~ A Faunus, a Human, and a Witch walk into a lab ~

Narrator POV:

Salem walks in front of the two-tailed Faunus following steadily after her. They both weave through room after room in this humongous castle, before finally making it to a big hall.

"Sit down" Salem says softly.

Crystal with a nod of her head goes and sits down in a random chair... Of course, it wasn't much of a random choice as she chose the biggest and the grandest chair of them all. Without her prior knowledge, she sat down on the Grimm Queen's throne.

"What's wrong?" Crystal asks looking at the woman, seeing her face being somewhat off.

But it quickly disappears as Salem answers "Nothing, let me just go talk to somebody and get you some food, wait a minute" And just like that Salem disappears from the room, faster than somebody normal could. Crystal looks in the direction that she has left with an undescribable expression. While she waits, her stomach also makes a few grumbling noises in protest of it not being taken care of.

After some time, Salem comes back and sits down near the Faunus, to the right of the seat.

"One of my people will serve you something soon, why don't we talk until then?"

"It's the least I could do when somebody's saving my stomach's life" Crystal answers with a smile.

"What is a Faunus doing here in such a place?"

"I'm lost, my mom sent me on an errand, I am not the best with directions, so I've been walking aimlessly ever since I arrived in these lands. I do thank you for leading me here, I don't know why or how you can control that Grimm that lead me here, but I appreciate it. And you? Why is such a beautiful woman in 'such' a place?"

"I live here" Salem answers blankly.

"Oh" Crystal blinks "Yeah, that was not the smartest question I've ever asked" She chuckles.

"What is this errand that your mother sent on?"

"I am supposed to find a specific person"

"And have you succeeded in that task?"

"No, unfortunately, it's been a few months since I've left, but I had no luck" Crystal answers honestly.

Salem stays silent for a bit, thinking about this situation, then she asks "Are you sure you should be here for that person?"

"I have no idea, but my mom said they were here and I trust her more than anything in life. So I won't leave until I find them" Crystal answers happily because she was talking about her mom.

"What is the nam-" Salem's question gets broken off midway due to the door from where she came from opened.

Crystal sees a beautiful young, quite tall woman with short black hair, and sultry amber eyes. The woman wears a washed-out red-colored dress, with straps tied around her neck in a bow. Her heeled shoes are made of a material that Crystal doesn't recognize. She's carrying a big plate with hidden foods below big circle-shaped metal things.

"Master, the food is ready" The woman states, with no emotion behind her words, while she throws a glance at the Faunus sitting in her master's seat. It surprised her a bit to see somebody sitting there, especially a stranger.

"Good, Cinder, serve it to our guest" Salem says while looking at her follower. Cinder nods and does as she was commanded to.

"8/10" Cinder, while serving, hears the first words to come out of the Faunus' mouth and its random numbers, both of their eyes meet and Crystal continues "Don't mind me, my mouth has a mind of its own and it likes to say a rating for every woman that I first meet. And the more beautiful, the better the number" Cinder not fully grasping why she just got such random and honest information only nods in silence and finishes serving the food.

Crystal seeing a set of dishes visibly drools over it, but seeing that it was only served for her, she stops herself from eating. The Faunus raises her head to meet eyes with the pale ladys'.

"Why is there food only for me?" Crystal questions in wonder.

"I am not hungry" Salem simply answers.

Crystal blinks a few times, nods, and then looks at the other woman, whose name is Cinder, she heard it after all "What about you?"

"She isn't hungry" Salem answers for Cinder.

"How can you know that? Do you two share stomachs as well as control Grimm? That's pretty amazing" Blabbers Crystal.

Salem stares at her silently with an incredulous expression "Cinder, my dear, are you hungry?" Salem throws out a question.

"No, master" Cinder answers non-committaly.

"See?" Salem gets Crystal's attention.

"Oh... So it wasn't something amazing as sharing stomachs then... Unfortunate" Crystal murmurs sadly.

Both Cinder and Salem's eyes meet when they hear the Faunus' whisperings, both not knowing what to even think.

But Crystal's sadness doesn't last long as there's something far more important in front of her "Thank you for the food, Salem and... Cinder, right?" Crystal expresses gratitude toward the pretty women. And receives a nod from Cinder, letting her know that it is indeed her name.

