The Lost Civilization

by dashboardgecko

Since beyond living memory, great and fantastic beasts have roamed the world, and mankind has fought them; some for glory, some to protect others, but always the monsters have been there. But when legions of mysterious people appear, engulfed in strange blue light, bearing deep wounds of both mind and body, strange things begin to happen, and a darkness unlike any other awakens. 3U

36. Those that Came Between

Those that Came Between

Disclaimer: Monster Hunter is copyright Capcom. Most of the characters in this story are mine. Tenebris and Nikoyle belong to IDKTellMeWhatYouThink.

Edited by: Hoenn Master96

The next morning was hectic, to say the least. Levin and Ellie both stayed in their room for several hours after the light in the sky appeared to the north of the village. They had tried to get back to sleep in preparation for the coming hunt, but it was a challenge to sleep knowing that something the village considered as impending doom loomed just over the horizon, on the other side of the far mountains. It was still long before dawn when the pair of hunters could no longer stand waiting in the room for… whatever was happening to stop, especially with the sounds of worry and panic that seemed to be filling the hall just outside the door.

The hallway was far more crowded than Levin had expected it to be, with what seemed like a majority of the villagers from town sitting or kneeling against the walls. All of them had worried or scared expressions on their faces, and parents clung tightly to their children as they watched the hunters emerge from the room. Some had hopeful expressions on their faces when they saw the pair walk past, perhaps hoping that the two were here to protect them or deal with the beam of light. Levin wondered how they'd look at him if they knew he was one of the Lost; maybe they'd be perceived as harbingers of doom instead, rather than possible aid.

It didn't surprise Levin to find the Harker and Kerry, as well as Tenebris, waiting for them out in the bar area. Apparently, no one was sleeping comfortably with the pillar of light off in the distance.

"Most of the town came here during the night," Tenebris explained as he and Ellie looked around the barroom. It was positively packed. Every table was filled up with people, crowded together and whispering fearfully with each other. "I guess this inn really does live up to its name. As soon as people saw that pillar of light, they started flooding this way. Most of the town is in here now, except for the people that think this is all a bunch of nonsense, as well as…" The woman trailed off worriedly.

"The Lost," Harker completed for her. "Seems either none of the Lost have noticed the light, or they just don't care."

"They're not being turned away at the door or anything?" Ellie asked, and the long sword user shook his head.

"No, no, certainly not, thankfully. The innkeeper here seems to have a fairly solid head on his shoulder. I asked, and he said he'd let the Lost in if they came, though he didn't know for sure how the locals would react. Seems a few Lost from the other side of town came by to ask what was going on, but other than that, they've kept to themselves."

"I don't blame them," Levin said with a nod. "If even one of the locals mentioned the story of the blue light to them, they'd be wary about meeting with them, especially now."

"Does this put a damper on our Rathian hunt?" Ellie asked intently.

"No… it shouldn't," Tenebris replied. "Just because there's a mysterious light on the horizon doesn't mean the Rathian's no longer a problem. We just might have to work around whatever this light brings up. I have a feeling that Stergo will want us to do absolutely nothing that will get us tangled up in this blue light business. Besides, this is a centuries-old problem, and likely the work of a very powerful monster if there's a monster involved. Not exactly something a few four-star hunters should be dealing with. Leave this blue light issue to whoever the Guild calls in to deal with it; I'm sure the locals have already sent an urgent request back to Loc Lac. In the meantime, we'll keep out of town and hunting down that Rathian and keep you all under the radar like Stergo wants you to."

"Fine by me," Ellie replied. Then she shivered nervously. "Honestly, I don't really want to have anything to do with that light anyway. Something about it… I don't know, it seems eerie to me. Hunting monsters is one thing. Pillars of light and invisible monsters are something completely different."

"Alright, good," Tenebris said. "We'll likely set off after the sun finished rising. Maybe the chaos that light is raising will have died down a little by then."

It didn't. If anything, the inn became louder and the feeling of fear and worry grew in intensity as the sun crept into the sky, finally cresting the tall mountains to the east of the city. Levin and Ellie were approached by the innkeeper, a short, stout, honest man by the name of Cedric, who requested the use of their room while they were out hunting, so the people would have some more space to stay in. They ended up agreeing, if only because the people behind him were a family with three children, all of them less than seven years old at least. Well, they'd slept on the floor before, after the awakening in Hearth, they could do it again. Besides, they were going to be spending a few days out in the wilds anyway chasing after the Rathian or whatever they were going after.

Then there were the doomsayers: loud, obnoxious zealots of the town, swearing that the end times for the village of Nastre had come, and the blue light was going to be the death of them all. It didn't help that a few of them were calling for the Lost in the town to be run out of the village, swearing that they were the cause of the light, and the impending doom on the village. Levin caught sight of the fruit vendor they'd seen the previous day, standing along with the rest of the noisy ones, trying to get rid of the Lost in town. Thankfully, leveler heads seemed to be prevailing, and most people just wanted to hide away from the light, whatever it was, rather than starting more problems. Cedric seemed to have the foresight to shuffle all the doomsayers off into a far corner of the bar, where their campaigning would be kept at a minimum.

So it was that the five hunters found themselves displaced, eating their last cooked meal in the bar before taking off into the wilds to search out their prey. Levin was impressed with Tenebris' armor collection when she had shown up: like Ellie, she had some Lagiacrus pieces, but also wore an armor design that was a pale white and blue, created from a large leviathan elder dragon she'd helped take down a while back. She also carried a rather unsettling helmet with her, a dark black bone creation carved into the shape of a skull. Levin was always impressed at the odd armor designs he found other hunters wearing. He supposed the strange creations must have some boon, though he couldn't guess what they could be. And to top it all off, the woman had a bowgun made primarily of Rathalos materials slung over her back.

Eventually, it came time for the hunters to set out. The sun had risen high enough for them to travel safely, at least without relying on the eerie azure pillar of light. However, before they managed to get out the door, Tenebris was caught by Cedric.

"Pardon me, Miss Tenebris," the innkeeper said quietly, looking around furtively, "but I'd like to ask a favor of you before you and these four take off."

The bowgunner smirked in amusement. "I don't have another room to give back to you if that's what you're looking for Cedric."

The innkeeper looked at her flatly for a moment before shaking his head and chuckling lightly. "Ha. Funny. No, not that, not that at all. It's just… well, as you've seen, most of the village is here. Even some I'd rather not have."

"Yeah, I noticed that as well," Tenebris replied, looking around the full bar, specifically at the group in the corner calling for the removal of the Lost.

"Yeah, well, loud and obnoxious they may be, but they're still friends and neighbors, and they're only acting the fool due to that light of the horizon, so I'm not about to throw them out on their backsides. This is the safest building in the town, after all. Problem is, as full as my inn is… it's not as full as it should be, especially if even half of those rumors are true."

Tenebris frowned at the words. "What are you getting at? I don't think it'll be a good idea to try and convince the Lost in Nastre to take refuge here as well, considering the rabble-rousers over there in the corner."

"I know, I know," Cedric sighed. "With all the old legends in people's heads, and the light over the horizon, it's probably better that they keep to their side of the town, even if this inn is the safest place to be at a time like this. But… well, you're friends with some of the Lost over there, aren't you? You've been through Nastre long enough to get to know a fair few of folk on that side of town. That friend of yours you used to travel with used to enjoy spending time there. Not with that twit Silas, I'm sure, but with some of them, right? A lot of them are good folk, despite Silas' influence, and I just… well, I just want someone to check up on them, make sure that the rougher Lost aren't trying to get them to do anything stupid with that light in the sky like it is. Last thing we need right now is someone trying to rile the Lost up as well."

Tenebris sighed worriedly, sparing a glance at the four hunters behind her. Levin supposed that getting them involved in the town's politics was not the best idea when keeping them out of the public eye. "Fine, I'll stop by. But I can't stay for all that long. I'll make sure they're staying calm and safe, and make sure Silas isn't trying to raise a militia or something. Oh, dang, now that I think about it, that's something he might actually try and do, isn't it…"

"Which is exactly why I'm worried," Cedric replied. "Thanks for doing this, Miss Tenebris. I'd go check on them myself, but someone's got to keep an eye on the folk here, just in case someone gets it in their head to head over to the Lost side of town to chase them out. Just… just pass through on your way out of town and make sure nothing bad is going on over there."

"Alright, alright," Tenebris replied, patting the innkeeper on the shoulder. "I'll take a look on my way out, and if Silas is really doing something stupid… well, I'll figure something out. Maybe some of the other Lost will be willing to keep him tied up in a closet for a day or two until the light in the sky is gone."

"I… wouldn't go that far, but just keep him out of trouble, and the town will be better off. Much obliged again, Miss Tenebris. Much obliged."

"No problem," Tenebris said, as the innkeeper hurried away to see to the rest of the people in the inn. With that, the bowgunner led the group out the inn, which came as a relief to Levin; the inn was getting a little claustrophobic with all the people filling it up. "Well, so much for avoiding the Lost side of town. Come on then, you four. Hopefully we can see to the Lost without running into too much trouble."

"Will it really be a problem?" Harker asked. "This Silas fellow… is he really that much of a problem, that you worry about such things with him?"

"He's the leader of the Lost that want to assert their rule over the local populace," Tenebris explained as they made their way over to the Lost side of town. "Most of the time he's pretty docile, spending most of his followers' efforts on building up old Lost technology, but… get talking to him, and you can see what he really wants. I'm not sure what kind of man he was back where you Lost came from, but it doesn't seem like he enjoys the lack of control the Lost have in the world. Or, rather, the lack of control that he has lost in this world. He talks of noble causes, but you can tell he's greedy, that he just wants control for himself. Unfortunately, a few of the Lost have bought into it, especially with the less than stellar treatment a few of the locals here in Nastre have been giving them. It wouldn't surprise me that he's going to try and pull something with that light over the horizon giving the town a scare."

"Well, that's worrisome."

"No kidding."

It wasn't a far walk over to the Lost side of Nastre, but the difference in design made it feel as though the five hunters had entered an entirely different village. The buildings seemed draftier than the older buildings, built with a little less certainty with the materials available to them. But with the uneven ground beneath them, most of the buildings had been stacked upon one another. There was room to spread out, which Levin found odd considering how tall the buildings had been built. Maybe they just wanted to stay close together, rather than spread out as per usual, or they just wanted to be different from the locals.

A couple of the Lost they passed by eyed them warily as they approached, glancing worriedly back and forth between them and the pillar of light. Many calmed down a little at the sight of Tenebris, though, a familiar, friendly face, apparently a rare sight these days. The group followed her around as she began working through the Lost area, asking friends and acquaintances how they were doing and what was going on. They stopped by nearly a dozen houses, spiraling around the outside of the Lost housing, slowly working their way to the middle of the area. A couple of the Lost asked who the four hunters with Tenebris were, but the bowgunner merely introduced them as 'sympathizers', likely a good idea considering the miniscule amount of Lost hunters.

"It looks like most of the people here are trying to keep under cover," Tenebris explained after visiting a mother and daughter Lost pair. "Most of them have heard about the blue light legend and are smart enough to steer clear of the rest of the town. The weird thing is that Silas hasn't tried to start anything at all yet, which has me worried. As much as I don't want to, I probably should check and make sure he's not plotting something."

"Is he really as bad as people seem to think he is?" Harker asked.

"Well… maybe not," Tenebris admitted. "But he talks a lot about Lost supremacy, and he's got a lot of people following his example, so if he's not going to try something, he's doing a good job of making people think he will. So… I guess we're going to go find him and find out which it is."

