Here we are, and at the eight chapter to boot. Please do leave reviews.
RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth and was made by Monty Oum, Miles Luna, Kerry Shawcross and many others.
The old, sleepy village in North-Central Vale, known on the Kingdom maps as "Orleans", and by the local villagers as simply "The Village", was witness one sleepy morning ,two weeks after the Arc family returned, to young Jaune Arc moving to The Inn with a far more reluctant female friend.
"Come on, Em! It'll work out! Trust me!", Jaune Arc spoke out, pulling a smaller green haired girl with him. Despite the boy being far taller, he seemed to be the one who was actually exerting in pulling her.
"Can't we just wait until tonight? What's even the hurry? Let's get there after the people are gone!", the green headed girl snapped, pulling back her arm with ease and nearly making Jaune stumble. For a moment, she flinched and stopped fighting , but Jaune simply took her hesitation as agreement.
"Why delay it longer than we need to? If we get you to work there today, you can sleep there today too! No need to sleep in that old-" He was cut off by the girl slapping a hand onto his mouth to shut him up.
"Quiet!", she hissed. Looking around cautiously to see an almost empty area with only the sound of the milkman in the distance, she relaxed and took her hand off the chastened blonde's mouth. "You know you shouldn't scream about that. I'd get arrested!"
"Sorry.", muttered Jaune. He took a glance around as well, and continued in a lower voice." But still! I know you like that place, but...well, I won't be able to get you food when school starts next week. The sooner we settle this, the better. And The Inn has good beds too.
But not as good as the ones in that house, thought Emerald with a faint trace of longing. The beds had been very comfortable and she had the best sleep ever when on them, but...there were problems.
There was no water there for the night. The only food she got was when Jaune brought her some, and she was unable and unwilling to steal some from anywhere. The guard was a menace and had already entered the area twice in the two weeks she had been here when she made too much noose, forcing her to hide away with her semblance for hours until he was satisfied and left. There was the time when he had decided to sleep inside to catch the noises, forcing her to stay awake the entire night out of paranoia. And now Jaune was telling her that he wouldn't be able to bring her food...
It had been too good to last. For a moment, Emerald felt a stab of bitterness at losing the best bed of her life, before it was quashed by her practical nature. No use crying over spilt milk.
She mumbled something like assent and proceeded to walk alongside Jaune to the large wooden building in the southern fringe of the town. To her silent relief, Jaune didn't walk right through the front door, but instead slipped through the side to a small wooden door by the side.
"Here we are!", he said proudly, gesturing at the door. Emerald though, had all her doubts come forward at the same time.
It wasn't that she had never worked in her short life. She had hawked wares, sold flyers, did odd jobs and cleaned the fronts of shops for enough money to get by. The rest, she stole. She wasn't worried about working honestly for a living, especially if she got regular work... It was only that she knew that it didn't work out well.
If anything was lost or stolen, she would be blamed for it. The only guarantee she had that she would be paid in full was how generous her employer felt that day or whether they needed her again. No guarantee existed that they would have to treat her well. She had been starved, beaten, tormented and kicked out by her masters before. Nobody was willing to employ street rats for long, even as cheap workers. Why would this place be different?
But Jaune didn't know that.
That was what it came back to. Jaune didn't know this, and she wasn't telling him. He should keep some of his innocence with him. It was what made being with him so wonderful, that she could simply pretend that the world was a nice, kindly place where people like him existed.
Besides, she didn't really have a choice anyways. Without Jaune, she would starve, so she would have to work there anyways.
Still, she hesitated.
Jaune huffed in irritation, and simply got up to the door and knocked loudly. Footsteps rang out in a minute.
Emerald yelped, jumping back. Before she could run, hide or use her semblance the door clicked open.
A tall , rather pretty brown haired girl of about fourteen or so stood there with a wooden ladle in hand, wearing a messy apron with a bird stitched on it. Her eyes fell upon Jaune, ignoring her completely, and she gave a rather terrifying scowl.
"And what are you doing here today, Jaune Arc?". Her nervousness forgotten, Emerald was at the point of jumping in to drag Jaune away before she noticed that her blonde friend was grinning.
"Morning, Marie.", he said cheerfully. " Did you miss me? How's Mrs Holz and Lily? Can I talk to Mrs Holz ? And are there any pastries to spare?"
The girl's frown melted away into something like amused frustration. She put her hands at her hips to look down at the younger boy.
