A.N.)- Continue fornication with authors notes.
I chewed noisily, slowly tilting my head first one way, then the other, listening for the buzzing hum of the ass–… the Beelzebubs. Hmmm…
There was the soft rustling of the leaves, the motion of them against one another in the air around me, of branches creaking and groaning in the wind… but not the scuttling of legs or buzzing of wings. It seems that I'd taken them out, the sounds of the world around me… clear. Not so much silence as the normal sounds of the forest.
Swallowing the crunchy mess of... Grimm meat, I let my tongue flick out to taste the air.
Hrm, frustrating, I could only taste Grimm blood. My eyes scanned my surroundings and the slowly evaporating red mass of blood and guts of the Beelzebubs. I didn't see anything, but I'd thought I'd heard someone speaking on my approach. There weren't any obvious lingering traces of heat on the ground or trees, and the blood and bits of Grimm likely overwhelmed anything that might have been there… Well, when my sense of taste/smell cleared up I'd be able to sniff them ou–
"Andy!
My head snapped up and my eyes rapidly refocused. Summer?!
The world outside of the point of focus, the source of the vibration, it all fell away as I locked onto the distant, white-cloaked young woman covered in a bear pelt.
And the warm, horrible ball of hatred at the base of the tree she was in.
Claws dug into the loamy soil for traction before I nearly exploded from the ground, dodging around the trees as I rushed back up the slope to the outcropping. Damnit! Damnit damnit damnit! The black shape was approaching the tree she was on. What is it with the Grimm here?! The concentrations of them just keep going up! I moved at my absolute best speed, stealth abandoned as I snaked around the large trees, tail whipping behind me for balance as I cursed my inability to go to all fours in these tight corners for maximum speed.
I was not letting something hurt her damnit! Her safety came before those of some nebulous maybe-there person(s)!
The trees flashed about me as I surged forwards until I hit the tree-line by the outcropping and bounded up it in a single leap, clods of dirt flying as my talons ripped from the ground. For just a moment, I hung in the air on my way up to the top of the outcropping and the tree that Summer was perched atop of, the world appearing to pause as my brain processed things–
The hollow– Grimm. Ursa. Lots of spikes on its back as well. Big one, an 'Ursa Major' it seems. Base of the tree that Summer was in. It was looking at me, no damage to the tree, it was turning–
Conclusion was reached: Non-threat.
Wings flared out slightly for inertia as my tail flashed forward and down, piercing straight through the creature's skull and my feet touched the top of the outcropping.
The ursa dropped, its body starting to cool as it began to rapidly sublimate. My tongue flicked out, still only tasting Grimm blood, but I heard nothing moving other than the trees and my own joints and Summer's breathing… after an instant's hesitation I began to relax, sighing slowly. I pulled my tail back, giving it a small snap to flick off any remaining blood and folded my wings, ruffling them slightly as the pressed against the length of my arms, my eyes focusing on Summer's own silver ones, "Rose?"
"That's me," she said with an adorable smile, but I could see the slight tension of her hands, her knuckles were white, there was a slight tick in her right cheek, almost invisible. And in my gut I can feel that hint of tension that so often rose around her... but it was an easing tension. If I could have smiled back at her, I would have.
"Hang out around here often?" I asked as I straightened out, standing at nearly my full height, something that I rarely did to avoid drawing too much attention.
It was... weird being taller than the trees, even now.
She giggled quietly before becoming more serious, "I'm guessing the nest was destroyed?"
"Bugs be squished, yes." I said simply, extending one of my hands towards her, close but not simply picking her up. It should be her choice to get into my hand, not mine to just lift her out of the tree. She was an adult, not a child, and a person, not a doll.
The young woman reached out, smiling a bit more honestly now as she took a hold of my upper finger and I allowed her to pull my hand close enough to gently wrap around her. Lifting her from the branch, I brought her towards my stomach, carefully opening up my thorax legs to settle her back in place, and the legless woman did her best to assist my efforts.
"Good to hear, the town couldn't have handled that sort of nest. I didn't interrupt?"
"Not really," I admitted, carefully and delicately tucking Summer into place against my stomach, thorax legs closing around her carefully, safely ensconcing her in the bone plating of my body, "Mostly cleaning up myself afterwards."
"Good... good." There was a slight sigh of relief from her even as I went back into a crouch, feeling her hand grip tightly in the soft feathers that covered my stomach. "… could... could you tell me more about that story you mentioned before? The Space Wars one?"