With that, the hunters ceased circling the edges of the Lost housing, and instead made a beeline for the center of the area. Levin noticed that many of the houses, as they approached the middle of the area, began to grow wider and lower to the ground, and sparse glances at the interiors of the buildings made them appear to be more warehouse-type buildings than living quarters. Stacks of metal and small tools filled the interiors of most houses, as well as several small machines that seemed Lost-designed. Harker seemed to be getting more and more excited as they went on, clearly wanting nothing more than to dive into one of the buildings and examine the machines to find out what they did, but Tenebris pressed them onwards, getting closer and closer to the center of the Lost area.

Finally, the housing cut off, and the hunters found themselves in a wide open area, a few dozen yards across. The Lost had apparently been using the space as a building area. A massive machine lay in the center, a wide circular engine of some sort. Several Lost were gathered around it, arguing and tinkering with the thing. Next to the machine were several other odd things; they had what looked like the hull of a ship, piles of cloth strips, and long flat metal strips littered around sides.

Near the large machine the Lost were working on, a tall man with his back facing the hunters stood shouting orders to most of the others in the area. He wore a large red coat, and stood out clearly from the others in the area. The Lost that were working all seemed to jump at his every word, all of them looking up at the man as though he were a king of something of the like. Tenebris seemed hesitant to approach him, though, an irritated look on her face, so after a few moments, Ellie abruptly walked forward towards the man, right up behind him.

"Are you, uh… are you the one in charge here?" Ellie asked cautiously.

The man turned, and Levin was surprised at how hard he looked. His face and body seemed chiseled out of rock; it wasn't that he was attractive or anything like that, he just appeared very, very solid. Levin imagined his switch axe denting if he even tried to strike at the man with it. His hair was dark brown, cut close across his scalp in what reminded Levin of a military haircut, but a large, bushy beard grew wild below his chin, and he glared the hunters down with cold blue eyes.

"That I am," the man replied. His voice was hard as stone, it seemed, unflappable and determined. "They call me Silas. And who are you children? More hunters from the Guild, come thinking they can try and convince me that the people of this world are superior to the Lost in every way and that I should stop building my machines? I've heard your bragging before, your swelled egos; I have no need to hear it again."

"No, we're not here for that," Ellie sputtered. "I mean, we are hunters, but we're here to figure out… um…"

"If the Lost truly are the better peoples?" Silas finished. He raised his voice, as though he was speaking to all the Lost around him, and likely, Levin realized, he was, because the people began to get caught up in his enthusiasm. "If, for all the hunters' brawn, they don't have the brains to truly become masters of the world? If the hunters think they can keep the Lost down just because they're more intelligent, more creative than the Neanderthals that think they rule the world now?"

"No, not that. We just-"

"Or perhaps you're like those Guild men, coming with pretenses of peaceful solutions, a clear sign of your fear of us, only to show your underhanded lust and envy of our abilities, and try to steal our technology for yourselves! You think I can't see your greed? You think you can just replicate our creations? You can't! You call us weak, but then it would be fair to call you dimwitted! It would be fair for us if we-"

"Damn it, will you shut the hell up!" Ellie snapped angrily. "For pity's sake, I'm one of the Lost, and all you're doing is pissing me off!"

Immediately, the people around went quiet, and a moment later, excited and stunned whispering began filtering around the area. Ellie abruptly withered back a little at the sudden attention, realizing she may have given away too much information. Levin pushed forward to stand beside her, uncertain how the people would react with the information. He heard Tenebris mutter a curse behind them.

Silas, however, eyed the pair of them with an expression that made it seem as though he was staring through them. Without a word, he strode forward, staring down at the pair of them intently, judging them, trying to figure them out.

"Who are you?" he murmured. "There's only so many Lost that the Guild recognizes as hunters, and I've… followed the exploits of some of them. Now which are you? Bowgunner, that narrows it down a bit, there's only three Lost that bowgun." The man glanced at Levin. "That would make you Eleanor and Levin, a rather notorious pair of hunters, wouldn't it? And that man over there would be Harker, whose reputation is… unique. A very disappointing trio of Lost."

"What do you mean, disappointing?" Levin asked.

"That you would sink to the level of the people of this world in order to live in it!" Silas replied, and the Lost behind him nodded in agreement. "You shouldn't need to rely on brute force like the foolish locals, but on your wits and Lost technology! You've turned your backs on your countrymen to revel in their ways instead of your Lost heritage! Our technology will see us through, and we will be masters of the world as we once were!"

Ellie looked at the man sourly. "Just like it saw us through when monsters first appeared in the world? As I recall, our civilization was thoroughly wiped out, and our technology didn't do much to help."

Silas glared at her angrily, and a few of the Lost behind him muttered some foul words about her. "A fluke. We were caught off guard, and didn't have time to prepare. Now the beasts are complacent, and our return to power is certain! All it will take is some time to recreate the designs or our machines and technology."

"I'd hardly refer to the beasts of this world as complacent," Harker said with a smirk. "They don't put up those large walls around towns and villages for appearances, you know."

"Perhaps not," Silas replied. "But they're not out to ruin humanity in general as they did in our era. These people, these hunters call us weak, but they didn't have every monster in the world out hunting for human blood as we did. The monsters here are quiet compared to the mayhem they raised against the Lost in our time."

"There are also more of them, lots more of them than before," Harker said. "They've aged as well; monsters have had time to adjust to human existence and learn from encounters with our kind. And it would appear that the ecosystems of the world, not to mention humanity in general, have adapted themselves around the existence of monsters. I imagine trying to eradicate monsters in their entirety would be far more difficult than you imagine it to be, and would have far-reaching repercussions that even the most advanced scientists the Lost and the hunters have to offer could imagine."

Silas opened his mouth to retort, but closed it a moment later and stared at the group of them flatly. "I have trust in the Lost's ability to succeed where the hunters have failed. But… that is a worry for another day. I suppose I should ask what Lost so unfaithful to their brethren would be doing here in the first place. Why are you three here, if not to join us in our cause?"

"We're here to figure out if you're causing trouble," Tenebris growled loudly, pulling Silas' attention away from Levin, Ellie and Harker. The man smirked challengingly upon recognizing the woman.

"Ah, Tenebris, it's been a while since our last encounter. I suppose you still think the worst of me and my intentions, as I'd expect of a hunter. Trying to keep me from carrying through with my plans for the Lost to retake their place? Where's that partner of yours? Did she finally see that I'm correct and that the Lost deserve to regain their privilege as masters of the world?"

Tenebris visibly seethed at the words, but managed to calm herself before speaking to the man. "I'm only here to see what the Lost are up to at the moment. There are some folks in town who are worried about the Lost, though I imagine they could care less about certain individuals. I've come to see how you and your cohorts here have been taking to… recent events."

"You mean that light on the horizon?" Silas laughed, looking towards the azure pillar off in the distance. "I suppose people think I would use their mindless fear of foolish legends and fairytales to try and take control of this village."

"Not exactly a stretch of the imagination."

"Well, you and the rest of the people of Nastre can calm down, woman. I have no desire to conquer this little place with brute force. As I said, I mean to bring the Lost back into power through intelligence and technological superiority. Abusing the people of this town's fear of some spotlight over the mountains would be a pointless endeavor. Our work here is far more important, anyway, and I cannot allow myself to be distracted from it."

"And what exactly are you working on?" Tenebris asked, glancing over to the large machine behind the man.

"Oh, this?" Silas replied with a smirk. "This is the impending dominance of the Lost. Monsters rule the skies these days, with Rathians, Rathalos, and other wyverns keeping to the air, but the Lost once controlled even the air above them, traveling through it at great speed. The airships that fly across the land are a pitiful shadow of a mockery of what the Lost were once capable of. I wish to return the Lost to their former aerial glory."

"You want… to make a flying machine?"

"That's a great understatement of my intentions, but yes, I wish to 'make a flying machine'," Silas replied. "I cannot recreate the truly masterful inventions of the Lost as of yet, so all we can really do at the moment is improve on the airships that already exist, but one day our work will lead to the Lost having control of the skies once more! But… that is not why you're here, is it, Tenebris? You want confirmation, and you shall have it: I have neither plans nor any desire to use that light as an excuse to bring control on Nastre to the Lost. All of my attention is focused on our creations at the moment. All the people cowering in the inn have nothing to fear from me or anyone working with me."

Tenebris eyed Silas uncertainly for a moment, then nodded in reluctant acceptance. "Fine. That works for me. Just be sure to keep to it. I had to make sure. Now if you'll excuse us, there's a Rathian out there that needs taken care of."

"Once more dealing with problems with brute force rather than finesse."

"If you think you can take it down using that scrap metal you call technology, be my guest and go right ahead. Until something you build can actually do something, brute force will have to work. "

And with that the bowgunner turned to stalk away from the man. Levin and the others hurried after her, just as eager to get away from Silas and his followers as she was. The switch axe user noticed that Silas was staring at him, Ellie and Harker intently, and he felt a shiver go up his spine. The man really seemed to believe in what he said about the Lost. The thought of a man like him making it to Loc Lac was positively terrifying; Levin shivered at the thought of a showdown between a man like him and a man like Zhanin.

"So, do you think he'll actually do what he said and keep to the Lost side of town?" Ellie asked as the hunters made their way to the village gate. Tenebris thought about it for a moment before nodding.

"He's an ass, but he's kept to his word as far as I've seen. We can trust him to avoid trouble. At the very least, he said he wouldn't do anything in front of his followers, and he can't afford to change his mind in front of them. But… enough about him. Now that I know the village is safe from a Lost uprising, I don't want to have to think about him anymore." The woman smiled at the four of them. "Now then, let's try and forget about all this serious business, and try to have some fun, why don't we? There's a Rathian out there with our name on it, and I doubt it cares much either way about blue lights and tiring political issues. If nothing else, it'll give us something nice and big to vent our frustrations on."

Levin found himself grinning. Stress relief on a Rathian… an odd thought, but definitely one he could use. He found himself looking forward to finding out exactly how effective this dragon phial was against wyverns.

The main gate was guarded by a couple of very nervous-looking men, but they still nodded politely to the five hunters as they passed out of the city. Levin noticed Tenebris mutter something under her breath as the gates closed behind them, some mantra of some kind as far as he could tell, but it was too quiet for him to make out, and he didn't feel like he should bring it up.

The hunters set out from Nastre's northern gate, heading up towards a pass that led further up into the mountains of the area. With the azure pillar of light off in the distance, it felt as though they were heading towards it, even though it was only in the same direction. They passed by several large grasslands on their way north, where the remains of hundreds of tree stumps remained jutting out of the ground. Names and dates and hearts and other such things were carved into the remains, showing how long the trees had been cut down. Levin wondered if these fields were where the village kept their herds; the fields were empty at the moment, likely to keep the Rathian (or whatever it was) from stealing away the herds.

But the grasslands eventually came to an end and the hunters entered a forest. The trees were widely spaced, though, making travel through the area fairly easy, despite the lack of a path. Once they were a couple miles north of Nastre, Tenebris turned their path to the side, taking them up the slopes of one of the mountains, following a rough path that zigzagged up the side of the slope.

"Most of the Rathians and other flying monsters you'll find in this area live further up the slopes of the mountains than the herbivores and smaller creatures," the bowgunner explained as they continued up. "Chances are, whatever we'll be looking for will be up in the mountains somewhere, likely hiding in a cave or something that goes into the mountain."

So the hunters followed the bowgunner as she made her way to the far edges of the forest, where she told them a path up the sides of the mountains would be. The forest proved to be fairly quiet, though it felt quite eerie to Levin. Monsters seemed far and few between, and they barely saw any living beings in the forest at all. They did end up being attacked by a small pack of Jaggis as they reached the edge of the forest, though, and a few Ludroth barked at them threateningly when they waded through a small stream a ways downstream of their sunbathing spot, but other than that, monsters were far and few between. No Kelbi or Aptonoth were seen at all, save for the pack animals that they'd seen near the village.

