Unexpected Fury

Rip sat at the table in the Gathering Hall sipping a beer, and earning a look of disaproval from Lily. She sat down next to him and took the beer from his hand before it consumed him, rather than him consuming it. Taking a hint, he stood up, and walked over with her to the bulletin board. This was where all hunts began. Picture it; a huge piece of wood hanging on the wall, riddled with nail holes, barely visible undernieth countless pieces of paper in different handwriting all saying one thing. Trouble. Rip walked up and selected a thick peice of paper with large writing, requesting that a group of conga be removed from a remote village located in the jungle. Not what he was there for. Lily reached to the top of the board and untacked a peice of paper that they both knew as soon as they looked at it, was what they needed.

"Help," read Rip in a monotone voice displaying his enthusiasm. "My son left some meat outside our house after a kelbi hunt, and it attracted a Yian Kut-ku. It destroyed our home and has taken up residence in the area. Please slay the foul beast. ~ Gareth the Carpenter."

A few of the people in the guild hall had stopped what they were doing to hear him read curious to see what he had chosen. Among them was the bartender who chuckled and went back to wiping the beer mugs set before him. A thankless job.

Avoiding the creaking boards this time, Rip walked over to the counter with Lily following, and presented the peice of paper to Niasha, who gave him a smile of recognition. This time instead of making him wait, she stopped what she was doing and took the paper.

"Kut-ku I see." she said

"Mhmm."

"Will you be the only member of this hunting party?" Naisha inquired licking her fingers, and turning a page in her ledger.

"Today it will be her, and myself." Rip nodded back at Lily, and picked some dirt out of his boot.

Niasha turned around to her bookshelf and found the records for the two hunters, and filled in a page in each one. Closing them triumphantly, she returned them to the shelf, and made a sweeping motion with her hand, as if to shoo them away.

"It's all taken care of. You have four hours to get ready if you need. If not, you're all set. Happy hunting!" she said, repeating the phrase she said dozens of times a day.

The two Hunters walked out the back door of the Gathering Hall, ready to travel to the Hills. An old Felyn with a backpack watched them leave, a look of longing in his eyes, as if he wished he could go with them. Neither of them noticed. The old cat's head sunk as the door creaked shut, and the Hunters were gone.

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One Day Later

It was the second day of the hunt, and Rip was beginning to get impatient. Though he had grown to like Lily more and more over the course of the first day, but slow hunts bothered him more than anything. The two hunters walked side by side through a heard of aptonoth's making small talk and laughing at cheesy jokes. After a while Rip looked down at his armor, being reminded of the monsters who had unwillingly sacrificed their lives so that he could use their hide to defend himself from more like them, and laughed. "Of all Kut-ku I have hunted, none of them have eluded me this long."

Lily shrugged her shoulders. "Some hunts just take longer than others that's all. You need to be patient. Don't rush things so much."

Rip only half heard her, since he was dodging the foot high dung heaps that decorated the landscape around the massive gray herbivores.

"You're too reckless." she continued. "One day it will cost you."

She was right. Rip was too reckless. For a hunter of his rank he was exceptional, and he knew it. He wasn't really cocky as you would think, he just overstepped his boundaries and seemed to feel as if there were no limit to his skill. This turned the heads of many young females who were attracted to his muscled form, composed attitude, and even more so, his ability to be sensitive when appropriate. This turned the heads of some officials in the other direction thinking him careless.

Rip was about to open his mouth to speak, but stopped. Lily was about to ask him what was wrong, but she saw what had made him stop, and the words she was about to speak skipped into her head, and right back out as her eyes took over her concentration, and focused all her senses on the object ahead. "Woah," she said

In front of the two hunters about twelve feet away, was the head of a Yian Kut-ku.

"Yeah", said Rip, his voice taking on a nervous tone."Those flies must think its cool too. They moved in."

Lily laughed not catching the anxiousness in his voice.

It was true, the head was the dream pad of any fly. The eyeballs oozed a thick gray liquid. One had even fallen out pulling the decomposing optic nerve with it. The beak was cracked to the point of being unsalvagable, and in the cracks between every scale, dried blood was visible.

"What hunter would leave that behind?" whistled Lily. "Thats got some value attached to it."

"Not anymore it doesnt, and I think that whatever killed this was not interested in value." Rip grabbed her, and started to lead away from the head.

