Chapter 5- Patching Things Up

The sun dripped in passed the heavy drapes that shielded the room from the outside sunlight in the small hunting guild sanctioned housing. Zenna stretched, feeling the slight soreness in her abdomen as she did. She hissed gentling with discomfort, her right hand feeling the still bandaged wound she had received little over two weeks ago from the Arzuros in the Misty Peaks. The huntress had been fortunate, that her wounds had only been superficial, though she had bled a lot, the wound itself had not been life threatening nor would take very long to heal. She recalled the incident. It had been frightening to say the least, not only because she had been treated very much like a rag doll by the angry ursine predator, but because she had also nearly witnessed the demise of her partner and friend during the same instance.

Images of the dual bladed hunter dancing about in a seemingly one sided bout flashed in her version. She had been rendered unconscious from the bears armor crushing strike, and had awoken to see Koryn fighting desperately against the angry monster. He had been running on fumes, and even with a healing tonic, he had suffered a great amount of damage. After they had completed the mission, he had been the one to help her, even though she had saved him. He had suffered a lot for her sake. Two fractured ribs, not to mention several bumps and bruises and a nearly broken arm in the process. The adrenaline had kept him conscious and dulled the pain in his injuries, but when they had landed. Both had needed the help of guild officials to get the proper treatment they needed. She had a few dozen stitches on the right side of her abdomen. She had not been allowed by the very overprotective wyverian that was Koryn's current mentor to see him until he was given a few weeks rest.

Zenna respected the old mans wishes, after all he had in the past helped her, though she cared little for his company. The old codger was a bit of a lecherous sort and so she stayed clear when she could. It was only for Koryn that she even put up with the master blacksmith anyways. What had caused her some distress was the fact that she had not once received any indication that the other hunter had any desire to see her. She told herself for a few days after her wounds healed enough for her to move about freely, that he was only recovering, though it also occurred to her that he never knew where she resided. They normally convened by the quest board or the guild hall when not on missions, or the few times she visited while in disguise, at the workshop.

"Today...I need to see him today," she told herself as she rose from her bed and removed the bandage to check on the recovering injury. Three red lines nearly identical in length and shape, stretched across her right side. They were neatly stitched shut and seemed to be healing nicely, it was fortunate they had not been life threatening most likely due to the bulky suit of armor she had been wearing before. Had she been wearing a more form fitting set, she would have most likely been worse off, though she might have also been fast enough to move away all the same. A new set of armor, that would be something to consider huntress finished redressing the wound, and after slipping on some casual clothing and running a brush through her hair she was ready to go.

As she walked through the busy streets, she felt a tingling sense of dread in her stomach. Normally she would have been delighted to go and see her friend, but now she was beginning to wonder if she could even call Koryn that anymore. The green eyed huntress had prepared to give an explanation the first chance she got to see him. She now dreaded how the young swordsman would react now that he had gotten time to think, perhaps even concluding her dishonest charade was enough to terminate the friendship they had. In truth she had few she considered friends, and even fewer here in Minegarde. She had drinking buddies maybe, even occasional hunting partners, but never someone she thought could be a long standing partner.

She reached the small shop, seeing the heavy tarp was drawn shielding everything from the outside world. It was still early so it was most likely not open, she thought it fortunate she might not have to deal with Vul'kan at all if Koryn was awake in the shop. She did not bother to take notice the sound of metal striking metal as she took in a deep breath before walking through the tarp.

There was a moment of shock and silence as her eyes met his. Koryn was standing up in the middle of the workshop most of his upper torso was covered up in bandages, and from his right shoulder a sling meant for his damaged left arm hung loosely from was supposed to be holding his injured left arm in place. Instead he was holding a piece of steel, as best he could with his injured arm as he held a small hammer with his right hand. The tool was raised high over his head as he had been mid-swing apparently working on something.

"What are you doing?" Zenna asked only second before the fiery eyed hunter could put a finger to his lips. The question seemed foolish, it was clear what the recovering hunter intended to do, and it was plainly obvious it was the opposite of what he should have been doing, which was taking it easy and healing peacefully. Before anything else could be said, their was a loud crash in the other part of the small dwelling followed by an even louder string of carefully chosen chosen curses.

