To my good friend, and brother in all but blood, Dovah.
Welcome to a new story by a reformed writer. Check my profile for necessary information on the change.
Word of warning to all, this does not follow the canon timeline, and instead uses a custom timeline to make sure ages all fall within reasonable numbers.
"Monster Hunter: World" and all affiliated characters belong to Capcom, only my own Characters are my property (this does not include Aiden and Elise, they are Capcomcharacters).
Unknown POV
Elder dragons, creatures so far removed from the normal evolutionary tree, they gained their own classification. Some controlled enough power to cause natural disasters and reshape terrain with their very presence, others held even more power.
For reasons unknown, these rare beasts would travel from the lands known as the Old World to a new continent once thought unreachable by both Mankind and First Wyverian kind. These lands would be called the New World.
The first settlers of the New World landed on it's soil a mere 29 years ago. Being called the First Fleet, their goal was to lay the groundwork for future excursions to the New World. All with the hope of discovering why the Elder Dragons would make such a grand journey, with the frequency of which increasing at an alarming rate. These journeys of the Elder Dragons would eventually be classified as the "Elder Crossing".
Originally, the Elder Crossing, in old documents, occurred once every 40 to 50 years. At the time of the First Fleet's departure, the Elder Crossing would occur once every 10 to 12 years. The Hunter's Guild created a separate branch called the Research Commission to continue to prepare more 'fleets' to make the journey to the New World alongside every Elder Crossing. So far, including the first, four Fleets have made the journey, with the last Fleet being launched a mere 8 years after the previous Elder Crossing. And now, another Fleet is making the journey, alongside another Elder Crossing, making it the Fifth Fleet. This one is being launched a mere 6 years after the fourth one. And I am a part of it, hopefu~
A hand clapping my back drew me away from my journal. A loud shout instantly alerted me to who the hand belonged to.
"Jeez girl, enough writing in that thing! You're an A-list hunter, *cough* barely *cough*, not some nerdy bookworm handl~ 'SMACK' OW!"
Looking up, I saw my only two friends in the entire Fifth Fleet. Aiden, a fellow A-list Hunter like myself, also an old Ace Cadet member (this is actually true, look it up). Beside him, his partner and my only female friend Elise, a handler. It was abundantly clear she had smacked Aiden for his Handler comment.
Elise then turned to me, and seeing the look on her face, got ready for a scolding. "Aiden is right. It's already late afternoon, with the Fleet being expected to land some time in the night, and you don't even have a single piece of gear on, not even your slinger!"
Glancing out one of the hull windows, I was surprised to see the sun setting on the horizon. Slamming my journal closed and throwing a thanks behind me, I dashed off to the bunks to collect my gear before heading to the changing stalls.
Taking one of the many unoccupied stalls, I began changing into the provided leather gear. Quickly strapping it all on, I turned to look in the provided mirror.
Looking back from the reflective surface was Gaia Treathers, a 24 year old A-list Hunter of the Fifth Fleet. Vibrant green hair fell in smooth curls, framing a smooth, slim face, and falling to mid back. Beneath the long hair hid long pointed ears. , evidence of her heritage. Large doe eyes, also a shining green held the staredown. The leather gear covered a curvy but well muscled body.
Smiling at myself for finally preparing myself, my focus was drawn away from reality as my thoughts turned to my family. I had gotten a lot of genetics from my father, more accurately, my eyes, ears, and hair. My father was a First Wyverian who had swooned my mother with large emotion filled eyes, and his gentle giant attitude when not hunting monsters. My mother was a human handler, and from her I got several things, some good and others not so good.
On the good side, I had gotten my eye and hair color from her. And in addition to the physical aspects, I had gotten her mind as well. Any theoretical knowledge I could absorb with ease, and I was extremely curious, almost to the point it was hindrance… I really needed to control myself when something caught my eye.
