The wind rushed through Ivy's hair as she sailed through the air. She guided herself through the air to the best of her ability as she felt gravity take hold of her again and pull her toward the ground. Ivy gripped her gun in both hands, keeping a firm hold on it as she levelled it to aim. As she aimed, Ivy was able to see some of the taller trees in her peripherals. She could see as her peripherals became a green blur. She placed her thumb on a button on the left side of the grip of her gun and then pressed on the button. Ivy felt her shoulder absorb the recoil of the shot as it launched a grappling line that wedged itself inside a tree ahead of her. As she fell further, the rope went taut and she felt herself swing upwards. When she had reached the apex of her flight, she deconstructed her gun back into its original mace and shield form. Ivy then threw her shield at the ground as hard as she could with her right hand. It hit the ground right before she hit the ground herself. She landed on the shield and surfed on it, using the edges of the shield to bring her to a complete stop. She stepped of the shield and stomped on it, sending it upwards and being caught in her right hand again. Ivy fully attached the shield to her arm, dusted herself off, and began to venture deeper into the forest.

He felt like he must have done this thousand times before, Sinen was used to this. Being accustomed to falling from the sky was likely not something most could put on their theoretical resume. But Sinen was one of the people who could consider himself used to this. As he fell towards the ground, rather than slow himself down like a normal person, he aimed straight down in a nosedive. The whistle of the wind in his ear became even more high pitched as he gained speed. Eventually his eyes began to water with the increase in speed, but Sinen pushed aside the discomfort and reminded himself to focus. Taking the knife part of his rope dart in his right hand, he began to stretch the rope across his torso. Sinen shifted his hand to the rope about a foot away from where the blade was. He swung the rope around and let go of the bladed side while still keeping the majority of the rope in his left hand. The knife sailed through the air and hit a tree branch with a solid thud. Seeing that it had hit, Sinen wrapped the rope around his left arm and gripped it with his right arm too. He felt his rope go taut, which lead to him swinging upwards. He let go of the rope, but instead of sailing into the air once more, he grabbed another tree branch and swung around it like a gymnast on the rings. When his feet were facing the ground again, he let go and let the momentum carry him downwards alongside gravity. Sinen hit the ground with no noise, and stood up. He rotated his shoulders in a shrugging motion and then began to run.

—

Ivy walked through the forest, staying on high alert incase there were nearby Grimm or fellow students. She wondered what everyone else's plan was, was it to find the objective immediately or to find a partner. When she thought about it though, they were all still first year students so some might not even have a plan. She walked through the forest with a brisk pace, checking her surroundings once again in case of an ambush. Ivy lifted her shielded arm to her face and clicked a button on her goggles. Her goggles lit up with light and connected to her scroll. The goggles were of her own design. they could track aura level and a general sense of her surroundings. As she took in the information that her goggles displayed to her, she noticed three small blips on her built in radar. Ivy slowed to a stop and keened her ear to the surrounding area. Soon after doing that, Ivy heard the telltale growl of a Grimm. She slowly approached the area that the three blips were being displayed and saw three Beowolves come into her field of view.

The beasts turned to greet Ivy with their burning red eyes, glaring at the young huntress in training. Ivy tensed at the sight of them, gripped briefly with fear, followed by a burning anger that she could feel in the pit of her stomach. She readied herself as she focused on the positioning of the three Grimm. The one in the middle of the pack began to approach her directly while the other two circled to her right and left. Ivy slowly backed up until she felt a tree brush by her shoulders. Some might have said that she was in a bad position, but if she played it right, Ivy was in the perfect position. The beowulf that had approached her directly finally began to rush her. Without hesitation, Ivy ducked as the Grimm flew over her head and crashed into the tree behind her, breaking it down as it hit said tree. The other two Grimm began to charge her from her flanks simultaneously. However, Ivy could tell that the beowulf on the right was just slightly faster than the one on the left. Ivy blocked the beast's attack with her shield and used it's momentum to launch it over her head into said Grimm's counterpart on her left. Soon after, the one that had crashed into the tree had recovered and was charging Ivy again. Ivy jumped over the beast and landed behind it. Using her mace, she swung at the back of its legs with such force that it actually spun the beast around so that it was facing her once more. Ivy allowed the momentum of her swing to carry her around full circle, and hoisted her mace above her head. She brought down the mace with such force that when the mace hit the beasts skull with a crunch, left a small crater on the ground as it was caved in. She finished the beast just in time to see one of the other two remaining Beowolves charging her. Ivy thrust her mace into the chest of the beast and activated the built in taser which fried the beast until it was dead. Ivy could feel the final Grimm approaching her from behind. She gave her hand a simple wave, not giving mind to the beast. To the surprise of the beast, it was hoisted into the air by a branch that curled around its neck, hoisted it into the air and squeezed until it went limp. Ivy took a moment to survey the small amount of carnage she had caused and went on her way.

