Gamer4 in. Not much to say here, so instead of wasting your time trying to come up with something to say, we'll just go ahead and dive into the next chapter.
Disclaimer: Speaking of wasting time trying to come up with something to say...
Chapter II
A Leap of Faith
"I suppose this wasn't part of your plan."
"You suppose correctly."
Blake sighed as she gazed across the bridge Weiss had guided her to- their route from the tower to the main castle. It was broken beyond all possible repair, leaving a ten-foot long chasm between them and their goal, with no immediately obvious way across.
"So, this bridge was still intact last time you tried to escape?"
"Yes, but that was years ago... it must have worn away since then."
Blake doubted that- something about these jagged edges- as well as the thorough nature of the destruction- bespoke of a somewhat less natural cause for the bridge's disappearance. "So... do you know any other ways to get to the main castle."
"Maybe," Weiss bit her lip, not looking overly confident. "This is the way I always used."
"Well, jumping across is out of the question. I doubt anyone I know could make this jump." Examining the gap closer, a slight smirk crossed her face. "Well, maybe on a really good day, Pyrrha might kinda-sorta make it across... then stumble at the opposite edge and fall down anyways."
"Pyrrha?" Weiss asked, glancing at her companion with question marks in her eyes.
"One of my friends on the outside," Blake explained. "We always like to joke about how invincible she is."
"And... she's the one who slipped you the key?"
"No, that was Ren," Blake shook her head.
"So... she was fine with you getting locked away?"
Blake snorted, recalling the tears pouring down Pyrrha's face as she'd turned to leave. "I wouldn't go that far."
"But she still allowed it?"
"Well, yeah- not that she had any choice. I'm still willing to bet she'll be at Castaway Beach when we get there, apologizing again and again until the five hundredth time I forgive her."
A confused look crossed Weiss's face, but rather than verbalize whatever was on her mind, she shook her head and turned her attention to the gap. "Maybe we should just go back. I'm telling you, there's no way out of here."
"And I'm telling you, I won't rest until I see my friends at Castaway Beach," Blake shot back. "I said I'd get us out of this castle, and that's a promise I don't intend to go back on at the first hurdle. If you really want to give up, go ahead, but I don't plan on staying here any longer than I have to."
"What's your plan?" Weiss continued to debate. "The only way to the main castle is out, and there's no exit in this tower!"
"The only way you know of is out," Blake corrected, her eyes raking up and down the tower they currently stood outside. "But I suspect that if we look hard enough..."
A snap of her fingers, and Blake was smiling as she pointed up above them. "Does that crane still work?"
"Crane?" Weiss asked, glancing back and following Blake's finger up to where there was, indeed, a large crane hanging off the side of the tower. It was just barely visible from where they stood- several stories above them- but there it was.
"Haven't you been to that part of the castle before?"
"I doubt it- and even if I did, I would've left it alone once I realized there was no way out there."
"You know what your problem is?" Blake asked, turning to her with her arms across her chest. "You have trouble thinking outside the box. Where you see a crane, I see our ticket out of here."
"You see how high up that crane is?" Weiss countered. "There's no way it reaches all the way down to the ground." For emphasis, she pointed to the ground beneath them- even from where they stood, it was- at minimum- a fifty-foot drop to the bottom of the castle, and even from there, the castle was perched at the edge of a cliff, which continued down for another few hundred feet before ending with seething waves.
"Like I said, trouble thinking outside the box," Blake repeated. "Come on, back into the tower- we'll find a way up to that crane."
Weiss still looked confused, but nonetheless, followed Blake into the room they'd just exited- a large, round chamber with wide windows allowing in plenty of sunlight, a narrow trench through the center, and a small bridge spanning said trench.
"Does anything about this room strike you as... odd?" Blake asked, rotating around on the bridge in order to take in the chamber in its entirety.
"Odd?"
"Anything... out of place?"
Weiss glanced from one side to the other, but ultimately threw up her hands in defeat. "No, I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Not even that?" Blake queried, pointing upwards again. Weiss blinked as she glanced up- and saw a door placed in the wall several feet above the ground, where no human could reach it.
"What- how did you-"
"I think you're too used to this castle," Blake mused, looking concerned. "So used to it as it is that you don't notice things that are right in front of you."
"Well, that's nice," Weiss's eyes narrowed, "but what good does it do us? I doubt we could reach that door even standing on each other's shoulders."
