I do not own RWBY~
Chapter 7
It woke to the sound of breathing surrounding it, splitting its eyes open the Alpha observed its new surroundings, awash with black, white and red.
Its pack had returned in the night, not back to its previous power but all the members at the border had returned, called here by the presence or newly sent from the Shadows, fifty six strong the Alpha felt warmth in its chest whilst observing the many creatures arrayed in a half circle outwards, all looking to their leader.
The Alpha needed to deal with the intruders, they had proven themselves the greater threat compared to the many-legs and it could brook no further interference to its mission.
Which, as it thought on its self-imposed mission, it realized it had strayed again, The Intruder, this was its goal, the territory was a secondary objective, a means to an end, building its strength.
Perhaps… it thought, it would be both safer and more expedient to move, it had proven its ability to force its way into creating a territory, it could succeed again, and it would not even set it back by any significant amount.
Why did it need to deal with the many-legs and armored intruders anyway? They were too dangerous to take significant advantage from any fight, yes, this was the logical choice.
Looking down the Alpha saw small claws laying beneath its remaining arm, yes, this land held nothing it could not simply find elsewhere, feeling the constricting of its chest again the Alpha finally got up on its three limbs and leaned down to small claws.
For some reason it did not understand fully the Alpha began removing the many claws, pouches and other small bits other than its pelt, leaving them upon the ground the Alpha had its pack attach the straps together and sling it over the broad back of their leader.
The grove was still its closest connection to its goal the grove had a place where no territory had been created, the foothill looking over the grove, it was too near the intruders and therefore no Grimm could settle there.
But it was different from the others, it could hide there and attempt to heal while building its pack to a large enough size to overwhelm the forces it had lost to previously.
No more consideration for the many-legs or the armored intruders, just resting and observing the moon as the sunrises pass, perhaps too tranquil actually. It would have to think on this, incidentally, the perfect time was coming up shortly.
Settling into an awkward rhythm of running with only one front leg the Alpha made its way toward the stony outcropping of the foothills overlooking the town via the roundabout route.
Arriving several hours later the Alpha had its pack begin to cut into the stone beneath them, intent on creating a burrow with which it might rest in safety.
Patrolling the incredibly small borders of the new territory the Alpha felt tired in a way it had never felt before, not just as though its muscles were tired but that its mind was becoming foggy and its body was slowing in response time.
Sending some of its pack to carefully patrol the borders in its stead the Alpha moved to the relatively complete burrow before settling into a shallow room that had been carved out already, laying its great head upon the stone and leaving a final set of orders for its pack.
Hide from the intruders, do not attack them, do not harm them, hide before all else, only attack Grimm who happen upon this place. Its fogged mind could not summon forth the will to consider other orders for its pack and disappeared into the oblivion of sleep.
Twenty Full Moons later
The day could not have looked brighter to Catrine, the sun shone bright, summer was in full swing and the aches were but painful distant memories.
After that day of nightmares over a year ago Catrine had retired from her hunter group leaving Anton and Henrik to return to Vale and return to the never ending fight against the Grimm, she had been broken physically and, if her nightmares were any indication, perhaps mentally as well.
They had recovered Kennet's body in the forest the next day, all belongings taken as if he had been stolen from though aside from a few basic injuries he seemed as if he had died of internal damage. His body was almost undamaged aside from these wounds despite what she had seen come from Beowulves, no parts missing, body ripped asunder or anything that would show the normal disrespect the Grimm hold for human dead.
Kennet had been buried in the cemetery of the village and with him Catrine had buried a part of herself, they had trained and worked together for years and she knew his family personally, the eldest of four children he was the reason their family still held together, what with his mother having contracted a disease leaving her barely able to help her children, let alone get them ready to head out into the world.
She knew she was being a coward but she couldn't face Kennet's family nor even her peers back at Vale so here she stayed, her training allowing her to defend the hunting parties despite her arm never fully recovering.
If she had recovered faster she might have been able to be convinced to return with the others but she was useless compared to the others of her team now, her Aura could not make up for the deficit of her inability to wield her preferred weapon with the precision she once had.
So here she was following the latest scout party to check on the borders of the town, ever since her team had scared off the Alpha Beowulf of the area the Grimm attacks had returned to normal and Deathstalkers were more common than they had any right to be.
Deaths had been kept to a minimum due to her presence, despite her own self-depreciation she still had her semblance which was startling effective against Grimm, though she had to get much closer than before due to her injury.
The scouting party usually did the rounds along the base of the cliff to make sure no Grimm were weakening the foundation and then along the north and south walls, for some reason the party had never checked towards the small crags of the foothills which bordered the east walls and also the only entrance, they acted as a natural barrier and climbing them was too much effort.
The few times the climbs had been made to confirm no Nevermore nests had found nothing, though none had been done in quite a while. Catrine knew that a Nevermore nest could be a death sentence to a town like this and so suggested the party make their way to the crags and investigate.
