Hello

I didn't think it would happen one day, but this fic now has 100 reviews. ONE HUNDRED! Three digits! Thank you! You're crazy and I love you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

When I started writing this fic, I was still in high school, in Paris for a week to go to the Japan Expo, lying in a mattress in my sister's bathroom because she didn't have a guest room, and I just started writing it because I had too many ideas in my head to sleep. I never thought it would be my first long term story, I thought I would run out of idea and forget it, but my motivation to defend Raven's honor got stronger and stronger, and the reviews reminded me that there were people waiting for the next chapter, so thank you again, you have no idea how much it means to me.

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The mountains of Menagerie were pretty quiet in the morning, only the sound of the wind and the occasional bird passing by. But this morning, when Oceane woke up, she could hear rather loud voices outside the tent. She then went out to take a look, and found a sight there that she had absolutely not expected…

"And then Ironwood came into the room with no pants on, and we all yelled 'Surprise!' !" Qrow said happily, gesturing with an empty bottle in his hand. Sitting next to him, Rook was dying of laughter and clutching her stomach as she struggled to breathe.

Oceane stared at them without saying anything, then shook her head and went back to bed for a few minutes. Ever since these two had started to get along, they had been acting like kids, and she would need all the energy she could find to put up with them…

Falcon took a deep breath, and purple flames began to burn out of her eyes. With a fluid flick of her wrist, she launched five small fireballs at once, all of which flew in different directions, the first circled around a rock to light up the candle hidden behind it out of her sight, the second lit up a candle perched in height far from her, the third fell at her feet and lit up a candle placed directly in front of her, the fourth hit a candle thrown in the air by Rook, and the last turned around and lit up a candle located behind her.

Rook clapped enthusiastically as Qrow nodded with a small smile and a bottle in his hand.

Oceane was impressed, Falcon had been an excellent student and had made a lot of progress in such a short time, she directed her fire with as much precision as her sword instead of just throwing it around like any projectile, and the better understanding of the movement of magic in her body helped make her moves smoother and more effective in combat, even when she wasn't using her powers. It had taken almost six months for Cherry to reach this level.

"So?" Falcon asked with her hand on his hip, tapping her foot impatiently. She looked like Raven with the wrong colors…

"It was perfect, now the only thing left is the final test and we can move on to the next stage." Oceane said picking up the candles.

Falcon raised an eyebrow and turned to the other two adults who simply shrugged. "Okay, and what is the test?" she asked skeptically.

"A fire tornado."

There was a moment of silence.

"A fire tornado?" Falcon repeated with wide eyes.

"A fire tornado, with you in the middle and big flames swirling around you." Oceane explained, mimicking the tornado with her finger.

Falcon gaped, probably trying to figure out if she was serious or just kidding. Then the corner of her lip curled slightly.

"A fire tornado?" she asked again.

"Yes." Oceane confirmed.

"I can do that?"

"Yes. All Maidens can, with all elements. It just depends on their level."

Falcon was silent for a moment longer, then her smile slowly widened, her fist clenched at the end of her outstretched arm, and her whole body was shaking on the tips of her feet, like a pressure cooker about to explode.

And finally she exploded, with a shrill scream worthy of a fangirl at a concert of her favorite singer, as she was bouncing around excitedly.

"That's awesome! It's gonna be so cool!"

To be honest, Oceane did not expect this reaction, in fact she had never seen the girl so expressive before. It was a good sign, right?

"A tornado! A fucking tornado!" she shouted as she bounced in front of Qrow and Rook, who were struggling to hold back their laughter, not to laugh at her, just because her happiness was contagious. Who knew.

She continued for several minutes, and none of the adults stopped her, they just let her express her joy, it was so rare after all. Rook looked amused and a bit proud, while Qrow looked relieved. They had both worked hard for years to make her smile again, so they must be delighted to see her so happy and excited. Even Oceane would be lying if she said that she didn't feel a certain satisfaction at the moment, but more towards her skills as a teacher.

Finally, Falcon calmed down enough to remember that she was still in the middle of an important training session, and skipped over to Oceane with a smile plastered on her face.

"When do we start?" she asked impatiently.

"Whenever you're ready. You've got all the tools now, it's time to see if you know how to use them. The precision and control to direct the fire, and the power to make it rise and spin without going out." explained Oceane, before letting a smirk settle on her face, "Time to unleash your power."

