Chapter 21
Gifts
Clara, sniping post
I spotted an Ursa not far off from where Erik and Yang were cutting down trees, it stopped to sniff the air for a moment . I pointed it out to Ruby and we made a team shot at it, I aimed at its head while she took careful aim at its heart. Both shots hit their mark perfectly, causing the beast to topple immediately. We shared a high-five and sat down, a tradition that had become routine after five days of doing this. I grabbed the water I'd brought with me up here and took a swig as Ruby kept an eye out for Grimm, for a bit the only noises were the occasional thuds of the axes on trees.
"So what's the topic of discussion today?" I asked. "So far we've covered my past, your past, my team, your team, and why we like our weapons."
"Hey Clara, can you keep a secret." She asked.
"I guess so, what kind of-" I was cut off quickly.
"I like Erik." She said rapidly.
"Wait, you what!" I exclaimed in surprise, I then realized that Erik and Yang had probably heard that. "Sorry if I startled you guys down there."
"What worked you up so much?" Erik exclaimed, annoyance prevalent in his tone.
"Nothing, umm Ruby just made a really impressive shot." I lied, I instantly knew that was a bad cover story since we hadn't fired any shots for a while.
"Ok then." Erik replied. "Just give some warning next time." With that being over I looked to Ruby, who was in the middle of giving me her best 'why have you done this' face.
"Could you repeat that?" I asked, looking Ruby dead in the eyes. "Just in case I misheard you."
"I like Erik." She repeated, yep, hadn't misheard. I honestly didn't know how to react; should I laugh, inquire, assist, give advice, leave?
"Why are you telling me?" I say. "Isn't that more something you tell your sister or something?"
"Ok first off, do you know Yang?" She said, she had a definite point there, there was about an 80% chance Yang would straight tell Erik immediately after being informed. "Secondly, you're a friend, why can't I tell you these things?"
"Fair enough, I'm just surprised you decided to randomly blurt it out." I said.
"Sorry for putting that on you, I've just been boiling with that information for a while now." She said nervously.
"Trust me, I know how that feels." I said, glancing down at the two woodcutters. "Were you planning on telling him soon?"
"I was thinking later today after everyone exchanges gifts." Ruby said, sounding really unsure.
Elith, Celadon ballroom
I could hear the music up ahead, at least it had started without me and I didn't have to greet people as they came in. As I made my way to the ballroom I stumbled again, curse the creator of high heel to the worst fate imaginable. Before I turned the corner I made one last vain attempt to make my dress less suffocating, the blue dress was a painful reminder as to why I never wore dresses. As I turned the corner I came face to face with Weiss, who of course began immediately snickering at my attire.
"You actually look nice in a dress, I don't get why you avoid them so much." Weiss commented.
"Probably because they try to strangle me." I said, continuing to try and loosen the waist area if the dress. "And because wearing one just gives strangers more of a reason to come and flirt with me out of nowhere."
"Fair enough on the second point." Weiss conceded. "But for the first point, if you stop trying to slouch and look informal you'll breath easier."
"That sounds unnecessarily difficult to me, could you instead just show me how to loosen this?" I plead.
"I think not." Weiss said with a smirk.
"You're an awful person, you know that right?" I jest, as I said that, I heard the familiar gait of my father behind me. "Hello dad, what do you want?"
"Hello Elith, Weiss, why are you lurking up here rather than being a gracious host?" He asked.
"Because I can't dance and I'm introverted?" I replied.
"Don't make excuses, get down there now." He said, his short temper boiling to he surface of his words.
"Fine." I said peaceably, agreeing was better than getting punished for disobedience.
I walked down to the ballroom floor and rapidly weaved through crowds to get to the punch bowl as soon as possible. I grabbed a cup and prepared for the worst as I took a seat and tried to be invisible. I clearly failed in doing so, I had to deter five random guys from asking me to dance via rejection or ignoring. Occasionally I spotted Weiss talking to random people in the crowd, but I couldn't spot my brother or my Mother anywhere.
"Great, no one to talk to who doesn't have money on the mind." I mutter to myself. After a while Weiss took a seat next to me, the two of us drank our punch silently before Weiss spoke up.
"Elith, why do you spurn all of these people's simple requests to dance?" She asked.
"They aren't simple, you should know better if you've lived in Atlas your whole life." I answer. "If a total stranger makes such an advance, he doesn't care who you are, just that your family name carries money and fame." Weiss looked surprised at the response.
"That was more coherent than I expected, I thought it was going to be something more petty." Weiss admitted.
"I would say yes to such advances if they made an honest attempt to learn a bit about me past how much land the Celadons own." I explained. "That's why I never dress fancily, if I do not look the part no one thinks I've come from a rich family."
Weiss left after a bit of small talk, leaving me alone for the next portion of the ball. However my mind didn't leave the subject we had discussed, I started thinking about the standards I had stated and wondered who actually fit them. Before I could come up with an answer, my father came up to me with an unpleasant expression.
"If your to just sit here wasting time, then you'll play your piano instead." He said.
"Counteroffer, I could sit here and keep drinking this punch till the ball ends." I replied, he didn't even respond and simply grabbed me and pulled me to a piano that was set up nearby. I grudgingly sat down, then I realized that the band hired to play had ceased playing, my dad was forcing me to play for the crowd. I sighed, quickly racked my head for a song that would seem as out of place in the fancy ball as possible. I came upon the song, I took form and played the song.
