Part 2 – Chapter 7
It didn't take Oscar long to snap.
No less than two days.
Then he hunted down his bag.
Ruby was never wrong in her estimates.
And she was never late. She promised to return.
Ruby wasn't the sort of girl who would lie.
Because of this, Oscar knew there was something drastically wrong, that, or something was preventing her from returning.
If so? He'd go find her, instead.
Oscar's plan was to start in Mistral.
Hopefully, if he couldn't find her, he'd run into someone who knew her or had seen her recently.
He had to hope.
But, hell, didn't that scare him?
The thought of leaving the farm…?
Oscar's fear of the city, of leaving the farm, greatly outweighed his fear of never knowing what happened to Ruby.
Of always being left behind to wonder what happened.
Was it Grimm?
Was it less so?
He'd resolved to find her, to ask the reason himself.
Because maybe it was just as harmless as her taking up another assignment.
Sure, he would be crushed.
But at least he would know she was alright.
And, just maybe, maybe Huntresses couldn't choose their assignments, or even when they ended?
He didn't know at all. And if he found her? He would be sure to ask, to get better at the field his aunt was terrified of. To find out why.
Ruby hadn't exactly told him anything revolving around her career — aside from fighting Grimm.
That he knew all Huntsmen could do.
./.
It wasn't something he could bring up with his aunt.
She was so terrified, it was practically ingrained in her, to seek shelter when she heard Grimm howling outside.
He hadn't even told her they had harboured one for practically three seasons.
Oscar wasn't exactly terrified of his aunt, she could lose her own way from house to the barn, but he didn't exactly want to give her something to worry about.
Which would be worse for her?
Telling her face to face, or putting it into a letter?
Telling her in random conversation: "'Sup, aunt Em! You know how you hate Huntsmen? Well, I totally let one stay with us since fall! But she hasn't come back, so I'm off to find her! Later!"
Yeah.
Great idea.
It would totally get him grounded.
It was totally the easier way out. Leaving a note.
That way he didn't need to see Em's face when he told her the truth.
Maybe, if he told her how Ruby protected the farm since fall, she would be less inclined to yell at him when he got back?
Probably not. But he couldn't just leave her with nothing, with her to fret that he went to the village and gotten eaten on the way back.
He couldn't do that to her. His parents already did.
Twice.
Hey, Aunt Em.
Please don't get mad that I didn't tell you. But since fall, we had a Huntress stay at the farm.
I know you're probably gonna yell at me for letting her stay! But hear me out. She did no harm, and she protected us from Grimm!
Isn't that what they're supposed to do?
Her name is Ruby. And she always keeps her promises.
She promised to be back by now, she has never been late before.
So, if you don't see me for a while: I'm okay, I've just gone to Mistral to see if I can find her!
Shouldn't take me too long!
I'll send a letter to the village when I get to Mistral.
Please don't be mad!
—Oscar.
Oscar took up his bag and made sure he left nothing out that he might need.
On his last look around, he remembered that Ruby had a habit of forgetting her ticket for the train.
So that possibly cost lien.
He went over to his chest to open it and dig into it for his emergency lien, should a harsh winter come, and things went up shit creek.
It wasn't exactly winter any more, but he did need to catch a train to Mistral.
Who knew how much that cost: he didn't exactly ask Ruby when she was around before.
He didn't know how long it would take to find her.
Oscar made sure to slip his note under Em's door, so she would find it when he flinched hearing the rain start to pang against the window.
He needed to leave before it got worse.
/
/
Because, naturally, it started to bucket down when he was only halfway to the station.
He really hopped Ruby wasn't caught out in the storm like he was.
Since she hated the rain.
The ticket machine didn't want to give him his ticket.
He had the right amount of lien.
Until a guy came along and bashed a hole into it.
Oscar never wanted to run into this man again.
Since, if he could bash holes into machinery, then he most likely was a Huntsmen.
Who, unlike Ruby, Oscar didn't think he would think twice to harm him.
./.
Oscar collapsed into his seat on the train to Mistral in relief to finally be out of the rain, he shoved his bag next to him, and leant his head against the headrest behind him, jarring only a little when the train pulled from the station.
All of this is so much to take in.
How did he get to where he was?
Actually, why was he here in the first place?
Looking for a Huntress?
All of it sounded ridiculous.
Before Ruby came, any time Oscar needed to go to the village for something was always met with disdain and barely hidden fear that he would come in contact with the Huntsmen that patrolled the village in exchange for lien.
It wasn't like he was accosted by them before.
But, for whatever reason, Em feared them.
It didn't take him long as a child to relate her muteness about his parents, with the same mute fear she had about Grimm and any mention of hiring Huntsmen for the farm.
