S.C.E.N
Hello any and all readers this is my first time writing anything like this so I apologise in advance if my writing is not the best. This story came from a simple concept, what is Salem was good and ruby was bad, that thought made me write this story I hope you all enjoy it, I plan to make this a pretty long story as it is a complete rewrite of the story.
Prologue: her name is Salem velaros
Salem grow up in vail with her mother and father who were both huntsmen and huntress, consequently when Salem was born her parents knew what her future was going to be just as the title of hunter or huntress had ran through their family, they knew it would run through her to.
At the age of 4 her training began with basic exercises like running and jumping, by the age of 6 she was already starting with basic hand to hand combat, her parents made her go to martial arts school, 3 years she attended the school along with an actual academic school.
At 12 years old her semblance awoke although she never noticed it her parents knew right away and where overjoyed, they decided to take her out of school and home-school her in both combat and academic studies after much protest from Saleem who just started making real friends; but her parents' word was law and she quietly agreed.
At 14 Saleem was "talked" into join signal academy, where she was surprised to her it was a training school designed to fight grim, creatures born from darkness that wreaks havoc on mankind and have done so for thousands of years. Now Salem here she was standing at the doors to this almost magic place, her life was changing again
While at signal she learned a great deal grim not only that, but the training and combat classes were leagues more intensive than anything her parents made her do "maybe they went easy on me because I'm their child" that thought always seemed to lighten her mood.
Probably the most interesting of the classes were semblance training and weapon theory and design, it was there she learned what her semblance was "telekinesis" the ability to move matter with her mind at her current state the most she could lift was about 2kg and by signals standards that was pretty low, but that never stopped her from trying anyway, she was fascinated by her new-found abilities and was determined to get better with it.
the next class grabbed her attention even more "weapon design for some reason (probably because of her parent's "occupation") she was constantly reading weapon magazines that her parents would leave around the house, so this class really got her attention.
It took her a while but she eventually came up with a weapon she wanted to make and so she did, she made a twinbladed glaive it was a meter long metal rod with a v kink in the middle and two crescent blades on opposite sides that could detach at the middle so it could be split into two weapons also the blades could turn round the rod into a bow when the two blades faced in same direction she called it "Lunar's tear" .
when Salem was 16 her life would change forever; it was early January and Salem was back at her parent's house to spend the holidays with them and to tell her parents all the adventures she's had at signal, her parents could only watch in abject delight at the fine huntress she was becoming.
When the sun had finally went down that evening something wasn't right Salem got out of her bed grabbing lunar's tear with her; then an almighty roar came from outside, the roar was so powerful it nearly shook the wooden building to the ground; Salem bolted outside to see a massive grim, quite possible the biggest one she ever seen or heard of.
it almost had the appearance of a dragon, one of those large fire breathing lizards only told in fairy tales but this one was very real or at least the grim equivalent of one it had pitch black scales and giant red armour plates covered its entire body it had two huge wings, four massive tree trunk-like legs and teeth bigger than a person.
Salem looked at it for a second and without thinking her body started moving in the opposite direction very quickly, until a noise stopped her in her tracks it was a mix of clanging, shooting and shouting; Salem knew straight away who was making that noise, it was her parents fighting tirelessly against this behemoth of a grim.
Salem ran straight back she didn't care how frightened she was, it was her parents they were in danger and she needed to help them but before she could get remotely close her father bellowed as loud as he could "SALEM GET THE HELL OUT OFF HE, RUN WE'LL TRY AND HOLD IT OFF" as soon as he finished saying he started to spark then more sparks then he was suddenly encased in electricity; Salem knew it was her father's semblance, she almost took a sigh of relief but then the dragon turned to her father and just stopped and stared at hm then one the dragons eyes went silver.
After a moment or two the grim's eye when back to normal and proceeded to charge at the father and just as the grim was about to connect with the father a massive lightning bolt left the father and went straight through the dragon grim's head; for a moment it stopped and just as it was about to fall over a light in its burning red eyes suddenly relit and immediately grabbed the father with his massive claw completely encasing the father.
