Chapter 15 - On The Board Pt. 1
"Corche... Mors?" I parrot meekly, the titular sword in my hands. "A-am I saying that right?"
"You're close," Jaune replies with a smile. "It's Crocea Mors. Think crochet but, instead of the chet at the end, you say shia."
"Corcea Mors..." I correct myself thusly. Such a fancy name for an equally simple longsword. I had thought, due to a lack of opportunity on his part, that the sword held some form of concealed power: A button to set it on fire, a secret compartment, a carefully placed gun slot used to beguile opponents into believing its simplicity only to surprise them with a bullet to the face.
None of the sort. No buttons, compartments or guns here. Just an ordinary sword for a fairly ordinary guy.
Not that I have any room to judge or anything.
However, tracing the blade with a finger, I can feel a few bumps that don't quite match up with the rest of the blade. Bits and pieces of misshapen steel, indented markings and certain parts of the edge that feel somewhat blunt compared to the rest of it. Considering that Aura, as well as the body itself, also protects clothing and any materials within radius, it's something I feel needs to be addressed.
"U-um, I hate to point it out but, uh, i-it looks a little... worn," I say timidly.
"Woah, what?!" He exclaims, eyes almost popping out of their sockets. Jolting slightly, I offer the blade back to him which is swiped away in a yellow blur. He peers closely at Crocea Mors, tongue spilling out as his eyes scan for signs of decay. "No, no, no!" He mutters hastily, teeth chattering. Up and down his eyes go, multi-tasking with his feet as they continue to walk.
Then, his posture softens.
"Phew! Thought I messed it up for a second there," he gives a great sight of relief, the tension in his shoulders melting away.
"It's... okay?" I ask quizzically. Personally, I couldn't tell you the slightest thing about sword maintenance but, I wouldn't want that kind of tearing on Warbreaker if not strictly necessary. Ruby most definitely wouldn't allow any of that on Crescent Rose. She'd have a fit.
Jaune, however, merrily waves me off.
"Yeah! No worries. It's always looked like this. Even when Dad had it," he answers. My eyebrows quirk slightly but he's quick to notice this and clarifies. "It's my Dad's sword."
"A-ah! I see," I gasp. That would make it a hereditary weapon of sorts. A gift from his father most likely. That was rather kind of him.
"Oh, it was also my grandfather's. And my great-grandfather's, and my great-great grandfather's, and-" He stops, pausing to count the amount with his fingers. He mumbles something, shaking his head. "Nope. That's it."
...I think that deserves a few rapid blinks. Yep.
Four generations of warriors? That's four lifetimes of history behind that sword. Four lifetimes of bloody battles and raging wars. That sword isn't just a gift.
It's a tradition. A single sword, one that was part of the lives of four men before, being passed down from one generation to the next. That homey little thing has more background behind it than Warbreaker, Crescent Rose and Ember Celica combined.
"Cool," I gasp, a bright smile spreads across my face. "That's so cool! It's like a relic."
Jaune splutters, almost tripping over himself and eating a nice dinner portion of dirt. He looks at me, staring like I'm a puppy that just learned how to speak english. Did... I say something strange?
"Y-you really like it?" He asks. I bob my head.
"I-I think it's really interesting. Corcea Mors must have lots of stories behind it. I-is that strange?" I prompt. He doesn't say anything, instead vouching for the exact same bewildered expression he's been sporting since I showed interest. "J-Jaune?" I peer closer, spotting a small wet-like substance trailing down his cheeks. Are those... tears? Crying? Why is grinning then?
It soon becomes clear as he fiercely cuddles Corcea Mors."Someone thinks you're cool!" He coos loudly like an overbearing mother. Tears of joy. Over his weapon. He and Ruby would get along famously if they met.
"Excuse me!" Weiss blusters, turning her head. "You two are being too loud! It's irritating! Shut up and stay focused!"
"I-I'm so sorry!" I apologize timidly, taking out Warbreaker and bowing my head.
