Soul awoke to see both Twilight and Rain standing over him. They wore somewhat happy yet confused looks on their faces. "What do you two want." Soul demanded calmly.
"Well...um me and Rain are going to head out to do some training near the Moga village today.." Twilight said nervously.
It had been two weeks since Rain had gotten injured on a hunt and he was recovering surprisingly well. He was ready to set out and hunt once again, yet both Twilight and Soul suggested starting off with low rank smaller monsters before he got back into the high rank ones.
"Alright, well give me a moment and I'll be joining you two," Soul said getting up slowly.
"Well that's the thing you can't...at least not today," Rain said scratching the back of his head.
Soul looked at them confused and annoyed, "Well why not?" he asked.
"Today's Hearts & Hoov...er I mean Valentine's Day and the guild is having a special rule today that you can only take on quests in pairs or full parties," Twilight said looking around. "And well...there's only three of us," she said trying hard to avoid Soul's gaze.
"Alright..whatever," he said getting up slowly and leaving the room to get his armor on.
Rain and Twilight watched him walk to the room feeling sorry.
"Well you can still go on a quest...you just need to find a partner to go on with you today," Rain said. "Also the guild said no helmets only headbands and hats and other headgear that expose your face are allowed," he said before resting down a blue colored Wroggi hat on the table. "I dyed a Wroggi hat so if you want you can use it," he said trying to sound optimistic.
"So we'll be going...see you later Soul," Twilight said before walking out the door with Rain following behind her.
Once they were gone Soul poked his head through the room to look at the hat. "Well at least it matches my armor..." he said sounding irritated. As he finished putting on his armor and the hat he walked out the door. He could see many of the hunters were in pairs today, walking about some were even holding hands.
Soul shook his head slightly, "what a stupid event..." he muttered to himself before he headed out. He headed up to the questing counter that was decorated with hearts and the occasional Rathian and Rathalos together to form a heart. "Any new quests?" he asked the quest girl flatly.
The girl looked at him with a look of disapproval before nodding, "yeah there's one, The Tundra Shadow but you do know you need a hunting partner," she said with a hint of attitude.
Soul rolled his eyes, "fine..." he said before looking around. His eyes were soon met with a pair of light sapphire eyes that shared his irritated look. Those eyes belonged to a hunter on the way right of the quest counter. Her white hair hung up in a ponytail with slight bangs covering her forehead which had a matching headband. Her armor was a purplish black color with tinges of red. The armor looked lightweight and leathery smooth as well as attractive. It exposed her thighs, upper breast, and her waist. She had a huge brown rigid weapon that seemed to have two different blades folded up opposite to each other that hung off her back.
"What are you looking at?" she asked sounding just as irritated as he did.
Soul growled, "well I'm looking at you," he shot back at her.
"Whatever newbie..looks like you can't hunt without a partner," she said, her voice filled with attitude.
"It seems you have a similar problem," he said in a taunting manor.
The girl growled, "why don't you go get killed," she retorted.
The quest counter attendant looked at them before interjecting into their little squabble, "well you two could go on the quest...together," she suggested.
Two angry glares faced her before she put the quest paper on the counter before backing away slowly.
The two glares returned to each other before softening up.
"This is the quest I have to do anyway, why not bring along a newbie ," the girl said with a sly smirk. "Whatever, come with me if you want and if you need help just call me...Skyla," she said before taking the paper to walk towards the gate.
Soul looked already annoyed with her, yet he followed her. "I'm a damn high rank hunter like you let's get that straight you little brat," he said calling after her.
Skyla waved her hand back at him, "whatever you say newbie, at least give me you're name so I know what to call you," she said not turning around to face him.
"I'm older than you, you runt, but you can call me Soul.." he said catching up to her to walk beside her.
The two of them were then dropped off in front of a cave that seemed to be made of ice. Bones of many different creatures laid on the ground nearby and even a freshly killed Popo laid near the cave's opening.
"Well at least we know the monster is in there," Skyla said smirking. "You better take this," she said handing a hot drink to Soul.
Soul pushed it away before taking out his own hot drink, "I don't need handouts," he said before gulping down the warm liquid.
"Jeez...I was just trying to be nice," she said before sipping on the drink. She looked over at Soul while he drank and noticed the scar over his eye. "How did you get that scar?" she asked curiously. "It looks like it was from a blade rather than a monster," she said before focusing back on her drink.
Soul looked at her with an annoyed look, "it's none of your business," he said flatly. Before walking towards the cave entrance.
Skyla grabbed his arm, "why wouldn't it be?" she asked with a slightly annoyed tone. "You need to stop being in a shell and let people in," she said before continuing forward.
Soul watched her as she went ahead, "who does she think she is?" he said to himself before walking along with her inside the cave.
It was almost pitch black, except the only light source coming from the two entrances. It was a wide open space, the ground seemed to be littered with hundreds of old bones everywhere. The temperature was extremely colder than the outside and the wind was visibly seen carrying frost across the ground.
