Ah, January. My car got smashed off the road into a ditch around this time last year. Now I have people honking me because I'm going 10mph below speed limit on icy roads.

They don't know the danger! Argh.

But yeah, driving safe this year. Honestly, the insurance nonsense was almost as bar as the crash itself.

Cover Art: Kirire

Chapter 84

"You can both use my tent," said Raven, holding open the flap to let them inside. "I'll be awake keeping watch when you're sleeping and vice versa, so we won't get in each other's way."

Calling it a "tent" felt wrong to Blake, since it was large enough to fit its own rooms, not to mention a table with chairs around it, a bed consisting of numerous rugs and pillows, several chests of goods and a weapons rack. All that with space left over. Blake supposed that when you accepted a live travelling, you might as well invest in a way to make it comfortable. She eyed the single bed with a little hesitation. It wasn't really a "bed" per se, and she and Jaune could quite easily separate out the rugs and cushions to form two different ones.

But it said a lot about how they looked that Raven would suggest it.

"We appreciate it," said Jaune, "but we may alternate our own sleep schedules as well. There's three of us, four if you trust Vernal, so taking six-hour shifts will be better."

"Fair enough. I don't trust anyone's concentration after a couple of hours anyway."

Jaune smirked. "The nine-to-five life was never for you, Raven."

"Ha! Tell me about it!"

Blake was a little surprised at the camaraderie between them. Not jealous. In fact, she was quite pleased that Jaune could act this way with someone. It just annoyed her that it would be a criminal rather than his own family.

"Still, I'd feel more comfortable if people were at least travelling in pairs," Raven said. "The fact it's killed two in one attack while I was gone makes me wonder if it isn't getting more aggressive, or even stronger."

"Are the bodies still around?"

Blake grimaced but understood why they needed to see them. Raven grunted, stepping outside to confer with Vernal since she was the one to have found them. She returned a few moments later and nodded for them to follow her outside.

The body had been taken out the camp to prevent any disease, and to ward off the stench. There was only the one, on account of the first presumably having been eaten by the anomaly. Blake was content to stand back, and upwind, as Jaune knelt by the cadaver and inspected its wounds.

"Claws," he said. "Big ones, too, given the depth of these cuts. Whatever hit him did so with enough force to cut all the way through his neck in one go. Cleanly. A Grimm couldn't manage that. It'd rip and tear and pull the head off, but it wouldn't be such a clean slice."

"Could it have been done with a weapon?" Blake asked.

"Possibly, but then there are gouges where the body was stabbed, and those are more jagged and curved. I don't see why it would use a weapon and claws. What we're looking at is either claws that are long and sharpened like blades, or another bodily weapon like a bladed tail-whip." He stood and patted himself down. "And whatever it was, it was quick enough to lop this man's head off before he could scream."

"Or it prevented it some other way."

He nodded, conceding the point. There was always the chance the man had screamed, but that the anomaly had some way of cancelling it. Hell, for all they knew it might have mesmerised him before killing him. They didn't know its capabilities and anomalies had shown an eclectic range of powers already. It was wiser to assume everything.

"Curious that it didn't eat the second," Raven mumbled, arms crossed and eyes sharp. She must have known the man because she'd been vibrating angrily since they arrived. "Didn't even come and finish his body off when it was left out here."

"That might be size or dietary limitations. One body might be the most it can handle."

"Then why take children?"

Jaune hummed. "Good point. A child doesn't offer as much as an adult on a nutritional level." He paused, realised how that statement made him sound, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "At least I assume that's how it works. Maybe the sustenance is something else. Maybe it only eats a certain part of its victims and destroying the body is part of how it stays hidden. But then why leave this one? Because it was afraid it might be caught? Did it fear others might have heard the fight?"

"It's smart enough to be afraid of me," said Raven.

That sounded like a boast but Blake knew what she really meant. This thing was sapient and intelligent, and more than that, it was self-aware. It knew it was alive and wanted to preserve that, which it meant it could feel fear, paranoia, and doubt. Not all anomalies had shown that level of human intelligence.

Jaune walked back to them. "There's no point waiting for the next attack to happen and just hoping we stumble across it. The first thing we need to do is start segregating your tribe. Faunus men on one side, faunus women another, the same for human. Then segregate them further by age. We need to limit the number of people it can get at, and a death from one group will implicate the rest in it."

