Chapter 14: The Nest
(Day 14)
Ruby was already awake, even though it was still dark outside. That had a simple reason: Troodon. They guessed that the little creatures could attack again, and didn't want to be surprised in their sleep.
Thus, they put up some torches around their camp and determined that one of them should always be awake, to keep the torches burning, and watch out for the small creatures. Warm light shined through the gaps in the wood that was used to build a shack around the Refining Forge. While it was her turn to be awake, Blake put the metal they gathered in the cave into the Forge, so that it would hopefully be ready in the morning.
Ruby was leaning against the wall of their house, with Puffy in her lap. The Campfire was burning too, and she made herself a bit of meat, with some berries on top. Suddenly, she heard a loud sound and saw her implant lighten up. Ruby activated it and saw that she was now Level 24. There was a good amount of new building stuff available, all made out of stone. What interested her more though was the Smoke Grenade. She learned it and looked at the materials needed.
Even though it needed a lot of different materials, nothing of it was hard to gather. In fact, they already had everything, and Ruby started to work on it. The only thing she needed was one ingot of Metal, so she entered the shack where the Forge kept. It was incredibly hot inside, and she decided to keep the door open, to not risk a fire.
She looked inside the Forge and saw Metal that was ready. She took a shovel Blake made out of a wooden stick and stone, and pulled the metal out, before putting it into a stone form, which she, in turn, put in the river. The Metal hissed as it rapidly cooled down, and turned from a glowing white to a red, before becoming dark gray. A small cleaning later, and the dark layer was scraped off, and the Ingot ready to be used.
The Sun was already setting as she was done with the grenade, and Ruby looked at her work. The Grenade worked relatively simple. One just had to press down the pin, and throw it. Of course, it would only work on a limited number of animals, since most predators had an excellent sense of smell. But maybe there was something to be done about that too.
She heard the door open and saw Blake stepping out of the house. The Faunus stretched, and yawned.
"Hey, Blake!"
"Oh, Ruby. Did the Troodon show up?"
"No, they didn't. Look what I've built!"
Blake looked at the Grenade. "Uhm, is that thing dangerous?"
"Don't worry. It's just a Smoke Grenade. By the way, I had an idea how to hold off the Troodon."
"Which would be?"
"You can be built Spike Walls, right?"
Blake shrugged. "Yeah. You mean surrounding the camp with them?"
"Exactly. We'd only need to determine a point where we want to build the entrance." Ruby looked to the river. "And we need to leave this point open for a dock of some sort."
"What would we need a dock for?" Blake asked.
"Well, we already have a raft and an Ichthyosaur, as well as a good connection to the Ocean. I think it might be a good idea to use that and concentrate on the water, since JNPR doesn't have good access."
"Sounds like a good idea," Blake said. "I also got some more stone structures. When we're done with the Spike Walls, I could try to improve our buildings. By the way, when we changed shifts, Yang told me that she wants to learn the Procoptodon saddle."
"What the hell is a Procoptodon?" Ruby asked as they went into the jungle to get wood.
"I have no idea." The Faunus asked.
"Okay, time for a change of leadership." Adam said as he entered the middle of the camp. Everyone else was sitting around the campfire, eating their breakfast.
"Oh right, the week is over, isn't it?" Emerald asked.
"All right, I'll stand by my word." Cinder said and stood up. "I'll officially resign from my position for now."
"So, how did you find her leadership?" Roman asked.
"Really... well... She really enjoyed it, and commanded us around as if we were slaves."
"I did what?" Cinder asked angrily.
"You treated us like slaves," Mercury added. "For example, when Neo had a stomachache yesterday, you threatened to cook her Dodos if she wouldn't move."
Neo nodded in agreement.
Cinder crossed her arms. "As if Adam could do better. At least we managed to get somewhere under my rule."
"I just want to point one thing out..." Roman said. "While neither you nor me, actually have much experience with leading a group, Adam actually knows what he needs to do."
"Exactly." Adam agreed. "I will show you how to be a leader."
"Okay, then show us." Cinder said.
"First off, we will shift our attention from building a boat to securing our camp. We can't have another big dinosaur running rampant."
"And how are we supposed to kill the fish without a boat?" Cinder asked.
"We don't. We are living on land, in case you didn't know. We can let the fish live for now."