Just as they reached the base of the mountain path, the air suddenly grew colder. From the northwest, a wide swath of thick fog was rolling in, very thick and very fast. It wasn't a slow, gradual hazing over as the hunters were used to either, because as the blanket of clouds swept over them, their visibility almost immediately shrunk from miles to mere dozens of yards. In a matter of minutes, the clear, calm day vanished, and the hunters found themselves surrounded in a thick fog, tinted light blue from the effect of the pillar of light.

"Goodness, where did this come from?" Kerry murmured worriedly.

"A cold front rolled through, it seems," Harker replied. "How odd. I've never seen a fogbank come in so quickly. I know fog is more common in the mountains, but that was especially quick."

"This is the first time I've seen such thick fog in the area," Tenebris said. "Actually… I've rarely seen any fog near the village that wasn't just some ankle-high mist."

"Probably just a particularly cold and strong wind hitting a pond or something," Harker speculated. "I'm not very learned on weather effects, especially since it seems monsters have a high effect on it these days, but I suppose weather like this has to roll in every now and then. It should wear off as the day grows warmer."

"I hope so," Levin muttered. "This is just creepy, and the blue tint isn't really helping."

"Afraid of boogeymen in the mists, are we Levin?" Harker smirked, and the switch axe user frowned at the man.

"No! I just… well, I don't like walking around not being able to see anything. And that blue light certainly isn't making things any better."

Ellie laughed. "Oh wow. He battles hundreds of monsters twice his size or bigger, deals with psychotic hunters that try and kill him, and has a personal vendetta against an elder dragon, but he can't stand a little bit of thick fog."

"Hey, in all those situations, I could see what was coming. Here, though… I can barely see twenty feet in front of my face. Say what you will, but this is really creepy."

"So now would be a perfect time for ghost stories, then?" Harker asked.

"No. Oh, please no. That's the last thing I need right now." Levin felt his face paling, and the other hunters smirked evilly.

"Are you sure?" Ellie asked. "I know some good ones. Like there's this one I know about a group of travelers that were traveling through a thick fog… kind of like this one, now that I think of it."

"No! No, no, no, no, no!" Levin cried, shaking his head. "Just stop, I don't want to hear any of this!"

"I remember an old campfire story I heard once," Harker said with a wicked grin. "An old tale of a man, or perhaps a devil, that would linger in dark woods and pluck the unwary away to places unknown, never to be seen again. A pale, faceless creature that would spirit you away with its long fingers, unable to scream or run away…"

"NO! Sweet mercy, stop it!"

"You know, the locals have an old story about the area," Tenebris said with a smirk. "They say the angry spirits of the dead wander the wilderness at night. Some folks claim they're hunters, felled and eaten by the most violent and terrible monsters. They say the bodies are buried under the stones, and that they rise up out of the rocky terrain, grabbing ahold of people's legs and dragging them under to steal away their bodies for themselves."

"Oh, damn it, don't tell me these things!" Levin yelled, nervously looking at the ground. "I told you I don't like those kinds of stories!"

"Ooh, have you heard the one about-"

"Nope! Nope, I'm done!" Levin replied, pushing past the other hunters and pressing on ahead up the hill, with the sound of amused laughter coming from behind him.

So the hunters continued, pushing up the side of the mountain, following a thin trail that crept upwards, zigzagging up the slope. The fog continued to linger, however, despite the continuation of the day. The haze was so thick that monsters got lost in it; several times turning their trip up the slope, they came across wandering packs of Jaggi making their way along hunting paths. Only a couple of them had actually found something to run down, usually an Aptonoth or Kelbi that had gotten separated from its herd or something of the like. The fog apparently also had the small monsters nervous as well; upon catching sight of the hunters, rather than chasing after them or attacking, the little creatures simply yipped threateningly, looking around nervously as though expecting another group of hunters to come through the haze. The five generally just ignored the ankle biters, allowing them to eat their prey in peace.

It was close to noon, as far as Levin could tell, and there had been no sign of the creature they hunted at all. The fog was finally thinning out a little, thankfully, but not very much. They still hadn't seen anything more dangerous than a Jaggi yet, though, and with the fog as thick as it was, finding any signs of monsters was proving to be challenging.

Thankfully, with the collection of Tenebris' familiarity with the area, Kerrigan's experience as a tracker, and Harker's weirdly wide spread ecological knowledge, they were able to find signs left behind by a large monster of some kind. They were old, at least a day or two old, but the three claimed that they'd found the footprints of a large monster of some kind, too big to be a Great Jaggi. It wasn't much, though, and it didn't specify what sort of monster they were looking for yet.

They had been planning on resting for a moment, having reached a relatively flat area of land, when the sky abruptly changed. Levin blinked in surprise, looking up through the haze. Everything was different, though he couldn't figure out what… the fog was exactly the same, but…

"The light!" Kerry hissed. "The blue light is gone!"

Sure enough, the blue tint that had enveloped the sky over the fog, giving the area a thick azure tint, had vanished completely. It had been so abrupt, Levin hadn't even noticed it. But now the fog was simply a pale white, though it was no less challenging to see through. But where had the light gone? For a moment, the haze thinned a little above them, and the hunters looked to the north. The pillar of light was gone, completely missing from the horizon.

The hunters stood in stunned silence for a long moment, uncertain what the disappearance of the light meant, when a swelling glow appeared on the other size of the mountain. It grew in intensity for several moments, before the pillar of light erupted once more into the air, searing into the sky and coating the fog in its color once more. It seemed more intense this time, somehow, thrumming in power just over the horizon.

"How… what just happened?" Levin asked.

"I don't know…" Tenebris replied. "I didn't know it went out like that. Is it… is it supposed to do that?"

They were silent for a while, staring up at the light worriedly. Slowly, the fog rolled back in, just as thick as before, blotting out the sight of the pillar once more. After a few moments, the hunters all looked at Harker. The long sword user blinked in surprise, and shook his head. "Don't look at me. I have no clue what's going on."

When the light remained constant, unchanging, the hunters began their trek up the slopes once more. However, not an hour after they stopped for lunch, they managed to find true sign of their prey, and it wasn't something as frail and simple as a footprint in the soil. They were still following the path they traveled up the mountain, which was becoming increasingly challenging to traverse, though not enough to stop them, not yet. Then the panicked cries of a monster rang across the rocky terrain. Immediately the hunters tensed. Levin's hand reached for the hilt of his switch axe, and the others did likewise. The stone and rocks of the area made the sound of the creature, whatever it was, bounce around a lot, and the sounds seemed to come from below them and above them one moment to the next.

The next few moments felt like hours as the sounds continued to grow increasingly louder. Eventually, Levin recognized the sound of the monster: it was the cries of an Aptonoth in pain. He'd heard it before many times, when escort missions had gone sour, or when he'd come upon a pack of Jaggis tailing their prey. But for the life of him, he still couldn't make out where the noise was coming from. Then another familiar sound appeared, the repetitive thumping sound of powerful wings. And it was coming from directly above them. There was a rush of air as a massive shape swept through the air over them, followed by a sickening crunching sound. Immediately, the sound of the squealing Aptonoth was cut off, and another moment later, the sound of a massive creature landing on the ground rattled the stones around them.

It was quiet for only a moment, then the fog was filled with the wet sound of fangs ripping through the flesh and bones of the Aptonoth's body. Levin felt himself shiver. The silence was profound, and only the sound of the monster feeding could be heard in the din. Levin could even hear the dripping of blood, the sound of the life fluids pooling together on the ground below the beast. He could envision the monster's maw tearing through the Aptonoth's flanks and tearing away chunks of muscle and ligaments, making the pool of blood below the dead creature grow larger.

His fist tightened on the hilt of his blade in frustration; he still couldn't see a thing! The leathery hide of his gloves creaked against the bindings on his blade's handle. Suddenly, the sound of ripping flesh ceased, and a hiss of anger flittered through the haze. Levin froze. Had the beast actually heard the faint sound of Levin's grip tightening?

A low growling sound slid through the mist menacingly, and the hunters raised their weapons, searching for the source. A moment later, the sound of scratching came from further up the slope, a familiar sound that Levin recognized as a large monster clawing the ground in anticipation. Immediately, the sound of three bowguns firing in the direction of the sound rang across the mountainside as Ellie, Kerry, and Tenebris all fired in the direction of the noise. A gust of wind and a jet of flame swept through the fog, breezing past the hunters' legs and nipping at their ankles. A large shape swayed in the air above them as flapping wings lifted the creature skyward. Levin braced himself for another blast of fire, but the shape vanished beyond the mist and the sound of flapping faded as the wyvern flew away, and none of the hunters could guess which way it had gone.

Levin strode forward cautiously in the following silence, to where the monster had been standing before the hunters had come upon it. There, wedged between some rocks, was the charred remains of the Aptonoth, its flesh seared almost completely through. Several large claw marked coated its back and torso, showing how the beast had been carried from the grasslands down at the base of the mountain all the way here.

"Well, that settles that," Ellie muttered. "Definitely a Rathian."

"So it would appear," Harker agreed. "A large one, too, if these claw marks are any indication. You can always tell by the width of the claws as to the size of the wyvern. See, the marks extend a good two feet along the length of the Aptonoth's back, and is four inches wide at the thickest point, showing that…"

"Summarize, please?" Ellie asked.

"Ah, right. In short, this Rathian should be a solid… 23 meters long. Quite a big one. The Guild would give any hunter that managed to slay one a golden crown medal for such a feat."

"No wonder it's been able to steal away so many Aptonoth without anyone noticing," Tenebris said. "It's so big it can just pluck them up and carry them off and eat them elsewhere. This mission is starting to look more and more fun."

"We didn't see which way it went, though," Ellie said.

"Shouldn't be a problem," Tenebris replied with a grin. "Now we know what it is for certain, and I happen to know where a lot of the Rathian nests in this area are. But… they're way, way higher up the mountain. And if we're really unlucky, we'll have to work out way through some caves in the mountains to get to some of the really high ones, and I'm pretty sure nobody really knows how much of a maze they are."

"Sounds about par for the course for us," Levin grumbled. "Why does nobody ever map out caves? You'd think if hunters have to travel through them on a regular basis, someone would have figured out the routes and could have made a map or something. I mean, don't even get me started on how lost we got on Echo Island."

"You could make a profit off of that kind of thing," Ellie said with a smile. "Honestly, I don't see why someone doesn't make good maps. I mean, the Guild provided ones are okay, but they're not very useful. Most of the time, I just give them a single look then never take one again. I mean, if someone made maps of all the caves and mining locations and all the other stuff that hunters actually care about, they'd knock those Guild maps right out of the market."

"You'd have to take the time to get to know the area first, though," Levin replied.

"Maybe. But hunters spend a lot of time out in the wilds anyway. If one of them did it, it'd be easy. You just map out the area while you're out hunting or something."

"Yeah, but you'd be hard pressed to convince a hunter to do something like that," Tenebris said. "Most of them are too interested in just hunting. Though I hate to think that the things Silas was saying were in any way correct, a lot of non-Lost hunters are more concerned with just killing monsters than anything else. I mean, there are a lot of interesting hunters out there, but a majority are only in it for the fame and glory, and don't think of things beyond 'how do I kill this thing without getting killed in the process'?"

"Well, at least you're fairly open-minded," Ellie said.

"Thank you for the compliment. Also… I hate to ask, but what does 'par for the course' mean?" Tenebris asked uncertainly. "I've heard Lost use that phrase before, but I have no clue what it means."

"Ah, allow me to explain!" Harker replied excitedly. "But, ah, shall we discuss it as we continue? The Rathian won't hunt itself!"

"Right!" Tenebris nodded. "Let's get going then. If we're lucky, we'll be able to find the Rathian's nest before nightfall."

