A/N: New Story, one I'll try and actually finish. Updates will be sporadic to say the least seeing as I only write when some kind of divine inspiration hits me. Please leave a review if you like. Feedback is what keeps me in my writing mood.
"Oh! And don't forget, you promised that you'd be there."
"Heh, try not to worry so much, when have I ever been late getting home?"
"There's a first time for everything okay? I just want to make sure you know how important it is to me that you're there."
"Come on, do you know who I am?"
"I know you're getting old, Uncle Qrow"
Peals of mixed laughter could be heard coming through the scrolls' speaker as the man holding it grumbled to himself beside his fire.
"I am absolutely not getting old." The man denied vehemently as he tried to angle the scrolls camera away from his graying hair.
"Not to but in or anything," Another voice called as a young blonde woman popped up on the scrolls' screen. "But you are pretty old." The young woman finished with a cautious smile.
"You kids have any other compliments for me or were you just going to make sure I'm not late… then insult me." The man chided good naturedly.
"We're just always worried about you!" The younger red head chimed in.
"Well try to worry less, or else you'll get wrinkles like Yang." The man added with an enormous grin.
"Hey!"
The man laughed before continuing. "Sorry girls but I have to get some shuteye, got a bit of hike tomorrow before the next settlement and for some reason I feel as if I shouldn't be late. I love you two." He finished with a smile.
"I love you too." The two young girls chimed in unison.
Qrow ended the video call and kicked dirt over the remnants of his fire. After unfurling his bedroll and tucking in for the night he took one last look at the background on his scroll. His two favorite nieces. The two best reasons he had to make it home on time.
Huntsmen and Huntress' tended to work together in pairs or small group when they were hunting Grimm, and for good reason. The Creatures of Grimm were dangerous and unpredictable, and it was always advantageous to have someone you trusted watching your back when out in the frontier. Many Huntsmen travelled together simply for the pleasant company. When you were in Grimm territory for weeks or months at a time with only your weapon and your thoughts to keep you company, it was hard to stay all there mentally.
There were horror stories passed between hunters, they never made it to the news, about huntsmen who would leave on an extended hunt by themselves. If and when they came back, they were never quite the same. The psychological combination of loneliness and hunting, or even being hunted by Grimm were sometimes too much for even the most strong willed people to handle by themselves.
Sure, there were still huntsmen that opted to hunt alone and they excelled at what they did, but they were few and far between.
Qrow though, was one such hunter, granted he had more than one reason to choose a more solitary lifestyle while on the prowl.
When he was younger, first training to be a hunter, he always thought it was odd, how bad things always seemed to happen when he stayed in one place for too long. Sometimes it took hours or days, sometimes weeks, maybe months, but it would always catch up to him. A broken plate at home or a dropped glass at a bar. A paper cut or someone taking an unfortunate spill. A car accident.
A bad luck charm, that's eventually what he decided he was. Bad luck followed Qrow around at a sedate pace but always caught him in the end. Often times it was hard to tell whether something was bad luck or bad luck but Qrow always took it as his que to say his goodbyes and make a hasty exit. Lest something more unfortunate happen to those he cared about.
This need to be away and protect others is what eventually led him to his often lonely life of hunting. It was the reason he never took jobs in any of the four main capitals. The fear of not knowing whether or not some accident was his fault or whether it was just that, an accident. It was why he took often low paying jobs in the middle of nowhere.
He had a need to hunt and serve but never wanted his presence to be the reason anyone got hurt. It's the reason he was traveling through the rocky highlands south of Vale to get to his next paying job.
The older man awoke with a start the following morning, chill and dew seeping into his bedroll. After waking, relieving himself, and packing away his minimal supplies, he continued on his way down the mostly flat footpath toward his next destination: Mirewood.
Mirewood was a small village built on a crossroads the led both east to Vale and west to Vacuo as well as splitting off in various directions to other small settlements and strongholds. The local population, mostly made up of faunus, weren't the most well off people, but they had the types of things that any place of living needed beyond the walls of a major capital. Fertile farmland, high walls, guard posts, and places to get a good drink.
It was somewhere that Qrow had been to on more than one occasion but never long enough to learn anybodies name. A night here, a few days there. Just long enough to recuperate, stock up on dust and supplies and move on to places that needed more help. Larger outposts tended to have their fair share of stationary Hunters, they didn't have a need to outsource to wandering warriors like him.
While it was an easy trek for the most part, Qrow had wished that it had stayed uninteresting. As the sun began its descent behind the western hills when he was nearly done with his march for the day, he stumbled upon something he could have easily done without.
He had crested the top of a craggy hill when he saw something that he was not unfamiliar with. The road ahead was stained with red, bodies motionless off to the side of the path, a large, black, hulking mass towering over the fallen figures. Grimm.
The beowolf didn't last long, the beast too preoccupied with its recent kill to notice Qrow silently charging him. He didn't even need to fully extend his scythe, just a flick of the wrist, a flash of light and the monsters head was cleanly lopped off. The body slowly started to smoke and disappear.
