FanFiction:The Art of the Hunt/Season 1/Chapter 2 - Many Meetings

T aka stared into the roughly composed frame of the high-power telescope he was using to scrutinize monster scale differences as he stood alone in the Academy Laboratory. A devoted student--especially of monster sciences--and a quiet but intelligent person, his favorite location in the whole school was this very room. He also loved being alone at these times; he never felt quite "right" when he was with any peers, and thus, the man kept to himself, mostly absorbed in wyvern genetics and biology theory. The one valiant thought that stayed on his mind was that he knew, somewhere out there, was someone of great importance to him. He didn't know where they were, exactly why they were out there, or even what they were, but he knew they were there... and he knew their name: Relcia. His wife, he thought. . And for many months after his enrollment into the academy, he believed his study would lead him to this person. It is, in fact, why he enrolled; free classes, earned use of the lab, and plenty of samples that he didn't have to gather himself.

It wasn't that he was afraid of monsters; nothing could be further from the truth. He was rather intrigued by them, and he loved them--thus, nothing was further from his thoughts than killing them. Sometimes, he even thought he could understand their speech. He had a pet Yian Garuga, and he could understand her; he realized this when the bird wyvern whispered her name, Stormhawk, into his ear, so many months ago. Just those few hours after him and his wife had been so cruelly separated. He could no longer remember even where they had been before; he thought it was somewhere wonderful, near Moga yet completely different, but his mind wouldn't tell him. So he researched and explored, taking long walks in the unruly and undiscovered mountain valleys to the north of the academy, and walking down the already beaten trails that the school had made for the use of the less socially alert students; those who, like Taka, would rather spend their time walking and learning than partying and drinking.

There were some, however, who went to that school who were not so focused on their studies and learning. Some such students were Brutus Eibul, known to his friends as Brute, Ali Sobok, who was a kind and loving girl but stupid beyond her means, and Katrina Arenhart, who was always sad and didn't care about her schooling enough, usually. These three were not friends; don't think for a minute that they were friends. They did, however, share a common trait: their classes. So they knew one another well, as any normal three people who shared every class would. At this time, while Taka was studying away in the Lab, Katrina was in another part of the building, writing in her diary in her Exploration Period--a classtime in which no one "explored" anything and mostly spent the hour talking, writing, or singing softly.

When Katrina wrote in her diary, the entry started with "Dear Elle..." - the name of her late mother, who died on their travels to Moga, leaving her with her clumsy and foolhardy--but loving--father and brother. Her brother had died very recently--just last week, in fact, when trying to take down a Great Jaggi to support his family. The last words Katrina had said were "I hate my life... Good luck.... (grumbles) Love you too...." before her brother went out on the hunt. Her father was left to take care of her, alone and unaided: but he did his best, though sometimes that didn't amount to much.

Her entry today was something like this:

Dear Elle...

Sigh. Today, I was forced to do a presentation in class. And as if the embarassment couldn't go any further, it was on how wyverns' dropped shells can be signs of the area around you.... As if I know anything about that. I'm still a learning hunter, I know, that's what you'd say. But, sometimes I wonder if I even want to be a hunter. The blood, the feeling, sure, that'd be cool, but I don't know if I could risk my life or the lives of anyone else if I went out into the field and... Well... [here, a teardrop had landed], like dad, died. What if I... [tear] what if I was to die, and leave someone behind who did care about me? I can't stand the thought. On the other hand, though, Qurupecoing out at the last moment's not how I want to do things at all... I want to go out with a bang--the kind of bang people remember. I don't guess I'll live past 21, and honestly, I don't hope to. So that's decided. I'm not going to back down.

I remember how much I used to love talking to you, mom. I miss you so damned much. I never really thought about how much you meant to me until I lost you... and even then, I had dad, and I figured that whatever evil made you die would keep him and Jessie alive, like a trade-off. But then, it took Jessie too. I still don't know if I'll ever cope with him being gone... and you too... It's like a bad dream, one that I can't wake up from. I'm... so sorry for not being a better daughter when you were alive. I can't wait to see you again...

By the time she had this much written, she had begun to cry quite hard. She was drawing no attention--nothing would harm her reputation more--but one of her friends, Noami, a fierce heart and a fiercer friend, noticed it. She hadn't quite grown accustomed to it yet, being used to Katrina's sarcastic and tough-as-nails attitude, but she knew by now when was the time to look for it and what to do to remedy it.

"Katrina," she whispered, "need to talk, hon? I'm here if you need--" she said in a hushed voice before Katrina interrupted her, stopping her tears long enough to speak. "Yeah, I think I need to talk to Momma. Will you go out to the balcony with me?" She sniffed, wiping a sleeve on her eyes to dry up the tears. "Of course." Noami said, nodding with a big, strong-willed smile on her face. Noami got up, offered Katrina her hand, and hauled her to her feet with a little effort. They walked leisurely to the class's seaward-facing balcony and shut the door behind them. Katrina, who had been born and raised on mountains but was not yet used to being so high up and close to the sea, shivered and unknowingly pulled close to Noami. The tall girl smiled and hugged her close, whispering comforting words in her ear--"It's gonna be all right."

