The next day, with the sun still slanting and not yet overhead, Yuno, who was fast asleep with his head tucked under his wing, was suddenly nudged awake.
Groggily lifting his head, he looked up in confusion, only to find Aki shoving him with increasing force toward the cave's exit.
It wasn't a light nudge.
She was clearly trying to push him out and wasn't planning to stop until he was out.
"This fickle Rathian!!"
Forced out of the nest, Yuno had no choice but to flap into the air.
Grumbling through clenched teeth, he muttered angrily.
After all, just yesterday, after finishing that Kelbi together, Aki had completely ignored him, yet allowed him to reenter the nest.
So why was she suddenly kicking him out again today?!
What did she want from him?!
Fuming, Yuno flew aimlessly through the sky.
But then… he noticed a familiar pang in his belly.
He was hungry.
Looking up at the sun, he realized that this was around the time he used to lazily snack on something while waiting for Aki to return from hunting.
And that's when it hit him.
Aki had indeed pushed him out today, but it felt… different from yesterday.
She hadn't roared or attacked him. No growls, no threats.
She had just nudged him, using her head and wing.
"…Wait. Was that her way of telling me to go hunt?"
Yuno gave it some thought.
Aki's wing injury wouldn't have healed that quickly. There's no way she could go hunting herself.
And yesterday, he had proven that he could successfully hunt alone.
So now that it was mealtime… she'd naturally expect him to do it?
Hold on. If she's chasing me out to hunt… doesn't that mean she's no longer trying to drive me away?
Did our relationship just… change?!
Eureka!
In the world of wyverns, once a hatchling could hunt on their own, the parent would drive them away to survive independently.
But in Yuno's case… yes, he was still a juvenile.
But Aki wasn't a full adult either.
So what did that make their current relationship?
Mutual support?
A male Rathalos and a female Rathian… cohabiting, supporting each other?
That didn't sound wrong at all.
This would explain Aki's behavior today.
She was injured and couldn't hunt, so the hunting responsibility naturally fell to him.
A simple, logical division of roles.
And as for whether it was too much to ask a juvenile wyvern to hunt enough food for both of them…
Well, in the eyes of a wyvern, once you've proven you can hunt alone, it no longer matters how small you are.
You're no longer a child.
So shouldering responsibility was only natural.
With everything now making perfect sense, Yuno felt his motivation soar.
Wings flapping with renewed energy, he turned and flew toward the area where the Kelbi herd often roamed.
Given his current strength and how much he could carry, Kelbi were still the ideal prey.
But deep in the Ancient Forest, far from Yuno and Aki's nest, another scene was unfolding.
A burly, muscular brute was in the middle of beating the thunder out of a poor Tobi-Kadachi.
Electric sparks from the Tobi-Kadachi barely left a black scorch mark on the brute's body.
Its normally sharp claws only managed to leave shallow scratches.
This kind of damage was laughable to the massive Anjanath, whose size far exceeded others of its kind.
Meanwhile, the Anjanath's counterattacks left deep wounds and blunt force trauma with every hit.
It was a completely one-sided beating.
And finally, after being bitten and flung hard into a tree, the battered Tobi-Kadachi seemed to realize the truth,
It had zero chance of winning.
Whimpering, it leapt up into the trees and fled at lightning speed.
The Anjanath watched the retreating figure with disdain, snorting hot breath from its nostrils.
"Pfft. Not even enough to make me activate my heat sacs. Trash like this is just getting worse and worse."
After devouring the herbivore it had snatched from the Tobi-Kadachi, the Anjanath finally turned away in satisfaction.
It wasn't originally from this part of the forest.
It had migrated here from the deeper regions of the Ancient Forest.
Its life in the inner forest had been relatively peaceful…
Until the day it encountered a strange little Rathalos hatchling that trespassed into its territory.
The Anjanath was no ordinary one.
It was bigger, stronger, and meaner than most of its kind.
And yet, that flightless baby Rathalos had somehow managed to escape its jaws just by running.
That humiliation…
was seared into its memory.
A deep, burning shame.
It was the kind of insult no Anjanath could ignore.
Driven mad with rage, the brute lost all sense of reason.
In the following days, it rampaged uncontrollably across its own territory.
And in its blind fury, it accidentally trespassed into the domains of other monsters,
causing a chain of territorial disputes.
The inner forest wasn't home to weaklings.
The creatures there were all apex-level beasts.
The Anjanath had pissed off the wrong neighbors… and soon found itself ganged up on and chased out.
Utterly humiliated, it was forced to abandon its former territory and migrate to a new region.
Now, as it wandered in search of a resting place, a scorched and damaged clearing caught its eye.
It looked like the aftermath of a violent battle between two large beasts.
Curious, the Anjanath stomped into the clearing.
Finding a new territory wasn't easy.
You had to understand the local environment, track prey habits, and be wary of nearby threats.
This battlefield had potential.
It was clearly formed from a recent monster clash, which meant it was worth investigating.
The Anjanath sniffed the air.
It caught the stench of Pukei-Pukei venom, and the lingering smell of fire and ash.
It recognized the heat signature of a Rathian, but based on the strength of the scent, likely a young one.
As it ventured deeper, the Anjanath suddenly caught a familiar scent that made it freeze in its tracks.
That smell…
That hatchling.
The one that had escaped its jaws.
Still alive?!
Its pupils narrowed.
Its breath grew heavier.
Perfect. Time for payback.
But then it caught something else.
A strong Rathian scent, the same one mixed with the hatchling's scent.
Was that… its mother?
The Anjanath hesitated.
It wasn't particularly smart, but even it knew one thing:
A furious Rathian wasn't something to mess with lightly.
Their venom and fire could kill you with them, in a final blaze of mutual destruction.
If it wanted to go after that hatchling again, it had to prepare for one thing:
A fight to the death with a pissed-off Rathian.
Back near the nest, at noon, Yuno returned with a freshly killed Kelbi in his claws.
Just as he landed, a strange chill ran down his spine.
He froze, scanning the area, but the feeling vanished as quickly as it came.
"…Weird," he muttered. But he didn't dwell on it.
Because the moment he saw Aki casually walking over to the Kelbi and starting to eat without hesitation,
All his worries disappeared.
Carefully, Yuno inched closer.
He stretched one foot into the nest entrance.
Aki didn't even look at him. She was too focused on her food.
Taking that as permission, Yuno gently squeezed himself into the nest.
He nestled right up against her, their bodies lightly touching.
Aki gave him a side glance.
She didn't say anything.
Didn't growl. Didn't shove him.
She simply shifted a little,
Making just enough space for him to lie comfortably.
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