Author Notes:
This was a bitch to write. This almost made me tear up kinda. 'Why' you might ask. Because I was in the same Silver at one point in my life. NOT exactly like this, but a similar situation. I'll tell you more at the end of the chapter. Enjoy.
~o0o~
Grimm Wars
Chapter Three: The Rose Blooms
"So… You're here."
The Overlord took in the male Dustling before it with a fiery glare.
The way it held itself was akin to something like a leader. If one were to guess by a first glance, this was the keeper of this castle. And if that were the case, then it would know what the onomily the Overlord was feeling was.
The king took a few steps forward, the ground shaking with each impact of its armored boots. Surprisingly, the keeper did not move an inch from where it stood. It just stood there and waited for the Overlord to come closer. Now becoming wary of a trap, the Overlord came to a stop a few yards away from the keeper. The silence that followed was eire and thick in the air, so thick that one could cut it with a knife possibly.
Then a new sound reached the Overlord's ears and it glanced to a pillar to the keeper's left. When it didn't see anything, the king tried reaching out with its senses. There it could feel a second Dustling, a young female, judging by the way the emotions felt coming off of her and possibly just a little older than Silver.
However, there was something… off about the female.
There was an odd energy about her, something forigen to the Overlord. Something it had never felt before, which honestly was starting to grow annoying to the Overlord. In just one night, there were unknown things happening that were coming out of nowhere.
It needed to learn of these oddities quickly before-.
Th-Thump…
The Overlord fully turned to the pillar the second it felt the pulse again. It was close by. It was-.
"You can sense it, yes?"
The lord of Grimm snapped its head back to the keeper with a glare. Just in time to see the damned Dustling hide a knowing smirk. This infuriated the Overlord and it started to step forward with mighty stomp. But just before it could take another stomp forward to the Dustling, it spoke again.
"So you can understand me. That is good." the male Dustling said and then added, "Are you one of Salem's pawns as well?"
The question caught the Overlord off guard for a moment, but then its rage came back twice fold. How dare this creature call it some damn usuper's pawn! With an enraged growl, the Overlord brought out its mace and quickened its pace forward with the ground beginning to shake more.
"By your reaction… the answer is 'No'." the Dustling said.
Now less than three yards away from Dustling, when it suddenly did the unexpected.
It bowed its head and spoke in a tone that seemed… humbled, "I request you to please listen for a moment." it said.
The Overlord ignored its own confusion and refused the request with an enraged growl. Raising its mace, ready to strike down the keeper and claim the fallen castle-.
"Do you not seek knowledge about Salem!" the Dustling suddenly shouted.
The Overlord stopped short, mace raised high over its head.
The Dustling male lifted his head from his bow and glared at the Master of the Grimm.
"If you are an intelligent being and not some mindless pawn, then think!" he continued, "I am willing to give you knowledge about Salem. And answer as many questions as I can that you might have."
The Overlord remained frozen in place, its mace still high above its head, as it continued to listen.
"Raise above your base instincts for destruction. And analyze the situation."
And the Overlord did. As it stood there frozen in place, mace still high over its head, the Overlord began to weigh in the options.
If this Dustling was really willing to give it knowledge about the usurper, Salem, then it truly needed to think about the options at the moment.
As this happened, the Dustling spoke more, "However, the knowledge you seek will NOT come free of charge."
As the keeper spoke, the Overlord's mace slowly lowered.
"You must swear to me that the girl over there leaves this place alive. She is important to Salem. She holds a power that Salem seeks. And if she does get said power, your war will become much harder."
Now the Overlord had three options open to it.
One: Kill both Dustlings right now and take the anomaly with it.
The obvious downside to this was it would learn nothing. Which was not optimal at the moment. It's needed to know what it was up against and how strong this Witch was.
Option two: Agree to this arrangement and let the girl leave alive with the odd power the keeper spoke of and get answers out of said keeper.
The downside here was that there was no telling where the oddity would end up at, or who it would end up with.
Which brought it down to option three.
The Overlord of the Grimm turned back to the keeper and finally spoke.
"Fine… She… May… Leave… Alive…"
The keeper smiled slightly.
"BUT!" the Overlord quickly added with a booming voice, "The… Power… She… Holds… Stays… With… Me."
For a moment, the keeper is quiet as he thought. Then, with a tired sigh, the keeper replied.
"Very well."
~o0o~
One Week Later…
The Overlord sat upon its rocky throne, pondering what it has been told by the one calling himself Ozpin over the last few days. While it gained some knowledge like it hoped for, a lot of said knowledge also made it actually feel confused by many things.
And for the first time in its long life time, it could not even begin to fathom certain things. A prime example of this was what Ozpin told it about the anomaly it was sensing over at the tower.
The thing he called the Relic of Knowledge.
And if he was telling the truth, there were three other items of power just like the Golden Lamp. The Relics of Creation, Choice, and Destruction. Gifts from the All-Giving Mother, Pandora. And when all four are brought together, one could change the world to their liking at the drop of a hat.
