Gales woke up to the feeling of Gram trying to pull him out of bed, and to his dismay, the canyne was making very good progress. His foot was in and in a moment his ass would be off the bed. "Gram~ Gram stop it." The boy muttered as he lightly wagged his foot to dislodge it from his partner's mouth. Foot free, Gales yawned as he adjusted himself, taking the time to sit up on bed as he looked at his feral counterpart. "Morning." The canyne barked in response as he started walking towards the door and seemed to stare at it for a moment before looking back at Gales. The Hunter just chuckled. "Ok, ok, I get it, five seconds." He muttered taking the time to get off the bed and started fixing it. "Sleep well buddy?" Gram seemed to nod his head as Gales smiled. "Glad to hear it." He ruffled the hair on his canyne's head as he went about starting his day.

The inn provided him both a bath and a light breakfast, well, light by Hunters standards. The latter wasn't enough to completely fill up his belly, but it was still enough to get him moving and out the building. Leaving the complex, Gales tok a minute to stretch as he started walking though both his gear and Garm in tow.

It's a bit noisy in the morning, but that shouldn't really come as a surprise. People are opening up shops and starting their day.

Aptonoth were being given their morning feed, and the fishermen were getting ready to head out to sea to get to work.

Gales was following their example.

Stepping into the Hunters Guild, Glass gave this lighthearted 'good morning' as the receptionists made sure they had everything ready for today. He glanced towards the Request Board and found it hadn't changed since last night, but another Guild Girl was busy pinning new contracts to the board. She was humming some tune he wasn't familiar with, but at the same time it wasn't one he was going to go up and ask her about, at least not yet anyway.

He turned away, his attention drifting from one part of the Guild to the next before finding a table to sit at. Getting settled he noticed that a few Palico were running about at this early hour. Some of them were handing out little sheets of paper to the Hunters that were already settled in for the day. When one came to him found out that it was basically an application of sorts.

Palico were looking to head out with a Hunter and they were just making themselves known.

Sure they could head out on their own as a group of Palico, but a Hunter could help with all the heavy lifting.

"What do you think, Garm?" Gales asked, looking at his partner. "Wanna hire a palico?" Garm just stared at him before making a noise. "Relax, they're not going to replace you." Garm made a barking noise. "No one can ever replace you buddy." Gales stated as Garm just continued to stare at him before slowly looking away, almost like he didn't believe him. "Honestly." Gales muttered before resting his head on the table.

It took between another 30 minutes to an hour for the Guild to really fill up. As it did though, he took notice that less people were here than he expected. There were a lot of people, yes, but much less than he actually thought there were. Maybe 15-16 people at most.

"That's enough for four hunting parties." He noted. "Or eight teams of two." He added as an afterthought.

Either way 16 was a good number; it wasn't too many and it wasn't too few.

When there's too many hunters it's hard to stick out for your accomplishments. It also means there's too many options for Hunting Partners.

Dad likened it to the phrase; to many chefs in the kitchen.

When there's too few you gotta pair with whoever's available, and they might not always work well with you. Might have trouble covering your strengths and weaknesses.

Working well with others was all about synergy.

Least that's what mom says.

Garm pulled Gales out of his thoughts as he nudged him with his head and looked at the board with hunters looking for contracts. "We'll wait till things cool down." Gales told him with a smile. "There's more than enough contracts up there, they can't take all of them."

He wasn't wrong. Sure contracts were first come first served, but you were only allowed to take one at a time.

When the crowd on the wall faded Galesade his way towards the wall as a few more hunters started filing into the guild. He spotted only six more but they didn't really keep his attention. Instead he focused on the quest board, looking at the contracts that were still up and started thinking.

"What do you think we should take for our first contract?"

He had his options.

There was a contract for medicinal herbs.

There was a contract for the hide of a couple bulls.

There was a contract for dragonfell berries.

There was a contract for a Rath egg…

"Nope." Gales shook his head as he remembered Calista's warning and the sight of Ignis. "Not fucking with that." He muttered before looking further across the board. There were a number of different contracts up here, most of them looking like they hadn't been pulled from the wall in quite a while.

Like one for hunting down Ignis, himself.

Turning away Gales continued scanning the wall before finding one that peaked his fancy. Reaching for it though he found his hand meeting another's, and turned his head he found his gaze locking with a young lady's.

