Chapter Text
“ἑπεἰ τοῖς γε χρώμασι λευκἂ καἱ οὐ λεπυριώδη, Ἰῶν δ' ἁνθῶν τὀ μἑν πρῶτον ἑκφαἱνεται τὁ λευκόἲον, ὅπου μἑν ό ἀἠρ μαλακώτερος εὐθὑς τοῦ χειμῶνος, ὅπου δἐ σκληρότερος ὕστερον, ἑνιαχοῡ τοῡ ἣρος"
“In colour white and bulbs without scales. Of the flowers, the first to appear is the white violet. Where the climate is mild, it appears with the first sign of winter, but in more severe climates, later in spring.”
-Theophrastus
A lone snowdrop decorated a soil filled crevice, surrounded by carpets of soft snow.
“So, they said it’s a monster that roars louder than Jin Dahaad, and it could be causing short earthquake-like tremors… There are few monsters who could be big enough to cause events like that.”
Erik was mumbling to himself on his seikret, eyebrows tight with concern. Around him, the walls glowed white from the reflective shine of the snow. Gray mist left the rest of the environment dark and eerie. Ace, the main hunter of the Avis Unit, led Erik’s seikret along with his own mount. As Erik continued to distract himself, their seikrets whirled and rubbed each other's noses, back and blue feathers brushing together.
“We best tread carefully then,” he moved his gaze from Erik to focus on the path in front of them. So far, no tracks of any kind were visibly left behind by the monster they were hunting.
Ace was a large but slim hunter, whose dark-toned skin, except for his head, was mostly covered in scales and monster hide. On his chest, he wore the dark hide of Zou Shia, while the rest of his armor was of a tempered Reu Dau. On his back, he held a glaive carved with the armor of an Ebony Odagron, and on his wrist was a large blue and black beetle. His seikret, Ocius, primarily grew black feathers with orange colors in small patterns. On Ocius’s tail was Ace’s palico, Pixel.
“Mrrow!” She scratched her orange fur.
“Yes, Pixel. I know it sounds scary. But we will be fine,” Ace comforted her.
The sound of wind whistled past them, accompanied by the obtrusive sound of Erik scribbling in his notebook. It distracted Ace from the chill the breeze brought. Of course, it was not long before Erik jumped off his seikret, stopping their whole mission for a moment, just to look at a bug. He crouched and pressed close to the scene before he gasped.
“Look! Its heatmantle bugs attempting to mate! This is rarely seen in the wild,” he watched the male bugs dance and flash their bright red colors. It should have been annoying, but Ace could not help but smile as Erik’s eyes widened in wonder.
“Erik, we cannot stall for too long.” Even so, Ace jumped off his mount to join his handler. They watched together as the female beetles inched closer to the males, and all the while, the males made their dances more and more dramatic.
“Its extraordinary that the males don’t fight each other. Unlike most species, they let the females choose their favorite, and the females will mount them instead of the other way around!” His casual grin made Ace laugh. A tinge of red crept up Erik’s cheeks when he looked at him and at that moment, Ace enjoyed the green tint in his eyes. “Stop laughing,” Erik murmured.
“Sorry,” Ace smiled before he walked back to Ocius. The seikret was moving back and forth, snorting cold mist. “Come, we should continue.”
“Okay,” Erik replied. They both got on their seikrets and began to travel again. Even as they moved, though, Erik took notes of all plants and animals they came across.
Minutes later, they traveled deeper into a cavern dripping with icicles. Not much life could survive in this place, where rocks floated due to strange wyverian technology. Yet, multiple kinds of bugs found it as home. A beetle piled snow into a snowball and dragged it into a crevice, while quatreflies chased each other near the ceiling. The season was Inclemency. So, Erik had to keep himself warm with multiple scarves over his head and gloves on his hands, still traveling right beside Ace, who was petting his seikret as they continued forward. A troop of blangos jumped down from a nearby ledge, catching Ace’s attention. They appeared indifferent to Ace and Erik’s presence as they went about their day, playing with each other and grabbing bugs off the walls to chew on.
“Blangos! Be careful Ace, usually a Blangonga travels with them as their matriarch,” Erik informed him.
“Right.” They continued forward more slowly, keeping eyes on them.
Erik just put away his notebook when the earth shook around them, sending icicles from the ceiling falling like spears. The blangos bolted away, and Ace took the message to do the same. As he commanded Ocius to run with a whip of his reins, he grabbed Erik’s seikret’s reins to follow under a small covered area to their left.
