Time slowed for Ruby as her senses took in everything around her. She felt like a bird soaring through the air with the sight of the canopies below her. She enjoyed the rush of wind flowing through her, the sound of which somehow couldn't mask her sister's excited howling, nor the shots fired off from Ember Celica.

Ruby glanced over and saw an open patch of land in the distance. The forest trees gave the stone gray structure within a wide berth. That has to be where we're meant to go, Ruby thought to herself. Why else would we be launched in the air? It's so we can see where we're meant to go and not get lost in the process. So, that's the easy part out the way. Ruby glanced back down to the ground and watched as it grew closer. Now for the hard part.

Ruby activated her Semblance and became a spiral of red. She flew straight up in the air, letting drag and gravity kill her momentum for her. She slowed down until there was a moment where she was frozen in the air like a stalling fighter jet, then she realigned herself in the direction of the clearing she spotted while she used her Semblance to gradually descend. Once she was close enough to the ground, Ruby shifted back into her normal form and brought out Crescent Rose in its war scythe form. She dug it into the dirt, placed her feet on the shaft of her scythe, and stood upon it once she ground herself to a halt.

As Ruby stood upon her scythe, her poise was almost reminiscent of a bird resting on her metal branch. This same branch had drug up a mound of dirt during the finale of her landing strategy. Before she moved to disembark from her perch, Ruby glanced over to the sound of one of the tree canopies rustling with movement. A familiar sight dropped down, who got a smile out of Ruby.

"Hey again," Blake greeted. "I see you have a flair for theatrics."

"Um… Thanks?"

"Don't worry," Blake continued. "I meant that in a good way. It was very impressive."

"Oh! Thanks!" Ruby hopped down from Crescent Rose, pulled the blade from the ground, and folded her weapon into its regular rifle form. "My uncle taught that trick to me."

"Then I'm in capable hands." Blake spoke the truth. In fact, she was relieved was partnering up with someone she already knew.

Ruby smiled, then remembered she now had to bring Blake up to speed on what she saw moments ago. "Did you happen to notice anything when you were doing your landing strategy?"

"Well, I noticed a clearing. I think that's where we need to go, since it's due north of here."

"I thought the same thing," Ruby replied, before the two started walking in that direction. "So, what do you think the relics are going to be when we find them?"

"I'm not sure. Did you have any ideas?"

"When my family was going through initiation, they found dice with varying amount of sides. So stuff like dee-twenties and all that. Hm… Maybe when this is over, I should ask Coco and Velvet what their relics were..."

"Either way, it shouldn't be too hard to figure out. Otherwise, Professor Ozpin would've described them to us."

"That's true."

"WOOHOOOO!"

This excited Yang to no end! The thrill of being catapulted in the air, the speed at which she flew above the treeline, it all gave her an adrenaline rush she'd been waiting for since touching down at Beacon. Of course, Yang wasn't letting this override her sense of survival. She understood how dangerous this was, and even how badly her Aura was going to get damaged if she didn't execute a successful landing strategy. Yang only had so many shells loaded in her gauntlets and stopping at any point to reload would be dicey. Plus, she planned on saving them for the Grimm that were a part of the forest, so the rounds currently loaded became a soft time limit.

Without firing another shot from Ember Celica, she let gravity to bring her down until she was no longer above the trees. She swung down from tree branch to tree branch, then leaped her way across tree trunk to tree trunk. Upon reaching the ground itself, she did a forward somersault and seamlessly went from tumbling to standing in one fluid motion. Satisfied, she dusted herself off and started looking around.

Yang brought her focus to the main task at hand: she had to pair up with someone and find a relic. She didn't have the slightest idea what these relics would even look like, but she at least knew that they were north. So, after orientating herself to where she figured "north" was, she got to walking.

"Hello? Hellooooo?"

Yang's continued walking as her mind wandered to who her teammate would be. Naturally, Ruby was the first one to come to mind. As an older sister and surrogate mother, Yang had the instinct to look after her and make sure life didn't beat her down too badly. But she knew Ruby was capable of looking after herself. Maybe now was the point to let her spread her wings and fly. And if Ruby ended up on the same team as Yang, or on a different one, she'd still be there for her.

