Jaune sat around the makeshift table, which was really just a very large barrel, in the night air with the Nyra's Ark's crew. A lone lantern lights up the half eaten plates and scattered cards.
"Read them and weep, boys! King over spades!" Jor cried out successfully as the top row of cards was flipped.
Jaune groaned at his loss, handing over the measly seven lien from his pot over. "Why can't we play poker instead?" the blonde complained.
Ryu laughed. "And not take the opportunity to teach you Rak'shanar?"
Jaune racked his brain for a moment. "Lord of the castle? That's what this game is called?" Jaune looked at the stack of cards. The game was simple enough, Jaune supposed. A face up card was given to each player, and then face down cards were given on top of it, and a hand of three cards. There were some interactions between the various cards as you could play to change the value of your hidden card.
For example: Fives let you change out your hand for a new one. The five card is then put in your discard pile. Cards you play of the same suit as your shown card added one to the value, upgrading the card. If you upgraded it past king, it became an ace again, the worst card to have as your hidden card. Your card was worth one more without upgrading if the hidden and flipped card was equal.
The goal was to have the highest value hidden card. It was an interesting game that Jaune had yet to fully get a firm grasp of. Jaune threw in one of his last lien as the cards were dealt. A four of spades was his shown card. The bent and dinged up playing card slid loosely over it, becoming his hidden card. Then his hand proper was dealt
Seven of spades, queen of clubs, ace of hearts.
Jaune looked up from his hand. "Well, Jor, you won, so you go first." Jaune nodded, the soft firelight flicking shadows across the old man's face. He smiled, his laughter lines somehow becoming more pronounced in the firelight, and threw in two cards. "Alrighty, I'll raise."
Everyone begrudgingly threw in to match. Jaune looked back at his small stach. 'Arrg, I only have seven more lien.' he thought, mentally biting his finger in fear that he might be the first to go out.
"And I'll play a three of spades." Jor said, slapping the card down. 'The three card, what did the three card do again?' jaune thought. 'Right. The three card put three hidden cards onto the table. The winner of this round, should the game continue with them, gets to pick any amount of those three cards to be part of their hand.'
Samuel nodded. "Alright Mr. Jor, I'll raise one." the seaman grinned. The pot grew with white lien cards. "And I'll play an eight." the eight of spades was placed next to the face up three of diamonds Samuel had.
A unique card, in that unlike everything else, it did nothing.
Jaune wondered what he should do. He was limited in his money, it was unlikely that he would be able to play too much longer. His best bet was to win a round and leave. "Jaune? It's your turn, buddy." Ryu prompted, forcing jaune to act.
"Wha-sorry, I was thinking." Jaune smiled. Two white cards entered the pot. "I'll bet two." jaune said, his fingers gripping the Queen card. "And I'll play the queen."
Ryu groaned. The queen, the only card to affect the amount in the pot. It forced the next player to add one more to the pot, unless they had a card that they could reveal in the same suit. "Damn you Jaune, damn you!" Ryu groaned as he tossed a white in. "I'll gamble a whopping four lien!" he proclaimed proudly. Jaune groaned, putting all but one of his lien in.
"And then I will play the Ace of Spades!" Ryu said as he swiftly picked up his hidden card. The ace card was the worst card to have in the hidden card slot, but immeasurably powerful as it was the only card that let you look at any hidden card. As any tactiction will tell you, information is worth its weight in silver and gold. Jaune watched Ryu's face carefully, looking for any signs as to the level of his hidden card. A brief tug of his lips upwards and a slight widening of his eye told Jaune enough. It was a high ranking card, overall. Probably nine or higher.
"Sorry about this, Jaune, but the games a game." Jor said as he placed two more lien in the pot. Jaune gave him a forgiving smile. "Eh, I know. Bound to happen sooner or later." Jaune said as he placed his last lien in the pot. Now he either had to win, or he had lost. Jor played a five of hearts, gladly drawing an additional card into his hand. The more options you have, the better. Samuel smiled a smile of a man who had a plan with the utmost confidence. "First, I'll raise by three." There was a lot of disgruntlement as Ryu was pushed down into single digits for the first time this game. "Then I'll play a king." he said triumphantly. A king lets you take any card from an opponent's discard pile and put it into your own discard pile. If you were lucky, it was a powerful tool to upgrade your hidden card. He took the Ace of Spades from Ryu's pile. "Why man? Why you gotta do me like that?"
