Well, well, well. I have finally done it! Created a story and ended my reign of lurking!
Too bad it's a OC team story, those don't get too much love on this website. Especially in this community.
But anyways, I sincerely hope you enjoy this piece. Everything here is apart of a plan in my head don't worry. May I scare you away with the Jaune/OC? Maybe but hey give me a comment if it's an idea to keep or remove. Give me a comment for anything else as well. Just because I sorely want feedback.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything RWBY or Roosterteeth. Don't even pretend that I do.
Gray Trailer / Begonia Llwyd
Lazy idiots the lot of them, who in their right mind would serve them. They just stand and stare, blank-faced at food, and for what? To only chew on it endlessly and force it down their own gullet. 'No sense of hygiene, and I have to be stuck between them' he thought bitterly. The sound of systematic splashes of liquid hitting a large open bucket was the only use for them. The colder dampness of the early spring air was heavily muted by the horrid smell that originated from the foul creature's backside. Well, not the whole reason, but he didn't think that his mother would like getting rid of their only goats just like that. The demon spawn slowly turned its head to face the boy that had stopped milking it,.The boy seemingly deep in thought apparent by the scowl he had on his face. 'Honestly, who wants goats?! Why can't we have chickens, or sheep, or some sort of thing where I don't have to milk it every single day!'
Breaking out of his inward rage, he noticed that the goat had begun to slowly clog away from him. He looked down at the bucket that still sat on the matted pile of hay. 'Barely anything, but I'm not arguing with the foul demon.' A loud sigh escaped his lips, to be honest, it was the easier job than the fields that had to be tended over almost the whole year, but when the animals somehow find a way to get their -engh- leavings everywhere on his clothes. He felt like he needed to complain.
"Oscar!" A grumpish voice called from inside a nearby shed. The farmer boy, Oscar, jumped, hoping that his father didn't see him ignore his milking. The boy's father knew how much Oscar hated it, but it was a job b on the farm to do during the off season.
"Oscar! Stop milkin' the goats and help me for a sec." It was better to not keep him waiting, Oscar wanted to do no more with the herd of goats anyway. He jumped from his one knee and followed the distinct sound of the notorious battle of Dad versus Tractor. The annual springtime bout had happened since before he was born. Oscar's father never let the old rust bucket win, but he had the worst time keeping in his curses. The shed door was already parted open a tad. 'Half the engine is already on the floor, this doesn't look good...' Oscar thought.
"Having' problems dad?" Peeking around the corner was Oscar, his matted chestnut hair barely hiding the fear his light green eyes. It wasn't that his dad was violent or anything, but when he needed reinforcements for the tractor, shivers traveled down the farm boy's spine from the mere thought. The family must be prepared for untamed wrath directed at every circuit and engine. A heavy sigh emitted from under the rusty red tractor.
"The damn spark plugs are fused again..." He pulled out from underneath, red-faced and sweat pooling on his brow. "Every year!"
It was common for them to fail like that, that was the cost of using industrial mix Dust as fuel. We couldn't afford anything higher grade, as prices have risen on everything from wheat seed to ankle socks.
"Do you want me to get..." Oscar trailed off, he knew his dad asked specifically for his help, but you could never be sure that he just wanted someone to rant off too at times. His dad looked up at him, the old man knew how he would get at times.
"Yeah, the box from the northern shed, get some of the green jug too." He had an apologetic look on his face when he said it, and Oscar couldn't help but smile in return. "If only your gramps were still here, he would have had tamed the tractor." He stuck his head under the tractor again.
It was the first growing season without Gramps, and really it wasn't a surprise. He was in failing health for so long now that he knew he wasn't long for this world. Mom was devastated, but she didn't show it. The family had tried to keep it together for the most part. It would only get easier.
At least he thought it would get easier... but there is no time to think about it now. He had to cross the barren, snow spotted field of dead stalks. It was a warmer spring day, but it still seemed to freeze at night. The ground felt icy and slick in the morning, but Oscar wore his boots for a reason. He jogged his way to the shed, through the field as the dirt paths that bordered it were too easy to slip on.
Birds that fluttered away from him when the farm boy got close, soon settle back down to the side. Quiet wind swept a new earth smell from the unfreezing pond to the south, like it was releasing it for the first time since fall. Oscar had his hands pumping to the side of him, why he was tiring himself like this he didn't know. It wasn't like the tractor needed to plow the field tomorrow. Slightly breathless from speedy jog, he bounded off the field into the surrounding barren trees. It made it slightly easier to find the wooden shack that almost was dilapidated enough to fall over. It never did, even if the wood was wet with mold and moisture.
Oscar made it up to the door and unclipped the metal latch to his right. He pulled outward, and the heavy door groaned on its hinges. The door revealed stacks of cardboard boxes barely kept off the ground by shoddy shelves that lined all four sides of the shed.
"Rats got in again. I'll have to set the cat on them sometime." Oscar noted the small dots that littered the floor, another creatures droppings to add to his 'wonderful' collection on the bottom on his shoe. He scanned the boxes, trying to find the one that had a slight stain on its corner. They didn't have labels, but he knew which one held the parts for the tractor by heart. 'Shows how often the tractor breaks down' Oscar thought bitterly.
"Aha, here we go..." Oscar pulled out the one of the heavier boxes halfway so he could peak inside. "I hope we still have a couple." He quickly reached in with one hand and searched near the bottom for the thumb sized part. The farmer boy pulled it out once he felt it, and he admired his harvest. A small spark plug, that did not have corrosion on its end for once. Now just too fish out five more.
