And here we are with the first chapter, I'm very sorry about how long this took I got caught up with school, work, and writing my first original story. Anyway I would like to thank everyone who has submitted a character so far and I look forward to receiving more. That being said I will be closing the submissions on the 20th of November so if you're interested there is still plenty of time. But that's enough of me; let's get on with it.

I do not own RWBY

XXX

Like tender leaves falling without grace

Fighting the wind to stay in place,

Who are we to argue beauty?

When we ourselves can't-

The words had barely made it onto the page before being torn out and thrown against the ground in a crushed up ball. The writer sighed heavily before running his hands through his Crimson hair.

'Nothing sounds right. Why can't it be easier to make things into words?'

Carmine took another look at his surroundings hoping to find some aid and couldn't help but smile. It was the middle of fall and all of the leaves had changed color, giving the forest a much more beautiful look. There were piles of leaves under every tree and each one was unique, it was the kind of thing that most people would ignore or they'd just say that there was nothing special about a pile of dead leaves. He disagreed, for him it was like looking at an art canvas. The trees, the branches, the leaves, everything coming together to make one perfect picture that could only be seen once before being washed away.

'So why is it so hard to write that down?'

With a frustrated growl the Carmine put his pencil back to his notebook and froze, he sighed and snapped the book shut. On the cover you could see a white bow with a red arrow knocked facing up.

'I'm not going to be able to write anything here am I?'

With one more sigh Carmine stood up and tucked the book into his back pocket. He had perched himself onto the branch of a fairly tall tree in order to get a better look at the forest, which unfortunately hadn't helped. With one last look Carmine took a step forward and plunged toward the ground, he bent both knees to make the landing smoother but still had to fix his glasses.

After dusting himself off Carmine pulled his scroll out of his pocket to check the time.

'Only 4:10, I still have some time to kill before dinner.'

With a nod Carmine tucked his scroll back into his pocket and made his way deeper into the forest.

'The creak should look perfect right about now.'

His walk through the woods was as peaceful as it always was, the birds that hadn't left yet were singing, the sun was shining through the trees at all the right angles to light the path ahead of him. It was amazing and nothing could ever change his mind of that fact.

Carmine reached the creak in no time flat and set himself onto a rock near the water, he slowly pulled out his notebook while enjoying the view, hoping that something would spring into his head so that he could write it down.

-Water flowing over-

The first line was quickly scratched out.

-How can we claim defeat when-

He quickly put another line through the paper.

-When water can best earth how can we lament-

For a third time Carmine scratched out the words and put his pencil back to the paper, but this time he didn't write anything. He simply sat there, perfectly still, while staring at everything around him. The rocks around the creak were covered in moss, while the rocks in the river were clear of any dirt or moss due to constantly being washed. Even the noise from the tiny waterfall added to the beauty of the creak. With a deep breath Carmine moved his eyes back to the paper and slowly began to write.

Beauty is seen through a filtered glass,

We see ourselves and we swell with pride,

We see each other and deflate with envy,

Take a moment to see-

Carmine was knocked out of his thoughts and back into reality at the sound of rustling leaves behind him.

"Oh come on! I was finally getting somewhere!"

He turned to the offending noise and couldn't help but groan.

"I am just the luckiest guy around aren't I?"

The noise had come from an animal exiting a bush; unfortunately it wasn't an ordinary forest creature. It was big, dark, and covered in bone like armor.

'It's pretty small, just an Ursa Minor then. Not a problem at all.'

Both of Carmine's hands went to his hips where he felt the familiar feeling of his weapons Ardente Amore. One bullet to the head and this encounter would be over with in seconds. So caught up in the opponent standing in front of him Carmine failed to hear the sound of another creature entering the area, what saved him was the sound of something stepping into the creak behind him.

He quickly spun around and saw a much larger Ursa swinging at him, he was able to duck under the first swing but because he was caught off guard he couldn't do anything about the backhand that send him flying across the area.

