Dragonia is a kind place, a country in which humans and dragons live side by side, a country in which mamono could live happily with their husbands without fear of Order persecution. Of course, the Order were still very much present, even within the capital of this powerful Green Demon Realm. It would be foolish to assume that they held any sway over the governing body.
That didn't stop them from their mild crusades, though the best they could muster was the occasional sermon in the main square. If Deonora was feeling lenient that day, of course. It seemed humanity was more or less equal to mamono in Dragonia. Unfortunately, uncanna were not so lucky. If Dragonians were to give a three-word description of their uncanna brothers and sisters it would be, "Dangerous, Beautiful, Monsters."
"Whatcha in for this time Skeermes?", The sultry voice of his reoccurring warden sounded from across the hall.
The Seregios lazily clicked his tongue as he came to a stop, and gave the Dragon Knight smirking at him, his usual glare. The dragon escorted him to his usual cell, or room depending on how they phrased it. It was relatively clean, but that was his doing more than theirs. He could still taste the rats that used to pestered him day and night when he first arrived in Dragonia.
"Still not talkin' to me, eh?", The warden came to stand beside his escort as he was uncuffed. She gave him a playful pout as he slumped against his cot, causing some of the tiles to screech from the contact. The warden grimaced, "Shame, I figured you had a thing for me considering how often you find yourself here."
"Stop playing with the buy, it's unbecoming of you."
His escort left without saying anything else. The remaining dragon sighed and took her seat at the desk, next to his cell. She would continue to pester him, while filling out the records for the uncanna's arrest, "But for real Skeery, what happened?"
"Tournament… another human injured… my fault…"
"Well, it seems your speech is coming along," the warden gave the annoyed wyvern a kind smile, "it was getting a little boring with how quite you are.", She wrote down his brief response, "So, how did this human get injured? Same thing as last time?"
"Yes… not enough silver powder… on scales... will add more… next time…"
"It would be easier if you'd just use the swords they give you, ya know.", The uncanna grunted in response, "Or you could partner up with someone.", Another grunt, "You're not a monster anymore," another far more aggressive grunt rumbled in his throat, but she continued regardless, "you are a mamono now. An uncanna, you're better than most of your 'kin', but you need to act more..."
"More like your kind," she actually felt a disturbing amount of hostility in his tone, "more human…"
"Well, I was looking for something like civil, but yeah I suppose human works.", She shrunk beneath his gaze, 'You could stand to be a little more human yourself… Gods, those blue eyes are beautiful!'
The normal silence fell over the both of them, the warden, slash only single Dragon Knight on duty, and the troublesome wyvern from the other world. She supposed that they would make quite the pair if she ever got the courage to ask him out, 'Hmm, he would probably just tell me to leave him alone, or that he doesn't have time for a mate like he did with that salamander… but what if he didn't!'
She looked back at him, and he looked back at her as if he knew what she was thinking. Her fantasies took hold, she could practically feel his claws closing around her form, the soft yet sharp touch of his scales on her supple skin. The gentle nips at her neck and breast as they made love, as well as the caress of his member against her womanhood.
The only thing keeping her from achieving this lustful dream was her and her alone. Afterall, the otherworldly uncanna were not known to make the move on potential mates, at least, as far she knew. If she stretched the meaning of 'close', she could say that she was the closest thing Skeermes could call to a friend.
Summoning the courage befitting a dragon, she waltzed over to the Seregios's room and said, "Hey Skeery, I was wondering if…", And like that the door to her office swung open with such gusto that she was left flabbergasted, too shocked to refocus her courting efforts, and too baffled at the sight of what greeted her to properly reorientate herself.
At the door stood seven pairs of wings, only six of which were attached to dragons, with only four of them being attached to girls she knew. All she could really do was gawk at the pair of male dragons stepping into her county jail. Four of her closest friends simply walked in right after them, whilst giving her the biggest, unknowable cockblock imaginable with their sudden appearance.
