A.N.)- Small authors note this time: I am so sorry about the heavy use of lyrics in this chapter. I couldn't figure out a good way to gloss over them without losing too much of Summer's reactions or other things.

The sun was setting quietly, the sounds of the animals of the wild filtering in through the cave as I sat beside the softly crackling fire.

Andoriol sat with his back to the interior of the cave, sitting upright in the mouth of the cavern. Much of his body was covered in that bone armor, with only small gaps of black beneath the joints, his back was mostly smooth with only two rows of small spikes going down it. The golden tip of his tail was softly prodding the fire nearly thirty feet away from the mouth of the cave. His tail was actually nearly as long as he was tall, at least at my best guess, I had yet to see him stand up fully, he preferred to move in this low crouch… which… to be fair, was probably because he was taller than the trees.

Softly, he hummed some sort of tune to himself, saying he was trying to remember the words. It sort of sounded like it was a few separate songs…

With a sigh like an organ, his head turned so I could see one glowing green eye, "I'm sorry if I don't do this justice."

The knight took a deep breath, and I almost held my breath in anticipation, the songs in his memories had gotten progressively better even as he'd slowly become less human, and to hear what he could do now… I admit that I looked forward to it.

[1] "I… like… big butts and I cannot lie~" He twisted in place to point back at me, eyes sparkling as he practically bounced in place, "You other brothers can't deny, tha' when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist and a round thing in your face you get- sprung~"

I snorted, nearly spitting as I covered my face, trying desperately not to laugh and failing horribly as my whole body shook as peals of laughter escaped, "You asshole!" He chuckled, folding his hands back in his lap as I struggled to get my laughter back under control, still giggling as I asked, "What, is that supposed to be the song of your people?"

Andoriol chuckled, shaking his head, "Not my people necessarily, but still… it made you smile… that's enough for me."

Rolling my eyes, I picked up a rock from the cavern floor and chucked it at his head, and though I didn't have my Aura still, it sailed true, thunking against his bone mask harmlessly, "Come on ya dork, I want a serious song. Something you'd have sung while you were out on your own."

"Alright, alright…" he said, raising a claw placatingly before turning away, "Serious one this time…"

Seeming to gather himself in with the breath he took, he straightened and I think I sort of recognized a singer's posture before he began to sing, [2] "She put him out… like the burnin' end of a midnight cigarette… She broke his heart… he spent his whole life tryin' to forget…"

I blinked once before settling down into the furs slightly to listen to the soft, somber song, low and almost breathy…

"We watched him drink his pain away a little at a time. But he never could get drunk enough to get her off his mind… until the night…" A deep breath in the otherwise silent cave, goosebumps rose on my skin, "He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger… and finally drank away her memory. Life is short but this time it was bigger… than the strength he had to get up off his knees."

"We found him there, face down in the pillow… with a note that said 'I'll love her till I die'…" my hand pressed against my chest unconsciously, trying to soothe the ache that was building there. Thoughts of Raven and the way Taiyang had gotten when she'd left him with Yang flashed through my mind, "And when we buried him beneath the willow, and the angels sang a whiskey lullaby…"

"La la la la la la la… la la la la la la laaa…" I could only stare at the back of the knight as he sung, a quiet ache in his tone that mirrored what was in my chest as the orange glow of the fire danced across the white and black expanse of his back, "La la la la la la la… la la la la la la laaa…"

"The rumors flew… but nobody knew how much she blamed herself…" His voice pitched upwards, his claws and palms playing out soft percussion against his armored body, "For years and years… she tried to hide the whiskey on her breath…"

A small sound nearly escaped me and a hand flew to my mouth to cover it and suppress the sound, unwilling to interrupt the song. Some traitorous part of me hoped that that's what Raven was going through for having left Taiyang and Yang as she had but… but I felt I knew where the song was going and god I didn't wish that on her–

"She finally drank her pain away… a little at a time. But she never could get drunk enough to get him off her mind, until the night…" I choked back a sob, both hands covering my mouth as the world began to blur, tears gathering in my eyes, "She put that bottle to her head and pulled the trigger… and finally drank away his memory… Life is short but this time it was bigger… than the strength she had to get up off her knees."

My eyes clenched shut, hot tears rolling down my cheeks, and unbidden, thoughts of both Raven and Taiyang flashed in my head, in the very ways he had sung about… of me being in those same situations… the sharp, jabbing pain in my heart almost unbearable even as he continued, "We found her there, face down in the pillow… clinging to his picture for dear life… We laid her next to him beneath the willow… and the angels sang a whiskey lullaby."