"Y-yeah. Sorry!" Jaune follows, sheathing Corcea Mors. She groans in response, rolling her eyes as she faces the front again.
"Honestly..." She grumbles to herself, complaining about us no doubt. I wasn't that loud, was I? I mean, I hope I wasn't...
"Hey," Jaune bumps me gingerly. "I'm sorry about Weiss. She can be a little... scathing." Take away the 'Little' and you'd have an accurate description.. "But she's actually a really nice person deep down. See, she actually reale-"
He doesn't finish. His skin pales as he glances to the front to the icy cold eyes of Weiss glaring back into his soul. A medusa-like stare, it turns Jaune to stone. Syllables are snared between his lips, unable to escape her visual grasp.
Then, they quiver. "Real... Really has nice hair! Who would get mad at someone with nice hair! I wouldn't! I want nice hair! Heck, I'd like her hair! I'm going to go to my barber and get myself nice hair like Weiss! Then we'll have matching nice hai-"
"Stop talking, Jaune."
"Stopping now," he replies meekly. That... seems like a matter I shouldn't be poking my nose into. That's just asking for my nose to get bitten off and, hell, I need some sense of self-preservation.
"So, what's your partner like?" Jaune leans in and whispers, his silence lasting no longer than ten seconds. "Like, what's her name? I never caught it." The question gives me pause.
"U-um... I-it's, uh..." I stammer, my tongue drying up as I subconsciously start fiddling with Warbreaker.
As I keep my hands busy, my brain muddling as it tries to find an appropriate response that doesn't make me look like a completely ball-less tool to a total stranger, I glance at the back of The Girl's head as focuses on the narrow path. She hasn't said a word since the four of us agreed to work together. Every now and again, I catch the bright piercing glint of her eyes, observing the area around us, standing alert with an almost stoic confidence.
"I... I don't know," I admit with a sigh.
"You don't know her name?!" He exclaims, his shock only withheld by his hushed tone. "You mean you haven't asked?"
I lower my head, "N-no."
"Do you two not get along or something?" He asks benignly.
"N-no!" I splutter in response.
"I mean, Weiss totally hates my guts and she still calls me by name," he says. Pumping his chest with a fist, he clears his throat and begins talking in a hammy high-pitched voice. "Jaune: Stand over there. Jaune: Don't do anything. Jaune: Stop existing. Jaune- Yeah, you get the idea."
"I-i-it's nothing like that!" I fluster, frantically waving my hands around in denial. I turn my head away, hiding my beet red face. "I-I-I don't hate her at all. The topic just... never came up, that's all."
I admit that I'm speaking only for myself here, I have no claim to know or understand what my partner thinks about me in the slightest, but how could I possible hate somebody I just met? Someone who's a total stranger to me? What would my life be if I truly thought like a raging misanthrope?
It'd be simple, but also lonely: bitter, and short three friends. Oh, and Qrow.
"Seriously?" He exasperates, eyes bouncing between The Girl and myself. "She's your partner. You can't not know her name, man."
My head sinks. It's nothing I haven't been telling myself, repeatedly, since we met. It's one thing for you to tell yourself something, but it only feels like a real issue when someone else agrees.
I bite my lip, keeping silent.
"Alright then," says Jaune, puffing out his chest. "Then I'll just ask her for us."
I splutter, almost tripping over myself and eating a nice salad plate of grass. Recovering, I stare slack-jawed at him, quivering a bewildered, "H-huh?!"
"Well, yeah. You don't know her name. I don't know her name. We both wanna know so, I'll just go and charm it out of her," he grins somewhat confidently. Wait. 'Charm?' He doesn't mean...
"I-I really don't know about this..." I stutter but Jaune just scoffs and waves me off lightly.
"Nah! Don't worry about it. My Dad once told me that all women look for is confidence," he beams. That would explain why I'm not exactly a heartthrob, amongst other things. "If I come at her with enough swagger, there's no way she can resist telling me her name. I think."
