CHAPTER 1: New Dawn
"Alright hunters, get your rear ends in gear, we have to make it to Val' Habar by sundown!" The Caravaneer ordered.
The wooden sand-ship creaked and groaned as it made its way across the loose sands of the Desert on the outskirts of the Old World. The winds of the desert moving the ship at maximum speed towards its destination. The searing heat from the sun was already taking its toll on the crew members of the ship, as well as the passengers it held. Hunters, the name given to each one of them abroad this ship, making its way to 'The Desert Oasis', Val' Habar, home to one of the branches of the Hunter's Guild. Accompanying the Hunters, were the various cat-like partners, the Felynes. Whether it is human or animal, they were all feeling the effects of the long journey from Dundorma, undergoing various modes of transport, whether it is by sea or by land.
Jackie Dawnbreaker sat alone in the back of the ship's canteen, away from the other fledgling hunters eagerly talking about the various new Guilds and celebrity Hunters from Hunter's Weekly, her grey eyes dull with boredom. Jackie was anxious to get off this damn ship. She twirled her long, curly, bronze hair between her fingers, Jackie stopped when she heard a familiar noise from behind her.
"Murrow?"
A small, white and brown colored Felyne with a bushy spotted, white tail came up bringing her a buffet sized meal.
"Why thank you Selene." Jackie said, petting the Felyne's head, "I guess it is about dinnertime."
Jackie looked around to see various Felynes bringing each hunter, their own buffet sized meal. Selene sat opposite Jackie and pulled out a large fish steak and started munching on it. Jackie couldn't help but let out a slight snicker as she watched the cat sprinkle salt and pepper on the steak. Hunters were always a rowdy type of people, most of them began to sing and dance as they intoxicate themselves with the beer the cats shared out with the meals.
"That's enough everyone, settle down we've come this far, we don't want to be kicking Hunters off the ship before we get to Val' Habar." The Caravaneer said, "We are already behind schedule, so we've contacted The Guild to let them know we'll be late."
The Caravaneer sat down on one of the benches next to a few of the Felyne staff onboard. She couldn't take the noise anymore, and it got even worse.
"So, what's your story?" A male hunter asked her, as he sat down next to Selene, who was too busy picking at the fish steak to notice, "Everyone is excited and pumped to get into the guild, why are you in the back here alone huh?" he questioned, running his fingers through his short, black hair.
Jackie stared at him with a blank and annoyed expression, hoping he'll get the hint to bugger off but he just kept talking.
"I'm so sorry, I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Mikail, Mikail Grimoire." He introduced, holding out his hand.
The boy obviously expected her to shake his hand, she gave him at least the courtesy of doing so as she took his hand in hers.
"Jackie Dawnbreaker, future Monster researcher." She replied, a prideful smile glimmered on her face.
"I see, so you want to study the monsters and their physiology?" he asked.
"Exactly! And what better way to do that than hunt them." Jackie explained, "Hunting them gives me first had experience on how the monster thrives in their own community as well as how they respond to invaders, in some cases, hunters."
Selene took Jackie's empty tray away with a fish skeleton to the kitchen while they were still talking. Jackie couldn't help but notice that his sigil on his hunter vest was that of the New World Guild.
"Hey, what's with the New World sigil?" Jackie asked him, overwhelmed with curiousity.
He blinked at her in response, his hand brushing over the sigil on his chest, "Oh… this, its uhh…"
Before Mikail could finish his sentence, the ship jerked hard to the right sending almost everyone tumbling sideways out of their seats. Jackie slid and hit her head on one of the nearby benches, Her vision started to double and a headache like she has never experienced before rushed over her, she rubbed the spot that impacted with the bench, still laying down.
"Hey! Jackie! Can you hear me? Helloooo" Mikail called, waving his hands in front of her face.
Jackie groaned in response to his noise, taking his hand to stand up and stabilize herself.
"What happened?" She asked him, her words groggily slurring as he helps her up.
"I don't know, the ship tilted sideways in an instant."
Shortly after the ship's alarm bell went off, the Caravaneer immediately darted up the stairs to the top deck of the ship.
"Come on, let's follow him, we can't stay down here." Jackie said, shrugging off Mikail as she darts to the top deck behind the Caravaneer, Mikail following on her heels.