“Stay close!” The hunter commanded, pulling the seikrets as close to the wall as he could while they stumbled over the rumbling ground. Erik was shaking from fear or the cold or both, holding tightly onto his saddle and the neck of his seikret.
Ace thought he heard the echoes of falling rocks at first, but a moment of listening to the eerie ringing made his heart begin to pump. It was a sound so loud, it sounded quiet, drawing out the chaos of falling rubble. Only a tinge of the actual sound could be made out, something akin to a dragon.
Pixel began to freak out, pointing up and meowing at them. And just when they thought the tremors would stop, rocks and ice clattered down from the ceiling, with white puffs of snow following the disaster like fog. Before Ace could even think, their surroundings turned into vibrating chaos, blocking any entrance or exit, whilst large ice chunks he felt slam onto his head threatened bigger ones that could kill them both. Now, the light was disappearing. Ace needed to do what he could, so he jumped from Ocius and tackled Erik, who seemed to watch the iceslide in a frozen panic, all the while the ground continued to tremble.
They were lost in the clouds of snow. Erik gripped onto the hunter’s shoulders for dear life while, unexpectedly, they began to fall and tumble. It was impossible to tell where they were falling in the mounds of snow. The only thing Ace could make out was Erik’s scream, the continuous roar of the unknown monster, and a sharp pain from some large rock that struck his back.
Finally, the trembling stopped as soon as they crashed onto a rocky surface. While the snowy mist took a while to clear, Ace focused on his and Erik’s rapid breaths. They were still pressed together, so it calmed him for a moment to feel Erik’s chest rise and fall, even as the bruise on his back pulsed with pain.
“Ace..?” Erik wheezed through his pain, looking at the hunter with a terrified and pained expression. Dust had turned his blond-white hair gray. And a scratch, likely due to one of the rocks, was dripping blood down his cheek.
Ace gently pushed off of him to look around. He saw the cave they were trapped in, lit by crystals and a small hole in the ceiling leading to the surface, with just a bit of snow from what they had fallen down with. The walls were covered in ice, reflecting the strange crystal lights like glass.
“Are you all right?” He focused his attention back on Erik. This place was safe for now.
“Where are the seikrets? And Pixel?” Erik asked instead while he sat up and brushed snow off himself. “What happened? Do you think that was the monster?”
“It looks like we're alone. Maybe they escaped,” Ace explained hopefully before he offered Erik a hand. He took it, and Ace pulled him up, but not without wincing as his back throbbed in pain. Conflicting thoughts between his inquiry and the strangely endearing size of Erik’s small hand bounced around in his head.
Thankfully, Erik didn't notice his pain. Instead, he took his turn to look around. “Um, is.. Is there a way out?”
Ace looked around again. From here, he could neither see a way out of this room nor up to the surface.
“I… don’t know.”
The hole above them was plugged with snow, and then they were left in the dark.
In the darkness, Ace remembered what he was.
A hunter, for as long as he could remember. It was the only thing that had ever made him feel alive. Blood across his hands as he held his glaive was thrilling on its own, and constantly dodging near-death attacks was the best part. In the beauty of those moments, it was easiest to forget everything.
So he pledged to fight forever. To fight the monsters that ruined his life. To never let go. Because to do so, well, there was nothing to catch him when he fell. Nothing else mattered. He only ate because he had to be strong. The Avis Unit were the only people and place that allowed him to feel a little more again.
Now here, trapped in the dark underneath all this snow, the hunter wanted nothing more than to get blood on his hands again.
They are going to ruin my life for the second time.
“Ace!”
Erik was shaking his shoulder, and his panicked breathing filled the cavern. “Can you hear me? Do you have your lantern?” His voice allowed Ace to focus back on their dark and sudden situation.
Before he took out his lantern, he made sure his weapon and insect were still attached. After confirming, he took it out and lit the area in a dark orange light. Erik still wore a terrified expression, his face half covered by dusty green scarves. Even with the light, he didn’t let go of Ace’s arm.
“Lets move. There must be a way out, somewhere,” The hunter replied after a while of silence. And to hopefully comfort Erik more, he passed his beetle to him for the bug to crawl on. It worked almost instantly. As if they weren't trapped beneath layers of earth, Erik, with a large smile, petted the bug.
“This is a Grancathar right? Bred for strength and their powder ability? These war bugs are always so fascinating…” He made discussion as they began to traverse the rough, rocky terrain. A Flashbug crawled nearby, and Solanaria flew near the ceiling.
