The twin-hulled raft slid through the murky waters. Cecil dipped the paddle slowly into the water, guiding the small boat carefully through the nightmare tangle of roots and trees in the mangrove. Dark, gnarled branches bereft of leaves reached towards the sky as if the trees themselves were trying to reach past the iron-grey clouds in a vain effort to grasp the sun
He had started out from the village two days ago, the guild of hunters providing him with the information as to the whereabouts of a wyvern. His felynes had packed a quick bag of equipment and long-lasting food for him before he left the village. Cecil had never been to the swamp before, but he had done his homework, and scrounged as much information from the guild as he could. He felt he was as prepared as he was going to be without any experience.
The entire place exuded a depressing aura, and it was so different from the mountains he was used to hunting in. It was hard going here, and twice he had been soaked to the skin by downpours that seemed to come like the blizzards up in the mountains. Dark, dirty rain that stank faintly of mud and excrement.
Cecil hummed to himself as he looked up at a sky that wasn't so much blue as like a piece of paper that had been handled by one too many grubby hands. Ahead he could see a break in the skeletal trees, and the dark shadow of the not-too distant shore beyond.
"Finally," he smiled, crawling back under the little shelter he had constructed on the raft, and checked his equipment. His armour smelled faintly like the swamp around him, but thankfully Hannah- clumsy though thoughtful- had packed him a change of clothes, which had kept well in an oilskin parcel. She might be as prone to breaking things as a popo in a china shop, but she had forethought, and more than once it had saved Cecil's life and provided him with just that little something that made things seem better.
Cecil's raft cruised past what looked like giant, round leaves on stalks, and came to a rest on the muddy shore. Laughing with relief, Cecil hopped off the boat, and waded the last few feet to relatively solid ground, dragging his boat behind him and taking a deep whiff of the swamp air. He was here, and he felt strangely triumphant though he hadn't done a thing. It was a whole new world, and an entirely new environment to explore. In all honesty though, he preferred the blasting cold winds and the snow to this.. wet.
He looked around surreptitiously for other people. Of course there weren't any. Satisfied he wasn't going to be spied on, he stepped out of his dirty clothes, and donned his armour. The familiar feel as the treated material was secured to his body made him feel a lot more comfortable in this alien environment. Securing the tasset around his waist and strapping his weapons holster over his chest, he took stock of the situation. He was here, and the monster was somewhere out there. According to the guild, it was most likely to hand around an area roughly two days' hard march North North West of his landing spot.
The shore was a thin little band of muddy soil, cut off abruptly by sheer rocks that had vegetation clinging precarious to what little cracks they could find. One narrow path enclosed by the rocks led off deeper into the swamp, it wasn't in the direction he wanted to go in, but it was the only way into the swamp unless he wanted to try and scale the rock walls.
Cecil shrugged the strap of his pack more comfortably on his shoulder, and set off into the dank swamp.
---
Cecil crawled ever so slowly forward in the ankle-deep water, keeping one hand poised near his blades while the other he used for balance. He narrowed his eyes, and advanced another few feet. His quarry was right in front of him now, no more than a few metres away, unaware of its impending death. He tried not to breathe too loudly, this one he had tracked for the good part of a day, and he wasn't about to lose it now.
"HA! Got you now, dinner!" a voice yelled out, quickly followed by a shrill warcry. He was just as startled and shocked as his prey when a figure leapt high into the air from the rocks surrounding the little clearing, and slammed down hard on the watery ground, sending a wave of fetid water and mud in all directions. Cecil spluttered and tried to cover his face as the water and mud hit him full on.
When everything settled down, he wiped as much of the brown sludge off his face, and looked in amazement as the figure hefted the hammer onto her shoulder. It was a girl, the shapely figure and body-hugging armour could hardly be mistaken for a man's. She grinned in triumph down at the pulverised skull of the unfortunate Aptonoth, a red mess that could only be recognised as a head by the fact that it was attached to the thing's neck.
He struggled to his feet, his armour covered in the brown sludge that was everywhere in this accursed swamp. The girl's grin faded when she saw him stand, pulling the hammer off her shoulders and glaring at him threateningly. Cecil put his hands up in a conciliatory gesture, and she lowered her hammer, though she didn't lower the suspicious glare.
"Just a fellow hunter, that's all," he said out loud. Some hunter, what sort of hunter yells at their prey first to warn them of their presence? Though the hammer didn't look too bad.. he conceded.
