Yetta was fucking exhausted. Her bones complained, and even Cherry was laying beside her. Considering she'd just gotten through several waves of…who even knows at this point, their blood clung to her armor, and Cherry had no interest in the arm of what looked like a Hive, she believed they both deserved the right to be exhausted. She was still pressing on, however. Picking up Cherry, she kept moving, following what sounded like a harmonica.
She exhaled slowly as she entered a camp, setting her bags down and letting Cherry curl up next to a tent. Was this where Crow was? Yetta hoped so, she could use a friend here. But Crow didn't play harmonica. And he'd come here alone. Peeking around the corner, she looked at the exo who was somehow playing the instrument.
Yetta approached the exo slowly, hand on her knife. Was he dangerous? "Crow!" he said calmly. "You need to get better boots. I could hear you from a mile away." Yetta didn't answer, crouching low. He knew Crow? He couldn't be that bad. She took note of his posture, which was relaxed. Until it wasn't. "You're not Crow," she heard him mumble. The next thing she knew, a gun was pointed straight at her, the harmonica he was holding flying at her. Jason flew out, knocking it away.
"Cayde!" Jason hurriedly beeped. "Stop stop stop!" Yetta flicked her eyes back and forth, hand tightening on her knife as she drew it out. "Yetta, don't make it worse," he chastised. She glanced back and forth again, then put it away, standing up. Cayde? Was this the great Cayde-6? The former hunter vanguard, the one that Carman a spoken of several times?
"Cayde? Cayde-6?" she questioned her ghost. "This is him?"
"Oh, *oh*. You're new, aren't you?" She slid her gold eyes over to him, stepping back. New? *New?* She was a year old for fuck's sake! In Guardian years, that was pretty much decently experienced, in her opinion.
"Compared to you?" she said. "Yeah. Pretty new." She picked the harmonica up, tossing it back to Cayde. He caught it without looking, and Yetta was desperately aware of how much inspecting he was doing on her. Distantly, she was wishing exos were a bit easy to read, but he was pretty expressive as it was.
"How'd you get in?" he asked.
"Door was open," she offered. "Same way I get into Carman's house."
"Shut up, you know Carman?!" His posture immediately relaxed, and he waved her over. "How's she doing??"
"She's…pretty alright, I guess? She's my mentor, so there's that, I suppose." She shrugged, walking over. "I thought you were dead?"
"Well…I was. It's a long story, is Carman here?"
As if on cue, Yetta could hear her mentor shouting her name, angrily. Grimacing, Yetta braced for the thwack on her head. "Yeah. She's here."
Carman stomped over, the usually composed warlock fuming as she approached Yetta. "What the hell were you thinking?!" she yelled, gripping the hunter's shoulders, tightly. "You could have died!"
"I made it through! That's what I was thinking! I got through, I made it here! Without help!"
"You were supposed to wait for me! Idjit!" With a swift smack to the back of Yetta's head, Carman let go, absolutely fuming. Yetta rubbed the back of her head.
"I didn't *mean* to go through. I got sucked in. Ease off."
"Ease off? *Ease off*?! You almost got yourself killed!"
Cayde stepped in between the two, keeping them away from each other. "Hey, hey! Come on, calm down!"
Yetta ignored him, clawing at his arm. "Well unfortunately, you're wrong! I'm still fucking alive, I'm still fucking here!" The static in the air raised, as did the heat.
"You've always been a fool, Yetta!" Carman shoved Cayde off of her. "I don't know what Ikora saw in you when she assigned me as your mentor, but it's clearly not there anymore."
"Whoa! Hey! Let's not be mean to each other!" Cayde pleaded. "Come on!" Yetta scowled, stepping back. Her nostrils flared, her eyes narrowed. At her side, Cherry approached, growling low at Carman. "Where did the war beast come from-?"
Yetta placed a hand on Cherry's back, stopping him from launching himself at Carman. A surefire way to sign his own death certificate. She bared her teeth at Carman, taking a step in her direction. "Back off," she snarled. "You've always doubted me, and now you're mad I proved you wrong?"
Cayde held his hand in the air, looking between both of them quickly. "If I may, Carman's kind of right here. You shouldn't have left without a plan, been there, done that. Currently regretting it." Carman hummed, satisfied. "*However*," he added, turning to Carman. "Getting pissed that she accidentally wound up here? Really Carman??" He held his arms out, stopping the two from getting close to each other. "What the fuck happened while I was gone? I mean really?"
. . .
Yetta seethed as Cayde explained how he was able to be there. If looks could kill, she'd be landing hits on Carman right now. The hunter wasn't even paying attention at this point. She gently ran her fingers around the rim of her cup, tossing back the water within and standing. She could at least do some investigating around. That couldn't be too hard, even by Carman's standards.
Although…she was fairly certain that she'd wandered too far. The ledge in front of her dropped cleanly down, and she stepped back a bit before running, jumping into the air. The ground came at her, fast and hard. Yetta rolled as she landed, Cherry leaping after her. The war beast let out one of his barking growls, checking on Yetta. The hunter pushed herself up, fixing her cloak.
"Shit," she whispered to herself. "Too far…"
. . .
There's a quote that comes to mind when describing Yetta. It goes something, and this is just a loose recollection, along the lines of, "I don't know who I am, or why I'm here. All I know is that I must kill things." See? Perfect fit for Yetta, especially now, while she's pressing as hard as she can on the life of a Tormentor, and getting thrown around for it. Gold tinted blood stained her teeth and hair, with some leaking out of her armor from the various fractures she had developed.
Finally, the Tormentor died. Cherry came out of hiding, Jason following closely. Yetta knew that a war beast wasn't meant to hide, but she couldn't risk Cherry dying when they weren't even supposed to be here. She sighed, and kept moving. "Hey, where are you?" Carman crackled to life over the comms.
"Uh…no idea."
Carman sighed heavily. "Hold still, we're coming." Yetta, of course, true to how she is, did not hold still. Pressing forward, her muscles groaned in protest. She really should have held still. Cherry licked her arm, and she raised an eyebrow. Reaching into her sack, she threw a Hive arm to him, the runt snapping it in midair and wiggling happily.
Her eyes narrowed at the small shape in the distance, flying back and forth in a panic. "Glint!" she yelled. If Glint was here, Crow couldn't be far. It would at least give her somebody to hang around. His ghost stopped, and turned, then zoomed to Yetta.
"Yetta! You're here!" Glint bopped her head, the huntress grabbing his shell and knocking her head against it. "Crow's in there…somewhere. I got left behind. I was about to go back to camp to get Cayde. But if you're here, that means Carman is too!"
"Yeah…I came in by accident, Carman followed. We… aren't really speaking right now, because of it." Yetta sighed. "What should I expect in there?"
"There's a puzzle, I think. I'm not sure, I couldn't get through." Yetta shouldered her rifle, groaning. "Yetta, please be careful. I don't know what you'll find there. I don't want to lose either of you."