Chapter 18: The missing Cabbage
(Day 19)
"My name is Pyrrha Nikos. It has been three long weeks since we first arrived on this Island. But despite the odds, we made it. My friends and I secured a good location and started to grow food, tame livestock and built a small base.
But now, all of this is in danger. Something had moved in the shadows, threatening our very livelihood. No, it wasn't a Grimm, so much is clear.
However, no one knows who exactly the culprit is. Or what. Thus, I've decided to step up and put an end to this madness. Truly, there is only one person who can solve this mystery:
Detective Pyrrha Nikos!
"Nora?" Jaune asked, looking at the girl standing next to him. "I think she lost it."
"Sure?" Nora replied, looking back at me.
Surely, they must think that I lost it, but little do they know that I always enjoyed mystery books and movies. I opened the door, my trenchcoat fluttered in the wind. Sure, I was up the whole night making that thing, but it definitely paid off.
The valley was peaceful, too peaceful. One thing was clear: The culprit is hiding in this place. Somewhere in this god's forsaken hole, where criminals do as they please.
"What criminals?" Nora asked. Clearly, she had been living under a rock. It is clear that this place has gone to hell.
Suddenly, I felt something hitting the back of my head. I turned around and saw Jaune. Did he slap me?
"Pyrrha, you're losing it. This isn't some old crime caper. There's no one stealing our cabbages."
I laughed. What a naive little man. "Jaune, listen. Depending on what it is, there might be more to it. Who knows. Maybe once the cabbages are depleted, it comes for us."
"I highly doubt that a cabbage thief would resort to homicide if there isn't any gabbage left."
"You don't know that. Also, I'm already sure that it's an animal. Now, could you please come with me? I need a sidekick."
"Why do I have to be a sidekick?" Come on Jaune, you know why-
"Are you really asking this?" Thank you, Nora. "No problem."
"Fine. I don't have anything to do anyway, so I guess it's okay." That was true. Ren still hasn't come back, so the construction of our defenses was at a halt. Which was a shame, since the last level ups provided a good amount of building parts that could be used on our walls.
"Hey, Pyrrha?" Nora interrupted my train of tho- "Do you have to narrate everything?"
Yes. "Well, come on. We don't have all day."
"We do."
"Just- Just help me out here."
"So what about your plans?" Yang asked, looking at Weiss and Ruby. They just came back from a small expedition, trying to find their new pet.
"Won't work." Weiss sighed.
"What was it that you wanted to tame?" Ren asked.
"I thought we might could use a Stegosaurus. But well." Weiss shrugged and sat down.
"You didn't find one?" Yang asked.
"Nope," Ruby replied. "Weissy-"
"Don't call me that."
"-said that she saw a herd to the west, but there were none."
"We found their tracks though. It looks like they moved north. We could still find them, but actually getting there alive and back would be a problem. Especially through the swamp."
"By the way..." Yang muttered and looked at Ren. "How did you and your Iguanodon get through there so easily?"
"We didn't go through the swamp. I walked around it. There's a small area to the east without swamp."
"Good to know. Gonna add that to the map." Weiss replied. "Well, at least that gives me time to work on another project."
"You've got a lot of stuff planned, don't you?"
"Definitely." Weiss looked through her pockets and pulled out a sheet of paper, made out of fibers that they carefully put together. "This is something I'm working on right now."
"The list?" Ren asked.
"Exactly. I used the information we have on this Island and it's environment to make a small list of creatures that might live on this Island.
"Yoink!" Yang yelled and snatched the paper out of her hand. "Let's see... Brachiosaurus, I know that one... Daspletosaurus? Wasn't that, like, a Tyrannosaur?"
"A relative, yes."
"Entelodont, Hyaenedon, Baryonix, Gastornis, Dunkleosteus, Udanoceratops, Anomalocaris... I have no idea what half of these are..."
"You don't have to. Once I finished the list, I'll add a bit of information, especially if the animal is dangerous or not." Weiss looked at Ren. "I'm trying to have it done tomorrow so that you can take a copy with you."
"Wait, you're leaving already?" Ruby asked.
"I am the only one at home that has learned how to built, and I feel a bit sorry for leaving them alone with Nora."
