Chapter 1

Winters Village

The land was covered in a sheet of white, the wind whistled a cold rush over the land, and bit into anyone foolish enough to be caught out in the open with no covering. Still even with the thickest of coats the wind did not seem to care, so the wind blew without pause, and the only shield from such a relentless cold wind was a village burned to smoldering piles of rubble, where homes, shops, and buildings of religious purpose once laid, now only crumbling walls and rafters litter the snow covered streets. Streets not long ago harbored life both Human and Faunus alike, the streets were empty now; no life remained in the village save for the few that stumbled upon it. One such of these men knelt beside a crumbled wall of a once lived in home. Dressed in a black coat with silver buttons, and a collar with silver pins on each side on the right held the twin axes and laurels of the kingdom of Vale, and to the left held two crescent arcs. The man's blue eyes gazed at the ruble of the building deep in thought, trying to piece together the puzzle that was Kurokame village. Still no matter how hard he thought on the matter nothing could come to mind, there have been no signs of any Grimm attack, and to much was left for any bandit raid to have gone on, in fact pretty much everything seemed to be here…well aside from the rest of this wall that was shielding him from that Gods forsaken wind. So what happened? The question had been lingering in his mind, gnawing at him since they came across the place hours ago.

Running his hands through his blonde hair he released a heavy sigh and stood, quickly regretting that decision as the wind quickly bit into him making him shiver. Quickly working his mind to push the wind and cold out of his mind he turned to his companion standing patently behind him leaning against the crumbled wall and spoke, "Guess were not going to find anything over here, we should head over to the others, and see if what they found," pausing he added "though I can't believe they did any better than we."

Amber eyes stared at him from under her fur lined hood.

In all honest he was a little jealous of it, and wished he opted in for a fur lined collar himself. The eyes of his companion seemed to give off signs of worry, knowing where the worry was stemming from he quickly spoke up "and you are absolutely positive that this" his raised his arm and gestured out towards the destroyed town "is none of Salem's handy work." He waited for her response which came from a shake of her head. So that was a no then, sighing he turned started to walk out of the burned area of the felled house.

"well no use standing out here in this cold, come on then" she turned and followed not two steps behind and to the right of him.

Not bothering to look back at the remains of the home he continued his pace back towards the street, and moved towards his company's camp ground. Walking along the street more individuals wearing black coats each with the two arcs pinned to their collars, the main difference was that these people also wore masks of various styles of Grimm indicating their place as members of the White Fang, in such Fang walked from building to building searching for clues, and hopefully a survivor who could give more insight into this maddening riddle, a few who walked close by would stop in their tracks and was right fist to their heart and give a quick bow, He quickly bowed in acknowledgement and then they continued on in there march towards camp. Finally, with five minutes of a brisk walk, they were out of the village and were now walking among various tents, each lined symmetrically from the other giving optimal room for walking about.

Making their way to the largest tent at the center of camp, he spotted someone waving and jogging up to him. Squinting to get see if he could make the person out he spoke "I do believe that is Kaz making a fool of himself with his arms waving about." Turning his head towards his companion he saw a little smile play on her face from inside the hood. Looking back towards Kaz he raised his hand in greeting as the man came to a halt in front of him.

Kaz breathed then raised his fist in the same salute as the other members of the Fang gave to him. He acknowledged this on with a bow as well. "Well what seems to be the trouble…well besides the issue with the village that is?" his blue eyes stared down at Kaz who was really no more than two inches shorter then he.

Removing his fist from his chest Kaz spoke "Well sir it's madam Belladonna she seems to be all in a fuss over our stop," taking a pause to give a nervous look around "I've tried to tell her what the issue was, but she is still just in a fury, honestly I'm starting to feel a little sorry for brother Taurus."

Placing his head in his hand and giving a sigh he raised and looked at Kaz once more "Has she started throwing things about?"

Giving a nervous smile Kaz spoke up once more "To be perfectly honest sir I didn't stay to find out."

Smart man, when that woman gets angry he shuddered at the thought I always liked nice things, but with her around I just can't ever have them, shrugging he continued to walk towards their tent "Well I guess I should see if I can go calm her down now," Kaz gave a quick nod and continued on his way. He sighed calm her down hah fat chance of that happening, the woman was a cat Faunus, but she's like a raging hippo when angry.

It took another minute before they were at the flaps leading to the inside of their tent, and sitting outside it with his head resting on his hands was none other than Adam Taurus. "How's it going in there Adam?" he asked,

Adam looked up, and sighed not bother to stand and give the same salute the others had and just spoke "I can understand her frustration, I really do I'm frustrated to, but I cannot continue to be near her." Adam stared at him "Do you know how many times she thumped me on the head?"

He started to smile in spite of his best to keep his composer "I imagine quite a bit"

Adam stared up and scoffed "a bit, more like a lot, I'm going to have a knot on my head the size of Glenn tomorrow."

Masking the smile, he put a hand on Adams shoulder and spoke "I'll see what I can do, while I'm at that go see if Saryn and her scouting posse is back yet" he grabbed the flap of the tent to open it and paused "If they come back with any news relay it back to me as soon as possible." Adam stood, gave a quick nod and left. Turing his head towards his companion he spoke "Well Cinder I believe the custom is ladies first." Smiling Cinder just shook her head and motioned him inside, sighing he stepped inside the tent with her following suit.

Standing there inside eyes cast down looking at the map of Anima looking up from the map eyes ablaze Kari Belladonna spoke "Well if it isn't his Majesty Jaune Arc."

Jaune crossed his arms looked over his tent and gave a frown at the pitcher knocked on the floor "Now Mrs. Belladonna, that is not how you treat mulled wine."

Kari just starred up at him and spoke "Have you or have you not figured out who took my daughter?"

A/N

Hopefully I fixed it for all of you, and are now able to properly read the story.

Hello to everyone who has read this chapter in my very first story on the site. I hope you enjoy this story as I will try to update it on a weekly basis, college life willing I can. Critics welcome, As well as anyone wanting to give a cool OC I may write in down the line.

Also for Jaune's clothes I suggest looking up Logain Ablar WoT in google it should be the first image shown. So think that but with silver buttons on the coat and the Valean emblem and Arc symbol instead of the dragon pin.

2/28/17: Sorry for the lack of a chapter 4 post, I plan to have it posted later this week, if not today. I just really needed to fix this chapters format as I saw that many people just stopped reading from this chapter due to the format. So hopefully it is fixed if not let me know in the comments