A.N.)- No.
Desperately, I tried to lift my legs, to wiggle my toes, to make my feet dance-! Anything!
Hanging from the three fingered claw I desperately tried to move my legs, barely able to see the stumps of my knees appearing and disappearing around my black pleated skirt-! No! No no no no no! All the no! This–
White and black filled my vision, the back of the enormous claw gently bumping my chin up, bringing my gaze back to the knight's green eyes, "Hey… hey… you're okay."
"I… my legs…" I tried to start, but nothing intelligent came out as I looked up at it, my body trembling with every breath as my mouth worked silently. I was starting to hyperventilate in spite of everything, I– but my legs were gone!
"I'll take care o' you…" The knight said, gently nudging my cheek with the warm bone-armor, "I'll get you to hone."
"I…" I almost hiccupped, clinging to the fingers around my waist, "R-Really?"
"Yes." The giant nodded, green eyes glowing even in the morning light as it gently nudged me again with the back of its enormous claws. And I took it for what it was, the attempt of something so much larger than to me to offer comfort. It was a bit disconcerting but I'd take whatever I could.
My gaze dropped back to the stumps of my legs… they'd… they'd been bandaged… messily, but definitely bandaged… I'd been asleep for who knows how long with nearly no aura. This knight was taking care of me, even now it was going to just wash me to make sure I didn't get infected…
Slowly, my breathing came back under my control, and I forced out a little giggle, "You're… thank you… I… I guess I don't have a leg to stand on do I?" I gave the giant a shaky grin, and the chuckle I got from it was actually pleasant.
After a moment, he asked softly for something whose wrist was thicker than my entire body, "You okay?"
"No… not really…" I admitted with a rueful smile, "But… we still need to get me cleaned up don't we?"
"Yes."
It was sort of disconcerting that the interlocking bone white fangs that was its mouth only opened slightly when it talked. But…
I swallowed past my concerns, nodding, "Then let's get to it."
The knight lowered me carefully, "Can you do your raps?" It gestured at my stumps with the claw not holding me up, giving a little waggle of its claws, "These aren't good at delicate things."
I looked down at myself, still… really not liking the lack of feet down there… but… first things first.
I took stock, really took stock of myself. My clothes were the same, sleeveless black blouse, my breastplate was mostly intact, I'd lost my belt somewhere along the way but any trinkets not attached to it were still there... leather bracers were intact, and my chains were still wrapped around them, but Blooming Moon was gone… I still had my black pleated skirt, but my stockings were gone with the… the loss of my lower legs. My Aura was still basically nonexistent at the moment. My fingers worked, my hands worked… but while moving my arms felt like moving them with leaden weights… I could do it.
Swallowing, I nodded, looking up at it with a sort of shaky smile, "Yeah… I think I can."
The knight nodded, very carefully setting me down beside its crossed legs, propping me up against its warm and armored leg. I was grateful, weak as I was.
With some effort, I unwound the bandages around my… my stumps.
Oh wow, this was going to take some getting used to isn't it?
"Guess… guess I can't put my right foot forward anymore, huh?" I asked, grinning a bit; they were tender, even the simple rasping of the bandages against them was like sandpaper.
"Or your le't." The giant noted above me, its tail curling around both of us almost protectively.
I chuckled, smiling a bit sadly. Gotta stay positive. And… oh… oh wow, "… how did I get burned…?" The stumps of my legs looked… well, almost like burnt hamburger. Carefully and almost delicately burnt, but burnt. And the only reason I didn't hurl was because I'd seen worse in the course of my life as a Huntress. But nothing I remembered indicated how they'd been burnt, though I could remember how they'd been crushed… Now that I was thinking about it and not blearily fighting off sleep, I could vaguely remember the Goliath collapsing towards me as I'd exhausted the last vestiges of my aura in a final attack while working… with…
I glanced up at the knight above me as it spoke, "Had to. Cauterized the oound."
My head jerked back slightly in surprise, "You?" Andoriol nodded sadly. That was… okay, that made me feel a bit weird. I was mad because this guy'd burned me, but the knight had done so deliberately as a medical attempt… which given the lack of supplies made sense. And all considered, the knight had probably been the one to actually remove my legs, being crushed wouldn't have given as… clean… of a cut as the lack of my lower legs indicated…
After a moments thought though, I smiled up at him, "Thanks… with how low my aura is, I probably would have died if you hadn't."