Ivy continued on through the forest for some time, until she felt that she had covered good enough distance to reach a safe area and slowed to a stop. She mentally examined what she knew she was doing. When looking at it, Ivy had no idea where she was or even where she was going. All she knew was that she could see the cliff that they had all been launched from. She felt a pang of frustration as she realized she had no idea what she was doing. Ozpin said that they were supposed to find artifacts hidden in the northern end of the forest. But he never hinted as to what to look for, whether it be in a cave, tree, or if they were just supposed to find them through sheer dumb luck. Ivy didn't even know what the artifacts were supposed to look like. But, she had somehow managed to get into Beacon, which means they saw her potential, they accepted her into this school, she must have what it takes.

The lone huntress made the decision to put as much distance between her and the cliffs as possible, that seemed to be the best possible strategy at the moment. As Ivy walked through the forest, she relished the silence that engulfed her, it reminded her of home. As soon as she connected the silence to home, Ivy was overcome with a wave of homesickness that was accompanied by anxiety. She tried her best to suppress these thoughts as she soldiered onward, deeper into the forest. Rather than acknowledge her creeping anxiety, Ivy decided to enjoy the peace and quiet that had eluded her since arriving at Beacon. She pondered the possibility of her running into another student on her journey, there had to be at least one person in the forest who still needed a partner. Personally, Ivy hoped it was Bran, because even though they had just met, he seemed nice enough when they talked. Granted, even though he seemed nice, the thought of spending four whole years with the first person she laid her eyes on was a frightening thought, even if it was Bran. Ivy's train of though was derailed when she heard a scream coming from the northeast. Ivy began to run towards its point of origin.

Ivy sped to a slow jog as she hurried towards to the huntress in peril, while keeping her eye on her radar for any Grimm. She wasn't running for to long, as she saw some poor guy being thrown through the air westward. Ivy began to head westward to help the poor guy, but came to a stop when five blips appeared on her radar. Using her semblance, she called a tree branch down to her and hoisted herself up into the trees to get a better look at the Grimm. She could physically see only two of the blips from her radar, it was an Ursa and another student. The student stood still in a black and blue plated, leather frock coat, with a sword strapped to his back. Ivy positioned herself just above the Grimm. Gripping her mace with two hands, Ivy jumped from the branch and landed on one of the Ursa, bringing her mace down on its head with a sickening crunch. Subsequently, she whirled around, putting all of her strength behind her swing, catching the second Grimm on the side of its head, sending it crashing into the trees t her right. At that moment, Ivy saw the two final blips on her radar come into view, two more Ursa. She raised her shield and readied herself for the oncoming attack. Ivy heard a distinct whistling sound in her ear followed by a quiet thud as two small knives had embedded themselves into the skulls of the charging Ursa. They exploded violently soon after hitting their mark causing the two beasts to drop dead. Ivy turned to her fellow student who was recovering from his follow through from throwing the knives with his arms extended. Ivy removed her goggles to better take in the student as her eyes met his. Her new partners eyes were different colours, one a dark brown, the other an unsettling icy blue.

"Hi."

Ivy's attempt to greet him were responded in kind with an uncomfortable silence.

"I had that handled." was the only reply he gave Ivy.

Ivy furrowed her brow, mildly perturbed.

"Excuse me?" She said.

"I appreciate the help, but I had it handled."

Before Ivy had a chance to respond, her new partner spoke again.

"I'm Sinen." he said, extending his hand. "Who are you?"

"I'm Ivy." She said.

The handshake broke, and the two of them stood there once again in momentary silence.

"So," said Ivy "You know where you're going?"

