I'm back! I promise I am not dead or abandoning this story! My apologies everyone, I was on a mini vacation for a weekend and after that I kept having to deal with other stuff so I couldn't write as much as I wanted to. But I swear, this story will not be dropped. Enjoy!

"Uncle Qrow! Uncle Qrow, please wake up!"

Ruby's voice pierced the air as she shook the elite huntsman slouched against the tree. The man had fallen unconscious, whether from the lack of sleep, the fever plaguing him, the wound on his abdomen, or (most likely) all of the above.

Carly bit her lip in worry as she watched the powerful huntsman pant heavily; his wound no longer staining the bandage around him blood red, but rather a deep violet from the venom Tyrian injected him with. She glanced at Sam, who was checking his pulse. Based on the worried frown she made after merely a moment, the situation was bad, perhaps worse than it was originally supposed to be.

Sam glanced at Carly and gave a slight shake of her head, indicating that it was not looking good.

"What's happened to him? Is he dying?" Ruby worried asked Sam, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears.

Sam put Qrow's hand back on the ground before she answered, "Based on the coloration of his wound and his body's reaction to it, we can be sure that Tyrian infected him with something from his tail. He's not dead, but based on his pulse and how rapid the venom is flowing through him, he's in critical condition. We need to get him to a hospital fast or at the very least, find some form of antidote. "

The younger members of the group all exchanged worried glances before Jaune asked, "How long does have before…" The blond huntsman in training couldn't seem to complete the sentence, what with Ruby looking like she was about ready to break down crying.

Sam's face fell as she said, "It's unclear as we don't know exactly what kind of venom is going through his system, but…even with no definitive answer, he doesn't have more than a day or at the very least, two."

This seemed to infuriate Ruby as much as terrify her. The red hooded girl shot to her feet and exclaimed, "But we might not get to Haven within a day or two! Can't you give him something to buy us more time?!"

Sam stood and gave Ruby a sympathetic, but also honest, look, "There's nothing I can do to that would help him. I don't have any antidotes or medical equipment for this kind of situation," Sam turned her gaze to the rest of the team before continuing, ending back onto Ruby, "Our only hope is that we can get him to a hospital of some sort, or find an antidote."

Ruby's shoulders slumped at this, looking slightly defeated for a moment before she seemed to collect herself. She squared her shoulders and looked at Sam with a determined expression, "Okay, then let's get moving."

"I'd hate to break the moment, but with how bad Qrow looks at the moment, something tells me he's not gonna be moving anywhere," Carly put in, still kneeling beside the feet of Qrow. She was glad that Ruby was calmed down a bit, or at least, enough to focus.

Ren spoke next, including his input on the situation, "We still have the map, correct? Why don't we take a look at it to see where we are? There might be a possibility that a village is nearby. If not, we should try to get an idea of where we are."

Everyone nodded and Nora said, "I'll get the map," she turned to Jaune, "You left it in your bag, right?"

The blonde gave a curt nod and the ginger haired girl ran over to Jaune's pack, almost instantly pulling out the worn out paper.

"Got it!" Nora said somewhat cheerfully, holding it up slightly.

Just then a strong breeze that seemed to come out of nowhere blew around them, whistling through the air. It was powerful enough that everyone had to duck their heads, dust from the road and ashes from the remains of the fire billowed into the air. The tree that Qrow was leaning against rattled as branches and twigs fell.

Despite her history with tree branches falling on her every time she even thought about telling team RNJR the truth about her and Sam, Carly lunged forward and protectively covered Qrow from any branches that might have landed on him. She pushed his head under hers with one hand and wrapped her other arm around his shoulders. The brunette listened for any sounds that indicated a large object falling towards them. She would use her semblance if necessary.

She heard Nora make a sound of exclamation as Ruby joined Carly in covering Qrow from any falling branches.

Another moment passed of the strong wind gusting around them before fading. Once the air was still, Carly opened her eyes slowly. She lifted her head to ensure that there was no threat of something falling from the tree and injuring Qrow further. Upon seeing none, Carly loosened her hold on the huntsman, Ruby following suite.

Carly noticed that aside from a few loose twigs and leaves, there wasn't much the wind did. But before she could even move an inch to brush herself off, a raspy voice broke the still air.

"At least…buy me…a drink…before…you…put…the moves…on me…sweetheart," Qrow muttered, a bit of amusement in his voice before he started another coughing fit.

Carly was sure that she would blend into Ruby's cloak with how hard she blushed.

