Howdy, so I'm somewhat worried about this chapter. I feel like I didn't do as good a job of capturing Cayde as I did with the previous two but I hope I'm just overthinking it. Anyway I hope you enjoy.
-OtherwisR00K
"So these Huntsman and Huntresses are basically what the Guardians are to the Last City?" Cayde asked. The Gamber's Palm racing through the forest for the settlement.
"Yes, eighty years ago after the Great War the last King of Vale believed the Kingdoms needed a proper defense force, and the Academies were founded soon after," Sundance answered, giving a thorough lesson on Remant had proven easy in the thirty minutes they had.
Even though Cayde wasn't a fan of schooling, he knew he'd stick out like a Vex trying to blend in with the Cabal without it, he needed to know things about Remnant. A thirty-minute history lesson was the price.
"Beacon, Shade, Haven, and Atlas Academy, right?"
"Correct, now what are the Kingdom's names?"
"Vale, Atlas, Mistral, and Vacuo." answered dryly, he really hated the history lesson. How the hell did Warlocks love this stuff?
"Good, now I'd recommend dismissing the sparrow as we are close."
Cayde listened and let the speeding sparrow dissipate under him and dug his soles into the dirt, slowly he slid to a lesser speed and began walking as if he hadn't just gotten off a speeding vehicle a moment ago.
"Okay, should've asked this earlier, but are Exo's or equivalent a thing on Remnant?" Cayde asked as he walked through the woods toward the destination.
Sundance was quiet a moment, likely searching the net for anything, "No, I'm afraid you'll have to wear a helmet."
"Ughhh," Cayde groaned, "and deprive the people of my beautiful-beautiful horn?" he gestured to the horn protruding from his head.
"Yes, it will hurt them, but I'm positive they're strong enough to get through it," Cayde could practically taste the sarcasm oozing from Sundance.
"Yeah, yeah," Cayde brought up his inventory and his robotic face scrunched slightly, "I really need to organize this thing."
Cayde searched his inventory, weapons, armor, glimmer (that still stung a little), and finally helmets. Cayde looked at the only helmet he had, he had multiple actually but they were all the same type.
"Welp, I'd meant to sell this to the Guardian but," Cayde's head suddenly disappeared behind the black Dustwalker helmet that materialized, "desperate times call for desperate measures."
The straight line of a visor flickered on with a light blue, the normal version had a green visor but the Guardian had asked for a custom job. Cayde was honestly thankful the helmet was still on him as he did not like the color scheme of the original helmet. He had no idea how the helmet made yellow look so ugly.
Cayde walked past a pair of trees and onto the dirt road carved out between the trees, he turned his head left and immediately saw the settlement. It was most certainly protected.
Large logs set up as the wall with steel reinforcements set up on the bottom middle and top with parts of the logs still visible. The wall had some people on top, clearly looking for any Grimm, a few were looking at him as he approached. He could tell a few had tensed up even from where he was.
Cayde's eyes scanned over to the left of the wall and noticed it was damaged, minimal but Cayde could still see the cracks and claw marks. The large gate was also noticeably dented, it seemed this place was attacked recently.
Speaking of gates, Cayde had finally reached it-
"Buzz off, Atlesian."
-and was barred from entering.
"Really," Cayde said, his fists on his hips, "you'd bar someone for thinking there from Atlas?"
"Yeah, but it's obvious with you. The helmet is high tech and I've never seen anything resembling it, ergo you're from Atlas with all those high and mighty principles that come with it." The guard with blue hair said, a frown decorating his face.
"They are high, Briggs, they're whole Kingdom floats," the guard with red hair said.
"Not my point, Jay!"
"Besides that, the helmet looks different," Jay spoke up, "his resembles an older version that's been modified."
Cayde was momentarily surprised, "Sundance, can you confirm that?"
"Huh, yeah they do look a little like the Dustwalker helmets, strange," Sundance confirmed.
Briggs looked over at his fellow guard, unaware of the quick conversation between Cayde and the ghost "And how the hell would you know that?"
"The mouthpiece for one," Jay began, "lacks any protection. Which I think is the stupidest decision by Atlas, why not protect the whole head, it's like you're putting a target on your soldier's teeth. I mean Atlas is supposed to be the most advanced kingdom but they somehow continue to do stupid shit, I mean before they changed it to Atlas, Mantel had banned art for some gods' forsaken reason! The worst part is Atlas still pulls this stupid shit, I mean just a few days ago General Ironwood arrived in Vale with a fleet! A fucking fleet! Is he trying to make Vale distrustful of them!? Another thing is their complete fuckery with the faunus and the SDC, it's literally the most racist toward them in polls so I'm half wondering if Jauque Schnee's hand is up the ass of the Atlas Round Table!"
Jay was panting now, his face red from the breath he'd expended on his rant. Briggs and Cayde stared at Jay, surprised by the sudden outburst.
"Uh," Cayde began, "you alright, buddy?"
"Jay, what the hell was that?" Briggs asked, not expecting the rant from his partner.
Briggs sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, "I'm not a fan of Atlas' recent decisions. Anyway, this guy doesn't look Atlas, the helmet could've been stolen for all we know or salvaged, point is the rest of his attire doesn't look Atlesian, ergo I don't think he is."
Briggs stared for a moment, then switched his focus to Cayde, "You can go in," before Cayde could get a word in though, Briggs pointed at him with narrowed eyes, "But if you cause any trouble, I'll personally throw your ass in the cells."
"Hey, I'm as innocent as a saint, there won't be any trouble from me," Cayde said.
