A/n- Reviews

Jose Blas- Yep, was obviously gonna bring her eventually. Hope the changes to her backstory are to people's liking.

DragonL0RD- Glad you like it, thanks! And yeah, the short chapters are more force of habit on my part. I'll try to work on it without keeping you all waiting too long.

Chapter 18- …And The Strong Survive

The tribe had taken some time to recuperate after the failed raid by the Karnika tribe. In this time, Vernal had already begun to settle in. While she was still standoffish and aggressive at times, which was understandable given her prior situation, she was clearly more at ease after being given a nice meal and being looked over by the tribe's medical expert. She was given wary, but respectful looks by most of the tribe from her display in fighting her former captors.

Vernal made her way to Raven's tent, having been told to simply wait there while Raven confirmed Vernal's information. She entered the tent, surprised to see Corvus on one of the two beds. She had expected to be alone, and wasn't sure if she was bothered by the company or not. The boy looked up, pausing in the act of cleaning his sword and giving her a curious look.

Vernal said nothing as she knelt at the table in the center, keeping an eye on the boy across the tent from her as he continued cleaning his weapon. The two remained silent for a while, a one-sided tension between them, until Corvus spoke up.

"Did Mom send you in?"

"Your mom?" Vernal asked, looking at him with a cautious gaze.

"Yeah, our leader. She's my mother."

Vernal pauses for a moment before replying. "I suppose I should've guessed, looking at you. Though I'd have thought you were her brother if you hadn't said otherwise."

"Are you saying I look old?" Corvus challenged light-heartedly

"Are you saying your mom's old?" Vernal retorted with a raised eyebrow.

Corvus scoffs, a hint of a smirk on his face. "Name's Corvus. You were one of Karnika's, right?"

"Not anymore."

"Yeah, that's probably for the best. Do you have a name?"

"Vernal." She answers simply.

"Well Vernal, you seemed pretty strong, so how about a spar? To kill the time until mom gets back."

Vernal grinned in response, retrieving her chakrams and following Corvus out of the tent.

They readied themselves in the open space behind Raven's tent and stood a few meters away from each other, in battle stances. Corvus looked at her weapons, a pair of rusty chakrams that looked like they'd seen better days. They were likely looted off a corpse, he surmised.

"Ready on you, Vernal." Corvus said. And as soon as the words exited his mouth, Vernal rushed at him like an angered Ursa and attacked him relentlessly with a flurry of blows with her chakrams. Her assault was hard to defend against, and his lack of depth perception wasn't doing him any favors. He took quite a few hits from her, though couldn't get a hit on her in return. Until eventually he saw her attacks slow slightly, and almost falter on occasion. He theorized that her fighting style likely focuses on finishing the battle quickly, and not giving the other person any chances to defend, reposition or counter attack. Unfortunately Vernal, in her nearly starved and exhausted state, didn't have the stamina to keep her assault up for long and Corvus struck as soon as he saw an opening. Upon parrying a strike, he brought his nodachi's blade towards her and it struck at her shoulder. She stumbled and relented, but only for a moment before she continued her assault.

He thought Vernal was attacking like a wild animal, relentlessly and with no thought put into her swings, but after he struck her, he noticed that wasn't the case. She was being more careful not to overextend, and was also primarily aiming for his left side, his blind spot. This both annoyed and impressed the young man. He managed to get in more hits as her attacking slowed, parrying then striking her each time he saw an opening, until she was kneeling on the ground, exhausted with a dim aura.

"You're pretty good… you attack like a rabid animal, but you were smart enough to go for my weakness. You need to pace yourself, work on your defense as well as your stamina, but honestly… not bad." He said with a grin, offering a hand to her, his nodachi resting over his shoulder.

She took his hand tentatively, her face contorting into a slight scowl at her loss and his description of her attack style, but she wasn't so foolish to know she wasn't without flaws. She had quite a lot of them, having literally trained herself, so she took his criticism to heart, even though she didn't like it.

"Thanks, I guess…" Vernal mumbled, her confidence having taken a hit from being beaten by a kid. Corvus gave her a nudge on the shoulder.

"Hey, don't be so grumpy. You did pretty well considering you were starved and tired. I'd say you could beat me if you were at 100%. Well, maybe." He said to her with a smirk, to which she responded with a scoff.

"Maybe? Just you wait, kid. When I'm better, I'll beat your ass and wipe that smirk off your face." She half-threatened in an almost playful manner.

"Sure you will." Corvus laughed, before jerking his head and walking back to Raven's tent.

"Lets go get something to eat, shall we? Make sure you're well fed enough for our next spar."

Hearing the promise of food, Vernal followed him eagerly, stowing her weapons and heading through Raven's tent.

Raven wasn't in a good mood. She was currently scouting the Karnika tribe's camp, the one that Vernal had told her was their main base. It was not. She had been eavesdropping on the members and apparently this was one of a few bases they had, but not their main one. She didn't blame Vernal for the misinformation as she was merely a slave, she likely wouldn't have known. But still, it proved problematic.

As she continued listening in to the various conversations in the camp, hiding in plain sight with her bird form, she heard talk of a planned attack on a convoy. One transporting prisoners from Mistral to Argus, which would pass through a few days from now. She heard the Karnika members say that they'd be taken back to the main camp for 'indoctrination', whatever that meant. She thought it'd be a good idea to return on that day to trail them back to their main camp, and so, with that information she flew away to return to the Branwen tribe.

Adam was sitting outside the camp, in the spot he and Corvus had been sharing. He had not been in a good state, mentally, since the death of his father. He was angry, saddened, upset, vengeful… all because of the Karnika tribe. Just like when he had lost his mother, it was because of people, horrible people, who thought they were better than others, better than him and his kind. He wanted to put a stop to it, all of it. He remembered Corvus telling him about the white fang, and while he'd kept it in mind, he'd never actually asked Bruno about them. Why? He was dubious. Is there really a group that stands up for the Faunus? How? Whenever he or anyone in the SDC mines decided to stand up, for anything from demanding better equipment to begging for food, they were swiftly dealt with. Could there really be a group that exists to seek the freedom and salvation of his people? In this world? He didn't think so.

The world was too cruel, he knew that much for sure. This world, in which a boy like him would be enslaved, and robbed of his parents. In which someone like Corvus would be mutilated and nearly killed as a child, or a girl like Vernal who'd be forced to fight for a cause that wasn't her own, against her will. This world was unfair, and the only way to live in it was by exterminating those who posed a threat to him and people like him, starting with the Karnika tribe.

A/n

Ugh, I'm awful. Sorry for making you all wait so long. Nearly six months, I know, I'm terrible with updating this. It's been hard to get anything done with practically negative motivation and a hectic few months, including nearly losing my Microsoft account to hackers, but I've managed to get this up recently. Also had a lot of trouble uploading this, but thankfully thats all sorted.

I'll do my best to put out what I can. Hopefully I don't have another motivation crash or something, cos I do love writing this story, and seeing all the notifications of you guys following and favoriting, and the reviews.

Anyway, I know this is a short one, but I wanted to get something out. Didn't wanna try and make this longer only to give up and leave it for another indeterminate amount of time.

And don't worry, as I said, I am not giving up on this story, no matter what.

Hopefully you guys enjoyed reading this brief chapter. I'll try to get the next one out in a reasonable amount of time.

See you all next time!