I can certainly think of a few ways. Maybe this isn't such a good idea. Before I'm given any opportunity to perhaps coerce him out of it, he stretches out the joints in his fingers and puts on an overcompensating smirk.
"Time to work some magic," he declares.
Quickening his pace, Jaune attempts to saunter up to his target. Though his posture is more lumbering weight than smooth play-maker, he swerves up beside The Girl and tries to make small talk. Trying, so, so very hard to make small talk.
The Girl glances up at him for a millisecond before turning away. In response to the complete lack of acknowledgement, he starts talking sounder, flexing his arms as an American football jock in a College movie would. Nothing's working. He pushes further, making jokes that earn him a rather tense glare.
Jaune ignores it. His body language, as with his voice, becomes louder, waving his arms around more than flailing tube men. Another warning from The Girl goes unnoticed. He keeps talking, scrambling to salvage this. He leans in, a bit too close for comfort and...
"Yeowch!" Yelps Jaune, immediately trailing back to me, massaging his swelling red cheek. So, uh, when does the magic begin?
"You deserved that!" Shouts Weiss.
"Ow..." He moans, still rubbing his very red cheek. That was quite the stinging slap she gave him. It should fade in roughly ten seconds or so but still, I think pissing her off is not something I'd want to do in the near future.
"Are you okay?" I ask him.
"Yeah. Heh heh. That was a pretty stupid idea, huh? I didn't even get her name," he admits, shoulders slumping. I don't think anyone here will debate him on that one. At least he tried? Actually, scratch that. If he didn't try, he wouldn't have been slapped and disgraced. So, uh...A for effort?
Pat on the back. Let's go with that.
"You've got to be kidding," Weiss groans, stopping in place.
"What's wrong, Weiss?" Her partner asks. She looks over her shoulder, her expression carrying a sense of seriousness behind it.
"We're here," she says tersely. Her arm plucks her rapier from her waist, swishing it around as to test her grip. The Girl takes this as a clear sign of something and takes out her own weapon. That's... concerning.
"Jaune," I start, pulling Warbreaker tight against my shoulder. "Y-you might want to take out Corcea Mors."
"Is it bad?" He asks, complying. I answer with a simple look. I'm not sure, but it's nothing good. One following after another, we pass by another congregation of trees. Beyond them is a great opening. A huge dose of sunlight blinds us for a fleeting moment. As our eyes start to adjust, the three of us see exactly what Weiss was talking about.
It's bad. It's very bad.
Before the four of us is a grand clearing of grass and sky. Standing right in the middle of this clearing are ruins, dilapidated, crude, and rather disappointing honestly. I was hoping for something a little more romantic, emitting a mysterious aura. That's not what we found at all.
You see, the problem here aren't the ruins itself. No, not at all. They're not what I was expecting but that's a rather petty issue. The real issue is worse, far worse. Large chucks of sculpted stone and marble are split completely in two: little speckles of crushed material are dashed across the field and, what looked to be the upper platform has crashed down into the central area.
Why has this happened? Well, it's because we're not the first ones to come here. Laying scattered across the ruins, piercing stone with an ivory spear-like tip...
Are large black feathers.
I know this Grimm. I've done my research on any kind that I would encounter if I somehow succeeded in joining Beacon. There's only one kind of Grimm I know can pull this kind of thing off and it towers over every other kind of common Grimm both in size and sheer power.
"Eren?" Jaune shudders. "What... what did that?" I'm shaking. Everything is shaking. Forcing my voice steady, I twist myself around to tell him.
"N... Nevermore."
"What... what's a Nevermore?" He gulps. Something we shouldn't fight. Something we should keep as far away from as possible.
I look forward. Weiss and The Girl start walking towards the ruins. The Nevermore is nowhere in sight but from how fresh the debris appears, a battle was waged not too long ago. They have the right idea. We still have our objective to complete.
"We..." I start, swallowing down my panic. Clearly. Think clearly. "We need to grab the relics."
"R-right," he nods. "I'll, uh, catch up with Weiss."
