Hey everybody, welcome to my next story. This one is clearly based off of user Cosmic Guardian's Lupi della caccia. If you want a bit of background, read his story along with its sister stories, The Monster Trapper by Josephiroth and Times to remember by The Blue Tigrex. Enjoy!
"Hey, sir!" I look behind me, a hunter in Mosgharl armor holding a piece of paper being the one who interrupted my preparations. "Are you the Pro Trapper Sol?"
Sol, my name, rather my middle name. Quite hilarious considering the fact that I like to hunt at night because I prefer the moon's light to the sun's blaze to light my surroundings, and my name is used as a nickname for creatures representative of the sun. "Yes, what can I help you with?"
"I was wondering if you'd do this quest for me. I haven't the time on my hands to do it right now, nor do I see anytime in the near future. Since I didn't want to disappoint the client, I accepted and am offering you to do it in my stead." I grab the quest info from him as he continues, "It's a G-rank egg gathering quest in the Dunes for a single egg of a Seregios that has been inflicted with that virus going around the monsters."
I look at him, "So, I just need to secure the egg for the client until the Seregios either is killed or recovers from the Frenzy?" He nods to confirm my summary. "Hmm… I guess I will. I was just going on an expedition today, nothing remarkable." I get up, picking up my Gunlance, Dalamadur Gunlance, and sheathing it before turning back to him. "If that is all and you have to say, then get ready for your quest and go, because you accomplished what you wanted to do." He nods before leaving.
"Weird guy. Didn't seem distressed about being unable to do it, but I should prepare more carefully for this, just in case." I take the quest to the counter for verification to take it and then wait for a ship to take me and any other hunters over to the Dunes.
Everyone starts to leave the ship, me being the last one off. I tell everyone who ended up in the base camp to start their quests. Guild rules states that the hunter with the highest HR is last one on the ship and every other hunter has to wait for all hunters to leave the ship before they can start their quest. Luckily, most of the hunters here were hunting Cephadromes due to the rise in their population, so the other hunters will be out of my way so I can deliver the egg.
"Okay, most monsters have their eggs hidden away around the Guild-designated area 5, easy enough." I walk towards the area, nothing on my mind in particular until I get to the area.
"Damn it." I see the Seregios the quest referred to, laying over by its nest, unmoving in its slumber. I hide behind a pillar in the area and start thinking what to do.
Shit, of course it had to be here when I came for the egg. Always me, a hunter who has some of the unluckiest streak of days ever known in the entire Guild, than a hunter who's luck turns sour for a day. Of course it's me! I finish lamenting in my mind before sighing and thinking what to do next. Shit. My job requires me to deliver it's egg, not slay it. I should find the egg first, then wait for the Regios to leave. I then start looking for the egg as silently as I can with my weapon and customly designed White Monoblos (Monodevil) armor, which is mostly just removal of the helm's horns and making the chest armor look more like a thicker version Barioth X mail, but am unable to find it and return to the pillar.
Are you kidding me? No sign of the egg and the Regios is still asleep? I then look back to the Seregios, which still haven't moved since seeing it, then notice it's chest not moving. Wait... Is it dead? Is it seriously dead because it was too weak to fight the Frenzy off? I then emerge from the back of the pillar to walk to the Seregios and find out whether it's dead.
"I mean, I didn't see it's chest moving, so it's probably dead." I'm now standing next to it's head, thinking whether I should disturb it, when I notice a small bit of yellow in the corner of my eye. I turn around and see nothing. I brush it off and turn back to the Seregios, then move it's head with my foot.
"It's dead. I shouldn't be able to move it's head this easily, plus, it would've stirred or even woke up as I did it. I crouch down to start carving and move to take out my carving knife when I hear a noise on my left side. I look left and see a little Seregios next to the corpse's tail, and it looks at me. I continue to look at it until it chirps, making me realize that I'm looking at a very young Seregios. I move my hand away from my knife and into my pouch, still looking at it as it tilts it's head at me. I take out some jerky and hold it out to the young Seregios, hoping it'll accept it like the captured monsters I helped the Guild control as they recovered from wounds. The Seregios moves to my hand and sniffs the meat in it before taking a bite of it. It swallows it and looks back at me before taking another bite.
"Happy you took my offering. Now, if there's a very young Seregios here, then you must be the egg the quest was talking about, and this was your mother." The Seregios tilts its head at me, obviously unable to understand me, before taking the last of the jerky out of my hand. "Now, what should I do with you?" The Seregios looks at me again, then to it's mother, before jumping on it's mother's body and moving to me and chirping once in front of me. I then put my hands out and it jumps into my arms. I stroke the back of it's head once it settles down in my arms and falls asleep.
"That was really cute, I must admit. Guess I'll just take you back to base camp with me and wait for the ship to arrive again." I then get up without moving my arms as much as possible and walk back to base camp. Once at the base camp, I sit at the bed and wait for the ship to come back. As hunters come back, finished with their quest, the Seregios wakes up and moves next to me, it's head on my lap, and nobody pays any notice.
The ship returns to retrieve us, and only one group of hunters failed their quest to kill two Cephadrome. Everyone starts to chat about their quests, and only then do they notice the Seregios in my arms. One hunter, a darker-skinned woman in Rathian Blademaster armor, walks up to me after everyone stops talking to ask,
"Aw, isn't he cute? Where'd you find it?" Some other hunters start asking the same thing, so I just tell everyone willing to listen what happened.
"What are you going to do once we return to the Gathering Hall?"
I shrug, "Go to the Guildmaster, see if he'll allow me to raise him."
Next chapter's probably going to be shorter, maybe not, all depends on what I do. Thanks for reading, see you in the next chapter. Also, before I forget, yes, the 4th stage of the 5 stages in the Dalamadur GL path is called "Dalamadur Gunlance."