All the groups lost track of time because the sun never set.
The odd thing was, most of them forgot to even wonder why it had been up so long.
When Shine pointed it out finally, Wally said that the sun never set in the north sometimes--maybe it was that.
"But it moves," Shine said. "I don't think it's moved more than a few feet along our vision... That's not that far."
"But nothing else is happening," Wally said.
"And that's the weirder part--something else should be happening," Shine said.
"You're too paranoid, Likstar." Torchwick adjusted his hat.
Neo nodded.
"I'm sorry, I'm too paranoid about being in the land of Grimm and nothing attacking us for a whole day?" Shine said.
They shrugged.
"It's a welcome change." Theo was carrying Vara again. "We could use a respite from all that, don't you think? I don't mind some quality time to not be trying not to get eaten."
"Mmm." Vara had a book in her one hand.
"You know, if you have enough energy to read that, why do you need him to carry you?" Jaune said.
"Shh." Vara put a finger to her lips behind Theo's head.
Pyrrha shook her head and smiled. "Maybe I'm losing it, but that's kind of cute, not... weird."
"It's still weird," Cinder said.
"How would you know?" Vara said snippily. "You're not interested in men or anyone else."
"I never said that," Cinder said.
"Trust me," Theo said, "say you're not, for your own sake."
Vara was eyeing Cinder like she was a target.
"You know that I have this." Cinder held up her Grimm arm. "I could just take those powers off your hands if you don't want them so badly."
"Thanks, but I decided against the surgery option," Vara said. "And if you're going to suck the life out of me, you'd have to at least propose first." [I apologize for this joke. But it is in character.]
"Oh..." Pyrrha made a face.
Wally almost laughed and then saw Shine glaring at him.
"Well," he changed the subject, "do you think we're getting close to Salem?"
"I hope not," Vara muttered.
Shine consulted the map.
"I think we're... actually not doing too badly. These spire things seem to be much farther west. I think we caught up to our trail. At the rate we're going, we might reach her in about 2 days... Of course, that assumes we find the rest of the group and don't have any more unpleasant encounters."
She glanced up warily again.
"Let's hope," Wally said. "But you know, maybe if nothing is attacking us, it's not attacking them either. Maybe it's like, after all that fear and anger, there's a calm."
"Before the storm," Cinder said.
"You know--" Shine looked at her. "--I find it weird that you are the only one who's agreeing with me that this doesn't make sense."
"I can't agree with you now?" Cinder said snippily.
"No, it's just weird."
"So what? I think the lack of something is uncharacteristic of Salem," Cinder said. "That's all. She wouldn't do it if there wasn't something worse coming."
"You're so negative," Theo said.
"And you're an idiot," Cinder retorted.
"Hmm, well, at least we've gone from open hatred to mean-spirited banter," Pyrrha noted with the irony that only Pyrrha could infuse into her remarks without sounding like she was overdoing it.
"Shut up," Cinder said.
"Isn't this the longest you've talked to any of us?" Jaune said. "What's the matter with you?"
Cinder glared.
"Maybe it's that we're a little more relaxed," Roman said. "I don't know, Cinder, are you chatty when you're not on a murder quest?"
"Keep it up, Roman, and I'll be on a murder quest right now." Cinder made a fist.
"No threats!" Shine and Roman said at the same time.
"Oh, well, someone already stabbed me, so doesn't that count as a threat?" Cinder said nastily.
"Who stabbed you?" Theo asked.
"And can we get their autograph?" Vara added.
Wally choked on a laugh, then said, "That's not funny."
"Then why are you laughing?" Vara said.
"The delivery was just... so you," Wally said.
"Neo did it." Cinder had no trouble ratting people out.
Neo glared at her.
"You know it was an accident," Pyrrha said sternly.
"Still," Cinder said, "what if I said it was an accident?"
"No one would believe you," Theo said roundly.
"Theo, you're killing me." Wally smothered another laugh.
"Oh, I see," Vara said, leaning one arm on Theo's shoulder like he was a chair. "The key to getting along with her is to not take her seriously, and then everything she says is funny instead of frustrating."
