Red Like Roses

Chapter 6: The walk to Haven

    It's been twenty one hours sense they started their walk to Haven. Despite Nora's positive attitude towards the journey, she fell asleep about eight hours later and was carried by Ren. Jaune was also quite tired from the miles of walking. Only Ruby seemed to be eager to keep going. The two young man began to start thinking she meant to go all the way to Haven without one stop. They hadn't even spoken with each other sense Nora fell asleep. Ruby was silent with her hood over her face, Ren was to tired to speak and Jaune knew the other two would not want to speak. Finally Jaune spoke up to her eager and silent friend. "Ruby, we've been walking for hours! We need to make camp and rest! Ren is exhausted! We can't make it to Haven without a break!" Ruby kept walking but did respond to her friend. "Every time we stop, Cinder gets closer and closer to whatever her plan was. We need to keep moving." "And when we get to Haven are we supposed to take her out exhausted?! We need to rest, Ruby." Ruby stopped. She let out a heavy sigh and stared at the barley awake Ren and the pleading Jaune. "Fine. We'll set up camp for the night and leave in the morning." Hearing these words, Ren collapsed in the cold snow.

Ruby and Jaune searched the area and eventually found a small cave. Jaune carried the two sleeping corpses to their shelter as Ruby cut down a tree to block the exit in case any Grimm got hungry in the night. She almost went tumbling into the fire Jaune started. She saw that Nora was sleeping right next to Ren, who looked almost as exhausted as Yang had. "I miss her too, Ruby." Jaune had said as he poked the fire with a long stick. "But Pyrrha wouldn't want us to be haggard and forcing our friends to look for her killer. She would want us to be happy and fight her to stop her from doing what she did to Pyrrha to other people. I...I m-miss her too...but....it's not what she would want from us." This was the first time Ruby had seen Jaune cry. He tried to hold the tears back and hide them from her. "I'm s-sorry....you shouldn't see me like this..." Ruby put a hand on his shoulder. "You don't have to play tough guy around me Jaune. And besides, your right. Pyrrha wouldn't want us to exhaust our selves and fight Cinder out of revenge. Thank you for your help, Jaune!" She pulled Jaune up and gave him a big hug. Jaune hugged back and wiped the tears from his face. "We should probably go to sleep now." They both laughed and found different places around the fire to sleep. "Don't you need something to sleep in rather than your armor?" Jaune smirked. "I'm struggling to stay awake as it is." Ruby giggled and steadied her cloak in a comfortable manner. "Goodnight Jaune!" Jaune smiled. "Goodnight Ruby."