Valen immediately froze when he recognized Flynn. He stared at Flynn like he saw a ghost, which was technically the case. He tried to talk several times, to ask how he survived, why he was here until he simply only could say: “Sorry.”

  “I had forgiven you long ago, Valen. However… Know that several times I almost would have reported you as unfit for hunting. It… Was my right. But every time I would, I reminded myself of what I know of you, and that you would never willingly do such a thing. Willingly. That’s the key word isn’t it?”

  “I… Flynn, I never should have fled without helping you. I should have helped you try to distract it.”

  Flynn raised a hand, stopping Valen from further developing what he was saying. “Would’ve, should’ve, could’ve will not help us here, what matters now is what happened. Let me make it clear what happened once this damned Seregios threw me out of the cliff. Trees managed to slow my fall down, but in the end, I broke my lower back on the fall, and as you can guess, I lost the use of my legs. I am stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of my life Valen. That is the price I must pay for our overconfidence. For our errors.”

  Valen protested, but he was at the edge of tears: “But… It’s all MY fault, you cannot simply pin it all on yourself, I have my part of the blame too…”

  “You do. But it’s not your full fault too. The biggest mistake was made when we did not call the fight once the Seregios arrived and vacated the terrain to let the two of them duke it out until the Glavenus was isolated once more. I should have made the call. But I didn’t. I let the situation worsen until fatalities happened.”

  Valen was now tearing up. “I… Flynn, why are you so forgiving still, it’s because of me that your hunting career is over.”

  Flynn nodded. “Valen. Know that I almost hated you for what you’ve done, for abandoning me. I almost did. But reason triumphed in the end when I remembered what you told me about your past, about your reason for hunting, and how the situation would have looked like for you. I do not blame you, Valen. But know this: I have one request of you now.”

  Valen looked Flynn in the eyes, wiping the tears from his eyes. “What it is?”

  “Be the best you can be. Never give up, And protect all of those who cannot defend themselves. Maybe you’ll become a legend one day. I’ve read the report of your latest hunt you know, and the sheer guts and determination you showed is seen in all the legendary hunters we talk in admiration of. Maybe you’ll become one. But do not let what happened stop you, and simply become better. You’ll also surely conquer the demons of your past this way.”

  The Switch Axe wielder looked at Flynn for a while, then he nodded, a resolute look now in him. “I will be. I’ll be the best I can be. For Myla, for Edwin. For you.”

  “Then go and may the world soon know your name…”

  “When did you become so wise, Flynn? I only remember as the stoic Bowgun user.”

  Flynn laughed and patted Valen’s shoulder. “That’s what staying in this chair all day and reading books transform you into. Maybe you’ll become wise too, once your career is over and you grow old.”

  Valen chuckled in response. “Maybe.”

  Then Flynn's face immediately turned serious. “You may not have been stripped of your rights to hunt, but the guild still requires a punishment for what you have done. I agreed with it, it seemed a fair one given the circumstances, I know you already learned your lesson, and given you are now a solo hunter, may not repeat the same mistakes, but rules are rules.”

  The Commander finally reminded Valen he was still in his office, making him jump. “Indeed, what we decided is that you’ll be posted in an isolated village in the Jurassic Frontier, with no city in miles around. The village is quite secure and has a hundred souls but has no dedicated hunter for now. We’ll post you there and you’ll stay in it until we decide we can recall you. You are to take care of the threats to the village, only dissuade if you can, and use lethal force only if the village is directly threatened. Do you agree to these terms?”

  Valen took a moment to think about what he said. These terms meant that he was effectively put in the corner as a hunter, not allowed to take quests, or take patrols around but not allowed to truly hunt unless the direct safety of the village was at risk… Or it would have if Valen were a normal hunter. His relationship with Nikki meant that he could still train with her, if she agreed to, which isn’t sure as the new post was quite far from what they currently were. Would she move her nest for him? Did she care for him that much? He hoped so. However, he had no choice still, he just had to hope she would help him.

