A heavily armored Hunter weighs an incredible amount, especially a heavyweight like Dawn or Isis. Between body and equipment, each could easily come close to half a ton.
Add Hibiki's considerable size, and a small boat simply could not carry them all. Teams One and Two had to split up and land on the island separately.
Even so, the small boat carrying Altaïr and the others rode very low in the water. With between one and two hundred meters still separating them from shore, they had no choice but to stop.
Meowster glanced over the side of the boat. "Just as I thought, meow. The sandy beach along the southern shore is extremely shallow, meow. With the tide coming in, even a meter of water can cover this much of the beach, meow."
"So what do we do now?" Altaïr asked uncertainly.
"Jump overboard, meow, wade to shore, and let the boat go back for Team Two, meow." Meowster nimbly climbed onto Hibiki's back.
He could swim, but he was carrying a large collection of maps and notes, which were hardly suited to a soaking.
Altaïr and the others had no objections. They disembarked one after another and waded through the waist-deep seawater toward shore, one step at a time.
Perhaps because the water was calm and undisturbed by waves, the sea here was astonishingly clear.
Isis looked down and saw a school of tiny fish, none larger than a finger, gathering around her feet and circling her ankles.
Unable to resist, she reached down. The fish scattered for a moment in alarm, but quickly swam back and began gently nibbling at her fingertips.
"Meooow!" Clawdia shot past her like a cannonball, sending the little fish darting away in all directions.
Flipping over, Clawdia dove to the bottom and dug a small, dark-red, octopus-like creature out of the seemingly undisturbed sand. She proudly thrust it into Isis's hand, then darted away again with a whoosh.
The colorful fish that had been lightly pecking at her fingertips had been replaced by a slimy, tentacled creature. Isis fell silent for a moment.
Meowster glanced over from his perch on Hibiki's back. "Hermitakons, meow. Gut them and you can eat them raw, meow. Some foodies with very particular tastes can't get enough of the sensation of their sucker-lined tentacles clinging to the mouth and throat, meow."
With that, he added, "Truly a bountiful sea, meow."
Even Isis, who was usually willing to try all kinds of strange foods, could not bring herself to bite into the squirming little octopus in her hand. Instead, she stuffed it into Hibiki's mouth.
Altaïr scanned their surroundings. Wading through waist-deep water severely restricted their movement, but this depth would barely inconvenience a Large Monster.
He worried that something might appear without warning and catch them in a very vulnerable position.
Fortunately, their luck held. The shallows contained only fish, shrimp, and shellfish. A small sea snake swimming across the surface was the only creature that could even loosely be associated with the word "danger."
The group continued toward shore without incident. Dense trees rose around them, creating the strange sensation of being inside a jungle while seawater lapped at their knees.
Looking at the trees growing so densely in the seawater, Altaïr asked, "Are these mangroves? We've seen mangrove forests on the west coast of the Metapetatto Jungle too, but they looked different."
"They are mangroves, but a completely different variety from the ones on the continent's west coast, meow." Clearly intrigued, Meowster sprang from Hibiki's back onto the trunk of a mangrove tree.
He studied the bark for several seconds, then extended his claws and scratched it a few times, sniffed it, and finally even gave it a lick.
Altaïr opened his mouth, then closed it again. He knew many scholars, some human and some Wyverian, but he had never seen a Felyne scholar go so far as to taste a specimen.
While Altaïr mulled that over, Meowster jumped back onto Hibiki's back.
"These mangroves have straighter, thicker trunks and grow taller, meow. In theory, their roots should reach deeper as well. All these traits mark them as true trees, meow. Most ordinary mangrove forests consist mainly of shrub varieties, meow," Meowster said as he studied the surrounding trees.
Isis and Nymera paid little attention to Meowster's muttering. One kept watch ahead and the other behind, both scanning their surroundings.
The mangrove forest was far less open than the surface of the sea. Dense foliage severely obstructed their view, leaving them to wonder whether a Monster might be lurking among the trees.
