CHAPTER ELEVEN - MYTH
Oscar looked at the backpack sitting on his bed, a tense expression on his face. He looked out the window to the sunrise. He had to leave.
Oscar walked along the path away from his aunt's farm, backpack now on his back. He stopped and looked back at the farm one last time, and turned forward and continued ahead.
"I'm sorry."
"You know, this entire situation is crazy to me." Oscar said to Ozpin's voice in his head, walking along the dirt path a great distance from the farm, the dense forest on both sides of the path. "Leaving home, going to the city, everything that you have told me. It's all crazy. But now, it doesn't feel crazy. What I once thought was crazy is now the right thing to do."
"Well...I suppose that's good."
"No." Oscar disagreed. "It's scary." Oscar bowed his head slightly, then lifted it nervously at the sound of the far away thunder cracks. Oscar quickened his pace.
At a nearby train station, Oscar ran out of the rain and under the cover of the covered platform. He spotted a woman at the terminal.
"Stay back."
Oscar stopped and crept over to the wall of the building, looking around the corner at the woman. She had long black hair, golden eyes, and her legs had been replaced with prosthetic legs.
"Who is she?" Oscar asked quietly.
"Ashley. She's an android."
"An android..." Oscar muttered to himself. Ashley pressed a few buttons on the screen and reached into her pocket, but froze, and searched both her pockets frantically. She angrily turned away from the machine.
"You should help her."
"Hello." Oscar greeted. "Something wrong?"
"I forgot to bring Lien with me." She answered.
"Oh, well, I might have enough for two tickets." Oscar told her, taking out a Lien card. He walked over to the machine and scanned his Lien card, Ashley standing to his right.
ERROR
Unable to complete request.
REASON GIVE:
Insufficient Funds (Code: 726)
"Great, I don't even have enough for one ticket." Oscar muttered, rubbing his forehead. "I'm assuming this weird magic doesn't come with an infinite supply of money?"
"I'm afraid not, you'll have to solve this on your own."
"Who are you talking to?" Ashley asked him.
"Umm...myself...?"
"Hmm." Ashley glanced to the side and immediately pressed her back against the side of the machine.
"Huh?" Oscar glanced at her, confused.
"Be on your guard."
"What do you mean?" Oscar whispered. Oscar turned to his left to see a tall man walking towards him.
"Here." Hazel approached the machine, raising is fist. He slammed it down on the top of the machine, which beeped and spat out a ticket, which Oscar picked up off the floor. He looked at Hazel as he started to continue onward. Ashley kicked up and slid over the machine, landing quietly on the other side as Hazel walked off into the rain. Hazel stopped and turned back to Oscar.
"Don't let such a small obstacle block your path." Hazel told Oscar, and walked off.
"That man, who was he? He felt-"
"He's a dangerous man." Ashley told him, stepping away from the machine and turning to him. A hint of fear was in her eyes.
"You know him?" Oscar asked.
"Unfortunately. If he'd seen me there, he likely would have killed me, or worse." Ashley told Oscar. Ashley turned to the machine and slammed her fist into it, denting the side. The machine beeped and spat out another ticket. Ashley walked over and picked it up, turning to Oscar. "Are you going to the city too?"
"Yeah." Oscar answered.
"Well, at least I won't be travelling alone." Ashley stated, and held out a hand to him. "I'm Ashley."
"Oscar." He shook her hand.
David lowered his scythe as he reached the entrance for Kuroyuri, Ruby and Jaune just behind him carrying Qrow. The village was completely gone. There were no people around, no building left standing. It was a horrible sight to see.
"Oh, man." Jaune muttered.
"Come on." David told them, folding his scythe and attaching it to the back of his belt. The three of them continued onward through the desolate village.
"Any of these places look like a pharmacy?" Ruby asked.
"These buildings are too destroyed to even tell. They could have been anything." David told Ruby.
"Ren really didn't want to come here, did he?" Ruby asked no one in particular.
"It seems like it was that way." Jaune stated.
"Do you know...why?" Ruby asked him.
"I think we can gather why." David told her, sighing. "This village was once a thriving village, with a lot of people, a fully fledged community. I've never been here before, never left Patch until I was a teenager, but I can tell just by looking at this place that it been destroyed for at least a decade. I can imaging that Ren grew up here, with his parents, and lived a rather normal life as a kid, a caring mother and a father who went out and hunted for the people. I remember Nora told us that she's been with Ren since they were kids, so imaging she was here too, but didn't fit in with other people. Maybe she was even an orphan on the streets, in a place what was different to her. She'd be bullied for being different to everyone else, because that's just what people are like."
"You can tell all that by just this place?" Ruby asked him.
"I once lived in a community, not as big as this, but still a big one. I was different, so I was treated differently, even if it wasn't exactly in the same way." David explained. "Come on, we'll go put Qrow somewhere safe and look around, there still might be stuff here we can use." Ruby and Jaune nodded, the three of them walking over to a tree and carefully putting Qrow against it.
