The Thief

Munch - The Faerin nibbled the apple as he hastily moved through Vintergard's crowd, sometimes bumping his enormous eyed-Shield, that curled it's tentacles in a defensively for being target of bumps of similarly hurried people. "Sorry! Ah- Sorry lady!" Hanno apologized for his mistakes.

It was an unusual to see Hanno being so hurried, but the Faerin unfortunately saw the fliers about a certain job way too late- Said job was something related to the weird and very unusual attacks against the livestocks of farmers and some villagers. Hanno was already prepared to investigate about that problem, until he found a post from Monster Hunters that were summoning anyone that was willing to take the risk to find and strike down the source of the problem.

At this point, the group was probably already having their meeting. 'Aaaaah, hurry hurry hurry!' He thought, speeding up even more for the frustration of the Shield. "Sorry Ghast, we are going to get there soon!" Hanno said, making his buddy helplessly roll it's eyes in annoyance.

Basically running at this point, the Faerin's lips widened with a relieved smile as he saw the group of adventurers. 'There they are... It seems they didn't start anything yet-' He thought, slowing down his run to a jogging as soon as he got closer to the small crowd- The few people that noticed the presence of the Faerin frowned at the monstruous gargantuan shield on his back, stepping aside to give him room enough to pass.

Hanno blinked in surprise at the generosity of those people, he didn't even had to ask them to excuse him! "Thanks!" He smiled gratefully, finally stopping for the happiness of Ghast. Looking up to the extremely big man, the Faerin felt like he was seeing an giant- And peharps he was actually seeing one.

He greeted the man with a nod and carefully heard what he had to say - Hanno knew little about the Monster Hunters, but considering the very intuitive name of this guild, it surely looked like a very fitting mission for them.

Grinning at the mention of helping the less fortunates, his determination raised. "Yes! Let's do it!" The Faerin exclaimed, punching the air to give emphasis on his excitement, before turning at the rest of the group with a warming smile. 'I think I should introduce myself-' He gave a small glance and waved at @Alric Stalwart and @Noah Krane, people he already got to meet before. "Hello my comrades! I'm Futaba, Hanno Futaba! And this is my loyal buddy, Ghast." He said cheerfully pointing at his shield, that waved it's tentacle in a friendly way.

 

“Hmm the Monster Hunter’s Association is making some noise around this town huh?” Noah had his newly purchased bow slung around his back with a quiver full of fresh fletched arrows. He had been shopping in the middle of the marketplace of the town. Having just purchased some bread and water he noticed a familiar little being’s head bobbing in the distance. “Well I’ll be. I wonder if that is @Hanno Futaba . I haven’t seen him since that nasty cave expedition.” Noah opened up his inventory to stuff his latest purchases into there before making his way to the carts that the little farien was currently walking by.


By his side was his ever trusty Dire Wolf, Greyhowl. The beast had become rather docile in the past few weeks. After that run in with the druids or whatever practitioners of nature magic they were, the wolf had been always near his master’s side. Due to the weather starting to rise in the temperatures, Noah’s days as of late were spent more outside in the wilderness. He was not used to being stuck behind guarded walls and among crowds like today. What a blessing it was to see a friend. If you would call them friends.


The little farien was a quick one, he seemed to be in a rush. Noah had to gracefully maneuver around the crowd, which knowing Noah was a feat alone, just to reach the little man. “Futaba! Futaba! It’s me Noah! Noah from the cave! Futaba!” He would call out towards the man, hoping he would hear. They were approaching some other players all gathered around. Noah was not quick to catch on that this was the group that the Monster Hunters were gathering. The little man stopped, thank god, and Noah was able to catch up.


