SLVR

by saundersmarcelo

If you watch RWBY, then chances are you are familiar or have heard of the popular fan made team known as Team SLVR, created by Mark Zhang. In my first ever fanfiction (which is set in the main series/timeline of RWBY), this story will follow the lives of Simin Megistus and his team (Lycan Arcadia, Vella Moisia, and Ragora Cinarum).

18. Volume I: Ant Ch2: Belly of the Beast:

Volume I: A2: Belly of the Beast:

"Well I guess that takes care of him." The frustrated Vernal thinks to herself as she breathes a sigh of relief from having the person she considered a burden to be out of her hair. "I'm not going to risk my life for some brat who can't listen to orders, let alone reason. That kid is just not worth the trouble."

As soon as she finishes her thoughts, Sophia returns from where she disappeared off to as she makes her way back to her friend.

"Sorry I took so long. I couldn't hold it anymore." Sophia apologizes as Vernal isn't paying attention to what she was saying.

Sophia, feeling someting is off looks around. "Hey, where's Simin." Sophia's tone changes once she notices the boy is missing.

"He ran off into the grimm territory." Vernal admits to her without any care in my voice.

Vernal's casualness in her delivery must have led Sophia to think she was joking because she stayed quiet for a few seconds before simply laughing in response.

"No really. Where is he?" She repeats.

Vernal chooses not to repeat herself and lets the silence between them answer the oblivious Sophia's question this time. Sophia started to pick up on it as her demeanor quickly changed to urgent.

"You didn't…"

"I did. I let him go." Vernal says with a cold and remorseless voice.

Sophia is stunned by Vernal's words and stands speechless with a look of horror before she can find her words.

"...WHAT THE FUCK, VERNAL?!" Sophia yells as she immediately gets hit with a wave of panic, fearing for the boy's safety.

"He wanted his stupid knife so bad that he didn't want to listen to reason. So I let him go. I didn't bother stopping him. Now he gets to deal with the consequences of his actions. As for me, I just don't care anymore. I'm done dealing with the little bastard." She tells her in a cold and remorseless voice as she brushes some of the dirt Simin threw at her off her shirt.

"Vernal, I-.." She cuts herself off as she lets out a frustrated sigh. "Do you even hear the words coming out of your mouth?! Are you even thinking right now?! That's grimm territory! Grimm! He may as well be walking through a minefield with a... magnet that attracts bombs or something!" Sophia fumbles with her metaphor due to being overcome with worry, though she tries her best to make her point. "Point is, he's going to die!"

"That's not guaranteed." Vernal replies dismissively. "We'll wait for Raven to get here and then she can go get him. I am just so done right now. If he's dead, then I don't have to deal with him anymore. If he's alive, I doubt Raven would keep him around any longer after pulling a stunt like that. Either way, he's out of my life."

"Vernal this is so fucked up!" Sophia expresses her discontent loudly. "Are you really going to gamble with this kid's life just so you can prove a point? What is wrong with you!? He's a kid! What if Raven doesn't get here by the time something gets to him? I'll say it again: He's. Going. To die!"

"Then that's his own damn fault!" The annoyed Vernal frustratedly snaps. "He walked his ass into the belly of the beast after I had already warned him not to and even had the gall to act like a petulant child in doing so, so why should I give a fuck if he gets himself killed?! He clearly doesn't give a damn about his own life, so why should I? If he does die, then that's on him. He was dead as soon as he took his first step in that direction. It's not the weak who die first, it's the stupid. And Simin is a fucking dumbass! You really want me to risk all our lives for a brat who wanted to risk his own life for a knife of all things?"

"Well, what if it were me?" She immediately responds with seriousness in her voice.

"What do you mean?" Vernal replies, a bit taken aback.

"What if it were me that decided to be reckless and take the risk of jumping in? Would you gamble with my life like you are with his, or would you come after me?"

Vernal doesn't know exactly how to respond as she didn't have an answer ready.

"Well? I'm waiting." Sophia tries to pry an answer out of the girl.

"The thing is, Phi, you wouldn't even get a chance to be in that position because there is no way I'd let a tribe member put themselves at risk." Vernal answers in a way as if she were confessing to something.

"Are you completely unaware of the fact you just let Simin run headfirst in there?!" Sophia shouts in frustration.

Vernal remains silent rather than answer and Sophia starts to come upon a realization.

"You don't see Simin as part of the tribe, do you?" Sophia asks her sternly with an almost "Aha!"-like tone like she just figured something out.

Vernal knows what her answer would be, but her silence was clearer than anything she could have said. In her eyes, he never was. He's just a glorified guest with unearned privileges who's overstayed his welcome in a place he had no business being in to begin with.

Sophia simply shakes her head in disapproval as she looks at her friend in utter disappointment.

"I'm going after him…" Sophia notifies Vernal.

With that, Sophia turns in the direction Simin went, completely unwavered by the potential volatility of the environment she'd be entering. But before she can take her first step, Vernal grabs her arm.

"Sophia, wait…If you cross that tree, you're as good as dead." Vernal warns as a plea for her to stop. "If you try to get him to come back, he won't do it quietly and that'll lead to escalation and that leads to a grimm attack. And even if he does come quietly, the kid won't be able to keep his anxiety in check because he can't even go two seconds without his little 'security blanket.' You'll have no choice but to go straight in there for an extended period of time until he gets his knife before you can get out."

"Then I guess you better come along to make sure that doesn't happen." Sophia replies as she tries to pull away, but Vernal only strengthens her grip.

But before Vernal could get another word out, Sophia was already speaking in a serious tone uncharacteristic in contrast to her usual self.

"Vernal, despite the stunt you just pulled, I still consider you my friend and I just want you to know that. And it's because you're my friend that I'm going to say this:

"You say he won't listen to reason and that he doesn't care about his own wellbeing and that we shouldn't bother with him. But that only gives me even more of a reason to go in after him. I've made mistakes because I couldn't listen to reason and stopped caring about myself and it cost me everything. And I'll be damned if I do nothing as that kid puts himself in harm's way. We may not be saints, but we at least give a damn about each other.

"You believe that he doesn't deserve to be a part of this tribe and never should have been. But at the end of the day, he is part of this tribe! If you don't like that, you can take it up with the woman in charge and tell that to Raven to her face. And I can't believe you are honestly willing to gamble with his life and let him put himself at risk simply because you refuse to see him as anything more than an undeserving brat. But if anyone is being a brat right now, it's you! And I, of all people, should not be the one to tell you this! But this is what's happening!

"Vernal, I'm going to say this now. If that boy gets hurt, I will never forgive you."

With every word Sophia had spoken, Vernals's grip on her arm gradually loosened as she didn't know how to even respond. And once Sophia got her last statement out, she yanked herself free as she continued making her way to Simin. But before she is gone, Sophia decides to slip in a few more words to get through to Vernal.

"Oh and by the way, if you think Raven is going to be mad at Simin for charging into grimm territory, just think how livid she will be at the fact it happened under your watch. What do you think will piss her off more: Simin charging into restricted territory on his own, or the fact you let him do it? I mean you kinda just screwed yourself over. This is just damage control at this point. So, if you wanna make her 'proud' or whatever it is you're trying to do at this point, I suggest you help me get our tribe member back."

Having said her piece, Sophia now makes her way into the grimm infested territory with no interruption, the only thing driving her being her loyalty. In the meantime, Vernal stands there speechless, left with her own thoughts.

"She's going to die…" Vernal thinks to herself. "I honestly could care less about Simin. But Sophia, she's going to die. If she encounters something, she won't last ten seconds. She'd be lucky to make it past five. And since this is Sophia, there is literally nothing I can say that can convince her to turn around. And trying to stop her any other way would only lead to escalation and that will potentially turn the entire forest hostile. I'm supposed to be the third strongest tribe member and Raven's second-in-command, and there's nothing I can do to stop this. I have no choice but to help her. I really fucked myself over on this one..."

Vernal then bites her lip as she contemplates what she's about to do and just before her friend disappears into the restricted end of the woods, she finally steps into the monsters' den as she crosses the tree with 'X' carved in it and follows after Sophia into the restricted section of the forest.

"Phi...! Wait upI" Vernal calls out as she catches up to her friend.

"Aww~. Nice to see you have a change of heart." Sophia says in a way that Vernal can't tell whether she's being genuinely naive and thinks she's doing this to help Simin orif she's just teasing her. Knowing her, Vernal suspects it's probably a bit of both.

"Shut up." She scoffs, dismissing her comment. "I'm just making sure you don't get your ass killed. Now come on. I'm leading." Vernal orders as she retakes the lead.

What just transpired between the two girls is the reason why Vernal tolerates Sophia's constant pestering to play cards. It's why she puts up with Sophia's antics and her somewhat scatterbrained and careless personality. It's why she calls Sophia a friend. Sophia is the only person in the tribe that isn't Raven or Mari who is willing to confront Vernal when she messes up and tells her so to her face. No one else in the tribe would do that. The other tribe members fear Vernal due to her intensity and her close association with Raven. But Sophia? She's different. She doesn't fear Vernal one bit. And Vernal admires that in her.

. . .

*Simin's perspective*:

It had to have gone this way judging from the freshness and direction of these tracks and the path of broken branches and mangled bushes.

"I'm not going to lose you." I think aloud as I reload one of my sai and prepare to continue forward.

I'm starting to think Vernal was just exaggerating or trying to scare me into backing down when she said this is grimm territory. She probably carved that 'X' in the tree herself or something. I haven't even seen a single grimm or heard any movement since entering. I haven't even found a single trace of those monsters so far. No claw marks. No large, monstrous prints. Nothing. It's dead silent. Not even as much as a bird chirping or a ru-

[Rustle...]

(Gasp!)

My thoughts are suddenly interrupted by a rustle coming from a nearby bush causing my heart to jump in pace and I sharply turn my head in the direction of the noise as I prepare for a possible encounter. I quickly draw my weapons and point them in the direction of the noise and mentally prepare myself for a possible fight. Bracing myself for whatever is going to lunge at me through the bushes, I take a deep breath and rest my fingers on the triggers.