---

It shouldn't have happened that way! I'm the one that's supposed to be in control! I am the ruler, the overlord or these pathetic creatures! They are not supposed to disobey my wishes! They aren't supposed to go against my plans! He should have chased after me! He should have been driven mad at the thought of not following me! He ruined it! All that work making him hate me and he just walked away! It's not supposed to happen like that! No! No no no no no! I will destroy him, and that damn mate of his as well! I will! No… I said I wouldn't let him fight me. Argh! It wasn't supposed to happen like this! No no no no NO NO NO NO! AaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

Levin woke with a start, holding his head in pain as the screaming in his head began to fade away. He shook his head in frustration as silence finally settled over his mind at last, and he could hear the sounds of the night outside of the cave once more. Ellie shifted in her sleep next to him, and Levin forced himself to calm his breathing, trying not to wake her up. Eventually his beloved's breathing evened out, and she settled back into peaceful sleep once again,

The dreams were still there, the terrible nightmares that the Alatreon would send him at night, haunting his mind in his sleep. Visions of the volcano ruins he'd seen so often, where the Alatreon kept the sparse remnants of those that had fought against him before, the 'trophies' it coveted as symbols of his dominion over all the other creatures in the world. These days the beast howled and raged senselessly, seething with fury and smashing his toys and prizes in his endless anger with Levin's rebellion against its plans.

Levin had hoped that they'd fade away after coming to terms with the death of his family, but recently, ever since their altercation up north, it seemed that the creature wasn't sending him the dreams intentionally, but rather he was receiving them only because of some bond that he and the creature seemed to have. And every time it was the same thing, the elder dragon ranting and raving in frustration at Levin's refusal to dance to the Alatreon's fife, choosing Ellie's life over his vengeance. At least the creature didn't seem to be out attacking villages or anything like that. Apparently Levin's refusal to play the creature's game had baffled it too completely and it didn't seem to even consider attacking villages at all.

Honestly, as much as Levin hated the Alatreon, he actually found the creature's furious ranting irritating more than anything else. All this time he'd imagined the beast as a sort of cruel, manipulative demon creature (and honestly it still was), but after hearing the creature vent its frustrations in the way it was, it seemed more like and angry, spoiled child frustrated at losing a game than anything else. Levin supposed he could understand why the creature was acting like it was; countless years of the beast being the terror of every living thing in the world, and who knows how many people it had 'played' with before it had gotten to Levin, and suddenly someone told it that they weren't going to play by its rules anymore? With all its power and infamy, it had never imagined that someone could choose to ignore it.

Though, his new perspective on the Alatreon only made him more worried about the creature. He feared the beast before, when he thought that it was a cruel manipulator. But now, thinking of the beast as an angry child with all the power it possessed and all the sick desire it had to lord over humans and other monsters only made Levin more frightened of it. Something that could coldly calculate would use that power wickedly, but with precision. A creature that hated to lose, with that much power, throwing the equivalent of a tantrum… that was a terrifying thought. What would it do to get revenge, once it was done raving and seething in its hideaway?

Levin sighed and hung his head. So much for sleeping tonight. The hunters hadn't managed to find the Rathian's nest that day, despite Tenebris' boasts that she knew the locations of most of the nesting spots of the mountain. All the caves they'd come across had been empty, and when the sun had finally dropped past the peaks of the western mountains, they'd been forced to take refuge in a cave for the night. The fog had just faded in the last moments of the day, when the light of the sun was vanishing from the valley.

Tenebris had volunteered for first shift, but with thoughts like this on his mind, there was no way he was going to be able to get any more rest, not for a while. He carefully pushed himself to his feet, trying to avoid waking Ellie, before stretching and making his way out into the open air. He realized, oddly enough, that neither Harker nor Kerrigan were in the cave either. It wasn't that close to morning… had something happened outside?

As Levin made his way out of the cave, he caught sight of Tenebris sitting near the entrance on a large boulder that propped against the entrance to their campsite. She sat fiddling with her bowgun listlessly, as she idly stared up at the sky. It was a challenge to make out much of the stars, Levin realized, looking up. Most of the sky was faded, blotted out by the bright azure beacon that rose to the sky further to the north. As such, only the brightest of stars and the pale crescent moon could be seen in the sky apart from the dim blue light that purveyed both day and night in the sky.

"Trouble sleeping?" Levin looked back to Tenebris as she looked down at him.

"A bit… bad dreams," he replied. "Figured I wasn't going to be able to get much sleep tonight, might as well take over for the next shift."

"You're not the only one, it seems," Tenebris nodded, folding her bowgun back up and sliding it over her back once more. "Your friends Kerrigan and Harker came out for air a little while ago. I don't really blame them either. That light on the horizon is really disconcerting, whatever it is. Makes stargazing a real pain in the butt, I'll tell you that much. Nothing up there to see but the really bright ones, and there's nothing interesting about them."

"Really? I didn't take you as one for stargazing," Levin replied, and Tenebris smiled sadly as she slid down the rock.

"I guess it's just a habit I picked up from one of my old hunting partners. Some things just linger, I suppose. She always seemed to enjoy looking up and the skies, and I guess she rubbed off on me… but enough about that. I'll be heading off to bed then, if you're going to take my place. Keep an eye out for the other two."

"Right," Levin nodded. "I suppose Harker thought of some experiment he wanted to conduct, and took off to look into it, and Kerry tagged along."

"Maybe," Tenebris shrugged. "But Kerrigan was the one who left the cave first, with Harker on her tail. It might have been the other way around. Goodnight, and don't run off or anything."

"I won't," Levin promised, propping himself up against the rock wall. Kerry had left first? That was odd. Maybe nature just called or something, but that wouldn't explain why Harker had followed.

Levin found his eyes lingering on the pillar of light that continued to shine in the north. It had been several hours since it had vanished and reappeared, and it seemed so much more daunting, more threatening in the night. Levin still couldn't guess at the nature of the light, or what could be causing it. But it was still so far, and over the tops of mountains; he couldn't even figure out how he could get to the source even if he tried to.

He wondered what sort of doom and destruction the light was supposed to usher in. The switch axe user was fairly certain that the people of Nastre wouldn't have just created the story of destruction that they'd spoken of. Fire from the skies, and an unseen enemy… Tenebris had mentioned an elder dragon that had the ability to turn itself invisible; could that be the foe Nastre faced be something like that? Levin smirked to himself as he looked down into the valley, where the last vestiges of fog were still fading away. With thick haze like they'd had the previous day, he imagined that whatever was causing the devastation didn't need such an ability to go unseen.

Levin continued to stare up at the sky for a while, thinking listlessly about nothing in particular. Finally, though, he realized that he hadn't seen either Harker or Kerry return from the wilds yet. Had Harker gotten caught up in one of his strange experiments again and forgotten the time? No, that wasn't likely. There would have been explosions.

But then where were they? Had they gotten lost out there? There was still some fog lingering in the trees. He knew Harker might have trouble with locations, considering his sporadic thought process, but Kerry should have an even enough head on her shoulders to get them back. Nonetheless, Levin was getting worried. He pushed away from the rock wall and made his way over to the tree line, slowly pressing into the foliage. He couldn't afford to go far, not without leaving Ellie and Tenebris exposed, but…

Voices caught his attention fairly quickly, thankfully, a dim whispering that echoed through the trees. He had trouble figuring out the location, but eventually found his way to the source. He caught sight of the two standing in a small gully, a small patch of land where the wan moonlight and light of the pillar could filter cleanly through trees. He was glad to find his friends safe, but as he approached, their voices became clearer, and he found himself keeping quiet as he approached. Kerry's voice seemed strained, and Harker's worried.

"I can't take it Harker!" Kerry gasped, sobbing. "I just… I just can't!"

"Kerrigan…" Harker said quietly, reaching forward to embrace the woman as she cried. "What do you mean? You can't take what? Please. It pains me to see you like this."

"I can't… I can't lose anyone anymore!" Kerry choked out. "I just can't. I've lost… so many friends and allies because of my damn curse! I've watched so many people die because they traveled with the Companion Killer. I can't… oh, damn it all, I just can't lose you three! I love you all too much. Ellie, Levin, you… especially you, Harker. I love you so much. If you died, if any of you died hunting the Alatreon, I just… I just couldn't take it anymore. I've lost too much… any more, and I just couldn't go on anymore."

"Oh, Kerrigan… forgive me, I… I'm sorry," Harker muttered. "Forgive me. I hadn't realized how much this was hurting you. I hadn't thought that this Companion Killer issue was still bothering you. Worrying over the three of us… I am so sorry."

"No more…"Kerry whispered miserably. "Please Harker, no more of this. Please, please stop chasing after the Alatreon with Levin and Ellie. I can't… I don't think I can stop the two of them from chasing after the thing. But please, Harker, please promise me you won't go with them, that you won't help them with this anymore, that you won't go chasing after the Alatreon with them. Promise that, whatever they do, you won't follow, that you'll stay with me. Please. I can't lose you."

"Kerrigan…" Harker murmured. "How… they may need my help. My flash bomb was the only thing that managed to stop the elder dragon when it attacked Hearth. If I'm not there to help them if they choose to go after it once more… it may not go as well for them."

"I know… I know," Kerry sobbed. "I know that, and it will kill me inside if it does. But Harker, please. I love you. I can't risk losing you. Please, please, promise me that you'll stay away from the Alatreon and anything involving it, please. If you… if you die because of this curse of mine, I… I don't think I'll be able to live with the guilt. I won't… If you die… I will be close behind."

The pained expression that came across Harker's face showed clearly how he felt about that, and he squeezed her all the tighter. "Never consider such a thing, Lady Kerrigan, please. Your life is… far too precious a thing to give up for my sake."

"And yours is too precious a thing to give up for mine," Kerry replied softly. "Or for the sake of fighting the Alatreon. To me. Please, Harker, promise me. Please!"

"Kerrigan, I… I promise. If they go after the Alatreon, I won't follow after them. I'll… I'll stay away from the monster if it is in my power to do so."

"Thank you," Kerry whispered. "Thank you."

"But… please Kerrigan," Harker said quietly, making the bowgunner tense. "As… as you said, neither of us may be capable of stopping the two of them, or at least Levin from going off after the beast. Please, allow me at least some recompense: let me try and uncover as much as I can to help them. About the Alatreon and its power and whatever else I can. Let me learn and teach them what I can to keep them alive, and safe, and… if I can manage it, allow them to succeed. If I will not fight alongside them, please, at least let me try and uncover whatever I can to aid them in their mission."

"I don't… Why? That would just encourage them."

"But it would help them, and any help against an elder dragon, especially this one, would be well worth the effort," Harker replied, releasing Kerry and looking her in the eye, a determined look on his face. "And, if what Levin claimed is true, once… once the Alatreon is… done with Levin, it will move on to other Lost. Who knows who it will be? Perhaps, just perhaps, it will be me."

"No! Harker…"

"It's true, my dear," Harker replied adamantly. "After all, I have little doubt it's irritated with me, considering my involvement in its attack on Hearth. And even if it doesn't come for me, it will seek out one of my fellow Lost. And if… if I cannot stop Levin and Miss Eleanor, I can at least try to keep them alive and fighting as long as possible. And should they fall, I should do what I can to provide the same courtesy to whomever the beast chooses to toy with next. If the Guild won't provide aid to whatever poor soul suffers that task, at least I can."

"But Harker… if the Guild finds out…"

"The Guild knows what Levin has told them about the Alatreon. If they choose to do nothing to aid the poor Lost that is toyed with by the Alatreon next… well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. But will you offer me this blessing, Kerrigan, to aid Levin and Eleanor in their hunt for the Alatreon, even if… even if I will not raise a blade against the beast myself?"

"I don't… I don't want you to," Kerry replied, but Harker kept her gaze. "But… will you really be able to help them at all?"