“Futaba, hey! Did you hear me yelling back there?” He said while wiping the sweat off his brow. While the summer weather was not yet in full swing, the crowded area left little of a draft. “How you been- “ Before Noah could finish anything a man approached the group. It was an NPC judging by the speech pattern, it was too animatronic. It was like something off of one of those old video games. Perhaps a large golden exclamation mark would appear over his head here shortly to give notice of his quest. “Oh.. you all are all here for this mission?” He looked around before perking up again. “Oh! Your that @Milah lady from the forest! Are you also going along? Seems like a fun adventure, needing another to join in?” He asked eagerly waiting for them to give him the greenlight to go.

 

The twins had joined the Monster Hunter guild on a whim in the beginning days of their adventuring, promptly forgetting about the faction shortly after thanks to some more pressing matters and other quests just begging to be completed here and there. Only recently had Milah remembered about it and, having nothing else to do, the Felis had decided to venture and visit what would be considered HQ out of curiosity. After all her twin would be gone for a few more hours anyways, busy with IRL dancing lessons, so the brunette figured it couldn’t hurt to just take a quick look.

Besides, maybe someone there knew what Milah could do regarding the corrupted grove pup that continued to follow her around and nip at her heels.

I said down, boy… or are you a girl?

She wasn’t even sure about the gender of the creature, and found it hard to really tell considering all the overgrown and hostile nature that covered its tiny body. If it was anything like the bigger ones she and another group of adventures had fought in the grove then its skin would also be bark-like, covered in moss and thorny vines that took the place of fur as they seemed to shift and move when Milah wasn’t directly looking. As the pup lounged again this time it was stopped as its snout smacked solidly against the metal tip of Milah’s boot, wincing in pain as it whimpered and moved back a few steps.

Don’t you give me that look, you literally smacked into it yourself....

It was odd, really, how a creature could be so alien and horrific looking (it smelled like swamp and moss too) but at the same time somewhat endearing with those large (zap crusted) yellow eyes and the one droopy left ear. Milah sighed in defeat, taking a step closer to the pup before kneeling down to be closer with the creature. It growled, seemingly trying to posture again, though a quick bop to the nose put an end to that as the pup was startled.

Look, you can tag around if you want… just no heel nipping. Okay?

A part of the Felis was entirely certain that the nipping would probably not stop any time soon, but as she dangled a piece of jerky in front of the pup its attention seemed to be entirely on the treat now instead of her feet. Milah had even tried, multiple times too, to return the little beast back to the grove where it had come from… with zero success. With the pup’s focus finally taken care of for the time being Mila had made her way toward the Monster Hunter’s HQ--perhaps any of the people there could shed more light on the mysteries of her new little companion…

What she had not expected, though, was to be roped into some adventure or mission or whatever upon arriving. Still the man sure had been very convincing (although pushy would’ve probably been a more accurate word) and as Milah found herself finishing loading up some stuff into one of the stationed carriages the Felis took a moment to catch her breath as she leaned against the side of the cart. It was the growling of the pup that caught her attention, Milah groaning lightly before she bent just enough to flick the creature softly on its pointed ear.

You already know Noah, silly beast, stop growling at him.

It was nice to see a familiar face though amidst the sea of many players, pleasantries already exchanged with @Noah Krane earlier, and with the latest task finally finished Milah figured it wouldn’t hurt to see who else would be going on this expedition with the triplets.

Yeah, before I knew it I was signed up for... whatever this expedition is really.

 

Susurrations on the breeze tugged at Rook like rumors, and led him to the gates of Vintergard.

He was a wanderer, a mapmaker, a trickster. He was a little man with black hair and a black hood, the fringe of which barely covered the pink sucker-scars around his throat. He was a bright-eyed breath of air with a mask, and a sword, and a calling.

He was Rook the Quick and he had a gift: a gift for being in the right place at the right time. A gift, or a curse. The answer to that was the province of luck, and Rook was but its plaything. He’d chosen to flip his fate before, but only time would tell how he would fall.

Colors of marketplace stalls whirled around him like a June festival, a patchwork of stitched hues. Rook ducked behind a stall to escape the crowd and bobbed his head at the indignant woman who put her hands on her hips as he passed, shaking her fist.

