He was running down the hallways of a beautiful mansion, full of extravagant rugs, paintings, and woodwork. Of course he would have enjoyed the view a lot more if he weren't being chased by someone. Silber was running as fast as his legs would carry him, somehow knowing the layout of this house that he could swear he'd never been in before. Just as Silber finally might have lost the men chasing him, he saw a sight he wished he hadn't.
An older woman, with platinum hair, and deep blue eyes that stared at back at him were no longer filled with mirth and happiness, but with pain and suffering. She looked at Silber and gave him a small smile, and opened her mouth to speak what could very well be her last words. Blood dribbling down her chin, she managed to hold that small smile and with minimal slurring managed to say, "Silber, be strong for me, I love you" and with that, her ocean blue eyes fluttered closed, never to open them again, but she still held that tiny smile.
Silber didn't know what was going on, and he did the only thing he could do, he grabbed the woman that just an hour ago had been full of mirth, happiness, and love, that laid dead before him. He let out a cry, hugging the now still form of his mother, not caring that he was ruining his good clothes with the blood that was still seeping out of her mortal wound.
This only served to bring the men that were chasing him a second ago back on his trail.
Silber was afraid, but his legs refused to walk, and his arms refused to let go of his mother, clinging to her like a life preserver on a rough sea, the men only cackled evilly at him as they relished in his pain. He wanted to run, he truly did, but he couldn't get his damn legs to run. His arms finally responded however, wrapped around the hilt of his mother's rapier, he pointed at the men, a small cylinder spinning to a stop on a red vial. Without realizing what he was doing, he swung the rapier at them, sending a column of fire into their chests, throwing them over a railing to the floor below. His arms immediately fell limp again as he resumed his sobbing, not noticing the men's comrades running to surround him as they leveled their guns at his head. As they were about to fire though, he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see a man who looked the same age as his mother, shouldering a great sword, who looked at him with caring, brown eyes.
"We have to get you out of here, young Silber" the man stated as he started to block the bullets of the people trying to kill them. He slashed his sword at them, sending them reeling to the ground when an even bigger man, wearing the same white mask as the others walked towards them wielding a huge blade with what looked like a chainsaw's blade attached. The exceptionally tall one swung his blade towards them, with the man blocking before knocking the other off balance and haphazardly cutting a hole in reality as he sent the tall man reeling with a smack from the flat of the blade. He unceremoniously threw the young boy through the portal and snapped it shut before continuing his fight. The young boy was thrown into darkness, no idea where he was going, or where he had been.
Silber Smith awoke with a start, in his too small bed, and his threadbare blankets. He was shivering, but not because of his crummy protection from the cold, but for some reason he couldn't rightfully discern. He'd had that nightmare again, the nightmare of a woman he swore was his mother dying, him being powerless to save her, as he faced the same fate. The brown eyed man was always there though, holding off the demons who ended the woman's life and saving him as he was charged by his mother's killers. No matter how hard he tried though, he couldn't remember where he was. He couldn't remember the last name that they would say while they chased him, taking joy in inflicting this emotional pain upon him.
The caretakers of the orphanage he stayed at didn't take his dream seriously, saying it was his brain trying to make sense of a traumatic experience that had landed him in this place five years ago. He had been found in a back alley, in an elegant white suit that was stained red with someone else's blood. The people who'd found him sent him to an emergency room who cleaned him up and sent him to this horrid place. The orphanage he was stuck in was full of unsavory people, most of them being his caretakers, and most of the kids didn't like him. He could live with that, they were mean to him anyways.
So Silber stuck to himself, enjoying his books, his imagination, and singing in the forest beyond his prison's fences. He would simply stay back there for hours, singing a song he'd long forgotten the name of, but he somehow knew the words too. It reminded him of the woman he would dream about, her ocean blue eyes staring into his, as they would laugh and play together along with two girls he could never make out. They were always blurry, but one was as tall as him, with flowing white hair tied into a ponytail, and the other was taller, with white hair that went to her shoulders. The three of them would laugh and play, always full of mirth around the nice woman. But, those dreams would always fade, and it would become the nightmare that would always break him from his sleep, filling him with sadness and hurt at the loss of the woman that cared about him.
