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Koi was a simple, small but not quite tiny little thing when he reached it, circling lazily high overhead to get a literal bird's eye view of the place. It was pretty typical for a little harbor town, everything considered.
The bay was deep but slight, the coastline only just curving to form the barest hint of a crescent bay. A single large, reinforced and very professionally built dock stuck straight out from a little cluster of warehouses and fish-packing buildings that had been built in the center of the coastline's curve, to give as much access to the water for the boats as possible.
Around them were houses, stacked high and close all the way out to the thick, stone wall that enclosed the little settlement. A small town hall had been built on the opposite side of the warehouses and factories, complete with a little fountain plaza. And hey, a tiny little Air-Dock had even been built across from the town hall.
Swanky.
The little town was Kingdom commissioned, like so many other small harbor settlements that dotted the southern coasts of Anima. All of them had been built with nice, top-of-the-line, for ten years ago anyway, fish factories to support the town. And warehouses to support the trade coming in from Menagerie, which was why the towns had been built at all.
All in line with Mistral's then new doctrine of 'decentralised supply chains for trade and resource', of course. Or, the way he preferred it, 'make tiny, cheap towns and that make our money even if a few get attacked'.
It was always impressively depressing the way big shipping industries would risk people for more regular trade…
'Eyes on the job, Qrow.' He reminded himself, turning onto a new updraft and shaking his tiny, feathered head. 'Oz didn't send you out here to gripe about politics.'
The town looked fine, though, all things considered. Old and run down, but only in the normal sorts of ways. Old buildings, old, worn ships on the dock, and even a few proper Menagerie ships going about their business. He even spotted a proper Mistrali ship lazing about in the water, turning to leave on a military patrol.
Summer kept telling him how useful being a 'part time' bird was, and as usual, she was right. Getting a look at the place like this was useful. Even if he didn't see much of anything off about the town, circling high overhead.
Out of paranoia, and so he could say he'd checked them if Oz asked, he turned down and swept along the tops of the docked ships. The fishermen shouted and threw tins at him, but only when he neared the fish. The shipping liner ignored him completely, though, even when he landed on the guard-rails and squawked at the workers.
Nothing but normal, as far as he could see.
'Guess on I'll have to get down and look around on foot…' He sighed, flapping out to see until he found another heat-based updraft to carry him up, towards the clouds. 'Figures. Just when the weather was getting nice for flying, gotta land to walk around like the rest of the plebs. Ah well, maybe I can find an excuse later.'
The little town had a handful of gates built along its perimeter so he circled north to find a landing place near enough to the road to make his way in.
"Name and papers, please." A tired looking guard in the barest hint of padded armor asked him an hour later when he finally reached the check-in desk beside the gate.
"Branwen." He answered, handing the little plastic cards the man would need over the little kiosk's desk. "Qrow Branwen. I'm a Huntsman, you see."
"A Huntsman?" The man tipped his broad sunhat up and back to meet his eyes, and then smiled when Qrow nodded. "Thank the Dust itself," the man sighed, shaking his head and offering the little plastic cards back to him, "I was hoping they'd hire someone."
"Just passin' through. I wasn't hired." At least by anyone he was talking about. Checking over his shoulder that there wasn't a line, which there wasn't, he leaned on the kiosk's counter and asked, "Why would they need to hire a Huntsman, though? Grimm?"
"If only." The man sighed, shaking his head and easing back in the cheap little wooden chair. The only piece of furniture in the otherwise empty, mostly closed up little booth. "Been a line o' settlements raided up and down the coast by a big bandit tribe. The Branwen tribe, last I heard. Assuming there's no relation?"
"None at all." The lie was an old, familiar one, and he delivered it well. Spend enough time working Mistral and someone was bound to make the connection and ask after all. "Worried about gettin' hit?"
"We all are." He nodded, sighing, "Would like some better gear than a padded shirt and an old piece of ass rifle, but…"
"Life." The Huntsman shrugged, fishing out a hundred Lien card and setting it down for him. The guard gave it a confused look and then him, and he explained, "Got some questions, and you got a need for better gear. Mind tradin'?"
"Depends…"
"It's nothin' that you'll mind trading." He assured the man, giving him the practiced, easy smile Summer had helped him practice. "Just 'bout Grimm, passersby, the big names around here. Useful, perfectly legal, stuff."
