Hello any and all readers this is my first time writing anything like this so I apologise in advance if my writing is not the best. I plan to make this a pretty long story as it is a complete rewrite of the story.
Chapter 1 Salem Velaros
Salem was heading to her parents house for the holidays, she had just wrapped up her semester at signal and was eager to share her adventures with her parents, she walked through a forest until she came to an isolated wooden house just past the clearing, her eyes beamed at the familiar looking structure. She walked up to the door knocking three times, a moment of silence passed then the rattling of a chain sliding, the door opened to reveal a silver haired woman, slightly taller than salem.
The woman gasped as she saw the person standing at the door "hello mother" she smiled, the mother's eyes sparkled with joy as she lunged forward hugging salem in a death grip. Salem had forgotten her mother's inhuman strength as she gasped for air "mam… air…" the mother released her "sorry honey, welcome home, come on in, your father's cooking tonight", salem was confused normally her mam would normally of doing the cooking "why" she said as she walked in, her mother let out a small laugh "he lost a bet" she turned her head towards the hallway "dear our daughter is home". The sound of large thumping approached the door then I larger man appeared he had grey hair and blue eyes much like salem, he looked at his daughter with warm eyes "welcome home salem", salem smiled "thanks dad".
Once she got settled into the house, they all sat down by the dinning table, salem relished eating home cooked food, it had none of the health restrictions signal had so this was bliss. After a few minutes of contented eating the father spoke "so how have you been at signal salem, you've grown since I last say you" salem smiled in response "things have been great at signal, I'm the second best fighter in the rankings, I even got my own custom weapon" her father chuckled "really, that is great, so what did you decide to make" salem grinned "I'll show you".
She slid herself out of the chair, taking a step back she reached behand her and grabbed what looked like a large twinbladed knife, once she held it out she pressed a button and it expanded to about a meter, the blades curved out as it extended into crescents "this is called Lua's tear it's a semi detachable twin bladed glave that doubles as a bow, the father took in the design "that is a beautiful weapon salem, you should be proud" salem chuckles "I am".
"Also" salem smiles "I have also gotten really good with my semblance", this peeked her mother's interest "oh really care to share" salem nodded "sure" and with that she pointed her arm at her chair and raised her hand, the chair lifted with her hand, she made it spin before letting it rest on the ground" her mother started clapping "that's amazing you've improved so much in such a short time" salem chuckled "thanks mam" her father butted in "its too bad you don't have a fire semblance, salem tilted her head in confusion "why", the father chuckled "because your dinners gotten cold" salem pouted "very funny dad" there was a moment of silence then everyone let out a laugh.
After dinner was done the family was watching some tv just enjoying the presence of a whole family salem loved the warmth, they sat there for a few hours before salem started getting tired and decided to go to bed after giving her parents one last hug.
When the sun had finally went down that evening something wasn't right Salem got out of her bed taking her weapon with her; then an almighty roar came from outside, the roar was so powerful it nearly shook the wooden building to the ground; Salem bolted outside to see a massive grim, quite possible the biggest one she ever seen or heard of, it had the appearance of a dragon it had pitch black scales, giant red armour plates covered its entire body it had two huge wings, four massive legs and three throws of giant teeth.
Salem looked at it for a second and without thinking her body started moving in the opposite direction very quickly, until a noise stopped her in her tracks it was a mix of clanging, shooting and shouting; Salem knew straight away who was making that noise, it was her parents fighting tirelessly against this behemoth of a grim. Salem ran straight back she didn't care how frightened she was, it was her parents, they were in danger and she needed to help them but before she could get remotely close her father bellowed as loud as he could "salem get the hell out off here, run we'll try and hold it off" as soon as he finished saying he started encase himself in electricity; Salem knew it was her father's semblance, she almost took a sigh of relief but then the dragon turned to her father and just stopped while it stared at him one the dragons eyes went silver.