An apple fell to the ground as he skirted the corner and rolled through the busy square. Rook pattered after it, intent on collecting the prize of his fortunate misfortune. He followed the rolling fruit to the wagon caravan, stopped it with his foot as the Monster Hunter called out his greeting. He looked up, pointing at himself as if to say “who, me?” like an audience member chosen for a participation round. At the invitation Rook lit up. A challenge! An adventure! An expedition!

Skipping backwards, happy as could be, Rook gave the apple a victorious kick. It flew with the destructive, celebratory grace of a wine bottle smashed on the hull of a ship and pegged one of the horses in the ass.

A fine contribution to THE HUNT!

 

A loud whooshing sound accompanied a powerful, upward guat of wind as it launched a slender girl from the muddy ground to the stone roof above. Her bright cyan hair blew straight over her eyes, causing her to land on the high surface with the grace of an anvil, toppling forward and bumping her nose on the hard roof.

"It was just a doing of myself the practice jump," she reasoned to the air, adjusting the absurdly oversized, red ribbon on her head to make sure it hadn’t fallen off. She took a deep breath to smell the fresh air, promptly clamping her nose in disgust. Okay: slightly more fresh; NOT ‘fresh.’ Still enough of an excuse though.

"PARKOR HOI~!"

Those who just so happened to look up at the right time would notice a blueberry felis hopping along the rooftops with a series of well-timed aero spells. Roads were far too vanilla. Background characters took roads. No: Celestine was the main character of her story, and would act as such!

Woosh~!

Celestine landed with one last blast of air, haphazardly tossing dust at a few people who returned some nasty glares.

"Yes," she shouted in agreement with the call to action! "I will be doing myself a take of both the glories, and any muns the ‘less fortunates’ may be doing me the offer of. Do me the counting in."

Having addressed the ‘man in charge,’ so to speak, Celes turned to the rest of obligatory extras she’d be partying with, hoping they’d interest her enough to be worthy of being part of her story. Her eyes fllicked from person to person, passing unknown judgement upon each of them in silence, until they perked up at the greeting of a little person (@Hanno Futaba).

Kitty ears twitching in excitement, Celestine ran up to the small faerin and waved a greeting. "Does this mean you are also doing yourself this adventuring quest of the glories? Yay! I am Celesti— ACK, WHAT IS THAT?!" Celes recoiled in shock and horror as she noticed that horrific excuse for a shield. That stupid Titanius couldn’t just die, no, it had to reward players with their own nightmare fuel. Yuck!

"Eeeehhhhh..." Celestine stared back combatively from several feet away, having no desire to close the gap between the otherwise huggable faerin and that awful weapon. "Ahem, I am Celestine," she finished, straightening up, "nice to do you all a meet." Glancing off to the side as a strange man kicked an apple into a horse, Celes grinned. Yep: this group was plenty interesting.

 

Finally the Monster Hunters were putting up a quest that Mizuki could participate in. She'd been a part of the group ever since they opened up their gates to newcomers, but so far she'd had to rely on hunting by herself or with other players to make a name for herself amongst the group of rangers, glory seekers and wildlings. Granted this time around it was a quest which was accessible regardless of whether you were part of the guild or not, but it was still a step forward. If she made a good impression in this hunt she might be able to squirm her way into the more important hunts, so she definitely had motivation to do her best.

The other motivation was the fact that she really wanted to hunt down the monster. Predatory instinct and all that.

So the wolfwoman was making her way towards the northern gates of Vintergard, although she approached from the outside rather than the inside, rarely staying inside the large settlement for very long. Even from a distance she could already hear that there was a lot going on there, and the air was filled with the scent of people, a cocktail of sweat, cloth, flesh and metal. Which was one of the reasons why she didn't stay inside Vintergard if she could help it: a sensitive nose meant you didn't just get to deal with a lot of vibrant colours and loud noises, your nose got in on the business as well.