He pulled out another one...four more.
He collected a plug...three more.
A found spark plug was taken from the box...two more.
The fruits of Oscar's labor revealed another one...one more.
"And finally-"
"CRUNCH" A bassy crack filled his head, and all he could hear was the thumping of his rapidly beating heart in his ears. He almost let the box fall onto to the floor in his panicked state. 'It was just a tree falling over or something. Nothing to g-get worked up abo-'
"Hisssssssss..." Oscar could feel the sound with his hands on the boxes, it verberated so deeply that it froze him solid. The terrible sound that no one alone wants to hear, or people together, or whole villages, or even whole cities. 'It made no sense, why would one of them be here. The whole reason that we lived so far away was that this wouldn't happen. Not so one of them could find another human t-to.' Only seconds had passed but he had stood breathless for what he felt was ages. The creature would pass him by, he was too out of the way. He just had to stay low and wait for it to pass.
'But why did it come here, where was the swath of negative emotions that would draw a monster of that size?' He tried to think logically, trying to control his ragged breaths. 'Who-'
'Mom...' The floor slightly shook from a low grumble that wasn't far from the shed. Oscar's mother hadn't come outside for weeks now, she busied herself at home. Taking care of her own mother, who was struggling to keep going after the loss of her husband. Dad was really feeling the loss today as well, since he no longer had his father-in-law to help him repair the tractor. Everyone that was at home where spewing off emotion like that in droves. That was where it was going.
Soon after a the rumble moved farther away from the farmer boy, he dropped to his knees and crawled to the corner of the shed. In that corner was a tin the size of a` shoe box. It had no rust but it was covered in dust. He quickly fumbled with the combination lock. The latch clanged. It was deafening.
"I have to w-warn them..." Inside, covered in burlap, was a single flare gun and three dust slugs. Two of them were bright flares, and one was a emergency whistler. Those three shots were going to warn them, they were going to allow them to get to the bunker. Maybe even warn others in the area, even attract a local huntsman to slay it entirely. Oscar could feel his hand shake as he gripped the metallic red gun. He couldn't be selfish, not now when so much of his family was at stake. The farmer boy steadied his grip with his other hand and loaded the whistler shot. Oscar was going to be the hero. A tired laugh escaped him, he sighed...
'A hero, at least I could have that much.'
He slowly made his way to the door, it was slightly ajar but he still couldn't see that clearly outside. The darn snake was probably still slithering its way to his house at this very moment, so he bumped the door open with his shoulder. After taking the first trepid steps on grass again, he quickly scanned around. No black scales in sight. He closed his eyes and took a baited breath.
His hands held the gun up high.
The sight aimed slightly less than straight up, towards the field.
He settled his fingers on the trigger, and held his breath as he squeezed.
The flare shot off like a rocket, creating the whistle that was reminiscent of a firework. It would bring no joy on this day. Oscar took no time to watch the red glow of the flare as it screamed across the sky. He quickly ejected the still hot shell and singed his fingers placing one of the regular flares inside. He took one good look around and felt his feet kick into the woods.
The damn beast would follow where the noise went, he hoped. So bounding inside of the forest, around the field, and back to the barn was his best idea. It wasn't bad, and it would've worked for any naive monster.
"Hisssss..." Too bad it wasn't any naive monster that soon slithered from farther in the forest. Oscar took one quick look to his left and immediately fled towards the field.
'It waited for me...' No amount of adrenaline could keep the immediate tears from flowing. The slithering mass of scale behind him kept his burning legs from tripping on different roots and plants on the ground. He took one last leap to hijack it out of the forest and back to the tilled soil of the field. Oscar took one more step and spun himself around, pushing out the flare held loosely to his side. One sight of those devilish crimson eyes and he would fire. One sight of those flaming rays of death. Two sets of blank red eyes.
Wait, two?
Oscar quickly aimed between the sets of eyes, only for the flare to soar past between the two heads of the creature, the pitch black Snake Grimm itself, a King Taijitu. Each of its heads the size of Oscar's preteen body and covered in a matte-white bone mask that accentuated the longer snout of the reptilian. The two-headed snake's tail was still far in the trees behind it, covered in scales that common pistols or knives would never have a chance to penetrate. The body split to form the two necks. Two necks that made trunks of old trees jealous. A monster so huge that it furrowed the ground as it slithered.
Oscar took no time to stumble and he tried to book it as he reloaded the red emergency tool with the final flare in his pocket. The boy ran. He needed to get as far as he could away from the Grimm. Oscar tried not to feel the near death that loomed over his shoulder. One more spin around and he would face the wretched Grimm once again, to fire off his last flare.
'One final shot to the eyes.'
He took aim at the nearest head, while it begun to rise far above him. One more squeeze of the trigger and he would-
"SCREECH!"
The shot soared way above the nearest head of the Grimm. That sound, that horrific noise, it screamed louder than pounding of his heart in his chest. He didn't take one second to even take a look to where it came from. He sprinted just a leg faster than before, his energy getting a much needed second wind from the sound that haunted children everywhere. The one thing that snatched people instead of just eating or slaughtering them. Oscar knew he was almost certainly a goner. He had never seen so much of as a lowly Grimm Beowolf, not anything close to as deadly as the two elder Grimm that seemed to want his head.
Each step felt weightless as Oscar took labored breaths, each step felt like could be his last. Soon he heard the tell tale sound of swishing wind caused by the wings of a seemingly huge bird. Oscar couldn't risk looking backwards towards the King Taijitu and the ruthless, black feathered Nevermore. Oscar took no more than five more steps until he felt a sharp pain against both of his shoulders.
