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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.
After all... it's impossible to imagine a life without them now.
Thumbnail comes courtesy of ponpuramu!
FIRST, PREVIOUS, NEXT
Monster Hugger Ultimate
By: RaddaRaem
“That they could be reshaped into something to bulwark, rather than blight, the very land...” Alma marveled.
THOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
Dipping low to the ground, the Anjanath seated herself along the outskirts of a familiar, if not completely overgrown, clearing. The earth itself buckled and split beneath her weight as she courteously took to crossing her legs.
Jet and the Commander both let slip a relieved exhale. Given the sheer size of the Sword and Shield that Alma required they had been forced to look... err... elsewhere for raw resources.
“So we're not...” A nervous series of coughs, interlaced with stammers, tumbled free from Jet's fluted visor. “We're not... desecrating them? Defiling them?” Wringing his hands, the Hunter gestured towards the picked clean and carved apart skeleton that had once marred Nell's stomping grounds.
“Nothing of the sort,” rumbled the Slayer. Reverently, Alma reached out towards the Bone Kukri the Hunters had prepared for her. Her sunken eyes glistened as she curiously brushed her pink scaled fingers, marred with scar tissue, against the length of her jagged Sword. The recurved blade, crudely carved from what remained of the Tigrex she had slain some weeks earlier, still bore blackened burns.
“The smoldering corpses I've left in my wake...” Alma tiredly trailed off. “They are not trophies to be flaunted. They are not memorials to be tended to. No. No they are but a raw reminder, miserable mementos, of how precarious this peace of ours well and truly is.” Her gaze narrowed as her shoulders sagged. “That you were able to turn them into something more than that...”
Jet found himself at a loss for words. It took everything he, Nell, Taras, and Brook could muster just to briefly incapacitate a feral whereas Alma fought and fell and fended them off by her lonesome on the regular. He... he could not hope to understand, to begin to understand, what it was like for the Anjanath. Much less the toll it took on her.
A soft clank rustled through the clearing. Chin tucked against his chest, Jet silently contemplated how much and more he could not do.
...Hmph.
With a resolved grunt, Jet turned his gaze skywards. Even so. There was something he could, would, do for the Slayer that saved him. Locking eyes with Alma he brandished his own rust caked Sword and Shield.
A flash of a snaggletoothed smile creased Alma's lips. “Precarious this peace may be... it is priceless and precious all the same. Something that must be, will be, viciously fought for at every opportunity that presents itself,” she resolutely boomed. The tendons within the Anjanath's digits audibly creaked when her fingers curled around the polished and sanded down grip of her Sword. With her free hand, Alma reached for the uneven slab of bone that was her accompanying Shield and tentatively slid her arm through its braces. The handles, massive wrought iron chains repurposed from the beached galleons of the Old World's Epitaph, clung tightly to her scaled limb.
Head tilted back, and neck straining, Jet propped his dinky Sword against his shoulder. As Alma rose to a stand, and swallowed him in her shadow, he felt a fire burning within his breast when the massive monster proudly mimicked his movements.
The Commander puffed out his chest at how confidently his whelp of a Hunter carried himself. Leaning back against the base of a snapped apart tree, arms crossed about his chest, the grizzled old man couldn't help but smirk. “Attaboy,” he wordlessly mouthed to himself before quietly slinking off into the undergrowth of the Ancient Forest.
With a swish of his arm, the Hunter's Sword whistled as it carved through the air. “Ready, Alma?” Jet shouted.
FWOOOOOOOOOOOOSH
A tornadic gust, dizzying and deafening, billowed out from the Anjanath when she proceeded to match him move for move. What flowers and mosses lined the clearing were uprooted and rent apart in an instant as clouds of pollen and petals came to whorl about the Slayer and Hunter both.
“Lead the way, Ser Jet.”
FWACK
What had once been a towering tree choked in vines and ivy, its skeletal branches entombed in greenery, exploded into sawdust and shrapnel.
THWAM
Before the still swirling debris could settle a jagged Sword, capable of splitting the very skies, roared down from the heavens and carved through the cloying mass of pulp and wood shavings.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
With a tectonic crash Alma brought her blade to bear upon what little remained of the tree's stump. The gnarled soil and clay, thick with balled up roots, cascaded upwards before pelting the Anjanath with a steady rain of rocks and upturned soil.
Rolling her shoulders, Alma worked the cricks out of her neck as smoke trailed out from her nostrils. “Chop. Side slash. Shield strike. Slam,” the Slayer repeated to herself while she ambled back towards the center of the since stomped flat clearing. Shield raised, and Sword held out at her side, Alma's serpentine pupils contracted into razor thin slits as her gaze came to focus intently on her tiny tutor.
The diminutive Hunter, having afforded her a very wide berth, happily obliged the Anajanth with yet another demonstration. Stepping forward he swung his Sword, held high overhead, down in an angled chopping motion. As the singing steel neared his knees Jet preserved what momentum he could by sweeping his arm up and to the side. Limb tucked close to his chest he proceeded to follow up his vertical slash with a horizontal one. Sword held out to his side the Hunter raised his Shield... only to swing it wide and deliver a mighty blunt force bash. With his imagined foe seeing stars Jet rounded out his combo by stepping forward, with an exaggerated stomp, so as to deliver one last skull smashing strike of his Sword.
Slowly, methodically, Alma pantomimed and practiced his movements. As the sun sailed overhead, and the suffocating humidity slowly sapped them of their strength, the size-mismatched duo dutifully committed the barest of basics to muscle memory in tandem.
Laughter, rich in timbre, echoed across the Ancient Forest with the force of a sonic boom. Every chuckle, every chortle, sent thickets of trees wildly swaying to and fro. “Come now, Ser Jet!” teased Alma. “There is no need to be so hard on yourself!”
The Hunter, impotently cursing under his breath, kicked at what few Redpits remained sprinkled about the clearing. With a heavy TUNK their rock hard fruiting heads collided against his greaves. “I just knew we forgot something...” he groaned.
“Ser Jet, I implore you,” the Anjanath continued as she consciously lowered her voice. “You have already, quite selflessly, gifted me countless treasures as it is! Your teachings; Your time; Your...”
The Slayer, resting on both knees, gestured to the gargantuan weapons laid down beside her in disbelief. “Need I say more?”
“Even soooooooooooooooooooo,” Jet grimaced while he flopped forward at the waist. “What good is a Sword without a sheath? A Shield without a strap?”
Alma sheepishly scratched at a sore and scaly cheek. She could scarce remember the last time she had smiled so much. “I admittedly know not,” she trailed off. “But I suppose I will simply have to burden you with my presence once more if I am to find out!”
Sighing, Jet straightened out his posture with a bemused snort. “...S'pose so.”
Licks of flame tumbled free from Alma's lips while her gravelly voice gave way to laughter yet again.
“So I take it you're not sick of me yet?” said the Hunter with a smirk and a shrug.
The Anjanath took to clapping at her chest. Her ribs ached from having enthusiastically expressed such unfamiliar emotions. “Nonsense, Ser Jet! Though... I fear I have imposed upon you and kept you overlong.”
Flicking up his visor, Jet squinted at the shimmering red orb that was the sun. Eyes straining, he watched it sink below the horizon as it draped the curtain of night down with it.
“Ere we depart however...” A growl, nervous and uncertain, reverberated deep within Alma's throat. “Incessant, and aggravating as it may be, I fear I must again ask you...”
Jet snorted as his visor fell back into place. “Yes, Alma.”
Shoulders bunched, the stoic Slayer fidgeted before the Hunter whose height struggled to match her fingers in length. Back and forth she shifted her weight as she felt herself sinking into the very bedrock.
“Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes! They're yours!” Sidling alongside the nigh ship-sized Sword, his armored fingers tracing along its edge, Jet approvingly slapped a hand against it. “That's why I'm so mad at myself to begin with! Without some sort of sheath, and a strap, carrying these things around will be a hassle!”
“...Forgive me, Ser Jet,” mumbled the Anjanath. “I should have known better than to doubt you.”
The humbled Hunter responded with a sputtering raspberry. “It's nothing, Alma. Really.”
“I assure you it is anything but,” she warmly replied. Balled fist held close to her chest, the Slayer bowed her head in thanks.
Rubbing an armored gauntlet along the back of his helmet, a thoroughly flummoxed Jet-
FWOOOOOOOOOM
Yelped and skittered backwards when Alma extended her hand to him. Palm upturned, the Anjanath allowed her knuckles to crash to the barren earth before her. “By your consent, Ser Jet, I would escort you back to Astera.” The beginnings of a shameful blush burned upon the monstrous woman's cheeks. “I would ask that you walk with me...” mumbled Alma as her lips wildly wavered. “But I trust not my tread.”
“I-I-I appreciate the offer, Alma. Really!” the Jet fumbled out in response. “I assure you though, I'll be...”
At the edge of the clearing, where there ought to have been a beaten down and familiar path that the Hunter had tread only hours before, was instead a yawning void. Abyssal darkness, inky and all-consuming, patiently waited for him amongst the unfamiliar undergrowth. The canopy of the Ancient Forest, so dense in its foliage, all but assured that not even the light of the fading sun, much less the moon, could pierce through to its detritus covered floor.
“...Fine.” Clearing his throat, Jet timidly approached the wumbo Wyvern's outstretched fingers. “You're sure you don't mind?” he asked.
Alma gently shook her head side to side. “As Slayer I am entrusted, I am expected, to protect these lands and all who dwell within them. It is a responsibility that I...” The Anjanath's amber eyes hung heavily upon the human as she cracked a monstrous, if not uncertain, grin. “That I am all too happy to bear.”
Jet scrunched his lips as he straddled the gap between her massive digits. Planting his hands upon her palm, its scarred and wrinkled expanse more than capable of losing him in her grasp, the Hunter hesitated. “It... umm...” He recognized that tone, if not that look, in an instant. Jet had feigned that selfsame sincerity over the course of his Master Rank training far too many times to count. “Alma?”
“Hum?”
The Hunter dipped his head low while Alma splayed her fingers as far apart as her straining muscles would allow. He knew Brook, and more likely than not the other well traveled Master Rank Hunters, held Slayers in low esteem. But surely, surely, the monsters of the Ancient Forest regarded her with respect! ...How could they not after all she did for them?
