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To Survive and Prosper

CHAPTER 13

The ride to our destination only took fifteen to twenty minutes, but for me, it felt like it took hours. I have spent these minutes trying to get a hold of myself while I try to endure my stomach's abysmal relationship with air travel. At least the air is open this time, I hope Mother Nature doesn't mind getting puked once... or twice.

"I recommend you inhale the fresh air, Mr. Arc. It would help you tolerate the flight slightly longer." Doctor Oobleck advised loudly enough so I could hear him while we were traveling on the Bullhead, which would have been helpful if I wasn't doing that because the open air was right in front of me for the entire duration of the flight, it was why I even lasted that long.

I got to the point where I couldn't hold it for much longer and decided to just throw it outside to the woodlands on the outskirts of Vale. There go the florn cakes I just ate. It made me feel a little better but the headaches I received during the flight persisted.

"It was a surprise to see you accompanying us, Doctor. We didn't see you as much of a warrior." Pyrrha remarked.

"I do not blame you for your perception, I do fancy myself to be more of a scholar. But I can assure you, as a Huntsman, I've had my fair share of tussles."

"Tussles? You mean like the mushrooms?" Nora said after mishearing the doctor's uttering.

"I'm sure they're truffles, Nora." Ren corrected.

"Like the sprout, right?"

"Those would be brussels."

"Whatever. You still owe me food, Ren." Nora growled. Ren just sighed and looked away from her.

"Besides, given my expertise in the field of history as well as my dabblings in the archaeological surveys, our dear headmaster saw fit to assign me to this particular... assignment!"

I finally caught my breath and spoke. "So, not only we are on a hunt for Grimm, but we're also on a history tour."

"That's one way to put it! The southeast quadrant outside of Vale is home to wild forests and deep caves, but it is also the location of one of the greatest tragedies of this Kingdom's history!"

"Mountain Glenn..." Pyrrha uttered.

"Huh?" I did hear about Mountain Glenn but unfortunately, I haven't been paying attention enough to know more beyond its name, appearance, and location.

"Mountain Glenn was an expansion of Vale before it was overrun by Grimm and fenced off from the rest of the city," Ren explained.

"Precisely, Mr. Ren! And now it stands abandoned as a dark reminder." Doctor Oobleck added.

I gulped upon learning about it being overrun. In hindsight, I should have avoided this quadrant but I was so attracted by its apparent simplicity on paper I didn't think of how eerily dangerous this region was.

"Don't freak out," I mumbled to myself. There wasn't much time to panic and it was too late to convince the pilot to go back because we already had gotten past its walls once I found out that going here may not be a good idea. The place looked as bad, if not worse, as Ren and Doctor Oobleck described it to be.

It was a ghost town, with nothing but defunct roads and dilapidated buildings everywhere, along with an eerily monotonous atmosphere, containing almost no color aside from shades of black, white, and maybe brown; even the sky looked like it was desaturated the moment we entered the area. I spotted a few Grimm in the area too, hopefully, those would be the only Grimm I would encounter in this wretched hive.

I also noticed the wall in front of the region had its text crossed out with black paint along with the large words written 'KEEP OUT'. Wonderful, I felt like I won a ticket to what could be the worst vacation spot in Vale. That paint might as well say 'Abandon hope all ye who enter.'

"We're in the pipe, five-by-five!" the pilot's female voice announced. No turning back from this, unfortunately, so my only option is to make sure this would be a quick tour.

The Bullhead descended and hovered above the empty street. We all leaped off the Bullhead before it flew away. We all had our weapons ready—except for the prof..erm..doctor, who just took a sip from his container because even during a mission, the guy still can't let go of his coffee. I would have brought my tanna too if we didn't leave our bags at Beacon due to his instructions and because we want to do this with as little weight as possible.

We scanned around the abandoned ruins of a city, armed and ready, only to find nothing but maybe a few tumbleweeds at a distance despite this place being said to be overrun. It was a relief, honestly; a place with little Grimm was somewhere I wanted to take as my first assignment. Maybe this place wasn't as bad as I thought.

