XXI - Coal
Been working construction these last few months until the summer park jobs start. God I hate manual labor. I'm good at it, but I still hate it
~~~(XXI)~~~
Oxon had spent the entire afternoon carving out little wooden animals from the branch he'd found earlier. It wasn't a lot of material, but he was able to carve an owl, a moose, and was almost done with a rooster. Glancing at his scroll, it was past time for dinner. Glancing behind him showed him that Sustrai had already left. Whatever.
There wasn't much left to do, only some sanding on the base. After mulling it over while rotating the piece, he decided to take it with him. He stashed it in his jacket pocket along with a scrap of sandpaper. He'd finish it while eavesdropping on the others.
The line to get food was annoyingly long today, he was late after all.
"There you are, it took you long enough to show up today." He nodded at Yang as she waved him towards them. And wasn't their group getting a bit big?
Teams JNPR and RWBY were common sights in the cafeteria and he became the awkward ninth wheel. Now though, Sun and Neptune have joined the squad. Adding additional bright colors to contend with.
From ninth wheel to eleventh…
JNPR we're all sitting in a row opposite to RWBY. Weiss and Blake were on opposite ends of their team with their respective paramours sitting next to them. He could sit next to the blue or the blonde, but he really didn't want to be near their awkward flirting.
He chose the not so lesser of four evils and sat next to Pyrrha. Not his preferred seat but it was better than the splash zone that is Nora. He and the champion shared a raised eyebrow as he sat down next to her. Guess she still wasn't over his and Jaune's spar and insults.
"Sorry, I was working on something and lost track of time." Not like it really mattered if he was late, he doubted they'd talk about secret anti-criminal plots over pasta. And not like they'd really care if he ignored them.
"Homework?" He didn't really confirm or deny. "Yeah, that Oobleck essay on the color revolution suuuuuuucks so far."
Hmm, that was a topic he was actually pretty knowledgeable about. His home was founded to avoid Mantle's tyranny after all. He offered to help her if she wanted it.
"Yeah? Didn't know you were a history guy." The girl seemed shocked at the revelation.
"Cause I don't like to talk about myself. But trust me, growing up hearing about how Mantle was an oppressive regime tends to stick." And wasn't he shocked to hear his ancestors homeland had lost the great war, the elders always spoke about how terrifying their army was. Once he had access to the internet in Vale, he'd researched all he could of the conflict and Mantle/ Atlas.
"Wait what?" Weiss' confusion was overshadowed by Yang first pumping.
"Yes! Insider scoop!" She was now offering him a fist bump, which he awkwardly accepted.
"What, are you going to cite him as a source?" Neptune had a skeptical smile on his face at the thought.
"Yeah I doubt the professor would be thrilled with using a fellow student as a source." Weiss quickly agreed with the walking blueberry.
"I doubt I'd offer anything other than anti-Mantle bias, I'm just good at research." Oxon shrugged in dismissal. "Besides, it's a new country now, Atlas. My family would have loved to learn that."
There was a silence for a bit before Jaune coughed into his hand. Did he swallow his food wrong? "A-anyways, ignoring school stuff, Weiss, I was wondering what your plans for this weekend were?"
The girl's thoughtful expression was quickly wiped away and replaced with frustration.
Here we go again… Oxon could only roll his eyes as the confession of the week was about to occur.
"I have, plans, with my team. Sorry." And as expected, she didn't sound very sorry. Polite, but not sorry. Oxon leaned over to watch the walking sapling visibly wilt, very amusing.
"We could do a team bonding event!" Nora spoke up from the other end of the bench. "We can have fun on our own, fearless leader."
His snort was not unnoticed by the ripped redhead next to him. Oops.
The table descended into talk that was pointless on his mind. And once he finished his meal, he pulled out his carving and the sandpaper to smooth down the rougher edges. The detailing was fairly poor, nothing he could do about it, the tools he'd "borrowed" from the school weren't meant for this. Varnish and wood stain too were necessary.
He'd need to travel to the city to get what he needed.
While Oxon was busy inspecting the feathers, he failed to notice Yang keenly observing him and grinning.
"Nice cock, bro." Those three words almost made him snap the head off of the statue. Oxon stared at the grinning blonde with maximum incredulous shock. She had her hands over her sister's ears and Ruby was valiantly trying to remove them.
"I-I'm sorry, WHAT!?"
"Ahah! There we go, finally some emotion!" Yang first pumped at her "victory" and tried for a high five, but found nobody would reciprocate. "C'mon guys, I was just complimenting the cute little rooster he's got."
"Then why cover my ears?" Ruby was visibly frustrated at not being able to hear what had gone down.
"Your gorilla of a sister was crude is why." Weiss said, fighting a blush.
"Xiao Long, that could have very easily been phrased in any other way." Oxon was trying to control the bloodrush in his face and massaging his temples. He was shocked at the phrasing, leave it to Yang to make a mess of anything.
"Well, ignoring the way that ogre put it,"
"Hey!"
"I do have to agree, I didn't expect you of all people to be the crafty type." Neptune seemed pretty interested in the woodcarving. Then his words caught up with his mind. "Uh, no offense."
"Eh, it's fine." Not like he talked about his hobbies anyways.
"Hey Oxon!" His attention was moved to a grinning Sun who was at the opposite corner from himself. "Think you could make a monkey?"
He wanted a commission? "Uh, yeah, probably. Just need the material."
