I am back and I present you with a new story that I had been drafting for the past several months. I wanted to try something different for this one so I'm eager to know your thoughts.

The idea for this was conceived after I finished reading Moby Dick and watched the Netflix movie Klaus. I won't explicitly state how this story took inspiration from them but I'm hoping that you may notice the subtle (or not subtle) parts that have been referenced/inspired by those two different stories.

With that being said, enjoy!

...

Chapter 1

...

"Thank you for joining our flight for today and I hope you enjoy your stay in Val Habar!"

This was it. He followed the line of passengers down the ramp placed next to the ship, making sure to tip the Felyne attendant who had allowed him to board despite being late. Once he stepped onto the ground, he stopped and looked ahead. In the distance, he could see the ever-busy market of Val Habar, as people of all shapes and sizes moved up and about. As much as he wanted to admire the scenery, he had to move on. His objective was the largest building at the very edge of the town, the Guild Hall. As he made his way over to the hall, he waded his way through the crowds of people. The shopkeepers stood by their stalls, calling for and offering discounts and deals for potential buyers. The young man had to kindly turn down several offers for rare ores and materials he knew would need later but not now. After a short jaunt, he found himself standing in front of the massive Guild Hall. Taking a deep breath, he stepped inside.

As he had expected, the hall was teeming with hunters. All of them were dressed in various armors and on their backs, one of the fourteen hunter weapons. Many of them sat by the tables, drinks in hand while they conversed and interacted with their comrades. Others were standing by the reception tables and quest boards as they chose and registered for their desired quest. At the same time, Felyne servers waddled back and forth between the tables, serving food and drinks for the rambunctious hunters. It was a lively scene, and the eighteen-year-old man couldn't help but feel incredibly isolated amongst all these people. As he looked around, he accidentally bumped into someone.

"Apologies, I didn't mean to-" He froze as he stared up at a much taller hunter, donned in red and black armor and judging from the scaly patterns and spikes, likely belonged to a Rathalos.

"Watch it, kid."

He yelped and quickly moved away from the intimidating hunter, who huffed and headed towards one of the tables. He breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that getting into conflict with a hunter was not going to end well for him. He glanced around, spotting the reception table, and walked towards it. He waited a bit for his turn before stepping up to the table. He was greeted by one of the Guild receptionists, who flashed a pretty smile at him.

"Hi! What can I do for you?"

"Oh yeah, hi. I'm new here and I've recently registered myself for a mentorship?"

"Ah, you must be a rookie then. In that case, please hand me the necessary documents."

The young man nodded and took out the papers from his backpack, handing them to the receptionist. He handed her his ID card as well.

"So, your name is Damian Dimitrov?" she said, reading the information on his card and documents. "

"That's me."

"…Can you please take off your glasses?" Damian obliged and stood still as the receptionist compared his face to his picture on the ID. Brown hair, fair skin, almost dainty looking…Doesn't look like someone who could be a hunter…Probably a noble's kid.

After what felt like an excruciating one minute, Damian sighed in relief when the receptionist nodded with a smile.

"Alright, please wait for a bit."

He watched as she read more of the documents, stamping a few of them and then passing them to one of her colleagues. Not long after a paper was placed on the table before him. "Would you mind signing here and here?" After quickly signing the paper, the receptionist looked over it and nodded.

"Now you just need to wait for your mentor to arrive so she can sign her name too. After that return to me so I can stamp it."

He nodded in understanding, thanking the receptionist, and taking the paper before making his over to the table that she had directed him towards. To his surprise, there appeared to be two people there already. Their imposing armors a clear tell that they were hunters. Putting up a brave face, he approached the table.

"Greetings."

The two hunters looked up and stared at him. The larger one with the bulky grey armor made from a Bazelgeuse and hair styled in an undercut swallowed the meat he was eating and spoke, "Can we help you?"

Damian swallowed. "I'm new here and just registered myself for the mentorship program? The lady there then directed me to this table."

The hunters blinked twice and glanced at each other and back at Damian. They narrowed their eyes at him briefly before the larger hunter stood up and stepped towards him. "So, you're the rookie…"

Their scrutinizing looks began to make Damian uncomfortable as if he were already being judged before they could even properly introduce themselves. One part of him wanted to chastise them for their apparent lack of manners but he knew better. He merely remained silent as they continued to assess him. Then to his surprise, the larger hunter broke into a grin.

"What's the matter? We're not scaring you, aren't we?"

The other hunter, who had medium-length strawberry blonde hair styled in a ponytail and dressed in scaly Seregios armor, took a sip of his drink. "You were the one scaring him. I was merely on my seat enjoying my meal and drink."

"Bullshit, you narrowed your eyes at him too!"

"Did not."

"Did too!"

"Ahem!"

The larger hunter huffed and turned back to face Damian, flashing him an enthusiastic smile. "Right! Where are my manners? The name's Shaw and this jerk's name is Sven." In response, Sven flipped him off. He ignored the gesture. "And you?"

Damian spared a quick glance at Sven before answering Shaw, "Damian. My name is Damian."

"Damian huh? Well first, we would like to apologize for possibly coming off as intimidating to you. We just wanted to look at what sort of person would be joining us for the next few months. Can't have a coward and weakling join us after all."

Under normal circumstances, Damian would have taken offense to that, but again, he knew it was best to keep quiet.

"Anyway, why don't you sit with us? She isn't here yet so you can just relax and get to know each other for a while yeah?" Shaw looked to Sven for approval and the man gave a quiet nod.

"Alright." Damian took his seat around the table. Despite Shaw's warm invitation, Damian still couldn't help but feel out of place amongst these professionals.

"Anything you'd like to drink or eat?"

Damian shook his head. "No thank you."

