August 24, Day 1: Part 1 - Arrival?

The ship I sailed in on, I never did catch its name, the Argosy being the only known New World fleet vessel to ever be in reports didn't help, was smooth sailing for the longest time. I thought I'd finally get a drink and maybe finally figure out who my partner would be. All I knew was black hair, usually around food, and maybe the most inquisitive handler among them.

That description only helped if I talked to her first. It also didn't help that other than some really loud redheaded mohawk sporting drunk in chainmail, most everyone had black hair.

Wanting to avoid such noise, I went towards the only table with a single person at it, and probably the third girl to maybe fit the description I had. Unfortunately being one of the best means also being quick to be noticed, and that redheaded guy thought to casually saunter over, knock all the books of the handler I'd yet to get a chance to speak with around, and started to try and make small talk.

Too. Fucking. Loud. The whole damn ship could hear him, and I later realized, yes, they did. His handler also showed up, and yes, by this point I am simply venting the lack of help that damned description was because lo and behold another fit for it.

The girl, in her handler's outfit of a yellow dress like vest with buckles, white flowery cape, brown undershirt, and black leggings, at least had the decency to be polite and ask my name first. We all did, the guy was named Boyce, the girl Helen, and I gave them my first name, Elizabeth.

Boyce then began rambling about his thoughts on the elder crossing, it made me bet with myself he came here specifically to see said elder dragons. It then got brought up that A-listers, us hunter's who were acknowledged for past skills, worked in pairs. Said pair wanted to meet my handler who I still had yet to meet damn it!

Anyways, as they asked, yet another fucking girl of the given description began to move. She rushed towards an opening in the ship, binoculars lowered to gaze more intently out at sea.

As I approached her in hopes to get away from the noisy duo that chased away the original person seated at the table, I silently prayed she was my apparently elusive partner Lillian, she began to mumble about the waters getting worse. I didn't immediately notice, but within seconds the ship launched sideways, and threw my footing off.

The girl and I rushed out of the hill of the ship with the hope of seeing what hit us.

Big. Mistake.

We apparently hit a volcano or something of the sort because yet again our vessel got launched around and everything suddenly was on fire even with the sea, wind, and sudden drizzle that looking back was probably said volcano's splash upon saying hello.

Anyways, we hit something big and on fire, and soon we seemed to be too. I'm not sure if it was the unknown handler or myself who started screaming. It was such a blur, falling, catching a random board of the ship, then falling again. It seemed only the girl, my palico buddy Herald, and myself were the only ones not braced for this impact.

… That's actually really embarrassing looking back on it.

We fell off the vessel and onto hard lava rock. How I knew it's lava rock, is the amounts of said molten stone that flowed around me. I stuck the landing, but it stung in my legs. I didn't get the chance to process that as my adrenaline began to flow freely through me, a hunter's ever present companion, upon hearing the girl call out for survivors.

We quickly took stock of it being just the two of us before we rushed forwards, having almost forgotten about the ship until we heard it creak and groan above us.

I still don't know how they did it, but the crew apparently kept the damned thing intact and had it begin sailing off the definitely walking volcano we were on. Being used to terrible scenarios and ill prepared, neither of us flinched at having lost our ship. Instead we aimed to get higher up and see what the hell we hit.

The climb wasn't fun. I got hit by rocks and still wonder how my leather vest, boots, and gloves didn't come away no longer intact after a splash or two of lava I didn't notice until I felt it. At the top of the "landmass," we finally got a glimpse at what happened.

We somehow got shipwrecked on a fucking elder dragon. I knew we tracked one here, but I'm pretty sure crashing into it is not phase one of observation. At least the small wyverns in the area looked strong enough to carry us. Pink leathery bird like things with long mouths meant to pierce flesh for the goods inside.

I ran, slid, and jumped off the blackened rock that I've already come to hate, and pulled a stunt I hope doesn't become habit for me. I launched my slinger in an empty state as a grappling hook. Let me tell you how nice a slingshot crossbow hybrid strapped to a wrist is. It saved both mine and the other girl's lives quite easily. The rope arrow latched on smoothly and I had just barely caught my companion in this mess when things settled down.

It became smooth flying for a short time after that. Long enough at least to exchange names with the girl who this close up I couldn't deny seemed kind of cute with the look of awe and wonder stuck on her face.

Guess what? It actually was my assigned partner. That gave me a laugh, I finally found my partner and we had one hell of an icebreaker. I can definitely say after that, I knew I was in good hands.