"True," Blake nodded, "but there has to be some way up there..."
Weiss had no idea what Blake was looking for, her hands running across various bricks on the walls, taking strides across the ground, feline ears pricked all the while. Eventually, her attention seemed to be drawn to a large crate sitting in the middle of the trench, beneath the bridge. A slight smirk crossed her face. "Could it really be that simple?"
She pressed hard against the crate, pushing it aside. To Weiss's amazement, the floor beneath it seemed to rise up from the ground. As it did, a loud grinding noise filled the chamber, and from one of the walls, a great staircase appeared, each individual step sliding out one at a time. Weiss's jaw dropped. "How... how did you know that was there?"
"I didn't," Blake admitted. "I've just read plenty of books with castles with secret passageways, so I thought it was worth a shot, if nothing else."
"And if we hadn't found a way?"
"If we couldn't get up from this room, I'm sure we'd find a way from another. This just sped up the process a bit."
Weiss stared for several long minutes, trying to comprehend her companion's thought processes, all while Blake crossed her arms and smiled back.
The smile slid off Blake's face when she spied Weiss's look of confusion turning into one of horror. "No..." the girl rasped out, her voice filling with dread. "No!"
Blake spun around, and her heart almost stopped- a circle of darkness had appeared on the ground behind her, and stepping out of it was a gigantic creature- a wolf, of sorts, made of pure darkness, except for a white, bony mask at the front of its face.
Weiss, seemingly petrified at the sight, fell to the ground, kicking and propelling herself as far from the creature as she could. "I didn't- I'm sorry! I wasn't going to leave- I just wanted to show her that we can't!"
Blake spun around again to face the wolf- it was seemingly ignoring her entirely, walking within an inch or two of her, but not sparing her so much as a glance as it continued to growl and bear down menacingly on Weiss.
Blake's eyes narrowed, and she leapt forward, tackling the wolf from behind, wrapping her arms around its throat. It let out a howl, spinning and thrashing around, until it finally managed to knock her off, sending her sprawling into the trench. For the first time, it acknowledged her presence, crossing to the trench's edge and snarling down at her- before turning back towards Weiss, cowering at the other end of the room with her arms over her head.
Blake rolled over, forcing herself back to her feet. As she did, she stumbled over something- glancing down, she saw a long piece of wood, too large to brush aside as a stick, too small to call a log either. Glancing between it and the wolf, she came to a decision- it was far from her first choice of weaponry, but beggars can't be choosers. She lifted it up, spinning it around in her hands to get a feel for it, before lunging forward again, bringing it down on the wolf's head.
The wolf snarled, thrashing around as it turned to glare at her. Well, that was a step in the right direction, at least. She had its full and undivided attention.
It growled and began to circle her- she lowered herself slightly into a more defensive position and followed suit, one foot beside the other, drawing them both into a loop around the ground. Finally, the wolf broke it, leaping forward towards his new prey. Blake dodged to the side and swung the stick as hard as she could- with a deafening *CRACK!* it connected with the beast's mask.
Spinning around again, her heart dropped- despite the noise from earlier, the wolf seemed largely unharmed. Glancing at the stick she'd picked up, she saw the true source of the noise- the lengthy piece of wood had fractured, leaving it somewhat shorter than before, with a new, jagged edge. Alright, then, new plan...
Once again, she and the wolf circled each other, until the wolf leapt forward, growling furiously. Again, Blake dodged, but this time, rather than swinging, she spun around mid-leap, turning the stick over and bringing the pointed end down on top of the wolf's head, missing the mask and hitting the vulnerable shadow.
The wolf let out a loud yowl of pain as it collapsed to the ground, dark mist oozing from the top of its head like blood from the wound of a normal animal. As it collapsed, the smoke making up its body seemed to dissipate, the lights of its eyes behind its mask fading away into darkness, until where the wolf once lay, there was only a faunus clutching tightly onto a stick, currently lodged in a crack in the stone floor.
Slowly, Blake looked up from where she was squatting, lifting her stick from the ground with minimal effort and turning to face the black circle from which the beast had come- even as she turned to look at it, it shrunk, turning into a fine black mist that rose into the air and faded into nothing.
Her breast heaving slightly, Blake turned towards Weiss, still curled up against the wall, eyes wide at what she'd just witnessed. "How..."
