Chapter 4:
Saraph slowly opened his eyes, feeling like his entire body was on fire, and he felt the cold touch of silver from a necklace around his neck. This necklace was never taken off as it was a present given to him by Violet, it was all real silver and hanging from the sliver neck chain was the Valeria house crest, a sword with a purple gem in the middle of the blade and in the hilt. When Violet gave it to him on his 15th birthday she made him promise he would never take it off. Though when he asked her why she would smile and walk away. Saraph didn't trust a lot of people, but also didn't trust easily, Violet was an exception, he trusted her with his life and to him the two of them were family.
Saraph sat up and looked around the room, he seemed to be in an office, no, more of a medical lab. He felt a sharp pain jolt through his right side, he placed his hand over the area and it felt odd to him, he moved his shirt and jacket out of the way and he found stitches. He wondered what could have been the cause, then remembered the fight with Cinder, but also begun to wonder how he survived that. At that moment a door at the far end of the room opened up, a man in a green outfit with a cane walked in followed by a blonde haired lady who seemed to be quite angry. Saraph quickly focused on surviving another fight, looking for every exit and weapon around until the man begun to speak, "You are very lucky to be alive young man."
Saraph tries to straighten his back "Well, sir, I myself am impressed to be alive." The woman next to the man sighs, and the man in green looks at the mug in his hand "Do you know how you are alive?" Saraph replies "No sir, though I'm assuming it was your doing?" The man chuckles "Only partially, do you know who I am?"
Saraph gives up trying to sit up "Of course, you're Professor Ozpin, the headmaster at Beacon Academy." Ozpin smiles and the woman rolls her eyes "Glad to meet you, and who might you be?" Saraph throws his legs around to the edge of the bed "My name is Saraph Valeria." Ozpin takes a sip from his mug then looks at the woman to his side "This is Glynda, she thought it would have been a waste of time saving you from that Grimm attack and forest fire." Sarah thinks for a moment, did they not know what happened, or did Saraph forget something. Saraph nods "Yeah, who knows, could have been a lot worse." Ozpin chuckles "Well the team sent in did a good job at getting you out alive, he takes another sip of his drink from his mug. "Could you answer me something Saraph, why were you so far out in the Emerald Forest?" Saraph lays down in the bed, "Well Professor, to be honest I don't remember." Saraph was trying to lie because he had finally achieved his goal, or was this a trick, Saraph never was quite sure of anything due to the anxiety he had, so he always assumed the world was a lie. Saraph stood up as Ozpin responded "Well, that's unfortunate, but you are alive nonetheless. And now I do believe a more formal welcome is needed, as you are on time for your first day." He sets the cup in his hand on a table and holds out a hand to Saraph and they shake hands, Saraph feeling so proud he has kind of forgotten what they were talking about. Glynda heads out of the room as does Professor Ozpin, Saraph follows with a slight limp.
Saraph steps into the hallway and puts a hand up in front of his eyes to try and block out the blinding lights. After a moment his eyes adjust and he looks up and down the hallway looking for Ozpin and Glynda, he catches a glimpse of green and purple while rubbing his eyes and begins walking towards that direction. Saraph takes three steps and walks into something, stumbling and falling face first to the ground with a loud thud. He slowly opens his eyes and sees a girl in a light suit of plate armor with red hair down to her shoulders and brown eyes, she was smiling at Saraph as she put a hand out for him "Well it's good to see ya again Saraph!" Saraph accepted the girls hand and stood up, waiting a moment for his head to quit spinning "It's good to see you again as well Tempest, guess this means you win." Tempest laughs while patting Saraph on the back "We've been worried you wouldn't make it. Was starting to think you chickened out on the challenge?" They both begin to laugh as Tempest playfully punches Saraph's arm. "So ya ready for today? It's orientation day!" Tempest was so energetic she was literally jumping up and down in the hallway while holding Saraph's arm. By now Ozpin and Glynda had disappeared, and Tempest was prancing up and down happily. Saraph sighed, finally relaxing, "Why not, I mean it couldn't be that bad right?"
