Here we go.
Beta: College Fool
Cover Art: Dishwasher1910
Book 9: Chapter 4
I didn't find a chance to talk to Blake.
In truth, it was both that I didn't and that I was too nervous to do so. Everyone spent the evening together chatting and it never felt like there was a chance to pull Blake aside. She came back late from scouting, had to report to Ozpin on the movements of some bandits and was then exhausted, all but slumping down over the sofa and picking at her food. Pyrrha and Ren were no better so they must have seen some combat.
It didn't feel right to talk to her at that point, not when she'd finally found a chance to relax. She sat beside me instead and leaned her head on my shoulder. I couldn't bring myself to interrupt that, and after a minute or two of doing so, I realised she'd fallen asleep, breathing softly away. Ren had as well, although far less romantically, leaning his head and shoulders over the back of the sofa with his mouth wide open.
"Busy day?" Yang teased.
"You wouldn't believe it." Pyrrha, the last to be awake, replied. "We found some straggling refugees coming in late and had to give them our horses because bandits had robbed their caravan and taken their mounts. Then we had to track them down – on foot, mind you – and by the time we did, no one was in the mood to walk back to Vale."
"You attacked them?"
"Yes. It wasn't just the three of us; we had some members of Coco's Guild and even a professional Hero. It wasn't much of a fight," she said with a little shrug. "No one on our end was hurt. The bandits weren't even Hero Class. More Soldier and Labour. I think it's more of those fanatics."
"Ugh." Nora groaned. "The ones talking about worshipping Salem?"
"How can anyone worship her?" Weiss asked.
"Because it's easy?" I shrugged when they all looked my way. "I mean, people have been debating whether Gods and religions are actually real or not, then a literal `Goddess` Class comes along. And she grants wishes. Or did. It's probably easier to worship her than some maybe-doesn't-exist deity that isn't going to save you from a Grimm horde."
"That's got to be the most round-about reason to discover faith I've ever heard." Weiss groaned. "And probably the most believable one, too. Desperate and superstitious people seeing salvation as the only way to come out of this alive. That's depressing."
"At least they're not actually trying anything," Yang said. "They're mostly just standing on street corners yelling about the end times. Be worse if they were actively sabotaging us."
"They must feel they don't need to," I said. "Salem has an army, after all. And if they really believe she's a Goddess, then it would be an insult to suggest she needs their help. Or something like that."
I left out that I fully expected someone to try and make a deal with Salem for their life. Open the gates or sabotage the defence in some way. I wasn't too worried about it because I also fully expected Ozpin, Ironwood and the King to know that. Such a person would be beaten down long before they had a chance, and if I knew Salem then she'd string them along and kill them herself anyway.
"No injuries on your team, then?" Nora asked Pyrrha.
"None. They didn't even hear us coming, especially with our Rogue Classes leading the attack. We freed the horses, rescued two prisoners and took a bunch of our own."
"Prisoners? Tell me they weren't sacrifices."
"No. Thankfully. We talked to them and it was a mother and son duo. Their father was one of the cultists and was trying to convince them to join. They said there hadn't been any killing. We gave them a horse and escorted them back to Vale, with the prisoners tied over the backs of the others."
"So you still had to walk back in the end?"
Pyrrha sighed. "Yes."
Well, that explained them falling asleep. Ren and Blake were fast and agile fighters, but neither was exactly flush with Constitution. Shifting on the sofa, I lowered Blake down into my arms and then stood, lifting her up with me. She moved a little in her sleep, leaning her head against my chest.
"I'll take Blake to bed. Someone want to do the same for Ren?" I saw Nora's evil smile. "Preferably without drawing on his face or something else like that."
"I make no promises!"
I knew I wouldn't get better and carried Blake toward the doorway, pausing briefly to look back in and toward Ruby. She wasn't watching, which was somehow both a blessing and a curse. She was talking to Yang and seemed to be animated about it. Given what happened between us and the fact I was now carrying Blake, I'd expected either discomfort, guilt or at least some attention.
