Frontier Ch.9 - The journey begins
Cardin's indigo colored eyes stared at the empty hospital room and frowned, "Those idiots!"
A couple of miles away, Jaune climbed over a log and gleaned back at the direction of Glen Mor, they had left almost three hours ago, after grabbing what they knew the refugees could spare. Mainly a couple of pieces of salted meat and an old leather cuirass for Jaune since he had broken his during the battle against Cinder.
He shook his head and turned to follow Ren and Nora up the hill.
When they got to the top of the hill the trio gazed westward and narrowed their eyes. They could just barely make out the mouth of the Vale Valley, it was still a few days walk away. With a sigh, Jaune turned to the other two, "We'll continue through to sundown, then we'll set up camp and sleep until tomorrow morning."
The two nodded and began to make their way down the hill. Jaune scanned the area around him and shivered, he felt like someone was watching him.
Hours later Jaune sat with his back to the fire staring out toward the night sky. It was silent except for the crickets chirping and owls silently hooting. The blonde sighed and sharpened his blade, his thoughts drifted toward the wall, how were things going there? Were they suffering casualties? Or were they holding on?
Mountain Glenn
"Empty the buckets!" A man in a light leather cuirass ordered. Within moments buckets full of flaming tar were tipped over the wall and onto the sea of Grimm beneath.
"Keep firing!" He continued to fire, "Fire at will, reinforcements from Huntsman's guild will arrive in two days! We need to hold until then!"
The man grabbed a spare bow on the wall and launched a flurry of arrows into the herd beneath him.
The combination of burning tar and an endless volley of arrows turned scores of Grimm into piles of dust. However just as the Grimm disappeared another wave crashed against the wall, several began to claw at the wall attempting to climb it.
The man turned away and pointe to the nearest officer, "Wake the second battalion early, we'll need them at this rate!"
A scream behind the man caused him to turn around and find himself face to face with a Beowolf.
Several others of its kind ascended and killed the soldiers on the edge of the wall.
The Grimm swiped at the man, who ducked beneath the swing and grabbed the mace on his hip.
The man swung upward with the mace, annihilating the Grimms chin, and with a following downward swing, he turned the Beowolf to dust.
He turned toward another Beowolf but smiled when he saw a dagger cut off the Grimms head. The man Huntsman responsible for the kill turned toward the man, his long greying black hair fluttered in the wind for a moment before he cracked his signature cocky smile, "Tai, I thought you were going to get serious!"
"Try leading the defense of a city," Tai responded with a stressed smile, "I assure you, I'm more serious than you could ever be!"
Qrow watched as Tai gazed out to the wilderness beyond the battle and sighed, "Tai, keep your head in the game! Summer will be fine, she can handle herself."
Tai glanced over at Qrow for a moment before turning back to the battle in front of him.
JNR found themselves walking along the main road to Mountain Glenn. They had awoken at dawn and had immediately packed up and resumed their trek. Since then they found a dirt path with a sign with directions to nearby towns and Mountain Glenn. All but the latter had been crossed out.
"Ren!" Nora whined, "How much longer?"
Ren stopped and turned around to face the ginger, "A day at least."
Nora screamed to the sky, cursing Remnant for being too large.
Jaune smiled and studied the area around them. It reminded him of the night, it was very peaceful and quiet.
Too quiet.
Jaune reached for his sword and saw a figure just in time to raise his shield and block the arrow. He cursed his luck, "Bandits!"
The moment those words left his mouth a few figures left the cover of the brush and charged toward the trio.
Jaune unsheathed his sword and raised his shield. His blue eyes scanned their opponents. They were all wearing torn cloth and scratched weapons and their eyes shined with a familiar light, fear.
Jaune frowned but prepared for battle nonetheless.
The first opponent charged forward and swung his sword downward toward Jaune's head.
The blonde raised his shield and sent his sword through his opponent's ankle. When the man screamed Jaune brought up his leg and kicked the opponent to the ground, "Stay down!"
He glanced toward Ren and Nora, who had already dispatched their foes with small slashes, enough to make these fearful fighters stop fighting and lick their wounds.
Jaune turned his gaze back to the bush, "I know that you all aren't bandits, the fear in your eyes says it all."
A second group came out of the wooded area and stared at the trio, some with fear on their face, others with nothing but anger. Finally, an older man in worn leather armor and with two bastard swords emerged from the brush, his cold blue eyes burned holes into Jaune's skull, "You don't know us, young one!"
"I know you're not bandits!" Jaune spoke, lowering his shield, "What happened to turn you to this?"
Ren and Nora were soon beside the blonde, carefully watching the group in front of them.
"When the Grimm arrived your filthy guild turned tail and ran!" The older man pointed his sword at Jaune, "You will pay for your comrades' cowardice!"
