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Monster Hunter
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Chapter 4: How to raise your Pantherex...or so we thought.
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On the way to the village, all four of them were talking about how they were gonna explain the situation to the villagers.
"We could just not tell them?" suggested Alisdair.
"Yeah well, don't think that's much of an option. Mainly cus of the amount of extra food we'll have to bring into the building...along with the matter of our housekeeper." Steven pointed out.
"Hmm...hadn't thought about her...ok so what are we gonna tell them?" Alisdair said.
"We could tell the truth...it's all Grant's fault." Stuart said with a chuckle.
"Hey! Don't pile all the blame on me..." Grant said defending himself before realising the joke. "Well I suppose you could say that..."
"But seriously how are we gonna explain this?" asked Grant.
"I think we may be able to persuade them about the whole training idea...so long as they don't eat any of the villagers later on." Stuart said.
"Hmm I think that may be the point of contention. The whole later on in the future. We have no idea how fast these cubs will mature, or what their primary diet is, and a whole host of other problems. " Steven said. "Or even what normal behaviour is for Pantherex cubs."
All four of them sat in silence as they rode back into the village thinking about what the future may hold.
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"Welcome back young hunters. I trust you managed to retrieve some substantial data about the Great Forest?" asked the Village Chief.
She then looked behind the Aptonath's and saw four eggs on the wagons.
"What are those?" she asked.
"Umm...well..." all four of them said at the same time.
The Chief sighed as she rubbed the spot between her eyes.
"Boys, boys, boys...you can't just go picking up random monster eggs."
"They're not exactly random. It's all in the report." Steven said standing in front of the Chief as the others tried to sneak past.
"All right...I'll read the report as will the rest of the Village Council. Afterwards, we will pass our verdict on whether or not to keep the creatures."
"Thank's Chief. Will we also be able to plead our case before the council as well?" asked Steven. "You know...we have some ideas on how the cubs can prove themselves useful in the case that we can keep them."
"Mmm, we'll see...and you three are very bad at trying to sneak eggs past an old woman." the Chief said without turning her head towards them.
"How does she keep doing that?" asked Alisdair.
"Mainly because you're three heavily armoured hunters going clink clink clink, and you're carrying eggs as big as yourselves." the Chief explained with an amused look on her face.
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When the four of them got the eggs into the house, Crystal took one look at the monster eggs.
"Nyaa! Telly! We're gonna need the extra large frying pan!" she called back into the kitchen.
"No, no, no, no. Crystal these eggs aren't for eating, or medicinal purposes before you try anything." Steven said quickly.
Crystal stood there and patted her left paw.
"What have you four gotten yourselves into this time nyaaa?"
The four of them exchanged looks between one another then Steven, Grant and Alisdair walked backwards slightly, leaving Stuart to fend for himself with Crystal.
"Thanks guys." he said sarcastically.
Crystal pounced onto Stuarts face.
"Start talking or you don't have a face nyaa."
"Well it went like this..." Stuart started.
Ten minutes later.
"And that's why we have these eggs with us, and we're now waiting on the council's decision." Stuart finished, Crystal's claws having been getting more and more extended throughout the story-telling.
"Nyaaa..." Crystal growled as she retracted her claws and jumped off Stuart's face. "If those beasts of yours comes after the staff..." she said, quickly flicking out an index claw and retracting it slowly.
All four of them nodded.
When Crystal had stalked off to the Felyne quarters muttering to herself about not getting paid enough to put up with these madmen, the four hunters looked at each other, then carried each egg to their own rooms.
"Next time something like this happens...we're just going to leave the eggs." Alisdair said as he dropped his egg off.
"You're assuming there's going to be a next time." Grant said after he dropped off his egg.
Steven just lugged his egg up to his room, and locked the door.
"Guess he's going to go over the notes from our "observations" of the Pantherex and what legends there are on them." said Stuart.
Grant clapped his hands once.
"Sounds like a plan. Well I'm gonna do some hammer exercises. See you guys in a few hours." he said locking his door.
"I'm heading to the kitchen. Wanna come along?" Alisdair asked Stuart.
"Nah, think I'll help Steven sift through those legends. Can you ask Telly to send us up a little something in say, half an hour?" Stuart asked Alisdair before knocking on Steven's door.
"Sure." Alisdair said, heading down the stairs.
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Four hours later and there was a knock at the door.
"I'll get it!" Alisdair yelled up.
When Alisdair opened the door, he found the Chief, Nekoht, the Guild Master, and the Village Elder (he's one of those stumpy guys with the really pointy ears).
"Oh hello there...care to come in?" Alisdair said, a little surprised to find them at the front door.
"Thank you deary." the Chief said as she shuffled inside.
"Crystal!" Alisdair yelled.
"Nyaaa what is it now, you bumbling baboon." Crystal asked as she came into the hall. Then she saw the Council members.
"NNNNYAAAAAA! You idiot! You could have told me it was the Council at the door! Nyaaaa... and I've just been found bad-mouthing my hunter host..." she said pawing at her head.
"It's perfectly alright." the Village Elder said. "My staff tends to bad mouth me as well...and I'm sure everyones staff around the world does as well. Its quite alright."
Nekoht just harumphed.
"I have never had any problems with any of my staff."
"That's because she's never been within earshot to hear them say anything about her." the Guild Master whispered to Alisdair as she walked in.
Alisdair suppressed a laugh.
"I'll go get the others." Alisdair said as he went upstairs.
