The lone marksman (soldier x RWBY)

Chapter 16

At 0740 we had finally made it to the mess hall and began eating breakfast after convincing Yang I had dried her hair enough. "So today we're gonna be going to the Forever Fall forest to do Professor Peach's assignment." Stated Ruby. "Which is?" I asked groggily. "Collecting tree sap from the trees in the forest." She said. I huffed in response. Sounded useless to me. "Sure you're up to it?" Asked Yang. I looked over to her with a 'really' look on my face. "Do you know anything about military stereotypes?" I asked in response. "Uh, only that they're supposed to be very strict and jargon and stuff." Answered Yang. I smiled and shook my head. "One of many is that we can drink ourselves sick then the next day go on a ten k' run then fight our enemy." I said with humour. Yang and Ruby looked at each other. "Yeah but did you know how drunk you were by the time you got here?" Asked Ruby. "Well, yeah, I was tired and fell asleep on the bullhead then someone brought me back in the room and put me in Yangs bed." I said. They shared a look again. "Do you remember anything past then?" Asked Yang. I shook my head. Yang began smiling. "Well. You fell asleep on me, then when we landed, I gave you piggy back ride to the room where we had a quick argument with Weiss which you interrupted wi-." She was cut off by Weiss. "Rudely interrupted saying you had just met your dad, rudely." She said with fire at the beginning and fading off at the end. I raised an eyebrow. "Oh wait. It's coming back to me. I said; 'get the fuck out of the way you fucken asshole. Jesus a man can't even meet his dad without the fucking Central Weiss Agency knowing exactly what my blood alcohol level being known.' It seemed like one of my intelligent moments between incoherent slurring." I explained mostly to myself. I looked up to see Ruby blocking her ears to not hear the profanities I was spewing, Yang was laughing, Blake was smirking behind a book and Weiss was looking down embarrassed. Yang calmed down and continued her story. "So after that, I pulled off your boots and uniform and threw you up onto my bed and you fell asleep there." She explained. I nodded. "But later on, I woke up and I didn't see you there, then further on, you were back." She said. "Ah I know where you were." Said Ruby. I raised an eyebrow. "You came out and gave a pep talk to Jaune with me then fell asleep in the hallway next to us." She said. I nodded. "Good to know." I stated. 

Later on, we were walking through forever fall forest under the lead of Professor Goodwitch. Everyone was in awe at the beauty strange forest. I was stuck reminding myself that the red grass was natural and not blood and the red leaves weren't on fire. I looked over to Goodwitch as she was giving her brief while keeping my eyes along the bush land. "Yes students, the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful. But, we are not here to sight see. Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest and I'm here to make sure none of you die when doing so." She abruptly stopped and turned around causing Jaune to bump into Cardin. I continued listening to Goodwitch while looking along the bushes and trees surrounding us. "Each of you is to gather one jars worth of red sap. However, this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates. We will rendezvous back here at four o'clock." She saw I wasn't looking at her. "Mr Shepard. What did I just say?" She asked to make sure I was paying attention. I didn't look back at her as I answered. "Collect a jars worth of tree sap, stay close to teammates, watch out for Grimm and rendezvous back here sixteen-hundred hours." I recited back to her. She seemed surprised before regaining her composure. "Right, have fun." She said dismissing us. I knew Cardin was planning something with Jaune so I had to be weary of that. I walked off with the rest of the team. I took a knee against a tree and hammered in the sap nozzle and began filling up my jar. I faced opposite and saw that there was a lot of others in the area, all were relaxing or sticking their nozzles in trees. I didn't have the luxury of aura so I couldn't relax like them. I finished filling my jar and pulled out my nozzle. I packed everything away and lay down in a ditch not far from the rest of the team with my rifle resting on my chest and dozed of to sleep.