Sacred Meeting

Chapter 1

Through my involvement with the RWBY Roleplay on Twitter I met a good guy there who brought up the idea of creating our own RWBY OC Team. So with ShadowMasterIz, we created Team RGLA (Regalia). All of our work so far can be found under the "Team RGLA" tag on Tumblr or on either of our specific blogs. I'll be posting the fics that I make of this team up on FF as well to reach out to a wider audience, whereas the Tumblr tag also includes things like data profiles on each of the team members and each member's backstory.

So if you want to check this team out in further detail, I urge you to check out the Tumblr tag. We'll hopefully see you there!

"Ami." A chirpy voice sang. "Ami, c'mon."

Amber Yarona could recognise this bubbly voice, but by her aching, sluggish state, she could also recognise the desire to push it away and let her sleep. She was determined to stay in bed for at least an extra five minutes but this voice wouldn't have it.

"Amber, fo' cryin' ou' loud." She complained with her thick accent as she shook Amber's shoulder. "If ye stay there, ye won' 'ave enough time t' ge' ready."

The girl had a point, Amber knew that today was a big day, being late wasn't a good way to start off her time at Beacon, so slowly but surely she cracked her orange eyes open and sat up, yawing widely. She raised her hand and offered what she could of a groggy, wave to her friend as they locked eyes.

"Mornin' Amber." The words Amber's best friend, Griselda Bristow, greeted her with were more than enough to start her day off on the right foot. Pushing aside her sleeping bag, Amber rummaged around in her luggage for her battle outfit seeing that Griselda had already got hers out and was waiting for Amber so they could go get changed.

Amber was glad that she had had the common sense to put the stuff she would be using on the top of the pile of clothes in her luggage. So she could quickly pull out her yellow and white, checked shirt, her black hoodie, her brown, corduroy trousers and her big, leather boots.

Standing up fully and stretching some knots out of her back allowed her to get a good look around the ballroom they had slept in that night. About half of the original amount of students were left, either getting ready or being woken up by another, much like herself. Amber picked up her whiteboard and pen from underneath her pillow and scribbled;

"You ready to go Zelda?"

She showed it to Griselda, who in turn glanced at the board and then looked back to her with a grin and an enthusiastic nod. She spun on her heel and was about to set off when she turned back to Amber.

"Actually, gimme a sec'." She said as she moved past Amber and crouched down near her sleeping bag. She looked under the covers and the pillow, but it was only when she moved the entire sleeping bag, did Amber understand what she was getting at. Crushed under the bed was a piece of black fabric that Griselda picked up and held out to her. "Ye fergo' yer mask."

Amber smiled her thanks and took the black, surgical mask from her, quickly fastening it behind her ears and fixing the front across her mouth and nose. Amber could see that Griselda's bright smile had faded as if the angry burn on her left cheek was hurting her when she had picked up the mask, but Amber had told her with her whiteboard before. The mask was necessary. She wouldn't risk the same kind of accident again.

When Amber's eyes met Griselda's minty green ones, the smile found its way back to her lips. She took the chance to drag Amber off in the direction of the large, girl's bathroom that they had been shown by Professor Goodwitch on their brief tour.

There were a few people inside and a couple of them glanced at the pair as they walked in but made no effort to hold a conversation, mostly due to the toothbrushes in their mouths. Griselda grabbed Amber by the shoulders and guided her over to a pair of changing cubicles in a far corner that showed their vacancy through their open doors.

"Hey, Ami." Griselda said as she peered over the top of the cubicle thanks to her tall stature. "Ye mind doin' my 'air after yer done?"

Amber had instinctively covered her half-naked chest at the sound of an unexpected voice but had relaxed once she had turned to see Griselda's cute, coffee-coloured face. Amber let out a breath of relief and nodded to her which she satisfied with by the grin on her face. She hopped down to continue changing and Amber sighed once again when she felt that she was in the clear.

"Yer still hella sexy Ami." Griselda's voice rose over the cubicle at practically the same rate as the heat in Amber's face came. Amber smacked her hand against the wall, showing her distaste for the joke and just as quick Griselda's hearty, yet girly, laughter rang back at her. "Sorry, sorry."

