Ruby Goodwitch looked at her scroll, glad to see it was about lunchtime. She had already started digging into her snacks and only had a single cookie left. Finding a nice, secluded corner of forest, she nestled herself deep into the crevice of a tall tree's trunk and opened up her lunchbox. She stared happily at the peanut butter and jam sandwiches, as well as the juice box her mother had packed for her.

Strawberry flavoured, her favourite!

Carefully unwrapping the clingy plastic wrap which covered her first sandwich, she greedily sucked in that delicious strawberry flavour, squealing as the first drops touched her tongue. She was so thirsty. So super thirsty. Yes, she had plenty of water with her, and all the huntsmen and professors had extra water bottles for her, if she needed them, but whatever just wasn't as thirst quenching as a good cold juice box.

And there was nothing anybody could say to prove her wrong. It was just a fact of life that nobody could explain. It fit alongside universal question such as 'why was the moon broken?' or 'how old was grandpa Ozpin?' Some questions just don't have answers.

Ruby did know there were some questions that did have answers that she needed to wait until she was older to find out, like who was her daddy? Her mommy wasn't married, and all of her cousins had mommies and daddies, so why didn't she? But mommy had always told her that that was a story for when she was older.

There were a lot of answers like that, now that she thought about it.

But that was alright. She knew mommy loved her and that she moved mommy, so anything else didn't matter all that much.

Squeezing the last bit of juice out of the box, she took a little breath before immediately digging into her sandwiches. A moment later, she felt a buzz on her scroll.

Mommy: Enjoy your sandwich, Little One

Ruby huffed. "Mommy!" She whined, as quietly as she could, but loud enough for the cameras sprinkled through the forest to pick up on.

There was no way her mommy wasn't watching her chow down on her food.

"Next time, you should pack more snack. I almost ran out and it's only lunchtime!"

Mommy: And how many did you eat the moment you started Initiation?

"Twelve…" Ruby mumbled, a cute little blush erupting on her cheeks. "But they were just so good!"

Mommy: Next time you should eat more slowly. Maybe I will pack you some carrots and broccoli next time, so you only eat when you need to.

"No! Anything but broccoli!"

Mommy: I love you.

"I love you too, mommy."

With their strange little conversation done, Ruby went back to eating.

She really enjoyed the forest. Especially when there weren't any monsters in it. The monsters scared her. Though, it made her super duper excited to actually learn to fight them off. All of the big kids in the forest were training to do just that. She did have her Crescent Mk. 1 which she could practice with, but she still wasn't very good. Mommy had told her that she was moving her hands around too much. She apparently "had to learn the basics" before she could learn the fun stuff.

If the basics were so important, than why weren't they any fun? All important stuff was fun.

Learning the alphabet and how to read by herself? Fun.

Learning to make pancakes with mommy? Fun.

Learning to upgrade and fine tune weaponry? Fun.

Learning to move aura around her body? Fun.

Learning how to run super fast with her semblance? A lot of fun.

If all that was fun, then why couldn't her scythe be the same? Okay, mommy had warned her that using a scythe would be extremely challenging and that it was one of the hardest weapons to use correctly in combat. Okay, Ruby guessed that maybe learning to fight with such a hard weapon was a little fun. And Auntie Peach had told her than a scythe was the perfect base to add in so many other weapons, especially guns.

Ruby was thinking of adding a gun that would help her shoot very far away. Crescent was good for super close, so now she would need super far away to help make her better. That's what mommy always said in her classes. To balance your skills and cover your bases.

Ruby carefully unwrapped her second sandwich and took a big bite. She heard a rustle in the bushes. Pausing mid-chew, she waited for any more sign of movement.

Hearing nothing, she resumed eating, continuing to delight in the taste.

Then she heard it. The faint flick of something being shot in her direction. She hadn't any time to move before the net surrounded her.

"Aah!" She screamed a startled scream.

"Look's like we caught ourselves a kid!" Shouted a girl carrying a crossbow. Her partner, another girl carrying what looked to be a baseball bat gave her a quick high five.

"You're the civilian right?"

Ruby looked around, seeing if there was any way for her to escape. "This is a really good net," she said instead, seeing that she was trapped between the mesh and the tree trunk on her back. Finally looking more closely at the two of them she smiled. "Hi! I'm Ruby, Ruby Goodwitch."

"Savannah."

"Cerulean."

The two gave their replies.

"Oh!" Quickly remembering what she had to do, she placed down her sandwich and began rummaging some more in her bag. Finally finding what she was looking for, she held up a small pin, proudly.

"It looks like it was made by a little kid…" Cerulean said, accepting the pin from her.

"Hey!" Ruby whined. That was rude of her. Ruby had spent so long colouring them, so they looked amazing. The pin just had a small 'BA' on it, for Beacon Academy, as well as some fireworks around the sides. But it was hard to make so many of them, and Ruby was really proud with how well they turned out.

Cerulean was just a meanie.

"Oh, didn't realize you made them."

"I did."

"Sorry then."

Ruby nodded with a harrumph.

"So," Savannah began, "are we done? Did we pass Initiation?"

"Almost!" Ruby smiled gleefully. "Grandpa Ozpin told me to tell anybody that catches me, that to finish Initiation, they need to walk all the way to the cliffs, over there."

Ruby pointed to the cliffs, all the way across the forest. It would be a far walk.

"What, really? Aw man. I thought we were done." Cerulean complained, "Well, thanks kid. You were a great civilian by the way. Really hard to find."

"Thanks! I tried my hardest!"

With a final smile and a wave, Savannah undid the net and safely stowed it away in a small bag at her waist. The two left the way they came, prepped for the long walk to the cliffs and the ending point to Initiation.

Ruby sighed and went back to eating, quickly devouring the rest of her lunch before standing u and removing all the crumbs. That was the first group to catch her. Grandpa Ozpin did say to make it a little easier for everyone to catch her after lunch. And now that most people had partners, they would be on the lookout for her.

Her part of Initiation was really getting started now. And then, she gave a delightful little giggle, part three of Initiation would begin.

Initiation continues, full steam ahead. Thank you all for so many incredible naming suggestions! We still have a little bit before Initiation is over, so I won't spoil which ones I'm going to choose, but all of them have been great so far! Big shout outs to c3l3st14, Zapper Frost, therecklessone, Darknight2124, shiun shigure, and JustAnotherLoner8 for the names!

chinaluv - Thanks!

Guest - Kudos for making me reread my chapter to try and find any grammatical mistakes. Never thought I would actually do that for this story. Good thing I used those terms correctly!

merendinoemeliano - There should be plenty of that. This is RWBY fiction after all.