After is clash with the Rathian, Rip had become a hero among the lower ranked hunters in the guild. At the same time, many of the guild officials changed their minds about him. While everyone was making a fuss about his victory, Rip had other things on his mind. After Lily's injury he had visited her at the guild where she was being taken care of by doctors and a group of felynes that had mysteriously volunteered at the last minute. Though many hours of sleep had been forfeit in favor of watching over her, Rip felt it was necessary for his sanity to know how she was doing at all times. Lucky for him, her injury had not been too serious and her recovery took place inside of a week. She outwardly objected to him spending so much time with her saying that it was a waste of his time, but secretly she appreciated it. When she was well enough to walk around, the two took walks in the apple orchard that was in the southern part of the town. Lily was determined to not let her accident stop her from hunting during the next few days, but Rip was not so understanding of this idea. He felt that she should wait a while longer.
They sat in his house at this moment arguing that very thing.
"You know I can't let you do that." he said, clearly tired of arguing with her over this subject. Every-time he saw her it was brought up.
"Why not?" She asked defiantly, " If this had happened to you, you would be out there again, doing even stupider things than you had done to get hurt in the first place."
The male hunter scratched the stubble on his chin, and sighed. She was right, and what was worse, was, he had no argument for her last statement.
Unfortunately for him she was winning. He scooted back in his chair, and stood up in disgust, looking at the floor. This earned a triumphant, but sorrowful look glance from Lily.
"Take me on a small hunt. Velocidrome, Hermitaur, whatever you want, just don't shut me out. If you won't take me, then I will find others who respect me like you once did."
Her last request made him look at her with pity instead of annoyance. Maybe all she wanted was to be with him, and do something that they both enjoyed doing. He was acting more like a parent, or an elder rather than a friend. He pursed his lips, and smiled. He had an idea. Taking Lily by the hand he lead her out of his house and down the familiar path to the Gathering Hall. She gave him a look but followed him anyway. Soon they were there, and the thick oak doors were already open and the voices of drunken hunters taking advantage of the bar greeted them. Rip wondered what the occasion was, but he didn't bother to ask. Lily wanted to go on a hunt, he would give her one. Rip guided her past the table in the center of the room where the drunken men were singing, to where a felyne dressed in yellow stood. He was surrounded by picks, and shovels, and colorful objects that Rip could not name. The felyne was inside a wooden structure made up of poles, and a large Popo skull sat on top of it. He hefted his large backpack, and watched as the two hunters approached, and scratched his ear furiously.
Rip spoke first. "My good felyne, would you by any cha..." The felyne interrupted him.
"Skip the formalities, what do you want?" he said in a loud voice.
"I hear you organize treasure hunts. What do you have for us right now?"
Lily gave him a dirty look, and then directed a fake smile back at the felyne.
"Let's see, the forest has not been looted in a while. How does that sound?"
Lily started to speak. "We were just there and..."
"It would be perfect." interrupted Rip.
Lily was about to protest when Daedrich, Rip's friend who he had run into on the steps, walk up, and slid one of his long arms around Lily's and his shoulders. He was tall and muscular, had shiny dark skin, and was one of the friendliest people you could ever meet. On his back he wielded two dual hammers, a one of a kind weapon, not worn by any other hunter. They were smaller than other hammers, but were still pretty heavy, one of the reasons why no one else had them. It took a man like Daedrich to wield such weapons. It had small spikes on each flat surface of the hammer head. His armor was made of Rathalos leather. It wasn't standard Rathalos Armor, but modified to be less bulky, and have less frills. Nothing about this man's appearance was normal or average, which gave him an interesting aura. One of mystery and respect, sending a message that he should not be challenged.
"Hey my friends, what sort of mischief are you up to today?" he smiled a full face smile, and looked at Rip.
"Just goin to loot the forest. A treasure quest." Rip said.
"Ahh." nodded Daedrich knowingly as Rip gestured with his eyes toward Lily.
The whole village had learned of her accident, which was part of the reason she didn't want to be coddled.
