Tonight, was a hunt.

Shadows sprawled in twisting filaments. Murky strands of intersecting twilight devouring the diminishing rays of sunlight straining to pierce the nettled, snow frosted canopy above its head. It loped. Unhurried. Patient. Stalking, slipping through the widening pools of darkness. Its broad bulk tucked low to avoid rustling the overhanging branches, paws sinking soundlessly into the fresh snow with each wide stride. There. It hitched to a halt, ivory claws tearing furrows into the bark of the nearest tree as it propped itself and raised its snout high, inhaling deeply. Nostrils flared, drawing in deep huffs of air to parse the numerous powerful scents it had been chasing on the evening wind since it had woken inside its cavernous den. An amalgam of the tangible and immaterial. Ash. Blood.

Despair.

Grief.

Fear.

Hopelessness.

Delicious.

It huffed, aligning itself toward the blooming negativity, its lambent orange gaze peering effortlessly through the encroaching dark and fixated intently upon the blooming stacks of smoke rising in the distance where the emotions were strongest. It lurched back into motion, weaving through scattered trees and underbrush as silent as the breeze, hardly disturbing the drifts of winter. Its soundless passage steadily marred by the rumbling; multitudinous clamor of the approaching neonate spawn enthralled to its control. Emboldened by the fresh miasma of negativity, any meagre semblance of instilled discipline amongst their number was overwhelmed by their wild instinct as they began to congregate in an unruly throng of snapping jaws and slavering maws that thundered heedlessly through the forest.

The juvenile brood lacked its innate silence and grace. Clumsy, unintelligent, but not wanting for weight of numbers. Useful when properly leveraged by those of higher intellect and command. For nights like this, they were more useful than not. When pretense could be cast aside.

The dense undergrowth parted way under its bulk, changing into sparser cover as the terrain thinned, its eyes flickering, searching for anything that might shine bright to its senses, any prey that might have scattered into the perceived safety of the forest, fleeing in terror. Reckless perhaps, for its quarry. In any other situation. However, tonight was different. It was wise now, to signs of opportunity. Pillowing clouds of acrid smoke meant one thing.

Fire.

Not the manner with which the lightborn warmed their burrows of wood and stone. No. This was dark smoke. Wild, untamed. Hungry. Those were the flames that arose from ill intent. An indication of weakness of a once fortified nest. The make and cause were of little concern to it. Opportunity did not often ring like this. And it was nothing, if not eager to lunge at the prospect of easy prey.

The beast slowed as the trees diluted to a meager assortment of feeble new growth sprouting from the blanket of snow, slinking low to the ground in a quadrupedal posture, weaving through pools of yawning darkness, similar to the opposing constructs of the deity of light, the flesh and bone of lesser kin. Shallow imitations of the dark of which it spawned. It skulked, creeping into a large bush growing in front of a recently felled tree. Blending seamlessly into the deep shadow, under the leaves and rubbing against the earth, it leered up at its intended terminus, salivating jaws splitting into a mimicry of a smile as the shadow of flickering flames danced across the bleached bone of its armored skull.

Fire consumed the wood surrounding this den of the creatures of the false god. A curling blaze, rampant. Consuming. Tongues of orange lashes hungrily latching onto the hovels inside. An ear flicked, catching a sharp crack echoing from inside, the nattering chatter of the odd shaped tool that spit searing pain and dust, self-made teeth and claws conjured to mimic a modicum of the power inherent to darkness manifest.

It's hide shivered in memory of the sharp prickle of burning teeth from old battles, a fraction yes, but dangerous in its own way. Better to soften its prey, weaken them, nurture their despair. As it were, the creatures were providing the effort all their own. It chuffed, dragging in the scent of blood and acrid powder, its ears placing the echo of their tools as clashing reverberations. More subtle emotions tickled at its senses. Greed. Malice. And a familiar hunger.

Conflict.

The lightborn as multitudinous as they were factional. Driven by such alien desires it could not nor cared to comprehend. But welcomed regardless. Their backbiting a meandering curiosity for the beast. Craven they were, never satisfied, never content, always striving, always… yearning. Willing to strike even at their own to satisfy their desires for more. More possessions, more wealth, more lust. Tearing at the earth and sky in their rapacious want to control all, to consume all. The baseborn ravaging tonight were particularly sordid, sunken into darkness of their own conjuration. They were always calling out for the attentions of its ilk. Their emotions so potent, so intense.

Its jaws clacked shut with a susurrating snarl, brackish ink dripping from salivating jaws capable of rending stone and bone.

