A/N: Hello, once more, to those few of you who like this story. I'm glad that you do. And, welcome, to the first part of the next arc. This one, the arc, that is, just so you know, will lead to the introduction of the next party character. (And, possibly, the first in a one-shot series. Just saying.)

Hope you enjoy!

RWBY is owned by Roosterteeh and the late Monty Oum

RWBY the RPG

Chapter 8

The Approach

Oscar found himself rudely awakened by a boot lightly kicking him in the leg, repeatedly. "Erm, wha?" He asked, still half asleep. He rolled over on his side as he whined, "Aunt Kar~en, it's too ear~ly. Five more minutes."

He then nuzzled into his pillow for the warmth, even as he wondered why it, and his bed, felt so hard today.

There was a pause then the boot went back to it, now nudging his leg rather than kicking it. He tried to ignore it for a second before tossing away his blanket with a grumbled-a traveling cloak, he realized-and sat up, shouting, "What! Huh?"

He looked around in confusion. Why was he in the forest, in a camp on a hill. Then he remembered, everything. He felt the tears beginning to prick the corners of his eyes as he did. But, before he could dwell on it for too long-

"Rise and shine, Sleepyhead!" Ruby called as she stood over him with her hands on her hips and cocked her head at him. "You're worse than me at getting up in the morning! Sheesh!"

Oscar looked around at the dark woods again before turning and gesticulating at them and demanding, "This, is early? It's still dark out?!"

Ruby tilted her head to the other side as she asked, "Aren't you a farmer?"

"Yeah! But we get up at the crack of Dawn, not an hour before it!" He responded indignantly.

"Well, we're going hunting. So, this is the perfect time for it." The older, red cloaked woman returned with a cheeky grin as she handed him his traveling pack and staff.

Oscar grumbled at that for a bit as he put his stuff on before asking, "And, just what, pray tell, are we hunting so damned early in the morning for?"

"Goblins," The red and black-haired woman stated without looking at him as she started off into the woods beyond.

Oscar paused at that and stared after her, mouth agape. What he thought in a mild panic. "What?" He asked aloud.

"Oscar! Ya coming, or what?" Ruby called from within the gloom beyond.

Oscar shook his head before noisy tramping off after her, hollering, "H-hold on! I'm coming!"

There came a brief sound of giggling laughter from the woman before it faded away and the small glade returned to silence.

/ /

Ruby paused and knelt down to better look at what she had found before nodding to herself. At the sound of rustling bushes behind her she held out a hand, telling her companion to stop. He did so after a moment, if noisily so.

She gave him a look at that.

He could only raise his arms and shrug in apology. And Ruby could only shake her head and sigh at that before pointing at the footprints before her as she said, "Look. Goblin tracks."

Oscar slowly, cautiously made his way over to her, trying and failing at being quiet like she had instructed him to, before crouching down to see for himself. "Wow," he whispered before look up at the taller, if still, short woman and stated in awe. "You were right."

"Hmph," Ruby scoffed in returned before placing a hand on her chest as she stated primly, almost as if she were mocking someone else. "As if there was any doubt! I am a master class Ranger thank you very much. And, that's without taking into account my being a werewolf as well. I'm a Super Tracker!"

"Rrriiight," Oscar said after a moment before shaking his head and smiling to himself. He still wasn't doing all that great himself, and his companion was a weird one. But, all things considered, he was quite happy with his current circumstances.

Then he frowned and sighed softly as he remembered everything that had gone on again, only hours ago. Thing were good, right now. But, he couldn't help but wish for his aunt to be here right now. Or, any of the other elders in his village that he trusted for that matter. They, at least, would've known what to do with all these new things being thrown at him.

Magical powers. Being hunted for those powers. Because of those powers…

And all the things that had come because of them!

It was all, a bit too much for him right now.

And he didn't know when it would get better.

Ruby watched him as he went through a series of cascading emotional highs and lows, and frowned with remembered sympathy. She remembered the first time Reality had checked her, too. It had taken a foolish, naive girl and made her realize just how much the world didn't care who she was or what her idealogy was.

Still, she refused to let it break her. Even now.

It didn't matter if someone hated her for being what she was, she would still help them if they needed. It didn't matter if the Order, any of the Orders, was hunting her for just being born as she was, she would not run and hide, but proudly show the world that who she was was far more important than what she was.

She placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it. As he looked up at her like a little lost puppy, she said, "Hey. I know things are looking bad right now. But, I assure you. They will get better, in time."

"H-how?" He asked, his eyes pleading.

She smiled at him and said, "By moving forwards and never looking back. Never forgetting what happened, but using it to grow stronger, be stronger. And, in finding those who will love and accept you for who you are."

She patted him on the shoulder before unslinging her rifle and motioning forwards, towards where the tracks led as she continue, "Trust me. You just got to move forwards and you'll see just how much brighter the future can truly be."

Oscar nodded as he felt tears prick the corners of his eyes. He swallowed before rubbing vigorously at his face as Ruby wrapped him in a sudden, tight hug, his head fitting embarrassingly below the curve of her bodice. He ignored that as he wrapped his own arms around her and wept for his aunt, for his village, and for himself.

After a moment of letting his silently weep while she rubbed circles in his back, Ruby stepped back away from him and nodded at him again before readying her carbine. Oscar sucked in a breath before heaving it out slowly and nodded. He rubbed at his eyes once more before he then took off after Ruby, his newfound guide and friend.

