Chapter 5: The expedition
(Day 6)
It was really, really early in the morning when Yang decided to do her little expedition with Baza. That way, she wouldn't occupy the Parasaur for too long, and there were hopefully not that many predators active in the morning.
Thus, she left the house as quiet as possible, and started to put some stuff on the dinosaur, namely food and some tools.
Suddenly, she heard a long yawn, and looked behind her. Blake stood in the doorway of the house, and looked at her. "You wanna go already?"
"Yeah. It's not too hot right now, and the dinosaurs should be asleep." Yang replied and put the compass she made into the bag on the side of the saddle.
Blake smiled. "Just be careful, okay?"
"Don't worry. If carefulness had a human body, it'd be me." Yang said proudly.
"You punched the microwave at beacon when it stopped working." Blake mentioned. Yang wasn't very proud of the incident, considering that half the building burned down.
She rolled her lilac eyes. "Just trust me, okay?"
Blake crossed her arms. "And you have everything?"
Yang nodded. "Of course."
"Food?"
"Check."
"Water?"
"Check."
"Torch?"
"Check."
"Spear?"
"Uhm…"
Blake sighed, grabbed one of the spears and handed it to Yang. "Thanks."
The Faunus nodded, and waved as Yang rode away.
While crossing the river, it turned out that Baza was a really good swimmer. The dinosaur wasn't slow on land either, and made traveling along the shore way easier.
Shortly after, she rode past their old shack. It looked like the storm washed it away completely, which made her happy that they relocated. The two followed the southern shore, until they reached a bay. On her right were a lot of giant stones and boulders, and behind them the ocean. Her left was instead occupied by the jungle, with the way going into a small ravine. Seeing as the carnivores probably resided inside the jungle, Yang took the right way. The ground was still mostly made out of sand, but the stones that were mixed in got bigger and bigger. As soon as she entered the jungle of rocks, the ground became harder too, turning into dirt and stone.
Luckily, this place seemed to be relatively save. If the ruin between the rocks meant anything. Afterall, why should someone have settled here if there was a lot of danger around? Even if this ruin looked centuries old. The only things left were stone pillars and vines hanging from them. And a little strongbox inside.
Yang jumped off Baza's back, and opened the green box. It contained a dossier, and Yang opened it. Inside was the picture of the salmons that always annoyed them while fishing, and that Blake loved to eat. Deciding to read it back home with the others, she put it in the bag of Baza, although she had her doubts that there were any new infos in it. She continued her search, but decided to turn around after two more rocks. There was a Sarcosuchus in the water, and Yang didn't want to make her presence known to it. According to the dossier, if she remembered it right, the crocodile was quick on land too. And in her mind, it wasn't a good idea to push her luck with a crocodile the size of a bus.
Back at the bay, she decided to go left and enter the jungle. If it wasn't for the insects buzzing around, it would have been too quiet. It didn't take long for her to find the next point of interest: A cave entrance in the wall.
Yang got down from Baza and stepped up to the hole. A cold wind blew out of it, and she had to think now. Would she enter the cave alone, or with her team? This was a harder decision than she thought, and it took her five minutes to decide. She decided to go home, present the dossier she found, and come back to the cave with at least one of her teammates. Afterall, leaving the camp entirely alone wasn't a good idea either.
Halfway on the way back, the sound of a level up was heard. Still sitting on Baza's back, she accessed he implant and chose the irrigation system, since she had already learned how to make a crop plot. Sure, they had enough water at their camp, but the sand made it hard for crops to grow, so they had to either use a crop plot, or put their plants somewhere near the jungle. And both would need irrigation.
As soon as she arrived at the camp, her friends instantly greeted her. Blake was currently making ropes out of fiber, much to Ruby's dismay. Her training dummy still wasn't done, and Blake took the fiber that was meant for the head, to use for the rope ladder she was crafting.
"Back already?" The Faunus asked, not even looking up. It seemed like her cat ears enabled her to hear Yang early on. If the blonde had to be honest, the two pairs of ears were more unsettling than they should be.
"Did you find something?" Weiss wondered.
"I found a dossier and a Sarco." Yang answered and got down.
