I really hate this website sometimes... I typed 'There Be Dragons' in when originally submitting the document, but the submission itself was rejected because I wasn't verified or something. I copied it over again, and when I went to type the name of the document, a prompt came up to autocomplete it. I clicked it, and went to submit.

So now I have a document called 'There be' in my list, and you can't rename things in the Doc Manager. Thank you, FF, you always do such great work.

Enough bitching, though. I have a chapter to finish, and you have a chapter to read, so enjoy There Be Dragons.

Under any other circumstance, he would have been anxious about sitting opposite the girl. Fortunate, then, that he came armed with both a valid reason and- strangely enough- an identical tray of food to distract himself with if things went poorly.

"Hey," Jaune waved as he set said tray down. "I'm Jaune, a fri-"

"You're real..." the girl interrupted, mouth agape. "I thought she was getting out of making friends by making one up, but you're real..."

Jaune just kind of sat there, frozen, as the blonde went through a series of faces and emotions before finally settling on a smile.

"Welcome to the den of Yang Xiao Long, traveler! Have you come seeking wisdom from the ancient dragons, or are yee seeking guidance on the rose?"

Wow... Listening intently did not help him decipher that. At least he had her name, and confirmed some kind of connection between her and Ruby. The whole 'guidance on the rose' part cinched it. Still, he could play along to some degree.

"I am Jaune Arc, knight, and hopeful Huntsman. I come offering a hand of friendship-" he extended his hand over the table to her- "and ask merely for the hostilities between our races to end."

Yang smirked, taking his hand and thoroughly crushing it within her own. Oum, how strong is this woman?! He could feel the bones in his fingers and palm grating on one another, all the while she continued to just smile in his direction.

"REN!" a shout came from somewhere behind him. "I told you others would play Towers and Dragons with us!"

His savior- since Yang loosened her grip the second she shouted- was sitting on his left before he even heard her move. It was yet another girl, though markedly unique from those before. She had short orange hair, white and pink clothing including another bloody skirt, and what looked like a grenade launcher strapped to her back.

Of course, despite her bearing both lethal weaponry and an odd hair color, his eyes were immediately drawn to her bust. I mean, come the fuck on- she literally had a heart cut out of her shirt to show off her cleavage! It was a trap for sure, but dammit if it wasn't an effective one.

However, unlike virtually every other female on the planet, she didn't seem to take offense to his gawking and simply moved on as if nothing had happened. You know what? Sure- he could roll with the punches. If she was cool with it, so was he.

Now, where's this Ren...?

Jaune did a quick scan of the table, finding only one person close enough to be the mysterious Ren. It was a guy, though as was quickly becoming apparent, the people at this school had a habit of not looking like their gender. He had rather long hair, including an out of place pink stripe, and wore some kind of dark green Mistralian outfit.

He didn't see any weapons, but then he didn't have his either. They were probably just in his locker.

"Nora," he said, lacking the exuberant energy of his companion. "I said I wasn't dming for you again or letting you dm- not that we wouldn't find more people."

Jaune couldn't see her eyes since Ren was to her left, but he had a feeling she rolled them. "And I'm sure one of them would love to dm, right guys?"

The last part was addressed to him and Yang, and while the latter's smile suddenly became a lot more brittle, Jaune's only grew. "Sounds like fun to me. But before that, we gotta get through Initiation, right?"

"Pfft- don't worry about it," Nora casually dismissed with a wave of her hand. "I can bench five of me and Ren's fists are harder than steel. We'll be fine."

That got Yang's attention. "A melee fighter, huh? Care for a sparring match, big boy?"

Ren didn't take the obvious bait, but he pointedly didn't say no either.

"That means yes!" Nora shouted, dragging him and Ren against her sides. "This year is gonna be so much fun!"

It sure is, Jaune thought, trying to ignore the painful way his spine was bending under her arms. It sure is...

Initiation came too soon. For him, obviously- everyone else seemed raring to go with whatever the staff had in store for them.

Crocea Mors hung at his hip, far more prepared than he was as he stood atop Beacon's cliffs. According to Ren, they were in place to prevent Grimm from climbing up, but then what were they doing here? Were they supposed to climb down into the Emerald Forest?

Jaune checked down the line of people with him. There were less than half as many as in the auditorium, implying not everyone would be going at once, but everyone he recognized was still here.

Nora, Ren, Ruby, and Yang were all to the far left, though still separated atop the weird squares they were told to stand on. To his right, he saw the black and white haired girls from the night before along with Pyrrha.

The girl had joined them all at the table sometime later- apparently Nora basically forced her to join them when it was apparent she was alone. She didn't complain, so at least she was cool with it. She was nice too, if less talkative than everyone else seemed to be.

Out of all of them, she seemed to have the most normal weapon too. From what he could see, she just had a spear and shield, and her shield didn't even collapse into a sheath like his did. At least he wasn't outlandish for that, right?

And then came the initiation itself... Ozpin was still waiting for a few stragglers to get into position, but he would explain any minute now.

Any minute now.

Any-

"Ah, there you are Sky. How kind of you to join us."

