A/N: Hello again, for those of you who stuck around for chapter 2! You know, I actually meant to get this story out over the weekend, with a third chapter. Didn't happen. Chapter 3 is have half done, and, as you can see on my profile, The Beast ch3 and Scars ch2 are in the works-Yes, I know that I said that I'd be taking a break from them. I lied. I can't stop writing! Help!
RWBY is own By Roosterteeth and Monty Oum
RWBY the RPG
Chapter 2
Discovery
"See? Nothing wrong with him. Ought a to be fine in a day or two, you know?"
"Beyond a concussion. And a burned hand."
"…"
"...Thank you…"
Oscar came awake to the sounds of distant voice talking. He blinked as his eyes lost focus for a moment before shaking his head and trying to rise.
"Enngh!" He grunted as a splitting headache then made itself known. He clutched at his head, scrunching up his eyes and falling back onto what he realized was his own bed.
In his aunt's house, his home.
How did he get here?
"Oscar? Oscar!" A voice murmured before shouting at him. He winced from the noise as someone came running over to him. "Doctor! Doctor! He's awake!" A familiar voice shouted next to him as they wrapped him a tight, almost suffocating hug
"Please," he whined, clutching at his head. "Not so loud."
He opened his eyes to find his aunt there, holding him tightly. There were tears streaming down her face and dark circles under her eyes.
She looked like she hadn't slept in days.
"I'm so glad you made it, baby." He heard her whisper as she kissed him all over his face as a strange man came into the room.
Oscar observed curiously him under his aunt's embrace. He wore a sheer white tabard with pale grey borders over a black leather outfit. And, he wore a hat.
He briefly gave Oscar a pointed stare as he frowned before relaxing his face into a more gracious one.
"Ah, young, Mr. Pine, is it?" The man said as he tiled the black boiler hat at him in greeting. "I am Dr. Ace Speilli. That's Spell-li. I've been treating you for the past few days. Your aunt was quite worried about you, you know? Not everyday such a strapping lad as yourself passes out from such minor injuries, you know?"
Oscar blinked at that, but otherwise remained silent. Why did that sound so accusatory?
The doctor coughed at the awkward silence that followed. Or, maybe it was whatever look his aunt was giving him. If Oscar knew anything about her, it was positively, pants-shittingly terrifying.
"Right. Well. Let's take a look at you then." The man, Dr. Speilli, said as he then moved towards the bed. His aunt moved out of the way, but lingered in the background as the doctor began to look him over, checking his wounds over and looking into his eyes and feeling for his pulse in his neck.
Neither Oscar, or his aunt, noticed the faint glow to the man's hands as he looked him over.
Eventually, the doctor nodded and said, "Alright, everything seems okay, you know?"
"Uh, no. Not really," Oscar returned, feeling nauseous. "I've got a really bad headache and I'm feeling pretty dizzy still. How long was I out for, anyway?"
"Oh, no, that's nothing to worry about. I'm a doctor, after all. You know?" The man said, shaking his head as if he'd had plenty of patients contradict him before. Then he frowned as he glanced off into the middle distance, lost in thought, perhaps.
"Uh, about two days, you know?" He said after a moment.
"Two days!" Oscar shouted as he jerked upright abruptly, only to fall back as the world spun for him again. Green sparks briefly glinted around his hands as he clutched at his skull in pain. "Aargh."
He aunt rushed to his side again, clutching at him as she glanced up at the doctor, "Speilli?" she asked.
The doctor waved his hands, saying, "Don't worry about it. Everything's alright now. The fire at the warehouse has been nearly put out, and I hear that knights from the Order of the Sacred Light will be coming by to take care of that dastardly Grimm that's roaming around, you know?"
"G-Grimm?" Oscar muttered. "Wh-what Grimm? What about the goblins?"
"Oh. Goblins? Hadn't heard about goblins." The doctor said, rubbing at his chin in sudden thought. "I'm sure that they'll take care of them, too. After all, the Order has our best interests at heart, you know?"
"Not from what I've heard," his aunt scoffed quietly off to the side. "I've heard that they kill as many as they save. Witch Hunts and all that garbage."
"Now, now, my good Lady Pine. You got it all wrong, you know?" The doctor said, making calming motions with his hands, even as his voice took on a patronizing tone. "The Order is here to protect us. Protect you. Especially, from such unnatural things as sorcerers, or witches." He then said with almost religious fervor.
After a moment he blinked as he noticed the sudden awkward silence. He looked at them and their looks of confusion/disdain, coughed, then gathered his things without saying a word and made his way to leave. Oscar's aunt went to follow him out only to stop as the doctor suddenly turned towards her and held out a vial with pills inside.
"Here," he said. "Gives these to him if the headaches get worse. T'will put him to sleep right away. Make it all better, you know?"
Karen nodded and said, "Understood, Speilli."
"Please, call me Ace, madam. I'll be seeing you around, you know?" The doctor returned with an almost lecherous grin before nodding his hat at Oscar again. Karen locked the door behind him after he left.
