General Notes: Low and behold, a chapter Coeur wrote that I didn't want huge massive changes to!
Director: College Fool
Writer: Coeur al'Aran
Cover Art: Kegi Springfield
Chapter 11
The huge cave-like city spread out before them and continued onward until it was swallowed by shadow. There was no telling how large it was thanks to the limited light, but what little illumination came from Jaune's torch shone on walls half-carved from the stone walls and reinforced with brick and clay. They were simple dwellings but dwellings nonetheless, and in a place that neither of them had expected.
"This is incredible," Ren said. "Did you know about this?"
Jaune shook his head, as surprised as his companion. "No way. I've been through this area before but never underground."
"And your legends don't tell of some place like this?"
"Nothing I ever would have believed…." Jaune cast his torch from side to side, revealing narrow alleyways that might have made up the streets and roads of the abandoned city. "I guess this means we're on the right track, though. You wouldn't have an underground place to live without a route back up to the surface."
Ren's expression lit up as he considered that. There was always the chance it was sealed – and that it might be the reason why this city fell, but it could also have just as easily been a case of these people moving away or dying out for any other reason. The air already had a hint of freshness to it, so there had to be some way out.
"Come on," Jaune said, hefting Ren up so that he could rest his injured leg once more. "We need to make camp anyway. Might as well use one of these hovels."
They made their way slowly through the narrow streets, Jaune keeping a cautious pace even if Ren hadn't slowed him down. The ground was too treacherous for them to be hasty and the dark hardly helped. Once upon a time it might have been flat and even, and the occasional expanse of it suggested so, but time, wear, and the ever-encroaching damp had worn away at the rock, leaving perilous potholes and crevasses that could easily break or twist an unwary ankle.
The city also wasn't quite as large as Ren first thought, and couldn't really be called a city at all, at least by today's standards. There was less than a hundred or so houses, all told, and while there was no telling how many might be crammed into each, it seemed unlikely that there could have been more than five or six hundred. If this place was as old as it looked then perhaps that was enough to make it a city.
"This place looks sound enough," Jaune said, pausing before a rather small and cosy stone building set away from the cave wall. "A little cramped, and the walls have crumbled on one side, but the roof seems solid and it's away from the wall."
"Is there a reason we should be away from it?"
Jaune shot him a look that seemed to ask whether that was a challenge, but when Ren simply looked curious the blonde relented. "It's just to avoid creepy-crawlies," he said. "Dark caves like this can hold some pretty unfortunate pests. If we set a fire in here tonight it'll ward off any others, and we'll block off the entrance." He grinned at Ren. "Make sure to check your bedroll before you climb in, though."
"That's not funny."
"It will be if you don't."
The interior of the building was as simple as the exterior, little more than a square space with four raised platforms that might once have been beds around a shallow pit in the centre. There was a hole in the roof, and an intentional one at that, even ignoring the other holes and cracks that had formed. It was directly over the fire put and must have been an ancient form of chimney.
"Will it be safe to light a fire in here? Even if the smoke goes out of his hole, where would it go?"
"Somewhere," Jaune said, already pulling some twigs and logs out of his pack and tossing them in the pit. "I doubt these guys managed to build all of this while dying of smoke, so there must be some kind of ventilation. Who knows, we might be able to follow the smoke to find our way out tomorrow."
Tomorrow was a wild guess, of course. Neither of them had any idea what time it was, and it wouldn't have mattered either way. He needed to rest his leg and ankle, and Jaune must have been just as exhausted, if not more. He'd run from the first cave, almost drowned in a river, trekked back up it, then crept through the forest to clamber down into this cave system. Ren couldn't complain about an awkward fall if the hunter wasn't complaining about all that.
Then again, Ren felt so tired he'd barely complain about anything, even Jaune's cooking. Even wet clothes no longer bothered him, fading from his mind as his senses dulled and he just watched Jaune start the fire. There wasn't much wood left, but there were some exposed roots nearby that looked burnable enough.
The fire crackled to life without much difficulty in the still air. The light from it far eclipsed Jaune's little torch and he cut it off to preserve the battery. As they both set out their blankets over the bare rock beds and sat upon them, Jaune reached inside his pouch before looking up at Ren.
"You said you could cook, right?"
Ren came to and nodded. "If I have the tools to work with," he said. "Can't do much with nothing," he warned.
"We still have some left-over rabbit, but I found this back up river. Thought you might be able to use it."
Jaune withdrew a small pouch and tossed it to Ren. It looked old and worn, and with plenty of stitches to suggest constant repair. Ren had the feeling it was a gift. When he pulled it open and shook, a few samples of thyme fell out.
"Can you do anything with it?" Jaune asked, watching him.
"A bit," Ren said. Not much, with a lack of kitchen utensils, but a bit. Honestly, just not over-cooking the meat would do more, but better was better.
Then he noticed something else still in the bad- something hard. Carefully Ren shook it loose, and was surprised to see a small, slender, but no doubt robust little tube. It was filled with an angry red substance just shy of powder that…
"Are these… dust flakes?"
"It was a gift," Jaune said gruffly, poking the fire. "There enough?"
And suddenly Ren had an immediate understanding of just why Jaune's cooking might have been tantamount to poison, especially if he looked at a vial of such potent spice and thought those might not be enough for a single meal.
"There's more than enough," Ren said, and that was understating it. "I'm just surprised. Even if it's safe in small amounts, given its value and the difficulty to chip most people don't waste raw dust anymore. Dust cooking is something of a lost art, and the only person I've ever known of who did so-"
The fire crackled and hissed loudly as Jaune threw an extra root onto it, the flames roaring a little higher and cutting Ren off. He caught the look on Jaune's face and changed the subject.
"Never mind. Do you have the rabbit?"
"Here. Might have gotten a bit damp from the rain, but unlike me it never got thrown in the river."
"I roast it out. It might take an awhile, but we're stuck here anyway." He trailed off, waiting to see whether Jaune would agree or not. The hunter nodded.
