'It's so comfy and warm here...' she thought to herself.
Some birds could be heard outside and the summer breeze tenderly moved the leafage. She could tell that the sun has rising already due to the heat in the tent. 'Perfect day to be lazy' she thought with a small smile on her lips.
While she sunk back into the land of dreams something outside moved, something big. It entered the tent watching the poor defenseless girl in her sleep. "Unbelievable" the creature said.
'Splash'
Amber woke up in a shock feeling the cold water on her.
"WHAT THE HELL! ARE YOU CRAZY!?" She looked in an old and bearded face.
"You're late Amber, I thought I said we're doing endurance today? Get moving Girl!" he demanded and left the tent leaving the girl soaked wet in her sleeping bed.
"You're an asshole, you know that?" Amber yelled after him. After slowly standing up she decided to take a bath in the river nearby and changing her clothes the fourth time this week.
'I swear if he keeps up this pace I have to train naked some of these days.' she thought while putting on her pants.
Damian was actually a nice and kind man, at least that's what his wife Kelly uses to say. The old couple makes a living though trading of cloth and sometimes some ores, but in his young days Damian used to be a Hunter and a pretty decent one at that.
"I bet that's the only reason he dares travelling through this forests." She said to herself.
Indeed the forests of Vale did undergo quite the change, for the number of Grimm here rose dramatically in the last few years. Damian was one of the last peddlers who was brave enough to visit the small villages outside the reach of the big cities.
Amber washed her face in the river and she saw her reflection. Her most striking trait probably were her blue hair. Other than that she had deep black eyes and pale skin. Kelly always told her how beautiful she looked and that she will grow to an even more beautiful woman.
She blushed a bit while thinking about it but even she thought that she was quite pretty. The slender bluenette stood up and headed to the camp where Kelly already made breakfast. Kelly wasn't only a nice and caring woman, but also an outstanding cook.
'Guess that explains Domains big paunch.' she thought while giggling a bit.
"Good morning, Love. You look relaxed" Kelly's deep green eyes almost shined today and her smile would've turn any Grimm into a gentle pup.
"Really? Because Damian woke me up with water Kelly, friggin' cold water."Amber explained while looking around scanning the area for Damian.
'Don't need another lecture about respect.' she thought.
"He means well Amber, he's only so hard on you because he wants you to be ready to protect yourself, you know he loves you like a daughter, right?" she smiled. Amber sighed.
"Yeah I know, doesn't make it easier though." It was damn hard to argue with Kelly. She had such a comforting aura about her, it was impossible to be mad near her.
Amber and Kelly both ate breakfast. There were eggs and sausages which Kelly had cooked to perfection.
"I swear you could even make underwear taste like a five star dish." Amber said while digging in fast knowing that Damian would be back soon, and then it would be time for another six hours of training, like every day.
Damian returned from his morning routine right after Amber finished eating.
"You done? I checked the forest and there are no Grimm nearby, so hurry up. "he declared. Amber rolled her eyes while standing up.
"You know, you could give me a day or two off sometimes. It would raise my moral." she jested knowing that he would never allow it. He gave her the usual look which was a combination of anger and disbelief. She already learned in her six months with the couple that it meant to better get going.
On the day Damian found Amber she was weak and alone, almost starved to death. Kelly took pity on her and took care of her until she was up and running again. After some talking with Kelly, she told Amber that her husband used to be a pro hunter. It was like a new spark of life ignited that day inside of Amber. She asked Damian so many times to teach her how to be a huntress that eventually he gave in under the condition that she would obey every of his orders. She accepted quickly not knowing that the following six months would be the hardest of her life. Each day training and no resting time between the lessons. She would start training in the morning and end it late afternoon completely exhausted, throwing up almost every time in the first weeks. But despite all her complaining she never gave up and ended each lesson with Damian satisfied.
