Chapter 47

Collecting sap turned out to be harder than I'd thought. Apparently more precision was necessary than expected. I ended up wasting a good deal of sap and only managing to fill my jar up a third of the way.

"Ugh, I can't believe this!" Weiss furiously shook her arms, purple liquid dripping from her sleeves. "This stuff had BETTER not stain my clothes, or someone's going to pay!"

"Heh." I couldn't help but chuckle at Weiss's predicament. She wasn't doing any better than I was despite her high and mighty attitude. Russel wasn't having much luck either, although he didn't seem to care very much about completing the task anyway. I'm kind of worried about Russel's lack of cooperation, but as long as it's only for today, I should be able to tolerate him long enough. "It's true, this will probably take us a while to finish. But what else can we do but keep trying?"

All of the sudden, I felt a soft tug on my arm. "Hmm?" Looking behind me, I saw Raelin standing there expectantly. "Yes? Do you have any ideas?"

Raelin didn't speak, merely lifting her hand and pointing out into the forest where Pyrrha and Jaune were.

"Ho, not a bad suggestion all things considered. If we're not doing so well." I turned towards Pyrrha's team off in the distance. Their group seemed to be have collected all their sap, four full bottles sitting in a pile together. Ruby and Jacey seemed to be missing from their group for some unknown reason, while Pyrrha seemed to be trying to help Jaune with his sap allergies. "Maybe we can just ask for help."

Weiss followed my gaze, noticing the other group. "Pyrrha. Yes! For once, excellent idea Aero."

"For once?" I turned to Russel, who hadn't moved from his spot under the tree. "You coming or what?"

"Hmph, I'm gonna take a nap, make sure my jar gets filled, 'leader'.

Taking a deep breath, I fought back the urge to go punch him.

"Now, we just need to find a natural and appropriate reason to go over and talk to Pyrrha." Weiss continued. "She's likely handling her own business so-"

"HEY! PYRRHA!" I interrupted my teammate, shouting towards the woman.

"You-you blockhead!" Weiss quietly hissed. "How is that natural?!"

Pyrrha turned towards my shouting, giving me a wave as I approached. "Hello Aero, have you managed to finish your task?"

"Well, we're not doing not that great, to tell the truth. That's kinda why we came over here honestly. We kinda suck at gathering this sap, and noticed you were having better luck. Would you mind giving us a few pointers?"

"I wouldn't mind at all." the red-haired girl said, faintly smiling. The point of this trip is to encourage teamwork between us, so helping other teams would fit exactly that right? Ruby and Jacey just left to go find Professor Port so he can take our jars."

"Oh..." Jaune loudly sniffed, wiping his nose. "Ey Weiss." he said, his allergies affecting his speech. "Ancy beating you here..." he leaned against a tree, trying to act natural. "Zo, you wanna-"

"No." Weiss interrupted Jaune, walking past him to go talk to Pyrrha.

"Oof." I glanced at Jaune hanging his head in disappointment. "That's rough, I'm sure you'll get her next time."

"I zink, I gonna wash by bace at duh stream. Zis zap is triggering by allergies..."

"Alright." Giving him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder before joining the others.

"How are you and your team faring?" Pyrrha questioned, noticing only three of us had come.

"Well, we could be doing better I suppose. Still have to work out a few issues."

"That's putting it mildly." Scoffed Weiss. "We can't communicate with Raelin, Aero tried to name the team after himself, and Russel is completely uncooperative!"

"It's true." I gave a small nod. "Good thing we have Weiss here to straighten us out. She's a perfect teammate with no flaws."

"Oh? Well, thank you Aero. It's nice to know my hard work and prudence have gotten through to you. Seems you're not hopeless after all."

"Wh..." There was an awkward silence as Pyrrha and I shared an odd look with each other. Apparently Weiss hadn't noticed my sarcasm, and had taken what I said seriously. Raelin frowned at Weiss, silently shaking her head before walking towards a tree to try gathering sap again.

"Say Pyrrha..." I watched Raelin silently working. "You've been with Raelin longer than I have, is there anything you can tell me about that girl that might help me being paired with her?"

Jaune returned from the stream, drying off his face with his sleeve. His eyes and nose looking a lot less pink. "That's better. So, what're you talking about?"

"Raelin." I continued, pointing at her. "She hasn't opened up to me at all this whole time. And that might be 'normal' for her, but at this rate, I'm gonna get a big fat F on my assignment."

"Anything I can tell you..." the red-haired woman muttered, crossing her arms to think. "Um...oh! She likes dogs...I think."

"You think?"

"Well...I honestly couldn't be certain. We saw her staring at a dog once, and seemed a little reluctant to leave." Pyrrha shook her head. "I'm sorry I don't have much for you. Maybe Jacey could think of something."

"Speaking of Jacey." Weiss frowned. "She should've been back with Port by now right?"

"That's true." Jaune nodded. "They've been gone too long, think they've gotten lost?"

"Ugh, that would be SO like Ruby. To go wandering off on her own and getting lost."

All of the sudden, Raelin's head perked up. She immediately shot to her feet drawing her weapons. Shortly afterward we all heard a low roar as a large black grimm with spikes on its back appeared.

Russel woke up, quickly scurrying to his feet after hearing the grimm's roar. "Th-that's an Ursa Major!"

"Ah, there it is. I was starting to wonder if the Ursa was going to show up."

"Wait, you knew that was going to happen? Ah, come to think of it, you did say there was going to be an unexpected grimm attack today." Jaune smiled, "Well, you were right, but it's not as bad as I was expecting. There are six of us, and only one of it."

"Jaune, go kill that thing." I said pointing at the large grimm.

"Huh?" Jaune's jaw dropped, looking at me, and then at the Ursa Major. "Y-you want me to fight that? Alone? Now? But...you're still holding onto my shield remember!?"