"Wake up Jaune, the time for breakfast is long past" he heard his mother saying, but he loved the comfort of his bed so he decided to snuggle under the blanket and try to sleep once more while mumbling "Not now mum, I had the strangest dream; I was fighting a Grimm and find myself in a strange castle with a even stranger man inside it, and guess what? There were even two moons in the sky, what strange dream right?" "THAT WAS NOT A DREAM JAUNE, IT'S THE TRUTH" at this word Jaune jumped out of the cover of his bed to see his mother looking at him, but her cerulean eyes were replaced by eyes that bore the colour of the strange moon. At this sight Jaune started screaming with all of his voice.
He woke up with a gasp from his nightmare, he frantically looked around to find where he was, and by Oum he was in for a treat, he was in a massive bedroom, at least the size of the living room of his house, and that room had to accommodate ten people, the bed he was in was a canopy covered in red blankets while the pillows were of a burgundy colour decorated with a black thread, beside the bed there was a small cabinet on which Crocea Mors was resting; all around the room he could see various furniture that were covered by black blankets which were themselves covered by dust, giving the room an aura of neglect.
Jaune rose from the bed and, after having picked up Crocea Mors, he made his way in the maze of corridors and halls that made up the castle; by luck, or more probably by the strange castle's owner, he quickly found a hallway lightened up from candles held into candelabra made to resemble skeletal arms, so Jaune started to follow the trail of light until he found himself once more into the throne room, there the man was, still seated on it and with his blade resting sideways on his legs, he still wore his gruesome armour and was resting his head in the palm of his right hand, as if in deep thought.
As soon as Jaune entered the room the man rose from his throne and, with a movement so quick that Jaune could not follow in with his eyes, he was in front of him, he then started to speak " I HOPE YOU ARE RESTED, I TOOK THE LIBERTY TO HAVE A SERVANT OF MINE BRING YOU TO A UNUSED ROOM TO LET YOU SLEEP ON SOMETHING ELSE THAN THE COLD FLOOR OF THE OBSERVATORY" "Thank you, I fell much better now, but now I must return home" "ALAS, I AM AFRAID THAT WILL NOT BE POSSIBLE" "What do you mean, are you keeping me here against my will?" "OF COURSE NOT, YOU ARE FREE TO LEAVE WHENEVER YOU WANT, BUT THIS MORNING I CHECKED THE GATE OF STONES FROM WICH YOU CAME AND SADLY THE TEARS THAT MADE YOUR PASSAGE POSSIBLE IS NOW CLOSED, SO YOU ARE WITHOUT MEANS TO RETURN HOME".
At first Jaune was left confused, then he decided that the man was, for some reason or another lying to him, so he started running towards the exit of the castle, passing by the room covered in skeletal remains to the maze of hallways until he finally reached the gates of the castle, and past them the plateau covered by snow. Lightened by the sun the massive expanse of snow was almost blinding, and the biting winds still carried a few snowflake, no sound could be heard over their howling, providing an aura of desolation to the place; finally Jaune reached the gate of stones and to his dismay found the truth in the man words, the gate was empty: no tear into Remnant, no eerie red light, only snow and cold. Desperate he fell to his knees and he started weeping, he left his sorrow pour from his eyes uncaring that his tears froze upon his cheeks.
He remained there for hours, his body becoming colder and colder until he couldn't fell it anymore, meanwhile the moons had risen from beyond the peaks of the mountains behind him and their unsettling lights were bathing his body but he didn't care; he was alone, far from his family and his loved ones, stranded in a strange place with no way to go back. While Jaune was crying his tears out a group of eyes observed him from the shadow of a nearby cliff, pondering, awaiting their moment to strike; finally the beast decided that the moment was right and started running towards its prey with a roar.
Jaune heard the roar and turned his face toward its direction, and he saw a great best running at full speed towards him, its body resembled that of a great feline like that he once saw in the Vale zoo but he was covered in curly fur and from its lower jaw two massive tusks come out. Despite this beast being far more bigger than the Beowolf that had chased him into the portal he felt no fear at this sight, only fury; how dare this beast interrupt his sorrow, how dare it! With a roar of his own Jaune unsheathed Crocea Mors and started charging towards the approaching beast.
