Another Day, another chapter. I think I'm getting better at this writing thing.

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This ride was good for me. Through purple mountains and the fresh air. I hadn't realized the smog of Atlas and Mantle until I was so far away from it. Mantle in particular with the mines had been grimy and choking. The air had possessed a weight which made it resist the lungs. It had mass there. Here it was different and with every breeze came a crisp breath.

A few fleecy clouds ambled on the breeze as our horses climbed over harsh blue stones. Blue up close, purple at a distance. These mountains were certainly strange. They were wonderful to climb through and I found that I loved them. These wide spaces with nothing but monsters and my companions around for miles and miles. I liked that solitude. And my company wasn't bad.

The mountain led up to a plateau that was thick with brushwood and birds drifted in flocks in front of us where wild strawberries grew in vines across the ground. The moon, lazy to leave, hung shattered in its millions of pieces of star-fall in the sky. Silly lazy moon, it was almost noon.

The girl, Rosé, was going to be good for me. I think. In the way she talked like a noble she reminded me of Weiss but her excitement and energy reminded me of Ruby. Of course she had red hair, as well. There was something to be said about me and redheads. Though Rosé's was strands of silvery pink that ran to her mid back in a loose fashion. Much longer than Ruby's short wolfish look. Maybe as long as Pyrrha's if Pyrrha had ever let her hair down. She really never did. At least not that I could recall. And I did try to remember. But I couldn't place a moment in my memory where Pyrrha ever let her hair down around me. Even fresh from the shower it would be done up in a ponytail so I couldn't once recall a single time when it was down.

Rosé yawned on her horse. We had often been late to bed with training and early to rise with traveling and she was progressing well. We had yet to spar or move beyond the angles of attack but she was already getting stronger. Aura helped with that. Muscle repair and healing came part and parcel with having one's soul unlocked and born into this world. With some curious fascination I also watched her transformation. She had been a pretty girl before, that was sure. But her skin was becoming fluorescent and her hair was beginning to shine. It was the aura. It did that to people. It was interesting to watch how it happened day by day from the outside and without her own noticing.

"Master…" she began with a question, thinking over what it was she wanted to say. I cut in first.

"Just Cloud."

"Master Cloud," I flinched at the almost worse title. "I couldn't help but notice your odd sleep habits. You twitch and even mutter at times."

"I have bad dreams," I said darkly and slightly feebly. My voice suddenly stood somber.

"Is that all? There's not something else?"

"That's all I can think of. Why? What happens to my body when I sleep?"

"You convulse horribly during the nights. I thought you knew."

"How could I? I never see myself sleep and Neo is silent. She wouldn't be able to tell me."

"About that too…" she trailed off nervously and blushed rosily.

"Yes? Go on."

"Are you and Neo… together?"

I laughed a little. "Neo and I are just friends. Nothing has ever happened between us. Not a thing." That was my story and I was sticking to it. "My relationship status is complicated, though. My love life is… deeply confusing."

"You two just seemed so close that I thought… she even rides behind you, that is. Rather than upon her own horse."

"I think she considers it beneath her to learn to ride while I am here. I am her chauffeur, is how I think we both see it." Neo nodded with a smirk under her parasol. "We aren't involved."

"I think I understand. But what do you get out of it?"

"Her companionship for one. And as a side her powers are useful and subtle."

Yes, looking after other people would be good for me. In Atlas, Weiss and Ruby had looked after me in an almost motherly fashion- not in the fashion of my own Mother, of course. It had made me… falter wasn't quite the right word. And of course I was dependent on them. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that it didn't force me to grow. It allowed me to stagnate as a person. So I had. It gave me the opportunity to fall into despair and so I had done that as well. Neo needed me to look after her. I needed to interpret for her and take care of her. And to Rosé I was a mentor and a guide. She needed me too. It forced me to expand my horizons and look after more than myself. I had heard about people who were depressed getting a pet. This was sort of like that. But it was different from a pet. It wasn't like having a dog. Not that they were like dogs. But it made me have to be more and it forced me to do good. It was the kind of good I had set out to do. That was beneficial for me. Plus you never realize how little you know until you start teaching someone else. How does dust work? Why are there only five major types? Where does aura come from? I had no idea. I was forced to tell Rosé that I didn't know when she asked me.