For a moment, I considered heading back to check up on those people I thought I'd heard... but a quick glance back showed me that I couldn't see anything moving in that direction. No heat… the Grimm blood on my tongue had finally been swallowed down though…
"… Andy...?"
Her soft voice startled me out of my visual search and I turned away from that section of forest, "Ah... sure, and it was 'Star Wars', not 'Space Wars'. Pedantic, I know, but I was a fan."
-oOo-
Quietly, I walked through the forest, ears twitching back and forth and desperately searching for sounds that shouldn't be there, "Weee… are the champions… my friieeend…" [1]
My fingers fumbled slightly as I kept trying to twirl the spear. The good ole one handed staff twirl! Actually pretty hard. Still hadn't gotten it down and I'd been at this for… hell, a month now? Been here for… six months maybe? "And weee'lll keep on fighting… till the end…"
Always thought this was cool, but the problem was that I'd never had the time, space, or opportunity to really practice enough to really do it–
The straight stick went hurtling out of my hand, a little misplacement of my fingers and far too much strength having come together in a glorious marriage of fuck and you. "We are the champions," I muttered sarcastically as I rolled my eyes, moving to pick up the spear.
Now? Now I had basically nothing but time, "No time for losers 'cause we are the champions… of the woooorrrrrrllllld~"
… alright, that was a bit of an exaggeration, I spent a lot of my time just searching for vegetables and food. And a lot of my time at 'home' was spent twisting plant threads into rope or attempting to make new clothes or spears or hatchets or leather bindings. But when I was out and about? Twirling practice! All those fancy little tricks and flourishes with weapons or knives or staves that were pointless but looked super cool.
"I've taken my bows… my curtain calls…" Obviously still struggling to get the whole twirling bit down with the spears, but I'd gotten the knife down pat! Progress! "You… um… shit, what was it…"
Also, I'd kept that going for a whole fourteen seconds longer this time! Ignore the time I just started to twirl it and it went flying within four seconds, that was an outlier dangit!
"… ah! You brought me fame and fortune and everything that goes with it! I thank you all~" The soft fur that coated my body was slowly being replaced by fuzzy downy feathers, almost like those you'd find on a fuzzy little baby bird, "It's been no bed of roses~" There was a light layer of main feathers growing over top of them, and those were waterproof thankfully. Soaking wet fur or down was not pleasant. I really hoped I kept growing the feathers, I liked them better. "No… pleasure cruise~"
"CAKAW!" The trees above me suddenly exploded into splinters as the enormous bird-hollow broke through the canopy of the trees above me.
My hand snapped up, pointing dramatically at the creature as I grinned at it fiercely, "I consider it a challenge to the entire human race, and I never looooooose!"
Finally! I was waiting for this fuck to finally pounce! "Weeeee are the champions, my friend~"
I continued to sing, waiting for it to approach, because I had the advantageous position against the airborne beast, and if it wanted me, it could come and get me– holy shit it can throw its feathers!
"And we'll keep on fighting! Till the eeeennnnnd!" My voice cracked halfway through that as I dove to the side, avoiding the feathers nearly as large as my spear! "We are the champions bitch!"
Rolling up to a knee, I threw my spear as hard as I could, the stone-tipped shaft slamming into the main mass of the bird and burying itself nearly a foot into its flesh. It wasn't much for a creature of that size, but I had four more where that'd come from!
"Have at thee!"
"We are the champions…" I wonder… if I eat more of the bird-styled creatures, would I get more feathers…? I mean, I'd been getting them at a reasonably constant rate otherwise… hrm… maybe it was time to go hunting…? "No time for losers 'cause we are the champions…"
-oOo-
With a little grunt, I pulled myself up, my chin barely clearing the top of the bone covering on Andy's tail.
"Hnn hnhnhnnnn... h-h-hhnn hnnnnn..." [2] The giant continued to hum above me as I exercised.
"You... can be a real pain," I grunted out as I lowered myself again, Andoriol stoking the fire with his claws, tending to the rabbits over it, "You know that right?"
"Sixty Eight." He said, amusement in his tone, "Come on, you can make it to seventy five, you know you can."
"Mmph, I'm still recovering!" I snapped, my legs kicking out slightly.
"Oh come on, I thought you were a big bad Huntress and not a little schoolgirl." He teased, and damn him for his obvious manipulation but it fucking worked, I growled at him and pulled myself up again, sweat beading on my forehead, "Sixty nine? How lewd."