She turned to Sam and said, pleased that her voice didn't betray how she felt from the comment, "Yeah, the venom is making him crazy. We need to move."

Sam's smirked at her comment.

"Uh, guys…"

Nora's voice just gave off waves of bad vibes. Everyone turned to look at the ginger haired girl, only to see her grimacing while pointing to the distance. All eyes followed the direction she was pointing to see the map flying off into the sky.

Carly's jaw dropped in shock as Nora shamefully scratched her head.

"That's just our luck," Jaune grumbled.

"I—I'm sorry! The wind—it—it…" Nora began, looking completely ashamed.

"Nora, honey, it wasn't your fault," Carly assured, extracting herself from Qrow. She then rose up and tried to strategize what to do next.

"She's right. Now let's focus on what to do next," Jaune agreed.

There was a moment of silence as everyone just absorbed the situation. The one to break the stillness was Ren, who said, "Well our best chances are, as Sam said, is to get Qrow to some sort of hospital or something. So let's pack up our things and get moving."

Jaune nodded and added, "Ren's right, we can think of something while we travel. We might not get to Haven, but maybe we'll find something to get us the help we need."

"What about Uncle Qrow?" Ruby asked.

Carly placed a reassuring hand on the young girls shoulder and comforted, "We can create some sort of stretcher to carry him on. We can take turns carrying him. I saw some poles at the edge of Oniyuri that could help with making a makeshift gurney. And we have rope; all we need is a strong enough sheet or something…"

"How about this?" Jaune supplied, running to his bag to pull out a large piece of red fabric. Noticing everyone's surprised expressions, the blonde explained, "I figured we'd need something just in case one of us got injured," he paused, a pained look crossing his face as he looked at Qrow, "Looks like I had the right idea…"

His words brought about a tense air, something Carly knew they didn't have time to linger on. She broke the stressed atmosphere by speaking, "That's perfect. Since we're running low on time, let's work quickly and get moving. The sooner we start walking, the better."

"But where are we supposed to go?" Nora asked, "Without out the map, we're not even sure which way to go!"

Carly looked back to the paths they had taken. The one to their campsite broke off into the woods, but it was part of a forked road. The alternate path stretched into the distance.

In all honesty, Carly wanted to tell them that they should turn right back around and try to reach one of the previous towns they had come across. But those were days away and Qrow didn't have that kind of time. In all honesty, Carly was just terrified of what lay beyond the horizon. She could feel her hands shaking at the thought of what was to come.

But she couldn't let her fear control her. She had to be brave.

"We follow the original path. I don't know if there's anything close by, but it's our best bet," Carly somewhat fudged. She knew exactly what was in the distance, so did Sam, and possibly Nora and Ren.

Sam reinforced her by stating, "We're bound to find something, we just need to have hope," she finished the sentence with an encouraging look to Ruby. The young girl tried to respond with a smile of her own, but she looked too upset.

"Let's get moving."

"Are you sure you don't want one of us to take over? You've both been carrying him for a while now," Ruby asked, her voice never losing some sort of nervous edge to it since they began walking.

Carly turned and smiled reassuringly at Ruby, stating, "Don't worry about me, sweetie, I'm like a tank. I'm pretty strong and can last a long while in the right situation, but don't expect me to move quickly," she paused before hurriedly adding, "And I don't mean that intentionally, I just…" she stopped, unsure how to phrase what she meant.

"She's just not fast. But if it's an emergency, she will, and I'm quoting her here, go into, 'Sonic Mode Engaged' and move as quickly as she can," Sam explained from next to her.

Carly shot her friend a frown that was only for show, saying, "I would be more offended by that if wasn't true."

Ruby tilted her head with a confused look, asking, "What's a…Sonic?"

Sam beamed and said, "He's a blue hedgehog that loves chili dogs and moves really fast!" Carly could tell Sam was itching to tell the others all about Sonic the Hedgehog, but she didn't go into more detail. The short haired brunette just returned to repeatedly scanning the area.

"Hedgehogs aren't blue though," Ren stated, his voice underlying thousands of questions he wanted to ask. Carly felt slightly amused by this, especially when she tried picturing what Ren was imagining, what with his mind being very literal.

"And I'm sure that they don't eat chili dogs," Jaune agreed, his more matter-of-fact. He most likely had seen his fair share of hedgehogs from his tons of camping trips.

Carly snorted at that thought, thinking of the other show by Rooster Teeth, Camp Camp and the character, David, from it, which Jaune's voice actor played as well.

