Chapter 1 - With the Rising Sun

It was a damp and humid morning, tropical rain from the previous night still balanced on the tips of grass blades, trees dripped quietly, all was still but the gradual drying of the land. Night still lazily draped over the small Moga village which sat at the mouth of a gorgeous bay. There were few awake at the time, at most the fishermen would be returning home from a long night of retrieving trapped fish. Other villagers lay quietly in their huts, pressing themselves either to a lover or a child, quiet and asleep they stay.

However, there was one who seemed to skip the sleeping process for the night. Tracking a rather troublesome enemy for a while, one Moga villager was wide awake, traveling through the deep caves which lead to the bay. Waist-deep in a flooded cavern, the woman held a torch above her head. Her body was clad in something much more different than the tattered leather of a normal villager. Instead, she wore many different pieces of what seemed to be armor. Each piece was created from the skin or scales of a creature. She wore this because she was no ordinary villager, in fact, if anything, she was above the entire village in rank. This was the village's hunter.

Looking closer at her compilation of animal armor, it was clear to see it was from a species far more dangerous- not an animal, but a combination of monsters. Upon her calves and behind her arms were fins of sorts -they were impressively sharp in nature. Her body was tightly fit with a vest made of some light-weight but extremely sturdy hyde. Bolted down and stitched across a thick leather, her body was covered in a decadent mixture of blue-green and yellow scales.

Resting across the back of her perfectly sculpted hips was a sword, matching its stout and thick design was a shield which was strapped onto her arm. It was clear that the matching set of armor and weaponry was built using some intimidating and powerful monster. Its origin however was the water, seen by the way the water the hunter walked through seemed to just glide right off every inch of her body and weaponry.

The woman had clearly seen battle in her days. Her body, although a perfect balance of muscle and sun- kissed skin, was covered in marks. Some were rough and jagged, and others resembled something of an intricate design. Her face however, although it seemed soft and feminine was scarred with one large slash extending from the bottom of one of her ice blue eyes to the curve of her jawline. Upon her head was a long mess of gold-white locks, few braided to keep her hair out of her face.

Continuing to travel through the caves, she finally felt the ground go down. She knew she was getting closer to what was the entrance to the bay. Stopping to take one last look around the rocks, she noticed a trail of remotely fresh monster blood. Blinking hard as to adjust her eyes, the hunter neared the wall. Either something had just been killed or something was too stupid to try and fit its body through a small cave. She assumed the latter as to keep her focus. She was hunting something that wasn't meant for traveling the caves, that was for sure, but she wasn't too accurate on if the monster was this dumb or not.

Dunking her torch into the salty water, she put its flame out and tossed the crude hunk of wood aside. Taking a deep breath, she dove downward, slipping right below a overhanging of rock and began to travel through an underwater tunnel. The salt was no problem for her eyes, coming from a family of fishers, she had practically adapted to it. Not only was she able to swim quickly regardless of the help of her water-hunting gear, but she also knew how to predict and read water currents.

Feeling her body go a bit faster, she knew there was a suction created from an opening at the end of the tunnel. Smiling at her correct guessing, she put her hands along the closing space and simply pushed herself to the mouth of the cave. Holding herself in the opening she now gazed at a crystal-clear area. She was in the quieter area of the bay. If any, Moga villagers would come here to collect raw materials and shelled fish. It was simple to gather here because once you made it down past the initial breaking waters, it was calm and quiet, not to mention monsters generally didn't come here save the occasional Ludroth of course. They were just sneaky annoyances who tend to get lost in cave mazes every once in a while, this ending up here by mistake

However, what ever had forced itself through the cave she previously traveled through, if that was even the correct guess of course, it had to be much bigger than a simple Ludroth.

Upon readying herself to push out into the open, there was a glint she noticed out of the corner of her eye, thus making her back up into the cave's shadow. The only real light she could depend on as of now was the moon. As she waited, she felt a shift in the water's movement.

After another minute of waiting, she felt her head get light. She was definitely running out of air. She had held it this long, but even an expert water hunter would need air to keep going. Looking around, she found a pocket in the rocks where bubbles were coming down. Sadly, this was out in the opening where something was still lurking. She had a better chance of going up to the surface for air over swimming across to the air spout through the rocks -but going to the surface would give her a bigger blind spot than the prior option.

Letting out a mouthful of air as to ease her strain, the hunter decided on going up rather than across. Crouching at the mouth of the cave, she pushed up to the surface as quick as she could. That's when she saw th glint again. Immediately, her heart raced. She hardly took an appropriate breath of air before she was back under water, her sword drawn.

o o o

"Damnit Ichiro! The next time you knock me back, I'll have the blacksmith make your SKIN my new armor set!"

"HA! Sorry Princess, Just trying to land a good hit!"

"Don't call me a princess, you mindless brute!"

"Would you two women quit arguing and focus on the task at hand here?!"

Weapons flew just as fast as insults did between three men -hunters actually. Together, they stepped lightly around a rather enraged Barroth. The monster was already seeing colors as it had a missing tail and broken head. A large cry bellowed from its mouth as it charged one of the men wielding a sword and shield.

"Come on buddy, let's go!" sneered a man with pitch-black hair and emerald eyes.

"Whoops!" another man yelled as his body collided with the green-eyed man and his hammer took a good hit to the Barroth's face.

