The sun fell through the skylight and bounced off Taiyang's golden hair, ruffled by the wind from the ferry with absolutely no attempt made to fix it. There was no time to focus on his hair. He couldn't believe it. He was here. Finally. He was going to Beacon Academy to become a true Huntsman. The headmaster's speech proved it. No more being a scared kid. He was a Huntsman-in-training now.
He was almost bouncing on the balls of his feet as the headmaster finished talking, joining the rest of the other first year students as they filed out. He adjusted the backpack on his shoulders, staring in awe at how amazing Beacon Academy was. Wow. Vale really was pretty, he had to admit.
All that mattered was making it through tomorrow's initiation. He had no idea if the rumours about teams were true. Maybe he should start making friends to prepare for that? How did one make friends? He was never good at that. Not that anyone ever wanted to be his friend. His mom didn't count.
Beacon. Vale. It was different to all the places he'd been. He liked it. It seemed pretty relaxed, compared to most other places. The school itself was beautiful. He craned his neck to try see more of it as he aimlessly walked around the fountain. He'd bet money that there were people with some really cool semblances here.
He probably should have watched where he was going. He realised that when his foot caught on a cobblestone and he tripped, his teeth clanging together painfully as his chin hit the ground. He heard fabric tear and realised that there was another rip in the knee of his trousers. He'd have to stitch that up later. The latch of his backpack came undone from the fall as the contents spilled everywhere.
He swore under his breath and took his bag off, gathering up his things before they blew away or his new bad luck continued and they got trodden on. He could hear people laughing. Great. He was at one of the most prestigious Huntsman Academies in the world, and he got himself labelled a klutz. It was Oasis Academy all over again.
He looked around for the letter his mother gave as he shoved his second-hand notebooks into his bag. He noticed it at the foot of two dark-haired teenagers who were watching him like a pair of bored lions, like he wasn't even worth the effort of dealing with. Both of them were in scruffy black shirts that looked like the hems had only recently been stitched on, the oversized clothing doing nothing to hide how pale and lean they were. The girl's eyes were the most vibrant scarlet he'd ever seen, even more so then the boy's more faded hue.
Taiyang rolled up his swag, clutching it nervously as he got to his feet, his chin stinging even though his aura protected him from the worst of it. He walked over, his shoulders shrinking slightly when they stared right through him with those piercing looks. "Uh… sorry. I just need to grab my stuff."
The girl smirked. It wasn't a very nice smirk. Taiyang felt like he was being made fun of somehow. "Of course. How unfortunate that you tripped like that." She turned to the boy, somehow managing to laugh without making a sound. "Wasn't it, Qrow?"
The boy who must have been Qrow glared at her. "Yeah. Real damn unlucky."
Was there something he was missing? "Yeah, great, okay. I'll just grab this and-" He grabbed the letter when Qrow's hand shot out and ensnared his wrist.
"Stay away from my sister and me. Got that, blondie? Or it won't end well for you." Those dusty red eyes bored into Taiyang's.
Taiyang nodded, even as rage began beating in his chest, warring against his constant fear. This guy thought he could threaten him and get away with that? And for what? Taiyang didn't even do anything! Taiyang wanted to roar in his face, pummel him with fire and steel, teach this guy a lesson for trying to scare him.
No. Now was not the time for a fight. Obviously this guy, Qrow, had his own issues and Taiyang should rise to the bait. He took a deep breath to cool his anger. "Yeah, sure. I'll just… go then." He walked away with his letter safely in his pocket, his hands clenched into fists.
Well that went badly. Maybe he should just stay out of everyone's way. He sat down on one of the benches away from the red-eyed siblings, dark blue eyes nervously scanning the crowd. So many people. Any of them could be people he was stuck with for the next four years. He hoped that they'd be nice. Nice people were always easier to be around.
He noticed a lot of people were wearing at least some armour. Should he have some? Armour was too hot back home. The metal would just instantly cook under the sun. But still. It could be a good idea, especially with his fighting style. He'd have to think about that.
"Do you mind if I join you for a moment?" The reedy voice took him out of his crowd gazing. He looked at the speaker, a short, bespectacled boy with pale skin and a shock of green hair. Taiyang nodded and shifted over.
