“You ever hunt a Rathalos before?” Keyns asked, hoping his nervousness wasn’t too apparent in his voice. He had never fought a Los before, and he’d heard some terrible things about them.

“More than I can count,” the Quiet Vet replied evenly.

“Like, enough to earn the Rathalos title?”

“Heh, enough that I’ve earned Soul.” He had to be lying. Fifty Los? Him? But he said it without so much as a smile. Is that what it took to be a Veteran? No. It couldn’t be. He’d met plenty of hunters who’d bragged about their hunts that had proven to just be big talkers. This Quiet Vet was probably the same way, but he didn’t really talk like the others did.

“Well, this isn’t an ordinary Los.”

“I read the post.”

“Yeah, but,” But he wasn’t certain how to finish that sentence. Keyns was still a novice when it came to hunting, and that was part of the reason he’d joined the Adopt-A-Hunter program in the first place. The other part was that he’d wanted to finally be a part of something bigger than himself. To find brothers-in-arms, and sisters-in-arms, he guessed. He’d been waiting in the Guildhall all day for news of a match, growing more and more despondent every time he made eye contact with someone who turned away. By nightfall he’d given up on ever being matched up, thinking that he must have filled out something wrong or that no one wanted him, so he was surprised when Quiet Vet had approached him with Keyns’s application in-hand.

The Vet had sure sounded like he was good, but he was scrawnier than Keyns was, and he wasn’t exactly a big guy. He also didn’t have the chakra of any hunter Keyns had ever seen. Plus, he used a longsword. He’d heard that no one with real skill used that weapon. Not anymore, at least. A hundred years ago, when longsword users first split off from greatswords, then it was common to see a katana strapped to someone’s back, but not now. Not among veterans. So, he had few hopes that this Vet had actually been through fifty Los fights.

They were on an airship, headed towards the Eastern Islands. Moga Village had recently come in contact with a so-called “Immortal Los,” and they needed it taken care of fast. Of course, it had needed urgent attention for a week now, and the only reason it wasn’t done was because that Los kept regaining all its strength somehow. Its tail was even growing back between different attempts, according to the locals. It was insane. Impossible. Keyns figured that it was just a rumor, but in the pit of his stomach he knew it wouldn’t have mattered if the Los was immortal or not, it wasn’t going to be any easier on his first try.

For Keyns, hunting had been something he’d always wanted to do, but had only recently built up the courage to do so. He’d been more of a gatherer for years, pocketing a few extra items every time he went out until he could afford a full set of Ingot armor. It was perfect for him, because he needed every bit of defense he could, and it hadn’t required any monster materials. So, he already looked the part, even if his switchaxe was still woefully underpowered. He’d forgotten about the materials and zenny for that, but after this quest he was certain he’d have what he needed.

The clouds rolling by the airship always seemed so much smaller from the ground, or maybe these were just different clouds. Still, no cloud ever seemed like it could be bigger than an entire airship, and yet there they were. He briefly wondered how powerful cloud-based weapons would be. The Vet and his longsword didn’t even seem interested. “I guess you’ve been on fifty flights too, Quiet Vet?”

“No, this is my first time.”

“What? Why don’t you get up and look around then? Why not enjoy yourself a bit, huh?” Keyns didn’t add that it could’ve been the last time they both got the chance. It was true that the FRS was good, and they usually got to the scene fast enough to save a hunter, but there had been a few times where wyverns were hungry enough that even an experienced team of hunters couldn’t pull a body away fast-enough. Keyns had never seen it happen before, but he’d heard stories. “I heard that sitting still too long before a hunt makes the Desire Sensor angry. Is that true?”

“The Desire Sensor cares about how much I move now? Damn. Well, I’m sorry to muck up your luck, but I’m afraid I’ve got other things on my mind right now than appeasing the Desire Sensor.” The Vet went downstairs, and Keyns shook his head. This wasn’t going at all like he’d planned.

The islands were a beautiful place to visit, but Keyns never thought he could live there. They were too mild, first off. All year long there was nothing but sandy beaches and the gentle ocean breeze. But you couldn’t enjoy any of it because there were always Ludroths on the beaches, and Lagias in the waves, and then Loses and Ians covering the rest of the island. And that was every single island too. At least in the desert there wasn’t a place you felt safer than you were. Even a volcano would’ve been preferable to the false hope of an island. Still, it could’ve been worse; he could’ve lived in some sort of temperate grassland.