Clearing his throat, Jet turned his gaze skyward. “This might sound weird m-m-me saying this but...” His chest plate noisily jostled as he dragged out an uneasy exhale. “It's okay if you're not.”
Alma froze. Tremors wracked her monolithic fingers as they unconsciously, and unintentionally, pinched Jet between them.
Arms tucked against his sides the Hunter sharply inhaled while his armor crumpled inward. His skyrocketing heart rate, to his immeasurable relief, promptly eased back up when the Anjanath forced her fingers apart with a panicked gasp.
“S-ser Jet! Mine apologies, I...I...”
“No no no i-it's fine! I'm fine! Uh. Erm.” Jet uneasily took to rubbing at the back of his gorget as he danced around the struck nerve. “What I mean is...” The Hunter grunted as he fumbled and listlessly grasped at the open air. “Being a Slayer is clearly a lot. A lot a lot. And... you don't have to force or fake a smile for me when I chuck yet another chore onto your shoulders.”
Wistful growls reverberated within the colossal Wyvern's throat. “I...” Alma pursed her lips as her tongue, and the words carried upon it, came to catch against the roof of her mouth.
Jet casually gestured towards the lightless depths of the Ancient Forest. “I'll be fine. Really.”
Alma forcefully shook her head. “I... confess that my duties have weighed heavily upon me as of late, Ser Jet.” At every syllable uttered a warm and smoky gust of air washed over the Hunter. “But not this. Not you.”
With a bemused, if not relieved, sigh Jet found himself bunching up against the Anjanath's calloused pink palm when she slid her fingers further forward. At her gentle insistence he clambered into her grasp. “Me? Heavy? I would certainly hope not,” he hehed before lightly smacking at the wrinkled scales that refused to so much as dimple beneath his weight.
An uncharacteristic snort escaped Alma's flared nostrils. With slow and measured movements, tinged by fear and hesitation, the Anjanath protectively cupped her hands together around the diminutive human. “Your tidings; Your charity; Your company...” A truly sincere smile, one that strained her scaly cheeks, spread wide across the Wyvern's battle scarred visage. “It means more than you could ever know. It is no bother, no burden, to see you to safety. Nor will it ever be.”
“Alma...”
The Slayer leaned forward so as to gingerly clasp Jet against the crook of her neck. Only after she felt him safely settle in amongst the wreath of feathers wrapped around her shoulders did she relax her grip.
TOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
Stomach rising into his throat, the Hunter white knuckled at the plumes of purple fur and feathers draping down the back of Alma's neck.
Jaw clenched, and teeth bared, Alma took her Shield in hand and pushed off from her Sword's pommel. Ominous and rib-rattling groans rumbled out from the Brute Wyvern's limbs as she rose to her feet.
KRSHHHHHHHHHHHHH
The Slayer wordlessly ripped her blade from the fractured earth. As the ensuing quakes and tremors slowly subsided Alma's gaze drifted towards the harried Hunter. “Come then, Ser Jet,” she playfully growled. Embers trailed from the Anjanath's lips every time she spoke. “Astera awaits.”
Arms swinging at her sides, the imposing Brute Wyvern waded without hesitation into the Ancient Forest. Raucous cracks and snaps accompanied her every catastrophic foot fall as the trees forcefully parted before her.
THOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
Eyes gone wide Jet watched on while Nell's stomping grounds retreated from view. In its place a sea of treetops, waves of moonlight rolling across its surface, unfurled before him. “This is...” Jet's eyes began to burn as he found himself loathe to blink. “Alma, this is incredible.”
The Anjanath offered a curt, albeit inquisitive, grunt in response. “You truly think so?”
Jet, dumbstruck and awe inspired, could but nod.
Towering over the very trees themselves, and clad in starlight, Alma contentedly hummed to herself. “Full glad am I then, Ser Jet.”
Jostling back and forth, the clanking and shuffling of his armor drowned out by the rhythmic rustling of Ancient Forest's canopy, Jet ravenously drank in the sights and sounds of a world he'd never known like this. “This is your everyday, huh?” he breathlessly marveled.
Smoke trailed out from the sides of Alma's lips as she cracked a subdued smile. “...I suppose so. Should I continue keeping you overlong we risk it becoming your own!”
“You don't see me complaining,” teased the Hunter.
“Nor I,” whispered the Slayer.
FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
With a deafening creak the enormous wooden gates that guarded Astera slammed shut behind Jet and Brook. Clouds of displaced dirt and pebbles rolled past their armored greaves while the pair of Hunters failed to tamp down their respective jaw splitting yawns.
“So,” Brook asked with a smack of her lips. “How are today's to-dos looking?”
Hands held out before him, Jet squinted at the crinkled piece of paper clasped between his fingers. His eyes, crusted with sleep, struggled to adjust to the morning sun. “Bwuh. Let's see...” he mumbled as the Hunter brushed aside the shoulder length locks of hair dangling over his forehead.
The spherical star's blindingly brilliant form, straddling the line between the sea and sky, painted the whole of the New World with warm streaks of pinks and yellows. As they stood shoulder to shoulder, their iron pauldrons scraping against one another, both the Hunter and Huntress thoughtfully hummed while they drank in the Commander's chicken scratch.
Brook, helmet tucked under her arm, leaned in close. “Looks like we're on the hook forrrrrrrrrr-”
Jet, his voice dry and cracking, read the list of desired deliveries aloud. “Antidote Herbs, Fire Herbs, Sleep Herbs...”
“I'm noticing a bit of a pattern,” Brook snorted.
“Hard not to,” Jet snarked back. “Any preference on how we split these up?”
Hands on her hips, Brook curiously tossed her head side to side as she scanned not only the shoreline but the thickets of trees crowding along the sand for certain sizable someones. “Let's not get ahead of ourselves now. Before we dig into divvying up deliveries how bout we figure out where our Cultural Ambassadors wandered off to? It ain't like them to be late.”
Pocketing the parchment, Jet slowly ambled down the beaten path leading out and away from Astera. The far away roar of the waves, paired with the rustling of fern fronds, was relaxing albeit... quiet. Uncomfortably so. “I'm sure it's nothing but...”
SKREAAAHHHHHH
A high-pitched and reverberating howl, the telltale roar of a Tobi-Kadachi, echoed out from the Ancient Forest.
“Better safe than sorry,” Brook concluded. Slipping on her helmet she broke out into a jog with Jet hot on her heels.
“Oh my gosssh!” Taras shrieked. “Nellllll, I'm ssso exsssited for you!!!”
“I still can't believe it!!!” purred the Nargacuga. Hands balled together she giddily stomped her scaled feet. “He asked! Finally finally finally he asked! He really asked!”
Forked tongue fluttering between his lips, sparks danced along the snowy white mane of fur draped across the Tobi-Kadachi's lithe back. With every happy hiss, bursts of light illuminated the still slumbering Ancient Forest. “A human? Inviting you into their nessst? It doesssn't get much more ssseriousss than thisss!”
“I-I-I know!” Nell took to fanning herself as the crimson bands of fur wrapped around her eyes, and stretching up to her ears, positively glowered. “I... I...”
Stray Fulgurbugs, nestled amongst the knotted coils of roots and mushrooms that matted the forest floor, stirred to life. At the snake squirrel's every explosion of electricity the blue bioluminescent insects took to lazily bumbling into Taras and Nell both.
“I-I-I never thought this day would come!” she gasped. This was everything Nell had ever hoped for, ever dreamed for, in their relationship! And yet... the Nargacuga clutched at her chest as flustered and anxious chirps, interlaced with pathetic growls, tumbled out from her beak.
“Easssy, easssyyy!” Taras implored of her. “It'sss a lot to take in, I know!”
Nell's eyes wildly bounced around her sockets. To a monster this was... this was...
The Nargacuga forced down a nervous swallow. This wasn't just a lot. This was everything! To share one's nest was to share one's heart, one's hopes, and one's future! So why?! Why was she feeling so anxious at the prospect? Why was she feeling so scared? She should have been ecstatic! Elated, even!
Planting his hands upon the Nargacuga's shoulders, the Tobi-Kadachi gently shook the wilting Wyvern.
Increasingly intrusive what-ifs flooded to the forefront of the bat cat's thoughts. What if they couldn't make it work? What if they were simply too different? With a squawk Nell snapped to attention. “What if I mess this up?! Taras! Taras, what do I do?!”
“You won't! I promissse!”
“But-”
With a pronounced ahem Taras cleared his throat. “You won't!” he confidently declared.
Ears tucked close to her skull, and tail drooped, Nell leaned into the Tobi-Kadachi with a whine.
“You won't,” Taras gently reassured her with a nuzzle and a hug. “And you want to know why?”
Head buried into the Fanged Wyvern's neck, the Nargacuga nod nodded as she sank into his embrace.
“Becaussse I'm here to help!”
With a hurf, and wimpy whap of her barbed tail, Nell squeezed back at the snake squirrel.
Snoot held high, Taras confidently blepped. “Asss luck would have it, I'm sssomething of an exssspert! A human exxxspert!”
“...Really?”
“Really!” Taras boasted as he slung an arm around the Nargacuga's shoulder. “Here! We'll ssstart from the top!” Free hand held out before him the Tobi-Kadachi took to tracing a clawed finger, static popping along its pointed tip, through the air.
The Fulgurbugs flitting about enthusiastically followed Taras' lead. At his prompting, and playful nudging, they clustered together to form the glowing likeness of a horned Hunter helmet.
“Asss we all know humansss are a reclusssive sssort! Few, if any, ever dare to venture outssside of the sssafety of their hive! Of Assstera!” Taras, sporting a toothy smile, gingerly cupped his hand beneath the buzz buzzing Hunter. “I mean it'sss no wonder given how itsssy bitsssy they are.”
Nell, her eyes half-lidded, couldn't help but smile.
Arcs of electricity skittered across Taras' palm as he beckoned the Fulgurbugs closer. “Only the bravessst of humans dare to slip into their decorated shells and try their hand at being a Hunter! Which meansss the only monsters they ever meet tend to be Trainersss!”