"...Union boss that runs the shipping in 'n out is Mister Grey, lives in the main warehouse. Has a little apartment in it and that's where he stays." The guard answered quietly, taking and pocketing the money quickly. As if he was afraid Qrow would stop him and shout for other guards. When he didn't, the man went on, "Mayor Wilguy is, well, the mayor. Lookin' for work, he pays. Him and Captain Brass, he leads the town guard."
"Mhm." He already knew all that thanks to Oz, but he played like he was noting it anyways for the look of it. "Any kinda information brokers you know of?"
"Informations…?"
"Yeah, like, gettin' dirt on people, findin' people, that sort of thing." The man grimaced at the question and, looking to either side and finding the only other guards nearby busy checking the trucks coming and going through the road portion of the gate, which seemed to get vastly more traffic, he fished out another hundred Lien. Setting it down gently, he explained, "I'm lookin' for someone. Young lady, barely eighteen, told her folks she was datin' a Faunus. Didn't go over well."
"I imagine that went badly…"
"Yeah. They tried to elope, Faunus kid got shot, shit wasn't pretty. Not by her parents," he added when the man's eyes widened, "was a gang. Little pack o' thugs, back in the city scammed 'em and got the guy. Can't say which, privacy 'n all. But the folks just want their daughter back, or to at least know she's alright."
"Yeah, I get that."
"Mhm. Tragic, that." It was pretty common for people to run and hide in backwaters, so he didn't need to explain why he was looking there. And given how close Menagerie was, he doubted the man would mind someone who'd dated a Faunus getting help, Human or not. "So, I'm lookin' for her. Information brokers might have some info to go on."
"Guards might too." The man offered quietly, tapping his desk again. Sighing like it was some horrible tax on him, he fished out another hundred and laid it down. Pocketing it the man asked, "Got a picture? A name?"
"Naomi Frost." Qrow answered, tugging the old picture Ozpin had given him out of his coat pocket and handing it to him. "She's got a Semblance you mighta noticed. Elemental, flares up if she feels anxious or upset. Kinda short, young."
"Saw her about a week back, yeah. Came through my check-in early, she'd been waiting on the gate opening up so i remember it." The man nodded, giving him a suddenly wary look. "She seemed shook up, but fine to me. Stayed a few days and then left."
"Headed…?" The man's eyes narrowed more and Qrow growled, pulling out five hundred more Lien and slamming them down on the kiosk desk. The man's eyes widened at the amount, now over half a year's salary, and Qrow growled, grateful for the good luck "I need to find her, she's in danger. People are after her."
"She was headed north, along the coastline." The man murmured, taking the Lien quickly and stuffing it in his pocket. "The Branwen Tribe has been raiding down it, towards us, but she didn't care. I don't know why."
"I do." Because of him, damn it. Dropping another hundred Lien on the desk he grunted, quietly, We didn't meet."
"Don't gotta tell me twice…"
Turning, he jogged back up the road, headed towards the trees so that he could change back into his bird form and head north. She was far enough ahead of him that he couldn't try tracking her and expect any good to come from it. It would be easier to find the Tribe itself and wait for her to show up rather than track the Maiden herself, anyways. Still, it took half an hour before he got anywhere he felt safe to shift in.
But it was only noon, so he had time to look for Raven. And besides, the sun still felt so nice on his feathers. He was lucky that the weather had stayed nice enough to fly.
He even had the wind at his back.
Four hours of flying, mainly spent gliding on the good winds, passed in peace and quiet. The sun was beginning to set and it was getting dark, enough he almost turned to look for a good spot to sleep. Human form or bird form he didn't mind either way, sleep was sleep. And however the magic that Ozpin used to let him shift his form worked, it meant that eating and sleeping worked in either body.
Which was kind of handy, if he ever felt pinched for Lien and needed a bite.
At the last second, though, a drifting cloud back-lit several thin, nearly translucent smoke pillars. He'd have recognized it anywhere, the tell-tale sign of a camp of a good number of people that wanted to stay hidden. And with the raids going on along the coast, there should only be one group like that in the region. Not wanting to be outed as the bird man that he was, he landed a mile out, facing the smoke trails so he'd keep his bearings, and started the long walk to the camp.
Somehow, he was lucky enough not to run into anything, be it patrols or Grimm, as he made his way.
Soon, he could see the hastily assembled palisade that marked a Branwen camp out. The flag was even there, streaming above the camp when he ventured close enough to the wall to see above the camp. Backing away, into the tree-line, he started circling around to look for the gate so he could 'present himself' in a way that, at least hopefully, wouldn't get him shot at or anything.
