Out of Vale's Kingdom walls, in a small town where many Faunus moved to when they were too poor to live anywhere else, smiles of joy could still be seen on young children. No one, no matter what kinds of rags they wore or how they smelled, they smiled as they played games in a dark alley and drew on the sidewalk with rocks from a river. Sure, this city looked like it was made for criminals with its broken windows and abandoned buildings, but for many it was all they knew of. And for a young fifteen year old Faunus girl with rather small antlers named Cheyenne Aurora, the city of Natus was her home. Living there, it became a way of life.
Walking back home through the city late in the afternoon, Cheyenne found herself sweating from the hot sun beating down as she carried a carton of milk, a bag of apples, a loaf of bread, and a small box of cookies her mother could chew her out later for. They were on sale plus they were red velvet flavored, she couldn't pass that up though.
Still though, even with them being on sale, they were expensive. It was not like she disliked the people at the store, prices were just becoming more high and harder to pay for. At the moment, she was lienless and also owed the store owner a few little jobs to pay off the two lien she owed him from today's trip.
She couldn't help but groan softly at the heat. She had never once lived in a house with air conditioning, but this heat was killing her. Her white shirt which was torn in several places and covered in so much dirt and filth it almost looked the color of her light brown hair, had sweat stains all across her back. Though she could stand the smell of it, she hated the feel of the fabric sticking to her skin. She would ignore it though. Ignore it like all the other problems in her life so she could help her parents the best she could.
As she came to a small house on a corner, Cheyenne put all the groceries in one hand as she grabbed the door knob, turning it slowly so it wouldn't fall off before stepping inside.
"Hey dad!" She called out, shutting the door softly as she evened out the weight of groceries in her hands. "I'm home!" She went straight towards the kitchen, placing the food on the table before she started to put it away. "I also got you a surprise! If you hurry up I won't eat it all!"
As she gave a faint laugh, a deer Faunus with a broken right antler in his late thirties rolled into the kitchen in a wheel chair. He wore an old grey sweatshirt as well as a pair of black sweatpants with several holes patched up on them. Though his eyes showed sleepless nights from trying to get money sorted out, Theodore Aurora smile at his daughter kindly with an expression beckoning her to tell him what she had got while he blew some of his long dirty blonde bangs from his eyes.
Cheyenne just looked over at her father, her smile gleaming with joy as she sat down at the table. "Come here," She patted one end of the table before tapping something in a bag. "It's right in here."
With a fake sigh, Theodore rolled over, his calloused hands making the wheels turn with very little pain to his fingers. "What did you get that your mother will kill me for this time?"
She just smiled more, quickly pulling the small box of cookies out of the bag. "They were only a half a lien and I know how much you and mum like red velvet. Didn't you guys have a red velvet cake the day you got married?"
He have a small sigh at that, nodding slowly. In the end, a cake was all they could afford. No rings. No great feast. No party. There wasn't anything like that.
"Dad?" Cheyenne asked, her eyes going to her father's left hand and staring at the makeshift wedding ring she had made him. It was just a piece of glass she was able to make look like a diamond along with metal she found on the streets. It wasn't much, but it did look rather nice. She hade made one for her mother as well, just a little bit smaller and thinner. Being born poor, she had to quickly learn to make things out of what she had. "Sorry I brought up your wedding." She mumbled, looking down. He deserved a huge one in her mind. She really did wish she could of done something to give him a better wedding. A better anything really.
A second later, the sound of plastic crumbling was heard so she looked up, seeing her father opening the bag of cookies. He gave her a smile with a faint nod. "You're fine, Chey." He smiled a bit more before taking a small bite from the cookie he had taken. "Just eat them before your mother gets home and she strangles us both."
"She won't strangle us." She protested while taking a cookie, taking an even smaller bite than her father. "She'd probably hang us up by our antlers and skin us alive.'
Theodore rolled hia eyes, tossing half of the red velvet treat he was eating at her with a smile. "Oh don't be silly. She wouldn't skin us alive. She'd probably scoop out our eyeballs first and make soup with them."
"Nope." Cheyenne leaned forward, smiling more at her father as she handed him back the food he threw at her. "She'd pluck out every tooth and make a necklace out of them." She blinked and looked out the window. "Wonder if I could get Grimm teeth before they decay one day and make a necklace out of them."
He laughed a bit, taking another cookie while his daughter was still on her first. "I swear, you could make a space ship and design the first rocket to escape Remnant's atmosphere if we had the money to send you somewhere. You're beyond creative and smart." He took a bite.
She felt her face growing hot so she quickly looked down, moving some of her dirty hair behind her ear. When was the last time she took a shower? She brushed away the question and looked back up. "I'm not that smart. Plus, I don't think Atlas Scientists and I would get along all that well."