The sound of small angry footsteps could be heard before the door that lead into the living areas of the shop had burst open. The master blacksmith barged in and the look of utmost annoyance on his wrinkled and withered features. Some might have found it hard to see any difference from the old mans normal grouchy look, but the two hunters could simply feel the change, as the already sweltering shop seemed to grow even hotter. The steely black eyes of the wyverian fell on his apprentice, Koryn seemed to grow smaller all of a sudden. Even Zenna, who was an innocent party in all of this, felt like she had done misdeed to earn the old coots scorn.

"Fool boy! What will it take to keep you still!" Vul'kan demanded, his words like tongues of fire that flashes from an angry wyverns mouth. In fact the man was speaking and taking deep dregs from his favorite pipe at the same time, so each word was followed by a plume of smoke that gave the appearance he was about ready to spout fire at the stubborn apprentice. Koryn seemed ready to complain, but before he could even get a word out the old coot continued.

"I will handle the repairs, you don't need the blasted armor until your healed anyways!," in that instant the black eyes fell upon Zenna and a finger shot out towards her. "You...girl! Keep this idiot occupied and away from the tools...else I'll have to keep him locked up or bang him about until he cant lift a damned hammer until he's well!"

With that the old coot turned and left, mumbling about how the youth these days had to much energy and lacked respect for their elders.

The two stood in silence for a few moments longer, both expecting the angry old timer to return with renewed anger and fury. When it seemed that was not to be the case, the hammer wielding huntress decided to break the silence.

"So...you hungry?" she asked. The fiery eyed hunter had put the blacksmith hammer down onto the nearest workbench and slipped his injured arm into its slip. He turned and without a word nodded and followed her out of the shop.

An hour later the two sat in their usual spot in the rowdy mess hall. Koryn was thankful to be outside, having spent weeks inside the shop had been dull, and the itch to do something rather than sitting still while on the mend had driven him to throw caution to the wind and try and work on something. He knew he could hardly work the billows with one arm, and the thought of trying to work on anything big for fear of being caught. He had just wanted to form a few sheets of metal, nothing entirely hard, but he wanted some stimulation after being inactive for so long.

He felt better now though that he was in the loud guild hall. Though it seemed different. As he looked over at the huntress sitting next to him, he was aware that the lack of her normal bulky armor and the tone of her voice made it feel like he was sitting next to someone else. Though she seemingly acted the same despite the lose of her disguise.

The two talked very little as they waited for their meals. They asked one another how their injuries had come along. Aside from that there was little joking from him, he did his best to act normal, but he could not shake the alien feeling of the situation. When the food arrived he quickly did his best to dig to give him something to do. He managed well enough with one hand, and tore into his food with ravenous hunger. It was delicious, after only eating what the old wyverian could cook. He guessed after smoking for so long the old man had lost his sense of taste, and so his food was normally tasteless and dull. He after several long moments he was the only one eating.

Koryn turned to see two emerald green eyes staring intently at him. For the briefest moment he felt he could get lost in them, even despite the low light, he could swear they shimmered with their own glow, but he quickly pushed the feeling away and after swallowing his bite he put his utensil down and turned. His mouth felt somewhat dry as he thought of what to say, but all he could manage was a rather flat "What?"

Zenna didn't seem to mind the tone of his voice, instead she sat up a little straighter and blinked "So whats on your mind?" she asked casually.

The hunter once more felt at a lose for words. Several things had gone through his head in the past few weeks, and he wanted to ask her, but he found it was hard. He decided not to beat around the bush and come out with the first thing that came to his mind.

"So how long have you been...pretending not to be you?" he knew he could have phrased it better, but he truthfully was curious and still rather unsure of how to proceed.

"A while," she said simply "what was meant to be a short solution dragged on far longer than it needed to maybe." She turned to her food and began to pick at it a bit, letting him mull over what she had said for a moment. The huntress had thought long and hard of what to say when she needed to, but it still didn't make it any easier.

"A solution to what?"