Caught by the ravenous bird of prey, each of it's six talons took deep hold into his clothes and skin. The boy found his legs leave the ground in a thrust of bitterly cold wind. Each of the talons felt like someone had stuck ice into his skin as he watched the ground reach farther and farther away. Oscar flailed his arms and legs trying to get free, he knew the fall would at the very least break his legs. Broken legs where however, the least of his worries. He soon shut his eyes, trying to twist his body in every conceivable motion he knew.
He could only hear the roar of the wind, the roar of the two headed beast, and the sound of his own screaming. One more twist of his body and he felt a slight slip in the Nevermore's grip.
"Let me g-AHHH!" Oscar soon found himself free falling, the wind whipping his loose hair against his face. He still hadn't opened his eyes, so he couldn't see the barn roof that broke his fall much faster than he expected. Oscar broke into a tumble, feeling a huge pain in his ankles and knees where he lopsidedly landed. He felt a jump in his stomach when he didn't feel the metal roof against his body. He swung his arms to the nearby edge of the roof, his legs dangling far below. He tried to swing one leg up on the roof, and after a couple of tries he found almost half his body back to safety. One more pull brought his body stomach side up onto the slanted roof. Oscar took big gulps of air, one after another, and his whole body felt disjointed and weak. He didn't stop to face the clear blue sky with a trepid smile on his face.
"Oh dust." He felt the need to curse each time he exhaled. Each time more of the adrenaline subsided and left him more in control of his heart beat.
"Oh thank the brothers!" He shouted it into the air, "I-I'm a-alive!" He started to sit up but the sight a black quill above his head stopped his celebration. It shot down right into...his collar. Not his collarbone, but the collar of his cheap, off-white button up. He felt figurative and literal chills down his spine, like someone poured snow down his back. His head couldn't move from the roof as he was stuck by the Nevermore spine that penetrated his shirt. He began to look upwards towards the sky again. The only thing in his view was a white Grimm mask. The mask caused him to hold his breath, but he found himself eyeing all the problems with it. It wasn't plain white, but had accents of a iridescent blue around the rims and beak. The eyes that were supposed to be a pupil-less crimson red, where shrouded in black, spotted with two wide red slits. Looking from the eyes he felt his confusion when he saw a pair of lips formed into a tight scowl from under where the mask would cover a Nevermore beak. It was surreal, having a monster with such a human face.
"Don't move." The words broke Oscar from his stupor as he felt his adrenaline try to push one final time. He watched the creature wait a beat, flex its legs, and propel itself far into the air. Oscar swallowed a lump that lodged in his throat as the feathers of the creature shone with a bright blue. The body of the creature was nothing like any Nevermore, it looked so remarkably human. Arms were interchanged with wings of black feathers, and normal legs were replaced with those of a bird. Feathers had replaced a head of hair, and a tail of quills were coming out of its lower back. The rest of its skin was pale, and the rest was covered in what looked like old clothing.
Oscar craned his neck to watch its path angle back downwards, using gravity to careen towards the ground.
"Hissssss..." Or to aim at the right head of the King Taijitu. The Nevermore's dive flipped on itself and forced one leg forwards. The resulting crack from the connection of talon and mask echoed through the trees, only to be covered in the resulting roar of pain from both heads of the snake. The head that wasn't hit moved his focus from the house and towards the black and blue blur that damaged it. The left head took no time and rushing towards the retreating form of the Nevermore.
The head opened its wide maw mere meters from where the Nevermore was. Oscar didn't expect the bird to collapse it wings, flip into a freefall, and fire quills into the left head's mouth. It ducked his head and another growl of pain came from the pit of the Taijitu's throat. The snake closed its maw in defiance. The nevermore used it to its advantage and banked to the Grimm's right side and sent a dozen more quills into the side its mask and mouth. The wounds had no time to release any of the Grimm's black smog as each one bloomed in a ice crystal. Effectively locking the left head's jaw closed.
The first couple of hits the Nevermore dealt dazed both of the heads for only a second before they both roared in rage. The new nuisance was the only thing they wanted to bring to a swift, painful end. Both bodies begun to slightly move away from each other. Tracking the Nevermore as it flew a tight circle around them.
The Nevermore took the initiative and fired off a dozen more quills in the point between were the two necks met. The bird dove in between the two heads, readying its talons for the frozen weak spot. The King Taijitu stubbornly ignore the freezing and started to enclose both heads around the incoming blur. The Nevermore felt the almost snagging bite of the right head on one of its legs. The bird quickly slammed one of its wings, quills outward, to the area of its left eye. The quills struck true, and in the resulting chaos the bird kicked its other leg out. The bite was released, but a noticeable splatter of blood came from the wound.
The bird regained its distance again, but the snake soon began a rapid chase. The Taijitu had one taste of blood, but it needed to end it once and for all. The Nevermore took a wide bank around the snake and flung more quills from its wings. More than most struck the ground, but a couple hit the long scaled body of the reptile. Each hit erupted in ice crystals and snow dust.
The left head followed the blur, but instead of using its disabled bite, it swung its head like a bat. The hit sent the Nevermore careening to the ground, resulting in a splattering of wet mud to rocket upwards.
The Nevermore shakily stood upwards from one knee, glaring into seemingly all four eyes of the snake. All of its feather brightened their blue hue and a rolling, white fog seemed to drip from its form. Its legs bent to launch into the incoming head of the right snake head. It launched upwards, but not with a flap of its wings. The wings were forwards, and the whole body acted like a frozen arrow across the neck of the right head. Quills were left behind to freeze and crack the black scales.