And so Crystal starts eating, slowly and reservedly. Salem seeing her eating goes back to questioning this strange Faunus.

"You were quite confident when saying that you were the strongest, how much do you honestly believe that? Confidence is one thing, actual power is another"

Crystal gulps down the food she had in her mouth and then answers "I am strong enough to walk in these lands, am I not? Not that I know what kind of land it is, but I haven't seen any other people besides you two... Hey, you must be strong too, right?"

"You could say that. Cinder, here, is my favored individual, she's strong and capable" Salem answers, dodging talking about herself.

"Oh? Is she going to be my test after I eat then?" Crystal asks while looking at Cinder's standing form and before Salem could answer the first question, Crystal asks another and directs it towards Cinder herself "Why is she standing though? There's plenty of seats to sit down at, aren't you bored standing?"

Cinder doesn't know what to answer, normally she is only allowed to sit down in this place when there's a meeting and not a random event such as this.

"I like standing" Is the only answer she can say at the moment.

"Really? That's interesting" Crystal says intrigued.

Cinder really doesn't understand this girl's mind "Why is that interesting?"

Crystal chuckles "Because I'd rather sit somewhere for a long time than walk somewhere for even a minute... It's just so much better. So it's interesting to see somebody so different from myself in this regard, Is there a reason for your liking of it?" Crystal questions, really interested in knowing, her eyes express that as well. The shine in those eyes was so bright that Cinder couldn't handle holding her gaze and had to look away.

"Cinder, sit down" Salem says, while she finds this 'chat' interesting between them two, she wants to move things along, she also adds "And you, eat"

"Ah, right" Crystal lets out and drops her head down to continue eating. While Cinder nods at Salem and sits down on the opposite side of her, she's also a tiny bit relieved that the topic has changed from her, she didn't want to answer the question that the Faunus asked, she'd rather speak less. Now Crystal is sitting in the middle, on both sides a beautiful woman surrounds her. If she wasn't hungry and eating at the moment, she'd probably ask them if they wanted to spend some time having fun.

"And eat how you like, I see that you're holding yourself back" Salem adds.

Crystal smiles and stops for a bit "My mom taught me to show manners when eating with strangers and people that I don't know, so as to not scare them away. But since I already consider you as those that I know and with your permission, I don't need to show manners" After she says that, she foregoes the fork and knife she was given along with the food and simply grabs everything with her hand as she chomps everything in a bite or two, sometimes even swallowing something whole.

She doesn't stop and continues munching on it like a beast. If she wasn't so into it at the moment, she'd feel the ridiculous stares she's getting from the two women, But the food is just that good and she's that hungry.

And so, the last few minutes have been silent... Besides the intense chewing, gulping, eating, and just in general abuse of food.

Soon enough, the Faunus has had enough of her feast and coincidentally, she ate all of it, left not one bit on any of the plates that were brought to her. She even licked clean the plates by picking them up and bringing them to her face, truly there's nothing left. After sitting for a while, letting it all just sit there, she sighs relaxedly.

"Thank you again, that was almost as good as my mom's cooking. Whoever made that, should be proud of themselves" Crystal compliments while looking up at the grand ceiling.

Cinder isn't going to openly acknowledge that it was her that made the food, but it does still feel nice to hear it, nobody really says that to her... Well not like she has a chance to cook for anybody.

"Well now that you've got your stomach full, are you ready to test your strength?" Salem gets to the point.

"Sure, but let me ask you two something first. Just one tiny question"

Salem thinks for a bit, seeing that it's just one question it shouldn't take so long, so she agrees with a nod.

"What is your relationship? Are you two together? Like girlfriends, lovers, do you two fuck?" Crystal asks nonchalantly while looking between the two. One of them is obviously younger than the other, but it's not like that matters to her, as long as it's done with consent, to her everything is okay.

Cinder's eyes widen and her ears get a little red, but good that nobody is looking at her because the source of attention right now is the Faunus. What kind of question even is that? what in this particular situation warranted such a question?

Salem is looking at Crystal with a blank look, thinking that she has picked up yet another baggage, a crazy one at that. Though she is more interested than before, if she is as strong as she says that she is, well there's no way she will be letting her go without making her become part of her inner circle.

"No, we aren't anything like that. Hmm... I am her master and she's my servant" Salem answers.