"Yeah. Go ahead." He didn't own the bench, after all.
"Thank you, thank you." The other boy sat down in a blur of motion. That was so cool! Did he have a speed semblance? "You see, after what the Headmaster said, I figured it best to be absolutely sure I was prepared," the boy paused to sip his coffee, "and to make sure I had all my books with me. Books are the foundation of knowledge after all and without knowledge then there is no society and I do believe I'm rambling terribly sorry my name is Bartholomew sorry again." Another sip from the thermos ended the rambling.
Taiyang was trying to keep up with the boy's talking speed. Was everything about him fast? "… Sorry, what?"
"My name's Bartholomew. Bartholomew Oobleck." The boy's cheetah tail, speckled with black spots, lashed nervously behind him. Oh. That explained the speed. "Hello?"
Taiyang blinked and smiled crookedly. Hello he could work with. "Hi, hello. I'm Taiyang Xiao Long. Nice to meet you, Bart." He held out a hand, a sash tied over the scar on his arm so he didn't have to answer awkward questions.
The faunus boy eagerly grabbed his and shook it so fast their arms blurred. It felt like his arm was about to be vibrated out of the socket. "It's Bartholomew, actually, but yes, it is great, just great to meet a friendly face!"
Taiyang retrieved his hand and flexed his fingers a bit to restore blood flow. Ow. "Yeah. Nice to meet you too." He was talking to someone. Actually talking to someone. Go him. His mom would be proud. "So are you a first year?"
"Yes, yes I am, I arrived here earlier today." Bartholomew adjusted his glasses and sipped his coffee, pawing through his bag. "It's all a bit daunting, really, when you think about it. I'm quite looking forward to the initiation tomorrow, though. I heard that every Academy does things differently. I wonder what Beacon's is like. Should be interesting to find out, yes, very interesting."
Taiyang nodded. "Yeah." Apparently Bartholomew was a talker. That was fine. It meant Taiyang didn't have as many chances to put his foot in his mouth. Which was always a good thing. "So are you from Vale?"
"Menagerie, actually! Although I've been to Vale quite a lot! My uncle owns a cattle ranch on Patch, it's quite something! How about you? Xiao Long, where's that from?"
"I'm from Vacuo. Sorta. I travelled a lot." He shouldn't think about that. He shouldn't think about Mistral. He touched the letter in his pocket. He promised his mom not to read it until he was settled in at Beacon, and he never broke his promises. "So do you know anything about the Initiation?"
"Only what I heard being discussed on the way here. All I know is that it involves fighting Grimm and the possibility of forming teams." His cheetah tail lashed behind him. "I'd rather take the Grimm."
"Yeah, me too." To the socially awkward. "Well, I hope you survive." Maybe he'd be on a team with Bartholomew. He seemed… cool was not the word. Nice. Nice was good. Taiyang scanned the area again out of habit and noticed a girl in white peeking out from behind a tree.
He gave her an awkward wave and cringed as her silvery eyes went wide with panic and she hid herself behind her chosen tree.
Weird. He'd figured Beacon would have some odd types. They accepted him after all.
"The person you first make eye contact with after landing in the forest will be your partner for the next four years."
Taiyang felt his blood turn to ice as he nearly collapsed to his knees. Nooooooooooooo why did that have to be the selection process he was done. He was leaving Beacon and he was going to go right back home to his mom and he was going to give up on becoming a Huntsman forever because that was not a selection process, that was torture. Why couldn't it be something normal? Like filling out a sheet and being matched up based on literally any other way? Because seriously, eye contact? Whhhhhhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyyyy.
He couldn't take the stress. He barely heard the headmaster telling them to kill everything that moved. Also something about relics? What? Whatever, he saw the guy next to him get launched into the air. Because that was safe.
Taiyang crouched right before he was suddenly in the air, wind whipping through his hair as he activated his semblance. He didn't need his weapons. Not for this. Besides, it would help to have his strength banked up for when he inevitably encountered Grimm.
He crossed his forearms in front of his face right before he smashed through trees like a wrecking ball, eventually catching a branch right before he hit the ground and flipping into a crouch. Nailed it.
