Lunar: The Southern Lion
Chapter: 1A "Where it all began..."
Another normal morning for Moon Village, kids go to the school to study, hunters started their mission for the day, fishermans took off, and the chief is doing his job as a chief. A teenage boy with white spiked hair, brown eyes, and Lagiacrus armor set equipped is walking to the guild, every villagers that he passed is looking at him like its a rare occasion, he just kept walking to the guild not worrying about every villager that keeps their eyes on him. Once he arrived at the entrance of the guild, he put on his Lagiacrus helmet and sighed, "you are late again…" he turned his back and sees a male hunter running towards him, he stopped and pants, "y-you always right on time… Kino…" the hunter takes off his Rathalos helmet to catch some air, his hair is spiked like Kino but with brown as a color, he had a turquoise eyes and a Rathalos armor set equipped. "Why… didn't you waked me up… in the morning…?" he said still panting hardly, Kino crossed his arms angrily, "I did, you just didn't realize it Raven…" done catching air, Raven puts on his helmet again, "oh well, anyways…" he looks back, "have you seen Aerin? It's a little bit odd for her to come late" Kino shook his head, "nope, I didn't see her in my way to the guild either" after they have chatted a bit, a female hunter called their name while running. "Sorry I'm late guys!" she said, she uses Rathian set as her armor, as she took her helmet off, they can see her brown eyes and brown hair that made her one of the prettiest girls in the village, "Aerin, your charm is really knocking the guys around the village, so… please put your helmet back" said Raven, after hearing that Aerin puts her helmet back on, "does that include you Raven?" she asked, Raven tilted his head and crosses his arms. "Hmm… I think so, yeah" Kino rested one of his arms on Raven's left shoulder, "admit it Raven, and you liked her that way didn't you?" Raven panicked and changes the topic of the conversation, "a-anyways, let's gets in shall we?" he entered the guild nervously and his heart beats really fast. "Aerin, he likes you alright" he sees a girl waiting at her back, looking that she wanted to talked to him, "you come inside first, I'll come in later" he said, "well okay, don't make it too long okay?" after Aerin entered the guild, Kino takes off his helmet, "what is it Kira? I have to get inside, my friends are waiting for me" she crossed her arms, "Kino… can you um… meet me at the valley later at night?" she said while playing with her hands "I uh… wanted to spare some time with you, without anyone interrupting…" she looks away while blushing, Kino took some steps forwards and kisses her cheek, "sure, why not? I'll be back okay? Wish me luck" Kino puts on his helmet back and walks inside to the guild while waving at her, she turned her back and mumbled "Kino… you idiot…~" she smiled and returns to her home.
Inside the guild, Kino can see the place full of hunters, some of the hunters are drinking, arm wrestling, taking a bath at the hot spring, eating some meals cooked by the best felyne chef, and some hunters applying their mission at the counter with Raven and Aerin as one of them, after taking a final look around he walks toward Raven and Aerin to see what mission are they applying. "No fair Raven! I want to do that mission!" she pouted, "ah, did you forget today is Tuesday? It's my turn to choose" he replied when looking at their mission briefing, "Actually sir, today is Wednesday meow!" said a felyne who is sitting beside him, Aerin tried to hold her laugh as Raven glares the felyne. "Oh well, I'll give you your chance of choosing today Raven…" she said, "but… you have to treat me dinner later okay?" she smiled, Raven looked at her and sighed "fine…" Kino