AN: Hello all, the fifth chapter YES, so interesting thing in this chapter, and a this will be more a no POV chapter, there will be POVs just more of a third person view, I hope you enjoy. Just realized I never described the forest they're in.
POV third person
Walking down an empty pathway deep within a browning forest walks, Qrow a tall man wearing grey and a red tattered cap, while carrying Rai a young sleeping Faunus boy wearing red black and silver, as they're walking down the worn path, a loud *Snap* is heard walking Rai and making Qrow stop.
Walking down the path Qrow stops when he heard the snap and lowers Rai while drawing his sword, he speaks "They've found us"
Rai standing moves closer to Qrow with his ears constantly darting around trying to find the source of the sound, soon his ears focus on the right side of the path, tugging on Qrow's coat and pointing to the right he says "Over there and there's a lot of them"
Qrow smiles and says "move behind me, by five feet" while moving to the right side of the path with his sword and the ready, Rai doing as asked moves to be five feet behind Qrow.
Soon a few dozen heavy footsteps approach along with the sound of claws scraping against the bark of the trees, coming into view through the trees are many medium-sized Grimm, that stand six-feet-high, three-feet-wide and four-feet-long.
Seeing them Qrow's face has a frown forming on it while saying "Why did it have to be Scrappers?" as he says that all sound stops as every head of the Scrappers' turns to look at the two of them, Qrow sends a quick look back to Rai to speak but stops when he sees him shaking, turning back Qrow says in confidence "Don't worry, I've got them".
Rai slowly lowers to his knees silently with tears rolling down his face as he remembers his village burning because of the Grimm, he sits there and watches as both Qrow and the Scrappers ready themselves.
Several seconds pass with only the sound of the wind passing between Qrow and the forty-odd Scrapper Grimm, one of the Scrappers inches forward, seeing this Qrow charges forwards and like a wave so do the scrappers.
Qrow meets them three-quarters of the way with a swing of his sword cutting through three of them at once as he slides to the middle of the Scrappers, with the sole attention of the Grimm on Qrow he smiles, as he ducks under a leap from behind, and stands back up and looks around and says "forty-one"
Turning his sword into its scythe form, he smiles and readies to strike, pulling the trigger and using the recoil Qrow shots forward and pulls the trigger once more while swinging, two thuds are heard before Qrow with the momentum of both shots swings through the dense group of Scrappers with most of them jumping out of the way but some fail to move in time and get cut in half, and Qrow says "Thirty-five"
One of the Scrappers lets out a howl which causes the rest to charge with it, with four come from the left, five from the right, eight from the front and four from the rear, Qrow jumps and points his scythe downward and fire using the recoil to get out in time, while his in the air a Scrapper form the right not part of the charging group leaps and strikes Qrow sending him quickly to the ground.
Landing on his back Qrow quickly rolls to the side to avoid being jumped on by the Scrapper that landed where he was, rolling to his feet Qrow quickly changes the scythe back to its sword mode and rushes the Scrapper, but has to jump back as another leaps at him from the side, giving a tsk Qrow swings down cutting the one that made him jump back into saying "Thirty-four"
Looking around at the rest of the Scrappers as the constantly circle him both in the trees and on the ground, pulling his sword up to block two claws the come from the front only to receive a third from the rear, causing him to step forward slightly.
Swinging his sword and sending the two in front flying back and colliding with four other temporally taking six out of the fight, quickly turning around to cut the one behind him "Thirty-three" after cutting that one down he starts to move around the group of Scrappers while firing shots of into groups of Scrappers which are met with screeches as several more fall "Thirty"
Charging the four in front him Qrow swings his sword through them, but it's stopped by the fourth as it catches the blade, Smiling Qrow turns his sword to the shotgun mode and fire and use the recoil to cut through the fourth "twent-" Qrow stop speaking and quickly dives forward and roll to his knees to see a several Scrapper piled on top of each other wear he was.
Qrow very quickly casts a glance to Rai to see both the shaking and the tears have stopped and is watching very thing that's happening, turning his focus back to the bumbling pile of Scrappers as he turns his shotgun towards them and fire off four shots before there's a click while counting "Twenty-five, twenty-two, twenty-one, twenty"
By the third shot the Scrappers had untangled themselves from the pile, and focus back on Qrow, all of them give a loud screech, that causes both Rai and Qrow to cover their ears.
