Wolfbait prepared to grab his beer, when he noticed that it had multiplied. After trying to figure out which was the "real beer", the man lurched for the leftmost one, a clean miss. After a few more tries he finaly managed to grab the correct one, and within seconds he was ordering another.
"So that's him, that pathetic drunk?" asked a sturdy looking hunter, to his slightly smaller, but considerably more feirce looking friend.
"Of course it is, just look at the gun, its the island of the gods." the smaller one replied.
"We should grab him now, i have the warrants i need." said a third man, appearing from the shadows behind the other two. This man was not a hunter, but wore knight-like armor, obviously a militiaman.
"We could, but i'd just wait for the oaf to pass out, " said the sturdy hunter.
"Won't be long, and you can have him for whatever sort of punishment you have planned, " added the smaller one, " although, i'd take into consideration the good this man has done controlling out of control wyverns, and how much good he could do now we're at war."
"Point taken, and i wouldn't call it punishment, but more of a second chance." grinned the militiaman.
There was a thud, and everyone looked at an unconsious, skinny man, with scraggly long black hair laying partly on his tipped over stool, and partly on the floor. After a few seconds the exitement dropped, and the bar patrons went back to their drinks.
"Lets move!" saild the smaller hunter, as the three approached the body.
Katamar drew his hunter's knife, a weapon made more for self-defense than fighting, and rushed the formidable velocidrome. The beast gave a snarling yell as Katamar leaped into the air with his blade over his head. Moments from impact, time seemed to slow, almost stop. The yell gradualy became more low pitched, and the monster transformed into a much bigger form, that katamar felt familiar with, but couldn't recognize. As the two figures stood frozen, one inches away from slaying the other, Katamar felt his feeling of confidence drop, turning not into fear, but into an intense paining sorrow, everything in him said he shouldn't go through with the kill, but there was no turning back. His wife appeared to him in the distance, somehow not frozen, she smiled her beautiful smile, that normally melted him. However, the normal affect was brief, and as his wife faded, the confidence returned, but some dangerous sort of rage followed it, and before katamar could control it, time went back to normal, and he was drenched in blood. The creature started to come into focus, becoming even more recognizable, but still katamar couldnt figure out what it was. As he moved moved closer to examine the body, which seemed miles away for some reason, he was stopped in his tracks by a loud banging...
"I'll get it!" Kait said, as she approached the door, which was being banged on obnoxiously. Katamar shot up, a cold sweat drenching him, and burning his blood-shot eyes. Although Katamar had been sleeping for at least 2 hours longer than usual, he felt as if he'd been up for weeks, which is how long he'd been having that nightmare.
His wife returned to his room, with a letter from the new guild master. (the old guild master was killed by wild genprey while on his way to kokoto, and was replaced by a relative of the village cheif in katamar's town, and hero of kokoto.) "You think maybe they have work for you?" inquired his wife, "We've been living on next to nothing sinse this war started."
Katamar grunted, doubting his wifes over optimized theory. He went to his mirror, to wash the sweat out of his eyes before attempting to read the new master's horrible hand writing. After vision returned, he grabbed his beard out of habit. He always wondered why it wouldn't come in fully, a fact that his wife found more amusing everytime. "Don't worry about being ugly." she'd tease, " i still kinda like yer company." This never cheered katamar up, but the fact that she said it with that amazing smile made Katamar forget to care about the less beautiful things in the world.
Finaly Katamar got the nerve to open the letter, which as he predicted was not what Kait assumed. The letter said that war funding was more important than research, and that he was no longer needed untill further notice. It also stated that he would no longer receive any benefits from the guild.
"That's awful." Kait gasped at the news.
"Don't worry, i'll think of a way." katamar conforted, but unconvinced himself. There was no real way to make money in Minagarde any more... all there was farming, and being an heir. sinse his father was a broke monster hunter, and he didn't own land, neither of those options would work. The rest of the jobs were done by felynes, which would work for items that were cheaper than human-wage. "I'm gonna take a walk, clear my head and all.." Katamar said, when the panic and confusion finally began hurting his mind.