Did she not see anything wrong in us kissing? Was she not bothered by Blake leaning on and then being carried out by me? As ever, understanding the ways of women was an impenetrable task. A sleepy Blake made more sense.
Outside the lounge and in the foyer, I took her up the large wooden staircase onto the first floor, then left down the corrido to her room. It was unlocked and I nudged it open with my behind, stepping in backwards and turning so her head or feet weren't bumped on the frame.
Laying her down on one side of her bed, I pulled the covers back and then hesitated. Her Assassin's leathers weren't exactly the most comfortable things to sleep in. Belts, pouches, buckles and blades, not to mention her study boots. I tugged those off gently and laid them by her bed, then, after a second's thought, worked on her belt buckles as well, tugging her skirt down her legs and removing some of the bandoliers across her chest.
It wasn't as awkward or embarrassing as I thought it should be. Blake and I had seen one another in far less, and I didn't feel guilty for undressing her for the night. Stripping her down to her underwear, I decided against going any further and rummaged in her drawers for a set of soft pyjamas. Finding a pair in a pretty shade of peach, I brought them out and tugged them up her legs, then paused to work her arms into the top.
A flash of light reflected on metal had me pausing. The locket around her neck had fallen to one side, moonlight from the window glinting off it. I took it between my finger and thumb, looking at it for a second before touching the tiny clasp I'd made. It opened, revealing within that same miniature painting of the two us side by side.
Blake's fingers closed over mine.
I jumped. "You're awake?" A stupid question, especially with her golden eyes watching me. "How long?"
"When you began to undress me."
"You didn't stop me?"
"I knew it was you. I could smell you." And she hadn't tried to stop me, nor had she flinched, tensed or shown any discomfort. A sign of trust, I knew, especially from an Assassin. "It was nice to be pampered for a change."
"Pyrrha told me it was a busy evening." Smiling, I brought my hands to her chest, tugging the pyjama top closed and buttoning it up.
"Hm." She watched me with a tiny smile, moving her hands back so I could reach the last button. "You could say that. It wasn't anything dangerous-" Blake looked aside as she yawned into one fist. "Just a lot of walking. It was like Vacuo all over again."
"Less killer Grimm-spiders, I hope."
"Less of those thankfully. More idiots shouting about how it's the end times."
"At least those don't crawl out of the ground under your sleeping bag."
We shared a laugh. It was quiet and comfortable, and my shoulders relaxed, the stresses of the day finally fading away. I followed it up with a yawn of my own, caught in one hand.
"I should go. Work in the morning." I stood.
Blake's hand caught mine.
"Stay."
I didn't pull away. "Are you sure?"
"Mm." She nodded once and drew me back, her Strength not enough to do that without me allowing her, encouraging her. I let myself fall so that I was sat on the edge of her bed, my hips touching her legs. "It's been a while," she said, low and whispering. "I've missed having someone asleep beside me."
As had I. And in the current situation, I missed the comfort. "I could go get my sleepwear."
"No need." Blake's other hand came to her top, unbuttoning the first of the buttons I'd done up. "You can share mine."
"Share? I don't think I'd fit in it with you."
"Such defeatism. You won't know until you try."
I laughed. There was nothing else I could do. Nothing other than to turn, lean down and place one hand on the sheets beside her head, dropping to an elbow as I brought my face to hers. Our lips met, hungry and heated, falling into a familiar pattern we had time and time before. Blake was right; it had been a while. And yet our bodies met and moulded so easily, never once having forgotten the touch of the other.
"We're all of us are unlikely to survive this." Weiss' words echoed in my head. "If I had feelings for someone, I'd want to get them out there. Even if there's no time to make anything of them."
We were the same, Blake and me. It was no different in the end. This was as much a goodbye as it was an acknowledgement of what we'd been, of what we maybe had, or what we might not get a chance to refine. Not a goodbye for today or tomorrow – we'd have time together still, as limited as that might be – but a goodbye for the future. In case the worst came to pass.