Such wonderful little m̵̡̧̡͎̖͎̩̝̣͖̥͙̈́̑́̓̉́̋̕͘͜ͅo̴͎̭͚̹̖̼̱̜̳̻̘͙͙͑̾̊̓͜ŗ̵̧̠̠̖̹͔͉̱͚̳͉̮̥̑͗̓̏͜͠ś̸̡̛̗̺̟̭̯͔̲̞̺̥̬̪̗̫͍͑́̍̑͗́͛͒́̕ȩ̶̖͕̟͍͖̞̙̰̜͙͔̿̇̋̐͆̎̽l̷̞̮̝͍͉̥̋̚͝s̷̲̻͎̣̀.

The beast emerged from within the brush, rising from its haunches to loom tall, gimlet eyes glinting with crimson contrails as it was drawn towards the fragments of the broken moon. Gleaming white shards, vibrant like shattered bone against the lightless void of the black sea. Bereft of starlight, of the false god's tapestry. A good night for the hunt. It paused a moment, gaze alight upon the distant heavens, impending action slowed by a paradoxical unfamiliar familiar sensation prodding at the nulling vacancy in its chest. Apparitions twirled across the fragmented surfaces of the broken moon. Formless yet with form, both known and unknown.

The Grimm lowered its gaze.

Vexed.

Distracted.

The distant crack of a lightborn weapon snapped its awareness back down to the shadow swathed forest, and gave its large head a vigorous shake. A spike of negative emotions stabbed into its meandering attention. Agonizing. Aching.… warm… welcoming.

The flickering blaze of the lightborn den bade the rise of a ravening hunger within itself, and jaws of curled bone and fangs distended wide and split open with the rattling pop of dislocating joints as a keening howl bellowed from its vestigial lungs, carrying far across the night. Silencing the chatter of lightborn weapons, the creatures certainly cowed by its proclamation of intent, and by the pleasing upswell of fear trickling into its snout, the realization that the end had arrived on sunless skies.

The summons reverberated. Loud. Commanding. And soon was matched, at first by the bumbling pack now emerging in a swarm from the tree-line at its rear, and quickly after, by a deep roar further into the timberland. The Beast had called.

And all that heard would answer.

Swells of despair and paranoia erupted from within the flaming settlement past its crumbling defenses, pillared wood smoldering into ash and cinders as the barrier collapsed under the heat and ferocity of the flames.

The spawn at its back tumbled from the tree-line, crashing into bumbling uncertain bodies and tripping under limbs newly formed. It huffed in annoyance and turned to snarl at the meandering warhost. A few, those more in control of their forms and with some time spent solidifying their darkness, offered supplication in awkward subservience, bone plated heads lowering at its chastisement.

The majority guttered and mewled their insubordination, freshly spawned from the depthless caverns underneath the earth and myriad fetid pools of dark, clacking teeth and growling barks met its gaze. The nearness of the lightborn had them simmering with unconstrained energy and malice. Too eager… too foolish. The largest of these mutinous lupines stepped forward, eyes glittering with a nascent intelligence, and howled defiance.

It flashed.

Luminous moonlight reflected from outstretched claws, wind buffeted the air, and the bisected form of the churlish beowulf blew into eviscerated halves spewing ruptured corruption that fountained in a visceral cone deflecting toward the frenzied pack, bathing their bleached skulls with dissipating spatters of evaporating darkness.

The horde shuddered.

The Beast huffed, quiet, commanding. And a stillness befell its moronic subjects. Those that had supplicated spread amongst the horde, cuffing the once rebellious spawn with non-gentle blows to coral them into the approximation of a coordinated force.

It gazed at its claws, observing the last speck of inky moisture as it steamed and dissolved, eventually returning its focus to greet the new arrivals shoving through its pack, ignoring the buffeting claws and fangs that rebounded off thick leathery skin and wiry fur inflicted upon them for their temerity. They loomed above its wolves. The alpha a mountainous creature of black fur and muscle, back bristling with razor spines and leering with a skull wider than The Beast's shoulders. Each step shook the ground under its feet. It met the eyes of the lumbering monster, and hissed at the discovery. Pride.

Unacceptable.

The Beast rose to its full height with a muted snarl and met the approaching Ursa with a lowered skull. It rammed the bear's massive forehead with a crash of bone that staggered the giant as the indignant alpha released an infuriated roar that reverberated in The Beast's chest. The immense weight of the ursine's retaliation crashed into its shoulder with a crack like thunder. The lumbering paw rippling the darkness of its form, sparks igniting as claws the length of tree limbs scraped against the latticework of scutes and barbs along its ridged spine.

