Hello everyone! I apologize for the time it took to get this chapter out. At first, I tried to make this chapter along with a longer, more efficent version of the next three chapters, but by the time I was done with this one I was pretty much burnt out.
But the bright side is that the next chapters are already being written as you read this.
ShadowfireAngel: Perhaps. Only time will tell.
Luine Mercury LWG: Nergigante's understanding of the spoken language already has her halfway to talking, but she needs to learn to read as well... Names are something that are planned, for sure. I doubt that the Commission would go without naming her. For all we know, Nergigante could tear apart the whole of Astera with ease, but it probably won't come to that.
And with the reviews responded to, onward with the story! Until next time.
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Nergigante grumbled as she slowly woke up. The dreamless sleep that had followed the nightmare was comfortable when combined with .the soft bed she had slept in.
She opted to keep her eyes closed in order to ward off the imminent waves of light that would assault her eyes. Her ears on the other hand deduced that the day was fairly calm. The sound of the water wheel outside and the soft penning of ink onto paper were the two most noticeable things.
The Handler's loud snoring could've drowned out the other two sounds, but thankfully she rested in the hammock to the corner of the room. The blankets that covered Nergigante were soft and prevented any chills from seeping into the bed, which would have lulled her back to sleep if she gave it some time.
Nergigante huffed as she slipped her arm under her pillow and began to claw away at the bottom. The pillows were not feather filled, instead being made of a strange foamy feeling substance that morphed back to it's original shape just a few moments after it had been squeezed or squished.
The Elder Dragon wanted to keep her eyes closed, if only for a few minutes more. She never got the chance to relax in the wild, thanks to the constant need to hunt, feed on and search for other Elder Dragons.
A few minutes later, she realised that putting off the inevitable was somewhat futile.
-Transition-
Eclipsen sighed as he finished the line he was drawing. The designs were already almost complete, with descriptive imagery that encompassed both top and bottom views of the weapon as well as details for the mechanisms. He even wrote a few side notes on how the blades of the weapon would remain strong and durable despite their long, thin composition.
Sundancer had moved to the end of the bed and curled into a small ball of fur and fluff. After the very much needed conversation, the two had grown even closer than they were before. Even though the Palico was wary of Nergigante, he agreed to properly meet her this time. So he waited patiently at the end of the bed.
The Hunter had been so focused on touching up his project that he failed to notice the first murmurs from the sleeping Elder Dragon beside him. She moved slowly, at first only shifting her position and moving her arm under her pillow. Not long after that, she let out a sigh before her body began to move more actively.
Once again, Eclipsen was stunned as Nergigante lifted herself from the bed.
The blankets seemed to slip off the draconic beauty like water, allowing her to spread her wings out in a huge morning stretch. She yawned loudly as she lifted her arms above her head, completely exposing her admittedly impressive bust.
Eclipsen moved his head just slightly, managing to narrowly dodge a blackened spine as Nergigante stretched her wings. She let out a loud groan as her muscles flexed and her bones gave disagreeing pops in response to the morning movement.
Then, in less than half a second, her entire body relaxed. Her wings sagged downward and her posture went from majestic to grumpy annoyance. Her eyes carried an irritated look, stating clearly that her sleep wasn't as peaceful as she would've preferred.
Eclipsen allowed himself a small smile as he twisted the stencil of his pen inward before placing it gently on the drawing board.
"Good morning."
He said quietly, trying to keep from irritating the grumpy Elder Dragon further. Nergigante glanced at the Hunter before sighing and fixing her slouched posture. Her wings folded in along with her tail as she moved into a cross-legged position, her spines shifting and making small sounds as she did. The noise was similar to the sound of tree branches colliding with each other in high winds.
Sundancer lifted himself from his place at the end of the bed and inched towards the now conscious Elder Dragon. Nergigante eyed him with interest as he walked up to her.
"Good meow-ning. It's uh... nice to meet you..."
He said slowly. Eclipsen could hear the nervousness in the Palico's voice. It seemed that Sundancer had decided to simply push through his fear of Nergigante and get the introductions over with.
Nergigante's yellow eyes stared at Sundancer like twin suns, making the Palico slowly shrink under their gaze. It lasted for a few seconds before Nergigante cracked a mischievous smile.
She reached forward slowly, making Sundancer close his eyes in fear. It was obvious that Nergigante was making her movement slow deliberately, forcing the tension and fear to rise as her hands grew closer to the Felyne. Eclipsen watched with morbid curiosity as Nergigante drew out her actions.
