After a little morning training, the wolf faunus went to the city. The Vytal Fastival would start soon and then the streets would be full of people, even more than they already were. Silver used this day to explore the city some more. Classes start again tomorrow and team JNPR and RWBY had invited her to train with them. Even thought she didn't participate in the tournament she wouldn't slack off.
The wolf girl was strolling trough the streets, no particular destination in mind. She came across a shopping mall and thought about going in another direction but the sight of a familiar pair stopped her.
Nora was dragging Ren through the crowd. The ginger spotted the faunus and waved her over.
"Silver, you're here too. Ren and I just wanted to go into this sweet store over there." She pointed in the direction. "Want to come with us? You could help carry."
"I think I pass. Maybe some other time."
"Ooooh." She shrugged. "Your loss. They have reeeaaaallllyyyy good sweets." And with that she went off, taking the quiet boy with her and shouting a good bye over her shoulder.
Silver decided to just follow the street further, strolling through it, hands in her pockets.
She was about to leave the shopping mall when she noticed another person she knew.
"Hey, aren't you 'The Invincible Girl'? Quite the beauty if I dare say so. Want some company? I don't have anything to do." The poor attempt at a pickup line was aimed at Pyrrha.
The guy's brown hair was a bit messy and his dark eyes full of confidence. His cloth and posture made it obvious that he thought himself as really cool.
"Thank you, but you don't need to. I'm actually searching my friend. He got lost in the crowd."
"I can help you search. It would be my pleasure."
"I appreciate it but you don't have to. I don't want to trouble you." The redhead tried to politely decline.
"No trouble at all. I really want to help." He was persisting. The champion looked somewhat bothered by it. His pressing made her uncomfortable but she didn't want to be rude.
Silver suppressed the growl rising in her throat. What was this guy thinking hitting on her Pyrrha? And what was she thinking? She had no right to claim the amazon as hers. They were just friends. The thought stung a little.
The guy was about to reason why he should accompany the champion when he felt a hand land heavily on his shoulder. Both he and Pyrrha looked at the person it belonged to.
"Don't you see that you're bothering her?" Silver growled.
The guy got angry. "I'm not bothering her! And who are you to interrupt us?"
Her grip on his shoulder tightened while her tone stayed threatening. "She is just trying to be nice but you can't seem to take a hint. So I'll make it clear. Piss! Off!"
"Ice, it's fine." Pyrrha tried to calm the wolf faunus down. She put a hand on her shoulder and used her other pull Ice's hand from the boy.
He looked at Silver. She was around his height, with the shadow of her hood hiding most of her face. Her glowing yellow eyes the only thing he could make out as she glared at him. Ice clenched her jaw to stop herself from actually growling. The boy gulped in fear.
"Hey, I'm sorry, bro. I didn't know she's your girl. I'm already leaving." With that he made a quick getaway.
The silver head could feel a slight pang in her chest from his comment about Pyrrha being her girl. She really wanted it to be true.
"Thank you, Ice." Then the amazon asked her a slightly reproachful, her arms crossed. "But don't you think that was a little much?"
"Being polite clearly didn't help." Silver defended herself.
Pyrrha let her arms sink and sighed. "I'm sorry. You're right. I should've been more direct."
The faunus sheepishly scratched the back of her head, putting the hood down and hands back in her pockets afterward. "So, are you looking for Jaune? I met Ren and Nora before and when I saw you I thought that the whole team went to Vale, but he isn't here."
Pyrrha sighed again. "Yes. I lost sight of him in the crowd."
"And you didn't try contacting him? Or did he forget his scroll again?"
"He has it with him but he didn't pick up."
"I'm sure he is fine. Jaune can look after himself. And he can contact you anytime. So it shouldn't be a problem." The silver head tried to ease her worries.
"You're right. I shouldn't worry about him so much. He is a huntsman-in-training after all."
"I wanted to go to a café near here. It's a little of the main street, so it's more calm. Wanna come with me?" She couldn't help the small smile.
"That would be nice." The champion accepted with a smile of her own. "Lead the way."
The two went through a few small alleys before reaching said café. It was a little hard to find but it wasn't crowded and had a nice atmosphere.
"I found it by one of my walks through the city. It's really nice." Ice told her companion.
