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The New World is fraught with danger and filled with monsters both thinking and feral. It is a land where humans struggle to survive and coexist with forces far greater than themselves. Hence why the massive monsters that call this place home have taken it upon themselves to guard and guide them. To teach and train them and see to it these frail and imperfect beings have all that they need to survive if not one day thrive in these inhospitable lands.
Though... perhaps there is something these humans can teach them in turn.
Yeah yeah yeah was in a cutesy mood and decided to write more in this silly Monster Hugger setting! Even more cuddles, marginally less combat, and shenanigans in this world I'm foolish enough to keep revisiting.
Hopefully you enjoy!
Thumbnail comes courtesy of Jazzumi!
FIRST, PREVIOUS, NEXT
Wringing his hands, Jet anxiously peppered Nell with one question after another. “Not too heavy?”
Chin tucked against her shoulder, the Nargacuga sashayed her hips side to side. The twin weapons slung over her shoulders barely registered against her thick fluffy back. "Nope!"
“Not too restrictive? Not too uncomfortable?” Circling Nell, the Hunter obsessively looked for any fault or failure in their slapdash setup.
"It's fine, Jet! Honest!" Chest puffed out, the wyvern proudly flaunted her hastily handmade vest. She was, admittedly, coming around on this whole endeavor as Jet continued to shower her with more and more human crafts to play with and even wear! Though suffice to say… her attire was filled with far more love than it was quality craftsmanship. The undersized article of clothing barely stretched down past the Nargacuga's breasts and it was absolutely pocked with pronounced rips and tears from which tufts of black fur peeked forth.
Jet struggled to peel his eyes off of Nell's heavily accentuated everything. Damn him and his lackluster handiwork! He had just wanted to give her something in which she could tuck her Dual Not So Great Swords into! The fool of a Hunter wasn't trying to emphasize the ripple of her muscles, the contours of her every curve, or the Nargabooba on his lovely and loomy Nargacuga. How was he supposed to know she’d pull off the look so well?!
Chirping thoughtfully to herself, Nell reached back and drew her blades. Fingers curled, the Nargacuga rumbled as the grips of the Great Swords disappeared into the wrinkles of her scaled palms.
"Weapons facing out!" Jet quickly clarified for her. Drawing his own set of Dual Blades, dull and worn, he pointed them down at his feet and motioned for Nell to follow along for herself.
Mimicking his motions, Nell tightened her grip as she looked down to her trainee turned teacher.
"Great! Then to put them away we…" Sheathing his blades into the faint slots of metal that jutted from the back of his plate mail, their hilts catching in place against them, Jet watched, with some pride, as Nell fumbled after him. Frustrated, then excited, growls tumbled out from her beak when her own weapons caught against the cracked leather holds woven into the back of her vest.
“Masterfully done!” Jet beamed. Hand held out before him, thumb raised, he drowned the Nargacuga with positive reinforcement. “Next… we’ll need to make sure that all this extra equip load isn’t messing with your movement.”
Head cocked to the side, Nell’s barbed tail attentively flicked to and fro. Their stomping grounds, having lain dormant and untouched for weeks following the near disaster with the feral Tigrex, were unrecognizable. Without the daily wear and tear of their training veritable sheets of ivy, Scatternuts, and Redpits had all but swallowed up the clearing.
Retreating into the shade of the surrounding forest Jet wrapped his arms around and awkwardly dragged a large wooden something back out into the sweltering sunlight. Blocky, and barely humanoid in shape, the Hunter panted as he propped up a target dummy before Nell. With a smirk he slapped at the back of its square head. “Ready?”
Dropping to her hands, hackles raised and tail swaying menacingly behind her, the behemoth batcat nodded in the affirmative.
Jogging back some ways the Hunter drew in deeply of the humid and pollen tinged air. “Quest… Begin!” he shouted.
Snarling, Nell lunged forth at Jet’s wooden facsimile. Sailing just over its head, the target dummy’s skull found itself sanded down by Nell’s toned abdominals.
Jet shuddered as uncomfortable feelings of envy towards his lifeless likeness bounced within his brain.
While wood chips collected at the mannequin’s base the Nargacuga’s already short sleeves rolled up past her bulky shoulders as she skidded forward through thickets of ivy. The fibrous vines, catching against her powerful wrists, were torn apart with ease when Nell sank her clawed fingers into a thicket of moss. Arms tensed, she whirled about her grassy grip like a pivot. Swirling in place, spikes jutting from her tail, she slammed her morning star of a limb into the target dummy. With a sickening crack it exploded into shrapnel and splinters.
“That’s a cart!” Nell proudly growled as she stumbled to her feet and flexed. Flashing a toothy grin she teasingly bapped and tapped at Jet with her tail while he readied yet another target dummy.
“Once more from the…” the Hunter grunted at the pronounced yet playful boops that assailed him from all sides. Swatting back to no avail the Hunter yelped when he suddenly found himself hoisted up into the air as Nell’s tail curled around him. Arms hanging limply over its sides he could but sigh and chuckle as she brought him in close for a snuggle and a smooch. “What was it again you used to say?” he taunted in between nuzzles.
Nell snorted and rolled her eyes as she buried him between her barely clothed breasts for a crushing hug.
“Oh that’s right!” Clearing his throat, Jet tried to muster up the raspiest voice he could manage. “I’m not seeing the appeal…”
“I do not sound like that,” the Nargacuga sassed. Arms tucked tight against her chest she all but suffocated him between her sweater muffins. Eyes half-lidded she lowered him back to the ground only when she felt his body go limp.
Doubled over, Jet gasped for breath. “Once more… once more from the top,” he sputtered as he leaned into the soon to be demolished hunk of wood.
Forked tongue peeking out from between his lips Taras clenched his eyes shut tight. "M-m-maybe I'm jussst not looking hard enough," the Tobi-Kadachi unconvincingly reassured himself.
Standing before a massive tree, the Great Tree, that towered over all else at the heart of the Ancient Forest, Taras hoped against hope. For a new student, a new Hunter, a new friend to call his own! As he creaked open his crimson peepers, pining for the sight of a Scoutfly crawling forth from the wrinkled bark, the monster found himself greeted with an all too familiar nothing.
“...Sssame asss it ever wasss,” Taras tiredly hissed. Arms tucked close, and scarred tail wrapped around his ankles, the Tobi-Kadachi sighed sadly. His cartoonish likeness, carved into the base of well… the Trainer’s base of operations, still had yet to attract any takers. Even over the long course of his recovery not a single Rookie Hunter had seen fit to inquire, to express interest, about laboring under the fanged wyvern's tutelage.
His shoulders, and spirits, sagged at the sight of the countless Scoutflies that swarmed around Juneau’s caricature in comparison. Nestled in among the bark of the tree, drinking liberally from its sap, there they would remain until agitated by the Great Jagras. At her prompting they would return to their respective Hunters, relaying that the monster was accepting new trainees, and from there she would take them under her wide wing.
The serpentine squirrel closed his eyes once more. "T-t-there hasss to sssomething! Anything! Pleassse!" he quietly pleaded. Taras' eyes fluttured open and this time… this time his forced smile finally faltered. The insects, and the applications they represented, clustered around the likeness of literally every Rookie Trainer save his own.
