Sudden Acts

Disclaimer: Monster Hunter is copyright Capcom. All characters in this story are mine.

Twelve hours earlier...

The morning light began to appear after a big storm that roared all night long. The cold wind blew into the room where she stood as she decided to open the window; adding a colder sensation as she let the wind sway her long wet black hair. The girl inhaled the morning air where once again formed a gentle breeze which blew the windows rattled. Her gray eyes swept to what was outside and saw the same wind gently moving the mist in that place.

Louru was the name of that small village. The dim light filled the place, offset by the color of green leaves that had not shined brightly. It was almost ten, but that gloomy sky had covered the land since forever. Fallan wasn't called as the sea of rainforests for nothing.

Kea had just worn her Guild uniform; a black leather sheath dress, contrasted with gold lines which ran vertically, following the contour of the forepart of her body, from her shoulder to the end of her skirt. The first brown leather baldric was belting her waist and the second one was diagonally circling her body from her shoulder to her hip, which two were connected to a big silver ring. Her black knee-high leather boots covered most of her dark blue leggings. Her tiny shoulders were attached with small black pads which engraved with a bright red Guild crest on her left shoulder.

Her body was fresh after her bath. She just returned from her exercise on the eastern side of the village. Kea couldn't let her works behind the table made her muscles stiff. She walked back to her desk. A smile sneaked on her face after she remembered her farewell with Frey that morning. It had been so long since the last time they met, and she needed to say goodbye so soon. But she was proud already; she might've never been by his side to support him, but Kea had always followed his progression through his quests report; the peak of her current position in the Hunter Guild.

She took a piece of document and started to work on it. She had successfully made her lodging into one of those Guild's file rooms; exactly when someone forgot to close the window while there was a typhoon outside. Kea was working on a pile of reports of those hunters who took level two and three contracts in the western Fallan before she delivered those files to the Guild in the north.

It had been a common regulation for any hunters doing their quest to state in their report about a number of monsters they had captured or killed; from the smallest Lynian to the largest Wyvern, intentionally or unintentionally; all of them needed to be stated in their report and could be brought to the court any time felt necessary; and if the Guild said to mention every monster, it meant every last of it; since there was a lot of hunters who still used their license in irresponsible ways.

Those hunters would report their hunting as a 'failed quest' in order to keep their carvings for their own selves; while the rule was clear; every monster they had killed or captured, regardless those monsters were their main objectives of not; should be reported to the Guild on their return from their trip; as for the higher Quests, the body of those monsters would unquestionably belong to the Guild. Those hunters would be rewarded proportionally, based on the current guild preserved treasury. That was clearly the main reason why every hunter in their third level or higher hunting quests were equipped with a flare gun to mark the dead body's position which would make it easier for those zeppelins to find their coordinate before the Guild sent an extraction team to bring the lifeless body of those monsters to the nearby Guild.

Red for the kill and white for the capture. The misuse of those flare guns would cause the hunters to be suspended, jailed, even made their license revoked. Guild couldn't let any suspicious report without receiving any further action. Once a case was worth being suspected, then the hunter would be put under interrogation and sent to the court. Those were needed to prevent any illegal hunting over the land. The black market would always make the profit out of Guild's slightest mistake which could jeopardize the entire ecosystem of a place. A big demand for rare materials and big rewards for those who would supply them could drive some species to become extinct. And there she was; being nailed to her chair behind a mountain pile of workload which she had to check thoroughly.

Four hours had passed before someone knocked the door, finally. She smacked her lips before she stormed away from her chair, grabbed the doorknob, and swung it open; her face was gone full red of rage.

"Mara!" She yelled her guts out toward the grapes in front of her face.

The girl who knocked the door immediately pulled the grapes away of Kea's sight and gently patted the berries. "Calm down Miss; you scared the grapes." The girl winced and shook her head; but her expression turned flat, since Kea's glare wouldn't tear away from her anytime soon. The girl picked a berry randomly; chewed it, and pushed the rest of them to Kea's chest. "I bring your favorite. You may eat them all." Her voice muffled as she flew her steps inside.

"Did you just bribe me!?" Kea yelled in frustration toward the girl's back.

The girl was wearing an exactly similar uniform with Kea. Her long auburn hair was let loose to her back. It was Mara; her hunting partner in the Guild; a wielder of a long sword, a very long curved and slim blade which was firstly introduced as 'Tachi' by the eastern people. Her weapon of choice was hanging diagonally on her back; the famous 'Eagle Cleaver'; one of the two masterpieces which were ever made by a famous blacksmith in Rowan kingdom; and Mara was the only person known using that sword in the entire Bramh region. She promised to meet Kea in the last sojourn village three days before their departure since they both would be sent to an excavation site somewhere in the southern part of Houroth to resolve a mining issue.