"Ah, so it's like that, eh? A master-servant relationship, I like it. Now, who's the top and the bottom?" Crystal continues asking cheerfully, she really likes the topic of sex, and hearing other people's experiences is the best.

This time both the Grimm Queen and the Fall Maiden to-be, look at the Two-Tailed Faunus befuddled... There seems to be a misunderstanding.

Though in Cinder's mind, while Salem talks to her to clear up the misunderstanding, she had a thought about what the Faunus meant by top and bottom... When the next time she goes out, she might ask Emerald to do some research on the topic.

"Oh" Crystal yet again lets out after Salem finished explaining to her that she misunderstood their relationship, their master-servant relationship is purely for work or something, she kinda didn't listen to the end... Because she was sad that she was wrong, she thought she might brag about herself and her sexy times, while hearing about others' experiences.

Unlike Cinder, Salem of course knew what this young Faunus meant by her... Straightforward question. She has lived a long life... way too long of a life, she had enough time to pick up knowledge and information about pretty much anything. She understands humans better than they do themselves, so of course, she stumbled across such feral acts.

Though she can't lie to herself and say that she never thought of doing something like that, the problem is that there was no one to do it with. And she isn't going to do it with a random person, she'd only do it with somebody she loves... There was somebody long ago and it will never happen again, as her heart doesn't exist for such trivial matters anymore.

"Well, then I guess I am ready to start. So what will I be doing?" Crystal says, standing up from the seat.

Salem seeing the Faunus finally ready stands up as well "Follow me" She says and starts walking out of the room. Crystal and Cinder follow after her. Cinder beside her, Crystal from behind.

The trio walks through some rooms and some stairs down and eventually they make it to yet another big room, this one without any chairs and tables. It's just an open room, full of space. There are a lot of conspicuous holes in the walls though.

"We're here, you can call this a training room. But anyway, your test will be to fight Cinder here, and depending on how long you'll last I will decide if you're strong" Salem explains, she already mentioned it to Cinder, so she's more or less ready.

Crystal looks at Cinder for a bit, before turning her gaze back at Salem and she honestly states "I don't think that's a good idea, I wouldn't want to hurt her, maybe if she was a complete stranger I could do it, but not anymore"

"Do you think that I am weak?" Cinder asks straight-up.

"Oh, no, not at all, but you see, there's nobody that could ever beat me, I am the strongest after all"

So this is the confidence that Salem quickly mentioned... Cinder frowns, to her, it's nothing more than arrogance.

"You really see yourself as the strongest, huh? Well, then why don't you prove it with actions instead of refusing to fight me?"

Crystal shakes her head in refusal while saying "If you fight me, you have a very high percentage of death, so I suggest you believe me and stop insisting. My mom taught me that acting without knowing your enemy is a sure way to perish and she's really strong... But when it came to me, she said I was the exception to that rule. So, really, don't fight me, I, myself don't want to hurt you"

The more this Faunus says, the more annoyed and irritated Cinder gets, at first it was her baseless claims of being strong, stronger than her, that if she were to fight her she'd presumably die. Then, she realized that this Faunus wasn't arrogant or confident, no, it was as if she was speaking the purest truth in existence... And that pisses her off so much.

Now with her expression turning hateful, Cinder, unexpectedly jumps at the unsuspecting Faunus, her blades at the ready to pierce the woman's shoulder... She'd like to go for the head for a quick kill and not keep her in pain, but her master wants her alive, so this will do.

But the closer she got, the weirder she felt inside... Because this girl wasn't protecting herself at all, every single point of defense is open for an attack... Wasn't she supposed to be the 'strongest' then why is she such an amateur?

With an irritated eye twitch, Cinder stops the attack just as the blade was about to pierce the Faunus's shoulder, the tip is almost touching the tattered cloth that Crystal wears.

Both Cinder and Crystal, look at each other's eyes, both, confused. One because the other one wasn't doing anything. The other one is because the woman stopped right before executing her attack.

"Why did you stop your attack?" "Why did you not protect yourself?" Both of them ask at the same time.

And both also let out a confused "Huh?" at the same time after hearing each other's questions.

"You go first" Crystal says after a brief silence happened when Cinder stepped away.

