Chapter 23 – SW Mistral: First Blood

Early the next morning just before sunrise, Garek's Scroll rang. It was Selene.

They both tried to speak at once. "Are you okay?" / "Are you well?" And they laughed in relief and amusement, though Selene's voice betrayed that she was tired.

"I wish to hear from you first."

"No, where are you?"

"I am outside a town in western Mistral that has a CCT repeater, apparently. I am unsure of its name, and am in no mood to enter and ask."

Garek laughed. "Well, I guess I can understand that. How did the meeting with your mother go? How is she?" Selene filled him in on their conversations. "That's very encouraging, and it sounds like we really did make the right decision."

"Yes. And you?"

"Nothing exciting. Hold on a second." He raised his voice. "Cinder! Do you want to talk to Selene? She's about halfway back."

There was the sound of a door opening and slamming shut, and Cinder's face bumped into frame. "Hi Selene! You'll be home tomorrow?"

"I should, though it may be in the middle of the night, which means you may not see me until the following day."

"Oh. Okay. But you're being careful?"

"I am. What have you done to pass the time?"

Cinder chatted for several minutes about sparring with Garek, talking to Rhodes by scroll, doing girl stuff with her friends or playing games at the Emporium, but Garek could see that Selene was tired after her overnight travel. "Cinder, I'm sure Selene needs some rest. Let's let her go for now."

"Oh. Sorry Selene. I'll talk to you tomorrow?"

"Most likely the day after… and for that reason, now I shall retire, and attempt to sleep so that I may travel again come the evening."

The first inkling Selene had of a problem was a nevermore chick pecking on her skull inside the tent. That brought her fully awake to see late morning sunlight filtering in through the tent flaps. Before retiring, she had asked several chicks whether there were any humans in the area, and they had found none. In her exhaustion, she had neglected to tell them to keep a continued watch. She should have been more explicit on being warned.

She had not set a campfire, for that reason, and her campsite was nestled deep in a thicket. It should have been enough. She heard sounds outside her camp. People speaking in quiet voices, closer than she would have liked. It had not been enough.

"Looks like someone travelling alone. Think it's a Huntsman?" a male voice asked.

"Nah, they usually travel in pairs or fours." That was a female.

"Still, have to be tough. Or crazy, or stupid to travel alone." A third voice.

Selene considered her options, breath quickening. She had slept in her travelling clothes, and her staff was at arms reach, next to her pallet. She quietly shifted, slid her shoes on, and picked it up.

And then glanced down at her bone-white hands. Had she forgotten herself, and exited in this form, she would likely have to kill them to keep her secret. What if they were just curious? Either way, if they were dangerous, she would have to defend herself.

Blackfeather was hidden nearby. Close enough that she could send a chick to summoned him, and he would come. A Nevermore large enough to ride was a deadly foe. Claws, Beak, Razor tipped wingfeathers.

But that too, would cause her problems, likely forcing her to kill them all. She had not killed a creature before. She did not know if she could.

She eyed the chick still in her tent, and gave it a silent command. Go. Seek these. She put images into its tiny brain. Bid them come when I call. Such a simple command was likely all she could expect of the small Grimm, and it flew out the back of the tent, unnoticed by the intruders outside.

She shifted her appearance to blue eyes and auburn hair, and exited the front of the tent, feigning unawareness.

The half dozen men and women outside her tent were startled, but recovered quickly. They were geared for wilderness travel, and well-armed. They looked at each other, and a man stepped forward. "Our apologies, lady. Didn't mean to disturb your camp." It was the same voice as the first she had heard.

She blinked, noting the position of the sun in the sky. "Disturbed? No, I am not disturbed. I was about to prepare lunch." She looked around. "I fear I do not have enough for guests. I am travelling lightly."

The man's eyes strayed across her, noting the lack of weapons, if one ignored the staff which could have been just a simple walking aid.

