Disclaimer: I do not own Monster Hunter Tri, or any Monster Hunter games. Property of the Monster Hunter license belongs to Capcom. Give credit where it is due.

Chapter 2: Moga Woods

"Okay!" Vail said, confidently, "Let's get to finding the chief's son, so that we can get on to some real missions!"

"Well, technically," I said, "This is a real mission. We're going out of Moga Village, we're looking for a quarry, and we're getting paid," I yawned, still tired, "Seems like a real mission to me."

"Well, I meant a Guild mission," she countered, "Like, hunting monsters, or searching for items."

I shrugged, "Well, the sooner we finish this, the sooner the Guild will be sending us real missions, right?"

Ray grabbed the hilt of his hammer, "And the sooner we get those weaker missions done, we'll be able to fight those more dangerous foes," he said, "Imagine! Fighting a Lagiacrus in its underwater habitat! It would be amazing!" He was caught up in one of his "Big Monster Obsession" phases again.

Here's something you need to know about Ray: he's got an insane obsession with hunting monsters. Ever since our parents took him out on a hunt with them when he was eight, he's wanted nothing more than to hunt a gigantic, dangerous beast that they would be proud of. After they'd disappeared one year later, his obsession grew worse, until he couldn't even write the form for becoming a monster hunter without ranting for two pages of what he wanted to hunt, why he wanted to hunt it, and what he would do with the materials.

"Ray!" Vail reprimanded, "You need to stop jumping into your 'obsession' phases! It's starting to creep me out, and I'm sure that the people of the village don't need to hear you going on about how Diablos marrow works as an adhesive!"

"But, Diablos marrow is amazing! If it wasn't for it, we wouldn't be able to-"

"Great job, Vail," I muttered, "Now, this quest has gone from painful to unbearable!"

She didn't even bother to tell me that it wasn't a real quest this time.

"Sorry," she murmured.

After listening for about five minutes to Ray going on about his hypothesis that Diablos marrow is used to stick the creature's bones together (don't even ask where he thought of such a thing), we finally reached Area 3 of Moga Woods. There, in front of us, were five dinosaur-like creatures of various sizes. Aptonoth.

"Well," I said, "Looks like we've found some good monsters to hunt, right, guys?" I looked at Vail and Ray.

"I dunno," Ray said, "I mean, Aptonoth?"

"Well, every hunter's gotta start somewhere, right?" I asked, "I mean, our parents started on Aptonoth too. It seems kinda fitting, don't you think?"

"Well, if you put it that way..." Vail said, thinking. She flashed me a smile as she pulled the Iron Sword from its sheath and pointed it at the unlucky monsters. "Let's begin, shall we?"

Ray pulled out the Iron Hammer and smashed it into one of the large Aptonoth, "We'll start small, and work our way up to those big monsters, like-"

"Hold that thought!" I shouted, pulling my sword out. I leapt forward, and stabbed the biggest Aptonoth straight through. I pulled the blade out, watching as blood flowed from the wound on the monster's side. It was dead within seconds.

It was, actually, quite amazing that I'd been able to kill that Aptonoth. As I said before, I can communicate with monsters. Not with words, but with feelings. I can feel their fear, sorrow, anger, joy... all of their emotions. It makes killing them extremely difficult, to tell you the truth.

Kind of ironic that I became a monster hunter, right? Well, not really. I learned of this power when I was eight. My parents took me-not my brother or my sister, for once-out on a hunting quest. They'd wanted me to deal the final blow to our quarry, a Great Jaggi.

At the time, I'd been so excited that I couldn't think. But, as soon as I'd raised Mom's Long Sword above my head to deal the final blow, I felt the Great Jaggi's fear of death, worry for its tribe, and its hatred of me. After I felt all of these emotions swirling around my mind, I'd fallen out of consciousness. Nine hours later, I awoke at a hospital in Loc Lac, with my mom and dad looking terrified, and my brother and sister crying beside me. That was the only time I've ever seen Vail cry.

Looking back on the memory now, it makes me kind of sad. To think that only one year later, my parents would vanish without a trace. Not even the Guildmaster would tell us what had happened.

"Hey, Kev!" Ray shouted, "Aren't you gonna carve your Aptonoth?"

"Oh, sorry!" I said, reaching for my carving knife. I stabbed it into the monsters side, and carved some raw meat out of it.

"There," I said, holding the piece of raw meat in front of me.

Vail and Ray were staring at me oddly, "What?" I asked them.

"Are you alright, Kev?" Vail asked, "I mean, not wanting to carve a monster?"

"It's not that I didn't want to carve it!" I protested, "I just got caught up in some of my old memories."

"Do you want to know what I want to be remembered for?" Ray asked.

"No!" Vail and I shouted simultaneously.

"Well," Ray said, angrily, "You don't have to be so mean about it."

"Anyway," I said, changing the subject, "The chief said that his son was around here somewhere, right?"

"Yeah," Vail agreed, "He said that he would likely be in the base camp, I think."

We went over to the base camp, which was conveniently close to Area 3.

"Hey," I said, "It looks like there's someone over there!"

"Maybe he's the chief's son?" Ray asked.

"Well, there's only one way we'll find out," I replied, walking over to him. "Excuse me?" I said. The man turned around.

"Yes?" He asked us.

"Are you the chief's son?" I asked him.

"That's me," the man said, "What of it?"

"The chief sent us out here to find you," Vail explained, "He wanted us to take you back to the village."

The man laughed, "Well, that's fine, I guess," he said, "I came out here to inspect the damage dealt by the earthquake that happened earlier. Of course, you can see what's happened around here, right?"

"Yeah," I said, "It sure is terrible." I sighed, "How are we gonna go on quests with the base camp all but destroyed?"

"Well," he said, "You'll all need to help gather materials to fix this place up, but that's not why you're here now, right? My old man sent you to find me, you said?"

"That's right," Ray answered, "We're here to find you so that you can go back to the village."

"I have a question, though," Vail said, "Why are you out here in these rui-er, our base camp?"

"Good question," the chief's son said, "Well, this is your base camp. Was. Is... okay, so I'm not completely sure about that part. But it was where we left all of the necessary items for a base camp, and when the earthquake struck... well, just look around. I'm sure you can see that the earthquake wasn't, well, very kind to the place." He shrugged.

"So, we'll need to fix it up, won't we?" I asked him, "Otherwise, we won't be able to hunt here?"

"That's what I'm sayin'," he answered, "But, uh, before I head back to the village, do you have anything I can eat? I'm so hungry that I could eat an entire Aptonoth! I'm pretty great at barbecuing, so if you have any raw meat, I'll take it from there."

I fished into my pocket and pulled the piece of raw meat from the Aptonoth out. "Here," I said, "I'm not too sure that I can hold onto this thing, anyway." After all, it came from a living creature, and you know all about that.

The chief's son snatched it up, greedily. "Alright," he said, "I'm heading back to the village. You guys... take a look around Moga Woods. Gather resources, hunt monsters, the works. Come back to the village later, and I'll tell you how you can help restore the base camp."

With that, he walked away leaving us standing in the ruins of the base camp.

Well, there you have it. What do you think? Love it? Hate it? Notice any errors in my grammar? Please give me some feedback in the comments so that I'll know what to fix, but please don't flame me! Anyway, as always, please R&R!