//------------------------------//
// The Decision 
// Story: Monster Hunter World: Monsters and Magic 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

Grogar spent what he felt was an hour or two reading the couple of books that he had been allowed to look at, where the first thing he learned about was the Hunter's Guild, or the Guild as it was also called, even if Erica mentioned something called the Commission earlier, which seemed to be one of the most important organizations in the entire world and its headquarters were located in a city called Dundorma, while also having districts that were spread out over all the known regions of the world, but, for the most part, the New World was different from everything else. Based on the low amount of information he was given from his first conversation with the trio he knew that one could assume that the Hunter's Guild and the Hunters existed to eradicate all monsters, or those who threatened nature's balance in some way, and claim the world for the humans and their Felyne friends, though due to his time studying the book in question Grogar was able to discover that such a claim would have been false, as the Guild existed to preserve nature and keep some sort of balance with the monster populations, though they did go out and kill monsters that might be in the middle of threatening a village or the ecosystem. Basically they were supposed to keep the various populations of the types of monsters at a certain level and that if the monsters passed a threshold they would be hunted until the number was more manageable again, though the Guild also stopped poaching from happening, which was apparently punishable by death at the hands of someone called a Guild Knight, which seemed to be special elite Hunters that oversaw the lower ranking ones, making him wonder if there were a few on the ships that were heading to the New World, to make sure everything was in order.

The Commission, or the Research Commission if one wanted to be use its full name, was made up of all sorts of individuals from the Guild and everyone, in some way, went through a number of tests or trials to determine whether or not they could join up with one of the Fleets that had been sent to the New World, which made him a little interested in what sort of trials they might use to accomplish such a thing.

He also discovered that there was more to being a Hunter than just hunting down and killing monsters, as they also went out to gather all sorts of information on the monsters they were tracking for the researchers that were part of the Guild, to learn all they could about what they were following, and they also went hunting for food or other common items, such as herbs, insects, mushrooms, and who knew what else, to fulfill the various quests that were posted. What was far more interesting about all that was that the Guild took a special interest in monsters that they called 'Elder Dragons', monsters that defied the typical classifications that were given to monsters that shared certain traits and, if he was reading this right, the Elder Dragons were a force of nature that basically made them walking calamities, though each had their own powers that made them far more deadly than a normal monster. To the Guild these Elder Dragons were thought to be divine entities, an odd thing to discover for sure, and that something called the 'Elder Crossing' used to occur once every century, which he also found to be incredibly interesting, especially when he learned that it had recently switched to being every decade, though the event was when a few Elder Dragons flocked to the New World and the Guild sends a fleet after them to discover what's going on. According to what the books said the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Fleets had no idea why the Elder Crossing was even happening in the first place, though it also seemed like the pressure was on the Fifth Fleet he had intercepted earlier, though he knew that the organization had to be eager for answers and that forty years without any had to be annoying some people. As he closed the book had to admit that all of this was far more than what he first thought and found it to be fascinating, the Elder Dragons, the Hunter's Guild, the desire to research why such an event happened once every ten years, and everything else that the books told him, it was enough to make him consider sticking around to see if he could unravel the mystery himself.

Of course he was stuck on this world, as he figured that there was no way for him to return to return to Equestria, so this was his only option right now, to do his best and see what he could do to aid the Commission in their quest to understand the Elder Crossing, or at least open the way for the Sixth Fleet to do so in a decade's time, if they failed to figure out why this event happened in the first place. The other books detailed the known herbs, insects, and monsters that were in the Old World, the lands that the people of this world called home, though he could tell that it was going to take him some time to read everything that was inside the books and figure out all the information that came with the monsters that the Guild knew about, which was perfectly fine with him since he had nothing better to do at the moment. The interesting part about those books was that he found a number of pages that seemed to be empty, located near the backs of each tome to be exact, where he suspected that they were reserved for whatever the Commission found in the New World, even though it was odd that nothing had been added in the last forty years, meaning either information wasn't being shared or this was one of the older tomes, to go easy on him before he moved onto the bigger tomes.

"Seems like someone's been enjoying themselves," a voice said, where Grogar noticed that Erica had opened the door to what he assumed was going to be his room for the foreseeable future, at least until they reached the New World and he was handed off to someone else, though at the same time it was easy to see that she had glanced at the couple of books that he had already read, due to the fact that he had separated the provided books into two piles, one to his right being those the unopened ones and a smaller pile to the left that held those he had finished so far.

