Here it is, my first addition to the RWBY Portal! I hope you enjoy!
In the vast forests of Vale, two armies fought. The clash of blades and the shouts of soldiers, accompanied by gunshots, sounded throughout the forest. Midst the red trees, two people fought ferociously, as they both knew that if their opponent scored a hit, it would surely spell their end.
A Young Man brought his sword up quickly and parried the blade that came toward him, the man behind it having every intent on ending his life. In the light of that damned moon he could see the hatred in his eyes burning. Hatred at the Young Man who had slain many of his comrades, hatred at the Young Man's kingdom for allowing him to be a soldier under their banner. The man once again struck out at him, but he parried it once more before slamming his shoulder into the man's chest, which caused him to stumble back. He gripped the blade of his sword and brought the crossguard up and into one the man's now vulnerable eyes. The man let out an agonizing, almost primal scream as he dropped his sword and clutched his now ruined eye.
The Young Man saw his opening and took it. He had done this many times before and if he survived this battle he guessed that he would probably do it again.
He gripped the grip of his sword tightly as he sidestepped and brought the blade to his enemy's neck with great force, cutting his head off in one clean motion. He did not see his lifeless corpse drop limply to the forest floor, for his attention was occupied as he scanned the area for any more possible hostiles.
As the red at the tinges of his vision cleared, he had begun to take in the scene around him. What he saw made his heart sink. From what he could gather, he and that son-of-a-bitch had been the only ones who were still alive in this clearing.
From the amount of bodies, he guessed that the battle was nearing it's end, but he could barely make out which side had suffered more losses, but he hoped it had been the valen who had gotten the short end of the stick. He checked the holster at his hip and saw that his pistol was still there, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he found that it remained on his person. He would need it if he wanted to return to the frontline and rejoin his comrades.
He walked through the carnage, ever alert for any sign of movement. Soldiers from Vale had a habit of playing dead if the battle looked grim for them, and he didn't want to join the ones who weren't acting the part. He stumbled through the clearing until he reached the other side, which was where the sounds of battle were most prevalent.
From the shadows of the trees, someone charged at him. The Young Man braced for the attacker as they rammed him with their shield, trying to stumble him. It didn't work as well as they had anticipated, but it caused the Young Man to jump back as the figure thrust his sword at where he had been previously.
The two clashed once more, and as the two fought ferociously, the Young Man lost the upper hand as his foe parried his sword away and struck quickly.
The Young Man felt the sword puncture his abdomen, and he screamed. He dropped his sword from the pain, drew his pistol and fired point blank past the figure's shield. He knew the shot had connected, since he heard the figure cry out, and judging from the wail of pain that accompanied the shot, he had hurt the bastard bad.
The Young Man's Foe kicked him forward and off of his sword. Even with the injury he had sustained, he knew he had won this. The Young Man hit the ground and landed on his side. His vision was blurry, but he tried to make out what his killer looked like. All he could make out was the emblem on the shield.
That was all he could make out before the man staggered off and into the forest once more, clutching his side. The Young Man tried to stand, but he just couldn't find the strength to get out of his kneel. When he spied his precious blade he reached for it, but dropped to the ground once more and rolled onto his side as the moonlight, along with the flames of the forest, illuminated his bloodied form.
He saw the moon once more and it's shattered visage greeted him coldly.
This is it, isn't it?
He felt his eyelids start to get heavy. He reached out toward that damned moon, his gloved hand grasping at it fruitlessly.
He didn't have the strength to call out, to call for help. Not like there was any, though. He knew that the Grimm had most likely been biding their time, waiting for the battle to move so they could feast upon the dead and dying like so much carrion.
His vision blurred as his eyes closed and he let his arm fall to the ground limply. He waited now, for the time of his end to come. Something strange happened though. He felt, as he began to depart this world, himself lift up. It felt like someone was carrying him, carefully, as if they would break the Young Man. He calmed down at this sensation. Is this what dying felt like? At least it wasn't as awful as he had thought it would have been.
He relaxed and let the force whisk him away to wherever it was to take him.
In the beautiful land of Vale, there was an academy for Huntsmen and Huntresses. There, the students were milling about on their day off, trying to relax as best they could before they were to continue their studies. They were to be the protectors of the world of Remnant, and it was without a doubt that they felt that they deserved this reprieve. Along the massive avenue that led to the entrance of the academy, a group of young girls walked and talked.
"What's with this weird weather?" One of them, a blonde-haired girl, asked as she looked toward the sky.
The sky had darkened considerably. It'd been like this for quite some time now. At least once a day, it would change quickly, from sunny to overcast in just a few minutes. It would clear up just as fast, leaving anyone who had seen it confused.
