The Cobalt Blues - Ch. 4
With a hiss, the double-headed serpent wove its way around us, the rough scales digging a trench in the loose earth of the forest floor. It seemed to just be screwing with us, like a shark circling its prey. That's when I noticed what they were doing, they were going to constrict and crush us all to death! "Traiko! They're going to tighten around us. Make them keep their distance!" I shouted.
"With pleasure." He replied before swinging his axe with a mighty hew, and embedding it into the King Taijitu's scaly flesh. I screeched as it turned back towards him, gaping maw opened but not before Bakulah leapt in front launching her barbed Katar into the roof of its mouth. With a quick tug downward, she snapped its head against the ground before leaping on to its back and tugging its head back so that it couldn't get at her partner.
The white half currently restrained, Lyn and I turned to see the dark black head rushing towards us, its fangs bared and ready to strike. The two of us separated, quickly and seeing her, she smiled at me, despite the urgency of the situation and in a spinning dance she managed to cut a spiral shaped slash around the vicious Grimm as it lunged. I managed to duck out of the way just in time using my feet to fire a large barrage of grape shot into the bottom of its mouth, though it seemed to just shrug it off as it let out an angry hiss.
Bakulah continued to pull back on its head, causing Traiko to have the opportunity to slice its gullet open with a quick heft of his great axe and soon the great warrior found himself completely bathed in the blood of the white half of the vicious shadow beast, leaving the black half dragging around dead weight, for Lyn and I to slay. However, unlike the white half, this snake seemed to have armored plating just about everywhere. Every slash from Lyn, every blow from me, nothing seemed to phase it as it just kept coming over and over again. Just as Lyn came flying down to strike at its eyes, the thing smacked her away with its large head, before its flailing slammed into the nearby cliff. A low rumbling noise alerted us to a gigantic boulder, cracked loose from the bluff and now hurtling towards us. Looking up the four of us managed to scatter just in time as the gigantic wedge crashed into the ground. making it shake with the force of its impact.
The great snake hissed at us , and I knew I had to come up with a plan. "Lyn! Distract it! Get it to lunge at that rock!" I shouted and nodding she fluttered past it, using her fans to attract its attention on her. "Traiko, make a lever with one of these trees! Bakulah, I need you to launch me over the snake. Lyn, when it lunges, move!" The three nodded and immediately set upon their tasks, as the snake attempted to coil around Lyn, though the dead weight left her an opening. Traiko smirked as he got one tree to fall down over another downed one and standing on the edge I gave Bakulah a nod. With her katar, she managed to tug down a large boulder that fell to the tree. Slamming down on it, I was launched upward in to the air. The plan was working without a hitch, and when it lunged quickly Lyn dodged out of the way, causing it to get a mouthful of stone. Just as it went to release I slammed down hard on its head and with a violent cannon blast his jaws were forced apart by the wedge past their breaking point, the sharp and jagged edge slicing into the back of its head.
It let out a God-awful screech and began to flail about madly but with one final blast from my heel the thing's head was completely slice off on the wedge, allowing me to safely flip away before it vanished into darkness, and I dropped to the ground with a solid thump. The four of us stood there in silence for some time, catching our breath before I finally realized we'd won. My lips curled into a grin and I let out a nervous chuckle, and soon the other three were laughing alongside me. We'd defeated our toughest opponent yet, and soon it was time for us to bring our piece to the rendezvous point.
Making our way back through the forest, the four of us discussed our newest fight, each one complimenting one another on their own portion of the battle, but I knew the truth. The truth was, we'd all done it…together. Maybe this was the teamwork Professor Ozpin was talking about when he said I'd have to learn to work on a team. Maybe it was because the way that Traiko's armor was practically crimson with the King Taijitu's blood, maybe it was the scent of their dead, but Grimm didn't really seem to go after us after our battle. Within the day, the four of us managed to reach the cliff where Professor Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch were waiting for us.
"Welcome back." The headmaster greeted us. "Well done, I see that you four don't seem to be any worse for wear, your team is the second to last group to complete the initiation. Now if you would please surrender your chess pieces to this bag?" He asked indicating a satchel that Professor Goodwitch was holding. Relieved to have it over, I stepped towards the professor, but something in Professor Ozpin's eyes caught me by surprise. I knew the professor was intelligent, that much was obvious by the fact that he had worked to create this school, as well as the little conversation we had on the way here, but this was different.