"That's pretty much it," Shine said. "However, I would back it up before she actually sets you on fire. I really can't stop her if you keep asking for it like that."
"What happened to no threats?" Theo said.
"A tiger has claws, Theo," Shine said. "I wouldn't poke the wild animal if you don't want to get your eyes scratched out."
"I like that," Vara said.
Cinder smiled as if she liked it also.
"I notice you're not dead though," Vara said. "Why did you do it, Neo? Did she come on to your man?"
Neo motioned something.
"It was the fear things," Shine said.
"Ah," Theo said. "Makes sense."
"Pity she survived," Vara said.
To her great surprise, Shine suddenly knocked her off Theo.
The impact made Vara black out for a second, and then she looked up.
"That is enough!" Shine said, giving her a fiery look. "I'm tired of hearing this. If you can't be respectful to each other, then you can shut up. This should have stopped days ago."
"You make us travel with her and you're not even going to give us the fun of ragging her?" Vara agrued.
"Careful," Theo said to Shine, pulling her back roughly.
"Hey, man, back off," Wally said, taking Shine's arm. "She's just standing up for her own."
Wally didn't approve of shoving your own teammates either, but he had a feeling Shine was starting to worry that Cinder would attack Vara for real as soon as she had the chance if Vara kept running her mouth. He saw the look in her eyes.
If Shine said something, though, Cinder might not bother... maybe.
"And why you'd want to claim that witch as one of your own is beyond me." Theo helped Vara up. "But leave Vara out of it. She's weak. And this trip of yours is not making it any better."
"No one made you come," Wally said.
"Please, no fighting," Pyrrha said.
"If you feel that way," Theo said, "maybe we should walk farther off."
"Bickering is always the sign those Mind Grimm being near," Shine said. "And while we're in charge of this group, you will respect who we allowed to be here. Grow up. Act like a leader, not a clique."
"Nothing is here!" Theo said. "And you're being bossy."
"Let's just go ahead," Vara said.
She tugged Theo after her and sped up.
"Which Mind Grimm?" Pyrrha asked Shine.
"I can't say," Shine said. "There's a few left, if I was right about how they work, but the fear one already upset my theories, so I don't know."
"You mean you do know?" Cinder said.
"Yes...maybe..." Shine said. "I don't know everything."
"You know, you do seem a little more civil." Roman studied Cinder. "Did someone drug you?"
She punched him.
Neo made a fist at her.
"Okay, maybe you should move also," Pyrrha said.
"Fine with me." Roman got up, dusted off his hat, and walked fast too. Neo followed.
"If there is Mind Grimm," Jaune said, "Cinder should be affected first, right? She had zero resistance."
"I swear--" Cinder began.
"Now, let's not be naive," Shine cut in. "Even Cinder cannot possibly have every single sin in the world. And not all of these attacks have been recognizable at first. And her reclusiveness has made her take longer in some cases. So..."
"Are you saying that being near each other puts us more at risk?" Pyrrha said.
"Where there are people with resentments, of course sin does more damage," Shine said. "But it's far worse to be alone. Still, saying unkind things to anyone is not going to help our chances, Jaune."
Jaune took that more meekly than he usually did. "Yeah... I'm sorry. You're right. I'm not helping anything."
Cinder sniffed angrily.
"Look at it this way--" Pyrrha glanced at her. "--no one ever apologizes to you. It's new."
She patted Jaune's arm and kept walking.
"Which thing is it?" Cinder asked Shine.
"I don't know," Shine said. "But if you do feel murderous, do let me know."
"You just said I might not be affected first," Cinder said.
"Yeah, but I didn't say that was likely," Shine said.
Wally smothered yet another laugh.
* * *
"All this walking and still no sign of anything new," Meridian said.
They were still stuck in the spires.
"It has to end." Winter shielded her eyes. "The sun is giving me a headache."
"Really? It seems mild to me," Weiss said.
"No, I'm with her. I think I'm sick of this," Qrow said.
"I do feel pretty hungry now," Meridian said. "And thirsty..."
"Didn't you already drink as much as your share for the day?" Weiss said.