"I know what you mean. To be honest though: I kind of like it." One of them replied.
This red-hooded girl also brought her silver eyes to the sky to study the overcast weather that had not been there five minutes ago.
She turned to look at the two others. One of them, a girl dressed in white, looked at her curiously, before smiling.
"Weiss, what did you want to tell me earlier?" The Silver-Eyed Girl asked.
"Well, Ruby." Weiss replied. "I was going to ask you about the upcoming-"
She was cut short by a loud bang, akin to a clap of thunder, that startled them. They looked up and saw that a bright white beam of light had hit the avenue some ways away, even having left a perfect circle in the cloudy weather, and that the other students had begun to converge on it's impact point. The first of the girls to start making their way over was Ruby, who, with her semblance, sped over to the point of impact.
"Wh-what's going on?!" Weiss asked.
She looked around as Yang and her fellow students made their way over to the point.
"Blake! Come on! We've-" She started.
She looked around once more and noticed that her compatriot had already left her side and had went to join the forming crowd.
"Blake! Wait!" She shouted, following after.
When they got there, they couldn't push through. It seemed like all of the school had come to see what had landed. They could hear the outbursts of the other students.
"Who is he?!"
"Why is he hurt like that?!"
"He's bleeding real bad! Someone go get a professor or something!"
The two of them pushed through the crowd and joined their friends, who were at the forefront. Ruby, along with Yang, had knelt down next to an unconscious young man. He looked to be close to Yang's age, if not older. His vest, made of leather, was filthy. It, along with his chain shirt, tunic and pants, were spattered with dirt, mud, and what was quite obviously blood, and it made it hard to see how much blood had poured from the large stab wound in his gut and pooled on the ground.
"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!" Someone shouted.
It was Miss Goodwitch. She shoved her way through the crowd, determined to see what had caused such a commotion. When she saw the Young Man, she gasped and covered her mouth in shock at the sight that presented itself before her. Ruby looked at her with desperation and fear quite present in her eyes. She'd moved his head to her lap as she tried her best to comfort the horrendously wounded young man.
"He needs help!" She said.
The Young Man's eyes shot open and he took in a huge gasp of air. What followed was one of the most agonizing, most pained screams that Ruby had ever heard as he clutched his wound. His eyes darted to and fro as he tried to calculate what had happened. He felt a hand on his arm. His head jerked to see Ruby, who had moved to squeeze his other hand.
"It's going to be okay. You're safe." She said, her voice soft and not unpleasant.
"Where?" He asked, his voice hoarse and weak.
"You're at Beacon Academy." She answered.
"Kingdom?" He asked.
"You're in Vale."
His eyes widened at her response. He looked at the surrounding students and then at Ruby. He began to hyperventilate, looking around frantically. He saw what he was looking for: his sword. It was just at Blake's feet. He reached for it, yearned to grab it and fight his way out, but it was just too far away.
"Yang! Carry him to the infirmary!" Goodwitch ordered.
Yang nodded then picked the young man up, running for the infirmary as she held him in a princess carry. He didn't have the strength to struggle anymore. He was just so tired. So very tired.
As the surprisingly strong girl carried him, he slipped into consciousness once more.
Headmaster Ozpin looked through the observation window at their visitor. They'd scrubbed him clean and got him in a hospital gown. He looked at the Young Man as he slept as his aura, aided their own efforts to keep him in this world. Here and there he'd see the Young Man squirm or twitch, as if he were in the throes of a nightmare.
"And you say you saw him fall from the sky?" He asked.
He turned his head to look at the two young huntresses who had accompanied Glynda. When he looked at the two he could easily read them. Yang had kept a blank expression through the entire ordeal, having stayed stoic for her sister, even despite how heavily the Young Man had bled upon her. Ruby, on the other hand displayed a look of shock instead of her normal cheery demeanor, her eyes staring off into the distance at nothing in particular.
"Not exactly 'fall from the sky'. More like 'come down in a flash of light... From the sky'. Yang explained.
She looked at her sister and nudged her with her elbow. That looked to draw Ruby back to Remnant as she gathered her thoughts.
"Yeah... we, uh, didn't see him fall or anything. One second the day was normal and then suddenly we had some guy dying in the middle of Beacon." Ruby added.
Ozpin looked at the two. In his eyes many things were noticeable: understanding, compassion, and a spark of curiosity that would no doubt satiate itself when the Young Man awoke.
"You two go and get some rest. I'll have you excused from the rest of tomorrow's classes." He ordered.
Ruby shook her head in response.
"I can't, Headmaster. I was the first person he saw and I think I should be the one to let him know he's okay, that it's going to be okay. I saw how he reacted when I told him where he was and I want to know why. That look he had, the look he gave me, isn't something I can just simply forget about." She explained.