I nod back. That's when we separate. Jaune hurries off to join Weiss: I scamper after The Girl. Weapons are out and all four of us are very much on-guard. It'll be okay. It'll be okay...
As I close in on The Girl, I notice several small pillars, jutting out of the ground, aligning with the outer rim of the platform. Several of these pillars are empty, some of them have been toppled over but, at least half of contain what appear to be expertly crafted, well-painted...
Chess pieces?
Yes. Chess pieces. Twenty of them to be exact. Ten white and ten black if my estimations are correct. That's the exact amount of partners this initiation has created. One for every pair that makes it here. The gears in my head begin to turn.
From the amount still remaining, I'd hazard a guess that these may have a hand in the teams forming. It'd certainly be very neat and tidy if they did.
I slide to a stop, right next to The Girl, a small tilt of her head is her only acknowledgement.
"Pick one," she tells me.
"You... don't want to pick?" I blink at her.
"I really don't care," she shrugs.
"...Okay," I say uneasily. More power to me, I suppose.
With a carefully step, I tread onto the once beautifully carved ruin stone. Gigantic feathers litter the structure, the black barbs clouding my view and tickling my face as I pass. My eyes narrow as I search around, looking for some sign that either Ruby or Yang have been here before me. No red roses or bright fires here, I'm afraid and there's the possibility that I' just be wasting everyone's time if I made us wait for them.
I grit my teeth. Damn it
"Woah!" Jaune cries out from the other side of the ruined temple followed by a loud thumping noise.
I jump, gun snapping to the sky. My heartbeat quickens. Are we under attack? Where is it? Where is it coming from?!
"It's okay!" He yells. "I just tripped! I'm alright!"
"Nobody was asking, Jaune!" Weiss shouts after him. Well, guess I'm nobody now. My aim relaxes but my hands are still rather wobbly. I'm far too on edge right now. I should tell myself a joke to calm down. Ahem.
With all these feathers, I guess you could say that these ruins totally got ruined!
...I sigh softly. It would've been a lot funnier if Yang said it. My feet move to walk once again when-
Thunk.
I reel back, gun pointing in the direction of the sound. Looking down, my eyes land on a white bishop piece, appearing almost golden in shade, laying gently against my foot. With a tad of apprehension, I gingerly pluck the relic off of the ground, inspecting it closely. While I wrap my fingers around it fine, the piece itself is bigger than my arm. It wouldn't be too difficult to find one of these things as they're scavenging the fields on their hands and knees.
Always liked using the bishop - It's no tank, but I found it most useful in checkmating kings with its unpredictable and unique movement.
It's not the strongest piece, but it's definitely my favorite. If I had to pick any of them...
I shake my head, setting the piece down on an empty pillar. I'm not thinking rationally. This is the piece I would pick: Not the piece either Ruby or Yang would pick.
Someone else can take this. I need to be with my friends.
So, assuming that I'm right, I believe that the pairs that take a white chess piece from this side will be paired together with the pair that take the opposing black piece from the other side to form a team with. If that's truly the case, and I still have no idea if Ruby and Yang have been here already, then...
I take over to the two nearest pieces.
The white rook - Strong, sturdy and only second to the queen in terms of power. You could checkmate the king with it alone. Yang would like this piece.
And the white knight - Versatile, predictable but great for taking out queens. Ever needed to take a tough piece out, this one will do the job. Ruby would like this piece, if not just for the whole knight-in-shining armour aura.
My thoughts gravitate towards these two. I think that if either of them were going to be selective, they would pick one of these. Of course, I could be completely wrong and it could be a complete toss-up or predetermined or based on grades, it's definitely a possibility, but if it what I think it is...
This decision will decide who I'll be working with for the next four years.
No pressure, huh?
Sucking in a breath, I make my decision.
This one.
I pick up the white knight piece, coiling my hand tightly around the grip. I'm working completely off of what-ifs here, but with communications jammed and the two of them nowhere to be seen, what-ifs are all I have.
I return to The Girl, chess piece in hand. I wave it in front of her and she silently nods at it.
