Ch. 18 At least it's not raining…
The way down wasn't that bad, they were jumping from lower than during Initiation.
That didn't mean the landing was easy by any means. In order to not spread out too much they had to jump in quick succession and that meant they had to be careful not to hinder each other's landing strategy.
Jaune was the second to last to jump and had a clear view of Cocra and Maroon doing just that, they tried to use the same tree to kick off from and nearly collided. In their panic they did their best to change trajectories by grabbing onto branches but in doing so they had to let go of the picnic baskets.
Weiss meanwhile used a polarity glyph to stick her feet to a tree trunk, standing at a ninety degrees angle. This was a good landing strategy if she didn't also try to save the baskets. With better control of her semblance she could have done both, but as she was, she lost control of the glyph she was standing on and fell to the ground with a yelp.
Blake was the only one from team BSMT that landed without any issue, since she used her semblance to step onto a branch and jumped down onto the ground with grace, catching the baskets just as they fell from Weisses dissipating glyphs.
As for team RNJR, Ren employed a similar strategy to Cocra and Maroon, albeit with more success. Ruby with the most flair by far, utilising Crescent Rose to slow herself down in the air and landing with a flourish, folding the scythe back to its compact form and returning it to her back.
Then there was Nora. If Ruby had the most flair, Nora had the biggest impact. Literally.
A loud boom announced the creation of a crater in the forest floor with Nora and Manghild square in the centre of it.
And Jaune? Jaune was too preoccupied with watching the others to do much more than plummet through the branches, joining Weiss on the floor with a chunk of his aura gone.
"Ouch…"
"Are you alright Jaune?" asked Ruby.
"There're leaves in my mouth… other than that I'm fine."
"Ohh! How do they taste?" quipped Nora.
"Blood…"
"Are you sure you're alright?"
Ruby was giving Jaune a quick lookover when Weiss piped up, dusting the dirt and leaves off from her dress.
"No, he's right. As much as I hate admitting it, I too had an unwilling taste of them. They do taste kinda… metallic."
"Oh, so that kinda coppery flavour?"
Weiss thought it was an apt description though as she didn't make it a habit to lick metal she had to rely on her book knowledge.
"I think it's actually the iron in the blood you'd taste, but yes. Do you think that's why the forest is red?"
"What, like an iron deposit? I don't think so. The deposit would have to be enormous. There's no way surveys wouldn't find it by now."
"You'd know about that, wouldn't you…"
Blake honestly meant that as a friendly jab, but something in her voice must have betrayed her since Weiss quickly voiced her displeasure.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Just that you're a heiress of a literal mining company."
"...I suppose that's fair. Still…"
Weiss couldn't help but feel there was an underlying context she was missing, but on the surface she had to agree. There was no way the SDC could keep their hands off of the forest if there could be ore here.
"Guys? Let's put that matter aside for now. I see blue smoke to the north."
Ruby was right, there were a total of three plumes of blue smoke.
"Of course it's north, we'll have to go further from the rendezvous point."
Weiss complained, but her heart wasn't in it, since she was still thinking about her prior exchange with Blake.
"Let's hurry then. The sooner we're done with the task the sooner we can have that picnic."
"Right, wouldn't want Weisses heroic sacrifice to go to waste."
Maroon and Cocra's teasing about the fall she had pulled Weiss out of her thoughts and put her back on the defensive.
"Oh, shut up you!"
"That's enough. Ruby and I should take point and scout ahead. She's the fastest out of us and I'm used to this kind of terrain."
Blake took the lead of the group with practised ease. Not only was she used to leading bigger groups, Forever Fall was a familiar territory for her. Then again she never liked to micromanage when in a leading position.
"I agree with Blake. Jaune, keep an eye out for trouble, Ren keep an eye out for Nora, Nora… just don't set the forest on fire."
"Roger that!"
=O=O=O=
Once the scout team reached the cash of supplies Ruby went back to guide the rest while Blake started filling the satchels with jars.
There was very little of note happening until a rustling of the underbrush allerted Blake of someone approaching. While Blakes bow did twitch, she showed no other reaction to the approaching footsteps as she was pretty sure it was the rest of her group. At worst it would be another team of her classmates, in which case they still wouldn't atack.
"Hey, isn't that?"
"Nah, can't be."
"So it's just some Beacon student then?"
"Yeah, we should be quiet and report it to the leader."
"Should we mention she looks like…?"
"Better not, it's probably not her and he'd have our head. Now shush and hope we're far enough that she didn't hear us."
Blake was frightened. Why were they here? No, it made sense they would investigate the smoke signal, but still… WHY! Calm. Just stay calm, that's all she needed to do and they would leave… still this might become an issue later on.
By the time the footsteps left her earshot she had all four bags with six bottles each while trying to look busy. She was pretty sure they hadn't seen much of her as she was obscured by the box.
If he knew she was here…
"Blake!"
She nearly jumped out of her skin as a male voice called out to her. It took her a few seconds to realise it belonged to Sky Lark, the leader of team SWNY.
"Oh, hello Sky."
She was so shaken that she didn't even notice him approach her. If he arrived just a few minutes earlier or if the Fang members were just a bit slower…
"...are you alright? You look… pale."
"I'm fine."
"Oh, did you get split from your team too?"
"What? No, my team is on their way here with RNJR. Ruby and I scouted ahead and she went back to lead the group here."
"Oh… that's good."
"Did you get split from your team?"
"NO!... yes."
"What happened?"
"There was a King Taiju and… look I'd rather not talk about it, I'm sure my team will make their way here, it was the closest cash from us."
Blake narrowed her eyes.