"You could say that. I'm in an unfamiliar land, and learning about where I am is important," Grogar replied, though at the same time he made sure that the book he was working on had a bookmark in it, so he remembered where he was for his next reading session, before he set it on the pile that he was working on, mostly to remember which one had been the last one he had opened during the last hour, whenever he returned to it, though that was when he turned his attention back to Erica and discovered that she hadn't closed the door, "So, I take it you've told your superior about me?"

"Well, the Captain of the ship knows about you, as do the Captains of the other ships," Erica stated, informing Grogar that there was more than one vessel in the Fleet that he was now on, which made sense when he considered what he had read so far, before she thought about something for a few seconds as Grogar waited for her to reveal whatever she had done after she and her companions left him to his reading, "however, Commander Shepard, who is the one in charge of things in the New World, has not yet been told about you, hence why we wrote up a report about you and what we've learned so far, where I had one of the Barnos take the report and head for the New World... the Barnos in question should reach the Commission's base in no time, meaning that the Commander will know about you soon and will start getting his base of operations ready for our eventual arrival, which is in about two weeks time."

"Those would be one of the small Wingdrake monsters, right?" Grogar inquired, recalling the name of the monster rather easily and knew from his reading that the Barnos were aggressive towards Hunters and their allies, but, at the same time, they could be trained by the Guild to respond positively to Hunters and, according to what he had read earlier, even act as transports that would take Hunters over short distances or carry important messages between districts, which was rather interesting when he thought about it.

"That's right, and we have a few that are rather passive towards us," Erica answered, though at the same time she was a little impressed by the fact that Grogar knew what monster she was talking about and had called it by the classification it had been given, despite the fact that he had only been reading for an hour since he had woken up, making her wonder if they might have found a new researcher to add to what was in the New World, before bringing herself back to the rest of what she was going to say, "Anyway, I figured that our next order of business is to get you up and moving for a time, just to be sure that the fall did nothing to your body, despite what you said and what Patches did to you earlier, which means you will be heading outside this room and getting some fresh air!"

"Sounds like a plan, though there is one problem," Grogar said, and it actually wasn't his new body structure, as he felt that part of this exercise was to make sure he could walk just fine with his new legs, no doubt due to the fact that some of the researchers on this ship likely wanted to see if he could actually walk with his hybrid-like legs, though that was when he glanced down at the ragged brown robe he happened to be wearing, which he was sure would fall apart at some point in the next few days, "I might need some new clothing if I'm heading outside this room."

"True, which is why its a good thing each room as a standard issue set of attire for everyone," Erica stated, to which she walked over to the closet that was in the room, to the left of the bed, and opened it, revealing a set of attire that looked similar to what Aiden had been wearing, minus the metallic bits, and was more like what she and Sherry wore, minus the few personal touches they had made to their attire before boarding the ship, where she frowned for a few seconds as she glanced at what was in front of her, "the shoes you won't have to worry about, though the pants, shirt, and belt should be more than enough until we reach the New World and you're assigned to a more permanent role. I'll head outside and give you some privacy."

Grogar waited for a few seconds, just to be absolutely sure the door wasn't going to open on him, before he got up from the bed and carefully walked over to where the closet was located, which was rather easy to do and didn't require any odd movements that would have resulted in him falling to the ground or losing his balance, to which he focused on what was inside the closet and nothing else. From what he could tell it appeared that the attire Erica had told him about was a mix of cloth and leather, no doubt offering the wearer protection from the various monsters they fought while at the same time acting like normal clothing, to which he sighed for a moment and quickly removed the ragged robe that he happened to be wearing so he could replace it with the attire that he was being allowed to wear for the time being, or at least until the Fifth Fleet arrived in the New World and he found a role for him to take on. He had never been one for clothing, even before he and everyone he ruled over were banished to the Realm of Darkness, nor did he actually care for it like some ponies and other creatures did, so all he really did was slip on the pants, after making a hole for his tail, and wrapped the belt around his waist, going through some holes in the pants, making sure that it was tight and wouldn't come loose at some point in the future. Once those were on he picked up the armored shirt that went over someone's chest and decided to just get it over with, to which he slipped it on and found that it was a little loose, which made sense due to the fact that he wasn't like the the Hunters or the rest of the Fleet that was heading for the New World, but at the very least, based on his estimates, he didn't have to worry about it flying off, if he or the ship were to be turned upside down by something.

