Disclaimer: This chapter has some bladesmithing in it. I've never smithed a blade in real life so I don't know how accurate my depiction of it is. All my info came from a couple of youtube videos.
A reminder that words in italics are thoughts.
"What type of weapon are you getting her?" Azure sat at a table in some restaurant she liked. She was eating steak and eggs.
"I want to get her a basic scythe with no enhancements or anything like that, once she's learned to properly wield it she can forge her own," Qrow sat across from her sipping his coffee.
Ruby sat at their table too but she was busy devouring four omelets.
"Just a basic steel scythe then?" Azure hummed.
"That'll be fine, but if she's anything like you she won't be satisfied with two weapons, I won't be surprised if she ends up wielding a whole armory like you."
"That's good, you need diversity to keep fights from becoming boring. I don't have any scythes on hand because there not exactly a common weapon but I can have one ready by tomorrow."
"That's fine, we're not in a rush we can spend up to three months here before moving out, that should be enough time for you to imprint your knowledge of forging into her brain, right?"
"Definitely not, unless she's some type of once in a lifetime prodigy it'll take at least 6 months to teach her everything she needs to know to forge a perfect weapon, and that's with her spending most of her free time learning how to forge," Azure shook her head, it didn't seem likely that Ruby would be able to learn everything she needed in only three months.
"Ruby loves weapons just as much as you so I think you'll find it much more possible than you think," Qrow downed the rest of his coffee "Well, you should start your first lesson today if we're so tight for time, you know where I normally stay, drop her off there when she's done, or you can let her stay with you." With that said he walked out of the restaurant to do god knows what.
Azure looked over at Ruby expecting her to be sad that her uncle left her with a stranger, instead Ruby was completely oblivious she didn't even realize that her uncle had left. Those omelets must be pretty good. She sweatdropped at the girl's complete lack of situational awareness. Guess that's something we'll have to work on.
Azure finished her food and gave Ruby a little more time to finish hers. "Where's uncle Qrow?" Ruby finally realized the absence of her uncle.
"He left you here with me so we could start your forging lessons."
"Oh, let's go I wanna make a cool weapon," Ruby didn't seem to care about her uncle's abandonment.
"You're gonna have to learn basic smithing theory before you can start forging. Come on I have a scythe to make and your gonna help me."
"A scythe?" Ruby questioned
"Yup, today's the first day of your apprenticeship, and im making you a scythe."
"Coooooooooool," Ruby had always liked her uncle's scythe and now she was getting one of her own. With their little conversation over they made their way back to Azure's forge.
Ruby followed Azure back to her forge. When they arrived they went straight from the waiting room to a room that was full of various kinds of blueprints and measuring tools. "This is my planning room, I measure the user and draw the blueprint for their weapon here," Azure informed Ruby as she dug around for something.
"Why would you need to measure the user?" Ruby asked standing behind Azure.
"You don't always measure the user but it helps to understand how your going to craft the weapon, if im making a weapon for a tall muscular guy it'll be different than one for a short fat guy."
"Oh, that makes sense."
"Aha found it," Azure cheered finding a tape measure.
"Alright I'm gonna measure you, hold your arms up like this," Azure requested holding her arms in a T-pose. Ruby followed the order holding her arms out in an identical pose. Azure brought the tape measure from Ruby's left hand to her right hand. "Remember all the measurements I tell you and tell them to me when I ask, arm span is about 100cm," she moved the tape measure to Rubys feet and up to her head "105 centimeters for your height," she circled the tape measure around Rubys waist "about 20 centimeters for your waist, im skipping your bust no point in measuring that."
Azure grabbed a blank paper and a pencil, "Ok Ruby I need arm span."
"100cm," Ruby recalled
"Good," Azure complemented as she drew the number down on her paper.
"hight?"
"105cm," Azure wrote the measurement down again.
"Waist?"
"20cm."
"Good, good, what was your bust size."
"You didn't measure that," Ruby reminded Azure.
"Very good you remembered all of those perfectly," Azure smiled.
"Grab a pencil and paper where gonna draw your starter scythe together," Azure instructed Ruby.
Ruby searched around the somewhat cluttered room for a little while before she found a clean sheet of paper and a pencil. "Found em," Ruby announced sitting down on the ground next to Azure.
