The following is a list of things I could and should have said to impress Cin after the two of us played an integral part in dealing the killing blow to our giant sand worm nemesis, once Sun said "Quick! Say something cool!"
1) I hope you enjoyed your flight. Exits are located at the barrel of my gun.
2) I'm not taking that bait.
3) Don't send a worm to do a grimm's job.
4) The winds of fortune blow against you.
5) Let your death serve as warning to your brethren.
In truth, almost anything would have been better than what I actually said, which was something to the effect of "Um… we won? Congratulations to Team SAWS, with a 'B' somewhere in it, I suppose?". Shiv wasn't wrong to point out that it was an awful line as Cinnamon merely put her face in her hand and shook her head in my general direction, but he is an asshole for driving the point even further home. I'm not cut out to be the action hero, nor did I sign on to be one, despite taking the lead on our surprisingly successful mission. I am happy to report that no one was hurt in the scuffle, and I apparently have a knack for commanding others into working together effectively on the fly.
To rewind, our party of five left the Folly early in the morning, just after sunrise. Blake did indeed stay with me throughout my watch, and in time, we actually managed to hold a conversation for about an hour. It started not long after my previous entry was finished and I took to simply leaning against one of the raised sections of the watchtower turret while staring out over the sands.
Blake asked me if I was keeping a journal to help organize my thoughts, or simply record a historical log. I told her that it was an ever-changing running document, with the tentative intention of being gifted to someone special. She told me that the notion was sweet, and that she hoped that whoever received it appreciated the gesture, as she personally finds written word to be a deep and meaningful form of self-expression. From there, the conversation spiraled a bit out of control, and covered a range of topics from books and poetry to historical records and plays. Eventually, I managed to pull from Blake that she believes the very act of thinking it necessary to put something into writing proves that whatever is written is meaningful to at least one person, and often more. That is a notion I plan to hold on to, for the future. I quite like that line of thinking, and I think it puts some of the things I've written here into a new perspective. This journal is more than my thoughts. It's my outlook on my life, in the past and present, and I want to share the way it changes over time.
By the time our little talk drew to a natural close, Cin, Sun, and Shiv had awakened, and the five of us went about a mostly silent process of preparation for the coming fight. Little was said amongst us as we made our way out into the sands and set up where we thought the worm would breach the dunes. Shiv followed the rest of us from atop the cliff that houses the watchtower, and I led the rest of the group forward to get set up and prepare to fight. In time, we found a patch of desert that had several large, flat rocks strewn about that could act as stable ground. Our enemy made itself known not long afterward, and the fight kicked off in typical Vacuan style- chaotic, confusing, and full of flying sand.
The worm was large- much larger than I expected, and likely the largest I've ever seen. It was the color of the brown-orange rocks that dot the area, and featured a red frill around where I assume its face would be, if it had visible eyes. Its maw was wide enough to swallow any vehicle in the White Fang caravan, and the beast itself was long enough to get the entire job done in one traveling swallow. Armored plates and spines ran the length of its sides and back- some were straight, though most were warped and gnarled, likely from years of colliding into subterranean rock. It looked angry, hungry, and ready for a fight. Fortunately, we were more than prepared to provide.
I will give Shiv credit, yet again- from the very second that the worm emerged from beneath the sand, our mink friend began peppering the beast with high caliber, dust-coated slugs. I have a feeling that his constant stream of gunfire had something to do with the worm's mood, and Cin firing bolts into the spaces between its armored plates likely didn't help. Surprisingly, Blake and Sun both actually waited for my command before charging in, and I managed to divide us up to take different sections and sides of the worm, as appropriate. There really weren't any close calls throughout the fight, but between the worm's constant burrowing and the general confusion of our assault, I quickly realized that we weren't making much progress toward bringing it down.
After something like fifteen minutes of fruitlessly wailing on the sand worm, I decided to focus my attention on Blake and Sun. Funnily enough, the two have complimentary semblances- Sun can call forth mobile clones while he himself is rooted to the spot, while Blake can call stationary shadows while she is free to move about the area. That observation led to the formation of a plan, and a rather risky move that put both Cin and I in danger. I instructed Blake to project a clone of herself near to a spire of rock jutting from the sand, during a period when the worm had submerged itself. Afterward, I had Sun call forth one of his glittering doubles to lure the worm over to Blake's projection. The beast took the bait, and as it moved to swallow both of the projections, I called for Cin to take my hand and channel my semblance along with me. The two of us worked to summon the fiercest winds we could to buffet the worm upward, and we wound up impaling its gullet cleanly onto the spire of rock. The gambit cost us both all of our auras, given the weight of the worm, but the thing ended up thrashing and bleeding upon the rock as my four comrades opened fire into its throat.
