I couldn't see anything, all I remember was a bright flash with a loud bang.. I cant hear anything either. Well, aside from this awful high pitched ringing in my ears. I could feel things pulling on my clothes, I tried to fight them off, but they pushed me down. I could feel myself moving.. and bouncing up and down.
I was pushed on a cart.

My hearing began slowly coming back, I heard the birds and the loud squeak of an ungreased wheel bearing. Pa had the same problem on his cart.
"Pa!" I completely forgot with all the confusion, I tried getting up but something pushed me back down. At first i could hear a voice. Sort of a low mumble, I still couldn't hear well
*Slap* "Can you hear me meow?"
"...Meow?" I asked confused. My vision began to focus and I could see him. A Feylne. He was small, sitting on my chest. His face was hard to see, he had a small hat on his head. The rapid bouncing didn't help much. I looked up to the front of the cart to see two other cats pulling me. They were fast, we were already out of the clearing with the Jaggi.
"Ill take that as a yes" He smirked. "Don't worry about your hunter, he told us to run ahead while he grabbed his sword. You have a tough buddy, buddy."
A bump in the road cause me to bounce up off the floor of the cart. With the cat on my chest, he bounced higher than me, I reached up and grabbed him so he wouldn't fall off. His hat fell back, it was tied by string under his chin. He had white fur, with a small patch of brown over his eyes, which were a piercing purple color.
"You can let me go meow." He said sternly"
"Sorry.. I thought cats liked to be held" i said setting him down on the cart floor, the cats stopped pulling the cart now, and we were pushed back into a large bush, I couldn't even see out.
"Housecats maybe. I'm a warrior! don't make that mistake again" he said with a huff. Pulling his hat back on his head, he motioned for the other two to speak to him.
"Uh.. what did you do?" I asked stumbling off the cart, the ringing and blindness had passed .
"Uh, first off you're welcome, jerk." Said the smallest cat.
The one with the hat slapped him, "be nice thyme, that's not how we talk to strangers meow is it?"
Thyme shook is head, "You're right, sorry.."
"I'm Pepe," said the one with the hat, "Nice to meet you buddy." he extended his small paw out for a handshake
"Shane" I said reaching out to shake his.. Paw. it was little, i had to grab it with two fingers to be careful not to hurt him. He only around a foot and a half tall.
"What did you do? Where is my pa?"
"Oooh that was your da. Well he's fine. He probably has that big lizard dead by meow. We saw you guys in passing, we were bringing some seeds and veggies to a little house somewhere around here. Kinda lost to be honest."
"That's probably my family" I said, "We're pretty much the only people who live here."
I could hear pa calling my name and stomping around outside the bush, he sounded frantic. I navigated my way out of the bush to see him running after the tracks made by the cats cart.
"Hey over here!" I yelled, waving him over.
He spun around scanning the area for me. As soon as he saw me, all his emotion dissapeard, and he walked over to me.
"L-Look pa I'm sorry.. I-I know you told me not to touch your sword" I stuttered, I must have made him mad, he didn't even say anything.
"I didn't know what else to do!" I blurted out, clenching a fist and looking down the ground. I could feel the tears start to well up and I didn't want him to see.
"I thought you were going to die and I was scared tha-" His hug cut me off. Wrapping his arms around my shoulders, it pulled my face right into his chest. I could feel him start to shake a little.
"Im so glad you're okay.. I don't know what I would do if something happened to you." I could tell he was choking back tears
"That was the coolest thing I've ever seen, I didn't know you could do that!" he said picking me up to look me in the face. He had the biggest smile ive ever seen, even his big bushy eyebrows seemed happy to see me.
"Neither did I" I said, no longer covering my face "Turns out I do make a pretty great hunter don't I"
"He sure does" Said Pepe as he and his friends came out of the bush, "You have a pretty alright kid there buddy"
Pa looked at me and smiled, "I sure do" He said setting me back down
"Nice to see ya Pepe, its been a while" he said walking over to him "And I see you took my advice with the flash bombs. Pretty handy aren't they"
"They sure are" He laughed, "For your sake anyway, "He said followed by jokingly punching him. If he were the size of a person, he would have punched his shoulder, but seeing as he was so tiny, he would up punching him just above the knee.
"Now lets go see what you and the misses could use for a garden this year, yeah?"
Pepe and Thyme took the wagon and began walking ahead of us.
"By the way" said the quiet cat. This one was black and white instead of brown and white, "My name is Basil"
Basil had a small green handkerchief tied around her neck, I could tell she was shy. She was looking down and walking away while she introduced herself.
"Nice to meet you Basil, thank you"
Basil let out a nervous laugh while walking backwards, she wasn't paying attention where she was going because she tripped over a small rock.