"It'll be smart enough to realise that," Blake warned. "If it were me, I'd take someone from another group."

"Hm. Then we'll need to make sure the groups are all watched. Raven, how many of your people have aura?"

"Too few."

"Bring those that do to the tent anyway. Anomalies can't have aura, so they're guaranteed safe. They're also less likely to be attacked by it because it probably knows they have aura. This thing is in the camp, so it'll know who is strong and who is weak."

"Couldn't we start unlocking aura?" asked Blake. "Wouldn't that be a way to find it? Whichever person can't have their aura unlocked?"

"I'm the only one here who can do that," said Raven. "Unless you can. Even then, that's the two of us unlocking the aura of over two hundred people. And it's not like unlocking someone's aura makes it immediately obvious. They'd need to manifest it. That could take even more time."

Blake grimaced. She'd forgotten that she'd been trained by Adam and the older huntsmen on Menagerie before she had her aura unlocked, so she already had a head start on it. If you just unlocked the aura of a child, it wouldn't be able to manifest it on the spot. It'd take time. Time they might not have if some panicking bandit got it in their heads that they should kill everyone who couldn't instantly use their aura. It'd be a bloodbath.

"I'll gather the ones who can fight," said Raven. "And get to splitting the camp up."

/-/

It took time to organise the camp into small and segregated pockets. It was time they had, thankfully, because the anomaly wasn't going to attack when all three of them were awake. The thing was likely biding its time watching them and trying to figure out what Jaune and she would do. It'd wait for the cover of darkness anyway, which was a damn shame because that was to be her shift on account of her night vision.

Surprisingly, the bandits had been cooperative in separating into smaller groups. They were all afraid, or Raven held that much respect. Blake wasn't sure which. They'd been cut into ten groups of approximately twenty each, and they had their own separate camps around a campfire, cauldron and cooking supplies. Fences had been erected between them less to hold back a monster, but more to leave evidence of one crossing them. They were tall, thin constructions of twigs and sticks with ropes and bells, cans, and other loud metal objects strung between them, ready to rattle and sound if anything brushed up against them.

It wouldn't stop even a determined human, but there'd surely be evidence of tampering if someone was to cross them. And if this thing could jump three metres into the air to get over them, then it'd surely leave some sign of its landing on the other side. Or make some noise.

That wasn't to say it was perfect. The presence of families meant some groups were bigger or smaller because parents wouldn't be apart from their children, and there were sick and wounded among Raven's camp. Those were brought closer to the central tent where they would in theory be safer, under their aegis as they kept watch. Those on the outskirts were understandably feeling nervous, but Raven had her most aura-capable patrolling it in shifts of their own.

The bandit camp was looking more and more like a prison camp.

And the creature was aware of it all.

Jaune slid up beside her, his voice a whisper. "It probably won't attack tonight. The fact it fed only a few hours before we returned with Raven is no coincidence."

"You think it was preparing itself to fast?"

"Potentially. It was desperate and in a rush to cram itself full. That's why it ended up getting caught by a witness. This thing is worried. Keep an eye out for people look overly anxious. I've told Raven and those she trusts to watch people eat as well. If someone isn't eating normal food then there might be a good reason for that."

Blake nodded, her eyes already scanning. There wasn't much for the tribe's members to do but talk and eat, and most were nursing jars and bottles of alcohol to calm their nerves. Those that weren't immediately caught her attention, but it wasn't just one. It was difficult not to jump to conclusions when the creature could very well be pretending to eat and drink to fit in.

"We really need some way of just detecting anomalies."

Jaune chuckled. "Wouldn't that make our life easier? If we ever find an anomaly who can do that, it might be the one anomaly my father sees fit to leave alive."

"Are there any other clues?"

"It hides its scent, too. Turns out there are quite a few dogs and cats in the camp and they already tried seeing if they reacted poorly to anyone. Not a bad idea."

"Hmm." It was a good attempt. "Are all these people aware, then?" she asked. "Do they all know about anomalies?"

"Yes."

"Isn't that dangerous?"

"A little, yes, but they're insular and isolationist. They don't interact with the cities and they wouldn't tell anyone. It's not that I trust them and more I know for a fact they wouldn't give a damn for anyone outside the tribe. Our job isn't so much to keep everyone from knowing the truth. It's just to stop most people from knowing. As long as the majority of society remains ignorant, we're doing okay."

"Does your family agree?"

