Jaune plopped down at the table, rubbing his jaw as he did. It was certainly still hurting, but at least now it was half the size it was yesterday.
As he guessed, as soon as he got back to his dorm, Pyrrha had nearly had a heart attack at the sight of it. She insisted that he stay in the dorm for the rest of the day, volunteering to take notes for him in class while he slept it off. It took a decent amount of arguing with her just to let him actually go to classes today.
"Jaune, you need to stop bothering it or else it won't heal properly!"
Jaune let out a small sigh as Pyrrha began doting over him again. It's not that he didn't appreciate how Pyrrha treated him, but it sometimes got to a point where she would be a bit overbearing.
"It's just a bruise, Pyrrha. It's not gonna rip open if I-"
"Wow, that bruise is HUGE!"
Team JNPRs attention was garnered when Ruby and the rest of her team sat down in front of them, Yang and Jaune exchanging a few nervous glances as they did.
"Where did you get it from?"
"Didn't Yang tell you?"
"...Tell us what?"
Yang's nervous glance turned into an even more nervous grin as all eyes turned to her.
"I uh... heh... uuuhh..."
It took Jaune a moment to figure out that Yang didn't exactly want everyone to know that she had knocked him clear across the training room yesterday morning, but what tipped him off were the skeptical looks that Blake, Weiss and Pyrrha were giving, and on top of that he was getting a pleading look from Yang herself.
Jaune quickly thought of the best excuse he could to explain the bruise.
"She uh, she saw me fall down the stairs on my way to the training hall!"
"Uuuh, yeah, yeah that! Vomit Boy took a nasty spill and slammed his jaw right into the bottom step! Poor guy knocked himself out in the process."
Everyone seemed to believe the fib, turning back to their food and regular conversation, until Nora spoke up.
"Heeeey wait a second... There aren't any stairs near the training ha-OOF!"
Jaune glanced over to see that Ren had shoved a pancake into Nora's mouth as he kept his face mostly emotionless. The two of them exchanged a short glance that seemingly conveyed the situation to each other perfectly before everyone returned to eating their food.
It was strange how Ren and Jaune shared a bond that allowed them to understand each other with even the most subtle of actions, but it was certainly a major blessing. Although Weiss and Blake returned to giving Yang very skeptical stares for quite some time after Nora's revelation before they decided to drop the subject.
After the excitement died down, Jaune found the lunch break to be fairly standard. Like always everyone was talking about various topics about their day or some of the latest news. But one particular conversation between Blake and Ruby caught his attention.
"So, Ruby. How are you enjoying that book?"
"Oh it's awesome! I've learned so much about Dragons since I started reading it!"
"Heh, maybe one day you'll find one."
Ruby puffed up her cheeks and folded her arms in response.
"Laugh all you want, Blake. I know there are dragons out there somewhere! I mean come on, there are dragon Grimm, right? Why can't there just be... not-Grimm dragons?"
A book about dragons? That certainly sounded familiar. Jaune leaned over the table and decided to butt in on the conversation. "Uh, hey guys, couldn't help but notice you were talking about a dragon book?"
"Yep! Blake found it on the ground just after the closing ceremonies for initiation!"
"I wasn't really into that kind of thing, so I decided to give it to Ruby since she practically begged me for it."
"I can't believe someone would just throw such an amazing book away like that though!"
Team JNPR exchanged a few glances before Jaune spoke up.
"So uh, about that book. Is it a brown, old and musty looking book that has an extremely, almost life like detailing of how dragon biology works?"
"Yeah, how did you know?"
"THAT'S THE BOOK YOU SAID YOU LOST, JAUNE! THEY MUST HAVE STOLEN IT!"
Everyone turned to Nora, who had gotten out of her seat and pointed dramatically at both Ruby and Blake, both of whom just blinked in confusion.
"W-what?! I'm not a thief! I'm innocent I tell you, INNOCENT! Uuh... UM... BLAME BLAKE, SHE FOUND IT!"
Blake glanced over at her leader and narrowed her eyes a bit. "Thanks for throwing me under the bus, Ruby."
"Hehehe... sorry...?"
Jaune let out a short chuckle and shook his head. He wasn't even upset, more like relieved that someone he knew had found it.
"Calm down guys, I'm not mad. But that book is REALLY important to me, Ruby. Do you think maybe you could give it back to me sometime?"
"Oh... sure... but... can I please finish it first? I'm almost halfway through!"
Jaune looked at the pleading eyes that Ruby was shining in his direction, failing to notice everyone around him instinctively turning away from her gaze.
"Uh... I guess you can..."
"Yay! Thanks, Jaune!"
"But I'm eventually going to need it for something REALLY important, and I won't hesitate to come get it when I do!"
Blake glanced back at Jaune for a moment and cocked an eyebrow. "Why would a fairy tale book be THAT important?"
Jaune gulped nervously, he almost began backing himself into a corner before Yang interjected.
"It's probably really important to him, Blake. Don't you have books that are super important to you?"
Yang flashed a very... knowing grin at Blake, who rolled her eyes and turned away.
"...Yeah, that's true. Didn't think about that..."
Jaune breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn't going to get his whole secret blown over something stupid like being interested in a book though, so he wasn't sure why he was so worried.
Once lunch was over, the rest of his team went off to their respective classes. He was the only one who had a free period directly after lunch, something that Nora was insanely jealous of.
