A/N: Okay, here's the next chapter. This one was delayed a bit because of a family emergency. Nothing super serious, but I wasn't writing for a few days this week so that's why it's a late.
Also, this one is going to be a bit rougher, as I couldn't concentrate, in part due to the same family incident, enough to properly edit it like I normally would, which brings me to my normal request.
I'm Looking for a Beta Reader, If anyone reading this would like to volunteer or knows someone who is interested, please PM me.
Also, thank you so much to MarcusMebadd and Jawaswag Jenkins, I thank you for taking the time to review my work and tell me what I need to work on. I'm trying to improve in what was mentioned, and hopefully I will be getting better as I go on.
Anyway onto the story.
Chapter 8
The City of Mistral appeared on the horizon as the came over the top of another hill, a dark silhouette in front of the setting sun, with pin pricks of lights appearing here and there.
"Oh, thank God!" Yang gasped out, pulling her pack off and dropping it, rolling her shoulders.
"Don't get too excited yet," Thor said while mimicking Yang's movements. "Just because we can see it doesn't mean it's an hour walk away."
"I know!" Yang said, a little defensively. " But at least we can see it now!" she said as she started pulling out her camp gear. "I know it'll be an another day, maybe two, but at least the end is in sight."
Thor shrugged and started to get his own pack ready for the night. Neither had much to do in this regard, bed rolls and sleeping bags and setting up the fire.
Thor looked to the horizon and tried to gauge how much light they had left. He estimated he had an hour before it was too dark to see really well, and he figured this may be a chance to try and catch something to eat. If he didn't, they still had enough canned food for four more days, but he really didn't revel in the idea of eating it again.
If he couldn't find anything in the hour, he'd come back, He didn't think it was likely, but he didn't see the harm in it either.
"Yang, I'm going to head out, see if I can't find anything better to eat."
She waved him off as she worked on getting the fire going. Picking up his axe, he headed into the woods and started looking for signs of animal movement.
It only took Thor five minutes to find a game trail, but that was the easy part.
It didn't take much longer than that to track what he was certain a rabbit trail and follow it. He readied a wooden throwing club he'd made for this exact situation. You didn't need a bow and arrow or a rifle to hunt small game like a rabbit. A wooden club with a heavy knob on the end would work if you knew how to use it properly.
But it wouldn't matter if he didn't find anything in the next ten, or fifteen minutes, by then it's too dark for him to see.
The fire was going strong as Yang placed a can of beans in it. This canned crap was getting old, and she was really hoping Thor would manage to get something else for dinner, but she was prepared for the reasonably likely scenario he wouldn't. Not that she doubted his abilities, but the light was fading fast, and his eye sight in the dark wasn't as good as her's.
She imagined that the injuries he had gotten screwed something up something in his one working eye. He wasn't blind in low light, but he couldn't see as well as he probably should have.
He didn't tell her any of this, but she'd caught glimpses here and there of him getting caught on branches she could see clearly when the sun was setting, or tripping over a root she had managed to side step.
She didn't even know if Thor was actually aware of this himself. She'd bring it up to him once they were in the city and had found Ruby.
Just as she thought this, Thor came tromping out of the woods, two skinned rabbits on a stick. He was smirking, clearly very pleased with himself, raising his game over his head.
She returned his smile, but she always felt weird eating anything he caught. She'd grown up eating meat but was always sort of separated from the actual act of killing and the food served at the dinner table.
But she recognized the need in certain situations. They were supplementing the food they brought with fresh meat and fish, but if they were in the wild longer, it would be a useful, probably even essential skill. The route they had traveled had a fair number of town and villages to stop at and resupply, but her Uncle had told her about times when he'd been in the wilderness for weeks, even months at a time.
As Thor sat down next to the camp fire and started to prepare the skinned rabbits on a spit to cook them over the fire, Yang decided to ask him something "You think you could teach me how to hunt?"
Thor only glanced up his work and answered "Sure, but it's more than just being able to kill something, you need to know how to track and find them. Most people don't have the patience to learn that part of it, but if you want to learn, I can show you some different tracking skills on the road to the city." As he finished speaking, he placed the skewered rabbits over the fire and turned to look at her "That's actually the hardest part, once you find the animal, it comes down to if you can kill it or not, and some people just can't."
"I can do it, Thor, I can wipe out a whole herd of Grimm, I think I can kill an animal." She said this with confidence but wasn't sure if it was true. Grimm were monsters, and killing an animal that had never done anything to her, well that might be harder. But it was an excellent survival skill, so she figured she'd just have to bit the bullet on the issue and take it head on, as she was want to do.
The smell of cooking rabbit meat was pulling her out of her thoughts, it smelled so much better than the canned food they mostly been eating, and she was looking forward to some fresh food.
She wished they had some vegetables though, fresh ones, not the canned crap they'd been eating. But fresh vegetables were hard to find in the wild, although Thor assured her they could be, but they weren't likely to be what she thought of as a vegetable, the ones that grew in the wild didn't look like what you saw at the store.
Thor turns the spit to cook the meat more evenly and turned to her before looking down at the can in the fire. "Doubt I'd be able to catch anything?" His tone was accusing or aggressive. Indeed he even smirked at her.
"Hey, it was getting dark, and wanted to make sure that if he did end up with having to eat the canned food again, it would at least be hot." She reached for the can with his prosthetic arm and pulled it out, still intent on eating. She wasn't going to let it go to waste after all.
Thor just laughed as Yang set it down and waited for it to cool.