The Nevermore took back to a powered flight right up behind the head of the left snake. Its talons were open and aimed like a raptor catching a small rat. The talons took an icy grip onto the lip of the King Taijitu's mask. With the jaw frozen, the bird had little to worry as it started to rip and pull away the mask from its face. The cloud of black smog that covered the King Taijitu's wounds were rushing into the mask. The screech that the Nevermore made was twice as loud as anything the snake made. With a final heave of wings, the mask ripped off the left head's face with a stomach churning squelch.
The eyes of both heads shut off, the red glow leaving their bodies. Both of them fell limp to the ground as the whole corpse began to dissolve into a black smog. Flakes of ash seemed to rise into the air with invisible flame. A thud resonated from a small distance away, as both the Nevermore and mask fell to the ground.
Oscar suddenly realised he was still back at the roof, and not within the chaos of monster fights. He wrapped a sleeve around his hand, and began to pull the black quill out of the metal roof. Nevermore quills were notoriously sharp, and even with the makeshift glove Oscar still felt a trickle of blood come from his fingers. The farmer boy instead forcibly ripped his collar free, and sat up with a pain in his neck. Oscar crawled on his hands and knees, trying to find the ladder that led to the roof.
It took a minute to get all the way down the ladder, as he did it one handed and shaking with fear. When Oscar felt the matted dirt below his feet once more, he let out an unrestrained sound of relief. His steps were shaky, but he still ignored the slight limp he had in one leg. Oscar broke into a slouched jog towards the cellar door of the barn. The boy knocked a set of repeated triplets. He almost fell backwards when the cellar door swung opened with wild abandonment.
"Oscar!"
"H-hey mo-" Oscar's greeting was interrupted by a duo of arms that gave him a bone crushing hug.
"My baby...Oh gods!" Oscar felt his mother's long auburn hair tickle his nose as she buried herself in the crook of his neck. Oscar could already feel a splotch of wetness.
"M-mom! I'm fine!" Oscar returned the hug in kind, trying to outdo whatever strength his mother had with his own. He didn't want to let go, and neither did she. All he did was allow another pair of arms wrap around the both of them.
"Don't do anything like that again..." His dad's voice came a silent whisper to his ear. "Please don't scare us like that again."
"I-I will try not to..." Oscar trailed off, he didn't really know what he did wrong. The boy knew he would have scared his parents by firing the flare without being within arms length of the bunker. It was what he had to do to keep them safe.
"I guess this is sort of a wake up call." An old voice echoed from inside the bunker, but it wasn't as wrought with tears as his mother and father. "Could someone however help me get to my grandson?"
His father broke the hug and ran down the steps to assist Grandma up the flight of steps. Each step was slowly taken but Oscar squirmed his way of his mothers grasp to meet his grandmother halfway.
"I don't think your gramps would have liked us to be hunted by Grimm as soon as he kicked the bucket," Grandma said with a slow chuckle as she buried herself into Oscar's hug. Oscar's mother sighed, she couldn't help but feel she was the cause of all of this. Just maybe not directly. She shook her head and slowly a teary smile broke onto her face. She just wasn't going to be who she was. She knew that her mom was right, it was a wake up call. A call to move on.
"What happened to the Grimm? Did it pass by, son?" His father came first with the questions, the knock was the sign of safety but it could still be interpreted.
"No, it got... killed."
"You paused there, is something the matter?" His father's relaxed face grew more tense. Oscar began to break up the second set of hugs. His eyes widened in realization and began to run back up the steps outside.
"Oscar, whats wrong?!" Oscar didn't really bother to answer, and he soon heard the rapid footfalls of someone running up to him. Oscar's mind however was running a million miles a minute, just trying to come up with a description as to what exactly happened. All he did know is that the creature that saved him, hadn't moved from the point where it collapsed. He arrived to the battlefield. Small sprites of ice that developed in the feild, and the still lingering cloud of ash wafted through the air.
"Oscar!" His father's patience was running very low, "Where are you going!?" Oscar's father saw his son collapse in the wet field, knees first, and he assumed the worst. Oscar was above the body of the Nevermore, but he felt he couldn't call it just a monster anymore. He could now tell just how human this thing actually was. It had the body of a girl just slightly his senior. 'It actually looks more like a-'
"What kind of Faunus is that?" His father finished his thought as tried to control his breathing from the breakneck sprint. "I swear each generation they get more animal-ly." Oscar also thought in his head that it was a Faunus, a part of humanity that are born with one animal appendages or attributes. They normally have a set of ears, horns, or tail of mammalian descent. But many are born with gills, scales, and even a crustacean based exoskeleton.
"I-I don't think... well maybe it could be?" Oscar felt that was the most logical answer, but the implications of a Faunus wearing a Grimm mask sent shivers down his spine. Oscar started to reach for the young woman's hands until he realised the wings didn't have any.
"Step away from it. No animal who wears a Grimm mask can be good." His father had heard the local rumors, of a new revolutionary organisation turned terrorist sect that disgustingly wore them.
"Dad, she saved me! We need to get her inside!" Oscar bit the bullet and pushed his arms under her surprisingly light body.
"Oscar! No animal like her deserves anything!"
"She's barely breathing! She saved me and then she killed the King Taijitu!"
"Oscar! If it ain't those White Fang, then what else would it be! Some sort of, I don't know, Nevermore Faunus!?" Her body stirred again as Oscar began to lift her up in a bridal carry. Oscar began a slow track back home. His mother froze when she saw her son carry what looked like person wrapped in a feathered cloak. She held a hand over her slowly gaping mouth when she really didn't know what her son held in his arms.