A second before his body clashed with that of the great animal Jaune throw himself to right while slashing with Crocea to his left; the fine edge of the blade cutting through fur and muscle before stopping to the bone, with a pained roar the best moved back, now wary of its prey. But Jaune was relentless, he run to the best and plunged his sword into the eye socket of the animal who, in response, slashed at him hitting Jaune in the face; he cried in pain and even more fury before moving to the blind side of the best and with a slash that required all of his strength, he beheaded the animal.
Before the adrenaline could leave Jaune body, and thus making him feel the pain of the wound he had received, he heard the sound of footsteps coming from behind him and that ominous voice that announced the man "VERY IMPRESSIVE, FOR A UNTRAINED BOY THAT IS, BUT NOW COME BACK TO THE CASTLE; THE NIGHT IS COMING AND THE SABRETUSKS OFTEN HUNTS IN PACK" said so he picked up the body of the slain animal and started marching towards the castle. With a suspire Jaune started following him, and after having reached the man he asked him "Why are you bringing the body of this... Sabretusk?" "THIS BODY WILL FEED YOU FOR AT LEAST A FORTNIGHT" "You expect me to eat that? No way!" "THERE IS NO OTHER FOOD IN THE CASTLE BUT THAT OF THIS BEASTS OR EVEN FOWLER ONES, SO THE CHOICE IS YOURS" replied the man while still walking forward with a speed that left Jaune astonished, how could such a massive man, covered in a full armour and carrying the body of a great beast move so quickly, and most importantly be still so silent.
Finally they reached the castle, that loomed in the dying sun, but found the great doors closed "OPEN THEM" said the man while looking down on Jaune, who with a shrug of his shoulder tried to open the doors, first he tried with both of his hands and when that didn't work he tried by pushing with his shoulder against one of the halves, but even by putting all of his weight into it they didn't move of a inch, then the man spoke again "STOP, MAYBE IT'S TO SOON" he seemed to whisper to himself, but the strength in his voice made it clearly audible, before opening the great doors with a simple push of his hand. Once inside the man led Jaune down a staircase hidden in the shadow of the entrance hall towards the bottom of the castle, until they reached a small kitchen.
The room had clearly seen many years of disuse, everything was covered in dust and grime, and the knifes and other tools had a layer of rust on them, once inside the man dropped the carcass of the sabretusk and told Jaune "THIS IS THE CASTLE KITCHEN, HERE YOU WILL PREPARE YOUR MEALS IN THE FUTURE" Jaune looked around and exclaimed in anger "But it's all covered in dust and other thing, and look there, there are dead mice all over the place!" "THEN CLEAN IT" was the man simple response, before turning away and leaving him alone.
Jaune stood there in silence for a few minutes, then he spoke to himself "Well Jaune, there's the hope that all the work you did in the house to help mom will give you a edge here" he then proceeded to cleaning the kitchen, starting from the dead mice that he threw from a window into the chasm down below, he then proceeded to swipe the floor from all the dust that had accumulated over the years, then he attacked the encrusted pots and pans; but for the rusted knifes there was nothing to do so he decided to get rid of them and to use Crocea Mors as an oversized cleaver in order to butcher the body of the sabretusk. Lightening a fire using a reserve of old and dry wood and one of the torches present into the room he managed to make a stew that looked edible, with a bit of trepidation Jaune brought the bowl to his mouth and took a sip, then his body remembered the last time he had received food, that was over two days ago. He started wolfing down his meal without caring for the temperature of the stew; and after having finished his bowls he ended up eating another two. Finally satiated Jaune made his way back up to the stairs and, feeling exhausted after the event of the day, decided to return to the room he had awoken in that morning, once there he lied down on the canopy bed and immediately fell asleep.