Sam spoke in a more serious tone than before, saying, "Remind me to tell you more about Sonic when were not…you know…here…" she gestured the landscape with her hands.

Her words, unintentionally, reminded everyone of the situation they were in. But it was for the best. They couldn't afford to get distracted right now. Plus, Carly didn't feel comfortable laughing while Qrow was fighting for his life.

Once the group had gotten everything ready to go, Carly and Jaune volunteered to carry Qrow for as long as possible. That way Ruby could walk beside her uncle on one side and Sam on the other to keep an eye on how his condition was going. Meanwhile, Ren was leading the group while Nora brought up the rear. Everyone but Carly and Jaune(and of course, Qrow) had their weapons drawn, monitoring the area around them frequently.

It had only been a few hours before the group felt the air shift into something more ominous. The landscape, once lush with trees that had vibrant colors of green, had diminished to a haunted atmosphere. The trees dotting the area were all dead, bare of any sort of foliage, their branches almost like claws reaching for the sky, or, creepily enough, the team. The grass was either yellow or brown from wilting, and the sky above was looming with dark clouds.

Carly gripped the handles of the makeshift stretcher tightly, pushing her fear down and focused on putting one step in front of the other. She couldn't let her negative emotions plague her, it would only draw unwanted attention.

Behind her, Qrow let out another series of coughs before starting to mutter to himself, in an almost hallucinogenic state. Carly bit her lip, noticing Sam reaching to check Qrow's temperature. The frown her friend made did not ease her worries.

"Ren, do you know how much farther till Haven is?" Ruby asked worriedly.

"We have got to be close or something!" Nora voiced, though she sounded unsure of her opinion.

"Without the map, there's no way of knowing, we just have to keep moving till we find some indication of where we are," Ren replied.

Hearing that, Carly tried to pick up the pace. The last thing she wanted was for Qrow to die because she was too slow to get him help.

Perhaps if they moved fast enough, they could find one of the airships patrolling the area that was supposed to find them after…well, after…and they wouldn't have to deal with…

"Hang on! Is that a sign?" Ruby yelled.

Ren sped up to get a closer look while the rest of the team caught up at a more measured pace. Once they caught up, Jaune and Carly put Qrow down to catch their breaths.

The signpost showed plenty of indications of being worn down. The wood was rotting with what looked like mold in some areas. The writing on it was faded enough that one had to take a moment to decipher what it said, and the one portion pointing to Higanbana was almost dangling off the pole.

"Hey! It says Mistral! We must be getting—" Nora started, only to pause, her eyes darkening at the scratched out Kuroyuri. Ren's whole body was still, to the point that Carly couldn't really tell if he was breathing.

Ruby and Jaune didn't seem to register Ren and Nora's reaction to seeing the scratched out word, as the silver eyed girl said, "We're on the right track then! But does it say how much farther away it is?"

Ren spoke, surprising Carly, "No. But it's pointing towards the mountains, so that's where we should start heading toward." The dark haired male then turned to start walking in the direction of the distant mountains, when Ruby's voice stopped him.

"Wait! What about this place? Kuro—Kuroyuri?" Ruby stumbled saying the village name, her voice rising in pitch with worry, "Maybe there's a doctor in that town? Or has some sort of medical supplies?"

Ren clenched his fists and turned back to Ruby, saying, with a hint of anger, "That village was destroyed years ago, we're not going to find anything there. Our best chance is to go through the mountain pass."

Jaune took a step toward his teammate and said, "Ren, I don't think Qrow is…He's not in a condition that would get through the mountains. If anything, we'd be slowing down. If Kuroyuri takes us around the mountain—"

"It will take too long!" Ren interrupted, his voice a little more heated than before.

"Not if we move fast enough! Like I said, we'd probably move slower trying to get Qrow through the mountains, so if we just quickly go through it—" Jaune tried to argue his case.

"There's nothing there that will help us! We'll only lose time trying to traverse through there! We just have to press on!" Ren finally snapped loudly.

A stunned silence filled the air at Ren's outburst. The young man rarely raised his voice above a monotone syllable with the occasional slight indication of other emotions. To hear and see him so flushed with anger made everyone tense up a little more.

The only one who didn't seem to be quite as fazed was Jaune and Nora, both of whom recovered quickly. However, before either could speak, Qrow's coughing broke the silence, drawing everyone's attention to the wounded gentleman and making the air only thicker with worry.