I stopped, piece still in my hand. "Wait a moment." I muttered, causing the other three to look at me in surprise.
"Wait a moment?" Bakulah asked. "Aren't you going to finish the trial? I for one am sick of this forest." I shook my head.
"If I give up the chess piece, I've lost the trial. Think about what he said before we started. 'You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one, and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item, as well as your standing, and we will grade you appropriately.' Now consider the order he put those in. We've returned to the cliff…so the next step would be to…"
"Guard the item." Traiko finished drawing his axe as though ready for a fight but in a blur the professor had managed to disarm the armored woodsman, causing the axe to land embedded in the cliff behind him.
"Don't be so quick on the draw young man. An itchy trigger finger can you get you into a lot of trouble someday." The Headmaster lectured as we all turned shocked. How could he move that fast? "You are right though…it was a trick. Had you'd given up your pieces without a moment's hesitation you would have been deducted points. Though you wouldn't necessarily have failed." With a click, his sword cane was holstered once more and taking his place beside Professor Goodwitch she nodded towards the transports that were starting to arrive to pick us up.
"You will return to Beacon Academy on the transport ships now. Once there, you will get yourself a few hours rest before reporting for the induction ceremony. Congratulations to you all, you've earned your spot in Beacon today." I smiled at Lyn squealed and clutched to my arm. As the four of us left, I couldn't begin to fathom just what sort of journey may lay in wait for us.
As the four students filed away Glenda frowned before turning back to Ozpin. "What was all of that about?"
"All of what?"
"We weren't going to deduct points for surrendering pieces. They were supposed to surrender them to us. Not to mention a certain someone was in the middle of a chess match with another certain someone when some of the pieces suddenly went missing just before initiation. It's a little hard to continue to mop the floor with you when both of my knights are gone from the board. Especially since one of them had you in Check." Ozpin just grinned slyly and sipped some coffee from his mug, nearly his fifteenth cup full today. Glenda sighed softly, how was it again that she'd managed to fall for such a devious yet silly man? "You should be careful with how much of that you drink. You won't be able to sleep."
Ozpin's eyes narrowed as he turned to her still grinning like a cat. "Oh…we were planning on sleeping tonight?" He asked causing Glenda's cheeks to burn a bright red before she punched him hard in the chest.
"Idiot." She muttered, still flustered by his incredibly forward insinuation. "But seriously…don't you think it's a little bit foolish to appeal to the notion that we're some sort of villains, hellbent on tricking students out of their hard work."
Ozpin chuckled. "Aren't we though?" Another glare from Glenda stopped his laughter, causing him to clear his throat. "Normally, yes, I'd agree with you. But at the same time, did you notice how quickly he managed to get the others on board with us? One student even drew his weapon, ready to fight us of all people." Glenda sighed.
"You realize that the Faunis-boy didn't actually have to draw his weapon…since it's technically a piece of him." Ozpin shrugged.
"Point is he showed leadership, the last thing I'd want is to make him seem foolish just before he was assigned his position." Glenda bit her lip nervously. Something seemed off about putting him into the leadership position. She felt that there were lots of reasons why other team mates would be better suited for such a role, but the Headmaster had already seemed to make up his mind.
"Alright." She surrendered, "When should we leave here?"
"According to the scrolls the final group is still a ways off from returning to the cliff…" His eyes gleamed beneath his glasses as he smiled at her, the cogwheels in his brain turning as he began to imagine her, exposed and vulnerable, just as she had been with him many times in the past. "It could take them quite a bit…I'd say at least three hours."
Glenda smirked back at him, picking up on his flirtatious tone. "That's excellent Headmaster, but what would we do with the other two hours and 55 minutes?" Ozpin fell silent looking up at the full moon and taking a sip of his coffee.
"No need to be a bitch." He muttered just before he felt the stabbing pain in his side from where her stilettos had dug into his hips with a vicious kick. He immediately went rigid and when she lowered her foot the two just stood there, before Ozpin took another sip of his coffee. It was going to be a long three hours.
As we sailed through the air back towards the academy, Lyn and Bakulah had both fallen asleep, and were now leaning against one another as they snored peacefully. I smiled at Traiko, gesturing for us to go elsewhere so we wouldn't wake them with our talking. He nodded and following him we went to the rear observation deck, looking back at the forest.
"What's on your mind Calyx?" Traiko asked calmly. I was almost surprised that he could tell my mind had been ablaze with thoughts about the initiation. That or he was just curious as to why I wanted to talk to him.