Saraph appeared on Beacon Cliff, overlooking the Emerald Forest, he stands next to some familiar faces, Tempest on his right, Claire on his left, and Aaron was further down the line of students, about 12 students were standing on these gray platforms. Saraph had tuned out everyone as he focused on the breeze in the air, but within the moment he begun to listen in on Ozpin all he caught was "Good luck" as Saraph and all the students were launched into the air above the Emerald Forest, he managed to catch a glimpse of a faunus. All that went through Saraph's head was, how was he going to land? One thing Saraph never had, was a landing strategy, in fact, he was afraid of heights, he liked being somewhere he could physically stand but being thrown into the air crossed the line for him. His only idea was to get to a tree, he drew two swords out from underneath his cloak. The swords had a dip in the blade on one side of each blade signifying top from bottom. Moments before reaching a tree he spun around and swung the swords around slamming into the tree, stabbing the swords into the tree and trying to hold on. Saraph landed about 30 feet up on a tree, he looked around for a moment then sighed with relief, and then he felt the blades slipping out of the tree trunk. Saraph started to panic and then heard what sounded like a loud explosion as the tree begun to fall, Saraph's swords cut through the trunk as he feel 30 feet to the forest floor, he closed his eyes and waited. He braced himself for the impact and when he felt the impact he tensed up, after a few seconds he could hear a girl's laughter, a family laugh and he slowly opened his eyes. Saraph begins to see a full plate helmet, with white eyes and a sleek slanted cut. Saraph quickly realizes that the figure is holding him right before they drop him. The figure takes their helmet off to reveal Tempest laughing, and Saraph laying on the ground begins to dust himself off "Well aren't ya glad to see me! Looked like you were dangling from that tree before I came along?" Saraph grabs his swords from next to him and stands up, sheathing them and staring angrily at Tempest who was still laughing "I am fine thank you, but why did you have to create such a big crater when you landed?" Tempest stops laughing while Saraph points to the crater that Tempest created.
"Oh that? Did ya expect my landing to be quiet and subtle?" Tempest gestures at her armor, which was now a full suit of plate armor, plated over in a multitude of spots, and covered her from head to toe. It was a tarnished gray color, almost looked like she had been wearing multiple suits of armor with how large the suit was compared to her and the intricate design made it look almost as if she had her armor designed with scale armor in mind with how the armor plates are set and designed to overlay the original suit. Saraph could see a few faint scratches in the armor but nothing to noticeable. Saraph chuckled while beginning to walk into the forest "Just not what I was expecting, then again I didn't know what to expect." Tempest burst out laughing which gave it a deeper tone as she put her helmet on, Tempest began to walk with Saraph through the forest, "So what are we supposed to be looking for? I'd assume a cave or something?" Saraph cuts a branch down, the two continue to move into the forest, the only sounds were of Tempest's armor and of Saraph stepping on an occasional leaf or stick.
"I'd say we head north, try and get to a clearing I saw before I landed in that tree" Saraph spoke quietly, but loud enough that Tempest could hear him clearly, he wasn't that much a fan of loud noises, unless it happened to be music, Tempest nodded back to Saraph as a response.
After a few minutes of walking Saraph stops, and Tempest stops next to Saraph, "What are we stopping for?" Saraph points with a sword to a bush on the right side of them, the bush rustled and Tempest chuckled, she moved towards the bush slowly. She moved the bush aside and stood there for a moment before speaking as Saraph peeked out from behind her "I think we got a problem mate." Saraph slowly began to step backwards away from an Ursa that was standing up and staring at the two Huntsmen. Saraph turned around to start running and took one step before hearing a gun being loaded and instantly fired and it had enough force to push Saraph forward slightly. Saraph quickly turned around worried about what might have happened and what he saw kind of amazed of what had happened. The Ursa lay split in half on the ground behind the bush and a rock behind the Uras lay in pieces scattered around the ground in a small crater. Tempest turned around holding a custom shotgun that from what Saraph could tell was capable of firing high caliber rounds or explosive rounds, which would explain the power of the impact he felt, it had a black carbon color to it and the gun itself stretched a few feet in length, he a magazine system along with a pump system for feeding the shells to the firing chamber. She looked at Saraph while holding the gun with one hand on her shoulder and giving Saraph a thumbs up while Saraph stood there in astonishment. Saraph slowly walked over to Tempest still with a look of astonishment, "So that's what you've been holding out on me?" he scratches his head "That is one beautiful gun I must say." Tempest sighs, "And here I was thinking for a moment you were going to say I was beautiful, might have had to knock some sense into ya!" They both burst out laughing while continuing to walk towards what they hoped was the right place, a clearing Saraph saw before he landed in the forest.