Chapter 7. Forever Fall.

Forever Fall, the crimson foliage gave it an almost foreboding visage. The sun was high in the sky and the distant howls kept him on his toes. Glynda led the group along the ruddy trail. Their goal was to collect syrup from the trees, it seemed way to simple. Collecting tree sap didn't sound remotely psychotic, Ash was starting to doubt that was the actual objective. The groups split up, Glynda seemed to be keeping a close eye on team ALBM in particular.

"Why are we collecting tree sap, I thought this was a school for warriors?" Ash asked, his bottle was almost full. Billy shrugged but happily filled his bottle, he looked like he's done this before. "Is this supposed to be survival training? Watch out class, you might end up trapped in a forest and your only hope for survival will be your ability to bottle tree sap for sustenance."

"I don't think that's why we're here." Lyra squeaked. "I mean, I think the schools out of syrup for all the pancakes we've been eating."

"So this is just some sort of fetch job?" Ash asked. If that was the case then he had to give them credit, it was a pretty clever way to get the students to do all the work. "This is just what I imagined the noble life of a huntsman would be! On my knees tapping a tree!"

"Less chatter ALBM." Glynda said sternly. "Focus on the task at hand."

"Back to work." Ash said with a robotic gesture. He started thinking of unpleasant words that rhymed with Goodwitch.

"URSA!" A student shouted as he sprinted by, several other students came running straight for Glynda, they were all shouting the same thing. "Big ursa! Attacked Cardin!"

"Good!" Ashton shouted, he didn't mean to say that aloud. Glynda gave him a glare.

"Mr Gray will be cleaning Professor Port's classroom tonight, I'll go deal with the ursa." She said, pushing her glasses up. She left with the rest of the students.

"Was that worth it?" Morgana asked. Ash smiled at her, she turned her head with a scoff.

"It was absolutely worth it." Ash said with a sly grin. "Hopefully Cardin will get his ass kicked before Glynda get's there. He could use a nice reality check to the keister."

"This better be enough syrup." Morgana said. She leaned against the tree and put the syrup on their small mountain of jars. Ash was starting to think Glynda was just screwing with them. Why would they need four dozen jars full.

"I think my arms just died." Lyra squeaked, she curled up in a ball under her tree. "Why are we even here?"

"This syrup is mighty tasty." Billy said happily licking his fingers. Everyone snapped their heads at him in unison.

"Don't eat the syrup Billy!" Ash shouted. Billy winced.

"Why is it poison?" Billy asked, a horrified look spread across his face.

"No, I just don't want to be here all day refilling any of those jars." Ash replied. He slumped further against his tree.

Ash took a deep breath. The day felt like it was taking forever, just one of those mornings where time slows to a halt. He adjusted himself, sliding into the comfier position. His eyes scanned the clearing, he could make out another team across. His heart wrenched, there she was again. The mystery girl with the healing kiss. He watched her, she was kneeling next to a bottle of syrup, umbrella over her shoulder. She had her nose brushing against a flower, taking in the scent. He started to smile. He couldn't help it.

He could make out the rest of her team, sort of. There was a man with heavy looking green armor but with a long pale green robe coming out from under it. His helmet had a bulky looking front piece but it was currently open, the helmet itself had large stag antlers sticking out. He wasn't sure if he was a faunus or if it was decorative. His face was hidden behind messy hair and he was already growing quite the beard, though it was messy and various twigs and leaves were caught in it. He was resting almost in a meditative trance against a tree.

Walking behind said tree was a giant of a man. As big as Billy, maybe taller. His skin was pale, almost as much as Weiss. His head was completely bald and his eyes seemed to glow a yellowish hue. His jaw was as square as it gets and it looked like he had tusks growing from his mouth. He wore a heavy fur coat, solid black. He had a massive mace swung across his shoulder, it was round and covered in holes.

The last member of her team approached the giant. She was tall with stark white skin with white hair, she looked like she was made of soft snow. Her eyes were violet. She wore an elegant fur coat which gave her a look of wealth. She had a fur cap resting like a crown on her white hair. She held her hand up to the bald giant and carefully brushed his face. He wasn't sure if the giant was smiling or not, the tusks made it hard to tell.

Suffice to say, the team looked competent. Especially compared to his own team. He nervously glanced over to Billy and Lyra. Even after all their training, they weren't getting much better. He swallowed uncomfortably, he could feel doubt gnawing on the back of his mind. He tried to relax. He closed his eyes and slowed his breathing. It was then he noticed heavy breathing on his shoulder. He slowly turned his head, soon finding himself face to face with a beowolf. His hand slowly reached for Silver Faust. He smiled meekly. It bared it's fangs.

