As Katsuki landed, egg in arms and smile on her face, she noticed more than a few hunters looking at her cautiously, hands on hilts and more then a few already having them drawn. Surrounded by weapons of multiple types, she noted that not all of them were the four she was used to. She did see the great swords, SNS combos, hunting horns and hammers, but she also noticed heavy looking pointed spears, light spears with small insects, a few odd looking blades and shields, even a bow an arrow from one pair that made her tilt her head. "What kind of draw strength do you need to pierce armor with that thing? What's the material with enough tensile strength not to snap under it?" She asked, sounding confused. "I can see it taking down Aptonoth if you're using a Kelbi-hunting bow, but not anything bigger."
"Meowstress Katsuragi!" an excited voice called, catching her ear as she looked away from the slowly relaxing hunters, smiling as she saw two felyne she knew from her travels running towards her. Mittens the Monster Mistress, and Devi the Blacksmith. "The others were getting worried! I'm so glad to see you alright!" Mittens said, coming to a stop next to her as Katsuragi grinned.
"Of course! What kind of master rider would I be if I was taken out by a three star." Katsuragi boasted, handing over the egg to the suddenly ecstatic Stable Paw as she began rubbing a paw over it carefully.
"Not a scratch to be seen!" The Stable Paw announced. "I'll start it's soaking right away! It'll be ready to hatch in a few hours!" She said, immediately starting to head for the ship, a smile crossing Katsuragi's face as she saw her go, waving Ratha to go with her as an escort. These people already didn't like her, she wouldn't be trusting a newborn life in their hands.
"Well, if Mew got the egg, Mew must have killed the Guard, right?" Devi said, sounding excited as he started making grasping motions with his paws. "What do you want with them? a Sword and shield? a hunting horn? I know the others aren't your style but I could always make some for your collection." The Felyne said, sounding eager to work with the new material.
"Actually," Katsuragi started, looking over the armaments around her. "I want you to get blueprints from the blacksmiths here. They seem to have more versatility than we do, and I want something new to try and work with. A collaboration of two hunting styles!" She said, grinning as Devi froze, eyes travelling to all the other equipment as he nodded sagely.
"Very well, the customer is always right! I'll get right to work on it, make sure it's exactly what you want. Armor if there's leftovers, right?" he asked, getting a smile and nod from Katsuki as he went off as well, leaving her alone with Navirou and surrounded by other Hunters.
"So…. Draw strength? Material?" Katsuragi asked, motioning to the bow as the called out hunter blinked before stammering out that he didn't know. "Well, I'm going to be having questions for Devi once he gets back then." she muttered, starting to walk off as the hunters watched her, still cautious and curious despite the fact that their hands had left their weapons.
"Katsuragi!" Lillia called, Alvidia and Cheval with her as they looked up from a map they were planning on. As she wandered into their meeting room, she smiled, her grin only growing as the others got up and started towards her.
"You had us worried, Wild Child." Cheval said, pounding her shoulder with a smirk on his face, his crimson locks shaking as he suppressed laughter. "You nearly broke the curfew with how close it came. You decide to say 'Elder's take it' and camp out or what?" He grinned, Katsuragi rolling her eyes as Alvidia smiled.
"No, she obviously decided to go off mission and go den diving, or did you not see Mittens rushing in here with a new egg?" The snowy haired girl countered, getting a few nods from Cheval as their green haired companion pouted.
"Guys, it wasn't anything like that! I was being chased by a stubborn Brute, the one that Dabii barely rescued that handler from, and had to duck into a Den to get away! …. where is Dabii anyways?" She muttered, looking around as the two broke down into cackles, Lillia sighing as she shook her head.
"It seems that Dabii has made the first step to making allies with these people. He and the handler he saved have been getting along swimmingly, talking about food and exploration. As we all know, he's as much of a pig as his partner is, And she's all interested in how he became a rider." Lillia said, making Katsuragi smile as she shook her head.
"Of course, the one who joined because he thought it would be interesting is the one who gets our new allies best. Why wouldn't he?" Katsuragi chuckled, casually starting towards the door again as she started heading down. "Mitten's room is still right near the bottom of the ship in the Plains section, right?" she asked, talking about the area two decks away from the bottom of the ship that they had made into an accurate copy of their home in Pondry Hills.
"There in the center, right next to the lake and in all that open space. By the way, are you ever going to tell us what you have at the bottom of the ship? You banned everyone from going down there, so more than a few of us are curious." Cheval said, earning a smile and a shake of the head from Katsuragi.
"No, sorry guys. I trust you with my life, but that's a secret I'll keep until it's ready." She said, a sad smile on her face. "It's almost ready, don't worry."
"You telling us not to worry has me worried." Lillia said, eyes narrowing as katsuragi shook off her gaze, casually starting down the stairs as she started her trek.
Mitten's home was made… interestingly. She had refused any human help in building it, instead relying on the monsters she helped house and train to build it with her. In that regard, it had worked…. allright. It wasn't anywhere near perfect, but it somehow fit Mittens just fine. It was made of wood, stone, and the occasional large leaf as window shutters. Its walls were cobbled stone, welded together by superhot magma breath from the volcano dwellers, and scrubbed clean by those with water breath attacks. Its roof was cobbled together trees, nailed into the stone with Sergeros thorns and wrapped tight by Narscylla silk. The windows were wide leaves that looked like they could hold gallons of water, different scale types being used as nails to hold in their tops and sticks of wood used to let her wrap them up when the wind was nice through the portholes. Inside sat mittens, smiling as she wrote information she had gathered that day into her own Jornal, something she kept to give to her Successor if ever a day came that she retired. Most of the riders knew that would be when she died, as Mittens loved training Monsties just as much as their riders did.
