Monster Rancher - Breeders' Beginnings (Fan-Fiction)

Prologue

[Mocchi and Monster Rancher are © Tecmo, but all other characters are © Rai.]

Monster Rancher: Breeders' Beginnings

There was an era where humans and Monsters lived and worked together in peace and harmony, but as time passed, tools of simplicity began to advance.  Others saw high-tech tools and equipment as a way of easier work while others saw it as a road to laziness and hardships.  Heated debates arose turning people against each other and fighting over which was better: manpower or machines.  

Little did these people know that another war was going on right over their heads: the legendary fiery Phoenix battled against an evil, bone-ridden Monster, the Deathwing.  No one has ever reported seeing the giant birds but people have said that it suddenly got dark in the middle of the day.  The sky blazed red and orange bringing unimaginable heat and lightning struck the ground from the black thunder clouds, forcing people to bolt themselves inside their homes.  The battle raged on for three days.  With the help of Its followers, the Phoenix succeeded in defeating the Deathwing and locked it away in a blackened Monster saucer.  The heavily exhausted Phoenix retreated into its golden saucer which then suddenly broke into five fragments.  The Deathwing followers, the Legion, were still strong already planning on revenge and reviving their fallen master.  To prevent it from happening, the Deathwing saucer and the broken Phoenix shards were put in the hands of the Phoenix's human and Monster most loyal followers and they relocated to different parts of the world.  

Believing that the destroyed homes and crops were the cause of technology, people decided to separate the land into two parts: the northern and eastern regions became Kinzoku, where people who accept advanced technology built and live in modern cities or "Iron Cities" are built, and the southern and western regions became Kyuushigai, villagers who have no desire to use complicated tools and prefer the simple life.  

Years have passed and curious young men and woman born after the quarrels often wanted to explore the other regions, wanting to see lives with and without advance technology, to extend their knowledge, to make new friends, and discover hidden mysteries. 

*

A weary-looking elderly man slowly made his way up the aged, weed-littered stone steps, one foot at a time, up to the Monster Stone shrine carrying a large, flat circular stone in both hands.  The stone wasn't very heavy but it did make him stop on a step to catch a couple of breaths before he continued up to the next stop where he stopped and rest again.  

He looked at the stone's surface admiring the symbolic runes chiseled on it, a sketch of a small lizard-like creature rested on the left edge with its limbs and long fingers and toes extended out in the middle and its long tail traced around the edge with the tip of it touched its nose closing up the circle.

"This year is going to be fantastic!" He shouted happily holding the stone over his head, "I can feel it in my old bones!  We're going to have another splendid school year, but I can't do it without the help of an old friend."

A doorway waited for him at the top of the stairs leading into a large, open-air chamber.  A young man, in his late 20s or early 30s, wearing a long, light green-yellow shrine robe with a silver Togle seal pendant pinned on the front peered out of it.  The young man nearly had a heart attack seeing the frail old man coming up the steps by himself.  "M-M-Mr. Phiosus!  S-sir!" He stuttered, "What are you doing here by yourself?!"

"Oh!  Dillion, thank the Phoenix you're still here," the old man was losing energy fast and was only two steps away from walking in doorway, "I couldn't sleep.  I-I can't do this school year without an old friend to help me through the hard times."