As she cut down the last bandits one by one she felt an odd sense of relief at the silence, these bandits had been 'a troublesome bunch of fuckers' she had admitted to herself.
'Brothers knows why they'd pulled me out of retirement for a job like this,'
she thought to herself whilst taking a swig of her flask.
She had needed the money of course, the pension of a huntress who left in her twenties couldn't fund her bad habits much longer.
The stronghold had been tough, numerous bandits with their aura unlocked. Though none of them had any real sort of training, but an entire stronghold was a pesky thing to deal with for one huntress, even for one as strong as she was.
She opened the door to the cold outside, 'what a shithole' she thought. 'I'd never been to solitas before and I never want to again'.
She was vacuan, the cold felt like a death sentence for her, being used to sandy deserts and palm trees.
The wind whipped her long shaggy black hair around as she walked through the remains of the stronghold.
Maris' blue eyes scanned the rubble for any signs of escaping enemies.
She sighed in disappointment.
'What a waste', she mulled as she turned around to leave through the gaping hole she had created in the wall.
The stronghold itself was a ruined castle at the base of a cliff, with the main building semi-intact, the walls were also strangely well maintained. But that was where it ended, the camp itself was a mess even before she blew the hole in the wall,
'filthy bastards', she scorned, as she took a pack out and lit a cigarette, 'and the atlesians think the Faunus are the animals'.
She pulled her scroll out of her coat, ready to call a bullhead in from atlas for pickup, when she heard a faint clang in the distance.
She hastily stuffed ger scroll away and slid her short sword out from its sheath tied to the back of her belt, ready for anything.
Nothing came, no ambush.
Instead she heard that noise again..
A faint clanging in the distance.
She soon turned back and began to scour the castle in search of who or whatever was making that noise, wondering if they'd actually left a prisoner alive.
She had left one area overlooked, of which she quickly realised as she looked up.
There, on a rocky outcrop with a rope ladder hanging down above the main building was a metal door in the side of the cliff face.
The noise had halted a few minutes prior but it was definitely coming from up there.
She crept up the ladder until she was infront of the door, realising it was locked she channeled aura into her arms to force it open, she heard the noise again accompanied by the shuffling of chains against the floor.
She pulled on the door until the lock broke. Opening it she stood in the doorway allowing the outside light to reveal what the door had hidden.
There chained up against the wall was an extremely malnourished boy.
He looked to be no younger than 13 years old, with long shaggy black hair not too dissimilar to her own that reached his knees, he had two black white tipped wolf ears atop his head.
His hair obscured his face from view but not his eyes, those eyes..
his left was a bright amber whilst his right was a pitch black.
They looked lifeless but under the surface was something more, a small spark of hope.
The boy suddenly turned his head up to meet her gaze and they shared eye contact, her blue orbs meeting his amber and black ones.
From this day onward both the huntress and the Faunus child knew that their lives were to change….