Chapter One

Wanderers

"You sure you know where we're going Velvet?" Said Yang for the nth time, knowing full well that it was very annoying to me.

"Grrr" Was the noise I made.

Part of my anger was also the smell around me, while it was tempered by the rain, it smelled blaking awful!

The forest around us gave off the smell of a dead animal, along with a general smell that said something died out here.

"Just calm down, Yang, we're just ... I don t know where we are at all guys". Velvet admitted, her rabbit ears that marked her as a faunus falling down on her head, her boots and gloves made of metal plate shaking with noise.

Her ears had the advantage of making sure her white hood never fell down, though her bandana that she uses to cover her mouth, on the other hand, kept falling down no matter what she did to keep it up.

"Must be cause of the forest, just impossible to tell where ya bloody are ." Responded Yang in her black attire, with a cloak, hood and cloth mask.

Yang was right, as I very much hate to admit, it was difficult to tell where you were when everything looked the damn same, the forest was gloomy and dark, along with a mist which was not there the first time we went through the forest, which may be the reason we can't find our way through it now.

"I'll lead the way, guys!" I stated with my impressive confidence.

"Velvet's the only one of us who can read a map properly, remember?"

My confidence was very quickly and easily shattered into little itty-bitty pieces on the ground.

"Oh shut up, Yang, I can use my magic to lead us out!" I shouted.

I will show him! I have amazing magic skills!

"You can barely cause light to appear from that fancy staff of yours, what makes you think you can lead us out of a forest?"

As annoying as Yang was, it was hard to say she was wrong, I failed to properly cast a light spell to blind The Emperor's guards, which meant that I nearly botched our attempt to kill the royal bastard.

"Well, I don't see you helping!"

"I killed The Emperor, along with that, I'm holding our only good light source." She said back with confidence.

"All right you two, stop fighting!"

Somehow, those simple words from Velvet stopped both of us right there; now the group was simply silent.

Angry Velvet was scary.

The forest was silent too, as if it was a living, breathing and moving entity, which it was not, at least not one living, breathing and moving entity anyhow.

"Anyone hungry?" I said, trying to stop the awkwardness that had grown from the silence.

"Would love an apple" Velvet responded.

"I'll have anything at this point, White"

I hated that nickname, not because it was a bad nickname, it was actually quite decent; it was the fact that Yang used it, I am Weiss!

I threw an apple at Velvet and she caught it without looking once; Yang, on the other hand, had a bit more trouble.

"Damn it to Tartarus!" Screamed Yang, as she failed to catch the piece of spicy meat that I threw to her.

"It's all muddy now!"

Of course, it was, it fell in the mud dummy; rogue or not, you could never, ever catch a bag of goodies even if it was handed to you, you big idiot.

"I'll hand you the water if you want," I stated.

"Ha ha ha HA, give it here." Yang said with a hint of aggression.

"Yang" spoke Velvet.

"Yeah yeah, sorry White"

"Jerk" I whispered.

"What was that, White?!"

"I said j-"

Suddenly Velvet was motioning us to be quiet; there was something very wrong at the moment.

Yang pulled out her bloodstained dagger from its sheath.

I noticed that I had the feeling that we were being watched, I don't know who or what, but something was watching us, something from the forest.

I saw that the others gave off the same feeling.

Something ran past from one tree to another.

We started to move quickly, as fast as we possibly could, away from the thing that was watching us, stalking us, hunting us down as if we were foxes and it was the foxhound.

"Keep moving!" I shouted.

There were loud thumps as we ran across the muddy pathway that led to what might be our only way out of this situation.

"We are! We are!"

"I see something!"

"In the distance!"

I saw something too; it looked like a tower, perhaps a watchtower of a village.

"Go for it!"

"But it might be a trap!"

"We have no other choice, Yang!"

"Stop talking, keep running!" Vel shouted

We ran towards the seemingly fine village.

It was not until we were very close that realized the state of the village.

"The whole village seems completely pillaged!"

"It will give us some protection from our pursuers!"

"What protection, there's barely any walls left!"

"They won't be able to sneak up on us!"

"You sure, White?"

"Yes I am sure!"

We finally reached the wooden walls of the village; we entered through one of the many, many holes that were in the walls.

"Whatever did this was powerful." very powerful stated Velvet.

There was no argument about that statement, as it was clear from the rotten corpses and half-destroyed houses that whatever did this could kill all of us in seconds.

I just hope that whatever it was, it was not still here in the village waiting for new victims.

What would master Port do in this situation?

Probably hide in his tower and wait for the pursuer to go away, now that I think about it, the bloody lazy, good for nothing bastard.

I pull out my staff and get ready to mutter a water spell that will knock back anyone that gets close.

Velvet readied her walking stick, it might not seem like much, but I have seen her kill soldiers with it.

We soon turned our backs to each other, then pushed them together, this was our only way of watching for attacks from all directions.

We waited...

A minute passed...

Another minute passed...

Then there was the sound of something swiftly and smoothly flowing through the very misty air.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

I turned to see Velvet, on her knees with a makeshift-looking arrow protruding from her left arm, her face contorted in pain not at all in any way or shape imaginable to Yang and I, as neither of us have suffered such a horrific wound in our entire lives.

Well, in the sense that I never have, not sure about Yang, she lived in the Capital.

Anything can happen there that could make this wound a minor inconvenience.

But I shouldn't focus on that now.

"Velvet!"

"White!"

I turned to look at Yang.

"We need to help him!"

I couldn't hear the sound of the torch anymore through the rain.

It suddenly dawned on me why she called out my name.

Our torch was out.

"Not good." I said.

Paired with the mist, that means it will be damn near impossible to see at all out here in the middle of the village.

"Not good at all, Ya think?!" Shouted Yang.

"Yes!" I replied back.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit!"

I have only realized that we still do not know at all how to get out of this damn large forest full of evil monstrous horrors that want to kill us!

I also realized very quickly that there were very, very worrying growling noises coming from said evil monstrous horrors from outside the walls of the ruined village and in the large misty, scary forest that smells like death had an off day while working at a swamp.

"Ah Shit"

I could not agree more with you at this moment Yang.

Then they charged at us.