Chapter 1. The Cats and Wolves of Fort Castle
Sir Guido the Knight for Hire
Autumn is a wretched seasoned, preferred only by the most wretched of people. A season where the world itself turns sick and begins to rot. The winds were rough, whipping through the forest adding a wet chill all night. The air was always cold, but muggy and the days grew shorter. Worst of all was the damned rain. Every day it seemed to rain, the cold turning it to ice water without even the decency to turn it to snow. At least than it would not soak into clothes and armor. That wretched rain always falling, thumping against helms echoing endlessly with every drop.
"Sir Guido,I still don't see why we can't use the cars for this. Wouldn't it be faster?" Well of course it would. A whole caravan of horse carried dust barrels and men at arms wasn't exactly fast. Three rifle dragoons in front including him, three in back, three wagons of creaking dust paid for by Fort Castle coin all on the backs of a dozen horses. They were slow as dirt, but with the rain they were as good as silent. Aside from that damn dinging noise inside his helmet. The gods seem content to let that torment him.
"Don't even start with me girl. You know it's too loud." Although the shouting wasn't helping much either. Guido felt nothing, but cold. The thin steel plates of armor he wore seemed to freeze to his skin, soaked in rain. His large six foot form was muted in the cold as the rain and water shriveled him up. Not the most attractive with greyed hair and messy beard, a knight getting on in age with no real lands to fall back to, but experienced in war. He had lived in the service of the Lady of Fort Castle for the last five years, predating this pointless revolt. The Faunus had ruined the peaceful enforcer's life he had in the mines, and with every mission he survived Guido's employers thought better of him. The better they thought of him the more work turned into dangerous missions of a hero, not the pleasant doldrums of a guard captain.
"Aren't we just as loud being a line of horses, sir." But not as loud as her apparently. The girl was inexperienced; the Faunus could hear anything a mile away with their demon ears the slightest reduction mattered. Nearly three years the knights of Fort Castle fought the damned rebel Faunus and never lost a battle, but the noose around Fort Castle's neck grew tighter as trade was destroyed by raiders and their numbers thinned when patrols went missing. Brigands they were, not real rebels. They were easy enough to kill, by blade or rifle, but they ran away and sniped with crossbows and longbows whenever faced by real knights. It was for that reason that no matter how much the rain echoed in his helm, Guido did not remove the damn thing. Faunus had left him enough scars already.
"What on Remnant would be the point of wasting barrels of dust running the cursed powder back and forth? Why even bother. Then when the Faunus kills you, we wouldn't even have dust enough to make it worth the effort." It was all the damned Schnee's fault. They ignored the kings call to force the Faunus to Menagerie, let them work in the dust mines, must be how they knew the shipments. Guido almost thought they might be cohorts. The rebels forced the price of dust up being needed for cannons and rifles and the Schnee would happily bleed the loyal lords dry. They could have raised an army to end the northern rebels, or shipped the dust in by airship to Fort Castle, but no they sat back and claimed neutrality. Schnee and Faunus, gods damn them all.
"I'm sorry sir.." His Squire muttered barely over the rain and for a moment the old Knight felt guilty. The kid was dressed in rags with barely a touch of armor. She was young, hair a loose blonde, common for the people of the southern cities. Her face was riddled with freckles, and expression haggard by the ice rain. Why they had assigned a soaked foolish southern girl to be his squire Guido could only ponder, if it wasn't too cold to do so.
"Regardless girl, how do you expect to become a knight with such shoddy horsemanship? You Southerners don't know the value of a good mount. When we get back I'll teach you better, may be that you'll become worth something to someone then." If they had the chance that is. The route made him nervous. The path from Fort Castle to the border of the Schnee lands was long winding road all riding along the White River. The river spun apart this far into the mountains though. In spring it would flow thick again, and in winter the water slow thin and freeze solid enough to double the roads size, but in autumn, the damnable month, it was nothing besides a wet sloshing mush of cold mud. It was too thick to run the horses off the road, and the other side against the river was a ledge, always a few feet above the cobbled road where the earth had been worn down by the flooded river. One of the caravans flanks were mudded over, the other cliffs too difficult to climb up, but easy for the enemy to drop down. If Guido survived another winter he swore he would rip down those cliffs himself come summertime.
"My mother said dust will end the age of horses. No need to learn how to ride better, that'll be for the farmers Sir. If you saw Vale you'd know for sure Sir." Vale was a filthy city, and Guido had enough of it, nothing but a collection of rich nobles and poor fools thinking they might be like them if they had the right dress. Only work for a man like Guido lie here, north of Forever Falls.
Somewhere in the bitterness Guido shut his eyes for just a moment, tired from a long wet muddy day. Falling asleep on horseback was a trick every old knight needed to know if they intended to survive a campaign or two, but at lead Guido couldn't let himself. Quick shot of a breath woke him up and ahead of them stood squarely in the road a figure.
