So this is my first story. Yes I am new to this, so the writing is going to be horrific. But this is when I ask for your help. If you can tell me what I am doing wrong in my writing style it would help me alot. But moving on, this is the first of the two chapters I have already written, and I will be uploading both of them together, and upload a third one within the next week or two. If you guys do enjoy them, then I will write the following chapters. I should probably also point out that this is NOT an insert. I know that most people have a negative attitude towards them, and I can understand why, but while this story is in first person it is in no way an insert.

And just a heads up, there are dark themes like thoughts of suicide and PTSD that will come up later in the story, along with thoughts of suicide. I will warn you about what chapter they will come up in. So enjoy this first chapter, I hope.

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any of the characters of RWBY. All OC's are of my own creation. All rights go to Rooster Teeth Productions.


BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

"Ugh, you fucking bastard..."

I was awaken by the sound of my alarm clock. I wanted to sleep for another five minutes but my friends were going to arrive at my door. Today we were going to go hiking. So reluctantly I turned off my alarm clock and got out of bed. I sluggishly made my way to my bathroom stopping in front of the mirror. I took in my appearance. I was 5'11" in height, my body lean but still in good shape from my years in track. My brown hair and eyes stood out against my pale, almost white, skin. A gift from my Germanic heritage. I guess one could say I was average for a male. Sighing I went through my morning routine. Running my hand through my mid length hair I realized there was still time before my friends got here to pick me up.

I had decided to check my phone messages when I heard a knock on the door. Opening the door there was a blonde girl, who was a couple inches shorter than me. This girl was Azura Hood, my best friend. She's only a year younger than me, but she had the mind of a thirteen year old.

"Hey Ash!" she said as we hugged each other.

"Hey Azura."

After we stopped hugging I turned around and closed the door, and we started walking towards . I was not expecting a black Chevrolet Colorado belonging to Gray Ketchum, who was sitting in the driver's seat next to his younger brother, Hunter. I got in the back with Azura after we put our stuff in the bed of the truck.

"Hey Krieger, how's it going?" Gray asked as soon as I entered the truck.

"It's going good," I answered as I closed the door. "How's it going?"

"It's going good," Gray replied. "Better now that I'm on leave actually. Don't get to come home as much as I would like." Gray enlisted into the Marines as soon as he graduated. He wanted me to enlist with him, but I wanted to go to college first then become a military officer. I didn't want to wait, but I promised Azura that I would. I actually made a promise to her that I wouldn't join the military immediately and instead just give it some time. She was actually worried that I would when I graduated; I guess that showed how much she cared about me. I knew why she worried about me joining, but we never talked about it.

"So, how are the Marines treating you Gray?" I asked.

"Well, it's a pain in the ass waking up at five in the morning, but other than that I'm enjoying it." To be honest it sounded like he was questioning himself. "You should have joined with me, I know you would like that lifestyle."

I expected him to say that.

"You know I want to go through college first." I told him. "It's not like the military will disappear within the next three years." I turned to look at Azura, who was looking out the window. She was probably trying to ignore our conversation; not that I could blame her.


During the rest of the ride we talked about other things to get Azura into the conversation. Upon arriving at the trail, we all got out of Gray's truck. As soon as we got out of the truck I couldn't help but stretch. Gray then took up an opportunity to strike up a conversation.

"Is Azura still sore about you wanting to join?"

"Yeah, she's afraid I'll get myself killed if I join. And I don't blame her." I looked away from Gray and at Azura, who, for some reason, was harassing Hunter. It was kinda funny actually. None of us liked talking about what happened, and it was best not to.

"Look, Ash, we all miss him, and Azura is just worried about you. She just doesn't want to lose you."

"I know." I said in a low whisper.

"So, any news about your sister?" Now that was something I didn't think he would ask.

"It's been three years, Gray," I told him. "I think it's safe to assume-"

"Hey guys!" Hunter called to us, interrupting me. "Are we gonna go or what?" He and Azura already had their backpacks on, ready to go.

"Yeah, just give us a minute!" I called back. "Look Gray, she's been missing for three years, and there still has been no news on her. Marigold's dead, alright?"

Gray opened his mouth to speak, but instead let out a sigh, accepting that I was right. She was gone, and she was never coming back. We grabbed our backpacks and began walking up the trail with Azura and Hunter. Marigold disappeared when I was sixteen, and within the three years of her missing, no evidence of her being alive, or how she even disappeared, was discovered. We always hoped that the police would find something on her, but the only thing they couldn't find a single thing. I was nineteen now, and she would be twenty-one by now.