While Qrow is recovering from the screech, the Scrappers charge him, with some of them bouncing from tree to tree and other running along the ground, Qrow quickly ejects the empty mag and loads a fresh one before snapping it into place. (never shows him reloading in the show nor how much ammo he has in the shotgun)
Qrow waits quietly for the Scrappers to get closer to him, once they were a dozen feet away Qrow runs at them with his sword at his side ready to strike, once in range Qrow makes to swing before jumping up and cutting three that were jump down at him while saying "Seventeen", the ones at the ground had jumped back to dodge a swing that never came roar and jump at Qrow while he's in the air.
Hearing the roar Qrow turns to see five Scrappers leap at him, spinning his body to point his sword which he turned into its shotgun mode and fires while being forced back by the recoil (NOT using light rounds) says "Fourteen" as three of them fall.
Having moved out the way of the remaining two Scrappers which fly past him and into the trees with a small thud, as one of them fall to the ground stunned, landing back on the ground Qrow quickly backflips over four Scrappers that dived at him from opposite sides and collide with each other in the now empty space, quickly dashing forward Qrow cuts through the four saying "ten"
From his back three more jump at him two from the trees and one from the ground, rolling to the side Qrow avoids two of them but one of the ones in the air kicks off the one next to him changing his direction towards Qrow, who is still rolling to his feet unable to dodge, tries to cut the Scrapper as it collides with him.
Successfully cutting the Scrapper who still hit Qrow knocking him back causing him to roll along the ground with a grunt, doing his best to stand quickly but has to dive forward in a role as three more Scrappers smash down in his previous spot.
Standing up and facing the remaining Scrappers Qrow rushes forward to the three that smashed down while his sword turns into a scythe and swings to cut the three, the three shaking themselves out of the momentary daze are unable to dodge the scythe that cut through them as Qrow says "six"
Qrow quickly ducks backwards under a leaping swipe from one of the Scrappers as the Scrapper flies over as Qrow swings his scythe through it "five" flipping over with a kick that connects unintentionally with another Scrapper and sending it flying into a tree with the brunch going through it as Qrow says "four?" a little confused while standing.
Hearing three more jump at him Qrow levels his blade and crouches a little while twisting his body, once they are in range Qrow swings while pulling the trigger to give it more speed that leaves an afterimage of grey that passes through the three Scrappers, after one full rotation Qrow stops and stands saying "One" then looking around he sees no other Scrappers.
Looking to the trees Qrow sees the one remaining Scrapper bouncing between the tree rushing towards Rai, Qrow quickly shouts "RAI ABOVE YOU!", while rushing after it.
Rai looking up sees they Scrapper leap at him, Rai brings his hands up in hopes to stop the Scrapper, the brings its claws down on Rai and with flash out light the Scrapper is stopped with its claws trying to cut through what looks like ripples of silver, red and gold. (Think who Ren stopped the King Taijitu and you get what I'm looking for) Qrow has a quick look of surprise before it disappeared as he runs and cuts through the Scrapper beheading it.
POV shift Qrow (hope you liked the fight damn over half the chapter long fight :D a lot of what happened in the fight happened because of his Semblance)
Kneeling in front of Rai, Qrow Quickly looks over him as the silver, red and gold slowly fade out, before Qrow can speak he feels Rai rush into him and wrap his arms around Qrow while crying into him.
A little surprised Qrow quickly shake it off as he slowly puts his Sword down on the ground and Wraps his arms gently around Rai with one hand slowly stroking the top of his head, while saying calmly and kindly "Shh, it's alright, they're gone now, don't worry I'm here, I'm not going anywhere"
Rai stays there crying into Qrow's chest, after a few minutes he starts to gain enough control to say "Th-they wh-whe-where there" Qrow has a look of confusion fly across his face but before he can ask what he means, Rai continues "Th-the-there… wh-when the… vi-vil-village was… a-attacked" after saying that Rai starts to cry harder into Qrow's chest.
Qrow moves carefully, while still holding Rai, and sits cross-legged while pulling Rai onto his lap, whispering "Don't worry, uncle Qrow's here"
Rai's momentarily stops as he asks "Un-uncle?"
Qrow nodes while saying "Yeah someone has to look after you don't they" and gives a short chuckle, which Rai answer with a tiny chuckle of his own and continues to cry happier tears than before.