"Who the hell are you? I thought you were some sort of monster rising from the swamp," she kept her eyes trained on him as Cecil began striding towards her to get a better look at the newcomer.
Her armour was unlike anything he had seen up in the mountains. It looked like it was metal, and yet it had the unmistakeable sheen of polished shell- some sort of treated shell he had never seen before. Blue shell over silver metal, it looked a lot tougher than his mail and hide armour. Training his eyes up, he got a good look at her face. High cheekbones, raven hair and equally black eyes made put together an uncompromising expression that made her look like she had just found a cockroach in her food. Her hammer, however, was something he couldn't understand. It had an anvil for a head, and here this girl was lifting and carrying the thing like it was nothing. Either that thing wasn't as solid as it looked, or this girl was a lot stronger than she looked. By the way the hammer had impacted, he doubted it was any less solid than it looked.
"Cecil, a hunter down from the mountains. I was informed by the hunter's guild that there was a good sized wyvern down here, I'm just on a quest for them," he said, looking down at himself. It wasn't hard to see how she had mistaken him for some beast from the swamp, he may as well have been part of the swamp.
"Well, you're not needed down here," she sniffed. "We can take care of our own, we don't need some guild lapdog to take care of our own problems for us." She gave him the most arrogant look as she put her hammer away, sliding the handle into a strap on her lower back, and securing the weapon. "Go back home, it's all been taken care of."
Cecil was stumped by the girl's sheer arrogance and venom. What was her problem? Had the wyvern really been taken care of, and he was just on a wild popo chase? "So you've killed the wyvern already?" he asked, trying to hold back his annoyance at being called a lapdog. No matter how apathetic, some things still stung.
The girl tossed her hair, slid her carving knife from its sheath on her hip, and gave him another look. "I said you're not needed around here, we can take care of our own business."
"You're not answering my questions," Cecil pointed out.
"I don't ha-"
Their conversation was rudely interrupted by the unmistakeable scream of a wyvern. It rang out over the clearing, followed quickly by the distant sound of wingbeats. Cecil reacted instantly, drawing his hooked blades from their sheaths on his back, his eyes searching the skies.
The girl swore in a very unlady-like manner (but there was hardly anything lady-like about her to begin with, so it seemed alright) and pulled out her hammer. "Get out of here," she said simply.
"I thought you took care of the wyvern?" Cecil asked her calmly, raising an eyebrow in question.
She didn't get time to answer. A massive shadow flew over them, and landed across them in the clearing, skidding to an awkward stop. No mistake, the thing matched the guild's descriptions, Cecil grinned to himself inside, lowering his body and raising his blades as the thing turned.
The Gypceros screeched again when it saw the two of them. The wyvern was similar in size to Khezus he had encountered, though this thing was a dark grey colour. A giant knob of bone made up its snout, and behind it above its eyes was what looked like a crystal, pulsing faintly and irregularly with a faint light.
It snapped its jaws, making a clicking sound that could be heard all the way from where they were. "I think it's angry," Cecil said casually.
"When it rears back, cover your eyes," the girl said quietly, all her former arrogance and confidence vanishing.
"Huh?" Cecil only had time for a brief look of confusion. The gypceros screamed, and charged at the two hunters standing near the dead Aptonoth. It ran in a clumsy fashion, its head whipping from side to side. Despite the way it ran, however, it was fast, and seemed to know where it was going.
The two hunters scattered as the giant wyvern barrelled past them, leaving a trail of ravaged vegetation and agitated water as it went. Cecil turned in time to see it trip over the corpse of the herbivore, sliding the last few metres on its belly until it stopped. Seeing the opening, Cecil sprinted for the downed wyvern.
It seemed the other hunter had the same idea, as they reached the gypceros at the same time. Cecil swinging his hooked sword at the wyvern's legs, intent on severing its hamstring, or at least tear a few muscles. To his surprise, his swords only managed to scratch the surface of the rubbery skin, barely drawing blood.
Rolling under the thing's stomach as it stood up, he stabbed his weapons upwards, hoping to puncture the softer skin of its belly. To his annoyance, his blows were deflected once more with minimal damage as even the sharpened hook ends of his blades failed to punch through the dark grey hide.