Their last dinner in the wild, or at least second to last a far as Yang could figure, was one of the better ones for their time on the road. Of course, excepting all times they'd stayed in an inn or tavern, but as far as meals prepared on a camp fire, this one was better.
She suspected it was more from what they ate, rather than how it was prepared. The rabbit meat tasted good to her, even unseasoned. Thor told her it was much leaner than pretty much anything she would have had before. She could certainly taste that, but she knew most people liked fattier cuts of meat, she, however, liked it lean.
Thor had placed the leg bones from his rabbit on a flat stone and put the stone almost right in the fire. She watched in some confusion as he watched them, and at one point she thought he might be trying to do some sort of ritual with them. She had read about casting bones into a fire to read for signs of the future.
These thoughts were shattered when he pulled the bones out and started eating them.
"Ewww! What are you doing!"
"Hmmm?" He looked over at her, chewed some more, then swollen before answering "Good source of calcium and mineral." He said, eating it like a pretzel "If you eat nothing but the meat off a rabbit, you can get sick, this helps work against that."
"Oh really?" she said, partially laughing, partially asking. "I've never heard of that."
Thor shrugged and continued eating the brittle bones " It's not super common knowledge, but it's out there." He looked at the last of the bones, picked it up and held it to her "Want to try one?"
Yang was a bit surprised by the question but tried to look a little bit interested, so as not to be rude. "No, I don't think so, maybe some other time."
He shrugged and crunched away on it.
Yang flinched at the noise and could help but think that, even if he was right, she didn't think she'd be eating bones anytime soon.
They woke up early the next morning, doused and buried their camp fire, and packed up. They want to get into the city today, but Thor also wanted to take any chances he could to give Yang some tips on tracking and hunting.
A single day was nowhere near enough to learn it all, and it would take tons of practical experience to use it properly. But any journey needed to start somewhere, and just because it was hard didn't mean you shouldn't try.
They set out, with every intention of reaching the city before night fall. As such they walked at a much brisker pace than normal, and the patter of their foot steps made a much quicker rhythm on the ground.
But Thor still found time to find an example to show Yang tracking signs. Broken branches were a big one, and to look for fur on the branches. Another was to search for signs of feeding, and how an individual makes showed what the animal.
Another was scat, a sure sign an animal was in the area. Tracks were obvious, but what Thor pointed out if they were old, how dry they were.
It was a good crash course, at least Thor thought so, and may give Yang an edge, but it was a poor substitute or real survival training. She'd had a fair share, he knew, all combat school had it but wasn't the same as having to deal with in in real life. Not unless the school decided to drop all the students in the forest for two weeks.
He resolved to show Yang, and Ruby when they meet up again, some of the finer details of wilderness survival. Not just for missions, but if the time came when they needed to fall off the grid, this would be a useful skill set to have. Not just hunting, just shelter building, fire starting, navigation and more.
But for right now, a few basic tracking tips would work. If Thor wanted to actually teach her some tracking skills, it would derail them for their course, which was to reach Mistral.
The City still sat as a shadow on the horizon, but it was much closer now, and if they pushed themselves they could reach in with in the day.
However, things were not to go as planned.
As the walked down the road to the city, they came to a bridge. Or what used to be a bridge, as it was in total ruin. The gorge was at least a hundred and fifty feet across, and a fog had set in the bottom, making the depths hard to decern. The mist didn't rise to the top of the gorge but stopped about from thirty feet from the ledge.
Had they been on a more used road, this wouldn't have been a problem, but they were traveling on a much smaller dirt road, and as such, this destroyed bridge had not been attended to.
Thor sighed a looked at it "We'll have to go around or down through, that means we won't reach the city until tomorrow."
Yang, chewing the inside of her cheek, nodded in agreement. She didn't want to have to wait, but there was no helping it in this case.
"Now, what we need to do is decided which way to go, or if we think we can climb down and out," Thor said, picking up a stone and tossing it down. It was maybe five or six seconds before they heard it hit.
Yang wasn't exactly sure at what the time to fall meant regarding actual heights, but she knew that trying to climb down that, in those foggy conditions, no doubt with the rocks slippery, was not going to be easy.
What's more, she didn't want to go into the mist. Their last two encounters in those conditions were not ideal, the Mist Maurauders were nasty Grimm. Not overly tough, but shockingly intelligent and crafty for their size. That was usually seen any sort of planning or thinking until a Grimm was older and bigger. Granted, she didn't know how big the damn things could get or how big they started out, but they were among the smallest Grimm she'd ever seen or heard of.
"We could climb down." Thor said as he looked to his left and right "Might be faster than going around, but…I don't know."
"Thor, you don't think it's Mist Mauraders do you?" Yang asked, trying to hide her anxiousness in her voice.
"No, I don't think so, listen." He said holding his hand up to cup his ear.
Yang listened but didn't hear anything. "What am I suppose to be hearing?"
"Nothing, that's exactly it, nothing." He said, examining the ledge. "You remember how those thing made the shrieking noise right? We'd hear them if they were down there, no this fog is probably natural."
She trusted Thor's judgment, but it still didn't stop the atavistic dread that ran down her spine as she looked into the depth of the cavern.
"Okay, well, how do we go down?" she kicked a stone down into the mist.
"We can use what's left of the bridge." He pointed to the struts and beams from the ruined structure. "We can follow them down and use the concrete bases as foot and hand hold. That'll be safer and more sturdy than using the rock face."