Qrow sits there with Rai on his lap for a long time while thinking 'what have I gotten myself into' and when the crying stops he looks down to see Rai sleeping with a small smile on his face and says softly "I guess it's not all bad"
Hooking his arms under Rai Qrow stands while carrying Rai in a bridle style, (Think of how a parent would carry their sleeping child) and he starts to walk to down the path.
It wasn't until night started to approach that Qrow saw a hunter's Inn, seeing the Inn Qrow smiles while walking up to the door and giving a good knock with his foot, after a few seconds the door opens.
Stepping in Qrow sees that it quiet, with few people in the main area, thanking the man who opened the door, Qrow walks up to the front desk.
Standing behind the desk is (breaking stereotypes here) an aged man roughly in his late fifties if his ash-white hair and receding hairline is anything to go by, he has a medium length beard that is tied off at the end, his eyes are covered by big eyebrows.
"It's been awhile old man" Qrow greats the old man while putting Rai into one of the seats but still leaning on him.
The old man looking between Qrow and Rai says in an aged voice "That it has, Qrow" before shifting through several keys until he pulls one off and hands it to him saying "Second-floor fourth door on the right, food in the room or down here?"
Taking the key while placing the required Lien on the desk saying "Thank you and in the room please" before he picks up Rai Qrow places his empty flask on the desk, the old man's eyebrow raises slightly and Qrow asks "Can I get this filled up with the usual?"
The old man chuckles before saying teasingly "Oh my, the crow ran out" then grabs the flask saying "It'll be up with your foo-" before he finishes the sound of a chair leg breaking from the other side of the room is heard along with a surprised shout, shaking his head the old man finishes "with your food, now go before more stuff breaks"
Nodding to the old man Qrow picks up Rai and carries him to the room, husting Rai up a little bit when they get to the room so he can use the key to open the door, walking into the room Qrow is greeted with two plain beds and a small side table between them, Qrow moves into the room and closes the door behind him.
Moving to the left bed Qrow pulls the covers back and puts Rai down on the bed before pulling the covers over him, afterward Qrow moves back and sits on the other bed giving out a tired sigh and falls backward onto the bed.
After starring at the ceiling for some time comes a knock at the door, standing up and moving to the door, Qrow asks "Who's there"
From the other side of the door, he hears a soft voice respond "Your food", opening the door Qrow sees a young-ish cat Faunus woman standing there holding a tray with two plates of food and his flask.
Stepping to the side to let the lady in while saying "Place it on the table"
After the lady places the tray on the table she asks Qrow "Who's the boy?", moving back to the bed with Rai and sitting down next to him.
Putting a hand on Rai's head and stroking his head a little, Qrow answers sorrowfully "A son of an old friend of mine"
Picking up on the mood the cat Faunus bows and says softly and with some sadness in her voice "Sorry, I'll be taking my leave", with that she rights herself and walks out of the room closing the door behind her, Qrow remains as he is listening to the sound of the footsteps fade away.
Shaking Rai awake while saying "Time to eat Rai", Qrow sees Rai's ears flick at the word 'eat' as he sees him slowly open his eyes.
Turning to look at Qrow while setting up and asks "Where are we, uncle Qrow"
Qrow doesn't answer right away being a little surprised at his new title but shakes it off thinking 'I guess that's true now', after shaking off the surprise he answers "We're at a Hunter's Inn" Qrow then grabs one of the plates and pass it to Rai saying "Here, eat this and get some sleep"
Qrow moving over to his open bed while picking up his plate sits down to eat with Rai, soon the meals are finished and the plates are set on the side table, Qrow gets up and blows out the candle (yes candle hard to get power outside of the cities) saying "Goodnight Rai"
As he was starting to drift off he hears Rai ask "Uncle Qrow, do you have any re-rel?"
"Relatives, yes I do, there are my brother-in-law and two nieces, I'll tell you about them in the morning if you want but for now get some rest, we will be moving quickly tomorrow"
Qrow hears a soft yawn and Rai reply sleepily "Yes please, goodnight" and soon after Qrow finds sleep himself.
AN: Yeah finally complete, the fight took longer than I thought it would but I'm not complaining I think I did a good joy please tell me what you think, before I forget Monday the 25th's post I might put in a small time skip chapter I.E. several time skips over a few years but I'm not sure and need some opinions on whether to do it or not. It also looks like Rai and Qrow got some well-deserved rest, for now, the Hunter's Inn is an Inn made by retired Huntsmen/Huntresses they can survive outside the kingdoms because of the hunters, Well until next time.
