Hello everyone, this is the beaten battered writer J. Van A. The reason why I'm beaten is due to my recent addiction to Dark Souls II. Over 40+ hours in game, and that's nothing compared to my dark souls game, over 140+ hours spent in game, all not playing online so I can't summon help from people. If I owned a next gen console, I would be playing Dark Souls III.

Jeez, I hate dying in that game. Not because dying and losing your souls sucks, but because when you die, your max health goes down so you need to restore your humanity every five deaths. In the first Dark Souls you could just jump off the Firelink Shrine cliff over and over without any repercussions.

Anyway, we finally get off of Patch. Near the end. We stay on patch for a lot of this chapter, but it's not time wasted. Weiss gets some stuff. Ruby gets some stuff. Qrow does a thing.

GmDrgnzrd: Thanks. Your username has no vowels. I spent five minutes trying to figure out how your name would be pronounced. Not the best use of my time, but entertaining.

Enjoy

"Weiss, wake up," Ruby said knocking on her door. "You said we should leave as early as possible in the morning."

"Ruby, it's your fault that I'm so tired," Weiss muttered from the other side of the door. "You dragged me out and made me dance for nearly an hour."

"For the record, I didn't make you stay after the first dance," Ruby said then turned away from the door. "Also, dad had something he wanted to give you. So come out as soon as you can."

"Fine," Weiss said opening the door and began walking out. "Get your supplies ready and meet me outside. We're leaving as soon as we're ready." At that Weiss made her way over to the forge area. As she passed by the kitchen she saw Yang sleeping on a chair with a black eye that was very prominent. "Ok then."

She walked out of the building and saw Taiyang working on a new sword in the forge. Then she sat down on the chair and waited for the blacksmith to finish. After a minute Taiyang placed the red hot blade in the water trough and turned around.

"So then, you're leaving," Taiyang said to Weiss as he was walking over to a nearby chest.

"Yeah, as soon as we're done here," Weiss said as Taiyang opened the chest and started looking inside.

"Well, it's a good thing you stopped by. You'll probably need these," he said pulling a shield and dagger from the chest. "I take it you're left handed." She nodded. "Then try this on." He tossed her the shield and she started strapping it to her forearm. "That shield is made from the same materials as your sword, so it should never break, and the dagger is the same. You may want to sheathe the dagger inside your boot, there is a sheath built into them."

Weiss looked at the shield. It was a simple white oval shield that covered her forearm and part of her hand, and stretched out a couple inches so it could easily cover her face. At the end of the shield over her wrist the shield had a bent upward allowing for a large range of movement with her hand.

"So, what do you think?" he asked sitting on the table admiring his work.

"This is… amazing. Thank you Mr. Xiao Long," Weiss said looking at the dagger in her hand. "Thank you for everything, I mean it."

"Don't worry about it. You'll need all the help you can get. Could you do me one favor?" he asked then walked back over to the chest and pulled out a red bundle. "I need you to give this to Ruby. I'd do it myself, but I'd probably get a bit too emotional and burst into tears. If you could give this to her on the ship to Vale, it would be the best since she would probably want to run all the way back here and hug me."

"Sure," she said taking the bundle from Taiyang and looked at it. "What is this?"

"That, is a special cloak," he said looking at the red fabric looking bundle in Weiss's hands. "Using a lot of my remaining magic chainmail, I made a multi-layered cloak that should protect her from most types of arrows. It also should weigh the same as her current cloak, so the only real difference would be the protection it provides."

"I think she will like it," Weiss said standing up then walked over to the door back into the shop. "Thank you, again, Mr. Xiao Long. I will make sure your daughters come back in one piece." She then waved to him and walked back into the building.

"Well, what do I do with myself now?" Taiyang asked himself as Zwei trotted over and yipped. "Outstanding idea, Zwei, corgi armor." Zwei looked at Taiyang and tilted his head to the side.

"Weiss, are you ready?" Ruby asked securing her armor as Weiss came out of the shop. "Yang is getting the horses and she'll be here in a minute."

"Yeah, I'm ready," Weiss said adjusting her own armor making sure it was all in the right spots. She then saw Ruby standing there pondering asking a question. "Your father gave me a shield and a dagger, both very high quality."

"Guys, come on," Yang said riding up to the door on Bumblebee with Chestnut and Snowflake tailing behind. That was the first time Weiss even saw Yang wearing her armor. Yang's yellow armor seemed to consist of a full chestplate, a pauldron, and greaves. Her armor didn't have a skirt like Weiss's and Ruby's, but it did have a brown leather jacket under the armor. "The ship leaving for Vale will be departing soon."

"Right," Weiss said picking up her supplies and securing them onto Snowflake's saddle. then she jumped onto the horse's back. "Come on, let's go," she said turning around to look at the sisters only to see an empty street.

"Weiss, hurry up," Ruby shouted from Chestnut's back as they rode down the street.

"Alright, the ferry ride will be less than an hour and thirty silver each," the sailor said doing some quick math, "ninety silver total for your group."

"Plus one makes it one gold and twenty silver," a new voice said from behind the group catching everyone's attention. Turning around the girls saw Qrow walking over holding the reins of his black horse. He then walked over to the sailor and handed him a small handful of coins. "Hey Will, I'll pay for these kids."

"Suit yourself, this is your third trip anyway," Will said taking Qrow's money then started walking towards the ship. "Just make sure your horses are below deck when we depart. Last thing we need is to have to stop the ship and bring the horses back in."

"Will do," Qrow said then turned to the girls. "Hey."

"Uncle Qrow, what are you doing here?" Yang asked as the four of them started leading their horses onto the ship. "Don't you have a lot of work to do after the harvest?"

