Happy Friday! I come bearing lots of dragons on missions.

32. Midnight Ride

Thick shadows fell between the trunks of massive trees. Leaves rustled like slithering snakes, and strange noises echoed in the distance. The air was alive with malice, and the darkness was filled with hateful eyes...

Zircon shivered and pressed a little closer to Nimbus. Mudslide scoffed and whacked his side gently with her tail before trotting ahead, walking side by side with Huo. Pepper followed behind them—she wasn't taking part in the fighting, and wouldn't unless things started to go wrong.

"This is... a lot less fun than I expected."

"Sun," Sage said patiently, "We're fighting bloodthirsty creatures of darkness. It's not really supposed to be fun—"

Professor Port chortled. "Nonsense! Remember boys, if you do what you love, you won't work a day in your life!"

Zircon reared up indignantly. "Is he serious?!"

"Probably." Huo lunged into the bushes and came up with a small, foxlike Grimm squirming in his jaws. "And come on, this is great!" There was a small crunch, and the monster dissipated into black smoke. "Getting kind of boring though, I hope we find something b—"

"No!" Zircon put his paws over his ears. "Stop it!"

"Quit cringing like a stupid hatchling," snarled Mudslide.

Huo hissed and snapped at her. "Hey! Who asked you?!"

"Ah, shit!" Sky pulled on the reins—his were made of old rope, since he was using one of the tribe's makeshift saddles.

Sun patted Huo's neck. "Let's bite the Grimm, not each other, okay?" The dragon puffed smoke into his rider's face, making him hack and cough. "Ugh, Huo!" He waved a hand to dissipate it and sighed. "Seriously though. This... kinda sucks. I mean, for one thing—we're, like, team hiss right now."

Sage shifted in the saddle. "Uh-huh."

"And, I mean, look at them!" He waved a hand at all three SSSN dragons. "It's all... unbalanced! Why are we doing our first mission without our team's alpha dragon?"

"Yeah." Scarlet snickered. "You're really missing Nymph right now."

"Look, sorry... but that's just dumb." Sky gestured wildly with both arms. "Do you know how lucky we are?! We're out here with Port, can you imagine what this would be like with Vernal?"

"Is she, uh... is she always like that?" asked Sun.

"Nope. I don't know what the hell you people did to piss her off, but she's even worse than normal whenever you're around."

Professor Port cleared his throat. "As honored as I am to be your first choice, let's focus on the Grimm, shall we?"

"What Grimm?"

A shadow lunged from the nearby bushes. Zircon reared up onto his hind legs, letting out a startled bark and almost tossing Sage to the ground. Nimbus pounced on it. He overshot slightly, but still knocked it over. Mudslide darted in and clamped her teeth on its neck. She shook once, and it died.

"Always be on your guard!" Port declared. "Even the weakest of foes can be dangerous given a surprise attack!" Zircon whimpered. Sage ran a soothing hand down his neck. Mudslide glared at him, her green eyes narrowed and her teeth slightly bared.

For a while they walked in silence, trying to follow Port's instructions. It was mostly Huo and Mudslide that picked off the Vexins, though Nimbus managed to catch a few and shred them in his claws. Sun kept shifting positions in his saddle.

"Do you think they're all this easy?"

"Probably," Sky said, with a shrug. "They're supposed to be, anyway."

Port nodded. "Every mission we selected is one that your dragons are more than capable of handling, even without any combat experience."

Huo tossed his head indignantly. "No combat experience? I fought two council dragons with Fang!"

"You ran away from two council dragons with Fang," Mudslide sneered. He aimed another bite at her, which she dodged.

"Huo!" Sun gave him a sharp tap on the shoulder. "Quit it!"

More Grimm died. Zircon's heart raced a little slower every time one of them burst out of the bushes. He even aimed a swipe at one that came too close to him and Nimbus, though he ducked away at the last second and missed. Mudslide pinned it down and crushed it under one paw.

"This is also a valuable lesson in Grimm behavior," Port told them. "Most Grimm this small prefer to travel in packs or swarms—"

Swarms?!

