Prologue 1: Weathersky
A young girl gripped the blade of her sword a little tighter, digging her boots into the snow as she looked at the man standing across from her. Her long, dirty blonde hair covering one of her eyes, the other bang held back by a bow. The man across from her was tall, with dark skin and wearing the traditional Mistral samurai garb, with a purple silk belt wrapped around his waist. He was relaxed, a calm, focused expression on his face framed with braided black hair and purple streaks. "Ready to try again, Nia?" He asked, drawing his bladeless katana; his easygoing voice making the tense student relax just enough for her hands to stop shaking. "Y-yeah, let's do this." She replied, her legs widening her stance lower for better balance.
A younger boy got up from his seat, running through in a puffy purple jacket and matching purple snow boots. "Okay, but I'm the referee!" He said, jumping up into the air to try landing between them. "Roooound one! Fi-" When he landed on his feet, he was leaning too far forward, landing face first in the snow, getting a mouthful of Atlas snow in his mouth. The expression on Nia's face immediately turned into a frown. "SIlas! What are you even doing!?" She shouted, as her mentor began to laugh at the boy who took a faceplant.
"What's a fight without a referee, Nia!?" Silas said, spitting some of the snow out of his mouth as he got back onto his feet, frowning at his older sister. "You can't just run in the way during my Huntress training! What do you want, a facefull of sword?" She complained, the laughter continuing across from the other side of her back yard. "River, tell Silas to park it before he gets hurt! Maybe he respects you at least." She pleaded to her teacher, River began to stroke his goatee, looking down at the little brother. "How about front row seats?" He asked the boy, his wild brown hair and bright green eyes staring up at the tall man. He pointed the blade of his katana at a fallen tree in the yard. "Sit on that log until we're done, lil guy." He requested, Silas nodded, hopping each foot to get out of the snow on each step; the short 10 year old hopping to the log, brushing the snow off so he could sit on it.
"Back to it then." He said, turning back to see Nia missing. "Lesson number two, always be prepared!" She shouted, brandishing her saber as she attacked from above. He flourished his katana, easily blocking the falling 12 year old's blade. "And lesson number four, think about your next move before you make the first one!" He shot back, parrying her blade to the side, reaching out and grabbing her arm, throwing her away from him and sending her spilling into the snow, kicking up flakes into a cloud of white dust as she drug her blade into the ground as a brake. She yanked the blade back out of the snow as River took the offensive, sword in the sheath as he drew the blade from the scabbard and slashed at her at the same time. She blocked it, sliding back as a blast of wind knocked up enough snow in an arc behind her to reveal some of the grass underneath. She gasped, tucking her head into her shoulder so she wouldn't inhale the cloud of snow he knocked up. He knocked the blade away with a quick riposte, before delivering a swift kick in her chest.
Moving with the motion of the kick, she quickly sprung back, leather glove clad hands pushing off the ground and springing back onto her feet, River followed up, striking her chest with the dull blade, which Nia caught under her arm and struck him in the neck with her own blade. Quickly, the two both spun away from each other, Nia getting into a low stance and waiting for the next strike, when he noticed her body began to softly flash a blue color. "And that's enough for tonight." He decided, sliding his sword back into his sheathe as Nia stood there confused. "W-what?" Nia asked, when Silas chimed in the distance. "I think I saw her Aura break!" He said, hands cupping over his mouth for extra volume. "No way that happened, I'm fine!" She said, spinning the saber and tucking it back into her own scabbard, taking three steps before her knees grew too weak to hold her, causing her to kneel down in the snow.
"It looks like you still have a stamina problem, Nia. You need to be focus more on your breathing and keep up the interval training I gave you." He explained, Nia taking deeper breaths as she struggled back onto her feet. "Is that all?" She asked in anticipation, he rubbed his goateed chin in thought. "Hmmm.. You should open a bookstore." He exclaimed with a smile. "...A bookstore?" She asked, completely confused. "Cuz everything you do is easy to read!" He said, a shouting in the background as Silas hopped off his seat, running over and going for a fist bump. Nia responded by burying her face into her hands, a muffled groan of annoyance from the encouragement of her annoying little brother.