"I-I'll keep it in my bag. If that's okay with you, I mean," I say meekly.
"Sure," she says simply. Well, that's that. I open the clip my ammo bag, shove the now messy stack of magazines to the side, stuff the relic inside and close it back up again.
Objective complete.
The four of us regroup, weapons still out and gleaming.
"No sign of the Nevermore yet," Weiss remarks grimly.
"Maybe it's already dead?" Jaune suggests. "Maybe the people who it was chasing already killed it? No problem, right? Like, pow! Boom! Aaahh! Kersplat. Dead giant monster bird thing." He added his own theatrics to that, by the way. Still, he may have a point. The corpse would've dissolved long ago had it been killed. There's no blood splatters or indications of injury around the surrounding area. The problem with that is...
"We don't know that for sure," The Girl speaks up.
"Obviously," the snobby princess adds, fiddling with her rapier chamber. They are right. We don't know for sure. Just because there's no blood spilled here, doesn't mean there hasn't been elsewhere. If I where in their shows, the last thing I'd want to do is take a giant ferocious monster head-on. It doesn't make Jaune wrong, but it doesn't means he's entirely right either.
"Eren?" My head perks up at the blonde saying my name. "What do you think?"
"M-me?" I stutter, pointing a finger at myself. He honestly wants my thoughts? "W-well, um..." Better safe than sorry. "I-I think it's best we leave. W-we don't know if the Nevermore's still around so, uh, either way, we should try and finish initiation and maybe not get into a fight with it if it's alive?" Three pairs of eyes stare back at me. My gaze lowers, down towards the ground. "Th-that's just what I think..."
A moment of pause. Then, Weiss groans.
"Do you ever talk like a normal person?" I wince, rubbing my arm self-consciously. "But I agree. Whether it's alive or not, we shouldn't fight the Nevermore unless we're given no choice."
"Getting back to the cliff should be our priority," The Girl nods.
"I'm all for not fighting the killer bird," Jaune beams, raising his arm as if to say 'Aye!' However, as he notices that none of us are doing the same, he lowers his arm awkwardly and clears his throat. "So, what's the quickest way back to the cliff?"
Pronouncing her presence, The Girl steps forward and points into the far distance. "There's a temple not far from here. It has a bridge connected to the western part of the cliff. From there, we can walk back to where we started and finish our task within half an hour or less."
"And pray tell, how are you so sure that bridge is even still intact?" Weiss folds her arms and scowls but this doesn't seem to faze The Girl even slightly.
"I don't. But, we can check and potentially save ourselves a great deal of time and effort, or we can walk a good two hours fighting the Grimm back to the front of the cliff where only two of us are capable of climbing it," she explains calmly. The other girl reclines slightly.
"Very well," she huffs. "But don't pin the blame on me when we find a collapsed hump of rubble."
Well.
I think this counts as them both being right.
With The Girl's guidance, the four of arrive at a great bridge with a gigantic towering structure barring down from above, hanging over a gaping bottomless chasm in order to allow safe passage to the other side. Though its main purpose is to connect the highlands and lowlands together, several pathways constructed branch out from the center, reaching other significantly smaller towers rising from the misty abyss bellow. While many parts of these ruins have either eroded or fallen apart completely, we are relieved to find that, despite the damages it's sustained, the main bridge itself is still standing.
Barely. Much like with the temple, we're not the first group of people to come here. Not by a long shot.
Marking its territory, the same large Nevermore feathers spread across the landscape, breaking great chunks of the bridge and annihilating entire pathways in its wake. There's still no blood to be seen, a thankful mercy, and the environment around us has been almost entirely decimated by the incurring battle beforehand, so much so, that not even the other side of the bridge had been spared.
As I said, they're both right.
Right at the bottom of the massive cliff-side, taken from a massive mass of rock from the cliff itself, is a huge 'collapsed hump of rubble' crushing whatever part of land underneath it with extreme force. I can't tell how long its been since the occurring fight but, judging from the reactions from everyone else, I think we all have a pretty good idea what is, or rather was, underneath.