Getting closer she began to make out shapes and figures, noticing one extremely large man who looked like he could chop a horse in half with a single swing of his sword if need be. He had the personality to match his size, as she could hear him enthusiastically yelling even from where she was. Three nearly identical men taking care of the carts and the horses pulling them, and a whole bunch of adventurers, some looking eager and some looking more serious. No actual grizzled veterans so far as she could see though. Probably because this hunt wasn't advertised as being very extraordinary.

Although even amongst the adventurers she thought she had a pretty good guess at which ones were players. A faerin with an eldritch shield, a man accompanied by a large wolf (she wasn't sure about that one, NPCs could also be beast tamers), a felis which looked too young and carefree to be an NPC about to head out and fight a monster, a man with a plague mask (pretty sure no NPC would wear that unless there was an actual plague), and she recognized the cyan-haired felis. Celestine had been a great help during the fight against Titanius, so she was glad to see that the small cat was doing all right.

However before she could go and converse with the rest of the hunters, NPCs or not, she'd have to alert the leader to her presence. Reaching the gates she headed straight for the tall man, studying with heterochromatic eyes for a moment before inclining her head in respect.

Ueno Mizuki ready to hunt sir. Let's see what's causing all this trouble and pay it back in kind.

She'd have thought that something which hunted lifestock would just be a large wolf, but if that was true the Monster Hunters wouldn't be this interest. Having shown respect to the alpha Mizuki then looked around at the other hunts, nodding and smiling at them before looking over her shoulder at who she thought were her fellow players. Her interest was piqued by the one with the large wolf following him, so she walked up to @Noah Krane with a smile and a nod, inclining her head towards the dire wolf.

That's an impressive companion you've got there. Where did you find him?

 

Theme​

Sifting through the organized chaos that were the streets of Vintergard was a man with a mission. Even if he had tried, Alric was certain avoiding the news of the Aramoor’s plight would have been impossible. Fortunately the Monster Hunters were hot on the case and apparently gearing up now to deal with whatever foul creature that had been tormenting the village.

Until now he hadn't seen the hunters in the public image like this. Part of him had just assumed they preferred more private methods when dealing with targets. Perhaps this time around the enemy was more powerful than they bargained for and the need to outsource work to non-members of the faction was there. Either way it would be a good opportunity for him to gain some more rep along the path to his end goal.

By the time Alric arrived on the scene a group had already been formed. Some of the faces were familiar while others were foreign. A colorful group to say the least. They all seemed decent enough, but he would keep his dagger tucked closely beneath his coat just in case. Only @Hanno Futaba had acknowledged his presence, so in turn he waved back to the faerin before nodding at the man running this show.

I'm ready when you are.

 

Milah and her twin had joined the Monster Hunter faction on a whim really, out of the options they had seen back in their beginner days on TerraSphere this group had seemed the more appealing of all. Neither girl was interested in politics and shady deals after all, and while The Lion’s Pride had been interesting too they had seemed a bit too gung-ho in being active heroes and whatnot. It wasn’t that Milah was against helping those in need, of course, but neither Felis felt like being actively responsible of every little thing that happened around the world with NPCs. And so the MH, with their lackadaisical description and interest in hunting monsters, had been the best fit of all three… or at least they had assumed it to be on paper, basically.

Now though, as Milah got the chance to ride with the group of adventurers and some of the MH members in one of the three carriages, the Felis could say she was quite glad to have picked them as her faction. They were a loud and rambunctious lot, that was for sure, but their energy was also infectious and appealing. Crowded as each of the carriages was the teen found she didn’t mind it much--her attention enraptured with the different stories being shared by the MH members around them.