On the other hand, I had gotten two noticeable parts from my mother, my height being first and foremost. Most hunters stood close to 6 feet tall. Meanwhile, I stood barely over 5 feet tall. It irritated me because my father was massive, towering over most other hunters at 6 feet 5 inches tall. The other, even more annoying aspect, was that my mother had large 'assets'. Most female hunters that I have seen usually have sizes anywhere from A-cup to C-cup. Meanwhile I get stuck with my mother's size of a large E-cup. To make sure my own chest doesn't get it the way, or throw my balance off, I have to bind my breasts. It took even longer to convince the tailor for the leather gear, a female who believed in showing off who you truly were, even longer to make my armor based around the size of my bound chest, not when I was unbound. It also made many female hunters around my age extremely jealous.
Yes, I did have to do research to understand cup sizes. I'm a guy so I didn't have the first clue how they work. Won't say I'm proud of doing it, but I am proud that I was able to (hopefully) make it proper for the story.
Scowling, I remembered I had gotten one final aspect from my mother, my inability to use a proper weapon. I was a damn clutz with anything other than a sword n' shield, which I only knew the basics of. Anything else, and I would probably hurt myself or someone else. I barely made it to the rank of A-list, thanks only to my great score on the physical test, and better score on the theoretical portion.
The ranking system was very thorough in my mind. Instead of just ranking Hunters on their physical capabilities and how well they could use their weapon, the system took into account a Hunter's theoretical ability alongside other noteworthy skills. It would then assign them a rank. A-list Hunters were considered the top tier of their group, being the most prepared, whereas the D-list Hunters were barely passable for the New World, and would usually either be put in a group, or assigned a higher ranking Hunter upon arrival to the New World. Those that were unable to even make D-List were prohibited from heading to the New World until they improved themselves more.
I had one of the highest scores for the theory portion of the test, and thanks to my First Wyverian blood in me, scored fairly high in the physical portion. But thanks to my short stature and clutz nature, I scored among the lowest in the weapons portion of the test. This had made me a prime target for teasing and bullying among the Fifth Fleet, which didn't help much in the social confidence department, which I was already severely lacking in before joining the Fifth Fleet.
Sighing, I shook my head to clear my head of the more depressing thoughts. Collecting my casual clothes, I made to leave the stall. Before I could fully exit the stall, my world lurched as something caught my foot. Looking up from where I was on the ground, I watched a group of female B-List hunters walk away as a group, all of them snickering without a care in the world.
Sighing, I stood up, collecting my scattered items. I had gotten used to the teasing and bullying over the week and a half I had been stuck on the ship, so this was nothing new to me. Returning my items to my bunk chest, making sure it was securely locked, I returned to the ship's gathering area. Looking out over the groups of Hunters, I spotted Aiden and Elise.
Another sigh escaped me as I made my way over to my only friends. It was depressing to know that I would probably be the only A-list Hunter without a partner upon arrival to the New World. It was a rule that A-List Hunters couldn't partner up with another A-list Hunter, they either had to find a personal Handler partner, or join a group of lower ranking Hunters that didn't have an A-list Hunter already among them. Problem was, Aiden was an A-list Hunter himself, and was already paired to Elise. And being the social loner with no weapons skills that I am, I know that I wouldn't ever be accepted into a group of lower ranking Hunters, even if I was ordered to join them. My only hope was to find or get paired with a Hunter already at the New World that had no prior experience with me. This would potentially give me a new friend and ally.
Arriving at the table that Aiden and Elise were situated at, I threw on a smile to not upset the two. Sitting down, I instantly began responding to Aiden's nonstop questions about my thoughts on the New World. Aiden was also naturally curious, and despite being excitable, he was probably one of the best Hunters among everyone that made up the Fifth Fleet. He was more than capable of learning how to use a new weapon, and was smarter than anyone would give him credit for. He also had a willingness to learn that dwarfed even my own.
The questions continued for another 10 minutes before my world lurched for the second time in the hour. Unlike last time though, when I say the whole world lurched, I meant it as everyone, not just myself, was thrown. Once we were back on our feet, Aiden, Elise and myself all managed to make it to the top deck to investigate what caused the boat to nearly capsize, on the way passing a pudgy hunter who was barely awake, letting out a yell of "Where's the cannon?"
The three of us were stunned into silence as the situation was revealed to be a giant fucking volcano rising up out of the water in between the boats that were ferrying us! The sheer size of it had held us in place in shock and fear.