"Mom, help me get a bed ready." Her son's straight face, unnaturally serious command closed her mouth. She looked towards her husband to get some semblance of what was going on. His father on the other hand had his mouth dropped to the floor when he heard his son spout off commands just like his grandfather used to. He wordlessly gave his wife permission by giving her a slow nod.
"Alright, we might have to use the couch honney."
"That's fine-Hey!" Oscar tripped for a second as his father swooped in and took the girl from him.
"Before you do anythin', fix up your hand then bring the rest for her. Okay Oscar?" Oscar took one look at his bloodied sleeve, and sighed. This would be a day he would remember for the rest of his life.
To say that Begonia Llwyd was having a bad day would be an understatement. The prey she was saving for a rainy day for her "condition" went and attacked a random farm. Although when she focused, she could feel what the snake was sniffing out. The despair from the one farm was enough to attract any smarter Grimm in the area. That wasn't the worst of her issues however. The Grimm was at least twice as smart as she thought it was, and at least three times as strong. Begonia would only take and use masks of Grimm that were useful. The king Taijitu was the perfect age and type of Grimm that would be advantageous. It was bad enough that the snake got a lucky bite on one of her legs. She wasn't going to die from the venom, but the wound would be swollen for at least a week. Begonia was practically kicking herself for not thinking the open weak spot was a trap within itself. She had to waste so many quills, she knew she wasn't going to fly right for at least 24 hours. All she had to do was pick herself up, and shamble her way back into the woods. Maybe snatch couple of foodstuffs from the farmer's kitchen. She had saved the boy, she did her self-assigned moral deed for it. All the feathered girl had to do was bare her teeth when they got close, and collect a loaf of bread, or hunk of dried meat.
But no, she had to completely knock herself out, have someone drag her inside, and completely bandage her bite and cuts. Who would willingly take someone that looked like her inside their house on purpose? She was macabre amalgamation of a nevermore and a human. A harpy! She would have never thought anyone would try to heal her while she still wore a mask. It made no sense. Maybe she could calm down if she wasn't so afraid to stop faking her slumber while someone changed one of her bandages for the first time. She could feel its hands, terribly warm against her scaly leg.
'Just get your hands off!"
"Oh my goodness, you're awake." Begonia inwardly cursed at herself, she wasn't used too keeping thoughts to only herself. Not enough time spent with others for a long while, besides maybe a couple of small animals.
"Really! Dust, I thought you would never wake up." A younger boy released a huge sigh of relief. He sounded a lot different when he wasn't screaming his lungs out. The masked girl bit the bullet and opened her her eyes to get a look at the only people that seemed to take a wholehearted interest in her. Much to her own confusion.
"You don't want to move too much, that king Taijitu venom set a mess on your muscles." An older woman knelt over face, she seemed to stare into her eyes. Begonia could feel a heat from her neck, why did she have to be so close. "You don't look like you have a concussion or anything like that. From what I heard from my son, I would think you would come out alot worse."
Begonia began to avert her gaze, the woman could have told her that before she dug into her soul with her eyes. The scan of her own situation came up fruitless. She was stuck in a room lit with a roaring metal furnace. The wooden cabin walls were all she could see, so she could only assume that the fur seat she was laying on was blocking her only means of escape. There were windows, but each one was no bigger than her own head. In the corner however was a rather angry looking older man, and in his hands an older hunting rifle. Of course, she herself wouldn't have it any other way. The two people's eyes locked on each other, both trying to get a read on what they would do next. Begonia slightly bared her teeth in a growl after so long being locked in a battle of wills. The whole house practically felt the click of the safety turn off.
"Clark! I didn't allow my daughter marry such a foolish man, so put that gun down this instant!" An even older voice came from the beyond her vision, it was strong willed comparably to the rest. The masked woman in the back of her mind wanted tensions to escallate, so she could leave without being beholden to them. It was uncomfortable that they were defending her, she was too used to weapons pointed at her.
An awkward silence followed as the rifle safety clicked back on, but it didn't leave the bald man's hands. She never really wanted it to leave his hands anyways. He was the only one that seemed to putting off a different emotion from the rest. The correct emotion. It was most likely an anger or wrath, but this mask couldn't really center on what. The others she could more easily figure out, a more instinctual fear. To say that was all they felt would be wrong, but all she could feel was the negative emotions. That meant that they could be feeling elated right now and she couldn't really know. It would be safe to say that they probably were not in the best of moods however.
Many of them still sat wordlessly as the woman, who Begonia thought was the boy's mother, rewrapped the bandage on her leg. The woman tightly set it, and took a long look at the other wounds that she wanted to help.
"The cuts on your... wings. I couldn't get to them because..." She trailed off as it was considered plainly idiotic to get within arms length of any nevermore feathers.
"Its normal." The voice that replied was quiet and raspy, but was great for the first words that escaped her mouth in months. Maybe years that weren't whispers. It wasn't that she got her wings cut on anything, it's just that all the quills came from somewhere. The last move took more quills that she could count. "Quills take a lot out of me."
"I thought nevermore had a stupid amount of those." The gruff man with the gun, which was most likely the self assigned man of the house, spoke aloud.
"Too human." Maybe her answer was a little self insulting. It would probably be a good thing to be more human. But when just the littlest amount of Grimm got her locked and tortured, she would rather be a much stronger thing that humans feared. She would have tighter control of her own life.
