"Hey River!" Ruby waved as she led her team South towards the best trees and I smiled and waved back. "Bring us some sap back." She nodded and her sister Yang walked past too.
"Hey." Horati said quite quietly. Ruby noticed and gently shoved her our way, her eyes gently flashed a deeper purple and she gently hit Ruby's shoulder who then proceeded to scoop up her teams jars, "Hey Horati." She causally said, her voice muffled by the stacked jars, and flashed away with the other girls on her tail, Weiss flinching as she bounced off a tree.
Horati looked star struck that Yang had looked in his direction but quickly snapped out of it, almost unnoticeable. "Do not worry children as I have taken the intellectual precaution off giving Miss Rose very strong jars! Nothing ever gets past me!" Oobleck announced, obviously proud of his intuition. Silver was nodding on, agreeing with his every word, taking in the mass of information about reinforced glass jars. I cocked a smile, happy that my friends were happy. I couldn't see Noir but I could occasionally hear rustles of leaves above us, she was practicing her skills, diving through the leaf cover but making sure she stayed in the immediate area, although I'm sure Oobleck wouldn't have noticed.
In fact I'm quite certain of it.
Something told me I just needed to test it. See what would happen if I just wandered off. Honestly what's the worst that could happen, Noir would probably support my choice, maybe even come with me. Silver will undoubtedly be happy with Oobleck and I'm sure Horati will understand. There is definitely something just South of here that I need to check out. I'm the only reason any of us are out here!
I smacked the tree with my hand and like a lucky black cat, Noir silently dropped to the mossy ground. "You feel it too?" I nodded silently and we both pointed South. I don't know how we knew it was South but it just felt right, this was destiny perhaps. There was something that way that I needed to find. Horati sat sharpening his sword and as I thought Silver was fully engrossed in whatever madness Oobleck was now spouting so I repositioned my big goggles and Noir transported us through the shadows and out of sight.
Something shimmered red on the floor, showing through the leaves, a path for us to take. "Use the path Noir, can you see it?" We never looked up from the path, never saw where it was taking us, we just knew that it would take us where we wanted to go. We never encountered any Grimm or other students, no trees stood in our way and I never felt fatigued. I felt warm, even in the shadows cast over us and the area we arrived in felt as though we had reached heaven.
There was a strong feel to this new copse of trees. They formed a perfect circle around us and it felt as though they were all connected, each tree feeding the life force of the next and I would have given anything to be this connected to someone, loved and accepted as part of a bigger thing. It reminded me of how Glynda had explained fighting as a team, each of you protecting the other, being able to let yourself forget about holding back and giving all you have to give without worrying about any dangers. There were no dangers here though, I didn't need anyone to hold my back.
"Ladies." I started to get tense, ready to fight, but I couldn't put my mind to it and the usually alert Noir, next to me, was calm too. I calmly turned, in no rush, and came face to face with a man, swathed in blood red fabric, tied as a toga on his shoulder. He smiled wider than any normal man can smile and I graciously smiled back. Serenity filled my mind whenever I looked at him. "River, Noir, care to join me?" He held out a sickly pale hand to each of us and part of my soul felt as though it was itching to reach out, take his hand. "You are so strong. I can help you reach your true destiny and save this land from the true evils."
My eyes teared up and I felt an intense pain spread through my arm.
Horati had quickly noticed that the two girls in his team had disappeared. Oobleck however was none the wiser and Horati was planning to keep it that way. If he could find them soon then he would be none the wiser to this rule breaking and they could get back into Professor Peach's good books again. But somehow they had left no trails and no sound which was very uncommon for River. He was starting to understand why they had left after being left to his own thoughts for a while. Something about the forest made him want to explore, go South and find something that was definitely there. Maybe this was the destiny thing that Pyrrah had mentioned a few times to Jaune behind him in class?
But most importantly for him, this was probably where his friends were. He looked around, Oobleck was talking about the practical uses of a ceramic mug of coffee against Grimm and Silver was still interested, there was no one else around and so he slipped away silently, his ink black coat cascading around his battle ready body. The red path lit up again but unlike the girls he took it with caution, his sun charged gauntlet held out in warning. Without the altered minds given by Sanguine he could notice how unnatural this area was. There were no Grimm, no trees, and the path was perfectly straight. But the most unnatural thing was the screams of his team mates and friends.
This is getting quite fun to write, also in a few chapters i will make the next volume in a different story so be prepared for that :D- Tschuss