Jaune opens his eyes and freezes. Surrounding him is water and a familiar sight above him.
"Why am I here again?" Jaune asks himself aloud before he's tapped on the shoulder. Looking back at Jaune is a doppelganger of himself. Jaune opens his mouth to ask a question but the doppelganger places a finger to its lips before pointing above Jaune to where the top of the lake is. A cold fear creeps down Jaunes spine as he realizes he's back under the water and that what he's going to see he's probably not going to like.
Turning to his doppelganger Jaune asks "How did I get here?"
The doppelganger doesn't speak and instead shushes Jaune audibly, before once again pointing at the top of the lake where a new scene begins to unfold. Jaune tries ignoring the scene at first but can't when he hears the sound of someone panting heavily. This piques Jaune's interest a bit because the ones that he was shown before were silent. Giving in Jaune looks up to the where the action is taking place.
Jaune hears several small splashes of the person walking into the water accompanied by a bigger splash as the person falls into his view. Jaune's first thought is that the person is either on the verge of death or was dunked into a very big container of red dye. The person crawls in the water for a few more feet before their energy runs out and they collapse even further, their face dunking into the water before they manage to pull their head back out. Jaune realizes that this person was definitely the one bleeding seeing as there is a massive wound stretching from their right shoulder to left hip. It looks fairly deep but it's apparently not deep enough for any of the person's insides to pop out. The person also has smaller gashes across their face that probably helped cause the red hair.
Jaune stares intently at the person trying to see if he can tell who they are. The blood now seeping into the water from their face and hands making it difficult to spot anything that would help him recognize the person above him. Jaune doesn't need much more looking because he sees the person's eyes shoot open. Jaune instantly recognizes the person and sighs in defeat.
He knew in his heart it was going to be himself. He really didn't want it to be but he knew. Jaune hears a noise and apparently the other one hears it too because his bloodied face grimaces and his head snaps towards the direction where he arrived from. Jaune doesn't see what the other version of himself can, but he does hear a snickering from the doppelganger beside him.
Jaune looks over to his company, the other Jaune's eyes are locked on the scene above and excitement is spread across his face. His face stuck in a giddy grin and his eyes filled with anticipation and joy . After a minute of staring at his doppelganger his smile falls away slowly as he turns his head and meets the eyes of his other. The thing next to Jaune cocks its head to the side, and looking at Jaune like he just grew a second head before opening its mouth.
"Why aren't you watching?" The other questions its voice sounding confused and almost hurt that Jaune isn't watching. Jaune opens his mouth to respond but is cut off when the doppelganger shushes him again before whispering harshly. "This is my favorite part."
Jaune looks back up and sees the version of himself in the reflection slowly start to get up. The blood and water from his dunk in the lake flows down his arms in small rivers. Raising himself to one knee Jaune sucks in a shaky breath before standing up completely and going out of sight once again. The last step this Jaune takes while walking out of sight causes the water to ripple and the angle of sight to change. Now Jaune is looking at the back of himself the reflected version still bloodied, but now holding Crocea Mors in its greatsword form the weapon held out in front of him in a fighting stance as he waits for whatever he was running from to come out.
The reflected Jaune swivels his head left and right keeping his guard up. Jaune can see the knight violently shiver as he stands. Jaune can't determine if it's from fear, blood loss, or the temperature of the water, or maybe a combination of all three.
Jaune starts to feel panic and is paranoid about whatever the reflected version of him is looking for and tries to look around but can't spot anything out of the ordinary which only heightens his fear. Jaune glances over towards the other version of himself watching the scene play out, and sees his eyes locked onto the reflection. Jaune decides not to bother him and looks back at the top of the lake to see what's going on.
Suddenly Jaune hears the sound of running all around but can't see anything unusual despite the sound. The reflection seems to know though as he drops his right hand off the sword and turns to his left before swinging upwards. The reflection hits nothing with his sword but lashes out with his right hand and catches a familiar figure in his grasp. The pink and brown haired girl in Jaune's hands stops moving before grinning at the knight and looking down. Jaune looks where the girl's sight is and sees the blade of Hush embedded in the side of the older version of himself.
The knight drops his sword and grabs onto the parasol. The older version grunts before slowly pulling the girl's blade out of him spreading blood on the closed canopy as he slowly pulls the blade that Neo is still trying to push into him. After managing to pull the weapon out of him he tightens his grip on the parasol before ripping it out of Neo's hand and throwing it away into the grass harmlessly. Jaune then grabs Neo by her neck with his free hand and starts trying to choke the small assassin to death.
Neo squirms around and eventually gets her feet planted on Jaune's chest and launches herself away landing softly on her feet right on the edge of the water before disappearing into the grass. Jaune on the other hand is not as lucky and falls backwards into the water. Jaune quickly scrambles to his feet and searches the grass for the small assassin while backing farther into the lake until he is almost knee deep. Once he feels like he's far enough in water the knight stops moving and stands still and watches for any signs of movement. The knight looks over at where his sword lies under the water and regrets not going for the weapon but knows it's too late for that now and just has to deal with it.
While the beaten and bloodied Jaune looks at his weapon the one watching the scene sees 3 different Neos pop out of the grass parasol in hand, and sprint at him. The knight faces all 3 of them and stands still as the three sprint at him. The two outer ones split off looking like they're trying to flank him while the middle keeps running at him head on. The knight darts his head back and forth watching all three charge at him and waits until they hit the water. As soon as the three hit the water Jaune charges at the farthest one to the left and both of the other Neos shatter while the one in front of Jaune dodges to the side and rolls in the water away from her attacker, but also deeper into the lake. The bloodied knight takes advantage of the shorter girl's lack of movement and goes to grab her but his hands hold nothing but air as his right leg is pulled out from underneath him.
Falling backwards once again the Jaune flails in the air wildly. He hits the water with a loud slap and Jaune flinches slightly at the sound but doesn't dwell on it for long as he's busy searching for Neo in the water. Neither the reflection Jaune or real Jaune know where Neo is until she pops out of the water and splashes as quickly as she can towards the still downed Jaune. The knight tries scrambling to his feet but now his plan to hinder Neo's movement is working against him.
As Jaune gets his hands underneath him and lifts himself to a sitting position a boot cracks across his Jaw. It looked like Neo was trying to punt his head off of his body, and Jaune wouldn't be surprised if that was the intent. The unconscious Jaune falls back into the water and his head sinks back to the lakes floor. Neo takes the opportunity without hesitation and stands on Jaune's downed body.
Jaune wakes up after taking a breath of water and tries to get up or at least get his head above the surface so he can get the water out of his lungs. But Jaune soon realizes he can't get up because standing on top of his chest watching him slowly drown is Neo. The small girl smiles at Jaune as she stands atop of the knight Hush pointed down at the base of his neck. Jaune watches in horror as Neo slides her finger down slightly and all three Jaune's know what she's about to do next but none of them can look away.
Silently the blade shoots out and pierces straight through the neck of the older Jaune. Both Jaune and Neo freeze momentarily before the knight starts thrashing around even more wildly than before. The hole in his neck gets wider and blood flow increases and floats up towards the surface of the lake before spreading, and giving the section of the lake a reddish tint.
Neo pulls the blade out of Jaune's throat and watches as the knight writhes and grasps at his heavily bleeding neck. Neo could get off of Jaune and let him die alone, but all three Jaune's know that isn't going to happen. She wants to see the light leave Jaune's eyes. Neo needs the last thing Jaune to see is her standing above as the winner. So as Jaune drowns and bleeds out and slowly loses his strength over the next minute and a half Neo stands proudly above, her eyes filled with satisfaction as she watches him suffer underneath her.
