AN: What do you guys think of the perspective? I tend to see allot of 1st person and mind swap and I figured that maybe I could try with 3rd person since its my preference for stories. I decided that it was a bit too short and that extending it to around 700+ words might be of more benefit to me before uploading the next chapter.
The fires licked the landscape and painted the sky, as much a work of beauty as it is a work of horror and suffering. Ryan's eyes peered through the cracked frame of what used to be his window, now just rubble pinning him to the ground. Ash and smoke clung to his face and lungs as he forced the choked sobs down, begging and praying that it wouldn't see him.
A tall, lean man looked over the destruction of the small village as the Grimm began to claw and chew their way through the walls, smelling the despair so thick in the air they came like moths to the flames. The Faunus' leathery, veiny wings stretched monstrously and with a crack the demon jumped into the sky.
"Fall Maiden location and identity remains unconfirmed, interference from Rook has forced me to fall back, requesting additional support"
His voice was warped and unnatural, almost robotic. Ryan watched, his face blue from holding his breath in fear, and waited till he was too far to turn back. He choked and gagged on the tainted air he was forced to swallow, his arm was pinned to the wall and the Grimm were closing in. He was a small boy, barely nine years of age and he was forced to do something that could kill even the strongest and heartiest of soldiers. He had to force his soul to manifest outside his body.
Manifesting ones soul outside their body and into the physical plane is a very strenuous task and not one to be taken likely, out of 100 students that go to the feeder/trainer schools such as signal academy only the top 20 are even considered worth the risk of unlocking their aura and out of those 20 only 4-5 usually survive the process. The only exception to this being that your parents or grandparents have had their aura unlocked and as such a unique "aura gene" is in your blood giving you a much higher, but still not guaranteed chance of unlocking your own.
So when Ryan Tarkov, Son of a Farmer and who's mother was a florist called out to the sky "For it is in suffering that we achieve peace. Through this, we become Complete, destruction and creation combine to rise above all. Free of death and vast in distance, I release my soul and bear its burden alone"
By all accounts, he should be dead. And yet his arm, crushed and reduced to paste by the rubble previously, now finds itself numb again as the bones reform and solidify from dust and the sinew grows and stretches back together. He takes a deep from the strain, to find the air allot more tolerable then before and he slowly begins to find the strength to lift himself out of the rubble.
The howling and gnashing of teeth drill their way into his ears, the Grimm now begin to converge around him, his aura drawing them to him, their black bodies a sharp contrast to the fires around them and their red eyes stare, almost piercing into soul. The fear of death finally sinks in and he bolts from the rubble.
The howling of the beowolves made his skin crawl and the hairs on his neck rise, he ran as fast as he could, but how could a nine year old boy outrun a Grimm? Simple, he can't. Ryan makes it all of 10 feet before the beasts are already upon him, the cracked paths causing him to trip and fall. His eyes widen he screams "please someone help me!"
No one does. Its teeth sink into his clothes but fail to pierce his aura for now. He is thrown into a wall by its powerful jaws and he sinks to the floor crying, praying that he can play dead and hide.
A black smoke begins to grow around him, moulding and spreading like a sickness it envelops him in a thick nothingness, pain shoots back into his arm as its healing stops but the Grimm can no longer sense him. He lies on the floor, alone. Crying to himself "mum, dad where are you?" over and over till he slowly falls asleep.
It's been around 2-3 hours before the huntsmen are sent in to clear out the infestation and to recover the bodies. They begin to slowly and methodically clear and secure the landing/extracting zone for the bullhead. After slaying the Grimm and removing most of the debris from the EZ they begin to roll out the carts to collect the bodies, or at-least what's left of them. Slowly and mechanically they begin to cover and load the bodies onto carts to be dumped into a mass grave away from the bullhead. Ryan Tarkov, slowly comes to and sees the huntsman preparing the grave site.
"Help me, Please" he calls out to them, almost immediately they drop their shovels and rush over to him.