The starry night sky glimmered over-head, on the top deck, the ship crew scrambled around trying to keep the ship balanced, what was worse was the blisteringly cold wind seizing over the night as the sand-ship sailed at full speed, trying to escape the looming mountain shadow on the starboard of the ship.
The cold hit Jackie harder than the bench, not having armor and this cold was not a favorable combination, she could feel the cold down to her skeleton as she struggled to stand.
"You two! Yes, you two hunters! Get over here and help with securing the cargo! It's a Dah'ren Mohran!" The Caravaneer shouted as he was knocked to the side as a looming mountain-like creature hit the ship again.
Jackie as well as everyone else on the top deck was almost thrown overboard with some of the cargo.
"Dah'ren Mohran?! The 'Huge Mountain' Elder dragon? What's it doing here?!" Mikail shouted, trying to stabilize himself as the ship balanced back.
"It looks like we've crossed into its feeding grounds and it's not too happy about having competition for prey." The Caravaneer said, holding his rust-colored cowboy hat on his head, there was sand glittering in his pearl-white beard, "I already sent Fawks, my falcon to the Guild in Val' Habar for hunter reinforcements! We need you two to help hold it off until the guild hunters arrive! One of you man the cannon and the other take the ballista! I will handle the Hunting Gong!"
Not waiting for a response, the Caravaneer darted across the ship to prepare the Hunting gong for use. Dah'ren Mohran jerked away from the ship, giving the crew room to breathe as it let out an ear splitting roar.
Jackie didn't know what to do; she wasn't prepared to fight an Elder Dragon anytime soon! Especially without armor and a weapon. Determined to help, she stocked up on ballista ammo and mounted the giant crossbow, the Elder Dragon was a distance from the ship, but still in range of the Ballista. Jackie aimed and pulled the trigger, launching the large twin arrows at the Dah'ren Mohran. The twin arrows soared through the air and struck the Elder Dragon on its front legs, the creature seemed unfazed by the arrows clearly protruding from its left arm as it glides across the golden sand abreast to the ship.
Suddenly the Dah'ren Mohran cried out in pain as an explosion went off on its back
"Yes! Direct hit!" Mikail cried out as he loaded another cannonball into the mounted cannon, "Fire!"
He slammed the ammo container shut and fired another cannon at Dah'ren, causing the drake to cry out another ear bleeding roar as it sunk into the sand below.
"Alright! It's gone! We did it!" He celebrated, looking at Jackie for confirmation.
Jackie still had a bad feeling in her gut, this wasn't the end, not by a longshot, shortly after an earthquake came from under the ship, confirming her suspicions Dah'ren Mohran appeared again. Jackie couldn't help but stare dumbfounded as the 375 foot long Elder Dragon leaps into the air and over to the right side of the ship completely blocking the light of the moon as it soared overhead.
"What in Heaven's wheel?!" Mikail shouted, ducking for cover as the Dah'ren Mohran soared overhead the ship, kicking up massive amounts of sand with its landing.
"Where is that backup!" The Caravaneer said, becoming very impatient as he dusts sand off of his clothes, "Everyone brace! Dah'ren Mohran is coming in for a body slam!"
As he spoke, Dah'ren Mohran shifted away from the boat and sunk into the sand, appearing briefly after reared up; ready to slam onto the deck of the boat. Without hesitation, Jackie sprinted to hit the leaver for the Hunting Gong.
"Jackie look out!" Mikail cried
Jackie turned to see a Delix flying right towards her, hitting her on her right arm dead on, the impact sent Jackie tumbling sideways away from the lever while the Delix hops back into the sand.
"Dammit." Jackie swore, clutching her arm as the Dah'ren Mohran lowered itself to smash the ship. Jackie closed her eyes and braced for the impact.
'BOOM!'
An sound of an explosion rocked the air, followed by a pained wail from the Elder Dragon, Jackie opened her eyes to see the beast falling back into the sand.
Mikail rushed to her side to help her up, "You okay?"
"Yeah, just a little bruise." She said to him, reassuringly, she tried moving but couldn't help but flinch, taking a hit from a monster without armor hurt more than she thought it would, even if it was a Delix.
"What even hit it? It was going to destroy the ship." She asked Mikail as she stood up, Still clutching her arm in pain.
Mikail pointed to the far side of the ship opposite to where Dah'ren Mohran was shot, a small boat was edging close to the ship piloted by two people.
"Well I never expected the Guild to send them." The Caravaneer said, pulling the rope for the small sand boat to board the ship.
