As the two of them continued to wait under the shelter of the trees, Elequinn quickly found herself stifling a yawn. Stretching her limbs as she laid back against a tree trunk, the girl felt some of her muscles slightly aching from the exertion of the fight earlier.

As much as the atmosphere felt relaxing enough for her to nod off, the occasional cry of a monster coming from deep within the forest would cause Elequinn to jolt awake in an instant, her heart beating wildly as she looked around uneasily. Everything would seem to be in place however, and Galix would return her look with a tense expression on his face.

Looks like I'm not the only one who's still on edge about earlier.

Looking back at the fight, Elequinn bit her lips as she recalled how it was almost a fluke that she had taken down the Great Jaggi. If she had been too slow to react, or if Galix had not told her to pick up his arrow, the results of the beast's attack would have undoubtedly ended in a disaster for her.

I could have lost my arms…or worse.

"Something on your mind?" Galix looked at her with a knowing smile. "Let me guess: it's that bunch of Jaggi, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Elequinn sighed as she nodded somberly, "I always knew that hunting was tough, but that monster…it kind of showed me that this isn't some kind of game. One fatal mistake and everything would be over."

"You'll get better. It takes time, but you definitely have it in you to become a great hunter, just like your mother."

"Thanks, I guess."

Seeing that her friend was trying to cheer her up, Elequinn smiled appreciatively at him. However, it was difficult for her to truly believe Galix's words. Unlike him, the girl never received any further training from her mother after the latter disappeared, and most of what she had done was drilling in the basics of what she had been taught into her brain.

Galix on the other hand, had been under the tutorage of his hunter father ever since his adolescent years, and still would be if he had not chosen to up and vanish before his entrance exam. Naturally, he was more experienced and skillful in the art of the hunt, and the girl couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy as she looked at the Rathalos armor her friend was donning.

No. If I really wanted to get better, then I should start doing what I can to improve.

Elequinn's eyes shifted over to her backpack lying beside her, then to the gloves that she was wearing. Now that she had some spare time, the girl figured that it was a good moment to read up on exactly what it was that her father had produced. Removing the gloves to prevent their rugged exterior from damaging the bag, she carefully took out the weapon's blueprints and inspected them.

Although some of the pieces had been damaged during the scuffle with the Guild Knights the night before, Elequinn breathed a sigh of relief as she saw that the important ones detailing upgrades for the weapon were still intact. Her teal eyes scanned the papers carefully, and occasionally broke out into a grin as she recognized some of her father's jargons scribbled hastily onto some pages.

"Top grade ore…restructure...monster's horn...bracelet?"

Muttering bits and pieces of what she was reading, Elequinn quickly found herself fully engaged in reading exactly what it was that her father had done to create the gloves that she had been wearing since she left. Her eyes widened as she realized that a vast majority of the items used in the creation of the gloves were of an extremely high grade.

There were even a few items with terminologies that the girl herself was not familiar with, and the more she read, the more she felt that she had woefully underestimated the power of the weapon her father had given her. A particular picture caught her eye – it was a rough sketch of the bracelet-like objects around the wrist area of the gloves. Beside the image, there was a short paragraph dedicated to it.

"Forged from the melted down horn of the creature, it possesses vast elemental compatibility," Elequinn felt her curiosity increasing as she read the words out loud, "harnessing this power will require further research, though it is suspected that certain monster organs may be key."

Putting the blueprint down for a moment, the girl picked up the gloves and observed the bracelets closely. Now that she finally had time to inspect them thoroughly, Elequinn realized that the lines encircling the metal seemed to gradually merge together near the underside of the material. With her gut instinct urging her on, she ran one of her fingers along that particular section of steel. Feeling an uneven budge, she hesitated for a moment before throwing caution to the wind and pushing down on it.

A small slot opened up where her finger had been, ejecting something to the ground with an almost inaudible click. Picking the small object up, Elequinn looked at it with interest in her eyes. The item itself was small and gray, barely half the length of her fingers, and appeared to be an empty vial of some sort.

"Hey, Galix," Elequinn turned to her friend, who had busied himself with performing maintenance on his equipment not too long after she started reading the blueprints, "what do you make of this?"

The girl tossed the phial over to her friend, who promptly caught it between his thumbs. The man held it up and scrutinized the item carefully for a minute before finally shrugging.

"No frigging clue. You're the one who knows all this kind of stuff anyway, no?"

"Papa never told me about this," Elequinn shook her head in reply, "everything's supposed to be in these papers though... I don't think he would have given them to me otherwise."