A low and pitiful whine rumbled within Taras' throat. As he brushed at his snout and stifled a sniffle his vision grew increasingly blurry. "Who am I kidding," he choked out as he struggled to take in the sheer number of crossed out, and still active, Hunter caricatures bunched up alongside his much more popular counterparts. “Nobody wantsss to train with me. Not with my reputation…”
Head hanging low, the Tobi-Kadachi forced down a strained swallow. His eyes reluctantly swiveled up towards his lonely likeness as he brushed a monstrous hand against it. At least Brook’s, and Jet’s, carvings had yet to completely fade from alongside his own. The only humans he had ever trained. The only friends he had come to know.
Growling, the fanged wyvern impotently kicked at the stray tufts of grass that sprouted from between the Great Tree’s gnarled roots. “What am I sssupposssed to do?” he whined. Brook had since finally returned to the Astera settlement and, tempted as he was, he couldn’t very well sneak into the human habitation in broad daylight. B-b-besides… as much as he missed her he knew better than to smother her. Not after she had worn herself down to nearly nothing tending to him and his injuries for weeks on end. The Huntress had her own life, her own job, to return to. “Wisssh I could sssay the sssame,” he wistfully mumbled. Turning his tail on the Great Tree Taras bid it a bitter farewell.
Hmph. As the Tobi-Kadachi dejectedly lost himself in the Ancient Forest’s undergrowth his thoughts began to drift. With his recovery, and Brook’s own, Jet’s welfare visits had understandably tapered off before halting altogether. "M-m-maybe he and Nell have resssumed training as a resssult?" he pondered. The Tobi-Kadachi’s souring mood lifted, if only slightly, at the thought of cheering the human on.
CRSHHHHH
Arcs of electricity crackled along Taras' spine as he neared Nell’s training grounds. His heavy footfalls, plodding up to now, accelerated to a jog.
“That’s how many carts now?” Nell’s familiar and bassy voice boasted. “Again!”
“S-s-ssshoot! Hold on, Jet! You haven’t lossst thisss yet!” Taras hissed under his breath. Elbowing trees aside, his ankles crashing through mushroom crusted logs as he went, the staticy serpent stumbled out onto the edge of the clearing.
Bounding along on all fours Nell roared as the muscles within her wrists and ankles tensed. A shockwave, colored by upturned dirt and rent apart leaves, rippled and pulsed out from beneath her when she leapt into the air. What thickets of ivy lined the ground simply vaporized into a pulpy mist as the Nargacuga somersaulted forward.
SHHHHK
The satisfying hiss of metal scraping against metal rang through the clearing when Nell drew her Dual Great Swords mid twirl. As the blur of black descended the Wyvern’s barbed tail flicked up and sent a cloud of dirt and tangled roots billowing up behind her.
THOOOM
Skidding forward, the Nargacuga bent her knees and dipped low while she buried the Great Sword clutched murderously tight within her left claw deep into the earth. Biceps bulging she squeezed the blade’s grip for everything it was worth, the heated metal molding perfectly to the contours and wrinkles of her palm through friction alone, as she used it like a pivot to swing back towards the kicked up smokescreen. Right arm held out before her Nell effortlessly sliced through and parted the cloud itself in half. As she completed her rotation her broad paws punted the base of the target dummy up into the air before suddenly, with a crack and a lash, her barbed tail whipped back and annihilated every last trace of its helplessly flailing form from this world.
“...Promise me you’re not going to hit me with that when we resume my Master Rank training,” Jet worriedly gulped. “Right, Nell?”
Rising to her feet the Nargacuga proudly puffed out her chest as she sheathed her weapons.
“NELL?”
Jaw agape, the vertical slits that were Taras’ pupils dilated into saucers.
Arms crossed about her chest, Nell playfully hummed and hawed as she danced around the question. “Maybe I will and maybe I won’t,” she teased with a sing-song chirp.
“Oh yeah? Well maybe I will and maybe I won’t remember to sneak you some breakfast from the Canteen tomorrow,” Jet promptly sassed back.
A squawk caught in Nell’s throat as she started sweating bullets. “You wouldn’t!” she pitifully pleaded.
“What. Wasss. That?” the utterly transfixed Tob-Kadachi muttered to himself. Blinking repeatedly, Taras struggled to shake himself out of his stupor as he watched Jet punch at Nell’s calves. Eyes bobbing to and fro they intently followed the knee-high human who, with a shake of his head, brandished his comparatively dinky Dual Blades and slowly snicked, slashed, and stabbed at the air. Nodding along, Nell drew forth the dirt caked swords slung over her back and pantomimed the motions with him.
Hands cupped to his cheeks Taras couldn’t help but blep and manically wiggle. Jet was a Trainer now? H-how? S-s-since when? Pacing in place, stomping out the fires his crackling sparks had started, the Tobi-Kadachi’s thoughts raced. “Are humansss even allowed to do that?” Taras hissed to himself. A sharp gasp filled the air when the fanged wyvern came to a psyche-shattering realization. “W-w-wait! If humansss can be Trainersss then doesss… doesss thisss mean monstersss can be Huntersss?!”
Eyes a twinkle, ozone seeped off of the serpent as electricity smoldered along the tips of the keratin spines jutting from his tail. Never had he ever dared to dream, to fathom, that such a thing was possible!
“Annnd that about covers the basics,” Jet sheepishly concluded as he tucked away his Dual Blades. “Now with all that said… I… I have to ask.”
Beak clacking together, Nell hummed thoughtfully as her Hunter moseyed out of the clearing to retrieve the last of the target dummies. “Ask what?”
“As a Trainer what do you uh… what do you think of my curriculum?” Shoulders straining, Jet grunted as the blocky base of the mannequin caught against a tangle of vines. “Like. Like…” The exhausted human sighed as he leaned onto the dummy’s shoulder for support.
Nell’s ears flicked to attention, swiveling this way and that, as she wordlessly regarded not only Jet’s cry for critique but a distant and frantic rustling.
The Hunter gently smacked the back of his gauntlets against the wooden construct’s cheek. “What I’m getting at is did you, you know, learn anything?”
“Uhhh… Jet?” Brows arched, Nell politely rumbled for his attention as hers was drawn elsewhere.
“Like I never realized how much work goes into this!” Jet whewed as he locked gazes with the mannequin’s featureless face. “Did the topics flow well into one another? Did they make any sense? Does this format even work?”
“Jet,” the Nargacuga ahemed pronouncedly louder.
"The Dual Blades aren't even my weapon of choice, you know? Neither are the Sword and Shield for that matter! Part of me feels like I shouldn't be trying to teach something I'm not even an expert-"
“JET."
"What?" Jet tersely replied. Whirling about on his heels, twisting the dummy’s square head upon its torso so that it could stare at Nell alongside him for good measure, the human’s expression promptly fell flat at the sight that greeted him.
Eyes half lidded, Nell brought a balled up fist to her beak and coughed into it. “All I’m going to say is that you must be doing something right. Since, well…”
Towering before him, an uprooted and stripped bare tree clutched tight within his scaled grasp, stood Taras. Shuffling one paw over the other the squirrely serpent meekly hissed out a request. “S-s-sssay, Jet? You wouldn’t happen to be offering any coursssesss on the Insssect Glaive would you? I-I’ve come prepared!” A nervous laugh tumbled out from his toothy maw as he shook his pitiful attempt at a polearm. If nobody wanted him as their Trainer… maybe, hopefully, somebody would want him as their trainee?
Nell flashed a grin as she nudged at the Tobi-Koadachi. “Would you look at that? You already have prospective students clamoring to meet you!”