She was against it. From the start.
Keeping in faith that if there was not many of them, by her meaning just her and Oscar, then the Grimm would leave them alone.
And it did work, to some extent.
Since only small fledging Grimm seemed to come onto the farm property once every like five years.
Later in years, after both his parents passed on, Oscar had to wonder whether or not it was her blind faith in limiting people in the farm space or just something else that was preoccupying their attention.
He wasn't deaf. He heard the rumours in the past two years about a Grimm so horrifying that it could howl.
Before Ruby showed up, Em had been so terrified when she heard the howls, she drilled it into him to stop whatever he was doing to make it to the cellar with her to hide.
Something that terrified him into doing whenever he saw Ruby perk up and dash into the direction the sound was coming from.
Would he see her when the howling was over?
Always.
Until she didn't.
./.
Oscar tried really hard to sink into his chair when that same Huntsmen from before went up the train.
But the man barely noticed him and kept on walking.
Oscar sighed in relief.
/
/
Oscar soon found himself smack bang in Mistral as soon as he got off the train.
Suddenly, he felt so damn small, and he couldn't get anyone's attention.
Ruby was fine being small because she could just pull out Crescent Rose and she could look like a giant.
Him? Not so much.
He didn't even know where he was! He would definitely be hard-pressed to find his way home again once he found Ruby and got some answers.
Mistral was huge!
Oscar irrationally hated it on site.
He hated how big it was.
He hated how long it took to get, well, anywhere, and the people weren't exactly friendly once they realised that he was an outsider, a minor, and not a Huntsmen.
And everything cost lien.
Oscar knew by how much of lien he didn't have, he wouldn't be able to stay in the city if he was here long-term, since inns liked the advertise their night charge in more figures than he had ever seen in his life.
Why did he think this was a clever idea?
Hell, Ruby might even find him first.
She said she came from this city, after all.
No one seemed to want to talk to him, and when they gave him a minute, those who did, didn't know Ruby, even one with a giant scythe.
Oscar definitely lost his train of thought when someone in the crowd finally bowled him over.
He definitely yelped when he crashed into the dirt street.
It was only a matter of time since the street was crowded, and Oscar had no idea how to navigate it.
It wasn't just him that crashed to the dirt, something else metallic dropped and probably broke.
And a male, who he probably crashed into, cursed as he was suddenly pile-driving the dirt.
"Ow…" He couldn't help but voice.
"Did you have to—?" The man started to ask before he stopped and stared at Oscar.
Fearing the worst, Oscar got up immediately and dusted himself off.
"Yeah, um, sorry, for running into you. I didn't see you." Oscar tried to apologise fast.
But the man just stared at him, in what looked like rising horror?
He was muttering, but Oscar could only barely make out the word pipsqueak.
Why was it a question, though?
Because, against this man, Oscar was damn tiny.
But, since the man now had a minute, Oscar saw a chance to ask about Ruby.
"Hey, have you seen a—?" Oscar stalled, seeing the man take a step towards him, his eyes wide.
"Ozpin?" He asked a slight tremor of fear in his voice for some reason.
Oscar stared at him, frowning in confusion.
"What? No! Ozpin? I'm not looking for an Ozpin. I don't even know an Ozpin! I'm looking for a Ruby!" Oscar insisted.
This made the man blink in confusion instead of fear.
"Ruby?" He questioned in a confused tone.
"Yes! She's about this tall!" Oscar put up a hand just above his head. "Wears red, carries a scythe, which is also somehow a gun. I never asked how. Does this weird thing with rose petals…" Oscar detailed for this man, as he did, he watched this man's face wash with even more confusion than before, "Know her?" He asked, hopefully.
But the man stared at him as if he had just pulled a Grimm from under his shirt, or something.
"How—How do you know her?" He finally asked.
Oscar shrugged.
"She's been a visitor at my farm since last autumn." Oscar answered.
Confusingly, the man suddenly bent over and laughed.
Oscar eyed him warily and took a step back.
"So, that's where she's been! How long ago did she vanish on you, Pipsqueak?" He asked.
Oscar felt his nose scrunch up and his left eye twitched in disdain at the nickname.
It was like the nickname his aunt had for him: he had no idea where it came from.
"Ruby said she wouldn't be more than five days, but it's been a week since I've seen her. She's never been late in her estimate before." Oscar answered.
He was extremely confused by this man, he hopefully and apparently going on his wording: knew Ruby.
Hopefully.
But hadn't outright said he did, and it was confusing.
The man just snorted, as if he found the entire situation ironically funny.
"It only took a week, huh?" He asked.
Oscar frowned.
