Heroism - Redux
The next few days passed in relative peace and quiet, broken only when Yang's teasing provoked the odd shriek of rage, the shouts echoing softly into the surrounding forest. Their days were spent organizing and clearing away enough treasure to actually sleep in peace, Yang grumbling while Weiss pointed out that the dragon would never be able to actually find anything with her hoard this scattered. Reluctantly, the dragon agreed, and by the second day, the two had assigned various tunnels and sections to her collection. The weapons tunnel turned out to be her favorite, repaired and reassembled racks of spears and swords resting against the wall, bronze and iron glinting in the torchlight. Clothes were gathered, sorted and placed in cabinets and chests cannibalized from the rest of her trove, flags and pennants now covering the walls of her new ersatz trophy room. The coins were a lost cause, far too many to count and sort with any accuracy, ending up swept deeper and deeper into the cave as they worked their way through her hoard.
What time wasn't spent arguing with Yang about why they couldn't put her stash of oils next to a lit torch, was consumed by thoughts of where? Where could she go, what city was truly beyond the reach of her father? Vale was too close, Mistral too well-known. Yang tried to help, but what names she remembered belonged to places Weiss had never heard of. Everyday they would set aside possibility after possibility, until finally both women gave up, accepting another day lost to her indecisiveness.
Days quickly turned into a week, spent in the dragon's company. From what Weiss could tell, Yang seemed perfectly content with having a houseguest, and even more content to share her bed with the princess – a situation that Weiss tolerated only due to the dragon having just the one bed. Yang offered to fly her to a market, find a place where they could buy another, but for some reason, Weiss never made it a priority. One week turned to two, then three, and the two women settled into something resembling a 'normal' routine, with Yang taking off to hunt every few days, leaving the princess to her own devices. She'd gone along the first few times, but the amount of effort that went into feeding a creature three to four times the size of any native animals was astonishing.
And boring, she'd thought after their last trip. Hunting had never been her forte.
Which was how daylight found Weiss outside the entrance to the dragon's cave, taking a moment to enjoy the morning air. Pine needles rustled as the wind blew in off the coast, carrying with it the scent of salt and brine. Despite having spent so much time near the sea, Weiss still found it refreshing – the clean, cold air around Yang's sanctuary could not have been more different from the thick, smoke-filled, perfume-laden palace.
That hardly made it the ideal vacation spot. Warm and cozy and full of treasure it might be, but Yang's cave was hardly equipped for basic human necessities. The entire concept of a latrine was lost on the creature, and it took a good ten minutes before she finally understood what Weiss was very delicately trying to say. Then there was the issue of explaining that no, Weiss could not just up and fly down to the sea whenever she needed to relieve herself.
Then there was the isolation. The nearest human city was several hours away on dragonback, and while several islands were closer, Weiss had pointed out that a dragon flying in over the water would be even more obvious than one skimming the ground. She supposed there was a silver lining to the solitude – namely, that it should making it nearly impossible for her father or his men to find her. On the other hand, it meant hours of travel for mere necessities, and each trip risked discovery and widespread panic if Yang was spotted. Fortunately, she was able to scrounge quite a bit from the various items in Yang's collection. A mostly-undamaged chest now sat by the cleared section of floor, Weiss' new clothes folded neatly inside. A chipped clay stove that had sat abandoned beneath a set of spears now waited nearby. Several bags of flour leaned against the stove, ready for whenever Weiss decided that wild game for the fourth day in a row was too much.
At least water wasn't a problem. A deep reservoir sat in the lower tunnels, filled with water from an underground stream that tricked down to the sea. With a few boulders, draconic aid, and a bit of very careful magic, the two women managed to turn it into a set of layered pools, with the clean upper pool dedicated to drinking, any excess water bleeding off into the lower one for washing and bathing. Yang seemed to find the construction work rather fun, and was only too happy to transform and slip into the deeper pool, grinning and waving for the princess to join her. Weiss, for her part, had no complaints about the ease by which a dragon could turn a pool of frigid water into a steam bath.
Unfortunately, dark caves and treasure troves were hardly the best environment for drying clothes. The clearing outside the cave, however, was sparse and open. Several low-hanging branches made excellent places for a washing line, the sun peeking over the trees to leave the glade bright with sunlight.
