Chapter 2: A Deserted Island

Jake slept like a rock that night, even though he'd never slept in that bed before. It was just such a long day, and there was so much to absorb. Unfortunately, his attempts to sleep in late were thwarted by another tremor soon after daybreak. This one wasn't more intense, but it lasted a few seconds longer, just enough for it to be a noticeable difference.

"John, are you okay?" Jake called out after the quake stopped. But there was no response. In fact, John wasn't in the hut, let alone in his bed. As a sudden wave of fear came over him, Jake hurried to put on his Leather armor and grab his Iron Katana, putting it in its sheath already slung on his back. Gear equipped, he dashed outside.

"That earthquake was a bit longer than last time, wasn't it?" John asked.

"Eh, it's no big deal." Eiyu's son responded. "Moga's sturdier than it looks. It'll take a leviathan to take down this village!" He laughed with John; the two had made friends very quickly, despite the age gap of a few years. "So do you think that'll get your friend out of bed?" he said.

"Nah, Jake's not really a light sleeper." John answered. Almost on cue, Jake dashed out of the hut, ready for battle. This caused the two to stare at him in silence, and vice versa. The chief's son was the first to chuckle, which soon turned into full-on guffawing, followed by John joining in. Jake, although blushing a bit, eventually laughed with them.

"Jake," John said once the laughter had stopped. "This is Nomusuko Eiyu, the chief's son."

"You know I don't like the words 'chief' and 'son' together." the chief's son remarked. "I just go by Nomu. Nicknames are common around here, after all."

Kajiya overheard this from his nearby smithy, and took this opportunity to shout "I told you so!" at Jake and John.

"Anyways," Nomu continued. "I hear you two are heading out to the woods today for some hunting."

"Of course." Jake said. "That is what we came here for."

"Great." Nomu responded. "To be honest, Moga Woods is a bit of a misleading name. The terrain's pretty diverse out there, with plains, and cliffs, and seashores…"

"Oh my!" John exclaimed. This boring forest stroll just turned into a multi-terrain adventure.

"There's even some signs of a lost civilization there." Nomu said. "Some of the walls in the cliffside areas are actually parts of old buildings; you can make out the window holes, too. I guess it'd be more fitting to call the woods a deserted island. But hey, the first name stuck when it was proposed, and it doesn't really matter. Anyways, you two be careful out there. Even a small Jaggi can be deadly if you're not paying attention."

"Right! I just need to grab my gear and we'll be off!" John exclaimed, running back to the hut.

"Hey! Jake!" Kaj yelled from his smithy. Jake turned to him, and then ran to meet him. "If you two are going out in the field today," he continued. "you'll need these." He handed Jake a pickaxe reinforced with Machalite, as well as a beginner's "Book of Combos". "You might as well go spelunking in the caves for ore, 'cause that's the first step to improving your weapons. Get some herbs and blue mushrooms too; you'll find out you can't get enough of those." Jake nodded and thanked Kaj for his advice, right as John ran up next to him fully geared.

"Ready to go?" John asked.

"As ever." Jake answered. The two proceeded forward, to a seemingly unstable wooden bridge leading to a large island not too far away.

"It's so beautiful out here!" John said. The view was indeed breathtaking, as they were on a high plateau, with a large dropoff to a river in front of them, and several mountains jutted out from afar.

"So here's the plan." Jake instructed. "Kaj gave me this pickaxe and some book on combining. I'll head to the caves, and you can look around for useful materials. And, of course, we'll take out some monsters to get hunting practice while we're here. We'll meet back here by sundown." That gave them plenty of time, as the sun was directly overhead.

"Sounds great." John responded, as the two split up on two descending paths.

On the other side of the island, where land once again met sea, something was off. The resident Epioth, who were usually calm and docile, were in a frenzy, swimming in circles. They sensed something, but they only knew it was an immense danger to them. Their fears were proven correct, as a large creature could be seen swimming in from the west, from an area secluded by natural barriers. It moved its serpentine body in a way that was graceful, but still intimidating. It saw all the Epioth in a fuss, and it rapidly swam towards them. They were frozen in fear by this newfound fiend as it curled itself up. The brown spikes that contrasted with its blue plating began to glow a neon blue, which caused the Epioth significant confusion. It then uncurled, screeching as the spikes discharged a large field of electricity around it, instantly killing all the nearby Epioth as the rest fled in terror. The monster licked its lips before it began viciously chowing down on its meal.