It technically took less, but hey.
"Do you know her, or not?" He asked, finally getting annoyed with how vague this man was being with him that his politeness level was nearly almost gone.
Even if this man was the first adult to talk to him, Oscar was this close to jabbing him with a rock.
Oscar almost celebrated when he nodded.
Yay!
"She is my niece. Down to the scythe and rose petals." He replied finally.
Oscar lit up gratefully, not believing his good fortune.
"Then you should know where she is!" Oscar said.
The man just barked out a laugh.
"Hah! I lost contact with her over a year ago when she decided to jump ship by herself. Did she say anything to you before she left?" He asked.
Oh.
Yippee.
Oscar found someone who knew her. And they didn't know where she was either.
Yay.
Oscar shook his head. "No. Only that whatever she was going to do was going to take five days." Oscar said with a despairing sigh.
But the older man looked thoughtful.
"She might have gone on a mission?" He pondered thoughtfully.
Oscar was confused.
"Mission?" He questioned.
Was that what they were called, and not assignments? Like he had been saying to her for the past three seasons?!
Why had she never corrected him?!
Surely, he sounded dumb then! He felt dumb now!
"Huntress." The man informed.
At least he got that part right!
"And since she might have taken a mission, maybe Oz will know where she is, then." He continued to ponder.
Oscar sided his head in confusion with a forming frown, his frown heavied when he saw the man flinch at him.
"Oz? Who's Oz? …Where's Oz?" Oscar asked in a tumble of questions.
Damn, he hoped this Oz person was as lost as they were since this man thought he was Oz!
The man seemed to blink in confusion at him asking questions.
But his stance was less tense as he realised Oscar had no idea who he was talking about.
"School headmaster. Has access to the Huntresses and Huntsmen missions under contract at Beacon Academy …Or, what's left of it. Which is in Vale, on the continent of Sanus, if you didn't know." He added.
He didn't know.
Oscar's eyes blew wide.
Another continent?!
"Is there no closer school?" He asked, feeling way over his head.
Just how far did he need to travel to find more information about where Ruby went to?
Surely is no show of lien hadn't gotten him across Mistral, how on Remnant was he supposed to cross not one continent, but two?!
The man nodded.
"There is. But Ruby is contracted to Beacon. So, even if she took a mission outside of Beacon, it would only be logged with Ozpin. Let's just hope they can still be logged with the CCT down, and it wasn't an anonymous one g—g how long did you say you knew Ruby for?" He broke thought to question.
"For three seasons—" He looked blank at that. "…6 months. Going on seven." Oscar muttered.
This man was many things, but a farmer wasn't one of them.
"She's a friend…I think?" Oscar found himself still questioning.
Oscar saw the man eye him before he snorted in humour.
"Of all the similarities…" He muttered. "Fine. To Ozpin it is." He eyed Oscar again, who hadn't moved when he did. "Are you coming, or what, Pipsqueak?" He questioned.
Oscar shifted from one foot to the other. "…I don't have any lien left…" He muttered indignantly.
The man snorted again. "Find my niece, and I'll call it even." He replied levelly.
Oscar grinned, that seemed fair.
./.
Oscar ran to catch up to the man, who naturally was taller and had longer legs than he did. He also didn't seem to realise this fact yet as he raced out of the city.
"So, uh…" Oscar started.
The man looked at him and slowed down a little once he realised that he was going too fast, hearing Oscar pant.
"'Sup, Kiddo?" He asked.
"You have a name, right?" Oscar asked.
Oscar frowned when he stared at him as if telling him his name hadn't occurred to him.
Why Oscar didn't know.
"Qrow." He muttered before moving on at a thankful pace that Oscar could keep up with.
Suddenly, Ruby's comment on liking crows made more sense now.
./.
By now they were well outside the city when Oscar realised that Qrow was eyeing him critically.
"What's wrong?" Oscar asked nervously.
Was something coming? Were they in trouble?
"You have no clue how to fight, do you?" Qrow questioned.
Oscar felt his nose scrunch up as he shook his head. "Why would I need to know? I live on a farm, and only dealt with smaller Grimm once in a blue moon." Oscar told him.
Aside from that, Oscar had no weapon to which defend himself if this was Qrow's subtle way of saying danger was coming.
But Qrow just groaned.
"You really are gonna make my life hell." He groaned.
Oscar stared at him in confusion.
Qrow looked to him steadfastly. "Look, kid. You do know that there's more than just small Grimm in the world, right?" Qrow asked, his tone incredulous.
Oscar nodded. "Yes, and they never bothered the farm where I live. Ruby seemed to find them well enough though." Oscar noted.
