Jaune moved with a speed that James didn't think was possible for a man in armor to achieve. It was practically a green grey blur that ran towards the bear like grimm. A silver flash and a clanging sound range out. Jaune stood in between the crashed refugees and the ursai, Glassvain in interception with a large paw. Jaune's arm shook as the bear pushed down, trying to force the knightly ranger to buckle. Jaune glanced around, seeing that the other two ursai were moving towards the frightened and cowering faunus.
That's not good. A commented. B gave him a look
You don't fucking say?
Jaune buckled, sliding underneath the ursa. Glassvain extended, tethering itself at the shoulder of the bear like grimm. Once Jaune was through the ursa's hind legs, Glassvain retracted.
The serrated rope suddenly retracted, grated and ripped at the chest of the Ursa. It howled in pain as Jaune shifted his attention to another Ursa. Glassvain lashed out, it's segmented whip biting against the back hide of the Ursa. it stopped to turn to the source of the sudden biting pain, growling angrily.
"Yeah, yeah." Jaune grumbled as the ursai lumbered toward him. "I don't like you guys either."
Glassvain whipped out, hoping to keep the beasts at bay. One of them swiped at the blonde ranger, hoping to catch the pesky thing in his massive clawed paw. Jaune dipped to the side to dodge the blow, only to be caught by another swipe. Jaune's grey yellow aura flashed as Jaune was knocked to the ground.
Jaune grunted, turning the impact into an ungraceful roll. He slid out under one of the ursa.
Well, at least they're focused on you and not the civilians. B said, looking on the bright side.
That's odd for you. Jaune noted. You're normally the pessimistic one.
Dodge. The ursa's charging. A flatly said.
"Thank you." Jaune said as he tensed and prepared to dodge. His legs tensed as his position lowered, ready to spring.
The ursa leapt forward, hoping to ensnare the blonde ranger and rip it apart with his jaws. Jaune twisted out of the way in a move not unlike a dancer's spin. Glassvain lashed out with the force of the spin cutting at the thick furry hide of the bear. Jaune stopped on a dime, just barely not running directly into Ursa numer two.
Or was this one number three? They all looked the same to him.
Is that racist of me? Jaune wondered as Jaune ducked a claw swipe
Their grimm, jaune. B said flatly. I don't think anyone cares.
Jaune hummed as he jolted and dashed between the two Ursa. Well, hummed isn't quite the correct term. He vibrated his vocal muscles?
No that sounds wrong and strange on many many levels.
He made a noise. Yeah, he made a noise as he ducked and bobbed and weaved between the two massive grimm. They roared and cried as Glassvain cut chunks out of them, their overly cumbersome clawed arms unable to touch the scampering ranger. Jaune was batted between the two, only taking glancing blows with his aura when necessary. Now, if only he could find a deadly hit on his enemies, he could end the fight.
"Back! Back!" He heard cried out from the grounded survivors. Jaune's eyes locked on to them.
The last ursa had given up on getting in on the ranger action, and had shifted its attention to the refugees. One of the brave souls had grabbed a spear, and was trying to ward the bear away.
Wait, is that one of ours? A asked as he looked at the iron forged rod. It was odd that any of the refugees would have one.
Who cares? Jaune thought as he started to panic. Civilians couldn't handle grimm. He knew that. Hell anyone with half a brain knew that.
Jaune looked up at the ursa he was fighting, temporary distracted by the spike of panic. With a terrible and forceful swiftness, Jaune rammed Glassvain in it's sword from through the head of the Ursa infront of him. It pierced the back spine, in the area just between the bottom of the jaw and back of head below the skull.
The grimm died instantly from the blow. But Jaune didn't care, he was already moving. He lept over the grimm's slumping corpse, rushing towards the spear wielding dog faunus.
The dog faunus poked at the bear, hoping to make some space. He was giving space step by step, his legs shaky. The ursa, on the other hand, was solidly placed and just watted the spear head away.
The spear head snapped from the pole. Jaune was half way when the ursa made a retaliatory swipe, the full weight of a single bear arm shattering through the shaft of the headless spear. A futile effort to block the deadly swipe.
