Light's King

by saintxarc

In little as three weeks Jaune Arc has conquered the Island Nation of Menagerie. Now with the title of King he must juggle the task of dealing with greedy Counicillors, as well as an evil witch all set to see him fall. Now in search of a stolen friend, an evil lost in time rears it's ugly head once more to lay waste upon the land, but hold fast for the King of Light has come.

2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Rusted Hinge

Key notes: Italics=Dreams/memories, Italics=internal thoughts of characters

The room was dark, the only source of light coming from a few flickering candles so dim that you had to strain the eyes to be able to even make out shapes properly. In the room laid various objects, each having a more devious purpose then the next. The rooms wall was made up of a dull grey brick, and the floors made of the same type, and with the candles light it gave the room an eerie feel a hopeless feel to it. In the center of the room sat a stone table with grooves running on the sides to take away any running liquids that might have spilt on the table, and this is where he laid, chained to the stone table the grooves carrying the blood his body spilt. His captor really didn't like his work station to messy. He strained his ears trying to make out any sound that could give hint to when his break would be over, and fearing for when it was. His body started to sweat heavily from under all the stress that had built up from the waiting, sometimes he wondered if the waiting was the worst part? Of course he knew it wasn't, but he thought it every time he was left on his own. Snapping his eyes shut from the stinging drops of sweat that had entered he started to blink furiously to clear his eyes, when he heard it, the sound of footsteps getting closer, he started to sweat even more, and his breathing started to become ragged. Last last bit he heard before he lost his remaining ounce of composer was the laughter "Hehehe."

He started to thrash against his chains in hopes of breaking free, he always did to no avail. "Hehehe, I do wonder what fun we will be getting into today my friend?" He started to thrash more violently, and started to give a weak moan words barely escaping his lips

"no get away from me, leave me be you monster."

The laughter stopped the next words he heard sent shivers down his spine. "Tsk Tsk, now is that anyway to talk to a friend?" friend? This man was absolutely insane, and that just made this nightmare all the worse "I mean I'm just here to play with my new best friend, oh and I brought us a toy to play with" he started to laugh hysterically, "and it is your favorite." He heard the searing sound of the hot iron. He started to thrash at his bindings madly, the chains cuffs biting into his skin drawing blood. "Hehehe, I can see that your exited I am to." He started to twirl the red hot iron around as it made its' searing sound and smoke trailed behind it. "Don't worry you don't have to wait any longer," the maniac brought the iron down ever so slowly towards his chest. His breath started to catch in is throat as he started to wail in protest, finally the iron touch flesh, and only screams, and laughter where heard.

With a jolt Jaune Arc awoke from his slumber sweat glistened his body, his breathing heavy. Squinting his eyes shut he grabbed his chest trying to regulate his breathing. Eyes slammed shut colors started to dance around in his head. Quickly opening them he finally calmed his breathing, and heart rate down. Shaking he removed himself from his cot, his bare feet, and legs covered in a layer of sweat as well touch the cool floor. Standing up he surveyed the room around himself. He was still in his tent of course back at camp barely a mile from the mysteriously destroyed village of Kurokame. The tent was large in size, housing multiple chairs and a table holding maps and various papers. Walking to the right top corner of the room he stood in front of his water basin and a mirror for cleaning. Dipping his hands in the cool water he splashed his face hoping to clear out the night's nightmare from his mind. The water seemed to help, drying of with a towel that sat to the left side of the basin he turned his head to the other side of the tent spying his female companion still asleep in her own cot. Tuning his ears, he could make out her breathing, she seemed to be dealing with a nightmare herself. Walking ever so quietly to where she laid he crouched down, and watched. She was tossing around in her sleep mumbling about something he couldn't quite make out. A lone tear started to roll down her face, seeing it Jaune softly moved his hand and brushed the tear away as well has moving some of her hair that had fallen onto her face. As if by magic her breathing started to go back to normal, and she was once again in a state of peaceful sleep. Sighing to himself Jaune stood back up he started to think "Well since I'm already up, and I'm most likely not going back to sleep anytime soon might as well get the day started," running his hands through his hair he started to dress himself throwing on his black pants, followed by his yellow under shirt, slipping on his black leather boots he stood and started for the tents entrance taking time to grab his coat from the rack and throw it on he opened the flap to the outside pausing only to look at the weapon resting near the flap. Shaking his head, I won't need it right now, turning he walked out the tent.