He swung Silver Faust upwards, a quick shot into it's chest. He rotated his body and leaned back, the beast missed his face by inches. He continued firing. Blood spurted from it's chest but it dropped like a rock. He let out a laugh. He turned his head and saw a dozen more staring at him. He let out a sigh. The beast lunged. Billy intercepted. He rammed right through them full speed knocking them out of the way. He started spinning his blade screaming. Ash quickly reloaded.

Black bolts sent a beowolf flying. Ash leapt to his feet and opened fire. Lyra raised her flute into a standby position. Ash continued firing into the crowd. A beowolf lunged from his left, he couldn't react fast enough and found himself colliding with the ground, barely holding the beast's maw from his throat. Blood splattered across his face, the beast dropped dead with a saw blade stuck in it's skull. The man in the green armor leapt over the corpse, grabbing the saw blade and attaching it to the end of a gnarly looking staff. He proceeded to cleave a beowulf in half with it, swinging it like an axe.

The beowolf was lifted off of him by the giant with one hand, who tossed it effortlessly. A beowulf tried to sneak up on him, lunging from his side. The giant swung his mace, spikes slid out of the holes. It splattered the beowolf. Wolves closed in from all sides. He raised the mace up into the air, dropping to a knee and clicked a button. There was a loud blast and the spikes shot out like shrapnel from a grenade, peppering the wolves. A massive beowolf, much like the one before, stormed into the clearing. It was quickly covered in black glyphs. It was immediately after covered in white glyphs, it was starting to resemble a pincushion. The black glyphs exploded in shadowy clouds, the white exploding into snow. The beast staggered back, a giant spear of ice plunged into it's chest. The beast dropped like a rock, face first into the ground. The ice shatter immediately. The giant smashed it's skull with his mace.

Ash pulled himself to his feet, he loaded burn dust rounds into Silver Faust and searched for a target. A beowolf leapt from the bushes, grabbing hold of the giant's back, taking a bite of his neck. The giant screamed in rage, his skin turned deep blue, his eyes glowed yellow. Ge swung around, the beowolf had icicles growing from it's body, it seemed frozen solid. Ash took the shot. The fire round blew the beast apart into tiny frozen giblets. The giant grasped at his neck and seemed to give him a thumbs up. The girl in the rose dressed approached the giant and gave him a kiss on the cheek, the bloody wound seemed to vanish from him. His skin turned back into it's normal white.

Ash scanned the clearing, the other team had wiped the floor out of the beowolves, Billy was lifting a particularly large beowolf off Lyra. Morgana was casually chatting with the albino girl in fur. The girl in the rose dress approached him, spinning her umbrella casually. She smiled at him, he felt a little weak at the knees.

"Are you okay?" She asked, she reached her hand out. She put it on his shoulder, he felt a little hot. "That beowolf didn't get you?"

"No, I'm fine." He said, he didn't want to look helpless. He then cursed inside his head, if he said the opposite she might have kissed him. He resisted the urge to smack himself in the head. "Your team seemed to handle themselves pretty well."

"Yes, we make a pretty effective team." She said with a smile, she removed her arm. The hint of concern in her voice lifted. Damn. "I don't think we were properly introduced."

"Oh right, where are my manners!" Ash blurted out. He thought back to his childhood, back to all those etiquette courses he had to take. Seemed like they were wasted. "I'm Ashton, Ashton Grey."

"I'm Gwyn, Gwyn Rhosyn." She said smiling, her eyes seemed to glow a vibrant green.

"Oh right, my team." He said, carefully trying to keep his voice from shaking. "Team ALBM, Lyra is the tiny girl over there. Billy is the big guy. Morgana is the dark haired girl. We're sort of a work in progress."

"Well, this is team GNKO!" She said, with a slight curtsy. "You've met me, that's Natasha in the fur. Kol is bald one. The guy with the beard is my brother Orin."

"What is going on here?" A voice cried out behind them, they both jumped and found Glynda standing with the rest of the students. Cardin was covered in syrup for some reason.

"Some beowolves wanted to hang out." Ash blurted out. "But they didn't really mesh well with us. I feel as if we just hit a language barrier and with the right..."

"Mr Gray." Glynda interrupted. "You may stop talking now."

"Will do!" Ash replied with a salute. She scowled.

"Well, it was good of team GNKO to help some of our, less able, students." She said with a smirk. Ash felt his hands tightening. Gwyn put her hand on his shoulder. He relaxed in an instant.

"I think team ALBM performed admirably." She said confidently. Glynda raised an eyebrow. "Ashton here even saved one of my teammates, shot a beowolf off his back."

"I think it is quite humble of you, Miss Rhosyn." Glynda replied. "Especially to pass credit onto others less deserving."

Unbelievable, Ashton thought bitterly. She just couldn't give him a compliment. Judging by the smug look on her face, even Gwyn's praise didn't change her view on him in the slightest. She beckoned them to follow her and led them along the forest trail, back to the school.