Amber fumed silently as she changed in to her battle gear. She understood that she was a curvy girl, but in her opinion, a curvy figure was better on a girl that actually showed it off. It was wasted on her. Why, oh why, couldn't she have had a petite figure? An accidental thump on the wall connecting her to Griselda was enough to remind Amber of her presence there. Maybe her figure wasn't so bad. Back at their previous combat school, the two girls had shared a double room and had on more than one occasion snuck in to each other's beds in the middle of the night to cuddle back to sleep. Her curvy figure really helped get her comfortable against Griselda's back when she snuggled up against the taller girl.

Amber fixed her mask again before using a bobble in her back pocket to put her straight brown hair that reached her shoulder blades, in to a neat, high ponytail. Unlocking the door, she stepped out in front of a mirror and checked everything was in place. Amber heard a click from behind her and she turned to see Griselda step out, smoothing her platinum hair back.

"Can ya do t' thing?" Griselda asked as she stepped up to Amber, gesturing to the long loose hair at the back of her head. She too went about checking over her battle outfit in the mirror. She hid some big creases of her white, dress shirt in to her black, under-bust corset and Amber helped out with the ones at the back that she couldn't reach. It was the same deal under the corset with the ends of the shirt. The two set about tucking in the loose ends in to her black skirt. Amber wondered if they would be more secure underneath the white petticoat but ultimately opted against it. Amber patted down the skirt unconsciously and Griselda jumped at the intimate contact on her rear end but quickly took it in her stride. "Ge'in' frisky are we?"

In reply, Amber lifted her skirts and was sure to get enough power in her next smack to make Griselda's panty-clad bum sting. Griselda laughed as she rubbed her sore posterior, her black, leather, forearm guards coming in to view. Amber thought that they matched extremely well with her knee-high, black, gladiator boots. The boots had quite a deep sole to them too so when Amber's eyes traced back up Griselda's lithe frame she needed to look up a little more than the mute girl was used to. The added couple of inches gave Griselda a bit more of a dominant stature and in Amber's mind, it was in no way unwelcomed.

"Oh, hey." Griselda said with a nod of her head which seemed strange to Amber. There shouldn't be any reason for her to greet her, she knew she was there. "Sorry for t' show. I's jus' summer' we do."

Amber noticed that Griselda wasn't even looking attempting to look at her and when Amber followed her gaze she finally remembered that they weren't alone in the bathroom. On their left stood a girl; a very bewildered one.

The girl's eyebrows were raised and her lips parted. It was difficult to see on her olive skin but Amber was sure that there was a blush too. She turned her head to avoid us seeing her blush, causing the quick braid made from her flowing, glossy, black hair that reached her waist to fling out with the momentum.

Too little, too late.

"No, it's fine." The girl said. "I just w-wasn't expecting to see something like that so early in the m-morning."

Griselda laughed at that.

"We'll try and keep our flir'in' to a minimum." Griselda chuckled. "I'm Griselda, by the way. Griselda Bristow. Bu' ye can jus' call me Grizzly."

Griselda turned to Amber and in a flash Amber was already writing on her whiteboard again.

"Amber Yarona, nice to meet you [INSERT NAME HERE]" She showed the girl her board as she had turned back to them once Griselda had spoken again. Obviously not wanting to appear as rude in a first meeting. She glanced down at the board and Amber watched as her brow furrowed as she read the board. A few seconds passed before a puff of air escaped her mouth and she quickly covered it while her shoulders began to shake with laughter. The infectious smile caught on quickly with Griselda who beamed back while the girl tried to calm down.

"It's g-good to meet you too." She said as she wiped the happy tears out of her eyes. "I'm Rana. Rana Evins."

"I 'ope we can ge' along in t' future." Griselda said and Rana nodded back with a smile of her own. Amber nodded her own acceptance to her while she set about smoothing back Griselda's hair and Rana looked slightly confused as to why Amber hadn't spoken a word to her. Amber knew what was coming up but she needed to get Griselda's hair done and answering people back with her whiteboard ended up fully occupying her hands so she would let Griselda do the explaining to Rana's next question.

"C-Can't you… speak, Amber?" Rana asked innocently and even though Amber didn't want to answer, she knew that the girl's wide-eyed curiosity wouldn't be satisfied until she was answered. Amber passed the book to Griselda by tapping her on the shoulder lightly.