Ozpin smirked at that. He knew that's what she'd say. She wasn't one to give up that easily.
He awoke in a bed. He felt things in his arms and could hear a steady beep from behind him. When he looked he saw that he was connected by wires and tubes to all sorts of strange machines he'd never seen before. He looked around the dim and sterile room and hoped to see someone, anyone who could fill him in on what was going on. In the two chairs in the room sat a pair of young girls, both of them soundly asleep, the one with the cloak resting her head on the other's shoulder. He remembered the one with the cloak. She had silver eyes. He couldn't recall who the other one was though.
"Hey..." He said.
His throat was dry and his voice rough and gravelly and groggy. They didn't even move when he called out.
"Hey."
The two still hadn't shown any sign of consciousness. He sat up and rested his arms on the table connected to his bed.
"Hey!"
"Wha-?!"
The Silver-Eyed Girl awoke with a start, which woke the other girl as well. The two looked around the room frantically before they saw that the Young Man was awake. In a flash the Silver-Eyed Girl was over by his bedside as rose petals trailed behind her. She leaned over the bed's rail, and the Young man could easily make out the look of pure relief her eyes showed.
"It's good to see that you're okay." She said.
"The doctors thought you'd die. You really bled a lot. Like, a lot." The Blonde One added.
In the light from that damned moon outside his window he saw that the front of her rather provocative choice of attire was red. Blood red. And when he put two and two together he grimaced.
He watched as the Blonde One walked over to the bedside. She leaned on the rail of the bed and looked at him, studying his damaged figure with a look of curiosity that would have put Rook to shame.
He'd been cleaned up since he had lost consciousness. His clothes had been replaced with a hospital gown. Without the strip of cloth he used to tie his hair back with it fell down, almost over his eyes.
"Who are you two?" He asked.
"Oh! I'm Ruby Rose. It's nice to meet you." Ruby said.
"The one who..." He stated.
He looked as if he was trying to remember, but just couldn't.
"Rested your head in her lap." The Blonde added.
Ruby didn't want him to know that. It became apparent as her eyes widened and she blushed and glared at the Blonde.
"What? It's true." Yang added, smirking.
"You are?" The Young Man asked.
"Yang Xiao-Long. I carried you here." Yang answered.
An awkward silence loomed in the room. After a moment, the Young Man broke the silence.
"I'm sorry. I... I just don't know how to react to this." He explained.
"Why?" Ruby asked.
"I'd never expect Valen to save a Mistralian like me. I mean you never surrendered so we thought you'd take no quarter." He explained.
They'd never heard those terms before. Just where was this guy from?
"Don't be silly! You were hurt so we did the right thing." Ruby replied.
He looked at her, confused at how she could say that when she must have knew the things that
"Where're my sword and my gun?" He asked.
"After we got you here Miss Goodwitch took them with her." Ruby explained.
"Who?" He asked.
"She's a professor here."
"That's right. You said I'm at an academy." He replied.
"Yep. Beacon Academy." Yang interjected.
"Academy for what? You learnin' to be doctors or something?" He asked.
"Huntsmen and huntresses. You know; they fight the Grimm and save the world." Ruby answered.
"Never heard of em'. That a Vale thing?" He asked.
"You've never heard of..." Ruby said.
The two girls looked at each other, their mouths agape in disbelief. They leaned forward, their eyes alight with curiosity.
"How?!" They asked.
The disbelief in their voices, along with the fact they asked simultaneously, shocked the Young Man as he sunk into his bed in an effort to make some distance between him and the two Valen.
"I've just never heard of them! I've never seen one in Mistral!" He answered.
The two girls looked at each other once more. Both of them looked rather confused. They looked back at him. Just where had this Young Man come from that they didn't have huntsmen? Their pondering was cut short when the door to his room slid open and two more people entered.
The Young Man remembered the pretty blonde with glasses from before, but he'd never seen the bespectacled, white-haired man. The two girls turned to look at them as they walked over to the Young Man's bed.
"So our visitor is awake." The White-Haired Man said.
"So it seems." The Blonde added.
The Young Man looked at the two new faces. He had questions and he bet that they had answers. They looked important, at least if he had to take a guess. They were the oldest people in the room by leagues, so they had to be important.
"Alright; who are you two?" He asked.
"You first, if you may." The White Haired Man answered.
"Lieutenant Wetzlar Traurig, Fourth Battalion of the Special Detachment Regiment of the Unified Armies of Mistral, class one swordsman. I will not speak anymore until you can affirm that I will not be tortured for information regarding the current plans of the Unified Armies of Mistral." Wetzlar replied.
Yang looked at Ruby, worry and confusion present in her eyes. Ruby returned the look. Just where did this guy come from?