"You ate more than your rations," Meridian shot back.
"Stop it." Winter looked back at them angrily. "Both of you should have shown more restraint."
"Well, perhaps if you weren't too busy running around and making out, we wouldn't have gotten lost to begin with," Meridian shot back. "And then we'd have more supplies."
Winter turned to him. "What did you just say to me?" she said in a different tone.
"You heard me," he said huffily.
"First of all, that is not how it went down," Qrow said. "Second, I don't see how us getting lost has anything to do with you acting stupid. This would be more of the time not to act dumb. Like fighting when we're supposed to be finding a way out of here."
"Why don't you just fly us out of here?" Weiss snapped.
"Why don't you make a glyph and do it?" Meridian said.
"I'm too tired to summon anything," Weiss said.
Winter wanted to slap them both.
"I knew I didn't like you for a reason." She frowned at Meridian.
"What? Because I have something you don't?" Meridian said.
"He better not finish that," Qrow muttered.
"And what is that?" Winter said.
"A personality," Meridian said. "And charm."
"Why, you little--" Winter put a hand on her sword.
"Stop it." Qrow grabbed her arm. "Are you crazy? Just ignore him."
"Did you hear what he said?" Winter demanded.
"Yeah, but this is weird," Qrow said. "That is not really how he talks."
"Did you wake up and decide to be a prick today?" Weiss said to Meridian.
"Better than you," Meridian said.
"AH!" Weiss stomped in anger. "How dare you!"
"I think I deserve better," Meridian said. "All of you have been treating me like I'm some kind of outsider. Didn't I help you enough before? I never get fair treatment."
"Perhaps you should act worthy of it," Winter said.
"Winter..." Qrow said in a low voice. "Stop it."
"Why are you taking his side?" she said.
"I'm not--you know what, kids? Wait here. I need a minute," Qrow said.
"Oh, sure," Meridian said. "I know what that means."
Qrow punched him into one of the spires.
Meridian's Aura kicked in automatically.
"Sorry." Qrow rubbed his hand. "Someone had to."
He took Winter around one of the spires.
"I'm not apologizing," Winter said.
"And you need to get a grip," Qrow said. "You notice that we're all acting a little weird? What has that meant every single time it happened?"
"The... the Grimm?" Winter said. "But there are none."
"I'm not sure that's true," Qrow said. "I feel like we're being watched. And we don't have anyone here who really had a resistance to those things. If we lose our control, we'd be wide open for... something we can't reverse."
He looked pretty serious.
Winter swallowed her irritation.
"Fine," she said. "What can we do then?"
"If we're going towards it, it always gets stronger. Maybe we should turn back while we still can," Qrow said.
"We could get lost."
"Better that than attacking each other," Qrow said. "I can't figure out what it is, but Meridian is acting strange for the first time, and he's never been affected by the other ones. That's enough to worry me."
"You seem fine."
"Well, thanks for noticing," Qrow said.
Winter smacked him.
"Sorry, couldn't resist," Qrow said. "But no, I feel weird... really hungry for some reason. And thirsty also. What about you?"
"I think I'm okay... just a little hungry also, but we're eating less. That's not unusual."
"I don't know..." Qrow mused.
Winter had a moment of thinking that bemused was a good look for him.
She smacked herself. This was not the time to have such thoughts... which she didn't usually have anyway.
[I find that hard to believe, but tell yourself that, Winter.]
"What?" Qrow said.
"Nothing, just hoping I would snap out of it," Winter said. "But it didn't work."
"Yeah, not surprising," Qrow said. "I hope those two aren't killing each other."
He glanced back around.
But they were only giving each other angry glances.
"About turning back," Winter said, "do we know which way we came from?"
Qrow realized that he didn't.
"Oh...s---, are we even still going the same direction?"
The spires were like a maze.
"Normally I'd know by the shadows which way we're going, but surely by now they must have changed," Winter said.
"I haven't noticed the slightest movement at all." Qrow looked up. "But it must have... That's not good."
"And naturally no one has a compass..." Winter said.
"Are you kidding? What kind of loser needs to use that?" Qrow said.
