---

"Rise and shine everyone! We're finally here!" Berillius shouted, banging a wooden spoon against a iron pot. He stomped around the main deck of the boat making sure that her made a visit to everyone's cabin. He only decided to stop once he'd made and entire round, well except to Jack's cabin but that's because he was already awake steering the boat. While Berillius was greeted with a some curses and annoyed looks his mood wasn't dampened one bit, in fact he was practically skipping around as he waited for everyone to emerge from their beds and make it onto the main deck. When the hunters made it out of their cabins there eyes would be flooded with the warm orange light of a rising sun. The island was just in view, their new home mere minuets away.

"Gah did you have to wake us up so dammed early!? Couldn't you have waited an hour or tow!?" Clara called out as she pulled herself from her quarters.

"Actually Clara I did. Because me and Jack decided that now would be the best time to choose where we're going to set up shop." Berillius eagerly un-scrolled a map and lay it out on a table that lay around the main mast of the ship. "It'd be much easier to just land on the land on the shores of the region we look to inhabit no? So we're going decide that here and no, get it done with now. Then you can go back to sleep as we sail to whatever location it is we choose. Sound good Clara?"

Clara crossed her arms and grumbled. "Yeah yeah that's fine. Also I vote no to the tundra, anywhere but the tundra."

Berillius stabbed a knife into the top of the map to make sure it wouldn't drift of. He then clapped his hands together. "Oh a vote! Wonderful idea Clara! I'll abstain as I'm up for going just about anywhere. Everyone else?"

"I will also abstain. I am fine with living anywhere, as long as I get to cook." Simon said as he walked over to a giant metal pot, a wonderful smell already starting to pour from it.

"Somewhere warm would be nice, though I'm not all that fussed." Quilt said. She had curled herself up next to where Simon was cooking, being attracted to the warmth of the pot.

"Somewhere cold wouldn't be that bad, it's nice to get away from the heat of the forge every now and then." Harris rubbed his beard as he spoke, he stood next to Berillius, peaking at the map on the table.

Jack looked back from the steering wheel for a moment rubbing the back of his neck. "Water would be nice, can't fish without water right? Heheh..." Jack didn't say anything else quickly turning back to the wheel and making sure the boat didn't crash into anything.

Henry would stifled a yawn before throwing in his vote. "As long as there is soil that I can plant in I'm fine with anywhere.

Fillie nodded furiously after Henry spoke. "Yeah! As long as there is dirt to get my fingers dirty in I'm good to go anywhere! Goodness I'm so excited!" Fillie hoped around the cooking pot Simon was using, the lust for food clear on her face.

Finally Rebecca spoke up looking at the map intently. "I have no say in this. I am perfectly fine going anywhere. There is always something to study, no matter the place."

Berillius smiled counting the votes in his head. "Alright so we got a vote for a wet place. A vote for and against a cold place. And two votes for usable soil. Plus a preference for warmth. Well it looks to me that the decision is up to you hunters, which is fair coming to think of it. After all you'll be the ones fighting the monsters in said areas."

---

---

"Hey!... Hey!... Yurel buddy it's time to move." Yurel would feel himself being nudged softly from behind, his back being shifted across the cold stone floor of the den. "Come one bud, Sauron and his guys brought back an aptonoth! Even Rtelsha is awake!" The nudges would speed up a little as many patters of feet could be heard from all around.

"Scrap are you coming or not!?" Said a high pitched voice in the distance. "Yeah you snooze you lose!" Said another almost identical voice.

"Don't worry about it, there is a whole aptonoth! I don't think you'll be able to eat it that quickly!"

"You underestimate the speed of Tik and Tak my friend."

"Yeah! Don't blame us if you go hungry!"

With that the pitter patter quickly started to diminish. The cave seeming to be almost empty at this point, though the heat of the early morning sun did manage to make it's way onto Yurel's scales. So it'd be clear it was morning.

---

---

The cold air would blow into the small den that Ten called home, the chilled air doing little to disturb her slumber. It would be the morning sun striking her skin through tiny holes in the ceiling of her humble home. The warmth that it gave to her being the kick that the morning would hopefully motivated her to begin her day. Though just like all the rest this day would be difficult, unless she managed to find an easy meal. Which didn't seem that crazy when the scent of blood was already on the wind, something had made an early morning kill. obviously something dangerous.