Yang looked down the edge and couldn't help but worry a bit, but he was right, it was going to be safer using the remaining foundation to get down, and it was likely much faster than going around.
"Well, let's just get going, the longer we wait, the less day light we'll have." She said as she prepared to descend.
The climb to the bottom hadn't taken as much time as Yang had originally thought it would. The remaining frame work of the bridge had helped, no doubt, but that didn't mean it had been easy.
Visibility had been low, and even with Thor blowing the mist away with his semblance, that didn't help them see how far they had to go to the bottom, given how small of range he had with it. Shapes that were simple outcroppings or shards of metal had an incredibly sinister appearance in the fog before it blew away.
But they had reached the bottom, with nothing worse than a minor scratch Thor had gotten from pieces of the bridge.
"Okay, let's get to the other side," Yang announced as she started to head out.
"Hold up," Thor said as he pulled out his scroll and looked at it. "Let's make camp for the night."
"What? We're half way there, come on, let's get out of here while we can!"
"It's too late in the day Yang." He said as he put his scroll away "It's going to be harder going up than coming down, and if we start now, we'll be climbing in the dark half way up, and that's not safe."
"What? It can't be that late." She muttered as she pulled her scroll out and realized he was right, given the time it had taken them to get down, and the time of day, they'd be climbing in the dark at some point, and she hadn't liked climbing in what little light they had. "Okay, fine, but we're going to head out first thing in the morning." She said as he started pulling her camp gear out. "You want to start collecting fire wood?" she asked him as she started getting ready.
"Won't do us any good, every thing down here is to damp to start a fire," Thor said as he touched the ground and picking up a stick and snapping it in half. It didn't make a crisp sound like a dry stick would, but more like the over ripe celery stock snapping.
"What, are we just gonna sit in the dark all night?" Yang said while trying to hide the slight panic in her voice. She wasn't afraid of the dark, but she didn't like the idea of being completely blind down in the gorge.
"No, I've something just in case of emergency." He said as he pulled out a gas tank and attached as a lantern to the top. After fiddling with it for a minute, it lite up. Setting it down, he looked at her "Gas Lantern." He said, " Won't last more than a night, but I don't think we'll need it for more than one night."
Yang raised and eyebrow at him "How long have you had that thing?"
"Since the start, but I didn't want to use it unless a fire was impossible, I only have the one tank."
"Okay." She said putting a hand out towards it "Does it give off any heat?"
"Not much I'm afraid." He said as he set up his own sleeping area. "But we should be fine for one night."
Yang glowered at this, she didn't mind the cold all that much but combined with how damp it was down here, she knew she wasn't in for a pleasant night.
They took out the last of their canned food and popped the lids off. Eating it cold wasn't what either of them wanted to do, but with no fire, they could endure it for one more night.
Yang finished her "dinner" and tried to settle in for the night, but it was too cool and damp for her to get comfortable.
She rolled in her sleeping bag trying to get comfortable. But it eluded her, and eventually, she sat up and ruffled her hair in frustration. She looked over at Thor, he was sleeping like a baby, and she found herself jealous. He could sleep pretty much anywhere, and she wished she could as well. Of course, when he had his nightmares, he didn't sleep well at all.
But he looked peaceful tonight, and she was cold.
Climbing out of her sleeping bag, she crept over to Thor. Pulling his bag open, she climbed in and snuggled next to him. His body heat was a welcome sensation and whole she could feel the cold air around her head, their combined body heat was keeping her more than warm enough.
The steady thudding of his heart was soothing as well, and before she knew it, sleep had over taken her.
Thor knew he was dreaming this time, but this wasn't a typical dream, nor was it like the visions.
This felt calmer, more grounded, it felt real. But Thor knew he was dreaming because he clearly remembered where he had set down to sleep.
But he was walking down a stone path, surrounded by darkness, and while he knew this was a dream, he couldn't control any of it.
But here, he was whole, both eye's, arms and legs. No burns or scars, just him as he was before.
He continued to walk, feeling that what he needed was straight ahead. He didn't dare step off the path, because he knew, although he didn't know how, that if he did, it would mean the end of him.
As he continued, he saw a light in the distance. He couldn't make out what it was from where he was. He had no point of reference, it was surrounded by darkness, it would have been a candle just a few yards in front of him, or a star in the sky.
He moved towards it, but the path didn't move straight towards it. It bent and wound its way towards the light. Sometimes turning away from it completely, but he was sure that he needed to reach the light. It held answers for him, he was sure of it.
But the dream world faded as he felt something pushing on his shoulder. He tried to shake it off and move along the road but the shaking didn't stop, and he started to head a voice saying "Wake up!"
"Thor! Wake up!" Yang hissed in his ear, not yelling, but clearly in an excited mood.
"What?" he grumbled, as he woke up, pushing his sleeping bag from on top of him, reaching for his axe.
"Something is here, I heard it." She whispered to him, trying to keep her tone down.
Thor rose to his feet beside her, then he heard it.
It a low wail, it sounded like the wind almost, but it seemed to come from the ground. As it tapered off, it rose in pitch and became a lonesome shriek. It almost sounded like the Marauders but was much deeper in pitch.
"Do you know what it is?" He asked Yang.
"No, it's not like anything I've ever heard before." She whispered back "This is something new."
Yang could help but wonder if there was some greater intelligence at work here. The Mist Mauraders were bad enough, a new undocumented species of Grimm. But now there was something else lurking in the darkness, and it sounded much bigger.
