#she talks me down to the ground. and i lay frozen in her searchlight''

[clairenatural]

now the dogs are awake. and the wind sweeps down my street. and the world feels cold and clean.

[grailacademy]

Welcome To Grail Academy - Chapter Nineteen: Cry Baby

“Papa, are we done yet?” A little girl with blond hair done up in pigtails with a pair of sparkly green scrunchies inquired, her arms out at 90 degree angles from her sides, standing on a little pedestal. Surrounded by a wall of mirrors and coat hangers, an old woman in a checkered smock and a pin cushion on her wrist knelt beside the girl, wrapping a yellow measuring tape around the child’s waist. Under the measuring tape was a polkadot dress, green and white with lace trim around the edge. “Patience. This dinner has to be perfect if we’re going to gain the Viridian account. No complaining.” A man stood by the curtained door to the room, rubbing his chin in his olive suit. His hair was the same as the girl’s, pulled back in an elegant ponytail. The seamstress tacked a pin into the back of the dress and made a quick series of stitches. Then she bit the thread and tied a knot, and patted the girl on the shoulder. The girl did an excited twirl in front of the mirror before she jumped off the stand and ran out of the room past her father. “Esmerelda, be careful!” He yelled at her, but once he turned around, she was already in her mother’s arms. The woman’s greying hair blended in with the black and grey ears on top of her head. The two of them giggled, and the man folded his arms. “Rose just fixed your dress, I don’t want to see any more scuffs or holes in it. Am I clear?” The little girl looked down at her shiny black shoes solemnly, nodding.

“Yes, papa.”

“Oh, Ardan, relax.” The woman turned her daughter around and stood up. “She’ll be careful!”

“That’s what she said the first time she ripped it.” He grumbled.

Esmerelda never enjoyed when her parents talked about her in the third person, like she wasn’t in the room. But she kept quiet until her father walked away towards his office in the magnificent shining mansion that the three of them called their home. When she looked up from her shoes, she was facing a dark shadow of a creature. The muzzle of the beowolf reached forward, revealing its glowing red eyes. Esmerelda folded her coat neatly and placed it on the floor of the dock. Kismet wasn’t lying when he said the beacons were guarded. Brandishing her sleek claws, she rushed into a sprint towards the beast.

Nico swam for a boey he saw bopping on the horizon. The sun was beginning to set, turning the sky a shade of orange and pink that reflected on the water of the lake that he paddled across. As he got closer, he could see that the boey was tied to a small wooden pole stuck on the side of a marshy island. The edges of it surrounded by weeds and cattails, Nico’s arm was taken hold of and he was pulled on shore. The sand stuck to the back of his clothes when he sat up, but he was relieved to see Iris had helped him on land. “Thanks!”, he chirped. The girl was still extremely on edge, but she nodded with a smile. After five minutes, the two of them had roamed around the perimeter of the island, searching for a beacon and passing the time with conversation.

“So, you and Bernard, huh?” Nico was drawing doodles in the sand with his bow staff.

“Me and….who?” Iris raised a brow at his question, she was rummaging in a bushel of fern leaves, tapping the ground in hopes that she would hit something metal.

“Bernie! You guys are dating, right? Weren’t you two going to Prom together?”  

“....Bernard! Yes, he was taking me to Prom. I was really nervous to go alone, it was my first school dance.” She laughed nervously, “But we’re not….haha, we’re not a thing.”

“....Huh.” Nico smiled for a moment.

Iris’s cheeks turned pink, which was a regular occurance for her when she and Nico talked. She was easily flustered. As she stammered on about her relationship status, Nico gently tapped her shoulder. “Hey, uh….Iris?” He was trying to get her attention to turn to the three giant ursa he was staring at, a few yards away. “We got company.”

“I told you this would happen, Hollyanne!”

“It’s not my fault they didn’t want to buy! They weren’t interested, it couldn’t be helped.”

“It could be helped! The whole point of you coming to the dinner was to HELP!”

“I’m sorry!” The yelling of her parents was muffled on the other side of her bedroom door. Esmerelda didn’t like hearing them fight, she always ended up blaming herself for their altercations. Her worries temporarily subsided when her mother came into the bedroom and kissed her goodnight, but when the door closed and she was left alone with her thoughts, she was back to thinking about what she could have done wrong. Laying there in the canopy bed, she clutched her stuffed bunny rabbit close to her.

With a harsh jerk of her arm, Esmerelda dug her palms into the chin and nose of the beowolf as it lunged at her, mouth agape. Prying it’s jaws apart while it gnashed at her, she had a clear view of its sharp teeth, slimy tongue, and the back of its throat where the uvula waggled when it roared in her face. Looking down the metaphorical barrel of the gun reminded her not to space out during a fight, and she snapped into action as a few drops of spittle slicked onto her cheek. She grunted and flipped around, throwing herself under the belly of the monster. Sliding across the dock, her claws slashed deep along its stomach and it let out a pained howl. She sprung to her feet and inspected her handiwork. She had carved the beowolf from its stomach like a pig gutted for the roast, she was proud of herself. Its carcass slowly deteriorated, and Esmerelda walked back to her coat, which had dried off by now. Her victory was, however, short lived, as she saw Rowan scrambling out of the water onto the dock once she pulled the fur on. He gave her a sly smile and held his scroll up to the beacon. The technology recognized his ID before Esmerelda could stop him, and the flaps opened up to release a beam of red light into the dim sky.

“That’s cheating!” She yelled and pointed a clawed finger at him.