Soul looked around, "do you remember what monster we came to fight?" he asked as he continued on into the cave.
He heard no response.
"Skyla?" he asked again. Before he could turn around to face her she leapt onto Soul's shoulder before jumping off causing Soul to fall backwards. She had her weapon drawn that looked somewhat like a great sword yet she was able to wield it in one hand. She swung downward on what looked like a grey tube hanging from the ceiling. Within moments after her slash an entire body followed right after the tube.
She landed and rolled to the ground, "yeah its a Gigginox, you should really look up sometime," she said as she got up to face their stealthy adversary.
The monster got up, its top side was a light grey and looked as if it had two heads yet one maw had rows of teeth in them. Both tail and maw had purple markings on the top of it. The underside of its flat body revealed a full red underside along with two distinct purple markings that seemed to have their own glow.
Soul got up and quickly drew his dual swords, "shut up," he said before charging at the monster. Yet he was stopped in his tracks as the monster emitted an eerie powerful roar that echoed throughout the cave intensifying it.He was forced to cover his ears from the Gigginox's terrible roar. A couple icicles even came crashing down around them.
Skyla who seemed unaffected by the roar continued attacking the monster with the large sword. Yellow-ish sparks could be seen coming off of its blade with every swing that came into contact with the leech-like beast.
Just as the roar died down, Soul rushed in to join her in the assault on the side of the monster. But, before he could its long maw stretched out into a side swipe that sent him sliding backwards.
"Damn I need to get in close," he muttered out of frustration. The Gigginox's head seemed to be focused on him while the tail seemed to be trying to reach for Skyla, but was unable to.
She then stepped back before stabbing the Gigginox with the sword, but it began shaking before it let loose an explosion that sent the monster toppling over revealing its underside.
"Perfect," he said to himself before rushing in to slash wildly at the red underside of the monster. He then felt a sharp pain in his shoulder and looked over to see a small Giggi attached itself to him. He quickly grabbed it and threw it on the ground, there seemed to be an excess of the small leech creatures crawling around.
Before he could assess what was going on the monster got back up to its feet proceeded to spit out globs of purple at the hunters.
Skyla jumped backwards to join Soul, "don't let that stuff touch you, its poisonous," she said slightly panting. Her weapon seemed to have changed form into a longer, more blunt-ended shaped axe. "This thing is annoying to fight," she said before getting ready to rush in again.
"Wait," Soul stopped her. "Watch it carefully," he said looking at the Gigginox.
The monster stood on the otherside of the pools of poison it had spit out at them, drooling and breathing slowly as if it was exhausted already. Without warning it acrobatically leapt over them and attached itself to the nearby wall. It slightly limped as it walked along the surface of the wall, to the ceiling, before leaving through an opening in the ceiling.
Skyla looked over at Soul, "how did you know it was going to leave?" she asked seeming quite interested in his predication.
Soul chuckled, before walking away towards the next exit to the cave. "You just have to watch the monster sometimes," he said with a hint of challenge in his voice.
Skyla picked up on this and giggled slightly, "I knew that.." she said trying to sound serious.
As they exited the cave they walked side-by-side with each other in silence. The snow was slightly falling from the light gray sky.
"Everytime I come here, even if its to hunt something like that Gigginox I still think this place is beautiful," Skyla said breaking the silence.
"I can see why," Soul responded before looking up at the sky.
"So you still didn't tell me how you got that scar," she said looking over at him.
Soul was ready to look at her with the same scornful look, but he caught the soft curious gaze of her sapphire eyes and couldn't bring himself to do so. "Do you really want to know?" he asked sighing.
Skyla nodded her head slowly keeping her gaze.
Soul smiled somewhat feeling her gaze still on him. "Well it was just from my first hunt, I felt I could take any monster down. I was assigned to go on a hunt for a simple Qurupeco in the desert area. Me and my partner at that time, Len we were both ready. Yet, we weren't ready for this..." he said grimly.
"What happened?" Skyla asked as they continued walking through the snow.
"Well we were warned the area was unstable and that random monsters could appear, but we didn't care. We thought maybe a G. Jaggi would be the most that would appear. We were doing good until the worst possible thing happened..." he said shaking his head. "The dang beast called in a....Black Diablos," he said sadly as he remembered the faithful day. "We thought we could handle it until we got a taste of the power it had. I wanted to retreat, but Len didn't he was determined to kill the thing. Well he was using a Jawblade greatsword passed down from his father. And the beast caught him before he could block its attack..." he paused for a bit. "The blade was knocked out of his hand and hit me giving me the scar..I passed out after getting hit and when I woke up I was back at base camp with Felyne doctors crowding around me...when I asked where Len was they told me..." he paused again clearing his throat. "They told me he didn't make it..." he finally said letting out a heavy saddened sigh.
Skyla watched him before just turning towards him to embrace him in a tight hug.
Soul didn't speak a word and returned the hug. He sighed as they stood there in silence hugging each other. They soon met each other's gaze. Her sapphire eyes looking deep into his brown-red eyes sharing the same kind of pain and sadness. They held a stare at each other. He could feel her heartbeat while she could feel his, time seemed to stop just for the two of them.
