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Breathe Chapter 6: The Middle of Nowhere
🕑 Added 2024-04-29 05:10:36 +0000 UTCI still wasn’t sure if it had been a good idea to trust Maria to handle everything. According to her, we had more than enough money to pay for a trip to one of the neighboring towns and for a week’s lodging, which brought up the question on why she decided that we had to travel on foot.
“Come on, I could run faster than that when I was ten years old! Speed it up,” Maria taunted.
Correction, I was traveling by foot. Maria was sitting on my overinflated backpack that was jammed full of all our supplies.
“I’m trying to, but every time I run faster, you start slipping,” I shot back as I continued running. Maria had convinced me that being able to run long distances with weight strapped to my back would be good training and I agreed with her… that, however, didn’t mean that I enjoyed being used as a mode of transportation.
“Try again, I’m holding on this time!”
I rolled my eyes and bit back the urge to call her Yzma.
I was seriously grateful that I had my Aura unlocked and had nearly mastered total concentration breathing. My Aura kept healing me, ensuring that my muscles never tired and my breathing kept refilling my Aura, ensuring that it never ran out.
Technically speaking, so long as I didn’t use any breathing techniques or take any damage, I could keep this pace up permanently without tiring. Although, in reality, I would need to stop eventually, I still needed to eat, drink and sleep… among other things, but it was still pretty cool to know that I could run faster than an Olympic sprinter for hours on end without feeling the least bit fatigued.
“If you want to make it to Gray Bluff before nightfall, you’ll need to speed up!”
She really wanted me to run faster? Oh, I’d run faster alright. Coming to a stop, I began to focus strength into my legs.
“Sun Breathing: Flash, Four Steps
-200AP
And suddenly unleashed it all at once, surging forward at blinding speeds. I glanced back to see that Maria was still sitting on the backpack, only, she was holding onto it tightly.
“That’s more like it,” Maria laughed as I continued to run at a faster rate..
…Breathe…
I slowly came to a stop as I caught sight of the town of Gray Bluff which rested at the foot of a mountain. The sky was beginning to dim and the houses were beginning to light up as people began to turn their lights on.
The weather was beginning to change. The sky was being covered in thick black clouds and there was a distinct smell of rain in the air.
...
Ping!
Total Concentration Breathing has leveled up: Lvl 97 – 98
…
Ping!
Sun Breathing: Flash has leveled up: Lvl 6 – 7
…
Ping!
Aura has leveled up: Lvl 28 – 29
…
I mostly ignored the notifications as I saw something that I hadn’t seen for a long time. People! For the past two months, I was only around Maria. I’d almost forgotten that there were other people out there.
“Well,” Maria shifted and jumped off the bags. Landing, she jerked her body to the side and a snapping sound came from her back as she let out a relieved sigh. “I believe that’s enough for today. We’ll continue our trip tomorrow, now let’s go see if we can rent a room for the night.”
Nodding, I followed Maria into the town… She was after all the one who had done this before and she hadn’t led us astray so far.
The town had a warm feeling to it… at least it did until we entered. We were immediately met with cautious stares and we made our way through until we entered a small building that was filled with laughter and the clinking of glasses.
As we entered, the laughter died down and all eyes were on us. It was beginning to feel like we made a mistake entering this town.
“Hello there,” Maria called out in a friendly tone as she walked up to the counter. “Me and my apprentice here are traveling to Argus and we need a room for the night, know of any places?”
The man behind the counter eyed her warily before he shook his head. “This is a small town, we don’t have any rooms for rent. You’ll have better luck traveling to the next town over.”
“No rooms at all?” Maria pressed. “In this entire town?”
“No ma’am.”
“For the love of,” A woman with tanned skin and green eyes groaned and pushed her way to the counter, her hair brown hair was tied up in a bun. “They’re not bandits, Flint!”
“You don’t know that,” The bartender shot back.
“The woman has a pair of Atlas optic lenses, something that needs to be surgically attached with specialized equipment, which bandits don’t have!”
