The air was different.
It was wrong.
His breathing slowed.
From a top the highest mountain within Order territory, far above, and far from any human civilization. An Elder rested at its peak. Silver scales with black spines, and air vents lining his chest and pronged wings. He carefully tested the air once more, and found it to have a different 'taste', for a lack of a better word. His vents stopped sucking in air once more and he started breathing normally.
'What happened to the air?', he thought to himself.
There was no Dragon Energy to speak of, but it seemed another power flowed through the wind all the same. It felt similar to Dragon, but it wasn't. He flared out his power; his wings, crest and chest burned with Dragon fire. It seemed to burn the same, but he caught a hint of purple energy flowing through his flames.
Concerned, but not overly worried, he turned to what remained of his meal. A beast of bovine nature, it had long curved horns that stuck out from its head, and brown leathery skin covering its body. He was sure the humans would have called it a 'small monster' despite its size. His claw reached into the beast body and ripped a flesh covered rib. Watching from on high the Elder rested a top the pinnacle.
'Doesn't taste that bad though,' he slid the rip from his beak and reached for another rib, 'could go for another.'
Another creature caught his blue, red eyes. It appeared more human, in fact, he would have thought it to be a hunter in armor if he didn't know better. Great brown and white wings carried her to the peak. Her eyes shot open in surprise before furrowing in annoyance. Her arms and legs were also covered in a mix of fur and feather.
He lazily gazed down at the creature before waving his claw like wings for it to leave. She started talking, but she didn't seem to understand that he neither knew nor care what she had to saying. She placed her claws on her waist and seemed to be reprimanding him. He merely turned away from her, accidently sweeping her off her feet with his tail.
His gaze returned to the horizon, and took in the wind that caressed his scales. The creature took over his vision once more. She hovered before him, an annoyed expression on her face, yelling at him in a language the humans use. He again turned away from her, and tried to tune out the female's noise.
'Hunters at least knew to stay quiet,' he sat himself down again, 'they knew when they should leave as well.'
He swatted the creature away from his face in annoyance as it flew closer, 'Doesn't even have enough meat to be a meal,' he eventually unfolded his wing and stuck the female. She fell into the clouds below, and after a moment shot back up with fury, 'she might be worse than a hunter.'
-0-
She was fast, incredibly so, the wagon seemed to blur through the forest foliage and kicked up dirt as she charged. Estrid was strong, he had seen her smack a Deviljho with that strength, but he had never expected her to pull this much weight, this easily. Ace felt the wagon rock as he tried to teach Mia the basics of the Health Horn.
"Okay, so," he kneeled next to the sitting werecat, "you just need to blow through this end, and it will heal whoever hears it."
Mia took the horn from him and began turning it about trying to figure out how it worked, "Just blow it right?", She looked at Ace through the hole in the horn, "How does it work?"
He tapped the rim of the horn and showed her the engravings on the edge. They looked like plants with a couple of green crystals embedded in the horn's mouth.
"These are lifecrystals," he tapped in again, "they give the horn its power."
She nodded and beamed at him, "See, you guys can answer questions," she shrugged and leaned against the wagon's wall, "finally something that doesn't lead to more questions."
"Dawn makes explaining everything harder than it should be.", He laid the horn back into his case and showed her the rest of the horns.
He pointed to red, brown, and purple horns, "That one's an Attack Horn, Armor Horn, and that's an Antidote Horn."
She leaned forward and asked, "So, they work the same?"
"Pretty much," he closed the case, satisfied, "different materials for different horns but you got the purrmise."
"HAVE YOU TAUGHT HER HOW TO SET TRAPS YET?!", Dawn yelled back from his position at the driver's seat. His poor choice of seating had forced him to stay in his seat. Shizuka still asleep on the bed stirred from his yell, but only turned in her sleep. Tatsuo leaned back in his hammock in relaxation, letting the wagon rock him back and forth.
