Hello again. Happy Friday, and happy November I guess? My outline for this chapter included the bizarre phrase, "suspicious, but eats cactus."

74. Among the Dunes

The desert, Neptune learned almost as soon as they left the scrubby forest, sucked.

It could've been worse, he supposed. Tai had thought to bring sunscreen, and to give it to Qrow before they split up. Between that, and huddling under their dragons' outstretched wings, they managed to scrape by without getting burned too badly. Of course, that didn't stop sand from getting absolutely everywhere—and it didn't feed them, either.

Even though their rescue party had brought supplies, it wasn't actually all that much divided between something like twenty people, and it was worse for the dragons. It was basically impossible to haul around enough to feed them all. They'd done a little hunting when they were still in the forest—Steele had managed to kill two deer—but now they were lucky if they managed to catch a rabbit.

By the second day, everyone was short-tempered and exhausted. Everyone... except Sun.

"I kinda figured you'd like it out here," he said cheerfully, as Neptune tried fruitlessly to shield his eyes from the glare of the sun reflecting off the sand. It felt like there was a Boarbatusk rattling around inside his skull. "Y'know. No water and all."

"Die."

Sun tipped his head back and laughed. His shirt—still unbuttoned, Neptune had no idea how his entire torso wasn't already peeling—fluttered in a hot, dry breeze. "Aw, c'mon! Look at that sky!"

Neptune groaned and put his hands over his eyes. The sky Sun was talking about was a gorgeous pale blue vault overhead, and he would have given just about anything for some clouds.

Scarlet, who was trudging along a few feet to their left, started muttering darkly under his breath. Sage gave him a consoling pat on the shoulder.

"Nneh." He glanced to his right, and smiled as Nymph spread her wing over his head.

"Thanks, girl."

The dragons were just as tired and hungry as they were, so he'd feel bad asking her to keep that up all the time... but it was very nice. Though the sun beat down on them so mercilessly that it was blinding even through her wing membrane. He'd taken to wearing his riding goggles, but even that wasn't enough.

"Dude, look!" Neptune hung his head and groaned. Sun grabbed his shoulder and gave it a little shake. "No, seriously!"

He glanced up. A flock of dark spots had appeared on the horizon, flying out from the woods. Neptune squinted, tried to count, then gave up when his head started to throb again. If it was their people, great. If not, he couldn't muster the energy to care.

"Let me know when they're close enough to see," Neptune mumbled, and let his head rest on Sun's shoulder.

Sun laughed and ruffled his hair. "Sure thing, dude."

It turned out to be allies, not a horde of pit dragons following them out of the forest. Steele landed first, with Winter sliding off his back with a gigantic musclebound prisoner in tow. He wobbled on his feet, squinting in the bright sunlight, one arm hanging uselessly at his side. Seconds later, a small indigo blur jumped off Justice's back and darted up to him so that it could start headbutting his knees.

"Uh," Neptune said.

"We've got some more supplies!" Taiyang announced. "Who wants lunch?"

Winter shot him a withering look. "They won't last all the way across the desert," she said bluntly. "I'm going to fly ahead and see if I can find an airship that can carry Storm. Stay together, keep moving, and don't let these escape." She gestured at the big man and the dragonet, who bared its teeth at her.

With that, and a brief nod towards Weiss, she and Steele were off again. Sun wandered over towards the others, which meant that Neptune went too. "What's going on?" he asked Blake, glancing at the stranger and his dragon.

"We caught some of the White Fang, but... there was really only so much we could do to make sure they stayed caught. Most of them will probably escape. He's high-ranking, so..."

"Oh." Sun paused, digesting that. "And, Ilia...?"

She was on Quake, between Tai and Pyrrha, and looking resigned. Blake winced. "There's been some trouble with Justice."

"If that's what you want to call attacking us," Weiss cut in, making a face.

"Hang on, he what?" Yang blurted, from where she and Ruby were standing. Blake's explanation brought on more questions, until they finally got the whole story.

"Well," Sun said, running a hand through his hair. "Shit."

Slowly... carefully... Gigas peeked one eye open. Instantly it was seared with light, and he croaked and buried his head under his rider's collar.

There was an amused chuff somewhere high above his head.

A shadow fell across them both. He blinked a few times, then stared up at the deep brown canopy over his head. Quake had raised one of his wings to shield him. Gigas put his front paws up on his rider's head so that he could stretch his neck even higher into the air.

Everything looked so different out here. He'd always wanted to see the world outside their little tent, but he'd never thought it would be like this. There weren't even any trees!

The earth dragon chuckled again. "You're getting too big for that," he said. "It'll hurt his neck."

Whining dejectedly, Gigas draped himself over Ursan's shoulders. Even that made him grunt a little with the effort, so he hopped down to trot alongside him. It was disappointing, but the grateful scratch behind his ears made it better.

This close to the ground, the air was thick with the hot, dry scent of scorched sand—it smelled just like the big one. Gigas breathed it in, then warbled happily and rolled onto his back.

