Oof... I'm sorry for being off the radar for so long everyone, but I just haven't been able to sit down and type for a good while. Anyhow, I hope this chapter makes up for it as I've added a few twists to my original plot with Jaune finally having proper hopes for a new friendship. Anyhow, hopefully, I'll be able to keep myself motivated to ship out a chapter every week. Till then everyone, and best wishes to you.
Cheers, Searoar.
"Apples... where can I find some apples?" Jaune muttered as he traversed the forested terrain.
The sun tucked under the horizon in an amber blanket to signal the coming of noon, the young blonde kept his head up toward the thick branches of the steep trees for any signs of fruit. Unfortunately, the only gift the trees had to give were green leaves that could not be consumed for nourishment. Jaune had learned this lesson at the age of three after being constantly scolded by his best friend, Trifa.
"I wonder how Trifa and the others are doing..." Jaune muttered beneath a heavy breath. He missed the warm days in the agricultural district dearly, as while the desert climate of Vacuo had plenty of heat to offer, it lacked the bright smiles and friendly gestures that greeted Jaune every morning and night.
"Well, it's not so bad!" Jaune puffed out his chest and lengthened his struts. "I've got... Vernal, right?"
Jaune couldn't quite place where the spiky-haired brunette landed in his social spectrum. For the girl had made it abundantly clear that she was by no means his comrade. Yet, despite her rude tongue and abrasive attitude, she was the only one who Jaune interacted with other than Brick and Raven.
Jaune shivered. The image of Raven's blood-colored eyes, always narrowed and burning when she looked down on the boy, was a memory that was hard to forget since he saw it every time he woke. Though, there was something about the moody black-haired woman that nicked Jaune's curiosity. Sure, she was brash and dismissive, but wasn't his father the same thing?
"Dad..." Jaune's paces slowed and eventually ground to a halt. "He's gloomy like Ms. Branwen, but..."
The magician, his eyes were also a shade of red, but his leaned more so toward a bright crimson instead of a bloody red.
Jaune stroked his chin and tapped his foot. "Dad does smiles sometimes too, like when he let Ruby and me ride on his shoulders, or whenever..."
The image of another blonde wormed into Jaune's mind. Glynda Goodwitch, a stern woman with an impeccable record of academics and hunter achievements, was someone who his father visited quite frequently to play chess.
"And every time Dad comes home after they play he does smile a little bit," Jaune concluded as a grin bloomed on his own fair face. Or was it a smirk of victory? Jaune really couldn't tell the difference.
"Oh yeah! There's also Ms. Yuki!" Jaune said with a snap of his fingers. Though, could Monet truly be considered one of Hawkins' friends? She was perky to a fault, and whenever Hawkins was around she always showed her pearly whites.
"Dad says that she's annoying," Jaune sat down in a criss-cross fashion and continued to chin stroke, "but my dad says that about everybody so does he really mean it?"
His brows creased and nose scrunched, Jaune pondered for what felt like hours until he clapped his hands and stood up straight.
"Wait! There's also that really nice lady that Dad sees when he goes to Mr. Tukson's store!" Jaune had only seen glimpses of the supposedly beautiful woman, but she was no doubt chatty.
"She had black ears right?" The boy closed his eyes and scrunched his nose in frustration. He really should pay more attention to his dad when they go to the book store and not head straight for the kid's section.
The echoes of a crow derailing his thoughts, Jaune shook his head and slammed a fist into his palm.
"It's just like what Grandpa Sam says! All because my dad says something, that doesn't mean he really means it!" Jaune's heart sank a tad. If he followed that logic, then could his father have lied about his promise on Patch?
Jaune shook his head violently. No, his dad wouldn't lie to him about something like this! It wasn't in his nature... probably. Humming to himself, Jaune continued his walk as the vivid words of his father and the memory that came with them flashed before his eyes.
/-/
A few days ago on the night that Jaune asked Ms. Rose and his Grandma Carla to send for the storks with his dad who then pulled him away to a secluded part of the nearby forest...
"Um... am I in trouble, Dad?" Jaune trembled at the idea of punishment. He didn't feel like sleeping outside today, and it was particularly cold for a summer's night. Hmm... maybe Trifa and Ruby would be able to toss him some cookies from their bedroom window...