“But the other one…”
“Is her apprentice, meaning she’s a Huntress!” The woman snapped, before turning to Maria. “Sorry about him, this is a small town that doesn’t get that many visitors. People can get a little suspicious when a pair of strangers wander into town without a vehicle, especially when we’re nearly a hundred miles off from the nearest town.”
“It’s alright, I get it,” Maria waved her off. “Believe it or not, this isn’t my first time experiencing this.”
The woman nodded before offering her hand. “I’m June, by the way.”
“Maria,” She said and shook June’s hand. “And this is my apprentice, Coal.”
“Hey,” I greeted.
“You can talk?” June blinked. “I wasn’t sure… with your scars.”
“Yeah, I got these from a Grimm… It’s actually how I met Maria,” I replied. It’d been so long since I’d talked to another person other than Maria that I wasn’t really sure what to say.
June coughed into her hand. “Well, although Flint was standoffish, he wasn’t exactly wrong. There isn’t anywhere in this town that rents rooms… So, I’ve got a proposition for the two of you. I’ve got a spare bedroom on my farm. I’ll let the two of you stay without having to pay, if you can clear out Grimm from the area… and help with some farm work.”
Maria rubbed her chin in thought as she considered June’s offer. There was a crack of thunder and she immediately nodded. “Deal.”
…Breathe…
After a short drive in June’s truck, we stopped at her farm. A large open plot of land with a rickety wooden fence surrounding it, acting more as a marker for what land she owned than the barrier it was supposed to be. There was a double story house with a large wooden barn painted red sitting to the side of it.
Being taken out to this remote farmhouse in the middle of nowhere… I was beginning to get horror movie vibes.
“Wondering why people would want to live out here?” June asked, as we climbed out of her truck.
“Um,” I began. “Sure?”
“There are advantages to living out here,” June replied. “You see, the land out here is free. If you can keep it, it’s yours, it’s that simple. It’s a law that is followed by most kingdoms, although it’s a bit different with Atlas and I’m not quite sure what Menagerie’s view is on that law.”
From a certain standpoint, that made sense, but it was dangerous to live out here. I could see a Huntsman or Huntress doing it because they would be capable of taking down hoards of Grimm on their own, but from the looks of it, it didn’t look like anyone in Gray Bluff had their Aura unlocked.
“That’s not the only advantage,” Maria added. “Newly formed towns are given funds and supplies in order to ensure that they have a chance to survive. If the town isn’t destroyed in five years, they’re offered more funding if they allow a CCT hub to be built.”
Like the one in Black Rock. So they weren’t just here on their own, the Mistral was still actively supporting them. The more settlements that are built, the more Grimm will be pushed back and more land will be gained to cultivate cities. It was a long term plan to retake as much land from the Grimm as possible. Sure some towns fell and the kingdoms ended up losing some money and supplies, but in the grand scheme of things, the Kingdoms were slowly claiming land.
This was all Ozpin’s plan!
“Are… Huntsmen encouraged to create settlements?” I asked.
“Kind of,” Maria nodded. “A lot of the cities that you’ll see were originally started by Huntsmen. Black Rock being a prime example. It’s mostly expected of a Huntsman or Huntress to, at the very least settle down in a town like this when they retire. Although, it’s not exactly a rule, so you don’t have to worry. You can go pretty much anywhere you want to once you retire!”
“Enough about that. Let me introduce the two of you to my nephew and then I’ll show you where you’ll be sleeping,” June said, leading us to the barn. “He normally likes to stay in here when I’m not around.”
Wait, nephew?
“Oscar, come down, we have guests!” June called out.
“Coming,” her nephew yelled back.
That wasn’t conclusive. I’m sure that there were plenty of people in this town alone named Oscar, it doesn’t mean that it’s… well shit, it’s him.
I found myself face to face with one Oscar Pine, a young farmer, nephew of June Pine and Ozpin’s next host. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, I could use this to my advantage. He become’s Ozpin’s host after he’s already turned fourteen, if I can ask him how old he is, I’ll have a good estimate of when exactly I was.
“Hello,” Oscar greeted awkwardly.
At least there was someone out there that seemed more awkward than I was.