"Oh, righ'. This one's mine." Griselda said as she thought about how to arrange her answer for a second. "I's no' that' Ami can' speak, i's tha' she chooses no' t'. Almos' for safety reasons. The idea is tha' ye can still ask 'er as many questions as ye wan' and she'll smash down an answer on 'er whi'eboard. She jus' can' answer if 'er 'ands are full, like now."

Rana turned her curious, golden eyes back to Amber for a few seconds and just watched her practiced hands turn the long, loose hair at the back of Griselda's blown-back Mohawk in to a neat plait that came to the centre of her back. She used a second bobble from the same back pocket as her own to tie the end off. Leaning down to the side of Griselda's head, Amber pressed her mask against her shaved scalp. The moment of intimacy wasn't lost on Griselda as she saw her approaching in the mirror and with a soft smile she welcomed Amber's display of affection with a gentle head butt of her own. Amber's warm breath leaked out from inside the mask and ghosted over her sensitive scalp, giving her a flush of pleasant goosebumps.

"Th-that's so sweet." Rana said making Amber jump. She had forgotten that she was there altogether. "That you t-two can have such a close relationsh-ship even though there might be a bit of a c-communication barrier."

It seemed that Griselda had also tweaked on to the same part of that sentence that Amber had.

"We ain' in no relationship, y'know?" Griselda said with a raised eyebrow. "We're bes' friends and tha' line's blurred on more than one occasion, bu' we try and keep things 'T' ra'ed."

Amber's brow furrowed. That was most certainly not how their relationship was. Amber let out a frustrated breath from her nose and was sure to give Griselda a nip on the ear, to which she squealed and tried to bat Amber's fingers from her ear. Once she did she held her hand to her ear for quite a while and complained with a few cute "owies" mixed in.

Amber wrote down on her whiteboard that they needed to wash their faces and brush their teeth before they headed to breakfast, which Griselda seemed more than happy to do. She probably didn't want to risk getting another punishment like that. The mute girl was left with the socially, awkward girl and all conversation grinded to a halt and left an uncomfortable silence in the air.

Between the two, Rana felt the most out of place being left alone with such a quiet girl. She knew that conversations would take a long time if she needed to write things down every time she wanted to reply and that meant she would most likely only get to ask a question or two before Griselda came back.

Amber could see how much Rana was fiddling with the ends of her tank top or the bottom of her short shorts, anything to get rid of the tension in the air that Amber was handily immune to. She began to stutter and Amber waited patiently for a staggered question to come, preparing her whiteboard and pen in advance.

"H-h-how long have you kn-known each other?" Rana asked shakily and Amber quickly set about writing down their brief back story. Rana glanced over at the mute girl and the squeaking pen and had to raise her eyebrows in astonishment when she caught the speed at which she was writing. Rana understood that on a computer, 90 words a minute was a very, fast, typing speed and that physical handwriting couldn't hope to match up to that but from the frenzied blur of Amber's pen, she was sure that Amber was reaching that kind of speed easily. As Rana looked a little closer she found that even Amber's handwriting was incredibly well presented, there was no squinting to understand certain words. It was all right there, plain as day.

"Zelda came from a small, island community that liked to keep to themselves." This was the first sentence that Rana read but she was sure that there was so much more to it all than that. "The island, however, was taken over in that bad, civil war to the north a few years ago and the inhabitants were moved out permanently. Zelda went to live with a random family on the mainland that agreed to be her guardians and while she was there, they transferred her in to the local combat school. We met there in Zelda's first week, while she was still getting settled and grew close, quickly. We've been best friends ever since."

Rana wasn't entirely sure as to whether she was supposed to be sympathetic towards Griselda's unfortunate past and she was sure there was more to the story than what met the eye, but she was also sure that Amber had been careful as to how much she told a complete stranger. The explanation was enough to satisfy her curiosity but Rana understood that there were certain details there that were private and were kept between the two of them.

"You really s-stuck fast to each other didn't you?" Rana giggled and Amber nodded as she kept her eyes locked on the board in her hands. She used her sleeve to wipe away the words and Rana managed to catch that Amber slowed down over the name 'Zelda'. Rana wondered why Griselda had told her to call her 'Grizzly', when it was clear that Amber's name for her was different. Surely, Griselda would be more accustomed to 'Zelda' if that was what her best friend called her?

