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Chapter 12- New Friends

As Bruno had expected, Raven was pissed that he'd given asylum to these refugees. Normally she wouldn't be so bothered, so long as they didn't cause trouble and pulled their weight while they were here she'd have had no issue sheltering people for a short while. But it was the middle of winter and they barely had enough food for themselves, never mind guests, so suffice to say Raven wasn't happy in the slightest with Bruno's decision.

Corvus could hear them shouting from his mother's tent, which he got sent to after they arrived back. He regularly heard members of the tribe arguing, shouting and fighting with each other due to petty disagreements and whatnot, so usually he didn't bat an eyelid at such things. But when his mother, someone he adored and admired and Bruno, someone who is pretty much a father figure to Corvus starts going at each other like cat and dog he'll get quite worried. It was more anxiety than fear, but he hated it nonetheless. They had only fought like this once before and Corvus didn't witness it, but he was very nervous about what would happen in the following days, thinking that Bruno would leave or his mother allow Corvus to see him. None of these things actually happened of course, it was all nerves and anxiety from him but you can't blame a young child for that, can you?

He tried not to listen to the argument and instead focused on training with his uninjured right arm, though he couldn't help but overhear it. He heard them shouting things like 'we can't afford to shelter them!' and 'they'll die out there!' He knew what the fight was about and couldn't bring himself to take either person's side. He didn't want to, even though he already knew where he stood on the matter himself. He, personally, would let the Faunus stay but he was unsure about going against his mother on this. Despite the fact that the two hadn't told him about the food shortage, and had even sacrificed meals for him, as had others in the tribe surprisingly, he did know about it so he couldn't disagree with her reasoning.

After almost half an hour of trying to train while also trying to tune out the shoutung match outside the tent, he decided to put a stop to it before ut devolved into a fight. He'd ended up having picked his side and decided to confront his mother about it. Despite agreeing with his mother's reasoning, he couldn't in his right mind leave the Faunus out in the cold.

He left the tent to see the tribe going about their business, also seemingly trying to tune out the argument. He could also see the Faunus, who were all comforting each other. It seemed they had accepted that they were going to be cast aside once more as he could see that they were quite upset, with a few others seeming annoyed or resigned. As he looked at them however, he saw the red-haired boy again. The boy met his gaze, having been one of the only few in the camp to notice him thus far. Corvus could see the anger in his eye, whether it's due to their prior experiences or their upcoming ones he couldn't tell. He broke his gaze and moved towards the end of the platform, below which was his mother and Bruno. He silently sat on the edge side the platform and after a few moments of contemplation and waiting for a quiet point in the argument, he spoke.

"Mom…" he said tiredly.

The two stopped and looked at him, only now realizing he was there.

"Corvus? I told you to stay in the tent." His mother said, her voice softening but still carrying a hint of anger not directed at him.

"Mom, can you just let them stay?" he asked quietly.

Raven paused for a moment, trying to come up with a response, but Corvus spoke again before she did.

"I know we don't have enough food, but we can't leave them… they're hurting, mom. Don't force them out."

Raven paused again, seeing the pleading look in Corvus' eye. She looked to Bruno who was rather pleased Corvus shared his view on this matter. He decided to follow up on Corvus' words.

"Raven, these are my people just as the tribe are yours. They are in need of help, and we will not turn them down." He said firmly, but not as heatedly as he spoke before.

After a moment of deliberation, Raven sighed as she relented.

"We can't allow them to stay long or we'll all starve. One week." She said, putting her index finger up to punctuate. "That is all I can allow. You understand I need to put the tribe first, Bruno."

"That will suffice. Thank you Raven." He said, gratefully. He nodded in thanks to Corvus before going to towards the Faunus to tell them the good news.

Raven sighed once more, looking to Corvus.

"I can never say no to you, can I?" she said, half jokingly half despairingly.

Corvus gave a small smile.

"Thanks for letting them stay, mom. I didn't want them to be left out in the cold on their own. They'll get hurt…"

Raven smiled back and ruffled his hair a little.

"You're too kind for your own good, Corvus. Just like your father…"

Corvus perked up at the mention of his father, who Raven had never really spoke of. She spoke again before he could ask anything.

"Come on, let's go inside." She said, stepping up to the platform and heading to their tent.

Corvus tried to get Information from his mother about his father but as usual, she brushed him off saying "I'll tell you another time" before changing the subject. He ended up going to sleep not long after.

He couldn't breathe. He was stood, shaking, trapped with his back against a building. Pyrrha lay dead, brutally beheaded by the Grimm with her father not too far from her, torn out of his armour and eviscerated. He tried to run but found he couldn't move. The Grimm surrounded him from all sides. He looked towards the center of the pack of dark beasts to see the terrifying visage of the Fear-monger. It pounces at him, forcing him against the wall as it rears its clawed tail back. As the beast's tail whips towards him he feels searing agony spread across his face

Corvus awoke with a start, breathing rapidly as he scanned his surroundings, realizing where he was and that his nightmare was over. This wasn't the first nightmare he's had since that night, but it was certainly one of the more vivid ones. He looked around the tent and saw his mother, sound asleep. He didn't want to disturb her, so he quietly grabbed his shoto and left the tent to clear his head. He walked out to the exit of the tribe and asked the guards to open the gate for him, which they did. There were always plenty of guards roaming around the perimeter of the camp at night so he'd be safe as long as he didn't stray.

