First of all a little bit of info about the story you are about to read. It is only based on the material from season 1 though 3 and the information given before season 4. I will try to not to change too much, so the plot of this story does not diverge too far from the information that will appear in season 4, but I can't guarantee anything. Having said that, I hope you will enjoy this story.
If I decide to discontinue it for any reason, I will post a chapter summarizing how the story would have ended, to give everyone some closure. I warn you that there may be a ton of grammatical mistakes, so feel free to point them out to me in the comments or in a private message, and I will try to correct them. All opinions are welcome.

And with that said, lets begin.

Prologue

Flames were rising from the ruins of the buildings, filling the air with an orange glow. Single snowflakes were lazily falling from the dark grey night sky. The bullheads' engines roared loudly. One after another the bullheads touched down it the narrow streets of the burning village. Soldiers were hastily deployed to survey the area after which the airships quickly took of again.

Christian breathed in the cold smoke filled air as he glanced over the remains of the village. Most buildings in his near proximity have already collapsed, probably as a result of the fires burning away their support beams. 'If we are lucky there won't be any survivors trapped in there' he thought grimly to himself.

He looked around to locate the rest of his squadron. Most of them were standing close by. Some were looking inside one of he houses, checking if anyone managed to hide from the grimm attack.

"Squadrons!" A shout form the commanding officer pulled him out of his thoughts. "Spilt up and search the place for survivors and grim!"

'Same old' Christian thought to himself hearing the words he has already heard a number of times before. 'These small villages seem to rise up as quickly as they fall.' The first time he saw a village like this, he was terrified. He even ended up getting sick when he saw the dead bodies. But then again, that was years ago.

He quickly located his commander and followed him as his squadron made its way deeper towards the center of the village.

###

The village turned out to be bigger than he expected. The houses closer to the center of the village were actually made of stone, which meant that the village wasn't a new settlement. More surprisingly, they haven't encountered any grimm yet. From the lack of gun shots Christian assumed it was the same for other squads.

The number of bodies laying in the streets was growing the further they progressed. It appeared the villagers begun fleeing towards the village center instead of hiding in their homes once they realized the grimm approached. They checked every body for any vital signs, but so far they have had no luck

As they approached the center he noticed the houses were singed and had strange cut marks, which were far too deep to originate from the grimm's claws. Manny of the bodied they passed appeared to have bad burns.

When they finally arrived at the center a strange sight greeted them. The entire plaza was completely scorched. If they had any hope of finding survivors before the arrived, it was all gone by now.

"What the… " Christian heard one of the other soldiers whisper.

The plaza was littered with dozens of scorched corpses. Some of them had deep cuts while others were missing whole limbs or were cut to pieces. This also seamed to answer the question of why they haven't encountered any grimm because whatever happened here appeared to have killed them as well.

As they moved forward, Christian noticed a small, unburned body laying in what seamed to be the middle of the explosion. He was about to alert the commander, but he quickly realized the commander had also noticed it and was moving it towards it.

The body belonged to a young boy. His clothing was ripped to pieces. There were many wounds from where the boy seemed to have been bleeding a little while ago. His hair was covered in blood and dirt, making it impossible to discern its color. Christian assumed the boy to be dead and didn't pay him any further attention.

'What in the world happened here?' he thought to himself hits was definitely not what he expected when they were woken in the middle of the night to respond to a distress call from one of the outlying Atlas settlements. He was certain it was going to be another mission where they would have to evacuate terrified civilians and kill a bunch of grimm.

"This is definitely above my pay grade" He joked to one of his colleagues, whom quietly laughed at his joke.

They began to move away, idly chatting to distract themselves from their surroundings. They were already halfway beck across the plaza when Christian's foot hit something long and metallic, sending it skipping across the paved ground.

Upon inspection the item turned out to be a wired cross between a dual ended sword and a spear. It was a sort of weapon that could only be fund in possession of a hunter. This explained why the villagers left their homes. They hoped they would be safer protected by a hunter.

"He is Alive!"

Christian turned around to find whomever the voice belonged to. One of the newest recruits was bend over the boy's body, with her ear close the boy's mouth.

"Get a Medic over here! He is still alive!"

Authors notes: For those whom worry that I will drag you through a long and boring story about growing up: you can easily relax. This was just a Prologue for the actual story. It is also a shorter than the following chapters will be, because prologues usually are. BTW, I want to hear all your thoughts on this story, which includes both the good and the bad ones, so don't be afraid to leave a comment.