The enormous not-Grimm slumped in what had to be relief, and my smile widened before I returned to pulling the bandages from my legs. With a rumbling voice, the not-Grimm asked, "What is Aura?"
I blinked a few times at the surprising question before looking up at the knight above me, "Ah… well, it's the light of your… um… the light of a living thing's soul. Once awakened, it protects and heals the user."
Its enormous head tilted slightly as it blinked down at me, "It is what allows you to leap as you do and strike so powerfully?"
"Yes… you catch on quick…"
"You use li'…" Andoriol paused, tilting its head to the side briefly in thought before looking back to me, "You use your soul to enhance and create and… shield yoursel'…"
"Yes, we do," I said, putting the bloodied bandages off to the side. Taking a deep, calming breath, I beamed up at him, "Alright! Help me over and I'll get to rinsing."
Nodding, Andoriol carefully wrapped its long tail around my waist, the golden stinger at the end gently pressing against my back for support as I was lifted and brought over the water. "Little lower," it complied and lowered me close enough to the water and tilting me forward enough to reach down and splash water on the stumps–
…!
"… ow…"
"You okay…?"
"That…" I had to pause, grimacing with tears gathering at the corners of my eyes, "Hurt more than I was expecting." That got an unhappy rumble from Andoriol, which made me smile just a bit, "You're a big softy, you know that right?"
"Yes." The giant said with a trace of humor in its deep tone as it leaned forward, a hand dipping into the water in front of me to carefully splash water onto me, though the efforts of the giant still caused most of my… what remained of my legs and skirt to get wet.
The water was still cold, and it wasn't pleasant at first, but I grit my teeth and clung to the tail around my waist with my hands as he cleaned the… the stumps of my legs.
Gods this was going to take some getting used to…
"Rose…?" Andoriol had paused in his efforts, green eyes glowing softly as he looked at me.
"Yeah big guy?" I glanced back at the enormous creature holding me.
"Could… you tell… 'ore o' Aura? O' the 'orld?" Andoriol spoke slowly, haltingly, seemingly searching for words that it could say without lips, "I can't go… 'ant to kno'…"
I couldn't help but smile a bit sadly at the large and surprisingly gentle giant, "Sure…" another splash of water on the stumps and an unhappy shiver, "Well… huntsmen are widely regarded as the world's greatest warriors…"
-o-
"Andoriol?"
An inquisitive grunt came from the knight as it continued to wash the bandages carefully with its enormous hands.
… I'm definitely going to start thinking of the knight as a guy.
With a grin spreading across my face from the thought, I leaned back into the tail that was supporting me. I could probably have sat up on my own, but I was exhausted and had appreciated the support. I'd talked, explaining what Aura was as best I could... which had begged another question about Hunters, so I'd done my best to explain my job to him and how we protected the kingdoms of man, and he'd asked about the kingdoms.
Honestly, it reminded me of Yang and Ruby asking these questions about the wider world... a sharp but ignorant child. After some time though, he'd stopped asking questions, at least for now. He'd transitioned to cleaning my bandages and hoped to do my cloak as well... though he lacked bleach to really get them clean and since it was my blood on them and not a Grimm's, it wasn't about to dissipate. Still, it was sweet of him.
But... things were coming back to me now that I was awake for more than a few minutes at a time, able to actually ponder things rather than talking… I remembered the fight now, bits and pieces, likely messed up by a mild concussion even through my Aura…
"Just because I'm done, doesn't mean story-time is over. Your turn." I grinned up at him, trying to lessen the blow of the statement, I didn't think he'd react badly, but you didn't take chances in a situation like this. He'd asked quite a bit of me, but I knew basically nothing about my savior.
Green eyes turned to me in mild surprise before he let out this little chuffing sound, a bit of laughter, "Yes... I see. Ask then. I shall answer 'at I can."
A little sigh of relief threatened to get out of me but nope! Let's jump right into this, "Why'd you fight the Goliath?"
He turned to look at me curiously, tilting his head to the side as glowing green eyes blinked. I remembered now, fighting the Goliath. Blooming Moon was admittedly a bad weapon for something that size, but then again, anything human scale was a bad weapon for something that size. But I'd made due. The town had needed me. Between my Semblance and the Dust I had on my person, I'd been wounding the enormous Grimm, but I hadn't been able to really stall it… I'd had to make a choice between holding it in place or doing enough damage to force it to bleed out.