Maybe she's gonna be on a team with Blake? They both got along with each other pretty well last night. Ruby always said she was more of an introvert, but I think she's finally coming out of her shell now that she has new friends to make. Aside from those two, there's one other person who I might end up with, but…

Yang stopped in her tracks when she heard a noise to her right. It sounded like growling, but from an animal too big to be a wolf. She lowered her stance and moved to the source of the noise, using nearby foliage to conceal her approach until she saw the source of the noise. It wasn't just one Beowolf, but an entire pack were focused on one person.

Remember your training, Weiss. Head up, shoulders back, right foot forward…

Yang watched the stand-off between the Grimm and Weiss. Seriously? There's Grimm right in front of her and she's taking this long to wind up an attack? She's screwed if she thinks this will work all when fighting against people, let alone Grimm! Yang got to work putting fresh shells into Ember Celica and readied herself to dive in.

… Slow your breathing, wait for the right time to strike… NOW!

Weiss dashed forward to deliver her opening strike, but was caught off-guard by the sound of gunfire and a streak of yellow slamming into the Beowolf's jaw, which knocked it aside. With nothing standing behind her intended target, Weiss attempted to slow herself down. Her feet tapped against the ground in front of her, but a misstep caused her to trip and trigger the attack she prepared. A streak of fire erupted from Myrtenaster, which then ignited the tree in front of her and set it ablaze. Weiss was about to get back up, but she felt a tug on her arm as she was flung upright, just before gravity came back to her and she landed gracefully back onto her feet.

"Looks like I almost missed out on the fun!" Yang quipped to Weiss. She raised both fists and adapted a fighting stance as she faced down the pack of Beowolves. She watched, however, as the pack howled among themselves and retreated. Yang glanced over to Weiss and saw the dirty look on her face. "What's that look for? I thought you'd be glad I showed up to help."

Weiss said nothing, but firmly pointed behind them. Yang's directed her attention accordingly and saw the forest fire she had a part in creating, which was already spreading. "… Oh." Whoops. Yang returned her attention to Weiss. "Maybe we should go…"

"Oh, now you want to use discretion?"

Weiss turned to run before Yang had a chance to respond. Yang ran to escape alongside Weiss. Like it or not, they knew, they were officially partners.

"Do you smell that?"

Ruby and Blake sat together within the green canopy of a tree. They agreed on a plan to use stealth and avoid the Grimm instead of taking them head-on. To do this, they used their Semblances to go from treetop to treetop. Ruby's ability to Petal Burst came in handy for this, as did Blake's use of her shadow clones to blink from one point to another, which doubled as a means of distracting Grimm they needed to get past. They took a break so as to not strain their Aura through repeated use of their Semblance, which gave them time to take in the scenery.

When she heard Blake ask the question, Ruby curiously looked around and sniffed the air. "… I think? What do you smell?"

"Smoke."

"Now that you mention it… I can kind of smell it too." Ruby looked back over to Blake. "Should we be worried?"

Blake shook her head. "I don't think so. So long as we keep moving."

And move they did. They eventually reached the clearing they spotted earlier. Within in it were a set of ruins, no doubt a long-forgotten oracle. Ruby reached into her pouch and pulled out a set of box-shaped binoculars. Looking through them, she saw pedestals within the ruined structure. Atop of them were objects that were either gold or black, each one placed opposite from one another on each side of the structure. Ruby zoomed in and could identify the shape of the objects.

"What do you see?" Blake asked.

"I think we found the relics," Ruby answered with a smile, offering her binoculars.

Blake took the binoculars and brought them to her eyes. She recoiled slightly, however, as she didn't expect the number readouts within the lenses. There was a digital readout of which direction Blake faced (North-Northwest, in this case), another that gauged distance based on wherever the binoculars were pointed. There was one more value that changed alongside the distance readout, which she assumed was how long it would take for a bullet to travel to that distance (her assumption was correct). As Blake looked the exterior of the binoculars further, she noted the presence of a second, more analog compass built into the top of the chassis.

"I guess you're both a sniper and your own spotter, huh?" Blake remarked. She looked through the binoculars again, this time using them to look over each of the items set on their own pedestals. "… Chess pieces? There's a couple missing, so I don't think we're the first ones to show up." Blake handed the binoculars back over to Ruby, and a curious question came to her. "Do you play chess at all?"