“Which is what makes being one so special,” Nell giggled. “Lucky us, huh?”
“Mhmmm!” Taras happily growled. With a swat of his hand he dispersed the condensed cloud of insects. Fingers splayed, wildly popping arcs of static leaping between his sky blue digits, the Tobi-Kadachi traced concentric ovals upon the air itself. The Fulgurbugs enthusiastically swarmed together in response. “Now it'sss bessst to think of Huntersss, of humansss, like... Rock Fruit!”
The Nargacuga tilted her head to the side with a husky, if not perplexed, growl. True to their name those flowers of the desert, often found growing along the Ancient Forest's border with the Wildspire Waste, looked and tasted the part. Though...
Nell's ears fwipped to attention. If one was willing to break their beak upon them, and crack apart their stony exteriors, Rock Fruit yielded the sweetest and most succulent flesh in all the lands! Almost like-
“Now you get it!” Taras jubilantly wiggled. “Cracking open a Hunter'sss armor can be a tricky, if not frussstrating, processs but it'sss ssso sssooo worth it! And you're already ssso far along!” With flicks of his fingers the Tobi-Kadachi batted away the crunchy and impotently buzzing exterior of the Fulgurbug cluster.
Fur puffed out, a rumbling mess of growls, purrs, and chirps tumbled forth from the Nargacuga's beak.
“THAT SSSAID!” the Flying Wyvern boomed with a guttural hiss. Clenching his fingers the Fulgurbugs caught between his digits balled together into an impenetrable and crackling mass of chitin. “Humansss MUSSST be allowed to ssshed their armor, ssshed their ssshellsss, at their own passse! They will open up to you when they're ready! Never, and I mean EVER, try to forssse it!”
Brows furrowed, Nell resolutely nodded as she straightened her posture.
Taras relaxed his grip and, nigh instantaneously, the Fulgurbugs lazily fanned out and dissipated. “Now then! Onto the processs itssself! When exsssploring sssomewhere new, or meeting sssomeone new, humansss will alwaysss do ssso in their armor! The unknown isss ssscary after all!”
“Poor little things...” the Nargacuga huffed as she worriedly cupped a hand to her beak.
“Asss sssuch!” Pulling away from Nell, Taras authoritatively waggled a finger as he continued to monologue aloud. “The firssst and the mossst important thing you can do for them isss to make them feel sssafe! When a human feelsss comfortable and at eassse they will ssslowly ssstart coming out of their ssshellsss! Piessse by piessse!”
A dreamy sigh escaped the bat cat's beaked lips. It had taken everything she had not to squeal in delight the first time Jet popped off his helmet in her presence. That simple, yet endearing, show of faith had meant the world to her.
“It'sss the mark of any good Trainer to make them feel asss sssuch! And I mean not to boassst or anything but...” Arms crossed about his chest, and forked tongue dangling from between his lips, the Tobi-Kadachi haughtily turned up his head. “The fact that not ssso much asss a sssingle human ssscurried back to their nesssts, or retreated into their ssshellsss, when we visssited Assstera ssshowsss asss sssuch! We're the bessst of the bessst!”
With a roll of her eyes, Nell playfully puffed out her cheeks as the wings lining her forearms fanned out. “...He isn't wrong,” she thought to herself with a flustered chirp as she took to sheepishly scritching at her chin.
Clearing his throat, Taras took to pacing about the gnarled undergrowth of the Ancient Forest once more. “Now the nexxxt ssstep, while it isssn't the final one, isss the mossst important one!” As the snake squirrel twirled his fingers about the air, beads of static congealing atop his digits, the clouds of displaced Fulgurbugs dutifully followed. “And that'sss when a human feelsss sssafe not jussst around you but becaussse of you!”
Fists clenched, and eyes twinkling, Nell chirped as her barbed tail wildly swished back and forth behind her.
“It'sss...” Taras' self-assured bravado faltered as he timidly took to tapping his fingers together. “It'sss a sssubtle but pronounccced dissstincssshin! For a human to go from no longer feeling threatened by you to to... well...”
The pair of monsters hehed as they took to rubbing at the back of their necks. Cheeks burning hot they recalled, rather fondly at that, how Jet and Brook carried themselves when they were still fresh faced Hunters.
Abuzz with nerves, Brook cowered before Taras upon approach. The Huntress, desperate to punt her anxiety aside, leapt into action as soon as the opportunity presented itself. Whereas Jet-
Exchanging knowing glances, and toothy smiles, the Tobi-Kadachi and Nargacuga shared a laugh. At the Rookie, and Master, levels their first impressions of him had been anything but inspiring.
Nell puffed out her chest and peeled back her beaked lips. Regardless of their performances there was no denying the undercurrent of fear and trepidation that gripped the Hunters both. Which, truth be told, was... empowering.
Taras, his serpentine pupils contracting into a razor's edge, reciprocated Nell's menacing grin with the smuggest of scowls.
It felt good to so casually, so effortlessly, make those hapless humans cower before them. To cow them into compliance. To wrap them around their fingers and force them to hang on their every word. And yet...
The Tobi-Kadachi's pupils dilated as blood rushed to his face. “Y-y-you know! When uhhh. Umm," Taras began as he aimlessly swished his hands through the clouds of Fulgurbugs buzzing against his sparking cheeks.
“R-r-right!” Nell sheepishly affirmed. “When you... when they...”
It paled in comparison to what was to come. Flustered chirps, and half-formed hisses, tumbled free from the Wyverns maws as they tried and failed to elaborate upon and put the sensation into words. Day after day their Hunters returned to them and, with the passage of time, fear gave way to familiarity. Their disparity in size and strength became not a point of contention but of reassurance.
“When they exsssitedly wave you down as they jog into your clearing,” Taras stammered.
“When you just as excitedly wave back,” Nell followed up with a searing blush.
As Trainers they had always had their Hunter's best interests at heart. But somewhere along the way it quit being a matter of when or even if their Hunters would succeed. The Wyverns wanted, they needed, to see their humans happy. To see them safe. Whether or not Jet and Brook earned their Ranks had become irrelevant to them... shameful as it was to admit.
With a huff, the Tob-Kadachi shyly shuffled one scaly foot over the other. “W-w-when they start thinking of you asss their friend...”
“When you start thinking of them as something more than that...” replied the Nargacuga as she took to fanning herself.
It was insidious, honestly, how subtly the once menacing monsters found themselves transformed from predators into protectors! How the Hunters they once thought of as a responsibility became anything but. They were their pride. They were their friends. They... they made each and every day better by simply being a part of it.
Taras wrung his hands together as arcs of electricity crackled off his lithe frame. “When they finally feel comfortable enough ssshowing themssselvesss, sssharing themssselvesss, with you...”
Nell's fur puffed out at the mention. S-s-suffering Sapphire. Seeing Jet without his armor for the very first time was... it was...
The Nargacuga forced down a lump in her throat. It was terrifying.
He was so delicate. So fragile. So beautiful to behold. Yet all she could think about was how any mistake, any misstep, could prove disastrous if not fatal. She was hesitant, horrified even, to approach much less interact with him.
But he wasn't. He trusted her. So effortlessly and so casually, so utterly and so completely, he trusted her. The crimson bands of fur wrapped around the Nargacuga's eyes seethed as her heart pounded in her ears. Nothing could, or ever would, compare to the feeling that simple act instilled into her.
“A-a-anyway! You get what I'm sssaying!” Taras stuttered. Forked tongue blepped out, he flicked away the Fulgurbugs trying to burrow into his wild mane of hair. “Then lassst but not leassst we have...”
Eyes gone wide, and wings fanned out, Nell leaned in close.
The Tobi-Kadachi cleared his throat before he took to pacing along the beaten path and stomping flat what stray embers his sparks had stoked. “It'sss where you're, we both, are at. The final ssstep!” Head held high, the snake squirrel straightened his posture. “While there isss nothing ssstopping usss from welcoming humansss into our nessstsss it'sss... it'sss...”
“It's not the same,” the Nargacuga finished for him.
Taras nodded and timidly gestured to himself. “G-g-given what we are and given what they are-”
Rubbing a hand along her scaly forearm, Nell nervously clacked her beak. “You can't help but wonder if they would feel forced to accept the invitation,” she glumly stated. It's why she had always been so reluctant, scared even, to broach the topic of Jet visiting her nest before she ever saw his own.
“Whereasss if a human popsss the ssselfsssame quessstion!” the Tobi-Kadachi excitedly elaborated. “You know it isss coming from a placcce of trussst!”
“From a place of love,” Nell breathlessly gasped.
Taras positively crackled with energy as he hum hum hummed. “Ssso I underssstand your hesssitation! Your consssern! Essspessshially with the t-t-time and trussst it takesss to get here!”
Nell fervently nodded along. She and Jet had known each other for... how many seasons now? Hrufffffff. Ever since they first met the moons had simply flown by.
Scaly brows arched, and hands cupped together, Taras smirked while beads of static trickled down his fingers and pooled within his palms. Fulgurbugs wedged their way through his digits, eagerly lapping up every ion of electricity, as they clustered together once more.
“It'sss worth it though. Becaussse you and I know better than anyone,” said the Tobi-Kadachi as he tenderly thumbed at the insectoid sphere. At his touch the Fulgurbugs fell away to reveal a sprite of electricity, radiant and pure, crackling at its center. “That there'sss nothing quite like when your human finally opensss themssselvesss up to you.”
Pulling apart his hands, Taras happily hummed when the Fulgurbugs dispersed. Twinkling like stars against the Ancient Forest's canopy, its leaves so thick they blotted out the very sun, the bioluminescent bugs clung to the countless branches as if they were constellations.
Back and forth Nell's eyes nervously swished along the bottom of their sockets. “What's it...” Clacking her beak together, the Nargacuga bunched her shoulders and tucked her tail between her legs. “What's it like?”
Lips wavering, Taras tucked his arms close to his chest and wiggled emphatically. “Oh it'sss... it'sss.... it'sss magical, Nell! I can't even begin to dessscribe it!”
“You can at least try!” huffed the Nargacuga.
A plaintive growl lodged itself in the Tobi-Kadachi's throat. “I. Hrf. Gosssh where do I even begin...” Taras mumbled. “I mean. I coullllld ssstart with...”
