Jaune's eyes shoot open to the sight of an unfamiliar roof. The green should be calming but its not. and Jaune panics and jumps to his feet before falling over, his legs betraying him and causing him to fall over and slam back into the ground.
"URK!"
Jaune gasps as his armor presses into his chest, and knocks the air out of the poor knight. Jaune rolls over trying to suck in air but can't seem to find his breath as he chokes on the ground. Finally with a small gasp the knight regains his breath and lays on his back looking up at the same sight he saw when he woke up. After finally regaining his breath Jaune is almost immediately is hit with a wave of pain that causes the knight to writhe on the ground before rolling over onto his hands and knees and throwing up.
After vomiting Jaune tries moving away slowly scooting on his hands and knees to the closest tree and prop his body up against it. He still feels like he's suffocating and realizes his armor is still as tight as he can get it to make sure he didn't bleed out the day before. Jaune's joints pop as he moves his arm slowly to the straps on his chest plate. His fingers wrap around the end of the strap and Jaune hesitates for a moment and thinks about what if he's still bleeding and decides to loosen the armor only slightly to give himself a little bit more breathing room.
Sighing in relief Jaune lets his head fall back onto the tree with a soft bump. As Jaune's hand falls from his chest his hand bumps against something on his left hip and looking down Jaune spots the very parasol that killed him in his most recent dream. Jaune is slightly surprised to see that the weapon was able to stay on his belt loop after all the crazy shit he had gone through the previous day.
Jaune pulls the weapon off of his hip and takes a closer look at the seemingly innocent accessory. Jaune lets his hands glide over the canopy. Jaune is surprised at how soft it feels especially since he's heard it can block bullets. Moving on Jaune looks at the tip of the weapon being careful to not look directly into the top just in case he accidentally triggers the blade to pop out and stab him through the face.
After carefully inspecting the end of the weapon Jaune adjusts the parasol in his hands and takes a look at the handle of the weapon. Gliding his hand over the smooth surface Jaune feels something on the handle and decides to take a closer look at the weapon looking at where the shaft starts to curve and spots two little buttons just barely sticking out unnoticeable.
Jaune presses one of the buttons and is immediately smacked in the face and his head is knocked back into the tree by the now very hard canopy of the parasol. Taking a moment to regroup himself Jaune looks at the now open parasol and sees writing on the shaft that was previously hidden.
The word Hush is engraved into the shaft in gold lettering and Jaune can't help but wonder how many people the weapon has silenced. 'Fitting name for an assassin's weapon.' Jaune muses in his head as he glides his hand over the engraved word on the blade.
Jaune, learning from his mistake, holds the weapon away from him before pressing the button again and letting the canopy close.
"That must mean that the other button is for the blade right?" Jaune says to himself before sliding his finger slightly more up the weapon and pressing the second button. Silently a thin blade shoots out of the tip of the weapon and Jaune flinches slightly even though he knew what was going to happen.
Jaune quickly presses the button a second time and the blade slides silently back in. Jaune is both impressed and scared that the weapon is that silent. Just one more thing where the weapon is a reflection of its owner. Jaune goes back to inspecting the weapon trying to feel for any more buttons when he feels something on the back of the handle. Jaune once again carefully adjusts the parasol so he can see the back of the handle. What he sees makes the knight feel a small bit of sympathy for the silent assassin.
To Neo From Roman
Jaune's mind goes back to what Ruby told him before about how Roman died. Jaune can't help but feel a bit sad for Neo. But it's short lived as his conversation with himself from yesterday pops back into his head about how despite something bad happening to Neo she still hurt a lot of people and wants to kill him and his friends.
'She also worked with Cinder even after the fall.'
"Yeah…" Jaune's grip tightens around the parasol and any empathy he may have had for Neo dies a quick death. Jaune's moment of thought is shaken off and he hooks the parasol back onto his belt loop before starting to push himself to his feet. His legs are shaky and sore and sore but he's spent enough time sitting down and doing nothing and has to get moving.
