Chapter 1

The trees whistled as a warm breeze blows throughout the lush, green, forest. The sun shone brightly in the cloudless blue sky and birds chirped as Robin came to rest in a tall oak tree. Clad in his regular attire, his rust coloured coat pressed the cool blades hidden within against his dull green undershirt. His dark brown hair glinted in the sunlight as he found himself lost in thought.

Truly it was a beautiful day. Quite the contrast to the situation he now found himself in. See, Robin had only three days left to live. Or, at least, so he thought…

Thinking back to what brought to him to his death —'initiation', the old man had called it—would only serve to bring him back to the night of his arrest. While Robin wasn't exactly the sneakiest of fellows—not like Nox of course—he considered himself at least a half-decent thief. There was no way that the cops could have known about the jewelry store job and their reaction time to the call was way too fast. It didn't take long for Robin to smell a rat.

"All that doesn't really matter now, does it?" He muttered to himself. While it may not matter anymore, something kept him stewing in the memory.

The underbrush nearby rustled, and Robin was dragged back into reality.

The beowolf wasn't very far from him when it gave away its position, give or take forty meters. Standing up, he leaned against the trunk of the tree as he took note the surrounding forest—soon to be a battleground. It seemed to be alone, no other big bad wolves in sight at least, and the trees gave Robin the advantage.

Deftly he hops from branch to branch, until he's just a few meters from his opponent. It was no bigger than any other beowolf he has fought since entering the forest. Good he hasn't noticed me, the thought crept into his mind and he grinned to himself. I should have a bit of fun with this one.

The time had come for a bit of entertainment. "Hey toothy!" Robin shouted as he leapt from the branches to the soft forest earth.

The beowolf turned and snarled, hurtling towards his location at an alarming speed. Robin stood his ground, unflinching, as it hastily closed the gap between them. As the beowolf leapt to take a nice big bite out of his face, it hit the razor wire that had been set by Robin not five minutes prior.

In an instant, the beowolf was split from its body into five pieces, and Robin was left feeling awed. "Didn't expect that to work honestly. Anyways, we should probably…split." He turned to see Nox's reaction, but was quickly reminded that he was alone. "Oh...right…"

The purple crystal in the middle of the rock attached to his belt started to glow. Robin was now realizing that shouting probably wasn't the smartest idea. "Shit…initiation."

The thought bore down on him. Robin climbed the tree closest to him and resumed moving towards nowhere, recalling the rules of the initiation the old man, Ozpin, had said to him before launching him into a random direction in the forest.

It was early dawn and the sun had just peeked its head over the horizon and the grandeur of the morning sun bathed Robin in spectacular display of yellow, rosy, and auburn light. It took all his concentration to focus on the message now beginning to play from his scroll: "You have been selected by displaying exceptional talents and abilities to become a special elite Huntsmen, but to make sure you are right for the role, and have the skills necessary for the job, you must pass a more," there was a slight pause as he thought of a suitable word, "difficult initiation than those Beacon generally uses to test their Huntsmen: You will be launched into the Emerald Forest with what gear you have. You then have 3 days to collect an artifact hidden somewhere in the forest,"

That's not so hard, Robin thought, and it doesn't sound that unusual from what his sisters had told him.

"Of course just finding the artifact isn't enough to test your abilities; that would be to easy now, wouldn't it?"

Here we go, the difficult part. He sure wants to take his sweet-ass time explaining.

"Attached at all times to you will be an artifact that attracts the creatures of Grimm."

There it is.

"Should you survive and bring the artifact here to me, than you will be trained at Beacon as an elite Huntsmen. If you fail to do so, you will be left in the forest and will most likely meet an unfortunate end. Any questions?"

Wait, what? Left in the forest?

"Good," Ozpin continued before anyone could have asked, "then I hope to see you all try your best. Good luck."

And with that he was launched.

He finished his recollection as he came to the edge of a clearing. From where he crouched in the trees, he had a good view of a very not-so-good sight. In the middle of the clearing was a small white, marble pedestal surrounded by large pack of mean looking beowolves and a few ursai.

He scouted the surrounding area and sat back atop the tree. This seemed way too easy… It was still the afternoon of the first day and he had already found the artifact? Well, maybe luck was just on his side.

With that thought in mind he begins to formulate the plan.