"What... was that thing?" Blake asked, glancing pointedly at where the creature had vanished.
Slowly, shaking, Weiss returned to her feet. "I... I call them grimm."
"Grimm?" Blake repeated.
"Creatures of shadow... they appear whenever I try to leave," Weiss explained, attempting to take a step forward- she stumbled, and Blake leapt forward to bring her back to her feet. "They come for me... hunt me down... it doesn't matter if I hide, they always find me... they drag me back to those circles... and then... it hurts... it hurts so much... and at the end of it all, I wake up, back in my bed in the tower..."
Weiss's back began to jerk, characteristic of sobbing. Blake, uncertain how to react, patted her on the back gently. "And... you didn't think to tell me about these things before?"
"I didn't think they'd appear if I wasn't actually trying to leave," Weiss admitted, shaking her head. "And even if they did... I never thought they could be fought... I thought whether I told you about them or not, it would end the same way..."
Blake was stunned. True, she'd only just met this girl, but in that time, she'd gone to great lengths to project an aura of strength and determination- and here she was, showing another side, a much more... broken side.
It didn't last much longer. As if she'd suddenly realized what she was doing, the girl in white leapt back from the girl in black, dusting herself off, wiping her face, giving a cough, and re-assuming her upright, poised position of earlier. "Now... you said our next location is the crane, right?"
"Yes..." Blake nodded, not certain how to react to all this. Weiss's body language right now said very clearly that she did not wish to discuss what had just transpired, but she had to know... "And... those grimm..."
"What about them?" Weiss asked, already halfway up the stairs, crossing her arms and gazing out of the window as she responded to Blake's query.
"They're the reason you thought we couldn't leave?"
Barely noticeably, Weiss slumped- Blake wouldn't have noticed it if she hadn't been looking for it. Even then, it lasted only a fraction of a second. "Y...yes. They've always been... my biggest obstacle..."
Blake's eyes narrowed- she could tell Weiss wasn't giving her the whole story, but for the life of her, she couldn't piece together why the girl in white would be keeping any other secrets. Either way, it didn't seem she'd be getting much more out of her at the moment. "Alright, then let's get to that crane," she finally decided on her next line of speech, hoisting her makeshift weapon over her shoulder and beginning to climb the steps after Weiss. "If any more show up, I think I can take them."
Weiss bit her lip, gaze out of the window hardening. She softened, ever so slightly, when she felt a hand on her shoulder, turning to find Blake doing her best to express comfort through her eyes. "Weiss... it's going to be okay. This time tomorrow, we'll be relaxing in the sun, the lake's waves tapping at our feet... it'll be fun."
Weiss shook her head, somewhat listlessly, but allowed Blake to take her hand and guide her through the door and out of that chamber.
On the other side, a balcony stretched around the outside of the tower, allowing a decent view of the ground far below as the duo made their way across to the door on the other side.
Blake cursed as she grasped the door's handle, only for it to stand against her. "Locked," she muttered.
"Locked?" Weiss asked, sounding surprised.
"Is that really so strange?" Blake asked, turning on her, arms crossed. "Half the doors in the tower are locked."
"They are?" Weiss asked, sounding genuinely confused. "I've never had any trouble opening the doors around this place."
"And yet you've never been able to leave?"
"Well, like I said," Weiss gazed at the ground. "It... it was never locked doors that made this place a prison. Maybe you just weren't pulling hard enough? Like-"
Blake gasped. Weiss had reached out for the handle, and as she approached, a strange electricity seemed to crackle around her body, spreading towards her hand and arcing towards the door. What it was, Blake couldn't imagine, but when Weiss pulled at the handle, the door easily swung open for her.
"How- how did you..."
Weiss looked back at her. "A lot of the doors in the castle do that when I open them. Is that... strange?"
"Little bit," Blake nodded. "So, there are doors in this castle that'll only open for you..."
Weiss looked very uncomfortable under Blake's scrutinizing gaze. "How about we just go in?" Blake nodded again, quite mutely, as the two crossed the threshold into the next chamber.
They found themselves raised high above the ground- below them was a large, empty room, the only door available a similar height above the ground- on the opposite side, with no obvious means of access. There were stairs from their location to the ground floor... on the other side of a door.
"What is wrong with this place?" Blake wondered aloud, staring at the door so close, yet so far away. "Who designs a door with no way to get to it?"
