"Okay, Jaune, I don't know what it is you're doing wrong, but you're doing it wrong," stated Enora, the eldest sister to Jaune, and coincidentally the caretaker for Firebase Alma's horses.
The knight persisted in trying to pet the frenzied black horse, earning himself a powerful kick to the chest for his efforts. A wooden post in the ground meant for tying the horses to stopped his low altitude flight. He coughed in a panic, the wind knocked out of him once again, but once his breath was back told his sister, "I don't think he likes me either..."
With a pat to his shoulder, she tried to console him, saying, "come on Jaune, seventh horse the charm. Here, try... that one." She pointed a long finger to a mid size brown bronco about 6 feet tall at the shoulders, a pretty horse, one with a white stripe down its nose and white freckles. Oddly, there were random white highlights in it's mane too.
Jaune stood up, hand to his pained chest, and maneuvered his way around the horse enclosure to the one his sister suggested. At the sight of the creature, Jaune remembered the white horse that appeared many times in his dreams, surprised he just remembered bits of his dreams now when he could never remember them when he woke up. Though completely different, the chestnut horse appeased to something in Jaune's being, drawing him to want it. Upon nearing it, its black eyes locked onto him, and unlike the others, didn't immediately get uncomfortable. Slowing his approach, he lifted his hand to head height, hoping to imprint himself on the creature, the horse still patient. "Steady girl, don't you worry, I'm just going to pet ya..." At the last inch, the horse leaned its head in so Jaune's hand ran against its brow.
"And there you go," Enora sighed in relief. "First let it get comfortable with you, then we'll see if you can mount it."
Getting quite familiar with the features on its face through petting, Jaune turned his head to the woman. "So... you sure this one's not claimed? I'll be... what exactly, I'm not clear on the chain of events here," he confessed, head shaking honestly.
"None of the horse's in here without saddles are claimed," Enora stepped in with saddle in hand and threw it on the chestnut horse's back, strapping it on while continuing, "these horses have had some basic breaking in, but are still fairly wild. Since this one seems to be fine with you, as we train you, you will have to train it just the same, that way in combat you guys will be in sync." With amazing speed and finesse, the horse was saddled before Jaune's very eyes and ready to ride. "There you go little brother, see if you can get on."
Jaune put his left foot through the stepping ring and heaved his other leg over the back of the animal, shifting his weight slightly so he was balanced upon its back. Enora gave him a mildly impressed look. He said, "wow, a year and a half of Huntsmen training and I can sit straight, who knew?" She rolled her eyes. "Wait, so I know horses have different purposes and what not, what's this breed like?"
Taking the straps, she lead the horse out towards where the fence gate pointed to the wilderness away from the Firebase. "Well this is a wild mutt breed with its Aura unlocked, so it's pretty rounded. With some conditioning, it should be able to carry two fully equipped people based on its medium size, but it should be able to run at a decent speed because it's not too big, and it should have credible stamina judging by how hard it was to catch in the first place. It's still young, so it's got room to improve." She stopped just outside of the fence gate, handing the reins to Jaune.
"So what now, you want me to-"
"You got to ride it bit. But Jaune, make sure you come back this time," she smiled mischievously.
Jaune rolled his eyes. "Yeah I get it, I should've called or visited, but let's focus; I don't know how to ride, how am I supposed to-"
Enora slapped the rear of the chestnut bronco, sending it on a fast pace beeline into the surrounding forest after a quick bray, Jaune almost flying out of the seat. At first shocked, the knight began to laugh. Not two weeks ago, he was racing a motorcycle through traffic on a rainy day, crashing in the process. He was going much slower now in comparison, and the vehicle was steering itself for the most part, he just needed to lead it. The laughs came from his confidence in getting a handle on the situation, how the rainy streets of Vale didn't slow him down much even after grounding him, but his laughs stopped when the events that followed soon after flashed in his mind, hundreds of bodies lined in rows on the asphalt, a sobering reminder to why he was even there in the first place. He needed to fight, and to fight he needed to expand his skill set.
It was time to get down to business, and to tame this horse.
