The Cryo Legacy



The Cryo Legacy



Part 1

Prologue

The breeze of the air washed on my face just before I woke up to an Aptonoth grumbling passed my window. It was my sister, she was 4 years older than me and she was a qualified Huntress. She was smiling, the sort of smile that I would see on my mother when she used to finish scaling the thorny pins off a Pin Tuna. She waved at me. I got up and sat on my bed rubbing my eyes excitedly and got dressed. I was wearing a shirt with leather pants; the sort of fashion that non-hunter teens my age would wear. As I was walking down the hall I sensed something… something quick and agile. Suddenly a quick shadow pounced on me, holding me by the collar, “Oh master it you!” it was the family Felyne, Miko! “Sorry to frighten you, Master!” I looked at him lovingly. “Miko, don’t call me master, call me by my real name”. He looked at me, puzzled. “Yessir, oh your mother told me that she is cooking your sister’s favourite meal, Fried Carp for breakfast with some eggs, nya!; isn’t it great that your sisters back from her big hunt with the higher ranked hunters?”. He pranced away. “Yes, yes it is good” I thought to myself.

The light shined through the windows of the house, while the smell of fried carp was escaping through door. Suddenly the door opened. The sun was shining towards us, blinding us from the image in the door way. It was my sister, Xela. She was covered in dirt and ash, from the volcanoes. “Oh look who’s here!” My mother said with a raised voice. “Welcome back, it’s good to see you in one piece!”. “Yes it is”, Xela said in reply. She opened a pouch in her Rathalos armor and pulled out a dagger like object out. It was the size of my middle finger and just as long. “What is it?” Mother said putting her glasses on. “It’s a… could it be?” she said again staring at the small object. I took a better look, and in amazement I stared at it, “It’s a fragment of a Skypiecer” I said with an amazed tone. “I read about them in the Guild Archives, they are supposed to very rare to find, unless you slay an Alatreon, how did you find it? We haven’t seen any Alatreons in this land”. My sister smiled “The Instructor gave it to me on the way here, he told not to give this to anyone, maybe he smuggled it from somewhere”. My mother snapped from the trance of the small object, “Let’s have breakfast then, ey?” We walked to the kitchen as if we forgot what we just saw. “Miko, can you serve you young lady please?” “Yes Master!” My mother laughed “Ha, I love it when he calls me that!”

In the Kitchen Miko was helping Mum fry the Carp. He was doing a splined job at it too. “My sister turned to me from the side of the table, “Hey, you can have this.” She handed me the fragment of the Skypiecer. “But, why would you want to give me this?” She moved to the seat next to me “look, take it to the elder, maybe it can give you something to do”. My sister always was soft in the middle”. She handed me the fragment and yelled at Miko. “Hey, Miko how long is this going to take, I’m starving” “Now, now young huntress it will take much longer if you wine like a Baby!”

The morning air and sound of people chatting in the markets was satisfying. People were talking about how my sister and the rest of the high ranked hunters that were passing through the village. Those hunters could easily take down a Velocidrome with their own hands. I was about to get to the elder when someone called my name. It was Shira and Lados! Shira was a good friend of mine, the first time I met her was when a couple of Velocipreys attacked the village while the hunters were on a hunt in the Snowy Mountains. It was also when my sister first became a hunter for the village. She saved me from becoming the prey of a Velociprey when suddenly Shira threw a dung bomb at the Velociprey; it scared it away while making me smell like Popo excrement. That was the first day we met and the first time someone threw a dung bomb at me. Lados was a son of a hunter that slayed a Tigrex accidently. He was on his way to collect some Mountain herbs from the Snowy Mountains when suddenly a Tigrex with wounded wings pranced at him. During the moment he didn’t know what was happening. He bent over to collect some more herbs and the Tigrex flew over him into a Crevice, instantly being impaled by a giant Stalagmite facing up. He didn’t notice until he saw the helpless giant’s body being cut through killing the beast instantly. The village Guild Hall gave him the badge of honour for slaying a Tigrex without any weapons of any kind. That’s what made Lados really popular in school. Well at the time the kids at school were actually quite mean. They would push around and call us names, though when I and Shira were being attacked in the class, Lados was new at the time and when the incident happened he defended us. We don’t know why but he helped us. The kids backed off since they knew that Lados’ Dad slayed a Tigrex without any Weapons or Armor they didn’t want to be attacked by Lados himself. “Hey, are you awake or what” said Shira. “Oh, sorry” I replied “I have to talk to the elder”. “Oh, um my father is talking to the elder, about some sort of matters” Lados said. Lados was never the fighting type he didn’t like to fight. Though he intimidates everyone he meets. He was always the type that would stay by the farm and farm some crops for people. It was a hard job but it was safe from raging monsters charging to you trying to kill you. Lados liked and I don’t blame him for it. “Oh we need you for something” Shira said. It sounded like something exciting. “ok then I guess I could come along until the elder is free.