"Would you mind if I came along?" he asked, "We always talked about doin another quest."
Rip didn't have to think for a second. Another friend along meant more protection for Lily, and a chance to catch up with his old friend.
"Sure. why not?"
"WILL THAT BE ALL?" shouted the felyne.
"Yes." said Lily before more restrictions could be placed on the already boring upcoming quest.
"Ok then. You have two days to return to the Guild Hall. In that time, you may accumulate as many items as you can. Keep in mind that for every item you find, you have to give the guild one as well. With that in mind get out of my sight."
"Thanks." Said Rip. "And we're off!"
The trio marched out the door, and mounted three waiting aptonoths that would take them to the edge of the forest. Along the way Rip and Daedrich talked to eachother swapping stories, and generally catching up, tryin to include Lily when possible. Lily was not in the mood to participate. Her aptonoth was being stupid, and didn't seem to want her on his back, for it kept shaking, almost knocking her off.
They reached the edge of the forest. It wasn't really just a forrest, more like a ring of tree's surrounding a group of hills and a small mountain range.
Rip, Lily and Daedrich walked into the tree's, their hands on their weapons, not scared, but prepared. As soon as the first tree was behind them, they noticed the air get stuffier, and harder to breath. Leaves and small sticks covered the ground forming a natural carpet, and moss clung to the trees for dear life.
Daerich was already bored, since he knew that there was probably not going to be a big fight coming up, and he shuffled through the dead leaves staring at the ground. It got to the point where he counted how many rocks were on the ground that he passed.
Rip had other things on his mind. He kept seeing a pair of glowing eyes lurking in the dark spaces between the trees off to his left. It would stair at them for a while from a distance, hidden in a bush sitting on a tree branch, and then would be gone. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, but he found some comfort in his observation that whatever owned those eyes was small enough to fit in a tree. He kept this silent however, since he didn't want Lily trying to investigate it. Instead he kept a wary and watchful eye, and put himself in between the yellow glowing orbs, and Lily so it would have to go through him to get to her.
"Wow, this really sucks." Lily said. "Bad. I haven't ever been on a more boring quest in my life. Maybe, if we actually fought something, it would be worthwhile, but nooooooo! We have to look in the grass for multi-colored bugs, and poke at rocks, in hopes of a gem or two falling out. Nice."
"It will pick up." said Rip assuredly, genuinely hoping that it did, as he was itching for a good fight too.
As if it had heard Rip, a velocidrome leapt out of the trees, shrieking like a demon. Rip Rolled forward drawing his great-sword . Daedrich pulled out his dual hammers and took on a steely, hardened look, gritting his teeth and crouching slightly. Lily whipped out her dual swords, and plunged them both into the velocidrome's side while it was concentrating on Rip and Daedrich. Daedrich ran forward with Rip hot on his heals, and swung both hammers at the same time into the side of the velocidrom' s head, stunning it long enough for Lily to pull out her swords. Rip hefted his sword, and swung downward with all his might, cutting the monster in half just below the neck. Daedrich got a wild look in his eye as the vertebrae snapped and the body twitched its last twitch. The eye's rolled back into its head, and glazed over as it died.
"What was that for?" Lily asked. "Over? just like that? You're no fun." she proceeded to cut off the beasts bright red crest, and tuck it away in her bag, while Daedrich cut sections of the hide off, and scraped the scales off into a small pouch he had.
Rip started. He had never heard Lily use profanity before. "My bad." he said. Not feeling any different about the matter than he had when he had dealt the final blow.
Lily shook her head and walked ahead muttering.
"You know, you should ease up just a little bit. Whispered Daedrich. "You're going about this the wrong way. You're being a control freak. Since when are you like this? Usually you're pretty easy going and careless."
Rip shook his head. "I don't know, I want her to be safe. But she doesn't seem to get that."
"Trust her. She fought that Rathalos, just to be with you, and to prove herself to you."
"She doesn't have to prove herself to me. Wow. Aight. I'll back off all together. What happens, happens."
