Sorry for the long wait guys! I was busy with a lot of stuff so I couldn't get to writing right away! But I am back and I'm hoping to get more done daily! Enjoy this chapter! I promise things will get good!

When Carly opened her eyes to the sound of shuffling movement and pots and pans clanging together, she was confused. Until the events of the previous day came rushing back to her. This caused her to sit up quickly, wondering if all of that was just a crazy dream. Upon seeing the forest around her and the slight pain in her back from sleeping on the ground, she knew it was all real.

"Morning!" Ruby's voice said behind her.

Carly slowly turned around, grimacing at the pain in her back and trying to rub the sleep from her eyes. She didn't know how many hours of sleep she got from staying up late training, but it certainly wasn't enough.

She saw team RNJR all up and mingling about. The dawn sun set a soft glow to their camp, the tiny fire in the center providing small warmth to the cool breeze brushing by. Jaune was doing some small stretches while Ren was cooking something in a small pot over the fire. Ruby was rolling up her sleeping bag, and even Sam was up, drinking water from her canteen. As Carly got up, Ren asked, "Did you sleep well?"

"I think her loud snoring is answer enough," Jaune teased with a smirk.

Both Ruby and Sam choked on their laughter, trying to conceal it while Ren just smiled in humor.

Carly blushed and said, "Sorry! I can't control it," she paused to stretch out her own limbs before speaking, "I hope it didn't keep you guys up at any point."

Ruby waved a hand and said, "Don't worry about it, we're kinda used to it. Nora snores just as loudly."

"You can be quite the snorer yourself, Ruby," Ren pointed out.

Ruby whirled on Ren and defended, "Yeah, but only when I am really tired! Other than that, I am a quiet sleeper!"

Everyone let out soft chuckles before Carly noticed something.

"Speaking of Nora, where is she?" she asked.

Ren scooped out what looked like oatmeal from the pot into a bowl while saying, "She's checking the area to see if there are any Grimm before we head out. It helps her wake up to smash a few Grimm's in the face."

"If she doesn't get the best sleep, she can be pretty cranky in the morning," Jaune explained, coming over to take one of the bowls from Ren.

Carly understood that completely and went about packing her stuff while the others began eating breakfast. It was only a few moments later before she had some herself and before long, Nora came bounding back.

"No Grimm in sight but I did see a sign saying that we're getting closer to a small village!" Nora exclaimed, in a voice that was way too cheery for this early in the morning.

Carly took a long swig of her water from her canteen, trying to imagine that it was coffee to help wake her up, but the mind could only do so much. At least the oatmeal was good.

With that the group put out the fire and headed out. Based on the map and Nora's comment about the sign, they were headed in the right direction.

Some hours had passed with periodic moments of pleasant silence and simple chatter. Despite being pretty deep in the woods, they had no encounters with any Grimm, not even small ones. Secretly Carly was super relieved that they had yet to encounter the creatures as her and Sam still had a way to go before they could be of any assistance to team RNJR in terms of battling.

Of course, Carly knew there was another reason why they all had yet to encounter Grimm.

Carly shook her head, stopping that train of thought, she couldn't think about that right now. She had to stay focused or her head would be in the clouds all day. Either that or she would be too stressed to focus on anything else.

Instead, she tried to focus on interacting with her travel buddies, and since the majority of them were sociable, Ren being a special case, it was easy to get along with them.

Though it was hard not to mention things she already knew about them and act surprised about learning facts they already knew. And it wasn't easy to keep up the pretense that they were from Remnant.

Especially when they asked…

"So where are you guys originally from?" Jaune asked, his eyes gleaming with curiosity.

Carly had to struggle not to trip at the question, her brain racing to figure out an answer as her heart began to pound quickly.

"Illinois," she said before she realized that there was no place in Remnant called that.

And it appeared that Jaune and the others knew this as she got some looks while Ren asked, "I don't think I've heard of that place before."

Crap.

"It's uh…a small island," Carly supplied, praying that her face didn't give away the lie.

Sam joined in to help, "Yep, very very small. You wouldn't really see it on the maps."