"Well, I can't fault you," Yang replied. "Remember what happened two months ago?"
"Oh gods, it took the entire Vale police force and even the Whtie Fang to catch her," Ruby remembered. "Then again, she was mostly jumping around and hiding."
"And stripping on the street. You forgot that." Weiss added, painfully remembering the event. "Hell, she thought she was part of some secret underground organization fighting against clothing."
"Actually, I think that came from her tasting Oobleck's coffee." Ren pointed out.
"Why does Nora have so much energy anyway?" Ruby asked.
"I think it has to do with her Semblance. The energy from the electricity has to go somewhere."
Weiss nodded. "True. Anyways, If you go home, can you try to keep an eye out for more animals?"
"Sure thing."
"Weiss? Are you okay? You seem a bit... obsessed with the animals here."
Weiss stared at Yang, before shrugging. "Of course I'm interested in that. This is an ecosystem like nowhere else. Animals from all time periods living together ruins all over the place... That's why I wanted to ask Blake for a favor."
"Which one?"
"I wanted to ask her if she could build me a small study. You know, where I can collect our dossiers, make a bit of my own research."
"I think you're allocating our resources wrong," Yang said. "We only got so much metal, crystal, et cetera."
"I know. But having a place to organize all the information we have should provide us with a better way of connecting the dots, finding out where we are. And, even with we die, we can leave something behind for the next people, just like Rockwell did."
"By the way, did Pyrrha and Jaune mention that one note we found?" Ren asked.
"Which one? They mentioned several."
"The one written in ancient Mistrali? Pyrrha is trying to translate it."
"Well, they did mention it, but as far as I know, they still weren't sure what it said," Weiss muttered. "I'm wondering though... The last people here, how far ago was it that they were here? We found one that mentioned a place that sounded like a city, but I never heard of it. But judging by the fact that your note was written in old mistrali, I'd put it around a thousand years ago?"
"Can you place it that precise?" Yang asked. "From just a language?"
"Well, no. I'm not a linguist and know next to nothing about languages. But I once heard about that timeframe in a documentary."
"What languages can you speak anyways?" Ruby wondered. "I mean, you're the heiress of a world-wide company."
"Two. Valian and East-Atlesian."
"Is that enough?"
"The whole planet speaks Valian, even privately, and we have devices that translate major languages. Yes, it's enough."
"I never even heard someone speaking East-Atlesian," Ren replied.
"Nicht verwunderlich. Niemand nutzt die Sprache außerhalb von einigen privaten Haushalten." Weiss replied, leaving everyone with a questioning look on their face.
"I... I didn't understand a word."
"That was the intention."
"Another Strawberry Sunrise, please." Neptune said, sitting at the bar of the nightclub. The establishment was rather busy, like almost every evening. Mostly lowlifes and thugs visited this place, though some normal, drunk people were visible from time to time too.
"Here you go." The owner of the bar, a certain Junior Xiong, or simply Junior, replied. "You know, kid, I never thought I'd see you again after your last visit with blondie. And now you're here every day."
"Huh, yeah. Weird, right?" Neptune replied.
"I have to excuse my friend." Sun barged into the conversation. "He's a bit... Yeah, he's dumb."
"Is there a reason you're here every day? It's kinda weird. Also, my two bodyguards are way too distracted by your pirate friend." Junior muttered, glaring over at Scarlet. His two henchmen, Militia and Melanie Militades, seemed to have taken a liking to him.
"Well, that's not really our problem."
"It is. I can't have you come in here and distract both of my bodyguards..."
"Seriously, he said that he already told them," Sage added. "With how often that happened back home too, I think his Semblance is attracting twins to him."
"Told them what?"
"That he's gay." Sun threw in.
"Oh. I could've guessed that. Anyways, have any of you seen blondie?"
"Uhm, yes. She's at Beacon." Neptune lied, one of the things he really wasn't good at.
"That's weird. She normally came here every Saturday."
"Yang's just busy with exams, that's all," Sun stated.
"I hope so. She's been one of my best customers. If she wasn't trashing the entire bar."
"By the way..." Sage asked. "Why didn't you file any legal charges?"
"I'm not gonna talk to the police. I'm working with criminals, you know."