His legs aren't the only problem though his whole body feels like he went 20 rounds in a hand to paw match with a ursa. Jaune breathes in and out slowly preparing himself for his first step of many while trying to get out of the forest…
Jaune eventually lets go of the tree after several attempts his legs feel like someone took hammers to them after all of the fighting, walking, and carrying Neo. The first step does not go well. Jaune's left leg buckles and the knight begins to fall forward his body instinctively bringing his right foot to help keep him on his feet, but instead of his leg coming forward it gets stuck under a root that he swore wasn't over his foot before he tried to walk. Jaune did luckily learn from his previous fall and used his arms to break his fall landing on both hands looking like he was about to do a push up before his arms started shaking and the knight hit the ground.
THUNK
"Ouch." Jaune groans before slowly getting back to his feet. His body screams in protest as he lifts himself back up. Standing on wobbly legs Jaune stumbles to the closest tree and just barely manages to catch himself, his hands scraping against the rough bark before he finds a grip and stops himself from smashing into his chest plate and causing more unnecessary suffering.
Jaune can't help but pant in exhaustion as he temporarily rests against the tree. The knight wonders why he feels like this before he quickly remembers how stressful the day before was both mentally and physically for him from having to deal with Neo and carry the tiny assassin and traveling back in time to having to fight an actual dragon and the little demon that is Neo twice in the span of a few hours.
Taking his real first steps of the day Jaune can hear every pop and crack of his joints as he moves. Each step reminds him of the fights. The whole left side of his torso feels the worst. Like someone cut each muscle in and then tied them together as tight as they could. The pain makes Jaune dizzy. His legs are already on the verge of giving out. The knight soon decides to go off of the strategy from the day before and just push himself from tree to tree.
THUD.
The knight squeaks as he hits a tree chest first mistiming his grab. Jaune immediately stops his movements and sucks in shaky breaths through his teeth as his brain momentarily shuts down.
'It's just pain. You've been through much worse Jaune.' Another jolt of pain shoots through him seemingly to drive in the point that it's not just pain. "SHHHHHHHHHHH!" 'Okay maybe it hurts a lot but you can do it. You still have things to do. You Can't Give Up. You fought a dragon, you can get through a little pain.' Lifting his head the young Arc slowly pushes himself away from the tree so he can try standing on his own. His legs disagree with the action, and the knight lets himself fall back to the tree letting his back soften the blow. The knight then rests on the tree trying to think about what he can do to help himself get moving.
"Maybe I just need to stretch a little." Jaune says to himself hoping that maybe that will fix the problem. Slowly moving Jaune lifts up his arms and begins stretching. Several pops and groans can be heard throughout his section of the forest as he loosens up his muscles and prepares himself for the long day of walking ahead of him…
After the many pops cracks and other feelings from the stretching Jaune sighs in happiness as he lies on the ground his whole body feeling infinitely better than they were ten minutes ago. Jaune gets up to his feet still feeling a bit dizzy but the intensity of the pain has lessened substantially outside of his chest, but he can't say that's unexpected with what happened yesterday. He knows it's going to be a struggle to walk possibly all day but he has to keep moving .
Step by step Jaune starts walking unassisted. His legs are no longer sore but still very tired and a bit wobbly. Stumbling a bit the boy makes it about 20 feet before his legs start shaking and he has to go back to launching himself from tree to tree, but even then the effort of moving still drains him quickly.
'It's going to be a long walk.' Jaune sighs as he looks around, spotting no break from the constant trees and he wasn't going back the way he came. That clearing is a hazard to his health. Who even knows what might be back there right now…
Back in the clearing:
A multi-colored cat walks into the clearing, its large eyes roaming around and looking for something that it can't seem to spot. It roams around slowly before jumping up to perch on a tree stump and look around. The cat sinks into the tree stump and looks down slowly to see that what it thought was a tree stump is actually the severed foot of a large creature.
The Curious Cat quickly hops off the leg and walks slowly around wiping its paws on the grass before going back and looking back at the leg for any clues about what might have happened to the creature to which the leg belonged. Looking at the claws the cat spots something interesting: a piece of white metal bunched up around the creature's left most claw, the metal is stained with brown dried blood.