"How tough is this thing?!" he growled above the sound of the thrashing wyvern as it spun around and around, trying to find what was causing the annoying pricking sensation.
A hammer head came out of nowhere, smashing head on into the gypceros' leg, the wyvern screamed in agony, and thrashed its wings about. Cecil dove out from under it just as it took off into the sky, its wings raising splashes of muddy water as it backed away from the two hunters.
Cecil stood up, sheathing one of its swords and fumbling around in his pouch. He grunted with satisfaction as his hand encountered the orb. Throwing it direction at the retreating wyvern, he covered his eyes as the bomb went off. There was a blinding flash, and another scream from the wyvern.
"Ha, got you.." his sentence died in his throat as he opened his eyes, blinking as he watched the gypceros literally bouncing up and down with rage.
"You idiot! What did you go and do that for?!" the girl yelled at him. She obviously hadn't expected it, and was blinking her eyes furiously to get rid of the afterimages. "Cover your eyes!"
Cecil didn't have time to heed her warning when another, even brighter flash lit up the clearing. He cried out in pain as the flash registered on his eyes. It felt like his eyeballs had been wrenched out of their sockets, and all he could see was whiteness and faint shapes in the distance.
He rubbed his eyes, trying to clear them as he heard the thudding and splashing of a charging gypceros. He couldn't see a thing!
A hand grabbed his shoulder, and pulled him roughly away as air rushed past him, and a wave of muddy water hit his face. "Freaking idiot," he heard the other hunter mutter, quickly followed by a quiet "uh oh.."
Cecil shook her hand off. Despite the fact that she had more likely than not just saved his life, the "uh oh" was of more pressing concern. Nothing good came from an "uh oh". Ever.
His question was answered when an all-too familiar roar rang out over the swamp, louder than the gypceros, and one that Cecil had come to hate.
Cecil's vision was gradually returning, and he growled when he recognised the familiar white shape in the distance.
"Khezu.." he breathed.
"What? What is that thing?" the girl asked. She was definitely scared now. So much for the tough hunter act, he shook his head.
Cecil rubbed his eyes as his vision came back enough for him to take stock of his surroundings. The khezu had landed opposite the gypceros, no doubt having sniffed out the aptonoth's corpse. Getting to his knees, Cecil looked back at the gypceros from behind the reeds they were hiding behind. The girl at least had enough sense to get the two of them into some sort of cover.
The two hunters completely forgotten, the gypceros turned to the khezu, and answered its scream with a roar of its own. Sniffing the air with that same, pig-like snuffling that set Cecil's nerves on edge, the khezu advanced slowly on the fallen aptonoth, ignoring the other wyvern in the area.
Cecil looked back at the girl, who was crouched down, staring at the scene with a terrified expression on her face.
"You've never seen a Khezu before?" Cecil whispered, keeping one eye on the gypceros as it stalked towards the Khezu, who had buried its snout in the red mess that was the Aptonoth's head. Cecil sneered, disgusting creature.
The girl shook her head dumbly.
"You're from around here, aren't you?"
Nod, nod.
He thought about this. The two of them weren't in any immediate danger, but if they could take out both wyverns, the guild was sure to pay them handsomely for the trophies. "Are there any caves around here?"
"We're not supposed to go into them.." the girl muttered, embarrassment and humiliation forgotten in the face of the two giant beasts.
That'd be where the khezu came from, Cecil thought grimly as he watched the gypceros circle the newly-arrived wyvern. The flabby, white wyvern looked up from where it had buried its snout in the corpse, and growled menacingly at the other wyvern.
"Why didn't my flash bomb work on the gypceros?" Cecil asked. "And how the hell do you lift a hammer that big?" The last question had come out involuntarily. He figured if he was going to take advantage of her current state, he might as well sate his curiosity to its full.
"You saw what the gypceros did after you flashed it. If you flash it, the thing will only take it as a sign of challenge, and get angrier," the girl muttered. "And this hammer.." she frowned, and gave him a strange look. "What's that got to do with anything?" Having also realised they weren't about to be eaten alive at any second, some of her fire had returned.
Cecil shrugged, he almost had his answer. "If you can take out the gypceros- you seem to know what you're doing around it- I'll take out the khezu. I know how to deal with the thing, and if we do this, the guild will pay us a fat bonus," he added, ignoring her question. "Come on, while they're distracted we have the element of surprise."
