Author’s corner: HELLO HELLO! Probably not what you expected, but still shocking, I guess!

ALSO, I will probably update Reinstall for a few chapters after this, since it’s been some time since the last update.

Have a good read!

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“What is this… Rathian…? you speak about, Stone-born, that you even confuse it with me?” I heard that voice again, coming from everywhere at once, yet clearly coming from the wyvern in front of me.

I blinked surprised for a moment before quickly crossing my eyes with Red and Crys. While red looked surprised and shocked, Crys had a wry look, while smiling a bit awkwardly, as if not knowing how to react to the situation. It took a me a couple of seconds to digest the information before blinking out of it and turning to the wyvern.

“Sorry… I was a bit surprised…” I said to it, hoping to not have made it angry with my distraction. “Actually, with you talking, my job may be even easier…” I said a bit distracted.

“I care little about your job, Stone-born.” It said once again with a hint of annoyance. “Only about this name you speak about.” It said again.

“Oh, right… Rathian…” I said a bit hurriedly while trying to focus myself over the excitement and the fear. “Well… How to explain it…” I said while stealing a glance at the wyvern, who had stopped doing whatever it was doing and was now looking at me from dangerously close, it’s eyes always focused on mine.

Greater Green Wyvern [lvl ???] [??? Boss]

Equivalent level: ???HP: ????

-????

(Your level is too low to see it’s status)A Greater green wyvern. Little is known about this beast, except that it shouldn’t be found in this place.

I paled looking at it’s status. It was so strong that I couldn’t even see the values of its stats? Oh my Cygnas. I may like to hunt strong monsters, but there’s a small difference between hunting stronger monsters and running straight to my death. It’s small, but it IS there.

“Well… Back from where I come… There are these…” I started to look for the right words to express it. Luckily, the Wyvern was a lot more patient than what it’s appearance suggested. Heck, I swear it’s smirking amusedly at me! “Stories? It’s the closest I can express it. Yeah, stories about hunters and many different beasts they hunt…” I said while trying to make sure that I wouldn’t offend our host. “And… one of the most famous one are the Rathians… Green female wyverns very similar to you…”

And as soon as I said that, I kind of expected the wyvern to blow me into smithereens with no warning, so I flinched slightly and shrunk my body, but since no fire-ball slash breath of death got me, I slowly opened up my eyes, seeing an intrigued Wyvern.

“Are you one of the so called… Chosen, Stone-born?” The wyvern asked me, and I nodded slightly. “I see… No wonder I never heard about such beasts.” It said while nodding and turning to me. “Tell me more about these wyverns from your world. For you to confuse them with me… Leaves me intrigued.”

I gulped loudly before nodding. I turned towards Red and saw as she shook her head while covering her face with her hands. The wyvern immediately moved a bit around before laying down, looking at me with expectation. I took that as a sign that I should also sit down so I could tell her the story, Red sighed loudly and sat down too.

If we stopped to think about it, there’s really no reason for us to stay standing, as the Wyvern would probably be capable of hunting us down even if we wanted to run away.

“Well… Rathians are large green wyverns, just like you… In appearance, at least.” I started while carefully watching her reactions to my words. “Well, there’s some small difference, like a spike in front of the chin and a club-like tail, but otherwise, you are very similar. She’s the female counterpart of the Rathalos, a similar wyvern that have a red-colored scales and shells…”

“So… Your wyverns differentiate their genders through their colors? That’s interesting.” It said with a slight nod.

“Huuh… Something like that? It’s mostly limited to these two, really… And some other rare exceptions.” I said while stopping to think for a moment. “I take it that it’s not like that for you?” I asked, and the Wyvern nodded.

“You told me your story, I shall repay you in kind.” It said with a nod, which kind of caught me in surprise, to tell the truth. “We chose our coloration when we are still young. It have no relation to our gender or magic, as some of your people seem to think.”