Taking the vial back from her Galix and returning to the blueprint she was reading before, the girl scanned the page carefully. Unfortunately, aside from the schematic and the few lines of words she had already read, there was absolutely nothing else detailing what purpose the vial served in the weapon.

"You think Mideus would know something?" Her eyes lit up as Elequinn looked hopefully to her friend. "Maybe he can shed some light on this thing when we meet him."

"Hey, I thought you didn't want to come into contact with your so called 'Cursed Blacksmith'," Galix let out a laugh, "whatever happened to 'use his weapons and die' or whatever it is you said?"

"Very funny," the girl scowled at him as she folded her arms, "it's just a question, so I doubt I'd be affected by his curse in any way. Besides, it's not like I'm asking him to actually craft the weapon for me."

"I didn't ask him to craft this for me either, but he did it anyway," Galix gestured to the casing beside him that contained his bow, "but either way, I'm afraid it's a bit too late to ask him any questions."

"Why's that?"

"Guy made it clear when I left Hope to return to Woodsten for you – he wasn't going to stick around and wait for me."

"Darn it."

Falling silent, Elequinn scrunched up her face as she resumed poring over the blueprints. After a minute or two however, it was clear that she wasn't making anymore headway – a nagging feeling over what purpose the vial served in her gloves kept gnawing away at the girl's mind. With a dejected sigh, she tucked the papers away into her bag.

Instead, she went back to her original position of leaning against the tree trunk, crossing her legs and feeling the warm afternoon wind blowing against her face. The lush grass fields around her seemed to go on for miles without stopping, and as she looked up at the vast blue skies with their white clouds slowly moving in the distance, Elequinn found her mind gradually beginning to wander.

She saw three people, seated at their dining table. Two adults, one male and one female, with a little girl in the middle. The child was beaming, giggling ever so slightly as the two beside her conversed. The red rays of the setting sun shone in lazily through the windows, illuminating the room with its crimson light. Then, there was a flash of lightning.

Now only two remained seated at the table, the girl and the male adult. The former had grown up impossibly quickly, and was now looking at the male beside her, his face hidden in the shadows but emitting a sense of sorrow. Her lips parted, but no words came out. She didn't know what to say.

"Elly."

The image flickered, like grains of sand scattering before the wind.

"Elly!"

Hearing the voice hissing her name once again, Elequinn blinked as she found herself staring up at the sky, which was now stained a dark blue in color. The harsh sunlight had apparently long since dissipated, replaced by the cold wind of evening. Her body felt clammy and lethargic, perhaps due to how long she had remained stationary in that position.

I fell asleep?

The girl quickly came to the conclusion that she had been more drained than she thought. Thankfully, as her body began to warm up from stretching her limbs, she felt her strength rapidly returning.

Now that she no longer felt the fatigue incurred from her skirmish earlier with the Bird Wyverns, Turning towards her friend, Elequinn prepared to mutter a quick apology for dozing off. Before she could as much as utter a word however, the girl spotted something that caused her breath to get caught in her throat.

Not more than thirty feet away from their location was a creature that resembled a boar of sorts, with the exception of its size, which was considerably larger than any domesticated swine that Elequinn had seen before back in her hometown.

Two large, curved ivory tusks protruding from the sides of its mouth swung dangerously through the air as the beast sniffed the ground with its pink-tipped snout, letting out a series of grunts whilst stomping the floor with its hooves. White fur lined the area around both its massive face and the ends of its feet, a symbol of the monster's seniority amongst its kind.

It was another common grassland monster that Elequinn had read about before – the Bulldrome. Now that she was observing it close up however, the girl wasn't in the least pleased to find out how much larger the beast's tusks were compared to when she had imagined it. She was certain that if it decided to charge straight at her, her armor would offer little protection against being gored.

Realizing that the creature was slowly beginning to approach their location, Elequinn gasped as she finally understood what it was the monster was attempting to find.

Food.

Although the rations in her backpack had no detectable odor to speak of, the girl was confident that the Bulldrome's superior sense of smell could easily pick up its scent. As she finally pulled her eyes away from the monster and towards Galix, Elequinn found that her friend had seemed to come to the same conclusion as herself, motioning at her bag lying a short distance away.

Better to die of starvation than to be monster chow.

Nodding, the girl kept her eyes on the Fanged Beast as she slowly inched towards her bag, praying that the creature did not spot her moving. With every grunt and snort made by the Bulldrome, Elequinn found her body tensing up fearfully, afraid she may have just breathed her last.