Samuel merely stuck his tongue out at his friend. Jaune looked between the two. "I raise zero, because I have nothing left, mostly." he joked, grabbing his ace of hearts. He put it down silently, looking at his hidden card. A ten of clubs. A very good card to have, as it was difficult to over upgrade. He forced his face into a slight grimace, putting it back down. Ryu smirked as he put a whopping five into the pot. Ten more lien of various cards were tossed in. "A nine my good friends!" Ryu said, putting the top two cards from the deck into his discard pile. A four of hearts and a seven of diamonds. Jor grumbled, putting down his own three lien. He then silently played a jack, taking Jaune's four of spades to replace his own eight of diamonds shown. Jaune raised an eyebrow at the decision, but figured it didn't matter that much. The shown card acted only to upgrade the hidden card after all.
Samuel raised the pot by two, and played another eight. Jaune gulped, now, this was the move. Everything depended on Ryu having a card that let him change out his hidden card. 'So, A ten, A six, or a two.' Jaune thought. After pondering it for a moment, he decided. 'I like those odds.'
"Well boys, it's been fun." Jaune smiled, as he played his last card. "But Ryu, I'll be taking that hidden card, mate." he proclaimed triumphantly, reaching over to snag the face down card.
"NOOOO!" Ryu cried out, dramatically falling back. "Jaune, how could you! First Samuel, now you! Who next, my own father?" He acted. Jor smacked him on the leg.
"Oh, quit being such a drama hog, boy." he said sternly, but was grinning from ear to ear anyway.
Jaune tossed Ryu his old card. "Welp, that's the last of what I can do. Your turn Ryu."
Ryu grumbled, bemoaning the loss of his high ranked hidden card. "I'll raise by one." Ryu said, and the pot grew even heftier. "And I'll play a two."
Jaune mentally fistpumped as Ryu shuffed the ten of clubs into the deck and drew a new card. His obvious disgruntlement was clear evidence enough that it was not as good as his last card, or even had a decent chance of winning. Jor looked around at everyone's empty hands.
"Well, looks like that's the end of it. Everyone, reveal your vault!"
'Ahh, that's what the hidden card was called.' Jaune thought as he tipped his card over. He looked from Ryu's sad hopeless face to Jor's calm and even poker mask to Samuel hopeful vistage as the cards flipped. A jack of spades. Jaune whooped at his incredible luck this round. The closest thing with upgrades was a grand total of eight, Samuels six having been upgraded twice. Jaune scooped the pile of lien into his side of the table. "Well, gentlemen. It has been a pleasure playing with you all, but I'm going to take my ill gotten gains and get some shut eye." the knight smiled. Ryu grumbled. "Yeah yeah, you take you and your dirty stolen money, jaune." he waved off the blonde. Jaune laughed, pulling out five of the cards.
"I know you have more, but this win wouldn't have been possible without you." he said, tossing the five cards in front of the tiger faunus. "So here. Some fuel for the next game." Jaune left the table, heading to his cabin area. The lien cards were quickly counted up with whatever he had left in addition to what he kept out of the game. A whopping total of 73 lien! That was, like, seven whole Bonga Burgers right there! And at least triple what he left Beacon with!
"Maybe my luck is finally turning around!" Jaune smiled as he put his money away and flopped down onto his prison style bed. He fell asleep soon after his head hit the pillow
Two days went a lot faster than Jaune or anyone else would have liked. Jaune looked to the fast approaching city of Moralle. It seemed to be made mostly of wood, stilted houses with bits of lichen and barnacles growing off them. It looked like something straight out of Dustborne or something.
"You sure this town's name is Moral?" Jaune asked, looking at the Lovecraft-like town.
Jor shrugged. "Yup. and don't worry, it's not as bad as it looks. The folks there are actually quite nice!" Ryu supplemented. Jaune looked skeptical, but gave a small shrug. 'Eh, what's the worst that can happen?'
'You could get hurt' came Pyrrha's voice. 'They might not be as nice as Ryu says they are'
'It would be best to move as quickly as possible to your goal. Anything else is wasting time.' a mental Ren said
'But like, what if they were secretly evil fish grimm or something? Like, half fish, half man, all fishy! Wouldn't that be so cool?!' Nora's voice chimed in with her usual exuberance. Jaune laughed at the idea. Leave it to Nora to brighten his mood.
"Alright. Captain, how long till we dock?" jaune asked. Jor snorted
"What, you want to be rid of us already?": Jor laughed, causing Jaune to backpedal immediately.