No more than a second later, I am finally met with what's on the other side of the bush and am immediately overcome with relief as I was greeted not by the sight of a large, hulking beast, but Vernal and Sophia. Sophia has her hands up as she emerges while Vernal has her hands reaching for her blades as she gives me a warning look to lower my weapons, to which I comply.

"Easy, Simin. It's just us." Sophia says as she stops dead in her tracks when she sees that I had my weapons drawn.

"Yeah. I can see that." I say with slight annoyance due to the brief startle it gave me. "You scared me…"

"So why are you two here?" I change the subject. "I hope you're not going to try to drag me back because I won't make it easy-"

"I know you won't." Vernal cuts me off, irritated. "You seem to have a knack for that."

"You don't have to worry about that, Simin." Sophia enters the interaction to try and change the mood after Vernal's snide comment as she shoots her a dirty look telling her to cut it out. "We're going to help you get your knife back actually."

"Correction:" Vernal jumps back in. "She's here to help you get your knife back. I'm here to make sure she doesn't get herself killed."

"Well so long as you're both here, I guess. Thank you." I respond, gratefully.

"So anyway, you got a lead on it yet?" Sophia questions me.

"Yeah. It went this way." I answer her as I point in the direction of the broken branches and mangled bushes.

"Alright then let's get this over with." Vernal walks by me quickly without hesitation, immediately retaking the lead while Sophia and I follow.

As Sophia and I walk beside each other (though I lingered behind by at least a yard), I can't help but still feel awkward around her. Going back to what I mentioned earlier before we got into this situation, she hasn't spoken much to me since our last interaction when I got her her money and yelled at her. Even during my last haircut, she was quieter. We still do engage in some small talk during the cuts, but it's not as much as usual. Even her demeanor when around me is different.

Back before I got her out of her debt and made her stop calling me 'Lu', she used to be… How do I put it…. ? "Aggressively nice" toward me. That's probably the most accurate way to put it. Like an overbearing older sister or something. Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining that she's dropped doing that with me altogether, but I still can't shake the thought that I genuinely hurt her with our last real exchange. I remember later that day, when Mari came to check on me, she gave me a brief apology letter from Sophia that was a bit hard to read due to her handwriting. It was short, but it went as follows:

"I'm sorry for getting you involved… and annoying you. I'll be out of your hair now.

-S

P.S. Speaking of which, I still get to have you to myself for haircuts though. Somebody has to keep that hair in check."

It seems Sophia gets very apologetic when she feels bad about something she did. And don't get me wrong, she never should have kept pushing for me to get involved and I appreciate her apologizing for it. But regardless, I never meant to snap at her the way I did and I know my words hurt her. In fact, I said those words with the intent to hurt her. I just wanted to be alone and I was willing to hurt her if it meant getting just that. I never formally apologized to her for it either.

…(sigh)...

I guess now is as good of a time as any.

"Hey, Sophia?" I say sheepishly as I approach her and tap her arm.

"Hm? What is it, Simin? Something wrong?" She acknowledges as she looks over her shoulder down to me.

"Nothing. Just… wanted to know how you've been lately?" I try to make a bit of small talk to ease my way into it.

"I'm doing alright." She plainly answers.

"That's good…" I answer just as plainly.

"And you?" She continues.

"So far, so good…"

"Gods, why does it always have to feel awkward?" I complain in my head. "It's not like I haven't given an apology before. But they never stop feeling awkward. This is what I get for putting it off for so long…"

"So what's on your mind? I can tell something's up." Sophia calls out my sudden uncomfortable demeanor.

"Am I that easy to read?"

"Yep!" She gives a teasing smile. "You need to work on your subtlety. And that's coming from me. So anyway, what's up?"

"I…," I pause briefly as I give a sigh. "I just wanted to apologize for what I said… Back in December. You know,... about implying that you cared more about money than other people's wellbeing? And yelling at you."

Sophia stays quiet for a few seconds as if she is searching for a response before speaking up again.

"Look. I don't exactly blame you for the yelling part since I was prying when you weren't in a good state of mind at the moment and clearly wanted to be left alone. I should have read the situation better and that's on me. But as for what you said before that…," Her expression changes a bit to a slight somber one. "...I'm not gonna lie, Simin. That did sting a bit. But... I had it coming. I shouldn't have dragged you into my business and used you to get me out of my debt. So don't apologize. Just consider us even, okay? And besides, you don't strike me as the spiteful type, so I'm sure you didn't mean it. But I appreciate the thought."

"Sophia, you really shouldn't be letting this slide." I protest. "It wasn't fair to you that I said it, regardless of what mood I was in or whether I meant it or not. It was wrong for me to make that remark at you. I should at least apologize for that. Don't try to justify it please. The reason those words stung was because I was trying to hurt you. I wanted to be alone and I purposely hurt you to get that and that's not okay. Especially since you were just trying to check on me. I need to do better to stop lashing out at people when I'm in a terrible mood. I did it to Mari when she was trying to help me out and I did it to you too, so… yeah… I'm really sorry..."

Sophia then opens her mouth as if she's about to protest only to quickly cut herself off before starting.

"Oh, we do not deserve you." She mutters under her breath with a soft sigh and light chuckle. "Alright. I accept your apology."

Though the tone of her voice sounds humored and warm and she wore a soft grin, the look in her eyes says that she still thinks she doesn't deserve it. It seems like even though she gets very apologetic when she does something wrong, she doesn't like receiving apologies a whole lot. I wonder why.

"Now stop worrying about me, okay? It's not good for your health- " She adds.

"Shh!" Vernal shushes us both and we stop dead in our tracks as she puts her arm in front of us.

She then gets low and sneaks forward a bit to peer over a fallen tree and gestures to us to come closer. We move forward a few more meters and look and we see what Vernal notices. There it is, right behind a few large rocks in a small, grassy ravine: the elk. It still has the knife stuck in right where I stabbed it, which was somewhat relieving. I don't like that it's even farther than it was last time we first spotted it though. About 100 yards (91 meters) away. But even from this far away it still looks just as big.

"Simin, I'm going to say this now." Vernal turns to me. "If that elk gets away again or if I think we're in too compromising of a situation than what we're already in, we are hauling ass outta here. Do I make myself clear?"

"But-"

"Do I make myself clear?" She repeats with assertiveness.

"O-okay. Fine…" I relent.

"So how are we going to get this thing?" Sophia says. "It's most likely on high alert so I doubt we can approach it, right?"

"Right now, we just tail it." Vernal answers. "Let it think it's gotten away and see where it leads us. Once it's adopted a false sense of security and rests, we strike."

"Can't I just try shooting it again?" Sophia suggests, reaching for the rifle.

"Yeah, if you're suicidal. I highly recommend not doing that. We don't want to attract any grimm to our location with noise either, so we should keep it down as a precaution. Speaking of attracting grimm," Vernal then turns her attention toward me. "You're feeling anxious right now, aren't you, Simin?"

"A bit, yeah." I answer. "I just want to get my knife back, and then get out of here."

"Is that thing like your security blanket or something?" Sophia chimes in.

"It just… has a lot of meaning to me." I tell her vaguely

"Well I suggest bearing with it for the time being, okay? And try to ease yourself however you can." Vernal continues. "Too much anxiety and you might accidentally attract a pack of beowolves or something bigger to us."

"How am I supposed to do that?"

"I don't know! Take deep breaths. Count to one hundred. Hold Phi's hand. I don't care what. Just try to get your anxiety down."

I opt to go with Vernal's first suggestion and try to take deep breaths to ease my anxiety. Suddenly we hear the elk begin to move with heavy, tired footsteps as the three of us turn our heads in unison as the creature then moves further down the small ravine.

"I guess it was just catching its breath." Vernal speaks up.

"Yep! Now let's go!" I say under my breath so only they can hear me as I anxiously get up to hop down the ravine to give chase.

"Woah, hold on!" Vernal stops me as she grabs onto my shoulder.

"What? Aren't we supposed to tail it?" I say pointing in the direction the elk is heading.

"Man, you really are inexperienced with large animals." Vernal comments. "Yeah, you're right that we need to tail it, but don't just hop down the ravine."

"Why not?"

"Because for starters, it'll cause noise. And we need to stay up here to maintain a vantage point. Raven taught that to me when she took me out hunting once. Why else did you think I had you approach it from the trees?"

With that, in silence, I step back toward Vernal and Sophia and just follow their lead and we start following along the edge of the ravine, tailing the elk and making sure not to make any movements to give us away. As we move along, the ravine sort of begins to widen a bit more, making the sides of it gradually less and less steep. After about 5-10 minutes of tailing, the ravine ends and stops right in front of a large, presumably deep, den of sorts that the elk finally decides to stop near and lay down to rest. As for the three of us, we're hiding by a tree at the top of the ravine for cover.

"Okay, so what now?" I ask, awaiting orders.

"You see this tree?" Vernal says pointing to the tree we were using as cover.

"Kinda hard not to." I respond.

"Anyway, smartass," She answers back. "I want you to look at the branches and follow them with your eyes."

As I guide my eyes along the branch Vernal was pointing to, I notice that they stretch out and end right on top of where the elk was now resting, providing a cooling shade.

"Judging from the look on your face, you see what I'm talking about. That, Simin, is your second chance. Be sure to finish it this time. This second chance is also our last chance."

"Okay." I say, adopting a more serious demeanor.

"When you drop down, plunge your sai into its neck and aim for the throat. As you do so, I'll go for its legs and chop it down to size so it won't get away this time."

"And what do I do?" Sophia jumped in.

"I need you to go up the tree with Simin, but I need you higher up. You're going to be on the lookout for grimm?"

"Got it." She says with a nod.

"Okay. Time to put this plan into action." Vernal states before directing us.

"C'mon, Simin. I'll give you a boost." Sophia calls as she stands at the base of the tree, crouched down and hands linked.

The branches on this tree weren't as high as the last one, so I could pretty much do it on my own. But she's already offering, so I should just accept her help and go with it. I plant my foot firmly in the makeshift foothold Sophia creates with her hands and step up and jump as she boosts me. Not long after, Sophia follows suit as Vernal boosts her as well and climbs up with me.

