Chapter 2: Reaction
Olivia Sien slowly and steadily made her way up the forest path along the outskirts of Mistral, making sure to keep the large basket she was carrying in both hands upright. Said basket was loaded with various foods; fruit, vegetables, bread, cuts of meat, and even a sweet or two, all fresh from the farms just outside the city.
"At least it's... good exercise..." Olivia reassured herself between breaths, making sure that nothing was falling out of the basket as she continued on to the entrance back into the city. As a single mother living in the lower levels of Mistral, her budget was tight. Every Lien saved went far, especially with the economic woes that had spread across Remnant after the fall of Beacon. By skipping the market stalls and stores and instead going straight to the source - the farmers who lived just outside the city - Olivia was able to save a decent amount on her regular grocery runs.
Of course, said runs now involved hiking out of the city and back in, all while carrying a basket full of food.
Keeping the basket level in her hands, Olivia made her way along the outskirts of the city. Unfortunately, she couldn't just make her way back into the city from her current position. It was said that Mistral was a city of heights, and that was never more apparent than when one was standing at the bottom of one of the rocky cliff faces that surrounded most of the city. Sure, they looked cool and made the city more defensible against Grimm, but they also limited the places one could get into the city, making it a pain to exit and enter. Well, nothing else to do but to hug the cliff face until it smoothed out and she made it to the next entrance into the city. That was, what, maybe half a mile -
Clink. Clink. Clink.
A faint sound. Like metal against wood.
Clink. Clink. Clink.
What was that?
Setting down the basket for a moment, Olivia squinted her eyes. Further down the path, in a clearing next to the rocky cliff face, was... someone. A girl, sitting on a tree stump, wearing a thick coat that looked slightly warmer than necessary. She didn't seem to care, though. She had something in her hand that she was tapping against the stump. Some sort of rusty pipe. Was that where the sound was coming from? What was she doing?
The girl looked up. The tapping stopped.
Wait, was she a bandit? Waiting to ambush hapless travelers along the road like Olivia? With how much criminals thrived in the lower levels of Mistral, she should have seen this coming. Oh, why didn't she bring something to defend herself? Maybe like a -
The girl looked back down. The tapping resumed.
Okay, maybe she's not a bandit, Olivia thought, picking up her basket again. She made her way down the path towards the girl, who didn't seem to react to her approach. "Hi, uh... how are you?"
The tapping stopped. The girl looked up again, her face expressionless.
"Uh... okay... are you from around here? I don't think I've seen you before..."
Stupid question, Olivia! This was Mistral. Huge city. So many people! Of course she hadn't seen this girl before. As Olivia mentally berated herself, the girl just stared, refusing to answer. Or maybe she couldn't?
"Do you, uh... speak common?" Olivia asked. Another stupid question, she realized a moment later. After the Great War, pretty much every other language besides the common language was phased out in order to unite the kingdoms. "Or are you mute? I, uh..."
The girl didn't reply. She didn't even nod or shake her head; she just looked away. Was there anything getting through to her? As Olivia was about to turn and leave, she heard a low grumbling from... somewhere. Where? The noise happened once again, and this time, she tracked it back to the girl. Or rather her stomach. Despite the stone expression on her face and her refusal to answer any of Olivia's questions, the growling of an empty stomach told her all she needed to know. After all, hunger was universal, and Olivia knew it all too well during her youth.
"Here," Olivia said, grabbing an apple from her basket and handing it to the girl. Even if money was tight, she couldn't just not offer a helping hand to someone in need. The girl stared at it for a moment before taking it with her free hand and biting into it. "And, uh... if you need a place to stay, I think there's some homeless shelters around Mistral's lower levels. If you're hungry, there might be some food banks around too, though I'm not sure if they really, uh..."
The girl didn't seem to be paying attention to what Olivia was saying. She was focused on eating the apple. Well, if she didn't understand what Olivia had been saying before, it wasn't like she'd understand now.
