Small World Chapter 1: Haven Academy

Jai Olos flew up her stairs, swinging her bedroom door open. It was the first day of battle school, and somehow she had forgotten where her weapon was. "I don't see it, Darci!"

"Well, keep looking!" her older brother yelled back. "We don't have all day! We're already running late!"

Jai groaned and raced around her room, searching desperately. Someone knocked on her open door to get her attention. She spun around to face Yukai, one of her younger brothers, who was leaning against the door jam. "What are you looking for?" he yawned. "You're being loud. Some of us were trying to sleep."

"My weapon!" Jai yanked a hand through her hair. "I had it last night!" she paused and raised an eye at him. "Aren't you supposed to be getting ready for school, anyway?"

Yukai smirked. "Enh, maybe," he rolled his eyes and jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Your weapon is in the kitchen. I put it there last night so you wouldn't forget it or something stupid like that."

Jai threw a pillow at her brother and flew down the stairs. She spun into the kitchen and snatched her weapon off the table. Her other younger brother, Gemini, sat at the table eating cereal.

"Good luck, J," he smiled at her. He shot her a thumbs up. "Not that you'll need it."

Jai smiled at him. She would never tell her other brothers, but she loved Gemini the most. "I'll miss you, Gemini. Have fun with Payton!" She ran out of the kitchen. "Don't kill Yukai while I'm away!" she called to him over her shoulder.

Jai and Darci dashed out to his car. They shut their doors, and Darci sped off down the road. Jai smiled out the window. This was going to be awesome.

Lior shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He was trying to be patient, but Laura was taking so long.

Lacy nudged him with her hip. "What is it, Li? Getting impatient with your girlfriend?" she teased.

Lior felt his cheeks warm and he rolled his eyes at Lacy. "Real mature, little sister."

"Kids…" his mom sighed. "No sniping at each other on Lior's big day."

"Boo," Lacy crossed her arms.

"Just a sec!" Laura called down from her window. "Just doing a couple last minute things!"

Mason, Laura's younger brother peeked out underneath his sister's arm. "Meaning she forgot to pack, so she she has to do it all right before she leaves."

"Shut it!" Laura shoved her brother back, moving away from the window.

Lior rubbed his forehead. "We're going to be late."

"I said a sec, didn't I?" Laura appeared next to Lior. She laughed and punched him in his arm. "I wouldn't make us late."

"Hey Laura!" Lacy exclaimed. "What do you want to bet that Lior is the shortest person at Haven?"

Lior winced. He hadn't had a growth spurt yet. His mom kept reminding him that boys keep growing until they're eighteen, but when his best friend was several inches taller than him, and his kid sister was the same height, it was pretty difficult to look at the positives.

Laura snorted. "Fifty Lien!"

"I'll chip in that much too!" Lacy giggled.

"So Lior will owe us each 150 Lien, if we're right then?" Lior's mom smiled.

"'Et tu, Brute?'" Lior raised an eyebrow at his mom.

She shrugged, patting his shoulder. "I could use an extra 150 Lien."

"There's always the chance I'm not the shortest person," Lior adjusted the bag on his shoulder. "Come on, let's go." This was starting out great.

"IVEX!" Ivex about had a heart attack when his mom whipped the covers off of him. "We leave in thirty minutes! Have you done anything to get ready?"

Ivex rubbed his face, blearily staring up at his mom. "I have half an hour, I'll be fine," he glanced over at his clock, and his eyes widened. "I have half and hour?!" he leapt out of bed and snatched the bag his mom was holding out for him. He threw open his drawers and began to shove random pieces of clothing into his bag. "You could have warned me!"

"I set six alarms for you, one to go off every hour," his mom took the full bag and zipped it up. "I came in here three times to try to wake you up," she handed him an empty bag. "Fill this with whatever else you're missing, grab a quick breakfast, brush your teeth, and meet me out at the car." She hiked the bag over her shoulder and left the room.

Ivex quickly scanned his room, looking to see if he had any mementos he wanted to take with him to Haven. His eyes landed on a photo on his desk. One of the few family pictures he had. A perfect day, a few weeks after they had moved to Vale.

Ivex gingerly picked the frame up and rubbed his father's face. Why couldn't his dad be like that all the time? Not get drunk and actually be with his family?
Ivex stared at the picture a beat more, his eyebrows creasing slightly, then he slid it into his bag. To remind him, no matter how far he went, his dad always had an effect on him.