"Hmmm. Must've been some fight I missed."
The cat takes a sniff of the white piece of metal and recognizes the scent of the other boy that was in the clearing the day before. The cat determines with how much blood is surrounding the foot the boy's body should be somewhere around here somewhere, and it's obvious that the dragon isn't here so it must be the boy. The cat abandons the severed foot for the moment and goes around the clearing looking for the body of the boy but can't seem to find anything much to its disappointment.
"Disappointment? Why would I be disappointed he's not dead?" The cat wonders aloud. If anything it should be relieved that both creatures are still alive because it makes it much more interesting. The Curious Cat resumes its investigation, walking around the clearing and spotting nothing but dried blood on the grass.
Eventually it struts back to the leg and looks for any signs of where either of the combatants might have gone. The majority of the dragon's blood was on the other side of the clearing away from its foot and the fact that the body was missing for the boy made the cat think that maybe he was eaten but a small part of its soul can't help but make the cat feel like the boy was alive. It just needed to find him…
Jaune shivers slightly as he thinks about what might be back there right now but it might also be the fact that he's not really wearing a shirt under his armor anymore, and a gust of wind just went through the trees. The knight has spent enough time at the tree thinking about what may and may not be out there waiting to kill him, and he needs to get back to moving…
Hours have passed and Jaune is drenched in sweat and shaking as he 'walks'. He's been pushing his body to keep going for what seem like the longest hours of his life. His legs feel like they fell off an hour ago and he's been walking on exposed nerves. Every step draws out a small cry of pain from the knight. Jaune grits his teeth and closes his eyes as he stops again leaning himself against a tree not trusting himself to stand on his own at this moment.
'Why is it so hard to move?'
'Because you haven't rested enough after all the shit you went through yesterday, especially not enough to walk for hours. You also haven't had a drink of water or any food in almost 2 days now.' Jaune's stomach grumbles in agreement reminding him that he should probably eat or drink something soon.
"Why did I wake up so early then?"
'Danger.'
That one word sends a chill up the knight's spine. "What?"
'Your body woke you up early because it sensed danger.'
"And why didn't you tell me this?"
'Because I assumed you knew how your body and aura worked.'
"I do but why would I assume I woke up because of danger and not because I had slept long enough."
'Because you are an idiot. I feel like we've gone through this before.'
"I hate you."
'Self Hate isn't healthy.' Jaune lets out a frustrated sigh as he thinks about bashing his head into the tree he's resting on. Maybe it would knock the voice out of his head and give him some peace. Jaune decides against self mutilation because most likely he'd just end up with a bigger headache than his inner thoughts were already giving him. He might as well start walking and hope that his head falls off along with his legs.
'At least I have company I guess…' Jaune tries looking on the good side of the voice in his head before he realizes there's probably no upside to an inner voice that hates him and the thought dies a quick death. Jaune instead looks for some other positives in this situation that can keep him going.
"I'm alive. That's a good thing, right?"
'You sound uncertain. Is not being dead a bad thing?' the voice questions
"It's been a rough couple years."
'I know. Now keep going.'
"Hmmm… I beat a real dragon like a fairy tail knight."
'It was a stalemate. Nobody won that fight.'
"I chopped off its leg and gave it a huge cut along its stomach."
'You had two lucky shots in between getting rag dolled.'
"Yeah but I still have both legs." Jaune shoots back at the pessimistic voice in his head.
'Fair point.'
"Ha! I got you." Jaune perks up at finally finding something that couldn't be discredited before the voice answers back quickly.
'You have only enemies in this world and you're probably going to die.'
Jaune's shoulders slump back down. "Thanks Killjoy…"
'Just being honest, but you don't seem to like honesty seeing as you planned to lie to ruby about killing her friend.' Jaune's shoulders slump even further and any trace of the smile on his face disappears.
"Where did that come from?"