---

---

The desert sun would shin into Swipers nest, it's glow only adding to the tranquility and splendor of his nest. Though at the moment it'd feel anything but tranquil. Roaring could be heard in distance, while not close enough to provide an immediate threat it was still a large annoyance. Especially for a monster that was trying to sleep. Though whatever was taking part in this scuffle weren't showing any signs of slowing down, in fact the skirmish seemed to be getting closer.

Jun grumbled and groaned as he was rather rudely awoken, rubbing his eyes and smacking his lips. He could already taste the residue from his liquor the night before in his breath, and it did little to revitalize him.

"Yare yare," the skirt chasing bookworm mumbled in his native tongue, yawning as he stretched his arms out, walking out of his sleeping quarters. "Can't a lad get a little beauty sleep around these parts? The ladies don't flock to men with bags under their eyes.

"Nani? Which part of the island to land at?" Jun sighed, a hand resting on his chin as he thought. "Hmmmmmm...I vote for someplace cold, like a tundra. I don't have much experience in locales like that, so it should help my research. So long as it's not inhabited by..." He shuddered. "...kaeru or same, I should be fine. 'Frogs' and 'sharks', for those uninitiated in the Yukumo dialect."

---

Feeling the warmth of the morning sun shining on her hide and scales, Ten shook her body around slightly as she woke up and made her way out of her den, instinctively following the scent of fresh meat. There was another, fainter scent, seeming to belong to a much bigger and much more dangerous monster than a Zamite. She'd have to stay on her toes if she wanted to avoid being its next meal; a small, vulnerable monster such as herself was made only so much more easy to pick off by a lack of eyesight.

Devrin cringed when he received the rude awakening, but dutifully dragged himself out of bed all the same. He was not used to sleeping on a rocking, creaking ship. Luckily they would be reaching land soon. He went out and joined the others as they discussed where they should go. The group had varying opinions, but the one that Devrin found most strange was the desire to go to the tundra. Why would anyone want to go there? Were they to live in igloos? That was a terrible idea. Devrin stepped forward and pointed to a spot on the coast in the forest closer to the swamp.

"We should go here," he said. "We'll have the trees for wood for building, the coastline for fishing, and some of the more fertile land nearer the swamp for farming. It's the perfect spot."

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Swiper was mildly annoyed at having his slumber so rudely interrupted. The worst part about it was that now that he was awake he was hungry. He had no intention of getting caught up in whatever scuffle was taking place outside, so after a nice long stretch he squeezed out of his little den and went looking for food in the opposite direction. With how close they were getting he wanted to get moving before they got too close.

'Mubuhbuh what? Wazzat?' Yurel mumbled, rudely awakened from sleep by Scrap. He liked the guy, really, but sometimes he was... overzealous. He heard the words "Sauron" and "aptonoth" and stumbled upright abruptly, only to realise it wasn't quite so dangerous a situation as expected. Actually, it was breakfast - and as Tik and Tak both pointed out, it'd be gone soon if he didn't get moving.

'Mmbleh. Alright, I'll get going,' Yurel huffed, his voice as always just a bit wheezy. That was an unfortunate and persistent memory of a fight he'd much rather not remember, all told. Even so, he was pretty dang hungry, and charged out of the cave alongside Scrap, salivating a little in the process.

'Why do you reckon everyone is always in such a hurry to eat, anyway?' he asked his friend as they ran on. 'It's not like it's gonna melt in the sun quickly, is it? And if there's a bit of sand in it, so what? It's just extra crunchy bits.' He knew some of the larger members of their pack liked eating the bones in their kills anyway, and that was hardly different from sand, was it? They both crunched in the mouth, so if you thought about it, there wasn't really a difference in the texture after all.

Tyrin slowly woke up putting hands to his ears as the makeshift alarm continued."I don't remember orderings a damn alarm to wake me," he grumbled annoyed as he briefly stared at the ceiling of the wooden boat. He only hoped his companion wasn't as rudely awoken as he was. While his companion was more level headed he could get angered easily especially from being woken so rudely."Might not be the new world but it's still a new place to explore," he said getting up holding a tooth tied to a necklace around his neck. He had won it off some trader, who had come back from the new world for supplies. He had shared several interesting stories as well as did bets with some of his trinkets he had gained from hunters their. What Tyrin won was a tooth from some fanged wyvern from the new world called Odogaron. He could only hope to see some new creatures here. He got out of his hammock ready for whatever would be thrown at them.

