章 1953: 183
My name is Lie Ren. I've been alone for… a while now. It's hard to keep track of the days in this forest that I've been stuck in.
I feel like I've forgotten how to speak- there's so few beings that live in the Lost Bamboo Forest and those that find themselves in this sprawling stretch of acres usually tend to just be lost and terrified.
I suspect that by now, as long as my partners are alive, someone else will have written out how they got to where they were, and I…
I know that I've been in the Ever After for less time than either Jaune or Pyrrha at this point. I know this for a fact. The Rusted Knight is an old, old legend within the confines of the Ever After. A wandering knight that has patrolled the southern quadrant for centuries, aimlessly wandering around and around until finding himself in the company of the Paper Pleasers. The Tarnished Lady is more recent, but I still know that she's been around for much longer than I have.
There's been no sign of the Wild Valkyrie for a very long time. That means that Nora has either been staying quiet, or because something else happened to her.
I wish Nora was here.
I wish Jaune was here.
I wish Pyrrha was here.
I miss them.
I don't think I ever told them enough how much I love them, how much I adore them. I don't think I ever told them just how special they are to me, that they made me feel fulfilled and happy and warm. I hope they knew before we got separated. Our Auras were starting to meld, I think. It was getting easier to understand them, to feel as though we were connected.
Nothing like Team RWBYP, I suppose, or even like most of Team CMNE, but we were getting there all the same. I still envy the emotional closeness that Ruby and Penny had… have. Even without touching, even without their Auras touching, they were always so well synchronized…
I wonder what it must feel like, to know that there's someone in the world who understands you almost better than you understand yourself… They seemed so happy together…
Regardless.
I've taken on the mantle of the Lotus Rogue in the time span that I've been in the Ever After. Somehow, despite everything, despite my best efforts to change things, I've still been stuck here so long that I'm not even sure that there is sunlight anymore in this bizarre, night time realm of endless bamboo with only the occasional path through it. The paths change every single day, shifting and merging as bamboo grows and withers away, as the Afterans cut their way through in the few communities that sprung up in the depths. They tend to all be bamboo cutters and carpenters. Little spirits straight out of Mistralian myth and legend.
I wonder how it is that they came to be here sometimes. Did the myths come first, or did the spirits come first? Are there truly spirits in the forests of Mistral, or did people somehow manage to find themselves here in deep dreams? I suppose it doesn't matter, truly, but…
I always did wonder why father seemed so apprehensive to let me play near any standing bunches of bamboo. Like he was afraid that I would vanish into them.
The bamboo folk here treat me with some reverence, stating that I remind them of the previous Lotus Rogue… which is strange, because there should have only been one. Me.
I was the one who took on the role, but…
Was there another?
Was my father the Lotus Rogue?
Is that why he came home late one night, haggard and shaken beyond belief, looking at us as though he hadn't seen us in years when all he'd done was go out to the fields to collect some bamboo shoots from the farmers there?
Mother thought he had somehow gotten drunk. Father said that he'd lost track of time and got turned around in the bamboo stalks.
I never thought about it before, but as I've spent more time in the Ever After it feels like it's become more and more true. That my father had found his way here before me, and that the knife I found, the clothes I wear, the armor… they're all related to that fateful night.
I wonder how he got out.
I haven't been able to find a way out.
I haven't been able to find anything, really.
I just have to wander through… wander and my path will eventually entwine with the rest of Team JNPR.
How is it that I can guide others through the bamboo forest, and yet whenever I try to find an exit… I always get lost?
The path closes. The path wanders. I blink and I find myself elsewhere.
The Afterans speak of a purpose. Is my purpose just to remain eternally lost until I find my guiding lights?
Is Pyrrha's purpose to wander eternally until come upon by her stalwart knight?
Is Nora's purpose to…
…
Hm.
It's odd how the Wild Valkyrie had such a small part of things.
Strange.
All that the book ever said of her journeys beforehand was that the Wild Valkyrie had no memories and wandered angrily until she found those she was looking for- which happened to be us. JNPR. The Rusted Knight, she called her boy in yellow. The Tarnished Lady, she called her crimson goddess. The Lotus Rogue, she simply called hers . No mention of a legend or any great heroics, just half-maddened wanderings from a woman who was stout and well built, flaming hair adrift in the wind before she regained her memory and styled it into a wild mess of spikes and shagginess, braids and stray locks meshing well with her armor.
…
…
…
Ziri how do I tell my girlfriend that I'm irrevocably attracted to just the thought of her new outfit?
…
…
I probably should not have written that down.
Ahem.
Continuing on.
I wonder why it is that I haven't aged much. I've gotten taller, a little more broad, and I do have some stubble now, but… I know I've been in this forest for a long time. Maybe not as long as Jaune or Pyrrha, but I know I've been here longer than I should have. Long enough that I should have started showing more visible change than the pink streak in my hair turning gray, more signs of aging than just the few signs of wrinkles at the corners of my eyes.
I suppose it has something to do with how the Ever After seems to function on narrative importance, where all of us are static and unchanging unless we have a role in a story that someone else may tell. Time does not flow easily here, it seems. The bamboo forest seems to have no true daytime, only times when the night gets less dark. It is peaceful, but… quiet. Too quiet.
I keep thinking that there should be some sign of danger, but there isn't. Not even the fearsome Jabberwalker stalks these woods, much as I think it would like to. The forest itself was made with the purpose of confounding visitors that would do harm, turning them around and diverting them and making them so lost that there is no way out of the endless woods.
The peace and quiet helps me meditate, at least. Keeps me calm. Allows me to perform the duty of the Lotus Rogue- staying hidden and watching over anyone who enters, appearing when they lose the trail and guiding them along to the proper exits. Sometimes I wish that one of them would take me with them, but they never do. They never ask. I wish they would, sometimes. Even if it would break the narrative convention that keeps me trapped here.
At least I know I'll get out one day. I just need to keep on wandering. Training. Making sure that what little use I still retain of Stormflower remains ingrained into my muscle memory, and that I can still use them as weapons once I've been freed from this grove. All I need to do before then is to live. To wander. To wait.
I hope Alyx is less unpleasant and malicious than she was in the book… she was incredibly rude and self absorbed as I recall, completely unwilling to follow any path but the one she set for herself and thinking herself the smartest person in the area at any given point.
I hope she's not a snotty little brat, otherwise Nora might actually punch her or something.
That would be a bad way to end a story, I think.
"And then Nora punched a twelve year old in the face."
I think I'm losing my mind from the isolation.
I suspect that I will likely be able to heal slowly once my team finds me and I have human companionship once again.
It's been so long… will we be able to mesh together again like we did before?
I hope so.
…
There's another group of travelers in the forest.
Is it them?
I hope it is.
…
…
…
They're here.
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