One Good Turn Deserves Another

Chapter 22

Here we go, chapter completed – another Monday gone. Some notes at the bottom about me going away for Christmas, Tl:dr – don't worry, fics will still update – a friend is going to update them on relevant dates.

Stress Relief = 4th December (I recognise that i said 7th on a different fic, but that is incorrect). it will be Monday as usual, updated every 3 weeks.

///

Cover: Kegi Springfield

///

Beta: Super Saiyan Cyndaquill (actually got some of it to him this time, yay)

///

Chapter 22

///

Shouting, screaming – the sound of explosions. Those were the things Weiss Schnee could hear all around her, filtering in from the battlefield that lay beyond the wall. As Grimm tore into Hunters, and the few stood against the many, to determine not only her future, but perhaps the future of all of Vale.

And here she was, on both knees, hands deep in ruined masonry and crumbling stone as she ferretted about for food like some kind of homeless orphan.

It was bizarre... to be able to clearly hear the sounds of death and destruction taking place, but for someone like her – trained as she was – to be relegated to menial labour. She should be up there, if not with the Hunters on the outer wall, at least on the main one...

Instead she gripped the edge of a particularly large piece of rubble, dusty fingers and chapped nails flaking off loose pieces of cracked brick as she tugged it aside. The stone tumbled and rolled down the jagged heap of broken bricks, sending up a cloud of dust when it hit the bottom. A few others spared her a brief glance, but turned back to their own tasks once they realised there was no danger.

The damage the Nevermore had caused cost them more than just the lives of the fallen, as cold as that sounded. During its rampage it crushed homes, shops and more importantly - warehouses. Ammunition, food, dust – all the things they had toiled to bring off the Bullheads just days earlier... much of it was gone. They had more ammunition than food, though whether that was a good or bad thing was yet to be seen. But the dust had been the biggest casualty... too volatile for the damage, it had only taken a few knocks to ignite some of it – and the chain reaction had wiped out entire stores.

It only got worse when you considered that the students were actually supposed to have been evacuated – and that the food supplies for the siege hadn't really accounted for an extra two hundred mouths to feed.

Belts would need to be tightened. And as her grumbling tummy reminded her, the rationing had already begun.

Some more digging pushed aside loose stones and rubble as she burrowed deeper. Ice-blue eyes widened as she saw a flash of colour, fingers scrabbling among the rubble as she worked her way towards it. Some of them had already been torn open, dry food mixed with dust and soil on the ground – but a single packet remained intact. Some kind of military ration pack, the contents likely dry and inedible, but packed with calories. Her stomach took the opportunity to remind her of how empty it was, as a selfish thought flashed across her mind.

Weiss simply sighed, tossing it behind her onto a small, disappointing pile of food products they had found to that point. It would have been so easy she supposed, but the guilt would have gnawed at her more voraciously than hunger did. She just wished pride and honour could stop the pangs she felt.