"Just give me a chance, let me go to Vale and - "

"No! I will not have my daughter running off and getting herself killed at one of those schools! You will stay and you will learn a respectable job here in this village, and that's final."

"But please, you don't understand - "

"I think we understand perfectly. Our answer is still no, and we do not want to hear any more of it. Now clean up and go to your room."

Footsteps. The sounds of dishes clinking against the bottom of the sink. A door slams shut. Fists pound against a bed, against the walls. Angry shouts, mutterings, and finally, a resigned sigh.

A few hours later, in the dead of night, the bedroom door creaks open. Food is taken from the cupboards. A cache of Lien, tucked in an out-of-the-way drawer, is removed and placed in a backpack. A note, quickly scribbled in the dark, is placed on the kitchen table.

That night, a girl named Aqua quietly fled the village of Clearwater, taking the path north towards the capital city of Vale.

Arc 1

Journey of a Student

Chapter 1: Two Parts Water, One Part Dirt

Crunch.

Crunch.

Crunch.

SNAP!

Freshly-fallen autumn leaves and sticks broke beneath Aqua's boots as she trudged down the unpaved road, the butt of her spear hitting the ground rhythmically as she used her weapon like a walking stick. Trees adorned with leaves of red, brown, and orange lined the side of the road, extending into a forest reaching far beyond what Aqua could see. Both behind and ahead of her, there was nothing except road, no fellow travelers or towns in the distance. She continued to hike, moving forward step by step.

A few more steps out of the many it would take to get to Vale. A hundred thousand? A million? How long was it to Vale, anyways?

It's alright, Aqua told herself, adjusting the pack on her back. It's not like I'll have to walk the whole way. Maybe I can hitchhike with someone in the next town, get a ride to the capital. She had been walking through the night and well into the morning, eager to get as far away from her home as she could before her parents realized that she was missing. Hopefully, she would be far enough away that her parents would have a hard time catching up to her. Hopefully, she would make it to Vale before they reached her. Hopefully, she'd pass the entrance exam, like she told them she would.

After all, a Huntress's job is killing Grimm, right? Piece of cake. If that's all it took to be a Huntress, she'd be one in no time.

Something gurgled. Turns out, it was Aqua's stomach.

"I guess it's lunchtime, huh," Aqua muttered, looking up at the sky. The Sun was high in the sky, though not quite straight overhead. Close enough. Moving to the side of the road, she set her spear against a nearby tree and put down her pack, taking from it a bit of the food she had taken from home: a roll of bread and a small bit of dried fish.

She was getting sick of fish.

Same old. Aqua sat down and bit into the bread roll as she went over her supplies in her head. I've got enough food for a few days, maybe a week. Next town, I can buy some more, but I also gotta find a place to stay... how much is a room in an inn again? Eh, I'll find some work to do along the way... every village has Grimm problems, right? Maybe I can earn some money by killing Grimm. That's what Huntresses make a living, right? Yeah, that'll be -

Bang!

"Ah!" Aqua jumped back, dropping her food as a loud noise interrupted her thoughts. Looking up, she saw two people emerging from the trees on the opposite side of the road, each pointing a rifle at her. Both of them had black masks covering their faces, though Aqua could tell by their figures and hair that one was a woman and one was a man.

"That was a warning shot!" the man shouted. "Hand over your stuff and nobody gets hurt!"

Crap, are these bandits? As Aqua slowly stood up, she glanced over at her spear, which was still resting nearby against a tree. Are the roads really that unsafe? Oh, maybe this was a bad idea...

"I see that spear! Don't even think about it," the woman said, pointing her rifle at Aqua's weapon as she and her partner crossed the road towards Aqua. "If you make one move, I'll fill you with holes before you can even get to it. Now put your hands in the air."

How strong are those rifles? Aqua thought, her heart racing. Should I go for it? Can my aura take a lot of bullets? I've never had to fight a gun before! What if I - oh, screw it!