"La la la la la la la… la la la la la la laaa…" quietly he played out percussion against his body as he sang, "La la la la la la la… la la la la la la laaa…" The precussion stopped and he sang one more time, "La la la la la la la… la la la la la la laaaaaa…"

For a long moment, silence reigned in the cavern, only broken by the soft popping and cracks of the fire in front of me. And I just stared at him, my mouth opening and closing silently as tears worked their way down my cheeks. "A-Andy…"

"I considered suicide several times…" he said without further preamble, his rumbling bass soft, still staring out at the night sky, "I spent years searching for people… searching for humans or… anything… someone to converse with or interact with… and all I could find were monsters and beasts... I didn't have my girl, my family, my…" the knight trailed off and gave a little shrug, "My... anything…"

His long tail prodded the fire, making it pop and flare as his head tilted downwards, quietly admitting, "I came close once… it had to have been three years since I'd arrived, I'd stopped to drink and…" one of his claws came up to almost unconsciously touch his bone mask, "And I saw myself… and I didn't know myself. My eyes weren't this color… they were this faded olive green, not this brilliant emerald… there was nothing of who I was in my face and… and after so long without hearing my name or thinking it… I… I couldn't remember it…"

My breathing hitched as the realization washed over me, and I tried to sit up off of the furs, "Andy…?"

"Isn't my name…" the giant confirmed with a small shake of his head, his hand falling, "It's a name of a character I made a long time ago that stuck with me… it was… unique, and I know that my name was quite generic." A weak chuckle escaped him, "The realization hurt, sent me spiraling into depression, and generally sucked quite a lot. I went on though… because even if I struggled to remember their names, I remembered that my family would be disappointed if I took the easy way out… if I just… gave up." The words were nearly spat out before he sighed, "But that they wouldn't have wanted me to suffer either… that… made it hard."

Desperately, I searched for words, "Andy, it's…"

"It's okay," the giant looked over his shoulder at me, his eyes half closing in what had to be a smile for his otherwise unmoving face, "I'm not alone anymore. I have hope. I spent so long searching for people, and now I've found them. Even if it's hard, or nearly impossible to become accepted… I have hope." His pupils glowed a soft blue briefly before looking back out at the forest outside the cavern, "And that is all I need."

Mouth working silently for a long moment, my hand raised towards him briefly in an unconscious attempt at comfort before it dropped away. No. Years of loneliness and no comfort? After all of what I'd already seen in his memories? No. My lips pressed into a thin line as I pushed myself up, tossing my cloak aside.

The sound garnered his attention, the knight turning to look over his shoulder at me with his glowing eyes in curiosity as I used my hands to swing myself over towards the fire and his tail as it prodded it. The sinuous length started to retract before I grabbed a hold of it, plopping myself down beside it as I hugged the bit just before the golden stinger to my chest, the warm tail still thicker than my thighs at that point. The tail twitched slightly in my grasp as he looked at me clinging to it and staring up at him, "Pull me up."

"Rose…?"

"Pull me up there." I ordered, I was a woman on a mission and I'd been the leader of my team for a reason damnit.

Despite the question in his emerald eyes, he complied.

Carefully, he lifted his tail and I hugged onto it tightly as he brought me over towards him, and as he swung me around just in front of his face, I threw myself out off of the tail. The giant twitched away even as his hands rushed up to try and catch me as I flung myself across the gap between his tail and head. But even weakened as I was, I was plenty able to do this much, my fingers caught the edges of the visor in his helm, his eye reflexively closing as I came so close to it. The large, interlocking fangs of his jaw pressed against my stomach as I heaved myself over with a little grunt, dropping onto his shoulder.

It was only when I wasn't pressed against his face that his mouth opened and he spoke, "Rose, what are you–"

But I cut him off by throwing my arms around his neck and hugged him tight, making him stiffen briefly. His neck had several bony plates to protect it, but was still one of the least covered portions of his massive body, and it was one of the few parts of him I could truly hug, "Andoriol… you've got more than just hope. You've got me."

There was silence in the cavern for a long moment before my friend's breathing hitched, and as he said my name once more, softly and thick with emotion, I just hugged his neck all the tighter. His body shook softly, his head tilting downwards as he did, a hand coming up to gently touch my back as the giant quietly cried, and I murmured soothing nothings into his neck., "You don't have to be that strong anymore, I'm here to help you just like how you've helped me."

