Chapter 3. I do not own Summoners War or RWBY.
"As… interesting… as this discovery is, I'm afraid that you won't be receiving any extra credit for it."
"WHAT!?"
"Told you so."
"SHUT UP! We discovered a new species! How is that not worth extra credit!?"
Team RWBY was in Professor Ozpin's office where Weiss was discovering, much to her ire, that the discovery that the team had made on their last mission was not going to get them extra credit.
"By the way, you will be expected to pay for the damages it has inflicted on school property."
This time, the whole team was up in arms: "WHAT!? How were we supposed to know it would rip your hand-crafted mahogany doors in half when they closed in its face?!"
The subject of the conversation, a mysterious yellow hound with spikes on his back, was slowly looking around the room, his head seeming to change directions at random. Ozpin suspected that the creature was trying to figure out what all the gears embedded in the walls, floor, and ceiling did. He turned his attention back to the conversation, where Glynda was lecturing the team of huntresses-in-training.
"Glynda, I believe that having to pay for the damages is lesson enough, having to listen to one of your scoldings is simply inhumane." He takes a sip from his coffee mug, conveniently hiding his grin as Glynda glares at him.
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Gamir followed the group of creatures to the top of the spire he saw as they were approaching this castle. It was a strange castle, without any defensive walls to speak of. And the creatures… this summoner must be a human supremacist or something, because Gamir didn't see a single non-humanoid creature, although a few did have animal ears or tails, so at least the summoner wasn't that picky. Also, Gamir didn't see any methods of generating and storing magical energy, not even a mana pond. They reached the top of the tower while he was mulling this over, and the group of creatures walked into a large room, then proceeded to close the doors.
In his face.
With him still outside.
'…'
'Ok, I am going to assume that they just didn't notice that I hadn't made it into the room yet and give them three seconds to open these doors.'
'3… 2… 1…'
'Times' up.'
Gamir leaned forward and grabbed the bottom of the door with his mouth. He then proceeded to rip it off of the wall, and use it to knock over the other door. After making absolutely certain that they knew that they had angered him, he walked up next to the group of creatures – now wide-eyed and staring – and sat down, then ate the chunk of wood still in his mouth.
'Hmm… mahogany… at least the summoner has good taste in wood.'
After finishing the piece of wood, he started looking at the room he was in. It was a large, more or less circular room, with turning gears all over the walls, ceiling, and even under the floors, which were made of some sort of transparent material. With nothing better to do, seeing as how he didn't understand their language yet, he picked a gear and started following the assembly, looking at the gear connected to the "starting" gear, then the gear connected to that one, and so on and so forth.
He'd followed it halfway around the room, up onto the ceiling, back down the wall (where it passed behind the line of gears he'd been following), and into the floor where it went under the summoners' desk. He looked around a little bit, but didn't see any other gears going under the desk.
'I wonder… is that the starting point, or the ending point…'
'Only one way to find out.'
Gamir walked over to the desk and stuck his head underneath, where he saw the final gear in the assembly connected to…
Nothing.
It served absolutely no purpose.
Except, of course, infuriating anybody who had become determined to figure out what the gears did.
Gamir lifted his head into the air, sending the desk flying across the room, and screamed his frustration to the sky.
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Everybody paused their discussions when they saw the creature walk over to Professor Ozpin's desk and poked its head underneath. Ozpin, taking another sip from his mug to hide his knowing grin, took a few steps away from the desk to get out of the blast zone.
Sure enough, the creature suddenly stiffened, then threw its head in the air with a howl. This, of course, sent the desk flying across the room… and straight out the window.
Yep. It had definitely figured out the purpose of the gears. That is: none. It never failed to amuse Ozpin when somebody tried to figure out what the gears did – usually taking over an hour to do so – only to discover that there wasn't a purpose to figure out.
Team RWBY was jumping to their feet, pulling out their weapons in preparation for stopping the thing before it could do any more damage, when Ozpin held up a hand, indicating for them to stop. When they looked at him with confusion written all over their faces, he explained: "This creature just passed a test that is built into this room."
When they just looked even more confused, he elaborated: "He had the intelligence to recognize the gears, know how they work, and realize that they must have a purpose, the curiosity to search out that purpose, the determination to complete the task – in record time, I might add – and the self-restraint to not try and kill me when he discovered that all that effort was pointless."
"So him throwing your desk out the window doesn't count as trying to kill you?" Weiss asked, sarcasm practically crystallizing in the air.
"Nobody keeps their calm when they discover that. That's actually one of the tamest responses to come from somebody who's completed the test."
They nod their understanding before Ozpin adds: "By the way, you'll be expected to pay for the desk replacement as well."
Team RWBY absolutely loses it then, adding their screams to the howl of the creature.
Only Glynda noticed that after its outburst, Ozpin had stopped referring to the creature as "it" and had started referring to it as "him."