Unless, she just wants Amber to call her by that name.

Rana's face darkened again with a blush as the scandalous thought crossed her mind. Even if Amber had denied it, the possibility of something happening in the future between her and Griselda didn't seem like such a far stretch from the truth. Rana could easily see herself shipping the relationship between the two no matter what happened.

It was almost as if Rana's thoughts had summoned Griselda as it was in the next few seconds that she walked back in through the door, toothpaste and brushes in her left hand and what seemed to be hers and Amber's weapons in the right.

"Yo, I'm back." She announced and she kicked the door closed again. She dodged a couple of people coming out of cubicles or making their way out of the room and carefully set the toothpaste and things down at the side of the sinks. Griselda then went about rearranging the weapons in her hand. She moved a dual-handled axe with a crescent, shaped blade in to the holster that she must've attached to her hip back in the ballroom, she handed over a gauntlet like mechanism to Amber, who quickly and efficiently secured it to her left arm. Griselda then went to hand a long bullwhip to Amber but her fingers slipped on the way over.

There was a pause as the two watched the whip uncurl and settle on the floor. Rana watched Amber give Griselda this painfully, hopeless look.

"Shi'." Griselda cursed and Amber just sighed through her nose pitifully.

Amber took the handle of the bullwhip from Griselda and in only a couple of seconds she had rewound the whip, like she'd done it a thousand times before and settled it in to a strap fixed to her hip. It had obviously been added with the sole purpose of holding the whip in place while she was moving around.

Amber turned back to Rana and rolled her eyes at her friend's ditzy attitude. There was a pause before Rana began to struggle to hold back her laughter. On first sight, anyone could see that Griselda was a good person and very easy to get along with. In that same first glance, however, no one could really tell anything about Amber, her face covered the majority of expressions she might make and it's not like you could tell how she is from her speech, but even after just a few minutes, Amber also proves to be just as cheery as her best friend. Her sense of humour was definitely more towards the slapstick side and it was even funnier because it was so easy to understand.

These were the type of people that Rana liked. These were the type of people that Rana respected. These were the type of people that Rana wanted to know.

The three went about washing their faces and brushing their teeth and Amber had to once again scold Griselda silently when she caught her white-haired friend trying to hit the plug hole with her minty spit.

Once they were done, Griselda took the toothbrushes and paste back to whichever bag she had acquired them from in the first place. A thought crossed Amber's mind that she quickly wrote down on her whiteboard.

"Shall we all go to breakfast together?" She wrote and tapped Rana with the side of it to get her attention. She looked down to read the board for a second before she met Amber's eyes again.

"I still have to g-get ready yet and I usually t-take quite a while." She explained. "I won't say to stick around for m-me but if I see you later I'll be sure to j-join up with you. Does that sound g-good to you?"

Amber regarded her for a couple more seconds and suddenly Rana felt a cold sweat run down her back. She didn't like it, not one bit and she knew for a fact that it was Amber that was making her feel that way. The piercing stare from above that mask was pushing through more than just her defence, it was pushing through her being. Rana knew the feeling of detecting someone's Aura from the Hunters and Huntresses that she'd walked past in earlier life, but just for a split second she felt as if Amber had slipped. Like something had gone wrong and she hadn't been paying attention and this incredible, almost monstrous, Aura pressure came forwards, just for a moment, before she was able to put some kind of reigns on it. God, did she hope that they'd hold.

Amber lifted her hand to write on her board and Rana physically flinched away from her. They both caught it and Amber stopped for a moment but carried on nonetheless. After a few moments she turned her board to Rana.

"Sorry about that." It read. "My Aura's a little unstable, but I can pull it back straight away so there's no need to worry about it."

That didn't exactly comfort Rana that much but at least she had had the decency to warn her about it just in case something similar happened in the future.

Rana watched Amber's eyes crinkle in such a way that she knew she was smiling under the mask. She then held her hand up in a kind of makeshift wave which Rana numbly replied. Apparently it was a valediction, as the mute girl then turned on her heel and left Rana to her devices in the bathroom.

They're a pair of characters, alright.

Amber knew that where she had left things with Rana probably wasn't the best start to a possible friendship. She had suspected before she had been accepted in to Beacon that talking with anyone but Griselda would be quite a strain. The two best friends had years of practice behind their belts getting used to each other as people, and then to get used to one of them becoming mute.