"Everyone who is in a strange land with no landmarks," Winter said.
"Oh, and you brought one?"
"No, I don't carry one. There's built in navigation on the scroll, which isn't working." Winter held hers up.
"Wait..." Qrow snatched it out of her hand. "It's not working."
"Yes... so?"
"The solar-powered thing isn't working," Qrow said, "while the sun is up?"
Winter's eyes widened. "How did we not think about that before?"
"It seems pretty obvious. Okay, that's definitely not the sun-- so what is it?"
"The magic theory is still on the table."
"Yeah, and I don't like that either." Qrow frowned.
"Are you about done yet?" Meridian called. "What are you doing back there anyway?"
"I'm going to kill him," Winter said.
"That might not just be him talking," Qrow said.
"He better not be." Winter scowled. "You hit him, though."
"Well, he shouldn't have said that, no matter what was in his head," Qrow said. "But still..." He shook his head.
"Come on!" Weiss also whined.
They came back to them.
"Well?" Meridian said pointedly.
"We seemed to be lost." Winter wasn't one to sugarcoat things.
"What?!" Weiss said.
"Are we still going the same basic direction?" Meridian said.
"We're not sure." Qrow pointed up. "That's not the sun. Haven't you noticed that your scrolls on aren't working again?"
They took them out.
"S---, they're right," Meridian said.
"We could try to fly," Winter said. "I don't like to use summoning, but it's better than wandering in here indefinitely."
She summoned some flying glyphs.
"Your magic hasn't been doing so well lately," Meridian said. "You sure you can manage?"
"I guess we'll find out," Winter said. "I hope you have a landing strategy."
Meridian gave her a weird look.
[Someone better have laughed at that.]
* * *
"Okay, we're lost," Yang said.
"Is it just me or has it been, like... no time at all, but it's also been forever?" Neptune said. "I'm thirsty."
"We're well aware," Yang said.
"I meant literally," Neptune said. "I feel like it's hotter than it was before."
"I don't notice anything different," Raven said. "Maybe you're ill."
"I hope not." Neptune felt his forehead.
"I hope that Grimm stuff isn't still in my hair." Yang lifted a curl.
"That's what you're worried about?" Raven said.
"Well, easy for you to say--it wouldn't show in yours," Yang said.
"I bet mine's a mess," Neptune sighed. "Ah, well... lost my mirror in Vacuo, so..."
"You carry a mirror?" Yang said.
"Don't you?"
"Uh, yeah, but I'm a girl."
"So only girls can check their faces?" Neptune said.
"Oh brother," Yang said.
"Focus," Raven said strangely. "If they made it this far and went into those rock spires, I'd never see them. However, I think we'd get lost in there, so we should try to go around. Now we have no way to speed this up without glyphs, so..."
"Unless someone wants to ride a Grimm," Yang said.
"I don't see any Grimm," Neptune said.
"Huh..." Yang glanced back. "When did they stop following us?"
Raven glanced back. "I don't like that," she said.
"You're seriously going to complain about that?" Neptune said.
"It's not natural," Raven said.
"What is natural here?" Yang said.
They came up over a rise in the landscape, and suddenly they saw some Grimm... at least they might have been Grimm.
They looked like a herd of horses... black and white, but the pattern wasn't that jarring like Grimm.
They looked up at them and whinnied in a pretty real sounding way.
"I've... never seen Grimm like that," Yang said.
"They're actually kinda cool looking," Neptune said.
"Stay back." Raven had her sword out. "Any Grimm is bound to be a trap."
The horses looked at them, and then they came prancing up toward them, real friendly-like.
Raven raised her sword.
"Wait." Neptune pulled her arm down. "Let's see what they do first."
"Are you gone? They're Grimm," Raven said.
"They might not be that powerful of ones," Yang said. "I don't know... I mean, people don't come here that often. Could it be that some Grimm don't really bother them?"
"That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard you say," Raven said.
Yang crossed her arms.
"Kid," Raven warned Neptune, "if you get us eaten, I will find you in either heaven or hell, and beat you up."
The horses were pretty close now.
One of them neighed at them and then lowered itself down.