"And what about the Ice region?" Mercury asked. "We didn't kill that Mammoth for nothin'."
"We'll go there, as soon as Cinder can build at least one set of fur armor, or we find something to keep us warm. And, in my opinion, the first thing we should do there is taming a Mammoth."
"A Mammoth?" Roman asked. "Let me guess, for wood?"
"Precisely. Also, Neo, could you please work on a saddle for the Diplodocus? I know you don't know the engram, but I'm sure you can figure something out."
Neo nodded with a smile, and started with her assignment. "I'm out for now," Roman said. "I still have to scout the area, and I want to look around the southern beach."
"Do that, and report anything you find. Emerald, Mercury, watch out for the camp, and try to find any worthwhile creatures in the area."
With that, everyone left, starting to work on their jobs. "So, Adam seems more capable than Cinder and Roman." Mercury said while he was looking through a bush.
"Yeah, maybe he's actually the best choice." Emerald agreed. "I can't believe I'm saying that."
Back on Remnant, Team CFVY was currently taking a walk through the Emerald Forest with Snow. Luckily, it seemed rather quiet, but they still had their weapons with them, in case a Grimm attacked.
From time to time, Snow tried to run away, after seeing a little bird or another kind of animal, but the leash Coco bought was holding. It had little metal strings worked in.
"That leash is really sturdy." Yatsuhashi said. "Where did you get it?"
"I actually asked a weapon smith to built it." Coco replied. "I thought that it may work better than a normal one from a pet shop."
"By the way..." Velvet asked. "What do you think is with Team RWBY? And JNPR? Are they okay?"
"I think so." Fox replied. "Just think about what they managed to do despite being first-years. They defeated Merlot, helped saving Vale from the Invasion, got into the finals of the tournament, and captured one of Vale's most nefarious criminals."
"Right. But a fully grown dinosaur is something completely different." Velvet said. "And I doubt that there are only Yutyrannus wherever they are."
They heard a growl from a couple of bushes and turned around. A Beowolf jumped out, but was cut in two by Yatsuhashi. "Seems like the Grimm know that we're here."
"No problem. People go hiking here all the time." Coco said, and they started to walk again. "Hey, where's Snow?"
They all looked at the place the dinosaur should be, only to notice that it ran away. It seemed like Yatsuhashi, who was holding the leash, accidentally let go of it while killing the Beowolf.
"He went this way." Velvet said as she observed the ground. The footprints of the Yutyrannus were still visible in the soft dirt. They led directly into the bushes.
They started to run after the creature, following the footsteps as good as possible. Eventually, they led to a big hole in a cliff, which led into a deep cave. It looked like the entrance was originally smaller, but something big burst through.
"You think it went in there?" Coco asked.
"I think so. The footprints lead in there." Velvet replied.
"Okay, let's go get our pet back."
"Sorry for slacking you two yesterday." Nora said. She and Pyrrha were standing at the area determined for their pets, to check them for any parasites.
"No problem." Pyrrha responded. "It's not like it is the first time you ever did that."
Nora pulled a splinter out of Baza's side and threw it away. "Yeah. At least you found RWBY. And cabbages." She pointed at a flat part of the ground, where Pyrrha had planted the cabbages.
"And we've found a new creature." Pyrrha added and looked at a stone next to the pond. Their Liaoningosaurus was sleeping on it.
"That too. Even if it isn't really useful."
"To be fair, Danny isn't that useful either." Pyrrha replied.
Danny instantly flew toward them, and latched onto Pyrrha's face. Nora managed to pull him off of her. "Maybe you shouldn't say that when he's around."
They heard footsteps and turned around. Ren was walking up to them, together with Jaune. "We've got a problem."
"What is it? Apex? A pack of Raptors?" Nora asked.
"Nothing like that." Jaune said calmly. "It's that thing." Jaune pointed at Aryl, who had a round object under her.
"Wait, did Aryl lay an egg?" Pyrrha asked.
"I'm more surprised that she's a girl." Nora added. "What are we going to do?"
"Raise it?" Jaune suggested. "We've tamed her, so we might as well take care of the newborn when it hatches."
"It's unlikely that it would survive in the wild anyway." Ren pointed out. "And we could get a second Triceratops."
"Does anyone know how to take care of one?" Pyrrha asked, and Nora started thinking.
"I'd say we need a little enclosure so that it doesn't run off."