They spent the next hour crawling and walking, and it only got darker. It seemed like this place was a sort of labyrinth, supporting even less life than the outside environment. The Grancathar rested on Erik’s arm, but moved onto his back when the spaces became too tight. Then they were in a tight enough crawlspace that Ace’s glaive scraped across both the right wall and the ceiling. When he worried it would be a dead end, he saw a drop down into a larger area.
The two of them maneuvered through the space into the slightly warmer area. The rocks were a darker gray here, their color flickering in the orange light of the lantern. In some corners of the ceiling, dripping with stalagmites, spiders nested in thick white webs. While it smelled dusty, it also felt a little comforting. At least to Ace. Erik, diversely, was shaking again and gripping onto his scarves.
The hunter walked up to him. Even with his large presence, it took Erik a moment to look at him. Ace did not know what to say, but he figured a hand on his shoulder might help.
“Let’s rest,” he decided. Erik gave him a nod.
With no camping supplies, they made themselves as comfortable as they could on the floor. Erik was curled in a ball while Ace’s beetle cleaned his hair. A meter nearby, Ace fell asleep sitting up against the wall, listening to the echoes of unknown movements far off in the distance of this maze. His arms were resting on his knees, and his head was leaned forward, foreshadowing a stiff and sore neck when we would awake.
It didn’t matter. He dreamed of fighting monsters.
When a monster twenty times the size of Ace ran at him at full speed, he never backed down. Every leaf, every insignificant creature around him blurred, all for his eyes to focus on one goal: Killing the monster. He would stand and never cower. And right before its large fangs could rip him in two, he vaulted into the air and slashed its back instead. If it spun to attack, he would dodge before his brain could even process the action. In the end, he would make sure the monster would die, no matter what it took. No matter what it costs.
So how could he be stuck in this place? Running from the monster instead?
All of them deserve to be exterminated. The world would be better without them. But…
Erik would disagree.
The handler was still sleeping. Ace did not have to wake him to know the biologist would be distraught at his thoughts. It was enough to make him feel guilty. And maybe Erik was right about it all.
For now, Ace kept his patience. His impulses were a weapon. They could be controlled, so he spent this morning sharpening his weapon and thinking through their situation. Was it even morning? Or night? How much has time passed? On the topic of their target: Erik theorized the new monster could be another migrant predator attracted to the bustling life of the forbidden lands. For hours before they finally set out, he listed all the monsters it could be. Ace went over each one he mentioned, but none fit completely. Either this place was too cold, too small, too little food, or simply too hostile.
He tried to think through more of the situation. But Erik’s softly closed eyes, thin lips, and small nose, hands curled in fists- it was- distracting. But Erik’s softly closed eyes, his pure peaceful expression, and hands curled in loose fists left Ace without a tangible thought.
When the lantern turned back on, it again left flickers of orange light across the rock walls. The dusty smell was no better.
An hour passed by as the hunter continued to think. He stopped sharpening his weapon by the time Erik woke up, who stretched himself out of his ball with a yawn first, before widening his eyes at Ace as if he did not expect him to be there.
“Oh- M-Morning,” he stuttered, red coloring his face more than usual. He handed Ace his Grancathar, so the hunter promptly patted it on its wings and let it rest on his wrist.
“We need to get moving,” he wasted no time standing up and grabbing the lantern. The pain in his back burned, but it was not bad enough to visibly affect him. He had been through much worse, anyway. Erik stumbled to follow him before Ace continued, “Food is a priority. Do you know of our edible options down here?” Erik coughed before responding.
“Well, uh, I had no idea this place even existed, so it's hard to say.” They began to walk through random corridors. Spiderwebs were the only sign of life, other than distant echoes. “But based on other cave environments, this is likely a retreat for many bugs we see on the surface. And if any water sources reach down here, we could find fish as well.”
The hunter winced suddenly and leaned on the wall, using his weapon like a cane to quickly stabilize himself.
“Ace? Are you okay?” Erik’s eyes moved over Ace’s arms and shoulders as if searching for injuries. Ace knew that the biologist would pester him until he answered truthfully, so after a moment of grumbling, he gave in.
“It's… my back. Hit by a rock on the way down,” but before Erik could acknowledge this or try to help him, Ace forced himself to continue walking forward. “Don’t worry, Erik.”