"Good when you draw don't press down and the paper hard it'll break the pencil and make it hard to erase mistakes." Ruby nodded at the advice. "Draw your scythe and I'll draw mine then we'll compare them to each other," Azure instructed as she began writing on her paper.
It only took Azure about 10 minutes to get her blueprint complete. It took Ruby about 30 minutes to complete her blueprint. "Ok show me your blueprint and then I'll show you mine," Azure instructed.
Ruby turned her paper over to Azure. On her paper, there was a scythe with an extra curved blade, the handle was simple just a line. "Well for your first blueprint it's not that bad, the curve of the blade is a bit much, let me show you mine," Azure flipped her paper over to Ruby.
Azure's paper was much more detailed, each part of the blade had a measurement attached to it, the blade of the scythe was still curved but not as extremely as Ruby's, the blade had the word "STEEL" attached to it while the handle had the word "REINFORCED WOOD" attached to it. The blueprint also had the scythe drawn in multiple different angles.
"Woahhhhh it's so much better than mine," Ruby was amazed by the well-drawn blueprint.
"You can make one just as good with a little practice. Now that this is done we can go start the forging of the scythe," Azure stood up from the ground with her blueprint in hand and made her way to the forge.
Ruby walked into the forge behind Azure. "Woah," Ruby exclaimed. The forge was huge easily bigger than the reception area and the planning room combined, there were different kinds of tools all over the room hammers, screwdrivers, chisels, files, even a few pickaxes. Besides the tools there were multiple forges and machines, Ruby had no clue what the machines were used for.
"Welcome to my forge, this is where the magic happens," Azure gestured around the room.
"..." Ruby was speechless, she had bought a couple of weapons magazines when she was in Vale with her dad, she mostly looked at the pictures, but none of them had anything like this in them they normally only had the weapons in them.
"I know it's cool but we need to get the show on the road I have a lot to teach you and very little time, go over there and grab one of the ingots labeled steel," Azure ordered pointing over to a stand full of different metals.
Ruby nodded and ran over to the area she was pointed in, careful not to stub her toe's on the tools haphazardly left on the ground. "Steel, steel, steel," she muttered looking over the various metals. "Here it is," Ruby grabbed the metal that had the same label as the blade of her scythe on the blueprint.
"I found it!" Ruby yelled running over to Azure who had started one of the forges while she was finding the steel.
"Throw it in here," Azure pointed into the forge. Ruby nodded and threw the ingot into the forge. Azure shifted it around a little bit with her gauntleted fingers and turned back to Ruby. "Now we wait."
"Well I'll be damned I haven't seen your ugly mug around here in years!" a drunken voice shouted from across the room.
Qrow sighed "Hunter I was here like six months ago, I think you've been drinking too much if you think I've been away for years."
"Yer one to talk yer the heaviest drinker I know," a shaggy brown haired man stumbled up to him, his green cloak was stained by some beer that had leaked from his mouth. His brown eye's where cloudy and foggy from the substance clouding his mind. His scruffy beard was crusty from the dry beer in it.
"I'll have you now this is the first drink I've had in a month," Qrow bit back at the drunk man as he slowly sipped his glass of whiskey.
"A whole month I know that's *Hic* bullshit," Hunter stumbled onto the chair next to Qrow.
The drunkness seemed to almost fade completely "So how've ya been ya old bird?"
"I've been better, im taking care of my niece now. How's the single life been?"
"Single? I'm not single I bed beautiful damsels nightly the real question is where are your fair maidens," the moment of soberness faded.
"I see you found this lonely drunk already," a new voice cut into their conversation, turning around they saw Lloyd standing behind them, his plate armor replaced by a grey long sleeve shirt and blue jeans.
"Lloyd! Im not lonely," Hunter proclaimed drunkenly swinging his fists at Lloyd.
Lloyd shifted out of the way of the drunk man and took his seat next to Qrow. "So where's the pipsqueak?"
"I left her with Azure, there getting along well," Qrow answered as he passed a glass of whisky over to Lloyd.
Lloyd grabbed the glass and began sipping it like Qrow. "So she actually took a liking to her?"
"Yup even took her on as an apprentice," Qrow answered.