And then another enormous Grimm had arrived to try and pin the Goliath in place. One I now knew without a doubt was Andoriol.
At the time, I hadn't questioned it, I hadn't had the opportunity. I had assistance! Good! I needed it no matter what form it'd taken. And even at over 50 feet tall, my savior was barely half the height of the Goliath I'd been trying to stop and even less of that in mass.
The battle itself was a blur of adrenaline, Aura and Dust, frantic and desperate even with the additional help. The Goliath had been determined not to let me focus on its vulnerable spots, using its trunk and the pressure blasts it could release from it like the blasts of a bomb. I could remember the Grimm that had been helping me getting its mask cracked by a point blank blow from the Goliath's trumpeting… I could remember the bolts of lightning and raging flames… I could remember tapping deep into my Aura and Semblance as Blooming Moon whirled and fired freely into the base of the Goliath's neck… and I could remember watching the Goliath fall towards me and not being able to get out of the way in time.
But that was the question. Even if he wasn't a Grimm in the traditional sense… why had my savior… well… saved me?
He had the gall to shrug, "I had to. There's no one else who could… I couldn't just stand and let it tran-… take out the town… I couldn't."
I stared up at him for a long moment, still leaned back against his tail as he pulled the bandages from the river and carefully shook them out, "You've been protecting the town…?" At his nod, the pieces finally started to fall into place, "The giant Grimm the town had been reporting… it was you, not the Goliath."
"That is… likely."
Yes. It made sense. A large Grimm like Andoriol around would make everyone afraid and concerned… and those negative emotions would draw the Grimm in larger and larger amounts. The initial reports from the town about a giant Grimm had gotten a quick investigation from students, which had shown the oncoming Goliath… likely drawn by the same thing the smaller Grimm had… and then I'd been called in.
Hesitantly, I asked, "Why were you close to the town…?"
"I 'anted to talk… got… shot 'en close to the town. Tried to show that I 'as not a threat." A little shrug that still moved his armored shoulders several feet, "Creatures… so–… lots and lots."
"They kept coming more and more… so you fought them off," I guessed as he set the damp bandages across his warm tail in the sun to dry and nodded. I chewed my lip briefly in thought, "How long were you here…?"
"Se'ral weeks… not a 'onth…"
After taking a second to parse his lipless accent I nodded slightly in thought. Yes, that fit with the reports and what I knew of how Grimm were drawn… and I mulled it over for several minutes as he began to wash my cloak. But… there was still a pretty glaring question. "Andy–"
I had to cut myself off at the chuffing laughter that earned, looking at him curiously, "Sorry… sorry… just… entertaining nickname."
A small smile made itself known on my face, "Well then Andy, what are you?"
White-plated shoulders shrugged as he turned my cloak over a few times, "Don't know. Not nao."
My face scrunched up a bit at that in confusion, "Now?"
"Used to know." He said before turning to look at me, his tail moving slightly to present the dried bandages to me, "Should start to rewrap… not healed yet."
Taking the surprisingly warm and dry bandages, I began to put those old classes from Beacon to work and rewrapping the… stumps of my legs. Seriously, still not used to thinking like that. As I did though, something kept niggling my curiosity, "What were you?"
There was a pause, his glowing eyes narrowing as he remained focused on the white and red cloak in his claws. After a moment, he nodded, looking back to me, "Like you."
It took me a moment to puzzle through that, and my hands froze when I did, my eyes widening and my chest suddenly very, very cold, "Human...?"
Another nod, "Yes. Once."
That... was unsettling. A weak chuckle escaped me even as I paled at the thought, "Oh... wow... okay... that's... that's actually kind of scary…" People turning to Grimm, great, wonderful, fuck, was it possession Grimm gone wrong? … or, y'know, I could just ask him. "… do you know how it happened?"
"Yes."
When he didn't elaborate, I prompted, "How?"
To my surprise, the titanic knight hesitated, "Don't 'ant to say."
My brow furrowed, and I cautiously asked, "… why?"
"Dangerous."
