Carry You

It took a little while for Blake to come back. Though, when she did, she was completely dressed again. Weiss frowned. “What’s going on?” “Dinner.” Oh, right. Weiss stroked her floatie over to the stairs and got out of the pool dripping wet. Turi was with Blake and walked over to Weiss, waving her hand near her and the excess water drained from the bathing suit and her hair. “There.” “We need to get to the dining room. We can come back after dinner,” Blake said. Weiss nodded. “All right.” She went back to the changing rooms and changed into her overstuffed holiday hen clothes and followed Blake to the dining room. She was a bit frustrated that she would have to wait to see if magic was something she wanted to pursue or not. This would’ve been her first foray into the mysterious topic and she wanted to see what it was like firsthand and maybe even try it. But that obviously wasn’t in the cards, much to her frustration. She would’ve rather just honestly stayed in the pool. Skipping a meal wouldn’t have been the end of the world. But apparently the fae were big on meals… She didn’t get it. Meals were just a way to sustain life. They arrived at the dining hall and Weiss took her usual place next to Valerie who smiled and waved at her a bit. “Hey Weiss!” “Hey.” “You cut your hair.” Weiss’ hand went to her much,muchshorter hair and was instantly self-conscious about it. Did it look bad? She trusted the stylist to make it look nice. She had only ever been allowed short trims, up to an inch, to keep her hair healthy and growing as it should have. President Jacques would have beenbeyondoutraged if he saw her with hair this short. “Does it look bad on me?” Normally she would hide her insecurities but…she couldn’t do that. Her hair had been a source of pridefor himbecause it was so long. Almost no other girl her age had had hair as long as hers. “I’ve never had short hair before.” Valerie shook her head and smiled. “No, it looks nice! Honestly, I can’t understand how you dragged all that extra weight around, especially when wet. How did you dry it?” “I used a hair drier.” “What…in the world is that?” Weiss tilted her head. They didn’t know what a hair drier was…? Then again, with how Turi had used the magic to remove the moisture from her hair…that only made sense. They had magic to address issues like that. She explained what one was, though it was stumbling and not the most descriptive. Trying to explain what a hair drier was to someone that had never used one and had no frame of reference for it proved harder than she though. “I…think I get it. So it basically uses heat to dry your hair.” Weiss nodded. “At the most fundamental level, yes.” “Even though water is the base realm of the Undine, pretty much every fae eventually learns to use water magic. It’s not hard to just wick out the excess water once you have a good grasp on how to deal with it.” Weiss nodded. “That’s what Turi did when we got out of the pool… Although…” She looked at Blake. “WhereisTuri? She’s never joined us for a meal before.” “She takes her meals in her room. Lider and Misum manners are quite different and Misum manners often offend Lider,” Blake explained. That made some level of sense, she supposed. She had offended fae manners earlier and was trying to learn them as best she could through osmosis. If Atlassian manners could offend fae, she could easily imagine that Misum manners could offend the Lider. People were so different that it was really odd to her. She didn’t know how people could be so different… It just made no real sense to her. There were biological differences between men and women, of course but still… Different cultures didn’t really make much sense to her. “I see.” Weiss looked back at Valerie. “So are you excited for tomorrow? It’s our eagle expedition!” The fae practically bounced up and down in her seat. Weiss nodded. “It does sound exciting.” She knew she didn’tseemexcited, but it was childish and uncouth to show excessive amounts of excitement. She hadlonglearned that showing too much emotion in any direction could and would result in being beaten. She was excited to see the eagles fly and possibly the gyrfalcons. She didn’t really recall the name of the person who would be bringing the gyrfalcons… She hadn’t seen one yet, so she was interested to see what they looked like. She’d really only seen caracaras, owls, and a couple other species. No falcons yet. She wanted to see what they’d do and how they flew. “You don’tseemvery excited…” “I am.” She smiled a bit more for Valerie’s sake, but the fae looked unconvinced. Yeah, she wasn’t very good at faking emotions. Shewasexcited, but she just didn’tshow itreally. It was childish and would result in her being ostracised. She should only get excited if she was around her husband or husband-to-be… That was the only time she was allowed to be excited. Of course, it had beencompletelyfeigned. She had never been excited to be around her fiance. She was really glad that she didn’t have to endure the fate of an Atlassian wife… She was still a little overwhelmed by all of the fae culture and everything else, but…it was nice. She didn’t have to stay in her room, she had pretty much unfettered access to knowledge, and she could even go outside and ride pretty much as she pleased. She felt no real need to go out shopping by herself, but maybe someday… “Well, tomorrow’s gonna be a blast; I promise. Eagles areinsanelycool birds to fly. Really tough and not for beginners, but my eagles are fairly well trained by