He landed hard onto his back; though he quickly returned to his feet and put some distance between him and the Ursai. Two more had entered the area since he was sent flying making it a grand total of four Grimm.

'One Major and three Minor, could be worse.'

He could feel the Ursa Major, most likely the leader, sizing him up. It probably liked its chances given that he didn't exactly look like the most intimidating hunter-in-training around. Short crimson hair, square-framed glasses, black pants, and a red sleeveless flak jacket overtop a white long-sleeved shirt.

'Yea I'd be pretty sure of myself too if I were in that things shoes…feet…whatever.'

With a roar from the Ursa Major the three smaller Grimm charged at Carmine, who did the exact same. The first Grimm that got close lunged forward with one arm outstretched. Carmine jumped forward and used its head to push himself higher, out of reach from the Grimm Carmine pulled out Ardente Amore, A pair of white handguns with dark red lining. Underneath each barrel was a blade of the same color with the image of a bow with a red arrow knocked.

Carmine flipped himself upside down and fired two bullets into the back of the head of the Grimm he had used to put himself into the air, while midair Carmine was able to correct his positioning and land feet first. The second Ursa tried a different tactic and tried to crush him by doing some kind of belly flop, all Carmine had to do was a quick backflip away and as soon as the Grimm hit the ground Carmine reversed his grip on Ardente Amore and drove both blades into the base of its skull.

The third Ursa was only a few meters away and when it got closer it lunged forward at him, this time Carmine spun to the side and as the Grimm was passing him mid air he lined up his gun with the Ursa's' eye and fired. The round travelled cleanly through the Grimm's skull and out the other eye.

'Three down, one to go.'

Carmine looked back to the spot where the Ursa Major had been standing and saw that it hadn't moved an inch.

'Guess it was still sizing me up, weird.'

The Ursa roared once more before running toward Carmine, while the Grimm was doing this Carmine fired multiple rounds at the creature hoping to disable it. However the creature seemed to ignore the rounds and continued running toward him, as soon as it got close enough it stopped dead and took a swing at him. Carmine was able duck under the first swing and this time when the Ursa went to backhand him he was able to jump over the swing before jumping backwards to put some space between him and the Ursa.

As soon as his back foot hit the ground Carmine charge forward and transformed his guns into the shape of Bowie Knives, he spun the blades so that he held them in a reverse grip. The Ursa stood on its hind legs and when Carmine got closer it tried to crush him by driving both paws straight into the ground, luckily Carmine was a step faster than the Grimm and slid between its legs before it smashed the ground. Carmine quickly seized his chance and jumped onto the creatures back and drove one of his knives into the neck of the beast.

If the wound hurt the Ursa it didn't show it and thrashed wildly while trying to rip Carmine off of its back. Feeling himself slipping Carmine quickly pulled out his knife before jumping away from the Grimm once again.

'This crazy thing just won't die.'

The Grimm turned around and looked him dead in the eye before roaring once again and charging him. Carmine changed one of his knives back into the shape of a gun and fire at the Grimm hoping to hit one of its eyes, unfortunately the rounds only bounced off of the Grimm's mask. As the Ursa got closer Carmine tightened the grip on his knife and waited for the creature to get close enough, when it did he pivoted on his foot and drove the knife into the Grimm's eye. It roared and Carmine tried to drive the blade deeper but had to quickly let go and back away as the Ursa tried to bite his arm off.

The Ursa Major, now sporting a knife in its left eye socket looked at Carmine with a look that he could only assume to be rage. It charged him again, this time it seemed to be in some type of blind rage and when it got close enough it began to swing wildly at him. The swipes were easy enough to dodge; all he had to do was step backwards to avoid the Ursa's attacks it was the power behind them that made each swing dangerous. If he got careless, even for a second, then the Grimm would take his head clean off.

'Looks like I gotta finish this now.'