The Vet was still being terribly quiet, and hadn’t done anything more enthusiastic than setting off into the island at a run initially. Keyns actually had to ask him to calm down, partially because he wasn’t nearly used to his armor, but partially because he wasn’t in a rush to find the Los. It was something he kind of regretted, because the Vet was just so depressing to walk with.

“So, Quiet Vet, any advice before we find it?”

“Have you ever fought a Rathian before?”

“Well, yeah, but that’s different.”

“Very different, but also not.”

That was terrible advice. “What does that mean?”

“They have the same body shape, and so they’re mostly capable of the same kinds of maneuvers, but where an Ian is often focused on using her tail to take down a hunter, the Los is more about his claws. You don’t need to worry about any of the triple fireball volleys that you do with Ian, but because the Los loves to be in the air, it presents its own challenges when it comes to fire. Then there’s the whole issue with Los being more aggressive than the Ian, as a general rule.”

“That’s… a lot to remember.”

“Right, sorry.” The Quiet Vet looked up at the sky. “Believe it or not, I’ve never actually taught someone how to hunt while out in the field. It’s all just been theory and training dummies.”

“Oh.” He was trying to be positive, but this wasn’t looking good for him. How did they ever let a veteran in who hadn’t taught in the field?

“How about we try this a different way,” Quiet Vet said. “Do you have any specific questions I can answer?”

Keyns wanted to ask him how he’d ever gotten into the program, but that didn’t seem like it would help him much with the Los at this point. “So, how do we get it out of the air then? Mount it?”

“If you’d like to, yeah. It’s quicker to use a flash bomb though. You get one in front of them and the Los comes crashing to the ground without fail.”

“Okay, that’s good to know. But I didn’t bring any flashbombs.”

“Have one of mine. You don’t need to use it, but if you see an opening, then go for it.”

“Hey, thanks,” Keyns said as he scribbled down the exchange on his item list. “Umm… how do I use it, exactly? Just throw it?”

The Vet actually smiled a little, but he wasn’t laughing like Keyns had expected. “You crush it. Like so.” With a motion that the Vet must have done a thousand times before, he whipped out another flashbomb, crushed it in his fist, and counted. On three there was a burst of light that shot out from between his fingers. “Now, normally you want to crush it, count to one, and then throw. So long as you feel the bomb material break, the bug inside is as good as dead, so don’t worry about not having squeezed hard enough, okay?”

“Right. Got it.”

The Vet pulled out another flash and demonstrated the actual technique. It was such a fluid motion. No hesitation at all. “You try.”

“But I only have one.”

“I’ve got the material for more, and there are always flashbugs around. Go ahead.”

Keyns’s own attempt wasn’t nearly as smooth, but he crushed, counted to one, and then threw. The bomb went off half a second before the Vet’s had, but Keyns didn’t care. “That was awesome!”

“Yeah, it was.” He didn’t sound very excited, but Keyns couldn’t blame him. It was just a flashbomb. So, as Quiet Vet took out the materials to combine more flashbugs and, oddly, a book bound in a golden cover, Keyns said the first thing that came to his mind.

“Do you got a girl back home?”

“No.”

When there was no elaboration, Keyns decided to press the matter a little. “Me neither, but I don’t see why I should need one anyways.”

“They’re the best part of life.”

“What? Why don’t you have one if you think like that?”

“Because for one, you can’t own a person, and because…” He trailed off, looking sad again. “Because it’s hard to find the perfect woman. Harder than any hunt has ever been.”

“Yeah. Sorry, I didn’t mean to say that they we-“

The roar sent Keyns ducking for cover instead of finishing his thoughts. How had the Los snuck up on them? And was his vet charging in already? “You’re gonna get yourself killed!” Sure enough, the fireball came barreling down the tunnel formed by the high walls around the stream they’d been following, but the Vet just slid beneath it on his back and kept right on going. Keyns hadn’t ever seen someone do that before. Apparently, the Los hadn’t either because his partner caught him with a blow that would’ve knocked the head clean off a Jaggi. Maybe he had killed fifty Los.