“Mmhmm?” Beak pressing in against the snake squirrel's snout, Nell impatiently chirped and growlfed.
“Easssy, eassy, easssy!” Taras snipped back. “I jussst. It'sss jussst. Oh but it'sss ssso risssqueeeee!” he whined.
“Tell meeeeeeeeeeee!”
Hands covering his eyes, Taras turned away with a pitiful growl. Ozone burned off his crackling spines as he threatened to spontaneously combust out of embarrassment. “F-f-fine! Jussst. J-j-jussst imagine, Nell! How it feelsss to coil around them. To feel their ssskin against your ssscalesss. To feel them ssscritching at your snout, kisssing at your neck, and sssinking into your embrassse!”
“HRUFFF.”
“I KNOW, RIGHT?!” Taras howled. “Human nessstsss are ssspecial! When you're curled up inssside them, with your Hunter held close, your worriesss jussst wasssh away!” Splaying apart his fingers the Tobi-Kadachi's blood red eyes nervously locked gazes with Nell's own. “S-s-ssseeing them at their mossst vulnerable changesss you, Nell. You'll never want to let them go! Never want to leave their ssside! Never let them come to harm! You'd...” Taras curled his scarred tail round his legs. “You'd do anything for them.”
The Nargacuga shivered at the thought. Barbed tail swishing furiously behind her, Nell impotently tamped her massive feet. She could not, would not, be denied any longer! “Should I bring anything for the occasion? Like like like some fresh Shepherd Hare or Blissbill? Oh! Oh oh oh is there a right way, or a wrong way, to enter a human nest?” On and on Nell squawked herself blue in the face. “ D-d-do I...” As she finally stopped to breathe the crimson mask of fur wrapped around her eyes threatened to envelop the whole of her head in its radiant glow. “Do I help Jet out of his armor when we're ready to-”
“No! No no no no no what did I jussst sssay?! You can't forssse it!” Taras reached forward to flick at Nell's beak. “Jet will be ready when he isss ready!”
Growls, wildly fluctuating in pinch, rumbled out from the bat cat's sternum.
“Patienssse! When we get to Assstera I'll walk you through the dosss and dont'sss. Promissse!”
Head tossed back, Nell dragged out an exasperated exhale. “But I wanna know nowwwwwwwwwww.”
Chuckling to himself, Taras slapped at the wumbo Wyvern's back. “How about thisss then? When you finally ssslink into Jet'ssss nessst I know jussst the thing to ssset the mood. Worksss on Brook every time!”
Leaning into the Tobi-Kadachi, visible plumes of steam wafting out from her ears, Nell grudgingly afforded him her attention.
Eyes half-lidded, Taras flashed a self-assured smile. “When the whole of the human hive sssettlesss in to ssslumber and the Emperor Hoppersss ssstart to chirp and croon... you hit him with thisss!” Static danced along the snake squirrel's lips as a heady mist trailed past his pointed teeth. “Hey there, Rookie,” he said with a sensual flick of his forked tongue. “Why don't we take thisss hunt... horisssontal?”
“PSH.” Cheeks puffed out, tears beaded along the edges of Nell's eyes as she stifled a raspberry.
“...What?” Taras defensively pouted.
“Nothing,” Nell managed in between snrks and snorts as she struggled to hold in her laughter.
“What?” whined the Tobi-Kadachi. “Brook likesss it!”
“Oh I'm sure she does,” the Nargacuga wheezed.
“I'm telling you it worksss!” he hissed. Snoot scrunched, Taras arched his tail and stood on his tippy toes as Nell cupped her hands to her beak and gasped for air in between guffaws.
SHFF SHFF
The towering Trainers perked to attention when, out from the underbrush, their Hunters burst forth with weapons raised.
“Brook! Jet!” Taras exclaimed. Lips pulled flat, the Fanged Wyvern recoiled not only at their unexpected entrance but their battle ready stances. “What are you doing here? Isss sssomething the matter?”
“That's...” Brook, Charge Blade held out before her, warily scanned the shadows for any and all threats. Stepping over roots and rotted logs, and stabbing every stray fern and frond for good measure, she incredulously turned to her behemoth boyfriend. “That's what we should be asking you! You never showed up for our rendezvous!”
“OH. Oh. Oh, Brook I'm...” Head held low, Taras shamefully shrank in on himself and curled his toes.
“Are you okay?” inquired the Huntress. “We heard your cry and-”
“No! Wait. Y-y-yesss! I mean...” Papping at his cheeks the Tobi-Kadachi violently shook his head. “Forgive usss, Brook! We didn't mean to make you worry!”
Beaked lips wavering, Nell's chest intermittently puffed out while she choked back bouts of laughter. When her piercing yellow eyes came to rest upon Jet...
“SNRK.” Whether she willed it or no, the Nargacuga's bird brain flooded itself with images of her lying on her side, tail tugging Jet close, all while she serenaded him with Taras' surefire script.
WHAPF
Taras irritably back handed at Nell's shoulder. “W-w-we're fine! Honessst! We jussst got so caught up in a lively dissscusssion about uhh... duhhh...”
Nell's composure began to crumple when she imagined pinching Jet's gorget between her beak. A purr here, and a love bite there, would be all she needed to peel that pesky armor clean off her man.
“Trainer... thingsss!” Taras uneasily asserted. “Right, Nell?”
WHUMPF
What failed to pass as syllables, much less consonants, tumbled free from Nell's mouth.
“RIGHT?”
Wordlessly nodding, she answered in the affirmative via a handful of husky chirps and snorts.
“...Nell? You good?” Jet worriedly asked.
Eyes watering, the Master Rank Trainer blinked away her tears with a strained smile. “Never. Better,” she valiantly managed to reply even as Taras continued to slap at her.
Exchanging quizzical glances, and slowly sheathing their respective weapons, Brook and Jet shared an uncertain shrug. “Okaaaaaaaaay,” said the Hunters as they reluctantly played along.
“Right! Ssso! About those deliveriesss!” Taras followed up as he shamelessly tried to change subjects.
“About those deliveries,” Brook deadpanned.
“We didn't forget!” the Tobi-Kadachi stammered. “It'sss jussst. We jussst.... had ssso much to talk about wasss all!”
Pronounced coughs wracked Nell's chest as she dutifully shook her head up and down.
“Uh huhhhhh,” Brook replied. Sauntering up alongside her behemoth boyfriend she knocked at his calf. “Well by the sounds of it you still do. Why don't you two pick back up your Trainer talk say... at the Canteen? Once today's to-dos are all accounted for mind you.”
Sharp gasps escaped from both of the monster's maws. “You mean?” the Tobi-Kadachi excitedly eeheed as Nell and Taras took to stamping their feet.
Hands held up before him in a placating manner Jet bid them to calm themselves. “A hard day's work deserves a hard day's pay doesn't it? Or... or meal. I guess,” he mumbled as he took to scratching at the back of his helmet. “That and it'll be nice to not have to sneak you in there for a change of pace!”
“This could become a regular part of our routine you know,” Brook added. “You two swinging by bright and early to catch some breakfast before deliveries.”
“Or treating you to some lunch after the fact,” Jet followed up with a wiggle of his finger.
Wings fanned out, and barbed tail clubbing apart trees behind her, the Nargacuga's eyes took on an manic glow. “WELL WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?” Nell boomed as she redirected all of her pent up energy in an instant.
“We're. We're waiting on you,” Jet nervously clarified. “L-l-let's get you up to speed. Today we haAAAAUGH.” Head spinning, the Hunter yelped when he was suddenly swept off his feet. Tucked beneath a thick furred arm, and hopelessly smothered between the Nargacuga's breasts and biceps, Jet's calls for help went unheeded as Nell bounded back into the underbrush with her man in tow.
Brows arched, Brook wearily looked to her behemoth boyfriend. Back and forth her eyes darted about the quiet clearing before she lovingly embraced one of his lanky legs.
Dropping to a crouch, the land itself quaking when his knee crashed into the damp and moss caked earth, Taras cupped his hands beneath his Huntress' arms. Thumbs pinching against the top of her limbs he gingerly hoisted her up into the air before cuddling her close to his chest. “Sssorry again,” he hissed.
“It's... it's fine,” Brook mumbled as she buried her head into the peach colored scales that lined his torso. “Just hard not to worry about you lately is all. You know?”
Chin tucked against his neck, Taras nosed at and nuzzled his bitty beloved. “I know.”
In sweet silence the size-mismatched couple tenderly embraced one another. After what felt like an eternity, an enjoyable one at that, the Huntress stirred. “You sure you're okay?” she whispered.
The Fanged Wyvern's lips all but enveloped Brook's head in response as he peppered her with static laced smooches. “I'm sssure. Are you?”
Resting her head against his sternum, and enthusiastically squeezing at what little of him that she could, Brook laughed at his every reassurance. “Taras, please!” she giggled. Dreamy sighs wafted free from her helmet as she reached back to squeeze at his fingers. “And... yeah. I am now.”
Eyes half-lidded, Taras let his snout linger against her visor. “Good.”
Breath held, Brook's stoic steel figure deflated even further as the Tobi-Kadachi tenderly thumbed at her plated back. Yet... even were she to hope against hope the Huntress knew it was not to last. “C'mon,” she reluctantly spoke up. “Let's not keep 'em waiting.”
Lumbering footfalls, punctuated by the sharp crack of snapped apart branches and detritus trampled underfoot, carried across the Ancient Forest as Taras followed in Nell's wake. “...Sssay, Brook?” he asked after a time.
“Hmm?”
A longing and wistful growl rattled Brook to her very bones as the Tobi-Kadachi shyly bunched his shoulders. “Do you think... do you think the Felynesss will finally warm up to me?”
“Awh Taras.” Nuzzling into her boyfriend's bosom, the Huntress squeezed him for everything she was worth. “How can they not now that you're an honored guest? You've been on your best behavior and then some for months now even! Just in case though... I'll be sure to put in an extra good word for ya!”
The shyest of smiles creased the snake squirrel's lips. “Promissse?”
“Promise!”
FIRST, PREVIOUS, NEXT
After all... it's impossible to imagine a life without them now.
