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“Right this way, right this wayyyy!”
It could barely be heard over the storm that raged outside. Sounds of myriad stomps onto growing puddles followed the call before a Wudwud hopped forward, past the stone entrance, and beckoned back to something, its mouth wide open. Hop. Hop.
Trudging, sopping-wet steps followed, and a figure soon shadowed the entrance, its head downturned. With the storm just behind them and the encroaching darkness within, they appeared rather imposing. Compared to the Wudwuds they followed, they loomed as though a tower.
Strapped to their back was a leather canopy carrying a large pile of wood.
Lifting their head, the light of a nearby fire illuminated their visage: a young woman, her freckled, brown skin slick with rain. She dragged strands of her brown hair aside, bangs stuck to her face when they usually framed it. Now with her vision cleared, her grey eyes took in her environment.
The Wudwud Hideout was certainly designed for Wudwuds, given its low ceiling. She wasn’t the smallest hunter in her camp, nor was she the biggest; yet even she could touch the ceiling if she wanted.
Off to the side, the Wudwuds she accompanied joined their compatriots, screaming in greeting as they began to warm their soaken hides by the fire. While they didn’t tell her outright, she had a feeling their little journey had ended.
With a thump and clatter, she dropped the wood pile onto the stone brick floor. Releasing a huge sigh of relief, the hunter stretched her body out, hearing little pops and cracks throughout.
“Damn…” groaned the woman as the tension within loosened.
She swung her gaze across the rest of the room, seeing naught but Wudwuds.
“Am I the only human here?” She muttered to herself.
Looking to the other side of the hideout, she found her question answered immediately. A pathway led to an area that may have once been intact but has since fallen apart, and its wall collapsed. Now, it sported a view of the forest as it was flooding, with a stone ceiling above shielding it from the rain.
A fire was blazing out there, too, and surrounding it, she saw two more people. Hunters, they seemed; a man and a woman. The former wore bone armor adorned in furs and feathers, draping over his tall, bronzed stature. More colorful feathers decorated his purple and red mane, perfectly completing his outfit.
The woman next to him nearly matched his height. In the storm's violent winds, the spiky fringe of her short blonde hair fluttered about, revealing the vibrant turquoise eyes she beheld. She wore armor made of Lala Barina, the fluffy feather shoulder cape hiding one arm, and leather everything else. Her kinsect was perched on her shoulder, as if overseeing the whole scene.
Even within the raucous din of the storm’s fury, the two were making their presence known. The man held a large hunting horn in his hands, his long fingers strumming the strings while the woman took a whetstone to her insect glaive’s blade. It was almost like they were acting upon each other’s rhythm, their respective noises coming one after the other.
Dunh…shink! Dunh…shink!
The hunter looked back at the Wudwuds as they gathered around the campfire, bringing sticks with meats and cheeses and even bugs skewered on them.
Seems they were having a little party.
Well, the hunter had no intention of joining it. They weren’t much for conversation.
Turning to the duo, she stepped out, approaching the two as they both turned to face her. Of course, they already sensed her presence. A good hunter is always aware of their surroundings.
The glaive hunter smiled. It was as warm as the fire itself, and when she spoke, her mature voice came with that same hearth-like timbre, “Ah, it was getting a little lonely with just the two of us. Come, sit with us. Warm yourself, dry your clothes, you’re soaked.”
The hunter was eager to accept the offer, seeing the droplets of water drip down from her hair. The chill of the Scarlet Forest’s torrential storms stung down to her bones. She neared the fire, already feeling its warmth piercing through her soaked clothes, settling deep into her olive skin.
She reached behind her back to pull off her dual blades, laying them gently on the floor. Next, she undid her armor. With how wet it was, it nearly clung to her skin. She was practically peeling it off, revealing a dark undershirt underneath, one that thankfully wasn’t as wet.
Dropping it by the foot of the fire, the blades hunter plopped down in front of it, groaning as her taxed body adjusted.
“Rough day?” The glaive hunter reached to her side to grab a kettle and a waterskin, pouring some water into the kettle before she set it to hang over the fire.
“Certainly was,” began the blades hunter, “The Guild had me helping the Wudwuds with building a new outpost. We were halfway done when it started sprinkling. Turned into a full-on torrent by the time we got here,” she said, holding her hands out to warm by the fire. Glancing at the two, she nodded at them, “What about you?”
The horn hunter strummed another string. “My friend and I were tasked with hunting a Rathian. She was threatening some Wudwuds, and we were called.”
“We managed to scare it off. The Wudwuds felt indebted, and we couldn’t refuse their offer to rest here. That’s when the rain started for us,” the glaive hunter held out a mug of steaming tea. “Here. Warm those bones of yours.”
The blades hunter reached for it when she winced, her hand shooting to her side.
“Hey, you okay?” The glaive hunter asked, leaning in with concern in her voice.
“Yeah,” said the blades hunter, “it’s just…an injury I got recently.”