Shaw shrugged, "Suit yourself…Right then!" He folded his hands on the table. "Tell us about yourself!"

"I don't know what to say…"

"C'mon anything!" Shaw urged. "We're going to be a team now so might as well get to know each other while we're at it."

Damian once again hesitated, still unsure of what to say. Luckily, Shaw seemed to notice his hesitance.

"Fine then. How about telling us what your preferred weapon type is?" Shaw asked curiously, leaning forward. Sven also looked eager to know his answer.

Something tells me if I gave the wrong answer, they'll not be happy. "My preferred weapon…is the Bow." Damian promptly braced for whatever was about to happen.

However, the two hunters looked at each other and nodded approvingly. Seeing this, Damian felt a wave of relief wash over him. "Interesting choice, not that we'll judge you or anything," Shaw said with a smile. "At the very least, we finally have a ranger on our team now."

"So, what else can you tell us about yourself kid? Any hobbies? Preferences for certain things?" Sven queried.

"Umm…"

Shaw smirked. "How about this then? Boobs or as-" Suddenly, he stopped mid-sentence.

"What?" Damian cocked his head to the side in confusion. Just then, he felt a presence behind him. He turned his head…and there was a person in front of him. He slowly looked up and found himself staring up at an armored woman. She had black hair styled in a bob cut and on her face was an eyepatch covering her left eye. She wore blue and green plated Zinogre armor and Damian gulped, noticing that the armor covered only half of her upper body, exposing her toned stomach for all to see. Something told him that the terrifying look she was giving him meant she wasn't particularly happy to see him.

"H-Hi?" Damian meekly spoke.

The woman clicked her tongue. "Let me guess, this the kid?" Her voice was rough, and she had a distinct accent.

"Yep," Shaw answered, discreetly giving Damian a wink. "Sven and I already interro- I mean interviewed him before you came. He looks unimpressive but I think he'll manage."

"I'll be the judge of that," she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. Damian gulped and tentatively slid the registration document to her. She glanced at it briefly and then at Damian, urging him to elaborate.

"Y-You need to sign your name here umm miss…?"

She took the pen and began to read the document. "Thorne. Iris Thorne," she answered roughly, not bothering to look at him. She finished a few minutes later, passing him the paper and pen. "Refer to me as Ms Thorne or ma'am, got it, rookie?"

Damian nodded. "Crystal." He stood up, excusing himself from the table to hand the paper over to the receptionist for the stamp. The receptionist smiled as Damian approached her.

"All done?" she asked as Damian passed her the paper. She looked over it for a few moments before humming in approval and stamping it. "We will keep this paper for record purposes." Damian sighed, satisfied that the registration process went by without problems. "I wish you good luck young man," the receptionist said, giving him a thumbs up and a smile.

As Damian turned around to leave, he noticed the table where they sat was empty. Where did they go? He scratched his head in confusion. Just then, he noticed the people around him turning their heads in his direction. Why is everyone looking at me like that? And then he heard shouting. He looked back and to his surprise, saw two hunters locked in an argument. Judging by their glaring and clenched fists, it seemed as though it would escalate. Not wanting to get caught in a fight between hunters, he quickly slipped away and exited the Guild Hall.

Just as he ran outside, a hand grabbed his shoulder, causing him to yelp in surprise.

"Pfft! Hahaha!"

Damian glared at Shaw, who was bent over laughing. Next to him, Sven sighed while Iris looked wholly unimpressed.

…

It wasn't too long before they arrived at the inn, located in an alleyway. Throughout the entire walk, Damian had kept quiet as Shaw and Sven walked ahead of him, talking to Iris. He couldn't hear their conversation, but he saw the way Iris acted around these two men. They must be close, he thought as Shaw threw an arm around her, who simply elbowed him in the stomach, eliciting a snicker from Sven.

Damian followed them as they stepped inside the inn. They walked up to the manager, who spotted them and put down the glass he was cleaning.

Iris didn't say anything and placed some coins on the table. "One extra room for one night. It's for him," she said, pointing back at Damian with her thumb. The manager glanced at Damian before taking the coins.

"First room near the top of the staircase," he said, placing a key on the desk.

Iris looked back at Damian. "Ya heard him."

Damian quickly uttered a "thank you" and took the key.

"We start early tomorrow so ya better be awake," Iris told him. "Ya can do whatever the hell you want right now but know this, don't expect me to go easy on ya just cause yer still a greenhorn. Ya want to be a real hunter? Ya gotta start big. Got it?"

"Yes ma'am."

She let out a huff before turning around and walking up the staircase, disappearing from his view. Once she was gone, Damian slumped down onto a nearby bench.

"She's a bit of a handful, isn't she?" Shaw said, taking a seat next to him. Sven opted to lean against one of the wooden pillars.

Damian fervently nodded in response.

Shaw chuckled. "Trust me when I say this though, she's not a bad person at all. Just rough around the edges."

"As long as you don't piss her off, she won't have any problem with you," Sven added.

"So just relax and think of this as part of your training alright kid?"

Despite having to train under such an intimidating (and frankly rude) mentor, Damian felt more at ease with these two men. "I won't disappoint."

Shaw smiled. "That's the spirit."

…

It was later that day as Damian rested in his room, writing a letter to his mother, just to inform her that he made it safely to Val Habar so that she wouldn't cry herself to sleep thinking about her "baby boy". At the same time, he was busy thinking about tomorrow. Damian knew of the risk he took after leaving the relative safety and lavishness of his home. He was alone now. But he couldn't turn back and run, not now. He could picture his older brother laughing at him if he returned home now. He dreaded even more facing his father should he return with nothing to show for it. I'll show them, he thought.

With that thought in mind, he fell onto his bed and immediately closed his eyes for a much-needed round of sleep.

...