A/N: Bit late, but here's your thanksgiving gift.

Cotton was expecting many things when he was assigned as Aylia's assistant/student.

His hopes-and his guesses-had been shattered within a minute of meeting her.

It had been a week since then, and she continued to surprise him on the daily. Why he might almost say the fervor and enjoyment she took in studying, learning, and fighting was cute if it weren't for-

"OI! COTTON! Get up, you lazy Pink bastard!"

If it weren't for the fact she was such a ruthless slave driver.

"Coming, ma'am." He grumbled, dragging himself from the tent with a groan, cracking his neck and stumbling out of the temporary shelter. It was the first night they'd spent in the forest, but Aylia had been suspiciously absent throughout the night. Handler was quiet about it, which screamed about a thousand different things in one single second.

He stretched his shoulders out, stepping down the single wooden platform used as a step, and absentmindedly grabbing his hammer on the way down.

"You slept in your armor? Good. Might be hope for you yet." The Ginger A-Lister they'd become fast friends with snarked from the nearby make-shift cafeteria nestled in the corner of their camp, several other hunters eating breakfast and chattering.

Weird, how this one spot was used as a campsite by everyone, yet wasn't under constant siege from the more aggressive monsters.

"Don't be rude!" The Ginger's handler snapped, cracking him upside the head with a mug she swiftly deposited in front of herself, sitting next to him. His whining was tactfully ignored. "Don't mind him, Pink, he's just an idiot before he's had breakfast."

"Really?" Cotton said with a grin, "I haven't noticed the difference once he's been fed."

"Yeah yeah, get it out now," Ginger said with a quick eye-roll, "Today's huntin' day."

"That it is!" Aylia cut in from the camp entrance with a grin Cotton had never seen her wear outside of watching a Monster do something new. A large majority of the camp heard her arrival and saluted or waved. "Cotton, my good man, get some food in you, I've finished that mapping the Commander wanted to be redone of the lower forest." She said, patting his shoulder as she slipped past him, finding a nearby, and open, 'table' of stone. Cotton took the cue with gusto, drawing up his own seat with a smile he could feel splitting the whole of his face.

"So that means-"

"Indeed. And I think I found the trail."

"Really?!"

"That, or something else with big, Green scales left an Anja skull decorating a waterfall." Now that caught Ginger and his handler's attention.

"You guys are going for that Deviljho that killed that Anja outside Astera's gate?" He asked, drawing more than a few eyes.

"Indeed we are, because I called dibs." Aylia said, waving him off without paying much attention. Ginger stiffened and scowled, smacking his thigh angrily.

"Damn. I hadn't even thought someone might do that."

"Wait, seriously?" Cotton said, bewildered, "Dibs is an actual thing among Hunters?"

"OI, don't disrespect the Dibs!" Aylia snapped, red eyes narrowed menacingly.

Cotton, smartly, shied away with hands raised in surrender.

"Good boy." Handler joked, dropping a massive platter of food onto their shared 'table,' two large plates chock-full of foodstuffs for them, together with a gigantic slab of sliced meat in the center, surrounded by plenty of other side dishes to add. Handler had a smaller, but still full plate. A handler he didn't recognize placed down three drinks for them, which surprised Cotton almost as much as it looked like it surprised Aylia. "She owed me a favor." Handler explained, waving it off.

Ah, that made sense. Handlers only did things for Hunters beyond their own for small favors between them or if the situation demanded it. It was a peculiar-yet minor-taboo to do so outside of that which Cotton hadn't quite picked up the reason for yet. Didn't stop him from digging in, which prompted Aylia to do the same, which prompted Handler to sedately eat her own, smaller platter.

It was delicious, as always, and they had cleared the tray of a meal in less than ten minutes, despite its large size. Their Palicos-Candy for himself, Josh for Aylia-cleaned up the few things left with eager rapture, bellies protruding to match the content on their adorable feline faces. Cotton followed Aylia's example and began to pick up the dishes as Handler hopped up, jogging over to their group's tent to prepare for them heading out.

Another thing he had learned about Hunter society in his short week as part of it, Handlers and Hunters went hand in hand, and so too did their duties. It wasn't uncommon for hunters to do fetch-quests of plants and different materials, but more often than not Handlers did it in the background between stops at camps. Another back-forth was that Handlers cooked, and Hunters cleaned.

Both the tray of its food, and the crumbs and stains of the tray. It was an 'I Cook, You Wash' he hadn't expected to run into outside his Mothers kitchen. But then, he didn't mind. It reminded him of home. In several ways.

He paused midway through scrubbing out his mug.

"I think my mother was a Handler, and never told me." He murmured to the air, making Aylia pause beside him.

"That explains so fucking much." She whispered, breaking down into chuckles. He followed suit, and both got back to it with renewed smiles. When the job was done, they returned the dishes to a particularly large and flat rock to dry out and returned to their tent. Handler had already dragged the pull-away table from inside and set up Aylia's large, well-defined map of the Ancient Forest out, worrying a lip as she took notes in her large book, free hand tracing a line he couldn't quite make out.

"Everything alright?" He asked, flinching back a tad when she jumped with a yelp.

"S-Sorry, I was lost in thought. And yes, I think so." She said, waving them over. Aylia sped up, planting one hand to the table, other curled into a fist that she rested against a hip, sidling up to their trio's brunette.

"What've you got?" She asked as Cotton slid past them, leaning against the table on his elbows on Handler's free side.

"You said you found the scales here, right?" She asked, indicating a small cave system near the center of the Forest, under the Great Tree.

"Yeah, just the two but they were undebatably Jho scales."

"And up here is where the Skull was perched at the top of a waterfall?" The Northwestern falls where they couldn't go deeper to find the source from thick brush and unstable climbing.