"You got this, Simin." Sophia says, giving me a reassuring smile and a thumbs up. "Just take a deep breath and go for it." She then gives me a pat on the back before continuing her climb and moves higher above me.

With that little boost of confidence, I carefully make my way toward the elk, carefully maintaining my balance as I walk toward the end of the branch, stopping right above it. I take a few moments to size it up, thinking back to what happened last time. With that, I then take a deep breath and lean forward, letting gravity do the rest of the work for me.

As I drop down on the antlered behemoth, I pull out both of my sai to make my kill. Right when I land, I sink both weapons in the elk's neck with the intention of getting it in the throat. However, I ended up narrowly missing that area causing the thing to jolt up and let out a shrill scream that echoed throughout the forest before Vernal came in to put a quick end to it as she dashed by and slit its throat and chopped one of its front legs from under it.

"Damn, this thing can take a lot of punishment!" I think to myself as it collapses under its own weight, still struggling before Vernal takes it upon herself to finish it off as its movements grow limp from blood loss caused by my initial strike.

Once we're sure it's dead, I hop off the thing and pull my knife out triumphantly from its lifeless body, cleaning the blood off and putting it away in my pocket where it belongs.

"Do you have your knife?" Vernal asks me as I pull out just the handle to show her that I have it.

"Okay good. Now let's get out of this place now while we still have the chance!" She says with much urgency.

"What? Why? Don't you want the elk? We can sit here and wait for-"

"Kid, what part of 'Grimm territory' do you not understand?!" She interrupts with frustration.

"Vernal, are you even sure this is even grimm territory? I haven't even seen or heard any sign of anything since stepping here. It's been dead silent. Plus, if it really were grimm territory, then why did the elk run straight here and not get attacked?"

Vernal simply facepalms in response as if she was completely astounded by the ignorance and inexperience I'm apparently showing.

"Kid, when out in the wilderness, dead silence is the one thing you don't want to hear. And why? Because that either means an apex predator is in the area, or you're in grimm territory and you better pray it's the former. And as for the elk, it ran here because it didn't think we'd be stupid enough to follow it in, especially since grimm don't give that much of a shit about animals unless they feel they have a reason to! Now shut your trap and come on-"

As soon as she finished her sentence grabs arm and was ready to drag me out and call Sophia down, we see a flock of birds flying over us in a hurry as if they were all startled by something. I then look at Vernal and I can visually see her get hit with a heavy, sinking feeling as her grip on my arm loosens. No more than a second later, loud rustles as if trees were being shaken can be faintly heard in the distance and slowly and steadily growing louder and closer. It was as if the forest was coming alive. At that moment, I could suddenly feel her dread wash over me as if it were contagious.

"We're so screwed…" Vernal mutters.

"Guys!" Sophia calls from the top of the tree immediately after with much fear in her voice.

Next thing you know, unable to pinpoint exactly from what direction they were coming from, we can hear faint barks and howls and all other types of beastly noises in the distance quickly closing in on us and growing in volume as the trees in the distance continue to shake and move to the will of the rushing beasts.

""Phi, what do you see?" She calls up as she rushes to the base of the tree.

"Well the closest thing to us is a pack of beowolves- about eight or nine I think, including an alpha! Aside from that, there's a giant, black mass." She screams from the top, still looking through her binoculars.

"How far back is it- the horde, I mean?" Vernal asks with even more urgency in her voice as she tries her best to sound calm.

"Uhh, about 1,000 yards (914 meters) out, but it's closing in fast! Really, really fast!"

"Where are they coming from?"

"E-everywhere!" Sophia could barely contain her fear as her voice shook.

"FUCK!" Vernal said to herself, as she hit the tree.

"Hey! Careful! I'm still up here!" Sophia shouts down to her.

"I take it there's nowhere to run?" I ask nervously.

"No…" Vernal grimly states before turning her attention back up to Sophia. "Phi! Estimated time of the beowolf pack getting here?"

"As of now, about 25 seconds!"

"What about the horde?" Vernal yells back.

"About 90! Maybe less!"

"Shit!"

"Vernal, you said Raven would come get us in about an hour right?" I shakily ask.

"Yeah."

"How much time has passed?" I follow up.

"58 minutes." She nervously says back.

"So in other words…"

"By the time the beowolf pack gets here, we'll have roughly a minute to both kill the beowolf pack and also find a place to hide before the grimm horde gets here. And by that point' we'll have about 30 seconds left to hold out for Raven. My math might be a bit off, but the point is, we don't have a lot of time."

"And where are we going to hide?" I respond.

Just then Vernal quickly turns her head to the first thing that seems remotely like a decent hiding spot: the den behind me. She then looks back at Sophia who was frantically climbing down from the tree.

"Sophia, get your ass down here. We're hiding in the den!"

"What?!" Sophia yells back as she makes it to the bottom and almost trips as she lands due to the panic in her.

"I said in the den now!" Vernal repeats louder.

"Got it!" Sophia answers as she begins to make her way to the den.

"Oh! And Sophia! Be sure to set that ice dust charge up at that entrance too! I have a plan."

"Really?!" Sophia says with excitement as her face briefly lit up as she reaches the bottom of the tree. For a split sceond, she seems to have forgotten about the danger we were in as she finally has the chance to make use of something she's clearly been waiting a while for a reason to use.

"Yes, really. Now move your ass!" Vernals barks as Sophia sprints for the entrance to the den.

"Simin, you and I will cover her. We have about five seconds left, so weapons out!" Vernal orders

In response, I draw my sai with no hesitation.

I'll admit, knowing what's coming at me, my heart involuntarily is starting to race and I start to break a nervous sweat as well as my breathing getting a bit rapid. The last time I encountered a threat of this size was the night Dorado fell.

I need to get it together! I'll die if I don't.

In the next second, the howls of the beowolf pack Sophia warned us of are right on us and we see the dreaded monsters emerge from the shaking bushes, stopping right above us at the top of the ravine. It's as if they were trying to look for the best angle to approach us and rip us to shreds. Judging from what I see, there were seven of them- six regulars and one alpha. Sophia must have miscounted in her panic. The alpha was trading barks and growls with its pack members as if it were orchestrating an attack method and giving orders to its subordinates.

"Simin, how many can you take?" Vernal says looking over her shoulder as we stood back to back with our weapons drawn.

"Three I-I think." I stammer, a bit nervous as I feel my palms drenched in enough sweat to make it difficult to maintain a firm grip on my weapons.

"Now's not the time. It's do or die right now." Vernal tries to snap me out of it. "You take three, I'll take three. Then we'll both take the alpha. Got it? We don't have a lot of time, so are you ready?

"Gonna have to be…" I answer with a low voice.

"That's the spirit." Vernal sarcastically comments just as the beowolves decide to execute their plan.

The pack rushes us like an army of bees attacking an intruder to their hive- not too far off of an analogy when I think about it considering we're on their turf afterall. The three beowolves I've been tasked to take care of start charging me at once in a bit of a triangle formation and I take the single precious second I have to gather my bearings.

"Alright Simin, you can do this." I think to myself as I take a deep breath. "You've killed one before and you've been training with Raven. Just keep your head and you'll be fine."

As the first one lunges at me, I take the split second opportunity and leap head first toward it and roll onto its back, facing up in the very brief moment we were both airborne while I was on it. During that incredibly small window of time, my weapons still in hand, I pull the trigger of the sai sitting in my right hand, allowing the recoil to propel me to my left. The recoil allows my body to rapidly spin like a corkscrew as my body flies to the side to the beowolf farthest to the left. As my body propels toward the left beowolf, I take advantage of the momentum of the spin and slam the blunt end/barrel end of the sai straight into its skull, knocking it to the ground and briefly stunning it as I land on my feet. I then quickly fire two bullets into its skull, finishing off and killing it and I prepare myself for the next one. This all happens in about the span of three seconds. Maybe slightly less.

Immediately after, the third beowolf that was to the right was already running up and catches up to me as soon as I turn around. It tries to catch me off guard by taking a swipe at me with one of its skull crushing paws- it's left one to be exact-, but I lean to the side as I parry its attempted blow with my left hand toward the inside. I take advantage of my opening and strike it in the midsection with the blunt end of my right sai. As I do this, I pull the trigger while loosening my grip on it to both shoot the beowolf in the side to injure it and allowing the weapon to slip from my hand as the recoil propels it into the first beowolf that initially lunged at me at the start of the encounter as it was quickly making its way back after I had initially dodged it. The sai ends up lodging itself in the initial beowolf's chest, not killing it, but still stunning it and knocking it back.

Refocusing on the beowolf in front of me, while it's still hurt and I have my window, I pull out my mother's knife as I sink it into its back and drive my knee into its front around the area I shot before it could try anything to follow up with as it howls in pain. I then hop up onto its back, using the knife as a support and pull myself up as I pull the knife out and drive it into the back of its neck and swing my body around its head, essentially slitting its throat for good measure and killing it as half of its head hangs off its like the last exchange, this takes about three seconds.

I then run up to the last of my three beowolves- the first one that lunged at me- and it tries to make a swipe at my head with its clublike arm before I get too close. I easily dodge with a quick duck and roll. Going with the momentum of my roll, as soon as I got back to my feet, I firmly plant my foot on its leg and then step up to the sai anchored in its sternum and quickly step up again and deliver a very stiff kick to its chin and use my momentum to somersault backward away from it, pulling the sai out of its chest in the process. As it stumbles backward from my kick, I land on my feet in a crouched position on one knee and with the sai I pulled out still in hand, I point it at the last of my beowolves and pull the trigger, sending a bullet through its chin and out the top of its head. Three bowolves down in nine seconds. Now for the alpha.