Briggs didn't seem to believe him but he still brought up his radio, "Open the gate, enough for a single person."
At the order, the gate slid open, and the gears squeaked and groaned before stopping just enough for someone to slip through. Cayde walked past the two guards two-finger saluting Briggs and slipped into the settlement.
Cayde glanced back at the now-closing gates before taking in the image of the settlement, mentally comparing it to a piece of art shown to him by a young warlock. The settlement wasn't large and only had a few buildings, all wooden with brick and metal decorating them.
Cayde turned his head over toward the damaged section of the wall and saw people climbing scaffolding set up to help the people repair it. Cayde watched for a moment before continuing forward.
"Alright," Cayde began, muttering to himself, "first things first, need to find a way to sell the bones, then look for a bounty board and hope being an unofficial hunter works."
Cayde looked over the buildings he passed, one of them looking like an old western saloon called the Watering Hole.
Cayde wasn't unaware of the eyes looking him over either, it made sense to him, a place just attacked would be paranoid. Monsters or humans didn't matter. A new thing just after an attack was always scrutinized.
They didn't do more than that so Cayde barely gave them any notice, he was still looking for a place to sell bone-
"Cayde, on your left," Sundance said, snapping Cayde out of his thoughts.
Cayde looked to his left and saw what Sundnace meant, a small stand with the sign Grimm Charms nailed above on a wooden board. The stand had a black tent with red lining and a few skeletal pieces decorating it, obviously Grimm bones.
"Huh, good catch Sundance." Cayde began walking over, the old lady seemed to notice his path and smiled that elderly grandmother smile. Though Cayde could see the small bit of anticipation in her eyes.
"Hello, dearie, are you here for the mysterious charms the Grimm may give you?" The Vendor asked.
"Maybe," Cayde began, "so these are all real Grimm bones?"
The old woman chuckled, "Oh, yes, I sell genuine remains of humanity and Faunus' greatest enemy," the old lady gently grabbed a thick armband and presented it to Cayde, "This is a carved-out femur from an Ursa, made into a wristband."
Cayde took the wristband and slipped it on his wrist, he examined it and nodded, "It's nice, but I do have a question."
"Go on."
"Do you buy bones by chance?"
"Yes, I do, but why wou-"
THUD
The noise made several passersby look over and then gape in utter surprise. Who wouldn't be surprised at a large beowolf skull appearing out of nowhere?
The Vendor sat in a stupor, surprised at the sudden appearance of the skull, before immediately getting near it and using a magnifying glass to examine it. Cayde was honestly surprised at how quickly the old lady could move.
"Larger than normal…older too by the feeling and look of the mask…an Alpha?" The lady looked back at Cayde, "Where did you get this?"
"Killed it."
The old lady sighed exasperated, "I figured that, I mean where did you kill it?"
Cayde thought for a moment, "About twenty miles south, I think. Why?"
"Because it seems you've completed a bounty on the board," a voice spoke up behind Cayde.
Cayde turned around to see a woman approaching through the small crowd of spectators, the woman was at least middle-aged and had a smart look to her. Her swept-back blue hair was pulled into a bun and the rectangular glasses added to the smart look.
"This is an Alpha that had been causing trouble for our supply routes, you killing it made the trails much safer," The woman passed Cayde and looked closer at the skull as she spoke, "and it just so happened to have a rather hefty bounty to it."
"It did?" Cayde asked in surprise.
The woman turned around, her glasses slipping to her nose as she looked at him over them, "You didn't know?"
"No, lady."
"Hmph, I'm doubtful of that but you did bring it back so you have evidence of the kill," She walked to stand beside him and stared into Cayde's visor, "Are you even a Huntsman?"
"No," Cayde wouldn't lie here, plus he doubted his position as Hunter Vanguard would get him anywhere, "afraid not miss…"
The woman smirked, "Oh no, people die quickly in this profession so learning the names of the souls is unnecessary. Giving mine is also foolish for the dead who have no use for it."
"Hard policy you drive, Lady. So how much was the bounty?"
The woman fished into her coat pulling out a scroll, if Cayde remembered the device correctly, and turned it on, "The old Alpha Beowolf disrupting the supply line reward was 24,000 Lien."
Cayde was surprised, he didn't expect that much, "That much? It didn't seem so tough."
The woman smiled, "That beowolf pack killed the few Hunters sent to deal with it and destroyed multiple supply caravans from Vale. It being tough is not the issue, the problems it caused were what made its bounty so high. Also if what you say is true, then those Hunters were either weak or the Alpha was weak compared to you."
Cayde didn't like the way the Lady smiled and decided to change the subject, "So the money?"
The Lady nodded, "Please follow me, sir," With that, she turned on her heel and walked away.
Cayde looked back at the Vendor, still inspecting the skull, "Alright, you can keep it see you later."
Cayde followed after the Bounty Lady not realizing he still had the bone band on his wrist. The Vendor wouldn't care however as she was relieved she had gotten the skull for free, she didn't feel the band was a good enough trade for it but wouldn't bring it up.
And there we go. Cayde arrives in the settlement, is immediately accosted by the guards, a 'cooler' head prevails, and Cayde meets the Bounty Lady. I'm hoping I got Cayde correct with this as well as the dialogue. And to Singular Ash, I hope this alternative doesn't make you cringe, as that was not my intent though you have a point on the third bit. If Cayde is ever revealed to be an Exo in this story I have no fucking clue how I'd handle that.
So to anyone still reading my ramblings, thank you for reading, please tell me your thoughts, and have a nice day/night.