“I see…” I said with a nod. That’s actually an interesting information to get. It may help me in the future, I think. “Well, Rathians are one of the most well-known beast on these stories, and while the Rathalos are known as the king of the skies, with their superior aerial attacks, the Rathians are known as the queen of the land, with better terrestrial tactics and much stronger fire attacks than the male counterpart…”

“A wyvern specialized on land fights?” The wyvern interrupted me surprised. “That’s unexpected... As much as it pains me to admit, our bodies aren’t exactly fit for terrestrial battles…” It said with a confused tone. “How does she does it?”

“How…?” I asked confused while stopping to think for a moment. I looked at Red for some help, but she raised her hands as if saying that this is my problem. I smiled a bit awkwardly. “I guess that her legs are stronger than normal…” I said after some thought. “And her backflip also helps… Probably.”

“Back-flip?” The wyvern asked confused, before frowning. “I fail to see how a back-flip could work to help with land-battles…”

I blinked surprised for a moment. Now that I stop to think about it, the attack is an odd one to explain to people. Just imagine it, a wyvern doing a backflip! Most people would say that it’s either odd, useless, or something of the like. But for me who is used to seeing a Rathian using it, it’s more than a perfectly acceptable attack.

Hmm… I wonder… I turned to Red and smiled a bit mischievously.

[Wargon]: Hey… Want to bet that I can convince the wyvern to add backflip to its attacks?

[Red Hurricane]: And how are you going to do it?

[Phantons]: Did I miss something?

[Wargon]: Long story.

[Wargon]: And logic. I’ll use logic.

[Incarnus]: Wargon! Why did you kick me?

[Red Hurricane]: Nah...

[Red Hurricane]: I know your logic-twisting skills too well.

[Red Hurricane]: Won’t make a bet to lose…

[Incarnus]: Wait… Wyvern?

[Incarnus]: Backflip?

[Incarnus]: RATHIAN?

[Phantons]: Really, what did I miss?

[Wargon]: Party pooper!

“Stone-born?” The Wyvern call took my attention from the chat.

It looked at me for a moment, seemingly confused with my sudden silence.

“Sorry… I was talking with some friends.” I said briefly. “Well… About the backflip… Right?” I said while starting to smile a bit mischievously. The wyvern noticed this, as it slightly raised it’s head before nodding. “Well… There’s actually some very good reason for a wyvern to use backflips…” I said while holding myself to not start rubbing my hands.

“And these are…?” The wyvern asked me, intrigued. I cleared my throat a bit before starting.

“First, let’s talk about how you would do it, right?” I said and it lightly tilted its head with a nod. “To do a backflip like a Rathian… I’m just saying how she does it, so it might not work just like that for you, mind you!” I said briefly, just to make my point. “You would need to first, earn some forward momentum. One or two steps should be enough. Then, once you get enough speed, you raise your body, changing that forward momentum into a vertical one.” I said while thinking of the Rathian’s animation.

“Immediately afterward, your body will lean upward, which means that your tail will probably be touching the ground, correct?” I asked and the Wyvern nodded. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is where you would flap your wings downwards if you wanted to take flight.” It nodded once again. “Instead, you would need to flap your wings slightly forward instead. This would make your body be blown backwards while your tail keeps going forward, and if you avoid fighting against the urge to right yourself, and simply follow the force…”

“My tail would lash at the enemy in front of me…” The wyvern said with a nod. “Truly, it can become a dangerous attack if I get enough speed.” It said with a slight nod. “But it still seems very complicated attack. I still don’t see how using this attack would help one fight on the ground.”

Ahh! Here’s the cue that I had been waiting! As my smile grew wider, I heard Red muttering something along the lines of me being crazy, mad or insane. Or all of them at the same time. Not that I cared that much, to tell the truth… It was very probably true.

Clearing my throat once again, I turned to the wyvern and said.

“Firstly, with someone with your size, who would expect an attack that comes from below, like the tail-lash from the backflip.” I said, and saw as it widened its eyes for a moment, before nodding. “Secondly, say you are fighting an annoying enemy that keeps attacking you whenever you want to take flight.” I said with a raised finger. “Since the starting movement is similar to both movements, they wouldn’t know the difference until you made your attack, which means that, not only would you land a strong attack at it’s head slash chin, you would also take flight, going back to the sky where, as you yourself said, have the superiority.”

