Prologue:

A middle-aged man calmly made his way to the large mansion at the top of the hill. Despite the impressive shield and the equally large sword that he had slung over his back, he seemed to have no trouble carrying its weight. He did stop occasionally to adjust the long strap that safely secured the large sword that rested on his back, but that was due to the uncomfortable the way it threatened to slide off his now-thinner shoulders. He had lost some weight after going for days without a steady source of food, but despite that he walked casually, as if he hadn't just gone on a two-week long journey to complete a life-threatening mission across the country.

As he stopped to stretch his limbs a bit before making the final steps toward his home, he heard a sound from the bushes. The two weeks of grueling combat should have made him more sensitive to any foreign movements or sounds, but the poorly concealed giggle that followed it calmed him down completely.

Putting on a slight smile, he pretended not to notice the sound as he walked down the pathway leading up to his home. The small bushes by the path rustled and giggled along with him, until finally a small shadow burst from them.

With a shriek of delight, the small boy rushed at his father's leg in an attempt to latch onto it, but was quickly stopped as he felt himself being lifted up by the back of his shirt until brought up to a height where he was face to face with the man he admired so much. Jaune only grinned as he realized that his father had only brought him closer to attacking range as he reached out to grab his father's ears as tightly as he could.

His father tugged gently at Jaune's arms and legs in an attempt to dislodge the boy from his face, but Jaune refused to let go and simply bombarded him with questions.

"How was your mission? Did you win? Did you save the world from the bad guys again? Play with me, please?" Jaune said, practically shouting in his father's ears.

His father gave him a weak grin as he finally managed to pull Jaune off of his head. He held Jaune up in the air, out of his arm's reach this time, and thought about his request for a moment before gently setting him down, only to have Jaune latch onto his leg. Jaune looked up hopefully at his father as he waited for his response.

His father merely bend down and patted Jaune on the back. Bringing his face down to Jaune so that he could see the wrinkles on his face, he calmly explained that he was very tired and that he desperately needed some food and rest.

"Oh… Sorry for not realizing father," Jaune said, slightly shocked after he realized his own selfishness. He lowered his head, let go of his father's leg, and dusted himself off.

At the sight of this, his father's expression softened. Patting Jaune on the back, he gave him a smile, a thumbs up, and a short promise that he would be ready to play with him all day tomorrow if Jaune told his mother and the rest of the family about his arrival.

Jaune's eyes brightened up at his father's words as he straightened his posture and gave his father a smiling salute. "Yes sir," he said, imitating the soldiers he had seen at the walls of the city. "I'll let everyone know you're home father." He ran towards the mansion at full speed, bringing up tiny clouds of dirt and dust in his wake.

"Hey everyone," Jaune shouted as he practically crashed through the doors of the house. "Mom, get dinner ready! Dad's finally home!"

A young girl walked through a dense forest with a small basket in her hands.

She seemed calm to the point of emotionlessness. She didn't bother to look around the forest, even as she heard the sounds of the small woodland creatures scurrying around her and she barely even moved her eyes from the direction she was going. Only deviating from her path to avoid muddy areas of the road that would dirty her shoes, she marched on quietly.

Though most girls her age would probably cower away from the shadows, she didn't seem to mind that the path was getting darker as she walked further into the forest. She didn't mind the dark and even considered it to be soothing, so she continued to walk along the path that even the adults in the nearby village feared to tread. They told their own children to stay away from the forest or else they would be eaten. They also told each other the same thing. The Grimm lived there and unlike the imaginary monsters that the parents in most other villages told their children about, the Grimm were quite real.

Despite that the young girl continued on her way, her only care in the world being that she shouldn't drop her small basket. Nobody had told her that the forest was a scary place, so she never even thought that she was in any danger in the first place. Maybe she was a brave girl, but that probably wasn't the reason why she walked through the forest so fearlessly.

Of course she wasn't walking through the forest for fun. She and her small basket had a destination. She was just returning from her short errand to the nearby village and now she was going straight back home. Or at least that was her plan.

"Hey there kid," said a slurred voice from behind her. The girl started to turn to greet the owner of the voice, but stopped as the man reached down and ruffled her hair. She pouted a bit as she reached up to fix her hair, but once she did the man reached down and messed it up again. After repeating this process once more she sighed and simply accepted her new hairstyle. Finally turning to face the old man behind her, she looked up at him and asked him why he was out of the house.

"What?" said the man as crouched down to be at eye level with the six-year old girl and stared back at her with a goofy grin on his face, "I didn't know that I was under house arrest. Is it so hard to believe that I wanted to see you as soon as possible?"

The girl coughed a bit as the alcoholic's breath hit her. She flailed around in an exaggerated manner, falling gently to the floor and lightly smacking the man's face as she did. He laughed and stood back up.

"Sorry Ruby," he said as he leaned down to pick her up off the ground. "I forgot that I was just drinking. That probably means it's working right?"

