"Liath, it's time to get up", his step-mother said.
Liath was an average 16 year old in terms of height, a bit more than average in build, with black hair, the only stand out feature on his face being his grey eyes, hence his name.
"Ungh", he grunted in response. It was early on a Saturday morning, just before dawn. Liath would be going out on patrol with his step-father, Colm, to check the outer traps for Grimm presence. While those in the cities had the comfort of walls to protect them from Grimm, out in here in the wilds, everyone had to help out where they can. One lax in the defence of their little village would mean lives lost, as Liath knew all too well.
Liath's biological father was a man by the name of Fionn, who was a great Huntsman in his prime, but he retired to a village tucked away in valley on the 'no man's land' mass between Vacuo and Atlas after Liath's mother. Due to their remoteness, healthcare and medicine was hard to come by, so women dying during child birth wasn't uncommon.
Getting dressed, Liath left his room and went to the kitchen to wulf down his breakfast. As he was spooning the last few mouthfuls of the sludge that his step-mother called porridge into his mouth, his step-father entered the room, bow slung across his back. Out here in the middle of nowhere, Dust was hard to come by, so more traditional methods were used to fend off Grimm.
"You ready, lad?", Colm asked him.
"Just about", was what Liath tried to say, but it came out as "Juff abo-Ack!" thanks to the gruel in his mouth, a portion of which had just entered his lungs.
"Tough it out, lad. That porridge will put hair in the places you need" his step-father chortled.
Liath's obscene retort was lost in the coughing fit that happens when you inhale while trying to speak with your mouth full.
Colm was a short but stocky man, and surprisingly agile. He and Liath's father were on the same Team in some place called Vale far to the south east when they were young, and their camaraderie lead to them being as close as brothers when they retired, so it was only natural for Colm to take in his friends son when he passed away. Colm favoured a bow that collapsed into a short sword (that he named Bertha for some reason), while Liath's father preferred a spear called Gae Bulg that was able to accept vials of dust that would imbue the weapon with different effects, a spear Liath had inherited, minus the dust.
"Will she becoming with us?", Liath asked.
"No, just you, me and Bertha". Colm also treated his bow-come-sword as a person.
The she that Liath was talking about was a girl by the name of Aideen, and she had the temper to match her fiery name. Due to the weird gun she liked using, she was also accounted for a third of the villages Dust consumption. But the fact she wouldn't be coming with them could only mean one thing, Colm wanted see just how much of Liath's father was in him.
According to Colm, Fionn, Liath's father, had a peculiar ability, separate to his Semblance yet linked to his Aura. He had the ability to project his Aura a short difference. This had no affect on humans, faunus or animals, but apparently it was enough to mess with Grimm in such a way that they would either act slightly confused, or even run if they were young enough. When Liath asked why age the young would run, or even how they knew they were young, his step-father explained that Grimm get more powerful with age, and at most his fathers ability would just annoy an adult Grimm. Liath was told that if he discovered he did have the ability, to tell only his step-father. Only a handful of people knew Fionn had had the ability, and most thought it was unnatural, even demonic. As Liath's step-father put it, what kind of demon does it take to stare down the devil and win?
When Liath was done eating, cleaned up the its of his breakfast that hadn't quite made it to his mouth and kissed his step-mother goodbye, he grabbed his father's spear from the storage shed and met his step-father at the gate.
"You two off to check the outer traps?", asked Dean, the bear faunus night guard for the villages north gate. Dean was a friendly guy with a friendly smile, but many were intimidated by his appearance due to his large build and hands the size of plates. If anyone had at least the build to go toe to toe in a bare knuckle brawl with an Ursa, it was Dean.
"Yeah, hopefully it won't be more than a simple reset of the triggered traps. Something definitely got caught after the racket we heard last night" Colm replied. A downside to living out in a valley such as this is that sound carries far, and Grimm make a lot of noise when they get caught in one of the traps.
"Do you have a flare gun?" Dean asked.
"Knew I forgot something, back in a sec", Colm replied. He then went to the supply building to get a flare gun, all the while grumbling to Bertha about his memory going.