It was second nature to Amber and Griselda, but luckily Amber's future team mates would have four years to get used to Amber's pace of dialogue. If there was anything that Amber was anxious about it would be communication in battle. Amber knew that she was far too stubborn to break a rule that she planned to carry out for life just because she was in a bit of a pinch. But she also didn't want to be reprimanded by whoever turned out to be her team's leader for not trusting them enough.

Amber had her head down when she rounded a corner on the way to the ballroom and consequently crashed in to someone coming the other way. Unfortunately, they were moving much faster than Amber was and she could feel herself being knocked off her feet. She braced herself for a harsh landing but it never came as a strong hand clamped around her arm and her descent was halted instantly. The hand pulled her back up and she regained her footing before meeting eyes with her saviour.

As recognition clicked in Amber's mind, her eyes widened and she backed up hastily bowing her apologies to the silver-haired man that had spoken on the stage yesterday afternoon.

"I apologise." Professor Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon, said unenthusiastically. "Are you alright, Miss...?"

Amber already had the whiteboard in her hand half way through Ozpin's sentence and had the pen in contact with it by the end.

"Amber Yarona and yes, I'm fine, sir." She wrote. "Sorry for bumping in to you."

"Amber Yarona." He repeated slowly, as if he were tasting the shape of it in his mouth. "Forgive me if I'm being rude, but you're a mute, yes? You haven't just lost your voice?"

"I'm a selective mute, sir." She wrote in reply. "I can speak, but I won't."

From the way that Ozpin's eyebrow raised, Amber saw that he was more amused than threatened at the possibly rebellious statement.

"Beacon is a very old place." He told her. "These walls never change. The sound of heels clacking down these halls will always be here, as will the laughter that fills the air with life. But the people that make all that happen, when they leave these gates for the final time, on their way to become the Hunters and Huntresses that they were born to be, they're always different than the children that came in through those gates like you yourself did yesterday."

The man sighed through his nose and his youthful face seemed to reveal a few wrinkles before he breathed them back in.

"The people within these walls are all diamonds in the rough." He continued. "You new students have yet to grow, have yet to be refined. There are countless experiences to go through in and around these walls and I can guarantee that you will become a better person through the changes you will undergo. But those said changes you undergo, are up to you."

Amber listened intently to the man's words, letting them soak in; reviewing what was said and made sure she understood the meaning of those words thoroughly. From the first glance of the man that Amber had seen in a newspaper a couple of years previous, she could tell from the way he held himself and the look in his eye that he was a very, wise man and hearing him speak to her now just confirmed her judgements.

Professor Ozpin was a man to listen to, there was no denying it. Plus when it came to Amber's turn to reply, she almost forgot that she was a mute when she realised that she was left speechless.

"Thank you, sir." She wrote. "I'll be sure to remember those words."

"Be sure that you do, Miss Yarona." He said as he set off past her. "I have a feeling that they'll come in handy."

Amber watched the man leave and realised that she had been holding her breath only when he turned the corner and let her go from his captivating presence. But her breath hitched once again when she felt another hand on her shoulder. She was expecting it to turn out to be another spectacular person but as she turned to see them she was welcomed with the familiar sight of Griselda's grin.

"I'm back." She said. "We goin' t' breakfas' then?"

Amber nodded and Griselda wasn't shy about taking her hand as she dragged her off to the cafeteria. There was a little doubt in Amber's mind as to whether Griselda even remembered where the cafeteria was but she was unnecessarily surprised when she ended up going down all the right paths that Amber had remembered from the previous day.

A couple of corridors away from the cafeteria was when Amber started to take note of the unmistakable scent of baked goods and she let out a chuckle under her breath. Of course Griselda knew where she was going, her sensitive nose must've been able to pick up the pleasant smells as soon as she had woken up. No wonder she was so eager to be off.

"I'm so gonna ge' me a muffin." She commented as her tugging became a little more insistent. "Wha' am I gonna do if they 'ave whi'e chocola'e and strawb'ry ones and they're still warm? Ho' damn, tha's jus' cruel."