Not one to be carried through a quest, Keyns charged forward, drawing out his switchaxe just as the Los whipped itself around. The spiked tail caught him right in his side, mid-swing, and sent him into the wall, but he was back on his feet in no time. His Ingot armor was a match for anything the Los could throw at him, except for fire. Still, enough hits and it’d take down anyone.

His Vet was like air. When the Los tried to take a bite of him, he fade slashed in the same direction to keep his positioning. “Don’t ever stay still with the Los,” he shouted as he ducked beneath a tail swipe and rose with a strike into the wing. “And be prepared for the roar soon. He’s going to fireball and leap into the air when he does, and you don’t want to get caught in that.”

Keyns was trying to process as he slashed at the Los, but it was hard to focus on two things at once. He was going to give it his all though.

“You’ve got a good reach,” Quiet Vet continued as he hacked off a scale from the Los’s neck. “Try staying behind him for the tail. Like I said, he doesn’t use it as much as the Ian. I’ll distract him as much as I can from the front.”

That was advice that he could use. Keyns rolled beneath the wing in his face and brought his axe up into the soft flesh of the tail. Then back down in an arcing slash. Then up. And down. The roar caught him a bit off guard, and his Vet too, because the fireball slammed into quiet Vet’s face while he was stunned, and suddenly the Los was in the air. Each wingbeat pushed out an incredible amount of force, but the weight of his Ingot armor mixed with his chakra to keep Keyns from feeling it.

The Los was looking straight at him now, flames dripping from its mouth.

“FLASHBOMB!” the Vet shouted, and just as Keyns went to put away his weapon he saw the tiny ball come sailing over his shoulder. He closed his eyes just before the flash went off, and he felt the thud of the Los as it came crashing back into the ground.

“What are we waiting for?” His Vet said as he charged past Keyns. “Come on, free hits while he’s down!”

“Coming!” Keyns shouted and he rushed forwards, back towards the tail where he’d been told to go. Up. And down. Up, and down.

“Not to say you’re not doing a great job,” his Vet said as the Los staggered back to its feet, still blinded, but not about to take any more punishment laying down. “But when he’s down like that you could probably afford to go into Sword Mode.”

“Oh, yeah,” Keyns said. “I uhh…”. He had never actually used the Sword Mode before. He’d heard it slowed you down, and he already felt really slow. He swallowed hard as he finished another up and down. “Is it okay if I don’t? I’m not very good with Sword Mode yet.”

“It’s fine, but you might want to give it a try when he’s down again. Can’t get better without trying.”

Keyns swung up again, feeling a bit more confident, and that was when he took the fireball to the chest. His armor felt like it was on fire, and some of it was. The heat had nowhere to go, no vents because the armor had been designed to protect from hits, not from flames. He choked on his own smoke. “ROLL!” His Vet shouted. “Into the stream! ROLL!”

Pushing through the pain, Keyns rolled instead of going for the potion in his pouch. He felt like he was going to die, but the roll pushed out some of the heated air through cracks it normally couldn’t escape from. A second roll and he was in the stream, the fires doused immediately. The water rushed into his suit, which made him feel a little squishy, but he wasn’t going to die from feeling squishy.

But the Los was no longer blind, and the smoke trailing out of its mouth wasn’t a good sign. It was even angrier that it had been before. Keyns dove for a small cave, and rolled inside a good ten meters before he stopped. From here, he could still see the Los, but he was safe from its raging attacks. Safe enough to heal. As he finished off his second potion he watched the Los swooping in at Quiet Vet, who leapt around the attack with ease. The Los shot a blast of fire down, but his Vet spiraled backwards and then countered with a slash across the wyvern’s extended face. He was so good. He could’ve taken the Los down by himself. So why was Keyns even there?

“Hey, Wyvernslayer!” Keyns blinked at the title. He’d chosen it because he thought that if he had a cool title that he’d be more respected as a hunter. It sounded like a such a lie being said by a real wyvernslayer though. “Come on! I can’t get this tail off of him myself!”

Whoever this veteran was, however lacking he may have been in size and no matter the weapon he used, he didn’t need Keyns. But hearing him saying it, just the words, they were as much of a truth as his title was a lie. Keyns took a breath, grit his teeth, and ran back out with the flashbomb in his hand. He crushed it. “ONE!” he shouted. And the shout attracted the Los’ attention. He swallowed hard, chucked the flashbomb, and prayed. On three the bomb detonated, and the King of the Skies screeched, but didn’t immediately fall. He was still in the middle of his dive towards Keyns. But without his sight he misjudged where everything else was and toppled over himself.

