Chapter 14

Questions

How long have we been running?

This isn't a rhetorical question or anything.

I really am wondering how long we have been running.

I start to slow down a bit actually pay attention and study my surroundings.

Wow..

We're in the forest.

That means we ran from the castle, through the entire city, out one of the three gates, and into the forest.

All without stopping or being stopped.

That is impressive.

But how come no one stopped us?

Did we just run past them?

Or did I hack my way through them?

I don't know and can't remember.

And I probably never will, judging by the fact that I most likely never enter that city again in order to find out.

Not that I want to know anyways.

What's important now is protecting the Princess.

Wait.

The Princess!

"Princess?" I ask worriedly.

"Huh?.." She replies groggily as she tries to stay awake.

Crap!

I've been dragging her the whole time!

I stop and try to see if she is hurt.

No, she isn't hurt.

Just tired, very very tired.

Like she can't walk anymore type of tired.

"Can you hear me Princess?"

"You *pant* are *pant* too fast." She tries to say.

"Way *pant* way too fast." She manages to get out out as well.

"What in Tartarus do you do in order to pull off something like that?!"

"Get an overzealous Guard Captain, ten weeks worth of time, and a barrel of beer every single week." I say.

"Glynda put you through that?"

"Who else would, even Qrow was scared of the damn trainin-" I stopped dead before I finished my sentence.

Qrow was dead.

Why do I keep reminding myself of that?

Because deep down, I don't want to believe it for a second?

"What do we do now?" Princess Ruby asked me.

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?!" She shouted into my ear.

"I meant I don't know!" I shouted right back at her.

We stopped shouting at each other for a few seconds, creating an awkward silence.

"So Pri-." I said in order to break it.

*Ckk!*

But it turns out I didn't need to.

"Do you hear someone?" Are the words that end up coming out instead.

She immediately looks around the area at the trees, fear obvious across her face.

Looking for any sign of someone or something that created the sound that put us both on edge.

"Who's there!?" I awkwardly shout into the vast forest.

*Ckk!* *Ckk!* *Ckk!*

I hear several cracks along the ground, either coming from behind us or to our right.

Whatever it is, it's getting closer to us.

"Maybe shouting wasn't the best idea."

"Hello?!" Someone, possibly a man by the sound of the voice, shouted out from the trees.

"Who are you?!" I shouted right back.

"Who are you?!" The person parroted my words.

"Come out of the forest!" I shouted loud enough for him to hear.

This will either be not so bad of an idea, or it will be the stupidest idea that I've ever had in my entire 20 years of life.

Let's see which it is, shall we?

The man walked into view.

"You trying to escape too?" It was a guard that looked as if he had just ran the market rally.

Which is about 5 kilometres, mind you.

It was impossible to win against Glynda, she won every single time .

"Yeah, how'd you get out?" I asked the tired guard.

"I was on gate shift." That explains a lot.

Gate guards not only know how to open the gates, but are immediately closest to an exit out of the city.

The bastards were also always quick runners for some unthinkable reason.

I wonder if cowardice had something to do with that.

I tried helping some of King Ozpin's mercenaries out, but Cinder's new guards stepped in and killed them all with bolts." He said.

"How many mercenaries were there?" I asked.

"About three, one was wearing a red cloak."

Damn.

Weiss and her companions were dead as well.

It's tragic, when you think about it.

They went through all the crap in helping carry out the King's orders.

And what did they get for it?

Being gut like fish.

"You know where we can go?" The Princess asked so suddenly that it scared both me and the fellow guard.

The guard, unlike me, quickly found his composure and related some details to us.

"You re saying that we should go to an abandoned castle; try to gather people to our cause, which will be to take back the Capitol from Cinder, and then rule with fairness over the land?" It looked as if Princess Ruby was going to stab him with anything that she could grab.

But suddenly.

"Alright, let's get going." I stare at her, completely flabbergasted.

"You agree with him?!" I shouted.

"Yes I do, Jaune." She said with an icy coldness to her voice.

I immediately decided that it would be a better idea to keep my mouth shut.

"As much of a fairy-tale that kids would be told by their parents the plan is." She said with a weird confidence.

I don't like where this is going.

"We will try our best to go through with it."

I'm starting to think that running away from even these people is not such a bad idea.

Well, lead us to the abandoned castle, Guard!"

"Yes I will, Princess!" The guard responded enthusiastically.

"Come on, Jean!" The Princess shouted.

"My name's Jaune." I said in a complete monotone as the despair took over. !

"Whatever, let's get going!"

She and the guard started moving towards what is either the direction of the abandoned castle or completely nowhere.

"We are the rebels!"

"Yes we are!"

"We shall destroy Cinder!" She follows the guard as he leads us to the castle.

My life is turned upside down.

I was a simple guard in The Kingdom Of Vale.

I lived a life of simple patrols and looking forward to the next drink.

Then guards started being found dead.

Vicious monsters attacked the Capital.

My best friend got killed by said vicious monsters tearing him apart with half of the other guards.

I got depressed and had to be snapped out of it by my Sergeant, whom I somehow became friends with.

I got caught up in a plan consisting of regicide concocted by an Amoral Princess with a lust for power.

My sergeant, along with every guard that had been my friend was killed.

I ran away from the Capital with The Princess in tow.

And now I m part of a rebellion effort to take back The Kingdom.

That's it.

I've finally cracked.

I've cracked badly.

Very badly.

This is what s it s like to be mad, isn't it?

I'm gonna start seeing the ghosts of all my dead friends next or something.

No?

No old friends that died?

No family members that passed away?

Not even my drunken uncle Jeramiah?

Nor my creepy aunt Sikma?

Then I guess I m stuck with these two.

No.

I'm not mad.

I'm perfectly sane.

It's just the world around is mad.

The people in it are just trying to get by without becoming part of it.

Life really sucks then.

Well, if there s one thing that life is merciful in.

One thing I know with full knowledge and belief in.

It's that life goes on.

Is that how it goes?

I can't be bothered to remember at this point.