From our ancestors, come our names.
From our virtues, our honor.
[-_-_-_-]
The Knight stood in his Household's training area, the fractured moon glistening off the Atlesean snow on the rooftops and through the windows. The Knight drew his weapon and held it before him, breathing slowly as he pulled the blade back and rested it length wise along his left forearm. The feeling of steel against his fur calmed him as he focused. He grunted as he stepped forward and threw the tip out in a powerful stab, taking a step around and spinning over his left shoulder to perform a horizontal swipe into a downward cut. He pulled his front foot back in a cat stance as he ran his hand down the back of his single-edged blade, then used the same foot to step forward again and bashing with the pommel. The Knight stepped forward again and brought the sword up in a diagonal slice that he flowed into bringing the sword back to his chest.
The Knight jumped when he sensed a presence appear behind him. The Knight brought his sword around to hold the point of the blade down and the back pressed against his left tricep. His assailant smiled as his twin seax blades pressed into The Knight's falchion. The Assailant pressed The Knight back and flipped his grip on his blades, The Knight in return turned as he retreated and held his sword forward. The blade of the Falchion descended to free the pump action of the attached shotgun. The Assailant vanished once again into thin air before The Knight could open fire.
The Knight fired the spread shot Dust into the air, pumping the shotgun and turning to shoot behind where he was standing. The Knight pumped his shotgun again when his blade was thrown out to the side and left his front open to his invisible enemy. The Knight leapt back as the scraping sound of one of the blades met the steel chest plate The Knight wore. The Knight slid back as he returned his sword before him, parrying the strikes he knew would be coming next. The Knight swung in a wide arc in front of him, The Assailant flipping back just as agilely as The Knight was.
The Knight activated his Semblance as well and waited, his enemy would return soon enough. The flash of his opponent gave The Knight some indication as to where his attacker was going to be next. The next flash came an instant after the first when The Assailant's blade met The Knight's armor. The third was The Knight's doing when his falchion came down and met the Assailant's gauntlets and braces. The Assailant pushed The Knight's weapon away and vanished again.
The Knight pulled his sword back and waited, thinking out where The Assailant's next position would be from patterning. The Knight thrust his sword out, The Assailant returning to view as he ran the blade in a reverse grip his left hand down the edge of The Knights. The Assailant's right-hand blade was held normally and came flying towards The Knight's chest. The Knight sidestepped just in time to avoid the stab, The Assailant flipping the grip on the other seax and swiped at The Knight. The Knight put all of his strength into his blade and forced The Assailant to change from striking with his right hand to holding the large falchion back.
The Knight grinned as he took a step forward and pushed The Assailant back. The Knight brought his falchion down and cut at the wrists of The Assailant, transforming his weapon so the blade retracted in on itself and left itself as a pistol-grip shotgun. The Knight pulled the trigger and shot The Assailant in the chest, launching his opponent backwards. The Knight flipped his own grip and brought the full four feet length of the falchion's blade out. Now that The Assailant's Semblance had been knocked out, The Knight charged at his opponent and brought his sword around went his crouching enemy.
The Assailant looked around for a second as The Knight approached, then brought both of his weapons up as he sat back on his left knee. Once The Knight's sword met the flat of the right-hand blade of The Assailant, The Assailant brought his free weapon around and struck the greave of The Knight at the thigh just above the side of The Knight's right knee. The right-hand seax transformed as it struggled against the falchion and freed the pistol, The Assailant slipping his pinkie finger in and pulling the trigger.
The Knight leaned into his fall and the bullet grazed his pauldron. The Knight turned and panted for a moment as The Assailant stood up and did the same. The Assailant scanned the room as he flipped the grip on his two weapons and rested his fingers on the triggers. In an instant, The Assailant held his two automatic weapons up and fired in a sweeping motion inwards with both arms. The Knight held the flat of his falchion up to protect himself since his position was going to be found regardless. The Assailant rushed forward when his bullets found The Knight, their blades clashing and the two men pushing against each other.
"RIVER!" a low, grizzled voice boomed out, "ROHAN! REVEAL YOURSELVES, NOW!"
The Knight turned his Semblance off so both he and The Assailant were standing before their father. The Knight placed his falchion's tip on the ground and held his palms on the pommel while The Assailant sheathed his twin swords and held his hands behind his back. The boys gulped as they remembered the rule of the house; Never fire your weapons inside the House proper.
"Need I remind you both that we cannot afford to keep patching the walls every time you two spar?" their father asked. "If you must use ranged attacks, could you both not use the outer training area? It's early spring, it's nicer outside."
"Forgive us, father," the boys responded.