Without warning, the khezu screamed, making both of them cover their ears to block out the painful noise. Cecil looked up in time to see the thing's neck lash forward, extending to four times its normal length, its jaw latching itself onto the gypceros' neck like a huge, disgusting leech.
The gypceros screamed and thrashed around in agony as dozens of razor teeth dug into its neck. Flailing around, the crystal on its head flashed again, in an effort to stun its attacker. The khezu ignored it, and began retracting its neck, pulling the other wyvern in. Its eyes had atrophied beyond redemption long ago somewhere along its evolution. If it couldn't even see what it was attacking, it sure wasn't going to be fazed by some bright light that barely registered on its visual sensors.
Cecil opened his eyes once more, and began crawling forward. A hand tugged at his arm, and he looked back. The girl chewed her lower lip, and glanced at the two struggling wyverns. "Are you sure we can do this..?" she asked.
He just shrugged. "We're hunters, aren't we?" he asked her pointedly.
The girl gave the wyverns another long look, then finally nodded. "But if we die it's all your fault," she warned him.
Despite the situation, Cecil grinned at her. This was more like it.
She placed a hand on his shoulder, and he looked back again in question. "What is it?"
"My name.. it's Terra," she whispered. "And try not to get in my way when you fight that ugly white thing.. the khezu," she added, before crawling off in another direction, circling behind the gypceros.
Cecil almost laughed.
Meanwhile, the two wyverns continued their tug-of-war. Both wyverns' feet scrabbled in the slippery mud, trying to find purchase. The gypceros was trying to snap at the khezu's neck, but couldn't bend its head far enough to reach, instead trying to dislodge it by sheer force as it thrashed about. The khezu was unfazed by its opponent's efforts to get free, its neck flexing and twisting into painful-looking angles as it refused to let go. Giving up trying to get free and its lifeblood streaming from around the khezu's jaws, the gypceros growled, its throat rippling as it gathered some substance in its mouth. It paused only briefly before it vomited forth a globule of purple slime all over the khezu's back and its right wing.
Even from across the clearing, Cecil could hear the sizzling of flesh as smoke started rising from the khezu's body where the slime had landed, and the pungent smell of burnt flesh filled his nostrils. The khezu smelled bad enough naturally, but this was almost beyond bearable. He tried not to breathe too deeply through his nose as he circled around the khezu, keeping his movements slow as to not startle the two combatants.
Letting go of the gypceros' neck, the khezu reared back, twisting its neck around in confusion as the purple substance burnt away its skin and twitching muscles beneath.
Another round of challenging roars rang out, the two wyverns now more wary of each other growling and snuffling, daring the other to make a move.
Cecil didn't give the khezu a chance to act. Leaping from behind it, he drove the hooked points of his blades deep into its leg where he knew it would do the most damage. Snarling, he opened his arms, tearing the thing's leg muscles and its disgusting skin wide open. A spurt of red blood splashed him as the wyvern staggered, its leg almost giving way under his initial attack.
He knew it wasn't going to be that easy, as the khezu spun to face him. All he could see was its dripping maw, its teeth and lips still red with the blood from the gypceros. It extended its neck, trying to kill the little annoying creature with its sharp arms.
Cecil ducked, and the khezu's neck went right over his head. He could see its windpipe, a slightly raised ridge under its neck where its windpipe took air to its lungs. He thrust upwards before it could retract its neck, trying to finish the thing off quickly.
His swords missed, the points of only grazing the tough pipe that ran along its fleshy neck.
Cecil didn't dare stay under the thing as its neck retracted. If it used its electric attack in a place like this, with the ground covered in water.. he had to keep its distance, to try and get it to chase him, but not too far so it'd decide to shoot electricity. Neither eventuality would end well for the hunters.. and probably the gypceros too.
Looking around, Cecil caught a glimpse of the other fight. Terra seemed to be holding her own against the gypceros as she said she would. The crystal on its head was smashed to pieces, and it was limping from its earlier injuries. Well, at least one of them was going well, he thought.
He had to get the khezu out of this area, and to somewhere where the terrain wouldn't pose a problem. He remembered there was a cave entrance that he had passed on his way here, though at the time he had been too focussed on hunting the aptonoths to investigate. It must be dry in there, where the thing's electricity wouldn't conduct, and kill them all.