"Because you were wide open and didn't protect yourself, so I saw all that I needed to see. You are not strong. Now you answer"

"So that's why..." Crystal muses to herself, before answering the question "It's because I have no need to protect myself, in fights I don't need to do anything. So your assessment of me not being strong is also wrong because of that"

"... What do you mean you don't need to move during a fight? Then how do you fight?" Cinder asks not taking the Faunus's words seriously.

"Well, seeing as we stopped something bad happening to you, why don't I have something else to fight for a test. Preferably a person I don't know"

Crystal asks, looking at the silent and ever calculating Salem.

Salem saw what Cinder saw during that attack, the two-tailed girl definitely had no defenses whatsoever, no stance, no weapons on hand, except for two hidden blades in her boots, she is worse than a toddler... But she clearly has no fear at all, it's non-existent... And Salem could use somebody like that, so even if her boasting about being strong was misguided nonsense, then it's still fine, people like her a rare commodity.

Though, it still doesn't explain how she made it this far in this place and how her Grimm hasn't dealt with her. Maybe she's only good at attack, is that why she has those knives? There's clearly something more to this Faunus, because throughout the whole encounter, not once has Salem been lied to by Crystal and Salem knows that. This Faunus is honest to a fault.

"Okay, I said I will test you, then that's what I will do. And if you don't want to fight Cinder, that's fine"

Cinder is about to protest, did Salem see something she hasn't in this Faunus? But that can't be, she clearly saw that she's an amateur.

Salem seeing the outright refusal to her words throws out a command with deadly seriousness "Stand down Cinder"

Cinder holds her mouth immediately and cranes her head down to look at the ground. But outside of view, she's silently gritting her teeth.

"So? What's going to happen?" Crystal asks, looking around and seeing nothing.

"Just wait a few seconds... Oh and here they are" Salem comments.

And she was right, they are here, the creatures of Grimm, climbing and crawling through the many holes on the walls of this room.

Crystal already figured out that her enemies will be these and unlike with people, she doesn't need to warn them... Though she still doesn't do anything to those that don't attack her, for some reason, they always lose their offensive will, when they happen to see so many of their own kind vanish into thin air without getting any results. She got to pet one of them once because of that. Their fur? Skin? It wasn't the best thing she's touched, but it definitely wasn't the worst.

"Kill as many Grimm as you can, they will come in waves, from weakest to strongest" Salem simply says and moves several steps away, Cinder silently follows her.

And both of them now look towards the 'battlefield'. Salem with an odd feeling that she will get to see a good show. And Cinder with blank eyes, if this Faunus wants to die, let her, at least when fighting with her, that wouldn't happen to her.

But only several dozen seconds later, both, Cinder and Salem, looked at what was happening with shocked expressions. What was happening was hard to believe even for Salem, so Cinder was absolutely out of it.

There were no Grimm left, not one out of sixty of them, Beowolves, Beetles, Griffons, Hounds, Ursas and Nevermores..., all of them got destroyed by this Faunus in mere minutes... Who wasn't hurt a tiny bit, only her clothes have suffered extensive damage, but not her flesh. And just like she answered Cinder, she did it all without moving.

When Cinder saw what happened, her blank expression returned itself to utter hate, out of jealousy of her power, the way she looked down on her for her not even being a worthy opponent, but there's also one specific and very tiny subconscious bit of fear, hidden deep within.

To be fair, even Salem doesn't know how her Grimm all vanished so quickly. To her eyes it only looked like the moment they touched Crystal, they just died. But at least now she knows that the Faunus wasn't just exaggerating on her own power, her semblance must give her that confidence, Good, Crystal will help her with her plans, now she just needs to reel her in to be a part of her following.

Salem starts walking back to the Faunus, Cinder however doesn't follow this time, she is too busy stuck in her mind.

While Salem gets closer she hears Crystal commenting "Weird" Seeing the perfect opportunity to resume their talking, she questions it.

"What is weird?" Crystal hearing the amazing womanly voice from before turns around to greet her.

"It's nothing, Salem, but most of the time the Grimm stop attacking me mid-way when they see their own die without any results. However, this time, they didn't do it and just kept attacking, that's why I spoke out loud on why it was weird"

"I see. These ones were specifically controlled by me, so they had no such will of their own to do so" Salem says not hiding anything, it's not like the Faunus is leaving this place anyway. Or if she is, that will be in a form of a corpse.