"—but Vexins are an exception. They are solitary, weak creatures... but an infestation can get out of hand quickly. No one has ever seen how they reproduce, but where there is one there will soon be more! We'll need to find all of them if we're going to clear out this area."

"...I wonder how the others are doing."

"Sun," Scarlet said patiently, "Stop fretting."

"I'm not—what do you mean fretting, I'm just wondering."

"About Neptune."

He slumped in the saddle. "I mean, yeah, but... I just hope he's okay."

Sage tugged on the reins. Zircon shifted closer to Huo, his shoulder brushing his brother's hot scales. His partner reached out and rested a hand on Sun's back. "He'll be alright. He has Nymph with him, and Ren and Guang."

Sky snorted. "What's Russel, chopped liver?"

"I apologize, I didn't mean—"

The snort turned into a full laugh. "Dude, chill."

"The point," Scarlet said, "is that Neptune will be fine."

"But—"

"Nope! No what-ifs."

"Focus on what you can do now," Sage added.

"Like... killing tiny Grimm?"

"Exactly."

Huo scoffed, flicking his ears irritably. "Like he's doing any of the work," he grumbled. He reached out, absentmindedly squishing one of the Vexins under his paw.

"So..."

Jade watched Tank's tail flick back and forth, his head ducked low to the ground. He rumbled uncertainly, then said, "Do you, um—"

Cyclone twisted his head around and hissed, "Shut up." Tank whimpered, his ears pinning back, and shut up. Jade exchanged a look with Rudder, then Storm.

Vernal was just as irritable whenever one of their riders tried to talk to one another. "If it's not about the Grimm," she snapped, "save your breath."

Jade growled—softly, so that Cyclone wouldn't hear. It was annoying, especially since her rider had only just explained to the others about Cinder. They were starting to understand how good she was, but for some reason things still seemed tense between Emerald and Ruby. Talking more might fix it, and she'd been so excited when she found out that Storm would be coming with her and Rudder...

Ruby glanced at Emerald, then away. Jade felt her rider's hands clench against her scales. She huffed, and the noise made Mercury glance at them. She bared her teeth at him. He took one look at Emerald and rolled his eyes.

"Hey!" he called out. "What are we killing again?"

Vernal twisted around and glared at him like he was a particularly nasty insect. "You've been told. Twice."

"Oh, yeah. They're the frog things, right?"

"Rainids."

"Uh-huh. Those. How dangerous are they, anyway?"

Vernal's lip curled. "We're really scraping the bottom of the barrel, here. Cyclone could've killed one of these a week out of the egg." He purred in smug satisfaction.

While she spoke, Mercury turned and gave Emerald a very significant look. A very significant look that meant absolutely nothing to Jade, and her rider didn't seem to have much of a clue either. He whirled back around the moment Vernal stopped talking. "Right," he said, drawing the word out into a drawl. "Tell me, o wise mentor, where the hell are these things? We've been walking for ages."

She went off into a long, condescending rant. Mercury tapped Rudder's neck and, when he brought his head closer, whispered something in his ear. Then her brother dropped back a bit to pass the message on to Jade. "He says to make your rider talk already."

Talk? Jade tilted her head to one side, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. "Why?" Rudder shrugged and moved back towards the front as Vernal's rant wound down.

Well. It was what she wanted, and if Mercury's compulsive need to annoy everyone he ever met bought her the distraction she needed... "'Awk," she told Emerald, and bumped her with her nose. Then she oh-so-casually drifted closer to Storm, greeting her with a friendly sniff.

"Um... hey."

Ruby bounced a little in her saddle. "Hi!" She glanced at Mercury and Vernal. "That's, um... interesting."

Emerald snorted. "It's nice to see it aimed at someone who deserves it for a change."

"Mercury or Vernal?"

"Yes."

Ruby dipped her head so that her hair fell across her face, hiding her grin. "That's kinda mean."

"So are they."

"Mercury's not so bad..."

"You've never lived with him."

Several feet away, Mercury was snickering. "Yeah, you're real tough. When was the last time you fought something instead of letting a dragon handle it for you?"