Thumbnail comes courtesy of ponpuramu!
FIRST, PREVIOUS, NEXT
Monster Hugger Ultimate
By: RaddaRaem
“That they could be reshaped into something to bulwark, rather than blight, the very land...” Alma marveled.
THOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
Dipping low to the ground, the Anjanath seated herself along the outskirts of a familiar, if not completely overgrown, clearing. The earth itself buckled and split beneath her weight as she courteously took to crossing her legs.
Jet and the Commander both let slip a relieved exhale. Given the sheer size of the Sword and Shield that Alma required they had been forced to look... err... elsewhere for raw resources.
“So we're not...” A nervous series of coughs, interlaced with stammers, tumbled free from Jet's fluted visor. “We're not... desecrating them? Defiling them?” Wringing his hands, the Hunter gestured towards the picked clean and carved apart skeleton that had once marred Nell's stomping grounds.
“Nothing of the sort,” rumbled the Slayer. Reverently, Alma reached out towards the Bone Kukri the Hunters had prepared for her. Her sunken eyes glistened as she curiously brushed her pink scaled fingers, marred with scar tissue, against the length of her jagged Sword. The recurved blade, crudely carved from what remained of the Tigrex she had slain some weeks earlier, still bore blackened burns.
“The smoldering corpses I've left in my wake...” Alma tiredly trailed off. “They are not trophies to be flaunted. They are not memorials to be tended to. No. No they are but a raw reminder, miserable mementos, of how precarious this peace of ours well and truly is.” Her gaze narrowed as her shoulders sagged. “That you were able to turn them into something more than that...”
Jet found himself at a loss for words. It took everything he, Nell, Taras, and Brook could muster just to briefly incapacitate a feral whereas Alma fought and fell and fended them off by her lonesome on the regular. He... he could not hope to understand, to begin to understand, what it was like for the Anjanath. Much less the toll it took on her.
A soft clank rustled through the clearing. Chin tucked against his chest, Jet silently contemplated how much and more he could not do.
...Hmph.
With a resolved grunt, Jet turned his gaze skywards. Even so. There was something he could, would, do for the Slayer that saved him. Locking eyes with Alma he brandished his own rust caked Sword and Shield.
A flash of a snaggletoothed smile creased Alma's lips. “Precarious this peace may be... it is priceless and precious all the same. Something that must be, will be, viciously fought for at every opportunity that presents itself,” she resolutely boomed. The tendons within the Anjanath's digits audibly creaked when her fingers curled around the polished and sanded down grip of her Sword. With her free hand, Alma reached for the uneven slab of bone that was her accompanying Shield and tentatively slid her arm through its braces. The handles, massive wrought iron chains repurposed from the beached galleons of the Old World's Epitaph, clung tightly to her scaled limb.
Head tilted back, and neck straining, Jet propped his dinky Sword against his shoulder. As Alma rose to a stand, and swallowed him in her shadow, he felt a fire burning within his breast when the massive monster proudly mimicked his movements.
The Commander puffed out his chest at how confidently his whelp of a Hunter carried himself. Leaning back against the base of a snapped apart tree, arms crossed about his chest, the grizzled old man couldn't help but smirk. “Attaboy,” he wordlessly mouthed to himself before quietly slinking off into the undergrowth of the Ancient Forest.
With a swish of his arm, the Hunter's Sword whistled as it carved through the air. “Ready, Alma?” Jet shouted.
FWOOOOOOOOOOOOSH
A tornadic gust, dizzying and deafening, billowed out from the Anjanath when she proceeded to match him move for move. What flowers and mosses lined the clearing were uprooted and rent apart in an instant as clouds of pollen and petals came to whorl about the Slayer and Hunter both.
“Lead the way, Ser Jet.”
FWACK
What had once been a towering tree choked in vines and ivy, its skeletal branches entombed in greenery, exploded into sawdust and shrapnel.
THWAM
Before the still swirling debris could settle a jagged Sword, capable of splitting the very skies, roared down from the heavens and carved through the cloying mass of pulp and wood shavings.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
With a tectonic crash Alma brought her blade to bear upon what little remained of the tree's stump. The gnarled soil and clay, thick with balled up roots, cascaded upwards before pelting the Anjanath with a steady rain of rocks and upturned soil.
Rolling her shoulders, Alma worked the cricks out of her neck as smoke trailed out from her nostrils. “Chop. Side slash. Shield strike. Slam,” the Slayer repeated to herself while she ambled back towards the center of the since stomped flat clearing. Shield raised, and Sword held out at her side, Alma's serpentine pupils contracted into razor thin slits as her gaze came to focus intently on her tiny tutor.
The diminutive Hunter, having afforded her a very wide berth, happily obliged the Anajanth with yet another demonstration. Stepping forward he swung his Sword, held high overhead, down in an angled chopping motion. As the singing steel neared his knees Jet preserved what momentum he could by sweeping his arm up and to the side. Limb tucked close to his chest he proceeded to follow up his vertical slash with a horizontal one. Sword held out to his side the Hunter raised his Shield... only to swing it wide and deliver a mighty blunt force bash. With his imagined foe seeing stars Jet rounded out his combo by stepping forward, with an exaggerated stomp, so as to deliver one last skull smashing strike of his Sword.
Slowly, methodically, Alma pantomimed and practiced his movements. As the sun sailed overhead, and the suffocating humidity slowly sapped them of their strength, the size-mismatched duo dutifully committed the barest of basics to muscle memory in tandem.
Laughter, rich in timbre, echoed across the Ancient Forest with the force of a sonic boom. Every chuckle, every chortle, sent thickets of trees wildly swaying to and fro. “Come now, Ser Jet!” teased Alma. “There is no need to be so hard on yourself!”
The Hunter, impotently cursing under his breath, kicked at what few Redpits remained sprinkled about the clearing. With a heavy TUNK their rock hard fruiting heads collided against his greaves. “I just knew we forgot something...” he groaned.
“Ser Jet, I implore you,” the Anjanath continued as she consciously lowered her voice. “You have already, quite selflessly, gifted me countless treasures as it is! Your teachings; Your time; Your...”
The Slayer, resting on both knees, gestured to the gargantuan weapons laid down beside her in disbelief. “Need I say more?”
“Even soooooooooooooooooooo,” Jet grimaced while he flopped forward at the waist. “What good is a Sword without a sheath? A Shield without a strap?”
Alma sheepishly scratched at a sore and scaly cheek. She could scarce remember the last time she had smiled so much. “I admittedly know not,” she trailed off. “But I suppose I will simply have to burden you with my presence once more if I am to find out!”
Sighing, Jet straightened out his posture with a bemused snort. “...S'pose so.”
Licks of flame tumbled free from Alma's lips while her gravelly voice gave way to laughter yet again.
“So I take it you're not sick of me yet?” said the Hunter with a smirk and a shrug.
The Anjanath took to clapping at her chest. Her ribs ached from having enthusiastically expressed such unfamiliar emotions. “Nonsense, Ser Jet! Though... I fear I have imposed upon you and kept you overlong.”
Flicking up his visor, Jet squinted at the shimmering red orb that was the sun. Eyes straining, he watched it sink below the horizon as it draped the curtain of night down with it.
“Ere we depart however...” A growl, nervous and uncertain, reverberated deep within Alma's throat. “Incessant, and aggravating as it may be, I fear I must again ask you...”
Jet snorted as his visor fell back into place. “Yes, Alma.”
Shoulders bunched, the stoic Slayer fidgeted before the Hunter whose height struggled to match her fingers in length. Back and forth she shifted her weight as she felt herself sinking into the very bedrock.
“Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes! They're yours!” Sidling alongside the nigh ship-sized Sword, his armored fingers tracing along its edge, Jet approvingly slapped a hand against it. “That's why I'm so mad at myself to begin with! Without some sort of sheath, and a strap, carrying these things around will be a hassle!”
“...Forgive me, Ser Jet,” mumbled the Anjanath. “I should have known better than to doubt you.”
The humbled Hunter responded with a sputtering raspberry. “It's nothing, Alma. Really.”
“I assure you it is anything but,” she warmly replied. Balled fist held close to her chest, the Slayer bowed her head in thanks.
Rubbing an armored gauntlet along the back of his helmet, a thoroughly flummoxed Jet-
FWOOOOOOOOOM
Yelped and skittered backwards when Alma extended her hand to him. Palm upturned, the Anjanath allowed her knuckles to crash to the barren earth before her. “By your consent, Ser Jet, I would escort you back to Astera.” The beginnings of a shameful blush burned upon the monstrous woman's cheeks. “I would ask that you walk with me...” mumbled Alma as her lips wildly wavered. “But I trust not my tread.”
“I-I-I appreciate the offer, Alma. Really!” the Jet fumbled out in response. “I assure you though, I'll be...”
At the edge of the clearing, where there ought to have been a beaten down and familiar path that the Hunter had tread only hours before, was instead a yawning void. Abyssal darkness, inky and all-consuming, patiently waited for him amongst the unfamiliar undergrowth. The canopy of the Ancient Forest, so dense in its foliage, all but assured that not even the light of the fading sun, much less the moon, could pierce through to its detritus covered floor.
“...Fine.” Clearing his throat, Jet timidly approached the wumbo Wyvern's outstretched fingers. “You're sure you don't mind?” he asked.
Alma gently shook her head side to side. “As Slayer I am entrusted, I am expected, to protect these lands and all who dwell within them. It is a responsibility that I...” The Anjanath's amber eyes hung heavily upon the human as she cracked a monstrous, if not uncertain, grin. “That I am all too happy to bear.”
Jet scrunched his lips as he straddled the gap between her massive digits. Planting his hands upon her palm, its scarred and wrinkled expanse more than capable of losing him in her grasp, the Hunter hesitated. “It... umm...” He recognized that tone, if not that look, in an instant. Jet had feigned that selfsame sincerity over the course of his Master Rank training far too many times to count. “Alma?”
“Hum?”
The Hunter dipped his head low while Alma splayed her fingers as far apart as her straining muscles would allow. He knew Brook, and more likely than not the other well traveled Master Rank Hunters, held Slayers in low esteem. But surely, surely, the monsters of the Ancient Forest regarded her with respect! ...How could they not after all she did for them?