Aqua lunged for her spear. Gunfire trailed behind her, kicking up dirt and shattering tree bark as she grabbed her weapon and took cover behind a particularly thick tree. Her heart was pounding as she peered out, only to duck back behind the tree as a bullet whizzed by her head.

"Last chance! Drop the spear and come out, or - "

"Yah!" With a shout, Aqua leapt from behind the tree towards the two bandits. She felt bullets graze by, with one or two full-on impacting her body and causing her to wince. It hurt, and she didn't know how many more her aura could take. Ten more? One? She didn't want to find out. Stepping into spear range of the female bandit, she raised her weapon overhead.

"Take this!" Aqua slashed downwards as the female bandit attempted to block with her rifle. Aqua's attack powered through, knocking the rifle out of the bandit's hands and striking the bandit directly in the chest. Though her aura protected her, she stumbled back, and Aqua quickly brought her spear up for another strike, knocking the female bandit clear across the road, to the ground, and, Aqua hoped, out of the fight.

Alright! Aqua thought, breathing hard. One more -

CLUNK!

Aqua's head exploded in pain as a heavy blow to the back of her skull sent her plummeting face-first towards the ground and caused her to lose her grip on her spear. As she regained her bearings, she tried to reach for her spear, only to see the male bandit's boot kick it across the road, way too far for her to reach

"All you had to do was hand over your things like a good little girl," the bandit said as Aqua turned and looked up, seeing the barrel of a rifle staring down toward her face. Her spear was too far, and her head was still reeling. "Now I gotta put you in the ground."

"Please don't!" Aqua raised her hands in front of her face, as if to try and block the bullets. She didn't know how much aura she had left. Probably not enough.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Aqua closed her eyes, but felt nothing, even after hearing several shots ring out. Taking a peek, she saw the male bandit stumble backwards, clutching his chest and dropping his rifle as he fell to the ground. A splotch of red appeared on his shirt.

"Ah!" Aqua scrambled onto her feet and ran over to her spear, picking it up and looking around. She saw no one except for the two bandits on the ground - and a figure down the road, in the direction she had come from. She raised her spear, her arms shaky as she pointed it towards the approaching figure.

"Calm down, I ain't gonna shoot ya!" The figure - a teenage girl, by the sound of her voice - shouted. As she came closer, Aqua saw a rifle in her hands, different from the ones the bandits had been using. Though she had no idea about the technical aspects of rifles, Aqua could see that this one was probably more expensive, with more attachments and gadgets attached. Coupled with her armored helmet and jacket, her large backpack, and the large pistol and various pouches by her belt, she looked more like a proper soldier than a bandit like the ones Aqua had just encountered, though she only looked about Aqua's age.

"S-sorry." Aqua lowered her spear, her body still shaking from the leftover adrenaline from the earlier encounter. "I'm just a bit on edge after, well, all that."

"Hmph." the soldier girl walked past her, towards the female bandit on the side of the road. "You knocked this one out?"

"I... think so?"

"Hm." The soldier girl knelt down over the female bandit, slapping her face a few times before nodding and rifling through the bandit's pockets. Aqua watched as the soldier girl stuffed ammo and money into her pockets before she moved onto the corpse of the male bandit to do the same. "You just gonna stand there, or you got anything to say?"

"Oh! Uh, thank you!" Aqua said, approaching the soldier girl as she looted the bandit's corpse. "I was in a bit of a bind there."

"I could see that," the soldier girl said, standing up and turning towards Aqua. "You got anything to eat? I'm starving."

"To eat? Uh..." Aqua remembered her pack and ran over to where she had left it. The food she was eating had dropped to the ground and gotten dirty, but she still had a decent amount in her pack. "I've got some bread and fish, if you're okay with that."

"Sounds good," the soldier girl said as Aqua ran back with her stuff. She took the offered food and began walking down the road, before stopping and looking at Aqua. "You coming? I wouldn't want to be around when that bandit wakes up."

"Oh! Yeah," Aqua replied, running to catch up with the soldier girl. "What should I call you, by the way?"