"They don't mind in this case. It can sometimes be advantageous to have groups like this out there, especially if you can be sure they won't be going public. Criminals make good choices specifically because they can't. The Branwen tribe makes for useful scouts, and they're afraid enough of anomalies to alert an office the second they see one, like they did with us."

"A symbiotic relationship, then?"

"I suppose you could say that. We help keep their tribe free from parasitic anomalies and they help feed us the anomalies. It helps that they can fight, too. They'll be useful in a pinch." He snorted, then. "Though most of them aren't very good at it. Raven is the exception. She's stronger than any of us. The rest of them? I could probably take any of them even without aura, and you'd have little trouble."

They were just bandits at the end of the day.

"But it's still useful to have eyes and ears around. Especially a set outside the cities where anomalies can have a much easier time preying on isolated communities."

"Don't these people prey on those same communities?"

Jaune sighed. "I know it's not perfect."

"But our job is to hunt anomalies, right?"

"Horrible as it sounds, these lot don't kill that many people. Dead people can't be ransomed off, and if you destroy a village then they won't be around for you to rob a second time. The Branwen tribe gets most of its riches by intimidating villages to give things up without a fight. Places pay them off. There's surprisingly little bloodshed."

And, cynical as it sounded, that was better than what had happened to the village overcome by Blood That Feeds. Blake still struggled to sleep for thinking about that and imagining her own blood punching its way out her body and tearing itself, along with her veins and arteries, free of its fleshy prison.

"You should get some sleep. Raven has offered to take the night watch with you."

"Joy..."

"Trust me, that's better than being stuck with Vernal."

/-/

As expected, there were no attacks during the day. Blake slept nestled in a bunch of furs and cushions she'd pulled away from where Raven made her own nest, and she had to admit it was possibly the best sleep she'd had in ages. Mayne the bandit was onto something. They'd looked uncomfortable, especially given she was sleeping on a hard wooden floor, but it had been much softer and warmer than she'd imagined.

On waking, she quickly checked in with Jaune and had a meal of roasted meats dipped in gravy, and then traded spots. He snuggled into her still-warm furs to sleep, and she headed out to do rounds of the camp with Raven Branwen.

"So," said Raven. "You're his assistant. How did that happen?"

Blake wasn't sure what to make of the literal criminal. "We both ended up stuck in an anomaly that wanted to eat us. I by accident, and him because he literally walked into it so he could try and kill it from the inside."

Raven snorted. "Sounds like him. And you chose to stay even after witnessing that shit?"

"I... well..." Looking back, Blake realised what an idiot she'd been. "I kind of forced myself into the job before thinking it through. I needed money. After... well... it was too late to back out."

"I bet you've been kicking yourself for that."

Blake scowled. "Not really."

"What? Do you enjoy your work?"

"No."

"Then what is it?"

"Someone has to do it."

"The Arc do good enough work."

"Sure. But if I'd left him alone—"

"It's him, then." Raven sighed dramatically. "Take it from someone with experience, girl. Falling in love isn't worth it. It's a complicated, messy, fucked-up set of emotions that'll ruin not only your life but everyone else's as well."

"I'm not in love with him!" she hissed, as if Jaune might hear them from all the way out into the camp. They were walking between the tall fences. "It's just... He's a friend, and I don't want to imagine him having to take on all this alone."

"Hm. Right. A friend. I had friends once. A whole team of them. Then I ended up fucking one of them and getting myself hitched, then my other friend shacked up with him once I left him. Do you know how that made me feel?"

"Angry?"

"Relieved."

"Huh?" Blake stared at the woman. "You were relieved your friend caught your ex on the rebound?"

"Kept him happy," said Raven. "Did a better job at being a wife than I would have. Course, I was worried too. Knew it'd end in tears eventually. And, of course, it did. Whole team imploded with her death and now everything is fucked, but that's life for you. Running a tribe like this is easier. Just focus on the you and now and those under you." Her voice harshened. "Until I learned about anomalies and realised the world is even more messed up than I ever realised."

"Yeah. You mentioned Jaune and you had met before..."

"Hngh."

"Do you mind if I ask what the anomaly was?"

Raven seemed to close in on herself. "You ever seen those Mistralian tentacle hentai?"

Blake was grateful for the gloom hiding her blush. "I may have heard of them."

Read them.

Enjoyed them.

"Imagine that," said Raven, "but instead of horny, think hungry."

