-Chapter 4: Zang-
"AHHH! DAMN!" I yelled in pain.
"Well stop struggling and you should be fine," Zang said as he was using a medical aid on my freshly cut wound.
Zang's village is set in a hidden valley within the mountains of the desert where many healing herbs and many other plants with healing properties reside. He was over here in search of a crystal believed to relieve anyone of any poisonous substances, but instead found the Velocidrome in search of food. Fortunately I was able to assist him before he was dinner.
"So, how did you learn to he-OW!" I asked.
"I learned from my father, who used to assist G-rank hunters years ago," Zang explained, "unfortunately he became sick a
few years ago and tried to find the cure, but passed on as he was on the verge of finding the combination of the legendary lifepowder. He just needed these crystals that are really rare to find, all his research is in his journal… I wish I could continue his research, but I don't think I'd be able to…"
"Well if you do a good job on Xan, there's hope for you yet," assured Zakca.
"Thanks. I'm glad to hear that," said Zang.
"I dont know. I think he'd be a better fighter, he seemed to know what he was doing the moment he got something he could use as a weapon against the drome," I stated.
"It's all up to you Zang, whatever you want to be, we're sure you'll be good at it," added Nathaniel.
"Thanks guys, you don't know how good that makes me feel," said Zang. Then I noticed something going down his cheek.
"Zang. Are you crying?" I pointed out.
"Wha-? No!" he exclaimed whipping the tear from his cheek. At that moment, I knew that wasn't a tear..
"Zang! You're bleeding!" I exclaimed. Zang turned his head and with the light of the fire, we saw the long slash across his eye.
"How could you possibly not notice that?" exclaimed Zakca.
"I don't know. I guess I was too focused on you guys, I didn't feel it," Zang informed, "I'm not a heavy bleeder, so I guess it wasn't that noticeable."
He began to use the medical kit on himself and cleared up the blood and bandaged his wounded eye. The Velocidrome had slashed at him with his large claws, luckily, Zang probably had his eyes shut so his eye didn't get messed up. But now there will most likely be a large scar remaining.
We spent the remainder of the night sleeping, only to wake up in the early morning and continue our trip to Zang's village for information on a wyvern's whereabouts. Hopefully with this information, we can find proof of the existence of the monsters. Maybe we can warn others of the oncoming evolution of the monsters.
We finally reached the village of Torantess. It was small and undeveloped; one could tell that it wasn't long ago that this town had been built. There were a few shops here and there, where Nathaniel stopped by to get some more equipment. Nathaniel had let us in charge in finding the monster tracker. He went by the name of Dylan Solotice. But before we could start on our search for him, Zang insisted on us having dinner with his family.
"Zang! You home yet?" his mother called.
"Yea mom, I'm back," he answered, "oh and I have new friends I would like you to meet."
"Oh! Hello. I'm pleased to meet you two," she greeted, "I'm Lerana. I-ZANG! What happened to your eye?"
"Don't worry mom I'm okay. It's all thanks to these two," he assured, "Mom, this is Zakca and Xan"
Zakca and I both waved to her and said hi.
"Thank you for saving my little boy," she said quickly pulling him toward her and kissing his head.
"MOM!" Zang whined, while Zakca and I chuckled.
"Well, I hope you two are staying for dinner," she offered.
"Of course," Zakca and I said.
She served dinner and we were all sitting around the table. We sat there for a couple moments, and as time passed, Zang's family began filling in the empty seats. His family lived at his house until his uncles were done building their own homes. Since it was a small town and building supplies were scarce, it was taking a lot of time. Finally everyone was seated and dinner was completely passed out. She made heaven bread and king turkey, along with some gold rice and soul beans. Zang said that his mother always wanted to be a gourmet chef, but wasn't able to gain enough money to pay to go to gourmet school. Recently, felynes have been able to enroll into those schools and have been working along with humans to create the most amazing food known to man.
Half way through dinner, one of Zang's uncles was telling us a story about his hunts in the past, and how he loved to fight for his town and be with his friends.
