"What the hell is that?" was what welcomed Liath and Colm upon their arrival at the villages main gate. It had taken them a half hour longer than usual to return, as carrying the injured Beowulf meant they had to take a less direct route due to the regions topography.

The question came from Aideen, a girl in the village who was 16, like Liath. She was 5 feet 10 inches, 3 inches shorter than Liath. She high cheekbones, straight nose and thin lips. Her hair was a shade of auburn that looked like flames in the right light, and her eyes were a ghostly green. Oh, she also had a temper that rivaled an Ursa's, with the tongue and trigger finger to match. Her weapon, which was currently leveled at the Beowulf's head behind Liath's shoulder, was custom. She called it a "Dust Magnum", while everyone else called it a waste of resources (but not to her face due to the aforementioned trigger finger). It looked like an energy based revolver, except instead of a rotating cylinder there was a cartridge that were good for up to 24 shots, which could be interchanged with other cartridges depending on the type of Dust being used. Said cartridges were difficult to produce with the tools present in the village, and as such for every 2 cartridges Aideen made, enough Dust for 3 would be used.

Going off the pale red glow coming from the rear of the cartridge, Liath guessed that there was one of the explosive fire cartridges loaded. If the situation wasn't defused, Liath would be loosing either some hair or his whole head depending on Aideens aim.

"Liath, Colm, answer the question. An explanation for the flares would be nice as well." said Mike, a peacock faunus who favored a simple rifle. Almost half the villages guards had gathered atop the wall, and all of them had their weapons pointed at the creature on Liath's back. Liath felt the creature shift, as if it were a baby animal using its mother for protection.

"Well Liath, you heard them. Answer the question." Colm said with a smug grin, setting Bertha, his bow-sword, on the ground. Liath silently cursed his step-father, as he had been hoping Colm would explain why they had sent up so many flares before Liath would need to explain the Beowulf.

So, with enough fire power to take down several dozen Ursai in a few seconds pointed at him, Liath set the Beowulf on the ground explained their patrol, making sure he was between the Grimm and the guns. He described how it was relatively uneventful until they came across the four traps that had been destroyed. He explained that it looked like a single massive Grimm had triggered one trap and then plowed through the rest as it tried to free itself before leaving, dragging the traps and some trees with it.

"Well that explains the flares, but what about that thing cowering behind you. How did you get that wound, and how are you walking around so nonchalantly with it?" Mike asked him.

"Wound? What wound..." Liath said as he looked down at himself, and realized what Mike meant. There was blood going from mid chest down to Liath's knees, with the point of origin a crease in Liath's top that must have looked like a gash from the wall.

"The bloods not mine, it's the Grimm's." Liath said, and the sound of jaws hitting the ground could probably be heard for miles.

"Did you just say that a Grimm bled all over you?" demanded Aideen. The question and the surprise was understandable. From almost the same age they could hold a weapon, children in the village were taught they what little was known about Grimm. The one that usually sticks in peoples minds is that they don't bleed, they smoke. So being told that a Grimm could bleed, and bleed the same colour blood as humans, is quite the slap in the face.

"Well, yeah." Liath answered, and continued to explain finding the injured Grimm and how it did not act hostile towards Colm or himself. Liath glossed over how he 'knew' the Grimm wasn't hostile, as that would mean divulging the secret he and his father shared, of being able to scare off Grimm. One by one, the people on the wall lowered their weapons, and Liath breathed a sigh of relief as he side stepped to give the people on the wall a good view of the injured Beowulf. He could hear "white fur", "black mask" and "blue markings" being murmured in curious discussion.

"So," Mike asked, "why did you bring it back?"

"He wants it to be his partner" Colm said, finally speaking up, but still with that smug smile as if he knew something Liath didn't, something painfully obvious. The people on the wall froze, and half turned to Liath, the other half to Aideen. 'Why Aideen?', Liath thought to himself

"Is that true?" Aideen asked him in a flat but dangerous tone, her back turned to him.

"Yeah, if it survives, I want to see if I can train it and make it my hunting partner. Having a friendly Grimm would be pretty handy, don't you think?" Liath responded, unaware of the hole he had just dug.

It was as Liath heard the electronic whine of the Dust Magnums safety being released and Aideen spun to face and aim at him, Liath realized the gravity of what he said.

Partner. He'd said partner. Because they were of the same generation and training to be a Hunter and Huntress respectively, he and Aideen had been paired up. In little more than a year they would join up with 2 more aspiring Hunters/Huntresses from nearby villages and form a team, then go off to one of the Hunting Academies in one of the city-kingdoms, about a year after that. And Liath had just said he wants to do that with a Grimm instead of Aideen. There was only one person in the village, maybe in the entire world, that could save Liath. However, given the situation, they might just let Aideen shoot Liath.

Liath knew no one on the wall would help, because getting in the way of Aideen and her target was a good way to get shot. Liath looked to his step-father, but the look on his face told Liath he was trying to figure out what to put on Liath's tomb stone.