—

Sinen ran as fast as he could between the trees, his feet barely making a sound. He had no idea where to go, but he was more likely to find his way if he just kept moving. He didn't know what exactly he was looking for, but he figured that he'd know it when he saw it. Sinen knew enough about the Emerald Forest to know that various ruins were scattered throughout. It was likely, he thought to himself, that his objective could be near some of those ruins. The problem was, Sinen didn't know where exactly said ruins were. Fortunately there was any easy solution to this issue; finding higher ground. Sinen looked to the tree branches above him and focused on them. Now standing on a branch, he began to cli the tree until he reached the top. He scanned the forest for anything unusual or out of place. Despite failing to find anything notable, he did see a taller tree just due west of him. Sine disappeared back into the trees and continued in the direction of the taller tree.

Jumping from branch to branch, Sinen allowed his mind to wander outside the parameters of his current mission. Soon enough the thought of being on a team crossed his mind, and what it would mean for him. The thought of a team frightened him, he wasn't sure if he was ready for another team. To add to that, Sinen thought he worked well enough alone, sure he could work with a team but it wasn't something he desired at the moment. He came to the conclusion that, whether he liked it or not, he was going to be put on a team, and he'd have to learn to deal with it. When considering the partner that would form his team of two, Sinen only really knew one person who he could say he knew well enough to consider partnering up with, Gwyn. He hoped that he'd find Gwyn and be partnered with him. It had been a while since Sinen had had such an easy time talking with someone, and he felt at ease around Faunus and hoped that he would find him out in the field. He was jolted from this train of thought when he heard a strange noise coming from below, it was a Creep.

Seeing such a small Grimm could make one forget just how truly dangerous they could be, especially in greater numbers. Sinen drew a knife from his belt, and scanned around the creature, making sure there were no Grimm hiding nearby. Seeing none, Sinen leapt from the tree and landed on the creature feet first. After landing on it and pinning it, he raised the knife above his head and brought it down, piercing the neck of the Grimm. It squealed pitifully until it started to dissolve. Sinen cleaned the blood from the knife and placed it back in its sheath that was hooked on to the back of his belt. He began to run again, in the direction of the taller tree, only slowing anytime he thought there might be a Beowulf or an Ursa stalking him from the unseen. Sinen finally arrived at his destination and began to climb the tree.

The climb itself wasn't too difficult and Sinen soon found himself at the top of the tree, overlooking the vast, green landscape. He could see much more of the Emerald forest, this also included a small set of ruins due northwest of him. Sinen made a mental note of the direction he should continue in and descended from the tree. While continuing down the tree, he noticed four Ursa padding around the area below him. One of the beasts was circling the tree while the other three skulked behind bushes that would have rendered them out of site from Sinen were he at ground level.

"If I didn't know any better," he said to himself "I'd say that they were setting up a planned ambush. This should be fun."

Sinen teleported to the ground, right in front of the Ursa that had been circling the tree until now. He looked right into the glowing red eyes of the beast and glared back at them. He also made a mental note of where the other three were positioned. One of the Ursa lunged at him as he prepared to teleport again. Right as the Grimm was about to swipe at Sinen, he saw a human figure dart past him from above. Sinen was surprised, to say the least, how he didn't see this person before baffled him. He teleported to a safe distance away from the other person's mace. Sinn observed as the girl before him dispatched two of the Grimm with relative ease. It was impressive to say the least, however, she seemed oblivious to the other two that had begun to charge her, a careless mistake. In one swift motion, Sinen drew two throwing knives from his belt, clicked a button on them and hurled the blades at each of the Ursa. They landed directly in between the eyes of both Grimm and made a popping sound as they exploded, decimating the skulls of the beasts. The other huntress was wearing goggles that she removed to reveal bright green eyes. There was a brief, uncomfortable silence that was then broken by the huntress.

"Hi." She said, breathing heavily from the fight. Sinen assumed that it was more likely adrenaline than lack of stamina.

"I had that handled." He said, unsure of what else he could say.

The green clad huntress frowned, her jaw restricted by her chin strap.

"Excuse me?"

'Damn' he thought to himself 'I just sounded rude didn't I?'

"I appreciate the help, but I had that handled."

'Much better' he thought.

Sinen extended his hand, "I'm Sinen," he said "who are you?"

He felt her grand grasp his with a firm handshake.

"I'm Ivy." She said.

There was another brief, but uncomfortable silence, once again to be broken by Ivy.

"So," she said "You know where you're going?"

—

Ivy was surprised to here that her new partner did, in fact know where he was going. She listened to her new friend as he explained that he saw ruins to the west, in the same direction that she had seen the screaming blonde kid thrown. Her new partner, Sinen seemed quite confident in both his abilities and where he was going. Usually she Ivy appreciated confidence, but seeing as she did't get a thank you for saving his life rubbed her the long way. Despite that though, she was gonna have to deal with it. In addition to his seemingly overconfident manor, Sinen's Blue eye looked at her with such intensity that it made her uncomfortable.