She returned, rubbing a hand through her frizzy, black hair as she shuddered and heaved a sigh, saying, "Finally. Creepy fuck. Not even sure if he is a doctor."
"What, eummh, what do you mean?" Oscar asked through the pain. "Didn't you ask for his help?"
"Hardly." His aunt returned. "He just showed up today and barged his way in, saying he was a doctor. Heard he did the same thing with all the families involved in some way with the warehouse. Didn't treat any of the injured, though."
She shook her head as tilted her chin in thought as she eyed him. "Suspicious, don't you think?"
Knock, knock!
"I guess?" Oscar replied as someone began knocking on the door.
"Stay here," his aunt instructed as she got back to her feet again with a sigh and left the room. Oscar listened as closely as he could over the sound of his blood pulsing through his skull.
"Oh," he heard his aunt say. "Chief Brody? I wasn't expecting you."
He couldn't hear what the other person responded with, but his aunt then answered with, "Yes, he was just here."
"Ooohh, reaally? Ya don't say?" She then said sarcastically. Oscar could practically picture her with her hands on her hips as she said that. He still couldn't hear what the Chief, the leader of the town's guardsmen, said in reply, though. But he heard her his aunt's distinct laughter then.
"Yes,of course. Please,by all means, do come in." She then said. "He just woke up. Follow me. Oscar! It's the Chief!"
In walked a man standing 6' 2 and bugling with muscles. He towered over Oscar slight frame, his bald, scarred head nearly scraping the ceiling. "Young mister Pine," he boomed forth, his pale grey eyes piercing through him. "Greeting."
Oscar sat up then as much as he could and replied, "Uh, g-greetings, s-sir."
The man smiled. It was like a fissure opening up in the earth.
He waved a massive hand in the air from side to side. Oscar could practically feel the wind of its passing.
"Now, now. Not of of that." He said as he sat down on the same stool as Dr. Speilli. It groaned ominously, but stayed in one piece. "You're not in any trouble. I merely wished to check in on you. You've had quite the ordeal, after all."
"Uh, y-yes, s-sir." Oscar returned, still worried. He glanced over at his aunt's return. She nodded back encouragingly. "Th-that I did."
"If you're feeling up to it, could you tell me what happened?" Chief Brody asked him as he leaned forwards slightly.
"Uh, sure." Oscar replied, simply.
"Please," the chief encouraged. "Start at the beginning and go from there. It's alright if you don't remember everything. I simply need clarification for a report on what happened is all. Again, you're not in trouble."
He raised a hand in a "Go on" motion, saying, "Please."
"Alright." Oscar said as he moved to a better sitting position. He frowned as he thought about what happened, his hazel eyes darkening as he remembered. "I was working at the barn. The one out past the Wheat Field."
"Alone?" The chief asked.
"No. No, it was me and Marley and, and Peter."
"Mm. Go on." Brody encouraged again.
"We were baling the leftover hay for the cattle while all the other farmhands were helping out with the crops. They said we were too weak to do anything, but get in the way. Or, at least, I was." Oscar said with a frown as he looked down, ashamed.
"Those bastards!" His aunt interjected then. "I oughta beat their skulls in! You do twice the work those layabouts do, and they go around saying shit like that? Oughta beat their skulls in."
"None of that now!" Brody ordered as he turned to her. "There's been enough trouble as it is. Don' need you startin' more."
"Just sayin'," she asserted. "He's a boy! Not his fault him being sick all the time. Just hurtful noise, is all. Really oughta beat their skulls in."
"Karen." The chief warned ominously
She raised her hands plaintively as she said, "Aright, alright."
He waited a moment more then nodded at her before turning back to Oscar and made another beckoning gesture. "Go on then, lad."
Oscar nodded. "Right. Well. We got into a bit of a fight. The others accused me of shirking, but I think that it was just that they didn't want me in the barn so they could slack off from the heat. And, and I didn't want to make anything of it so I started baling the hay scattered around outside." He stopped, not want to say what came next.
Not wanting to remember it.
His aunt went to make a comment on that, but at a gesture from the chief, stopped herself. He looked at Oscar silently. He swallowed and nodded at the man and said. "That's when it happened. When we got attacked. By goblins."
He laid it out then.
About how first there was a scream. Then about Marley ditching them, even thought his friend was attacked. About how he could do nothing as Peter was killed.
About how he fought and killed one of the goblins with his pitchfork then ran when he had the chance to. About how he found the village on fire as he approached the main gate. About being attacked by the goblins again as he slowed down.
Then he asked, "What caused the fire, anyway? The one I saw in the village."
Chief Brody sighed and rubbed at his face. He paused for a moment then answered with, "Grain fire. In the warehouse. Darned fool tripped as he was loading shit up. Caused the whole damned thing to go. And the breeze spread it through the town. Too dry."
"What about the G-Grimm?" He asked.