"Now look, Aideen I can explain-" Liath's words were cut off by the red flash of the gun firing and the screech of the weapon discharging. At almost the same time, Liath felt something hit the back of his knees, causing them to give way. The bolt of energy flew through the space where Liath's left ear had just been, and slammed a nearby tree with a deep 'kathoom', showering Liath in splinters.

The area was silent.

"Am I dead?" Liath asked loudly.

"No, but you do have weak legs, chicken bones" Aideen answered venomously, and there was unsettled laughter from those on the wall. Liath thought he heard the sound of the Dust Magnum returning to its holster on Aideens leg.

"No, that's not it." Colm said.

"What do you mean?" Mike asked.

'Where were you earlier? I needed someone to cool off Aideen' Liath though to himself.

"Liath, did you feel anything before you fell?" Colm asked.

"Yeah, something hit the back of my knees" Liath replied.

"So, it wasn't just my imagination. Liath didn't fall, he was knocked down." Colm said matter-of-factually.

"By what" someone Liath couldn't see asked.

"By the Beowulf. It's been watching us the entire time, and it only began to take notice when Aideen pointed her gun at Liath a second time. The Beowulf saved him." Colm explained.

"Saved him? Are you saying I would have hit him? I'll show you how good a shot I am" Aideen replied incredulously. Aideen, despite practicing everyday, wasn't the best shot and was very touchy over the matter. Luckily, someone grabbed her arm to stop her from drawing her gun again.

The clearing by the gate was quiet once again, as everyone considered what Colm had said and stared curiously at the injured Beowulf. The peace was shattered so suddenly that the Grimm and Liath yelped in fear simultaneously, and those on the wall probably would have laughed if not for what had broken the silence.

"Liath Ciarán Cathal MacCumhaill, you want to do what with that Grimm?" a shrill voice screeched, coming from a figure who had just appeared on the wall.

"Oh feck" Colm muttered. The voice belonged to Caoimhe, Colm's wife, Liath's step-mother and the one woman in the village who could scare off a wild animal by shouting at the poor creature.

Caoimhe was on the same team as Colm and Liath's father, along with another woman named Niamh who lived in a nearby village. She was a woman in her mid-forties, slightly shorter than Liath, and was of muscular build from her days as a Huntress. She had a scare that ran down the left side of her face, leaving her left eye milky white and unusable. Her personality, coupled with her preferred weapon in her youth, had earned her the nickname of 'Battleaxe', though no one dared say it to her face. Even Aideen was scared of her, and is usually the only one who can talk Aideen out of shooting at something.

"Listen here boy, you have another thing coming if you think you're bringing a wild animal into my house." Caoimhe stated with a scary sense of finality.

"But Miss..." Liath pleaded. Liath had to call her Miss, because, as Caoimhe put it, she wasn't his actual mother, so 'mum' was out of the question, and calling her Caoimhe out right was too informal for her.

"Don't you 'But Miss' me, or I'll get the rolling pin and break it across your backside." She retorted. Liath knew from experience she wasn't lying.

"Go easy on the lad, Caoimhe. First he carried the Beowulf all the way here from one of the perimeter traps, then Aideen nearly blows his head off. He'd be dead if the Beowulf hadn't knocked him down." Colm said, trying to calm his wife down.

"Is this true, girl?" Caoimhe said, turning to Aideen to glare at her. Liath felt a slight bit of pleasure as Aideen cowed before the older woman, but also sympathy cause he had been on the receiving end of those glares many times.

"Mm...mm..maybe" Aideen said sheepishly.

There was silence for several long and tense minutes.

Eventually, Caoimhe sighed and eyed the Beowulf.

"You said it saved him from Aideen's terrible aim?" she asked.

"I said it knocked him down, but yeah it saved him." Colm responded.

"Liath, I am only going to say this once. That mutt is not coming into our house. But, I suppose it can stay in the shed out the back." Caoimhe said. While the village didn't have any form of government or ruling body, running on the basis that everyone was equal, few would go against Caoimhe when it came to matters involving Grimm due to her experience and appearance.

Still, people began to protest before she silenced them with a look.

She continued, "Should it not be tame able or step out of line once tamed, then it is used as target practice." Aideen and a few of the others got a menacing glint in their eyes at that.

It was 20 minutes later that Liath was in the shed with the Beowulf in front of him, ready to try and stitch up the creature injuries. The entire village was buzzing with the news, and many seemed to be giving the shed a wide berth. The Beowulf was fast asleep, breathing heavily. Whether that was normal or not Liath had no idea. Liath gently picked up the front right paw of the creature, the part covered in the most blood, and examined it to find where the trap had left its mark.

As his step-father scoffed at his care for handling the Grimm, something odd struck Liath.

There was no wound to be found. Just blood stained fur.

"It was definitely the front right paw that had the wound, right?" Liath asked.

"Yeah, why?" Colm responded.

"It's gone." Liath said.

"What do you mean it's gone?" Colm asked.

"I mean it's gone. Almost like it healed itself." Liath said.

"Healed itself? That might explain why it was so quiet." Colm pondered.

It was then that 2 things struck Liath.

The Beowulf was definitely going to last longer than 2 nights Colm had said it would.

Liath was going to think of a name.