The world around him was burning, the scent of sulfur rising around him and it was painful. It burned at his nostrils and the heat on Hazel's skin was something so awful, so painful that he couldn't forget it.
This was not a dream, Hazel knew, despite how otherworldly the experience seemed. This was a memory, steps that he'd walked once before. The surroundings were familiar, but they were wrong. The people weren't there there had been there once before. The sounds of battle had faded.
He was surrounded by a the violent purple glow of Dustlight reflected across unpolished obsidian.
"Hazel." A voice called to him, in tones that were deadly familiar. When Hazel turned away from where he was facing, he found nothing. There was no source of the voice, but Hazel knew better than to just ignore it. This was serious.
"Hello." He greeted her, doing his best to ignore the way that it felt like his chest was being licked with flame. "You're here."
"I am." She replied, materializing from nothing at his side, wearing a face that wasn't necessarily her own but managed to feel familiar. When Hazel turned to face her, the woman's expression began to change and shift, becoming more and more like her own.
She stared at him with burning red eyes, a sly smile, and reached out for him with a porcelain white hand, laced with black veins.
"What do you need from me?" He asked, his mouth going dry as he tried to pull things into perspective. Remember where he was and ignore the fact that he was living in a vision. Remember what he was once he was outside of this world.
She seemed to float in front of him and looked up at him, staring deep into his eyes before raising her hand and reaching out for him. Her fingers hovered inches away from his chest before she finally passed down an order. "I need your loyalty, Hazel." She whispered to him, once again borrowing a voice that wasn't hers. One from his memories. "Even now."
"Your Grace-"
"Call me by my name."
Hazel swallowed, his mind racing and grasping at straws to find the best thing that he could say. Name after name presented themself to him.
Glynda Nerina Amber Cinder Terra SALEM.
Her name was Salem. She jogged a memory that hadn't been lost, but had been hazed over by the otherworldiness of the vision.
"Salem." He whispered to her. "What do you need from me?"
She smiled at him, the sort of devilish evil smile that could only come from someone that was looking to hurt or to control. Hazel knew her though. She would do such things willingly, but she would not do so without there being some sort of payoff for him, or for the others. If anything, she had come to him because she genuinely thought that she would be able able to help him along.
Direction was really all that he and the others needed at this point.
The fact that she would come to him just meant that she saw something in him that she didn't see in the others, Hazel was sure of it.
"Oh Hazel," She cooed, watching him with hooded eyes. "I've chosen and sent a girl to you, I've brought you to old shrines, I've seen to it that my creations would rise before you." Salem hesitated, and the way that she reached out for him made it look like she was getting ready to touch him.
Cup his cheek like someone gentle would.
"You have." Hazel said quietly, feelings his voice crack in his throat. "You want us to do something with the girl."
"I do." Salem whispered back to him. "But you need to understand, Hazel. I need all sorts of things before I can return."
Return.
That word was too important, that was the one that cut through everything. It was the one that put everything into context for Hazel.
Return.
Salem was reiterating the role for him and the others for him. They needed to be there to be able to help and raise her once more. She wanted to walk the world again, when she had already been broken down before.
Hazel still remembered the day that Salem had been destroyed. How the way that things had
"What do you need?" Hazel asked, letting his eyes slip closed. She wasn't going to touch him, Hazel was so sure of it. It was only a matter before things got worse and worse. She knew the boundaries that she must exist in. "The girl-"
"I need the maidens, Hazel." Salem whispered to him. "All four of them. The girl is a likely candidate, and I would be able to give her so much if she could just gain their power."
"Understood." Hazel sighed. "We will hunt the maidens."
Salem reached down for him, and her hand rested on Hazel's forearm, and Hazel grit his teeth and nearly jolted when he felt the burning beginning to set in. A remind. "Fall should be near. Do not fail me, Hazel." Salem hissed at him, drawing in closer and forcing him further down and down. "If you do, I will not allow you to forget it."
It's not just an idle threat. That's something that Hazel is more than sure of.
It's the most that he's probably going to be able to get out of Salem.
"I understand." He said.
Salem stared him down with those burning red eyes. "Good." She hissed, and gripped his arm a little tighter, her long nails cutting into his skin like talons.
When he looked down, ichor began to pour from the indents despite the fact that she had not cut him.
