Monster Hunter-Worlds Apart Ch.7

There is a tense moment, where everyone is staring at each other. Gin blinks and opens his mouth but Cydni beats him to it.

“We aren’t friends in any meaning of the word.” Cydni rolls her eyes.

“We were the ones that got attacked.” Petra adds.

The man looks over at the monster still lying on the ground, then shifts his gaze to Red.

“You know, Fen can be quite intimidating for a fuzzball. I nearly pissed myself when we met and he was smaller then. Well… I was smaller too I guess but that’s beside the point.” The man lets go of his weapon handle.

The tall man is the only one seemingly at ease. Gerdi takes a small step forward.

“We were shipwrecked and looking for a town.” Gerdi said in a small voice, “We don’t even know what land this is…”

The man takes off his helm and ruffles his hair like that’s going to help. They can see that he's older than them by a few years. “Sorry about all this. They” He gestures to the monster and the other hunter, “get a bit territorial. And you’re not from around here.”

He holds his helmet under his arm and takes a step toward the group. The hooded man tenses and the monster raises its head slightly.

“My name is Lance. That there is Red” He points to the smaller man, “And the fuzz butt is Fenrir. We can take you to the village."

“Thank you” Petra’s calm seems a bit forced, but she doesn’t seem as angry as she was before. “I’m Petra, this is Cydni, Gerdiana, and Ginji.” She points to each of them respectively.

Lance grins and looks back at Red who looks about ready to snap in five seconds. “Red, they aren’t gonna try and hurt us anymore. We are all practically best friends! We exchanged names and everything.”

Red breathes out sharply through his nose and turns, kneeling next to Fenrir. He lightly touches the monster’s wounds, then grabs one of the arrows. When he pulls it out, Fenrir gives a low whine. When he yanks out the second one it turns into a sharp cry. The hunters take a step forward but Fenrir scrambles to his feet and steps between them and Red with a snarl. They take a few hasty steps back when he moves forward, but Lance steps in front of Fenrir glaring straight at him. Fenrir snarls and Lance pulls his shoulders back standing at his full 6’4” height with Fenrir nearly eye to eye with him.

“Down” Lance’s voice is low, commanding. Fenrir’s hackles go up in response. Lance doesn’t move but Red turns his head.

“Ey!” His voice is rough, like he doesn’t use it much. Fenrir quiets, but apparently moves too slow for Red’s liking. Red stands and growls. Fenrir immediately lowers his head and pins his ears back. Lance watches until he turns and walks over to Red, licking the underside of Red’s chin before sitting down next to him.

Lance’s posture drops to something more relaxed and looks back to the young group, smile back in place.

“Got to be stern with pups sometimes”

Cydni fidgets for a moment, “Can we go get our weapons?”

“Well where are they?”

“A good ten minute walk that way” Petra pointed behind Red.

“We can grab them and head off no problem.” Lance replied easily.

Lance starts to walk where Petra indicated. The others are a bit slow to follow, making sure to give the creature and Red a wide birth. Fenrir barely gives them a second glance but a rumble rises from Red’s throat. Lance does an about-face and strides up to Red.

“Honey, Cupcake, Sugar, Sweetie Pie, Pumpkin Spice-damn now I’ve made myself hungry-we already agreed that these kids are our friends. We don’t growl at our friends. Well… you do sometimes but this is not one of those times. Why don’t you take the little one back to the den then meet up with us back in town?”

Red looks torn. He looks up at Lance then turns back to Fenrir. With a sharp whistle, the monster stands up and follows Red into the forest. Lance watches them go, then turns to the group with his arms spread wide and a big grin.

“So ladies and gent, I’ll be your tour guide this evening!”

The five head off to collect Cydni’s hammer and Ginji’s bow before following Lance in a vaguely westward direction.

Petra breaks the silence, “So. Where exactly are we?”

“A forest” Lance replies immediately.

“No shit. I mean what land is this?”

“You guys really that lost?”

“We were hunting a Ceadeus” Geri explains, “A storm blew us off course and then our boat was destroyed. We’re missing four others from our original hunting group.”

“This is the continent of Wystrea. Across the sea south to us is the Furahiya Mountains if that helps any” Lance tells them, “I haven’t heard word of any other hunters appearing in any of the major towns as of yet.”

“You probably wouldn’t have. We only washed up on shore yesterday.” Petra added.

“They must have washed up somewhere else. Maybe more westward if I have my currents right” Lance mused.

“Or they’re dead…” Gin muttered.

