Chapter 9: Unexpected Help
MESSAGE START: FISHING BOAT HAS TOUCHED DOWN AT NORTHERN DESERTED ISLAND STOP HUNTER IS ON SITE AND CURRENTLY INVESTIGATING STOP MAINTAINING DISTANCE TO AVOID CONFRONTATION STOP JERRY I AM NOT JOKING STOP IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME THAN BELIEVE THE HUNTER STOP DON'T BELIEVE HIM AND HE WILL DRAG YOU OUT HERE IF I DON'T FIRST STOP MESSAGE END
Dillon saw the monsters approach cautiously. So far, no challenging snarls or typical signs of being ready to attack. They were calculating though. They were studying him the way he was studying them. He was about to stretch out his hand to take a risk until the...monkey thing gave what must have been a panicked squeak, causing the other three to flinch backwards in panic.
"Gigginox!" Susan cried out.
"Where?! Where?!" Richard shrieked, falling rear end first into a puddle of water.
"It's the hunter!" Sparky realized.
"Giginox hunter! Run!" Circus shrieked.
Just what in the name of everything good in the world with bloody hell on the side is going on?!, Dillon thought as he kept his twitchy hands away from his swords.
"Oh hell. Would you three keep your damn heads on?" Sparky groaned.
Dillon was quick to notice the zinogre was the first to compose itself. It looked nervous around him but collected, like a child trying to keep a straight face when something is terrifying the living daylights out of them. He also noted the steely control it displayed. Whatever this odd hybrid monster had going through its head, it was on a mission of some sort.
"Hey buddy," he offered, "You're not like the big shockers are ya?"
Sparky slowly sniffed the hand and recoiled in fear due to that terror inducing smell. Former stray or not, there was a reason why everyone on Respite feared the "ice worm from hell". He had the unfortunate experience of running into one once and was found two days later in a sewer, delirious, and sitting in a mess that may or may not have come directly from running through the sludge. Cowardly or not, even the monsters with nerves of steel would say there is no shame in running away screaming from one of those things.
"Take the damn glove off. Take the damn glove off. Take the damn glove off." Sparky whimpered, not caring if he was making a fool out of himself.
Swords? No, it's not looking there. Helmet? Not that. Wait...my hand? But I'm not holding anything, Dillon was beginning to wish he could magically communicate with the monsters because this was getting absurd.
Don't even think about it Sparky. One bite and off with the head... Ah hell, take the damn armor off you bastard!, Sparky was still whining.
Dillon reluctantly took his glove off, thinking more that he had to earn trust than it being the cause of fear. The zinogre still bristled with fear but took a hesitant sniff. Next thing Dillon knew, he found his hand scratching the monster behind the ear.
"You three are stupid." Sparky said with a light laugh towards his companions while the scratching continued.
"Uh...Sparky..." Circus blurted.
"Yeah?"
"You do realize that the hunter has swords."
"So?"
"The kind that are meant to cut you into ribbons."
"Still sitting-oh that one felt good."
"And with the smell of a giginox next to you."
"Never thought I would be doing this," the hunter muttered, "You three this friendly?"
After a good five minutes of calming down, Dillon inspected the ship. He was surprised to find it clean and other than the wood being scratched, it seemed perfectly fine. He knew they had control over it and got here on their own accord (or mostly), but why? Intelligent or not, why were they all the way out here?
"Alright you four, care to explain why you're out here?" he asked the four monsters who apparently were in the middle of a conversation.
"...Now what wise guy?" Richard glares at Sparky.
"Circus, think you can write to this guy?" Sparky asked.
"I'm not using my book." Circus fumed.
"The sand stupid."
"Oh. Yeah, I can."
Dillon thought he has seen everything until the...monkey(?) began to draw in the sand. Next thing he knew, he got a full description of what was going on: Elder dragon attacked Respite, young monster disappeared, there's hell to pay. If it were a group of hunters, he would gladly help but this is different. So now what? The village would have a heart attack to see them waltzing in...and then another at the shock of what he's dealing with.
"Why couldn't this have been simple?" Dillon asks himself.