"Not necessarily..." Hawkins trailed off with a sigh, then crossed his arms and looked down to meet the wide and innocent eyes of his son.
His dad seemed unusually perplexed, that's what Jaune thought, especially after Hawkins started to slowly pace back and forth in front of him.
"Was it something I said?" Jaune asked after a pause of awkward silence. "Or was my drawing not good enough? Did I use the wrong crayon color?"
"It's what you want that troubles me..." Hawkins inhaled deeply through his nose and the hot breath that left his mouth made white puffs in the cold air.
The magician's expression, an all-new level of defeat, he turned back to his son and knelt so his crimson eyes could meet the cerulean of his child.
"I-It's just that everyone is always happier when they have a mommy..." Jaune choked back a few tears and hastily wiped the salty droplets from his cheeks.
A pang of guilt and self-loathing wracking his conscience, Hawkins swallowed a thick lump and rested a hand on Jaune's shoulder.
"Jaune... If I..." Hawkins squinted and the crushing grip of his tense fingers made Jaunce wince.
"If I... Find you a mother, will you stop making these demands and be... happy?"
In less than a second, Jaune's demeanor made a drastic change for the better and his eyes shined like polished gemstones under a summer sky. He lunged forward with his arms outstretched, then wrapped them around his father in a tight hug.
"If dad gets a mommy, then he's going to be happy too right?!" Jaune cheered and smothered his father's ruffled cloak in happy tears. "It'll be easy, Uncle Qrow can help you too! Uncle Tai says he's a real ladies' man!"
Hawkins, hesitant at first, wrapped his arms around his child and sighed in defeat. Perhaps... sorrows of the past had kept his sights blind to other possibilities... but who other than Summer could possibly be a match for someone like him?
/-/
"Ouch!" Jaune yelped as something small and damp bounced off the top of his head. When he peered down at the object that had hit him, he curled a brow at a fresh apple core.
Jaune looked up at the trees with a pulse of hope in finding Vernal's desired fruit. Unfortunately, all he found was the same leafy decor he'd been walking beneath for the past hour.
"Ow!" Jaune grumbled as another apple core fell on his back. If this was somebody's idea of a prank, it wasn't a really good one, and Jaune put his efforts into finding the source of these falling corpses of fruit.
"If anyone is in the trees, show yourself! Or else I will cleave this forest with a mighty swing that puts the roar of thunder to shame!" The blonde yelled the words of a passage his father had read to him. He didn't quite understand the significance of the words, but they did sound powerful and intimidating, to say the least.
"What kind of weird way of speaking is that?" Came a childish voice from above. "You look like a bandit, but why would a kid be so far away from his tribe?"
Jaune shivered. His eyes darted all around, but he couldn't see anyone. With a brave heart, Jaune withdrew his blade and pointed it toward a bundle of rustling bushes. He stepped forward, but a lesson from his father nicked his mind and halted his feet.
"Jaune," Hawkins loomed over his son with a tired face, "when out in the wilderness or hunting Grimm, it's important to put yourself at the best advantage you can take. So, while you may be aware of your enemies' location, you must consider if pursuing them or waiting for them to come to you is the better option. Understand? As if you approach them in terrain that only they are familiar with, then the battlefield may well be used against you."
Another apple core to the shoulder, Jaune spun on his right, but it was his left that his sights should have been. Before he had a chance to properly react, Jaune was pushed to the ground which was followed by a playful snicker.
"Hey there, that's a nice sword you got. Mind if I borrow it for a while?"
Jaune wiped the grass and dirt from his face, and the first thing he saw was a yellow, fluffy tail that flicked back and forth. Following the tail to its owner, a similar pair of blue eyes, not quite as dark as Jaune's was accompanied by a toothy smile and fitted on a round face. He too had blonde hair, and if it wasn't for his tanned skin and monkey tail, he and Jaune would be exact copies of each other.
"U-Um..." Jaune shook his head and stood himself up. He was about the same height as the boy who'd pushed him, but unlike's Jaune's attire, the stranger only sported a pair of blue shorts and padded leather slippers.
"What? Do I have apple peels on my face?" The boy asked and used his tail to wipe his mouth and cheeks.
"M-My name's Jaune, what's yours?"
The stranger leaned forward with his arms crossed and raised a brow.
"My cousin tells me that I shouldn't give my name to other people who aren't a part of the tribe. So, if you want my name, then give me yours first." He said skeptically.