Even the swamp pup had quieted down at her feet, a bit overwhelmed by all these strangers and opting to stick close to the one thing it insisted on following along--busy now with a piece of sausage one of the MH members had tossed it after the pup had eyed the woman for a good three minutes or so. A part of the Felis had been worried about the pup, odd as it was and sounded, and that the MH crew might reject it… but so far it seemed her fears had been mostly unfounded.

Do you guys have any ideas as to what the creature might be, though? Like size or just a general land carnivore or…?

@Lexiichuu

Surely some of the more experienced crew members might already have their own guesses about the creature from whatever evidence they might have been able to gather--and while Milah couldn’t help share their excitement the teen would prefer to have a better idea of what she might need to prepare herself to track and fight. The lot might be impatient btu they certainly seemed well prepare from what Milah had been able to tell, having been helping loading some of the things into the carriages earlier before the other adventurers had arrived.

A piece of cheese and crackers had found its way to her mouth, before suddenly the mood in the carriages had shifted again and she found her hands now occupied with instruments as they were being passed around. Quietly she passed the drum to one of the MH members besides her, who took it willingly before beginning a thrilling tune.

Part of the Felis regretted that her twin wasn’t here to listen as the music started, the brunette finding her head nodding softly in rhythm to the tambourines and drums now playing, before various steeds were summoned by different MH members as they climbed atop their mounts and opted to ride besides the carriages instead of within them.

The action had been enough to reawaken the corrupted grove pup at her feet, and the creature wagged its vine and moss covered tail as it barked excitedly from the back of the carriage Milah and the others were riding on.

 

The Faerin gave a nod hearing @Celestine's request, it was pretty common to people get startled at his Shield's eldritch features. Hanno looked up at Ghast, that looked back at it's master. "Can you do the favor, Ghast?" The Faerin asked, and the Shield retracted it's tentacles until they simply disappeared- Now Ghast looked pretty much like a mundane shield with a central eye.

"Better this way?" Hanno asked, but before he could hear an answer related to it, the Monster Hunter crew began cheering as they began hoping on the wagons that were starting to move. "Oh? Guess it's time to go. Let's not lose our spots on our ride, comrade!" The Faerin grinned at the Felis girl, turning around and jogging to the closest wagon and climbing on it. His excitement began raising. "This will be awesome!" Hanno cracked his knuckles, looking at his surroundings, everyone seemed very cheerful about it too.

It has been a time since Hanno fought some sort of beast or ferocious creature, most of his battles lately has been against bandits... Which while can be very challenging, it doesn't feel as epic and as satisfying as fighting against enormous and powerful monsters-

To the Faerin, fighting against people was mostly a case of necessity, so it wasn't something that felt good, he didn't find fun on fighting against a human specially because of his morality... But fighting against a monster was different- Monsters didn't gave up, Monsters didn't shed a tear, Monsters were ferocious. This said... Hanno could actually fight with all his might, without feeling a single drop of regret for smashing the creature's bones.

It was actually quite surprising for someone as gentle and kind as Hanno, but in fact the Faerin really liked the feel of a good battle- And he was in high hopes that this one was going to be a very good one.

Hanno's ears twitched when he heard the crew talking about the monster, them talking about how the monster is and anything- And the knowledge about the creature seemed very vague, of course that would normally make Hanno feel a little more careful about the situation... But the ambience of their travel made the Faerin grin at their mindless courage, as he stood up raising his fist. "YEAH! If we don't know what this thing is, that doesn't matter! The only thing we need to know is that we are going to hit it HARD, and if it stand up again it just means we need to hit it even HARDER"

"Let's just strike that thing down and I will make you guys a huge barbecue out of it for our celebration party! It will be the best meat you guys will ever eat!" Hanno clenched his fist tightly, showing determination to fight off the monster.

After that, the Faerin would be offered a pair of drums. Sitting down, Hanno would start to slam his fists on them like he was hitting a pair of Taiko Drum as he followed the rhythm of the crew- Cheering along with the men that from time and time would let out a war cry.