1

We started walking down a path, that led to a cross road. There was a path to go left or right. Lados led the way towards a giant tree. It would have been about 40 metres tall and about 3 metres thick. “This isn’t just it, my friend” behind the tree there was a cave. It was dark and looked really rough. “We came here before we started looking for you, inside we found something, it looked like a sword but it was too big to be a sword” after Shira finished talking she nudged Lados, “Oh yeah a sword!” She frowned at him nodding her head at him. He looked back at her dumbly. “Well what type of sword is it?” I said excitedly. “Well that’s the point” Shira said “Huh?” I said confused. We thought that because you had a sister that had skills and taught you a bit of what she leant at the training grounds, you could escort us into the cave”. “Why?” I said looking at both of them. Shira and Lados looked at each other. Lados stepped in “Well, we heard a scream of a Khezu as we were looking at the sword, we couldn’t take the sword because it was stuck in the ground and both of us didn’t have the strength to pull it out.” I looked at both of them again. “Look I don’t I have the skills to fight a Khezu, I’m not even in the guild yet” Suddenly a Shira faced me, “that is such a good idea!” I looked at her questionably “what...” I said in a low tone. She started smiling at me “We should join up to be eligible Hunters!” there was a long silence. “NO” Lados said “I don’t want to die! Every week we here about hunters getting killed and mulled by Tigrex’s and Diablos’ and Rathalos’-“I looked at him” Diablos’ are herbivores”. Lados raised his left eyebrow. Shira smiled. There was a short silence. I rose up “Look, if we want to be Hunters we have to do something heroic” Shira and Lados wa staring at me, with their eyes wide open “What?” I felt a slight breath on my shoulder and froze. I felt a dread of fear and felt my heart ache in pain as I realise something was behind me.

I saw the shadow on the ground and saw it was a Velocidrome. It moved its bird-like head backwards as if it was about to leap. At the moment Shira and Lados moved out of the way. That gave me the way to roll forward, dodging its first snap. As soon as I turned I saw that the Velocidrome was about to jump on me trying to shred me with its blood red claws. I jumped out of the way and heard it scream in agony as it hits the ceiling with its long foot claws. The Velocidrome hits the ground hard as its second scream erupts. At that time I fall on the ground wondering where my friends are. As I look behind the big carnivore I see my friends yelling at me to get up; but… I hear nothing. The sudden shock blocks my hearing as if I was deaf. In the confusion I see a shining object across the dirty, rocky pathway. As I look closer I see that it is a dagger belonging to the Steel dagger dual sword set. I scramble to my feet and try to lunge to the shining blade. During the attempt the Drome snaps at my leather pants and tries to pull me away from the shining dagger, the Drome moves its head to me as I am lying on the ground. It stares at me exposing its Bright Red Crest on its head. It growls at me with its scream like voice, Opening its month to showing me its teeth. Some drool falls on my face and I shudder. Then suddenly it came to me the Skypiecer. The dagger like object I had in my pouch should be powerful enough to piece its scales. I pull out the fragment and yell. Stabbing the beast in the foot and pulling the fragment out. The stab felt so smooth, like as if the fragment was a razor. The Velocidrome screams and gives me the opportunity to reach out for the steel dagger I saw on the ground recently. The blade was as long as 50cm long and the handle was about 15cm long. It stabs the Drome in the leg, while pulling out the blade out again. The Velocidrome bends over in pain looking like it is about to fall over. At the time I hoped onto the dromes back and I wrapped my hands around its neck. It was screaming in pain as I slit the Dromes neck causing it to fall over, dead. As I was sitting on top of the Drome it falls on one side causing my leg to be trapped on one side.

“Oh no” Shira says as she is running towards me. Lados also runs towards me the Velocidrome’s blood is spilt on the blade and on my left hand. The stench of the blood causes my stomach to turn. “Hey guys, can you get me out of here?” Lados snaps out of a trance “Oh sorry, sure”. They pull the corpse off my body. I groan in pain. “Come on we have to get out of here!” “Why?” Lados says. “Didn’t you here?” I said in reply “That thing called for help before I killed it! Its friends will be coming for us, there could be dozens of them!” We run back to the village.