Weiss opened the bags on Baza and took out the Dossier. She quickly looked over it. "Okay, there isn't anything new. Only the species name: Oncorhynchus Grexlamia. Let's see. Get aggresive if one of them is attacked..."
"I still have the bitemarks over my legs." Blake muttered. "Also, they can bite through Aura. Maybe you should add that detail."
Weiss was still reading, when she realized that there hasn't been a single mention of Aura in any of the Dossiers. Maybe whoever wrote them didn't care much about Aura. "Here is still something about domestication."
"Like many of the smaller fish found on or around the Island, Oncorhynchus can not be tamed, but it is often herded and raised for its resources. In particular, certain cuts of Oncorhynchus meat are considered superb quality, and are often referred to as 'Prime Fish' used for specific high-end concoctions."
"Or as a great meal." Blake added, already drooling.
"That was nothing new though." Ruby pointed out. Afterall, their main food source had been salmon for the past days. Mostly thanks to Blake.
"Found something else?" Weiss asked and shut the book. Dust came out of it, and caused her to cough.
Yang nodded. "A cave."
That seemed to surprise Ruby. "Are you sure?"
"It was a big hole in a cliff. Yes, I'm pretty sure."
Blake finally looked up. "And was anything in there?"
Yang shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't go inside."
"Why not?" Ruby asked. Puffy came out of his 'doghouse', and cuddled with her leg.
"Because we don't know what's down there." Yang answered. She walked over to their stocks, and took a handful of berries to eat.
"It shouldn't be too dangerous." Weiss said.
Everyone looked at her. "Why?"
"Normally dinosaurs don't need sunlight to warm up, but seeing how most of them lack feathers here, I doubt that they live down there. Not to mention that there weren't any big cave dwellers anyway." The heiress explained.
"So?" Blake asked.
"I think we should go down there ASAP." Weiss suggested. "Who knows what we might find."
"Okay then. Who stays here and watches over the camp?" Yang asked, looking at her teammates.
"I'll do it! I don't wanna run into any bats." Ruby said.
"Are you afraid of bats?" Weiss asked, and started to pack for the travel.
Ruby realized what she just said and blushed. "No! Who said something about bats? Why are you talking about bats? Stop talking about bats."
Weiss facepalmed and turned back to Yang. "I'll go and make us some clothes."
"Uhm, Weiss?" Yang gestured at her clothes, which were fairly torn, but clean. She washed them in the river a couple of times, which worked better than expected. "We are already wearing our combat outifts?!"
"But we know that some animals can pierce through our Aura. Additional armor should help against that." Ruby pointed out.
"And it keeps us warm down there." Blake added, and got up from her seat. Ruby instantly snatched the remaining fiber, and went back to work on her dummy.
"Alright. I'll go and pack some berries." Yang sighed and started to pack food.
"Pyrrha? What are you doing?" Jaune greeted his friend, his voice still somewhat sleepy.
"Oh, hey Jaune." Pyrrha said and smiled. She sat at the campfire, on one of the chairs Ren build, and held the scroll in her hand. Jaune sat down next to her and poked a stick inside the fire. "I'm trying to decipher the scroll. Maybe it could tell us what happened here."
"I thought you can't speak Old-Mistralean." Jaune pointed out. "Or read."
"But maybe I can find some similiarities." Pyrrha said, and wrote down one of the letters on a note. She used some Narcoberries as ink, and a feather as pen.
Jaune sighed. "Why are you so obsessed with finding out what happened?"
"It's just… Where did everyone go?"
"Eaten by dinosaurs?" Jaune guessed.
"But…" Pyrrha pulled out the little book that layed next to her. "… This Rockwell guy had a mansion, tea… This means he managed to survived here for a long time. I don't think he got eaten. Something different must have happened."
Jaune put a hand on his friends shoulder. "And if it did, we'll find out. Eventually. For now, let's just focus on not getting eaten alive."
She blushed. "Yeah. You're right. By the way, you know where Ren and Nora are?"
He shook his head. "No. I thought they were here, actually."
"They were already gone when I woke up. And Danny with 'em."
"Any idea where they might have gone?" Jaune asked, and stood up.
"Maybe they went hunting." Pyrrha shrugged. She put the note, and the scroll, down on another chair.
"I just hope they're okay."
"It's Ren and Nora. I'm sure they're fine. I'm more worried about the dinosaurs." Pyrrha joked.