Was this what Ruby felt? If so, I had to do something.
But not tonight. Tonight, I wanted to be selfish.
"I still don't think I'll fit," I whispered, tugging another button open to show her what I meant. "But what kind of hero would I be if I didn't try?"
Her arms wrapped around my shoulders.
"That's my brave Sir Knight."
/-/
I woke not to a warm body beside mine but to the actual moment of Blake drawing away. There was only a brief instant to think how soft, warm and wonderful she was and then her body was moving, pulling the sheets aside and assaulting me with cold morning air. A sleepy protest escaped me, and my hands groped weakly for her, finding a shoulder and her stomach.
She was too strong and pulled free.
"It's morning," she said, merciless in denying me the warm and comfortable cuddling I so desired.
Eyes cracking open, I took the consolation prize that was the sight of Blake's back as she sat on the edge of the bed, looking the opposite way. It occurred to me that I shouldn't be so turned by a back. It was, after all, the least exciting part of the female body. And yet there was something about hers that ensnared me. The curve of her spine, the bunched muscle, the plunging line that trailed down the arch of her back to her round and full bottom.
"Enjoying the view?" she asked, sensing my eyes.
"I really am."
"Cute." She chuckled and stood, giving me an even better view of the curve of her ass. "I'd like to stay myself, but the scouting parties have to move out a full hour before the construction ones. I don't know what Vale expects; the bandits aren't going to be stupid enough to assault the camps outside Vale."
"Hm." I couldn't quite manage the same deep thought Blake could at that moment. "Yeah."
"I suppose it's better safe than sorry. Early mornings for me, though." Sighing, she swept her hair back and held it with one hand in a loose ponytail, slipping her top on with her other. She then let her hair fall down her back.
It wasn't lost on me that she left her skirt for last. I had a feeling that was for my benefit and it was something I appreciated greatly.
"Last night was fun," she said, coming back to lean down and kiss me softly. "Tonight?"
"I ruined your pyjamas." It was the dumbest thing I'd ever said. "Yes," I said, trying again. "Tonight. And… And I need to talk to you about something. Nothing `end of the world`," I said when her eyes narrowed. "Just something important."
"I'll take your word for it. We can chat later." Grinning suddenly, Blake dragged the sheets off me, exposing both my naked body and engulfing me in early-morning chill. Any dredges of sleepiness left in me was torn aside in an instant. "There. Now you can wake up a little easier, and I get a show as well."
With a final wink and a pause to push her feet into her boots, Blake snatched her blades off the table side, waved and slipped out of her room. Though the sheets fluttered back down atop me, I was too cold and too startled to fall asleep again. With a groan I didn't really feel – I felt more rejuvenated than ever, in fact – I swung my feet over the edge and stood.
True to Blake's words, her, Ren and Pyrrha were gone by the time I got downstairs, and there were three plates with crumbs left on them as evidence. The rest of the girls were around the tables eating or just waking up. Ruby was absent.
"Miss Goodwitch needs early morning messages," Yang said, reading my curiosity. "She woke up and left two hours ago."
"Harsh." I sat and nodded my thanks to Velvet as she laid out some fried eggs on toast for us. In the middle of the table, a bowl of fruit stood beside a plate of cooked bacon. I took a few rashers to add to my own, knowing that if I didn't, Nora would only take anything, and everything left over. "You guys know what you're doing yet? Now that Vacuo has taken over the spike-walls, I mean."
"Yeah. Digging trenches."
Yang said it with utter defeat, while Weiss all but sunk into her seat, hands over her face. I could only imagine the thought of digging all day was crippling for her, a Mage. Yang and Nora would be fine at the task, but she was going to suffer.
"Trenches?" I asked. "Are we going to be fighting in them?"