I thought about that for a minute as I continued to wrap my legs, whether I was willing to accept that as a response. I didn't know much about my savior, and that was unsettling, especially after he'd asked those questions. If he was a Grimm... but I'd basically already decided that he wasn't, there was too much gentleness, too much tenderness to everything he did with me to think he was a real creature of Grimm. He felt it was dangerous to say...
"Okay…" I raised a finger to wag it at him, "But I expect you to tell me some time later!"
Andoriol made that little rumbling chuffing noise of a chuckle, before giving me a little relieved nod and pulling the cloak out of the water, looking it over, there was still a big brownish red splotch along the entire bottom of it… but also an even darker speckling higher than that… stains? Didn't know, but I considered the cloak a wash anyways. I'd reweave something with Dust in it if… when I got home.
Still. I had to ask, if he was once a human… "Where did you come from?"
The knight paused, a pause that was becoming increasingly familiar as we talked, the 'how the hell do I say this without lips' pause. "Not here. Really not here."
"Not from Vale?"
"Not here. At all."
"… Mystral?"
He let out that chuffing, rumbling laugh again, gesturing out at everything around us with one of his arms, "Not here."
I seriously had to pause and try and puzzle that out. What 'here' was he talking about? Not this city, not this forest... "Not this continent?" But he made a 'keep going' gesture. But how could you go further? "… not from Remnant...?"
"Ren'nant is this... all this?"
Swallowing past the sudden lump in my throat I said, "Remnant is the name of our world…"
So, of course, he nodded, "Then no, not Ren'nant. Not here."
"Of course… you're not from this world. Obviously…" I covered my face with my hands groaning, "I'm talking to an alien like out of one of Taiyang's old comic books… obviously…" Another chuffing laugh from him and I said through my hands, "This is crazy. You're crazy, you know that right?"
"Hote I an…" I peeked through my fingers at him, finding him to have stopped in his washing for the moment, very still, "Crazy. Thinking crazy is easier than 'eing right…"
"… you… hope you're crazy?" I asked, trying to parse what he was saying and getting a nod in return, I ventured again, "That you're wrong?"
"Yes. 'Cause crazy is easier… closer to… all the things."
"… because if you're crazy, then you're not who knows how far from home…"
And the softest word I'd heard from the already softspoken giant made my heart ache for him, "Yeah."
I knew homesickness… I knew that heartache well… I'd felt it every time I left my little girls… but to know without a doubt you'd never see them again, that you were separated not by continents or oceans but something even greater… I couldn't even imagine… "… I'm sorry." If for nothing else, for bringing it up.
"Not your hault." He said gently, pausing in his laundry to reach back with one of his enormous claws and gently brush the back of it against my cheek, "Thank you though."
My best tired smile didn't feel like enough, but he'd eased some of my discomfort at having brought that up.
"Hey… big guy… don't bother too much with the cloak… so long as it keeps acting like a blanket… I can live…" I yawned hard enough to make my jaw pop, wincing slightly, "I can live with it not being pretty for now…"
"Tired?" I had to give him a shy little nod, feeling like a child not wanting to go to bed. The giant seemed to pick up on it though, because his rumbling tone was bemused, "Rest… I'll take you 'ack."
"Thanks Andy."
Sleep didn't overtake me immediately as I lay back against his tail… but aside from the brief start I had when he shifted me back into the crook of his wing, little kept me from dreamland. When you're a Hunter, you tend to pick up the ability to either go for a long time without sleep… or to fall asleep quickly.
And so the dreams came again.
-oOo-
[1] "That's not a sword that's your dick in disguise…" I muttered tunelessly as I leapt up, catching a low branch in my hand and swinging myself up onto it.
"RRRRAAAAAWWWR!"
"It's dangerous to go alone take this~" with a grunt, I sent the spear in my hand hurtling through the air, adding another one to the growing number embedded in the back of the bear-hollow.
"Oh my god… I gotta warp outa here, Princess Zelda awaits…" Seriously though, what does it take to bring this one down? The werewolf hollows were a lot easier to handle now, I could nearly put a spear all the way through them. And one or two of those followed up by getting up a tree to let it bleed out was extremely effective at killing them.
With a sigh, I dropped down to sit on the branch, glaring down at the bear-like hollow-esque thing below me as I crossed my arms over my chest.