Jaune smiled. "Right. How are your crops coming along?"
Pyrrha stood up and walked over to the crops, followed with Jaune. She kneeled down in front of the plot for Narcoberries. A little plant had already begun to grow, which was incredibly fast. "The Parasaurolophus poop really helps them grow. But I think that we need to do something to keep dinosaurs away from them." She pointed at one leaf of the plant, which looked like something bit off a bit. "I had to fend off a monkey half an hour ago."
"Like a fence?"
Pyrrha got back up. "Yeah. For example."
Jaune thought for a moment, and had an idea. "Hey, if you want one, I could try to make a shovel. Then you wouldn't have to put the dirt in with your hands. Or the, well, feces."
"That would be great. Wait, do you have an engram for that?"
"Nope. But if I take a flat stone and attach a stick to it, it should do the trick." To demonstrate it, he took said items and held them together.
"Thanks." Pyrrha said. She wanted to hug him, but wasn't sure how he would react to it. The huntress actually had hope that she could finally get to tell Jaune how she felt, now that they were stuck here. Or that she could make Jaune feel the same. Afterall, there weren't any distractions on the Island, and Jaune only had two possibilities.
Yang, Blake and Weiss stood in front of the cave entrance. It was really dark inside, causing them to re-think their decision to go in. Sure, Blake could see in the dark, but the other two had to rely on torches.
However, after a small discussion, they decided to go in, and found something they didn't expect: plant life. There were little, green glowing mushroom growing out of the wet ground. Large, white crystals grew out of the wall.
"It's more livable in here than I imagined." Weiss noted, holding a torch in her hand.
After a turn, they found themselves on a ledge, overlooking the deeper, water-filled parts of the cave. Bamboo, bushes and other small plants grew here. Even a swarm of small, firefly like insects buzzed through the air, and gave off light.
Suddenly, they saw something moving through the foliage down at the foot of the ledge. Yang picked up a stone, and threw it after the thing. As a response, something white shot out of the plants and hit her face.
"I can't see!" She screamed, and tried to rip it off. Blake came to her aid, and together they managed to get the white stuff off Yang's face. Now that they held it in their hands, it became clear that it was some kind of net.
"Uhm, Weiss? Can spiders shoot nets?" Blake asked.
"I think the bola spider can. Why?" They noticed that a good amount of giant spiders began to crawl out of the deep cave, accompanied by large bats. "Oh. Dammit." Weiss deadpanned.
Luckily, the Spiders were unable to climb the walls, probably due to their weight. The bats however…
Blake threw one of her two spears, and hit one of the bats in the abdomen, causing it to fall out of the air. On the ground, the spiders instantly salvaged the corpse, which looked pretty disgusting. Weiss created a glyph to block the path. "We need to run. There are too many!"
"Alright. How long can you keep your glyph up?" Blake asked.
"Not long." Some of the bats had clawed onto the glyph, and attacked it with their snouts. "Those bats are already gnawing on it! Why?"
"I saw something back there." Blake replied and ran off, only to come back in a second. She held a new dossier in her hands. "Come on."
Weiss and Yang nodded, and followed her out of the cave. Once outside, the three catched their breath. It seemed like they made it. Well, for a moment. It looked like one of the bats managed to follow them, and latched on Blake's shoulders with its claws, only to bite into her head. It managed to get the bow, and swallowed it. The Onyc tried to bite again, but Yang grabbed its wing, and thrusted the bat into the ground. It instantly broke most of the monsters bones, killing it.
"Are you alright?" She asked.
Blake put her hands on her head. Thankfully, the bat only took off the bow, and didn't do anything worse. At least now they knew that those things didn't go through Aura. "Yeah, I'm good."
Weiss walked over to the corpse of the mammal. The thing didn't have much meat, but the wings should provide good hide. Yang stepped up next to her, and looked at what she did to the animal.
"Seems like it is in pretty bat shape." Her friends looked at her in disappointment, and started walking home.
"For that shitty pun, you're going to carry the thing back home." Weiss said.
Yang rolled her eyes, and threw the bat over her shoulder.
Unknown to them, something watched from the top of the ravine. The glowing eyes of the creature analyzed them. Yang looked up, and the creature retreated.