Golden fire burned along his arms, replacing the pain of his scrapes with a pleasant warmth as his skin knitted itself together. He felt anger and heat simmering in his chest, smoke trailing out of his nostrils as he scanned the horizon for Grimm.
The distinctive roar of an Ursa up ahead made him grin. Finally. Real action. Taiyang ran towards the sound, spotting the Grimm crashing through the brush towards him. He cracked his knuckles and threw a bare-handed punch powerful enough to crack the beast's bone mask and knock it down. He stomped on its head when it was down for good measure, hearing more cracks.
The Ursa began to rise.
Taiyang activated his weapons.
The Grimm didn't even have time for a death roar before it began to dissolve into smoke.
He ran his hand through his hair and started walking, glancing up at the sun to calculate his position. If he kept heading towards the other side of the forest, he was sure he'd figure out what he was meant to be doing eventually.
He realised he could hear a lot more things coming towards him and realised he must have attracted the attention of more than just the one Ursa. It sounded like a lot of Grimm. His landing strategy was more noticeable then he thought.
Taiyang punched his fists together with a grin. "Bring it on."
He was officially lost. Lost and without any clue what his objective was. He took deep calming breaths so his semblance and his rage didn't send him over the edge. He'd been doing a lot of fighting. That was a lot of Grimm.
Stay calm. Breathe deep. He just had to figure out what he was meant to be doing. He probably should have listened instead of freaking out internally about partners.
Speaking of partners. Time to puzzle this out. Headmaster Ozpin said that partners were decided through eye contact. That left it up to chance. A lot of chance. Oh boy.
He shouldn't panic. Panic drew Grimm. Taiyang had to think. Who did he know that would be an good partner?
There was Bartholomew. He was nice. Fast too, which was always useful in a fight. And smart! He was also one of the only people Taiyang actually knew. If he could, he should try find Bartholomew. Besides, a lot of people here didn't seem to be keen on faunus, so it might actually be safer for Bartholomew to have someone on his team who liked faunus.
If that didn't work, who else did he know?
There was that girl with the white cloak and silver eyes who he'd seen watching him yesterday. Although he hadn't talked to her. Honestly he wasn't sure if anyone had talked to her. Or could talk to her. She seemed to vanish every time someone got close. Would she be a good partner?
Maybe not.
Who else was there? The only other people he even sort of knew were those red-eyed siblings. The girl was… intense. A bit mean. Honestly, she was slightly terrifying, even if she was pretty. He wasn't sure about her. Being her partner could go very badly. And Qrow? Hell no. That guy had issues and a lot of anger and Taiyang did not need to be around someone like that when he had enough problems balancing his own fury.
So on either of those two being his partner? Definitely a no.
He heard rustling in the bushes and turned, seeing a bunch of Beowolves charging him with glowing red eyes. Another fight. He readied his stance and lunged, meeting the first Grimm's strike with a punch. Taiyang readied his free hand and struck, the Grimm's head exploding from the hit.
He cracked his neck and let the first Beowolf drop, meeting the second with a flurry of hits and knocking it into a third. A fourth lunged at him from the side and he met it with a roundhouse before scoring the claws of his weapons down its throat. He kicked another back to get himself some distance, counting how many were still alive.
Two left. Taiyang brought his hands up in a boxer's stance and darted forward, punching the Beowolf with a devastating uppercut to the jaw. He heard its neck snap backwards. The remaining Grimm charged him with a roar. He lowered his stance, drawing his hands in as he waited for the perfect moment.
The Beowolf lunged, teeth almost upon him before he struck out with a double palm strike, hitting it hard enough that it disintegrated on impact. Taiyang glanced around to make sure that was it, sheathing his weapons. He dusted his bare hands, taking a calming breath. He couldn't risk losing control. That was a bad idea.
He heard something move behind him and started to turn. Crap. There must have been another Beowolf waiting. Something blurred past him. He barely even realised what was going on before the Grimm's head was on the ground, severed from the body, and there was a boy in a dark red cape standing beyond it, holding a massive scythe. The boy turned to look at Taiyang.
The bottom dropped out of Taiyang's stomach as his dark blue eyes locked with a set of dusty red. Qrow's cocky grin fell off his face.
"Shit. Not you." They both said it at the same time.
This was just his luck.