"Not really," Ruby answered as she put her binoculars away. "I remember being into it for a little while, but I stopped."

"How come?"

"Well, I think chess is too rigid. It feels less like a strategy game and more like you have to memorize a bunch of moves to play and how to counter them."

"Only in the beginning," Blake clarified. "And even then, you don't just memorize moves. It's about coordinating your pieces together so you can threaten your opponent's while keeping yours secured by another piece."

"Oh! So kind of like a Cover and Move thing?" Ruby wondered, recalling a lesson from Signal's combat training cirriculum. "That makes sense. Maybe I should give chess another try some time."

Blake paused. "You also mentioned that the game is too… "rigid"? How so?"

"Well, I prefer games that aren't as mechanical as chess. Like Remnant: The Game! You draw cards and use them to take over the different kingdoms with what you have."

"Okay. What about Backgammon?"

Ruby excitedly answered with, "Oh, I love Backgammon! I used to play that a lot when I was a kid!"

Blake smiled. "So you prefer games with a degree of chance behind them? I can respect that."

Ruby smiled brightly. "Pretty much! Plus, not every problem can be solved like a chess match. Especially not real-time combat. I mean, what kind of person has that mentality, anyway?"

"I didn't even need your help! In fact, I had the whole thing planned out!"

Weiss and Yang walked together to find the relics. The smoke stack from the fire they created grew smaller and smaller as they got more distance from it.

"I was going to immolate the Beowolf at the front. And while it was still on fire, I—"

"That's not my point," Yang interrupted. "What I'm trying to say is that you have to improvise your way through battles. Nobody is going to give you time to think in a real fight."

"And in a real fight, you need to learn to be more careful the next time you try coming to someone's rescue. I swear, after seeing what happened with Ruby, and then you, it feels like recklessness runs in the family."

Weiss tried to venture forward, but felt a firm grip on her shoulder pulling her back. It swung her around and she found herself facing Yang. But what stood out most wasn't Yang's aggression, but how her eyes were suddenly red.

"That isn't fair!" she argued. "What she did was an accident, and she's been doing her best to make it up to you! Don't you get it!? Last night, she felt bad that she made a bad first impression with you! So could you please take the stick out of your..."

Yang paused as she noted the stunned silence from Weiss. Yang realized Weiss was startled because her Semblance made itself known. She took a moment to close her eyes and calm down. And when she opened them, they returned to their original color.

"You want my advice? You aren't going to get along with whoever our teammates are if you keep acting like a brat. Especially if we end up with Ruby anyway. If it's one thing I learned from raising her is that if you want someone to change for the better, you have to be an example to them."

Weiss glanced down, frowning. "… I suppose I've been acting childish since I got here…" she conceded.

"I don't blame you for what happened. But what's done is done. What matters now is how we work together from here on out. And we can't work together, then we need to learn how to."

She's right, Weiss thought to herself. I've been acting so foolish and lashing out at other people. It isn't going to do any favors for me here. Her focus returned to Yang as she looked up again. "… How the hell did you do that with your eyes?" she wondered.

Yang glanced away sheepishly. "It's something that happens when my fight-or-flight instincts are triggered. Or when I get angry." She returned her full focus to Weiss and smiled. "Either way, it lets me hit things harder. Especially when my Aura is running low. What about yours?"

"Huh? Oh… I can summon glyphs," she answered. "It sounds mundane, but there's plenty of utility behind them. Especially when I use Dust and let it interact with my Semblance."

"Right, that explains the Dust vials in your rapier," Yang commented. "I remember Ruby telling me about those kinds of weapons before we…"

Yang trailed off as she saw movement in her peripheral vision. She turned her head to see a black feather, easily larger than either of them, gently float to the ground. Even more worrying was the high-pitched screeching above them, which only confirmed what was going on: Yang and Weiss's negativity from earlier attracted a Nevermore here. Did it find its way into the Forest? Or was it already roosting here? Whatever the case, it gave Yang a bold idea for a new strategy.

"Hey, Weiss? You used those glyphs of yours for your landing strategy, right?"

"Correct. Why do you ask?"

Yang glanced up at the approaching Nevermore with a confident grin. "I have an idea."