The days continued to pass by for Valen, and a monotony settled into him as he progressed along the journey. A big chunk of each day was occupied by his time at the revolture’s nest. The rest of the time he spent either with Aiden, or by drawing in his notebook, which contained only illustrations of Nikki, as for some reason Valen was unable to properly draw any other monster. He supposed that since he saw Nikki that often and that he had so many memories of her, she became very lifelike on these.

  Valen sighed and closed the notebook, satisfied with the result of his idle scribbling, depicting Nikki in the middle of a jump.

  The nightmares haven’t stopped, far from it, they kept at him, and they were taking their toll. Valen felt tired, and only his morning beverage allowed him to go through the day. He shook his head. There was also one task that he still hadn’t dared to complete yet: to find a partnered Handler, as the Research Commission encouraged Hunters to pair with a Handler so that they could study any discoveries on the field without needing a dedicated scientist. If he couldn’t find one, it would be up to Valen to do the Handler’s job on top of his own, and while he would do it if he had no choice, he would prefer to have somebody trained into that instead of having to wing it.

  However, one aspect also made him think he should forgo a Handler anyway: Nikki. Adem was in on the secret, but could he share it with a total unknown? Would he take the risk that they blew his secret wide open? He would have to get a measure of their personality before doing it. Aki was a complete accident, Adem he knew he could trust once he got to know him, but such an unknown? This was something that worried Valen but he guessed he would go with the flow of things, as he always did.

  A collision knocked him out of his thoughts and he was sent sprawling to the ground, swearing, while another voice did the same in front of him, but the mirrored voice also dropped a stack of papers that went sprawling on the floor. Valen shook his head but regained his bearings first, and, realizing that he walked into somebody, he looked around, after seeing the dazed person who was knocked on the floor, he said.

  “Sorry! I wasn’t looking in front of me.”

  One of the aforementioned Handlers, judging by the stack of papers and the reading glasses clipped on his belt, was sprawled in front of him, and Valen noted his brown hair, though he had slanted eyes, showcasing his origins from Yukumo or Kamura villages. His hair was neatly brushed though, but that was all he could note before the stranger muttered. “And I had ordered them…” Valen winced, he felt like it was his fault.

  “Sorry, that was my fault, I wasn’t looking in front of me. Here, let me help you.” Then, I started picking up the scattered papers.

  The other looked at him and gasped, he then shyly said. “I… No, that was my fault, mister Valen, I shouldn’t have hurried that much.” He scrambled to grab all the papers as quickly as possible.

  “I don’t mind, and I do feel guilty.”

  Quickly enough, they managed to pick up all of the scattered paper, and Valen handed his pile to the other. “Here you go, mister…”

  “I-Ikari.”

  Valen nodded. “Ikari… You are a Handler I believe?” A nod? “Who’s your partner Hunter?”

  “I don’t have any…” Ikari whispered. “Almost everybody is taken.”

  The Hunter frowned. He knew that not many Hunters had found their Handlers yet, so he suspected the real reason was something else, as most were waiting to see the Handlers on the other ships to make their choice, which would be possible only when they arrived at Astera. However, something in the guy in front of him caught his attention. He wasn’t sure what… But he felt like he should trust him. He wasn’t sure if that was the shyness or the disappointment on his face, as something stood out.

  Nodding to himself he answered. “I don’t have a Handler myself as well, and you sound like you have faced your fair share of disappointments…”

  Ikari immediately stared into the eyes of Valen. “You, the Sky Piercer, you haven’t been swamped with offers from the other Handlers?”

  Valen shrugged. “To be honest I was surprised as well, but I guess they didn’t want to impose on me… Or they found me too intimidating.” He scratched his neck. “To be honest, I was considering not having a Handler as well, given that I have more of a special role in this fleet anyway.”

  Ikari opened his mouth, then paused, then seemed to steel himself and said. “It would be my honor if you accepted me as your official Handler.”