“You spin interesting ideas, Stone-born.” It said with a nod. “I guess that it could be worthy testing the viability of this odd attack.”

“Geez… One more falls for the mad-man's logic…” Red said with a sigh, which left me worried for a moment. The Wyvern looked at her confused for a moment, so she quickly went on to explain. “Don’t you find it strange how this mad guy here who can barely speak something that makes sense managed to convince you of something that borders ridiculous like using backflips to attack someone?” She said with a long sigh.

The wyvern turned to me with a strange look, which made me pale for a moment.

“It’s always like that.” The elf finally said with a sigh. “Either he convinces someone to do something strange using perfectly normal facts, or he convinces you of something normal, but uses weird logic that usually makes no sense.”

I kicked her leg and whispered to her in annoyance.

“Are you trying to get me killed here?”

“… Actually, yes.” She said, surprising me. “I want to see if that could help you become a little less weird.”

“So, I’d still be weird?” I said with a twitching eyebrow.

“You’ll always be weird. Make no mistake.” She said right back at me.

“Your relationship is amusing…” The wyvern said to us with a slightly laugh rumbling the cave.

I smiled a bit awkwardly at that, and saw as Red did the same. I took this time to look around, and managed to see that Aura and Lieutenant had somehow managed to calm themselves a bit, even if they were still a bit scared of the Wyvern and were hiding behind me. I gently scratched the back of the fox’s neck, which seemed to help her calm a bit more.

“Not wanting to sound offensive or something of the kind, but you are much more sociable than what I expected…” I said to the wyvern.

“I do enjoy a good talk, to tell the truth.” The wyvern said as its wing made an odd movement that I understood as a shrug.

“Then, why did almost blow us off when we arrived here?” Red asked curiously, and soon stopped herself. “Not wanting to sound offensive, of course.”

“I had… Bad experiences with others of your kind before.” It said with a sigh. “They would always attack or flee on sight. Since you didn’t flee, I thought I should give you a small warning… But then you went and called me a Rathian… And I guess you know the rest of the story.” I nodded at her.

The only problem I had with her logic was that her small warning was probably more than enough to kill us seven times over, but let’s not risk annoying said person, right?

“Also, I’ll take that name for myself.” It suddenly said, getting me and Red by surprise.

“…Rathian?” Red asked, and the Wyvern nodded.

“The queen of the land… I quite like the title that comes attached to it.” The wyvern said with an amused tone.

“Hmm… I’m… No expert on Wyvern physiology… But I take it that you are a female, then?” I asked a bit confused.

“Well, you did say that these Rathians were all female, right?” She said with an amused tone, and I laughed a bit dryly at that. Then, after a short moment, she looked serious again and stared at me. “You said that you had a job here… Might I know what that encompass?” She said with a different tone.

I blinked surprised for a moment before reminding myself of the quest. I quickly hit my head to change into work mode and put on my serious face while nodding.

“Yeah. Since we can talk, it might make things easier for me.” I said with a nod. “Just to be sure, but I’m almost sure you got here a few days ago. Am I right?” I asked her and saw as she widened her eyes for a moment before nodding.

“I did arrive here a few days ago. Yes.” She said with a nod. “I’ve come from far away so that I could show the world to my daughter, and we decided to lay here for some time to rest our wings.” Rathian said seriously, but I was a bit caught up on one of her words.

“You have a daughter?” I asked surprised, and saw as she smiled slightly.

“Yes. She’s out hunting right now, but should be back in a few minutes.” Rathian said with a proud tone. “But what does that have to do with your job.” She said back to her serious tone.

“Nothing, really.” I said truthfully. “I was just caught by surprise… Anyway, I got this job from the chief of the village on the other side of the mountain. I guess you know about them, right?” I asked her and saw as she narrowed her eyes.”