Jaune blinked. "I did give you mine. It's Jaune."
"Uh-huh," the stranger paced back and forth, "and what tribe are you from?"
"The Branwen tribe. Though I don't like them very much." Jaune conceded with a sad sigh.
The stranger flinched and his tail perked up. The Branwen's infamy had spread far in the wildlands, and it was rumored that the man who led them was by no means a normal person. A monster made of chains, that's how his cousin put it.
"Why are you a part of that tribe?" The stranger asked as if Jaune had a choice in the matter. "There's plenty of tribes to be a part of, and most don't go around killing other people for sport. So why are you with a bunch of jerks like the Branwens?"
Jaune's posture slumped as he relayed his unfortunate situation. The stranger appeared to be listening, but had grown bored after the first minute of Jaune's monologuing.
"Yeah, that's sad," the monkey Faunus shrugged and pulled out an apple from his back pocket. "So can I borrow that sword now or not?"
Jaune stared at the stranger dumbfounded. "Hey, you didn't give me your name. I gave you mine, so I should get yours. It's only polite."
"I don't feel like it." The stranger scratched his chin and turned to leave. That is until a loud voice broke his train of thought and froze him in place.
"Sun Wukong! If you've snuck out here with some stolen food again, I'm going to cut off your tail!" Screamed a young feminine voice that shook the branches.
"Oh shoot, it's Starr!"
The boy, now addressed as Sun, scuttled to the nearest tree and climbed for his life. An apple dropped from his pocket in the process, and it rolled over to Jaune who picked it up.
"Sun!" From a cluster of prickly shrubs, a slender, tanned Faunus with an even longer monkey tail stomped into the clearing. Her blue pants and white shirt was covered in black liquid, which Jaune assumed to be Grimm blood.
Her blue eyes narrowed and piercing, they landed on a head of a blonde, but not the one that belonged to her cousin. Senses alerted, the female Faunus pulled out a spear, and after a moment of silence; she approached the tyke in front of her with a frown.
"Who are you?" She snapped.
Jaune gave her his name without question.
"And what tribe are you from?" Starr raised her spear at the boy and he trembled.
Jaune opened his mouth but bit his tongue. Sun hadn't been positively receptive to his claim of being with the Branwens- which he couldn't blame him for- so Jaune didn't want to claim his tribal origins.
"U-Um..." Jaune stepped back as Sun's cousin stepped forward.
"You're not dressed like the usual bandits I'm used to seeing, and you're not apart of those stupid Atlas braggarts with their fancy machines." The Faunus' eyes veered to the red scarf around the boy's neck.
"Tsk, you're a Branwen aren't you? There aren't many people who dress in Black in the desert, except the Branwens and their red scarfs."
Jaune's wide eyes and gaping mouth gave all the information the Faunus needed to know.
"This is bad," Starr cursed under her breath.
The Branwens were always renowned for being an aggressive tribe, but they never went out of their way to hunt out the competition. At least that's how it used to be, as nowadays even the bigger tribes went out of their way to avoid the Branwens.
"What's bad?" Jaune asked with a tilted head.
"Sun!" She yelled again. "I'm going to leave you behind if you don't get your butt out here! And I'm not going to give you any of my dinner either!"
"I-I didn't steal that much food!" Came Sun's voice from the trees. "I only snuck a few apples from an abandoned wagon on the way here!"
A loud crash, one would mostly associate with metal, rang through the forest and made Jaune's skin crawl. Something big was coming, but Grimm didn't make metal noises. Before he could come up with a hypothesis, Jaune was snagged by his collar and dragged to hide in the foliage.
For a moment, all was still, then with a bang of rattling chains a dark-skinned man with baggy black shorts and rectangularly spiked hair appeared with a trail of Branwen bandits behind him.
"Jararara!" Mad Treasure cackled at the bounty he'd managed to pillage. Said bounty, was three members of the Wukong tribe. Two of the captives had ram horns, but the last one was human.
"We won't get much for these guys," Marcus grunted and pointed to the two Faunus. "The Mountain Witch wants humans because they're easier to smuggle between Mistral and Mantle. That, and there's been news of a slavery bust back in Vacuo. I don't know the whole story, Mad Treasure, but do you think Shade Academy has finally decided to do something about us?"