"Normally, yes," he answered her. "However, I need to do an errand for an old friend. Tai said he'd take over the farm till I came back, which may end up being a while. Right, Ruby, Tai asked me to do him a favor, so I'll need to talk with you."

"What is it Uncle Qrow?" Ruby asked as they lead the horses into the stables under the deck.

"Just… something you may need," he said turning to Weiss and Yang. "You two don't need to be here."

"Alright, fine," Weiss said scowling a bit as she and Yang closed the stable doors on their horses. Then a couple moments later the two of them went back to the deck.

"So, kid, it's nice to see you going along," Qrow said turning to Ruby. "Before we get to Vale, I just need to show you a few things."

"Well Yang, we're finally going," Weiss said as both she and Yang sat down on the edge of the deck dangling their feet over the side. "When we get to Vale, we'll need to look for information regarding the White Fang and where their main base is."

"Yeah, you can do that," Yang said causing Weiss to look over at her quizzically. "I'm going to look for information on something else."

"But I thought you said that you would help me?"

"I am, it's just, this is something I need to do," Yang said reaching into a pouch on the belt of her armor to pull out a folded piece of paper. After unfolding the paper Weiss could see a head drawing of a woman that looked a lot like Yang except for her black hair and red eyes. "This is my mother, Raven Branwen. Ruby and I are half-sisters by our father. My mother ran away several years ago before I even knew her, but I always wanted to meet her. When I heard you were going to travel across Remnant, I thought that this was my chance to search for her. I'm sorry if I've deceived you."

"Well, I can't say that I'm mad," Weiss said as Yang folded up the picture and put it back into her pouch. "I'm glad that you told me this ahead of time instead of sneaking off when we landed. Anyway, when we look for information, we can ask more question than just where is the White Fang."

"Thanks, Weiss," Yang said resting her hands on the deck as the sailors began setting sail.

"Uncle Qrow, I don't really see the point in this," Ruby remarked as she mirrored Qrow's similar attack move. "You already taught me to fight with my scythe enough."

"Ruby, that was for fighting grimm," Qrow remarked then quickly did an uppercut with his scythe that Ruby copied. "This is a set of moves that is effective when fighting people."

"Uncle Qrow, I thought I told you that I didn't want to fight people."

"Ruby, your father wanted me to teach you to protect yourself," Qrow said resting his scythe on the side of the ship. "You told me yourself that the reason you wanted to learn how to fight grimm was that you knew that they didn't share your views on killing. Well, sorry be the bearer of bad news, kid, but there are bad people out there in the world who also don't, and considering where your friend is planning on going, you are definitely going to run into those kinds of people. If you don't learn how to protect yourself, you'll easily be beaten. What I'm showing you could easily be kill attacks, but they also could just maim or injure. Not everything is black and white."

"I understand," Ruby said then mimicked Qrow's previous move.

"And I will never understand how you can learn these things so quickly," Qrow remarked as he watched Ruby do a series of moves perfectly that had taken him years to learn.

The ship had floated into the city's large sea gate and flowed down the river till the captain found his port. Qrow was the first to leave taking his horse then riding off into the town towards the gates.

"Well that was a somewhat uneventful trip," Yang said as the girls lead their horses out of the ship onto solid ground. "I mean, a whale sighting would've been cool."

"Quit complaining," Weiss said to the blonde. "When I came to Vale, the ship was caught in a storm and we nearly capsized. I still don't fully trust ships."

"Ruby, remember when dad would take us to the city to replenish his materials?" Yang asked then was confused by Ruby's lack of response. "Ruby?" She turned around and saw Ruby removing the heavy pieces of her armor and placing them in Chestnut's saddlebags.

"Give me a second," Ruby said removing her cloak placing it in the saddlebag. She then secured Crescent Rose's shaft to her back. "You didn't have to practice fighting the whole way over. I'm a bit tired."

"Right, before I forget," Weiss said walking to Snowflake's saddlebag and pulled out a red bundle from it and handed it to Ruby. "Your father wanted me to give this to you after we left Patch."

"What is-" Ruby asked as she unfurled the bundle having it fold out to its full length. "A cloak? I already have a cloak."

"Well, he said something about it being made from the magic chainmail and that is was just like a regular cloak except for it having better protection from arrows," Weiss said then Ruby secured the cloak around her shoulders letting it flow in the wind.

"It looks good Ruby," Yang said giving the young girl a thumbs up.

"Right, well, let's find some stables. Then we can search for any information on the White Fang," Weiss said as Ruby started leading Chestnut towards some stables.

"You two can search for information," Ruby said as she paid the stable owner for the three horses and began leading them into the building. "I'm going to go through the marketplace and see if there are any more supplies we can get."

"Alright, be careful, Ruby," Weiss said waving to Ruby as the crimsonette ran out of the stables and disappeared into the crowd of people. She turned to Yang who was adjusting her chestplate trying to make it more comfortable. "Yang, to the tavern."

"Yay!" Yang exclaimed as she started walking into the town.

"For information."

"Oh."

I just fought against the Demon of Song. Circle strafe and magic crossbow bolts made that boss the easiest boss next to Seath the Scaleless in Dark Souls I for having just a bow and 999 fire arrows and circle strafing. (Feel free to use that tactic. Stay close to the wall and roll.)

Anyway, Ruby is now going to be doing her own thing in Vale's marketplace. What she's going to be doing is maybe going to be more important than Weiss and Yang's thing.

Are we going to meet up with Blake finally? (I really should do a segment for her soon.)

Oh, I'm going to soon bring in things I was talking about two chapters earlier. And a member of JNPR? Maybe?

Reviews are appreciated. I will respond to them if they seem to be able to be responded to.

So then, I'm going to go fight some more undead.

Have a nice day,

-J. Van A