Adam and Emerald were looking to their task for the day, and went into the jungle to pick some berries. To carry more, Cinder made some hats out of fiber, and a few changes later, they were made into bags.
The way they took led up a mountain, and along a small cliff. For some strange reason, every single plant had berries growing on them. It didn't seem natural, but came in handy. Still, for some reason her berries disappeared again and again, and she couldn't put her hand on why that was.
"So, why are you helping Cinder?" Adam said, much to Emerald's surprise.
It felt strange that Adam tried to make conversation, but at least it gave her the opportunity to get to know him better. "She was the best way for me to get off the streets. I didn't have a family growing up, and then Cinder came."
"I didn't know that. Sounds harsh." Adam replied. The only thing visible of him was his hair, since the rest of the Faunus was covered by the foliage.
"It was. And I can't say that our current situation is a step-up." Emerald put more berries in her bag, and noticed that some berries had disappeared again.
"What happened to your parents?" Adam asked.
"Got eaten by a Grimm." Emerals answered.
"Which one?"
Emerlad shrugged. "I don't know. I never actually saw something like this again. It looked like some sort of giant worm."
Adam was finally looking up from the plants. "Did you live in the desert?"
"That was the creepy thing. Back then, we lived at a fishing village." She gestured into the direction of the ocean, which was still visible through the trees. "It came out of the ocean, destroyed the village, burried itself into the earth, and was never seen again." Emerald explained. "I actually looked through the entire library at Beacon, but they didn't have anything on it either."
"If it helps you, I never heard of anything like that." Adam said. "I know that there are worm-like Grimm on Menagerie, but they can't go into the water."
Emerald raised her head, and gave Adam an suspicious look. "You seem awfully social today?"
"I just thought that it would be good to get along." The Faunus replied. "Even if I hate you all."
"Yeah, the feeling is mutu-" Emerald noticed that some of the berries disappeared again. "Alright, which little shit is stealing my stuff?"
No one answered, and Adam stepped up to her. "What do you mean?"
"Someone, or thing, is stealing berries from me." She looked around, searching for the thief.
"That's ridiculous."
"I swear. Something st-"
"There!" Adam pointed at a little creature running back into the bushes, carrying some of the stolen berries.
"Get it!" Emerald yelled, and the two went after the creature. It definitely had an advantage in the bushes, but had to turn around as it faced a cliff. "There you are." Emerald said. The animal turned around, and ate the berries as if it was mocking her. It jumped, and took the hatchet that Emerald had hanging on her waist. She managed to grab it, and tried to get it back. It was easily ripped out of the creatures hands, but the animal wasn't giving up. It used the confusion to steal more berries, and ran away again.
"Seems like we have a new master thief." Adam deadpanned.
"Shut the fuck up and catch that thing." The two ran after the animal, and finally cornered it at a group of trees between some stones. "Okay. Time to-"
Before Emerald could finish, the animal jumped at her, and grabbed onto her shoulder. "Get it off!" The thief yelled, but was surprised as the dinosaur rubbed its face against hers. It looked like the creature actually liked her.
"I guess you got a pet." Adam noted, and looked at the dinosaur's head. "And it looks like a bird had an unfortunate meeting with a steamroller."
"Yeah, it isn't a beauty." Emerald agreed. She was now able to get a better look at the creature. It had quills along its back, and walked on two legs. Its head ended in some sort of beak.
Adam tried to touch the Pegomastax, and as a response, it bit into his finger. "Ouch. Little shit."
Emerald laughed. "Seems like ti doesn't like you."
"Let's get back to picking berries. Maybe that thing can help us." Adam said, and took his bag.
Emerald nodded, and went back to work. The dinosaur wrapped its tail around her, and held onto her shoulder. She already liked the little guy.
Ren and Nora were walking along the northern beach, in search for more dossiers, or anything else useful. At the same time, Nora wanted to test out how strong Danny was. For that purpose, they sought out a smaller animal, which looked like a Raptor with a small crest on its beak-like snout.
"Alright, Danny, time to shine." Nora said, and pointed at the dinosaur. "Attack that thing, okay?"
"Nora, I don't think it can understand you." Ren said.