"What-No! You guys have been great, really. Wonderful company, I'm going to miss you guys seriously. Like, really miss you guys." Jaune rambled off rapidly. Samuel laughed at the blustering blonde.
"Don't worry about it. We know man. It's been a great week man." Samuel said. "I'm, We're really going to miss you."
Jaune smiled brightly at that. "Thank you man, I'll really miss you too." He said with a signature head tilt.
Ryu blinked at him before turning to Samuel. "You were right, he is a golden retriever in human form." He whispered conspiratorially to his crewmate.
Jaune turned to the rapidly approaching docks. 'And to think, just beyond those docks is the road to achieving my dream. Quite literally.'
Jaune stumbled as the boat bumped into the dock. He used the momentum to take himself onto the docks with a duck-like step. "Woah, ok then." Jaune said as the Crew started to tie down the ship. Jaune turned to help his fellow crewmates unload their cargo. The four of them worked well together, rapidly stacking the barrels of non-perishable food, mostly wheat and grains that were grown in Vale.
A balding, thin man walked up the Nyra's Ark.
"Ah, Captain Jor. I assume you've come to dock once more?" his reedy and oily voice slithered out. Jor gave the man a smile.
"Ahh, Squidsworth, how do you be? Haven't seen you then the last harvest." Jor smiled, shaking hands with the man.
"I am doing well. You will, as usual, have to register at the Dock house and pay your dues." Squidsworth droned before giving Jaune a glance. "You gained a crewmate? I was unaware that Nyra required four men to handle."
Jor shook his head. "Nay. The boy's a passenger. A huntsman, headed to Haven." Squidsworth gave a bare wince.
"Lord above knows that we need more of his kind in Minstral. With most of them being old men now…" Squidsworth started before shaking his head.
Jaune walked up to the two, holding a dozen large sacks of grain over his shoulder. "These are designated as dry only. Where do you want them?"
Squidward looked up at the boy. He was a lot taller up close, his thin frame not betraying his apparently ridiculous strength.
"You can put them over by the dry land there." the dock tender said, pointing to the cemented grounds. Squidsworth watched the blonde boy deposit the dozen or so 50 pound bags to the designated spot as though he just carried two of them.
Jor just shrugged. "If the boy sticks around, you'll get used to it." he said as the boys unloaded the rest. Rustling through his pockets, he pulled out a stack of Lien. Flipping through it, he handed it over.
"Here you are, 50 lien for the docking."
Squidsworth took it with a nod. "Good. I'll trust that you'll not overstay your welcome again?" he said, with an edge to his voice. Jor rolled his eyes. "Jah, Jah, I know. I'll be gone in three days. Oi, jaune!"
The blonde turned to his captain. "Jah, Jor?"
"You're good now right? Now where you be heading?"
Jaune nodded, looking wistfully over at the forest beyond the village. "Once I find a map, or get CCT access, I'll get going." jaune said.
Squidsworth raised an eyebrow. "You're not going to stay and rest? It's a long way from Vale to Moralle."
Jaune made a gesture, thinking it over. "I might. I'll see how I feel in an hour or so." he said.
Jaune left the dock area soon after that, which led him directly to the "Downtown." The major piers of the docks became roads as the lining shifted from boats to buildings and shops. Jaune stopped an old man along the way. The man's large cow ears twitched at his approach
"Pardon me sir, but do you know where I can find the CCT connection?" the knight asked with a kind smile. The faunus gave him a strange look for a moment, as though he was surprised by the question, before it was changed for a smile.
"I do, good huntsman. Go to the Town hall and just ask Barbra to give you a connection." The old man said, giving Jaune a wave in the direction of the town hall. Jaune gave him his thanks and went off in that direction.
The Town Hall was best described as a viking esq long house. It was two stories high and had a tiled roof, it's walls stacks of logs standing straight. A metal dish was sticking out of the roof at an odd angle. Jaune climbed onto the wood porch, pushing the door open.
There was a desk that took up the immediate view from the entrance way. A plump woman sat there in an office chair.
"Hello there, sir! Welcome to Moralle! How can I help you today?" She said cheerfully.
"Ah, yes, hello, I would like to get a CCT connection." Jaune requested. The woman smiled and pointed to the back. "The only room with anything significantly metal, you can't miss it."
Jaune gave her a nod and went to the back room, where he saw the single lone CCT terminal rested.
