She Who Cried Wolf 1

The sun rose over Beacon cliff the next morning, waking all the new students eventually as the rays shone through the floor to ceiling windows of the grand hall. As the students rose and began to get ready for the long day ahead of them, Ambur and the other two students became separated. As the boys were directed into the men's room to get changed and cleaned up for the day Ambur found herself alone again, listening to the ushering of the teachers. As she changed back into a clean t-shirt, underwear, and bra she chose to wear her jeans and t-shirt from the day before, slipping new socks on underneath her high-top sneakers.

Soon enough she was able to find a quiet section of the long counter, seeing all the other girls gossiping together except for the select few girls like herself, trying to blend into the background and get their business done without confrontation. Of course, for other girls, this was a much easier task than it was for Ambur. She had just turned eighteen but she showed no signs that she would stop growing. She was already over six feet tall and had a very pronounced hourglass figure which made it impossible to blend in with crowds of other girls who were all much shorter than her, and very few of them had such mature bodies as she did at their age.

So no matter how many times she dyed her hair black and no matter how many black band tees she bought she still stood out and her efforts were wasted. She pulled a makeup wipe from her bag and scrubbed her face until all the product from the previous day was removed before redrawing her wings and flicking her mascara brush through her eyelashes. After she was satisfied she brushed through her hair, however as she did she saw another girl come up beside her in the mirror. The shorter girl looked up to her briefly before looking into the mirror, her vision darting between herself and Ambur.

Ambur could easily tell why she was giving her strange looks, making her feel even more insecure about her abnormal height than she usually did. 'This girl is tiny,' she thought to herself. She had to be only just five feet, maybe five foot one inch Ambur reckoned. Ambur towered over the girl, her red eyes occasionally awkwardly connecting with the girls Plum colored orbs in the mirror, catching each other looking one another over. She wore white skinny jeans and Ambur had noticed that she was propped up by a pair of white open-toed heels, very tall, still barely making the girl come up to Ambur's chest. She wore a simple white tank top, and as Ambur kept watching, she saw the girl apply her makeup perfectly, her long flowing white hair making her makeup and her eyes stand out beautifully.

However, after a while Ambur heard the girl speak, breaking her out of her admiring trance, "You're very pretty you know?" She heard, shocking her ears.

"Wha..." She began as if she hadn't heard her correctly, looking to her face again in the mirror as the girl looked away and continued to get ready for the day. "Sorry, you...you mean...m-me?" She stuttered in disbelief.

"Ya, who else?" She retorted with a smirk on her face, looking around, Ambur following her vision in the mirror with a blush spreading across her cheeks, seeing clearly that there was no one else around them.

"Wha-well I...thank you, I guess," Ambur finally managed to let out softly as she looked down to the counter away from the girl, her cheeks burning at the girl's compliment. "But you're much prettier than me," Ambur added as she shyly looked back up to her without moving her head, only her eyes.

"Hah," the other girl mock laughed at Ambur's comment. "Please," she rolled her eyes before turning to Ambur and lifting her hand to the much taller girl's chin. "Look at me," she said to Ambur, who reluctantly lifted her chin and looked down into the girl's stunning plum eyes with her own red ones. "What's a girl as pretty as you doing all the way over here in the corner avoiding people?" She asked before letting go of Ambur and grabbing her own eyeliner from the counter and lifting it to Ambur's face.

"Wh.." Ambur began, unsure of how to answer her question, and slightly nervous as she let the girl redraw her winged liner as she saw fit. "I don't...I'm not..." she sighed before falling silent and letting the girl work on her face.

"You from around here?" She asked after realizing that Ambur wasn't going to answer her.

"Ye...yeah I uh...just graduated from Signal...What about you?"

"Mistral," she smiled back, glad that she was getting the taller girl to talk to her. After a moment she pulled back and capped her eyeliner and turned Ambur back toward the mirror. Ambur's lips parted silently as her cheeks went red. She brought her hands together and couldn't help but feel a warm rush flow through her body.

"Th-thank you..." She said in awe, much preferring the girl's work to her own.

"My pleasure," she smiled as she went back to working on her own face. "What's your name?"

"Uhm...Ambur," She said as she snapped out of her trance, looking away from the mirror and down to the girl and held her hand out shyly. "What's yours?"