"Nah. I think they're just to make the ground uneven. Or to put spikes or traps in. I don't know. Way I see it, they just want every square inch of ground outside the walls to be a pain in the ass for the Grimm. Spikes, trenches, pits, fences, walls and obstacles."
"We'll probably be filling them with straw afterwards, and oil later," Weiss said. "That will be the easy part, at least. The digging… I'm a Mage. I'm not made for hard labour like this."
"Don't you have a spell that can do anything?"
"My Path has always been ice and control magic."
"That's a no, then. Lame."
"Shut up, Yang. We can't all punch the ground and make it crack. This is going to be an absolute joke for you, while I'm going to die."
I'd have been good for the work, ridiculously good with my high Resilience, Constitution and Strength. Yet again, I felt guilty for not being able to offer any help, but I was tasked elsewhere. No one challenged me on it; they knew what I was doing.
We ate and chatted and held on until the last possible moment before the loud bell being tolled across Beacon's Guild Village told us we wouldn't be able to procrastinate any further. Half our members would already be hard at work and it was time for us to do the same.
The Guild Village was all coming to life as the bell was tolled on and on. It was a low and droning sound – unlike a tolling that signalled an attack, which had been tested across Vale so everyone could know. That was sharp and fast, repeating as quickly as the ringers could manage it. Almost everyone in the Guild Village made their way south or west toward the walls. I was quite possibly the only person fighting against the crowd, and definitely the only one walking up the staircase to the school proper.
The stream of students coming down from the communal dorms for first years who hadn't yet formed Guilds threatened to push me aside. I had to stop and let them all pass, unable to fight my way past a hundred people coming the other direction. Many of them gave me strange looks, wondering why I was the only person not going outside the walls to help with the work.
Some knew me, if not by face or name than by reputation. Others didn't and just saw my Blacksmith Class and ignored me entirely. Once they'd all gone by, I continued up alone, finding my small forge against the side of Beacon Academy, the sun not yet having reached high enough in the sky, leaving the forge in shadow.
Penny was waiting for me outside it again. For some reason, she looked excited.
"Jaune! Jaune! You must see! Come! Look!"
Rather than wait for me to do so, Penny surged forward and took my arm, dragging me back into my own forge. She was pointing and babbling wildly, things I couldn't make out, but when she had me inside, she jabbed a hand toward the wooden bench to the right of the forge.
"Look! It's grown!"
On the bench were the three pieces of Ironwood I'd put my Runes on. They were arranged left to right with Runes of Agility, Frost and Strength respectively. Two of them hadn't shown any change overnight, but the one on the left, closest to my forge, had grown a branch and what looked to be two leaves. One a large and normal leaf, the other a small one poking out of a bud.
"You told me Ironwood doesn't grow," I said.
"It doesn't!" Penny was hopping up and down. "It has never grown. And even when father creates it, it's never created with branches or leaves. It's just solid objects made of the trunk. It only has branches if he makes it have branches, and they're sculpted by him. They're not natural."
This looked different. It looked like an actual offshoot a plant or tree might grow, except much faster. Saplings took months to grow branches like this, let alone leaves, and they had to be living trees planted in soil. These were chunks of Ironwood sat on my bench.
Curiously, I ran a finger over the underside of the branch. It was metal still, but it was thin and bendy – not due to any weakness in the metal itself, but just how thin it was. Trailing further, I gently touched the full leaf.
It was thin. Very thin. It was also metal still, shaped perfectly like a leaf and even with the little veins on them and the stem in the centre. Despite that, it crinkled and curled over my finger like an actual leaf might, and I was sure I could have tugged it off if I wanted to. I didn't. I checked the other two, but there were no real signs of anything growing on them.
"I don't get it. If it's the Rune, then all three should have grown. This one had a Rune of Agility on it." I touched the one that had grown. "Did that have something to do with it? Maybe the extra agility sped it up?"
"Your Rune only gives a few points."