scoffed "so… you guys are dating or something like that?" he smiled and looks at Raven, "W-what?! W-what made you think that we are?!" Raven panicked and give Aerin the papers for their mission "I-I need some drink…" Raven left to the bar, trying to calm his heartbeat. "Geez, stop denying it Raven…" he mumbled, "what was that?" she gives Kino a glare, Kino shivered and makes an excuse "I-I said I'll accompany Raven at the bar" he left Aerin all alone at the counter and follows Raven to the bar, Aerin sighed and shook her head "boys…" and take another look at their mission. At the bar, Raven is sitting at one of the benches drinking all alone in the corner, after Kino founded Raven, he sits and ordered a drink, "so, why you denied everything I said about you having a crush on her?" Raven takes a single gulp of his drink and says, "Because, it's true okay? I really do have a crush on her" he drinks again "she's cute, sweet, innocent and pretty, even cuter when she is mad" Kino smiled, "you know… if you keep denying, she won't found out about it and maybe look for another guy" Raven just keep drinking not listing what is he saying. "You know what? Just take that mission for you two alone, I won't join you guys" Raven looks at him "why? Don't you want to come?" he shook his head "nah, I don't think I will, besides… I have something to do at the village, and… you guys can spend your time together!" he laughed and pats Raven's shoulder, "WAIT, you're saying that... IT WILL BE JUST THE TWO OF US?!" he panicked, "oh god, what should i do?! U-uh... s-should i... reject the mission?" Kino sighed and slaps Raven. "dude, knock it off, if you can't do it all alone just ask someone to go with you guys, like... Tiger and Silver" he gives Kino a blank stare, "the new guys? Really? They could die if they don't know what to do you know" Kino sighed again "relax... you and Aerin are one of the best hunters in the village remember?" Raven sighed and drinks his last gulp, "yeah I know, but… taking care of the new guys are one hell of a job you know?" Kino slaps Raven again "stop saying that you can't do that simple job" he give Kino a straight stare "simple? Try to do that later if you think you can, it's really hard you know, you can get blamed if they die or something" Kino sighed "then think that you can do it okay?" he nods and sighed "fine…" after Raven pays their drink, he returns to the counter looking for Aerin. "Where did she go?" Aerin giggled from his back, "you looking for me?" he looks back with a smile, "oh, there you are, where did you go?" she puts on her straight face and pointed back to an equipment shop "I just bought some items for the quest while you were gone" she said, as he looks down, he can see that Aerin is bringing two bags and her hands, "wait, I thought that the restrictions are one bag per hunter…" before he finished his sentence, she throws the bag at him. "That one is for you" he takes a look at his bag in surprise, "wow, you… buy all the things like we needed" she giggled and smiles "well, I am smart you know~" as Raven looks at her smiling, he smiles too, "well okay, shall we go? I brought some people with us since Kino wont be joining" he pointed at hs back where two hunters are standing, Aerin tilts her head, "eh why? I thought he is the one who wants to do a quest" he scratched his head, "i don't know, he said he got something to do at the village, i don't know what is it" she crossed her arms and pouts "well fine..." they started to walk at the departing gate. "It's a Royal Ludroth right?" she asked, Raven nods and looks at her ammo stocks "you bring some Para S, Sub S, and Flaming S right? We really need those" he asked, "mhm, I bring some of that ammo" as the two hunters that he recruited departed first, Aerin and Raven departs.