"Maybe there were some steps, once, but they've rotted away over time," Weiss suggested. "This castle is quite old."
Blake shook her head as she crossed to the door that would allow them to the ground floor. She reached out and attempted to pull it open- only to turn back to Weiss. "This door won't open for me. Do you mind?" She stood aside, motioning towards the barrier. Weiss nodded and approached the door in her place.
Blake knew it was hopeless before Weiss had even tried- the lack of crackling energy seemed to signal Weiss's hopeless glance back at her. "It... it won't open for me, either."
Blake cursed under her breath. "This was not how I wanted to spend my day," she muttered, gazing over the railing at the floor below. "Hmm... it's not that far of a drop..."
And, as Weiss watched, hand over her mouth, Blake climbed up to the top of the railing, leaping from the balcony and landing deftly on the floor. Turning, she looked back at the panicked-looking Weiss. "Yup, no trouble. Come on- time to find a way up to that door."
Weiss stuttered slightly. "I... I can't..."
"Can't what?" Blake asked, tapping the ground with her foot. "Nice, easy drop. Even if you landed wrong, your aura ought to protect you from a short fall like this."
"...Aura?"
Blake's eyes widened. "What?"
"That's what I was asking," Weiss objected. "What do you mean by 'aura?'"
"Weiss... you do know what aura is, don't you?"
Weiss seemed to clam up again- as good as a solid confession. Blake blinked. "What exactly is in those books in that library of yours?"
"Clearly, not what you expect," Weiss crossed her arms, her eyebrows knitting. "So, what is aura?"
"A manifestation of our souls," Blake explained. "All living beings have one- and if we can tap into it properly, it protects us from harm. A little fall like this- it would be nothing."
"Well, that sounds nice," Weiss huffed, "but I don't exactly know how to tap into this... aura... thing, so I guess you'll just have to find a way to open up the door."
Blake sighed. "True... trying something like this before unlocking one's aura can be dangerous... alright, I'll look around."
As she turned to explore the room more thoroughly, she heard a cough behind her. Turning, she motioned for Weiss to speak her mind.
"You will... right?"
"Will what?"
"Open the door- you won't just leave me behind, will you?"
Blake was taken aback- here, again, was that vulnerable side that the girl in white seemed so intent on hiding, shocking her so much whenever it did peek out. "Of course," Blake nodded. Turning again, she was only out of Weiss's line of sight for a couple minutes before she found a lever- pulling it caused the door above to slide open- Weiss wasted no time in passing through and descending the stairs to where Blake was waiting for her.
"So... how do we plan on getting up to that door?" Weiss asked, looking somewhat wrong-footed.
"In a second," Blake shook her head. "First, your aura- let's get it unlocked first. It'll be a big handicap on us if we don't."
Weiss looked awkward as Blake approached, placing her hands on either side of her face. "Close your eyes," she ordered. "Concentrate." Weiss still looked uncertain, but did as she was bid. Blake nodded, closing her own eyes and beginning reciting the words that every resident of her village had heard as a child- "'For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance, unbound by death, I release your soul, and by your shoulder, protect thee.'"
Blake released Weiss and backed up- she was glowing white. At long last, she opened her eyes. "And that did... what?"
"You should have access to your aura now," Blake said simply. "For someone who never heard of it until today... I could sense a great deal of potential within you. It'll take practice, but once you've gotten the hang of it... I look forward to seeing what you're capable of."
Turning on her heel, she left the bemused Weiss behind as she approached the ledge above which was their door. "Now, as for this ledge..."
Looking up, she saw a long rope hanging from the ceiling, coming to a stop right in front of her. Turning back to Weiss, following not far behind, she asked, "Can you climb?"
"Ladders? No problem. Rope? Not so much," Weiss shook her head.
"Well, then, I'll pull you up," Blake shrugged, reaching out, grabbing the rope, and pulling herself up along it. Once she'd attained her desired height, she began to swing the rope back and forth, and, once she'd achieved her desired momentum, let go and flung herself through the air, landing catlike once more in front of her goal. Turning back to the ledge, she reached out. "Come on- the crane awaits."
"I still don't see why we're so eager to get to this crane," Weiss shook her head, but nonetheless reached out and allowed Blake to pull her up and continue guiding her through the open door.
They were, once again, on the outside of the castle, climbing a long series of stairs carrying them ever higher and higher above the ground, until they'd arrived at the tower's roof.