"Fair enough," Sun replied and took a swig of his drink. He turned around, letting his view go over the crowd. Most of them were dancing to the music. Except for one. Sun narrowed his eyes, trying to get a better look at the man.
"Sun?"
"Wait, something's wrong..." Sun muttered. He watched as the man slowly made his way towards the bar, and sat down.
"One Tequila, please."
"Here. Freak." Junior replied, giving the man the drink.
Sun kept an eye on him, watching as he sipped his alcohol. He couldn't exactly say what made him suspicious. Maybe it was the trenchcoat, the long hair or his eyes.
"Thank you." The man muttered. "Tell me, are you Junior Xiong?"
"Yes, that'd be me. Need information?"
Okay, now he was really suspicious.
"Have you ever had contact with a certain... Roman Torchwick?"
"Yes. But I haven't seen him since. Why are you asking?"
"Oh, I just wanted to know. See, I'm working for a certain group of thieves in downtown Vale. He's still owing them money."
"Well, sorry to say, but you're wrong here."
"Very well. Goodbye." The man replied. He stood up, and walked out of the nightclub, leaving Sun and his team startled.
"Huh, that was weird," Neptune muttered. He took another sip of his drink. "Well, back to our previous topic..."
Looked like everything was all right once again. However, Sun still couldn't shake off the feeling that this guy was weird somehow.
"I ran my fingers over the wet dirt, trying to find out what could've dug up the missing cabbages. Our Irrigation System was working, well, so much was clear. That meant it wasn't very hard to dig them up. I'm sure even Jaune could've done this with his bare hands.
"Wait, what's that supposed to mean?"
It looks like nothing has touched the crime scene in the meantime. Lucky me. That makes it easy to identify what our culprit used for digging. Long, deep scratches. They definitely used claws. Maybe five centimeters long...
"And? This is an Island full of dinosaurs. Practically everything here has claws." My partner pointed out.
"True that, but I think we can definitely narrow down our list of suspects. It stole cabbages, which means it's either a herbivore or omnivore."
"Well, yeah. That narrows it down a bit. Let's see... An animal with claws that eats plants..."
"I found another clue," I said and picked up a small string of fur. I held it into the sunlight and discerned it to be a dark grey color. "We're dealing with a mammal here."
"Pyrrha?"
"Not now, I'm thinking." Seriously, this was a tough case. We haven't seen many mammals with claws yet, much fewer ones that dug out their food. Let's see, we saw Mammoths, Sheep, Monkeys, Smilodon, and Bats. Obviously, none of them fit the evidence. We also know that there are Beavers on this Island, but there are none close enough. Of course! It's an entirely new species!
"Yeah, that's what I guessed. Seriously though, this is dumb. We have other things to worry about. Taming more useful animals, gathering resources, finding out where we are..."
Man, someone has to get their priorities straight.
"Seriously? You realize that I can hear you, right?"
Seems like my partner has found his Semblance. I didn't expect it to allow him to read thoughts, but well... This can come in handy if we have to interrogate a possible culprit.
"Yeah, I think Nora was right. You've gone bonkers."
"How did I 'go bonkers', Jaune? I simply want to solve this case, so that we can sleep in peace again."
"Wait, did you get much sleep?"
"Of course," I said. To be fair, I didn't sleep very well since our arrival. I was always kept up by the thought that something might sneak into our base and kill us in our sleep.
"Oh, that's what I thought. I noticed you lookgin around everytime as if something was about to attack."
Darn it, I have to keep this stuff to myself.
"Hey, what about I help you out here, and then you get a nice, big dose of sleep. I'll stay up and keep an eye out for any creatures, 'kay?"
I smiled and nodded. "Yeah. Thank you, Jaune." I noticed deep footprints in the wet earth. "Now, I have a suspicion where it might be."
"Cinder?" Emerald asked, knocking on the door of her boss' house. Then, she waited, until someone finally opened.
"Yes?" The woman answered. Emerald was shocked at the sight.
She's never seen her like this. Hair a wild mess, clothes were thrown over her body half-heartedly. Even her normally smooth skin looked a bit more rough, probably due to the lack of beauty products.
"Uhm, I wanted to talk to you..."
"What? About Beacon?"