A little sound of aggravation escaped me at that as he returned to humming that tune. He was like an infuriating mix of Qrow and Taiyang with a bit more concern but even more of a pain in my ass!
My arms burned as I made another pull up, refusing to stop on something like that so he'd tease me about it!
It'd been a bit over two and a half weeks since my injury, and my Aura was still refusing to return... at this point, as much as I didn't want to admit it, my Aura was basically gone. As my strength had returned, I'd done my best to get myself active and in shape again, sit ups, push ups, pull ups... a lot of ups really.
Andy did what he could to help, but I could tell he didn't really fully understand what it was like for me to not have my Aura anymore. He sort of understood what with the 'I lost my humanity' thing, but it was different.
Grunting with the exertion, I did another pull up, lifting my chin up over the bone plating of his tail.
By this point, they'd probably have sent out a small team to scout things out, determine what had happened to me. A cursory check probably, maybe more given that there was supposed to be a scary Grimm in the area. With that in mind, I hoped that by the end of this week I'd be strong enough to feel safe going near the town safely hidden in Andy's clutches and try to convince them to talk, or at very least get them to let me back in. I hated the thought, but Andy was right, he'd survived on his own for years out here, a few more months wasn't that big of a deal if it meant that I'd have time to have people talk to him.
My arms trembled as they refused to lift me up another time, "Seventy two, solid."
Despite my wishes otherwise, the giant lowered his tail, setting me down on the floor of the cavern. Though I scowled up at him, my arms dropped to my sides like limp noodles, my chest heaving.
Ugh, I was out of shape.
I had to fix that.
Aside from his quiet humming of the Grimm knight, the crackling of the fire and my own heaving pants, the cavern was silent. My eyes traced over the meat and my stomach rumbled quietly as he used his large claws to take a pinch of some sort of herbs and sprinkle them atop the rabbits over the fire.
He didn't need to eat all that often really, apparently Grimm were high energy content and all that, but he'd learned quite a bit about cooking in his time out in the wilds. A fair number of our forays out were for food for me, vegetables he'd identified or more 'normal' animals.
Let me tell you, you have not seen restraint until you've seen a creature whose hand was bigger than me kill a rabbit without destroying its body utterly.
Unfortunately, he didn't have a good way to make soup, and while I could bake a mean cookie, cooking while out in the wilds was always more Qrow or Raven's thing than mine. Andy was pretty good though for having freaking longswords for fingers, but his grilled veggies were... ah... subpar.
I mean, I know I needed to eat them and all, but I felt like Ruby or Yang when it came time for dinner. I got all pouty when he brought out the veggies, much to his amusement.
He softly prodded the meat with the blunt back of his claw before nodding and pulling them from the fire. I accepted the cooler end of the stick with a small smile, as well as the waterskin. His hands were too big to work the tie that kept it closed, but once I was strong enough I'd been able to fill it for myself, after boiling the water at his insistence.
Normally, I'd have argued that my Aura would take care of any diseases in the water, but now… with the way things were…
I chewed my lip before untying the waterskin and drinking down some of the refreshing liquid.
I didn't have my Aura… for whatever reason… but… I had to keep going. My little girls… I had to get back to my little girls and Taiyang and Qrow and everyone else. No matter what–
"Rose…?"
My head jerked up to find Andoriol's softly glowing eyes focused on me in concern, and I realized belatedly that I'd been staring at the waterskin uselessly for who knows how long, "Ah… sorry… I just… I miss home. Not that it's bad here!" I hastened to add, "You're great company and everything but–"
The warm back of his enormous index claw gently brushed against my cheek, and there was a tenderness to those green eyes, the purple scleras glowing softly as well, "I'm not home. Don't worry, I understand." I leaned slightly into his touch, smiling up at him gratefully for his acceptance even as he quietly said, "Three more days. Then we'll try and get you to the town. Promise."
"Yeah…" I said weakly before saying it again, stronger, "Yeah. You're right." I laughed softly at my own melancholy. We'd get it done, if not then, then the next time. We weren't going to give up. I softly patted his claw, "Thanks big guy."
"It's no problem Rose," he said gently, brushing my hair behind my ear with a claw nearly as long as I was tall, making me smile up at him warmly. Emerald eyes softened at my smile, and the bone claw hesitated before withdrawing, the big softie likely wondering if my crybaby self would need more comfort.
I wouldn't, I was a Huntress damnit. But it was a nice thought.
A chill wind blew in through the entrance to the cavern and I snuggled deeper into the blanket of bear hide and my cloak. The enormous knight shifted slightly to block it further, his tail coming about to prod the fire.