Leaning forward, Jaune felt the movements of the beast, its leans and turns as it bobbed through the trees, the way it bucked with every kick forward, and its wet, heavy breaths in time with its thumping sides. Moist air rushed past him and low branches scraped the top of his head. The horse wanted to run, Jaune just needed to figure out how to steer him. Praying not to mess up and crash headlong into a tree, the boy pulled on the left rein and shifted his weight to the left, the horse having no option but to follow where his head pulled him. The horse slowed momentarily from its turn, but picked up the pace once more. Jaune shifted his weight to the right this time, but if the horse noticed it, he didn't show it.
"So seating doesn't really matter then?" Jaune puffed, "huh..."
Breaking out into a clearing, Jaune pulled the reigns to the right, forcing them to trace a circle slower and slower till the energetic beast stood still. It neighed at him, rearing to go as it slapped the ground with a hoof. The knight pulled left and right on the leash, feeling out how much tension garnered a reaction, struggling slightly as the back and forth almost made him fall from his seat.
"I think I got this!" he laughed, the horse returning a neigh in response. "Oh? You think I don't, well let's see about that..." He whipped the reins, lightly slapping the horse's mane more than anything, and kicked its sides while shouting, "go!" The horse took off, though he wasn't sure which part got the horse going.
Under Jaune's control this time, the chestnut horse raced through the blue and green woods back towards the firebase. With this newfound success, the boy gave a hearty smile. Enora pushed herself from the post she was leaning against at the sound of pounding hoof steps getting closer. Sure enough, she spotted Jaune and the horse rushing right towards her and the horse enclosure. She then noticed the panicked face on her brother, and she knew right away that he didn't know how to stop the horse. Taking a quick jog to the side, she hesitantly watched as the horse steered right at the fence, jumped, and fortunately cleared, though Jaune floated just enough at the peak of the jump and landed separately from the horse, bouncing with a painful sounding thump and rolling along the ground. Biting her lip to keep from laughing, she approached a groaning Jaune and asked through a strained voice, "have you thought up a name for him yet?"
"Ughhhhh..." he moaned, his body contorted so he rested on his shoulders and his legs hung over his head. "I was thinking... something affectionate... like Shithead, Roach, or maybe something classy like Asshole." His body untangled and sprawled out.
She rolled her eyes with a sharp sigh. "Oh come on Jaune, don't be so bitter."
His head rolled to the side, his eyes cast upon the firebase. "Ugh... well, I guess someone's gotta be having a worst time than me."
Inside the firebase somewhere, power lines from portable generators ran into a large white tent where Ruby rested atop a sterile steel table. The anesthetics finally kicked in, her eye flickering weakly and pointlessly, the cull of deep sleep drawing her in. Her head rolled to the side, though they would prop it up soon.
"Remember Ms. Rose, once you wake up, you won't be able to see because of your bandages, and you can't take them off till we say you can, okay?" The head surgeon coaxed her. She gently nodded in acknowledgement, remembering that detail among the others that they threw at her without worry if she understood or not. "Okay, she's falling out," the surgeon commented to his partner and two nurses.
"Give it a minute before we start," reminded the other doctor.
A sigh. "I saw that they never put her on a waiting list for eye transplants after she lost it. I mean, eye donors would've been hard to come by until just last week, but still, they didn't even bother." The surgeon spoke with genuine yet mild curiosity.
"They didn't?" asked the other doctor. "Odd. That headmaster usually likes to look after his charges. Poor girl. How'd she lose it?"
He cleared his throat as he straightened out his back, answering, "she lost it on a mission. A criminal that sided with the White Fang or something gouged it out."
The other doctor raised a brow. "That's macabre. What was his name?"
"Roman Torchwick!" greeted the female White Fang recruiter, "I was told you would be coming. What are the orders from Adam?"
"We're here to figure that out." The white clad man with hair like fire in the sun walked past the woman without breaking his stride, Neo, Perry, and the wolf faunus close behind. Behind them was a terrifying figure. A man presumably of six and half feet tall, dressed in ragged black cloth layered in falcon feathers with a matching falcon skull mask that had red markings like a Grimm that combined with his black plumage hid any skin he might show, his red eyes behind the thin slits being the only visible flesh. Slung over his shoulder was a breach lock rifle with a hammered hexagonal barrel and a long stained bayonet. "We need to look at your maps, also, get your radio set up."
The woman whistled. "Wow, who's your tall friend here, he looks like he could handle himself."