Doctor Oobleck broke the silence and called for our attention. "Alright! You four may still be students, but as of this moment, your first mission as Huntsmen has begun! From this point forward, you need to do exactly as I say! Do you understand?"

"Sir, yes, sir!" Nora saluted.

"Just call me doctor, Miss Valkyrie. No need to be so overly formal now. I may be far above your ranks but I still prefer my humble title as a doctor," he replied.

"Ja, Doktor!" Nora exclaimed, speaking in a fake Mantlian accent this time.

"So, what do we do now, doctor?" I asked.

"Ah, yes, straight to the chase; I like it! As you've been informed, the southeast area has been marked as a recent hot spot for Grimm activity. Now, there are several possible explanations for this behavior, one of which being... Grimm."

"Of course," I muttered as we looked at each other confused at his redundancy.

"Grimm. A creature of Grimm approximately one hundred meters from us at this very moment." This prompted us to quickly turn around to spot a single Beowolf coming emerging from a corner.

We went to our combat stances and prepared to attack before Doctor Oobleck ordered us to halt. "Stop!" We lowered our weapons and stared at him puzzlingly. "There are a number of reasons why Grimm will congregate in this particular area, the most likely of which will be their attraction to negativity. Sadness, envy, loneliness, hatred, having a disregard for higher education. All qualities that are likely held by our hidden group harboring ill intent."

I immediately got what he was trying to convey, making me rather glad that we didn't storm the Beowolf the second we saw it as it would undoubtedly attract a horde. "So... what do you suggest we'd do?" I asked.

"We wait. We track. If this specimen leads us to its pack, that pack may subsequently lead us to our prey."

"How long do we wait then?" Pyrrha inquired.

"It's uncertain. Hours, days, weeks. Why lone Grimm have been known to stay isolated from the pack for months."

That long? Now I know why Team CFVY's mission took almost a week.

"Waiting, schmaiting. Couldn't we just blow them up?" Nora impatiently suggested.

"That would be a foolish move, Miss Valkyrie. While Grimm is known to be attracted to negativity, they can sense noise as well, similar to that of an animal, and let's not forget about their reaction to the sound of an explosion," He explained. Nora calmed down after his lecture but still noticeably her aggressive self per the norm. Doctor Oobleck then noticed a disconcerting sight. "…and there's the whole pack."

We alarmingly looked back and saw more and more crawling out shortly before they turned in our direction and growled at our presence.

Oh crap, I thought. I gripped the handle of my sword firmly as they stared at me with their red eyes as they began charging in our direction.

"And now they've seen us," the doctor said, stating the obvious.

Yeah, we could see that, I thought. "I guess tracking them won't be necessary." I aimed my pistol at the pack that was getting near us by the second. "What should we do now, doctor?"

"You topped combat class last semester with flying colors, did you not? I'm sure you already know it by now, Mister Arc!"

I started to ponder hastily what to do with this horde while trying to calm down and not feed more fear to the incoming Grimm. Fleeing was simply not the option; I'm supposed to be a fearless leader, after all. I managed to make the coin drop before the pack was able to get close to us. "Nora, smoke."

"Without another word!" Nora expeditiously changed her hammer to its launcher form and fired a smoke grenade within the pack.

The Beos went to a halt as pink smog began taking over their surroundings. I turned over to Pyrrha and nodded to her. I expanded my shield before Pyrrha got on it and I threw her into the pack as Pyrrha began spinning with her spear. Ren, Nora, and I charged in, clearing the area of remaining Grimm.

Thanks to our weapons being slightly upgraded, the Grimm fell quicker than they were before. My laspistol managed to shoot down the Beowolves with only one or two shots, this pistol was made to cut down aura and since the Grimm lacked any of them and Beos were one of the weakest, they were barely a threat.