Fortunately, the monster appeared to have poor vision, further hampered by the darkened surroundings. Thanking the heavens that she had managed to reach her backpack without any difficulties, Elequinn's hands worked fast to remove the rations inside them, tossing the food as far away into the grass as she could and causing it to make a rustling noise as it landed.

The Bulldrome snorted loudly as soon as it heard the sound, turning towards the direction of the thrown rations and grunting as its short but powerful legs thrust it forward. As the monster vanished into the tall grass, Elequinn waited with bated breath, keeping her eyes on the lookout in case the beast decided to return.

A minute passed before the huntress finally allowed herself to relax, looking towards her friend who was also undoubtedly relieved that their plan worked out without a hitch.

"That was too close," Galix rubbed his wounded leg as he spoke, "if that pig had caught scent of us, I'd probably be a decoration on a tree right about now."

"Yeah," Elequinn nodded, "could have woke me up sooner though."

"I tried," her friend shrugged, "but it kind of homed in on where we were faster than I could get you up. You were sleeping like a log."

"Truth be told, I don't like this place. We can't even start a campfire, and we're completely open to any monster attacks."

"Not like we have much of a choice, Elly."

Picking herself up, Elequinn scanned the horizon for any signs of civilization. Unfortunately, all that met her eyes was the seemingly unending stretch of tall and untrimmed vegetation. Not a single manmade light showed up in the horizon, and the ever increasing shadows only made the girl more concerned about their safety.

If something decides to take advantage of the darkness…we'd probably be completely helpless.

A tiny black dot that stood out from the skies caught her attention, and Elequinn narrowed her eyes as she looked at the object bobbing up and down in distance. Whatever it was, it seemed to be rapidly approaching their position, as the dot was increasing in size at an alarming rate.

"Shit," the girl cussed as she turned to her friend, "I think we need to go. Now."

"What's up?"

"Something's headed this way, and I don't want to be here when it arrives."

"But where do you even expect us to head to?"

"Anywhere but here. The last thing I want to do is being caught unawares while slee-"

A loud rustling behind her caused Elequinn's body to stiffen up once again, and the huntress cut herself off as she turned around. The Bulldrome had emerged from the grass, and this time its large tusks were pointed dead ahead at the pair of friends, who had both turned motionless.

This time however, the monster wasn't sniffing the floor to pinpoint their location. Instead, it let out a hostile grunt as its stout legs stomped on the floor in an act of aggression.

"Perfect," Galix rolled his eyes, "just perfect."

With a snort, the Bulldrome charged forward at a surprising speed, lowering its head slightly in an attempt to skewer the hunters. Elequinn ducked out of the way easily, grabbing on to her backpack and slinging it over her shoulders in one smooth motion.

Thanks to the condition of his leg, Galix had a more difficult time avoiding the attack. Pushing himself to the side, the hunter barely managed to roll away from the ivory tusks that rammed into the tree he was lying against moments ago. There was a loud cracking sound as the trunk of the tree the Bulldrome had hit splintered into pieces, sending bark scattering all around.

Rushing forward to help her friend distract the monster, Elequinn punched at the beast's vulnerable rear. The coarse hide and bristly hair of the Fanged Beast provided little protection against the metallic plating on the huntress' knuckles, and the Bulldrome squealed in pain from the attack.

What happened next surprised the girl however – almost like a gut reaction, the beast swung its head around quicker than she could blink. The white tusks on its mouth slammed into Elequinn's chest, knocking the wind out of her as she was sent flying a few feet backwards.

Groaning in pain as she picked herself up, the huntress let out a dismal groan as she saw that her chest plate had been dented by the attack. Granted, it was armor that had been lying around in her house's basement for years, and she had been expecting it to wear out sooner or later.

But it's only been a few days…

The sound of hooves trampling the ground caused the girl to look up, and her face contorted into one of shock as she saw that the Bulldrome was headed straight for her. Scrambling to her feet, Elequinn barely dived out of the way of the monster's sharp tusks, feeling a rush of wind as the creature charged by her.

Rather than stopping after missing its target however, the Bulldrome continued to charge into the distance, vanishing into the tall grass. There was a momentary peace in the air as the creature seemingly disappeared from sight. Elequinn wasn't fooled however - she knew that these monsters were territorial by nature, and would not simply run off after initiating a fight unless seriously injured.

Looking at her back, she caught sight of Galix limping to another tree beside the one that had fallen. The hunter did not seem to have sustained any injury from the Bulldrome's attack earlier, and the girl felt a tinge of relief in her heart.

No time to celebrate though.