Sticking her tongue out at the man, Ruby reached down to dust off her skirt. Luckily she didn't see any mud on her skirt but as she patted herself down just in case, she seemed to remember the basket that was in her hands. She immediately presented it to the man as he gave her a smile.

"I was wondering when you would remember about that," he said as he took the basket from her. He opened the lid and sifted through its contents, tossing aside a few small pieces of paper and envelopes. There was writing on them and though Ruby still didn't know how to read most of the words she saw, she recognized some of the words. 'Thank you,' 'Qrow,' and 'to' were the only words she could recognize, but despite that she still felt proud that she could read them in the first place, especially when the handwriting was so messy.

She tugged on the bottom of Qrow's shirt to get his attention, but before she could brag to him about her small achievement, he reached out and stuffed a small sandwich in her mouth. "Courtesy of my favourite Mrs. What's-her-name," he said as he took out his own sandwich and took a bite. "Usually they just send me money as a thank you, but looks like this particular lady was grateful that I avenged her husband and sent us a bit of homemade food as well. With this we won't need to go down to the markets for another day or two. Man, those villagers make it a bit hard for me to hate them."

Qrow closed the basket and patted Ruby lightly on the back, motioning towards the path. They walked in silence with only the soft sound of chewing to accompany their footsteps. Ruby finished her sandwich a bit faster than Qrow and reached out to tug at the bottom of his shirt. Qrow shifted the basket to his other arm so he could continue to eat while letting the basket hang off his elbow and reached down with his newly freed hand. Ruby took it and they walked down the path to their home.

Despite his father insisting that he go to sleep Jaune stayed restless as he fidgeted in his bed, struggling to get comfortable. Looking back up at his father, he made a suggestion while trying to hold back his excitement. "Maybe you could tell me some more stories about the Arc legends, father," he said as he eagerly awaited his father's response.

His father pretended to sigh, but the Arc legends were a soft spot for him and Jaune knew it. No matter how tired his father claimed to be, at the mention of the Arc family the old man seemed to have boundless amounts of energy.

Holding back a smile, Jaune almost jumped in joy when his father agreed to tell him a story. He tucked himself in as his father sat down on the floor. This time the story would be about the knight of freedom, Saxum Arc.

Saxum Arc was a legend of his time and now he was a legend in Jaune's time as well.

Jaune listened as his father told the story about how his great-great-grandfather was praised as a god of the battlefield. For the umpteenth time, he listened to how his appearance would be enough to make entire armies cower in fear and the forces of evil would be slain with a single swipe of the sword.

Saxum Arc had many titles, most of which Jaune had memorized. Aurelius told Jaune about how Saxum's allies knew him as 'The Knight of Freedom' and that any of his foolish enemies knew him simply as 'The God of Destruction.'

Aurelius warned Jaune that any tales that he told about Saxum might not have been true. Saxum may have been even stronger than the legends said. Most of the soldiers and historians who saw him in battle couldn't believe their eyes when they saw him fight, so it was very likely that they might have misjudged Saxum's abilities, simply because the truth was too absurd to believe.

Carried away in his own story, he only realized that Jaune was asleep when he gave a little grunt in his sleep. The old man looked down at Jaune and gave a small groan as he got up.

"Saxum Arc was your great-great-grandpa," the old man said as he started to get up off the floor. "Just like him, I carry the Arc name proudly and soon you will too."

As he walked towards the door, he turned around once again. "You're going to grow up to be something my son. You're an Arc. You're going to be a hero one day."

As if heard his father's words, the sleeping Jaune smiled.

The loud creak of the floorboards seemed to echo through the halls despite Qrow's best efforts to be as quiet as possible. He got up off the bed and, without turning on any of the lights, opened the closet door and started to inspect the clothes inside. Pulling out a worn out grey shirt, he pulled it over his head only to find that he had accidently tried to put one of his hands through a tear in the shirt, rather than the actual armhole. Shrugging at his mistake, he repositioned his arms so he could put his shirt on properly. Despite the lack of protection from the elements, he didn't seem to mind that a quarter of his upper body remained uncovered. It wasn't as if the shirt was going to survive the night anyways. Reaching under the bed to find his boots, he gave a small start as he heard the sound of small footsteps heading towards his room but once he realized that he had probably woken up Ruby, he continued to sweep his hand underneath his bed in hopes of finding proper footwear.

The door creaked open slowly to reveal a very tired looking Ruby who rubbed her eyes as she struggled to see what Qrow was doing in the darkness. "Hey there kid," Qrow said as he finally felt his fingers touching leather and pulled out his boots. "It's a bit late for you to be up. You won't grow if you don't get your sleep you know." Ruby only mumbled that she drank milk as she stepped into the room and propped herself onto Qrow's bed.

Finally finding his boots, Qrow pulled them out from underneath the bed and proceeded to put them on as Ruby asked him if he was going out again. "Yeah," he replied. "Aside from the incident with that one attack last week, it seems like it's been pretty calm in the village. They never learn do they? The attacks only happen when they feel safe and they become a bit more relaxed with their security."