"Yes, but it's relative. I think. Four or five points in a Stat isn't a lot, but if you only had that much to start with, it's double. How much Agility would a tree have? Do objects even have Stats? If it had zero because they can't even move, then maybe giving it even a little is infinitely better than what it had before."
I was grasping. I had no idea what was going on. The Frost and Strength Runes hadn't done anything. Was that because those weren't useful? Frost was by far the least so, being an `on-hit` effect. If the Ironwood didn't hit anything, it would never work. I wasn't sure what Strength would do for a tree, or if my theory had any ground at all.
Maybe I should put some Runes on trees to test. No, I can't. I can only put Runes on metal objects.
There was no way to test. Stats should only effect living things. I had thought – as had most people – that Stats only worked for Classes. Plants and animals didn't have Classes, so surely didn't have Stats either. Was this different because it was Ironwood?
"It just doesn't make any sense."
"But you can make it grow," Penny said. "This is proof."
"I'm sure the Archmage can do a lot more than a branch and a leaf. And this happened overnight. What use is this going to be against the Grimm?"
"I do not know, but it is proof of concept." Penny reached for it and then paused. "May I take this and show it to father?"
"Feel free." I watched as she gingerly cradled the Ironwood to her chest, careful to keep the branch and leaf on the outside. I shifted the other two along, spacing them out on the work bench. "I don't know if I dare put a Rune on your core, Penny. I'm not sure what would happen if your Ironwood grew inside you."
"I do not have organs or body parts, friend Jaune. I would feel no discomfort."
That was true. It wasn't like if it grew branches in her body, she'd be in any danger from that.
I sighed. "Agility?"
"If we may test it." Penny was only too eager to reach a hand into herself and pull her body open, even while cradling the other piece of Ironwood to her chest. "I am prepared," she said, letting me see the glimmer of silver in a sea of emerald light.
Yeah, I thought. But I'm not…
Preparing myself as best I could, I reached in and laid my hand upon it once more.
The onslaught of what I tentatively called `feelings` was easier to put up with this time, maybe because I expected it and wasn't blown off my feet. There was a rush still, but it was muted and quiet. A distant hum. I could work with and ignore it.
"I'll use Agility," I told her. "I'll need to heat up the Ironwood and then Engrave the Rune onto it. I'm not sure if you'll be able to feel that. If it hurts, tell me and I'll stop."
"I will do as you ask, but I have not once felt pain. I'm not sure I am able to."
That took some of my fear away at least. Nodding to show I was ready, I closed my eyes and concentrated on the Rune of Agility. I'd need to engrave it onto the metal, which meant I needed to apply a little heat to my hand to do so. That was what Engraving really was, even if it was a Skill. Forming the image of the Rune in my head, I pushed it onto the Ironwood.
It was like an explosion going off in my skull.
Life. Growth. Joy. Direction. Life. Give. More. Life. Give. Hunger. Give!
"Agh!" I recoiled, dragging my hand out of Penny's chest. As I did, I broke several thin branches that had begun to form around my arm, ensnaring me. Leaves exploded from her, showering me and the floor, falling to the ground with quiet, metallic tinkles.
"Friend Jaune!" Penny rushed to help me.
"S-Stop!" I cried, crawling back. "Don't touch me."
Penny froze, worried.
"It's not you," I wheezed. "M-More… worried about what it will do." I swallowed, finding the strength to drag myself up again by my anvil. "That… It must be something to do with the Rune. It grew inside you. I… There's a branch sticking out your shoulder!"
"Hm?" Penny looked down, seeing the sharp and somewhat jagged piece of metal piercing her body. "Oh. There is. That's interesting." She touched it with one hand, bending it slightly. "I don't feel all that different. My Stats are already quite high, though. Maybe it as you say, and I do not notice the added Agility because it is a small increase for me."
Penny had Stats. Penny wasn't technically alive and yet had Stats. I'd never really considered that before, but it coincided a little with what I'd thought of the Ironwood. One thing was for sure, it had grown around my hand.