That was of course all the time we had before the sight of the forest before us took our breaths away. A tree that seemed to try and pierce the sky stood before us with multiple others of a more reasonable height surrounded it. I say reasonable, but everything was huge. Perks of being untouched territory until forty some years ago I guess.

The sight was impressive, but we were literally jerked to reality as our ride ran out of energy and crashed us into the trees. How we crashed right above a campsite I don't know, but I stocked it up to just one more chance encounter of this crazy adventure.

The camp fortunately had a book, part of which I'm writing this journal into, and an incomplete map of the nearby area. It was enough to guide us out towards where we could see The Commission's base of operations on the eastern horizon.

Unfortunately for us, the shortest path was obstructed and we had to take a roundabout way through roots and caves. This led us to a Jagras colony. Those yellow four legged lizards were vicious. They only hesitated long enough to have good numbers with them, six I believe, before they charged and surrounded us as a pack.

Lillian found hiding fast enough, but I had to give them a chase first before I too could vanish from these beasts. Let it be known, they don't use smell to track, and their eyes aren't that good in bright conditions. My light pink almost white hair, while only cropped to my chin in a rough mess still stood out in those leaves I hid in quickly. Also I still smelled of fire and ash, and sweat. Oh boy was I sweating up a storm by this point. Too much heat, then a flight and multiple crashes and chases, I needed a bath.

After the Jagras colony lost me in those bushes and left for more obvious prey, my partner and I moved eastward again, only for her to find footprints she just had to track. Next thing we knew, I was too far away and a Great Jagras rushed her. Translation, he was big, maybe three times the size if not even larger than the regular beasties we just ran from, and equally as vicious.

Our luck really was something today, because by the time I was nearby, a guy in an open blue shirt revealing massive muscles and jeans that seemed fitting with the six foot sword equal in height to him on his back jumped off a nearby ledge onto the Great Jagras. His weight toppled the monster off of Lillian before she could get away safely. I unfortunately was now following all of them towards headquarters.

The next bit of madness is still haunting me. How are you supposed to react to a bipedal purple beast of pure lean muscle and sinew. The beast clamped massive jaws around the Great Jagras and tossed it around effortlessly before going back to ramming it's equally long as it tail into the smaller beast. The mystery man and Lillian were egging me on to get a move on, but how in the hell was I to circumnavigate the battle of giants before me?

Answer, I didn't go around. I went through, nearly got stepped on twice, then had to jump to get within the boundary safely before the gate to headquarters dropped, a tail apparently having been centimeters from having slapped me away from my destination. My side hurts thinking about that.

Day 1: Part 2 - Astera

We made it. The fifth fleet, ship and all beat us there apparently, and they sure were impressed we found them before they found us. The man introduced himself as Dorian Sace, leader of the field team. He then led us to the commander of the Commission, and his grandfather. A man who seemed up there in age based on his pure white hair contrasting with his black skin, and the old wise gaze that seemed to pierce everything.

He was definitely an imposing figure, and I could already tell he was worth respecting. He had Dorian guide us around the city. Astera was impressive. Each fleet that came through then seemed to dismantle and build onto the already massive encampment. They even somehow got a ship caught about fifty meters up between two cliff faces. It's going to be a personal goal to hear how that got put there.

Dorian gave us a brief tour, to which I'm grateful for after everything else today. The second fleet apparently had turned into the smithy. It was rather hot in the expansive forge that used to be the hull of a ship lodged into the side of a mountain. Getting to it was simply a massive stairway connecting the tradeyard, or as my mind sees it ground floor, to a deck out front of the ship. The deck also led on up another flight of stairs to the canteen.

That was when I learned exactly how hungry Lillian and I were. We immediately rushed to the counter sat down and ordered meat platters. The head chef was a rather muscular palico, so I guess he'd rather be called meowscular. Palico may look like bipedal cats, but they are just as smart as humans, and boy could those who worked under the meowscular chef cook. I didn't note what went into the meal, but I saw fires, spices, and a roast the size of my torso. That was simply my platter.

Suffice to say, I was drooling and full, and pretty sure that meal had my body pumping ready to exert some extra energy. Fortunately or not, we were told by Dorian we had to go to a meeting underway. The Commander was just doing a debriefing at first. The elder dragon we'd been chasing was named Zorah Magdoros, and upon landfall his trail went cold. Odd considering it's a walking volcano, and large enough a boat full of twenty or more people with room to spare could get stranded on it without the thing noticing.

At least we knew why the trail was cold, Zorah apparently had the wildlife stirred up something fierce, or it was speculated it did. Only here three hours and already off on hunting quests. I guess it's only fair how Lillian and I gave everyone a scare with our disappearance during the apparently only sort of a shipwreck shipwreck.

