Monster Hunter: Dawn of the Hunter

Chapter 6

Rage was woken up by Zakrin who had a large backpack over his shoulder. Rage sat up and rubbed his eyes. There was a backpack next to the couch where Rage lay. He looked around.

"Where is the bag I came with?" He asked.

"I put it in the backpack." Zakrin said "You can check if you want."

Rage opened the backpack and indeed his bag was inside. He blushed a bit at not trusting Zakrin fully but he barley knew the guy. Rage stood up and slung the backpack over his back. He looked at Zakrin.

"So...where are we going?" Rage asked.

"We are going to Val Habar. Its a town built near the Val Habar Desert. I've been there many times myself. Of course before we can get to Val Habar we have to cross the Val Habar Mountains. Its the mountain range that stretches all the way around the Val Habar Region." Zakrin replied, waving his hands around in the air as he did so.

Rage nodded. He had heard of Val Habar from some traveling hunters, but had never been. Granted he had never been anywhere except Domum. Zakrin led Rage to the front door of his house. It looked like any other door from the inside but once they were on the outside Rage saw that is was very camouflaged into the stone around it. If you didn't know where to look the door was pretty much invisible.

"Alright kid, I need you to do whatever I say without question, got it?" Zakrin looked at Rage.

"Yes sir."

"I need you to be on a lookout until we reach the safety of Val Habar."

Rage nodded again. He didn't know why but he felt the impulse so salute. Zakrin started east toward the Ancestral Mountains that Rage could see in the distance, towering above the land. They walked for miles and miles. The only exciting thing that happened was when they had crossed into the Ancestral Steppe. Rage looked up at the sky for the gazillionth time and saw that the sun was starting to set. Zakrin noticed it too.

"We'll set up camp in that cave over there. We can take turns for sentry duty and in the morning pack up and head out again." He pointing to a small cave in the distance.

Rage made his sore and aching feet move a few more steps before he collapsed onto the cave floor, exhausted. Zakrin let out a chuckle and busied himself with starting a fire. Rage leaned against his backpack and sighed.

"Never walked that much have you?" Zakrin asked clearly amused.

"No. I've never actually left my home village before."

"And what exactly is your home village? Kamura? Yukumo?"

"Domum. Its on a large island of the coast of the Terosu Region, near the Terosu Jungle. We don't have any hunting grounds on our island so we have to travel to get to any. We don't have a very large impact on the mainland. What about you?"

"I'm from the New World. Born and raised. Astera is my home."

"Then what are you doing all the way out here?"

Zakrin was silent. Rage watched him as he stared into the fire and shuttered. Zakrin slowly removed his helmet and Rage gasped. Running down Zakrin's face from his forehead to his chin was a massive scar. It ran through one of his eyes, which was a foggy white. Zakrin let Rage look at his face for a few more seconds before he looked away. He sighed.

"I'm here because I failed. I...I don't want to talk about it."

Zakrin stood up and left the cave. Rage watched him go. 

 Why is he so secretive?  Rage thought. 

He stood up and was about to follow Zakrin into the dark night, when Zakrin came running back into the cave and tackled Rage to the ground. Rage let out a startled yell, which Zakrin quickly silenced by placing his hand over Rage's mouth.