Chapter 14: The Ancient's Peak

Ren's Perspective

Who'd have thought that we'd see Team RWBY in the middle of nowhere? If nobody saw that coming, they certainly wouldn't expect a lake of blood staining the floor and surrounding snow red with their blood. The rest of my team stood staring at them numbly; the imagery overpowering all motor functions. I was frantically searching for something, anything, that could help them in their piles of stuff. Out of the pack near Ruby, there was a collection of red bottles with small tags on them. "Potion of Vigorous Healing". Pyrrha ran over to me and I handed her a bottle. She nodded after reading the label and ran off to help Yang, who seemed to be the most injured. I then used one of the bottles to help Blake, and by the time that Pyrrha had finished giving it to Yang, Jaune and Nora began assisting Ruby and Weiss, respectively. After all of the potions were given to team RWBY, all of their wounds started to close and they seemed to rest easier. Pyrrha collapsed in the non-bloody snow in relief, Jaune sighed and Nora started singing quietly.

After a few minutes, Weiss sat up slowly and looked around.

"Oh, hey, Pyrrha." She looked away for a second and then slowly turned back. "Wait, Pyrrha?"

"Yes, Weiss?" Pyrrha replied, smirking slightly.

"When'd you get here?" She asked.

"Right about the time that the elevator reached the top." Pyrrha said casually.

"Oh, Team JNPR is finally here." Blake said, still lying down. "Glad you guys took your sweet time getting here." Blake joked.

"You were cut up real good, Blake." Jaune said.

"That's the Dragonborn of legend for you." Blake trailed off.

"He hurt me." Ruby commented concisely.

"That's an understatement." Nora joked.

"Is Yang still unconscious?" Ruby asked, concern taking over her voice.

"Yeah, she was hurt the worst." Pyrrha replied, frowning in Yang's direction. Ruby crawled over to Yang and knelt beside her.

"Ruby, I'd give her some space. She was hurt pretty-" Pyrrha trailed off after seeing how sad Ruby looked.

"So Blake, you said that the Dragonborn did this to you?" Pyrrha asked, casually shifting the conversation.

"Yeah. We were looking for an Elder Scroll to get us home and Weiss said the one here was the one that could take us home. He also needed it for something and beat us to it." Blake explained.

"So, how'd you get injured?" Jaune asked.

"We didn't know there was more than one Elder Scroll…" Weiss said quietly.

"That doesn't explain how you got injured." Pyrrha prodded.

"We kinda," Weiss squirmed a little, "We kinda started a fight with him over it."

"Clearly you lost." Pyrrha replied.

"It was only because we were his friends that he left us alive…" Blake chimed in.

"So that's how the Dragonborn treats his friends?" Pyrrha mumbled.

"No." Yang said loudly.

"Yang!" Ruby shouted, pulling her into a hug.

"Wait! She is still hurt!" Pyrrha shouted at Ruby.

"It's ok, Pyrrha, Ruby's just giving me a hug." Yang said nonchalantly.

After Team RWBY caught us up on all the things that happened, they stood up and told us that they were going after the Dragonborn.

"Oh no you aren't!" Pyrrha shouted at them as they grabbed their stuff.

"Because we are hurt?" Yang asked angrily.

"No, you aren't going without us." Pyrrha explained. Team RWBY smiled.

"Of course we wouldn't. We just got back together, right?" Yang said, throwing her bag over her shoulder.

"So, where would the Dragonborn be?" Pyrrha asked as we walked back to the nearest city, Winterhold.

"He kinda just left without saying much." Blake replied.

"Do you guys know where he could be going?" Pyrrha asked the remaining members of Team RWBY. Ruby and Weiss shook their heads.

"He said the trek up the Throat of the World is a long one." Yang said.

"Could he be going there?" Blake asked.

"Quite possibly. He meets with the Greybeards and they reside at the monastery at the top of the Throat of the World." Weiss explained.

"Where do we need to go then?" Jaune asked.

"Ivarstead. That is where the first of the 7,000 Steps are." Weiss replied.

I coughed. "7,000 steps? How tall is this mountain?!" I asked, concerned for my back because I would probably be carrying Nora up the mountain.

"Largest in the known world." Weiss said, proud of her gained knowledge.

After leaving the place that we found Team RWBY, we headed dead south and over a mountainous area that spit us out near an odd place inside of a hill. We immediately walked down the road to the right of it, heading to Windhelm. Once we neared Windhelm, we turned right into a smaller path and walked up the hill that it was laid on.

A short ways down the path led to the opening of the landscape, as the hill that blocked our view to the left now faded into the distance. To the left was a large steaming field of rock. Between us and the field was a fast flowing river, probably the smaller half of the one that connects to Windhelm. On the ground opposite the river, small stair-step shaped mounds steamed with clear water flowing down the sides and into the river below.

Oddly, two goats joined us on the road. They belonged to a nearby mill that operated on the river that we were walking along, but it was odd to suddenly be walking abreast with goats. The mill was normal enough, but it looked to be poor, much like the rest of the buildings in this land.

Despite the economic state of this place, the scenery was quite serene; The sound of the water gurgling underneath the bridges, the color of the sun as it dipped overtop of the trees on the ridgeline. It definitely had a feel of pre-industrial technology, which allowed for more beautiful surroundings.

As a fort, much like the ones that we have seen on our past excursions to forts, appeared to our left, a river guarded by a broken fort appeared to our right. If it weren't for the fallen forts, this place would be beautiful. The warm sun filtering through the leaves, the waterfalls on the river, it's just a magnificent place to behold.