This was getting ridiculous. It already had four of the five spears I kept on me embedded in its back… and we'd been running around for… hell, how long now? Thirty minutes? Bleed out already!
These things were closing in on me. More and more of them had been in my little section of the forest over the past two months. It'd started off as maybe one of them per week, but it'd become one of the werewolves every few days… and then one every day… and now this thing.
Fuck, were we just outright escalating like boss fights? Because if we are, I could very easily be in trouble.
Dropping down there to fight it was a bad decision. I could handle the werewolf hollows with surprise or height, they couldn't climb as well as I could even before my strength had started increasing, but this thing? Not something I wanted to risk.
Drumming my fingers on my knee, I basically decided to just sit and wait, hoping it'd bleed out… I'd give it, mm… an hour? After that point I'd make a mad dash back towards the temple.
And so, I settled in to wait.
-o-
… right, this plan was bad. This was a bad plan. Very bad plan.
"RRRAWR!" the bear-like hollow in front of me roared and I raised my spear threateningly.
So… why was I doing it again…?
The werewolf-hollow behind me growled.
Ohhhhhh… yeah, right, forgot. No other options. [2] Right, let's make this happen.
Sure, let's just run whole hog away from the giant bear, great plan. No way that can go wrong. I mean, it's not like I'll run into another of the other kind of hollow thing out there or anything.
… fuck.
Onward into the great beyond then–!
I lunged forward-!
The bear started to roar even as the werewolf started to lunge-!
And I spun on my heel, gripping my spear with both hands like a baseball bat as the feint did as I hoped, and I hit the werewolf out of the park-!
… well, I would have if the spear hadn't basically disintegrated. Though it did send the werewolf hurtling off course.
Spear destroyed, the original plan was out-! Fucking fucker fuck! I continued my spin and waved the stump of my spear about quickly to ward it off. But still it advanced because fuck me amirite?
Knife-! Knife knife knife knife–!
The blade was out of the loop of my pants and, despite a little fumble, I had it in my hand. I backed up quickly as the thing-… stood on its hind legs because fuck it wasn't big enough already… you're… actually small for a bear, just like ten foot tall now… still bad though.
It swiped its paws and I danced back. "Hahaha… no. No no no. Fuck you. No."
It wobbled back upright and roared.
So I drop-kicked it in the nads.
Based upon the high frequency vocalization the ursa-based creature released, I was able to deduce that in sptie of its unusual morphology and coloration, it still had balls to kick. Hah!
I hesitated for just a second before I ran forward and stabbed it in the throat, a spray of blood shooting out to coat me but the thing definitely wasn't dead just yet, so I launched myself backwards, but the knife was tugged out of my hands in the process.
Didn't have time to care though as the hollow-bear let out a gurgling roar and kept swiping at me, almost stumbling forward, blood gushing from the wound in its neck but it gave no concern towards it.
Solidly strong legs further enhanced by eating these creatures launched me back and I rolled up onto my feet, well out of the things range… and then began to lead it around the tree. Because fuck these things were stupid. My heart rate actually started to normalize after the fourth lap around the tree because while this thing had some great speed in the straightaways, his cornering was terrible, didn't even try to turn around and meet me going the other way.
… if these things were video game monsters I'd really criticize their pathfinding. As it was, I was just grateful.
After lap seven though, the bear-like creature finally stumbled… and fell. Because a gaping throat wound tends to make things difficult. Y'know, things like… living.
"Hah!" I threw up my arms as the bear-hollow panted, trying to get back up to its feet, "Fought a bear! Awesome."
"Grrrrrrrrrr…"
I blinked a few times before sighing, my arms still up, "Fuck. Other one's not dead."
It roared at me and I lunged forward0
Ffffuck! Pain! Lots of pain in my back! Fuck! No time–!
Rolling up to my feet quickly, I grabbed some dirt and grass off of the ground and throwing it up into the thing's face, bringing its half-started charge to a stop as I fought literally dirty. It recoiled briefly and I repeated my earlier experiment.
I kicked it in the nads.
Another of those little whimpers, and I didn't have my knife or the time to find it so what? So what?!
With a wordless scream I lunged forward, half jumping to grab it by the muzzle, clamping it closed as I did my level best to turn its fucking adam's apple into applesauce. My entire body twisted with every blow as I slammed my fist up into its throat again and again, digging my knuckles as deeply into the thing's flesh as I could manage with every blow. Once, twice, three times I tried to break it, and it gurgled, staggering but definitely not dead. So I reared my arm back, pointing two fingers and stabbed it in the fucking eye!
