I’d love to say my childhood is normal, but I was 6 years old now and father decided it was finally time to begin learning to hunt.
Today would be my first day of training with him.
I currently sat atop Grahm, my fathers peco, right in front of father.
Peco’s were cute birds and reminded me of Chocoxxx, with Grahm being one of them.
Father’s bird was dark gray, almost dirty looking with streaks of red feathers.
Still, Grahm was a well natured Peco and father’s oldest partner.
I loved this bird like family, because it let me nuzzle up into its soft feathers whenever I wanted.
My father looked dashing today, to say the least.
Wearing his signature armor, a mixed set made from high wyvern materials and reinforced with Hihi’irokane, a metal most hunters only knew of legends.
It was well maintained and even the leather shone thanks to my father caring so much for his gear.
“Where are we going to train today, daddy?” My childish voice asked.
I’ve long learned that my dad was a real softie when I tried to get spoiled.
“Today you’re learning how to track monsters.” “Ohhh like Catun deer tracks?” My father let out a laugh, making my whole body shake, “no Aria, today I’m teaching you to read wyvern tracks.” I felt my whole body go stiff.
Did he say wyvern tracks?
Putting my childish voice and blue puppy dog eyes to their best use, I said, “but daddy, I’m 6, can’t we go to a picnic instead?
Tell me how you met mommy again, pleaseee~” I heard him sigh pained behind me, “Not even if daddy allows you to use his carving knife?” “I really can?!” I began to hum happily, my father pleased by my reaction.
“You’ll become one fine huntress one day, Aria.” “Really?” “Of course you can and the first step is learning monster tracks.” My father pulled out an old, worn-out-looking, book.
I couldn’t read it yet, but the book had lots of drawings of footprints, sketches of monster torn tree barks and even rough pictures of monsters marked with their weak points.
I couldn’t be prouder of my father’s dedication to being a hunter.
And yet, I can’t shake the feeling I was forgetting something…
Wait.
Wait, wait, wait.
I’m still only a 6-year-old girl and this is basically the world of Frontier Hunter Online!
Then I felt father’s hand, gently petting my head as if on cue.
“You’ll be fine, you’re Aisha’s and my daughter and you’ve got a smart head in your shoulders.” My head wobbled from his head pats.
“Okaaaay!” I continued to ride Grahm with my father until we reached the nearby grasslands.
As far as the eye could see, a sea of green, broken only by massive dinosaur like monsters.
They were well known for their tender meat and are a known staple in every hunter’s kitchen.
“Look dad, a herd of Anceros!” I squealed pointing at a nearby herd of massive beasts.
Even a young one could weigh more than 300 kilogram, with adults easily weighing a ton and more.
It took another hour until we reached the scarlet forests.
My dad pulled Grahm’s reins, slowing the Peco bird down into a slow trot.
Then dad brought Grahm to a full stop when we reached one of the dozen base camps that were prepared.
The camp wasn’t anything remarkable, containing only an old looking, but at least very big open tent.
My parents yurt looked way cozier, but this is a real hunting camp you know?
I slipped one of my legs over Grahms soft back and got ready to dismount.
My father immediately used his gloved hands to help me down with a hearty, “there you go.” The second my still tiny feet touched the ground, I sped towards the tent without a care in the world.
“Be careful and don’t stray out of the camp!” My father’s loud voice boomed from behind me.
When I reached the tent, I noticed the big chests right away.
A big green chest, just like in the game was right there!
In-game those chests always had the hunters necessities like low potions and basic ammunition and arrows.
I mean come one, if you see a chest, you simply had to open it!
My small body struggled when I tried to push open the lid.
It didn’t budge at all, was I really that weak?
I began to push harder and harder, my small arms shaking, “opeeeeen!” I heard a laugh from my father and he stepped up to me from behind.
“You need a guild sigil to open it, here look.” A moment later he pushed his guild sigil into the key hole, unlocking it.
The chests lid opened right away and I tumbled right into it.
“Empty…” I sadly exclaimed from inside the chest, making my father’s loud voice laugh again.
“Of course it’s empty, hunters use those chest for preparation, so we either fill them ourselves or pay guild porters to have them filed before the hunt.” He told me.
I’ve never heard of guild porters before, as they weren’t part of Frontier Hunter Online at all, but this was reality and not the game.
Stroking my head again, father began to explain, “when we hunters take on guild requests, a part of the fee goes to a corresponding porter to help us with preparations.
Without them, we hunters have to do it ourselves and quite a lot of hunters underestimate the importance of their prep work.” I nodded along with crossed arms and a smug look as if I was proud of how my father knew stuff like this.
“Aria don’t nod so silly,” my father grinned.
“Come now, let’s learn to read tracks together.” He gently took me by the hand and lead us towards the forest.
As we reached the edge of the base camp, father stopped again and pulled out his carving knife in its sheath.
With dexterous moves, he fixed the knife to my small belt, “I trust you, so don’t play around with it, okay?” I nodded happily, my right hand moving onto the carving knife’s pommel.
I bet I looked like a knight right now, with this knife on my belt!
Walking with father, I quickly noticed how our surroundings got darker, bathing more and more of the uneven and more than bumpy path only with thin rays of light.
I was captivated by the beauty of this forest and saw lots of small insects, maybe as big as my arm, run around and some harvesting honey.
We reached a small clearing soon and my father stopped, “now Aria, if you look closely around, do you see anything special?” A questioning look in my eyes, I started looking around more, my head swiveling and scanning the area.
It’s a forest, but what should I even notice here?
Father suddenly let out a cough and pointed at a spot in front of our feet.
There was nothing.
Or at least I thought so until father crouched down next to me and removed a few leafs from the ground, revealing a footprint.
“Ohhhh.” The footprint was bigger than I was tall and deep enough that I could do a small jump into it, not that I should.
With my tiny hands I began to touch the edges of the footprint.
“Ewww it’s sticky,” I told father and he let out another laugh.
“Because the monster was in the hunt.
That stickiness you feel is blood.” “Blood?!” I yelped and fell onto my ass.
“Now, can you see where it went?” He asked me and I checked the footprint again.
I quickly pointed towards the left path of the clearing.
“It went there, dad!” “And what makes you think that?” I tilted my head a little, then moved over to the other side of the deep monster footprint where the claws left deep scratches.
“It’s claws were here, dad.” “Good girl,” he petted my head again, making me hum.
A good hour later we finally found a burrow that looked like a small cave.
“This is the monsters lair,” father said, “small wyvern don’t make them themselves, but rather steal them off their prey.
If you look closely, you can see horned rabbit marks around the burrows edge, showing us it was a horned rabbit warren, before becoming the lair of small wyvern.
“I thought they build nests like birds?” I asked him, because egg hunt quests ingame always had bird like nests for every wyvern.
“But they do,” he answers, “the nest is inside the burrows edge, you simply can’t see it from outside.” A sudden and too shrill monster cry suddenly came from inside.