"I'm going to, uh, go now," Olivia said, taking her basket and making her way back down the path. She looked back for a moment. The girl was still eating the apple. Olivia shrugged. She was an odd one. Hopefully, she'd find her way to someplace better than... well, a stump in the middle of nowhere.
Three days later, as Olivia made her way back from another grocery run, she found out that the girl with the rusty pipe had in fact not found her way to someplace better.
"You're still here?" Olivia asked, carrying another basket of food up the path along the cliff face surrounding the city. She approached the girl and set down the basket. "You haven't been sitting here all this time, have you?"
The girl looked up at Olivia. She didn't say anything, not that Olivia expected her to. She didn't nod or shake her head, either. Neither a confirmation nor a denial. For all Olivia knew, the girl had genuinely been sitting there for three whole days, tapping her pipe against the stump.
A grumbling sound. Again, from the girl's stomach.
"Fine..." Olivia muttered, reaching into her basket and handing the girl another apple. Like last time, she stared at it for a moment, then grabbed it and started eating. Olivia watched her eat; she wasn't really in a rush to get anywhere. "So, uh... why are you here?"
The girl didn't respond. She kept eating.
"Are you waiting for someone? I can't imagine why else you'd be out here..."
The girl stopped eating. She looked up at Olivia and, after a moment, shrugged.
"Huh, I guess that's an answer," Olivia muttered. "Wait, you could understand me the whole time?"
The girl shrugged again. She continued eating her apple.
"Geez... well, at least I know we can communicate. Have you been sitting out here all this time?"
The girl nodded.
"For three whole days?"
Another nod.
"Why?"
The girl stopped eating. Olivia watched as she raised her pipe into the air, then pointed it down at the stump. She tapped it a few times.
"I don't get it."
The girl shrugged and continued eating.
"Look, I don't know why you're waiting out here, but... if you need a place to say, like I said, Mistral has some homeless shelters around its lower levels you could check out," Olivia suggested. "I... even might have a spare room, if you need it."
The girl shook her head and tapped the stump again. What did she mean by that?
"Well, if you're sure..." Olivia said, picking up her basket again. "Just... keep that in mind if you need a place to stay, alright? It's gonna get colder soon, so you can't just stay out here forever, especially with how Mistral's weather gets closer to the winter."
The girl shrugged as she kept eating the apple. Olivia sighed as she started making her way down the path once again. Hopefully, the girl would find some place to stay. After all, she couldn't sit out there forever.
It seems the girl was determined to prove Olivia wrong, since a few days later as Olivia was making her way around with another basket of food, she found her sitting on that same stump, tapping that same rusty pipe against it.
"How are you still here?" Olivia asked, confused and a slight bit annoyed. She was wearing a thicker, olive-colored robe for the colder weather, which the girl already seemed prepared for with her thick coat. "Have you moved from that spot in the last week?"
The girl stopped tapping her pipe and looked over towards Olivia. She shook her head.
"Wait, have you even eaten anything?" Olivia asked. "Besides those apples I gave you, I mean?"
Another head shake.
"Seriously?"
A nod.
"How's that possible?" Olivia asked. The girl looked, well, like she had the two times Olivia had ran into her before. She definitely didn't seem like she was starving. "You don't look like you've eaten only two apples over the course of an entire week."
A shrug. The girl's stomach grumbled again.
"Ugh. Fine, here you go," Olivia muttered, handing the girl yet another apple. The girl took it and started eating like she had done twice before. "Do you actually need to eat, or does your stomach just want to cheat me out of a few more apples?"
The girl shrugged.
"Well, I guess I don't mind sharing a bit of food," Olivia muttered, watching the girl eat away at the apple. "How long are you gonna sit there, anyways?"
The girl shrugged once more. She stopped eating, raised her pipe, and tapped it against the stump.
"You did that last time. I don't know what that means."
Yet another shrug. The tapping stopped, and the eating started again.
"Look, just... it's probably not a safe idea to just sit out here. You've got rain, cold weather, Grimm, and... other stuff, I guess. Especially with all the Huntsmen going missing recently... you should probably get into the city."
The girl shook her head. Tapped the stump again with her pipe.