Zenna expected this and with a sigh she gestured for him to get comfortable as this might take a while. Koryn seemed to get the hint and turned so he was facing his food and as they ate she explained more about herself than she had in the time they had been partners on the hunt.

Koryn listened intently not interrupting as she bared more about herself to him. He was glad to see her story was not much different than what she had told him when she was in disguise in her Rhenoplos armor. She did in fact come from the desert city Loc-Lac, and was the daughter of a hunter and merchant. She had an older brother and was partially trained by her father as well as the academy. Despite him knowing all this already he felt there would be new information soon, and so he kept his silence.

"I graduated from the academy a little over two years back...I was just turning seventeen at the time," she explained. "By no means was I the youngest in my group, but I was among them, and I had earned a reputation for being among the top of my group to become a fully fledged hunter," Zenna paused for a moment, but when it seemed he had nothing to say she continued. "My family thought I would do best to stay home and be a local hunter, but the thought of seeing the same sandy dunes didn't sit well with me...so instead I thought a change of scenery would do me good." She received an understanding node from her audience and she smiled gently as she kept going.

"My parents weren't exactly thrilled, but my older brother was on my side and so it didn't take long until I was looking at a new place to start my hunting career," she took a bite of food before moving on "I chose Minegarde mostly because I had always wanted to see trees, and things other than sand and dried bones, it also seemed like a good place, far away from anyone I might know to start making a name for myself."

Once again Koryn nodded with understanding, he could relate to wanting to be independent and to make a name for oneself. After all he seemingly lived under the roof of a well known hunter for most of his life, and greatly desired to break away from the large shadow Ferrum cast over him.

"So? How did that decision go?"

"Horribly," Zenna replied, he noticed she struck a morsel of food rather harshly with her fork at that moment. The swordsman stayed quiet, allowing her to gather herself before she continued.

"Despite being far from home word of my time at the academy got around, and so it wasn't hard finding willing partners to go hunting with in the slighest," the bitterness in her voice was made more present and he found himself all the more confused by it.

"Then that's good right?"

The huntress laughed slightly "You'd think so...but when I found out the reason why everyone was so chummy to me I was less happy about being the center of attention."

Koryn had a feeling the subject was beginning to turn into a touchy one, but before he could assure her she didn't need to explain herself the huntress continued on.

"A small rumor that my graduating the academy had been on more so my looks than my actual skill had seemingly gone around," she said darkly. The anger in her voice was apparent, and he kept his mouth shut. "Whats more being from a far off place...I must have been some kind of exotic beauty to macho hunters, maybe they thought I was naive or something, but when I found out they simply wanted to impress me to get into my...good graces...I was upset to say the least."

"How did you figure it out?" he asked without thinking.

"Some brave idiot tried to cop a feel out in the field one day...so I broke his wrist and that was that," Zenna replied and took a deep drink of her tankard. Koryn half expected her to laugh and say it was a joke, but as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, he had a feeling she was not lying.

"How is it your still a hunter after that?"

"The moron was to proud to admit the truth, so instead he fabricated a story that he broke it during a fight while hunting with me...he added how useless I was in the fight, which resulted in his injury," she let out an annoyed sigh "after that no one really cared to try and win me over, seemed self-preservation overruled the masculine need to show off to a pretty girl," she took another drink "and honestly for a while I was quiet happy with the outcome...I didn't mind being the loner and was content with hunting on my own, but that only lasted so long."

Koryn let her story settle in for a few moments, the two ate in relative silence as he reflected on it, her story made sense so far, but there was the fact she wore that obscenely large suite of armor. "What sort of issues could have caused a need to change what you where doing?"

The huntress paused for a bit before answering his question "Well...you see...I may be a great hunter on my own...but you can only go so far hunting by yourself after all," that made sense to him "but like I said I was a loner. and hardly anyone regardless of gender cared to associate with me," a sudden realization struck the clever hunter as she continued.

"So you decided to use a big set of armor...most likely meant for a big burly hunter to hide yourself?" he abruptly interrupted

Zenna gingerly tapped her nose and grinned "Yep...one of my better ideas," her eyes flashed with delight as he caught on "I had it sent to me, and after a few modifications I was able to wear it like any other suite of armor...well it did take some getting used to," she added at the end. "After that I just needed to pretend I was someone else...a big strong hunter...was kind of easy actually...I grew up with two testosterone fueled hunters after all...and the deep echo the armor caused helped mask my voice nicely...I just had to talk a bit deeper and act like one of the guys."