Bags accumulated under Jet’s eyes at the dread realization he was suffering from, of all things, success. As the Hunter stammered out half-formed thoughts and excuses, inarticulately bemoaning how his means to an end had become anything but, whatever reservations he had crumbled when confronted with the pleading yet hopeful smile that creased Taras’ snout. Aw hells. “I am now I guess!” he grudgingly volunteered.
“Ohhhhhh thank you, thank you, thank you!” Stomping happily in place, arcs of electricity gleefully exploded off the tufts of fur lining Taras’ back. His forked tongue furiously fluttered as he bashfully bumped shoulders with his fellow Trainer, and now fellow Hunter, Nell.
Leaning into the excitable snake the Nargacuga’s heart lifted at the realization, the recognition, that she was actually willing to share! …With Taras, at any rate. Maybe she really could do this. Maybe she really could stomach Alma training and spending time with her bitty beloved.
“W-w-when do we ssstart, Trainer Jet?” Taras asked.
“Don’t call me that,” Jet grimaced. Slouched forward, he offered no resistance whatsoever when a pair of Nargacuga hands wrapped around his torso. The harried human irritably groaned at the, loathe as he was to admit it, fortuitous series of events. Seeing as how there were no quick and easy answers for how to scale up weapons to Alma or Taras’ size he may as well embrace the opportunity that had presented itself.
Flopped over the sides of Nell’s thick fingers Jet reluctantly readied a reply while his loomy lover hugged him close. “Iunno! Tomorrow, I guess?” he mumbled as Taras gently noogied his helmeted head. Even though he hadn’t given Alma a set in stone timeline for when he would get back to her… he’d rather not keep her waiting.
“Daybreak I take it? As per our usual?” Nell rumbled.
Well-meaning, and infectious, giggles rumbled out from the serpent’s chest every time Jet tried to slap his hands away. “Ooh ooh ooh! Asss assspiring Huntersss are we finally allowed to eat at the Canteen?” Taras excitedly asked. “Doesss thisss mean we won’t have to sssneak in anymore?”
Snorting, Jet couldn’t help but wryly laugh as delighted chirps and hisses filled the air. “How bout we don’t press our luck? That said…I’ll see what I can do,” he bashfully acquiesced.
—
“Mreow maow mrow?” Whiskers twitching, countless Felynes crowded around Jet as they sized up his cooking.
The Canteen, shrouded in twilit shadow, roared to life while Astera still slumbered. Aromatic plumes of smoke and clouds of steam billowed forth from its countless ovens as its tireless chefs, human and feline alike, toiled to ensure no one within the settlement would go hungry. Or, as was Jet’s case, without.
“Yes, I sourced my own ingredients,” Jet matter of factly tutted back. As he bantered with the Felynes he hurriedly scanned the grounds for a certain Huntress.
“Meow maowwwww…” Clambering up onto the counter, its flailing paws scratching against the jagged stone, a tortoiseshell Felyne took to stirring a bowl of egg yolks with marked suspicion. “Meow mrrow?”
“No, I haven’t forgotten!” Adjusting his bandana with one hand Jet beeped the Felyne’s button nose with the other. “I’ll season them after the fact.”
“Mrow mrow maow mao meow!” Vigorously shaking its head, the tortoiseshell would have none of it! Scooping up a handful of shakers the feline monster liberally seasoned the would-be serving of scrambled eggs with a concoction of spices.
“Oh come on! It all ends up in the same place!” Leaning back into his workspace, arms crossed about his chest, Jet cocked a brow and with one last look-see he bore out Brook's absence. Phew. He still had time to shake out how he would break the topic of training, of Alma, to her.
Judgmental and disapproving meows rose from the waist high crowd gathered around the apron-clad Hunter.
“It cannot make that big of a difference!” Jet retorted with a swish of his whisk for emphasis. “So what if it’s ON the eggs as opposed to IN them?”
The speckled orange and black feline disdainfully merped and snorted. “Meow mrow mraow mow mew!”
Arms hanging limply at his sides, Jet self-consciously wrung his wrists. “W-what do you mean what’s wrong with my batter?”
“Maow mao! Mow meow mraow mow meow!” Paws held out before it the Felyne gestured furiously at the sad and lumpless mix of flour, milk, and eggs.
“So my biscuits might turn out flat and rubbery. Nell and Taras won’t know any better!”
WHUMPF
Hands held up before him, Jet wailed as he was assailed with a barrage of chef hats and oven mitts.
“Meow mrow mao maeow mow maow meeeeow!” the Felynes harangued him in a near chorus. If anyone chowed down on the Canteen’s culinary creations they could confidently expect only the very best that Astera had to offer! It mattered not if their customers were monstrous, ill-mannered, or ungrateful. Quality was quality and the meowster chefs that ran this place would tolerate nothing less!
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! It’s just I didn’t bring enough ingredients to-” A cacophony of meows drowned out Jet’s protests as they salvaged what they could of his cooking. Swarming around him they shared what little soda ash and salt they had to spare.
Stammering, Jet struggled to keep pace with the flurry of fix-its they proposed. "Don't you think you're asking a bit much of me?" he complained.
As Felynes clambered atop the human's head and shoulders, meowing and mrowling out instructions, they refused to entertain his excuses. "Mrow maow meow mow!"
Sighing heavily, sweat staining his apron and bandana, Jet found himself buoyed by their critical yet unconditional confidence in him. They knew he could do better and… they were right.
The Hunter allowed a shy smile to crease his lips while he splashed the skillets sizzling in front of him with heaping helpings of butter and oil. First Alma, then Taras, and now this? Heh. When had he become the kind of person that others could entrust their hopes and aspirations to?
"Mreowwwwwww!"
"OWW. HEY HEY HEY. I heard you the first time!" Jet shouted as he punted the Felynes clawing at his thighs.
‐—
Hrmmming, Taras squinted as he pinched at Nell's tattered and fraying vest. Back and forth he rolled the unspooling threads betwixt his massive digits. "Sssee I've always thought they were more like the Temnoceransss," he mused. "Jussst look! They weave and ssspin all sssortsss of thingsss!"
Nell vigorously shook her head in disagreement. He thought humans, her Jet, had more in common with those arachnoids? Really? "I still say they're more like the Neopterons," she defensively chirped. "Armor? Psh. That's just a carapace by another name."
The tufts of fur lining the fanged wyvern's back swayed as static washed over them. This daffy batcat thought his Brook was akin to a beetle? Seriously? "Sssince when do Neopteronsss take off and put back on their ssskeletonsss?" Taras dismissively hissed.
Tail fwacking behind her Nell bopped her beak against Taras' scaly snout. "Since when do Temnocerans… uh… umm… wait a minute. I can say the same for you!"
"No you… can. Heck."
Sitting cross legged before the Astera gates, their knees knocking against each other, the Nargacuga and Tobi-Kadachi thoughtfully hummed.
“Lyniansss, maybe?” Taras weakly offered.
“Nuh uh. Nowhere near fluffy enough,” Nell disappointedly retorted.
“Truuuuue.” Scratching at the back of his neck Taras worked himself up into a blush. “The lack of it isss part of their appeal after all…” he bashfully hissed as he tapped his fingers together.
Husky chirps rumbled within the Nargacuga’s chest at the thought of Jet’s smooth skin brushing up against her fur. Blushing something fierce herself the winged monster scritched at her cheeks. “Maybe humans are just… humans?” Nell uncertainly opined.