Tyrin's palico companion, Tove, had been up for a little while before the make shift alarm had been rung out. Unfortunately while he had been up, the sound was still piercing. He decided at that moment he would never like that man and would regret every moment he'd have to be near him.

"Well at least you're awake now," Tove stated to Tyrin as he got out of his hammock ",Come, come! A new journey awaits us both. Just try to use your head." With that the palico made his way past the feet of others to reach the top deck and see the island they would soon be exploring and no doubt hunting upon.

Tyrin soon followed suit though he had to wade through the other people who were mingling up to the deck. It took only a few minutes to find his companion as well as a decent spot to view the new land. It seemed he came up at a relatively good time since there was a vote being held on where to land. So far it seemed that no one place was exactly winning.

"A forested area would be the best choice," Tyrin through his opinion out into the air as a suggestion, agreeing with the previous comment of another passanger who pointed out an area of land near the coast. It would be at least a decent temperature all year round with ease of access to materials and hopefully decent soil. Tove nodded next to him agreeing with his human partner, for once glad to see him using his head.

---

---

Luna had woken up about an hour ago, way before the alarm went off which signaled everyone to get off their asses and head to deck or something like that. When she woke up, she had went off to clean herself up, no one wants to see Luna's bedhead being who's eyes were half open and her hair looking like it came face to face with a Kushala Daora. Anyway, she wasn't really dressed for the occasion since she was still practically in the same light clothes she was in when she was asleep which exposed a bit more skin than she had hoped. She quickly got dressed to something a bit more outgoing and casual, that being clothes from the guild, pants, boots, a tunic like top with a cape, the whole shebang.

Luna took a deep breath went on to the deck along with the crowd, she was squeezing, shuffling and inching her way through the crowd of people in hopes that she could get a word out for this decision. When she finally got through the crowd, she saw everyone standing by the center talking about where to land and where to hopefully set camp. "May I suggest somewhere with snow or the forest, I come with first hand experience from living in both conditions and they're no miasma filled wasteland." Said Luna as she brushed her hair to the side, her brown eyes shifting from one person to another.

Luna had a quick glance at Tyrin and spoke once more. "But a forest area would be much more suitable for our current crew." Luna then crossed her arms and shifted all of her weight on one leg before moving her glance back to the person who issued this vote in the first place and in that case it was the Mining Foreman, she had not caught his name yet but she'll figure it out.

---

Berillius nodded as the hunters threw in their votes. "Hmm that still leaves us fairly divided..." He rubbed his chin as he looked down at the map. He traced one of his fingers along the many rivers and such, trying to find a spot that would hopefully please all the hunters. Since they were approaching from the south of the island the tundra was on the exact opposite side of the island, and going all the way around would be a huge waste of time. Not to mention a risk because of the nasty monsters that lurk in cold waters.

"Alright I got it. You see this point here," he said pointing at a section where the tundra, swamp and jungle met. "We can head there via this river." Berillius then ran his finger along a large river that started where the swamp and jungle met at the south coast of the island, his finger slowly tracing the huge river up stream, the thing actually lead all the way back into the jungle again so they'd not have to worry about any poison ponds when they got off the boat. "See how this river can take us almost the whole way through the island to the meeting of the ecosystems. Instead of us having to go around the entire island, and risk the freezing tundra waters. What do you hunters think?"

---

---

Scrap ran alongside Yurel as the pair of them ran towards the feeding frenzy. Scrap tilted his head at Yurel "Well personally I don't like extra crunchy bits. I'm pretty sure there are a fair few who don't like crunchy bits." But before they could get to the carcass Sauron let out a bellow. He stood far from the body, obviously he'd not taken any of the bounty for himself. Scrap stopped firmly in place. The Aptanoth had already been stripped of most of it's meat, and there were still many more grumbling stomachs.

"Alright everyone I'll need a new pair of escorts for the next hunt." Sauron's gaze drifted over his normal escorts Calek and Torak, it seemed that they exhausted from the previous hunt. Then he slowly turned his head to Yurel and Scrap, the pair stood out because they were standing rather far away from everyone else. "Scrap, Yurel. With me."

"Yes sir!" Scrap exclaimed, obediently running after Sauron. Sauron hadn't waited for either of them and would have already started heading out of the network of dens and nests that the pack inhabited.