“Nice one!”

As his Vet ran to help, Keyns decided he wasn’t going to let fear hold him back anymore. He pulled down on the triggering mechanism that slid his axe’s blade down before locking the outer edge into place on the same side. Sword Mode wasn’t actually any heavier than the Axe Mode, but the center of gravity had shifted, so he had to stand differently if he didn’t want to fall over.

He took a swing at the Los, and was surprised at how easy it was to pull the weight of the blade back into a second swing, and then a third. In fact, the Sword Mode was not just easier to swing, but he could feel the power behind each hit as he tore into the tail again and again. He laughed without meaning to, the rush of his blood making his fingers tingle.

By the time the Los came back to its feet, Keyns felt he was ready for anything. His blade glowed a bright and fearsome blue from the overcharged phials brimming with chakric energy and heat. “Come get some!” he shouted as he thrust his sword upwards into the tail and twisted the handle. The phials began to pour out onto the blade, sending damaging bursts of chakric energy into his enemy. The Los tried to charge away, but the hot blade had embedded itself and wouldn’t let go, so Keyns was dragged along with it. He didn’t let go, didn’t dare let go, even as the energy built up and up until the last of the phials burst into an explosion that tore half the wyvern’s tail off.

Blinded and bleeding fiercely, the Los did its best to limp towards safety, but it had no idea where safety could possibly be. Both hunters charged forwards, and Keyns swore that out of the corner of his eye he could see his Vet’s chakra slide slowly down his blade until it glowed the faintest white Keyns had ever seen. Then his Vet whipped himself around in a lightning-fast arc and tore through the wyvern’s leg with his Spirit Roundslash, toppling the monster again. He had no idea what an accomplishment that small act was, because he was too focused on going for the finishing blow. He swung his Axe from side to side, back and forth now instead of just up and down, hacking until the Los was no longer moving.

Exhausted, Keyns took a few moments to recover his breath, and when he looked over his Vet was panting on the ground a few meters away. When had he stopped attacking? Why was he so tired?

Keyns had done it though, he’d taken down a Los.

The Vet grinned between each labored breath and looked at his Novice. “So…” There was a moment where he knew what the other man was about to say, but he wanted to hear it anyways. He didn’t know quite how he knew, but he knew. “It looks like you live up to that title of yours.”

Keyns tried his best to be modest, but he didn’t feel modest. He felt alive. No words would come out of his mouth.

“And just so we’re clear, My name’s Tyr. And that was the sixtieth Los I’ve had to kill in my life.”

~

“That was insane!” Keyns shouted as they boarded the airship home. He’d only shouted the same thing a dozen times now. “How in the… I mean that was my first, but you were… I mean wow!” The eyes of the crew all shot to them, and Tyr acutely recalled how it felt to live in Nifila, but not for the reasons he wanted. “Hey, you all can keep staring. We took down a Los!”

“What makes me think it was mostly him?” a Crewman asked with a smug grin.

“It wasn’t,” Tyr said.

“Really now? Well, paint me yellow and call me a Ludroth,” Smug Crewman said.

Keyns sneered at them beneath his helmet, and Tyr just shook his head. Let the others have their fun; he was finally getting his strength back. That’s also when he collapsed onto the deck. His feet had gotten him as far as they could, but even after the rest he’d had on the way back the energy he’d spent in that one channeling had been too much.

Everyone stopped to see what was wrong, but when Tyr began laughing like an animal they mostly stopped. “Is there a joke I missed?” Keyns asked.

Tyr tried to respond, did his best to come up with the breath to make words, but he could do nothing but clutch his sides as he laughed and guffawed through his exhaustion. Many rolled their eyes, or chuckled themselves, but all of them were convinced that Tyr had a screw or two loose. Everyone except Keyns, who started laughing with him. After ten minutes or so, they calmed down enough to have a normal conversation. “Oh gods, I can’t get up.”

“Oh, man, that’s not good.” Keyns wiped a tear from his eye. “But we made a hell of a team, no?”