A distant growl was heard as another batch of Beowolves began rushing toward us. We all switched to our range weapons and opened fire, running a third of the wave before switching back to melee once they got close (also so I could save ammo. Laser ammo packs are not cheap, especially since I wasn't able to loot anyone recently.) With our coordination and combined strengths, they never stood a chance.

"Fear us, soulless creatures, for we are Team Awesome!" Nora smashed the head of the last Beowolf flat. "All your attempts to destroy us are in vain."

If the Grimm wasn't soulless, they'd be wetting themselves by now that they would run away, not because of Nora's cheesy boasting but on how effectively we operated.

"Excellent work, students, as expected from a team with the likes of yours." Doctor Oobleck remarked. "But let us not celebrate yet. This is without a doubt, the first of many of the Grimm encounters we will be having inside this desolate community. Let us move forth."

My teammates all nodded and followed him while I panted for a few seconds before complying as well. Our weapons remained unsheathed as Grimm could be around every corner.

"I have a bad feeling about this," I said. It's pretty obvious that I don't like this place; I already wanted to get out and I've only been here for a few minutes.

=o=

1. The quadrant was not in the city itself but considered itself as a part of the kingdom prior to being overrun and becoming too inhospitable.

To summarize what we have been doing for the past couple of hours, we have been doing the same routine of wandering around the ruins and killing every Grimm we come across as I look around and scour for things I could use. We have been racking kills off a dangerously substantial amount of Grimm and it is still said that the Grimm numbers here are still far more than plentiful, making me question the actual degree of Grimm activity around this area.

That aside, it was honestly refreshing to fight the Grimm again. I almost forgot how easy it is to take out the more common, lower-class Grimm, especially with teammates at your side.

"Alright, now. That's it for the duration of the morning! Let's take a short break and have your midday meals. We cannot afford to have empty stomachs during a hunt; we have a morale to maintain. So sit down and rest! I have brought food for us to eat." Doctor Oobleck announced.

"Oh, finally!" Nora said before turning to Ren. "You better not hog the food this time, she growled. He replied by rolling his eyes.

I pulled my sword from one of the Beowolf's decaying corpses and went to catch up with the others. "Hey, Doctor. Correct me if I'm wrong. But isn't this area supposed to only have moderate Grimm activity?" I questioned. "This is literally the one-hundred fifty-seventh Grimm we just killed; I know this because Nora was keeping track of our total kill count. I don't know exactly how many Grimm defines what's high or low, but I'm pretty sure that number is not moderate."

Doctor Oobleck took a few seconds to stare at me and be baffled by my statement. "Moderate Grimm Activity? On Mountain Glenn? Is that what the mission briefing told you? Surely there has to be some error on the mission board. Mountain Glenn has been destroyed for more than a decade, it's ridiculous to think that it would contain only a moderate amount of Grimm after years of infestation! Come to think of it—this mission was not supposed to be available for freshmen, which makes it strangely suspicious that you managed to take this assignment despite how hazardous it is. Then again you are considered to be one of the most exceptional freshmen we had in the long run and you have been doing spectacular so far. So regardless of what the answer is—this is our mission now and we are not going anywhere until it is completed or if there is a particularly dire situation that would force us into a retreat."

This pretty much confirmed my fear of this being a more dangerous mission than it was presented. If I were aware that this would be a high-risk mission inside one of the worst places in the kingdom I would have been searching for missing supplies in the woods like crazy by now. Hell, maybe I'd even wait for that stupid settlement defense mission for next week that takes place on the very same quadrant. I was terrified but I also was curiously suspicious at what made the board label it as something easier than it is, it made me think.

I also realized something—Yang mentioned earlier that they were trying to sign themselves up for a Search And Destroy mission but said that since they were first-year, it was restricted from them and that it was already taken. I might be wrong, but this could be the very same mission that she was referring to but for some reason ended up being allowed to my team whilst representing itself to be a relatively simple mission. Something or someone wants me here and I intend to find out. I don't know why Team RWBY would want this particular mission [1], but whatever the reason, I'd kill to switch places.

