Monster Hunter: Stars of Hope

Chapter One: Origins

It wasn't an unusual way of waking up, at least not on a more normal day. In fact, this bedroom's window wasn't the only one that was often visited shortly after dawn's first light by one of the village's more eccentric Gargwa: an older member of the flock that had been nicknamed 'Happy' due to its usually bouncy, cheery demeanor. On a normal day, this would actually be the first window that Happy would visit, and all he would do is let out a few light squawks until it was clear that the room's resident had awoken, and then move on to the next window.

Today was not a normal day. Happy had gotten to the window about twenty or so minutes later than usual, slowly creeping out from his coop, as if something unseen had spooked him. Cautiously, the Gargwa steadily raised its head to look through the window. Inside, the bird saw the usual sights of the room; various toys scattered across the surface of a low shelf, an assortment of colorful decorations dotting the walls, a blue Arzuros-fur rug covering about half of the floor, and a small bed with similarly blue sheets in the back corner of the room, opposite to the window. Happy's eyes trailed from the foot of said bed to its only inhabitant: a little girl, sleeping soundly, if not unintentionally sleeping in. A pleasant, child-like smile adorned her round, light-brown, freckled face, where her dark, curly hair drifted down in front of her loosely closed eyes. Plain to see, the girl was sleeping quite soundly.

"SQUAAAAWK! SQUAAAAAAAAWK!".

Happy let loose a panicked and rather loud call of distress the second he saw that the girl was there, quite predictably startling her awake. Reflexively, she reached for the Moofah plushy that lied next to her, and clutched it tightly while letting out a brief, panicked scream of her own before she was able to turn to see what was making that noise, viewing the shaking, squawking Gargwa with widened, light-blue eyes. Just as quickly as she found herself in sudden terror, she was overtaken by confusion. Happy had never done this before, not even when a Great Jaggi had wandered into the village looking for a meal from the local flock a while back.

Happy was borderline oblivious then, so what could have him acting like this now?

Suddenly, the door to the room was flung wide open, and the girl's father, clearly having just woken up himself, surged in gripping a hunter's carving knife. The expression on his tired, well-defined face, similarly toned to his daughter's, indicated that he was more than ready to take that blade in his hand to work against anything that might be threatening her. Yet, this expression was swiftly replaced with one bearing a raised eyebrow, widened eyes, and a mouth that uttered the words "What in the world?". His previously tense posture relaxed when he glanced over to his daughter and saw her unharmed, in response to which he moved over to the window and reached his unarmed hand towards the Gargwa. "What's gotten you so worked up today?", he inquired, beginning to lightly scratch the feathers on Happy's upper neck, the bird still continuing to release squawks of concern, albeit in a much quieter and calmer manner. Though, this was short-lived, as just as suddenly as this bird-brained display of panic began, the Gargwa quieted down completely and bolted off out of view.

The man drew in a deep breath, and with an exasperated exhale turned to the girl behind him, still in her bed, and asked, "You okay, Nia?". The little girl nodded, speaking softly, "Yeah, I'm... I'm fine". Nia's father walked over to the side of the bed, kneeled down slightly, gave her a reassuring pat on the head, after which he noticed that she was still holding onto her Moofah plushie quite tightly. Upon this realization, he chuckled lightly and began patting the head of the plushie while saying "Well, glad to see I can still rely on Moofy here to keep you safe when I'm not looking"; a statement which Nia couldn't help but giggle gleefully at, finally relaxing. "Well, guess it's time to get up", the child declared, leaving her bed and then happily trotting out of the room, followed by her father.