Jaune, will be a bit more clever, smarter, and braver than he is in canon. But, at the end of the day I'll try to make him as close to Jaune as possible in canon.
I don't want him to be edgy, because well that's what a lot of people try to replicate for some odd reason. Tbh, I just don't want him to be a useless powerless loser. Wow, that was harsh as hell but then again that's just how I feel towards characters like Jaune.
Chapter 1- Golden Fate
An eleven year old Jaune Arc, playfully jogged through the forest behind his family's house. The woods were peaceful, no grimm were sighted here since around two years ago much to the confusion of the other people living in their relatively large village that resided about a hundred kilometers outside of Vale.
He hadn't exactly told his mother that he was planning on going out to explore, besides she was at the store and he knew that she would be gone for a while. He could've also just wandered around the area, but to be honest he had seen just about everything so far and wanted to go further. "I'll be fine, there haven't been any grimm here in years."
"Okay let's see." He remembered that there was a lake that he wanted to go see, his dad had taken him there once, but he couldn't remember where it was. "I don't think I should go off the path…."
Glancing over to his right, he contemplated going into the darker shade provided by the canopy of the forest off the road. Taking a couple of steps he placed his hand on the small hunting knife on his belt.
This probably wasn't that great of an idea, he knew that himself. But he was a big kid, he could take care of himself. Besides the only way he could learn was to do it himself, and so he began hacking at the bushes and making his way through the forest.
It was dark, but the sunlight pierced through the thick canopy of the forests giving him enough light to see in front of him. It was still pretty early in the morning, and he knew how to get back home. Glancing back he could see the large radio tower that his village had installed before he was born.
"Just in case…" Jaune began to carve the letter "J" into the trees that he had passed by. This was something his old man taught him to do back when he would accompany him on his hunting trips.
(About thirty minutes later)
"Damn it, I knew I shouldn't have taken that shortcut." Jaune said to himself while walking forward. It had grown unusually dark and an odd mist had begun to form. Unbeknownst to the young Arc, he had walked through what seemed to be an invisible barrier of some sort.
"Maybe I should go back home…" Jaune said to himself as he turned around and made his way past the tree that he had marked earlier. He was confident in his skills to get back home using the knowledge his father had given him.
Passing by another marked tree he nodded to himself believing that he had gone on the right path. And so, he continued onwards only to have this odd feeling tug at his stomach. He wasn't hungry….but he had a gut feeling.
"Hmmm." He made another slash along the tree adding an "A" to it and began walking back. About a couple of minutes passed as he found himself in front of the very tree. His eyes widened as he moved forward and grabbed onto the sides of the tree.
"What the heck?" Jaune thought out loud. He began to glance around holding back the emotions of fear best he could. He was unsure of what to do now, he knew he shouldn't have gone too deep into the woods.
He took a deep breath, he had to be a man like his father always told him. Men do not cry, well in front of others at least. With light tears coming out of his eyes he continued forward because that was all that he could really do.
Continuing forward, Jaune noticed after about ten minutes that the once dark forest had slowly began to light up. The once ever present mist that he had been unconsciously following which lead him to an open clearing.
"Woah." He came upon a beautiful grassy plain, that he had never seen before. Walking into the area he had wondered if his father knew about this place. Stepping forward he noticed multiple stone pillars that had been broken.
"WOaH!" Taking a step forward the ground beneath him sunk as he slid down the hole. Covering his eyes as a bright light began to blind him he finally reached the ground with a small role.
"Ow…." He sat up and took a long look at his arms and knees that had multiple scratches all over them. He let out a small sniffle, starting to regret everything so far and wanting to go back home.
That was until he looked forward and realized what the bright light was. "W-w-w-what?" In front of him tons of gold coins and pearls laid before him in a huge cavern. Swords, spears, treasure chests, books of all kinds beautiful laid before him.
"Holy shit." He had to say it, his mother would've whacked him for it, but this situation warranted it. Forgetting the sadness from earlier completely he made his way over to the treasure. Looking around he saw writing on the cavern walls, an unknown language to him.