The mother shouted screams of horror and rage the moisture in the air started to surround her and she turned to her daughter who at this point was frozen on her knees in fear the mother then raised her voice just like her father did "SALEM I KNOW YOUR SCARED I AM TOO BUT IF YOU DON'T RUN NOW WERE ALL GOING TO END UP DEAD, SAVE YOURSELF SO THAT OUR SACRIFICE WAS NOT IN VAIN" "no mam" she said in a hollowed whimper "I want to stay with you and fight by you to help get dad back" she says over her endless stream of tears streaming down her face, her mother turned to her again with a sad, barely-there smile "I know you would sweetie"
just as she said it a sphere of water started surrounding her, the water was swirling violently around her; the dragon's eye went silver and you could almost make out a crude grin on its horrifying face this sent shards of pure dread and sadness straight through Salem's heart; once again the grim's eye went back to normal and just like the father did, the mother waited till the last moment and encased the grim's head with a massive sphere of water in the attempt to drown it.
The dragon struggled for a bit and in a fury spun around in a unusually fast pace and tail whipped the mother into a tree completely shattering her aura and was knocked unconscious; Salem started to scream at the dragon "LEAVE HER ALONE" the grim merely puffed hot air towards the small creature that was causing a small commotion in its ears but it ignored it and proceeded to pick up the mother and encase in its other claw;
In that moment Salem's body started moving towards this monstrosity with uncharacteristically fast pace, face full of rage she, she had run out of tears. In a blind rage she held her weapon in both hands and subconsciously activated her semblance and lifted herself towards the dragon, then in on motion she spin slashed right down its eye causing a black blood to bleed profusely and it screamed with an almighty roar the girl now had its full attention.
Salem instinctively went to block which turned out to be the right call as the dragon used its clutched claw as a fist and punched her as she soared backwards and landed back on the ground with a flip and slid on one knee once she had stopped moving, she lifted her weapon again ready to face the dragon again just as she was about to charge again.
Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder, Salem must of jumped about two meters in the air even without her semblance; she turned around to find a tall grey haired man with a cane and oddly enough a cup of coffee, baffled and hysterically she shouted "GET OUT OF HERE IT EXTREMRLY DANGEOUS HERE" the man almost barely acknowledged this little girls statement took a sip of his coffee and said quite softly and plainly "what kind of man would I be if I let a little girl such as yourself fight a monster such as that" as he finished speaking he proceeded to stand in front of the girl.
Salem at this point was completely frozen, she was in a mix of pure confusion and terror for the man "ah…" just before she could speak again the grey-haired man moved at a speed Salem's eyes could not keep up and in a moment, he was stood in front of this massive monstrosity "you're a big one" he said bashfully.
The dragon still furious with his eye being stabbed it roared right at the strange newcomer who was standing before him and went to punch him just like he did with the smaller creature but before he could think the man was at his eye level with a flick from his cane there was a brief moment of silence and then a black diagonal line appeared across its face followed by a torrent of black blood and the beast went in a frantic rage for a solid minute swinging wildly at this small creature that just attacked it.
the man did not attack again but instead just dodged him and observed him, then he just stopped then turn properly to face his opponent the man had noticed that his eye had turned silver once more; Salem had seen that eye twice too many times for her to know that wasn't good she just shouted, "LOOKOUT THOSE EYES ARE DANGEOUS RUN".
Salem tried to move but her legs went back to being frozen, the man adjusted his glasses and just observed the beast and for what seemed like an eternity they just stared at each other but in a matter of fact it had only been seconds and the beasts eye went back to normal but keeping its composure it took a step back from the small creature and went to stand on its hind legs it then turned its head to the even smaller creature .
the man had clicked what it was about to do and proceeded to get back to the girl as quickly as he could; the dragon began sucking in a lot of air and its mouth started to glow a bright orange; the man was only a few feet from the and the dragon let out a massive line of fire towards the girl, it was quick but so was the man and grabbed the girl and jumped up her carrying her as high as he could at the time but underestimated the height of the fire blast and turned to the girl and said "sorry young one".
the girl shook her head and said in a weary voice "I've got this" to the man's surprise the girl began glowing with white energy and then touched the man's shoulder and he started to glow to and the girl raised her other hand and they both started ascending at a much quicker pace than the man's jumping was and just barely making it over the lone of fire, slightly singeing the man's coat he stopped and turned to the dragon which had already left and was quite some distance away "it used the girl as bait to get me away from the grim hmm interesting" he thought to himself as the fire dissipated beneath them they descended back to the ground.
