Vincent was running through the forest, down the winding paths. He was careful though, never going to fast so that he wouldn't trip or stumble, He was holding something very important. He was approaching the cottage now, it was just over the next hill, but something was off. As he made his way up the hill, closer to home he could hear something.
THUD! THUD THUD THUD!
It was the sound of arrows hitting their targets, He could see down across the shallow valley that contained his village. Down in the center of the village he could see two Hunters facing a rathalos in hand to hand combat, the taller one had a gleaming katana that seemed to explode with dark energy on every hit, and the shorter stouter man with a beard had a huge hammer with spikes coming out of it, He could faintly hear the men shouting as they fought for their lives.
"Victor, I need to you sweep out his legs! If you can put him on the ground I might be able to the a hit that'll end thi..." The man was cut off by a swift tail whip from the frustrated wyvryn. His Katana flew dangerously through the air and landed point down in the ground some 30 ft away.
"Shit! Leo are you ok!?" Victor yelled concern apparent in his voice.
"I'll live." Leo coughed out as he crawled for his blade. "Take out his legs and give me an opportunity!" he was back on his feet now and staggering.
"You got it Leo." Victor shouted as he rain directly towards the beast. All this while the rathalos is watching his prey stumble back towards its weapon. It begins to lean forward and rut at the ground. Victor manages one solid blow on the back of the creatures heel, leaving a few deep puncture wounds and making the beast stumble the first step of it's sprint.
"Holy Shit!" Leo exclaims as he sees the furious creature charging towards him. He yanks his sword up out of the ground and dives backward all in one smooth motion avoiding the impact by inches. The wyvryn turns it's head to stare and roar at the nimble hunter mid charge and in doing so loses it's footing and crashes headfirst into a cottage demolishing it completely and landing flat on the ground after sliding a few feet.
"Oh my god." Vincent quietly sputters out. Seeing his house demolished with his family inside is too much for the young 13 year old and he begins to blackout. He falls backwards onto the soft grass and remains unconscious as his brain tries to sort out what he just saw.
* * * *
Vincent is awoken a few hours later by a soft mewing and a small scratchy tongue on his cheek. Opening his eyes he sees the culprit, Its the baby melynx he'd found in the forest earlier and was bringing home to show his sister. Then it hits him, his whole family was just killed, He sits up quickly, then stands to get a better view. The rathalos lies dead, He can see a few more houses were destroyed accomplishing this, and the the squat hunter with the hammer can be seen sitting outside a medical tent, presumably waiting for something, or someone.
"HEY, HEY!" Vincent screams as he's racing down to the village, still clutching the baby melynx in his arms.
"Who's that?" the village elder mumbles to himself as he watches the small figure approach from the hill. "Vincent! Vincent, is that you!?" He exclaims as he begins to sharply walk over. His happy demeanor vanishes however when he sees the boy's tear stained face.
"Where are they! Where's my family!?" The boy shouts, taking his anger out on the only person close to him before collapsing in front of the elder.
"I'm sorry." the old man said sullenly, "We thought you were with them, Thank the heavens your safe."
"But what about them?" The boy said, once again breaking into tears.
"Now listen hear! Now is not the time for sadness!" the old man shouted down at him, his soft expression being replaced by a more stern one. The boy immediately stood up and wiped the tears from his eyes.
"I guess your right." said the boy, reacting to the man's authority, "But what should I do?" The boy asked, his shattered mind starving for leadership.
"Become strong, for your family's memory, and for yourself." said the elder, relaxing a bit once more and the turning away to deal with one of the many pressing matters at the moment.
Vincent looked down at the melynx he was still holding close in his arms, He put him down on the ground for the first time since he'd woken up. "Looks like your my only family now, we have to be strong." He walked over to the stout hunter, "thank you for saving our village."
"Don't bother thanking me kid, I'm walking home without a scratch. If you want you can pay your respects to the man in this tent, his name is Leo, He's a longswordsman and he damn near gave his life today to protect your village." The man looked toward the tent and seemed to swallow sadness and anxiety before slumping back into his chair and returning his gaze to the ground.
Vincent looked down at the cat thoughtfully, "Your name will be Leo, in honor of the brave hunter that nearly gave his life protecting this village." Vincent then began to walk towards the ruins of his home. He swallowed vomit as he saw a dismembered limb lying in the rubble of his home. In spite of the sights he dug through the wreckage until he found his fathers old bow. The bow was a heirloom passed from father to son for four generations, it was the charge of every recipient to add one uprgrade to the bow before it was passed on. Vincents father was once an rank 3 hunter earlier in his life and had added Garuga elements giving the bow such a high affinity, lesser informed men thought it was blessed. Vincent slung the bow over his shoulder and began walking down the merchant road all the way out of town and headed for Agito city, the home of his fathers old guild hall.