Sundancer flinched as Nergigante's clawed fingers grazed his fur before fully pressing down and beginning to comb it. He opened a single eye, beholding as Eclipsen chuckled lightly at Sundancer's reaction while Nergigante continued to drag her claws through his fur.
Sundancer gave an angry glare at Eclipsen before plopping down on the bed and crossing his arms, resigning himself to his fate of being brushed by Nergigante's claws.
The Elder Dragon kept her grin, but it strangely began to transform into a smile of enjoyment rather than mischievousness. Eclipsen didn't bother to banish his own smile either, knowing that he would most likely be smiling throughout most of the day anyway.
The peaceful air lasted for a few minutes, with Sundancer becoming comfortable, albeit slowly, with being around Nergigante. The Elder Dragon also seemed to abandon her grumpy mood as her brushing of Sundancer's hair grew gentler and more caring.
Then, from the other side of the room, a groan sounded.
Sundancer was quick to escape from Nergigante's grip as he leapt from the bed to check on the hungover Handler, making the draconian woman huff in mock hurt. Sundancer slid slightly as he stopped under the hammock, checking on Hether from under the hanging cloth.
"Meowster! Bucket!"
Eclipsen's movements were like lightning as he reached over the side of the bed and grabbed a metal bucket from in between the bed and the nightstand, proceeding to chuck it across the room where Sundancer caught the object with more skill than what he should've had for the task they were performing.
The Palico then slammed the bucket down next to the hammock and quickly backed away, just narrowly dodging as Hether tumbled onto the ground.
The Handler quickly searched around with her hand and upon touching the bucket she dragged her face over the poor object before releasing the contents of her stomach.
Sundancer watched from the corner of his eye, bearing a worried look. Nergigante simply watched Hether's convulsing back with a mixture of disgust and interest, barely noticing as Eclipsen opened a drawer on the nightstand and withdrew a small box.
He opened the box with an annoyed look, pulling out a fairly thin cigar and a matchbook. He proceeded to cut the end off the cigar with a small clipper before lighting the match and the cigar. He took a small puff of the cigar, blowing the smoke absentmindedly.
Hether continued to vomit for a few minutes with no small amount of gross and sometimes hilarious sounds, including the uttering of the phrase 'oh by the stars why' before another round of wretching. Nergigante grew slightly worried as time passed, recalling the time that her brother caught something from the meat he had consumed.
Even Elder Dragons were not immune to food poisoning. Especially from a Chameleos.
Eclipsen simply continued to smoke the cigar, as if the situation was as normal as a walk around Astera.
Eventually, Hether's stomach decided to settle enough for her to move away from the bucket, prompting her to wipe her mouth and flip over onto her back, using the back of her clean hand to hide her eyes from the sunlight. Eclipsen took a drag of the cigar before he spoke.
"So Hether, regretting your life choices yet?"
The Handler only responded with a low groan. Sundancer proceeded to sit down on the wooden floor, his worried look still remaining.
"Yeah, that's what I thought."
Eclipsen said with a little more snark than he intended before flicking the ashes of the cigar into a small bowl that had been held in the case he pulled the cigar from. Nergigante gave Eclipsen a look that neither could truly decipher, even the Elder Dragon herself couldn't truly guess what she was trying to convey.
"She'll be fine. This happens more often than we would like to admit."
He said before taking another pull, breathing deeply before letting loose a large cloud of smoke that drifted upward. The statement was painfully true, thanks to Hether being the heaviest drinker Astera had ever seen. Even the Meowscular Chef worried for the Handler's poor liver.
Nergigante raised a white eyebrow before redirecting her gaze back at Hether. This was very different from the food poisoning she was familiar with. It was slightly worrying, as alcohol was not a substance readily consumed by the many of creatures of the wild.
The Handler groaned a bit as she drew her left leg upward. Her entire body felt as if it was on fire, but that was from the vomiting. The headache was by far the worst thing, as every sound and vibration that she felt was like an arrow to the jaw. Said arrow would then plow through the bone to pierce the back of her brain.
Sundancer watched as Hether rolled over on the floor, most likely to try and find a comfortable position in her suffering state.
"The antidotes are in the desk."
Eclipsen said. Sundancer knew what he meant, as it was somewhat of a tradition to give the Handler one of the super enhanced antidotes when she was hungover.
The Palico nodded before padding over to said desk and pulling open the drawer. He shifted a couple things around before pulling out a small vial with a brilliant and glittery blue liquid inside. He closed the drawer and walked over to Hether, handing the small vial to her.
Hether took the vial without any objection, but instead of drinking the concoction she held it firmly in one hand. She wasn't confident that her stomach could hold down the Antidote and wretching the blue liquid back up would defeat the purpose of drinking it.