Slowly, he began backing away from the khezu, keeping the other fight in his peripheral vision. He saw the gypceros vomit forth another blob of poison, only for Terra to dodge it, and smash it full in the face with her hammer, sending bone chips flying as she broke its snout crest.
The khezu sniffed the air as it followed him, cautious but not unwilling to attack. It crouched, and threw its entire bulk forward towards him. The sight of such a large mass of flabby flesh bearing down on him made Cecil dive further than he normally would have, sliding along the mud and water as the enormous wyvern landed with a bone-crunching splash behind him, sending up a wave of muddy water that washed over Cecil's prone body.
Standing up and spitting the foul-tasting water out of his mouth, Cecil wiped the gunk away from his eyes. "You are so dead," he muttered, watching the khezu trying to stand up after its pounce.
His advance was halted dead on its tracks by a third, almighty roar that made everyone in the clearing pause. The khezu staggered to its feet, but instead of attack Cecil, it raised its snout, and sniffed the air. Even the gypceros had stopped, looking around warily.
What could possibly scare a wyvern?
Another roar split the heavens, closer this time. Cecil winced and covered his ears. It wasn't the high-pitched screech of another khezu or gypceros, it was even worse than the roar of an adult tigrex that would echo over the mountain peaks. It was something that struck a chord deep in his psyche, and made him want to hide under a rock until whatever it was had gone away. He had only heard a roar similar to it once before in his life up on the mountain peak when he had been a child.
He had never found out what it was, and no one knew, or wanted to tell him what it was.
Looks like now he might find out.
Lightning flashed, dangerously close to where they were. It was followed by the deafening bellow of thunder as the heavens opened up. Torrential rain fell from the skies, instantly drenching them all. The hot rain was deafening in its cacophony, joined by thunder and lightning in a storm unlike anything he had seen before. Each bolt of lightning was a spear of light that lanced down from the sky, each roar of thunder the roar of a hundred wyverns, and in the background, the constant hiss of rain that made the entire swamp steam up in its unnatural heat. Soon, visibility was down to almost nothing.
The Khezu took off, clumsily with its still damaged wing. The gypceros quickly followed suit, Cecil could hear it staggering and limping away before it managed to get airborne, leaving the two hunters looking at each other in confusion through the curtain of falling water.
They moved towards each other instinctively, back to back.
"Is it another khezu?" Terra breathed as the two of them heard the deep thump, thump of giant wings in motion.
Cecil shook his head. As much as he wanted to berate her stupidity, he couldn't. "I have no idea what it is," he admitted. Though we're about to find out, he thought. There was no need to speaking that thought out loud, because he knew both of them had the same thought.
His hands tightened on the grip of his weapon as a colossal shadow larger than anything he had seen before drew close. It was nothing more than an indistinct blob through the fog and the rain.
The shape landed on top of the rocks that surrounded the clearing. There was a terrified whimper from Terra, Cecil barely held back his own. he felt the earth-trembling crash, and saw claws bigger than anything he had ever seen grip the rocks, crushing and gouging them like chalk.
It trained its gaze on them as its wings flapped one more time, and folded up on its back. The wind from the one beat sent the two hunters sprawling onto their backsides, staring helplessly up at the incredible beast.
There was a deep rumbling from the thing's throat, and the massive wings flapped one more time, sending a sheet of water and irresistible wind that sent the two of them sprawling on their backsides.
Cecil saw the head lower, a maw that could have swallowed a khezu whole emerging from the fog. The two of them stared at it horror. The sheer size of the thing paralyzed their bodies with fear, and they were completely helpless to watch as it opened like a grave, revealing a mouthful of jagged teeth larger than they were.
Lightning flashed, illuminating the thing against the roiling, black clouds.
It roared.
The solid wall of sound knocked Cecil out quicker than he could register what had happened. One moment he was staring down its throat, the next he was plummeting over the edge into unconsciousness.
A/N: Hope you all enjoyed this chapter nya :D I'm going to gradually try and introduce a storyline into this whole thing with each instalment. I'm not sure myself how this thing is going to play out, and I always enjoy watching my own stories play out of their own accord, it's so much funner that way. xD
Just a note on the whole gyppie poison thing, before you start complaining "it doesn't work that way! D: " I thought the whole acid approach was better than having the acid seep into the khezu's system, and poisoning it like venom, since acid is soooo much funner and have a more immediate and graphic effect. xP