---

---

The sent would grow stronger identifying itself as a freshly killed Popo, the smell becoming more potent as it's killer began ripping the corpse apart. The sent would lead Ten on a fairly long walk about fifteen hundred meters north, leading towards the coast. The oceans breeze would make the sent even more pungent as she got closer. It would also identify the scent of the predator, or more accurately predators. A pack of about 3 Giaprey accompanied by a Giadrome. The area had a good amount of cover, many crags of ice jutting from the ground, the sounds of the Giaprey eating and talking to one another giving Ten a decent enough picture of the surroundings.

She wouldn't be able to scare them off, while she'd have been able to fight a single Giaprey and come out on top. Their numbers made combat a death sentence. Though she did have one advantage, being that she was downwind, the ocean breeze masking her scent from the Giaprey. So she had stealth on her side. Perhaps she could trick the Giaprey or try waiting it out. Though a smell as yummy as a dead Popo would for sure attract some big players.

---

---

Swiper would easily be able to distinguish the irritating sounds of combat as a pair of Diablos fighting for territory. It sounded like it was only just getting started. But as Swiper headed the opposite direction the sounds got quieter and quieter until tranquility had been restored. As for options on where to next, he had a few. There was a tight looking cave that seemed like it might have some proper shiny rocks inside it, though further in the distance to the left of the cave was the the start of a muddy swamp. There could be a herbivore nest set up somewhere in there, all the plants made it a great nest location. But with mud came things like Barroth and other filthy mud lovers. To the right of the cave was what looked to be the start to a labyrinth of rocky mountain paths, a place that seemed to be popular with flying wyverns and other bird wyverns like himself.

Jun couldn't help but give an annoyed sigh at everyone's indecisiveness. "Haaahh...I can't believe it. Is it really so difficult to come up with one keikaku?"

However, the Yukumo-born researcher's grievances soon faded when Berillius managed to reach a compromise, eliciting a smile from Jun's face and a nod. "Hai! We can organize groups to decide who goes where afterwards if we need to. Ganbare, everyone!"

---

It didn't take long for Ten to realize what exactly had killed her would-be meal: a Giaprey pack, with a Giadrome leading its three flunkies. Their numbers meant that she wouldn't be able to simply rush in and go for broke, heavens no. The Zamite would either have to wait for the bird wyvern pack to leave the area, giving Ten a chance to munch on Popo leftovers, or somehow trick the lot of them.

The wind was flowing in her direction, so her scent wouldn't be readily apparent and give away her location. The element of stealth was on her side, and she'd need to find a way to put it to good use. She started by slowly crawling around and feeling out her surroundings; there were a lot of icy crags to use as cover, which could definitely help depending on her strategy. For now, however, there was not much she could do with 3 Giaprey and their Alpha in the area, so Ten positioned herself behind one of the crags and simply waited.

Yurel screeched to a halt as Sauron roared out at the crowd of his minions, unable to make any counterpoint about who did or did not like crunchy bits. Over the mass of others, he could very clearly see how little meat was left on the aptanoth, and he found himself unduly upset by this notion. Oh, he could just hear Tik and Tak laughing at him once he got back.

Then again, since Sauron had just called Yurel and Scrap to take off with him at all, that was an opportunity. An opportunity for awesomeness! Maybe. 'Coming, sir!' Yurel barked, glancing briefly yet longingly at the aptanoth's skeleton before following on after Scrap and Sauron. And as they headed out of the nest, he thought about how Tik and Tak would surely be made to eat their words once the trio came back from their hunting trip. Speaking of which...

'Sir, are we hunting for anything specific this time?' Yurel asked, suitably submissive as to be respectful, but not so much as to appear weak. This particular tone of voice was tough to pull off properly, at times, but he'd practiced it many times before, and he was pretty sure Sauron was in a decent mood right now. Else, why would he want to go out on a second hunt today?

---

---

---

Luna glanced at Jun and waited for the man to finish before speaking up her opinions, "I like that plan, I'd like to volunteer running head first like an idiot, but I'm not one." Luna replied, she then took a deep breath before adding, "I'd still like to be part of the expedition, just know that it won't be my fault if someone dies." Luna added, she knew she'd get some odd looks when she said that and that would be a normal response.