"Hold you wretches!" Guido shouted pulling the reins on his own black mare. The horse kicked up acting all sorts of spooked, that as enough to make Guido reach for his dust rifle. What stood in front was a figure of impressive height taller by a foot than any man in his routine. The monster stood low to the ground covered in a thick blue and black armor, jagged with inscriptions of wolves. The plates ended in chain and blue fabric along the ends of its leggings and arms. The helm was black and carved with the expression of a wolf, the back having a small blue plum to it. Its right arm hosted a zweihänder up on the armored shoulder, the other hand held a tower shield; beaten and carved by claws of some sort of grim, but the face of a wolf seemingly scarred was ever present. A blue and black wolf was the symbol of no family Guido knew in Fort Castle Lands. "You there, the one dressed like some knight. What lands do you come from?" Black wolves in a dark forest, like the Beowolves of the Snowy Forest are never a good sign.
"I am no Knight, Sir. I am a Huntress." The voice was female, though rough and near a growl. Guido disliked that answer, huntresses and hunters were a bane of normal men in times like these. They were sworn to hunt and stop the encroaching grimm, but more and more Hunters and Huntresses were used in modern war. Dust had the grimm running leaving experienced hunters afoot with nothing but masterful combat training and gifts with the arcane arts of aura and dust. Legions of normal men-at-arms could be dealt with by a skilled huntress; Guido had seen it himself in previous wars. Nevermores in Human skin they were. Her station explained the armor and the damage to it, but all hunters and huntress that could be bought in the province sat in the comfy warm hearth of the Lady of Fort Castles. A huntress out here….
"Aye, neither are we, this here girl is a tradesmen we are just passing through. Wine merchant you see." Displaying arms and banners of Fort Castle proudly stopped months ago when no one wearing the colors ever came back. Guido was the first to refuse. The others knights called him dishonorable, the other knights were dead. His squire was at least smart enough to play his part, looking the bored merchant's girl with a whistling tune.
"Lot of rifles for wine merchants, Sir." The way the Huntress stood, right hand tight on that Blade. Guido clutched his rifle in return. Fire dust might not work in the rain, but his gun was loaded with force dust and a bolt of metal, it would end a huntress as well as traditional fire. Another Veteran's trick for rainy days. If things went bad, one shot in the heart would put the huntress down as well as any Grimm.
"Aye, a dangerous wood and that's where the money is made…" Guido said just above the rain, the conversation not going at all where he wanted. The Huntress was too cocky, gunners all ready to down the black wolf. Shots fired meant attracting brigands though, something to be avoided if their little merry band didn't feel like a taking a fist full of arrows to the back. "Are Grimm afoot?" Again Guido's horse began to panic slightly, the smell of that huntress irritating the mare, worst time for that sort of thing
"No, is only liars and Fort Castle men I see." The Huntress finished with a wolf's deep angry growl, animal enough to make his mare panic harder, kickin' up mud as Guido rushed to calm it.
Faunus.
"Gunner!" Guido shouted unable to settle his horse enough to aim. What should have been the burst of flaming dust was a shuffle in the trees. Another figure split apart into three shadows, each engaging the wagons gunners. The figures swift blades cut down the men and the shadows then formed into one, the Black Cat.
"It's Dust! Take them down!" Was all Guido could hear clearly before the back of their supple wagon was chewed up by crossbow bolts, a favorite of the Faunus rebels. His squire and dragoon companion both turned away, towards the shadows behind them, but Guido new better. Never turn your back to a howling wolf in the night.
Rifle out, lifted quicker than even the wolf expected. The bang rendered him deaf, and the spark of a shot striking the tower shield was the only light as that Huntress' Zweihander put down Guidos mare. The horse collapsed and Guido with it. The metal plate leggings acted as the brace and the weight horse snapped his leg when it fell on him. Mud splattered on his face, that same damning rain pounding on his helm and a pain so unimaginable in his leg that the knight had no words to shout or thoughts to form, just hatred of Autumn. More Faunus figures came from the shadows pulling down the squire girl and the horses. The pain dulled his sense of time, but eventually a boot to the back of the head put him out.
"On your knees!" Pressed on his broken leg Guido wanted to scream. The bastards knew he couldn't hope to stand, but they made him walk, bag over his head and leg shattered, some trail long forsaken by any gods he intended to worship. The mud now caked him as he fell with every step, but the mongrels wouldn't even let him lie down and bleed to death. Bastards dragged Guido back up and marched him. Sometime past, though the pain made it impossible to think how much before they shouted that order, and on Guido's knees he dropped feeling the shattered leg beg for relief. The old Knight was done.