Eventually the knight stops moving completely, and Neo, now satisfied and sure Jaune is dead, steps off of his corpse. As soon as Neo does the scene fades and Jaune is left alone with the doppelganger once again. Jaune looks over at his company and the other Jaune turns towards him with the grin still plastered on his face. The look disturbs Jaune even more now after what he just watched.
"Why did you show me this?" Jaune asks, his voice shaky.
The other Jaune shrugs before answering "For fun."
Jaune gives the other a questioning look. "What? What kind of fun was that?"
The doppelganger's grin widens and takes on a more sinister look as he responds simply. "Just what I enjoy I guess…"
With those final words, the doppelganger slowly fades away leaving Jaune alone in the dark with nothing but his thoughts. The last image of the older version of him slowly losing his fight and energy as the blood seeped out of his neck filling his mind.
Eventually light surrounds Jaune again as his final fight plays out over and over again while Jaune floats for what feels like hours under the surface of the lake with nothing to do but watch the scene over and over again, his despair growing every time it rewinds back to the start.
Jaune shoots up in a cold sweat. The dream fresh in his head, the knight pants as he looks around for any sign of Neo or any other version of himself. He was really starting to get sick of seeing himself rather quickly. Jaune closes his eyes and tries to calm himself down and slow his breathing. After getting himself together a little bit Jaune crawls over to the lake and scoops some water into his hands and splashes it onto his face. This wakes both Jaune and his stomach which growls angrily reminding Jaune that he still hasn't eaten in about 3 days.
Jaune gets to his feet knowing he has to find something to eat today or it's going to be over much sooner than his dream showed. Jaune's first idea is to go back into the lake and see if he can get a fish but he quickly discards that plan remembering what happened the last time he chased after one of the fish in the lake. Instead Jaune decides that he should scavenge around and look for any plants or small animals to eat. Probably plants though because he would have to cook the animal and he doesn't know how he can start a fire here.
"Plants it is." The knight sighs before getting his clothes and shoes on, leaving his armor by the lake next to Hush. Jaune still brings Crocea Mors with him, seeing as he doesn't want to be completely defenseless. He doesn't feel super comfortable with leaving his armor either, but Jaune has the sneaking suspicion that he's going to have to climb a couple trees today, and armor is just going to make the climbs more difficult.
Jaune begins his search with the very grass he has been using as a bed. Jaune tentatively takes a nibble out of the grass and as soon as the juice hits his tongue Jaune starts coughing violently and gagging. Jaune drops the small tuft of grass back to the ground quickly crossing that off of his list.
Jaune's next potential source for food are the trees and bushes around the clearing. The bushes should be easy, the only problem is that there are a lot of different trees and some of them don't have branches close to the ground. So Jaune devises a plan on how he is going to test each tree. First he's going to grab some leaves and if there are any flowers or fruit he's going to take several, if he can't reach the branches then he'll try knocking down the fruits nuts or leaves, and then after he's tested those he's going to take a piece of bark and try a piece, bushes follow the same process minus the bark test.
Jaune decides to start off with the tree closest to him at the edge of the clearing, a tree on the shorter side with a lot of bright hand shaped green leaves. The tree's canopy is dome shaped, and has small seed pods that look almost like butterflies, they contrast to the tree with bright colors that don't look all that natural if Jaune is being honest. Each seed pod is different and unique. Jaune reaches up and grabs a handful of the leaves and a handful of the seed pods.
Jaune is surprised when the seed pods he grabbed move and fly away before dive bombing into the ground and exploding into small puffs of color; the only thing left is a small hole in the ground left from the impact. Jaune walks over to one of the holes and spots two small seeds at the bottom. Jaune kneels down and picks up the seeds and rubs them on his sleeve before popping both into his mouth.
Jaune crunches on the seed and a burst of flavor hits his taste buds. The seed tastes incredible. It's sweet but not overly so and it has a hint of a salty flavor too it tastes how Jaune imagines the perfect candy tasting. Jaune savors the flavor before swallowing the seeds. That was a bad choice though because Jaune's aura flares violently and white fills his vision. Jaune can't move a muscle and his body screams. Jaune feels like he was just electrocuted, his whole body tingling and hot like he was just burned. Jaune gets to his feet and feels slightly different, he doesn't know what it is but he knows something is definitely off.
Next up Jaune tries a leaf cautiously nibbling the piece. The leaf doesn't taste good and makes Jaune's stomach feel bad but doesn't make him explode so it's immediately upgraded to the maybe tier? Next up is the bark Jaune walks to the trunk of the tree and takes the two handed blade into one hand and raises it above his head and points it at a break in the bark and tries shimmying the blade in between the two pieces. Jaune can't get the bark to come off at all so he pushes in harder and when that doesn't work he jams the blade in using most of his strength and feels the blade sink into the tree. Jaune uses his sword to pry the piece away from the tree; a piece of bark cracks loudly before separating and falling to the ground. Jaune isn't focused on the piece of bark as instead he's focused on the viscous amber colored sap spilling out of the tree. Jaune dips his finger under the flow before taking the sap to his mouth and giving it a small taste.
Jaune opens his eyes wide in surprise. The sap tastes just like the seeds but doesn't make the knight explode. Jaune ends up lapping up the sap like a dog before snapping out of his daze and picking up the piece of bark to put back on the tree to try and save some of the sap. Before Jaune places the piece of bark back onto the tree he takes a nibble out of the corner of the piece in his hands. The knight feels let down when the taste of the bark hits his tongue and he swallows it quickly to avoid having to taste it further which immediately causes his stomach to feel a bit upset. Jaune places the bark back onto the tree hoping that it will stop the flow of sap drizzling down the trunk. The tree glows before the flow of sap stops and the tree bark fixes itself back onto its home.
Jaune feels like he should be more surprised about the tree self healing but the tree also has seeds that move like suicidal butterflies and make you explode. Jaune mentally notes that the tree is probably not edible outside of the sap.
Jaune moves on finding nothing for a little bit before he crosses the next tree that he feels like would be edible or have anything edible. This tree is a bit taller and has fruit hanging from it. The fruit range from the size of a bowling ball to the size of a large pear and are all shaped like pears as well. Most are a muted yellow in hue with some being bright blue or green and being much larger than the yellow fruit.
None of the lower branches that Jaune can reach by hand have any fruit, so Jaune instead reaches his sword up to one of the branches with many fruit hanging off and sees if he can get to them. Jaune takes a stab at the stem of one of the bright blue fruits and doesn't do anything but make the fruit sway. Jaune takes another stab at it and has the same result. Jaune does this for a while before getting impatient and going where the branch connects to the rest of the tree and takes a chop at the branch trying to take it down Jaune is able to slice down the branch after around 5 hits and the branch hits the ground along with the fruit.
Jaune takes a bite of the blue fruit and despite its appearance and soft feel in his hands it's rock solid he tries to take a bite of a green fruit as well but that one is hard too. Jaune refuses to give up and puts the fruit on the ground and tries stabbing it to break it open. Jaune can't open it though and eventually gives up and grabs one of the smaller yellow fruits and when he bites into it he gags. tts taste and texture are wrong, Jaune doesn't know how to explain it but they just taste wrong, Jaune chokes the fruit down anyways since it's the first solid piece of food he's had in days. After he finishes the fruit he looks over to the branch which has 3 more of the yellow fruits on it and reaches over another yellow fruit before slowly eating that one too. After finishing the disgusting food Jaune can at least say feels much better now that he has food in his stomach.