"All right, I'm going to build one." Ren said. "Pyrrha? Can you try to gather some food for it?"
Pyrrha nodded. "Then Jaune and Nora are going to get the egg over here, right?"
"Whoa, hold up a minute." Nora interrupted. "I'm going to put the through and so on into the enclosure. Taking care of our animals is my job, isn't it?"
"Can you carry it?" Pyrrha asked Jaune.
"Well, I should be able to. It's just a matter of getting Aryl away from the egg."
"Is it that hard?" Nora asked.
"One of those monkeys tried to steal it a couple of minutes ago." Ren said.
"And?"
"And now there's one less monkey in the valley." Ren finished and started to plan the enclosure.
Pyrrha sighed. "All right, I'll help you. Collecting the food now isn't a good idea anway. It's rotten when the baby hatches."
"Okay, then let's go and steal an egg." Jaune said with a smile.
"Is it really that deep in?" Velvet asked, and shined the light of the flashlight into a side chamber of the cave.
They had already left the big part of the cave and were now searching through the side tunnels of the system. It looked like someone had used them thousands of years ago, and according to the paintings on the wall, whoever did that, managed to capture a giant Deathstalker inside the cave. That would explain why the entrance looked like it was broken down: The monster escaped.
However, that wasn't their concern now. The most important thing was to find Snow. To make sure the dinosaur wouldn't escape without them noticing, Coco opened up an app on her Scroll, and put it at the entrance as a camera, with Yatsuhashi always looking at the live feed over his Scroll.
"It looks like whoever built this place had worshipped some sort of Grimm as an old god." Coco said, and looked at a cave painting, depicting humans bowing before a Grimm, that was held by chains. It looked like some sort of human, with bat-wings. However, the picture was hard to see perfectly, thanks to its age.
"I think they may have been ancient Valiens." Velvet said and pointed at a triangular picture on the wall. The upper corner was colored blue, the right corner green and the left one red. "Those writings look similar to a couple of ancient texts they had in the museum."
"Can you read it?" Fox asked.
"Nope. Maybe we should tell Professor Oobleck about this when we get back to Beacon." They all looked into the deeper cave, as they heard a faint roar.
"You think that was Snow?"
"Yep."
The four of them started to run into the darkness, searching for the Yutyrannus. Velvet took the lead, thanks to her night vision. After running through the narrow corridors, they arrived at another big room. They saw Snow, standing in the middle. It looked like the theropod was trembling with fear. Velvet ran to him and grabbed the leash. "Gotcha. Don't run away like that again, okay?"
He didn't even look up to her, but instead started to slowly walk backwards. Fox shined the Flashlight into the direction Snow was looking, and they all froze. Dead Humans, Faunus, and Animals were hanging on the wall, with black sacks hanging from them. "What- What is this?" Coco asked.
"A nest..." Fox muttered.
Velvet took a closer look, and saw that the sacks were indeed connected to the bodies, and judging by the flow of some form of red fluid, they were taking nutrients from the rotting corpses.
"What Grimm does things like that?" Coco wondered. Suddenly, one of the sacks started to shake. Then the next one. Eventually, it looked like the whole wall was moving.
"This is bad." Fox said. "I think our fear woke them up."
"What?" Coco and Velvet asked.
"I've read that sometimes, when no negative emotions are available, Grimm rely on regular meat to lay their eggs in, and give them nutrients. Considering how long no one was in this Cave, whatever laid those eggs probably did the same. And with the sudden influx of fear, we jump-started their hatching process."
"And what laid them?" Coco asked, but the question answered itself, as one of the sacks exploded, and a small Deathstalker jumped out. "Oh, makes sense." Coco took her Minigun and started to shoot the sacks as they exploded.
Everyone followed her lead and took their weapons. Luckily, the new-born Deathstalkers lacked their hard chitin shell, so they were rather easy to kill.
Still, sometimes it was the mass that made the difference. The Grimm started to come from all sides and eventually forced them to retreat back into the corridors. Velvet started to look through her camera and arrived at a picture of Port's weapon. She shot as much as possible in the limited time, always hitting the mark. Not that it was hard in the narrow cave.
"We can't let them get out!" Yatsuhashi said. "They'll overrun the forest, and eventually get into the sewers of Vale."