Falcon returned her smile. No need to tell her twice…

Finally! After more than a week of intensive reading, Ilia had finally finished Blake's book! It had been long and exhausting, and she found the story unnecessarily complicated, but she didn't hate it. And at least it gave her something to talk about with Blake other than the White Fang!

Ilia was currently heading to her friend's house, the big house at the edge of town, to bring her the book and talk about, and maybe train together afterward, when something caught her eye. In the distance, behind the mountains, there was fire. Not smoke that indicated there was a fire somewhere, she could very clearly see large flames from where she was standing, sticking out behind the mountainside, like the lights she had seen with Blake and Adam, but much larger and in broad daylight! If the mountain wasn't purely rocky, she would have sworn it was a forest fire!

And she wasn't the only one to notice it, because several people around her on the street were also looking in that direction, whispering to each other in concern. After a while, some even went back to their houses or went to warn the guards, because whatever was going on over there had been going on for several minutes now.

Ilia, for her part, ran to her best friend's house. She entered as she always did without even knocking, with Blake's parents' permission, and crossed the corridors at lightning speed to the library, since it was certainly where her friend was, and she had to tell her about what she had just seen! But as she walked past the meeting room, she noticed the door slightly ajar, with light inside.

She knew it was wrong to eavesdrop, especially for important official meetings, so she made an effort and tried to walk away. And then …

"… what create these flames." Ghira's voice said, muffled by the walls. He was talking about giant flames!

Driven by her curiosity, Ilia quietly approached the door, and put her ear against the wood near the opening.

"Even if it ends up being a false alarm, we need to be sure, before the people starts to panic and attract more Grimm than we can handle." the chieftain said calmly, "This is why I am sending you two over to the mountain to investigate. We have no idea what is going on there, so I would ask you not to put your life in danger and to come back immediately if the situation seems dangerous to you and we will decide what to do from there, but for that it is necessary that you returned safe and sound. Understood?"

"Yes sir." two people replied, Ilia assumed they were guards.

So he was really going to send people up the mountain to investigate the mysterious flames fire… As much as she loved spending time with Blake, it sounded way more interesting than a book.

Qrow had to admit, Rook's book was quite interesting, but also a bit depressing. The woman who had written this book, a certain Nathalie, had had an experience so similar to his that it was frightening, they both had a shitty childhood, met an old man who welcomed them with open arms in his community where he was the uncontested boss, they made friends for the first time, and were slowly isolated from the rest of the world without even realizing it, convinced that they couldn't and shouldn't be close to anyone out of their group.

The way they had been isolated was different however, Nathalie was in some kind of religious village outside of Mistral which continued to practice the idea of banning all forms of art and self-expression like Mantle did during the Great War, they lived in fear of people from outside who risked 'contaminating' them and attracting hordes of Grimm to their small peaceful community. It was different from what Qrow had been through, but he saw a lot of similarities…

Qrow was taken distracted from his reading when he saw two figures further down the mountain, and since the girls were all at the camp dealing with the fallout of this morning's tornado, that didn't look like good news. He didn't waste a second and put the book in his pocket, before jumping from his rocky seat and flying off to see who had decided to pay the a visit. Maybe it was just lost hikers or some dumb teens who came for a challenge…

No, obviously. They were guards, two guards, a man with a lizard tail and a woman with large, completely bright orange eyes with slit pupils, like a frog. They each had the standard spear of Menagerie guards, but they didn't seem like they were here with the intention of fighting, judging from their discussion.

"Why do we always have to do the scouting chores?" the woman complained as she walked down the rocky path, "I mean, 'Don't put your life in danger and come back immediately if the situation seems dangerous to you', or in other words, 'Go potentially put yourself in danger, but run away if it's actually interesting'!"

"Speak for yourself!" the man replied trying to follow her, "I became a guard precisely because I thought it was an easy job! Nothing ever happens around here!"

Yeah, not very threatening. But as funny as their argument was, Qrow was worried. These guys were here to investigate something. He really hoped it wasn't their group, they had done everything to avoid any sort of attention, they stayed in the mountains three quarters of the time, when one of them went to town to get supplies they didn't interacted with anyone but the vendors and did everything to avoid suspicion, so what… Oh no, the fire tornado! They were practically on the other side of the mountain and in broad daylight so they thought it wouldn't be visible from the city! But apparently they were wrong, because there wasn't much else that could attract guards here.