I silently groaned and decided to go and take my lunch. I lost my breakfast earlier on the Bullhead, so my stomach could use some more food.

"Sounds a little scary, but I'm okay with it! More Grimm means more fun for me!" Nora cheerfully chirped. "We shouldn't have too much trouble because we're like the best of the best!"

Thankfully, even with years worth of achievements on her belt, Pyrrha wasn't overconfident. "We should still be more careful. If it's true that this mission is actually more dangerous than what was presented to us, then it's best if we stay alert.

Ren chimed in. "Pyrrha's right, Nora. While we may be recognized as one of the most, if not most remarkable, first years of the academy, we cannot afford to be reckless at something more serious than we anticipated, especially while we're still on our first mission."

"I couldn't agree more," I uttered before settling down and taking my lunch. Nora frowned before nodding at the acknowledgment of how rigorous this mission could be. At least, some sense is knocked into her.

We were all sitting down in a circle, taking our respective meals that the doctor brought for the trip. All I ate was canned soup, which wasn't much but at least I got something to eat; beggars can't be choosers, as the saying goes.

Luckily for Nora, the doctor for whatever semblance of reason brought a turkey which Nora was able to have most for herself. It wasn't cooked when it was shown to us but there's nothing a little fire dust won't do. She did share a few of the pieces for us, (Well, Ren got the smallest there is but he didn't seem to mind, at least it made Nora let go of her grudge.) but she ate almost the entire thing within four seconds. I kid you not, four seconds. I counted. Makes me wonder why she still wasn't fat.

In the middle of our break, something went to Pyrrha's mind and decided to ask Doctor Oobleck about it. "Excuse me, doctor. I ask this with all due respect and forgive me if I offend you, but shouldn't you be assisting us in combat? You're an experienced Huntsman, are you not?"

She did bring up a good question. For the past couple of hours of wandering around this place looking for Grimm to kill, I haven't seen him take up arms and fight so far. He only stood behind the sidelines while occasionally providing instructions if necessary—something I wished I was doing instead—and analyzing anything anomalous that caught his attention. I know that the Huntsman you are shadowing isn't exactly here to hold your hand and it's more rather that we are here to assist him, but I haven't seen him do Huntsman stuff yet.

"Ah, but I am in action! Scouring the ruins of this once-great city for any signs of irregularity! Not every mission is filled with daring and heroism, children. Sometimes it's just a heightened form of extermination!" Doctor Oobleck answered. "Remember, this is a job, and you all signed up for it. I do hope you understand that."

Except this was not exactly what I signed up for. I muttered to myself as the good doctor finished eating before he picked up his belongings and began leading the way.

We caught up and finished our lunch before going back to following whatever we were doing for hours to come.

=o=

1. Few days prior to that mission, we discovered that the White Fang was holding a hideout somewhere in the southeast of Vale. When our attempt to take the Search and Destroy mission failed, we decided to take the Village Security since it was located in the same quadrant. We were hesitant to choose that mission since it begins within the following week and Blake wanted to stop the White Fang as soon as possible, but it was the only alternative we could make. We planned on scouting the area in the meantime but we would later discover that it was unnecessary thanks to a certain someone's actions.

I don't think it's necessary to write down what I did the whole afternoon in exquisite detail. All we did was trek around, find some Grimm and then kill it, take any items of value, rinse and repeat until dusk.

Much to my relief, despite being a place that was supposed to be extremely hazardous, it wasn't as exciting as I worried it would be. We just fought the same Beowolf pack with a few Scavers and an occasional Ursa. It was actually less dangerous, if a bit longer, than the missions I took at Pucelle during the break. I don't know if it's because of my team's cohesion or is it because the quantity of Grimm in the area was just so high that it was classified as difficult, but in actuality, this mission didn't feel that bad at all.