"Oh, no worries, we've got our own food." He paused. "You're out alone. Huntsman?" She didn't look it, really. From her exposure to Garek and Rhodes, she'd learned that Huntsmen had a certain presence that was difficult to ignore and also to fake, and she wasn't sure she could manage it.

"No, though I have trained with some." Honesty might work best.

"Red, let's leave it be," a young woman at the back of the group said. It was the first time Selene had heard her voice.

"Leave what be, Crystal? I'm just having a conversation with a lady…" He looked at Selene carefully. "You're real polite, lady. Bet you have friends that would be worried if you were delayed in the wilderness. It can be dangerous out here." He rubbed his chin. "Maybe you'd like to hire an escort."

"Hire… an escort."

Another of the number, a second woman, sniggered.

"Yeah. Say 500 lien."

"I am afraid I have no lien with me."

"Maybe someone you know does, then."

Selene's eyes narrowed.

"Red… this is a bad idea," the woman in the back complained again. She had an unstrung bow on her back, and a thin sword on her hip.

"Shut up Crystal. This is how it works. Don't make me warn you again."

Selene caught a flutter in a tree to her own left in her peripheral vision, and she smiled grimly. "I am afraid I have no one nearby to whom you could ransom me, and I cannot afford to be delayed." She raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps we could discuss your services at some future date."

That got a laugh from the group, though it was a nervous one from Crystal, who felt that things were not going nearly as well as the others seemed to believe. She was backing up slowly, hand dropping to the hilt of her weapon.

"That's a shame," Red answered, apparently the spokesman. "Well, we can at least see what you have here that might be of some value." His eyes flickered over her body, "or at least entertaining." He drew a broad sword, and charged into her, aiming to strike with the flat of his blade.

Selene felt herself go eerily calm, while at the same time a metallic taste filled her mouth, as his strike rolled forward. Behind him, she perceived the other five separating. Two went left, two moved right.

One young woman backpedaled, shaking her head in denial.

The flat of the man's blade curved in from the upper right, aiming for her temple. It felt… slow. Clumsy. She had spent months now training first with her mother, then with Garek and Cinder.

This felt… amateurish.

One of Selene's elbows dropped and the other arm rotated, staff swinging upward and blocking the broadsword blow easily, but the strength of it still rattled her arms. She let her stance drop, reducing the impact, and tilted the staff so that the sword slid to the ground on her left. A temporary black shell, reinforced by a burst of aura, protected her fingers as she had shown Garek those months ago. It worked beautifully, and no one noticed in the heat of battle.

The man grunted in annoyance, not expecting to miss. Selene shifted back and brought the other end of the staff up, cracking him under the chin to teach him a valuable lesson. He cursed and jumped back, spitting blood. He might have bitten his tongue, and he rubbed his jaw with murder in his eyes. He shifted his grip on the sword, turning it to present the blade this time. "Kill her," he growled.

Movement to her left, and Selene twisted, catching a long-handled but light hammer by the haft and deflecting it backward into the person swinging it. There were people behind her, she knew, and she pushed aura to her back as she reversed her staff yet again without looking, ramming the butt of it into the stomach of the woman who had attempted and now failed to strike her in the back.

She had not taken a single blow. She had deflected three, and delivered two strikes herself. She felt her blood sing, but the beginnings of worry.

She felt a strike against her ribs from the side. It felt like a sharp point, and her aura prevented it piercing her flesh, but it hurt, and forced her to spin, catching that person a crack on the shoulder which made that man curse and jump back. Her teeth bared, and she growled at her attacker.

"Aura's unlocked!" he yelled, waving his sword at her and holding the shoulder she had struck with his free hand. "Attack in pairs!"

She realized she was in trouble.

Aura or not, she could not defend against six… no five attackers. The sixth was still hanging back, undecided and wary. Still, five would likely be able to overpower her, possibly pin her down, immobilize her, and beat her by weight of numbers. And judging by the looks on their faces now as they circled and she spun, they would hurt her badly in many ways, before they killed her.