Ren and Nora continued along their path over the mountains, only to reach more mountains ahead of them.
"We never get the easy path, do we?" Ren asked.
"What fun is easy?" Nora joked, turning to Ren. "You OK?"
"Mhmm. You?" Ren asked her.
"I've got you, don't I?" Nora reminded him. "Come on, there's more than one way up a mountain." Nora ran ahead, Ren watching with a small smile. Thunder rumbled in the distance, which caused Ren's smile to disappear.
"Hey!" Ren turned to Nora, who was further ahead on the path." There's wind blowing out of this cave!" Nora gestured to the cave next to her. Ren ran over and caught up to her. "You think this leads to the peak?"
"There's only one way to find ou-" Ren was cut off as a large piece of fabric blew out of the cave and into his face, causing Nora to giggle. Ren removed it from his face. "Yes, yes, very funny." Ren looked down at the marking on the fabric and he freezes.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Nora asked.
"This is the symbol for the Shion Village." Ren stated.
"Shion? But...that's where we found the huntsman...that's weeks away from here!" Nora exclaimed. Ren threw aside the fabric and ran into the cave. "Hey!" Nora yelled, following him. The two ran further into the cave and stopped when they reached a spacious area. "Oh my gosh..."
In the spacious area, there were dozens of weapons speckled around the cave. Swords, axes, staffs, all manners of weapons were either stacked up against the walls or simply lying on the ground. Ren walked over and picked up an arrow. He knew this arrow. Nora looked at the ground near him. There was a hoofprint in the ground, pointing out of the other side of the cave. They both ran out the other side and saw nearby trees being shook as something ran through them, towards a village in the distance.
"No..." Ren shook his head. They both knew the village ahead of them, the one that the shaking trees were heading towards.
Kuroyuri.
"Not just any one." David said to himself, looking at the buildings ahead of him.
"What do you mean?" Ruby asked.
"This village was destroyed over a decade ago, when Ren was a child, something that caused him to not even consider going this way. Something destroyed this village and everything in it." David told Ruby.
"The Grimm." Jaune stated.
"Yes, but not just any one. One. A single Grimm did this to this village." David told them. "I heard about a Grimm that had a horses body, with horse legs at the back, and pawed legs like a lion at the front, with a humanoid body on the top fused to the body with long arms that dragged along the floor. A Nuckelavee Grimm. But it's a myth. I've only heard about it, I've never seen one, or know anyone who has seen one, but the stories have to come from somewhere, right?" David asked them. Neither of them answered, visibly disturbed. David sighed, turning to them. "Did you find anything?"
"Nothing." Jaune answered, Ruby shaking her head.
"Right, well, we should go back to Qrow." David told them, the three of them walking back to Qrow, who remained unconscious against the tree. Ruby knelt beside Qrow as Jaune watched helplessly, David just examining his metal hand.
A creature suddenly roared in the distance, Jaune reached for his sword and looked for the source of the noise.
"It's far off." Ruby assured him.
"I know, but Ren and Nora are still out there." Jaune reminded her.
"Chances are, they're in a better situation than us. Something is better than nothing." David told Jaune. They all remained in a momentary silence until Ruby got up and approached Jaune.
"I'm sorry."
"Huh?" Jaune turned to Ruby, who looked at the floor in shame.
"This is all my fault. I should have dragged you all along." Ruby told him.
"Ruby, you didn't drag us. We wanted to come with you." Jaune told her.
"But you didn't know about Tyrian, about-"
"None of us did." David spoke up, cutting her off. "You can't blame yourself for something you were unaware of. Besides, you're wrong about feeling bad about this. You lost a hell of a lot of important people to you. Pyrrha. Penny. You're team. You're school. In a way, you're own sister. Yet, here you are, still with much more to lose, but you still chose to come and do the right thing. To make a difference." David got up and started walking without reason.
"You didn't drag us along." Jaune assured Ruby, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You gave us courage to follow you." The two smiled at each other. David turned away from them at the sound of another roar in the distance. It sounded...closer.
Could it be...
David shook his head, disregarding the thought.
"It's just a myth."
So, there we have it. Just want to apologise for the shortness of the chapter, I tried to make it as long as possible, but when you're source episode of RWBY is half a flashback episode with no characters who were there, you just have to improvise.
In terms of this chapter, Ashley is now with Oscar. We last saw her in Salem's realm, so what caused her to leave, when did she leave, and why? It'll all be revealed soon. And David knows about the Nuckelavee Grimm (which is what we think it is based off), but doesn't believe such a monster could exist. Top be fair, when I saw it, my first reaction was "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?", but David should take it a bit cooler.
So, almost then end of RWBY Volume 4, I'm excited to find out how it ends, then have to wait for months for the next volume. But we will prevail!
As always, remember to follow, favourite and leave a review, and I'll see you all in the next chapter!