"Might as well. I need to stretch and take a leak. Will you still be here when I come back?"
Ren didn't draw attention to his leg. "I won't be going anywhere like this."
"See, that's what I thought earlier, and next thing I knew Mouk was trying to rut you into mountainside." Ren wasn't sure how to respond, but the other boy's frown seemed more affected than annoyed.
"Do your best," Jaune said, before stepping out. "You owe me a meal and I'll be damned if you're going to welch on it."
/-/
It took an hour for the rabbit to re-cook the way Ren wanted it, a meagre roast over the small fire. After wetting it and washing his hands with (hopefully clean) water Jaune drew, he rubbed in the thyme leaves as best he could before steadying himself. With great care, he took one of the flakes of red dust and broke it in his palm.
Fire dust, of course. But the flake was so small- so thin- that it lacked any explosive force. Instead of burning outright it seemed to simmer- warming Ren's hand in a welcome way. Nodding to himself, Ren took individual flakes and rubbed them into and over the bits of rabbit, one flake per portion. Taking the strips of meat of meat off the fire, he then folded them over the flakes to break them and left them beside the fire.
A sharp hiss occurred as the flakes broke and released their energy, and if he remembered right Ren's work was done. It'd take a while for the flakes to release all their energy into the meat, but when they did the rabbit would be more than roasted- it would be speckled with fire dust, promising to keep it warmer than it otherwise would have been. Dust cooking was an old tradition with many an old wives' tale, but supposedly a pinch of fire in the flesh would energize boost the eater's energy and protect them against flames. Then again, if he remembered his own childhood tales right, fire-eating savages from long ago had eaten enough raw fire dust to breath fire and burn down villages as well as Grimm. Probably neither would happen, but he should let the dust flake work its magic.
Until it was ready to serve, however, Ren took his time to better investigate the walls of their dwelling, and namely some odd carvings that he'd found above his bed. He brushed some more dust aside and squinted to make out the shapes on what was already a very worn and damaged stone surface. Once upon a time they might have been as clear as day, but it was all he could do to make out the faintest detail.
"I wish I could take some pictures of these. Doctor Oobleck would love to see them."
"Already planning for the future?" Jaune asked. He was laid flat on his 'bed,' feet crossed, and arms linked behind his head to use like a pillow. His usual acerbic tone was gone, swallowed up by the faint but mouth-watering smell of the dust-flake bake.
"Is that a bad thing? I doubt anyone in the Kingdoms has seen a place like this before. There are archaeologists who would give their own eyes to see this."
"They might have to if they wanted to come here. Though I imagine Mouk would take more if he got the chance."
Ren sighed and rolled his eyes at the ornery hunter. "Must you suck out the joy in everything? We could be standing in a ruin no others have seen for a thousand or more years. There's no telling what treasure might be hidden here."
"Considering everything is made of stone, I doubt it."
"Wouldn't a discovery like this be good for Edge?"
"Doubt it," Jaune said, staying down. "Stuff like this might draw interest, but can you imagine how much it'd cost to come here? Even without Mouk? It's not like finding a new dust node. Those can be mined for years, so SDC might be willing to put a lot of lien into securing the best ones. This? It'd be a curiosity but give it a year and all your archaeologists would be done with it." He snorted. "Or dead."
"You must be a hit at parties."
Surprisingly, Jaune didn't snap back. His response was simply dull, even as he still stared at the ceiling.
"People only go out of their way to help others when there's something in it for them. SDC fights for dust. Huntsmen fight for lien. No one fights for lost cities or abandoned ruins." He shifted, but because of his arms Ren couldn't see his face. "They never care about that sort of thing," he finished with an unmistakable bitterness.
"I suppose…" Ren conceded, not necessarily agreeing but not really disagreeing either. He thought about pointing out that Jaune came out here for him… but then, he didn't really know the other boy's reasons, and didn't feel up to fighting about it. Even he could feel the mood.
Jaune sighed, no doubt feeling it too. He rolled over, reached into his pack, and pulled something out. With a careless throw, something small and hard was tossed and slid in Ren's direction.
It was Jaune's scroll, broken and battered as it was.
"There," Jaune muttered, turning over to face the other way. "If you like your walls so much, take a picture with that. Scrolls can take pictures of things, right?"
"Does yours?" Ren asked, picking it up.
"Dunno. Never asked," Jaune said, rolling back on his side and facing the other way again.
"Thank you," Ren thanked. Jaune just grunted, talking done for now.
Jaune's sturdy scroll did photos, and even still worked despite the external damage. The survival scroll was sturdy, and despite the clear break of the broadcast antenna the rest of it was working well. On the front screen was an option clearly labelled 'Options,' and behind that 'camera.' With a flick of the finger the scroll was ready to record. At the very least, it gave him something to do while the meat absorbed the dust.
The carvings themselves seemed to paint a picture. There was no telling whether it was an ancient form of language, or even something before written words had been invented at all – a mural designed to depict a story by sketching it out.
"It seems to be a story about people fleeing some dark monster. I think it's the story of how here came to be. They used to live outside before a Grimm forced them underground," Ren guessed, though it wasn't much of one.
Pictures showed humanoids in an open area, and then in an obvious cave as an ominous darkness followed. The darkness was more of a blob than a form, but the blob was as big as the mountain the cave was in while menacing claws and jaws jutted into the cave mouth after the people within. Far above a circular sphere watched it all, rays clawed away by the claws at the top of the Grimm blob.
"Wow, what a surprise. And here I thought they'd just gone underground for fun," Jaune said, sarcasm dripping from every word after he came out beside him. To Ren's horror he then took out a knife and began to hit the corner of one of the exposed reliefs Ren had just photographed.
"What are you doing!?"
"Chipping off some rock," Jaune answered easily.
"You're damaging the wall!"
"Well, yeah, it's made of the rock I need." He gave it another sharp tap and the wall cracked a little. "There we go," he said, peeling off a sizeable chunk of stone. Ren could just about see the marks of carvings on it.