She could not allow that, for multiple reasons.

"Help me!" She screamed at full volume.

The five attacking her drew back for a moment. Then the one called Red laughed through bloodstained teeth. It was an ugly sound. "Figured out how dead you are, eh? No help'll come, but you're welcome to start screaming now. You'll be screaming soon enough whether you want or not." He flashed a look to his rear. "And we'll deal with you later, Crystal." The sixth bandit was still backing away toward the tree line, shaking her head in denial.

There was the brief sound of small wings fluttering through nearby trees.

Two of the bandits struck simultaneously, the others preparing to drive in as soon as she responded and gave them their opening. It would probably have been the beginning of the end for Selene, had not four small flashes of black feather and white bone blown past her vision and into the attacker coming in behind her. She heard a cursing cry of anger and pain from that direction, and she smiled very unkindly.

That left Red driving in from the front, and no distraction behind her. He swung to kill this time, a strike that would have cut her from shoulder to hip. Similar to the prior strike, but edge-on. This time she ducked under it, and drove her staff hard upward with all her strength in a two-handed swing, catching him squarely in the groin. "I think not!" She growled through gritted teeth. Red howled and fell backward, curling around the pain, crotch dampened with urine or blood.

But it still wouldn't have been enough to save her. The remaining three were charging in from behind and either side, and she was overextended by that strike, leaned too far forward.

This is going to hurt, a distant thought warned her.

And it did. Aura protected her, yes, but their blows still landed, taking chunks out of her aura and dealing pain, and now they were inside her guard. It would be over in minutes.

The sound of howling filled her ears, and brought a smile through the pain.

"Grimm!" One of the bandits screamed, face paling in terror.

The men and women scattered. Three bunched together and made a fighting withdrawal against the first beowolf that charged into the clearing. A fourth man tried to stand his ground against a second beowolf, who instead ignored him and turned to Red, who was still writhing on the ground in pain. Red never stood a chance, and his compatriot was sprayed with arterial blood as the grimm's jaws tore out the leader's throat. Red died with a wet gurgling sound through ruined trachea, even as the beowulf's claws eviscerated him.

A third beowolf charged Selene, with a fourth following behind it. She screamed and threw herself sideways, but it caught her mid-air in its jaws, never slowing. She choked and writhed, screaming her throat hoarse, as the grimm continued on through the camp and carried her off into the thickets beyond.

Where, out of sight of the bandits, she let her screams taper with a gurgle, as the beowolf dropped her gently from its jaws to the ground. "Good boy." She patted its jaw. "Now go, tell the others. You are to drive the humans away, but do not kill any more of them unless needed to defend yourselves."

The beowolfs gave a rumble, turned, and both charged back the direction they had come from.

Selene considered her torn and bloodied clothing. None of the blood was hers, but Garek would see both and would have… pointed questions. Regardless, the beowolf had not even damaged her aura, much less pierced her flesh. She had bruises from the bandits' blows, but those would heal soon enough. She shook her head and spent time forcing her pulse to slow, breathing deeply. She felt nauseous as the adrenaline of battle wore off.

"I am no match for so many. A lesson learned. At a cost, unfortunately," She muttered to herself. Her lack of care had cost at least one life, the man called Red. Her first kill. By her will if not her hand. The sound of screams fading in the distance told her it might not be only one.

She straightened her clothing, and walked back into her camp, fearful of what she would find.

The camp was a mess. There were the mangled remains of Red a few meters from her tent: throat destroyed, ribcage torn open, and organs spread from a ripped abdomen. Blood had spattered widely from it. Another shredded body lay a dozen meters further away. Her tent had been flattened, and there was blood on the canvas.

And there were two beowolfs still at the edge of her campsite, on either side of a tree, jumping repeatedly upward and growling. Her eyes drifted upward, dreading what they would see.

