Goodwitch entered Ozpin's office in the morning with a pile of papers in her hands. Much as she disliked the distraction of it from current events, Jaune's circumstances didn't make the bureaucracy of running an academy like Beacon stop working.
As she walked in she found the headmaster sitting at his desk, eyes closed and sipping his coffee, already looking tired. "Ozpin, are you alright?" She asked as she set the papers down.
He opened his eyes and looked at her. "I just got off a call to Mr. Arc's family, informing them of the situation. They… did not take it well…"
Goodwitch's eyes softened. "Ah, I see." There really wasn't anything further to say to that. It was the headmaster's duty to give such news, which despite being rare did still need to occasionally be done. Beacon was a Huntsman Academy, after all. Fatalities were always a possibility. "Peter, Bartholomew and Peach have all left to continue searching." She sighed. "Though I'll admit, considering how long it's been and the kind of opposition the search teams have faced on the ground, my hopes are… dwindling."
Ozpin took a sip of his coffee, gazing out the window. "…Nevertheless, we will continue. I refuse to give up till we absolutely have to. Mr. Arc will return to Beacon…" He closed his eyes and sighed. "One way or another…"
Goodwitch clenched her jaw slightly, but nodded. "…Of course."
No more was said, and the deputy turned and left the office, the clicking of her heels the only sound as Ozpin sat and thought.
Jaune was crouching as he moved carefully through the woods, bow drawn and arrow nocked. Not far from him was a deer, which was contentedly grazing, not aware of the potential danger.
He'd woken not that long ago after a fitful sleep where, once again, every single noise woke him, panicked. He couldn't help but imagine all the horrible things that would happily enter the old structure to eat him.
After sipping some water and eating one of the last couple of pieces of boar meat he had he'd moved out. He knew that he needed to find another water source, as well as something else to eat. He'd been lucky to find a berry bush, which he happened to know were edible thanks to camping with his family. He chuckled when he remembered his older sister throwing up due to eating the wrong berries, which lead him to checking on the net for any information, just in case. He was happy for his foresight now. He picked as many berries as he could, putting them in one of the pouches on his bag for later, savoring the taste of the couple he ate then and there.
It had been as he'd headed to the sound of what was most likely a small stream to fill up his canteen that he'd spotted the deer. He'd immediately ducked down and readied himself. If he could bag himself that deer, he could live off of the meat for a decent amount of time. Longer than the boar meat had lasted him, that was for sure.
Now he was getting as close as he dared, grateful that his armor wasn't overly large, cumbersome and noisy. If it was he'd have already spooked his prey. Once he determined he was close enough he took aim at the deer's head, hoping to put it down quickly and painlessly.
Alas, his aim was off. He hit the deer in the neck, making it start trying to run before dropping as it desperately tried to breathe through the hole in its throat. It thrashed, making horrible gasping, choking noises as it lay on its side.
Jaune stared in more than a bit of horror, when he was shaken out of it when it tried again to cry out. He drew Crocea Mors to put the poor animal out of its misery. "Sorry." He said, before raising his sword to do the deed.
Just as he was about to swing down he was suddenly tackled hard in the middle, sending him flying with a cry. He landed and rolled, looking up once he finished moving to find a boarbatusk snorting, getting ready to charge at him again.
Despite being in front of a rather large species of Grimm, he was relieved to find he wasn't staring at one of the higher tiered versions. This was a completely normal looking boarbatusk. He should be able to handle it.
He quickly got to his feet, extending his shield, ready for future charges. The Grimm snorted again, pawing the ground, before launching itself at Jaune once again. Jaune dodged to the side at the last moment like a bullfighter, lashing out with his sword, to less than stellar results. The blade skittered along the bone armor, not cutting into flesh.
He turned to face his opponent again as the boarbatusk did the same, squealing. Jaune quickly tried to think of how to take it out. His mind was taken back to the first day of class, when Weiss fought one in Port's class. Having an idea, somewhat simple as it was, he banged his sword against his shield. "Come on, piggy. Want some of this? Then come get it, you bacon sandwich reject."
The boarbatusk squealed angrily and curled up to perform its spinning attack. Jaune stood his ground as it accelerated towards him. He gathered his strength, ready for impact, not noticing a white glow appear on his shield. At the moment the Grimm impacted his shield he pushed back violently. He was surprised at the results, as with a small flash of white light the boarbatusk was slammed back, flying into the air squealing, landing on its back with a heavy thud.
