Nick's nightmare was stronger then normal tonight. He saw his village up in flames, the words of his mother disowning him ran through his head. The Grimm attacking his younger self as he stood there helplessly trying to defend his only friend. He was too weak to help her. He was too weak to help himself. He was too weak to face her again. All this ran through his head in a repetitive loop, growing louder and louder in his head.
He awoke with a jolt, breathing heavily, he sat up only to hit his head hard against something.
"Ow!" He heard someone complain, which he later realized was Indigo. He quickly pressed his hand to his now sore forehead for a minute. After the pain subsided, he finally began to register his surroundings. Indigo sat on her knees looming over him, rubbing her forehead lightly. Grass covered by a simple thick blanket underneath him, and the world dimly lit by the sun shining through the trees onto the clearing of the nearby road. They camped out beside it for the night after a dangerous week of traveling. Random Grimm were common, but not much of an issue. They just took turns keeping watch when they rested.
Nick instantly felt embarrassed,
"Sorry." He said quickly and pressed his hand against forehead slightly where they collided.
"You okay?" She asked. "You weren't looking too good there, you were turning and muttering in your sleep."
"I'm fine." Nick lied, sitting up. "Let's break camp and get back on the road. ee're almost there and we're almost out of food, so it'd be nice to have something when we get to Vale." Indigo didn't pressure him. They broke their little camp on the side and continued on. They ate the small amount of the rest of their food supplies on the go, figuring they were close. Once they finally set sights on the walled kingdom of Vale, which they stopped for a minute to gaze at in awe. It was only a quick walk to the kingdom gates.
The pair walked down the streets in awe, the concrete jungle of the kingdom's city was completely foreign to the two. All they had were some Lien split between them, their bags and wits. They wandered the kingdom, and eventually briefly argued weather to ask for directions or not. Indigo winning the argument eventually, and they asked a local shopkeeper for directions to Beacon Academy. They had to take an airship to the famous academy. Indigo fell asleep next to him on the airship bench, leaving him alone with his thoughts. He watched the random people, mostly students from the looks of things wander the ship. He wondered what brought them here.
It wasn't long before his question was answered. People began crowding to the windows, gasping and acting excited. He nudged Indigo, waking her up. She yawned and stretched her arms.
"We there yet?" She asked.
"Well everyone isn't getting excited over nothing." He responded. Nick stood and pushed his way to a nearby window through the crowd. Below the academy almost seemed to shine. The courtyard was dotted in cherry blossoms, the Vale crest at its center. The school building itself was an elegant white castle. Nick stared in awe, he'd never seen anything so huge before. Even the large buildings of Vale's city were trumped by the castle.
"What's with all the..." Indigo started to ask but stopped as she witnessed the sight of the school.
As the airship landed and the few people aboard began to flood onto the campus. Nick and Indigo followed around, a few groups, trying to figure out what to do. Eventually, they found the group looking to take the entrance exams. They seemed about as confused as they were.
A large teacher in a blazer and intimidatingly thick mustache came over and directed the two through the school courtyard into the large school building. Though it still wasn't long before they hit another snag. Most of the people in the group came from a local combat school. Because Nick and indigo didn't, they had to take a physical test like their former teacher warned them of. The man who was leading the group was kind enough to direct them to the area that teat was given. They felt slightly relived as they split from the rest of that group. They last heard the man began to tell what appeared to be was going to be a long story.
Nick took the tests first. He flew through both the physical and written tests with ease. He had left the testing room wondering if it was a joke. He spent a few minutes explaining to Indigo what the tests were like to calm her down, as she seemed nervous about them. Though he didn't have much time before it was her turn, leaving him alone in a small empty waiting room.
He wasn't sure when he fell asleep, but eventually he felt himself waking up to his shoulder being shaken. He opened his eyes to see Indigo standing next to his chair, her tired expression matching the rest of her. After he finished waking up for a moment, he finally spoke.
"So, how'd it go for you?" He asked.
"The physical test was laughably easy, and they had the nerve to say it was hard. The written test was what took so long." She explained. Nick found that test easy too, but remembered that Indigo sometimes skipped out for training whenever they were trying to be taught something else.
"Maybe if you payed attention to Hunter instead of sneaking off to train, it would've been easier." Nick said with a shrug. She sighed and sat down next to him.
"It doesn't matter now. We either get in or we don't." She grumbled.
They sat there, waiting for someone to come in and tell them their results as they were instructed. An hour passed, and the door into the waiting room finally opened. A middle aged man walked through, his hair white as snow and held a cane. His strange spectacles hid part of brown eyes, but not all of them. He cleared his throat as he entered the room.
"Nick Veras and Indigo Kani, yes?" He asked politely, taking a seat in the chair across from them in the room. They nodded. "My name is Professor Ozpin, and I am the headmaster of this school." He said.
"You definitely look the part." Nick joked. The headmaster smiled lightly.