“Ah, won’t be the last,” the horn hunter smiled, trying to downplay with a wave of his hand.
The blades hunter shook her head, staring into the fire with stunning gray eyes, the flames turning them silver in their illumination. “No…I made a mistake. I…I was careless.”
Slowly, she lifted the side of her undershirt. The firelight illuminated the wound: a tight wrapping of bandage around the trim waist, with a dull splotch of red on the right side. The huntress winced, teeth gritting and breath sucking in.
“Hmm, that’s a hell of a gash,” the horn user said, leaning aside to examine it. “What did it?”
“An Odogaron. If I were only an inch further, he wouldn’t have swiped me.”
"And if you were one inch behind, you wouldn't be here talking with us,” said the glaive user, passing the mug over.
The blades user took the cup, holding it in both her hands to warm them up. She looked up from the steaming tea, brow furrowing at the two of them. “Huh?”
"She's right," the hardened horn hunter grabbed a stick and poked at the firewood, watching it tumble over and send embers twirling upward, "Failures make you; don't let them break you. Lick your wounds and come back the next day, better."
“Here,” the glaive hunter turned and pulled up the bottom hem of her top. There, running up her back, were several brown streaks of scarred flesh. The blades hunter gasped at the sight.
“These were from a rather rambunctious Tigrex. Slashed me right as I tried to fly over him.” She lowered the top, turning to smile at the huntress. “Was out of commission for a good month or two.”
“I told her not to jump around so much. Makes you such an easy target.”
The glaive user stuck her tongue out at the man, who rolled his eyes despite the small smile forming under his nose.
Lifting his hand, he pulled aside his armor to show a violent red scar in the center of his chest.
“This is, ah…this is from a Rathalos. Yeah. Tough fight. Locked with him many a time before he blasted me with one hell of a fireball.”
The glaive user leaned in, studying the scar. “Isn’t that the one you got from getting punched by a Brachydios?”
He froze, eyes shooting wide open and glaring at the glaive user.
She smirked. “Yeah, it is! You had just received a new rank, and you really let it get to your head.” She looked at the blades user. “He was redder than the scar when he was being carried in by the Palicoes.”
He quickly covered it up, leaning in towards the glaive user. “I…I told you that in confidence!”
This time, the glaive user rolled her eyes and turned back to the other hunter. “We can show you more. The scars on my sides, the burns on my legs, the bruises on my arms. No hunter’s body is clean.”
“Well, yeah…”
“Every failure I haven’t died from is one I took with me,” the man said. “Even so many years in, I catch the stray hit. What doesn’t kill me has made me stronger.”
“What we're trying to say is that these scars, ours and yours, are memories. But just like any memory, we are not beholden to them. They teach us, but they mustn't hold us back. For just like memories, scars fade as well."
The horn user laid his weapon to the side, planting his hands on his knees as he looked at the blades user. “That’s exactly it. While they fade, they remain, but we mustn’t dwell on them. You rest, you recover, and you work on yourself to prevent it from happening again.”
“Indeed.”
The blades user lowered her head onto her hands, gazing into the fire as she thought over the words of her peers.
“It can just be…difficult…on my own.”
“You don’t have any buddies?”
“Barely. I came here on my own.”
The glaive user looked to the horn user, who returned the look with a smile. The glaive user turned back to the forlorn blades user.
“Well, we could always use a third.”
The blades user lifted her head, brow cocked. “You guys don’t have to pity me.”
“Not pity,” the horn user said, “this is no easy profession. For you, for me and her. Having people around to assist will soften the hard blows you take.”
“We’ve been looking for another hunter to join us anyway,” the glaive user smiled.
“I’m still pretty new.”
“And we’re all still learning. Best to do it with others.”
The blades user looked away from the fire, back out at the torrential mess that was the Scarlet Forest in the storm. Then, she looked to the Wudwuds, who were helping each other by sticking food on each other's sticks. Lastly, she looked down at the warm cup in her hands.
“Well…I suppose I’ll have to take you two up on that offer, then,” she took a sip.
The two experienced hunters smiled before a scratchy voice rang out.
“Heeeeere! For hard work!”
The three turned to see a Wudwud waddling out to them with skewers. The Wudwud walked up to each hunter and gave the three their skewers, each with a generous helping of meats, cheeses, and bugs.
The glaive user wrinkled her nose at the latter. “Wow…thank you so much.”
“Of course, of course! Enjoy!”
With a grumble of joy, the Wudwud gave an awkward wave before returning to its compatriots. The three hunters watched, all with a slight smirk on their faces, before turning to the fire, glancing between them.
“Well,” said the glaive user, holding her skewer up over the fire. “Here’s to our newest member of the team!”
The horn user chuckled and raised his over the fire with hers. “Here, here!”
Glancing between the two, the blades user glanced down at the skewer in one hand and the tea mug in the other, before lifting hers to join the duo’s.