After a moment or two the grim's eye when back to normal then proceeded to charge at the father, just as the grim was about to connect with the father a massive lightning bolt left the father and went straight through the dragon grim's head, for a moment it stopped and just as it was about to fall over the light in its burning red eyes suddenly relit and immediately grabbed the father with his massive claw completely encasing the father.
The mother shouted screams of horror and rage the moisture in the air started to surround her she then turned to her daughter who at this point was frozen on her knees in fear the mother then raised her voice just like her father did "salem I know your scared I am too but if you don't run now were all going to end up dead" Salem shook her head "no mam" she said in a hollowed whimper "I want to stay with you and fight by you to get dad back" she says over her endless stream of tears streaming down her face, her mother turned to her again with a sad, barely-there smile "I know you would sweetie"
just as she said it a sphere of water started surrounding her, the water was swirling violently around her; the dragon's eye went silver and you could almost make out a crude grin on its horrifying face this sent waves of pure dread straight through Salem's heart; once again the grim's eye went back to normal then charged. The mother waited till the last moment and encased the grim's head with a massive sphere of water in the attempt to drown it. The dragon struggled for a bit but swung its tail whipping the mother into a tree completely shattering her aura, knocking her out. Salem started to scream at the dragon "leave her alone!" the grim merely puffed hot air towards the small creature before picking up her mother in its claw encasing her as well.
In that moment Salem's body started moving towards this monstrosity with an uncanny speed, she had run out of tears to cry. In a blind rage she held her weapon in both hands she subconsciously activated her semblance then threw herself towards the dragon, then in one motion she spin slashed right down its eye causing a black blood to bleed profusely as it screamed with an almighty roar, the girl now had its full attention. Salem instinctively went to block which turned out to be the right call as the dragon used its clutched claw as a fist and punched her, she soared backwards and landed back on the ground with a flip landing on her knee, she lifted her weapon again ready to face the dragon again just as she was about to charge again.
Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder, Salem jumped out of her skin; she turned around to find a tall grey haired man with a cane and oddly enough a cup of coffee, she hysterically shouted "get out of here it extremely dangerous!" the man almost barely acknowledged the little girls statement, took a sip of his coffee and said quite softly and plainly "what kind of man would I be if I let a little girl such as yourself fight a monster such as that" as he finished speaking he proceeded to stand in front of the girl.
Salem at this point was completely frozen, she was in a mix of pure confusion and terror for the man "ah…" just before she could speak again the grey-haired man moved at a speed Salem's eyes could not keep up with, in a moment he was stood in front of this massive monstrosity "you're a big one" he said bashfully. The dragon still furious with his eye being slashed it roared right at the strange newcomer who was standing before him, it went to punch him just like he did with the smaller creature but before it could hit the man was at his eye level then flicked his cane there was a brief moment of silence and then a black diagonal line appeared across its face followed by a torrent of black blood. The beast went in a frantic rage for a solid minute swinging wildly at the man.
the man did not attack again but instead just dodged and observed, then suddenly it just stopped then turn properly to face his opponent the man had noticed that his eye had turned silver once more; Salem had seen that eye twice too many times for her to know that wasn't good she shouted "lookout those eyes are dangerous".
Salem tried to move but her legs were frozen, the man adjusted his glasses just observing the beast for what seemed like an eternity they just stared at each other, the beasts eye went back to normal but keeping its composure it took a step back from the man and stood on its hind legs it then turned its head to the even smaller creature .
the man had clicked what it was about to do, he proceeded to get back to the girl as quickly as he could; the dragon began sucking in a lot of air, its mouth started to glow a bright orange; the man was only a few feet from Salem then the dragon let out a massive column of fire towards the girl, it was quick but so was the man he grabbed the girl then jumped up carrying them as high as he could but underestimated the height of the fire blast, he turned to the girl with a sad look "sorry young one".
Salem shook her head and said in a weary voice "I've got this" to the man's surprise the girl raised her hand and threw themselves higher. They just barely made it over the cone of fire, slightly singeing the man's coat, he turned towards the dragon which had already left. the man raised an eyebrow "it used the girl as bait to get me away from it hmm interesting" he thought to himself; as the fire dissipated beneath them, they descended back to the ground.