"Ichiro, no- GAH!" at the same sound of the Barroth's head being hit, the man thrown hit the ground rather harshly.

Gasping for air, the sword and shield fighter tried to get up. He winced as he pulled away from a rather impressive stack of rocks which his back hit. If it wasn't for his armor, he could've been dead. At his struggle, the third hunter came running up. He quickly locked his great sword, a weapon that was nearly twice his size, onto a holster on his back and pulled green-eyes up.

"The thing looks almost dead thanks to Ichiro, then again, so do you." the man said, pulling his great sword back out before picking up some speed to charge at the Barroth.

"Frrrg-" a frustrated grunt came out of the sore man as he scooped his stout sword back up by the hilt. It was just as he had progressed from walk to a limping run that the Barroth's body was know falling towards him.

"Timber! HAHAHA!" a yell boomed out into the open desert followed by a maniacal laugh -all by the man who held a hammer. This was Ichiro.

"Oh god-!" jumping to the side, the sword and shield user had enough time to barrel roll away from the toppling monster.

"Ladies, dinner is on me tonight!" Ichiro announced as he jumped up to stand upon the Barroth's corpse.

"Man, you are such a kill-hog." said the man who was currently sheathing his great sword and wiping away a blotch of mud that had been thrown at him from the fight. Going by the name Siras, he took out a small hunting peg and stabbed it into the Barroth's body, marking the kill. "So how the hell are we gonna drag it back?" he asked absentmindedly.

"We wait for the sand sailors, you idiot." the man with the green eyes said as he stood, holding his side. "All of our kills are on a time-base. That's the new rave about these damn guilds. We're doing their dirty work for an ample reward."

"So much better than hunting locally. Their rewards were worth squat!" Ichiro said jumping down. He approached the man with green eyes and pulled his hand away to view the damage. There was nothing visible, so he simply laughed and smacked his back, throwing the man nearly against the Barroth's body. "Oh Kilk, you can be such a girl, you're fine!" he said with a laugh.

"A girl! You are the one who body smashed me into a pile of boulders! I think I'm allowed to be sore!" the man named Kilk yelled, avoiding face-planting the Barroth's body by throwing his hands out.

"HAH, I did it to save you." Ichiro said with a smirk.

"Hardly!" Kilk volleyed back.

"Hey! You two are fighting like a married couple, how about you act a little more like hunters now since the sand sailers are coming!" Siras interrupted, pointing to a caravan of boats which, literally, were sailing across the sandy plains.

Luckily, the group had managed to kill the monster while it was still dark. After a few days of tracking it and being beat repeatedly by the relentless sun, the one thing the three deserved was a lift back to the city in the cool night breeze. Kilk, looking up, viewed a full moon, it would be a few hours before they'd see that all too familiar ball of fire.

o o o

A rush of water, a quick dodge, a close save. The woman who hunted by water was now amidst a battle. Luckily, it was with an already wounded monster and much to her pleasure, it was the one she had been tracking. A greater and more powerful version of Ludroth, the Royal Ludroth served as a pack leader -if you will. It's long amphibious body was a few times larger than a normal Ludroth and was decorated with a crown of golden scales. It really was majestic looking as it swayed powerfully through the water beneath the lasting moonlight.

The hunter spun just as quickly away from the beast as it took a swipe at her. Seeing a trail of blood follow it, she figured this one wasn't too energized nor was it smart. Upon its crown, there were several hanging pieces of torn skin. It looked as though it unexpectedly ran into something far more powerful than itself.

As the monster took more than a few seconds to readjust itself, the Ludroth was practically advertising signs that it was weak. Generally, hunters would wait until they were on land to see if the monster was displaying a limp or drool in order to determine it's closeness to dying. For water hunters, that luxury was taken from them -thus making the hunter type quite rare. But with this handicap, the water hunters were far more adept and alert. Studying body language and movement was more or less their specialty. There was no saying water hunters were more valuable, only that they were more useful in certain situations.

The woman shifted her weight downward and pushed down until she was standing on the seafloor of the bay. Looking up, she noticed the Ludroth's slight confusion and waited eagerly for it to swim down. It's body movement was simply pathetic, the huntress wondered what had attacked it.

It took a few seconds, but the Royal finally viewed the hunter and began to charge at her. Smirking, the woman waited for the perfect moment and she lunged forward. Pulling her arm back which was equipped with her sword, she stabbed it forward just as the Ludroth opened its toothy mouth. Her arm, now in it's mouth up to her shoulder, held a sword as it was lodged upward into the monster's head -the tip of the blade exiting just barely above the top of the crown.

The monster twitched a few times before it eventually grew still. Completely forgetting she had minimal air once more, the hunter ripped her arm away, sacrificing her skin against its teeth in the process and swam up. Once she was at the surface, she greedily took mouthfuls of air. Sheathing her sword behind her, she bobbed in the water, eyes closed as she allowed her adrenaline to seep out of her skin. The monster she had taken a week to track was finally out of her hair as well as the villages.

Looking up, she noticed that in place of a moon, there was a break in the dawn. The sun was rising. She sighed and swam towards shore. And just as she finally pulled herself up onto land, the sun graciously gave off the magnificence for what this hunter was named for: Light.