Jaune winced as he stepped on the gold coins, a small migraine washed over him along with an annoying grinding sound. His feet began to move by themselves towards the source of the noise, and after what seemed to be ten minutes at most he came upon an egg.
It was large, about the size of a horse. The shell of the egg was a beautiful metallic gold, with a single stripe of an odd silvery platinum color. His breathing became heavier, his hand reached out to the egg.
Cobwebs, and mold were seen surrounding the walls that stood behind the egg. Despite the area being lit up by the beautiful treasure it was almost as if this place had been untouched for thousands of years.
The moment that Jaune made contact with the egg, a golden flame enveloped his arm. "GAH!" He screamed out in pain as the flames covered his right arm, but stopped when he realized that the pain was not there. The golden flames continued onwards towards his chest and began to swirl at where his heart was.
A swoosh sound was heard as the flames and their light entered Jaune's body and that was when the pain washed over him. "GAH!"
It was as if his entire body was burning, it was as if all of his organs were being consumed by flames. Jaune, doubled over staring at his palms as they trembled he noticed a golden scale appear on his right arm.
Looking forward at golden mirror he saw that his eyes became a powerful golden orange. Those eyes, were all that he saw before he blacked out onto the bed of golden coins.
(Three Days Later)
Jaune's eyes snapped open as he sat up sweat pouring down his face. Glancing down he noticed that his shirt was gone and on his chest the area where his heartbeat was, he noticed a golden symbol.
Four talons, three on the top and one at the bottom it resembled a dragons claw holding what seemed to be an orb of some kind. The odd part was that the orb had been cut in half the other side missing from the odd tattoo.
"Hi." He heard a deep almost childish voice and glanced up.
Jaune's eyes widened when he finally realized that a freaking golden dragon stood in front of him. But, it was a young golden dragon Ryndus….. "Wait how did I know that?
"Its because I'm automatically the same age as you." A voice said in his head.
"W-w-wait you can read my mind?" Jaune asked as the dragon nodded. The dragon then rose motioned its head towards the egg that had been broken. It then rose a talon and pointed straight at its chest revealing the same symbol and as he did for a brief moment Jaune noticed a golden tether that connected them.
"Seems like we are one of the same soul now." The dragon said as Jaune tilted his head to the side confused. A sweatdrop was noticed on the dragon as it realized that Jaune was clueless. "Uh, don't you know anything? We are brothers now."
"I'm still lost, aren't dragons supposed to be a myth?" Jaune felt odd too it was as if he was a lot smarter than before. He was also taking in all of this rather easily, almost as if some magical effect made it that way.
"What?" Ryndus, was also new to all of this as well because he had just been hatched. But his mother had placed a spell on his egg that gave him the knowledge he needed for when he hatched. Speaking of which, where was his mother? Why was the cavern so dirty?
After a lengthy conversation on the state of the world(That which Jaune did not know much of), Ryndus began to scratch his chin. He had relayed all of his knowledge to Jaune via their link.
"Wait so I'm a Dragon Rider?" Jaune asked with wide eyes, if it was true he could finally fulfill his dreams of being a hero. From what he saw the Dragon Riders were saviors of humanity from a long time ago. They had given humans aura and stood with them against the darkness.
"That's right, we are the light in the darkness or something like that." Ryndus said as Jaune was now on his back. They had begun to explore the cavern, and as such Jaune began to think.
"Hey Ryndus."
"Sup."
"I find it odd that I'm taking in all this knowledge rather easily. I feel a lot smarter too for some reason. I mean I'm talking to a freaking dragon as an eleven year old kid I should be nerding out right about now."
"That's because our minds and souls have merged. My dragon side allows you to gather information quicker and allows you to be more mature. Whereas your human side allows me to understand human things which regular dragons tend to not understand." Ryndus was also getting a migraine all this knowledge he somehow knew it beforehand. It was very convenient almost as if somebody had set this up to make the transition easier(AHAHAHA).
"Although you're still kind of slow something that even I notice." Ryndus said as a tick mark appeared on Jaune's head.