It wasn't good. If the chieftain of the island learned that a group of humans had moved in their mountain and were doing shady and scary things there like giant fire, it wasn't going to end well. They had come so far precisely to remain discreet! He had to find a way to get them away from here before they reached their camp, but without making the situation suspicious. Right now he was just a crow flying near them so they weren't paying attention to him and he could spy on them closely without worrying, but they obviously weren't going to follow the instructions of a bird. He had to approach them in human form and convince them that there was nothing to see here…

The woman sighed in annoyance and climbed a rock as big as her on their path, "What kind of idiot sees a job where people are given weapons and thinks 'That seems like an easy job?'"

"It's not my fault! Every time I see a guard, they're just standing around doing nothing for hours! I thought it didn't look too bad for a career." he explained, jumping up to join his colleague to continue forward, but failed miserably, "Do we really have to take this path?"

"Do you see another one?"

The man looked around, a cliff that guaranteed a deadly fall on one side, and a wall impossible to climb on the other… So he sighed, and took a few steps back to gain momentum.

Qrow landed above them. This passage was tricky, even Yang had trouble passing it when she came back the other day, and this guy didn't seem very agile, it could easily go very wrong.

The guard looked apprehensively at the rock, while his colleague was waiting for him up there, ready to continue. He then took a deep breath and started to run. Unfortunately, the pebbles on the path rolled under his feet and made him lose his balance. And suddenly, he found himself falling into the void.

Qrow didn't hesitate for a moment and jumped in his human form, leaping against the wall. He grabbed the guard's hand in mid-air, drew Harbinger, and stabbed it into the rock, stopping their fall to a painful death.

"Everything okay?" he asked the man hanging from his arm.

"Uh… Yeah… I'm terrified but I'm okay…" the terrified guard replied trying to keep breathing.

"Good, so hang on and don't look down."

Qrow hoisted him onto his back and climbed back up with the help of his sword. It was tedious, the man was heavy and they had fallen quite low, but when they were close enough to the edge, the other guard reached out and helped her partner back up, allowing Qrow to finish the ride on his own.

"And there you go. Everything okay? Nothing broken?" he asked once the tension eased a bit.

"No, I'm fine… Wait, no, my ankle hurts a lot…" the man replied, breathing heavily, while the woman stroked his back to calm him down.

Qrow suppressed a sigh. Obviously, things were getting more and more complicated, now in addition to being spotted and not being able to warn the others, one of the two guards was stuck with a sprained ankle, or broken ankle, whatever. How lucky …

Or …

"I have a first aid kit at my camp and there is enough to make a splint. It's not far, I can pick it up if you want." he offered. The woman obviously couldn't leave an injured man alone in the mountains, so Qrow would be able to go and warn the girls, and think of a plan with them without revealing their presence.

"I would like that, thanks." the guard said apologetically. Poor guy, he already didn't like his job, and now he hurt himself doing it.

"You have a camp nearby?" the woman asked with suspicion. Qrow had no apparent Faunus traits, he was clearly not dressed like a local, and he was right next to where something strange had happened. He couldn't be more suspicious even if he tried, and he didn't have a cover story yet, but he wasn't going to let that poor guy die down the cliff. Fortunately for him, he had years of spying and intel gathering behind him, he was totally in his element, unlike them.

"Well yeah, I wasn't gonna sleep on the damn ground." he said as he sat next to them with his back to the cliff, a false sign of confidence since he could fly if he fell, but they didn't need to know that, "I saw you from afar, that passage here is risky so I came to check just in case. Apparently I made the right call."

"And what were you doing in the mountains if it's so dangerous?"

Qrow shrugged casually, "I'm a Huntsman, I hunt Grimm."

"Grimm don't go that deep into the mountain." the woman remarked, frowning.

"The big ones do sometimes." It wasn't a lie, he had killed two huge Capivara just a week ago. They were, however, the only Grimm to have made their way this far in over a month. Probably just bad luck …

The frog-eyed guard still looked skeptical, she opened her mouth to ask more questions, but her colleague, finally calmed down, cut her off.

"If you've been in the mountains for a while, maybe you know where the big fire thing of this morning came from?" he asked innocently, much to his partner's dismay. You would have thought they were trying to do the good cop bad cop thing, if only Qrow hadn't heard them bickering when they arrived.