“No rules against letting someone else do the work for you.” Rowan smirked, and wiggled his fingers at her sarcastically. She wanted to stay and fight HIM for the searchlight, but she knew there were only so many left. Huffing, she turned and ran to search for another one.

A pained death rattle erupted from one of the creatures as Nico ripped the spikes of his bat out of its skull. Iris pressed both feet onto the belly of the other grimm, tugging with all her might to try and dislodge the giant battle axe from its neck. Her blade was stuck in there deep, it was like pulling teeth. From behind, the final Ursa bounded towards them and slammed its giant paw onto Nico’s chest, trapping him on the ground and roaring. The wind was completely knocked out of the boy, and he wheezed loudly as he tried to hold the grimm’s claws away from him. “Oof--not the face, not the face!” As he writhed around in the sand, Iris shouted from behind. “Hold on, Nico!” She pulled her weapon out of the monster’s carcass finally, and flipped the locking mechanism on its shell. All at once, a purple electric guitar with a metal side unfolded in her hands, and she plucked a string to make sure it was working. “Time to bring the noise.”

In a dramatic sweeping motion, Iris strummed all the chords on her guitar, the metal wires vibrating as she send out a wave of noise to disrupt the ursa’s senses. Even the pebbles and blades of grass shook with the force of her music. The monster whimpered and lifted its paw up to scratch at its ear, giving Nico a window to free himself. He jumped up and cracked the monster across the back with his bat when it turned in the direction of the song. The chords still echoed loudly when Iris rushed the other side and transformed her weapon into a long battle axe, slicing their prey on one of its front legs. It lowered itself halfway to the ground in an attempt to relieve the pressure on its wounds, almost bowing its head down as if it were accepting the execution. Nico looked over the ursa’s back and cheered for Iris, “Dude, that is so metal!” Iris became flushed again, and she smiled nervously. “Oh, uh. Thanks!” In unison, the two of them raised their weapons high over their heads and crushed the beast onto the ground, obliterating the cleaved corpse. After they caught their breath and recovered from the battle, Nico and Iris gave each other a small high-five. The moment their hands clapped together, the small pitter patter of rain drops hitting water sounded.

Esmerelda felt a drop of water splash on her head. As she trekked from one dock to another, she held her hand out to the sky to feel the cold wet land in her palm. The sound of rain bouncing against umbrella fabric was all she could think about.

Esmerelda and her father stood under two separate black umbrellas, Ardan reading the text on the block of stone in front of him again and again as the funeral guests dispersed. Esmerelda could only bare to look at the white lilies wrapped neatly in a bouquet on top of it. Somewhere in her mind, Esmerelda knew that if she read the words, it would mean she was really gone. Forever. “Papa….is mama happy, Wherever she is?” The little girl wrung her hands around the handle of the umbrella and looked up at her father, but he was already walking away, headed towards the black limousine parked on the pathway next to the tombstone. She felt like crying. She wanted to cry, so bad. But her eyes were dry. She tried to force the tears out, but it was as if they were frozen icicles. Turning away, she slowly followed her father into the car.

Nico waved goodbye to Iris, watching as she was lifted up into the airship once it reached the purple stream of light glowing from the beacon they had found. She waved back timidly and turned around to sit next to her partner, Rowan. The vehicle rose off the ground and chopped away. On his own, Nico strolled to the edge of the island on the dock, and narrowed his eyes. It could have been the light playing tricks on him, but it looked like there was some kind of tall structure mounted on the edge of a hilly landmass, on the other side of the lake. Looks like he would have to go for another swim.

Bernard was a bit lost, grasping at straws when he navigated the terrain of the island he had landed on. It seemed….larger than the others. Easier to lose yourself on. He knelt down and examined a set of animal tracks. Too big to be a rabbit or a dog, probably a beowolf roving for scraps. He only counted the one set of tracks, so he felt confident. He could handle one measly grimm, even in his sleep. He could hear gunshots ring out over the rain, too far away to be on the island. The other students were running into trouble of their own. Looking up into the lavender sky, he saw the handful of multicolored beacons shining their lights. The airship hovered over the lake, leisurely making its way to each checkpoint to pick up the hunters waiting at their rescue lights. He was running out of time. He started to jog through the underbrush, zipping past the half-evaporated body of an already-defeated beowolf, ducking under tree branches and hopping over roots sprouting out of the dirt.

Esmerelda was almost knocked to the ground when she lost her footing, something big and heavy colliding with her back. She opened her mouth to berade whoever it was about personal space, but she quickly closed it as she turned around to see Bernard standing there, just as disoriented as she was. The awkward silence between them hung in the air, they hadn’t talked much since their fight in the training hall. “....There aren’t many beacons left. We have to hurry”, Bernard said, apparently inviting Esmerelda to join him on the journey. It wasn’t long before they found a clearing on the island, by the open shoreline. Beau was pacing back and forth across the island, holding her scroll out in front of her and low to the ground like it was a metal detector. Vert gazed at her odd performance of determination, commenting “You know that’s not going to work, right?”

“It’s worth a shot!” She quipped back. Nico was wading in the water, hiking his knees up to get out of the lake faster. Bernard and Esmerelda entered the scene with confused looks on their faces. Were they the only ones who hadn’t found beacons yet? Esmerelda called out, “Maybe you should check in there”, and pointed towards the tall figure of the lighthouse, nestled on a hill that connected to the shore. The light was currently off, making their dark environment much more eery with their only way to see coming from the slowly setting sun. “....Ohhh….” Beau cooed, following Esmerelda’s finger to the monument. “Yeah, that makes way more sense.”