So Hether instead curled up tightly on the floor, keeping herself in a comfortable fetal position with the vial of liquid held closely. She would probably take it later, when she was more sure of her ability to keep it down.
-Transition-
It hadn't been long since Nergigante had woken and Hether had learned why hangovers aren't man's best friend. In fact, it had only been roughly half an hour.
Eclipsen continued to smoke the brown cylinder, though slowly. It was an old habit that he wasn't exactly fond of, but it did help when he had too much on his mind.
The Hunter was oddly silent, which drew more than one glance from Nergigante. The Elder Dragon knew almost immediately that Eclipsen was not focusing like normal. Instead, the crimson eye of the Hunter was locked on something far-off.
So, the two sat in relative silence.
Nergigante somehow didn't feel as hungry as she normally did when she woke up from sleep. Instead, she simply lacked any kind of appetite. It was strange to her that she didn't have her usual hunger, but it was a welcome departure from the pain of starvation.
Neither of them seemed to notice the footsteps that approached the door until a voice rang out.
"Oi, Fiver!"
Eclipsen snapped from his absent mindedness when the voice of the Head Smith met his ears. He quickly flicked the ashes of his cigar into the ash bowl before waving for the older Smith to come in.
The door creaked slightly as the Head Smith turned the knob and opened it. He stepped in quietly, being careful not to be too loud. It was kind of hard not to notice Hether curled up on the floor when one looked through the door window.
"How are ye' feelin'?"
He asked as he grabbed the chair that had been left out and took a seat.
Eclipsen immediately noticed the bandaging on the older man's right arm, spanning from his elbow to his wrist.
"Better. What happened to you?"
Eclipsen asked as he lifted the cigar and took a deep breath. The Head Smithy lifted his arm before grinning.
"Ah, this be just a third degree burn. One o' the boys was bein' a bit too reckless with the meterials."
He said. Eclipsen nodded as the information sank in. Nergigante stared at the Head Smithy with interest, which the Smithy soon returned.
"Ah, so ye' are the Elder Dragon lady everybody be talkin' about?"
Nergigante kept her stare, which bordered between glaring and simple looking. The two maintained their small staring contest for a few moments before Nergigante answered with a slow nod.
The Head Smithy gave a friendly smile before looking down. It was then Eclipsen realised that the blankets she was covered by merely covered her lap and not her impressive bust.
"Not very modest are ye? Ah, we can fix that later."
Nergigante gave an offended huff at the statement. She was used to being naked. No Monster in existence wore actual clothing like humans did.
"Speaking of which, what's the reason for visiting? I never see you anywhere other than the forge."
Eclipsen said. The Smithy have a shrug before answering, though his gaze was not lost on the schematics that rested on the end of the bed.
"I came to let ye' know that yer Rathalos Braces are ready. I also wanted to talk to miss Elder Dragon here."
He said, gesturing to Nergigante. Said Elder Dragon responded with a cold look. The Head Smith merely leaned forward a bit, his hazel eyes locking firmly with Nergigante's yellow ones.
"The Commander mentioned that ye' would be accompanyin' our Hunter here. Wanted to ask if ye' wanted armor. Or clothes, at least."
Nergigante's cold stare quickly morphed into a snarl. She would not stoop so low as to wear the corpses of her fellow Monsters. Such would be a grave crime and a disgusting thing for a Monster to commit.
The Head Smith maintained his hard look, making Eclipsen glance between them with a little more nervousness than usual. He was not in the mood to stop Nergigante if she decided to try and gut the Head Smith. All things considered the Head Smith would have an easy time handling her anyway, but some risks shouldn't be taken.
"Lemme be clear here. Ye' won't wear any other Monster armor. We still have the materials from yer' corpse to use. Ye'd be wearin' yer' own skin."
Nergigante's snarl softened to a scowl. It was still a disgusting thought to wear armor made from a Monster, but to wear her own scaly armor was much less repulsive. It wouldn't bring her any closer to what she used to be, but it was as close as she was going to get.
Nergigante allowed herself a small sigh through the nose. Eclipsen took another pull from his cigar, allowing the smoke to flow out of his nose instead of his mouth.
"So, what ye' say?"
The Smith asked, his gaze still not deviating from Nergigante's own. The Elder Dragon allowed her eyes to drift downward for a moment.
"It's alright if ye' need time to decide. Believe me, I know yer' not comfortable with anythin' to do with wearin' armor made of yer' fellow Monsters."
Nergigante looked back upward, meeting the Head Smith's stare once more. She then realised that she did not look deep enough into the older man's eyes. In them she saw a great sense of understanding. The Smith somehow knew just how uncomfortable she was in human skin, perhaps because he felt the same way in monster armor.