Jaune spends the rest of the day going around and looking for food, finding weird berries that change colors Jaune discovers that depending on what color you would pick the small berries the taste and texture would be different despite the outside shape not changing at all and the only visible difference being the color. Some of the berries tasted awful and would make him vomit them back up as soon as he swallowed them. He couldn't even eat the ones that tasted good though because when he did he would start seeing things and hearing voices Jaune. Jaune leaves the bush not wanting to gamble any further on the berries…
Jaune's next interesting find is a pine tree with vines wrapping around it covered in hollow fruits that look almost like water bottles; they even have screw-on lids that connect to the tree by a small handle. The weirdest thing Jaune found though was a giant plant that had massive cotton bolls hanging off it…
As the sun sets and Jaune makes his way back to his spot in the clearing with his new giant cotton bed in his arms. Jaune feels accomplished; he's explored and tested at least three quarters of the surrounding greenery. Now Jaune can rest on his new soft bed and let his mind wander into comforting sleep…
Day 5
Jaune wakes up the next morning feeling much more rested then the nights past. Part of Jaune wonders if it's due to the lack of dreams, or if it's due to his new very soft bed. After stretching Jaune gets up and gets his shirt on before sliding his feet into his boots. Jaune walks to the lake and kneels down before wetting his face. The knight yawns as he stands up and cracks his back. Jaune picks his sword up and goes over to the tree with the yellow and blue fruit and circles the tree trying to find a strong branch to climb up since he doesn't want to cut down anymore branches and waste any of the fruit.
Jaune eventually finds a low enough branch and hoists himself up onto the branch, climbs a bit up the tree. After climbing up a small way Jaune is able to sit himself on one of the lower branches and slowly raise himself up to stand. Jaune looks for the most yellow looking fruit on the tree ignoring the eye-catching greens and blues. Jaune picks off 4 of the closest fruit to him and tosses them down making sure that he doesn't lose his balance. After Jaune is done picking the fruit he slowly lowers himself back down making sure to watch out and not land on his meals for the day. Jaune eats two of the fruit immediately and stuffs the remaining two in his pockets as snacks for later. Despite how much he hates the taste of the fruit Jaune can't stop himself from eating them especially seeing how they're the one thing that fills him up and doesn't make him want to die…
After eating his breakfast Jaune walks the long way around the clearing making sure to check for anything he may have missed before getting to where he left off the evening before, checking out the trees and plants for anything edible or useful. Jaune looks for around an hour. The young Arc finds nothing much of note, a few more of the color changing berry bushes, and another pine tree with the bottle vines on it
'A new set of clothes and armor would be pretty nice right now. I wonder if those grow on any of the trees out here.'
Jaune spots a new bush, this one a little farther away from the clearing and into the woods. Jaune walks slowly looking around for anything of interest while he heads towards the bush. Jaune stops about 3 feet away from the bush, his eyes locked on the new and very beautiful piece of nature. The large bush is covered in flowers. The flowers are all different colors similar to the tree with the exploding seeds, but even the brightest colored flowers on this bush feel very soft on the flowers draw him towards the bush. The flowers are large and similar in shape to roses. Jaune doesn't feel the need to test this bush for food and instead enjoys the flowers. Jaune smells each one and each one brings up different memories both good and bad. Jaune struggles to separate himself from the bush, but is eventually able to pry himself away and continue with his search for anything useful or edible.
Jaune doesn't find anything edible but does find a tree seemingly made completely of metal. How Jaune didn't spot it before is beyond him but it is a very interesting find seeing as the needles on the tree branches would vibrate and ring like chimes as the wind would blow though. Jaune makes a mental note to come back to that tree later as he continues on his search. After a while Jaune makes his way to the stream where the water flowed into the lake, marking the full circle the knight made around the clearing looking for food and supplies.
After walking back around the lake and hopping over the other stream again Jaune wonders what he's going to do with the rest of his day before realizing he still hasn't explored where either of the streams go. Maybe the streams lead to a town or even a small village, and he can be helped out of this place. Jaune hops up off of his fluffy bed and gets ready for his next trip. The knight gets up and walks over once again to the tree holding the fruit…
'I can't believe i haven't found anything better than this' Jaune thinks as he drops back down to the ground again the dull yellow fruit on the ground next to him and picks it up the disgusting food looking at the piece of fruit in his hand Jaune fights the urge to gag as he takes a bite out of it. The texture is uncomfortable to say the least and the taste is like it was designed specifically to ruin his day. Jaune hated the taste and had to force himself to choke down each bite. It didn't help that it was the only thing he could find to eat in this clearing that would actually fill his stomach and not make him vomit, hallucinate or explode.
After finishing the first fruit by the tree Jaune picks the two others up off of the ground and slides them into his pockets. Jaune also grabs one of the hollow bottle fruits so he can make sure he has something to use to hold water. Now prepared, Jaune begins on his trek along the stream flowing into the lake…
After hours of walking Jaune's legs are starting to ache and he feels like he hasn't gotten anywhere. The sound of the roaring river next to him though says otherwise. The once small stream that looked like it could be stopped if Jaune just stacked some rocks as a makeshift dam is now a fast moving river that is at least 60 feet across at its thinnest and sometimes stretches wide enough that Jaune is fairly confident that it's wider than the lake in the clearing. Jaune is beginning to not even care about what wild thing he might see next because it's just so much that he might as well just take it in. Jaune does wonder where all the water went because it seems almost impossible for a river of this size to just shrink to that degree.
Jaune pushes that thought cycle to the side as he realizes the sound of the raging river has stopped and realizes that the river is gone and that he no longer sees any water but can still hear something that sounds like water spraying behind him. Jaune turns around and sees a floating spigot about head level that's spraying out a lot of water. As soon as he gets to the other side of the faucet the sound of roaring water fills his ears again.
Jaune has seen some insane stuff already but this takes the cake. Jaune has no idea where the water is coming from since the faucet is not connected to anything. The only thing sticking out about the spigot being a bright red valve handle much smaller looking more like its a prop on the huge faucet Jaune walks back to the faucet to have a closer look at the unnatural phenomenon. Jaune can see his warped reflection in the shiny metal, this reflection thankfully not as weird or depressing as the other ones he's seen recently. Jaune decides to test the faucet running his hand under the flow checking for one of those see through pipes that make it so it gives the illusion of a floating faucet without actually being one. Jaune feels much less surprised than he should be to find out it's really floating.
Jaune's next test is to see if he can stick his arm up into the faucet and see if he can get any clue on how this thing functions even though he doubts if one of the brothers came to him and gave him an instruction manual and schematics that told him how it works that he would understand at all. Jaune takes off his clothes not wanting to wear wet clothes for the rest of the day and sets them behind him and away from the water. Jaune reaches his arm up into the wide opening and feels the water shooting down his arm and down his side the water is actually pretty nice but Jaune is more so focused on getting his arm up in the faucet than enjoying the water.
Jaune feels something odd as he gets his arm fully extended above him. It feels like his hand isn't under water. Jaune is really confused and lowers his hand a little bit and feels the embrace of the water once again but as soon as he raises his arm fully his hand and a little bit of his forearm feels like it's in air and not water. The pressure on Jaune's hand isn't there and Jaune swears he can feel a light breeze against his hand…
Jaune doesn't put much thought into it and instead gets to his next test: Throwing rocks of various sizes at the large piece of floating metal. Jaune sees no flaws in this plan and puts his clothes back on before collecting rocks from the area around him to chuck at the spigot. After spending a much longer time searching for rocks than he would like to admit, Jaune drops the final pile of rocks at his feet and picks up the first one to start throwing. Jaune throws the button sized pebble at the faucet. The small rock bounces off harmlessly and Jaune begins throwing more rocks of varying sizes at the floating faucet eventually getting to the final and largest of the rocks, this one needing both of his hands to hold it up. Jaune is not sure he'll be able to throw the rock but he might as well try. Jaune hoists the small boulder over his head, his arms shaky from the weight Jaune slowly walks a bit closer to the faucet before slamming his arms down in less of a throw and more of strike, seeing as the rock never left his hand.