"What do you mean 'whatever killed this'.. dont you mean whoever...." her eyes got big as she understood what he meant. "You think a monster did this?"

Rip grimaced. "What else could it have been? No blade cuts that messily."

She looked and saw part of the spine nestled among tendons, blood and scale fragments. It looked ragged, as if it had been ripped off by something very big. "I'm thinkin that anything big enough to do that, is out of our league." Lily said becoming more serious than she had ever been since he had known her.

"Nah." disagreed Rip. "We can handle it."

Lily looked at him as if he had punched her in the face. A look which he took note of, and changed his mind.

"We could, but I don't want to risk that pretty face of yours." said Rip gesturing towards the severed head. "We dont want you to look like that."

Lily punched him, and pretended to be mad. She walked away from him, back the direction they had come. Rip followed her, determined to get her back to camp without meeting their new enemy. It was his duty to make sure she got back alive.

They began the long walk back to the camp. No sooner had they taken 10 steps when they heard the howl of the wind, which turned into wingbeats, and then the roar. Rip knew instantly that it was a Rathian. The two hunters looked up in time to follow the Rathian's flight right to the place they needed to walk.

"Dammit!" cursed Rip. "Run!"

The Rathian crashed to the earth almost knocking them to the ground. Rip hefted his Ravager blade, and jerked his head for Lily to leave, but instead she drew her swords and prepard for the bone jarring experience that lay ahead.

"No!" she said forcing a smile."I'm not going to let you take all the credit. Besides...We got this!"

Rip smiled at her courage, but then noticed that she forced back a gulp, as if she were terrified of her own words. He vowed to himself then and there that he would protect her. Even if it meant he lost his own life.

Ahead of them, the Rathian scratched the ground with its talons putting furrows in the already marred turf. The two hunters stood from a safe distance poised for action.

"Oh man," said Rip "This better work."

Lily gave him a surprised look, her green eyes flashing, but her attention quickly returned to the task at hand.

The beast leaned forward all of a sudden, an Rip prepared to dodge a charge, but instead, a jet of flame erupted from it's maw, and came hurtling toward them. Rip shoved the end of his sword into the ground, and held it diagonaly in front of them, and braced his shoulder against it. Rip grunted as the flames slammed into them. They poured over the edges of the sword passing over lily who knelt on the ground, but grazed Rip's arm, testing the flame resistant qualities of his armor. When the torrent ended, Rip charged the Rathian rolling twice to avoid its tail. Lily ran up his back as he sprung up from the last roll, and vaulted onto the monster, landing at the base of its she landed, she stabbed downward embedding both of her weapons in the monster's lower back.

The Rathian felt the effect of her swords, and began roaring, and spinning around to try to find the threat. Rip slammed his greatsword down on the enraged Rathian's foot, cutting off a few of its talons. It slumped, almost falling over. Attempting to take this opportunity to further inflict damage, Lily withdrew her swords, and ran up its back; as she was running, she lost her balance, and one of her swords. She caught her self, but the sword flew out of her hand, and landed on the ground.

Between the monster's roars she hollered down to Rip, "I dont suppose you could get that, could you?"

Rip smiled anxiously, eyeing the Rathian. He ran over, picked up her sword, and tossed it up to her. She caught it, and began slashing at the place where the creature's wings met the body putting gashes in the softer hide. She felt the monster slump again as Rip attacked its legs. He swung his greatsword, at the ground clipping the underside of the wing. Using the momentum from his previous attack, he swung the blade horizontally cutting deeply into the Rathians right leg.

The Rathian spun around, and swatted him with its tail, flinging him fifteen feet away. With a mighty heave, accompanied by a howl of pain due to its many injuries, the monster leapt into the air with Lily on his back. She watched in terror as the ground shrunk around her, and Rip became smaller and smaller. Under her she felt the monster shaking, and a few seconds later it lurched. She watched as white balls of flame hurtled to the earth, narrowly missing Rip.

Rip appeared as if he was tryin to tell her something, but due to all the noise created by the Rathian, she could not understand a word he was saying. Finally getting over her fear, she took her swords in hand and shoved them into its neck. Her blade must have hit something vital, because the Rathian flinched, and immediatley stopped flapping. Rathian and rider plunged to the earth, and collided with a thud, that put a huge Rathian shaped imprint in the ground, and quite possibly knocked the earth out of its normal orbit. Lily fell off its back, and slammed into a large rock that they had barely missed, and fell from Rip's vision behind it. She was no longer moving.