It wanted me. Wanted me to give it something…
"Go talk to the Archmage. I'll start forging my weapons as usual."
And gather my thoughts, I didn't add. I had to admit to some relief when Penny left, taking both pieces of growing Ironwood with her and still somehow oblivious to the leaves sprouting slowly on the branch poking out of her shoulder.
I'd been through a lot since joining Beacon but having a metal tree try to eat me was a new experience. Compared to that, the opportunity to forge a bunch of spearheads was downright relaxing. I heaped out ingots on the forge and began my work, losing myself in the repetitive task.
/-/
"Sir? Sir Blacksmith? Sir? Jaune Arc? Hello?"
I sighed and dropped the spearhead I was working on and addressed the man who had been instructed today to transport my completed weapons to the armoury. They normally came, collected them and left without a fuss. I wasn't sure why that had suddenly changed. "I heard you the first time. What's the matter?"
"It's… well, sir. I really think you should look at your leg."
My leg? I stopped what I was doing and blinked the mental fatigue away. As always, I'd lost myself in my work, entering some kind of near trancelike state of constant labour that shut me off to much of the outside world. Not entirely, of course. It just kept me working, but I could still hear when someone, the delivery boy in this case, spoke to me. It just took a few times for something to catch my attention.
That was the only explanation I had for why, when I looked down, I nearly screamed.
The Ironwood had my leg.
As in, it had it.
The trunks on the bench had somehow grown more branches and offshoots without me noticing. Those had crawled along the wooden bench like clinging vines, some working over it but some, to my horror, piercing through the wood and continuing on the underside of the bench. It had then worked its way down the table leg to the floor and along it, finding my foot.
At that moment, it had coiled around my foot and ankle, reaching up my boot. It hadn't actually got to my leg yet, but it was close, branches coiling around me like a snake.
"Holy…"
"I didn't want to disturb you, but that doesn't look normal…"
"It's not." I swallowed. "Thank you." I tugged my foot away, but the Ironwood held tight. The branches themselves still seemed thin, but there were so many more of them. I had the disturbing image of it reaching higher, finding skin, and then burrowing into my body like it had the bench. At least I'd have noticed that. My thick boots, leather and steel-toed, hadn't let me feel this thing wrapping around me.
I tried again to pull my foot away but couldn't. Sighing, I reached down with one hand, activating Stoke the Forge to try and melt some of it away.
The second my fingers touched it, the shoots moved, growing at an insane rate and shooting up my fingers to my hand.
I cut my Skill off a second later – not a second too soon. The explosive growth had just begun to curl inward, like it was trying to enclose around my wrist and hold me there. I was only just able to pull my hand free, snapping a few weak and thin threads as I did.
"S-Should I call the Mages?" the boy asked. "Or fetch an axe?"
"Maybe fetch me some spare boots," I said, working and worming my foot out my boot, surrendering it to the Ironwood in exchange for my freedom. I limped away unevenly, looking back with a wary eye in case the Ironwood made an attempt for me again.
It remained inert. Lifeless.
What would it have done if I'd not noticed? Would it have wrapped all the way around me? Would I have been engulfed and suffocated in a cocoon of metal?
"You'll need a new bench as well," the boy said. "I don't think you'll be getting that one back."
"Doesn't look like it." I removed my other boot so I wasn't limping around. "And I don't think I want that stuff anywhere near me while I'm forging."
There were a few strands that had reached for and woven around the furnace too. I used a pair of tongs to poke at those from a distance, then pry them off once I was happy they weren't about to move. The Ironwood only seemed to have such a pronounced effect when it was me that touched it. It took a little work, but I was able to forcefully bend some of the branches back and free the forge. I then moved carefully to the table and gripped a section with some wood left on it, dragging it out of the forge.
The whole table had been engulfed in metallic branches, vines and leaves. If the offshoots scraping on the floor could be cut off, a part of me thought it might make some decorative piece in a Noble's home. It was esoteric enough for that kind of thing, and kind of pretty in a `filigree metal` kind of way. An actual metalworker would have been proud to make something that looked so lifelike.
