(Author's Note: This chapter will be one of the shortest due to the introduction of the two new characters and the type of ending. Enjoy.)
They had been walking through the forest for several hours when they finally spotted the Forest Temple through the trees.
"Thank god," Fen said, "I'm not sure how much more my feet could take." Her feet were beginning to blister in her hiking boots. She liked them for the reason that her feet normally didn't blister when she wore them.
"Don't forget sis," Kniv replied, knowing that their journey was only half over. "We still have the return trip back to the cliffs if we want to pass initiation." He heard her groan in protest; he laughed and said, "I still don't understand why you just can't use your semblance on yourself."
"I've told you before Kniv, I'm too big. I can only lift up things that are about this big." As she said it, she spread her hands about four feet apart. "Even then," she continued, "they still can't be more than three feet in depth." It was a limitation that she had learned while trying to pick up a car. Instead of lifting it up, all she did was shift the gears to neutral and then had to chase it down the slight incline as it rolled away.
Kniv just laughed again and placed his arm around her shoulders, leading her into the clearing. They came to the open temple and saw that the relics that Ozpin had talked about while they were on the cliff. They were chess pieces. Simple, ordinary, black and white chess pieces.
"Well," Kniv started off, "this certainly isn't what I expected to find in the middle of the forest." In honesty, he had thought that there would be something along the lines of statues, maybe even golden figurines. Chess pieces were the last things he expected to find.
"I don't think it's all that bad." said Fen, who was currently holding a white queen piece. "To bad there aren't enough pieces to play a match."
"Even if there were, sis, would you expect us to have enough time to play and get back to the cliffs?"
"No, I guess not."
Fen was still holding onto the white queen piece. "That seems to be as good of a relic as any." Kniv said. "How about we get going to the cliffs, my queen."
"Shut up Kniv." Fen said, cracking a smile. Giving him a soft punch on the shoulder, she started heading west, back to the cliffs. She slipped the queen piece into a pouch on her belt. Kniv followed close on her heels.
Closing in on the wood line, they heard a rustle of leaves and saw movement in the brush. They stopped moving and immediately readied their weapons.
"Calm down and lower your weapons," came a male voice from the bushes. "We aren't Grimm."
Fen and Kniv lowered their weapons, but did not put them away. Two people stepped out of the bushes, one guy and one girl. The guy was about six feet tall, but the girl looked smaller, maybe around 5 foot guy was a total stranger, but Fen thought the girl looked slightly familiar.
"Fen?" It was the girl. "Is that really you?" She had short blond hair that seemed to be kept strictly above her neck. She was wearing full length leg armor, a blue upper body chest-piece that had no arms and stopped just above the waist, and armored vambraces to protect her forearms. She was also wearing armored shoulder pieces that did not restrict her movement and a belt that had pouches attached to it. She had a kite-shaped shield with spikes on the front, and a pilum with an iridium tip and carbon fiber body was held in her right hand. There seemed to be a handle just below the center of the shaft and a blade on one side of the lower part.
Now Fen remembered her. She was in a few of her classes when she went to Signal. "Eos Azul, not the gal I thought see out in the Emerald forest. Who did you find to partner up with?"
"I'm Albus, Albus Seng." Albus told them, not waiting for Eos to speak. Albus seemed to be more of an independent man. Looking at him, he was wearing a white silk montuki kimono and hakama covered by a similar white montuki haori jacket that didn't seem to offer much protection, at all, and a black sash that held it together. He had what appeared to be a couple of twin blades crisscrossing his back.
"Pleasure." Kniv told them. "Is that a watch on your wrist?"
"Sure is." Albus told him, taking note of the wolf-like ears protruding from Kniv's head. He didn't care though, he wasn't discriminatory. "Fully functional and powered by the sun. Extraordinary battery life considering what I can direct the power to. I'll show you sometime in the future, but right now, we have a mission. Let's get to it Eos."
"Sure thing." Eos replied. "It was nice seeing you Fen, maybe sometime in the future we'll be able to hang out more." She followed Albus who was waiting for her by the temple.
"Well, they seemed nice." Kniv said as he turned to Fen. "How did you know who she was?"
"I had her in a couple of my classes back at signal. She must have gotten a new shield, her other one was in dismal condition last time I saw it." Fen replied. She seemed to be lost in thought as they continued their walk back into the forest.
Thankfully, Kniv was paying attention. He heard a faint growl coming from the bushes off to their left. "Um Fen, did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" She asked, clearly confused. "I don't hear anything out of the ordinary." She was starting to wonder if her brother was trying to trick her. Make her think something was there that really wasn't. She knew better though. Kniv would never joke around with her when it came to Grimm.
"I thought I heard a growl off to the left." Kniv told her. "I guess it was just my imagination. I don't hear it anymore." He didn't fully convince himself though. He had a nagging feeling that they were being watched. It made him uncomfortable to know anything could jump out at him without warning.
"You might not be wrong." Fen replied to him, looking at a dark shadow that was off to their right. "How many of them do you think we're dealing with?"
"Well first, we should probably find out what they are. Then we can try and find out a rough estimate of how many of them there are." Kniv said, trying to be calm. He knew there had to be more than ten shadows. He heard the growl again, turned, and saw one coming at him.
It was a Beowolf. The long, white claws and protruding bone that gave it extra protection made is look incredibly dangerous. In reality, Beowolves weren't the smartest of the creatures of Grimm. They relied on speed and hunting in packs to ensure kills, and they killed whatever they felt like.
Kniv, reacting fast, pulled out one of his Paidiá, dropped to one knee and let it fly. It missed the bone that offered the beast protection and went straight through the Beowolf. Kniv recalled it before it stuck into something using his one of his vambraces and placed it back on the strap he grabbed it from.
"Beowolves," Kniv said. "This won't be very good. These things travel in packs, and the sizes vary." He said this to Fen, who was starting to look worried. She unclasped Fatum and held it ready, making sure she had a full clip in the other half of her flail that held the shotgun.
"I never thought I would end up fighting something where you kill one and two take its place." Fen said. She held the butt of her flail in front of her, ready to shot the next Beowolf that decided to attack. She thought they would come in one by one, or even two at a time. She had no idea that they would attack as one, just like they traveled. In one big pack.
'This won't be a walk in the park like that last fight,' Fen thought as she quickly fired two quick shots at a couple incoming Beowolves. They were temporarily frozen by the blue dust pellets that acted as buckshot, and Kniv took the opportunity to strike them down with his a couple of his Paidiá. He was upset to see them dig into a tree and he knew he most likely wouldn't get them back until this fight was over. It was going to be a long one...