We continued walking along the trail for about an hour. We use to walk up this with a few other people over the years, but since the majority of us who graduated went to out of state schools, it was just us now.

We got to the point where we normally stopped to rest and decided to take a break. I took off my backpack and sat on a log next to what use to be a stream. The drought had really messed this place up good. Azura sat down next to me, looking like she ran a few miles.

"Well that's my workout for the next few months." I said jokingly.

"Yeah, same here." Azura said, chuckling slightly. Then something caught Azura's gaze, which appeared to confuse her."Was that cave always there?"

"What cave?" I was confused by what she asked. She then pointed to a cave I had never noticed before. "Oh, that cave. When did that get there?" And then Azura gave me the terrifying "lets go explore this shit" look. "Oh God, please no."

"Yes!" She replied, jumping up and grabbing me by the wrist and dragging me towards the mouth of the cave. And it didn't look like I had a choice anymore.

"Hey Gray!" I called to him, who was talking to Hunter at the time. "We're gonna explore this cave, we'll be right back!"

"Ok, but don't go too far in!" He called back. I was hoping he would say no, but I got the exact opposite.

There was no way this cave was here before, I thought to myself. We would have explored something like this a long time ago. But if this was here before, how come we never fou- My thoughts were cut off when I saw a figure wearing a white and red cloak standing about thirty feet ahead of us, at what looked like a corner. This made me stop dead in my tracks, staring at the figure, which turned to it's right and began to walk off.

"Azura did you see that?"

"The person wearing the cloak?" So she saw it too. I guess I wasn't going insane. Now I was curious what that person was doing here.

I started to walk forward slowly, with Azura following close behind me. The further into the cave we went, the darker it started get. But when we were about to round the corner the figure was at, we saw a flash of light and stopped. We peeked around the corner to see what caused it, but it was too dark to see. Azura then took out her phone and turned the flashlight setting on, which illuminated much of what was in front of us. I was about to take another step when the mysterious light flashed again, only this time it didn't fade as quickly as it did before. Further down the cave was an opening that was large enough for us to walk through. We started walking towards it when it flashed again, and it faded at a slower rate than it did previously. It seemed like the closer we got to it, the slower the light would fade.

When we finally got to the opening, we noticed what was causing the flashing light, and where it was. In front of us was a cavern, lit up by a white light emanating from the tip a stalagmite resting on a small rocky island in the center. This was surrounded by a shallow pool of water. The white light began to flash again, only this time it did not fade.

I decided to go take a look at whatever was the cause of that light and walked towards the pool of water. I stopped when I thought I heard something, like a whisper.

"Did you say something?" I asked Azura.

"No, I didn't." She replied.

I was about to walk into the water when I heard it again, this time clearly hearing the whisper and what it was saying. Ash, it said. Then I heard it again. Ash. I realized that it wasn't Azura whispering, but something else, and the whisper seemed to be coming from whatever was glowing on that stalagmite. I stepped into the water and started walking towards the small island. The whisper started to get louder as I got closer to the island. As I did I noticed what the source of the light was: a white gem about the size of my hand, resting on the top of the stalagmite, which was about four feet tall.

I seemed to be drawn to the gem as I started walking to it, curious as to what it was and why it was glowing. As I drew nearer the voice started to speak louder and more frequent than before. I was now standing in front of the stalagmite, staring at the glowing white gem. I moved my hand up to the gem to pick it up, and as I did it began to glow brighter. I then picked up the gem, and the voice stopped talking, and the gem quit glowing. I didn't even realize Azura followed me to the gem until now when I saw her standing on my left, also staring at the gem. The cavern began to shake, and it's roof of the cave began to crumble and fall.

"ASH!" I heard Azura scream, she looked terrified, and I probably had the same look on my face. My attention was then drawn up to the roof of the cavern, chunks of which started to fall close to us.

"GET DOWN!" I yelled as I grabbed Azura, brought her to a crouching position and covered her body with mine. The entire cavern was falling apart around us. It seemed clear to me that picking up the gem seemed to be the cause of it.

Little did I know our lives had changed forever.


Ok, so that was the first chapter. Like I said before, tell me what I need to improve, and if you enjoyed this chapter let me know.