"Of course. What am I saying? You've already sat out here for a week while eating basically nothing, I guess you can take care of yourself. Are you even human?"
The girl shrugged.
"Ha. Well, I gotta get going. Don't catch a cold, okay?"
Olivia picked up her basket and went on her way, listening to the fading crunches of teeth into an apple as she made her way back towards the city entrance.
A few days later, as Olivia approached that familiar clearing carrying yet another basket of food, she heard something different. Not the wind whistling through the trees, or a pipe tapping against wood. It was a low growl that slowly ramped up into a roar. Like a bear, but lower, more guttural, more... fearsome. The roar of an Ursa.
Suddenly, a metallic CLANG rang out, and the roar cut short.
What was that? Olivia thought as she cautiously proceeded towards the clearing. As it came into view, she saw the beast that made the sound. As she thought, it was an Ursa, and an enormous one, at least five meters tall - or it would have been, if it had been standing up. Instead, it was splayed across the dirt, its head caved in as it started to disintegrate into the wind.
And there was the girl with the rusty pipe, sitting on the stump like she always did.
"I, uh... guess you can take care of yourself," Olivia said, walking into the clearing. She looked at the Ursa's disintegrating corpse, then to the girl sitting on the stump. The dent in the Ursa's skull seemed to fit the pipe quite well. "Did you do this?"
The girl turned towards Olivia. She nodded.
"I guess that pipe's stronger than I thought," Olivia muttered. She reached into her basket and grabbed a sweet bun she had bought from the market earlier, tossing it to the girl. "Here. I thought you might be getting tired of apples, so..."
The girl snatched the sweet bun out of the air. Sniffed it once, twice, and then took a bite.
"It's good, huh? I used to get them as a treat sometimes as a kid, when my family could afford it. That wasn't too often, though."
The girl didn't reply. Well, at least she was eating quicker than when she had been eating the apples before. That was probably a good sign.
"Well, I gotta go. I'm guessing you can take care of yourself, right?" Olivia asked. The girl nodded. "I heard there's rain later, but I'm half-expecting you to sit on that stump and somehow not get wet anyways."
The girl shrugged as Olivia made her way back down the path.
Olivia fell into a routine. Every few days, she'd go around to the farms outside the city to buy food. She'd get something a little extra; maybe an apple, maybe an orange or pear, maybe another sweet bun if she was feeling generous. On her way back to the city, she'd pass by the girl with the rusty pipe, sitting on the stump like always. Olivia would toss her something to eat, and they'd exchange a few words.
Well, Olivia would exchange a few words. The girl just nodded or shook her head, shrugged, or tapped her pipe against the stump. Olivia still had no idea what that last one meant.
A few weeks later, as Olivia made her way towards the clearing with another basket of food, she noticed something was different. In the distance, she could see the opening to the clearing. She could see the stump.
She could not see the girl with the rusty pipe.
"Huh. Where'd she go?" Olivia muttered as she stepped towards the clearing. "Did she finally take my advice and move into the city? Or maybe - "
A metallic clang interrupted Olivia. Like metal hitting stone. Olivia entered the clearing to see the girl standing by the cliff face, repeatedly bringing her pipe back before smashing it against the rock. Each blow landed with surprising force, gouging out a portion of the stone.
"What are you doing?" Olivia asked, setting down her basket. The girl stopped and turned to look at her. "Is there... is there something there?"
The girl nodded. Turned back towards the cliff face. Started whacking it again.
"Well, I don't know what you're doing, but hitting rocks like that seems pretty tiring," Olivia said. She reached into her basket and grabbed a fresh roll of bread, handing it to the girl. "Here. They baked this one just an hour ago. That's what they told me, anyways"
Without looking, the girl reached back and grabbed the bread before taking a bite, all the while whacking away at the wall in front of her.
"How long have you been doing this?"
The girl shrugged. Now that Olivia looked at it, a good amount of the cliff face around where the girl was hitting her pipe against had been dug into. She must have been going at it for some time.
