Prologue:
The moon assaulted the quiet forest with its luminescent shine. Eerie shadows plagued the forest floor and shrouded the numerous trees in darkness. Crickets chirped filling the forest with shrilling sounds that battered the peaceful complex of the night. However, slashes given off from a sword cut straight through the uneventful night. The occasional yell accompanied the slashes which would silence any kind of noise that was made in the forest.
Jaune held his sword in front of him while taking in a deep breath. His exhausted look was partially subdued by the determination that was etched onto his face. He slowly exhaled and opened his eyes fully. Taking a strong step forward, he brought his sword up over his shoulder and pushed himself into the air with a bounce. His whole body flew and he quickly swung the sword from his shoulder across the area in front of him. Chunks of bark and wood splintered through the air as the tree in front of him shook from the blow.
Jaune landed haphazardly on his feet and stumbled forward in exhaustion, resting a hand on the now scarred tree for support. His legs shook violently until he was forced onto his knees by fatigue. He had been out here for over six hours and hadn't even realized it until now. When he had came to this outcropping to train, it hadn't been a concern of his to keep track on how much time he spent away from his home, but now that he was exhausted, it came full circle. He sighed knowing he was going to get a lecture from his mother about how irresponsible he had acted in staying out this long.
But as he thought about the possible excuses he could make up to cover up for him being late, he heard twigs snapping behind him. His fatigue forgotten, he bolted upright and readied his sword; he held it in the direction he had heard the noise and he slowed his breath as to not draw any more attention to himself. He mentally cursed himself for being so stupid for making so much noise before. The snappings came closer and closer and Jaune tensed waiting for something to emerge into the outcropping; his breaths became more rigged and his arms shook softly with anticipation.
The snaps seemed to be right on top of him and a form broke into the clearing from the absurdly dark treeline. He raised his sword and was about to charge at his aggressor until the obscured figure spoke in a feminine voice,
"What do you think you're doing out here, Jaune?"
Jaune's grip on the hilt of his practice sword loosened and his shoulders slumped bringing the sword lazily to his side. His sister came into the light that was illuminating the clearing looking pissed off. At that point, Jaune had kind of wished that would have been a Grimm instead of her. Her tall frame and glaring blue eyes made him want to run for high hell just to escape her wrath.
"...I'm ju-," he sighed, "I'm just practicing, Catherine."
He broke her gaze, sheathed his sword, and turned back around to lean on the destroyed tree feeling even more tired than before. Catherine continued towards him with her fists balled up and nose flaring.
"Do ya know how long you have been away for?!"
Jaune continued to avert her gaze and looked down to the swaying grass. Catherine wasn't just intimidating from how tall she was or by the way she carried herself. No, she was intimidating in a whole other way. A whole other scarier way: her stare. Nothing ever escaped being intimidated by that sight and if they aren't intimidated by it, then they should be. Catherine was about to become a full fledged huntress in the next year and she was a force to be reckoned with, and the Vytal Tournament last year proved that.
"Well?" She forcefully asked looking down at Jaune, who she was now towering over. He pushed his head farther down in a desperate attempt to avoid confrontation. She finally sighed after getting no response and crouched down to get to eye level with Jaune.
Darkened clouds floated overhead and the forest was completely silent. It seemed like the only living things in the forest was them given the absence of sound.
"Jaune," she said in a soft tone, "Why are you out here?" Her change in demeanor made Jaune look up and come into eye contact with his big sister. He shuffled around his foot until he responded,
"I already said why. I was practic—"
She quickly cut him off, "—No...why are you out here?"
He made a confused look and simply stared at Catherine. There was no ulterior motive to what he was doing; he was simply training by himself. Nothing more. Nothing less. He broke her gaze once again and looked down at his feet. Catherine craned her neck shifted down as to meet his gaze again.
"Jaune?" Her voice pierced his ears and her words bounced around in his head. She sighed, "Is it because of dad?"