"Her semblance? I know yours makes you stronger and faster but what about her's?" Rosé asked me.

"Illusions and teleportation," I conversed.

"Both? I wonder what mine will be… I hope it's exceptional."

I didn't know so much. And she probably knew more about history than I did. I didn't know jack. It was really eye opening in terms of my ignorance.

As we came along the animals grew skittish and I felt my sixth sense ring in my ears and buzz my skull.

I was high, for one thing ("You smoke?" Rosé had asked. "I'm kind of an addict," I answered. "It helps me cope.") this wasn't that.

But there was a distinct and separate buzz apart from that heady nausea.

"What's that? What's with the horses?"

"It's your danger sense. Animals have it. And so do hunters. You feel that. Really sense it? It means that there is danger nearby. Probably Grimm. Hopefully small ones. You and I will set off on foot and kill them. Neo, watch the horses. We'll be back. Come on kid. It's time to get your feet wet. It's time to slay monsters."

She dismounted behind me and Neo stayed on and patted the flank of the horse she was straddling. She gave me a quick thumbs up to indicate that she was good.

Rosé and I crept into the pine trees and underbrush and off the beaten path. Even a Beowulf could hamstring a horse so that was why I left the beasts behind. No reason to put them in any more danger and approach the things that made them skittish. I followed the sense the Grimm gave me which I could feel due to my connection with them and in the brush we came across three Beowulfs sniffing the ground and trees and clawing their way along. They were revolting things. Just as I was. They drooled from their fangs and dragged their long claws across the ground where they hunched low.

"What do we do?" Rosé asked me. "What's the plan?"

"You take the one on the left. I'll kill the other two. I'll finish fast and be right there if you need help. Ready? Go!"

I flew from the bush and took two swings which cut the surprised monsters in twain. I turned and looked at my protege who had jumped and swung her sword down on the beast with a cry from her lips. It embedded itself in the flank of the monster but it didn't quite die. She tugged her blade free then she hacked at it with both hands. Then she did it again and again. It was sloppy and its claws raked at her pink aura but eventually she stood over a pile of dissolving Grimm goo.

"Good work," I told her. She shone under my praise for a moment, basking in it like rays of sunshine. She liked my attention. "You did well."

"That wasn't so bad," she breathed and tucked her hair out of her face. "It got me a little though."

"That's why we have aura. Do you feel anything else?"

She realized I was quizzing her so her eyebrows furrowed and she frowned in concentration. She reached out with her sixth sense and into the surrounding landscape. She stretched it out consciously over the plateau and perhaps as far as the river which ran near the flat topped mountain.

"No…" she decided. "I don't."

"Neither do I. Let's go back to the horses. Job's done. Monsters are slain. Not bad for your first kill."

"I almost wish I could take a momento from the body. But…" it had already dissolved away into nothingness as Grimm corpses are wont to do. There was nothing to take as a keepsake like a bone or a tuft of fur. It all became ash.

"You'll get tired of killing little fish eventually. Come on."

I left the thicket and walked back to the wagon trodden path we were driving the horses along. Neo was waiting, patient and serene looking. She smiled down on me.

She and Rosé seemed to get along just fine for the most part. There hadn't been any conflict that I was aware of, at least. Neo was an excellent companion for travel. She didn't ask for much. And the things she did ask for I was already willing to give. She was good for me too, least I should be alone as a hunter. She somehow managed to convey her perspective on some issues by means of me probing her if I had questions. Mostly about what should we do about the laboratory and how to train Rosé, and that was pretty much it. Neo liked following me, I could tell. And I valued her friendship. I had so few and it was one of life's sweet pleasures.

I didn't ask Neo for much of any help in the way of training Rosé. That was my project to deal with and I wouldn't force it on her at all.

We remounted the calmed horses, they were steady now that the danger had passed, and we set off once more along the trail.

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We forded a river. I couldn't be sure that it was the same river as before but it was a river and it needed fording. The water was white with rapids. And where it wasn't white it was yellow with sediments.

Winter-the season- not the girl or the maiden, in Atlas, had been cold. Frightfully so. It had made the days short and needed augmenting by artificial lights. But it was spring now. And the warmer temperatures melted the snow in the mountains and it overflowed the river here where the wagon path ended.