Jaune was half way to where he needed to be when the claw made contact with the mans side. In a similar fashion to having your side blasted with buckshot, his torso exploded as his left half was ripped away from his body.
The scream would live on in many memories forever. It would most certainly live in Jaunes until he would fade from the world, like the plaster ash came from.
Jaune had the maul that he broke the Plague Doctor with in hand, reared back to strike by the time jaune was in front of the Ursa.
The maul swung with a force that would have made Nora proud, whistling through the air.
It made a harsh and terrible contact with the ursa's ribs, the cracking sound reverberating through the world, as though some awe creating shockwave had run through it.
And for a moment, the paradigm shifted with the blow. As though the entire world took a step to the left, all stumbled as for a brief, brief moment, Jaune saw grey. Like an over image that someone hadn't quite fully let saturate, the world was tinted grey with ash and dust.
The air spiked with the smell of blood and alcohol, for just an infinitesimally small moment.
for just an infinitesimally small moment, Jaune was dreaming.
And as soon as it happened, it was gone. Jaune snapped himself out of this strange discombobulation.
His hammer blow was followed up with striking the side of the ursa's heaving head with the butt of his maul. Dazed, gasping and struggling for breath with broken ribs, the bear was staggered. And Jaune used that moment to cave the monster's head in. The maul connected with a hefty overhead swing, slamming the ursa's head to meet suddenly with the ground.
Jaune turned to his fallen comrade, a man who's protection was entrusted to him, bleeding out on the ground. He didn't even bother to see the last ursa retreating, deciding that its life was not worth whatever it would fight that yellow thing for.
There was something wrong with that…. Thing. It was shaped like man, walked like man, and if you squinted fought like the hairless apes called man. But it was not man. That blow was not a blow of man.
Man did not wield such power. Not power like that. No thing, dead, alive, beyond or inbetween, wielded power like that.
The Ursa lumbered off into the woods. There would be less dangerous prey to feast on. There always was.
Jaune's knees hit the ground, groveling above the bleeding man. "No no no no no" jaune muttered as he tried to push the mans bleeding intestines back into his body cavity. "Why is it so slippery!" he yelled in frustration as the eel-like organs slipped through his hands. "Some hand me a bandage! A scarf, anything to stop the bleeding!" The ranger begged his fellows, preying that someone could save him.
One of the mothers handed Jaune her headscarf. Jaune started to desperately wrap the wound.
Jaune glanced at the dog faunus's chest.
It's not moving. He's not moving. B noted seriously. Jaune froze for a moment. Thats not good. He was supposed to be breathing.
He had to be breathing!
OK. Calm down Jaune. You were a lifeguard once. You know CPR. Jaune reminded himself as he started to pump the dog faunus' blood soaked chest.
"Ah, ah, ah, ah, staying alive, staying alive. Ah ah ah ah stayin alive." Jaune sang under his breath, trying to get his shaking hands to keep beat. They slipped onto the ground, the blood making his chest slick and hard to grasp properly.
"Jaune!" Someone was calling his name. It was odd, it sounded so far away. Jaune kept pumping, desperately trying to bring the man back.
"Jaune!" There was the voice again. Jaune was giving him mouth to mouth now, huffing air into the still lungs. "Jaune!" They had put a hand on his shoulder, pushing him away from the body.
He surged forward, desperately trying to pump life into the dog faunus once more.
""Myrth, Lordess above, looked down upon Acan, dripping in blood, and spilt her wine upon him, turning him to wine. And thus his strikes were washed away, left for the world to drink." He muttered the healing prayer from The Dream over and over, praying to whatever god was incharge that it was heard. That it worked some sort of miracle.
He was grabbed by the arms and forcefully pulled away, jolting him out of his desperate attempt.
"He's gone, Jaune." they said. Jaune couldn't remember who had pulled him away, or who's shoulder he had cried on. "He's dead."
Those were words Jaune, logically, knew he would hear in his profession as a huntsman. But he was not ready to hear them yet. Not so soon.
Not yet.
And those words could break a man who was not ready to hear them.
And those words broke the man who was not ready to hear them.
