Monster Hunter: Dawn of the Hunter

Chapter 13

They set up camp later that night after Rage had found a cave that was unoccupied. Zakrin, it turns out, had a slight concussion and Lyla had a broken arm and leg. Zakrin was laying down near the fire and Lyla sat so close to him, they were almost touching. Rage finished seasoning the bullfango meat and placed it into the pot. He set the pot over the fire and sat down, pulling out his dual blades and a whetstone. As he sharpened he whistled a song his mother had sung to him. The Caravaneer looked over at him, curious. 

"You know that song?" He asked. 

"What song?" Rage stopped sharpening his weapons and looked up. 

"The one you're whistling." 

"Oh, that? Yeah, my mom sang it to me when I was young. Before she died." 

"Do you know what the song is called?" 

"Yeah. I think its something like...The Legend of the Black Dragon. Something like that."

"That's correct my boy." The Caravaneer said without his usual cheeriness. 

"What's wrong? I mean, its just a song." 

The Caravaneer slowly shook his head. "Its more than a song. Its truth. The Black Dragon is real." 

Rage looked at him, somewhat horrified. He turned to Zakrin and Lyla and they nodded. 

"Let's not dwell on it though. We have better things to worry about. Like how we're going to find the airship." The Caravaneer said, a smile returning to his face. 

Lyla nodded. "You two should go look. There isn't much we can do." She gestured to her and Zakrin. 

Zakrin nodded. "She's right. You guys go find the airship. Once you do one of you can come back and take us there." 

"Sounds like a plan to me! What do ya say Rage? Sound good to you?" 

"Sure. I've been wanting t dirty my blades again." He smiled. 

"Atta boy!" 

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After they finished their meal, Rage and the Caravaneer said their goodbyes to Zakrin and Lyla and headed off into the jungle. They walked for a couple hours before anything exciting happened. They soon found a large chunk of wood that looked like it used to be a mast. Rage knelt down next to it and studied it. 

"Yeah. This is defiantly from the airship I was on. You can see that the wood was struck by lighting right here." He observed, pointing to a dark mark on the wood. 

"I agree. We must be close." The Caravaneer said. 

They walked a little ways father, finding other pieces of wood and a few other things. They heard loud noises from farther up ahead and started running towards them. Soon the two hunters came to a clearing and looked around. The airship Rage had been on was near the clearing edge, broken in half. More pieces of wood and supplies lay around the wreckage. Rage and the Caravaneer turned their gaze toward what was making all the noise. Near the airship stood Prudens, Rage's village chief, and four Guild Knights. In front of them was the same Astalos that had attacked Rage and the others only moments ago. 

"We need to go help them." Rage said. 

"Way ahead of you kid." The Caravaneer drew his sword and ran towards the wyvern. 

Rage smiled and followed the older man, unsheathing his dual blades. Prudens looked up as they approached and pointed at them. The Guild Knights looked to where Prudens was pointing and they cheered. The Astalos too, turned to face its new attackers. It roared as it recognized them. It ran dashed forward and crashed into the ground. Rage slammed his dual blades against the creature's wing arm, launching himself into the air. He came back down on the wyvern's back and spun all the way down to its tail, stabbing his blades into it's back as he did. He landed behind the beast and immediately rolled to the side, dodging the Electric Wyvern's tail as it spun around. The Caravaneer jumped up and slashed his sword across the monster's face, creating a deep gash. The Flying Wyvern roared in pain and stepped back. It glared at Rage and the Caravaneer and began charging up its body. It charged forward and rammed into the Caravaneer, sending him flying. He landed on the ground with a grunt. The Astalos roared at him and turned to face Rage. It opened it's mouth to shoot a burst of electricity, but before it could it was hit by a fireball. It fell over paralyzed as purple mist wafted from its mouth. Rage looked to where the fireball had come from and gasped.