A silence fell as Nergigante gave thought to the idea. It lasted for a while, with Eclipsen taking a few puffs of his cigar while the Head Smith eyed her with a mix of curiosity and patience.
Nergigante released another sigh. She could hold her own against any monster, easily. The loss of most of her body mass and scales made her more aware of her agility. Even walking around in her new form was like weightlessness.
She was confident that she could handle any monster with fair ease, but her instincts told her otherwise. Her now meager scales made her prone to serious damage and the loss of most of her claws made her even less effective at inflicting harm on her prey.
Looking at it from a new perspective revealed to Nergigante just how much of a disadvantage she was at. Any Teostra or Kushala Daora could seriously harm or even kill her in her new body, with relative ease on their part.
She needed the armor that the Head Smith offered, despite how much she loathed to admit it. Her pride was still there, waiting for a chance to heal its wounds.
Nergigante looked up at the Head Smith, who had kept his eyes on her despite her silence.
She gave a slow nod, which the Head Smith returned quietly.
"Then it's settled. We need to head to the forge to get ye' outfitted. But before that, I'm a wee bit interested in what the Hunter here's got cookin' up."
He said before he redirected his gaze towards Eclipsen. The Hunter proceeded to take another drag of the cigar before snuffing it out in the ash bowl.
"Take a look."
He said as he gestured with his free hand. The Smithy gave a grin as he reached forward and lifted the drawing board from the bed. Sundancer leapt up onto the bed as he did so, taking the opportunity to sit close to Nergigante.
Oddly, she seemed to openly accept the action as she reached forward and began to comb her clawed fingers through the Palico's fur. Sundancer began to purr as she did so, slightly leaning into the touch.
The Head Smith lifted his leg onto his knee and set the board on his lap. He looked intently at the schematics, shifting between the three completed pages of plans. His interest visibly grew as he looked at the papers, with Eclipsen noticing the glint in the older man's eyes grow with time.
After a few minutes of looking through the blueprints, the Head Smith set down the third page and leaned back into the chair.
"I see... Who did ya' have in mind when ye' made this beauty?"
The Smith asked with a smile as he handed the drawing board back to Eclipsen. The Hunter took the board with his free hand before letting it rest in his lap.
"I designed it for her, actually. I doubt she would be comfortable with any other weapon right?"
Eclipsen said with a gesture towards Nergigante. The Elder Dragon raised an eyebrow before leaning over slightly in order to see what was on the papers. Eclipsen lifted the drawing board once more, giving it to Nergigante.
Sundancer moved slightly as Nergigante took the board with one hand, looking at the blueprints. She looked deeply at them, making both Eclipsen and the Head Smith shift their positions. It was their chance to see just how intelligent Elder Dragons could be.
Nergigante on the other hand was fascinated by the drawings. She could tell easily that it was a human made weapon, and she could somehow even read some of the words describing how it worked. The various numbers and measurements were harder to understand, as she didn't have a reference for how short or long the numbers were physically.
As she looked, it all seemed to click into place. The weapon was a pair of twin bladed claws that would retract and extend upon the command of the wielder. They also doubled as gauntlets in order to cover the entirety of the arm. She looked deeply at the schematics, realizing just how far this Hunter was going for her.
Something warm crept it's way into her chest, like swallowing a piece of warm meat or liquid.
To think, this Hunter who had saved her from death and shared the guilt he felt doing what she considered unforgivable was also giving her the chance at a life among the humans she despised, or used to anyway. He had even gone so far as to design a human weapon specifically for her, so she could regain the claw length and combat efficiency she had lost.
She altered her gaze, instead looking up at Eclipsen with watery eyes. She knew just how close she was to letting loose the tears, but she didn't care. She couldn't convey the level of gratitude she felt, but she could at least tell the Hunter that she was grateful.
So, she lunged forward and wrapped her arms around Eclipsen, squeezing hard in the process. Eclipsen gasped and then wheezed as surprise took the place of the oxygen that was being pressed out of his lungs. She only squeezed harder as Eclipsen lifted a somewhat mobile arm and patted her own bicep in both surrender and to tell her that she was welcome.
The Head Smith leaned back and let out a loud belly laugh at the scene, with the rumors around the two being fairly close finally being confirmed. Sundancer smiled as he gathered both the drawing board and the papers from their landing place on the bed and moved them to a safer location.
Eclipsen tapped Nergigante's arm a few more times as he tried to pull in some air to his desperate lungs. She only rocked back in forth with him in her arms, in the process squeezing a little harder.
"Hahah! I think the lass likes ya!"