He had the time, because the humans were slow. Quake had explained that their riders couldn't move as quickly as they could, especially out here in the desert, without hurting themselves. Sometimes he sat on Justice's back for a while, but only ever to walk. When he asked why they weren't flying, everyone had gotten very quiet, and Pit had told him that someone had hurt the wind dragon, Storm, so that she couldn't fly until it healed.

Gigas hadn't responded, because Ursan didn't like it when he talked to the strangers. It was hard to dislike them as much as his rider, and Justice, wanted him to. Secretly, he'd stopped wishing he could go back to the camp, and started wishing instead that Flux and Harbinger and the big one could have come with him. Though Flux might not like it out here as much as he did—new things made her jumpy. He didn't know why. It was exciting that the world was so big!

"Justice?"

Justice was walking a little ways away, where Salty was watching him. "What?" he grumbled.

"How far does the desert go?"

The older dragon tossed his tail dismissively. "I don't know. Far."

"We're at least two weeks away from Vacuo on foot," Salty said. "Even if we run most of the way, which we can't since we don't have that much water. We're mostly just waiting for Winter to come back with that airship, but any distance we can cover in the meantime will help."

Gigas blinked a few times. "Is Vacuo the end of the world?"

Justice groaned. "No. And stop asking them questions!"

"Well you won't tell me," Gigas grumbled, and hid behind Ursan's legs.

By the time they stopped for the evening, the novelty of the desert was starting to wear off. Gigas was tired, and hungry, and thirsty, and he missed Flux. He curled up in a miserable ball under Ursan's good arm and glared out at the world.

His rider fell asleep almost immediately. He'd been like that since his arm got hurt—Gigas thought it was because he always tried to do everything he used to, and got tired when he couldn't. They told him it had been the big one who did it, but he was sure it was a mistake. She was twitchy, like Flux, and Flux sometimes hurt him by accident when her powers acted up.

There was a hefty thump nearby. Gigas peered out from under Ursan's arm, and saw Pit lying on his belly, with his head in his paws.

"What do you want?" Gigas turned his head away, but he couldn't help sneaking peeks out of the corner of his eye.

"Just to say hi."

Gigas narrowed his eyes, and focused on his powers. Pit let out a startled snort as his head got heavier, and when he tried to jump to his feet it stayed stuck to the ground. For a second Gigas froze—what if he was angry? But when he recovered from the shock, the noise he made was more amused than annoyed.

"You're good with those," he said, his voice slightly muffled. "But I bet I know something that'll get you to let me up."

"...What?" Gigas asked, suddenly suspicious.

"Vacuo's not the end of the world. I've been somewhere even farther away."

His powers snapped off, and he wriggled out from under Ursan to give Pit his full attention. "Really?"

And so Pit told him stories about Vale, and Mistral, and even a few that Blake had told himabout Menagerie.

"We've all been to Vacuo, too," Pit said. "And Weiss comes from Atlas, but she doesn't talk about what it's like there very much. Specter's never been, so I don't really know how different it is from Vale, except that it's cold."

Gigas was so spellbound that he almost didn't notice the ice dragon himself wandering over.

"What are you talking about?" he asked—not angry like Justice usually was when he said something like that, just curious. When Pit told him, he gave his head a lofty toss and told a few stories of his own. He obviously liked getting to play the world-wise traveler, and Gigas was too fascinated with what he was saying to interrupt.

And then, like he always did, Justice noticed them talking.

"Leave him alone!" Justice snarled.

Specter reared up, startled, and came down heavily on his front paws with a huff. "We were just keeping him company," he said, exasperated. Honestly, Justice was acting like they wanted to eat him or something.

"Hey!" Salty trotted up behind him. "You have to stay with me with me, remember?"

"Don't talk to him!" Smoke curled between Justice's teeth. "You stay away, you hear me?"

"Calm down!" Salty moved to pin him with a paw, but he twisted out of the way.

"No! You and your stupid riders won't get to him, too!"

Specter's ears went flat. He hissed, even as Salty moved to step between them. "Take a step back! Both of you!" Quake and Pepper noticed the commotion then, and started to come closer.

"You don't get to talk to him! It's the stupid Schnees' fault the world is like this in the first place!"

Specter took a swipe at him. Justice lunged at almost the same time, and the two were soon scrabbling in the sand. Pit and Salty both jumped in to try to separate them, but in the next instant Justice snarled, "If Adam were still here—"

His thoughts blanked out. The next instant he and Pit were both shoulder to shoulder, pinning Justice under their paws, roaring and shrieking over Salty's shouts.

Only Weiss' voice could cut through the icy fog that had filled him, as she shouted, "Stop!"

Specter stopped. Justice was on his side, his jaws open in a snarl. He whacked him once more on the nose, then sprang away so that he could coil around his rider. Blake was there, too, and soon enveloped by one of Pit's wings.

Salty took over the job of pinning Justice to the ground. He soon stopped struggling and sulked with his head flat on the ground. The big man was awake, holding a shivering Gigas who had crawled under his shirt.