To his surprise, the Dimorphodon actually jumped off Nora's shoulder, and flew to the Oviraptor. He clawed into its head, and started to attack using his beak. The dinosaur cried out in pain, and tried to run. It didn't come far, however, as it fell down dead. Blood came out of the wounds, and Danny flew back to Nora.
Instead of landing on her shoulder, it latched onto her face again. "Okay, okay. You did a great job."
Ren walked up to the dead animal, and picked it up by the tail. "Well, we also got food."
Danny got off Nora's face, and sat down on her shoulder. "Should we go home?"
"I don't know. We don't have much to show. And-" Ren stopped, and tackled Nora to the ground.
"Ren? What the hell was that?" Her question was answered, as a small seagull turned back around. It tried to attack her, but Ren managed to save his friend.
The bird came back down, and managed to grab Ren's clothes. It pulled at them, and managed to rip off a bit. As soon as it had the fiber, it flew away. The two got back up, and looked after the creature. "Thanks." Nora said.
Ren just smiled, an expression that changed as the bird came back for more. "Danny!" Nora yelled, and the Dimorphodon attacked the Ichthyornis. The two animals fought in the air, and the only thing the two humans could do was watch. Sure, they could try to throw a spear, but it could hit Danny. Or land in the ocean, and be lost forever.
The bird scratched Danny's back with its claws, but the Dimorphodon retaliated by biting its underside. The bird cried out, and pecked at the Pterosaur. It didn't take long until both of them lost height, and finally crashed into the sand.
"No!" Nora screamed and ran to Danny's aid. Luckily for her, it was still alive, just like the Ichthyornis. They just ran out of Stamina, but were still fighting. Both animals had bruises and wounds all over their body. Nora took a spear, and impaled the bird. Danny was tearing at the beak of the creature, until he realised that it was already dead. He made a chirping sound, and sat back down on Nora's shoulder, where he began to lick his wounds. "That was close." She said.
"Well, we got two sacks of meat." Ren said and pulled the spear out of the bird.
"Ruby! We're back!" Yang yelled. She was still carrying the dead bat, and wondered how her sister would react to it.
Ruby leaned against the wall of their house, with Puffy in her lab. Appearently she fell asleep while watching over the camp. Yang threw the corpse on the ground, and the sound of cracking bones woke her sister up.
"What's going on?" Ruby asked, still tired. That quickly changed, as she saw the dead bat on the ground. Next thing her friends saw were rose pedals, and Ruby was on the roof. "I- Is tha- that a bat?"
"It's dead, Rubes. Calm down." Yang assured her.
"What if it's dead? It could still have babies inside of it. They could crawl out at any minute, and attack me with their disgusting, little bat fingers."
Weiss starred at Ruby in disbelief. "You have no idea how bats work, don't you?"
"Uhm..."
Yang sighed and rolled her eyes, before she punched the belly of the bat. More cracking bones were heard, and blood came out of the creatures mouth. "There. All the baby bats are dead. Can you please come down now?"
"Alright." Ruby jumped off the roof, and looked at her friends. "How did it go?"
"Bad. The cave is full of bats and spiders." Blake explained. "Only worthwhile thing we found was this Dossier."
"Ouh. Let's read it." Ruby said. Blake gave her the dossier, and she opened it. There was a picture of some sort of worm. Judging by the pictures of it latching onto animals and humans, it seemed like a species of leeches.
"It is difficult to be angry with Haementeria Laetus, despite its rather terrible nature. The creature has practically no intelligence, and just attaches to any nearby living flesh in an attempt to drain that creature's blood."
"Great. A parasite." Weiss muttered.
"Removing Haementeria requires precision bladework, or access to an open flame. Both of these can be nearly as dangerous to the host as to the leech itself."
"I think we got the bladework down." Blake pointed out. "If we had any blades, that is."
"Can you please not interrupt me every two sentences?" Ruby asked.
"Sorry." Blake and Weiss said in unison.
"Once Haementeria attaches to a host, it drains blood at a rapid pace, and the host experiences hunger, losses of health, and lowered Stamina. Some Haementeria are also carriers for a dangerous disease I've dubbed 'Swamp Fever', which persists permanently beyond the leech's own lifespan. Few creatures on the Island are transmitters for this disease, and it can ultimately be cured with a rare medicine. While Haementeria is not intelligent enough to be tamed, and does not provide a ressource that any tribe would need in large quantities, it is always useful to keep a few around for antidotes. When processed properly, Haementeria venom can be made into powerful antivenin."