"Name's Mud," the girl said. "What's yours?"

"So you're a mercenary?" Aqua asked. Though they had already gotten quite far from where she had encountered the bandits, her mind and heart were still racing from the encounter. "You do jobs and things like that?"

"Yup." Mud chomped down on her last bit of fish. "Pays well."

"That's, uh, neat," Aqua said. "So, do I have to pay you for saving me or something?"

"Nah, the stuff I took from the bandits was enough payment," Mud said. Aqua remembered the male bandit's corpse, and how Mud had looted it, and cringed slightly. Mud looked at her. "What's the matter? You still on edge?"

"Ah! Kind of. Just my first time with bandits, is all." Aqua didn't mention it was also her first time seeing a bloodied corpse like that.

"Well, from what I saw, you did pretty decently," Mud said. "Takes a bit of guts for a merchant to travel by themselves, 'specially one as young as you are."

"You look about the same age..." Aqua muttered. "And also, I'm not a merchant."

"Oh? Huh. People on the road usually are. Figured you got goods in your bag you're looking to sell."

"I'm, uh..." Aqua paused. "I'm going to Vale to take the Beacon entrance exam. I'm gonna be a Huntress."

"Really." Mud stopped and looked at Aqua. "You?"

"Uh... is something wrong with that?" Aqua asked.

"I take it back," Mud said. "You did horribly."

"What?" Aqua exclaimed. "I did the best I could! That guy just got the drop on me, and, well..."

"And what? I saw your fight from down the road, and from what I can tell, you're no better than any random kid with a bit of aura swinging around a spear like it's their first week with a weapon. Alright, maybe a little better than that, but still, you suck."

"I - I knocked out that one bandit!"

"And the other one would've killed you if I hadn't come along," Mud said. "I've met a lot of Huntsmen and a lot of students training to be Huntsmen, and you know what they all had in common? They probably could have taken on two random bandits without breaking a sweat. At least, they'd do better than you did."

"Well, that doesn't matter!" Aqua said. "Aren't Huntsmen just supposed to fight Grimm? I'm good at that!"

"Wow," Mud said. "You really think you can get into Beacon just off 'I kill Grimm good, let me in'? Might as well just head back to wherever you came from and be useful there as a village guard or something, cause you sure as hell ain't getting into Beacon."

"I'm not going back," Aqua said, gritting her teeth. "And I don't need the approval of some random mercenary from wherever! I'm heading to Vale, I'm taking that entrance exam, and I'm gonna get into Beacon."

"You know what? How about we play a game," Mud said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a stack of Lien cards. "I've got enough Lien to take you to Vale, get you into the exam, and get you a place to stay in Vale until Beacon lets you into their dorms. If you win, it's all yours, and I'll even escort you personally to Vale - though I doubt you'll need it, little miss Huntress."

"Well, aren't you sounding arrogant," Aqua said. "And if I lose?"

"You pack up, go home, and forget about getting into Beacon this year, cause you sure as hell won't be passing Beacon's entrance exam based on what I saw."

"And what's the game?"

"Simple." Mud stepped further down the road, about a dozen meters from where Aqua was standing. "You land a hit on me, you win. I take you down, you lose. Think of me as your early entrance exam - if you can't beat me, you ain't beating the test to get into Beacon."

"Sounds good to me." Aqua smirked, throwing her pack on the ground and raising her spear. "When do we start?"

"Now."

"Perfect!" Aqua dashed forward, looking to close the distance before Mud could make a move. All I have to do is hit her once and I get a free ride to Vale! She hasn't even moved or raised her rifle, this should be -

A sudden impact hit Aqua's stomach as she stumbled back, reeling in pain. She looked up to see Mud had drawn her pistol from her waist, smoke pouring out of the barrel. Aqua regained her footing and charged forward again, feeling the sting of another bullet pinging off her aura. She ignored the pain.

She just needed one hit.