Dorian showed us to our rooms so I could finally get my hands on something more my style. The room was in the words of the housekeeping palico, totally not a renovated closet space for sleeping quarters, and they do apologize for the total lack of privacy between roommates. At least my journal is in my hunter book so they know not to touch it.

Anyhow, aside from the make do atmosphere of the room which was cozier than it sounds considering the area, it seemed natural, I went for the storage box. Calling the trunk that could hide four adults comfortably within it a box seems wrong, but considering the size of literally everything, I guess it is a box in comparison.

I'm rambling too much, being in the New World, most likely never returning home, is sinking in with each written word. Back to the story.

I grabbed an insect, kinsect? whichever it's called, glaive with a culldrome to harvest extracts. This polearm is very suitable for me, my slender build of lean muscle, mixed with my average height means the maneuverability of it worked great. I couldn't wait to flutter around my prey yet again using the two sided blade to vault up and around.

Unfortunately Jagras are too small for theatrics to be practical. There was no story in hunting them. It was just a test of my skill alongside dealing with some excess wildlife. It is interesting to note that there was nothing new with their environment, their numbers were simply swelling with Zorah's approach.

The hunt didn't even take twenty minutes. It was that uneventful, only thing of note was getting my bearings with the culldrome. The beetle like machine that harvests extracts, it was a good distraction while I twirled through the little lizards.

Unsurprisingly immediately upon my return from the Field Captain's test, we had another assignment. Some Kestodon were acting up.

Day 1: Part 3 - Finding a trail

Kestodon, by comparison to most monsters are small creatures, even though they stand as tall as me if not taller with age. They stand on their hind legs and have their club-like tails to counterbalance their forward leaning partially armored bodies. Their hides are notably hard enough to dull my simple glaive before a group of five were all dead. That was upsetting to me, especially when one used it's hardened skull plate to charge into me.

We quickly found out why they were acting up though, a Great Jagras was being extra aggressive and feasting. The thing swallowed a Kestodon whole before my eyes, engorging its stomach to the size of its now digesting meal.

Lillian informed me our objective had changed to change uponthat sight. The Kestodon problem wouldn't be solved until that Great Jagras was dealt with. That was fine by me, it let me test my glaive's other capabilities.

Tracking the beast was simple, it's footprints were deep thanks to its added weight, and the engorged stomach dragged every so often. It didn't notice me at first, most likely thought I wasn't a threat, then I leapt onto its back and hacked away with my knife.

The Great Jagras flailed, desperate to get the insect on its back off, but I wouldn't let go. I hacked a large enough area open, leaving it raw and torn because the knife really couldn't dig in to moving hide, and then pulled out my glaive and swung the purely bladed end repeatedly at it, cutting away until the beast fell over.

Regular Jagras swarmed around their fallen family member, hoping to stave me off to no avail. I twirled my blades about, carving through them and hitting my main target before it got back up.

Simply put, I was soundly distracted when stomach first it rolled on top of me and used its weight to smash me. Basic leather armor, don't mock it. It held and gave me the room and flexibility I needed to get out of that crushed position.

It appeared upset its next meal had begun to fight back. That was both good and bad. Good because it meant I wasn't the only one with tunnel vision in the fight, bad because it was pissed, and big pissed things tend to rush other things. They especially love charging at annoyances, like a human girl twirling a painful stick and directing a metal bulb into tackling it.

The first charge got me, I wasn't ready for it to be that fast, and I felt my body get what'd become an impressive bruise by tomorrow from the force. After that I'd learned my lesson, and Herald had arrived with vigorwasps. The wasps themselves aren't of note, but they generate a fluid reminiscent of health potions, which invigorate the body, helping keep oneself conscious after repeatedly getting smacked around.

I could feel adrenaline course through me, getting my body moving faster again. It meant the next rush I successfully vaulted over and landed on its back again. Carving its back up yet again, dirt having coated the old marks, I repeated my opening strategy. It toppled, and this time I had no distractions as I focused on cleaving it up.

My blades didn't go much deeper than flesh, but all those little marks wore on it, and mixed with a few deeper gashes on its face, it had become rather weak. It could barely use its forelegs from pain it seemed, causing it to try flopping on top of me instead of tackling me.

This made it easier to position myself for better attacks, tearing into other flanks, leaving no limb spared. I kept it's tail to my side so as to avoid getting hit by it. After that scene at the gate to Astera, I really didn't want to think about being swatted away.

