Chapter 10: No Sorrow Yet.

I woke up in the middle of the beach. I could feel the sand against my neck, and the night breeze. I opened my eyes.

The sky was bright with stars. I tried to get up, and then felt a sharp twang of pain in my arm. True. I remembered everything that had happened. Hallie. Coral. I crawled up to a tree and used it to get up.

I was still dizzy. Where was everyone? I heard the faint sounds of birds, and the howl of a Diablos in the distance.

Then I heard the shuffling of leaves and I turned around, just to find Coral coming through the forest.

She looked at me with a big look of relief on her face and said,

"Huryk! You're awake!"

She rushed towards me and she hugged me. I hugged her back. It is nice, hugging someone dear to you, when your world is crumbling.

" I am well aware of the fact that I'm awake, yes."

She stepped back and looked at me, sorrow in her face.

"I miss her. It's like, the world is empty without her. And you know that there's nothing you can do, you know. The finality of death. It is shit, knowing that you are completely powerless to do anything. You feel like a worthless piece of shit."

"Indeed. Let's check on her grave."

"Yes, I made a fire in front of it to ensure that monsters wouldn't try and eat her corpse. But let's check."

We started walking. Each step felt like a new burden was cast upon us. Every breath felt heavy in our chests. Silence reigned.

We arrived to her grave. The fire had burnt out.

It wasn't much of a grave, really, but what can you do with a bunch of sand and sticks and stones? Not much. Life. Such a joke. It will make you feel thrilled to be alive, and the next moment will make you wish you were dead. Existence is futile. Nothing is eternal. Life can change in an instant.

Just when you thought you were going to carve yourself a future, it will destroy you.

Anyway. The grave was a bunch of stones thrown over a digged grave in the sand. There were ceremonial sticks too, signaling that it was a grave.

We got on our knees and paid our respects. It was the least we could do.

We stayed there for a short amount of time, don't know how much exactly, then we got up, prepared to leave.

Then we heard a noise behind us. Like rocks clashing.

"What was that?"

"Nothing. It must be the wind. Let's start walking."

"Okay."

We had just gone a couple of meters when we heard the same noise again.

"Huryk, I was thinking something."

"What?"

"There's barely any wind, just a light breeze. There's just no way these rocks are being moved by the wind."

"It is true. But the earth here tends to shake a lot, what with all the business in this area, not only human, but monsters too."

"I guess you're right. Yeah, I can somehow feel it."

We continued walking, but again, we heard a noise.

This time it was bigger though. The noise sounded more like multiple stones clattering and falling to the ground.

We turned back and saw that, effectively, quite some rocks were scrambled around the makeshift grave.

"Could it be…?"

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm going to go take a look, see if any ankle biters or whatever are trying to eat Hallie for dinner."

She nodded.

I arrived to the grave, but there was nothing.

I leaned closer to see what could have been the cause of the displacement of the rocks.

I heard Coral say,

"Can I come?"

"Yes, I think it's safe."

She came and leaned with me.

After a while, she said,

"I don't think we will find out. I don't kn-"

"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!"

I jumped back like a full meter, and landed flatly on my back.

Coral let out a shriek of terror and covered her face with her arms.

Then I looked at the grave, and there was someone sticking out of it.

Coral looked at the person, and stared wide eyed in disbelief, then reeled back in terror.

"AAAAAH! AN UNDEAD DEMON!"

I rubbed my eyes, shook my head, and looked again. Effectively, there was someone there, now standing over the destroyed grave.

Hallie.

But she was covered in what looked as a slimy purple-ish armor up to her neck, stopping barely before her chin.

Then she pointed her arm at me.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKING PIECES OF SHIT! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU BURIED ME ALIVE!"

I was too stunned to reply, first because she was actually alive, then because her voice was very weirdly distorted. She sounded more like a man with a bad cold and a dry throat, mixed with an agonizing Velocidrome.

Then I finally managed to reply,

"WELL BECAUSE YOU WERE FUCKING DEAD! YOU EVEN GAVE A FUCKING DEATH SPEECH, FOR FUCK'S SAKE!"

"CUNT!"

"Damn, Hallie. Were you always so badmouthed?"

Then Coral came out of her hiding place and said,

"So you're Hallie?"

She looked at me.

"Are you sure this isn't some demon trying to eat our souls?"

Hallie snorted and said,

"Booo. I will devour your soul and feed it to my hellhounds."

Coral relaxed, and said,

" But why are you covered in that slimy, shiny purple thing?"

"Come with me. Everything will be explained in due time. And don't think I forgot about you fuckers burying me in the middle of a beach."

"But there was no other place…"

"MAKE ONE THEN! DO YOU THINK BURYING PEOPLE IN THE MIDDLE OF A BEACH FOR MONSTERS TO EAT IS THE BEST COURSE OF ACTION?!"

"Okay, fine…"

"Hmpf. Follow me."

We followed Hallie and arrived to a clearing, left of where our boat was anchored. The sun was starting to rise. The forest was waking up, and so was Tanzia Port.

Hallie turned to us and sat on the sand with her legs crossed, and ushered us to do the same.

Luckily her face wasn't covered. It was so beautiful, I could look at it all day.

"Huryk, why do you look at me like that ? It's creepy.

" I was admiring your beauty."