"No, about... well, about you. Like, you seem a bit out of it." She let her feet circle on the ground.
"What? I'm completely fine. Don't worry about me. Who even suggested that I'm going crazy?"
"Roman. But I think he's-"
"Oh, that little..." Cinder stormed out of her shack and walked toward Roman, who was currently chatting with Mercury at the campfire. "Roman Torchwick!"
"As he lives and breathes! What is it, darling?"
Cinder slapped him across the face, throwing the thief off his log. "Cut the shit. What did you tell Emerald?"
"Ugh, seriously?" Roman stood up and rubbed his head. "That's what this is all about?"
"Yes, it is. How can you say I'm going crazy?"
"I never said that. I said that you're not in control anymore, and that's troubling you."
"And how would you get that idea?"
Roman smiled and sat back down. "Cinder, dear. I'm a professional thief. In my line of work, you'll die if you can't read others, especially those that you make your deals with. Now, how 'bout you direct your anger to a more pressing issue?"
"Which would be?"
"The fact that we haven't made much progress." Adam threw in. "Roman brought this issue to my attention, and I agree with him. Since our arrival, we found a few notes previous inhabitants left here. However, we have no idea what happened to them, or why we're here."
"So? You want to scout for more?" Emerald asked.
"No. Roman actually brought one along from his last trip." Adam looked at the thief. "Could you read it to her, please?"
"No problem." Roman stood up and pulled out a small book from his pocket. He coughed in his fist and started reading.
"I suppose it was a bit naive of me to think that someone with the moniker of 'Beast Queen' would roll out the red carpet. I guess I got used to all the friendly treatment that being an associate of Rockwell's earned me. She did let me stay at least, and she hasn't instructed her dinosaurs to kill me yet, so that's a positive. Not that she'd really need the dinosaurs. If that glare of hers gets any more intense, I'll probably just burst into flames on the spot. Strewth, I hope she eases up. Sifting through raptor excrement with someone watching is harder than you might think."
"Sounds... almost like a journal, does it not?" Mercury said after Roman finished.
"And?"
"Finding this made me realize that we haven't even tried to find out the nature of this place," Roman added. "So I suggested that we conduct a trip to the red Obelisk. If we can get there, we might just find an answer."
"The Red Obelisk?" Cinder looked south, watching the gigantic object flicker in the sunlight. "Sound like an idea."
"And we'd like you to lead the investigation," Adam said, causing Ciner to step back.
"What? Me?"
"Yes. We think it might help your mental state. And besides, you haven't left your shack for quite a long time." Mercury pointed out, biting a bit off a cooked Titanomyrma. "Besides, having a half-maiden protect us will be helpful."
"And who will come with me?"
"After discussing that part for a long time, we've decided that you will lead the group. Then, Neo, Emerald and I will come along."
"Black and I will watch the camp." Adam finished.
"And are we going on foot or..."
"Definitely not. Neo is already taming a couple of animals to ride there." Roman looked over Cinder's shoulder. "Speak of the devil..."
Cinder turned around and saw Neo walking towards them. She had a few animal in tow, namely a Carbonemys and a Parasaur.
"That's... not what I expected," Mercury muttered.
Neo shrugged and took a piece of wood. She used Charcoal to write on it, and then put the sign around the neck of the new Parasaur.
"Para?" Mercury asked, reading the shield of the Parasaur. "You're not very creative, aren't you?"
"I mean, remember how she called her Dodo?" Adam added.
Neo pouted and angrily scribbled onto another piece of wood. She hung it around the turtle's neck and crossed her arms, clearly proud of herself.
"Polnareff? How does that even make sense?" Emerald asked.
Thus, Neo flipped them off, and stomped towards her desk, starting to make the needed saddles.
"I mean, it's slow but effective," Roman said.
"Ugh, I'm going to sleep. I want to be well-rested when we go tomorrow." Cinder replied, and disappeared into her shack.
"We were finally here. My sidekick and I were about to face the culprit we searched so long for. We followed the tracks we found in the ground to this place, a small area at the side of the valley, covered by ferns and other plant life. Perfect to hide.
"I think it's here," Jaune yelled. I rushed to his side and looked at what he found. There was a small cave in the rockier dirt, freshly dug.