"River," their father turned and looked his elder son over, "I see you're ready to leave." The two sons stood in their armor, painted white and edged with a gold trim and branding the Ivorui House Crest of a cat's paw over a shield. The Assailant wore a white gorget in place of a breastplate like The Knight dawned over a soft brown gambeson, a single small triangular pauldron on his left shoulder, steel tassets that covered the hips and were padded in fur against dark red pants, and the hems of his pants were meticulously tucked into his leather boots and held by two straps on the top of the boots.
"Of course, father," The Assailant bowed, his smooth low voice always made him the object of attraction to women. And it being paired with his handsome face and muscular build, eyes that were blue like the ice off the coast of Vanity, shaggy black hair that counted his short haired tail, and dark skin that made the old Faunus House seem exotic to Solatas made him just as much the envy of men during his days at Atlas.
"And Rohan," their father, Gandol, patriarch of House Ivorui, turned to The Knight, "what have I told you about staying up this late training?"
"A true knight must be well rested should the call to action ever come," Rohan beat his chest. Even in a home of Faunus, Rohan was an odd person out. Since birth, he was given two Snow Leopard traits in large paws in place of hands and cat-like ears, and his brown skin had slowly turned white in patches across his face and body to match it. Even his hair was a contrast to his family members, the fur on his paws was gray while the hair on that was brushed back with a strand falling over his right eye was white with black spots. His broad shoulders and barrel chest fit well in his white chest plate, wide unpainted pauldrons, vambraces, tasset, greaves that ran from hip to ankle, and unpainted steel plates that covered the toes and heels of his boots. Under his armor, he had on a royal blue mid length sleeve shirt and light blue pants.
"Indeed," Gandol nodded. "Now would either of you mind sharing why you are here causing such a ruckus at this late hour when, River, you and I must leave for an assignment soon?"
"That is my reason, father." Rohan replied. "You and River are off to the Kingdom of Vale to help the Schnee Dust Company and I wish to accompany you."
"My son," Gandol's wrinkled and bearded face smiled at the resolve in his youngest boy, "I told you, if we could have brought you then we would have. But since you are soon to graduate from Mantle, let alone have yet to enter Atlas, you are still too inexperienced to aid in what could be a dangerous mission. Should something go wrong, it would be better for at least one man stay by your mother's side."
"But the fact that it is so dangerous is why I want to help you both." he stepped forward, "Would it not be better to have three knights from Solitas' Founding Family to protect such a high-value target from not only our enemies but enemies to our family allies?"
"It would," River turned to his little brother, "but like Father said, you've yet to even enter Atlas Academy. This mission will take a long time and be a great distance from home. Perhaps if you were into your Second-year, then we would not feel so worried about you."
"Y-yes sir," Rohan put his head down.
"Rohan." Gandol placed his hand on his youngest son. "You know that I have faith in your skill with Ea, but your brother is right. I promise that we shall be back in time to see you graduate, but until then; keep studying, keep practicing, and get some rest. There are enough hours in the day to finish your school work before practicing your swordsmanship."
"Yes father," Rohan bowed.
"River," Gandol's voice changed from a warm fatherly tone to an authoritative one, "we must not be late, Jacques has put up with much and our tardiness will not be another."
"Yes sir," River bowed, the turned his head up to Rohan and rubbed his little brother's hair, "We'll see you in a month."
"Farewell," Rohan smiled and laughed.
[-_-_-_-]
Rohan knelt next to the shrine that had been constructed by himself, his mother, and his younger sister, Bree. On it stood two picture frames surrounded by candles and burning sage. Rohan had been weeping all night, his mother and sister had gone to bed long ago.
"SCHNEE DUST TRAIN ROBBED BY W.F. MEMBERS," the news article read, "TWENTY-SEVEN DEAD AND MILLIONS OF LIEN WORTH OF DUST STOLEN." Gandol and River had felt the White Fang members hop onto the train, and quickly began to move the crew towards the back of the train. When the engine had been cut away and the caboose and other cars slowed and came to a stop, they helped get as many off as they could before the man in the mask and wearing a rose on his breast found them. They had fought valiantly and stalled for enough time that the ones that had escaped and weren't found by the White Fang. Though they themselves were not lucky enough to have left the train alive.
The worst fact of all was that Jacques Schnee had said that his father and brother hadn't done enough in saving two-thirds of the crew when they lost the Dust shipment. He'd also said that it was the last chance he was willing to give the disgraced household. They were formally and permanently cutting all ties between House Schnee and House Ivorui, ending a sixty-year alliance that dated back to the founding of the company. The Ivorui had finally had hit the bottom, its corpse remaining there to rot.