Unaffected, it caught the raging bear's impending mass with claws that sunk into the flesh of the usurper's throat, unnatural muscles bulged and swelled as it dragged the Ursa's face into the dirt with a snarling heave that plowed a furrow through the snow and earth in a geyser of silt and ice.

The Ursa bucked, straining to break free of its unbreakable grasp regardless of the claws that scythed through the hardened skin and fur of its neck, tearing deep into its black mass. Orange eyes flashed with intent, and a ripple hurricane of noise echoed from The Beast's open maw, howling its rage into the struggling bear's battered mask. Its skull descended thrice, each blow as booming and wrathful as the last, the final impact splitting a narrow crack from the brow ridge to the fearsome jaws of the once proud alpha.

The mighty ursine mewled pitifully as a fang and several incisors sprinkled from its cracked mandible like ivory rain. It shuffled backwards; head still planted in the ground as it whined in surrender. The four members of its sleuth each offered deference.

The Beast growled imperiously down upon the cowed ursa.

Its domain would suffer no rivals.

Other Grimm had emerged to witness the dispute. The Sounder of furious Boarbatusk from the east, and to some bemusement the subterraneous creeps had heeded its proclamation, their cluster mighty in size, if not power.

It leveraged its gaze upon the alphas of these arrivals. The Boarbatusk snorted, but ducked its snout. And the creep dared not even attempt to look upon it.

Order had been asserted in its province.

The Beast eyed its assembly, and with little ceremony and with less patience, proffered a single clawed hand toward the burning habitation of the lightborn, and squeezed its fist.

The first to action was of course, the neonates, erupting into a frenzied swarm they spilled across the horizon, jaws frothing with foaming darkness and eager to douse the fiery heat inside with the blood of the light spawn, following after were those of a modicum of intelligence prowling after their packmates, simmering with primitive cunning

The creeps followed well aware of their placement in the hierarchy, alpha disguised amidst the largess of their number, wielding its throng like the long fangs of the enemy. The Boarbatusk chose their own path, splitting west around the flaming den eager for personal glory.

The Alpha of the Ursa approached meekly, docilely meeting the gaze of The Beast, which simply offered a laconic tilt of its wolfish skull.

And they too dispersed, the hammer to its anvil.

It imagined the lightborn would put up little fight before they were overwhelmed and torn apart, softened by their own self-destruction.

The Beast allowed itself a moment to observe, standing alone amongst the snow drifts, calculating eyes watching as the first of its warhost reached the burned-out sections of the wall. Like water straining to push through a choked riverbed, most of the mass of the charge was blunted on its own edge. Each eager Beowulf driven to selfish glut, wanting right of first kill.

In their eagerness and voracity, they all met at the center with an audible impact of frenzied frustration, clogging the pathway and ensuring that even the scattered and frayed creatures inside could seize opportunity, and some of the foolishness in its horde was spent. The chatter of lightborn weapons scythed through the congested Grimm, sparking panic and rage amongst those wounded and newly arriving.

Then the creeps burrowed under the walls.

And The Beast's hammer came crashing down.

The once coordinates volleys became sporadic, and the negativity of the enemy blazed like new fire as the funneling beowolves joined the rising chaos descending in an unstoppable tide of black.

The scent of blood carried on the wind, and The Beast strode into motion.

XX-XX-XX

It languidly prowled over the slowly evaporating bodies of its warhost, a great number of its beowolves felled under fang and talon and desperation from the trapped lightborn within. The wispy strands of darkness caressed its form, and it raised a large paw to watch the strands filter through its clawed fingers. Motes of darkness adrift on the air, meandering in return to the deep crevices and dark forests of where they spawned. Perhaps those that came after might not be so bereft of wit.

A gap of uneven stone laid the path under its feet as it emerged from the opening in the burning wall and out into the expanse of the defenseless and burning den of the enemy. The Beast inhaled deeply, glutting upon the metallic tang of blood so thick the taste lingered on its tongue with every somatic breath, steam venting from its fanged maw.

A deep welling arose from within itself.

Satisfaction.

Lidded gaze trawling along the savaged carcasses of the lightborn left in the wake of its throng, filthy sacks of bloated meat that were more palatable to its gaze as fragmentary, spattered offal. Those before it now had been silenced, and therefor of little interest to The Beast that spared little more than a passing observation of the artistry of its swarm as it stalked to the heart of what would soon be another nameless ruin, to join the many before it, and the many that would come after, so long as the servants of light existed upon its Master's world.