Damnit. Okay. Time to bury whatever hatchet there apparently was and make nice. Taiyang tried to look friendly, nervously holding up his gloved hands in the universal symbol of 'I'm not carrying a weapon I promise don't shoot me'. Here goes nothing. "So… my name's Taiyang. Taiyang Xiao Long."
"Fuck off." Qrow turned on his heel and stormed off, retracting the blade and hilt of his scythe until it was a small hunk of metal he could clip to his back. Taiyang grimaced and followed him, nearly tripping over his feet.
"Wait! I'm sorry about yesterday! Can we start over? Please?" They were stuck together now, for better or for worse, and Taiyang knew he sucked at this sort of thing. He knew it well. He didn't think he'd be able to handle four years of being hated. Personally, at least. He could deal with people hating him from a distance, even though it wasn't great, just not like this. Not if he had to talk to Qrow every day.
Qrow ignored him, hands in his pockets and stalking through the undergrowth. He radiated negativity. That only made Taiyang more anxious, more desperate. This was getting worse and worse. "We're going to get swarmed by Grimm if both of us are unhappy. Shouldn't we at least try to get along?"
His nerves were making him clumsy. He was somehow tripping on every single root and patch of uneven ground as he stumbled to catch up. Qrow wasn't having any trouble at all, despite the bitter slouch to his shoulders. What a pair they made.
"Hey, wait up!" Taiyang's foot caught in a rabbit hole and he yelped, feeling his ankle twist. "FUCK!" Owowowowowowowowowowowowowowow.
His shout caused Qrow to finally look at him. Yay, a silver lining. Those red eyes looked him over. "Is it broken?" There was something in his tone that Taiyang couldn't place. Aside from the general sense of sullen anger.
Taiyang rested his hand against a tree trunk, lifting his injured foot off the ground and prodding gently at it with his free hand. "No. Twisted. I'll live."
"Good. Hurry up. It's bad enough I'm stuck with you, I don't need to be slowed down by your injury." Qrow's eyes shifted away from Taiyang as he said that. That was weird.
Taiyang breathed deeply and tapped into his semblance, huffing out a cloud of smoke through his nostrils as he did. His healing kicked in, burning away the injury. He placed his foot back on the ground, testing the weight. All better. Rage and power coiled in his stomachs like snakes. He had to hit something. Right now. He let out a yell, punching the tree he was leaning on hard enough to shatter the wood as fire burned on his fist. Without any Grimm around to quell his rage on, that would have to do.
He clenched his fists and closed his eyes, breathing out puffs of smoke until he was absolutely certain his semblance and rage were under tight control again. He couldn't lose it. Not now. Not ever again.
He opened his eyes again to see Qrow looking at him with a raised brow. "What?" He snapped at him, some of his semblance still shimmering in his hair, turning pale blond into spun gold.
"What the fuck was that?" Qrow motioned at the demolished tree before crossing his arms.
Taiyang counted his breaths before he answered, locking down the remnants of his rage. "My semblance. I can heal, faster than most people, but when I do, I get angrier. And I catch fire."
"So what, you're some kind of mad berserker?" Qrow's gaze wasn't as cutting as before.
He shuffled his feet, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah. I don't like it if it actually hits that point though." Everyone else had semblances they could control. When Taiyang reached his boiling point, he didn't remember anything.
Qrow scoffed, staying quiet for a while before he flicked his eyes back to Taiyang's. "Pathetic." Taiyang flinched. Ouch. Qrow didn't seem to notice or care. "This is still fucked up. Fine. Just stay out of my way and don't steal my kills. And watch where you're walking."
He strutted off again, this time at a slightly slower pace. Taiyang followed, able to actually see where he was placing his feet this time rather than stumbling blindly after his new partner.
Even though said partner was still obviously unhappy with him. He still didn't understand what he did wrong.
"So where are we going?" He hoped Qrow had been listening.
Qrow glared at him. "Didn't you hear Ozpin's speech?"
Taiyang twiddled his fingers nervously. "Uh, no, no I did not." He was too busy fending off anxiety about getting partner with someone who hated him. Maybe he should have panicked more, then this might not have happened.
Qrow rolled his eyes and ran his hand through his hair. "For fuck's sake. We're looking for a bunch of relics. We find them, and then we get to the cliffs. Did you understand that or do I need to dumb it down even more?"