"You"
"Well that was fun for a minute. I'll just try to walk in silence…"
After spending most of his day 'walking' through the forest and listening to everything he hates about himself from himself, Jaune sees a break in the trees up ahead. His legs are shaky and barely moving despite the effort he puts into advancing forward. Jaune pushes himself even harder hoping that he finally found a place to rest. As he slowly moves through the forest Jaune gets a better view of what's up ahead and the knight starts to tear up a little.
"Water." The knight smiles with cracked lips, as he fights his fatigue and pain to get to the clearing in front of him. Soon Jaune makes it to a large clearing with a lake that takes up most of the space. The tall grass surrounding the body of water makes Jaune slightly wary of what the grass hides, but he's been waiting and walking for so long that he couldn't care less about what might be hiding in there as long as it doesn't stop him from getting to the water.
Jaune pushes himself off of the final tree in his way and launches his tired body into the clearing. Not having anything to catch, Jaune falls to the ground, and the grass doing nothing to break his fall. Jaune's torn up chest plate digs into his body once again and he almost faints from the pain. But he can't stop now that he's so close to the water he's been craving for so long, because Jaune knows that if he stops here that he won't ever get up again. He will keep moving even if he has to drag himself there by his fingertips.
'Inch by inch Jaune. You can do it. Just keep going. Every inch forward is one inch closer to the water.' Jaune tells himself as he crawls slowly to the edge of the lake refusing to stop despite the protests from his body. He can almost hear the muscles in his arms and legs screaming for him to let them rest. But Jaune ignores the pain and reaches his left arm forward once again and is surprised to hear a small splash and feel cool water enveloping his hand.
Jaune keeps clawing his way through the grass. Each time he feels his hands sink into the water and mud Jaune feels like a little bit of energy has come back into his body, just enough for him to keep pulling himself a fraction of an inch closer. Jaune can see the water better now, it's a little murky from the mud that he has stirred up but he doesn't care as long as he can drink it.
The top of Jaune's head touches the water and the knight pauses for a moment before he uses the last of his strength to launch himself face first into the water. Jaune dunks his whole head down into the water, closing his eyes and letting himself enjoy the sweet, sweet liquid. Jaune thanks the brothers for the gift as he drinks what feels like gallons.
Jaune lifts his head out to take a gasp of air before diving right back in and drinking even more. Eventually Jaune opens his eyes so he can see what might be under the water and spots a fish staring back at him an inch from his face seemingly unbothered by the intruder.
Jaune, not expecting the fish, jerks backwards out of surprise, in turn scaring the creature, and causing the small animal to retreat back into the deeper parts of the lake farther away from the large creature that invaded its space. Jaune fairs much worse than the fish as he accidentally breathes in some water in his surprise. His head shoots out of the water as he hacks and coughs what feels like way more water than he accidentally breathed in.
After around 30 seconds the flow of water coming out of his mouth finally comes to an end, and Jaune collapses onto his side gasping as he tries to get the precious air back into his lungs. Rolling over onto his back the boy looks up at the sky above him. The twin suns hang in the bright blue sky. The warmth on his skin from the two stars shining down feels incredible as he lies on the soft grass. Slowly Jaune's eyes close while he lets the warmth spread across his body and his mind drift off into the unconscious…
Jaune wakes up to see a different sky than the one he fell asleep to. The bright blue is replaced by streaks of orange and pink shooting across a deep purple sky. Jaune sits up and feels a surprising lack of pain in his body outside of some stinging in his chest which he can't say isn't unexpected knowing the cause. A light breeze brushes through the trees and Jaune shivers a little, the cool air on his skin feels incredible, and the sound of the trees rustling is almost enough to put him right back to sleep.
Jaune lets himself fall back slightly and rest on his hands so he can look up at the beautiful morning sky. Jaune enjoys the silence as he sits there on the grass. The small breeze and the rustling of the leaves are the only noises that Jaune can hear. It feels so calm, something Jaune hasn't felt since… When was the last time he felt like life was calm?