Finding nothing better to do, Jaune decided to head to the library and perhaps do a bit of research online on dragons. Of course, that probably wasn't the best idea since he would know more about himself than anything the internet could provide. After all, the internet was mostly just filled with speculations or straight up false information, since Dragons technically didn't exist on Remnant.
However, before Jaune could actually get to a computer he was flagged down by Ruby, who was sitting at a nearby table.
"Hey Jaune! What are you doing out of class?"
"I'm the only person on my team who has a free period during this time. Everyone else gets theirs right after mine."
"Oooh. How come you never told me? Our teams free period is the same time as yours!"
"Huh. I usually just stay in the dorm and read comi- I mean study during my free period."
Ruby let out a giggle before dragging the chair next to her closer.
"Sooo, wanna sit down and read your book with me? I'm getting to the part that describes the different types of dragons and their powers!"
Jaune scratched the tip of his chin and thought. It certainly would be a good idea to see what information the book had on Golden dragons. If he could figure out whatever power he had, that would help further his training along. Probably.
So he plopped down next to Ruby, who eagerly began reading off various different passages for each of the chromatic dragon species.
"Woah. Red dragons can control the fire they breath! They can even make it so that it won't burn people they like! And they can set themselves on fire too!"
"All dragons that can breath fire can light themselves ablaze. It's really good for offensive close quarters combat."
Ruby looked at Jaune quizzically, which made him a bit nervous.
"Uuh. I mean, that's what I've heard, anyways."
"Ooooh. Green Dragons breath poisonous gas... And they have the power to make nature grow around them!"
"Yeah, Green Dragons are really in tune with nature. Areas with Green Dragons in them tend to have a lot of plant and animal life."
As Jaune read through the page, he could feel Ruby's eyes on him once again. At this point, he realized that he might be detailing things a little too much, it was mostly just out of instinct, since he used to have quizzes on the subject all the time in his normal school. And he was just now realizing that such knowledge might be raising a bit of suspicion.
"Wow, you know a lot about Dragons, Jaune!"
"Err... Yeah, they're a uh, big hobby of mine."
"Really? That's cool! We should do stuff like this more often! I thought I was the only one around here who was into such cool creatures."
"What uh, what got you into Dragons, Ruby?"
"All the stories that Yang used to read to me! A lot of them had Dragons in them. Sometimes the dragons were the villains, but I liked it more when the dragons were good or just not evil. What about you though?"
Jaune gulped nervously and tugged on his collar a bit.
"Uh well, I uh... I dunno I just always found them interesting. And then one day I just really got into them. Y'know?"
"Yeah. One day I hope I'll get to meet a dragon in real life though!"
"Heh, Ruby, you know those are just mythical creatures right? They don't uh... exist..."
Jaune felt a tinge of guilt flow through him for saying such a thing, but he shook it off.
"Aw come on, you sound just like everyone else! There HAS to be a real dragon out there, how could the grimm make dragons if there weren't any to base them off of, huh?!"
"Well, that's not exactly a solid theory... But maybe you're right."
As Ruby turned a few more pages, Jaune saw something that caught his attention.
"Wait, Ruby! Go back to that last page!"
"Huh?"
As Ruby flipped a page backwards, both her and Jaune stared at the title of the entry. Metallic Dragons.
"Wooaah... I didn't know there were dragons based off of metals!"
"Yeah, they're generally regarded as the strongest dragons."
"COOOOL! Wait... hold on, what's wrong with this entry? It's all... faded."
True to her words, more than half of both pages were faded and practically unreadable. Only a few lines here and there were left in tact, but something seemed off about the way the words had faded. It seemed more like they had been erased... But it was an old book, so it's possible that either could have happened at some point.
"It's a really old book, so it's not surprising that some of it was damaged."
"Aw, that stinks."
"Is there anything left on Golden Dragons?"
Ruby's eyes scanned the page as she looked for anything on Golden Dragons, when her eyes came to rest on the section devoted to them, she was disappointed to see that nothing remained of the words except small lines here and there.
"Nope. Nothing."
Jaune let out a heavy sigh, the book probably wasn't going to be nearly as useful to him as he thought now. Sure, it could help with all the basic workings of his body, but he knew most of that already. He really needed to know the more combative properties of his body, which was far more specific when it came to metallic dragons than chromatic ones.
While Chromatic dragons tend to be more well rounded, there are certain parts of metallic dragons that are far stronger than others. Not only that, metallic dragons have different metabolisms and scale types, along with completely separate and more intricate powers than the chromatic dragons.
A bell rang out from the halls, signaling that the period had just ended. Jaune let out another sigh as he stood up, he at least wanted to see if he could find any information on the internet before he left.
"Aw, class time already? Laaame."
"Heh, yeah. Guess I'll see you later, Ruby. Enjoy that book some more, alright?"
Ruby gave him a large grin as she hugged the book to her chest.
"No problemo, fellow Dragon lover!"
Both of them gave each other a small laugh before they parted ways.
Classes went along normally, but all throughout the rest of the day the one thing on Jaune's mind was how he would go about discovering how to utilize his dragon form in combat. Tomorrow he would try going to the training halls again and attempt to actually put in some work on mastering his shifting a bit more though. Once he did that, he imagined that he would have a much easier time experimenting.
Since he generally didn't do things in his free period, and the fact that leaving so early in the morning regularly would surely raise suspicion from his team, Jaune decided that starting tomorrow he would use his free period as a training period for his Draconic powers.
Hopefully nobody would interrupt him again, but that shouldn't be a problem.
As long as he remembers to lock the door this time.