They ran to catch up to her. Rip walked up next to Lily and walked next to her and promised her a good fight before the day was over, and gave her a hug which was awkward in all the armor, but still served a purpose. All was good for the time being. Rip felt good about the whole situation, and his mind seemed to leave his body, which was most unfortunate, for just as his head entered the clouds, he tripped, and fell flat on his face, bringing him literally back down to earth.
"Thanks Daedrich. I appreciate that. I really do." said Rip wiping mud from his mouth and eyes, giving him the appearance of having a mask.
Lily burst into musical laughter at Daedrich's attempt at hiding what he had done, and tears as a result of laughter sprung from her eyes when she saw the mud on Rip's face. Despite his situation Rip couldn't help laughing. He soon stopped, for off his right he heard an unfamiliar laugh approaching. About forty feet away there was a man about Rip's age leaning up against a tree watching. He had black hair, wide shoulders, and wore no armor. A bow gun hung off of his back, and a bag, assumably containing his ammo, hung lazily from his belt. His eyes now glinted in a smile, but it was obvious that they had seen more than their fair share of hardship, and laughs were a rare occurrence. His arms were crossed across a broad chest. A huge scar ran the length of his entire right forearm.
Rip stood up and walked over to the young man and stuck out his hand. "I'm Rip." He stated. "These are my friends Daedrich, and Lily." he gestured back to his smiling companions who nodded.
The young man unfolded his arms, and shook Rip's hand. His hand had an intense grip, and could have choked any Rathalos stupid enough to come within fifty feet of it's mysterious owner.
"I am sebastian. He said. "It's always nice to run into other hunters. What you guys after?"
"Treasure." said Lily flatly. "Rare items. Fun stuff like that.
"Ah. I see. That's great. I guess." he smiled and put his hand on Daedrichs shoulder, and started walking. They all followed.
"Follow me. I think this place will shorten your trip significantly. About two miles east there is a cave with many things of uncertain value. As far as I'm concerned, it's yours. I haven't been there for a while, but I'm sure it hasn't changed much. It's kinda out of the way."
Sebastian looked questioningly at them as they appeared to be making up their minds.
Lily said yes right away, and Rip shrugged his shoulders, and Daedrich didn't say do anything at all other than follow them as they began their trek.
"So what town are you from exactly?" asked Lily. "I don't remember seeing you around Kokoto."
Sebastian laughed, and all of a sudden became serious. "When i was young my family lived in a town called Maltharice. When I was about five, there was some sort of a crisis, so we packed up, and started to come to Kokoto. On the way there we were attacked. My mother was killed, and my father hid me in a cave, and ran off to lure it away from me. I have not seen him since. As of right now i belong to no town at all. i live in the wild. I will appear in a town every now and then to have armor or weapons made, but thats it." He laughed again. "Story of my Li..." he stopped as Rip stumbled. "You really have a problem with walking don't you?"
Rip glared at Daedrich, who denied tripping him again. He looked, and found a flat piece of stone sticking out of the ground.
"Wonder what that is?" wondered Lily, interested creeping into her voice in-spite of her dislike for the quest they were on.
"It's got some markings on it." observed Rip.
"Might be worth something." offered sebastian. "I suggest you take it back with you."
"I agree." said Lily.
Rip unearthed the stone the rest of the way.. and put it in his pack.
Just then there was a chorus of shrieks, as a pack of velociprey leapt out at them as if from thin air. Rip drew his great sword, and rolled into attack position, while Daedrich drew his duel hammers, and mashed in the skulls of a few oncoming velociprey. Sebastian pounced onto a rock with the agility of a felyne. He pulled out his bow gun and loaded it with lightning speed, and began to pick off the blue monsters. Lily took a more stylized approach to the situation. She drew her blades, spun them around her arms, and sunk them both into a monster that was about to tackle sebastian. There had to be fifty of the creatures. When one was cut down, two more would pop up in in its place. Everywhere the shiny blue of their scales could be seen, second only to the scarlet stain that had re-colored the armor of each hunter in the space of 2 minutes. Daedrich was an animal. A velopciprey had jumped on his shoulders, and though it looked to weigh upwards of 150 pounds Daedrich was still standing. He lunged backwards, smashing the veloprey into a tree, and curb stomping it when it hit the ground.
