Pre-warning: This chapter contains scenes of an explicit nature. Reader discretion is advised.
Note: Words enclosed in [brackets] are to be considered more like subtitles – it's rather difficult to find accurate translating programs for this particular language, otherwise I would fully write out the sentences as spoken. Deal with it.
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The cordof was practically begging her to take it.
People filled the market today, so it was busy enough that no one would miss the small red fruit. Certainly not the tall man who had just set it down on a counter and bent down to fix his shoe. He was all but daring the girl to come and get it… but he didn't know her very well, did he? He probably thought she was too scared, too afraid of the big humans.
Challenge accepted. She grinned, her bright silver eyes twinkling in the late afternoon sun. One of her long, wide ears twitched.
Her hood raised, the girl sat perfectly still beside a bundle of red fabrics and sacks. She blended in perfectly. No one would ever-
"And what the blazes do ya think you're doing there, ya little mouse?"
Curses! A withered old woman had already spotted her. She must have extra keen eyesight to spot the girl through her perfect camouflage. The girl tried to glare at the old woman, but was simply laughed at for her efforts.
And anyway, the hooded girl had no idea what the woman said to her, but it must have been some sort of insult if it got her laughing like that. She'd never been called a 'mouse' before… wonder what that is?
She always kept the hood of her cloak up while in the human cities. Less attention that way. She sometimes got a free meal from a human with a strong sense of pity – after all, it wasn't right to leave a poor, defenseless child alone on the street to starve.
Gullible fools.
Sensing her chance, the girl darted forward and snatched the cordof before anyone around her had time to blink. She kept running, nimbly leaping over a pile of boxes as she made her way to the edge of town.
…Or she would have, if not for the keen eyes of a nearby Guardsman who darted a hand out and caught the girl's hood, ripping it down and off her head. He grunted with surprise as the girl's long ears suddenly made themselves known to all. Other onlookers also gasped at the sight.
"Damn thieving elf!" The Guardsman reached for the sword at his side…
…Just as the girl tossed a small handful of dirt directly in the man's unprotected face, forcing his hand to open and earning her freedom. Still clutching the fruit in one hand, the girl darted through the crowds like her life depended on it.
Because it actually did.
A shrill whistle sounded somewhere behind her, followed closely by the clang of plate metal as other Guardsman began to converge on her position. They were out in force today – maybe the girl had overstayed her welcome? Hard to tell with humans.
Still, this was not unexpected. The girl quickly made for a nearby alleyway, then used her free hand to scale the side of the rough building like a small rusc fleeing from an araf. From there it was a direct line to the city wall, and to the waiting arms of her old friend, the doron tree.
She didn't stop there, though – nor did she dare venture back onto the treacherous ground – instead, she made her way through the thick branches of other doron trees that offered her a path.
Trees were the only friends she ever needed. Let the stupid humans gather cobwebs in their stupid stone cities.
Trees didn't try to kill you for taking one lousy piece of fruit – they gave their fruit freely. All she had to do was ask.
Trees didn't kick her out of a place just for being there too long – their shelter was free for all.
And trees never laughed at her, never threw rocks at her, and never shouted insults in a language she didn't understand – they accepted all.
Elf. That was the word the humans used for her and her kind.
She didn't like it. Sounded too much like a curse when they said it.
Her people didn't have a word for themselves – they referred to each other as hanar (brother) or gwathel (sister) – but if she had to pick just one, she preferred 'fair folk.' That had a nice ring to it. Or humans used that word.
She bit into the cordof, savoring the juices that flowed down her throat. This was the blood of the fruit, the sweet nectar of life itself, and she always appreciated it.
Other than the red cloak and hood, the girl didn't have much else to her name. She didn't need much. While she would have loved to run free through the woods with naught to cover her but a blush… doing that earned her more unwanted attention than her ears ever did.
She knew because she'd tried it once… never again.
