And here's chapter two! I want to say in advance that this fanfiction is unlikely to have a very consistent update schedule. I'm definitely very into the project at a moment, so I'm willing to invest more of my time into it, but I have RPs and college and whatnot to balance too, so I apologize in advance for any blue-balling I may accidentally bequeath unto you. With that being said, please enjoy. If you do, please leave a comment. I'd like to know your thoughts so far, and perhaps what you think the various NPCs from the game might be named.
Having a meal with a hunter was an awkward experience for many. They sat down and they did nothing but eat at nausea-inducing speeds, leaving them little room to speak, and slowing down wasn't an option. Light knew how hunters operated, so he ate in silence until Tanel was finished. Plus, the hunter got plenty chatty when he had cleared his end of the table. By the time that had happened, Light was practically just starting to enjoy his breakfast.
He gulped down a bite of meat. "So," he started, making sure he had Tanel's attention.
"So," the hunter repeated, raising his eyebrows.
"I haven't really figured out where to start, to be honest," he replied. "Like, where do we go with field work and all that."
"Probably the same back home. Check a quest board or get given one, so eat faster man. I wanna get out there!"
"If I ate as fast as you, I'd throw it all back up and we'd be back to square one," Light replied with a shaking head, then froze as an idea came to mind. "Why don't you run ahead and go find us a quest or something? I'll be done by then- and I wanna get out there too, y'know."
"I know, I know," Tanel replied, nodding sharply. He stood up and began to clean up his end of the table with haste. Bowls loudly slapped and clanked together, nearly drowning the hunter out entirely.
"Ah-" CLANK "-Say, when I kill my first Anja-" naTINK "-th, should I make a sca-" rfDING "- or.. No, no, I'm gonna make a-" TANG "-cape, man." To that, Light winced and picked at one of his ears, then glanced around to thankfully find they weren't getting weird looks.
"Go for it." Light replied, raising his eyebrows. "I wonder if they sell scope goggles anywhere in Astera."
It didn't take long for the hunter to find a quest board. The town of Astera had a board on every block. Kill this Anjanath, a researcher asked. There's a Radobaan in my business, another complained. Great Jaggis, here be dragons, would another cry. That was all good fun and appealing to Tanel until he saw the star rankings required for each one. In fact, as he took a step back, it seemed like the board was covered in stars. Upon arrival at the New World, one started as a one star hunter, no matter how good they were back home. It was a recent reform made in preparation for the Sixth Fleet, and many of the veterans aboard had raised an uproar about it that fell upon deaf ears.
As if rubbing it in, they individually printed out each star, instead of just writing 'this mission needs a five star hunter' - the bunch of assholes. Every quest board he checked seemed to have this predicament.
"Need experience for a job, need a job for experience.. what am I supposed to do?" he grumbled to himself on his way back to the canteen. As he returned, Light looked up at him expectantly. "No dice."
"No dice?" Light repeated, hovering a mug underneath his lips.
"Zero dice. Every quest I saw seemed out of our rank."
"There can't be no quests for us."
"Well I looked, and there weren't any, so you tell me."
"Maybe one-star quests are simple things, like capturing small animals. No biggie, right?"
"You mean like.. menial labor? Chores?" Tanel complained, slumping his shoulders.
"It's to make sure we're able to safely get used to the New World, I imagine."
"I didn't come here to swing around a bug net, though."
"Well.. maybe we could just go on an expedition? You know. Go out and explore ourselves. That's more fun, I think," Light said, widening his eyes with curiosity. Tanel reached up and scratched his head for a moment in thought.
"Yeah, but-" the Hunter sighed. "Expeditions don't get you paid or promoted."
"Most of the time, but.. hey, if we get results, we might get a little recognition. Plus, I wanna take some of my own notes."
Tanel huffed. "Alright. Let's get going, then. Ancient Forest?"
"That's the tradition!" Light said, scattering up to his feet and sprinting out of the canteen. Tanel blasted off and followed, leaving behind a wild wind. With wide grins, they sprinted down the streets of Astera, weaving and stumbling through traffic. As the two ran by a quest board covered in stars, Tanel gave a pair of middle fingers, causing Light to spit out and laugh. They felt like a pair of dumb kids again under the wild intoxication of the New World's wonder, and they'd only touched the surface.
Soon enough, they chanced upon a platform. It was a long bridge of stone that floated over lower tiers of the city. Wingdrake feeders and hitching posts decorated it, as did a few ballistae. The eager duo ran to the end of the platform and whistled. Before they knew it, they were dangling upon ropes carried by muscular wyverns the size of horses. The wind swiftly brushed through their hair and against their clothes as they went right over the great walls of Astera, revealing the great expanse beyond.
Before them laid an endless ocean of green that seemed to shimmer brilliantly as the sun felt down upon it. It stretched out seemingly forever, turning the horizon into an emerald halo. And standing tall above it all was the world's largest tree. Even ten years later, the tremendous Ancient Forest was unsullied by humanity. The careful, scientific hand of the Research Commission had protected it, fighting desperately to maintain the balance of the ecosystem from all threats - even themselves.
"That's the Wyvernspire tree!" Light called out. "They say that after the Sapphire Star slew Safi'Jiiva, the tree began to grow at astronomical rates. Apparently, ten years ago, it wasn't even a fraction of this size!"
Tanel traced his eyes up the wooden skyscraper, higher and higher, until he found himself staring up at the bright white clouds. Underneath them, a swarm of wyverns danced around in the air, before scattering in respect to the king of the skies.