“There’s got to be sssomething like them out there…” the Tobi-Kadachi growled. In silence the duo continued to contemplate the true nature of their beloved and bitty friends.
CRKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK
Eyes swiveling within their sockets, the wyverns turned their gaze towards massive slabs of wood, reinforced with pikes, swinging open along their hinges. Smoke, hanging low to the ground, billowed out from beyond Astera's gates.
Head tilted back, Nell wafted the cloying cloud up towards her. Sniffing emphatically, drool trickling out along the sides of her beak, the Nargacuga’s eyes went wide. “Is that what I think it is?” she happily wiggled side to side.
Footsteps, noisily shuffling along the dirt and gravel path, accompanied a low yet persistent hiss.
Serpentine jaw stretched wide, Taras’ pupils contracted into razor-thin slits while rivers of saliva poured forth past his teeth.
As the rising sun dawned over Astera, bathing the haze that surrounded it in pinks and yellows, a silhouette came into focus. Standing tall, with what looked to be Sisyphean boulders perched upon its shoulders, it trudged forward.
THOOM
THOOOM
THOOOOM
Biting down on his lip, Jet wheezed while he hauled out two monster sized breakfast platters. With every spine straining footfall his vertebrae threatened to collapse in on themselves.
Hands clasped around their ankles, Nell and Taras furiously swished their tails as they leaned forward in anticipation.
THOOOOOOOOOM
Hurling their platters forward, pebbles rippling out from beneath the shield sized ceramic plates that crashed to the earth, Jet heaved out a breathless request. “Nell, Taras… you two have a bit of a… a bit of a reputation so I was forced to put down a deposit on those plates. So promise… promise me that you’ll try not to-”
HROMF
“Never mind,” Jet grimaced as he flopped back onto the beaten path.
Sinking his sword-sized teeth into the plate itself the Tobi-Kadachi ravenously inhaled his meal and the ceramic it was served on. The biscuits, layered thick with honey and sprinkled with a faint yet earthy Gloamgrass varnish, caked the ribbed roof of Taras’ mouth while spice-laden streams of saliva and churned chunks of Blissbill omelettes coursed between his teeth.
Nell, biting into her platter, ecstatically moaned as chunks of roasted pineapple and lengths of Mosswine sausages scraped along her tongue. Her fur puffed out, and wings unfurled, at the delightful crunch of the plate between her beak.
What had taken Jet hours of effort vanished in a matter of seconds. Hands cupped over his eyes, he defeatedly groaned as the monstrous duo noisily forced down their meals with throat straining swallows before sucking their fingers clean. “Why again do I do this to myself?”
WHUMPF
Tails, one fluffy and one scaled, coiled around him as Jet found himself hoisted into the air. Smothered close into Taras’s torso, then Nell’s, the monsters took turns showering him with love and affection. “Now I remember,” the human sheepishly mumbled to himself.
“Ohhhhhhhhhh I’m ssso exsssited!” Taras gasped. “I-I get my own armor! My own weapon! E-e-even my own mealsss! Gossssssh I wonder what Brook will sssay!”
Limbs gone limp, Jet hurfed while Taras violently wiggled him side to side. “About thaaaat. Uhhh… maaaaaaaaaaybe… maybe we keep this to ourselves for now?” Jet nervously laughed.
“Why'sss that?” Head cocked to the side, the Tobi-Kadachi curiously tugged Jet closer with his tail. Taras’ expression faltered not only at the sight of Jet’s guilty demeanor but Nell’s impassive one. "Isss sssomething wrong?"
Nell turned up her beak as Jet rubbed at his wrists. "Well you see Taras…" the human began.
—
"I get to train with Alma?!” Taras all but screamed with glee. Hands bunched up against his cheeks he giddily hissed as sparks erupted off of him with such fury that the sand surrounding him turned to molten glass.
“Not so loud!” Jet said as he frantically tried to shush the snake.
Chin tucked against his chest a bone rattling growl reverberated within the Tobi-Kadachi's throat. “Thisss isss amazsssing! ” The nosy noodle triumphantly declared as he flopped back onto the beach and excitedly kicked his legs. "Now I have to tell Brook!"
“N-no you don't!” the human clarified. Running his hands through his hair Jet groaned as seagulls and Blissbills crooned overhead. "I-I mean think about it. Brook doesn't hold Slayers in the highest esteem. They haven't given her much reason to and neither… neither has Alma."
Scaly brows arched, the Taras blepped his forked tongue in confusion. "Sssince when?"
"Since… you… you know! The whole Tigrex thing. The whole stealing her Charge Blade thing."
"Oh that?" Swatting a hand, Taras dismissively raspberried. "Alma already exsssplained and apologizsssed! We're all good! Although…" Tapping at his chin, Taras couldn’t help but hum. “Brook wasss wondering why you never mentioned that when you returned it to her.”
Tilting her head to the side Nell roughly nudged Jet with her beak. "She what now? You what now? When exactly were you planning to share this with me?" the Nargacuga pointedly asked.
"When you asked me," Jet meekly answered.
WHUMPF
Rolling over onto her side, Nell grumpily chirped as she buried her boyfriend beneath her breakfast filled belly.
"It'ssss fine!" Taras reassured her. "Brook and I… we…" The Tobi-Kadachi pulled himself up into a sitting position as he thoughtfully hissed. "Ssshe may not like Alma but, after everything ssshe’sss done for usss, Brook doesss ressspect her. Ssshe doesss trussst her."
"Hmph," Nell squawked. Shuffling in place, toes curling as the beginnings of her muffin top pancaked Jet flat, the Nargacuga sighed. If even Brook was willing to give the Anjanath a chance…
FWUMPH
The human, freed from his prison of plush, peeled himself out of the him shaped crater in the sand. Shaking seashells out of his hair, Jet turned to Taras. "So… she's okay with this?"
"Ssshe won’t be happy about it," the snake warily confessed. "But… I think ssshe’d be willing to give it a chanssse. I'll know for sssure when I asssk her!"
“As will I next time I swing by the Canteen,” the Hunter promised. Oh he was not looking forward to the verbal ass-beating that was waiting for him. Dusting himself off, Jet rose to his feet regardless and motioned for Nell and Taras both to follow.
Rising to her feet with an urf, stomach still sloshing, Nell stomped after the knee-high human. Tail swishing behind her she playfully, and repeatedly, bumped him into the surf in spite of his protests. Not one to be left behind, Taras excitedly gave chase. His enormous clawed toes practically scraped against Jet’s heels as he clung to the Hunter like he was his shadow.
“Say, Taras?” Nell asked in between bouts of bullying her boyfriend.
“Hum?”
“Why are you so dead set on the Insect Glaive anyway?”
Wrinkles formed along the Tobi-Kadachi’s scaled forehead as his answer, dripping with profound insight, danced upon his tongue. “Becaussse it looksss coooool,” he shyly hissed.
“Oh for-”
FIRST, PREVIOUS, NEXT
Though... perhaps there is something these humans can teach them in turn.
Yeah yeah yeah was in a cutesy mood and decided to write more in this silly Monster Hugger setting! Even more cuddles, marginally less combat, and shenanigans in this world I'm foolish enough to keep revisiting.
Hopefully you enjoy!
Thumbnail comes courtesy of Jazzumi!
FIRST, PREVIOUS, NEXT
Wringing his hands, Jet anxiously peppered Nell with one question after another. “Not too heavy?”