He went to a spot he frequented quite often, a large boulder which has a good spot to sit on top of it. He liked to come here for peace and quiet when it got too noisy and chaotic in the tribe, so it'll serve him well for now. As he climbed up to the top he came face to face with the Faunus boy from earlier. The boy glared at him for a second before his glare softened slightly, but not entirely.

"…Do you mind if I sit here with you?" Corvus asked quietly.

The boy looked at him for a moment before nodding slightly. Corvus sat next to the boy on his usual perch in this rock. They sat in silence for a while before he spoke.

"What happened to you? You seem a little young to be starting fights, human." He asked bluntly.

Corvus looked downward, not really wanting to recall that night but also unable to get it out of his head.

"I was… attacked by a Grimm." He replied.

The boy looked surprised for a moment before asking. "How? You're a kid, didn't you have anyone looking out for you?"

Corvus nodded slightly. "I did. One was beaten by the Grimm, one was… killed. And the other…" he paused for a moment, remembering the cowardly guard who fled."…he ran. He just left us, defenseless." He said, anger seeping into his voice.

The boy too, looked angry. More angry than he had seemed anyway.

"What!?" He exclaimed. "How could he do that?"

"I… I don't know." Corvus thought about the guard for a moment. Why did he flee? What happened to him?...What would Corvus do or say if he met the him again? He stopped his pondering and decided to return the boy's original question to him.

"What about you? What happened?" he asked.

The boy's face darkened, and he reached up to the bandage on his eye almost instinctively.

"You don't want to know, human." He said quietly with a hint of hurt in his voice.

"Well… I told you about mine, so it's only fair, isn't it?" Corvus responded quietly, smirking slightly.

The boy paused again, as if deciding whether to answer or not. Eventually he came up with a response.

"Before I do, I need to ask… Why did you decide to help us?"

Corvus looked to him in confusion, prompting an explanation from the boy.

"The man, Bruno I think his name was, he said you swayed your mother's decision on letting us stay for a while. Why?"

"Why not? You all seemed hungry and sick, and you're injured, so I wouldn't just let mom kick you out."

Now it was the boy's turn to be confused. "What? But… my parents told me that humans didn't like us, humans did this to my eye… so why would you help so eagerly?" He asked.

"What do you mean humans don't like you?" Corvus asked obliviously.

The boy was even more confused now. "You mean, you don't know that humans don't like Faunus and why they don't like us?"

"No." He answered succinctly. Corvus had heard from the faunus tribe members of people being mean or cruel to them, he has assumed that it was because they were bandits but he guessed this was the true reason why.

After a moments pause, the boy spoke again. "Like I said, a human did this to me. He branded my eye…"

"Branded?" Corvus asked, confused.

"He burned a symbol on to my face." He said, agitatedly.

"…Why?" Corvus responded, bith angrily and with sympathy.

"Because humans are cruel. They don't care about us. To them, it'd be better off if we never existed…" he responded bitterly.

"Not all of us… I'm not. And my mom let you stay for a while, didn't she?"

He paused for a moment and looked Corvus in the eye. "She did. But you convinced her, didn't you? I saw you. She wouldn't have let us stay otherwise." He said before looking away and speaking in a quiet voice. "Thanks…"

"It's no problem." Corvus responded happily. "I didn't want you all to be left alone, you looked bad…"

"We we're in bad shape, but at least we'll have some time to breathe and relax." He said, a small but grateful smile on his face.

"Well, I hope you all get better. Maybe we could be friends?" Corvus asked with some tentativeness. "My name's Corvus."

The boy let out a huff of amusement, but still held his smile. "Call me Adam."

A/n

I hate how when I get the ball rolling on updating this story something happens to halt all my momentum. This time I got re-addicted to Lost Planet 2 and Titanfall before getting sucked into Starfield. Time well spent, I'm not gonna lie, but I wish I got more done in the month and a half (almost) that I didn't update.

No matter, it's here. Next chapter's already in the works. I was gonna do a time skip after this one but decided against it. Figured I'd take my time with this, cos despite how much we all want to get on with this story I think we'd all prefer if it's a higher quality one.

Anyway, not much else to say other than the usual. If you have anything to say, comment, ask or criticize then leave a review, I love reading them and always reply. Also, we're almost at 100 follows? I don't know how, but thank you all for that, it means a lot.

I'll try to get the next chapter out soon, but no promises, as usual. Sorry for all the waiting.

I'll see you guys next time!