"Azure took on someone as an apprentice? That's not something you hear every day," Hunter sat on Qrows left side ordering another beer from the bartender. "So who's this pipsqueak im hearing about, Ruby I think was her name?" Hunter asked grabbing his beer and downing it in seconds.
"She's my niece, due to special circumstances I've taken her on as an apprentice." Qrow raised his glass at the barkeep, a gesture the barkeep recognized as a request for a refill.
"Well she must be special to get Azure to take her on as an apprentice," Hunter chugged another mug of beer.
"Well, she's able to take on packs of beowolfs and small ursa's, at only four years old, if that doesn't say something nothing does."
"PFFFFFFFFFF!" Hunter spit his new mug of beer across the room. "She's only 4 and you brought her here of all places Are you crazy!?"
"I don't see the problem with it," Qrow deadpanned.
"Hunter has a point, Estela isn't exactly the safest place for a four year old even if they're able to slay grimm before they've learned how to read." Lloyd who had been silent up until this point butted in agreeing with Hunter.
"I have my reasons, part of which was coming here and getting harbinger upgraded and teaching Ruby how to make her own weapon," Qrow ordered a third glass of whisky his cheeks turning slightly pink.
"Hey pretty lady how's about making my bed warm tonight," Hunter went off trying to woo a lady to sleep with him.
"Ew get away from me *Slap*" Hunter fell next to them with a bright red handprint on his face.
"Seems your "charm" hasn't faded in my absence," Qrow laughed at Hunter's bad luck.
"Get out of here that semblance of yours is making it hard to find a fair maiden," Hunter wined at Qrow tears streaming from his eyes.
"Oh yeah, it's my semblance that's doin it," Qrow remarked sarcastically.
Hunter stood up off of the ground and tried to sit down, unfortunately his shoelace was untied so he tripped and hit his chin on the bar.
"HA! Now that was my semblance," Qrow chuckled at Hunter.
"After two hours of hammering heating cooling grinding and sharpening your scythe is ready," Azure announced holding Ruby's scythe above her head.
"Finally," Ruby mumbled falling to the ground in exhaustion. Azure had run her ragged. She was forced to run around the forge grabbing any tools requested by Azure and that wasn't even the worse part, when she told Azure what her semblance was she was forced to run in circles to "build her stamina."
"I figured you would be excited to have a scythe, you don't seem excited at all," Azure chuckled.
"One. Second. Can't breathe," Ruby wheezed out still catching her breath.
"Catch your breath, you did really good any tools I asked for were given to me reasonably fast, I'll start teaching you smithing theory tomorrow, we won't start any hands-on smithing for a couple of days."
Ruby sat up still slightly out of breath but doing better. "Why can't I start forging tomorrow?"
"It's important to understand basic smithing theory before forging anything," Ruby looked ready to argue so Azure decided to change the topic. "Here's the new scythe. You should swing it around a bit and get used to the weight and balance," Azure smirked handing the new weapon to Ruby.
Ruby's eye's sparkled as she inspected the new weapon. The blade was basic steel, curved just like the blueprint she had been shown. The difference between this scythe blade and a normal scythe blade besides the size was the blade being in two sections the main part which looked like a bigger version of a real scythe and the back part which resembled a hook. The handle was simple wood painted black.
Ruby swung the blade around admiring the balance of such a disproportionate weapon. Ruby reinforced the blade with her aura making it glow crimson.
Azures eye's, widened Qrow wasn't kidding when he said she was a prodigy to be able to use aura enhancement at such a young age. It's amazing. Azure was in awe, most didn't learn aura enhancement until their first year at one of the four academies.
Ruby turned to Azure her face split by a psychotic grin. The grin made Azure shiver, she didn't even resemble the cute girl from earlier. In a storm of rose petals Azure was forced to the ground. "Thank you so much, my scythe's beautiful."
Ruby was still grinning like a psycho but because she was hugging Azure she couldn't see the girl's face. "Your welcome, but if you think that's cool wait till I teach you to make a custom scythe of your own with better material."
Ruby stood up still grinning crazily "I can't wait let's start now."
"Ok sure..." Azure looked a little confused from Ruby's rapid mood switches.