He hesitated for half a second but didn't let it show. Even though Menagerie was the safest place in Remnant, Yang would definitely freak out if she found out that an entire town had seen her powers…

"Oh that? There was a rather tough Grimm trying to get through and I used a bit to much of Fire Dust." he explained awkwardly scratching his head, "Hope that didn't scare anyone?"

"Oh just the whole town." replied the guard with a chuckle, before his colleague nudged him in the shoulder. She looked pretty pissed that he was giving away so much information when she was trying to be subtle, even if she was failing.

"Ah, sorry then, I didn't mean to cause any trouble." Qrow apologized.

"Don't worry man, it's no big deal, we'll just go home, tell the chieftain that it was a guy fighting a Grimm… and once that's done I'll quit and go back to work in my parents' tattoo parlor."

The frog-eyed woman sighed in exasperation, then stood up and cleared her throat to regain control of the conversation.

"Actually, it would be better if you could come with us and explain yourself to the chieftain directly." she said authoritatively looking down at him. She was probably trying to look intimidating, but compared to what Qrow had been through, she might as well have been Ruby playing cop with her toys.

Talking to the chieftain himself might be the safest option, after all he had done nothing wrong and there was no reason for a human Huntsman in Menagerie to reach Ozpin's ears, and he would have time to think of a believable story on the way there.

"Okay, if you insist." he replied with a calm shrug.

The guard blinked, she probably didn't expect him to accept so easily.

"But it would be better if I got the first aid kit for your friend first, don't you think?" he reminded them.

"How long will it take?" the woman asked impatiently.

Qrow turned and glanced down the trail leading up to camp, "A good half hour or so." Or a few minutes flying, but he wasn't going to tell them that.

The woman hesitated, she clearly didn't trust him, but she knew she didn't really have any other option right now and let him go. Qrow climbed on foot until he was out of sight, then flew away.

When he arrived at the camp, he found Rook and Yang there practicing hand-to-hand combat. He landed near them, and motioned for them to stop.

Rook looked at him with a raised eyebrow, but Qrow ignored her and turned to Yang, "Can you get me the first aid kit please?"

Yang seemed skeptical, she looked him up and down to make sure he wasn't hurt, then walked towards the tents.

As soon as she was far enough, Qrow leaned towards Rook.

"There're two guards down the mountain who want me to speak to the chieftain." he whispered.

Rook paled, "What?! What are they doing here?!"

"Apparently the fire show this morning was visible from the city." he explained.

"Oh shit…" She looked worried, just like him, but kept her cool, "Okay, what do we do then?"

"I told them it was an accident with Fire Dust while fighting a Grimm, but I doubt they believed me. I have to find something else before I get to the chieftain."

Rook sighed and rubbed her nose, "Didn't we come here to stay out of trouble?" she complained.

"You're telling me…"

There was a moment of silence as they both thought. Even if they managed to get the chieftain to buy the Grimm and Dust's excuse, they still had to explain to him what a human Huntsman was doing in the mountains of Menagerie…

"How about we just tell him the truth?" Rook finally offered.

Qrow stared at her with wide eyes, "Are you serious?! He's gonna think we're crazy if we start telling him about magic!"

"Not that." she said rolling her eyes, "But the fact that Falcon has a power that's hard to control and we came here to help her train."

"And how am I supposed to explain all of this without it sounding super suspicious? It already won't be easy with a human, but if we tell them that there are four of us and that one of us has an uncontrollable Semblance… I'm a spy Rook, not a diplomat."

Rook closed her eyes to think, then sighed, "You know what? I'll just take care of it."

"Alright we are here." the guard said when they finally arrived in town after helping the injured guard back down the mountain in an ankle brace. Other guards arrived and took him, probably to a doctor.

Robyn looked around, and found Qrow perched on the roof of a house in his bird form. She gave him a slight nod and he flew up the mountain, while she followed the guard to the chieftain's house.

When Qrow returned to the guards with the first aid kit, she came with him and explained that her 'little sister' had thrown a tantrum to have Qrow stay with her, and since she was too young to be left alone in the mountains, Robyn would go talk to the chieftain instead. Of course, she didn't mention the presence of Oceane who was keeping an eye on Falcon, while Qrow was following them from the air, just in case. The guards had accepted the swap, mostly because the presence of a child had cooled them down.