Halfway done with her task, washing-lines pulled taught by their burden, Weiss sat on a nearby stone, feeling the light warm her skin. Eyes closed, she listened, taking the brief moment of solitude to completely relax. Birds chirped in the treetops, the pines whispering beneath them as the wind blew their secrets to her. There was something ... pure about it, so calming and warm...
A branch snapped, and Weiss spun, hand already on the blade at her side and wishing that she'd thought to borrow a bow. It was probably a deer – which would have been a welcome addition to the dwindling supply of food – but she'd heard of wild boar living near the mountains, vicious creatures with nearly foot-long tusks that were more than capable, and usually quite willing, to skewer anyone and anything that annoyed them. Clever and mean, they'd been responsible for injuring more than a few hunters from her town; she had no desire to end up like them.
A second cracking footstep echoed through the glade, and Weiss turned, sword clearing her sheath with one quick pull, ready to sink as deep into the porcine beast as possible. To her surprise, a towheaded man pushed his way blindly through the branches, leaves and twigs scattered in his hair, his tunic muddy and torn where thorns had ripped it. Looking up, his eyes widened with shock at the white-haired figure, sword held ready at her side, clothes drying on the line behind her.
"By the gods. Weiss?"
Jaune's stomach grumbled for what had to be the twentieth time that day. Not that it was that uncommon. A man on a journey had to live off the land, after all. Of course, that worked better when there was a land to live off of. The area he'd been sent to search was apparently devoid of animals; the biggest creatures he'd seen in the past four days had been the insects perpetually biting at his neck and arms. As for his stomach, it had been a good three days since his last true meal, or at least one that didn't consist of scavenged berries that he figured were mostly harmless. At least he knew the red ones by sight now.
Then again, none of it mattered. Not the insects, not the lack of food, not the aches and pains running from his legs to his feet from walking for days on end. All that mattered was the chance, the slimmest chance, that she might still be alive. And it was a slim chance, slim enough that Lord Schnee had only bothered to send a few guards after the trail that had quite literally wandered across their path.
A merchant caravan had brought word that a city to the north had been attacked by a dragon, the description matching the one that had haunted Atlas for so long, down to the malevolent black eyes and the tusks jutting forward from its mouth. It was a huge, vicious monster, the same one that had tried to devour the town's villagers before making off with the Princess, who had chosen to sacrifice herself so that they all could live. It was the kind of bravery Jaune wished he could live up to, an honor he wanted for himself, and the real reason why he'd agreed to comb through the woods while the rest of the search party headed farther north.
Ignoring his body's complaints, he pushed himself up the hill, one foot landing heavily in front of the other, makeshift walking stick in hand. He had just crested the ridge of the hill when something flashed, some brief spec of motion that caught his eye.
Movement in the trees. Jaune froze, his heart pounding as he tried to control his breathing. The biggest game he'd seen in days was a rabbit and that had been before he neared the foot of the mountain, but there were boar that lived in these hills. They were vile creatures; he'd seen the shape some of the hunters had returned in after they ran into one of those. He had no interest in copying them, especially not with just his sword for a weapon. It was more than enough for the average bandit, but a good spear was the weapon for boar hunting, and he didn't particularly want to skewer the pig only to get speared by one of its tusks in return.
No snorting or rustling came, and Jaune eased his foot forward, remembering everything his captain had taught him about moving quietly in the woods.
He immediately snapped a twig.
The cracking wood was impossibly loud, echoing in the otherwise silent grove. Wincing, he drew in on himself, waiting for snorting breaths and pounding hoofs had would come right before the boar charged him. Seconds passed, and nothing came charging for him. Letting out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding, Jaune wiped the sweat from his brow, thanking the gods for whatever good fortune they'd spared him. Careful, he started to head back the way he'd come, deciding to circle around and come at the mountainside from another, less-populated angle.
Another twig snapped beneath his foot.
The sound of metal scraping on leather filled the air, and Jaune whirled, hand already on his sword. Bandits, he thought, and swallowed. That was why he hadn't seen much game, why this whole area seemed deserted, even by middle-of-the-woods standards. Too few animals scampered in the brush, too few birds sang. If a group of ruffians had set up their camp here, it would all make sense. In fact, it was probably the only answer.
Ready and waiting for the attack, he shrunk closer to the ground, trying to make less of a target of himself, should someone start firing arrows into the trees. He just needed to find ... there! A clearing sat off to one side, barely visible through the crush of trees surrounding it. A white-haired figure stood facing into the woods, blade in head as she waited for him to ...
Wait. She?