"Lyra, it's great to see you again!", Litia hopped over to her with a bright gracious smile plastered across her face, "Did you meet anyone new while we were gone?"
"Lit-Litia, what the, the, the heck is going on?!", Lyra babbled.
Alto-Eris leaned over next to her, seemingly enjoying her embarrassment, and it only got worse for the poor dragon girl when Shirtiya and Leia leaned over her as well. It was as if they had planned to ambush her with their sudden arrival. Her commander leaned in with a hint of mirth on her lips, while barely trying to hide the mischievous grin growing across her face, "Oh, have we got a story for you."
"Dragons," the solitary griffon huffed, "why did I have to get stuck with dragons?"
Lyra turned from Alti to the griffon and back again, "Why the heck is there a griffon here?!"
-0-
Three days have passed since fall the of Lescatie, and the remaining humans were left with little choice but to fallow the hunter and his monster companions to the neutral kingdom of Reinhold. While they enjoyed more than just impressive cooking, they were stuck between a rock and a hard place. Or more accurately a literal city full of monsters and a much larger kingdom of monsters that was also a long since conquered Order stronghold. To say they were distressed was one thing, but the sheer fury of the people of Lescatie was something else entirely.
"Okay, so let's just go over what happened.", A furious young man started, though mostly calm he appeared to be the most agitated of the crowd.
The majority of the refugees had gathered into a circle, many of the remaining Order soldiers listened in from their posts around the camp. These people were what remained after some of the men and women were sent out in search of food. The heroes had joined the hunting party, along with a couple of the soldiers, and the hunter's mamono companions. Leaving over half of the refugees along with a sleeping hunter, and a wagon that was by all means unguarded.
"We were taken from our homes with nothing but the clothes on our backs!", A disgruntled woman began.
"We were forced to abandon our lively hoods!", The butcher in the crowd roared.
"Monsters from that GODLESS world destroy our blessed city!", A priest screamed.
"And!", A child squeaked, almost completely unaware of what was actually going on.
"And the hunter has the audacity to deny us any respite!", The crowd was in an uproar at this point, with random refugees screaming obscenities. The soldiers themselves had abandoned their post at this point, and had joined the circle, completely taken by the hysteria consuming the people of Lescatie.
"The godless dastard travels with demons!"
"Demons! The dastard is taking us to a den of sin! The HERETIC deserves to burn!"
"He forced us to partake in that beast's food…"
"I actually quite liked the meals that cat of his served."
"I agree… I don't really mind that part… Let's spare the cat… BUT THAT FUCKER FORCED US TO GO WITHOUT A PROPER MEAL FOR TWO WHOLE DAYS! We know that pet of his can cook, and yet he refuses to feed us anything but shit!", The deranged man held up the scraps of food that he was given that morning, "Does he call this crap food?!"
"I say we strip the heretic of his things and string him along for a day or two, and see how he likes it!"
"Why?! We should just hang the monster lover for his crimes against the Chief God!"
"Hangings too good for the nonbeliever! NO, we should burn him! Cleanse him of his sin!"
"Sins, my lambs, sins!", The priest roared in righteous fury, "The heretic insults our most holy city with his pets' presence, and then he dares to discard our most basic tenants! He is no son of God! He is the worst form of man… AN INFIDEL!"
"Yes, we should flay him first! THE BASTARD NEEDS TO SUFFER!"
While the people of Lescatie reveled in their dogmatic hatred, Chloe watched from afar. She and Francesca were the only ones present besides Sasha's children and the comatose hunter. She kept her head low, and made sure none of them took notice of her. The children were huddled in a corner next to Francesca, who was well aware of their situation.
"What do we do?", The young hellhound whispered, "They're going to storm in here soon."
Francesca nodded, "Take the children, I'll distract them…"
"That's crazy, they'll murder you!", Chloe urged her to sit back down, "I'll protect everyone by leading them away. I'm really, really fast! Much faster than a human, I can just…"
"No!", Chloe was stunned.