"I just wanted to say, you did really great work out there today." I replied, my eyes gazing out over the forest. "With all that happened, I have to say, I'm relieved you were with us, I don't know if we could have done it without you."
He laughed. "Stop it man, you're making me blush. Besides, we all did it; there were times when you saved my butt too. I may have blasted that Nevermore out of the sky, but you're the one who curb stomped that snake into oblivion. But besides that…aren't you excited to be paired up with Lyn?" Traiko asked giving me a grin.
My cheeks burned red. "Er…yeah I guess so. I mean, sure, she's a good partner. I mean she's tough, reliable, outspoken…" My words trailed off as I began to daydream about her.
"Beautiful?"
The most. Her eyes were so bright that I felt like if we were in the dark she could still be able to see."Yeah…"
"Gorgeous?"
"Yeah…" How could I deny that? Her blonde hair was soft and silky, and it seemed to smell like lavender all the time. On top of that, she had a figure to die for; it was amazing men weren't breaking down the door to get the chance to ask her out. Of course her bodyguard/sister was a bit of deterrence.
"With an ass that you could really sink your teeth into?"
"Yeah…wait, what?" I asked shocked by his statement causing him to laugh out loud.
"I knew it. You've got it for her bad don't you? Oh man, your face, so priceless. Well, good news is you're the lucky son of a gun who gets to spend the most time with her." I felt my face become flushed and sighing I turned around leaning back against the rail of the deck as the wind blew through my hair.
"Alright, fine. I may have…a little crush. But what about you and Bakulah huh? There something heating up between the two of you that I should know about?" Traiko laughed out loud and shook his head.
"Bakulah? No man, not my style. Or at least, I'm not hers."
I looked at him puzzled. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Traiko grinned and clasped my shoulder. "I'm relatively sure Bakulah is playing for the other team. Possibly the other, other team."
"Other, other team?" I asked skeptically.
"Think about it man. I think Bakulah's got the hots for Lyn the same as you."
I raised an eyebrow as I looked at him quizzically. "Traiko…they're sisters."
"Don't pretend you've never watched porn with two sisters going down on each other." Traiko argued, crossing his arms. "And twins? Man, talk about a money-making cash cow." My cheeks turned an even brighter red as I pictured the two of them together. Traiko smirked before his laughter shook me out of my trance. "Haha! I was just kidding man, damn! Don't tell me you were actually thinking about it. You've got a pervy mind."
"Sh-shut up!" I snapped back, before turning back to look at the forest.
"To be completely honest," Traiko said after a while, "I'm having a hard time getting a read on Bakulah. Normally it'd be a pretty simple matter for me to analyze a person, it's something of a natural talent of mine, but Bakulah…she's different. There's something about her that makes her an impossible person to read."
"What do you mean?"
Traiko simply shrugged. "I don't know…but it's like the girl has some sort of veil over her that can't be seen through. She must have one hell of a Semblance."
I blinked. "Semblance?" Traiko looked at me shocked.
"You don't know?" I shook my head. Traiko gave a soft sigh before explaining. "Basically, Semblance is the word used to represent a person's personal strength or power. It's often fueled by your Aura and like it, everyone's is way different from one another. Like I said earlier, my Semblance is reading people. I can watch someone fight and know immediately what their next move will be, and I fight accordingly."
"But…what about Professor Ozpin? It didn't look like you saw that one coming." Traiko nodded mulling it over.
"Your right. I didn't…which leads me to my theory. I think Bakulah's Semblance, is to shut down other Semblances."
"That seems rather…paradoxical." Traiko shrugged.
"Think about it. My Semblance is reading, but while I was with Bakulah, I couldn't get a read on Ozpin. If what Bakulah told me is true, and Lyn's Sembelance is making people tell the truth, then it stands to reason that her Sembelance counteracts that since that's the only time it seems to stop working according to her."
I had to admit, what he said made perfect sense. Bakulah did seem to alter the way everyone around her operated, and while I didn't have a Semblance of my own, I could definitely say she put me on alert with that creepy piercing glare of hers. Just as I was about to ask more, the ship blew its horn to let us know that we docked, and entering we found the girls yawning and stretching.
"Are we there already?" Lyn whined. "It feels like we've only been asleep for an hour or so."
"It has been only an hour." I informed her as she looked to me expectantly and raised both of her arms. "What?" I asked confused.