This time it roared in pain, its mouth snapping open and making me lose my grip, starting to fall once more. It was purely through luck that I only felt its teeth snap at the air in front of me rather than taking my face clean off and– fuck my back was not in good shape! Hitting the ground on it made me flinch even as I struggled to roll away–
Another flare of pain as the world tumbled away–!
I rolled to a stop, coughing and gasping for breath as I struggled back to my feet. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. What had-? I half staggered, half stumbled to my feet, eyes frantically searching–
Shit! Incoming!
I launched myself off to the side, avoiding another lunge about as gracefully as a toddler but fuck you it worked.
Scrambling on my hands and knees, I rushed up to the tree and up the tree please and thank you!
Did I look like a retarded monkey or squirrel? Probably. Did I give any sorts of fucks? Nnnnnope.
Grabbing the first branch I ran into, I hauled myself up onto it, my lungs burning from my inability to breathe properly even as the tree shook.
Gasping, I looked down to find the werewolf hollow trying to climb the tree… unsuccessfully, but still.
I took a few moments to resettle my breathing and oh god it hurt. Like, it hurt a lot. My whole chest… and my back… and my, y'know… everything. But… I could breathe… and hah fucking hah… the werewolf couldn't.
It was letting out these little gurgling sounds aaaaand there we go. It'd dropped to the dirt, staggering away before collapsing.
A sigh escaped me as I slumped into the branch.
Several long moments passed in silence as I lay there before I forced myself to move.
With a small groan I touched my back and yyyyep. Bleeding. Fuck.
Right… definitely gotta eat these things now. Might be the only way I could survive these wounds…
Gritting my teeth against the fire in my back, I rolled off of the branch and carefully worked my way back down the tree, "Suck ten thousand cocks with the fury of a thousand vacuum cleaners... not gonna die to monsters today..."
-o-
Shirt was ruined… damn. That could've been really useful in the long run if it got frigid here, which given the trees outside was likely. Fuck.
I was healing quicker than I should have, definitely. I… holy fuck I'd been able to haul the bear hollow back to the temple. It'd struggled but a few good kicks had stopped that mess.
But I'd eaten it! And it'd had a more… intense flavor.
So… yay?
Tossing the shirt aside, I took my cup and headed towards the water pool, I'd get some water from it and use it from the cup to try and wash myself down, it was better than potentially contaminating the only serious water source I'd found. That sounded like a bad plan.
Still, if it weren't for the fact that I'd be filled up for a while, I'd consider that a bad deal.
Scooping the water up I–…
… well fuck, going gray already?
Instead of stooping by the circular pool, I actually knelt down to get a better look at myself. I'd been here for a while now, two months or so… and I knew I was going to go gray early, all of my grandparents had and my mom had as well, not to mention I'd seen a few streaks of brilliant white hair at my temples occasionally even before coming here.
But past the green, deep set eyes, past the brown hair and simple face and the brown beard I'd grown by day four… hell, it looked like everything was growing in white. There was a layer of white hair at my scalp. Weird. It was like… like all my hair growing in was stark white, even while the stuff that I'd already had was still brown…
Definitely weird…
I brushed off the unsettling fact with a small shake of my head, finishing gathering the water. I still needed to get clean.
-oOo-
I awoke with a gasp, eyes quickly adjusting to the dim light of the cave.
He'd-… Dust.
Just… Dust.
Was… was I seeing his memories? His past? Was it even him? I didn't even know… but… I could ask…?
Glancing around the cavern, I could see that it was daylight outside still, and that Andoriol wasn't here. He'd laid me back out on the furs with my cloak draped across me and was likely out finding food… or more Grimm for himself to eat…
… I had to ask. I had to know. If… if that's what it took to become something like him… Ozpin at very least needed to know, maybe the Council, if just to keep people from doing it. It wasn't a great plan, asking the giant about stuff like that when he didn't want it revealed, but it was better than anything else I had… and…
"Grrrrrr…"
"Oh Dust… not now…"
[1] watch?v=0m9QUoW5KnY
[2] watch?v=t2JsM3Or_eA