Suddenly, in one of his pockets there was a ringing noise. He pulled out a holographic device typical of Huntsmen, a Scroll. "Oh, looks like I gotta cut this lesson short you guys; Atlas needs me." He explained, looking up the hillside and at the huge, prestigious academy in the distance. "Like… the city Atlas, the Kingdom Atlas or the school Atlas?" Silas asked with his childlike curiosity. River blinked a few times at the question, he never thought about that. "The school, specifically." The instructor clarified, getting a slow nod from the dark haired boy. Quickly, River lept into the air, kicking his geta off a fence post as he began to hop from roof to roof into the distance.
Silas turned back to his older sister, who was gently brushing the snow off her coat before it could melt and seep into her clothing. Still tired from the sparring match with her trainer, she slid her blade back into the scabbard and walked up the awning covered concrete porch. She grabbed the sliding set of glass doors by the handle, pulling it open as she stepped out of the way of the door, gesturing to Silas. "I'll make dinner for us, since mom isn't back yet." Nia said, pulling out a pan from the cupboard, before heading to the fridge and grabbing a handful of eggs and some milk. "I didn't know you were a cook, Nia." Silas said, watching her from behind as she preheat the pan. She then cracked the eggs in a small bowl, adding some milk and spices before she turned to face him while mixing the contents in the bowl with a fork.
"Mom taught me, she said when I become a huntress I'll need to know how to take care of myself; so any time you were at school she taught me things like this." She said, hovering her hand over the pan before pouring the whipped eggs into it, grabbing a spatula from the drawer and idly moving it around. "...Doesn't Atlas Academy have a cafe? I remember there was a cafe." He said, with a quizzical pout on his face. She chuckled softly, looking back at him.
"I've heard horror stories about the cafe from back when Mom was a student, Apparently someone didn't wash their hands after cutting the meat; and Ironwood's beginning exam had to get delayed a week for all the food poisoning that happened." She explained, a shocked look forming on Silas' face as he thought about it. "I can't even imagine that much puking." Silas said to himself quietly, his older sister stifling a giggle as she shook the pan to jostle the eggs around.
"Let's try to keep this cooking session conversation as far from puking as possible. SIlas, can you go make some toast? Scrambled eggs need toast." She asked, Silas nodding as he went over to get some bread slices, grabbing a small step stool on the floor and dragging it to the toaster so he could pop the bread in and get the toast for her. He pushed the lever down, as the elements began to turn red from the heat. He waited patiently as the bread began to cook. Nia took the eggs off the stove now that they were fluffy and properly cooked, pouring it onto two small saucers as four pieces of toast pop out of the toasted at the same time. "Gotcha!" Silas shouted, slapping his hand through the air to catch all four pieces of toast, before he realized his hand was burning. "O-ow! Why did I do that!?" He shouted, dropping the toast on the counter and hopping off the little stool, shaking his hand to get rid of the pain.
Nia put her hands on each hip, glaring at him. "You're just full of surprises today, aren't you?" She asked with a sarcastic tone, as Silas placed the toast down on the table and put a pad of butter on each one, stacking them neatly and putting them on the plate so they could eat. They sat opposite of eachother on the mahogany table, forks in hand, though Nia was using her left hand to eat while Silas used his right. "Can I ask you something?" Nia spoke between bites, Silas was eating faster, fast enough that he had to pause for actually breathing. "What?" He asked, fork hanging from his mouth.
"Since your birthday was a month ago, you're actually getting to the age you can start training to become a huntsman, why haven't I heard anything about that from mom or dad?" She asked, taking a sip from her glass of water. Silas looked down at his plate, before grabbing a piece of toast to eat that as well. "I dunno… I mean; Huntsmen and the academy are super important but I just don't see myself doing it. I want to do something else." He said with an honest, if concerned look on his face like he just answered the question incorrectly. "So… What would you rather do?" She asked, he got off the chair, raising a pointed finger in the air.