Two new species of Grimm? This was not right, she wasn't academically inclined, but she knew the newest species of Grimm to have been discovered was near a hundred years ago.
They had encountered two new species in the time frame to travel between two kingdoms. Something was wrong.
She had thought the sound may have been something else, but this was not the call of a normal animal. She was sure of it. This was a Grimm, it reminded her of the Mauraders, and that scared her. The unknown scared her, it was something she could not see or understand. If she couldn't see it, she couldn't fight it.
The gas lantern was flickering, and for a moment, Yang thought it was running out of fuel. But the rattling sound from the metal on it told her that it was shaking.
Before she pieces together what that meant, the light suddenly vanished. It didn't dim or fade first, it was as abrupt as someone turning a light switch off.
She felt a hand on her shoulder, and if she weren't as conditioned for stressful situations as she was, she'd probably of jumped. But it was just Thor.
"Look." He whispered and pointed into the fog.
She looked, but thought it was pointless the low light with the fog's thickness made it all but pointless. But she thought she heard something in the direction he was pointing. Another loud wail and suddenly a bright light seemed to shot out of the ground straight into the air.
Readying for an attack, she followed the light. Soon it became apparent it wasn't alive, ar it reached the zenith of its shallow arc, and dropped to the ground some thirty feet away. It burst into a ball of fire then faded into the dark.
"Was that the lantern?" She whisper, although she didn't know why, what ever had taken the lantern had already been right next to them. But she hadn't seen it, and that was bad. Either it was really fast or possibly capable of invisibility.
"Yes, and it came out of the ground." He said. "We need to run, to the other side and get to the walls and climb out."
She didn't know exactly why he thought this was a good, why run? But then she remembered what she'd seen and what he said. "You think it's under the ground?"
Thor nodded "We can't fight something we can't see or even actually touch. A retreat is better for now."
"Okay, we'll run for it on three." She said, looking at Thor dark outline, he nodded." One." Her legs tensed "Two," her pulse heightened, and she could swear she felt her heart beating in her ears. "Three!"
They took off towards the opposite wall, running as fast as they could. It was dark, and she was afraid they crash into something.
Thor had apparently thought the same thing and pulled a flare out, lite it and threw it as hard as he could into the opposite wall. Seeing where it bounced off the wall.
In the dim light given off by the flare, she could see the concrete base of the bridge and jumped onto it and started climbing up the stone face of the gorge wall.
That was when she heard Thor cry out in pain. Turning around, and in the dim light given off by the flare, she could see Thor was on his stomach, gripping the edge of the concrete base.
Something was pulling on his leg, his real one. She couldn't see it well, but it was black and long, coming out of the ground.
Jumping down, she blasted it, severing nearly completely in half.
With whatever it was dead, Thor started to scramble with her up the concrete and stone until they were good twenty feet above the ground.
Both panting, not from physical exhaustion but the adrenaline rush from the run and near miss.
Thor placed a hand on Yang's shoulder "Thanks for the save."
She shook her head to show it wasn't needed "So." She began "What's stopping what ever that is from just coming out of the walls to get us."
"I don't think they can tunnel through stone." He said, looking and feeling around to make sure they were on stone.
"What makes you think that?"
"Well, it went after me, and only got me. If they could go through stone, you climbing would have been a much easier target, they'd just have to knock you off."
"Okay, that makes sense, but why go for it in the first place?"
Thor shrugged "If they could tunnel through stone, we were screwed either way, this way we at least won't have to try and cross the bottom of the gorge with them after us."
Well, Yang wished he'd made the decision to run on more solid thoughts, but it didn't seem like they were being pursued now. The wailing was echoing up from the floor of the gorge. "Should we try to climb out now?"
Thor looked up the wall of the gorge. "No, it's too dark, We should wait until the sun is up."
Yang didn't want to have to be in the place longer than he had to, but the thought of trying to climb out in the dark, and maybe slip or fall, then ending up right at the bottom of those things again.
Instead, she hunkered down, pulled her knees to her chest to keep warm. "I knew coming down here was a bad idea." She muttered. They'd lost their packs and sleeping bags, and aside from a handful of items, they had nothing, and she wasn't about to go back for it.
Thor plopped down next to her and wrapped his arm around her, sharing his body heat. "I'm sorry." That was all he said, he didn't elaborate or say what he was sorry for, although she had a vague idea.
"It's not your fault, I mean, how could you of known." She didn't feel much like talking right now, but icing him out was not going to do them any good. "So what do you want to name this one?"
"I'm not sure if I'm up for that after they grabbed me. Those things are strong, I wasn't sure how long I could hold on for."
"Well, they need a name." She said, trying more to keep the conversation flowing, she was certain she wasn't going to get back to sleep tonight, and sitting here in the dark in silence was not appealing either. "How about…Terra-risers?" She said emphasizing the first part to make the "Terra" part stand out.
"A pun? Really."
"How long have you known me?" She said smirking.
"Fair enough, but that name sounds too much like kids show villain."
"Yeah, I know, I just want to keep the conversation going, I don't want to sit here all night in silence."
"Look, let's just forget about those things for tonight. We're going to be in Mistral tomorrow, we'll finally find Ruby, and then, we can start to sort this whole thing out, and find out what she's learned so far."
Yang thought on this, and the very idea of seeing her sister again made her feel warmer. She nestled closer to Thor, wanting to share more of his wrath. She was starting to see some valid points for Ruby wearing her cloak, in situations like this, it would be helpful.