"Wait a moment!" Ren raised a hand toward the group, "We're not part of-"
"Don't listen to them!" Another voice in the crowd shouted, "They're just trying to cover their asses!"
Before the trio could do anything to stop it, the crowd charged toward them. With one glance at each other, they raised their weapons and prepared for a fight.
Jaune immediately raised his shield and took the hit from the older man, his teeth rattled in his skull and he stumbled backward. Jaune's eyes widened at the strength of the old man.
Jaune raised his shield above his head and took the brunt of his opponents downward slash, he dropped to one knee. Without a moment of hesitation, he slashed the man's calf, which caused the man to step away with a large limp.
"For someone who's claiming not to be a huntsman, you are putting up a good fight!" The man smirked, "Maybe you're lying after all?"
"This is what got us into this fight in the first place," Jaune growled as he slammed the pommel of his blade into the jaw of one of the villagers, "Tell them to stop, you'll only bring Grimm here!"
"Wouldn't be the first time!" The main raised his sword and lunged at Jaune, who, with a step to his left, only suffered a small cut on his arm from the change.
Jaune turned around to face the old man once again when an arrow landed in the ground between them. The two glanced down at it than in the direction that it had come from, only to find a group and twelve people.
The one leading the group was the one who had shot the arrow. Jaune knew just from his height and build that the man wouldn't be someone easy to fight. He wore a silver mask over his eyes and had two horns on either side of his scarlet hair, he had a black leather quilted jacket with long sleeves that was closed with several buckles going down its torso, he wore pants and boots with a similar color scheme as his jacket.
Jaune glanced down to the man's hip, which held a long sword of some kind, though the hilt didn't look like the usual longsword you would've found in Vale.
Next to him was a woman with long black hair and a pair of cat ears. Her amber eyes pierced Jaune's with curious energy. She wore a white cloak with a black cuirass, pants, and boots. She had a sword on her left hip and a dagger on her right hip.
Everyone else in the crowd was wearing similar armor and was sporting regular weapons. Some had broadswords, while others had Katanas, at least one of them had a massive Nodachi.
"He's right." The Faunus in front of the group spoke, "The herd that had most likely wiped out your town is still nearby, it would be better to help you evacuate and get behind the wall at Mountain Glenn."
"Who are you to order us around!" The man shouted, "You don't know the trouble we've been through!"
"Yes, we do." Nora chimed in, "At the very least us three do," She corrected herself, "We had to evacuate from our home, Crendire, thanks to a Grimm horde, now we're on our way to Mountain Glenn to help put a stop to the horde."
The old man was about to argue when another villager put a hand on his shoulder and shook her head, "We welcome the advice," She turned her head toward those around her, "If any of you wish to go to the safety of the wall, follow these three. If you wish to stay, get out of the way."
All of the villagers made their way to the side of the road, the anger has given way to clarity. The woman gave a sad smile to Nora, "You had to leave your home, we are choosing to stay near ours."
The trio nodded and turned away after a moment. Jaune glanced at Nora and Ren then at the group of Faunus making their way toward them, "Are you guys headed toward mountain Glenn?"
The woman with cat ears nodded, "Come with us, we know a cave system that will get us behind the walls in less than a day, it's what Huntsman and Huntresses are using to get in and out."
The three nodded to themselves and followed the group.
For the remaining portion of the day, Jaune and his group continued to follow this group and found themselves in a small valley by the end of it. With the sun falling behind the mountain the large group made camp and hunted for what they could, eventually finding a rabbit, fox, and a large number of berries from a bush.
After a couple of hours, the food was ready and they began to dig in.
Partway through the meal, the cat eared woman glanced up to Jaune and frowned, "What are your names?"
Jaune was caught off guard for a moment, but swallowed what he was eating, "My name is Jaune Arc."
"Lie Ren." Ren nodded with a kind smile.
"Nora Valkyrie!" Nora cheered.
The woman gave a small smile in return, "My name is Blake Belladonna, this is Adam Taurus."
"So why is your group heading to Mountain Glenn?" Ren Questioned.
"A lot of people inside the interior don't respect faunus, we want to show them what we're made of," Adam responded.
"I'm sure that helping to defeat the horde at mountain Glenn will be a good way for recognition." Jaune smiled.
"We'll see." Adam spoke, his gaze on the fire, "I'm taking watch."
With that, the teen stood up and made his way to a nearby boulder, where he could watch their surroundings.
"So are we close to this cave?" Jaune asked, "We're close to the Glenmore mountains already."
Blake glanced down at the fire, "We should be arriving sometime tomorrow afternoon, so finish your food and get some rest, you'll need it."
With that Blake finished her meal and made her way to her spot.
Jaune glanced at Ren, confused about the sudden change in tone, but shrugged and glanced up to the shattered moon.
He wondered to himself, was his journey already close to its end, or was it just beginning?