Quietly, Qrow moved over to the disheveled corpses on the side of the road, their faces frozen in pain. A tragedy if there ever was one. Five adults, no women, no children. Surprisingly clean cuts covered the bodies. On some exposed tendons were barely holding them together. All of them were armed yet curiously none of them had drawn their weapons. Knives and swords were still sheathed, pistols still clasped firmly in their holsters. Not a single round spent even though the ground was covered in dust. Unusual.
It didn't look like the beowolf had a chance to feast for long, only one of the corpses had the tell tale markings of a creature that was interrupted mid meal. The leg on one of them was completely shredded below the knee, bone sticking out and meat hanging off in chunks. Food for the carrion now.
Storing his sword and shuddering to himself, Qrow made to be on his way before a rustling in the underbrush to his left had him alert once again. Checking his surroundings once more he drew his weapon and began making his way toward the side of the road.
Just through the underbrush and passed the trees Qrow found what had created the disturbance. He rushed forward and slid to the ground in front of the wounded man, kneeling in the blood soaked grass. The older man's plate armor was cracked and shattered in more than one place, blood oozing slowly through the cracks. His shaking right hand clenched a battle worn two headed axe. His aura was doing the best it could to staunch the flow of blood but it didn't look like it would be enough. The older man was pale, sweating, bleeding profusely, and breathing heavily, all signs pointed to Death's door. Qrow wasn't just going to sit there though.
"Hang in there old timer." Qrow said as he slide his rucksack open and pulled out the few bandages he had bothered to pack.
The older gentleman laughed to himself but continued to sputter up blood all over himself, his body racked with coughing. "Old timer? Have you not looked in a mirror recently?" He asked before he continued his coughing fit.
"It's been a few days." Qrow muttered under his breath as he fiddled with the clips that held the breastplate to the rest of the man's armor. After undoing the two clasps and slicing the leather straps that held the rest of the ensemble together he removed the chest piece and sighed to himself after seeing what he had to work with.
No amount of field dressing would save the older man.
Seeing Qrow's face fall the older man spoke up. "That bad huh?" He asked between coughs.
"Lost too much blood, not enough aura, not enough bandages, no pain killers. If I had gotten here twenty minutes sooner there might have been something I could do." Qrow said.
"Twenty minutes sooner and you'd be face down in the road." The older man started. "Or bleeding out against this tree."
"What happened?" Qrow asked.
"Ambush."
"Grimm?"
"No." The man spat. "Faunus." With what strength he had left he let go of his axe and pointed to Qrow's left further down the treeline separating the path and the denser forest. Laying on the ground was the prone form of a Faunus. Dog ears drooping, lying in a puddle of blood. "I gave as good as I got though."
With that, the older man panted his last few breaths and lay still. Qrow reached over and shut the man's eyes and laid his battle axe across his lap before standing up and repacking his miniscule first aid kit.
He then meandered over to the face down Faunus and flipped the body over with his foot. It's cold hands already beginning to stiffen, were holding onto a cheaply made handgun, magazine empty.
Thieves, highwaymen, bandits. Although rare, they were reason enough that most if not all people traveling roads were armed, weather it be firearms or more traditional weaponry.
After looking around further Qrow noticed several sets of deep footprints leading farther back into the denser part of the forest. Sighing, he resigned himself to the task at hand and set off into the woods.
The trail wasn't exactly difficult to follow. The heavy boots the bandits wore made sure of that, the fleeing bandits footprints were clear as day to someone who spent their entire adult life tracking down and killing monsters for pay. When he really thought about it, this wasn't so different. He was still hunting monster, just ones of a different nature. And with less pay. Still similar though.
An hour or so later into his trek, the sun nearly completely set, Qrow could see the burning light of a fire about a hundred yards ahead of him. Just through the trees he could make out a small clearing. A roaring campfire with several figures crowded around it.
If it were Faunus in the clearing then they'd certainly see him coming if he tried walking up to them. They wouldn't have any reason to notice another crow though.
With a smirk and a flash of dull grey light Qrow took to the skies on black feathered wings, travelling the rest of the way towards the lonely camp fire. He perched himself on a tree limb just on the edge of clearing and took in everything that was going on around him.
Six Faunus in total surrounded the fire, all of them awake, all of them were carrying or within reach of firearms, the copious amount of bladed weapons weren't even worth mentioning. Four handguns and two rifles. He figured he could probably take out two or three of them before any of the others could reach for a weapon. Qrow had a more entertaining plan in mind though.
He swooped into the clearing and with a flash of grey light he changed from his crow form. He casually strolled the last couple feet towards the fire with his hands in his pockets before announcing his presence.
"Hey Gentlemen!" He shouted. "I don't mean to interrupt your evening but I just wanted to ask you fellas a few questions."
Before he had finished his sentence the six brigands let out a string of loud profanity before grabbing their weapons and raising them at Qrow.