Mara put her hands on her hips after seeing the room's condition while ignoring her partner behind; she bent over and squint her hazel eyes at Kea. "Miss Reuris, you can't just give up your humanity and become one with this chaos."

Kea drew a deep breath in response. "Do you know how long I've been waiting here!?" She shrilled at her partner.

Kea's voice made her ears ringing. Mara opened her eyes once her hearing recovered and shook her head to adjust her consciousness. She inhaled sharply through her teeth and smiled. "I'm sorry. I really had something important to do." She turned from her bend and continued to walk toward the table where those documents piled; ignoring Kea who started jabbering an indistinct speech behind her. Mara took a file or two and read them aimlessly before she gave Kea a serious look. "Have you heard about these villages in the north who suffered from the storm last night?"

Kea stopped her yapping right away by that question; it was more to Mara's expression actually, yet not tearing her gaze away from her. "You are the worst." Kea suppressed her annoyance and closed her eyes trying to calm herself. "It was a natural disaster, why was the Guild who need to be troubled?" She rolled her eyes and chewed a grape.

Mara dropped her gaze to the paper in her hand and entered her reverie state; she nodded. "So you did hear about that." She murmured as she ran her finger through the file and stopped after a certain word; she pressed her lips and gave Kea a thoughtful look. "I have a bad feeling about this." Her concerned look matched her voice.

Kea pursed her lips and dramatically nodded. She took a few steps forward and drew herself closer to Mara. "Something bad did happen last night and we call it storm," Kea explained crisply. "And what did the news tell? Any loss?" She asked as she walked past her partner toward the table.

Mara slowly put the two documents back and nodded. "Yes. But the Guild hasn't told anything about it."

"You talked as if the Guild and us two are distinct. Sooner or later, we are the one who will be informed first." Kea assured as she magically appeared to Mara's side, the girl went 'oomph' as Kea thrust a pile of files to her stomach. "Help me with these."

Mara slightly bowed by the weight of those papers when Kea let her hands off. She gave a glimpse at that two spans of pile work and rolled her eyes.

"Excuse me, but another half of your work is now lying on my desk!" Kea pointed to the table next to them. She crossed her hands and frowned. "Your room is next to the door."

Mara clicked her tongue and nodded quickly under her woeful face, but she remembered something just before she took her first step to leaving. "How was that kid?" A slight of beam shone on her face, but a thoughtful look followed. "Had he gone already?" She asked.

"Don't worry, he left early this morning," Kea responded while pulling her hair behind her ears and bowed to the table to tidy up her desk. "Our precious little Frey must've reached a half way to Houroth by now." She gave Mara her sweetest smile.

Mara held a chuckle and rolled her eyes. Her mind recalled the last moment she was standing next to him; it was in the ninth annual graduation ceremony held by the Guild in Donruma Colosseum. Frey finally received his hunting license and she was there to congratulate him. It was almost a year ago. But her mind slowly stopped recalling, her head was too hazy now. She felt her chest grow heavier with those many questions about the current issue; not to mention about her receiving a report about two airships, which usually floated above Fallan, were told to withdraw from their posts under the Guild command that morning.

She tsked and pressed her lips once again. "I worry because he left."

A weak smile grew on Kea's face. She understood how much Mara cared about Frey. "You worry too much Miss Velou." She comforted as she walked toward Mara; she placed her hands on Mara's shoulders and shook her a bit. "Rejoice! Today is his first group hunt." Kea's smile beamed; she tilted her head and drew her sight away for a second; and when her gray eyes landed back at Mara, Kea gave her a squint. "His partner is cute, though."

Mara rolled her eyes and exhaled sharply. "Contain yourself. They both might be too young for us." She implied, earning a flinch from Kea.

"What? No!" Kea quickly waved her hand. Mara was three years older than Frey, but deep inside Kea knew should Frey ever ask Mara to go out, she would never think twice to say yes. Kea raised a brow and pursed her lips in a self-satisfied smirk. "His partner is a girl."

"Wh-what?" Mara's eyes goggled. She tried to clear her throat to deceive her shock and fixed her shoulder uncomfortably.

Kea hid a smile and bolted toward her desk. "Frey might like her." The cheer in Kea's voice caused her partner growled under her breath.

Kea lurched back holding a document and put it on the top of the pile in Mara's hands and rotated the sheet for a better angle; still, Mara needed to tilt her head to adjust her view. Her eyebrows almost met in a sharp turn as her eyes landed on Ellen's photograph.

"Ellen? Her name is Ellen Elweard?!"