Chin tucked against her shoulder, the Nargacuga sashayed her hips side to side. The twin weapons slung over her shoulders barely registered against her thick fluffy back. "Nope!"
“Not too restrictive? Not too uncomfortable?” Circling Nell, the Hunter obsessively looked for any fault or failure in their slapdash setup.
"It's fine, Jet! Honest!" Chest puffed out, the wyvern proudly flaunted her hastily handmade vest. She was, admittedly, coming around on this whole endeavor as Jet continued to shower her with more and more human crafts to play with and even wear! Though suffice to say… her attire was filled with far more love than it was quality craftsmanship. The undersized article of clothing barely stretched down past the Nargacuga's breasts and it was absolutely pocked with pronounced rips and tears from which tufts of black fur peeked forth.
Jet struggled to peel his eyes off of Nell's heavily accentuated everything. Damn him and his lackluster handiwork! He had just wanted to give her something in which she could tuck her Dual Not So Great Swords into! The fool of a Hunter wasn't trying to emphasize the ripple of her muscles, the contours of her every curve, or the Nargabooba on his lovely and loomy Nargacuga. How was he supposed to know she’d pull off the look so well?!
Chirping thoughtfully to herself, Nell reached back and drew her blades. Fingers curled, the Nargacuga rumbled as the grips of the Great Swords disappeared into the wrinkles of her scaled palms.
"Weapons facing out!" Jet quickly clarified for her. Drawing his own set of Dual Blades, dull and worn, he pointed them down at his feet and motioned for Nell to follow along for herself.
Mimicking his motions, Nell tightened her grip as she looked down to her trainee turned teacher.
"Great! Then to put them away we…" Sheathing his blades into the faint slots of metal that jutted from the back of his plate mail, their hilts catching in place against them, Jet watched, with some pride, as Nell fumbled after him. Frustrated, then excited, growls tumbled out from her beak when her own weapons caught against the cracked leather holds woven into the back of her vest.
“Masterfully done!” Jet beamed. Hand held out before him, thumb raised, he drowned the Nargacuga with positive reinforcement. “Next… we’ll need to make sure that all this extra equip load isn’t messing with your movement.”
Head cocked to the side, Nell’s barbed tail attentively flicked to and fro. Their stomping grounds, having lain dormant and untouched for weeks following the near disaster with the feral Tigrex, were unrecognizable. Without the daily wear and tear of their training veritable sheets of ivy, Scatternuts, and Redpits had all but swallowed up the clearing.
Retreating into the shade of the surrounding forest Jet wrapped his arms around and awkwardly dragged a large wooden something back out into the sweltering sunlight. Blocky, and barely humanoid in shape, the Hunter panted as he propped up a target dummy before Nell. With a smirk he slapped at the back of its square head. “Ready?”
Dropping to her hands, hackles raised and tail swaying menacingly behind her, the behemoth batcat nodded in the affirmative.
Jogging back some ways the Hunter drew in deeply of the humid and pollen tinged air. “Quest… Begin!” he shouted.
Snarling, Nell lunged forth at Jet’s wooden facsimile. Sailing just over its head, the target dummy’s skull found itself sanded down by Nell’s toned abdominals.
Jet shuddered as uncomfortable feelings of envy towards his lifeless likeness bounced within his brain.
While wood chips collected at the mannequin’s base the Nargacuga’s already short sleeves rolled up past her bulky shoulders as she skidded forward through thickets of ivy. The fibrous vines, catching against her powerful wrists, were torn apart with ease when Nell sank her clawed fingers into a thicket of moss. Arms tensed, she whirled about her grassy grip like a pivot. Swirling in place, spikes jutting from her tail, she slammed her morning star of a limb into the target dummy. With a sickening crack it exploded into shrapnel and splinters.
“That’s a cart!” Nell proudly growled as she stumbled to her feet and flexed. Flashing a toothy grin she teasingly bapped and tapped at Jet with her tail while he readied yet another target dummy.
“Once more from the…” the Hunter grunted at the pronounced yet playful boops that assailed him from all sides. Swatting back to no avail the Hunter yelped when he suddenly found himself hoisted up into the air as Nell’s tail curled around him. Arms hanging limply over its sides he could but sigh and chuckle as she brought him in close for a snuggle and a smooch. “What was it again you used to say?” he taunted in between nuzzles.
Nell snorted and rolled her eyes as she buried him between her barely clothed breasts for a crushing hug.
“Oh that’s right!” Clearing his throat, Jet tried to muster up the raspiest voice he could manage. “I’m not seeing the appeal…”
“I do not sound like that,” the Nargacuga sassed. Arms tucked tight against her chest she all but suffocated him between her sweater muffins. Eyes half-lidded she lowered him back to the ground only when she felt his body go limp.
Doubled over, Jet gasped for breath. “Once more… once more from the top,” he sputtered as he leaned into the soon to be demolished hunk of wood.
Forked tongue peeking out from between his lips Taras clenched his eyes shut tight. "M-m-maybe I'm jussst not looking hard enough," the Tobi-Kadachi unconvincingly reassured himself.
Standing before a massive tree, the Great Tree, that towered over all else at the heart of the Ancient Forest, Taras hoped against hope. For a new student, a new Hunter, a new friend to call his own! As he creaked open his crimson peepers, pining for the sight of a Scoutfly crawling forth from the wrinkled bark, the monster found himself greeted with an all too familiar nothing.
“...Sssame asss it ever wasss,” Taras tiredly hissed. Arms tucked close, and scarred tail wrapped around his ankles, the Tobi-Kadachi sighed sadly. His cartoonish likeness, carved into the base of well… the Trainer’s base of operations, still had yet to attract any takers. Even over the long course of his recovery not a single Rookie Hunter had seen fit to inquire, to express interest, about laboring under the fanged wyvern's tutelage.
His shoulders, and spirits, sagged at the sight of the countless Scoutflies that swarmed around Juneau’s caricature in comparison. Nestled in among the bark of the tree, drinking liberally from its sap, there they would remain until agitated by the Great Jagras. At her prompting they would return to their respective Hunters, relaying that the monster was accepting new trainees, and from there she would take them under her wide wing.
The serpentine squirrel closed his eyes once more. "T-t-there hasss to sssomething! Anything! Pleassse!" he quietly pleaded. Taras' eyes fluttured open and this time… this time his forced smile finally faltered. The insects, and the applications they represented, clustered around the likeness of literally every Rookie Trainer save his own.
A low and pitiful whine rumbled within Taras' throat. As he brushed at his snout and stifled a sniffle his vision grew increasingly blurry. "Who am I kidding," he choked out as he struggled to take in the sheer number of crossed out, and still active, Hunter caricatures bunched up alongside his much more popular counterparts. “Nobody wantsss to train with me. Not with my reputation…”
Head hanging low, the Tobi-Kadachi forced down a strained swallow. His eyes reluctantly swiveled up towards his lonely likeness as he brushed a monstrous hand against it. At least Brook’s, and Jet’s, carvings had yet to completely fade from alongside his own. The only humans he had ever trained. The only friends he had come to know.
Growling, the fanged wyvern impotently kicked at the stray tufts of grass that sprouted from between the Great Tree’s gnarled roots. “What am I sssupposssed to do?” he whined. Brook had since finally returned to the Astera settlement and, tempted as he was, he couldn’t very well sneak into the human habitation in broad daylight. B-b-besides… as much as he missed her he knew better than to smother her. Not after she had worn herself down to nearly nothing tending to him and his injuries for weeks on end. The Huntress had her own life, her own job, to return to. “Wisssh I could sssay the sssame,” he wistfully mumbled. Turning his tail on the Great Tree Taras bid it a bitter farewell.