"A Rathalos!" Light cried out in wonder. "And- A Rathian, too!" Following suit, the King's mate flew right through the opening in the swarm, and the two magnificent beasts began to swirl around one another in the air. Tanel reached back and pat his Kinsect.
"I wonder how tough New World Rathies are," Tanel mused, grinning. He saw the great, primordial forest and saw a challenge. He saw the first battle that every hunter fought on the path to glory. Even the most glorious Sapphire Star began in the Ancient Forest.
Slowly, the ground drew closer, and the Wingdrakes deposited the two off upon the ground. Laying before them was a field of uneven rock clad in the greenest grass they'd ever seen. Herbivorous beasts wandered the field, grazing in peace. And there, Tanel decided this would be the birthplace of his legend. Whatever title they would bequeath him, whatever great monster he slew to earn it, his biography ought to begin where he stood presently. He then looked around, and realized the partner to his legend was missing. He took a swift double-take in every dimension, then scanned above the trees when he wondered if he'd dropped off his wingdrake too early.
"TANEL!" Light cried. The hunter spun around on his heel and reached for his glaive. "Think we should ride some of these to battle, eh?" Light jested, as he sat upon the back of an unbothered Aptonoth. Tanel pocketed his hands and jogged up.
"They're kinda stupid, aren't they? I mean, we hunt these things for food, and they're just letting us walk up to them," the hunter said, earning a chuckle from his partner. Tanel pressed a little punch into the beast's side, earning no reaction.
"I guess they really are kinda dumb. Wanna hop on?"
Tanel shook his head and began to walk away. "Nah. We should keep looking around."
Light shrugged at that. "Let me take some notes real quick," he replied, sensing a rising impatience from the other. Eventually, they left the clearing and began to wade through the sea of trees. Big, colorful bugs and patterned birds swam through the canopy of trees, sometimes breaking through the surface. The bird's calls reverberated out through the forest, and Light took in every sound and matched it with a scrabble of notes in his journal. Eventually, his attention was pulled away by the sound of a huff from Tanel.
"Where are all the monsters?!" he complained, throwing his fists way up. "You'd think something as big as a house would be easy to find."
"Well, if you keep yelling like that, maybe they'll reconsider," Light retorted. Tanel swore he saw a huge vein bulge out of the other's brow. "I'm not trying to get eaten today, dude."
"That's why I'm here. I beat up the monster, and then you can run an autopsy or something," Tanel said, unrolling his Insect Glaive. He inspected the weapon, then checked his muddled reflection in its blade. Light only sighed at that.
"You're a real piece of work!" Light whined.
"I'm a masterpiece."
"Masterpiece of shit, asshole." A vein then actually bulged out of Light's brow, but he immediately got an idea and lit up with excitement. "Ah, I know how we can get some money!" Hearing that, Tanel's eyes practically turned into zenny coins, and he nodded with interest. "Let's go mining in the caves!"
The duo found tremendous tunnels weaved through the roots of the Ancient Forest like yarn. They were dank and hot and the two treated the place like a playground, running all over the place and crawling all over its walls as scoutflies lit the place up. Eventually, they found a large chamber covered in big rock formations. The location was perfect, and they got to work.
And when they got tired of that, they brought basketfuls of rocks out and sat them down in a little clearing. They made a campfire, and then immediately ran off again. With eager, child-like glee, Light snatched every bug and herb he could find. Tanel scampered up into the trees and began to leap from tree to tree to get a good view of where they were. Seeing a cliff face, he got a bright idea and immediately lowered himself into a squat. The branch listed under his weight and, as he bounded off of it in a wild leap, it boosted him up like a slingshot. In the air, he drew out his glaive, twirled it, and pumped out all of its rocket boosts to throw himself up towards the-
Sorry, into the cliff. He hit the wall, causing all the air to be knocked out of all of his lungs. He bounced off and plummeted down through the air, tumbling uselessly before slamming right into the tree canopy before hitting the ground. Light was startled by the sudden noise and sprinted over to find his teammate laying on the ground and caked in dirt.
"Ouuuuuuch," he grumbled, rolling onto his back.
"What did you do?" Light said, scratching his head.
"I was, uh.. seeing how high I could jump," he explained as Light pulled him up to his feet. He dusted himself off a bit.
Light gave Tanel a mildly incredulous look. "..Right then. I'm gonna go back to camp and make lunch."
Tanel suddenly winced. "Out of what?"
"With uh.." Light cupped his chin. "Well, we have..." He bit his lip and scratched his head, then sighed. "Wow, we really did not prepare for this. Wanna run back real quick-"
"No way, dude. I wanna see this all the way through!" Tanel twirled his glaive, and his Kinsect fluttered its wings. "I'm gonna go hunt an Aptonoth and we can eat its meat. Like real hunters!"
"Did you wanna fight something that bad?"
"...Yes. I'll meet you back at camp."
"I'll just do whatever until then, I guess?"
The two parted ways under the high noon sun. Light pocketed his hands and headed straight to camp, planning to take no detours. A moment later, he heard another loud crash and an 'oof', to which he snorted mockingly. A few minutes later, he pushed through a bush into camp and froze to find a hulking figure picking at one of their shiniest baskets.
"Kulu-Ya-Ku," he whispered. He quickly grabbed a stick and stepped out, swiping it wildly through the air. "Hey, shoo!" To that, the avian beast turned and stared at him. Not one to be challenged, the thieving beast stepped towards him, slamming down its heel and letting out a long, breathy hiss from its throat. Light immediately dropped his stick.
"Well," Light mused. "This sucks."