“Then their dead bodies would have washed up on shore.” Lance countered, “And before you say it, the currents bring up cold waters so we don’t have many leviathan type beasts in the ocean up here. So no they most likely were not eaten.” He looks back at the young boy, “And what’s with all the pessimism?”

“Ok are you gonna explain or what?” Cyd finally snaps.

Lance looks between Cydni and the rest of the group, like he’s looking for some kind of clue. “Um… Explain what exactly?”

“Back there!”

Lance just looks even more confused.

Cydni lets out a frustrated noise, “The hunter for gods sakes! Red or whatever the fuck you called him. Fucking attacking us and-and growling at us like some monster!”

Lance’s grin fades, “You were the ones that attacked first”

“Like hell we did! That monster attacked us. We were defending ourselves! What the hell was that anyway!?” Cydni’s anger seemed to snowball from her first outburst.

“The males of his species is called Kamu Orugaron. And in their eyes all they saw was strangers in their territory and you hurting a member of their pack.”

“What? We’re talking about the hunter not the monster!”

“They’re the sa-look, just leave it.” Lance turns and resumes walking ahead of the group.

Petra looks over at Cyd, “No need to vent your anger at some poor guy because you’re pissed that someone else got the drop on you”

“I’m not-” Petra cuts Cydni off with a glare.

“He’s helping us. Play nice.” Petra turns without waiting for a reply and goes to follow Lance. While Petra and Cydni were talking, Geri caught up with Lance. She walked a few paces behind him for a few yards then sped up to walk next to him.

“I’m sorry Cydni made you angry.” Gerdi said quietly, “I know she didn’t mean to insult your friend. It’s been a rough few days and her husband is one of the ones missing.”

Lance’s expression softens a bit, “Must be hard. Red didn’t have a, what you would call a normal upbringing. Hunter or no.” Lance is talking to Gerdi but he knows everyone can hear him, “The village took them in but the two of them have been family for years before that.”

“Who?”

“Red’s brother. The Kamu you had the pleasure of meeting. Red was adopted by our village but they usually stay out in the forest. They’re used to it, more comfortable for them I guess.” Lance looks up at the trees and smirks, “Isn’t that right?”

Red dropped down right in front of Lance from the branches above, pulling a startled scream from Gerdianna and the rest reach for their weapons reflexively.

“You didn’t even go back to the den with him did you?” Lance raises an eyebrow, “And you weren’t being very sneaky ya know. I knew you’ve been there since we passed the Vespoid nest. I’m a bit disappointed actually.”

Red snorts and walks ahead of the group. Lance looks back at the group with an exaggerated pout.

“I think I hurt someone’s feelings.”

Petra, Cydni, Gerdi, and Gin all share a look before continuing following them. Petra and Cydni ended up behind the rest of the group.

“How sure are you that they both aren’t insane and are leading us to our doom so they can feast on our flesh?” Cydni whispered to Petra.

“Pretty sure.” Petra thought for a moment, “Like, 76% sure.”

“Thanks for the comfort…”

“Of course”

Gin looks behind him at the two girls. He points at the older men and mouths “These guys are weird.”

Cydni mouths back “be wary, just in case.”

Meanwhile Gerdi has kept up with Lance, watching Red a few aces ahead. She bites her lip, before calling ahead.

“I’m sorry that we hurt your brother.”

Red didn’t stop walking but turns his head slightly.

“Is he ok?”

Red looks back, actually looking at Gerdi for a second then nods and continues on.

Lance leans over, whispering loudly, “You’re forgiven, no worries.” Lance looks over his shoulder at the others and sees them lagging behind. “Hey, you guys want a break?”

“No way” Gin replies immediately.

“We could use a small rest actually.” Cydni says. Gin shoots her an incredulous look. Cyd gives back a flat stare, “You didn’t get chewed on like some of us.”

“Or clawed at” Petra added.

“Or sat on” Gerdi chimed in.

“Ok ok!” Gin threw his hands up.

Lance gives a grin at their antics, then gestures for them to follow. “There’s a river right up ahead. We can rest there for a bit.”

When the group got to the river, they refilled their water skins. Petra sees Lance and Red a few yards off out of the corner of her eye. Red has his hood down and Petra can see that he has short cropped red hair-what an imaginative nickname-but she can’t get a good view of his face. The two are talking, though Red has his back to her it seems the Lance is doing most of the talking.

“You could go home you know… You really think that Fenrir would let himself be killed by a bunch of kids?.. Yes but they’re kids who are lost and scared…Why don’t you go on ahead and tell Daniel to get some rooms ready. These kids look like they’ll collapse any minute… We’ll meet you at the village… Go on then, no need to worry about me.”

