Black Trailer

A young boy with jet black hair slowly sat up, rubbing his forehead. His crash, although gentle due to whatever he landed on, had banged him up and he already felt the beginnings of a large bruise on the side of his head. The view out his window in the front of his pod had been blocked he couldn't really see anything, but harsh sunlight streamed in through the back. Pushing himself up Black Hair walked out of the crooked escape pod. Squinting, he looked around him. All he could see was sand, the air was burning and shimmering making the sand look like it was moving.

Turning Black Hair saw that his pod had smashed into a large sand dune and was half buried. The air inside the pod was cooler than outside. For a second Black Hair considered simply returning inside, but thought better of it. If he stayed with the pod he would run out of food quickly, and his water supply was already entirely depleted. No, it was smarter to keep moving, that way he might be able to find someone.

Black Hair scrambled on top of a large sand dune to get a better look around him, his emerald green eyes squinting at the burning sun light. His dark green lizard tail thrashed around nervously as he looked around. All he could see was sand dune after sand dune.

The boy forced his breath to slow, trying to keep his panic down. Right before the ship crashed he had seen a city, his pod hadn't flown over it, but he had managed to glimpse it from the sky. Reaching that city was his only chance.

Sliding down the dune he began walking towards the city, his bare feet crunching on the sand. He winced as the heat began to burn his feet. Closing his eyes to concentrate, the boy's feet shifted, the toes merging together to form three large claws in the front and one in back. Black scales grew over his feet and toe nails, which had become long green claws. Within a few seconds his feet went from human to lizard. Taking a deep breath the boy began walking across the burning sands.

The sun's heat beat down on Black Hair as he walked. Soon his skin burned and sweat poured down his face. His heart hammered in his chest. Black Hair knew that he could fully switch to his other form, like he had with his feet, but the black scales that would encase his body would only give temporary relief before he became trapped in a burning black prison.

By the time night had fallen the boy was stumbling with fatigue and thirst.

Have to keep going he thought tiredly. I just need to make it to the city.

Black Hair finally allowed himself a break. He curled up on the base of a sand dune, shivering from the cold that had quickly grown when the sun had abandoned him and the moon taken it place. Staring up at its shattered silver surface he wondered if his friends were seeing that same moon, wherever they were. He remembered the boy with blue eye's promise to him.

"I'll find you."

Heat woke Black Hair. He tiredly sat up and looked around him, remembering all that had happened. Pushing himself up, he began his walk again. But soon the sun began to shine hotter than before, he could feel it burning his skin. Still he pushed on, forcing himself to walk.

Finally, after forcing his burned, tired body up one last dune, he saw the city. It shimmered and moved with the heat but there was no mistaking its shape. Hope surged through his body and he felt a burst of strength.

But Black Hair's broken, weak body couldn't keep fighting the sun's rays and his own fatigue. He collapsed on the sand a short sprint away from the city's farthest buildings.

Blake Belladonna sat looking out her window at the distant desert. her cat ears twitching. She pushed herself to her feet and walked into the kitchen where her mom was putting up a vase of deep blue flowers on the table. "Mom," she said, "can we go on a walk? I'm bored!" Her mother, Kali, looked up in surprise.

"But Blake," she said, "didn't you just get a new book?" Blake sighed and sat down, resting her chin on their low table, her ears flatted on her head.

"Well yeah," she said. "But I finished it yesterday!"

Kali blinked in surprise. "But it's so hot out today!" she said. She looked down at her daughter's face and smiled.

"Alright fine! Your father won't be back from his meeting for a while. Why don't we do something fun?" Blake shot up and raced back to her room.

"Thanks mom!" she shouted over her shoulder. Once in her room the cat Faunus slid on her black sandals and white hat. Running out she found her mom grabbing her sun shade umbrella and putting two large water bottles in a bag.

After they both had rubbed in a heavy layer of sunscreen, the two walked out and took a cart ride to the edge of the small, crowded city.

Sand crushed under Blake's feet. Crouching down she felt the burning grains in her fingers. It amazed her how a pinch of sand could have so many different grains and parts to it. Standing, she brushed the sand off her hand and followed after her mother.

After a short while the two stopped for a break. Kali sighed and drank heavily from her bottle. "We have to go back home soon!" she called to her daughter. Blake sighed but nodded, wishing she was old enough to go out alone whenever she wanted. Climbing to the top of a large dune she stared across the shimmering landscape. Suddenly a dark shape caught her eye.

"Hey mom," Blake called to her mother, "what's that?" Kali walked over to where her daughter was pointing, shading her eyes and squinting to see better. Suddenly she gasped.

"Blake," she said her voice tight. "I think it's a person!" Blake stared in shock at the form in the sand, then raced after her mother who was already sprinting across the sand.

As the two drew nearer, Blake saw it was indeed a person, a child. He was in a strange black jumpsuit and had a dark green Faunus lizard tail. He lay, his eye's closed, the skin on his body badly burned.