The hike up was steep and Catrine was rapidly regretting imposing her will upon the party until they reached the top and came across what appeared to be some sort of gladiator arena straight from her nightmare, the ground was soaked in evaporating Grimm blood and uncountable claw marks rent the stone surface.
In the center were dozens of Beowulves ripping a medium sized Deathstalker apart as another larger one was skewering and crushing the Grimm unfortunate enough to be matched against it.
Partially over the edge of the small cliff lay the dissolving body of a large Deathstalker, its blood seeping into the slightly concave surface of the stone ridge, explaining why the blood had managed to maintain a liquid state despite Grimm blood normally turning to smoke rather rapidly after leaving the body.
She had seen Grimm fight before but this blood could only be here from constant death, never letting it fully dissolve, only creating a black miasma that floated over the surface of the ground.
Despite the sun overhead Catrine could feel the chill evil of the ground around her, this was a killing floor, but why were they fighting here? Looking around Catrine saw a carved hole in the ground which every few seconds emitted an unhealthy looking Beowulf which seemed to become healthier once it reached the black miasma.
Motioning to the other members of the party Catrine crouched just behind a rock, "I'm going to go check the cave where the Beowulves are coming from, stay here and don't attract either sides attention, I'm not sure about our chances against either side, let alone both of them at once."
Pulling out her bow she silently leapt to one of the spires of stone using Aura to augment her injured arm to hold her weight. Looking carefully at each of the fighting Grimm and waiting for the next new Beowulf to come from the cave Catrine considered what she would fine inside.
Perhaps she might come across the Alpha Beowulf she had injured and had injured her in turn, but it didn't matter, whatever it was would just have to die if she could manage it, this was far too close to the village to allow it to continue.
Detaching from her hold she fell down and landed just above the top lip of the cave before running inside to find out what she could.
Immediately Catrine felt her mistake in the form of the reverberating growls of dozens of Beowulves around her, then, as suddenly as the growls had started they ceased, the Beowulves she could see from the light of her aura closed their mouths and suddenly separated going away and only leaving two behind whom sat at the entrance to another part of the cave.
Pulling her bow and aiming it at the creatures which should have attacked her she started to walk about the cave, only to realize that it ended rather suddenly in a large auditorium like area where she saw the burning eyes of dozens of the residents of the cave which shut shortly afterwards, winking out of existence.
Startled but now determined to figure out what was going one she backtracked to the only other branch off from the main path she had seen, the one guarded by the two Beowulves.
Walking up to it she very warily stepped forward causing the two guards to move towards each other blocking passage but still not attacking. Feeling lucky Catrine decided to push it and forced her way past them, the Grimm offering only basic physical resistance to her efforts, easily letting her through.
"This is weird…" She whispered to herself before she noticed that the room she was in was darker than before, the light of her soul did not reveal the edges of the room even though judging by the sound of her voice the room couldn't be too large, perhaps fifteen seconds to walk from side to the other at most.
Something nudged her leg and she saw one of the unhealthy Grimm walk by her, coming from the center it seemed, evidently her destination.
Moving forward she noticed the darkness became thicker and she stopped being able to see her own feet even with the light radiating all around her, the muffling effect blocking even such a close light.
Her body kept disappearing more and more until she could barely see a hands width in front of her eyes, the foreboding effect of the room multiplied many fold when she realized her sense of hearing was becoming muffled as well.
Sensing the end of the cave about to arrive Catrine stopped, seeing something different in the darkness she leaned forward ever so slightly.
Bone White. Recoiling, Catrine realized what was right there, an Alpha Bewoulf! Calming herself slightly she leaned forward again to inspect the mask, after all the Alpha Beowulf she had fought had a couple unique damages to its mask, most notably a teardrop shaped missing chunk from the mask right below an eye.
The mask did have the teardrop, along with some other damages but they were mostly slash marks, nothing she hadn't seen on any Beowulf who had lived for any decent amount of time.
The eyes of the Grimm didn't burn in their sockets, they were empty, it may have been sleeping or was in a coma of some sort, this… could be important, incredibly so, she had to contact Vale, she would have her vengeance on this creature by using it, using it until researchers no longer cared and she could put an arrow through its chest, ending it once and for all, no, she wasn't thinking straight, she needed to get away and talk to someone, she needed to be impartial, this was too important.
Exiting the cave in a daze Catrina didn't notice the Deathstalker until it was practically on top of her, swinging her bow up to block what would likely devastate her Aura she noticed the Beowulves that were actively trying to kill it slammed into the tail, causing it to smash into the ground where it was promptly chewed and clawed off leaving the large Grimm down its primary weapon.
Turning to the place where they had come from she retreated making sure they weren't following her to the rest of the party. Sliding over the ridge she looked at the leader of the small expedition, "We need to contact Vale, that cave holds something the researchers in Vale will salivate over."
Nodding his acceptance the party turned and ran from the blood soaked, Grimm miasma infused place, glad to be as far from there as they could be.