"Dead," Jaune points, eyes practically popping out of their sockets. "That. Is a dead bird. A dead, flat, squished, deader than door-nails bird."
That's putting it aptly. It's one problem dealt with, at least.
Weiss grumbles, her scowl visibly deepening as she glances at The Girl smirking smugly at her. "Shut up. As soon as this partnership ends, I'll be glad to never have to talk to you ever again" she growls, storming towards the bridge. "Move it, Jaune! I'm stuck with you!"
Wisely clamming up, Jaune does exactly as he's told and trails after his partner, her heels clinking loudly underneath as she stomps away. The Girl follows after the duo, her heel clicking softly as she keeps her pace steady. At least someone here can keep their cool.
The last man in this dysfunctional conga-line, my feet plod as my eyes wander, keenly scanning the ruins design, asking myself numerous questions that I obviously don't know the answers to: When was this built, why was it built, why was it abandoned, was this part of Vale or was it from before those times? Pointless innocuous thoughts but thoughts I like to ponder on regardless.
As the four of us make our way through the middle, under the arch, my ears pick up a quiet crumbling sound.
I flinch, stopping. Tiny morsels of what feel like sharp breadcrumbs land on my head, dirtying my hair, sinking through the gap of my hoodie and trickling down my spine. Meeping, I swat the caught excess off of my hair, gathering a handful of the stuff in a grasp. I look down. It seems to be... a powder like substance, like small pieces of rock grounded into dust.
My head snaps up, peering closely at the ceiling. Another stream of dust falls from the cracks. I jump out of the way, avoiding another unhealthy dose of poisonous dust. And another, and another, and yet another one after that. It's a downpour of powder, falling through one of the cracks at a tempo that seems... rather off-putting. It seems almost sequential in nature, like the drip of unkempt tap.
I suppose, after the encounter here, it'd be a bit optimistic to assume this place is entirely stable but, something about this doesn't seem right.
I know, because The Girl's stopped walking and she's looking up at the ceiling just as I am. Briefly, no more than a fleeting second, our eyes lock. I might be assuming but, I think that she's maybe thinking the exact same thing. I peer past her shoulder, narrowing on the fallen boulders clogging up the other side of the bridge.
The rocks shudder. Another dosage falls. My heart lurches. The bridge isn't merely unstable.
It's tremoring.
Oh god.
"Guys!" I scream, dashing towards the blonde and white-haired pair. "Get away from the bridge! The Nevermore's alive!"
Too little, too late. The boulders erupt, hurling into the sky and from them raises a dark avian monster screeching a scream so shrill, so full of ungodly malice and rage that it feels as though it's piercing my lungs through sheer bloodthirsty beastly desire. From the kicked up dust of its ascent, I finally see the monster.
Big and raven-like in shape, with a maw so large that it could devour a man with a single bite. Riddled with feathers, they can skewer a normal person in ways that a pike would be a mercy kill in comparison. Its face, once whole and tough, has been crushed in the left side, taking out both of its two eyes and caving in the flesh to the point its a wonder it's still alive at all. And the wings. Jesus Christ, the wings. They could blot out the sun with their size, carve the earth in two with a single slice, cause a hurricane on the other side of the world with but a gust.
Our only saving grace here is that the previous fighters managed to dislocate both its wings out of their sockets. But the Nevermore is very much aware of this fact. With a vehement growl, it rustles up its feathers, shuffles its weight and with a sound so sharp it makes us wince.
Crack! Snaps one wing back into place.
Crack! Snaps the other. Both wings are back in-action much to my despair.
As fearsome as it is however, the monster quickly succumbs to its countless injuries, falling down onto the bulk of the bridge and blocking us from passing.
That's the least of my worries right now.
"You have got to be kidding me!" Yells Weiss, her scowl the deepest I have ever seen it today.
"Oh god! Oh man!" Quivers Jaune, stumbling back from the beast. That's not what he should be focusing on right now.
