Omake: The Ride
Blake was clinging to her horse.
Crossing overland to their destination watchtower from the nearest functional bridge meant a horse ride, something Blake hadn't ever had occasion to do before. In her time people used trains and airships and things with wheels to get around.
If it were just learning a new skill that would be one thing, but every horse Blake had tried did its best at random intervals to throw her off. Even though Salem was riding beside her being supportive Blake was very much looking forward to the trip being over.
Why do they hate me so much anyway? Am I doing something wrong?
To them you smell like a predator.
Oh. Right, the cat thing.
"Do you have anything with a really strong smell?" Blake asked Salem after a while. "I have an idea."
Salem pulled in closer so they could talk without shouting over the noise of pounding hooves and the wind. She even turned to face Blake to talk while she kept riding. She made it look effortless, and even though she'd probably been riding since she was a child seeing it only enhanced Blake's annoyance with her own horse.
"Like a perfume?" Salem asked, and Blake saw her quirking her head out of the corner of her eye. "I did not bring any with me. Why do you ask?"
"I think the horses don't like me because I smell wrong," Blake explained.
"Ooooh," she said. "Because you are- ah, yes, that might explain it? Veve knows horses better than I do, to be honest. So you want to try using something to cover your scent?"
"If they can't smell me hopefully they won't keep trying to kill me, yeah," Blake said.
"I did not bring any scents you could wear, and Veve certainly would not have." Salem took a moment to think, surveying the lush grass they'd been riding through for the past three hours. "But maybe...we did bring feed bags, so if we found some strongly smelling plants we could crush them and put them in one of those and the horse wouldn't be able to smell anything else?"
"Let's do that when we stop," Blake said, relieved at the possibility of something that would work.
Blake finished dispatching the last Grimm that had tried to ambush them while they were searching away from the others for the plant Veve had recommended. It had only been a dozen, and manipulating her gathered shadow into a whirlwind of reaching, cutting edges that scythed through this period's weakened Grimm was becoming second nature.
Salem had reacted first with fear at the appearance of the Grimm, and then with undisguised awe at Blake's display.
"Blake, that was...that was incredible! Even after seeing you practice I didn't imagine...how...can all awakened Wilder fight like that?" Salem asked, everything she wanted to ask tripping over itself in her rush to get it out.
Blake's expression settled on an awkward smile while she tried to think of what to say. Unlike when she'd just met Veve and her soldiers and there was still a nervous distance on both sides, it would be hard to dodge Salem's question now. Blake had no idea if any Faunus in this time even had awakened auras. She could make something up, but she didn't want to lie. It was unlikely she'd be caught out on whatever she made up since Ciel appeared to have no real contact with Wilder tribes, but there would be no way of knowing what misinforming them might do. And it felt wrong.
Salem knew about her 'teacher', though. So...
Salem's face fell as she saw Blake's hesitation and held up her hands. "I apologize, if you don't want to talk about what your tribe can do I understand, I should not have asked, we could not tell you everything about our magic either, I-"
Blake held up a hand to stop her. "It's alright. My teacher only has a few students. And I don't really know what other tribes can do."
Salem let her hands fall. "I see. The tribes do not interact much, then?"
Blake shrugged, and hoped that would be enough. Salem seemed to be satisfied.
Blake turned and began pulling up the grassy plant they'd been directed to find. She could already smell the pungent bitter stink of it where she'd broken the long thin leaves by gripping them. Hopefully it'd be enough.
Something about the disintegrating Grimm bodies tickled at Blake's thoughts.
"Salem, what happens if you touch one of the Gr-, err, one of the beasts?" Blake asked.
Salem considered it, looking down. "I have never tried. Whatever they are made of it is not magic. So nothing, perhaps? I do not know. Maybe I should try it just to see, if I can get close to one. If I could use my soul against them to protect people, maybe it would be good for something after all. But...likely not."
Blake finished gathering and transferred the leaves to her shadow hand, freeing up her other hand to rest briefly on Salem's shoulder, drawing her gaze back up. "I think you'll find something good to use it for someday. Maybe you'll protect your people from those with magic who want to hurt them, or taking magic apart will help your people understand it better and be able to do new things, or you'll find something else that we can't imagine now.
"As much as I hated my nature, what it said about me, it saved my life dozens of times over, and...I suppose I'm grateful to it for that. You'll find a use for it, alright?"
Salem smiled and nodded. "Thank you, Blake. They are...probably nearly done watering the horses by now, and we have what you need, so we should be getting back."
A feed bag over its face filled with smelly grass seemed to blot out whatever smell was bothering it enough for Blake to finally be able to ride without having to be ready for the horse to try to throw her off at any moment. Without that constant fear the ride was almost nice.
Beside her Blake let Salem spend the time with her features in a cast of contemplative focus, looking down at her own hands gripping the reins.
A/N: My first attempt at writing in x50413's style. I'm curious how closely it reads to their work. Feedback on that and other aspects is welcome.
I could write more but I don't know where they're going with the story and I felt like this is about as far as I can go without potentially stepping on plot, even though it's an omake.