The hovels of the prey lay in wanton devastation, swarming even now with the innumerable mass of its throng that senselessly tore through the flimsy barricades and strange transparent portals with reckless enthusiasm. Any sense of cohesion was lost the moment the tide broke through, its kin consumed in mindless rage and raw aggression. The Beast listened and watched with ephemeral interest as one of its swarm, a runt, spawned too early, but no less vicious, hauled one of the lightborn from its shattered den, jaws clamped so tight around the creature's leg that its foot dangled boneless from its bloodied maw.

The little thing thrashed and squealed, clawing bloody tracks along the hard ground as the Grimm tugged it into the open and pinned it with a paw that was to the little creature the size of its chest. A shout came from inside and a much larger thing emerged from the collapsed den brandishing something glinting and metallic.

The Beast lunged, jaws gaping wide to close around the upper body, and closed tight. The thing popped, something crunched, and a flood gushed between its teeth as the lower half flopped lifeless.

The little thing squealed louder.

The Beast turned, drawn by the salivating emotions pouring off the little thing and crept closer to loom over its tiny form even as the runt savaged its leg. It locked eyes with the diminutive little pest, fascinated by the shimmering dew leaking from its vibrantly purple eyes, and descended.

Lowering itself till its chin nearly rested upon the miniscule creature's chest.

It opened its maw.

The upper torso fell upon the little being.

The frantic emotions and piercing wailing that emerged from that little morsel swelled The Beast with ḧ̷̭̯̟̩̻̭͖͙́̃o̵͈͚̝͚̹̝͚̯͑̉r̶͔͗̀͒r̶̢̡̺̠̰̪͓͕͙̘̦̎̏o̵̦̪͙̲͇͔̤̾͐̂̾͒͆̓́̂͝͝r̷̮͔̗̉͒̐̋̃̅͗̌͌̍̎͛͘͠͝ -pride.

Leaving the runt to its game, The Beast advanced further into the devastation, observing similar events scattered through the flaming hovels of this wretched den of vile spawn. It passed through, keeping watch over its kin and silently directing the flow of its subordinated throngs to ensure the complete eradication of all life.

Tonight, would see another ruin brought forth from its guiding hand.

The trueborn of this realm had been directionless and senseless when it first arrived over the mountains. Unintelligent. Uninspired. Wandering bands of raving beasts, scattered and divided. Easy prey for the warriors blessed by the heretic God.

The Beast's efforts had brought some sense of order to this mindless horde, destroying all challengers and culling the most useless and impulsive of its numbers. All in preparation for the meticulously eradication of the blight on these lands, the infection of lightborn and fallen kin spreading from their fortified dens of gleaming bone the color of the strange rocks deep below the surface, and claws that could reach across vast expanses to turn swathes of their number into ash and fire.

It would push them back, until there was nowhere left to hide.

A flicker had The Beast tilting its head aside as a glimmering silver weapon cleaved the air it had been occupying moments ago. A shrug shifted its bulk from the following swing and the Grimm swayed, avoiding the harried, wrathful blows of the glimmering beacon of the pretender God. Its hate and rage blistering to The Beast's senses, a savory cocktail of intense emotions that it eagerly fed upon for power and pleasure.

The lightborn extended wide, inexperienced and distracted, and The Beast's rapid retaliatory overhead blow struck with the all the might of its dense musculature. A burst of green light colored the night as its protection popped and the weight of the immense limb crushed flesh and bone as it slammed its prey to the ground below with the explosive blast of shattered stone and earth. Bright red blood spewed from its gapping mouth, eyes agape with shock, and splashed across The Beast's bone mask as it bore heavily upon the dying prey.

Weak.

Untrained.

Barely worth a flicker of interest.

Nevertheless, its curiosity carried its form lower as it studied the sputtering gasping thing with predatory interest. This prey was of the fallen, unmarred by etched aging and bearing some minor resemblance to itself. The Beast flicked its ears in the way that this dying thing did as its dilated eyes focused on the looming lupine monster with soundless terror and jittering unpleasant spurts of foaming froth as it tried to drag air through its ruined form.

There was something…...

Something…

It paused.

The beast leaned back on its haunches in a three limbed crouch, its primary paw reaching out to brush a claw across the halfborn's youthful visage, the tip of its bladed finger tracking a red line across its prey's cheek that wept vibrant red blood.

Its eyes were… blue.

Familiar…

Snuffling drew The Beast from its introspection.

