After a round of introductions and name giving between the Remnites and their newly-met guide, the nine young adults took off through the forest towards this "keep" that, hopefully for the eight Hunters-in-training, would offer some answers and solutions to their predicament. Thankfully, the walk was not a long one, allowing them to reach their destination only fifteen minutes later.
And out of all things RWBYJNPR expected out of Oaklore Keep, a genuine medieval keep built both inside and around a gigantic tree the size of Beacon Academy was certainly not one of them.
Then again, nothing had been making much sense today, so what was one thing compared to the whole.
"That's a big tree..." muttered Jaune as tried, and failed, to get a glimpse of the tree's top, his head craning back so far he almost bent his back.
"Yeah, it sure is something, isn't it?" Hydraxx replied with a smile, the adventurer looking over his shoulder at the group. "Weird that you haven't heard of it, actually, Oaklore Keep's kind of famous."
In response, everyone gave a round of nervous chuckles, while it fell to Ruby to try and give an explanation. "We, uhh... aren't from around here," replied the young girl as she fidgeted uneasily, glancing off to the side in order to avoid Hydraxx's eyesight, and if the adventurer noticed said avoidance, he did not comment on it, instead simply letting out a non-committal hum.
"Yeah, I can definitely tell... well, anyway, we'll get this all sorted out once we get inside, and you fellas will be heading home in no time!"
"... I hope so..."
Once more, if Hydraxx noticed the whispered words, he did not react to them. Instead, he focused on leading the eight young adults up to the gate to the fortress, and where two heavily-armored knights stood guard at, swords resting sheathed at their hips and thick cloaks hanging from their backs. All in all, to RWBYJNPR, they looked like characters straight out of a storybook, just like Hydraxx himself, only even more so considering the helmets they were wearing, and the place they were stationed at.
As they approached, the two knights turned towards the group, and one of them raised a gauntlet-covered hand at the approaching arrivals. "Hail, Hydraxx!" called out the knight, his voice only slightly muffled by the closed helmet surrounding his head. "Back already from your nap, eh?"
"Or are you still going to call it your 'daily meditation' like the last five times?" asked the second knight with a chuckle and a shake of his head. "Oh, how about 'contemplation of the future'? That one was quite useful!"
"I'll have you know, I was actually thinking very hard about my future!" replied Hydraxx with a grin as he pointed a thumb towards his own chest. "And I got quite an epiphany from it!"
"Oh? And what would that be?"
"I'll tell you once I remember it."
The reply prompted another round of laughs from both knights, though it was clear from the tone that there was no malice in it. Just as said laughter died down, however, the two knights seemed to finally take notice of the other eight new arrivals, and the first one motioned to them just as he had done Hydraxx. "And well met to you all as well! New-fangled adventurers hoping to become heroes?"
"Something like that..." replied Jaune in a muttered tone, the young man rubbing the back of his head sheepishly as he turned his gaze towards his team. Just then, Nora leapt to the forefront, and gave the two knights a beaming smile along with a heroic pose fitting for a comic character.
The narration would like to apologize for the lack of a visual aid for how heroic such a pose was, but it also would like to assure the readers that yes, it was very heroic. A beam of sunlight even glinted off her teeth.
"You bet, buster! We're gonna be the best heroes out there, and we're gonna kick plenty of Grimm butt, mark my words!" exclaimed the orange-haired girl with much gusto, to the amusement/embarrassment/indifference of RWBYJPR. The knights and Hydraxx, however, merely chuckled, with the latter even going as far as giving her a pat on the back.
"Hey, at least you got the spirit of it!"
"Indeed! An eager and heroic spirit is much needed to achieve that goal!" said the second knight with just as much cheer. With that said, the knights then stepped aside, leaving the path into the fortress clear to the nine new arrivals. "In that case, allow us to welcome you to Oaklore Keep! And remember, should you need anything, let it be known that you can always count on us! Or my name is not Sir Curity!"
"Or I, Sir Cure!"
In that moment, a shadow of pure dread and despair fell upon the gathered group of Hunters-in-training, smothering them with a choking fear of the future. Of note, however, is that said shadow only fell upon the majority of the gathered group.
Specifically, it fell upon all the Remnites but Yang.
The reason for that, is that Yang herself was the source of his looming danger. And if said feeling was not sign enough that all was lost, then the smug, shit-eating grin the young woman had aimed at the two befuddled knights and the spark of mischief in her eyes made it clear that everyone inside Oaklore Keep was doomed.
"Yaaaaaaaang..."
"Well then!"
"Yang, don't-!"
"I guess all I can say about that..."
"XIAO LONG DON'T YOU DARE-!"
"Is that we sir-tainly appreciate that, mister!"
The mass of pained groans such a pun generated would have brought a tear of happiness to any evil (or ebil) lord standing nearby, before said evil/ebil lord thoroughly squashed said happiness in order to maintain their reputation. "Brothers, please tell me this isn't a thing," said Weiss as she pinched the bridge of her nose in utter exasperation. "PLEASE, tell me you're the only two."
"Aww, come on, Weiss Cream, that's not very knight-ce of you~"
"I will muzzle you with your own hair."