"Carry me." She whined again, not wanting to get up. I sighed softly with a chuckle and agreed, lifting the sleepy woman in my arms as she fell asleep. Traiko smirked at Bakulah.
"I assume you'll want a ride too?" He asked with a chuckle, but she just shook her head.
"From you? Not a chance." She muttered causing Traiko to place a hand on his chest to feign as though she'd just gravely insulted his honor. Standing up she just brushed past him before pausing and turning back to look at him. "But…I suppose you can escort me to the locker rooms." Traiko grinned and nodded, following her as I led the way with Lyn.
When we arrived, I gave Lyn a gentle shake. "Lyn…wake up. We need to get ready for the ceremony." She gave a tired whimper and gently swatted my face in an attempt to cover my mouth and quiet me.
"Five more minutes." She whispered. With a sigh, I laid Lyn down carefully causing her to lean up to give me a quick peck on the cheek in thanks. Leaving the girls at their lockers, Traiko and I went to wash the Grimm blood off of ourselves in the showers, and I found myself glad that our lockers had a self-cleaning function for our clothes. By the time the two of us were done, my clothes would be free of Grimm blood, warm, and smell like the ocean breeze.
"So…" he said, his voice rising over the running water. "This is awkward huh?" He asked. My eyes remained glued to the tile wall of the group shower, not wishing for anyone to think my eyes were wandering, despite that we were the only two here.
"Y-yeah…" I admitted, "just a bit. Though I'm glad it's just us."
"Oh God, don't tell me you're going to make a move on me in here like this." He teased.
"What?! No!" I objected causing him to just laugh.
"Nah it's cool, I get it. Sometimes I'm surprised by my own sexiness. It's cool to feel stuff for me, just letting you know though I'm not into dudes."
"Neither am I!" I shot back causing him to laugh.
"Relax man, I'm just teasing you. Back at my school, this was how all the showers were. I'm used to showering with other men, so it doesn't bother me right? Just keep your eyes above the waist line and you're good."
"And duck when you turn around…" I muttered.
"What was that?" He asked.
"Nothing, forget it." With a creak he turned the knob off for his shower, wrapping a towel around his waist before turning back to me, as I did the same. "So what do you think tomorrow will entail?" I asked.
He shrugged. "We'll be put into teams, and one of us will be assigned leader I'm sure."
"Who do you think it'll be for us? We both got Black Knight pieces, so unless they're pairing us up with our opposites, I think that means the four of us are a team." I just shrugged. To be honest I didn't have an opinion one way or the other on which of us should or shouldn't be leader. From what I'd seen we were all capable in our own right. But what Traiko said next stunned me completely. "I think it'll be you." He said at last.
"M-me? Why me?" I asked raising an eyebrow. "I mean, I'm the biggest loner out of the four of us! I'd make a terrible leader." Traiko laughed and shook his head.
"Which is exactly what a good leader would say. Think about it, you managed to rescue Lyn from the Nevermore, you stood up for us when we bumped into Cardin, and you organized a plan to defeat that gigantic King Taijitu. As far as I'm concerned you've already earned your stars and bars." I sighed softly and shook my head.
"But I didn't do anything! I just did what anyone would do in that situation. I had to save us, so I did. You'd have done it too."
"I would have…if I had known how. You inspire confidence Calyx; it's not a bad thing…just take it and run with it. You'll be much happier in the long run once you learn to roll with the punches in life. At any rate, let's go dressed. I'd like to tuck away the hammer as soon as possible if you know what I mean." I shuddered not wanting to think about it as I opened my locker to see that sure enough my clothes had not only been cleaned, but repaired too. How did they even do that? I shook the question from my mind. I was looking at a gift horse, and I didn't intend on searching for any teeth. Getting dressed, Traiko and I soon were standing outside of the locker room, waiting for the girls to finish.
Bakulah sighed peacefully as she crossed her legs, the girl's room having been provided with large Turkish style baths that had jets to help soak the body away. She was surprised the school could spring for such things; she had assumed they would have just had group showers like normal schools. Not that she was complaining. She closed her eyes, leaning her head back to relax.
Her eyes shot open however, as soon as she felt someone suddenly grope her and flailing her arms she heard the familiar laugh of her twin and immediately began to settle back down. "Ugh…Lyn! One of these days I'm not going to realize it's you being stupid and you're going to get a mouthful of broken teeth." Lyn sighed softly and giggled sitting beside her.