But that damn thing was a hindrance in a fight, getting caught on things or someone grabbing it. But she'd be the last person to try and take it from her.
"How long until sunrise?" She asked, changing the subject.
Thor pulled out his scroll and looked at the time "An hour away, just about. I guess we were asleep longer than I thought."
"Good." She said standing up and doing stretches. "I want to be warm when the sun comes up and hit this thing as soon as possible."
The sun rise wasn't anything like what she had ever experienced before. It only seemed to get brighter, no real source of light was visible.
But they had decided to head out at sunrise regardless and started their ascent.
Thor had been right, this was harder than the climb down. Having to fight gravity along with finding good foot and hand holds.
She wanted to check on how long they had been climbing, but she couldn't reach her scroll. It felt like a few hours, but she knew that wasn't really a good measure of the time. It could have been way more or way less.
After what seemed like forever climbing, they eventually broke the mist.
Yang hadn't even realized how suffocating it had been to be in a fog. Not physically but mentally, she took a deep breath.
The top was near, and with that knowledge, she felt a surge of energy and push to get to the top.
"Oh god, I'm glad to be out there." She breathed heavily as she flopped on the ground, Thor coming up behind her.
"Yes." He said plopping down next to her. "We can rest for a few minutes, then we can head out." He said while rolling his shoulders, trying to work some stiffness out of them.
They sat there for a few minutes, getting their the wind back. But before long they stood up and set off at a brisk pace.
Neither of them had to say why they were moving faster than normal. They didn't have the gear to spend another night in the wild. It wasn't that they couldn't, in fact, Yang was sure Thor could do it for a long time if he had to. But it wouldn't be a pleasant experience, and they both wanted to be in the city before nightfall.
"So." Yang began, breathing a bit heavier than she normally would have "Think of a name for those things yet?"
Thor snorted a bit before responding "No, but we don't even really know what they look like, other than the one that grabbed me, and that one was still partially underground."
"Yeah…" she said trailing off a bit as she thought about what he said. They didn't really know what these things even looked like, so naming them felt off when he brought that up. Giving them a name should really only come after they knew more about them.
The City still loomed on the horizon to them, but they were close.
But the sun was getting low in the sky, and they had to turn the conversation to whether they were going to make camp, or try and push through the night and get to the city.
This was, of course, starting to frustrate Yang. Despite cutting through the gorge and moving double time, they still weren't at their destination.
Thor told her that just because they had picked up the pace didn't mean they were going to make their time. They may have moved faster, but they still need to go over terrain and roads that had fallen out of use, and as a result was not as easy to travel, and had broken their pace.
"No, not another night out here Thor." She said as he approached the question. "We've got no food, no sleeping gear, we're getting there, I don't care if we have to walk all night."
"Okay." He raised his hands defensively. "I was just asking."
Yang's temper had been a bit more easily agitated after the event in the gorge. Neither of them had eaten since then, and Thor was certain that had a bit to do with her irritation. But more over he thought she was eager not to experience any more delays than they had already had.
The small spat resolved, they doubled their pace, not quite running, but close.
Thor couldn't ever remember feeling a worn out as he did now, serious injuries aside, just from exerting himself for this long. He felt dizzy and his mind was clouded with exhaustion.
Yang didn't look much better, but they had made it into the city. It was well after sundown, and they needed a place to stay for the night. They didn't want to go through the effort of the search, but they couldn't sleep on the streets.
They eventually, through some inquiry, found a hotel. Not really nice, but affordable, and most importantly, it was here.
They walked into the single room with one bed. With out talking to each other, they kicked their boots off, stripped down to their underwear and climbed into the bed, and were asleep in moments.
The night both of them dreamed.
Thor had his dream of the darkness and the light he was trying to reach through the winding path. He couldn't tell if he was getting closer, but he was certain he was. But he had to sense of perspective or context, he didn't have a clue how far away his destination was.
Yang's dream was more of a memory. But one she knew couldn't be true. Her mother, her biological mother, was home. Doing things Summer had, taking care of her and Ruby. She knew it wasn't right, but it was such a beautiful lie that she wanted to indulge in for a little while longer.
After making cookies for them, Raven played with them. Yang couldn't help but feel a sadness under the joy, knowing deep down this was just a dream.
When she woke up, Yang didn't open her eye's hoping to slip into the dream, but she knew that wouldn't work. Still, she lay there, trying to remember as much of it as she could.
After a minute or so of just lying still, she felt someone next to her and remembered where she was.
She had insisted on getting into the city as quickly as possible, and by the time both her and Thor had gone to sleep, they were both close to zombies.
She still felt the aches from the overexertion, and she was regretting it now. But regardless, she was happy to finally be close to her sister. She should be here, at Haven, looking for answers. That was the first place they'd go.
Sitting up in the bed, she looked at Thor and saw he was still fast asleep. She was relieved to see he looked peaceful. She didn't like the idea of starting the day with waking him from one of his night terrors.
Getting up, she headed into the shower. He cloaths, the only set she had left after the events at the cavern, was dirty, and she didn't want to have to wear them again. But she didn't have much of a choice, so she decided to wash what she could in the sink and let them dry over the room's heater.
Picking up her cloaths, she grabbed Thor's as well, deciding she owned him a bit of an apology for pushing as hard as she did yesterday.
This wasn't going be a thorough washing, more like a rinse and scrub, she didn't have any detergent, but it was better than walking around in sweat and dirt soaked clothes.
As she headed to the sink, she realized she was missing something.
It took her a moment to realize she didn't have Thor's underwear, he was still wearing it.