When Jaune awoke the sun was high in the sky, so he decided to not waste any more time and he rose up and made his way to the throne room; but once he reached the room covered in bones he heard sound of battle coming from within so he started running towards it. Once he entered the great hall he was welcomed by a sight of gore, dozens of beings laid cut to pieces around the throne room, their blood covering the beautiful tapestries and engraved pillars,. For a moment Jaune gaze lingered to the least butchered bodies; it was massive, easily standing over three meter tall, with a very dark green skin tone, the head was missing but from the other remains it didn't looked like a human at all, it had a massive jaw full of fangs and teeth the size of his hand.
Jaune was removed from his contemplative gaze by the sound of fighting coming from one of the side hallways, so he move to have a glance and saw another dozen of these strange creature, covered in ramshackle armour painted in a white and black chess pattern; leading them was another of their kind, only even bigger, at last five meter tall, armed with a massive axe and a great shield covered in skull and bones of various nature, some clearly humans. And against them there was the man. Alone. Silent. Undaunted. He stood tall against the beasts, his sword neatly parrying all the blow coming at him while his body simply danced around the clumsy attempts to grapple him down; the big beast then spoke with broken words "Ztop running and fight, ya Gitz" then he left out a bellow of "WAAAAGH", soon taken up by the others creatures, and charged the man who responded with a simple "AS YOU WISH" then proceeded to beheaded three of his adversaries, parrying a blow from another one who got bisected in the next moment, he then became a whirlwind of death that cut down the remaining creatures in a blow each; finally he turned to face the leader and literally disarmed it whit a simple slash of his greatsword he then proceeded to rip off the head of the screaming creature with his bare hands.
Then the man turned towards Jaune and spoke "DO NOT BE AFRAID, IF I HAD WISHED YOU HARM YOU WOULD BE ALREADY DEAD, NOW COME LET THE SERVANT CLEAN THIS MESS" said so he turned his back to Jaune and started walking in a corridor Jaune had never entered before, soon they reached a door finely decorated with incision of knight fighting the same kind of beast from before, once inside they found themselves in what was probably an armoury; the hall was massive and dark, the only source of light was that coming from strange lantern shaped as winged maces that hanged from the cellar, the wall were lined with racks full of spears, pikes, lances and polearms, while scattered through the room were tables covered by swords, daggers, axes and other kind of weapons; what was curious was that, despite the general state of despair and neglect that the castle had fallen into, the weapons were clean and sharp as the day they had exited the forge.
Passed the armoury Jaune found himself in a balcony that overlooked the chasm below the castle, once there he found the courage to ask "What were they, what kind of beast they were?" "BLACK ORCS, MORE SPECIFICALLY A WARBOSS AND HIS RETINUE" "massive feline with great tusks and now orcs, where am I?" "FOR WHAT I CAN GUESS YOU HAVE TRAVELED BETWEEN WORLD YOUNG ARC" "And now I am stranded", after a pause Jaune continued "What will I do? I don't know anything about this place" "WHAT WAS YOUR AMBITION? YOUR DRIVING FORCE?" replied the man while looking down on him "I wanted to be an Huntsman, a defender of humanity against the darkness of the Grimm" "THEN EMBRACE YOUR DESIRE AND FIND STRENGHT IN IT, BE THE WARRIOR THAT BANISH THE DARKNESS" said the man before turning away and walking inside.
"Train me!". The words came out of Jaune mouth before he could think, but they were enough to stop the man in his track "YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE SPEAKING ABOUT BOY" replied the man without turning around; "Please, I beg you, you said that I have to embrace my desire, well my desire is that to be a great Huntsman and for that I need training, and I saw you fight, you are the best fighter I have ever seen, so please, help me" before Jaune could continue his phrase he was taken up from the throat by the man who slammed him against the castle walls and whispered in his ears "DO YOU REALLY WANT IT?" Jaune could only nod. The man left Jaune fall to the ground and said "VERY WELL, I'LL TRAIN YOU BUT KNOW THIS; SOMETIMES THE WORLD DOESN'T NEED AN HERO, SOMETIMES WHAT IT NEEDS IS A MONSTER"; Jaune, still gasping for air, asked "What is your name? You never told me" the man spotted his walking and looked down on him "YOU WILL REFER TO ME AS MASTER, BUT MY NAME HIS ABHORASH"