Homeless Bunny 34

  Amber Gale

  I loved nature and I didn't care how much crap the twins gave me. Yes, I was a hippie, so what?

  There was something special about the great outdoors. I loved the wind in my hair, the earthy smell of soil and grass. I loved how the leaves rustled and every sound melded together into the perfect background music. I really loved everything about the wilds. It wasn’t just the chance to be away from the twins, either.

  I didn’t hate them, far from it. They were acerbic and petty and bratty and all those other words, but they could also be funny in that sarcastic way that was impossible to be truly angry at.

  Miltia wrote terrible poetry and got really embarrassed when anyone read them, which meant we stole her diary whenever we could. Melanie loved to sing but could never quite hit the high notes and did this weird, squeaky chirp that made otherwise nice songs hilarious to listen to.

  I… I could admit it: They weren’t just a pair of gangsters anymore; they were my friends. They’d grown on me, and I found myself riding herd over them like a mother hen before I noticed what I was doing. Brothers knew Tianyu wasn’t going to stop them.

  I smiled. Still, as much as they’d grown on me, nature was my first love. Developing the power and control to fly freely was my absolute favorite part about Tianyu’s training. It felt so freeing, knowing that there was absolutely nowhere I could not go. I was truly as my namesake, the gale.

  I closed my eyes and relaxed as I allowed my staff to drift along in the breeze. I felt completely at ease letting my hair down. I’d grown much stronger since I’d met Tianyu. There was absolutely nothing that could pose a threat to me in the forest, Tianyu’s posse of overpowered, enchanted bunnies excluded, of course.

  That didn’t mean I couldn’t be caught by surprise.

  Something knocked against the back of my head. It broke and fell to the ground as I whirled in the air. It barely tickled my improved aura reserves, but that was no accidental brush with a bird.

  I glanced down and saw four, familiar boys: Team CRDL, the resident bullies. Each of them had shoeboxes in addition to their usual gear. Cool, syrupy goodness trickled down the back of my neck and I knew my hair had been thoroughly ruined.

  “Hah! Got her!” Cardin yelled triumphantly. “Let them loose, boys!”

  I let out a quiet growl that set the winds trembling. Of course it had to be these imbeciles. I just couldn’t have a single day off to myself, could I?

  They each wound back and threw the shoeboxes at me. The boxes opened midair, unleashing a small swarm of rapier wasps.

  I had no idea what they were thinking. Maybe they thought they could distract me with bees, or that I was scared of insects like so many other girls.

  No, I was not in fact scared of bugs. I was a farm girl. I used to catch stag beetles so I could watch them wrestle every fall. The rapier wasps were annoying, but they couldn’t really hurt me. Did they really think catching me by surprise would make up the difference between us?

  I was stronger out here than I was in the training hall. The classroom had no wind, after all; I had to generate everything myself. Here, out in the forest, it was like the very elements were calling out to me. I could hear the stream bubbling and the earth stirring. I could feel the wind swirl around me. I had to consciously restrain myself to my usual performance.

  I waved my hands and the wind picked up. It formed a shell around me that shoved the wasps aside. If I could block bullets, oversized bees wouldn’t be a problem.

  I glowered down at them as I scooped most of the syrup off my hair and into the dirt. “Right, then. If you have any last words, I’ll hear them now.”

  They turned to run but a massive updraft formed centered on my person. The gale sucked up the wasps and the surrounding air inward, drawing everything towards me. Maybe percussive therapy wasn’t a healthy outlet, but no one could say they hadn’t volunteered.

  X

  Cinder Fall

  I stalked through the forest with Emerald and Mercury. Our target was easy enough to find. She was flying around like a leaf in the breeze, without a care in the world.

  It infuriated me. The world wasn’t fair. I knew that from the very start, but she was a visceral reminder of that fact.

  Amber Gale was easily the luckiest woman I knew. It was as though the Brother Gods had decided she should live a charmed life while the rest of us suffered, while those more deserving went without.

  She inherited the power of the Maiden by pure happenstance. She had no deeds to her name, virtually nothing in the way of training. She just woke up one day with the kind of power people can and had killed for, whereas I had to bite and claw for every scrap of power I had.

  I won, of course. Pitted before someone who actually earned her power, Amber folded like a house of cards. But even having her immortal soul shredded wasn’t enough. I should have stayed to finish her off even if it meant risking another battle while I was already exhausted. Then maybe, she wouldn’t have lucked into yet another ridiculous blessing.

