Woe be unto any hunter who did not have their sea legs, because the crossing between the two worlds was a long one. The threat of constant sea-sickness was enough to intimidate a lot of people away from going to the New World, so anyone who was willing to get on that boat was.. at least tough enough to not fear nausea and a little bit of vomit. Seeing as the incessant rocking of the boat wasn't enough to stop most hunters from drinking themselves to a head-splintering hangover, the crew of each and every ship of the Sixth Fleet thought to pre-emptively ask their passengers to refrain from lending a helping hand unless there was an emergency. Drunk hunters of the Fifth Fleet had scarred a streak of fear into the more weathered sailors of the fleet.
Living conditions on the ships were a little bit cramped. The hunters all slept together in one big chamber upon hammocks and, upon a particularly beaten hammock, a young man laid idle on his back. He was broken from his reverie as a face peered over the hammock above him, then held out an open book to him.
"Oi," the face said, "Guess who I drew."
The man on the hammock cupped his chin. Across an entire page of the other's journal, a long and slender dragon was drawn in a hastily scrabbled outline. It was a fearsome thing with six limbs, and it was filled in a raven black by wild but precise hatching with a pencil. A tuft of flame was drawn floating away from its mouth. Suddenly, the man's eyes widened in recognition, and he sat up almost quickly enough that he nearly toppled his hammock. He slammed his palm against the wooden braces holding up their bedding and managed to stop himself from eating the floor.
"Oh! I know this one. It's-" He pointed at the book and stammered for a moment, tripping over his own tongue. Profusely, he shook his head and put on a cool air, laying back down nonchalantly. "That's Fatalis, right?"
"You got it," the artist replied.
"I thought your favorite was, uh.. Xeno, was it?"
"The juvenile form is fascinating, but the Jiiva species as a whole is my favorite."
"If you say so," he replied, dismissively waving. He sniffled in and rubbed at his nose, then wiped off the back of his hand on his pants. Feeling a yawn coming up, he quickly brought that hand back up to his mouth and let that yawn out. "Hey, Light? What time's it?"
"Well.. I'd guess it's probably somewhere in the late evening. Sun was barely up when I came here, and I've been here for a few hours, so-" The artist quickly mumbled something. "Seven or eight, probably."
"Oh, really? I thought it was past midnight.. no wonder you're still awake. Hey, landfall's tomorrow. Let's go drink!" Light's friend suddenly grinned with a hint of mischief. "Maybe we'll wake up when it's time to hop off, eh?"
"Dunno if I wanna wake up to high noon right after a hard night of drinking. My eyes will start bleeding.. buuuuuut... fuck it-" In his haste to get down from his upper-bunk hammock, Light immediately took a big spill. His friend lunged to catch him, and was promptly acquainted with the ground alongside the other. They clawed at their surroundings to throw themselves up to their feet. With their footing found, they fled from the barracks immediately.
Things went as expected. The duo found themselves rudely awoken by a sudden clamor. The two lifted their heads up and gazed around with half-asleep eyes, finding a crowd's worth of conversation and cheer. The next half an hour was a blur. The ship stopped moving and they were swept along by a hasty crowd up to the top deck, where the sun gave them a headache worse than any blight. At some point, the ship was a speck in the distance, and they were idly walking down a stone boardwalk. They went through some kind of processing before they were let in.
"Welcome to the New World, Tanel," said somebody to Light's friend, stamping a paper and handing it over.
Before they knew it, the duo were sitting at a loud and crowded canteen for their first meal of the day: lunch. It definitely beat being outside though. They had a nice set of walls around them and a roof over their heads again, so no more sunlight, and there was a nice chain-operated fan hanging from the ceiling. Light took a decently hearty meal, while Tanel took a bigger meal. It was actually light for a hunter, but he preferred something gentle right now.
"Hey," Light started. "Where's your glaive?"
"It's right here," Tanel replied, reaching out to grab the air over his shoulder. "It's right... here.." He took a handful of air past the other shoulder, too. His eyes widened, and he quickly stood up and began to scan around the table. "It's not under the.. or-" He swore through clenched teeth. "Maybe it's back in processing, or still on the ship." Light didn't have anything to say to that. "Uh, save my seat- I'm gonna go get it!"
Light didn't have time to say anything to that, as his friend was already out the door. Tanel sprinted into a crowd head on and clumsily weaved through its ranks. A few shoulders bumped here and there, and a particularly bad collision with a woman knocked him flat on his ass. The crowd seemed to back away and gasp in shock. He gave the woman less than a cursory glance and quickly scattered back up to his feet.
"I'm really damn hung over," he hastily explained before taking off swiftly. Free of the crowd, he took off running as swiftly as he could, then scanned his route back to processing, finding that the building was far enough to be a speck. Even worse, Astera was built on wild terrain, and its streets were structured in tiers. For an agile hunter and a glaive-wielding acrobat like him, that ordinarily meant a convenience to him. But now he wasn't sure if he wanted to be jumping around right now lest he upset his stomach then eat tons of shit.