After Salem finished saying that, she saw a displeased frown form on Crystal's face. It seems she touched something within her without knowing it.

"That's sad" Is all that Crystal says.

Salem thinks for a bit about what the Faunus might mean by this... Only for her to realize that she means the Grimm being controlled by her and having no will of their own is sad. A human or a Faunus in this particuliar case is actually sympathizing with creatures of Grimm? What kind of person did she meet.

Wanting to move along the topic, Salem gets to the point "I've seen your strength, you can become my subordinate"

"I appreciate the offer, but unfortunately, I will have to refuse"

"You can't refuse, you already agreed to"

"I know, but I will simply not work for anybody, that's just not possible for me"

"Why is that?"

"Because I am my own person, I go where I want to go, I do what I want to do, nobody controls me and nobody ever will again"

"Hmm" Salem sees that Crystal won't agree to be her follower that easily, and tries a different approach "Is there anything you want in life, anything at all?" Salem knows that everybody wants something from life, and she can get them there with promises.

"I do indeed, complete and utter freedom" Crystal answers honestly, just like she always does.

That's the same thing she said before, about nobody controlling her, but there has to be something else...

"Then why aren't you 'free' already? Is there something... Or somebody stopping you?"

Crystal's eyes dim at the Grimm Queen's question. Salem seeing that she finally has gotten a different reaction latches onto it immediately.

"Who is it? Just you know, I am powerful, I can give you anything you want and I can make your wants become a reality by achieving them for you. So... Who is it?" Salem asks with a soft smile and a soothing voice, getting closer to Crystal.

Crystal stays silent as Salem gets closer to her, almost touching her at this point.

"Whoever it is, I can get them for you, you can realize your dream of having freedom once you have them, right? Then why don't we team up, you help me with my plans and I help you with yours? How about it?"

Crystal continues to stand in silence, lost in her head. Salem not getting an answer, pushes it further, as she puts both of her hands on the Faunus's shoulders, gets her face close to her ear, and asks "Now, who is that person that you want?"

Crystal breaks out in a smile and finally answers Salem, but not with what she wanted to hear "You offer is truly tempting, you being beautiful also doesn't help. But I can't join you, if I do, I have a feeling that I won't have as much limited freedom as I have now... But there's something more important at the moment, I've yet to fulfill my mom's request of me to find a specific person, so I just can't agree to join you, Salem"

That's right, because of the interruption she didn't get to finish asking her question, so Salem does it now.

"Who is that person that your mother sent you to find?"

"Her name is Salem" Crystal answers honestly.

Salem squeezes the girl's shoulders roughly, while towering over her, and smirks "Of course it's me, you wouldn't find anybody else here after all"

"Ah, so the beautiful woman knew" Crystal comments.

"So, what is that you want with me?" Salem inquires, bored.

"I am supposed to deal with you. You know, end your life"

"O-ho and you think you're up to the task?"

"Well, my mom was supposed to be here instead of me and she's quite strong. But because I am stronger than her, she sent me"

"So she sent a child to a death mission? What a mother" Salem mockingly states.

"I don't appreciate you talking badly about my mother, but no, she didn't send me to die, she believes in me to finish it, that's why I am here"

"I see... So? What are you waiting for? I am right here, standing so close, unguarded, even Cinder wouldn't make it fast enough to stop you"

"My mom said that the name Salem is carried by the most ruthless, merciless, and evil woman in existence. That she's the villain of this world"

Salem chuckles darkly "That's me"

"Are you sure? Because I feel like that's just false. In my opinion, anybody that goes out of their way to feed somebody that's starving can't be all that bad... Because I knew some that wouldn't do that and those bastards? Can't even be called people" Crystal explains not even feeling the tight hands on her shoulders.

"Is that so? Then what happens now? You go against your mom's orders and then what?"

"I am not going against the task that was given to me by my mom, I was to find you and I accomplished that, did I not? As for what's next, I don't know. My mom is so awesome, she knows that I like to be free so she allows me to do whatever it is that I want... The same thing goes with this mission. So I will probably just leave now"

Well, this is definitely not the way Salem expected this to go, though it is way more interesting than fighting... Of course, she isn't letting the Faunus walk away, she either joins her, or she dies. However maybe she should let her go and follow after her, she needs to know who this 'mother' is, not only did she know about her, but even knows that she lives in this land.