"Ok then."
An awkward silence hung in the air for a few minutes as Blake sat on the box trying to look relaxed. Of course she was anything but relaxed at the moment. She needed to avoid the White Fang at all cost while here and preferably also alert others of their presence.
This has just become more difficult, since team SWNY was apparently approaching their location, which included Winchester.
She had no doubt that he'd take any excuse to brutalise and potentially kill a bunch of faunus.
Sky in the meantime proceeded to look increasingly nervous as the silence went on. They would be ok… right?
=O=O=O=
When a group approached the supply drop Blake was the first to notice them. Unlike before, she was paying full attention to the sound of footsteps and determined there were around six or seven people approaching. This likely meant RNJR and SMT. Though after the last unpleasant surprise she didn't drop her guard until she saw them emerge from the bushes.
"And we're here. See! I knew where I was going."
"Nobody doubted you Ruby."
"Oh, hello Sky. Is the rest of your team here too?"
"No, they should be on their way though."
"So you did something similar to us?"
"Not exactly… CRML jumped a bit earlier so they probably went for the cash to the southeast."
"Wait, so why are you here then?"
"I'd rather not get into it."
"Is it Yang and Cardin again?"
"What? No. It's just that… they should be here soon."
Ruby seemed genuinely worried, but pushed through and took charge of the situation instead.
"Well since we're waiting for them anyway, maybe we should start collecting that sap. The sooner we get it done the sooner we can have lunch."
"Isn't it a bit early for lunch?"
"Uh, have you ever tried collecting sap? Ruby's right, by the time we're done it'll be a late lunch."
Jaune clapped his hands together to get everyone's attention. Before taking one of the bags Blake prepared.
"Let's get to it then."
=O=O=O=
"Ewww this doesn't taste like syrup at all!"
"Nora!"
"Is that why you wanted to bring pancakes?"
Questioned Jaune as he licked a drop of the sap of his fingers with curiosity.
"Huh, it's bitter with that metallic tang the leaves had."
"Jaune! Both of you stop it."
"It's fine, the apothecary at Noreia used to make salves out of the stuff. Can't be that bad."
"Noreia?"
"It's where I grew up. It's near the southeast edge of Forever Fall. The plants from here are used in a lot of common folk remedies."
"I thought the southern edge is all mountains"
"It kinda is, but there is a lake surrounded by mountains with two settlements, Noreia and Velia. We called it the black lake or just the lake but I think officially it's called Noreia lake."
"Sounds nice."
"We could visit during summer break. I'm sure mom wouldn't mind. Plus we can visit old Cobalt and show him Crescent Rose."
"Can we?"
"I'm sure Ren and Nora would be up for a vacation."
"Did someone say VACATION?"
=O=O=O=
The two teams were nearly done with filling all of their jars. Sky was behind on that front but that was far from his biggest concern. The smoke signal has long gone out and his team hasn't arrived yet.
He was fairly sure they were alright, since even without him the team was still more than capable of taking care of themselves. Plus Cardin was the one that carried their supplies so in the worst case scenario they would still return to the landing site in the evening.
But at this point even Sky could tell he fucked up big time when he left them. Unlike during initialisation where he froze in fear and had no choice but to fight the Deathstalker, today his body chose flight. He had run away when faced with a King Taiju.
So you can imagine the discomfort when Cardin, Yang and Pyrrha finally arrived at the supply cash and the first thing they did was make their way right to him.
Cardin was angry and for once nobody stood in his way. Yang was in a similar mood, her eyes turning red when she saw him and even the ever calm Pyrrha had an angry scowl on her face.
"SKY! YOU FUCKING COWARD."
"Look guys, I'm sorry!"
"YOU RAN AWAY! YOU DIDN'T RETURN! WE WAITED FOR YOU, THEN WE TRIED TO FIND YOU!"
Cardin screamed at Sky and attracted the attention of everyone present.
"I thought you'd come to the closest cash!"
This time it was Yang that let her thoughts be heard.
"OH YOU THOUGHT! And have you, oh I don't know, tell us about it? YOU'RE THE FUCKING LEADER!"
"I'm sorry…"
"OH YOU'RE GOING TO BE SORRY WHEN WE'RE DONE WITH YOU."
"...we're in the middle of Forever Fall, we shouldn't…"
"Shouldn't what Sky? Abandon your teammates? Run away?"
Pyrrha may not scream at him like the other two, but her words had an edge of their own.
All three of them tore into their supposed leader, releasing their anger that they let stew for literal hours.
This continued for several minutes until Jaune noticed Blake suddenly pointed her attention in a different direction. And soon he noticed it too.
"Wait, be quiet for a second!"
"ARC this isn't…"
"Shhh! Do you hear that?"
A low rumbling and approaching cracking sounds could be heard and it only got louder and louder.
"Oh shit. IT'S A STAMPEDE! Arc's right, we'll do this later. Bring your A game people!"
As they all took out their weapons Sky uttered a sentence they would all curse him for later.
"At least it's not raining…"
Upon which the first raindrops started to fall accompanied by distant thunder.
"OH, FUCK YOU LARK!"
=O=O=O=
Author's note:
Really working for that M rating this chapter. Now some of you may have noticed that Sky has been leaving a progressively worse impression on everyone. That's kinda the point. First impressions may be deceiving, but as the stakes get higher a person's true nature comes out.
On a personal note, I got caught in a rainstorm on Friday and have spent the weekend recovering from a cold. It would seem karma is a bitch, considering the weather I'm putting the beacon crew through.
Anyway I hope you're looking forward to the next chapter: Ch.19 Rain, mud and blood