The fourth princess stood tall for perhaps the first time in her life, "I am Francesca Mistel Lescatie. I have been nothing, but a burden to my house, to my people… to my father.", Tears formed in her eyes as she went on, but she denied them the satisfaction, "I refuse to be a burden any longer… Let me do this."
"I… fine," Chloe relented before scooping up the closest child, "but don't say I didn't warn you."
Francesca bowed her head in thanks, a faint smile spreading across her lips, before she stepped out of the wagon's front entrance while mustering all the pride, she held in herself and her status, as she stumbled due to the lacking muscles in her legs. Even then, she readied herself as she made her first step off of the wagon. She had never done anything like this before, and for the first time in her relatively miserable life, she felt a sense of freedom overcome her: The freedom of choice.
This was not a decision her father was making for her. This was not situation she had no true sway in. This is a choice she was to make, no one else. This was perhaps, the first time she had the opportunity to do something, anything. And as her naked feet touched the grass, and as her stumbling grew more noticeable. She gained the attention of a woman and eventually the crowd as a whole. Though, this was due to them happening to have noticed her from their peripherals.
Even when standing tall, she was so much smaller than she needed to be.
"Who the fuck is she?!", Perhaps she was too naïve to think they would recognize the kingdom's dirty secret.
The princess steeled herself, "I am Francesca Mist…"
"Is she some noble's daughter?", One of the many questioned.
"She looks like the king!", Another commented.
"Yeah, but King Castor only had three daughters!", The crowd grew more curious, "Didn't the princesses leave for Polove? Who the hell is she?"
"Aye, girl!", Francesca took a step back as one of the soldiers stepped forward, "Who the hell are you? How'd you get here?"
"I'm… I'm…"
"Out with it!", As the young women was assailed by the newly formed mob. Chloe went about helping the children, picking up the human kids, before helping the younger mamono girls afterwards. She watched the princess all the while. Chills ran down her back with every shout, and after she helped the last girl out, she quickly made her way to the wagon's side.
"I told you… I told you," Chloe whimpered as one of the soldiers grabbed Francesca by her arm, "what am I going to do?!"
-0-
Pluck found the dragons of this world to be strange, to say the least. Yes, he nodded to himself, whenever one of the dragons, or Dragon Knights, as they called themselves. They seemed to take a peculiar interest in him, an interest that perplexed the young Elder. Even upon their arrival to this Dragonia place, he found himself, and Kushala to a lesser extent, to be the sudden focus of every human and mamono that just so happened to cross their path.
"Uh, Pluck I've been meaning to ask you a question for a while now... What's it like to fly with those wings of yours?", Pluck would describe the wyvern Litia as friendly, but she tended to touch him, when given the chance. Even now, while she asked her question, she would caress his wings with her surprising gentle claws.
"What do you mean?", Was his admittedly simple answer. She gave him quirk of the brow, and upon noticing that she had become the center of his attention, she subconsciously pushed her right blonde bang to the side, and then glancing away before glancing back at him. This action confused him.
"Well, your wings are… well they're…", She stammered.
"The wyvern is curious as to how your wing works, Pluck.", Kushala added from the side. The older dragon gestured to his other wing, "Go ahead and explain how your wings differ from hers, Pluck."
"Okay," Pluck looked to his wings, and then back to the wyvern girl, "my wings… my body isn't… flappy like yours."
Litia blushed, though he didn't know why. The other Dragon Knights had suffered from a similar reaction, Kushala stifled a snort, and Lowen sighed with her face in her palm rubbing the frustration away with a groan. He once again felt like he was thrown out of the loop, a situation he found himself in quite a lot recently.
The griffon, his friend he supposed, was odd as well. She, like the dragons of this world, possessed human features as well. She had human breast, human skin, human hair, he even caught a glimpse of Lowen's privates, as she calls it, while she was changing during their journey. He barely felt the slap of course, but it bothered him as to why she would hit him for seeing her 'privates'.