" You just vandalised what could have been the find of the century. Do you have any idea how old that might be?"
"I've got a feeling saying `no` is going to lead to an annoying conversation," Jaune drawled. "As such I'll say I'm sorry, really. Believe me." The sarcasm was so thick not even Ruby could have missed it, and Ren glowered at the other as he sat back down inside and pulled out his empty quiver. "Stop scowling. The people here don't need it and I do. You realise we're fighting for our survival here, right?"
"I'm aware of that but I fail to see how a rock can help us."
"You're right. You fail to see." Jaune ignored him and moved his quiver in front of him. It was a bulky and mechanical thing and he lifted a strange compartment on the top, crumbling the stone as best he could and forcing it into the slot. There was a whirr and a click, and Jaune then took some of the sticks and wood not being burned and pushed those in as well. For good measure, he even took some strips of rabbit fur- the skin from their fears- and put it in too before closing it up. Soon the machine began to audibly vibrate.
Ren watched in slowly-dawning realisation. "That thing makes arrows?"
"It's a Portable Ammunition Fabricator Type Three," he said. "Or so a very energetic person told me. Materials go in, arrows come out." He popped open the bottom and showed Ren obvious round slots within. Already some of the wood inside was being… pressed into a proper shape. Ren suspected the stone fragments from before were being similarly processed. "Stone arrows only tonight. Sheesh, talk about being stuck in the dark ages, but it'll do until I can find something better."
Despite his flippancy, he frowned. "You know, stone arrows aren't really that bad- they're heavy enough to have a punch, even if they're weighed down a little and lose their range- but I don't know what kind of stone is down here. Looks solid, but it'll suck if this breaks like sandstone."
Jaune was talking to himself, but Ren was just watching the fabricator-quiver. An ammunition fabricator… suddenly Jaune's strange quiver string made a bit more since. This was indisputably Huntsman tech right here, and nothing else but. It worked on a similar principle of mecha-shifting, with internal means to press or even process basic sorts of ammunition. He'd read about them before. Allegedly Atlas had great big building-sized models that could print off thousands of rounds of dust ammo a day, a key invention that helped fuel Atlas's rise in recent decades.
The problem was that they were often slow and not good for anything but the most basic ammo types. Specialist gunsmiths could still make better quality ammo, and people with the lien to spare typically preferred quality over quantity. You also had to provide the raw materials yourself, so you couldn't just make something out of nothing. Still, for someone too far away to buy their own ammo, but resourceful enough to scrounge…
An arrow was already definitely a rough and ready thing. Ren wondered how much better Jaune's shooting would be with custom-fletched arrows, but something was definitely better than nothing. The hunter didn't seem concerned either, no doubt used to just this level of quality. It was definitely a good way to make up for all the arrows lost when he'd thrown Jaune into the river.
"If we had metal, would that be able to make you proper arrows?"
"Sure, but it would need to be metal enough to fit in here," he said, patting the device. "Most of what we have is too valuable to be recycled. Survival equipment is technically worth more than a single arrow. More than twenty." The hunter inspected more sticks in turn, giving them a once over before putting them in his quiver too. He then started to work on chipping more stone away, and despite how much it hurt to do so, Ren let him. At least he had the photo. "Is the food ready yet?" Jaune asked.
Ren sighed and turned back to it, flipping it over and pushing it closer to the fire. "You don't have much of an appreciation for art or history, do you?"
"I might appreciate history more if anyone cared to remember anything other than who beat who a million years ago. I don't see a point in caring about that - isn't it better to let old grudges die?" He nicked another stone off. "Same with art. What's the point of carrying around a pretty piece of paper in a frame when I can just wake up to watch the sunrise or look up at the stars all night?"
Ren hadn't thought of it like that. Then again, he couldn't remember the last time he'd really watched the night sky. He must have when he was a child, for sure, but after so many years in the brightly lit Kingdoms, and then in his training as a Huntsman…
"Hell, I might be more interested if my stomach wasn't currently trying to eat my spine. Why is it taking so long?"
"Because I have to cook it long enough kill the bacteria, but not too much to destroy the taste. Plus, the dust takes time to settle in to unlock the flavour."
Jaune sighed and focused on his wanton destruction. "I could have roasted it over the fire in twenty minutes."
"Yes, and it would have been as hard as nails and tougher than leather." He stared hard at the hunter until the blonde gave up with a soft grumble. "I think I'm starting to see the problem with your cooking."
"Don't normally take the time to cook for an hour…" Jaune grumbled, a little embarrassed.
"No, but we are, so be patient. You're worse than Nora, and she-" He cut off and swallowed difficultly, tightness wrapping around his throat suddenly. Jaune noticed and turned towards him.
"Nora?"
Ren closed his eyes and reached for his semblance. Only a bit came up, but it was enough. "My childhood friend," Ren explained with a sigh. "My partner, in fact. We've been together almost as long as I can remember." He took a moment to swallow, and shut his eyes harder for a moment, but pushed on before Jaune could take advantage of the moment. "Like you, she rarely has the patience for how long it takes to cook a proper meal." He gave a bitter-sweet chuckle as he poked another piece of meat. Almost ready. "Never complained about my quality, though." Though he'd no doubt given her many a chance too, until he'd finally matured enough to improve…
"Nothing wrong with thinking about those left behind," Jaune said, almost awkwardly as he only pretended to focus at defacing the mural. "Memories keep a man going, especially when you're out in the Grimmlands." When Ren didn't respond, any hint of sympathy was traded out for sass. "So, I remind you of this girl, then? Should I be worried about how you were looking at me last night?"
"I wasn't-" Ren began, but then realized he was being had. He snorted. "I'm sure you'll be fine. On second thought, you're nothing alike. Nora is brash and impulsive, but really caring deep down. You-"
He paused.
"I what?" Jaune asked, no doubt with a shit-eating smirk on his face.