Instead of wild and free, the girl kept her modesty hidden beneath a billowy black woolen tunic. Her bare feet were slightly darker than the rest of her, but that was normal – she never wore shoes. There was one time a well-meaning human had given her a pair, and she did try them. They were buried in a pile of cow droppings before the sun had set that very night.
She finished the cordof, carefully prying the seeds loose and saving them. No other part of the fruit was allowed to fall to the forest floor – she ate everything, even the stem. The seeds, however, were not to be eaten. She would find a place to plant them at a later time.
Life was far too precious to be squandered. Even the seeds from a cordof were important – no one could be sure they wouldn't sprout into trees that would feed an entire family, or even a whole village of people!
So much potential in a handful of seeds…
A gentle wind whispered by, and the girl's wide ears perked up instantly. The trees were speaking to her… warning her…
Someone was coming.
Quickly tucking the precious seeds into a small pouch at her side, the girl silently darted through the branches to find better cover. And a better spot to peek down from. Once ready, she carefully tucked her red garment behind her – it was terrible at keeping her hidden in the trees, unless it was late in dannas when the red and brown leaves were much better at hiding her.
Four horses soon rode into the little clearing below, each bearing a human rider in fancy plate metal armor. It was a wonder that anyone could wear such cumbersome clothes and even move, much less fight in a battle. And such things were clearly riddled with weak spots and cracks. A nimble fighter could plant a dagger in any one of them with ease.
Not that she ever would. She hated knives, daggers, and all manner of human-forged blades of metal.
The fae didn't forge metal like the humans – they sang to it. The metal was more than willing to become whatever they wanted if they only asked.
Humans called much of what her people could do by another harsh-sounding word: Magic. Honestly, why did human language have to be so… rough?
The four metal men on horseback never saw the girl (of course). She couldn't make out anything they said, other than one name:
Schnee.
The elf girl knew the owner of that name. They'd met before.
The Schnee woman was apparently someone important, since her armor was far more decorated than the others. Her hair was a sparkling white, which the girl thought was really pretty, but the attitude behind it was even more rough than the other Guardsman she'd already dealt with. It was a typical human paradox – pretty face, ugly personality.
For some reason, the Schnee woman seemed to be following the girl from town to town. It was unlikely they were simply going the same direction, since the girl never went the same way twice, which meant she had to be following her… but why?
If these men were talking about a Schnee, that meant the woman who owned the name was not far behind. Best to put some distance between them.
She waited for several agonizing minutes as the men simply spoke to each other (though to her ears, it sounded more like barking). When they finally left, she carefully pulled her cloak back around and darted through the branches, heading due east.
As she ran, her bare feet leaving fewer traces of her passing than an aew, she thought of humans and their odd ways. Most men she'd clapped eyes on would have crashed through this foliage long ago, no matter how thick the branches were – only the largest of her friends could have borne such weight, and even then only just.
The girl had encountered a small handful of humans in her life that could match her people's skill in the woods, but there was no comparing them with the other humans. Rangers of true skill were 'worth their weight in gold.'
That was a human phrase she had managed to remember, and even figure out the meaning of. To them, 'gold' was rare and precious. To her people, malad was a tool and a decorative metal. It was also easy to work with – Malad-lind, gold-singing, was one of the earliest metalworking skills an apprentice could learn.
The girl preferred singing with the trees. They always sang back.
Soon, the girl in red came to a small clearing in the woods. No trails came in, and none went out – it was almost fully hidden from plain view. It was her own little hideaway. The trees had told her about it.
She squatted on her haunches, trying to steady her breathing. Even clad in metal as they were, human hearing could be surprisingly good at the worst times. She darted her eyes all around, looking for any sign of pursuit. None was found.
The girl sighed and leaned back against an old maple, it's trunk wide and hollow. Within the opening she found a small pool of fresh-smelling water, a celos, and smiled. She thanked the tree and scooped up some of the water with her hands, drinking deeply. It was sweet and clean, the best kind.
At that point, the urge to sing to the trees was strong, so strong… but she couldn't risk it with so many humans looking for her. She settled for lightly humming instead.
