I arose early and was already prepped and ready when other students began to stir from their sleeps. I skipped breakfast and followed the rest of the students to the launch pads on top of the cliff overlooking the Emerald Forest. I was lined between Ruby and Jaune and I thought heavily about my landing strategy, until I realised that I didn't need one. "Hey, Jaune?" I whispered.
"Yeah?" his reply was equally hushed.
"Wanna swap places?"
"Why would I do that?"
I racked my brain for a reason, "Because, it would increase your chance of being paired with Weiss?" I offered. He took the bait and we switched launch pads.
"So, this landing strategy, thing," Jaune spoke up again as students began to be launched into the sky, "what is it, you're, like, dropping us off, or something."
Ozpin deadpanned his response "No… you will be falling."
"Oh, I see, so like did you hand out parachutes for us?"
"No, you will be using your own landing strategy".
"Uh-huh". Jaune's voice became slightly strained as he began to fear his rather obvious lack of a landing strategy. He also let out a fairly high-pitched scream as his pad ejected him high into the sky. As mine clicked I jumped so as to slightly get more air.
The problem is I mistimed and instead of going up I went forwards straight off the cliff. 'Okay, slow, calming breaths, maintain focus, envision the target, and switch!' My vision began to dull as a black substance with white and red streaks formed around me, becoming me. Halfway down the cliff face and I was flying as a Nevermore, using the height the bird could give to locate the ruins mentioned by Ozpin. I soon spotted the target and lowered my altitude to slightly higher than the forest canopy. I returned to my human form and dropped through the leaves, springing off branches while kicking off tree trunks, I made a huge leap from a branch and brought out Mercy and used it to stab the tree, letting gravity do the working before safely dropping onto the dirt.