As soon as Jaune was outside he could see how early it truly was. The sun hasn't even started properly rise to give the off the first light of the morning. Shrugging he started to make his way about the camp. Walking about he noticed several members of the Fang walking around as well in pairs no doubt on pulling their share of guard duty. Continuing his walk, the ones that noticed him gave a quick salute which he returned with a nod, giving a sign of carry on with what you were doing. With his nod the members started to continue on with their shift. Turning to his right he marched onward through the rows of tents each smaller than his own toward his destination. Heading east out of the camp he made his way to the village of Kurokame, hoping that maybe he could find something he didn't notice the day prior. Although he didn't keep his hopes up on that matter, but all the same he walked. The cool air blew through his clothes, not as harsh as it was the other day but still cold enough that he had to button his coat up the rest of the way. Trudging through the snow was never fun it slowed you down, and made you easy to track leaving behind foot prints that would be easy to make out in any kind of light. This snow was especially annoying as it engulfed his boots up to the tops of his shins, making his progress all the more painful. Whelp this is what I get for deciding to get a head start on the day, that whole early bird get the worm shtick is bullshit. Releasing a heavy sigh to the world he trudged onward to his destination.

Taking approximately fifth-teen minutes to reach the main gate of the village's entrance, Jaune pause to give his feet a good shaking removing any of the excess snow that had gathered on top of his feet. Finishing his task, he walked through the gate gaining admittance to the village. Taking steps on the blanketed streets he moved through the town moving his head about focusing his Aura to his eyes trying to see what he could spot in the poor light. Spotting nothing of interest he continued on his way deeper towards the towns square. By the time he reached the towns square the first rays of sunlight just started to crest over the mountain doting the outside of the village.

Taking a pause Jaune looked around noticing the layout of the square and ultimately the town. The square seemed to have a layout of a circular shape, with buildings dotting the outside of the circle with other building behind those, and more behind those creating a sort of spider web like pattern for the buildings, and streets. Smiling to himself, he actually quite liked the layout of the town it sort of reminded him of his home village. Though his home town in Sanus was a good bit larger than the one he was standing in now. Taking a look at the buildings closest to the square…well what remained of those buildings that is he noticed on not as damaged as the others, and started to make his way towards it. Moving his way up the buildings front step he noticed the front door hanging on what seemed to be one hinge which itself was hanging on the frame by a single screw ready to give way at any moment. Raising an eyebrow, he just shrugged it off as burn damage, taking the final step to reach the top step he noticed a sign on the ground. Walking over to the sign he knelt down, and removed the snow that covered the face of it. The sign Read "The Flying Pig Tavern." Lifting himself up he turned towards the door with a new found vigor and walked inside.

Once inside the tavern Jaune gazed around the place. He noticed most of the tables, and chairs were destroyed although there were a few stubborn ones remain for what looked for the most part whole…well at least stable enough to sit at. Noticing the bar, he made his way towards it. Once there he could see that the bar was made of a sturdy wood "mahogany maybe."

Removing the thought of nice furniture away he looked up towards the shelf and frowned, "of course everything sitting up there would have been destroyed," Sighing to himself again he noticed another door frame out of the corner of his eye. "That must be the back room of the place, their storehouse or closets probably back there," moving quicker than he's had in the past few days Jaune made his way past the door and into the back room. Looking he noticed that the place was the kitchen with a burned out stove, and something that resembled an oven. He walked through the kitchen looking for signs of a cellar. Traveling to the back of the kitchen he noticed a wooden door on the floor, its hinges snapped into with one side remaining on the door with the others sticking to the frame. Frowning he moved to the frame and easily pried one of the hinges from it. "The blasted things rusted all the way through, I could snap this thing like a piece of balsa, what kind of tavern owner lets their cellar door get this bad," pocketing the hinge he made his way through the opening, and into the cellar.

Inside he looked for bottles of…well anything that contained high amounts of alcohol. Moving further in he noticed the wine rack attached to the wall full of wine, moving in front of the rack he ran his fingers along it, "the things barely damaged from the fire, so the owner spends money on a good wine rack, but pays shit attention to the quality of his door," deepening his frown he selected several different variety of wines and walked out of the door only stopping to pick up a bottle of bourbon that he noticed sitting by itself.