A shrieking cry off in the distance broke the moment for them and they quickly parted.
"Oh..yeah," Skyla laughed shyly. "We got a monster to hunt still," she giggled before running off in the direction of the cry.
Soul smirked as he watched her part away from him, he felt oddly strange. He also felt somewhat...delighted as well. "This girl..." he whispered to himself before running to catch up with her.
The continued walking until they came to a large open area at the base of what appeared to be a mountain made of ice. There with the Gigginox looming over the carcass of a small Popo. The small mammoth like creature's parents were just fleeing away from the monster that had killed their calf.
The Gigginox looked up from its soon-to-be meal before raising both its tail and head high and letting out the eerie sounding roar. Its skin then turned from a pale grey to an almost black color.
Skyla quickly switched her weapon back to what appeared to be sword form. "It's in armor mode, I'll hit from the outside while you go in close and attack its side and belly," she said before rushing off.
Soul nodded before running behind her.
As the monster stretched out its elastic neck to swipe them again, both of them slid underneath to avoid it.
Skyla got up and turned around to slash the beast's maw, the clang of the metal was heard before it penetrated through its skin.
This made the Gigginox flinch upwards exposing its red underside giving Soul the perfect opportunity to demonize and slash wildly at its soft belly.
The beast didn't take to kindly to this and acrobatically jumped backwards and landed a good distance away from the two hunters. It then stuck its tail to the ground before letting out a glob that seemed to pulsate like a heart.
"What the..." Soul stared in disgust and amazement at the odd spectacle.
"That spawns Giggi's, distract it while I go take it out," Skyla said rushing towards the beast.
Soul nodded and ran ahead of her to deliver a fierce-some dance of blade slashes to the beast's head.
While the beast's focus now moved to Soul, Skyla slipped by towards the glob sack. Her weapon switched back into axe form as she raised it up in the air, before slashing downwards bursting the sack.
Soul just narrowly rolled out of the way as the Gigginox body-slammed the ground.
"Move out of the way!" Skyla said running as fast as she could. Her weapon still out in axe form dragging slightly behind her.
Soul rolled away again to distance himself further away from the monster.
The Gigginox, now focused on Skyla who was quickly approaching it. The beast began charging towards her, opening its maw wide exposing its circular rows of teeth.
Soul watched in anticipation, "what is she doing?" he muttered to himself.
She looked as if she was going to run into the monster's mouth until she slammed the axehead down on the ground propelling herself high into the air. And in one motion, mid-swing the weapon transformed back into sword form as she came down putting all her weight into the swing. The blade easily cleaved deep through the monster's hide, splitting its side.
The monster lurched up a bit, before flipping over and squirming around before laying dead on its back.
"Wow...I can't believe that worked," Skyla said smiling while trying to get the tip of the sword out the blood stained ground.
Soul shook his head smiling, "well you did hit it pretty hard, and where did you learn that from?" he asked. He walked over to her to help her pull the sword out of the ground.
He stood behind her and gripped the handle, their hands touching each others. It wasn't long till the sword came flying out of the ground and went sliding on the ground behind them. The two fell on top of each other laughing.
"Well...I," Skyla began before looking down at Soul who looked up at her. The two of them then looked to the side to see a group of Felyne workers staring at them.
"Um...nya..sorry" one of the cat workers said before returning to load up the dead Gigginox onto a cart.
Skyla got up off of Soul, "well..you didn't do so bad for a newbie," she said with a sly smile.
"Oh please," Soul said shaking his head. "I expect that kind of foolishness from Rain and Twilight," he said chuckling.
"New partners of yours?" Skyla asked.
"Yeah, but they went off alone today to train in Moga woods," he said passively.
Skyla smirked, "just train you say," she said raising her eyebrow at him.
Soul rolled his eyes, "You're too much," he said as he got up and began walking back to the base camp.
"What? I'm just saying," she said following him. "Oh wait," she said putting her hand on his shoulder to stop him.
"Wha--" Soul began to say before he was interupted with a pair of soft lips that pressed against his.
Skyla pulled away smirking, "I almost forgot to give you that," she said walking past him.
Soul smirked before turning around to follow her back.
Once they were back at the port, Soul and Skyla were met by Twilight and Rain waiting at the gate for them.
"Well it was fun hunting with you...Soul," Skyla said smiling sweetly. "I'll be seeing you around," she said before walking past Twilight and Rain and disappearing into the crowd.
"Who was that?" Twilight asked raising an eyebrow at Soul.
"Just a fellow hunter I hunted with today," he replied hiding his true feelings.
Rain shook his head smiling, "you're a bad liar," he said with a slight laugh.
"I don't have to take this from you two runts! I'm going back to the inn to rest!" Soul said storming off. While he was walking away he wore a slight smile. "It was a damn interesting hunt though," he said to himself.
Twilight and Rain followed behind him giggling and laughing as they made their way back to the inn.