Jaune turned back to Ren, looking both concerned and aggravated, "Ren, why are you—"

"We can split up," Nora interrupted, touching Ren's shoulder supportingly and comfortingly. When everyone, including Ren, gave the ginger haired girl a questioning look, she continued, first looking at Ren, "They're right. Qrow's in no condition to get through the mountains, we'd be losing precious time," she paused to look at the rest of the team, "But it still might be faster than going through the town. So Ren and I will go through the mountains while the rest of you go through the town."

"That's too dangerous! If we split up, we're putting ourselves more at risks. If we stick together, we have a better chance of being safe," Jaune argued, looking somewhat terrified of being separated from his teammates.

Carly thought of Pyrrha and figured that was what making the blonde so much more nervous about the idea.

"I agree with Nora," Carly stated moving to step next to the blonde, and continued when Jaune whirled on her, "Jaune, listen, right now it's our best option. If Ren and Nora go through the mountains by themselves, then they won't be slowed down by us having to maneuver Qrow to keep up with them. They might be able to see how far from Haven we are, or better yet, find some help," Carly debated.

"And if only Ren and Nora go, we'll have enough people to carry Qrow and guard each other," Sam supplied.

Jaune looked like he wanted to argue these points, grimacing while he swept his gaze over his travel companions. After a few moments pause, he said, "I don't like this idea." But it was said in a way that indicated he conceded to it.

Sam gently touched Jaunes upper arm and said softly, "But it's the best option we've got at the moment."

Jaune didn't respond for a long moment before he took a deep breath and said, "Okay. But you have to promise to keep each other safe."

Nora moved to hug Jaune and said softly, "We always have."

The huntsman in training reciprocated the hug before turning to give Ren one, who gladly accepted and returned it. With a nod to others, Ren and Nora turned to jog up the mountain path.

Carly touched Jaune's shoulder, who seemed to be having a hard time removing his gaze from his shrinking teammates, "Come on, we should get moving. Especially if we have a lot of ground to cover," Carly turned to Sam and Ruby before saying, "Stay close, both of you, please?"

Both females nodded and drew their weapons just in case.

As Carly and Jaune lifted Qrow back up and began moving again, Carly saw, out of the corner of her eye, Ruby slow down enough to whisper to her friend, "They're going to be fine, Jaune."

With her back to the young huntsman in training, she didn't know what expression he was making, but the slight bitterness and worry in his tone spoke volumes more, "You don't know that."

If Ruby said anything else to her friend, Carly didn't know as she caught sight of something that made her freeze.

"Carly? What is it?" Jaune asked, surprised by the brunettes sudden stop.

Carly barely heard the young man as she stared at the ground, her throat closing and her blood running cold.

She had, unknowingly, stepped into the remains of a hoof print from the Grimm that had plagued these areas. Its hoof print was almost ten times larger than her own. It was one thing to recall the monster from memory, but to see even a remnant of its existence filled Carly with terror. For a moment, she couldn't move.

A hand shook her shoulder and she turned to see Sam looking at her with concern, but also fear as she had seen what had caught Carly's attention. Her friend leaned in to whisper, "You going to be okay?"

Carly took a deep breath and fixed her gaze to the distance, forcing herself to breath evenly, saying, "Yeah."

"Everything okay?" Jaune asked questioningly and with concern of his own.

Carly turned her head slightly so Jaune could hear her, "Yeah, sorry, just making sure we didn't need anything from the others before we are too far apart from one another. Let's keep moving…"

She was surprised when neither Jaune or Ruby made a comment on her statement or her stopping randomly. But she was slightly thankful for it because the last thing they needed was for her to scare them by telling them what lay in the distance.

Gripping the stretcher more tightly, Carly focused on her breathing and trying to stay calm.

One foot in front of the other…she thought to herself.

With that, Carly did her best to keep her gaze upward and not notice the horrifying hoof prints of the Grimm that made them.

Authors Note: I hope this chapter was enjoyable. I took some time on how I wanted to approach chapters that involve episodes and I think I have an idea on how I want to do them without them being word for word. Please let me know what you guys think!

Note, if anyone is confused, I thought the team losing the map would be a bit of Qrow's bad luck affecting them, since I had Carly grab the map in one of the earlier chapters and the episode references them being without it. Because I felt that it was really odd that, in the show, they just dropped it after seeing the town of Oniyuri in the distance. Also, in episode 8, "Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back," I was surprised that only Jaune and Ren hugged and not Jaune and Nora, so I included that because I thought it would be cute. Please let me know your thoughts! I love seeing the comments!