Walking out of the back room, and making his way from behind the bar Jaune noticed the sunlight making its way into the remains of the tavern. Jaune starting to feel a little better now that he had his of what actually seemed to be a father decent selection of whine, and a cheap bottle of bourbon.

"I need to remind Adam to send some men down this way for those cask I saw towards the back."

Walking further into the center of the bar he noticed a figure to the left of him from the corner of his eye. Turning his head, he saw none other than Kari Belladonna, sitting at a table with her head resting inside the palms of her hands. Quirking an eyebrow, he silently wondered what she could be doing her at this hour.

After making his way towards her, he now stood right in front of one of the few good tables that she had decided to use. Still she made no move to raise her head, or did she give off any sign that she even noticed his presence. He set the bottles down on top of the table making Kari jumped at the sudden noise. She sharply raised her head up, and made as if to stand up only to stop herself when she realized who it was.

"Mr. Ar- I mean your majesty," Kari spoke stumbling over her words as she stood up giving a quick salute, and bow startled anyone had found her here in a tavern of all places, a burned down one besides. "I didn't realize you were here; is there anything you need."

"where is this meekness coming from," He thought to himself, looking down at her he noticed a slight tinge of red dotting her cheeks. Raising his hands up he motioned for he to sit, which she did. Grabbing one of the decent chairs behind him he sat in down in front of her, "I don't have anything that I need from you at the moment, I'm simply here looking for some clues," He said calmly.

Raising an eyebrow, she looked towards the various bottles and spoke up, "excuse my asking, but what do these clues have to deal with bottles of wine."

"Simple," he replied. "I have come to the conclusion that trying to figure anything out here while sober is simply going about it all wrong so," he raised the bottle of bourbon all the while smiling.

Kari simply looked at him trying to make out if he was joking or not. She shook her head and sighed "I wish to apologize for my behavior yesterday," she said looking towards him.

"There is no need to apologize Mrs. Belladonna, believe it or not I do understand what you're going through," he said with a surety in his voice that made to raise no questions, all the while pulling out two glasses from his coat pocket. Dropping one in front of himself, and sliding the other towards Kari.

Kari lifted the glace, glaring inside "I appreciate the gesture your majesty, but I'm not sure drinking from this glass would be in anyone's best interest," looking at the glass in disappointment.

"Nonsense," he said uncorking the bottle of bourbon, "In fact it's the perfect glass for the setting, and mood." He poured the liquid into his glass, when he was done pouring he raised the bottle towards her offering to pour.

Kari shifting the glass in her hands simply nodded, and allowed the king to pour the bourbon into her own glass. "Thank you," she said bring her glass back towards her, and started to look at the liquid. Shrugging she raised the glass to her lips and took a sip. "Argh," she raised her hand to her mouth, and started to cough, "that's terrible."

"Really?" Jaune asked bringing his glass away from his mouth not yet to have taken a sip of the drink. "Well I guess it's a good thing your tried first," he said with a chuckle.

Kari glared at him, and started to smile. She took another sip from her drink giving a slight grimace, "It's not that bad actually, it just takes some getting used to I imagine." She challenged while downing the whole drink in one fluid motion, eyeing him seeing what he will do.

Jaune looked at her bringing a wry grin to his face, he lifted up his own glass, nodding towards her he downed the drink in one go. Once done he slammed the glace down on the table, and looked towards Kari in a look of what seemed to be amusement, all which lasted about ten seconds after which he started to cough vigorously.

Kari couldn't help herself she busted out laughing. She raised her hand and pointed mockingly towards her king, and laughed with tears starting to form from the laughter. She laughed for what felt like a good three minutes. Wiping away remaining tears from her outbreak she looked down at the table, and gave a small soft smile "I haven't laughed that hard in months," she said lifting her head to look at him.

Jaune just smiled "well I'm happy I could be of service." He grabbed the bottle, and refilled their glasses once more. This time they only sipped at the drink. "I'm not going to lie Mrs. Belladonna I imagined you to be…different."

"Different how?" she asked, looking at him in mock puzzlement.

"I met your husband, and he seemed to give off an aura of…don't mess with me or you'll end up with your arms for legs," Jaune said looking at her "You seem to be more…well you are serious, but also seem to be playful and mischievous." He said trying to do his best not to come off as being rude. "I guess I expected there to be more overlap with Blake's personality."

