Chapter Text

NOVA’S P.O.V.

“Please, please, please--”

Nova drops down onto her butt, hard, and starts sliding down the muddy slope. Somewhere behind her, the bellow of a huge beast echoes off the trees. The shadow of branches fly past underneath; the lance and shield on her back scrapes gouges into the soft earth. She throws a glance over her shoulder.

A steady mantra goes through her head, matching the pace of her out-of-control heartbeat: idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot. Another triple-toned roar, much closer. The sound of a hollow trunk splintering. Way too close. What was I thinking?

As the slope ends, Nova uses her momentum to spin off the path, falling even deeper into the web of roots. Her feet sink slightly into the wet ground when she lands, and then she breaks into a run. Unfortunately, Nova knows exactly what she was thinking. It was something idiotic, something along the lines of: You think I’m like the other Guardians? I’m not.

The dark path narrows, tightens, becoming a tunnel. Huge roots weave themselves into walls on either side, gaps packed with decomposing leaves. The air smells dank, like rotting mushrooms, but at least she’s somewhere with a low ceiling. Too low for anything bigger than her, she hopes.

“I’m not dying over this,” Nova mutters.

A face flashes in her mind, red hair framing a cocky little smile.

“So--stupid,” she says, gritting her teeth.

Yes, Nova was here--chased by a massive monster, risking her neck, nearly dying--all because of a taunt. That spoiled brat had baited her, simple as that.

In front of Nova, her glowflies start to appear again, meaning she’s put herself a good distance from danger. They hover a few feet down the musty passage, casting a neon glow on the soil. She sighs, slowing to a jog. Finally, I can catch a break--

A huge thud sends leaves spiraling down from the ceiling. Nova freezes. Another thud, this time bringing a shower of soil. Through the small spaces in the roots above, she sees a shifting shadow: a large snout, snuffling at the gap. Two more heavy footsteps from above, then nothing. The snout retreats.

Eyes still on the ceiling, she walks backwards down the tunnel. A horrible feeling of dread sits heavily in her stomach like an undigested fish head. It’s scarier when you can’t see them--much scarier. You really start to feel pathetic, powerless, like a mouse in a hole.

Nova takes a few more steps and the tunnel widens into a giant space. The floor is covered with thick grass and the walls go up hundred of feet, arching into a magnificent cathedral of… bark?

“Whoa.”

She’d never been inside the Ancient Tree before. Sunlight shines through a large patch of thinning bark directly above the tunnel, creating a warm, faded glow throughout the clearing. The grass under her feet bursts with yellow wildflowers. At the top of the tree’s heart, she can just barely see a group of sapphire-blue Mernos flapping around. Maybe it wasn’t so bad to come here alone, after all.

Nova’s glowflies flash red and scatter.

The field of flowers has gone dark; something is blocking the sun. She turns slowly to see a giant black shadow hovering against the wall above, outlined in dreadful clarity. She falls onto her back, heart racing. It can’t see me, not through the bark. The silhouetted monster’s head turns, listening… listening… Her breathing is irregular and choppy, but quiet. After a moment, she feels sunlight on her face again.

A small noise comes from Nova’s left, followed by crunching leaves. She turns to see a Mosswine snuffling the mushrooms with its chubby pig nose, totally oblivious to the imminent danger.

“You’re dead, too,” she hisses, and then the entire wall shatters.

An Anjanath, nose flared and flames dripping from between its teeth, lands across the room. The whole tree shakes with the impact. The Mosswine scurries for a burrow. Nova staggers to her feet, drawing the lance and shield from her back.

“Alright, come get it!” she snarls.

The body-sized shield, which she’d complained about so often during stamina training, shines dully in the light streaming from the broken wall. Her lance, more than five feet long, looks like a toothpick compared to this beast across from her. Cheap gear from the Academy, just loaned out for the day. Needed these for a friendly duel :) is what she wrote on the sign-out sheet.

The Anjanath huffs and little embers twist towards to the ground. The tunnel--her escape tunnel--is right between its tree-trunk legs. Could she slide under and reach it…?

“No,” Nova mutters. “I can kill.”

She’s looking into the Anjanath’s eyes and for a moment, she believes herself. Then it’s charging, snout lowered and teeth bared, and her mind flattens; she drops to one knee and locks her shield arm into a sharp 90 degree angle, summoning the blue aura of a Power Guard. The beast hits Nova with its full weight and she slides back several feet, barely keeping her footing. She has no breath left in her lungs, but she turns and strikes the Anjanath’s belly with three high-reaching blows.

The point of her lance pierces the tightly-meshed scales, and the Anjanath turns in an instant, snapping at her with manic anger. Nova raises her shield and the huge teeth drag across it, sending a terrible screeching straight through her skull. The monster bites again, tearing at the shield, and her feet slip against the grass. Sparks fly from the beast’s mouth and burn holes where they land on her leather gloves. The steam coming from its nose envelops her, making the metal grip of the lance slick in her hand.