  With his mindset, he gave his answer. “I agree. When does this start?”

  “You have an airship that departs in three weeks, what you do in the meantime is your business, as long as it is not hunting.”

  That suited Valen fine, three weeks gave him enough time to inform Nikki of the new development. “Understood Commander.”

  “You are dismissed.”

  Valen nodded and exited the room, putting his helmet back on, Flynn maneuvering his chair to allow him to pass. Then once he closed the door, Flynn talked to him. “Myla and Edwin are buried in the local cemetery. If you wish to pay your respects before you leave, you can go visit them.”

  “I…” Valen paused for a moment. “I think I will, I haven’t said goodbye properly to them yet. Their death may not be my fault, but I still regret it happened. Yours was the one I blamed myself the most Flynn. In time maybe I will forgive myself, but not just yet.”

  “Just make sure you do one day, and grow past it, and that is all I ask of you.”

  “Thank you for still believing in me. I’ll go now…”

  However before he could leave, Flynn snatched his hand and pulled him back, then he leaned forward and said, with barely a whisper. “Valen, I did not fall unconscious immediately once I broke my back, I stayed conscious long enough to see a Valstrax leave, carrying something, do you know anything about it?”

  Valen managed to suppress the flinch that threatened to appear once he learned that information, and he was glad he had already put his helmet back on. Thinking quickly he said: “I don’t remember, I do remember falling unconscious after a flash of red and an explosion… So maybe it killed the Seregios and tried to carry me, but dropped me, I remember being a bit wet when I recovered my spirits but assigned it to the dampness of the cave.”

  “Hmm, that’s strange but at least that means you weren’t eaten by it.”

  “Yeah… Probably lucky in that regard.” He said with a faraway look, before snapping himself back to attention. “I’ll go now, I want to see Myla and Edwin. Thank you again.”

  “You are welcome. May the Sapphire Star guide you.”

  “And you.”

  Valen then descended the stairs with a final wave and exited the whole, building, weaving through the passersby, some dragging carts of ore, others being Felynes scurrying around holding papers between their fangs. He followed the directions Flynn gave him toward the cemetery, and after several minutes, he reached it.

  For such an important city, the cemetery seemed smaller than it should be, but that was before he realized that hunters were usually buried in their hometown when possible, and then Edwin and Myla just asked that they be buried in the town where their bodies were recovered. Valen had done the same, since being buried in the village he was born is was… A complicated affair anyway.

  He walked between the tombstones, the inscriptions on them having only the names of the people buried underneath, as well as the weapon they wielded and the year of death. Some, more richly decorated also contained the name of the biggest threat they managed to participate to slay. He halted when he saw one figuring a Kushalah Daora until he realized he was in a party of four.

  Stolen story; please report.

  The cemetery humbled Valen and reminded him that no matter what happened, they were all mortal. That only one accident, bad decision, or just plain bad luck was enough to snuff one’s life out, and that at the end, unless you were among the great that had songs sung about them, you just faded from memory. That was a fact that may have disturbed many, but Valen just knew that was the cycle of life. He had accepted it and preferred just to enjoy the moments he had together with Nikki.

  It was a few more rows later than he stopped, having spotted the names he looked for.

  ‘Myla, Hammer, slain by Seregios, Vanquisher of Barroth.’

  ‘Edwin, Lance, slain by Seregios, Conqueror of Rathian.’

  The years were the current one, and Valen crouched to be able to see the tombs at eye level. Then he spoke. “I hope you are doing great, no matter where you are. I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything about your deaths, but I swear to you both that I won’t waste the rest of my life away, and make sure that I use my skills to continue our work. May the Sapphire Star guide you forevermore.”

  Then he stood up and after a final nod to the tombs, he walked away.