I'd get home. I'd get back to my family, I would not give up.
Smiling, I took a bite out of the rabbit… and yes, he was definitely better at cooking meat than his veggies.
-oOo-
"Mister Branwen?"
"Shit kid," I grumbled, cleaning out an ear with a pinky, "What have I said about calling me that?"
"Not to?" Yin said with a small but definitely shit eating grin. I liked the kid. He looked like a paler and 'prettier' version of Taiyang with his hair slicked back perfectly.
I leaned my shoulder back against the edge of the thick palisade wall overlooking the clearing outside the town, "Whad'ya want?"
I'd been on watch on the wall, the town a walled off little village up against a large river. Enormous tree trunks had been stabbed into the ground, each one almost ten feet thick, a pillar of wood with plaster and various other things sealing up the tiny gaps between the enormous trees. Large guns were set up atop each of the four towers along the semicircle of wood. Each of those guns could put almost a round per second down range, each one a full twenty five millimeter slug of steel or lead.
And apparently they did little more than tickle the large Aberrant.
"How much longer do we have to wait?" He stood out, all these gold and silver, and whites and blacks. His jacket was this really nice white leather thing, and his pants were probably some white silk, both with brilliantly golden embroidery. A tight black undershirt with some silver to it concealed at least a half dozen clips of ammo for the four large pistols he had on the belts at his waist. He glanced over his shoulder at the town inside the walls before softly saying, "Staying this long is starting to unsettle the townspeople."
A frown danced across my face briefly before I looked out at the forest, "Two days. It takes time for everything to get moved."
The kid stepped up to the edge of the wall, the tops of the trunks sharpened into vague points, "I know but… shouldn't we be out there? Making it look more like we're doing something instead of just standing around town and making things more tense?"
The kid was the leader of his own team, like Summer is… was… was for mine. He was actually a bit taller than I was, and while I called him a kid, he was pushing adulthood like his partner at twenty one. With a solid Semblance, good guns, and Dust embroidered into his outfit, he was honestly pretty good, better than some experienced Hunters. Hell, his team was almost the STRQ of their generation.
I gave a small shake of my head, a small sigh escaping me, "No, we'd probably die out there, and we can't help anybody if we're dead."
But that didn't mean they were as good as we were, let alone how good we were now. And while I might feel reasonably confident about all of STRQ taking the Aberrant down as a team… just me and these two? Not an Atlas kid's chance at a poetry contest.
A small frown crossed Yin's face, "We could run if we run into the Aberrant, and if it's doing what you said it probably won't attack until it's got more forces."
"Kid, that thing vaporized the biggest nest of Beelzebubs I've ever seen with my own eyes because it wasn't enough." I made a point of locking gazes with the younger guy, my own red eyes matching the kid's golden ones as I tried to impress on him the risks, "What else is out there in this tide of Grimm it's building up? If we stir up something like that nest of Beelzebub's, even if it's on accident, I don't think they're gonna restrain themselves from overrunning the town like the Aberrant might. Who knows, that thing might see us Hunters and decide to make its move early."
With a small shake of my head, I looked back out at the tree line, nearly a hundred meters out. A killing field around the town, one I hoped would be enough, "It's not worth the risk. We need to sit tight till we have enough firepower here to at least stall that Aberrant and whatever horde it's been building."
Yin made a face like he'd sucked on a lemon, silent for a long moment before sagging slightly, leaning into the wall, "I just don't like sitting around here and doing nothing." Before I could speak though the kid looked at me, "There's only so many times you can 'raise morale' before you're out of morale yourself."
I smirked just a bit, "Get drunk? It always helps me."
"Don't drink," the kid said with a small shake of his head, but a smile briefly crossed his lips.
Reaching out, I placed a hand on his shoulder, "Hey, three days and we're going out there. Enjoy the time off. We're not gonna have any when the reinforcements arrive."
"Time off? What is this 'time off'?" The kid snarked with a smile.
I rolled my eyes, "Something you probably need."
A somewhat more somber smile crossed his face as he looked out at the tree line, "Haven't taken time off in a long time, and I haven't failed yet... don't plan to start when there's this much on the line."
"Well, I'm buying you a drink when we get back from this."
"What part of 'I don't drink' was hard?"
"Probably the same part of 'Don't call me Mister Branwen'."
"... touche."
[1] watch?v=04854XqcfCY
[2] watch?v=9jK-NcRmVcw