"Alright students. I believe that will have to do for today. It's going to be dark soon." Doctor Oobleck finally announced, removing his backpack after we finished dispatching the last group of Grimm. Everyone was panting for air out of exhaustion while wiping off their sweat. "You three, set up camp in that building." he threw his bag to the group before Pyrrha caught it. "Oh, and please do make sure there are no more of those... creatures. Your leader and I are going to secure the perimeter. Come, Jaune." he walks forth, motioning me to follow him.

"You're the doc, doc." I nodded as I trail him to wherever he is taking me.

He took me around the edge of the mountain that overlooks the forest. There I witnessed six mammoth-like Grimm—Goliaths, to be exact—all lined up marching through the forest, one of them making a howl loud enough to be heard from where I was.

Knowing that these Grimm were far too much for us to handle, it goes without saying that it was better to keep them unprovoked. "I'm guessing we're only going to watch them until they go away, right?"

He nodded "Correct, and since even the strongest of our combined attacks will do nothing more than agitating Grimm of those sizes, there is no reason for us to induce their wrath."

I made a relieved sigh. "So, what'll we do if they come here and attack us?" I asked for good measure. In case they could feel our emotions and aura from our location, it was better to stay prepared.

"Fret not, Jaune. Those Goliaths are not concerned with us," he responded before giving me another lecture. Unlike most of his history lessons, this one was engrossing enough that I was able to perceive every word. "Not every Grimm is mindless, or rather not every Grimm is currently mindless. You see, the Grimm you see before you are so powerful, so superior to the Grimm you fought, that they've undoubtedly lived hundreds of years, and in that time between killing humans and attacking our borders, they have done one important thing: They've learned. They've learned that when they attack our borders, they're likely to die, and what we lack in strength, we make up for with will and that killing one human will only bring more."

So what he was telling me is that the Goliaths have lived long enough to gain the ability to think, not that it makes them less monstrous, if anything, they have smarter predators and that's never a good thing. Someone needs to get rid of those things and that person is sure as hell won't be me. As much as I wanted them gone like any other sane person, Doctor Oobleck was right about them being too dangerous to provoke.

"What do you think they're doing near the city anyway?" I asked.

"Waiting," he answered.

I widened my eyes and turned my head to him. "Waiting for what exactly?"

"Their next prey; the meaning of their existence; maybe even death. All we know is that they're waiting for something." He stood firmly at the group, one of them facing right toward the city before turning back to follow the rest and continued to follow the others.

Since the Goliaths were leaving and had no apparent intent on going to the city, at least not for the moment, Doctor Oobleck decided we were done watching over them and left the post.

"So… doc." I began uttering as I followed him back to regroup with the others.

"What is it, Jaune?"

"Mind if I ask you something?"

"Let me guess, you are wondering why I've been interrogating your teammates all day?" He stopped as he turned toward me.

Wait, you have? I thought as I paused seeing he hadn't questioned me yet before going back to ask him. "Actually, I just wanted to ask what made you become a Huntsman." I mean, he could have just chosen to be a regular professor—I mean doctor or whatever, but I was curious about what made him follow the life of a professional monster-slayer.

"Look around and tell me what you see," he said.

"A ruined city beyond recovery that is filled with monsters?" I answered. Hey, don't judge me, I only did what I was told.

"In a way, that is correct. It's true that this ruined city was once a prosperous community. But you have to ask yourself, what if it was never successfully overrun by Grimm? Of course, the answer would be that this place would still be full of life and no one would have fallen victim during its fall. But that's the point, to think about the lives that could have been saved during that tragedy." he said, continuing to walk as I followed and listened.

"As a Huntsman, it is my job to protect the people, and although I am capable of doing it with traditional weaponry, I believe I can make a much larger impact if I do it with my mind. As a teacher, I'm able to take knowledge, the most powerful weapon of them all, and place it in the hands of every student that passes through my classroom." We stopped and he looked at our surroundings. "I look at this wasteland, and I see lives that could have been saved, but I also see an opportunity—an opportunity to study these ruins and learn from this tragedy, and therefore become stronger."