"Pluck," Lowen growled, "please tell Litia what you do to fly."
The young Elder took a second to collect himself, "When I fly, I breath from my vents.", He pointed to his chest, the vents on his elbows, and the dorsal fin like spikes on his back, "After a moment the air will fill my… lungs?"
"Yes, your lungs, Pluck.", Kushala nodded.
"Okay," the Elder flexed the swiveling of his wing, "after the air fills my lungs, it comes out as Dragon in my wings. Which… makes me fly."
"That's… cool," Litia beamed, not entirely sure of his explanation, but glad he was paying attention to her regardless, "would you be willing to let me… ride on your back later?", She paused realizing what that statement could be construed as, "TO SEE HOW IT FEELS! Darn it! I mean I want to know what it's like to fly the way you do and I would need to ride you in order to find out!"
"Why not.", Pluck shrugged not knowing the Dragonian slang, nor understand the wyvern's distress.
The Dragon Knights blushed a deeper red, while Kushala, unsure as to why, consciously pulled Pluck away from the wyvern clutching onto his wing for his kin's safety. Lowen pushed her in between Litia and Pluck. The griffon was blushing too, but to Pluck, the redness of her face appeared to be one of anger rather than the secondhand embarrassment currently eating away at her sanity.
"Did I say something weird?", The young Elder whispered.
Lowen glared at him, and despite the fact that he was almost a foot taller than her, she took the opportunity to look down on him as she scolded him. Grabbing the fool by his horns, she brought him close, and whispered, "Riding means to fuck for dragons, you idiot!"
"How was I supposed to know that?", He whispered back, completely indifferent towards his current griffon-handling.
She shook him with an even deeper blush flushing her cheeks, "These dragons have been nothing but lewd around you for days! You should know that they want to RIDE you!"
"What does lewd mean?", Pluck questioned, "Does it mean to mate?"
"SHUT UP!"
"And we're here!", The both of them turned to Alto-Eris. They now stood before a relatively small building that read "Immigration Bureau", though neither Kushala nor Pluck could actually read the text. The leader of the Dragon Knights kicked down the door and gestured for them to go in, "You two are going to stay here, while I organize a hearing with our queen."
"What is this place?", Kushala asked as he strode into the building, "Is this some sort of prison?"
"No, this is the Immigration Bureau building," she stepped in beside him, "and that would be Lyra and Skeermes… Please be careful around him. He's a bit skittish around other mamono."
"It's small.", Was Pluck's only observation of the building, despite the surprisingly full entrance. His gaze washed over pamphlets, maps, pictures that showed the more exotic parts of the world, and a variety of nick-knacks he would assume belonged to the dragons around him. Said mamono were currently swarming Lyra, talking amongst themselves, while occasionally throwing looks his way.
And then his gaze fell on the gold scaled wyvern staring him down from across the room. Pluck and Kushala grew tense, and so did the uncanna, Seregios. The male wyvern gnashed his fangs, allowed his scales to flare up in preparation to strike, while getting on all fours, whipping his tail back and forth. He lowered his head to the side, as if to draw their attention to the backwards curving blade-horn, and his violently flaring scales.
They would have started tearing each other's throats out then and there if Lowen hadn't pulled both him and Kushala back by their ears. The Seregios himself was pulled back by the azure scaled dragon, Lyra. Her physique was much like the other dragons, and himself. However, the Seregios had wings like that of a mamono wyvern, claws of a mamono wyvern, and the golden-brown hair of a human being.
Skeermes had kept his golden scales, he had kept his red scales lining both his almost entirely blue eyes as well as his pronged tail, his skin was much like the young Elder's own; the only difference being the fairer color.
This monster was an apex predator, one of the few wyverns that could potentially challenge an Elder. Put simply, he was a threat, and Pluck didn't like the idea of taking chances after his first meeting with Kushala. Even as Lowen held him back, his blood continued to boil with primal aggression.
