Byrito Village (part 1)

"Hey, wake up, boy."

"Let the boy have his sleep."

"It's already early morning, and he needs to be checked by the doctors, remember?"

"I heard the doctors are preoccupied with the other Old Ones."

The sounds of conversing people seemed like a bee's sting piercing through his dull ears. The sensation was eerie, to say the least. The boy swore that his nap lasted for a couple of minutes, yet at the same time, he felt an urge to get up and see whatever happened next to him. Maybe he's just late for school, maybe he'd forgotten some errands, either way thing couldn't be bad for him, right? Oh well, maybe the chatting folks could provide some answers for him.

"Are you sure leaving him here to sleep is a good idea?"

"All I could see is that he's breathing well. No signs of illness or poisoning, unless I didn't look clearly. Let the medical practitioners examine him and you can ask for the details later on."

"Alright. Let's go out and have something to eat. We'll notify his attending doctors on the way."

The woman sounded like she's worrying about him dying, although the other one, an adult male if he's correct, was decidedly more logical; let the doctors take a look at the patients if you couldn't figure out what to do. And if 'doctors' here meant experts who treated sick people... then for whatever reason the boy was taken into a hospital. A bad news for him, mainly because he believed had no money in his person to pay the medication they'd given him. Even more bad news if he's injured in some way, especially if it threatened his life. He had to know if anything was wrong.

First things first, he must try to move his limbs to check the chance of contracting a severe injury, a fractured bone if there's any. The boy chose to test his right arm first, then his left arm. So far so good, there didn't seem to be any feelings of agony. Maybe he was purely wrapped in a lot of bandages to dull the pain? It might not be of any concern right now.

The second task was to check his legs, see if they were alright as well. A muscle twitch followed by toe wiggling indicated the wellbeing of his right leg. The same was done to his left leg, with no feelings of discomfort or restrain whatsoever. A good sign, without doubt.

As he took deep breaths to gather himself together, he reflected on what he could remember. Did he have a name? Yes. It was... Alexander Richard Gray, 22 years old, just happened to graduate from his university with no real plan for his future aside from traveling to a lot of places. Alex admitted, his state of affairs now was kind of strange. He was not doing any extreme sport beforehand, nor was he involved in a traffic accident or catching a sickness. His body, as far as Alex could tell, was in perfectly healthy shape, so how did he end up stranded in a hospital, if the place really is a hospital? He needed to see it with his own eyes.

Alex opened his eyes carefully, suspecting his eyes to be damaged somehow. Looking around, he found himself lying on a seemingly normal hospital bed with its white sheet and stuff, but the room was... kind of traditional-looking, as Alex would like to put it. The walls were made of wooden material, though they looked tougher than Alex initially thought. The roof was similarly wooden, although there were pieces of what might possibly be silage commonly seen in primitive housing. The circular windows at the left and front of Alex let in just enough light to make colors discernible; the time of the day might either be sunrise or sunset, but Alex was more intrigued by something else than figuring out the time. Alex stared around the room, finding more unusual sights in his room, such as traditional medical tools alongside what appeared to be modern books on human physiology, medicines and physical exercises. Things like candles and parchment were interspersed with outwardly modern objects like light bulbs and washing sinks. If this was really an underdeveloped place, or simply a technological discrepancy, Alex had no ability to tell. Alex couldn't understand what was happening there, he required someone to explain it to him, in an comprehensible way of talking of course. On the far side of the wall, there were some... what were those objects exactly? From afar they looked like totems or medallions, but as Alex squinted his eyes to see more clearly, the objects looked like carapaces taken from insects... or were they belong to turtle-like animals? Strange indeed.

He then glanced at the room's door. Was he brave enough to venture out of the room? Would there be friendly people to shed some light on his predicament?

And what of the two people who were talking earlier; could they be trusted should they decided to break whatever news they had for him? Based on their conversation Alex heard while he was asleep, they were worried about his condition. But was their compassion real or fabricated? Alex hoped he was right to await their arrival.

"Was he awake when both of you in there?"

"No, he wasn't."

"We could wait outside if you wanted, doc. No need to rush things; we're still having some meetings with the Guild, see if we are allowed to extract more information from the ruins."

"Is Lady Mikato coming with you too? Alright, I'll send you the report later. Your Palicoes may come with you if you so desire."

The voices from before were back, and judging from the third voice, they must've alerted the person looking after Alex. He contemplated on feigning sleep, but deciding against it; he wasn't feeling sleepy anymore, not with him being surrounded by creepy tools.

Alex sat still on his bed, his fingers nervously fidgeting to create an image of a hopefully normal patient in a standard hospital. He didn't need to.

A middle-aged woman in dull white clothes came into the room slowly, looking at Alex to saw him calm and aware. Nodding with a gentle smile, she crossed the room and produced a clipboard of sorts from inside her suit. Could it be the report the previous two people requested? Alex had no idea what to say, unless the lady, the obviously his doctor, asked his simple questions. She looked like the run-of-the-mill worker one would see in a medical place, although her slightly-greying black hair and thin wrinkles on her cheeks made Alex though she was a mediocre housewive. Nevertheless, Alex felt fine around her; he sensed the originally tense atmosphere turned placid with the lady in the room. As the woman sat on a chair next to Alex's bed, he steeled himself for the upcoming exchange.

