Chapter 8 - Forever Fall Forest

It was one warm, breezy day in which Professor Glynda Goodwitch announced a 'field trip' to the Forever Fall Forest. The students' tasks were to each collect a bottle of sap deep inside the forest. It shouldn't have been a hard task if it wasn't that Grimm was attracted to the sweetness of the sap.

"-and please, do not hesitate to destroy everything that is in your way."

Professor Goodwitch announced. Well, considering that the students were all hunters and huntresses in training, a few Grimm wouldn't be too big of a deal, right? At leas team RWBY and JNPR were confident. They knew a pack or two of Grimm weren't good enough for them. So it was almost like a day-off for all of them. Into a beautiful forest, away from the homework and assignments for a day. A perfect day to fool around! It seemed.

"Professor Goodwitch,"

"Yes, Miss Schnee?"

"Would you mind if I took a quick walk around the forest?"

"If you're planning to look over the students, we have cameras planted in the forest." Glynda explained as she showed Winter a giant scroll she was holding. The screen showed different parts of the forest in high-quality.

"Actually, I'd like to take a look around the forest."

"Go ahead."

"Thank you."

Winter nodded and started to walk into the deeper side of the forest. She took a close look into the forest. It was as if she was attempting to take pictures of the forest with her eyes. Winter surely appreciated the trip to the Forever Fall Forest. First off, the view was simply amazing. Despite her being a specialist, Winter still had a normal sense of beauty. She knew what was beautiful, and what was not. Her being a soldier didn't mean she couldn't enjoy a wonderful view inside the forest, as any 21-year-old would do. Also, visiting a new place can be a great experience for her. Sad to say, but there was no such place as Forever Fall Forest in Atlas. The geography, environment, animal and Grimm species. All this information may come in handy for her one day. Of course, there was no assurance that it will, but learning can never do you any harm, can it?

As she was walking through the forest, she was catching a lot of students' eyes. Mostly because 1) She is treated as a Professor in the academy, and 2) She was wearing all white. Anyone would stop what they are doing for a moment, and stare at the person if that person was a strict and stiff woman, who happens to be wearing all white in a red and orange coloured forest. It wasn't very much different for team RWBY and JNPR. Winter approached as quietly as possible, in an attempt to not bother them. However, she stood out a little too much.

"Oh, hello Miss Schnee." Pyrrha greeted with a warm smile.

"Uh oh. Did I do something wrong? Did I?" Jaune was worried that Winter has come to scold him for doing... Whatever he wasn't supposed to do. Who knew what that was since he hasn't done anything wrong at the moment. Except faking a transcript, that was.

"I TOTALLY DID NOT EAT THE SYRUP!" Nora yelled. Her words weren't very convincing, considering that she had red sap all around her mouth, and especially that she barfed right after.

"Now, students. Please calm yourselves. I am not here for you all." Winter explained. Just what was up with these kids?

"I thought you were with Professor Goodwitch. What brings you here, Winter?" Weiss kindly asked, to which Winter replied with, "I was simply walking around. Since there is no place such as Forever Fall Forest in Atlas, I thought I could use my time efficiently and study the place instead of flying the time meaninglessly."

"Oh, I thought we were in trouble or something."

Yang joked as she closed the bottle containing a nice amount of sap. It really wasn't hard collecting one bottle of sap. Especially when everyone was working together.

"Nonsense. However, I do wonder where Ruby is? Weren't you students supposed to be staying with your team?"

"Oh, she's here. You just can't see her."

"I beg your pardon?"

Yang giggled and walked towards one of the trees that looked quite odd for some reason. The oddness was coming from a red blub that was in front of the tree. Yang tapped on the blub, causing the 'blub' to swift and turn around. "Huh?" With no surprise, the 'red blub' happened to be Ruby with her red hood over her head. She had a headphone over her ears, which made sense to why she hadn't heard Winter approaching.

"Hey, Winter thought you were gone just now."

"What?"

Yang's explanation was missing bits and pieces, confusing Ruby. She stood up as she pulled her headphone down, and placed it over her shoulder. When her silver eyes met the blue eyes of Winter, she knew what Yang was talking about. "Oh." Her bright red cape surely made her stand out wherever she went, but ironically, it made a perfect camouflage item for Ruby in the Forever Fall Forest, whether she intended it or not. As much as it was easy to spot the Schnees in the forest, it was hard to look for the little red riding hood in a red-coloured forest.

"Hey, Winter, what brings you here?" Ruby asked with a smile on her face, as she closed the bottle containing a good amount of sap.

"Greetings, Ruby. Not much. Just happened to be walking by."

"Ah."