"This Island is really getting worse and worse." Yang said. "However, is it just me or does it sound like there's a swamp somewhere?"
"Could be. We don't know how big this place is, afterall. Still, knowing where the swamp is wouldn't be bad. In case anyone of us gets sick, we could get medicine from there." Ruby explained, and closed the book.
"Actually..." Yang pointed out. "I think I may know where it is. When I was getting metal, I saw giant trees in the distance, almost like some sort of Redwood Forest."
"And?"
"And it looked like, between the jungle and the Redwoods, there were mangroves. If the swamp is anywhere, than there." She explained.
"Yang could be right." Weiss said. "We should go there as soon as possible."
"I agree." Blake said. "However, I think the swamp could be a bit much. Remember that Dossier about the Sarco?"
"Good point. Who knows what else is in there." Ruby added. "Maybe there are giant frogs."
"Don't be ridiculous." Weiss answered.
Emerald and Adam came back to the camp, their bags full of berries. It seemed like everyone was here, except for Roman. His little expedition probably took a bit more time than expected. The two put the berries in the chest they prepared for them, and looked at their fellow survivors. Everyone was starring at the new pet.
"The fuck is that?" Mercury broke the silence.
"I don't know. It stole from me, and then it jumped on my shoulder. It didn't come down since." The thief explained.
"Uhm, okay?" Cinder muttered. She couldn't believe that some of the animals here were that easy to tame. "Can he do something?"
Emerald thought for a moment, and pointed at Mercury. The Pegomastax jumped off her shoulder, and stole Merc's pickaxe. It brought it back to its master.
"Seems like it's a little thief." Emerald said, and petted the creature on the head. It jumped back on her shoulder, and once again wrapped the tail around her body.
Adam sat down at the campfire, and put a bit of fresh, raw meat into the fire. Judging by the hide they had, the hunting trip was sucessful too.
Emerald wanted to sit down, when everyone heard faint sounds of something stomping. Suddenly, Roman came back. He had to take a minute to catch his breath. "Run."
Cinder stood up. "What? Why?"
Her question answered itself, as a big dinosaur came up from the beach, running toward their camp.
"Th- That's the dinosaur we saw at the beach." Emerald muttered. Neo confirmed that by nodding.
"And it's coming straight towards us!" Mercury added.
The dinosaur looked like a total killing machine. The strong mouth was filled with sharp teeth, and the muscular legs made it fast. The arms of the Carnotaurus looked muscular too, but were short and not very movable.
Out of fear, none of them was able to move to the side, until the creature actually entered their camp. It seemed to favor Roman, and tried to bite him. He jumped out of the way in the last second, and the dinosaur nearly fell down.
"We have to take it down!" Adam yelled.
"And how do you suppose we do that?" Roman replied.
The carnivore came in for another attack, and this time managed to catch Mecury's leg. It lifted him up, but let go as a fireball hit the side of the monster's head. Mercury landed on his back, and managed to get up. His aura prevented any permanent damage, but it still hurt badly.
Cinder's attack caused the dinosaur to focus on her. "Get the spears! I'll distract it!"
The two closest to the spears, Neo and Adam, ran to them and both took one, which they threw to Roman and Emerald. Both catched their weapons.
Meanwhile, Cinder was pushed closer and closer to the cliff. The Carnotaurus didn't seem to impressed by her attacks, which led her to believe that the animal had a really thick hide. The only thing the fire did was to slow it down a notch. However, she also noticed its weakness: The dinosaur was fast, but wasn't able to turn around quickly. It cried out in pain, as a spear impaled its back. The others charged into battle, and all threw their spears. All of them hit, and impaled the dinosaurs side. It wasn't going down though, as it turned around and charged at them.
By doing that, it showed her the side with all the spears in, and Cinder managed to grab one of them. She had a plan. It was risky, sure, but should work. She used the spears sticking in the Carnotaurus to make her way to it's head, and then ripped the closest spear out of the dinosaur.
