Oh goodie, so I'm back at work and thinking "You know, I'll call my ISP today and sort out my stupid internet problems at home" only to find out that all the telephone lines in the office are not working. In a bloody sales office! I'm literally the only person capable of working at the moment. Argh.
Beta: College Fool
Cover Art: Dishwasher1910
Book 6: Chapter 3
The northern coast of Vacuo made for easier travel, but was no less dangerous. The shifting sands had been replaced with rocky tundra that shifted down into dirty beaches, a thin strip of ground slightly wetter and more sustaining of life than the desert itself. Rugged ferns and shrubs dotted the landscape ahead and behind, back toward Alair, while the ocean and the beaches spanned our right, and the great desert itself our left. The sun was high in the sky but it was late afternoon, our preferred time to travel so as to dodge the blistering heat.
"The desert is full of spider Grimm and the water is full of sharks," Yang spat. "I still don't get how people live out here."
"They don't, obviously. Alair couldn't even be called a village."
Yang groaned and ran a hand through her long hair. Though she was normally proud of it, I could imagine it being a nightmare right now, especially with the wind carrying salt from the ocean. A pragmatic person might have suggested she cut it, but that was a trap I wasn't going to fall for.
"The line is still purple," Blake reported from ahead. "We haven't lost them."
"Don't you think it's a little convenient we've managed to catch up with them so quickly?" Ruby asked. "I mean, they had a week or two on us and we've already found them. Do you think it could be a trap?"
"They don't even know we're here," Pyrrha pointed out.
Ruby pouted and acknowledged the answer, though not without a quiet murmur. "It just feels too convenient…"
"It's not at all," Ren warned. "You're assuming we're moving faster than them. We might be catching up because they've stopped. Because they don't need to travel any further."
Because they already had what they wanted. I grimaced at the thought but couldn't shake it entirely. Unlike us, Torchwick knew exactly what he was looking for, and he'd had two weeks like Ruby said. There was a fair chance he'd already found his objective and was now in the process of doing whatever it was the Greycloaks had in mind. Ren was right. That wasn't convenient at all. It was downright problematic.
It was a mostly silent party who trekked on for the next thirty minutes or so, and perhaps it was because of that silence that we picked up an odd sound in the distance. It was faint at first but it grew increasingly louder.
"The wind is picking up," Blake warned. The Assassin had come to a halt, one hand over her face as loose sand was kicked up.
"Put on your veils," Weiss called, already pulling the thin cloth over her face. "This is why we bought them."
I echoed the motion along with the others. The villagers in Alair had been kind enough to teach us how to fold and tie what was essentially a large, square cloth, into such a fashion that it wrapped around our heads and faces, leaving our faces clear. The bottom half could be pulled up to balance on the nose, however, and we'd also been given a thinner, almost see-through cloth we could tie over that, covering our eyes. I'd wondered what it was for at first, since it wouldn't keep the sun out. Now, the application of that was obvious.
"The air is still getting colder," Blake said. "There's a storm coming. One from the ocean."
I glanced towards her. "You're sure?"
"I know how to smell an ocean squall."
I wanted to doubt but couldn't. Already, sand was being picked up from the beach and tossed back into us, most of it weaving between our legs like fine mist. Some of it, however, was kicked higher, forming clouds that billowed over us.
"We need to find shelter," Pyrrha said. "If this hits the desert we'll have a sandstorm on our hands."
"We could go back to Alair," Nora said. "It's only two hours back."
"But the Quest," Ruby protested. "We can't go backwards!"
It seemed inevitable that an argument would follow, with each side shouting out their opinions. I was divided; knowing both that to go back would delay things even further, but that we couldn't afford to be caught out in the middle of nowhere. Ultimately, two hours wasn't a lot of time to lose and I was about to say so. Blake beat me to it.
"There's a ruin not far south of here, or so the map says. There's bound to be some shelter there." She looked up from the map. "It would mean braving the desert once more."
"We don't have much of a choice," I said. At this point, any decision would be a good decision, so long as we made it quickly. I could hear the distant roll of thunder, confirming Blake's instincts towards a storm. "We make for the ruins. We'll camp there until the storm passes."