"Let go of me!", Skeermes growled, he knocked the dragon from his shoulders, and leaped to the other side of the room, "I'm fine… calm… I'm calm…"
"What the hell got into you two?", Lowen yanked them down to her level, "I know you two are supposed to be this great and mighty Elder Dragons or some shit, but that doesn't give you the excuse to pick fights whenever you guys want!", the griffon lowered her voice to a whisper, "You two are already on trial for destroying an Order city. Let's keep it too just that, please."
Kushala nodded and nudged her claw off of his ear, understanding that some tact would be prudent in this kingdom of dragons. While Pluck took Lowens claw in his, seemingly getting a rise out of the Dragon Knights in the room, and another embarrassed blush from his friend.
Taking note of the sudden tension in the room. Pluck turned to Lowen, held up her claw in his, and asked, "Is this lewd too?"
-0-
"Okay, you just need to throw it like… this!", Ace threw the boomerang with such force that in struck the old doe with a loud snap. The deer stumbled forward, before collapsing onto its side with a neck that bent in the wrong direction. The only evidence of the strike was a minor bruise on the animal's neck, and a minor fracture in her spine.
"Cool," Mersé smirked and twirled her throwing spear in her good hand, "but I'm getting the next one."
Mia cringed as Ace hopped over to corpse, "Are you guys sure this is painless? That snap didn't sound ."
The palico shrugged, and hefted the elder doe onto his shoulders, "The boomerang hurts… like a lot, but I'm sure the sudden jolt and snap dulls the senses long enough for them to die without feeling a thing."
Despite his diminutive size, Ace was able to fully sling the animal over his shoulders. Both mamono and human watched in bafflement as the felyne technically dragged the body over to the cart the soldiers were pulling up.
"And Mia," Ace tossed the deer into the cart, "you'll need to know how to do this too."
"Can't I get by with this?", She held her Bone Wedge close to herself, though even she knew it wasn't exactly a proper weapon.
"Nooooo," Ace playfully scolded, "a Bone Wedge is the last weapon you should rely on. Now this," he equipped his axe in his paws, flaunting the serrated blade for all to see, "now this is a weapon! Once, we get back to my world, me and you are going on a solo hunt."
"Solo hunt?", Mia blanked, "You mean just the two of us, right?"
"Yeah," Ace nodded, before gesturing for Mersé to take the lead, "but we can talk about that later. Dascaros, if you would."
The hero clicked her tongue, and eyed the werecats before her, "Never thought I'd be taking orders from monsters, but here I am.", She closed her eyes, and casted the soul sensing spell. When she opened them, all she could see was the vague images of the soldiers, the mamono, and the essence of their being.
As she suspected, the werecat possessed Demonic Energy, the soldiers gave off the normal flow of Spirit Energy, but what caught her interest was the ebb and flow of the energies within the felyne. He gave off Demonic, Spirit, and some sort of red energy she had only seen once before. The energies seemed to constantly push and pull on each other; the Demonic ate at the Spirit, the Spirit ate at the red, and the red ate at the Demonic.
It was as if his very being was in constant conflict with itself, yet his soul kept an equilibrium that she had only seen in the most focused of mages. Mersé gulped, turned away from the walking contradiction of nature, and set her sights on the distant flickers of Spirit Energy in the distance.
"These other worlders are just getting weirder and weirder.", She thought aloud, and pointed her spear in the direction of another target, "There's one over there!"
-0-
"Aim for the head."
"Why?"
Primera Concerto was not one to take kindly to others, especially if those others were not elves like herself. Yet here she was listening to requests from a short, oddly dressed werecat. And but a day ago she was an active hero of Lescatie, one of the greatest cities of the Order. Not once did she believe she would be hunting pigs with a mamono nipping at her heels for peasants, who called her knife ears. She sighed, 'Oh, how the mighty have fallen.'
"If you aim for the head, you won't ruin any of the meat.", Tatsuo explained, "If you hit the boar in its heart, like you're about to, the blood will flood and taint the meat."