He was a hard teacher, yes, but a good one too. Due to his training Amber got quicker and stronger than ever before in her life. What she lacked in raw power she made up with her flexibility and speed. Damian examined her in the first days and declared that she didn't have the body to be a "All in" fighter, but that she needed to learn to defeat her foes with her other skills. And beside her swiftness Amber was unimaginable intelligent. Her greatest weapon always had been her mind, for she had been blessed with outstanding cleverness. Back in her schooldays she was always the shy girl which didn't had that many friends but the best grades.
'That was another life' she thought to herself wondering why her mind brought it up now. Her schooldays didn't have a nice and sweet ending with a big graduation and tears of joy. Her time at her school ended early with blood and tears of pain and grief.
It all started almost a year ago, back then she still had auburn hair and blue eyes. She also wasn't as pretty as she's now, at least that's what she keeps thinking. Back then she didn't go as Amber Night, but as Claire Vert and she was living the city of Mantoi in Vacou. Mantoi was a rather large city placed right at the border of Vale so it had people in there from both kingdoms which made it a big trading place.
People in Mantoi always had their mind on more, on the next big deal, whether with legal work or by all means necessary. The city had a big underground circle and the crime rate was not to be scoffed at. You could find dust dealers in every corner and the police didn't seem to do anything about it. Most likely because they all were bribed.
Claire lived in a quite decent house in the middle of the city, close to the office sector of Mantoi. Her father, Luka, used to be a hunter in his young days but after he married Marie he settled down with her, working in a big law firm. Claire's mother was a well known author for psychology. People didn't just read her books, they lived them. Her older Brother, Jacque, was a picture of an athlete, big, muscular and he had quite the impact on women. Their parents already made arrangements for him to join the Sport-Academy of Mantoi. Claire's younger sister on the other hand was a bit of a troublemaker, she would annoy people so long till she got her way. And usually it didn't take long.
Claire herself never was a problem child. She could take care of herself, she cooked for her family and did all of the chores because no one else would do it. All in all you could say that her family wasn't exactly caring, because everyone was just looking for their big dream, which wasn't wrong she thought to herself, but it would've been nice from time to time to have at least a nice conversation while eating dinner. But that was her life. Her family gave her all the opportunities to make a name for herself and she intended to do so.
Her school life was rather boring, because she would always hit the top marks and after that she would simply go home and deal with her boredom. It changed when she realized that she had a Semblance, like all the hunters and huntresses in the stories had. She noticed it the first time when she was sad because she had short hair and thought to herself that if she had longer hair she would be happy again. On the next day she woke up and almost punched the mirror after seeing a long haired girl in it only to realize that it was herself.
After that she got curious and started doing what every good scientist would do, she started experimenting on herself.
First she determined the nature of her Semblance using books and the internet and she came to the conclusion that her Semblance made it possible for her to change her appearance. She almost busted with joy when she found out, finally something interesting in my life.
It took her almost 4 months to learn everything about her Semblance she could. She was able to change her appearance, but more than that, she could also change it to the appearance of anyone she had enough contact with, to allow her Semblance to scan the information of the Dna of her target. She never found out how exactly it works but her body saves all the information just like in a giant library and she could just borrow the information whenever she wanted. But there were some limitations. Small changes like eye color or length of the hair were simple and didn't take as much energy as a change of the whole body. To change into another girl entirely it would take a large amount of energy and on top of that, she would experience a great deal of pain for the whole procedure. The most painful experience she had was after she decided to change into her brother. It almost felt like dying and in the end she couldn't change back for almost four days. So she figured that a change of gender took a great toll of her body and it needed a lot of rest. She feared that anyone would see her like that but no one even cared, she was just another face in the big mass. Not even her family noticed, which made her happy somehow, because she had her little secret now and could use it whenever she wanted. She also learned that the best way to get the information of another one's body was through a kiss, which wasn't as easy as it sounds, because Claire was afraid of confrontations like that. With her family it was easy, she kissed her mother and father all the time, not knowing if they even cared. Her grandparents and aunts were different story, they were always happy to see her, so she used that to learn more about her powers. That's when she discovered that a kiss was the best and easiest way to copy someone's Dna. 'And if i look like someone else I can copy anyone else I like, and they'll never notice it's me' she thought to herself. She gave her Semblance the fitting name 'Million Faces'.