She wasn't the prettiest girl he'd ever seen, but she was pretty nonetheless. Long brown hair with some red dye rested upon her head and dark red eyes rested on her face. She dressed herself in simple hard leather with steel greaves and a single gauntlet on her left arm.

Gales just stared at her for a moment and she stared back before looking away. 'This scent…' Without a word the young lady walked away, the mission they had both reached for in hand as she walked towards the entrance. Both Gales and Garm watched her go, one looking at the other as the other just adopted a look on his face. "That girl…"

"I'd be careful with that one." Gales glanced to the side as he noticed that an older hunter was walking up to him. "She bites." The man told him.

"That so…" Gales muttered as he watched the young lady disappear. "Who is she?"

"That's Thorn." The man muttered. "She's just a huntress well known for her solo work."

"She doesn't work with others?"

"She never tries reaching out." The man mutters. "Outright rejects everyone who tries teaming up with her."

"I see." Gales muttered as he turn's to Garm's who made a noise of sorts. Without a word Gales went back to the request board and returned to searching for a contract he could take care of. "Guess, this one should do." He muttered pulling at the request for medical herbs and made a noise. "It's simple and easy, good way to start out." He muttered to himself as he whistled to get Garm's attention. "Alright lets go bud." The canyne barked and the pair headed out.

As they did, Gales glanced around, trying to get a glimpse of the huntress that had left baely thirty seconds before him. "No sign of her." He muttered as Garm looked at him. "I know its none of our business, but…" Gales frowned. "Her scent." Garm made a noise as Gales shook his head. "Never mind… I'm sure she'll be fine." He told his partner as he started walking towards the city entrance. He never noticed that off in the corner the girl in question was looking at him with a frown.

"Those eyes…"


Hunting for medicinal herbs wasn't the most exciting job out there, but as mentioned before it was a simple, easy job that could put a few pieces of Zenny in your pocket. It's something light, helped new Hunters get their feet wet.

It wasn't supposed to be all that hard.

And yet…

Touching the ground, Gales released a sigh as he lifted a bit of loose soil and rubbed it between his fingers. "A bull was here too." He muttered to himself and wiped the dirt off his fingers. The ground was disturbed, roots were uplifted and the foliage had been damaged. That was the problem with bulls. Good source of meat, but their presence wasn't that good for the environment long term. Their digging for grubs and roots damaged the land. Made it a bit hard to find the right herbs one was looking for. "Gonna be hard to find herbs in these parts." He noted as he looked at Garm. "Probably should have taken that contract we saw to thin their numbers a bit, huh?" Garm made a noise as he scratched himself behind the ear. "If we did then, the land could have some time to heal and allow us to reap its bounty." Garm barked as Gales crossed his arms. "Still…" Gales muttered. "How many bulls are there around here?" He asked. "That big one we saw yesterday… and come to think of it we saw quite a few dead bulls too…" Gales muttered. "I wonder where they were all coming from? He tilted his head and closed his eyes. "If they're invasive then they must have come from somewhere… He made a noise before turning to look at Garm. "What do you think?" Garm didn't make a noise instead just laying down and rolled onto his back and stared at his partner. "Really, you want belly rubs now?" This time Garm made a noise as Gales just shook his head and released this light smile. "Honestly…" He muttered as he turned to see a few tracks in the soil and started following them. "Come on, I'll give you belly rubs later, ok." Garm just rolled to his feet and started following him. "Right now we need to find some herbs before they all disappear."

Garm couldn't help but whine.

"Don't you dare start."

The pair walked for a bit, getting more of the lay of the land than anything. The land was still good, but it was obvious that the bulls were doing a number on it. There were a number of roads where the grass had been crushed into the dirt - signs that a pack of bulls had been here and there. Plus there were the craters they dug and the roots they'd exposed from the earthen depths. Sighing Gales ran a hand through his hair and sighed to himself.

"I swear this herb hunt is going to be harder than it should be…" The Hunter muttered as he looked at Garm who was sniffing the ground. "If I knew it was this bad I really would have gone with the contract for thinning their numbers." He admitted as he looked at a tree, noticing that it had been bruised from a bit of rubbing - yet another sign of a Bull coming through here; they liked to rub against trees to scratch their dry skin. "Well… it's not like I can't hunt down a few Bulls while I'm out here. I mean, I won't get paid for it since I didn't take that contract, but it'll at least help out a bit…" He muttered as he looked at his partner. "What do you say? Up for a side contract?" Garm barked and seemed to nod as Gales just nodded. "Well, let's get a move on then."