The REDS of war

Volume Four Chapter Two

The day after, Rei and Qrow's meeting with Raven, Rei left the drunk Qrow at the inn, and quickly set out with the others, not saying a word about the drunk man he left behind. He notes on how the day is a cloudy one, and he along with the rest of RRNJRS is following a mossy stone tile path through the wilderness. While walking, Nora stretches her arms up wide.

"Another day, another adventure!" She cheers.

Beside her, Jaune Arc reads a map while Ruby Rose and Lie Ren continue alongside them.

"What's on the agenda today?" Ruby asks.

"Walking!" Jaune says.

"With a side of...?" Nora says hopeful.

Ren sighs. "Walking."

Ruby sighs slouching down, as she holds her pack. "Haven is a lot farther away than I thought."

Rei glances to his fellow Red teammate. "Ruby? How long did you think this journey was going to take?"

"We were supposed to take the train back in Kuchinasi, then again in Shion."

"Right but... how long?" Sky asks.

"It was supposed to be like, two weeks, tops." Ruby looks back down annoyed, not making eye contact. "Look, whatever." Ruby looks up again after a beat and notices something ahead. "Hey, what's that?"

Nora jumps onto a slightly fallen post of a fence to get a closer look at a wall and building ahead.

"That's... strange." Jaune says checking his map. "I didn't think we'd be hitting another village for a few days."

Nora squints her eyes to try and see better, just as Rei's eye alerts him to the city. "Are those buildings... damaged?"

Jaune panics. "We should search for survivors!" Jaune drops the map and all four go running into the village, with Nora leaping onto the wall and to a rooftop from there. Rei grumbles grabbing the map following after them, along with Ren, the two knowingly share a look.

They discover the town to be empty. Ruby lifts a fallen plank of wood to find only plant outgrowth underneath.

"Anything?"

"Nothing over here!" Nora says from atop a building.

"No one over here, either!" Jaune shouts.

"It almost seems like... the town was abandoned." Ruby looks around while the others go to search on their own, feeling unease in the wind.

"Hey, I think I found something!" Nora shouts. Ruby turns and rushes over. Nora, Sky, Jaune and Ren are looking at a town sign. Nora moves the ivy growing over it to the side to read what it says.

"Oniyuri? Never heard of it." Nora says.

"Me neither."Jaune also affirms.

Ren stares at the sign. "I have." The other three look at him, surprise on Nora and Ruby's faces. "You might think of it as one of Anima's Mountain Glenn, had it never been completed. Years ago, the richest members of Mistral were unhappy with how the Kingdom was being run." As Ren speaks, Rei scours the various unfinished buildings, disrepair and neglect of the village. "Frustrated with the council, they pooled their resources together to build their own city, with their own laws. They hoped that one day, it could maybe even become its own Kingdom. Many thought it would be the future." Ren walks away from the other four. "I know my parents did."

Ruby looks to Ren. "What happened?"

He brushes some dirt off of the stone border of a low wall to reveal claw marks. "What always happens."