He finished his panicked packing, and raced into the kitchen. He grabbed a breakfast bar off the counter and jogged back down the hallway to brush his teeth.

After he was done, he headed out to the car, his bag slung across his shoulder. His mom had started it, and sat in the driver's seat, looking at something on her Scroll. He opened the passenger door and jumped in. "Ready!" he declared, grinning over at his mom.

She clicked her Scroll off and began driving down to the port.

Wenara was hot. That took a lot for someone who was from Vaccuo, but it happened. She had gotten to Haven on one of the first ships, and apparently, Haven's air conditioning was on the fritz. The room was getting crowded, and all of the body heat combined with the lack of air conditioning, it made it really stuffy.

Wenara huffed, scanning the walls. She was looking for a main AC unit, so she could take a look at it. She spotted it and edged her way around the crush of people to the wall. She bent down, and pulled out her wrench. Useful as a weapon, and a tool, she loved it.

Wenara opened the grate and poked around on the inside of it. "Ah ha!" she murmured. "There you are," she re-twisted a loose wire back into place and hit the reset button.

"You don't look like a repairman."

A voice made Wenara jump, causing her to fall over onto her butt. She held a hand up to her eyes and glared up at the boy who had startled her. "I knew how to fix it didn't I?" She rolled her eyes at him. She pushed herself up and jumped to her feet. To her surprise, she found that she could almost look the boy in the eye. She was still shorter, but he was only marginally taller. Wenara counted that as a victory in her books.

"I don't know, maybe you broke it and are trying to pretend you fixed it," the boy smiled. He had a nice smile… Wenara mentally smacked herself to refocus. In doing so, she noticed the boy had a prosthetic hand. Her eyes widened and she grabbed his wrist, yanking it up to her face.

"How did you break this?" she said, studying his hand. "It looks like an expensive model, and strengthened metal!"

The boy raised one shoulder. "I got in a fight a couple days ago."

Wenara pulled a screwdriver out of her belt and fiddled around with his hand. Several of the wires looked like they had been cut with some sort of blade. Wenara tutted to herself. She would never understand the reasons behind misusing a prosthetic.

She grabbed spare wires out of a pocket on her belt and replaced the broken ones in the boy's hand. "You might feel a pinch."

"What do you-" the boy started to say. Wenara twisted the wires into place, reengaging the nerve connection. The boy yelled, yanking his hand away. "What the hell did you do?"

Wenara snatched his hand back and flipped the panel closed, shutting the wires behind a protective piece of metal. "I reengaged the nerve endings. They looked like they hadn't been properly activated."

The boy frowned at her, moving his hand away from her and rubbing his wrist. "It that why I can feel with this hand now?"

Wenara rolled her eyes. "No duh. What kind of mechanics do you have in your kingdom?"

"Fantastic ones," the boy wiggled his prosthetic fingers, looking fascinated by how it moved. "It's just we can't afford them," he pulled a finger less glove out of his pocket and slipped it on his mechanic hand. "I guessed I misjudged you, kid. You actually are a mechanic. Did the headmaster hire you to fix the AC?"

Wenara glared at him. "'Kid'?" she asked indignantly. "You aren't that much taller than me! Did it ever occur to you that I might be a student?"

The boy's eyebrows shot up. "So, you're a student here?"

"Yes!" Wenara huffed. "Or, well, I will be after I pass initiation tomorrow."

The boy pumped his fists into the air. "Yes!" he cried. "I'm not the shortest person at Haven! 150 Lien is mine!"

Jai inched through the crowd, excitement bubbling in her veins. Her first day at battle school! She was completing the circuit in her family! First, her parents went here, now she was the first Olos child to come here! When you're the middle child, you don't get to be first on many things.

Jai bumped into a guy, and she stumbled backwards a little bit. "Sorry! I didn't mean to run into you!"

"No sweat," the boy smiled. "It is really crowded in here. A lot more people showed up this year than when I was a first-year."

Jai smiled back. "It's understandable. Becoming a Huntsman feels so important right now!"
The boy sighed. "I get that, I suppose, but there's still a limited number of students who pass the entrance exam. Not all these people will pass."