The café had big windows, which let a lot of sunlight in. The walls were light colored and there were plants to make it more inviting. Only few other patrons sat at the tables.
After the two girls sat down the waiter came to take their orders.
"I'm really sorry." The redhead started.
Ice was confused. "About what?"
"About before. You were only helping me and I shouldn't have reacted like I did."
"Hey, don't sweat it. I went a little over board. But he really didn't seem to notice that he wasn't welcome. Or just ignoring it." The faunus' brows furred.
Now the champion giggled, a sound that made Ice smile, and said. "He was really scared of you. It's easy to forget that you can be quite frightening. Thank you."
Ice wasn't sure if the last sentence was meant for her or their waiter who brought the drinks before leaving quietly. Or both.
Silver's smile turned into a grin. "Yeah. He ran faster than I thought he could. But I don't understand what made him say something like that." She looked down on her cup of coffee. The faunus' face heat up while she thought of his words.
"You mean about me being your girl?" The redhead's cheeks turned pink and she took a sip of her tea, the cup hiding her face. "Maybe because you were so… forward but I'm not sure what exactly made him think that you're a boy."
Again grinning, the silver head looked back at Pyrrha, leaning forward. "Weren't you the same? You and the others first thought I was a guy too. Not that I was really helping. With the boy's uniform and all."
The amazon's blush intensified. She was really cute like that. "I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it. I know how I appear to others. I'm tall for a woman and don't really have feminine curves. My baggy cloths hide my figure and the hood my face. My voice may sound a little unusual for a guy but is also pretty deep for a woman. And my name doesn't make it clear either." The wolf girl explained. She paused before she continued speaking. "Which reminds me. How come you call me by my first name?"
Pyrrha looked surprised by the question. "You call me by my first name too. And I'm not the only one doing so."
Ice leaned back on her chair. "Silver became somehow more of a nickname than surname for me. And Blake knows me from before that was the case."
"And why is it, that you got this nickname?" Pyrrha put her arms on the table, holding her cup in her hands. Silver more or less copied her posture without noticing. She really wanted to reach out for the other's hand.
"After Bark took me in he wanted me to interact with other people. So he introduced me to some. Mostly students at his Academy but also some others. One of them thought that Ice doesn't suit me. I'm not cold enough. Even thought I really wasn't a nice person back then." Silver frowned a little at that. "And she thought Silver was perfect for me, so she started calling me that. Not that I really cared. The others picked up on it and after some time they all called me Silver. I think she said it more as a joke though."
"And you've kept the nickname?"
"As you can see. My time in Tenebra wasn't all sunshine and rainbows but it was a new start in a better life. What I learned in Onyx wasn't just how to fight and such. It was a lot more. And I'm thankful for that." The faunus had an unusually fond smile on her face. The silence wasn't broken for some moments.
"Do you miss it?"
"Miss what?"
"Your time at Onyx Academy."
Silver thought for a bit, taking a sip of her coffee. "Yes and no. I miss the people there more than the place. Bark, Hakon and my team. I definitely don't miss always being careful with my faunus' heritage. Always having to worry if someone found out and the problems it could cause. You already heard one of those stories." Her right grabbed her left forearm.
Pyrrha looked apologetically. "I'm sorry. I didn't intend on reminding you of it."
The silver wolf girl sent her a soothing smile. "It's okay. Nothing to worry about. This wound just didn't have so much time to heal yet. But it soon will."
The redhead opened her mouth to response but was stopped by the ringing of her scroll.
"Sorry. Do you mind?" She asked while holding her scroll up.
The yellow eyed girl shook her head. "Not at all."
She leaned back in her chair and let her gaze wander, giving at last the impression of privacy, as she watched her friend from the corner of her eyes.
The amazon answered the call with a smile. "Hello, Jaune."
"Hi, Pyrrha. Sorry I didn't answer your call. I didn't notice my scroll was ringing. Where are you?"
Ice had no problem hearing his response with her wolf ears. She felt only slightly bad for eavesdropping. And it wasn't like she was doing it on purpose.
Before the redhead could answer another voice rang trough the scroll.
"Hello Pyrrha!" An energetic greeting was shouted from the other end of the line.
"Nora! I'm on the scroll, so could you please stop shouting next to my ear!" The sound was now muffled. Jaune must have covered the microphone with his hand.