It turned away to see the runt approaching, drenched in spattered red and smears of organic matter. The jittery, eager creature huffed spastically as it crawled over and rabidly fell upon the prey, nipping at the dying halfborn's arm, teeth worrying at the wrist and tugging harshly with the wet squelch of rending flesh.

The halfborn let out a raspy, guttural whine.

The Beast's ear flicked, a harsh, blistering heat upswelling like a rolling tide surging from its core to its limbs.

A wet crunch and shocked yipe took The Beast by surprise until it realized its arm had punched through the Beowulf's torso, as the cause for the juvenile Grimm's high pitched wailing that soon devolved into gurgling as it vomited black bile over itself, clutching at the gigantic arm plunged through its chest. In confused directionless rage, The Beast disjointed the puncturing limb and distended its elbow to snap around to grasp the runt by the head, and squeezed, silencing its distracting mewling with the brittle crackle of shattering bone and the liquid spatter of oozing flesh and shadow.

Tilting the limb to cast off the slowly vanishing remains and click back into place, The Beast's lumbering skull lethargically turned to the dying halfborn, reaching a limb down to cleave through the dirt to lift the curious thing closer to be inspected.

Young, bearing the heritage of the beowulf if only in few visible aspects, its ancestry undeniably muddled, diluted from the old blood. To be expected after generations of thinned stock from interbreeding with the lightborn and those of lesser purity.

Another of its brood shuffled closer. Larger. Smarter, more hesitant and deferential in its approach. Simpering and whining in supplication as it whinged at the periphery, its glowing orange gaze deadlocked to the dying half-breed.

The beast glared at the intruder, its jaws snapping tight in a harsh clash of bone that had the Grimm drop to its belly in supplication. A snarl then had it fleeing into the night, lost to the rising smoke and shadows. Gazing up at the fragments of the moon, The Beast howled, a keening cry that enforced silence upon the blazing ruins. Marshalling itself, the beast unleashed its commanding intent, imposing its will. The unceasing howl lowering in pitch, descending into a reverberating roar. A demand.

A commandment.

It listened, and felt, as the tide receded, cowed by its mandate. The throng dispersed to the forest, and The Beast unwound its will from the alphas with the final impression to leave its domain until called once more.

Soon, it was alone.

But for the curiosity in its grasp.

Huffing in approval, it turned back to the facet of its incomprehensible fascination, listening to each weakening rattle of breath it fought for, struggling beyond reason, beyond hope. The eyes, The Beast struggled to turn away from them. Enamored. Enraptured.

It's massive paw, nearly larger than the torso of the waifish thing, lifted to cup its head. Drinking in the visage of this small halfborn that distracted it in a way that none of the others had before. Its flesh was pale, starkly contrasted by the glimmering light from the broken moon, but not unblemished. Marks and scars were woven into its furless skin, markings of the cruelty and malice these beings so easily inflicted upon each other, but mostly upon those abandoned by its Righteous God, cursed to forever suffer for ancient sins.

The Beast, however, was… conflicted.

Puzzled at this nascent sensation it now found itself able to define. It knew not why this chance halfborn possessed so much meaning to it, nor why its plight caused it to react so strongly in this new obsession.

Obsession… confliction… meaning… all these new things, new… feelings.

Sentiments.

What was all this? It wondered, bemused, and alarmed to realize that it could wonder.

What is wonder? Why, is wonder? It asked itself, tightening its grasp on the little thing in its confusion, before quickly releasing the pressure as the halfborn squeaked in pain. The Beast lurched, alarmed at the stabbing ache that plunged through its chest, but glanced down to see no physical wound or seeping darkness from visible injury, yet that… feeling, persisted, gnawing and growing as it looked back upon the small halfborn to its fight for each gurgling breath, the way its eyes seemed so focused on it in its passing delirium.

It… she… was so young.

She was dying.

And The Beast struggled to define why that hurt.

Fragments twisted inside its skull, from the space between its ears and pulsated painfully underneath the thick armored plates of its mask, a rolling heat burned behind its eyes where shadows danced along its dwindling sight, shapes taking forms that it could not quantify. The pain swelled, taking the shape of lancing claws that cleaved through its thoughts, blinding flashes of images and sounds, voices, and nameless, formless things overlapping in a rising crescendo of brightening light that overwhelmed any attempt to think or reason.

The beast tried to howl, in rage, in fear.

But could only whimper.

