White Sheep

Chapter 2

Hey all! Thank you for all the reviews last chapter, it was great to see the fic being taken well. I'm confident in this one and truly do hope to make it as enjoyable a read as Professor Arc, hopefully even more so.

For the cover art, this site is a bit temperamental at times, which is why some of you might not have been able to see it. Hopefully it works now, but it's honestly 50-50. You can always Google Kegi and see it on his DA.

Beta: College Fool

Cover Art: Kegi Springfield

Chapter 2 – A Sheep's Stand

"Wow..." Jaune gasped and pushed his way through the crowd into Vale proper. Tall buildings sprung up on either side of him and some reached almost as high as his mother's tower. They came in myriad colours, ones he'd never thought he might see; greys, whites, blues... it was enough to take his breath away. And the people – there were so many of them! At least... well there'd been at least fifty in the queue to get through the main gatehouse, a number which was already unfathomable to him. But now that he got to see the streets themselves? "There's so many of them," he whispered as his eyes traced over the huge swarms of people that pushed left and right. Men and women shouted, children cried or laughed and strange, coloured vehicles buzzed by.

The sheer noise of it all was enough to make him feel dizzy and he staggered backwards. Luckily, something caught him.

"Oi, watch it." The man he'd bumped into growled and pushed him aside, "Don't stand in front of the gates, you idiot!"

Jaune blinked, he wondered who the man was talking to, only to realise a second later that it was himself. "Ah," he gasped, "I'm sorry. Was there somewhere you would prefer me to stand?"

"Sarcastic piece of shit," the man scoffed and glared at him before walking away. Jaune blinked. Wait, but the man hadn't told him where he should stand...

"Perhaps somewhere where you won't be run over," Remy whispered into his mind.

"Oh, I see... maybe against the wall?" Jaune looked towards the wall in question, which seemed to be part of the defensive structure of Vale. The Nevermore had dropped him off some distance away from it, leaving them to trek the rest of the way. It might have been a difficult journey for most, but luckily there'd been plenty of friendly Grimm around. He was lucky mom and dad had thought to have ID cards made for him and his sisters – all labelled as just being of the Arc family, of course. "Are you seeing all of this Remy?" Jaune asked within his mind, "This place is so alive!"

"Yeah... great." the parasite sighed, "I am literally wracked with paroxysms of cheer."

"Me too," Jaune grinned, "This is amazing!"

"Ugh... forget it."

Vale was incredible, but also a little daunting. Faced now with the reality of it, he wasn't actually sure what he was supposed to do. It felt like he was a Beowolf just discovering that he was in the middle of a village, now faced with the impossible choice of where to start his spree. He'd read about cinemas before, big buildings where they showed movies to an audience. Uncle Watts had brought home a movie for him to watch on his scroll once, a documentary on the great political leaders of Atlas or something. It had been pretty boring but the idea that more could exist, some with stories like his books, was pretty cool.

And speaking of books – he could check out a book store, or even a library! The one back home had contained a few fairy tales and stories, but it was old-fashioned and mostly stocked with books on topics like history, strategy, warfare and other things. Not to mention a few forbidden tomes, or so big sis had told him with a hungry gleam in her eyes. She always asked him to look for some but he'd never managed to find any. Then again, if they were forbidden then surely his mom had hidden them.