She spent most of her free time now collecting Dna of everyone she could, somewhere easy, somewhere quite difficult but it was a rush all the time. Never before she felt more alive, but she had to hide it, so during the week she was the good and nice girl but on the weekend she hunted for other people. She felt so powerful while thinking what she could do with her Semblance, but in the end she could never man up to do any of it.
'I'm just a little girl, no way I could simply take over someone's life or use my powers to benefit myself.'
She kept living like that for quite some time, until it was graduation year and she started thinking what she wanted to do with her life. She never thought about it, but on the other hand, she didn't have to, for her parents already arranged meetings with the top schools in every kingdom. They planned for her to be a scientist, because it would look good in the family picture.
She hated it, she hated everything of it.
It was a warm late summer night when she just couldn't deal with it and decided to go out alone. She wasn't allowed to drink, but one of her many faces would be.
She already had prepared some fake ID's for her favorite faces and changed into an older version of herself. At least she wished that she would look like that when she was older. After taking her purse she sneaked out of her house which wasn't exactly a challenge.
'The soft Petal' became her favorite bar over the weeks. It was a cozy little bar, which gave the visitors a feeling of home. The bar had an own band who played always slow and comforting songs making this bar the perfect spot to just calm down after a hard week.
"Ah Claire Darling, how are you? You just look awesome." the barkeeper said. He was a good looking man with black hair which had some green highlights and yellow eyes.
"Hey Antoine, thanks'. You look good yourself. How's work today?" Antoine quickly became Claire's best friend. He was gentle and caring and always looked out for Claire when he could.
"Oh stop it you! You noticed the new scarf? It's silk. And for work, it's the same as always, I'm serving drinks while waiting for my prince. The usual love?" he said.
Antoine was quite frank about his homosexuality. It always impressed Claire, she thought that Antoine must be the bravest person in the world and she loved that about him. He was her rock in the surf, always there when she was sad and she tried to be the same for him, which didn't work that well because he never seemed to have any problems.
"Yes please, I had a hell of a day, i tell you, my parents still are trying to push me into science, i mean it's a good idea, but i want to make my own decisions." Antoine placed a Chocolate Monkey on the counter.
"Well you are old enough to make your own decisions honey, i know you love your parents but wouldn't it be better to make your own dreams come true? In the end you have to live your own life, so make sure you're happy with it."
'I need to tell him one of these days that I'm actually just a teenager' she thought to herself.
Claire took a sip of the drink, it was sweet, just like she liked it, and it didn't contained that much alcohol that she would lose it.
"Yeah you're right, but my parents gave me everything, I just..." she paused and sighed
"I just want them to be proud of me." She looked into her glass and watched the little bubbles in her drink.
Antoine placed a hand on Claire's shoulder.
"Your parents are proud of you, i mean just look at you, you are beautiful, smart, much smarter than me and you care for other people so much. How could they not be proud of you?" he smiled.
She felt like she had a knot in her stomach after hearing these words, realizing that she was lying to such a wonderful person, and she dared calling herself his friend. She felt sick, and disgusted by herself.
'How can I find out what I truly want if I can't be true to the people I cherish?' she thought to herself. She wanted to tell him everything, all about her and her Semblance, she just wanted to cry in his arms and hear some comforting words. Instead she took another sip of her drink and smiled. "Thank you Antoine, you are the best. I feel much better now."
This was her usual game. She's gotten quite good at acting, knowing that with her Semblance she needed to be able to lie and act as good as she could.
'One of those days...' she thought again.
It was this very moment that should change her whole life.
The door of the bar opened and a young woman with blue hair and a big smile entered the bar, her eyes as black as a crow. 'She is so beautiful' Claire thought.
The bluenette took a seat next to Claire.
"Hey Antoine, the usual please." she said with a small wink. Antoine brought a Piña Colada with a lot of fruits on top.
"Here you go honey, hope you like it." he said.
"Antoine, don't be so modest, we all know that you're the best bar keeper in this damned city" she started drinking and realized that the woman next to her was watching her.