  Valen was taken aback by the suddenness of the request. However, after considering the request, he found out that the proposition made sense to him, and no red flags appeared from the person in front of him, he even thought that he quite liked his character, even with the apparent shyness he displayed. So he nodded. “You know what, I like you, so let’s give it a try, Ikari!”

  Ikari's mouth gaped open, seemingly surprised his forwardness worked. “I… Just like that?”

  “Just like that, you’ll find out that I tend to go with the flow, and maybe our meeting was just the result of chance, but I tend to grab good occasions. So let’s start working together, Ikari!”

  Ikari seemed to find himself again and smile, and they both went to the office of the Captain so they could register their partnership.

  Thus the next few days were spent with both Ikari and Valen sharing information and Ikari meeting Adem, who hadn’t been present when Valen crashed into the Handler. Ikari shook his head when he saw the poor drawings of monsters in his notebook… However, he was surprised when he saw the quality of the few Valstrax drawings that were present in it, as Valen kept his current notebook secret. He did explain that his hunt against the Valstrax truly marked him, and he could almost imagine that he would be fighting it again if he just closed his eyes…

  Valen felt bad for lying to Ikari, but he just needed to get a measure of the man and decide if he was safe to introduce to Nikki. Valen was afraid of what would happen should his relationship with Nikki be revealed to the wide public, or even to other hunters. He didn’t know if he would be labeled as a pariah, a team of hunters would be dispatched to hunt her, or if he would be put into chains… He knew he had been very lucky with Aki, who simply took it into stride, and lucked out on Adem being understanding, but how far could he push his luck? He wasn’t sure. So he was playing it safe.

  But at least a fair amount of his time was spent discussing with Ikari, and the man did admit that he had a phobia of the monsters, so he would prefer to get on the field only when he was sure the hunt was complete. This fact especially made him realize that introducing Nikki to him would probably be a bad idea if he panicked. So he decided that he would have to meet her in secret from him…

  At least when Ikari showed his drawings, Valen realized that the man had a real talent for the craft, as they were superbly detailed and clean, which was the complete opposite of the Hunter when it wasn’t Nikki.

  When trying to talk about the past, Ikari said that he wasn’t ready to talk about it for now though, maybe later, but he said he needed to work himself up for it. Knowing his past and his trauma, Valen understood that he wouldn’t want to reveal what initially pushed him to hunt monsters, even though he grew past it.

  Thus they started to get to know each other, through the discussion of their activities, and Valen believed he made a good choice with a Handler and had now a new confirmation that he should trust his gut feelings.

  Valen sighed, he was once again basking in the fresh air at the top of the revolture’s nest after his nightly nightmare… They were now a constant of his journey, as much as he hated it. He wanted to get past it… But he knew that the scars of his past ran too deep, and there was a fair chance that they would never be healed if he didn’t take drastic action concerning them. Adem did not join him this time, as Valen managed to not wake him when he stood up drenched in sweat. He did not blame him, given that his sleep was interrupted due to him, so he decided that he would let the Felyne have a full night’s rest for once.

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  This did mean that Valen was alone in his spot, contrary to what usually happened. But he didn’t mind, the cool air that he basked in at his spot helped him relax and calm down. Looking around, he could only see the faint reflection of the few stars that peeked through the cloud cover, the sky having clouded over the last couple of days… There was talk about the possibility of their destination being close, but nobody knew by how much.

  Valen sighed and let his gaze drift to the sky above, still looking for something, a sign that he wasn’t alone. Because he believed that it was due to this fact that he had the nightmares, that deep down he believed he would be once more alone. Even though Adem was still with him… He felt he wasn’t enough, that he wasn’t the one he truly longed for.

  Suddenly he saw something from the corner of his eyes. It happened so fast he thought it was a trick of his eyes, however… He focused on the place, staring at it for several long seconds, and when he thought it was truly his eyes playing tricks on him, he saw it… No, her, through a large gap between two clouds, twin trails of red, so close together that you would believe they were a single one. But Valen knew better, he knew what it was, and a warmth that he didn’t realize that he had missed since so long ago.

