Autumn Winds

The next few days of travel passed in silence, broken only by the sound of the horses and Autumn’s occasional attempts at conversation.

“Look, John,” she finally said one sunny afternoon, “I know you’re mad that I was going through your stuff and looked at that paper.  I’m sorry.  It’s just… We’re supposed to be traveling together and protecting each other, and you’re still pretty much a stranger to me.”  The word ‘stranger’ hurt Jaune just a little, but John couldn’t let Autumn catch on.

“There isn’t much more to me than you already know,” John admitted with a shrug, “everyone has things that they don’t want anyone to know about and I am no exception.  I mean, you should’ve seen me asking Qrow questions during our training.”

Autumn didn’t have anything to say to that, so the silence resumed.  It was a few minutes before she tried again to start a conversation.

“Can you at least tell me what’s so important about that piece of paper?  You acted like it was really valuable.”

John slowed his horse, allowing Autumn to catch up.  While she was moving alongside him, he tucked his hand into his pocket, thumb stroking the folded note.

“It’s all I have left of someone who was very important to me,” he explained, “Having it helps me remember that she was real.”  John let out a soft sigh “I’m not going to allow myself to forget about her.”  He turned his face to meet Autumn’s “That’s why this ‘piece of paper’ is so important.”

John turned his attention back to the road ahead of them.  Hopefully that was enough to keep her quiet about the paper, at least until they reached Atlas.  Then they would have better things to worry about.

“So, who was she?”  She really wouldn’t leave this alone, would she?  Hopefully this next answer would end her line of questioning.

“She was someone I cared about.  A lot.  But I didn’t realize just how much until I lost her.  Oh, but,” he held a hand up as he clarified, “it’s not like she died, or got married or anything like that, she just left, and I haven’t been able to see her in a long time.”

He was right; after that Autumn fell silent.  She was biting her lip and looking around nervously, as if she was trying to think of something to say.  However, they had become too preoccupied in their discussion to notice that the skies were growing darker.

“John,” Autumn pointed up at the clouds, “the weather’s looking pretty bad.  We might want to find shelter, just in case.”

As they passed over the crest of a hill, John scanned the area in front of them.  There was a cave in the distance, near enough to get to quickly and hopefully large enough to shelter the two of them until the weather blew over.

“There’s a cave over there that should work,” he said, pointing to it, “We can rest up there until everything clears up.  This weather shouldn’t last too long.”

When they got close to the cave, they climbed off their horses, grabbed their bags, and began to head for the cave.  Unfortunately, it was just then that the bad weather decided to hit.  A bolt of lightning and a roar of thunder caused the horses to rear up in a panic, then turn and run away.  Then the downpour started.  Autumn turned to chase after the horses, but John put a hand on her shoulder.

“The horses will be fine,” he told her, “For now we need to get into the cave.”

Autumn hesitated for a moment, but nodded and ran into the cave.  It was large enough to keep them out of the rain, but not so large as to be completely dark in the back.  John set his pack on the floor of the cave, pulled out a pinch of Fire Dust in and used it to start a small fire so they could warm up and dry their damp clothes.  They stayed there for a while, but the thunder still boomed, the lightning still flashed, the rain still fell, and it didn’t look like it would stop anytime soon.  The awkward silence from before returned with a vengeance.

“Hey John, I know I have been asking you a lot of questions about you lately, and I’m sorry about this.  But there’s something that’s been nagging at me for a while, and I think you might be able to help.  It feels really important.”  John didn’t say anything but turned from the cave opening to face.  Autumn took a deep breath, then asked, “Does the name ‘Jaune’ mean anything to you?”

Jaune froze.  She remembered his name?  What was he supposed to do?  He couldn’t just tell her.  Not here.  Not like this.  John replied after thinking for a while “I, ah, can’t say that the name rings any bells.  Sorry.  Why do you ask, did you hear that name somewhere?”

“Not really,” she said, shaking her head, “it’s just a name that kind of pops up in my memories sometimes.  I told you about my memories before right?  About how all I really see are featureless masses that appear to be people?”  Autumn waited for John to nod before continuing, “Well, there’s a few names that pop up in my memories sometimes.  There’s a couple of names I’m pretty sure are the names of my parents because they are always said together.  Then there’s this ‘Jaune’ person.  I don’t know why that is the only other name that I can remember though, so I was hoping you maybe knew someone with that name.  I’d like to know why he was so important to me.”

The flames from the dust had started to weaken so John stood from his position at the mouth of the cave to go grab another pinch of dust to add to the flame.  Just then, a crashing sound came from where he had just been sitting.  The cave went dark and the flames extinguished.  Quickly, John pulled his Scroll from his pocket to see what was going on.  The front of the cave had collapsed, trapping the two inhabitants.  John was going to step forward to assess the damage, but he was stopped by a viselike grip on his arm.  He turned and was just able to make out the face of a frightened Autumn staring back at him in the dark.

