Cobalt watched the trees pass by below as he held onto a bar that hung from the top of the bullhead and looked down at the slightly blurred landscape. It was nice being up this high; there was something different about flying out of town on his first mission than there was just flying to Patch or over the city. He kept a straight face, but excitement couldn't help but bubble inside him as he thought about what the mission entailed if they completed it. Not that they wouldn't, of course. There was a very small chance that tracking and getting rid of a few basic Grimm could go wrong.
He glanced at the others. Lily was sitting on the other side of the aircraft, looking out the other window, while Luna stood near him, Astra clinging to her arm, bouncing excitedly until Luna reminded her that they were hundreds of feet in the air. Nora sat across from Lily, her long hair blowing in the wind. Cobalt would have expected her to look as excited as she'd seemed before, but her eyes were half-closed, and her cheeks were pale. Cobalt's ears twitched in concern. Was she feeling airsick? Nora Valkyrie, of all people? That was even weirder than the way she'd been acting before, when she'd been saying goodbye to Ren, and then again when she'd brought up her kids.
Maybe she's feeling her age, He thought to himself. Then he felt stupid; she couldn't have been. His own parents were a year older than her, and as active as ever. They still went on missions when they had the time. And Nora was Nora. There was no way she was nearing the point where she'd have to retire. Cobalt could imagine her still fighting when she was 80.
Of course, he couldn't completely blame her for worrying about her children. He had a feeling that she wasn't just worried they'd get into trouble while she was gone- she was probably worried about the worst case scenario of the mission. Sometimes, parents went on missions and never came back.
Idiot, he cursed himself, tensing. Don't think about that. Don't think about him.
He pushed the memory away and turned his attention to the landscape again. Ahead, he could see a town approaching, and felt the bullhead begin to descend. This was the town they were protecting, then. It looked fairly large for a town outside of Remnant, large enough that a few Beowolves probably wouldn't have affected them too badly, assuming the town had regular game hunters or law enforcement around. Luna had certainly picked a good first mission.
The aircraft landed in a clear area right on the edge of the town, though it didn't halt completely, the rotors still running. Cobalt watched as Nora jolted herself up, getting to her feet.
"Alrighty everyone, grab your bags and let's go," She ordered, her tone chipper even though her face still looked pale. "We've got a mission to start."
Shortly after the group left it, the aircraft took off again. Cobalt watched its shape grow smaller until it disappeared behind the trees of the forest. They were on their own now.
Luna looked around, first at the town, then the forest. "Where do we go now?" She asked. "Do we just…go in there and start looking?"
Nora shook her head. "Nope," She replied. "We'd do that if this were a more urgent situation, but the first thing we should do in this case is to talk to the town's mayor and get a proper assessment of the situation."
Luna looked slightly embarrassed. "Right. That makes more sense."
Cobalt gave her shoulder a pat. "Hey, you wouldn't have known that." He assured her. "The whole point of us being here is to learn, not to lead the mission ourselves."
Luna shook herself and looked more determined. "Right. Let's find the council building."
"Whoo!" Astra wrapped Luna in a hug. "That's my girl, being all confident." Luna blushed in response.
Nora peered into the town. "I'm pretty sure I've been here before," She told the group. "If I remember correctly, the mayor's building is around here."
Lily followed her gaze. "There's a signpost," She noted. "Maybe that'll point us in the right direction?"
Nora grinned at her. "Oh hey, good eye!"
Cobalt and the rest of the group followed her along the dirt track to the signpost. Sure enough, one of the posts pointed to the mayor's building; an old, but large wooden building not too far away.
As the group entered, a young woman looked up at them from where she sat behind a desk at an old computer.
"Oh! You're not around here," She noted. "Are you here to see the mayor?"
Nora nodded. "We heard you had a Grimm problem. We're here to help, from Vale."
"Of course," The woman leaned back in her seat and turned to call through a doorway behind her. "Sir! The huntsman you requested from Vale are here!"
A moment later, an older man walked through the door with a friendly look on his face. "Ah, good to see you," He greeted them. "There are more of you than I thought."
"These four are students from Beacon," Nora motioned to Team LLAC. "They're here for their first mission."
"Ah, I see," The mayor replied, nodding. "Well, this shouldn't be too difficult. Some of our hunters noticed Beowolf tracks in the forest a few days ago. Not close, but we'd like to have them dealt with anyway, just in case."