Jaune was silent as stone there for what felt like an eternity. "What was his name?" he finally croaked out.
One of the fanus blinked. "I think his name was Reed."
The rest of the trip was at best a blurr. Jaune vaguely remembered carrying Reed's body to Rogues Hill. he vaguely remembered dealing with some racist prick at the inn as he acquired room and board for the refugees. He vaguely remembering standing solemnly as his corpse, unshrouded by any coffin, was lowered into a grave outside of the town walls.
Jaune stayed up that night. He left in the morning, at the crack of dawn. He vaguely remembered saying goodbye to them as he left on a borrowed horse.
Jaune looked up at the reddening sky full of stars.
The sun is rising. A noted.
Indeed it was. This would be the third sunrise Jaune would bear witness to since he left the fanus at Rogues Hill. he hoped that they were fine and acclimating to Rogues Hill, or wherever they went from Rogues Hill, well.
You must sleep, jaune. B commanded. This isn't healthy.
Jaune didn't respond, instead locking his bagged and cracked eyes forward on the road.
Jaune, just stop and rest. Lord knows you need it.
Oh? Jaune responded with a distinct tiredness. And what did that Lord ever do for me?
B rolled his eyes and A signed. Just get some sleep, ok?
"I'll sleep the next time I find a god damned bed." Jaune muttered. He gave his horse a light kick, spurring it on further down the dusty road.
" I've been through the desert on a horse with no name
It felt good to be out of the rain
In the desert you can remember your name
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain
La, la, la lala la la la, la, la
La, la, la lala la la la, la, la" Jaune hummed, trying to distract himself to stay awake. "Dum du duaaa- how did that song go?"
You look in her eyes, the music begins to play~ A supplied with a light singsong voice.
"No, that's New Kid in Town. The Eagles, right?"
B shrugged. I don't know music. Might as well be the Archive Men for all I know.
Jaune looked down the road. "I wonder if it ends." he said to the wind.
They didn't answer.
"Rude." jaune responded to the wind with a yawn. "Oh, that's not good."
Jaune closed his eyes, and felt himself fall sideways. He was asleep before he hit the ground.
Jaune woke up in the middle of a farm town. "This is new." he said as he looked around.
Wait, no.
"I just left here. From the last time I was in the Dream."
Three days ago. B supplied harshly.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, mom." Jaune rolled his eyes.
Yeah, whatever you say, Mom! A snorted in a jeering manner.
B sighed, not quite understanding why he put up these idiots. Perhaps it was because he was kind of stuck in Jaune's head.
Jaune started to wander the abandoned farm town.
You are not welcome. That feeling came again, nagging at the back of his mind.
Jaune squinted at the edges of the town with a burning sarcasm. "Tell me something I don't know." He muttered in defiance. He trodded out towards the edge, coming to the edge of a low muddied field. On the opposite side a veritable wall of corn stalks, hay yellowed with dead age.
Jaune stared at it for a moment. "I'm going to die if I go in there, right?" he asked
A shrugged. Probably. This place is straight out of What Lies in the Fields.
I didn't know you've read HP Lovecleft? B said, surprised.
A shrugged. I've read what you've read. He responded. Jaune walked to the wall of corn, almost daring it to show him what dangers it held.
It stood there, almost motionless as it swayed in what little wind there was. With a sigh, Jaune walked through the threshold of stalks.
This place smelled like fertilizer. Decay. Rot. and just a slight undertone of the familiar stench of alcohol.
It was a very different smell than the dry, dusty liquor of the eternal city. A very different smell. And yet it still seemed the same. Unwelcome, Unnatural. Something wholly not from the plane jaune was from.
And yet it felt familiar. Jaune supposed it was natural that it would feel familiar to him. He couldn't even begin to comprehend how much time he had spent in this lifeless, god forsaken, drunken place.
It was as though the very earth itself had become inebriated by the extremely high BAC blood that had been spilled. Jaune wondered if this world was indeed drunk. It would explain a lot of things about this place.
Yeah, like it looks like an absolute dumpster fire of a fuck up. A commented, thinking back to the crumbling buildings and ruined roads of the Eternal city. Jaune agreed with the figment of a personality in his brain.