  Valen spent the night in a room in the headquarters and the following morning, left the city. More than anything this time, he needed to see Nikki. She needed to be informed of where he would reside now, and he barely had enough time to reach their usual meeting point and back before the airship left.

  So he spent ten days traveling back to where they met with the Valstrax. Musing over Flynn’s survival. Internally he was overjoyed, he thought he was the sole survivor of his hunting party. But… He also was ashamed of the life-changing injury he caused to him, even if he had been forgiven.

  It was no wonder then that he was still ruminating on this when Nikki made herself known by landing at the center of the clearing. Valen finally looked up and smiled, she was becoming, no, a constant in his life that he wouldn’t trade for anything. Her special mindset on things, being something powerful and that knew it meant that she had less to worry about being not powerful enough for some things. Though sometimes he wondered if she had been ever helpless… She seemed a bit less arrogant than she should be as an elder.

  Mentally shifting gears to focus on what he wanted to say to her. He signed: “Me, moving.”

  That caught her attention immediately, and she immediately turned her head to her side, puzzling about what she would say, then she simply asked: “Where.”

  Valen unrolled the large map he was carrying, he pointed where they were situated, then shifted his finger towards the opposite side of the continent they were on, in the middle of a large forest called the Jurassic Frontier, on which the closest Headquarters were located at Berna village. It wasn’t this village Valen was going to however, but another, smaller and more isolated one deep in the forest, but defensible thanks to the small hill it was located on, making ground-bound monsters have to fight threats from above and the tall trees protecting it mostly from aerial attacks.

  Nikki examined the map, and the new location he pointed at, studying it intensely, then she nodded and simply signed: “You go. I follow.”

  Valen couldn’t stop the grin that spread on his face when she said that, he had hoped he wouldn’t be alone, but he was relieved to have the confirmation from her. It truly meant that she cared for him deeply too, that she was willing to move her lair to stay close to him.

  “Thank you.”

  A slow blink was his answer, and Valen hugged her head before separating. He decided to stay the night, but he would have to leave as soon as he could the next morning. In the meantime, he simply decided to enjoy his time together with Nikki.

  Three weeks after his meeting at Harth, Valen returned to the city, waiting next to the main dock for the airships. Harth being a center of trade for everything that was ore, several airships made their stop there to stock up before going to deliver their cargo to a faraway place on the continent.

  He had seen a couple of them already dock and load up on cargo before departing. But none of them was the one he was waiting for, having been told only its name: The Reliant. The quartermaster simply told him that it was scheduled to arrive in the afternoon but that trying to keep an hourly schedule was wistful thinking, since airships depended on a lot of wind conditions, exact schedules were simply impossible to keep up. It was why Valen was waiting though, half of the afternoon having passed by already, and the sun starting to engage its final approach to the horizon and then sunset.

  However just as Valen resigned that it would arrive only at sunset, he noticed a little speck in the horizon, that seemed to descend towards them. He pointed this out to the quartermaster, who, after pulling out his binoculars, confirmed it was the ship he was waiting for. He guessed its arrival in not more than half an hour and told him to make sure he was ready by the time it docked.

  Valen nodded, checked one last time his backpack just to be sure, and climbed the stairs towards the proper docks, the exercise making his leg ache but not overly so.

  Once the Reliant arrived proper, the captain of the ship ordered his crew to start pulling in the cargo, then he looked at Valen and said. “I was told to drop you off at Hurora on my way to Bherna, am I right?”

  He nodded. “That’s right, I’m supposed to be posted there for several years.”

  “Hmmm, not a lot of activity in that area, you’d think so with the dense forest, but it simply means that large monsters don’t have the space to maneuver and simply go to grounds where they can. And flying monster can’t do anything with the tall cover.”

  “That is what I have been told, but I know not to complain, I could have received worse punishments.”

  The Captain studied him intensely and then nodded. “Worse that can be dished out indeed. At least it’ll teach you restraint boy!”

  Valen smiled, then looked at the horizon. “How long can we expect before we are there?”