/-/
The early part of the sandstorm caught us before we could make it.
The clouds that had been kicked up before paled in comparison to what we faced now, where great gusts of wind would cause explosions on sand dunes, kicking up waves that crashed down on us, more than once driving me to the sand. It was like a cross between the ocean and the avalanches we'd faced in Atlas. To stay laid down for even a second was to invite being buried.
"Jaune!" Ren shouted.
"I-I'm fine," I gasped, pressing my hands down. I'd fallen for barely three seconds but already I had to drag myself out from under the sand, shaking my legs free. Another powerful blast of wind ruffled my clothes but did far worse to the sand, throwing it up like a solid wall in front of me. With one arm over my face, I trudged through, toward the sound of Ren's voice.
He caught my arm and tugged me back to the group. Everyone was hunched, most with their arms up to shield their faces. The wind came from behind, which at least meant we weren't fighting it with every step, but that only made it worse. Instead of sand being thrown at us, it struck us in the back without warning, and it was that which could unbalance a person. It also didn't stop the dust fluttering back into our faces, though to my relief the veils we'd been given held.
"Blake, where is this damn place?" I howled.
"I don't know!" Blake struggled to shield the map and hold it still. If we lost that, we were dead. The Assassin growled as she tried to read it, tried to get a bearing, tried to understand where in the world we were. All that could be seen was sand and dust clouds.
"We're lost, aren't we?"
"No! This is the right direction."
"We could have been turned around in this storm and we'd never notice." It was a mistake to say that and I knew it. Even if it was true, hearing those words sapped what little confidence we had. Yang shifted and Nora suddenly looked skittish. Blake's hands tightened on the map. It felt like I'd blamed her.
"We can't start fighting here," Pyrrha said, stepping between us. She raised her voice to be heard over the wind, though even then I barely heard her. "Blake is doing the best she can. We'll trust in that. Staying here does nothing. We have to keep going."
"She's right," I said, wishing I could take back my mistake. I trudged ahead instead, suiting action to words. Everyone followed.
The dune ahead was a nightmare. The sand shifted and buckled at every opportunity and sometimes a single misplaced foot could cause it to give way, sand skittering down, and at one point almost taking me with it. I fell to my hands and knees and crawled up, as did the others. Once we crested the top, my heart fell.
Nothing.
A whole, fat load of nothing in every direction. I couldn't see far on account of the sand being whipped up into thick clouds, but what I could see were more dunes in every direction, along with vast plains of shifting sand that seemed to be rippling like it was alive, or maybe like it was an ocean, with the top layers creating waves as the wind pushed it to and fro.
"We're going to die out here," Weiss choked. "We can't make camp. We'll be buried in the night."
"We… We keep moving," I said.
"Where? How? There's nowhere to go!"
"I don't understand," Blake said. "The maps says there is a ruin here. I'm not wrong, I swear. I read it properly!"
"Blake-"
"I'm not wrong!" she shouted. "This isn't my fault!"
I wanted to tell her no one was saying it was, but that would be a lie. Blake blamed herself, and deep inside there was no one else to blame, other than nature itself. My muscles sagged and I almost fell onto my knees.
"Wait," Ruby gasped. "I see something!"
The Reaper moved without explanation, hopping over the dune and falling on her back, sliding down it towards flatter ground. With no other options, we followed, skidding down on our backs, feet or knees. I hit the sand hard and rolled, stumbling back onto my feet in time to see Ruby a good fifty metres ahead, almost lost in the clouds. She was using Crescent Rose as a staff to dig into the sand.
"Here!" she called, voice tinged with excitement. "This is it! I saw a flash of it when the sand moved."
I didn't bother to ask what. None of us did. Devoid of hope and desperate for anything we hurried forward, pausing a few feet away and huddled together. Ruby knelt and brushed her hand on the sand, trying to force it away. When that failed she slammed the butt of her scythe down.
There was a solid, wooden thunk.