No choice. With that, Tanel quickly hopped back, then took the most explosive running start he could muster. He barely managed to weave in front of a cart, upsetting the tailraiders pulling it. He then blasted off of a ledge and found himself soaring through the air. The wind wildly blew against his face with an irksome chill, and the city wobbled away from him. Gravity tilted to the side, and he immediately ate shit upon landing on a roof, just as expected. He laid there idle for a moment, groaned, then pulled himself up to his feet. Looking around, Astera was still wobbling around, and he caught a glimpse of the sun that caused him to recoil away.
To that, Tanel growled out loudly with anger, then rubbed his temples. He hopped back twice, then profusely shook his head. He steeled himself with a deep breath, then took off running again. His feet came down upon the roof like a bowgun's swiftest barrage, rapidly carrying the hunter forward until the ledge was upon him. He grit his teeth and screamed as it came sooner than expected, so he wildly flung himself into the air to avoid running right off the roof. He wildly tumbled through the air over Astera, then found himself plummeting rapidly towards a street.
Once again, he started screaming, and wildly reached out to a roof that leaned away from him. Thankfully, he caught the ledge and managed to hold on as he slammed into it. He growled again and scampered onto the roof, then took off running again.
"Fuck you, vertigo!" he roared, taking another leap of faith. He couldn't adjust to the lurch in his stomach that came with every hop, but he did at least adapt to time his leaps better and land them more deftly. Afterwards, every building-to-building leap came with little ceremony, and he arrived back at the stony docks of Astera with an awkward landing roll. He then cut the line and threw himself through the doors of the processing center. Ignoring the eyes that fixated upon him, he quickly explored the vast, single-chambered building with a cautious eye.
A meek-looking staff member stood up and called out to him. "Sir-"
"Looking for my glaive!" Tanel called back.
"Sir, I haven't seen any missing weap-"
"Agh, it's not here!"
"Sir!" The processing employee groaned as Tanel rocketed right back out through the doors. Next stop was the ship, so Tanel quickly pierced into the line of Sixthies waiting to be processed. It seemed like there were a few straggler ships, so the crowd was just as thick as the one he came in on, and he had to forcefully wade through it. He wasn't sure where the ships were gonna go after everything was done. He heard most stuck around when they arrived, but they could just as easily go move somewhere else after dropping everyone off.
"Come on... come on!" With grit teeth, Tanel sprinted down the docks, looking through ranks of ships. He didn't recognize a single one. "Where is it? Where is it?!" He knew what his own ship looked like, and he knew most of his neighboring ships. Yet every single craft at the dock was alien. "There's no way they've already left-" He then ran right past the last ship, and stopped to catch his last breath. "Damnit."
"Did you find it?" Light asked. Tanel slumped back into his seat in the canteen and picked at his meal for a moment.
"Nah. Didn't leave it in processing, and our ship's already left," Tanel replied, lowering his head into a hand with a huff. "And my food's already cold.."
"So are you gonna buy a new one?"
"I was gonna spend my starter check on, like.. souvenirs. Or maybe save up for a room of my own," he replied. The hunter tightly clenched a fist all of a sudden. "Shit, fuck, and piss, with a side of dick, and-"
With a sudden thought coming to mind, Light interrupted his friend, quickly leaning over the table. "Hey, wait a second. Where's your Kinsect?"
Within the hour, he walked out of the armory a new man. One with less money to his name and a giant bug attached to his arm. It wouldn't have been so bad if he could've spent his check all on one half-decent glaive in one go, but as it turns out, keeping and maintaining giant bugs is harder than mass-producing the same polearm over and over. The new Kinsect - the cheapest one he could get - ate up most of his budget even though it would play second fiddle to his own glaive in any fight.
By sunset, hearty helpings of water and another proper meal had helped Tanel and Light overcome their hangovers. They were sharing a room with a bunch of randos who were way too energetic for the hour, Tanel thought, and it didn't help that Light was already in a good mood again. With a frown frozen on his face, the hunter laid on his bed, trying his best to tune out the incessant scrawling of Light's pencil on paper. Eventually, he figured that was impossible and sighed.
"Drawing Fatty again?" he started. To that, Light paused for a moment.
"Fatty?"
"Y'know, Fatty? Fatalis, fat-alis, fatt-" Tanel explained.
"Oh, I get it now. That's a weird name, but no, I'm actually drawing a Kulu-Ya-Ku this time. I'm kind of hoping it's the first monster we run into."
Tanel starting picking at his teeth with a fingernail. "Why?"
"Well.. the Handler of the Sapphire Star- you know her?" Light asked, earning a quick 'sorta' in response. "Well, in one of her books, she said that they were a new hunter's best friend. They make comfortable, reliable equipment, plus their feathers make good pens in a pinch." To that, Tanel briefly hummed.
"Yeah, sounds like a good warm-up," the glaive wielder replied, speaking slowly.
"Actually, now that I think about it, supposedly the Sapphire Star's in town," Light said, pausing. Receiving no response, he continued. "I'd really like to meet her, given the chance, n' hear from her what it's like to see what she did from the original source, y'know?" And again, silence. To that, Light furrowed his brow.
"Tanel?" Light peeked down from his top bunk bed and saw his friend frozen, like a very grumpy-looking statue. His new bug companion was crawling on him, but the hunter's eyes were glued elsewhere.
"My old Kinsect just flew in the window," Tanel replied, staring at a giant bug nestled atop his storage chest.