"What is it doing?" Yang said.
"I mean, that's what a well trained horse would do to let you get on," Neptune said.
[Not actually true, by the way.]
"Don't," Raven said.
"It could work though," Neptune said.
"I don't buy it. We're wandering around, and we just happen to see friendly horses?" Raven said. "That's a trap if I ever saw one."
"Could just kill it if it attacks," Yang said.
"Are you serious?" Raven said.
The horse neighed impatiently.
"I think it's trying to tell us something," Neptune said.
"Vasilias--" Raven said in a warning tone.
Neptune walked up to it anyway.
The horse made no move to attack.
Neptune touched it cautiously, and it just waited.
"I think it's all right," he said.
"Hmm," Yang said. "I don't see any teeth."
"It's not opening its mouth," Raven said. "Yang, don't do this."
"You are not the boss of me!" Yang walked away from her.
Raven stared after her.
Now, she asked herself later why she didn't just kill the Grimm immediately and grab both of them... and she had no answer other than perhaps she was bewitched.
Another of the horses came up to Yang.
At the same time, Neptune got on the horse, and it stood up, then it took off at high speed.
Yang looked back. "Neptune?!" she called.
The one next to her suddenly grabbed her with its teeth and tossed her onto its back before she could stop it, then it took off also.
"Yang!" Raven wondered why she hadn't stopped that.
Turning to a bird, she flew after them--they were really fast!
They were outpacing her pretty quickly...d--- it! She needed West!
While Yang was trying not to fall off and get trampled by the other horses that were following the one with her on it, Neptune seemed to be having fun.
"This is awesome!" he called.
"Get off of that thing!" Raven called in her bird voice, but he didn't even seem to hear her.
Raven looked ahead.
She had no idea where they were going, but the light seemed to get brighter rapidly.
The landscape seemed to shift suddenly.
She didn't see the spires anymore. She saw what looked like a large meadow, grassy and devoid of anything uncanny.
Raven began to be confused.
Then she abruptly resumed human form and fell into the grass.
There was a strong smell in it... very heavy... made you kind of sleepy...
[What kind of grass is it?]
Yang struggled to get off her horse, and found she was now tied to it by its mane--it was like cables.
The horse didn't look so innocent now. Its eyes were flaming red, and... were those horns coming out of its head like a goat?
And it had long fangs coming out of its mouth.
The hooves also had spikes on the back of them.
[All right: so the horses are a reference to kelpies, a demon horse that appears as a friendly horse until it gets you on its back--then you are unable to dismount. It then takes you to a river and drowns you in it. Some versions of them, I believe, include the detail that they tempt you with desire or fun or some other thing you want. They are shapeshifters who don't reveal their true form till you're trapped.]
"Mom!" Yang started yelling. "Mom!"
Raven barely looked up.
"I can't get off this blasted thing!" Yang tried to get her metal arm free, but it wasn't budging.
She tried to slip off and found she was sticking to its flank like tar. [Another kelpie feature.]
Yang looked ahead and saw that they were going into... was that water?
There were more Grimm in it.
They looked kind of like hippopotamuses... or some looked more like crocodiles, but they were watching the demon horses eagerly, like they were bringing in a catch.
"What the heck?!" Yang said. "Since when do Grimm team up like that?"
But they had before.
"Neptune!" Yang said desperately.
Neptune didn't seem to realize what was going on.
"What?" he said.
"It's a trap!" Yang said. "They're going to eat us."
"What are you talking about? This is great. Horses are awesome."
"They're not horses, Neptune!" Yang shouted. "I can't get off, see? It's holding you onto it."
Neptune looked down and finally realized that it wasn't natural.
"What the...?" he said.
His horse shifted and became ugly also.
"Mother of equine! What is that!?" Neptune wasn't having fun now.
"I don't know what it is, but look." Yang pointed ahead.
"WATER!!" Neptune cried.
Of course that's what he was worried about!
"This is not the time," Yang said. "Look, they're heading right for it... Now, we have one chance. You've got to use that Semblance of yours."
"What?" Neptune said. "I can't do that. I repel water, I don't control it."