Hmph. As the Tobi-Kadachi dejectedly lost himself in the Ancient Forest’s undergrowth his thoughts began to drift. With his recovery, and Brook’s own, Jet’s welfare visits had understandably tapered off before halting altogether. "M-m-maybe he and Nell have resssumed training as a resssult?" he pondered. The Tobi-Kadachi’s souring mood lifted, if only slightly, at the thought of cheering the human on.
CRSHHHHH
Arcs of electricity crackled along Taras' spine as he neared Nell’s training grounds. His heavy footfalls, plodding up to now, accelerated to a jog.
“That’s how many carts now?” Nell’s familiar and bassy voice boasted. “Again!”
“S-s-ssshoot! Hold on, Jet! You haven’t lossst thisss yet!” Taras hissed under his breath. Elbowing trees aside, his ankles crashing through mushroom crusted logs as he went, the staticy serpent stumbled out onto the edge of the clearing.
Bounding along on all fours Nell roared as the muscles within her wrists and ankles tensed. A shockwave, colored by upturned dirt and rent apart leaves, rippled and pulsed out from beneath her when she leapt into the air. What thickets of ivy lined the ground simply vaporized into a pulpy mist as the Nargacuga somersaulted forward.
SHHHHK
The satisfying hiss of metal scraping against metal rang through the clearing when Nell drew her Dual Great Swords mid twirl. As the blur of black descended the Wyvern’s barbed tail flicked up and sent a cloud of dirt and tangled roots billowing up behind her.
THOOOM
Skidding forward, the Nargacuga bent her knees and dipped low while she buried the Great Sword clutched murderously tight within her left claw deep into the earth. Biceps bulging she squeezed the blade’s grip for everything it was worth, the heated metal molding perfectly to the contours and wrinkles of her palm through friction alone, as she used it like a pivot to swing back towards the kicked up smokescreen. Right arm held out before her Nell effortlessly sliced through and parted the cloud itself in half. As she completed her rotation her broad paws punted the base of the target dummy up into the air before suddenly, with a crack and a lash, her barbed tail whipped back and annihilated every last trace of its helplessly flailing form from this world.
“...Promise me you’re not going to hit me with that when we resume my Master Rank training,” Jet worriedly gulped. “Right, Nell?”
Rising to her feet the Nargacuga proudly puffed out her chest as she sheathed her weapons.
“NELL?”
Jaw agape, the vertical slits that were Taras’ pupils dilated into saucers.
Arms crossed about her chest, Nell playfully hummed and hawed as she danced around the question. “Maybe I will and maybe I won’t,” she teased with a sing-song chirp.
“Oh yeah? Well maybe I will and maybe I won’t remember to sneak you some breakfast from the Canteen tomorrow,” Jet promptly sassed back.
A squawk caught in Nell’s throat as she started sweating bullets. “You wouldn’t!” she pitifully pleaded.
“What. Wasss. That?” the utterly transfixed Tob-Kadachi muttered to himself. Blinking repeatedly, Taras struggled to shake himself out of his stupor as he watched Jet punch at Nell’s calves. Eyes bobbing to and fro they intently followed the knee-high human who, with a shake of his head, brandished his comparatively dinky Dual Blades and slowly snicked, slashed, and stabbed at the air. Nodding along, Nell drew forth the dirt caked swords slung over her back and pantomimed the motions with him.
Hands cupped to his cheeks Taras couldn’t help but blep and manically wiggle. Jet was a Trainer now? H-how? S-s-since when? Pacing in place, stomping out the fires his crackling sparks had started, the Tobi-Kadachi’s thoughts raced. “Are humansss even allowed to do that?” Taras hissed to himself. A sharp gasp filled the air when the fanged wyvern came to a psyche-shattering realization. “W-w-wait! If humansss can be Trainersss then doesss… doesss thisss mean monstersss can be Huntersss?!”
Eyes a twinkle, ozone seeped off of the serpent as electricity smoldered along the tips of the keratin spines jutting from his tail. Never had he ever dared to dream, to fathom, that such a thing was possible!
“Annnd that about covers the basics,” Jet sheepishly concluded as he tucked away his Dual Blades. “Now with all that said… I… I have to ask.”
Beak clacking together, Nell hummed thoughtfully as her Hunter moseyed out of the clearing to retrieve the last of the target dummies. “Ask what?”
“As a Trainer what do you uh… what do you think of my curriculum?” Shoulders straining, Jet grunted as the blocky base of the mannequin caught against a tangle of vines. “Like. Like…” The exhausted human sighed as he leaned onto the dummy’s shoulder for support.
Nell’s ears flicked to attention, swiveling this way and that, as she wordlessly regarded not only Jet’s cry for critique but a distant and frantic rustling.
The Hunter gently smacked the back of his gauntlets against the wooden construct’s cheek. “What I’m getting at is did you, you know, learn anything?”
“Uhhh… Jet?” Brows arched, Nell politely rumbled for his attention as hers was drawn elsewhere.
“Like I never realized how much work goes into this!” Jet whewed as he locked gazes with the mannequin’s featureless face. “Did the topics flow well into one another? Did they make any sense? Does this format even work?”
“Jet,” the Nargacuga ahemed pronouncedly louder.
"The Dual Blades aren't even my weapon of choice, you know? Neither are the Sword and Shield for that matter! Part of me feels like I shouldn't be trying to teach something I'm not even an expert-"
“JET."
"What?" Jet tersely replied. Whirling about on his heels, twisting the dummy’s square head upon its torso so that it could stare at Nell alongside him for good measure, the human’s expression promptly fell flat at the sight that greeted him.
Eyes half lidded, Nell brought a balled up fist to her beak and coughed into it. “All I’m going to say is that you must be doing something right. Since, well…”
Towering before him, an uprooted and stripped bare tree clutched tight within his scaled grasp, stood Taras. Shuffling one paw over the other the squirrely serpent meekly hissed out a request. “S-s-sssay, Jet? You wouldn’t happen to be offering any coursssesss on the Insssect Glaive would you? I-I’ve come prepared!” A nervous laugh tumbled out from his toothy maw as he shook his pitiful attempt at a polearm. If nobody wanted him as their Trainer… maybe, hopefully, somebody would want him as their trainee?
Nell flashed a grin as she nudged at the Tobi-Koadachi. “Would you look at that? You already have prospective students clamoring to meet you!”
Bags accumulated under Jet’s eyes at the dread realization he was suffering from, of all things, success. As the Hunter stammered out half-formed thoughts and excuses, inarticulately bemoaning how his means to an end had become anything but, whatever reservations he had crumbled when confronted with the pleading yet hopeful smile that creased Taras’ snout. Aw hells. “I am now I guess!” he grudgingly volunteered.
“Ohhhhhh thank you, thank you, thank you!” Stomping happily in place, arcs of electricity gleefully exploded off the tufts of fur lining Taras’ back. His forked tongue furiously fluttered as he bashfully bumped shoulders with his fellow Trainer, and now fellow Hunter, Nell.
Leaning into the excitable snake the Nargacuga’s heart lifted at the realization, the recognition, that she was actually willing to share! …With Taras, at any rate. Maybe she really could do this. Maybe she really could stomach Alma training and spending time with her bitty beloved.