"One shot at a big-name academy? All the more reason people are showing up in droves today!" Jai held her hand out to the boy. "I'm Jai Olos, the first-year who's going to kick butt tomorrow at initiation. Who might you be?"

The boy shook her hand. "Dale Ro- Dale. Just Dale. I'm a third-year."

Jai tightened her ponytail. "I know. You hold yourself as a third-year. The second-years have the air of 'oh, look at us, we're older than those baby first-years.' The fourth-years are all like, 'well, time to get ready for my last year in childhood,' or something like that."

Dale blinked at her. "You know this, how?"

Jai shrugged. "My cousin taught me a lot about observation and how to properly use intuition."

A mike squealed, causing everyone's attention to be drawn to the stage. "Hello, Haven hopefuls!" A short, skinny woman smiled at the crowd before her. "Welcome one and all to the Mystralian freak show!"

"Who's she?" Jai whispered to Dale, leaning toward him.

"Alexandra Cato," Dale whispered back. "She's headmaster Leo's favorite prodigy. Got her official Huntress license when she was fourteen. She became a teacher here when she was fifteen. The legend goes that the headmaster was in such awe of her control of her semblance and her surroundings, that he wanted her professionally donned as a Huntress as soon as possible."

"Whoa," Jai breathed. "She sounds amazing."

Dale rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, as a Huntress, she is amazing. As a person… well, let's just say she has some issues."

"…I hope that all of you are as happy and excited about being here as I am!" Alexandra paused in her speech to look down into the audience. "You!" she said, pointing violently at a boy in the middle of the crowd, her demeanor changing in the blink of an eye. "What did you just say?"

"Uh oh," Dale muttered. "Here we go again."

Jai shot him a quizzical look.

Several people around the boy backed up so there was a circle of space around him. "Um…" the boy looked around him. "I-I didn't say anything."

Alexandra snarled at the boy and leapt off the stage, landing neatly in front of him. "I heard what you said, you cowardly child."

The boy backed up, his brow furrowing. Alexandra got up close to his face. "Now repeat it so I can make an example out of you!" she growled.

"I-I asked what a kid was doing in the position of a teacher."

Alexandra swung her right leg up, kicking the boy under the chin and sending him flying through the crowd. She leapt back up to the stage. She reached around to her back and pulled out a katakana. She slammed it into the wood of the stage. "Listen up, Peons! As a school, Haven isn't respected as much as the other, more brutal schools. It's because the other kingdoms think we are 'tree-huggers' and weaklings!" she yanked her sword out of the stage and re-sheathed it. "Some of the greatest Huntsmen have arisen here! I am here to train you to be great! Not to be a pathetic wannabe like him," Alexandra gestured at the boy who had called her short. "Initiation will take place at sunrise tomorrow! If you have a problem with mornings, you will never be a great Huntsman. You are dismissed!"

Dale nudged Jai. "See what I mean? Issues."

Jai laughed. "I think it makes her cool. She doesn't take crap from anybody."

Dale fidgeted with a weapon handle at his hip. "Wait until your first class with her to decide whether she's 'cool' or not."

A girl with magenta hair slid up next to Dale. "Are we done with the whole 'welcome the first-years' task then?" she noticed Jai and she grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, no offense. Human interaction isn't something I do very well."

"Jai, this is my teammate, Risha Locke. Risha, this is Jai Olos," Dale gestured to each of the girls in turn.

Risha saluted Jai with two fingers. "Nice to meetcha! You look like a little badass first-year! What kind of training have you done?"

"My parents and older siblings taught me until I was like, twelve. Then I started attending Green-Leaves."

Risha raised her eyebrows. "Cool! Fancy-shmancy trainee, eh?"

Jai grinned. "You could say that, I guess."

"Sweet," Risha clapped Dale on the shoulder. "Well, have fun with your first-year, Dale-o! I'm gonna go find Guy and Norse, we'll see you back at the dorm!" Risha danced off through the crowd.

Jai blinked over at Dale. "She's… energetic."

Dale chuckled. "Put mildly, yes, she is."

The next morning…

Ivex fidgeted with the ring that controlled his weapon. He wasn't nervous, exactly, more of like a toxic mashup of anxious and pumped. He wanted to show off, but he was afraid it would make him look like a loser if he did something wrong. Oh, why did he not go to Beacon with Jodi? It would have made things so much easier.