Back at the village, Kino takes off his helmet and sighed, "well, at least I gave Raven a chance though, so what to do…" as he walks towards his house, a kid tugs his sleeve in panic. "H-Help! Someone is trapped by two Great Jaggis!" he cried, "WHAT?!" he puts on his helmet back, "Show me the way to the person!" the kid started to run to the woods and then stopped at a certain point, "H-He's over there!" he pointed to a cave, "go back to the village, the monsters won't hurt you there" said Kino, the kid nods and runs back to the village "alright then, it's just a couple of Great Jaggi, how hard could it be?" he lights up a torch then went inside the cave. The sound of water droplets covers the cave, fireflies lights are emitting from a pond right beside him, as he go deeper, he founded a hollow part of the cave with enough lighting to see without any torches. After the turns out the torch, and sound of a man shouting for help is heard, "H-HELP!" Kino looks around and founded a man running with two Great Jaggis chasing on his back, "well, here goes then" he unsheathed his sword and raise up his shield. "Get behind me! Hurry up!" the man successfully get behind his back, Kino shouts his war cry and charges towards the Great Jaggi he is about to face. Its night now in Moon Village, the villagers are gathering at the entrance to the woods, praying, and hoping that they might come back. Kira clenches her fist saying: "please come back Kino, the village still need you, I still need you…" she dropped some tears trying not to cry. After awhile, they can see a little light of torch coming out of the entrance, the villagers started to whisper, and Kira wipes her tear off her face. They finally reach the village, Kino wipes some monster blood out of his helmet and says: "we're back…~" the villagers started to cheer, Kira runs towards Kino, hugged him and cried "K-Kino… you're back…!" he smiled and strokes her hair gently "I won't die because of some Great Jaggis, besides… I still have a promise to keep right?" she stops crying and smiles. "I'm so glad you remembered…~" Kira lets him go and the villagers started to circle him while cheering, Kino smiled, puts his sword with some blood up and shouted his war cry, after some hours left, Kira is already waiting at the valley, after taking a look around for Kino, she leaned to a tree and sighed "Kino, where are you…?" the valley started to get shrouded by a thick fog, she started to shiver by the cold of the night "g-geez, you always keep me waiting…" he rubs her hands altogether to warm her hands, after a while, a shady figure approaches slowly from her back. "Sorry for the wait…" said the shady figure while covering her body with a leather jacket, she looks back with a bit blush at her face and then looks to the front again, "I thought you won't come…" she said, Kino chuckles and puts his arms on her waist, "I'm not that type of person who won't keep their promises you know…" he then takes his helmet off and hangs it down on one of the branches, "can you stop doing this for a moment? It really hurts…" she said, Kino tilts his head and then lets her go. "Here, use this" she give Kino a pair of new clothes, "I don't want to get hugged by someone with some blood and some spikes of their armor~" he sighed and takes the clothes "fine… but no peeking okay?" he goes off to search for a tree to change his clothes and takes off his armor, after he finished, he went back to where Kira is waiting for him. "Any news from the guild about my friends? It's been a half day since their mission this morning…" she shook her head and looks up to the black night sky, decorated by a bright full moon and some stars which made the valley a romantic place. "What took them so long…?" he crossed his arms in anger, Kira tries to calm him down "maybe they just founded some obstacle at their way home" she said, after for a moment to think he finally calmed down a little "maybe you're right…" Kira leaned towards him and started to yawn "I'm… sleepy…" she said, Kino looks at her and strokes her hair gently "take some rest, you will need it for tomorrow~" he smiled, Kira started to close her eyes slowly. An hour passed, and Kino is also fall asleep, but suddenly a sound of horn waked him up, "hmm? Is that… them…?" Kino shakes Kira's body, "Kira… wake up… I think they have returned…" Kira slowly opens her eyes and rubs it "I'm still sleeping Kino…" he gets up and wears his armor and helmet back "come on, let's see what's happening at the village" Kira gets up and still rubbing her eyes "well fine…" they headed down to the village. After they have arrived, they can see a crowd going on at the entrance, every villagers is whispering, they managed to squeeze in to the front row to see what's going on, after sometime, they can see a tranquilized Royal Ludroth approaching from the distance, the crowd started to cheer as the Royal Ludroth makes an entrance at the village, hunters raises their weapons and shouted their war cry, after the Royal Ludroth stopped, the hunters measures the monster and registered it on a log book. Kino slowly approaches the tranquilized Royal Ludroth, "so they managed to capture it eh?" he laughed, "nice condition, damaged crest and mane… and…" he takes a look at its tail which they cut at the mission, "no tail! Great!" Kira is standing beside him and asks: "but where are they?" he takes another look at the entrance, from a distance they can see two hunters approaching slowly. "Aerin! Raven! You guys are back!" Kino started to run towards them, Aerin is helping Tiger to carry Raven who is unconscious, as Kino gets closer, his eyes widen in surprise, Raven's armor is pierced with a huge slash mark at his chest, his helmet is broken to half, "I-I'm so sorry Kino… I tried…" she fainted to the ground. Kino carries Aerin and shouted "Aerin! Raven!"
TO BE CONTINUED?