My legs were starting to ache from the constant uphill walk that seemed to go on forever. The moment the path leveled out, I dropped my mouth at the size of the mountain before me. This must be the Throat of the World. Ivarstead shouldn't be too far away.

Ivarstead didn't make a big impression on me when we first walked in. To the right was a bridge across the river and towards a path with altars on the side, and to the left was a small farm. The sound of saws attracted my attention to the lumbar yard (basically a small house) that was sawing large logs in half and a second man was chopping them into firewood. A guard walked past us saying something about a vampire slaying cult.

"Where's High Hrothgar?" Weiss asked him. He pointed straight up.

"Good luck climbing the 7,000 steps!" He laughed as he continued on his walk.

We all were concerned as we walked across the bridge and started walking up the path that I saw as we entered. This is going to be one long walk…

It got longer.

As soon as we got a short ways up the path, a snowstorm set in putting us in whiteout conditions. We bunched up and tried to conserve warmth; our summer clothes from Remnant uselessly flapping in the freezing breeze. What was once a steady path up the mountain is now a dirt path with small patches of stairs. Someone ahead of me slipped, they were too far away for me to see through the snow, and they slid to the edge, and a second person caught them. I caught a few words over the howling of the wind: "The edge here is a sheer cliff down to Ivarstead." I could do nothing but push forward and hope that the storm ended soon.

The farther up the mountain we got, the less stairs we saw. This caused me to feel like we were going a way that only rarely crossed paths with the correct route. Especially the part where the route dipped and we were walking down as opposed to uphill. Of all the days that a storm had to happen…

There was a large section of stairs that went straight uphill, restoring my faith in our path. Sadly, these hope were immediately dashed when I realized that our stairs ended and we were sandwiched between two large sections of rock. Slowly, the rocks began to slide out of view and we walked into an altar. Yang walked right and Pyrrha walked left. I went with my teammate, and the same was true for the people that I saw. We immediately turned right and walked along the snow-covered path, only to walk into Team RWBY a short ways along the road. Most of us laughed it off, but I was concerned about us staying together during this blizzard.

We were heading downhill again, which got me concerned, but there were stairs leading us so it wouldn't be too bad. Then they ended and the path leveled out. We almost walked off a cliff if it weren't for one of the poles on the outside edge of the path. The level path changed to uphill, but that didn't last very long before we were heading downhill again. It headed uphill constantly immediately after.

I froze when the wind began to slow and the snow cleared because a large castle stood on the hill. It was a very old castle with many open windows. On second thought, those windows don't have panes. It was very well made. It had a central tower that was for watching out for invaders. It seemed like a dorm of some kind, like a military academy. A large gust swept over the edge of the cliff, covering us in snow and freezing us. Next thing that I knew, we were walking in the door to escape the cold.

High Hrothgar

Nora shook off the snow like a dog, covering the people nearest to her in snow. Ahead of us we heard the clanking of heavy armor, prompting us to think that it was the Dragonborn. Blake, with her cat-like skills, went ahead of us and lead us in the correct direction to follow the armor clanking. It was odd to see the monastery look on the inside because of the military academy look on the outside. Blake ran towards the doors at the other side of the room and hid on the left wall and looked at it, like she was leaning over to see inside a door frame. I snuck up behind her and looked as well. It was a long hallway with the Dragonborn talking to a monk who was praying in front of a window. The Dragonborn started to turn around and Blake motioned for us all to hide behind the large divider of the stairs. Ruby hid in one of the amphoras that sat on the divider. The rest of us hid behind it and were hesitant to breathe. Heavy steps followed by clanking of armor rang out in the tense silence of the monastery. The steps started to head to the door, but stopped. If it was possible to breathe less, we were. Everything sat still for what felt like an eternity. Then, breaking the ever more tense silence, was the sound of the heavy steps and the door creaking.

Ruby poked her head out of the amphora and we started to breathe again. Blake snuck forward and spotted the Dragonborn in the courtyard outside, causing her to signal for us to follow her. When I reached the door, I saw a large stone door-frame-like structure at the end of the path through the courtyard. Beside that sat a large watchtower, once again instilling a sense of a military academy as opposed to the monastery that it is. The Dragonborn walked through the stone frame and Blake followed behind him quietly, halfway between him and us. "Lok… Vah Koor!" rang out ahead of us, causing the sky to clear and all the fog that hung over the path ahead dissipated. We followed quietly behind him, and I had trouble forcing Nora to maintain sound discipline. As the fog slowly rolled back in, the Dragonborn would take a deep breath before shouting "Lok… Vah Koor!" at the fog. This can't be his first time coming this far up the mountain. This path went upwards constantly and had less confusing path markers. Before long, I could look out and see a sort-of bowl shaped land beneath me. On the rims were mountains and the very center was obscured by clouds.

When the top of the mountain was in sight, a large dragon flew over our heads, and when he flew over the Dragonborn he said "Dovahkiin…" and landed at a small altar near the edge. Naturally, we threw ourselves behind the nearest rock and hoped that he didn't see us when he flew over. Is this where the Dragonborn learned his shouting?

/AN: Hey guys! Sorry for the short chapter length, probably not what you wanted after the waiting I put you though. But! The chapters that follow will make up for the lack of content, I promise you that. Now then, I'm going to be going back to school (winter break's over), and my job (was out with some broken ribs), so my friends and I will be returning to our "normal" writing schedule, so I hope to deliver chapters to you guys more often. So, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and see you in the next one!