Hazel awoke from the dream-vision with a jolt, his chest heaving and blood pouring off of his arm. When he looked down it, the injury left behind wasn't like the ones that Salem would leave him normally. There was no brand.
But there was the burned in lacerations that had been left behind by Salem's nails.
It had been real, at least to some degree.
Hazel didn't let himself linger on it for too long. He climbed out of bed and made his way over to Watts' things. At the very least he would have to dress the wound so that it didn't get infected. Hazel had his doubts that he was going to end up being able to hide the injury, but that was ultimately going to be a problem for later.
They were going to have to sit down and have a serious meeting.
Salem's orders had been clear enough. They were to seek out a maiden and they were going to have to somehow figure out how to put that power inside of Cinder. Salem had selected the girl for a reason.
She'd also threatened him, but that wasn't what Hazel wanted to focus on. He wanted to think about how they had clear directions for the first time in what felt like forever. The last time that had happened had been...
Well, a long time ago.
For now, the most important thing was that Hazel needed to be able to focus and get things together. Starting with patching himself back up and preparing for whatever could possibly come from it. Mostly, how the conversation was going to go once they sat back down as a group and dealt with it.
If Salem had selected only to come to him, then he was sure that he was going to have some sort of hell to pay from the others for it. Tyrian would grow jealous and worried, Cinder would probably be left feeling put out, and Watts was likely to become more vicious in his attacks and jabs.
Sure enough, Hazel was able to find a roll of bandages and took the chance to begin wrapping his injury before the others could wake up. He barely got past the first pass of his bandage over skin when he heard one of his many companions moving.
It was Tyrian, sitting up in his bedroll and shivering like something was wrong.
Hazel grimaced. "Tyrian." He croaked at the thin man. "Go back to bed."
Tyrian looked over at him with his eyes too wide and blinked. He didn't say anything, instead chose to get out of his bedroll and pad over towards where Hazel was sitting. Hazel tried not to get too annoyed when Tyrian just dropped into the empty space beside him.
"Hazel?" Tyrian asked, looking up at him with his eyes wide as he leaned in. "Has She come to you?" The thin man's eyes flickered between the injury that Hazel was wrapping and his face.
There was no use in lying.
"She did." Hazel grumbled. He saw the excited twitch in Tyrian's tail and immediately felt the need to say something. "Don't wake them." It was almost a growl, but one that felt necessary.
"I wasn't going to-" Tyrian said, his golden eyes going wide and his gaze snapping down to the ground. "I was simply..." He trembled, too excited. Already too wound up for anyone's good. Hazel knew that it would cause some problems later on if Tyrian's excitement wasn't dampened. "What did She say?"
"She gave me instructions." Hazel replied, keeping his jaw straight as he tied off the bandage and allowed himself to move his arm, letting it flex to check that the tie was going to hold. "For what to do."
"What does She-"
"Maidens." Hazel cut Tyrian off before he could even ask the question. "She wants us to hunt down the maidens for her."
"But they are just legends-"
"You know better than to think all legends are just stories, Tyrian." Hazel grumbled. "She's given us a task."
"So we should tell the others then." Tyrian suggested, looking Hazel in the eyes. "And prepare to leave."
"Yes." Hazel grumbled. He pulled on his coat and tried to see how much of his injury it was going to be able to cover. Ultimately it wasn't all that much, and that wasn't the worst problem. They were collectively more than used to waking up with strange wounds. "But it should wait until morning."
Tyrian nodded in understanding, squirming like he had far more energy that he strictly needed. He was going to be fine, Hazel was sure of it. Hazel nodded over towards Tyrian's bedroll, and Tyrian went there obediently, making himself comfortable as he flopped down there.
Hazel was sure that he wasn't going to be able to get back to sleep, though.
He might have waited for an hour, just long enough to be able to ensure that Tyrian was fast asleep. Once he was sure, Hazel got up, stretched, and made his way out of their camp. The least that he could do for them was get a good read of the area and try to figure out their best course of action to begin with.
The next few hours of Hazel's life managed to go by without much of interest. There was a moment when he had looked up at the moon and watched a pack of grimm pass it by. They had no interest in him, or in man.