As I turn my attention to the alpha, I see that Vernal has already finished with her three and the alpha, dissatisfied by the failure of its subordinates, was already moving toward her first as it saw her as the bigger threat and I run up to assist her. The alpha takes a swipe at her with one of its paws and she moves outside and slashes its side with one of her weapons so quickly that if you blinked, you would have missed it. The beast staggers, creating an opening for me. I charge in and fire two bullets into its knees before coming up on it and plunging both sai into its abdomen, pulling the triggers of both weapons while doing so to increase the power of my strikes. As the beast bellows in pain, it quickly tries to reach down to grab hold of me to throw me off or rip me in half, but Vernal follows up by coming around and charging in and slicing off both its arms before it could do that and even decapitates it in the process. The alpha's head flies clean off its body as the rest of it hits the ground hard and evaporates into a black mist.

"Come on! Let's help Phi arm the mine and get in the den." Vernal directs me.

"But what if there's more grimm in the den?" I question her.

"Because if there were grimm in there, they would have immediately come out and attacked us by now. But since that hasn't happened, it's safe to say it's empty. Now come on! We're running out of-

"VERNAL!" We hear Sophia shout with an incredible amount of distress in her voice.

In response, we both turn just in time to catch a glimpse of the scene that transpires. Two other beowolves are charging down the ravine toward her in less than a couple seconds as Sophia quickly pulls up her rifle and puts a well-placed bullet through one of their heads, killing it instantly as it evaporates before it could fall into her. She didn't miscount after all. They must have splintered off from the pack we just fought when they were on their way here and took the long way to catch us by surprise. Which means when the pack stopped at the top of the ravine, it must have also been stalling to buy the last two some time to give them an opening to cut us off and block the den.

Before Sophia can reload, the other beowulf charges through the blinding smokescreen of its evaporated comrade and is already on her. The demonic canine swipes her weapon out of her hand, snapping the rifle into fragments and slicing her shoulder as the force of the blow turns her away. The monster then took another opportunity to land another shot on her open back, causing her to release a sharp, pained cry as her back involuntarily arches in response to the blow.

It all happened so fast. All within a second of us turning around. It was almost a "blink-and-you'll-miss it" moment.

"SOPHIA!" Vernal screams as she throws one of her crescent blades at the beowolf while I toss one of my sai while pulling the trigger in the process. I'd shoot it, but my bullets wouldn't be strong or accurate enough to really damage it from this distance.

As we were throwing our weapons, it was already raising its hand for another devastating blow and followed through with another shot on Sophia, striking her in the head. She was protecting her head, however, with her arms as that happened, but the strength of the beast was more than enough to still get enough of her head as it hit her with such force that her body hit the outer wall of the den and she fell to the ground, limp, face down on the dirt. The blow even tore open her breast pocket on her vest and sent her playing cards flying everywhere as they fell around her like leaves in the Fall.

As soon as it raises its massive, clawed paw for another blow, my weapon was the first to reach it due to the recoil giving it a boost and it stabs right through said paw and pins it to the outer wall of the den. Vernal's connects almost simultaneously and finds its mark in the beowolf's head and cuts it vertically in half, instantly killing it. As its body vanishes, Vernal and I rush up to check on Sophia.

"Sophia! Sophia, get up! Please get up!" Vernal yells with much worry and fear in her voice as she drops down and turns her over before giving it up as she realizes it's a fruitless effort.

Sophia is completely motionless and unresponsive.

Being this close allows me to see the results of the beowolf's efforts. I could see the back of her shirt was torn due to the collision she made with the surface of the wall and there were bruises and scrapes visible. Her arm was without a doubt broken and her shoulder had a large gash in it. As I get a closer look at her gash, I see something that freezes me. I… I can see her muscle…

"Vernal, i-is she-?" I don't want to finish my question, but we all know what I'm trying to say.

"She's… she's just unconscious..." Vernal says lowly. However, judging from her tone, I can't tell whether she's saying that to me or herself. She didn't even sound sure of herself when she said it.

"Shit!" Vernal says to herself when taking a look at the mine sticking out of Sophia's backpack.

"What?" I ask.

"The beowolf got to her before she could finish arming the mine." Vernal almost fumbles with her sentence as she grabs the back of her head and a handful of hair with one hand, clearly visibly stressed. I almost thought she was going to start pulling her hair out, she was so distressed

"What are we going to do then?" I ask, hoping we still have a chance out of this as the noises of grimm and shaking of trees are still rapidly approaching our location.

"It's what you're going to do." She corrects me. "But first I need you to help me get Phi to the back of the den."

"But by the time we get Sophia to the back, we won't have any time to finish setting the-"

"Simin! For the love of the gods, just shut the fuck up and help me!" Vernal frustratedly barks, with much stress in her voice while showing much concern for the safety of her friend, whose status is still unconfirmed.

Without another word, I grab Sophia's legs while Vernal carries her upper half, making sure to keep her broken arm resting on her unconscious body so it wouldn't dangle from the side or bump into anything. Now getting a look at her front, she is also severely bruised on the right side of her face, which is covered in dirt and blood from a fairly sized gash on her forehead. It also looks like she might have a broken collar bone and a scratch on her upper chest. Even though I only get a glimpse, I immediately avert my gaze as I am all too familiar with what grimm can do to people. When we reach the back of the den, we gently set her down, leaning against a wall and Vernal speaks up to fill me in.

"Okay Simin, do you still have some bullets left?"

"A few, yeah." I answer.

"Okay, here's what I need you to do: I need you to shoot the bomb." She then points to Sophia's backpack that still had the bomb in it sitting by the den entrance. "It's a dust explosive, so it should work since dust is a volatile and sensitive element. We're going to cave ourselves in from the entrance to prevent the grimm from getting to us. We're then going to have to hold out here for thirty seconds until Raven portals to us."

"Vernal, that is insane!" I respond, completely baffled by the absurdity of what she's telling me to do.

"Do you have any better ideas?!" Vernal says, quickly shutting down my challenge. "I didn't think so. Now shoot the damn bomb!"

With no other choice, I pull out one of my sai and flip it to the modified firearm end and aim the barrel at the object in Sophia's backpack.

"Sure hope we don't die..." I think to myself.

I take a deep breath… and then I pull the trigger.

Once exiting the barrel with a bang, the bullet travels all the way to Sophia's backpack and collides with the explosive object sitting inside. There was then a loud boom as the collision created a blueish explosion that destroyed the entrance to the den and sealed us in as we were quickly thrust into darkness, the only thing between us and the outside world being a wall of fallen rocks and ice. But just before the entrance collapsed, I could see the massive horde of grimm emerge from the tree line and into the area.

If I had pulled the trigger a few seconds later, we would have been toasr.

At this point my heart is racing and pounding and I'm sure Vernal's is as well. I can't see anything in the pitch-black darkness and there is rumbling all around us due to the movement of the sheer number of grimm outside. However, I am still able to feel around to make sure I'm not too far from Vernal or Sophia.

"Stay close, Simin." Vernal almost whispers, wrapping an arm around me and firmly holding me in place to make sure I don't accidentally wander off looking for her. I can't help but tremble from hearing the sounds of those monsters outside.

"We just have to hold for twenty-five more seconds and then Raven will get us out of here." She continues before taking out a match she has on her and lights it. "And stop shaking so much. I know you're scared out of your mind and I am too, but we need to maintain ourselves. The slightest slip in composure can end us right now. If they find out where we are, it won't take them long to claw their way in. Raven will be here soon."

Just hearing those words gives me a bit of comfort and I was able to ease myself a little bit as we all sit there in the darkness with a small area of light produced from the match around us. These are easily some of the longest seconds of my entire life as I listen to the grimm moving around on the other side of the barrier. Growling, howling, barking, screeching, roaring, and every other possible noise those beasts are capable of making.

Eventually, just like Vernal says, our saving grace arrives as a portal opens up behind us and I am hit with a wave of relief as the bandit leader herself steps through and into the darkness we are surrounded in. I never thought I'd be so happy to see a bandit in my entire life though we can barely see her through the dim light of the match. After silently looking around and hearing the noises around us and seeing Sophia lying on the ground, Raven is able to put two and two together and simply speaks up in a serious, authoritative voice:

"Through the portal now!"

I can hear anger behind her voice and that instantly turns my relief back into fear. I couldn't see her face clearly, but as angry of an expression I can imagine on her right now, it's likely ten times angrier.

"I'll be back in a bit." She adds.

This causes Vernal to stop in her tracks and turn back to Raven before she steps through.

"Wait, what are you gonna do?" She has a bit of worry in her voice.

"I'm going to clean up your mess! And I'm going to show them what happens when they attack my pack. They're going to learn what fear really is."

Vernal's expression becomes shocked as she can't believe Raven is going to fight this entire horde on her own.

"But Raven-"

"Vernal… I'm not going to tell you again. Through the portal- the three of you- now… And I want you, Vernal, to wait for me in my tent. And after I'm done with you, you're next, Simin. When I get back, the two of you have a lot of explaining to do."

She then puts on her mask, draws her sword, and walks toward the collapsed entrance.

Carrying Sophia the same way we were doing about a minute ago, Vernal and I move through the portal and end up back at the camp. However, despite being in a safe place, I couldn't feel any bit of relief. Sophia is in horrible shape and we don't even know if we've been carrying a dead body this whole time or not. Not to mention Raven is still back there. And I am terrified of the wrath she has saved for us when she gets back.

Immediately after we get through, the portal closed behind us and I can't help but look in the place where it stood and I think to myself,

"Is Raven about to take on that entire horde of grimm on her own?"

. . .

*Raven's perspective*:

"What on Remnant did they do to get themselves in this situation?" The crimson-eyed woman thinks to herself, completely baffled at how things got this far. "They were supposed to be hunting an elk! They were specifically not to go into grimm territory and Vernal should know that. Why and how did this happen?! This is the equivalent of sending someone to get milk at the grocery store and they come back with the whole police force on their tail. This is what I get for letting a damn kid lead a mission outside the camp, especially unsupervised. When I am done with those two, they are going to wish I let the grimm tear them to pieces."

(sigh)

But that will simply have to wait for the moment as Raven refocuses her attention on the challenge she is about to face on the other side of the blocked entrance. If she does not take care of the horde of grimm, Raven firmly believes there is a decent chance it will build and travel and possibly reach the camp, completely rolling over her tribe. But Raven's resolve will never allow that to happen.