Alexandra stood in front of the upcoming first-years, along with another female teacher and headmaster Lionheart. She spoke in hushed tones with them until the last of the first-years arrived. Several of the first-years were yawning, or just looking like they needed coffee. One girl looked like she had too much coffee, and was bouncing up and down on her toes, grinning madly.

"Good morning, initiates!" Alexandra smirked at them. "I see a few of you who are already failing initiation," this caused the yawning students to straighten and pretend to be awake. "Now, the rules for Haven's initiation are simple. Your goal will be to kill a Grimm, and make it out of the dome alive. The Grimm are set up in pairs, so whoever kills the same Grimm as you will be your partner.

"We have a point system regarding the Grimm, and this is how your teams will be made. Highest scores will be paired with each other, lower with lower, etc. You will be scored according to these four things; efficiency, speed, difficulty and comprehension.

"The main rule you have to follow is this, you can only kill one Grimm. Any more, and it messes up the pairing system," Alexandra folded her hands behind her back. "Oh, and Spunky?" she looked at the girl who had been bouncing. "You might want to save that energy for when you're in the dome. All of you will be in there until the last Grimm has been killed."

"Please do your best to help others without breaking the rule," Headmaster Lionheart said, nervously tapping his fingers together. "We don't want to deal with a dead student today."

Ivex rolled his eyes. If someone was that incapable, they should've left the night before. What Huntsman couldn't take on a single Grimm? How hard could it be?

Wenara tried to stifle her yawning on the ride to the eastern entrance to the dome. She wasn't used to getting up early in her normal time, but here in Mistral, where the time was three hours ahead of Vaccuo's, it was downright torture. Wenara did some quick math in her head, and determined that it was three a. m. in her normal time. Sickening.

The vehicle stopped, and the first-years with Wenara all got out, entering the intimidating entrance of the dome. The dome was like nothing Wenara had seen before. A forest was encased with a clear material, glass or plastic, Wenara assumed. It had four entrances, north, south, east, and west. It was huge, probably several square miles of space.

"Hello random stranger I have never met!" a girl chirped. "Are you much of a gambler?"

Wenara raised a wary eye at the girl. "What?"

The girl giggled, and dashed off ahead of Wenara. "Never mind!"

Weird Mystralians. Even though the scary Cato woman claimed they weren't all tree-huggers, that girl had literal flower petals chasing her.

Wenara pulled her wrench out and pushed it into the air, gripping it tightly. Her telekinesis was odd. She couldn't directly use it on herself, but if she used it on things adjacent to herself, she could manipulate it as easy as anything else. Also, whenever she had first unlocked her semblance, she was able to push her emotions and memories out and attach them to objects. She couldn't do that anymore.

Wenara perched herself in a tree and scanned the landscape before her. The pairs of Grimm stayed mostly in their pairs, not engaging with the other Grimm. It was pretty much a definite that whatever Grimm you killed, you would be able to see your partner, since the Grimm stayed so close to one another.

"Great," Wenara muttered. "I was hoping to keep my partner a secret until we were told who our teammates were."

Wenara heard rustling in the leaves behind her. She elongated her weapon and activated the electric dust inside of it. A Beringel sat in the branches behind her, its gaze never leaving her face. Wenara slowly backed away from the creature of darkness, edging her way to the end of the branch. As far as the type of Grimm went, this was going to be slightly different than in Vaccuo.

Wenara's hand twitched with pent-up energy, tense and ready to fight. A shower of sparks flitted to the ground. The Grimm roared at the light and lunged across the branch at Wenara.

"Oh hell," Wenara back flipped off the branch, finding herself soaring through the open air. Her eyes stayed peeled for the second gorilla creature. The creature leaped off the branch after her, it's massive paw swiping at Wenara's torso. "You bothersome little-" she landed on the ground, bending her knees to absorb some of the shock. She threw her wrench at the Beringel, ramping it's speed and tenacity with her semblance. It flew into the Beringel's shoulder, causing it to let out an earsplitting cry.

Wenara called her weapon back, ripping it out of the Grimm. "Take that you measly piece of garbage!"

A low growl resonated in the Grimm's throat. It flexed its working paw and lunged at Wenara. Wenara reacted quickly, pulling a boulder out of the ground and dropping it on the Grimm's head.

