Do you know what's worse than having your relaxation broken by howling? Having it broken by gunshots. I had been at my workbench cleaning my Ithaca, my M1 already having been cleaned, when I heard the somewhat distant shots. I set the receiver down and stand up, stretching. I wasn't too worried at the moment. The shots weren't getting closer and I believed they were from hunters of those dust wolves from the night before. Eventually, I decided to err on the side of caution. Putting my vest on once more, I ponder what guns I should bring. About a minute passed before I decided.

My M16A4 would do well. A medium ranged scope and some 5.56 burst fire would do me well against any more of these dust wolves. I loaded it with a full 30 round magazine, but I wouldn't charge it until it was really needed. I made sure to grab 2 spare magazines as well. Then, just in case, I slung my RPK onto my back. Now, if there was ever a gun to get me into, or out of, trouble, it would be this one. Three 75 round drum magazines firing 7.62x39 rounds out of a 23-inch barrel, at 600 RPM, with a muzzle velocity of 2,444 ft/s. This was my baby. And there ain't enough dust wolves in this damn world to take her on headfirst.

I put on a thick shirt, pair of jeans, and boots before I walked out of my front door. With how much I was carrying, just under 50 pounds of gear, I'd need tougher clothes. With my M16 mags loaded into their pockets and my RPK mags put into their, hand-made by yours truly, custom holders. RPK on my back with my armor just under that. I made sure the chamber of my M16 was clear before beginning to follow the gunshots.

Now, I'm not oblivious. That's why when I saw that my house was completely surrounded by thick forest, I got a really bad feeling. As I had said before. My house had been in a fairly nice neighborhood. And my lawn only had a single small tree growing in the front. And now, here I was. Stuck in a forest that I would have had to travel miles to reach. The sound of something big smashing through wood reminded me that there was a fight happening out a ways away. I continued to walk until I found the scene. The mostly dissipated remnants of what I thought were more dust wolves. One had clearly been sent straight through a row of trees. 'The hell?' I thought, 'What kind of gun can send one of these bastards through trees? And where can I get one?'

Out of the corner of my eye I see the retreating form of something, the only thing I was able to make out was golden hair. As I make to follow the hair, I hear the sound of more gunfire. 'So this one ain't the only one out here, huh?'.

-0-0-With Ozpin and Glynda-0-0-

"Speaking of which. What did you use as relics this year? Professor Ozpin?"

Ozpin didn't respond, for the simple fact that something about the forest worried him. A pair, Yang Xiao Long and Blake Belladonna were being tailed. And not by Grimm.

-0-0-Back with our Protagonist-0-0-

Eventually, the forest opens into a clearing. In the center there were some ruins with… Chess pieces? And there were 2 girls. The blonde I had spotted earlier, and a girl with black hair and a bow. I couldn't see anything on them that would be strong enough to send a dust wolf through trees. But I also didn't know why neither were covered more to go out into a monster-infested forest for some chess pieces. Speaking of which, the blonde just grabbed the yellow horse piece. 'Never liked board games, 've always been terrible at 'em.' The girls meet in the middle and talk. About what, I couldn't hear. What I could hear is a girl's scream echo through the forest. And clearly, those 2 did as well. They debated going off to help, hell, I'd reveal myself if it meant I saved a life. But at some point the black-haired girl saw something in the sky. Being under a tree, I couldn't see through the canopy. But the ever louder growing screaming of a different girl gave me a hint. What I did notice was another person flying through the air. Both flying people impacted mid-air and landed somewhere higher in the trees I was hiding behind. And I prayed to God they couldn't see me from up there.

Even if they could, they would've been distracted by the booming and roaring coming from another group of trees. Out stumbled a Dust Bear?! At this moment I fully accepted that I was no longer on earth. No way in hell these things existed. And considering a red-haired girl and a black-haired boy were riding on it, the people here aren't exactly 'normal' either. It wasn't long after the redhead and her friend joined the rest that another redheaded girl ran out of the forest with a giant dust scorpion. At that point I was genuinely thinking of just going back to my house. But then the girl in the tree above me jumped out and joined the others by the ruin. I took the distraction to start moving to a better position. While I was moving the blonde boy in the tree caught a white-haired girl who had fallen after the black-haired, red skirted girl. And the dust scorpion managed to land a hit on the red-haired and armored girl. While I was genuinely worried for her, the others clearly weren't so I proceeded to set up my position. RPK loaded, bipod down, bolt charged, safety off. This damn scorpion was about to get a really nice taste of Russian engineering. That was until the red and black girl tried fighting the thing on her own. Clearly outmatched, I wanted so bad to start shooting to support her. But I really don't think accidentally shooting the person you're trying to save is good support. But then a massive fucking dust bird began flying after the girl as well. Flying would be its downfall, literally.

I opened fire on the dust bird. I had no worries about hitting the girl either considering the thing was so high. A nice three-second burst pumped 30 rounds into the bird. Plenty of bullets hit the wings, causing it to quickly become grounded. All of the people were clearly surprised, whether at my sudden intervention or from how fast the dust bird went from high threat to not-so-high threat, I don't know. The bird was still alive but now that it was grounded the blonde girl and the black and red girl were both in the way. It was then the dust scorpion caught up. A save from the white-haired girl kept black and red from impalement. And let me say, ice was not one of the things I would have used to stop it. But it worked, they grabbed whatever pieces were left and ran. I decided to stay behind and deal with a certain feathered fiend.

It had tried to take off but enough damage was done to keep it grounded. Unloading the 40 rounds of the mag into its center of mass, on top of around 11 bullets that had found their way into its torso, put it down finally. Looking around I;d noticed the scorpion had escaped and made to chase after the hunters. Deciding to kill the bird was enough help, for now, I packed up. Sad I wouldn't be able to use my M16, I begrudgingly ventured back to my home. I took a shower, ate a meal, cleaned the RPK, refilled its used magazine, and spent the rest of the day taking notes of all the creatures I had encountered so far. Dust wolves were fairly easily dealt with using a rifle with decent punch, maybe 12 gauge slugs would work as well. I hadn't seen much of the dust bears, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to say they'd take a good bit of firepower more than the dust wolves to kill. Dust scorpions were dangerous as hell though. Fast, extremely armored if the two shots from Black and Red's… Sniper? Anti-material rifle? From what I could see, the round had been fairly large. Either way, the scorpions were armored. Then the dust birds. Either because of my RPK or its fragility, I guess they would be more glass-cannon shock troops if anything. Maybe scouts either/or. In the end, I just hoped there wouldn't be more dangerous foes than that. But as I heard gunshots from the distance, I had a dreadful feeling there were.