Finally back with yet another chapter! And this is a short one, but hopefully, a more welcome one to take a break!

I finally got a job, and with more work comes less time to write than usual...even in these long intervals when I upload. However, I sincerely am thankful for anybody who still enjoys these stories! I am about to deliver an extra or Omake chapter for all those in the audience.

For the most part, the following chapters are more for the characters to relax from the plot, and to enjoy their hobbies. Think of these like...support conversations that you'd find in Fire Emblem Awakening! If you think of it like that, I'm sure you'll understand why they can be so brief!

That, and it's something to hold you guys over before my take on volume 2 of RWBY! And I am thinking of keeping these pumpkin' steady when I can, and preferably at a pace where you guys would be able to enjoy them. Again, I am sorry for the short chapter after waiting so long, but I can assure you this is for me, and the sake of a good establishment of characters, events, and dynamics for the future.

Anyways, I don't own RWBY, as that right goes to Rooster Teeth!

Enjoy!


Side Chapter 1: History Test? What History Test!?


Sable didn't consider himself an academic. No, that's more Frey's deal, and his own problem to deal with at all times. Still, at least Sable knew how to read and write as the old man had taught him; education doesn't come cheap, but with the right mentor one could learn a few things…

Even if some of them are unnecessarily difficult. He scowled with a crease of his pale brow, as he tapped his pencil on the sheet of paper that lay on the wooden desk. Professor Oobleck's history test was currently underway, and it was dead silent. Who could complain?

Even if the professor scoured them all from his podium, he never stayed in one place across his stage. Oobleck paced in front of the lower seats, always scouring and making sure that everybody had their eyes down and being honest students. His steps were an omen, sure enough, to capture anybody who dared to look up. They would be met with a stone-faced Oobleck, uncharacteristically quiet from before.

It seems that tests are the only thing he takes seriously, even if he also goes too fast for anybody to see.

Like...way too fast. Sable groaned silently to himself, but he seemed resigned all the same. This is the test they had to prepare for?


"A study session?" Sable asked as he sat in his bed, hunched over with his arms on his knees. "What for?"

"What else? Don't tell me you already forgot about Professor Oobleck's test tomorrow." Frey paced around their dorm room, seemingly disappointed but more refined and serious. Almost comically at that.

"Oh, right, that bullshit." Sable raised his head, rolling his eyes.

"Language, and as for you-" Frey directed his finger towards Ragnar, who was just about to walk out the door before letting out a croak at Frey's sights set upon him. "No dilly-dallying off to the training room. You are all coming with me."

"C'mon broseph, don't make me study history!" Ragnar pleaded with clapped hands and a nervous grin. "Biology, Grimm Studies, or even combat trainin', I'm all ears, but anything with history is a no-go for me! I'll fail, I swear!"

"Hmph, not with my guidance." Frey folded his arms into a confident but...almost mature smirk at that. He did take great pride in his studies, as much as it pained Sable to admit.

"Okay, but why ya need to drag us into your snore-fest?" Sable shrugged as he raised a brow, standing up and leaning on the wall. "None of us are failin' our grades."

"None of you?" Frey blinked in disbelief, before sighing and then exclaiming. "The both of you are failing history, and thank the Brothers not much else. How you two managed to barely get C's in your studies is baffling!"

"What's that supposed to mean, four-eyes!?" Sable exclaimed as he pointed a finger at Lilac. "If we're failing History, then why the heck are you not bringing in Lilac into this!?"

Said horse Faunus, is just watching all this from the window, eating a graham cracker...crunching loudly. He just watched this with a silly grin on his face.

"He's just chewing graham crackers, and you're not calling him out!?" Sable growled.

"Oh, he does not need to," Frey started with a simple tone to it.

"HUH!?" Ragnar and Sable exclaimed at that.

"A+'s all around, baby~!" Lilac muffled out with graham crackers in his mouth, raising his fingers in a V sign for victory, winking all the while. "Too bad for you losers, I'm free from the study session!"

"Oh, hell no!" Suddenly, Lilac would have his cheek pulled by Sable. "If we're going to suffer for this, you're gonna suffer with us!"

"Owowowowowowowow!" Lilac winced out with repeated laughter, but Frey simply sighed and shook his head with...slight embarrassment.