  Tianyu. The bunny. He could fix souls, and if Watts’ network was right, he did it through food. Somehow, her injury caught the eye of the one person who could save her, a mage of such power and mystery that even Salem had no idea where he’d come from.

  And, as if taking pity on a pathetic puppy, he fixed her. He asked for nothing in return, depriving me of the power I’d so rightfully claimed. He offered her his protection, yet one more thing she didn’t deserve. It was as though destiny conspired to deny me at every turn.

  No matter. I would right the wrongs of fate. If the gods insisted on denying me, I would simply take what was mine.

  I watched with dark amusement as the twit was approached by four of her classmates. She didn’t even notice until they’d beaned her head with a jar of syrup.

  I considered stopping them so I could use the element of surprise for myself, but thought better of it. I’d almost been defeated with Mercury and Emerald by my side. Why not stack the odds even further in my favor? Those four weren’t threats to me; they were potential hostages that a naive girl like Amber would sacrifice herself to save.

  “Ma’am? Should we go in?” Emerald asked, ever the loyal tool. Picking up this stray was one of my better decisions. Her infatuation with me wasn’t lost on me, but love was such a useful emotion. She would live and die for me, as she should.

  “No, wait for the first wave to break,” I said. Tianyu had to be distracted for this to work. Goodwitch would let us know soon enough when the grimm tide struck.

  “Heh, those guys are jokes,” Mercury said with a derisive scoff.

  And he was right. They were the kind of academy-trained huntsmen who relied far too much on brute force without the experience nor skill to make it count. Left alone, they might graduate, but they were doomed to become a statistic on Ozpin’s desk soon after.

  The four of them were sucked into an enormous vortex. Rather than right themselves, they flailed helplessly as Amber beat them like fresh laundry. It was pathetic; even Amber’s “anger” was a show of kindness compared to the power I knew she wielded.

  “They’ll be your jokes to manage. Keep them busy. If necessary, we’ll use them as hostages,” I told Mercury.

  “They don’t seem too friendly with each other. You sure she’ll care?”

  “Of course she will. She’s the exact kind of goody two-shoes who’ll do anything to be the hero,” Emerald scoffed.

  “Fair enough. So long as we don’t have to fight the scary bunny.”

  “We’ll be long gone before he realizes what’s happening,” I reassured him. “Even if he somehow finds out his pet Maiden is being attacked, he’ll have the ancient dragon to deal with.”

  Then, the time for talking was over. Glynda made her announcement and the five students looked towards the bullhead. The four boys looked relieved at potentially not committing suicide-by-Maiden.

  I motioned for Emerald to start. She wove an illusion around Amber; I didn’t know what she saw, but it didn’t matter so long as it wasn’t me.

  Fire gathered in my hand, melting my obsidian bow into a short, stout dirk for stabbing. I needed to end this swiftly. Salem believed that there was a possibility that Tianyu could repel the grimm tide on his lonesome, and that meant she all but certainly expected Tyrian to fail. I didn’t want him to drop in on us, better we leave while he was distracted.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  I struck but did not hear the wet gurgle of blood filling lungs. Amber caught my blade with her staff and we wrestled briefly for dominance. My instincts screamed at me and I leapt clear, a spike of stone spearing where I’d been moments before.

  “Cinder,” Amber greeted with a cold smile. “I should have known you were behind the grimm tide.”

  “No, actually,” I replied with a smile as fake as her own. I spotted Emerald circling around. Those peashooters of hers wouldn’t do much, but a moment’s distraction was all I’d need. “I’m just taking advantage of an opportunity to take what’s mine.”

  “Funny you should say that. After Tianyu spanked you like a naughty child, I was wondering if I’d ever see you again.”

  “We have so much to catch up on.”

  “We do.”

  Then, Emerald opened fire.

  X

  Amber Gale

  It was the illusion-user again. The minty-haired girl was almost more of a threat than Cinder. She was the real reason I’d almost died that first time.

  No, I did die. There was no other way to describe having my soul ripped in half. I was just fortunate enough to receive a second chance, a divine favor. I’d have to make it count.

  I reached out and the world answered. That was the crux of Tianyu’s training for me. He emphasized a harmony with the elements that went beyond simple manipulation. He taught me about the “wu xing,” the five elements that formed the “Great Dao.” They formed all creation and fueled the cycles of creation and destruction.

  At first, his ramblings sounded like utter nonsense. They were, at best, a philosophical outlook that was more Mistralian than Valean. They contained lessons shrouded in metaphor, to be acknowledged but largely disregarded.