They were the same sorts of grimm that Hazel had watched with the others the night before Cinder had come into their lives. If it meant anything in particular, Hazel didn't know what.
But the morning would break, and Hazel would return to camp with some plans in mind.
When he got back, Tyrian, Watts, and Cinder were all up. The three of them were gathered around a fire while something cooked on it. Hazel figured that they had decided to use some of their rations.
"Well, look who has finally decided to join us." Watts commented, poking at the fire to check that it was still burning properly. "What made you disappear on us, Hazel?"
"Perimeter check." Hazel grumbled as he took a seat by the fire. "We need to discuss our plans."
Watts stared at him and narrowed his eyes, and the way that they flicked down to Hazel's arm told him everything. "I see." He replied. "And what has she told you about our job?"
Hazel paused and looked between all four of them before finally letting himself explain. "She wants us to hunt down the maidens." Hazel explained, holding himself so that he was as calm as possible. "And he wants for Cinder to act as the vessel for their power."
Cinder seemed to jolt at that. She picked her head up and stared at him, one eye wide and surprised. "She wants me to-"
"Yes." Hazel replied. "It will be long and grueling work." He said, sitting upright. "We'll have to track them, and to make sure that the power is secure..."
"We'll have to kill them." Watts filled in the blank, a slow, creeping smile making its way across his face. "One by one. Did she specify-"
"Fall first." Hazel snapped. "There's a village not far from here. We should start there and work our way out once we hear something."
Watts nodded then looked across as Cinder, still grinning.
"You will be great and powerful, girl." The doctor hissed. "Maybe it'll even be able to make up for that lost eye of yours. Although I doubt it."
"Watts." Hazel growled his response, standing up first because one of them was going to have to go ahead and act like a leader. "That was unnecessary. Get your things together, we need to be ready to leave immediately."
The others were silent for a long moment, but Hazel didn't say anything else. He just went to his bedroll and began to pack it up. They had a long day ahead of them, and it was going to be up to him to act as their leader.
One of them had to be at the head of the beast, after all.
"Ready for a mission?" Yang asked, bouncing just slightly as the four of them approached the city boundaries. The four of them had gotten news the night before that they needed to be out by the Vale gates for a certain time, and all of them had known immediately what it meant.
It meant mostly that they didn't get much of any sleep, all four of them buzzing with excitement and talk. Yang was glad that the four of them had some leftovers that had been passed along to them to enjoy.
"Sure am!" Ruby exclaimed, matching pace with Yang. "What if we're going to be on another mission like with Doctor Oobleck?" She paused, blinking widely. "Oh, what if we get to get closer to that grimm, or-"
"I think that's unlikely." Blake commented, smiling and seeming a little bit more open about her situation than she normally would have been. "But, I'm not opposed to a mission."
"I think that it'll be a nice opportunity for us to improve." Weiss added, walking calmly and holding her head up high. "We'll just have to see."
Yang smiled and stretched her arms just slightly, feeling just a bit more relaxed than she probably should have. Weiss, Blake, and Ruby were all seeming pretty calm as well, and that was just a good thing.
It meant that they were less likely to get stressed out and mess up.
"I just hope we end up with someone cool." Yang said smiling as the four of them reached the gate. None of them said much to each other, but she watched as Ruby, Weiss, and Blake all took their own positions while they wait. "And if we get to see something out there that's cool, I'm game."
"It's going to be dangerous." Blake said, and Yang didn't miss for a second the way that the raven haired girl seemed to stiffen and get more nervous. Blake leaned against the gate, crossing her arms over her chest and looking out down the road like she was expecting something out there. "No matter what."
"I'm sure we can take them." Ruby said, smiling and seeming to bounce in her step. "I mean, whatever we run into. Uh... maybe not that giant grimm, but we can probably take anything else."
Weiss looked hesitant, her eyes downcast and her nervousness becoming more apparent. "I wouldn't be so sure." She offered. "There are a lot of things out there."
"There are." Blake added, staring Yang and Ruby both down. "And we aren't going to be able to take most of them." She hesitated. "No matter how much we might want to or we might think we can."
Yang gave Blake a weird look, if only because she didn't really know what she was supposed to say to that. The constant pushing of the idea that there was something out there was something that Yang wasn't sure of. All that she really got out of it was that Blake was maybe a little bit paranoid.