Silber just stood in front of the mirror in the small bathroom that branched from the communal bedrooms he shared with the other orphans and just stared at his reflection. His white hair was cut short, just barely covering his forehead, staring into his grief stricken and sleep deprived face, bloodshot blue eyes meeting their reflected counterparts. Silber couldn't understand what he did to deserve this life, this stupid stupid life he'd been handed. Five long years he had been haunted by images of a life he barely remembered, he'd been ostracized from the other orphans, and was forced to be a loner. He walked over to the lone window in the bedroom and looked at the shattered moon, as a shooting star flew past it, he made a simple wish;
"I wish I had a family" he spoke quietly to the star as it flew by without a care of the person that had just asked anything of it, Silber simply sighed and went back to sleep, his sleep deprived body screaming at him to sleep, regardless of how restful it actually was.
The next morning, he woke up and had the same bland, sugarless cereal that everyone ate every morning of every day of their life in his personal hell. He slipped past the caretakers and rolled under the fence the same way he always did , and slipped into the forest to be left alone while he read and imagined.
He walked quietly to the clearing he'd claimed as his own personal safe haven, out of sight of the orphanage, but where he would still hear the bells signalling them to go inside. He pulled a book he'd sneaked out of the orphanage out from under his shirt and sat up against the trunk of a sturdy old oak tree, and began reading the story of an orphan who actually had a happy ending, as he took solace in feeling the cool autumn breeze rustle through his hair as he read. He may lead a rather boring, lonely, and sometimes downright horrible life, but this is the one place he could escape those things, curled up under his favorite tree with a good book. Nothing could be better.
Until a beowolf jumped out of the brush and started chasing him.
Startled into a panic, Silber dropped his book and made a break for the nearest direction that would lead him away from the foul creature, which coincidentally led directly away from the orphanage. He didn't care which way was the correct way to go, Silber just wanted to get away from Grimm that wanted nothing more than to rip out his throat.
So he ran, and ran, and ran some more until he tripped over an old forgotten barbed wire fence.
Covered in scrapes and cuts from his fall he started to crawl away from the predator that was now playing with it's food. 'Well, at least I'll meet my mother soon' he morbidly thought as he covered his face with his hands as the Beowolf licked his chops at his new meal. He could smell the creature's hot breath on his face as the creature got closer and closer to him, ready to rip his throat out and eat him for lunch.
When he heard a whine and the wet 'thump' of something cutting through the beast.
He slowly uncovered his eyes to be met with the sight of a middle aged man, with brown eyes, and receding black hair, wiping the Grimm's ichor off of a large great sword, with a rather large grey cloth. He could just barely make out a snowflake that was embroidered upon it.
"That looked to be rather close young man" the man spoke, not looking at him, "You're lucky I was out here, or else that would have ended terribly for you" he continued in a voice that sounded like it had been drilled for his entire life to be as elegant sounding as possible. The hero finally looked in the eyes of the child he'd saved as what Silber thought was a mix of surprise and regret as he lifted him up to his feet with an outstretched hand. "What's your name?"
"Uh...uh..Silber Smith sir" he managed to stammer out as the older man's face suddenly had a look of shock that lasted for all of a second before he came back to his senses.
"Where are you parents?" He asked yet another question as he looked at him with what looked like repressed hope.
"I...I don't have any sir..."
"Well where do you live then?" He asked the boy more pressingly this time.
"L-L-Light of Hope orphanage sir..." Silber said with a slight stutter, as if scared of the man or just in shock from almost dying a few minutes ago.
"I see, well let's' get you back there, I have a few important calls to make on the way there" he said in a business tone as he waved is hand gently in front of him. "Lead the way."
So the two of them walked back, Silber in silence, and the older man in hushed tones on his Scroll as the two slowly made it back to the fence that protected the orphanage from the creatures of the forest. Silber rolled under the fence as his hero simply hopped over it The other kids looking on in shock at the boy covered in Grimm remains, and the man talking on his Scroll with the rather large sword on his back.
