Here we are folks. First new chapter for the story. REVIEW
POV: 3rd Person
One step, two steps, three steps, all the steps. That was all that was going through Jaune's mind as the young boy kept putting one foot in front of the other. Tears going down his eyes at what had happened to his family, to his home, to his village; but he kept going. He knew, even as a child of six, that looking or going back would be death; he wanted to live.
The young boy wanted to live to become the one who the Grimm feared. His rage and hatred at what had happened only eclipsed by his instinct for survival. There was nothing that no one could do to help him now, he only had what was in front of him and that was all that he had. Nothing to his name, no weapons, no money; only the clothes on his back. So, he kept walking because it was the only thing he could do.
One step, two steps, three steps, all the steps. He kept walking and walking. The sun falling and rising as he kept walking. The notion of fatigue long lost on him as his body glowed a dull white along the way. The songs of birds and the rustle of animals around him the only thing to keep him company as he continued to walk.
Eventually, his stomach one over the boy as he found a small river through the forest. Getting on his knees by the edge of the river he cupped his hands and began to drink. As he did he saw fish begin to swim through the river. Looking around the boy had no equipment to fish properly so he grabbed the sharpest stick he could find and waded into the small river.
Standing a few feet into the river it reached up to his waist as he stood there with the stick and waited. The sun had been low in the sky when he had started and it was high in the sky when he finally moved. The stick shooting downwards and spearing right through the fish. It struggled on the stick for a few moments before going limp.
Smiling to himself the boy lifted the fish out of the water and walked to the shore. Plopping down on the shore the boy realized he had nothing to either skin it or cook it. Not knowing how to do either didn't help the matter for the boy. Instead, he let his stomach take over and simply bit into the fish. It was lean and the scales were hard to eat but he swallowed the food, the nutrients from the fish giving him energy so he kept eating it. Until it was just bones.
When he was done with his first fish he waded back into the water and continued to wait just like before. With hours passing before he achieved the same result giving him his second fish. He ate it quietly at the bank of the river before lying down when he had finished and falling asleep.
Waking up the boy was relieved to see that he had survived through his sleep and hadn't been taken by the grimm. Getting up he continued on his way letting his feet take him wherever they pleased. Finally able to enjoy the nature that was around him. His grandpa had spoken longingly about the beauty of nature and promised to show the boy when he got older. He would never get the opportunity to share it with his grandpa now but he truly understood what the older man was saying. Nature was beautiful.
One step, two steps, three steps, all the steps. The boy kept walking and walking, he didn't care where he was going letting his feet guide him in any which direction they desired. Exploring the forest around him and learning from the animals there. How they hunted, how they survived, how they found water and so much more. The boy just kept learning because he knew no help was coming for him. His town was small and not worth much to people outside of it. That's how it was for all frontier towns; it just was and his family made sure he knew that in case something like this ever happened. He still hated the grimm with all his being for what had happened but Nature was too beautiful to make him drown himself in sorrow.
If, perhaps, the boy had been older he would've succumbed to despair. His thoughts and mind too developed to focus on anything other than revenge. The mind of a child though was pure and he saw Nature as the purity around him. He rejoiced in the gift he had been given even if to get it everything else had been taken from him. The boy didn't forget his family though for Nature, he remembered every single one of their names and vowed that he would carve their names into the one responsible.
The boy wasn't the smartest child or truly even clever but the one thing he excelled at, even at his age, was strategy. At four years old he had beaten his entire family and grandpa in a strategy board game. Beat them in chess, beat them in everything with tactics. It was the one thing in his life that truly resonated with him. To see what was behind the moves and actions of others without seemingly knowing why. That is how he knew, without a doubt, that the grimm were controlled.
They were not mindless and there were no centuries old Alphas in the area. If there had been he would not have survived. Something that left only one option to his mind. Someone was controlling them and was giving them tactics and strategies. It was the only thing that made sense in his mind with how they moved and acted. Whoever they were, wherever they were; one day he would find them and he would kill them.
This was something that he vowed would happen but for the moment, he needed food again. He didn't know how long it had been since he ate or drank but his stomach was growling again. Stopping and listening to the birds around him he followed their songs and the rustling of leaves until he found a small pond with a few small trees around it. Berries protruding from the trees. He grabbed them and began eating while taking gulps from the pond. Satisfied he moved on.