Her eyes turned to the large tree that had suffered the creature's wrath – its bark may be sturdy, but it was clearly not enough to stop the Bulldrome in its tracks. In fact, from the way it was tilting so dangerously, Elequinn felt certain that it would soon collapse completely.

Wait, that's it!

The sound of grass being trampled and pushed aside caused the girl to turn her attention back towards the approaching Bulldrome. This time however, she knew what she had to do.

Positioning herself between the damaged tree and the Fanged Beast's path, Elequinn readied herself for another charging assault. It wasn't the best of plans to use herself as bait, but she couldn't rely on an injured Galix to help. The tree falling onto the Bulldrome would definitely immobilize the monster – perhaps long enough to allow her and Galix to attack its defenseless back.

Before she could try anything however, a distinct buzzing sounded from above her. Both the huntress and the Bulldrome looked up together in unison, the animosity between them temporarily dispelled.

Elequinn nearly choked on her own saliva as she saw the source of the sound: a hovering Neopteron whose size dwarfed even that of the Fanged Beast before her. The beetle-like monster let out a shrill cry as it descended slowly, its green and yellow exoskeleton glinting slightly in the fading evening light.

A single spiny horn jutted out above the brightly colored monster's head, overshadowing the two smaller ones on either side of it. Of its six limbs, the foremost pair appeared the most dangerous, resembling shining yellow sickles that the creature constantly rubbed against each other in an act of intimidation.

The Bulldrome squealed at the insectoid, evidently unhappy that its fight with Elequinn had been interrupted so abruptly. The huntress quickly backed off to increase the distance between the Neopteron and herself, scrapping all her plans for dealing with the Fanged Beast to the side. However, she soon realized with a start that the intruder did not seem interested in attacking her at all.

Rather, the insect pointed its horn directly at the Bulldrome as it landed on the floor, its yellow mandibles clacking together threateningly. Letting out another agitated grunt as it finally understood what was up, the Bulldrome accepted the challenge presented to it as it lowered its head, pointing its ivory tusks towards the newcomer.

"Ha, our savior arrives," Galix let out a laugh as he limped up to Elequinn, once again using his weapon case to support himself. "Now who do you reckon would win this little scuffle?"

"Savior?" The girl blinked as she looked at her friend incredulously. "You mean to say this Seltas is on our side?"

"Well, it's on Aria's side, which would probably mean it's on our side, yeah," the man let out another hearty laugh, "I knew that gal would get what I was hinting at. Didn't think she'd really send old Sel here though."

"He has a name," Elequinn muttered as she looked at the Seltas before her, "of course he has a name."

The two monsters facing off seemed to be daring each other to make the first move as they sized each other up, but neither one appeared to want to be the first to strike. After what felt like a full minute of endless taunting however, the Seltas seemed to finally cave in to the pressure. His collapsible wings opened up to reveal the transparent ones underneath, flapping fast enough to generate a loud buzzing noise.

As the Neopteron prepared to propel himself forward, his opponent did the same, pawing the ground with one of its front legs. Then, as though they had some sort of unspoken agreement, both monsters charged towards each other at the exact same time.

It was a scene that Elequinn had never read about before in any of her books, and the girl found herself cheering for the Seltas in her mind as she watched the two hurl themselves towards each other.

At the last moment however, the Seltas veered himself sideways, narrowly avoiding the tusks of the Bulldrome and causing the latter to stop its attack in confusion. The Neopteron made an arc as he swerved gracefully through the air, descending with a cunning gleam in his yellow compound eyes as he made a beeline for the soft hide of his opponent.

It was too late by the time the Fanged Beast realized what was going on, and the poor Bulldrome grunted in anguish as its rear was impaled by the horn of the Seltas. The spiny protrusions on the insect's horn served to amplify the damage done, tearing apart even more tissue and flesh as he attempted to retract it.

With one final effort, the Seltas successfully managed to pull his horn out of the Bulldrome, leaving the latter with a large gaping orifice on the side of its body. Crimson liquid gushed out profusely from the fatal wound, and the Fanged Beast took a few feeble steps forward before finally toppling over, its shallow breathing gradually ceasing altogether.

"There we go, trouble's over," Galix limped forward to the victorious Seltas, waving to the creature as he spoke, "I should probably introduce you to him."

Although her friend appeared to have no fear of the insect, Elequinn didn't exactly feel at ease around a monster that had just speared his head through another beast's body. The huntress approached the Seltas apprehensively, trying her best to hide her disgust as she spotted some of the Bulldrome's guts hanging revoltingly on the Neopteron's horn.