Getting tired from just hitting a drum constantly, the Faerin pushed those aside and looked around to see a huge bulky man... He smiled and walked toward the big guy giving two taps on his back to call his attention.

"Heya partner, you look like a tough one! Let's have some arm wrestling? You know- To warm up before crushing that beast's skull." He grinned defiantly, pulling a random crate and supporting his elbow on it as he rolled down the sleeve of his tunic, prepared to do some warm up before the big grand battle.

(@Lexiichuu)

 

"Hm..." Celestine hummed, cautiously leaning closer to the demon-shield. "Well, that will work too." Accepting this, she casually hopped up into the same wagon and took a seat amongst the various covered crates. Suddenly, that whole 'smell' issue was coming back to her mind. She quickly whispered a small illusion spell as more people crowded in, shielding her nose with an invisible bubble of floral scent. Illusions to the rescue!

Hopping up onto a taller crate, Celes casually swung her legs, listening to story after story of these grand hunts. She had to admit to herself: it was kinda getting her pumped to fight this... whatever it was. The prevailing theme of losing some important piece of the body was a little worrying though.

"I am amazed you all are having any of the parts of you LEFT," she called out to the whole group in jest, a friendly smirk on her face. "Maybe we are doing the fight of the vicious warehog. Or it could be the giant land whale that does a burrow through the grounds. Errrg.... are we there yet!?" Celestine gracelessly flopped backward onto the floor.

Luckily, it wasn't long until her impatience was met with a rallying war beat. How nice to be around people with a similar hatred of sitting around doing nothing! Without a second of hesitation, Celes grabbed herself a tambourine and joined in, banging the thing against her side with relentless enthusiasm, until...

@Hanno Futaba @Lexiichuu

"That is the cutest thing I have ever done a see of...!"

Celestine clamped her mount with both hands as she let out a quiet, high-pitched squee of delight. Two little people in an arm wrestling contest had to be the most adorable thing she'd seen in weeks, and that was saying something. Granted it was more of a sound thrashing than a contest, but who cared! Before the two got up, Celes fell forward and gave the both of them a quick hug, tail swishing in delight.

"Maybe you can do her the beating next time, um.... Futabo?" She gave the blue-haired faerin a pat on the back.

"By the way..." Celestine turned to the side to address the other felis (@Milah) who'd hopped on. Or, more specifically, her... thing. "What is that," Cel asked, pointing towards the mass of plant matter? "It is looking like the doggy and the pile of leaves had themselves the children."

 

It was a fine day. A loud day. Talktalktalk, and bang their tamborines and horse-footfalls rhythmically in time. Rook was caught up in the vigor. The little swordsman could not stay put for long—he skipped from wagon to wagon, appeared like an albatross who prophesized good tidings with his sharp-faced shadow. Jinx-eater. Like a cat on a ship, a canary in a coalmine, it was good luck to take a Rook on your migration.

And Rook migrated. He did many things, and followed many people. He followed the big man with the big sword from before and pestered him to hold it, heft its weight. He got excited all over again as he went from player to NPC, from person to person, glowing brighter with each freshly-whetted blade he held. When he was bored, he played with Respiro’s tassel. He was happy.

During one sudden drop-in, he landed next to @Milah with a flipflap of sandalbottoms and crouched on the seat with his knees hugged to his chest, craning his head to look over the strange puppy like a perching vulture. He looked with one eye and then the other, his gaze a flipping coin. One and one. Distant, but attentive. A surveyor of field and foe.

Its body is a tanglepatch, he thought, and thought to touch it (as a person touches flowers to make sure they’re real, expecting waxy dusty plastic—)

Rook startled suddenly, as if he hadn’t noticed anyone else around. Anyone talking, anyone asking. He jumped to his feet (standing on the bench) and turned and jumped off the side of the wagon, tucking his knees almost to his chin as he sailed back off the side. They would see him again later, running quick-quick-quick, this time on a different cart where he sat and listened with his head cocked to the side to a story, bobbed his head and beaky mask in rhythmic time (like tambourines, or horse-footfalls.) His hand moved to his throat. Touched the sucker-marks. Took itself away again.