"You could control it if you really tried," Yang said. "Listen, if you don't we're going to get eaten alive. You have to!"
"I can't..." Neptune said.
"You can." Yang struggled frantically to break free again. "The Hydra, remember? You did that."
"No one else was around then."
"Look at it this way, I'm dead if you don't do it, so you have nothing to lose!" Yang said.
Neptune glanced at her.
"Huh... that is a good point. But I've never controlled water like that before."
"Well, it's a great time to figure it out!"
The horse had them almost to the water now.
"Mom!" Yang glanced back.
Raven was moving like she was in a dream.
"Seems there's trouble going over there too..." Yang said oddly.
The Kelpies plunged them into the water.
It went in Yang's mouth as she went under, and she realized it was salty...
It had to be somewhere near the ocean, which meant they'd come much farther west then she'd thought. Great...
The Kelpie dragged her down, and the hippos and crocodiles came after her, looking to tear them to pieces.
Suddenly the water around her pulled back, and rose up like it was being pulled like a piece of putty.
Neptune, now rid of his demon horse that had lost its hold, was holding up his hands and straining.
The water began dividing itself, leaving the Grimm dry. They hissed and backed up for the most part. Yang was now coughing.
"Go!" Neptune said. "I can't hold this longer than a few seconds I think."
Yang sprang to her feet and unlocked her guns, then she scrambled onto the shore, which was just more Grimm soil, and she turned back.
"Get out of the water," she said.
Neptune dropped it, and then it crashed down on him.
He gasped and ran towards the bank.
One of the Kelpies snatched at him with its teeth.
Yang jerked him back just before it got him and threw him onto the ground, then she grabbed his gun before he could recover and switched it into trident form.
The Grimm was trying to crawl out, and she stuck it into the water, and electricity shot over it.
All the Grimm in front of her were fried.
There were still some Kelpies behind them.
They snarled at them.
"Yang..." Neptune said.
Yang turned.
"Oh, you want some?" she said, holding up her gun with her other hand.
The Kelpies eyed her like they did, in fact, want some.
"Give me that." Neptune stood up, took the trident, and returned it to gun form, then he cleared out a lot of them.
Yang shot the others.
Lightning suddenly fried the last half dozen.
Raven was standing there, looking kind of woozy.
"I'm not sure what's happening," she said weakly, "but this area has some kind of spell on it."
She fell over, and the cloud over her head dispersed.
"Okay, I don't know what just happened," Yang said, "but I feel like if we go through the river, we'd be better off. Can water mask our scent?"
"With Grimm?" Neptune said. "And I don't want to be anywhere near that."
"You were just inside it. It's no big deal," Yang said. "In fact that was actually pretty incredible. Didn't it feel good?"
"Are you crazy?" Neptune said.
Yang pulled Raven up. "We don't have a choice. Come on."
She pitched her into the water, and that seemed to wake her up.
"Whoa!" Raven yelped and scrambled to the other side, and then she promptly collapsed again.
"So much for that..." Yang said.
"I...I don't..." Neptune was nervous.
"Come on! You just saved me and, like, fried 12 Grimm at the same time," Yang said.
"Actually you did that last part."
"You helped. It's fine, just don't think about it. Zen out," Yang said.
"I don't even know how I did before."
Yang did something that was pretty impulsive, but she thought it might work.
Grabbing his jacket, she pulled him forward and kissed him.
Neptune's eyes got huge.
"I know," Yang said, determinedly. "Now come on."
She dragged him toward the water.
Neptune did not attempt to fight, he just looked dazed.
[I present a song suggested by my sister. "Kill the Director" by the Wombats.]
[Yay for Flashflood. Alternate ship name could be Volcano.]
* * *
Hazel's group didn't run into demonic Kelpies, but there was a change for them also.
They were wandering into the spires and rises, though the ones they were by were more spread out and smaller than for the Schnee group.
Emerald was silent for a long time. The spires made her nervous. The other teens had been chatting, though, sometimes bickering and sometimes just making small talk.
Hazel was always silent, so nothing unusual with him.
But she noticed the others had gone quiet suddenly and wondered how long she'd been spacing out and not thinking of it.
