Beneath the Elder tree Chapter 8 Part 1

Author's Note: Hi guys, are you guys doing okay? just posting this here as I've decided to just post this as a sort of teaser/part 1 of the overall chapter 8 as its definitely been a while since I've updated. New job and all that keeping me occupied.

Soooo... Enjoy the teaser/ part 1 of Chapter 8

"Man… what a day." Jaune sighed to himself as he walked into JNPR's room hoping nothing more than to have the day end on a quiet note. The room was pitch black as he carefully made his way to his bed but something felt off.

It was quiet… too quiet…

His danger senses went into overdrive but it was a moment too late as he found himself spinning furiously in mid-air, the sensation of firm cloth binding his arms and legs, and was forcefully chucked onto his bed.

A bright light was focused onto his eyes, reminiscent of those old cop shows where they… interrogate… ohh boy… Jaune gulped audibly wondering how he was going to make it through this.

"Hello Jaune… We were wondering when you would be back. Did you have a pleasant evening?", Pyrrha's voice icily addressed their leader

"Yeah, you know… just the usual, nightly strolls and… stuff." Jaune tried to casually brush it off, but his heart sank when he noticed the distress on the faces of his comrades.

"That's nice…FEARLESS LEADER… but did you forget about US!?", Nora's voice promising violence behind the large grin she was sporting as her hands gently cradling MAGNHILD.

"We've had enough Jaune… what is going on with you. You are our LEADER." Ren spoke with a silent fury in his eyes as he stood to the side.

Their faces bore the tell tale signs of exhaustion…exhaustion from worrying about him. Their minds left to their own devices guessing where he was or what kind of things he may have gotten into. He was their leader but was never around recently.

"Jaune… Do you not trust us? That you would not distance yourself again? Haven't you realized that we are here for you!?" Pyrrha pleaded, her voice shaking with every word.

"Haven't we proven that we are strong enough to stand by you?"

Jaune's fists clenched tightly, 'No…. Its not like that… I'm the one who is not worthy of you all'

"Aren't we a team? Do we mean so little to you?...", Pyrrha's voice began to soften to barely a whisper.

"Don't I mean anything to you?"

"DON'T EVER SAY THAT! YOU ARE ALL MORE THAN JUST TEAMMATES TO ME!" Jaune roared as he went livid quickly ripping through his restraint. He stood with his eyes blazing for a moment before he slowly calmed down.

Jaune closed his eyes for a moment and lovingly looked at his most prized treasures before speaking with all the warmth he had,

" For the first time, I have people who would willingly stand by me, people who I can proudly call my friends. I thank whatever power there may be for the chance to have met you all.

The weight of leading you all, I shall gladly carry it all, with all the nightmares and fears that I have of losing you all due to my weakness. All of you are more than I could ever ask for. So let me make it clear…"

Jaune's voice softening almost to a whisper, he shakily breathes as he meets their gaze head on with watery eyes.

"You guys are one of the few good things that life has ever thrown my way, the ones I treasure and there is NO pain, NO suffering I wouldn't bear to protect all of you... "

*THUD*

Pyrrha with fury in her eyes, quickly grasps Jaune by his collar and pushes him against the wall of their dorm, cracks forming where his back impacted..

"But WHY!? Why do you have to distance yourself away!? Do you know how helpless we feel watching you burn yourself away? we gave you ample time to talk to us… to RELY on us. I thought we went past this. Jaune, my god, we aren't helpless that we need to be protected!..."

"And even if we did… We fight together, as a team, comrades… family…", Ren forcefully continued after Pyrrha's train of thought.

"...You haven't been doing your part…", Nora added sadly before she cracked a manic grin," And you need to be punished Jaune. Tis only fair~"

'I never get a break do I….*sigh*', Jaune thought to himself

"So be it, I understand. I'll tell you all everything tomorrow… so for now… can we just cool off and sleep?", Jaune pleaded as the feelings of being emotionally and physically exhausted started to assert themselves.

