The three of us made it to the end of the path, we paused at the sight that greeted us. "Wow." The handler said in awe, mouth falling open in shock, even I was pretty amazed at the sight. The path followed on, massive stone slabs raised up to be a cliff, but what was more magnificent were the giant bone tusks on either side of the path, somehow fixed to the rocks, three on each side, the relatively smaller one in front of us and the much bigger one at the back, almost twice the size of the smaller one, a red string or rope or sorts were tied around the tusks that created an archway into the headquarters, the red lines travelling across the distance from one tusk to the other tusk on the other side, zigzagging to the other smaller tusks, they had a few red flags on them, dropping down, as though someone had poorly strung up a celebration banner.
"Amazing, ain't it?" The Field Team Leader said to us, we slowly walked forwards under the bone archway, the handler looking up at them in awe. "Just look at this gate." He said. "It's like nature meant for us to build Astera right here." He told us, so this is what this place was called. We barely made a difference to the side of the tusks, to them we probably looked like little black dots moving along the dirt path once again. "Astera! I like it!" The handler said with a nod and excited voice. She let out a little chuckle and ran forwards.
We were met with what seemed to be a tradeyard of sorts, there was a long wooden bridge that lead us into our new home. "The rest of the fifth are already here." He told us, so, they had also survived that ghastly encounter from that other monster we ran into on the ship. "You're the last to arrive?" He told me as we walked over the drawstring bridge, wood fastened together and planks of wood nailed in at the front of back, chains running down each side of a little archway with two large wooden doors, even that was magnificent. We looked off to the side, the light blue clear ocean greeted our sights, as well as a ship that was docked yo against a bridge that went past another much larger ship.
I could make out a few people below us, one man dressed in leather armour bending down and picking up a wooden crate and others on the ship or taking other things off. We turned back and walked through the gate, the tradeyard was filled with lots of things and little stalls as though it were a market, I couldn't wait to explore it all. My eyes fell on two hunters must in front of us that were calming down three other passengers. "Okay, settle down over here." The Hunter said. The redhead caught sight of me and waved. "Hey! You guys made it!" He said, his voice brought the attention of the dark haired girl crouched down behind him as she also looked our way.
I recognised the two of them as the A-list hunters I had met earlier on the ship. They ran towards us, wide grins on their faces. "You're alive!" The girl in green said with a content sigh. "Had it rough huh?" The redheaded hunter said to me with a grin, he stepped towards me and patted his shoulder, his metal gauntlet rattling as he did so. "When we couldn't find you two, we were starting to sweat bullets." He teased, though I was glad that they took had made it to Astera. I watched as the girl placed her hand on my partner's arm, voice filled with sincerity. "You scared us. We were talking about going out to look for you." She told me partner. The handler nodded slightly and let out a small chuckle. "All's well that ends well!" She told the other A-lister's. I gave a little nod to the girl in green leather and flashed a smile her way.
A voice further in front of me caught my attention, some guy in bulky metal armour waving towards us, to the side or him a girl laying on the floor clutching at her knee. "Hey, we need a hand!" He shouted over to the five of us. "Sorry..." The red haired hunter told us as he was starting to get dragged away from us by his partner. "Catch ya later!" He said and waved a goodbye to us as he went over to the person needing their help. I watched as my partner chuckled and bounced slightly on her feet, waving goodbye to them in return.
The Hunter who saved us let out a little pleased grunt and began walking deeper into the headquarters. "This here's our tradeyard. I guess the name says it all." He said. I nodded looking around for the moment, there were barrels no doubt filled with different exports, people milling about and talking to other hunters or goods providers. A few canaries over certain areas were there, shielding the tradeyard from the sun. There was a section that seemed to be dedicated to researchers, a huge canopy hanging over the wooden platform, or more like several pieces of material tied inbetween bent wooden piles that made a huge canopy of sorts, the table there filled with countless books, I even spotted a Monsters horn on the table, almost pure white with a black tip.
"Look at all the people. The stuff!" The handler admired. "Incredible, right?" The hunter beside me said as I continued to quietly take in the scenery. "We've got it all here. We've got hunters to do all the exploring." We continued walking through the tradeyard and pointed out a few other key places of interest. "Scholars to do the research, technicians to keep them going...This place is the beating heart of the commission." He said with pride. "Wait here a sec." He told me, holding up his hand towards me as he ran off towards a set of wooden steps that seemed to lead up to the back of a ship, it seemed this entire place was built on top of a massive one. "Commander, I found 'em." I heard him say at the bottom of the steps.
I watched as they walked towards me, the Commander, the Field Team Leader and some other guy completely dressed in metal armour and a helmet that hid his face. They stood in front of us, the dark skinned man with white hair and matching white eyebrows and quite a stern looking face studied me and my partner for a moment.
"Welcome to Astera"