Jaune looked where Ozpin had been, noting a zombie-like teen lumbering their way. Not enough sleep? Jaune was kind of an outlier with how early he went to bed normally, so it made sense a few people wouldn't be able to adapt. Hopefully, he'd get better later on.

"Now that we're all here, allow me to explain what's going on. Within the Emerald Forest, you will find a set of ruins, within which there are a set of artifacts. Each of you will collect one and return yourselves here by whatever means you can. One artifact to a pair and anyone returning without one will not be attending Beacon this year."

Okay... It sounds like a relatively simple task. Presumably, there would be Grimm down there, but so close to Vale, they couldn't possibly allow the larger Grimm the thrive. Just survive a few Beowulves, right? Besides, there were a lot of them. They could handle whatever came up.

"As for your pairing," Ozpin began again, "the first person you make eye contact with upon landing will be your partner for the next four years."

Yeah, that makes se-

WHAT!?

So much of that was wrong on so many levels, but the most pressing concern came first.

"When you say landing..."

Ozpin glanced to one side, and a moment later a monstrous spring shot Nora up and into the sky. She didn't seem to take issue with it, simply riding atop her rocket launcher as though it could actually freaking fly.

Ah...

"You will be making use of your own landing strategy."

Jaune's mouth ran dry, and a clawing feeling took hold of his insides. "Is there... Another option? A path downward or a parachute, perhaps?"

"No," Ozpin said, taking a sip from his mug. "You will have to figure that out on your own."

That was insane! How many people died on this part alone!?

More people had already been shot off, and only some big dude in full plate was left before him. Okay- don't panic- they can't possibly do this without some kind of safety net, right? The lawsuits alone would bankrupt them in a year.

Jaune closed his eyes and grit his teeth. The spring to his left shot, giving him a few seconds to shut out the world. Something would catch him, surely? Him taking action could only get in the way since there was no way he'd save himself.

All at once, the floor beneath him vanished, and all sound was replaced by the whistling of air. He was spinning through the air- he could feel that- but he kept himself as still as possible and tried not to imagine himself splattering painfully against the ground.

Something took hold of his hood, dragging him off course. Thank you, Oum, he prayed, keeping his eyes shut as he continued through the air. His trip came to an end shortly thereafter, though cracking his head against a tree hadn't been a part of his 'not dying' plan.

The second he knew he was awake, Jaune cracked his eyes open. More than anything, he needed to see if he'd entered the afterlife.

Since he was unceremoniously hanging from the top of a tree, he doubted that somewhat.

Jaune glanced up to see what had caught him, only to find a spear impaling his hood to the tree. Okay... That was ridiculously dangerous. Whose bright idea was it to-

A moment of realization took him as he finally recognized the weapon. It was Pyrrha's. Not a staff member's, or something like that. There hadn't been a safety net. He'd literally been flung to his death, only to be saved by another student.

Good god, this place was insane! Was this what all huntsman academies were like!?

No, no way, no, no, just no. He thought he could get in, get his Aura, and be fine, but this bullshit!? He was not dying before he even got the chance.

He needed to move. Without a partner, there was basically no way he'd be getting through this, and he knew enough about Grimm to know they'd be coming for him. Their entrances weren't exactly subtle- his least of all.

Jaune was about twelve feet off the ground- a pretty long fall- but there were some branches he could hopefully catch himself on the way down. He just needed to get the spear out right?

Bracing his feet against the tree, Jaune reached up and took hold of Pyrrha's weapon. Then, in one motion, he tore it from the tree.

Unfortunately, he overcompensated and suddenly found himself flying forward as the weapon came free with almost no resistance.

Shit...

He had the wherewithal to toss the spear to the side, preventing him from landing on the sodding thing, but that still left him to faceplant rather painfully into the dirt below.

And while he'd have loved to nurse the pain from that for a minute, he could already hear footsteps approaching. That could be another student or a Grimm, and he needed to be prepared either way.

Despite his protesting muscles, he withdrew his arms and took a ready stance in the direction he heard shuffling brush.

He caught sight of a red hood through the shrubbery and relaxed slightly, but Ruby wasn't alone, and Jaune's eyes trailed to the person with her. It was the white-haired girl she'd been arguing with last night... That was sure to be a volatile partnership.

Still, he was saved! While they wouldn't get along, the partnership could still-

"Congratulations- you are my partner," White said in the most entitled tone he'd heard in a long time. "Be honored that I will shape you into the best, but I will expect much from you."

Huh...?

How on Remnant did they make it all the way here without once making eye contact with one another!? Did one just keep their eyes closed the whole time or something!?

"Hello!" a voice he recognized greeted from his left. He hadn't heard her approach, but Pyrrha would obviously have come to collect her weapon.

Except, before his very eyes, Ruby went to claim her as her partner, leaving him with Mrs. Entitled over here. Of course Pyrrha would arrive too late to be his partner... Ruby too, apparently.

Fate, this is revenge for faking my way here, isn't it? The sky held no answers for him, but the light breeze sounded suspiciously like 'loser'.

Oum dammit.