Monster Hunter: I can hear the monsters' thoughts

Chapter 493 The tip of the needle versus the awn of wheat

"Stop, stop, stop!"

Lin Lin's timely arrival eased the tense atmosphere. When Da Kong saw Lin Lin rushing over, he suddenly closed his mouth, swallowed the flames that were overflowing, and then let out a low growl from his throat.

It was just curiously observing the surroundings of the village when it spotted this creature that seemed to be sneaking towards the village. This creature was also fourteen or fifteen meters long, almost as big as Ooku itself. If it were to enter the village silently, the villagers would be in danger.

Therefore, without the slightest hesitation, Ooku roared and blocked the path of the opponent's advance.

Its original intention was simply to stop the other party from advancing. However, after discovering that Da Kong was blocking its way, the other party's anger level visibly soared. If Lin Lin hadn't arrived just now, the two of them would probably have already started fighting.

Lin Lin: ...

He turned his head and looked at the huge, pale purple dragon head, his eyes meeting.

Time seemed to freeze for a moment. Lin Lin could clearly see the emotions flashing in those beautiful fox-like eyes: confusion, doubt, and uncertainty...

With a powerful push from its strong claws, the Flame Fox Dragon, aided by its slippery fluids, slid to Lin Lin's side in a flash. Its slender body coiled up, trapping Lin Lin in the center, while its massive head slowly peered out from in front of Lin Lin, cautiously sniffing his scent.

Lin Lin casually took off his helmet and held it in his arms. He stretched out a hand and slowly touched the tip of Puff's moist and soft nose. Then, his palm slid up along the bridge of her nose and gently brushed across Puff's forehead.

Watching those beautiful fox-like eyes tremble slightly, and the emotions projected within them visibly shifting from surprise and joy to a touch of grievance, Lin Lin sighed softly.

"Good child, you've grown up..."

When Da Kong saw the Flame Fox Dragon making a move, he became alert. When he saw it rushing straight towards Lin Lin, he was even more startled and immediately tried to swoop down to provide emergency assistance. However, he was interrupted by Lin Lin waving his hand before he could make a move.

"It's okay, this is your sister's cream puff, don't be nervous."

Oozora's only remaining eye widened in shock. What do you mean, "This is my sister"? I am a fire dragon, my mother is a human, and my sister is a pufferfish dragon?

Even with its intelligence far surpassing that of an ordinary Rathalos, the Great Sky's brain quickly overloaded and crashed at this moment. The sun, moon, and stars revolved in its mind, vegetation took root and sprouted in an instant, twitching and soaring upwards, herbivorous dragons galloped across the grasslands, red and green flying dragons intertwined, and a new life hatched from the dragon egg...

In a daze, a little tune that was a mix of "Somebody That I Used To Know" and "woke up like this" played on repeat in Daisora's mind, and finally, Daisora ​​understood.

Born from Mom!

Lin Lin naturally had no idea what kind of brainstorming Da Kong was going through at the moment. Even if he did know, he wouldn't be quite sure how to explain why it was an older sister instead of an older brother.

Are you suggesting I went to the trouble of prying open the tail to check the sex of this little Flame Fox Dragon I found? The child's all grown up now; shouldn't we at least respect its privacy...?

However, on the other hand, empiricism can really be a killer. As we all know, the brightly colored Bubble Fox Dragons are all male individuals. Female Bubble Fox Dragons and their cubs live together in groups. When Lin Lin first picked up Little Puff and brought her home, he subconsciously thought that she was also a little boy. But after checking her out of curiosity, he found that she was a real little girl.

It's unclear whether this rule only applies to the Bubble Fox Dragon and no longer applies to rarer species, or whether the male Flame Fox Dragon's body is more vibrant than that of the Little Puff.

Lin Lin didn't lose focus for long. After confirming that the person in front of her was indeed him, Little Puff became extremely excited. Almost instinctively, she wanted to put her front paws on Lin Lin's shoulders and rub her head against his chest, just like she used to, to express her longing.

