As the sun began to peek over the horizon, visibility improved, but no noticeable warmth came to greet the young huntsman. Even in the latter end of the winter, the cold never really changed, but soon none of that would matter. Through the smell of the ocean, the faint sound of waves crashing against the cliff side and seagulls looking for their breakfast in the distance, and of course, the silhouettes of the village within eyesight, he was able to tell he was close to Clive. He even managed to reconnect to the dirt road that people who usually had a wagon or vehicle would normally take. Of course that also ran the risk of being the obvious route to be ambushed by bandits, but it would be hard to complain when the alternative is getting lost in the wilderness with the monsters. Qrow, confident in his navigation and capability to protect himself, took shortcuts off the beaten path. However if anyone who didn't have his training attempted such a journey, they likely wouldn't have survived very long after the sun went down.

As Qrow finally crossed into the threshold of the town, he noticed there were no guards about, or evidence that they existed here. It's not something that's unheard of, especially in small villages like this, but it does make it more clear why a huntsman would be needed here from time to time. It was still a little dark, the sun was just under halfway over the horizon of the sea, so naturally it seemed no one was up and about. The farmers might be up at this time, but there's no farms within the vicinity of the village. Qrow stopped automatically walking to grant himself a moment to think, and looked around for where to begin. The village wasn't ginormous in any regard, but large enough for a village that seemed to accomodate maybe a little under thirty houses, plus a few businesses separate from the homes. Most of the buildings were made of sturdy wood, with wood roofs; however the poorer residents clearly, would end up separating themselves with a more thatch based roof, and shoddier maintenance. It wasn't really compact like some villages, when the houses were built, the neighbors seemed like they wanted to give each other some room to breathe. The houses were a bit spaced out from each other, especially compared to the bustling city of Vale to which Qrow was accustomed, making the village look far larger than it actually was. Towards the edge of the town was a large circular plaza, which hugged the cliffside viewpoint; it sported a standard stone well in the center, and a few closed merchant stalls, likely all food based. This village just might be large enough to have— ah yes, thank the heavens, an inn, he thought. Easily indicated as the only fairly wide and two story building in the entire area, and a swinging sign above the door which displayed a silhouette of a seagull and text spelling out The Clive Point Inn. He tiredly dragged himself down the road away from the cliffside, towards the inn.

Qrow violently pushes the wooden door open and it slams into the wall bouncing off from it, shaking a nearby coat rack. A pretty innkeeper practically jumped up from leaning on the bar, dropping her book from her hands; clearly startled by the door blasting open and a rugged huntsman with dark circles under his eyes standing like a reaper at the doorway. She was definitely not expecting anyone to come in at the wee hours of the morning, and had been relaxing for a number of hours.

"Oh my!" the innkeeper quietly shouted as she recovered from her scare, "Ah, welcome," she greeted courteously.

The sleep deprived huntsman said nothing, and stared at her for a few seconds, blinking with what can only be described as an exhausted facial expression. He slowly looked around, the place was completely empty, save for the tables, chairs, and tankards. He found what he was looking for, spotting the dying fire at the end of the dining area. He ignored the innkeeper's gaze, and began stumbling towards the flame, desperate for its warmth like a moth to a light. Without taking his eyes off the fire, he grabbed a chair from one of the closest tables and dragged it along the wooden floor with an uncomfortably loud scrape. He slid the chair as close to the fireplace as he could without burning his knees off, or bumping his head on the stone arch. He dropped down in the chair, leaned far forward towards the flame, and finally warmed his frozen hands as much as he could. The innkeeper approached from behind, keeping a respectable distance away from a man who had clearly had a very long day.

"Would, would you like anything? Perhaps stoke the fire for you?" she offered kindly.

The tired huntsman took a moment finding the words before he could respond, "No, no, thank you, I'll only be here for a second," he said, managing to force out his response.

"Ok, I'll be over here if you need anything," she cheerily replied and began to walk away.

"Wait. How much for a night here?" his eyes almost giving away a desperate 'please' as he said that.

