[<u>The Port City of Val Habar - Genji and Kyra</u>]<br/><br/>"Perfect!"  The Guildswoman grinned, rummaging in her robes again, pulling out a pair of tokens, frowning at them, them rummaging further to pull out another pair she seemed more satisfied with, holding them out to Genji and Kyra, hardly even noticing the exchange of lecherous looks between hunter and huntress (or if she did notice, she said nothing of it.)  "There's an airship already waiting for some hunters to take this job, just head over to the port whenever you're ready and they'll take you north.  Remember to pack warm armor and hot drinks!"<br/><br/>It would be a couple days travel to the north, and while the village would have at least<i>some</i>supplies the two could avail themselves of, there would be a far better selection within the city proper since outlying guild offices could be rather small if they were too far away.  Better to stock up on any essentials now before heading out.  The frozen seaway could be a dangerous place after all.<br/><br/><br/>[<u>The Ancestral Steppes - Sonya</u>]<br/><br/>Nat nodded, her expression firming into greater confidence at Sonya's certainty as she hefted her weapon again and then slung it on her back once more.  "Let's go then!"<br/><br/>From the cliffs, a network of small caverns and broad trails made their way north towards the canyon homes of the Jaggi that occupied the steppes.  The sun was beginning to sink slightly, the afternoon growing slightly later as they travelled, but before long they could see streaks of rusty red stone interlacing the grey of the Steppes and after some half-hour's walking Nat and Sonya were fully in the red stone of the canyons.<br/><br/>Finally they found a Jaggi pack in a<a class="link link--external" href="http://i.imgur.com/zKy2s9c.jpg" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" target="_blank">space where the valley floor broadened between the cliffs</a>.  There were caves in the stone here and several raptors and raptor-girls were quietly laying in the late-afternoon sun around a pool of clear water.  The pack hadn't noticed the two huntresses yet, and better still, there didn't seem to be a great Jaggi around, though with a pack of such size, there surely had to be one somewhere...  They would probably want to be careful and make sure none of the little ones got away to warn the leader before they could deal with the little ones.<br/><br/><br/>[<u>The Port City of Val Habar - Kaze</u>]<br/><br/>"Come in..."  The place was in a quiet part of town, and looked largely disused from the outside, though once Kaze opened the door he could see that it was at least made use of regularly enough to keep the dust off the floor.  It was dimly lit, though Kaze could see several armed men and women standing about, many of them wearing metal armor rather than any sort of monster gear.  Mercenaries rather than hunters, guards of some sort then...  The one who addressed him however was a seated fellow, the only one near any sort of source of light that Kaze could see, revealing his face to the hunter as he approached.<br/><br/>He was a middle-aged man, clearly not a hunter by his slightly more rounded physique, but clearly rich, likely a merchant lord then.  His eyes roamed over Kaze briefly, before he smiled.<br/><br/>"Ah yes...  The newly-marked hunter..."  His voice was polite, if slightly mocking.  "You know already I offer a job then...  So I shall get down to business.  There is a rather dangerous monster girl in the region of the frozen seaway, one whose lair keeps her well away from the major villages in the area for the most part.  One known as 'Whitey' a Zinogre..."  Kaze had heard of Zinogre before, even if he hadn't heard of 'Whitey', powerful beasts by any reckoning, with both males and females possessing immense strength and speed as well as incredible power over electricity...<br/><br/>"I want you to capture her, any means you see as necessary really, as long as she is alive and possessed of all her limbs, if you can succeed in this, you shall be quite handsomely paid, to say nothing of...  Other opportunities that might become present should you prove yourself in this manner."  The merchant smiled.  "Do you think you can manage such a task?"<br/><br/><br/>[<u>The Port City of Val Habar - Alistair</u>]<br/><br/>A few people were curious about the many cuts Alistair had had, and the story of his fight with not just one but two Kut-ku proved both funny and epic enough to keep a decent crowd interested before they moved on to other tellings.  It was not the sort that would last through ages like some hunting tales, but it was certainly a fun story, and Alistair found a handful of hunters and huntresses offering to buy him drinks as congratulations or condolences for the rough hunt.<br/><br/>A couple of them stuck around even, telling their own stories of wild hunts they'd been on.<a class="link link--external" href="http://i.imgur.com/i0FWKed.jpg" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" target="_blank">One fellow</a>had a story about some creatures he'd encountered out in the desert, giant insect-like monsters that wore the skulls of wyverns upon their backs which he claimed the guild hadn't even been able to recognize at first.  "Called them Hermitaurs after a while, but they had to check with some pretty far off guild outposts to hear that.  All the way out in Theron even..."  He took a sip of his drink.  "Still, for something that can wear a Rathalos' head for protection, they're surprisingly easy to kill...  And the females aren't at all bad looking..."  He'd grinned at that, and the other hunter -or rather<a class="link link--external" href="http://i.imgur.com/KaB3k0o.jpg" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" target="_blank">huntress</a>- who'd stuck around had punched him in the shoulder at that point.<br/><br/>"It's hardly fair though, I'm not even sure there's such thing as a monster girl that isn't good looking..."  She'd complained a moment later with a sigh.  "So what are you planning next?  Once you recover I mean."  The huntress refocused, eyeing Alistair's network of slowly healing cuts over his arms and chest.  "Got any hunts you have your eye on?"  "Personally I'm curious about those black clouds around Heavens' Mount..."  The hunter chimed in.  "I'm not ranked to go investigate them alone though..."<br/><br/><br/>[<u>The Everwood Hunting Ground - Dust</u>]<br/><br/>"Wha-have you never heard of a monster girl?"  Vianna hissed after him, though she kept her eyes on the monster girl, nose twitching slightly as she caught that scent on the wind again and -despite herself- took a half-step closer before she caught the motion and arrested it in it's tracks.  The girl looked between them, scrambling back slightly to try and keep both of them in her field of view before settling -curiously enough- on Vianna as Dust moved around her.  He didn't necessarily know where he blind spots were, but he knew once he moved past a certain point that she could not possibly see him unless she had some sort of eyes in the back of her head...<br/><br/>Vianna meanwhile crept forwards, keeping her hands upraised in an attempt not to scare the monster girl while keeping her attention focused in one direction...<br/><br/>It was at this point however that dust would realize a slight problem.  The scent was definitely originating from the monster girl, which was good to know, if not for the manner in which he'd realized it as he now stood directly downwind of her to get out of her line of sight, and every whiff of whatever she was releasing into the air was making that arousal harder and harder to ignore, narrowing the foci of his world to the women in front of him.  Vianna seemed not to have realized that something was wrong though, and was instead raising one hand slightly, in preparation to signal him with a swift gesture as the monster-girl's eyes remained locked upon her...