"Olivier," she let out with a smirk and shook Ambur's hand gently. "Nice to meet you, Ambur."

"Nice to meet you too but...if you don't mind me asking," she asked nervously before bending down slightly and whispering into Olivier's ear. "Why...did you pick me to come and stand next to out of everyone in here?"

Olivier couldn't help but laugh. She hadn't known anyone like Ambur back in her area of Mistral and it was a bit hard to understand Ambur's disposition. "You looked lonely. Like you could use a friend and since I'm the only one from my graduating class that decided to come to Beacon, I don't have any friends either," she smirked as she looked back to the mirror.

Ambur was surprised, to say the least. She couldn't stop smiling as she watched the girl continue to get ready. She couldn't believe how easily the first two days had been so far. She'd finally mustered up the courage to talk to her crush of four years and made her first female friend she had had since she was a little girl without even trying. All in twenty-four hours. "So tell me," Liv spoke as she began piling all her belongings back into her bag. "Is your hair black or white?"

"White," she sighed, "I like to dye it black though..."

"Because you want to blend into the background ya?" Liv remarked with a teasing smile before she began to walk away, looking back and motioning for Ambur to follow her. Ambur quickly piled her things back into her bag and followed Olivier out of the bathroom and toward the locker room where they had all been instructed to leave their bags.

"...Ya...I don't like to...stand out you know?"

"Oh trust me," Liv laughed, "I can tell. It's plain for all to see," she teased, getting a small laugh out of Ambur. "You know it sort of has the opposite effect right? I could pick you out of a crowd no matter what you wore so why bother trying to hide? You're tiptoeing Ambur. With a body and a face like that you need to strut," she said matter of factually as she lifted her arms out beside her and began to walk on her tiptoes with her back straight and head level as if balancing books atop it. "Put your hips into it," Liv laughed out before demonstrating what she meant, swinging her much smaller hips into her steps for Ambur to see.

"Oh, I don't...I don't' know about that," Ambur blushed before Liv laughed again as they came to the large locker room. They turned inside and walked toward the back of the room. Ambur scanned the room to see if the two boys had made it here yet, and indeed they had. She could see Mydnight facing his locker with Bronzine sitting on a bench behind him, already finished getting ready.

"You know those two?" She heard Liv ask, before feeling the smaller girl put her hand into Ambur's, taking it and walking toward the two boys with Ambur in tow. Ambur quietly pleaded for Liv to wait, but before she could even think about stopping her, she saw Mydnight's ears twitch. He turned around to see the two girls coming toward them and when Bronzine saw the look on Mydnight's face he too felt the need to turn around to look still sitting down.

"Hey Ambur," the boys said in unison as the two girls made it to them, "Who's your friend?" Mydnight continued.

"Uh...huh," Ambur scrambled for words before looking down at Liv. "Th-this is Olivier," She finally managed with a smile. "I just met her in the bathroom, she helped me with my make up," Ambur began to ramble.

"Well that's nice of her," The boys nodded to the much shorter girl with smiles. "Nice to meet you Liv," Bronzine said. "I'm Bronzine and this is Mydnight," he points to his friend, "Don't worry he doesn't bite," he winked.

"Nice to meet you too," Liv smiled up to Ambur with a surprised look on her face, impressed that the shy girl had managed to make friends with two other people already in the day they had been at the school. Olivier and Ambur stuffed their bags into the two lockers beside the boys and each of them began pulling their weapons out of their lockers. Ambur's came first as she accidentally scraped the top of the double-edged broadsword against the top of the locker, the sword barely able to fit into the locker at all.

It was just as tall as she was, the other students could barely believe she was able to lift it off the ground at all but it seemed almost effortless for her. Mydnight could hardly believe that he had never noticed it before when they had been at school, but then again Ambur was so shy that it was possible that he just never saw her fight, not to mention that he had been so busy training on his own that he may have completely missed her ever holding it. The sword wasn't just tall though, it was very wide, blade to blade it was nearly as wide as Ambur's hips, the golden crossguard stretched out even farther. Its hilt was wrapped in red leather and took up nearly a foot of the sword's length by itself.

"Woah," Liv looked the blade up and down, "how the hell do you wield that thing. I couldn't even lift it up!"