The patrols used flare guns with different dust types to indicate their if help is needed. Red meant Grimm had breached the perimeter, yellow meant a trap was in need of repair, blue meant a patrol had to stay out longer than intended for whatever reason, second blue meant they were on the way back. A single green meant the patrol was stopping to repair a trap with a second shot to indicate they were moving again, two consecutive shots meant it was damaged beyond repair and needed to be replaced, and three meant it was gone completely and be on alert, as any Grimm that can completely remove a trap like that is not the kind you want wandering around inside your perimeter. Black was only ever used if there was a fatality.
"I take the lack of little miss trigger finger means Colm wants to see if you can do it too?", Dean asked Liath.
"If there's anything still alive in the traps that isn't edible, yeah". The traps also caught unsuspecting wildlife from time to time.
Dean was one of the few people who knew Fionn's secret. He saw it first hand when Liath's father saved him from a pack of young Beowolves. Ever since then, Dean has kept an eye on Liath out of thanks to Fionn. It was Dean who brought Liath to this village after Fionn passed.
Colm returned, still grumbling to the bow, and they set off into the pre-dawn light. It would take them an hour to reach the first trap in the west, and by the time the come full circle going through all 4 points of the compass and checked all traps and the area around them for Grimm tracks, it would be noon, but could be almost time for dinner if a lot of repairs had to be done.
The first dozen traps weren't touched, by Grimm or beast. The first trap they came to that was triggered, by what they couldn't tell thanks to Grimm disappearing shortly after death. Whatever it was did a real number on the trigger mechanism, and it took half an hour to hammer the twisted metal back into shape using nearby rocks. No other traps that were triggered needed to be repaired after that, and they managed to pick up some meat from the local animals that got trapped.
Liath cursed his step-fathers big mouth, as Colm had just finished saying that they could be back in time for lunch when they came across a nightmare. The scene that was spread before them was a mix of mangled metal, shattered trees and pulverised dirt. Assuming the shallow pits that lined up with each other in places were tracks, something big had triggered one trap, and in it's efforts to escape it stumbled into and destroyed the next 3 traps in the chain, before freeing itself and wandering off. Liath stared in shock at the carnage, wondering what could have done this kind of damage and escape. The only Grimm Liath knew of in terms of appearance and size were Ursai, Beowulves and the tiny Nevermores. Liath assumed that there were bigger Grimm, but not how much bigger they might be. Whatever had done this was at least the size of a small house.
Liath heard his step-father grumble about something called a 'Death Stalker' and 'Great Widow', before Colm came to his senses and told Liath to fire the appropriate number of flares. 12 green flares flew into the air consecutively, no doubt sending the village on high alert.
Liath and Colm continued on, thankfully without finding a single triggered trap or trace of Grimm until they reached the last few traps. The last few were in easy viewing distance of each other, and while two of the smaller ones had been tripped, it looked like it was done by local wildlife, not Grimm. Colm and Liath decided to take a trap each, and clean up the animal blood and reset a trap each.
Whatever had been caught in Liath's trap had freed itself and dragged itself of into the under brush, leaving trail of blood. Judging by the amount and that it mostly dry, whatever it was was dead by now It was as Liath was resetting his trap, he heard it. He froze in place and looked around, but there was nothing there. Just as he was about to go back to work he heard it again. A breath. Liath looked over at his step-father to see if it was him, but Colm was too far away for Liath to hear him breath. Liath dismissed it as a figment of his imagination, and almost triggered the trap he just reset when he heard it once more. This time Liath was sure there was something alive near him.
It must be the animal that got caught in the trap, Liath thought to himself. He was surprised something could survive for so long given the rather substantial amount of blood at the trap that had almost dried completely. So he grabbed his spear and and went into the under brush, following the nearly dry blood trail to put the poor animal out of it's misery. The trail lead to a under a small bush. Liath lifted the thicket...and came face to face with a Beowulf.
