Red Comet (Valstrax SI)- A Monster-Hunter crossover by Mr. Cloak
You rarely see a monster sı monster hunter fic especially one thats an Elder Dragon this is one of them
Words: 27k
Link: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/red-comet-valstrax-si-a-monster-hunter-crossover.84512/
1-panik
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Darkness…
It was warm. Cozy. Dark…
I didn't want to get up. I had just started taking my medicine, and I was feeling great… But the doctor had said I should get a LOT of rest- a bronchial infection was never fun to get over, and-
**TAP**
**TAP**
**TAP**
That tapping resonated through my bed- oddly muffled, like I was underwater, but, as I took a deep breath-
My eyes shot open, and it was still dark. Too dark.
I tried to push away the blanket- but my hand pushed against a solid surface. I started panicking, and realized that, even when hyperventalating, I wasn't feeling short of breath.
Indeed, while it felt like I was breathing something thick, it felt like my lungs were deeper than before. I inhaled, and kept inhaling, feeling that my lungs kept expanding and expanding…
**RUMBLEeeeee…..**
That sounded like… A rocket? Not a jet engine exactly, but the rumble was deep in my chest, shaking my bones, and sounded… Familiar.
I spent a little time trying to place it before I heard another vanishing rumble, followed by a very distinct sound.
**THUMP**
I was lucky enough to be within less than a mile when some Navy pilots did some supersonic demonstrations off the coast of San Diego once… The feeling of rattling bones was rather familiar, even when muffled.
I closed my eyes (not like it HELPED MUCH), and carefully felt the surface that my hand was pushing against. It was hard, not exactly like stone or metal, and as I pushed, I felt my fingertips dig in slightly.
Wait, not fingertips. I felt one hand with the other carefully, and I felt claws. Claws and bumpy skin. There were plates on my forearms, and I could feel my (claws/talons?) scraping against some form of natural armor.
Unfortuately, whatever I was wasn't as flexible as I used to be (as in before I went to sleep), and I could barely reach my own shoulder- but I was able to feel another limb. One that flexed as I felt the armored skin under my hand.
I could move it volentarily to some degree now, and as I felt the limb swish through the liquid cushioning me slightly. There was a tickle, sort of like when you feel something caught in your throat, but it was in the middle of my back, rather than in my chest of throat-
Something pushed against my confinement, I hiccuped, and the world exploded.
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The world was full of light now, the sky was blue and clear, and I had a headache the size of a great dane.
A small one.
John was a nice dog, but his tail could smash windows and he loved to headbutt people. It was how he hugged, and he headbutted me right in the forehead.
I had a gooseegg on my forehead for a week.
Now, as I tried to pull myself up onto my hands (?) and feet (?!?!), I started coughing violently. The fluid was simply expelled, and I could feel my skin hardening as I took deep (again, too deep) breaths of air, and felt my tongues flop out of my mouth as more of the fluid streamed away.
I was in a nest of some sort- a slight depression within a rock that had been scorched by something, and I was… Surrounded by eggs? And eggshells.
Wet eggshells.
I shook my head, and looked up at the sun- and didn't need to blink, my eyes barely stinging as I looked at the gargantuan ball of plasma.
Okay… I turned my head back down to my body, and noticed that yes, my neck did easily twist and bend, until I could see my whole body- and smoking wings.
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I am now a dragon... One that didn't seem to make much sense. No real webbing between my wing-fingers, I didn't exactly have a 'keel' like birds had, and-
I hiccuped again, and after a second or so of twisting managed to right myself out of the abrupt crash-landing such an action had caused.
Sooooo…. My wings are rocket pods.
Neat.
I spent some time just flexing the wings, feeling how the different bones and muscles moved. I could rotate the 'hand' of the wing nearly 360 degrees, and had nearly 180 degrees of motion bending the claw/nozzels towards or away from my 'forearm'.
Similarly, I had an astonishing range of motion on both my arms, my wings, and my legs- not to mention my spine. I was so flexible I felt like I could tie myself in a knot- although I didn't want to try that. At least, not with more than a little bit of my tail, which was as long as my body and terminated in a pair of segmented, armored fins.
Well, 'armored' may be pushing it. In the sun now I could see the coloring of my scales, each of which had the 'front' side going from a deep black like the underside of the space shuttle to a more metalic deep blue. Thing was, my skin was still visible- I had scales, and some plates like on my forearms, but most of my skin was still visible.
I was probably a juvenile, considering I just HATCHED… So that's just great.
A quick check below decks indicated that I was *probably male, although I was not super-familiar with reptialian reproductive structures. That would probably be important later, but until then…
Not gonna think about that.
It was strange though- I could have sworn I knew what type of dragon I was, but the name escaped me. I rotated one of my 'wing/hands' around, and used a (what were these, engine focusing claws?) to scratch the stone.
I couldn't tell if my claws were as strong as stone, or not.
I'd get back to it later. I turned around, and noticed, in the distance, that there was a glint of silver riding on a red comet.
It was somewhat familliar- and my vision sharpened as I looked at the glint.
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That's a dragon. With wings like mine.
Carrying a very large, for its size, creature that looks like it's dying.
And it's coming this way.
Oh. Shitballs.
I looked around the nest-area quickly, looking for cover. There were stone pillars, and the depression, the egg I hatched out of, and several other eggs (3 of them) still in the middle of the depression.
There was very, very little cover, and as I tried to scramble back towards the eggs (using sharp wing-tips, arms and legs), I expect I looked very strange. And ungainly.
I wasn't used to having SEVEN LIMBS (arms, legs, wings and tail)! Still, as the red comet dragon crested the edge of the rock with a deafening *BOOM, I managed to hide myself by dragging one of the eggs so it provided a shadow for me to cower under.
Hey, I didn't want to be EATEN! And while there was a chance the adult (probably) dragon wouldn't just eat me, I wanted to try to make sure it associated me with it's eggs… Or, at least, give me an edge if it tried to fight me.
My wing spasmed out as the larger dragon dropped the still-living sea-monster onto the stone of the nest with a distinctly crackling thwap noise.
Anyone who's heard a whale burst knows what that sounded like.
On a seperate note, the sea-monster wasn't alive any longer.
The dragon landed in a flare of red light, took a deep breath, and roared.
"REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
More like a hawk screech, but I stayed quiet in the shadow beneith two eggs, carefully watching.
There was an answering screech a few seconds later, and soon I heard a distinctive RUMBLE before another dragon, this one slightly larger with dark edges on the front of it's scales, landed.
I had no idea how big any of this was compared to the scales I was used to thinking on, but I, personally, was the same length as one of the smaller dragon's fingers... So I stayed cowering.
The two dragons nuzzled each other, before turning their attention to the nest- and I moved back slightly to make sure I was out of sight.
There was a shriek, and then, with a disturbing suddenness, the smaller dragon was leaning over me, staring like a bird at a worm, before a taloned hand reached out (huh- zygodactyl thumbs with 3 fingers… Neat), and plucked me out of my, admittedly mediocre, hidey-hole.
I squacked indignantly as I was picked up, wings and all, in a single hand, but didn't resist particularly. Not out of a lack of effort, but my claws could not peirce even the softer palm-scales of the hand, and I couldn't get my wings to flare.
I was eventually put down in front of the corpse, and the larger dragons watched me for a while. I watched them back, and tried to get my legs under me.
It took some doing.
Eventually, one of the dragons made a chirp-grumble noise, and I nearly jumped out of my skin at the volume, but as both of them were looking somewhat expectantly at me, I opened my jaw and tried to make a noise.
Only to hiccup and crash head-first into the meaty monster corpse.
Today was going swimmingly…
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