“Nope,” Tyr laughed, and laughed a bit harder when he saw Keyns’s face. “I’m just kidding. You were great.”

“We should team up more often,” he said. “We’d be unstoppable.”

“I’m not from around here,” he said with a giggle. “So that won’t be very likely.”

“Well, maybe I’ll come with you. I mean, we’re already part of the same program, right? Doesn’t matter where we go.”

“I don’t think that Ad…” And then he stopped laughing altogether. “Well, I don’t really think the Princess needs another guard.”

“Holy Volganos! You’re a royal guard? No wonder you’re so good. But I thought the princess wasn’t coming until… tomorrow? Or later today. I dunno. That quest still has me so hyped that I can’t think straight.”

“No, I’m a guard for the other princess. Her sister.” He sat up, and found it was a lot harder than he remembered it being. “She’s… she’s not who she seems to be.”

Keyns shrugged and sat down next to Tyr. “Neither were you. But, I mean, that’s not a bad thing.”

“I didn’t lie to you about who I am.”

“Yeah. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t lies between us.”

“I’m afraid I don’t follow your logic.”

“I mean, I had fooled myself into thinking you were someone you weren’t.” Keyns smiled, and Tyr found himself even more confused.

“When was that?”

“Before the flashbomb thing. I told myself all kinds of things about you based on stuff I’d heard, but that didn’t make them true. Everything you said or did til then fit into what I wanted to believe about you, so I just figured I was right. But I wasn’t. I was lying to myself about you.”

“You’re,” Tyr stopped himself and shook his head. “I think you’re smarter than I am. And I think you’re gonna make a great hunter.” Keyns gave Tyr a hard look, but he wasn’t kidding. They laughed and talked the whole way back.

Back in the city, everyone was celebrating, and both hunters knew it wasn’t for them. They collected their bounty, had materials sent to their boxes, and went to see what all the fuss was about. Naturally, it was Prince Kean, just having returned to the city with his new bride. Tyr and Keyns couldn’t get within a dozen meters of the actual procession, but with all of the people shouting “Prince! Prince!” it wasn’t that hard to figure it all out.

“You say you’re a royal guard, right? You think you can get me in to meet the Prince?”

“I have no idea. I’m not certain how much authority being a guard gets me here.” Tyr chuckled, just to do it. It felt nice to laugh again, too nice to let it go. “But I might be let in since I know the princesses.”

“That would be so amazing,” Keyns said, trying to see over the crowd.

“Yeah, but I don’t think it’s going to happen today. Too many people in our way.” Tyr began walking in the opposite direction of the crowd, and Keyns only joined him after a few more moments of craning his neck.

“So, why did you join Adopt-A-Hunter?”

“To make up for something I did.”

“That sounds personal. Do you mind if I ask what happened?”

“I was her hero, and I told her I couldn’t help her anymore. We hadn’t even gone on a quest together…” Tyr sighed. “I wasn’t there when it happened, but I killed her all the same.”

“That’s…” Keyns had many adjectives for it, but none of them really fit. “I’m sorry.”

“Me too.”

“Well, how about something happier? How’d you get into hunting?”

The streets of Loc Lac were deserted. Stalls abandoned, houses with no sounds coming from inside. Empty except for the occasional passerby and the pair of hunters. “This one night, I was walking through town. It was a lot like this, because in Nifila everything stops after solset. And I decided to go up to the watchtower and see what was going on there.” Tyr’s voice didn’t echo against the emptiness of Loc Lac, and he didn’t like that. When empty places didn’t echo it meant they weren’t actually empty.

“When I got up there I talked for a little bit with Ehrin, and then just before I went down I spotted a Rathian in the distance. I’d never seen a live one before. She was beautiful. She wasn’t anything like the stories. She wasn’t vicious, or cruel, or angry, she was just… just out there. Alive.” He smiled just a little bit. “And the next day I bought myself a weapon and started training.”

“Hold on,” Keyns said. “I missed something there.”

Tyr gave a small laugh at that. “I didn’t want to kill her.” There was a small pendant in his hand that Keyns hadn’t noticed before. He held it up, the machalite gleaming in the sollight. “But I wanted to be like her. I didn’t want to have to run from wyverns like a researcher, or stand back like a handler. I wanted to be able to just walk through the world like she did, at peace with it. And the only way to do that was to be a Hunter.”