Her response made Kea flinched. "Yes." She nodded. "You know her?"

"Unbelievable." Mara huffed and shook her head. Her eyes still glued on the paper.

Kea frowned and took a closer look at the paper. "What is it?"

"I did hear from the Guild that Frey will be doing a quest with someone named Ellen. But..."

"Tell me already, for Cryx sake!"

"It's just..." Mara doubted. "I thought Ellen is a manly name."

"You got to be kidding me." Kea rolled her eyes.

Mara tutted in her concerned look. "Well, you know? Ellendar, Van Ellen, but look! They give him this Ellen?! See that blond hair and her blue eyes, and she is so young."

"Maranatha. Really?" Kea's face turned drop dead flat. Her upper lip started twitching absentmindedly.

Mara kept reading and mumbled. "She's from Nearsong." She pointed out the obvious and read again. Kea saw Mara's head making a weird angle, so she fixed the paper's position for her. "Is it just I or her profile is weird?"

"I thought so." Kea agreed as she turned Mara's body to face the door and slowly pushed her partner toward the exit for procrastinating. "She is practically not a hunter, but a scout. I wonder how someone that young could be sent to Houroth; and judging from her history, that girl has been preferably selected by the royals to go to several places for quite sometimes." Her voice groaned in her struggle.

"Royals. They think they can do anything with a few seal stamps." Mara was intentionally slowing her paces but Kea wouldn't give up and keep on pushing her back; but her strides stopped as she reached the door. "Kea. What's with that crowd over there?"

Kea raised a brow in response. She walked two steps to reach the door and stuck her head out. They saw a lot of hunters crowding the hunting post on the north side of the village. Those people looked angry, they were shouting at something inside that big tent.

Mara shouldered her partner aside and stepped forward to have a better view. She bent to her in a second and handed the papers back. "Kea. Hold this for a sec."

Kea was too shocked to say a thing until she saw Mara ran across the village's yard. "W—wait!" But there was no way Mara would listen. She growled as she turned back and made quick steps to reach her table; she put the papers back and ran outside to chase Mara; letting the door slammed behind her.

Kea started to realize in her run that people in that village looked busy helping each other. A big storm was reported striking a large area of forest far in the west at the previous night, but fortunately, the storm's edge didn't hit Louru that hard. But to think that the storm was enough rocking everyone's houses in that village, then it must've been really terrible there. Kea was glad she arrived in Louru a couple hours before the sun set a day before.

As she ran, there were seen villagers who were repairing the roofs of their house. Some were seen trying to strengthen their houses with some girders made of wood that was stuck to the walls of their homes. It looked like they were getting themselves ready to face a greater storm.

Kea had reached the middle of the yard while seeing Mara who was forcefully penetrating the mob of angry hunters and disappearing in between. She increased her paces to catch up; she couldn't wait for something bad to happen. She forced herself to split the crowd while repeating a few 'excuse me' and 'let me through' before she finally found Mara who was tip-toeing in front of the tent's entrance.

Kea walked next to her partner and patted a man near her on his shoulder to get his attention. "Excuse me, but what is it all about?" She winced after some people inside the tent went uproar.

The man who shouted angrily a second ago gave Kea two quick glances before recognizing two girls in Guild uniforms were standing beside him; he swallowed and doubtfully lowered his voice and hand once he saw Kea crossing her arms.

"The Guild has called off every contract which takes place on the western side of Fallan, officers." The man stumbled and suddenly looked cooperative, especially after he saw Mara approaching and gave him a thoughtful look through her hazel eyes. "Every contract is now canceled due to the storm warning tonight."

"Storm warning?" Mara cried as she frowned.

"Yes, mam." He nodded quickly. "Any hunting activity is now forbidden in several areas; that will include swamps in the north, western Old Jungle and-"

Kea gasped. "Houroth!" Her eyes met Mara's.

"I knew it! Something's not right here." Mara growled in her cringe; her mind raced. She closed her eyes and shook her head in frustration. "We got to stop Frey."

"Mara, wait!" Keayelled, a split second after she saw her partner darted inside the big tent; slipping herself between the crowds and disappeared again.

Thank you for reading! You guys are awesome!

I'm dying to know your opinions, so if you enjoyed the story, please let me know!

anonymouses, please make an account. I want to reply your review personally. Pretty please..

I spent three hours to find the word 'sheath dress.' Seriously. I didn't even know a thing about female dresses or how I called them. I know words such as 'pants, shirts, jackets, hoodies, or suit; but I might have never known those word such as 'Apparel', 'Shash', or 'Collar Boots' until I write this story.

The next chapter is about to come!

- Arth