The doctor briefly walked away from me as I stood to ponder his words. When he mentioned what could have been of this city, I only thought of something that I didn't want to think about as I had been trying to bury that memory for years now. It may have been his motivation for becoming a Huntsman, but to me, it was why I gave up on my old dream of becoming one. I'm just not cut out for this job, no matter how many people say otherwise.

"I am a Huntsman, Jaune, because there is nothing else in this world I would rather be." He halted shortly afterward to ask me one more question. "What about you?"

"What about me?" I looked back up to face the doctor and answered firmly as I masked my own insecurity. "Not only do I want to live up to my ancestor's greatness, but I also want to help those who couldn't help themselves. I couldn't just stand there and watch people suffer, I have to do something. Hence why I'm here." I answered. If I was talking like my younger self, I wouldn't be lying. But I am no longer the boy that I used to be. Now I'm just some guy who was unfortunate enough to be living his childhood dream who is just afraid of losing his life and dignity.

"I hope you're being sincere at what you just said." The doctor smiled at me before he turned his back to return to the others as I stood there for a minute, gazing at the sky before the sun sets.

Sadly, I'm not.

Hours have passed and it was already night. We all sat around a campfire inside one of the city's crumbled buildings that were fortified enough for us to stay the night. Somehow, it wasn't that uncomfortable. The temperature was adequately warm and there weren't a lot of mosquitos unlike most other times I went camping with my family. I also didn't have to worry much about the Grimm because the surrounding area was devoid of them since we spent almost all day clearing the ruins. I still kept my pistol under my pillow as I could never be a hundred percent sure.

"Here's a meal you children look like you could use." Doctor Oobleck tossed a pack of marshmallows that was caught by Nora.

"Marshmallows!" she cheerfully squealed as she tore the plastic open.

"There's more food in my bag. Feel free to have them. Now, eat your dinners and hurry to bed. We have a lot of ground to cover tomorrow and we'll need you to take turns keeping watch over our temporary abode. Any volunteers for the first watch?"

Pyrrha raised her hand. "I'll do it, Doctor."

"Splendid! I'll be upstairs if any of you need me for anything, and if you do, do not hesitate to call me. Have a pleasant night, children!" Doctor Oobleck said before bolting away leaving only us four around the campfire.

We all unfolded our sleeping bags around the fire. Before going to bed, we all gathered around to roast our marshmallows. In retrospect, I would have brought my guitar and played some acoustics to add to the camping feel and make the atmosphere of this wasteland less ominous. But then again, Doctor Oobleck said that we don't need to carry anything unnecessary so the only thing I could do was whistle. It did its job of lightening the mood so it was better than nothing.

Nora munches on her marshmallows once it was roasted enough, meanwhile Ren approached me to ask about something. "Hey, Jaune, did Doctor Oobleck ask you why you wanted to become a Huntsman earlier?"

While I was rather surprised by that question, I was rather glad that I wasn't the only one that was interrogated. "Yeah, why?"

"Nothing. Just checking to see if the doctor interviewed everyone regarding that."

"So what did you tell him?" I asked out of curiosity. While I've been with Ren for months now, I didn't know much about him aside from his fighting style, his companionship with Nora, and the fact that they were both orphans who just go wherever fate takes them. We rarely go on lengthy conversations so I was interested in what he has to say."

"Nothing much. I just told him that aside from because I was good at it, I also don't want people to suffer the same fate as mine."

I raised my brow at his answer as more questions began popping up in my head. "What do you mean by that?"

"It's a long story—even if it was shorter, I don't feel comfortable enough to tell you," he said. I saw Nora frown after she heard our conversation. Seeing their expressions and knowing how it feels to have something in the past haunting you, I decided to respect his decision to digress.

"It's alright Ren, you're not obliged to tell me about it if you don't want to," I assured him.