Yang and I instantly fell to our knees and started to shovel the sand away with our hands – an impossible task given how much more blasted over us, but the others joined in, Pyrrha, Blake and Ren forming a wind barrier with their cloaks held open to block the sand, Nora helping us drag it aside. Slowly, torturously, a wooden frame began to reveal itself. A panicked part of my mind whispered that it might be driftwood or just a few planks but I dismissed it. If it was, we were dead. I had to believe it was more.
"It's a door!" Yang gasped happily. She staggered up and reached down for one of the handles, Nora taking the other. "Heave!"
It wasn't locked, fortunate given the circumstances, but even so, with sand still layered atop it and the wind working against us, the doors were incredibly heavy. I had to lend my own strength to Yang's, the two of us straining to draw it open, moving yet more sand and revealing the thing as far larger than we'd anticipated. As we reached the apex, the wind made hauling it open almost impossible, the wood caught and forced against us. Nora, however, having managed to get her side open, threw her wait on the opposite side of ours, and between the three of us, it slammed down.
A dark staircase was revealed, leading down into goodness knows where.
"Will there even be enough air to breathe down there?" Pyrrha asked. "If the sandstorm buries the entrance once more, we could suffocate."
"Could suffocate," I said. "If we stay up here our fate is much more certain."
There was no argument to that and we piled in, the heavy wind cutting off in an instant, even if the sound of it remained, a constant howling along with the familiar sifting sound of sand impacting more sand, and now the exposed rock walls of the square tunnel we were in. No, a tunnel didn't do it justice. This was obviously manmade and more of a corridor, albeit with a low ceiling and narrow walls. I didn't have to duck, but I could have touched the ceiling if I stood on tiptoes.
A sudden flare of light followed a single word from Weiss, flame spiralling to life in her hand, creating a magical torch. Ruby graced her with a single piece of firewood from her backpack a second later, the bottom of it wrapped in leather. Weiss lit it and handed it off to Yang, who cast it ahead to reveal our surroundings. More corridor was all we saw. It led on into the dark, not going deeper, but continuing on for some distance, enough as to be out of sight.
"The air smells clean enough," Nora said. "I think it's fresh."
"If people used these to escape sandstorms then they will have surely accounted for the entrance being buried," Ren pointed out. "We can assume there is some other method of ensuring the air remains fit to breathe."
"Should we close the entrance?"
"Leave it," I said. "I'm not sure we could even get it shut now, and if anyone else is out there, they might as well have a better chance of spotting it than we did." I didn't add that if anyone else was out there, they were surely dead by now. I could only hope Cinder and the others had found some safety, though it was equally possible the sandstorm didn't reach that far.
"I guess we move on," Yang said, taking the lead with the torch. "Unless you want to camp here."
"We don't want to get lost when this isn't our goal, but camping right by the entrance is a poor idea," Weiss said. "It's possible a Grimm might find this as easily as a person. If this place really was inhabited by people at one point then there has to be an area they would live in."
Weiss' instincts proved correct. It only took a few minutes of travelling down the narrow corridor to find a much wider chamber, not exactly roomy, but at least enough that we could all spread out and have some space to ourselves. A second and third corridor stretched off in two different directions, but they were possibly alternative entrances. There were some rotten crates in one corner, utterly falling apart and unserviceable, but for the most part the room was in one piece.
More noticeable was the occasional holes in the walls, which initially screamed of some terrifying Grimm insect invasion that had my skin crawling, but when Ren held a hand over them, he claimed he could feel a light breeze.
"This must be how air is channelled into the room. There must be something above ground that prevents the tubes being clogged with sand in a storm, since they're still working."
Weiss nodded. "Like I said, people must have once lived here. Even if we don't know how they managed it, it was do or die for them. They must have found a way."
"Where do you think the other tunnels lead?" Yang asked.
"Other entrances, perhaps. I doubt this was easy to make. If there really was a village of some kind here, then perhaps this was a communal shelter. If it was expected to keep everyone safe, then multiple entrances would reduce the chance of one being buried or people being stranded up top." Weiss summoned some more fire and pointed it upward. There was an indent in the ceiling, almost like someone had pushed a circular object into the rock. On the edges of that were more holes, wider and thinner. "This must be ventilation for smoke," Weiss said. "We should be safe to light a fire here if we want to."