"Unmasked them, they have a right to know their accusers!" The voice was matched with the shadow that ordered the assault, and though Guido had never met the man, he knew this brigand right away. A man of taller than average height, but his body slim and agile. His armor was thin, nothing more than patches of black boiled leather. They made a warn breastplate gauntlets and one shoulder brace on his left arm, any substantial armor pieces had a knife holstered to them and the young man carried a bow along his back, the rebellions preferred weapon. The whole was set strung together with white linen of some sort, shockingly pristine for a thug that did most his work in the mud. Hair was black as a raven reaching past normal ear length with added bangs, Faunus cat's ears popping between the silky straight strains. His mouth was hidden by a long black scarf that reached down his back. The cat's face was neither rough nor frightening, but the glow of yellow eyes was another story. An animal's eyes.
"The Black Cat of Fort Castle." The leader of Fort Castle's worst gang of rebels for the last year. Mostly miners from outside the Castle walls, but their numbers had swelled. Unlike previous rebel groups the Black Cat would not fight pitched battles; instead his band picked off patrols and let the knights dig themselves a lovely tomb inside the walls of Fort Castle. Starve them he intended to do, and some whispered the Black Cat was responsible for the fire inside the Castles grain stores. Some still thought he hid there, possessing the stray cats of the castle. Guido knew however, this was no magical beast, just an animal needing to be put down.
"My name is Charles, yours?" Rumor had it he was a cordial murderer, and despite the killing and being dragged through the damned forest Guido would almost agree. He spoke without much arrogance, instead had the tone of a humble victor.
"Sir Guido sworn to the service of Fort Castle. For now that is. Now let me sit off of my shattered leg brigand if you have any decency." Guido took the moment to look around. There was no escape; the fires around them illuminated the center of a massive camp. Faunus men and women rebels sat at every path, the sea of them having seemingly no end in either direction. Beside Guido was his Squire, panicked little girl she was. Around them a crowded gather, many faunus of many types were here. It was impossible to remember every face, but all shared the same level of distaste at them and smiles of victory. Beat an old man and captured a little girl, he bet their mothers were very proud.
"And you?" Charles asked the squire girl, ignoring Guido's request.
"She's just some stupid girl from Vale, some knight's little daughter. Worth nothing dead, might be worth a ransom if you leave her be." Guido shouted before the girl could answer with something stupid and dangerous. Not the right time to shout king's propaganda or say something to insult the Faunus leader. Guido was dead as soon as he was captured, a knight with no holdings and no family was worthless to keep, but the kid might make it as a hostage.
"Please sir, I didn't do anything-" The little one moaned between tears. Poor child should have stayed with her knightly mother then let herself go north for a squire's life in Fort Castle.
"That's to be decided and I am not a sir." Charles responded with a tone nowhere near as cruel as his words were. He lowered himself to speak to the girl more at her level, perhaps sympathetic to children, or other things. Either way was a better fate than death.
"The kid did nothing, sell her. It's money you're after anyways brigand and don't say you're not. I know you're type." Thieves is all they were. The smell of a dishonest day's wealth Guido believed would motivate the man to act where begging would not.
"You both stand charged with smuggling through Faunus lands, and you, Sir Guido, are charged with crimes against my people." Charles announced too much applause. So it was done, they would be killed and not a thing they could do about it. Guido cursed as they shouted and all hopes of escape closed on him.
"Oh get this sham over with. If you mean to kill us don't force me on broken knee all day to do so." Guido shouted the pain from his leg becoming too much to bear. To think his life would end in a case of smuggling. The autumn rain still dripping on his muddy form, Guido felt not sad, but angry. Why make him walk, why force him to his knees. So why not resist, he mused starting to stand on his good leg for support. What would they do, kill him?
"Shut it old man." A metal claw forced Guido back onto his knees. The beast from the forest stood behind him, still dressed in ornate heavy blue and black armor. The helm was off, and Guido confirmed the huntress for a faunus woman. Hair black and with long bangs, the giant wolf woman seemed to be trying and failing to hide a massive scar that traveled across her face. Whatever hope of that monster being pretty was ruined by her angry dark eyes and sharp fangs that made up most of her teeth. More wolf in that girl than any of the Faunus that he had ever seen in his travels.
"Oh bite it you bit-" Guido ended in a screech as a metal foot slammed on his bad knee. The monster clearly was not quite as cordial as its master.
"On the Crime of smuggling what do you say?" The Black Cat asked refusing to get off subject.
"Fort Castle still flies the flag of Vale, boy." Guido replied in a raised voice, he would die a knight not some smuggler. The mock court was not moved and the Black Cat only frowned.
"I'm not killing a little girl, Charles." The wolf girl shouted above the muttering around them. Guido thought if making a crack at if she wanted to eat her first, but thought better of it. This was the kids chance and bless her heart she wasn't so dumb as to do anything but cry. It was silent for a moment before the leader nodded at the huntress.