"I'm getting to that!", Ace yelled back.
Ace turned back to his supplies and picked up what Mia could only assume to be a trap. He placed a device with electricity sprouting out of it, and another with a net attached to it.
"This is a Shock Trap," he gestured to each trap, "and this is a Net Trap."
"Gotcha."
"Ya just got to put these babies down on relatively flat ground and they'll do the rest," he let her take a look at them, "we put them down when the monster's ready for capture, or if the monster's kicking our asses too much."
"Only two huh," she grabbed the net trap, "I was expecting a couple more."
"Eh," Ace shrugged, "I knew a cool cat that knew how to place poison traps."
"Why didn't you learn to set those? They sound pretty useful."
"Because I'm just too," he raised his eyebrows, "charismatic."
She threw the trap at his face.
-0-
They had made it back to Wicker within the morning. Estrid was dead tired, but she had shown that she was more than capable of carrying her weight. Everyone's weight in reality. Shizuka had woken up shortly after to find Dawn reading his Encyclopedia with Ace and Mia practicing with Palico weapons. Estrid had laid down next to her in an exhausted heap.
"Where are we?", She asked.
"Wicker.", Estrid answered, face down in the only pillow.
"But how?"
Estrid lifted her head to face her. Beads of sweat dripped down her face, and for once she wasn't glaring at her. Shizuka, for the first time, didn't glare back and decided to just let her rest. She turned to Dawn who seemed to be having trouble reading.
"Need help?", She slithered up to Dawn and leaned over his shoulder. It was an entry on bunyips, while flattered, she found it odd that Dawn started reading on her species so early on.
"Yes," he scanned the page and turned to her, "these entries don't give a lot of the information I need."
Shizuka raised an eyebrow and turned back to the Encyclopedia, "What do you mean?"
"I need information like…", he started listing everything off in his head, "I need general size, weaknesses, strengths, weak points, how effective a certain weapon would be on each part..."
He noticed Shizuka shocked expression and quickly tried to remedy the situation, "It's the basic hunting guide for others to use if one becomes a problem."
His explanation only made it worse as Shizuka visibly paled, "Maybe I should leave those things out, and just transcribe the basic ecology."
"No," Shizuka shook her head in frustration, "no, I… it's… it's just really odd for someone ask about all of your personal weaknesses and strengths out of the blue."
He stared at her from behind his visor, and for that short time they just sat there in silence. He calmly took off his helmet and gave her a tired smile. Heavy bags beneath his eyes, and his short white hair was in a tangles mess.
He sighed, "I'll meet you halfway," he picked up his journal, "can you tell me your species' strengths?"
She cracked a nervous smile, but nodded anyway, "Okay."
He started writing down some of the basic information. Listing off the basic advantages bunyips have under the description. Shizuka would point out the specifics, and Dawn would write down abridged notes.
"Your people never had the chance to interview monsters before," she tilted her head, "have they?"
"Can't say we have," he finished off the sidenote regarding bunyip fur, "monsters aren't really that talkative."
"Do you wish you could?"
"We would learn so much," he grew quiet, staring down at the journal in hand, "but it would destroy the guild as we know it, if monsters were more like people."
Not wanting to see Dawn dwell on dark thoughts. Shizuka quickly changed the subject, "What time is it? I kind of just woke up an hour ago."
Dawn's glanced at her before looking outside, "I'd say it's almost noon."
She gulped, "When did we leave?"
"At dawn," he turned back to her, "same as usual."
Estrid herself had listened in on the hunter's little lesson in mamono ecology with a smirk on her face. Her exhausted body wasn't capable of getting her to at least sit up, so she remained in her comfortable heap. The chef, Tatsuo, not Tats watched the hunter and bunyip from his hammock as it continued to sway back and forth.
Noticing Estrid's situation he hopped from his hammock, and started fishing something from the hunter's item box. He took out a yellow bottle filled with an even more yellow liquid. He kneeled beside her, "This is Dash Juice, it'll help."