Liath leapt back whilst emitting a noise that was part obscenity, part (very deep, and manly) squeal of surprise. He landed with a thud, his legs having carried him further than he thought possible, as his step-father rushed over to his aid. When Colm reached Liath, he followed his step-sons gaze into the under brush.
"What the ..." Colm started to say but trailed off as his brain began to comprehend what was before him.
Staring back at Liath and Colm was what looked like a Beowulf at first glance, but Liath had to rub his eyes to try and understand it. It was smaller than the average Beowulf. A cub, maybe? Who knows with Grimm. It also appeared to be more... evolved than a regular Beowulf. To Liath, it looked like it could run on all fours or sprint on its hind legs and it wouldn't look out of odd, instead of the shuffle done by regular Beowolves.
But the stand out features were that it had white fur instead of black, black mask with blue lines and eyes instead of the usual white with red lines and eyes. And it was also bleeding. Blood. Actual red blood was coming from a Grimm, instead of the black smoke that always comes from their wounds.
Colm began to move, sliding into the usual stance he uses to fire Bertha. But something about the Beowulf made something stir in Liath. Liath knew that this Beowulf was friendly, that it didn't mean him and his step-father any harm. Was this his father's gift? The one that can make Grimm turn tail? Whatever it was it made him put his hand on Colm's arm, which got him a weird look to say the least.
"Don't shoot it", Liath said.
"What did you say?", said Colm.
"I said don't shoot", Liath said.
"Did you hit your head, lad? That thing is a Grimm, it is the enemy. It will gladly kill you, me, your step-mother and the entire village if given the chance, and you're defending it?" Colm barked.
"I'm not defending it. I'm just saying don't shoot it. Don't ask me how, but I know that thing won't attack us." Liath replied.
"What do you mean you know?" Colm demanded.
"I just do, I don't know how to explain it. I just know it doesn't feel hostile towards us. Its just my instinct telling me this." Liath answered.
Colm was shocked by his answer.
"You know... how it feels? On instinct? Even though I made you focus on other ones caught in the traps, you meet one wired looking one Beowulf and poof, Grimm guru." Colm said, more to himself than to Liath. He looked at the sky and said something under his breath. Liath wasn't sure what he said but he heard his father's name.
"So, what do you want to do?" Colm asked him.
Liath thought for a few seconds, and looked into the eyes of the injure Beowulf, which had been silently watching his and Colm's exchange, and had an idea.
"Colm, do you think it looks like a cub?" Liath asked
This time Colm was taken aback.
"What in the name of.. What do you mean?" Colm asked.
"Does it look like a baby Beowulf" Liath asked
"Yeah, I suppose it does a bit. Why do you ask?" Colm said.
"Well, Grimm supposedly feed off negative emotions, right. What if a very young one were exposed to positive emotions? Could it adapt? Could it..." Liath trailed off after seeing the Duluxe colour chart of emotions cross Colm's face.
"Could it become an ally, that what your were going to say?" Colm said heatedly.
"Yeah" Liath replied weakly.
Colm 'harrumphed', was quiet for several minutes, before turning around and going behind a tree, perhaps because he couldn't stare Liath in the eye, or maybe he couldn't stand the silent scrutiny of the ice blue eyes half hidden in the under brush.
When Colm returned, he had 2 conditions:
Liath had to carry the Grimm back to the village.
Liath had to explain to everyone else in the village why they brought it back with them, especially with the alert.
So Liath treated the Grimm's wounds as he would a dogs. Other than some painful pining, it made no sound during its treatment. The first condition back fire almost immediately, as the Grimm, despite its size was surprisingly light, and Liath was able to carry it on his back with ease.
"You really doing this?" Colm asked.
"Yeah" Liath replied.
"You've definitely got your fathers determination, lad. It's no matter, even if it doesn't die of blood loss, it probably won't last long, Grimm don't last long in captivity" Colm said with a sense of content finality.
Somehow, I think this Grimm has a lot of life left in it, Liath thought to himself.
"Well, at least I have an hour to come up with an excuse for my new partner" Liath said.
Colm snorted at the way Liath said partner, as if it was going to last longer than 2 nights.
And with that, they went home.