As well as the odd look Qrow was giving him as soon as he said Ruby's name.
"You're gonna need to learn how to fight properly, kiddo." Qrow ordered before Oscar could ask about the odd look on his face.
Oscar just shrugged at that.
All he was concerned with right now was finding Ruby.
/
/
Oscar noted that the Huntsmen often left at weird times, Ruby did it as well, so maybe it was a Huntsmen thing.
Qrow would tell him to head down the path they were on, only for the next second the man would be nowhere in sight, only to reappear later down the path next to him, as if he hadn't done a vanishing act for the past half hour.
Maybe all Huntsmen were able to do the flower petal thing Ruby was able to do?
He could gather that Qrow was leaving to take care of nearby Grimm that he couldn't hear hunting them down.
He noted the sword the second he met him.
He didn't wish to be on the meeting end of it.
Since it was probably also a gun. Somehow.
./.
"How long were you looking for Ruby?" Oscar finally got the courage to ask.
Qrow made a dismissive noise at the question.
"Better question, kiddo, is how she found you." Qrow deflected.
So, a long time then.
Oscar shrugged. "She never said. She only said that she was looking for someone. But stayed at my farm." Oscar told him.
And seeing Qrow flinch, that he pretended not to see, he knew the conversation was over before it even began.
He knew when to pick his battles with Ruby. It seemed her uncle was the same.
Whatever made Ruby travel over two continents, hadn't just affected her, it seems.
./.
"How good are you at water?" Qrow suddenly asked.
Oscar looked to him in confusion. "Water?" He asked.
Qrow pointed outward, and suddenly once they were out of the tree line, all Oscar could see was the blue of the ocean.
They were apparently at a dock.
Oscar wasn't exactly stupid: he had seen a map of the world before.
He knew how big it was, and that the continents were surrounded by water.
But he had never seen it before.
He looked back to Qrow.
"…And how long is this gonna take?" He asked nervously.
"No more than a day, kiddo. Relax." Qrow remarked, then handed him a card of lien. "Off you go and buy two tickets." He ordered.
Oscar blinked.
Qrow did that a lot.
And by that, Oscar meant for the past week that they had been travelling, Qrow would just hand him lien for things, either for them both and just for himself entirely.
It wasn't as if Oscar was about to protest, considering Qrow was taking him to Ruby, and he had seen the man attempt to do it himself.
That man had the worst luck he had ever seen.
/
/
Oscar decided, the second his feet were on the boat that he didn't much like travelling by water.
But he could have it worse: Qrow looked green-hued and just about ready to hurl over the side of the boat.
But Oscar could guess because of that, the trip didn't take long, nor were they interrupted by anything during the entire sail.
./.
Oscar wanted to sit on the solid green earth beneath him as soon as they docked and were off the ship, grateful to be off the water.
"We need to head up to Beacon, kiddo." Qrow interrupted.
Oscar was seriously starting to get annoyed that Qrow somehow thought he understood every wood that came out of his mouth. By four days passing, and Oscar constantly reminded him, he dropped it.
Oscar knew that they had landed on the continent of Sanus.
That much he knew.
Everything else?
"Wait, where are we?" Oscar asked.
Qrow just sighed in vexation, as if remembering something.
"Sorry, kiddo. We need to take an airship to Vale, then another to Beacon. With me so far?" He elaborated.
"…And Beacon's where we can find more about where Ruby is, yeah?" Oscar asked as they moved away from the docked ships, towards store merchants.
"Well done for remembering." Qrow congratulated.
Halfway from Mistral, Qrow had dropped calling him pipsqueak and picked up calling him kiddo. Sometimes he called him both. Weirdly enough.
Oscar didn't think it was hard to remember, since it was where they needed to go. But he could smell what was in Qrow's flask, so he wasn't judging by a mile.
Qrow chuckled him another lien card.
"Go over there and find us two tickets into Beacon." He ordered then walked into the opposite direction where there was a vendor's market.
Well, this should be fun.
Oscar went over to the vendor that Qrow pointed to.
"Uh, hi, uh…" Oscar started.
Hurray for social interactions!
The man behind the counter looked at him with a frown. "Yeah, kid?" He asked.
"You're the guy to see for air transport?" Oscar asked, knowing well by now to ask what he needed, since with Qrow's luck sometimes the man he was pointed towards wasn't the man to see.
The man nodded, and Oscar slumped in relief.
"Yep, where do you need to go?" He questioned as he got out what looked like a transport list and travel time.
"I need to go to Beacon." Oscar told.
The man froze then eyed him critically. "…The school?" He questioned, with a hard sort of tone.
Oscar blinked in confusion.
Was there another?