A few minutes and all four hunters were at the table with the Council.
"We have come to hear of your plans for the creatures should they hatch." Nekoht said after taking a sip of her tea.
Everyone looked at Stuart and Steven.
"Well you two were the ones going over the legends and the little data we were able to grab." Grant said, with a wave of his hand.
"Well, when the eggs hatch we would try to raise them as sort of like a mount or ally in battle..." said Steven, before Nekoht spluttered.
"Mounts? What do you think these are? These are vicious predators!" she exclaimed.
"I've actually been studying the eggs and...well..." Steven said looking a little squirmy.
"What?" asked the Chief, eyeballing Steven.
"Stuart, you tell them." Steven said putting his head into his hands.
Stuart shot Steven a glare that could kill, sighed and stood up.
"We also brought with us egg fragments from the Pantherex eggs that had hatched in the cave. Upon a comparison between the eggs, we discovered a difference in size and colouration...a slight one but a difference all the same."
"They're not Pantherex eggs are they?" Grant asked with a sick feeling in his stomach.
"No. They are not. They are in fact...Rathian eggs." said Stuart.
"What?" everyone else exclaimed. Crystal decided to go into the kitchen to get the whetstones she kept there.
"Freshly laid Rathian eggs to be precise. Remember that Rathian we encountered that last day we were there?" Stuart asked.
Grant and Alisdair nodded.
"Well, the main reason she was pissed to see us was that she had just finished laying her eggs and we were getting close to them."
"Hold on...the pantherex cubs were in the same cave... so why didn't they I don't know...eat the eggs?" asked Alisdair.
"We have a theory. That cave tree, could be a communal birthing site. The wyverns have egg sites all over the world, they're bound to end up having some eggs in the same spot as others." Steven said. "So there could be a sort of unspoken pact that no-one touches the eggs in the communal sites."
"So what we have in our rooms, aren't Pantherex eggs...their Rath eggs..." said Grant.
Then he laughed.
"At least we don't need to worry then. We know the lifestyles of the Rath species so we should know how to raise the baby wyverns."
"No need to worry you say? Now we know exactly what to worry about! Raths are very dangerous!" said Nekoht.
"But now we know what we're dealing with as you nicely pointed out Nekoht." said the Chief. "So, with this new information in mind, how does this affect your plans boys?"
The four of them looked at each other.
"Well, now we have access to a lot more information since we know its Rath eggs." said Steven. "So we know how big their going to get, how much their going to eat on a daily basis. And a whole host of other information."
"So, basically, the plan stands on training the Raths as battle partners." said Alisdair.
"Set the scene. The Schrade Fortress is under attack by a Black Fatalis. Normally we wouldn't be able to touch it in the sky, not even with long range Bowguns. But now we can reach it in the sky with our Rath battle partners." suggested Stuart. "If we can get this programme off the ground, then the Rath species could become instead of something to hunt, could become a valuable ally against other monsters."
The Guild Master nodded her head.
"I can see that being helpful. It would also allow for a whole new range of exploration and monster hunting. There are some monsters that are permanently in the skies..." she said.
"I vote for the programme. If you four can make this work, without any consequences for the village, then we will see what we can do to introduce this plan to the rest of the hunters."
"Well I vote against it." said Nekoht. "If the Raths that hatch are both different genders, say one or two are female, and the other two or three are male, the destruction that could follow their mating season is unbeareble to comntemplate. Nor can a village support a large wyverns feeding needs, let alone four of them."
The Elder stood up.
"Well I vote for it. This could bring about new legends, and inspire more people to enter the hunt and defend the villages and cities of Minegarde and the rest of the world. Also I'm intrigued to see how this goes. An experiment must be tested."
Everyone looked at the Chief.
"Its all up to you Chief. Your vote could send this decision into deadlock or allow the programme to continue. This is your village that's concerened here."
The Chief sat there and thought about the possibilites of this programme. The bad ones and the good ones.
"I vote...for the programme. So long as the boys manage to keep the Raths under control and don't exert too much pressure on the Village's needs they can keep them. However, if too much property is destroyed and their feeding requirements becomes too much for the village to handle then they will be evicted."
Steven wiped away a bead of sweat from his head.
Grant and Alisdair high fived each other.
Stuart nodded at the Chief.
Nekoht fumed at the decision.
The Guild Master giggled at the Felyne's discomfort.
The Elder just pulled out a wax tablet and started writing down what had happened.
"I shall dub this tale, "The Fate of Legends!" Make this one to be proud of boys." he said. "And bring honour to this village."
All four of the hunters stood up and bowed to the Council.
"We will do our best." said Stuart.
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The next day Grant was leaving the village on his Aptonath.
"You know what you have to do Grant?" asked Stuart.
"Yup. Go to the Forest and Hills region and find a suitable location to train our Raths in. Don't worry I'll be back."
With that he waved and set off.
Meanwhile, Alisdair was leaving on his Aptonath from the other exit from teh village.
"You sure you know what you're doing brother?" asked Steven.
"For the hundreth time yes. i'm to go to the various Rath regions and gather what information i can on feeding patterns. I'll head to the volcanic region first to see how they hunt there."
"Just be careful." Steven said.
"I will be." Alisdair said.
Then he left as well.
"Guess that just leaves me and Stuart to get the backgarden ready for the new arrivals. According to my notes, the eggs should hatch in one months time. Hopefully by then all the preparations will be done and ready." said Steven heading back to the house.
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