Chapter 1: Prologue
With every action we take there come responsibilities for those actions, however, the responsibilities of our actions are not always our own to carry. In some cases, we can become unable to carry them, for one reason or another, and must hope that the day will come when someone can carry them for us.
This story takes place just three weeks before the Vytal Festival. Professor Goodwitch and professor Port were given an assignment to take a group of first year students, consisting of teams; RWBY, JNPR, CRDL, SSSN, and, Cinder's group, on a special trip to Feign Village, with team CVFY helping chaperon with General Ironwood, Penny, and a half dozen of General Ironwoods soldiers accompanying. The students that came on the trip would receive extra credit in one class of their choosing. This worked out well for those like Ruby and Jaune who had been having trouble in one or two classes, however not so much for the rest of their team they had to drag along, especially Weiss who lectured Ruby for almost an hour. Truthfully, Ruby had already learned how to shut off the listening part of her brain when Weiss gets like this. Officially the reason for General Ironwood and Penny's accompaniment was to test Penny and help gather as many mushrooms as possible, however, professor Goodwitch suspected it was just so he could try and get her to go out with him, for the umpth-teen time.
Feign Village is considered a symbol of peace between of humans and Faunus in that it has a population of almost four thousand humans and Faunus with the population evenly distributed between the two species, supposedly living in perfect harmony. As a village outside of the four kingdoms, located between Vaccuo and Vale, it has survived due to a unique yellow flower with red spots called the Humbert Aconitum that creatures of Grimm are repelled by and will even die if exposed to it for too long. Because the village is surrounded by these flowers it cannot be expanded beyond its current size without running the risk of Grimm attacks. Many of the world's best scientist and botanist are trying to find a way to transplant these flowers all over the world, however, have found it difficult as the area surrounding Feign Village is the only location in the world with the right climate conditions, soil compositions, and elevation capable of supporting the Humber Aconitum. Individual plants have been transplanted to other areas, but scarcely can they survive long or is the facility able to support more than a few at a time.
Not far from the village is a deep sunken valley surrounded by Humber Aconitum filled with creatures of Grimm known as the Valley of Grimm, for obvious reasons. It is unknown how so many creatures of Grimm came to congregate in a valley surrounded by their only known natural killer or how it is possible for them to continue to exist there even though huntsman and huntresses have been visiting the site for decades. The reason for these visits and the visit from team RWBY and the rest of the students is a rare edible green mushroom that only grows once every thirty years. Known as the Vie Verte, this rare mushroom when consumed will temporarily increase the strength and growth rate of a person's aura. It has been noted that an individual who eats this mushroom and then goes into battle will find that when they exit the battle there aura will be stronger than when they entered the battle, once they have regained their stamina, of course. Naturally many would want to gather such a useful mushroom, especially before such a big event as the Vytal Festival. However, this time the circumstances for harvesting the mushrooms was different, for the first time in known history the Vie Verte had appeared earlier than usual, five and a half years earlier to be precise. When Beacon Academy, as well as the rest of the planning committee for the Vytal Festival, received the news from an anonymous source along with a sample of the Vie Verte they immediately told Ozpin to send a collection party. The competing students would gain valuable experience and become stronger, while the ratings for the Vytal Festival would be sure to do the same from all of the supped-up competitors. All were in agreement with this plan, all except for one professor Ozpin. The gray-haired huntsman feared there may be something more to them just being handed such a rare gift when no other sources had reported such findings. However, he's objection was overturned, after allowing Grimm to breach the kingdom walls and still not being able to find out who Roman Torchwick was working for, his authority in the eyes of not only the planning committee, but also the higher-ups in the four kingdoms had severely wavered. In a last ditch effort to convince the others Ozpin had tried to argue about the rumors that there was an incredibly dangerous creature of Grimm in the valley, which had been sighted over the last decade and is accredited with more than eighty kills, most of which were either individuals posing as huntsman or bounty hunters. Despite Feign village having a bounty of several thousand Lien for the dubbed "Grimm Valley Beast" he was again dismissed, this time with laughs and chuckles at his expense for believing such a thing.