"Good afternoon, young lad. You look fine."

"I... Yeah, I'm fine, I think." Alex laughed a bit.

The doctor nodded again in satisfaction, making brief notes on her papers. The small talk opened a bind of anxiety in the young man's chest. He probably could use the chance to ask anything as long as the lady was placated.

"Ah, pardon me. I must first introduce myself. I am Dorothy Samson, just call me Dory since I love nicknames to identify myself." the woman, Dorothy, offered her right hand.

Alex shook her hand in return, "I'm Alexander Gray. By the way, why do you want to be called Dory, ma'am? It's kind of unprofessional if you ask me." Dory chuckled, her eyes were shining as if reliving memories from happier times in her life. "Oh, it's mostly for personal reasons. You see, I wasn't really an official doctor. I spent my life prior to this one serving in underdeveloped nations, trying to increase people's life rate. I've visited countries that were so foreign compared to where I came from you know, places like Africa and South America. I could spend hours upon hours of talking about my achievements here, but of course we have an appointment today, don't we?" Something didn't add up, and Alex knew it.

"Wait, what do you mean by 'life prior to this one'? Did you..."

"No, my dear, it has nothing to do with reincarnation," Dory moved her chair closer to his bed, "the truth, however, is far wilder than my mind could ever perceive. Even you would consider myself as a very good liar. Would you like to hear the full story, Alex?"

The confused young man nodded eagerly. This was it, the moment of revelation, "Okay, tell me all you know so far!"

"I won't be that excited if I were you, boy." Dory said, her tone suddenly went serious.

-X-X-X-X-X-

Before Alex heard the story, he had hoped for some fantastical explanation to enlighten everything he'd seen and overheard so far. After hearing it, his mind and expression turned into abject horror. What in the world had happened to their Earth?

As the sunlight shone brighter and brighter into the hospital room, Alex sat on his bed, his mouth agape at the tale Dory brought him. He couldn't catch the whole story, not with the doctor's tale becoming darker or crazier every minute, but he had gotten enough key phrases to construct a summarization of her story. Long story short, back in 'their' era as the kind doctor put it, World War 3 broke out between three superpower nations, something Alex blamed on himself for not noticing it in the previous time period. He was alive back then! How could he not heard it, the whole damn event was recorded and talked about everywhere! Approximately one year following the war's trigger, by unknown means and purposes, biological life forms were made in the hopes of both crushing the opponents and to stabilize the Earth's rapidly declining biosphere, which was shaken by the use of weapons of mass destruction. But something, or a lot of things as Dory implied, went horribly wrong. The biological weapons mutated over time and started to spread beyond the controls of their makers. Year after year, humanity lost their place as the apex of the world's food chain, from the war and the monstrosities that came into being, and year after year, Mother Earth lost more of its life form, replaced by terrifying creatures. These anomalous flora and fauna were filling in the niches of the damaged ecological systems, eventually evolving into the so-called 'monsters' known by the civilization which thrived nowadays. But the shock came crashing down on Alex when Dory revealed to him what the men and women of old had done in the name of survival; intentionally kidnapping people here and there and put them into stasis pods, hidden within secret buildings all over the world, so that they might one day rebuild the glory of humanity. Alex wasn't sure if he heard her words correctly, but the building he was stored in was prophesized to host the last batch of Old Ones, readying them for the Final Awakening of those who came before.

There wouldn't be any more people, or Old Ones, coming after the Final Awakening. Alex and whoever else retrieved from the crumbling and overgrown stasis chamber were the last of the Old Ones, the last relics of those who came before.

"So you're saying that..."

"That we Old Ones had been sleeping for millennia? Yes. Well, for my case, it was my great-great grandparents who experienced this phenomenon. Their batch was the Fifth ones, they woke up some five centuries ago, so I have no idea regarding the tiny tidbits, but you should've gotten the whole picture by now." Dory patiently elaborated what she knew.

"Five thousand years..." Alex muttered to himself, a terrible realization dawned upon him, "five thousand years were gone..."

How? Why? Was kidnapping people to outlive the war that necessary? A million questions swirled in his mind as Dory performed medical examinations on him. It would be better if she finished her duty quickly, but knowing how kind she was to him, Alex, didn't mind. He wanted to know. He wanted to see the world as it was now.

Dory seemed to sense what he planned to do shortly, as she scolded him, "No, I'm afraid you're not in the condition to walk around on your own. Stay here for the day. I'll bring you something to eat."

With a soft pat to his right shoulder, Dory excuse herself from the room. Alex was left alone again, envisioning himself running out of the place and screaming like a madman, or a monkey looking for an object to play.

"What do I do now?" he whispered quietly.

He considered the opportunity to actually walk out and attempted communication with anybody willing to talk. Alex was never good at inquiring information from passersby; he'd rather check for it through the use of his computer or smartphone. How stupid, he thought. He should've seen it coming. With the lack of sufficient technology in this era, completely no internet at all to help him figure out what to do, Alex shook his head in dismay at the notion of having to wander aimlessly without direction.