"No, I think I got that, thanks. So which way?"
"… Aw, shit."
'Hey, do you think that's it?"
"No. I think that the destroyed building in the middle of the fucking forest is there for a completely unrelated reason. Idiot."
Taiyang held his tongue, trying not to rise to the baits Qrow kept tossing out. He had to stay calm. Not lose control. Even if Qrow deserved it. He walked towards the ruins, wondering what these relics were. Breathe.
"Do you think we're the first here?" He followed Qrow into the stone ruins. There were all sorts of little things on pillars. He could see an hourglass, two little sundials, what looked like a wrist watch, pocket watches, and a single clock all on its lonesome.
Qrow stared at the hourglass intently, leaning over to get a better look. "Doubt it. Some of these pillars are empty. What do you think it means?"
Taiyang shrugged, counting out the pillars. "Well, there's twelve pillars, and five of them are empty."
"Duh." Taiyang didn't have to look to know Qrow was rolling his eyes. He could hear it. He blushed slightly.
"I mean, well, that means that there are five other partnerships that got here first. And it all looks like it's all timepieces. Maybe whatever thing we pick is important somehow?"
"Then don't touch anything until we know what the hell is going on."
Taiyang pulled his hand back before lifting up one of the little sundials. It was a really cute one too. It had a dragon carved into it. His mom would love something like that. He hoped she was doing okay. "I'm not touching anything."
"You were about to."
"But I-" Taiyang's voice trailed off. "I- what is that?" He pointed over Qrow's shoulder.
Qrow's head whipped round to look at the swirl of red and black that had opened in the air at the steps of the ruins. A familiar dark-haired girl stepped out, her red eyes landing on her brother as she scowled.
"I can't believe I didn't think of that sooner." She pulled her arm out of the portal, yanking out another girl dressed in a white cloak with an iron grip on the smaller girl's wrist. "Hurry up, will you?"
Taiyang waved shyly at the cloaked girl, recognising her as the one who kept staring at him and hiding. "Hi."
"Eep!" She disappeared from sight.
Qrow's sister rolled her eyes with a huffy sigh. "I can't believe I got stuck with a weakling like you." She let go of the invisible wrist she had been holding. "If I didn't know better, I'd say your luck was rubbing off on me, little brother."
"We're twins, Raven. And you're one to complain about bad partners. Why didn't you come to me the minute you landed?" Qrow crossed his arms grumpily.
"Perhaps I wanted to see what would happen if I left things to chance. I regret it, don't you worry."
Taiyang edged away from the two twins and wished that a Grimm could show up. Now. Right now. Any minute now. Watching siblings fight was so awkward. Should he grab one of the relics? Just in case?
"Hello." A tiny whisper broke him out of his thoughts. He looked down, having to nearly touch his chin to his chest, to see the tiny girl in white reappearing.
He smiled at her, trying not to scare her. She seemed nervous. He understood that. "Hi. I'm Taiyang." At least she wasn't disappearing. How did she do that?
"Summer." She raised a hand to tuck her red-black hair back behind her ear and revealing both of her silvery eyes. He'd never seen someone with eyes like that before.
"Cool name. So, while they're, uh, talking," -there was a lot of angry swearing why wasn't the earth swallowing him whole- "why don't we grab a relic?"
She blinked at him and nodded. "What one do you think you'll pick?" He had to strain to hear her over the sounds of the twins.
"I don't know. I kinda like this sundial though. It's pretty neat. I wonder why there's two of them, though." He kept an eye out for Grimm. He and Qrow had fought their way through some. Aside from almost dying three times because of stupid mistakes, he was fine.
Summer tilted her head, looking from the two sundials to the rest of the pillar. "Maybe… maybe this has something to do with being partners or something? There's two sundials, two pocket watches, and there's an even number of places for relics. Maybe all the others had a pair too? Each partnership has a, well, partner." She ducked her head. "Sorry. It's dumb."
"It's brilliant!" Taiyang beamed at her, clapping her shoulder and instantly retracting his hand when she disappeared with her usual 'eep'. "Sorry." Oops.