"No, I didn't . They are fine and well. Yes, you can. And I think there are. Come on in, and your friend too. What's your name, kid?" She asked Emerald, opening the door for them.
Addressed for the first time, Emerald stood up straighter and tried to make the best impression possible.
"Em-Emerald, madam!", she blushed fiercely at how stupid that sounded to a girl barely older than her.
Marie raised an eyebrow, her freckled face looking down at her impassively. Emerald gulped.
"Do I", she asked testily, "look like a madam to you?"
"No-no ma-miss!", Emerald blurted out.
She shrank a little under Marie's stern gaze.
Then, the last of the older girl's sternness faded away as she let out a small cackle of laughter. She grabbed and pulled Emerald in before she could even think of reacting .
"You're his friend alright. Come on in! Figures that a friend of this blond idiot would bring a girl like you.", Marie Holz said with a chuckle at the end.
She soon led them to a small room , and told them to wait until she could get her mother. Promising to bring the pastries as well soon, Marie Holz walked away swiftly.
Alone in the room, Emerald studiously tried to ignore Jaune's victorious smirk.
"Told you to trust me", he said in a singsong voice.
"Shut up", Emerald said with a terrifying pout.
They were alone for about five minutes in that room(a time which they spent quickly practicing their story) before Marie returned with both her promised pastries, and one of the most intimidating women Emerald had ever seen. Her mother, the Innkeeper and Emerald's future host if everything went well: Mrs Aquila Holz.
Mrs Holz was a very tall woman, coming at well above six feet. Her arms were enormously muscled and looked like they could tear a man in half. Her chestnut brown hair was going grey at the temples, framing a face that looked like it was chiselled out of stone.
Emerald instantly understood one fact about her without needing to remember Jaune's hurried explanations: that is was not a woman to be crossed.
"Arc, the woman in question said in a deep, gravelly tone. " you told me that you found someone who can help me with the Inn for the year. And all I can see with you is a tiny girl as small as yourself who looks like she can't lift a kettle. What is the meaning of this?"
Her gimlet like eyes fell on Emerald, who meekly hid behind Jaune. Jaune, for his part, seemed to be the only one who was completely at ease.
"Mrs Holz! Uhm, I wasn't completely honest with you on this-"
"That I can guess.", observed the woman drily.
"-but I can explain everything.", Jaune continued seamlessly. "Well, Em here doesn't have anywhere to live, and you said that you always need help whenever Marie and Sophie aren't here during most of the year. So, I wanted to propose that Em could, maybe, help you out and...stay here too?" He ended hopefully.
Emerald cringed a little and poked Jaune's back to make him stop messing up. They had a plan! Couldn't he stick to it?
Mrs Holz simply raised an eyebrow." She's too young to work here, Arc. You know that. She's a little more than ten at best and looks like a reed. I need someone closer to Sophie's age for the work. Sorry kid, but she can't stay here."
She paused and her expression softened just a little. "Though I can maybe give her some blankets and such for sleeping. That's all."
"That's really nice, mam', but there's another thing here.", Jaune said very slowly, giving a backward glance towards Emerald, who nervously stepped out from behind him. He gestured her towards a large drawer with his eyes, and she walked carefully towards it, trying to ignore the old woman's confused glare. She reached it, quickly grabbed the heavy piece of furniture...
And lifted it cleanly off the ground.
The hitherto silent Marie gasped loudly, her mother taking a much more subdued but equally shocked inhale. The Innkeeper's eyes moved quickly from Emerald, still lifting the drawers with ease over her head, to Jaune.
"Sit down, both of you." She said sharply. "Marie leave the pastries here, get some root beer for these two and then take care of the kitchens without me this morning. I need to speak with both of these two brats."
The impromptu interview in the disused room wasn't something that Emerald didn't expect, but that didn't stop her from feeling nervous. She nervously fingered her bottle of root beer, not even tasting it. The tension in the room was more than enough to kill her appetite.
Jaune, on the other hand, was casually chomping down on the chocolate pastries while chugging down the bottle. He seemed to be completely immune to the tension that was driving Emerald nuts.
Mrs Holz was the first to break the silence, with the abrupt bluntness that seemed to be characteristic of her.
"Does your father know?", she asked Jaune. Jaune shook his head, to which she frowned, more in thought than actual anger.