A wind echoed through the forest, bringing with it a faint ringing that played in tune with her song. She chuckled as she continued humming, not letting herself get too carried away.
The trees wanted her to sing louder. They wanted to sing along. She was very close to just… letting go… and belting something out with all her might.
But then the air shattered.
A sudden and powerful burst of light simply erupted at the very center of the clearing – it reminded the girl of the sky-lights during heavy rainstorms, but without the delayed booming noise. The girl yelped and quickly dashed into the branches of the maple, hiding in another hollow space about halfway up the tree's height.
Her eyes swam with spots and streaks, a result of looking directly at the source of the light at the moment of it's birth. She tried to shake her head clear of it, but to no avail. All she could do was wait.
"Uh… hello? Guys? Where'd everybody go?"
A new voice came from the center of her clearing as the girl's ears perked up again. This newcomer had not walked into the clearing – did the light bring him here?
"Nora? Ren? Pyrrha? Anybody?"
She heard him shuffling around, clearly confused and lost judging by the sound of his voice. Her vision had just cleared enough that the girl peeked around the edge of the maple to examine the stranger.
He was young, and a human- those were the first two things she noticed. He had shaggy blonde hair and odd clothes, as well as parts of a set of armor. She was mildly impressed at that – it had protection for the parts that mattered while being light enough to move freely. This guy seemed to understand the issues of a complete set.
She frowned at the sword he wore at his waist. Curses. And he seemed so nice at first.
The boy continued looking around with wide eyes of a brilliant blue, muttering something to himself as he did. The elf girl noticed that at no point did the boy draw his blade – though it was likely he simply didn't know how to use it. Even for a human, the boy carried himself like a total amateur.
After a few minutes of doing nothing, she watched as a small fileg flitted onto his shoulder from a nearby spruce. Normal humans would usually shoo them away if they got too close, or probably try to catch them for pets. She watched carefully to see how the boy would respond to the greeting.
"What… oh, hello there. You're a cute little thing…"
The girl's eyebrows shot up. The blue bird chirped happily.
"I don't suppose you could tell me where I am, could you?"
The bird simply shrilled again, officially welcoming him to the woods, then darted back into the branches. He scratched the back of his head as he watched it go, a goofy grin on his face. "Now I'm talking to birds…?" he muttered to himself.
Well… that was unexpected. Not even those Rangers were this friendly to the wildlife of the forest.
She didn't know who this boy was, but the girl was now determined to find out.
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Chapter 10:
Child Of The Forest
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Before you get the wrong idea, Jaune didn't hate the outdoors – in fact, he enjoyed camping with his sisters quite often back before joining Beacon – he simply preferred to know ahead of time when the camping trip was going to start.
He and the rest of team JNPR had only just arrived at the BMAC, Beacon's multipurpose activity center, to search for another missing student and one of Jaune's closest friends – Ruby Rose.
Somehow the redheaded girl had vanished at the end of a very confusing couple of weeks that culminated in a massive battle on the outskirts of the city of Vale. Jaune himself didn't get to see most of it, but he was able to join the others in watching a bunch of Ruby Rose look-alikes as they… um… …
You know what? Never mind. The more he thought about it, the dumber it sounded.
Regardless of the circumstances, Jaune Arc now found himself stranded alone in the middle of a forest he did not recognize. Not that he would have if he was in a forest he knew, like the Emerald Forest. He wasn't big into trees, so he would never have been able to tell one from another.
On the plus side, he was still fully armed. His armor and sword were in tip-top shape, and since his weapon didn't rely on dust to function, he didn't need to worry about keeping enough ammo on him to get through a fight.
Jaune took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to gain a sense of place. It was one of Sapphire's meditation exercises that he'd been trying to learn before she left. She had taught him so much, drilled so much into his head, that it was a safe bet that Jaune could run through her lessons for weeks without running out of stuff to work on…
He opened his eyes and looked around again, his vision fresh. He was in a clearing of trees that looked old and little-used. The weather was warm, but with a slight chill in the breeze. He couldn't smell any sign of civilization, such as oil or exhaust, but rather the clean smell of nature.