"Why would it be by the ruins?" She asked.

"It's not likely that they'd put they'd put whatever we're looking for in a nondescript location. It would make more sense to put it somewhere noticeable."

She had to admit, his logic wasn't bad, and she liked the comfort of having a plan. Until then Ivy had been winging it, which was not the best plan in hindsight. Regardless of that, she now had a course of action to follow, which was quite comforting.

The two hunters walked through the forest with the uncomfortable silence hanging over them once more. Ivy wanted to break the silence and start a conversation so she could learn a bit more about her knew partner, but he was silent. Sinen seemed to glide through the forest rather than walk, only focused on what was ahead of him. In response to Sinen's silence, Ivy remained quiet herself. It remained like this for a while until Sinen was the one who broke the silence.

"You from Mistral?" He asked her.

"How'd you know that?"

"Lucky guess."

Ivy wasn't sure she believed that.

"Yeah, a little town near the swamps." She replied "What about yourself?"

"I was born in Mantle, but I've done a lot of travelling, I've been to some of the smaller towns in Haven, they're nice."

Ivy's thoughts drifted to home and her Dad. "Yeah," she said, "They are pretty nice, and most of the time they're quiet enough. But when they're not." She tensed slightly before continuing, "when they're not quiet, it's quite an event."

Sinen nodded, Ivy could see him out of the corner of her eye, she pondered what he was thinking but he was extraordinarily hard to read. At the moment he looked as if he were trying to work out a very complicated puzzle as they were talking.

"How do you fight in your armour?" he asked.

Ivy concluded that if he was working on some sort of puzzle in his head, it wasn't going well.

"what d'you mean?" she asked, feeling defensive,

"I know speed isn't a necessity when fighting Grimm but your armour doesn't look too flexible. How do you move properly?"

Ivy looked at her armour, it had served her well for a long time but she did know it was on its last legs. It was't going to last for much longer, and it did restrict her movement every so often.

"You're not wrong. I'm working on something new, hopefully it works better. What about you? My armour may not be too flexible, but it gives good protection, but you? You don't have much."

Sinen tapped on one of his few metal plates.

"I have them where I need them, I let aura take care of the rest when it needs to."

"Sure but it has a limit, and you still feel the pain."

"I'd prefer to not be hit in the first place, and if I get hit then I'll deal with the pain in my own way."

Sinen's self assurance, while unusual, was somehow very reassuring as well, it put her more at ease. He must have seen her react because he tried to lighten the mood in his own way.

"Besides," he said "Someone I met yesterday wears casual street clothes for combat, so if he's fine, then I'm fine."

A few gears clicked in Ivy's head, she hadn't considered the possibility that Sinen knew other people that he might have been hoping to pair up with. Perhaps his initial, mildly confrontational manor was a disappointment. She had to admit that she was initially hoping to be paired with someone she already knew like Pyrrha or Bran.

"You come here with any friends?" asked the young huntress.

"No." he replied

"What about the guy you met yesterday?"

"Him? He's nice enough but I've only known him for a day, that's not even remotely long enough to determine whether we're friends or even if we want to be friends. Same goes for you and me, it's not personal, it's just how I see things."

It was as if Sinen had read her mind, it helped her put him into a better perspective. He wasn't rude and overconfident, just blunt and self-assured. She still wasn't sure if she was a huge fan of it but, for some reason she felt more at ease. Ivy decided to steer their conversation back to what they were originally discussing.

"So what about you?" asked Ivy "You said you traveled a lot? See anything interesting?"

"Yes." said Sinen

"Like what?" she asked with genuine curiosity.

Ivy didn't get a response as Sinen disappeared in the most literal sense, leaving only a blue outline of himself that disappeared moments later. A few seconds later Sinen returned, bringing back the new outline and then Sinen himself in short order.

"Two Beowulves just up ahead, be careful."

Ivy swore and re-equipped her goggles and checked her radar. Sure enough, there were two blips to the northeast. She felt dumb for a moment, she should have kept her goggles on. Lucky enough Sinen somehow managed to hear something and double check. Ivy focussed up and gripped her mace with both hands. Sinen looked poised to charged until Ivy reached out and grasped his shoulder. Sinen looked back at Ivy with confusion.