It sounded like he was lying through his at first. So much so that the Overlord (and Flich) called him a fool if he thought they were going to believe that.
But then the keeper said something that caught the Overlord's full attention. The other names that Pandora was called. One of said names was 'The Mother of the Moon'.
And it was there that the Overlord started to believe that Ozpin was not making this all up. Afterall, how else could the man know about the Mother of the Moon?
Upon starting to buy into his words, the Overlord asked how the Relic of Knowledge worked and where to find the rest.
Ozpin explained to him how the Lamp worked, but also told him to not bother, for the Relic of Knowledge can only answer three questions every century and that all the questions were already used up this century.
But the Overlord was starting to detect lies from the dustling. And when the Overlord called him out for lying, the keeper took his own life, via poisoning himself somehow.
That all happened a few days ago.
With Ozpin now dead, the Overlord was left with more questions than answers, which irritated it to no end. To make it worse, it didn't get a chance to question anything about the damned witch, Salem.
Still, the Overlord did not make this choice lightly, it did plan ahead on the matter.
For starters, the dustling female that the Overlord allowed to escape the ruined great nest that Ozpin made him agree too.
The female was now heading north of the main continent. And the Overlord had a plan.
It would use the girl as bait to hopefully catch one of Salem's own pawns in a trap. But first, it needed to do something important.
It knew that catching one of the usurper's pawns was not going to be easy. On top of that, if the word was to be believed, Cinder was highly skilled in combat, as she so demonstrated at the first failed attack on the great nest. She managed to wipe out almost all of Silver's protectors, which meant that she was most likely not the only skilled fighter in Salem's army.
It needed to create a new breed of Grimm to not only ensure the safety of the new Grimm tower in case a skilled intruder broke in and stormed the place, but it needed one of great skill to combat Salem's warriors.
This would be a difficult task to accomplish. But a necessary one if they were to gain an upper hand over the Witch's Grimm.
Finally, after a few days of sitting, the Overlord stood up from its rock throne. And walked over to an opening in the rock walls that overlooked the land outside the new tower.
It was an amazing sight, a sea of trees as far as the eye could see with blood red leaves and black bark. The land itself was a mixture of black and gray ash like earth. Black, jagged mountains with razor sharp rocks that reached up into the sky itself. And Creatures of Grimm of all shapes and sizes seen from the lowest of wolves to mightiest of ravens.
It was beautiful.
However, the Overlord did not pay much mind to it for very long as its sights fell upon the captured giant metal bird from the northern great nest. Its newly painted red hide proudly displayed who the metal bird now serves.
It would use that as a mobile headquarters for its Thralls, but that would not be its only purpose. It would be instrumental in finding the usurper's hide out as well. With the Overlord's Grimm still searching for her, it would take time to find the Witch.
And time was something they could not give too much to the Dustlings. The longer this little civil war took, the more time the Dustlings had to plan and coordinate to retake the Dustling tower.
They could not afford to lose the momentum gained in the few days they had achieved.
Its thoughts were interrupted when a great raven landed near the top of the tower and the Overlord knew who had returned from her mission.
The Overlord waited for Flinch to arrive in the throne room. It didn't have to wait long.
Flinch slithered into the throne room and bowed her head to her master.
'My Lord, I have good news. The tower of Beacon is now fully under our control and we are enforcing our numbers there as we speak. We'll be ready for any counter attack the humans may have for us.' Flinch stated.
The Overlord nodded its head, pleased with the news, 'That is good. But what about our little lure?' it asked.
Flinch simply smiled wickedly, 'Fear not, my Lord,' she said, 'The bait is already reeling in a catch.'
The Overlord's own maw widened into a maniacal grin, 'Perfect.' it said as it turned back to the view outside, 'You have your orders, Flinch. Don't disappoint me.'
Flinch bowed her head, 'I'd rather die.' she said, before turning and slithering out quickly.
~o0o~
Silver had been here before. The forest of ash and bitter cold.
But something was different this time.
Before, the ash fell from the sky like snow. This time, there were silver-linings in the thick clouds. Rays of light breaching the canopy creating small hints of warmth. Plus now, she could see farther too.
She decided to make her way to where one of the rays of light touched the ground.
As the Grimm heir walked closer to it, it got warmer. It didn't burn or harm her, but to be safe, she stayed on the outer edge of where the light conceded to the earth. Not daring to set foot into the light out of fear of what might happen like last time.
That was when she saw it.
Standing in the center of the ray of light, with red roses blooming out of the ground around it, was a small Dustling sprite. Couldn't have been more than a few years of age. It was looking at the ray of light, either not knowing she was there, or… wait… why its hair so similar to-?
"So… you are Silver?" the sprite asked suddenly.
Silver's heart seemed to freeze at the words. Not because of the question itself, but because of how close the tone of voice was similar to her own.
The Dustling sprite turned away from the silver-lining in the clouds and slowly glanced back at Silver with a sad glance.
And there, silver eyes… met silver eyes.
One pair of eyes was like that of a feline, with the slits sharp and narrow with fear.