He did not speak.

Of everyone there, one other who he knew (Hi Noah! Hi Greywind! High-mountains, high-cliffsides! High-flying, gliding out across the land!) he was the most excited to see @Celestine . The little swordsman was mere furniture, a forgettable black blob folded into a space between two burly men, until the moment his curious eyes widened and he recognized the Felis girl.

It was an explosion of activity, tufts of lint flying from his hood as Rook jumped up and pointed at the girl, leapt for inches, point-and-point-again at the back of her head. You! Youyouyou! What joy at the sight of Celestine, she who’d fallen from the rift encased in tentacles and fought back to the surface with her might, who’d vanquished the abyssal portal in the sky which spawned so many slitherings!

Rook came to life, this quiet Quick, and told their story. Not with words! Not with sentences or syllables! He rattled down the floor and leapt up high, he bounced from edge to railing, balancing, arms wrapped around his body and then threw them wide in triumph, sketching rift-marks in the sky. He plummeted and pivoted, he fell and flipped back up. The wagon rocked. He painted a storm with feet and flight of ill winds and scales and rapid-raw activity, of energy. He flew across canopies to another wagon and continued reenacting, reinventing, recreating. He could see it.

Could they see it too?

The Monster Hunters—first shocked silent—grew invested in the tale, roaring out questions and answers like charades as they narrated the epic fight. Light flashed from every face of Respiro to punctuate each point as Rook split his final snake and fell to earth, flopping on his back.

Then he jumped up. He pointed at Celestine again, a little out of breath, and sheathed his jian. He bobbed his head again. It was to say Remember?

This monster they were to face, this unknown creature from the depths and the stories—Rook was not afraid! With fine men and women they would track the beast into its lair and take its teeth, its head, its heart. Rook looked around him, saw the whistles and the wrestling and the missing eyes and toes and he saw LOVE so vibrant and sincere—so passionate and pure—he felt like leaping.

(So he did!)

 

Mizuki had to admit that she hadn't expected travelling with the other Monster Hunters to be this enthusiastic and playful. While they definitely were a more rambunctious bunch she would've thought that plenty of them were focused and dedicated to the task. Instead she was travelling with a caravan of people who were doing whatever they could think of to enjoy themselves during the trip, and who didn't care what they were up against as long as they could all beat it down and get the killing blow. Mizuki had been spending her time as a hunter more concentrated on imitating the behaviour of wolves, so being reminded that the humans would take a more lighthearted approach was both surprising and refreshing in a way.

The other players were also enjoying it, Mizuki watching with some interest as the faerin with the eldritch shield got challenged and consequently beaten by another faerin, the sight of two of the small folk putting their all into trying to overpower the other being both endearing and in a way rather funny. After the man lost Mizuki reached out and patted @Hanno Futaba on the back, flashing him a small grin before leaning back and closing her eyes, for a moment relying on her senses of smell and hearing to take in the merriment of the caravan. Due to the limited amount of space she couldn't wag her tail very well, but it was still swishing from side to side, especially when the music began.

Having no real musical talent herself the best Mizuki could do was grab one of the drums and hit it according to the rhythm dictated by others, taking care not to tear the skin put under the tension with her clawed fingers.

I must admit I hadn't expected this to be such a cheerful undertaking. Not that I mind though.

As she listened to some of the other hunters telling tales of their hunts Mizuki joined in even as the music accompanied all of them, telling the tale of her greatest victory yet. Titanius had been glorious but that had been less of a monster than a terrain feature, and she couldn't take credit for slaying it although she certainly would tell in great detail how she'd helped blast the thing open near the end so her allies could begin to destroy its insides. No, her own tale was of the time when she'd managed to take down a yeti together with another traveller near the foothills of the Hylands, a giant of a primate the size of a house, which could make the earth shake with its roar and launch avalanches with mighty stomping of the earth.