Raven is no stranger to trials and tribulations. She's encountered many challenges and fought many battles. And every single one of them- with every drop of blood she shed, every scar that was inflicted on her that marks her body, every struggle she put herself through- she fought with the tribe's interest in mind. And more times than many, she's had close calls, whether it was against a powerful huntsman or huntress, overwhelming quantity of grimm, or other hostile forces. To her, this is no different. Just another trial to add to her list of mountains and hills she's conquered. In Mistral, they say "Death waits for no one", but Raven Branwen has made herself the exception. Every time death has come for her, Raven simply tells it "No!" with authority and death simply comes back another day to be met with the same response. Raven will die when she allows it. And she has no intention of dying today. So long as she has something to fight for, she will live. She will survive.

To Raven, morality never once meant a thing to her. It's not about doing what is right but doing what needs to be done. She pledged her life to them, and she will gladly defend them by any means necessary if need be. She doesn't discriminate between a defenseless innocent and an active threat, nor does she discern a boy trying to do good as a huntsman from a monster bent on destruction. If she perceives it as a threat, their life is on borrowed time regardless of what they stand for or lack thereof. No morals, only the goal of preservation and survival. And in times like this, no matter the target or how strong or how dire the situation, Raven Branwen is more than just a survivor. Raven Branwen is the "Apex Predator".

As the resolute Raven walks toward the sealed entrance of the den, she brings up her sword and with one powerful blow delivered to the entrance, the barrier crumbles in front of her creating a thick cloud of dust and ice pellets. This catches the attention of the grimm on the other side as they all briefly stop out of curiosity to see what could have made such a blow. She walks through the thick cloud of dust, revealing herself to them as she emerges on the other side.

They feel her anger. It is insatiable. It fuels them. And they are chomping at the bit and licking their chops at just the idea of tearing her apart. But there is something else they sensed from her, but only for a split second before the crimson-eyed woman quickly suppressed it. Fear.

"They're everywhere…" Raven thinks to herself. "...Surrounding me from all sides. In the skies, in the trees, on the ground above me and on the same level as me. And that's just what I can see. I know there's more than what meets the eye. This is a full-on hoard."

Her thoughts are then suddenly cut off as she feels something in her left hand.

Her hand is trembling.

Raven has only felt fear four times in her life. In that house where she lived with her brother along with her parents until she was 13, she lived with fear every single moment of every single day. Fear was all she knew during that time. Fear and soon, anger. The second time was when she first met Shepherd when she and her brother got caught stealing supplies and the leader himself confronted her, unfazed by her threat. It was the first time the girl who only knew fear was met with the man who lived without it. The third instance was when Shepherd saved her and her brother from that group of ursai all those years ago before he took them in and made them part of his family where he taught her to be fearless. To be ruthless. This moment in the present marks the fourth time.

"Now's not the time, Raven!" She mentally prepares herself as she quickly suppresses her fear. "You have people to protect."

With that final thought, Raven Branwen steels her nerves and grips her weapon. A brief pause is then taken. And without another moment's notice, the apex predator charges forward, ready to prey on the army of darkness.

. . .

*Simin's perspective*

After we had stepped through the portal and it disappeared, all the other bandits in the camp turned their heads and immediately started flocking around like seagulls spotting for scraps as soon as they saw us with a mangled-up Sophia. They begin asking us a whole slew of questions on what happened out of both curiosity and concern.

"Back off!" Vernal yells, pushing one of them back so they could give us space. "Where's Mari?" She adds.

"Right here!" Mari calls out as she was already on her way to check out the commotion, squeezing her way through the crowd.

As soon as she got through and saw the shape Sophia was in, she stops dead in her tracks and puts her hand over mouth as her eyes gave a horrified expression.

"What ha-!?"

"Mari, you come with me to take Sophia to her tent." Vernal interrupts. "I'll brief you on the way and I'll leave you to look after her and treat her injuries. I'll join you again, once Raven lets me go. Got it?"

"G-got it...!" Mari confirms as she hurriedly walks over and takes Sophia's legs from me.

"And as for you, Simin," Vernal then turns her attention to me. "...get some medical supplies from the supply tent and drop them off at Sophia's tent so Mari can treat her."

I don't say a word, but I give Vernal a nod to let her know I heard her loud and clear as I begin my jog over to the supply tent. I grab a pair of scissors, bandages, disinfectant, and a bunch of other items that I think might be useful. In a few minutes, I arrive at Sophia's tent where she is still unresponsive judging from what I can see as a breeze blew by and moved the flaps a bit for me to catch a glimpse. It's quiet, so I assume Mari is in there alone. As I approach the tent, I peek my head in and I see Mari is there watching over her intently with a worried expression, hands clasped, and silently tapping her heels on the ground while sitting in a chair. I don't think she notices me yet.

"H-hey, Mari." I speak up, getting her attention as her head perks up slightly and looks in my direction.

"Oh! Sim!" She turns to me. "I was wondering when you'd get here. Hand me those supplies, please? I'll take care of her."

I follow her request and she gets to work on Sophia, starting off by cleaning the wound on her head. As I watch Mari dress Sophia's wound, I still can't shake the thought out of my head. I want to know for sure.

"Mari? Is… she-?"

"She's alive, Sim." Mari already knew my question as she tried to reassure me. "I checked her as soon as we got her down. She took some heavy hits, but she's alive. She'll be fine."

"Thank the gods…" I mutter to myself as I breathe a sigh of relief before I continue.

"Would... you like me to help at all?" I offer, feeling guilty for what happened to Sophia.

"No thank you, Sim." She answers as she focuses on her intently as she takes care of her.

"Are you sure?" I ask.

"Yes. I am absolutely positive. I can handle this on my own. Thank you." She says it a bit quickly as if she is trying to concentrate.

"Have you seen Vernal? I thought she'd at least be in here for a little bit while Raven is gone." I continue as I didn't get the hint.

"She headed to Raven's tent to wait for her there."

"Why so early? It's only been almost ten minutes. Wouldn't she be waiting a while?"

"Don't underestimate Raven. She'll likely be back in just a couple more minutes. I know you've never seen her really try, but she can be quite the force, you know. Anyway, Simin, please don't take this the wrong way and I don't mean to sound rude, but I need to focus. So could you please come back when I'm done?" Mari says, trying to be as polite as possible with her words and tone.

"Oh… sorry… I wasn't trying to distract you." I apologize

"It's okay, Sim. I know you weren't trying to." She assures me. To be honest, even if you weren't, I'd probably ask you to step out anyway. I can't have you in here for this part."

"What do you mean?" I ask, not following what she is getting at.

"I need to tend to the injuries on her back and the one on her chest and I'm likely going to have to remove her shirt to do so." She then picks up the pair of scissors I assume she was going to use to cut the shirt so she wouldn't have to remove it the normal way due to her broken arm and slashes.

"Oh… Right… " I then start feeling a little awkward and quickly turn around and exit the tent so Mari can continue treating her. "I'll go now. Bye, Mari. I'll be back in a bit when you're done."

I then left the tent without a response from the lavender-haired girl as she likely did not hear me due to how focused she looked.

As I leave the tent I decide to make my way toward Raven's tent as I remember Mari's words that Raven will likely be back in a couple minutes. But as I begin my short walk, I can see a group of bandits standing on top of one of the watchtowers I am passing by. I can hear murmuring among the group and out of curiosity, I stay to listen to what they're saying.

"You seeing this shit?" I hear one of them say with a shocked voice.

Wondering what is it that has their attention, I climb up to see what they're looking at. As I squeeze my way to the front, I can see it. In the far distance, there are a bunch of small black, cloudlike specks rising from the trees before dissipating, one after another in quick succession, like souls rising to the afterlife. We see these rise in droves over the course of at least thirty seconds as they grow rapidly in quantity until there were so many, I couldn't even see a smidge of green as the black specks clumped together to form a black mass above the trees before evaporating fully.

I can't even believe what I just saw. There were so many, I couldn't keep track of them all. I was in such awe from what I saw, I could only mutter one thing:

"Raven…"

After seeing that, I am left stunned for a moment or two before I snap back into it and climb back down and resume my walk to Raven's tent.

As I near the tent, I could faintly hear the voices of two people, the volume becoming more audible with each step. One of them I can tell is Vernal. As for the other voice, it sounds like Raven, but she sounds exhausted and almost restrained like she's holding herself back.

"She's back already."

As I get closer, I can better hear the tone of the conversation. Raven sounded angry or irritated while Vernal was desperately trying to tell her something. I can tell from her voice that Raven would be yelling right now, but her condition is preventing her from doing so. I should probably enter, but instead, I decide to stop at the side and listen.

"Raven, you don't understand. It's not-"

"I don't care, Vernal." I hear Raven interrupt her in an almost out of breath, strained voice.

"But-"

"Vernal! Enough!" Raven cut her off again, very annoyed and irritated.

I can feel the impact of her words as the interior of her tent went completely silent for a couple moments.

"Answer me this, Vernal:" Raven continues. "Whom did I make the leader for the hunting trip?"

"Me..." Vernal says, adopting a somewhat submissive tone.

"Correct. So, tell me, what were you all doing in grimm territory, a place I specifically made off limits- a place that under no circumstances should you go into without me unless I specifically instruct otherwise?"

"Simin got his knife stuck in the elk and it got away and escaped into grimm territory. He was adamant on trying to follow it and get it back, but I tried to tell him. But he didn't care. He just would not listen."

"Okay. So, if I made you the leader, then why was Simin straying from the group under your watch? Why didn't you try to stop him?"

Vernal doesn't answer the question and stays silent. I can tell she is afraid to tell her.

"Vernal, I'm not angry. Just disappointed. But that can flip really fast if you don't start talking RIGHT NOW!"

"I-I let him!" Vernal yelps in response to Raven's sudden explosion in tone.

"...You what…?" I can hear a seething undertone in Raven's words.

"I… I let him go… I allowed him..." Vernal repeats.