*Smack*

Pa smacked the back of my head
"Ow! what was that for?" I yelled rubbing my head
"For swearing. Knock that off. Its a bad habit." He said sternly. A smile crept over his face "Now lets tell your ma how cool you are"

It took a few days for Ma to stop being mad at Pa. With all of the flowers he brought her to calm her down, she lined the entire outside of the house. I didn't really like it.. it was too girly for my tastes, but hey, it made her happy. It turns out that the group of cats were homeless, traveling all over the world to sell fruits and vegetables. Pa said they could live with us. Sense they moved in, they made us a huge garden that they tend to when they're not out selling to other far away places. We even built them a house. It was almost an exact replica of our house, just scaled down to fit their size. They were so happy they threw us a party. It was kinda strange. Most of their friends were other cats so I felt sort of out of place..

Its been 2 years sense the incident with the great Jaggi. I'm 15 now, and doing more quests with my pa, I even have my own sword. Its not as.. explosive as Pa's, but it does its job.
"Just got a message from the guild boy," Pa said coming in the door. "Looks like there's a small bug infestation near the village on the other side of the island"
"Im ready now!" I exclaimed, I already had my pack ready and was sharpening my sword, my hair was getting sort of long, I kept on having to swish it out of my face so I could see what i was doing. Jumping up off the bench, I wanted to go as quick as possible before ma could give me a speech.
"I made you this too," I said shoving a jar of homemade potion into his chest, "You're not as agile as you used to be, old man" I laughed running up the trail. He grabbed the jar and clenched his teeth, "I'll make you eat those words you little-" "Watch it" interrupted ma. She was just outside the door working on the flower box, I didn't notice her because I was in such a hurry. "You may have your little hunter but hes also still my baby." "Yes ma'am" said Pa, grabbing his bag and marching off after me. "Yo! Wait up! I'm not as agile as.. I.."
"TOLD YOU!" I yelled
"SHUT UP!"

"Altaroth - Large insect monster. Size: Small. No larger than 2 feet tall by 3 feet long. Dangerous: No. Guild asked to remove due to their mass eating of the Blue Mushrooms of the area." I wrote in my hunting log. After I began working with the guild part time, they asked me to keep a journal of my missions and monster types that I encountered.
"Look alive!" yelled pa jumping behind me cutting a bug in half. "That little bugger was just about to nibble your giblets!" he giggled jumping from bug to bug.
"My giblets are of no concern of yours!" I yelled back cockily, "I can handle myself!" I drew my sword from its sheath on my back. Pa helped me make it. It was just a simple iron sword with wrappings on the handle to absorb impact. I never liked shields, they got in my way.

"Woo." Huffed pa. "What was that, probabllyyy~ 14 to 7?"
"You wish. If anything we're tied" I scoffed. "Besides, we only needed to get rid of 20, we can go now"
"Okay fine.. How about this" He said leaning towards me, "Next altaroth wi-"
I didn't give him time to finish, I had already ran off to the first bug I saw. I got this in the bag I thought, with my down swing just about to hit my target, something hard hit me in the back. Pa had caught up to me and hit me with his shield
"You didn't say anything about friendly fire!" I shouted, curled up into a ball on the ground
"Exactly!" He laughed, chopping the last bug into bits. "Besides, you cheated anyway."
"Curses man, my back really hurts. I whined walking back to the house holding my lower back.
"Don't call me man, I'm your pa. How about this," he said reaching down the front of his shirt. He took off his necklace, he always wore it when we went out for as long as i could remember, but i never asked about it.
"Here ya big baby" he said extending his arm toward me. It was a crude leather necklace with some strange orange hooked rock at the end. It was curved, and looked like it had been broken off of something.
"whats this?" I asked snatching it from his hand
"its called an armor talon" He explained. "I got it from some creepy guy in the big city. Its apparently made with some sort of ancient magic, I cant really find anything about it.. But all I know is when i wear it, nothing can really seem to hurt me."
"Wow, this looks pretty sweet actually" I said as I put it on, it seems like once i draped it over my head I could feel my skin get thicker.. almost like stone. It felt very strange.. but in a good way."

The sun had just set, it was quite a walk to the other side of the island. As we turned the corner to the clearing where our house was, we could see a faint glow. Pa stopped in his tracks and took a deep breath, I instinctively did the same thing.

"..Smoke?.."