I find my ration on the table, but no new assignment. I keep myself occupied by planning out how I intend to train Queen to allow me to mount her. By now she's likely gotten used to lifting the weight of my body, but I've only either been under her neck or on her side. I need to be able to position myself so that I'm above her center of gravity, with my legs in front of her wings. The plates on the back of her neck are segmented, so sliding back will certainly be uncomfortable. After that, though, I'll need to teach her how I want her to move once I get on. Rathian movement mainly consists of flapping to gain altitude, gliding, banking, and diving. To keep myself centered above her, I'll need to move the opposite way I want her to move. So if I want her to fly upwards, I'll need to lean down, if I want her to bank right, I'll lean left, and so on.
The last problem now is the height. I've flown on the guild airship before, and I haven't had any problem with it, except when looking over the railing. This was only because it felt like my feet were on solid ground, even if it were swaying back and forth. This time, my feet won't be touching anything. The only time I've ever been in the air for a longer period of time is when I'm using wedge beetles to swing around. As I'm writing down the plans, I eventually grow nervous about the consequences of doing anything wrong while I'm on her back, and I stop writing.
The Anjanath I saw earlier crosses my mind, and I decide to observe its behavior a bit more. I grab my surveyor's kit and pack my ghillie mantle and a farcaster, should I need them. I start at the mucus track then follow the scoutflies again. I eventually hear the snoring of what I assume is the Anjanath, so I keep following the trail and I eventually see it. As I thought, the Anjanath is curled up asleep. I am extremely careful to watch where I step as I approach, and slowly creep up to it. I recall my scoutflies, then get closer still. I'm close enough now to touch it, but I instead observe the damage done to it. It has several scars on its legs, most of them fresh from the Jagras it was fighting earlier. I creep over toward its head, and view the damage done there. It has a huge chunk of its lip missing, and a scar that just misses its eye.
Its nose seems to be leaking as it breathes, so I carefully catch a sample as it drips, then carefully back away. As I step back, I hear a branch snap, and apparently so does the Anjanath. It wakes up and raises its head, staring me down. After a few seconds it gets up and sniffs at me, and I continue backing off slowly. It roars and charges, and I roll out of the way quickly. As it tries to stop itself, I run up to its front, grabbing some redpit bulbs along the way, and load them into my slinger. I fire my clutch claw at its head, bash with my shield to turn it, then unload my slinger to send it charging straight into a tree. As it struggles for a moment to get up, I quickly equip my ghillie mantle and go into hiding in a nearby bush.
It finds its footing, then starts to look around for me. After not seeing me, it resorts to using its nose to find me. I slowly start to sneak back towards the direction I came from, then start walking normally when I feel like it's given up looking for me. That Anjanath doesn't seem like a threat to any of the guild members, but I leave the sample on the table to be researched. As I head back to the nest, I pass by the opening in the trees I saw before. It still awes me, and I start to imagine myself on Queen's back flying over it all.
I enter the nest again, and walk over to Queen. She sniffs at me, then gets rubs against me, almost knocking me over. She pushes the top of her head against my chest, and that manages to knock me down, but I get back up and rub her head. After this, I walk back towards the eggs and re-light the fire. Queen goes to the edge of the nest and it's my turn again to guard the eggs.
Some time passes before a Kulu-Ya-Ku triggers one of the snares, vine catching around one of its legs. I get up and start to charge towards it, but by the time I'm there, it's already gotten up and managed to snap the vine around its leg, turning tail and running off. I feel like it isn't likely that the Kulu-Ya-Ku will stay gone for very long before trying again to get the eggs, unless it finds another nest to raid. I decide to keep an eye out for it until Queen gets back.
Other than keeping the eggs warm, nothing else of interest happens until she returns. By that time I'm eager to leave the nest, so I extinguish the fire and go back to camp. I enter the tent and find a new assignment next to the ration on the table.
"Deliver 10 Exciteshrooms." Easy enough, just follow the Mosswine and you'll eventually find them. I harvest 11, ten for the assignment and one more to try my luck. Nobody can tell exactly what effect an Exciteshroom will have on them until they are eaten. Raw Exciteshrooms can make the consumer feel like they just had a grand meal or give them a big boost of energy, among other things, however they also have a chance of making the consumer feel nauseous or bloated, occasionally even causing a large amount of flatulence. No wonder Congalalas favor them. When cooked though, Exciteshrooms lose their random effects and gain a nice chewiness. They also serve as a great meat substitute, so vegetarian hunters can have Exciteshrooms in their meal if they want their chewy texture.
After returning to camp and depositing the shrooms, I pop the last one into my mouth. As I bite down, it tastes extremely bitter, but in my experience that usually indicates one of their more positive effects. After a bit of waiting, my stomach feels very full, in a pleasant way. I write my report then gather my clothes to bathe myself. It's been quite cloudy, but now it's starting to break up.
I return to the nest right as Queen lets out a big yawn. The sun is starting to set, so now I have more time to bond with her and train her. I walk over to her and run my hand over her head. She purrs and embraces me, and I start walking around to her neck. To my surprise, she straightens it out, as if expecting me to put myself over it again. She even rests her head on the ground to make it easier. I drape my arms over like I did before and hang on, expecting her to raise her head again. She doesn't though, so I try going a bit further. I start reaching my leg over to try to position myself right above her, but she raises her head as I'm reaching, causing me to slide right off and fall on my back. She looks over and sniffs at me, and I get back up and start over. She lies her head down again, and I start reaching my leg over. She doesn't move this time, so I pull myself up and over.
I've done it. I'm all the way on her neck. I try pushing myself back closer to right above her legs. Her ridges don't make this particularly easy or comfortable, as I figured they wouldn't, but I manage to slide myself back. Queen raises her head and reaches around to try to look for me, but she can't find me. She gets up, then freezes when she realizes I'm still there. She stays still for a couple seconds before I think she's about to do something like shake me off, so I dismount. When I'm in her sight again she rubs against me and purrs. I lie down beside her, and she rests her head close to me. I'm surprised how quickly she's learning to accept me riding her. Eventually, we both drift to sleep.