"Why?" Raven asks her as this time I can clearly hear utter disappointment in the woman's voice.

"He wouldn't lis-"

"Vernal. Listen close. I am frankly quite livid right now and am doing everything I can to hold myself together. I don't give a damn about your bullshit excuses. Everything that he does or won't do is under your watch. I made you the leader of this, not Simin. And if he doesn't want to listen, then you make him listen. You remind him who I put in charge. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Raven..." Vernal mutters.

"Now I'm going to repeat myself. Why did you let him go in there?"

"We had an argument after he lost his knife… He wanted to go in and I said no… Things got heated and… we exchanged some words and I got fed up with him… so… I let him go in…"

"Look I don't care what personal issues you two have. That is for you two to sort out yourselves. I'm not going to babysit you or be the mediator in whatever feud you two have going. You both better shape up because I guarantee you, we will not be having this conversation again.

"This happened under your leadership at the end of the day, Vernal. Don't forget that. It didn't have to be this difficult. I am aware of Simin's transgression, and I'll get to him soon. But right now, the spotlight is on you. This all could have been avoided if you had just stepped up to the plate when you should have. But no. Instead, you chose to let your ego and your little feud with Simin get in the way. When you are a leader, you take responsibility for the things that happen under you, especially regarding the actions of the people you lead-

"But what about-"

"Vernal, do not interrupt me again!" Raven quickly takes back control as Vernal quiets back down as Raven continues her lecture. "And when stupidity like what went down today happens, this is what happens." I'm not in the room, but I assume Raven was gesturing to something with her last sentence.

"And you have to be responsible for it. Everything that happens when you're the leader, you're responsible for all of it. And it is your job to handle it. The role of leader can be a cruel and unfair one, yes, but it is a role that someone needs to take responsibility for. Don't get me wrong, this does not mean that I am dismissing Simin's actions. I will deal with him soon like I said. But this happened because you let it happen- because you let it go that far. Because you felt that proving a point was more important than your responsibility. Because you failed to lead when the time called for it. This all could have been avoided and I am genuinely disappointed in you. You let me down today, Vernal. "

"I-...I'm sorry, Raven…" Vernal fumbles with her words with a deflated voice.

"Don't apologize. Do better." Raven responds.

There is then a brief moment of silence.

"Vernal, do you know why I'm so hard on you?" Raven says, changing her tone from annoyed to a more calm and composed one, though you can still hear the angered undertone if you listen close enough.

"Because you expect more from me?"

" I do. I expect so much more considering what I got today. But instead, I got someone else's mess to clean up. When I make you the leader of a mission, you have a burden of responsibility, and you need to be ready to bear it. Understand?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"But despite what happened, it wasn't a complete disaster on your part. You kept everyone alive and you deserve credit for that at least. If it wasn't for your quick thinking and leadership at the end to hide in the den and seal the entrance, the grimm would have left nothing left of you three. Your quick assessment of the situation and coming up with the idea to cave yourselves in and wait for me saved your lives. That's the type of leadership that I expect out of you."

"Thank you..." Vernal responds, though she still has her voice low.

"Anyway, with that said, I think I've chewed you out enough. You're dismissed now. Also do me a favor and grab some more bandages. I ran out before I could wrap my left arm and it's starting to feel numb."

"Yes, Raven." I then hear Vernal get up and start to make her way out of the tent.

"Oh, and Vernal?" Raven calls out before she exits. "I want you to think long and hard about today and what I said. Don't let this happen again." Raven's voice goes back to her sternness.

"It won't happen again. I promise."

"Good..."

Vernal then exits the tent and leaves to get Raven more bandages while I stand dumbfounded. After the verbal lashing Vernal just got, I'm more worried about what Raven will say to me. Maybe I should come back when the tension dies down-

"You know it's rude to eavesdrop, Simin." I hear Raven call out, causing my heart to jump and freeze me in place. "You can come in now."

"How did she know I was outside?"

"I said you can come in." Raven repeats with a more forceful tone. As soon as I hear that, I feel something grab me by the back of the collar and yank me backward and I end up falling back on my rear. Suddenly I am now inside Raven's tent as one of her portals closes up.

"Did you forget that I don't like to be kept waiting?" Raven says as she glares down at me.

"N-no." I answer, very afraid since I am now at Raven's mercy as I get up and almost stand at attention.

"Then why didn't you come in when I asked you to?"

"I was just surprised that you knew I was there and... I hesitated…"

I'm having a bit of trouble looking Raven in the eye when speaking to her. This is partially due to my mix of fear and guilt, but also because the aftermath of her fight with the grimm horde is very visible on Raven's body and clothes.

Her hair is a complete mess as her mask is on the floor next to her with a couple scratches on it and a small crack here and there. As for Raven herself, she is sitting on the floor and her left gauntlet is removed and slightly chipped in areas. Her left arm is also slipped out of her sleeve as said sleeve is dangling underneath her arm. Because of that, the upper left of her torso was exposed, her chest wrapped in bandages as there are red spots of blood speckled about in the form of a massive bite mark on the white gauze. I also notice there is a nasty looking wound on her bare arm- specifically the shoulder. The river of blood flows out of her wound and leaves red streaks on her pale skin, resembling streaks of red paint on a blank canvas. The blood runs down her arm and hand and drips from her fingertips, reddening the bowl of water sitting directly below.

Her dress and the red cloth around her midsection are also torn and scratched in places, but the skin underneath didn't appear damaged as I only saw pale flesh underneath rather than the streaks of red like I saw on her arm. I guess her aura must have been broken after taking those blows, which would explain why her arm and chest are damaged but not the areas where her clothes are torn.

But somehow, despite Raven's damaged appearance, I still feel that intimidating aura emanating from her. I don't understand how she can still manage to carry and present herself as a threat in such bad shape. But still, regardless, those wounds still look nasty. I then begin to turn my head away, as I don't think I can look at them anymore considering my history with grimm.

"Hey!" She calls out in a strained, yet loud enough voice to get my attention. "Don't look away from me. I want you to pay close attention. So now that you're here, tell me why you were so adamant to venture into grimm territory when it was made clear you were not to." Raven interrogates. She already said to Vernal, but I assume she's doing this to see if our stories line up.

"I stabbed the elk with my knife and the elk ended up bucking me off. After that it ran off into the grimm territory with my knife still stuck in it." I comply with her questioning, anticipating the moment she will likely start yelling at me.

"And then you two got into a heated argument. Is that true?"

"After I kept insisting to go in, yeah." I confirm. "And then after that, she allowed me to go in after I said some things and I went in."

"So it's true. You really went in and risked all of your lives for a fucking knife!?" Raven facepalms as she pinches the bridge of her nose with her good hand as she lets out a frustrated breath.

"But Vernal allowed me to though-"

"This isn't about Vernal!" Raven interrupts me as I childishly try to defend myself. "I already got to her. Now it's your turn. Yes, she let you go in. But the point is, you made the choice to do it. She didn't order you or force you. She let you choose. She allowed you. And I'm sure you've heard me address that. But let's put aside the fact she let you just for a moment. Even after Vernal's warning, you still chose to go in despite that. And you chose to disregard the risks with little thought. Knowing the risks and factors, you made the choice at the end of the day. And your choice to enter that restricted area played just as much of a role in this as Vernal's choice to let you go in."

"But I just couldn't leave it." I complain without thinking as I foolishly try to justify my reasoning. "It means too much to me."

"More than the lives of your team?!" Raven doesn't hesitate calling me out on my words.

"N-no..." I back down.

"Well your actions said otherwise. Unless this knife has the ability to end world hunger or something, you had no good reason to go after it. Simin, I understand your feelings regarding that knife and your connection to it, but you say that as if it justifies your actions. And on another note, you've shown me great disrespect by trying to undermine Vernal's authority before things started going downhill with your little argument. I don't care if you like her or not. I put her in charge, so you listen to her. Understand?"

A moment of silence passed as I was not aware she expected an answer from me.

"That wasn't rhetorical." She speaks up with some force in her voice.

"Y-yes!" I quickly answer not wanting to make her more upset than she already is. The slightest wrong move will set her off and I really don't want to be the one that happens to do it.

"You put yourself and your own desires before the team and risked the lives of two of our own including yourself all for a knife… and look at what happened!" I can hear Raven start to get inflamed a bit as my pause from a second ago seems to have already pushed her anger up a notch. "You three almost got torn apart by grimm, Sophia is injured, and I had to bail you all out and take the brunt of it for you three and the rest of the tribe!"

As Raven completes her last sentence, in the heat of her anger, with her good arm, she reaches for the bandages wrapped around her chest and tugs them aside just slightly enough to show some of the marks the teeth of the grimm left behind on her. The bite mark was much larger and much more vicious than I thought as the puncture wounds in her body riddled her, along with some older scars she must have gotten from previous encounters. Most of the blood has already dried, but still covered her as she hadn't wiped it off. I can also tell from looking at the side that she also has a broken rib or two. To say it's not a pretty sight would be an understatement.

"Simin, you need to realize-"

As she begins to speak again, I instinctively turn my head away from the sight of her injuries and she cuts herself off.

"Simin, don't you dare. Don't you- HEY!" Raven explodes suddenly as she seems to have interpreted me looking away as my mind wandering and losing my attention. "DON'T YOU DARE LOOK AWAY FROM ME! I AM SPEAKING TO YOU!"

I'm shocked at Raven's sudden explosion in volume as I didn't think her injuries would even allow her to get that loud. She sounds like she's in pain just raising her voice, but she persists despite the pain it's causing her.

"I ALMOST DIED CLEANING UP YOUR MESS! DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THAT!? THE LEAST YOU CAN DO IS GIVE ME YOUR GODDAMN ATTENTION!"

Before Raven speaks up again, she tries to catch her breath and she coughs into her hand as blood comes out her mouth and she proceeds to use the back of her hand to wipe whatever was leaking from her lips and wipe it onto her torso as she didn't have anything else to wipe it on before continuing.

"Look! Do you see this? Do you see what they did to me?" Raven gestures to her wounds, her voice now lower, but still forceful. "Do you see what I put myself through to keep you three safe?"