"That's what I've been told." Oscar answered, slightly nervously.
"You're with someone?" The vendor asked.
Oscar nodded.
"I need passage for one adult Huntsmen, and myself," Oscar pointed to himself. "A minor." Oscar said.
Saying that he was travelling with an adult, a Huntsmen no less, normally got the ball rolling faster.
The man was still looking at him in confusion. "…You sure you don't mean the Beacon's Safe Zone?" The man asked in concern.
Oscar frowned. "…Is Beacon Academy inaccessible?" He questioned.
The man eyed him with caution now.
"Has been for over a year now." He said cautiously.
Oscar blinked.
Maybe that was what caused Ruby to leave in the first place?
And the cause of all her pain.
"Does the Safe Zone have the school staff?" Oscar asked, instead.
The man pondered. "Pretty sure that's where all the teachers are. Huntsmen, for sure since Grimm likes to sneak into the place. But maybe not the students: they should be in Vale's Safe Zone since school hasn't resumed yet. Beacon's Safe Zone is run by the school's former headmaster until anyone can figure out how to get back into the school without dying." The man answered.
Headmaster.
Former?
Could very well be this Ozpin man Oscar needed to talk to find out more about Ruby's whereabouts.
Oscar nodded. "Then, sure, the Beacon Safe Zone, it is." Oscar replied with a smile.
The man looked relieved that he wasn't sending a civilian minor into the actual school area.
/
/
Oscar found Qrow by looking into the bar in the docks.
Oscar had learnt by now where to find the man.
"I think you forgot to tell me that Beacon is a no-go zone." Oscar reminded.
Qrow paused to stare at him, then cursed when he overfilled his flask.
"Sorry, kiddo. Forgot you didn't know." He said as he mopped his spill up.
Oscar scrunched his nose up in confusion.
Because how in all of Remnant was he supposed to know?!
"The guy gave us tickets to the Beacon Safe Zone. He said that's where the Beacon's headmaster should be." Oscar said instead of whacking the man one.
Qrow nodded as Oscar handed the envelope with the flight plane and itinerary in it. "Hm. Good," He started as he pulled the information out. "We're stopping at Vale first, and then have some time there before the next airship leaves," Qrow answered.
Oscar blew out a frustrated huff of breath.
He couldn't have gathered that in a million years, even if he read it a million times over.
"Vale?" Oscar questioned, getting really close to bopping Qrow over the head with anything nearby in reach.
"Yeah, we'll see some old faces," Qrow said happily.
Oscar looked skyward in an attempt to not show his confusion and to find the will to not whack this man in the next five minutes.
./.
Oscar stepped off the bullhead in apprehension.
"How long did you say we have here?" Oscar asked Qrow.
The size of Vale's Safe Zone was huge, and the not-so-safe parts were even larger.
The very chatty pilot had told Oscar on the way down that there were two Safe Zones: one for the city of Vale, the other for Beacon Academy.
He wasn't forthcoming about why the actual school grounds itself became suddenly a place no one was allowed to go into.
It was like they all expected him to suddenly know.
Which he didn't, he constantly reminded Qrow to no ends.
If anyone else was interested in knowing.
But Oscar followed Qrow, nonetheless.
It wasn't like he knew anyone else here.
But he had the feeling Qrow was damn lost.
He looked it; his face was lined with confusion that Oscar was starting to worry about.
They didn't have much time here before the next airship was due to leave for Beacon's Safe Zone, to find Ozpin.
Oscar wasn't sure what would happen if they missed their designated flight.
Perhaps Qrow was searching here for Ozpin as well?
Oscar couldn't see Ruby anywhere.
And he looked.
"Are we list?" Oscar asked nervously.
Qrow just grumbled. "See if you can get a better look from up there." He said as he pointed up to a nearby ladder.
Oscar stared at him incredulously. "…And who am I looking for, if I don't see Ruby?" Oscar asked, feeling his eye start to twitch again.
"Blonde hair. White hair. Black hair. Red hair. Normally in at least two groups. Several may freak you out. All Huntsmen." Qrow noted.
Oscar just grumbled but disappeared up the ladder: it wasn't as if at least half of the mentioned hair types weren't people he had already seen around previously.
./.
Qrow just sighed in vexation as soon as Oscar was out of sight.
This was going to be hard to explain to, well, anyone, who had seen the boy before.
Especially since the boy in question couldn't remember meeting them.
"Uncle Qrow!" A loud voice called jubilantly.
Qrow looked around, and naturally saw all the people he just sent Oscar to look for.
His niece, with all her teammates, minus her leader, was running up to him.
"Hey." He greeted back when they got close enough to greet without yelling.
