Hey all back again with another chapter, this one took a little long to think of how it should go but I think I got it in a way I like it, anyways enjoy, or don't. I won't force ya.

Jaune laid on the ground, cold and hungry.

It had only been three days since he arrived at the tribe and he was already dying, having not been able to provide for himself on his own.

Okay maybe dying was exaggerating but to him he felt that he was dying from the inside out. His stomach roared in pain from the lack of nutrients he had bee able to give it the past few days, while his skin cried from the cold on the night and ground as he laid on it, no padding or cloth of any kind to keep himself warm.

Thankfully he had been able to get something to drink, the tribe had set itself up near a river flowing nearby, people needed more then alcohol to drink and water to bathe in. Didn't matter if you lived in a big city, a village, or a tribe of bandit's; people didn't like those that smelled bad.

So luckily for him when he saw that people would leave the walls of the tribe and come back hours later looking fresh, clean, and with large pots of water for themselves, that wherever they were going had clean and consumable water nearby.

But water, for all that it was good for, could only do so much for the boy. He had been able to manage so far with a few bits of scrap that he was able to find and scavenge off of for the time being but that wasn't enough for him to last off of. If he wished to survive he needed to be able to get more then just scraps from the garbage, but he had no idea how he was supposed to do that.

He could of course bag others to give him food or whatever they could spare, but two things stopped him from doing that, one was the tribes supposed idea that their leader left imprinted into everyone's head, but also his damn pride.

The tribe seemed to have a central idea that all that lived in it had adopted, the strong survived while the weak died. It was cruel but a simple one for most to understand, if you were strong enough to make it, you would flourish in the tribe, but if you weren't strong enough to hold your own, well you better hope people feel generous to you or you could…provide for some, and Jaune did not see himself ever wanting to do that.

But even for the most part, the people in the tribe weren't totally heartless, some of them even came to try and give him some help when they saw him struggling, but that is how his second reason from earlier came in, his stupid pride prevented him from accepting the peoples generosity. He didn't know why, but like when he was in the forest with Carolina, Felix, and Locus; a burning sensation deep in his soul hated the thought of getting help from others, making him think they were looking down on him.

Which they were but that was besides the point.

But now as he laid on the ground on one of the outer walls of the camp, behind some of the tents people had put up, he cursed his own stupid pride and the tribes rule.

But as he laid there, he heard a loud noise near him, getting up to look at what was the cause, he says a man he hadn't seen before was dragging a girl around his age behind the tents by the arm, while a younger looking girl followed them, seemingly yelling at the grown man.

Focusing no on them, he could hear what the younger girl was shouting, while the grown man was shouting at the other girl he dragged. "Leave her alone! She didn't do anything wrong!" the younger girl shouted at the man. "Shut it! You can take food cause of the rule, but her? She's old enough now where it's considered stealing, and I don't appreciate people who steal from me!" He yelled at the smaller girl as he then threw the older one against the wooden wall of the camp, the girl falling to the ground after, a pained expression on her face.

It was at this point that Jaune's eyes widened at what he saw, as suddenly the man kicked the older girl in the legs now, the girl cried out in pain as the younger girl now started to beat her fist's against the mans leg, but the effort was futile as he ignored her rather puny assault.

Jaune was frozen in fear now, his senses taking over as he looked around, seeing if anyone else would come and stop the man as he continued his assault on the poor girl, but no one seemed to be near them now, probably either ignoring them or feigning ignorance. Jaune no panicked as he watched the man continue his assault on the poor girl, who now seemed to be trying to block his kicks now.

As the man continued his kicking, he suddenly winced in pain as he stopped his attack and looked down at his arm, which now had the younger girl biting on it as she tried to stop the man. He quickly shook her off and with a yell and threw her to the ground as well now."You little shit! How dare you!" He yelled down at the younger girl now as she slowly tried to get up. The man in his anger kicked at the younger girl, sending her rolling away now as she held where she was kicked, a low and painful groan leaving her mouth as she clenched her eyes shut.

It was at this point that Jaune didn't even notice he had stood up, or that he was running towards the man with his fist clenched ready to attack him, It must have been his instinct but he couldn't just stand by while he watched the man attack two children, even if he was a child himself and was scared out of his mind, but he still ran towards the man with a fierce yell, even for him. "Stay the hell away from them!" He shouted as he jumped at the man as he turned around to see how yelled at him, right in time for Jaune's small fist to impact with his nose.

The man reeled back in pain as his hands cupped over his nose now as he stumbled back, his eyes opening and finding Jaune standing in front of him while he stood in front of both the girls, the younger still laying on the ground while the older looked at Jaune from behind him in shock at what he had just done.

The man let go of his nose, which now looked like it had a small dent and a bruise on it, as his eyes narrowed at Jaune, who quickly lost the anger his face showed, now replaced with fear as the man quickly moved towards him. "You little bastard! I'll fucking kill you!" he shouted as he reeled his fist back and punched Jaune right on his face, sending the boy back towards the ground as the man now leapt on top of him, his fists now slamming towards his face as Jaune yelled out in pain, while the man yelled out in rage.