this point. They know what’s up. If you want, you can act as a mobile perch for some of them. Though…you’re not used to animal death, are you?” Weiss shook her head. “You’re still in the beginning stages of learning, so I’m not gonna make you dispatch the prey if the eagle you’re holding doesn’t take care of it cleanly. But if you do fly a bird, youhaveto learn to take care of that.” Weiss sighed. “I know.” She knew this was for sport and that the food wouldn’t go to waste. The birds would definitely eat it even if the fae didn’t. She was getting used to handling the bodies of the quail that Lilyana fed the day and night crew, but even so… She didn’t know if she had it in her to be able to fully dispatch an animal’s life. She’d only ever been out on one hunting expedition which was the one Blake had found her on. She hadn’t seen anything die and wasn’t keen on death, but she knew it was pretty much the point of falconry. To see a raptor act on its natural instincts and take prey. She just…really didn’t know how to handle it. “If you wanna be a falconer, you’re gonna have to grapple with it eventually. That red tail of Lilyana’s will be better for you to start out on than micros.” “I know; you’ve told me before.” She would still prefer the micros honestly. She was incredibly in tune with details due to working with dust so often. Even parts of a gram off could result innastydifferences and unexpected side effects. Well. Unexpected because she hadn’t calculated for the difference in weight. She worked down to the millionths of a gram, sometimes even more. Even one millionth off could result in nastiness. She really,reallyknew how to keep an eye on amount… But she would be pretty much forced to start off with the red tail because there was larger margin for error. “It’s because it’s true. Micros requireextremeattention to detail. Even a gram or two off and you couldkillthe bird. You need to besocareful with micros. I would only suggest starting off with a kestrel if youintendon sticking to micros. Temperament-wise, theyaregood beginner birds. But weight-wise, they’re a nightmare. I got started on Harris hawks and then moved to falcons, then moved to eagles. Granted, an eagle is amuchdifferent beast from a falcon. I had to fly a parent-reared gyrfalcon before our falconer would let me fly an eagle.” Weiss tilted her head. “Why’s that? And what does ‘parent reared’ mean?” “Basically, there are a couple different ways you can get a bird. First, trapped from the wild. Not an awakened animal. Second, domestically born. Either pulled as an eyas to be imprinted or taken a bit later and they were reared by their parents in a chamber without previous fae contact. Parent-reared birds are more wild than imprints, though imprints require very,veryspecific training to handle. Handled wrong and they can be an absolutenightmare.Buteos are generallynotimprinted because they require averyhigh skill level to make sure they aren’t alegitimate terror.I’ve heard of improperly imprinted red tails that can and do attack their handlers because they’re essentiallyfearless.So for those flying buteos, we take them from the chamber when they’re passage age and chamber raised without previous contact. Does all of that make sense?” “To some degree.” It was a lot of information to take in all at once. “Are imprints better than parent reared?” “Both have their pros and cons. Imprints aremuchmore friendly than parent reared since you’ve socialised them from a young age. Parent reared can still become very friendly and social since they’re awakened animals. They can still bond to you strongly. But they’re not going to be as vocal and attacking you because you weren’t their source of food at a young age. I definitely prefer imprints, but if imprinted wrong, their personalities can be terrible and they can beincrediblynoisy to the point of screaming which youdon’twant.” “Why?” She had so much to learn about falconry. “Because they scream in the field and give away your position to prey. That and it’s justannoyingto go out of the house and hear themscreamingbecause they’re begging for food. That baby instinct never went away. That’s not to say they can’t bechattybecause they can be. Butscreamingandchattyare twocompletelydifferent things. You can talk with them no problem, but you absolutelydo notwant them screaming at you.” Weiss nodded a bit. “I see…” She still didn’t quite understand the difference between screaming and chatty, but she was trying. Baby instinct or something… She didn’t entirely understand it. She would need more clarification but she’d need to go to Lilyana for it probably. She didn’t want to seem like a complete idiot in front of Valerie. She was new to falconry, so yeah… She had honestly never heard of anybody hunting with birds of prey before. Guns and dogs before, sure, but not raptors. It was crazy how people could form bonds with wild animals and domesticate them. She was entirely enamored with the birds but yeah… She may never be fit to hunt which saddened her. “With eagles, it’s especially dangerous because they’re so large. A kestrel and foot you but it won’t puncture through your entire hand. An eagle foots you and it’s a race against the clock. Evenwithhealing magic, there’s only so much we can do if an infection gets deep enough. A raptor's claws arenastythings because of how they eat. All sorts of blood and guts and viscera.” Weiss cringed a bit at that. It was true but even so… She hadn’t thought about it like that. “Even a little scratch can cause