With that done he closed the closet and walked over to where the door was located, making sure not to mess up his steps as he did so since he was on a boat that was currently sailing towards what he assumed was a new continent, though since the room wasn't all that big he was able to reach his destination with ease and he opened the door, where he found Erica waiting for him, not that he expected her to be lying to him. From there Erica smiled and beckoned for him to follow her, where he made a note of the location of his room, in relation to the rest of the hallway they were in, before he bothered to move from where he had been standing, even though it was clear that the lady was observing him and how he walked, no doubt due to her curiosity on the matter and to help him if he needed assistance, though it only took them a few moments to reach some stairs that brought him and Erica to the ship's deck. As soon as they stepped outside he found that it had to be between five and six in the afternoon, based on the position of the clouds and the sunlight, meaning it wouldn't be long before the crew and the rest of the Hunters were called to the dining area to eat dinner and do whatever activities that all of them did after eating, before most of them headed for bed, though he could see that both Aiden and Sherry were off in the distance, no doubt looking at something that might have caught their interest earlier. That was also when he got the chance to see a Barnos for the first time, as they were decent sized flying reptiles that had pointed beaks and rather large draconic wings, though it seemed like the pair that were up near the top of the ship's mast were just sitting around right now, minding their own business, with another one flying all over the place and he could see more of them flying above all of the other ships, where he had to assume they had either bright red scales or dark red scales, something he would have to determine at a later date, when there was more sun to reveal such a thing.

"Fascinating." Grogar said, though while it was mostly a reference to what he was seeing, in terms of the Barnos that were up in the air, it was also meant to be for the area of the sea that they were in, especially since he could easily see the rest of the Fifth Fleet and their various crews going about their work to make sure the ships reached their destination, but as he and Erica looked up at the sky one of the Barnos glanced down at them and, instead of staying where it was located, it spread its wings and took off from the top of the ship's mast.

The pair watched as it flew around the mast a few times before it landed on the railing that was near where Grogar and Erica, where Grogar found that he was able to raise his hand and stroke the creature's head, without it fleeing due to him doing that, and he could tell that it seemed either interested in him or it liked what was going on, even though neither of those were in the part of the book that related to the Barnos, making him wonder if it was possible that they sensed what was different between him and the others that were near him.

"I've never seen a Barnos do this before, nor have I read about one doing such a thing, even if we tamed them," Erica said, as she was transfixed by what she was seeing, and she was sure that everyone else on the deck, or at least those that were watching them at the moment, were feeling the same way as they watched what was going on, thought that was when the Barnos cawed for a few seconds, which wasn't nearly as loud as what the books talked about, to which she turned towards Grogar and noticed that one of his eyebrows were raised, "What's going on?"

"He's, um, asking when dinner will be served." Grogar replied, where even he seemed a little taken aback by what he was discovering, as he wasn't used to being able to communicate with monsters, at least not in a way that reminded him of what the Element of Kindness, the pegasus known as Fluttershy, was capable of doing with the various animals of the land, making him wonder if he had gained some new powers after being sent to this world, powers that were related to his title as the 'Father of Monsters', which he was going to have to look into once they reached the New World.

"Oh... well, it should be ready in the next ten to twenty minutes, so someone will come out to feed him and the others that stay near our ship all the time," Erica said, though she really wasn't sure what she was supposed to say to this new piece of information, especially since it was the first time that anyone tried to talk with the monsters that they shared their world with, meaning that with Grogar around they might need to update some of the tomes to better reflect the true nature of some of the monsters, which she was sure would interest all the scholars that dedicated their lives to understanding the monsters and their role in the ecosystems of their world.

"You heard her, only ten to twenty more minutes," Grogar stated, where he turned his attention towards the Barnos that had flown down to them for a moment and made sure that it understood what it was being told, to which it cawed for a moment and took off, heading up to join the rest of the flock that it was with, leaving the pair near the railing so they could relax and watch the sun go down, before they even bothered to head down into the ship and made their way over to the eating area, to see what was being served and, more importantly, if his body could handle this world's food.