If there was atown nearby, he was upwind of it. The breeze was blowing from his right… so he had to look left… but a flash of red caught his eye. Something quickly hid around the back of one of the trees.
"Ruby?" Had he really caught up to her in a place like this?
"HALT! Do not move, or I will shoot…!"
The speaker was behind him, so Jaune automatically raised both hands in a pose of surrender. No sign of movement at that tree. If it really was Ruby up there, hopefully she'd come down and give him a hand…
"Turn around… slowly."
Jaune did as he was told, keeping his hands up as he slowly turned to face his captor…
Weiss Schnee with a crossbow.
Jaune almost dropped his hands with a grunt of relief… but then he noticed several key pieces of information that saved his life.
This Weiss looked a bit older, more like a third- or fourth-year. She wore a different outfit, too – a set of fancy white plate metal armor with lots of blue patterns emblazoned along the edges. And finally, this Weiss did not appear to recognize him. At all. That crossbow stayed pointed straight at his face.
"Hmm… you looked better from the back. Who are you, peasant?" the white-haired woman confirmed his fears with a harsh review and question.
"I'm, …uh… Jaune."
The woman didn't so much as flinch. "An unusual name in these parts. You don't look like a traveler. Are you a warlock? Was that flash of light your doing?"
Her tone was growing more harsh with each question, and Jaune was at a bit of a loss. Warlock? He remembered a light right before finding himself in a forest… but that wasn't him, was it? "I, uh… I'm just lost, really. I have no idea where I am or how I got here."
The urge to call her 'Weiss' was strong, but the desire to stay alive without a crossbow bolt stuck in his hide was even stronger.
The Weiss look-alike studied him carefully, ice-blue eyes narrow as she looked him over. Finally satisfied that he was telling the truth (or that he was no threat), she lowered the weapon. Jaune released the breath he didn't know he was holding.
"Very well, I'll believe you for now. I'll have to ask you to come with me – I'll answer any questions you have as we travel. I expect you to answer my questions as well…"
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How did that Schnee woman keep finding her?
The girl was at a complete loss. That white-haired woman could not have possessed Ranger-level skills, yet she never seemed more than a day or two behind no matter how fast the hooded girl ran! It was almost embarrassing!
And that weapon she held… the girl had never seen anything like it. The front of the device resembled a bow, but the rest was completely alien. It probably fired arrows like a bow did, but that part was so small that it probably didn't have much range. She doubted it would do much damage, even if it hit anything.
It was at times like these that she wished she could understand human words. The boy and the Schnee woman were talking about something that seemed important, but other than a select few words, the girl couldn't follow anything. She could hear them fine (thanks to her large ears), but that was all.
And that boy… something about him kept drawing her eyes back. He didn't look like anyone she'd seen before, but he had an aura about him… she sensed a kindness in him, a gentleness of spirit. A soul of… healing.
It was almost mesmerizing.
Now if she could only pull him away from that Schnee woman…
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"My men are camped about an hour's walk from here. You can start by telling me where you hail from, wanderer," the woman who looked like Weiss stated as they emerged onto a worn trail. A pure white horse awaited them, tied to a small tree. Judging by the equipment mounted on it, there was no doubt the horse was hers.
And it was nowhere near big enough for the two of them to share.
Sigh. Time for a long walk…
Jaune's ears perked up as something like a song whispered by him. It was almost too faint to make out, but it sounded lovely. The Weiss look-alike didn't seem to hear it.
Her armor clacked lightly as the woman strode towards the horse. She unfastened a leather belt from her waist that appeared to hold her crossbow bolts, then walked around to one of the saddlebags to deposit the weapon and ammo.
But that's when the woods decided to troll them.
Just on the edge of an incline, a thick root somehow lifted itself out of the ground, causing the armored woman to completely lose her balance and begin a slow, awkward topple. She somehow ended up tumbling down the short hill and landing inside an old, hollow tree trunk with an undignified grunt.