"We have your stuff," the boy spoke up so the silence wouldn't return again, "It's on the table." He wandered over to the end table by the side of couch and pulled out a satchel and surprisingly the shrunken mask of the left head of the king Taijitu, shrunken to fit on a human's face. The boy begun to raise the mask up to his face to inspect it.
"Is this what you took-OOF!" The family was not prepare for the feathered girl to practically spring from her spot from the couch and bluntly kick the boy in the stomach. With one foot she stood on top off the boy, red pupils shrunk to small beads. The other talon gripped the Grimm mask that the boy was just holding. She knew the resulting click was from the rifle safety being shut off for the second time.
"Step away from my son, or I will blow your feathered brains out." The fear she could feel increased tenfold, as Begonia's knee jerk reaction was hardly thought out. She paused before bringing the king Taijitu mask to her body. She looked down to the boy she had under her talon.
"This mask is nothing you should wear." The boys slight struggles ceased almost completely and his eyes grew wide.
"W-why?" The boy felt the nevermore step off his body, even if under her full weight was nothing he couldn't handle.
"This isn't a Hallows Eve decoration." The bird held the mask higher with her claw in a feat of flexibility. "If you had put this on, only I would be able to remove it without ending your life. I would not be able to save you before your bones snap and refuse, your teeth deteriorate and be replaced with fangs, your skin morph with a shattering cold to a blistering fire, your hair to fade and be reformed as scales. You would finally feel all the negativity that you surround yourself every day and force it into uncontrollable rage. That is what you would deal with before I would get the chance to remove it from your head. I can't promise you that I could stop you from doing anything to harm the people you love." Even if her voice was tired and raspy, it caused the whole room to spew a emotion that she could feel because of the mask all too clearly, Despair. The boy nodded dumbly as he sat himself on the floor. She turned her head to focus on the other three people in the room.
"I will take my leave." Five words was all she said to their jaw dropped faces. If she was able to take care of the boy like that, she was well enough to be on her way again. She took no heed to the gun that still aimed at her head as she walked around the couch to the doorway behind it. The only sound heard was slight click of claws hitting the wooden floor. She walked past the eldest woman only for her to place a hand on her shoulder. Begonia stood deathly still as the hand lightly rubbed it.
"Thank you."
It wasn't the first time she had heard the words in her life. She was once a child who did chores for others, a common courtesy of the village. She had not heard it however for as long as her life was irreparably changed. They didn't thank her for the masks she ripped off the Grimm. They didn't thank her for being compliant for the daily examinations. Maybe Begonia knew she really didn't need those words, but when she heard them for the first time in ages she really didn't know how to respond. She didn't stay long enough in one area for people to realize it was her what thinned out the monsters near their homes. She killed what needed to be kill to sate her own "addiction."
So what? that today she felt morally obligated to do that before swiping the farmers' food. If they hadn't brought her in, she would have broken in to steal things she needed anyway. Why would they thank her for that, thank her for such a stupidly selfish act? The masked girl walked away, breaking the hold the old woman had on her.
She looked in both directions of the hall, and saw what looked to be the pantry of the nearby kitchen. Making sure she wasn't followed, especially the guy with the gun, she quickly lifted the pantry door latch with her foot. She didn't take time to deliberate on what to take. She took what looked like the farmers had the most of. Stuff that really didn't have to be cooked. It looked like the last of some game they dried over the winter was the best choice.
The nevermore doubled back with a handful, or rather clawful, of meat. She could practically feel their stares as she past the living room again. She didn't need to look at them to figure out what they thought. One more door stood in her way back outside, and the kid stood in front of it.
'When did he get there?' Begonia thought as she stared down the kid who seemed to be blocking her way out. She arched her eyebrows and bared her teeth in a silent attempt to scare the boy off. The boy side stepped away. Although he did look like he wanted to say something, Begonia didn't really have to energy to care. Especially when the type of door knob that kept her in couldn't be opened by her wings or feet. She inwardly snarled before bending a quill on the edge of her wing like a sharp knife. However, the wildest thing happened before she brought down the quill to pry open the door.
The boy reached an arm back, dangerously close to the quill the bird was wielding, and quickly opened the wooden door by the door knob. The door swung out by its own weight and the boy stood there beside it. He gestured in a way like she was just any person asking to leave. She did something she would never thought she would do for a long time. She nodded with a calm look back to the boy.
A silent word of thanks.
As Begonia took one step onto the wooden patio that surrounded the front door, she bent her knees. The blue dust that stored within her mask was activated by a quick burst of her aura. She didn't feel a chill as the ice dust dropped the temperature of the air all the way down to the floor. With a spread of her wings, glowing a bright blue hue, she threw them down. A contrail of condensed water left in her wake as she took back to the skies higher than when she was fighting the king Taijitu. The rushing air allowed a breath of relief to escape her. That was until the harpy noticed how many feathers were actually missing.
'I guess I'm not going too far today,' She thought bitterly, 'No looking for the next elder Grimm to stalk.' The flight would have to be short, and resting from anything close to dangerous would be her next goal. Taking off in the direction farthest from any town, she would scan the horizon for a suitable tree and spend the night. Preparing for the next part of her journey to nowhere.
She would have if there wasn't the slight feeling of negative emotions that caught her attention. It wouldn't have been something she noticed normally, but it was the one emotion that the nevermore she got the mask from was quick to find on her. It was the slightest feeling of despair and it was right behind her shoulder. The feeling was quiet and buried, unlike those the farmer family felt before, but it was still present. It wouldn't worry her if she was grounded, but the feeling was in the air with her. It was...
Unsettling.