  “Given it’s on the far side of the continent? Two days. I’d suggest you cover yourself thickly too, we’re going to fly high to avoid the majority of the flying beasties, only the serpents and Valstrax dare fly that high.”

  “I understand, do you need my help for preparing for departure?”

  “Nah, better you don’t, you ain’t as experienced knowing how to balance the thing as we are. Just pick a spot and try not to move around too much. We should be away before the sun has started setting.”

  Valen nodded and simply placed himself at the edge of the railing, simply observing the giant green balloon that floated above him.

  The captain of the airship had been right in his prediction, two days later, they were descending towards the huge forest spanning miles around them, and the captain pointed him towards a small rise in the trees. “This is where the village is located, I’d suggest you start climbing down the ladder, we’re going to slow down to allow you to drop down to a tree, but we’re not going to stop, I trust you have been taught how to climb down trees I hope?”

  Valen chuckled. “Do not worry, I still know how to, you have to sleep in them while traveling in the wilderness.”

  The captain nodded. “Then don’t miss your jump, and if you do, try catching yourself with that axe of yours. You won’t have a second try and it would be bad luck to break a leg on your first day here!”

  Nodding firmly, Valen gauged the distance they needed to cover still, then climbed down the ladder. The airship slowed down, but still moved, at a walking pace above the trees top, and suddenly Valen was able to glimpse a village through the cover. He then waited before he was above a tree and its thick trunk, then jumped, his body plunging through the leaves and frail branches until he managed to catch one of the thickest ones and stopped his fall.

  Looking down below and seeing the height he was at, he pulled out some ropes from his backpack and started installing a crude pulley system. Once he tested it to be sure it would hold, he rappelled down the trees, doing small jumps each time, and finally having a clear view of the village, which was built mostly of wood and a thick outer wall. He could see the sharp incline that surrounded it and knew that it was the perfect location to defend it. Only a single path allowed easy entry into it, and he knew for sure it was the location that had the most ballistae that covered the arc.

  Valen finally reached the floor and after unhooking himself from the cord, pulled on it until the other end reached the top and the whole thing fell. He then took a deep breath. He was where he would stay for the foreseeable future, so he should introduce himself and know what he would deal with.

  It only took him a bit to ask for directions towards the village’s chief house, but once he was there, he was welcomed, and they had a quick discussion of what he would do as duties, which was to simply patrol around and ward off dangerous monsters. There was an accommodation waiting for him, though it had been unused for a while since the last hunter was stationed. Valen thanked him and headed towards it, intending to drop his backpack and have a long rest after the exhausting journey in the clouds.

  Valen grumbled while kicking a stone away, these villagers constantly asked him to go deeper than they could in the forest to try to find the rarest mushrooms that grew around. ‘Just patrolling around my ass.’ No matter that they could find them themselves, now that they had a hunter in the village, they would give the most dangerous tasks to him, no matter if they could do it without issues beforehand. He sighed, it would help if he found a place where he could meet Nikki, but he had yet to find a break in the cover…

  He stopped, looking ahead of him, and grinned, because right in front of him was exactly what he looked for, a huge clearing in the forest, and an entrance wide enough that would surely allow Nikki to get through. He checked the ground and while it was covered in tree leaves, it wasn’t muddy at all, and probably had good drainage, so it would dry quickly after rain.

  Satisfied, he pulled out the flare gun he was required to keep on him for emergencies, but, swapping the red flare for a blue one, he aimed it towards the canopy, on the only place that had a hole in it, and fired, his aim was true and the flare hovered just below the hole.

  He had seen Nikki flying around between clouds the few times he climbed on top of a tree, and he hoped that she was around, if not he would come at another time the following day.

  Not even a minute later, he could hear a rumble, that put a large smile on his face, currently hidden by his helmet, and right after, Nikki emerged from the tree cover, roaring in joy.

  Valen only signed: “Welcome back!” And she roared louder.