"Full-sized trees, huh... A mangrove forest like this has a greater chance of harboring a Large Monster." Altaïr furrowed his brow as he stood guard beside Meowster. "Something like Nargacuga probably wouldn't come here. These mangroves aren't sturdy enough to support a tree-dwelling Monster of that size. But it wouldn't be surprising to find Fanged Beasts like Congalala or Kecha Wacha in a mangrove forest like this."
Meowster looked at him with mild surprise. "That's right, meow. Compared with Flying Wyverns and Brute Wyverns, Carapaceons and Fanged Beasts are more likely to appear in this kind of mangrove forest, meow. Rather than focusing only on the gaps between the trees, you should pay closer attention to the canopies and the ground, meow."
Isis and Nymera exchanged a glance and shifted their attention accordingly.
After advancing several dozen meters, perhaps close to a hundred, into the mangrove forest, the seawater around their feet finally gave way to soft, damp, sandy soil.
Unlike the loose sand of a beach or desert, this soil had a higher clay content and was better suited to plant growth. Small insects and birds were everywhere, making the forest feel quite lively.
"This is all the work of the mangroves, meow..."
Meowster was still marveling at it when Nymera suddenly raised a clenched fist, signaling caution.
The Hunters immediately stopped and closed ranks around Meowster. Clawdia sprang onto Hibiki's back and bared her steel claws.
"...You don't need to worry about me quite that much, meow. I'm a Felyne. If I really run into danger, I can escape on my own, meow," Meowster reminded them as he licked his paw.
Only then did Altaïr and the other two remember that Meowster could dig holes and escape underground.
"Two o'clock, thirty meters out, in the canopy of that mangrove tree," Nymera called, her sharp eyes having spotted something unusual.
Altaïr followed her gaze, his pupils narrowing. "Is that... spider silk?"
A large clump of white, threadlike material clung to the crown of the mangrove, its dangling strands swaying in the wind.
"Nerscylla?"
In a forest, spider silk naturally made Altaïr think of Nerscylla first.
Nymera almost reminded him of Rakna-Kadaki, then reconsidered. They were by the sea. Rakna-Kadaki inhabited volcanoes and caves, preferred heat, and disliked water; one was unlikely to appear here.
"Could be an Akura Vashimu, meow," Meowster added, though he immediately began to doubt his own judgment. "Still, none of those creatures should be capable of crossing the sea to reach an island, meow.
Could it be... a unique Temnoceran species that has lived on this island since before it separated from the continent and evolved independently, meow?!"
Meowster grew more excited the longer he spoke.
Why had he left his position and his work at the Wycademy to join this expedition? Wasn't it precisely for the chance to encounter Monsters unknown to the world?
"Wait, I hear something, meow." Beside Altaïr, Sajji twitched his ears and signaled everyone to stay quiet.
Clawdia's eyes flashed as she looked ahead. "I hear it too. It sounds like an animal crying, meow. Eleven o'clock. Should we go check it out, meow?"
Meowster swiveled his ears and listened intently for several seconds, but unfortunately heard nothing. Between his age and his scholarly work, his senses were no longer as sharp as those of younger Felynes.
"Let's move closer, meow. Be careful, meow." Meowster scratched his ear in disappointment and gave the order.
The Hunters adjusted their course and cautiously approached the source of the sound.
A few minutes later, the "Yoi... yoi..." cries grew more distinct, sounding like the calls of some kind of juvenile.
The Hunters exchanged glances and changed their formation. Isis took point, Altaïr followed close behind to cover her, and Nymera moved alongside Meowster to guard him.
Meowster's hearing had already deteriorated to the point that it was no better than a human's. Who knew whether his digging ability had declined as well?
He was the expedition's most valuable member; nothing could be allowed to happen to him.
Isis and Altaïr advanced another twenty or thirty meters before finally seeing the source of the sound.
High in the canopy of a tall mangrove, a human-sized creature resembling a red monkey was wrapped in a large mass of silk and pinned firmly between the branches.
The cries they had heard were coming from it.
"Poor little thing. Did a Monster catch it?" Isis murmured.
"Shouldn't we get out of here?" Altaïr asked Meowster over his shoulder. "The predator might come back soon!"
Meowster narrowed his eyes and stared intently at the "red monkey" in the canopy.
"Caught by a Monster, meow?"
(Translated by yourtl.app)