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"Cloud?" Rosé got my attention late at night as our campfire burned itself down to cinders with crackles and pops from water escaping from inside the logs. "Are you awake?"

A fire was a nice thing to have and to use to warm yourself on crisp spring nights when the temperature dropped. Neo was already curled up in her bedroll and dozing off contentedly. She wrapped herself up into a tiny ball that made one forget her cruelty, if only for just a moment. Not that I didn't recall my own acidity. I could be every bit as despotic as Neo could be. A boot to the face, denting the skull of my enemy replayed over in my mind back in Mistral. Cutting down gang members in Atlas. I really had done it all at this point. My life experiences really were something else at this juncture. I hoped that would make me a good teacher for Rosé and that would keep her alive. I wasn't joking at all when I talked about how many hunters die young. School after school. Class after class graduated. And still there always seemed to be too few hunters to protect everyone.

"I am. What is it?" I asked back.

"Well I was just wondering, what are the Grimm? Where do they come from?"

"The Grimm…" I trailed off as I thought deeply on how to answer. "The Grimm are creatures of true anonymity. They lack souls. They are the darkness and we are the light. They are monsters, but that doesn't really get at the heart of it, does it?"

She shook her head to negative and stared at me with big deep blue eyes set in her heart shaped face. I gazed up then at the stars in the dark night.

"No one really knows where they come from or what they are. You can't really study them completely. They dissolve. They are born from the blood of their fellows. Larger Grimm spawn smaller ones. I've seen that. That's how they are born, the smaller ones at least. As for the bigger ones, no one is really sure. It's another big mystery. I've heard a story though. About two gods. One of light and the other of darkness. And the god of darkness created the Grimm for the sole purpose of destruction. But the gods have long ago abandoned Remnant."

"You don't believe in the gods? None of them?" She sounded almost affronted by that. I wondered what she believed in but only briefly. It didn't much matter anyways.

"Oh I believe they exist. I just believe that they are cruel or don't care." My response seemed to floor her all the further.

"That's so… negative. And heartbreaking. So you don't think there's a point to human suffering."

"I think the suffering is the point. I think the gods like it when we suffer. Or else why would we? It's the old problem of evil. You can't believe in the Grimm and a good god. The Grimm dominate this planet. Creatures of destruction run this place. Explain how and why good caring gods would allow that, you can't. Monsters exist in every corner of the globe."

"I think I understand you. I just don't believe it, myself."

"Believe what you like. I'm no judge."

Neo rolled over and held a finger to her lips in a shushing gesture. She was trying to sleep and we were keeping her up. How dare we? Why, didn't we have any common sense at all?

"Sorry Neo," I apologized to her. "Shutting up."

I did. I rolled over and got some sleep with my back to the dying fire.

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There was a young girl in our path. Maybe seven years old. Maybe eight. She wore no shoes and her little yellow dress was torn and she had big bright brown eyes and blonde hair.

"Little girl? Are you lost?" I asked. She seemed to be hiding from something. I got closer to her and grabbed her by the shoulders and she gave a surprised shout.

She was in hysterics. I managed to get out of her that she had broken her mother's tea set. That she was afraid that she would be beaten so she ran away from home. She was whimpering and feverish. Her stuttering explanation was hard to extract and comprehend. She was talking in that way very young children do when they've been crying.

"I don't want to go, mommy will hurt me, she'll beat me over it I know she will! Oh! I never should have touched that tea set, never ever never. Oh! And when she finds me she'll take her shoe and she'll smack me with it and I'll yelp. And oh, it'll sting. So she won't catch me. I'll run. Can I go with you? Mister? Can I? I don't want to go home I don't want to. She'll beat me and all because I could let the tea set alone. Can I? Can I? Can I?"

I undressed the girl from her rags and changed her into fresh clothes. She whimpered and pleaded with me all the while. She begged for my help and protection.

I shushed her slowly and promised to give it to her. Only then did she relax.

"You'll keep me safe from mommy? Oh! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! She'd beat me furiously if she caught me. Oh thank you?"

She gave me a childish hug and a smile. And when I touched her she shattered like glass.

Startled, I woke up in my bedroll. What a strange dream. Had it been sent by my Mother to torment me in some odd way? Or had it just been a dream? I was unsure. What did it mean? The stars were still out and the sky was painted from purple to light blue where the sun started to rise and cast days of pink down on me. I lay face up in my bedroll and tried to process the dream I just had. It unnerved me more than being tormented by Grimm faced rats. At least I knew what that dream meant. This dream was a mystery and a curiosity. I just lay still and wondered. I watched the stars slowly fade into the bright blue sky overhead and the moon in all it's wonderful shattered glory turn pale by comparison to the rising sun. There were a few bruised little clouds above us but nothing that might indicate we were in for a spring shower. It looked like a fine day was beginning. I wasn't an 'oh what a beautiful day' sort of person but I was able to appreciate even this.

Neo stretched like a cat in her sleep but did not rouse, she curled like one too. She curled so much that I worried for the long term health of her spine. Not that my sleep habits were any better. I typically woke up with a sore jaw from clenching my teeth all night long. I was wearing them down and grinding them out. And Rosé lay on her side with her hands cupped near her face almost as if she were praying.

A stray tear rolled down my right cheek from my eye. I wasn't sobbing or sad but my eyes felt wet. I didn't get the typical endorphin rush one received from crying. It was just one lone tear. I rubbed my eyes with my fists hard enough to see spots and tried to figure out what game Mother was playing at, she was always up to something and should I assume that tonight was different? I think not. She was plotting something. I just wasn't sure what it was and that made me more uneasy than straight torture. That was a game I at least understood. Was that her tactic? To make me wonder and second guess myself? I thought my plan of rebellious submission was working and this may well be a sign of that but I wasn't sure. What were dreams really?

