Yuno lay stiffly on the ground, not moving an inch as the female Rathian curiously inspected him, sniffing, looking, circling.
Even though he had recovered a bit of stamina, he still didn't dare move. Any sudden action might be misinterpreted.
Of course, there was another reason, his [Acceleration] trait hadn't triggered, which meant this beautiful female Rathian didn't harbor any hostility toward him. She was probably just... curious.
Sure enough, once she finished all those odd behaviors, she gave him a glance, expression unreadable, then turned and walked away, returning to the herbivore corpse. She lowered her head and began tearing into it with large, steady bites.
He couldn't quite decipher the meaning behind her look, but her actions clearly indicated one thing: she'd lost interest in him. She had probably just been checking if he posed any threat.
After all, unless they're mates, male and female Rathians usually live separately. They each have their own hunting territories and rarely interfere with one another.
Seeing that this gorgeous Rathian truly had no intention of messing with him, Yuno finally let out a quiet sigh of relief and resumed focusing on recovering his strength.
He was tired. Sore. And starving.
The sooner he got his stamina back, the sooner he could hunt something himself.
If this plain was full of herbivores, then there had to be other food sources too. Winding Rabbits, for example, small herbivores were surely abundant. And even if there were no rabbits, there had to be mushrooms in the distant forest, right?
That said, female Rathians usually carried prey back to their nests after hunting. If they didn't, they typically only ate the softest, most flavorful parts, leaving the rest behind.
This exceptionally beautiful Rathian hadn't carried the prey away, which meant...
Maybe he could eat the leftovers?
Even if the best parts were gone, meat was meat. Better than mushrooms, at least!
The more he thought about it, the more tears welled up at the corners of his mouth.
He was just that hungry.
Thud, thud...
Heavy footsteps startled Yuno awake. He opened his eyes, only to see the beautiful Rathian walking toward him, dragging the corpse along.
Yuno didn't dare believe she was bringing it over to share.
No. More likely, she was about to take it back to her nest.
Which meant, he wouldn't even get the scraps?
Oh, beautiful Rathian, won't you show some mercy? Just a bite for the baby...?
The delicious dream was shattered before it even began.
Was he destined to chew on mushrooms for the rest of his life?
If this was how things would turn out, he might as well have reincarnated as a Great Girros, those guys loved mushrooms.
Wait... no. The image of those bulbous eyes sent a shiver down his spine. What a terrifying thought. He forcefully banished it.
As Yuno's mind wandered, the blood-scented corpse landed with a thud right in front of him.
Its belly had been torn open, exposing red and white marbled fat. Just the sight of it made his mouth water uncontrollably.
Faced with this feast, Yuno snapped.
He didn't care anymore whether it might offend the beautiful Rathian. His instincts screamed only one thing,
EAT.
EAT. EAT. EAT!!
He lunged forward, tearing into the exposed belly with wild abandon. Flesh and fat vanished down his throat, one bite after another.
The Rathian watched this starving little hatchling devour meat like he'd never eaten in his life. Her gaze softened with a touch of pity.
Poor thing. Just how long had he been hungry like this?
Once Yuno was fully immersed in his feast, the Rathian turned back to the corpse. She dug her fangs into the thigh and tore out a hefty chunk.
The belly might be the most tender, but if you had the jaw strength, thighs and back meat were pretty delicious too.
So the two fire wyverns, one large, one small, male and female, shared the carcass side by side.
The herbivore's body was generously proportioned. Just two thighs and a bit of back meat were enough to fill the Rathian's stomach.
Satisfied, she licked the blood from her lips, walked to the lake, and washed her snout and claws. Then she lay down beside the water, watching Yuno quietly.
After a long while, she noticed that Yuno had nearly devoured the entire exposed belly. But now, he was eyeing the rest of the corpse, the parts that still had intact skin.
Without hesitation, the Rathian stood up and walked over.
Yuno was still trying to tug at a patch of skin when,
CHOMP.
She bit down on the back of his neck.
With practiced ease, she lifted him like a hatchling, ignoring his flailing limbs and fluttering wings.
Yuno panicked.
He had been so focused on eating, so starved, that being pulled away from the food made him instinctively fight back.
He was terrified of starving again.
This was the first full meal he'd had since hatching. Even though his belly was already uncomfortably full, he still couldn't let go.
But the Rathian wasn't having it.
She clenched her jaw slightly, gave him two firm shakes until he finally stopped squirming, then flapped her wings.
With a blast of wind, she rose into the sky.
Once she adjusted her heading, she soared toward her nest.
Wind howled against Yuno's face as the clouds drifted beneath his feet.
Fear and excitement swirled in his heart.
The excitement came from his genes, those of a male Rathalos, King of the Skies. Flying was his birthright. This was his domain.
But the fear?
Yuno couldn't fly yet.
His bones and wings weren't developed enough to support flight. In his past life, players often joked about how hunters could fall off cliffs and walk it off. But this was real life.
At this height, one drop and Yuno was done for.
So he dared not move, just quietly let the female carry him to wherever she was going.
Even at this altitude, his sharp vision clearly picked out the landscape below.
Forests passed beneath him. Then rivers. The woods gradually thinned, the sky took on a dusty hue as wind carried grains of yellow sand across the horizon.
He was descending.
The Rathian slowed as they reached the border between the Ancient Forest and the Wildspire Waste.
Nestled in a cliffside was a hidden cave, fed by a small stream flowing from the forest into the wasteland.
This was the Rathian's personal hunting domain, one she'd discovered after leaving her siblings and spending countless days carving out her own space.
Here, ground-bound predators couldn't reach her, and flying creatures couldn't defeat her.
Over time, the area became her exclusive territory. Apart from one wise-looking Great Girros who occasionally searched the jungle above for poisonous mushrooms, few other monsters dared trespass.
The cave was perched along a cliff wall. Above it was the Ancient Forest, below it the Wildspire Waste, with a waterfall pouring beside it.
And within the cave, the stream formed a serene, hidden sanctuary.