"Hmm."
The White-Haired Man paused upon hearing Wetzlar's introduction. His eyes drifted to the floor. Wetzlar had seen that look time and time again. It was the look of someone lost in thought, of someone thinking carefully of their next words. After a moment, he looked back at Wetzlar, his expression having gone from one of indifference to one of curiosity.
"I am Ozpin, and I welcome you to my academy. You needn't worry. You won't come to any harm." Ozpin said.
The bespectacled blonde nodded, her expression not changing from the stern look she wore.
"Professor Glynda Goodwitch. It's a pleasure to meet you, Wetzlar Traurig."
"I'm still confused. I remember being in a forest, a red one, then the section I was assigned to lead getting ambushed by Valen soldiers. I got stabbed, and now I'm here."
"Hmm. You were in a red forest in Vale, you say?" Ozpin asked.
"I'd guess. I don't know the name of it since it wasn't important to the mission." Wetzlar answered.
"The Forever Fall! It's this big red forest outside Beacon." Ruby added.
"And when did you say this invasion began?" Goodwitch asked.
"About a week ago. You should know that though, if we're actually in Vale." Wetzlar answered.
"That doesn't make sense." Ozpin said.
"Why doesn't it make sense?" Wetzlar asked.
A silence lingered in the room after he answered that, the two faculty members exchanged looks of worry, of surprise, until Ruby broke the silence.
"Mistral, well, they don't have an army anymore." Ruby interjected.
Wetzlar's eyes widened. He looked at Ruby. His face caught somewhere between confusion and disbelief and his eyes showed fear.
"What?" He asked.
His voice had a slight waver to it, as if he had just heard the worst news that he'd ever heard in his life. She saw this and had begun to hesitate.
"Y-yeah... When the third groups of huntsmen and huntresses graduated they handed over protection of the kingdom to them." Ruby explained.
He stared at her in disbelief. His hands started trembling and the beep grew more rapid.
"When... When did this war end?" He asked.
"Almost eighty years ago, I think." She answered.
The answer hit him like a sledgehammer.
"You're lying." He said.
His voice was quiet.
"She's not lying, Wetzlar. The War ended decades ago." Goodwitch explained.
"No. No. This can't be real."
The desperation in his voice felt like it had stuck a knife in Ruby's heart. Her good nature wanted her to find some way to comfort him, but how could she?
"I'm just asleep. This is all a dream. I'll wake up in my tent any minute now and Casimir will be making breakfast and Rook'll be coming back from a scouting mission and I'll catch Marty so we can go over the attack plans and... And..." He said.
Ozpin looked at the pleading young man. He wanted answers as much as Wetzlar did. He stepped forward, his cane tapped on the floor as he did so. He placed a hand on Wetzlar's bed.
"I'm afraid not, Wetzlar. The war, now known as the Great War, ended eighty years ago." He reiterated.
"That doesn't make sense! None of this makes any goddamned sense! How!? How did I end up here!?" He said.
He ran his hands through his hair as his eyes widened and the heart monitor began to beep more rapid.
"I plan on looking further into your predicament. Just rest for now. You've been through a lot. Glynda..." He said.
The others looked at him expectantly.
"Look after him for now. Help him acclimate." He finished.
She nodded in response. She knew Ozpin, and he wasn't heartless. He'd do his very best to help this young man. If what he had just said is true, than they had just stumbled upon something rather extraordinary.
"Miss Rose, Miss Xiao-Long, you two head back to your room." He ordered.
"Alright." Yang said.
She left without hesitation, much to Ruby's surprise.
"You too, Ruby." Ozpin said.
"But-!" She pleaded, but with a raise of his hand she stopped.
"You've done enough for him for today, just return to your room and get some proper rest." He said.
She nodded, then left, her eyes downcast.
"Mister Traurig, I ask that you behave. Even with how far medical science has come, your wounds were still rather grievous. Eighty years ago it would have definitely been fatal, but for now I simply ask that you refrain from any strenuous activity for the next few days to give your wounds time to fully heal. We've done our best for you. I hope you know that." He explained.
"I still don't get why you'd do this for me. I'm not from your kingdom." He said.
"All that was put aside with the Treaty of Vytal, Mister Traurig. The Grimm are a much more dangerous threat than our fellow man." Goodwitch added.
"Sorry, but I'm tired. Can I get some rest? This is just.. Too much to take in." He asked.
"Certainly." She answered.
Ozpin and Goodwitch left, leaving Wetzlar alone to ponder.
Wetzlar looked out the large window in his room. The campus of this place was teeming with life. He looked down at the people as they walked. According to Ruby, who had visited him repeatedly over the last few days, he'd been the talk of the school.
