"So who are you looking for?"

"That is personal."

"Are you a huntress?"

"No."

"Then what was that back there?"

"Who knows?"

"Fine, keep your secrets."

Salem tiredly sighed in frustration. The boy kept hounding her with questions to the point where she honestly considered just leaving him but whenever she was about too, she'd see the look of innocent curiosity and wonder in his eyes that instantly destroyed any notion of abandoning him, 'You're fortunate I find you adorable, child' not that she'd ever say that out loud.

What could she say? She had a weakness to children despite all the terrible acts she's committed she would never harm a child unless they were Ozma, of course, then she wouldn't hesitate.

"What do you look like under that-"

"Why don't we start with simple questions, child. I've already told you my name, but you have yet to introduce yourself. "Arthur turned red with embarrassment. He'd been rudely questioning Salem for a while now, and he didn't even introduce himself. He was so thankful that she had patience with him. 'If mom were here she'd...'Arthur quickly pushed that thought back. He really didn't want to acknowledge the elephant in the room and would rather look for literally anything else to keep him occupied.

'Maybe that's why I've been bothering Salem so much.'

"Arthur Pendragon, 11 years old."

That made Salem immediately freeze in place. She turned to examine the child properly. He was tall for his age and had short ruffled blond hair, emerald green eyes, and a lean figure.

The silence lasted a minute before Arthur broke it with a question,"...Is something wrong?"

"No", 'I didn't think that...I mean it's not impossible, but...what are the odds?'

The walk continued on, but this time, it was silent, with Arthur giving Salem occasional glances until they finally reached the village or at least what remained of the village.

Arthur couldn't keep the his heartbroken expression from surfacing through as he gazed at what once was a lively and robust settlement reduced to a wreckage of destroyed and burned buildings with the streets littered with the corpses of familiar faces, some of which he greeted this morning.

"Getting cold feet?"Salem asked.

"No," Arthur replied after some time. "Are you sure the Grimm chased them all away?"

"Yes, now don't forget why we are here."

Yes, they are here because Arthur begged Salem to accompany him to bury his parents. He figured he'd be infinitly more safe with her than by himself. It wasn't easy. He had to full out all the stops from his puppy eyes to straight-up crying, but no matter how embarrassing all that matters is that it worked in the end.

"Well, lead the way, child."

It was incredibly haunting to go down the same road he used to come back from school, but instead of friends and neighbors, all he saw was ruin, but he pushed on until he finally reached his house.

It was unrecognizable from the small two story he was used to. While everything had changed in the village the area around his house had changed too much. The grass was scorched, he could see the windows were boarded up, there were small craters and his house had bullet holes everywhere and there were more bodies here than anywhere else but he didn't recognize them. "What happened here?"

"Your father happened. He barricaded the house and set up explosions. He and the remaining survivors may have stood their ground here, at least from what I can tell."

"Yeah, he'd do something like that," Arthur said with a sad smile.

They found the bodies. They were at the hallway atop a pile of corpses. His mom was underneath his dad, who had multiple stab wounds to the chest. Even in dead, he still shielded her.

The burial was depressing. He was slightly angry that two shallow graves near their murderers was all he could do for his parents.

"She was pregnant, wasn't she?"Salem asked.

"Yup, in two months, i would have been a big brother,"Arthur replied, trying to keep positive.

"My condolences."

"...Thank you."

"What will you do now?"

"Head to the nearest settlement and get help," although in truth, he really didn't have a solid plan.

'Now or never' "I have a better proposition, I'll help you get to the nearest settlement. We'll use my semblance to stay safe from the Grimm."

"Why? You seem keen on leaving before," Arthur asked with narrowed eyes.

'That was before I knew you were a Pendragon' "I will explain later," she said effectly shutting down Arthur's questions