“Hey,” I greeted back. “I’m Coal, and this is Maria.”
“Great.” June clapped her hands loudly. “Now that everyone knows each other, let me just quickly show the two of you where you’ll be sleeping and then we can all have something to eat.”
“Sleep?!” Oscar started. “They’re staying the night?”
“Yes,” June nodded. “They’re a traveling to Argus on foot and were looking for a room to rent. Since there weren’t any in town, I offered to let them sleep in one of the unused bedrooms!”
“But,” Oscar began to argued.
“Unless you want them to stay outside… with a storm on its way no less,” June said. A bright bolt of lightning lit up the dark sky and was soon accompanied by the booming sound of thunder.
“I… fine.”
June smiled. “Good. Now let’s all head in before it starts to pour.”
Entering the farmhouse, I took a brief glance around. It didn’t look too bad, there was a couch, a few chairs and several bookshelves that were absolutely filled. As far as electronics went, it was fairly spars. There were lights, but there didn’t really seem to be anything else.
“The two of you can follow Oscar to the kitchen, he’ll warm up some food for us while I go get your room ready.”
“Take your time,” Maria said knowingly. “You don’t need to rush.”
June nodded silently and left, going upstairs.
“The Kitchen’s through this way,” Oscar began, leading us to another room.
The kitchen seemed to have all the necessary appliances. A stove, fridge and sink with a table pushed to the side of the room along with several seats stacked on top.
“Let me just start heating supper up and I’ll get those ready.”
“That’s alright, I’ve got it,” I replied, taking the chairs down.
Before too long, we were all sat at the table. An awkward silence descended on us, only to be interrupted by Maria coughing.
“Oh… would you like some water?” Oscar asked.
“No thanks, I just thought that I’d break the silence,” Maria smirked.
“What?”
“There’s really no reason to act confused. Having strangers in your house, staying the night is obviously new to you… It’s new to Coal too, he hasn’t really had a chance to interact with others and I’m guessing he doesn’t really know what to say.”
Well, trust Maria to be direct with things. I took a breath, before nodding. “She’s right. I haven’t really been around anyone for as long as I can remember. Meeting new people is kind of a new experience.” Well, staying the night in a strangers home is the new experience here.
“… Well, I don’t really get to talk to many people either,” Oscar admitted. “There are a few days that I go to the market, but for the most part, I stay on the farm.”
“I do offer to take him with me when I head into town, but he’s determined to look after this farm,” June said as she entered the kitchen. “I’ve finished getting your room ready. There’s only one large bed so you’ll have to share.”
“There’s no issue with that,” Maria reassured her. “I’ve had to sleep in way worse conditions back when I was an active Huntress!”
…Breathe…
“So I’ve already removed all the weeds from this area, but we’re just going to double check in order to make sure that there aren’t any more that have sprouted up. If you find any, just pull them out and place them in that ,” Oscar explained, pointing to the large plastic bin that had been dragged over to this field. “Then we’ll need to till the soil with the hoe, but that’ll probably be tomorrow.”
It was still fairly early in the morning. The sun had risen, not that any of us could really tell as it had been hidden behind a thick blanket of clouds. The ground was still wet from all of the rain from last night, which apparently made this the perfect time to prepare a full quarter of the farm for planting. It was actually kind of impressive that Oscar had managed to prepare this much of the area by himself.
“So how long did it take you to remove all the weeds?” I asked, trying to make small talk.
“Oh, um… about a month,” Oscar replied. “There isn’t that much to do here but read and prepare the farm, so it wasn’t that hard.”
Nodding, I walked along the field, looking for weeds. As it turned out, Oscar had done a good job preparing the field.
“Alright, so now we’ve got to till the soil, let me just quickly show you how to do it and then we can begin,” Oscar said. Grabbing a hoe, he hit it into the ground and pulled up a small amount of soil, loosening the dirt. “We just have to do this a few dozen times while walking backwards to soften the ground.”
I think I got the gist of it. Grabbing a second hoe, I jabbed it into the ground, but instead of ripping up the soil and starting over, I simply began to walk backwards, ploughing the field at a much faster rate.