"It's uh...my semblance," Ambur blushed as she strapped the massive sword around her back, the sling rotated to one side slightly so the blade wouldn't drag into the ground as she walked. "I'm just really strong," she shrugged her shoulders. "Not very interesting I know."

"Just really strong?" Mydnight questioned in disbelief. "Like how strong?"

"Well...I don't know I try not to...really use it a lot cuz it draws attention..." Ambur admits before folding her arms under her chest.

Olivier had hers out of her locker next, though the others couldn't tell how it was supposed to be a weapon. It was a small backpack at first glance, and Olivier slung it over her shoulders, the bag resting at the small of her back just above her tailbone. She saw the others give her questioning looks and she couldn't help but smile. "You'll see don't worry about it," she shrugged with a smile. The rest of the group simply nodded in agreement with her, the curiosity running away from their expressions.

Bronzine was next, producing a pair of dual short swords from the locker, before pressing the hilts together, mechanisms whirring as the two swords connected to one another and a wire shot from one tip to the other connecting the other ends and forming a bow. Next, he produced a quiver of varying types of arrows, different bunches separated within it by dividers for different tips and dust types.

Mydnight was last to produce his weapon from the locker, in it's folded up state the item seemed like a very unusually shaped staff. Sharp fist-sized teeth shaped protrusions littered the black red and white device, and atop the 'staff' was a sculpted piece shaped like a wolf's head. It was like a work of art really, however, upon seeing the groups confused looks he pressed a button on the shaft and the device folded out, quickly re-arranging into a massive chain scythe.

The teeth shaped pieces became the teeth that wrapped in a chain around the blade of the scythe, and the wolf's mouth now had a ripcord within it, presumably to start the dust powered motor within the head. The scythe was just as tall as Mydnight was and the group all took a step back in awe. Bronzine and Ambur had seen the scythe before, back in Signal when Mydnight had sparred with other students, however, it seemed that over the summer he had tweaked a few things about it. For one it hadn't been able to fold up before, and the paint job was far more intricate this time around. "I thought you said you couldn't get it to fold up? Too complicated?" Bronzine smirked.

"Qrow helped me out a lot with that," Mydnight admitted with a smile before folding the weapon back up and grabbing it's sling from his locker, storing the weapon on his back. "Wasn't easy. Anything with a chain in it really doesn't mix with folding but we figured it out. Come on, don't wanna be late right?" He smiled back to them as the group of students headed out of the building and out to where they had all been told to meet this morning, atop the Beacon cliffs, overlooking the emerald forest.

As the students lined up along the cliff they saw more and more of their classmates joining them, keeping as far as they could from the small band of misfits. Of course, the only one who cared to notice was Ambur. The other three didn't seem to have a care in the world, getting to know each other while they all waited for the headmaster to show up and begin the exercise. As they waited a few of them began to stretch in anticipation of the events to come. They could see metal plates lined up all along the cliff, figuring they would need to stand on them for the event to begin. "So," Bronzine finally broke their small talk up, "any idea what we are doing?" He asked looking down to Mydnight who was adjusting his boot laces

"Well," he grunted out as he finished and stood, lifting his hand up to his forehead and looking out over the cliff. "This is clearly how we are being broken up into teams, though it remains to be seen exactly how I think it's pretty clear that we will be searching for something in the forest. Why else bring us out here?"

"The point IS to be seen," they heard a man's voice say, turning to see Professor Ozpin heading toward them. He must have barely overheard Mydnight's words. "Everyone please pick a plate and stand on it," he looked around, sipping his tea as Professor Goodwitch walked up behind him. As the four students took their positions on the last four plates in the row the Headmaster spoke again, nodding to Mydnight. "As your classmate surmised you will be indeed looking through the forest to find relics that I have hidden within it. Though the first thing you should know before all of that is how your partners will be chosen."

Glynda spoke up next, continuing his speech, "Each team will be made up of two different pairs of students. While your teammates are of great importance, the only thing that trumps them is your partners. Your partner will have to become your closest and most trusted ally here at the school for the next four years. You need to be able to confide in them, tell them anything and be there for each other whenever needed. This is a stressful life and the ability to have someone to talk to about any of your problems is paramount."