They heard Snow barking and saw the dinosaur looking at a loose stone in the wall. Yatsuhashi pulled the stone aside, and a hissing sound was heard. "There's some sort of gas leaking out!" Coco yelled.
"That's it!" Velvet yelled, and looked through her camera again, before choosing Magnhild. She took the Grenade-Launcher form, and shot behind her, as they continued to run through the corridor. Yatsuhashi pulled an old metal plate from the wall, and held it above them, as the Grenade exploded.
The whole cave lit up, as a fire burned all the Grimm and the nest to a crisp. The metal plate and their Aura protected Team CFVY, and they looked back up as soon as it was over. Little flames were still burning here and there, but other than that, it was quiet. Even Snow looked like he calmed down.
Velvet kneeled down and patted his head. "Good idea. How did you know that?"
"He probably smelled it." Fox suggested. "What now?"
Coco led out a deep sigh. "I'd say we go back to Beacon and tell them about this cave."
"Right." With that, they left the Cave again. While leaving, Velvet caught one last glimpse of the triangle with the three colors. For some reason, it seemed important to her.
"All right, what's the plan?" Pyrrha asked. she and Jaune were hiding inside a bush, observing Aryl. The Trike was always watching over her egg, and let no one come near it.
"Maybe we can get the egg to roll away on its own." Jaune said.
"And how would we get Aryl to not realize that?"
"Easy." Jaune grabbed something out of a bush and held it up. It was an oval stone, poorly painted in a brown color.
"Seriously?"
"Well, it's hard to get the exact color tone. But it could work if we're lucky."
"And how are we going to swap them?" Pyrrha asked, and looked back at the actual egg.
"Good point. Wait, when did she eat last time?" Jaune asked.
"Uhm, I don't think she ate anything today, except for the plants around her." Pyrrha pointed at the barren dirt around the Trike.
Jaune thought for a moment and disappeared back into the bushes. A minute later, she saw Danny flying by, carrying a fruit. It flew close to Aryl, and the Trike looked at the fruit the Dimorphodon carried. Suddenly, a whistle was heard, and Danny flew back.
The hungry Trike followed him, away from the egg. "Pyrrha! Now!" Jaune yelled, and she grabbed the fake egg. She quickly swapped them and hid back in the bushes.
Danny let go of the fruit, and Aryl ate it, after which she came back to her old spot. She looked at the 'egg', and Pyrrha crossed her fingers that it would work. However, it started to smell the egg, something neither Pyrrha nor Jaune predicted. "Oh dear..."
She looked around and started searching for the actual egg. Pyrrha slowly and quietly brought it back to the enclosure, which was still being built.
"Oh, you got it?" Ren asked.
"Yeah, thanks to Jaune."
"No, thanks to Pyrrha." Jaune replied.
"Anyway, let me put it in." Ren took the egg and put it down inside the enclosure.
Pyrrha looked back, and saw Aryl, still searching desperately for her egg. "Ren?"
"Yes?"
"Do we have to keep it in there?"
"We don't want it to run away when it hatches, or to have the egg die." Nora said.
"But can't we put Aryl in there too?"
"We would have to build it bigger." Ren stated. "But it should be possible."
"Okay, then built it, and then we'll get Aryl here." Pyrrha said happily.
And finally, Chapter 14 is up.
I sincerely apologize for the long waiting time, but I didn't really know what to do in the Chapter, and didn't have much motivation to play Ark either. However, with the recent realese, and the full Story of teh Island, I finally got the Motivation back.
Now to rpelies:
Guest: That was most likely part of the Dust she waved into her dress, and Dust doesn't work on the Ark.
Guest Infinity: Of course they're gonna find each other. The Island may be big, but not that big. As for teh second part of your review, I have no idea.
Duece: I've already got four stories up, and the next one I'm planning is a crossover between multiple franchises caught in a DanganRonpa killing game. But maybe after that, if I ever get to play 7 days to die.
Kaiju115: Yeah, Troodon are probably the most annoying animals, besides Ichthyornis and Pegomastax. And taming them isn't even worth it.
BlackHum3r: Thanks.
lordrednight: That's a good point. Mostly it's just that the ylack the necessary tools and materials. But they are using what they knew previously. Fro example, Yang mentioned in the beginning that she already knew how to make a campfire.
RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth; Ark: Survival Evolved belongs to Wildcard Studios