It was probably spilling over its sandy and stone banks for miles in either direction. Better to cross here, I thought. And it was my decision. Rosé respected me too much to question me. She would do what I would tell her to. I was sure of that. Neo just didn't care enough to protest.

I suppose I could go and look for a better way to cross. But which way? One was as good as any other from my perspective. I stepped off the horse Neo and I rode on. I pulled at the reigns and waded out into the yellow and brown river. Neo stood up on top of the steed and balanced easily so as not to get her boots wet while I walked out into the rushing water up to my chest.

I pulled the horse along into the deep. It was all the way up to its flank and I thought it might wash me away were it not for my power to fly. The horse's drifted along in a sideways fashion as they tried to march forward and I pulled them both along. Rosé's feet got soaked in the water as she remained on horseback. For a minute all I could hear was the gurgling rush of the water. It was loud where it turned white and frothed. It roared in my ears.

Then my feet gained purchase and I started to pull the horses up the other side. I came up the far side out of the deep.

"Is it cold?" Rosé asked me.

It was chilly. I told her so. It was fresh melted snow and the merging of dozens of creeks. It was cold. But I didn't make the ladies endure it. I came up the other side with my half cloak drenched and Pyrrha's ribbon was a deep crimson from the water. I stared at it. It was my momento. I carried it always with me and proudly displayed it. It was a sign of my vengeance once. Now it was a sign of my retribution. It symbolized my honor to carry on Pyrrha's legacy in that sash. It was a sign of my exile, now. The things I had to sacrifice to live peacefully were numerous. Ruby and Weiss foremost and formidable in my mind. I missed them. But I wasn't strong enough to be with them and I couldn't have them around me. Not now. Not yet. It was complicated. That sash I wore became a vendetta against my Mother. Especially now that Cinder was dead. Now I was looking after a girl. I was training her to be a huntress just as Pyrrha had once trained me. I was passing along the torch. It was certainly fitting.

I stepped up the gravely bank on the other side. The trees were budding with fresh greens. Fruit trees blossomed and flowers bloomed by the river and the side of the worn path on the other side- this side, that was.

I had been pushed down stream as I marched across by the tide of the yellow river. It had been better to be pushed along slightly and still come out the other side. The horses had been pushed too by their long flanks.

Sometimes there was a certain victory in quiet submission. Battles could be won by bowing the head and taking what was coming to you.

"What's Beacon like? When you were there, I mean," Rosé clarified.

"You'll be given a partner and a team. They'll be your best friends. Maybe for life. It's good for you. The best."

"Then you have a team? Was Neo your partner?"

"Neo? No. I met her after Beacon. And I used to. Have a team, that is. They're all gone now. They died. You understand? That happens to hunters. They die. A lot."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"No worries. I've had some time to be put at ease with it and to come to terms. Beacon is fun, though. When you get in you'll have fun. You'll see."

"Thank you," she murmured quietly. "Thank you for saying 'when' and not 'if.'"

"Oh we'll get you into Beacon even if I have to work you to the bone for it. You should be careful what you wish for. If I got in, so can you."

A goal that was not my own. A sign, providence. A mission was a good thing to have. It gave me something good and clear to focus on amongst a bunch of other vague objectives I could scarcely concentrate on. Find my father's other labs. Stop my mother. Grow stronger, even though you're dying. It was hard and alarming. But getting Rosé into Beacon was clear cut and easy to see happen. It was good for me. Better than letters to Ruby and Weiss could be but that wasn't their fault. It was always mine. I needed to look after someone and not be looked after while I grew in strength and the power of my submission. I was stealing from Mother now rather than her from me. It was a river that flowed in both directions and with each moment there was something lost to both of us. She was trapped with me just as I was locked in with her. She could not escape from me and through my rebellious submission I would destroy her and then I would take what was mine - Ruby and Weiss. A whole new life with children in it. My children. A family of my own and of my own choosing. I would take it.

Mother was afraid. She hadn't counted on me being so determined and tenacious. I would avenge myself upon her for my team and though that would bring me no happiness in and of itself, just as slaying Cinder hadn't, it would be a first step towards those things that would bring me happiness. A family of my own. But for now a goal which wasn't mine was enough for me to live by.

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-WG