/ /

An hour of tracking later,

4am,

The tracks led to the foothills of a steep, gravelly cliff.

There was a well worn path there that would eventually lead back to the path through the forest that they had been following alongside before camping last night. At the other end of the path, was an old, abandoned fortress.

Ruby frowned at what she saw before glancing behind her as Oscar stalked up behind her. Noisily, but less so.

She smiled and nodded to herself at that.

A work in progress to be sure. But, he was getting the hang of it. After a few more weeks, he have this tracking and forest stride thing down.

He wheezed slightly as he finally crouched down next to her then. She handed him her waterskin and he nodded gratefully at her before drinking greedily. She smiled at him before frowning to herself.

Oscar was far too weak for a boy his age. It made her wonder just what had happened to him in the past. Even a sorcerer wasn't usually this unfit, especially one who worked as a farmer beforehand. Perhaps he had simply been very ill in his youth.

Ruby didn't know.

Ruby had never met another sorcerer before, after all.

Still, though, he'd need to grow a bit stronger if he wanted to survive for long. Let alone keep up with her. She couldn't keep babying him like this forever.

"Ready?" she asked him after a moment. He nodded silently in reply.

"Good," she said before tilting her head up towards the fortress. "We're here."

Oscar swallowed at that before asking, "How are we going to get in there?"

Ruby smirked at him and said somewhat flippantly, "Quietly."

/ /

They made their way up the steep slope slowly, quietly. With frequent stops for Oscar to catch his breath before moving on.

Along the way they had to hide from two, separate patrols of goblins. One of the goblins passed by the scrub brush they were hiding under, so close, that Oscar was able to count the individual teeth in it mouth.

There were a lot of teeth. But few weapons of note he realized as he looked over the rest of the patrol, like Ruby had been doing.

The goblins were all armed with either bows and knives or scimitars. Man-cutters they were called. Ruby had told him that.

He wished she hadn't.

As they crested the slope they came up on the fortress itself. It was a broken down, moldy old thing.

It had what appeared to be some kind of a signal tower at one end of a small square or rectangle box for its walls, or at least what was left of one, it's upper two thirds fallen away. The rest of the wall wasn't much better, either. There were several massive holes in the sections remaining and much of the battlements on top had fallen away as well.

If there was still a keep inside, they couldn't see it from here.

It took her a moment to recall, but then Ruby remembered just what this thing was, and what it was doing here. She told Oscar as much.

A holdover from back when the Mistrali were still trying to conquer everything around them. Back before they over extended their reach. Before they went too far. Before their grip on the Anima Frontier weakened too much and the hundreds of villages and towns like Oscars had sprung up, and were subsequently abandoned as they fought a civil war.

A civil war that was still going on.

Oscar wondered briefly just how many of those villages were still around these days. The one's that could recall their history as vassal states of the Kingdom of Mistral…

He shook his head, not knowing. And, frankly, not caring.

The Mistrali had always considered themselves superior to everyone else. Especially on in comparison to the Faunus, their slaves.

Ruby nudged him then and pointed to a low gap between two crumbling walls, just barely visible from the tall grass growing around it, just large enough for someone to slip through, and said, "There."

Oscar nodded, and followed after her in a zigzagging manner like she had told him to do. Eventually, far faster than he would have thought, they made their way to the wall, without alerting the sentries lining the ramparts at various points.

They squeezed their way up the crumbling stonework. Ruby led the way, her larger size and red cape being far more noticeable than Oscar's more appropriately green traveling clothes.

He had said as much to her. She, in reply, had merely turned up her nose and humphed, saying that he didn't know what a fashion statement was, even when he was looking at it.

He had no idea how to respond to that, and so had merely shrugged in reply. She could take that as she liked.

Once on the other side they quickly hid in a nearby bush, and waited for an indefinite moment. There was no alarm sounded, no clanging of bells or horns or drums.

They sighed in relief at that.

Ruby then moved to the edge of the bush and drew a pair of branches to one side so she could look out. She narrowed her eyes at what she saw in the moonlight.

It was a full war camp!

Not good. Not good at all.

There was easily two hundred plus goblins, milling about, doing various things from sharpening their rusted, broken blades to fletching arrows to gnawing on the bones of a freshly roasted body. A body that looked distinctly human-shaped to her.

She did her best not to look over long at that, hoping against hope that Oscar wouldn't notice it.

There were also about ten or so bugbears standing around, guarding a pair of tents. Ones that either held the local chieftain or the shaman in charge of this encampment, she thought.

That's where she would find whatever they had used to control the Grimm earlier at Suisen, she surmised. Getting there, though, would be a bitch of a time.

Unless…

A distraction. She grinned to herself, only to then frown. There was only one choice for a distraction here, though. Oscar. Her ward.

She closed her eyes at that.

Shit.

She shook her head then as she continued to look around the camp. Okay. Different plan then. But, what? What could she do instead?

Then she spied the solution and smiled evilly.

"Oscar," she whispered over her shoulder. He looked at her thoughtfully. "I'm going to need you to do something for me."

A/N: Once more, I hoped you like it! Chapter 9 should be finished and uploaded later today (But don't count on it! I might be late. Just saying.) Also, once again, yes, That is what I truly, honestly believe. Depression sucks! But, you can make it through anything, if you just keep moving. There is always hope my friends. Aways!

I love you. You are awesome, stay awesome!

essiter