But on another thought, that doesn't matter, if this Faunus doesn't come back, that mother will either come here herself or will abandon whatever it is that she's doing.

Salem steps away from the Faunus "Are you positive that you don't want to join me?"

"If you're asking me if I want to join you, I don't" Crystal answers.

Salem sighs "How unfortunate" And before Crystal could say or do anything, a black tendril attacked her, pining for the head of the owner.

Except that Salem, nor Cinder who was standing further away not wanting to be a part of it, didn't expect that the head rolling on the ground right now would be not the Faunus' but the Grimm Queen's herself.

'How?' Is what went through Salem's mind before the casket holding the mind hit the floor.

"Indeed, how unfortunate, I liked you, beautiful lady" Crystal comments, then turns to face Cinder.

"I don't know what you've felt for her, but I am still sorry for what just happened, and you don't need to worry about me attacking you, I don't like to hurt people that don't attack me. Anyways, I will go back now, I want to see my mom and tell her the news, I hope you can find something new to do"

Cinder's face gets dark again, is she so weak in her eyes that she needs to tell her not to worry? Really? She hates her, hates her so much. She's also apologizing for 'killing' somebody, if you're going to feel sorry about it then why do it in the first place. This Faunus grinds her gears. With her fake sympathy, honesty, and her fake... Real superior power... She loathes her.

With that, Crystal turns around and starts walking away, but quickly stops mid-step. Awkwardly turns around and asks "Umm... Which way is the exit?" Crystal is really bad with directions... Or just walking places in general.

Cinder chews on her cheek from inside her mouth in annoyance and points to the small door in a corner of the big room, it's a back exit for quick leaves.

"Thank you, bye now" Crystal walks away cheerfully because she will get praised by her mom when she will return.

While Cinder stands in place, waiting, but she doesn't need to wait for long, before Salem's head magically flies in the air and attaches itself to the rest of her body.

"Cinder, follow after her, don't dare let her get away and take these two" Salem states calmly while calling two-horse Grimm to for her.

"I will be behind you, a long way, I don't want to be seen by her by mistake, who knows what else she's hiding up her sleeves. If she sees you trailing after her, just join her, she will probably allow you to go with her, she's a bit... Clueless in matters of the world it seems"

"Yes, master" Cinder lets out, getting on the horse and leaving through the same place as the Faunus. Why does she have to do this? Salem wants her herself, this shouldn't be her problem to deal with. It'd be better if the Faunus left thinking that she killed the Grimm Queen and never returned. Not only that way would they be free to do what they need to, but she wouldn't have an eyesore to look at. But her master just has to want to have her.

Much to the dismay of Cinder, Crystal hasn't made it that far, it took only two minutes for her to catch up.

So now she just needs to watch from a distance away as the Faunus slowly walks in a direction, which somewhat surprises Cinder as the Faunus previously said that she's bad with directions, yet this time she's going one direction without looking any other way.

Was she just lying? Or is there something else that she can do to help her navigate in certain situations? Then Cinder's thoughts turn to this mysterious mom figure, do they have a way to contact each other? Or is this Fuanus just randomly walking again? She guesses that only time will tell.

And this goes on for about an hour, the scenery hasn't changed even after walking steadily for so long. Everything's still drowned in purple and violet undertones.

And for the first time, the Faunus has stopped, she looks around the place in every direction possible. Cinder had to hide, to not be spotted so early. She thought she was going to get caught, but the next moment, the Faunus simply took two knives out of her boots, scratched a boulder, and then... Layed down on the ground with her back hitting said boulder and went to sleep... Why did she scratch it then? Wasn't it to keep herself from getting lost or something? The more Cinder witnesses Crystal in action, the more perplexed she is about what kind of person she may be.

So with nothing left to do, Cinder, herself hops down off of the horse Grimm and gets into a comfortable position near behind a rock... Well, as much as the terrain would allow for such a thing as comfortableness, and just watches the Faunus with as little as blinking possible.

Cinder had a thought that this will last for literal hours until the nap that the Faunus was taking would end. But yet again to her surprise, it lasted only twenty minutes or so before Crystal's eyes opened, she stood up, turned around, and looked at the marking on the rock, after, what Cinder assumes is a pleasing nod to herself, Crystal resumed walking the same way.