"How long have you had your Aura unlocked, girl?", she asked Emerald. Both she and Jaune blinked at the unexpected question. What did that matter? They had thought that she would be more interested in what powers she had and where she was from.
Emerald tried to think back to her old life. "Just about three weeks, mam. I was about to get stabbed when the knife bent against my skin...no, not just that." A sudden surge of memories came, events that she had deemed inconsequential and half forgotten, but had returned with a vengeance in the last few weeks as she came to terms with her newfound abilities.
"A dog tried to bite me, but the fangs didn't hurt my leg. I got hurt badly, but it healed quickly. I did things like jumping over fences when I was in trouble. It only used to happen if I was really in trouble, and even then only sometimes. Stopping the knife was the biggest thing it ever did, though."
Mrs Holz was silent for a long moment. "I see.", she said finally, eyeing Emerald carefully.
"Do you have a semblance?", she asked.
Emerald's thoughts raced again as she tried to think of the correct answer, but Jaune beat her to it.
"She does, it's illusions- yow!", he yelped as Emerald discreetly kicked him under the table for revealing her Illusion semblance. Because that was what the two of them had agreed it was.
Yes, it was illusions. She could see and hear herself whenever she became invisible, but nobody else could. She had only used her power on someone three times, and each time with just one other person around. And that person had been unable to see or hear her.
This was a power only she had, and she was unwilling to let it become common knowledge. Jaune, unfortunately, had destroyed that plan completely. Seemed like he had been taken off guard by the stern woman.
"Show me.", the Innkeeper ordered. Emerald stood up, and obliged, though not without another glare at Jaune. With a single thought, she was rendered invisible. Mrs Holz narrowed her eyes even as the green haired girl disappeared from her sight completely.
"Impressive.", breathed the older woman, her eyes on where Emerald used to be.
Jaune, however, was nonplussed. "Er, Em? I can still see you."
Both the female's eyes turned to him in surprise. Emerald concentrated on him to make it work properly but...
"And I can see you now. Stop trying too hard. I can see what the issue is here.", Mrs Holz said, her tone back to it's crisp business like self. She looked both intrigued and slightly worried.
Mrs Holz stood up, towering above them with her brows furrowed in thought. Eventually, she spoke.
"It seems like it really is what you said, an illusions semblance. One that can make one person, but no more, see things. The girl is obviously unable to master it yet, and I can't see it change soon. The rest of her Aura is not bad, though I am sure that she's more proficient with it purely due to how long she has had it than any unusual amount of it. Altogether, exemplary, but not too much so."
She gazed at her, then at Jaune's hopeful face. "She can stay here, as long as she helps out every now and then. She can sleep in Sophie's room for now, and we can make other arrangements if she's still here until next holidays."
Emerald sighed in relief as Jaune gave a whoop of victory. Shaking her head, Mrs Holz turned to leave.
"Stay for breakfast if you like, Arc. I'll tell your mother that you're here again. And omit anything related to green haired girls you may or may not have brought to me." With a small chuckle, the tall woman left the room.
With a relieved sigh, Emerald fell back into her chair, before sitting up straight as she felt Jaune's gaze on her.
"What?", she asked. He wasn't going to start gloating again, was he? She was really too tired for that.
He blinked. "Jumping over fences." It managed to be both a statement and a question.
Emerald's eyes gleamed with the slightest amount of pride.
"It's a long story", she said as she started telling said story with a little embellishments, the smell of the delicious meal cooking below wafting up to the room.
This was a good place to call home.
Credits to Mrs Holz, a character that I made when first planning for this fic. I don't think I need to state the obvious over how she knows much about Aura, semblances and the like, and yet is running an Inn in a village in the middle of nowhere. She has reasons for that, of course. Pretty simple ones. Her name, BTW, refers to the German word for wood or timber. I thought it would suit an earthy person who reminds you of a great Oak tree, strong and firmly respectable.
For the others, Marie Holz, who we saw here, is fourteen years of age and the younger daughter of Aquila Holz. Her elder sister is Sophie Holz, of sixteen years of age. They are freckled, tall, green eyed and brown haired girls who have lived in a village for all their lives.
Finally and most importantly, Jaune and Emerald. Jaune managed not to mess up too badly here(though he's damn lucky that Mrs Holz decided to be cooperative) and Emerald has a place that she can call home. This is FAR from the last time she, and by extension us, will see that old house, so I hope you can remember it for a while. But for now. It isn't important.
Good day/night to you all. Please review!:)