Damn. To this day, I still don't know why, or how I said that. I suppose my time in the wilds had toughened me up, or the fact that I was living on my own gave me a sense of freedom.

She blushed and spurted,

"You piece o' shit… that doesn't change anything… yeah, fuck you..."

"I know that you liked that…"

"Oh my god! I so didn't like that! I so didn't!"

"Sure…"

"Hmmm hmmm."

Then I looked at Coral, who was looking at me with a death glare that could've sent a Tigrex scurrying away in fear.

"But you're my love, Coral. Don't be mad."

Coral blushed and started mumbling,

"Yeah, sure…stop it…stupid…"

Hallie was looking with a raised eyebrow, and then said,

"I'll start with the story of how and why I'm still alive-

"Is there not anyway to get your old voice back? Now it's creepy and painful to hear."

She scowled and said,

"Fine then. No story for you."

"For fuck's sake, Coral. Please, continue."

She was still scowling, but continued.

"Well, that scumbag Amatsu decided it was a good idea to cause a vacuum to eat me. I managed to escape it, but when it released the vacuum, a splinter that had been torn from a tree stabbed me. Don't get stabbed by a sharp tree splinter. It is not pleasant."

"But wait, you were wearing your armor. How did it get you?"

" I see you don't know the power of the Amatsu. Its vacuum can suck in a Deviljho, and rip trees off the ground."

"Holy shit..."

"Indeed. And the Narga armor is made for mobility, letting you evade easily and fluently in any direction, striking fast, dodging as fast. It sure offers protection, but in the lower part of the torso, the protection is lighter, specially against stabbing attacks as powerful as the Amatsu's.

Maybe if I had been wearing Gravios's armor it wouldn't have been this bad, but then, I'm never gonna wear that, you can barely move with it on.

At least for my standards. Anyway, thanks for throwing your lance at its face, by the way. If you hadn't done that, I would be Amatsu poop right now. I would have found it hard to believe, that you did that, when I first met you, but maybe you really are changing. You've even got some battle wounds, which we should take care of, by the way.

So there I was, bleeding to death in front of you guys, feeling incredibly pathetic that I was going to die in such a stupid way, when you guys actually fought the thing. I was really proud of how you handled things. Maybe we'll make good hunters of you yet.

Then, someone shot a ballista which landed right in the beast's flapper/wing/whatever, and another that I didn't see. By this time I had accepted my fate, and was thinking of a death speech. I collapsed to the ground, cause I couldn't even stand on my knees. I was feeling really miserable.

At that same moment you came running.

I had already accepted my fate, and that I was going to die, but you didn't seem to have, so I tried to soothe you, which didn't work very well.

Then I caressed your face, because I felt so cold, I wanted to feel the warmth of a human body one last time. Then everything became black."

"Well, we were quite convinced that you were dead. We mourned you, you piece of shit. Coral was crying and swearing vengeance on monsters."

"Oh for fuck's sake. I hate people who swear vengeance on monsters.

And even more so if they're hunters. Biting the hand that feeds you, I think it's called."

Realization dawned on Coral's face.

"That's actually true."

"And you actually will end up in jail if you do that. Which you wouldn't want. Little girls like you have quite the rough time there, if you know what I mean."

Coral lowered her gaze.

"But you're alive now, so nothing of that matters. Let me hug you."

I watched as the two of them hugged each other. I was so relieved that she was alive, too.

"So I'm going to continue now. I was actually dead. For quite a while, maybe a couple of hours. But I woke up. And I saw blackness around me. That's when I realized that you pieces of shit had buried me in the middle of the beach. I can't say that you buried me alive, but still.

I began pounding and kicking in an attempt to get out of that makeshift coffin, which was easier than I thought. I managed to clear enough the way for my face so as to actually open my mouth without drowning in sand. And I started crying for help. But as soon as I started, I felt my voice horribly distorted, which scared the fuck out of me. "Holy shit", I thought.

I was panicking more and more and I started clearing my throat frantically, and at one point I grabbed it. And I touched a hard, warm surface.

Then it dawned upon me. I was horrified. The virus had spread all over my body. Then I went into some crazy fit of rage, but I just…it wasn't me, you know. It was the virus, that had taken over my head. Then another horrible realization dawned upon me. I didn't come back from the realm of the dead magically. The virus had continued spreading all over my body, and it took over my body, and jump-started it. Basically, now I'm alive because I'm possessed by the virus. I'm afraid that if it wears off, I will die again, and this time for good. So anyway, there was me, feeling like some kind of mutant aberration, when I heard your voices.

I started hacking and whacking and smacking, but you didn't notice, and you walked away.

By the time you noticed, I was so tired I was afraid the virus was going to take over me again, and so, when you leaned closer, the only thing that came to mind was to scare you.

And then you know the rest of the story."

"Your leg seems to have healed nicely though."

"Yes, yes. This thing put it back together. Luckily I wasn't conscious yet when it did."

Coral got up and said,

"Anyway, let's go to Tanzia Port! It's morning already, and I'm sure the doctor there can take a look at you. Just try to not kill us under the influence of the virus or something."

"Will do."

"Let's go then."

And we walked forward, three hearts reunited anew.

Author's Note: Tell me what you thought of this chapter! This was quite dialogue heavy, but there was a lot of explaining to do too. And as always, review to help me improve! Thanks for reading!