Nora didn't respond and instead glanced at Luna. Cobalt gave her an encouraging nudge as he realized Nora probably wanted to give her a chance to test her leadership skills.
Luna glanced at Cobalt, then back at the mayor. "Oh, uh- do you know how many there were?"
Cobalt gave her another pat on the shoulder as Nora nodded approvingly.
"Oh, seems to be three at the most," The mayor responded. "Nothing a trained huntress and a team of students can't handle."
Luna gave a quick nod. "All right," Thank you."
As they left the building, Nora smiled at Luna.
"Good job back there," She praised. "Way better than how Jaune acted on our first mission," She chuckled. "He had absolutely no idea what he was doing. Pyrrha had to ask all the questions for him."
Cobalt flashed Luna a thumbs-up as Astra gave her another hug.
"Okay, well," Nora announced. "Looks like we're going in. Hope you guys know how to light a fire because we're probably going to be staying the night in there."
At that, Luna looked terrified. Cobalt felt a pang of pity for her, and slightly shared her alarm- he didn't exactly want to spend the night in a forest either.
"I know how," Lily replied to Nora's question. "I've been camping with my mother a few times before." Well, that was good, at least. Two people with experience at being in a forest overnight were better than one.
"Great!" Nora spun on her heel to face the trees. "Let's go and destroy some monsters!"
The group spent the next few hours stumbling through the trees and foliage as their hunt began, keeping their eyes open for any signs of Grimm. Tracks, broken branches, trampled foliage; anything that would indicate the presence of another creature.
Astra was certainly enjoying herself, getting excited at just about any animal she saw that she'd not already encountered in Atlas, which was almost all of them. Luna and Lily had to remind her to stay quiet several times, though neither of them seemed especially annoyed, and Luna's eyes sparkled with affection every time her girlfriend chased after another squirrel.
Aside from the occasional word of advice and reminder for the teens to stay close to her, Nora stayed oddly quiet, instead displaying an uncharacteristic cautiousness, her eyes darting around the undergrowth and each step carefully placed. If a twig were to snap too loudly, she'd jump slightly, sometimes even reaching for Magnhild. Luna was acting much the same, but that was normal. This was not normal, not from what Cobalt knew about Nora. There was something familiar about her behaviour, but he couldn't place it, and eventually turned his attention back to the mission.
When the sun was low enough on the horizon that in flared right into the group's eyes, Nora stopped them in a small clearing.
"I think we should make camp for the night," She announced. "We won't be able to find much of anything once it gets dark." She glanced at Lily with a grin. "Ready to prove you can make that fire?"
As Lily piled dry logs and sticks together in the middle of the clearing, Cobalt laid out the sleeping bag he'd brought for the mission, hoping it didn't attract any bugs while he was sleeping.
After a few tries, Lily managed to spark a flame on her pile. By the time the sun sunk below the horizon, a healthy flame was going, filling the area with warmth and light.
"Okay, did you all bring food?" Nora asked as the team sat close to the fire's heat. "I don't know about the rest of you, but my stomach is yelling at me to eat right now."
Cobalt smiled. That was more like the Nora he knew. "Coco gave me sandwiches this morning," He announced, diving into his bag. "Fox and Yatsu made enough for everyone, just in case."
"I've got water bottles." Luna added.
As Cobalt began passing sandwiches around, Astra brought out somewhat-squished muffins, while Lily unboxed carefully-packed apples. While still staying on guard in case of Grimm, the group managed to relax as they ate their fill and struck up campfire conversations.
"So Lily," Astra asked. "Tell me about your camping adventures."
Cobalt leaned forward. "Hey, yeah, you never told us you'd been camping before."
Lily chuckled slightly. "It's really not that exciting," She replied. "We mostly went to areas specifically reserved for camping, not fully out in the wild like this."
"I can't imagine having to regularly do this," Luna sighed. "It sounds like a nightmare."
Nora grinned teasingly at her, on her third sandwich of the night. "I'm afraid you're going to have to get used to that," She pointed out. "A lot of missions are going to require camping, sometimes in much rougher conditions than this."
Luna tilted her head back, eyes closed. "I know," She groaned. "I'm just not looking forward to it.
Nora finished the sandwich. "You get used to it after a while," She explained. "After Beacon fell, almost every night for us was spent in the middle of nowhere, even in the snow and rain." She gave a half-smile. "And even before Beacon, not having a good place to rest was pretty common for me."
