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The river wound through the hills and red mountains. It met with other tributaries and they joined into a wider and deeper current. Pine trees gave way to deciduous ones as we moved over leagues of wide acres.

With each step I felt like a new man. I was fresh as a daisy and ready for my next hurtle, whatever that may be I was sure that it was coming. Then came society after so much wilderness.

Civilization, when we found it again after two weeks of travel, came in the form of a small walled township. A high sun gave the world short shadows. There were only pale wisps of clouds marking the blue sky. The settlement seemed idyllic at a first glance. Some stone houses with wooden slanted roofs. Little courtyards and sealed gardens. The walls were surrounded by farms and on the whole the township seemed quite large. Maybe as many as five thousand people. It was one of the largest cities I'd come across. Right behind the big three I had visited.

It was odd. I was, for the first time in my short life, working on my own time table. In the past at Beacon or with Ruby I was following someone else's lead. Now I was purely calling the shots. Before when I had traveled with Neo I had been like a man possessed so that short spurt of freedom didn't quite count in my mind. I had been so focused on my Mother and father that I hadn't allowed myself any freedom. Then in Atlas I had been a slave to my vengeance. I gave myself a little bit of freedom now and the wide open spaces of the world made me feel lost. Where to go? What to do? Who to save? It was my choice and my responsibility now. I couldn't shelve it off on Ruby this time.

Neo would follow my lead. She was, at heart, a follower. She received some odd joy in serving someone who was simultaneously looking after her. In some weird way I understood that.

And so it was together we passed into the settlement. There were guards on duty at the arched entrance who carried submachine guns. They looked like old models to me but I had just come from Atlas where everything was sleek and grey and shiny. Maybe my perspective was a bit warped but the weapons had wooden rather than synthetic stocks. I couldn't quite be sure how old they were since a knowledge of firearms wasn't a part of my education and I didn't like guns anyways. For someone who at least tried to be on the cutting edge I was old fashioned in my own selection of weapons.

They raised their guns at me as we approached. They didn't have a uniform but wore heavy coats. The one on the left was taller than the one on the right with blonde hair and clear eyes. The one on the right had brown hair, darker than his ally's and he too had blue eyes.

"Halt there, huntsman!" The one on the right called out to me with his weapon leveled at me generally. He wasn't aiming down the sights and would probably try some kind of unrefined spray and pray from the hip which wouldn't work against me or Neo. "State your business."

"My traveling companion and I crashed in our airship north of here. We followed the river down to this place. We're looking to resupply on rations and stay at your inn should you have one. We don't want any trouble. Can you tell me where we are? What's the name of this village? Please, don't point your weapons at us," I negotiated. "We aren't bandits or your enemies," I held both hands in the air as I spoke. I could draw my weapon from there at a moment's notice. Flying, I could cross the eight feet between us in heartbeat and cut them down. They weren't a threat to me.

Just because I wanted to give up killing didn't mean I wasn't ready to defend myself. It also didn't mean I was going to be able to give up dealing in death. Some things just weren't decided by me.

They lowered their weapons to point at the ground. The one on the left relaxed and held his weapon in one hand and the muzzle was leveled at the dirt. The left one spoke clearly, "this is Winhill. You're welcome inside just so long as you don't start any trouble. There is a general goods store you can get rations at and an inn."

"Quite a big settlement. How many people live here?" I noticed.

"Ten thousand or so, it's the biggest until you reach Vale herself. Why do you ask, stranger?" The left one wondered.

"It's quite large. Usually you see places which have a few hundred or your in one of the big cities with a few million by themselves. Very rarely do you see one so in-between," I went on. It was tough to think that those were your choices. A few hundred, maybe less. Or a million. But that was the nature of living on Remnant. The Grimm rather forced our hands.

"Forgive our suspicions. It's our job to be on guard for bandits and it isn't often foreign hunters travel here. There's a bandit nation that prowls from here to Mistral. It pays to be wary but you don't look the type."

"The Branwens and their derivatives… I know of that nation. I've clashed with them before but I didn't think their reach spread all the way across to Sanus ."

"It does."

"Tell me, is this place Valean?"

"It is. You said your airship went down? When?" The other on the right asked. He had sharp features with an angular chin and a pointed nose.

"A few weeks ago. In a big storm with lightning," I answered.

"That sounds about right by the timing…" the left one agreed. "There was a big one around then."

"We got caught up in it and it brought us down. We were on our way to Vale. Still are, I suppose."

"And what about your friend? Why, she hasn't said a word," the right one exclaimed.

"My companion is mute. She never speaks. I interpret for her," I answered kindly.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to draw attention to it."

"We took no offense; I assure you. May I pass?"

"We'll need to frisk you. Is that alright?" The one on the left muttered more gruffly than the other.

"Yes. I am quite armed as you can clearly see. I've got a knife as well and some dust, you'll find," I explained. It wasn't an uncommon set up for huntsmen to carry. They shouldn't be suspicious about it. On the contrary, it would be odd if I wasn't well armed.

We were searched and allowed inside. I wasn't sure what they were really looking for. I was armed to the teeth and had explosives on me. Maybe it was one of those 'real security is the illusion of security' things. I didn't buy into that but hey, this was their place.

This inside had much more of a Valean architecture style inside than Mistral or Atlas. In particular there was a castle like manor inside with brick and stone making it up. It had high walls which built up to tall towers which overlooked the surrounding woodland and farms.