The guy who fell out of the sky.
That's what they called him, according to her. He didn't remember any of that. Just waking up in agony with his head in her lap. He heard a knock at the door.
"Come in." He said.
It was one of the nurses. What stood out the most were the pair of cat ears that poked out of her aqua hair. Faunus were what Goodwitch called them. He'd heard of them before. He'd heard tales of beastfolk in the untamed swamps and wild places of Mistral. Well, they were untamed in his time. Not so much now. They'd litter you with arrows if you got too close to their camps and they couldn't speak a lick of the common tongue. He remembered some of the stories that he had been told by explorers and adventurers that rested at the inn at a village, Briar Glen's only neighbor, of a far-off kingdom called Vacuo that had a large population of them that could speak the common tongue, and had even formed a large society.
He didn't see why though. They seemed okay.
"Mister Traurig! If you're ready, you're free to be discharged." She said.
"Alright." He replied.
She walked over and began disconnecting him from the machines he'd been hooked up to. She didn't remind him of the ones he had faced in Vacuo, as she wasn't trying to run him through with a spear. If it weren't for the cat ears, he would have just thought that she was just a pretty young woman. When she was finished, she walked out for a moment and returned with a wheelchair.
"Uhh..." He started, confused.
"It's procedure. I know you can walk just fine, but you need to leave in this." She explained.
"If you say so." He replied.
He went over and sat down in the chair, letting the nurse push him to the discharge wing. He was surprised that a school could afford all this. She wheeled him into a private changing room. It wasn't as that much, just a place to change out of his gown. Lining one of the walls was a row of lockers. The nurse opened one of them and handed him a bundle of clothes along with a small leather backpack.
"Professor Ozpin has given you these clothes to wear. Yours were rather damaged and will be returned to you when they're repaired and thoroughly cleaned." She explained.
He looked the clothes over. They weren't too extravagant: just a few grey shirts, a light jacket, a few pairs of pants, and a pair of shoes with some socks to go with them. They were plain, at least for this place. He'd seen what some of the students wore, and compared to them, this was without a doubt the tamest in it's design. When he saw that the strip of cloth he used to tie his hair back had been washed, he smiled.
He pushed his brown hair out of his face and tied it back with the bright orange strip of cloth. The cloth was long, reaching his shoulders when he had tightened it.
"That's a pretty tattoo, Mister Traurig." The Nurse stated.
He knew what she was talking about. The tattoo on his forehead was simple: just three green dots in a triangle pattern on the middle of his forehead that stood out against his fair skin.
"Ain't nothing." He replied.
"I don't think so. It's... if I had to say; elegant in it's simplicity. What's it's purpose?"
"Something I got during the war."
His tone wasn't very welcoming and she noticed it.
"Hmm. Not up for talking about it?" She said, raising one of her eyebrows.
"Yep." He replied.
"As you wish. For now, Headmaster Ozpin is allowing you to stay in one of the unused dorm rooms until we get all this sorted out. Along with that, he's given you that small bag of essentials."
"Essentials?" He asked.
"A shaving kit and a scroll, some lien and a pair of earplugs, among other things." She answered.
"Lien? That some kind of Vale money?"
He reached into the pack and pulled out a leather wallet. Inside it were a bunch of colored cards. He looked at them. Money was supposed to be in a wallet, but as he looked through it, he saw no money. Only the cards.
"This ain't money. It's a buncha cards." He deadpanned.
"No, that's money." She replied.
"These are cards."
He emphasized his point by taking one out of the wallet and holding it close to her face.
"How is this money? It's a square. Not a coin or nothin' normal." He asked.
"That's money these days. A Remnant-wide currency used by everyone." The Nurse replied.
He looked at the lien once more as he tried to wrap his head around the idea of them. He decided he'd rather not worry about it at that time and focus on other things.
"Now, what's this about a scroll? Like a paper scroll?" He asked.
"Nah. Lemme show you." She answered.
She reached into the pack and pulled out a small white rectangle. He looked at it. It wasn't that big, maybe about the length of his index finger. He noticed a yellow, diamond-shaped button on the rectangle. When she passed it to him he pressed it and the thing expanded. He yelped in surprise and dropped it. The Nurse, in response, caught it rather deftly a few inches from the floor and handed it back to him. He looked at her, then at the scroll, then at her again.
Guess she really is part cat.
"Be careful with that. They're expensive." She scolded.
"Uhh... Alright. Now just what the fuck's this thing for?" He asked.
He inspected the "scroll". It wasn't too big, since he could hold it comfortably, if not gently. He felt like he'd break the thing if he grasped it firmly.
"Don't swear. It's unbecoming of someone your age." She answered.