"Ah."

"But it still enjoyed going for orifices."

"Ugh."

"Except that it was less because of the pleasure it brings, and more because it's easier to suck out the innards of a person through their orifices."

"Agh."

"Yeah." Raven snorted. "Turned me off sex for life. You ever seen a person deflate? Like, their whole body crumple inward like a juice carton when you suck the juice out through a straw? It's like that. Except the noise it makes is a lot... squishier..."

Blake regretted asking.

"The main body was underground, too. The tentacles came up like roots. We attacked the village because they weren't responding or paying their dues. Should have known in hindsight, but the walls were up and there was no sign of Grimm. What a lovely fucking surprise that was. Only my aura that protected me. Those of us that had it were able to cut the tentacles when they grabbed people. Ordered the retreat. I stayed inside to try and save more of my people."

"That was brave of you."

"Dumb of me, but I was angry. Furious beyond belief. These people may be scum, the worst of the worst, but they're my scum. I look after them. Or I try. Your partner came waltzing in responding to an SOS the village had put out before they went under. They must have said something that triggered ARC Corp's protections because rather than huntsmen sent to look for Grimm, it was him in a two-piece suit looking like he'd walked out of a tailors and onto a horror set."

"He did the job, though," she said, sounding grudgingly accepting, even impressed. "We worked well together. Course, I was angry at the time. Even considered taking him hostage to ransom him to his family. He managed to talk me out of that terrible decision, and we got to talking. He was a guest of honour for a couple of days. We dug out the beast," she added, grinning viciously. "Forced it up out the ground. I took immense pleasure in being the one to finish it off. Slide my blade between its blind eyes and kill it. Crazy thing is, he told me that wasn't even considered a bad one."

"Yeah, I've seen some pretty horrible stuff," Blake said. "Did you know dust is made from people?"

"For fuck's sake!" groaned Raven. "Why would you tell me that? How am I meant to use dust now?"

"I dunno. I guess I assumed a bandit wouldn't care."

"I rob villages and occasionally kill people who fight back," Raven said, groaning into her palm. "I cook breakfast on a dust-fuelled stove. Does that make me a cannibal? Damn it, girl. Now I'm going to have to de-dust everything I own."

"Well excuse me for trying to get something off my chest the way you were yours!" Blake said, hotly.

"You're ARC Corp. You signed up for this twisted life. I'm not. I should be roaming Remnant with a tribe of bloodthirsty idiots threatening villages into paying us and getting drunk off the loot when they don't. I neither need nor want to know what things I've taken for granted are anomalies."

Blake smirked. "Dreams and nightmares are anomalies."

"Damn it!"

"And we don't even know what they're doing to people." Blake enjoyed the look of mixed anger and horror on the older woman's face. "I'm not even joking. We have no idea what they are doing and what effect it has on people."

"B—But I have aura, so they can't get to me."

Blake smiled. "We don't know what that is doing to you either."

Raven swore angrily and repeatedly. It felt nice to be able to dump her trauma on someone else for a change, especially since the only other person who knew the truth that she could do it to was Ruby. Blake was not cruel enough to make such an adorable girl cry. Not when she was the best arachnid-babysitter they had.

The two of them did a few more rounds in silence. Not everyone was asleep. Not everyone could sleep. Much like they were doing, the small groupings of people were keeping their own watch, aware of the risk to their lives and setting up sentries of their own. It hadn't helped them in the past and probably wouldn't here, but how were you mean to sleep if you didn't try? The worst part was the sentries were looking inward. They expected an attack from within their own groups rather than from outside.

It must have been terrifying to be stuck in a small cage of some twenty people knowing one might be a monster looking to eat you. They must have been telling themselves that odds were on their side. There was one monster and ten small camps, so they had a 90% chance of being safe.

That sounded better than a 10% chance of being eaten alive.

"It's always like this when I'm awake," said Raven. "It knows I'm watching and it knows I'm dangerous. That's why Arc wants me on the night watch with you. Force this thing to have to act during the day where there'll be more witnesses."

Raven's hand gripped the hilt of her weapon tight, and the thing rattled in its sheath. The woman's lips peeled back, teeth gritted together. Her red eyes scanned the camps furiously, but the monster knew better than to test her.

"So... You're Qrow's sister?" asked Blake.

"Unfortunately," the woman gritted back. "I'm the good sibling."