  A smile grew on his face and he waved at the far-off comet, and he almost believed it spun on itself in response.

  “Thank you, Nikki.” He whispered. “You do not realize how much you helped me.”

  He looked at the comet until it disappeared behind another cloud, and stayed a couple dozen minutes more, before suddenly feeling tired, and he climbed down and went back to sleep, a weight now absent from his shoulders.

  A few days later, Valen was spending the evening in the huge room at the center of the ship. Knowing that their journey was soon over, as every day might be the last on the sea, the hunters started celebrating it every evening. The ambiance was festive, with alcohol being poured into every cup (though Valen has been careful not to drink into excess, he did NOT want a repeat of what happened at the beginning of the journey.)

  Still, since Valen did not have many stories to tell outside his famed hunt, he mostly spent the time there listening to the tales of the other hunters, and especially Aiden, who had launched himself into a retelling of the adventures that led him to become a hunter. The tale surprised Valen, as he did not expect Aiden to have managed to repel a Lunastra that early in his career, the female counterpart to Teostra being famed for her aggressiveness… And the fact he saw a couple of hunters die that early on did not help either.

  Still, he listened to the tale he spun, that had enraptured the whole room, being magnetized to the words that were coming out of his lips. Valen noted that Lea, the Handler that Aiden accepted to partner with, seemed to be captivated by the story too. He shook his head, he felt like the two of them would make a good pair.

  Once Aiden finished his tale, with the Lunastra having being swept away by the inundation from the destruction of the barrage, everybody cheered and applauded Aiden for the tale and the good ending, though they also paid their respect to the hunters that gave their lives for the success of this hunt, at the prompting of Valen, who raised his mug for the fallen, followed immediately by everybody else in the room.

  Once the somber mood dissipated, Aiden seemed to have spotted something that he noticed, and sat next to Rapha?lle, engaging in discussion with her, and it seemed that Lea followed his lead soon after.

  He watched them a bit before noticing that one of the Handlers, having become infamous for her bottomless stomach, Sophie, was currently looking outside the ship from one of the windows. She had impressed everybody else with the sheer efficiency that she displayed in filing paperwork, though surprisingly, despite numerous propositions, she hadn’t partnered with a Hunter yet. Even though she was jokingly called “Voracious Handler” for her appetite being on par with a Deviljho, she was respected still, Valen was sure that she would not have trouble finding a Hunter that would be her partner.

  Hearing footsteps approaching him, he noticed Ikari coming close. His Handler was quite timid and had difficulties engaging in a conversation at first, so Valen saved him the trouble.

  “Ikari. How are you doing?”

  “I’m doing fine, Sk-Valen.” The man had the habit of calling Valen by his title at first, but he encouraged him to use his name instead, it was still a work in progress though. “I believe we’ll make landfall either tonight or early tomorrow.”

  “That’s good, not that I’m seasick, but I was getting tired of seeing the same landscape all around me. And I believe I’m not the only one, it’ll raise the morale of the whole fleet once the journey is finally over.”

  “I do agree… There are only so many things you can observe while on the sea.”

  Valen was distracted for a moment by Rapha?lle who seemed to have noticed Sophie and was in a discussion with her. “I also miss using my armor, it’s no use putting it on in such a confined space, so I’ll be glad when I can finally get some real training done.”

  “I’ll be sure to be here when you do!” Ikari excitement rarely showed, but when it was about hunter training or showing their skills, he never failed to show it. “What kind of species do you think we’ll meet in the New World?”

  “I think we-” Valen couldn’t stop his sentence as suddenly the whole ship rocked, as if they hit a rock. Fearing the worst, he immediately leaned out of the window to see what happened. At first, he couldn’t see anything, but when the shaking did not abate, he looked below and gasped.