"Damn prey, thats what i thought!" he yelled.
Rip's sword was not meant to fight with, when there were other hunters running around all over the place, and mingling with his targets, so he was forced to lure some of the enraged, clueless creatures away, so as not hurt his friends. He cut two monsters in half with one swipe, and then used the momentum from that swing to launch another one skyward and watch it be vaporized by one of Sebastian's exploding crag bullets.
Sebastian yelled, and gave a thumbs up to Rip, as he jumped off the rock. He ran over to Rip. "Cover me, will ya?" he said in a husky voice, focused with concentration, as he reloaded his weapon.
Rip held up his Ravager Blade Plus, and used it as a shield for him and Sebastian to hide behind, as Sebastian shot velociprey through the gaps in the teeth on the heavy weapon. When every shot went off, the sound wave bounced off the metal in rip's sword making an amplified metallic clinking sound in addition to the roar it made otherwise. Rip's ears started to hurt, but he kept angling the blade between the monsters and sebastian, stuffing moss in his ears to drown out some of the sound. When they heard the metallic sound created by the two hunters weapons, the velociprey flinched. They all looked up to where it came from, resulting in a death of a few of their comrades.
"This is where we run." said Sebastian folding up his gun, and putting in its place on his back. He ran over to rock, and pulled some shells from his pouch, and stuffed them into his weapons magazine.
"Agreed." said Rip. "There's only ten left, but they're all coming at once."
As he was hefting his sword onto his back, a velociprey jumped onto his chest, pinning him to the ground. The scales of his kut-ku armor were hard for the velociprey to stand on, and it kept slipping. Rip grabbed it's mouth, and held it shut. He heard Lily yell, and an agonizing scream from the velociprey as the tip of one of her swords protruded from the lifeless creatures neck.
Rip pushed the monster off of himself, and started to stand up. Lily grabbed his hand, and helped him to his feet. She patted him on the back, and gave him a smile like she had the day they met under the tree. Even though adrenaline was coursing through her body, and her muscles were tense, her eyes were so soft and peaceful, and Rip almost forgot where he was.
"I think that makes us even." she said.
In the background, Daedrich pulled on a velociprey's tail to keep it from getting at Sebastian, who was shooting monsters that were behind Daedrich.
Rip started to disagree with her, but smiled and nodded instead. This was the first moment the two had had together for a while without being argumentative. He kissed her forehead, and brushed her hair out of her eyes, smiling. "Thanks,"
Only three of the blue velociprey remained.
Sebastian shot them all in the space of three seconds, his powerful bow-gun not giving the monsters a chance to think. The Bullets thudded into two of them in mid-air twisting their flying bodies into weird shapes, as one force collided with another. The third stopped dead in its tracks, fought for a second, then gave in to the inevitable.
Rip looked around at all the bodies that littered the ground, and smiled at their handiwork. He wanted to carve, but there was no way on earth that he was going to be able to carry the stuff. He turned bodies over, kicked limbs out of his way, and gave the battlefield a thorough search, carving here and there. In the end he came up with a couple crests, a bag full of random scales and shells, and a small bone knife he had found on the ground. He wondered who had made it? The hilt was too small for human hands, and could only occupy three of his fingers. He heard what sounded like a cat, and looked up. The others had heard it as well, for all eyes were trained on the bushes which were moving. Something in them, and judging by the noise, it wasn't very big. Daedrich put his hand on his hammer, and Rip scowled. Lily ran up to the bushes, and reached into them.
Rip barely had time to tell her not to. But before he got over what she had done, a dark furry creature sprang out of the bushes, ran down Lily's back, and slammed into Rip.
