Author's notes: This is my first time writing a FanFic, so any reviews would be greatly appreciated, as I'd like to improve my writing as much as possible.

Disclaimer: DragonFable and RWBY are owned by Artix Entertainment and Rooster Teeth respectively. I do not own any of the characters/settings presented here.


Before the Hero

Falconreach. The town where Raven was raised. The town which all roads led to. The town which Raven was once again approaching. He was returning from Oaklore, where he was busy with a few errands. Once he reached the town centre Ash approached him.
"Hi, Raven!" said Ash happily "Where have you been?"
"I was helping Sir Vey and Sir Valence with a few things" answered Raven.
"Oh, yeah! I almost forgot. I've got a message from Lady Celestia! She said she wants you to come to Sunbreeze Grove!" Hearing that Raven wondered why it is that Celestia would want him to meet up with her. He decided that it would be quicker to go to her rather than to stick around and think. He said his goodbye with Ash and promised to tell him about some of his recent adventures later.


Sunbreeze Grove. The place where Lady Celestia resides. Here's also where Draco usually sticks around, because Serenity won't allow the young dragonling anywhere near the Inn. To be fair she had a point since Draco had almost started a fire and it was totally not Ravens fault. He totally didn't neglect Draco for an entire week and totally didn't forget to feed him. Moving on.
Other than Celestia's house and the portal to Falconreach there weren't any other man-made structures here. As Raven stepped out of the aforementioned portal he took in the usual surroundings he had come to know in Sunbreeze Grove; the lake and the surrounding forest. While making his way over to Celestia's house he noticed that she had set up a table and two chairs just outside. On the table was a teapot and two cups and next to it was Lady Celestia herself.
"Good day, Raven" she greeted him.
"Hello" he answered "Why did you call me here?"
"I'd like to know if you'd care to join me for a cup of tea" she said, smiling.
"Is that all?" he asked.
"Yes" she answered, continuing "I suppose I'd also like to talk to you for a little while"
"About what?" he asked while sitting down on one of the chairs.
"About you" she answered as she was sitting down on the other chair "I'd like to hear about your past. More precisely about the reason you decided to become an adventurer"
"Why?" he inquired.
"I'm just curious" she replied.
Hearing that he thought about it a little and then gave a nod. She quickly poured some tea in both cups as he began telling the story of his past.


Twenty-one years ago I was born in Falconreach. Naturally the sight of adventurers were commonplace in my life. As they say, "All roads lead to Falconreach". That also means that I grew up in a town, which gets assaulted on a nearly monthly basis, but that didn't stop me from having a normal childhood. I usually ran around the nearby forest with a stick in hand, pretending to be a hero. Another one of my pastimes was going to the inn and listening to the stories which were told by the many adventurers who were stopping by on a daily basis. Sadly, my childhood didn't end up as perfect as that. Around the time I was twelve Falconreach was attacked by a group of Necromancers. Their army of undead ravaged the town on a greater scale than any that I had ever experienced before. What's worse was the fact, that they had chosen to attack on a day on which there weren't as many adventurers around. There were only a handful to help the guardians and the knights from Oaklore couldn't come fast enough. The war had ended with the Necromancers' total defeat, but that victory didn't come without a price. My parents were among the victims. They had died protecting me.


Raven stopped for a few second while recalling his parents' death. Celestia was about to try to apologize for making him recall his parents' death, but he interrupted her.
"Don't worry" he said, having noticed what she was about to say "I've had a lot of time to come to terms with it."
Taking another sip of his tea he continued.


That event nine years ago had left me devastated. The shock was too much at the time. To my luck, Serenity's predecessor at the Inn had taken me in. She was a kind old lady who'd been enjoying my company whenever I came by. Half a year later I had finally recovered to some extent and thought, that I had no time to stand around doing nothing. I wanted to do my best to help people, so I decided to become an adventurer. At the time they were, in my eyes, the perfect image of what a hero should be. Strong, brave and ready to help anyone in need. That's why I decided to go to Oaklore to ask the Knights there to train me. To my dismay they had refused to do so, but I kept going there every day to convince them to train me. After about a week of me being a nuisance to them they told me that they'd train me, but I had to wait three years. I tried to argue with them, but they didn't step down. I had to wait three years before my training would start.


During my three year long wait I had decided that seeing the difference between a good weapon and a bad one would be vital, so I had convinced Yulgar to take me in as his apprentice. It took me a single year to start making decent weapons. Yulgar was impressed, saying that I had a knack for blacksmithing. After my second year it was quite an easy task to distinguish the various weapons and their quality and after the third one I was more-or-less on the level of a master blacksmith. Before leaving for my training Yulgar asked me if I'd rather stay as a blacksmith, but I refused by saying that I truly wanted to be an adventurer, who helps people in need.


I was fifteen years old when I had started training with the Knights of Oaklore. For the first two years I was mostly building up my strength and battle skills. My apprenticeship as a blacksmith had already made me stronger physically, so I didn't need to focus on that on too much so I was more concentrated on my fighting style on which I worked on mostly by sparring with the Knights-in-training. During the third year they were already sending me on various smaller quests with full-fledged Knights and throughout the following two years they gradually allowed me to take on harder missions alone. By the end of those five years I spent training I had gotten strong enough to finally survive on my own as an adventurer. On the day of my twenty-first birthday I went to the cliff near Oaklore to gaze upon the forest from above.


"That was also the day I met you and Twilly on that very cliff and all of this had started."
With those final words Raven wrapped-up the story of his past.
"I see" said Celestia "so the day we met was the day of your twenty-first birthday."
Before she could say anything else, she was interrupted by a loud noise coming from the direction of the lake. Alerted by it, Raven and Celestia decided to check out what it was.


Meanwhile in Cysero's Superstore of Savings…
"So… this goes here and that there and..." mumbled Cysero to himself as he was building his machine. After a while he was ready and decided to test it out. Cysero set it up and then pushed the button which resulted in a huge explosion, followed by a shock wave.
"That happened" said Cysero to no-one in particular as he started cleaning up after his experiment, mulling over the fact that he didn't have his ham prepared for the explosion, as he didn't see that as a possible result.


Author's Notes: Thank you very much for reading this FanFic! I'll probably be dropping the next chapter somewhere around the end of this week.