"You ain't that much older than me! Why're you scoldin' me for it?"
"School rule. While you're here you've got to conform to them. They're on the scroll so read over them when you've got time."
"Alright."
She looked at him in surprise.
"You're taking this all rather well."
"You either get used to things quick or you die. That's what war taught me."
He slung the bag over his shoulder and smirked.
"Walk me to the door?" He asked.
"Why certainly." She answered.
The two left the room and walked side by side to the entrance.
"So... where am I supposed to go?" He asked.
"Ozpin covered that as well. He's enlisted some help to show you around." She answered.
"And who might that be?"
His answer came in a swirl of rose petals.
"Hey Wetzlar!" Ruby said.
"Where'd you come from?!" He asked.
He looked around frantically as he tried to see where she had appeared from, but he couldn't pinpoint it. One second she wasn't there and then she was. His search was cut short as she grabbed his arm and began to drag him somewhere.
"So you're gonna be in the first year dorm? I'll have to show you where everything is so you don't get lost and walk into..." She spoke.
He couldn't keep up with what she was saying. She spoke a mile a minute and he couldn't keep up and he had to stop her, so he simply stopped struggling and let her drag him along. He looked back at the nurse longingly, but she simply smiled and waved goodbye as she went back into the infirmary.
He shook his head. He didn't see a way out of this. Ruby was surprisingly strong for her size. With him being well over a head taller than her, she was still able to drag him with little effort. As he resigned to his fate he turned back to Ruby and he tried to keep up with her.
"-And so we're gonna have to introduce you to the professors except for Miss Goodwitch and then I'll show you where the dining hall is!" She finished.
"Uhh... Sounds great?"
"Doesn't it?! Come on!"
"So this is the place?" He asked Ruby.
He looked at the large building that stood before the pair. It wasn't too far from the actual school grounds itself, but it was far enough that he couldn't see the grounds anymore due to the foliage that separated the dorms from it.
"Yep! The first year dorms!" Ruby answered.
She smiled and outstretched her arms in a gesture of presentation. He studied the outside of the dorms. His face went from surprise to confusion as he looked to be studying the dorm itself.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
"Uh..."
"Look, I know the dorm doesn't look like much but I'm sure you'll love it here! There's Yang and Blake and Weiss and-" She said.
"Ruby," Wetzlar interjected.
"-And then there's Ren and Jaune and-"
"Ruby,"
"-It's the closest to the main campus so you can really cut it close when you need to get to your first class and-"
"Ruby!"
"Yeah?"
She looked at him expectantly.
"I'm sure I'll be fine. Let's find my room and we'll figure it out from there."
"Uh... Sure. Let's go."
He walked ahead of her, opened the door and motioned for her to enter.
"Ladies first."
He smirked playfully, and Ruby smirked back.
"Oh! Such a gentleman." She said, playing along.
She entered and he followed behind her.
Wetzlar sat in his room and watched the sun go down over the halls of his new home. He once more looked around his new accommodations.
The place was definitely meant for students. That was something that even Blind Old Brill from his village could have figured out. The four beds, three of them unused, definitely made it seem like it was a dorm room.
Everything else on the other hand...
In the last two hours he'd heard a fair share of strange noises from the room below his. Now, it wasn't that the noises were strange in the sense that they sounded like grimm or something just a sinister, but that it sounded like people were making the strangest racket he ever could bear witness to.
He'd been doing a good job of fighting the urge to discover who had made the racket, but his patience had definitely worn thin.
When he was knocked off his bed by the bed being launched into the air, he lost it. He stormed out of his room and descended the stairs two at a time. When he reached the third floor he spied a group of people standing outside a door, which he guessed was to the room that caused such a commotion.
"They the ones causing the shaking?!" He asked.
One of them, a young man with black hair and pale pink eyes, nodded in response.
When Wetzlar reached for the door handle, someone grabbed his wrist. He saw a young man, probably around the same age as him, with blonde hair and blue eyes.
"I wouldn't do that, buddy. They really get into their pillow fights."
Wetzlar's eyes widened at his warning. How could a pillow fight cause this much of a racket? He dismissed the blonde and proceeded to throw the door open.
His action was met with a familiar voice.
"INCOMIIIIING!"
He didn't have time to react as something white hit him square in the face. The white thing was also surprisingly firm as his head jerked back and he fell backwards.
Everything went dark as he lost consciousness.
This morning was just as cold and rainy as any other in Mistral, and the tiny village in this valley was just another small village that dotted the kingdom like so many others, but something made this small village stand out amidst the bleak, foggy landscape.
At the village's square stood a row of young children. They could barely be called that, with some of them looking no older than six while others looked almost ten. Behind them stood their parents, some of them sporting looks of worry while others looked confident. Off in the distance the galloping of horses could be heard.
