Victim to the Sin of Wrath

by Cottonmouth25

Any Monster Hunter fan who knows me also knows that I positively HATE Gobuls. They're cowardly demons that lurk in the shadowy depths of the swamp, waiting to swallow you whole. But were they always this way? Here's a little folktale that tells about the Gobul's troubled past, and the unfortunate path he chose.

This is my first fanfic, a little short story that I wrote not too long ago.

I decided to post this before my "real" fanfics because I wanted to get used to using this website.

When the Maker created the world, he was inexperienced. He had to go through some trial and error. When he was finally done, the world gradually became a messy place, knee-deep in dead plants and rotting corpses. So, the Maker decided to make a new type of creature that he called a "scavenger".

And that was how First Gobul was born. First Gobul's instructions were simple; to make a home in the Flooded Forest and eat any dead bodies he found, thus cleaning his home and making it sanitary again. Born with a huge maw and insatiable appetite, First Gobul was ready for his task.

At first, he did his job exceptionally well. All of the filth vanished within days. All of the creatures of the forest thanked First Gobul endlessly for making their world clean again. For years afterward, First Gobul proudly and diligently ate any and every corpse he swam by.

When the Flooded Forest had been kept clean and free of rot for a hundred years, everyone started to ignore First Gobul, taking his important work for granted. First Gobul was very confused at this behaviour – where was the praise he had begun to enjoy getting? Perplexed, First Gobul continued his work dutifully, and eventually learned to like being alone.

However, after another hundred years, the Flooded Forest's residents, especially the humans, formed higher standards. Instead of ignoring First Gobul, they scorned him, looking down on him for scrounging for their leftovers. When First Gobul saw the treatment he was getting, he wasn't just confused – he was shocked, hurt, and above all, furious.

First Gobul became a hunter, vacuuming other creatures into his gaping jaws by the dozens. His color-changing ability, his flashing lantern, and his neurotoxins became weapons that he used mercilessly against his neighbors. The other creatures lived in fear of his next attack, never knowing when or where he would strike next. It got to be so bad that the Maker punished First Gobul, imprisoning him in a distant underwater cavern.

The Flooded Forest had smaller, less intelligent scavengers, but they couldn't do their job as well as First Gobul. Their home rapidly became a filthy, dirty swamp overflowing with murky water and dead plants. Eventually, everyone came to miss the cheerful, diligent First Gobul they knew, wishing that they had treated him with more kindness. It was then that a human, who regretted his actions most of all, asked the Maker where to find and apologize to First Gobul.

After a long journey, the human reached the underwater cavern. However, the pitch-darkness unnerved the human, who happened to be scared of the dark. Finally, he saw a single, glowing light in the perpetual darkness, and frantically swam for it. It was only when the light winked out, and was replaced by two glowing yellow eyes, that he realized his mistake. The last thing he heard was a hissing roar that chilled the blood. And then, he was gone.

Maybe this wouldn't have happened if First Gobul hadn't been treated with such disdain. But he was, and his offspring still dwell in the Flooded Forest today, feeding off of the creatures that had scorned them so.

In the end, it was the Maker's inexperience that had doomed the Flooded Forest. In his hurry to clean the world, he had accidentally given First Gobul an excess of the thing that had eventually consumed him, the thing that still dwells in others today.

First Gobul truly was a victim to the Sin of Wrath.

So, what do you all think? Please review, and look forward to more stories from me!

~Cottonmouth25 (Cm25)