I doubted anyone did, but since night was approaching it would only get colder and colder. Nora and I stacked some wood anyway but left it unlit, while the others spread out to investigate the chamber and Pyrrha lit a new torch and explored one of the tunnels with Blake. I had the feeling Blake was still upset at the insinuation she'd led us wrong, even if no one meant it that way.
Well, there wasn't much that could be done there. With a heavy sigh I brought my backpack forth and unpacked my sleeping bag and some equipment. With how cold the nights got, it made sense to erect our tents, even in so small a room.
"There isn't much to see down the other routes," Blake said less than an hour later. "The carry on for a while and there are a few staircases leading to the surface. Like Weiss said, it looks like this was a communal bunker to seek shelter in if a sandstorm hit."
"I wonder what happened to the village," Ruby said.
"This place is pretty ancient, so it could have been anything. Maybe they just got tired of living here and moved." And maybe it was the Grimm, Yang didn't say. There was no real need to and the mood was too good to ruin.
We sat now around a lit fire, warming our bodies against it and wasting time with little stories and inane chatter. Now that we were safe and the adrenaline had faded, peace reigned. The accusations thrown about before were forgotten. The sandstorm could still be heard above, but it was more in a whistling kind of way as the wind channelled over the breathing tubes above and came down them to our chamber. There was little sand bar the occasional sprinkle from the still-open corridor we'd come through, which I was fairly sure was buried in sand by now. We'd still have to keep watch through the night, but barring a Grimm that could open doors, there wasn't much to worry about other than the time we lost.
Not that there was anything we could do about that.
"I never realised how dangerous sandstorms were," Ruby said with a shake of her head. "That was nuts. It came on so quickly, too."
"There were probably signs a local would have picked up." Pyrrha said. "We just don't know them."
"I'm sure the people of Alair would have told us if they'd known." Ren added.
"Vacuo's such a strange place," Ruby said. She smiled as she said it, not meaning any offence. "Have you noticed how small the villages are here? Alair couldn't have had more than fifty people in it, and if this was made to look after everyone here, that couldn't have been a lot of people either."
"There might be other bunkers in this area," Nora said.
"No, I think Ruby is right," Pyrrha argued. "It would be easier to expand this one or add more rooms than it would be to construct new ones. I think Vacuo just doesn't have the same kind of population density as Vale, Atlas or Mistral. The land isn't fertile enough to support bigger towns. Or at least it's not out here. Maybe it's better to the west."
"Atlas isn't too different," Weiss said. "Don't mistake what you saw in the capitol for being even across the Kingdom. There are vast expanses of Atlas that are too dangerous or unstable to settle on."
Pyrrha conceded the point with a nod. "It's possibly the same here."
"Between the Grimm, the climate and the lack of good food, the people have had to adapt," Ren said. "I expect, like Weiss says, that once we reach the capitol city, we'll see a much greater density of people. Ironwood dropped us in one of the more abandoned regions of Vacuo, since that is where he believed Torchwick would be."
"And he's right," I pointed out. "We're on his trail. Blake, what does the map say?"
"Nothing." She waved it before her but there was no magic to it. "Ironwood said it had to be out in the sun. The fact we're underground has probably rendered it useless."
It was probably not so different than it being in its container still. I hoped that Cinder and her team weren't trying to do any scans right now. We could only hold down and wait for the storm to pass, after which we could continue on once more.
"I think we should give up going along the coast," Pyrrha suddenly said. When Yang made to argue, she held a hand up and explained. "I know it's easier going and the ground is firmer, but if another sandstorm like this hits and we're caught out in the open, we'll have no chance."
"I guess…" Yang sighed. "What do you suggest?"
"We should use the map to move from landmark to landmark, ensuring that we always have a destination that will have shelter in mind, and preferably not embarking on any journey that will have us out in the open for a certain amount of time or more."