At the mention of her daughter her smile turned into a sad frown. "Yea me, and my husband get that a lot, but you would be surprised at how playful, and mischievous Blake can be herself," she said, "In fact I remember one time while she was younger she had learned from a recent visit to a restaurant that Ghira didn't care to much for spicy food," she paused starting to smile at the memory. "So one night she asks me if she could help make dinner for us, naturally I said of course thinking she was being sweet, well she prepared dinner, and once we had the food down and Ghira took his first bite," she paused smiling at Jaune.

Jaune started to laugh, "No, she didn't?"

"Oh she did, I never seen someone's face turn so red, and sweet as much as Ghira's did after that bite, He downed his drinking trying to bring the heat down, and ran towards the kitchen to turn on the faucet and started to drink," she started to laugh herself, "A the while I look and see Blake rolling around laughing, kicking her feet." She started to laugh even harder at the memory of her daughter's antics.

Jaune was laughing hard himself imagining the usually calm and quite Blake rolling in laughter at a prank that would make Yang, and Nora give two thumbs up in approval. "I could never imagine our Blake doing anything like that."

"Yea," she sighed softening her voice once more. "Things changed once the White Fang started to use…harsher tactics," she said while turning her head to look out past a piece of empty space that had one be part of the taverns wall. "I remember when she was just five years old, for her birthday Ghira and I got her a stuffed bear" tears started to dot her eyes while she continued, "She was scared of the dark at the time always scared of monsters in her closet or under her bed, so we told her that her bear was magical, and it would protect her from them," the tears where now streaming down her face her voice started to choke, "She hugged that thing so tight I feared the head would pop off, she ran to us giving us a hug, trying her best to bring her small arms around Ghira." She paused to take a shaky breath, "She named it Sir Scruffles, she slept with it every night, and when she suddenly disappeared for Beacon she left it behind." She brought her head into her hands trying to hide the tears "I was so worried, because who was supposed to protect her from the monsters now." She wept, "and when we finally get her back, she's taken from us once again."

Jaune had let her cry for a while looking out the same space Kari had looked out before. Looking back towards the crying woman he grabbed her hands. Startled she looked at him tears still coming down. Staring at her with a look of a still fury "I promise you we will find you daughter, and I will bring such a storm on top the of the ones who took her that they will see hell as a nice day spa." His voice gave off no reason to give doubt.

Kari just smiled at him, "I believe you."

They sat in the tavern for a little while longer before leaving the bar. Once outside they both made their way towards the street, walking not five steps Kari started to trip grabbing hold of one of the street lamps for support. There was a sharp crack of metal, Jaune moved lighting fast pulling Kari away from the street lamp as it came crashing to the ground. Standing there they both looked at the lamp in bewilderment.

"Now, I know good and well I'm not that heavy." Kari said with a look of distaste for the lamp as if it had just caused great offense.

Walking over to the lamp, Jaune knelt down to examine it. Raising both eyebrows in astonishment he spoke up, "I do not believe this has anything to do with you weight, look at this the whole thing is rusted through." To drive his point further home he broke a chunk of the metal off.

Kari looked as he broke of a piece of the lamp with ease, raising her own eyebrows. "From my understanding, this village hasn't long been destroyed, so how could the villagers let a street lamp get so bad?" she asked.

Thinking to himself he brought the rusted hinge from out of his pocket lifting it up for Kari to see it. "I found this while in the back of the tavern, now I know for a fact a proper tavern owner would never let their cellar hinge get this bad." Lifting himself up he started to thing. "The door hinges, and now this it couldn't be just a coincidence," Looking back up towards the tavern he frowned and moved to wear he found the sign on the ground. Once he had found it he lifted it up to examine the chains that was supposed to keep the sign hung up above the tavern. Looking at it he could see that the chains were rusted through as well. Lifting himself back up he made his way towards Kari at the street.

Once he reached her he spoke up "I need you to go to the other side of the street towards those buildings, look for anything metal and look at the condition, I'll do the same on this side."