"I don't know, but I want to try."

The bowgunner was quiet for a long minute, before she finally nodded. "Fine. Fine, Harker, you can help them. I know it's selfish of me to keep you from fighting with them, but… as long as you're safe, that's the most important thing for me."

"And will you… will you help me? Help me to help them?" Harker asked, and the bowgunner frowned worriedly. "I know you don't care for what they're trying to do, but I also know that you worry for them as well, that you want to keep them safe if you can't stop them. And I know… I know you've been feeling lonely since Hearth. I know you've missed talking together with everyone. I know Ellie has missed talking to you as well." The long sword user smiled at Kerry gently. "I'm sure that, while Levin and I are fine enough conversationalists, she misses the conversations that only women can have with each other, though I dare not try to contemplate such things myself."

Kerry laughed quietly at the words. "You're right. I do miss talking to them. Both of them. I know I'm angry at them but… I am worried for them. But… they challenged the Alatreon and that's not something that can be taken lightly. Why did they do it Harker? Why did they have to chase after such a terrible creature?"

"The Alatreon caused the downfall and destruction of our people, my dear Kerrigan. It also inflicted us with the terrible madness that makes people fear and hate us. I fear that, despite the creature's power, it will be challenging to stop them from chasing after it. And once word gets out of the elder dragon's true influence on us, and I fear it will, I doubt there will be any stopping the reaction of the Lost, no matter the Guild's mandates on the beast. And worst of all, from what little I've heard of the Alatreon, the beast would only enjoy and encourage them to do so.

"It's not something I enjoy saying, my dear Kerrigan, but I very much doubt the hunt for the Alatreon will stop until either it or the Lost are dead. The beast has forced this compulsion on us, and it's not something that we can so easily walk away from."

The pair was quiet for a long while, before Kerry spoke again. "You really have to help them then, don't you? You can't… you can't just let them run off without your help, can you?"

"I can't just sit by and watch my people run to their deaths. I must do something, even if it's only searching for information on how to help. And I think… I think that you are very much the same, my dear Kerrigan, despite it being the Alatreon, despite your… curse."

Several moments later, Levin heard Kerry begin to cry again. He'd heard enough; likely, he'd heard too much. As quietly as he could, he slunk away from the pair back to the entrance of the cave, and propped himself back up against the rock, looking up into the sky towards the pillar of light off in the distance.

Was he really just throwing away his life, chasing after the Alatreon? Was it possible for him to stop, to just let the creature be? No, likely not. The Alatreon had twisted him, toyed with him, and expected to play with him like a cat with a mouse. Levin could walk away from that, if it meant his survival, but if the elder dragon planned to do the same with the rest of the Lost that he'd collected. There were old and young, sick and wounded in the group, and all of them were blighted with the same twisted madness that inflicted him. They would come when the Alatreon called, and that was something that Levin just couldn't oblige.

He had to hunt down the creature himself, while its attention was still on him. And if that only led to his death… well, maybe Harker would be able to learn something from it that would help the next person that sought the beast out. It wasn't much to think of, but it was something.

---

The next morning came quickly enough, and the pillar of light was still in the sky to the north. It had flickered and faded for a couple minutes about an hour before dawn, but had flared back to life with all its former intensity not long after, the blue light blotting out the stars once more.

Harker and Kerry had stayed out in the wilderness for a while after Levin had left them alone. When they'd finally returned to the cave, Levin made a note not to say anything to them on their way in, just nod at them in recognition. He didn't think he could trust his own words around them after hearing their discussion that night, and had little doubt that both he and they would need a little time to figure out how to act around each other. Levin wondered if either of them suspected that he'd been in the area when they were having their discussion, but neither of them brought it up or were giving him odd looks, so he thought he had been subtle enough to not catch their notice.

But Kerry did try and make an effort to converse with him and Ellie the next morning, as she promised she would. Or at least, she made an effort to talk to Ellie. Levin supposed that talking to him would come in time, but his insistence in going after the Alatreon was just a little outside of the woman's comfort zone. But Kerry did try to approach Ellie in conversation the next day, though her effort was a bit awkward; thankfully Ellie was happy to have a female friend to talk to again, and the pair were talking happily not long after.

As the sun crested the mountaintops, Levin looked down the slopes to see another wave of the thick fog rolling in from the peaks, rolling waves of clouds that likely made the land below just as impossible to see through as it had been the previous day. However, this time Levin had the ability to see the view from above the fog; the cavern they camped in was just above the roiling haze, allowing Levin to look across the tops of the fog. For the first time, he realized that the fog seemed to be leaking over the mountains to the northwest of where they were camping. The rest of the peaks were clear, but the blanket of clouds was coming from one place. Was there a lake or something off in that direction, maybe?

After eating what rations they had on them, the hunters left the cave and continued up the thin path leading up the side of the mountain. It felt as though they were traveling across the edge of an island, with a sea of white surrounding them. As they continued, they passed more and more holes in the wall of the mountain, and each were thoroughly searched in hopes of finding their prey. However, as they traveled, they discovered something very strange.

"These caves should have monsters in them," Tenebris murmured worriedly, striding into the eighth cavern they'd come across.

"What do you mean?" Levin asked, following her and looking around. He had to let his eyes adjust to the darkness for a moment, but as he did, he realized that the floor was littered with a smattering of feathers and scales, brightly colored things that clearly belonged to a Qurupeco. He picked one up, rolling it over in his hand, and found that it was fresh, relatively speaking. It hadn't been in this cave very long, that much was certain; it still had the luster and gleam that Qurupeco's obsessively cleaned and preened their plumage to have.

"I've hunted in this area before," Tenebris explained, "and these caves always had monsters in them. Qurupecos, Rathians, packs of Jaggi. You had to be quiet passing by to avoid attracting anything's attention. But now they're all empty. Why?"

"Perhaps the blue light scared them off," Harker suggested. "It's quite noticeable. It's possible that the monsters in the area can sense something about the light that humans cannot."

Tenebris grimaced, glancing out of the entrance of the cave towards where the pillar of light continued to glow off in the distance. "I guess that's possible. Something big like that could frighten monsters off, I suppose. I know a lot of monsters get fidgety around natural disasters. I heard stories that an island off the coast didn't see any carnivores bigger than a Jaggia for weeks after an earthquake hit. The blue light isn't really a natural disaster I guess, but it's still something big and unnatural, so maybe it scared off the local monsters."

"Wouldn't… wouldn't that mean that the Rathian we're hunting for ran off as well, though?" Kerry asked.

"It might have, but we saw the remains of that Aptonoth yesterday. The Rathian is still around… probably. If the light didn't scare it off right at the get go, maybe it won't scare it off at all. Though, maybe it just stopped to eat before getting out of the area… ugh, that would be irritating, now that I think about it. Keep your eyes open for fresh Rath signs I suppose. There's not much else we can do about it but hope it hasn't flown off since yesterday, otherwise we'll have to wait for the large monsters to start trickling back once the light is gone. If it's still picking off food in the area, chances are it's not planning on leaving quite yet, so we've still got a bit of time to find it."

With the fog no longer surrounding them, the hunters were able to make better time as they trekked along the mountain paths, poking into the caves and nests that lined the side of the path in hopes of finding some sight of the Rathian, but all the ones they ventured into were abandoned. They found the remains of a couple more Aptonoth as they traveled, though none nearly so fresh and recently killed as the one from yesterday. It gave them a path though, and a direction towards the nest. Tenebris seemed worried, however, claiming there wasn't much path left before they would need to start working their way through caves. And unfortunately, they ended up needing to go into a cave after all, upon catching sight of yet another well-done Aptonoth corpse splayed across the ground, but way up on a far higher ledge than the one they were on.

The caves were dark, but surprisingly spacious for paths that led through the mountains. But where the monsters outdoors had been left wary or hid themselves away due to the pillar of light to the north, the creatures that crept and crawled through the tunnels had not seen it, and had no such inclinations. Almost as soon as the hunters entered the cave, a small pack of Jaggis swept out of the darkness and attacked them. The hunters had gotten lax outside, with all the monsters acting so passive, and to have them abruptly attacking again caught them off guard. A couple of the Jaggis had already snapped their teeth against Levin's armor by the time he managed to pull out his switch axe. It didn't take the hunters long to clean up the ankle-biters, but the surprise attack had left them with a couple wounds and bruises to treat before continuing further into the cavern.

Their increased wariness proved to be a good thing. Apparently, these caves hadn't been traveled in many, many years, allowing monsters to flourish and prosper deep within their confines. The Jaggi pack had only been the first, a collection of carnivores that stayed close to the entryway. Beyond there were whole swarms of Bnahabra, massive insects that were easily three times the size of most of their kind. Having three bowgunners made getting through there easier, but beyond were even more large monsters. Hives of Altaroth and swarms of Giggi roamed the caves as well, all of them larger than normal due to the isolation and freedom they were allowed. Levin didn't remember ever fighting such thick-shelled, aggressive bugs before, and the Giggis were so fat and well-nourished that they were actually sprouting stubs that would become wings as they changed into Gigginox.

And, unfortunately, despite the monsters' prosperity, the creatures had seen so few hunters, if any at all, during their lives in the caves, that they showed no sign of fear at the sudden appearance of intruders in their territories, and had no hesitation in attacking the interlopers that dared threaten their livelihoods. Levin and Ellie weren't used to such massive versions of the usually little monsters that plagued the caves near Boma Village. Harker, Kerry and Tenebris seemed familiar with the larger bugs, but the sight of massive Giggis swarming out of cracks in the walls seemed to terrify and nauseate all of the hunters in the party. The massive crawling Giggis already had tendrils of poison mist on their breath as they crawled after the hunters, so they tried to keep their distance from the worm-like nasties as they killed them and continued quickly through the caves.

At least, compared to the caves around Echo Village, the ones here in the mountains were fairly straightforward, with a few off-shooting paths from where they were trying to go, but nothing so mazelike as they'd seen before, and most of the time the path leading upward continued to do so, allowing them to find their path with ease. And there were numerous holes in the ceiling of the caverns, allowing them to see well without having to rely too much on torches.

The path slowly crept higher and higher through the mountain, and Levin could practically feel the air getting thinner as they went along. He wondered if they'd need to allow themselves to acclimate once they finally found the nest, for fear of passing out from breathlessness. If not that, they'd likely need a break from all the large, aggressive ankle-biters that filled these caves. The thin poisonous gas the Giggis released weren't potent enough to do much, but it still made the hunters nauseous when they breathed it in, and the venom from the Altaroths' and Bnahabras' stingers weren't leaving them off much better.

At least the monsters finally seemed to be thinning out a little bit. It had been a while since the last time they'd passed a nest or a hive. Actually, now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen any signs of monsters at all in a while. Maybe they didn't like the high altitudes?

"Oh, how fascinating!"

Levin looked up at Harker's sudden outburst, and his eyes widened in surprise at the sight in front of them. A little ways up the path they followed, the cavern widened substantially, opening up from only a few yards across to a near dozen from end to end, and a few dozen yards from floor to ceiling. A massive, smooth stone wall stretched from the floor of the cavern all the way to the ceiling; from the way the stone and dirt around the tops and bottom cut off, it appeared that the wall continued both upwards and downwards a significant distance as well. But it wasn't just a unique cave wall, but a manmade, massive curving relief, with elaborate symbols and images coating the entirety of the wall.

"It's like the one we saw near Boma Village," he heard Ellie say in awe, and Levin nodded. Intricate depictions of monsters coated the wall, some shown fighting other creatures or battling against humans. Others showed various aspects of monster ecology; a Qurupeco singing, a Lagiacrus swimming, and Levin was certain that there was an image of a Rath mating dance up there near the top. And the reliefs stretched for a long distance, the cavern following the edge of the wall as it curved gently off into the distance, further into the mountain. The shape of the curve seemed precise, and Levin wondered if it continued until it looped in a complete circle. Was this another of those massive stone spires, like the one he'd seen near Echo Village?