"Just away from where I could reach, but yeah. It had a gash in the eye-socket, and the top of the skull was fractured. It's definitely the one He killed."

"And here," Handler leaned forward, careful not to wrinkle the map despite putting almost her entire torso against it to reach the third 'level' of the Ancient forest, "You found...Tell me again?" Aylia sighed.

"Signs of a fight. Scorch marks and decimated branches, leading higher then I could get with how dark it was. That's where Cotton and I are heading today."

"Good thing I got over that fear of heights…" Cotton drawled sarcastically, stroking his chin slowly, wondering if it would look better doing so if he had a beard of some kind.

"Indeed it is." Aylia drawled right back, rolling her eyes. "I say we hitch a Wingdrake up to the highest camp and slip through the Crawl Passage after Rathalos leaves for its morning hunt. Which should be any minute now, so we ought to hurry so we aren't in the air during its morning hunt." Handler nodded sharply and packed up Aylia's map, then wrapped an arm around her waist. The pale hunter didn't hesitate, wrapping her right arm around the freckled woman in return, whistling loud and sharp. Her wingdrake swept overhead and Aylia lept, grapple hook extending to catch its claws, and drag them away.

"One day. One day I'll get a say in the planning sessions." He sighed, following their example, whistling out the tune for following once he had closed the distance between himself, Aylia, and Handler.

Remarkably intelligent when it came to following orders, Wingdrakes were.

He took the small intermission from Huntering to simply enjoy the ride, and the wind whipping through his hair. It was over much to soon, in his opinion. Nonetheless, he disconnected his grabble and landed next to Aylia in a crouch, ready to go.

Turns out he didn't need to be, it took twenty minutes for Rathalos to wake up, so he and Handler had started collecting resources while Aylia kept an avid watch with the Palicos. When the big red beastie finally roared his waking to the world and soared past with a rustle of shaken branches, Cotton gave Handler what he had found and Scrambled to catch up with Aylia, crawling through the underbrush after her, Thankfully, The Palicos had been between them so that chance of an awkward moment for the day was nipped in the bud.

When they emerged, Cotton's eyes were drawn to the right. He had been here two or three times with Aylia, and that had most certainly not been there two days ago.

"Wow. I knew the wood there always looked wet but sheesh." She muttered next to him, staring at the muddy swath of devastation that had cleared the area, bar what little remained of the Rath nest. Cotton walked closer to it, kneeling down.

"It's almost all still wet." He noted aloud, taking some of the mud and lifting it up to take a quick sniff. "Smells pretty fresh, too. My guess is that this happened sometime after you made your way down for the night, since you seem surprised too."

"Very good." Aylia complimented, taking a knee at his left side. "The marks I'd noted were a little further north of here, so you're not wrong. I'm just surprised none of the Hunters who were camped so close heard it…"

"Maybe they did?" Cotton asked hesitantly. "We didn't exactly interview anyone before we left, and it was suspiciously empty when we landed."

"That's fair, I suppose…" Aylia assented, chin perched between a thumb and forefinger knuckle. Cotton looked up, to his right, and eyed the new gap, which probably hid some nice resources no hunter had seen yet.

"I don't get it though..." Cotton said thoughtfully. "If Rathalos caused this, he would have been rampaging last night, and you certainly would have noticed that from the sound if not the massive plumes of flame burning through the night sky."

"Probably." She agreed, side-eyeing him curiously. "What're you thinking?"

"I'm thinking whatever did this knew what it was doing." He said, standing up, well aware of the concern marring his face. "If Rathian or Rathalos were up here as often as nest-mates are want to be, then they probably knew about it but didn't want to do anything to cause, well, this, considering that their nest was right here, a dozen feet from this potential hazard."

"You think something attacked?"

"I'm almost positive. Why else would this suddenly happen? It also explains what took Rathalos so long this morning compared to his usual hunt-at-dawn routine. Either he had trouble sleeping from the sudden destruction of his nest or…"

"Or?"

"Or Rathian didn't come home last night." That one had Aylia raising a brow. Cotton ignored her chuckles at his phrasing, looking past her towards the wreck of the nest. There were plenty of tracks, the obvious place where Rathalos had slept, where he'd walked to take off, the spread from his wingbeats, the footprints near the edge-

He stiffened.

"And I think our culprit left evidence." That grabbed his Teacher's full attention, and she followed his gaze, catching what he had mere seconds after Cotton pointed it out, inhaling sharply. "And based on that reaction-"

"Jho." She hissed victoriously, moving quickly through the mud, slipping a bit, but staying steady.

"I figured." He sighed, following dutifully after her, allowing his scoutflies to buzz around the print as Aylia's were, picking up the scent. His came back empty, but Aylia's had apparently gotten something, darting to the very edge of the branch they stood upon, swirling in what could almost be mistaken for excitement. Aylia darted after them and Cotton followed, drawing to a halt next to her.

"I don't understand. Why are they just stopping here?" She snarled unhappily, clearly annoyed. Cotton wondered the same, looking over the edge.

His heart nearly stopped.

"Aylia…" He whispered. "I think I know why there were no hunters at this camp." She followed his gaze, and Cotton could feel her stiffen.

The corpse of Rathian lay speared atop a tree like a twisted ornament, a group of hunters circling its corpse, climbing up the mighty, if split, trunk and disassembling what was left of the former A-tier monster that remained within easy reach, while a small detachment broke off and headed for Astera.

"I think he's leaving a message for us."

"For us? You mean for you, Misses I Called Dibs."

"Good. That makes the hunt all the better."

"...You're nuts."

"Yep."

A/N: Turns out if you write in Comic Sans its a thousand times easier to spot mistakes and write for longer. Who knew? Hope you enjoyed, merry early Christmas, please review if it so pleases ya, and follow if you're curious to see the story continue.