He waited for her to reappear before he spoke again. "Sooooo… do you think we should pick a pair? Pocket watches or sundials? Since we're all here?"
She bit her lip. It was adorable. "Whatever you want to do is fine."
"Sundials then! They got a cute little dragon on them. How about it?"
She nodded, the corner of her lip quirking. "Okay, just let me tell Raven," she said quietly. "Um, Raven?" Raven ignored her. "Raven?" Summer spoke a little louder. "Raven?"
"WHAT?!"
"Eep!" Summer vanished again. Taiyang twiddled his fingers as both the twins turned their glares onto him.
Qrow scowled at him. "What now, blondie?"
"Uh…" he scuffed the toe of his shoe against the stone. "We, that is, me and Summer, but mostly me, we were going to choose a relic? Since that's the objective?" That was a very interesting crack in the rock there by his shoe. He should just keep staring at that.
Raven raised a brow. "Hmm. Perhaps he's right, Qrow. It's no use fighting in Grimm territory. We can save that for when we get back to Beacon."
"Yeah, won't that be fun. So how does this work?" Qrow glared at the hourglass like it had personally offended him.
Taiyang scratched the back of his head. "Well, since all four of us are here, we can take one of the pairs? I vote sundials." He glanced down to see Summer flickering back into view. Lucky. Disappearing right now would be great, with the way the twins were glaring at him.
Raven raised a brow. "Why not? Perhaps it will be influence the team situation." She smirked at Taiyang. Scary. "Qrow. Go grab a pocket watch."
"Go grab one yourself, I'm not your damn servant." He picked one up anyway, sticking it in his pocket as Raven tossed the clock's twin at Summer.
"Be a dear and carry that, will you?" That mocking smile never left her face. Taiyang really didn't like these twins. It was like they thought they were better than everyone else.
Summer fumbled with it as she caught it, looping the chain on her belt. "Sorry."
Taiyang wasn't sure he wanted to leave her alone with Raven. That didn't seem good at all for Summer. And he was sick of Qrow's attitude. He could only ignore him so much when it was just the two of them.
"Hey, I got an idea!" He forced a grin as he suddenly became the centre of attention. He didn't like it at all.
"How about, since all four of us are here and all, we travel to the cliffs together? I mean, four weapons are better than two when it comes to Grimm, right? And you two know each other already, so why not?"
The silence made him want to rip all his skin off and relocate it to the bottom of the ocean. Aw hell. The twins glanced at each other and shrugged, completely in sync.
"Well, it would be good to have someone around who isn't dead weight." Raven tapped the hilt of her sword.
"Eh, I've already been carrying blondie, what's two more?" Qrow smirked and dodged the punch from his sister, his grin widening as she landed flat on her face. "Careful, sis."
Raven pushed herself up and kicked him in the shin. "I can't believe I debated having a jinx like you as a partner, little brother. Just stay on your side of the battle and away from me."
"Always, Raven." Qrow rubbed his leg, muttering something that was probably really unflattering under his breath. Taiyang didn't need to know what was being said. He'd already found out that Qrow's swearing was really impressive on the way here.
"Then let's go." Raven strode towards the cliffs, leading the way for the rest of them. Qrow followed, falling into step with her with that ease of people who'd always been together. Taiyang kind of envied that.
He sighed and started to follow, before looking back at the quiet form of Summer. "Hey, you alright?"
"Me?" She pointed at herself, tilting her head. "Oh, yes, I'm fine."
"Then come on. We can hang back a bit and let them snipe at each other instead of us."
She smiled slightly. "So Qrow is like Raven then?"
"I was going to ask if Raven was as bad as Qrow. I guess that's the answer," he chuckled, scratching the back of his neck. "Yeah, okay, I probably deserve it. I mean, I kinda met them yesterday and I must've offended them or something." Although he thought there had been a moment there after he fixed his ankle where Qrow seemed to soften a bit. Apparently not.
"I saw you trip," she blurted out before her hands shot up to cover her mouth. "Sorry."
He shook his head. "Don't be. I'm a bit of a klutz. Not a scratch on me, though."
"I'm glad you're not hurt."
"Hey, don't worry about it. It was nothing. I'm tougher then I look." She was great. She would have been an awesome partner. But since that wasn't what happened, he could at least hope she was on his team. "By the way, that was pretty clever back there, with the relics. I thought it was all random."
