An Accident on her Trip to Haven

Are we there yet?" Nora groaned for what felt like that millionth time that day as she trudged along. Ruby and Jaune were not fairing any better. The sun had begun to set hours ago, and yet they had not managed to clear the forest and reach their next planned rest point.

“No,” Ren said, somehow keeping his composure.

“Please… stop asking that… Nora,” Jaune said, pausing and putting his hands on his knees for support.

“We should call it a night,” Ruby suggested. “Then we can pick up first thing in the morning!” She tried to sound cheerful, but she knew she wasn’t fooling anybody. Since starting their journey, they had realized that perhaps travelling on foot was not the best choice, but they had travelled too far to turn back now.

“Seconded!” Jaune said, suddenly bursting back to life.

“Agreed!” Nora chimed in.

“But we aren’t even close to our rest stop,” Ren argued, pointing to the clearly circled marker on the map. “We’ll never get to Haven if we keep stopping like this – and we’re starting to get low on supplies! At this rate we won’t make it to the next village in a week.”

“It’s all good, Ren,” Jaune said, trailing into a tree-range just slightly off the dirt road and dropping his supplies. The girls were quick to follow his lead; Nora even dropped onto the ground. “We’ll just start rationing them.”

“We’ve been rationing them,” Ren countered. “we have less than a quarter of a canteen of water left. How is that supposed to last the four of us a week?” As if taking that as an invitation, Nora immediately sprung back off the ground to try and fail to claim the canteen for herself.

“Well, we could always just look for some water on the map and refill the canteens,” Ruby said.

Ren stared her dead in the eyes, casting her an unamused look. “Just look for some water?” Ren flipped the map around to the others and pointed his finger to the closest known body of water, which just happened to be a lake nearly 2 miles North West of their location, the exact opposite direction to where they were going. “This is the closest place on the map. There isn’t another one until we get to the next village.”

“Well, why didn’t we stop there in the first place?” Ruby whined.

“Because we were supposed to be arriving at the village tomorrow,” Ren countered. After all, what was so hard about keeping up with the scheduled pace.

“Uuugh, so you’re telling me, it’s either we head back there and fill up the canteens or we go without water for a few days?” Ruby asked.

“More like a week at this rate,” Ren said.

Ruby cast her head down and turned in the supposed direction of the lake. “All right, let’s go…”

“Nope,” came Nora’s quick reply, making herself comfortable on the ground. “I’m not moving.”

“Me neither,” Jaune said, sprawling himself out on the ground.

“You can’t be serious.” Ruby said, “So it’s just me a Ren getting water for everyone?”

“No,” Ren chimed in, putting four canteens into her arms and crouching down to begin preparations for a fire. “Just you. I’ve got to set up camp because we know these two won’t.” It wouldn't be the first time the two neglected to do their parts.

“But that’s not fair!” Ruby whined. “And what about the Grimm? I could be attacked!”

“Naaahh,” Nora said, eyes closed and her head cradled in her hands. “You’ve got Crescent Rose and your super-speedy semblance. It should be fine.”

“Yeah, Ruby, you've got nothing to worry about," Jaune said. “If anything happens, you can just run back here."

“But, but, but-“

“You’ll be fine,” Ren said with a smile as he got his little fire to ignite.

Ruby sighed, knowing the argument would be fruitless. Nora and Jaune were stubborn whenever they made up their minds, and when Ren was in a mood, it was best not to argue with him. She turned around, starting to head on her way despite her exhausted and achy legs’ protests. They felt like they could fall off at any moment.

“Ruby, wait,” Ren said, and a wave of hope overcame Ruby. Maybe she wouldn’t have to go alone! “You’ll need a flashlight.” And suddenly all that hope came crashing down, being replaced by despair and disappointment. “It’s already pretty dark, so by the time you get there it’ll probably be pitch black out.” He tossed her a rosy red flashlight. “Just try not to lose it, we don’t have too many of those either.”

“All right…” Ruby sighed, heading on her merry way. “I guess I’ll be back soon.” Little did Ruby know, she was going to be in for a long night.