One step, two steps, three steps, all the steps.
He didn't know how long it had been but he guessed years. His clothes being discarded a while ago as he had grown out of them. Looting new ones from other destroyed villages and caravans. Really any place that he could find anything to help him was free game to the young kid. He didn't care where they came from as long as they could be used.
Leaving the most recent village to be destroyed he walked with quiet footsteps and his pack on his back. Filled to the brim with new supplies to be used the Grimm never saw him leave or enter. The boy knew he couldn't take them on reliably yet without attracting more so he avoided every fight that he could. Very rarely had he ever fought Grimm.
Avoiding them at all costs until he had gotten a weapon some moons ago. A pistol that could turn into a decently sized knife he had scavenged from a destroyed caravan. Only had two magazines with it that were full and he hadn't used a single bullet yet. Not becuase he didn't want to but because he didn't know when he would actually need them. It was better to save the bullets for later just in case.
In, however long it had been for him in the forest he had learned all that he could. Mostly from animals and how they acted but also through nature. Hunting whenever he could to get food and making fires that were hard to spot. Getting good cover and keeping himself warm and dry. Both probably saving his life plenty of time since he began taking his steps.
He was still no where closer to finding out who had orchestrated the attack on his found but he knew for sure that someone was in charge of the grimm. A massive man had been controlling the Grimm on an attack on a village a couple months back. Jaune had gotten close enough to see him pointing where the Grimm were supposed to go. An orb like grimm with tentacles floating next to him.
Jaune wasn't able to make anything out about the man besides that he was large because he didn't want to get close. They didn't notice him and he simply waited around the area for a couple days remaining calm the whole time. When it had been almost four days after the attack happened the boy went through and looted the town. It might've been inappropriate to take the peoples stuff but they weren't going to use it and no one was coming to get the bodies. Such was the fate of Frontier towns, the main cities did not care for them one bit.
That's to say the hunters didn't care as well. Only the young and idealistic cared for the frontier towns and even then they eventually outgrew the towns when they couldn't pay what the hunters wanted. It was a cruel thing to see but it was common place. Hunters were mercenaries at the end of the day and they had their own bills to pay. They couldn't be the knights in shining armor the boy had once believed them to be.
It didn't mean that the boy let them get away with it when he had the chance to mess with them. Hunters are good at their jobs but many had been pampered by the cities and didn't know the forest and plains like he did. He was never malicious or took anything they needed but a few strips of meat, some pieces of a tent, water bottles, a compass, all of those and more. Jaune would nick them from the hunters just to spite them and to help him in his survival. Stealing from Hunters had the benefit of spiting them but they always had the best gear for survival. A win win.
Jaune just survived any way he could and had a few close calls when he had to fight grimm. He was still far to small to do much against them in a straight up fight so he always had to set traps for them if fighting them was inevitable. The traps weren't intricate enough to kill the Grimm as he wasn't strong enough yet to make that caliber of traps yet. However, they were good enough that it would give him more than enough time to get away from the Grimm.
They didn't always work and he had to fight a couple beowolves on his lonesome once or twice. Killing the three in total he had faced in differing ways. One with his acquired dagger pistol when he stabbed it through a Grimms head held the boy up around his waist preparing to kill him. The second one he tricked into throwing itself off a cliff and the third was pure luck. The beowulf had cornered the boy inside a cave and when Jaune dived out of the way of the Grimm's lunge it slammed into the caves wall and caved it in. Jaune barely made it out of the cave.
As for where the boy was now he didn't rightly know. His feet had taken him farther than he ever knew possible. The forest left behind over a full moon cycle ago and he was in the plains now. Flat for miles which gave him a good idea on where to go… if there was anything around him.
With how flat it was he could see for miles but there was nothing. No settlements, mountains, or forests; there was nothing. There wasn't even smoke for a fire or anything. Just rolling plains of nothing. At least he would be able to see Grimm from miles away which was what the boy was doing now.
Across the plain over three miles away was a massive group of Grimm. Monsters must've been a hundred or so feet tall and moving in groups. Four legs and tusks but that was all the boy could make out on them, not even the number of them but it had to be alot to be visible form the distance. Knowing he had aboslutely no shot at surviving them if they got close he made sure to steer well clear of their path.