"Remnants of a forgotten civilization," Tenebris said, looking up at the wall and brushing her hand across the surface and along the chiseled lines. She raised an eyebrow and glanced at Levin and Ellie as Harker hurried off, talking excitedly as he began to jabber excitedly while Kerry followed behind. "Not… yours though, is it?"

"No, not ours," Ellie replied, looking up the sides of the wall. "Whoever made these walls came and went after… after the Lost's time."

"Meridians," Harker muttered quietly.

"Excuse me?"

"Ah, apologies," Harker replied quickly. "It's what I've taken to calling them, the civilization that came between the Lost's era and the Hunter's era. It's an appropriate enough name, I suppose, considering that they came between our times, and they were a people of great development, at least when it comes to their adjustment to the existence of monsters. I can't seem to find what they referred to themselves as anyway, and none of the researchers in Loc Lac have allotted them a title, so I've just begun referring to them as Meridians."

"So what do you know about them, then?" Tenebris asked, poking around and looking at more of the images.

"Admittedly, not much, or rather, nothing truly substantial," Harker replied. "They peaked several centuries ago, and seemed to be surprisingly prosperous from I've been able to learn about them, considering that they rose from the ashes of the Lost, learning to deal with the monsters that had overrun the world. What surprises me is, they seem to have advanced a shocking amount in the time they were the masters of the world. Their writings show they had powerful weapons and technology that they used against the monsters, though I can't find any sort of specifications or designs. I suspect… I suspect that they had even more power and sway against the monsters of this world than even the Guild with all its greatest hunters has. If the words on the walls like these that I've already studied even show but half of what they were capable of… what I wouldn't give to have full understanding of their language. They developed methods of using monster materials in much the same way that smiths in this time do, but their methods were so much more… elegant. Though I admit I can't figure out how some of them work or what they do."

"Seems like you know a lot more than you let on," Tenebris said with a smile. "But… if they were so powerful, why did they vanish?"

"I couldn't say," Harker admitted, continuing down the wall at a steady pace, rapidly scribbling notes down as he went. "It was very abrupt, whatever it was. I can't figure it out, and none of the Guild researchers have any theories. No good ones, at least. Honestly, I can't think of anything that can wipe out such a civilization so quickly and so efficiently." He paused for a moment in thought and his hand lingered on one of the symbols, and he looked up the wall. "Well… I suppose I can think of one thing."

The other four hunters followed his gaze, and Levin felt a growl of anger catch in his throat. There, halfway up the side of the wall, was a massive relief image was spread across a wide area of the stone wall. It was an image of the Alatreon, or at least a surprisingly good representation of the thing for a work of chiseled art. Dozens and dozens of symbols surrounded the image on all sides, and notes and dictations on the creature seemed to be pointing at various parts of the elder dragon.

The picture was very graphic as well. The image showed the elder dragon razing a village to the ground, lightning and ice falling from the sky and annihilating houses and huts alike. Incinerating or impaling the poor civilians they landed on. Fire and dark energy swept from the creature's maw and claws, lighting the entire village up in flames and utterly destroying the depicted warriors that stood to face it. And the numbers… the sheer amount of individual images of civilians and hunters was staggering. Whoever had designed this was trying to make it clear the scale of the beast's destruction. This wasn't just an image of the Alatreon, this was the retelling of a slaughter, a brutal massacre that the Alatreon had personally brought about. It made Levin sick to his stomach, and he could see that Ellie and Harker shared similar expressions.

However, Levin found himself confused at Tenebris' expression as the huntress stared up at the image. Rather than fear or anger as he'd been expecting, she appeared confused, if not a little bit concerned at the image. "I'm sorry, I may be missing out on something important, but… what exactly is that thing? An elder dragon, I assume? It looks a little like the Guild's depictions of a Kushala Daora, but… maybe a little bigger?"

It took Levin a moment to get through being flabbergasted before remembering that next to no one, aside from a scarce few people in Hearth, had ever seen the Alatreon, and not many more had heard what it looked like. Speculation was the only thing most people had on the beast, and that extended as far as knowing that it was colored black and could use multiple elements. Actually, Levin realized that he should be surprised that the Meridians, or whatever Harker was calling them, actually had imagery of the creature. From what Levin had learned of the elder dragon himself, the thing liked to remain mystical.

Harker didn't seem bothered by the ignorance though, and gave a hesitant smile to the curious bowgunner. "Ah, well, I suppose it wouldn't be common knowledge. What you're looking at, Miss Tenebris, is a very large and surprisingly accurate depiction of the very reason you're accompanying the four of us on this little venture. Behold, Miss Tenebris; you are now one of the few hunters in the world that have fair knowledge as to the appearance of the Alatreon itself."

Tenebris' eyes widened in surprise and awe, and she looked up at the image with a new expression, tinted with fear. Levin supposed it was to be expected, what with the inherent fear the locals had of the creature. But more than anything, the woman seemed worried above all else.

"No wonder people fear it," she muttered. "It's pretty big for an elder dragon, at least one of that shape. There are massive things like the Jhen Mohran and the Ceadeus, but four-legged winged dragons don't usually get quite so large. It looks like the… Meridians, or whatever you called them, were just as afraid of them as we are these days."

"I wouldn't say they were afraid…" Harker replied, looking over the image and the writings surrounding it.

"What? How could they not be afraid of the Alatreon?" Tenebris asked, shocked. The other hunters had to admit their surprise at the words as well. "I mean… the Lost were destroyed by the creature, and our people fear it enough to make hunting it illegal. Why would the… Meridians not be afraid of them."

"Well… perhaps it was premature of me to say they weren't afraid of the beast," Harker admitted. "But they certainly seemed less paranoid over it. No offense, my dear Lady Kerrigan and Miss Tenebris."

"None taken," Tenebris nodded. "But I think, considering the beast's disposition, our paranoia is rightly justified."

"I think you're right," Harker replied. "However, as I was saying, they weren't so much afraid of the elder dragon, so much as they were… concerned, and intrigued by the beast. They studied it relentlessly. It drove them, as far as I can tell. It was their motivation to continue their works. Whatever towns and cities the beast destroyed only seemed to serve as things to study for them."

"They considered lives lost as something to study?" Ellie asked incredulously.

"I'm not saying they didn't mourn, I'm saying their study of the creature's habits and abilities took priority. They were dedicated to their work. I suppose that's not entirely aiding their reputation… But I feel that there must me some reason they were so obsessed with their sciences. Their weapons and other creations can be found everywhere, and their work in monster material molding and transfiguration was supremely influential in the modern era's work in smithing weapons and armor from monster goods. Yet, for all their work, their obsession with the Alatreon is clear on these walls. If only I could decipher it all!"

Tenebris nodded, intrigued. But a moment later she glanced over to Levin and Ellie with a worried expression, and shook her head. "I realize that you're excited about this Harker, but as you recall, there are restrictions on things involving the Alatreon, and present company makes things harder. Sorry Levin, Ellie, but with you two around, we shouldn't really be sticking around to look at this."

"Oh," Levin said, nodding awkwardly. "Um… okay."

Tenebris noticed, though, that Harker had a very distraught look on his face, and even Kerry seemed disappointed. "Erm. Well… I suppose you can write down what you see as we go along. But we have to keep moving. There's a Rathian to take care of, remember? Besides, we should leave this kind of thing to the Guild. They have people for this kind of thing, I'm sure. We'll report this wall to them when we get back from our quest and they can look into it, okay?"

Harker frowned sourly at the words, clearly disappointed at letting someone other than him have the pleasure and honor of interpreting the wall and all its mysteries. But he grinned a moment later. "I can write down everything I see, can I? Well, I'll have you know that I can write fairly quickly, and even if I cannot, my memory is nothing to scoff at. You may not have considered it as such, Miss Tenebris, but I consider those words a challenge. Well, challenge accepted!"

A moment later the man's notepad was out, and he was scribbling furiously in it, copying or translating any and all of the words that littered the walls of the cavern. Tenebris stared at the man, stunned for a moment, before chuckling in amusement and beginning a slow walk further through the cave, allowing the man just a little bit of time to scribble what they could as they continued further along.

The hunters pressed on from the depiction of the Alatreon, though Levin kept looking back at the image warily, until it passed out of sight, as though the relief itself was the beast, and would attack if he stopped checking. As they walked, though, more images of the elder dragon appeared on the wall, though all were far smaller than the first they'd seen. These seemed to depict a history of events and notes about the creature that the Meridians had noted of the beast, rather than the detailed analysis the larger image had pictured. Harker scribbled down what was written feverishly as they passed, translating what he could and replicating the images of what he could not for later review, jumping frequently in emotion from excitement to wonder to concern to impressed at the drop of a hat.

Levin noticed that other images began to crop up frequently as well as they walked along. He realized that there was a recurring image that often appeared near or around the images of the Alatreon, something that appeared to be a collection of five towers, each with a unique symbol towering over them. Harker began muttering to himself constantly, occasionally jabbering thoughts and ideas to Kerry, who seemed to be the only one able to keep up with his train of thought. Apparently the long sword user believed that these towers were unique creations of the Meridians, a sort of machine of some kind that they had created for some grand purpose, though Harker couldn't decipher what purpose that was yet.

There were five towers in total, the images showed, with one being far larger and grander, and likely more important than the others. But to what purpose, Harker kept asking, to what end? Levin couldn't guess. As they continued on through the tunnels, the four smaller towers seemed to become less important, the wall depicting more and more information about the fifth, most important wall over the others, and Harker began to act more and more ravenous as he scribbled down information from the walls. Apparently as they'd gone on, the writings and depictions had gone far beyond the initial complexity that they'd seen at the start, and far beyond Harker's ability to translate them, leaving the man desperate and frustrated, a state that Levin hadn't recalled seeing the man in before. Even Kerry seemed worried at the long sword user's behavior.

The hunters found themselves so caught up in listening to the man's ravings and ranting as he scoured the wall for information, that it was a long time before Levin realized that they'd been standing in one place for almost a half an hour, watching the man pore relentlessly over a massive image of the mysterious tower, a large depiction as tall and with as many notes about it as the image they'd seen of the Alatreon earlier. The sun was setting over the horizon, in the reddening light filtering through the cracks and crevices in the ceiling were any indication, and yet still the cave went on, following the slowly curving wall that so consumed the long sword user.

"Here's what bothers me," Harker prattled off quickly, muttering sourly pointing to the side of the picture. Levin followed his motion, and his eyes landed on an odd symbol, one that seemed out of place on the wall. Right above the symbol of the towers, a circular shape took form, a winged serpent circling around itself and devouring its own tails. In the center of the serpent was a three-pronged shape, like a monster's claw. Levin frowned as Harker muttered to himself. "I've seen this symbol all over this wall, especially anywhere depictions of this tower of the Alatreon are prevalent."

"I've seen that symbol before," Tenebris said, seeming surprised with the knowledge, and Harker nodded.

"That's not surprising. The symbol has existed for millennia, since long before even the Lost civilization rose and fell. It's referred to as the… what was it… the Ouroboros, I believe, though I don't know why it is here."

"What does it mean?"

"Many things," Harker replied thoughtfully, turning and beginning to pace back and forth in front of the image. "Most commonly, it was a symbol for cycles or reincarnation, something repeating in perpetuity. It has many meanings, though, so who could guess what the symbol could have meant to the Meridians, considering they only seem to be correlating it with the Alatreon and… whatever those towers they've chiseled are? And then there's the symbol in the middle; a dragon's talon, perhaps? But what is its significance? I can't even guess. Levin, Ellie, did either of you ever see such an image on the wall you said you saw near Boma Village?"