"A night? The sun's coming up."

Qrow squeezed the bridge of his nose, irritated that he'd have to rephrase himself, "How much does it cost for me to have a room for the next twenty four hours?"

"Well, it would be 35 lien."

He began wrestling for his wallet from his back pocket, leaning over in his chair and trying to force his way past his shirt tails. He eventually managed, amazing the innkeeper at his success, and pulled all his cash out. He slowly counted out 35 lien, making absolutely sure his tired mind didn't make a mistake, and slowly handed the plastic cards to her. She took them, and recounted it to make sure he didn't make a mistake, in blinding speeds by comparison.

"Let me show to your room," she said with a friendly smile.

She turned on her heel and began walking, but not full speed giving the tired Qrow a chance to stand up and follow. He swung forward placing his hands on his knees, then pushing off of them in order to get himself back onto his feet, then turned to follow the innkeeper who began walking at full speed. She led him past the dining areas, then around the bar, where a U shaped flat turn staircase led to the second floor. Up the stairs where two hallways led to a multitude of different rooms, one hall to the left and one to the right; with a small area directly in front of them with a stained glass window, and a small table that could only fit a vase with a bouquet of flowers and two chairs facing diagonally towards the stairs next to it. The innkeeper suddenly stopped, taking a second to think about where she was actually going; maybe she was a little tired too. She let out a small ah and continued down the left corridor. She stopped around halfway down and opened a door which only felt random to Qrow, as the rooms weren't numbered or marked in any way here.

"And here you are, if you need anything feel free to come back down to the bar, me or my sister should always be around."

He narrowed his eyes and gave a satisfied smile to the sight of his room, "Ah, this will do nicely, and there's even a sister."

The innkeeper raised an eyebrow quizzically, not entirely sure what he meant by that.

"Thank you very much," he continued, looking her in the eye warmly to get his sincerity across. "Would you care to spend the night with me?" he asked with a grin.

"I-I beg your pardon?" asked the innkeeper in a flustered voice; she no longer could maintain eye contact with him, and her face began to flush red.

"Nevermind," Qrow giggled at his tease, "It's already morning anyway. Have a good...morning," he said as if correcting himself.

As he slowly closed the door, he noticed the pretty girl practically scurry away towards the staircase to escape any further embarrassment at the hands of the rugged huntsman. Done with that entertaining interaction, he turned around and stretched, pulled his weapon from his back, and placed it against the foot of the bed.

"I might have to spend two nights here," he quipped with a smile, thinking of the innkeeper's cute reaction to his teasing.

That thought reminded him, he looked inside his wallet to see how much lien he had left, 115 lien; enough until he made it back to Vale? He hoped. Qrow took a look at the room he was in, fairly simple living compared to what you might find in the city. An inelegant coatrack stood to the left of the door, along with two equally inelegant wooden chairs that sat against the wall. The bed didn't look too bad however, it was a double, the wooden bedframe wasn't anything special, but the velvet blankets and the fluffy snow white pillows were easy on the eyes, and he looked forward to falling in it. A small window across from the door overlooked the street in front of the inn, he noticed the day was already beginning to look much brighter than it was just ten minutes ago. Qrow swiped the curtains closed, the imminent sunlight would definitely keep him awake. He then began to remove his clothing, starting with his dress shoes, moving on to his gray dress shirt, and finally his black dress pants. He carefully folded them, placed them gently on a nearby chair, and neatly tucked his shoes under it. These were all the only clothes he decided to bring on this journey, he didn't want them to become wrinkled. His hand reached for his upper chest, just to make sure his necklace was still there; he then looked at the rings on his right hand, deciding whether or not he wanted to take them off when he slept. Nah, he decided, he didn't want to risk losing them.

He went back to his pants to pull his scroll out, pulling it open he saw the time. Damn, it's already 6:20, he thought. He decided to have some mercy on himself and set an alarm for 1:00 P:M, he was in no hurry to fight grimm sleep deprived. He set his scroll on the nightstand, and finally got off his feet. The tired huntsman slipped under the covers, laid down on the pillow with both of his hands behind his head, and closed his eyes.

