The Last Summer Raven
Two teenagers jogged through the road that ran through the thick forest. One of them, a girl known as Summer Rose had dark crimson hair, the tips almost reaching her shoulders. Her white cloak fluttered against the modest breeze, highlighting her silhouette against the greenery.
The boy struggling to keep up with her had a thin build and a mop of messy blond hair that whipped to one side. His name was Taiyang Xiao Long and unlike his sporty friend, he was drawing deeper and deeper breathes with each step he took.
"C'mon Tai!" Summer urged. "You'll never be fit enough to enter Signal at this rate."
"I know," came Taiyang's breathless response. "You don't need to say it so many times."
Taiyang, for the fifth time that day, questioned his decision to join Summer and attend a hunter school. He wasn't particularly strong, smart or even persistent but here he was running laps with his best friend.
Unlike Taiyang, Summer was the absolute pinnacle of fitness for a fourteen year old girl. So much so that, Taiyang was willing to bet his meagre life savings that Summer would be able to win an arm wrestling contest with him any day of the week.
After a gruelling ten more minutes, Taiyang found himself out of the forest and near the docks.
"Okay, let's stop here," Summer said.
"Oh, thank goodness!"
Taiyang dropped like a sack of potatoes onto the bench. Summer sat on the steel railings that overlooked the harbour, watching the tide of people exit the ship, and she wrapped down the edges of her cloak to keep out the cold. Her eyes, as silver as the full moon, swept across the newcomers with unease that was obvious to the blond boy beside her.
"Tai," Summer said quietly. "They all look so sad."
Taiyang watched the group of refugees. He'd heard from his boxing teacher that they were from some distant village before they were invaded by endless hordes of Grimm, but they didn't look much different from the folk at home. Tired, beaten, and some were openly crying but he thought he could become good friends with them and hopefully cheer up their day.
He glanced in concern at Summer. "Then let's go greet them. We could be their very first welcome to Patch!" Taiyang declared.
Summer shot him a dazzling warm smile.
As they approached the docks, he noticed a group of children being segregated from the other refugees. Orphans, he figured. Every other child had somebody looking after them, be it a parent of carer. Not them. Taiyang counted the orphans there—five boys and seven girls, twelve in total. The majority of them were crying, with the exceptions being the older ones who looked to be about Taiyang's age.
Taiyang stopped his approach. Two of the children, a boy and a girl, had jet black hair that set them apart from the people that surrounded them. They were dressed in raggedy clothes and while the boy had unkempt messy hair, the girl had a striking spiky mane that glinted in the sunshine. The girl glared sourly at the crying kids and the boy was otherwise curiously inspecting his surroundings.
Summer ran on ahead and tended to the youngest of their group.
"There, there," Summer said, smiling. "My name is Summer. What's your name?"
The little girl, barely older than a toddler, whimpered out. "Iris."
"Hello Iris. Would you like to see a magic trick?" Summer grabbed a small pebble by her side and hid it behind her cloak so only Iris and Taiyang could see it. Her eyes faintly glowed, its luminosity low enough to be hidden by the sunlight, and the pebble cracked and splintered into a bunny figurine. It stood two-legged as if it was about to reach out for a highly placed fruit.
Summer presented the statue with a flourish and Iris gaped at Summer in wonder. Summer handed it to Iris and she held onto it delicately.
"I love it," said Iris.
Taiyang took note of the level of detail of the figurine. Summer was improving with her skill. Last time she tried something similar she accidently broke off the legs of one of her critters. It was strange, for as long as Taiyang knew her (pretty much since birth) she had powers that defied whatever books or information Taiyang found of the subject. As far as he knew, Summer hadn't awakened her aura, meaning she shouldn't have any powers, yet here she was casually breaking several laws of magical physics. It was a mystery to the both of them but no answers would come forth.
As he turned away from the scene, Taiyang saw the black haired girl watching Summer intently. From her angle she couldn't see what Summer was doing so he wasn't worried about Summer's power being discovered. They caught each other's gaze and for a moment Taiyang lost his breath. Her eyes were blood red but it was the intensity she held within them that chilled Taiyang's bones. He thought his boxing teacher had a mean glare, but he had nothing on this girl.