An older man placed his hand on his son's shoulder. His son looked at him worriedly in response. His father smiled down at him.
"You'll be fine, Wetzlar. Don't believe what the older children said. They're just angry that they weren't chosen like you were. Remember: you won't be far from home, either." He said.
"I don't want to go!" Wetzlar replied.
"I know that, but the Lord picks his guardsmen carefully and he saw potential in you. Remember what I've always told you."
"We do what we must,"
Wetzlar lowered his head in shame. He knew what his father would say next, and it always made him relent.
"For the good of the kingdom." His father added.
"For the good of us all." Wetzlar finished.
The galloping drew closer, and with it a train of horses, their riders dressed for battle in their hardened leather and mail. One of them, a man who wore a bronze breastplate, it's emblem, which consisted of a spear over a shield, emblazoned upon it proudly, over his rather regal attire, removed his helm to let his red hair free from it's prison.
The soldiers formed up behind the man as he strode over, helm held under his arm, to the line of children.
He eyed each of them, scrutinizing them all one by one. He'd not said anything yet, but the children began to show their nervousness.
Except for Wetzlar.
He stood stern, at attention, his eyes focused on the distance behind the lord.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw the Lord approach him. He could feel his gaze go over him.
"Hmm."
That was the first time they had heard the lord even make a sound.
"You're a fine bunch. To the wagons, all of you." The Lord ordered.
Much to Wetzlar's suprise, the Lord didn't sound harsh in the slightest. He had expected something more stern, more demanding. They walked to the wagons and took their places upon them. As they pulled away, Wetzlar caught sight of his parents one more time.
They both smiled at him, while his other siblings waved goodbye.
He stood up and waved at them in return and didn't stop waving until they were out of sight.
When he awoke, he was on a bed. It wasn't his bed. He could tell that by the people who watched him, their faces obscured by the light that they blocked, he must have done something to evoke their attention.
His face hurt, especially his nose. It felt like someone had thrown a brick at him. He remembered that he had came down here to stop the incessant racket that had plagued him for the last few hours, and to him it seemed like he had indeed stopped it, but at the cost of his nose.
A fair trade, if he had to say so himself.
"I told you they took their pillow fights seriously." A voice said.
"I'm so sorry Wetzlar I didn't mean to hit you with that it was just that Blake threw it at me so I caught it and threw it back at her but she dodged it and then it hit you when you opened the door and I'm so so sorry please forgive me." Another voice said, rather quickly at that.
He recognized the franticness of the voice, so he called out in response.
"Ruby?" He asked.
"Yeah! Sorry." She answered.
"That was a pillow that hit me?" Wetzlar asked.
The whole group that surrounded the bed nodded in unison.
"Felt like a brick." He added.
"She keeps smut in her pillow." Yang's silhouette explained.
"Ninjas of Love isn't smut! It's mature literature." another voice retorted.
Wetzlar made to stand up, the group parting so he could get off the bed. He looked at the people who had surrounded him. He knew Yang and Ruby, but he didn't know the rest. He remembered some of them, like the two young men and their two female associates, but the two other girls were completely new faces.
One of them, a short girl with orange hair, broke the silence.
"Hey! You're the guy who fell out of the sky, right?" She asked.
He noticed how upbeat her voice was. It was even more upbeat and optimistic-sounding than Ruby's.
"I'd guess so. Name's Wetzlar."
"I'm Nora! Nice to meet ya!"
She went and pointed to each of the other members of the group. She started with the blonde haired young man.
"That's Jaune," She explained.
Jaune nodded to Wetzlar, who nodded back.
"I shoulda listened to ya, Jaune."
Jaune simply shrugged in response. There wasn't much to say, really, and Wetzlar knew that. He honestly should have listened to him but the thought of a pillow fight causing that much of a ruckus was completely unheard of to him.
Nora continued to introduce the other members of the group to him.
"This is Ren, and that's Pyrrha and this is Blake," She continued.
He nodded to them in turn. He was never one for being incredibly formal.
"And that one over there is Weiss!" Nora finished as she pointed to a corner of the room.
Wetzlar looked where she pointed and cringed at what he saw. There, under a proverbial hillock of pillows, a hand reached out, it's fingers twitching every now and then.
"So you're a time traveler?" Jaune asked, his question bringing Wetzlar's attention to him.
The question caught him off guard. Did Ruby tell people that?
"Apparently. I don't remember much about all that. I was kinda... out of it at the time. Apparently the war I fought in ended eighty years ago."
"You fought in the Great War?" Ren asked, seemingly interested.
"We didn't call it that in my time, but yeah. I did. Mistral is my home kingdom and I would've defended it until the day I died, but that's ancient history now. Literally." Wetzlar answered.