Weiss crossed her arms, glaring down at the ground. "So, what's our next move, genius? Now that we've gotten about as far from our goal as possible?"
Blake had her hand to her chin, eyes narrowed as they gazed around the outside of the tower. Finally, she asked, "Any idea where that cart goes?"
Weiss spun around to see a cart, more characteristic of mines than anything else, perched at the edge of the roof, fixed to a set of rails that spiraled downwards. "Well... no, I've never- wait, you're not saying-"
"If I had to guess, I'd say the cart and the crane are connected somehow," Blake nodded. "They'd both be useful in building- or repairing- the castle, for one thing. If I had to guess, I'd say that these rails run right by the crane at one point or another."
Weiss shook her head as she followed Blake onto the cart. "You're something else, you know that?"
"That's what Yang always said," Blake gave a smile of remembrance as she moved the lever at the cart's top, sending them forward. Throughout the ride, she kept her eyes on the track ahead, ready to hit the brakes at a moment's notice.
"So, where did you get these skills of yours?" Weiss asked as her hair was picked up by the wind.
"Skills?"
"The aura, scampering up and down ropes like it's no big deal, managing to find hidden paths all over the place, always landing on your feet after jumping..."
"Well, cats always do land on their feet," Blake muttered wryly, rubbing her hand along those accursed ears.
"You know what I mean," Weiss crossed her arms, looking severe. "Aura or no aura, nobody just jumps off a ledge without a second thought- and the way you took out that grimm..."
It was Blake's turn to clam up. Finally, she shook her head slightly. "Let's just say I had a good teacher." Under her breath, prompting Weiss to strain her ears to hear it, she added, "Who turned out to be a bad person."
Weiss raised an eyebrow, but Blake tended to back off when she made it clear she didn't want to discuss something, and she resolved to return the favor.
At long last, the cart came to a stop, and only a short stone walkway away from the end of the track, sure enough, was...
"And there's our crane," Blake nodded, allowing herself another small smile as she leapt out of the cart, Weiss not far behind. "Just a second- it looks like the controls are up there..."
Weiss stared as Blake began to climb up the side of the castle, finding foot-and-handholds where Weiss could never have located them. Eventually, she arrived at the crane's top, where a pair of levers awaited her. Leaning over, she saw a chain protruding from the crane, at the very bottom of which was a large crate of some kind. "Weiss!" she called out. "I'm going to bring the crane around- I want you to jump to the crate when I tell you, alright?"
"Crate? What crate?" Weiss called back, but it was too late- Blake was already flipping the levers around, raising the crate up to their level and sending it spinning around towards Weiss, whose eyes widened as she realized Blake's plan- and what it expected of her.
"Are you crazy?" she objected as the crane's creaking died down. "You want me to jump to this unstable garbage and use it to get across the bridge?"
"That's the idea, yeah!" Blake called back. "Hold on tight to the rope- it might get a little bumpy! I'm going to move it into position, then I'll rappel down to you!"
"I'm not getting on that crate!" Weiss shook her head fervently. "Sorry, but I choose life!"
"So, you're just going to head back to the tower and keep on... living here after how far we've gotten?" Blake narrowed her eyes. "Look, you're closer to leaving now than you've ever been before- the chance is right in front of you, just reach out and take it!"
Weiss still looked incredibly doubtful, but the crate was right there, inches in front of her, beckoning- the chance to leave the castle behind, once and for all, and seek a new life on the outside...
"Alright!" she caved. "But if you drop me..."
"Don't worry," Blake shook her head. "I won't."
Weiss looked incredibly nervous as she stepped out onto the crate. Her heart began racing as it tilted in her direction, gravity taking its toll. Hurrying, she scampered to the rope in the middle, bringing the crate into a better balance and giving herself something to cling to like a lifeline.
"Alright, hold on tight!" Blake repeated, before moving the levers around. Weiss's stomach was doing somersaults as the crate lowered towards the ground- not as quickly as it had risen, for her sake, but still faster than she'd have liked. Next came her stomach attempting to exit her body altogether as the crane swung its load around the side of the tower, before bringing it into a position squarely in the middle of the gap in the bridge that had started this detour in the first place.
"Are you alright down there?" Blake's voice came, softer with distance.