Her snarkiness was something that was pretty obvious from her, and with her voice that sounds quite soothing and silky it doesn't really fit as much as it should. She may come off as someone a bit mean but that's to be expected. She took a deep breath to smell the ocean air and feel the breeze among her face and waited for a response that she's expecting to be violent.

"I agree with the little ray of sunshine," Devrin said jerking his head over in Luna's direction. If she wanted to be snarky, then he would be sarcastic. "It's as good a plan as any."

This was definitely an interesting group they had going. As far as first impressions were concerned, he was already annoyed by Jun and Luna seemed to only be pretty on the outside. Tyrin seemed alright so far, but only time would tell.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Swiper mulled over his options. As much as he liked shiny things, his grumbling stomach came first. The caves would probably be a safer bet, then again with those diablos rampaging all over the place there's no telling what all could be holed up in those caves to avoid the conflicted. He decided to brave the swamp. While the swamp contained its own many dangers, he doubted it could be anything as terrifying as a diablos.

Tyrin nodded to the compromise."Whatever gets us off this boat soon," He stated looking back at the island. A motley group they were, Tyrin thought listening on the others who voiced their opinion on the compromise. He got the feeling that butting heads with Luna was probably going to happen at several points, at least going off of her snarky comment. Devrin he could see getting along with though only time would tell. Jun seemed to be a bit hard to determine on how Tyrin would get along with him.

"Time for hunting, later. First need to make camp," Tove interrupted Tyrin's thoughts. He looked at the palico and nodded."Yeah would love to start hunting as soon as we landed but would be dumb to run in blindly like that." Tove gave a nod hoping up on one of the rails to get a better view being careful not to fall."Good you use your head, maybe hope for you yet," The palico teased as Tyrin made a friendly jab at him.

"Hey careful what you say maybe I'll just use you as bait for whatever we come across," Tyrin joked back with a smile. It definitely would be one interesting adventure they would have, that was something Tyrin was certain of.

---

---

---

Luna gritted her teeth and clicked her tongue at the comment Devrin made, she absolutely hated being called that. "You call me that again, I'll push you off this boat." Luna stated as she gave him quite a death stare, maybe this might affect her reputation but it was normal for her at this point, she wasn't taking any chances after leaving Pokke, the world is cruel or however the saying goes.

At least Tywin had the right mindset, she liked the guy and respected him compared to most of the others, a pure platonic type of liking (don't get any ideas) and she plans to keep it that way. "Good to see that your head isn't up your ass." Luna muttered to herself so that no one could hear, maybe if the person was exactly right next to her it would have been heard.

Luna then stepped forward, "So do we go in teams? Or as a whole big group?" Asked Luna as she rested her shoulder against a post waiting for a reply.

---

Berillius nodded as his plan to take the river seemed to be accepted for the most part, though it looked like some of the hunters weren't getting along. So Berillius decided to interject before things got a chance to escalate. "Alright then! Down river it is, good stuff! Jack did you catch all that!?" Jack nodded before gesturing for Berilluis to come take the wheel for a moment. "Let me just come have a look at the map. Can you take the wheel for a moment?" Berillius nodded quickly responding to Luna "I suggest we stay in a group, safety in numbers after all." he quickly jogged over and took the wheel from Jack, "I can take us in if you want, you've been up longer than I have and I think you should get some sleep." "I'll think about it, thanks for the offer." Jack said with a smile before promptly heading over to the map to look at the coarse he'd be taking the boat, he then spoke in a hushed tone hoping Berillius wouldn't hear him. "Ah did one of you hunters catch where Berillius wants us to go?" Jack said with a sheepish look on his face, obviously he'd not actually been paying that much attention to what Berillius was saying.

"Well if all that's decided I'm going back to bed. It's too dam early to be awake!" Clara stomped off back to her cabin, closing her door with a fair amount of force.

Meanwhile everyone else decided that they might as well say awake for now. The smell of Simon's cooking was a pretty good incentive to stay awake. Rebecca opened up a book to read and took a seat on one of the many chairs surrounding the large table the map was on, she'd be set up on the opposite side to the map as she wanted some space. Fillie had taken a seat on the serving table that sat next to the massive pot Simon was cooking at. Henry took a seat next to the map, as he continued looking it over silently.

Harris took to the side of the ship and looked out at the approaching island, obviously taken back by the beauty of it all. He shook his head and muttered to himself "Can't believe that's going to be my new home."

