….
Branwen sighed, and followed behind the rat to the land outside of the town.
"Damn weather. Hate it. Why are you even trying to find out what this old creature is? You could have just thrown a few rocks at it's head and been done with it."
The guide took slow strides forwards, crunching out a beat in the snow. "I would like to investigate the creature, because it is blocking the path to a very interesting phenomena I noticed a while back."
"Aaaaand?"
The person walked onwards in silence. Branwen nodded and hummed in agreement at the clear explanation to his question.
"Ah. I was right."
"How are you… right?"
"You're a rat."
He grinned at the spectacles when they wheeled around to face him. "In case you couldn't tell, I'm grinning at your cowardly face."
"I am not a rat. I am also not a coward. I am a cartographer."
Branwen turned around to watch the village, wondering at the approximate distance that woman could hit him with a bullet if she could see him this far away.
"Yes, yes, and I'm a scout. I actually go out into the world and have to fight shit. If I don't, people die, go hungry, or beat me up. You're a rat coward trying to prove they aren't by going out and doing this kind of nonsense. If you're a coward in combat, at least own up to it instead of going out when you can't do anything useful."
THWACK.
TONGGG.
"Hey. The rat has some fight in them."
It wasn't a good idea to get the one person capable of helping them leave enraged at themselves, but they were tired, and bored, and had an 80% chance of being drunk.
He smiled. "So, now that we have all our irrational anger out of the way… Are you up for exploring?"
Branwen asked this in a cheerful tone, looking up towards what should be their destination, twirling his short blade around before slowly sheathing it.
Wow. It really is just white all over. No wonder they couldn't tell what was out here. It's a pain to recognise anything-
"Please stop trying to needlessly anger me. Stop that-"
…
…
In the cold air, one exclamation was said:
"Ah."
….
"What? What did you say?"
They turned to face Déa, the only sound they made was quiet rustling of clothes. He did not repeat himself.
"Speak. What words came from your mouth? Speak."
"I have no idea what that thing is." Branwen replied.
… "Branwen. Is your Semblance the ability to speak clearly from great distances? Did you move to the trail's beginning by running ahead without me? It is at least a five minute walk, so I doubt that you are that ski-"
"Shut up. I'm right next to you, damn it! The creature you're so worried about? I'd be more worried about how well your friend can shoot."
Déa hmphed softly. "So it is approaching us, currently?"
"Yes-I…uh-"
… Branwen leaned forwards and rimmed his eyes. "-actually think it's standing still. Strange."
Déa turned around until they saw a black shape in their line of sight. They took a step towards it, and called out:
"Hello? Is there anybody out there?"
…
…
…
Déa heard a quiet curse. "Idiot. Now you're just alerting it to our presence."
"Shh. I'm listening. Is that the sound of any kind of Grimm?"
….
Branwen stood to watch the creature, eyes stinging from the wind. He listened, as well.
…
"Nothing. Can't hear a thing-"
Branwen blinked. He presumed the low exhale from above signified a joint acknowledgement of the moment. What the…
Light.
A flash of blue light.
Unnatural blue light.
….
...
"Shit. We need to go." Branwen burst out. "Run, walk, cane, don't care how you do it, but we need to get back to the town FAST. How quickly can it take you to return in a minute?"
"It will take three minutes for us to run back from here. The snow is rather heavy here, so it will still take that long to head back north matter what. Branwen, that light was most likely of human origin. What is the matter? I called out, and we had a response. After all, Grimm cannot use Aura, and that light, beg pardon if I am wrong, seemed like an unnatural shade. Was it blue?"
Branwen stared at the glass eyed bundle. "Are you hearing yourself? The fact that a human decides to contact a village in the middle of godsfuck nowhere with a great big flash of blue light means they can. And, using something like that just because you can means it's definitely an Aura user!"
"I still find that we currently have no problems right now."
Branwen groaned like he was dying.
"NO. NO NO NO. THAT IS THE PROBLEM. Aura users are the problem! HUNTSMEN are the problem!"
"Do you care to explain why?"
For the love of the gods and all that is-
"Rage."
"YES, I am enraged! We need to head back NOW, you fool!"
Branwen heard a choking sound originate from the blob. "What? Finally got some sense put into y-"
"Why is everything white? Where did it go? Branwen. Look. Where did the thing go?"
"What do you mean where did it go? It's an AURA USER. Why do you not understand to never stop monitori-"
…
…Aw…. Curses. I took my eyes off of it.
Branwen turned to detect the Aura user…
-and froze. He froze as he saw the large mound of white in the distance. It didn't appear to be doing anything, but he knew what avalanches looked like in the distance. Just… innocuous mounds, before they hurtled down on you and broke your leg, leaving you stranded in the middle of damn nowhere.
How. In Remnant. Is an AVALANCHE moving towards us on a FLAT PLANE OF GROUND?
He only had one thing left to say before the snow barrelling towards them knocked the air out of his lungs.
"Fucking Aura users."
….