"Who else would it be?" She laughed. "We're the only ones here right now." Opening one eye Bakulah would look around. Sure enough she was right, she hadn't even thought to look before getting into the warm water. "You're so silly Baku." Lyn teased, stretching out her body, letting the relaxing baths wash away the soreness from her muscles. "So today was fun, huh?"
Bakulah frowned. It seemed her sister was intent on talking throughout their entire bath. "Fun for you maybe." She muttered.
Lyn poked her twin's cheek playfully with her finger. "Aww…Traiko's not bad. You could have been stuck with that sleaze bag Cardin." Bakulah's eyes shifted to her sister, the bruise on her cheek still a little blue from the Gauntlet that struck her.
"Oh it wasn't me who has it bad." Bakulah replied with a sigh. "At least my partner is someone I can tolerate. I'd hate to have been partnered up with Calyx all that time. Though at least then I'd be able to keep an eye on the jerk." Lyn huffed.
"He's really not that bad Baku…you're always so judgmental. You just don't understand where he's coming from is all. If you were in his shoes, you'd probably be a lot like him too." Bakulah laughed.
"And I suppose you know?" She asked. Lyn nodded. "Did you use your powers on him?" Baku asked. Again her twin nodded. Bakulah sighed and shook her head. "You know you're not supposed to do that to people." She scolded her twin. "You're just going to piss people off, like you did at our last school." Lyn bit her lip. "This is the reason why we don't have boyfriends…just saying."
Lyn gasped in protest. "Hey! You didn't seem to mind when that dick you were dating in high school suddenly blurted out that he was cheating on you…with another man of all things." Bakulah frowned, wishing she hadn't brought that up. Wanting to change the subject she looked to her sister.
"So then…make me understand."
"What?"
"Just where exactly is Calyx jerkiness coming from?" She repeated, causing her sister to fiddle with her hair nervously. "What? Cat got your tongue?"
"More like a fox…" she muttered, "I can't tell you…it's supposed to be a secret. He made me promise." That caught Bakulah's attention. It wasn't often that her sister would go tight lipped on a subject. She had something of a reputation of having a big mouth, she'd always assumed that's why other people ended up being the same around her.
"Talk." She instructed but Lyn just shook her head. Bakulah sighed. So she was going to do this the hard way then. Glaring at her sister, she immediately turned over, sitting on her legs so she couldn't move and began tickling her incessantly. Unlike her twin, Bakulah herself was not ticklish, making this an incredibly one sided fight as her sister, erupted into melodious laughter trying desperately to shake off her attacker.
"N-no! Baku…haha…stop it!" She squealed as she swatted desperately at her sister's hands trying to push them away.
"Talk." Baku commanded again.
"Alright, alright just please stop!" Lyn asked, tears in her eyes from laughing so hard. "I'll talk." She said softly as Baku smirked triumphant and got off her sister. "You're so mean Baku…but you've got to promise not to tell anyone. Okay?"
"Fine, whatever."
"No. Not whatever Baku. I need you to promise."Baku raised an eyebrow. This was serious then.
"Alright Lyn. I promise, I'll keep quiet about it." She agreed.
Lyn looked around to confirm that no one was listening in on their conversation. "Alright…" she said when she was sure no one was watching. "The way Calyx lost his leg…he was just ten years old when he got pushed onto some train tracks." Bakulah gasped.
"Oh my God."
"It gets worse." Lyn said. "There were hundreds of people around…he was in there for nearly five minutes and no one went in there to help him. That's why he doesn't trust any humans…because they all just watched him as he got hit by a train. He said it wasn't until people started screaming that they actually got him out of the pit. He was lucky to not bleed to death." Bakulah frowned as she looked at the water. Perhaps she had judged him too harshly. "So please Baku…try to be a little nicer to him."
Bakulah smirked and gently poked her twin's cheek. "Just as I thought…you've got a thing for this guy huh?" Lyn immediately turned a bright red as Bakulah laughed. "Lyn and Calyx sitting in a tree…" Immediately her sister covered her mouth even more flustered.
"Shut up! Someone's going to hear you!" She cried as her twin laughed pulling her hand away. Just as she was about to start singing again, Lyn dunked her underwater causing her to come up sputtering.