"Great fight there, Sel," Galix grinned as he patted the body of the insect, "I think Aria would be proud."

Although Elequinn was half expecting the Seltas to remove her friend's head clean off his shoulders with one swipe of his scythe-like forelimbs, nothing of the sort happened. Instead, the insect kept them tucked under his head as it descended onto the floor, his unblinking yellow eyes staring at the two hunters.

"And uh, this here is Elequinn, she's with me. Say hi, Elly."

The huntress rolled her eyes.

"You can't be serious."

"I am."

Elequinn let out a sigh as she moved closer to the Seltas. Now that he was no longer in battle, the monster appeared completely docile. Upon closer inspection, she spotted a saddle on the head of the insect, together with reins that were tied to the base of his horn.

"Hello, Sel," Elequinn gulped as she recognized the riding equipment on the Neopteron, "why do I have a bad feeling about all this equipment you're wearing?"

"Ah, so you've finally spotted it. I was the one who mentioned to Aria the possibility of riding Sel into the skies, by the way," her friend touted, "she had been experimenting with it for some time now, so I'm pretty sure it's safe to ride him as a form of transportation to Hope."

"So we'll be…flying to Hope now?" The girl sucked in a deep breath. She was never one to enjoy high heights, but the fact that it didn't look particularly safe on top of the Seltas wasn't helping.

"It'll be much faster than if we were to take the route we originally intended to," Galix secured his weapon casing onto Sel's back before climbing up the insect's body, "I'm sure he was only meant to carry one person, but we'll manage somehow."

Letting out another audible gulp, Elequinn walked around the Seltas as she looked uncertainly at her friend. "There's only space on the saddle for one person, isn't there? Where should I seat?"

"Uh…I guess one of us will have to hug Sel's horn or something?"

"Like hell I am," the girl made a face as she looked at the blood soaked horn of the insect, "I volunteer you to take that spot. Actually, I insist."

"Damn it, Elly, you sure know what you want. Take care of my weapon for me," reluctantly moving forward, Galix wiped some of the blood off before securing his hands around the Seltas' horn. Although his armor prevented the spines from hurting him, the position still made the hunter feel extremely awkward. "Right, now I don't feel safe."

"Suck it up, pal," Elequinn giggled as she jumped up on to the saddle and held on to the reins in front of her tightly, "after all, I'm 'pretty sure it's safe'."

Sensing the sarcasm in her voice, Galix clicked his tongue as he was forced to eat his own words. The two friends quickly made themselves as comfortable as they possibly could on top of the Seltas, and Elequinn tugged gently on the reins she was holding when they were ready.

The Neopteron's hard outer wings opened up once again, and his set of transparent wings meant for flight fluttered quickly as he began a slow ascend. Although the girl had been expecting the ride to be extremely shaky, the back of the Seltas felt surprisingly stable.

This isn't that bad…

Elequinn looked around as they climbed higher and higher into the skies. She barely managed to make out the cart that hid the Gargwa's corpse, and muttered a silent prayer for the herbivore which had lost its life attempting to bring them to their destination. The Bulldrome's caress was further ahead of the cart, directly outside the entrance to the forest – the huntress was confident that within a day, some scavenger would chance upon it and enjoy a feast.

Sel let out a shrill cry as he stopped finally stopped ascending, and started to make his way forward. The speed at which the Seltas flew was initially as slow as his ascend, but rapidly increased in velocity as he moved. Soon, Elequinn found herself fighting the urge to yell out in fear from the speed at which they were darting through the skies.

Not fun not fun not fun!

The landscape below turned into a blur of black and blue, and the wind stung her eyes whenever the huntress tried to look ahead. Rather than maintaining an upright position, Elequinn quickly decided that the best position for her was to bend down and close her eyes, all the while holding on tightly to the reins for dear life.

There was however, one saving grace amid all the fear she was feeling. When she had had opened her eyes just once to check on Galix, the girl managed to catch an expression on her friend's face that she doubted he would ever show to anyone but himself. It was a face that she would never forget, if only because Elequinn knew her childhood friend would never want anyone to see him like that.

It was the look of sheer, unadulterated terror.

A/N: My vacation ends today, so the speed at which I upload chapters will probably be reduced. Again, apologies for any typos as most writing is done late at night for me. If you spot any, feel free to pm me or write it in the review section, I'll correct it ASAP.

Also, in case you're wondering, this is all linked, I did not just introduce a firefly and a Seltas who can understand English for kicks. It'll be better explained next chapter (or the one after that).