The sixth bandit. The woman Crystal. She was unarmed, twenty meters up in the tree, and clinging desperately to the trunk with eyes wide with terror, staring at Selene.

Run, the woman mouthed silently to Selene. But her eyes said the opposite. Help me, they begged.

Had Selene been of a mind to begin cursing, she would have chosen this moment to do so.

An hour later, Selene sat across from the woman… Crystal. She'd tried to bluff her way through, and it had failed miserably. She'd 'driven' the beowolves off with her staff. It had still taken thirty minutes to convince the woman to climb down from the tree, and her limbs had been shaking so badly she'd fallen the last four meters and nearly knocked herself out.

It was also clear she had expected Selene to kill her once she reached the ground.

"You can't be alive," Crystal said, her back hugging against to the tree trunk, "I saw that beowolf carry you off in its jaws."

"I was able to free myself, and drive the one who attacked me away."

The woman's look told her that was the most ridiculous lie she'd ever heard. "Your staff was here!" She gestured to the ground. "I saw you pick it up when you came back! And there were two of them!" Her voice was high pitched, near manic.

"I have a semblance," Selene tried.

Crystal shook her head, eyes never leaving Selene's face. "You would have used it against us."

"It works only against grimm."

The woman started giggling hysterically. "Why am I still alive?!" she cried, hands flexing and closing.

"Because I drove-"

"Stop that! Stop lying to me!" She wailed. "Kill me, but don't make me think you're going to spare me! It's too cruel!"

"I am not going to kill you. Please cease yelling. You are free to go!" She was starting to raise her voice as well, which was likely not helpful.

Crystal hyperventilated but quieted, gasping between words. "You can't let me go. I might talk."

"Are you attempting to convince me to kill you?" Selene said incredulously.

The woman laughed bitterly. "No. No. But I have nothing to go back to. The others saw me back away, they heard what Red said. They'll kill me if I go back to them. And the town knows I was part of Red's crew. I'm already dead woman walking."

Selene closed her eyes and sighed. "You yet live. Take your weapon and go. I will even give you some food and water."

"The grimm…"

"Will not harm you."

Selene opened her eyes, and found the woman watching her. "You can control them."

"No I…" She sighed and thought quickly. "Yes. It is… my semblance." It was close enough to the truth. "It has significant limits, but I can at least ensure your safety to another town. How far will that be?"

"A day's journey on foot, at least."

"Very well."

"Let me travel with you instead."

"I-"

"You spared me." Crystal's voice had gone from hysterical to desperate. "You are offering to spare me again. I owe you my life, twice now. I will stand guard while you rest." The woman lifted her chin, defiant though shaking. "I… I will follow you, even if you try to drive me away."

Gods… Selene considered the woman before her. Lean and tall with straight black hair, and dark eyes. Her clothing was well-worn.

"This is impossible," Selene said. "I travel faster than you can follow. Take my offer."

"You are highborn, I can tell. You should be guarded. I have nothing. Even if you see me to another town, I will be forced back into this. Let my death serve a purpose." She gestured to the bodies they'd dragged out of the clearing. "I was already reduced to serving that to survive." Her self-loathing was apparent. "I can't bear to go back."

Selene considered what sins she must have committed to deserve this.

"Garek will be very displeased," she muttered.

Late in the evening two days later, Garek's scroll pinged with a message.

S: Meet us at the clearing.

G: Will be there in two hours, love.

Garek blinked, and then typed

G: Wait.. 'us'?

S: I have… acquired a companion. We can discuss when you arrive. You may bring Cinder, as apparently my excuse works well enough.

Dammit Selene, Garek thought but did not type.

Garek drove the rented vehicle as far out as he could, then he and Cinder hiked the rest of the way through the darkness, alert for feral grimm or bandits. Cinder gave him several quizzical looks, considering their conversation on Selene's departure regarding the transportation not liking visitors.