Struggling to his feet, Jaune charged forward, and promptly tripped over an exposed root. Catching himself, he pushed off the ground and kept moving, darting between the trees, until he stepped into the clearing, sunlight blasting him in the face. Blinking his eyes to adjust, he gazed, slack-jawed at the sight before him, the woman he'd thought he'd never see again.
"By the gods. Weiss?"
"But ... you're dead." he managed, looking thoroughly dumbfounded.
"Nothing ever escapes you, Jaune," the Princess drawled, resisting the urge to curse. Of all the people to find her, it would be him. The most junior of her father' guardsmen, the blonde had immediately attached himself to the younger princess' retinue, and despite Weiss objections, insisted on 'protecting' her whenever possible.
It could be worse, she decided. For all she disliked him, better to be found by an ineffective guard than a capable one. At least it should be easy to make him leave. Not bothering to so much as look in his direction, the princess turned back to her washing, flicking the last of sheet up and over the line. "Now if you're quite done, I'm in the middle of something."
Jaw still slack, he stared openly, glancing from her to the washing hung around the clearing. "You're ... doing laundry."
"Ever the observant," she drawled, twitching the length of linen until both sides of the drying bedsheet matched. "Now, please do me a favor, and leave."
"Why are you doing laundry?" he asked, eyes darting down as one pale eyebrow raised, objecting to the lack of a title. "Princess," he added belatedly, trying for some semblance of military discipline.
"Because I like having clean clothes," Weiss sighed, laying her basket down by the stone she had been resting on. "I'll understand if that's a novel concept to you, but since there aren't any servants out here, I'm afraid I have to do it myself."
"No, I ..." Jaune's mouth worked for a second, seeming completely baffled as the gears in his head tried to force comprehension into him. "How are you not dead?"
"Well, this big dragon swooped down and carried me off. You should know, half the town saw it arrive."
Jaune stiffened at the reminder, looking increasingly uncomfortable as he stared into the dirt. "Are you alright? Did it hurt you?"
"She," Weiss corrected, unable to keep the bite out of her voice. "Hasn't tried to sacrifice me. I know it's a fairly low standard, but for some reason people have trouble with it."
The blond winced at that, guilt flickering across his face as his sword-arm loosened. "You have to know I didn't want that."
"I don't 'have' to know anything. Fortunately for the both of us, I'm apparently safer here than I was at the palace. Now, if you would please leave, I have a few more things to dry."
"But-" The word was spoken to thin air as Weiss turned away, only to find herself stopped as the young man grabbed her sleeve. "Weiss, you have to come back with me. Everyone will be ecstatic to see that you're alive. You can't imagine how happy your father will be, your sisters-"
"Jaune," the princess cut him off, turning to stare imperiously back at the scruffy guardsman. "I'll speak very slowly, just to make sure you can understand. I am fine. In fact, I'm relatively happy. Don't ruin it. Go home, tell no one you saw me, and just let everyone get on with their lives."
She couldn't mean that. She couldn't. It didn't make any sense - none of this made any sense. The Princess shouldn't even be alive, much less doing a servant's work in the middle of the woods. Not that it wasn't a good thing – he was very glad to see her alive and ... mostly well – but it wasn't right.
Something was very wrong.
Blue eyes blinked and the guardsman shook his head, his voice growing softer. "Princess, listen to me. Whatever ... happened to you, you're not thinking clearly."
"I said I'm fin-"
"No, you're not," he said over her, leaning down to look back and forth between her eyes. Her gaze still seemed sharp, although that might have just been the scowl she normally wore. "You're in the middle of a forest, outside a monster's cave, hanging sheets to dry. That's ... it's not normal. I think ... maybe it did something to your head. Maybe magic."
Yeah. That made sense, now that he thought about it. If the dragon hadn't eaten her, it had to have kept her around for a reason. Laundry, apparently.
Okay, so it wasn't a perfect theory. Still, it made more sense than the alternative. If the monster had some fort of magical pull, some way to put its victims under its thrall, that would explain why the Princess seemed so strange, why she was so reluctant to return home. She might not even know it's affecting her, he thought, the horror of it all chilling him to the bone. Or worse, she does, but whatever spell it put on her keeps her from being able to talk about it.
Either way, the best thing for it was to get her as far away from here as possible. Jaune wasn't an expert on magic or monsters, by any means, but he knew animals, and eventually, the dragon would come back. The only way he'd be able to get her to safety was if they were long gone by the time it arrived.