Keyns felt a little small in his own reasons. He hadn’t wanted to be a hunter to be at one with the world or anything. “I’ve always been afraid of wyverns,” he said. “And I just didn’t want to be afraid. I wanted to be somebody. I wanted to help people like me not be afraid anymore. Because, you know, if I can do it, then anyone can. Right?”

“I guess so, yeah.”

Keyns didn’t like the way Tyr was looking. He was getting depressed again. “Hey uh, Quiet Vet, is that why you’re here then? You came out to see the world, like the Rathian?”

“No.” He looked around, but Keyns wasn’t certain what he was looking for. “No, if it were up to me I’d have never left home.”

“But you said…”

“I know what I said. But things change.” They were crossing the barrier between the two sides of the city, and the East was no more populated than the West. “One day I was out on a hunt, a Velocidrome. Nothing more than a routine hunt, until a Los came barreling in and nearly tore me in half with the first blow. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do, but I hadn’t finished my hunt yet, so I kept at it. I carted twice, nearly ran out of daylight, and I’d completely lost the Velocidrome, but I kept at the Los until I finally took it down. I never did see that Drome again, but when I got home I was a hero for taking down the King of the Skies. People started coming to me for everything and…” He shrugged, but he couldn’t hide the smile on his face. “And that was it. If it weren’t for the Guild I’d still be there.”

Keyns was about to open his mouth to say something, but there was a voice that said something before he could. “Hi,” the word was so soft in the air that he almost didn’t hear it. When Keyns turned around, there was a stunning woman standing there. She was in a blood red dress, standing with her hands behind her back, as though she couldn’t bear to have someone see them. Her hair was shockingly blue as well, making her tanned face and arms seem all the more out of place.

“Adaline,” Tyr said, and Keyns’ eyes snapped back and forth between the two. “You… you look lovely.”

“Thank you.” The quiet of two people with too much to say crept in. Keyns knew that silence, and so he did the only thing he could do.

“I’ll meet up with you later,” he said, though he wasn’t certain that Tyr heard him. He wasn’t certain he would have heard himself with a woman like that talking to him.

A moment turned into two, and then three, so he said the first thing that came to mind.

“You decided to skip the party, huh?”

“They don’t really need me there, and I’m certain Kean doesn’t want me there either.”

“That’s his loss.” Another moment of silence slipped in. It made his chest ache. “I killed a Los with someone today. Saved a village in doing so too.”

“That sounds like something you would do. Did you enjoy yourself?”

“I finally channeled my chakra to my katana again. It felt incredible.”

“I’m so glad to hear that, Tyr.”

“I didn’t know how to feel about it at first. In some ways, I guess I still don’t, but I started laughing when I thought about it. And then I kept laughing because it just felt so damned good and I knew that there was no one who would understand why.”

“I understand, Tyr.”

“No, you don’t.” Now, a new silence, one pregnant with a change in mood that they could both feel, but that couldn’t be realized without words. “No one does, and I hope like hell that no one ever will. But I knew that you were the first person I was going to tell when I got back.”

Her face lit up gradually with her smile, and she closed the last foot between them so that she could rest on his arm again, but she fell against his chest instead. Surprised, she looked to him for answers as his arms slid around her waist. “You asked me to tell you why I wanted Sarah instead of you. But I don’t. She’s a lovely person, but I realized I was just lying to myself about her. I don’t know her. And I don’t know you either, apparently, but I want to change that. I want to get to know you. So we can date, or be friends, or just spend every day together. Just promise me you’ll be you. No more tests, okay? Because I don’t want to be without you again.”

If she’d been happy about him agreeing to one date, Adaline couldn’t name the feeling she felt at that moment. It took every ounce of willpower she could muster to move slowly, to savor each second as she inched her lips up to his. When they touched she forgot about everything. She let go of the regret and the fear of the last twenty-four hours, of the comfort she so often had to take in teasing others, and of the sadness that took hold of her when she was alone. She let go of happiness, because it meant nothing. She let go of anger, because she couldn’t find any. And she let go of caring entirely, because she was no longer the Adaline anyone knew. Most importantly to her, she let go of all the lies she’d ever told, and when the kiss ended she didn’t bother trying to get any of it back. “I promise,” she whispered against his lips. “I promise. I promise. I promise.”