Ace grabbed Erik’s elbow to help him from tripping over a couple of boulders. After that, they traveled in silence for a while, hoping for a miracle to find a way out. Erik glanced at his back every now and then with a worried look, leaving Ace guilty. Other than their troubles, sometimes there was a vine across the wall, sometimes a crystal on the ceiling. Erik counted four Nerscylla Hatchlings, five Palbugs, and a couple of Wiggly Litchis. Ace ate the Litchi worms without hesitation. For Erik, they would be way too gross to eat. But he had to listen anyway when Ace audibly chewed through their slimy organs.
If there was any way out nearby, they would have felt the wind. Painfully, there was not a gust of it to give them hope. Ace’s feet grew heavier and heavier with each step, and he watched as the lantern appeared to become dimmer. How long until they'd be trapped in complete darkness? Until they become lifeless in the ice? These caves will be the doom of them if they don’t find an escape soon.
It was Erik who brought some light back, “Take a left here! I think I smell moss. We might find water that way.” Ace nodded.
The earth shook again, sending them almost tripping into a stalagmite that speared into the rocky floor. More were crashing around them, creating a mess of small rocks and cold fog that limited Ace’s sight. With nowhere he knew of to run and hide, he resorted to pressing close to Erik in hopes to keep them both upright. And to protect him, Ace held his iron glaive along Erik’s back.
They were going to stay like that until the shaking stopped. But they couldn’t. That was because down the right side of the corridor, Ace saw the pink maw of some monster, details hidden behind dust and rubble, barreling closer and closer to their position.
“RUN!”
They ran like hell to the left. Erik stumbled behind in Ace’s footsteps, who dodged rubble and jumped across gaps. All the while, the earth shook more and more as the monster got closer. The sharp, ammonia-like smell of rot drew closer behind them every second, seconds they didn’t have.
Erik tripped.
Ace stopped running and pulled him back up in an instant, fast enough to save him in his fall.
The monster was closer.
“RUN!” He commanded again. But running couldn’t save them.
A boulder hung on the edge of another rock; it had some sharp ends and a jagged shape. He stood behind it. And just when the monster was about to swallow him whole, he slammed his whole body into the rock, sending it crashing through its long teeth and down its throat.
The thing screamed so loud Ace thought he would go deaf. It was that same draconic roar he had heard before, the last time the earth shook. Finally, when it stopped roaring, it slithered backwards down the way it came and disappeared. Ace collapsed onto the ground to catch his breath, images of its giant mouth flashing in his memory.
“Ace?!” Erik was running back to him, holding the lantern that Ace did not know he had dropped. Erik's green tunic was even more dusty now, as he crouched in front of Ace before he scanned for anything wrong. “You’re okay!”
The hunter gave him a rare smile. “Had to do it, or we would have been food.”
“That was definitely a snake, or some kind of thin long monster. A few types of monsters come to mind, but usually they are smaller than this…” he mumbled away while the hunter picked himself up.
“A juvenile?”
Erik shook his head, eyebrows scrunched in focus. “If it got any bigger, there could only be one name for it. But that species has gone extinct.” Ace watched for a moment as emotions of frustration, confusion, and fear passed through the handler's face. His hands twitched to do something, but he didn't know what.
So he gestured with his head to get moving. Erik nodded, and off they were again, following the endless tunnels of rock.
They didn't talk again until they found hope. It was a pool with glowing crystals underneath and crystal clear water. The air here smelled so much fresher, and the bioluminescence was bright enough to allow Erik to turn off the lamp.
There was enough space to make a small camp, if they had supplies. And rocks without sharp ends to sit on. In the water, Ace spotted a flick of a fin pass below the seagrass.
“You were right,” he gave Erik a fond look, who beamed back with a bright grin. “We have fish.”
“My nose must be strong,” he giggled before he dropped his expression to a calm smile. “Im just… glad you're alright.”
No one had ever said that to him before. Ace didn't want it to feel nice, but it did. So he kept his gaze on the water.
“You shouldn't worry about me.”
Erik’s eyes widened. Ace was reserved enough that the handler likely never noticed this part of him. The more personal side. It was bound he would see it eventually, with how much they travel together. Ace misses the surface, where he could distract himself with combat long before Erik would notice anything.
“Of course I should,” he said carefully and took a step closer. Ace could feel his eyes on him, but he still couldn’t find the courage to pull his eyes away from the water. All he could do was shake his head.
“Im a hunter. Trained solo,” he began, but couldn't find the words to explain that he simply didn't want Erik to get hurt.
Before the handler could respond, he took a fishing rod out of his bag, unfolded it, and began to fish.