Jaune can't even remember the last time his life was quiet. Not even back at home was there any peace or quiet, and if there was he never got to experience it. The closest he's ever got was the nights traveling with Ruby, Nora, and Ren but even then he was still training whenever he had any free time. But now, Jaune can truly appreciate how serene and beautiful the sounds of nature are, and as he hates being alone down here, the silence is welcome. But he couldn't sit here forever though, he still has a full day ahead of him. What was his plan for today though?
Jaune thinks for a while before realizing he has nothing to do. Nobody to help, nobody to save, and nothing to fight. Jaune sits puzzled as he thinks about it, the last time he didn't have anything to do was probably as long as the last time he experienced silence. Maybe today can just be for Jaune to finally catch his breath…
After sitting in silence for a while and watching the sunrise Jaune gets restless and decides that he has to do something to keep himself busy, and with the smell that's emanating off of him the first thing is going to be a bath. He probably should wash his clothes too since the brown caking on his pants from the dirt and the smell of iron infused in his shirt aren't very pleasant either. Jaune would usually throw the clothes away in any other situation but without knowing where he is or how long he'll be here it's better to keep them and have some protection from the elements than none at all. After he gets cleaned up then he can start thinking about what to do next.
First and foremost Jaune needs to get his armor off and check the wound on his chest to see if he's still bleeding before going into the water. Slowly Jaune loosens the armor before letting the two pieces of metal fall off of him. The folded shirt that Jaune placed on his chest to help slow the bleeding is now sticking to Jaune the heavy scent of blood making him slightly nauseous as he starts to lift the top of the piece of fabric . Jaune slowly peels the folded shirt off of his chest and looks down at the gash on his chest.
To Jaune's surprise the wound has almost completely healed what once was a heavily bleeding jagged cut spanning from the top of his chest to the below his ribs. Now it is just an angry reddish welt where his body is still trying to fight off infections. In the middle of the irritated skin is a long thin line of scab. It reminds Jaune less of a huge slash from a mythical beast and more of a healing cut he would see after a surgical procedure.
The sight still is much better than the last time he looked at his chest though. He knows it's definitely going to scar with how large and deep the wound was but there was nothing he could do about that except hope it looks cool. Jaune waits for another 20 minutes and just enjoys the cool morning air while the twin suns finish rising over the trees and the sky changes from a deep purple to a baby blue that reminds Jaune of home.
After the suns rise a bit higher in the sky Jaune stands up and takes off the rest of his clothes and tosses them in a pile with his armor and shirt before he walks to the edge of the small lake, and looks into the water. The reflection shows a person right next to him. Quickly looking to the side Jaune doesn't see anyone there before looking back down at the water the only reflection is that of himself looking back at him. The only problem is now that only one of them is smiling.
Jaune shakes off the odd reflection and walks into the lake and immediately notices it's the perfect temperature. The water isn't warm but it's also not freezing. It's just cool enough to give Jaune goosebumps as he walks further into the water. Each step feels like heaven to the knight and soon the water is up to his chest.
Jaune's next step causes him to shout in surprise as his foot finds no ground and he slips and disappears underneath the water. Luckily the water isn't that deep and Jaune is able to find his bearings and stand back up the water now up to just below his nose as he stands on his tip toes. Jaune spits out the little bit of water that got in his mouth as he fell. The knight sucks in a deep breath before squatting down to the bottom of the lake and launching himself off of the muddy bottom and towards the middle of the small lake.
As Jaune swims he spots a brightly colored fish that seems to change colors every time he blinks. One second it's blood red and the next it's a bright forest green. Jaune dives under the water and tries to get a closer look but the fish swims deeper into the depths keeping its distance from the visitor. Jaune quickly tries following but soon loses the fish in the depths of the water.
'Damn I wish I could've caught it.' Jaune thinks to himself before swimming back up to the surface.
GRRRRRRR
"Sounds like my stomach wanted me to catch it too."
Jaune treads water staying in the middle of the lake until he sees another flash of color under the water. Jaune dives beneath the surface once again looking for what might be his first meal of the last two days. Jaune spots the fish immediately, its color now a light blue that Jaune can swear is giving off its own light , its large eyes stare back into his own.