So Cinder quickly got up back on the horse and followed after her again. Though she had an odd feeling, that something was wrong, extremely wrong, but not with her or the area, no, it was the Faunus... She seemed different, somehow.

But this feeling didn't last long as the cycle of previous events repeated itself six times. A few hours of walking in one direction, then a scratch mark on a rock with a knife, and a short nap.

Before long, the scenery started changing. The violet skies started getting a shade of red, then blue. The ground turned from purple to gray and then to brown with green foliage.

And eventually, there were not as many big rocks for Cinder to hide behind, so it was only a matter of time before the Faunus and the future Fall maiden would meet eyes.

Cinder's blank expression met with Crystal's happy expression. Before Cinder could think of what to do, the Faunus strolled over to her and greeted her.

"Hey, hey, I knew I've smelled something familiar. It was you, the pretty girl Cinder. Why are you here?"

Not knowing how to cope with the girl's frantic actions, Cinder can only make up a lie according to Salem's orders.

"I didn't know what else to do, my master is dead, so I couldn't survive alone back in the castle. So I followed after you, can I continue doing that, at least until I get back to a more civilized part of the world?"

"Haha, of course, of course, you could've gone with me from the beginning, instead of trailing after me the whole way. It's better to have company after all"

Cinder's odd feeling from before resurfaced again, they stopped six times and three times the girl felt different in a way she couldn't tell. And after counting how events went, this Faunus is 'normal' again. She will need to think of this 'feeling' more later, now she needs to deal with this nosy two-tailed fox. Which is yet another question she needs an answer to, how does a Faunus have two tails?

"Oh, I've never seen those, what are they?" Crystal throws Cinder's careful thinking out the metaphorical window, by bringing her attention to the horse Grimm.

"It's a horse Grimm" Cinder answers as if it was obvious.

"That's a horse? I've always imagined them differently"

Cinder blinks in confusion, then asks "How did you imagine them?"

"Uhh..." Cinder scratches her cheek with her index finger while looking away.

"If you don't want to answer, you don't need to" It's not like she cares anyway.

"No, no... It's just that I seem to have forgotten how I imagined them to be... Sorry"

Seriously? With what kind of incompetent individual did Cinder get stuck with for the time being? And how such a person can be so much stronger than her, Cinder's eye twitches in annoyance.

"Then do you know where you're going?" Cinder gets to the point that was bugging her the whole time she followed the Faunus.

"I do now"

Only now? What changed? Cinder stares blankly at Crystal.

"So? How do you know now?"

"Well, before when we were in that purple rock forest, I had no idea where I was walking. But you see, we came out of it and it just happens that my own... Place where I live with my mom is between the blue sky and the dark sky. So I just had to leave the forest and now I think I can find my way back"

Cinder nods in 'understandment' but her mind is on the fact that the Faunus apparently lives close to Salem and yet she had no idea about it? How could that be?

There is one curious thing that Cinder wants to know, it doesn't matter in the bigger picture, but she has to know.

"Why did you mark the rocks with your knives when you went to sleep?"

"Oh, so I would know that I woke up in the place that I went to sleep to"

What? Cinder blinks befuddled. How does that make any sense?

Crystal continues explaining, or more like telling about herself without any care "There were a few times when I went to sleep in one place, then woke up in another place. So if I mark where I sleep, then I know if I wake up there, or if it's somewhere new and in a rocky forest with the same things that an eye can see over a long distance, it was necessary to know if I am at the same place"

Cinder thinks for a bit about the given information. Sleepwalking? OR... Is the hidden answer to that odd feeling about the Faunus changing in some ways when she woke up after sleeping? She knows even less now than before she asked and she doesn't like it.

"I see, well then lead the way, I will follow" Cinder can only say this, not wanting to seem suspicious about asking questions. But of course, she doesn't know that Crystal would never suspect her on anything, she really believes that she finished Salem, and well... She's already too honest and would just answer any question she was asked, from pretty much anybody, except her obvious enemies.

"Okay!" Crystal lets out and starts walking to the side, changing directions for the first time. Her plan? To walk around the entirety of the land of darkness until she gets to her place. Cinder without knowing that, just follows... She's in for a long, long journey... Which could've been avoided if they just left through a different exit which the Castle has plenty of.