Blake laid the map out on the stone floor and we huddled around it, the light from the fire enough for us to read. There was no blue marker showing us where we were because there was no sunlight to give the spell its ability to determine our position. Even so, Blake knew and pointed our spot out to us. We were a little in from the coast, perhaps a few kilometres. The problem was that there were no more villages up the coast for a good few days of travel. If we wanted to find shelter, we'd need to get it from ruins, mountains, caves and other such things.
"We'll have to stick to the desert," Weiss realised with a heavy sigh. "That's where all the ruins are. I suppose the coastal areas are just too damp for anyone to try and build on them, even a thousand years or more ago."
"But what if we miss Torchwick?" Ruby asked. "We're supposed to be going along the north side while Cinder takes the south."
"Torchwick won't be up north," I said, realising what the map meant. "He can't be. Like us, he'd have to seek shelter when the storm hit. He has to be in the desert."
"Or he's dead," Nora offered.
"Or that. But if that's the case then it doesn't matter, does it?" We'd not have our evidence either way and the war would continue, but at least the Greycloaks wouldn't achieve whatever it was they were after. Even so, I highly doubted he would die so easily.
"Sticking to the desert will be a bit of a winding path," Blake said. She traced her finger from where we were to the south-west, to the nearest marking. It then traced a little upward, north-north-west, to another. It repeated onward through a number of ruins, until her finger hovered above the location simply marked as Vacuo.
"We'll have a better idea once we're up top and the map works," Weiss said. "But I agree with Pyrrha. We can't run the risk of being caught out like this again. It might make our journey a little longer, but Torchwick is beholden to the same rules we are."
"We do need to find a Dungeon somewhere out here," Yang pointed out. "We need a gift for the festival."
"And we're most likely to find a Dungeon in the desert," Ruby finished. "Okay, I get it. I'm okay with the idea, as long as we keep chasing Torchwick."
"Sounds like a plan. We should get some rest for now. We can't move until the storm is gone."
/-/
I sat guard while everyone slept. The rotation had been decided earlier and I'd been fortunate enough to catch a later shift, giving me a good four hour nap before it was my turn. Ruby had awoken me with a yawn and clambered into the sleeping bag before I could even ask how she was doing. I didn't have the heart to tell her it was mine she'd stolen. Hopefully, she wouldn't be too embarrassed come the morning.
There wasn't much watching to do, of course. The fire quietly crackled away in the centre of the room and the smoke was stolen by the vents above and whisked away. I could still hear heavy wind outside, but it wasn't as bad as it had been. It might be safe enough to travel in now, though it would still be best to wait until it died down completely. There was no telling if it might pick up again if we moved now.
Crocea Mors was balanced between my legs as I sat on the ground, propped up against a wall. It was the best position that let me keep an eye on all three tunnels leading off. In the end, though, it just wasn't needed. Ours was sealed by sand and the other two were closed. We'd probably have to dig our way out as it was.
The only consolation was that whatever we were going through, Roman probably was, too. This storm couldn't be good for the Greycloaks' plan.
Whatever that is, anyway. They've always been interested in summoning Salem before, but why? The wish was an obvious motivator, but it still didn't stack up. All the wishes so far had been selfish, and a war had been sparked as part of their goals. I refused to believe Magnis was the only goal of that, especially since Torchwick had been granted a portal from there to here.
This is connected somehow. The question is how. What do they want in Vacuo so badly, and how is it connected to Vale?
As ever, I had no answers. Only questions.
A sudden sound down one of the corridors caught my attention. It was a creak and a thud, sudden and short, with nothing more to follow. I rose quietly and picked up Crocea Mors. The blade remained sheathed. I didn't want to wake anyone if it was nothing.
I decided against a torch at the last second, knowing that would just make me a target if something was down here. The corridor was narrow enough that I could hold it on my own, an obvious design by the original builders in a world overwhelmed by Grimm.
Reaching the corridor, I peered down it, only to find that darkness obscured my vision. A hint of cool air brushed against my skin. Had the door been opened? If it were Grimm, the others should be woken, but to do that now, when I wasn't sure, would just leave everyone tired and on edge. A sentry's job wasn't necessarily to wake the party at the first sign of danger. It was to make sure we didn't jump at shadows.