“Tell me about the kinds of fish here,” Ace asked instead. Erik’s concerned expression turned into a smile.
“If it's the same as the pools outside, I can give you a list of twenty,” he laughed. “But there are only around four big enough to be attracted to your lure. The coolest one is the Glass Parexus, a see-through fish found in the deepest pools. Oh! And the Blind Perch are cool too. I bet there are a lot of those down here. The Blind Perch swims around and hunts by sensing vibrations in the water.”
“Would it not run into rocks and walls?” Ace grunted as he pulled back on the fishing line, a fish with tan scales stuck on the hook splashing water everywhere.
“Surprisingly, no! I couldn’t tell you the details because I don’t study fish as much as monsters. And speaking of Blind Perch-” Ace yanked the fish out of the water. It had no eyes, and scales the color of skin. And it was gargantuan, half the size of Ace’s body and likely almost as heavy. “You caught one!”
“Are they normally this big?” Ace asked. He cut its head off with a clean slice from his glaive, putting it out of its misery. Erik cringed.
“Yes. Uh, are we going to be able to eat all that?”
“I could eat almost all of it myself. Don’t worry.”
Erik gave him the strangest look Ace had ever seen on him.
“What?” Ace looked away to begin to set up a fire using the supplies from his backpack. But he could feel Erik’s stare all the same.
“You can’t be serious,” the handler began to giggle uncontrollably, so much so that he had to hold himself and lean over. He looked adorable like this, with the blue glow of the water reflecting on his hazel irises, and hair falling down over his face. “How could anyone possibly eat that much?”
“Is it… not normal?” The looks Ace got from others when he ate his feast at the festival started to make sense.
“No!” Erik giggled impossibly harder. His moment was interrupted by a large whine from his stomach. Ace got to work quickly after that, setting up the metal barbecue and lighting the fire. He dragged the carcass near him to cut it up and made himself comfortable on a rock, cushioned by a bit of moss.
“Is it normal for hunters?” Erik asked while Ace was harvesting the fish and separating it into large fillets. The meat was a pink so light it was almost white; Likely to be sweet and best with citrus.
“I have not met many other hunters. I couldn't say,” Ace could not stop smiling. Erik’s laughter echoed on the walls long after he stopped. As the hunter tried to focus on cooking, Erik was stuck in his mind again, like this morning. Not just that, stuck with him too. Under all this rock, in a cave that they might not escape from.
What was Ace supposed to do? Erik huddled close to the fire and sat on the same rock next to him. He pulled his legs close together and rested his pale hands between his thighs. Something made him bright and happy, if not, happier. Even though it was usual for him, here? In this scary place?
The hunter handed Erik the first fillet, sprinkled with a bit of salt and butter, which was all he had. It would be a bad idea to carry citrus fruits in a bag. The handler did not seem to mind at all anyway; He practically moaned with each bite.
Ace chuckled before he all but swallowed his plate whole and began to cook the next. This fish was good. How could fish be this good?
“This was a very healthy fish,” Erik commented. And while he was halfway done with his meal, Ace was halfway done with the rest of the fish. “I can tell by its size and taste. The cave system and connecting pools must be more extensive than I though-” The end of his sentence gets muffled by the food in his mouth.
The moss coated on the walls were somehow inviting, even though a bit wet. Ace left his food to start pulling moss off the rocks nearby, and when he was done, he laid it all out, making a carpet of green on a flat platform. “Sleep on this when you're done eating,” he told Erik, while he let his beetle crawl onto the carpet. Erik seemed to like sleeping with it last night; There was no harm in letting him have it again.
“What about you?” The handler asked with food still in his mouth.
“I told you earlier not to worry about me,” Ace took his seat again next to Erik and got back to eating. When their knees touched, he felt a bit more warmth in his chest.
“I can't help it,” Erik huffed and took his last bite. A few moments later, the warmth in Ace's chest turned hot when Erik let his head rest on the armoured shoulder of the hunter, the weight of his head akin to the comfort of a weighted blanket.
A slight breeze of cool air wafted from the glowing pool. Instead of responding, Ace let himself get lost in the pool's beautiful blue color, letting his feelings, whatever they were, warm up the rest of his body. Erik seemed to understand he wouldn't change his mind, so they spent the next hour finishing their food and going to sleep. Erik, as told, got comfy on the moss. Ace sat himself against the wall close by, watching over him as the Grancathar made itself comfortable on Erik’s shoulder.
Before Ace could let sleep wash over him, he felt the distant rumbling of that monster moving through the earth again.