"I want to be… A superstar!" He proclaimed, chewing the scenery by putting on an accent. "Y'know… the ones you see on TV. They make big stage shows in Vale with lights, live tigers, dancing! It's totally awesome and I want to be on primetime! I want a stage name; and my own theme song! Stuff like that." He said, without breaking from his pose. "...And somehow you pick something harder than becoming a Huntsman." Nia joked as Silas took a couple of sips of his juice to wash down the toast and eggs.
"It's not like there's anything wrong with being a hero, it's just…" Silas trailed off for a second as he took a moment to think. "It just feels like being a huntsman is nothing but getting killed by a giant Grimm." He said, causing Nia to nearly choke on her own juice from hearing it. "There isn't any splendor, it doesn't make anybody happy… and that's all I want to do." He said, poking at his food a bit as there were only a few bites left. "A scientist had a theory that the Grimm feed off of negativity, we have to be optimistic about it and hope we can protect other people." She replied, softly getting off her chair and scooting it back underneath the table. "Anyway, we're supposed to be defeating the Grimm so they can't attack us anyway, isn't that a good thing?" She asked, letting Silas finish and hand her his plate so she put can both of them in the dishwasher.
"Then go do that, all I'm saying is I don't think dying is going to make the world a better place, that's all." He said, putting his hands into his pockets. Nia frowned at that before thinking for a second. "Go take a bath, Silas. I'm going to get you to bed before mom and dad get back home." She said, a little disappointed that her little brother wasn't as interested in huntsmen as she was. She went upstairs, undoing the bow in her hair and wrapping it around an arm so it fell loose on each side of her face as she looked down the hallway. Strangely, the door to her parents bedroom was still open, a lone light illuminating the end of the dark hallway as her little brother walked past her, going to the other end of the hall and heading to the bathroom to start the shower.
"Dad…?" Nia muttered to herself, walking to the door and poking her head through to see on the other side of the oak door. The room was rather large compared to the shared bedroom of Nia and Silas, massive bookshelves framing one side of the wall, the other having a dresser, a mirror and several photos placed on top of the mahogany table. The window was opened, and on the queen sized bed there were three objects resting on it. A folded piece of paper, a small bouquet of flowers and a locket.
Curious, Nia slowly walked up to the flowers and inspected them, a group of pink Dahlia flowers wrapped with a pink string to hold them together inside the bouquet. Then, she grabbed the silver locket, cracking it open to reveal a picture on the inside of it. It was back in her first ever school dance. Her father, Leon, her mother Cadia, and a 5 year old Silas wearing a tuxedo way too big for him standing next to Nia wearing a beautiful white dress with her 7 year old date, looking bored out of his mind, partially cut off by the dimensions of the locket. She set it back on the bed, before grabbing the paper and unfolding it.
Inside the letter was a rather well written, despite the ink still feeling wet to the touch, the scent of the fresh, drying ink making Nia wince just a bit from how pungent ink can be. She began to read though the paper, hands on the corners to not touch or smudge her fingers on the ink.
"Before I explain anything I want to say something to you, and I hope it's my daughter reading this because I'm not sure Silas would be ready to understand just yet. Everything that is going to happen to you two is going to be entirely my fault. Don't blame Ironwood, don't blame Atlas, don't blame your mother; please. If there is one person you should hate, it should be me for the dire mistakes I've done that put you two in danger. I told the two of you that I was a huntsman and so was Cadia, but I've been deceiving you. I'm one of the worst kinds of people out there and I didn't want you to find out, because I couldn't live with myself if what I did influenced either of you. I'm a thief, I've lived nearly my whole life being a thief and when I had my first daughter, I wondered to myself how I could ever take care of someone so innocent with money taken from the worst kinds of people; and I've only realized this very night that maybe I wasn't fit to be a father, or a husband. Cadia's dead, and it's entirely my fault. My boss asked the two of us to take a job that I didn't understand just how significant it would really be and we accepted. We both knew the consequences, but I just wish that I realized that what I was doing affected the two of you. You have nothing to do with this. If you're still reading this, Nia, I have to leave. There are still some things I have to do and I don't wish to involve anyone else in my family in my deeds, I've already made that mistake once and it cost me the life of someone I could never replace. Be a good girl, Nia. Please don't try and find me, it isn't worth it. - Leon.
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