She merely nodded and with all her strength pushed herself onto her back. Tatsuo did his best to help get her into a sitting position and eventually helped her drink the hunter's potion. The effects were almost instant as she felt her whole body seize up and a refreshing feeling filled her. It was like waking up after a long nap. She felt relaxation take over and simply laid back down.
-0-
"That bitch is fast…"
"I know she's a minotaur, but… fuck me."
"That was like… twenty miles."
Her pack continued to bitch and moan as they caught their breath. She as Alpha would never stoop so low as to complain about a 'brisk walk'. Though, she did make sure that none of them had seen her throw up behind a tree.
"Suck it up girls," she commanded, "we'll be shadowing the hunter from here on out."
"How?", the youngest of them asked, "We're not allowed in town."
Her bravado evaporated, and her ears flattened, "…yeah."
She scanned per pack of eight, and found that none of them really had anything that could disguise them. Hellhounds are naturally larger than most mamono, and most human clothes wouldn't fit them. She set her burning eyes on their youngest once more.
"Chloe, you can pass for a human if we can get something to cover you.", She turned to her other pack members, "Go find a cloak that's big enough."
The seven hellhounds ran off to scour the perimeter of Wicker. Chloe simply stood there, and watched as the rest of them tiredly pillage the outlier homes.
"Chloe," her leader gently grabbed her shoulder, "just follow him from a distance, and you should be fine."
"Okay."
-0-
Dawn hadn't expected any fanfare, he also didn't expect the townspeople to rush from their homes to crowd around Tatsuo. They practically begged the felyne to cook for them again, some on their knees pleading, others threatening the poor chef if he wouldn't. Unfortunately, they had to leave Tatsuo to his fate, and Shizuka left with her parents when they inevitably showed up.
"So," Ace nudged Dawn's arm, "we leavin' after Shizuka convinces her parents to let her come, or somethin'."
"No, I need to find Miss Wicker."
Mia's ears perked up, "I can help with that."
Dawn and Mia left to find Marsha Wicker. Leaving Ace and Estrid alone in the town square. Ace not wanting to spend any assortment of time with the minotaur was quick to try and make himself scarce.
"I gotta," he paused to try and think of a way out, "go somewhere."
She merely glared down at the palico in mock confusion, "And where would that be?"
"I…"
"…", She merely smirked at him, 'Still a scared little pussy cat, huh?'
Sweat dripped down the orange werecat's forehead as he couldn't come up with anything. He stared back at the pale minotaur, and for some reason she looked away when they made eye contact. A metaphorical lightbulb popped into his head.
"Why do you do that?"
"What."
"You," he pointed at her, "you look away whenever anyone looks you in the eyes. Why?"
She glared at the palico's outstretched paw and grabbed it. Startled, Ace tried and fail to free himself from the minotaur's grip. She only let him go when he tried using her own body as leverage.
"What do you know about minotaurs?", She asked.
"That they're stupid strong," Ace glared up at her, "and violent."
"Violent," her glare lessened, "that's one way to put it."
Ace dusted himself off and crossed his arms, "Fine, you can follow me around."
"Thank you."
Dawn and Mia entered the townhall with relative ease. Mia happening to be friends with the guards got them passed the front door with a wave of her paw. Mia hurried through the atrium, pointing out every little thing she used to mess with as a kid.
"This," she presented a ceremonial suit of armor, "is my battle armor."
"Okay."
"This," she showed him a vase, "I've destroyed this vase at least five times. Look at the cracks."
Dawn who was fully armored merely stared down at the girl in confusion. She would pop up with a strangely diverse number of objects. She would occasionally unlock doors with her index claw and return with another item for him to look at. It was starting to concern him when she walked straight passed Wicker, who was standing right in front of him now, to show him something in her office.
"This is Miss Wicker's sword," she presented him with a silver straight sword with a red scabbard, "she used this to fight her mom to make Reinhold a neutral territory."