With my sword gripped in one hand, my right on the hilt, ready to draw, I made my way into the corridor. There was no concealing my footsteps and my leather boots echoed against the stone tiles, making my presence known. I paused and strained to hear for anything else; the tell-tale pad of paws or maybe even boots like mine, but there was nothing at all.
My heart beat a little faster, despite my efforts to the contrary. It could be the wind, I told myself. It might have been a rock being blown into the door, or just the door itself rattling on its ancient, weathered hinges. There was a sandstorm outside, after all.
I have to make sure, I realised, wincing. It was the last thing I wanted to do. The long, dark corridor was the kind of thing nightmares were made of. Slowly, gently, I drew Crocea Mors and placed the scabbard down on the floor, the better not to trip over it. The familiar feel of a sword in hand calmed me a little. It reminded me that I was powerful, Blacksmith or not.
It was halfway down when I realised that the wind against my face was no imagined thing. There was a breeze – strong and cool, tinted with the night air. Worse, as I came to a halt a good fifty metres from the end, I realised that the tunnel was becoming brighter, if only by a little. Moonlight was filling it. The door had been opened.
We had visitors.
I considered rushing back but hesitated on account that the tunnel was empty. Someone or something had opened the trap doors, but nothing had come down. There was no chance it was the wind, but if it were a Grimm then surely it would have hunted us, sensing our presence.
Either way, it was time to go back and wake the others. If someone could open one door, they could open two – and I couldn't defend both corridors alone. I took a step back, eyes fixed ahead. It was because of that I saw the sand drift down into the corridor, sprinkling in from above. The wind was shifting it, but to my surprise I didn't hear any wind. The storm had abated.
So, what was moving this sand?
Something else, I realised, right as the sand whipped up into a hurricane and hurtled down the corridor towards me. I crossed both arms in front of me and braced my feet, weathering the unnatural attack. Through the pain I forced an eye open, glimpsed a flash of green rushing toward me and stepped back. A spear tip flashed before my face. I brought Crocea Mors up and parried it aside, falling back another step as the woman's eyes widened, surprised the first attack after so fierce a distraction had not felled me.
But that was her mistake, not finishing things immediately.
"Attack!" I roared. "Wake! We're under attack!" I charged in and swung towards her, and though she blocked the strike by twisting the haft of her weapon vertically, the ring of metal on metal echoed down the corridor. It was impossible we hadn't been heard.
"Tch," the woman grunted. She was dressed in green robes with a sash about her waist, and though she wore the distinctive cloth around her face that I'd seen before, I caught a glimpse of blue eyes and blonde hair, right before I was too busy forcing the spear from my face to care.
She came in thrusting – three jabs in quick succession. The third surprised me by going low, right down for my foot. I stumbled back, dodging it barely but losing my balance. She stepped into me and pivoted, using her spear as a pole to vault herself into me, slamming one foot against my chest. It carried me back a foot or two, but I managed to block the follow-up as she spun and thrust, trying to weave the spear under my guard. She seemed frustrated when it failed.
A flash of light behind me told me all I needed to know about the others. Heat rolled down the corridor, indicating Weiss was up and now happy about it. I could only assume the attack was a three-pronged one, using each of the corridors to encircle us. In that regard, this aggressor might only have been a distraction, though she hardly did that justice and continued to push me back. Again and again her spear clashed against Crocea Mors, and any counter-attack I tried was ruined by her reach as she would hop back and jab when I over-extended.
"Why are you attacking us?" I demanded. "We've done nothing wrong!"
"Grave robbers," she snarled. "Treasure hunters. You come for what was left behind, never understanding that those don't belong to you!"
I hesitated for a second, but only a second as she swept from left to right, aiming for my eyes. I ducked back and came into a guard position once more. This time I didn't speak. There wasn't much to say at all. If she meant the Dungeons, then yes, we had come for that purpose. We had come for treasure, even if it was a secondary objective to finding Torchwick.
