off.

"Sorry!" I called after him.

Glow landed next to me. Of course, he didn't run over anyone.

"That was pretty good for a first flight, though we do need to work on your landings," he said.

"For now," he continued, "Welcome to Cloudrest!"

A/N: And the adventure begins! This is an idea that's had been going around my head for a while, since I love both Pokémon Mystery Dungeon and Monster Hunter, I thought I'd stick them together and see what happens. The result was this. If you've got any criticism, or if you notice any spelling/formatting errors, go ahead and tell me so I can fix it.

EDIT: This chapter was edited 05/04/18. Changes include Gentle Glow now being referred to as Glow, and several grammar errors being fixed.