"Not that I can recall," Ellie replied, and Levin shook his head as well. "There was a lot of the wall missing though. A large chunk had been… I don't know, seared off or something. Maybe it got hit by lightning, or a stray bolt of electricity from a Lagiacrus or something."

Harker frowned, stopping in surprise, before turning to Ellie and looking at her oddly. "That… shouldn't have happened. I've studied a couple of these walls before. They're not of any substance I've seen before, and very, very durable. A pile of barrel bombs wouldn't do that much damage and a direct hit from a Dragonator would be the only manmade object I'm aware of that could do some real work damaging it. A simple force of nature wouldn't be enough to damage one of these walls enough to take a real chunk out of one."

"Then what could have done it?" Kerry asked. "What's more powerful than nature itself?"

"An elder dragon?" Tenebris supplied, earning a few strange looks. "What? It's true. That's how they define an elder dragon. Any monster that's capable of changing the weather or causing damage equivalent to natural disasters is classified as an elder dragon. I thought that was common knowledge."

Levin grimaced and shrugged. The Alatreon was in the same classification as a natural disaster? No wonder people were so fearful of it. And he'd been foolish enough to try and stop it as his current ability level? No wonder the beast had made short work of him.

"Any other thoughts on what the symbol could mean?" Kerry asked curiously.

"Any number of things," Harker replied. "Karma, eternity, magical power. With so little information about the Meridians, I can only speculate. But whatever this tower was, I believe it was to be used against, or perhaps for, the Alatreon. They are depicted too closely to each other far too often for it to be otherwise. Other than that, I cannot be certain what the meaning and use of these towers could possibly be."

"Well, where are these towers, then?" Levin asked, intrigued and excited. Could this be it? Something they could actually use to gain an advantage against the elder dragon? "Does it say anything about a location? Some way to activate it? Something? Anything!"

"Don't answer that Harker," Tenebris cut it, shooting an irritated glance at the switch axe user, and Levin flinched. "I realize you might just be curious, but I'm not going to let you go around asking for more information on the thing, got it? I know… I know it's a very… compelling and personal topic, but you are not allowed to deal with anything involving the Alatreon, remember? You're already in deep enough water as it is! Any further, and there'll be no saving you from drowning. I promised Stergo I would do my best to keep you away from that stuff, and I plan to keep my word. Harker, if you can read any of that, don't translate it at all, got it?"

"Erm, ah, yes ma'am," Harker replied, and Kerry nodded in agreement. "Well, anyway, like I said, I've not completely been able to translate this language. Besides, it doesn't seem like any of this writing indicates the location of these towers, just what they look like, and a very, very vague description of what they do. Other than that, there's nothing. It's not like I could figure out where they were anyway."

"Good to hear." Then the bowgunner glanced up at the holes in the ceiling as well and sighed in disappointment. "Well, so much for finding the nest today. Looks like we'll have to camp here for the night. I suppose you're pleased about that Harker."

"I won't act too giddy if that makes you feel better."

"I suppose it does a little bit," the woman replied with a smile. "But tomorrow we'll have to move along a little faster, so I won't be moving so slow as to let you take time to write things down."

"Fair enough."

"Well then, let's find a place to rest and start a fire. I want us to find the Rathian tomorrow for sure, no matter how hard we have to work to do so! So we'll need sleep, because tomorrow might be a long and challenging one."

---

Fire. Micah never cared much for fire. Some would say he had a phobia of it. They would be wrong of course. He didn't cringe or shy away from it. He didn't actively avoid the blaze. But he didn't spend very long around fires, either. When there was a fire lit in hearths and fireplaces back at the base, he wouldn't leave the room when they were lit up, but he wouldn't stick around very long. Fire just made him uncomfortable.

It could easily get out of hand if not tended to properly. When that happened, fire made no distinctions on who or what it burned. It simply devoured everything it could in its path. A dangerous monster would only kill what it needed to eat to survive, or nip at invaders into their territories until they left. But fire saw neither friend nor foe, it simply consumed until it was beaten back or snuffed out.

It irked Micah to no end that the people of this world didn't have access to electricity, forcing him to resort to candles and other such things. There were rare crystals, mysterious gems that emitted light if you knew how to use them correctly, but they were expensive and hard to maintain, and Moloch wouldn't waste money on such frivolities, not unless they were going to be used to impress possible clients or benefactors. Micah may have been his direct subordinate, but paying good money to buy a hunter a fireless reading lamp was not in the man's list of interests.

Of course, there was no avoiding fire sometimes. Way back when he and Moloch first started their work, he'd had to use bombs a lot to take care of monsters that Filcher hadn't wanted to waste time and effort on. He hadn't liked it; bombs were even worse than just starting up a flame. One wrong move, and you'd be dead before you knew it. You could roll around if you caught flame to put it out, or even better, find some water, but bombs just destroyed you completely. They blew you apart, and gave you no chance of survival. Thankfully, Moloch had decided using bombs in their work made it too much easier for the Guild to track them. Filcher hadn't been pleased, but Micah was glad they didn't have to work with such messy, dangerous tools anymore.

Micah didn't care much for fire. That much was clear. And his reasons? They were his own, buried deep within. And yet here he stood, just off the side of a wide, beaten road, watching two dozen wagons burn uncontrollably in the darkening light.

But worst of all was the smell of burning flesh, and the sight of over two dozen dead men and women, their bodies strewn across the remains of the wagons, cremating them.

Micah felt himself seethe at the sight. This shouldn't have happened! It could have easily been avoided! The plan had been simple: surround the caravan and incapacitate the drivers and any hunters that might be acting as guards. Then they would take control of a majority of the wagons and all their contents, leaving the caravan only one to return to the nearest town with, then after chasing them off, send a squad of hunters through the back roads back to their base near the Flooded Forest hunting grounds.

However, much to his dismay, apparently Pugnax and Lilith had neglected, or simply chosen not to, inform their subordinates to show restraint when the attack began. As the caravan had gotten into position, when Micah and Filcher's hunters had charged forward to take control of the caravan, the hunters under Pugnax and Lilith's command had gone in to murder and destroy. Micah hadn't noticed anything was wrong until it was too late to stop them, when powerful bowgun rounds began flying through the air and ripping into the caravan drivers as they'd panicked and tried to escape. His own bowgunners were only supposed to be acting as support in case things got messy, but theirs were aiming to kill.

Micah had tried to call the hunters off, but they were already in a frenzy. Short of killing the hunters himself, he wasn't going to be able to stop them at all, and could only look on in horror as the drivers were butchered. His subordinates were just as flabbergasted by the whole thing as well. It wasn't long after the fight began either, that someone set flame to one of the wagons, and not long after that the entire caravan was ablaze. Lilith was in the middle of it the whole time as well, laughing maniacally as her bowgun fired, explosions ripping apart wagons and Aptonoth and people alike. Micah could do little to stop her.

It was over in minutes. A couple dozen civilians without escorts were no match for just as many hunters. Pugnax and Lilith's followers were sitting around, laughing and complimenting each other on their handiwork as they worked to pull the materials that could be salvaged from the wreckage of the carts before they could all be lost to the fire. Micah felt sick to his stomach listening to them. He'd had to kill before, of course, but this…

"Well, well! Look what we have here!" The sound of Lilith's laughter soared over the sound of the roaring flames. Micah looked over in irritation, but his eyes widened in shock as the woman suddenly pulled a battered man from the ruins of a wagon, his clothes dark and blackened from the fire. Her underlings cheered and jeered as she pulled the man away from the burning remains, pulling him to his knees and grinning down at him.

The long sword user's heart froze as the bowgunner pulled her weapon out and held the barrel up to the man's head. He couldn't watch any longer, and rushed forward, pushing several of Lilith's subordinates to the ground roughly. "Knock it off, Lilith!" he snapped. "We weren't supposed to kill them!"

The woman cackled in amusement, cocking her head as she stared down at the frightened wagon driver. "And why not? All the others have met their ends, so why not just do this man a service and spare him the treacherous trek back to a town? He'll just get attacked by a monster and eaten anyway. It would be a mercy!"

"Don't try and pretend you're not just doing it for fun! This was supposed to be a statement, not a slaughter!"

"So you say…" the bowgunner replied wistfully, her finger caressing the trigger of her weapon in anticipation. "And yet the rest are dead. Why not finish the last? All this death and destruction, the Guild will think it was a monster attack. Let's just complete the illusion. They'll send another caravan whether they know a monster did this or not."

"That's not the point! There's no need to kill him either way! It's just a waste. We're only here for the materials and weapons. Just leave him alone and let him run off."

"You so soft," Lilith mocked. "What do you care if this man dies or not? He's worthless to us. Why keep him alive?"

Micah felt his grip on his long sword tighten. "If I let people live or die based on how much value I place on their lives, I would've killed you myself a long time ago."

Pugnax shot a furious glare at Micah, and his hand went to his lance. Filcher stood back, grinning excitedly, eager to see how this altercation would develop. The other hunters that had come with them began murmuring between each other, eyeing those that worked under someone else menacingly. Lilith turned and met Micah's eyes, staring into them in curiosity, and just a little bit of wariness. "Is that a joke, little puppy?"

"No, it's a threat. Even you should know the difference between the two."

The woman's eyes narrowed dangerously as she stared at him. Then she laughed. "Well, well. The little puppy has some bite after all. I've always thought you as nothing more than a hanger-on, mooching off of your master's power, but it seems you've got some gall of your own. Perhaps I will allow the man to live."

Micah sighed in relief, releasing his grip on his long sword. Both Pugnax and Filcher looked disappointed in the stand down, though Filcher had the appearance of amusement more than anything else. "It's good you can actually see sense. We won't help him make his way back to a town, but there's no sense in killing people pointlessly. We need to get these materials back to base as soon as-"

A shot rang out, and a spray of blood splattered against the ground as Lilith's weapon fired. A hole appeared in the chest of the wagon driver, puncturing straight through the man's heart, as the shot ripped through him and penetrated the ground. The man gasped in surprise and pain, grasping for his chest, hopelessly trying to save himself. But a moment later his eyes glazed over, and he slumped backwards, dead.

"What… what the hell did you do that for!" Micah hissed furiously. "You said you were going to let him go!"

Lilith looked down at the dead man for a long moment, her eyes looking over him with an expression bordering on ecstasy on her face before turning to Micah and smiling viciously. "I changed my mind. Wasn't that wonderful, though? The false hope, the terror, the fear, and finally, the lifelessness? I would have taken my time with him, but I doubt I'd have had the… time."

"Damn it! What the hell is wrong with you, you psychotic bitch!" Without thinking, Micah leapt forward, his long sword leaping from his sheathe and swinging towards the woman's throat. But before the blade could strike, a flash of motion leapt between the two of them, and his blade was deflected by Pugnax's shield as the lancer leapt between the two of them, a sinister smile plastered across his face. Lilith laughed maniacally, twisting her bowgun around to aim at the long sword user.

Micah growled in rage as Pugnax's lance shot forward, grazing the side of his helmet as he dipped to the side and out of the way. The lancer laughed, but was cut off as Micah snapped a Tranq Bomb out of his pouch in a snap and tossing it at the man's face. As the man rose his shield to block the bomb, Micah swung his blade low, cutting against the man's shins. Pugnax's armor was thick, though, and the blade wasn't able to penetrate, but the man dropped to his knees in pain from the impact.

A gunshot sounded, and Micah instinctively slid to the side, hearing a shot graze his arm. Immediately, he darted around the other side of Pugnax, lunging towards Lilith as she fired another round towards him. This one barely missed his head as he closed the distance, his blade snapping forward, and a satisfying splash of blood leapt from the woman's arm as his weapon cut a shallow line through her flesh.