Ren had been about to say some variation of 'are always using your ass to fabricate your own arrows,' but that didn't flow easily. Or make for polite conversation. Best not start something now.
"Nothing. Maybe you'll see for yourself. I'll have to introduce you to her when all this is over."
"You probably shouldn't. Huntresses and I don't exactly mix."
"Nora's not exactly your typical Huntress," Ren laughed, the first glimmer of real mirth in a while. "I doubt she'll give you a choice either. Save my life and she'll make you be a friend and give you a spine-crushing hug too."
"I'll keep my distance and slip away then. Food ready yet?"
"I-" Ren sighed and looked down to the barely sizzling rabbit. It almost pained him to give in to the incessant whining, but there was no hiding reality. "Yes, it's ready."
It wasn't really anything more than some twice-baked rabbit with a bit of thyme and dust flakes in the middle.
Taste exploded in his mouth. Just the hint of fire dust was… it was like lava, if lave was a sauce, and dry and crunchy rather than molten. His mouth definitely felt the heat- and so did his throat as he swallowed- but by the time it hit his stomach, Ren felt the warmth spreading through his core, warming and drying him from the inside out. He definitely gulped down his water from the canteen, but…
It was official. With the right balance of flake-spice, it didn't matter what it originally was. It was simply better, even if half of his satisfaction was because of hunger and half of it just relief that he wouldn't have to eat Jaune's char again. Yes, he'd rather eat a well-balanced meal at Beacon with his friends anyway, but he'd also gladly cook for the rest of the time until they got back there.
Jaune seemed to agree, wolfing down his portion and chugging down water right there with him. In a matter of minutes all the remaining rabbit meat was gone, and soon after the water. Soon Jaune was leaning back, patting his stomach with a satisfied air.
"Not bad, Huntsman." He blew out of his mouth, still cooling down. "It's spicy too. I never had it taste like that before."
"That's probably because you used too much. Too many flakes will overwhelm everything else and kill your taste buds. Just a little is more than enough. That's what my teacher told me," he said, watching Jaune as he said it.
Jaune didn't verbally respond to that, but the way his brow creased just for a second said more than enough. Jaune rose to his feet with a grunt, before reaching down and grabbing both their water canteens.
"Well, whatever it was it worked. I'll go refill the canteens," Jaune 'offered,' not really giving Ren a chance (or a reason) to refuse. "Clean up and do your business before I get back, though," he bid. "When I get back, I'll set up some traps outside. I doubt we'll need much down here, but you never know. If you wake up and need to go in the night, be sure to fling it out the roof."
"I'll manage," Ren said with his face twisted in disgust.
"If you say so," Jaune chuckled, likely at his distaste, and then left.
Ren watched him go and saw some of the damaged mural as well. It pained him to see the architecture damaged like that, but he knew better than to express that opinion; their survival was more important. Still…
He brushed his hand against Jaune's scroll, which he hadn't given back yet. Even if Jaune didn't appreciate it, something priceless was inside here now. It would have to be enough.
Ren did his business, well away and well before Jaune returned. As he said, Jaune began to set up his traps, though in this case it was little more than wire across the door and between some buildings - a sound trap, if not a trip. Jaune finished while bringing in one last bundle of cut roots to burn, while Ren tried to make himself comfortable as he stoked the fire for the last time that night.
Even if the stone platform beneath him wasn't comfortable, it was much better than the uneven and rocky cave floors they'd been subject to the for last few nights. With his pack under his head as a pillow and his blanket pulled over his body, he found himself drifting off faster than he would have imagined. The steadily chugging sound of Jaune's quiver making new arrows was almost a lullaby.
As he drifted off, he wondered what kind of life the people who had once lived here held, and more importantly, what kind of fate they had eventually suffered. What had made this ruin, a ruin? When had these lands stopped being contested, and merely become the Grimm lands? Through the hole in the ceiling he could see the faintest shaft of light, moonlight, drifting through what must have been a crack in the ceiling of the cave. There were some glimmering objects around it too. An artificial night sky, naturally formed in an underground city.
He drifted to sleep watching them, imagining that he was out beneath the starry sky.
/-/
It was the sudden darkness, and not the noise, that woke him up.
Ren came to in the dark, darker than it should have been. At first he feared the chimney had been stopped to plug them with black smoke, but it wasn't. Rather, the moonlight that had filtered in through the cave roof and their chimney had vanished, snuffing out the soft light and leaving only their meagre fire.
Then he heard the sound, like rocks being ground against one another. His brows crossed, even as he tried to blink the sleep from his eyes. There should have been no cause for it, but recollection of their situation came back to him and he reared up on the stone bed.
He almost hit Jaune, who had been reaching out to shake him awake.
"You're up?" Jaune said needlessly. "Good. Somethings up."
"That sound-?"
"I hear it. Woke me up." In the fading light of the dim fire, Jaune's eyes sparkled as they inspected the gloom outside their little hut. His bow was out, an arrow ready to be nocked, but the string had not been drawn and the hunter made no move to do so. Recognising the need for silence, Ren kept his voice quiet.
"Do you know what that was?"
"Rocks moving, or something moving across them." The hunter's lips thinned, and he peeked outside the door as best he could without sticking his head through the doorway. Seeing nothing, he leaned back.
"Should I kill the fire?"
"No. Whatever might be down here is more used to the dark than we are."
It couldn't be people; that just wasn't possible. The idea was the first to come to mind but Ren dismissed it. Had anyone still been alive down here the Kingdoms would have known, or they would have when they showed up unannounced and took over a random house. Faunus could see in the dark, but that didn't mean they embraced it, or lived in dark, dank, caverns under mountains.
Ren drew Stormflower and checked what little ammunition remained, less than a clip on each. He reversed them for the bladed grip and fixed his eyes on the hole in the ceiling, trusting Jaune to watch the doorway. The two waited in silence.
Nothing.