Unsurprising to anyone, was Nora being the first to rush up into his space.
"You're back!! Did you find Ruby?! Did you?! She's not here!" She near screamed into his face.
Qrow leant his face away from her ire. "Nope." He sounded out.
Most of the group groaned in despair.
"It's been ages!" Yang said nervously.
Qrow wasn't about to remind them, that naturally because he was the one searching — it would take all the good luck he didn't possess to find her.
"It's technically just gone over a year. But I did find out where she had been more the better part of it." Qrow insisted.
"For the better part?" Yang asked, her tone changing to a mix of incredulous and slight.
Qrow ignored her rage for the time being.
And he was saved from answering when Oscar jumped back down.
"Nope, didn't—" He stalled seeing everyone around Qrow. "Ah. Found 'em." He remarked pointing at the people he was told to find, based on their hair colour alone.
He didn't want to aggravate any of them.
Since they were trained Huntsmen, especially if they knew Ruby.
They all stared at him, with varying degrees of horror washing over their faces.
Pinkie was the first to round on Qrow.
"What happened to Ozpin?!" She yelled, her tone incredulous and slightly fearful.
Oscar flinched, not expecting her to be so loud, but realised then how much time they didn't have.
"Shoot. Qrow. Time." He reminded.
Qrow bolted. "You guys are coming too! Hurry up!" Qrow yelled as he started to run.
Oscar was faster, even with the near trip he glared and blamed Qrow for.
"Where're we going!" Miss Blondie was yelling the loudest, surprisingly, as they all ran to keep up.
"Just shut up and move it!" Qrow yelled back.
They made it onto the aircraft just before it was due to take off.
"Why're we on a plane?" Pinkie McLoudmouth was asking in a whine.
Oscar ignored her from where he was lying on the flight deck floor as he focused on heaving oxygen back into his lungs.
"This — Better — Be — Worth — It!" He panted, sparing a glare at Qrow.
Qrow just snorted at him as he passed, whacking his boot with his own.
"Hey!" Oscar yelled as he leant on his elbows, glaring more at the man.
"See. You're fine." Qrow growled as he took a seat.
"…You guys wanna fill us in?" Mister Blondie was asking nervously.
Oscar ignored him and glared at Qrow.
Qrow glared back as the rest of them sat down once the plane started to prepare to take off.
"You're the one who said she'd be on a mission, Pipsqueak." Qrow bit back.
Oscar scrunched his nose up. "Please stop calling me that. And no, no, I did not say that! You inferred it!" Oscar seethed as he got up and found a seat to buckle into.
The others, by now were looking from one to the other, with varying confused and incredulous looks on their faces.
"Okay, what?" Miss Blondie asked incredulously once she got too many confused shrugs and looks from her friends.
Oscar just looked at her. "Here, no. Here's a better question! Who are you guys!?" Oscar asked, his tone angry at not understanding what was going on.
At that, they all looked at each other in surprise.
Oscar swore that Qrow said something about karma under his breath as he chuckled as if something about this whole thing was humorous!?
"Wait, you don't know who we are?" Mister Blondie asked.
Oscar blinked at him, then frowned.
"How the heck would I know? I've never met you before!" Oscar grouched as he crossed his arms.
The teenagers just stared at each other in confusion.
"See. When I said I knew where Ruby was? Oscar here found me, and I figured the rest." Qrow explained.
Oscar watched as he was looked over by each and every one of them before they all looked to Qrow, then back to him.
"Wait, Ruby's been with you?" Miss Blondie asked him with a frown.
Oscar blinked.
Okay. Apparently, these people knew Ruby. But also apparently, didn't know where she was either.
Yay.
How the hell was it so hard to track one single person?!
"She was with me for over two seasons—" Oscar stalled seeing their confused stares. "Uh…Just on seven months?" He saw they at least understood that. "Sorry, farming terminology is different," Oscar muttered at the end.
He was going to start needing to autocorrect himself, wasn't he?
Since Qrow demanding what the hell is two seasons?! – got annoying real fast.
Oscar watched them look at each other, again.
Yay, at least he wasn't the only one confused now.
The only thing they were confused about, which was going to get more annoying, was that they expected him to know them
"Then, if Ruby has been with him, why are we on a plane right now?" Oscar heard the black-haired man question.
Oscar just groaned.
"Well, Ruby was with me. Until she decided not to come back when she said she would. And since she's kinda never done that before…" Oscar trailed off when he saw the looks that he got when he said her name.
Again.
"Farm Boy here got worried." Qrow snickered.
Oscar looked at him, deadpanned. This man was asking to be hit with a pole, or something.
"Please don't call me that. It's like you're forgetting my name on purpose." Oscar said, annoyed.