"What in the name of Kirin is that?" I muttered more to myself than anyone else. Elise had seemingly heard me and had started to respond. She was cut off when something smashed into my back, shattering as I was violently thrown off the side of the ship, and into what I thought would be my death via the waves of the violent ocean.
I was proven wrong when I smacked head first into what felt like warm stone. Laying on the, what I assume was the ground, in a daze, it quickly occurred to me that I was still alive. My ears were ringing as I pushed myself up to my feet. As the ringing slowly disappeared, I could hear what sounded like someone shouting my name? Looking up, the someone was revealed to be, surprisingly, Elise. She was hanging over the side of the ship railing, Aiden holding onto her belt so she didn't fall. It seems she was beckoning for me to get back up onto the ship with them.
The ship itself was suspended on some jagged rocks, luckily not pierced just held up, that were connected to the volcano. With a start I realized I was also on the giant molten rock! I was sure this was better than being killed by the ocean but I was definitely going to get back to the ship as fast as possible.
At least, that was my plan until the island shifted and next thing I know, the ship is sliding off the rocks, back into the ocean, and too far away for me to even think of reaching.
Squashing down the growing panic, I threw my strategic mind into overdrive in an attempt to find a way off this molten rock. A quick look up gave me an idea, as I saw a large number of Raphinos flying around the tip of the, now transforming rock? Seeing as the volcano was apparently coming alive, I began climbing as my escape plan formed in my mind.
Raphinos are small wingdrakes, and relatives of Mernos. Mernos were used to transport individual Hunters vast distances in a short time. Hunters would use a grapple hook to latch onto the Mernos. The New World Hunters were given special slingers, essentially mini ballistae mounted to your arm. The slingers have a built in grapple hook that could launch a few feet in front of you. So if I could get close enough, I could hook onto one of the Raphinos and ride it to the New World, which I had noticed was much closer than I had figured.
With burning muscles and more than a little dust covering me, I reached a point high enough that I could latch onto one of the wingdrakes if they did a low pass. All I need is a bit of patience. Less than I thought I would need, since a Raphinos had decided to take a bite at me! One quick dodge and a trigger pull later, and I'm flying away from the burning island.
I almost had a panic attack as I realized the Raphinos was flying out to sea! The crisis was averted as the damn wingdrake quickly spun around and began flying towards the New World as fast as possible. It was hard trying to maneuver myself on the Raphinos, as my plan was to turn around and see what the island I had just escaped looked like.
My plan quickly changed as the island roared at me! Now I was trying to continue facing away from it. I quickly put two and two together as with a frightening realization, I came to the conclusion that I did not escape an island, but the very Elder Dragon we were journeying to the New World alongside. It was the only explanation for why a creature could get this big! Only Elder Dragons could grow to the size of a mountain, and even amongst all the known Elder Dragons, very few were of this size. I began praying to whoever or whatever could hear me, asking for the Raphinos to fly faster.
It didn't take long to reach the New World. My earlier fear quickly being replaced with awe, I looked out over an endless expanse of lush forest, lit up by the bright moon shining above. Trying to look everywhere at once, my eyes couldn't stop taking in the breathtaking sight. Though, a quick look down took my breath away for a different reason as I began panicking at the rising forest canopy. Looking up, the Raphinos was clearly tiring fast.
Before I could come up with a plan, the green swallowed me, wrenching me from the Raphinos. I couldn't figure out which direction was which as I had to endure being beaten by sticks, branches, and more throughout my fall. Breaking from the canopy, I had a chance to breathe before I saw the brown ground waiting to greet me.
The last thought going through my head before face met floor was, "What a great introduction to the New World…" then all was dark.
And thus ends the beginning of the first chapter of New World Legends. To all my old followers, I apologize for those of you who might have wanted to keep my old stories. They were deleted with zero warning, but I saw them as bad reminders of my young negligence and wanted them gone.
Hopefully this will show how much I improved from my previous writing style… Mainly that I took time to edit this.
But thanks for reading everyone! Have a great day and stay safe from the COVID-19 virus!