RWBY: Remnant's Blond Bard

Chapter 8

Saph had been right to say mom would be happier with Terra helping him with his early travels, and mom had been right to think that too. The first day or two was an absolute nightmare – not because of any failing on his part or because he'd not realised how horrible the world was, but due to the weak transport routes between various villages and towns, and Jaune's own weak stomach.

If you wanted to travel from Vale to Atlas, you could just take a commercial ship or flight. Easy.

Getting from Ansel to a major city was a nightmare, and he came to realise he'd missed it all on their way to Mistral the first time due to his sickness. First, they had to take a trip by truck to another village that was a distribution hub for food. No one could afford to pay hauliers in Vale to deliver to every village, so villages pooled together and bought in bulk. It was cheaper that way. The good were then delivered to the town of Stokely, which lay roughly in the middle of the villages. There, it was fanned out and delivered by much cheaper truck drivers to each village.

So, the first step was to pay to hitch a ride on one of those truck to Stokely, the next was to hitch another ride toward the eastern coast of Vale, changing transport at two other villages and towns along the way before finally getting delivered to a larger town that dealt with ocean freight, which was more connected to Remnant's major trading lanes. From there, they could take a ship to Argus and finish their journey at last.

Jaune was confident he could have managed it all on his own, but it would have been with great stress and while double and triple checking notes and panicking about whether he was headed the right way.

Terra made it so much easier. She knew people, and they knew her, and she introduced them to friendlier drivers and got them better deals. Not to mention she could handle all of that while Jaune hurled chunks and Saphron stopped to rub his back.

Things were ironically better on the ship.

Not because of any immunity to sickness, but because he'd vomited it all out. That didn't stop him sitting on the prow of the ship with his feet dangling over the edge, strumming on his guitar. Saphron and Terra had finally gotten a room to themselves, and they were celebrating their engagement and independence.

Loudly.

And without any stereo music to dampen the noise.

The ship they were on was fairly quiet. It wasn't a typical ferry so there weren't many people – it was more a case of a small cargo ship that opted to take the occasional set of passengers because it made them some extra money. The crew only numbered eight or so, and they were minding their own business and doing work, and mostly ignored him, Terra and Saphron beyond a few early attempts to woo the women, in before they made their relationship clear. According to Terra, that was very normal for sailors she'd travelled with.

They were happy to leave him alone, however, and he was happy to be left alone.

Not that he was ever really lonely.

"Hey! Hey! I like your noise!"

"Thanks," said Jaune, strumming out a few more chords for the pod of bottlenose dolphins that had taken to swimming in front of their vessel, crisscrossing daringly in front of it. "What brings you out here?"

"Food, mostly. Your big string-things catch a lot of food, and we can pick at the edges. Free food, dry one."

They must have meant the nets. One thing Jaune had come to realise from speaking with animals was that language didn't always translate. If they didn't know what a "net" or a "boat" was then they couldn't say it even in their language.