It only made Taiyang all the more curious at what she looked like when she smiled.
She watched him for a second longer before she snarled at him. He took a hasty step back and bumped into the other boy. He turned to apologise but Taiyang found himself almost nose to nose with him.
"Ack, sorry!" Taiyang scrambled away to a more appropriate distance and the girl scoffed.
The boy chuckled quietly. "It's fine, nobody's hurt." He offered a hand. "Name is Qrow Branwen. Spelt with a q, no there's no u and that's the way I like it."
His unexpected greeting caught Taiyang by surprise but he cracked a smile. In contrast to the girl beside him, he had a calm warm demeanour that immediately put Taiyang at ease. Taiyang gripped his extended hand and shook it firmly.
"Taiyang," he shrugged, "but call me Tai. Everyone else does."
"Alright then, Tai," Qrow said, testing the word. "Tell me about this place. I've never been too far from Trinity descent."
"Trinity descent?"
"The name of my village," Qrow clarified.
Qrow surveyed the area they were in and Taiyang followed his movements. The island they were situated in was named Patch. It was fairly safe as far as Grimm attacks go but only if they stayed on the maintained roads—they were patrolled by hunters regularly. Any deeper into the forests and there was a real chance of injuries or worse.
He told as much to Qrow.
"Not like my village then," Qrow commented. "We lived in these grassy plains that extended so far out it seemed to go on forever. We hardly had news of the outside world and when we did get an occasional visitor, the whole place was talking about them for months. It got real annoying after a while."
Taiyang thought about it for a long moment. "Then how did you protect yourselves from the Grimm?"
"What do you mean?"
"You lived in the plains right? You didn't have any natural barriers. Wouldn't your village have been overcome by Grimm ages ago?"
Qrow's eyes lit up in comprehension. "Oh, I see now." Qrow shot him a crooked smile. "Not just a regular knucklehead, are you? You've got some well oiled gears grinding in your head."
Taiyang shrugged and gestured at Summer who was still talking to Iris. "I'm nothing special, especially when compared to Summer."
Qrow glanced sidelong at the girl in question. "Summer was it?" He muttered to himself. "But to answer your question, there was something special about those plains. No one knows why but the Grimm never approached that region, not a Beowolf or an Ursa in sight—at least until now anyway, but before then, it was a haven for everyone. Growing up, you heard a lot of stories about it. Blessed lands or hidden guardian animals—that kind of thing."
"And what do you think?" Taiyang asked, enraptured by his tale.
"Me? I think we're all just dancing along to some tales spun by some old goat."
"Really?"
"As good as any other explanation," Qrow said with disinterest.
They fell into silence. Evidently, the girl who had snarled at Taiyang earlier had become bored of their conversation and had moved away from them. She stood at the edge of the wooden walkway. One small push was enough to send her plunging into the waters but Taiyang had trouble imagining anyone brave enough to do so.
"What's her name?" Taiyang asked.
Qrow caught Taiyang's staring and a look of understanding dawned upon him.
"Her name is Raven. She's my sister."
"Is she always so..." Taiyang trailed off, struggling to find a word that wouldn't offend her brother. "Standoffish?"
"She's not normally like that," Qrow explained, "grumpy, I mean. I don't have much love for our village but Raven is different. Raven, she adored the village and its people. She knew everyone and their mother by name. Not like me, I could barely recall our old pets."
"What about your parents?" Taiyang asked, then immediately regretted the question.
But Qrow expression didn't change. "Parents are dead. Died when I was too young to understand the world," Qrow said with a shrug.
"Oh," was all the response Taiyang could utter.
They watched Summer carry on with her talk. By now, she had drawn a crowd of children around her and she had them all wrapped up in one of her favourite fairy tales, the story of the four maidens.
"-and the four maiden promised to visit the old wizard every year from then on. The end." Summer finished.
"Another one! Another one!" cried Iris.
Soon enough the whole group was chanting for more. They drew in a few odd looks from the other refugees but that didn't diminish their enthusiasm. Summer fought down a giggle and waved for everyone to quieten down.
"Alright everyone, calm down. I'm going to start the next one." She cleared her throat and then ran up to Taiyang, dragging him from where he stood.
"Summer? What are-"
"Just play along," Summer whispered.