He walked to the guild hall, and although he wanted to drink, he promised Kait that he wouldn't do that again untill their son, Kyle, was married. Bored, Katamar decided to read the bulletin board to catch up on local news. Unfortunately, most of the bulletins were hunting contracts. However, katamar managed to find a few that contained interesting information, and he began to read them. "Notice: Due to the inefectively of current ores and other materials, and given the need of better war-time equipment, the previous ban on using items carved or rewarded on official quests for the making of weapons and armor has been removed until further notice, please note that this ban will be reinstated during the end of the current war, at which time all monster parts should be returned to the guild hall." another said "Notice: In an attempt to slow militarization, we have placed a ban on civilian made quests, hunters will only be permitted to take quests posted by the guild. Any civilians in need of hunters should report to the guild and place a requests. We are sorry for the inconvience."
"Inconvienence?!" Katamar growled. This was war, not some sort of ban on pipe smoking within thirty feet of a place of employment. Katamar hated the guild for that, trying to provoke the wyverns by treating hunting as casual employment, instead of mercanaries. And although the new guild master was doing his part to stop that, it seemed irreverseable, and besides, his unemployment gave Katamar new reasons to hate this guild master.
Katamar pondered this a while, sitting and staring at his peices of newspaper, when he noticed a quest contract. "Troublesome Pair" it said, and it requested the slaying of a rathalos and rathian that were spotted in the marsh lands. Katamar was about to put the discusting peice of paper away, when he noticed the reward money, and nearly fainted. He rushed over to the lady in charge of taking up contracts. "I want to go on this one!" He said,. Convinced he'd found the answer to his family's prolems, Katamar easily forgot his opinion of the war.
"You can't do this, you've gotta get a bit more prestige in this place, and besides, do you have the contract fee?" snickered the guild lady.
"No, no i don't, but what can i do?" Katamar said, while looking at the 10 zenny in his money pouch.
"Take an easier contract first, but i'd recomend getting a weapon." At his point, the lady was fighting off laughter.
Katamar grabbed a peice of paper, requesting the slaying of a jungle beast, with a low contract fee. "Hold this." he said. Then he left the hall, and went to speak with the village cheif. He only hoped that she would give him some sort of assistance in this new career possiblity.
She seemed worried when Katamar arrived, but his request seemed to change her mood. She seemed overly excited about his interest in hunting, and Katamar felt a shiver run down his spine. He saw no choice but to ignore it, and to take the 1500zenny that she offered him. With this Katamar left, and went to purchase a more formidable weapon from his friend Trevor, a somewhat shady blacksmith. Trevor had a nasty habit of being efficient, so he ended up with extra monster parts. Instead of returning them to his patrons, he would pocket them, and make illegit weapons. Katamar's new wealth was enough to buy one of these illegaly made weapons, a katana made of bone, called "wolf" by Trevor, who had dreams of impoving it, but was willing to let go for the 1000 z offered him.
"Don't you think you should spend the rest on a breast plate or sommin?" Trevor called to Katamar as he left. Katamar pretended not to hear him, he knew he couldn't afford armor if he wanted to be able to pay the contract fee, which he would have to borrow money to meet.
Katamar re-entered the guild hall. "I'll pay you the rest out of carves." he said, as he slid 500 z across the bar. And began to walk out the double hinged doors.
"What if you don't kill anything?" She cried.
"I will." Katamar replied, trying to sound as confident as possible. He approached a hot air baloon, which would take him to the river, and from there he'd have to catch a boat. Katamar figured he should be back within a week. He realized he forgot to say goodbye to his wife and son, but there was no going back., so he stepped up the ramp, and a duo of felynes hurriedly dropped the sand. With this, Katamar was off, and his first monster hunt awaited him.