Clearing his throat, Jet turned his gaze skyward. “This might sound weird m-m-me saying this but...” His chest plate noisily jostled as he dragged out an uneasy exhale. “It's okay if you're not.”
Alma froze. Tremors wracked her monolithic fingers as they unconsciously, and unintentionally, pinched Jet between them.
Arms tucked against his sides the Hunter sharply inhaled while his armor crumpled inward. His skyrocketing heart rate, to his immeasurable relief, promptly eased back up when the Anjanath forced her fingers apart with a panicked gasp.
“S-ser Jet! Mine apologies, I...I...”
“No no no i-it's fine! I'm fine! Uh. Erm.” Jet uneasily took to rubbing at the back of his gorget as he danced around the struck nerve. “What I mean is...” The Hunter grunted as he fumbled and listlessly grasped at the open air. “Being a Slayer is clearly a lot. A lot a lot. And... you don't have to force or fake a smile for me when I chuck yet another chore onto your shoulders.”
Wistful growls reverberated within the colossal Wyvern's throat. “I...” Alma pursed her lips as her tongue, and the words carried upon it, came to catch against the roof of her mouth.
Jet casually gestured towards the lightless depths of the Ancient Forest. “I'll be fine. Really.”
Alma forcefully shook her head. “I... confess that my duties have weighed heavily upon me as of late, Ser Jet.” At every syllable uttered a warm and smoky gust of air washed over the Hunter. “But not this. Not you.”
With a bemused, if not relieved, sigh Jet found himself bunching up against the Anjanath's calloused pink palm when she slid her fingers further forward. At her gentle insistence he clambered into her grasp. “Me? Heavy? I would certainly hope not,” he hehed before lightly smacking at the wrinkled scales that refused to so much as dimple beneath his weight.
An uncharacteristic snort escaped Alma's flared nostrils. With slow and measured movements, tinged by fear and hesitation, the Anjanath protectively cupped her hands together around the diminutive human. “Your tidings; Your charity; Your company...” A truly sincere smile, one that strained her scaly cheeks, spread wide across the Wyvern's battle scarred visage. “It means more than you could ever know. It is no bother, no burden, to see you to safety. Nor will it ever be.”
“Alma...”
The Slayer leaned forward so as to gingerly clasp Jet against the crook of her neck. Only after she felt him safely settle in amongst the wreath of feathers wrapped around her shoulders did she relax her grip.
TOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
Stomach rising into his throat, the Hunter white knuckled at the plumes of purple fur and feathers draping down the back of Alma's neck.
Jaw clenched, and teeth bared, Alma took her Shield in hand and pushed off from her Sword's pommel. Ominous and rib-rattling groans rumbled out from the Brute Wyvern's limbs as she rose to her feet.
KRSHHHHHHHHHHHHH
The Slayer wordlessly ripped her blade from the fractured earth. As the ensuing quakes and tremors slowly subsided Alma's gaze drifted towards the harried Hunter. “Come then, Ser Jet,” she playfully growled. Embers trailed from the Anjanath's lips every time she spoke. “Astera awaits.”
Arms swinging at her sides, the imposing Brute Wyvern waded without hesitation into the Ancient Forest. Raucous cracks and snaps accompanied her every catastrophic foot fall as the trees forcefully parted before her.
THOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
Eyes gone wide Jet watched on while Nell's stomping grounds retreated from view. In its place a sea of treetops, waves of moonlight rolling across its surface, unfurled before him. “This is...” Jet's eyes began to burn as he found himself loathe to blink. “Alma, this is incredible.”
The Anjanath offered a curt, albeit inquisitive, grunt in response. “You truly think so?”
Jet, dumbstruck and awe inspired, could but nod.
Towering over the very trees themselves, and clad in starlight, Alma contentedly hummed to herself. “Full glad am I then, Ser Jet.”
Jostling back and forth, the clanking and shuffling of his armor drowned out by the rhythmic rustling of Ancient Forest's canopy, Jet ravenously drank in the sights and sounds of a world he'd never known like this. “This is your everyday, huh?” he breathlessly marveled.
Smoke trailed out from the sides of Alma's lips as she cracked a subdued smile. “...I suppose so. Should I continue keeping you overlong we risk it becoming your own!”
“You don't see me complaining,” teased the Hunter.
“Nor I,” whispered the Slayer.
FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
With a deafening creak the enormous wooden gates that guarded Astera slammed shut behind Jet and Brook. Clouds of displaced dirt and pebbles rolled past their armored greaves while the pair of Hunters failed to tamp down their respective jaw splitting yawns.
“So,” Brook asked with a smack of her lips. “How are today's to-dos looking?”
Hands held out before him, Jet squinted at the crinkled piece of paper clasped between his fingers. His eyes, crusted with sleep, struggled to adjust to the morning sun. “Bwuh. Let's see...” he mumbled as the Hunter brushed aside the shoulder length locks of hair dangling over his forehead.
The spherical star's blindingly brilliant form, straddling the line between the sea and sky, painted the whole of the New World with warm streaks of pinks and yellows. As they stood shoulder to shoulder, their iron pauldrons scraping against one another, both the Hunter and Huntress thoughtfully hummed while they drank in the Commander's chicken scratch.
Brook, helmet tucked under her arm, leaned in close. “Looks like we're on the hook forrrrrrrrrr-”
Jet, his voice dry and cracking, read the list of desired deliveries aloud. “Antidote Herbs, Fire Herbs, Sleep Herbs...”
“I'm noticing a bit of a pattern,” Brook snorted.
“Hard not to,” Jet snarked back. “Any preference on how we split these up?”
Hands on her hips, Brook curiously tossed her head side to side as she scanned not only the shoreline but the thickets of trees crowding along the sand for certain sizable someones. “Let's not get ahead of ourselves now. Before we dig into divvying up deliveries how bout we figure out where our Cultural Ambassadors wandered off to? It ain't like them to be late.”
Pocketing the parchment, Jet slowly ambled down the beaten path leading out and away from Astera. The far away roar of the waves, paired with the rustling of fern fronds, was relaxing albeit... quiet. Uncomfortably so. “I'm sure it's nothing but...”
SKREAAAHHHHHH
A high-pitched and reverberating howl, the telltale roar of a Tobi-Kadachi, echoed out from the Ancient Forest.
“Better safe than sorry,” Brook concluded. Slipping on her helmet she broke out into a jog with Jet hot on her heels.
“Oh my gosssh!” Taras shrieked. “Nellllll, I'm ssso exsssited for you!!!”
“I still can't believe it!!!” purred the Nargacuga. Hands balled together she giddily stomped her scaled feet. “He asked! Finally finally finally he asked! He really asked!”
Forked tongue fluttering between his lips, sparks danced along the snowy white mane of fur draped across the Tobi-Kadachi's lithe back. With every happy hiss, bursts of light illuminated the still slumbering Ancient Forest. “A human? Inviting you into their nessst? It doesssn't get much more ssseriousss than thisss!”
“I-I-I know!” Nell took to fanning herself as the crimson bands of fur wrapped around her eyes, and stretching up to her ears, positively glowered. “I... I...”
Stray Fulgurbugs, nestled amongst the knotted coils of roots and mushrooms that matted the forest floor, stirred to life. At the snake squirrel's every explosion of electricity the blue bioluminescent insects took to lazily bumbling into Taras and Nell both.
“I-I-I never thought this day would come!” she gasped. This was everything Nell had ever hoped for, ever dreamed for, in their relationship! And yet... the Nargacuga clutched at her chest as flustered and anxious chirps, interlaced with pathetic growls, tumbled out from her beak.
“Easssy, easssyyy!” Taras implored of her. “It'sss a lot to take in, I know!”
Nell's eyes wildly bounced around her sockets. To a monster this was... this was...
The Nargacuga forced down a nervous swallow. This wasn't just a lot. This was everything! To share one's nest was to share one's heart, one's hopes, and one's future! So why?! Why was she feeling so anxious at the prospect? Why was she feeling so scared? She should have been ecstatic! Elated, even!
Planting his hands upon the Nargacuga's shoulders, the Tobi-Kadachi gently shook the wilting Wyvern.
Increasingly intrusive what-ifs flooded to the forefront of the bat cat's thoughts. What if they couldn't make it work? What if they were simply too different? With a squawk Nell snapped to attention. “What if I mess this up?! Taras! Taras, what do I do?!”
“You won't! I promissse!”
“But-”
With a pronounced ahem Taras cleared his throat. “You won't!” he confidently declared.
Ears tucked close to her skull, and tail drooped, Nell leaned into the Tobi-Kadachi with a whine.
“You won't,” Taras gently reassured her with a nuzzle and a hug. “And you want to know why?”
Head buried into the Fanged Wyvern's neck, the Nargacuga nod nodded as she sank into his embrace.
“Becaussse I'm here to help!”
With a hurf, and wimpy whap of her barbed tail, Nell squeezed back at the snake squirrel.
Snoot held high, Taras confidently blepped. “Asss luck would have it, I'm sssomething of an exssspert! A human exxxspert!”
“...Really?”
“Really!” Taras boasted as he slung an arm around the Nargacuga's shoulder. “Here! We'll ssstart from the top!” Free hand held out before him the Tobi-Kadachi took to tracing a clawed finger, static popping along its pointed tip, through the air.
The Fulgurbugs flitting about enthusiastically followed Taras' lead. At his prompting, and playful nudging, they clustered together to form the glowing likeness of a horned Hunter helmet.
“Asss we all know humansss are a reclusssive sssort! Few, if any, ever dare to venture outssside of the sssafety of their hive! Of Assstera!” Taras, sporting a toothy smile, gingerly cupped his hand beneath the buzz buzzing Hunter. “I mean it'sss no wonder given how itsssy bitsssy they are.”
Nell, her eyes half-lidded, couldn't help but smile.
Arcs of electricity skittered across Taras' palm as he beckoned the Fulgurbugs closer. “Only the bravessst of humans dare to slip into their decorated shells and try their hand at being a Hunter! Which meansss the only monsters they ever meet tend to be Trainersss!”
“Which is what makes being one so special,” Nell giggled. “Lucky us, huh?”