"Uh, guys?" she said.
"Hmm?" Sun said vaguely.
"You guys okay?" Emerald asked. "I mean, you hear anything?"
"Just the water," Blake said.
"Water?" Emerald heard no water.
"Yeah, the running water," Ren said.
"We must be closer now," Nora said. "I'm so thirsty."
"Yeah, hungry and thirsty," Sun said. "But I think that's a flower or something. Maybe there's food."
Emerald smelled nothing.
She did, however, hear a faint sound. She couldn't put her finger on what it was. It might have been a hum or maybe a very light tapping.
"Hazel?" she said.
"I wouldn't think there'd be water out here," Hazel said grimly. "But maybe from the sea..."
Emerald heard nothing now.
For some reason, she suddenly became very afraid.
Reaching into her pack, she pulled out her copy of the book and held it in her hands like it would ward off danger.
"Guys, there's no water running," she said aloud.
"You can't hear that?" Nora said. "You need your ears checked, Em n' Em."
"Em n' Em?" Emerald didn't like that.
[She should be flattered Nora thinks she's like a rapper, not a wrapper for M&Ms... Anyone ever think that's weird?]
Nothing happened for a spell, in which Emerald felt only more uneasy. Her skin pricked like she was going into danger, but the rock spires never seemed to change, and she saw no Grimm.
Until...
Suddenly the land widened out into a low hollow dipping into the ground. The rock spires were farther away from the edge of it, making it look like a small bowl in the land surrounded by salt and pepper shakers.
Emerald might have been hungry.
The others rushed forward down the slope, and Emerald didn't hear a river, but she did hear something liquid-like, but it sounded more oozy to her, like slime or jello, than like water.
And, to her horror, she also saw some Grimm.
But they didn't make any move to attack the humans/faunus.
They were by some scrubby little things that Emerald thought were bushes of a sort, but their branches were like bramble spikes, not like normal bushes.
Drawing her knives, she walked closer to them, and the Grimm ignored her completely.
Emerald saw suddenly that there were things growing on the bushes.
They were dark reddish-purplish orbs, almost like plums, but they were more sickly. They also had a strange smell--it was sweet and repugnant at the same time.
There were also blossoms over some of the orbs.
The Grimm tore one off while she was looking and swallowed it.
But Grimm didn't eat food...
No, actually Emerald remembered that Grimm did like to eat tree sap. Some people thought it was because it had sugar in it like blood did, though it was less salty.
Maybe something did grow in this wasteland...
[I mean, there is obviously water near this area, so it's possible, right?]
Emerald didn't like the looks of the stuff at all.
"Guys, there's something weird here!" she called.
She went after them.
Once she got slightly farther down, though, she had more reason to be worried than before.
The others were heading right for a Grimm pond in the ground.
It smelled like tar and death, like they all did, and the weird smell of the Grimm that was a kind of a musty smell like an empty cave.
The weird sound of humming continued, but Emerald hardly noticed it now.
The other teammates were right by the oozing pond.
But no Grimm were rising out of it... instead Emerald had the feeling that the plant things were growing out of it. They were just Grimm in a way. And the other Grimm were ignoring the humans because of that. The smell of Grimm was so thick, maybe it masked the human smell... Emerald wasn't sure.
But why was she the only one finding this unsettling?
"Guys, do you not see this?" she said.
"Yeah, it looks delicious," Blake said.
Delicious?
Emerald wanted to throw up.
The weird sweet smell was worse here too.
She saw Sun pull one of the odd fruits off the bushes. The Grimm made no move to stop him. They were just sniffing at the fruit themselves and another one snapped one up.
Emerald looked at the one who'd already eaten one and saw it was kind of just lying down, minding its own business.
"Sun... put that down," she said in an oddly low voice, but to her it sounded more unsettled than if she'd been screaming.
"It's just a banana." Sun looked at her like she was crazy.
Emerald gasped.
[Want to go to 1:30 mark or so for the part of the song I wanted. Couldn't find a clip of just that part. Song suggested by my sister to use. Maleficent's Evil Spell]