Just then, Reia walked up to the closed door. She held her ear and her eyes to the glass and listened. Her face went downcast as her mood saddened. Katrina was a sad case, when she was upset, and Noami could only do so much for her. Eventually, Reia drew back and summoned up her courage, opening the door and flashing her biggest smile. "Hey, babe," she called to Noami, hugging her and Katrina both tightly and kissing Noami on the cheek. Katrina giggled, wiped her eyes, and turned away, shaking her head in a joking manner. "So, what's up, Reia?" Katrina asked. "I wanted to check on you. I heard you had transformed into a dragon," Reia said, doing the classic "wyvernswings" gesture behind Katrina's head. "Come on, I'm trying to be sad here--heyy!" Katrina said laughing as Reia joined in by tickling her. "Heh. You guys are the best." Katrina said. Reia looked at her willfully, and Noami smiled at them both, in a way that made it seem like she was trying to share some of her innate moral and personal strengths.

Katrina looked back over the sea of green, and further, to the ocean. "Ever wonder what's out there? You really can't see that far, and I've never heard a hunter say." Katrina mused. "Well," Reia piped up, "My dad used to say that it was huge, and, well... Blue... and... huge....And, er... Umm.... Blue. Did I mention how blue it is? He said it's, like, the most beautiful and thoughtful shade of blue there is. And he says it's vast, so vast that even when you sail for days, you might not see land--or anything, even. I want to see for myself someday, I think--but then, we'll all be hunters someday, won't we? Then we'll see." Reia continued to babble on, Noami hugging her tightly. "Yep, and maybe we'll even take a cruise. My mom tells me a story every so often about this beeeautiful island way out there, so far that sometimes, the guild forgets it even exists. She says she used to be the Guildie there. And her mother before her was, too. But she says her grandmother... Ah. I'm babbling, aren't I?" She asked, painfully. "No, go on! I've never heard this tale before." Katrina said, lifting an amused eyebrow but focusing solely on the awkward girl.

"Well... My grandmother supposedly came from an old village, pretty far away from here, and not very close to that island--a day or two's sailing trip. She told my mother that it was a small island, and very pretty, and lots of people went there. Apparently, it was right off the coast of Loc-Lac Desert Harbor, and the island wasn't that far from Tanzia--in fact, it's supposedly closer--sideways, that is, not in actual distance. And apparently, she was one of the founders of that village... I wanna go see it someday, I think." Noami said, looking towards the east and south, where she figured the island must be.

"I wonder if that's the island Calli was telling me about at lunch yesterday. I bet it was." Said Katrina, who had listened attentively to this point. Calli and her weren't best friends, but were currently doing a project on monster habitats and their relations together, so she was with her quite a bit. "She told me there's an island a little ways away from here calling Pri Forret Village--she told me, too, that the name comes from a lot of years of people softening the words "Prison Forest", or something. She knows where it's at; her family moved here from there, and she's still got family there, apparently. Maybe I'll ask her sometime." Katrina said. The bell rang loudly on top of the school to signal the students to change classes again; Katrina and Calli would go to their science class, Noami to MetalSmithing, and Reia to Weapon Theory. All very good classes.

Calli greeted Katrina happily, smiling her polite but gleeful smile while Katrina unloaded her backpack near their station. "Hi, Kat! How are you? I got some great ideas for the project. Want to hear?" Calli said as she readied and organized the area. Katrina sighed with relief; she had no idea how she'd come up with ideas for the project. "Sure, Cal! What'cha got?" She said, looking up and smiling painfully, still trying to loose a strap from its hold around one of her arms. "Well, I've been thinking: we've got to explain how monsters adapt to changing and themed environments, so let's so some models and make a diorama for display--and then, we can add labels depicting how each part of the environment works!" She quickly answered. Katrina giggled and stretched with relief after dropping the heavy bag from her back and getting it open. "That's a great idea, Cal, but where will you get the materials?" Katrina asked, thinking ahead and promptly as usual. Calli had come prepared, though. She pulled out pictographs from her bag of an area around her home; it showed a pile of sand, with a tiny carved figure of a Diablos standing poised upon its peak.

Katrina stared in awe at the sand pile in the photo, then laughed. "Wow. You're pretty devoted. Cool, all right. So, do you want me to carve out the plants? I could do monsters, but that looks like it's beyond my ability--you can do the details on the areas and monsters, and provide the bulk material, and I think I'll do the... plants and shape the landscapes. Sound good?" Katrina asked, staring at the various things in the picture. Calli nodded and replied, "That's the plan, then!"

To be continued in FanFiction:The Art of the Hunt/Season 1/Chapter 3 - The First Day