Once their feet hit the ground the girl the reality began to hit her "my parents are gone" she said openly and wailed as loud as she could the tears had returned tenfold; the man turned to the girl he let out an almost sympathetic sigh and said "what is your name young woman" the man said in the softest voice he could mister the girl looked at the man with devasted eyes "S…Salem" she said in a soft gravelly voice her voice box was scratched with all of the wailing.
The man looked at the girl in the eyes and said "I am sorry for what happened to you child you've suffered something no child should be forced to see, truly I am terribly sorry I wish I had gotten here sooner I knew it was important when two veteran huntsmen called me for assistance" just as he said that the girl cut him off and said "what do you mean they called you? Who are you" she says a she sniffs and silently sobs waiting for a reply; the man spoke with a more formal tone "my name is professor Ozpin headmaster at beacon academy and your parents were close pupils of mine, I told them if ever they need my help whenever it may be I'll come running I just wasn't expecting this nor the outcome".
The girl looked in disbelief for a moment and it clicked in her head he was telling the truth, she did not know how she knew just something in his eyes told her so "so what will you do now miss velaros" her head shot up at the sound of her last name being called by the man not moments ago way a complete stranger to her but the man's question burrowed deep in Salem's mind "I don't know" she said looking at the man "I just want to curl up into a ball and forget this night ever happened" Ozpin looked at the broken, defeated girls and sighed again "are you sure because that's not what I saw a moment ago" the girl perked her head up again and looked at him with a sad-puzzled look "what do you mean?".
The grey haired man looked at her and said "if you truly wished to just curl up into a ball and forget you would of let that grim just take your parents away without a fight, but you steeled yourself in that moment and with no hesitation in your action and managed to you actually landed a critical blow on that grim a feat even a master huntsmen wouldn't dare to try and later when the creature let out his fire breath when even I was about to accept our fate, but not you, you channelled the last of your aura into your semblance and lifted us to safety, now to me if someone is fighting that hard to keep themselves alive not only for themselves but for others that tells me this person wants to live and protect what they hold dear and that young velaros is the essence of being a huntress".
Salem just sat there listening and clinging to every word the professor said and it lit a fire in the young girl, but was quickly extinguished with the realisation that despite what Ozpin had said she looked back at the professor and said with slightly less sad but still depressed tone "but I failed that thing took my parents to god knows where and I wasn't able to do anything about it, can you call failure the essence of being a huntress".
She says as she sinks her head into her knees and begins sobbing quietly again; the professor turned around and said with no hint of sadness, it actually had pride in his tone " of course he said" the girls head shot up again "failure no matter how big or small hurts, naturally the bigger the failure the bigger the impact" the girl's head began lowering again "but" he said confidently "if you can rise above that failure you can use it as a foothold to keep climbing towards your goal but never forgetting where you plant your feet that is how we truly learn from our mistakes, your failure was not your fault".
The girl at this point had stopped crying and was looking straight at the man " that grim came of its own accord and your parents with the pride of both huntsmen and huntress they knew they would not survive there only goal was keeping you alive and they did" in that moment a light struck across Salem's eyes and she stood up for the first time and Ozpin turned around "so where I too am in great sorrow for what happened I can look to your parents with pride knowing they did everything they could and I'm equally proud of you too you may not be a fully-fledged huntress" as Ozpin continued a small smile started appearing on his face "but the skill , quick assessment and determination I saw in you tonight made it clear your more than qualified to attend my school if you wanted, it's not your family but it could certainly be your home"
Salem stopped and pondered what Ozpin had said which was a lot to process along with the current state of affairs she turned to where her house used to be now it was a burning pile of wood and ash, she then turned to Ozpin and said softly with only a slight sniff she said "anywhere is better right now, I haven't decided to join you school yet ill need some time to think on that" Ozpin with the small smile on his face walked over to the girl and stuck his hand out "of course take all the time you need" the girl gave one final sniff before straightening her face, hair, and eyes "thank you professor Ozpin".
And that's the start of this journey I hope everyone will enjoy it as much as I do writing it. Please leave any comments and any critique, it will greatly help me to improve my writing in the future thank you for reading.