"Mia," a suspiciously sweet voice came from Marsha, "please put that back, darling."
"Okay!"
Mia ran back to Wicker's room and carefully placed the weapon on the wall. Dawn and Marsha simply stood there in silence as the werecat ran back to take her position next to Dawn.
"What do you want?", The mayor's normal tone returned.
"I just wanted to ask you some questions."
She peered at the hunter, but relented. She beckoned him to follow her into her office, and Mia happily followed after. Marsha's office was filled with a variety of weaponry, from swords and about half a dozen firearms. He even took notice of a rather impress crossbow next to a cabinet lined with ancient tomes. A clear window behind Marsha's desk gave the three of them a view of Tatsuo serving the town. He allowed Mia to sit in the guest chair. Marsha Wicker herself sat down in her own chair, though it appeared far more comfortable than the guest's.
"Alright, hunter. Ask away.", She took a sip from her glass of tea.
Dawn nodded and pulled out his journal, "I have some questions regarding Reinhold history and the major powers in the area."
He glanced at her, but she didn't seem interested in starting the conversation. She simply sat back and lazily stared at him.
"…Can you tell me about some of the major factions?", He asked.
"There's a couple," she sighed, "you got the Demon Realm, the Extremist Faction, the Order of the Chief God, and Dragonia but I don't know much about them."
"I see," he wrote down the section names, "can we start with the Demon Realm?"
"Not much going on there," she rolled her eyes, "outside of the Demon Lord being the leader, there isn't much structure. They used to be expansionist that wanted to convert Order territory, but they stopped pretty much as soon as they started."
"What happened?", Dawn quickly wrote down an abridged version.
"Some Order hero ventured off to slay the Demon Lord, and never returned," she smirked, "but whatever he did caused the Demon Lord to stop her expansion."
"And what of the Extremist?"
An annoyed scowl replaced her bored expression, "They're the ones that keep making things worse for everyone."
"And they're led by the Demon Lord's forth born, right?"
"Yeah," her scowl deepened, "Druella is a real piece of work, she's the one that conquered Reinhold awhile back. Gave it to my mother."
"Did you…"
"No," she glared at him, "you just have to know that she lords over a bunch of rapist and nymphomaniacs."
"I see," he flipped to another page, "the Order?"
"Idiots." Her bored expression returned.
"…"
Sighing she elaborated, "They serve the Chief God. Nelius, the new Reinhold, my new stepdad, was one of their Heroes."
"And these Heroes are special," he lifted his gaze from his journal, "I heard that term thrown around quite often when I visited Nelius."
That little piece of information stunned her, "He went through with it, huh?"
The question was rhetorical, "What is a 'Order' Hero?"
"They're people that had been 'blessed' by the Chief God." She made sure to make quotations when said blessed.
"I take it this blessing is not what it seems.", His monotone didn't really alleviate the mayor's annoyance.
"There a theory going around that the Chief God placed limiters on humans," she said, "that the 'blessing' is just her removing that limiter."
"I see."
"…"
"What of Dragonia?", he asked.
"Really?", She threw up her hands in confusion.
"What."
"Do you not care?", She stood up from her chair and slammed her hands into the table, "Your people are potentially being tricked and puppeteered around by a power crazed deity!"
Mia had physically seized up from Marsha's reaction. She seemed to have witnessed this kind of reaction before. She stared up at Dawn and quietly pleaded for him to ease her mother figure's fury.
He ignored her, "They're not my people."
"…"
He continued, "I am a hunter of the Hunter's Guild. My duty is to the preservation of nature, and to serve as a Guild Representative when required. In short, I cannot and will not support or oppose any factions unaffiliated with the Guild."
Silence reined over the office. Wicker merely stood there gawking at the hunter, and Mia did her best to make herself invisible to Marsha.
"You don't care?"
