Chapter 13

Nyx

Chapter 13

            Schk. Schk. Schk. Autumn awoke to a strange sound that sent shivers down her spine. Schk. Schk. Schk. She sat up in her bed, trying to identify the source of the sound. Schk. Schk. Schk. It was the sound of a stone being dragged across a blade. Schk. Schk. Schk.

            Her eyes snapped to Whise, who was sitting on her bed, sharpening the blades on her bow. The girl had a rather curious weapon. It was a recurve bow, but had a thin blade in the front of it, running down its entire length. Most students had a weapon that was capable of ranged attacks as well as close combat, and with advances in technology, the majority relied on some sort of weapon that used gun powder for propulsion. Whise enjoyed the classics however, keeping a traditional bow design. Now that Autumn thought about it, the only students she knew personally who didn’t use a gun of some sort were Whise and Ny- and that girl she used to know.

            Her eyes glanced over to where their former friend used to sleep. Her bed was empty, as it had been for the past three days. Nyx never came back after the argument, and Autumn wasn’t sure whether that was a good or bad thing. In all honesty, she was a bit worried about Nyx, but her mind couldn’t help but think about the younger girl’s betrayal. Autumn didn’t consider herself a racist person, but every time she had given a faunus a chance, it had backfired.

            There was no sugar coating it. Nyx had lied to them. She had hid her true self from them from the very beginning. If she had been lying about this for so long, what else had she lied about?

            Schk. Schk. Schk. The sharpening continued. Whise had been in a poor mood since that day, and she was quite open that Nyx was to blame. The girl was furious at her. Whise had never been a friend to the faunus, and finding out about Nyx was like a slap in the face. Some part of Autumn reasoned that Nyx was scared to come out, since she knew of Whise’s hatred of her race, but Autumn quickly buried that feeling. She had trouble sympathizing with the missing girl, still feeling the sting of betrayal.

            The wind howled outside their windows. Yesterday a blizzard had moved in, and it had been snowing since. This was not the fluffy white flakes that brought dreams of snow angels and sledding. This was the thick, stinging flakes that pummeled against your body and made your cheeks flush. This was a dangerous storm, with the temperatures dropping well below freezing and patches of ice creeping up to trip people. It was a horrible storm to be caught in… and Nyx was probably trapped in it.

            Realization hit Autumn like a train car. Didn’t the girl said she had grown up in a cardboard box in an ally? She had no family to speak of, that Autumn was certain was true. Was Nyx huddling in some alleyway? Was she using some sodden piece of cardboard as a meager piece of protection against the elements? Autumn was mad at Nyx, but no one deserved to be stuck out in this.

            Autumn voiced her concerns to Whise, and the response was just what she expected. “I could care less about that… that thing! And why are you worrying? Animals live outside, Autumn. I’m sure she is just peachy.” Whise said, never taking her eyes off the whetstone as it scraped against the metal.

            “She isn’t an animal!” Autumn snapped. “She is a-” Autumn sighed in defeat. She wasn’t quite sure what Nyx was. “Sorry... Maybe you’re right. Maybe she is just fine out there… I don’t know that much about the faunus…”

            “There isn’t that much to know about them.” Whise replied, finishing up on her weapon. It gleamed a dull silver in the candle light. “After class, we should get rid of all her stuff. No sense keeping it around.

            Autumn froze, the implication of Whise’s words only partially sinking in. “But… why? We can’t just throw it away, she will be-”

            “She will be nothing. Autumn you don’t seem to get it. Nyx isn’t coming back. She isn’t human. This is not a school for animals! And I bet you most of her stuff is stolen in the first place!

            Autumn was about to respond when a small voice interrupted her. “What stuff? She doesn’t have anything.” Lyric said from her top bunk. Their arguing must have woken up the poor girl. Her words rang true though. Autumn cast her gaze around the room. The three girl’s belongings dominated such a large portion of space within the room; they never noticed Nyx’s lack of possessions. Now that she thought about it, the only things Nyx really owned were a few pairs of clothes and those brand new daggers of hers.

            “We should get ready to go to class. Today is live-weapons training.” Lyric said, hopping off the bed and getting ready. Autumn winced, she these days. Usually they would train with blunted weapons, keeping injuries down to a minimum, but not on these days. Once a month, they would use their actual weapons. The weapons that had razor sharp blades, the weapons that were imbued with Phonenixfire and Everfrost, the weapons that had high caliber guns built into them. It was all very dangerous, and while they worked hard to prevent injury, it was common to hear of severe injuries and maiming that happen on these days.