He held his breath as long as he could, but no sounds reached them other than the light crackle of the fire and the distant rustle of the river he'd fallen into. His own breathing joined that as his lungs protested. Of the noise that had woken him, there was nothing.
It could have been rats, he told himself. Rats, insects, or maybe even a loose piece of rock falling as Mouk stomped around far above. Most Grimm ignored animals but that didn't mean other predators did and a cave like this would have served well as shelter from hungry birds. There could have been any other number of cave-dwelling fauna that made this place their home. It could have been anything…
But the Grimmlands had left him with a certain appreciation for believing otherwise. If it were anything, then he'd politely accept that he was wrong – but he'd rather be wrong than dead. He looked to Jaune and opened his mouth.
Something clicked atop their very building.
Jaune's eyes shot to his, Ren's meeting halfway. As one they both slowly traced up towards the ceiling and the central hole, through which the smoke billowed upwards and away. That had definitely been a clicking sound – and not the type one might expect of a scroll, camera, or other piece of mechanical equipment. It was a wet, crackly, sound.
"Don't. Move." Jaune mouthed.
Ren's heart hammered in his chest. He nodded once, then looked up toward the ceiling, straining to hear the sound once more. He prayed he wouldn't, but there it was – a soft click, like something being gently placed atop their dwelling. It was followed by a sudden shadow as something covered the smoke hole, or rather appeared above it. No detail could be made other than shadow, but there was something on top of the building, and it was investigating the smoke.
Jaune licked his lips and drew back his arrow. He glanced to Ren, nodded a quick warning, and then slowly – with painstaking care – raised his bow up towards the gap. He inched his body to the side, angling for a better shot, all the while Ren held his breath. He found the perfect angle, took a deep breath… and released.
"Screeeeee!" The noise was horrifying – a mixture of a screech and a hiss yet somehow far higher, enough to make Ren's ears ache. The shadow above the hole vanished instantly and heavy slaps echoed about the outside of the building.
Jaune wasted no time, pulling on his bag and reaching to pull the string of his own trap. He grabbed one of the last real pieces of wood from the fire and pulled it out as a torch. He shone it outside and stepped out. "Go, go, go!"
Ren followed, stooping to drag his pack on, and also to grab the other flaming chunk of wood to use as a makeshift torch of his own. He was a second behind the hunter and swung the torch to light the path. Thick vines, white and sticky, criss-crossed the path to the left, the one they'd come from, and the same covered the exit in the other direction.
"These weren't here when we arrived!"
"I know. It's-" His eyes widened, and he shoved Ren aside. The two of them crashed into the wall of a nearby building as something fell down between them and would have fallen on his head if not for Jaune. It was a black and hairy creature with far too many legs and eyes. It thrashed and kicked, struggling past the shaft buried in its torso. No, it's abdomen. Ren lashed out and cut one of its long, chitinous legs off, but that didn't stop it trying to hit them. Jaune fired a second arrow directly between the thing's eyes, but it didn't die until Ren drove his daggers down.
Its seven remaining legs twitched and curled upward above itself, and before it began to dissolve, they caught sight of its powerful mandibles and large, bulbous, and blood-red eyes.
"Spiders," Jaune gagged. "Why does it always have to be spiders? I hate spiders!"
It was a spider Grimm… one that had to be three feet tall and six or more long from leg to leg. Arachne. He'd only heard of them in legend and stories, a reclusive sort of Grimm that waited its life away laying traps rather than outright attacking like most Grimm did.
"We're in its web," Jaune realized, panting. "We need to get out of here. Right now!"
"I'm not arguing!"
Another screech from above cut them off and something dropped from the ceiling. Ren wasted no time waiting for it and fired upwards, bursting the spider's body apart in a spray of bullets. Arachne were fearsome trappers, but feeble warriors. Still, that hasty burst alone had taken at least half of the remaining bullets from Stormflower. If there were another, or just another three…
The light from the muzzle flashed, glinting off what had to be so many more eyes up by the ceiling. That was a lot more than three. He froze for a moment, staring at the swarm, until Jaune caught his shoulder and dragged him along.
Ren caught himself and followed, rushing through the streets while keeping one eye on the hunter and another above them. How the hell had they not noticed these things? How had the Grimm not noticed them? Had these creatures destroyed the colony here – or just moved in after they were dead? The questions flashed through his mind, not that there was time for them.
"Left ahead!" Jaune yelled. "Come on, keep movin- argh!" he shouted, as a sudden mass of movement pulled him out of sight.
"Jaune!"
Ren pushed himself on and rounded the corner in time to see Jaune trapped against one of the white vines, his arm and shoulder stuck to it. The hunter's eyes were and afraid, angled upward as three Arachne, alerted by the vibrations, shuffled down the web towards him. He tried to bring his bow upward but that only got him more trapped.
"Hold on," Ren hissed, hacking at the thick material with Stormflower. It was viscous and wet, covered in faint goo that made cutting through it all but impossible. In desperation, and with the Arachne almost upon them, he swung the torch upward and into the web.
It ignited instantly. Whatever the strange fluid was that gave it its adhesive properties it was flammable, and the flames roared as they surged up and down, licking against Jaune's coat but freeing him from the quickly disintegrating strand. Ren caught him as he fell. Up above the Arachne that had almost been upon them shrieked and caught fire, dropping down onto the ground and thrashing wildly. The flames went further, however, tracing up and across what was quickly revealed to be a gargantuan web that must have covered the entire cave.
"That whole thing was made while we slept," Jaune gasped. "They tried to pin us in and kill us at their leisure."
It was a terrifying thought and Ren swallowed. If they'd both been caught on that web without any access to the fire, then they'd have been doomed. Any struggles to escape would have just worn them out and summoned more Grimm. It was a fate that didn't bear thinking about.
The fire continued to spread among the web, incinerating branching paths and spilling Grimm to the floor. Many fell on fire and died but some chose to drop themselves and scuttled across buildings towards them, the entire cave illuminated now by the searing flame. It wasn't as large as they'd first thought but that wasn't what caught the eye. Arachne covered the ceiling like a carpet of black bodies and red eyes. There had to be hundreds if not thousands of them.