Erica remained silent for a few minutes, not that Grogar blamed her since he had just broken her understanding of her entire world, at least a tiny bit anyway, though while they sat near the railing he took the time to observe those that were on the deck and see how they operated, mostly because he was curious and figured that this would be the best time for him to do something like this. The one that drew the majority of his attention was Sherry, as he was positive that there was something about her that was different than the rest of the Fleet, be they those that worked on the ships or the Hunters and those that worked alongside them, though he wasn't quite sure what that something was and decided that, for now, it was best if he kept an eye on her, mostly to see if she was up to something or if her secret was revealed, even though he did watch her stumble and one of the sailors caught her before she could hurt herself. From what he could tell it seemed like Sherry had tripped on something that should have been tucked away before this point, which would have made it the sailor's fault, in a way, if she had injured herself, though this did allow the sailors to fix the error while making sure no one got hurt by the blunder in the future, to which brushed herself off, thanked the sailor for the assist, and then resumed her walk across the deck. Once that event was done he could see that some of her companions seemed taken aback by what they had seen, making him wonder if the stress of not having a Hunter partner was getting to her, since it meant she and Patches would be reassigned the moment they reached the New World and joined up with the rest of the Commission, but for the most part he determined that she wasn't up to anything and figured it was simply her nerves getting the better of her, hopefully for the time being anyway.

There was also the fact that she, like all of the other members of the Fifth Fleet, must have left behind everything she knew and all of the people she cared about the moment she boarded this ship, even if everyone else seemed to be over that fact by this point, based on what he could see, though for now he would keep a close eye on her and see if there was more to her than what the others were seeing, since he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something off about her and was interested in what that something might be.

Once he was sure the ten minute mark had gone by Grogar heard a gong or something, which Erica claimed was the chime that meant dinner was ready, or rather whatever meal it was supposed to be, and that caused the sailors and all of the Hunters to head down a different set of stairs that lead to a rectangular room that was rather large, which made sense due to all the tables and chairs that happened to be in the area. Felynes were running around, clearing the remainder of the items that must have been leftover from lunch, even though that was likely hours ago by this point in time, though that didn't stop them from making sure all of the candles were lit, the openings that allowed them to see the water were clean, the mugs and barrels full of drink were ready, and doing everything else that they needed to do before the tables could be set for everyone else. When the pair finished walking down the stairs Erica lead Grogar over to one of the tables, one that was close to where the stairs were located so he wouldn't have to walk all that much, allowing them to sit down and watch as the rest of the people aboard the ship joined them, where it was clear everyone was grouping up with each other, as in the Hunters were sitting with their Handlers and the sailors were sitting together, and it wasn't long before Sherry, Aiden, and Patches joined them at their table. Barely half the room was filled when the Felynes opened the door to the kitchen and started to pour out, where Grogar got a chance to see just how strong the cat creatures were, as one of them could carry a single platter of food on their own, which had what he assumed was ham, chicken, and some cheeses, without buckling under the weight of what they were carrying, platters that they successfully delivered to the tables that were all around the room they were in.

Grogar found that, despite the nature of his previous body, he was able to actually eat the meat without getting sick or anything that would have told him he was doing something wrong, meaning his body was more like the humans that were native to this world, though what was interesting was that Sherry seemed interested in the couple of green mushrooms, which gave off a strange aroma that he couldn't quite place, and eagerly devoured them in addition to the rest of the food that she pulled from the platter all of them were eating from. While they did that several of the Hunters headed back up to the deck and made sure the Barnos were fed, since they would no doubt start cawing if they didn't get their food soon, so since people were heading up to the deck it was clear that he wouldn't have to worry about the Wingdrakes, and Erica was one of the few that went up there, even though he was sure that she had a letter for one of the Barnos to deliver once they were done with their meal. From what he could tell the sailors and the Hunters had a good time whenever they sat down to eat, as they liked to cheer and have fun whenever they sat down to eat, and even the Palicoes that joined all of the Hunters separated from their partners and sat near one of the stairs as they partied as well, or at least that was what he assumed they were doing at the moment, and he noted that Sherry left in a hurry, though while the others were a little worried no one chased after her. Other than that he sat in the chair he had selected and listened to the tale that Aiden started to talk about, about one of the hunts he had been on in the past, before he joined the Fifth Fleet and their fellow shipmates, though for the most part he focused on what everyone else was doing right now and how he could fully adapt to this world, despite the fact that it was clear that all of them were slightly different and that there seemed to be no uniform way to do things.