“W-w-when do we ssstart, Trainer Jet?” Taras asked.
“Don’t call me that,” Jet grimaced. Slouched forward, he offered no resistance whatsoever when a pair of Nargacuga hands wrapped around his torso. The harried human irritably groaned at the, loathe as he was to admit it, fortuitous series of events. Seeing as how there were no quick and easy answers for how to scale up weapons to Alma or Taras’ size he may as well embrace the opportunity that had presented itself.
Flopped over the sides of Nell’s thick fingers Jet reluctantly readied a reply while his loomy lover hugged him close. “Iunno! Tomorrow, I guess?” he mumbled as Taras gently noogied his helmeted head. Even though he hadn’t given Alma a set in stone timeline for when he would get back to her… he’d rather not keep her waiting.
“Daybreak I take it? As per our usual?” Nell rumbled.
Well-meaning, and infectious, giggles rumbled out from the serpent’s chest every time Jet tried to slap his hands away. “Ooh ooh ooh! Asss assspiring Huntersss are we finally allowed to eat at the Canteen?” Taras excitedly asked. “Doesss thisss mean we won’t have to sssneak in anymore?”
Snorting, Jet couldn’t help but wryly laugh as delighted chirps and hisses filled the air. “How bout we don’t press our luck? That said…I’ll see what I can do,” he bashfully acquiesced.
—
“Mreow maow mrow?” Whiskers twitching, countless Felynes crowded around Jet as they sized up his cooking.
The Canteen, shrouded in twilit shadow, roared to life while Astera still slumbered. Aromatic plumes of smoke and clouds of steam billowed forth from its countless ovens as its tireless chefs, human and feline alike, toiled to ensure no one within the settlement would go hungry. Or, as was Jet’s case, without.
“Yes, I sourced my own ingredients,” Jet matter of factly tutted back. As he bantered with the Felynes he hurriedly scanned the grounds for a certain Huntress.
“Meow maowwwww…” Clambering up onto the counter, its flailing paws scratching against the jagged stone, a tortoiseshell Felyne took to stirring a bowl of egg yolks with marked suspicion. “Meow mrrow?”
“No, I haven’t forgotten!” Adjusting his bandana with one hand Jet beeped the Felyne’s button nose with the other. “I’ll season them after the fact.”
“Mrow mrow maow mao meow!” Vigorously shaking its head, the tortoiseshell would have none of it! Scooping up a handful of shakers the feline monster liberally seasoned the would-be serving of scrambled eggs with a concoction of spices.
“Oh come on! It all ends up in the same place!” Leaning back into his workspace, arms crossed about his chest, Jet cocked a brow and with one last look-see he bore out Brook's absence. Phew. He still had time to shake out how he would break the topic of training, of Alma, to her.
Judgmental and disapproving meows rose from the waist high crowd gathered around the apron-clad Hunter.
“It cannot make that big of a difference!” Jet retorted with a swish of his whisk for emphasis. “So what if it’s ON the eggs as opposed to IN them?”
The speckled orange and black feline disdainfully merped and snorted. “Meow mrow mraow mow mew!”
Arms hanging limply at his sides, Jet self-consciously wrung his wrists. “W-what do you mean what’s wrong with my batter?”
“Maow mao! Mow meow mraow mow meow!” Paws held out before it the Felyne gestured furiously at the sad and lumpless mix of flour, milk, and eggs.
“So my biscuits might turn out flat and rubbery. Nell and Taras won’t know any better!”
WHUMPF
Hands held up before him, Jet wailed as he was assailed with a barrage of chef hats and oven mitts.
“Meow mrow mao maeow mow maow meeeeow!” the Felynes harangued him in a near chorus. If anyone chowed down on the Canteen’s culinary creations they could confidently expect only the very best that Astera had to offer! It mattered not if their customers were monstrous, ill-mannered, or ungrateful. Quality was quality and the meowster chefs that ran this place would tolerate nothing less!
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! It’s just I didn’t bring enough ingredients to-” A cacophony of meows drowned out Jet’s protests as they salvaged what they could of his cooking. Swarming around him they shared what little soda ash and salt they had to spare.
Stammering, Jet struggled to keep pace with the flurry of fix-its they proposed. "Don't you think you're asking a bit much of me?" he complained.
As Felynes clambered atop the human's head and shoulders, meowing and mrowling out instructions, they refused to entertain his excuses. "Mrow maow meow mow!"
Sighing heavily, sweat staining his apron and bandana, Jet found himself buoyed by their critical yet unconditional confidence in him. They knew he could do better and… they were right.
The Hunter allowed a shy smile to crease his lips while he splashed the skillets sizzling in front of him with heaping helpings of butter and oil. First Alma, then Taras, and now this? Heh. When had he become the kind of person that others could entrust their hopes and aspirations to?
"Mreowwwwwww!"
"OWW. HEY HEY HEY. I heard you the first time!" Jet shouted as he punted the Felynes clawing at his thighs.
‐—
Hrmmming, Taras squinted as he pinched at Nell's tattered and fraying vest. Back and forth he rolled the unspooling threads betwixt his massive digits. "Sssee I've always thought they were more like the Temnoceransss," he mused. "Jussst look! They weave and ssspin all sssortsss of thingsss!"
Nell vigorously shook her head in disagreement. He thought humans, her Jet, had more in common with those arachnoids? Really? "I still say they're more like the Neopterons," she defensively chirped. "Armor? Psh. That's just a carapace by another name."
The tufts of fur lining the fanged wyvern's back swayed as static washed over them. This daffy batcat thought his Brook was akin to a beetle? Seriously? "Sssince when do Neopteronsss take off and put back on their ssskeletonsss?" Taras dismissively hissed.
Tail fwacking behind her Nell bopped her beak against Taras' scaly snout. "Since when do Temnocerans… uh… umm… wait a minute. I can say the same for you!"
"No you… can. Heck."
Sitting cross legged before the Astera gates, their knees knocking against each other, the Nargacuga and Tobi-Kadachi thoughtfully hummed.
“Lyniansss, maybe?” Taras weakly offered.
“Nuh uh. Nowhere near fluffy enough,” Nell disappointedly retorted.
“Truuuuue.” Scratching at the back of his neck Taras worked himself up into a blush. “The lack of it isss part of their appeal after all…” he bashfully hissed as he tapped his fingers together.
Husky chirps rumbled within the Nargacuga’s chest at the thought of Jet’s smooth skin brushing up against her fur. Blushing something fierce herself the winged monster scritched at her cheeks. “Maybe humans are just… humans?” Nell uncertainly opined.
“There’s got to be sssomething like them out there…” the Tobi-Kadachi growled. In silence the duo continued to contemplate the true nature of their beloved and bitty friends.
CRKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK
Eyes swiveling within their sockets, the wyverns turned their gaze towards massive slabs of wood, reinforced with pikes, swinging open along their hinges. Smoke, hanging low to the ground, billowed out from beyond Astera's gates.
Head tilted back, Nell wafted the cloying cloud up towards her. Sniffing emphatically, drool trickling out along the sides of her beak, the Nargacuga’s eyes went wide. “Is that what I think it is?” she happily wiggled side to side.
Footsteps, noisily shuffling along the dirt and gravel path, accompanied a low yet persistent hiss.
Serpentine jaw stretched wide, Taras’ pupils contracted into razor-thin slits while rivers of saliva poured forth past his teeth.