“You can’t be telling me that you are scared of the dark now can you?” John asked as he looked down at Autumn.

Autumn shook her head.  “It’s not that.  It’s just… we’re trapped in here.  I really don’t like being stuck in small spaces.”

“But you were fine in the elevator,” John pointed out.

“There was a door there.  I knew we could get out.”

John turned back to his scroll and tapped the screen, activating its built-in distress beacon.  The signal would reach back to The Agency headquarters and they would dispatch the closest agents to their location for rescue.  With that done, John sat down on the ground, guiding with Autumn down with him.

“John?” Autumn said with a slight fear in her voice, “Can you use a bit of that Fire Dust to start a fire? If I can see, maybe I’ll feel a little better.”

John shook his head, “Sorry, but it seems like the cracks in the rocks at the entrance are allowing just enough oxygen in here for us to breathe easily.  I don’t want to risk us running out if I were to start a fire.”  Autumn whimpered at the idea of running out of oxygen, prompting John to say, “Sorry.  Anyway, I should have a flashlight or something in my bag for us to use.”

John reached into his bag and pulled out a small electric-powered lamp, then placed it in between himself and Autumn and cut it on.  Autumn took a couple of deep breaths and lessened her grip on John’s arm, but she still stayed sitting close enough to him that their shoulders were barely touching.  They sat for a couple minutes touching at the shoulders while Autumn stared into the light of the lamp.

“Hey, John?” she asked after a few more moments of silence, “Can you tell me what she was like?”

“Where did this come from?”

“I was going to ask you earlier, but the storm kinda distracted me. But I think talking about it now might help me keep my mind off of being trapped in here.  So what was she like?” She leaned forward, interested, “She must’ve been really special for you to hold onto her memory so strongly.”

“Why do you even want to know?”  John really didn’t want to answer Autumn’s question, but if it was taking her mind off of her fear, he would do it.

“I just want to know what kind of girl could win the heart of…” She paused trying to find the words, “well, of someone like you.”

“Well,” John paused to try to find the words “she was beautiful, and not in the way you think.  I mean, yeah, she was gorgeous, but she was also one of the kindest people I’ve ever met.  She was always putting the needs of everyone around her above those of herself, which is honestly the reason why she left.  She wasn’t claustrophobic though,” he said, giving her a little nudge.

“Hey, are you making fun of me?”  Autumn giggled.  “I thought you were above something as low as that.  Is there anything else?  What did she look like?  Do you have any pictures of her?”  Autumn’s questions came faster now.

John shook his head.  “I don’t really want to talk about her anymore.”  John grabbed his bedroll from his bag and laid it down where he had been sitting.  “I’m going to get some sleep.  You might want to too.  By the time we wake up help will have arrived to get us out of here.” 

John turned to face away from where Autumn was sitting and tried to get comfortable.  He could feel Autumn shuffling around to find her bedroll and when she found it she placed it directly beside his, then without warning he felt a weight pressed against his back.  She spoke before he could.

“Is it alright if I sleep next to you?  It’s kind of stupid, but it makes me feel less afraid if I know there is someone else right beside me. I like to know that I’m not trapped in this small space by myself.”

John didn’t say a word, but he didn’t try to move her either.  Hopefully Autumn would just assume he was asleep and then go to sleep herself.  Autumn dozed off first but John wasn’t that far behind, he was tired, although it was more from talking about Pyrrha than it was from the travel.

“JOHN!  AUTUMN! ARE YOU TWO IN THERE?”

The voices had caught John’s attention.  He sat up from his bedroll and walked towards the collapsed entrance of the cave, causing Autumn to stir and awaken as well.

“We’re here.” He called through the rock wall, “We just can’t get these rocks out of the way.”

“Don’t worry about it John.  HEY YANG, THEY’RE IN HERE!”  The voice called out in a direction that John could not determine.  That was unmistakably Ruby’s voice.  And by the sound of things, her sister was there too.

“Hey John.”  A second voice called out from the other side of the rubble. “How deep is that cave?”

“Not very, but it’s wider than the entrance has you to believe.”

“Good.  Alright, you’ve got about thirty seconds.  Pick a side wall and stick to it.  I’ll blast you guys right out of there.”

“Yang, what are you talking abou-”

“Twenty-nine.  Twenty-eight…”

John sighed, although he was smiling.

She’s being as brash as ever, glad to see that some things don’t change, John thought as he dashed over to where Autumn was.  He grabbed her along with their stuff and moved to the side of the cave.  Right as they reached the side a blast came from the cave entrance and light flooded in along with the dust from the explosion.  As the dust settled John could make out two figures, a smaller caped figure standing a safe distance back, and the fiery blonde that had just punched away a wall of rubble.

That was when John noticed something.  Yang had her right arm extended, but instead of a closed fist with Ember Celica there was hole that was quickly covered by what looked to be Yang’s hand.  Looks like some things had changed after all.