A strangled laugh escaped him before he cut it off, shaking his head, his rumbling voice sending vibrations through my body as I pressed against his neck, "If you pull that off, you'll be the maiden that saved a monster."

"I can make it happen." I said with conviction, even as I smiled against the soft black down of his neck, my own tears of sympathy soaking the feathers. He smelt of blood, the forest, and smoke, a faint smell… And a little hot pit of anger wormed itself into my stomach, "And you're not a monster."

"Not in demeanor, no. But in form, yes."

"Anyone who says that you're a monster is a dunghead of a dumbass." I said with conviction against his neck.

A choked little laugh escaped him, and his claws carefully pressed against my back, something almost scaldingly hot dripped against my arm and I pulled my face away to look… and found red tears running down his mask and falling onto my arm… a brilliant red of the blood of a Grimm… he made this little hiccupping sound, "Sorry… sorry…"

"Andy," I said gently, speaking to him as gently as I would have Yang or Ruby when they were having one of their tantrums, "You've got nothing to be sorry about."

He let out little laugh, "Not– Not what you're thinking about. I'm sorry about the overly emo tears, makes the second time I've cried on you…" The large, warm claws gently rubbed my back as he trailed off briefly before continuing, "No… I'm happy… I just… thank you."

"Thank you for saving my life," I said quietly, tightening my grip on his neck, my arms barely able to stretch around it at all.

"Thank you for giving me one again… beyond surviving…"

Silence reigned then, as I hugged him tight, his hand pressed softly against my back in the best returning of the comfort he could manage. The warmth of the fire wasn't obvious this far away, it was a little one really, but it paled to the warmth of my Grimm knight in any case, and the soft down of his neck warded away the growing chill in the air. No words really needed to be said as we gently held one another in the night. The sounds of the forest outside and the fire inside were the only sounds needed as he slowly breathed.

He was the first to break the silence, his voice soft and rumbling and shaking my whole body with where I was sat atop his shoulder and hugging his neck, "By the way…"

"Hm?"

"That one is a song of my people."

…

I snorted, burying my face against his neck and giving it a slap with one of my hands, "Oh shut up you ass."

-oOo-

[3] "Do dooo… yeah yeah yeeaaahhhh…"

"Rawr!"

"Mmm hands in the air let me show you how…" I murmured as I bounced of a rock, launching myself over the head of one of the hollow werewolves and slammed a bare foot into the head of one of them behind it, making its mask crack and used the blow to go over it.

Humming the tune quietly, I landed behind the werewolf and reached back, grabbing it by its fur and heaving, tossing it into another of its compatriots.

I paused to glare at the still extended arm. The hair on my body was getting darker quickly, and shaggier… ugh… definitely changing. Great.

The next in line rushed at me and my hips twisted, left hand swatting its claws aside even as my right plunged forward into its mouth to grab its tongue–

"Hrrruh–?"

–before ripping it out! Hot blood sprayed on my face as the thing screamed, stumbling backwards as I spun backwards and threw the already sublimating tongue into the face of the werewolf I'd leapt over, who'd turned around and started to lunge.

"Come and move you hands and sing wha-ah-ah-ah~" The meaty smack of the tongue slamming into its masked face staggered it briefly, long enough for me to surge forward, right hand flexing into a clawlike shape as I fell into the beastly nature I was taking on, and I swung it in an uppercut, burying it deep into the werewolf's unprotected stomach and digging it upwards through the muscle and viscera until I felt the thing's still beating heart… and then clenched my hand and tore it outwards, sending blood and gore splattering everywhere as I ripped out the creatures guts, [4] "Lookin' for the words and la la la…"

"You and me can sing this melody…" I threw myself backwards, shoulder checking the still stunned and tongue-less werewolf before reaching up and grabbing it by the face and twisting my hips, throwing it over my shoulder, a quick spinning on the balls of my feet allowing it to drop onto my shoulder instead of onto the ground and break its neck, "Don't remember the words really ooh ooh ohah ahhh…"

I dropped the dying werewolf and dashed off to the side, heading full tilt as the rest of the pack rushed after me without fear.

Morning ritual: 'Fight a whole bunch of these things and eat one of their faces for breakfast' was well under way. Only about a half dozen more. I probably could have taken them in a straight fight, the werewolves without the armor were pretty easy really, but no reason to take any chances, "Doo doo da doo doodoo wha ah ah ah…"

Flintnapping! Level up! Heh. Finally got the hang of this bullshit.

