Episode Arri: Chapter 1: Roots

Chapter 1 of Arri's adventure.

Power

Can Be A Gift

It Can Help

It Can Lead

But It Can Break

If One Fears It.

 

 

 

Two Years after the Graduation of Team BEAT
Three Hours South of Mistral

The Village of Haru

 

 

 

            Arri kept fiddling with some small vines while Ember continued to debrief her via video chat on her Scoll.

            “…sorry Arri” Ember said placing her hand behind her head.  “I know I said I’d be there soon but the mission here in Atlas is taking a big longer than I expected it to.”

            “No worries” Arri said as she put on a smile for her cousin.  “It’s mostly just keeping Grimm away for the next few weeks while the crops grow.  Nothing too crazy.”

            “I know but still, we promised we’d be there to help out and here we are just stuck doing random other things.”

            “Speaking of which, have you heard from Terra or Bovia?”

            “Bovia’s still helping with development projects down in Menagerie, Terra is doing who knows what out in Vacuo, and this engineer up in Atlas with me is trying to figure out how to re-invent the wheel ten times over.”

            “Jeez,” Arri said with a chuckle, “is he trying to create a car that can also fly through mountains?”

            “I don’t want to give him any ideas” Ember said with a groan which caused Arri to laugh even more.

            “Well, take care of yourself cuz” Arri said with one last smile.

            “You too” Ember said returning the smile.  “I’ll get there as soon as I can.  Promise.”  With that, she ended the video call and left Arri sitting alone in her guest room in the village.  She stretched her arms, grabbed her scythe from the wall, and made her way outside.  The village of Haru was like many in the vast wilderness of the continent of Anima that was far away from the development of the Kingdom of Mistral.  Humble man-made houses, fences made of logs as a crude defense, and a fair amount of farmland beyond the village’s walls.  However, the one thing that made it stand out was a large green tree that sat in the middle of the village that according to residents never lost its pink spring blossoms to the chill of winter.  Much like the Forest of Forever Fall back in Vale.  Following the graduation of Team BEAT, they all decided to go on their separate journeys be it with other friends or by themselves to try and help where they could.  But they would still end up working together if paths crossed from time to time.  This was not one of those times.  The village had put in a request to the Huntsman boards in Mistral requesting assistance with dealing with a determined pack of Grimm that were constantly destroying the crops of this small village.  It was a simple job, but the report was not kidding, the Grimm were relentless.  As Arri was making her way towards the town hall to check in with the chief of the village, the warning bells began to ring signaling the charge of another horde of Grimm.  She groaned, pulled out her pendulum scythe and charged towards the fields where the Grimm were attacking.  As she reached the village’s edge, she saw a swarm of Beowolves attacking the village guard.  She pulled out her pendulum scythe and launched her attack with vines propelling her forwards.  She landed right on top of a charging Beowolf slicing it in half.  She then checked her surroundings as a pair of Beowolves charged towards her.  Arri simply took a breath, and as the two monsters grew closer, she spun her scythe in a circle and cleaved through both monsters at the same time.  She then saw another attacking a guard who’s Aura was clearly all but gone and was about to be mauled by the monster.  Realizing she didn’t have time to run over with her weapon, Arri raised her hand and a single yet strong vine shot out of the ground and impaled the Beowolf through the head.  The battle raged on for several more minutes, the Grimm simply trying to charge forward with reckless abandon into the weapons of the towns defenders.  As it seemed the monsters were beginning to dwindle, Arri was starting to relax for a moment, but then noticed a lone mid-sized Nevermore suddenly fly over the walls.  She quickly turned around and had her vines catapult her into the air to try and chase it down.  She initially thought that it would immediately go for the townsfolk, but then she was shocked to see that the creature was not attacking the people, but rather seemed to be headed straight towards the tree.  Because of this, Arri had underpowered her launch and landed near the town market and had to launch herself once again to try and get even closer.  With this second launch, she soared above the Nevermore and angled herself to start spinning with her scythe back towards the ground.  As she did so, she sliced the Nevermore in half and cut away the two pieces even further before they had the chance to collide with the tree.  She then landed slightly awkwardly at the base of the tree.  She stumbled forward and grabbed one of the tree’s large exposed roots to balance herself.  But when she did, something strange happened.  As she grabbed the root, she was suddenly overcome with strange energy.  It almost felt as if this energy poured out of the tree like a wind, covering the entire village.  And as this energy covered everything in her sight, it also appeared to cause her surroundings to age backwards.  Powerful houses that had been standing for generations crumbled away, the walls that protected the village came crashing down and were restored as mighty trees, and even the tree that Arri’s hand rested upon seemed to shrink in scope, but its bright pink blossoms never seemed to fade.  Like a time lapse things continued to pass by her in reverse, until things finally slowed down and Arri looked behind her shoulder and was shocked.  The tree that once stood as a mighty pillar now seemed to have vanished into nothing more than a tiny sapling in the ground.  Despite still feeling the root she was holding on to in her hand, it no longer seemed to exist.  The sapling was all there was of the tree in this moment in time.  But there was something else that caught her eye.  Rather than a flat surface in which the sapling could grow, there was a small cave of dirt beneath the sapling itself.  And this cave was emanating a strange energy.  Arri squinted her eyes but did not move, believing if she took her hand off the root the vision would vanish before she got any answers.  As she looked deeper into the cave, she saw that there was a bubbling pool of Grimm energy beneath the sapling.  But more than that, there were two figures.  One of which she could not see clearly, the only defining feature was that she wore a black dress with red accents and markings.  But the other intrigued her.  It was a woman with flowing green hair.  She was saying something to the other stranger, but Arri couldn’t hear a word they were saying.  As the two of them turned to exit the cavern, Arri was shocked at what she saw.  First she saw that the woman with the black dress had skin as white as snow, but the real surprise was that the woman with green hair looked frothingly similar to her adoptive mother Natalie.  As she tried to lean in closer to hear what they were saying, all of a sudden, she felt a pull on her shoulder from an invisible force.  She was then pulled backwards away from the root, and everything around her in this moment in time faded like a blanket fading into a tiny hole.  And once it was gone, all that was left was the tree in its modern fully grown glory.  Arri looked up and saw that one of the villagers had pulled her away from the tree.

            “Are you all right Huntress?” the villager asked with a twinge of concern in her voice.  “It almost seemed as if the tree had possessed you.”  Arri brushed off the villager and ran back over to the root, placing her hand on it once again.  But nothing happened this time.  Arri punched the root in frustration while the villager looked on in confusion.  Arri then collected herself and turned back towards the village.

            “How far back do the records of your village go?” Arri asked.

Author's Note

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