She dropped her gaze. "Thank you."
"Any time, Summertime." That was terrible. That wasn't even a pun. Please don't hate him. "Oh my god I am so sorry."
She giggled, hiding her hand behind her mouth. "That was really bad."
He couldn't help laughing along with her. She had a really nice laugh. "It was terrible! I'm usually better at that."
"I don't mind." She smiled at him and caught his arm as he managed to trip on another damn tree root where the hell were they all coming from?
"Hey! Idiots!" Qrow glared back over his shoulder. "Will you hurry up? We're almost there."
"Calm down, Qrow. It's not their fault they can't keep up."
Taiyang took a deep breath. Stay calm. "Let's catch up. Might be a good idea." He scanned the trees as he and Summer joined the twins. He gave her a quick smile before he spoke. "So how much longer to the cliffs?"
Raven glanced at the sun. "About five minutes, give or take a Grimm attack." Her hand rested on the hilt of her sword.
"Not like that's a problem," Qrow smirked. "Ursa and Beowolves are nothing to us."
"Well, that might not be the only thing out here," Taiyang pointed out. "Right?"
"I don't think we have to worry." Qrow linked his hands behind his head. "Considering I heard someone crashing through the air loud enough that they probably drew every single Grimm in the forest to their location. Unless they're dead."
Taiyang blushed and scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah, that was me. Not dead."
Qrow blinked at him for a moment. "Of course. Why wouldn't it be?"
"Um, guys?" Summer whispered. "Don't you think it's a little quiet?" They ignored her.
"Well, it's just how I work, I guess. What was your landing strategy then?"
"I stuck my sword in a tree to slow my fall. Way less destructive then whatever the hell you were doing."
"Girls, girls," Raven drawled, one hand on her hip. "You're both pretty. Besides, my landing strategy was much smarter than either of yours, considering I didn't even need to use my weapon or break anything."
"Guys?" Summer tried again.
"Shut up, Raven, no one asked you."
"What's wrong, little brother? Are you upset because I'm right?"
"You're two minutes older! Stop calling me little!"
"Are you two seriously arguing about this now?" Taiyang looked between them.
"Stay out of this, blondie. Smart people only."
"Please stop calling me an idiot."
"Aw, how cute. Dumb people never realise just how stupid they really are." Raven smiled wickedly. "Perhaps you and my brother are perfect for each other. Between the two of you, you almost reach average intelligence."
"Um, excuse me?" Summer raised her hand.
"I am not afraid to hit a girl, Raven. Especially since you're my sister."
"Try it, Qrow. Glesni isn't here to protect you now."
"Can you please not fight?"
"QUIET!" They all looked over at Summer in shock. She yelled. Summer blinked at them all, staring back. Taiyang gave her a little wave in support. She waved back. "Hi."
"What do you want now?" Raven rolled her eyes.
"I-I- there's a- on the cliff. Thought you should know." Summer pulled her hood down. "I- um- Eep!" She vanished.
Taiyang turned, eyes widening. "What- what is that?"
"A King Taijitu. Haven't you ever seen one of those before?" Qrow pulled out his scythe.
"No, actually, I haven't!" He watched as the two-headed Grimm slithered out of a hole in the cliff, completely covering the ruins of the bridge. "How do we get past it?"
"We don't go past it." Raven's hand rested on the hilt of her sword. "We go through it."
"Through it." He had to stay calm and breathe. Breathe. He was a Huntsman in training. He was here to fight Grimm. That was a Grimm. "What's the plan?"
He felt a hand on his arm and looked down at Summer, who gave him a tiny smile. "Let's kill it. Teams of two. Raven and Qrow, me and Taiyang. One head each." She let go of his arm and reached behind her back, pulling out her weapon. With a flick of her wrist, she extended it into a double-bladed axe that looked way too big for her.
He smiled back, activating his weapons with their signature sound. He saw Raven draw her blade from the corner of his eye. Qrow smirked and spun his scythe. "Don't get bitten, blondie. If you get poisoned I'm leaving you out here."
Taiyang ignored him, cracking his neck. "I'll do my best." He punched his fists together as both heads of the King Taijitu struck.