I grinned a bit at the sharpened rock in my hand with a fluting in it to slot into place atop a long stick and then be tied into place by woven plant fibers. Because survivor-ing! … sort of. Eh.

My hand froze as I smiled at it, and I turned my hand to look at it from a couple angles… my hand… my fingernails were white… huh… well shit.

I stared at the new fingernails for a moment, longer than I remembered… and pointier… huh, wonder when that'd happened… I flicked it a few times with a snap… and then shrugged and picked up my sturdiest spear shaft and began to wrap the spearhead onto it. Those crystals might be good for this… hrm… I'd have to look into that…

… oh god, if I'm making a +1 Fire Spear by strapping a red crystal onto the tip of a stick I'm going to laugh so fucking hard. And also probably burn myself, but mostly laugh my ass off.

-o-

… oh… oh wow.

I just sort of… gaped… I mean… oh… oh wow…

The trees had been these dim crystals in the daylight, which had been really pretty but… but as night fell here, almost a week's travel from my temple, this… wow.

As far as the eye could see, the world was lit by the glow of the crystalline trees, lighting up the night in the soft purple glow… bushes of maroon crystal on the ground… it was… okay. Damn. Wow.

Reaching out, I gently placed a palm against the nearest of the glowing trees… and it… it was warm… it felt almost… alive. It was glorious.

Unbidden, a smile of simple wonder and joy spread across my face, the first in far too long. A soft, breathy laugh escaped me as I looked around, hoping to find a place to fall asleep for the night. The sack I'd made from dried deer-skins slung over my shoulder and carrying a couple different things, my rope, some hubcaps, my fire-bundle dangling from the bag, my spare spears slung through the leather bandolier I'd made…

And so the snow began to fall, a twinkling little star of light that fluttered in and out of color as it drifted down from the dark sky. And I nearly gasped as it was but the first before the snow began to come down, slowly at first, but gradually more. I held out a hand, letting one of them fall into my palm… a perfectly normal snowflake, that almost instantly melted against the heat of my palm… it was cool, but not the frigid cold I knew it should have been… my smile widened as I looked down at the thin layer of black fur across my skin.

"When winter comes… when life is frozen… when the moors they hide away under the snow…" [5]

I was a mountain man! My side of the… crystal forest? Not as much of a ring to it as 'My side of the mountain', but I think mine was cooler. "Fingers of doom will clutch the chosen… all beasts will shiver from the lion to the crow." Both metaphorically and punnily.

This… this would stick with me in the best of ways. More than the splatter of hot blood against my face, more than the taste of raw flesh and fur against my tongue as I tore into a still half-alive creature, more than the pain and loneliness… I'd remember this.

With a happy exhalation that misted in the cold air, I strode forward through the crystal forest, as the sparkling lights of the snow fell around me, lit by the purple glow of the trees. Onward, and upward. "Walls will not hold the wiiiinterrrr… over and under crawwwlll…"

-oOo-

I awoke with a small snort, spitting out a little downy feather as I did. My face scrunched up slightly as I let out a little unhappy noise at being awoken… what was going on…?

Pushing up off of my bed… no, my makeshift bed against… Andy's neck…?

I blinked blearily as my brain caught up with what was going on around me… right, fought a goliath, lost my… lost a good bit of my legs, was being taken care of by a not-Grimm… had fallen asleep atop said not-Grimm too from the looks of things…?

The massive knight slept soundly, his back pressed up against the cavern wall, his chin resting against his chest and his glowing eyes closed as he slept quietly. At some point, he'd pulled up one of the furs and laid it across me, his own body wrapped up in his wings as he'd curled up to save space… I'd fallen asleep basically hugging his neck and straddling his enormous shoulder… which was surprisingly comfy all considered, given that it was almost solid bone plating beneath me… my hands slowly traced the contours of the bone plates on his neck idly as my brain rebooted.

And it was about that point that my brain decided to remember why I'd woken up.

A forest of Dust crystals.

He knew about...

A forest of Dust crystals.

I just...

A forest of Dust crystals.

Seriously–?!

A forest of Dust crystals.

Where do I even start?!

I think I overcompensated.

[1] watch?v=6v9at5RlFu4&feature= &t=29s

[2] watch?v=7gV3g9LCvPc

[3] watch?v=A67ZkAd1wmI

[4] watch?v=cEB1EriHgFA

[5] watch?v=ZDt3jeXGfDU