As it turned out, Light would find that his partner was not bringing home any bacon. Light had turned tail and ran for dear life, sprinting mad for what felt like hours. He was sure he was probably less than a mile away from Astera at this point with all the scrapes and cuts he'd accumulate flailing himself over every obstacle to get to safety. Eventually, he came upon an empty-handed Tanel, and immediately stopped to catch his breath.
"Holy shit, dude. Gajalaka? Big ass bugs?" Tanel asked.
"No- no- where's our food, dude?!" the handler snapped.
"Uh, well, I got a bad omen, yeah!" The hunter nodded profusely. "So, I turned back and decided to check up on you. What happened?" Immediately, a sulky, irritable expression formed on his partner's face.
"Kulu Ya-Ku. Found our camp," Light panted out, promptly falling down on his ass with a huff. At that, Tanel only had a blank stare to offer.
"And? I thought they weren't very aggressive."
"They're thieves, Tanel! That thing's gonna trash our stuff."
"Then why did you leave it with our stuff?"
"What else was I supposed to do?! Sit there? Show him the door?!"
"I don't know? Chase it off somehow?" Tanel replied, shrugging. Immediately, a long-winded silence fell over the two. Light began to enjoy his break in silence, still working to catch this breath while a completely unbothered Tanel hovered over him with just as much disinterest as he had started the conversation with. Somehow, he expected a tumbleweed to roll by, but this wasn't the Wastes. Instead, their ears were filled with the incessant sound of chirping bugs and distant animal cries. And then a really, really loud wind swept by with a woosh.
"Tanel," Light suddenly started, regaining his friend's attention. "I can't fight a Kulu Ya-Ku."
"You don't have to fight it. Just swing a stick at it until it leaves."
"Tanel, do you remember the last time you struggled to lift a heavy rock?"
"Well, there was this big boulder-"
"A Kulu Ya-ku could smack my head off if it so fucking chose!"
"You right," Tanel muttered. "So what do you-"
"Get RID of it!"
"Okay, okay, for sure, for sure.. Damn, dude."
"God damn," Light muttered, exasperated. He slowly began to stand up, but Tanel quickly yanked him up so swift that the world wobbled around him. He stammered for a moment, then began to waddle home behind the hunter. "Man, we're like.. hours away from camp. Everything's probably trashed already."
"Hours? Dude, I left the camp like ten minutes ago tops," Tanel retorted, putting on a serious air. At that, Light kept silent, lowering his head. "I'll take care of that punk bird in no time. Just you watch!"
Slowly, the evening sun began to fall towards the horizon, casting an amber glow over the vast forest. Somewhere within, Tanel and Light sat in a pile of rubble, hungry, tired, and disappointed. They had returned to a trashed, vacant camp covered in footprints and claw marks. They had no food, no fire, and they were certain the bird had properly eaten most of their shiny rocks. There was no explanation as to where else it could've gone, Tanel figured. Either way, their baskets and everything were trashed, so they didn't have much in the way of bringing anything home either.
"Man.. I hate birds," Tanel grumbled, swiping at his scoutflies to get them to stop glowing in his face. Yes, he got it. He knows they can track the damn bird..
"They're alright," Light muttered. "Small ones are cool."
"I guess. You wanna go ho-"
"Yes."
With wallets no fatter than what they started with and dreadfully empty stomachs, the two swept off into the sky as wyverns towed them away. Actually, they'd made a net loss for the day. The prices to replace all of their things and then dinner costs cut into their already-thin finances like a slow slice, and the two savored their meal in a dreary silence. Light patched himself up and stumbled off to his room, while Tanel decided to stick around and have a drink. He found himself in the canteen far after the moon's rise, sitting at the moodily lit counter.
"Nya," a voice cooed, causing Tanel to slowly look up with glazed eyes. He found a fancy-looking Palico in a suit looking at him. "I recognize you, nya." To that, Tanel only grunted. "Didn't you bump into the Sapphire Star earlier?"
"What? No, I've never met her myself," he managed to slur out.
"Nyow way, it's totally you. You said you were hungover or something?" the bartender cat pressed on, narrowing her eyes. Tanel only gawked at her. "Yeah, that was you! People have been talking about you."
"No, no way that was her," the hunter muttered. "She's a legend. People weren't cheering or anything."
"Nya-ha-ha! That's where you're wrong. People give her a lot of space; very secretive woman. But that was totally her. Can't mix her up with anyone on this planet, y'know-nya?"
Tanel slumped into his forehead and let out a deep groan. "Gimme some more, wouldja?" he barely muttered. Eventually, the hunter retreated back to his dorm, entering by angrily throwing the door open. He clutched the handle and smashed it shut, only to catch it an inch away from impact to gently guide it to a close. He turned away and threw a flurry of air punches with a wide open mouth, screaming under his breath. Next, he trembled as he held in a proper roar of rage. Defeated and done, the hunter stomped over to his bunk and flung himself into bed. Upon impact with his pillow and blanket, he immediately deflated.
...
And then he found himself at the breakfast table again, periodically playing with his food. Despite the unusual commotion in the canteen that day, he was more interested in drawing away at his journal. Scribbling away, he slowly formed the image of an ornate, fearsome suit of armor on the page. Light eventually took a break from eating and found himself staring for a rather long time at his unaware comrade.
"Hangover again?" the handler deadpanned. He easily recognized what Tanel was drawing; the man only occasionally drew and if he drew it all it was that suit of armor. "Hey, you wanna do an art trade?" he thought to ask.
"Sure, I guess," Tanel grumbled, turning the page over.