Kari looked at him questioningly, but nodded turned and moved towards the other side of the street. Once on the other side she saw a metal trash bin on the side walk, making her way towards the bin. Noting the condition of the bin, she became startled "it's the same as the lamp and hinge." Continuing on she found several door hinges, metal knobs, more bins, and other various pieces all of which have been rusted through. She turned and made her way back towards the street.

Jaune stood waiting for her to get back, having finished his findings himself, and just like he predicted every piece of metal was rusted through." Looking down at the ground deep in thought he only raised his head when he heard Kari stop in front of him. He looked up at her "Well, what did you find?" he asked.

"Everything's just like the lamp, and hinge completely rusted through." She looked at him questioningly, "What does all of this mean?"

"What it means is that I believe I just figured out what happened here," he said pausing to think. Suddenly remembering something important he quickly made his way up the street towards camp. "Come on," he shouted from over his shoulder. "We need to gather the others, and discuss these findings," he said continuing he march towards the camp

Kari quickly followed behind him, "What is it that you figured out?" she asked.

"I believe I figured out what we're dealing with," he paused to look down at her, "I also believe I just figured out who took Blake," finished talking he continued to move making a notion that said that no further questions would be answered until he had gathered his small council to discuss this matter.

At the mention of her daughter Kari quickened her pace to match the king's long stride's.

Over all it took them twelve minutes to make it back to camp, and once inside Jaune started to move quickly towards his own tent, all the while moving his head looking. About a third into the camp he spotted the person he was looking for. Pausing Jaune raised his hand and barked "Kaz, I need you to come over here for a sec,"

At the mention of his name Kaz turned his head to see who had spoken. Once seeing who it was he quickly made his way towards Jaune, his king. Bumping into several other brothers and one sister who stood in front of Jaune giving a salute and bow, "What is it you need of me sire?" he asked.

Jaune didn't bother to acknowledge the salute, he just turned, and walked motioning Kaz to follow him.

With Kaz beside him Jaune spoke to him, "I need you to go get Adam, and tell him that I need him at my tent." Pausing to think he continued "I also need you to head over to medical, and tell Sun to head over as well, he should be fine by now, and able to make it over," he said this with a voice of confidence, "and if the doc tries to say otherwise, tell her I said you will drag him to my tent if need be, that should drive the severity of the matter across to her." Moving he motioned for him to go.

Kaz nodded gave a quick salute and moved out, going towards Adams tent.

"That man sure seems enamored by you," Kari spoke while walking along side Jaune.

"He's just grateful, he never liked how the Fang did things, he's happy about having a kingdom to follow, many of them are it makes them feel like they belong somewhere, that they truly have a home," he talked as if from experience.

Nodding Kari spoke up "When Ghira and I were in charge we tried to give them that, but sadly many saw Menagerie not as a kingdom or home, but a prison, one the council had presented as if it was a gift." She spoke of the council with bitterness in her voice.

Jaune simply nodded, and they moved along not saying another word till they reach the tent.

Once at the tent he inclined his head towards Kari, and spoke "Let's hope Cinder is up, and dressed by now." Opening the tent flaps they walked in.

Once inside they saw Cinder standing in her bed shift trying to put on her pants. She paused to look at them, then looked down at herself. Turning a slight shade of red she quickly finished putting her pants on, and motioned for Jaune to turn around.

Jaune shrugged and made his way towards the table in the center of the room. "Mrs. Belladonna if you would make yourself comfortable, we will begin once everyone is accounted for."

Walking to the table Kari graciously took a set at once of the table ends, and waited.

It took another five minutes for Cinder to get ready, and another three before Adam Taurus walked in, looking around he made eye contact with Jaune. Ever since he started to follow Jaune he decided to forgo his mask, only donning it whenever he needed to hide his face. Not bothering to give the Salute, and bow he simply nodded his head towards Jaune in acknowledgement and took a seat at the table.

Jaune stood behind one of the chairs, and waited for their final guest to arrive. It took around another five minutes before Sun poked his head inside the tent.

Looking around he noticed everyone at the table. Clearing his throat, he spoke "uh, you called for me?"

"Yes come in, and have a seat we need to discuss somethings of great importance," Jaune spoke up in a tone that warranted no question to be asked.

Once Sun took his seat Jaune sat down at the end of the table, with Cinder coming to stand behind him to his right. Everyone stared at him waiting to know why he called this meeting. Shifting his eyes to look over everyone he cleared his throat, and spoke "I have called you here today to talk about the matter of the Village, and my assumption as to who or what had destroyed the town." He looked towards everyone gauging their reactions. All stayed quite, and focused on his words, he continued "I also believe I know who took Blake."