She smirked at the idea of this, what she was planning on doing. It wasn't like he had something she hadn't seen before.
Thor's first thought when he woke up was how warm it was. Opening his eye, he took in the room he and Yang were staying for the first time in day light.
He also realized he was naked under the blanket, despite remembering he was wearing his underwear when he went to bed the previous night.
Sitting up, he looked around the room. He noticed his and Yang cloaths draped over the heater, which was blowing out hot air, which at least explained the temperature.
"Oh, you're up, good."
Thor turned to see Yang sitting in a chair, doing something on her scroll. She was wearing nothing but a bath towel.
"Just get out of the shower?" He said while realizing he was also naked under the blanket.
"I washed out cloaths in the sink before I took a shower, no detergent, but the sweat and dirt are out of them at least, they're drying on the heater." She gestured to the cloaths.
Well, that made sense to him, as far as an explanation for his and her's current situation.
"How much longer until they are dry?"
"Let me check." She stood as she spoke and walked over the drying clothes, and touched them "I'd give them another twenty minutes."
"Good." Thor said standing up, rolling his shoulders to work the stiffness out "I'll take a shower, after that, once out clothes are dry we can go find Ruby."
Yang waved him off as she seems intent on looking over the clothes, seeming to be very interested in them now.
Thor walked into the bathroom and climbed into the shower, and found the hot water relaxing to his still sore muscles.
As he got out of the shower, Thor wiped the fog from the mirror. He still couldn't quite believe he what he looked like now. He tried to hide it from Yang, but his sudden drastic alteration in what he looked like disturbing. He'd looked more of less the same for eons, and now he practically had a new face and new appearance overall. It was screwing with his personal identity in more ways than he would have expected, but he just didn't look like himself, and there was no way around that.
Turning away from the mirror, he wrapped a towel around his waist and headed out into the room.
Yang was getting dressed, their cloaths now dry. Thor walked past her and started getting his own clothes and started to pull them on.
"We're gonna have to get some more clothes," Yang said as she pulled on her boots. "At least enough for a three-day cycle, but I'd like to have at least a weeks worth."
Thor nodded as he pulled his pants on, but didn't bring up the fact they weren't exactly swimming in money right now. Between their combined funds, he thought the three day supply was more likely. They still had to get something to eat as well, they hadn't eaten in about 24 hours, and he was feeling the effects of not having eaten in that time period.
"Let's get some breakfast first." He said as he pulled his shirt over his head.
"Fine, but most places aren't going to be severing it anymore look," Yang said point to the clock. It was almost noon. "We slept in late, guess we were more tired than we thought."
"We also didn't get in until late last night." Thor sighed, he hated it when he was asleep this late, he felt like he wasted the day. There was no helping it now "Ready to check out?"
Thor had insisted on eating at a buffet, to get as much as they could for their money. Yang didn't fight him on it much, only asking why, and once he explained their current money situation, she agreed.
She didn't normally like Buffet's, she knew her tendency to stuff herself if given the chance and she knew that wasn't good for her, so she avoided it most the time. But they hadn't eaten since two nights before, and she was starving.
The place they had decided on was a mix buffet, and they didn't waste time in loading their plates up. Thor's appetite was better than it had been since before the fall of Beacon, and Yang felt like this was a good sign of him regaining some of his old self.
Yang herself ate with a speed and indecency that she'd of normally found embarrassing. But she was too hungry to care at this point, and before long the pair of them had demolished several plates of food.
"Oh, I think I ate too much." Yang moaned as she rested back in her seat, and to her amusement, Thor was still wolfing down food. He was quite a bit bigger than her sure, but he'd always had an near supernatural appetite. "Thor, you gonna be finished soon? I'd like to head to Haven as soon as possible."
Taking one last swallow, Thor spoke up "I'm good to go now if you want, I've eaten enough."
"Well, if you're full-"
"No, I said I've eaten enough." Thor said smirking "I don't get full very easily."
Yang tried to hide her smirk at the comment by pointing out a fact of irritation for her "How can you eat what ever you want and still have a body like a god? I've got to work to keep the fat off."
"Really? But you always look so good." Thor said as he started to dig back in.
"Oh, stop, you'll make me blush!" Yang explained with false modesty, but she really did like the compliment. "True though, I do look good. But I watch what I eat a lot, I don't know what it is, but I tend to get kind of…chubby, if I don't watch what I eat. I don't lose my muscle or anything, but the fat kind of accumulates easier than most. Nora makes me mad sometimes." She said with a frown forming on her face "She can eat what ever she wants and never gains a pound of fat."
"Nora has the metabolism of a hummingbird and the personality to match." He said looking her in the eye "I don't think it's fair to compare anyone to her, she's a complete outlier."
"Wow, you know just what to tell a girl to make her feel better huh?" Yang said, her tone sardonic, but she was telling him the truth. That had made her feel a little better about it.
Thor stood up, leaving his latest plate half full. "Let's head out now, I've gotten enough, let's go find your sister."
That was the magic word to Yang, as soon as her sister was brought up, her mood always shifted to finding her and making sure she was okay.
"Okay, let's head out." She said standing up herself, reading to head out.
They left the restaurant, and walked out onto the street.
"Which way to Haven?" Thor asked, while he looked up and down the street as if looking around for the school.
"I'm not sure, but it shouldn't be hard to find, we just have to ask around a bit." Yang responded.
She was right of course, the first person they asked sent off to the school.