"Melynx. I hate these guys." muttered Rip. He started, and watched the evil version of the felyne run off with one of his bags. He threw a rock at it, and it dropped the bag, turned around and charged him with uncharacteristic aggression. Just as the creature reached him, Rip planted a kick in its furry stomach, sending it flying. "Thought so."
Lily gasped, and went over to the melynx, and cradled it in her arms. It's eye's were half shut, only small slices of its eyeball were visible.
"Lily, don't do this." muttered Daedrich. "You'll be sorry."
Sebastian, a man of few words, looked on in amusement.
It all happened at once. The melynx opened its eyes, ripped Lily's necklace off, and sped away, and into a hole in the ground.
"Are you kidding me?" she stormed
"We warned you." chided Rip, ducking a pine cone thrown by none other than Lily. They all laughed.
The two hunters got into a mock fight, while Sebastian, and Daedrich chatted by a huge rock that resembled a human head so much that it could have been a carving.
Finally Sebastian broke up the fight, and cleared his throat. "The cave is not far, we can make it by nightfall, sleep there at night, and head back to town in the morning."
They all had forgotten their goal, and decided that spending the night in a cave would be a pretty good deal, so they pick up their carves, and began the walk east. It had been a fairly productive day. Daedrich carried a full velociprey on his back, and still managed to be at the front of the pack. Then came Rip, then Lily, and Sebastian brought up the rear carrying no carves.
There was no beaten path at all, so it was a good thing, they had a guide, or it would have taken a lot longer. Soon they reached their destination. Sebastian pointed to the cave opening, and when they looked they saw a pair of glowing yellow eyes. Rip had a feeling that these were the same eyes that had been watching him the whole trip, and walked ahead of all the others. The eyes did not move, didn't even blink. He started to walk a little slower. When he got close enough to see the owner of the eyes, he was shocked to find that it was a felyne. Rip felt as though he had seen it somewhere before. He opened his mouth to talk, but it held up a paw to its mouth, and nodded in the direction of his friends. They finally caught up, and when they were all gathered around the felyne, it began to speak.
"Greetings. My name is Conan."I have been expecting you. Especially you, my friend." He said looking at Rip. "I have watched you most carefully."
Rip was not at all surprised, but his face showed that he was. "Why might that be?"
"Hell, who cares, it's a dumb cat." muttered Daedrich, ready to go to sleep. His eyes stared lazily into space.
"That, is precisely why we weren't interested in you." said the cat with a smirk.
"You're really cute." said Lily.
"Ummm... thanks??" replied Conan with a confused look. "Anyway.... I will tell you tomorrow what is going on, as for tonight, continue with your plans. I will meet you outside the cave in the morning."
"See ya then." said Rip flatly. He was confused, yet partially apathetic. He wondered why they wanted him specifically, but didn't care about anything at all.
The felyne walked slowly into the distance, turning around a few times watching the tired party members enter the cave.
"He probably hates me, for kicking his friend." laughed Rip.
"Hardly. said Sebastian. "The felyne, and the melynx have never gotten along. The melynx have always been theives, and the felynes, scavengers. People tend to lump them both into one group like you just did, and take out their anger on the felynes for things that they didn't do."
"Crazy. So we have a civil war on our hands. Great." said Lily.
"I'd rather not get in the middle of it." said Daedrich. "I think we should lay low."
Sebastian stretched, and took off his bow-gun, and used his ammo pouch for a pillow. "I'm out. Don't wake me, or fear the wrath." he lay down, and nothing was heard from him for the rest of the night. Daedrich followed soon after. Lily and Rip made a fire and sat up a little bit later, cuddled up to keep warm.
When Lily wore her armor, she kept her feminine beauty, but looked a little bit more rugged at the same time. In the cave she took off her armor, and put on a simple garment that was made of a softer material, and curled up under a wool blanket that Rip had brought, putting her head on his shoulder. Both their backs were to the wall. Rip put his arm around her, and stroked her shoulder. Her skin was so smooth. She looked up at him with happy, tired eyes, full of love and emotion, and snuggled in closer. Soon he heard the rhythmic sound of her breathing, and soon, he too was asleep.