Qrow was good at gathering information, but that wasn't the point here, they had to explain their own situation and show they were trustworthy. She had already prepared some good arguments to convince the chieftain to let them stay, they had settled far in the mountains precisely because they didn't want to cause trouble, they paid for what they bought on the market, they prevented the Grimm from passing the mountain… It wasn't much but it was better than nothing.

They quickly arrived in front of the house, or rather the mansion considering its size, and entered after another guard opened the door for them. Robyn didn't even have time to admire the decoration before she was practically thrown into a large room with shelves full of books on all the walls, in the middle there was a large light green rug with a coffee table, two armchairs and a sofa, and at the back there was a kind of mini-room open to the rest, with a desk and a chair, like a school principal's office.

Robyn took a quick tour of the room, reading the titles of the many books, and recognized a few she had read in middle school. There were surprisingly quite a lot of adventure, romance, and horror novels… There was also the book she gave Qrow.

The door opened, and she just had time to hear the guard who had brought her here shout "I'm telling you they're humans!" before the door was slammed shut in her face. The person who had just entered was a tall, muscular man who must have been two heads taller than her, and oddly, despite his imposing appearance, Robyn had a feeling he was the big teddy bear type.

"Sorry for making you wait, I was planning something with my wife, it's our wedding anniversary soon." he apologized a little embarrassed as he walked towards her. Yep, big teddy bear. "I am Ghira Belladona, nice to meet you." he said holding out his hand.

"Robyn Hill." Robyn replied, shaking his hand. In a situation like this, it was safer to use the name that was on her Huntress license, rather than the one she was killing people with.

The chieftain, Ghira, invited her to sit on one of the armchairs, while he sat on the couch. He seemed rather calm about the situation, maybe he would be more open to their explanations than the guards.

"Thank you for making the trip without notice, when I sent Rena and Varian, I only asked them to try to see where the fire was coming from, not to bring the first person they meet here as if it were an arrest."

"Don't worry, I understand." Robyn said smiling politely, "We might as well settle this now before misunderstandings set in."

Ghira nodded as if she just said something very wise, "Indeed. In that case, Miss. Hill, let's get to the heart of the matter." he began calmly, "Do you know what caused that… strange explosion this morning?"

Robyn took a deep breath. The excuse Qrow gave the guards was that he used too much Fire Dust while fighting a Grimm. It was plausible, but they would still have to explain what two human Huntsmen were doing there in the first place. And Robyn hated lying, especially when it wasn't necessary. They did nothing wrong.

"It was my little sister's Semblance." she explained, and Ghira frowned, he must have already heard the guards' version of Qrow's story, "She has a very complex Semblance that she has a hard time controlling and it was starting to get dangerous for her, we came here so she could train without getting in trouble. Or causing trouble."

"Why come all the way to Menagerie? There are other mountain ranges throughout Remnant." Ghira asked.

"We weren't looking for mountains specifically, we just needed a place cut off from the world, where she wouldn't be noticed even if she lost control. It's happened before and she's had took it pretty bad. And since Menagerie doesn't communicate a lot with the rest of the world and has an entire desert full of Grimm that she can use to let off steam, we thought it was the perfect place." Robyn explained, as Ghira listened attentively, "I'm sorry if what happened this morning worried you, we really had no intention of causing any trouble, it won't happen again."

The chieftain thought for a moment about what she had just said.

"How old is your sister?" he asked. It wasn't what she expected…

"She just turned fourteen."

Ghira thought again, then let out a long sigh, "Look Miss. Hill, I believe you when you say you don't have any bad intentions, but the whole town saw what looked like a pillar of fire not far from their home, they are scared and want reassuring answers. If they find out it was from a teenage girl who has trouble controlling herself, I doubt they'll take it well." The 'if they find out it's a human' was heavily implied.

"We could just move away from the city, move further in the mountain or on the south coast." she pleaded.

"I doubt it would be enough." replied the chieftain, shaking his head, "People who live here came because they wanted a peaceful place, away from the problems of the world."

"And so do we." Robyn insisted. Falcon wasn't ready to return to Anima yet, and she was making so much progress here, not just with her powers but also emotionally, and Qrow too. Also, even if there were other mountain ranges, they had to be close enough to civilization so they could get supplies, but also far enough away that no one could see Falcon's flames, and above all, in the rest of the world, there were Huntsmen everywhere. Ozpin had eyes and ears everywhere. Everywhere except here.