He gave a friendly smirk. "I'll be sure to tell you someday. Right now, I just want to rest. It's been a long day of exterminating the area of Grimm that I could use a good long sleep." he said as he went to lie down on his sleeping bag.

"Yeah, you do that."

"There's still a few more marshmallows left," Nora showed me the remaining marshmallow on the pack. "Want some?"

"Thanks." I smiled at her as I took two marshmallows and impaled them with my stick. Nora took the last three of them before we hovered them near the campfire.

She went and sat at my side. It was mostly silent, with the only sounds being the chirps of a few crickets, the campfire crackling, and even a Beowolf howling at a distance. It wasn't until I decided to speak up that I found myself in a conversation again.

"So, the doc asked you too, didn't he?" I asked, with my eyes gazing at her.

She silently nodded without a word, which was a little strange given her talkative nature. I made a hum and went back to watching my marshmallows heat up.

"You know, before I went to Beacon, I never had any friends apart from Ren," she suddenly spoke, getting my attention as I turned to her again.

"Why is that?" I inquired, surprised upon learning that. Girls like her normally tend to be more outgoing, so I find it weird for a bundle of joy and energy to be lonely if it wasn't for someone who she has been sticking with for half of her life.

"I wasn't always like this. Y'know the happy-go-lucky gal who likes smashing Grimm," she began. I leaned in and listened closely to her while she cleared her throat. "Before I met Ren, I was just a lonely little girl with no friends, no family, and no home. I just wandered from place to place looking for someone to take care of me. That's until I met Ren. I found out that he was also alone and that we only have each other," she spoke in a tone that was much calmer than her usual self. "So we became best buds for life and we went from place to place, looking for whatever adventure we could find. We eventually found ourselves hunting for Grimm and I started enjoying it. I was loving the feeling of excitement and the satisfaction of slaughtering Grimm and breaking bones that I started savoring all the fun I had and told myself to stop worrying and be happy."

So this is where her zany personality came from? That's a little dark, but otherwise, it was heartwarming to see that she was brightening up, no longer alone, and found her identity as a Huntress.

"Adventuring and killing Grimm became our life. So we went to every academy where we could get ourselves into so we could become full-fledged Huntsmen. [1] Ren was my only family until I became part of this team. For my whole life, I never knew what it felt like having a family until now." She turned to me and gave me a heartfelt smile.

I rested my eyes on her and was touched by what she told me and it made me more regretful of secretly treating her as a meat shield while still not letting go of my intention to keep using her as one. But even though I'm using her as a glorified bodyguard for these school years, she was still a good friend that I'm grateful to have. "Well, I'm happy to know that we have you here with us. We'll stick together until this is all over."

"I hope it never ends then."

I could only keep my gaze on her and just smile, feeling ambivalent about the thought of staying with this team until I'm done with Beacon. I stayed like this until I noticed my marshmallow suddenly started burning after neglecting it for too long. I flinched before hastily blowing away the flames until it was extinguished. My marshmallow was now burnt black and it was barely edible anymore, much to my disappointment.

"Here. You could have mine," she handed me her stick that impaled her three roasted marshmallows. "I'm full anyway."

"Thanks," I took her stick and munched the soft, warm marshmallows.

"I'm going to bed now. Goodnight, Fearless Leader. This day has been fun, and I hope tomorrow will be more exciting!" she chirped as she went to her bedroll and laid down on it.

"Goodnight, Nora," I said while hoping that wouldn't be the case, at least not for me; I don't mind Nora doing her own thing and having her fun as long as it doesn't put me in grave danger.

I remained seated near the campfire for a few more minutes before going to bed as well while asking myself one thing that has been bothering me for a while again.

What am I going to do with these people once this is all over? Who knows? I'll just have to live with it and see.

=o=

1. There were some minor Huntsman academies that did not require formal education and accepted orphans. Hence, why Ren and Nora were able to attend such academies despite lacking any guardians or having not attended any schools prior.