"What are you even looking for? There's probably nothing but - "
Suddenly, part of the cliff face collapsed, breaking into rubble and tumbling down to the ground. A void opened up in its place. Some sort of tunnel or cavern? Was this what the girl was looking for? Then why had she sat on the stump for weeks if it was right here? Olivia watched as she climbed over the fallen rocks and boulders, making her way into the darkness beyond.
"Hey, wait! Are you seriously going in there? What even is in there?" Olivia asked. The girl stopped and turned back towards her. "That can't be safe, right? Why are you going in there?"
The girl raised her pipe and pointed it at the opening in the cliff face. As if that was some sort of answer.
"I don't know what that means."
The girl shrugged. She turned back and climbed into the cavern, quickly disappearing into the darkness.
"Well, I know you can at least take care of yourself," Olivia muttered. She had no interest in exploring dark spaces, so she picked up her basket and, after a moment of hesitation, started down the path again.
What a strange girl.
The girl with the rusty pipe made her way through the tunnel, forging ahead despite the near-complete darkness that surrounded her. She seemed unbothered by the lack of light as the gentle pull of the pipe on her hand guided her forward. Occasionally, she stopped to smash some rubble out of her way, or to step over a particularly large boulder. Sometimes, the tunnel would squish down, forcing her to crawl. Sometimes, it would open up.
Either way, she pushed onwards.
Before long, the tunnel opened up to an enormous cavern. A lake covered most of the cavern floor, surrounded by stalagmites of varying size. The walls of sheer rock extended high up, so high that one could barely see the ceiling from the floor. A bridge extended out from the cavern wall about two thirds of the way up, connecting to a large stone platform that floated in the middle of the cavern, seemingly defying gravity. A great tree sprouted from the platform, its glowing orange flowers lighting up the cavern around it. The girl with the rusty pipe looked up for a moment, eyes scanning over everything.
Then, her pipe pulled to the side of the cavern. She followed it. As she reached the wall, it began to pull up. The girl stuffed the pipe into her jacket and started climbing. The walls were steep, but moisture had eroded the surface unevenly over time, resulting in just enough handholds and footholds to make her way up the cavern. And so she pulled herself up, one step at a time.
A quarter of the way up the cavern wall, one of the footholds suddenly crumbled under her. The girl with the rusty pipe fell, slamming into the ground unceremoniously at terrifying speed before crumpling into a heap. Then, slowly, she pushed herself back to her feet. Dusted herself off. One setback. It didn't matter much. She had time.
There was always time.
A few more climbs. A few more falls. It wasn't long before the girl with the rusty pipe was climbing steadily up the wall, making progress upwards while avoiding unstable handholds and footholds. She made it a fourth of the way up the cavern wall. A half. Two thirds, at the level of the bridge extending outwards to the platform in the center of the cavern. She started scooting sideways, towards where the bridge met the wall.
Then, just as she reached the bridge, instead of jumping off, she started climbing up again.
Up. Through the girl's jacket, the pipe pulled up. So, she kept climbing up. Up past the bridge. Up towards the stalactites looming from the ceiling of the cavern. Up, until she was starting to run out of up. Just before the ceiling, the pull of the pipe stopped just as the girl found herself by a ledge jutting out of the rock. She pulled herself onto the ledge and turned, sitting down with her legs dangling over the cavern below. Peering over the edge, she saw the bridge, the platform, and the tree far below her. By the tree was a large glowing doorway, several times taller than the girl. With a sigh, the girl leaned back, pulling her pipe out and idly tapping it against the ledge. Now to wait once again.
That was fine. She was used to waiting.
A/N: And there's chapter 2! I thought through the rest of the plot over the week, so I guess I'll end up continuing this story, but don't expect it to be too long.
Thanks to everyone who left a review, and I'm glad you're all interested so far! Regarding our protagonist, yeah, she's kind of a terrible hero, though maybe being one isn't really her goal. Who can say? Not her, since she can't really say anything.
Thank you to everyone else who read and left follows/favorites! I'm surprised by the amount of attention the first chapter got, so I hope you all enjoy the story as it goes on. Have a nice day!