Huntress Maya's diary

Nobody ever told me that a tower could attack a city! Although, it is true, this one was a Carapaceon. A huge, really huge Carapaceon. I am still impressed. It was so big, that the earth would shake at each of its footsteps!

I brought my strongest hammer, and hit its legs as hard as I could. I wanted to make it fall, to see what its head was like, as I couldn't see it when it was up there in the mist.

Or perhaps was I just curious whether there'd be an earthquake should that Monster fall.

Either way, it paid off. I managed to deal considerable damage to its enormous head, enough to kill the beast before it completely destroyed the town I was in charge of.

I've got the strangest experience today.

It is the first time I have visited a new place – or rather, a very ancient one, by the looks of it – called the Tower. I thought it was going to be a tall, narrow building I would be able to hide in, and from where I could fire ballista onto passing Monsters. But I was so wrong!

The place itself is huge, entirely made of ruins and cobblestone, it looks like it could be an extinct city. A few Aptonoths and a lot of vegetation have taken over the area. The feel I get from these ruins... is extremely familiar, and still mysterious. As I moved inside the tower itself, I noticed how old it was; and most importantly, that there were writings on the walls. And drawings, half-erased due to the action of time. The fact that parts of the tower were partly destroyed doesn't help the conservation of the treasure left by the civilization that once erected this building.

All I had to do was eliminating a few Remobras that had invaded the place, but I'll definitely come back to study it further.

First thing I heard when I woke up yesterday morning was "A Kushala Daora is coming!"

I was excited. An Elder Dragon? This sounded like a thrilling time. The beast had come in the mountain, for unknown reasons. Could it be the same that shedded its skin on the summit?...

What stroke me when I arrived at the base of the mountain was how quiet it was. Not a Popo, not an Anteka, nothing. Not even a Bullfango. As if everyone knew that a Kushala Daora was there, and that meant hiding, or leaving the area.

When I finally saw the Dragon, amazed by its majesty as I was, I couldn't help but feel a little bit disappointed. It was nowhere as big as the abandoned skin I studied. But still, it was powerful. A tough wind barrier surrounded its body, only letting me hit its head - which I did. Until I injured its head, and it fled away, leaving me and my Felyne comrade alone. The cat was flabbergasted. I was... frustrated. I thought it would never come back, without letting me finish my job.

But I was proven wrong the next day.

I can tell it was the same one, because of the wound on its head. It was angry, but it had lost its wind powers, making of my victory an easy one.

I was supposed to deliver live Khezu Whelps from up there in the mountain (why? That I will never know. Some people have funny ideas), and although I was told I could find them at the summit, I didn't have many more clues about their exact location. I needed pickaxes, apparently. And that's what led me to something I had wanted to see for days: the huge monstrous shape motionlessly lying in the snow.

I climbed all the way and once I was close to it, strange sensations struck me again. Some holy aura surrounded the creature... I felt close to it, somehow. This silhouette was definitely something I knew, or had known somewhere in the past although I can't remember it precisely after my loss of memory.

I took a closer look and realized that it wasn't a dead animal, it was more than that – a shed skin. The animal wasn't like any of those I had met since I arrived here, neither. But right there it was too degraded for me to really comprehend what the live Monster looked like.

Maybe it will come back one day...

I think the cat killed the Kirin. In a nice combo dance with me.

I think the Conga killed the Shogun Ceanataur. In style.

I think the Kushala killed me.

For exactness' sake, I'll write something quick about the Blangonga I was told about a few days ago, although this is not my main point today.

What can I say? It's a pretty imposing beast, compared with most of the other Monsters I've seen in the mountain so far.

I honestly expected a challenging hunt after what the villagers told me (my retired friend repelled it in the past, without killing it), but maybe it was too tired to leave again, or too weak because of its past fights... Either way I defeated it without too much trouble.

No, what kept my mind busy today is something more... Wyvern-like. A Tigrex, as they call it; come back in the area for easy food. Not saying that its size and jaws scared me – after all, no matter how much the villagers attempted to talk me out of hunting it with the light armor I'm wearing, I won, and only at the cost of a few Mega Potions – but it is said to have been the cause of my memory deficiency from the other day.

How?... By making me fall?... As far as I know, I've never had any injury on my head deep enough to have made me forget so much. And I swear I saw this Monster's silhouette, before passing out in the cold snow.

On a gathering quest for mushrooms in a forest, I’ve discovered something curious. First a strong smell of rotting meat. After driving away a couple of Bullfangos the private space of which I was threatening, I found a large Kelbi corpse lying in the dirt.

I was about to study it more closely in an attempt to find which Monster’s meal it was (none that I have met so far, sadly), and then something caught my attention. My Felyne comrade showed me a piece of metal he found a few feet ahead of us, and that’s when I realized we were standing in front of an old, abandoned base camp.

I remember there being something similar up in the Snowy mountain. But somehow, this one was... more meaningful to me. It is really bizarre. Maybe was it because of the ambiance in this forest, as if I had already been here as well?... I should ask someone who knows the area about this, although I might annoy them again.

That’s one way to make fire. (Sadly it’s raining)

Hopefully the fish will still be edible tonight…

There’s no reason for you not to clear a quest with kicks, now is there?

When I have been told about the desert, my first reaction was apprehension. Maybe I was too much used to the Mountain and its everlasting freezing wind. (not to mention the mysteries there that I have yet to comprehend)

But I was wrong. I love the desert. The weather is even worse!

In all seriousness, the visits I've paid to this area woke weird sensations of déjà-vu inside of me. The burning sun, the large sandy plains, and the endemic Monsters...

Why does this place make me think like this? Is my instinct trying to tell me something? I'm pretty sure I've felt this before... Although I am unable to tell how exactly.

PS: My first Plesioth hunt went rather smoothly. Strange, looking at it I immediately had the feeling that it would be a very troublesome Monster... Maybe was it the size.

Is another predator going to come each time I slay one?

A roar from a Blangonga was heard around here as it seems, although I am unsure what that exactly is. I didn't ask questions for once. It seems like the villagers have been getting tired of my inquiries. Maybe I'm talking too much... (If only somebody knew how I even got here in the first place!)

In the meantime, investigating the mountain has become a way of distraction to me. It is strange... For some reason, the more I go there, the more I feel as if that area is not as unfamiliar to me as it looks like. And yet, I definitely can't remember any place I've visited looking like this.

My fingers are still a bit frozen as I write this, but anyway.

The Chief assigned me to hunt something that had been threatening the Popos around the village. I imagine she's trying to test me by sending me against Monsters I don't know.

But... I honestly didn't expect Khezu to look like THAT.

So strange a thing, evolution is.

However, whereas my mind wished it hadn't sold the iron ore I dug up the other day for money-related purposes, because then I wasn't able to get that nice metallic sword better sharpened than this damn bone, my hands took control of my weapon and immediately aimed at the Wyvern's weak spot.

And I hit its head.

And I hit its head.

And I hit its head.

And then it was dead.

Is it normal for a beginner to take so many risks and keep fighting close to a Monster's jaws despite the danger?

I am not of the folks who keep a diary but the things that have lately happened to me have been so mysterious, I need to write them down before I lose my memory again.

A few days ago, I landed in this village in the middle of the mountains, somehow. According to the retired Hunter who found me unconscious in the snow, my head probably hit a stone after a bad slip. But something sounds wrong about this.

Can a bad slip permanently erase half of your memory all at once?

In the hope of finding more convincing explanation in the future, and because no one seems able to answer my questions, I've gotten into hunting Monsters. The villagers, the Chief, the Felyne companion who follows me around – and even myself – are convinced I am just a beginner.