"We can't control everything." Yang said, letting herself get a little bit more quiet. "It's just a mission. If we run into something, we'll deal with it. If we don't, we'll be fine." She shrugged. "Worrying constantly isn't really going to get us anywhere, you know?"
"Right." Blake said, and she didn't sound like she was convinced at all.
The best that they could do now was just wait things out and see how they went.
Yang leaned back against the gate and stared down the path that led out of the city. They couldn't leave Vale without their mentor with them, and Yang knew that just as well as her teammates did. She was sure that if she checked her scroll she'd find that they were perfectly on time.
And if they were on time, then that meant that their mentor was late.
The road was clear, having been looked after recently by the looks of things. Yang couldn't see as far down it as she would have liked, but if it was safe just outside of the city that was a good thing.
The sight of a black bird flying down their way over the road made Yang's heart jump in her chest.
"Ruby." Yang called, looking over at her sister. "Look."
Ruby looked up and her expression lit up all at once a wide smile stretching across her face. "Uncle Qrow!" She called, practically hopping where she was standing. "We're going with Uncle Qrow!"
Yang watched as the bird shifted into a man, Qrow landing as he ran towards them before stopping nearby. "Hey, kids." Qrow greeted them, smiling down across all of them. "You're the ones I'm babysitting?"
"Yeah," Yang deadpanned. "Apparently."
"Not bad." Qrow joked, stretching and bringing his hands up to rest behind his head. "You been told your mission yet?"
"Nah." Ruby replied. "Professor Ozpin said that our mentor was going to tell us everything."
"Right." Qrow muttered, rubbing at the side of his head. "I'll explain while we walk, no use in standing around like this."
The four girls looked amongst each other, some looking more unsure and nervous about this than others. Ruby looked ecstatic, but Weiss seemed unsure and Blake was... Well, Blake.
Yang supposed that there were a lot of ways that this could be worse than it was. It wasn't like Qrow would do anything to let them get hurt, and he knew what they fought like. If anything, he was going to give them the space to work.
And that? Yang liked that.
Ruby was the first to shrug and move to follow after Qrow, and once she got moving the rest of them did. Weiss fell into step beside Ruby, and Yang and Blake followed soon after her. Once Qrow was sure that they were following after him, he began to talk.
"So." Qrow sighed, reaching back to check that his sword was there. "Last I heard, you kids have been on a mission to see the scary monster before." He said calmly. "Which means that most of this will be nothing to you."
"So... it's just a recon mission?" Yang asked, knowing that she managed to come off as being pretty disappointed. "That's..."
"Part of being a hunter." Qrow said with a shrug. "It's not all glamor and killing giants. A lot of what you do is gather information."
"It's pretty boring though." Ruby whined. "I want to be a huntress."
"Well, this is part of that." Qrow shrugged. "Nothing big. Just a mission."
"Still boring." Ruby pouted, looking up at Qrow like he had just somehow managed to break her little heart.
If Qrow had any particular thoughts or feelings on it, he surely wasn't showing it. He just kind of snorted out his nose and continued his walk ahead.
"The point is that you won't be doing the most glamourous stuff this time." He shrugged. "These woods haven't been that interesting since you kids were real little, aside from the occasional giant monster."
Yang rolled her eyes and looked over at Blake. Blake just shrugged, looking bored as she kept on walking. Weiss also did the same, not saying all that much while Qrow kept on talking.
"So," Yang spoke up, because at the very least she was somewhat sure that she would be able to coax some answers out of her uncle about what they were doing. There had to be more to this mission than them just walking out in the woods again. "What're we even looking for?" Yang asked.
"Look up." Qrow said, clicking his tongue with some sort of playful disapproval. "You'll be able to see it just fine."
"I mean beside from that." Yang responded, narrowing her eyes at her uncle. "We can easily tell that it's' getting closer, but..." She paused. "What else is there?"
"Right now?" Qrow shrugged. "Nothing to be concerned with. Later, who knows."
Ruby pouted again, muttering something under her breath that sounded like 'I hate it when you're cryptic."
Qrow probably heard it, but the way that he carried on told Yang that he didn't particularly care. If something was wrong, then he was going to be willing to get things done.
That was what Yang was sure of, more than anything else.