When they didn't speak for a second more, Oscar looked back at them.
"Hey. Here's a new question. You guys have names, right?" Oscar asked.
He should be polite because these guys were armed Huntsmen, and he was surrounded by them nervously.
One Huntsmen, he would watch warily.
Eight on the other hand? Eight was a tad too much to watch all at the same times, especially when he didn't know their reasons, aside from the probability they knew Ruby.
And now they were looking to each other, as if what he just said unsettled them.
Great.
Yay.
./.
He did finally get their names.
And how they knew Ruby.
Apparently, Huntsmen work in teams of four.
And he could also safely say, that nope, never meet any of these people before in his life.
/
/
By the time they touched down in Beacon's Safe Zone, Oscar was mentally freaking out.
"So, what are we doing here, again?" Weiss was asking.
Qrow hadn't told them yet.
"Seriously. It's not like school is a thing yet." Nora whined in grumpy confusion.
Oscar stared at her. "You guy actually have a school to go back to?" He asked, stressed.
Yang just snorted. "That's debatable." She said lightly.
Oscar looked at her and blinked at her humorous tone.
"Am I even allowed to be here?" Oscar muttered as they moved.
He wasn't a Huntsmen; he was a farmer.
Surely, people could tell by his sans non-weapon.
"Just act like you own the place." Qrow answered him.
Nora giggled. "Yeah. That'll work." Nora replied smugly with a smirk.
Oscar was trying hard to ignore how freaked out he was, and how little freaked out these guys weren't after seeing a literal giant frozen Dragon atop where their school should have been.
Everyone ignored the dragon.
So, dragons were natural in this part of the world?!
Dragons would normally ruin a lot of people's days. But these guys?
Nope.
Just the reason why they weren't at school.
Not important, or nothing.
Totally natural.
—Why was it there?!
./.
Oscar found himself walking slower to take in where he now was.
The grounds he found himself in, he could assume where the Beacon Safe Zone was, amongst the campsites, tents and he assumed the bigger wooden halls were for gathering.
Amongst it all, was an open field of grass left alone from the encroaching surrounding tent sites.
With how close pack the tents were with each other, the open grassland was used for something important, he could assume.
With another look around, he realised that with him taking in where he was, he had been left by himself.
"Shoot…" He muttered.
Now he had no idea where he was, and no idea where Qrow was!
Oscar looked around, and spied the closest hall, seeing the ladder, he bolted for it in hopes that with a bird's eye view that he could spot the others he knew.
./.
Qrow barely hid the smug look he got from seeing them look at him with a mixture of confused, incredulous, and funnily enough, betrayal from Yang when they met up with Ozpin.
Ozpin, himself, even looked confused when he looked up to see Qrow standing there, instead of roaming Haven Academy for clues on Lionheart and Ruby's whereabouts.
"Qrow?" He voiced, sounding confused more than his facial expression showed.
"Hey." Qrow greeted with a one-finger salute as he chuckled at the kids who were trying to discreetly not point at Ozpin in confusion, failing hard at it.
Not that he could blame them, especially after seeing Oscar for the second time.
Qrow noted the minuet more spike of confusion from Ozpin's face when he looked around at the two teams behind Qrow, and not seeing the redhead in question, but a lot of confused remarks and looks from her teams.
"…And what are you doing here…?" Ozpin questioned.
Qrow just shrugged.
"Well, see I kinda found a lead on Ruby." Qrow started.
Ozpin nodded. "Well, that's a good start..." Ozpin added, he could follow that.
What he could follow was why the man in question in front of him was standing there, trying not to snigger for all he was worth.
"But a funny story on how I ended up with it?" Qrow questioned through a snigger.
Ozpin frowned at him.
"How so?" He asked curiously.
Oscar finally spotted Qrow after walking the length of the hall he was standing on.
Then ran the remaining length and jumped off.
It was from the same height from his loft space, he had jumped from there before.
And survived too!
"Qrow!" He yelled as he jumped, unknowingly catching everyone's attention as he did since he was currently too busy celebrating that he stuck the landing and didn't fall over or hurt himself.
Everyone was staring at him in astonishment.
"Found you!" Oscar continued brightly. "Since you kinda left me behind, and all." He reminded with a snide smile.
Qrow cursed making Oscar's smile wider.
Oscar turned to look at the other remaining adult he didn't know of who was looking at him with a calculative look of silence.
"Hi! I'm guessing you're Ozpin?" Oscar asked.
Ozpin blinked at him, before returning his stare-glare to Qrow.
"I'm assuming Oscar here is where you got your source of Miss Rose's location?" Ozpin asked instead.