"Y-yes." I say as I struggle to keep my eyes on her.

"I took all of this for you all. And you don't even care. You just don't give a damn, do you? Do you?! Look me in the eyes and tell me you don't care."

"I-I do care!" I let out a slight outburst.

"Then start acting like it!"

Another second of silence passes before Raven continues.

"If its teeth had sunk any deeper, it would have crushed my ribs and pierced my heart… and I would have died right then and there. It would have been so much worse if it had been you three. I saved you from this. Don't ever say I never did anything for you. Because my body is proof of exactly what I'd do for you all. But at least you got your knife back." She adds sarcastically. "I hope it was worth it."

"I… I'm-"

"Simin, stop…" Raven cuts me off. "You heard what I said to Vernal. Those same words apply to you too. Just do better next time. Apologies mean nothing to me without actions to reflect them. So I don't want to hear it. I want to see it. And if you are going to apologize to anyone, Simin, Sophia and Vernal should be the first to come to mind."

There is another brief moment of silence again before Raven breaks it.

"Here...," She pats the spot beside her. "...sit next to me."

I am a little surprised and I can't help but hesitate a bit.

"That wasn't a request." She adds, this time calmly, but it was still enough to spur me to comply. "Also, hand me that canteen."

As I sit beside the injured leader, I fetch the canteen as she takes it with her good hand that was covered in a faded red due to her wiping the blood off it a few moments ago. Raven then takes a sip of water and hands it back to me as I place it to the side and she continues again.

"Just to make sure you're understanding, you do know why I'm mad, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Then tell me." Raven gives another order.

"Because I tried to undermine Vernal's authority and because I made reckless and selfish choices that helped endanger us…" I give her a sullen answer.

"Good. So you have been listening." Raven says as she turns to look at me. "The lack of concern through your disobedience showed that you care more about things that concern you than the group. Again, I understand your connection to the knife, but you need to learn priorities and that knife certainly isn't helping that. It isn't just you anymore. And you are not the only one that gets affected by your choices.

"But on top of that, these were unnecessary risks. What happened today was completely avoidable and would have been avoided if you had just listened to Vernal… and if she had stepped up when she needed to. Things did not need to go this way and could have much more easily gone differently. No one needed to be put in danger. No one needed to get hurt. No one needed to go through what they went through today.

"Simin, there is a lot going on on my end that you don't know about that requires a tremendous amount of responsibility, time, effort, and patience and I'm not just talking about leading this tribe. And frankly, I don't need this extra weight added on. So do me a favor and listen next time to whomever I put in charge and we can all be happy. Understand? Can you do that for me?"

"Yes, Raven."

"Good." She then pauses for a bit before continuing. "There is a small part of me. though, that appreciates this happening because otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation right now. This is something you needed to be told sooner or later. I just wish it didn't come at the expense of someone's wellbeing."

"You?" I assume she's referring to herself considering the shape she's in.

"No. I'm talking about Sophia. I could care less about my injuries so long as they're not mortal wounds. My injuries will start healing once my aura fully recharges and I can activate it."

"Wait, if your aura isn't activated, then how did you use your portal a couple minutes ago?" I interrupt.

"You don't need to have your aura engaged to use your semblance. Yeah, I know I said that you can't engage your aura again once it's been broken until it's fully recharged. But whether you have it engaged or not is irrelevant in terms of activating your semblance so long as you actually have enough aura. You just need to have it engaged to protect and heal you. My aura had already recharged enough that I was able to use my semblance to get over here and get you in here, but it hasn't recharged enough fully for me to actually engage it so it can heal me." She says, examining the wounds the grimm had inflicted on her.

"Anyway, we got off topic for a bit." She continues. "As I was saying, I wasn't referring to myself. I was referring to Sophia. Unlike you or me or Vernal, Sophia doesn't have aura. She's not a fighter. So because of that, I'm sure you can guess, her injuries are more serious due to not having aura to patch her up or protect her. You and Vernal are incredibly lucky she didn't die."

Just hearing that almost sent a chill up my spine.

"When you work under someone, Simin, you don't just start acting of your own accord or you end up jeopardizing the team and the mission. If you ever become a part of a team or even a leader someday, you need to remember what comes first. But that aside for the moment, I'm… I'm just glad that you're all still alive." Raven lowers her voice as she says that.

"I… I won't let it happen again, Raven. I promise." I say of my own accord.

"It better not… " She tells me as she pulls the bandages like she was tightening them a bit. "Now, as for your punishment…"

"Punishment…?" I ask, not expecting her to say that.

"What? You thought you were just going to get a stern talking to and be on your way? Yeah, absolutely not."

"What's my punishment…?" I mutter with a slightly heavy breath.

"First thing I need you to do… is to surrender me your knife." Raven says as she sticks her hand out for me to hand it to her.

"M-my what?" I say in surprise.

"You heard me. Give me your knife… now." She asserts her authority.

Not wanting to test her, I slowly and reluctantly pull out mom's knife and place it in Raven's open palm.

"You can have it back when I think you've earned it. If this knife is enough for you to make rash decisions like you did today, then you clearly need time away from it and maybe you'll start thinking more before you act. And I better not catch you trying to get it back without my permission.

"And on top of that, you and Vernal are not allowed to leave campgrounds under any circumstances for a week unless I specifically say otherwise. This punishment applies to Vernal as well, so I'll make sure to tell her when she returns." She adds.

"But what about training?" I can't help but ask considering our training usually takes place outside camp.

"I'll assign you two a regiment that I expect you both to uphold. In the meantime, I'll train Mari outside camp as usual. If I catch you two not upholding the regiment or if I find out about it, I will add an extra day. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Raven... "

"Also, just for today, I want you to go to your tent and reflect about the events of today. Also, you are not permitted to leave your tent until at least lunch, which is in a few hours. This will also apply to Vernal as well. Am I understood?"

"Yes Raven." I say as I look down at the floor.

"Simin, I am hoping you treat this as an opportunity to learn from your mistakes and grow from them… both of you. I'm not doing this out of malice or because I feel like it. I just don't want to see something like this happen again. Okay?" Raven then puts her good hand on my shoulder as I look at her in her crimson red eyes. "I am doing this because I care about the wellbeing of the tribe and its members and that includes you. I cannot have you -or anyone for that matter- putting themselves and other members of the tribe in danger, especially with such reckless abandon. Treat this as a learning experience. Understand?"

"O-okay Raven… I understand." I answer back.

"Good. Now run along. You're dismissed now."

With that, I slowly hop up and make my way outside of Raven's tent, reluctant to leave my knife behind. But I have no choice. So with that, I exit the tent, leaving the bandit leader to go back to tending to her wounds as she waits for Vernal to return.

The first thing I do is turn to my tent. But on my way, I catch Sopha's just outside my peripherals. I can't help but think how Sophia is holding up, so I decide to change direction and check on her. Afterall, Raven is right. She's the one who got hurt and almost because of my actions. As for Vernal, I'll apologize to her later. I'm probably the last person she wants to see right now. Plus, I really don't want to be anywhere near her path at the moment.

As I enter the tent, I slowly and very quietly peek in to make sure I wasn't about to intrude on Mari working on Sophia and see that Mari was already done treating her. Mari spots me as I do so and I accidentally startle her.

"Oh, jeez!" She slightly exclaims as she flinches in her chair. "You scared me, Simin. I'm going to have to get you a bell." She places her hand on her chest.

"Oops! Sorry, Mari. I didn't mean to."

"It's fine, it's fine." Mari waves it off. "Don't worry about it. Vernal gave me a similar scare when she came to check on her a moment ago."

"How's Sophia doing?"

As I say that, I look toward Sophia's unconscious body, her chest slowly rising and declining with every breath she takes. Her wounds seem to be treated. She is lying under an old brown wool blanket on top of a mat and the blanket is pulled down halfway to her waist and her entire torso is wrapped in bandages with extra pillows for her back as well as her shoulder, her arm sitting in a makeshift sling. She also has a wet compress sitting on the right side of her face and some gauze wrapped around her head and covering her gash. However, I can still see the large bruise peeking out from the side of her wraps.

"Well that's very thoughtful of you, Sim." Mari speaks up with her voice now a bit somber as we turn our attention to the unconscious girl. "She actually started to regain consciousness while you were gone. She didn't know where she was, so I had to help her gather her bearings a bit and keep her from getting up. She was asking how you and Vernal were and I assured her that you two are fine. She also kept asking if you got your knife back. I wasn't really sure what to say mainly because I didn't know what she was talking about and… she told me everything."

"Oh…"

"Look, Simin. I'm not going to give you any words of my own. I'm sure you've gotten enough of them today. Raven's probably already chewed you and Vernal out enough. Just please consider the consequences of your actions, okay?"

"Okay. I will" I quietly say.

"But aside from that, I'm just glad that you three are alive." She adds as she puts her arm around me and gives me a brief one-armed hug.

"Anyway," She lets out a deep breath as she changes the subject back to Sophia. "She also kept complaining about her back and her head, so I gave her some painkillers to help alleviate her pain and got her to fall asleep to rest. She'll be fine, but she's going to be a bit… bed ridden for the time being."

"Well… at least she's not dead... " I say, trying to add some lightheartedness to the conversation.

"Mhm… I was honestly worried you two were carrying a corpse when I saw her-"

"Was that Simin I just heard?" I hear a voice weakly call out as we turn our heads to its source.

Sophia just woke up again and must have been listening in on the tail end of our conversation. She's staring face up due to her being unable to change position due to her physical state.

"Yes, Sophia. He's here." Mari answers her.

"Hey, Simin. Can you tell me how we got back to the camp?" Sophia asks me after Mari answers her question.

"I already told you when you woke up the first time, Sophia. Remember?" Mari answers in a serene and patient voice before I could answer. "You came through Raven's portal with Vernal and Simin carrying you while you were unconscious."

"Oh yeah. I forgot." Sophia responds. "My bad."

"Hey Mari?" I butt in. "Is it okay if I have a moment with Sophia?"