However, Puff's affectionate gesture failed in the first step because it was so big that it could almost grab Lin Lin's entire body in its paws. One paw could barely rest on Lin Lin's shoulder, but the other paw couldn't even touch the edge of Lin Lin. If Lin Lin hadn't been physically strong, he would probably have been directly rubbed into the ground by Puff's affectionate gesture.

After her failed attempt, Little Puff seemed a little disappointed, letting out a few whimpering sounds.

"Sigh... why is this child only growing taller?"

Lin Lin sighed helplessly, took two steps forward, opened his arms, and hugged Little Puff's mouth tube into his arms. He pressed his cheek against Little Puff's shiny, smooth scales and gently rubbed it a couple of times.

Hmm, as expected of the Flame Fox Dragon, its entire body is protected by pure white slippery fluid. Not only is it sticky to the touch, but it also has a unique warmth, unlike the Jumpy Dragon, which feels cool to the touch.

Lin Lin's actions quickly filled Little Puff's disappointed mood with joy again. Although she could no longer snuggle her head into Lin Lin's arms and act cute, the feeling of being hugged and close was just as good.

Little Puff involuntarily stuck out her tongue and licked Lin Lin's entire face from bottom to top, covering him in saliva. However, unlike Da Kong and Tiao Tiao, who would leave a fishy smell on him if Lin Lin didn't clean their mouths properly, Little Puff's mouth even had a faint floral fragrance, the unique scent of pure white sap.

After a long period of intimacy, Little Puff finally raised her head again, looked in the direction of the sky, and made two "whimpering" sounds at Lin Lin, her voice full of accusation.

Where did this guy come from? When it first returned to the village, it almost thought the village had been attacked by this guy. If Lin Lin hadn't appeared in time, it would have almost started a fight.

Flamefire Village provided it with a peaceful and stable environment to grow up in, and Sister Fire Sprout and Sister Water Cloud would take special care of it, often bringing it snacks to feed it and play with it. In Little Puff's heart, this village was almost as important to it as Lin Lin, and it would not allow any monsters to disrupt the peace of the village.

Lin Lin turned to look at Da Kong, who seemed to still be in a daze, and then at the cream puff staring longingly at him, and couldn't help but grin.

Two monsters, terrifying and ferocious in the eyes of most ordinary people, almost fought each other to protect the village and its villagers. What a mess...

Lin Lin reflected deeply and realized that this was all due to his own inadequate education.

"Ahem..." Lin Lin cleared his throat and formally introduced the two parties:

“Puff, this is Sky, your younger brother. Do you remember the egg I brought home a while ago, and the incubator? Sky hatched from that egg and traveled the continent with me, fighting alongside me. He only acted that way because he mistook you for a monster attacking the village.”

“Dakong, this is Puff, your older sister. I’ve told you before, right? You were born in Yuukoku, and before I returned to Yuukoku, I was active in Yanhuo. During that time, Puff was always by my side—well, it has always lived in Yanhuo Village, so it just mistook you for someone who came to cause trouble.”

Lin Lin stood in the middle and acted as a peacemaker. If it were two humans here, even if they still didn't get along, they would at least put on a show of reconciliation for Lin Lin's sake. But Puff and Da Kong were not human. As monsters, although they were smart enough to understand the meaning of Lin Lin's every word, monsters didn't have the kind of subtlety that humans have.

The two dragons exchanged a glance, their eyes sparking, before turning away to erase each other from their sight—well, with Lin Lin around, a fight was out of the question; this was the only way they could express their dislike for each other.

Puff: Hmph! Just a brat!

Oozora: Pshaw! She's just an old lady!
Lin Lin: ...

He rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on. He felt that the current situation was even more troublesome than facing Tianhuilong alone in the confinement area.

At least when facing Tenkai Ryu, drawing his sword might have been able to solve the problem, but in the current situation, he really didn't know what to do.

Forget it, there's no need to pursue harmony too much. It would be a success if we could keep these two from fighting when I'm not around.

So Lin Lin began to try to change the subject:
"Oozora, how did you meet the cream puff?"

