CW: This story falls under the T rating, but will contain scenes of graphic violence and gore in some parts.
"Charlotte! Wake up!"
Charlotte jolted awake and groaned as she saw her brother behind her. She languidly blinked all of her eight eyes until she didn't feel dizzy at being woken up so abruptly.
She narrowed her eyes at her brother. "Sky. Do you know what time it is?!"
Sky rubbed the back of his head. "There's something wrong with the sprinkler system, and I didn't want to wake anyone else."
She threw her pillow at him, and he caught in without breaking a sweat.
"I should say no, but since I'm already up, I'll help you. Let me just get ready."
Sky nodded, and Charlotte shakily made her way to her bathroom. She left the door open, and thanks to her eyes, she could see Sky moving around behind her, making her bed and then flopping down on it after he'd taken off his scabbard and pistol holster.
By the time she'd brushed her teeth and wiped down her mandibles, he become bored enough to start humming an off-key version of some song.
After she was done, she rapped her knuckles on the doorframe of the bathroom, and Sky's eyes snapped to her.
"Let's get this over with."
He nodded and swiftly put his Huntsman equipment back on before making his way down the stairs while she still felt lethargic. After she stumbled twice on the steps, Sky was at her side, helping her walk while she warmed up.
"Well, you're more clumsy than usual. Do you want to go back to bed? I could just wake Tyr up."
She snorted. "How can you be both a gentleman and an asshole at the same time?"
"It's just part of my charm. But you haven't answered my question. Do you want to go back to bed?"
She waved him off. "No, it's just the cold. Dad says it makes Faunus like us feel weak."
"Oh."
She shook her head. "I'm fine. Just need more layers."
They reached the door, and Sky opened it while she put on her Dad's coat. As Sky wrestled open the door, a blast of cold air blew into the hallway, and she shivered. Instinctively, she called on her aura, and the grey glow blocked the cold out for a bit. She moved toward the open door, and she lost focus on maintaining her aura, and it fled back inside her.
Sky smirked at her and simply sauntered out into the cold while she stumbled after him.
The farmhouse was set in the middle of the two greenhouses, with cobblestone paths connecting all the buildings to the house and to the exit. They circled the farmhouse until they reached the little shed tacted to the back of the farm that held the controls for the sprinklers.
They slipped inside the tiny room and Charlotte looked over the pressure gauges and indicators. All the lights on the panel shone green, except for the part that was responsible for controlling the sprinklers in the fourth greenhouse. She flipped the panel open, and then groaned as the display in the middle read "RP-S".
She groaned, and Sky seemed concerned. "Is it bad?"
"The pipe's ruptured, probably because of the cold. We'll need to water the plants by hand today. And we need to tell Uncle Brook to fix the pipe."
"Good thing I have you to help me."
"Damn it, Sky! Dad lets me and Tyr sleep in one day a week, and you've ruined that one day for me! Older siblings are supposed to be compassionate!"
"Fine. You can go back to bed, and I'll do the rest of the work myself."
She wanted to scream at him more, but his quick reply left her feeling blindsided. She stood there in the shed for a couple of minutes before sighing and running after him. She could have gone back to bed, but then she'd feel bad.
By the time she'd caught up with him, Sky had already retrieved the watering cans from the supply shed and was walking over to the greenhouse with three cans in one hand and three in the other.
She held the door open for him while he walked in, and as soon as he made it inside, he dropped all the cans to the floor.
They filled the cans with water from the tap in the corner, both of them waiting for the other to say something.
"I'm sorry for waking you up."
She sighed. "It's fine. You weren't around when they changed the sprinklers anyway, so you probably couldn't have known about the different error codes."
He nodded, and the conversation fizzled out.
The water from the tap was essentially a trickle, and it took an excruciatingly long time for a single can to be filled up.
"So..." She began. "You're going to be leaving for Pharos Academy in a couple of months."
Sky saw the opportunity to taunt her, and he took it. "Oh, is someone going to miss her big brother?"
She wanted to snap at him, but she also felt sad that he was leaving. "Yes, I will."
He simply smiled at her. "You could always come with me. We're only two years apart, which means that we can spend some time together before I leave for Beacon."
"I don't want to be a Huntress, and no amount of nagging will change that. You could stay though. Learn from Mom, and then apply to Beacon directly."