"Hey! I'm not slow!" He yelled at Ryndus before falling off and having his head collide with the ground.
"Like I said…."
"Hey that didn't hurt at all." Jaune said as he stood up as Ryndus placed a couple of books next to Jaune.
"That's because we have aura." Ryndus said as Jaune widened his eyes. The young golden dragon was getting paranoid, something that Jaune could feel through their connection.
"Something wrong Ryndus?" Jaune asked his new brother.
"Hmmm, I have no idea what we are doing. From what your mind showed me the whole world is different now. This is such a pain in the ass." Ryndus said as he sat down next to his brother.
"By the way Ryndus, you were just born about an hour ago so how are you the same age as me?" Jaune asked as Ryndus placed a book in front of him and turned the pages. Jaune was surprised at how the rather large young golden dragon could easily flip the pages.
"As a Dragon I can live for two thousand years at most. When Dragons become soul bonded with a human they share the same age as the human for the first 21 years of the humans life. Then after that the human shares the age of the dragon." Ryndus said as he pointed to the page he had opened to.
Jaune staring at the book quickly realized that he was able to read it. The new symbols, letters and dialect. "Woah I can read dragonic…..wait how did I know it was dragonic? Man, this is getting weirder by the minute."
"I'm surprised you haven't thought your parents yet, I mean you have been asleep for three days." Ryndus said as the sound of glass shattering was heard as Jaune paled.
"HOLY CRAP, MY MOM IS GONNA MURDER ME." Jaune yelled as he began to freak out. Ryndus let out a sigh as his human brother began to panic.
"How the hell am I gonna explain this!" Jaune yelled as he motioned a finger towards his now golden eyes, and then towards his brand of bonding.
"Ouch!" Jaune yelped as Ryndus finger flicked his forehead.
"You fool we can use magic." Ryndus said as Jaune widened his eyes.
"Wait, magic is real?...wait yeah its real." Jaune said and asked as he suddenly realized that magic existed because of the knowledge he shared with Ryndus.
"We can always come back when we need too, for now…." Ryndus picked up an ordinary looking bag.
"Is that a bag of holding?" Jaune asked as he blinked once again slightly weirded out by the knowledge. Ryndus, nodded and began to place books in the bag as well as gold, platinum and other magical items. He then concealed the bag and glanced down at Jaune.
"Hmmm, I now know the path back home. I think I'll like being this much smarter." Jaune said with a grin as Ryndus chuckled.
"Alright then, now to deal with the eyes and the mark." Ryndus muttered some words as Jaunes eyes turned back to normal and his brand disappeared. Ryndus, then shape shifted into a golden lizard and entered Jaunes pocket.
"Alright, let's get going."
(About an hour later)
"You know, I feel hungry but its not really bothering me as much as it should be." Jaune said outloud as a pile of fish landed next to him. They had decided to stop at a river nearby to search for some food before continuing forward.
"Just use magic as the explanation it makes things easier." Ryndus said as the young man nodded in agreement. It was certainly an easier way of comprehending things by just saying it was because of magic.
Jaune, had already set up a small campfire, well it wasn't lit yet because he had been waiting on Ryndus to do it. "Wait…" He stood up and glanced down at the makeshift campfire, Jaune took a deep breath and exhaled releasing a small stream of golden flames lighting the campfire.
"So you figured it out." Ryndus said as he emerged from the water.
"What else can I do?" Jaune asked as he began cooking some of the fish over the fire.
"To be honest, I'm not sure either so we'll just have to wait and see what happens. Besides we have to get back to your family soon." Ryndus said as he transformed back into a lizard and quickly climbed into Jaunes pocket.
"Wait, why are you?" It was then that Jaune heard the sound of footsteps and turned around to see his parents.
"Hey mom, hey dad." He said with a sheepish look as he scratched the back of his head. He knew that he was in for the biggest ass whooping of his life.
To be honest I was really bored, so I wanted to get this out there. Overall its mostly just a story idea for now since I'm super busy. But I'm just happy that I got the idea out there for everyone to see.