The animal concentrated on Neo, and tried to catch her in his fangs. The girl managed to dodge though, and saw Cinder on top of the dinosaur. She held up the spear, and led it down into the Carno's eye. It roared in pain, and tried to shake the half-maiden off. Cinder held as tight as she could, and stabbed the creature repeatedly. The pain finally caused the creature to fall, and it landed on the side with the spears, impaling it completely. As the dust disappeared, all were able to see that the creature was dead.
Cinder tried to get up, but her leg was burried under the dinosaur's head. Emerald and Neo pulled her out, and she held her leg. It hurt, but wasn't broken. Cinder looked over at Mercury, who had managed to get up again. The camp itself was hit hard. While the Carnotaurus was chasing them, it destroyed a lot of the smaller things, including their storage boxes, the campfire and some other stuff. Their huts had also received some damage, but still stood.
It took her a moment to realize that they just took down a Carnotaurus. The dinosaur was pretty big, and probably one of the Island's strongest predators. It was a hard battle as it was, and she didn't want to think what a bigger dinosaur, or a pack of Carnos, could do, especially if one of them was alone.
She noticed Neo walking past her. The girl began to skin the animal, causing everyone to, once again, step back.
"So, that was a thing." Roman stated.
"Yes." Adam turned toward him. "Why did you bring it here?" He yelled.
"I'm sorry. What should I have done? Run until it gets me? We had the best chances of bringing it down by working together." Roman defended himself.
"He's right." Cinder muttered. "It worked out, so there's no point in discussing it." She looked over to the Carnotaurus, and nearly puked, as Neo reached into the creature, and pulled something out.
"I still think it was a bad idea." Adam insisted. "Not to-" He starred at Neo, as the girl brought them something. It was, just like her hands and forearms, completely covered in blood. "What's that?"
Roman took it. It seemed like it was some sort of page. He walked off to the near river to clean it. Neo turned to Cinder, and gave her a couple of long sticks. It didn't take long to determine that they were arrows. "Where did you get them from?"
Neo pointed at the open wound in the Carnotaurus. Appearently that thing ate someone at some point.
"Well, now I only need a bow." Cinder added, and took a closer look at the arrows. They were completely covered in blood, but she could feel that they were made out of wood and flint.
They noticed that Roman came back, holding the page in his hands. "That seems useful." He said. "This is some sort of recipe."
"For what?" Adam asked.
"It might sound dumb, but it describes how to make a healing potion." He received the expected, weirded out looks. "We'd need 2 handfuls of Tintoberries and one half dollops of Narcotics."
"Uhm, what?" Cinder asked.
"I don't know. That's how it's described here. Get off my back."
Cinder sighed, and took the recipe. He was right, the measurements were completely useless. Only thing useful about it were the things they needed. It could take some time, but through some simple experimenting, they should be able to find out how much they needed.
Ozpin was leaving the Bullhead that brought him to the Amity Colloseum. He wanted to inspect the sight himself, and Ironwood wanted to meet him too. There was more on his mind than usually. He knew that their coverup could only work for so long, before the students started to ask question as to why the others didn't return.
He entered the arena, and saw scientists from Atlas, as well as Vale, working to find out what happened. Some tents were built up in the middle of the battlefield, and provided shelter for the workers. Between all of them, he was able to see Penny walking around, helping where she could. Ironwood decided to let her in, as she could prove invaluable. And because the robot started to get on his nerves with questions about Ruby.
Ozpin walked past the arena, and into a backroom they used as briefing room. A table, with built in hologram projector, was in the middle of it. Another small table offered some drinks, since the meetings held in here could take their time. Ironwood, Qrow and Glynda were already there.
"Welcome, Oz." Qrow said. He was leaned against the wall, like usually.
"Good evening." Ozpin sat down at a chair, and looked at Ironwood. "And, did you find something?"
The General sighed. "Something interesting. And worrying." Over the table appeared a hologramm, depicting several strings of scientific data. "It took some time to check the data, but our radars found some, unusual, readings at the day of the event."
Ozpon raised his eyebrow. "And?"
"Well, the data came from our Orbit." Ironwood said, and a silence ensued.
"So, Aliens?" Glynda finally broke the silence.
"I wouldn't go that far. Our radars aren't the best, and the readings could be everything, from an asteroid entering our atmosphere, up to a solar storm. We should not jump to any conclusions."