Jaune was almost too stunned to take advantage of the situation, but as he saw it try to get back on its feet he rushed forward and thrust his blade into its belly, making it squeal again as he slashed it open, disemboweling it. It took a bit more effort than he expected, but before long it began to fade.
Jaune sighed in relief before looking down at his shield, puzzled. What the hell had just happened? He'd never had something like that happen before. Could it be replicated?
He was brought out of his thoughts when he remembered what he'd been doing before he was attacked. He turned back to where the deer lay to find it was no longer thrashing, finally dead. He sighed. He hadn't wanted it to die like that. It must have truly been horrible.
Determined to not let it happen again, he grabbed the deer by the legs and began to drag it towards the sound of water in order to clean and butcher his kill.
At least he'd be eating well.
Ruby lay in her bed, feeling it sway slightly on the ropes it was suspended on with her slight movements. She'd been lying in bed all day, not bothering to change out of her pajamas or go to breakfast with everybody else. She'd simply rested as she mulled over what a colossal failure she was.
No matter which direction her thoughts took, one thing she was sure of is that if she was a better leader she would have been able to do something to help Jaune before he ended up in the Deathlands. The fact that he'd had to save her, which put him in that position in the first place, simply made things worse.
She knew that Weiss blamed herself as well, but as far as Ruby was concerned the heiress did nothing wrong. It was all on Ruby's head. She was leader, so when something like this happened, it was on her. She was half expecting to be called to Ozpin's office and told she was no longer leader of team RWBY. Not that she'd blame him.
She hugged Zwei, who licked her reassuringly, tightly, trying not to cry again. It just wasn't fair! Jaune was her first friend at Beacon! Her fellow leader! She was sure that if their roles had been switched he'd have been able to help her. Jaune was the brains of the operation when it came to team tactics, everybody knew that.
What she didn't acknowledge was the fact that she was devastated not just at the loss of a friend. She'd never admit that she saw Jaune as something beyond friendship. As far as pretty much everyone in Beacon was concerned, Jaune was already taken by Pyrrha. Especially since the dance. So any feelings the shorter redhead had were irrelevant.
Suddenly the door banged open, making Zwei perk up and look over. Ruby, on the other hand, didn't react. She could guess who it was.
"Ruby, this is ridiculous. Get down, get a shower, and get something to eat. You already missed breakfast, even though they had strawberry pancakes." Yang said, her hands on her hips and her eyes narrowed.
Ruby curled up, wrapping her arms tighter around Zwei. "I don't feel like it, Yang. Just leave me alone."
"I'm not going to let you just stay up there and have a pity party. You need to take care of yourself, and blaming yourself isn't helping anyone." The blonde said.
Ruby suddenly felt angry and turned to her sister. "Stop trying to pretend it's not my fault, Yang! Jaune is… Jaune is…" She tried desperately to keep the tears from falling. "And it's like you don't even care! 'Oh well, that's Vomit Boy gone.'" She snapped her jaw shut after yelling that out, breathing heavily.
Yang's fists were clenched as she looked down, her voluminous hair shadowing her eyes. "You think… I don't care?" She looked up at the fifteen year old. "Of course I care! This is Jaune. I may have joked around about him a lot, but he was one of us. He was a friend. But I'm not going to let you make things worse by letting you stay like this. He wouldn't want that. So you're coming with me." She reached up and grabbed her sister, pulling her out of bed despite her flailing.
"Yang! No! Let go!" Ruby yelled as she struggled.
"Not happening, sis. Get angry if you want, but this is what's best for you." Yang said, keeping a grip on the smaller girl.
"But…! But…!" Suddenly Ruby went slack, sniffling. "But, it's not fair, Yang… I want him back…"
Yang quickly turned her hold into a hug. "I know sis, I know…"
She held her as she burst into tears once again in her sister's arms.
Yay, new chapter!
Not much happened this time, to be honest, beyond a hint of things to come.
I'm not really satisfied with the interaction between Ruby and Yang, but this was the best I could come up with. I might come back to it in the future.
Just to make something perfectly clear: I don't have a clue about anything regarding survivalism. I've lived in a city all my life. Haven't even gone camping properly, to be honest. So when I write about Jaune trying to make it in the wilderness, I'm mostly pulling shit outta my ass based on common sense and what little I've learned from TV. So don't be surprised if anything involving such things is… lacking.
In other news, whee, Volume 5 is out! So exciting. Hopefully it'll give me more stuff I can use for this story. Especially new Grimm. Could definitely use more of those.
In other, other news, I added yet another story to my list. It's a Xander centric Buffy story. It only has one chapter so far, but give it a look and a review, if interested.
Alright, till next time, laters.