Rip ran up and began attacking the stunned Rathian, not knowing that his hunting partner was equally stunned, or worse. He chopped off its tail, waking it up from its trancelike state, making it run to the other side of the clearing, and spin around to face him, like a bull at a bull fight. He started looking for Lily. He had last seen her on the creature's back as it was falling, but had put his arm over his eyes to sheild them from the dust and dirt that became airborne when they hit.

Soon he had no more time to look, for the Rathian, still thinking it had a chance, charged him. Running to the right in an attempt to dodge it, he saw her. She looked as though she were dead.

The Rathian thundered past, and Rip ran behind the rock with Lily, and looked her over for wounds. For the most part, her cephalos armor had done it's job. It had stayed on to protect her thin frame, keeping her lithe figure in tact. Except for the helmet. It had fallen from her head, and its fins had broken off. Her short, dark brown hair was matted with blood from a cut on the side of her head. His eyes traveled to hers, and saw that they were closed. She looked at peace, as though she were dead.

"Damn!" he muttered. Anger played onto his features, taking over his thoughts, and making him see red.

Turned, hearing the Rathian furiously searching for him, it wouldn't be long before it decided to leave, and he would not get the satisfaction of killing it. Taking her dual swords in hand, and leaving his sword on the ground next to her, he marched out into the open to confront his former prey that had now become his worst enemy. It began charging, as fast as a Rathian with a wounded leg can, and dove straight at him. He swung up onto its neck, which was as wide as a horse's back, and hung on with his legs for dear life. After few attempts by the infuriated Rathian to shake him, he took his borrowed weapons and gave the monster a bloody smile by cutting the soft skin at the corners of its mouth. After this attack, the rathian's bottom jaw hung uslessly, never to bite again. Satisfied with his work, Rip raised his weapons to finish the monster off. The monster had other ideas. It saw Lily laying on the ground and charged her. Just as they reached her Rip slid off its neck to defend her from any further injuries, and the monster crashed into the rock. Rip ran around behind it, over to where its severed tail was heavy, but he lifted it up so that the spiked end pointed up, and was at a slight angle, so that when the Rathian charged the spikes would plunge into its chest.

This should do it, he thought to himself. "Come and get some, you spineless sack of meat!" He yelled, happy that the Rathian didn't know the different between a good insult and a bad insult, because his was definitly a poor one. When it saw Rip holding up its tail, the creature screamed, deafening him, and making him want to drop the tail to cover his ears. But he didn't. The Rathian charged, and when it reached him, Rip let go of the tail and dove to the right, escaping being crushed by the falling monster. The spikes from its tail went deep into the Rathians chest, breaking off in the wound. It tripped and fell to the ground squirming. Rip took one of Lily's blades, walked over, and shoved it deep into the Rathian's eyes as it stood up. Even in its near death state, the Rathan did not give up. It reared back, and kicked out at Rip with the still sharp talons on its good foot. He was thrown across the clearing. His breast plate flew off, damaged beyond repair, and a huge gash appear on his chest on the opposite side of his heart. Then everything was silent. Rip looked over at the Rathian, as it lay on the ground groaning, as the poison entered its heart. Rip spit at the creature, smiling triumphantly as it breathed its last breath sparks flitting out of it's mouth as it's life left it.

Rip rolled over onto his back and fought to stay concious as he began to black out from exhaustion. Lily was safe, and he felt accomplished. As his eyes slowley shut, he thought he saw the furry face of a felyne approaching. Then, there was darkness.

This was not exactly the battle that I had written down in my rough draft, but I felt that it needed a few changes. I will probably regret changing it later. This chapter had action which was lacking in the first chapter. Hope you found it to your enjoyment. As always leave reviews, as I am always trying to do better.

Ezakiel: Thanks for your review, I am thankful that you took the time to read my work, and leave your much heeded advice. I slipped in descriptions of Lily in this chapter as you suggested I do. It was much needed. The only description of her appearance in chapter one was that she had thin lips, and wild eyes. Not much to go on. Thanks again.