Jaune took a nervous step back, grasping his red armband as if to stabilize himself. His voice emerged with barely a quiver. "We take the river, or we try our luck in the other cave."
"The cave," Ren decided, already rushing for it. It was far closer, and the river had flowed the wrong way, back out into Mouk's domain. There was no telling what lay ahead, and it might even have been more of the creatures, but if it was a way out then they wanted to take it. Beowolves were fine. Ursa were great. Hell, give him a Deathstalker any day. Spider-Grimm? No, no, no.
Just no.
"Bloody caves," Jaune cursed, even as he followed Ren's lead. "Nothing good every happens in caves. Damn it all!"
Ren didn't respond to that, probably because he was too busy trying to make sure Jaune escaped this one alive. Jaune reached the tunnel first and shone his torch in while Ren stayed to cover his back, dodging one spindly leg and lopping it off at the knee. The Arachne screeched and lashed out with venom-tipped mandibles, but they caught rock as Ren leapt back. He stomped a foot down atop its head, cringing at the feeling of it, and fired a single round into its skull. It twitched and fell, though even when dead and fading, its long legs periodically lashed out.
"Paths clear," Jaune called. "Come on. Watch out for webs. You got those flares? Keep 'em out. If we get stuck again just light the whole place up."
Ren nodded. He'd rather take his chances with fire than spiders too. Even as they ran down the narrow cave tunnel he could hear the chitinous rattle of feet behind them, and an ill-advised glance back revealed the Arachne were in hot pursuit, some crawling upside down on the ceiling, and others on the walls. It was a wave of red and black with long legs and sharp fangs. He fired a flare into it, hoping to scare them away, but the Grimm parted around the smoking red object, some catching fire but most scuttling past.
"They're gaining," Ren panted. His leg was aching again, but he didn't dare let it slow him. The sounds behind were closer than ever.
"Ahead!" Jaune gasped. "Light!"
Ren saw it a second later, a sudden shimmering light ahead from the tunnel. It gave him news hope and a burst of energy and they both surged towards it. The Arachne were almost upon them but they both dashed out of the tunnel and into the sunlight.
Only to find that it wasn't.
Ren landed first, rolled on the cave floor and flipped back to his feet, Stormflower at the ready. He prepared for the sudden bite of fangs – and to give his life dearly – but there was no Grimm before him.
Jaune landed next, rolling far less gracefully and kicking up dust and coming to a stop with a pained rasp. He was up a second later, staggering as he drew his bow, but no arrow was fired, and none needed to be. The Grimm had stopped at the edge of the cave mouth. A sea of red eyes that occasionally found itself covered by grotesque legs and fangs. None dared enter the cave, which had walls that seemed to sparkle for some reason, casting light all about and tricking their minds into thinking it bright daylight.
"The light hurts them," Ren realised, and quickly grabbed Jaune's torch to shine it at the cave wall. The reflection was blinding, and the artificial light flickered off what felt like a thousand gemstones. The Grimm hissed and skittered back. "This cave is too bright for them. Either that or they think it's the fire again." Maybe that was why they were so reclusive? Grimm hurt by sunlight would rarely come into contact with most Kingdoms…
"Keep that torch shining and I'll give them some," Jaune said, shucking off his pack and reaching for some firewood. He kept a wary eye on them but lit the branch quickly and waved it toward the Grimm. They backed away even further. With a quick run up, Jaune threw the torch toward the tunnel, and this time the Grimm scuttled away completely.
The mass of furry bodies and bone plates vanished, scurrying back down the tunnel and leaving it abandoned, but for the torch which greedily burned away at the entrance.
"They might be looking for another way in," Jaune warned before Ren could relax. "We better not stay here long."
"I'm… a little winded…"
The hunter glanced to him, and tutted. "I thought you Huntsmen were made of sterner stuff."
Ren tried not to colour. "We usually are, but… well, it's been a hard week." Adrenaline slipped away, leaving behind exhaustion and a bizarre humour that had him laughing. "That wasn't fun. I'd rather take my chances with Mouk than something like that."
"Tell me about it. I hate spiders."
Ren raised an eyebrow. "Are you afraid of them?"
"Not scared, just hate," Jaune denied. "Hiding in bedrolls, making nests in your firewood, crawling under every goddamn rock or onto your face while you're hiding in a tree trying to get a clean shot…" The hunter shuddered and collapsed down on his rear, legs splayed as he panted for breath. "Not even good for eating, so no point hunting them. Now caves…" he shuddered again. "Nothing good ever happens in caves, and now I get to add the delightful memory of being stuck in a Grimm spider's web to the list. Wonderful. Remind me never to go diving into a cave after you again."
"Not a fan of spelunking?"
"What?" Jaune sounded confused
"Spelunking. You know…" Ren began, except it was pretty clear Jaune didn't. "Cave diving."
"Why didn't you just say that?"
"I did, you just - oh never mind," Ren said, dismissing it. "At least we got out alive. Short break?"
"Y-Yeah." Jaune glowered at him, breathing hard. "But only because you're sucking wind."
"Right." Ren rolled his eyes and refrained from pointing out just how exhausted Jaune looked. The hunter was on the verge of collapsing, not at all used to the desperate pace a huntsman could keep. Still, it was impressive enough given that he was effectively a civilian. He pulled off his pack and tossed it down beside Jaune's but took the chance to inspect the cave that had essentially saved their lives, not through any physical action, but by having a wall studded with shining stones.
"What is this?"
"Hm?" Jaune glanced up and sighed. "It's dust."
"What?"
"Dust," he repeated, in an echo of Ren's own earlier tone. "You know… dust. Used for everything, powering electronics, weapons." He paused to stare. "Don't tell me you've never seen it before?"
"I've seen dust, obviously. It's just that the dust we see is normally powder." Or flakes, rare as that was.