As the school came into sight, it was weird as they both felt a sense of Deja Vu come over them.
It didn't look like Beacon, not really, but it had the same air about it, a home to future warriors.
Thor felt an old feeling of excitement, Yang felt nervous. She was about to, hopefully, see her little sister, who she had been incredibly dismissive and cold to before she had left on her own journey.
Apologizing was going to be the first thing she did once they reunited. Before she was even aware of it, they were at the front doors of the school.
"We should head to office, and see if they-" Yang began but was cut off.
"Yang?" an all to familiar voice called from behind them.
Yang felt her heart rate jump and her blood run cold. Turning, standing behind her was no other than her little sister.
Her face was in disbelief and Yang was sure if she a mirror, she'd have a similar expression on her face.
"Ruby?" she whispered.
They just stared at each other for what felt like hours, but couldn't of been for more than a few moments.
"Yang!" Ruby cried and tackled her sister with enough force send her to the ground.
"I was so worried about you." Yang whispered into her sisters ear as they embraced "I'm sorry I was so hung up on my own shit that I didn't listen to you, I should have gone with you-"
"Yang, it's okay, you're here now, that's all that matter!" Ruby said, standing up and pulling her sister to her feet along with her. "What have you bee up to! What happened on your way here? Did you run into trouble?! We did! We…." Ruby's voice trailed off as she for the first time noticed the man next to Yang.
The expression on Ruby's face broke her heart. It was one of near complete confusion and unrecognition. Yang looked to Thor to see what he was doing, but he was stone faced, not giving anything away.
Yang looked back to her sister, and saw she looked like she was puzzling something out, like she had just seen something vaguely familiar, but couldn't place it.
Then Ruby's eye's widened, and she spoke "Th…Thor?"
A smile broke across Thor's haggard and scarred face. "Yes?", he said with such a tone, a person could before forgiven for thinking Ruby was just trying to get his attention to ask for directions.
Yang looked back to her sister, who had tears forming in her eyes. Then, quicker than the eye could see, she was latched on Thor's waist wailing.
"OH MY GOD! I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!" Ruby cried as she squeezed Thor's waist, and was near hysterics.
Thor laughed gently as he stroked her hair, with his real hand "I've told you, I'm not going to leave you alone."
Ruby broke the embrace and looked at him with tears now running down her face, looking him over, as if trying to see if he was really there.
"Thor what happened?" she finally whispered.
"That, Ruby." He began "Is a bit of a story."
"Well, I'd like to hear it." She said meekly, smiling a bit.
Thor and Yang were a bit taken aback by her forwardness, wondering if she didn't think that asking about his injuries might be a sore subject.
"I mean, your old weapon was so cool, I don't why'd you trade if for something else." She said smiling, as Thor and Yang both shared befuddled looks "Unless it's even better! Oh, is it better?!" She said starting to get excited.
That was when they both realized she wasn't commenting on his appearance, she was, in typical Ruby fashion, asking about his weapons.
Yang and Thor exchanged smirks and started to laugh, this time, it was Ruby's turn to looked confused
"What did I say?" Ruby asked, genuinely confused.
Thor had told Ruby his old weapons system had broken beyond repair and couldn't be salvaged. Which was perfectly true, but he didn't elaborate on it any further.
Following this, they went over what had happened as they had traveled. Ruby told them about the destroyed village, The Scorpion Faunus, Qrow's injury and the Grimm they had killed.
Yang and Thor's journey had been far less adventurous, other than the two new species of Grimm, they hadn't had much in terms of discovery.
"Wait, the 'Mist Mauraders', they made the fog right?" Ruby asked as they finished their own story of their journey.
"Yes, why?" Yang asked, a bit perplexed at this question.
"We ran into those thing too! Only once thought, and Jaune lost a couple fingers to one, but we called the 'Shriekers'." Ruby said, a bit excited clearly at having some sort of shared experience.
"Shriekers?" Was all Yang said at first, then she leaned over to Thor murmured out of the corner of her mouth "Their name is better than ours."
"Yeah I know, hush!" Thor muttered back. "Well, what ever you call them, I'd prefer them to what ever we ran into in the gorge on the way here, couldn't even see the thing, or things I suppose. They are under the ground." He sighed "I don't think what ever that was will be easy to take down, if it's under the ground, it'll be hard to hit."
"Oh…that's the same thing." Ruby said nonchalantly.
Thor and Yang exchanged confused looks "Same as…what?" Yang asked.
"The 'Shriekers', I don't know how exactly, but they change after a while, they get huge and go underground. It's not like they are bigger exactly, I mean they are, but that's not all that changes."
"Well." Yang started "What else changes?"
"How they hunt, when they're little, they just hunt anything that's warm, they'll attack anything that's hot."
Thor raised an eyebrow in confusion "They don't have eye's, so they have to hunt some other way, how do you know its heat?"
"Well, it was an accident really. When we encountered them, they attacked our camp fire, but after that, they only came after us. But the real give away was when I lost some fire dust when one clipped me, and a tree caught fire and they started attacking it. They'll attack anything that was warm."
Yang and Thor look thought embarrassed at this. They had thought the Grimm were trying to blind them by taking out their light source, but now, it seemed like they were just mindlessly attacking after all.
"You mean they're so smart cause they're so stupid?" Yang asked, with her face flushing a bit.
"Well, not they aren't stupid, they actually learn really quick, the same trick won't work twice on them." Ruby clarified.
Thor spoke up "You said they changed as they grew, how do the bigger one's hunt?"