"Draw, uh.. well, I'll draw your armor, I guess, and you can draw.." Light came to halt in thought. "Hmm, how about a Brachydios? I've always wanted to see one."
"I don't have a reference image," the hunter replied, slumping in his seat.
"I mean, we'll both be drawing from memory." Light earned an agreeing nod at that, and they took to drawing. "So your armor's like hers, but more like a knight, right?"
Tanel sat back up and fixed his seating. He scooted in and popped his neck before taking a big sigh. "Yeah. She's got like this.. battle dress thing going on. Like the big Rathian armors, y'know? I was thinking if I wanted armor like hers, I'd probably turn the dress into like.. long hip plates with a cool banner loincloth."
"Yeah, yeah, I see it. Heavier breastplate? Yeah, I figured- By the way, Brachydios have two clawed fingers. It pokes out from under the gauntlet."
"Gauntlet? Wait, they don't just cover their hand in a fat wad of slime? That's wack."
"Brachydios are wack. I thought it was pronounced 'bra-kid-ios' when I first started reading about monsters. I lost a really big argument about that, y'know. Unbelievable. Bracky-dios?!"
"S' stupid," Tanel agreed. The two started to scribble away at their journals. "Hey, if Valstrax were real, you think I could get jets on my armor?"
"They are real."
"Never seen one."
"You've never seen a Teostra either."
"Good point, but that's different."
"How?"
"It just is, y'know.."
Tanel had started to scribble with some ire near the end, causing Light to suppress a chuckle as he elegantly drew away. For a moment, the question of what they were gonna do that day was entirely forgotten. Eventually, pencils came down; the drawings were done for. Tanel sighed.
"Man, drawing monsters are hard. How the hell do their legs work? People are easy- wait, did you pick this to fuck with me?" Tanel complained, earning a laugh. "Oh, you douche!"
"Lemme see- well, it's not bad. I've seen handlers draw worse, dude. I mean, like, you nailed the thagomizer - the mace on its tail. You draw weapons a lot, right?"
"Sometimes. How'd yours turn out?" Tanel replied. Light lifted up his journal, displaying an elegant drawing of a dark knight whose armor held a primordial glow. "How the- holy shit, dude! That's sick. How'd you do the glow?"
"Some erasing, some finger smudging. I took some artistic liberties here and there, thought they'd be cool-" Light was immediately interrupted by the sound of a sudden uproar arising in the canteen. All around them, everyone was facing the same away and screaming, so the hunter-handler duo quickly turned. In sauntered a man clad in a fearsome, tattered cape. The colossal hilt of a jagged, wicked red weapon rose over his shoulder as a testament to the dangers he'd faced throughout his career. A staggered breath escaped the lips of all men.
"Holy shit, it's the Chief!" a hunter squealed, causing a wild cheer to erupt. The legendary man stood there with a smile, basking in the fame patiently, before silencing the crowd with a hand.
"Thank you, thank you all! Alright, listen up everyone!" he commanded, earning the complete attention of all. "I've got a direct announcement to make about how things are going to function moving forward now that the Sixth Fleet has arrived." He stepped forward, immersing himself into the crowd of the bar so that eyes fell upon him from all directions. "The Sixth Fleet is much like the fleet before it. It brings with all kinds of people; hunters, engineers, scholars, handlers. It is also the biggest fleet yet. Advancements in seafaring technology and budgetary increases have made it possible to massively bolster the ranks of the Research Commission here."
"This brings to light a distinct issue, but my most trusted allies and I have come up with a solution. While most engineers and scholars will have no trouble finding work, and every handler came with a hunter by default.. not every hunter came with a handler." The Chief paused and cupped his chin for a moment. "If you're from the Sixth Fleet, raise your hand!" The man counted a few clusters of raised hands here and there. "And lower your hand if you've had no trouble finding good work." Only a few went down.
Looking around, Tanel and Light found themselves vindicated in the fact that they weren't struggling alone. They had been forced into menial work by a star-ranked system they couldn't overcome.
"I apologize on behalf of the Commission for that," the Chief continued. "The absence of a fleet for a while has made people forget that there are rookie hunters looking for work. It's about time we do something about this crisis; both our new arrivals and for the upcoming generation of those born in the New World like me. I credit the Sapphire Star herself and Aiden of the Schrade Banner specifically for forging this plan."
The mention of two more legends made a palpable pang of enthusiasm arise on the crowd's faces. They were already listening with open ears as one legend spoke of solutions to their problems, but any news from the two of Astera's greatest hunters was something to take delight in.
"It goes as follows: Hunters of the Sixth Fleet will now operate in three-hunter, one-handler groups. Thanks to the streamlining of our bureaucracy, handlers working in these teams should not find themselves struggling with paperwork despite the increased workload. The Schrade Banner will be running quests of all kinds of ranks, providing increased opportunities for all hunters." To that, the Chief earned a great round of applause, and he exhaled in almost a sigh of relief.
"Well, Light, looks like you got your work cut out for you," Tanel said, eagerly elbowing his partner. "I'm just excited to get out there and into the field!"
Sorry for the wait, but I'm eager to return to this fanfiction with more frequent updates! I hope you liked the reveal of what the old Field Team Leader has been up to and more talk of the Fifth Fleet chars. By the way, Tanel's bad 'omen' was that he suddenly felt bad about killing an Aptonoth because they didn't really fight back well like a Monster could, so he quit and went back. I was gonna reveal this in an after-scene, but I just wasn't feeling it. Anyways, see you in Chapter 4!