His voice was still softer than normal, more careful, as if talking to a child, or ... Someone insane, she realized. Son of a bitch. Bile riled in her stomach at the thought, furious at the idea of him 'handling' her.
"Let. Go," she snapped, glaring daggers into the blonde until his hand released her arm. Weiss sighed as Jaune stepped back, concern still plastered on his face.
"Jaune, the dragon didn't do anything to me," she said, ignoring the part of her brain that quite happily pointed out exactly what Yang had done to her. "She saw what everyone was trying to do. She didn't want a sacrifice, so she scared them off."
"Okay," he said, nodding and smiling and still using that soft, inoffensive, gentle tone. "Look, Weiss, it's gonna be okay, just com-"
"For the love of-" she growled, swatting away Jaune's hands as he tried to block the light, looking to see if her eyes dilated. "Dammit Jaune, stop. I don't have a concussion. There's no magic. She saved me, plain and simple. Now piss off."
Reaching out, he tugged on her sleeve as he would a child, trying to get her to follow him. "Look, I'll get you home. We'll find someone who can help yo-."
Knocking his hand aside, Weiss stepped back, hand dropping to the hilt at her side. In an instant, Jaune froze, eyes locked on the sheathed weapon.
"I'm not going back to the town of people who tried to kill me," Weiss said, forcing her voice into her calmest, most even tone. "I think that's fairly reasonable. That leaves you with two choices: either you leave, go home, and keep your mouth shut, or you keep trying to take me back and I have to use this."
Jaune took a careful step back, hands raised to the sides of his head. "Weiss, don't make me fight you. You're not yourself, and I don't want to have to hurt you."
Weiss rolled her eyes. "No. You don't want to have to fight me, because you'll lose. I've seen the guards run their drills, and I'm fairly sure the kitchen staff armed with rolling pins make better fighters than you."
The guard's cheeks flushed, one hand slipping slowly towards his own weapon. "Weiss, please. Just let me-"
His blade never even cleared its sheath. Within seconds, Weiss was on him, palm slamming into his hilt and trapping it in place. One knee came up, snapping out and catching him in the side, the point of her knee nestled right between a set of ribs. She followed through, using her momentum to knock the blonde into the dirt before her own blade cleared its scabbard and pressed against his throat.
"Now, let me be excruciatingly clear," she said, just loud enough for him to hear. "You're going to go back to Atlas. You're going to tell everyone that your search was a complete waste of time, and you and everyone else in that damn town are going to leave me alone." Blade still resting against his pulse, she stepped back, putting some distance between them before letting him up. "Do we understand each other, or do we need to try this again?"
"Understood," Jaune croaked, cross-eyed as he stared at the weapon.
Sighing, Weiss stepped back, giving him as much room as she could before turning back into the cave. Better to just give him some time, let him nurse the wound to his pride before he returned. She could always finish hanging the clothes once he'd left, and-
An explosion of pain rocked her head, bursting out from the back of her skull. With a cry of pain, Weiss went down, hands and knees slamming into the ground as the world swam before her. Her hand was still gripped tight around the hilt of her blade, years of practicing in secret paying off as she tried to turn.
Something slammed into her hand, her fingers going numb as whatever it was hit her again. Metal scraped on stone as the sword flew out of her reach and clattered against the tunnel wall. Snarling, she whirled, only to see Jaune armed with another rock, hefting it in his hand as he looked down at her sideways.
That can't be right ... Weiss realized she was on her side, and managed to roll onto her side before another the rock crashed into the ground. The movement made her head throb in agony, her vision swimming. One hand clutched to her temple, she lashed out with her leg, catching Jaune in the knee and hearing a very satisfying scream. Scrambling on the hard stone, she stumbled to her feet, reaching for the blade lying against the wall.
Hands closed around her foot, yanking her off-balance and knocking her down onto the ground. The wind rushed out of her, leaving the princess gasping on the ground, her head pounding. Looking up, she found Jaune, limping towards her, rock raised to strike.
"I promise," he panted, his voice still calm despite the pain etched in his face. "This is for your own good."
Then the rock came down, and darkness claimed her.
Bit of a short chapter, but that was a good place to break. Looking forward to posting the next update on Thursday. No preview this time, since everything would be spoiler-y.
Please review if you can find the time! The little alerts I get on my phone, and getting to read what people thought, really make my day.