Hard to manage with a group of killers and thieves, but worth trying at least.
A quiet vibrating in his coat pocket tugged him to a stop before he ever got to find the gate, though. Fishing it out, he flicked it open to check who could possibly be calling him right now and grimaced. 'Tai? But he never calls me… It's always Summer, because he and I argue too much.'
But, if he was calling, that meant that something was probably going on.
So, he flicked the little 'take call' button and held it up to his ear, leaning against a tree so he was less likely to be seen. "Tai," he grunted, "lemme guess, you got someone pregnant-"
"Qrow…" The man answered quietly and weakly, as if his voice was bordering on breaking just by trying to speak. It was so similar to how he'd sounded after Raven left that Qrow physically felt his snark be sucked away, like dust into a vacuum. "Qrow," the man went on, "where are you right now?"
"Southern Mistral." He answered, "Working."
"For Ozpin…?"
"Yeah, for Oz." He spent most of his time working for Ozpin, nowadays. "Tai, what's going on?"
"It's Summer, she-" The man's words died in a whine, like he wa sin pain, and Qrow felt his heart starting to race. "S-She went on a job, f-for Oz she said. Out to Vacuo. But she didn't- Qrow, Shade sent us her- Her cloak."
"Her… Cloak…?"
"It was all they said they could recover…" The man sobbed, dropping the Scroll judging from the loud thud that echoed through the call and screeched in his ears. Distantly, he could hear the man muttering, brokenly, "Qrow, I need you, please- The girls- I can't do it, I can't do it- She looks like her and I-"
"I'm on my way." He growled, ending the call and launching into a sprint. He could hear shouts of alarm as he ran and birds scattered, startled by his presence and speed. When he found the gate, a handful had come out to meet whoever was there and he raised his voice, shouting, "I am Qrow Branwen! I need to speak with my sister!"
"You can wait right here, then." One man said, face more scar than face. At his nod he turned and vanished through the closing gate, leaving him to wait.
After a few minutes the woman showed herself, sword on her hip, eyes narrow and half a dozen tribe members behind her. "What do you want, Qrow?"
"A portal to Tai." The woman opened her mouth to argue and he took a step towards her, bellowing, "Summer is dead, Rae, I need to be there! Give me a damn portal, alright?"
"Summer is…" For the first moment in their entire life, he saw Raven Branwen stagger as the words hit her and sank in. After a moment, she managed to school her face if not her voice, "Fine, I'll… I'll open you a portal, but that's it. That's… I have work here, right now."
"Fine." He didn't expect anything more, after all. Instead he waved his hands at her impatiently, "Come on, then, Rae. I need to be there now."
"Right." She nodded, stepping forward, drawing a sword she used to cut him a shortcut from Mistral to Patch behind her. He wasted no time brushing by towards it, until she grabbed his arm and tugged him to a stop. "I, uh- The funeral. Will you let me know when… When I need to make time?"
'Leave it to her to make it sound like a chore…' He sighed, "I will."
Through the portal he found Tai, in his room and curled up in the corner with a bottle of whiskey by him and Summer's cloak on the little twin. Torn and bloodied, with a gash right through where her back would have been. It was enough of a sight in and of itself to rob him of his breath and make him choke around the knot that sprung to life in his throat. Still, he managed to choke down a breath and go over to the man.
Sitting with him, he took the bottle and unscrewed it, asking, "Got a glass for me?"
"Top drawer." The man murmured, "There's- She was going to give it to you, as a-a present."
"Yeah, 'bout that time o' year." He chuckled, pulling the drawer he'd point out open and finding the little box in there.
It was broken on one side, nestled amongst his socks and clearly shoved in there to hide it from the kids. But he pulled it out and opened it up anyways. Taking the elegant little silver flask from it he sighed, unscrewing the cap and filling it up and sitting on the bed.
Tai gave him a look and, silently, they shared a drink.
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So, this story is a bit of a test bed for a concept. Qrow, and written from the angle of well-executed Hunts against the grimm later on, starting here. Right after Summer's death. Already I'm hinting at things, part of the more thorough planning I'm putting in, so I look forward to if anyone catches a lot of it. This story will also undergo major jumps in time, which I will be clear to mark using probably Ruby and Yang or other elements.
But, for now, a test bed. One I look forward to hearing responses to.
Stay Twisted, my friends.