Mad Treasure sneered. "Are you really that scared, Marcus? We're practically kings in the wildlands, and even if Shade Academy decided to send hunters after us, we'd just crush their skulls and leave them for the vultures."
Mad Treasure then activated his devil fruit powers and wrapped his right arm and hand in a link of chains.
"LIKE THIS! JARARARARA!"
With a mighty pound, Mad Treasure crashed his metal-covered fist against the head of the rowdiest of his captures. A sickening crack of bone crushed beneath iron, one of the Faunus was without a doubt dead, and his blood spilled over the grass in a thick puddle.
Jaune would've yelped, but a fluffy tail wrapped itself around his mouth and a pair of hands took his shoulders firmly. Starr stared at him with both worry and dread etched on her tanned face. Was the boy just a ploy to lure unsuspecting bandits to his location?
Starr studied Jaune's expression meticulously, and concluded that he was innocent of conniving such a nefarious deed. Besides, he wouldn't have hesitated if he'd known about the Branwen ambush, and he wouldn't be teetering over the line of pissing his pants either.
Glancing up to the trees, Starr could see Sun weaving his way around the branches back toward their tribe's camp. This was a weight off of Starr's shoulders, but she couldn't do the same given that she was on the ground and only a few feet from the Branwen bandits. That, and the sudden linking of arms around her waist drew out her big sister instincts.
The boy that she'd hidden, sure he was young, but he in no way acted like a child from Vacuo as the tykes of the sandy kingdom tended to be roudier with a tougher skin. Yet, here was this child who was a member of the most ferocious tribe in all the desert, holding Starr in what could only be described as a hug.
And... was the boy crying?
"Damn it, Treasure, it took us hours to track down these bounties. At least leave the human if you're going to have some fun." Marcus scolded with a shake of the head.
"Jararara!" Treasure turned to his second in command. "It doesn't matter in the long run anyway. We've got new orders from the Mountain Witch that's way more exciting than human trafficking."
"And what could that be?" Maxwell sighed.
"Apparently, Atlas came out with a new line of powerhouse military machines," Treasure said, "and the Mountain Witch needs people with strong semblances should anything go awry in her black market dealings."
"Well, that's a lot harder than just finding random people to sell," Marcus replied glumly. "Most folks with aura don't have semblances, and even if there appears to be a lot in an academy, their number is nothing compared to the grande total of students."
"Jararara! That's why I've decided to cut my losses and secure what I can carry!" Mad Treasure joked.
"Hmph, and where are you going to find a bunch of people with semblances at such short notice?" Marcus asked skeptically.
"We have one already, and her semblance is rather nifty isn't it?" Mad Treasure's eyes gleamed with malice.
"Raven?" Maxwell huffed. "Her semblance isn't that great. Sure, she can cover great distances, but I've been told that it only works for people she cares about. How is that supposed to help the Mountain Witch in combat?"
"You're only talking like that because you haven't seen what the Mountain Witch is capable of." Mad Treasure's voice grew serious. "I saw it myself, that hag managed to literally rip out the section of the soul that a semblance makes up. She then shoved it into another one of her followers, and soon enough, that crocodile Faunus was near invincible."
"And what will the hag do with Raven's semblance when she gets her hands on it?" Marcus hated sounding out of the loop, but he really had no idea what his boss was raving on about.
"She'll modify it," Mad Treasure chuckled sinisterly. "The Mountain Witch's experience in soul manipulation is vast, and I can't imagine what cruel concoction she'll devise with a semblance that can teleport."
"Alright," Marcus yawned. "But what about the tribe challenges that start tomorrow? It's nice having a bunch of underlings do your dirty work for you ya know."
"Of course we'll put them to use too! Do you know how many kids are under our banner right now? I didn't want to raise suspicion among the other tribe members by selling the younglings on the black market, but there's no need to stay in this sandy kingdom anymore. So when the trials for leadership start and most of the combatants leave, we'll sack the tribe to our heart's content and load the stragglers onto wagons. After that, whatever happens to them is none of my concern."
With a shout, Mad Treasure ordered Maxwell and the other Branwen bandits back to camp. However, none of them noticed Starr and Jaune, who'd managed to remain undetected the entire time. Though it brought great grief to Starr when she saw her fellow tribesmen hauled away like dead game, she knew it would be futile to attempt any revenge in her current circumstance.