"Ah, well," He shrugged, taking his third cookie and stuffing it into his mouth. "You're still a very bright kid. You have a great future ahead of you." He mumbled as he chewed before swallowing.
Cheyenne would of respond with something along he lines explaining why she couldn't leave her disabled father, but just as she finished her first cookie and was about to, the sound of the door opening filled the silent home.
"Oh hell," Theodore moved away some. "Looks like your mother is back home early. Hopefully everything went," He paused for a second like it was hard to say. "Fine at work. Hurry up and hide the cookies Chey." He quickly rushed out as Cheyenne smiled and hid the cookies back inside the grocery bag before placing it under the table. It was then she heard a heavy thud mixed with a muffled female whimper. Her acute Faunus ears immediately picked it up and in a second, she was standing in the living room with wide eyes.
Cheyenne went complete stiff at the sight in front of her. Four rather large looking wolverine Faunus whom she had never seen before in her life, we all standing there with cold blooded looks in their eyes. The first one was standing over her father with his arms crossed and the second held her mother.
Poor Dakota Aurora. That's what they always say. A human who married a Faunus. She went from a nice home and middle class life to nothing more than a street rat who was constantly working two jobs, one of which the owners of the tavern made her wear the shortest skirt possible as she served food. Every day she would come home, her clothes slightly pulled off. But if it ment making money for the man and daughter she loved, she'd tie her blonde hair back and do it. Though, at the moment, she seemed to be grimacing at the blood leaking from her mouth while staring down at the blood stained fist by the Faunus that held her tightly.
"So your little daughter finally decided to show up for a little business meeting for once, huh?" The third and tallest one stepped towards Cheyenne who was too afraid to move. She then felt a hand grab her antlers. If anything, that was the one thing she hated. While her father's cries of no fell on deaf ears, Cheyenne gave a small growl which was rather weak.
"D-Don't touch my antlers!" She snapped in a loud timid voice as she reached her hands up to grab his. And then, there was pain. She had never been hit before, and to be honest, it hurt a lot less than she thought it would.
The first punch went straight to he stomach, knocking all the wind out of her as her body slowly lost all strength. The second was an uppercut the the jaw. The third and fourth were so fast the felt like one with a strike to the chest and then one square on the jaw.
As she stumbled back, spitting blood from her mouth, Theodore looked away and up at the intruder standing over him. His hands were gripping his chair so tight his knuckles were going white. "Stop it! She has nothing to do with this! I don't even owe him untill Saturday! That's three days from now!"
"Doesn't matter." The Faunus showed his teeth which were practically fangs. "Boss wants the lien now." He started to grin. "And you know the price for being late."
Theodore's eyes went wide as he glanced over to Dakota then back at him. "Please!" He was practically pulling himself from his seat. "She just got off work! And she's exhausted! She's still hurt from the last time!" His head then snapped to the side from a fist before that same hand grabbed the collar of his shirt and picked him out of his chair.
"Now you listen here," The brute narrowed his eyes, the blackness of them piercing any soul. "The boss wants his lien. You pay up. Or we take our bargaining chip." He tossed him down so harshly his chair rolled back before being stopped by the fourth. "And if your woman isn't up to the task. You have another." He eyed Cheyenne who was groaning softly in pain.
She waa so beyond confused. And not in a good way, it was in a very bad way. She knew her mother has it rough, but she never thought it was that rough. And her father, what kinds of things was he even involved in to keep them with enough lien to eat at least once a day. More than that though, for the first time in her life she felt completely and utterly scared for her life. "D-Dad." She whimpered out, his head snapping towards her before he glared up, trying to hard to stand.
"You can't take her! I still have three days!" He kept repeating himself before another punch to his face shut him up.
"Give us the lien," He motioned his head towards the door. "And you'll get her back." He turned on his heels and walked out as Cheyenne started to scream as she was pulled out.
"Cheyenne!" Theodore shouted at the top of his lungs before he was pushed out of his chair onto the ground.
"Pay up." The one holding Dakota gave her a firm slap in a place that made her cheeks turn red before she was thrown onto the floor next to Theodore.
This couldn't be happening. Not to her daughter. Dakota pushed herself up slowly, glaring at the fourth one leaving. "Give me," She took a heavy breath. "My daughter. Now." She then felt a boot strike under her chin, then her ribcage several times until all she could do was curl up on the ground coughing heavily.
The Faunus snarled, spitting on her before leaving the house. Even from inside, Theodore could hear his daughter's cries for help as she was thrown into a van and taken away. With tears in his eyes, he slowly crawled over to his wife with his arms.
"I'm sorry." Was all he could let out before breaking into a sob with Dakota's hand in his. His wife just stared up at him, slowly curling up next to him as she began to tremble. She was gone. Her only daughter, the one she did so much to help, the one she did anything for, was now gone and in the hands of the darkest and most cruel slave ring around Vale.
Cheyenne was gone.