"This isn't some torture method...it's merely studying, I'm sure you can handle that much…?" Frey folded his arms, brushing his tousled hair out of his eyes.

"Tch…" Sable clicked his teeth and kept pulling Lilac by the cheek as he began walking out the door. "Let's just get this over with…"

"Wait, we doin' this broseph!?" Ragnar let out a croak of nervousness, before being pulled by the shoulder by Frey as well.

"Yes, indeed we are." Ignoring Ragnar's pleas and cries for help, Frey pulls his teammate along.


Surprisingly, Lilac decided to study History this time during the study session. It had only been a brief 3 hours of annoyances and booger-balls by Lilac, but Sabl;e managed to cram some information into his noggin meant for combat and swinging swords.

Luckily, Ragnar wasn't cheating on this ridiculously difficult test in particular. Professor Oobleck had informed them days prior that this would take thorough studying to even get through! And while most of Sable wanted to ditch that shit, Frey wouldn't allow that.

Save for a few mumbles from Ragnar next to him, who grinned out of nervousness as he sweated bullets, everything was dead silent. If anybody was more hopeless with history or anything remotely academic, it would be Ragnar 'The Firecracker' Periwinkle.

Sable's hazel-skinned teammate clicked his teeth, tapping his mechanical pencil up to his temple, although the pencil's straining and bending with Ragnar's strength. Even when wearing his school uniform, he somehow manages to fit his mechanical prosthetics into them without dangling with the fabric or tearing it.

To Sable's right, Lilac hummed a silent but carefree jingle as he began to flip over his pamphlet. A smug smirk flashed towards Sable at that particular instance, enough for the wolf Faunus to twitch a brow in mild vexation.

Tch, history buff...coming out of a prankster moron! Sable thought harshly and sighed into his open hands as he wracked his brain for the first few answers.

30 minutes already passed, and the test started about the same time! They only had at least 45 minutes left to finish the test!

And it seemed that Sable wasn't the only one struggling along with Ragnar, he looked up to the corner of his eye and noticed a struggling Ruby, up in the seats above him to the right. She seemed even more nervous than him, and her eyes shook as she nervously chuckled under her breath.

For a brief moment, that comforted Sable. If there was anything he could at least give, it was that Ruby had the most trouble with this sort of material. Especially since she skipped two years, it would be natural that she gets stumped on something mundane like history.

But Frey and Lilac kept badgering him with the facts, but also the ramblings of why history is important.

Don't make the same mistakes, I get that...but what if there are things better left forgotten? Sable frowned at that, as while there are so many things he'd rather forget...he also caught himself as he answered the easiest question he could find in his pamphlet.

Why should he run away? He wasn't a coward...let alone a weakling. Sable doesn't run from fights, and neither does he give up. That's what he told himself every day, hoping it would make his decision to come to Beacon Academy worthwhile.

Then why is this test so unbelievably hard!? WHAT IS IT WITH THESE QUESTIONS!? He nearly snarled out in frustration, his face twisting into a deep scowl that he oozed with a murderous intent.

To kill these questions to death, so that he doesn't have to think about it anymore!

Regardless, he had been stuck particularly on a few essay questions that stumped him...and he already scoured his pamphlet for the easy questions.

Fighting Grimm and other chumps like Cardin is easier territory…multiple choice questions, true or false Statements, and essay questions?

Bunk that shit.

'The Kingdom of Vale has prospered due to two natural borders over the years. List the two, and explain in detail why they were essential.

Honestly speaking, this was one of the easier essay questions that Sable had to deal with. He curled a brow, and kept tapping his pencil to his noggin at the idea.

Okay, so...if he remembered correctly, he and the old man lived on Patch Island, just off the north-west coast of Vale. Even if Patch Island has its own patches of dead forests where Grimm lay, it wasn't bad enough to be considered uninhabitable. Now that he started thinking, the beaches and seas surrounding Patch were quiet. Too shallow for anything really...maybe for a few eels and fish, but not enough for any threat.

Wait… Sable narrowed his eyes in thought. If there was an entire ocean covering Vale on one-side...that would be alright. But then what about the mainland? Sable vaguely remembers Frey having told him something regarding the fact that main-land settlements were too dangerous, but that otherwise they were protected by another natural border.