“Yes… I did see them as I made a fly around the area.” She said with a nod. “But there’s no need to worry. I won’t bother them as long as they don’t bother me.” She said seriously.

But I smiled a bit awkwardly at her words before giving Aura a quick glance. She looked at me surprised for a moment, before turning to Rathian and sniffing the air. She then nodded slowly, but I saw that she also had a slightly confused look.

I gave a quick look to Crys, asking her to see what bothered Aura before turning back towards Rathian and gulping loudly, selecting my words.

“I… Think that you might have already caused some problems for the village down there.” I said a bit worried, and saw as she frowned slightly. “I think that you might have attacked the property of a certain farmer down there.”

“I did not attack anything that could be owned by one of your kind down there, Stone-born.” She told me with a slightly angry tone. “Are you trying to give an excuse to attack me?”

“Are you joking?” I said with a deadpan face, which seemed to shock her. “I can’t even see your level! I might like to fight strong adversaries, but fighting you would be downright suicide. Besides, you could at least let me finish my explanation before trying to put the blame on me like that, you know?” I said with a slightly annoyed tone, and saw as Rathian blinked in surprise before lowering her head.

“You are right, I precipitated myself. Forgive-me.” She said sincerely. I smiled a bit awkwardly at that.

“A greater wyvern just apologized to you… You never cease to amaze me…” Red said while holding back a smile.

“I try…” I said with a proud smile, but before I could even start my words, I was interrupted by another sound.

It was something akin to a roar and a bark at the same time, yet it didn’t sound anywhere near as threatening as Rathian’s, sounding much… Cuter?

I turned back and saw a small wyvern approaching the entrance of the cave while carrying what looked like a small rabbit in its mouth. It was probably around the size of Aura, maybe a bit smaller. Appearance wise, she was just like a smaller version of Rathian, except for the clear white scales, which seemed to shine brightly on the sunlight.

She almost landed near the entrance, but as soon as her small claws were about to touch the ground, her eyes landed on us, and she became surprised, dropping the rabbit she carried and flapping her wings hard so that she wouldn’t land and took flight once again.

Flying towards Rathian, she circled around the larger wyvern and landed right between her wings, looking wearily at us while making some strange growling sound, to which Rathian responded in kind. The smaller wyvern, probably her daughter, suddenly looked surprised and turned towards us, then towards her mother and once again she made those growling sounds.

After what seemed like two minutes of them talking with what I would guess to be dragon/wyvern-speech, the smaller wyvern turned towards us and reluctantly jumped away from her mother’s back and approached us with her head hanging low.

“Hi…” I heard a disembodied voice just like Rathian’s, except that it sounded much younger than hers.

“So… Cute…” I said while holding my itching petting hand.

The smaller wyvern looked at me surprised for a moment before running back to her mother and hiding behind her before peeking her head out.

“She’s a bit shy… Never had a good meeting with your kind, so forgive her wariness.” Rathian said with a wry tone.

“But… Petting… I wanted…” I said with a sad tone before feeling a fluffy feeling on my hand as Aura pressed her head against it. I gently petted her for a moment before turning back to the smaller wyvern. “Hi there. I’m Gondorrer, and this is Aura.” I said gently towards the Wyvern, seeing her make a confused face and turn to her mother confused. Some more growling and I saw as Rathian turned to me and said.

“She doesn’t have a name in your language, so I don’t think that she can introduce herself yet.” The larger Wvern said before seemingly having an idea. “Why don’t you give her a name too?”

I blinked surprised for a moment before looking towards the shy wyvern.

“I… Don’t think I have a good name for her…” I said after some time and saw as the wyvern frowned. “Don’t you have anything like the name you gave me?” She asked me with a slight tinge of disappointment.

“Well… Rathian’s the best name I can think to give a Wyvern with your appearance…” I said with a wry smile as I watched the two wyverns, until an idea came to my mind. “Unless…” Yeah… that could work, I guess… “What about we also call her Rathian, but in another language?” I said, and saw as Rathian seemed to like the idea. “In a land to the far east of my world, they call Rathian’s by the name of Rioreia, what do you think?”