Oscar watched a little dumbstruck as I easily walked back and forth down the field, dragging the hoe behind me.
“How’re you doing that?”
“Ploughing the land?” I asked.
“Yes!”
I guess he’d never seen a huntsman before, because this really didn’t take that much strength. One of the upsides of having Aura and total concentration breathing, I suppose.
“I’m just strong enough to do it, I guess. Maria could probably do this with just as much ease, she’s much stronger than me.”
Oscar blinked at that. “But that doesn’t make sense. Even if you’re strong enough to do that, the hoe isn’t strong enough to withstand it. It should have broken with how much force you’re using!”
“That would be a side effect of Aur…”
A low growl interrupted us. I stopped in my tracks and Oscars eyes widened significantly as he stared at something behind me.
Reaching for my sword, I cursed softly as I realized that I hadn’t brought it with me to the field. It was still inside. Well, the hoe would have to do as a replacement weapon.
Turning around, I was expecting the worst, but instead found myself face to face with a regular Beowolf that had climbed over the fence.
“Phew, for a second there I thought it was something serious,” I muttered.
The Beowolf took a step forward and I immediately burst into action. Charging towards it, I easily sidestepped the Grimms slow swing and brought the blade end of the hoe down on its neck.
There was a loud crunch as the blade impacted the Grimms neck and it dropped to the ground. As it turned out, the blade hadn’t been sharp enough to pierce all the way through, only enough to get through some of the bone on its neck, which had been more than enough to kill it.
Several more growls came from the forest as a full pack of Beowolves revealed themselves. Luckily it hadn’t been anything tougher. As it stood, I was going to have a hard time killing them all with this hoe, especially if I was going to have to worry about keeping Oscar safe.
“Hey Oscar,” I called back to the boy frozen in the middle of the field. “Can I ask you to go fetch my sword? It’s in the room that Maria and I are sleeping in!”
“But… The Grimm…” Oscar stuttered.
“I’ll be fine out here, but I need my sword,” I replied. “Listen to me, don’t even think about the Grimm! Take a breath and then run back to the house. Don’t look back!”
Oscar nodded, his face pale. Turning he rushed towards the house at his top speed, stumbling slightly.
I let out a sigh of relief. So long as Oscar was out of the way, I could focus all my efforts onto the Grimm. He’d be safe in the house, Maria was there after all.
“Now that he’s out of the way,” I began, turning back to the Grimm. “How about the rest of us have a little fun? I’ve never used a weapon like this before, so you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t kill you in one blow!”
One of the nearer Grimm growled and charged towards me.
Watching it carefully, I stepped to the side and hooked the blade into its neck before rushing forward in a burst of speed.
“Sun Breathing: Flash, One Step”
-50AP
The Grimms body jolted backwards as the hoe violently ripped through its neck.
I continued forward and swung the hoe into the nearest Beowolf. While it lacked piercing power, the added length of the handle gave me more range to hit and also allowed me to swing it harder.
Bringing the hoe up in order to deliver a heavy swing, I stumbled slightly as it got hooked on a branch and was knocked to the side by one of the Beowolves.
-20AP
Rolling into the swipe, I pushed myself to my feet and rushed back to the large field of the farm. While the hoe did give me extra range, it was also a weapon that I’d been unused to fighting with and as such, I was going to make a few mistakes, especially if I had a limited amount of space to work with.
Once I reached the farmland, I jumped and twisted my body, swinging the hoe directly into the Grimm that had been following closely behind me.
Landing in the field, I decided to stop playing around and aimed for precision shots against the Grimm that followed until finally one was left.
“An Alpha Beowolf, huh?” I hummed as I held my hoe at the ready. “So you were leading a pack of your lesser around here? Well, it doesn’t matter now, what with you dying here and all.”
The Grimm, much like its brethren charged towards me, but at a much faster rate. However, that speed was far below that of an Ursa Major.
“Sun Breathing: Dance”
-400 AP
The metal end of my hoe made direct contact with the Grimms head, easily cleaving through it all the while sending it flying far off into the woods while its body collided with the ground and slid to the end of the field.