I got up and with nimble fingers put on my huntsman garb as the others started to awaken. My half cape fluttered behind me and gave my silhouette flare. I slung my enormous broadsword over my back, the bronze and white metal gleamed - well polished.

I always looked after the blade carefully and I avoided unnecessary use. Use brought wear and rust, even to Titania weapons. It wasn't like the sword was fragile but sometimes it was unneeded and my smaller serrated knife would do fine.

Rosé rose and yawned like a cat as she sat up. I watched her for a moment. I should teach her how to shoot a gun. Just because I didn't like them didn't mean she shouldn't.

Her sword arm was growing stronger and she was getting a lean look to her ribs that sitting around in a noble's family castle had put a bit of pudginess to her that was rapidly leaving. She had that glow to her now that all hunters had and made her into an otherworldly beauty. Her heart face and bright eyes would make her a stunner one day. She was too young now but one day she would make some boy or girl very lucky. She had little bones in her face and her hair was smooth. She would be every bit as gorgeous as Neo was. She was progressing well and had even slayed her first monster if not her first man. She was still nowhere near competent with her blade. She fumbled with it at times and didn't always swing with the edge properly. She was doing fine, though, and I was proud of her.

She'd taken to emulating my style with my longsword in a more floaty graceful way. Where I was brutish strength she was elegant. Or at least that was how it was coming along. She shameless copied my moves and emulated me to her very best. It was enormously flattering and endearing.

"Up and at 'em," I told her. "Let's get some training in before we ride all day. Won't that be fun? Oh boy."

She groaned but stood. That was her typical attitude to early morning training sessions. She never complained. She would do just fine.

I pulled out a pipe and let the pleasant nausea wash over me and fill up my body. This was nice. It was relaxing. Mother hadn't tortured me. Today was a good day. I smoked contentedly, my happy pills that I had relied on in Atlas went ignored and not taken. I quit them cold turkey against medical advice. You're supposed to taper off of such pills. I just flat stopped. It could have killed me but then again I lived every day on the edge of death. So there was that.

I exhaled a stream of smoke which drifted upwards and away from my body. It dispersed in the chill morning air. I reflected briefly on the start of my little habit. It was Neo's fault in part. She led me to the greens. I couldn't really blame her, however, and I didn't really want to. They made me feel good. When I smelled the dank odor my mouth watered in an unusual way. I wasn't hungry for it but I did crave the stuff. I often became irritable when I went without it. So I didn't go without it and I was high nearly all the time.

That was probably excessive but it worked out well so far so I wasn't knocking it in the slightest. Besides, it helped with the delerium my Mother wanted me in. She wanted to trap me but the weed helped with my rebellious submission. It let me relax into my torture and whatever pain may come. It helped numb me to the course and dry texture of reality.

I wasn't sure how I managed to go so long without it back in the cold months in Atlas. But I was never going back to that or those prescription drugs now. I simply refused.

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Shini was our next big stop. Big being a relative term. It was home to a thousand people. We stayed at the inn and I booked two rooms. One for the ladies and one for myself. I figured they would like the privacy from me.

I sat down to write another letter to Ruby and Weiss. I told them I had taken up a mentee. I was training someone to become a hunter. That should surprise them. I think they would find it quite uncharacteristic of me. Especially while I had Neo in tow. I told them she was a total novice but that she was progressing well. I also mentioned I had yet to find my father's Valean laboratory nor any clue of it. I mentioned my dreaming habits and how they were typically plagued by messages from Mother but that last night was most probably an exception. Or at the very least it was an oddity.

I wrote further that Neo was fine, not that they would feel strongly about that. I told them I had no real money troubles but such was life for hunters.

"What's that?" Rosé asked me. She came to check on me in my room across the hall from her's and Neo's. She was freshly showered and we were going to go out to eat something fresh and which wasn't cooked by me or her. Neo came swaying in behind her with her midriff exposed in her huntsman garb.

"A letter to some friends. Do you have anyone that you should be writing to? Anyone concerned about you? What about your family?"

"I… I suppose I could, should, even. I have more family in Vale. That's where they used to be, at least. I was sent to live with my aunt and uncle when the attack happened. My parents should still be in Vale. I haven't heard from them in almost a year. Them or my brother, Chrome."

"You should write to them," I told her. "I bet they'd be glad to hear from you. And about how you're becoming a huntress. That's probably a pretty big change."

"Yes. That is… I wonder what they would think about it. I am unsure…"

"We have a stop to make before Vale," I added after a moment it was clear she wouldn't go on. "I'm looking for something. An errand. A laboratory that belongs to a man named Merlot. He had two others nearby the other great cities so I bet he has one in Vale too. I need to catch him and put a stop to him. He does experiments on the Grimm."

"What kinds of experiments?" She wondered.

"He fucks with them," I spat. She looked shocked at my venom. Shocked in the way a child might be shocked when their parents swear. I wasn't sure why, though. "He breaks them down and rebuilds them. In Mistral he made these lopping human like Grimm. He needs to be stopped and I've got a personal vendetta against him, besides. He might be here on Sanus if I'm lucky. I'm going to kill him."

She just stared at me with her mouth agape. She was still surprised by the way I spoke of him and of my plans to end him. He needed taken care of. Men like Merlot couldn't run free in a just world. He was a danger to himself, his creations, and everyone else. He had to be stopped permanently.

"But…" she stammered off for a second.

"You don't need to be involved I assure you of that. It's just something I need to do on our way. Why? Does it bother you?"

"No," she lied, clearly. "It's none of my concern." She was a poor liar. It concerned her very deeply that I planned to kill someone. It got on her nerves and her eyes wavered a little.

"Good enough," I told her. "Let's go eat."

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-WG