Wind and rain, lightning and thunder, waves crashing upon the docks, making anchored ships move with ease. The whole world seemed to be angry today, angry and wrathful, all for no particular reason.

The concrete jungle of man wouldn't topple so easily against anything the world brought however.

Usually, this would be a day when Jaune Arc would stay in his room, listening to music, and day dreaming about battles between monsters and men. But today wasn't an usual day.

Today, Jaune Arc had tried to reach the stars, and failed.

It had started splendidly, and only went downwards from there. He'd woken up after months of planning, feeling ready to take on the world, only to find out he wasn't quite that ready, and that things didn't work out that well.

When he'd heard a shadier classmate of his knew some people in Vale, a wild idea had struck him. It had taken months of working odd jobs to get enough money, but he'd managed, and finally spoken with his classmate, and thus, met Rory. Rory was a forger, whose name was also likely not Rory. He was an honest man regarding his work, not many who weren't managed to make a living from this from what he understood. Aparently someone's word in the underground meant something.

So Jaune had payed full money, which in hindsight had been a bad choice since he could have easily been swindeled, but nonetheless that had worked out. His transcripts were in the making, almost ready, and Rory had messaged him to swing by for the final details.

He'd arrived in Vale just in time to receive a message from Rory telling him to delete their messages and calls from his phone.

Jaune had done so with frightening speed, and then as his father would kindly put it, hauled ass to Rory's home. He'd reached the street just in time to see a Vale police car with one forger strapped inside.

Thus, the current predicament. Run home with his tail between his legs after months of planning to leave, and forever quit chasing his dream.

A satisfying crunch erupted from his hand, along with a painful sensation that made him curse, as his fist struck the pavement. It didn't help.

Yet again, in hindsight, a bad choice. Life wasn't a movie. At least not his.

Why could he only see that his choices were bad, risky, and shoddy only after he went through with them? Was this his gift? To forever fail?

Exhaling softly, he rose from his crouched position, half slumped against a wall, craddling his hand, because he couldn't time travel, and he could only go home from here.

But before that, he wanted to see the sea again. It wasn't often that he had seen it, considering his home town wasn't anywhere near the sea. He had a pretty large lake next to his home, enough for him to learn how to swim, but that was about it really. So when he'd arrived in the Docks, simply wandering without any real purpose after his failure, the sound of the sea had beckoned him sweetly.

He'd paced around the docks, listening to the sound of the stormy sea, without any real care for wind and rain. He was going to catch a cold anyways, why bother? The docks were fairly empty, nearly no ships around, and neither people, so he was fairly fearless.

Walking slowly to the edge of the docks, he stared at the sea. Angry, wrathful, but all in all pointless. No matter how harsh the wind blew, and how high the waves rose, the city wouldn't fall. All the chaos it made was akin to a child, throwing a tantrum.

"It's a lot deeper than it looks." Jaune jumped like a grasshopper.

A quiet, deep, deranged laugh followed his reaction, as Jaune turned with wide eyes and body posed to run away from the source.

A few meters in front of him, floating over the sea was a small wooden boat tied to a post. Inside was a man who seemed fairly busy and uncaring of his presence, that were it not for his words Jaune would have considered the man hadn't even noticed his presence. He wore a large black trench coat from the looks of it, much thicker than any Jaune had seen in the shops, with a round straw hat on his head covering long gray hair.

He couldn't get a good measure on the man, but he seemed massive, not because of his height or shoulder broadness, but because of his presence. The man exuded a strange feeling in the air around him, even in the storm, an aura of...power. Similar to what his father exuded when he wished to.

Jaune's eyes widened as far as they could. A huntsman was talking to him.

"It's a lot deeper than it looks." This time, the man turned, repeating the same words while regarding him with eyes black as coal. The simple gesture, made Jaune shiver. And even as he slowly inched backwards, the man opened his mouth again.

"I never realized how deep it was until it crashed on my head. You think it's angry, don't you? Angry, but hopeless?" Black eyes danced on his frame with an unhinged glint, that Jaune simply wanted to run, but the voice compelled him to stay. "This is the sea telling us to fuck off, because we're annoying. If she was really angry, there wouldn't be a Vale anymore laddie." The serios face broke into a grin, and Jaune found himself stumbling over words.

"Y-Yea, I never t-thought of it that way." Smile and run Jaune, smile and run.

"Most don't. Now, you do." The grin went back to being a smile, and Jaune's danger sense had decided the shit he was in was one step too deep and intervened.

As he turned to run however, the smiling man uttered a single word, and Jaune froze.

"Don't." Jaune stood still for three seconds. Three whole seconds, before the man spoke again.

"You won't be able to run from me. So stay."

And Jaune stayed. He even turned around, and sat down on the edge of the docks, wind and rain, thunder and waves left forgotten in face of such danger.

The man still looked at him, and now Jaune looked back closer, studying for a mere second the sharp features and the wide mouth of the man before retreating his gaze to the waves washing nearly at his feet.

"You're pretty bright for a kid. Most wouldn't have stayed. In truth I wouldn't have come after you." The man admitted, the smile returning to his face. Jaune felt like hitting himself. Of course the man wasn't going to come after him, he was in the Vale Docks! This wasn't a shady backstreet of the city, there were likely a bunch of cameras around.

"Why?" The sharp question made him leave his train of thought abandoned, and turn to the man, a questioning, if fearful look in his eyes.

"Why what?" The first words spoken fully and truly since Jaune had started this weird, one-sided dialogue with the man.

The man simply sighed, while gazing at the sea.

"What brought you here?"

Jaune stared at the man. What brought him here huh?