"My babysitter, come on, let's go—" Roman's foot skidded to a stop, head turned. To his side were two Faunus, one with cat ears, one with a monkey tail waving behind them. "Wait. Do I know you?" The one with cat ears who leaned on a crutch, her leg wrapped up and bandaged, nodded her head 'no', while the monkey answered the same in a strangely forced voice. "Right..." Roman retorted without conviction, staring at them. "Blasted heat!" he growled in frustration, stripping his white coat off for the countless time, leaving him topless, and threw it to the monkey Faunus. "Get me something more appropriate to wear... and a drink! I'll be with miss recruiter here when you need to find me."
Taking their leave, Blake and Sun looked over their shoulders as they walked through the outpost, Roman returning a burning gaze, and bobbed out of sight of the thief and into an alley between two of the ramshackle wooden houses long abandoned by the original owners. Blake was the first to lift her mask, grabbing Sun by the collar and growling in his face, "that was Roman!"
"I noticed!" he snapped back.
"He's the one who hurt Ruby! Now's my chance to kill him" she whispered, looking over his shoulder to see if anyone was listening in.
"Before you go off and break your other leg, didn't you see the other guy though?" Sun said as he gripped her throttling hand.
"The tall dark one, he..." Blake paused to think, though Sun didn't wait.
"During the siege on the big White Fang base, there were six people left to hold us back at the end while the rank and file fled. He was one of them! Even if you were in top shape, I don't think we could take him on alone, and that's forgetting everyone else here!" Sun too looked around. "I know you want to make Roman pay, but we're just not in the position to do that."
"What are we supposed to do then?" Blake asked impatiently. "Run?"
Sun stepped back, rubbing his chin as he thought. "No, they would chase us, and well..." he looked to her crutch. "Wait. Ugh... I hate the idea, but..."
"I think I know what you're going to say" she exhaled, clearly as uncomfortable as Sun, "we could stick around."
He shrugged. "It's kinda the obvious choice, isn't it?"
"It's our only option, but it's by no means a bad one. Listen, what are we supposed to do? The Kingdoms are all going to war over something the White Fang did, a lot of people are going to die because of their manipulation—"
Sun's face grew dark. "Blake, you didn't see the rows of bodies."
"Sun?" In a rare moment, Blake showed concern.
"A lot of people have already died. You didn't see the short bodies bags Blake."
"Sun..." A free hand reached to his face, her thumb brushing the cheek beneath the bags under his eyes, her middle finger tickling his ear too. It was clear he was holding back tears tied to a sight he never needed to see. "I'm sorry. Listen, let's think this through." She looked around again. "I'm thinking it's a slim shot, but if we stick around, we could do good here. We can't return to Vale until their declaration of War is declared void, and getting to Mistral is going to be tricky if we want to do that, and, well, leaving unnoticed might prove difficult. Maybe, just maybe, the two of us could sabotage the White Fang's efforts or learn about their plans, then maybe send messages to Ruby back home or something similar. What do you think?"
Coughs broke his locked throat. "There's only so much two people can do to affect a world wide war, but I guess it's worth a shot."
A sigh, "we have to try some—" Blake let out a pitiful whimper as she hunched forward, a tear welling up in her eye.
Sun grabbed her by the shoulders, asking, "what is it?" in worry.
"Just twisted my leg in the wrong way" she answered in a pained voice.
"Come on, we'll talk about this later, but I think... you're right," he tucked Roman's coat under his left arm and helped stabilize Blake with his right arm, "we could do good here, it'll just be fantastically dangerous." They started walking towards the quote unquote 'main street' of the outpost, as hiding for so long would cause more suspicion than they needed.
"Dangerous? Sun, that's our whole life right there."
"Except this time we're outnumbered and have nowhere to run." Out of the alley way, Sun threw Roman's coat to the first White Fang member he saw, stating kindly, "the owner needs something lighter, he's with the recruiter lady. Also they all need something to drink."
"Bro, why me?" the Faunus said back in an annoyed tone.
Sun gestured with his head to Blake, saying, "I need to change her bandages man, could you do this for me?"
"Ugh," he sighed, "fine, whatever."
"I think we just dodged a bullet" Blake whispered as they continued on, "I think Roman might remember us."