It took a minute to pinpoint the feeling, especially if she didn't actively searched for it. Maybe it was just being paranoid, but she tried to keep the negative emotion on her six still following her. It was 20 meters off her back, at least 2 meters above her. She slowly concentrated a quick quill to fire off in that direction. It would be a simple flip and fire, at least being able to catch a glimpse of it. She would take the initiative, catch whatever it is off guard and be able to gauge the situation.
'Three...two...one...Fire'
The harpy tucked its wings and spinning itself to face the negativity. A single feather was flung from its left wing and it soared like an blue blur.
"Caw!" The thing, no the crow, let a distressed call as it beat its wings quickly to narrowly avoid the quill steaming towards it. That was not what Begonia expected from the negative emotions she felt. It wasn't that she couldn't feel animal emotion, many animals felt fear or rage. But despair? What did a bird have to be despairful about?
"Well, go 'caw' yourself too. Weird birds."
Begonia fell back into the rhythm a flap of wings and a unstable glide. The trees didn't go too fast below her, but it was nice to lose herself in the patterns of leaves from this distance. She often had time to think about really anything that came to mind. She found a creek that snaked through the taller deciduous forest. Maybe this was the only good par-
"Caw." Or the best part was having birds land on your back for no reason. Her flight stilted for a second before regaining control. The bird sat in the small of her back, on top of the more downy like feather that were less sharp. It at least knew where to land. It wasn't uncommon for animals too not be scared of her, as she probably smelt of Grimm and the monsters didn't attack any animals. This was the first time for a bird to land on her however. It felt, weirdly nice.
"Caw," it wasn't hard for Begonia to do a quiet caw back to the bird. The two crows, one much more human than the other, didn't move shift away the other. They both quietly flew above the now rolling hillside.
"Were you feeling lonely too, lost someone? Smart enough to feel despair I guess, but dumb enough to come back to the one who shot at you. Weird bird." The idle conversation was as silent as a whisper, but was nothing new. They thought to teach her things, well one of them did. She wasn't some bird brained idiot.
"Maybe you just wanted a free ride, but that tree over there looks pretty inviting. You're welcome to join." She was a lot kinder to things that couldn't really know any better. With the tree by the creekside in her sights, she begun a calm descent. Careful to avoid any sticks or branches that hung over the cold spring water. The crow took off her back, she could see land on a branch in the corner of her eye as she produced a splash in the cold water. The ice water didn't bother her while she had the ice dust infused mask on. With a flick of both arms, she tucked her feathers inward. The stones that the snow melt water washed over felt nice below her feet as she took steps to the tree she eyed before.
"Thanks for the invite kid." The snow melt water splayed in ice crystals below Begonia feet, the all her feathers began to pulse blue as she quickly searched the area around her. Her eyes coming to the same tree she saw the crow land not too long ago.
The man could only be described as scraggly. His greying black hair, scraggly. The patchy 5-o-clock shadow of hair on his chin, scraggly. The half-buttoned, creased light grey shirt, scraggly. The black coat that had a couple of stains, scraggly. The fact that the man already had a silver flask to his mouth, scraggly. The bags under his dead red eyes, scraggly. The giant indiscernible weapon, silver and grey, strapped to his back... maybe not as scraggly.
"You have quite the aura control for something that looks like Grimm." The worst part was that the only negative emotion she could feel from the guy was once again that deep rooted despair. Nothing that was new, but something that was festered with age. He wasn't angry, nervous, or even frightful of her. It was certainly arrogance. Especially when he kept rattling off like some big shot.
"Talk to the birds often?" Everything about him screamed a single profession, a slayer of beasts, a Huntsman. The type of people that wouldn't hesitate to be hired to put her down, or worse, capture her again.
"Silent treatment, eh? I don't mind kid but its going to be hard to get past the murderous glare you're giving me if we don't talk." He was used to slaying creatures of darkness, he thought of the harpy as just one of them. He would think Begonia would be like any Nevermore. But, she needed strength, something to overpower whatever skill he would have. The strength of another mask. A switch of masks would either confuse him to allow her to take the initiative or he would take advantage of the 3 seconds the girl would be vulnerable. There was no chance she would win with the Nevermore mask, especially if he was the crow from before. No matter how insane that ability would be.
Begonia slowly moved one wing to her face, and the other to the satchel that was strapped around her waist. 'The grey man didn't even notice it, too full his damn idiocy.'
It was only a flash of movement that signified the change. It was two simple steps. Activate her power, pry the mask off. In the next movement, replace the mask as its removed. The new mask would cover her human face until she completely reformed into the other form. She had done it many times before, too keep her real identity safe. Even if everyone knew the bird, the boar, the bear, or even now the snake, they would not know know her.
It was the latter half that something went embarrassingly wrong. The wing destined to grab the mask of an Ursa Major, a black bear size of a semi, let it slip from its folded grip. It splashed down into the water. Not before she had the Nevermore mask ripped off her face. Accompanied by the black ash that faded from the wings, feathers, feet that started to swirl in a tight ball around her. The ball of smog fled into the mask dimming the bright blue of the ice dust. The blue accented mask, fell quickly into the bed of the creek next to the Ursa mask. Both facing upwards to only mock her. Quickly Begonia took her now human arms and covered her face. She felt a shiver of fear as her waist length grey hair once again came to fall onto her back and eyes. She was still wearing what was a black, ripped sleeveless tank top and a short jeans that were ripped at the mid thigh. The satchel that was wrapped around waist was tight, as her previous form was a bit smaller than she was now. Even with a smattering of clothes, she still felt 'naked' for lack of a better term. She had for so long been transformed that it was rare to find herself, well herself.