"Well, I didn't expect to see you two coming to help us." The Caravaneer said, greeting the two hunters whole heartedly.
One was a girl with striking crimson eyes and long silky black hair and a pale pearl skin, she did not look much older than Jackie herself, probably in her early twenties On her back was a large, violet, Heavy Bowgun that seemed to have taken the shape of a crossbow with a scope attached. Her armor consisted of a large hat, seemed to originate from Yukumo as well as a white armored vest and padded leggings. She was the one talking to the Caravaneer, with a small smile on her face as she spoke to him, most likely an old friend of his.
The other hunter however, every instinct in Jackie's body told her to back away from him, assuming it is a he because the armor the hunter wore showed no sign of their gender.
The armor itself was pitch black, with claws for the fingers and toes as well as small wings protruding the shoulder blades of it. The chest had pieces of metal crafted to look like extra arms folded across the chest. The waist had a belt with a skull on it with black and red stripped garment which seemed to pulse eerily, even the headpiece look like it was a demon, with small insect like horns and wings coming from the head. On his back was a Switchaxe, seemingly shaped out of a deep black with an eye in the center of it, the eye itself seemed to stare at Jackie so she tried to avoid looking at it.
It was then the Caravaneer brought them over to meet her and Mikail, both of them staring at her, making her feel extremely intimidated, especially from the girl, her blood-like crimson eyes seemed to stare into Jackie's own soul.
"These are the two hunters-to-be that helped me hold of Dah'ren Mohran until you two came abroad." The Caravaneer said, giving her and Mikail a pat on the shoulder, "These two hunters are Izumi Tokenki and Vince Truesdale." He said, gesturing to the girl and then the person in the armor respectively.
"P-Pleasure to meet you." Jackie managed to stutter out, her voice cracking midway into a high pitch squeak as she held out her hand.
The girl scanned her from head to toe, seemingly dissatisfied with her as scowled to herself. This left Jackie wondering what she did to get on her bad side.
"Don't mind her, she's a little grumpy cause today was her day off." The armored man said, his voice was much more pleasant than what the appearance of the armor gave off; it was a mix of Wyverian and Human. The man removed his mask which hissed as the face split into two pieces, retracting into the back of the helmet. He shook her hand warmly, a smile spread across his face.
"Name's Vince, and yours?" He greeted
"Jackie…" She said shyly
She couldn't help but stare into his eyes, unlike the girl's; his was a sapphire blue and surprisingly warm for such a cold colour.
"I'm Mikail" Mikail greeted, butting into their conversation
"Nice to meet you too, Mikail." Vince said, shaking his hand as well, "Nice to see fledgling hunters aspiring for greatness!"
The meet and greet was cut short by the Dah'ren Mohran reappearing from the sand at the front of the sand ship.
"Tokki, lets go." Vince said, turning to the girl, his mask retracted over his face with a hiss as both of them got ready to repel the Elder Dragon.
"About damn time, 'was getting extremely impatient." She said, her voice filled with irritation, "You're gonna regret pulling me out of my Battle Monsters Tournament Semi-Finals you son of a 'snarf."
Vince turned back to Jackie and Mikail, "Enjoy the show my dudes." He darted off to the front of the ship where the Dragonator is.
Tokki unsheathed and loaded her Heavy Bowgun, the Cahoe, joining Vince at the front of the ship.
"Anything we can do to help!?" Mikail suggested to the two hunters.
"Stay out of our way and try not to die." Tokki responded, her tone more annoyed at him than concerned for their well-being.
The Dah'ren Mohran closed in, surfing at the ship at maximum speed, Vince and Tokki stood there, waiting as it drew closer, Vince had his hands on the lever for the Dragonator ready to activate the weapon.
Dah'ren Mohran wailed as it prepped to ram into the ship, sending sand spewing everywhere as it poised to slam into the front of the ship.
"Now!" Tokki commanded.
Without hesitation, Vince pulled the lever, sending the giant spear at the front of the ship, spiraling forward piercing the Elder Dragon on its stomach. Dah'ren Mohran screamed in agony as it reeled away from the ship.
"We're almost to Val Haber! Keep it occupied for a little longer!" The Caravaneer shouted
Jackie couldn't just stay back and do nothing, it felt wrong in her gut to let the two hunters take care of everything, but what else could she do? She looked at Mikail, his hands were balled into a fist and his face displayed frustration.