While the last time we entered a cave ended in nothing but despair, as it was full of demonic creatures, we'll definitely have the upper hand in this. Especially thanks to our helping hand.
"Honestly, I never thought you'd find anything," Nora said.
Thus, I collected all my bravery, and we ventured into the cave. It was hard on us. Even with our Aura up, the rocky ground took a toll on our knees and arms. The cave wasn't very high, so we had to crawl. Of course, I went first. Afterall, that was a good way to have Jaune sneak a peek.
"What?"
Nothing. We finally got into a bigger room. While it wasn't big enough to stand in, we all fit in. Along with our culprit.
It laid in the corner. Jaune lit his torch, to give us a better look at the creature. It was four-legged, so much was clear. The front paws ended in long claws perfect for digging. Or ripping apart prey. As I noticed, it's mouth was full of sharp teeth. However, I was also able to spot a few flat teeth in the back, so it was an omnivore. Its fur had a beautiful, dark grey coloration with brown stripes.
However, there was one thing wrong: Its chest was lowering and rising in a way that I've seen before. One day, back in Mistral, I investigated a small Grimm nest during a school expedition. We managed to take out the few creeps but also spotted an injured Waterbuffalo, a species of buffalos that was rather often seen south of the kingdom, in the swamps.
It clearly walked into the den and got attacked by the creeps. Its chest was rising just like the one of our culprit here. It was the sign of heavy breathing. The sign of a dying creature.
"Yeah, it's definitely dying," Nora said. She had kneeled down next to the poor animal and put her hand on its chest. "Its eyes are watery."
"Is it sick?" Jaune asked.
"No... I think it was poisoned..." Nora muttered. She pushed back a bit of long fur and revealed small bite marks. "Looks like they belong to a small dinosaur..."
"I..." Jaune muttered, trying to collect his thoughts. "We have to get it out of here."
True. While ti stole our cabbages, it was definitely out of desperation. This creature was dying, and this was nothing we could just stand idly by.
We quickly grabbed the sides of the animal, gently lifting it up. It wasn't defending itself, showing just how weak it had gotten. We somehow managed to get it out of its cave, and back to our main base. Finally, we out it down in an half-finished enclosure.
"So... What now?"
"I'm gonna feed it and try to get it back to strength," Nora explained. I had to admit, as crazy as she might seem, she definitely got a heart for animals. And I can guess where it's coming from.
She once mentioned that, while she lived in the wild with Ren, they often fought alongside animals during Grimm attacks. I guess that caused her to have somewhat of a connection to them.
But what mattered the most now, is that we finally found the culprit. That means:
Another case solved! Thanks to the valiant efforts of Detective Pyrrha Nikos! And her sidekick, The Huntsmen!
"Wait, how do you know about my comics?" Jaune replied, drawing a smile from me. Oh Jaune, your 'secret' stashes aren't as secret as you might think. "You found them?"
"Yes. You can definitely draw. However, you should be quite ashamed of yourself." I mean, I never took you for a guy that liked those lewd comics...
"First off, I was hiding them for Blake. Second, it's called Hentai."
I smiled once again. As if Blake would openly talk about her hobbies with anyone. Then again, both of them were in the book club...
"Pyrrha, just go to bed," Jaune replied, a bit annoyed. Though I found his small blush adorable.
However, he was right. I had to go to sleep, or I'd definitely go crazy.
"You already did." Nora replied."
And here's Chapter 18.
I feel like I should mention something about the creature JNPR found. Yes, it was a Purlovia. However, in the game, it's a pure carnivore, while the real animal was a herbivore. Thus, I thought it'd be a good compromise to make it an omnivore, that mostly eats meat.
Now to reviews:
Dev the snake Faunus: Uhm, okay?
Marc Ello-Re Yes: Seeing a Giga up close is most likely the last thing one sees. Those things are pretty OP.
Rob: Yes, Wyverns will make an appearance. If you mean the Boss, yes, he'll (she'll?) appear too.
Hercules8: Thanks.
Guest: I will if Scorched Earth makes a direct appearance. Thanks for the suggestion.
Mata Nui: Thanks.
RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth; Ark: Survival Evolved belongs to Wildcard Studios