Koryn didn't question the effectiveness of her ruse, he had fallen for it after all. "So...why didn't you tell me who you really were after a while?" The hunter reached for his vessel and took a deep drink as he waited for her reply.

"You never asked to see my face," she replied innocently. At that moment he choked on his drink, coughing gently as he hastily put the heavy container down. His hurt ribs stung gingerly as he coughed, and Zenna was rather apologetic as he calmed down. The green eyed girl could not help but laugh slightly though at his reaction, which made her apologizing less convincing.

"So you mean if I had asked you would have just taken the helmet off?"

"Sure," she replied

"So all the times I asked about your armor and about you wearing it all the time? You said you prefered keeping it on...was to much a hassle to take it off," he did his best to recall her responses back then.

"I wasn't lying, the damn thing was hard to get on, and I had grown so used to sleeping and eating with it on that I didn't care to take it off unless necessary."

"So why not just show me after a while? Where you afraid I'd act like those other hunters...go all...stupid around you?" At this Zenna laughed loudly, clutching her sides as her mirth caused a spike of pain in her stitches. Koryn felt slightly like he was the punch-line to a joke as the huntress had to calm down after so long.

"Oh no...after seeing how you handle yourself around girls for a few weeks...I had no fear in you trying to hit on me," she replied. Her words stung at his pride harshly at that, and it must have been apparent in his features because she quickly apologized once more.

"Sorry...I just knew you weren't...interested in impressing members of the opposite sex...I mean you seemed fairly unaware of any hints a girl could give," she said with a wide grin.

"Hints? What hints?" he asked quickly, unsure if she meant hints from herself, or others.

"Not important...point is I had no doubt you wouldn't try anything...I just didn't want to add any complications to a good thing," she replied honestly. Koryn sat for a few moments and thought it over, once the initial feelings of embarrassment began to subside and he just accepted the fact he was seemingly hopeless in these matters those feelings lessened. He supposed that wasn't his worst trait anyways.

"I get it," he replied finally, after a few moments of her lingering eyes resting on him.

"Great," Zenna gasped, not realizing she had been holding her breath in anticipation for him. The feeling of releif washed over him, but she still had a lingering need to be sure.

"So...are we good?" she asked hesitantly.

Koryn grinned softly, seeing the inner turmoil she was going through. He mentally admitted to himself, he liked finally being able to see his friends real emotions, and not hearing the overly jovial echoing voice of her masculine persona. It would be different, but he hoped a good different.

"Yeah...we're good," he finally spoke, extending his good arm out towards her in a friendly gesture.

Emerald eyes gleamed with delight, and she took his hand and grasped in firmly in hers. She smiled as she felt the pressure of his fingers tighten back, unafraid of being rough as they gave one another a very firm squeeze. She returned back and chuckled softly. Maybe things wouldn't be so different, she thought to herself.

"Alright...now all that mushy stuff is done...lets eat!...I need a healthy partner if we are going to go hunting anytime soon," she declared loudly, lifting her nearly emptied tankard, Koryn did the same in return and they loudly clattered the two vessels together, before downing the rest of the contents.

-End Chapter-

A/N: Hey everyone, sorry for my late updates. Life tends to have a way of messing with creativity it seems. I also had a few ideas for the story, and about halfway through finishing them I thought I could do things a bit different and so a lot of chapters I had in the works are being reviewed and reworked. Sorry this chapter was mostly dialogue, but I wanted to start hashing things out for the new character. The next few chapters will focus a bit more on development, but hopefully will be more action packed. Please bare with me everyone.

On another note the Summer Twilight Festival in Monster Hunter: World is underway, another reason I've been a bit distracted.

Still looking for monster suggestions for other chapters, so don't be shy to put your vote in the comments, or just send me a private message with your favorite monster. Next chapter should be up hopefully by tomorrow if not tonight. As always Happy Hunting.