Dah'ren Mohran surfaced again on the left side of the ship, roaring in rage as it surfaced again, wanting payback. A visible wound could be seen on the side of the Elder Dragon from where the Dragonator pierced it.
"You two should probably get back under deck with the rest of the new hunters. Before you get hurt." Isaac chided to Jackie and Mikail as he gathered ballista ammo from the supply box.
"No, I want to help, I came here to protect people, not to be protected… So no, I'm staying top deck to help." Mikail snapped, a clear fire burning in his eyes.
Vince stared at him through the demonic head piece, stunned at his demeanor, "Well if that isn't convincing I don't know what is." He said, "Mikail right? Get the Cannon balls loaded into the Cannon, keep firing until Dah'ren decides to turn tail."
Tokki finally came over pushing a stack of Ballista arrows into Vince's arms as he was talking, proceeding rush across the deck to arm herself with her own Ballista ammo, "What about you princess? Why are you still here?"
Why are you here Jackie?Why? What are you trying to prove? The deep, nostalgic voice echoed inside Jackie's head.
"I wanted to prove that I can become a hunter too…just like you…Dad.." she said to herself, unaware of her surroundings.
Her memory faded back to her home, the small wooden house on the edge of Sunsnug Isle, in Cheeko Sands with her father and her grandmother.
"Look out!"
Her consciousness was rudely snapped back to reality as she heard Vince's voice shouting at her as he tackled her to the floor, pinning her under him, covering her protectively as a flurry of human sized rocks, coming from Dah'ren Mohran came crashing down on his armor with hard 'CLINK' noises.
"Can you be aware of your surroundings please? Might help a bit." He suggested, his voice hinting a sense of urgency
"Y-Yeah, sorry about that… I spaced out…" She apologized.
He got off of her and offered his hand to help her up, "Well, no time to laze around, we have to get rid of this Elder Dragon."
She stumbled to her feet as she nodded at him in agreement.
"Now, we need you both on ballista and cannons, Tokki and I will focus on damaging Dah'ren with our weapons."
Without saying anything she nodded as she dashed to the cannonballs, she reunited with Mikail as he was reloading the cannon.
"Need a hand there?" she asked, her face stoic and focused on repelling the Elder.
"Yeah, cannons, lots of 'em." He said as he already loaded and fired another cannonball at the Elder Dragon.
Suddenly Dah'ren Mohran sunk into the sand, letting out a small whine as it disappeared from sight.
"It disappeared again…" Mikail stated, putting back a cannonball he had in his arms.
"No it didn't, its attacking again." Tokki said, readying herself with the Hunting Gong.
As if on que, Dah'ren Mohran shot out of the sand, at the ship's starboard to crash into the ship once more. Tokki immediately hit the Hunting Gong, sending a loud, ear-piercing soundwave through the air causing Dah'ren to halt the attack and fall back a bit.
"Sorry to bother you two but Val' Habar is closing in fast, if we don't repel Dah'ren now, he will destroy the town and kill everyone in it." The Caravaneer said, appearing from below deck, his voice filled with urgency.
"Don't worry old man, it won't reach the town, not with us here." Vince reassured him, giving the Caravaneer a friendly shoulder tap.
Dah'ren Mohran surfaced again on the left of the ship, this time rearing for another attack as it quickly moved in to slam into the ship.
"Ai Falt Kar!" Vince shouted as he braced for the impact.
"Language Truesdale!" Tokki shouted at him as she grabbed onto the railings of the ship followed by Jackie and Mikail.
The Caravaneer was sent tumbling and nearly fell off the ship if Mikail didn't grab ahold of his vest collar. The ship steadied out once again and without missing a beat, Vince darted foreward, running up the right arm of the Elder Dragon with his scythe-like axe unsheathed
"Keep it distracted! I'll wear it down!" he commanded as he ran up onto the beast and out of view.
Jackie turned to see if Tokki was ready to do anything, but the slender woman was already missing, Jackie's eyes darted around to see her crouching with her Heavy Bowgun in a stance as Tokki let loose a flurry of Pierce ammo from the gun.
Jackie turned to Mikail who immediately nodded, know exactly what they had to do as they both dashed for cannonballs and ballista ammo respectively
Jackie loaded the cannonballs into the cannon, firing each shot to hit Dah'ren directly on its dorsal fin while Mikail focused on the right arm of Dah'ren with the Ballista ammo. Tokki decided to help with the Ballista shots since Dah'ren moved out of range of her Heavy Bowgun.