            As much as she hated live-weapons days, it was nice to be able to get her mind off Nyx. She didn’t know why, but the thought of swinging a wickedly sharp piece of metal at someone made her feel a lot better. Autumn froze. Did she really just think that? She mentally admonished herself. “I need a coffee.” She grumbled. This was going to be a long day.

            Several miles away, the wind howled, throwing thick sheets of snow through the air. The trees bent and creaked under the force of the blizzard. In one such tree, a girl huddled. The wind whipped her hair around her face, hiding most of her features from the world. If an onlooker was to pass below, they wouldn’t be able to make out anything spectacular about the girl, besides the fact that she was in a tree in the middle of a blizzard. Although the possibility of someone walking under her tree was slim to none. She had been in this tree for the last three days. Her face had a haunted look to it, most likely from the lack of food she had consumed as of late. Her clothes were ragged and on the verge of falling apart. Everything about her looked worn and broken, except for three things that shone like a beacon in middle of the blizzard.

            Two pairs of ice cold blue eyes pierced through the swirling mass of blonde hair, and below the left eye was a small tattoo of a feather, drawn in a glittering silver ink. She sat there, on a tree branch a hundred feet in the air. Her eyes stared straight forward unblinking, looking right in the direction of her school.

            Nyx was mad. The intensity of her eyes was testament to that, and this was accented by her real eye color no longer hidden behind the false contact lenses. The wind howled around her, yet she didn’t notice. The snow soaked into her clothes, yet she didn’t notice. Nature threw everything it had at her, yet she didn’t notice. Her attention was focused on the memory of her so called friends shunning her.

            Whise had been furious. Why? What gave her the right? She was almost kidnapped at a young age, big deal. It was about time she got over it. Nyx watched humans kill her family, yet she didn’t go around hating everything that didn’t have Faunus blood.

            Lyric had felt betrayed? Why? How was keeping her faunus secret a betrayal? Everyone had their secrets, did it really matter that hers was a little more extreme than most? What did she expect? Why did she have to let them know she was Faunus? Did it really make that big of a difference?

            Autumn. She was the source of Nyx’s anger. The girl that Nyx had looked up to for so long, had simply acted disappointed. What was she disappointed about? Was the single strand of animal DNA in Nyx a feasible thing to be disappointed in? And those words. “How are we supposed to trust you now?” The words had been hit her like a sledge hammer. At the time, she felt so sorry, wanting nothing more than to beg for forgiveness. Now? Not so much.

            The anger felt good, a welcome change from the sorrow that had plagued her soul the previous two days. It sent heat through her body, helping her cope with the freezing temperatures swirling around her. That first night, she had thought about just picking a direction and flying, never to look back, but one thing had stopped her. The leather tube, containing the map to her people, was still residing in her room. It was precious to her, the only life line she had to her people. That made the decision obvious, she would have to go back. That was the hard thing, going back. Nyx had spent the last two days determining how she would go back. Would she pretend nothing happened, hoping her friends kept her secret to herself? Or would she crawl back, begging forgiveness. The more she thought about it, the madder she got. What did she have to apologize for? The smith had told her to embrace her faunus heritage when her secret was revealed, and he was right. She was proud of whom she was, and three petty girls discovering her secret would not change that in the slightest.

            She considered how she would leave, because leave she must. Faunus didn’t go to the Institute. There wasn’t a specific rule banning Faunus, more like an unwritten agreement. She thought about sneaking to her room and just getting the map, but something haltered those thoughts. The memory of her roommates reactions to discovering her Faunus heritage. It enraged her, infuriated her… challenged her. Who were they to judge her so? What made these humans better than her? Nothing. They would want her out of the school, but Nyx wanted to stay, but for different reasons than originally.

            When she had first joined, she had crawled in, half-starved and craving companionship. Now it was different. She could care less about friends or family. They would want her to leave, and so her sole reason for staying was to further infuriate them. Some would try to bully her into going, but she wasn’t going anywhere without a fight.

            She would not return, pretending to be her alternate personality. Nyx was going to storm through those front doors, chin held high, and eyes blazing. No more pretending to be weak. No more holding back to stay anonymous. She didn’t know how many of them knew she was a Faunus, and she didn’t care. By the end of the day, she was going to make damn well sure that every single stupid human in that school knew her true nature. The old Nyx they thought they knew was dead. It was time for them to know who she really was.

            Nyx took a single step off the branch and plummeted to the forest floor below. It was time for change. She landed in an explosion of snow and ice. It was time for action. The wind whipped at her clothes and nipped at her heels, driving her ever onward. It was time for revolution. The snow kept falling, sometimes obscuring her sight, but never obscuring her goal. It was time to stop hiding, but mostly… it was time to fight.