That was... until the sight of a mirror caught his interest.

Alex was not sure if gazing at his appearance now would help his case in any way. But of course, he needed to see if he was truly fine.

Climbing down the white bed, Alex tiptoed to the mirror, glancing at the room's door once in a while in expectation of either Dory or the two people who had brought him there.

At the first sight, Alex stared at his otherwise physically healthy body, but an emotion washed over him, some unexplained feeling of dejection at the spectacle of his reflection on the large oval mirror. He was roughly six feet two inch tall if not a little taller, with fair skin color, and athletic musculature which came from his frequent exercises and fondness of sports. His hair was blonde and short, neatly cropped to form a spike in the front, and his eyes were crystal blue without any imperfection. The remainder of his face was smooth and round, so did his body, no signs of injury of any kind save for pale coloration of his skin. Alex mused; the pale skin could've been why he was rather lethargic, because of his five thousand years sleep inside the pods. At this point, Alex's clothing consisted of featureless white shirt and shorts, and no footwear at all. He imagined that he'd require more suitable attire for his day-to-day activities should Dory declared him good enough to leave the building.

Feeling more invigorated to look over the room, Alex had his attention to a large book in crimson covering titled The Art of Monster Hunting: An Extensive Guide for Beginner Hunters. Its front cover had images of dragon-like creatures in crude displaying. What was it that Dory said about the tradition of this era? Monster Hunting, really?

He flipped open the first few pages, trying to immersed his mind in the book's contents. The opening chapters were, much to his disappointment, pretty much boring thanks to overabundance of what Alex called unnecessary specifics on things he did not understand at first; potions, traps, some objects named whetstones, and tables on 'crafting techniques', whatever the hell those were. His earlier irritation at the book's seemingly useless expository subjects were soon overwhelmed by curiosity and awe as soon as he flipped the book straight to the middle chapters, which filled over seventy percent of its total pages.

Pictures, diagrams, and descriptions of various beasts screamed at him each time he opened up a new page in that particular section. Colorful creatures beyond Alex's wildest imaginations were documented from, allegedly, all over the world by monster hunters and daring researchers. The majority of them were draconic monsters such as Rathalos, Yian Garuga, Seregios, and Tigrex. Some were decidedly more dinosaurian than draconic like Jaggi, Velociprey, and Monoblos. As far as the Alex could read, the book did some effort to differentiate dragons from non-dragon beasts as creatures like the lupine Zinogre (Alex personally liked the monster's description) or the crustacean Daimyo Hermitaur (A giant crab that lived in the skulls of dead large monsters, Alex summarized) were designated as monsters too, despite classification rules putting these things under titles like 'Fanged Beasts', 'Bird Wyverns' or 'True Wyverns'. Huh, apparently thousands of years without human interference, coupled with mutations caused by the bioweapons Dory told him, had caused uncontrollable evolutionary divergences on the world's plants and animals, to the point where nearly all creatures could breathe elemental powers. Nobody cared to give them Latin names or any lost-dead languages aside from what little foreign tongues they had learned.

And then there were the 'Elder Dragons' chapter, which documented entities supposedly wielding supernatural powers commonly believed to be magic. To be honest, Alex felt that these Elder Dragons were no different at all from mythological creatures from his time period. For example, the legendary Fatalis, the black dragon of doom and calamity, was more or less a traditional European lindwurm with four legs and two wings. The horse-like Kirin, capable of summoning lightning strikes through its horn, was physically the same with Middle-Age unicorns albeit with a seriously ill-mannered attitude towards humans. Amatsu-Magatsuchi, the ruler of storms from the Yukumo region, whatever place Yukumo might be for Alex, was... confusing to pinpoint as it had the traits of both sea dragons and Chinese oriental dragons.

Well, perhaps it would be best if he asked more knowledgeable folks for more, Alex thought. Putting the crimson book to its place, Alex stared out of a window, into the sunset. Wait, it was sunset? Goodness, how time flew! He must've forgotten how long he had been reading the large book, bearing in mind the energy he'd put into absorbing the brand-new understanding.

As if it wasn't enough, his stomach growled in hunger. Damn it, he got to find something to eat. Didn't his attending doctor say she would return to bring him a meal?

Fortunately, not long after, his worries flickered away from him. The hospital room's door opened, and Dorothy Samson stepped in, bringing with her an apologetic smile and a plate of... something aromatic.

-X-X-X-X-X-

"Do you stand with us?"

"I do. I've made my choice."

"You seem afraid. Is there anything you'd like to say?"

"Only that we don't know what this project is capable of, sir. There are too many what ifs in it."

"I assume you already know what to do. After all, you've been... investigating our research here, have you not?"

"What are you saying, sir?"

"I'm saying that, since you know a lot more than your comrades. I believe it is very prudent to... grant you an honorary position."

-X-X-X-X-X-

Author's Note :

Inspirations for this chapter came from TV Tropes and Monster Hunter World's original soundtracks (Private Suite, Coral Highlands and Rotten Vale BGMs). Don't be shy to rate and review the story if you enjoyed it!

Monster Hunter is the property of Capcom. I own nothing.