---

---

Sauron looked around rearing up to get a slightly higher vantage point as he scanned the immediate area. "All depends on what we come across. I doubt any Aptanoth will be nearby, so whatever it is probably won't be as easy a me--, get down." Sauron quickly crouched down behind a nearby patch of bushes. There was a pinkish shape in the distance that was rapidly coming closer, the ground quickly started to shake as the shape spread into many different shapes. Though all the shapes had one thing in common, they were very large. It was clearly a heard of Rust Duramboros, they weren't spooked by the looks though there are few thing that can actually spook a heard of Duramboros, it was more than likely they were looking for the next patch of trees to eat.

Scarp let out a slight squeak of fear and darted behind a small rock, curling up on the floor as to make sure he was fully concealed. "Oh man oh man!" There would be plenty of cover around, with many different rocks to hide behind. The herd veered to the left about forty meters from where the three Jaggi would be held up, the ground trembling under the weight of so many animals.

---

---

The Giaprey were tearing away at the corpse happily consuming the succulent flesh. The Giadrom however was staying alert, looking around for the slightest hint of movement. It looked almost exactly in Tens direction for a time, tilting it's head before letting out a cry and slowly walking off. It's pack mates soon followed and their scents started to get weaker as the left, while the smell of the Popo carcass remained strong. A slight sound also made itself known behind Ten, though whatever it was, it was very far away.

---

---

The swamp seemed to be quite a good choice, being very calm compared to the Diablos skirmish. The swamp was fairly empty except for a few grazing Apceros and a couple of toads. This part of the swamp was mostly just light mud and ferns with a couple of rocky outcrops off in the distance. The Apceros were currently not bothered with Swiper's presence though the aggressive herbivores were not to be ignored. There was also a slight slope to the right which was where the water was coming down from, though the slope was rather steep so it was impossible to see what was at the top from Swiper's current position.

With the plan set in stone, Jun decided to keep himself busy while he waited for the boat to reach its destination. Pulling up a chair beside Rebecca's own, the casanova bookworm rested his cheek in his hand and looked at his fellow researcher with a slight smirk. "So, bishoujo," he began, putting on his best sultry voice, "what are you reading? Hm?~"

---

Once the scent of the Giaprey pack was completely gone from her senses, Ten quickly scampered towards the Popo carcass, eagerly chomping away at the herbivore's remains. In the distance, she could hear some sort of faint sound, but it was too far away to be much of an issue anytime soon, so the Zamite continued to enjoy her meal, keeping her senses of smell and hearing sharp in case she needed to cease eating and leg it.

Oh man. A herd of Duramboros was the last thing they needed to come across - since he knew Sauron was great at hunting, Yurel reckoned he could probably take one on if he was careful, but an entire herd would easily kill them all if they tried to take one out recklessly. Or at least he and Scrap. That said, Yurel immediately took refuge behind a somewhat larger rock, only glancing round once he was sure the Duramboros were avoiding the rock patch. Old habits died hard, after all - he had to stick an eye out a little ways to scan the herd for any weaker members, a member of the herd with a less well-developed tail perhaps, or preferably a juvenile. If they could isolate one or two of those and scare off the rest, they'd be able to take them out fairly handily with plenty of meat to spare, if Sauron wanted to take the risk.

'What's the plan, sir?' Yurel whispered, trying to read the herd as best he could. 'Do we want to try and hunt these guys, or should we find something else?'

Devrin was completed unfazed by Luna's threat. In fact, it actually made him smirk a bit. Push him off the boat? He was about three inches taller and undoubtedly much heavier. There was no way she could move him anywhere he didn't want to go. She was going to be a fun one, as from this point on he was going to be referring to her as 'sunshine' for the sole purpose of getting under her skin.

With their destination decided Devrin walked to the front of the ship and simply watched the island approach. He kept his eye out for any sort of monsters or wildlife as if hoping for some kind of sneak peak before the actually made it to shore. An entire island of opportunity lay before him, and he wasn't going to let it go to waste.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Swiper weighed his options. He had gotten meals from Apceros before, but he had also almost lost his head from one of their tales. This small waterfall, however, seemed promising. An elevated location with its own supply of fresh water would be an excellent place for a nest. Not only that, but it would also be a highly contested location, so whatever would have made its nest up there would undoubtedly have to be big. Big monsters laid big eggs. Big eggs meant very full belly. He could be set for the entire day from just one meal.