Well, never left his hand is wrong. The rock very much did leave his hand at least after it hit the faucet. Unfortunately for Jaune the rock's trajectory after leaving his hands was down and directly on to his right foot. Jaune's aura flashes brightly and stops the rock from shattering his foot and rendering him immobile for the foreseeable future. His aura does not stop him from feeling the pain though and causes Jaune to scream in pain and fall over. Jaune promises not to do anything that stupid again through his tears while rolling and holding his throbbing foot. The rock may not have broken his foot but it sure as hell hurt like it did, and Jaune would still be sporting a very fun looking bruise for the next few days to remind him of his idiocy.
Jaune eventually is able to calm himself down as the pain fades a bit, and the knight gets slowly back up to his feet and hobbles to the faucet. The tests he was going to run are forgotten and instead Jaune decides he's going to just see what happens if he turns the little red lever knob on the back. Jaune turns the knob and water sprays out at a rate that shouldn't be possible. Jaune doesn't even have time to react as the ground underneath him collapses and he's sucked under water and launched down stream.
Jaune surfaces and takes a gasp of air before hitting something hard that he couldn't see and he sinks back under the water. Jaune can't see or hear anything but the roaring river around him. The knight floats up again, his head breaking the surface of the water for just long enough to take a breath before being plunged back under and losing all bearings on which way is which.
Jaune repeats the process of getting to the surface for just long enough to breathe in before being sucked back under for what feels like an eternity. Sometimes the routine is broken up with Jaune slamming into something super hard or being flung all the way to the bottom of the river and dragging along the rocks and mud at the bottom before being slingshotted back up at speeds that make would make Jaune nauseous if his immediate focus wasn't on trying to breath in air and get out of there.
The ground scrapes Jaune more and more as the time passes. Jaune hopes this means that the water is getting more shallow and easier to get out of and that he's getting to the end of this hellish water ride. As the water gets shallower and shallower, the speed of which Jaune is thrown about is much slower and Jaune has more time to breathe before he gets pulled under again. Soon the flow throwing Jaune around slows to a halt and Jaune is able to swim to the surface a final time and see where he is.
"The clearing… THANK THE BROTHERS!" Jaune didn't think he would be this happy to be back where he started, and in truth he wishes he ended up somewhere else, but being alive is much better than being dead. Jaune spots where he left the stuff and swims over to the edge which feels like a much longer swim than it was the last time he was in the middle of the lake. Jaune doesn't care though he just wants out and if something is different he'll deal with it tomorrow.
Jaune crawls out of the lake in a way not too dissimilar to that of a zombie would. Jaune crawls over to his large cotton ball that he has been using as a bed Jaune lifts himself to his feet for the final time of the day and strips off his clothes tossing them aside before falling face first on the cloudlike cushion…
Day 6
Another nightmare. This one of being ripped away from his friends and family and getting dragged down into the raging river like he was the previous day, but instead of resurfacing he just kept being pulled down. The voices started then. At first it was whispers of voices of people like Salem, Cinder, and Tyrian but as he went deeper and deeper the voices got louder and the number of people increased. Eventually screaming at Jaune, insulting him and telling him they were going to do or hoped awful things happened to him. After a while Jaune's eyes open and he tries to forget the nightmare and instead focuses on the beautiful morning sky above him.
Jaune does nothing for a while just watching the sky turn from purple and orange to the light blue that he's grown slightly accustomed to. Jaune thinks about his friends and he thinks about his enemies as he lays there. One enemy more so than the rest. The enemy he's thinking of isn't the one he thought his mind would be focused on, instead of Cinder or Salem, Jaune is focused on Neo. Honestly it shouldn't surprise him seeing as she is the only person he knows of trapped here with him, but what does surprise him is that he hasn't really thought about her since he had got to this clearing and only is thinking about her right now because of a nightmare. Jaune even has her weapon with him. Jaune chalks it up to him trying to survive in this place and escape it while still worrying about how his friends are and what might be going on with them that he completely forgot about the other person trapped here.
A small part of Jaune hoped she was doing okay and still alive. The rest of him hoped he'd never see her again and that she was either dead or unable to reach him or his friends. Maybe that's a bit dark but Jaune can't help but feel that way especially after all the problems she's caused for all of them but especially him recently. But still Jaune can't get rid of the small part of him that hopes she's alright.
After his time zoning off and staring into the sky Jaune gets up and decides on what to do today. This time Jaune wants to explore the other stream leading out from the lake. Jaune gets his clothes on which to his dismay are still a bit damp. Jaune goes back and forth a bit with himself on whether to wait until his clothes dry or not and ends up putting on the damp clothes in case the trip along this side is as long as the other.
After getting his final sock on Jaune goes to grab his sword from where it is usually laid next to his spot, Jaune spots nothing though and proceeds to freak out looking around his bed and under the large cotton balls. Jaune quickly finds out that Crocea Mors isn't there and his brain shuts down in defeat as he realizes the most important thing to him down here is gone. Jaune doesn't even feel the need to cry and instead just sits with his head in his hands thinking about how he's going to make it without the heirloom that has been helping him survive every ordeal he's been put through over the past few years.
Jaune looks up from his hands and his eyes land on Hush. Jaune looks at the weapon long and hard knowing that he can use the weapon, but with how much the weapon itself has been through and done Jaune doesn't know what to do especially considering that he probably wouldn't be that great with it seeing as both his and Neo's style of fighting are vastly different. Jaune's common sense, and logic reminds him that having any protection is better than none, and he should just use Hush despite its past. Jaune can't help but agree with himself and picks the weapon up off of the ground next to him and stands up before pressing one of the buttons near its hilt.
Jaune jumps slightly as the canopy of the umbrella opens instead of the small blade he expected to pop out of the end. Jaune presses the small button again, and the canopy folds quickly back down. Jaune slides his finger down slightly and presses on that button, Jaune's next attempt has the effect he is looking for as the thin blade slides quickly and silently out of its hiding place. Jaune gives the weapon a few test swings noting how much lighter it is than his sword while also still being very well balanced. Jaune commends whoever created the weapon seeing as it's incredibly made for something that also doubles as a parasol made for blocking the sun and rain.
Jaune pauses and wonders if the the creator of the weapon knew what it was going to be used for or if they just assumed it would be used for good. Jaune puts the thought to the side quickly before he lets it bother him too much and goes back to swinging Hush. Jaune still can't help but be amazed with the craftsmanship and detail.
'I see why Neo likes it so much.' Jaune gives the blade a few more light swings and stabs before spinning the blade, a move that would be nearly impossible with Crocea Mors especially in its two hander form. 'It really fits her style too. If I ever get the chance and she's not trying to kill me or any of my friends I'll ask her if she knows where Roman got this made for her.'
Jaune messes with the parasol for a bit longer before he feels completely comfortable with the weapon. Jaune can't help but keep complimenting the weapon the more he handles it. He just can't help it. Jaune isn't a weapons expert but even he knows how good the craftsmanship is.
"Maybe I need a new weapon. A side piece that could compliment Crocea Mors. I'll design it with Ruby if I can and have it made by a true pro." Jaune thinks aloud. He can feel the puppy dog eyes from here that Ruby won't be the one to help physically build it. Jaune trusted Ruby more than anyone else in the world with making weapons and designing them, he just wanted to have someone who can make it more fitting with Crocea Mors stylistically.
After a moment, Jaune takes back his previous thought. He would like to build it with Ruby, the style doesn't matter as long as he's able to spend time with his friends."if-when I see her again, I'll ask her if she wants to help build it with me." Jaune cringes at his verbal mistake before pressing the small button to sheathe the blade of Hush again, Jaune walks back to the tree with the bottle fruit seeing as he lost his last one in the river along with Crocea Mors. Jaune decides since he's already walking he might as well stop by the fruit tree. Jaune mentally notes that he needs to come up with a name for the fruits because just calling them the gross yellow fruits isn't really a good name for them.