It was wrong to tell a huntsman of doing an illegal thing, even though it was simply an attempt at doing so, and this man certainly didn't look like the right man to pour his troubles to. The weather didn't help one bit either, and neither did his aching hand.

He still cracked, and poured everything out. Stumbling at first, gaining courage only when the man didn't interject, and spilling every single bit of his worries.

By the time he had finished, the sun had reached the middle of the sky, and the storm had settled, even though there were still dark clouds above. Jaune couldn't find it in him to care.

Silence had greeted the end of his tale, the man standing still enough and quiet enough, that anyone could assume he had frozen right there and then. No wonder he was comtemplating the depths of Jaune's stupidity. Sighing, Jaune placed his head between his palms.

A sigh from the man broke the spell that kept him frozen, and suddenly, his mouth opened.

"A huntsman...it isn't easy. But you tried everything to make it work, even though you're bad at everything, you still tried, and you'll go on to try again. That's admirable in a man. All it will do however, is make your folk cry for you when you bite it. Nothing else. There's no honor in death lad, go home, and stay there."

The man simply turned around, and took out from a pile of things, a long, wide, but thin blade, black from hilt to tip.

"I might die..." His mouth opened before Jaune could even think of closing it, and getting away from the strange man. It was as if his words were an insult, the truth, but an insult.

"I might die, and it's foolish enough. Incredibly so. But this is what I want to be. It's my dream regardless of what you say, and I'll chase it like the idiot I am!" His voice was a whisper, picking strength only once he reached the end, but nonetheless carried over, for the old man turned to look at him.

"Will you give it all up? People who love you, a warm home, and a full life ahead...Will you toss that away for one stupid dream?" The narrowed eyes of the man stared into him, and the presence from earlier slammed into him, but Jaune refused to budge an inch.

"It's my dream." He replied simply, amazed at his own response. He'd do all of that for his dream, to come home a huntsman. No. Not to come home a huntsman, simply to be a huntsman.

The glare from the man held for a few more seconds, a little bit more, before the corners of his mouth curled upwards. The angry gaze shattered, and replaced it, was a monstrous grin, and unhinged eyes, and now Jaune could understand. The man also had a dream.

"Good! Wonderful! Perfectly said laddie!" The man hollered, before pulling on the rope attached to the dock pole, and reaching the docks. Placing one hand on the concrete, he hoisted himself up in one movement, nearly slamming into Jaune, outstretching a hand and pulling his into a handshake with ease. Now Jaune could see the man who wasn't so tall anymore, if anything they were the same size.

"You're a foolish one aren't you? You are! So tell me, will you be foolish enough to board that ship and come with me? To see that dream of yours come true!?" The unhinged glint in his eyes and the excited tone spoke to Jaune, and for once the blonde understood his eyes carried much the same look, only dimmer. An impossible dream, for which he was willing to die.

Wasn't that insane in more ways than one?

The man exploded into laughter, and Jaune did much the same.

Was he foolish enough to step onto the boat on mere faith? On the words of a likely mad man?

He was, wasn't he? His laughter turned slightly shaky, but the man seemed to somehow sense this, and bringing his throes of laughter to a halt, pulled out from somewhere within his coat a stack of papers.

With the same smile, he handed them to Jaune, who could only look with wide eyes and trembling hands.

Skimming the sack of papers his eyes only widened further. Missions, upon missions, upon mission, all completed, signed and more, true documents which he could recognize now after months of getting his own forgery done, all attesting to the man's career. He could only stare in wonder at the miracle in his hands.

"What do you say? Still foolish enough?" Dark eyes danced, regarding him with curiosity, making Jaune swallow thickly. This was it. Nobody needed to say anything for him to know this was his last chance to back out.

"It'll be rough. Your chances of surviving are lower than a digit. I'm going on a mission, where none but the strongest and the oldest huntsman are coming. You are nothing but a speck compared to them. But if you come back...There will be no man, living or dead, who may contest your claim."

Thin lips pulled back, as the magical words Jaune waited years to hear were blessed with a voice.

"You will be a huntsman."

Words failed Jaune. So true to his Arc name, Jaune chose to act.

Stuffing the papers into the hands of the man, who watched him with wide eyes, he walked briskly to the edge of the docks, before jumping for all he was worth.

He landed on the boat, rocking it strongly, the waves already present nearly throwing him off, but his legs held firm, and his hands even more so.

He was standing. And Jaune felt like he was truly standing for the first time in his life.

Laughter erupted from behind him, and as he turned around the man was already there, the boat having not moved an inch from his arrival.

A hearty clap on the back sent Jaune sprawling into the water.

Coming up for air desperately, Jaune opened his eyes to see the man roaring towards him in laughter.

"Swim laddie! You're gonna need to know how, and you're gonna need to know right about now!" Roaring and laughing, the strange man untied the boat, and sat down while picking up a paddle.

Spitting sea water, after a day of running himself ragged, Jaune smiled. This was a bad decision, no questions needed to be answered for that to be clear. But he'd chase his dream, regardless. He didn't know where he was going, or what was going to happen, but at the very least he had the whole world ahead and wasn't that satisfying?

What did his grandpa use to say? It's not the destination that matters, it's the journey?

All he needed to do now, was swim. Swim, and ask one more thing actually.

Through saltwater and desperate swimming, hacking and spitting, Jaune yelled as loud as he could.

"What's your name!?"

The man rose from his crouched position, and answered.

"Dovahk Krogo" The strange name akin to the horselords of old seemingly rang within Jaune, and all he could do, was roar out his own name from within the sea.

"I AM JAUNE ARC!"