"Hi, i think we don't know each other, I'm Amber, Amber Night." she offered her hand. Claire still amazed and stunned didn't realize that she was talking to her until she saw the hand in front of her.
"Oh, yeah, sorry, Claire, I mean my name is Claire, Claire Vert to be exact." she stuttered taking the hand and shaking it a bit too enthusiastic.
'The hell is wrong with you? Just be nice, stop acting...weird.' she commanded herself. The soft looking lips of Amber formed into a gentle smile releasing some words which Claire didn't pick up.
'She looks so beautiful..., wait! Did she talk to me? OH MY GOD! What did she say?' she screamed internally.
"You ok there? Antoine she looks pale, you have something to eat for her? My treat." Amber said while still holding Claire's hand, afraid that she might fall over if she were to let go.
"Sure, i get you two something fast, just wait a second." Antoine disappeared into the kitchen.
Amber turned to Claire touching her forehead with hers to check the temperature.
"You don't seem to have fever, guess you are just exhausted." she said while Claire felt herself blushing like a tomato.
"Uhh, yeah, I...I guess that's it, hehe" she said trying to act cool again which looked adorably clumsy in Ambers eyes.
"Well then, don't worry, I ordered something to eat for us. You still need to hold on?" Claire didn't understand what she meant until Amber pointed on her hands still holding on to each other. Claire released Amber of her grip in an instance almost falling over.
"I'm terribly sorry, usually I'm not that much of a, well, klutz." she tried to explain. She wished that the ground would open and simply swallow her up.
"Don't worry, I think it's cute." Amber said with a wink. Claire's heart skipped a beat.
'What is wrong with me?'
"Sorry to keep you waiting, but i didn't have anything else" Antoine returned with a plate filled with sweets.
"I have sold my last sandwich a few hours ago." he explained.
"It's fine, she's feeling better already I think, and a bit sugar should get her up and running again." Amber said with a little laugh.
"Well? Dig in, you'll need it." she said to Claire while taking a Cookie and eating it.
"Oh! Yeah, thank you. I didn't realize how hungry I were." Claire said trying to explain her behavior. Antoine's sweets were the best she had eaten in her whole life and more important, they were the best fuel for her semblance.
Amber stood up and drank her cocktail.
"That was good, well Antoine, I'll be back tomorrow, gotta do some work." she said while leaving some lien on the counter.
"Keep the change."
Claire realized that Amber were about to leave. Her brain simply reacted
"Wait! You're going already?"
"Yeah, sorry, I just came here for a little break." Amber noticed the disappointment in Claire's look.
"But don't worry, I'm here almost every day, around the same time, so if you want to, I don't know..., hang out or something like that, you know where to find me." she said with a bright smile and left.
"Yeah, I will, see you!" Claire said feeling like she could hug the whole world.
"Oh my god Antoine, who was that? She was so beautiful." Claire turned to Antoine with a bright smile.
"My my, I didn't know that you were into women Claire, you never told me" Antoine said while giggling while playing with his scarf.
'Is he right? Am I into women...?' She never thought about it, because she never felt anything special for someone else.
"I don't know, I just, I think I like her." she claimed.
"Ah young love, well then, her name is Amber Night and she just moved here a few months ago. I think she came here from Atlas, but I'm not sure. She's a really sweet and nice girl, no surprise you like her, everyone does." he said.
"She's learning in an art school I think, but she told me she always wanted to be a huntress. And that's about all I know, you best ask her yourself." he said with a little smile on his lips.
'Don't know why, but i want to get to know her, no i NEED to get to know her!' she thought.
"Thank you Antoine! I love you so much!" she hugged him, paid quickly and ran off.
"I see you next time."
When she arrived home all her thoughts were revolving around Amber. She had something about her that caught Claire's interest. Something she never felt before in her entire life.
'What is this feeling I have? Could this be love?' she asked herself.
With that and a small smile on her lips she changed into her normal self and layed down to sleep. She still had school tomorrow, so she should get some rest.
This night her dreams were filled with Amber Night and Claire's ideas of love. Her sleep has never been sweeter.