Dah'ren suddenly reeled in pain an explosion of Dragon Element went off on its back with blood and some body parts flying off of the Elder Dragon. A small black figure appeared on top the Elder's horn, wildly slashing at the body part with a large weapon.
"Showing off like that will get you killed one day Truesdale." Tokki commented under her breath, but Jackie still picked up her comment.
Val' Habar was in sight but Dah'ren was not relenting. It turned to ram the ship once more, with Vince still on it, the Elder Dragon reared up, causing Vince to fall off of it and jump to land back on the ship.
"Tokki! Use it now! While the stomach is exposed!" Vince shouted as he landed, doing a barrel roll forward in the process.
Tokki gave a sly grin at the command, "Let's get one thing straight, YOU take orders from ME, not the other way around noob, so check yourself. And two, way ahead of you."
As Dah'ren brought down its body on the ship, Jackie watched as Tokki's armor began to glow slightly, giving her a faded black aura around her body, causing her crimson eyes to stand out even more than they already did.
What really caught Jackie's attention was that her Heavy Bowgun began to let out a whine as it heated up, the barrel spinning rapidly as a small pulse of energy gathered at the top of the gun.
"Hunter Art: Super Nova!" Tokki shouted, pulling the trigger of her gun, sending an energy infused bullet straight into Dah'ren's underbelly. The bullet exploded in a fiery climax as it made contact with the Elder Dragon. The explosion sent the Elder Dragon falling backwards, away from the ship as it cried out in pain, disappearing into the sand below, appearing a few moments later moving away from the ship and the approaching town.
The crew of the ship as well as Jackie and Mikail cheered to see Dah'ren Mohran moving away, finally giving up on the fight, while Vince and Tokki remained neutral, but with a small smile on both their faces.
"Elder problem solved. Now if you excuse me, I can probably catch the latest portrayal of My Love Lion at home." Tokki said, already putting the successful repel out of her mind, moving passed all of them as the ship pulled into the Val' Habar docks, "Now it was a pain to interact with you two noobs, I hope for your benefit we don't cross paths again."
Tokki walked off of the boat and disappeared into the crowd that arrived to help with unloading the cargo.
"Don't mind her, she is a lot nicer when you get to know her." Vince said to Jackie and Mikail, reassuring them.
"If you say so…" Mikail responded, unconvinced at his statement.
"If you need anything, just give us a ring will yah? We'll see if we can help. Preferably call me cause Tokki can get… well… you know." Vince offered, handing them a paper with both his and Tokki's Hunter IDs, "Take care guys, happy hunting!" he said as he trotted off behind Tokki to catch up with her.
Jackie gathered her belongings from bottom deck, and proceeded to walk off of the ship when The Caravaneer stopped her.
"Hey, I appreciate the help you two gave us, takes real guts to do what you did. You'll make a fine hunter. You and that friend of yours." He said, shaking her hand.
"Yeah… friend..but anyways, thank you." She said to him as she walked through the streets of the town to her new home.
"Hey! Wait up!" Mikail called, sprinting after her, "You can't leave me hanging like that… Kirin's beard you're fast." He panted.
Jackie, let out a soft sigh as he approached her, mostly out of exhaustion.
"What is it Mikail?" she questioned.
"Sorry… just wanted to say that we made a great team back there! So… I was wondering if you wanted to partner up with me for hunts!" he asked
Jackie didn't want to hurt the poor sod's feelings, "We'll see. Now I need to go to my house please."
"O-of course" he said, failing to contain the grin on his face.
As he left, Jackie could hear an audible 'YES' coming from behind her.
It only took a few minutes of walking to find her house, a small one but cozy, as well as close to the Val' Habar Hunter's Guild. She opened the door to find a very cozy room, the room was painted in a rustic red, a bed big enough for two people was layed out and neatly organized, a wool carpet with the Hunter's Guild logo imprinted onto the centre of it, as well as some hammocks. What really struck Jackie's interest was the large frog decoration hanging from above the Equipment Chest. Deciding to ignore it, she immediately flopped onto her new bed, letting out a relieved breath as she closed her eyes.
"Well, that was an interesting day one… let's see if this continues tomorrow." She commented to herself, falling into a deep and well-earned sleep for the rest of the night.