The aesthetic was somewhat ruined by the coiled vines wrapped around a boot that now hung two feet in the air. I had no hope of getting that back.
"It should be safe for you to move it," I said to the boy. He looked green at the thought but gingerly touched the metal branches with one foot. He found his confidence when it didn't attack him. "It won't be as safe for me," I explained. "Can you drag it into the school and tell someone to let Archmage Ironwood have a look at it?"
The boy agreed and dragged the thing off on his own. I'd kind of expected him to get help and carry it with someone else, but he seemed determined to do it alone. Luckily, I was able to wave down someone else to contact Velvet, who came back ten minutes later with a spare pair of boots from my room. I was a little less shaken by then and accepted them with a smile and some quick thanks.
And it had shaken me, for all that I'd kept my calm. I'd only been working for three or four hours and it had grown so much, enough that its movement would have been visible to the naked eye if I'd been watching. I had a feeling the Archmage would be visiting me later, once he saw what I'd done to both Penny and a wooden table.
I wasn't looking forward to it.
A bell tolled in the distance.
Was it time for the shift change already? That was too soon, surely.
The bell continued to toll, joined by another, then another, then distant cries that rose up in fear and shock. More bells joined it, tolling loud and fast. Guards on the walls nearby cursed and hurried to the battlements, more pouring out from the barracks.
No.
It was still early. A whole month early!
It had to be a mistake. More reinforcements, maybe from Mistral at last. Their armour was black and blue, so they could at a distance be mistaken for Grimm. I ran to the nearest wall, chasing Soldiers up the staircase and onto the parapet, running along it after them and looking out toward the south, the south where my Guild was working outside the walls.
The refugee camps and tents were the first thing I saw, white and grey with the brightly coloured ones that formed Vacuo stood to one side, arranged in circular shapes different to the hectic and hodgepodge arrangements of the Vale refugees. Beyond them, people worked in the fields, digging, erecting barricades and chopping down trees.
Those people were moving back to the refugee camp now, not in retreat, I noticed, but rather to form a wall of solid bodies in front of them. The gates of Vale were open, and people streamed in, screaming at the tops of their lungs. The streets could barely contain them. The guards were doing their best to funnel and keep them moving, but those inside hesitated and crowded, causing backups that led to more problems getting the fresh refugees in.
Panic took hold. Some began to riot and fight. More guards stepped in, but it was difficult to control them. Some were knocked to the floor and trampled under a sea of bodies. The Heroes outside, and Vacuo, formed an ever-shrinking cordon, all desperately wishing to get back inside the city but knowing they couldn't so long as innocents existed outside it.
They were out there. My Guild, my friends. Even Ruby would be out delivering messages, leaving me trapped inside, unable to help them. And they needed help. It wasn't Mistral. On the horizon, I saw them. A vast tide of black. Shapes that flew, in the air and wheeled, others on the ground. Some large, some small, all beastlike and covering the horizon as far as the eye could see.
Salem had come.
And far from the two months she'd promised us, she had only granted us the one. Somehow, I wasn't surprised.
"Gods help us," a Soldier whispered.
They wouldn't. The only `God` was the one out there.
Here we go. Salem makes her appearance – early, naturally. She is not a good wizard by Lord of the Ring standards. And Jaune makes a friend. A tree-friend. Is this Treebeard? Has the story become Lord of the Rings?
Come to think of it, I think that in the books (but not the movies) there might actually have been trees that tried to eat the Hobbits. I can't remember it well, but it was something like a forest they got lost in that used magic or spores to keep them lost, then when people went to sleep against the trees, the trees would try and eat them.
Shit. Lord of the Rings had some surprisingly scary stuff in it. I remember reading that and thinking:
"Why has no one burned this forest down yet? Why would you keep it there?"
Next Chapter: 15th July
P a treon . com (slash) Coeur