Jaune swims towards the fish and the fish turns quickly before swimming away from Jaune just out of reach. Jaune kicks harder trying to chase the fish but can't catch up as the fish keeps going deeper and just a little faster than Jaune can keep up with away from him. Jaune has to give up for the moment and resurface to take a breath before he can dive back down and look for the fish again. Jaune sucks up the air greedily as he treads water at the surface. After Jaune is finished catching his breath, he breathes in deeply before sinking right back down under the water to continue his chase.
Jaune spots the fish nearly immediately, its neon green color shines brightly and sticks out from the surrounding water Jaune swims once again towards the fish as it keeps going deeper and the water around him gets darker and darker. Jaune can't find the bottom and he realizes he's been down here for much longer than he should have been but he doesn't feel any burning in his lungs or any warning sign that he needs to go up for air. He's scared to open his mouth just in case the effect wears off and he drowns. Jaune should give up the chase and head back up to the surface but he can't right now, he needs to catch the fish.
'Where did the fish go?'
Jaune panics slightly as he realizes he hasn't been chasing the fish for a while and instead has just been swimming deeper and deeper into the darkness. 'Should I keep going?' Jaune can feel the response in his soul. The lake wants him to keep going, and he needs to keep going. He needs to know what it wants him to see so badly he needs to find what's down there, and he can't find it by doing nothing so he's going to swim.
Jaune can't see anything now any light from above is now gone the only thing keeping him on track is the feeling like something is tugging on his soul and telling him what direction to go in. The water feels like nothing as Jaune glides through. Jaune wants to stop holding his breath and see if he can breathe here but a little voice tells him he should probably just play it safe and keep holding it at this point.
The knight feels the pulling getting stronger, and the water around him starts to lighten the color. The water eventually gets to the point where it almost looks like he's at the surface, but something is off. It looks like there's a person standing above him. Jaune swims closer to the surface and sees himself standing above him looking at the lake and also quite honestly looking like shit. The reflection gets surprised and kicks the water, the ripples obscure Jaune's vision before eventually clearing and showing him once again this time he looks much better but he's still different, this time he has a bit of facial hair. Not enough to suggest that he's been growing it out for a long time but enough for Jaune to know this isn't version of Jaune looks down at him and a mixed expression crosses his face before tears start falling down and the water ripples once again.
The sky changes from the light blue of daytime and is replaced by the deep yellow of a sunset. The Jaune standing above him this time looks even more worn out. His hair and beard are noticeably longer now, and there almost seems to be a little bit of white sprinkled in with the blonde. Jaune is a bit scared as he looks at the older version of himself.
One thought runs through Jaune's head as he stares at the older man above him. 'How long am I going to be here?'
Jaune is snapped out of his thoughts as he sees something pass right in front of him. Jaune looks back up at the older version of himself, he sees his face twisted into an expression of rage as the reflection looks down at Jaune. Tears fall from his eyes, but this time there are no ripples. As the tears hit the water they instead fall right through the invisible barrier, and keep falling through the water around him like little stars falling from the sky. Jaune reaches out to try and touch the glowing tears as they fall but they pass through his hands. Jaune gets the feeling that he should look back up to see what's happening so he leaves the tears alone for now. Jaune is surprised at what he sees when he looks back up, the older version of himself has his sword out and in a reverse grip. Jaune is nervous as he stares up, his eyes glued to the surface wondering what the knight might do next. The older version of himself raises the blade up slowly above his head before slamming it into the water.
Jaune knows the sword won't touch him but still flinches Once again the scenery changes through the ripples. A new Jaune walks up to the water, this one with tired eyes and rusty armor, He looks down at the water, a small frown crossing his face. He seems to stare into Jaune's eyes directly. A chill goes down Jaune's spine as they stare at each other, the older Jaune opens his mouth to say something but quickly closes it before lightly kicking the water with his boot and walking away. The ripples once again obscuring Jaunes view of himself.