Carmine switched his gun into its knife form, took a deep breath in, and felt his aura swell as he activated his semblance. The next time the Ursa took a swing at him Carmine ducked under it and cut deep into the side of the Ursa, it roared and tried to swing again but Carmine was able to twist himself out of the way before cutting into the Grimm again. Carmine was maneuvering in a circle around the Grimm now, and to someone watching the spectacle they'd say that Carmine was dancing with the Ursa Carmine would dodge a swing and then cut the Grimm. Each time he repeated the pattern the cut would get deeper and deeper until the Grimm finally fell forward. Carmine pulled his knife out of the Ursa's eye socket and, just for good measure, fired a few rounds into the Grimm's skull.

Carmine breathed out at a job well done and walked back to the rock he had been sitting at in order to grab his notebook. He tucked it into his back pocket and pulled out his scroll to check the time before feeling the color immediately drain from his face, it was 5:10. Without wasting another second Carmine raced away from the creak desperately trying to get home faster than possible.

'I'm so dead, why couldn't the Ursa have killed me? That would have been so much better than what my mom will do to me.'

He made through the forest in no time at all and was able to find his house with no trouble at all. It was a tiny little thing on the opposite side of town, the perfect place to settle down and raise a family.

'Or hide a body.'

Carmine quickly shook that thought out of his head and opened his front door.

"Hello?"

'Please don't be home.'

"We're in the kitchen. Get in here."

His dreams were quickly crushed upon hearing his mothers voice answer. Taking a deep breath in Carmine walked into his house and into the kitchen to see his mother sitting down with her arms crossed and his father scratching his beard while making direct eye contact with the ground.

'Well, looks like dad's not going to be any help today.'

"Sit down."

His mothers voice cut through the air like a knife and both Carmine and his father flinched at the sound. With little other choice Carmine sat down across from his mother and sat with his hands in his lap. The room was dead quiet, Carmine not interested in saying a word and his mother seemingly content to watch him squirm. It seemed like they'd sit there forever, waiting for someone to say anything, until Carmine's father decided to take the jump.

"So… how about this weather?"

Carmine's mother slowly turned her head to look at her husband and stared at him the whole time she spoke.

"Slate."

"Yes dear?"

"Zip it."

"Yes dear."

'Well, at least you tried. Thanks anyway pops.'

"Why exactly were you late for dinner Carmine?"

Seeing that is mother was now staring him dead in the eye Carmine swallowed a lump in his throat before answering.

"Well you see… there were this Ursai that attacked me-"

"Did you die?"

"Um…what?"

"The Ursai, did they kill you?"

"Uh…no."

"Then I don't see why that permits you to be late for dinner."

"Right…"

The air quickly filled with silence again as all three members of the family sat there in silence as Carmine waited for something to break the silence.

The sound of a chair scraping against the floor caught Carmine off guard as his mother stood up and grabbed a bowl and a spoon from the cupboard before she walked over to the stove and poured some soup into the bowl. She then placed the bowl in front of Carmine and was about to walk out of the kitchen until she suddenly stopped and looked directly at Carmine.

"When you're finished eating wash the bowl and put the soup into the fridge, then go right to bed. Remember that you have to be up early tomorrow in order to make it to Astral on time."

With that Carmine's mother left the kitchen completely leaving him and his father slack jawed at what just happened. Carmine's father was the first to recover as he turned toward Carmine with a small grin.

"So, how many Ursai did you fight?"

Carmine returned the smile and was about to answer when his mother's voice once again cut through the air.

"Slate! Let him eat his dinner!"

His father's shoulders visibly sank before he quickly recovered and ruffled Carmine's hair.

"I'll see you tomorrow champ, have a good night."

Carmine smiled a little at the act and smiled a little bit more after taking his first spoonful of soup.

'Man, this is really good.'

XXX

And there we have it, the first chapter. Just a quick little introduction to Carmine, tell me what you guys/gals thought, how I can do better, what you liked, you know that type of stuff. Also as I said at the beginning the deadline for submissions will be on the 20th of November, so the second chapter will probably appear between then and now, I make no promises on that however. Finally, if you guys have any questions about character submissions or about the story in general feel free to ask. Well that's it for now, till next time.