Jaune pops a bottle fruit off the tree and two of the yellow fruit, one for today's breakfast and one for during the walk. Jaune ends up multitasking and starts his walk while eating his breakfast. Jaune feels like it's taking a noticeably longer time to get to the end of the lake than it did before, Jaune decides to just do the logical thing in his situation and ignore it and pretend like it's normal because he's almost certain that if he takes everything seriously and questions why every little thing is happening he would go insane.
So after filling up the hollow fruit in the stream flowing out of the lake and truly begins on his walk down stream. Jaune decides to use this opportunity on looking for new plants and trees that he might be able to use, and it also gives him a chance to practice with Hush while he is down his main weapon.
After a couple hours of walking Jaune decides to take a break and sits down against a tree facing the stream Jaune uses this time to fill up the bottle fruit and eat his least favorite food possibly ever. As Jaune stares across at the expanse of trees in front of him, he can't break his eyes off of a shadow that's sitting on the other side of the stream.
It is watching him.
Jaune can't say what it is watching him but he knows that right in front of him there is something. He knows it's real because shadows don't breathe unless whatever is making the shadow is alive. The knight can't move, he can't say its fear. It's beyond fear, the feeling is something beyond any of the emotions he's ever experienced. The only way Jaune can describe the feeling is suffocating and overbearing. Like a tsunami of dread crashing down on him. The only move Jaune is able to make is grabbing hush and pushing the button that deploys the blade. The air is so still around that the near silent blade feels deafening.
With a blink of the eye the shadow vanishes and Jaune is once again left alone in the middle of the woods. Jaune wonders if whatever the thing was got bored, or the weapon scared the creature. Possibly whatever made the shadow was spooked by something else. A thought that disturbs the young arc. Instead Jaune pretends that he scared whatever it was off and that it wouldn't come near him again. That still didn't stop Jaune from keeping the parasol in a tight grip and ready position for the rest of his walk…
After another hour or so of walking Jaune hears the sound of something moving through the trees. Jaune turns around quickly and scans the forest around him for anything out of place Jaune keeps searching for several minutes before trying to brush it off and continue on his walk. Jaune soon finds where the river ends and is shocked at what he sees. The river has not technically 'ended' but Jaune is pretty sure he's not going to be able to follow it seeing as it goes underground. Jaune can't say he's particularly surprised by the river going underground seeing as he watched it do a loop de loop on the walk here. What does surprise Jaune is the fact that Crocea Mors is standing up straight out of the ground on the top of the tunnel directly in the middle a few feet back from the edge.
Jaune races over to Crocea Mors, but stops before he can get there as his brain starts to catch up with his body. Jaune already learned his lesson the day before of what happens when you fall into the rivers here. Also the sword being where it is just screams trap. Jaune almost wonders if Neo is hiding somewhere waiting for him to try to grab Crocea mors and fall into the underground river that goes to who knows where. It would be a stupid and wacky death that would fit both with how weird this place is as well as give Neo enjoyment as she watches Jaune go down the waterslide to hell.
The knight sighs as he comes to the conclusion he's going to figure out a safe way to get his sword. Jaune's first idea is to crawl on his stomach to the sword and use the handle of Hush to hook the sword and pull it towards him. The idea behind this plan is similar to how he was taught to get across thin or cracking ice after falling through into a frozen lake or river during training in atlas. Jaune can't think of any better ideas and shrugs before laying down flat on his stomach and starting to shimmy his way towards his sword.
Jaune creeps across the top of the tunnel, and can't feel anything but sturdy ground beneath him but he's not going to let himself get tricked and keeps crawling slowly. Jaune reaches the sword and hooks Hush around it before slowly trying to pull on the sword. The sword doesn't give at all. Jaune isn't surprised, but wishes for once that he wasn't in a position to fall down into a possible death. Jaune stands up slowly, and puts Hush back onto his belt before he steps towards the blade and reaches out firmly grasping his sword. Jaune is about to pull the sword out of the ground before pausing.
'This feels oddly like one of the stories mom used to tell' Jaune muses to himself before he tightens his grip on Crocea Mors and pulls as hard as he can. The sword flies out of the ground and Jaune trips over himself not expecting it to be as easy as it was and the knight hits the ground with a hard thud. Jaune freezes in place, his eyes widening as he sits as still as possible wondering if the ground underneath him is going to give way and drop him into whatever lies beyond the tunnel. As Jaune waits nothing happens and Jaune makes the smart decision to get off of the small tunnel as quickly as possible.
After getting off of the tunnel Jaune examines Crocea Mors. First taking the sword out of the sheath and pouring the water from his bottle out onto the weapon before rubbing it on his shirt to dry it, and checking for any new visible damage to the sword itself or the sheath. Jaune quickly confirms that nothing seems to be immediately wrong and slides the sword back into its sheath and clips Crocea mors back to his belt. Jaune then checks his belt for Hush making sure he didn't drop it when he fell or while he was scrambling to get. Confirming that it's there too, Jaune makes his way back to the clearing…
Jaune sits down on his giant cotton ball at the edge of the lake, a yellow fruit in his hand, as he stares out across the lake basking in the two bright suns overhead.
"The lake looks a lot bigger than it did yesterday." Jaune voices the thought that has been stewing in his brain since he got back to the clearing a few hours before. "How would it have gotten bigger without me or any of the things I have gotten wet. It makes sense why the lake would grow seeing as I turned the thing, but I did set up near the edge of the lake and you would expect my things to get wet… Not that I'm complaining about my stuff being dry." Jaune stops his conversation with himself as he realizes that he's once again trying to make sense of a world that hasn't made sense since he got here a week ago.
"A week ago?"
Jaune sits straight up and counts the days on his fingers. "6 days… Not a whole week but I dont think I'm getting out of this place by tomorrow so it might as well be. Still if I'm going to be stuck in this place, I should probably try to leave this clearing, and try to find out if there's anyone who lives here that could help me."
As thoughts and plans of escape fill his tired mind, Jaune falls back onto his soft bed underneath him letting his mind take him places away from here. As Jaune's eyes start to close and the thoughts racing through his mind take their leave the knight looks up at the beautiful purple sky as one last thought goes through his mind. He's going to get out of here…
Day 7.
Jaune opens his eyes to another beautiful sunrise. The purple and orange sky lighting up the clearing and reflecting off of the lake. Jaune gets to his feet and immediately starts preparing for the day. He grabs his sword first and Hush second the sword clicking onto his belt and the parasol hooking onto one of his belt loops. Next Jaune climbs up the fruit tree and grabs four of the yellow fruit, two for breakfast and two for later, and drops them down. Deciding to do something different for what he hopes is his last day here Jaune climbs up the tree hoping to get a good view of the clearing and maybe see if he can spot anything that could help him on his escape. Jaune gets as high as he can on the tree and tries to find an angle where he can see out of the thick canopy. When Jaune finds a good spot to look from he tries to take a long look at all of the vast forest surrounding him and maybe look for any landmark he could hope to get to or any sign of people. Jaune instead finds nothing but the clearing from a bit higher up than he started and all of the trees that surrounded him originally.