Of course, Jaune did not simply sit back and watch the event unfold – he was darting forward as soon as the woman began her tumble, but he was too slow to catch her before landing.
She slowly lifted herself up to a sitting position, shaking her head a bit. Her ice-blue eyes shot him a you-saw-nothing glare, and Jaune withered back a little. If this woman wasn't the real Weiss, she was far too close for comfort. Jaune considered offering to help her up, but decided against it…
Because the woods weren't done yet. Just as the pair got their bearings back, a creaking noise suddenly made itself known. Both sets of eyes went wide as the opening to the woman's hollow began …closing itself. Before she could fit herself out, the tree had somehow trapped her inside it. The opening wasn't completely blocked, but with her heavy plate armor, she had no chance of squeezing through the small opening that was left.
"Wonderful. I don't suppose that sword of yours can cut me out, could it?"
"Well, I can try…"
"[You are trapped!]" a new voice declared from above. Jaune looked up with a healthy dose of shock – that voice was very familiar, but the words were totally strange.
A bundle of red and black fabric landed lightly on the ground between Jaune and the tree. A girl who looked like Ruby stood before him, but her ears were… huge! Long and wide, she looked more like an…
"Elf! Release me, foul creature!" the woman barked angrily from her tree prison.
The new Ruby clone ignored the shouting and instead looked directly at Jaune, saying, [We should leave, come on!]
Jaune merely blinked, "Um… what?"
The girl gave a very Ruby-like sigh, then grabbed his hand and started to pull him away… for about five feet. The sight of the armored woman's dropped weapons instantly grabbed the girl's attention. She quickly let go of him and dropped down into a squat, closely examining the device.
"Get away from that you monster!" The Weiss-woman continued her ranting as she spied the elf-Ruby poking around at the crossbow. Jaune was seriously considering whether to help cut her free or simply follow this newcomer – all in all, he was getting more confused by the minute.
With a clear gleam in her large silver eyes, the elf girl snatched up the crossbow and pointed it at the tree with a grin, saying, [You won't follow me anymore, not when you are at the mercy of my friends!]
The weapon was still aimed at the tree as the girl's fingers found the trigger.
It fired, launching the bolt clean through the front of the woman's prison. The girl jumped back with a yelp.
A shriek and a thick thump told Jaune that it did not hit the woman, but instead imbedded itself in the back of the hollow. And was it his imagination, or did he smell something like… boiled eggs? No, more pungent…
A tense couple of minutes passed in silence. All Jaune could hear was the wind rustling through the trees and the occasional whimper from inside the tree.
Suddenly, a scream of rage and defiance tore from the tree prison, followed closely by the sounds of metal plates falling to the ground. This sound was enough to jerk the elf-Ruby out of her trance. The girl quickly grabbed Jaune's hand again and dragged him away, still holding the crossbow and bolts.
Just what the hell was going on, anyway?
Was he being kidnapped? Why did Weiss look so different? Why was Ruby suddenly an elf?
"…"
All at once, a series of images buzzed through his mind.
Sapphire Schnee. Carmine, Red, and Rose. They were all Ruby, too.
But they were from… … … different worlds… … …
By. The. Gods.
Suddenly everything made more sense. Not completely, but more. The only way to explain what was happening was that he was in another world, with another version of Weiss and Ruby.
As he jogged behind the girl in the red cloak, Jaune thought back to his recent past. He remembered how the other Ruby look-alikes had all piled into Carmine's machine to go home, and how there was this big flash of light – but then their Ruby was gone, too.
Team JNPR had been sent to check the BMAC in hopes she might have simply slipped away, but now that the blonde boy thought about it… that was highly unlikely.
Especially considering his current circumstances…
"[Come on, we're almost there!]" the girl said over her shoulder. Her words were like nothing Jaune had ever heard before. They were nice to listen to, though – almost like a song.