Oscar blinked at how this man knew his name, but then felt himself not caring if it meant this man knew how to find Ruby.
"Small world..." Qrow admitted.
Something in Ozpin's face glitched for a second before it went back to looking neutral.
"It's really not." The man muttered under his breath. "So!" He started in a level voice for them all to hear. "How can I help? I assume you wouldn't have brought Oscar all this way for nothing?" He asked curiously.
Oscar looked around curiously and noted now that the camp was littered about with heavily armoured adults.
So, they were probably Huntsmen.
He looked back to Ozpin curiously, he wondered where this man's weapon was.
…Canes can't be considered weapons, right? Because that's all this man had on him.
He was even leaning on it!
Oscar lurched back into focus when Qrow looked at him.
"Well, Pipsqueak? Wanna tell the class how you met Ruby?" He asked.
They all saw Oscar's left eye start to twitch in annoyance.
"I swear that you're forgetting my name on purpose." He growled at Qrow in annoyance.
Qrow didn't back down.
Oscar needed to remember to be polite to the man he wanted to punch in the face.
"I met her two seas—I gotta stop doing that. Seven months ago. She appeared at my farm out of nowhere. I first thought she was a Grimm! Appearing out of nowhere like she did!" Oscar admonished.
"It was fortunate that you did not attack her." Ozpin said.
Was he grateful that he didn't? Sounded like it.
But the thought of attacking Ruby? Even back then? Hell no.
Oscar scrunched his nose up in distaste.
"I wouldn't've been able to attack her anyway. She had her scythe out. Which is way bigger than my pitchfork," Oscar noted and heavily ignored the amused high giggle from Yang, and the resulting whack Blake subtly gave her in return.
"…Anyways. I think she was hunting Grimm while staying at my farm while freaking me out every day with that petal thing she can do. Every so often she would tell me she would be gone for a number of days, then she would always be back by that day. Even on those trips, she took to Mistral because apparently her scythe is a gun and it shoots things, because why?" Oscar ended up rhetorically asking.
He didn't expect an answer.
He shrugged.
"Before she left for Mistral, winter had just finished, she kept hearing Grimm movement. She said she needed to leave to restock her ammo reserves. She said she would be five days." Oscar answered.
Oscar saw the thoughtful look break through the neutral expression on Ozpin.
"And I can assume she did not come back after those five days lapsed." Ozpin reiterated, easily seeing where this was going.
Oscar nodded.
"Well, yeah. Ruby's never done that before. Come back early? Sure. But she's never even cut it close." Oscar said, noting again the odd look they all got when he said her name.
Was he saying it wrong?
How different was it from how they said it?
"I was thinking because of that, she headed out on a mission…" Qrow implied.
"Then it would hopefully be logged with me. That's why you're here." Ozpin summarised in a second.
Both Oscar and Qrow nodded helpfully.
"Then you will need to follow me. Since I don't have my tablet on me. It's with Glynda," Ozpin noted, then looked to Ruby's teammates. "You can come as well since you're more likely to sneak your way in anyway." Ozpin gently reprimanded.
Most of them just laughed nervously at being caught.
Because yeah…
He was right.
/
/
The only thing that annoyed Oscar about this place, aside from the fact it was overrun by Huntsmen, was that it seemed to prickle at his eyes.
Like a brain itch about something he had forgotten about.
Like he had forgotten something important and sleeping on it was a terrible mistake.
Which was even more annoying because Oscar literally had nothing to do here, aside from finding Ruby.
That was all, right?
Oscar watched that as soon as they entered a hall, Ozpin went over to a woman, presumable this Glynda person Ozpin had spoken of, a woman who met him halfway carrying the tablet, and an even worryingly worried look on her face as she handed it over.
"You've gotten a flag." She said as she did.
Ozpin was immediately moving.
"For Miss Rose?" He asked just as fast as he moved.
"You've flagged her?!" Qrow asked, in several overlapping concerned emotions rising out of him like smoke.
Oscar understood what the word meant just as much as he understood the alarmed and pointed look that he got from Ozpin.
Which is to say, he didn't understand that as much as he understood the surprised-astonish look he got from Glynda when she saw him.
Even more so, he was confused about why Qrow suddenly clicked understandingly.
"Ah. So, what happened—?" He paused, just like everyone else when Ozpin's usual calmness broke away to show worry and concern. "…Oz?" Qrow questioned first.
"Her mission has been logged. …It's come in with the preliminary report update since she…Since she has been injured." Ozpin muttered airily, as if stunned.
In the pounding silence that rushed over them all, a pin could have dropped and sounded like an earthquake, and yet none of them would have heard it with the rushing sound in their ears.