For what seemed like an eternity to Jaune, he felt the mans fists crash against his head. Jaune had to wonder if this was how he was going to die, being killed by the man for trying to protect some girls he didn't even know. But for him that seemed like a good way to die instead of starving to death like he thought he was before. 'At least those girls can escape…' is all he thought while he excepted his demise.

But as he closed his eyes, accepting his fate he heard the man sudden yell out in sudden and unfiltered pain as he felt the mans presence leave the vicinity of his body, hearing the man fall down to the ground next to himself.

When he opened his eyes to see what happened, he say the man to his right, now on the ground in the fetal position as he cupped his pelvis in what was obviously pain, and then felt a pair of hands forcefully help- him up and to his feet, he turned to see the older girl pulling him up while the younger girl was slowly getting herself up now as well. "Get up! We have to run now!" The older girl yelled at him as she kept trying top pull him up, Jaune quickly rose to his feet, wobbling a decent amount as he did, as the girl now went top help the younger one up, picking the girl up and looking at him. "Follow me!" she yelled as she started to run as fast as she could with the younger girl in her arms.

Jaune quickly looked back at the man, who was now rolling to his other side, still in immense pain, before turning around and quickly following the two girls, not wanting to be around when the man finally got up.

After a few minutes of running the older girl ran into a small makeshift tent that was nuzzled between some other actual tents. It was small and looked barely big enough for a grown person, but for three children to fit into it was perfect. Jaune quickly followed them inside, seeing the older girl already laid the younger girl down on the ground before she moved and quickly shut the entrance to the tent after he ran in. The three of them panted as they all tried to catch their breathes.

Jaune seemed to finish recovering first, as he looked between the two of the girls as they tried to recover as well. "T-Thanks for the save back their…." he said between pants "I thought he was gonna… well…" he said with his voice leading off towards the end, not wanting to talk about thinking how he was gonna die.

The older girl looked at him as she finally felt like she could talk now as well, her adrenaline keeping her from clutching her body after the multiple kicks she received, no doubt the rest were also like that at the moment. "No problem…. Just thanks for helping us out first…" she said as she remembered her surprise to seeing a total stranger, a boy who couldn't be older then her no less, come and help them.

"Hey it… was nothin-" Jaune began to say before just suddenly falling over. It seems the pain from his beating earlier along with his borderline starvation seemed to finally catch up to him as he fell face first onto the ground in front of the two girls, his consciousness fading fast. "What the?!… uick .. by …. elp me….." Is all he could hear before his eyes finally drifted shut his consciousness finally leaving him.

After finally setting the boy that had saved them down on on of their beds, she quickly looked towards the other girl on what they should do. "Is he going to be alright? He doesn't look so good…" she asked the other girl as she worried. The boys face had started to turn purple while it also started to swell up from the beating he took.

"He'll be fine but just in case I'm going to go get some water to help him. I'm sure the tribes med tent will give us some, maybe even some ice and medicine if needed." she told the younger girl trying to calm her down. "But just in case keep watch over him, we don't know when he'll wake up so make sure he's fine if he does." she told her as she began to leave, peeking her head out at first to make sure the man from earlier wasn't around.

"Okay, but please be careful…" she told the older girl who looked back and nodded at her, before quickly leaving the tent and closing the entrance. With the older girl gone she turned her attention to the older boy who laid their unconscious. She didn't see exactly what happened but she knew from what happened that he helped them after the man kicked her, which she was happy about.

Thinking of getting kicked though suddenly brought back the pain from it as she moved her hands down to her stomach, where she was kicked, and gripped it to try and help with the pain. She groaned out in pain slightly as she did and laid down in the other bed, gripping her stomach as she did.

Only after a few minutes of doing this did something happen, she heard a noise next to her, when she turned she saw that the boy was already beginning to stir as he moved his head slightly as his eyes started to open slightly. His face was now purple on more of it while it was also beginning to swell from the hits he took. She quickly let go of her stomach and sat up slowly, looking at him as his eyes opened and he let out a long groan of pain. "What…Happened….?" He said slowly as he began to look around to take in where he was.

"Y-You passed out after getting here, Vernal is out right now trying to get some medicine and water for us…" she said to him as she made her way over next to him. She took in his light blonde and scruffy hair and his dark blue eyes there were barely visible from the swelling on his face.

The boy turned his head and looked at her for a moment, taking in her features by the looks of it before speaking. "Who…. Are you?" he asked her as he tried to place a name with her face, but not knowing it at all.

"Well isn't it a little rude to ask someone's name without telling yours?" she said with a small amount of sass that she had picked up from Vernal. The boy looked at her for a moment before laughing slightly, then wincing right after, laughing seemed to cause him a slight amount of pain. "You got me there… I'm Jaune." The boy- no, Jaune said before smiling at her, "and you are?"

She looked down at him and returned his smile, "Hi Jaune, I'm Ruby."

Well Jaune and Ruby already meet in the third chapter, shocking I know, but I knew this was going to happen early on I just didn't know when exactly. But now seems like a good time then never. Anywho if you enjoyed it didn't enjoy it, a review would be greatly appreciated. Until next time - Zane