Chapter 3: The Emerald Forest

"Hiya!" Ruby slung her weapon around and cut a Beowulf in half with ease. "Well thats that." She said stabbing her baby into the ground and leaning on it. Ruby had been in the Emerald forest for what seemed like hours now.

This was the second pack she had ran into on her way to find the relics and to find someone. The first person she makes eye contact with will be her teammate for the next 4 years. "Ugh, I gotta find yang fast." Ruby then collapsed Crescent Rose and put her away.
"Don't worry baby you'll be able to come back out in a little while." She patted her weapon and started to walk toward where she thought the relics would be at.

"God this is annoying." Weiss said as she pulled her sword out of a Ursa and it fell to the ground. "I can kill these things all day and it means nothing." 'I wonder what happens if I make it to the relics and back without meeting anyone. Would that mean I can do things solo that would be nice.'

The thought alone made Weiss smile. She looked around trying to get an idea of where she was at. "Great everything looks the same just trees." Weiss hurried and snapped her head to the side when she heard a bush rustle. 'Rose pedals? Thats odd.'

Weiss walked toward the bush slowly closing the gap between it. "Haa!" The sound of a girls voice and an impact came to Weiss's ears just before a Beowulf came into view, but it wasn't running it was flying? 'Oh shit!' Was all she could think before the grim collided with her knocking her to the ground.

Ruby walked past the bush to only see a dead Beowulf and Weiss on the floor unconscious. "Oh, no!" Ruby ran toward Weiss and landed next to her on her knees. "Weiss, Weiss Wake up!" She shook her to try and get her to wake up. Ruby kept shaking her until finally she slowly opened her eyes.

Weiss opened her eyes to only be met by pools of silver staring down at her. 'Well there goes my plan of getting through this without making eye contact with anyone.' She sat up slowly holding her head and looked over at Ruby.

"I'm starting to think i need to stay away from rose pedals." Ruby chuckled "What are you scared of them?" Weiss looked her in the eyes "Well I've only seen them twice and the first time you just appeared and knocked a grown man clean out, and the second time a grim was flying at me and who comes right behind them you do."

Ruby looked away "Well it makes sense I mean my semblance allows me to turn into rose pedals." "Well that just explains everything." Weiss stood up "Well lets go find this relic." Weiss said as she started to walk off. Ruby followed behind "Wait for me!" She shouted out as she ran to catch up.

"Hello anyone out there?" The blonde asked the air. "Hello anybody, starting to get bored." The blonde continued. She got a smile on her face when she heard the bushes behind her move. "Ruby?" She said as she ran to the bushes and looked behind them.

"Nope." escaped her lips before she jumped out of the way when two Ursa came from behind the bushes. "You two wouldn't happen to have seen a girl in a red hood have you?" She asked sarcastically.

The Ursa roared at her to attempt to scare her. "Gee a simple no would suffice." She aged on the beasts. One to a swing at her and she gracefully dodged it with a back flip. "Geez you two couldn't hit the broad side of a ba-." She stopped mid sentence when she noticed a strand of her hair falling in front of her eyes.

"You monsters!" She yelled as flames spawned from nowhere and she rushed it with a flurry of punches. Then one final punch sent him flying backwards through a tree. The other Ursa roared at her in anger. "What you want some to!" She screamed at the beast.

It charged at her and swung at her. She smiled and grabbed its arm with her left hand to uppercut him in the jaw with her right. The Ursa flew in the air and hit the ground. "Nailed it." She said as she turned around and started to walk off.

"Well that was entertaining to watch." A voice called to her. She looked behind her to see see a girl with long black her and a bow in her hair. She had a book out as she laid on the branch just above where she took out the Ursa's. Yang whistled "You look fine up there, why not come down here so i can get a closer look at you?"

Ozpin stood at the edge of the cliff, below him was the Emerald forest. He was staring down at his scroll watching his students during the initiation. "Hey Oz." A voice came from behind him. "What are you doing here Qrow?"

Ozpin didn't move a muscle, he just continued to watch the scroll. "You know why I'm here Oz" He pulled out his flask and took a swig from it. "Oh, I know full well why your here Qrow I just want to hear you say it." Qrow looked at the back of his head frowning.

"You know I can't do that." Oz-pin scrolled over on his scroll to show another pair of his students. "The longer you live in the past the harder it will be to pull yourself out of it." "I'm not living in the past Oz." Qrow walked up beside Oz-pin to look down at the forest.

"But that flask tells me otherwise, unless of course your using it to drown your memories. Either way it all goes back to being stuck in the past." Ozpin looked over at Qrow to see he was taking another slug from his flask. Qrow stopped mid drink and glanced over at him and slowly put away his flask.

"You know Qrow what happened that night was not your fault, and as soon as you come to terms with that perhaps you will be able to move on." "What are you saying I've already gotten over it." Qrow looked at the statue with reassuring eyes.

"You have always been a good at lying Qrow however i can see through that." Silence fell for some time neither of them moving or talking. "You know I'm sure she is lonely." Oz-pin looked over to Qrow who now had a look of both anger and sadness. "Don't Oz not now." Qrow was stern with his words when he let them out. Oz-pin looked back down at his scroll to continue watching his students.

"How about a cute little pony?" Yang grabbed a yellow knight piece off of a pedestal and held it up high. Blake smiled and said "Sure." Boom! "Woohoo!" The sound of an explosion and a girl came from inside the woods. Boom! Another explosion went off along with an Ursa stumbling out of the woods with a girl on its back. One final explosion and the grim fell over dead. "Aww, its broken." The Orange haired girl whined.

A young man with black hair and a green long sleeve top came out behind them. "Nora! Don't ever do that again." He scolded her but it was wasted cause she was already gone. "Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?" Blake was astounded by what she just witnessed.

"Heads up!" A voice came from above their heads. Yang looked up to see her sister falling from the sky. "Rubes?" Yang questioned herself as she continued to look up at her falling sister. Ruby quickly took out Crescent Rose and shot her towards the ground slowing her fall so she could land safely.

Ruby looked up to see Yang ten feet from her. She lit up and jumped towards her sister with her arms out, but Yang put out a arm and caught Ruby by her forehead and held her back. "So how exactly did you just fall here?" Yang asked still holding back her sis's attempt at hugging her.

Ruby stopped removed the hand from her head and said "Duh, We flew here." "Flew?" Yang had a puzzled look on her face. "How could you leave me!" Yet another voice from above their heads. Ruby looked up to see Weiss clinging to a nevermore.

"I said jump." "She's going to fall." Blake said looking up as well. "She will be fine." Ruby said crossing her arms. "She's falling." Blake looked over at Ruby who was now walking toward where Weiss was going to land. She then took a knee and looked up to where Weiss was continuing to fall.

Her cape started to turn into rose pedals followed by the bottom of her combat skirt. With one swift movement Ruby jumped up and burst into a cloud of rose pedals. They flew up to Weiss and surrounded her until Ruby came into view and grabbed her.

"I got you, now hold on tight." She whispered in her ear. She felt Weiss cling tightly around her shoulders. With one final push she rocketed back down to the ground and landed with a loud thud. Weiss was still clinging tightly to Ruby's neck.

Ruby smiled as she looked at Weiss. She couldn't describe how she felt as the snow princess clung to her, but it just felt right to her. Ruby moved her head down close to Weiss's ear. "We have landed princess."

She whispered in her ear. Weiss slowly looked up to see her soft smile looking down at her. 'Whats going on? My entire body feels like its on fire.' Weiss knew she was blushing, but before she could say anything Ruby collapsed on the ground unconscious.