  A mountain was rising right from below them. No, not any mountain, Zorah Magdaros itself was rising right below them. A giant black rock was visible and it seemed they had been caught by sheer bad luck at the worst place possible.

  To add to that, the ship was no longer flat and was tilting, rising vertically from the prow up.

  Knowing what was about to happen, Valen shouted. “WE ARE GOING TO BE VERTICAL! GRAB ANYTHING THAT IS FIXED!” Using his authoritative voice, people finally snapped out of their surprise and promptly followed his instructions.

  Scanning the room, Valen noticed most hunters and handlers were present… Until he realized one pair was missing, Rapha?lle and Sophie were nowhere in sight.

  Valen was about to ask where the duo was when finally the ship lost equilibrium and with a loud drag, fell back to the horizontal. The Hunter was glad that the superstructure was built from massive monster bones, else he was sure the ship would have splintered already.

  He kept a tight grip on the window he was holding on to for a bit longer, to see if the ship would move again, then once he believed everything was stable, he turned to the room and said. “I’ll check the situation outside. Nobody move! I don’t want to lose our current equilibrium with a large movement.” A large wave of agreements responded to this.

  Valen then ran upstairs, and once he was outside, he gasped.

  The whole ship was stuck in a very large groove, and almost half of it was hanging upon nothing, though he believed that should it tilt in that direction, it would simply slide back into the sea. He filed that for later, focusing more on the general situation. A panicked cry made him snap around, looking frantically for the source, and by looking upwards, he found the source.

  Flighty was currently holding to the ropes above, dangling from them, and it looked like her grip was starting to fail. Without thinking, Valen ran right below her and shouted. “I got you! You can release!”

  The Felyne trusted him and released her grip on the ropes, and Valen deftly caught her in his arms. He then looked around then said to her. “I would suggest you stay on my shoulder, the ship is still unstable, and I believe you wouldn’t want to take a surprise bath.”

  She just nodded and clambered over him so that she could get a firmer grip on Valen. Once he was certain she was secure, he ran to the edge of the ship, on the railing, and looked around, the other ships of the fleet had cleared the way out of the path of the Elder, and he saw a couple of men waving at him from the closest ship. Valen waved in return, however, he was distracted when he saw movement around the shell of the Elder, and he gasped.

  Sophie and Rapha?lle were both on it, and they looked like they were trying to find a way back up the ship. They were pointing at it and he decided to shout: “FIND ANOTHER PATH, I DON’T THINK THIS SHIP WILL STAY HERE ANY LONGER!”

  And he was right, as suddenly the ship lurched, and it was only the iron grip Valen had on the railing that kept him stable, he felt Flighty dig her claws on his shoulder but barely noticed the pain. Immediately after, the ship started to tilt… Back towards the ocean, thankfully the pair of stranded women were out of the direct path, but they started running nonetheless so that they were fully out of the danger zone.

  A loud grating sound resounded as the bone skeleton of the ship grated against the rock of the Zorah Magdaros, and over several long seconds, the ship plunged back into the ocean, salty water spraying everywhere, and missing colliding with another ship of the fleet by only a few meters. A few more moments and the ship stabilized, and Valen breathed out, the chaotic moment finally over.

  The door opening from the Captain's cabin finally opened. And the man looked at Valen, and he nodded. “Good, nice handling of the situation, the initial impact knocked me out and I only just woke up, but I’m glad you took over for me, you managed to avoid a panic.”

  “Thank you, Captain…” He looked over at the railing, finally noticing something he should have before: Land, covered by healthy green trees and numerous monsters fleeing the path the Elder was taking. It was his first sight of the new world, and he smiled. “At least it looks like our journey is over.”

  “It is… Excuse me, now I have to make sure this ship safely arrives at Astera!”

  Valen simply nodded, and he looked back at the shore, not seeing anything beyond the trees for now, but knowing that untamed wilderness lay just beyond.