“Rio…reia…” Rathian said as she savored the name and looked at her daughter. “Rioreia, my little princess of the land…” She said as she gently nuzzled the smaller wyvern. I… Think I’ll personally call her Rio for short. It sounds cuter. Rathian turned to me and looked serious. “Well, let’s go back to our previous talk, shall we?” She said seriously and I nodded.

“As I was saying, one of the farms down there was attacked recently, and it coincides with the time of your arrival here.” I saw as the wyvern frowned, but she kept her words and let me finish. “By any chance, did you hunt some animal from the area near the village?”

“You mean those large, meaty animals at the plains?” She asked and I nodded. “Yes, I did, but what is the problem?.” She said in a defensive tone.

“Well… They are the property I was talking about…” I said with a wry smile, and saw as she looked at me confused. “You see, the people raise animals like that as livestock, growing and feeding them until they are mature enough to be transformed into meat.” I said, and saw as the Wyvern closed its eyes in slight annoyance.

“I… See…” She said with a sigh. “And here I am about not bothering humans…” She said with an annoyed tone, but luckily it didn’t seem to be directed at me.

“That… went ways more smoothly than what I expected…” I said with genuine surprised.

“Don’t get me wrong.” Rathian said with a weary tone. “I’m not dying for love for your kind.” She said coldly. “But I don’t hate you nonetheless. And from what you said, it’s a fact that ended up attacking his property unprovoked. He deserves a repayment at the very least.” She had a surprisingly strong sense of justice… “How do you think I can undo my wrongdoing?”

“I… Don’t know?” I said a bit confused. “Maybe we could go down there and ask himself?”

I said that bit as a joke, but I saw as Rathian nodded in approval while raising herself. Rio, without a place to hide herself, quickly became surprised and looked for a place to protect herself, but Rathian used her long tail to push her towards us discreetly.

She blinked surprise once she found herself at my feet right as her mother made her way beside us, walking out from the cave towards the entrance. I stole a glance at the bigger wyvern before slowly crouching down and looking at Rio straight into her eyes and smiling slightly.

“I don’t bite, you know?” I said playfully, and saw as she widened her eyes slightly.

“Then, you won’t attack mother nor me?” She asked me lowly, and I nodded.

“I’m pretty sure your mother could kill me with a sneeze, so I don’t really want to risk it.” I said playfully with a shrug, and saw as she widened her eyes and nodded happily.

“Mother is strong! Don’t try to attack her!” She said in an proud tone, and I laughed a bit at her.

“Yeah, I won’t.” I told her while gently petting her head out of instinct. She winced surprised for a moment, before calming down and slowly taking her head out.

Her scales are still soft to the touch, so it felt surprisingly pleasant to pet the little wyvern… I wonder if will have the chance to pet her again. Getting outside, I saw as Rathian stared at me for a moment before turning away. I became confused at that, but since it didn’t seem worrisome, I turned towards Red.

“Well, with that, the problem is solved.” I said happily, but I was interrupted by another person.

“I have to disagree, master.” Crys said while shaking her head. “Aura said that the cave had the smell of both locations.” She said seriously. “But the second one definitively isn’t from Rioreia.”

“Oh, yeah… I had forgotten about that…” I said truthfully, but before I could stop to think about it, Rathian called us.

“What are you waiting for there?” She asked us with a slight playful tone. I frowned a bit at that, but didn’t let it bother me.

“Sorry, it may be better for you to go ahead. Our path may take some time to cross…” I said while pointing towards the narrow path we used to get there.

But, contrary to my expectations, Rathian had another plan.

“Then why don’t you let me give you a ride? You did help me avoid some bigger troubles, Stone-born. I owe you at lest this much.” She said.

Me and Red stared at each other surprised for a moment.

And that’s how I got a ride from a Wyvern that I convinced to use backflips as attacks so that we could go have a talk with a farmer.

A fine day of work if I do say so myself.