Disappointed but not surprised Jaune climbs down and grabs his fruits off the ground, and finishes his preparation for the day. After filling up his water bottle fruit, and eating his breakfast Jaune gets on his way. Jaune's main idea is to follow the stream leading away from the lake and hopefully be able to follow it well enough after it goes underground he can find out if it comes back up and if it does he can follow it until it ends or until he finds any sign of civilization…
Jaune sits at the edge of the river by where it disappears into the tunnel and eats one of his Yuk fruit. Jaune couldn't decide on a better name so he just decided to call the fruit what he thought fit best and that was yuk because the fruit is gross and yuk fruit rolls off the tongue a bit better than any of the other colorful or descriptive words he could come up with. Jaune finishes the fruit and tosses the stem away, before getting back on his feet and continuing his trek through the woods…
Jaune feels like he's been walking for days yet the twin suns still hang high above him. The woods all around him are the only thing he's seen since he started trying to find any sign of people. He gave up on trying to follow the stream a while back the only way he would be able to follow it accurately would be going into the river, and Jaune has enough common sense to not do that even if he did ponder if he should at least try the "forbidden slip-n-slide". Jaune eventually hears the sound of running water and slowly follows the sound before seeing a break in the trees. Jaune stops as he sees the different light through the trees. And a different shade of light than the diluted rays of afternoon sunshine, instead the light is the soft gold glow of a sunset covering the area.
Jaune walks through the treeline and deflates as he realizes he's back in the clearing right by the stream that flows into the lake. He walked in a giant circle right back to the clearing. It's not the worst ending to his first attempt but Jaune can't help but feel heavily disappointed in how it turned out. Jaune walks over to his bed and starts to take off his armor. After shedding the armor Jaune takes Hush and lays it down softly on the grass next to him. Jaune sits down and starts to think about how he's going to try again the next day. After having no good ideas immediately Jaune gets up and walks over to one of the trees nearest to him.
Pulling Crocea mors from his belt Jaune starts to mark the tree with 7 lines one for each day he's been in this clearing. Jaune sighs in disappointment before putting his sword away and going back to his bed the sky above him turning from gold to purple to black and Jaune falls asleep, the confusing and colorful world replaced once again by the slightly duller, but much more familiar and welcomed world in his dreams…
Week 2
Neo wakes up to a bright morning sky above her head, the twin suns shining down. Her head is still fuzzy with the remnants of sleep. Her small cabin construct must have died during the night. Neo gets off her bed and sits on the edge of the giant ball of cotton. Neo had found a couple bushes covered in massive cotton balls near the edge of the forest on her third day searching for anything the forest could supply and decided that they would make a pretty good bed. Neo had set up her temporary home on the edge of the forest near a bridge leading towards another section of this place. She explored it a little bit but the near permanent darkness and lack of any life made her abandon it fairly quickly and instead stick to the original section she's in.
She spent most of her first week here just searching for food and trying to make a shelter. First Neo thought she should stay in the trees and make sure she stays away from any possible predators. It only took Neo one night of constantly trying not to fall out of the branches of the tree she rested in for her to decide that the ground is probably the best place for her to set up camp. She could climb and explore the trees during the day, and that's what she did for the next few days. She climbed the trees and made several discoveries including a tree with disgusting yellow fruit. Neo abandoned it immediately and decided to look for any other source of food.
Eventually she came across a small group of mice trying their hardest to pull something out of the ground. Neo sat silently looking from her spot in the trees and watched the small creatures pull out what looked like a piece of cheese connected to leaves of the plant. Neo's stomach growled as she looked at the piece of cheese, the noise scaring the mice away. Neo didn't feel bad about scaring the mice either seeing as they just left her food.
Neo hopped down from her spot and went down to where the small root was. The mice, having abandoned it, due to fear of the intruder. Neo picked up the small plant and gave it a cautious sniff before taking a nibble out of it. Neo's eyes widened as she realized it was in fact cheese. Neo spent the next several days searching for other roots to eat. Neo ended up finding several interesting roots, some of them inedible but most were and the edible ones tasted like different kinds of food. She usually washes them in a small stream she found nearby her spot just to be safe.
Neo does what she's been doing the past few days and gathers some roots and other plants she found that were edible. Neo then goes back to her small place at the edge of the treeline and starts practicing with her semblance. Neo wants to build up to the point where she can recreate complex weapons that are relatively usable, specifically Hush. Her biggest accomplishment with her constructs so far has been the tiny cabin she's been able to make for the past few nights
Neo decides that this week she's going to start working on one of the most important aspects. Moving pieces. Neo's first day goes slowly. As the hours pass by Neo makes little progress she's able to make two small gears that she can get to very slightly move but the two constructs are too fragile to work consistently, and mostly shatter whenever they are manipulated in any war.
Neo eventually gets her new Roman to help keep her motivated as she keeps on practicing with her semblance. She partially uses him to try and figure out the key to making moving parts, and even asks him how he works, but the Roman tells her he doesn't know and that he only knows as much as she does. So instead Neo studies Roman throughout the week trying to figure out what makes him move but can't seem to wrap her head around how he's able to move and that he's stronger than any of her other constructs. Neo spends the week making slow improvements with the occasional success followed by dozens of failed attempts where Neo can't seem to recapture what made the few outliers successful.
Neo has little success with the moving pieces but she did discover that she can move a singular construct and tested it out on throwing knives that she pumped extra aura into to make stronger. She doesn't know how that works but her attempts at making things with moving pieces doesn't work the same way no matter how much aura she pumps into them, it just won't work. It also doesn't help that she cant make larger weapons strong either just the stupid little knives she's made. This irritates Neo seeing as she can make a relatively stable cabin. She can't be too angry though seeing as she's at least still making some progress.
Eventually the week is up and Neo once again lies in her makeshift bed, her mind wandering to places she wished it wouldn't go. Her family, and the death of Roman, the time she wasted trailing after Cinder thinking that she would be allowed to have her revenge against Red. But one person invades her mind a bit more than the rest. That person is the one stuck down here with her. The one whose fault it is she's stuck here without a chance to finally have her revenge for who knows how long. Neo hates the knight. He ruined her best chance of finally finishing Ruby and maybe even seeing anyone ever again.
Week 3
Jaunes previous week had been full of failures and the knight is starting to lose it a bit. He tried going upstream, downstream, random directions out of the clearing, and climbed up the highest tree he could find just for him to still see nothing but taller trees surrounding him. Jaune doesn't have much hope for this week either, but he has to keep trying. If he doesn't he might give up forever and just let himself rot in this clearing. So he keeps on pushing. Attempt after attempt at escape all ending in failure.
Some attempts last less than an hour and some nearly a whole day. The longest attempt for the knight was a day and a half where he fell asleep after dragging himself through the forest off a few hours of sleep and ended up passing out on the forest floor halfway through the escape and ended up waking up right outside of the clearing. After that one Jaune punched a tree until his aura ran dry and his hands bled. Each day is just as successful as the last and it's starting to wear down on Jaune much more quickly than he thought it would.
The sunrises and sunsets have gone from a beautiful and calming thing to an irritating reminder of just how repetitive each day in this clearing is. Suns come up, Jaune leaves, suns go down and he's right back where he started. The past two weeks have been spent fruitlessly chasing freedom, as he runs around in circles straight back into his cage. Jaune's hope is fading every single time he walks back into the clearing. All of his different plans to figure out an escape route either by climbing or marking trees have ended up as complete failures where even if Jaune knows he marked a tree he couldn't be certain because the marks always disappeared soon after, the only tree that still holds the cuts Jaune has carved into it is the one counting the days he's been here.
Jaune spends the final day of the week sitting next to the lake and throwing rocks. He's given up on escaping today and he realizes it may have been a bad idea because now he has nothing to focus on except his own failures. Jaune ends his 21st day down in the Ever After exactly how he started. Flat on his ass.
Week 4
Neo gave up… Not on testing her semblance but trying to figure out how a facsimile of a person could move and be strong or she could make exploding knives, while a simple piece of basic machinery would break as soon as she stopped focusing or tried to work on another piece, the piece she completed would still shatter at the smallest touch.