The Grimm faded into the normal black smoke, and Wenara smirked down at her prey. "Who's the scary one now, big guy?"

A tree slammed down next to Wenara, causing her to jump. A cry of despair tore into Wenara, and she spun around. "Oh, joy. Here's its partner."

Lior spun, narrowly dodging the Nevermore, and slamming himself into a concrete structure. He could take it on, but he was off his game today. Maybe it was the stress of needing to do well in initiation, or just knowing that somewhere in the dome, Laura was doing ten times as good as he was, but either way, it was wearing on him.

Lior swapped his sword to his prosthetic hand, grateful to the girl who had fixed it for him. Stupid Nevermore. Out of all the creatures, Lior had to end up with the giant, flying, projectile-shooting Grimm.

Don't panic, he told himself. He refocused on the Grimm flying toward him. You can do this.

Then suddenly, a girl was on top of the Nevermore, riding it like it was a horse. Or something. "I know you had this completely under control, but I was bored!" The girl waved at him.

Lior grinned. She obviously didn't know his signs for fatigue, but she was a kind soul, and he wasn't stupid enough to decline help. He aura-boosted himself off the ground, and angled his sword to the Nevermore. He let gravity take control and sliced his sword into the Nevermore's neck. It screamed and the girl began laughing. "You're good at this!" She called, leaping off the bird as it faded away. "Nice to meet you, partner."

"You just rigged that didn't you?"
The girl laughed again. "I may have. I saw you were good, and you had a calm head, so I decided I wanted you on my team."

Lior smiled at her. "I'm happy you think I'm worthy to be on a team with a girl who rides Nevermore for fun."

"Not always. Sometimes it's an Ursa," she winked. "I'm Jai Olos."

"Charmed," Lior was going to like being on a team with this girl. She reminded him of Laura, in a way. "Lior Caste."

Ivex didn't want to kill the Grimm, or it wouldn't have been his first choice anyway, but he did. Just like Jodi was always saying, he never failed to be a reluctant hero.

"I could have handled it," the short girl pouted. "You didn't have to be a swashbuckler."

"You're welcome, you ungrateful brat," Ivex pushed through the large leaves. "Maybe I should have just left you for dead, Clumsy."

"I'm not clumsy!" the girl snapped. "Would you like it if I called you Dumb Jerk the rest of your life?"

"That's not a creative nickname, Clumsy. Surely you could do better than that."

"Stop calling me clumsy!"

Ivex sighed and pressed on through the foliage. "Make sure to keep up. I don't want to wait on your tiny legs."

A metal rod slammed into the back of his head, causing him to yelp in pain. "What did you do that for?" he twisted around to face the girl.

"Don't call me short, you imbecile."

Ivex chuckled and turned around again. "'Imbecile' is much better than dumb jerk, but you could still be more creative."

It took two and a half hours for all the Grimm to be killed. That evening, all the first-years got to have a party, celebrating themselves, and learning who their teammates would be.

Wenara grabbed onto Ivex's arm and hissed.

"What?" he asked, yanking his arm away.

Wenara pointed at a girl across the room. "Its D-Dream girl!"

Ivex sighed and sipped his drink. "I thought you were into guys."

Wenara smacked him. "Not like that, bastard! I mean I literally had a dream about her when I was six!"

Ivex poured some cherry punch into a glass and handed it to his partner. "You're imagining things, Clumsy."

"...And now, for the highest scoring team tonight, give it up for team JWIL!" Headmaster Lionheart adjusted his microphone. "I would like to call these four, high achieving students up to become a team. Fate has chosen you as her war bringers.

"Team JWIL, lead by, Jai Olos. Followed by her new team, Wenara Rojas, Ivex Mcleal, and Lior Caste!"

There was a smattering of applause in the room as the four teenagers made their way up to the stage. Jai caught Wenara's eye and smirked. "Is this what you signed up for?" she whispered.

Wenara's eyes widened. "Beats being thrown off a cliff for sure, dream girl."

"To the connecting past and future," Jai nodded at Wenara, and then drew her attention back to the Headmaster.

A / N: Okay! This is a bit rushed because I was trying to finish on time! Here it is, the true beginnings of the Chronicles of the DreamMaster!

/Kronos\\