"You're mine!" Aqua shouted as she got close enough to hit Mud with her spear. She slashed horizontally, but Mud stepped back, allowing the spear to sail through the air. Another slash, this time overhead, produced similar results as Mud sidestepped.

Mud smirked. Aqua grit her teeth.

Just one hit! Drawing her spear back once more, Aqua aimed a stab directly at Mud's chest. Instead of dodging again, Mud batted the spear away with her forearm, letting it slip by her side as she grabbed the spear's shaft. She pulled, hard.

Aqua suddenly stumbled forward, pulled off balance as Mud ripped Aqua's spear from her hands.

Damn! Now weaponless, Aqua threw a wild haymaker towards Mud's face, only for her to duck down and knock Aqua's legs out from under her with a sweeping kick. Before Aqua's face could even hit the dirt, she felt something strike her back, knocking the breath from her lungs as she bounced against the ground. A shimmer washed over her body as she felt her aura give out, leaving her defenseless.

"You lose."

BANG!

The dirt exploded in front of Aqua. She lay there, dazed, for a few seconds. Finally, she let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and looked up to see the barrel of Mud's pistol inches from her face, smoking like before.

"So," Mud said, holstering her weapon. "time for you to head back to wherever you're from. Where is that, by the way? If I'm feeling up to it, maybe I'll take you there."

"That's not fair!" Aqua shouted as she stood up. "You... you... you cheated!"

"Really?" Mud smirked. "Well, if you think so, we can do this again. The outcome's not gonna change, though."

"I..." Aqua began to say, then stopped to process what had happened. No, Mud hadn't cheated. She had beaten and utterly destroyed Aqua, fair and square, without Aqua even landing a hit. If what Mud said was true, that meant Aqua had no chance of getting into Beacon as she was now.

But that meant she had to return home.

"I... just wanted to leave," Aqua said, looking down at her feet before looking up at Mud. "I just wanted to get away! Is it a crime to be tired of the same thing every day? I want to be a Huntress! I want to see the world! I want to fight Grimm and protect people! Is that so wrong?!"

Mud didn't reply. Not at first. She turned, looked down the road, facing away from Aqua. Then, after what felt like a minute but was probably just a few moments later, she turned to face Aqua. "Nah, I guess if that's your reason for wanting to be a Huntress, that's not wrong. But that doesn't change the fact that you suck, and that you're not gonna get into Beacon the way you are."

Aqua nodded. "So..."

"Hm." Mud paused again. Looked up. "So I won't force you to go back. But I'm not gonna give you that free ride to Vale, and you're not taking the entrance exam. Not yet, anyways."

"Huh?"

"As it so happens, I'm heading up north towards Vale, like you are," Mud explained. "Travel with me, and I'll give you a bit of training. If I think you're ready by the time we get there, I'll help you get set up for the entrance exam, and maybe even get you set up someplace in Vale, since you clearly don't wanna go back home."

"You'd do that? That sounds - "

"Not yet," Mud interrupted. "I said I'm not giving you a free ride, and I'm not. You're gonna be helping me on a few jobs along the way. And if you happen to get in my way or drag me down, I'll personally drag you back to wherever you came from. Got that?"

"I... alright," Aqua said. It was an unexpected arrangement, but not really a bad one, and better than going back home. "I can work with that. But why are - "

"Good," Mud interrupted, picking Aqua's spear off the ground and holding it out towards her. "Now come on, we gotta get to town before sundown. You got any more fish?"

"Uh, yeah..." Aqua took the spear and grabbed another piece of dried fish, handing it over to Mud. Then, the two set off down the road together, Aqua contemplating her newfound arrangement.

A/N: Welcome to my first RWBY fanfiction story! After bouncing around ideas in my head and going through many different story iterations over the past few years, I'm excited to get this story out of my head and onto the internet. I will likely be posting chapters weekly both here and on AO3, so please stay tuned for the next one. Thanks for reading, and have a nice day!

Also, thanks to AO3 user Penrost for proofreading and giving helpful feedback for this chapter and future chapters.