At the mention of Blake's name both Sun, and Adam gave a start. With Sun speaking up first, "you know who took Blake? Who, who took her? Tell me" his voice carried over a sign of desperation as well as commitment to finding whoever took her.

Jaune narrowed his eyes at the blonde, "I understand your excitement, but you will refrain from demanding words from me, do I make myself clear?" his voice carried no sound of amusement, and his eyes looked as if they were made of a hard stone.

Looking at Jaune, Sun quickly nodded and apologized, "I'm sorry, I'm just worried about Black is all."

Jaune nodded "we all are, now onto the matter at hand." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the rusted hinge from the tavern. "I had found this while exploring the village, as you can tell it is completely rusted through, taking it Mrs. Belladonna and I moved toward the street to have a street lamp crack and fall to the street," he paused for effect then continued "it too was rusted all the way through." He stopped and looked over everyone, each one seemed to give off a look a puzzlement as if to ask what he was getting at? Going on "Going off a hunch Mrs. Belladonna, and I looked at various objects made of metal, and found that everyone was rusted to the core."

At the mention that all the metals were rusted Adam jumped in, "Jaune you're not telling me what I think you are, are you?" he asked with eyebrow raised in question.

"I am Adam, that is exactly what I am telling you." Jaune said looking towards Adam with sincerity in his eyes.

Adam scoffed "You can't be serious Jaune? Those were just stories you know things to tell the kids to make sure they behave." He said, looking at Jaune with hands raised trying to bring his point across.

At the exchange between the two, Kari decided to speak up "Oh, I do wish you to would bring the rest of us into the conversation." She looked at the both of them with tired eyes "What stories are you talking about, and what does it have to do with my daughter, and this village?" she asked.

Adam waiting to see if Jaune would elaborate, and seeing that he wasn't he spoke up, "As many of you know Jaune and I lived in the same village for a time, and during that time we would be what you could consider childhood friends," he paused to look over to Jaune who simply nodded for him to go on. Sighing he continued "Well every now and then we would go to his house to play, and do our homework…though the latter hardly got done, but anyway Jaune's mom use to tell us this story to scare us into doing our work, the story of the Aelfinn." He waited to see the reactions of the room, looking at Kari he could see her eye's narrow at the mention of the name.

Sun on the other hand was confused, raising a hand he spoke up, "um, what is a Eelfinn?"

Sighing harder Adam looked towards Sun and spoke "It's not Eelfinn, it's Aelfinn, and they were just a story." He looked at Jaune at the word story, but continued "The story goes that the Aelfinn in gist was a group of monsters, or people no one knows which, who came to take away any child who didn't listen to their parents." He finished still looking at Jaune.

Everyone started to stare at Jaune, waiting for his what he had to say on the matter.

Setting the hinge on the table Jaune finally began to speak, "There are signs of the Aelfinn, one of which that in there coming all metals would rust through." Looking at the metal he turned his head to stare at Adam.

Returning the stare Adam continued to speak "Yes it does, but it also says that the land they meet will be colder than ice, and that a blue fire burns everything it touches," he said these thing in a somewhat mocking tone.

Ignoring the tone, Adam was one of the few he didn't mind talking to him in such a manner. He was a king, and as king he had to give of a look of authority, and that meant not letting people speak to him in certain manners. Staring at Adam with slight amusement in his eyes he continued as well "Yes but, don't you remember the feeling of the weather in the village yesterday, that air cut through everything," he paused for effect "even I was cold," at the mention of this everyone looked at him, he could even fell Cinders gaze on him. Jaune never felt cold, in fact temperature didn't seem to affect him at all.

"So you felt cold, what's the big deal about that?" Sun asked looking confused.

"Yes I was cold" Jaune said ignoring Sun's question, "but when I left the village I started to feel normal again, I didn't think much of it until today."

Kari being quite for the most part finally joined in "So what you're saying is that the temperature was different in the village yesterday?"

"Yes that is exactly what I'm saying." Jaune said then turned to look at Sun, "Now Sun I had you come because you were with Blake the night she was taken correct?"