He got up and patted himself down. "Qrow, selfless defender of the village. It's a pretty ironic name to call me isn't it? I'm just a hunter. All I do is hunt," he said as he walked towards the corner of his room to grab the weapon that rested against the wall.

Looking back at Ruby, he noticed that she was struggling to stay awake. He walked over to pick her up and cradle her, as gently as he could with only one free hand, and walked towards her room. Pushing the creaky door open with one foot, he managed to navigate his way through the darkness and set the small girl down. He wasn't so lucky when exiting the room and managed to bump into a small cupboard and knock down the basket that was on top.

Cursing quietly, he bend over to pick up Ruby's basket, gathering the food, money, and letters that fell out. Placing the basket back on its rightful place, he pushed open the door and started to leave.

Ruby looked up at the man in the doorway and simply took notice of how he always seemed to look different at night. In the daylight, his grin would always make him look goofy and his drunken gait would make him look like some sort of fool, but in the darkness his grin always seemed to look a bit sinister and his uneven posture made him look a bit alien. Despite this, Ruby never thought of Qrow as a scary person. She loved him way too much to even consider it.

This love also extended to some of Qrow's possessions. She hated the way how his alcohol smelled and after sneaking a bit for herself one day, she absolutely despised the taste. She didn't understand how anyone could like it, but alcohol was one of the few things that Ruby disliked about Qrow. She didn't mind how he wore tattered clothes all the time despite being able to afford nice clothes for her. He always told her that it was a "fashion statement" but even if she didn't believe him when he told her that the ladies always loved it, it somehow suited him.

One thing about Qrow that Ruby heavily admired was the way he looked whenever he would go out at night. It wasn't his sinister grin, creepy posture, or tattered clothes that she admired. It was the way he would almost transform from a standard middle aged man to a confident fighter. This transformation, obviously being helped by the presence of the massive weapon in his hands.

It was a scythe. A huge scythe whose size made him look small in comparison. It didn't even seem like it was built for fighting, but Ruby felt an unnatural power that exuded from it. It was crude in every sense of the word. It looked almost homemade and Qrow had admitted to her that he had forged the "extra additions" himself without any prior experience. Nobody who saw the weapon would ever deny that it looked stupid.

The scythe had three blades. To be specific, the scythe had one blade and two blades literally glued on with molten iron.

Ruby's thoughts were interrupted as Qrow stepped out of the doorway and let the creaky door swing back in its place.

…

Now that she had no reason to stay awake, she strangely felt like she couldn't fall asleep. She didn't have any deep regrets that plagued her mind or any worries about what the future held. She was just a six-year old kid. It was probably just a random burst of energy that woke her up, but now that she was wide awake she didn't feel like lying down in bed.

She got up and sat there for a bit, wondering about what she could even do so late in the night. Looking around the room, she noticed a small piece of paper laying on the ground.

She went over to pick it up. From the unfamiliar writing, she figured that it was one of the letters that fell out of the basket when Qrow knocked it over. Bringing it over to the window, she tried to hold it against the small amount of moonlight that penetrated through the canopy of the forest. Unlike most of the letters she had seen before, this one had a small drawing on it along with a sloppily written message. She gathered that perhaps a kid around her age had sent Qrow a letter, thanking him for his recent bought of heroism.

Ruby read the words first. One of the words was familiar enough for her to recognize immediately, despite the horrid writing of the child who sent it. 'Qrow' was among her favourite words to write and read. The other word was a bit unfamiliar to her, but she managed to spell it out. 'H' 'E' 'R' 'O'. She tilted her head as she sounded it out. She had heard the word before, but wasn't paying attention to what it had meant at the time. No matter, she would ask Qrow what it meant in the morning.

She shifted her attention to the drawing. She struggled to identify what it was a drawing of, but once she looked closer it dawned on her. It was a hilariously terrible drawing of Qrow. She giggled as she used her finger to trace over the mass of scribbles that she assumed to represent Qrow's dark hair. The trapezoidal shape, was probably his shirt and torso and for some reason he didn't have pants, and after having her fun with analyzing the crude picture, she walked over to her basket and placed the letter back in its rightful place.

Looking at it one last time, she grinned as she thought about showing it to Qrow when he came back. Though it was a terrible depiction, she had to admit that the poorly drawn hair and clothes actually resembled his unkempt nature perfectly. One criticism she had though, was that the artist of this particular piece had drawn Qrow with a large broadsword in hand. It was more of a difference in personal taste, but she preferred Qrow's scythe much more.

Here's the beginning of my story. Not much else to say. It's a story centering on the two protagonists, Ruby and Jaune, as they try understand what a hero is and how they can become one in their own ways. It's not clear in what I've written so far, but this story will be taking place in a fantasy RPG-esque AU setting.

Originally it was going to be Jaune and Pyrrha, but it didn't work for various reasons.

Updates will most likely be irregular, but I don't think I'll drop this before completion.