Brody shook head as he crossed his arms. "There was no Grimm." He replied quickly. Too quickly. "Just a couple of drunk fools thinkin' that they saw something that wasn't there in the first place. All jus' a rumor."
"Now," he said as he clasped his knees with both hands and leaned towards Oscar. "How did it end? How'd you survive?"
"I, I don't really know?" Oscar said as he shook his head. "They were going to kill me, and then, the next thing I know they were dead. And, then I somehow made my way to the gate." He shook his head as he said. "After that, nothing."
"Hmm. Alright then, Mr Pine." Chief Brody as he got to his feet with a quick clap of his hands on his knees. "That about covers everything I needed to know. Confirms a few things for me, too." He nodded to himself silently then said, "I'll leave you to it. Hope you recover soon. We need all the help we can get with the recovery, and the Harvest." He looked pointedly at Oscar. "You understand?"
"R-right. Y-you got it, s-sir." Oscar said nervously with a nod.
"Mm," Brody returned with a nod of his own. He turned to his aunt and nodded to her, too, with a smile. Then he turned to go. Only to stop as made his way out of the room as if he thought of something suddenly.
He turned to look at the two of them with a frown on his face as he thought to himself. Finally, he asked, "How did the goblins die, again?"
"By fire." Oscar said immediately. "But it was weird." He said with a frown. "Nothing else was on fire, even though it hasn't rained in weeks. And, the flames. They were green." He shook his head in confusion as he said, "I've, never seen green flames before."
"Hm," was all Brody said in return. He did nothing else, but nodded again before leaving the house.
His aunt sighed as soon as the chief left. "Oh, my. That was an ordeal and a half." Then she smirked as she said, "You know?"
Oscar grinned back at her as she laughed.
/ /
Chief Brody grimaced as he looked over the warehouse once more. All that food, gone. In an instant.
Their entire supply of food for the Winter. Bad luck, that.
And the only one who could've said if its was an accident, or on purpose, was dead. Burned beyond recognition.
He sighed and rubbed at his face. The village would be in dire straits if it weren't for the Harvest. Thanks to the record crops that they had yielded they would have enough funds to be able to buy supplies for the Winter.
Funds that were going to be used to repair the Wall, instead. Funds, the Guard desperately needed.
His grimace deepened into a truly foul scowl as he recalled those crops. Crops that were so big and rich and ripe, it boggled the mind. Unnaturally so. Like they had been touched by Magic.
He wasn't the superstitious type. But that always spelled trouble. Especially, when one of them was running around.
He sighed heavily as he took out a sheet of parchment and looked it over again for the umpteenth time that day. He rubbed at his eyebrow with one massive finger. He knew what he had to do. Who he needed to call. Who he needed to save.
He just didn't know if he had the time left.
It seemed like he was right. Marley had been lying, as he did.
But, about what, and how much, he hadn't been able to determine. Not even with all his skill and years of experience.
And he didn't like that. At all.
He still wasn't sure how the Pine lad had survived, but he had clearly been injured. He knew he wasn't lying about that.
And, while his pitchfork was burned beyond recognition, and, thus, unable to be used for evidence, there was a dead goblin with wounds from some kind of piercing weapon. And, there were a trio of goblins that had died, badly burned from fire of some type.
Marley had known nothing of either of those. He had said nothing of goblins at all. He had said how Peter had died though.
Killed, by Oscar Pine.
He sighed as he rubbed at his brow again before looking at the note again.
This was clearly an Open and Shut case, but there was the… complexity, of the situation. Marley was scum, to him. Always had been. Always would be, the little shit.
But, there were those in the village that would willing believe him over anything, even the Truth, if it meant that they could persecute the Pine family some more.
Days like today were why he hated his job.
He huffed a breath before folding up the parchment. So, be it. He'd do his job and save someone. For once.
/ /
Later that night,
In a darkly light corner of the local inn in Suisen.
"I'm telling you, you need to get here as soon as possible." A disguised figure said into the small, floating orb before his face. "I've found another one."
It gleamed dimly in response.
"I don't care what you're doing." The figure berated whoever was on the other side of the orb harshly before looking up to see if anyone in the inn was watching him. There was no one there that late at night. He turned his attention back to the orb again. "Who cares about some pathetic no-named village like this, when we have a sorcerer right here."
The orb gleamed again.
"Yes. Good. Understood. I'll keep an eye on things, for now. Till you get here." They nodded towards the orb before rubbing at their chin in thought. "For all we know, the entire village could be contaminated by them. They've certainly corrupted the crops around here."
The orb seemed to glow brighter briefly at that. Bright enough to show the face of Ace Speilli, Agent of the Order of Light as he leered at the orb in sudden anticipation.
"Yes. I agree." He grinned. "A Purge is just what is required here. Heh, heh."
A/N: Oh, no! The plot thickens! Find out more next chapter!
Essiter out!
And, remember you're awesome, stay awesome!