Perhaps it was the fact that they said it was a small island, or that with the world of Remnant often had villages changing location due to Grimm attacks, or some other reason, the group seemed to believe them as Ruby asked, "What's it like?"

Sam saved Carly from racking her brain in awkward silence as she said, "It's nice! Small, but nice! We didn't really have Grimm there!"

Carly discreetly let out a small breath of relief, despite Sam not being fond of lying, she was pulling it off well enough. Still, she knew that Sam would only be able to pull it off for so long before her guilty conscience overtook her. Even if the RWBY universe prevented them from "spoiling" anything, it could still cause problems.

With that in mind, Carly tried to divert the conversation to a different topic, "Do any of you know anyone in Mistral?"

The small group of teens all shook their heads as Ruby said, "We're kinda hoping to talk the headmaster about some…things but other than that, we haven't thought that far ahead."

Knowing exactly what those "things" were, Carly nodded and said, "I'm pretty sure when you get there, things will work out."

It was kinda the truth, and apparently the universe was okay with that as no branches fell on her.

Still Carly nervously glanced upward as they passed under the trees.

So far so good.

Eventually the sun began to set and the sky began to darken, signaling everyone to settle down for the night.

'Thank goodness, my feet are killing me…' Carly thought to herself. She was not used to this much walking in a day. The only other time she walked this much was when her and Sam had gone to the Disney parks and that had been quite exhausting. Fun but exhausting.

As everyone began to set up camp, Carly silently signaled to Sam that she and herself should head into the woods to practice some while dinner was being made.

Sam nodded subtly and Carly turned to the group of teens to speak, "Sam and I are gonna take a quick walk and patrol the area before dinner, if you guys don't have a problem with that."

"Weren't you just saying how glad you were to be done walking?" Nora said with a smirk to Carly.

A chuckle radiated through the group as Carly gave a half-hearted glare to them. She had made a comment earlier stating her exhaustion when the group decided to make camp, so she didn't try to defend herself and simply grabbed her hobby horse and said good naturedly, "Yeah yeah, I know what I said."

Sam grabbed her bow and arrows and said with a smile, "We'll be back soon!"

Once the two of them were a good distance away, Sam and Carly began to practice. It took a few minutes for them to get back into the rhythm of fighting, and they still needed a lot of practice, but they were slowly getting better and better. Sam was making scoring more bulls-eyes and Carly was stumbling less as she swung her hammer around and practically hitting her target with each swipe of her weapon.

Their aura still wasn't the strongest, but that would only grow with time. Now if only they could unlock their semblances…

Carly took a moment to breath as she put her weapon away. The hobby horse, to her relief, was able to mechanically contract to a smaller form that was easier to hold and attach to herself.

As she took a deep breath, feeling her muscles ache from the constant use, she said, without turning back to Sam, "Ready to head back?"

"Sure! Then afterwards we can come back and practice some more!" Sam exclaimed.

Carly turned around, seeing her friend walking up to the tree she was aiming at to grab her arrows, and froze.

There, rustling in the bushes, she caught a glimpse of

Burning

Red

Eyes

Grimm…

The werewolf Grimm slowly stalked out of the bushes, revealing it's black and white form. It's sharp teeth glimmered in the fading light and a deep growl poured from its throat.

"Sam! Grimm at your eight o'clock!" Carly called in fear.

Sam's eyes widened in shock and fear before she whirled around to see the Grimm werewolf begin to charge her. Quickly she pulled her arm back to shoot an arrow and released. The arrow flew by the Grimm, barely grazing it, but when Sam pulled a second arrow back and aimed, she was able to hit it right into its left eye.

This seemed to only anger the Grimm as it didn't even stop it's charge, only roaring at her in response.

Sam pulled back another arrow while trying to move back quickly to put more distance between her and the monster. Carly surged toward her friend, reaching back to grab and expand her hobby horse hammer.

However, she was too slow and wasn't able to reach her friend in time as the Grimm reached Sam and took a swipe at her with its large paw. Thankfully Sam's reflexes were quick as she dodged out of the way, albeit she only ducked and was still stuck in front of the Grimm.

But the Grimm didn't seem fazed and took another swipe, this time hitting Sam and sending her flying.

Sam flew through the air before hitting a tree trunk with a loud cry of pain and falling to the ground.