"I think we just fried his brain." Susan remarked.
"Just give him a minute." Sparky said.
"Well, never saw myself doing this. Alright look, I have no clue what a magala is to begin with nor where one would go. I can ask around town but folks there aren't likely to know either. I'll be back later. Just...keep the island floating will ya?" Dillon groaned before donning his armor and running back towards the southern side of the island.
The four monster looked at each other and began planning. Circus would start making repairs the best he could, Susan would catch more fish (something she was against and threatened to freeze the others solid about), Sparky would go inland to ask questions to the local monsters while Richard would do the same.
"You sure this is a good idea?" Richard asked.
"You have a better idea?" Sparky asked in return.
"Sparky, let's be rational for at least five minutes. We're on an island where normal ludroth are as big as us, bugs that are probably larger than our heads, and where any predator can eat us."
"We'll think it through."
"Hey guys look! Little biggies!" a jaggi nearby yelped.
"'Little biggies'? What do you mean by that?" Richard asked as more jaggis came closer.
"Get out of here you pipsqueaks!" Sparky growled, not intimidated by the slightly larger predators.
"Eh? Biggie! Big biggie! Run!" one of the jaggis warned after sniffing the air.
"Okay, just what the hell is a 'biggie'?!" Richard asked.
"Uh Richard, why do I smell me?" Sparky asked, not noticing the small splashes behind them.
"Because you haven't bathed in weeks? Really Sparky, you smell even worse than when you were in the streets."
"Not me as myself but as in a zinogre who smells like they got caught in the rain?"
"Now that you mention it, I'm noticing it also."
Both monsters suddenly felt a presence behind them. A shadow slowly passed over them and the smell reached to intensive heights. Both narcacuga and zinogre weakly turned their heads around. At first they saw a large chest with fur but as they looked up, they realized they had a very large and confused zinogre face looking at them.
"Uh... Hi?" Richard said weakly.
"What?" the zinogre blinked, causing both smaller monsters to jump.
"We're not looking for any trouble! Just wanting some help!" Sparky said quickly.
"Ragh, I knew there was something wrong about eating that liver last night," the zinogre groaned, "Now I'm seeing tiny gremlins tramping all over the place."
"No no, we're quite real and terrified for the matter. Please don't eat us." Richard squeaked.
"Uh listen, you're probably looking for lunch so how about we let you do that and we walk away." Sparky suggested as he started to walk away.
"Oh no you don't. This is too interesting." the zinogre jumped in front of the retreating pair.
Quite frankly, it was. Here were two monsters who sounded like adults but were the size of infants. Well fed, very few signs of struggle, and the fact they seemed terrified about being eaten (although that was understandable considering they were in a land of giants in comparison) was almost amusing. Not to mention, life on the island involved two main things, looking for food and avoiding the hunters, not at all something to brag about.
"Lunch can wait, stories cannot." the zinorge insisted.
Sparky saw this tactic before, once by adventuring on his own once into the wilds of Respite when he was much younger and stumbling on a lagombi. At first, he thought he would become a pile of fur and paste until the parents agreed to simply send him home after he tells a few tales of what the city is like. Now an adult and wanting to find any information possible (preferably getting the chance to use it also without having to fight his way out), he immediately began explaining.
A few minutes later, the zinogre had a puzzled look on. This other island seemed like a paradise, even if everything was smaller. But the tale was not one that came from the gossip of raths or even the ever chatty qurupeco's. There were a few whispers of the gore magala, but they were in a far off land that hardly reached these parts.
"I'm not sure if this would be of any help but there is some mention of an usual fog in the Flooded Forest. Not sure where that is but it's one place to look. Also, you may want to check someplace called The Volcano. It's in the far east where more kinds of news similar to what you're looking for come from." the zinogre suggested.
That surprisingly went well. Sparky, be happy that I trust you about these things because you're the only one who knows how to handle this, "Thanks for the help." Richard said while hiding his thoughts.
"Oh and jaggi's call anything that is bigger than them a 'biggie'." was the last they heard before the larger predator ran off.