The combined, focused fire and rocky lance protruding up through the side of the sand worm's skull was enough to expose the brain of the beast to a killing blow, and I was quick enough to capitalize upon the opportunity. Climbing the worm and running along it as it was thrashing wasn't quite what I'd refer to as 'fun', but it was necessary to get a clean shot at the creature's vital organ before it managed to wrest itself from its temporary entrapment. Upon arriving at the head of the worm, I engaged the triple-barrel mode of my fan and fired several shotgun shells into the brain at point blank range. It wasn't long before the beast stopped moving, and I made a surprisingly smooth and clean dismount before ruining it with my fumbling line. Such is life, I suppose.
The reward money was quite good, even when split five ways, and the people of Harold's Folly were incredibly grateful for our efforts at slaying the troublesome beast. Though we were done with our hunt and the formalities that came afterward by early afternoon, the five of us decided to return to the watchtower and simply spend the remainder of the day in each other's company; talking, drinking, and sharing stories. To my surprise, Blake seemed to have no problem joining us in drinking, despite her age. To no one's surprise, Sun was suddenly much more interested in the idea than he was back in Shade after seeing that Blake was participating. Perhaps even less surprising is that Blake can hold her alcohol quite well for a girl so young, while Sun is such a lightweight that he makes me feel as though I am a paragon of masculinity. For that, I am grateful.
I am also grateful that Sun doesn't have much hair, and so, I didn't have to hold any of it back after he ended up vomiting behind the watchtower. I saw the sickness coming, and politely informed the rest of the group that Sun and I were taking a walk to talk about 'man things', which, in retrospect, is possibly the weakest cover story I have ever invented. Fortunately, Blake didn't seem to care at the time, Shiv was drunk enough to be genuinely and somewhat creepily nice to us, Cin was preoccupied with her drink, and I was only a little buzzed. Therefore, it all worked out, and I ended up awkwardly rubbing Sun's back as he doubled over and continued to be sick into the sand. Between bouts of retching, Sun informed me that it was actually his first time drinking, and I was less than shocked by the fact. I fully intended to tell him that he didn't need to push himself to try to impress Blake, when she appeared to do it for me.
For all of the ice that seems to be perpetually around her personality, Blake was rather warm and comforting toward Sun in his moment of embarrassment. She told him that she appreciated the gesture, but that he should focus on doing what's best for himself, rather than the social dynamics of the group. After offering a quick 'feel better', she disappeared for the rest of the night, and Sun seemed to deflate a bit. I provided the boy with water and some words of encouragement, before taking him out for an actual walk to get away from the smell of sickness, the rest of the group, and the town itself.
I must admit, the more time I spend alone with Sun, the more I like the boy, and I'm not just saying that in case Cin does indeed wind up with this journal someday. In some ways, Sun is the boy that I wish I had been while growing up, and who I could have been had I not made so many mistakes. He's innocent, driven, passionate, and caring- all things that I've been missing in my life for quite some time, now, but things that I'm happy to see in Cin's little brother. Things that I want to become again, for her sake, and for his. I was a little disappointed when Sun told me that he needed to return to the orphanage and resume his "job" there, as well as his secondary duty of keeping Cin's home in order. Apparently, there's another former tenant of the orphanage around Sun's age taking care of things in his absence, but she doesn't plan to stay indefinitely like he has been. He only gave her name as 'Swirls', and then proceeded to explain that she's mute, and never gave anyone there another name, so it stuck. Sun had invented it himself, apparently, as her hair reminds him of some sort of ice cream. He also told me that it would all make sense once we met upon our return to Shade, and I pray that he's right, because his entire explanation of her sounded rather incoherent and nonsensical.
In retrospect, I knew that Sun's departure was coming, but losing him once our party returns to Shade is going to sting a bit, and I do plan to check in with him every so often, via scroll. Regardless, with the sand worm dead and our group scheduled to begin the return trip to Shade tomorrow, this really isn't about reflecting and bonding with Sun anymore. Soon, everything in my life is going to become laser focused on one thing, and one thing alone- the White Fang, and Cin's role within it. I get the feeling that Blake is going to be following us, and that when it's just me and three members of the Fang sitting in a room somewhere, they're going to have words with me about the future. I'm not sure if I'm ready for what they'll suggest, beg of me, or potentially demand, but I know for a fact that I'm not ready to walk out on Cin over any of it. Even if the party really is nearing its end, I plan to bring her home with me.
For now, though, as the day winds down, and I find myself standing watch once again, I can't help but feel strangely content. Knowing that I no longer need to determine my direction in life on my own is oddly liberating, and I'm looking forward to the future, struggles and all. I think, for now, I'm going to focus on simply bonding with my "team" and enjoying the ride back to Shade for the next few days, and I'll return to this little book once my path is decided.
Author's Note:
More and more unexpected faces are going to show up over time, until this story neatly intersects with Arboretum canon. Once we hit that point, though, this journal will be pausing until the main story catches up. I won't be spoiling events there in Dai's writing. This is merely supplemental stuff.
-RD