If he remembers correctly, Little Puff should have settled down by the lake. Could it be that she has moved to a new house in the past two years?
Although Da Kong didn't particularly like this pretentious older sister, he still answered Lin Lin's questions without hesitation, and he growled in a low voice.

Of course, it was flying in the sky and saw this guy sneaking in from the estuary! It looked like it had a guilty conscience and was up to no good!

Little Puff also had something to say, and immediately started to refute with two soft "oohs".

What's all this sneaking around about? It clearly swam in openly and honestly, didn't it? Every resident of Flamefire Village knows it. Why should it need to be so careful and avoid us?

"hiss……"

Looking at the two dragons who were at loggerheads, Lin Lin couldn't help but put on a mask of pain. They were both his flesh and blood, what should he do... If only Tiao Tiao were here. Not to mention that its strength was enough to easily suppress these two little guys, just the fact that it, like Ye Zao, had been fully involved in the childhood of these two children and played the role of the eldest brother, he could probably mediate their conflict to some extent.
Sigh, I don't know why these two kids just can't stand each other.

Lin Lin sighed and tried to change the subject again:
"By the way, Little Puff, why did you want to leave the village? The outside world is full of dangers, can you handle it?"

Little Puff glanced at Da Kong before moving closer to Lin Lin again. She blew a bright, round bubble from her mouth and played with it, swaying it against her nose.

"Whoa, whoa..."

Don't worry! I'm no longer the Puff who could be bullied by the Kappa Frog! Those guys can't do anything to me easily!
Moreover, running away from the village was truly a last resort...

If she could stay in the peaceful and stable village and enjoy life, Little Puff wouldn't run away from the village every few days.

As its size grows, its appetite increases daily. However, the village of Yanhuo is only so big, and the surrounding lakes can only support a limited number of fish. If it continues to eat here, it may disrupt the original stable ecological balance.

So, after her appetite grew to a certain extent, in order to prevent the children in the village from having no fish to catch, Little Puff left the village and went into the sea from the estuary to forage for food.

However, whether it's the Flame Fox Dragon or the Bubble Fox Dragon, although they are sea dragons, their body structures are more specialized and better suited for moving on land. In the vast ocean, no matter how high the concentration of its slickness is, it can't make bubbles. This made Little Puff quite insecure. So after getting familiar with its surroundings a little, it found a river that flows into the ocean and went upstream to carry out its daily hunting.

At first, Little Puff was still haunted by the memory of being swallowed whole by the Kappa Frog, so she avoided large monsters whenever possible, sometimes having to watch helplessly as her beloved Gunpowder Goldfish and Broken Dragonfish escaped.

However, during a rest stop in the middle of a hunt, it was ambushed by a water frog. Before Little Puff could even struggle, the frog was blown to pieces by the violently exploding bubbles and died on the spot.

This battle made it realize its current combat strength, and it became a little bolder in its actions, spending more time hunting in the hunting grounds. It would only return to Flamefire Village when it felt slightly tired or had eaten and drunk its fill.

"So that's it..."

Lin Lin nodded slightly, recalling the terrain around Yanhuo Village. He had a rough idea of ​​the area where Little Puff hunted daily. The river she found was most likely the lake that flowed from the abandoned shrine into the ocean. He and Yezao had fished by that river before.

Suddenly, a thought struck him, and he unconsciously recalled the feeling of being spied on outside the Feiye Fortress.

The Hundred Dragons Parade in the game's storyline hasn't even officially started yet, so how come a tyrant has already set its sights on the fortress? What attracted it?

Could it be related to Little Puff's hunting activities?
Lin Lin was silent for a moment, then suddenly spoke:
"Next time we go out to eat, I'll go with you. There are some things I want to investigate."

Little Puff naturally had no objection to this. After a long separation, this was a great opportunity for them to spend time alone and get closer. She cherished Lin Lin so much that she wouldn't mind at all.

On the contrary, Da Kong was giving Lin Lin a slightly resentful and jealous look, which made Lin Lin feel a chill run down his spine.

(End of this chapter)