"Hold the fuck right there old man." The forward most faunus shouted as he clicked the safety off his weapon.
"Woah woah woah woah woah!" Qrow shouted as he put his hands up. "I just wanted to have a quick little chat with you guys and I'll be right on my way, promise. And what do you mean old man?"
"Yeah? Fat fucking chance I'm gonna have a nice conversation with a human." He snarled as he pulled the trigger on his weapon.
There wasn't a bang though, there was nothing but a small, barely audible click. The faunus cursed at his gun furiously as he tried pulling the trigger again. The gun was jammed.
"That's simply unfortunate right there now isn't it?" Qrow said with a devilish grin. "My turn."
From there it was simply a maelstrom. A second later and Qrow was in their midst. He pulled out his weapon, shifted it into a scythe. He swept down low and cut the left leg off of the lead faunus who screamed and fell backwards into the fire.
The clearing opened up with a deluge gunfire as the frightened and panicked faunus tried their very best to land a clean shot on Qrow. But whether it was poor marksmanship, poor training, poor equipment, or just bad luck, not a single round connected with its intended target.
Without much fanfare Qrow dispatched his next three foes. A flurry of swipes and sweeps of his scythe made quick work of them as limbs were severed from bodies, heads rolled of shoulders, and blood soaked the ground.
The fifth bandit Qrow noticed was trying to run away, he simply wasn't going to have that. He kicked the remaining bandit in front of him with a bone shattering kick in the knee before following up with a punch in the face. As the faunus was falling Qrow ripped the handgun out of his hand and raised into the woods aiming for the fleeing faunus. He fired four shots in quick succession before hearing the body drop.
Leveling his gaze at the last breathing bandit, he kneeled down and whispered. "Looks like you won the grand prize my friend."
Qrow picked up the fauns by the collar of his shirt and heaved him against the nearest tree. Pinning him there with his left arm under his windpipe, Qrow fished his hunted knife out of the scabbard on his right thigh.
"Okay friend, here's how the rest of this is going to go. I'm going to ask you a question and if I feel you haven't giving me a satisfactory answer, I'm going to start removing digits. Let's see where this takes us." Qrow said.
Qrow asked his first question and the faunus didn't answer.
The clearing filled with muffled screams.
The White Fang. A peaceful protest movement was behind the massacre he found in the middle of the road. Miles away from anywhere that protesting would be of any use. The only nearby settlement was predominantly Faunus already so what need was there to butcher innocent humans who were just going about their daily business. The notion was laughable at best. If that piece of shit bandit wanted Qrow to stop hurting him he should have at least came up with a more believable lie.
'Just a bunch of lunatics who tried to find a fucked up way to justify their crimes.' Qrow thought as he moved towards a stream at the edge of the clearing. 'Easier to kill and steal when you convince yourself what you're doing is morally justifiable.' He thought bitterly as he began to clean the grime, gore and blood from his blade.
'Nope. No White Fang here. Just a bunch of cowardly bandits hiding in the woods… Couldn't even stomach the fact that, that's what they were… Bandits."
The carnage from the fight, though one could hardly call it that, was still plainly visible, lit by the fire in the center of the camp. Qrow walked over to the fire with his newly cleaned scythe and snuffed the flames out. He left the clearing as silently as he entered and made his way back to the main road.
He was still about a day and half journey away from Mirewood and his need for a very strong drink was mostly what kept him walking along the road.
Feeling a buzz in his pocket he pulled out his scroll, the background of his two favorite nieces temporarily blinding him as he quickly turned the brightness down. There was a single new notification at the top of the screen, a message from Ruby.
'Hey' Was all it said.
'Hey yourself, it's late, shouldn't you be in bed?' Qrow replied.
'I was, but I hadn't heard from you today, just wanted to check in see how you were doing.' Came Ruby's response.
'That's pretty funny, because that sounds a lot like you worrying about me. Which I specifically told you, you didn't have to do.'
'Yeah… well, I mean, it's hard not to.'
'Nothing happened today Ruby, just a beowolf here and there. Nothing this old crow can't handle.'
'You just admitted you were old'
'I'm gonna need you to delete that last text.' Qrow replied with a broad smile on his face.
'Not gonna happen old man.'
'You should try and get some sleep though Ruby, you've got class tomorrow.'
'All I have tomorrow is my final in Advanced Grimm Studies.'
Qrow smiled to himself, he could almost hear the high pitched whining on the other side of the scroll. 'That doesn't sound like an elective to me.' He typed back.
'Weeellllllllll that's cause it's not, but it is an easy class I promise.'
'Ruby…'
'Fine, I'll go to bed'
'Night Ruby.'
'I love you'
'I love you too' Qrow typed back. 'If Yang's asleep wake her up and tell her I love her too.'
He locked the scroll and pushed it into his pocket. That. That was exactly what he needed. The smile never left his face as he walked on through the night, closer and closer to his destination.