HEY! A refuted loudly, causing Jaune to wince. I resent that! I'm one whole brain cell!
Jaune shook his head as he started to wade through the stalks, cautious for anything that might be moving in the tall grass. Jaune's head turned on a swivel. Something about this place was unwelcoming.
Flee this place. That nagging feeling came again.
Well, besides that. The voice that was neither A or B was concerning. Perhaps a manifestation of his desire to not be trapped in this purgatorius drunken hellscape?
He supposed it would make sense, on some form of rudimentary psychoanalysis.
I wonder why there is no life here. B said as Jaune ran a hand over a corn stalk. It was dead, bending harshly under his fingers. We are truly alone in this world
If there is, they are like us. Jaune responded solemnly.
Oh? B questioned. What do you mean by that?
They're lonely too.
Jaune continued to walk.
And there was a sudden clank sound as Jaunes leg exploded in pain. Jaune looked down at his leg, where a whole bear trap had been triggered. On his leg. "Oh, fucking fuck!" jaune yelled as he gripped the jaws. "Mother of god that hurt!"
His eyes closed for a moment, and he could see a bloodied chest and a ripped stomach. He was shaken out when he heard an unholy screeching sound. With urgency, he ripped the jaw trap open, and quickly started to scamper back. There was the shifting of the stalks infront of him, just a couple meters away. The thing in the corn snarled and snuffed as it approached Jaune what appeared to be an alarming speed.
With a rather severe limp Jaune ran away, desperately backtracking to the town. He could feel his heartbeat rapidly. He could hear the thing behind him closing in.
Curse this damned injured leg Jaune thought as he limped away. The fact that he was leaving behind a fresh, very easily followable trail was not helpful either.
Jaune saw the corn stalks thinning, and dove for it. He rolled, cursing the fact that he forgot that his leg was currently missing a large chunk of his leg. "Ohh, fuck that hurt." he muttered under his breath as he cradled his leg.
You're still in danger. B reminded him. Jaune nodded and pushed himself just past the wall of corn stalks and into the town space. Jaune turned and drew out a spear, posed to strike.
The corn rustled as whatever was chasing him came to an abrupt stop, hiding itself in the corn.
Jaune's head tilted as he stared at the disfigurement in the field. "Why isn't it coming closer?" Jaune asked, extremely confused. There was literally nothing stopping it but a single layer of dead corn stalks.
Jaune moved just a tiny bit closer, his spear level to where Jaune thought it's head was, assuming it was slightly humanoid shaped. With a grunt, the spear shot forward. It made contact with whatever was hidden in the corn, eliciting a terrible squealing screech from the thing. It sounded like a dying cat, but spoken through a beak.
Jaune pulled the spear back as the thing retreated, looking at the clumpy black brown blood that oozed slowly off the metal head. Jaune tilted his head and stared at the strange "Blood" that dripped off the spear head.
Jaune kneeled to his knee, grasping his bleeding leg. "Myrth, Lordess above, looked down upon Acan, dripping in blood, and spilt her wine upon him, turning him to wine. And thus his strikes were washed away, left for the world to drink." He said, as he felt his leg sting as his blood turned to wine. The deep wound started to froth and scab over with a fizzing sound that seemed similar to the combination of vinegar and baking soda.
Well, that was weird. A said as he kept an eye on the corn field.
It was strange. And very dangerous. Jaune had no intention of daring the ire of the corn fields again, particularly because the place was apparently fucking boobytrapped.
Jaune needed a drink.
Reaching into his sack, he grasped around, hoping to come across a bottle. He pulled out the black, slightly liquorice smelling ethanol from the Doctor.
"Might as well." Jaune said as he gazed contemplatively at the bottle of ethanol.
B was less sure. Remember the last time we took something like that? We fucking tripped on acid and blacked out.
Jaune made an approving face. What could go wrong.
Many, many things. B warned. Jaune walked into a rundown house, the door practically falling off it's hinges with its opening. Fantastic.
Jaune looked around the house. It in reality was probably some kind of shop, perhaps pottery or something. Jaune sat down on what was probably once a counter, a long time ago.