"Sound, we think, or at least vibration. I mean they are under the ground, so they can't really smell or 'see heat' there can they."
That was something to think on. A Grimm that changed as it grew, more than being bigger and stronger, but it developed new abilities.
"So!" Ruby began, eyeballing her sister and Thor. "Have you two gotten together yet!"
Had Ruby tried to spring this question on them before they had started their relationship, it may of resulted in exasperated sighs for Yang, and good natured teasing from Thor.
As it was now, Yang just answered "Yup."
"Oh, okay well…" Ruby looked up "Wait, Really?"
"Yup, so tell us more about-" Yang began but was cut off by Ruby's scream as she hugged both Thor and Yang.
"I knew it would happen! Now you really are my brother."
"Okay, okay…" Yang said laughing and pushing her sister off "We aren't married, we're just dating. But yeah I guess you were right."
"Yeah…sorry." Ruby said stepping away, blushing a bit over her reaction. "Still, this makes you an honorary family member!" Ruby exclaimed to Thor.
"So, where is the rest of your group? Jaune, Ren and Nora?" Thor asked trying to move the conversation along to a different direction he was more comfortable with.
"They're in their room." Ruby said a bit sadly "They're kind of trying work through their own stuff now. I mean, I get they have to, but I've kind of felt a little left out. I'm glad you guys are here, I mean I love those guys, but I need some team bonding of my own."
"Well, that's important I guess, but now that we're caught up, I think we need to know anything you've found out, about this whole mess." Yang said while her tone switched into a much more serious mood.
Yang was so happy to see her little sister, that she wasn't really all the affected by the news she had shared with her.
It had come from their Uncle Qrow, who for all his flaws, wasn't a liar, or at least he'd never lied to them directly.
This talk of gods and artifacts was more than she was expecting, but her study of the book on Thor's heritage had in some way grounded these concepts in her mind . She didn't know how to explain it, but she felt that Thor was somehow responsible for making these concepts less fantastic.
Which was weird on its own, given he'd never claimed to be a god, but more just taking on the persona to…but that wasn't right either.
He'd never actually claimed that was what he was doing, he sort of just side stepped it a bit. Well, regardless, he had helped bring these concepts into her world view.
Her mind at this point turned back to the book, which Thor was looking for with some earnest. Then it went to her partner, who probably had it.
She wondered where Blake was now, and if she was looking for them, like she'd come looking for Ruby. She wasn't super hopeful, as much as that hurt her to admit. Blake had bugged out after the Fall of Beacon.
No word from her, not letter's, no nothing. She wondered if Thor would try and find her, to find the answers he was looking for in that book.
She dismissed such a thought nearly instantly. Thor was here for her and Ruby, he wasn't going to go anywhere.
In that fact she was certain, He'd stay with them for as long as was possible, he wouldn't abandon her like her Mother or Partner.
Thor would always be there for her and her sister.
Ruby honestly hadn't had much to tell them, but that didn't make what she told them unimportant. It wasn't much, but it was potentially world changing.
The two gods, in particular, had a strong hold on Thor's thoughts. He wondered if they could be his brother's, Balder and Loki. But he'd of know if such going on's in their life. That was of course assuming the time between his last memory and waking wasn't anything like a few centuries or millenniums.
But even if they weren't his brother's, contacting them may yield the answers he needed. But as he didn't know how to go about such an endeavor, that lead him back to the book.
He'd been hoping Blake and Weiss may of made their ways to this location as well, but no such luck this time around.
He needed to find Blake and that book, but he was completely unwilling to leave Yang and Ruby. Yet the draw of that book, and the possible answers was a strong pull on his mind.
He didn't remember many time when he'd felt so thoroughly pulled in two directions.
On one hand, the possible answers to why he was here, maybe hidden by his father. It could be the key to his true power and salvation of this world and his father knew how many others.
On the other hand, his emotional attachment to Yang and Ruby pushed in his mind just as strong, if not stronger. He couldn't imagine leaving them alone to face the threat he knew was out there, and he knew it was more than mindless Grimm. There was a larger conspiracy at hand here. He'd suspect it before, and now Ruby telling her of the attack on her group by that Agent of enemy, they didn't want her getting somewhere.
Add to that now, he didn't think the Grimm were so mindless, at least not as a group. They had both run into the same unknown Grimm type on their journey. That made him think there was some sort of force behind the Grimm, guiding them to a goal, or at least influencing them to a specific end.
That made his dilemma a bit harder. Should he stay to look after the people he cared about, or seek out the way to return himself to full power and save the whole world.
But he didn't even know if the book really held real answered, but something told him it did. To find it though, that would mean finding Blake, who had disappeared off the grid since the fall of Beacon.
If he stayed with Yang and Ruby, he'd be able to look after them at least. Despite his diminished power, even his own weakened mortal power after his defeat, the idea he could be there to help them if they needed it, eased his mind.
So that was the two prongs of the spit he was roasting in. Leaving, and taking a huge risk to find someone he had no clue where she was, to find a book that may hold answered, that may return his power. Against the fact he could stay with Ruby and Yang to help them as they needed.
Logically, staying was the more sure thing, much easier to weigh the pros and cons for. But the promise of the return of his power, his full power, that could solve every problem they had here, was a powerful lure.
He needed to sleep on the questions, and that night, he did.
And once again, he dreamed.
A/N: Okay, a bit of a cliffhanger here.
Will Thor stay or Leave. Tell me what you think
Please Review and tell me what you think!