Sun grinned. "But Blake, Roman doesn't use bullets, he uses baby mortars and a cane..." As he hoped to get, Blake gave him her signature angry look, a sure sign she was okay.
Off in the dusk lit woods of Vale, Raven sat in an encompassing throne made of roots at the base of a great leafless tree, peach in hand. She removed her bony helmet, laying at her feet as she took the first bite of the fuzzy fruit. Being mid Winter, the woods had no birds to chirp, but cold winds that carried dead leaves along the forest floor. Taking her first bite, Raven removed her glove, examining her pale skin while she chewed quietly.
Pale skin was an understatement, and gave false implications.
While the skin was smooth, it was almost gray, too white and too little red to be the color of a living human. It had shades of blue like a corpse. She took another bite of the peach.
She put the glove back on.
Her free hand touched at her neck, two fingers and a thumb pulling the black bead necklace into her sight. Two red eyes looked into the pearly black spheres and she saw her reflection in every one, two red eyes looking back at her. Another bite of the peach.
She let go of the necklace.
Rolling her hip, Raven lifted up her gatling blade sheath to her lap, rolling the assembly on its bearing to check the blades. One blade in particular was almost entirely steal silver, the fire dust imbued in it used up. Withdrawing the blade and withdrawing a squeeze tube from one of her several back pouches, the peach being held by her teeth, she squeezed a fire dust and penetrating oil mix into a port on her gatling sheathe that corresponded to that blade. Retracting the blade, she ran it up and down a few times, red color returning in splotches starting at the edge of the blade and working its way in. Satisfied with the recharge, she took another bite and checked again. A blade with lightning effects was well faded, but she was empty on that dust kind in her pouches. She would just have to manage without it. Another bite.
Raven stood up slowly. She contemplated the half eaten peach longingly. She just wasn't hungry anymore after those few bites. Fruit still in hand, the bony helmet found its way back onto her head, and she resumed her walk.
She didn't make it very far.
A raggedy black figure with an elaborate Ursa mask and curved great axe in one hand stood silently forty feet to her left. Raven's heart pounded in her chest, more so than it had in awhile and it hurt greatly for it. After a deep grunt, she attached her grip to a blade in her sheathe, but didn't draw.
"My answer hasn't changed" she called to him. Her stance grew wide and low, ready to attack.
The black and broad shouldered figure broke into a sprint, cloth and fur flowing behind him. Raven remained still, even as the man got dangerously closer. Once he got within fifteen feet, he jumped in a twisted fashion as he swung his axe, corkscrewing one full revolution with his body diagonal to the ground, whole tree branches caught by the axe split like toothpicks, bringing the axe down to meet Raven's skull.
"I refuse!" she screamed furiously, drawing a blood red blade that met with the wicked great axe, the thin blade stopping it dead with a clang as if momentum had no place in the equation, the dark foe hovering in place. Literally never halting the movement of her hand, as soon as the glowing blade met the axe, she sheathed the blade and instantly drew a white blade, slashing at the body that gravity had just begun to effect. Severe wind engulfed the area as an invisible concussive force slammed against the man, launching him back skyward.
Raven followed him up, drawing a standard dust blade as she repelled off tree to tree to strike again. This time, as he swung mid air at her and she blocked, the axe smashed through the blade and the broken half whizzed past Raven's head. Both bodies colliding, the redder of the combatants kicked of the other, the dark foe falling back to the ground while Raven grabbed ahold of a tree limb. The man adjusted himself and landed on his feet, Ursa mask locked onto the other Grimm Mask.
Letting go of the tree branch, Raven flipped her orientation to fall head first. With a button press, the rest of the broken blade fell away, and the handle went back to the sheathe, ready to draw, and so the man at the bottom readied himself to strike with an upward swing. At the perfect range, both fighters started their motion.
Raven drew, the dark foe swung.
A red and black portal opened from Raven's blade that she fell into, and the man's axe caught warped air then cut dully into dry ground.
Silence returned to the woods as the ragged figure stood staring forward, unmoving.
-End Chapter 2-
Thank you all for reading chapter 2, more will be coming soon, follow if you're curious, and I'm curious about how you guys feel about the new set up, so tell me in the comments. Y'all have a good day! :|)