  Then he started giving practical examples. He used alchemy and cooking to show off foods that had bizarre effects. He commanded all the elements with more grace and fluidity than I could ever dream of. I had to take him seriously after that.

  The funny part of it all was that air wasn’t part of the wu xing. The five elements he claimed were the foundation of existence were fire, water, earth, wood, and metal. Not air. Air was akin to the void, an emptiness that was filled with these elements to varying degrees. He had me meditate until I became aware of the elemental wisps he’d been talking about.

  It was only after the fact that I realized he was teaching me how to pierce illusions. He taught me to sense the elements, to perceive the world with the currents of air as though they were my own eyes and ears.

  He taught me that all things existed in harmony, even if that harmony seemed like discord to human eyes. It was as though a brand new world opened up before me. The five senses I’d used all my life suddenly seemed so insignificant. The nature that I loved became so much lovelier.

  And if the elements wove dazzling patterns before my senses, humans could be found in the way the elements swirled around them. I felt that they didn’t belong, as if people were human-shaped voids in my newfound senses.

  Tianyu said that this wasn’t the case: Humans were not aberrations that destroyed the pattern. They merely altered the pattern into a new shape. Humans were creators and dominators, but that domination was also a part of nature.

  I didn’t know anything about that. All I knew was that my elemental senses stopped where living bodies began. Now, that fact allowed me to dance circles around the illusionist. The wind that glided over skin and rustled fabric, the heat that each person gave off, I could feel them all. These were senses she could not conceptualize, and so could not replicate.

  The illusions that had once looked so convincing stood out as nothing but lies. They became useless, like cardboard cutouts that could not interact with the world around them.

  I tore the earth below Cinder even as she flipped out of the way. I landed long enough to jab my staff in her direction, sending a bolt of lightning towards her. But she dodged that, too.

  The earth was too slow. The lightning was too direct. And fire, fire was more her friend than mine. I could feel it in the way the heat shimmered around her hands, the way her obsidian weapon morphed to suit her needs.

  She gained on me and I was forced to engage her in close quarters, where her shortswords held the advantage. Her weapon was ever-changing. It was a knife that sang for my neck one moment, then a punch-dagger aimed at the space between my ribs the next.

  I blocked desperately. Though I could sense her, I still couldn’t see her and fighting without my eyes wasn’t something I’d fully mastered. She was nothing like Tianyu, but that was cold comfort. Fighting her was a little like fighting both twins at the same time.

  I took several hits to my aura before I managed to shove her away. My concentration slipped, and with it, the wind shield I kept around me. Her subordinate pelted me with bullets that chipped away at my aura further.

  I grunted in frustration. This was exactly like a repeat of last time. I’d gotten better, but Cinder had magic to throw around now. At least the gray-haired man was being kept busy by CRDL. The four of them combined were just barely breaking even with him.

  It stung, but I was forced to admit it; Cinder was by far the better close quarters combatant. Even if the green one dropped her Semblance, I doubted I’d be able to match her in martial skill. There was a lethality to her movements that I just didn’t have. Not to mention, my staff wasn’t really good against a versatile weapon like her obsidian shortswords.

  So I had to change the game. As my partner said, “Scratch eyes. Bite. Throw dirt. Kick her in the cunt. Everything is fair game as long as we get to come home in the end.”

  Melanie didn’t fight fair. Neither did Miltia for that matter. To them, honor was just a pretty word that had no place in a fight. It wasn’t just because they were gangsters. Rather, they had something they valued more than fairness: each other. They were willing to do whatever they had to do to make sure they survived, to make sure they could come home.

  And so would I.

  I let out a shout of exertion as the earth erupted below us. Rather than a spike to impale Cinder, I simply wanted a plume of soil and dirt, enough to obscure our vision. If I couldn’t see, neither would they.

  Cinder tried to call on the wind to cast it aside. I refused. It was an odd dynamic, one my team leader warned me about: A duel between elementalists was ultimately a contest of ownership. He’d driven that home more than once by stripping the sky from me. My hold over the wind was greater than hers, just like her hold over fire was greater than mine.

  I used the chance to rise into the air again. Flying was harder without my staff under me, but I needed it more as a medium than a seat right now. I used it to begin a barrage of wind blades and water arrows. The illusion had collapsed so my hunch had been right: Either the green one needed to see me, or being sufficiently distracted could dispel her Semblance.