The other pair of eyes were that of sorrow and forgiveness, like that of pity.
However, before she could study the sprite in front of her with greater detail, it spoke to her.
"Can you tell me why?"
Silver was caught off guard by the question.
"What-?"
"Please explain to me… why do you think the light is evil?"
…
…
For real? Dream be damned, why the Grimm hell was this sprite asking such a question when the answer was so obvious?!
"Are you for real?!" Silver shouted, anger clear in her voice "Why?! WHY?! I'll tell you 'why'! Because every single time that damned light shows up it does nothing but brun me, harm me, and recently, it tried to kill me! I hate the light because it has done nothing but terrorize me! The dreams where it shows up are living nightmares to me!"
She was short of breath when she finished, taking deep breaths to recompose herself. Silver was about to shout at the child again, when something totally unexpected happened.
"Okay. I get it. You don't like the light. But please tell me this much."
Silver, despite being irritated by the sprite, held her tongue. As soon as the sprite finished whatever little speech she had for Silver, the heir would kill her.
"Aren't you lonely here?"
There was a long erie pause as Silver Rose contemplated the words.
"Wh-what?" she asked, completely flabbergasted.
"I mean, just look around you. This is your world. Sure there's no light, which I guess is okay… but there is nothing here." the sprite stated, "Just a dead forest of ash. With no life or friends to be had."
Silver ponded on the words for a long time. She looked around her, all around her. And despite her not wanting to admit it, the words this sprite spoke were true. There was nothing here in this forest.
It had always been in the back of her mind when she first arrived here. But now, being told about it by a Dustling sprite, a child… Silver Rose was forced to admit… She was lonely here. In this forest of ash.
"Let me tell you something please. How about a simple choice. A yes or no question."
Silver looked back to the sprite that looked so much like herself if she was younger.
"Do you want me to stay? Or do you want me to leave and never come back?" the sprite asked, "And bare in mind, both choices have consequences. Ones, that even I don't understand the full implication of."
Silver was silent for what felt like hours. She had to really think about this choice. If she were to tell the sprite to go away forever and not to come back, what would happen then? Would the young heir be alright? Could she truely, truly handle the loneliness she had experienced in the forest?
There was nothing here. No life to be found. She had grown accustomed to loneliness when she faced one of her biggest tests in the far north without her father around. But at least… she had Pup with her for most of her exile. He was a blessing in disguise honestly. For when Silver was really alone, with no one to speak to, she genuinely feared something for the first time in her life.
She feared being alone.
This was NOT a normal fear either. This was something more primal. More based in reality.
…
…
Finally, the Grimm heir spoke as she kneeled down to look at the sprite on her level. She had an answer. An honest, by the shattered moon, answer.
An answer that came from her very darkened soul, evident by the way she started to weep and sob like a child.
She wrapped her arms around the lookalike sprite and answered through her tears.
"Please… *HICC* d-don't leave… *HICC* me-me alone h-here…"
The sprite, having received the answer, gladly returned the embrace in kind.
And as the light slowly became brighter and enveloped them both… there was no more pain from it anymore.
Just warmth and nothing more.
~o0o~
Pup could tell that something was wrong with his mother.
He could feel it deep within his very bones. Something had changed, albeit not physically, but perhaps mentally. The evidence was the tears coming down her face. Glistening, pure tears. And the emotions were beyond powerful.
A mixture of sadness, fear, agony, and something else that Pup didn't recognize.
But then, a miracle happened. Right in front of him.
Mother's hand, which had been resting on the thick fur blanket made by the Overlord, twitched ever so slightly. Pup still did not comprehend why mother's arms and hands now looked like that of the enemy Dustlings, but he cared little about that in the heat of the moment.
And finally, after a cacophony of emotions, more hand twitching, along with her breathing becoming irregular…
Mother, much to Pup's pure and loyal joy, reopened her eyes.
She sat up. And with a warm and grateful smile to her most loyal Grimm. Followed by kind words that made Pup bark with overpowering joy.
"Good morning, Pup…"
*Woof! Woof!*
That was the only reply that Pup gave before he let out a long, but happy howl. Letting all in the tower know.
Silver Rose had reawakened.
~o0o~
Author Notes:
I was in a similar situation when I was in my early teen years. And let me tell you all something… being ALONE… with no one around to talk too… is the WORST kind of thing a young teen can endure. And alienating yourself from people just makes it even harder.
Take my advice… Never be alone, EVER.
Now, onto the plans for the next chapter, I'll give you guys a little heads up, I read your reviews a lot. And I promise to address some of the things people are asking. I will.
And if you guys are enjoying my continuation of the story, thank you.
But, if there is ANYTHING you want to say about this, good, bad, I don't care, please just say it. I can take a little bit of heat. I know that now.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter. I put a lot of effort into this one. But, let me leave you off with a question.
The Question:
Who would you Smash? Silver Ros, Salem, or Flinch?
Leave an answer in the reviews, I can't wait to see the answers. LOL.
Peace!