The chieftain sighed heavily. He didn't like the situation either, but he was at least open to arguments, if she insisted, she could convince him.

"Miss Hill, How much do you know about the current situation of the White Fang?" he finally asked.

Robyn was taken aback, "I admit I haven't been following the news very closely over the past few months, I was focused on other things. I know there was a change in leadership about a year ago, and that the protests started to get more aggressive…"

"That's about right, the problem is that it's the organization in general that has changed, not just the protests. Instead of trying to establish better relationships with humans, Sienna Khan now encourages the White Fang to use force, to impose respect by using fear." he explained in a disapproving tone, "And if they're fighting someone, that person is, for lack of a better term, the enemy…"

"Humans are their enemies." Robyn finished with disappointment. She understood his point of view, he was the chieftain and also had to take into account the reaction of his people, learning that their chieftain authorized a group of humans to stay on the island to practice making fire tornadoes risked to cause a lot of panic and fights. Above all, they risked losing trust in their chieftain, and it was much harder to help people who didn't trust him… "And many Faunus here agree with them?"

"I wouldn't really say they're agree, these people want a calm and peaceful life, not political fights, but the White Fang is obviously very influential here, and I wouldn't be surprised if they used your presence and this morning's events to reinforce the idea that humans are dangerous, even if you have no bad intentions." Ghira said apologetically.

Robyn sighed, there wasn't much she could do to change an entire town's mind, she couldn't even change her classmates' mind… But she couldn't let it go, Falcon had need her! It was literally the only place in the world where she felt safe! What could she do? Playing on the fact that they had a child in the group? No, it might have worked if Falcon was six, but she was already a teenager. Using her Semblance on herself to prove her honesty? No, it wouldn't matter if people didn't know her Semblance or didn't trust her to tell them exactly how it worked. What else? What else?!

And suddenly she had a brilliant idea.

"Maybe we can find a compromise. Since we settled in the mountains, Qrow has killed two Grimm trying to cross, and he told me he heard fishermen complaining about another one in the sea. With three skilled and experienced Huntsmen, there must be tasks too dangerous for the guards we can take care of, as compensation for the right to stay. And it might help establish a better image of humans for the Faunus here." she offered enthusiastically.

Ghira hummed, intrigued, and raised his hand to his chin, "That's not a bad idea… In addition to the fishermen, there's a banana plantation further north that had a visit from a Grimm a few days ago, and it still hasn't been taken care of." he said with a small smile, then frowned, "Three Huntsmen?"

"Yes, there is another Huntress besides Qrow and me, she's a human too. She has experience with Semblances like Falcon's so she came to help us."

The chieftain chuckled, "That little girl seems to be very popular with the Huntsmen."

"She's oddly lovable, but you shouldn't call her 'little' or she'll get angry very fast." Robyn admitted with a laugh. The atmosphere was already less tense now that they had found common ground.

"Oh don't worry, I know how teenagers are!" Ghira replied with a laugh, then coughed into his fist to regain his seriousness, "I have files on recent Grimm appearances, it will be easier than telling you everything from memory." He glanced at the clock on the wall, "It's getting late, we should make arrangements tomorrow morning. After that I will make an announcement to tell the people that there is no danger and how you will help us."

"Actually, if you don't mind… Would it be possible to stick with Qrow's version of the fire and not bring up Falcon? If anything should go wrong, I don't want her involved in this."

"Of course I understand, I have a daughter of the same age and I would also like her to stay out of political issues." he said sadly.

"Thank you. So, I'll come back tomorrow morning to finish arranging everything?" Robyn asked to change the subject.

"Yes. Given the distance, I'm not going to ask you to arrive at sunrise. Do you think you can be there around ten?"

"I don't guarantee that I'll be there at ten sharp, but yes." she answered.

They talked for a few more minutes to work out details, like asking Robyn to bring Qrow and Oceane's Huntsmen licenses, then shook hands once everything was settled. It went much better than she expected, Menagerie had a patient and attentive leader, who genuinely cared about his people, and not just his image like so many others. She was almost jealous, Mantle could use a leader like that…

"By the way, I have one last question." Ghira added, "Why did your friend lie that the fire came from a fight against a Grimm?"