When all was clear, Starr stood from her hiding spot, then peered down to the blonde tyke who'd latched onto her waist.
"I can take you with me," Starr said softly and unwrapped her tail from Jaune's mouth. "You're not really a bandit are you? Or born here for that matter?"
"...I-I wanna go home!" Jaune sulked and was soon bawling his eyes out while pleading to be returned to those he loved.
Starr said nothing and cradled the lad in her arms. To have him go back to the Branwen's was too cruel, even if Vacuo praised its survival of the fittest mentality, that didn't mean there wasn't room for empathy and mercy.
"Sun should've alerted the rest of the tribe by now." Starr hummed and started her way back to her camp. "We need to get out of the northern sections of the wildlands as soon as possible..."
Starr glanced at the corpse of her former tribe member that lay naked and looted of all its possessions. She felt like puking, but swallowed hard and hurried away before any Grimm were lured by the outburst of negative emotions.
/-/
"All of this because you couldn't give those stupid teens some apples?" Brick grumbled as he bandaged Vernal's bruised scalp.
"It's Jaune's fault!" Vernal snapped. "He didn't come back soon enough!"
Brick rolled his eyes. "You shouldn't have eaten more than you needed. The tribe's already scarce for food, and Mad Treasure's hasn't come back with anything worth eating in the last five raids or hunts. It's making me think that our tribe leader wants us to starve to death."
Suddenly, the flap of Brick's tent flew open and a scowling Raven stormed in.
"Do you... need anything?" Brick tilted his head. He hadn't seen Raven this flustered since she arrived with Jaune.
Wisely, Brick ushered Vernal out of his tent and moved to close the tent's flap for privacy.
"So, what's the matter?"
Raven only hissed out a curse and started flipping the beds and crates in the tent.
"Hey, careful with those! There isn't a lot of medical supplies to go around!" Brick yelled and grabbed Raven's forearm.
"Alright, no games, tell me what in Oum's name is going on or I'll kick you out myself."
Raven glared at the doctor in defiance but slowly relented as the grip around her forearm grew in intensity.
"Jaune's missing." Raven hissed. "I already thwacked a few skulls of Dufor's lackeys, and they all pleaded that they didn't see the blonde idiot."
"Well, I haven't seen him either. I had to go into the nearby forests for some herbs, but I was turned back when I met Mad Treasure and Marcus prowling the area with their favorite goons."
"The trials start tomorrow, Brick! And without that blonde dolt to fight for me, then I've lost my chance to become tribe leader!" Raven yelled and pulled on her hair in dismay.
"His name's Jaune, and is that really a bad thing? The tribe's nothing but a bunch of cowardly, boot-licking grunts with puffed egos that pop the second they bite off more than they could chew."
Brick's expression grew softer when Raven slumped on a pile of scattered crates with her face in her palms.
"Look..." The doctor scratched his head and his voice was no louder than a whisper. "I know, alright? Your father was the tribe leader before you, but I don't know what happened to him after Mad Treasure was accepted into the group. The same goes for your mother... though it twists my gut to say it. Maybe you'd be better off not hanging around here anymore, Raven."
Raven cursed under her breath again, and the cloud of gloom could almost be seen above her head.
"Don't worry, Jaune's disappeared before, so I doubt he's kicked the bucket. Maybe he's just eaten some of the apples Vernal bullied him to get, and he has to get more before he comes back." Brick soothed.
"Vernal?!" Raven shot to her feet and her blood-colored eyes burned. "She knows where Jaune went, doesn't she?!"
"Well, I wouldn't say that..." Brick tried to stop Raven from leaving, but she wasted no time in throwing him over her shoulder so she could pass.
When Brick gathered his senses and dusted himself off, a girlish scream echoed throughout the camp that grew closer to his tent by the second. Before Brick could say another word, Raven barged in with her fingers clutched around Vernal's short spiky locks.
"Get your gauntlets, Brick. The three of us are going to find that stupid blonde before the night ends. If not, we're leaving this brat for the Grimm." Raven snarled.
"B-But I don't wanna go into the forest!" Vernal wailed as she was dragged out of the camp despite her flailing arms and thrashing legs.
"For Oum's sake..." Brick groaned. "Jaune, wherever you are, I hope you don't come back to this pathetic camp of louts and cowards..."