Then pain bit into his side, as Pugnax's lance struck his armor, knocking his away from the bowgunner. Micah grunted in pain; the lance hadn't broken through his armor, but he felt his body strain under the impact, and his bones got close to breaking under the pressure, but managed to hold up. But the next moment a wave of heat washed over his arm and shoulder as Lilith unloaded a couple of Flame Shots against his body. As another round flew from the barrel, he ducked to the side once more dodging both the shot and yet another thrust from Pugnax.

The pair of hunters pressed their advantage, Lilith continuing to push him back with shots firing all around him, and Pugnax jabbing his lance at him and trying to gut him with the tip. Micah tried to find the time to reach into his pouch and grab something he could use. He had smoke bombs and more tranqs, and even a few poison smoke bombs, but with two hunters constantly dogging him, it was a challenge for him just to stay out of reach of their weapons.

But an opening suddenly appeared, just as Micah started to fear for his life. Lilith and Pugnax had worked together long enough to sync with each other a little bit, but not enough. Micah tried to keep Pugnax between himself and Lilith, so the bowgunner wouldn't have a clear shot, but apparently she was skilled enough to shoot around him, just barely missing him most of the time. But not all the time. As Pugnax pressed forward, a shot suddenly ricocheted off the edge of his helmet, making the lancer stumble and curse in surprise and frustration.

Micah rushed forward, thrusting the point of his blade forward, aiming to swing it around Pugnax's shield. He was right on target; he could see the man's eyes widen in fear as the tip flew through the air towards the gap between the man's helmet and chestplate, his shield too low to pull up in time. The man would die here. But time seemed to slow in that moment, and Micah realized that, though the man's shield wouldn't be able to pull up in time, the man was able to move the point of his lance in, and Micah realized that his lunge would end with him impaling himself through the chest with Pugnax's lance. He would still sink his blade through the man's throat, but he would suffer just as grievous an injury…

Pain suddenly ripped through his chest, but not from Pugnax's lance. A massive fist had swung out of nowhere, pole-arming him across the chest with such force that Micah was sent sprawling backwards into the base of a tree. The long sword user groaned in pain, and looked up in time to see Pugnax smashed backwards by Filcher, the massive hunter's hammer colliding against the man's shield and pushing him back despite the metal wall protecting him. As he tumbled back, Filcher's open hand reached forward, closing around the man's weapon and quickly yanking it away from him as he dropped onto his back.

Lilith screeched in rage at the sudden interference, turning her bowgun to fire on the man. She only managed to fire off one round, a Pierce shot that bounced off the thick hammer, before the hammer user swung the hilt of the lance down onto the woman's wrist and forearm, and she dropped the weapon, grasping her arm in pain. The lance swung around again, smacking the woman in the legs and knocking her back. As the woman scrambled back to her feet, Filcher quickly swung his hammer back into its holster and picked up the bowgun.

A moment later, both Pugnax and Lilith were back on their feet, glaring daggers at Filcher in fury as the massive man hoisted both of their weapons up over their heads. The hammer user grinned victoriously as he looked down at them.

"Well, well, this wasn't nearly so fun to break apart as I hoped it would be," Filcher sighed in disappointment, hoisting the bowgun and lance high in the air.

"Give that back you dumb brute!" Lilith hissed, smashing her fists against Filcher's chest and arms, trying to recover her weapon. "I want to kill him!"

Filcher laughed in amusement at the woman's efforts. "Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you? Well, I can't let you do that, banshee woman."

"You're siding with him?" Pugnax growled angrily, looking greedily at his lance, held in the hammer user's over hand. "Are you going to fight us then?"

"Ha! Where's the fun in that? Out here in the middle of nowhere, with you two so easily unarmed?" Filcher replied. He leaned over, staring the two hunters in the eye, but still towering over them, and grinned viciously at them. "I just don't want the three of you killing each other, at least, not out here. No, if someone's going to kill you three, it'll be me, and it'll be back at base. Where it'll be fun."

"You're challenging me?" the lancer asked, a twisted grin crossing his face. "You think you can beat me?"

"We'll find out one day, won't we? I doubt you could even scratch me, boy. You might need the witch there to help you. In fact, I'd welcome the challenge of wiping the floor with both of you at the same time." Pugnax opened his mouth to retort, but the large man cut him off. "However! No matter whether or not I like you, or want to kill you or not, I've taken on this job that the old man has given us, and I have no inclination of abusing the trust he's placed in me to do it. I don't know about the rest of you, but I still have my honor as a hunter, and I will see this job through. He told me not to kill any of you while on this mission, and I will hold true to that."

"Ha! The brute thinks himself honorable? That's a laugh!" Lilith snapped. "You're not above killing people! I've seen you laughing while you do it!"

"Hmm, maybe so: But not against orders. I kill for fun, for profit, and occasionally when I'm bored, but when I'm hired and told not to kill, I don't. Otherwise, I'd share the same sentiment of the boy there, and you two would be bloody messes on the ground. You want him dead? Fine. I'd like to crush him too. But not until I stop working for the old man or he actually lets us tear each other apart. Until then, I may not like him, but I'll work with him. And I highly suggest you two do the same, lest you decide you don't want to see Moloch's work through to the end. Also, you should probably try to keep casualties to a minimum during the next raid, lest the old man think you can't follow orders. Wouldn't want that, now would we?" The hammer user smiled wickedly. "Though if you do quit, let me know beforehand will you? I know the old man doesn't care for deserters or quitters. I'd like to be a part of the team that ensures… that you don't reveal company secrets."

Pugnax and Lilith glanced at each other uncertainly, and the bowgunner growled in frustration. "Fine. We'll let the boy go for now. But I suggest you show caution Filcher. We may take you up on your offer, and see how much of your bite is naught but bark."

"I look forward to it." With that, the hammer user looked over at Micah, who was still rubbing his chest in pain, then lowered the two weapons to their respective owners. The pair snatched up their weapons greedily, clutching them warily and eyeing Filcher untrustingly. The hammer user smiled mockingly, as if daring the pair to try and hurt him. But apparently what he'd said was enough to dissuade them from further action, and they reluctantly returned their weapons to their holsters.

Lilith glared at Micah, who met her look with one of his own. Then she looked down at the corpse of the wagon driver and gave him a victorious grin. "We'll settle this another time, puppy."

Micah glowered angrily as the bowgunner and the lancer turned and walked away, their underlings tailing along behind them. He shook his head in frustration, before motioning to his own subordinates and getting them working on hauling the goods and materials into the wagons and back to base. Of course, Filcher, Pugnax and Lilith wouldn't be offering any men or women of their own to help; with all this tension, there was no guarantee there wouldn't be an altercation between their two groups. The men took pride in their factions.

"Why did you help me?" Micah asked Filcher as the men wandered off. "You could have just let us kill each other."

The large man smiled in amusement. "You think you could've beaten both of them by yourself? You, who's only been hunting for a couple years at the most?"

"Answer me, Filcher."

The man frowned at the order, but replied. "I said what I meant, boy. If anyone's going to kill you or those other two fools, it'll be me, and it'll be back at the base, where the fight will be truly interesting. And I may be many things, but I follow orders I've been given. Besides, as I've told you before, you're a useful partner to have, and I'd hate to be left with only those two psychopaths."

Micah shifted uncomfortably. "Is that all there is to you? Battle? The urge to fight and kill? Do you really want me and those other two dead that much?"

"Not really," Filcher replied bluntly. "Fighting's the best way for me to get what I want. And I want a challenge. Fighting other hunters seems the best way to find one these days, however, so I favor it. At the same time though, what the old man has offered me promises a real challenge for me one day if this little organization can get going fully. I look forward to that day. If the man doesn't follow through quickly enough, though… I may have to amuse myself by taking on you or those other two."

"You think you can really the both of them together like you said?" Micah asked, and Filcher smirked.

"It might be a challenge, but yes. I would win. I am certain of it."

"You seem confident." Filcher smirked, but said nothing. "Whatever. Let's get back to camp and get some rest. We've got a few days before the Guild gets word that we've done this, but now we've got to find some new wagons to use in case our others aren't back by then. There's a town or two nearby that might be willing to sell some spare wagons and Aptonoths we could use."

"Sounds like you've got some work ahead of you," Filcher smirked.

"You mean you've got some work ahead of you," Micah replied with a grin. "Most of my men are off sending our first catch back to base. You've got the most men to spare, and besides, I don't trust Pugnax and Lilith's people as far as I can throw them."

"Bah, you're a nasty one aren't you?" Filcher growled. "Fine, I'll send some men to gather more wagons. Men like them get restless sitting around, anyway. Besides, perhaps they can convince the owners to lower the price."

"Try not to attract attention, please," Micah told him.

"But of course," Filcher replied, smiling. "We can't blow our cover yet, can we? Not when there's so much more fun to be had. Hopefully the next caravan will have hunters. Something fun, as opposed to all these weak little civilians."

Micah frowned at the comment, but nodded. Before following the man back into the forest from whence they'd come, he spared one last look at the burning wagons. A couple of Lilith's hunters had thrown the wagon driver's body into the flames, and were laughing between themselves as though they hadn't just slaughtered an entire wagon train. Micah frowned in disgust.

So much fire… so little control. He couldn't stand looking anymore, and turned away. He had other things to worry about.

---

Author's Note: Please Review! Once again a long chapter than was cut in half. The rest will come soon, I hope.

I'm constantly amazed by how popular Monster Hunter is in Japan compared to other countries. I mean, the game is so popular that it's mentioned all over the place, especially in a lot of manga I read (I don't really watch anime, so I can't really speak for it). It's usually referred to by other names, like MonHun, or GoHunt or other such stuff, but I keep seeing shout outs to it. Makes me wish it was that popular here in the states. We could use a rise in MH players over the hordes of Call of Duty players, that's for sure. I hope I have a WiiU when 3U comes out, when the game has that 'new game' appeal.

Went and saw the new Les Miserables movie. Normally I try not to spaz out about the movies that I go see, but this is probably the best one I saw all year, and that's topping such films as Skyfall, Wreck-It Ralph, and the Hobbit (though the Hobbit is a very close second). Normally, I don't care for musicals either, but I've always enjoyed Les Mis since I was about… 9 years old, I think. If you like musicals, but haven't watched the play or musical, I'd suggest checking it out. It you just want the music, look up the 10th Anniversary Concert on Youtube. It's my favorite out of the ones I've heard. Philip Quast is the best Jevert ever, and Colm Wilkinson played the priest in the movie asdlkfjasdkfjaslkdfjas! Like I said: spaz out. And I'm not going to go into the final book of the Wheel of Time series which came out this month. Easier to spoil a new book than a 30 year-old musical based on a century-old book.

I've been tempted to name and design the character I make in MH3U after one of the characters in my story when I get it, but at the same time, it really seems that the one I have right now is just really unique and memorable, apparently. Every time I go online in Tri, I usually bounce around city gates a lot hunting different things, and once in a while someone will say "oh, hey, I remember you, do you remember me?" And I won't be sure because they're named Steve or Joshua or Frank, and I've played with dozens of people with the exact same names, whereas 'The Spy' is apparently fairly unique. And while I'm sure Levin or Ellie or Harker or Kerry (not Kerrigan; I'm sure that will be well used) may not be common, being The Spy seems to set me apart. But… maybe I'll have a female character this time. As a friend of mine told me once, if you're going to be spending hours on end staring at someone's butt, it might as well be a woman's.

Reading: The Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan, A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan, The Iliad by Homer, 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke, The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Playing: Minecraft Tekkit mod, MH3, Halo 4
Listening: CAKE, Fun, Modest Mouse, They Might Be Giants
Watching: The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Les Miserables, Archer, Two Mules for Sister Sarah, Joe Kidd, Red Cliff, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Futurama