His shoulders slumped and his head dropped lower than before. Catherine quickly picked up on these queues and her heart halted, terrified by what could have been done this time.
Her voice hardened with resentment, "What did he do this time?"
Jaune stood still and didn't dare look up; he didn't want to see his sister angry because of him. He brought on these types of actions from his father, it's not like he didn't deserve them. His father was totally justified in what he did… he was definitely justified.
"Jaune?" He didn't look up, still in his own world. "Look at me," Catherine said taking his face in her hand, turning him so he would look at her finally.
She gasped at what she saw: Jaune's left eye was swollen shut and purple, a little blood seeped from the bruise covering his left cheek. His eyes—or eye for that matter—had tears welling up in the corner of it. She had known something had happened when her father had drunkenly stormed into the house and started yelling at the top of his lungs about Juane being a disgrace.
"That son of a bitch," she muttered under her breath and quickly sat him done on the ground. She took her sleeve and cleaned the blood from the spot her dad had hit Jaune. He recoiled to her touching his wound but she wiped his face anyways. She pulled back her hand and softly took his hand wrapping her fingers around her little brother's.
She hated the fact that she was helpless to him; she couldn't possibly stand up to her father—nobody could—not her, not her mom, and definitely none of her sisters. This was out of her hands.
A soft breeze blew through the forest, pushing leaves back and forth creating a soft rustling. The forest was comforting, she understood why Jaune would come out here so much. Everything was so comforting…
…
"Jaune?"
Catherine looked down at his sitting form, watching as he sniffled now and again.
"Jaune? Look at me." She repeated herself. His head at first didn't budge and she didn't think it would, but he surprised her and looked up at her with his non-swollen eye.
"He doesn't do this because of you."
…
…
"This isn't your fault."
His lip trembled and a sob racked his body. Jaune's grip on her hand tightened.
Catherine dove forward and pushed his head into her shoulder, wrapping her arms around him. He broke down crying into her jacket and stained her shoulder in tears. She didn't care though; this was her brother, and he needed someone to cry on, which just so happened to be her. She wanted to always be there for him, but her work wasn't going to allow for that. He was going to need to understand that these things weren't because of him and were out of his control. He needed to know that before she left to be a full time huntress.
"This isn't your fault."
Jaune burst awake in a cold sweat, gasping for air. It felt like someone had punched him right in the gut. His breath was rigged and he hung his head recollecting on what he had just dreamed about. His head swam until he was able to piece together what exactly he had just experienced: it was one of the last memories of his sister before she went off to fight hordes of Grimm seven years ago.
He remembered that night and all of what happened: the forest, his anger, his sadness, his fath—…
...Shaking off the distant memory, he got out of bed and stretched out his back. Feeling pretty hungry, he grabbed the white t-shirt at the end of his bed, threw it on, and pushed his way out the door to his dorm. The hallway he came into was lit by the the sun breaking through the window at the end of the hall and he had to partly shield his eyes from the light.
He was never a morning person and that seemed to show. His hair was parted in every which way, his eyes had bags under them, and his feet dragged across the ground.
He made his way down the expanse of rooms until he reached the end where the door that led to the stairs was on his right. His dorm building had only one kitchen and it was on the very bottom floor, which wasn't ideal but it served its purpose.
Jaune's mother had made his dream of becoming a huntsmen a reality years ago when she had saved up enough money to send him to a decent combat school a ways away from Vale. He had trained here for three years and would be leaving soon for Beacon Academy, the place he had wanted to go to since he could walk and when he had been accepted he flipped out. He would be studying and fighting alongside some of the best students Sanus had to offer and that fact alone made him pumped up, albeit a bit nervous, but still happy as hell.
An airship would be leaving for Beacon later today, and he would be getting on it as a student of the most prestigious schools in all of Remnant.
Jaune through his head into a trash can that was near the exit of the airship and vomited. He had always had a problem with motion sickness and the constant shaking of the aircraft didn't exactly help with his problem.