Eventually everyone finished what they were doing and headed for the areas of the ship that they hung in after doing all of this, instead of heading for their rooms, though that left the Felynes to clean up all of the mess that had been made, which was when the sailors went back up to the deck and some of the Hunters headed for bed, with the rest heading up to the deck, though Grogar decided to head for his room as well. As such he got up from where he had been sitting and headed for his room, where he was able to reach it in no time, though that was when he discovered was that his room was right to the right of Sherry's room, which made sense considering it was better to keep Hunters and their Handlers side by side, or at least that was what he assumed, due to his reading, and he found that she had left the door open in her rush to leave the dining area. As he passed by her door, however, Grogar discovered that Sherry had what appeared to be a tail coming out of the back of her pants, near the spine area to be exact, one that matched both the yellow coloration of her clothing and her pale skin color, while also appearing to be thick like a dragon's tail, one that just so happened to be scaled to fit a human frame and came with some bronze spines. After that he noticed that her hands appeared to be sharpened to the point where they looked an awful lot like a dragon's claws, even though it was only a matter of time until her middle two fingers merged into a single digit, and there was a small pair of brown horns, like those a dragon possessed, poking out of her hair, which had a little curve to them as they pointed back towards the doorway.

One other thing he noticed was that she seemed like she was holding the changes back, as she huffed a little as he found the tail moving in tune with her body, meaning it was definitely part of her body and not his eyes playing tricks on him, so all of the other parts were likely real as well, but he kept a neutral face before making his presence known.

"Sherry, is something wrong?" Grogar asked, because while this did confirm that there was something different about the one person that he had been interested in, even though this wasn't what he was expecting to discover when he made his decision to keep an eye on her, he made it seem like he was tired and that he might be more exhausted than he was letting on, while at the same time his statement made her jump a little, allowing him to see that she must have taken off her shoes and that she also had sharpened feet as well.

"No! Everything is just fine!" Sherry stated, where she quickly turned around and found that he was staring right at her, as it gave him a chance to take in her altered form, and as she did that Grogar noticed the tail move, showing that she was surprised by this, before she glanced down at herself for a few seconds, as if she was trying to come up with an excuse as to why she looked like this, and an idea quickly came to her, "Its, ugh... monster cosplay! To understand the monsters of our world, sometimes you have to think like one... and occasionally dress up like one!"

"I see." Grogar said, to which he yawned for a moment, because while he was interested in what he was seeing he also knew that aggravating someone that had a secret was a bad thing and decided not to investigate this for now, as he knew that there would be time for him to see what else she might have hidden before they reached the New World and started trying to figure out the Elder Crossing, even though he could see that the tail moved like she was nervous, something he pretended not to notice, "Well then, have a good night's sleep."

With that said, and Sherry no doubt confused by what he had done, Grogar walked over to the next door and headed into his room, where he closed the door and returned to the bed he had woken up in earlier, to which he picked up the book he had been reading earlier and decided to read it for a time, since he wanted to learn a few more things before he turned in for the night, though before he could get too far into the book, or even turn the page, there was knock on the door and Erica opened it, with a scroll in her hand.

"I know Barnos can fly pretty fast, and its been a few hours since I sent one to the New World, but it appeared that our Commander is very interested in you," Erica said, where she tossed the scroll to Grogar, who caught it and looked at the contents for himself for a few moments, even though it was obvious as to why she would have been interested in what the scroll had to offer, especially when Grogar noticed the part that had caught her attention, "so much so that he sent a reply on the same day, showing me that despite knowing nothing about you, except for what I told him in the letter, he's willing to make you a Hunter, if you're willing to accept."

"Sure, I'll accept. I'm pretty much a freeloader and this is a good way to repay all of you once we reach the New World and start to investigate the Elder Crossing." Grogar replied, mostly because he would rather not be in debt to the Guild, due to them saving his life and everything that had happened so far, but at the same time he was interested in the Elder Dragons and what they were doing every ten years, just like the rest of the Guild and the fleets he had discovered since his arrival in this world.

Another part of his reason for accepting the position was because it meant that he, Sherry, and Patches would be the last team of the Fifth Fleet, since neither of them had a Hunter partner, mostly since it allowed him to see what else Sherry was hiding from the rest of her colleagues, though he was sure that such a thing would be revealed to him at some point in the future, regardless of whether or not they reached the New World first.