He switched out a full can for an empty one before turning to her.
"Mom's a good teacher, but she isn't good at everything. If I want to get into Beacon, I need to be the best I can be."
"Be sure to write a lot, okay? I'll be pretty boring around here without you."
He laughed at that. "Really? I thought you loved Dad's lectures about different types of farm equipment and how to best prune plants."
"I know that'll hurt Dad's feelings, but they really are super boring. Aunt Brook's lectures are better."
"If they were boring, you could have said so."
We both turned to see Dad. There were flecks of snow in his raven black hair, and his normal eyes were on us, while the four smaller marble-sized ones beady black ones looked over the greenhouse.
Mom walked in after him, dusting snow off her jacket and out of her light blue hair. She was laughing at Dad.
"I told you the first time we met that your little agriculture lessons were boring."
Dad frowned and then shook his head. "They're informative. But we can discuss that later. Why are you up, Charlotte?"
"The sprinklers weren't working and Sky didn't know what the error message meant, so he woke me up to help him."
Dad opened his mouth to berate Sky, and Mom gave him a slap on the back to stop him before he could get going.
"Relax, dear. He was probably in the woods with me when you and Mr. Brook were telling everyone about the new sprinklers."
Dad sighed. "Well, I suppose that excuses him."
Dad bent over and picked up the two full watering cans. "I'll take care of this, so why don't you go get some sleep?"
"No, I'm already awake. I'll just go with Mom and Sky and check up on the snares."
Dad nodded. "Fine. But if you feel woozy, tell your Mom and immediately come back here, got it?"
She nodded, and Dad ruffled her hair before shooing her away.
Mom and Sky were outside of the greenhouse waiting for her, and once she ran up to them, they started walking towards the exit of the farm, following the cobblestone path that led from the greenhouse to the main gate.
Once they reached the gate, Charlotte opened it while Mom was briefing Sky.
"We'll be proceeding to sweep the area in a spiral pattern. You'll be leading us, so make sure not to get us lost."
Sky nodded and drew his training sword from his scabbard, and then pulled out his pistol, turned the safety off, and put it back into his hoster.
Charlotte cleared her throat, and both of them turned towards her. "I need to check on Dad's traps too, so we'll probably need to make a few detours."
Mom blinked and then smiled. "That should be fine. Your brother needs to learn how boring search and destroy missions are anyway."
They set off into the woods, and Charlotte shivered while Sky and Mom acted like nothing was wrong. She tried to hide it, but Mom found out, and she began to walk slower so she could keep up. And when that wasn't enough, Mom picked her up on her back so she didn't have to walk. Mom's leather coat felt warm, and she sank into into before realizing that that was childish.
"Mooom! I'm not a kid anymore."
Mom simply laughed. "Just because you're eleven doesn't mean I can't give you rides on my back anymore."
She pouted, and Mom laughed even more.
Without her slowing them down, Mom and Sky were moving significantly faster, and they soon reached the first snare. It had gone off, but there was nothing in the noose where the animal was supposed to be. Mom put her back on the ground and moved toward the snare.
"That's strange," Sky said. "There's nothing in it. Maybe a Grimm or some other animal got to it?"
"No, that doesn't seem right," Mom replied. "Grimm don't care about animal corpses, and the snare should have lifted whatever animal it caught high enough into the air, meaning no other animal could steal it. Something's off. Stay close to me, you two."
There was a loud crack, and Mom became a living blur as she pulled out her weapon from inside her cloak and expanded it. The little metal cylinder turned into a great longbow studded with gears, and Mom swatted something out of the air with a swift strike.
Mom scanned the area. There were two more loud cracks, and Mom swatted two more things from the air, and they sizzled when they hit the snow. Sky shields Charlotte with his body, and because of Charlotte's better eyes, she can see the men in the trees walk toward them before Sky and Mom do. "They're coming closer."
Two men walk out of the woods and stand in front of them. One of them has a spear with cruel looking end, and another has a curved sword. Both of them wear black cloaks that seem very worn.
"Sky. Take your sister and go back to the farm."
Sky nods just as the man with the sword rushes forward and slashes at Mom, aiming for the neck. Mom steps back, and the gears on her bow whir as it loads itself. Mom pulls the string back and shoots at the man, and as he defects the arrow, she steps forward and cracks him on the head with her bow. His aura flashes yellow, and he snarls at her.