"Only idiots try to fight Grimm without dragons."

"Right." He turned his head just a little, meeting Jade's eyes and smirking. "Because you and I are too weak to fight them ourselves."

Vernal looked like she was on the cusp of catching on fire. "That's not what I—"

"Hey, um..." Ruby shifted nervously in the saddle. "Are you okay?"

"What?"

"I mean, you seem kind of... upset? Or angry, or... I don't know."

"No!" Emerald startled so badly that one of her heels hit Jade's side, and her startled yelp was almost enough to draw Vernal's attention—until Mercury spread his arms behind his head and leaned back, smirking. "No. It's not like that."

"Okay. It just sort of seems like you've been, um... avoiding me, maybe?" Then, under her breath, "Again..."

"I'm not. I just—I've been busy dealing with all the work we're doing around the camp."

Jade picked her head up, one ear flicking back. She'd hadn't noticed before, but now that she thought about it... Emerald had been busy lately. Busier than she strictly needed to be to stay in Raven's camp. Suspiciously busy, even.

She let Emerald keep stammering out excuses until their conversation turned lighter. To pass the time she chatted with Tank, who was almost as quiet as Rudder and always seemed to be half expecting her to bite him. Their conversation petered out quickly, with him so timid and Jade so distracted by her rider. She had to get the bottom of what was going on here.

"This is the worst," Nora declared, sitting down between Freya's forelegs with a huff.

Freya nuzzled her rider's head, huffing and blowing her hair in all directions. Her eyes were halfway lidded. They'd flown for a while, which was fun even if it was exhausting, but after that the whole day had been spent walking... then when they'd finally found the Grimm they were supposed to fight, a small Ursa, it had died within minutes. She almost felt bad for it—Fang had been eager to practice spitting fire by then.

"Bad," she agreed.

They were a little ways away from the others—three-quarters of team RWBY, unfortunately including Yang. Unfortunately because she'd spent the whole mission glaring daggers at Raven, and the feeble attempts at conversation the others made had died early deaths. Freya didn't think it was possible, but she would have preferred Cyclone and Vernal.

"I don't get why Guang couldn't come with us." Nora leaned back against Freya's chest. "Rudder could go with the other water dragons. Or we could go to the lake and... you know, help from the sky!"

Freya let out a questioning rumble. She had no idea how to fight in a lake... or on land, really. They'd learned some from their professors, but fighting Grimm was different than playing with Guang. And fighting other dragons for real would be different than both. Her eyes drifted shut.

Soon they'd have to hike up a cliff so that they could take off and head back to the camp... at least she could see the others again. She should see how Twiggy was doing...

The thought leeched away what little energy she had left. She slumped to the ground, still curled around Nora, her head lolling to one side. What was the point of fighting Grimm like this, really? They were still enemies of the council. They still couldn't go home. And even if they won in the end, it wouldn't bring Titan back.

"This waiting thing? I hate it." Jaune scratched absentmindedly under Twiggy's chin, his shoulder leaning against Pyrrha's.

No one was back yet. No one was due back yet, either.

Twiggy whined softly and pressed her nose to his arm. "What—no, no! That's not what I meant. It's not your fault, okay? I just... sort of wish our friends could take more than, like, a week of downtime before they're ready to explode."

Pyrrha made a small noise in the back of her throat—like a tiny, half-formed chuckle. Jaune immediately decided that the waiting was completely worth it. "I'm afraid I'm not much better."

"Yeah, neither am I. That's why I hate the waiting."

At least most of them had the decency to show up on time. Nora's group was even early—though that meant that she had a lot of time to get antsy. Then anxious. Then, an hour after Ren was due back, when everyone else was already sitting in a giant clump, Jaune reluctantly suggested that they could arm-wrestle to pass the time. He suspected he'd be feeling that decision for a while.

Finally, they spotted the last three shadows on the horizon. Jaune relaxed, until Russel and Professor Goodwitch dismounted and the other two stayed slumped in the saddle. Nora broke into a sprint. "Are you guys okay?!"