"SILBER SMITH! WHERE ON REMNANT HAVE YOU BEEN?" The nun asked in an outraged tone at the boy as his savior stood behind him calmly, still sending messages on his Scroll.
"I-I-I was in the forest ma'am..." Silber answered with his eyes taking particular interest in a spot on the floor.
"Why were you in the forest boy?" She asked as she pulled a ruler out of the desk.
"B-B-Because I wanted to get away from the other kids who do nothing but bully me and be left alone..." he trailed off as the nun looked even more angry than before.
"So you could go and get eaten by a creature of Grimm? WHAT ON MONTY'S REMNANT WERE YOU THINKING?" The nun failed at keeping her tone down once again as her temper started to boil over.
"I-I-I've done it multiple times before ma'am...the clearing I stay in isn't very far from the orphanage, normally Grimm aren't so near the edge of the forest..."
The nun didn't reply this time and simply brought the ruler down on Silber's head as he flinched in pain, causing her to smack it on his wrist and then back as he tried to escape the woman's fury by curling up in the chair. This prompted the man to grab the nun's wrist and yank the ruler out of it forcefully.
"I must ask you not to beat poor Silber ma'am." He said calmly as he took the ruler and put it in his back pocket.
"Who are you to tell me how to treat the children?" She asked in an incredulous tone.
"Because this child is Silber Schnee. Lost son of Kalt Schnee, Owner of the Schnee Dust Company." He stated simply as he looked at her levelly. "His secretary should be contacting you shortly about having him removed from here and placed back under his proper care."
'What?'
That was all Silber could think as he had packed his meager belongings, a threadbare jacket, a couple of worn shirts, and three pairs of jeans and the man who'd saved him, who he now knew as Wahr Engel escorted him to an incredibly expensive looking luxury car ,and put him in the rear seat as the two drove off to a private airstrip near the edge of the city of Mistral, where he would be flown off to his new...or old home, depending on the perspective. He sat for most of the ride in silence as he tossed the information around in his head as he tried to make sense of it. Him, an introverted, socially awkward, bookworm of a child was actually the son of the owner of the most successful corporation in the world? He sighed quietly before managing to speak to Wahr.
"Um...sir? If you don't mind me asking...if I'm the son of Kalt Schnee, then how did I end up in Mistral?" He asked quietly, flinching at the grimace forming on Wahr's face.
"Well young Silber, I'm afraid that your former living conditions were my fault, your home was attacked by terrorists who wanted to kill the Schnee family, and in my haste to get you to safety, I haphazardly used my semblance to send you somewhere safe. You never should have been sent here, and I never should have been so careless with the one I was charged to protect" he stated, with an overtone of regret.
"It's okay" Silber stated flatly.
"With all due respect Silber, it's not. I didn't fulfill my duty as your guard"
"Yes you did."
"What do you mean by that young man?" Wahr asked as he looked at him with intrigue through the rear view mirror.
"You wanted to protect me, so you got me out of the way of danger. You sent me to a back alley in Mistral on accident, but I was safe. So yes, you fulfilled your duties in the end, then you saved me earlier today from that beowolf. For someone who thinks he isn't a good guard, you did your job rather well sir." Silber said with a small smile on his face.
"Thank you Silber, I will do my job more satisfactorily in the future."
"I look forward to it Wahr" he said, his smile now a grin.
They rode the rest of the way in silence and boarded the private plane to Atlas, where he was given what Wahr said was a 'small room' for his privacy while they made the long trip to Atlas. 'Small room?' Silber thought too himself, 'This is the most room I've had too myself that I can ever remember!' He laid down on the bed and enjoyed the sensation of the blankets that were actually warm, and the bed that was bigger than him, as he slowly drifted off to sleep, no longer haunted by the nightmare he had been subjected to for the majority of his life.
He was enjoying the first restful sleep he'd had in a long time when he was awoken by a knock on the door of his cabin. He sat up as quickly as possible and opened the door to a smiling Wahr. Silber looked up into his new guard's eyes and smiled at the man's presence.