Sky pulls Charlotte onto his back, and the man with the spear lunges toward them. Mom nocked another arrow into her bow and hit the man who was running after them square in the back. This time, the man with the spear and the man with the sword both receive hits to their auras.
Mom's semblance.
Sky begins to run, and I can see more and more men pour out of the woods and circle Mom as we get further and further. Sky moves at superhuman speeds, and soon enough, we're at the farm.
It's chaos. Black-cloaked men scurry around the farm, carrying everything from food to sheets while others with weapons watch.
A scream splits the air, and Charlotte watches as one of the men pulls Aunt Brook out of the farmhouse by her red hair. Sky has to squint to see them, but Charlotte can see them clearly like they're right next to her. She wishes she couldn't see them at all.
Aunt Brook is squirming, and the men leer at her and say things to her that Charlotte can't make out. Tears stream down Aunt Brook's face, and the man who is pulling her along screams at her.
"Charlotte!" Sky screams at her. She turns to him, feeling like she's not really there.
"I'm going down there to help Aunt Brook."
"N-No! There are too many. You'll get hurt." She was crying now, and she didn't know why.
"I can't just abandon her. Here," He gives her his pistol. "Hide near the forest lake until this is all over, alright? I promise I'll come bring you back home after this is all over."
She wants to tell him to stay with her, but the words get stuck in her throat. Instead, she watches as he pulls out a knife from his boot and then runs toward the farm.
He vaults over the gate, and as soon as the men spot him, they use the guns on their weapons to shoot at him. All the shots go wide except for a few that Sky cuts out of the air.
Four men move towards him, and they surround him on all sides. All the other men continue their looting, but the man who's dragging Aunt Brook drops her and turns towards the fight.
The men surrounding Sky pull out their weapons. One has a pair of daggers, another a sword, and the last two have spears with different kinds of blades on the pointy ends.
The man with the two daggers closes the distance between him and Sky and goes for a swift slash while the man next stabs at Sky's head. Sky uses his semblance again, and they suddenly stagger forward like they're drunk, all and any grace they'd shown before gone.
Sky slips under the first man's slash and twirls, slamming the pommel of his blade into the first man's face while his dagger slashes at the other one's neck.
They both stumble back, and the spear-wielders rush forward. Sky kicks one of the spears into the thick snow while he hooks the other under his armpit. He pulls at the spear he's hooked under his arm, and the bandit loses his grip on his weapon. Sky drops his dagger and swings the spear with his hand, smacking it into the face of the man trying to pull his spear out of the ground before bracing it on his shoulder and throwing it and the man with the daggers. Both men's auras shatter, and they fall to the ground.
The two remaining bandits circle Sky, and the weaponless one retrieves his comrade's spear before they both attack at the same time again. The man with the sword thrusts at him three times in quick succession while the one with the spear sweeps at his feet, aiming to knock him down. Sky jumps backward, and the man with the sword manages to strike him twice before he lands on the ground again.
Sky's pale blue aura flickers, but he still chooses to use his semblance, and both men are almost defenseless as he slashes both of them with his sword held in a two-handed grip.
Both their auras break, but before he can do anything to them, someone shoots at him, and he is forced to deflect the bullets. Soon enough, every single bandit who's looting the farm has drawn a weapon and has surrounded Sky.
The man who'd been pulling Aunt Brook with him shrugs off his cloak, and he looks hideous. Every visible inch of him is covered with scars, and his hair is wild, like it was trying to hide his face from the world. He pulls a giant slab of metal from his back, and it glows red and yellow like it's diseased.
The bandits part for the man, and he faces Sky. He says something to Sky, and Sky screams and rushes at the man. The man stumbles, and Sky strikes him in the neck. The man's aura flares, but he simply grabs Sky's blade, and then stands up straight, trying to pull Sky's blade out from his hands.
Sky tries to twist his blade out of the man's hands, but he simply grips the blade harder, and the blade shatters. Sky stumbles back, and the man raises his blade and swings it down.
Sky isn't fast enough, and the man's blade grazes him, and that's enough to break his aura. Sky falls to the ground and the man lifts his blade into the air again.
The snow turns red as Sky's head falls into the snow.
The bandits all cheer, and the monster looks up at me. His grey eyes meet mine, and even though I'm far enough away from him, I turn and run away.