A utilitarian beeping noise resonated throughout the small room, waking the huntsman. He reflexively shot up to a sitting position in his bed, knowing that if he allowed himself to lay down, it would only have him fall back asleep. He forced himself to climb out of the bed in an instant, almost robotically as if he was one of those androids from Atlas. Now on his feet, he turned off his alarm. 1:00 P:M, right on schedule. It was unfortunately late into the day due to the late night last night, but hopefully he could catch up on it. Sunset would arrive in a matter of hours.

Down below, the once empty inn was now bustling with activity. Around half filled with villagers that were currently on their lunch break, complete with laughing, loud talking, and midday drinking. Qrow came down the stairs fully dressed and groomed, and his weapon holstered on his back; now instead of dragging himself place to place, he was now moving with a sense of purpose. He noticed immediately a different innkeeper occupied the bar, and it was safe to say this was the sister. She looked more mature, with her brown hair pulled up into a bun, instead of let down to her back. Noticing he was coming down the stairs, she gave him a courteous smile and nod as he approached.

"Good afternoon, is there anything I can help you with?" she asked politely.

"Breakfast would be a start," he responded in a gruff voice.

"Oh," she now realized he only just woke up, "What would you like?" she said gesturing towards the wooden menu board above the bar.

"I'll go with a quarter loaf of bread and an omelette with sausages and pepper. What do you have to drink?"

"Well we have ale, mead, a few different wines, rum, whiskey—"

"I meant, something non-alcoholic," he said sharply cutting her off. While he would like a beer he has a job to do, and he needs to hydrate himself at least a little for today.

"Uh, well in that case, we have water and milk," she answered with a shrug to her voice.

Qrow closed his eyes and barely shook his head in disappointment of the lacking selection, a real backwater town compared to what he was accustomed to, "Water will be fine."

"Great. So that'll be a quarter loaf of bread, an omelette with sausages and black pepper, and… water. Will there be anything else?"

"No," he replied already beginning to walk away.

He went towards the tables looking for somewhere to sit, preferably alone so he could eat in peace. Scratch that, he noticed the innkeeper from last night eating her lunch by herself at the corner window table, and she in return noticed him as well walking by looking at her. She smiled and waved welcoming him.

"Hi there," she greeted in an upbeat voice, "Sleep well?"

"No thanks to your patrons, yes," he answered jocularly.

"That's good to hear," she said as she giggled at his remark, "Sorry it tends to get kinda lively down here around this time."

"So I've noticed," he replied dryly, sitting down at her table across from her, surprising her with the unforeseen company.

She was eating a simple ham sandwich, quite thin, with only a few pieces of lettuce as a topping, along with a small mug of mead to the side. She wasn't drinking it to get drunk, it simply went with her lunch better than a glass of milk. She still seemed to be in uniform, which involved a button up white puff short sleeve shirt, with a open black vest over it. Her white shirt draped over her black pleated skirt, which just barely came above knee length, and she wore brown leather, knee high boots that were fastened by small buckles and a zipper. She had long brown wavy hair that went to the middle of her back, with shorter bangs, which allowed her green eyes to be seen.

"So…" she realized she needed to respark the conversation beyond simple passing greetings, "What's your name?"

"Qrow."

"So, what are you doing in Clive?" she asked curiously trying to get past his short answers.

"I've got a job to do here, I solve problems. I'm looking for Stanley Lloyd, can you help me?"

"Oh!" she responded surprised, "Oh my! Are you the huntsman?"

"That's right," he grinned as his ego was stroked. It felt good to be recognized as a true huntsman.

"I should have realized, with your large weapon. Huntsmen usually don't come through here you see, you weren't what I expected; I assumed you were a mercenary or something."

"What did you expect exactly?" he asked curiously.