  Whatever the case, I could aim with far more accuracy now. I made a point to take care of her subordinates. Cinder was the biggest threat, but the illusionist was annoying and I wanted CRDL out of here as soon as possible.

  A giant icicle speared the green one to a tree and vines grew out of the ground to ensnare the gray one. I was shocked to find that he had prosthetic legs; maybe I’d seen them before and forgot. Either way, he went down with a bolt of lightning. The scent of burning flesh filled the air as my magic overwhelmed his aura and his thighs fused with mangled metal.

  “Come down here, coward,” Cinder snarled.

  “Why? Not used to your Maiden powers?” I taunted. “I guess we know who they really belong to now, don’t we?”

  She tried to rise but it was obvious that wind wasn’t her preferred element and flight wasn’t a skill she’d practiced. She fired off a few arrows from her bow. Accurate, fast, and no doubt deadly.

  And meaningless. The winds answered to me. I slapped the arrows aside and began to lead her on a merry chase. Flight was my favorite part of having magic. It was a skill I’d perfected through hours of personalized hell.

  There were no words to describe that experience. I still sometimes woke up in the middle of the night, sweat soaking through my nightgown. Nightmares of a man-sized bunny chasing me through the forest with mallets made of carved carrots rampaged in my mind.

  My master and team leader’s eccentricities aside, I couldn’t fault the results. I could scarcely grasp how much I’d improved under his tutelage.

  I cast my would-be killer to the ground. As exceptional as her control over fire was, that was all she had. It almost felt a little disappointing, knowing that I’d feared a woman as pitiful as this.

  “Y-You,” she rasped, out of aura and staked to the earth by stone nails. “H-How? You weren’t-You’re just…”

  I didn’t answer. There was no point. She’d keep coming back if I let her go so she had to be put down. A final icicle to the brain did the trick, a swifter end than that grimm parasite she used on me.

  I turned to her subordinates. The gray one was alive, though his prosthetic legs were mangled by the lightning. His stumps had been charred black, but it seemed his legs had acted as crude lightning rods, diverting just enough damage to keep his fragile heart beating. He glared up at me, resigned and with a bitter smile, as if privy to some cruel joke.

  Unfortunately, the green one wasn’t breathing anymore. She’d bled out from the icicle through her torso. I felt a pang of loss at that. I wondered what her story was. She looked young, probably around Yang’s age; she could have turned her life around.

  Then again, maybe she shouldn’t have followed a psychopath who willingly served the queen of all grimm.

  X

  I headed to the landing zone. I had the gray one’s unconscious body slung over my staff. I doubted he knew much, but if he knew anything at all, he’d talk. Team CRDL followed behind, not because I’d told them to, but because they knew to do nothing else.

  By the time I’d arrived, the students had established a defensive line and were holding off the second or third wave of grimm.

  Professor Goodwitch had piled up upended trees and dirt, forming a fortified area around the clearing. There were even artillery nests made by using the bullhead’s wings as perches. I saw roughly half the students resting while the other half fought off the grimm so she must have set up a shift schedule of some sort. Impressive for what was probably ten minutes of warning, if that.

  “Hey, partner,” Melanie called as I rained lightning and jagged ice down on the grimm. This wasn’t the time to hide my abilities. She looked to be taking a brief break, having rotated her shift with someone else. “What took you?”

  “Cinder came back,” I said. She knew the story; I didn’t need to elaborate. I tossed the gray one into the bullhead. He’d keep until we were done.

  My partner let out a low whistle. “Damn, and she’s dealt with?”

  “She won’t be a problem anymore.”

  “Ice cold,” she said with an approving nod. “Didn’t know you had it in you, farm girl.”

  “Like you said, I’m a farm girl, Mel. I know how to put a rabid bitch down.”

  Author’s Note

  The funny part about Cinder’s thoughts towards Amber is that she could have had the same. Even after breaking out of prison, Tianyu wouldn’t have turned her away. He doesn’t give a rat’s ass if someone used to be Salem’s because he doesn’t give a rat’s ass about Salem.

  That’s generally my opinion on Cinder. Yes, she’s gorgeous. Yes, her backstory is tragic. But at some point, you gotta step back and realize that most of her problems were self-inflicted. She reminds me of a few people I knew who were so obsessed with what other people had that they never took stock of the options available to them.

  Joke!

  Where do lettuce go to worship?

  A sanchu-ary.

  Get it? No? You would if you were Korean. Imagine, if you were part of the superior race, you too could have joined countless others in this shared moment of cringe.

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