The 3 nodded their heads and began shuffling towards their beds, as Jaune moved to the bathroom to get changed.

'Idiot, idiot, idiot!, arghh, some leader I'm turning out to be',mumbling to himself as he changed into his shorts and fitted shirt.

As our tired knight walked out of the bathroom to get much needed rest, his mind stopped, baffled at what was going on…

All the beds have been moved next to each other creating one giant bed, the other items were hastily rearranged to make room.

His teammates, laying side by side waiting for him to take his place at the center…. between Pyrrha and Nora with Ren beside her.

"Not a word Arc, you leadership privileges are null and void tonight. Hurry up, we still have combat class tomorrow.", Pyrrha sternly commanded the bumbling knight.

Under perfectly normal circumstances, it would be a blessing to sleep between two attractive women… except these were no ordinary women… they were tired, exhausted… and still had the strength to snap him in two like a twig

And the knowing smirk of one Lie Ren, could only promise a very unpleasant night.

Let it be known that Jaune Arc is no fool...most of the time… He knows the sleeping habits of these two fine women and he is utterly terrified.

So like a man sentenced to death… he slowly crawled to the spot and hoped that the sand man would use 2 times the amount of sleeping dust… if only not to feel the pain and get some rest.

The lights were finally out in JNPR's room as sleep came to claim them.

The Amazon gently hugged the knight as she slept to his right denying him of any escape without them knowing and the Valkyrie tightly holding him by the waist on his left, as if he would suddenly vanish when they wake, while the Silent Warrior embraces his childhood friend, like he used to long ago when they were children.

The tension leaving their bodies as the clock slowly ticks away in the night, their minds slowly unraveling from the thoughts of the ideal punishment for their stupid, dense… kind, gentle, and brave leader… that can wait till tomorrow.

Right now just a little bit, let them relish in this precious irreplaceable moment.

The knight could only wonder as his thoughts faded out…

"What did I do… to deserve friends like these…"

Tears of bittersweet joy slowly trickling out of his closed eyes

…..

*CRACK*

'OH NO'

The Amazon's relaxed body began to automatically put jaune's left side in a rather bizarre arm lock while her legs wrapped around his right leg tightly whilst the snoozing Valkyrie began to slowly crush the life out of him.

The Jaune Arc's foot in mouth technique never fails, he managed to jinx himself yet again

'There is no pain I wouldnt bear huh...'

The knight pulled his mettle and endured the night thinking only of positive thoughts.

"El-s… Elia-..."

"Hmmm?..."

"Elias wake up!, It's time to get ready to move so we can finally reach the village in a few hours",

Illiana chided as she hovered over Elias' sleeping form, nudging him with pokes to his ribs. The smell of sizzling bacon and eggs entering his nostrils as he breathed in deeply.

**GRMBLE**

"Ahahaha, c'mon Elias, Raziel is about done preparing breakfast."

"Okay! I'm up, its rare enough that we get graced with Raziel's cooking. I wouldn't miss it in the world"

It's been a couple of years since they graduated with honors from The Citadel and had been inducted into the honorable ranks of the Hunter Corps, opting to keep their unit name, "77th Rook".

They wore their uniforms, a deep shade of emerald green with the number 77 printed boldly on the back with the emblem of a castle and a miniature version of their handler firing a cannon the distance.

As they were part of the top graduates of their year and had shown exemplary performance in regards to consistency in adapting to ever changing conditions, they were given the option of choosing their Division because of their skills.

There were 3 options

The Guardians, The Reclaimers, and The Expeditionary teams.

They chose Guardians and have been quite content with their track record, though there have been a few close calls in between, sadly it was from the rogue sectors causing chaos. As if they don't have a lot on their plate already.

So as of the moment they are on vacation leave to return back to the village and spend time with their families as per the suggestion of their handler, Scarlet Summers.. who sadly couldn't join them as she was ambushed by a mighty wave of back-logged paperwork and a supervisor who's a stickler for deadlines.