"Uh, yeah sure." She says as if she was a little unsure, likely because she doesn't want to leave her unattended since she needs to watch over and care for her. "Just let me know if you need me back in."

"Thank you."

Mari then gets out of her seat and leaves the tent, leaving me and Sophia by ourselves.

"Did you get your knife back?" That's the first thing Sophia asks me when I sit down next to her.

"Yeah… I got it back..."

"That's good to hear." She slightly cracks a smile.

"But then I lost it again…"

"Are you serious?!" Her smile almost immediately turns into a frown as she sounds very disappointed.

"I mean I didn't 'lose it' lose it. It just got confiscated is all." I try to assure her. "Raven has it now."

"Oh, okay. I gotcha. I'll just try to talk her into giving it back to you when she comes in here to check on me."

"No, no. Don't bother." I dismiss her offer.

"What? Why?" Sophia asks confused with a puzzled expression as she has a bit of an annoyed tone. " Weren't you the one that wanted risk your life for it? What's with the change of heart all of a sudden?"

"Because Raven's right…" I mumble.

"What?"

"I said because Raven's right…" I say a bit more audibly.

"About what?" Sophia's tone calms a bit as she wants to know what I'm talking about.

"You got hurt because I did something stupid and selfish… all for my knife. This was my fault and I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. If I hadn't been so… reckless and self-centered, you wouldn't have gotten hurt. It's my fau-" My voice slightly breaks a bit when I say that as the guilt is becoming too much to handle.

"Simin, let me stop you there." Sophia cuts me off. "Stop beating yourself up."

"And why should I?"

"Because I don't want you to start loathing yourself because of your mistakes. I don't want to see you like that and I'm sure Mari wouldn't either. Don't tear yourself down. Don't get me wrong. You're right about being reckless for a knife and people got hurt, but it wasn't your fault. It was our fault. Don't take the brunt of this, alright? There are things I still linger on and beat myself up over and I don't wanna see you start doing that. "

"But Sophia,-"

"No buts, mister. You get disheartened too easily. And I don't wanna see you lose your heart, Simin."

She then pauses a moment and looks almost reflective.

"We all have our moments, both good and bad from time to time. So I get you being upset about it and apologetic. It shows that you care and that you take these things seriously and don't want them to happen again. And that's a good thing! And yeah, what happened happened and I almost ended up getting bitch slapped to death by a beowolf, which really hurt- "

"Sophia, where are you going with this?" I interrupt.

"Sorry. The point is, it's good that you're owning up to these things. It means you're learning and maturing. But when you own up to your mistakes, don't tie them to yourself. I'm sure not going to tie your mistakes to you. It's not our mistakes that define. It's just a matter of how we handle them. And you know how you handle it? You own up to it, you move on, and you do better. Simple as that. We're all human. We all make mistakes- some bigger than others. And through mistakes, we get experience. Now you just have to put that experience to practice. So long as you learn from them and avoid repeating them, then I say you're fine. Just don't be like me.

"I'm an example of how not to learn from mistakes." She lets out a sad chuckle. "I've made some monumental ones in my life that led to some… very unfortunate circumstances. But you, Simin, you're not like me. You're a fast learner. So you'll get the hang of things very quickly. And besides, you're still young. Might as well get the big screw-ups out of the way early, right?" She then nudges my leg with the elbow of her free arm.

"I… I guess so, yeah." I give a slight chuckle from her trying to uplift my mood.

"Now normally, I'd sit up to give you a hug right now to cheer you up, but I was told by 'Nurse Mari' that I have to lay still for a while. So, I hope you'll settle for a gentle high five?" She then slowly turns her good hand over and holds it open.

In response, I gently hold my open palm against hers for a brief second.

"I'll save the hug for another time~" She adds.

"I'll be sure to watch my back then." I joke. "Anyway, I'm going to head to my tent now-"

"Simin, hold on a second, please?" She says as I'm turning to get up and exit the tent.

"Did you need something, Sophia?" I ask, looking back at her.

"Well… kind of. You see, it's not going to be for a while until Mari permits me to move around a bit and laying still until then is going to be torture for me. So, I was wondering if you could maybe do me a favor and distract me for a bit?" She asks in a somewhat pleading voice.

"Distract you how?"

"Well, I did mention I wanted to hear about that rock story you brought up earlier. You know, the one where you said you killed that colossus?"

"Oh right. I guess I could do that. But after that, I need to head to my tent before Raven gets mad, okay?"

"That's fine. I don't want you getting in trouble again."

"Ready?" I ask to make sure Sophia is listening.

"Ready." She responds.

"Okay. So I was traveling to a village called Oniyuri and came across this overpass. I didn't want to waste time by going around since it was getting late, so I tried to shimmy my way across this high ledge and I lost my knife halfway-"

"You fought the colossus to get your knife back, didn't you?"

"M-maybe… kind of… Yeah..." I blush from embarrassment and she responds with a chuckle and a sarcastic tone.

"Why am I not surprised? You and that damned knife!" She says almost jovially.

"I know, I know…"

**CHAPTER END**

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Hey everyone!

My semester is over (well it's been over for about a month now). This semester kicked my ass in both quantity and quality, but I beat it. So for the past month, with the time I've had, I've been working on the newer anthology chapter with the exception of the past few days that I've been spending on editing this chapter. Also, my final semester will be starting on the 21st, so I will be spending the next week trying to get as much done for the anthology chapters in that time. However, my schedule for next semester is very relaxed as two of my classes are asynchronous and the other three all meet on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, which means not including weekends, I literally have Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays completely free! And you know what that means. More time to write! Hopefully no more drama or misfortune will blindside me in the meantime like the last semester did ... (knock on wood...).

Anyway, I don't know about you, but this almost felt like two chapters in one. It's actually the second longest chapter. And the next one is going to be even longer.

The reason why is because the next chapter is going to be a Sophia-focused chapter. More specifically her entire backstory from childhood to joining the tribe and it's a pretty depressing one. What to expect from the next chapter is the teasing of a new character, a brief intro to Mistral's criminal activity, and the official start of Sophia's own arc. The reason why a side character like Sophia is getting an arc of her own is because her arc heavily ties in with another character of mine and their backstory. The arc between Sophia and the other character is going to be a sort of redemption story for both of them. I can't say more than that. However, the arc won't really go into full gear until Volume 9 or 10 (if I get that far) according to what the outline I wrote says.

But let's not talk about things that haven't happened yet. Let's talk about this chapter!

This chapter was probably one of the hardest chapters I wrote. I almost ended up scrapping this one and the last one completely. I was really struggling with how to end it and the ending to the original draft I wasn't happy with because I thought it was anticlimactic. It was very wholesome, but very anticlimactic. I could tell when I was rereading it for the first time that I just didn't know how to really end it. In the original, Simin and Sophia get separated from Vernal and accidentally run into some grimm. So they hide somewhere and as they wait for the grimm to pass, Sophia plays cards with Simin to distract him and this helps them begin to form a real bond. That's it. But I thought there was still so much more I could do and I thought it would be a waste if I didn't try to push that a bit. I thought there was a lot of potential for this chapter and I wanted more out of it. So when I changed the ending to this, the chapter ended up being almost three times as long as the original draft.

Another thing is that this is the first chapter I've written that features a third-person narrative. The next chapter is going to be fully third person since only sections of this one were third person just to get my feet wet. Now I'm not exactly used to writing third person as I've only been writing this story as first-person so far, so I could really use some feedback on how I am with third person. I hope I did a good enough job with it at least in the parts of this chapter that were in third person like the starting section and the Raven section.

I also debated with myself for a while on how this chapter along with the ending to the last one would work narratively regarding the decisions of Simin, Sophia, and Vernal and if it made sense in regards to that it would make sense for the characters to make these choices given what's already been portrayed by them. It's already been established Simin makes rash decisions for the sake of his knife to the point it's getting dangerously unhealthy. Vernal has an ego about her and a resentment toward Simin and it's gotten to her head. And Sophia for the first time has to be a voice of reason, which is something she's new to as she just gives up and marches headlong into the grimm territory. Not to mention she's been described to be incredibly loyal and we see just how loyal she can be to the point she would put herself in an environment that would almost certainly kill, if not maim, her. I always try to ask myself why something works when I write it and if I can't think of a good reason, then something is wrong. So hopefully I did a good job on this.

This chapter also has what is easily my favorite Raven moment in the whole volume. I feel like the scene where Raven is about to fight the horde of grimm cements what I tried to get out of her character, and this is meant to be her defining moment. In the penultimate chapter, we will see just how far Raven will really go to protect her tribe as she will do something that even she herself considers to be crossing the line. But that aside, I really hope I did a good job with Raven this chapter.

But with all that said, at the end of the day, this entire chapter is supposed to be a learning experience for Simin (and also for Vernal and little bit for Sophia) as Raven just enters what I like to call "Mom Mode" and delivers a verbal lashing to him and Vernal and lectures them. However, it'll be quite a bit before they can fully learn by putting the lessons into practice. But for now, they have something to chew on before they learn how to digest it.

Anyway, I think that's all I have for this chapter so I'll see you in the next anthology chapter where we learn more about Sophia! I'll leave you with this fun fact in the meantime:

Fun fact #18: Raven almost got a huge fight scene in this chapter, but I never wrote it.

I thought about giving her a real fight scene here where she just single-handedly takes on this entire army of grimm as she's just eating hits and taking damage as she puts in her own dents into the grimm horde. And throughout the fight, it gets more and more dire as her aura breaks, but she doesn't back down and just keeps on going. There was even one scene where she straight up gets bitten in chest and torso by a beowolf and Raven just lets out a scream in pain before just killing it and continuing the fight while losing blood as she's just in "beast mode". The reason why this never got written was because I had never written a fight scene of that scale before, such as a "One vs All" fight scene, and I thought I'd be biting off more than I could chew with it. So because of that, I never wrote the actual fight scene. So to compensate, I added in the scene where Simin just looks on as these black clouds just rise in droves from the trees in the forest, those clouds being all the grimm Raven is killing in that moment.