"Good. Because, honestly, Aliens sound a bit extreme." Qrow mentioned.
Suddenly, the door opened, and one of the guards looked inside. "General Ironwood, sir, Miss Schnee is here."
"Let her in."
He nodded, and Winter entered the room. Her stance was as serious as ever, but the fact that her hair wasn't done as perfectly as usual told Ozpin that she was worried. Which was understandable, her sister disapeared, after all. "Mister Ironwood. I finished my assignment at the White Fang Outpost."
"Please tell me you got useful intel." Ironwood asked, nearly pleading for a yes.
"Yes, and no." The specialist answered. "On one hand, they are just as much in the dark as we are."
That fact was good to know. It meant that the organisation wasn't responsible for that. "However, it seems like a small pocket of them blames demons."
This caused every head to look at her. "Demons?" Qrow asked sarcastically.
"Precisely." Winter didn't even look at Qrow. The bad blood between the two was still strong.
"That's even more ridiculous than Aliens." Glynda pointed out.
"I know. They even tried to summon one."
Qrow looked at Ozpin. It seemed like he was slightly amused. "I think they won't be a problem for now." He turned to Winter. "It didn't work, right?"
She paused for a second. "Would you believe me if I said it did?" Winter looked down. " Admittedly, I didn't expect demons to be triangular."
As a response, Qrow drank from his flask. No one in the room didn't even want to deal with anything like this right now.
Ozpin put his head in his hands. "So we are still at square zero."
"Not exactly." Ironwood said. "We think that it should be possible to find out where they went. We'd just have to analyze the radiation that was left behind. It could lead to wherever they ended up."
"And then we send an rescue team." Glynd added.
Ironwood paused. "Exactly."
Ozpin thought about it for a moment. The plan sounded good. He'd just have to send someone he could trust. And even then, it'd be better to send recon teams through it first. Sadly, it was the only possibility they had, even though it'd take some time.
And the current chaos was the perfect opportunity for her to make a move.
Alright, Chapter 5. It took a bit longer than usual, which I'm apologizing for.
Now, back to answering questions:
A New Challenger
1: No, holiday events aren't going to play a role, except for some items like pumpkins, or some animals. The bunnyraptor was just a little joke on the side. (The demon thing was also just a joke. It isn't going to play a role in the story)
2: Well, I already have something planned for Team CFVY. As for sending more Teams to the Ark, no, there is nothing planned yet. However, they'll still play somewhat of a role in the story, just like Scorched Earth. Penny is obviously going to be involved, just as Team SSSN and CRDL.
3: The Troodon are going to be villains, that's for sure. Salem isn't, nor was ever supposed to be the 'big bad' of the story. To be fair though, the carnivores are the villains of the Ark anyway.
4: It's planned to make one or two chapters like this later on. However, I think the viewpoint of, for example, an Phiomia wouldn't be very interesting.
5: Something similiar to that.
Also, yes I know what Dinosaur King is (I loved that series, and the game). But I never said that none of the tames will have semblances, it's just going to be a bit more complicated than unlocking Aura.
Now to Old Crazy Walter:
Yeah, being sick around Easter sucks. I'm already proof reading the chapters multiple times, but due to being sick, and doing it a bit late, it seems like some mistakes came through. However, it should be fixed by now. Thanks for pointing it out.
I also noticed that I forgot to answer your last question last time. The food still spoils fast. Not as fast as in the game, but still faster than in real life, mostly due to it being part of the Lore of Ark.
For the Questions of The Multiversal Writer (Also, thanks for pointing out the mistakes):
1. I actually heard of that for the first time. Seems pretty interesting, so maybe.
2. For Raptor Claus, no. About the turkey: Yes, they will appear.
3. It's rated M for violence and gore (although that will mostly happen later on) and language. Of course, the relations between the Characters, for example Jaune and Pyrrha, will be part of the story. Just don't expect any explicit scenes.
Now for longbowchris50:
Yes, the Kentrosaurus will appear.
Lastly, Omega09:
Well, the Giga will appear. The Rex won't, since the Species on Ark is the Tyrannosaurus Dominus, not Rex. (Yes, I'm a smartass, I know.)
RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth; Ark: Survival Evolved belongs to Wildcard Studios