"Then my partners began running everywhere, worrying that he had lost the Kut-Ku because he didn't paintball it. But I told him that I knew where the Kut-Ku always goes and soon enough, we find it and defeat it. Especially me with my Dualcaster bowgun. Boy, I tell 'ya, those things were heavy, but luckily, I always carried by trusty dagger. It's made of some strange metal, but it's always come through for me," told his uncle, and he waved this small black dagger.
"Dylan! Put that away!" ordered Lerana.
"Dylan?" I asked, "Dylan Solotice?"
"Yea," he answered, "why?"
We explained everything to him, and he agreed to help us. Later on that night, he was outside looking at the stars.
"What's wrong?" asked Zang.
"What you told me...the other night, I heard noises up the mountains, so I decided to hike up there. And I saw something I haven't seen in years...Do you know what it is?" he asked.
We all nodded.
"Heh...it was a Rathalos footprint...surely the monsters have returned..." Dylan stated frightfully.
"So what do we do now?" I asked.
"Well, we could just stand here and let everything happen suprisingly..or we fight back," Dylan said with much courage in his voice.
"THEN LETS FIGHT!" exlaimed Zang with much enthusiasm.
"YEA!" Zakca and I both agreed.
"Alright. We shall begin our hunt at dawn. For now, let's get some rest and I'll prepare my tracking equipment," he said.
We all agreed and arrived at Zang's house to get some rest. When we got there, Nathaniel had already arrived and was waiting for us.
"So I see you've all met," Nathaniel said.
"How's it going old friend?" asked Dylan.
"Fine. So what do you think of Drang's son?" Nathaniel said.
"T-this is Drang's son?" Dylan asked open-mouthed, "OF COURSE! How could I not see it? You are son of a great hunter Xan. Your father and I had done so many missions together in the past. I expect no less from you."
"Thank you, sir," I said modestly, "I only hope to be as good as my father."
"You must have something your father gave to me long ago," Dylan said, "Hold here a moment."
He ran inside the house, and a couple minutes later, came back out with a large black cloak.
"It doesn't seem like much, but trust me, this thing kept your father safe in so many situations," he began, "and before your father passed, he told me to take care of this for him. But I think you will need it more."
He handed me the coat and I thanked him much for it. After that, he told us he had a couple weapons saved that we'd be able to use the next day for our hunt. So, all that was left to do was to get some rest. And that's exactly what we did. The room we were all sleeping in was very large and had a large mat on the ground where everyone made their bed. Feeling awkward, Zakca and I chose to sleep in a somewhat secluded area, but still kept our distance from each other. Sleep enveloped us and we fell swiftly to sleep...
BOOOOOMM!
RRRRRAAAAAAARRRGGGGGG!
A bright and firey blaze covered my view, along with thick smoke that seemed to blind the senses. All that could be heard was the crackling of the scorched wood and the panic of frightened people. After collecting myself, I could see everyone was out. Zang, Zakca and Nathaniel were helping the rest of the family escape. The only person I had yet to find was
Dylan.
-Cough- -Cough- -Cough-
"Zang! Help me get this piece of wood here!" I ordered, and sure enough Dylan was under the reckage. Quickly we helped him up and tried to walk him away from danger, but as we got into the burning streets, something swept us off our feet and the next we knew, we were flying backwards. Immense pain flowed through our backs as we hit the wall, unfortunately too much for Dylan to be able to handle. He collapsed the second he tried to get up again. Zang and I quickly ran to his aid.
"Come on, you'll be ok. We'll get you out of here," Zang assured.
"It's too late...Zang..here," Dylan said, pulling out his knife, "Take this...it brought me much luck, and it should bring you much luck as well. Take care of your friends and family, they are all you have..."
Dylan's body was now immobile...his soul was released.
RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGG!
Quickly Zang and I turned to see what caused this destruction...All that could be seen through the flames were rage-filled blue eyes and a the shadow of a great beast. Suddenly the shadow lunges into the air and disappears into the night skies...