"Did we pass or not?" Indigo asked bluntly, leaning back in her chair and Nick swatted her arm. The professor just chuckled.
"Straight to the point is it? You both passed the physical test with flying colors. As for the written test, it appears Mr. Veras here excelled while Ms. Kani was frankly rather close for comfort on passing." He explained. Indigo looked down at the floor and seemed embarrassed.
"However, both of you have easily landed a spot here at Beacon Academy and are definitely going to be interesting students." Ozpin said. She perked her head up. "Now, in a hour, all the new students are to gather in the main auditorium for the opening ceremony of the semester. It would be wise if you didn't miss it." He said, standing and walking out of the room.
Nick stood eagerly from his seat.
"Well, let's get down to business." Nick said. Indigo nodded, without saying a word and stood as well. The two walked out of the waiting room back to the main campus, which was now flooded with people going about their day. Nick shuffled through the crowd. Looking for anyone who might be heading to the same place as him. He eventually realized Indigo wasn't next to him. He scanned the crowd in search of her. He felt himself getting shoved aside. He caught himself as a man, a foot taller, then him pushed past him. His body was coated in thick dark blue armor and had a strange double sided black axe.
"Watch it." He grunted. His voice deep and strong.
Nick would've have cared less if he wasn't shoved into someone else who was knocked over by it.
"Hey, watch out." She said in an accent.
"Sorry, I got shoved." Nick replied and helped her up. She was shorter then him, though she had large rabbit ears sprouting from the top of her head. She was wearing a short brown jacket over a black shirt, brown shorts, black leggings and gold details.
"Oh, it happens I guess." She said. "By any chance... Do you know where the main auditorium is?" She asked, pushing her long brown hair back behind her shoulders.
"I was honestly about to ask you the same thing." Nick responded and chuckled nervously.
He noticed some of the people his age in the crowd were shuffling towards a school entrance. He doubted it would hurt to try.
"Well, we could try over there, seems there's a good amount of people our age heading that way." Nick suggested to the girl. She nodded meekly, and they began pushing their way through the now thinning crowd.
"So, what's your name?" Nick asked, trying to make conversation as she was following him for a lack of better ideas.
"Velvet Scarlatina..." she responded shyly.
"Nick Veras." He replied. She came off as shy to him, though he can make due until he found Indigo. Besides, she was kinda cute.
Nicks hunch was right. It wasn't long before they reached the main auditorium. It was decently crowded with new students of a lot of verities. Though he hasn't spotted Indigo yet.
"So... Who are you looking for?" Velvet asked, which snapped him out of it.
"Oh, just a friend who came here with me. She got lost in the crowd somewhere." Nick explained.
"Oh, I don't really know anybody here." She muttered.
"I can relate... Though I guess... We know each other right?" Nick asked nervously with a shrug.
"I guess." She responded.
The talking among the students began to grow quiet as the man he recognized as Professor Ozpin walked onto the stage. He waited patiently for everyone to talk down before clearing his throat and beginning to speak.
"Thank you, I won't take up much of your time, as I'm sure you have all just arrived after a long journey. Whether it be from across the kingdom or across the world. You have all come here with the goal of perfecting your skills and abilities. Afterwards, you plan to go use these skills and abilities to spent your life helping others in their time of need. Though when I look at all of you gathered here, I simply see a lack of direction. A lack of purpose and reason. You think that knowledge may be the answer. However, in time you shall come to learn that knowledge will only help you so much. It falls to you to put in the effort." The students mummed among themselves. "Now, tonight you are to sleep in the ballroom and tomorrow we shall begin your official initiations and assign teams. That is all, good luck."
With his speech concluded, Ozpin walked off the stage and disappeared from sight. It wasn't long before the floor erupted with loud banter.
"We should get out of here before we get trampled trying to leave later" Nick suggested.
"Okay" Velvet responded, and the they made their way out of the auditorium back outside.
As Nick predicted, most of the crowd was trying to leave all at once, shoving and pushing their way through the doors.
"Hey" Nick heard in a familiar voice. Indigo was walking up to them from the crowd, being followed by a purple haired girl. She wore a pair of jeans and a dark red shirt with a simple breastplate over it. She wore strange red gauntlets matching the color of her shirt. Her hair was cut short, and jet black. He scanned her for what her weapon was, but couldn't see anything beyond possibly her gauntlets.
"See you ran into someone too." Indigo commented. It at this angle Nick finally noticed she had wrapped her tail round her waist, mostly hidden by her ammo belt but what was showing seemed like part of the fabric. He wondered how long she had it like that, and decided to ask her later.
"Yeah, this is Velvet" he finally answered.
"I'm Amber." The girl behind Indigo commented.
"I'm... Going looking for the ballroom." Velvet said. Nick noted the sun beginning to set.
"I'll go with you." Amber commented.
Without much else to do, the four began their search in the labyrinth of a school that they'll be spending the next four years at for the ballroom.