Soon they emerged onto a well-worn crossroads of trails, clear paths in the dirt that went no less than five different directions. More of her strange singing-words came next, and a nearby tree… opened it's trunk. Jaune found himself looking at a large, pitch-black space within.
"[Jump!]" she cried, then leapt from the path straight into the open space.
She doesn't want to leave tracks… clever. Though considering she was an elf, that should have been expected. Still, Jaune was mildly impressed.
Timing his own jump so he pushed off a nearby stone along the edge of the path, Jaune followed suit and jumped in. He landed in a roll just as the opening closed behind them, blocking all light except a single, small peephole.
In Jaune's defense, things happened really fast. He had no time to position himself more appropriately in relation to the elf girl. As he landed in the open space, he found himself lying almost flat on his back with his legs up in the air, his head mere inches away from the closing trunk of the tree. He basically slid in butt-first.
Once the tree closed, he clearly found himself as a makeshift seat – the peephole left for them was below the girl's natural line of sight, so she decided to sit herself right on top of Jaune's chest. Very close to his face.
Even in the dim light, Jaune soon realized that this girl was missing a rather… important piece of clothing.
"Ggh…!" There was no way to stop the nosebleed. Her legs had pinned his arms down. She shushed him harshly for making such a noise, but made no move to let him up. If anything, she seemed to scoot herself closer.
In short, Jaune had traded death by crossbow bolt for death by nosebleed.
Well… … … there were worse ways to go…
The only thing left to do was force his eyes shut, focus his mind on something other than the bodily warmth near his face, and try not to move. He could just hear the soldiers outside as they easily followed the trail the two of them left through the underbrush.
"Dammit, dammit, dammit! Where are they…?" The voice of the Weiss-woman growled as she came closer.
Another voice, this one male, tried to say, "Captain, perhaps we should return to camp… and repair your armor…"
"I will not lose them here, Klein! Fan out! I know they haven't gotten far yet…"
"Ma'am!"
Thumping footfalls announced their departure. Neither Jaune nor his elf captor moved for another several minutes. Her eyes never left her spy hole. It was quiet enough that he caught her whispering that same sing-song language of hers… but she didn't seem to be talking to him.
And he didn't dare open his eyes yet… not until they were outside again.
In the quiet of their tree room, Jaune wondered what happened to his team. He knew there was a good chance that Ren and Nora would find each other quick if they were also transported out like he was, and Pyrrha would be fine on her own. He hoped that they were alright in whatever strange world they might have found themselves in.
Jaune Arc did not want to think about the possibility that he was… alone in this unexpected adventure.
The blonde boy sighed… the sudden movement of air causing the elf sitting on his chest to jerk in surprise… which caused her to slide forward…
His eyes shot open just in time to see his doom heading straight for his face.
"GGRGH!" A sudden rush of blood from his nose, then he blacked out.
On the plus side, his arms weren't pinned down anymore.
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This human was turning out to be more trouble than she expected.
It had been almost an hour since his face seemed to erupt from beneath her, and after almost as much time washing in a nearby creek they were finally clean. The last time she'd seen that much blood was at a beheading.
Did all humans react that way to close contact with her kind? That would go a long way in explaining why they stared at her that one time she was running around in the nude.
The Schnee woman was gone, so there was that. Now she simply had to figure out what to do with this boy.
Once awake and cleaned up, the boy had seated himself on a large stone near the creek and made a strong effort to not look at her. Every time he glanced her way, his face turned as red as her cordof. It was funny, really… but they would never get anywhere at this rate.
The sun was starting to touch the horizon, and her midsection gave a low rumble. Turning to a nearby friend, she gazed into it's branches and politely asked for something to eat.
Two pieces of nidh dropped into her hands, causing her to chirp with glee. It wasn't fruit, but she still loved nidh. Giving her friend a quick thanks, she danced over to the boy and handed him a piece.
"Oh, uh… wh-what's this? Honeycomb…? For me?"