Once their feet hit the ground reality began "my parents are gone" salem said openly wailing as loud as she could the tears had returned tenfold; the man turned to the girl he let out an almost sympathetic sigh and said "what is your name young one" the man said in the softest voice he could muster, the girl looked at the man with devasted eyes "S…Salem" she said in a soft gravelly voice, her voice box was scratched with all of the wailing.
The man looked at the girl in the eyes and said "I am sorry for what happened to you child you've suffered something no child should be forced to see, truly I am terribly sorry I wish I had gotten here sooner I knew it was important when two veteran huntsmen called me for assistance" just as he said that the girl cut him off and said "what do you mean they called you? Who are you?" she says a she sniffs and silently sobs waiting for a reply; the man spoke with a more formal tone "my name is professor Ozpin headmaster at beacon academy and your parents were close pupils of mine, I told them if ever they need my help whenever it may be I'll come running I just wasn't expecting this nor the outcome".
The girl looked in disbelief for a moment and it clicked in her head he was telling the truth, she did not know how she knew just something in his eyes told her so "so what will you do now miss velaros" her head shot up at the sound of her last name being called by the man not moments ago way a complete stranger to her but the man's question burrowed deep in Salem's mind "I don't know" she said looking at the man "I just want to curl up into a ball and forget this night ever happened" Ozpin looked at the broken, defeated girls and sighed again "are you sure because that's not what I saw a moment ago" the girl perked her head up again and looked at him with a sad-puzzled look "what do you mean?".
The grey haired man looked at her and said "if you truly wished to just curl up into a ball and forget you would of let that grim just take your parents away without a fight, but no you steeled yourself in that moment, with no hesitation in your action, managed to actually landed a critical blow on that grim a feat even a master huntsmen wouldn't dare to try, then later when the creature let out his fire breath when even I was about to accept our fate, you did not, you channelled the last of your aura into your semblance and lifted us to safety, now to me if someone is fighting that hard to keep themselves alive not only for themselves but for others that tells me this person wants to live and protect that which they hold dear and that miss velaros is the essence of being a huntress".
Salem just sat there listening to every word the professor said and it lit a fire in the young girl, but was quickly extinguished with the realisation "but I failed that thing took my parents to god knows where and I wasn't able to do anything about it, can you call failure the essence of being a huntress", she sank her head into her knees and begins sobbing quietly again; the professor turned around and said with no hint of sadness, it actually had pride in his tone "of course he said" the girls head shot up again "failure no matter how big or small hurts, naturally the bigger the failure the bigger the impact" the girl's head began lowering again "but" he said confidently "if you can rise above that failure you can use it as a foothold to keep climbing towards your goal but never forgetting where you plant your feet that is how we truly learn from our mistakes".
The girl at this point had stopped crying and was looking straight at the man " that grim came of its own accord and your parents with the pride of both huntsmen and huntress they knew they would not survive there only goal was keeping you alive and they did" in that moment a light struck across Salem's eyes and she stood up for the first time and Ozpin turned around "so where I too am in great sorrow for what happened I can look to your parents with pride knowing they did everything they could and I'm equally proud of you too you may not be a fully-fledged huntress" as Ozpin continued a small smile started appearing on his face "but the skill , quick assessment and determination I saw in you tonight made it clear your more than qualified to attend my school if you wanted, it's not your family but it could certainly be your home"
Salem stopped and pondered what Ozpin had said which was a lot to process along with the current state of affairs she turned to where her house used to be now it was a burning pile of wood and ash, she then turned to Ozpin and said softly with only a slight sniff she said "anywhere is better than here right now, I haven't decided to join you school yet ill need some time to think on that" Ozpin with the small smile on his face walked over to the girl and stuck his hand out "of course take all the time you need" the girl gave one final sniff before straightening her face, hair, and eyes "thank you professor Ozpin".
That's the end of chapter 1 I hope you liked it Thank you for reading and I'll see you in the next chapter.