We immediately attracted attention and stares from the people who seemed more ethnically Valean rather than Atlesian but they had a certain blend of both. I planned on stopping here but not for long. A day or so. Then with fresh rations and directions we would set off again.

In truth much of the attention we gathered were from children playing in the courtyards and stopping to look at us as we moved through. I gave them what I hoped were friendly smiles but none of them grinned back at me. They just stared at us. And there were many children in every corner of the place, there seemed to be kids everywhere.

That made me think of Ruby and what she wanted from me and that which I could not provide for her. In all the wisdom I had gleaned from my years on Remnant it was that that would be a bad idea. Maybe one day, if we met again in better times.

I walked down the middle of what seemed to be the main street with Neo ever silent by my side. She had her umbrella up over her shoulder to keep the sun off her head and looked the part of a perfect lady. She'd managed to hide her blade from the guards.

The street was paved with smooth river rocks from blue to red to white. It was all cemented together by white pavement.

I reached a point before the castle where many roads met and there was a great bronze statue on a pedestal with a horse which reared two legs in the air and mounted on its back was a person astride it with a sword raised high in the air. There was a plaque at the base of the figure.

King Lot Gainsborough I, first King of Vale

I didn't know anything about history. Vale or otherwise. I barely knew my own origins. The only other things I knew were that which I had learned in a brief stint at school and I knew nothing about any King of Vale. Vale was ruled by a council not by royalty. But maybe it hadn't always been that way.

"Did you know Vale had royalty, Neo?"

She looked at me like I was crazy. Don't rub it in, Neo. There was no need for that.

"Hey I never went to school. I was grown in a vat, remember? It's not my fault I don't know shit about anything."

Her poignant look still seemed to blame me as an ignoramus.

"Fine. So we used to have a king, so what? Are they still around? Do they still, like, make decisions for us?"

She pointed a finger between us.

"Not 'us.' Nobody tells you and I what to do unless we let them. I meant the royal 'us.' Vale. You know what I mean?"

She nodded.

"So do they still rule Vale?"

She warbled a hand by way of reply.

"So it's one of those kinds of things, eh? The sort of, but not really type. My favorite. Come on. Let's find that inn and get some running water and some food that wasn't cooked by your's truly. It'll do us some good. From there let's find out how far we are from Vale or if anybody knows about any more of my father's laboratories."

I left the square and imposing statue behind. Whoever the man was he was dead now and I never knew him. I had dead people I did care about, thank you very much. I didn't feel any need to add to that number for the sake of some dry history books. What did I have to gain from it? History was for people who had time and I did not.

There was a well oiled and lubricated life for me to lead. One of resistance to foreign overlords and mistresses.

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The food was good; it was rich venison steak and grilled vegetables in a cafe near the inn Neo and I booked a place at. Food that wasn't rations or cooked by me was heavenly. I paid in some of what little cash I had. Most of my money was digital or I would buy some horses to travel on while I was here. Maybe I could find some quick work that needed a huntsman and earn some cash to buy us horses. Or one horse, whatever the case may be.

Our flat was small with two beds which suited us just fine. Running water, plumbing, the gods' one true gift to man, was even better.

Warm water washed well away so much more than dirt and grime and sweat. My shoulders had been tight in a way I just hadn't noticed until the water hit the flat of my back. I'd been grinding my teeth. Mostly in my sleep but sometimes I caught myself doing it while I was awake as well.

A shower, too, was one of those things in which true happiness could be found. But like all things it had to come to an end or it would ruin itself by its own prolonging. Besides I was sure that Neo wanted her own turn to enjoy the shower and climb into smooth sheets of a real feather bed.

I could handle laying out on the cold hard ground at night. But a bed was a bed was a bed. There was no replacement for that so even if it was just for a night or a few days I would enjoy it. And so what if it was a few days rather than a night. I had nowhere to be quickly.

My hands still shook and my fingers trembled when I lifted a fork in the cafe earlier. My hands quivered as I tried to clean my hair in the shower. I was still shaky and psychotic.

My fingers shook as I began writing a letter on the desk in our room in the inn with the stationary provided. It hadn't been necessary when the towers were in working order, it had been a superfluous remnant from times past. One last vestige that turned out to be useful again.

I wrote a letter to Ruby and Weiss. It was addressed to both of them together. I explained how our ship crashed before I reached Vale. I told them how much I missed them and with some thought and trepidation, I told them about how I had started to erect my wall between myself and my Mother. That fear and trepidation was a versatile instrument.

I went out to the street and found a post office to send the letter. I wasn't sure when they would get it. It may have to travel to Vale and then to Atlas so they might start receiving letters all out of order but I was doing what I could.

I still wanted them, Weiss and Ruby. It scared me. The sort of responsibility they wanted me to take up scared me as much as any of the others. If not more so by a great deal. Kids. Ruby wanted kids. She wanted mine. And I never knew her to not get something that she really, really wanted. She wanted a family with me. And I… I wanted more for her than me. I wanted more for her than what I could provide. I could only give her so much. I wanted her to change her mind. I didn't pray for much. Not for myself or anything like that. But I did pray that she would find peace and change her mind about me.

I think if she saw me the way that I saw myself then… then that would be something. I guess.

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-WG