That being said he spent the next couple weeks observing the herd from a fair distance. Trying to see their patterns or what they were doing. It seemed that at the end of the day they weren't much better than pack animals. The one time he got close enough to look in their eyes though he saw an intelligence in them that frightened the boy. Their eyes spoke of experience and intelligence that far outclassed him.
When they saw him though they didn't care about him. They knew as well as he did that he was no threat to them and not worth the trouble. As long as he stayed far enough away from them they would leave him alone. Which he did after observing them and they left the plains into the forest. Trampling trees with an ease befitting of creatures as massive as them.
Once they left Jaune spent a much longer time in the rolling plains. Observing grimm from a distance with binoculars he had stolen from a hunter. He found their patterns and how they operated beyond just roaming. Always staying well clear of them as with the plains there was no real way to create traps that could save him. It was the reason he never strayed too close to any grimm he observed.
He spent many moon cycles on the plains before continuing on his way. One step, two steps, three steps, all the steps. A mantra in his head that he decided to never abandon.
He was finally big enough to fight Grimm effectively. Not able to take them on brazenly yet or in large packs but he no longer feared being cornered by a single grimm. His skill in traps and fighting advancing by leaps and bounds as he got older. He didn't know how old he was without a calendar and at this point he probably wouldn't know either way. His birthday lost to him.
Even with him sufficient in taking on Grimm alone he still stayed well clear of them when he had the chance too. There was no point in tempting fate in his mind and doing so would only invite disaster. He always made to study the Grimm whenver he could and through that he was able to hunt them. Not effectively at first with his first attempt almost killing him but he learned. He kept learning after every effort and every trial he learned.
To the point that he could hunt packs of grimm relatively effectively. He couldn't take them all on in one sitting but he could whittle their numbers day by day until there was almost nothing of a pack. Killing them through time and attrition. That's how he began hunting, one at a time; day by day. He killed dozens of packs of various grimm this way.
The more dangerous Grimm he stayed away from. His ability to hunt them not where it needed to be for him to do much of anything besides annoying them. The grimm that went in packs were much easier to deal with. Outside of their numbers they weren't much of a problem as long as they didn't catch him unprepared, and he always made sure he was prepared. Wasn't always as effective as he would hope but enough so that he wouldn't die a sad death. He still had names to carve into the flesh of another.
The boy still had much to learn and he knew that so he kept learning what he could. Every day and every night he took notes on what was going on around him and had notes dating back to when he first began to take his steps. Put onto a notebook he stole from a pair of hunters. The book had notes already filling in on gaps in his knowledge. Mostly pertaining to the environments of Atlas and the Faunus country as the notebook called it. With their grimm and other notes filled in.
It seemed to him that those Hunters didn't much care for faunus but he didn't judge them. People hated and loved who they wanted, he didn't care as long as they didn't put his life in danger. Something that had been done by both Humans and Faunus during his time wandering. Either through their own stupidity or their hatred; he didn't care.
Jotting down some notes in the notebook he closed it and went on his way after taking note of the edible vegetation in the area. Something that involved plenty of experimentation and a few hours squatting over a hole after a mistake. It was all in due course with experimenting with native foods of the area. Didn't mean he enjoyed it but as long as it didn't kill him outright he would have to deal with it.
He knew he still had a long way to go before he was strong enough but right now everything he could find would help him. Having added a folded bow to his weapons a few moons back. Finding it in the middle of destroyed village that he assumed was Mistralian. Couldn't tell for certain but with the building and markings he assumed that to be the case.
One step, two steps, three steps, all the steps. It had taken him everywhere and it will take him farther still.
"We've been following this kid for two months now. When are you going to make a decision on what to do with him?"
"I want to see his overall plan. He just seems to want to wander."
"Then let him wander. We aren't being paid to do anything with or for him."
"... I know but that kid has been handling himself better than some Hunters we know. He has a lot of experience out here."
"So what do you want to do boss?"
"Teach him. We're being paid to survey the area and to mark the movements of the Branwen Tribe. We can make time for the kid," the man was greeted with silence for almost a full minute before his partner responded.
"I don't really agree boss but its your call. You think he'll be a good recruit in the future?"
"If he's been out here as long as I think he has then yes… We get him tonight."
First real chapter of The Wanderer. Hope you enjoyed.