They stopped in front of the expectant eyes of their audience.
"Summer," Taiyang hissed, "you know I'm not good with crowds."
"Relax, they're just kids. What can they do?"
"They could boo at us."
"Have some courage, okay? I'll buy you your favourite ice cream afterwards." She turned swiftly to their audience, ignoring the shaking Taiyang.
"Our story begins," Summer started, "thousands of years ago. Back then there wasn't any cars or books or even kingdoms. Groups of people roamed the lands in search of resources like food and water, but it was always difficult to find because of the harsh Grimm. One day, while they were travelling in a desert, a boy had accidently become separated from his family... "
After Summer's tale finished, Taiyang gladly left her to their audience. He rejoined Qrow who was looking at him with a teasing smile.
"Not much of an actor, are you?" Qrow asked.
"Not much of anything," Taiyang mumbled.
"You're good for a laugh at least."
Taiyang threw up his hands helplessly. "Great, maybe I could become a comedian. Look at the great Taiyang as he makes a fool out of himself."
"Relax, you're making yourself out worse than you actually are."
Taiyang gave an uncommitted grunt.
"Say, do you have Hunter schools here?" Qrow asked.
"Yeah, Signal Academy is the biggest one here. Summer and I are planning to attend this coming year."
Taiyang had mixed feelings about attending. He didn't really want to attend hunter school. The thought didn't even cross his mind until he heard that Summer was going and there was no way he was letting her go by herself. Even with mysteries superpowers, Taiyang never thought Summer would be the type to physically fight much less become a hunter.
"Good. My village didn't have hunter schools. People were taught through apprenticeships. Before I came here, I was thinking of moving out closer to town to attend one."
Taiyang frowned. "What? But you're like around my age right? Your village lets you out that young?"
"Nope. I probably would've ran away with Raven. She wouldn't have liked leaving the village but she would do it for my sake."
"T-that's ridiculous," Taiyang protested, "you can't run around in the wilderness like that. You could get killed!"
Qrow sent him a slightly bemused look. "Don't worry, it wouldn't have gone down like that. Raven and I have our ways of getting around."
Taiyang didn't know what to make of that. For all the loss and destruction of his home, Qrow seemed remarkably happy about it.
"Why do you want to be a Hunter so badly anyway? It's dangerous you know?"
Qrow didn't immediately answer.
"Just because I want to," he said.
Taiyang crinkled his brows. "That's not an answer."
"Well that's the only one you're gonna get."
The pair talked for a while longer but it wasn't long before the refugees were escorted to their new homes.
"I'll see you in school then," Qrow said as he left.
Taiyang waved goodbye to the new friend he made. He wasn't entirely sure he'd pass the entrance exam needed to get into Signal but if he does then at least he already knew somebody there.
Summer sided up to him with a slight smile.
"So, who was that then?"
"His name is Qrow. He's a bit of an oddball but I think you'll like him. His sister on the other hand," Taiyang shook his head, recalling her frosty attitude, "she's prickly. I don't know why anyone would want to be around her."
"They did just lose their home." Summer pointed out. "It's understandable that she's lashing out."
"Yeah, I guess. If we get into Signal, we'll probably run into them. Qrow did say he wanted to be a hunter."
"That's great! That's one more motivation for you to train. Now let's get back to running!"
Taiyang groaned.
Despite the influx of refugees, life at Patch was relatively the same. For a long while, all that could be heard was the loud construction sounds that started from the early mornings into the late afternoons. The refugees settled in well into the Patch community and they even brought in a few of their local cuisine with them. Though Taiyang thought that stories about their dishes tended to be exaggerated (when later faced with a snail dish by a Trinity local he immediately retracted this thought), new faces started appearing in the neighbourhood Taiyang lived in and a few of them even became his friends.
From then onwards, Taiyang had been keeping an eye out for the strange pair. Even when his runs and spars with Summer brought him to all corners of Patch, he never managed to catch a glimpse of the duo. In the mean time he kept up his lessons on boxing. He had just started a few weeks ago and he was still working on his posture and balance.
It wasn't until two weeks later that he ran into Raven again. That day he had finally managed to score a hit against Summer in a spar that took everything he had. Granted, Summer was handicapped in that she couldn't use her arms, but a win was a win nevertheless in his books.