"You don't look like a hunter," the half-elf notched the bow and aimed for the heart, "what would you know."
"I know quite a bit about preparing meat," Tatsuo forcibly move her bow's sights away from the animal, "and as a chef, and as the felyne that's making your food. I would suggest you do as I ask if you want a fulfilling dinner."
"You can't tell me what to do.", Primera shoved him into the dirt, and took aim once more, "Leave me alone, and I won't gut you here and now, cat."
Huffing, Tatsuo got to his feet, dusted himself off, and walked away. The squeals of the boar the only thing he could, before the swift silencing of the animal's suffering. Sighing, he returned to the rest of their hunting party, finding Wilmarina issuing orders, with Sasha and Mimil pointing into the thickets beyond.
"Hey, Tatsuo," The felyne chef turned to Elt's voice, "where's uh… where's Primera?"
"Hunting.", He did his best to hide his scowl.
"Hey, uh Tatsuo?", Elt leaned over him, "Are you okay?"
The chef sat himself down against one of the more recent kills, an elk of substantial size. He laid a paw on the animal's snout, aware of the fact that the arrow in its abdomen had given the animal a slow death and possibly painful death. Even after all it's suffering, he could already tell that a good portion of the elk's meat was no good anymore.
"I'm tired, Elt," Tatsuo sighed and took his seat next to the corpse pile, rubbing the frustration from his eyes, "I'm really, really tired, Elt."
AN: Hello readers, drifters, people who took interest in this story and will more than likely forget about it for awhile and will return to it after it updated multiple times. I have not been in the best mental state for a good while now, and haven't been able to focus on the story as much as I would have liked too. A lot has happened for me, to me, and around me, and I haven't had the time to write or think about the story.
I know how disconcerting it can be when a story you like just drops off the face of the earth for no reason. So, I'll try to notify those of you who care of my sudden disappearances.
Most of you could probably tell that the recent chapters have been shorter than I said they would be, and all I can say is, "Please bear with it." I'm apologies that The Grand Expedition has went on an unintended hiatus, and I will do my best to make sure that this story doesn't die.
That being said I also want to talk about some fandom stuff going around these days:
1. Legends of The Guild
Review: I very much enjoyed the movie, and found the movie to be much better than the first one. However, it is very flawed, and objectively speaking I would say it is at most a 4/10. Though if you like monster hunter, then you will more than likely enjoy the movie like I did. Hopefully Capcom won't sabotage MH's image anymore than they already have.
2. Story Questions / Reviews
I do answer questions you guys ask through the story itself, or through PM, but as quite a few of you don't use the feature on this site. I think I will give short answers at the end of each chapter to answer questions, while not bloating word count as I technically am now.
Q&A / Response:
Long Review Guest August 17:
Thanks for the review, it's nice to know another person enjoys my story, and I'm glad you took a liking to Ace. I'm entirely sure how you guys feel about Mr. Greatest Palico to ever live -Ace, but its nice to know that some of you guys are taking a liking to him. Pluck has been to write for, and I hope this chapter showed more of how he actually sees the world. I don't know if Tatsuo should be paired up, but if you guys have suggestions, I'm all ears.
Long Review Guest August 18:
Thanks for the review, I'm not sure if you are the same guy as the last guest. And your right, Elders as well as the other monsters of MH would not value gold, let alone basic currency, and nor would they understand the general concept of an economy and industry. Not sure why you brought up Bioengineering, but okay... Glad you're enjoying the story so far :).
Potently the same Guest August 21:
I just love the Helios armor from MH4U too. I haven't fought Ceadeus before, as I never had the privilege of owning a copy of Tri U... Might emulate it at some point. Thanks for the review.
And that should be everything I wanted to cover in the Author's Note. I'm sorry that this chapter took so long to come out, and I will endeavor to make sure that the next chapter doesn't take forever like this one. Let me know if you guys have any questions, and I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and the story to come.