It gave one last tackle, which was more a writhing mass of pain on its end than anything, and missed. Jumping over the beast became easier as the fight extended, and by that point, it was so close to death that my blade slamming into its skull was the final sound before it fell dead.

I had Herald signal for Lillian and Dorian to come to me now that the hunting was over and the area was cleared. Lillian showed her skill set immediately and found us a clue forward. A few blue feathers that stood out. I had overlooked them in the rush of combat, and Dorian was more trained for simply fighting it looked like. Smart man, just not aware of oddities.

Lillian followed the feathers deep into the forest, Dorian and I on her heels ready to defend the defenseless handler. What we found was a sight. A molten spike of slag obstructing a path, and a weird winged wyvern, a Pukei-Pukei frothing poison at the mouth, spitting at the obstacle.

I made sure on the way back to draw up the beast to speculate how to combat such a thing, I know I'll be back for it eventually. The Pukei-Pukei had two sturdy legs and stood like a bird with its wings tucked to its sides with dark blue feathers. Its tail was oddly ringed, the entirety of it a back and forth between green and purple. The face I'm finding hard to put to words. It's a face for sure, large eyes spread wide over a mouth, no beak, and small fangs hidden by a long massive tongue. I'm not sure what I should expect other than poison when putting up with this thing.

The return trip to Astera was calm and without incident somehow. At our arrival we immediately held a council to discuss our findings. Apparently tomorrow's job will be to help restore a camp deep in the Ancient Forest as the Commission has named it.

Considering today, I can only hope nothing goes horribly wrong again. I'll write about that after it happens. For now, I'm getting some air and dinner with Lillian. It's about time we actually got to talk.

Evening 1 - An Eventful Day

"Hey you made it!" Lillian's smile shines brightly under sparkling blue eyes brimming with joy. The open area is welcome sight with exhaustion taking over my body. I ache so much, I simply give a wave in response at first.

When I get within earshot I manage a few words though, "I mean after all this, I'd be dumb not to get an opportunity to sit down."

She gives a warm smile before gesturing to the seat opposite her. "Go ahead then. I'm sure you're done for the day. Three jobs done just like that and you somehow are still going."

I ungracefully drop onto the stump that is what the New World considers a chair, and gaze between her and the sunset. We are so high up at the canteen, just a deck overhanging the tradeyard, the view is unhindered by foliage or buildings. The breathtaking view is only interrupted by gazing at my partner, her joy easing my stiff muscles. "I don't know how. Weeks off on a boat were not good for my constitution."

With that, she actually lets out a light giggle before waving a palico over with two meat platters. "In that case, we should eat now, chat after!"

The giant roast makes my stomach turn in hunger. I wasn't aware I burnt so much off while fighting and running. "That sounds perfect to me."

Shockingly, we both finished our giant meals yet again. I honestly wonder exactly how different we are from say a Jagras with how much our stomachs can hold. I decide to voice this thought getting an uproarious laugh from my partner.

"I can understand that, but I'm pretty sure I could eat the chef out of ingredients if I didn't have a budget."

"I'm actually glad the pay is good. If I'm getting injured by something like a Great Jagras, I'm going to need covered."

We both share a light laugh at the tale of that fight and my need to get back into things before we calm down again. "So Lillian, how was your first day in the New World?"

Her eyes get that sparkle of joy again as she goes quiet to find a good response. "I read the reports like everyone else, but I'm pretty sure nobody expected our first day to go this uniquely. The fact we are still standing may lead to them making us spearhead every job. It's amazing, we might get first dibs on everything!"

I smile, swept up in her excitement. "Yeah, it sure was a beautiful start." Our eyes lock for a bit before the sun clips the corner of my eye and I avert my gaze. "The view is incredible up here."

Lillian nodded, also lost in the fading light. "Yeah, it is. Also, feel free to call me Lily. It's less of a mouthful."

My lips quirk up, trying not to laugh at her statement. "But I was under the impression from your eating methods that you preferred mouthfuls?" The joke got me a playful kick from across the table.

"Only food!"

I could see the restrained laughter and playful annoyance from her, and knew, this was definitely a strong start to the New World.

Notes: A story nobody saw coming, joined with a stream nobody needs at archer1eyedwrter on twitch Fridays at 10:00 am EST. Now with that announcement out of the way, I shall say I'm back from my extended absence of writing and that very little could drive me to get past the first few chapters of various ideas, and I didn't feel like tormenting you decent folks with my many half-assed thoughts.

This however being tied directly to a Monster Hunter World playthrough will pull my lazy feet into motion and it will finish. All I ask in return is that I hear your thoughts, so please fav/follow/review.

And as always, have a great life. Until next week!