"God Lyn! You could have killed me damn it!" Baku shouted angrily as her sister just stuck out her tongue. "For that…I'm going to tell him." Bakulah said going to leave the baths before her twin leapt on her back.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" Lyn squealed embarrassed wrestling with her sister. "You're not allowed to tell him anything damn it!" As the two girls continued to squeal and wrestle with one another, Cardin Winchester smirked, replacing the panel he used to cover up the peephole he'd installed in the bath wall.
"Thank you so much for the information girls." He chuckled. "It would seem the fox has a fear of trains…I wonder how I could possibly help him to get over that fear." With a grin, he returned to his team to lay out a plan to get revenge for being shamed yesterday on the airship.
Traiko and I stood around for nearly an hour and a half before the girls finally came running up. Lyn's cheeks were a bright red, as if she'd been in hot water for too long. "S-sorry guys…I hope we didn't keep you waiting too long." She gasped out of breath, as though she'd run all the way here. Bakulah took a moment to swallow a mouthful of air before speaking.
"So…what did you guys think of the baths?" She finally asked. Traiko and I looked at one another confused.
"What baths?" We both said simultaneously. Returning to the girl's bath we were shocked to see the large lavish pools of water.
"This is such bullshit…" I muttered as Traiko simply nodded in agreement.
Lyn giggled softly. "I guess it's true what they say…men like bubble baths just as much as women."
"Hey! I'll have you know lots of men take bubble baths. It's not girly, even men need to relax every now and then. Mostly because of women…but still!" Traiko argued causing the two girls to laugh even harder.
"Come on, we're going to be late." Bakulah said gesturing with her thumb towards the door. "The ceremony is supposed to start in about thirty minutes…if we want a good spot we should go now." Flashing me a smile, I was almost surprised. I don't think I've ever seen her smile at me before…or at all for that matter. As the two blondes, brushed past Traiko and I, I scratched the top of my head in puzzlement.
"Hey…" I whispered to Traiko. "Bakulah seem to be acting strange to you?" He looked at me and thought about it carefully.
"Now that you mention it, she doesn't seem to be giving you nearly as cold of a shoulder as she usually does. I wonder why that is." He replied and I shuddered a little.
"I don't know how I feel about it…it's weird…"
"Don't worry about it too much Calyx…Lyn probably just helped her to see the light. And isn't her treating you better a good thing?"
"Yeah I suppose so." I answered smiling softly. It felt as if things were finally going my way for once. The four of us began to walk towards the ceremony, each of us excited to see our team.
Huddled together in the wings, the ceremony began. A few teams went ahead of us, including the team with young Faunus who was being attacked by the King Taijitu earlier. Soon Professor Ozpin spoke again. "Next, having gathered the Black Knight pieces…Calyx Delsune, Lyn Taylor, Bakulah Taylor, and Traiko Nikos. From this day forth…you shall be known as Team Cobalt." I watched as the first letters of our names rearranged themselves to form CBLT, what I presumed to be the source of our team's name. "This team shall be led by…Calyx Delsune." I took a sharp breath. Damn it, Traiko had been right. But why me?
The audience applauded as the spotlight shifted to focus on me, causing me to cover my eyes from its harsh glare. That was when behind us I suddenly heard a shrill whistle. One that I'd heard in my nightmares many times over. I froze as the train whistles continued to blow; my entire body seemed to be paralyzed. Move, damn it, move! I screamed in my head, trying to force my body to respond, but I was so scared that I felt like my heart was going to stop. My mind flashed back, I was ten years old, my foot caught in the track, desperately trying to get out as I saw the train racing towards me. I opened my mouth to scream, but then I felt a hand reach out in the darkness and take mine.
Suddenly I was back on stage, and my ears twitching I realized that everyone was staring at me, Lyn's hand grasping mine. "Come on Calyx…" she whispered. "It's time to get off stage…" I nodded, the entire room having fallen quiet as I went to leave the stage, hearing the cruel laughter of Cardin's team, all of them holding wooden train whistles. As Lyn tugged me away, I realized what had happened and my cheeks turned a bright pink.
Traiko looked back as Professor Ozpin began to introduce Team Cardinal and glared at Cardin in a way that made it that the mace-wielder shuddered, as though someone had stepped on his grave. Traiko wasn't about to make a scene, not after what happened on stage, but he knew one thing, this slight wasn't one that he would just let go. As the four of us filed off into the audience I looked back on stage one last time to see the Headmaster introduce Team RWBY led by a young girl who couldn't have been much older than a freshman in High School. I began to wonder if she was as nervous about all of this as I was.
To be continued…