A treacherous foe that can't be beaten by pointing a gun at it, much to her chagrin.

Elias jumped out of the sleeping bag and trotted over to the campfire, tapping Raziel on the shoulder as he flipped omelettes on the frying pan over the fire.

"You know...the sound of your grumbling stomach could attract Grimm you know…."

Raziel deadpanned as he placed the food on a serving plate.

"You sure it ain't your delicious cooking?"

"Boys, that doesn't quite matter now, as we've got some company"

Illiana casually mentioned to them as she stretched her arms, gentle embrace in hand, eagerly awaiting for some action.

Creeping into the clearing, two juvenile Mantids(Love child of a praying mantis and the Ultralisk;starcraft), the small amount of markings on its mask and very small protrusions grimm carapace telling their age, each one about the size of a large horse began to click their mandibles as their 4 razor sharp scythe-like arms were cocked into position, ready to slice anything to bits and their spear like legs began to tense.

"Hey at least we get morning exercise right?"

Elias grinned to his two comrades, as he drew out Crocea Mors.

"Oi!?, It was my turn for night duty, can we hurry it up so I can get some sleep in a nice comfy bed at home. We had 7 visitors last night, 2 Adult Ursas, 4 juvenile Fenris, and 1 Rogue Beowulf Alpha and none of you even noticed to i dunno wake up from lala-land to even help."

Raziel crankily voiced out

"Roger, Roger!",the two replied in kind.

Illiana stood before one of the Mantids, her whips flowing, eager to tear it limb from. Waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

The Mantid began its charge but found its 4 arms locked in place by identical whips that its prey was using. It began to panic, thrashing around but the whips gave no slack.

Illiana quickly let loose, Apathy and Lust, and made them hide in wait the moment they felt the Mantids getting close and struck when the opportunity presented itself.

"Can we just get this over with"

"Oh sweetie, there's no need to rush. we'll do it nice and gently"

Illiana charged forward, swinging her whips forward, severing 2 of the the arms in one move, quickly following up by wrapping her left whip around the remaining right arm, twisting like a top and ripping it out of its joint and ending it with axe kick using her bladed heels on the last offending limb, literally disarming it.

The Mantid screamed in rage, charging forward, to bite the head off Illiana. but found it unable to move its body as its view spinned around and all it saw was darkness.

Apathy and Lust wrapped their whips around its head and pulled in the opposite directions, tearing its head off before it even realized.

"Can we like…. go now?"

Apathy drawled lazily.

Illiana snapped her fingers as the two faded out of existence and walked towards the camp, eager for some food.

At the same time as Illiana

Elias charged into the Mantids blades, letting them slide and glance off his shield as he weaved in between them loping them off one at a time. He managed to cut 2 arms off before the Mantid pulled back trying to escape.

Elias would have none of that

As the Mantid leaped back, unfurling its wings used for hopping great distances. Elias sent 2 aura slashed, cleanly slicing them off as green goo sputtered across the field.

While the Mantid screamed in pain and was off balance, Elias went low and used his aura to augment a portion of his shield and aimed at center mass.

The poor creature was obliterated into chunks, spraying 45 degrees from impact point.

Elias sent a aura ping to sense for any new grimm but having found none, happily trotted to grab some grub and arrived at the same time as Illiana giving each other a high five.

The two reached for their plates but found their hands slapped by none other than Raziel glaring into their souls.

"...Wash your hands…"

"Oh..", The 2 responded together as they looked at their hands some thin lining of grim bug juice all over them.

What would they do without him?

Short I know, but know that I'm making time to chug out more updates faster and should post the next half before this coming sunday at least, for all those who have especially been following this story since the beginning when the Blackmoon, Black Knight, Awkward Kitty wasnt really popular.

Courtesy of the PhantomScribe... "KNIGHTSHADE".. check out his latest chapter in gamer girl if you haven't already, its oozing awesomeness. Stay cool and keep it real my fellow weavers of fate