The next day 12:35 Pm
"Ugh I feel like I was hit by a train," Qrow grumbled sitting up from his resting place. *Snore* *Snore* The obnoxious sound of snoring assaulted his ears. Looking around he found the culprit "Hunter?" "Where the hell am I?" Qrow looked around finding that he was laying on a bench in the... park. *SNOREEEEEEEE!* Hunter's snoring grew even louder causing a tic mark to form on Qrow's head. "WAKE UP!" Qrow shouted throwing a random beer bottle on the floor at Hunter's head.
The snoring quit's for a second, before starting up again Hunter not caring about a glass bottle hitting his head. "What's with all the noise?" A tired voice wondered from behind Qrow. Turning around Qrow found Lloyd slumped against a tree with bags under his eyes.
"Blame Hunter he's snoring logs," Qrow grumbled throwing another bottle at Hunter, it had no effect.
"I'll get him up in a second," Lloyd mumbled closing his eyes again.
"Good. So, what happened the last thing I remember is Hunter getting slapped around for trying to flirt with some girl?" Qrow asked clutching his hungover head.
"You don't remember, we got shit faced, got kicked out the bar, and ended up buying more alcohol from the store then we came to this park, one thing led to another, and Hunter tried flirting with a girl, he failed, and was beat up by a group of four girls, the entire time this was happening you and me were laughing our ass's off," Lloyd caught him up on the previous night.
"Hmmmm" Qrow hummed. "Sounds about right."
Lloyd stood up and walked over to Hunter, in the most girlish voice he could muster Lloyd cooed, "Don't go falling asleep now, it was just getting good."
Hunter sprung awake "I would never disappoint, my lady please proceed to third base."
"PFFFFFFFF" Qrow burst into laughter at Hunter's ignorance.
After looking around for a bit Hunter groaned "Lloyd how many times have I told you not to do that."
"Too many to count but your reaction is priceless every time," Lloyd sat on the bench next to Qrow cracking up.
Hunter looked at his watch "weren't you supposed to be at work 40 minutes ago?"
"Oh, shit..." Lloyd's eyes widened. "Bye see you guys later," Lloyd yelled over his shoulder as he ran off to his guard post.
"That reminds me, I left Ruby with Azure I should check on them," Qrow stood up pulling a pair of sunglasses out of his pocket, "See ya later Hunter," Qrow waved walking off.
"See ya," Hunter responded walking off in a direction of his own.
Ruby groggily opened her eyes. She was laying on the ground of the forge her new scythe laying next to her. "So your finally awake, took you long enough," Azure's voice shook the rest of the sleepiness away. "Get up, remember we talked about you forging something if you managed to cram in all the knowledge you needed, well you did, so you can forge your first knife."
"I remember, what am I forging the knife out of?" Ruby asked standing up and walking over to the metals.
"I want you to make a standerd kitchen knife using your knowledge gained last night, decide what metal to use," Azure ordered laying back in her chair.
Ruby grabbed the metal marked carbon steel. Ruby walked over to one of the forges and activated it. Ruby set the hunk of metal in the forge to heat. While the metal heated she drew a rough sketch of the shape and measurements of the blade. After about 5 minutes she pulled it out of the forge and began hammering it into the shape of a knife.
*Ding* *Ding* *Ding* The sound of the bell in Azure's reception area distracted Azure from watching Ruby's work. "*Sigh* Ruby keep working I'll be back in a second!" She yelled going to see who was at the front desk, she barely heard Ruby's "Ok!"
Qrow stood in Azure's reception area. It didn't take long for Azure to exit the forge this time. "You here for Ruby?"
"Yeah, I think it's time to start her scythe lessons," Qrow answered.
"Your gonna have to put that on hold, she's forging her first knife right now."
"Already? I figured it would take at least a week before she could do anything like that," Qrow raised his eyebrow.
"She stayed up all night watching me work and studying the processes of forging, so I let her start her first knife," Azure shrugged.
"Can I come in?"
"Sure just don't distract Ruby or I'll have to kick you out," Azure led Qrow to the forge. When they arrived they found Ruby hammering some glowing steel that was in the distinct shape of a knife.
After getting the steel in her desired shape Ruby placed it back in the forge and let it heat again, once it was heated she pulled it out and let it cool till the orange glow had completely faded, she repeated this process 3 times.