"Uhh," She searched for the answer, but actually seemed a bit stumped, "I'm not entirely sure. Maybe someone who was a bit more… stoic? A little more, hero or warrior looking maybe? I've sort of grown up reading the storybooks, where heroes fight the monsters, and protect people," she explained, finicking with her hands and avoiding eye contact

Qrow looked at her with a teasing grin, and raised an eyebrow at her response.

"Oh, excuse me," she realized she indirectly insulted him, "I didn't mean—"

"I hope I live up to your expectations," he said giving a wink, reassuring her he wasn't insulted.

She looked away blushing again, returning to her mead.

"Anyway," he said getting back on topic, "Stanley Lloyd. Can you help me find him?"

"Oh right!" she said remembering he was mentioned, "That's my father actually, he owns this inn."

"Okay, and that makes you Miss Lloyd?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, my name is Tawnie, just Tawnie is fine. Would you like me to take you to—"

"Preferably," he said cutting her off once again, "After my breakfast. I had a very long night last night, and I am very hungry."

"Oh, of course. Out of curiosity, what did happen last night? You arrived so late and you looked so tired," she asked, clearly excited to hear the tales of a traveling huntsman.

Qrow smiled, and was all too happy to oblige to enjoy the attention. Over his breakfast, he told her all manner of stories concerning his time at Beacon Academy; his initiation, his team STRQ, the more interesting parts of his training, the different missions him and his team embarked upon, and most interesting to her, the monsters he has fought. Once he was sure he had thoroughly impressed her, he explained to her what did happen last night; the miscalculations, the missteps, the brutal journey that had to be taken as a result, and the beowolf he had killed along the way. Tawnie giggled at the more comical side of his adventures saying, "You really thought you could get all the way to Clive on foot before sundown?" The two talked for a while until he finished his breakfast; feeling rejuvenated and rehydrated, he was ready to get to work.

"Tawnie, could you show me to your father now?"

"Of course."

She led him to the Employees Only area on the first floor, where a closed door lied that she knocked upon, and a gruff voice told her to come in. Stanley stood up from his desk, greeting his daughter, and his only slightly expected guest. He was a slightly older man, as indicated by the wrinkles under his eyes and on his forehead, and his graying hair. He was clean shaven, and had short hair; with a simple outfit only consisting of the inn standard white button up shirt, tucked into gray slacks, and basic black shoes he was comfortable working in.

"Hi there, Pa," Tawnie began, "I just wanted to introduce you to the huntsman you asked for, his name is Qrow…" she paused and her eyes squinted looking at him, searching her mind for a last name she wasn't sure she ever heard.

"Branwen," Qrow said cutting her off, "The name's Qrow Branwen, and you, must be Stanley Lloyd."

"That's correct," he responded, "Please, sit," he said indicating towards a chair in front of the desk. "Tawnie, you may leave us."

She realized that was the polite way to say 'Please leave us,' and walked out closing the door behind her. The two men stared at each other, deciding who should begin first, after a few seconds, the huntsman decided to have the honors.

"So. You need a huntsman?"

"I don't. We all do."

"We?" Qrow inquired.

"All the citizens of Clive. People are in danger," Stanley emphasized.

"Right, of course," he replied in a mildly apologetic tone, "Let's start from the beginning. What's happening?" he said leaning forward.

The middle aged man leaned forward, with his elbows on the desk, remaining quite serious, "We have several caravans coming in and out, that never seem to make it past the Pearl Forest. We have hunters, and even hunting parties who wander into the forest and never come back, along with some others who wandered there. A group of five men went to investigate the forest, and they've been gone for days…"

"How many days?" Qrow interrupted.

"Umm," Stanley broke eye contact, thinking on his answer, "Today would be the, eighth day they've been gone. They were the last ones we're allowing to go at all."

"I see. Go on."

"That's about all there is Mr. Branwen. We can't lose any more people to this, so that's when we requested a huntsman."

Qrow leaned back thinking on all this, "Hmm. Do you think it's grimm?" he asked.