Though he seemed to know what it was, once again he used a harsh-sounding human word instead of calling it what it was. Honestly, why did they have to speak like that? It made her ears itch.
She smiled anyway, motioning for him to take it. He finally got the idea. They bit into their nidh together, both making near-identical noises of joy at the taste.
They chewed for several minutes in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. She still wished she could understand him, but in turn she also wanted him to understand her. He seemed smart enough to understand basic commands, but that was it… and for her, that was nowhere near enough.
Strange… other than her friends back Home, she had only wanted this level of contact with trees.
"Jaune Arc," he suddenly said, placing a hand on his chest.
Her eyebrows raised as it dawned on her what he was doing – that was his name. He was introducing himself. She nearly squealed in glee…
That name, though…
"Juh… Juhn… Jahn…" Her mouth seemed unable to process the sound as she tried it out. "Jannark… Jannark!" She grinned wide as she finally got it right.
Jannark's face fell into his palms with a slap. He seemed… disappointed, somehow.
Well, now it was her turn. "Meriliel," she said proudly.
"Now that's a mouthful…" he muttered to himself, then tried the name out. "Merel… Merril… Meh…"
She spoke more slowly to help him out, "Meh… ril… ee… el."
"Meh-ril-ee-el…"
"Meriliel!"
"How about just… Mell for short?"
In less time than it took a cordof to reach the ground after falling from a tree branch, Meriliel found herself sputtering and blushing furiously. Mell? Wasn't it far too soon for such an… affectionate name? Did he really like her… like that?
Jannark noticed her reaction and took it back, saying, "Sorry, sorry… no-go, huh? Maybe… Meril?"
Meril… that's much better. The elf girl took a deep breath and nodded happily. Must have been a misunderstanding. He didn't know what mell meant.
Both Meriliel and Jannark blinked as they found themselves engulfed in the darkness of night. Urging him to his feet, Meriliel tried to tell him that it would be safer sleeping up high… but soon gave up. He wouldn't suddenly understand her words in less than a day, after all.
Instead she mimed at climbing the tree, then motioned him to go first. He finally nodded and started climbing. They made their way to a thick branch halfway up where Jannark settled himself into a perfectly fitted notch in the wood.
Would he understand if she told him that she asked the tree to make some space for them? Probably not. She was lucky he understood her name. Maybe one day he'd say the whole thing right.
And maybe one day she would let him call her Mell…
"Hey, are you okay? Your face is all red…" Jannark spoke to her, his own face far closer than before. She squeaked and nearly fell out of the tree as she stumbled backwards.
Even in the dim light, his eyes glittered like gemstones. That just wasn't fair… why did he have to be so… so…
So… enthralling…
The blonde young human eventually settled down and fell asleep, his breathing becoming light and regular. Meriliel did not move until he was fully asleep, and when she did, she lightly settled herself into a little ball on his chest like a baby muig. She was even close to purring.
Sleep quickly found the young elf as she lay there, the boy's warmth penetrating into her normally cold body. She felt more at peace than she had for the past several years – all because of this strange boy. Meriliel found that she would have liked to stay this way forever… if she could.
Was this what the elders called love?
She could only wonder.
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Author's Note: Introducing Meriliel, my elf-Ruby OC! Isn't she cute? :)
So here's where the 'plot' of Concurrence begins. Jaune was the first non-team-RWBY character to appear, but he will not be the last. If you paid attention at the end of the previous chapter, you'll probably be able to figure out at least the next two he will meet… and more will join afterwards. I've got a lot of story left to tell, you know.
Meril speaks the fictional elf language called Sindarin, which I'm using the internet to translate a few words. I can pretty much guarantee that I'm not getting everything right, but it's for entertainment purposes anyway – don't worry too much about it. I'm doing the best I can, okay?
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Cordof = 'Apple'
Mell = A nickname used between lovers, 'Dear' – sounds like the word mel, which means 'love'
Meril = 'Rose'
Meriliel = literally translates to 'Daughter of the Rose'
=^w^=