"That's refined dust. SDC has to mine it from something and it doesn't come out in granule form. World might be fairer if it did. Most of the time it comes out like a rock, or a gem. Like this," He nodded to the walls.
Ren nodded and went back to marvelling at the sight. It was beautiful; an eclectic mix of various hues and colours, not casting light itself but reflecting and distorting the light from their torch and dying it bright pinks, reds, blues and yellows. It was like a rainbow thrown in his face.
"Is it safe to touch?"
"We ate it, didn't we? Dust flakes are just small chips off a larger dust crystal. Still…" Jaune walked up, inspecting the wall. "This is a lot of dust. I don't think I saw half this much in the Edge pit. And the types! Fire, ice… is that gravity? I've never seen dust mixed like this."
"It usually isn't," Ren noted, remembering his basic lessons of dust geology. "Usually nodes are mostly one sort of dust, with a sampling of others. Dust generally doesn't mix without some sort of seismic event."
"Seismic what now?"
"Like… earthquakes. Or tremors. Things that shift the earth and mix nodes together. But this…" he looked closer. What could have caused this much geological chaos?
A crystal on a nearby wall caught his attention, slightly larger than the others yet still no bigger than his thumb. It might have run deeper into the rock with only a hexagonal tip protruding. It was bright red, likely used for fire dust, and contrary to expectation it wasn't hot to the touch. It was smooth and cold like glass. It was stuck, too, and didn't budge when he lightly tapped it with Stormflower.
"Is it volatile?" Ren asked, not daring to do any more just yet.
"It's not going to explode if you hit it," Jaune said. "We don't exactly mine with feather dusters, you know. You're thinking of processed dust, which is more… I guess you could say reliably unstable." He tried to put it in words. "Dust is processed so it's easier to use. It's easier to blow up, yeah, but that's because it's already been broken down so that it can trigger itself easier. All processed dust is breaking it down into tiny pieces, like making dust flakes of dust flakes, and mixing in different types to make it do whatever you need. You lose some of the material in the process, but the rest is easier to use."
He reached for one crystal, a bit looser than the rest, and violently yanked it free of the wall. It jerked free, and clearly didn't explode.
"Raw dust crystals are harder to trigger because they're still big crystals, and all one type. Raw crystals can be stronger than plain dust if you get them triggered, but it's harder to do that. I could make an arrowhead with a dust crystal to give whatever I shoot a nasty shock, but it won't do anything if it doesn't crack. If it doesn't break, it's just a fancy stone arrowhead. If it shatters, though…"
He grinned.
"What about this cave?" Ren asked, looking at it. "Think it's the next big thing for Edge?"
"Could be." Jaune's smile thinned. "I don't fancy the odds of anyone trying to make a stake in Mouk's territory, though, not even SDC. Do you?"
Ren frowned too but didn't disagree. He'd seen a Haven airship fleet on parade once. Maybe if you brought an entire fleet with all the hunters of Mistral aboard they might pummel Mouk from above… but that would have to be while dealing with all the flying Grimm in the region at the same time, giant Nevermore and all. Casualties would be certain, and Ren wouldn't put it past Mouk to stand up and swat some out of the sky as well or throw boulders up at them. And even if he couldn't…
Ren wasn't sure what even the headmaster of Haven academy could do, except run away.
And that was without factoring the rest of the Grimmlands, from the ones on the surface to the Arachne swarm underneath. You could throw an army of men and machines at them, and never be sure you got them all. He could well imagine miners breaking into a new cavern, only to be dragged away screaming to their doom…
You'd need a small city just to fight back the darkness underneath, let alone the monster above ground.
"Maybe… maybe this place should stay hidden…"
It would be a shame to imagine a find like this not seeing the light of day again, but he could understand the reasons. Real people would need to give their lives to secure it, and what was good for Edge wouldn't be good for others. Any dust colony placed here would be built on tears and bones as much as dust, no matter how profitable it might be.
Jaune, it seemed, didn't care much about the bigger picture, and was moving to another crystal of a different colour.
"Take a picture if you want to remember it longer, but we can still make use of it now. Give me a minute to grab some of these and we can make use of them later. Why don't you watch the cave, and see if anything is on the other side?"
Ren took Jaune's advice and moved a little closer to a different tunnel, one opposite the tunnel the Grimm had departed through. This one was brighter, more dust crystals reflecting light, and that gave him the confidence to take a step inside, though not so far that he lost sight of his companion. The tunnel widened quickly, splaying out in every direction with oddly smooth grooves on the floor and walls. He knelt and touched a finger to a larger dust crystal, one that looked to have been sheared or snapped in two, the latter half remaining in the ground but the top missing. Had the people who lived here tried to excavate the dust?
The walls were similarly pitted, with jagged spikes of rock that didn't look to have formed naturally. Most of the cave walls were relatively smooth whereas these had long lines and furrows gouged into them, as though someone had taken a giant pickaxe or heavy tool to the rock... but then scraped it across in parallel.
"Found something?" Jaune asked, walking up behind him. It looked like their rest was over.
"I was just looking at these crystals. Do they look damaged to you?"
Jaune's brow furrowed and he moved over to inspect one. It was a wide crystal a deep blue in colour on the floor, and it had white lines running across it and a shockingly flat edge. "Looks like it. This is the middle of a larger piece, with the other half missing."
"And the marks on the walls," Ren pointed out. "This isn't natural." Even he could tell that.
"I see them. I can tell you right now that SDC hasn't been out this far. I'd have heard about it if they did." He eyed Ren and shook his head. "The people back there couldn't have done this. The cuts are too deep." He ran a hand over one, which looked to go inches into the rock. "And too new. The corners have dulled with time yet - see?"
"How hard is dust to cut?"
"Not too hard. It's refining it that's difficult. Even if those people mined this, I doubt they could have turned it into anything other than jewellery." Jaune stood and dusted his hands. "Well, whatever this is it isn't going to get us out of here. Let's go."