Ironwood and Ozpin didn't mention the people here would be against that, I thought with some irritation. That would have been nice to know. Now with a little more room, I had a chance to watch the girl more intently. She wore a single bronze shoulder-plate on her right shoulder and a few ornamental bands about her wrists. Her arms were bare and tanned, with her left covered in netting of some kind. The Class above her head denoted her a Lancer – fitting, given the spear. Her name was Dew. Not quite so fitting, considering we were in a sodding desert.
Footsteps behind me reminded me I wasn't alone and I stepped a little to the side, smiling as Ruby appeared beside me, Crescent Rose levelled forward. In such confined spaces she couldn't use it properly, but it at least evened the reach advantage Dew had.
"Jaune, are you okay?"
"I'm fine. The others?"
"Holding the tunnels. They came from all three." Ruby's silver eyes narrowed on her opponent, who suddenly seemed much more wary now that she was outnumbered. "Who is this?" Ruby asked. "Why is she attacking us? What did we do?"
"I'm here to defend the relics of the past!" Dew snapped.
"She thinks we're going to go grave robbing," I explained.
"What? No, we just wanted to explore some Dungeons and-"
Dew stabbed forward, cutting her off.
"You know, Ruby, I don't think that helped…" I cut forward and tried to grab hold of the spear's shaft below the tip, but Dew danced back and tugged it away. I followed anyway, swinging for her head and she ducked, lashing out low for Ruby's feet. The Reaper eeped and dodged, bumping into me. I caught and knocked her to safety but winced as the spear's edge grazed my right leg.
The corridor was working against us now, cutting off our room and making combat a perilous affair. Just like how I would have been able to hold off a horde of Grimm on my own, Dew could hold us back – even more easily, in fact, given her spear, the perfect weapon for a narrow corridor. Neither of us could get past the tip.
"We can talk this through," I said, backing away. "We're here looking for a pair of criminals from Vale. We only sought shelter here because of the storm. Nothing more."
"Lower your weapon, then," Dew offered. "If you wish to speak, I will take you to speak with my tribe, but that will not happen so long as you are armed."
I grimaced. "I'm not prepared to disarm myself for a stranger."
"Funny," she quipped. "I'm not willing to endanger my people to one." Her eyes trailed to Ruby. "Especially not when they have already expressed their intentions as to our history." Ruby winced. "Vacuo is not a land to be pillaged. The desert exists for a reason. We exist for a reason."
"Is that reason to see one of your friends die?" Blake challenged.
Dew, Ruby and I looked back at the same time, though Ruby and I cautiously, prepared in case Dew attacked. Blake stood behind us with one arm around a girl's shoulders, holding her up on her feet. There was a blade to her neck and the girl looked much the worse for wear. Her dark hair was cut on one side and there was a bruise beneath her eye.
"Gwen!" Dew gasped. She bit her teeth and levelled the spear toward Blake.
But she didn't attack.
"Your assault has failed and we have a hostage," Blake said. "I suggest you back out of here slowly and talk to whomever is in charge. If you want her back, we're going to need an assurance we won't be attacked."
I backed away so that I was stood a little in front of and to the side of Blake, just in case Dew lunged. Ruby did the same but even further forward, giving her a little more swinging room. If Dew wanted to try her luck, she could, but there was no way she'd make it past both of us, and certainly not before Blake slit her friend's throat.
I couldn't hide my despair at the thought of that. She would, I knew. If it was necessary, she would do it. That nausea must have shown on my face for Dew took one look at me and stepped back. She regarded Blake with obvious fear.
"That's right," Blake said. "Call this attack off and bring the one in charge. Only then will we talk."
Though Dew made no effort to hide her anger, she did nod. "Very well. If you harm her…"
"Don't make pointless threats. Go."
Dew cursed and fled.
Ruby and I stepped back down the corridor to stand in the centre, with me trying not to meet our hostage's eyes. She appeared very afraid, and more than a little injured, too. Whichever corridor she'd been assigned to had clearly been crushed far more effectively than ours. Given the woman's outfit and lack of an obvious weapon, she was a close range fighter. That was an ill choice against Blake.
