"My Father, my father, do you not hear?"
"What the Erlking promises so sweetly to me?"
"What in the world was this kid talking about?"
Cinder sat in silence for a few moments trying to pull meaning from the boy's story. But his slow speech and vague words made his tale even more difficult to swallow. Some would consider what he said reason enough to start looking for a strait jacket.
Giants, places of fire and demons, some type of science experiment that he was the result of?
It didn't sound like anything she had ever heard of before on Remnant. Still, she stroked her chin and studied his face.
Thinking.
The condition they found him in did support his claim a little bit. No clothes, wandering the wilderness injured and alone.
And killing Beowolves with practically your bare hands was a dangerous feat for all but the most seasoned and skilled hunters. Even successfully doing so was bound to leave someone with more than a few injuries. And any hunter without a weapon would use their aura or semblance as back up.
Neither of which she had sensed from the boy. And he did have a spectacular assortment of claw marks on him. Plus that bite which would have been a death sentence under most normal circumstances if left alone for days. Blood loss, infection, loosing use of the arm. He was lucky it hadn't punctured any arteries. If nothing else the boy was tough.
That little shred of believability took root. And her mind wandered backwards through the recent past.
Along with what else she knew that no other living soul on Remnant did.
Red, and purple fire,
Falling from the sky.
Her sudden epiphany hit her like a blast of ice. "That was no borealis."
That comet had been him crashing from the sky. Thrown from God knew where, and for God knew why. Cinder sighed to herself, running her almost shaking hands back over her silky black hair. Unsure just what his presence meant.
She brought her mind back to the present and felt her heart skip a beat.
He was staring right at her.
Just as the young boy had been doing for the last several seconds while Cinder silently thought. Waiting for some form of reaction. She couldn't help but be drawn into those wide eyes, trying to put names to just what she saw.
Fear,
Loneliness,
Hope,
He was waiting for her to help him make sense of the world. To tell him what it all meant. Cinder was always a calculating person. Regardless of his origins she wasn't going to let someone so unique slip through her fingers. Especially now when he was so vulnerable.
"Do you know what you want to do next?" She asked.
The boy blinked, "Want?"
"Yes, what are you going to do with yourself?"
"…..No I… No, don't know."
"Would you like to stay with me?"
He tilted his head to the side pondering what she meant.
Cinder spoke. "There is so much more to this place… To this world then you can possibly imagine."
She looked down on the table, and brushed away the layers of books and magazines until she found a cover showing a map of the world. Cinder pulled the laminated pages closer and pointing down at it to focus his attention.
"Those creatures that attacked you. We call them the Grimm. And they live in every corner of Remnant."
She watched him take in a deep breath and hug his arms to his stomach.
"For millennia they have fought and destroyed everything…"
She paused and laid her hand on top of his. "We, humans, humanity have been trying to build here. Both through outright assaults and the fears they have sown in our hearts nearly turning us into the same monsters outside of our gates. You do not want to wander this word alone."
She knew that if he was telling the truth, the boy was little more than a child. He would be afraid.
Cinder needed him to be afraid.
"Even if there is peace in the Kingdoms,"
The boy raised an eyebrow unsure of just what she met.
"Our nations. The homes we have carved out for ourselves and our families. They are not the bastions of prosperity and security they claim to be. They are dangerous, weak places of complacency and stagnation."
The boy almost began to pull away from her grip looking for a dictionary to see what Cinder meant. But she tightened her grip and stopped him.
"They are weak. One such as yourself won't find what they are looking for there."
She smiled, and the boy gripped her hand now between his own. And she could feel the strength laid in his bones. And she easily recognized the lost look on his face.
And all Cinder needed to do now was pull.
"But if you stay with me, I can help you. Keep you safe and teach you to be strong. Do you understand?"
"Y-es." The boy said slowly.
Cinder needed to hear the words. "Say it. What do you want?"
He stared at the little picture of Remnant for nearly a minute. Before finally breaking his silence.
"...I want… to stay, you teach me…fight…ing? Stop, Grr-r-imm?"
Cinder smiled, glowing with triumphant satisfaction.
But one thing was left.
"Yes," She said nodding her head. "However you need a name."
He raised his eyebrows in a questioning expression.
"A name, what to call you." The Huntress said. "My name is Cinder. My two students who discovered you are Mercury, and Emerald. Mercury is…'
She was interrupted.
"The one who… showed me letters. Emerald… green….green haired girl."
She smiled. His speech was getting better already.
"Yes... How about Kad?"
He blinked and tilted his head. "Kad?"
Cinder smiled. "It's from a long dead language I know a little of. It means saber, or sword. Something to defend ourselves. The first weapon we used to fight the Grimm."
She pointed over to a painting on one of the walls above a fireplace.
The painting showed some local folk hero from Atlas. She had no idea who it was but he held a flaming sword defiant and proud over his head as he stood amidst a horde of stylized Grimm surrounding his feet.
The boy started to smile.
"I like it."
Cinder wasn't done however. "You also need a last name, a second part."
She paused for a quick quiet breath "Just… for more official purposes. Would you like me to pick one for you?"
"Please?" He asked.
Cinder knew this was going to be tricky. She couldn't just saddle him with a generic place holder. This boy needed something grand. And sifting through her head eventually Cinder found one that clicked and felt immediately appropriate for one she already had great plans for,
"Amaranth… That was the family name of one of my relatives. The last in his particular branch of my family."
Cinder smiled drawing on some of her rarer happy memories.
"He was a good man, because of him I chose to be a huntress. He could inspire the best in people, but he gave his life very early… I would like some of his legacy to live on, some of his legacy other than me."
The boy nodded, a little solemnly, as if he could sense the weight of his new name.
The legacy this woman had placed upon his shoulders.
The hope she had for what he could do.
Sword. Saber.
What he could become.
Cinder stood up and held out her hand to Kad Amaranth, her newest protégée,
"Come. We have great plans for you."
When the day had ended, and the shadows drowned the light Cinder finally found herself well enough alone.
She was back in her far too extravagantly furnished quarters. The thick woolen bed sheet had barely seen any use during her time here in the north. The dressers were empty and untouched, she had no plans to stay here for much longer.
But that could easily change.
She had rented out this entire floor to have her solitude undisturbed. And to place as much distance between herself and her contacts as possible. Both for her sense of theater and her desire for privacy.
The moon was shining brightly tonight. Bathing the forest and resort in an eerie blue white glow while it lit the space Cinder was kneeling on in front of her balcony window.
The freezing cold wind filled every inch of her room, but Cinder felt nothing but what some would call anxiousness. Knelt down, eyes closed and hands folded as if in prayer on the lap of her red dress as she waited for the appointed time.
The light from the broken moon dimmed.
Cinder raised her head. Up to the little Nevermore crouched on the railing staring its unblinking eyes straight towards her.
The Huntress bowed her head once more respectfully to the creature before she spoke.
"Mistress… I've found something. Or should I say, someone…"