They made their way further into the corridor with Jaune in the lead, torch pointing forward, and Ren behind, a fresh piece of wood in one hand and the means to light it in the other. If they came upon more Arachne, they'd be ready. Fortunately, the cave walls retained the dust crystals all the way through and the light from Jaune's torch was cast far and wide, twinkling in incandescent hues, almost like they were walking through a tunnel of stars and not rock.
The grooves grew bigger as they carried on, beginning to resemble marks from picks even less as the tunnel widened out, slowly at first, and then with increased speed. They paused to hop down a brief drop, landing atop some rubble and strewn dust before they carried on. Boulders and rocks strewn across the floor became more prevalent, as did those pushed toward the side of the now much-wider cave, as though something had processed and stacked them out of the way. The rocks that were as such lacked the dust crystals, or still had some but small and insignificant ones.
"Are you sure the SDC haven't been here?" Ren asked.
"I'm… well, I'm fairly sure. They might have done a secret expedition, I suppose. If so, it would have been before my time."
"And they wouldn't have told the people of Edge?"
"Not if it went badly," Jaune said. "You don't tell your dust miners about how you got another bunch of them killed."
Well, that was… grim.
"But no one from Edge was lost out here any time recently, I can tell you that," Jaune continued. "Villages may disappear all the time, but villagers don't. Not like that. If someone's lost to the Grimmlands their family would mourn, even if they got hush money."
"Maybe another town, then?" Ren suggested, trying to make sense of it.
"Maybe," Jaune conceded, thinking on it too. "It's possible. I didn't think there were any villages this far north anymore, but if someone set one up for a long-range expedition…" He shook his head. "I'm still not convinced this is SDC, though," Jaune murmured, shining his torch from left to right. "If it was them, where's all the equipment? You'd expect at least some to have been left behind or at least some torches on the walls, spotlights, that kind of thing."
"What else could it be?" Ren asked.
"I don't know. That's what worries me." The hunter took a deep breath and let it go. "There's another cavern ahead, and…" he sniffed the air. "Do you smell that?"
"I feel a breeze," Ren replied. "An exit?"
Jaune frowned. "That too, but… nah, maybe I'm just jumpy. Been in these caves too long."
"Maybe this is why the Arachne didn't follow us," Ren suggested, trying to be optimistic. "They knew the sunlight would hurt them."
Jaune frowned at that too. "Maybe," he conceded. "At the very least, we can't go back."
The new cave they entered was the largest yet and featured numerous cracks and chasms in the walls and ceiling, one or two allowing moonlight to peek through. It was enough light that they cut the torch and still had the rays of moonlight reflected off the dust crystals with which to see.
There was also a giant pile of boulders in the centre, piled together as though they'd been discarded by someone.
"Wait, what's this?" Jaune turned smaller boulder over, locating the spot at which it had been broken free from a larger crystal. There were numerous grooves on it, most of which travelled in the same direction. "It's like something scraped against it. SDC wouldn't do that, nor would they leave this lying around."
Ren looked a little closer and saw the grooves he meant. There'd be no point mining into a dust crystal. "They look like claw marks," he said. "Do Grimm care about dust?"
"Not that I know of. The top half is missing." He put the crystal away and moved ahead, Ren in pursuit. They came across more crystals in a similar state of disarray, and hundreds of shards shattered on the ground. Some were large, others small, and some looked like the dust itself had been shaved, with littler crystals falling to the floor as the bigger deposits were destroyed.
The SDC wouldn't have wasted such material, nor would anyone mining it. It almost seemed like something was taking and smashing them, or at least breaking them down into smaller chunks for some bizarre purpose.
Up ahead, a glimmer of light shone through the cave – not a reflection off the crystals, which had by this point died out, but an actual beam of light. Jaune and Ren paused on the edge of it, shared a look, and then rushed forward. The tunnel before them opened suddenly, rock peeled back above, to the side, and below; as they slid down a sloped face and into the greatest cavern they'd seen yet – a veritable giant of a cave which had a huge opening to one side, outside of which a starry sky could be seen. There was another giant pile of boulders in the centre, far larger than the last, but they ignored it as their slide down the rock face came to an end. They'd found the exit, and Ren dared to laugh as he landed on his feet and pulled Jaune up beside him.
A huge blast of hot air cut them off, pushing back their hair and knocking them onto their rear. It was followed by a blast of air in the opposite direction, and several loose pebbles rattled and shifted across the floor, before they were thrown back into their faces as the wind picked up again. Or not the wind, as it turned out. The huge mound of rock before them shifted, twitched, and then settled down again. Ren took a closer look, as did Jaune, and the two froze as a gargantuan paw – easily four times the size of a Bullhead – lazily crashed down not three metres behind them, impacting the wall and causing the entire cave to shake.
Snoring commenced again, and the two were drawn forward by the force of it.
They'd found the exit, but it was also an entrance, and one very much in use. As Ren swallowed and exchanged a frightened glance with Jaune, who looked equally nervous, he realised just what they'd discovered.
Mouk's lair.
CF's Notes
Dun dun duuuuuuhn!
Another chapter with only a day or two to review... but actually one of my favourite Coeur-driven ones yet. We're well into the part of the story where Coeur is writing towards directed key points, and this adventure under the mountain was totally on him. Kudos, Coeur, kudos.
Some people might remember the end of One Good Turn, and the foreshadowed adventure of Ren and Jaune going off to find forgotten cities. This... is something like that in reverse. I think this let Coeur get in something he's been itching to write in some fashion for a while now, even as it definitely fits the spirit of Hunter or Something.
And now, a cliff hanger. After a chapter that had some interesting things, which might be put together in interesting ways. Can you catch all the clues and put together the subtext that's put together, and about to break?
Next chapter- the return to the boring moody beta plot of Edge!
(Just kidding. Shit's gonna get real.)
Next Chapter: 17th February
P a treon . com (slash) Coeur