"But I wanted to say hello too!" The two girls in the café could image the pout the small girl must be showing now.
"But I can't hear her if you shout next to my ear!" Jaune's voice got clearer. "Sorry about that. I found Nora and Ren while looking for you. We wanted to head back to Beacon. Nora is unstoppable. She insists we're going back."
"Ren is going to make me pancakes when we get back!" Nora shouted in the background.
"We ate just an hour ago!"
"But I want Ren's pancakes!"
"That girl. So yeah, we're going back now. Should we meet up at the fountain in front of the big sweet store?"
The champion smiled at the antics of her friends. "I'm on my way. See you soon."
"Later."
The green eyed girl put her scroll away. "I'm sorry. I have to catch up with my team."
"Then you shouldn't let them wait." It didn't show in her voice but the faunus was disappointed her companion had to leave already.
Pyrrha smiled at her and reached for her wallet. Ice stopped her.
"Don't worry about it. My treat." The wolf girl gave her a lopsided smile.
The champion tried to object. "But-"
"I asked you to come with me. And it's not like it's much either." Which was a good thing. Ice was still low on Lien.
The girls held a short starring contest before the red haired one sighed. "Okay. But next time it will be my treat."
Silver smile widened, the sharp canines still gave her a slightly threatening look though.
"If that means there'll be a next time." She agreed.
The smile fell after Pyrrha left. Ice looked down on her coffee. Maybe she should leave too.
Ice made it just in time for the airship back to Beacon. She was about to search for a seat when Nora's overly energetic voice called for her.
"Now we ran into each other twice in not even two hours. Isn't that funny?" The ginger was hyper as usual.
"We do have the same destination in mind, so it's not surprising." Silver said flatly, sitting down next to them. Jaune was a little pale but tried his best to look okay.
"Killjoy." The ginger pouted.
"She's not wrong, Nora." Ren told her.
"You're going against me?"
The black haired boy rolled his eyes at his friend.
"For this betrayal you have to make me the double amount of pancakes as soon as we're back." Nora's indignation vanished as soon as it came.
Silver heard the amazon chuckle at that comment. It was a heavenly sound. But why did it have to be so hard not to look at her the whole time? It was nearly torture to not let her eyes wander over to the redhead. It felt like it got harder to hide her feelings each day.
The faunus was grateful for the distraction the quiet boy opposite her gave her.
"I wanted to ask you more about Tenebra, Silver, if you don't mind?" That drew the attention of the whole group to them.
"Depends on the questions."
"How is it possible that there is civilization on that continent after every attempted of colonization failed?"
"So you want to know more about its history? Where to begin? There isn't much known to a certain point but it's believed that there lived humans and faunus since nearly the beginning of their existence. Back then they were mostly nomads and lived in small tribes. Not the whole continent is habitable. Not even half of it. At least not for humans. Grimm are a different story.
After they made survival harder the people formed bigger groups and settled down when they could. Of course that wasn't for every one. There're still nomads on Tenebra.
They lived their lives there for a long time before the first colonization attempts were made. They didn't survive long. Only few found the small, not-Grimm-infected area on the continent. And those who did had to share with the natives and follow their rules. The colonists brought new technologies and other things like the color naming rule and the idea of Huntsman Academies, to name two.
Now huntsman and huntresses protect the 'save haven' were everyone lives." The way Ice said 'save haven' was clearly sarcastic. "Tenebra is a place were humans can live normally as long as they don't leave the safe area. Though safe is a loosely used term."
"So as long as they stay in this safe place it's fine but as soon as they go, they're left to the Grimm?" Jaune summed up. He tried to distract himself by listening but he started to get a little green in the face. Ice worried he would puke soon.
"More or less. Depends on where they go. As long as nobody goes north they send search parties out, but nothing to big. It would only be a waste of men. Chances of getting found are small so they only search for a week, two at most. But if you go north you're on your own. You've all seen maps of Remnant. The part of Tenebra that's formed like a dragon is nothing more than sharp rocks and, farther in purple crystals. A barren wasteland.
It's not really explored. The terrain is uninhabitable and there are more Grimm than on any other place on Tenebra. Maybe even Remnant. Nobody who went more than five miles into that area has ever returned. The teams who came back never made it without casualties. Even flying over it is dangerous. I don't know how many bullheads and airships were lost trying. So they stopped.