"I... I think so!" Weiss called back, gazing across the remainder of the chasm. Even with their makeshift bridge, that was still quite the distance...
Blake, however, smiled as she rose from the controls, climbed out onto the crane, inching along until she arrived at the chain, and began to climb down. Eventually, she slackened her grip on it until she was sliding down, fireman-style.
Weiss jumped slightly as Blake landed next to her with a thud. "Um, Blake?" she asked, pointing towards her previous observation. "We have a problem."
"And what might that be?" Blake asked, sounding genuinely curious as she gazed towards the main castle. "Our door is right over there."
"That's still quite a leap to make," Weiss pointed out. "Are you sure...?"
"That I can make it? Yeah," Blake nodded. "Watch."
Weiss's heart leapt again as Blake headed towards the crate's edge, sending it further off-balance. She crouched down, took a running start, and leapt- miraculously clearing the distance, tucking and rolling to the stone on the other side. Turning, she beckoned to Weiss. "Alright, your turn!"
"Are you crazy? I can't jump that!" Weiss shook her head fervently. "Maybe that jump's easy for faunus, but as for me-"
"It wasn't because I'm a faunus!" Blake objected, approaching the edge and extending her hand. "Look, you don't even have to make the jump- just make it to my hand! I'll catch you and pull you up!"
"This is insane!" Weiss shouted back. "I'm risking my life just to get to the front gates, where we'll just have to turn back and go through all this again anyways!"
"Weiss!" Blake called back, her eyes narrowed slightly. "Trust me- jump over, and if you fall, I'll catch you. No danger- I'll catch you. Trust me."
Weiss still hesitated, glancing to the side and witnessing the hundreds of feet between her and the bottom of the cliffs below. She bit her lip, unwilling to let go of the chain keeping her up. Looking back across the gap, she saw Blake leaning as far over the gap as she likely dared, arm outstretched, eyes wide. "Trust me," she whispered one more time.
Every muscle in her body screaming that what she was about to do was suicide, Weiss released her grip on the chain and began inching across the crate, creaking and groaning at the shift in weight. Taking a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart, she crouched down as she'd seen Blake do, and began to run, her feet finally propelling her across the gap.
For a moment, everything seemed fine- until she looked down, and realized that her leap wasn't enough to clear the gap. She let out a scream, arms flailing as gravity began to take its toll on her again-
Until something warm seized her. Looking up, she saw her arm in a tight grip, courtesy of one Blake Belladonna, half her body hanging over the edge, arm outstretched and seizing her own. Blake smiled. "Told you I'd catch you."
Weiss remained quiet as Blake threw all her strength into pulling Weiss up next to her, where she swiftly got as far away from the ledge as possible before laying on the ground, chest heaving as she fought to steady her heart.
Blake approached her, and collapsed at her side, looking somewhat winded herself. "Well, that was... a thing."
"Never," Weiss shook her head listlessly. "Never again."
"Get used to it," Blake heaved. "Might end up doing that a few more times, if the rest of the castle is in this much disrepair."
"Not much further to go," Weiss shook her head, extending an arm to tap on the door that had been their goal from the start. "Through there is the entrance hall- and on the other side, the courtyard. Past that... the front gate."
"So we're only two rooms away?" Blake asked, feline ears perking as she whipped her head to look at Weiss.
"Yeah... two... rooms... away," Weiss nodded. "But first... I need some rest."
"Honestly, that doesn't sound like a bad idea to me, either," Blake shook her head. Glancing across the 'bridge' to the tower, she smiled. "Not a bad idea at all.
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1...2...3... HAPPY NEW YEAR! Kinda- it's actually 8:33 where I am at the time of posting this, so it's a few and a half hours before the years over at this end. You lucky dogs over there in the future... truth be told, I was planning on updating earlier, but then my lovely computer crashed, and by the time it got fixed, it was so close to the new year, I thought I'd make this chapter the subject of my annual tradition- uploading a chapter for the new year. Also, in full confession, this chapter was originally intended to go on longer- at least to the front gate- but a reflection on upcoming events and chapter length led me to the conclusion that this was the better stopping place. So next chapter will see the front gates- hopefully, that'll be up soon, but I won't give any specifics- readers of my other stories will be well aware of the curse that kicks in whenever I do that.
Anyways, hope you all enjoyed, and to let me know, please R&R, constructive criticism embraced, flames, not so much, Gamer4 out!