"Oh! Oh! Can you make a sloth!?" Nora spontaneously appeared on the seat next to him. Oxon blinked at the sight.
Wait, wasn't she on the other side of the bench? I only just blinked!
One issue with her request. He didn't know what a sloth was. "And that is?"
Her expression and the fact Ren facepalmed told him enough. "WHAT! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT A SLOTH IS!?" He had to lean away from the loud girl so he could save his ears.
He was saved by Pyrrha clamping a hand down on her fellow redhead's mouth. "I'm sorry about that, she's quite fond of them." For once she apologized to Oxon and actually seemed sincere. Guess even she can be embarrassed enough to help him.
"Th-thanks…" Oxon's ears rang slightly after the unexpected outburst. He glanced at a muzzled Nora who was mildly thrashing around.
"I'm sure I can always look up what a sloth is." The effect was immediate, the thrashing stopped and she gave a double thumbs up.
Seeing the danger had passed, Pyrrha released her and a grinning Nora returned to her seat.
"You would carve something for us? That's kind of you to offer." Ren gave Oxon a nod with a slight smile. Maybe he could repair some bridges between himself and team JNPR after all.
"Yeah, it's something of a hobby, it's relaxing." He wasn't planning on doing too many while at Beacon, but if it helped his mission, then he'd make sure they were flawless.
Can't get pissed about it when it's helping Cinder now can you Emerald. Suck it.
"Sweet! Custom wood carvings!" Sun high fived Nora to celebrate.
"What's the reason behind the rooster? Do you like that animal?" Ruby now seemed more curious about the figure in his hand than what her sister had said.
He rotated the piece around in his hand before answering. "It's My father's associated animal spirit."
"I'm sorry, his what?" Jaune's two brain cells must have been working overtime to figure it out. He'd have to help the fool.
"His token spirit, you know, the animal that is chosen to represent a person?" Seriously, it wasn't that hard to figure out. He looked around and everyone also seemed to be confused by the explanation.
"Do, do you guys not have that?" Ah shit, was this something only those at Prism did?
"Well no, I can't say we do?" Ruby had her head tilted in thought, muttering something about her uncle. Well damn, one step forward and a few more back. He really needed to stop embarrassing himself like this.
He missed the brief moment of panic on the young girl's face "But you should tell us more!"
He looked up and into her eyes. She was completely sincere it seemed. Scratching behind his ear and set down the rooster.
"Well, ok, it's a tradition from back home." He looked around the table and was unable to find a sign of mocking looks, so he continued.
"When a member of one's family reaches the age of ten years old, the family looks back on the personality of the child and finds an animal that embodies them. My father for example, his is the rooster." He pointed to the figure that started this.
"He grew up with the intent to join the town guard and trained hard in his early years. When he was nine, he saved a group of his friends from death. He stood vigil over them until help arrived. According to my uncle, they had been exploring the woods in search of herbs for their mother when they were attacked by a small Beowolf."
Uncle Tawny had always exaggerated the tale at every harvest festival.
"At nine, he managed to kill it and prevent anyone from being mortally wounded. He put a wounded friend on his back and made a slow trek home. They were gone all night, but at the daybreak of the next day, they reached the gates of our home."
"So on his birthday, he was rewarded with the rooster as his animal. They are a powerful bird and fiercely protective of those thoughts of its own. It is a good animal for one as strong as he. His nickname was the fighting cock of Prism."
"So your dad was a strong fighter as a kid? That's awesome!" He gave the young reaper a nod and a small smile.
"Yes, he was the captain of the guard and rightfully so."
"So what's yours?" his attention was stolen by the question that Yang asked. I'm gonna guess beaver since you're good with carving, and you were once a lumberjack. Or maybe it's more literal seeing your name is Ox."
"No, nothing so on the nose thankfully. I'm not a beaver either, it should be obvious. It's right on the back of my armor."
The group thought for a moment before Blake spoke up. "Wait, is it the squirrel?"
"Yup, I was a pretty big asshole as a kid. Always pulling pranks and climbing trees to avoid rightful punishment." He missed those days, the world was a much simpler place as a kid.
"Boooo, nothing cool, like a dragon or a bear." He shook his head. He didn't have a more combative animal to call his own. But he was happy with what he had.
"So your dad got a rooster for killing a grim and you got a squirrel for being a pest?" Sun seemed pretty amused by the whole situation. "Any other fun ones?"
"My brother was given the Selkie cause he would strip his clothes off once the dirt warm day of spring arrived." How Taxus hated that once he was older. Kept trying to have people think it was an owl or something.
The table burst into laughter at that. His brother would be annoyed if he knew that's the first that they learned about him. But the elder brother would just have to live with it.
He has a few smaller questions about his carving and how he learned. He answered a few and deflected ones that were more personal. He'd shared a lot, no need to drone on and on about himself.
Oxon decided he'd had enough interaction that day and said his farewells. He promised to look up sloths so that he could carve one for Nora.
As he made his way out of the cafeteria and towards the training hall. He reflected on the week he'd had so far. Sure, he had to do some work with Torchwick later, but he'd been training and studying for the most part like a normal student. He'd become more proficient with Bulls Breath in the time he'd had it. Even his pistol skills had jumped sharply. His thoughts were pretty cheery due to all of that.
Things are going pretty well.
~~~(XXI)~~~
Thanks for reading the chapter!