And so, the duo walked for hours and hours. Until Cinder gave up to Crystal's many looks at the Horse Grimm and allowed the Faunus to join her on the second horse, they galloped on them instead... Also for hours.

Of course, surviving the prying eyes at the horses from the Faunus wasn't the only thing Cinder had to put up with. No, it was the never shutting up the mouth of said Faunus.

When Crystal had a topic in mind she'd speak about it immediately and maybe Cinder would've been fine with it, if not for the fact that ninety-five percent of those topics were about sex and lovemaking... She was so annoyed inside that she wished for the Faunus's tongue to just disappear. But there is some good news for Cinder, there's no more reason to do research about what top and bottom mean anymore, so there's that...

Cinde was also starting to feel hungry a little bit, but it's barely noticeable due to her past adapting her for it. If she had to guess, the two of them spent around thirteen hours wandering around.

There was once again silence between the two, peacefully galloping on the horse Grimm, but Cinder knew that it won't last for long and she was correct as Crystal opened her mouth to speak again.

However, it was something that Cinder didn't expect to hear.

"Let's have some fun"

Cinder would question what the part of 'fun' means in normal situations, but since she more or less knows everything about this Faunus, the fun can only mean one thing. So her immediate subconscious answer is a conviction filled "No"

It happened so fast that Cinder had to register that she actually replied.

"Whaaa? Why?" Crystal lets out pouting.

"Why should we have... Fun" Cinder spits the last word with some venom behind it.

"Well, why not? We know each other, I like how you look, I am beautiful, it feels amazing, you're missing out and it will let us take a break"

Those reasons... Are so superficial. Why can't they just take a break instead of taking a 'fun' break? And does this Faunus request everybody she meets to have sex? Then if she'd agreed wouldn't she be just a... Cinder doesn't even know what she'd be in that case.

"No" Answers Cinder again.

"Come on, please? I will even let you to... Would you rather top me or be my bottom?"

Cinder's eyes widen at the straightforwardness of the question "What?" Is the only thing to come out of her mouth.

"Well, when I talked about top and bottoms, dominating somebody or being dominated, that was the only time where you were interested when I talked about sex, so I thought that if I brought it up, you'd be interested in trying. So which one is it? Top or Bottom?"

Cinder blankly stares at the Faunus, it wasn't because she was interested in it... It was because she wanted to know the meaning of the words... It is showing interest but in something else, yet this Faunus misunderstood it... But what's more surprising is the fact that she paid attention at all. She appears to be keener than Cinder first thought.

"It's still a no" Cinder rejects the offer again, there's no way she will every sleep with this Faunus, she loathes her.

"Awww" Crystal lets out deject and shuts up sulking.

Cinder ignores the sulking Faunus, at least this way she doesn't talk. And her mind wonders off. Of course there's no contest on what she is, the question shouldn't even exist, she's a top and nothing else. No way would she ever be a bottom, the mere thought of that disgusts her so much that if she thought about it for a longer period of time, she'd retch.

How dare the Faunus even insinuate that with her stupid talk.

For the next two hours of riding on horse grimm, the Faunus stayed silent, so Cinder actually could stand the company, she thought that her rejection was hard on her.

That is wrong, Crystal was silent thinking of a way to get her to agree, trying to come up with a plan, she really wants to have sex with this girl and her thirst for her increased when she rejected her, she likes a challenge.

Maybe just go for it? Try to seduce her while nude? Or slowly, while saying that it's too hot, start disrobing herself little by little?

But then it strikes her... When they get home, she will have time... Loads of time to get together with her. Yes, yes, indeed. And with that thought, Crystal breaks out in a big smile again.

Cinder seeing the Faunus smiling like nothing ever happened, feels creeped out because she thinks that she will start talking nonsense again.

But much to her dismay and relief, the Faunus stayed silent for the rest of the journey, which ended forty minutes after their 'fun' conversation.

"There it is!" Crystal breaks the silence when she sees her home... The lab in which she spent her childhood.

Cinder looks over the building, no windows, only one door, the whole thing is in rubbles, with moss-grown all around it. She does see that there was an attempt to fix the places that were really broken, so as to not let rain through inside.

~ End of Special Chapter, part 1 ~