Robyn sighed, "Because he's a bit overprotective of Falcon. She's still young and… I won't get into details because it's neither my business nor yours, but she's all he has right now."

Ghira smiled, "I see. I hope her training is going well then."

Robyn chuckled with a hint of embarrassment, "We're working on it…"

Ilia didn't really know what to think of what she was seeing. She was currently high in the mountain, hidden behind rocks at the edge of an open plateau, her skin and hair completely gray to blend in with the landscape. It hadn't been that hard to follow the guards without them noticing, they were too focused on their little fight to think of looking behind them. Then a very human-looking Huntsman had arrived to save Varian from a deadly fall, and Ilia had followed him back to his camp, or at least for part of the way because she soon lost sight of him and almost got lost looking for the rest of his group. She wasn't sure what she expected to find there, but it sure wasn't that.

In front of her, the rude blonde girl who had bumped into her at the market was training in combat with a blue-haired woman with weird red designs on her arm. And she was good, very good, especially for someone with only one arm! Ilia had seen people her age fight against adults during training, but usually the adult would just defend against their attacks, before finally knocking them down to let the next student try. Here, the blond girl was on the same level as the woman, the movements were fast and the attacks went both ways! It looked like a fight of Adam, but without the sword!

Ilia wanted to fight like that too! If she could stand up to Huntsmen, she might be allowed on more important missions with the White Fang! And if she was at Adam's level, maybe Blake would notice her for good…

There was just one thing that bothered her about this girl, and about the three adults who were with her… None of them had any Faunus traits. Of course, she was in no position to judge people on this, she could pass for a human herself, to the point where she had managed to go to school in Atlas. But she was just one random case, what were the odds that four Faunus with non-visible traits would end up here together hiding in the mountains?

Were… Were there humans on the island? No! It was the only place in the world where humans left them alone! They had no right to come and invade them!

But… it didn't really look like an invasion… It was just four people… in the mountain where no one ever went… What was she supposed to think of that?

Suddenly, as the two potential humans were taking a break from their training, the blonde girl turned to the rocks behind which Ilia was hiding, but she didn't move an inch. The girl looked around for a moment, then shrugged and walked back to her tent to get a drink.

Ilia couldn't help but smile. Her camouflage abilities were improving day by day!

Done!

Yeah I know, in RWBY Chibi it's Tai that Qrow did the no pants prank to, but I wouldn't put it past him to do the same to Ironwood, I mean, even Port managed to do it to Ozpin with the "faculty costume party, that turned out not to be a costume party at all, PORT!". Between that and the combat skirt, I'm starting to think that Huntsmen have a general problem with pants…

And Yang made a fire tornado! Finally! At first I wanted to describe the scene as something super impressive from Robyn's pov, because I like to write how people feel around magic, it helps show the difference with regular Semblances, but here it didn't really feel necessary and I have better ideas of when to describe it, so I'll keep it in a corner of my head for now.

And yeah, they finally got busted, and I know some of you expected the characters to be in trouble, maybe even a fight, but fortunately for them, Ghira is a good man and, in case you forgot, Robyn is a future politician, she has a certain charisma. That's another thing she shares with Raven. Don't believe me? Okay, remember in V5:

1) when Yang beats up Shay and the other bandits, he tells her "when Raven finds out what you did you're dead", so they actually trust her to go defend/avenge them if they encounter someone too strong for them instead of just letting the weak behind like people expect her to,

2) when Yang starts to be rude to her in front of everyone, one of the bandits draws his sword and even attacks her and yells "watch your mouth in front of our leader", so they have so much respect for her that they get offended on her behalf when someone is disrespectful to her to the point of attacking the person themselves, even though they obviously know Raven can defend herself,

3) even Qrow says she "managed to gain a lot of followers since she returned to the tribe",

4) when Cinder and co arrive, the first thing she does is tell her people to leave, the first thing she does when Salem sends an evil Maiden to threaten her is to make sure her people is safe in case a fight starts,

5) she does all that without the 4 years of experience as a leader she could have had at Beacon (who was the leader of her team again? Oh right, the girl with silver eyes), she either learned leadership skills by herself, or is just naturally good at it (my bet is on both).

… Why do I always end up ranting about how great I think Raven is…?

Not much to say about this chap, it was mostly a transition chapter, so see you next time!