"Wait wait wait." Weiss interrupted. "Since when did you start calling Winter... Winter?" As far as Weiss remembered, Ruby always referred to Winter as 'Miss Schnee', so why was she now calling her by the first name? And everyone else seemed to be having the same question in their mind. The only person who called Winter by her first name was Weiss. Well, that is what they thought to be the case until now.

"Uh, the day Winter and I went out for lunch and everything. She allowed me to call her by her first name!"

Ruby explained, and Winter simply nodded. Of course, Ruby's explanation wasn't enough for team JNPR, since they did not know of Ruby's 'date' with Winter, to begin with. They started to whisper amongst themselves. Since when did they grow so close to go out and grab lunch?

"Then would you mind if I called you Winter as well?" Yang asked with her typical grin on her face.

"... I'd prefer if you didn't." Winter said quietly with hesitation. She didn't feel as close to Yang as she did to Ruby, after all. "Of course you would." Yang said with a laugh, receiving a jab on her side from Blake. "Ouch."

"Yang Xiao Long, I beg for an explanation regarding that comment of yours." Winter questioned as she narrowed her eyes.

"I was only trying to say that you love my sister a bit too much."

"I-" Yang's smug grin and explanation caused Winter to stop midway through her sentence. Love? That is-

"Nonsense."

There were many forms of love. Love towards your family, friends, pets, and so on. It was clear which one Yang was referring to. Although Winter did not know of her own feelings, she wasn't as dense to be completely clueless of Yang's joke. For her to be in love with a young huntress in training? That shouldn't even be possible.

"That was very inappropriate, Yang Xiao Long. Not that I have anything against Ruby herself, of course. But my care should not be referred to as a 'love' in which you are referring to."

Winter frowned and squinted her eyes, only to which Yang responded with a shrug. The atmosphere grew cold quickly. All other students were sharing glances, not knowing how to react. They did not want to interfere with the two.

"If you say so."

"Not only that you are making inappropriate jokes, now you are-"

As Winter was about to scold Yang for her inappropriateness, a low growl of a Grimm was heard. Winter stopped midway through the sentence, busily looking around in an attempt to find the source of the growl. Soon, a pair of red glowing eyes landed on the nine of them. Then it was an in-human body covered in black fur and white bones. A few more creatures of the same, or similar-looking appeared one by one.

Winter reached for her weaponry as soon as she was met with the glowing red eyes but soon relaxed as she remembered that she should not be interfering with the students' task. Their tasks included fighting off the Grimm when necessary. She stepped back, laying her eyes on the students carefully.

"Well, here goes team RWBY!"

Ruby shouted. And as if that was the signal for an attack, team RWBY immediately launched towards the Grimm, killing off the creatures one by one. They coordinated in perfect harmony, killing off the nearest Grimm to themselves. It seemed as if team RWBY were all fighting individually. However, that was not merely the truth. They all kept eyes on one another, assisting their teammates whenever they got the chance.

"Let's go, guys!"

With Jaune's signal, team JNPR all separated in different directions. They started to close up on a pack of Grimm from the outer side to the inner side. Team RWBY's attacks were more based on an individual's strength and skills, while team JNPR's were more reliant on team coordination. Both team leaders had a great understanding of their teammates' skills and strengths. Quite impressive, Winter had to admit. However, as soon as she was done eyeing team JNPR, her eyes were soon focused on one particular student. And to no one's surprise, that particular student happened to be a 15-year-old girl with a scythe bigger than her. She was always so innocent and hyped most of the time. And yet, when she was fighting off the Grimm, she was almost like a professional huntress.

A single swing cut through the body of the Grimm. A single shot landed on the Grimm's head, making it fall to the ground. Use of semblance left beautiful rose petals with a beautiful scent. Every one of Ruby's actions was flexible and delicate enough to make people believe she was dancing. Her smile was not one of those innocent dorky smiles one would see on daily basis. Instead, it was a smile full of confidence. The one of a huntress. Not only that, but a person would have to blind to not notice Ruby's improvement in hand-to-hand combat. Every kicks and punch that landed on the Grimm sent them off.

So beautiful. Winter's blue eyes busily followed Ruby's movement. Every one of Ruby's movement was captured in Winter's eyes by surprise. She never thought that there would be a day she thinks one's fight can be the description of pure beauty. The moment she realized she has been staring at Ruby the whole time, she could feel her heart drop as if someone smashed her with a hammer. None of this was making any sense. Staring at one of her student fights, admiring the beauty of it? As much as she wanted to convince herself that she was only looking out for improvements, she knew she couldn't. No teacher looks at their student's improvement and admires them in a way Winter did. This was wrong. Winter quickly walked away hoping the students wouldn't realize her absence. Yet, betraying her hopes, there stood Yang, casually punching off a Grimm flying at her as she glanced over to Winter hurriedly leaving.

A/N. I'm sorry about the late update! I've been pretty caught up with school works and I haven't really been able to make much progress with the story...