Here's another Cunning Challenge. The prompt was "Corsac reminisces about life before the White Fang," submitted by Yukon_Wolf.
Corsac lay in his bunk in the jail on the edge of Kuo Kuana. He could hear the other members of the White Fang who were imprisoned with him snoring in their cells, but he found he couldn't sleep.
Fennec was dead. His brother was dead, and the people of Menagerie had turned against the White Fang. In one night all of Corsac's ambitions had turned to ash. His beliefs had been tested, and it seemed they had failed.
Corsac rose from his bunk and looked out of the small window in his cell. Through it he could see the mountains that separated Kuo Kuana from the desert beyond. He and Fennec had journeyed into the desert a few times when they were younger. It had been the greatest test of their training as warriors.
The desert was lethal beyond measure. Blisteringly hot during the day and freezing cold at night, every moment out there tested the body and spirit. The winds were cutting and could fill a man's lungs with sand if he took a breath at the wrong time. Corsac and his brother had nearly been buried alive by a haboob on one of their journeys. On the rare occasion that it rained, the desert would flood quickly and sometimes fatally.
The Grimm were an ever present danger as well, but even they weren't as bad as the Great Wurms and Dune Dragons that stalked the sands. Fighting against such monsters had required every ounce of the Albains' combined skill.
And yet for all of its danger, the desert was beautiful. The expanses of sand that seemed as vast as the ocean itself, the mountains standing triumphantly over the wastes, the colors that the sun painted onto the earth and sky alike when it rose or set, it moved Corsac's heart like nothing else could. He loved Menagerie, maybe even more than he loved his brother. He knew that Fennec had felt the same way.
Yet for as long as Corsac could remember, Menagerie had been overcrowded. Even when he and Fennec had been young children roaming the streets they had seen that there were too many people and not enough space, enough houses, enough food. Their parents had done what they could working for the chieftain to provide for everyone, but it never seemed to be enough.
And more kept coming. With every act of aggression by the humans, more Faunus would flock to their one safe haven. With each passing year the city became even more packed, Menagerie choking on the constant tide of people fleeing persecution.
The White Fang had promised an end to the discrimination that created these refugees, and the Albains had supported them wholeheartedly. But nothing changed. Refugees kept coming, and though Corsac would never dream of turning them away, he knew there was no place for them on Menagerie. Ghira's failure was as evident from Kuo Kuana as it was anywhere else on Remnant.
Only when Sienna Khan took command did things improve. With her fighting to protect them, the Faunus finally felt safe in the kingdoms, and the neverending stream of refugees slowed. Some even left Menagerie to return to their former homes, and for the first time Kuo Kuana felt a bit less crowded. Corsac remembered working tirelessly with his brother in support of Sienna's Fang, truly believing that he had a chance of saving his home.
It was then that they had been called on to leave Menagerie. It was a brief assignment, just a few months in Mistral helping the High Leader with a large scale attack on a Faunus-trafficking organization. That was where he and Fennec had met Adam Taurus.
There, in a kingdom whose history of racism was as long and as infamous as that of Atlas, they found a man with the drive to end humanity's oppression of the Faunus by any means necessary. He was young and inexperienced, but with his youth came a fire that had long cooled in Ghira and even in Sienna.
He was also the most skilled fighter that Corsac had ever seen. During the attack, Adam had cut down dozens of Faunus traffickers. One of the enemies had pointed a gun in Fennec's face, and Corsac knew he wouldn't have been able to help his brother in time. An instant later Adam was between them, and the slaver was short an arm.
The Albains had returned to Menagerie certain that it would be Adam that led the White Fang to their final victory. It would be Adam who would save their home.
Corsac turned back to the bars of his cell, looking over where that certainty had led him. He sat down on his bunk, and the tears finally began to fall. He cried for his brother, but also for his home which would no longer have Fennec Albain striving to protect it.
The people of Menagerie supported Blake Belladonna now. After her father's failure, Corsac found it difficult to believe in her. But all he could do now was believe. His time bearing the torch was over, and it was clear he had done a poor job of it.
When his tears finally ran out, Corsac turned his gaze towards the window again, looking out over the land that he loved like his own family. The land that he had failed.
"Blake Belladonna," he whispered. "It's your turn now."