“Mhmmm!” Taras happily growled. With a swat of his hand he dispersed the condensed cloud of insects. Fingers splayed, wildly popping arcs of static leaping between his sky blue digits, the Tobi-Kadachi traced concentric ovals upon the air itself. The Fulgurbugs enthusiastically swarmed together in response. “Now it'sss bessst to think of Huntersss, of humansss, like... Rock Fruit!”
The Nargacuga tilted her head to the side with a husky, if not perplexed, growl. True to their name those flowers of the desert, often found growing along the Ancient Forest's border with the Wildspire Waste, looked and tasted the part. Though...
Nell's ears fwipped to attention. If one was willing to break their beak upon them, and crack apart their stony exteriors, Rock Fruit yielded the sweetest and most succulent flesh in all the lands! Almost like-
“Now you get it!” Taras jubilantly wiggled. “Cracking open a Hunter'sss armor can be a tricky, if not frussstrating, processs but it'sss ssso sssooo worth it! And you're already ssso far along!” With flicks of his fingers the Tobi-Kadachi batted away the crunchy and impotently buzzing exterior of the Fulgurbug cluster.
Fur puffed out, a rumbling mess of growls, purrs, and chirps tumbled forth from the Nargacuga's beak.
“THAT SSSAID!” the Flying Wyvern boomed with a guttural hiss. Clenching his fingers the Fulgurbugs caught between his digits balled together into an impenetrable and crackling mass of chitin. “Humansss MUSSST be allowed to ssshed their armor, ssshed their ssshellsss, at their own passse! They will open up to you when they're ready! Never, and I mean EVER, try to forssse it!”
Brows furrowed, Nell resolutely nodded as she straightened her posture.
Taras relaxed his grip and, nigh instantaneously, the Fulgurbugs lazily fanned out and dissipated. “Now then! Onto the processs itssself! When exsssploring sssomewhere new, or meeting sssomeone new, humansss will alwaysss do ssso in their armor! The unknown isss ssscary after all!”
“Poor little things...” the Nargacuga huffed as she worriedly cupped a hand to her beak.
“Asss sssuch!” Pulling away from Nell, Taras authoritatively waggled a finger as he continued to monologue aloud. “The firssst and the mossst important thing you can do for them isss to make them feel sssafe! When a human feelsss comfortable and at eassse they will ssslowly ssstart coming out of their ssshellsss! Piessse by piessse!”
A dreamy sigh escaped the bat cat's beaked lips. It had taken everything she had not to squeal in delight the first time Jet popped off his helmet in her presence. That simple, yet endearing, show of faith had meant the world to her.
“It'sss the mark of any good Trainer to make them feel asss sssuch! And I mean not to boassst or anything but...” Arms crossed about his chest, and forked tongue dangling from between his lips, the Tobi-Kadachi haughtily turned up his head. “The fact that not ssso much asss a sssingle human ssscurried back to their nesssts, or retreated into their ssshellsss, when we visssited Assstera ssshowsss asss sssuch! We're the bessst of the bessst!”
With a roll of her eyes, Nell playfully puffed out her cheeks as the wings lining her forearms fanned out. “...He isn't wrong,” she thought to herself with a flustered chirp as she took to sheepishly scritching at her chin.
Clearing his throat, Taras took to pacing about the gnarled undergrowth of the Ancient Forest once more. “Now the nexxxt ssstep, while it isssn't the final one, isss the mossst important one!” As the snake squirrel twirled his fingers about the air, beads of static congealing atop his digits, the clouds of displaced Fulgurbugs dutifully followed. “And that'sss when a human feelsss sssafe not jussst around you but becaussse of you!”
Fists clenched, and eyes twinkling, Nell chirped as her barbed tail wildly swished back and forth behind her.
“It'sss...” Taras' self-assured bravado faltered as he timidly took to tapping his fingers together. “It'sss a sssubtle but pronounccced dissstincssshin! For a human to go from no longer feeling threatened by you to to... well...”
The pair of monsters hehed as they took to rubbing at the back of their necks. Cheeks burning hot they recalled, rather fondly at that, how Jet and Brook carried themselves when they were still fresh faced Hunters.
Abuzz with nerves, Brook cowered before Taras upon approach. The Huntress, desperate to punt her anxiety aside, leapt into action as soon as the opportunity presented itself. Whereas Jet-
Exchanging knowing glances, and toothy smiles, the Tobi-Kadachi and Nargacuga shared a laugh. At the Rookie, and Master, levels their first impressions of him had been anything but inspiring.
Nell puffed out her chest and peeled back her beaked lips. Regardless of their performances there was no denying the undercurrent of fear and trepidation that gripped the Hunters both. Which, truth be told, was... empowering.
Taras, his serpentine pupils contracting into a razor's edge, reciprocated Nell's menacing grin with the smuggest of scowls.
It felt good to so casually, so effortlessly, make those hapless humans cower before them. To cow them into compliance. To wrap them around their fingers and force them to hang on their every word. And yet...
The Tobi-Kadachi's pupils dilated as blood rushed to his face. “Y-y-you know! When uhhh. Umm," Taras began as he aimlessly swished his hands through the clouds of Fulgurbugs buzzing against his sparking cheeks.
“R-r-right!” Nell sheepishly affirmed. “When you... when they...”
It paled in comparison to what was to come. Flustered chirps, and half-formed hisses, tumbled free from the Wyverns maws as they tried and failed to elaborate upon and put the sensation into words. Day after day their Hunters returned to them and, with the passage of time, fear gave way to familiarity. Their disparity in size and strength became not a point of contention but of reassurance.
“When they exsssitedly wave you down as they jog into your clearing,” Taras stammered.
“When you just as excitedly wave back,” Nell followed up with a searing blush.
As Trainers they had always had their Hunter's best interests at heart. But somewhere along the way it quit being a matter of when or even if their Hunters would succeed. The Wyverns wanted, they needed, to see their humans happy. To see them safe. Whether or not Jet and Brook earned their Ranks had become irrelevant to them... shameful as it was to admit.
With a huff, the Tob-Kadachi shyly shuffled one scaly foot over the other. “W-w-when they start thinking of you asss their friend...”
“When you start thinking of them as something more than that...” replied the Nargacuga as she took to fanning herself.
It was insidious, honestly, how subtly the once menacing monsters found themselves transformed from predators into protectors! How the Hunters they once thought of as a responsibility became anything but. They were their pride. They were their friends. They... they made each and every day better by simply being a part of it.
Taras wrung his hands together as arcs of electricity crackled off his lithe frame. “When they finally feel comfortable enough ssshowing themssselvesss, sssharing themssselvesss, with you...”
Nell's fur puffed out at the mention. S-s-suffering Sapphire. Seeing Jet without his armor for the very first time was... it was...
The Nargacuga forced down a lump in her throat. It was terrifying.
He was so delicate. So fragile. So beautiful to behold. Yet all she could think about was how any mistake, any misstep, could prove disastrous if not fatal. She was hesitant, horrified even, to approach much less interact with him.
But he wasn't. He trusted her. So effortlessly and so casually, so utterly and so completely, he trusted her. The crimson bands of fur wrapped around the Nargacuga's eyes seethed as her heart pounded in her ears. Nothing could, or ever would, compare to the feeling that simple act instilled into her.
“A-a-anyway! You get what I'm sssaying!” Taras stuttered. Forked tongue blepped out, he flicked away the Fulgurbugs trying to burrow into his wild mane of hair. “Then lassst but not leassst we have...”
Eyes gone wide, and wings fanned out, Nell leaned in close.
The Tobi-Kadachi cleared his throat before he took to pacing along the beaten path and stomping flat what stray embers his sparks had stoked. “It'sss where you're, we both, are at. The final ssstep!” Head held high, the snake squirrel straightened his posture. “While there isss nothing ssstopping usss from welcoming humansss into our nessstsss it'sss... it'sss...”
“It's not the same,” the Nargacuga finished for him.
Taras nodded and timidly gestured to himself. “G-g-given what we are and given what they are-”
Rubbing a hand along her scaly forearm, Nell nervously clacked her beak. “You can't help but wonder if they would feel forced to accept the invitation,” she glumly stated. It's why she had always been so reluctant, scared even, to broach the topic of Jet visiting her nest before she ever saw his own.
“Whereasss if a human popsss the ssselfsssame quessstion!” the Tobi-Kadachi excitedly elaborated. “You know it isss coming from a placcce of trussst!”
“From a place of love,” Nell breathlessly gasped.
Taras positively crackled with energy as he hum hum hummed. “Ssso I underssstand your hesssitation! Your consssern! Essspessshially with the t-t-time and trussst it takesss to get here!”
Nell fervently nodded along. She and Jet had known each other for... how many seasons now? Hrufffffff. Ever since they first met the moons had simply flown by.
Scaly brows arched, and hands cupped together, Taras smirked while beads of static trickled down his fingers and pooled within his palms. Fulgurbugs wedged their way through his digits, eagerly lapping up every ion of electricity, as they clustered together once more.
“It'sss worth it though. Becaussse you and I know better than anyone,” said the Tobi-Kadachi as he tenderly thumbed at the insectoid sphere. At his touch the Fulgurbugs fell away to reveal a sprite of electricity, radiant and pure, crackling at its center. “That there'sss nothing quite like when your human finally opensss themssselvesss up to you.”
Pulling apart his hands, Taras happily hummed when the Fulgurbugs dispersed. Twinkling like stars against the Ancient Forest's canopy, its leaves so thick they blotted out the very sun, the bioluminescent bugs clung to the countless branches as if they were constellations.
Back and forth Nell's eyes nervously swished along the bottom of their sockets. “What's it...” Clacking her beak together, the Nargacuga bunched her shoulders and tucked her tail between her legs. “What's it like?”
Lips wavering, Taras tucked his arms close to his chest and wiggled emphatically. “Oh it'sss... it'sss.... it'sss magical, Nell! I can't even begin to dessscribe it!”
“You can at least try!” huffed the Nargacuga.
A plaintive growl lodged itself in the Tobi-Kadachi's throat. “I. Hrf. Gosssh where do I even begin...” Taras mumbled. “I mean. I coullllld ssstart with...”