Putting his claws to use, Swiper began making his way to the top of the slope hoping for something big and tasty to be waiting for him.

"Go supply hunting when landed yes?" Tove suggested to Tyrin as Tyrin moved from the raining of the boat and began to make his way to the galley. With all the excitement and commotion, it had been easy to ignore the call of food, but now that it was settling down and people were going around doing their business, the gnawing pain in his gut told him it was time to eat. Tyrin looked at his palico companion and nodded.

"Yeah can't hunt without the necessary materials, or we could and die," he chuckled as he walked back down into the ship and past the barracks ",You seem more excited then I, you know?"

"Off ship soon, hate rocking, land solid," grumbled the palico. Upon entering the gallery, Tyrin and Tove wasted no time getting their own food and finding an empty table to eat and continue chatting with one another.

---

---

---

Luna clicked her tongue as she watched Devin walked towards the front of the ship, she definitely knew where not to go. She suddenly felt her stomach grumble, and she politely excused herself from everyone around her as she pulled herself away from the crowd. "I'm surprised I still have an appetite." Luna mumbled under her breath as moved towards where the food would be, and that's a quick walk down to the ship.

Luna ran her finger against the wooden wall of the ship as she went down to the area where there were tables and such, or where people eat, she needed to at least to fill up on food before she'd go down onto the island with that prick from earlier. Other than him calling her sunshine, there was just something about him that he didn't like, whatever it was, maybe there was a way to resolve this issue.

---

Rebecca looked up from her book glancing over at Jun, "Oh this? It is a study of Gigginox and Zamtrios breeding cycles, not my own sadly but perhaps on this island I will be able to observe some of these blood sucking monsters in action. I do find the early stages of their lives to be vastly interesting." She looked back at the page briefly and tilted her head slightly. "Here it says there have been instances where Gigginox lay eggs on themselves, and some people think they might lay eggs in live prey and let the babies hatch inside the victim. Positively ghastly."

Jack just watched as all the hunters just dispersed, before he could say anything Henry pat him on the back and pointed at the map. "Look it's just here see." Henry point to the parts of the map that Berillius had showing Jack the planned course. After that Jack decided he would go off to bed.

Simon sat atop his pot and dished out food for everyone, giving Luna, Trove and Tyrin a healthy helping of soup. It was a fish based soup as they'ed been living off a lot of fish for the most part of the journey. He was now just toddling over towards Tyrin and Trove with a serve of soup for himself.

Fillie had already downed two bowls of soup and was working on her third when she noticed Luna. Fillie'd not introduced herself yet so she decided now was as good a time as any. "Hiya hunter! I've not had the pleasure of introducing myself to you yet! The name's Fillie Averist, I look forward to working with you!" Fillie was positively beaming, like a kut-ku that'd just found a Konchu den.

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Sauron remained quiet as the herd of lumbering behemoths charged off into the distance before turning to respond to Yurel. "No we'll leave them be, going after them would be suicide." Sauron looked in the direction the herd had come from as he came out from behind cover. "A herd like that would have surely caused a panic back where they came from, and panicked prey is easy prey. But we must move quickly, panicked prey also goes into hiding."

Sauron would then take off in the direction the Duramboros herd had come from, some of the huge footprints had actually turned up the ground and dug up some bugs, a testament to the power and weight of powerful herbivores. Scrap was still shaking a little still curled up behind the rock he'd chosen to hide behind.

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It seemed like the coast was clear thought the sound in the distance was still getting closer, in fact it was getting closer quite quickly. It sounded like a sort of scraping or sliding against the snow covered ground. Then all of a sudden the sound of clattering claws could be heard coming from where Ten had hidden just before, the Giaprey had returned, and now that they had their smell masked by the wind. Ten would hear the cries of the Giaprey as the caught her cent and had no doubt spotted her now, and the situation was only going to get worse with the ever approaching sound continued to creep closer.

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As Swiper reached the top of the steep slope of the waterfall he'd find himself a nice big wyvern's nest, but with the nest came a nice big Pink Rathian! Thankfully the protective queen lay asleep, her snoring managing to overpower the sounds of the waterfall. Unfortunatly while the Rathain was asleep and hand't been alerted to Swiper's presence it was fast asleep right on top of the nest, if Swiper was going to get one of her delicious eggs he would have to take one from underneath her.