An awkward silence filled the room for a moment before Nora, being the ever-so-brilliant person that she was broke it.
"The, uh, dining hall should be serving dinner right about now. Wanna go?" She asked the group.
"Yeah! Let's go." Ruby answered.
The other members nodded in agreement. As they left the room, the last ones to leave were Wetzlar and Ruby. He looked at her quizzically, and she smiled back in response.
This place sure is weird.
When they met the night air, Wetzlar noticed that the sun had gone down. As they joined a gathering stream of students, he looked at Ruby once more.
"So this big building is the dining hall?" He asked.
"Yep! Just follow us and act like you've been here the whole time." She answered.
"Well alright." He replied.
When they entered the grandiose and gothic dining hall, he grabbed a tray and fell in line with the rest of the students and did just like Ruby told him to. When he joined them at their table he looked on as the teams chatted and joked with one another, somewhat oblivious to his existence.
He wasn't bothered by it, though. He'd never been one to act chummy with people he barely knew. He'd have to get to know them more if he wanted to really relax around them. He watched them, though.
The way they spoke so casually about the topics at hand, the way that they acted toward each other, reminded him of his section.
There's a good chance I'll never see them again.
The thought brought him lower than he had already been, but he didn't show it. Instead he kept eating and kept his eyes on his soup for the time being. He'd finish quickly and head back to his room.
"So Wetzlar. That's how you say it, right? Did you attend schooling before you... ended up here?"
The question brought him back to reality as he looked between the groups. The one with the bright red hair, he guessed, had asked him the question. He couldn't remember her name, though.
"No. I, uh, was finished with basic schooling at the age of ten. After that it was strictly lessons that would assist me on the battlefield." He answered.
"Oh! Well, what part of Mistral are you from? I'm from Mistral as well."
His eyes widened. He let his spoon rest in his bowl as his posture relaxed. Another Mistralian! In Vale, no less!
"I hail from the Northwest Provinces, from the village of Briar Glen." He explained.
The girl smiled at him in response. She must have been happy that he had opened up a bit, he thought.
"I'm also from the Northwest provinces. I believe Briar Glen is near to where I grew up, too."
He chuckled as he thought back to his tiny, sleepy little village that he called home.
"Small world, right? Is the place still as small as I remember?" He asked.
"Yes. It was a place me and my father would go to train. He always said that the moors that surrounded it were an ideal place to learn how to ride a horse." She answered.
"It's where I learned how to ride a horse as well. Me and the Lord's second son would ride there when we had time off between lessons."
"You two can ride horses? That's so cool! I remember when Ren and I were at the orphanage there was a field nearby where a bunch of horses would graze and-" Nora started before Ren interrupted her.
"They were ponies, Nora. Not horses." He corrected.
"A pony's just a short horse!" She replied.
"She's right. They're just smaller, stockier breeds of horses. My family had a pair to pull the plough for my father's fields." Wetzlar added.
"See, Ren? A time traveling farmer's backing me up! I knew I was right!"
Ren facepalmed at her response.
Wetzlar waved goodbye to team RWBY and JNPR as he ascended the stairs to the fourth floor of the dorms.
According to what Goodwitch had told him, the academy rarely had more than enough first-years to fill the fourth floor, since the acceptance rates for huntsmen to Beacon was more strict than the other three academies. For all intents and purposes his room was the only one that was inhabited on the fourth floor.
It didn't faze him, though. Had he been younger, the thought of being alone like this would have terrified him, but there were few things he could say he was truly afraid of anymore.
He slid his scroll over the small metal pad that functioned as the lock for his room and entered. It was just as he had left it, with his bag opened and its contents spread over one of the three additional beds.
He knew why there were three. According to the multiple earfuls he had been subject to during dinner the eight students were split into four-person teams, each being paired into two-person partnerships.
He didn't get all of it. He understood the reason behind having them all stay in the same rooms, and he thought it was most likely to build a camaraderie between the teammates so they would work better in the field, but he'd only been used to what he knew, and that wouldn't have made much sense to them. At least that was what he thought.
He sat down on his bed and looked around the room. He would, without any shadow of a doubt, have to get used to living here. He'd have to get used to living with those loud girls right underneath his room.
He shuddered at the thought of walking into another pillow fight, if that war zone he had stumbled into could be called that.
He yawned and stretched as he realized exactly how tired he was. The day had been rather eventful, he had to say that about it. As he stripped down to sleep he thought about the two teams who had tried to be friendly with him, how they tried to make him feel like he was just, for all intents and purposes, another student here.
He needed to sleep, though. Ruby and company were going to take him to meet the professors tomorrow.