Ren lifted his head. He unbuckled his legs and, with no other warning, jumped off of Ao Guang and wrapped Nora in a hug. "We're alright." Ao Guang nuzzled at the pair of them, then reared back and sneezed.

"What happened?" Pyrrha asked.

Russel jabbed a finger at the sky. "What happened? What happened?! Well somehow, even though the wimpy little baby Grimm we were supposed to be killing turned out to have teeth taller than me, we didn't fucking die!"

At that last word, the tables abruptly turned in Ren and Nora's hug. He made a strangled noise.

"And Ren almost drowned, so maybe don't suffocate him?"

Nora switched from squeezing his ribcage to wrapping his arm in a grip that was probably cutting off circulation. Jaune glanced at Pyrrha, and without really planning it they both leaned in and gave Ren brief hugs of their own.

Neptune, meanwhile, slid out of the saddle and staggered a few paces before his own team caught him. "Never again," he groaned.

Eventually they got the full story of the mission gone wrong. Sun had to rescue Neptune from one of Nora's hugs, and she even gave Russel a friendly punch on the arm. Raven made no comment, except a small smirk and a cryptic remark about how it was the water dragons that had actually learned something today. Yang acted like she hadn't spoken at all.

That night, Jaune was unceremoniously evicted from the tent he'd been sharing with Ren. He stood outside it for a moment, slightly dazed. Then he crept towards Nora's tent, which she'd been letting Pyrhra use. He froze just as he touched the zipper. Deep, steady breathing came from inside.

He couldn't wake her up. Instead he wandered over to where their dragons slept, listening to their deep snores. Jaune didn't really want to wake Twiggy, either—but when he found her, she was already alert and watching him intently.

"Hey, girl," he whispered. "Mind if I get under your wing?"

She stared at him for a moment. Then, very slowly, she leaned forward... and grabbed him by the front of his shirt.

"Uh... Twiggy?"

His feet left the ground.

"What are you—" He cut off when she dropped him on her back and, without so much as a word, marched off into the woods. "Um... okay?"

Jaune didn't talk to her on the way. There was a strange hush in the air—maybe it was just the stars overhead, or the pitch blackness of the woods, but it made him reluctant to break the silence. He didn't have a flashlight. They moved slowly, Twiggy feeling her way between the trees, the hair slowly standing up on the back of his neck.

It occurred to him that this was a terrible idea. A whole tribe of renegade riders less than a mile away meant there probably weren't Grimm out here, but... well, probably. Before he could say as much, Twiggy stopped.

For a second, he didn't realize why. Then he squinted, and realized that the absolute darkness of the ground beneath them gave way much too quickly to the starry sky. Sort of like it stopped very abruptly about thirty feet away.

"Twiggy?"

She started to run.

"Hey!" Jaune yelped. He tried to cling to the saddle, but Twiggy wasn't wearing one. All he could feel were smooth scales under his fingers. Instead he ducked against her neck and wrapped his arms around it. "Wait, hold on a second—!"

Twiggy jumped. Jaune's stomach dropped, and for a moment all he could think about was taking deep breaths so that he wouldn't throw up. Then she passed the apex of her jump. It was like he was ten again, on the swingsets, going just a little too high. The moment when the swing went parallel with the ground and dropped, and it felt like his heart had followed it all the way to the ground.

Her wings flapped, and their dive turned into a slow climb. Jaune loosened his grip just enough to look up. The night was cloudless. He couldn't see the forest underneath him—he was falling upwards into an endless sea of stars.

A few minutes later, Twiggy landed heavily on the same cliff. Jaune stayed where he was, still clinging to her neck. He had to force himself to let go. "That was..."

Silver eyes blinked at him. Twiggy rumbled softly, licking at his cheeks, and he realized for the first time that they were wet. "Sorry," he whispered—and with the sound, the spell broke, and the reality of it sank in."I'm just happy..."

Twiggy nuzzled at his side, purring triumphantly. He scratched behind her ears, leaning against her neck, his eyes drifting closed... and he shot upright. She let out a startled bark.

"Sorry girl," he said, grinning sheepishly. "But we really shouldn't fall asleep out here."