"Yes," he closed his journal, "and no, I am not allowed to intervein in conflicts outside of Guild jurisdiction."
His explanation calmed whatever fury that had slowly built up in the mayor, and she simply sat back down in her chair exasperated.
"Okay."
Dawn placed his journal back in his pouch, and left after thanking Wicker for her time. Mia gave Wicker a quick hug before following after him. Marsha herself could only rub the tired from her eyes as she watched them leave.
'At least Mia won't be getting into too much trouble.'
-0-
"So," Ace awkwardly started, "why do you take payment in sex?"
Estrid, walking beside him, made sure that no one was around that could hear them, "My red eyes cause me to become very easily arouse, and an aroused minotaur isn't exactly gentle."
"So, your red eyes make you horny, and you hurt guys when you do the dirty," he shrugged, "what's the big deal?"
Estrid growled and looked skyward, "I've broken a lot of people's bones, Ace."
"Okay… your turn."
Estrid calmed herself, and took notice of a red cloaked figure behind her. She quickly looked away, but she did notice a pair of wolf ears sticking out of the hood.
"Why do you call yourself Ace?", She asked, her glare softened.
"I used to work with a group of hunters as a prowler," nostalgia flooding his thoughts, "they were called the Ace Hunters."
"So, you were the Ace Palico, then?", She smirked.
"Yep," he grinned to himself, "but also no," his grin faltered, "they brought on a new guy, Aiden. I like him, but he's pretty much the reason I ended up as Dawn's palico."
"Why would they kick you out," she gave the werecat a nudge, "you didn't do that bad with that Devi-Jo thing."
"It's Deviljho," he corrected, "and they didn't. I left because they wouldn't be able to take me on hunts."
She gave him a confused glance, "Your turn."
Ace sat down next a tree, and also took notice of the red hooded girl following them. He stared at her for only a moment as she quickly hid behind a much taller mamono. He narrowed his eyes in suspicion, but chocked it up to her being a nosy kid.
"Why do you look so different from the other minotaur at Reinhold?"
"I'd rather not…", She sat down decide him.
"Nope," Ace nudged her back and whispered, "you have to answer. I told you about Dawn's you know what, therefore you gotta share something embarrassing too."
She blushed. She hadn't actually expected Ace to know about Dawn's private areas, but apparently humans and 'felynes' in their world don't care much for privacy, 'Then again, I was the one asking about Dawn's dick size.' They're nature rules all mentality, certainly explained why Dawn is just okay with sleeping next to women he met only recently.
"I don…"
"It doesn't matter how embarrassing it is.", The Palico pointed at her face again. The more time she spends with Ace, the more similarities she saw between him and Mia.
"Fine," she relaxed into the tree and quietly said, "I spend most of my time in my room. The city guard wear red, and its gets me… excited whenever I see them."
"Oh," he took off his helmet and leaned back as well, "what about the other minotaur."
"They aren't as affected as I am," she closed her eyes, "they'll look away from the red, but they have husbands to take care of their needs."
"Can I ask another?"
She crossed her arms beneath her breast, and nodded.
"Why do you mamono care about 'husbands' so much.", They could hear a distant scuffle, and Ace could see a small flash of red from where he saw the kid hide.
Estrid stared down at the felyne and placed her hand on his head, gently petting him. He merely tilted his head at her, the only person who ever did this to him was the Ace Gunner, and even then, it felt like an odd affection he hadn't felt before. It wasn't sexual, but it wasn't platonic either. It was like she saw him as some kid who didn't know any better.
"How old are you?"
"I'm a year older than Dawn."
"Do your people really not care about sex?"
Ace gave her a quizzical look, "It's a method of reproduction. It's a part of nature," he tilted his head again, "people and monsters breed and then they raise their young. I want to know why you people care so much about it."
"It's complicated…"
"Then explain away."
-0-
"Just because he kept his promise does not mean that…"
"Stop it mother," Shizuka snapped, "I want to go with them, and I'm in love with Dawn."