If the ocean was one main element...then what was the other one?

I got it! Sable widened his eyes, and chuckled to himself as he wrote down his answer. Essentially, the ocean on one side along the north-west coast had shallow waters, which allowed for safety in catching fish. And the mountain range on the eastern side of Vale and all other settlements allows for difficult traversal for most Grimm to even consider moving through. Considering the concentration of Grimm nests in those areas, it's most likely that the natural border would allow Vale to prosper against its enemies.

And as Sable jotted down all of his answers, he managed to find a good foothold. He brushed his brow, and for a moment felt at ease that he at least got it down. One essay answers down, and like...3 more left to go.

By the Brother's...have some mercy...! He sighs audibly, enough to warrant a clearing of Ooblecks throat, who simply gestures with a finger to his lips.

Sable rolls his eyes and nods. It was one sigh...at least show some mercy.

Even then, Sable stretched his back and shoulders...thinking to himself.

Is all this studying necessary to become a Huntsman? He doubts it, but with how Frey would get on his case about this, it seemed...oddly contradictory.

Even the old man said he wouldn't have the young pup lose education over his pursuit of power. So in the end, he taught him all sorts of stuff. Regarding Remnant, even some fairy tales...although Sable took those less seriously. There's no need to think about something really trivial anyways to begin with.

Not like they did him any good.

He frowns to himself at that thought, but dispels it as he decides to focus more on the test, running the time to its end.


Ragnar busted the door to his dorm open with his kick before slumping and groaning all the way into his bed, slopping the sheets over his body as he muffled into the pillow of his bed.

"Ragnar, don't be dramatic, at least you didn't fail." Frey pushed his glasses up with one finger, before sighing as he took a seat at his own study desk in the dorm room which the team stayed in.

"But he ain't a lucky joe like me~" Lilac chimed in with a singing voice as he pranced around the center of the room in circles with his graded pamphlet. A+'s all around as before, and Sable didn't really appreciate that.

Which is why he lazily stuck out a foot, and Lilac would trip on it right down to his face.

"Luck had nothing to do with it, midget." Sable rolled his eyes but stretched his shoulders in circles as he went to his bed and laid down. It seems that even after all this time, Sable was just as tired and exhausted over something so stupid. And useless at that. "But fuck, that coffee-addict sure doesn't hold back with the questions…"

"Sable, he is a professor at Beacon, I'd be more concerned if he did hold back and provided safe questions as opposed to challenging ones." Frey seemed to take one of his coursebooks and began flipping through the pages, the window proving a nice light of the sunset.

"I feel you and I have different definitions of safe and challenging, specs." Sable quirked a brow, deadpanning. "Essay Questions up the ass are not challenging, that's bullshit!"

"Language, Sable." Frey turned from his seat, looking over his shoulder to give a firm glance at Sable.

"Bull. Shit. Frey." Sable emphasized his crass wording, prompting another stern glare from Frey.

Suddenly, a pillow was thrown between the two of them, the two of them then turning in confusion to a peeved and drowsy Ragnar. "Look, y'all can argue some more once I get my snooze, aight…? My brain hurts...!"

Sabel and Frey blinked for a moment, before sighing and rolling their eyes at the same time. Frey went back to his studies, while Sable cracked his neck and stood up from his bed. "Bunk this…" He groans as he traipses onwards out the door.

Ragnar groaned as he just turned in his bed, and took a moment to just...curl up in his sheets and snore. The firecracker fizzled out, and Frey, the real academic of the group, resumed his studies. The silence of the dorm hung thick, only a bit awkward and the slightest bit tense.

Lilac rolled from his spot on the ground onto his back, and spread-eagled he just chuckled to himself. "Heh...he'll be back."

"He always does." Frey stated that with a confident tone to it.


And you have reached the end of this short chapter! I used it mostly as a writing exercise while using some of my other characters, but at the same time to establish a few character details between SLFR. I hope y'all enjoyed it, and I can promise you that the next side-chapter is gonna be a little bit longer, if also a bit more focused on some of the dynamics of each character.

Anyways, leave a review, favorite, or follow of your own choice!

This has been the Maelstrom, and I will see you in the horizon!