The ripples eventually fade away and nothing new happens, the sky above him is now back to its normal light blue color. Slowly Jaune starts to float towards the same sky where he saw all of those different versions of himself. The knight soon breaks the surface and sees that it's still the daytime and everything is fine. Jaune is still a bit confused and shaken from what he saw, and his arms and legs are very sore from all the swimming he did. Jaune decides he should probably get out of the lake for the day and he swims to shore before he grabs his clothes so he can wash them
Jaune walks along the lake side with his clothes in hand. He's careful to stay far enough away from the edge of the water so he doesn't feel the urge to see what kind of reflection it shows him this time. Jaune loses himself in thought as he walks his mind on what happened in the lake. He can't really wrap his head around what he saw. The whole situation felt so outlandish and wild Jaune wonders if he passed out at some point, but that wouldn't make sense because he would've drowned if he did pass out while swimming. So what exactly happened? Did he hallucinate the whole thing while on the lake or did he actually pass into some sort of viewing room where he watches his life play out?
THUNK
"Damn it!" Jaune yells as he runs face first into a tree past the end of the clearing. He must've gotten too caught up in thought and not have been paying attention to his surroundings. Jaune walks back the short distance back into the clearing and towards the small stream that flows out of the lake. Jaune reaches the stream without much difficulty and kneels down before dropping his clothes in a pile beside him.
Jaune spends the next hour and a half vigorously scrubbing his clothes by hand. His pants and socks ended up the dirtiest and he spent half the time trying his best to clean the garments. Luckily for Jaune his underwear was much easier to wash. It wasn't easy and the results weren't perfect but he managed to get his pants, socks, and underwear into a much more manageable state. Now all that was left was his shirt.
Jaune stares at the black piece of fabric hoping that it will magically just clean itself. Jaune does this for a solid 10 minutes before finally giving in and unfolding the shirt and sticking it beneath the water. He has to be extra careful because of the hole in the shirt and make sure he doesn't rip it any more than it already has. Slowly Jaune gets the blood out of the shirt. Now when he wrings it out instead of dark brownish orange colored water dripping out the water is clear. He can't get the smell of the blood completely out of the shirt no matter how hard he tries but as long as it isn't as strong as it was before Jaune can live with it.
Jaune gets up and brushes himself off before collecting his wet clothes and starting his walk back to his spot on the edge of the lake, his mind going back to the days before he got caught up in all of this. How calm and fun it was, and how his problems were so much more simple than they are now. Jaune arrives at where his boots stand and he lays out his clothes flat on the ground so they can dry.
As his clothes dry on the soft grass Jaune decides to keep himself busy and starts collecting stones at the edge of the water. Eventually with two handfuls of stones Jaune walks back to his spot and dumps them in a pile next to him and starts to try and skip them across the lake. For hours Jaune sits in silence as he flings the rocks into the lake, getting up occasionally to stretch his legs and collect more skipping stones.
Eventually the suns start to fall down and Jaune puts his clothes back on so he can be slightly protected from the cool night air. The suns dip below the treeline bathing the sky in orange and red. Jaune runs out of stones one final time and lets himself lie back on the soft grass. Once the final stone is tossed the knight lets himself fall backwards slowly and lie down with his hands resting behind his head as he looks up at the 'stars' in the sky. Jaune's mind goes back to earlier in the day. Every version of himself he saw made him both curious and worried about his future. As Jaune's eyes drift close one last thought passes through his mind before he falls into the land of dreams.
'Am I going to be here forever?'
Author's note
My bad.
I meant to get this done about 2 weeks ago, I know 2 months (exactly) is a long time and I am sorry for the wait. I finally had my surgery and spent 6 weeks recovering which slowed down the writing by a lot. I am feeling much much better now and hopefully should be able to put out chapters quicker but that all depends on my schedule.
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I thought the lake having importance beyond it being Jaune's temporary home would be interesting and went with it. I did kind of want Jaune to have a rest day because he deserves one. I don't really know what to say for this author's note other than the basics.
If you like or dislike the story feel free to review. I like reading them and it's awesome seeing feedback and theories and stuff. I hope you all have a great day or night or whatever time it is for you right now. As always I thank you for reading Rusted Souls and Shattered Hearts.