He hopped in, opening up Goggles web search engine. He quickly loaded up a map, and started to replan his route. He noticed that he was making a kind of C pathing from Moralle to Haven academy. A very long way around, if you took the well established roads to Haven. Jaune studied the area in between Moralle and Haven. The immediate land was a simple grassy plains that quickly was replaced by a mountain range. So the direct route was impassible. Beyond the mountains was a dense forest labeled Alta Quercus. Jaune poured over the map, thinking about how to best get to Haven. He really didn't want to go the whole way around. The sooner he got to Haven, the sooner he could get back to training and getting some help.
Jaune traced the map with a finger, accidentally scrolling through the world down all the way to menagerie.
"Fuck!" jaune cursed as he scrambled back to get to Moralle.
Quickly finding and printing out the map, Jaune turned to the frankly ancient printer. It was an ugly, box-like thing with a dingy creme plastic outside. It clunked and grinded and made this horrible hiring screeching sound as the grainy grayscale map scuttled out in a jerky manner. Jaune picked up the warm paper, waving it in the air. Giving it a quick glance over, Jaune deemed it satisfactory, folding it up and putting it in his hoodie pocket. Jaune exited.
"Thank you so much." Jaune said, giving the desk lady a polite nod. He didn't catch her blush, and equally politely said goodbye.
Jaune walked out the door, only to knock directly into someone. The poor pedestrian tumbled to the ground. Jaune immediately bent down to help them.
"I am so sorry. Here, let me help you." jaune said, pulling them up. It was a small child that Jaune had knocked over. The child looked up at the knight, who looked like a kind of cheap imitation of . The armor was clearly white once upon a time, but whatever paint and polish it had was chipped away into a dingy steel grey with flecks of paint, a reminder of a kinder and more glorious era. The shield on his back had certainly seen better days.
Jaune looked concerned at the kid's nonverbal response. "Hey, kid, you ok?" jaune asked them. The kid simply looked at him.
"Are you a huntsman?" the child asked. Jaune blanked for a moment.
"Technically, yes." Jaune answered after a moment. The child's face lights up at that information.
"That's wonderful, Mr. Hunter! My daddy's been looking for you! Come on, come on!" the kid said, grabbing jaune's hand and starting to pull. Jaune stumbled at the new force on his body, and let himself be dragged away. The two went through the small town, going further and further away from the main hall until the child led Jaune to a rural farm outside of the village.
"Papa! Papa! I found us a huntsman!" The child yelled through
A deeper yell came back from inside the farmhouse. "Ada, don't tell me you brought Mr. Jenkins over again, or I swear to oum-" A burly man in a flannel shirt and jeans came down the hall.
"You're not Mr. Jenkins, are you?" He asked with a surprised face. Jaune smiled and shook his head.
"No sir, I am not. My name is Jaune ar- Jaune. I'm a huntsman. You uhh," Jaune looked down at the kid, who had run over to her father and clung to his legs. "Child? Dragged me over saying you were in need of a huntsman." Jaune said, fighting the urge to scratch the back of his head. The burly man visibly relaxed. "Thank God for that. We haven't had a hunter in these parts for years." He sighed. "It makes me glad you're here. I'm Jason, and my husband," Jason turned around, just to see if the aforementioned spouse was nearby. "Todd, is somewhere. Probably out in the town to get some fish. Anyway, if you would follow me to the kitchen, I'm sure I can explain our situation."
Jason led jaune and Ada down the hall, and Jaune took a moment to take in the quaint house. The walls were divided horizontally in half, the lower half being made up of the same hardwood that made up the floor. The second upper half was a warm bright yellow color. A couple of framed pictures, drawings, and a marriage certificate were hanging on the hallway wall. Jaune entered the teal egg blue kitchen, where Jason motioned for him to take a seat.
"So, Mr. Jason, what appears to be the problem?" Jaune asked as professionally as he could.
Jason sighed, rubbing his forehead. "We're goat farmers, Mr. Jaune. And for the last couple of months, several of our goats have disappeared. Large tracks have been found at the edges of our farm. There's been blood on several occasions." Jason explained
Jaune nodded. "Are there ever any remnants? Bones? Fur? And what do these tracks often look like?"
Jason's eyes went wide for a moment, trying to remember. "I don't remember there being any bones, no. And the tracks are large. Dinner plate sized at least, and they're strange. Nothing I've ever seen before." Jason made a large circle with his hands to indicate the size. Jaune racked his brain.
It can't be beowolves. They don't eat the bones. Neither do Ursa for that matter. Can't be Nevermore either. They don't leave tracks that often, being birds… What grimm is large enough to eat bones like that? Jaune thought.