some serious issues.” “I know gloves are for the bird’s comfort more than protection, but still… It seems to completely defy the point of any sort of protection.” Yeah, with as powerful as something like an aura golden eagle would be, there wasnoway a simple little glove would prove sufficient protection. Not unless it was like five inches thick all around, but then, that would go against the point of a glove to be thin enough to feel the bird’s feet and everything like that… Man, there was so much she had to learn about the topic. “With a kestrel, it can provide some protection. But yeah, once you get into larger birds like peregrines, gyrfalcons, and eagles, ain’t much you can do to protect yourself.” Valerie shrugged. “Why not use spells to make gloves puncture proof?” Magic seemed to be able to do a lot of things that normally weren’t possible. They could create material fromliterally nothing.Why not add in spells to make gloves puncture proof? That seemed like a no-brainer to her. It would ensure that nobody got infected with only Holy Father-knew-what sort of infections from a raptor’s claws. Valerie let out a little noise. “Huh. Honestly never would’ve thought of that. I guess it’s because it’s just tradition to not do that. Someone’s probably thought of it and done it at some point, but it’s never become standard practice for falconers. Again, we’re working with mostly awakened animals, so they’re smart enough to not foot usgenerallyspeaking. Their instincts can still kick in and they can bate and such… You’ll have to learn how to deal with that. It’s not fun, but a red tail is much more forgiving than an eagle when they bate.” “Bate?” She hadn’t encountered that term yet. “Basically, it’s when they fall off the glove in a panic and flap around wildly. With something tiny like a kestrel, it’s not a huge deal because their wingspan is so short. A red tail is annoying because it has a decently sized wingspan. With an eagle, it’s amassivestruggle because you’re looking at seven to ten feet for a wingspan and they’re like five to ten pounds of pure muscle. You have to try to calm them down when they’re in a panic.” Valerie shook her head. “That’s another reason it’d be better to start off with a larger bird but not ahugeone. It’ll give you the fortitude to work with a panicked bird when in a stressful situation without riskingactuallyhurting you beyond maybe some bruises.” “Thankfully, I don’t really have to worry about that… I have my aura activated.” She kept it a secret from President Jacques and he somehow hadn’t noticed that she didn’t get injured or have bones broken. Winter had unlocked her aura the first time they’d met. He’d thrown her down a marble staircase and broken her arm. That had beenincrediblypainful and takenweeksto heal. She was glad she’d never had to endure another broken bone in her life and she never would again. Though something like falling off a pegasus would still leave her in anincredibleamount of pain should it happen. She probably wouldn’t die or receive major injury, but it would hurt immensely. Valerie nodded. “That’s your term for soul, right?” Weiss nodded. “Yeah, you won’t have to worry about injury from a raptor then. But can you still feel pain?” Weiss nodded and rubbed her cheek. “Yeah, Iabsolutelycan. I’ve been tossed into walls and such and it hurt like crazy.” The slaps across the face had been largely numbed, but she’d been thrown into walls with a fair amount of force. She still remembered the pain screaming in her back. She still turned out a little dazed afterward because of the sheer amount of pain. And it didn’t protect form the stinging cold either. She still needed to dress for the weather which… Well. She didn’t have to worry about here, thankfully. Aside from her face, neck, and hands, she was covered by cooling clothing which didn’t exhaust her even when she was riding. She was beyond thankful for that or else she wouldn’t be able to go outside at all. Valerie winced. “Ouch. So youwouldfeel a raptor beating against you most likely.” “Depending on how hard it was… I don’t feel things like slaps and stuff, or at least not badly.” Valerie frowned. “You talk about this stuffwaytoo easily.” “It was just how my life was. I…didn’t think there was any other way until I came here.” It really was just the fact of life for her. She hadn’t known any other way was possible. Atlas was built on this sort of behavior in families. Women were treated with little to no respect and were really just vessels for their husbands to put children into. That wasit.She had no idea women could take positions of leadership or anything like that. Winter was amajorexception to the rule… Womenweren’tsupposed to holdanysort of power in Atlas. And there wasn’t supposed to be warmth between family members either… “That’s really sad.” Valerie frowned a bit. Yeah, it was sad… She really hadn’t known there could be warmth, love, and support as the norm rather than an exception. Winter seemed to be the exception to the rule, but love, care, and support seemed to be the complete norm here. She didn’t doubt there were backstabbing politics between those in the upper class, of course, because that was just the nature of power. It did corrupt people especially the more they had. Or at least it seemed like it. It was rare for people to not fall to the temptation and abuse what they had been given. “I’m glad you’re here now. This world seems alotbetter than what you came from.” Weiss nodded. “Yeah. Atlas is…Atlas.” There was no other word to describe Atlas. It was just what it was. That was the only way she could put it. “It’s a nasty place and that’s amassiveunderstatement. I really can’t believe how much different it is here compared to Atlas.” She couldn’t even call it ‘home.’ It hadneverfelt like home. It was just a place to live and survive. That wasit.There was no warmth. There was no kindness. What little had been there in Schnee manor had evaporated the moment Winter left. Whitley was just as vicious as President Jacques was. There was no redeeming either of them. All they wanted was money and power; that wasit.And they would dowhateverthey could to obtain it. “Well, it’s good that you’re here.” Valerie tapped her chin. “Wasn’t there a fae that took your place?” Weiss looked at Blake. Blake would know better than Weiss. Blake nodded. “An Undine named Auria. Her father treats me like his own, so I know the family fairly well. I cannotimagineAuria rolling over and just accepting the treatment Weiss went through. Shedefinitelywould’ve raised hell. I would besurprisedif she let Weiss’ father live beyond a day or so. Things have probably been shaken upprettyintensely.” Weiss frowned. “I really wonder how she’s gonna handle going to Beacon.” “Beacon?” Blake asked. Weiss nodded. “The combat school I’ve mentioned I was supposed to go to. It’s for Hunters who are the people who fight against the Grimm and keep humanity safe. I was supposed to go there next year, but I’m not sure if Auria would want to go there or not.” She was honestly glad she didn’t have to keep up with combat training anymore. She wasnotcut out for the life of a Hunter and sheknew it.She was far too delicate mentally and physically to be able to handle the rugged travel and possibly evenkilling other humanswhen it came down to it. Not all missions would result in death, but the more intensive the mission, the more money that got paid out. For a lot of Hunters, she imagined that those sorts of missions were lucrative and tempting. “I mean, why were you going there in the first place?” Blake asked. “In order to go to Vale and for Winter to keep me away from the SDC for a while. That’s all I know. Winter was obviously planningsomethingbut she never told me the plan, probably to keep it from getting to President Jacques.” She didn’t blame Winterat allfor keeping information from her in this case. Frustrating, yes, but understandable. But she hadn’t told him about the Beacon acceptance letter or anything… She was pretty good at keeping secrets. She hadsomuch to keep from him. She’d never told him about her aura either. So she could definitely keep a secret despite how nosy that man was, but Winter definitely had to have her reasons for not trusting Weiss. “I see.” Blake frowned. “Combat is more of an exercise thing here than…actual combat practice. There hasn’t been a war here inmillenniabecause it dragseveryoneinto it and we generally don’t want all-out wars anymore. Only a few of the oldest living fae remember the last war. It affectseveryoneand ravages the land. If unicorns are affected, then fae also are in horrible, horrible ways. Peopledie.And because we have a much,muchlower birth rate than other races and species here, it takesgenerationsto fully repopulate with fae… We justcan’trisk wars anymore.” “The last war was about sixty years ago for Remnant. The Faunus Revolt. Then before that was the Great War that involved all four kingdoms.” Blake shook her head. “Sixty years is nothing for a fae once they start getting past about three hundred. To me, sixty years still sounds like a decently long time since I’m only seventeen, but I’ll live to be around 20,000 or so, possibly more. Though, Weiss, if you do want to keep up your combat skills, we could probably find you a teacher.” Weiss frowned and shook her head. “No, not really… I was only doing it because I was supposed to go to Beacon. I’m not someone thatlikesto fight. Some people enjoy it, but I really don’t. I don’t like the idea of hurting others.” Blake nodded. “Sounds like you align with fae values in that regard then… Thereareother ways to exercise. Honestly, just walking around the manor is a good way to exercise. There’s also horseback riding and swimming as well. If you get into falconry, then you’ll be walking and riding in the forests a lot. You can easily stay in shape through other means.” Weiss nodded. “That’s definitely good…” She had really only learned to fight so that way she could go to Beacon. She didn’t want to fight or learn anything like that… Her Semblance was fun, though… She was just a little disappointed she would never get to practice summoning. She needed to kill at leastoneGrimm with her own hands in order to be able to summon. Winter had never divulged how summoning worked to her, honestly… She wasn’t sure why. But, really, that was a minor issue. She wanted to learn about her Semblance as much as possible because it was justfunto mess around with. But other than that…no, she really didn’t care for fighting. Pretty much everyone had finished up by that point and everyone was starting to hand their plates off to the servants. Valerie stretched. “Well, all’s well that ends well.” She smiled at Weiss. “See you tomorrow?” Weiss nodded. “Yes. I’m looking forward to seeing the eagles and the gyrfalcons. I should probably go help Lilyana with evening feeding anyway. Thank you for the invitation.” She smiled. Everyone departed and she followed suit, heading out to the mews blocks where she’d meet Lilyana for evening feeding.