Blake wasn't sure of that one. "Did you use to work for Ozpin too?"

"Yes. Back when I was young and naïve and didn't know better. I could tell something was up with him later in life – and finding out he's a parasitic worm in the heads of innocent men... well, let's just say it didn't shock me. There was always something inhuman about him."

"Inhuman?"

"Not like this creature. Not that he eats people or walks or talks like a monster. Just... off." Raven frowned. "He spoke well, always sounded intelligent, but sometimes he'd say something that just came across... alien. Inhuman. Like he couldn't quite understand why a human being wouldn't say those collection of words. Or he'd get his emotional reactions wrong. It was all muted, like he was a being that couldn't feel fear. And how can he? He doesn't die when his host does. Best he can do is mimic and act like a human."

"And yet Qrow still follows him."

"My idiot brother sees it as a lesser of two evils scenario. Salem... You know of her?"

"I probably know more about her than you do."

"Spare me the details. Either way, Ozpin positions himself against her, and she positions herself against Vale and Beacon."

"And Qrow?"

"Qrow was always an idiot quick to swear loyalty to anyone who wanted it. He's impressionable. He loved the tribe, then went to Beacon and fell in love with Beacon, then joined a team and fell in love with his team. He falls too easily and abandons the last thing. He's fickle, though he probably doesn't see it that way. He was happy to abandon the tribe that raised us because one old man showed him a little attention. What does that say about him?"

It said that Raven was only telling her one side of the story. The bandit might have had a better chance winning her over if Blake hadn't also abandoned a violent group herself. Going by Raven's logic, she should have stayed with Adam because he was the first one she'd pledged loyalty to.

But people changed.

Loyalties changed.

Blake had never understood those people who acted like they shouldn't, and who acted like passionate words spoken as a child should bind you for life. When she was childish and immature, she'd sworn to stand by Adam and the White Fang forever. But she'd been a child. She hadn't known better. Words spoken as a child shouldn't seal her fate as an adult.

"Maybe he cares too much for his nieces to leave them."

Raven scowled. "Maybe."

"You're Yang's mother. Aren't you?"

"No."

"You are. I've heard—"

"Yang's mother is the woman who raised her. Yang's mother is Summer Rose." Raven's red eyes were dangerously sharp. "Don't insult her memory in front of me by suggesting otherwise. I am not Yang' mother. I never was."

Blake had no rebuttal.

And the anomaly didn't attack all night.

"As expected," Jaune said, once he was awake. The sun was rising. "We knew it would try and hold on for the first day once we beefed up security. This marks 24 hours since its last feeding. How long did you say it had gone before?"

"Never longer than 48 hours." Raven said, with crossed arms. Her eyes were back on her camp once more, watching over them. "It will strike today, then. It will have to."

"Or it'll do its best to resist," said Jaune. "At which point it might go feral with hunger. We'll have to be prepared to act quickly if that happens. It could kill a lot of people in a short space of time."

"I'll accept loss to rid us of the rot its presence brings. Vernal!" she barked. "You are with Jaune. Listen to him. Follow his every instruction. If I hear otherwise..."

"I watched him fight the tentacle monster, boss," said the girl. "I ain't arguing with a guy who can do that without aura. He says jump, I'm jumping."

Raven grunted. "Good. Keep everyone in the camp. No hunting, no fishing, no gathering. They want to take a dump, they do it in front of everyone. I don't care what their excuses are. Anyone tries to slip out, I want them caged immediately. No one leaves the camp. No one makes themselves an easy target. Understood?"

Vernal and the other aura-capable men and women with her saluted. They were strangely well organised for a bandit tribe, but fear played a part.

"Yes boss!"

"Come." Raven held the tent flap open for her. "Odds are it'll strike while we sleep. It won't want anything to do with either of us."

"Will Jaune be okay? He doesn't have aura."

Raven chuckled. "Your boyfriend will be fine."

"He's not—"

"I've seen him on a hunt. A proper one. He may not have aura, but that doesn't mean he isn't dangerous. If the creature thinks otherwise and attacks him..." Raven smiled viciously. "Then it won't live to regret its decision."

Speaking of Among Us (but not), I played a little Lethal Company over the Christmas break. I'd honestly say it feels more like the game is fun because of the comedy you and your friends cause in the comms than anything. It's a funny example of an experience that forces you to make your own fun but does so without seeming that way. It's clever.

Next Chapter: 15th January

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