Amber gave her a sympathetic pat on her arm as a pout crossed the dark skinned girl's face, but as they pushed the large doors to the cafeteria aside, Amber saw a bright smile beam from Griselda's features as she looked over the room with her wide eyes.

With a quick skim, Amber could tell that there was close to 200 hundred teenagers in the room, all of them within a certain age range. They were all wide eyed just like Griselda, hinting that they were all new students. The upperclassmen might have their breakfast at a later time to let the new students get out of the way. The students were either sat eating their breakfast looking incredibly groggy like that had only woken up twenty seconds ago, or they were stood talking animatedly with their friends about what their four years at the school might entail. From what Professor Ozpin had told Amber earlier, it would be rewarding, but in no way would it be pretty.

Griselda spied the end of the breakfast queue and dragged Amber over to it where they took their place, Griselda albeit, did so a little more eagerly. She was bouncing on her tip toes to get a better look at the range of foods available for breakfast. Amber would bet her left arm that if there was any kind of meat on the go that Griselda would be there. Amber, on the other hand, was more than satisfied with cereal, she took a much more keen interest in her peers milling about the room. Everything from the colour of their skins, their height and their weight seemed to be unique to each person.

The longer Amber looked at the crowd, the more she seemed to realise that more and more people were carrying some kind of weapon. Swords, shields, rifles, bats and spears seemed to be the most popular styles amongst those gathered. She saw a few that had modifications just like Griselda's axe. Whereas the axe could also double as a shotgun, Amber saw that there was a sword with a blade that burst in to flames, a pair of gauntlets that seemed to have some kind of ammunition belt encased within and a staff that looked as though it was collapsible to an extent.

She also saw an awkward looking blonde boy with a sword in a sheath at his side. No doubt it probably doubled as a machine gun or something. Looking at all the complex weaponry that seemed as common as air around here made Amber feel a little inferior with her six foot bullwhip. Though she knew that if push came to shove she would be much handier with her whip than any star spangled sword lying around here.

Before she had noticed, Amber and Griselda were already at the front of the cue and Griselda passed her a bowl as she asked about the lack of Rana's presence that she only just seemed to notice. Amber wrote down that she would join them if they hadn't already gone but her orders were not to wait up for her. Griselda was a little disappointed that they hadn't gotten to talk some more since she'd had to leave a couple of times but Amber reassured her that as long as Rana passed the initiation along with them, there would be plenty of time for her to bug the shy girl.

The two sat down at the nearest available table and tucked in to their meals. Just as Amber had suspected, the majority of Griselda's plate was filled with bacon strips.

You're safe for now, left arm.

This was also one of those times that Amber thanked whatever mighty power that she was ambidextrous. So with Griselda sat on her right, she could happily hold a conversation by writing with her right hand and could use her left hand to move her spoon to her mouth just as deftly. They didn't talk about anything that might've helped them in the initiation, just like they hadn't done leading up to their enrolment at Beacon.

It wasn't that they didn't care for strategies, in fact, Amber preferred it when things were laid out clearly so that she could follow them and experience the least amount of trouble along the way. Both she and Griselda knew that the girl animatedly scoffing down her food next to her was a little different. Her strength was nothing like Amber had ever seen before and they both knew that any physical challenge would be a complete breeze to Griselda so they deliberately chose not to worry.

The initiation itself had been very hush-hush. The only real details that they knew were that there was an actual initiation procedure and that it involved something physical. It could've been a tournament style thing where they have to fight against their fellow students, which would warrant the uneasy glances at some of the more vicious looking weapons that some students were showing. But then again, it could a race of some sort, reach a certain point in whatever time and the first hundred people to cross the finish line would be taken on to be educated at Beacon.

Everyone in the room was in the same boat. Regardless of how much power they held; regardless of how much money their family had, the individual had to pass the test through their own wiles. The weaker candidates would be weeded out and the stronger ones would be accepted. The system could be seen as a little cruel on those that might have just missed out but if these people were serious about being Hunters and Huntresses, they would have to step up their game.

A strange booming sound echoed through the air as Amber lifted another spoonful of cereal to her mouth and after a few seconds, the crowd went silent as all heads turned to the stage at the front of the room.

On the stage stood Glynda Goodwitch once again, looking poised as ever in her white blouse, smart, form-fitting skirt, her cape fluttering gently behind her and a clipboard in hand.