“Fore,” I laughed as the Alpha Beowolf’s head disappeared into the trees. I shot a quick glance to the forest where the Grimm had initially come from, looking for any Grimm that I’d missed and nodded when I found none.
I turned and immediately froze once I caught sight of the house. An amused Maria stood on the porch next to a stunned Oscar who was holding my sword and June who was standing at the ready with a large white automatic rifle.
“Having fun?” Maria asked, unable to keep the grin off her face.
“A little,” I admitted, suddenly feeling awkward. I hadn’t been expecting an audience after all.
“You didn’t even need your sword to deal with them,” Oscar muttered. “You were able to beat them so easily!”
“They weren’t that strong,” I shrugged. Walking up to the porch I set the hoe down and accepted my sword from Oscar. “If they’d been a pack of Ursa, I would have had a much harder time.”
“You’re a Huntsman… that’s why you’re traveling by foot… you’re not worried about the Grimm because they’re not a threat to you,” Oscar realized. “That’s why you were able to plough the field so fast!”
Well it wasn’t like we were hiding it… In fact, it was the main reason why June was letting Maria and I stay here without having to pay.
“Alright,” June began. “After the… eventful morning we’ve all had, why don’t we all go get some breakfast?”
“I could eat,” Maria hummed.
…Breathe…
“So that’s an interesting gun you have there,” Maria commented, before biting down on a slice of toast. “It’s an Atlesian model if I’m not mistaken… the funny thing is, I’ve never seen a civilian use a weapon like that.”
“That’s because I’m not a civilian… or at least I wasn’t always one,” June replied. “I was once an Atlesian soldier, but I quit.”
“That would explain why you have a gun like that and why you held it like you knew how to use it… but it doesn’t explain why you’re out here to begin with.”
Oscar’s chair jolted back as he got up from the table abruptly. “Thanks for breakfast, Aunt June. I… I’m going to go wash up and then I’ll get back to field.”
“Oscar,” June began, reaching her hand out before pulling it back. “Just… don’t push yourself too hard, okay?”
“I’ll be fine,” Oscar nodded and left.
June sighed and slumped forward, leaning heavily on her hand. “He doesn’t like it when I… talk about why I’m here. It reminds him of what he’s lost… what we’ve lost!”
“I understand… I realized it last night,” Maria replied. “The part that I don’t get is why the two of you are on this farm and not in Atlas.”
“This farm belonged to my brother,” June mumbled. “It’s where Oscar was born… It’s all that we have left of him. If I wanted to bring Oscar back to Atlas, I would be abandoning everything my brother worked to achieve. If I can just keep this farm running for another two years, this land will become much safer. A CCT hub will be built and more resources will be sent this way!”
“Both you and Oscar will need to be alive in order to benefit from that,” Maria noted. “Those Grimm that just attacked right now were only a small percentage of all the Grimm in this area! This area isn’t exactly the safest place to be, especially for those that aren’t Huntsmen.”
“I know, that’s why I offered for the two of you to stay here,” June admitted. “I don’t need all of the Grimm gone, just the ones I can’t kill on my own. I know it seems like a hopeless situation, but I can do this, I can hold this land!”
“It’s not,” I interrupted suddenly, almost surprising myself.
“What’s not?” June asked.
Reaching up, I unzipped my jacket and pulled it off. “There’s no such thing as a hopeless situation. When Maria found me, I was on the verge of death, but instead of writing me off as hopeless, she gave me a fighting chance and activated my Aura,” I explained while gesturing to the pale streaks that went across my neck and chest. Technically speaking, I had actually died, but they didn’t need to know that.
Maria let out a loud sigh. “I suppose that clearing out a forest will be good training.”
“Those wounds…” June muttered. “Even with Aura, you shouldn’t have been able to survive them!”
“Don’t I know it. I couldn’t even get him to a hospital when I found him, he healed all on his own… with a little help from me,” Maria chuckled. “I’ve grown accustomed to Coal doing things that seem impossible.”