The small assassin spends the beginning of her fourth week here bored and doing nothing productive with her semblance, instead she's spending her time exploring the surrounding forest, and occasionally crossing the bridge into the section closest to her, to see if there was any sign of people. So far she had spotted nothing and the closest thing she'd come to finding anyone were the little mice. She was able to spend time with the new Roman and talk to him though even if it did get a bit repetitive at times.
While complaining to Roman about the lack of clothes Neo has a great idea. She should start trying to make softer and more squishy things. Maybe her semblance would be able to do that. Neo finds out quickly that her semblance may be even worse for trying to make anything soft or made of fabric. Neo doesn't want to give up on this endeavor and spends whole days and even into the nights working on her semblance.
She ends up succeeding with a few of the attempts and is able to make a few flexible and even a couple squishy constructs, but her success is still near nothing and far between for her to be happy with herself. She can't say she's too mad though because she's made a lot more progress on this a lot quicker than her attempts on making small pieces that work together in a machine or weapon. On one attempt Neo was even able to make a small and puffy pillow with her semblance but when the pillow eventually shattered and disappeared she couldn't figure out how to make another one like she did before.
Neo still has her multitude of problems with her less rigid constructs that she's been able to make. Along with the inconsistency of being able to make anything like small pillows or pieces of 'fabric'. The constructs still don't feel soft and usually just feel like plastic or leather.
Neo notes in her head that once she's able to make these new types of constructs more consistently, she needs to start figuring out how to make them have different textures and actually be soft. Once she is able to do that then she'll start again on her original goals of making constructs with moveable pieces that aren't extremely fragile.
For now though it's time to end this week on a good night's rest because at the end of next week, she's finding Jaune and taking Hush back.
Week 5
Jaune's starting to lose it. He's been stuck in the clearing for over a month and no matter what he does he can not find a way to escape. He's been trying his hardest to keep looking for new ways out but everytime he only finds a new way back to where he started. Jaune would give anything to go back to the original clearing if it meant that he would be anywhere else. It doesn't help that rain clouds have started following him on his walks whenever his thoughts get too clouded by his memories. He really wished this place would act normal and stop ruining every waking moment he's had.
But, the worst part isn't the countless failed escapes, it's the nightmares. Jaune can't take the nightmares anymore though. They plague him every night now, he hasn't had a good dream or a dreamless night in weeks and it's starting to take its own toll on him. He hated sleeping and tried his hardest to stay awake but no matter how hard he'd try to keep his eyes open they'd always close for just a blink too long, and he'd fall right back to sleep.
In the middle of the week Jaune gives up. Jaune is starting to have a hard time remembering what day of the week it is now. He's still able to count the number of days by the markings on the tree, but the days of the week have become pretty much meaningless to his brain. He spent most of his fifth week sleeping or looking down at the lake and watching the lake projecting him and his friends. Jaune thought they were hallucinations at first but the more he sees the less he believes that he's just seeing things. Jaune's seen weirder and dealt with weirder things in the lake, than reflections of his friends and family but nothing has made him feel as depressed as knowing that they aren't actually there and that he may not ever see them again.
Maybe he should just end it all right here and now.
"Whoa where did that come from?" Jaune wonders his eyes going back to the lake. In the lake's reflection he sees team RWBY and NPR minus him all having fun. His reflection just stands there across from him. The only time it moves is when Jaune does. Jaune tries his best to ignore his own haggard looking reflection in the water and instead tries to focus on his friends being happy.
It hurts Jaune's heart that he can't be happy with his friends or even get out of this clearing. A realization hits Jaune in the face as he stares down at the reflection. He doesn't want to try anymore. He doesn't want to keep going. He doesn't want to live his life in this clearing with no escape either though. The best option might just be to end it all right now. As the emotions pass through Jaune his eyes start to well up with tears. The tears slowly fall down causing the reflections of his friends to disappear and leave him alone with himself.
'Maybe I should've never tried to become a huntsman. Then I wouldn't be stuck in this situation.'
'But then someone else would probably be stuck here instead and I couldn't let that happen.'
Jaune looks down at the sword on his hip. 'But maybe? Maybe it would be for the best…' Jaune's hand slowly starts to reach for the sword before the faces of his friends and family flash through his mind.
'They would understand right?'
'They'd have the same wouldn't want to be here alone. What would they want from me? I know I wouldn't want them to give up, and I know damn well none of them would let me give up either'
Jaune's hand tightens around his sword and he keeps thinking about what his friends would do or how he'd feel if they were going through what he was going through. 'They would want me to get out of here no matter what. Just like I would want them to try their hardest to keep going.'
Jaune lets go of the sword on his hip and his knuckles. His vigor now temporarily restored. He's just got to give himself a break for a few days and then he can get back to it. The nightmares wouldn't stop but he had to remember that they were just dreams and his imagination acting up.
Day 36
After two days of rest Jaune gets up for his first actual attempt at escape in a week and a half. Part of his plan is to start pacing himself and only try maximum twice a day on escaping and if it fails then it fails and he'll try again the next day. Jaune gets up and has another failed escape attempt that lasts less than an hour but doesn't let this one bother him as much and lets himself rest afterwards. He tries one more time before being spit back into the clearing. Jaune doesnt let it get to him and instead decides to pick back up on training, since he stopped working on himself after a while. Jaune doesn't know what's out there and he needs to keep on living to make sure he can get out of here and see his friends again. As Jaune trains he feels a chill run down his spine like something is watching him. He knows what it is but he doesn't want to look and keeps training as usual until the fear goes away and his legs feel like they can move again.
After the long day Jaune strips off his clothes and quickly 'washes' them with a quick hand scrub and wringing out before laying them out in the grass to dry. Jaune then hops into the lake himself to wash off the sweat and dirt. The nice temperature of the lake is comforting and soothes all of his aches and pains nearly immediately. The feeling of fatigue goes with the soreness, but his natural tiredness from the day stays. Jaune wonders if he can fall asleep in the lake but last time he spent too much time in it he didn't have that much fun. After his relaxing bath, Jaune swims back to the shore, and gets out and dries off using his shirt before curling up on his large cotton bed, and letting sleep take him.
Day 37
Jaune wakes up to the sound of voices and slowly gets up from his bed and sees two people across the lake. Jaune gets scared and slightly paranoid and instead of calling to them like he wants to he instead slinks into the grass and puts his clothes on and grabs Crocea Mors before the young Arc slowly follows and watches them while crouching and slowly crawling through the tall grass. Jaune follows them for hours to the faucet where he sees them closer and learns that they're not people at all. Well they're probably people just not any like he's ever seen on Remnant. These two are green and covered in vines and plants, their arms are wrapped up vines that form the shape and serve the purpose of arms the vines end at their hands and squirm around in a way that slightly disturbs Jaune.
Soon they arrive at the faucet and Jaune hides behind a tree watching them as they bicker over how to fix the broken spigot. Jaune doesn't even really listen to the specifics of what the two people are saying as they argue; he just closes his eyes and listens to the sound of voices that aren't his own for once. While Jaune is lost in thought the voices fade and Jaune's eyes snap open in panic as he thinks they left. Instead Jaune is face to face with both of them and trips over his own feet falling on his butt and looking up at the two plant people above him.
After getting a better look at their faces Jaune can't help but be both amazed and horrified the small vines making up their face swirl around constantly as they look at don't have eyes instead it's just two voids where their eyes should be. Jaune isn't too freaked out about lack of eyes, he is a bit creeped out about the fact that they are smiling at him with several rows of sharp thorns for teeth.
"Can we help you?" the one on the right asks.