"I'm not entirely sure, we don't know all that much. It doesn't really seem human to me, it's not like bandits to be attacking hunting parties and random wanderers, I don't see the point, but it doesn't really matter. Whatever this is, we need a huntsman, you'll help us won't you?" he almost pleaded.

Qrow didn't answer, staying silent for a moment thinking, "Has anyone ever come back?"

"Just one."

Qrow leaned back forward interested at this development, "Who?"

"He's one of the hunters, one of the hunting parties. Poor guy, him and his three friends went into the forest, only he came back. He's barely said a word since he's returned, would hardly even tell us what happened. Just that something in the forest, killed his friends."

"Some thing," the huntsman repeated curiously, "When did this happen?"

"Around a week and a half ago, a few days before we sent out a group to investigate, and look for all the missing people."

"Where is he?"

"He's in the dining area. He'll be the one who has the table to himself, a mug of ale, and the thousand yard stare."

Qrow stood up and began to walk towards the door.

"Will you help us?" Stanley asked again.

"I'll look into it," he answered monotone.

The huntsman walked into the dining area, looking for his only lead on the Clive disappearances. Most tables sporting the exact opposite of what he was looking for, tables full of people and friends laughing, those happily eating lunch. There he is, towards the middle of the dining area, window table, his mug pushed aside, and him spacing out staring into the street. He was a bit chubby, and had more round facial features, a juvenile beard along his jawline and neck, and a thin moustache. He had an unkempt bowl cut, that went around halfway over his ears, halfway down his neck, and just above his brown eyes. Qrow walked over and looked at him, he could tell the mug was empty, and he still hadn't noticed him walk right up to him. Qrow disregarded pleasantries and loudly dropped onto the wooden bench right across from him, lightly startling him and grabbing his attention.

"Oh. Hello," the survivor greeted in a somber tone, "Did, you need something?"

"I'm a huntsman."

The survivor stopped looking down at the table, and looked up at him, his face showing a small bit of hope, "A huntsman? Are you here about—?"

"Yes," Qrow said cutting him off, "I want you to tell me everything that happened that night, from beginning to end."

The survivor swallowed, and sighed, mentally preparing himself to relive it, "Alright. Last week, I think it was, me and three others formed a hunting party, for food and hide. We had heard about the disappearances in the Pearl Forest, but we ignored the warnings. We needed to make a living, and we thought it would be fine if we all went together."

The survivor paused, but Qrow said nothing, looking expectantly and allowing him to continue.

"We hunted all day and we only managed to get three rabbits, once it got dark we set up camp so we could try again in the morning. Flann was none too happy about our yield, all day growling and yelling 'This won't be worth shit, all you bastards will be eating this before we even make it back!' At camp Flann was still moaning and groaning about it, and eventually Urdin had had it, and told Flann to stop yapping and shut his gob, he was sick of hearing him bitch. Flann and Urdin start getting into it, and I stayed out of it just warming myself by the fire. Suddenly I could… hear something running up to us, something big."

Qrow leaned in, now interested in the details.

"I looked past Flann and Urdin to see what it was, but it was so dark I couldn't see anything beyond the fire. That's when…" he stopped, as the memory became painful to relive and continued, "Whatever it was, Flann didn't even get a look at it, before it grabbed him in one swipe and knocked over Urdin. It was still dark and I couldn't see it but… I could see those red eyes. Flann started screaming, it roared at us and then…" he paused again, desperately trying to control himself, "Then, it ran Flann right through the stomach with its arm, and tossed him aside like a toy. Urdin grabbed his spear and stabbed it somewhere, then the creature pulled out the spear, grabbed him and threw him into the darkness. It ran over to him, I couldn't see it, but I could… hear it eating him! I looked over at Donovan, not knowing what to do, but then… another one, grabbed him by the shoulders, pulled him back into the black, and started tearing him apart," At this point it was taking everything he had to avoid breaking down into tears, "I-I-I didn't know what to do, and I ran. I just ran away into the forest, I didn't know where I was going and I just ran. I could still hear them growling and howling as I ran away, I could still hear Urdin and Donovan screaming for their lives. So I just ran away all over the forest just trying to get away, I had no idea where I was going until the sun started to come up. I just spent all night focused on running away from whatever those things were. Eventually I made it out of the forest, and I started to make my way to town, and, and, and—"

"Hey," Qrow said softly, "That's enough, you don't have to go on."

