" You have aura."

"What?" Arthur paused in his scavenging to look back at Salem in surprise.

"You have aura." Salem repeated, did the boy have hearing issues?

"No, I don't." He would have known if he had aura.

'I wouldn't be too sure of that if I were you.'

'Great, you're back.'

As much as he'd like to argue with the voice once again, he had more pressing matters. "My dad never gave me aura. He said it's awakened once someone gets into a combat school."

"No, I'm certain. I have a way of identifying it, and you have quite a large reserve too, curious."

To prove her point, Salem picked up a broken and jagged piece of metal and made her way toward him before gently grabbing his hand and paused as if to ask for permission, when she received no resistance she used the the metal piece to make a small cut.

From this, Arthur made two observations. First, Salem's hands were soft and cold, but most importantly, they were extremely pale, far too pale for a living being, and it looked like he wasn't the only one who noticed this.

'If i didn't know any better, I'd think she was dead.'

Secondly, there was no cut. He felt the cold metal on his skin, but there was no pain,"How did I get aura?"

Salem frowned at the boy's confusion, it was obvious he was just as in the dark as she was "It clear you have questions and i don't think I have the answer to most of them so for now just finish packing. Fuyuki is three days away, so we need to get on our way, and tomorrow, we'll try finding some answers."

Right, he managed to find some camping equipment, and now all he needed was food. He'll save the questions for later. He already had a lead anyway.

"Well, I'm all done. Thanks for your help, by the way. I really appreciated it." He was, of course, being sarcastic, Salem had not done anything since coming but stand and watch him while he did all the heavy lifting. It was probably to keep up her mysterious persona, but still, he was 11 for crying out loud!

Salem wisely chose to ignore the remark.

'You need a weapon, although there's not gonna be any Grimm in your way there is still a change you'll encounter bandits.'

Damn he was right, "Hey, can we make one last stop before leaving?"

"Where?"

"The local blacksmith."

Good old Garry's weapons. The old building was left untouched and was just as he remembered it, a decrepit old building that looked like it would fall over with just a light breeze. No wonder it was left alone , the bandits probably thought there was absolutely nothing of value. Well, it was their loss. Garry may have worked in a building that would make even the homeless think twice before occupying and may have looked like he had been hiding from the sun his whole life, but that spoke nothing of his smithing.

"This is the place?" Salem asked in confusion. This was supposed to be a blacksmith? She'd seen whore houses cleaner than this dump.

His father spoke nothing but praise for the guy commenting on how Garry always had the best materials at a cheap cost for his weapon, hell dad sometimes when to him for ideas on how best to improve his weapon. So the guy must have something good to use temporarily.

"Trust me, this guy was good at what he did, he'll definitely have good stuff." Arthur replied back as they slowly entered the building before freezing as a gunshot flew right by him. The next thing he knew, Salem was in front of him, and her outstretched hand was glowing.

"Reveal yourself, and maybe I'll be merciful and just take a limb." Salem said, smiling. The once soothing voice he was used to had instantly gained an edge to it that suited it more than he was comfortable admitting.

'You've let your guard down and allowed yourself to relax around her despite not knowing a single thing about her.'

Arthur hated to admit it but like always the voice was right, he had gotten comfortable with Salem as the only company he had minus a voice in his head but in all honesty same could also apply for it. The voice had constantly offered valuable advice, but that didn't mean he should grow to listen, rely, or trust it lest he also let his guard down around it.

From the corner they were shot from, a man slowly emerged with a noticeable limp and blood slowly gripping on the floor as he made his presence known. He was pale though it was nothing compared to Salem, with dark unkempt hair and a rugged beard though the most noticeable feature was how ripped he was, his baggy and dirty clothes couldn't hide it his hulking body although their attention narrowed to the knife the man was frantically swing around

"Stay back you fuckers. I wouldn't down without a fight, YOU HEAR ME! " The insanity in his eyes was clear for all to see, but despite Arthur still attempted to reason with the man.

"Garry calm down, it's me, Arthur Pendragon the annoying brat." Arthur slowly took a step towards the man while Salem stood in place with her hand still glowing.

For a second, it looked like Garry heard him, but that quickly vanished as the man pulled back the knife and charged at him. Arthur's instincts took over as he quickly side stepped the attack and threw a punch at Garry's throat, sending the man flying into a wall.

Normally whenever he tried that move against his father it would end with Arthur eating dirt since his father could easily react to it but Arthur didn't account for how strong he'd gotten when his aura was unlocked and the fact that he was not up against a retired huntsman but a normal man.

Garry died, and Arthur was responsible.

Salem observed Arthur as he stood over the body of the man he just killed. He's face unreadable as he simply stared, "Arthur, it's not your-"

"You don't have to console me Salem I know it's not my fault. Garry has multiple bullets holes and his fingernails are ripped out. The blood loss and torture made him like this. He would have died from blood loss anyway."

Arthur walked past the body and into the forge. At the back of the dark room was a large weapons rack where Garry hung all his recently completed weapons as he examined all the weapons he couldn't help but be awed at all of Garry's works but only one really stuck out to him. It was a short sword but with his size it might as well have been a long sword. It had a red blade and a simple handle. It really wasn't anything special but the blade had stuck out to him, when you live in the middle of nowhere transportation of resources becomes really important especially dust which gets charged to an insane degree because of the dangers of moving it here.

He never knew why, but holding a sword always felt right to him, and this one was no different. After taking a few test swings, Arthur took the sword and went to regroup with Salem.

"Who are they?" Salem looked at Arthur in confusion at the sudden question. They've been walking for 30 minutes in silence before he broke it.

"Who?" Although she knew who he was referring to.

"The one's responsible for what happened tonight." Arthur needed an answer and was not going to accept another deflection from her.

Seeing the piercing gaze Arthur gave, Salem sighed 'Your lucky you're a Pendragon and being cute helps too' "They are the Branwen Tribe" And so she told him everything she knew about them, which wasn't much considering her isolation.

"Branwen" Arthur constantly repeated before gaining a smile as he looked up at the shattered moon thinking of the future and how he would deal with them when the time immediately came.

"Branwen", he WILL kill every single last one of them. He WILL avenge his home.

"Branwen," just wait.