Both of the plant people look fairly similar but Jaune can tell a few differences like the one on the left is at least a few inches taller than the other and the one on the right is made of slightly darker vines. There's probably other small differences but he feels like he's been staring long enough.
"O-oh, Yeah. Where am I?"
"You're in the Jungle Acre. Specifically a part we like to call Circles. We are from the Green Acre" The one on the left answers. The right one speaks up next. "Judging by your looks I'm guessing you know why it's called Circles." A thorny grin appeared on its face.
"Yeah. It's been a while. how do you know how I look though? It doesn't really look like ehhhh…"
"...We have eyes?" The left one finishes for Jaune. "It wasn't really explained why we don't have eyes. That's just how it works for us. We can still see without them and we can also feel you through the ground."
Jaune feels slightly uncomfortable after finding that out but pushes on with his next question. "How did you guys get here?"
"We walked." The one on the right responds matter of factly.
"How do I get out of here?"
"Follow the trail of flowers past the metal tree." The one on the right responds again
"What path of flowers from the metal tree?"
"Ahhh I see where you messed up now. It's a fairly common mistake especially when you're trapped in Circles for the first time." the taller vine person answers
"What do you mean by a common mistake? Am I not the first person who got stuck here?"
"Nope it happens at least once or twice a year unfortunately. You got lucky though." The taller one informs the knight.
"How did I get lucky? I was trapped here for more than a month."
"Most other creatures who get trapped in Circles don't make it out alive, and you're the first creature we've heard of being here for that long." the slightly darker vine person answers Jaune's question starting to sound slightly annoyed.
"Why did you guys come anyways?"
Broken spigot was overwatering our town and the people started getting sick." Jaune flinches at the taller one's words.
"My bad." Jaune half mumbles
"It's alright it wasn't the worst and wasn't an immediate issue, seeing as you were here for a month after the incident happened. We also had to wait for the new parts to show up before we could come anyways." The taller one answers dismissively.
"So what am I supposed to do now?"
"You could come with us. A new house did just sprout up just outside of the town and nobody really wants to live even a little far away from the main water source." The lighter one answers again.
"That sounds nice. What are your guys' names?"
The lighter and taller of the two responds first once again. "I'm Kelly and the smaller one is Hunter"
"I'm Jaune. Nice to meet you two." Jaune gets to his feet and puts out a hand for shaking. Both Hunter and Kelly's face twist into a look of confusion, and Jaune clarifies." It's a symbol of greeting where I'm from. It's called a handshake"
"Interesting… I think I'll try it." Hunter says before reaching out their right arm and engulfing Jaune's whole hand with its own. Jaune then shakes lightly before softly trying to pull his hand out of Hunter's. "Hey man. Can I have my hand back?"
"I'm sorry Jaune. The experience was new to me and I didn't realize it was finished." The shorter of the two mumbles slightly embarrassed.
"It's alright now how about you Kelly?" Jaune points his hand and the other plant person similarly engulfs his hand with their own. After a solid three shakes the vine's slide off of Jaune's hand. "Nice job Kelly."
"See Hunter, that's how you give a proper handshake." Kelly mocks their companion, eliciting a snort from Hunter.
"The only reason you knew how to give a good handshake is because I showed you what not to do." The two vine people start to argue and Jaune already knows how things like this go and intervenes by telling them they both did a fine job and that it's more important to get along. Kelly and Hunter reluctantly agree with the knight and the three finally get on their way back to the clearing and this time Jaune is happy to be going back…
"How do we get out again?" Jaune asks his two companions as they enter the clearing. Knowing they didn't tell him completely before.
Hunter looks over at Jaune. "There's a flower path near the metal tree and it's the only exit that can be trusted 100 percent of the time."
"Good to know, how do I find this flower path?"
"You just have to look for the flowers and they will appear." Kelly tells Jaune quietly.
"Noted. Can I get my stuff real quick before we go? I have a few valuable things I need to bring with me."
The two nod their heads and Jaune hurries to where he had been camping for the last month and once he gets there he picks up Hush, a bottle fruit and a couple other miscellaneous items. After Jaune's finished he jogs over to the two and they get back on their way. Finally Jaune can leave the clearing behind…
The trio walk in mostly in silence for the rest of the walk through the forest with the occasional questions asked by either party. The walk is comfortable and for once Jaune doesn't feel like he's wasting away or holding onto false hope. Hunter and Kelly both seem to know where they're going and Jaune just falls a couple steps behind and thinks to himself about how lucky he is. After around 5 hours the trio make it to the bridge connecting the Jungle Acre to the Green Acre.
The bridge leading to the green acre is an old and worn down rope bridge and even missing a good portion of the bottom of it. Jaune's worry starts to show as he wonders how he's supposed to get across it. Kelly and Hunter tell Jaune that they can help him across the bridge; they just need to use their vines and he just needs to trust them completely to get him over safely. Jaune is still wary but hypes himself up in his head and tells the two that he's ready slowly the three walk across the bridge with Jaune being careful to watch his step.
Jaune can't help but look around a little bit and spots a river flowing from the side of the Jungle Acre to the Green Acre side. Jaune is very thankful he didn't trust his intrusive thoughts and test it out because even though the water might be floating Jaune wouldn't bet on it applying to him. Soon the terrifying bridge experience is over and Jaune can't help but fall to his knees and be happy that he's finally back on solid ground. Jaune doesn't even care about the two snickering behind him. Once Jaune is done worshipping the ground he stands back up and asks Kelly and Hunter where his house is.
"We have to take you into the town first to see if you can stay here." Hunter answers
Jaune looks at the two in confusion before shrugging. They already helped him out of the clearing, if he couldn't live here that's fine with him they already did more than enough. "Alright, as long as I don't have to fight anyone I think I'll be fine." The knight half jokes
"Unless you do something stupid there shouldn't be any fighting" Kelly states with a dry tone
"I'll try my best." The knight smiles…
Author's note:
4 months is a long time… I actually had this done about 2 months ago but things just kept coming up and I kept on procrastinating. The chapter is a bit longer but its also a bit full of nothing unfortunately. I think I should've split it up at the beginning and just skimmed through Jaune's month in the clearing a bit more. I had too many ideas and am not a good enough writer to execute them both well and concisely.
I'm going to go back to shorter chapters after this one since I hated how long it took me. I thought I was going to be better and more focused on the things I wanted and needed to do after surgery but instead I just tossed a lot more on my plate. Hopefully though I can get chapters out quicker now that I have this one finished. I had a lot of ideas for this chapter that ended up getting scrapped or saved for later because a 20k word chapter wouldn't have come out for even longer. Which ended up making this chapter almost feel like 14 thousand words of filler with very minor world building tossed in.
During Jaune's testing of the spigot I did imagine Jaune as almost like a caveman during his because I thought it would be funny.
Jaune will probably not be getting a new weapon. Naming it a yuk fruit is lazy but there's nothing better to describe it.
I also thought it would've been funny to make Jaune allergic to cotton but I scrapped that immediately because I felt like that would just be torturing him too much. The bottle fruit felt like something that belongs in this world. I am thinking about adding another type of fun fruit later on that won't have much impact on the story outside of some really minor world building. Not all of the plants will/are for basic world building though I do actually plan for a few including ones yet to be introduced to be important.
The first dream scene made me realize writing the same character three times at the same time is really difficult and I really suck at it, but hopefully I can get better at it. I also did a very rough sketch of a chibi Neo laughing as a chibi Jaune fell into the tunnel, because I once again thought it would be kind of funny.
Anyways feel free to review as always. Like or dislike the story and tell me what you thought both good and bad. I know this was a very long chapter and I apologize. I hope you all have wonderful mornings afternoons evenings nights or whatever time it is for you and as always I thank you for reading Rusted Souls and Shattered Hearts. 3