Guilt washed over Luna's face as an awkward silence fell. "You're right," She replied after a moment. "I shouldn't have complained."
Nora chuckled warmly. "Hey, don't worry about it. It was a long time ago. I'm just warning you for the future. It's just one of the sacrifices it takes to be a huntsman." She glanced around, before asking abruptly, "Are there any muffins left?"
Luna blinked at her. "Haven't you already eaten three full sandwiches?"
Nora shrugged. "Can't help being hungry." She caught a muffin as Astra tossed one to her.
Cobalt stared at her as she pulled the wrapper away, curiosity biting at him more than ever. Nora was known for having a large appetite, but even this was a lot. Adding on to everything else, something was definitely going on with her. The way she was acting almost reminded Cobalt of when Coco had been- wait. He froze. Of course, it all made sense now. Nora's unusually high concern for Ren and her children, the airsickness, her cautiousness, and now the appetite.
"Oh shit," He realized out loud. "You're pregnant."
Cobalt's teammates stared. Nora stopped before she could take a bite of her muffin, then lowered it with a soft chuckle.
"How'd you figure it out, huh?"
Cobalt smiled gently. "It took me a bit, but I realized that you were acting a lot like Coco was when she was expecting the twins." Except Coco had also been way grumpier as well. And would then apologize profusely for being grumpy. It had been very odd for her.
"Of course," Luna stared at Nora. "That explains everything. I knew you were acting weird."
Nora smiled wryly. "Guess I haven't really been hiding it well." She picked at the muffin.
Cobalt leaned forward, even more curious now. "So, how far along are you?"
Nora pulled off a piece of muffin and ate it. "About two months, I think."
"If it's okay to ask," Lily asked. "Why risk the mission?" She shuffled her feet, looking awkward to be questioning a well-known older huntress. "It just seems like you'd rather be relaxing at home right now."
"Okay, first of all," Nora pointed out. "This is nowhere near as bad as it gets. Compared to later, this is a walk in the park. And second," She ate more of the muffin. "I only found out last night."
Cobalt's ears shot up in surprise. "Really? Two months, and you didn't realize sooner?"
"Hey, give me a break!" Nora shot back with mock defensiveness. "It's been sixteen years since the last time. I honestly thought I was just getting old." She blinked. "Actually, I thought I was already too old. This…" She sighed. "Was not exactly something I planned for."
She made a good point, Cobalt realized. He wouldn't call her old, but it was still pretty unusual for people her age to get pregnant without intending to. It would probably be too easy to imagine that a missed cycle was just a result of reaching your age.
"Aw, this is so cute though!" Astra piped up for the first time since the conversation had begun. "You and Ren must be really happy!"
"I'm surprised he even let you come today." Luna added with a short laugh.
Nora looked away, rubbing her shoulder awkwardly. "There's a uh…slight chance you four are the only ones who know."
Luna stared at her, eyes wide. "What? You haven't even told Ren?"
"I didn't know how to bring it up," Nora explained, still looking awkward. "It would've started a long discussion and he probably would have made me stay home. I didn't want to let Coco or Jaune down."
Luna smirked suddenly. "You know he's gonna be mad at you, right?"
Nora huffed in amusement. "For a bit. Before he starts bawling his eyes out." She sighed, affection clear on her face. "I'll tell him right after the mission, don't worry."
"Well, until then," Cobalt pointed out. "You should probably take it easy."
"He's right," Luna added, crossing her arms and sitting up taller. "As team leader, I'm ordering that you stick to helping us track and giving us advice. No Grimm fighting."
Nora laughed. "You should like Jaune. But yes, all right. I'll leave the fighting to you kids." She thought for a moment, before adding, "Unless you get into too much trouble."
Luna looked satisfied. "That's fair."
As the fire began to die down, Lily offered to take first watch in case of any Grimm attacks, while Cobalt and the others settled into their sleeping bags. It wasn't the most comfortable, but Cobalt didn't complain. At the very least, it was the beginning of summer, and the air was slightly warm as he drifted off.
He reminded himself not to be disappointed by today's lack of progress. There wasn't much to be expected of such a simple mission, after all. With any luck, tomorrow would be better, and everything would go smoothly. It wouldn't be like his father's last mission. The circumstances were completely different; there was no threat.
It didn't stop the nightmares and memories filling his sleep that night.