Kali fell to her knees and felt for a pulse, her shoulders slumping with relief as she found one. Blake watched nervously as her mother shifted him so he was laying on his back. Pulling one of the water bottles out of her bag, she began to slowly pour it into his open mouth, a small portion at a time. At first most fell off his face, dampening the dry sand, but soon his throat began to move as he swallowed the water.

"We need to get him back," Kali said, her eyes never leaving the boy's face.

"Is he gonna be ok?" Blake asked nervously. Her mother nodded.

"He should be," she said.

Together the two began to pull him back to Menagerie, then back to their house. As gently as she could Kali laid the boy down on their couch, then she turned and rushed to grab something to put onto his burns to help them heal.

Blake couched down beside him and stared thoughtfully at the Faunus boy. Reaching down she gently touched the strange mark on his arm, silently wondering why he had it.

Kali ran back in, healing cream and bandages in her hands. A knock sounded at the front door. "Blake," her mother said, not looking up from the boy, "I need you to open the door, it sounds like your father is home." Standing, Blake ran to the door and pulled it open. Sure enough her father, Ghira, stood on the other side.

"Dad!" Blake said. "Me and mom went on a walk in the desert and we found someone! He needs help!" The smile that had been on her dad's face vanished and he ran inside.

"Kali!" he said, "what happened?" Blake's mother quickly explained.

"His clothes seemed to have protected most of his body from the sun, but the parts that were exposed are badly burned." She said, putting bandages on his left arm. Gently grabbing his right arm she turned it so the strange mark showed.

"Does this mean anything to you?" she asked her husband. Ghira stared at and shook his head.

"I would say it's some kind branding, but I've never seen that symbol before." He said, rubbing his finger over it. Blake shuddered looking at it. She knew many Faunus who had been 'branded,' their bodies burned or tattooed with a symbol or number, marking them as an escaped or freed slaved. The humans marked their bodies as they would common animals. Many of the marked Faunus had joined the newly made White Fang in an attempted to stop this from happening again.

Looking down, Blake felt a spike of pity for the boy. Was he an escaped slave? He seemed so young, about the same age as her.

The three spent the rest of the day taking care of the dark haired boy. His eyes never opened.

That night as Blake was about to lay in her bed, she heard her parents talking. "Tomorrow," her father said, "I'll make a public announcement to see if anyone knows who this child is and where he came from."

"And if no one claims him? We can't send to an orphanage, or foster care, you know as well as I do how they treat people like us," her mother responded.

Blake heard her father sigh.

"I don't know Kali," he said, "I…just don't know." Then Blake turned and climbed into bed.

The next morning Ghira left for another meeting, this one about the growing White Fang. "I want them to know my motives," he said when Kali had complained that this wasn't really good time for him to leave. "We're not going to be another Faunus group who relies on blood shed to get what we want. The humans need to see we can live in peace together." Then he had turned and left. But not before making a public announcement about the boy.

Blake rarely left the boy's side all day, her mother would sometimes check his temperature or change his bandages, but mostly it was the boy and Blake.

Hours passed. Gently Blake touched the side of his face wondering again were he had come from. Suddenly his eyes flickered open. Blake sat up in shock as the eyes focused on her. They were a piercing emerald green and seemed to shine up at her. Then the eyes moved as the boy looked around the house, seeing where he was. "Hi," Blake said gently getting his attention. "I'm Blake. You're in my house. My mom found you in the desert."

At that moment, Kali waked in and stared in shock at the boy. Then she continued to walk forward, a slight smile on her face.

"Hi," she said gently, "I'm Blake's mother, Kali. You're safe here." The boy drew back slightly as she bent down. But Blake saw curiosity more than fear in his eyes.

"We found you out in the desert. Why were you out there?"

"Crashed," the boy said, his voice quiet.

"Crashed?" Kali said frowning, "crashed what?"

"Pod."

Kali looked at the boy for a few confused seconds, then shook her head, clearly deciding that it was better to not ask. Instead she held up the burn cream and bandages. "You were burned badly out in the desert," she said. "Is it okay if I use this on them? It will help your burns heal and not hurt." The dark haired boy seemed to think about it, and then nodded.

The next few weeks the boy slowly became stronger. although he didn't ever say one sentence at a time, which was fine with Blake, she didn't really like talking either. Eventually, Ghira decided that the boy would heal faster since he had enough strength to activate his aura, (which turned out to be a dark inky black). After that, he healed much faster and was soon walking.

But throughout the weeks, no one came to claim him. Whenever Blake's parents asked where he was from he would just shake his head and say "dark place." They soon learned he had no name so Blake took to calling him Lizard, which the boy seemed fine with.

Lizard seemed happy enough. But Blake often caught him staring out the window at night, his hand rubbing over his dark tattoo, whispering the words ,"I'll find you."