Looking at Katsuragi, Mittens smiled, not saying a word as she motioned to a nearby box, where she could see the top of the Fanged Wyvern egg sticking out. Looking inside, she saw it semi submerged in Hatching potion, a rider specialty that helped eggs mature fast enough to be hatched almost the moment they were brought in. Normally, they sat in boxes of straw and were watered by the stuff, but with the new strains of monster in the New World, they took no chances and went back to the older ways. With a smile, Katsuragi picked the egg up, feeling it shake in her hands as she gently placed it on a circular pedestal, almost like a large bird bath, and started the process of hatching her newest partner.
With a smile, she took out a small hammer, barely bigger than a quill with a head the size of her index middle phalanx. with a smile, she began tapping out a series of taps on the shell, doing her best to not touch the little one inside while also giving it the most balanced way to break out of the shell. too little, and it would learn that it was easiest to force its way out of a problem ith hard skin and heavy body, too little and it would learn to rush in without thinking, attacking head on. Through trial and error, she had learned how to balance those impulses, letting a newborn hatchling come out with a mind for attack, defence, and surviving in general, and it hasn't done her wrong yet.
With a smile as she saw the egg start cracking, the potion's glow inside a bright blue, she held her hand above the egg. With a rattle, a shake, and a crack, the top of the egg popped off, a scaly yellow snout bursting forth from the depths of the egg as the rest of the shell started flaking off, revealing an absolutely adorable miniature of the monster she had fought to get it, a Great Jagras.
"Welcome to the team, little Glug." Katsuragi muttered, dubbing the creature with his name as she accepted a vial of glowing purple potion in a baby bottle from Mitten's hands, gently slitting he into the youngling's mouth as it started its first meal, drinking rapidly as she transferred it from the now shell filled bowl, to the floor of the room as he started growing rapidly. Shooting right out of the hatchling and juvenile stage, the yellow monster grew its sharp talons, its impressive mane, and it's crocodilian stance like that of a leviathan as it grew to a grand total of Five foot at the shoulder.
The potion of Growth, another rider secret, was a double edged sword. it allowed a hatchling to grow exponentially, but left it without the training its growing years would have given, leaving it in need of learning how to fight. Another disadvantage was the smaller size. A full grown Great Jagras was almost a head taller then a normal hunter. Glut would never grow past the size he stopped at. Any children he had would be full sized, and would be all the stronger then wild born because of their ancestors bond with a kinship stone, but Glut would be a runt of his species, at best. Many of her monsters struggled with this size decrease, and a few were even resentful of their larger counterparts, but it was a small price to pay for the power a bong provided.
With a smile, she mentally disconnected herself from Balloo, taking the big bear off active duty as she slotted her new partner's mind into the link, taking a look into him as Glut happily trotted around the meadow behind her.
'hmm, relatively decent stats, considering it's the second to last on the food chain around these parts. +4 to water, -4 to fire, -3 to electricity in the attack mutations, while its defences are more of the same. need to get that patched in. Looking at its gene map… Predator taking up a minor space in there, and a signature gene of… Bulk up? Increase defence and attack, but drop speed. something for the tanks of the group. Might need to grab more of those. Besides that, two empty gene spots at the top and bottom right, meaning if i filled one i could get a Line. Skills are…. Bulk up and Stuff, with a few interesting skills later down the line. Stuff… changes it to its engorged state, increasing defence hard and healing it slightly. form lasts until its knocked over, or uses the skill Projectile, which it doesn't know yet. learns that later in its life.' she mused, looking at the page and frowning. 'Rock breaker and monster search, not surprising but i had hoped for a new ride skill. a Kinship Skill called…. Lunch Rush? Follows its hunger to blast by opponents, blasting them away in its rush to get past them….. I'm going to have to look into this.' she mused, grinning, as she started back towards the stairs, leaving her new partner to frolic as she went down another flight.
With a grunt she covered her nose, looking disdainfully at what everyone called the Trash Chamber. Its stench was horrible, and it contained all the leftovers that the monsters didn't finish. The riders used it for fertilizer for the other floors, but while it was here the massive area of wasted meats and fruits gnawed at any nose that stayed there too long. With another noise of disgust, she went down to the bottom layer, smiling as she came to her pride and joy, her next project.
Her great secret.
With a gentle grace she walked over to the vat of Hatching potion, gently running her hand over the still shell, feeling the warmth that was ever growing in its star covered surface. black and orange covered its surface, looking like a harvest festival decoration as she gently cleaned it of any parasites and bugs that had found it past the dump of the ship, gently scrubbing it clan as she spoke to it in a gentle voice. "It's all right, my little one. Take ALL the time you need. rest, grow, and be ready. When you finally join us, I know NOTHING will stop you, my little Ragnarok." she mused, smiling as she drew small circles over the rough shell, giving it a hug before starting back up the stairs, leaving her charge growing in its shell.
and smiling as she heard the slightest of shifts in the water behind her.
He would hatch soon. After months of waiting, she could wait a bit longer.
Alright folks, authors notes time. First off, I'm sorry this took so long. I….. Had kind of lost my motivation for this story. Only a few people seemed to enjoy it, and I have guests flooding my comments on what monsters they want to see her get. (The answer is all of them, eventually.) I've been on this site since 2011, and this is my first story to even catch people's attention. I love that fact, but I'm also an incredibly insecure person. If it wasn't for one of my dedicated readers actually reaching out to pm me, actively asking me if i was going to continue, I probably would have forgotten about this story. I know that's shitty of me as an amateur author, but thats how my head works. I want people to like what I do, to do more than just give one or two word comments asking what she's going to get. I put effort in trying to make the scenes as visible as possible, while trying not to overburden people with information. Anyways, enough whining. Here you go, new chapter! Hope you are excited for the next one too!