The unassailable light amplified, taking form, taking purpose. Overwhelming any and all of its senses with insurmountable power, crawling, writhing, descending through its form, reaving through its deepest shadows, as if it were shattering, fragmenting. The Beast felt itself ripple and contort, a pressure tugging and pulling upon it that transcended physical weight, an immensity beyond preconception that continued to rise until it dwarfed even its enormous form. Taking shape of formless brilliance, so blinding that even in thought The Beast could not bear to look upon it.

And then that mountain crashed down.

Falling upon The Beast like the thunderous fist of a God. It buckled, sinking to its knees, feeling itself wither as it was crushed under the radiance, shrinking under the undeniable power of what seemed like a sun. Scorching, blinding, agonizing light. It could feel itself burning away, its form of shadow vanishing under golden radiance.

And then all at once, it vanished.

The sudden absence of excruciating light leaving it in a void-like absence that had The Beast reeling into shock. It staggered, yet still blinded, hunching where it would have fell upon the ground if not for the warmth it felt cushioning it from the frozen dirt.

It opened its eyes, trying to blink past the sunspots, and seized as it was enveloped, gentle pressure, not at all like before wrapping under its arms and across its back. Weakened and confused, The Beast rubbed at its eyes, the sensation of its paw feeling numbed as it took a few moments to blink away the floating light, and as its vision unfogged it immediately noticed the girl.

She seemed… much larger than before, and was closer even as it kneeled above her. But that was secondary to the realization that the sensation it was experiencing was the girl's arms tucked around, locking into some manner of hold as she looked up with shock and… some sort of expression, its lips tiled upwards.

Her emotions were strange, not afraid, not angry, nor that of grief. They were… warm, a sense of… of… happiness?

What was that? Why did the answer come but yet offer no explanation?

Frozen in its confusion it merely spectated as the girl's mouth began to move, but the sounds made no sense, lilting pitch and rhythmic enunciation that felt… more, than the mewling and whimpering it was accustomed to coming from these creatures. One of the girl's arms slackened for a moment before it felt a new warmth now on its mask, which befuddled The Beast as its armored carapace offered no sensations. Alarmed, it grabbed at the limb brushing against its skull, to stop the girl when it felt the same warmth in its paw that was far different than that of the fires it was accustomed to.

It felt exposed, bare, and pulled the girl's arm away to stare at it. Where before The Beast was simply perplexed, it now barked in shock, the sound far quieter and weaker than usual, as it stared at the paw holding the girl's probing grasp.

It looked… nearly identical to hers. Pale. Furless. Mottled with thin scars that continued past its observation up to its shoulder and out of sight. Its paw was still larger, but no longer dwarfing in size, retaining claws that were not a tenth the size they had once been.

It continued to compare the limbs, drawn out of its fretting by the continued sounds the girl was making with her mouth, little more than noise to the Grimm that leaned down, as if proximity might provide an answer to what had happened to it.

Strangely, the warm feeling the girl was giving off grew hotter and it stiffened as she fought with the last of her strength to press her forehead against its own, focusing on it with those enrapturing, terrible blue eyes.

Her mouth opened, weakly muttering what was to The Beast, unintelligible murmuring.

And then she… expired.

The Beast felt the moment it transpired, notice the glazing, the way her limbs fell to hang from where it held her and the body slackened in its grip, that it could no longer feel the strange warm emotions she had clutched so fiercely.

It stared… mindless. Devoid.

Slowly, it lay the body to the ground, carefully setting her head upon a mound of snow, gazing, at the lifeless, dull sheen of her eyes. It reached out, brushing a pale, furless paw across her face, till the eyes no longer watched, everlasting.

There The Beast remained, sitting, watching, as the snow began to fall.


AN: A project I have been working for about a year, building a divergent world line for RWBY. I have always had an appreciation for the world Rooster Teeth created, but didn't care for the way the story went so this is definitely a little self indulgent. This project is going to be... interesting for me. I have been planning this for a long time and there will be considerable adjustments to the story and the world of Remnant itself. I will be taking some liberties with lore and tweaking to personal preference. A heads up for any lore bois out there. Also, this will be... darker than my other works, I think. But I am rather excited for this new project to give me a little break from Legacy. I have been working on Pride as well but given low reception for the moment it will remain a private project. I will be working on this as well, but for the moment it is mostly for myself. Expect at least one more chapter sometime soon which will be chapter two but really the other half of this one. Depending on reception I may post more on this project, no commitments yet however.

Furthermore, I am about halfway through the next chapter of Legacy so maybe it'll be out sometime soon. Pretty busy with life so I don't know yet. We'll see.

Drake