"Could you show me where these tracks are?" jaune asked. Jason nodded.
"Yeah, of course. Right this way, mr. jaune." Jason stood, going towards the screen door.
"Jason." jaune said, causing jason to turn around, looking somewhat worried. "It's just jaune, and on a different topic, do you know how to use any weapons?" Jason nodded
"Todd says I have a mean batter swing." He supplemented. Jaune nodded.
"Good enough. Grab that."
Jason looked concerned as his eyes widened. "Am I going to be joining you on your hunt?" he asked, concerned. Jaune looked at him like he was insane.
"What-no! Absolutely not. I want you to grab it so if things go really south and we run into grimm, you can defend yourself. I want you to run at the first sign of danger, man." Jaune shook his head at the idea. Oh god, civilians in combat. I shudder at the thought. It would be an unmitigated disaster. Jaune cringed, imagining the scenario. Jaune was, of course, selectively oblivious to the fact he also counted as a civilian. The two passed the goat sty, a wooden fenced off area where there were clearly new blocks of fencing, and broken ones as well. As they paced through the farmland, mostly either a tall, oat like grass, or a simple grazing field.
They approached the edge of a forest, where Jason pointed down at the ground.
Jaune looked down, having to crouch to look at the sashaying line tracks.
"I've seen this before." Jaune said softly to himself, racking his brain for the type of grimm. Ren had fought it once. The giant two headed snake one. Jaune's head slumped.
"Snakes. Why is it always fucking snakes?" He asked the gods.
They didn't answer. Of course they didn't.
Jason raised an eyebrow. "Snakes?"
Jaune nodded. "These are snake tracks. So i'm betting it's some kind of snake like grimm. Good news, it's not particularly old, as these tracks aren't that big yet." jaune pointed.
Jason looked relieved. "Can you kill it?"
Jaune took a moment to think about that. "Probably. The hard part is going to be finding it." Jaune admitted. "I'm on a bit of a time crunch, so I can't stay and watch over the goats and just wait for it to come. If I don't find it, I suppose I could help you set up some traps that might work against it?" Jaune offered with an apologetic shrug. It wasn't his fault that he had a deadline to meet.
Jason looked like he was suckerpunched. "Ah, right. Well, I am glad that you're willing to try to take care of the problem then." Jason was forced out. Jaune wished he could have stayed too, at least for a little while. Jaune could tell that the town was just barely scraping by, more or less. The chances of this place getting a permanent huntsman was miniscule. And Minstral didn't have a formal government funded militia for Moralle to call on.
Why was Minstral such a political shit show? It was almost as bad as Atlas or Vaulco.
Ok, that wasn't fair. Vaulco was an entirely separate bag of bullshits. They practically didn't have a government.
Jaune gestures that Jason could leave, which he gladly did. The further away from some giant snake grimm, the better.
Jaune sighed, looking at the forest edge. It couldn't hurt to go in and look around, now could it?
Jaune stepped forward into the woods, one eye to the ground and the other eye to the trees.
The sun was setting by the time Jaune made any actual headway on the hunt. Jaune had found strange markings on the trees that made it look like someone took a sander to the trunks.
"Welp, those are grimm marks if I've ever seen one." Jaune said, much like a plummer who was looking at a broken sink.
Jaune had never seen a grimm mark before in his life.
Looking around cautiously, Jaune drew his sword and shield and swept the area. His nerves were getting to him as he saw no immediate danger. He stalked deeper into the forest, trying his best to be as quiet as possible in his heavy armor.
Jaune moved about forty feet further into the grimm territory before he encountered danger. It was in the form of a beowolf.
And where there is one beowolf, there is more. Jaune moved to dispatch it, drawing it's attention. It snarled at him, as it backed away.
Must be a scout then, or a straggler. Jaune thought as he moved forward. He would have to kill this one before it called it's friends. Jaune dashed forward as the beast began to howl. Jaune slammed his sword into its throat, but it was two late. It's call had sounded, and the pack was coming. Jaune watched the beast dissolve into dust, frankly incredibly proud of himself at the fact that he was able to kill a beowolf with his own hands. His victory didn't last long, however. He heard the rest of the packing coming through the forest with a rushing crashing sound. He saw the grimm come, and decided that his best bet was to get somewhere where the grimm can't get.
Grimm couldn't climb trees could they? Jaune really hoped they couldn't. Jaune skedaddled up one of the large oak trees, only moments before the pack leapt into the combat area.
Yeah, Jaune really hoped that they couldn't climb trees