"It's so damp in here…" Jake muttered as he went deeper into the caves. They were almost labyrinthine, and he had to take care not to get lost. Fortunately, many clumps of ore were visibly jutting out from the walls. He went up to one and whacked it with his pickaxe, causing a chunk of dark blue ore to drop down. "This must be Machalite." Jake observed, putting it in his pouch. He proceeded to drain the cluster of its ore, and moved on to another one, plentiful in iron. He was going to look for more Machalite, when a vein with pale crystals caught his eye. He mined off a chunk, and when he went to pick it up, it was cold to the touch. "How did Ice Crystals form in such a warm and sticky cave?" Jake pondered aloud. He took all the crystals like he did with the ores, and moved on in search of more ore.

"Feels like there's some mosquito on my leg." Jake remarked in surprise. "I'm surprised it could pierce this leather." He bent down to pluck it off, when he saw it was not at all a mosquito. It was a Giggi. The oversized leech kept siphoning blood off the hunter, getting larger by the second. Jake shouted in surprise and plucked the Giggi off his leg, leaving a circle of small teeth marks. He threw the parasite at a wall, but that didn't deter it from its lunch. It got up quickly and began swiftly slithering towards him. Jake readied his longsword, and sliced vertically at the Giggi. It wasn't exactly a clean cut, but the leech died nonetheless. "Thank goodness there's no more of those…" Jake said. Almost as if it was on cue, another Giggi's cry could be heard from across the cave. When the hunter whipped around to confront it, it was oozing out of a pale white egg sac, with other Giggi crawling out. Jake ran faster than he could ever remember running, and made a beeline towards the cave's exit, and then all the way back to the meeting point

Not too far away, John was in a field area, right where the land started getting damp, as an ocean was ahead. He wasn't interested in that, though; all of his effort was in finding as many herbs and mushrooms he could fit in his pouch. A nearby group of Jaggi spotted him, and began roaring in his direction.

"Alright!" John exclaimed. "Target practice!" He removed his bowgun from his back strap and unfolded it. It was simple, only consisting of bones reinforced by iron, but still capable of killing. He loaded a few rounds of standard ammunition into the bowgun, and took aim at the Jaggi, who began approaching. Focusing on the Jaggi leading the pack, John pulled the trigger, causing a loud sound as the shot was fired. Almost immediately following that, the pack's leader dropped dead in his tracks. This startled the others, and while some fled back to their nearby nest, the few remaining rushed at John. He shot one in the torso, and rolled away as the other two tried jumping at him. With two more movements of John's index finger, there were two more dead Jaggi on the ground.

"Not too shabby." John remarked, moving closer to the corpses. They weren't too damaged from the outside, since one shot was enough to do them in. John folded up his bowgun and put it back on his back strap, then pulling out his carving knife from his belt. He went from Jaggi to Jaggi, scoring a few scales and some choice bones. "My pouch is almost full…" John noticed as he finished storing his loot. "Might as well go back to our meeting point. Not much else to do here." With that, he began walking away, towards the plateau.

The two met at their meeting point at the same time, and while John was calm, Jake was visibly exhausted.

"What happened with you?" John asked, confused.

"Ah, you know," Jake replied. "Just some Giggi in the caves. Nothing too bad."

"Good to know you weren't frightened or anything." John said. "I found plenty of herbs and mushrooms, and even some monster parts."

"Great." Jake said. "I got a bunch of different ores. Hopefully Kaj can give our weapons an upgrade now." He and John turned to see the sun setting in the distance; time really does fly. They then turned to the long wooden bridge not too far in the distance, and began the stroll back to Moga.

"Hmm, yeah. I can do something with this." Kajiya muttered as the two rookies showed him their spoils. "Leave your weapons on my crafting bench. I'll have 'em ready by tomorrow morning." Jake and John thanked him and began to go towards their hut, when Kajiya called out to them. "Oh, and courtesy of my pal Eiyu, there's a large glass bottle that's been installed in your lodgings. Mix those shrooms and herbs up in there, and you'll have some healing gunk; just add water, and you'll have some potions you can put in the smaller bottles next to it."

Upon entering the hut, Jake took off his weapon and armor, and crashed on his bed.

"What a day…" he said, tired.

"We didn't really do that much." John chuckled as he made his way to the large glass container. It had a nozzle on it too, presumably for getting the potions into the smaller glass bottles. He took off the lid, and tossed the herbs and mushrooms inside, pounding them and mixing them with the handle of his carving knife. The plants mixed to form a dark green goo. John then used a smaller bottle to grab some seawater and poured it into the large container. The goo was dispersed in the water, forming a lighter green liquid. The canister was by no means full, but what they had should last them for a week or two. Suddenly, fatigue came over John as well, and he hung up his bowgun and armor and got into his bed.

"Good night, Jake." he called across the room, but to no response; Jake was already asleep! John chuckled to himself and closed his eyes, quickly falling asleep.