"What the hell is going on?!" Qrow demanded, into the sudden silence.

"Ffight," Salty said.

Qrow sighed. "Yeah, I noticed."

Quake strode up to the pinned Justice and touched his nose to his shoulder. "I don't want to separate you and the little one," he rumbled, "but we'll have to if this keeps happening."

After the adults and Justice were gone, Weiss tried to scold him. Specter meant to stay quiet and listen, but somehow he kept interrupting her by licking her face and butting his head against her side. Eventually she gave up and patted his muzzle.

"Sssorry," he mumbled. Then, to the quivering lump in the Lieutenant's shirt, "Sorry, Gigas."

The dragonet poked his head out from between two buttons. "Who's Adam?"

Specter couldn't have answered kindly, so he said nothing.

That night, as usual, Pyrrha couldn't sleep. She lay in the dark under Twiggy's wing for a long time, curled against Jaune's side, listening to them both breathe. The night was so still and silent that she could even hear the faint, slow rhythm of his heart.

She sat up. He mumbled something and reached out, and after a moment's hesitation she nudged him awake.

"Mmh?"

"I'm going to go for a walk. I'll be back in a few minutes."

He blinked sleep out of his eyes. "What? Pyrrha, it's the middle of the night."

"The moon's out. I won't go far."

Jaune opened his mouth to protest again, but closed it when he saw the look on her face. "I... be careful, okay?"

"Okay. Go back to sleep."

"...Okay."

Pyrrha disentangled herself from Twiggy's wing and walked out into the desert night. Jaune lay back down, but didn't shut his eyes.

The moon was nearly full, and it turned the desert around her into a sea of pale silver. The air was bitter cold. She told herself she would turn back as soon as she was out of sight of the others. When they had long since vanished behind her, she kept on walking.

It was like she'd stepped into a dream. Everything looked strangely unreal in this light, as if she might wake up at any minute and be back under Twiggy's wing.

Or back in her bed, in Beacon.

She walked up the side of a dune, struggling a little as sand slipped out from under her feet. Then, in the distance, a hideous cackling laughter started up. Hairs stood up on the back of her neck. For an instant she was sure it must be a Grimm—until she remembered that some parts of Vacuo had hyenas. Then again, the difference might not matter very much if they noticed her.

Pyrrha hesitated near the top. She should go back... and she would. Just a few paces more. She crested the duneand there, mostly hidden in a pool of shadow, was a withered up cactus.

Her heart lurched, and suddenly the hyenas seemed a very distant and immaterial threat. Pyrrha scanned her surroundings until her eyes lit on a slightly rougher edge to one of the dunes.

When she spoke, her voice was much calmer than she felt. "I see you."

The dune shifted. A soft shushing sound, as sand fell in sheets from scales that blended almost perfectly against the backdrop of the desert. Yellow eyes fixed on Pyrrha's, and the hybrid let out a low, threatening hiss.

Pyrrha could hardly hear it over her own pulse thundering in her ears. Slowly, she eased herself down so that she was sitting cross-legged in the sand. The dragon tensed. She stared at her for a long moment with her eyes narrowed, as if affronted that the human wasn't afraid of her.

"I wasn't looking for you," Pyrrha assured her. "I just wanted to go for a walk to clear my head. It's actually quite beautiful out here."

Muscles coiled in her hind legs. Pyrrha took a deep breath and shut her eyes. "I've never been to the desert before. I grew up in Mistral. There are a lot of trees there, and fields where people grow crops or raise animals..."

She talked for a long time about her hometown, Argus. The winter storms that blew in from Mantle, the joint exercises that Flight Squads from Atlas and Mistral sometimes had over the water, even the vast forest where she had gone wrangling.

"It's not about hurting them," she explained, still with her eyes shut. "Sometimes wild dragons get lost and wander too close to human settlements, and we help them find their way back. Or sometimes they're dragons who lost their Riders, and it's our job to take them to a broodery where someone can take care of them."

A noise made her risk opening her eyes. The hybrid froze halfway through tearing a strip off the cactus, and her ears went back. Pyrrha politely averted her gaze and went back to talking about everything and nothing. Eventually, after a few suspicious glares, the dragon went back to devouring her meal.

The moon was nearly set by the time she finished. "I need to go," Pyrrha said. She stood slowly, exaggerating every movement so the hybrid could tell what she was doing. "It'll be too dark for me to find my way back, soon."

A dismissive snort. The hybrid made a great show of ignoring her—but Pyrrha felt eyes on her back as she walked away.

Jaune was still awake when she returned. He asked if she was feeling better, and she surprised them both by smiling. She didn't mention the hybrid—the experience felt too fragile, somehow, so unreal that she was halfway sure she'd dreamed the whole thing. A feeling that only strengthened when she slept soundly through the rest of the night.

Pyrrha might not have believed it, if they hadn't walked past the very same spot. She almost stepped on a small patch of disturbed sand—all that remained of the unfortunate cactus.