Getting into the tale Mizuki detailed in great length how she and the traveller had taking turns distracting the massive beast while the other tried to strike it, her hands not stopping their hitting of the drum while her tail wagged more enthusiastically and her expression made it clear that she was enjoying herself as she added her tale to the ones provided by the other hunters. Although she had to admit that seeing their scars and missing body parts she was both relieved and somewhat embarrassed that she didn't have any wounds to show off herself: she'd always been a more cautious hunter, and if you were capable of healing yourself as quickly as wounds formed most prey couldn't leave a lasting wound unless you were being reckless or taken by surprise.

The man with the strange mask was also relating his tale, albeit in a much more interesting manner than Mizuki. While she remained seated for now she could watch him as he jumped about and told his story through movement and interpretation rather than words, finding the man a curious person and wondering if she could remember seeing him before. Maybe he'd also been there in the fight against TItanius? But so many had been there, it'd been hard to keep track.

Her own tale with the yeti ended on how the other traveller had suddenly shown a surprising amount of strength when she'd bodily picked Mizuki up and thrown her straight towards the yeti's head, giving her the opportunity to tear open its throat and finally send it to its grave. While telling that part Mizuki gave an embarrassed grin, as she still felt like just being thrown like that was a bit startling. However her fellow hunters seemed to like the idea, showing it both through laughter and by suggesting they try it themselves once they encounter someone else with that kind of strength. The only thing Mizuki could tell them when they asked about the traveller with the immense strength was that she was the biggest hero out there, the heroine who goes at everything with guts and effort.

As @Celestine asked about the plant-pup that was following @Milah around Mizuki studied the little verdant canine, nodding in agreement with the cyan felis's words.

I'm also curious about your little pup. I haven't seen anyone like it, but as a druid I'm very interested in a plantlike wolf, even if it's still very small and adorable.

 

Noah’s attention was brought to the sound of a small petite barking sound coming from @Milah direction. That’s when Noah noticed the cutie patootie little wolf sitting there. He was looking at Greyhowl dead in the eyes and trying to assert his wittle dominance over the much larger wolf. Thankfully, Greywind was a bit of a softy since he came under Noah’s care. “Awe, he’s a cutie. It’s a boy right? Typically their the ones starting the fights they can’t win.” Noah chuckled as he gave the little plant pup a rub on the head. The other players in the group started to make their ways towards the various carriages staged there for them to use. While they were large, Greyhowl, would have taken up most the room in one of them. Noah squeezed and rubbed the wolf’s neck region causing the wolf to look up at the boy. “You’ll have to walk beside us boy. Keep an eye out for trouble.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small treat for the wolf to help get him to comply.


“Well let's get on in before we get left behind” He noted towards the other players gathered. A bulk of the people in this party appeared to be Monster Hunter NPC members. They were lively, telling jokes with each other, playing various games, and of course arguing. The atmosphere they promoted was more like a family than just a guild. It was refreshing to be around.


As Noah was sitting there watching in a trace at the micro community that had taken the players along in this mythic hunt; the members of the Hunter’s Association started to pass around drums, tambourines, and other percussion like instruments. “What?! This is so much more fun than just walking through the woods. If I knew NPCs liked to party like this, well I might find a group to hangout with more often.” He eagerly grabbed one of the objects and started to play along with the group. Being an events planner of sorts/ talent scout in the real world, he was used to band practices enough to pick up the beat.


Noah closed his eyes and just moved on with the beat. He was having too much fun for a dreary mission. Sometimes things like this were much more fun than killing virtual monsters and beasts. Greyhowl must have picked up on the music as well. He took a different approach than Noah. The large wolf started to pull back away from the ruckus but still within eyesight of his master.