Red’s head moves, saying something that makes Lance grin and duck down to give Red a kiss. Red nuzzles under Lance’s jaw then pulls his hood up and disappears into the forest. Lance watches him go for a few moments then turns to join the group that’s resting in a vague circle, stabbing his great sword into the dirt and sits on a rock.

“The village is about two miles north of here. There’s an Inn you can rest up at and a blacksmith to repair your armor. Or… What’s left of it.”

“Thanks for your help” Petra says, “Means a lot.”

“It’s no trouble at all” Lance grins.

“So” Gin jumps in, “Are you and Red… A thing? Like are you two involved? How does that work?”

The three girls give Ginji a look of mortification and Lance can’t seem to decide if he should be incredulous or insulted.

Lance settles on confusion for the moment, “Excuse me?”

Cydni slaps her hand over Gin’s mouth, making whatever he says next unintelligible. “I’m so sorry. He has no filter and suffers from being an idiot.”

Gin looks mildly insulted at being called an idiot, but Cydni’s hand stops him from getting into deeper shit. Lance on the other hand, has lost any trace of his good humor. Ginji seems to just now realize that he might have crossed some boundaries. Lance stands-shit was he that big before-and grabs his greatsword. Gin goes a few shades paler, but Lance just hooks his sword onto his back and brushes past him.

“Let’s get going. The worst of the day’s heat is over and I for one would like some food and drink.”

Lance walks off, not even looking back to see if anyone is following. The girls all glare at Gin.

“What? I was just wondering!” Gin defends, “I’ve never met anyone who was-”

Cydni smacks the back of his head and stats to follow Lance. Gerdi, in an unusual display of forwardness, speaks up.

“We’ve known these men for about an hour and have collectively managed to insult them three times already.”

The rest of the trip is made in uncomfortable silence. After a half hour passes, the tense line of Lance’s shoulders begins to relax. Once they reach an actual trail, he looks relaxed again and starts to pick up the pace a bit.

“Ladies and Gentleman” Lance announces, “Welcome to Hunsoh”

Lance leads them through the moderately sized village, greeting nearly everyone he passes. He leads them to the blacksmith, stopping just outside the door.

“Alright. Strip!”

“What?!”

“Excuse you?”

“I need to be woo’d first!”

Lance shrugs, “I’m getting you all food after this.”

Gin seems to find this acceptable and starts to unbuckle his armor. The girls are still staring at Lance. Lance lets out a heavy sigh like they’re the problem.

“You don’t expect the smith to fix your stuff while you’re wearing it do you? Have at it, you’re all wearing something underneath ya?” He gets three affirmatives, “Well then. Strip!”

They start to take off their armor. Ginji has already finished, plus his was the easiest. Once they had their equipment in piles they stood a bit awkwardly, shuffling their feet. Cydni glared, crossing her arms.

“Um… Do you want a shirt or…?” Lance determinedly stared at her face, “I’m going to get you a shirt.”

“You do that.”

Lance held up a finger in a ‘one moment’ gesture. He started to unbuckle his Zinogre armor. Taking off the shoulders, torso, arms. They all watched Lance quickly strip. When his upper armor was gone he pulled off his undershirt and tossed it to Cydni. She caught it, looking down at the shirt and back to Lance.

“Really?”

“I literally gave you the shirt off my back” Lance winked, “Don’t say I never did nothing for ya”

Cyd pulled the shirt over her head, it was big enough that the neckline revealed still a good amount of cleavage but it was better than the alternative.

“Its like I’m wearing a dress.” Cyd commented.

Lance shrugged, “Just head over to the tavern and get whatever tickles your fancy and get some rest. All of your equipment will be ready tomorrow morning.”

“Anything?” Gin perked up.

“Yup”

Ginji didn’t need any further prompting and all but ran to the tavern.

“What about payment?” Petra asked.

“Don’t worry, I got it covered.” Lance brushed off.

“We aren’t taking handouts.” Cydni cut in.

“Don’t worry, I said I got it covered.”

With that Lance left the girls toward what was presumably the blacksmith and the girls started to head to the tavern. Gerdi watched Lance walk off out of sight until Petra elbowed her.

“What? I’m not the married one here.” Petra let out a long suffering sigh.

By the time everyone else entered the tavern, Gin was digging into a plate piled high in front of him.

“Hello and welcome young hunters!” The barmaid greeted, “We have a table for you.”

“You were expecting us?” Petra inquired.

“Oh yes. We have rooms ready for you as well!”