Jaune pulled out the foul smelling medical alcohol, palming and rolling the bottle in his hand.
Can I still recommend against this? B asked tentatively.
"Yes." Jaune said as he uncorked the ethanol. He reeled at the intense liquorice smell that it emitted. "Well, to good drinking." Jaune said as he tipped the bottle to open air.
To good drinking. A echoed as the bottle met Jaunes lips.
Jaune didn't think that he could really ever be used to the taste of alcohol. It burned in such a strange way, not quite like fire. Jaune forced himself to open up his throat and swallow the stuff.
Jaune blinked as he slightly slumped forward, the alcohol making him fade out for a moment.
That odd feeling of being filled with that strange phasmatic energy started up.
And then Jaune felt a great pain in his head. He fell forward, landing on his hands as his head exploded with sounds.
Yelling, screaming. The sound of… crumbling. The breaking of bones.
Then, his nose was overloaded with smells. Memories of fragents, aromas. Things that were not his.
Burning..., stone debris in the air, blood. The smell of alcohol, and it's burning.
Jaune heaved, his brain spinning inside his skull as the information rammed and slammed and forced its way into his neurons.
Then came the sights. Running, pulling people into the hospital wing of the Keep from the farm fields. Strange four legged creatures not unlike an incredibly shaggy dog, but whatever fur was replaced with fleshy tendrils and bone ligaments. He remembered hands that were not his own closing the doors, leaving those that were too slow to the hound things.
Jaune remembered things that were not his.
-ne A faint voice called out. Was that A? It sounded like him. Jaune, are you ok. Jaune!
Jaune blinked. He was on the floor, propping himself up by his hands.
He was shaking. He could feel his arms almost give out from under him. They didn't, because he was more concerned about the pool of vomit in front of him.
"When did I throw up?" he asked, gasping for breath.
You drank from the bottle, and you kind of started to blank out. We got concerned, and then you started to shake and fall to the ground. B said, consolingly.
"Oh god I feel awful." Jaune said as he collapsed backwards. "What in the hell even happened?"
We were hoping you could tell us. B probed.
Jaune shrugged, looking down at the bottle. It was empty, oddly enough. Jaune didn't remember finishing the bottle. Not before his brain was attacked from psychotic hallucinatoins.
Jaune looked at the empty ethanol bottle. "How very strange." the dreamer said.
What is it? A asked, his voice laced with concern. He had just seen his… friend? Creator? The persons whose head he resided in? Just have a whole damn acid trip and vomit on the ground.
"The last time I had a labled liquor like this, i didn't hallucinate like that." Jaune said. He let out a deep breath, still trying to recover his senses fully.
Man, jaune really hated the dream. So. Fucking. Much. Standing up with a sigh, Jaune tossed the bottle behind him. He heard it shatter with a crashing tinkling sound that one could associate with breaking glass. But it still sounded just a bit off.
Like everything else that was in the dream. Everything was just a bit off. Except for the things that were very, very, way out of the park, strange.
Jaune walked out of the building, still shaky on his legs. He felt… different. Less solid? He couldn't quite place his finger on it. But he most certainly felt different.
Eh, it's probably dream cancer. A shrugged, only kind of joking.
"Don't joke." jaune said as he checked his spear. "That might have actually given me brain cancer."
Or violent hallucinations! A said cheerily.
B squinted at his counterpart. I will never understand you. He mourned with a shake of his head.
You think I do either? Jaune thought back, looking back to the fields.
Come to think of it, those… hallucinations did show this place. Admittedly, it was on fire then, but still.
The pathway leading from the doors to this abandoned ghost farm town was unmistakable. And then there were those… dog things? Jaune groaned. All this thinking post terrible trip was making his brain hurt.
He was going to go back to that hospital to figure this out, wasn't he?
Ah, Fuck.
Another thing to add to the list.
And another chapter is done. Please leave a comment, as they provide motivation to continue writing this clusterfuck of a story. And as for all of the very, very confusing insinuations and other bullshit that this chapter explores, don't worry. They'll be answered. Eventually.