The survivor breathed deeply and sighed, and wiped his eyes, "Thank you, I hoped… that helped," he said, relieved to be finished.

"Do you remember anything else, about how it looked?" the huntsman asked hopefully.

His face darkened again, "I… it was so dark, I couldn't…" he stammered.

"Anything at all can help, even its height. You said you saw its red eyes, could you tell how tall it was?"

His face started to fill with fear again, as he forced himself to picture those red eyes, anything he could think of to help the huntsman, "It… was standing up, and it was tall. It must have been around ten feet."

"What about the second one? Was it the same? Did it look just as big?"

"Y-yes. They looked about the same I think, or at least I didn't notice a big difference."

"Thank you," Qrow said sincerely, "I think that's all I need to know," he said as he stood up from the bench.

"I, really hope it helps," the survivor said relieved to be finally finished.

"One last thing," the huntsman said looking back at him, "Your camp, where is it? Can you show it to me?"

The survivor's face paled slightly, and his eyes widened, "N-no. I… I can't go back there, please," he pleaded.

"Relax," Qrow said reassuringly, "I understand, just try your best to tell me where it is."

"Follow the road out of town along the cliffside, to the Northeast. Once you've crossed into the Pearl Forest, keep going until you seen the sign and the intersection, which is connected to a side path. Follow that side path, and somewhere along it you'll find our camp. I think you'll know it when you see it."

"Thank you," Qrow said sincerely. "What's your name?" he asked.

"My name? It's… it's Bo."

"Bo," he said with a look of determination on his face. "I'm going to make those things pay for what they did to your friends. I promise."

Bo gave away a small smile while looking at him, "Thank you."

This isn't good, Qrow thought. What we're dealing with here is almost definitely some beowolves; he considered it may have been a pair of ursai, the bear like grimm do like to travel in pairs, and the description almost fit. However, Flann's death would rule that out, an ursa can't impale their victims with their arms, all their limbs are simply too short. That leaves the beowolf, but no ordinary beowolves, these were alphas, their behaviors and Bo's description of their height confirms this. Alpha beowolves were grimm that have survived long enough to ascend from their animal stage, through their experiences they have evolved, and they have learned. They would be tougher, deadlier, and worst of all, smarter. Were these alphas clever to the point that they began to work together? It was a horrifying, but plausible thought. A single alpha can just be another day in the office, but two? And two that were likely working together, and formulating hunting strategies? It wasn't going to be easy. Normally mature grimm don't bother with mindlessly attacking humans, unless they think they can survive the encounter— which they usually can— and the consequences. This is why you won't normally find mature grimm attacking the walls; they won't start fights they don't realistically think they can win, and even then, they even consider the fact that we make up for our deaths in numbers, and we will come back for them.

He ran through his conclusions of the story in his head. Clive, a relatively small, isolated town some distance from the main kingdom. Without military or huntsman support from Vale, practically unguarded. Clive is home to a small but competent population, seems to be the home of many hunters, or perhaps formerly at this point. Maybe even enough that the town can defend itself from the occasional beowolf or creep if the town has a militia to keep the town itself secure. The alphas observe this, and instead of mindlessly attacking the town so noticeably, they reside in the Pearl Forest and bide their time. Picking off wanderers and groups that strayed too far from the town, into the veil of the forest; straight out of a horror movie script, he thought. Bo and his party go into the forest to hunt, and through unsuccessful hunts, and a bad argument, they were generating a lot of negativity. Sadness, disappointment, anger, this attracted the alphas effectively making them the hunted.

He had everything he needed, it was time to go. He thought he should leave quickly, it was already 2:00, it would be dark soon.