/watch?v=uwQMhQajwXY
It was to no degree a ballroom song, I had to suppress my laughter at all of the people trying to figure out a proper way to dance to it. The next song was less out of place, but still hard to find a dance to. It took a partner, so I made a clone next to me, there were audible gasps from the crowd as I did this.
/watch?v=jyPY0Bm7Cjg
After that I got off the piano before my father could come after me for not playing proper ballroom music.
Isaac, the living room
I was lounging on the couch watching tv; dust robberies were becoming frequent in Vale, it was going to be snowing tomorrow, a celebrity changed their haircut, and there had been a Grimm attack in Forever Fall. I was unbelievably bored out of my mind to say the least, it was that time when Ruby and Clara were on the roof, Erik and Yang were doing outdoors chores, and I was already done with every chore on my list. Gave me too much time to think, and for my father's echoes to come bother me. It had gotten worse than when it first started, he was becoming more than a bit of light. I had begun hallucinating his form comprised of his crimson aura, moving around in a strange and floating fashion. And there he was again, pacing around the room.
"This place is nice, I would have gladly killed these people to live here." He commented as he examined the house. "Despite all I say about hunters, they sure are paid handsomely."
"Most of them don't do it for the money." I lazily submit as I turn off the tv to focus on him.
"Don't bring up such high and mighty ideals, face the fact that everyone wants wealth." My dad said cynically.
"Of course you'd say that, your the hired killer with little in the way of morals." I sigh, he suddenly dissipated as Yang walked in.
"Who were you talking to Isaac?" She asked, seeming very confused by what had been said.
I took a moment to think on what to say, Yang would call me crazy if I mentioned what was actually going on.
"Umm, just responding to something I saw on the television." I say, me and Yangs eyes just look at the black screen of the tv. "...Earlier." Nice save Isaac, no space for suspicion there.
"Sure, so who were you talking to?" Yang continued.
"Not only would you call me crazy, it would take a history lesson and an oath of silence on the topic." I say.
"I have time, I've done my chores." Yang persists.
"Well I should open by explaining my semblance." I begin. "I'm able to drain the aura and life force of others, it inflicts excruciating pain and can potentially kill."
"Sounds pretty draining to use." Yang said uncomfortably, I ignored the pun and continued.
"I've used it three times in my life because I hate using it, it's unpleasant to use to say the least." I explain. "Once harmlessly on discovery, once on accident in a sparring match, and more recently on my father."
"I suppose the third ones the history lesson?" She asked, I nodded and proceeded to explain everything, from who my dad was, the ordeal with Hearth, and what had occurred with me and Erik. Yang listened patiently, not interrupting once to my surprise.
It felt good to let all of this information off my chest, I don't think I'd ever told the full story to anyone. I don't even know why I chose to say so much to Yang, I just needed to confide all of this to someone.
"Well don't worry about me telling, after hearing all of that.." She paused. "It was grim, but justified, and i'll back you if it comes back to bite you." She seemed bothered by all of the information, but she seemed honest in what she said.
"And I thought that was the end of it, but recently something's been happening." I say. "I've been hearing him talk to me in my dreams and I've hallucinated his form when no ones around, I think that my draining of his aura left an echo of him with me."
"So that's who you were talking to?" Yang asked.
"Yeah." I say simply. "I'm probably just insane."
"I don't think so, you seem coherent enough." Yang said.
"Thanks I guess, I'm glad you let me talk." I say, getting up. "Now I have to go organize my presents for this afternoon, see you."
Erik, living room
As we all gathered with gifts in tow to exchange with each other I took a moment to reflect, this was the first of these exchanges I'd ever been to. Not that I'd ever had the friends or caring family to have one with anyways, things were turning out quite positively in my life. I had friends around me, a semi-normal life, and the feeling of being welcome for once. Isaac walked up to me and handed me a brown box, it felt heavy.
"I've built something for you, a little modification for you." Isaac said. I opened the box and found what appeared to be a hilt fitted to Homicida, I drew my sword and found that the hilt easily clipped to it, it had a switch that tied to the original switch and a button. "I thought you might be tired of not having range, it's a makeshift pistol attachment." I pressed the button and sure enough a pistol barrel popped out with a trigger.
"Nice!" I say with a smile. More gifts were exchanged; I got a book of puns from Yang, a strange bird feather charm from Clara, Taiyang gave me the wood cutting axe I'd been using all week. Everyone else exchanged their gifts while I put on the charm and got used to the new weight on Homicida.
After the gifts were exchanged it was quiet for a time; Clara had a better scope on her rifle and a set of warm fur clothes, Isaac had gotten a collective gift from us all in the form of numerous pieces to a device with no instructions, Yang got a comically sized comb and a pair of sunglasses, and Ruby got some weapon maintenance supplies as well as a recipe book for cookies. The next objective was to find a way to stay entertained until dinner, Yang suggested competitions. The next few hours were spent seeing how far people could throw things, Beowolf hunting, and sparring matches. This was followed by a large meal and people telling stories. I started to tire before everyone else, so I headed up to the guest room to get some rest. As I walked up he hall I heard someone behind me, I turned to see Ruby. I stopped seeing as she clearly wanted to talk.
"Hey Erik." She said nervously.
"What is it?" I ask.
"There's something I've wanted to tell you about." She continued, this piqued my interest.
"Go on." I say
"We've known each other a while and I think your really cool, you're nice and a good leader." She said. "Umm, would you like to date?"
Author's notes
I was on vacation and every hotel I went to did not have complimentary internet, this could have been uploaded days ago. I'm sorry, but at least I finished it. As always please leave a review.