Using some of the grinding machines in the forge Ruby smoothed out the sides of her knife. "Wow looks like she's already getting the hang of it," Qrow mumbled.
"Her technique's a bit sloppy but she's doing everything correctly," Azure commented.
Once Ruby had the blade to the desired smoothness she began heating it again. "So what did you three drunks do last night?" Azure interrogated.
"Nothing, we just uh, went on a walk, we didn't even touch a beer bottle."
"Yeah im calling bullshit, that's why you have those glasses on, you have a hangover," Azure called Qrow out on his bullshit.
"Ok, we may have drank a little alcohol," Qrow stressed the little.
"Uh-huh," Azure wasn't convinced.
Ruby quickly ran the dagger from the fire into a barrel of oil. When she shoved the blade in the barrel fire shot into the air. After making sure the blade was cooled all the way Ruby pulled it out of the oil and checked it for any imperfections, seeing none Ruby placed it on an anvil and ran over to a part of the forge looking for materials to make the handle out of.
"So, when can I expect the upgrade to harbinger?"
"I may not look it right now but im really busy, I was up all last night forging and I still have tons of work, since im doing your upgrade for free it'll wait for me to be done with the paying customers," Azure responded.
"Why do you have so much work? You normally have tons of free time."
"Erole and Pero formed an alliance, the old man believes they plan to go to war, since im the best smith in town im smithing the majority of weapons and armor," Azure sighed.
"Do you think it's true?" Qrow asked
"What, that they formed an alliance or that they plan to go to war?"
"Both."
"If they formed an alliance I wouldn't be surprised it would greatly benefit both of them economically but going to war with us, no, even combined they're not our equal in military might and they buy most of their weapons from us, attacking us would hurt them more than help, the old man's just paranoid," Azure dismissed.
"That's good I'd rather not have to wipe out two whole cities because they got too big for their britches," Qrow sounded relieved.
"You and me both."
Ruby went with simple wood for the knife handle. After getting the handle on the knife nice and snug she sanded it down making sure the handle was smooth.
After getting the handle finished she put the finishing touches on the blade by sharpening and polishing the blade till it was razor-sharp. Ruby ran over to Azure and Qrow. "Look I finished it."
Azure grabbed the blade from Ruby and inspected it. "No, you didn't."
"Huh? but I did everything you told me I even did it the way you did it," Ruby was confused.
"I'll do it for you this once but you need to do it next time," Azure raised her gauntleted hand and placed it against the blade, there was a flash of light and when she pulled her hand away Rubys emblem, the rose was burnt into the blade. "This is proof you made the blade, always put your emblem on any of your creations," Azure advised handing the blade back to Ruby. "Other than that, very good the blades sharp and straight, the blades hard there's no cracks or warps. A very good knife if I do say so myself," Azure complemented.
Ruby blushed at the praise of her mentor "Thanks it's not as good as the knives you showed me last night but I tried."
"Don't compare yourself to me I have years of experience, you haven't even been forging for a week. That's all for today I have work to do and your uncle wants to teach you how to use that scythe of yours."
Ruby looked over to Qrow "is that true, are you gonna finally teach me how to use the scythe?" Ruby questioned.
"I wouldn't have Azure make you a scythe if I wasn't gonna teach you to use it, speaking of which where's it at, don't tell me you didn't make it."
Ruby shook her head, "she made it it's over there" she pointed to her scythe leaning against the wall."
"Alright grab it and let's go," Qrow walked out of the forge.
"Ok," Ruby ran over to her scythe grabbed it, and ran after Qrow "See you later, master Azure."
"Don't call me master it makes me sound old!" Azure shouted from within the forge.
"Where are we going?" Ruby inquired. Qrow had led her out of the town and into the forest.
"I don't wanna train you in the city you'll break things," Qrow muttered.
"So?"
"I'd rather not pay a bunch of money to fix up the city because you trashed the place while training so instead we're training out here," Qrow pointed to the clearing they just entered. The clearing was mostly flat with a tree stump near the center.