Sun looked down "Yea, I was there." He said we a slight anger in his voice.

Jaune continued at his answer "Now when you were, there did you not notice anything different, such as a dip in the temp or being able to see your breath?"

Sun sat quietly with eyes closed for a minute trying to remember, suddenly his eyes shot open and he spoke up with vigor "Yea, now that you mention it I do remember telling Blake how it started to feel cold all of a sudden, that was when we were attacked, I tried to fight, but" Sun paused in his speech with red starting to tinge his cheeks, but he continued anyway "I tried to fight back, but they completely man handled me, I mean I didn't stand a chance, and well you all know what happened to me…a broken collar bone, and three cracked ribs."

"As well as a missing Blake," Jaune added in. "Now I guarantee if you were to look at the all the people we burned, and checked their dental you would see that almost all of them are adults, most likely not a day under twenty-five." At the suggestion of everyone just started looking at the table deep in thought. "In fact I bet not a one of you saw a child among the bodies, and isn't that weird coming from a village this size?" he asked hands clasped on top of the table waiting for their answer.

It was Adam who spoke up, "you're right, when we were gathering the bodies to burn on the pier not one of them was a child." With brows raised in shock, "That's just like the stories, they never come for adults, only kids."

Kari spoke up "Now I'm not going to act like an old woman and say anyone under twenty-five is still a child, because they are not."

"That's correct, but they are in the younger age group." Jaune said hands still clasped, "and that could be all their looking for."

"Wait, wait if that is true why didn't they take me?" Sun asked.

"Most likely it is because they thought they killed you in there strike against you." Jaune exclaimed, "I wouldn't imagine they would go for dead or crippled people."

"But if that's the case, and this is all true," Adam stared at Jaune, "How in the world do we stop them? They don't leave tracks, and every story says they leave as fast as they appeared, without a trace."

"And what do they want with Blake, and all everyone from the village?" Kari asked worry etched in her voice.

"I don't know, but whatever it is it's not good," Jaune said with a sound of matter of fact. He looked up towards Cinder, "I fear it's not just the witch that we have to worry about now."

Cinder looked down at him at the mention of Salem worry, and slight fear streaked across her uncovered eye.

"So what do we do?" the three asked in unison.

"Well I have an idea as of how to start," Jaune spoke, then looked towards Kari "have you sent that letter like I asked?" he asked her.

Kari nodded, "yes I did, but I don't see what that has to do with-" she was interrupted by a raise of Jaune's hand.

"Don't worry about it, as long as it was sent, we should receive a reply shortly if not…it doesn't matter in the long run it would just be helpful if we did." Jaune said turning his head to look at the tent wall narrowing his eyes.

"Well if that's the case we should probably take what we need, and get moving, I mean it's not like anyone is going to miss the stuff." Adam said.

Kari, and Sun both looked at him.

"What?" he asked, "I don't mean to say it out of disrespect, I'm just stating a fact, come on Jaune back me up here." He looked to Jaune for help.

Quick as a flash Jaune stood from his chair eyes still staring at the tent wall as if looking through it, "Cinder."

Cinder jolted at the sound of her name and turned to Jaune.

"Go grab my sword," he said while moving toward the center of the tent.

Cinder quickly moved to grab the sword and sheath that rested on the right side of the tents entrance. Grabbing it she moved to Jaune and swiftly clipped the sword to his sword belt, and then wrapped the belt around his waist.

Kari was the first to stand and speak up, "What is it? What's going on?"

Jaune just looked straight ahead, when his sword was finally strapped to his waist, its white sheath, blue handle, and gold pommel a stark contrast to his black attire, moved back towards the table, and stood in front of them. "I believe we have company."

As soon as Jaune spoke those words Kaz came rushing through the tents entrance, forgoing the formalities he just looked at the five of the and spoke in a frantic voice, "There is a Mistralian fleet making its way towards us."

A/N: Hello again everyone, I wanted to thank those who has followed, and favorited my story, also wanted to thank those who left reviews. Reviews both good and bad help me write my story, and change what needs to be changes, and continue with what works.

This chapter had been swimming in my head for a while, and I hope you all enjoyed it. If you have any questions please feel free to ask, and leave a review all are welcomed.

Next chapter. A Mistralian fleet has come, what will they do with an army of Fang sitting on Anima soil, and who commands such a fleet?