I rush forward, grabbing him by the hood, watching as The Girl does the same with Weiss, earning an indignant "Wha- Unhand me, you pest!"
"W-we've got to move!" I stammer at Jaune, thinking that as warning enough before, with all of my might, I start frantically pulling him towards what remaining cover the arch provides. A muffled 'Hrk!' is all I receive in response but, with his posture completely off-balance, I successfully drag him back into safely, planting our backs against one of the sufficiently sized pillars. The Girl and Weiss do the exact same on the other side.
"O-ow. That seriously hurt, Eren," he groans, rubbing his throat. Oh crap, I think I was choking him.
"I-I'm sorry b- Look out!" I scream, pushing him back against the pillar and huddling against it with my head down.
Smash! The falling boulders crash back down to earth, a few barrel straight into the middle of the arch, kicking up hazardous debris. More destruction, more decimation but I don't dare to leave the pillar cover. Keep calm. Keep calm!
I plug my ears with the palm of my hands, waiting for the bombardment to be over. Breaking, crashing, smashing, it's relentless, horrific, terrifying. I can't stop my damn hands from shaking. Let it be over. Please let it be over already!
Then, silence. I release the vice-grip on my ears cautiously, almost expecting to be greeted with the sound of tattered ruins, but I hear nothing.
I peek my head up, shaken but otherwise still in-tact.
"I-i-i-i," I fumble over my words, incapable of speaking properly. Damn it, I swallow. Pull yourself together, moron. "I-is everybody o-o-okay?"
"Y-yeah," mumbles a shaking Jaune. "Yeah, I'm alright."
"I'm fine," The Girl says simply, dusting off soot from her outfit.
"Argh! My dress is all dirty again!" Weiss shrieks, struggling to sweep all the brown dust off her white dress to no avail. Surrendering herself to being a walking dustbin, her arms slump to her side and she groans loudly to herself. As cranky as she is, I do feel a little sorry for her. It is a nice dress. Folding her arms, she turns to look around the corner, almost exploding upon meeting eyes with her target, "Oh, come on!"
Oh no.
"The bridge is out," she grumbles, confirming my fear.
"What?! We came all that way for that bridge! How are we going to get back now?!" Jaune shouts.
"More importantly," starts The Girl. "Where's the Nevermore?" You know what? It doesn't matter where it is right now. What matters is where we are right now. Limited space, deteriorating cover and an ever-present chance that one of us will fall off into the abyss.
"W-we need to get off this bridge," I say, beginning to walk towards the remaining side. "Right now."
Crash!
Before I'm given any time to follow through with my plan, a sudden giant blur barrels into the remaining bridge, hurling pieces everywhere. I bound back into a fright, screeching "No!" as the sound of flapping wings booms beside us.
The Nevermore. It's flying again.
A/N: You know what, I really should stop making promises in my Author's Notes because somehow or another, my over-ambition finds a way to completely muddle it all up.
So, I promised that this chapter would be the conclusion of the Emerald Forest Arc and it was originally supposed to but I had so many points to touch on with the finally three scenes that, when it started to become too long, I started cutting out certain aspects on those scenes that overall just made it feel less coherent and conclusive. Considering how much grand and epic episode 8 of Volume 1 was and how much it really kicked in gear the whole "Yeah! This is RWBY where badass amazing things happen!" having my own conclusion to the same arc feel rather damp and lifeless in comparison didn't really sit well with me.
However, 12,000+ words is simply ridiculous for readers to digest in one sitting. My longest chapter to date was Chapter 10 at 9,980 words and that was a hassle to read through and all. So, bottom line, the Arc finale is being split up into two chapters and I do apologize to those I promised it would be concluded in one. I'm a flimsy bastard and you really should stop listening to me.
The bright-side however is that the conclusion is mostly complete. It's simply going back and readjusting it all to fit the stuff I wanted added. So, expect the conclusion very soon.
Thank you very much for reading. As always, I'd like to hear what you think of the story so far whether it'd be good or bad. Constructive criticism is very much encouraged.