"Is everyone okay?" I asked the others. Pyrrha stood at one corridor, staring down a girl ten or fifteen metres away, who didn't dare approach any further. She had red hair but I could see no more in the gloom. There was someone in the third, too, but they stood with their arms at their side. The woman – a fourth – made no effort to appear a threat and seemed content to wait the situation out.
"They caught us by surprise but we outnumbered them," Yang said. "Blake and I feigned a retreat and this one got over-confident and followed. We double-teamed her the moment she stepped out the corridor."
Clever. I was a little annoyed I'd not thought of that myself. Instead, I'd fought a spear-user in the perfect arena for them, giving up every advantage we had. Live and learn, Jaune. Do better next time.
Now that we were listening, and in the relative silence broken only by heavy breathing, I could hear more sounds aboveground. The wind had abated and there was the noise of shuffling feet; quite a lot of them. There was also braying, like some kind of animal I didn't recognise. It sounded like there were a lot more than just four people attacking us.
Our wait was rewarded not five minutes later when new footfalls came down the corridor Ruby and I had vacated. Though Pyrrha and Yang maintained an eye on theirs, we all faced the new people, a man flanked by two others, all in desert clothing, all armed. The one in the lead was most attention grabbing. He wore dark blue trousers that flared out and were tied to his ankles with golden thread. He had a bright red sash in contrast, and rather than wear a top, he went completely naked from the waist up, showing off his tanned muscles. His hair was as bright a shade of yellow as mine, and behind him a long tail lazily swayed back and forth.
He reached us and motioned for the two with him to stay back while he came forward the final five or six paces, enough to put him in striking distance should we wish to chance it. His smile was confident and he balanced on a long, ornate staff. The words above his head told us he was a monk, and that his name was simply `Sun`.
"Yo. The name's Sun." He smiled roguishly, even arrogantly one might say, given the situation. Either way, he didn't look afraid in the slightest. "I'd say it's nice to meet ya, but I think the sentiment might not be there."
"Not after you try to kill us, no," Ruby said.
"It was really more of a capture so we could talk to you kind of deal," Sun said. He didn't sound very apologetic. In fact, he sounded more embarrassed.
"Well, we're here," I snapped. "Talk."
"Not here. Let's talk up topside – and how about we all drop the weapons and get along, huh?" Sun flashed a wink towards Blake and my lips tugged down. I needn't have worried. Blake was hardly interested at a time like this and dug her knife a little closer to her hostage's throat.
"We'll talk, but I'll be keeping a hold of my hostage, I think. Just in case you or yours try anything."
Sun frowned. "I'll accept that, but harm her and you'll not make it out of the desert alive."
"We'll see…"
Sun motioned his people back and moved slowly ahead of us, giving us plenty of time to work our way into the tunnel. I took the lead, the others forming behind with Blake – and her hostage – in the centre, where there could be no sudden rescue attempts. Dew stood by the stairs leading down and glared at me. I shrugged back, and she was forced to ascend and leave when Sun nodded at her.
I was the first to climb the steps and return once more to the outside world. It was dark, as expected, but there was light aplenty, both above and all around us. My eyes widened when I realised why, and as the others came up behind me, they too gasped. Little wonder Sun had sounded so confident – and now I didn't feel quite the same about our chances, hostage or not.
We were surrounded by over a hundred people, all armed to the teeth, and all pointing lit torches in our direction.
"Welcome to the Grand Desert," Sun exclaimed, holding his arms wide. "A world the Gods punished long ago, and where secrets lay buried, often with good reason." He turned to face us and drove his staff down into the sand. "You stand before Sun Wukong, chieftain of the Wukong sept of the Del'Ashari. State your business or hostage or not, we'll return you to the sands."
Well, here's Sun! And NDGO to boot. It's amusing how the last time I used them in a fic people thought I was making up OC's, but I suppose their appearance in the show was underwhelming to say the least.
Or they were simply too forgettable. I don't know.
Next Chapter: 2nd July
P a treon . com (slash) Coeur
