The Altar...?
*Hiya, guys! What do? Almost 20 chapters... Oh, stories grow up so fast... thank you for keeping the chapters comin'.
The gang, left by the villagers to sleep in a small hut disconnected from the actual village, slept uncomfortably (for the most part). Hay surrounded them, occasionally getting in their eyes or mouths, and there was no door, so the occasional night breeze sent shivers down their backs. Some, like Ruby, Yang, and Weiss, could not get any sleep, whilst Blake and the Achieve Men slept completely fine, being used to conditions like this. Blake, on her trips with the White Fang, had to survive in this condition, and The Achieve Men, when they went on bounty hunts or clearance missions, also had to sleep like this. On the other hand, Weiss, Ruby, and Yang had usually slept in a comfortable bed, meaning sleeping in hay was no familiar subject to them.
"Is anyone awake?" Ruby asked weakly. Yang groaned in response. Then came Weiss's delayed response, also a mere groan.
"I can't sleep like this..." Yang replied.
"Same here..."
An audible sigh came from Ruby's mouth as yet another cold breeze swept through the room. She looked at her comrades. No one other than them three seemed to be bothered at all by these conditions. Not really surprising, given their past lives. Still, it frustrated Ruby.
"How can they sleep soundly?"
Weiss turned in her 'bed'.
"Not sure. Guess they're used to it."
Ruby pouted. If she could not sleep, what was she to do? It was a waste of time to try to sleep, the last million times had been unsuccessful.
'One cookie, two cookies, three cookies, four...'
Ruby resolved to simply counting in her head. She got to about 20 before she became bored.
"Guys?" Ruby propped herself up on one elbow, and looked into the darkness.
"yeah...?"
"I'm really bored. I can't sleep, and I'm not going to try."
"Good for you."
Ruby sat back down.
"Fine."
Silence filled the hut for ten minutes, giving peace to the night. But all that was interrupted by Ruby, again expressing her boredom.
"How do you think Team JNPR is holding up?"
Yang groaned, as did Weiss. No answer came for Ruby's question.
She grind her teeth, awkwardly awaiting an answer.
"You think we'll get back in time?"
Again no answer.
"What do you-."
"SHUT UP!" Yang suddenly shot up from her hay pile. "SHUT. UP."
Ruby bit her lower lip.
"okay..."
They all sat awkwardly, listening to their own breath. No one said a word to each other. Ruby did not speak in fear of being yelled at again. And for the rest of the night, she didn't get any sleep.
"Rise and shine..." Geoff said stretching. Ruby immediately responded.
"Already up..."
Geoff raised an eyebrow.
"Did you get any sleep?"
Ruby shook her head. Geoff sighed.
"Neither did I."
"Nor I."
Then came the voices of Yang and Weiss. Geoff grimaced.
"Wow."
The others got up soon after, got changed, and seemed fine.
"Slept pretty well."
"Yeah, me too."
"Wasn't as bad as the time we slept in the Tibetan woods..."
Yang groaned.
"Hey, what's up with you?" Blake asked. She explained.
Blake had the same reaction as Geoff.
"That sucks."
Yang rolled her eyes.
"Where we heading...?"
Ryan shrugged.
"I think we can start by heading to the altar. Maybe work out a strategy on how to eliminate those guards."
The others secretly wished they didn't have to take out government officials, but were, for some reason influenced by Ryan. They felt his choice was the right one...
Within ten minutes, they were out of the hut. Ryan, having marked the area on his map, began to walk towards the direction the villagers had pointed him towards. The others followed, heading into a large expanse of woods. A lot of growling and chirping was heard in the forest, though no source was encountered.
This gave an eerie feeling, but nonetheless they all trudged through.
"Eugh!" Weiss suddenly shouted. She had stepped in goo, and now her shoes were muddy and dirty. "Dammit!"
She stomped at the ground, but instead of continuing to complain, merely pouted and walked on. She had to get used to these conditions eventually. They walked for around a half an hour in one direction, before Ryan stopped suddenly.
"We've walked the distance it says here... where is it?"
He looked around, a perplexed expression on his face.
"It'here somewhere..."
He started walking in circles, looking past trees, everything, while the rest of the group look on at him dumbfounded.
"We're lost." Michael simply said. Ryan shook his head.
"No, no." He replied. He kept on searching around for a minute, before sighing.
"I don't know where it might be, honestly. Let's head back and ask again."
He regathered himself, started walking one way, spun on his heel, looked the other way, and dead stopped.
"Ummm... Which way did we come from?"
Everyone groaned. Though they had expected this, they still did not wish it to happen. No one even spoke.
Ryan looked awkwardly around.
"Guys? We should really start heading back..."
"Guys?"
"Guys?"
"Guys?!"
"Holy shit, I'll go by myself, then."
He trudged one way. Before long he turned around to his group.
"I'll give you one more chance!"
When no one answered, he turned back around. The group smiled. They tried not to show, but they liked the fact Ryan cared about them, and liked their company. He turned around once more.
"Awwwh, come on guys, please?"
They laughed, and went by Ryan's side. Though they had no idea where they were going, they at least were not fighting and arguing.