Seemingly unbothered by the outright homicide of good comedy in front of him, Sir Curity instead gave Weiss a nod that served to finish the burial of her hope in surviving the future with her sanity intact. "Why, indeed, miss! To become a Pactagonal Knight, it is fundamental that your name match with the title of 'Sir'!"
"Exceptions exist, of course, we still accepted Sir Bombard into our numbers due to his skills with artillery." added Sir Cure in return. "But we consider a properly-fitting name a paramount factor in a knight joining our order!"
"It sure is something they take quite sir-iously."
And as if things couldn't possibly get any worse, the sound of Hydraxx uttering that specific choice of words was enough to piledrive RWBJNPR's hopes of stopping Yang's psychological assault on their minds straight into the sun. Especially when the blonde brawler turned around like a top to stare at the adventurer, both of them grinning eagerly to one another.
"... Ohpleaseno..." squeaked Ruby as she pulled Weiss into a hug, one the heiress seemed too horrified to resist or comment on.
"There's two of them now," mewled Blake, the Faunus backing away fearfully from her partner along with all of Team JNPR. "Why are there two of them now?!"
The answer to Blake's question, of course, was that Destiny and Doom had joined forces to unleash a force of puns so powerful, none would be able to stop them, and thus bring immense suffering to the world while at the same time rescuing it from utter destruction by evil.
Or it could have been for shits and giggles. Causality in Lore tends to exist in a state more akin to that of a tangled mass of spaghetti and meatballs.
Finally, after a long pause where both admired each other, Hydraxx offered a hand to the blonde, one that Yang grasped eagerly, and that they shook firmly. "Oh, we're gonna get along swimmingly , miss~"
"We sure will, buddy~"
"... Let's... let's just go inside," muttered Pyrrha uneasily, to which the rest of her comrades agreed with varying degrees of unease, before they all shuffled inside Oaklore Keep through the entrance gate, leaving Sir Curity and Sir Cure to resume guard over the fortress.
Just another day in the life of the Pactagonal Knights.
-O-
The dining hall of Oaklore Keep seldom was empty, considering the number of Knights stationed there, and the amount of cheer the Pactagonal Order brought with them wherever they went.
Most of the time, at least. Don't talk to Sir Casm or Sir Tax and expect cheeriness.
Today was no different. As Sir Loin moved with gusto across the kitchen, readying dozens of different dishes with a skill and speed only he seemed capable of and wholly necessary to keep the entire garrison fed on time, all the Pactagonal Knights who were on their meal breaks sat at the tables with their helmets off and heaps of food and drink in front of them, sharing jokes, stories or just general small talk with one another. Moglin berry juice flowed freely both into bodies just as much as onto tables and the floor, and the cacophony of words coalesced into a loud, yet somehow tolerable white noise.
However, one specific table was not involved in such cheer. Said table was occupied by teams RWBY and JNPR, plates and mugs shuffled off to the side to free up room in the middle, where an intricately-painted map was being laid open for them all to pour over by Hydraxx, who was carefully smoothing it out atop the wooden table. "Alright, here we go, one map of the world, top of the line!" said the adventurer with a smile as she finished the process, then took hold of his mug and sipped from it. "Granted, I never visited any of these places, but you know... I trust the cartographers! So, if you can point where in that map your home is, we can try and set up some transport to bring you back!"
When they didn't immediately reply to his statement by pointing to one of the continents, even the ones further away from Lore, Hydraxx didn't very much mind. Maybe they just had to take a moment to find their homeland! It made sense, maybe the names were different, or they weren't used to the world's geography.
When they continued silent for longer than that, the adventurer started to get worried.
"Is... is everything alright?" he asked uneasily, only now noticing how lost and, if he was reading the room right, panicked some of them looked as they stared down at the map. In response to his question, Ruby gave him a look, comparable to a child who had just been told Frostval was cancelled forever and ever.
"Umm... i-is this really an accurate world map?" she asked with a trembling voice, which only served to make Hydraxx more worried.
"Well... yeah, Maya brought it from the capital's library. It's... pretty dang accurate, I even had a copy back home. Why?"
In response, Ruby withdrew from her dress her Scroll, and quickly expanded its sides until the image projected a map just as large as the one set in front of them, while doing her best to ignore both the "SIGNAL NOT FOUND" message and the utterly befuddled look Hydraxx was giving to a device she knew for a fact anyone should recognize with just a glance.
And at the sight of two world maps that had nothing in common with one another, all the young leader of team RWBY could feel was the pit in her stomach yawning open so deeply, her soul was sinking.
"I... I think we're really lost..."
~O~
Alright, time to give this a bit of a pause.
It was a meditation thing, but now it's kind of consuming me. I've been writing it on the side during lunch break at work, but I've also found myself writing it during free time at home, which should be the time I write for the other stories.
Plus, truth be told, I... kind of don't give much of a shit about RWBY?
Honestly, I have NO IDEA why I got so invested in it. Probably because of DragonFable instead, since I love that game so much.
Time to focus on Titanomachy fully.
Honestly, I'd even be willing to put this up for adoption... provided the person picking it up knew what they were doing.
I gave away one fic once, and what it became... honestly kind of made me want to cry.
But yeah, here we are.
In unrelated news, with my break month now over, I'm swinging back in full into writing. Time to get to work.
Until next time, fellas.