"Did you sleep well?" Wahr asked, as he led the two of them to what Silber assumed was the closest thing to a dining room you could put on a plane.
"Yes I did sir, thank you for asking, yourself?" Silber replied as he was seated at the expensive looking table.
"Rather peacefully myself sir." Wahr replied as he watched Silber dig into the plate that was set before him. "That method of dining is not becoming of a Schnee young Silber" he said in a displeased tone.
"Sorry Wahr, I'm new to the whole 'member of the most wealthy family on the planet' thing. I'll try to improve myself" Silber stated in a flat tone as he began to eat slower, trying his best to look somewhat proper.
"That's much better Silber, but still, I'm sure your father will be enrolling you in the same etiquette classes your twin sister is participating in, as to help you act more like a true Schnee" Wahr said. Silber slightly choked on a small strip of bacon at this.
"Twin sister?" He stated disbelievingly as he tried to find words to continue with. "How many siblings do I have Wahr?" Silber asked, starting to piece together the dreams he'd always had. So the girl with the ponytail was his sister...what about the one that was taller?
"You have two siblings, your twin, Weiss Schnee, and your elder sister, Winter" he said softly as he helped the boy understand what he was headed towards.
"I'm going to assume the house is the size of a small castle as well?" Silber asked, trying not too sound too giddy and failing miserably.
"Schnee manor is the largest house in Atlas." Silber coughed at this.
'What have I gotten myself into?' He thought too himself as they were ferried off the plane and into a black luxury car that would take them to Schnee Manor, and by extension, his new life.
Silber couldn't help but gawk at the sight of the house before him as they drove up it's spiraling drive. The mansion that sat before him was one of the largest buildings he'd ever seen in his life. It had five stories and was larger than most castles he'd ever seen in his books. He watched in awe as it got bigger and bigger until he was right next to it and the Chauffeur opened the door, almost sending him face first into the pavement. He caught himself and nodded at the chauffeur as he walked towards the immaculate white doors, a snowflake split down the middle, half painted on either door. He reached out too open it, but was surprised when a woman who looked somewhat like a maid opened it from the other side first, bowing as he walked in. He looked around in wonder at the entryway to the house, the ceiling was higher than his previous home was tall, he looked around in complete awestruck wonder as he enjoyed the view until Wahr walked up beside him and patted his shoulder.
"Gawking is unbecoming of a Schnee young Silber" he said in an amused tone as Silber shut his mouth obediently and looked around the grand entryway he had walked into.
In front of him to his left and right, were two identical marble staircases, with the same beautiful stairs, and the same beautiful hand rails. The doors in front of him were made of some sort of dark wood, and had the same snowflake as the front door on it, painted in the same way. The walls were painted the same immaculate white that the snow that was pattering on the elegant windows that lined the hall, and above him was the most elegant chandelier, he would ever lay eyes on.
"Wahr, this place is amazing! I..where do I go? Where do I even begin?" Silber managed to ask as he took in his surroundings. Wahr pointed towards the door in front of them, that he noticed only now was slowly opening to reveal a white clad girl, with the same white hair as he, but longer and tied in an off center ponytail. He only stood in a silent awe as her pale blue eyes met his and she looked slightly shocked before locking eyes with Wahr, a small fury in her eyes.
"Wahr! Why didn't you get Silber the proper clothing for the environment before you brought him here!?" She asked, looking over at him every now and then with a small glint of concern. "He must be freezing in those..those...rags! They aren't even fit for washing the dishes we eat off!" The girl said to his guard.
"I apologize Miss Schnee, but I was ordered by your father to bring him to Schnee Manor immediately, before word got out that he had been found" he started before turning to Silber "I believe you'll want to get acquainted with this one rather quickly Silber" he finished as Silber managed to speak.
"Why sir?" Silber said slowly as a small grin passed Wahr's lips.
"Miss Schnee, it's unbecoming to not introduce yourself to your missing brother, you might want too remedy that, young lady." The girl sighed as she put herself in a more business like posture before speaking;
"My name is Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company..." she trailed off, "and your twin sister."