"There are only two of them." he said

"Sure, but lets play it safe just in case. The less noise we make the better and all that stuff. We don't want to attract any more Grimm here. You go into the trees and drop down on one of them, I'll strike from the bushes." She said "Heh. I'll am-BUSH them."

Sinen nodded while rolling his eyes in response to her bad pun. He disappeared once more, leaving Ivy alone. Keeping herself masked by the buhes, I've snuck around to the right where one of the Beowolves was. She extended into her aura to call on her semblance and felt a cluster of roots surface beneath her feet. Ivy took a deep breath and did a mental countdown from three and used the roots beneath her to add momentum to her strike, pushing off them ass they carried her upwards, landing an uppercut with her mace on one of the Grimm. The beast lay still and began to dissolve. The second began to charge for Ivy but was stopped when there was a whistling noise followed by a 'thunk'. The Grimm that had been charging Ivy was then hoisted backwards and upward by a rope while Sinen descended using the same rope. The beast was suspended for a few seconds and twitched until it went limp. Seeing the battle was over Ivy approached Sinen and gave her partner a pat on the shoulder.

"Nice job." She said, smiling "Hell, you made way less noise than I did. Why didn't you use your sword though?"

"My what?" Sinen asked as though he wasn't aware he had one.

"Your sword." Ivy said, motioning to the blade.

"I mean it wasn't like I needed it for that."

Ivy was surprised, for her, her Mace and Shield were her bread and butter when fighting. When she looked at Sinen she could genuinely say that she had never met another hunter, whether in training or professional who carried as large a variety of tools as he did.

Ivy's train of thought came to a halt at the sound of more growling, she couldn't see the Grimm just yet but she knew it wasn't her imagination, Sinen was alert too. They stood back to back, waiting to see where the creature would strike from. The pair of them maintained their position for at least a minute. Ivy looked at Sinen in the corner of her eye who looked back at her. She motioned with her head toward the bushes to suggest actively hunting the Grimm down. They began to approach the bushes until the realized that the growling wasn't just becoming louder, but more frequent as well. The Grimm emerged from hiding to reveal not one but six large, angry Ursa. The beasts began to charge the two students. Ivy raised her shield with her right hand and adopted a fighting stance. She felt Sinen's hand on her shoulder urging her backwards.

"Flight, not fight this time." Said her companion in a quiet and calm demeanour. "These aren't normal Ursa, look closer, their bigger stronger and more protected. We won't win this, not right now at least."

Ivy assessed the situation and nodded in agreement. He was right, they needed to leave.

"On the count of three, grab me and grapple us out of here."

Ivy clicked a button on her shield which made the outer trim rotate and raised her shield arm towards the trees.

"One" said Sinen

The air was still.

"Two"

Ivy took a deep breath to steady herself.

"Three!"

Ivy wrapped her arm around Sinen as he threw a pellet to the ground which exploded in a bright light while Ivy clicked another button on her shield which launched the line into the trees and hauled them away.

The pair of them ran in the trees for some time to make sure they truly lost the Grimm and descended to the ground. They were both slightly out of breath. Ivy let out a small laugh og election which caused Sinen to chuckle in return. The laughter turned raucous and lasted for a few seconds before they regained their composure.

"That was way too close." Sinen said, Ivy saw him smile for the first time.

"Thankfully, we're still on track." replied Ivy "If I understood you correctly we should be close."

They pushed on without interruption for another kilometre until they met a clearing. They had made it to the ruins. It looked like they weren't the first ones to make it to this place. The Ground was filled with Nevermore feathers and ice crystals which had just started to melt.

"Whoever they are, I hope they're ok." said Ivy in a concerned tone.

"They should be, they trained for this."

They approached the ruins to find black and gold chess pieces placed on pedestals.

"Those have to be it." said Ivy.

"First times the charm." Sinen said wryly.

"Or beginners luck." she replied, teasing her partner.

Sinen smirked "That only applies to beginners though."

It seemed to Ivy as though Sinen was slightly more friendly now. That had to be a win.

"Let's grab one and go." she said.

Sinen nodded in agreement and went to choose their piece. But before they could get there, there was a loud noise behind them that distracted them. Following the noise, two humanoid figures began to come into their view, Sinen squinted as he looked up to see them. Ivy put on her goggles and zoomed in on them flying through the air.

"Is that?" she said hesitantly, "Bran?"