Nevermores, Griffons, Wyverns, Death Stalkers and Beringels are only tiny problems compared with what else can be found there."
"You serious?" The blond asked clearly cowed. It didn't help his sickness.
"What are Wyvern?" The other boy wanted to know.
"Annoying flying fu-… Grimm. Though they're not the worse things, their screeches are bad enough for human ears let alone faunus'. Their screams are worse than that of a Nuckelavee" The silver head grimaced at the memory of such a screech.
"Have you fought them?" Pyrrha inquired.
"Yes. I even once ride one. Not voluntary and only for a short time. Crashed the damned beast into a cliff. It could still fight afterwards."
"That sounds fun!" The smallest of the girls exclaimed.
"Not really. How come you had to fight such a thing so early in the school year?" Jaune found that strange. Silver is like them in the first year and came shortly after the start of the second semester. They had their first mission not even a week ago.
"Onyx Academy isn't like Beacon. You go hunting Grimm just two weeks after the start of the first year."
"You can't be serious!" Jaune nearly shouted.
The faunus just shrugged. "Things are different there. You can't fight, you don't survive."
"Isn't that a bit harsh?"
"That's why you have to be able to fight before you're accepted at Onyx." She turned from Jaune to Ren. "Have I answered your question sufficiently, Ren?"
He nodded. "Can I ask one more?"
"Sure."
"How come the people from Tenebra think about faunus like they do?"
Ice thought for a moment. "Tenebrans believe in the 'Deity Brothers'. Maybe you know that story. The two brothers that created mankind and Grimm. But before they created humanity there was another god, or was it goddess, it different between the faiths. Anyway, it was and still is believed by a large part of Tenebrans, that this god or goddess created the faunus to watch over nature. The faunus lived peacefully until the Grimm came. But even they didn't disturb them too much. But then humanity was created. While you all know how that ended for most faunus, things were different in Tenebra. Humans soon saw that faunus had more experience fighting the creatures of Grimm. They survived on that continent and the humans decided to learn from them. They noticed that not only did the faunus look different from them but also had better senses and didn't get sick so easily. The humans started to worship the faunus as higher beings who should guide them and help them survive.
But that changed over time. The faunus' were better than them in some ways. They had abilities the humans wanted for themselves. And instead of wonderment they looked with envy at the faunus. At some point they decided to make those special traits theirs. They started to hunt faunus for that reason. They thought if they take something from the faunus they could get some abilities with it. This belief stayed until today and it turned into a strange mix of worship and greed. Even with the influence from the kingdoms that still hasn't changed. Worst are the ones that do that just for the profit.
At least some people try to make a difference. But with how politics works in Tenebra, it's not easy."
"And how does it work? If I remember correctly you said there isn't a proper government in Tenebra." Pyrrha inquired.
"We have a small council but they barely got anything to say. The real power lays by the five richest families on Tenebra. They have the money and the means to rule over the people. The problem is, only one of those families is a faunus supporter and everyone knows that. That's why the other families try to relieve them of their position.
Anything more you want to know?"
"Is it okay for you to tell us all that? You said the people from Tenebra don't want the kingdoms to know about them." Jaune asked.
"Nobody told me I can't do that. And seriously, who would believe all that? I'm surprised you don't question me. Anything else?"
Team JNPR looked from on member to the other, all shaking their heads.
"No, that is all." Ren answered.
"Good, because we just landed."
The airship had arrived and the first passengers were already leaving
"I have a question!" Nora had raised her hand like she would in class. "Can I touch your ears?"
Ren sighed at his partner's antics.
"No!" The answer came out harsher than Ice wanted.
The five students got up while Nora practical whined. "Why not? They look so cute and fluffy. I want to touch them."
"I don't like it when people touch them. They're petty sensitive. I don't even know how often someone pulled my ears or tried to burn, rip, or cut them off. One coming uncomfortably close to the last." The faunus said while twitching her scarred, left wolf ear.
"Someone actually tried to burn your ears?" The amazon asked horrified.
"Four times, actually. The keyword is tried. The nearest someone came was singing my fur." The silver head kept looking forward. "Can we not talk about that?"
JNPR agreed. The five walked the rest of the way to Beacon mostly in silence.