"Ok, it's time to start, just like last time you need to learn to draw your scythe quickly." Ruby had her scythe tied to her back by some rope. "Draw it as fast as possible," Qrow ordered. In response, Ruby reached her left hand back and pulled the scythe upwards, and then pointed it at Qrow in a battle-ready stance. "Good job you drew it fast enough, but that stance sucks," to prove his point Qrow ran at Ruby ducked under her blade and held his fist centimeters away from her face. "See that stance is really open."
Ruby nodded and shifted her stance getting lower to the ground and shifting her scythe to her left side. "Hmmmm, that's fine if you're going on the offensive but if you're going to be on the defensive use this stance," Qrow fixed her stance by shifting her arms and legs with his hands. "When using a scythe you should be the one in control and on the offensive, if your opponent is able to put you on the defensive you're at a disadvantage the scythe isn't exactly the best weapon for defense, you do have the advantage of most people not knowing how to defend against one because they're such a rare weapon."
"Ok."
Qrow jumped back from Ruby "come at me with all you've got."
Ruby nodded and charged Qrow swinging her scythe high above her head and driving it down at Qrow's head. Qrow sidestepped the blade letting it imbed itself in the ground. Ruby's eye's widened she realized her mistake too late because Qrow raised his right leg and slammed it into her face sending Ruby flying across the clearing.
Qrow picked the scythe up and threw it next to Ruby. "Stand up," Qrow coldly growled. Ruby stood up unharmed due to her aura. "Attack me again," Qrow ordered coldly. Ruby listened charging forwards swinging her scythe horizontally. Due to her short stature, the blade was aimed at Qrow's legs. Qrow raised his left leg and planted it down on the scythe blade forcefully. Ruby tried to yank her blade from under Qrow's foot to no avail. Qrow raised his right leg and planted it into Ruby's face. She was sent flying again.
Qrow tossed Ruby her scythe. "Again!" He barked. Ruby charged again this time she tried swinging her scythe from the ground up. Qrow shifted his head out of the way and kicked at Ruby, unlike before she managed to duck under the kick and swing her scythe at Qrow's back. In a blur Qrow spun around slamming his right foot into the side of Ruby's head. She went flying.
Ruby hadn't even landed on the ground before Qrow was grilling her "Again!" Ruby heaved herself up and ran at Qrow swinging her scythe downwards, Qrow tilted his head out of the way letting the blade pass right by him before he could kick Ruby again she brought the hooked end of the scythe back up aiming for his neck.
"Woah," Qrow jumped out of the way the hook almost hit his neck. Ruby didn't stop her assault she charged forwards spinning her whole body in a deadly whirlwind, all of which Qrow dodged. Once Ruby was done spinning she stumbled dizzily, Qrow took advantage of her disorientation by slamming his foot into her face.
"Spinning attacks can work but if you are left open after one then it's not the best to use," Qrow scolded. "Again!" Ruby charged wildly swinging her scythe, each swing was sidestepped or dodged but due to the number of blows Ruby was directing at Qrow he had no openings to take advantage of. Ruby kept her assault up for about three minutes before backing up catching her breath.
"A wild flurry of blows is good if you're confident you can hit or pressure your opponent but if your opponent can dodge them easily like me then they're just a waste of energy," Qrow chided before running at Ruby and driving his fist into her face, she tried to dodge but do to the exhaustion she was felling she moved sluggishly.
Ruby's and Qrow's little sparring match continued till Qrow broke Ruby's aura after which Qrow sat Ruby down and began teaching her about the scythe, he taught her everything about the scythe from its history to its advantages and disadvantages in combat.
After Ruby's lesson on the scythe they had one more sparring match where Ruby managed to graze Qrow's shoulder, a pretty big accomplishment considering his combat prowess.
AN: No grimm file's for this chapter.
I had fun with this chapter I got to learn about forging blades. It's pretty cool. I don't think im going through Ruby forging of her weapons later on but I'll have the blueprints and the final products shown.
I got an idea for a new RWBY fic but im doing this one right now, but I really wanna write that one, I don't know when I'll start it but I will at some point for right now my main focus is on this fic but even if I start the other one I promise to not abandon this one but in return for this promise I want anyone that reads this fic to check out the new fic whenever I post it.
Tell me what you think of this chapter good, bad, boring, intrusting, anything leave a review telling me so I can improve, I respond to all reviews personally =)