As the rising sun dawned over Astera, bathing the haze that surrounded it in pinks and yellows, a silhouette came into focus. Standing tall, with what looked to be Sisyphean boulders perched upon its shoulders, it trudged forward.
THOOM
THOOOM
THOOOOM
Biting down on his lip, Jet wheezed while he hauled out two monster sized breakfast platters. With every spine straining footfall his vertebrae threatened to collapse in on themselves.
Hands clasped around their ankles, Nell and Taras furiously swished their tails as they leaned forward in anticipation.
THOOOOOOOOOM
Hurling their platters forward, pebbles rippling out from beneath the shield sized ceramic plates that crashed to the earth, Jet heaved out a breathless request. “Nell, Taras… you two have a bit of a… a bit of a reputation so I was forced to put down a deposit on those plates. So promise… promise me that you’ll try not to-”
HROMF
“Never mind,” Jet grimaced as he flopped back onto the beaten path.
Sinking his sword-sized teeth into the plate itself the Tobi-Kadachi ravenously inhaled his meal and the ceramic it was served on. The biscuits, layered thick with honey and sprinkled with a faint yet earthy Gloamgrass varnish, caked the ribbed roof of Taras’ mouth while spice-laden streams of saliva and churned chunks of Blissbill omelettes coursed between his teeth.
Nell, biting into her platter, ecstatically moaned as chunks of roasted pineapple and lengths of Mosswine sausages scraped along her tongue. Her fur puffed out, and wings unfurled, at the delightful crunch of the plate between her beak.
What had taken Jet hours of effort vanished in a matter of seconds. Hands cupped over his eyes, he defeatedly groaned as the monstrous duo noisily forced down their meals with throat straining swallows before sucking their fingers clean. “Why again do I do this to myself?”
WHUMPF
Tails, one fluffy and one scaled, coiled around him as Jet found himself hoisted into the air. Smothered close into Taras’s torso, then Nell’s, the monsters took turns showering him with love and affection. “Now I remember,” the human sheepishly mumbled to himself.
“Ohhhhhhhhhh I’m ssso exsssited!” Taras gasped. “I-I get my own armor! My own weapon! E-e-even my own mealsss! Gossssssh I wonder what Brook will sssay!”
Limbs gone limp, Jet hurfed while Taras violently wiggled him side to side. “About thaaaat. Uhhh… maaaaaaaaaaybe… maybe we keep this to ourselves for now?” Jet nervously laughed.
“Why'sss that?” Head cocked to the side, the Tobi-Kadachi curiously tugged Jet closer with his tail. Taras’ expression faltered not only at the sight of Jet’s guilty demeanor but Nell’s impassive one. "Isss sssomething wrong?"
Nell turned up her beak as Jet rubbed at his wrists. "Well you see Taras…" the human began.
—
"I get to train with Alma?!” Taras all but screamed with glee. Hands bunched up against his cheeks he giddily hissed as sparks erupted off of him with such fury that the sand surrounding him turned to molten glass.
“Not so loud!” Jet said as he frantically tried to shush the snake.
Chin tucked against his chest a bone rattling growl reverberated within the Tobi-Kadachi's throat. “Thisss isss amazsssing! ” The nosy noodle triumphantly declared as he flopped back onto the beach and excitedly kicked his legs. "Now I have to tell Brook!"
“N-no you don't!” the human clarified. Running his hands through his hair Jet groaned as seagulls and Blissbills crooned overhead. "I-I mean think about it. Brook doesn't hold Slayers in the highest esteem. They haven't given her much reason to and neither… neither has Alma."
Scaly brows arched, the Taras blepped his forked tongue in confusion. "Sssince when?"
"Since… you… you know! The whole Tigrex thing. The whole stealing her Charge Blade thing."
"Oh that?" Swatting a hand, Taras dismissively raspberried. "Alma already exsssplained and apologizsssed! We're all good! Although…" Tapping at his chin, Taras couldn’t help but hum. “Brook wasss wondering why you never mentioned that when you returned it to her.”
Tilting her head to the side Nell roughly nudged Jet with her beak. "She what now? You what now? When exactly were you planning to share this with me?" the Nargacuga pointedly asked.
"When you asked me," Jet meekly answered.
WHUMPF
Rolling over onto her side, Nell grumpily chirped as she buried her boyfriend beneath her breakfast filled belly.
"It'ssss fine!" Taras reassured her. "Brook and I… we…" The Tobi-Kadachi pulled himself up into a sitting position as he thoughtfully hissed. "Ssshe may not like Alma but, after everything ssshe’sss done for usss, Brook doesss ressspect her. Ssshe doesss trussst her."
"Hmph," Nell squawked. Shuffling in place, toes curling as the beginnings of her muffin top pancaked Jet flat, the Nargacuga sighed. If even Brook was willing to give the Anjanath a chance…
FWUMPH
The human, freed from his prison of plush, peeled himself out of the him shaped crater in the sand. Shaking seashells out of his hair, Jet turned to Taras. "So… she's okay with this?"
"Ssshe won’t be happy about it," the snake warily confessed. "But… I think ssshe’d be willing to give it a chanssse. I'll know for sssure when I asssk her!"
“As will I next time I swing by the Canteen,” the Hunter promised. Oh he was not looking forward to the verbal ass-beating that was waiting for him. Dusting himself off, Jet rose to his feet regardless and motioned for Nell and Taras both to follow.
Rising to her feet with an urf, stomach still sloshing, Nell stomped after the knee-high human. Tail swishing behind her she playfully, and repeatedly, bumped him into the surf in spite of his protests. Not one to be left behind, Taras excitedly gave chase. His enormous clawed toes practically scraped against Jet’s heels as he clung to the Hunter like he was his shadow.
“Say, Taras?” Nell asked in between bouts of bullying her boyfriend.
“Hum?”
“Why are you so dead set on the Insect Glaive anyway?”
Wrinkles formed along the Tobi-Kadachi’s scaled forehead as his answer, dripping with profound insight, danced upon his tongue. “Becaussse it looksss coooool,” he shyly hissed.
“Oh for-”
FIRST, PREVIOUS, NEXT
Category Story / Macro / Micro
Species Unspecified / Any
Gender Any
Size 120 x 76px
Listed in Folders
I'm flattered to hear as such! I definitely leaned into the cutesy this go around and happy you enjoyed it!
Do you have any plans for future sequels, or is this the end? I greatly enjoyed this series.
I do indeed have plans for future installments to the series. Just they take a bit to write and I cannot promise any hard dates for when the next chapter will release!
I'm flattered as all get out you read and enjoyed the series though!
I'm flattered as all get out you read and enjoyed the series though!
That's fine, I certainly know how hard writing is so no rush. The series is very cute and I enjoy Jet and Nell's relationship. I do hope we get to see more of Alma as a character.
This made me feel all warm and fuzzy. Can’t get enough of this setting you have created. Keep up the good work
Thank you so much! Delighted to hear you enjoyed my interpretation of a Monster Hunter world and hopefully future chapters do not disappoint!
He is an awfully needy noodle that loves to cling to his human pals. Glad you like him!
omg didn't notice there was more yay i need moooooooooooooooooooore can't wait to find out about what weapon hes actualy gets lol taras is like nell a speedster but wait are these friendly monsters now like macrop anthros or what also a switchax or chargelade would suit alma more giving beatings to come out on top just like you said
hmm but ok insect claive does suit tara and would only suit to his elemental attributes~
hmm but ok insect claive does suit tara and would only suit to his elemental attributes~
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