Shizuka and her mother were currently arguing in the Shai family home. Far away from any onlookers, and more specifically any hunters. Grayson calmly spectated his wife and daughter bickering contest over whether or not she could leave with said hunter.
'This getting tiresome', he leaned back in his chair, 'maybe I should just tell them off.'
His daughter was a grown woman, mamono, he had to remind himself. She found a man that she marked as her mate. Should he just let her go? His wife brought this question to mind. She was protective, almost too protective, but he understood what she wanted. There was no middle ground here, no gray area, his father side told him. He stood up.
"Mother! You gave him a chance, and he fulfilled his part of the deal."
"Shizu," his daughter cowers before her mother, "he's a stranger from a strange world. How do you know he even feels the same way? Does he even want you to come now. He doesn't need a guide anymore."
He gently placed his right hand on his wife's back, startling her. He placed his left on his daughter's head silencing any rebuttal forming in her throat. He only did this if they started fighting. Yumie always calmed at his touch, but he knew that contact wasn't enough this time around. Shizuka was his daughter, she would never argue with him.
"How about," he calmly said, "we compromise."
The two of them quieted and calmed whatever anger that remained. He took his hand off Shizuka's head and continued.
"The 'rift'," his daughter nodded, "that lead Dawn and those male mamono here, is near Wicker, right?"
She nodded, and he added, "That means he'll want to pass by Wicker whenever he wants to communicate with his higherups. So, that means that he will return to Wicker every once in a while."
His wife nodded, seeing where he was going, "So, if our daughter went with them," he added, "they will visit Wicker on their way back."
Yumie stared at Shizuka and then himself before relenting, "If he can promise to bring you back 'every time', he returns, then I'll be satisfied."
Shizuka for the first time since coming home smiled, and embraced her parents. Yumie hugged back and kissed her daughter's forehead. Grayson comforted the both of them, 'Please hunter, I'm begging you, don't fuck this up.'
-0-
"Its true," her eyes glazed over, "a male."
From behind her cover, she watched the minotaur that pulled the hunter's wagon and a MALE werecat. Her sisters' are going to freak out. He was cute too, though she doubted that she would get a turn with him.
Her red hood kept the minotaur from paying to much attention to her and the werecat dismissed her early on. She kept close the ground to avoid their gaze, but she could tell that the werecat knew where she was. The other male she saw, continued to slave away at his cooking station. She had never seen anyone move that fast.
"Ace," she heard the minotaur ask, "where are we heading tomorrow?"
This was good. She didn't even have to follow the hunter into the townhall anymore. She listened in closer than before.
"Dawn said he wanted to head back to where we first entered this world, and then probably head to Lescatie after that."
"That's Perfect!", She quickly covered her mouth.
"Did you hear that?"
"Probably that kid from earlier," the werecat answered, "maybe she found what she was looking for."
'You have no idea!', She ran as fast as she could. People saw her, but she didn't care. She just had to get back to her sisters. Before she could even make it out of town, she wound up stumbling into the hunter himself. He stared down at her before apologizing, and helping her up. The fire in her eyes burned brighter far more than she wanted them too. She silently nodded and broke off into a sprint once more.
It wasn't long till she came to a halt in front of her eldest sister. She heaved and hoarsely explained to the alpha her findings. With each detail her alpha's grin grew, she grabbed her by her shoulders and embraced her. Within her sister's arms she felt her limp legs swing back and forth.
"You did great Chloe!", She almost roughly placed her back on the ground, "I'll make sure you get to taste all of them."
Her sister… no, her Alpha, let out a victorious roar, "Alright," her other sisters came forward, "our catch is headin' right to Druella herself! Man-meat's back on the menu, GIRLS!"
AN: Rise is out in two days WOAH!
Besides that, chapters will be coming out less frequently as I was able to get a part time job. I hope you guys enjoyed.