Anger flowed through Carly and she growled herself as she reached the Grimm and leaped in the air to hit the monster with her weapon. The Grimm turned to her in response to her rushing to it, but she was able to give a decent blow to its face. The Grimm flinched before turning back to her with a snarl, its hackles rising.

The Grimm quickly reached out and grabbed her, its grip tight. She gasped, feeling herself being lifted into the air. Fear struck her as the werewolf Grimm opened its jaws, whether to growl or bite her, she didn't know. Adrenaline pulsed through her and she kicked with her feet. She was able to reach the arrow imbedded in its eye that Sam was able to hit.

Putting as much energy as she could into it, Carly kicked the arrow, driving the projectile item deeper into the Grimms skull.

The effect was instantaneous as the Grimm roared in pain and released her, causing her to fall to the ground. Thankfully, due to her training, Carly was able to land on her feet, but as she looked up, she saw the Grimm looming over her and aiming to hit her. Its claws would do some serious damage if she couldn't get out the way fast enough.

However an arrow whizzed through the air and hit the Grimm square in the chest. Carly looked to see Sam, with a determined frown, pulling and readying another arrow. Smirking, Carly tightened her grip on her hobby horse hammer and leaped into the air to hit the Grimm's face.

While she was able to get a decent hit in, the Grimm reacted quickly and hit her again, this time sending herself flying. As she hit the ground, Carly rolled to a rough stop. She forced herself up to see the Grimm rush to Sam.

Her friend kept firing arrows, moving as she did so to try to put some more distance between herself and the Grimm. She was able to get some arrows to hit it, primarily in the chest and back, but the Grimm was not giving up.

Carly got up and ran to the two. She passed Sam as her friend was backing up, and ducked when the werewolf tried to hit her again. But instead of just ducking and remaining in the same spot, she turned the duck into a roll and when she got back to her feet, she whipped her hammer and once again hit the Grimms face.

The Grimm turned and seemed to put all his focus on her for a moment before Carly heard another rush of wind and saw another arrow strike the Grimm, right next to the one imbedded in its eye.

This seemed to piss off the Grimm enough that it became more aggressive. It swung left and right, just seeming to want to hit anything. It even began to lunge forward with its jaws to try and bite the two females.

Carly barely dodged one of the bite attacks and froze for a moment, terrified of the idea of being bit by the Grimm and having who knows what happen to her. This moment of pause was enough for the Grimm to hit her and send her, once again, flying through the air. This time Carly hit a tree, and as she fell to the ground, she heard Sam gasp.

Carly forced her eyes open and saw, to her dismay, that the werewolf Grimm had actually hit Sam hard enough that her bow and arrow went flying. Sam fell to her back as the Grimm towered over her. She let out a cry and as she tried to get up, the werewolf Grimm quickly pinned her down with one of its monstrous paws. It bared its teeth, ready to attack.

Carly was too far away to be able to reach her friend in time. Her aura was already probably weak and in a matter of seconds would lose it and eventually either become severely injured, or die.

Sam tried to push the paw off her while seeming to try and reach out to possibly stop the oncoming bite, but it wouldn't do much.

Panic filled Carly as the sight, and all she could think of was protecting her dear friend.

"SAM!" she cried, reaching for her friend as she forced herself up.

'God please, someone, protect her!' Carly prayed in her mind as she rushed to them.

But it was too late. The Grimm's jaws lunged forward to do a damaging blow.

Suddenly an orange, round glyph appeared between Sam and the Grimm. The Grimm's attack was stopped as when it hit the glyph, the glyph acted as some sort of barrier.

Sam shot a look at her as Carly stared at the glyph. The glyph was detailed in a manner that matched her own symbol.

Had she unlocked her semblance?

The first Grimm! It was hard figuring out how to approach the battle as the two main characters are still learning to fight, so I hope it came across well enough that they are struggling but can do some damage.

Also, in the show, they said that it was weeks before they got to Kuroyuri, and going by the assumption that they were only a day away after the fight with Tyrian and talk with Qrow, so that's why we have yet to get to the show's plot yet. But fret not, we will get there! Just please bear with me! Enjoy!