"Wasn't expecting that when I came out here," He eyed his flask as if it was the one too betray him, "But I wasn't expecting to find anything really." He crouched on the branch to get a better look at the girl. The grey man kept his distance and Begonia noticed through the cracks in her hands and grey hair.
"To be honest when I heard of Grimm stealing food, I was a little skeptic. Rumors of ice Nevermore quills, earth gauged from the ground, and Boarbatusk trails with a smattering of green Dust. All of those frankly scared me. Grimm don't have souls, so they don't got aura, so they can't activate Dust without being smart enough to use it. But, it makes a lot more sense now. You, kid, have a very -ehh- 'unique' semblance." The man actually took the time to pause a do air quotes.
"It's a curse." Only if someone was paying attention would catch the whisper of words from her throat.
"Hey, some people have semblances that people aren't very fond of." He gestured to himself when he said that, "It's the power of our souls kid, it is not always the best aspects of it." The grey man stood there nonchalantly, as if this was the most normal conversation in the world. It was starting to piss Begonia off.
"How long have you been following me?" Simple questions, as the the grey man really wanted to talk, Begonia would get answers.
"Oh, not long. Just happen to catch sight of red flare at the edge of the-"
"But you were looking for me, who sent you?"
"Jeez kid, you don't beat around the bush. Nah, no one hired me, just doing some scouting for myself. Something, or more actually you, was gathering attention from a lot of hunters." Begonia felt her breath hitch.
"T-that isn't possible."
"Really kid, you think that huntsman are complete idiots? Anyone with half a brain would start to worry about the soulless Grimm that used dust. I'm not going to say I didn't warn ya when a full team of huntsman are sent out for your neck, as a kid like yourself would probably be dead anyway."
"It's not them I am worried about..."
"What? The ones that are out to capture you? Honestly if these guys are as threatening as you making them seem, I would think twice about hunting ancient Grimm and making such a scene."
"You don't understand, I need too."
"Huh, a girl with a weird semblance and morals."
"No, I just," the girl leveled her eyes up to the grey man, "I can't stop." She stared down at her hands as they were brought from her. It was the only reason she was on the run in the first place. It happened before she even touched a Grimm.
"What, you can't stop helping people? That's dangerous."
"I can't stop killing them. The Grimm." She was young when she had started training to become one of the people that stood before her, but when they unlocked the power of her soul, her aura, she felt unstoppable. She would hunger for for a sort of fight. It was herself that went and found the first Grimm to fight and barely win at only seven. Practically unheard of in even the strongest huntsman, as training and sparring was to prepare for the first all or nothing bout. She discovered that killing that Grimm stopped the restless nights, the anger, and the raw hunger. It was a curse she felt for almost all her life.
"Vindictive much?" the grey man shrugged his shoulders, "Grimm kill your family or something kid?"
"Yes."
"Wow, you are," he took a quick swig, "pretty spec-"
"It's not why I can't stop. Nothing you could do will stop me." The grey man scratched his chin in fake thought, as Begonia knew this man was too dumb to actually think about letting her go. The fight was going to start any second now, he would start strong first before the girl brought a mask to her face. Sooner or later, Begonia's satchel of the other two masks would gain an advantage. She would escape thanks to his arrogance most likely. 'It was just a matter of beating it into-'
"You wanna help me kid?"
"W-what?"
"Come on, pick up those masks and get flying! We have a lot of ground to cover if we want to get to town."
"Are you i-insane!? You don't control me!"
"Kid, listen to me, you," he lazily gestured to me with his flask, "are not safe doing this by yourself. People are already suspicious, and all it takes is one good piece of evidence to bring the whole of Vale on you. I, on the other hand, can do this." He pulled out a small device of two parallel sticks from his breast pocket. The aptly named Scroll was flicked open and the blue film of light appeared between the two sticks. He tapped on it and in just a few seconds, a dial tone emanated from it. The unmasked girl broke into a sprint, each stomp through the snow melt sent splashes into the air. The girl was now masked in horror, the one thing she had to keep from happening. The one thing! Everything in her life was just going to be ruined by the bird-brained idiot's call. Did he purposefully act so confusing just to make her not do anything?
"Heya Oz... Yeah I'm on the thing... not that thing... the rumor Oz... the one with the dust Grimm... yeah... uh-huh... sure I took care of it. No need to worry your big head about it... It was interesting to say the least but I'll give you the low down later... sure I can look into that too... yeah I know I can handle it... right... hmmhm... get to you later Oz." He shut the Scroll with a snap and looked smugly at the girl who was currently trying to climb the tree.
"You happy now kid? Now the most powerful man I know thinks a Grimm just got eliminated. Now get your masks and we are heading out of here. I got other crap to do today and you could be of some help. At least, if you can handle it." Begonia held a blank face, everything was going terribly. Just who was he? This guy, he was nothing like the others she had faced before. Well, there weren't any others, as she thought she did quite well at hiding. Now the first one to get to her wanted her help with... something?
"Stop gawking and lets go, we have a village to defend."
"Just, who-who are you?" The man jumped from the tree and landed mere feet from Begonia, lips tightening into a smug smile.
"Call me Qrow, 'birdbrain', we have stuff to do." The newly named Qrow walked away, back turned to the short circuiting mask wearer. She stumbled over her own thoughts as she tried to comprehend the last fifteen minutes. She tried to sputter out the only thing that seemed to be constantly in her head.
"Birdbrain!?"
*Llwyd is pronounced like 'Lloyd'