Summer had to leave after the spar as she had to help her father with his job at the farm. Taiyang had no such obligations and planned to treat himself by purchasing his favourite ice cream—a vanilla strawberry with sprinkled chocolate on top. His route home crossed the large forests and he always made sure to not stray off the yellow road lest he gets involved in some life-threatening crisis. As he kicked another pebble, he spotted a flicker of black hair. He turned his attention towards it and was surprised to find the girl he was searching for the last two weeks.
"Rav-" Taiyang couldn't get a word out before she disappeared from sight and into the deeper woods. "Hey!" Taiyang called, now more alarmed that she could get attacked by the Grimm, but either she didn't hear or she ignored him. "Raven, you can't go in there it's dangerous!" There was no response.
Taiyang gulped away his sudden nervousness and started jogging after her.
"Raven! Raven! Wait up!"
The larger trees seemed to eat away at the light the further he went in. Noise he didn't usually notice before suddenly became all he could hear. Snapped twigs, the howling wind, the buzzing insects. The air tasted cold to Taiyang and he started to falter in his steps. He kept chasing her however. Whatever fear he was feeling now couldn't compare to the regret he would face if he stopped and turned back.
"Raven!"
Taiyang wasn't sure how long he ran for. At some point he had become lost and disoriented. His only focus was locating Raven and getting out of there as quickly as possible.
And finally, he found her surrounded by decomposing beowolfs. The black mist of the dead Grimm filled the air like ink in water. Raven swung her katana to one side in a practiced motion and sheathed it. The two weeks did little to remove Raven's scowl but it had allowed at least a fresh set of clothes.
Taiyang ran up to her. "Raven! Thank goodn-"
"Get out of here," Raven warned.
Taiyang offered a small smile. "Yeah, let's leave. This place is dangerous."
Raven grabbed a fistful of Taiyang's shirt and lifted him off the ground. His feet dangled helplessly in the air and to his surprise, realised he was shorter than her. Taiyang blinked at their close proximity. Her fair skin practically glowed in the dark forest and she smelt of earthly soil and grass. She fixed him with a stern glare.
"I'm not playing any games, Taiyang. I'm training. Leave. Now."
She threw him onto the hard ground. Taiyang rubbed his sore backside.
"You don't have to be such a hardass about it," Taiyang complained. "Wait, you know my name?"
"Qrow mentioned you. He said we might meet each other at Signal. However, I doubt you'll pass the entrance ceremony if this is all the fight you could muster. Stay off the battlefields for the real fighters like me."
"Hold on! I can fight as well!" Taiyang scrambled onto his feet and assumed his boxing form.
Taiyang wasn't sure what the look Raven sent him meant, but it looked awfully like a 'Are you actually serious' look. Raven shook her head.
"Fine, you want to play the tough guy." Raven flashed in an instant. A series of blows smashed into Taiyang's guts. He doubled over, wheezing and dropped hard onto the ground. By the time Taiyang recognised the scenery again, he was flat on his back looking up at Raven annoyed form.
"Then you better land a hit on me first," she said.
That was the last sentence Raven said to Taiyang before he found himself unconscious.
At first Taiyang was confused when he awoke on a bench—the same bench near the harbour. He looked around him but there wasn't a hint of any black hair. Last he remembered, he had rather embarrassingly collapsed in front of Raven after declaring his prowess as a fighter. Was that all a dream? But no the aching pains and bruises on his chest proved otherwise.
After righting himself into a more comfortable position, he contemplated on the events with Raven. It took less than a second for Taiyang to reach an important decision.
"Never get involved with Raven Branwen," Taiyang declared. He nodded to himself and made his way to the ice-cream shop. After what he'd been through he deserved more than a few scoops.
It wasn't until the end of the day that Taiyang realised that Raven had carried him across the dangerous forest all by herself. He felt a bit guilty about being such a nuisance to her but he told himself that she shouldn't have knocked him out in the first place. Satisfied with his reasoning, he headed to bed and dreamt of a certain spiky haired girl. He was visibly grumpy the next morning.
AN: Just something I written on and off. There probably won't be a sequel any time soon but enjoy anyway.