“Mmhmm?” Beak pressing in against the snake squirrel's snout, Nell impatiently chirped and growlfed.
“Easssy, eassy, easssy!” Taras snipped back. “I jussst. It'sss jussst. Oh but it'sss ssso risssqueeeee!” he whined.
“Tell meeeeeeeeeeee!”
Hands covering his eyes, Taras turned away with a pitiful growl. Ozone burned off his crackling spines as he threatened to spontaneously combust out of embarrassment. “F-f-fine! Jussst. J-j-jussst imagine, Nell! How it feelsss to coil around them. To feel their ssskin against your ssscalesss. To feel them ssscritching at your snout, kisssing at your neck, and sssinking into your embrassse!”
“HRUFFF.”
“I KNOW, RIGHT?!” Taras howled. “Human nessstsss are ssspecial! When you're curled up inssside them, with your Hunter held close, your worriesss jussst wasssh away!” Splaying apart his fingers the Tobi-Kadachi's blood red eyes nervously locked gazes with Nell's own. “S-s-ssseeing them at their mossst vulnerable changesss you, Nell. You'll never want to let them go! Never want to leave their ssside! Never let them come to harm! You'd...” Taras curled his scarred tail round his legs. “You'd do anything for them.”
The Nargacuga shivered at the thought. Barbed tail swishing furiously behind her, Nell impotently tamped her massive feet. She could not, would not, be denied any longer! “Should I bring anything for the occasion? Like like like some fresh Shepherd Hare or Blissbill? Oh! Oh oh oh is there a right way, or a wrong way, to enter a human nest?” On and on Nell squawked herself blue in the face. “ D-d-do I...” As she finally stopped to breathe the crimson mask of fur wrapped around her eyes threatened to envelop the whole of her head in its radiant glow. “Do I help Jet out of his armor when we're ready to-”
“No! No no no no no what did I jussst sssay?! You can't forssse it!” Taras reached forward to flick at Nell's beak. “Jet will be ready when he isss ready!”
Growls, wildly fluctuating in pinch, rumbled out from the bat cat's sternum.
“Patienssse! When we get to Assstera I'll walk you through the dosss and dont'sss. Promissse!”
Head tossed back, Nell dragged out an exasperated exhale. “But I wanna know nowwwwwwwwwww.”
Chuckling to himself, Taras slapped at the wumbo Wyvern's back. “How about thisss then? When you finally ssslink into Jet'ssss nessst I know jussst the thing to ssset the mood. Worksss on Brook every time!”
Leaning into the Tobi-Kadachi, visible plumes of steam wafting out from her ears, Nell grudgingly afforded him her attention.
Eyes half-lidded, Taras flashed a self-assured smile. “When the whole of the human hive sssettlesss in to ssslumber and the Emperor Hoppersss ssstart to chirp and croon... you hit him with thisss!” Static danced along the snake squirrel's lips as a heady mist trailed past his pointed teeth. “Hey there, Rookie,” he said with a sensual flick of his forked tongue. “Why don't we take thisss hunt... horisssontal?”
“PSH.” Cheeks puffed out, tears beaded along the edges of Nell's eyes as she stifled a raspberry.
“...What?” Taras defensively pouted.
“Nothing,” Nell managed in between snrks and snorts as she struggled to hold in her laughter.
“What?” whined the Tobi-Kadachi. “Brook likesss it!”
“Oh I'm sure she does,” the Nargacuga wheezed.
“I'm telling you it worksss!” he hissed. Snoot scrunched, Taras arched his tail and stood on his tippy toes as Nell cupped her hands to her beak and gasped for air in between guffaws.
SHFF SHFF
The towering Trainers perked to attention when, out from the underbrush, their Hunters burst forth with weapons raised.
“Brook! Jet!” Taras exclaimed. Lips pulled flat, the Fanged Wyvern recoiled not only at their unexpected entrance but their battle ready stances. “What are you doing here? Isss sssomething the matter?”
“That's...” Brook, Charge Blade held out before her, warily scanned the shadows for any and all threats. Stepping over roots and rotted logs, and stabbing every stray fern and frond for good measure, she incredulously turned to her behemoth boyfriend. “That's what we should be asking you! You never showed up for our rendezvous!”
“OH. Oh. Oh, Brook I'm...” Head held low, Taras shamefully shrank in on himself and curled his toes.
“Are you okay?” inquired the Huntress. “We heard your cry and-”
“No! Wait. Y-y-yesss! I mean...” Papping at his cheeks the Tobi-Kadachi violently shook his head. “Forgive usss, Brook! We didn't mean to make you worry!”
Beaked lips wavering, Nell's chest intermittently puffed out while she choked back bouts of laughter. When her piercing yellow eyes came to rest upon Jet...
“SNRK.” Whether she willed it or no, the Nargacuga's bird brain flooded itself with images of her lying on her side, tail tugging Jet close, all while she serenaded him with Taras' surefire script.
WHAPF
Taras irritably back handed at Nell's shoulder. “W-w-we're fine! Honessst! We jussst got so caught up in a lively dissscusssion about uhh... duhhh...”
Nell's composure began to crumple when she imagined pinching Jet's gorget between her beak. A purr here, and a love bite there, would be all she needed to peel that pesky armor clean off her man.
“Trainer... thingsss!” Taras uneasily asserted. “Right, Nell?”
WHUMPF
What failed to pass as syllables, much less consonants, tumbled free from Nell's mouth.
“RIGHT?”
Wordlessly nodding, she answered in the affirmative via a handful of husky chirps and snorts.
“...Nell? You good?” Jet worriedly asked.
Eyes watering, the Master Rank Trainer blinked away her tears with a strained smile. “Never. Better,” she valiantly managed to reply even as Taras continued to slap at her.
Exchanging quizzical glances, and slowly sheathing their respective weapons, Brook and Jet shared an uncertain shrug. “Okaaaaaaaaay,” said the Hunters as they reluctantly played along.
“Right! Ssso! About those deliveriesss!” Taras followed up as he shamelessly tried to change subjects.
“About those deliveries,” Brook deadpanned.
“We didn't forget!” the Tobi-Kadachi stammered. “It'sss jussst. We jussst.... had ssso much to talk about wasss all!”
Pronounced coughs wracked Nell's chest as she dutifully shook her head up and down.
“Uh huhhhhh,” Brook replied. Sauntering up alongside her behemoth boyfriend she knocked at his calf. “Well by the sounds of it you still do. Why don't you two pick back up your Trainer talk say... at the Canteen? Once today's to-dos are all accounted for mind you.”
Sharp gasps escaped from both of the monster's maws. “You mean?” the Tobi-Kadachi excitedly eeheed as Nell and Taras took to stamping their feet.
Hands held up before him in a placating manner Jet bid them to calm themselves. “A hard day's work deserves a hard day's pay doesn't it? Or... or meal. I guess,” he mumbled as he took to scratching at the back of his helmet. “That and it'll be nice to not have to sneak you in there for a change of pace!”
“This could become a regular part of our routine you know,” Brook added. “You two swinging by bright and early to catch some breakfast before deliveries.”
“Or treating you to some lunch after the fact,” Jet followed up with a wiggle of his finger.
Wings fanned out, and barbed tail clubbing apart trees behind her, the Nargacuga's eyes took on an manic glow. “WELL WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?” Nell boomed as she redirected all of her pent up energy in an instant.
“We're. We're waiting on you,” Jet nervously clarified. “L-l-let's get you up to speed. Today we haAAAAUGH.” Head spinning, the Hunter yelped when he was suddenly swept off his feet. Tucked beneath a thick furred arm, and hopelessly smothered between the Nargacuga's breasts and biceps, Jet's calls for help went unheeded as Nell bounded back into the underbrush with her man in tow.
Brows arched, Brook wearily looked to her behemoth boyfriend. Back and forth her eyes darted about the quiet clearing before she lovingly embraced one of his lanky legs.
Dropping to a crouch, the land itself quaking when his knee crashed into the damp and moss caked earth, Taras cupped his hands beneath his Huntress' arms. Thumbs pinching against the top of her limbs he gingerly hoisted her up into the air before cuddling her close to his chest. “Sssorry again,” he hissed.
“It's... it's fine,” Brook mumbled as she buried her head into the peach colored scales that lined his torso. “Just hard not to worry about you lately is all. You know?”
Chin tucked against his neck, Taras nosed at and nuzzled his bitty beloved. “I know.”
In sweet silence the size-mismatched couple tenderly embraced one another. After what felt like an eternity, an enjoyable one at that, the Huntress stirred. “You sure you're okay?” she whispered.
The Fanged Wyvern's lips all but enveloped Brook's head in response as he peppered her with static laced smooches. “I'm sssure. Are you?”
Resting her head against his sternum, and enthusiastically squeezing at what little of him that she could, Brook laughed at his every reassurance. “Taras, please!” she giggled. Dreamy sighs wafted free from her helmet as she reached back to squeeze at his fingers. “And... yeah. I am now.”
Eyes half-lidded, Taras let his snout linger against her visor. “Good.”
Breath held, Brook's stoic steel figure deflated even further as the Tobi-Kadachi tenderly thumbed at her plated back. Yet... even were she to hope against hope the Huntress knew it was not to last. “C'mon,” she reluctantly spoke up. “Let's not keep 'em waiting.”
Lumbering footfalls, punctuated by the sharp crack of snapped apart branches and detritus trampled underfoot, carried across the Ancient Forest as Taras followed in Nell's wake. “...Sssay, Brook?” he asked after a time.
“Hmm?”
A longing and wistful growl rattled Brook to her very bones as the Tobi-Kadachi shyly bunched his shoulders. “Do you think... do you think the Felynesss will finally warm up to me?”
“Awh Taras.” Nuzzling into her boyfriend's bosom, the Huntress squeezed him for everything she was worth. “How can they not now that you're an honored guest? You've been on your best behavior and then some for months now even! Just in case though... I'll be sure to put in an extra good word for ya!”
The shyest of smiles creased the snake squirrel's lips. “Promissse?”
“Promise!”
FIRST, PREVIOUS, NEXT
Category Story / Macro / Micro
Species Unspecified / Any
Gender Any
Size 120 x 98px
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