"I say we pardon the child, what of it friends?" Charles announced and the little squire squealed in joy collapsing in the mud. Guido did not rejoice yet, the crowd was shouting louder than ever nothing could be made out in this hellish court. "One at a time, please friends!" Charles shouted over the rest forcing a hushed angry silence. The wolf and Charles maintained their vote but not everyone was pleased.
"No, send a message." One woman called for in the back. "Aye a pardon." One of the younger men shouted, though he was covered in a hood, he seemed to garner enough respect that many voted with him. "Never, they wouldn't pardon a Faunus." One of older men shouted, a big miner of some sort, thirsty for blood, a few cried in support of that. "She's a little girl!" A woman shouted back with fury. All the while Charles stayed focused, Guido could see his ears twitch with every vote of the robbers jury.
"Enough, I think we know our answer. The squire stays a prisoner, but is pardoned for smuggling." Charles decreed, the kid cried laughing, and the half the crowd cheered. A notable number seemed displeased, and Guido knew nothing would convince them of his innocence. At least the squire would make it. Silly child, he couldn't even remember her name, calling her girl so much, but Guido was happy she would make it at least a little while.
"No such luck for me aye?" Guido muttered feeling the cold rob him of the usual vigor he had.
"You're not a little girl are you false knight?" The iron clad wolf mocked behind her black bangs.
"False? You're a huntress. Suppose to be killing grimm not men at arms, monster!" Guido shouted back at her. This wolf crawled under his skin like no other. Defenders they were supposed to be, now she was as much an enemy to mankind as the grim they hunt.
"Enough, Sir Guido, on top of charges that you have smuggled, you are charged for crimes against the Faunus people. You remember a young miner girl named Lucia, had ears like me and yellow eyes?" Guido did not like where this was going. The name of that Faunus did not ring any sort of bell, but until the war he never remembered the name of a single one of the miners he was supposed to control.
"Not really, I am a little rattled from the leg at the moment." This was definitely not good. The crowed had lost all the sympathetic eyes, even the cordial Charles seemed colder, angrier and malicious.
"She does. I also remember you." Must have been one of those times. Guido cursed the drink and all it made him do, all the moments he indulged in weaknesses as its effects started.
"I never did a thing without paying for it, Bandit." Guido argued, wanting less to die from this sort of accusation than smuggling. He remembered a few faunus girls, working girls, or so it should have been. Barely remembered those nights, but it certainly left him poorer.
"She said no."
"Made more than a minors wage. No law against what I did, I paid my dues." Guido could not remember well enough to deny it, but he always paid and well. It was frowned on, but not illegal if given compensation, well not for faunus girls. It was his only defense, and the old Knight knew as he said it, that it was just wind to the mob.
"What say we friends?." The black cat called for judgment and got his answer.
"Death." It was a bloody chorus song in angry shouts and slurs.
"Aye it is then." Guido whispered to himself knowing soon it would end. He was warned in his squiring days drink or women would be the end of him would his old master be laughing now knowing it was both. The thought made even him laugh.
"No question, miss Thrym, if you may." Charles ordered, and to his credit did not move. At Least the man had the honor to see it done as Guido felt himself forced onto a tree trunk, the end painted red. 'The fate of some other knights huh?'
"Down now, it's time Knight." The wolf, which he now knew had the surname Thrym, growled. She would enjoy this no doubt, as she raised her massive blade, Guido could see the small runes made of crystallized force dust on the center now, a fine weapon. Guido had no fight left; the pain in his leg was enough. He was tired now, wanting some rest. He knew why they had him placed by a tree chunk. Not even a hanging. Better this way, he didn't have to stand. Guido made no peace with the gods, no reason to. The rain was proof enough they wanted nothing from him, but to piss on his life. Autumn was truly a most wretched time.
"Swing hard and true now Wolf, else I'll come back and show you the proper way." Was all he had to say. The old knight shut his eyes, and soon the pain stopped. Even the rain eased it seemed as did the entire world to him.
** Welcome to Autumn Vale, a standalone prequel of my Vale series. I hope you enjoyed and will leave many reviews it always helps guys. This story will be much more serious than Snowy Vale and even Melting Vale, so be aware of that.
So next chapter will include some actually known characters, namely the POV which will be Qrow so be excited. For those of you that maybe asking, "wait wasn't Fort Castle attacked by humans not Faunus?" Don't worry I got this, you'll see.
So I've kept the historical and legendary naming convention for this, and as characters leave the story, whether from death or just going off to do whatever it is they do I'll had a little context as to the name
Sir Guido is Sir Guy of Gisborne - Guido or even older Wido is the German original version of the French name Guy and is shared with the famous mercenary hired to kill Robin Hood in many Robin Hood myths.
Hope you all liked it and I'm still looking for a beta for Autumn Vale if you're willing PM me.
-Elfen