They found the clearing, where Blackfeather stood crouched at the tree line. Kneeling on the ground near his head, a dark-haired woman knelt shaking and retching as Selene rubbed her back.

"Well, that looks familiar," Garek called out with some sympathy. "But Selene, what the hell?"

"I have retained the services of a bodyguard, Garek."

The woman looked up, apologetically. "Not much of one at the moment…" She took a drink from a proffered flask, and grimaced. "That was horrible."

"Selene…"

"That's a grimm," Cinder whispered, several feet behind him.

"Yes, Cinder. That's Blackfeather."

"It has a name."

"Yeah... Like we said, Selene has a special ride."

Cinder looked at him like he'd grown two extra heads. "Grimm eat people, Mr. Garek. Everyone knows that. You don't… you don't ride them. Why isn't it eating that woman?"

Crystal spoke up, glancing back at the beast, sarcasm dripping as she responded. "Probably because it's enjoying watching me suffer too much."

*WRBL*

"Blackfeather, that was rude." Selene sighed. "Garek, Cinder, this is Crystal. Or as she prefers, Crys. Crys, this is Garek, my betrothed, and Cinder, our ward."

The woman, Crys, braced herself and let Selene help her to her feet shakily. "Ugh… sorry about that. Please tell me we don't travel that way often."

"Not if we can help it," Garek muttered, striding forward.

Cinder still hadn't moved. "Selene can ride a Nevermore." She whispered.

Garek hesitated. "Ah yeah… well… it ain't a unicorn."

"It is a part of my Semblance, Cinder," Selene offered. "And I can temporarily control some other grimm if they are nearby." The lie that was not a lie came easily, since she had already demonstrated it with her bodyguard. "It is not something we want known. You are one of a trusted few." Her eyes flicked between the four in the clearing.

Cinder understood immediately, and her golden-yellow eyes widened. "Yes ma'am." She swallowed. "Can I… can I touch it?"

"Of course. Mind the wingfeathers, the tips of those are very sharp and can cut you even unintentionally. But the neck and body feathers are soft. And Blackfeather likes assistance with preening if you find any pinfeathers."

Cinder eased forward warily, earning a baleful look but no complaint. "He's your… your…" She reached out and ran her fingers through the soft feathers of a creature that could tear her in half with one claw and beak.

Somewhere in her head, a voice was screaming at her that she was insane. That this was obviously some twisted fantasy and she was probably convulsing on the floor of the Glass Unicorn in agony or unconscious because there was no way this could possibly be happening.

"He is my pet, and my mount," Selene continued for her. Blackfeather warbled at Selene. Yes, I know, 'companion, not pet', but they need not know that. Do not be offended.

In for a lien, in for a million…"Can I ride him, too?" Cinder asked.

Garek and Crystal responded at the same time with groans. "That's not nearly as much fun as you might think, Cinder," Garek said.

Selene frowned. "Which leads us to an issue. If we are to travel further, it is beyond Blackfeather's strength to bear us all. I could summon a second Nevermore-"

"And I could throw up on you."

"Perhaps we should seek alternate transport."

"Funny you should mention that, Selene. While you were gone, some new opportunities opened up."

[A/N] Thanks for the reviews! RWBY fanfic authors live off a combination of cookies, nice knees, and reviews! Please keep us well fed!

And now we see firsthand just how insanely awesome and OP of a fighter Selene is… or… actually not. She's not bad, and improving, but had she not summoned those Beowolfs or Blackfeather, odds are she would have suffered horribly, possibly been killed. She's just not able to stand up to a large number of opponents, whether or not they have aura, not at this stage.

And what have we here? A new OC, Crystal or Crys, appears to have attached herself to the crew due to Selene's marshmallow squishy little heart. My gawd Selene. And now Cinder knows about Blackfeather too, and some day, she too will have the joys of seeing her food bidirectionaly.