Gritting her teeth, Nova pulls the lance back and cocks into position for a Counter Strike, just as the Anjanath lunges a third time; right as the beast’s head hits her shield, she drives her lance into its head with incredible fury. The silver tip splits the red-tinged flesh and the Anjanath staggers backwards, tail thrashing back and forth. Nova grins, feeling a rush of satisfaction. A tiny stream of flame gushes from the underside of its jaw like a leaky pipe.

Wait, what had the Admiral told us about the throat? Vaguely, she’s able to recall seeing a crappy picture of an Anjanath drawn on a chalkboard, with excitedly-scrawled arrows pointing at its neck. An… explosion?

The Anjanath watches her coldly, then a wave of red rushes up it neck. Uh oh. It opens its jaws, unleashing a bolt of flame in Nova’s direction. She drops behind her shield, but without a Power Guard prepared she’s blown off her feet. She feels the pain instantly--a stabbing wrongness everywhere at once. The flames flicker over her armored skin, biting and burning. A strange whining noise builds in her throat as she struggles to breathe.

The Anjanath paces towards Nova slowly, recognizing her paralysis. And suddenly she’s afraid. The monster lowers its head. Although the flames on her body are dying out, the heat emanating from its partially-opened mouth is overwhelming. Nova’s eyes flutter open and closed, capturing the approach of the beast in frame by deadly frame, until she feels the snout pressed against her side, nosing her over.

A second wave of adrenaline comes with the touch. Nova reaches under her leg and grasps the carving knife there. The movement makes the Anjanath’s sunken eye flare. It lashes out, sinking two of its greatsword-sized teeth into her left leg, shattering the bone with a wet snap. As it takes a mouthful, she drives the dagger into the puncture in its neck and yanks, pulling through the scales and towards her body in a clean cut.

Red bursts across her vision. Blood and flame unfurl like one billowing cloud. The Anjanath recoils, head flying back in a massic arc as though she’d just doled out a knockout uppercut. It hits the ground hard enough to make Nova’s teeth shake.

She eases up onto one leg. The monster writhes on the ground beside her, helpless. Her hand twitches towards her lance and shield, cast at her feet. A few clean strikes through the flesh of its belly--it couldn’t hurt. Thankfully, another little voice in the front of her head says You’ll probably die, though. Right. Nova picks up the weapons and sheathes them on her back

She rummages through the few bottles she has strapped to her waist, pulling the cork out of the smallest and chugging the thick liquid inside. Her leg itches like crazy as the muscles and bones rework themselves, but the relief is immediate. I can see how people get addicted to this stuff. Nova puts weight on the leg- -good --and sets off through the musty tunnel.

The glowflies come back after a while, and she eyes them with some exasperation.

“Thanks guys. You’re so great when I’m in a life-threatening situation .”

Nova pulls herself up a vine and onto the netting above, grunting.

“Wish I could just disperse into an invisible cloud when I get scared.”

Of course the bugs say nothing. They wait politely for her at the bottom of the next slope.

A Great Jagras hulks past in the shadow of the wild jungle trees, stomach bulging and eyes half-lidded. He turns towards her and she runs by without hesitation, pushing off from a grassy rock and bounding across the final waterlogged field. Her nerves are way too exhausted to feel any twinge of fear.

Just over the next crest is base camp. She stumbles up to the Handler, who sits primly on a bench by the campfire. When she sees Nova, her mouth drops into a little ‘o.’

“I need a Palico cart immediately,” she says, brushing her hands off on her pants and trying desperately to look official.

“Your… your ponytail is smoking,” the Handler says faintly.

Nova pinches at her hair and manages a smile.

“There was an incident. It’s taken care of.”

The Handler, face stretched into a pained smile, rings the small bell on the table beside her. It’s bronze, with a top carved into a delicate paw.

“Yep,” Nova says, just to fill the silence. She opens the glowfly cage on her belt, letting them fly back in. “The hunt was easier than expected.”

Shut up, Nova!

“Oh? What did you hunt?” the Handler asks, idly doodling in her quest book.

Don’t say it!

“An Anjanath,” she says.

The Handler looks up and grins for real.

“That’s wonderful! And at such a young age, too!” She pauses and looks past Nova. “Did you come with a Bloodhound?”

Instant surge of anger in her stomach.

“You think I couldn’t do it alone? You think a lance couldn’t get the job done? A Guardian couldn’t?” Nova asks viciously.

The Handler frowns.

“No, I just… it’s just… it’s typically teams who kill Anjanaths--”

“WELL NOT ME, LADY!”

Just then, two Palicos appear from the bushes, pulling a cart behind them. Nova glances at them, then back at the Handler. She’s frozen, eyes wide. The Palicos look at each other, then back at Nova.

“I’m sorry,” she mutters.

Then she walks over and take a seat on the cart. Slowly, the Palicos push Nova out of the clearing and down a tiny dirt path. Each bump makes the shield dig into her back.

“How long till we reach the city?” she asks.

“Forty minutes. Meownutes,” the speckled Palico says.

Palico puns are terrible.