A static sound came over the intercom of the ship and a feminine voice spoke, "We are now arriving at Beacon Academy." The message ended and the shuffling of people making their way towards the exit could be heard.
He pulled his head from the inside of the trashcan still feeling nauseated and turned to the sea of people filing towards him.
Oh shit was all he could mutter before he was being shoved down and to the side by the rowdy crowd. He covered his head to try and avoid being kicked in the head, but to no avail, so he started crawling his way back towards the seats of the ship. He kept crawling until he felt the feeling of claustrophobia disappear and opened his eyes to see he was finally out of the massive group.
"Hey, vomit-boy." His attention was attracted by the female voice above him. He looked forward and was greeted by a pair of brown boots—and then he looked up…
One of the most beautiful girls he had ever seen was staring down at him. She had long blond hair that went down to her waist and… a couple other features that really stood out to him. Her lilac eyes gazed down on him and were accompanied by a sheepish smirk.
Jaune didn't move to get up and just kept staring up gawking. The girl scoffed and spoke to him again, "Hey—you just going to lay there staring at me or are of going to get up?"
He composed himself and bolted upright. He didn't know who this girl was but his years of experience with the ladies told him just how to handle this situation:
"Hey—what's up? Name's Jaune Arc and your name is?" He said putting on his cool facade.
The girl rolled her eyes and responded, "Yang, look I have your—"
"—well Yang, I don't know if you know this but I'm what they called a master swordsman and specialized lady killer back where I'm from so—"
"—I'm going to stop you right there," Yang said with a half lidded look, "I just saw you beeline to a trashcan so that you could vomit in it and then shortly after that go into the fetal position and crawl out of a crowd, so the only thing that I can see you killing is your reputation, not the ladies."
Jaune deadpanned and looked dumbfounded for a moment before snapping his finger and pointing at Yang. "Fair enough. It was worth a shot."
Yang shifted and displayed the things she was carrying. "I saw you leave these in your seat after you ran to go vomit and thought I might come give you them since we're getting off here."
She held up a black duffle bag that Jaune promptly took recognizing it as his own. He shifted the bag over his shoulder so it would be easier to carry and then looked to her other hand.
"And… this," she said taking a moment to gaze at the giant broadsword. His sword. Hanging of the end of the hilt was a pendant displaying the Arc symbol while the hilt itself was made of leather and steel. His eyes worked up to the actual blade that made up the majority of his weapon. For the most part, the inside of the blade was made up of whitened steel, but that wasn't the only thing making up its expanse. A sharpened, shock crystal made up the edges of his blade.
Jaune grabbed the sword and leather sheath and put the strap attached to the pair over his shoulder as well. Jaune shifted due to the uncomfortable amount of weight on his shoulder, but thanked Yang all the same for grabbing his things.
"No problem, vomit-boy. I'll see ya around," she said going around him and walking towards the exit.
And with that, Jaune was left on the now emptied airship. Shrugging, he figured he should probably follow the crowd now heading towards the school. He lightly jogged out the exit and had to shield his eyes from the rays of light hitting his face. When his eyes finally adjusted to the light, his mouth was instantly agape. The CCT and the other building all making up Beacon Academy stood in front of him in all their splendor.
"I've finally made it," Jaune said to himself taking his first steps into a new stage of his life.
Author's Note:
Hey, what's up? Thank you for reading my first story. It's like midnight, so I don't have a lot to say, but I'll say like two or three things:
The tone of this chapter is not consistent. I know it's not and I can understand how that could be sort of distracting, but understand that this was only done because it was the introduction and I needed to get some necessary stuff out. Speaking of distracting, the point of view thing I did in the beginning where its omniscient seemed a bit ugly, so I'll be working on and experimenting with POVs for the first few chapters to see what I like and don't like. And also, my writing probably has a lot of errors, so any feedback on where I incorrectly english-ed is definitely appreciated.
So yeah, that all I really have to say. Thank you for reading my first attempt at writing.