"That being said," Ozpin began again, "The first person you make eye contact with inside the forest will become your partner for the next four years," he smirked, always enjoying the look of shocked faces on the first-year students every time he told them that little fact.

"What," Ambur breathed out nervously, loud enough for only Mydnight to hear. He could tell that she was very nervous as she began to fidget in place, becoming visibly uncomfortable. She wasn't the only one though, Mydnight could tell that plenty of the other students were nervous about the information as well.

However, the students would have to hold their tongues as Ozpin continued with his instructions. "All you have to do is find the relics and make it back to the school in one piece. Simple enough don't you think?" He thought aloud as the students began to ready themselves. "Those platforms will be launching you into the forest below, you all will be responsible for your own method of landing safely in the forest and you may do so however you please. As he looked down the line of students he saw no objections, and so he nodded to Glynda who pressed a section of the screen on her tablet. "Good luck then," he lifted his glass before the first students began launching down into the forest.

Ambur and the others were the last four to be launched, and as they all flew up into the sky and began to drift apart, Ambur spent most of their hang time looking at where the others were going to land, trying to trace them down to the ground, before she fell under the tree line. Landing safely was no trouble for her of course, not requiring her to do any fancy motion or even attempt to slow down at all. As she hit the ground she fell to one knee and slammed her fist into the dirt, the action rippling through the ground as a dust cloud kicked up around her, leaving a small crater where she had landed. Her semblance allowed her to take impacts even as great as these without even using her aura to absorb the blow.

As quickly as she could she stood up and dusted herself down, looking around quickly to make sure there were no Grimm in the area before she began running through the trees in the direction of where the other three should have landed.

However, she, and indeed neither of the other two would be the first person to lock eyes with Bronzine, As just before he fell below the tree line he would fire an arrow with a cable attached to it into a tree and use his momentum to swing forward, back above the tree line for a brief moment, moving far past where most of the other students had landed, leaving his friends in the dust.

Olivier had to work a bit harder than the rest, bouncing between different branches from different trees trying to slow herself down until at last, she hit the ground. She did trip a little on contact but quickly regained her balance.

Mydnight too had to work for his landing, pulling out his scythe and having the teeth catch on as many branches as he could on the way down, slowing him enough to where he could hit the ground, digging his boots into the dirt and sliding across the forest floor for several yards before grinding to a halt. Of course, Ozpin knew all too well that Mydnight's Faunus senses made this event a bit trivial, as he could more or less pick whomever he wanted for a partner. He could hear people coming much farther away than a normal human, and if he didn't want to partner up with whoever he heard he could just go in the other direction until he found someone he would prefer.

Mydnight suspected that Ozpin had actually meant for him to do just that, seek out a partner that he could trust and would eventually be able to be brought into the inner circle and be of use to the group. More importantly, though, be someone that Mydnight could always count on. As he began to walk through the forest he tried to listen for all the other students, trying to pick faint voices out in the distance. He would walk for several minutes, selectively dodging voices that he couldn't place and people coming toward him that he hadn't met, or even students from Signal that he had never gotten along with.

The sun was growing higher in the sky, the temperature though was not much of a concern, Mydnight ever thankful that even at the beginning of the school year the climate of Vale had never been too much for him to handle. Through the trees, he could see rays of light, and below him, they danced on the forest floor. Though as he walked on his peace was interrupted by yet another person's footsteps coming through the trees. He heard no voice though, assuming that the person coming had not yet found a partner, and as they got closer he could tell there was only one set of footsteps. He stepped behind a tree and waited, listening as the person came closer and closer until they were only two or three trees away from him.

"Mydnight?!" She cried out with her hands cupped around her mouth. "Man I thought I saw him over here," she sighed as she kicked a stone on the ground, the stone rocketing into the tree Mydnight was standing behind, digging into its bark.

He was relieved upon hearing her say all of this, easily able to identify the girl before stepping out from behind the tree to greet her. "You did," he said as he came into her field of vision. Ambur looked up to him, her cheeks flushing as she put her hand over her heart in surprise.

"You...Mydnight you're," she began to fumble with her words as she looked around. "You're alone?"

"You too huh?" He smiled before he began walking again until he was beside her.

"Ye-yeah," she sighed in relief, blushing harder and harder as he came closer, her heart pounding in her chest with joy. "So...we...we're partners then?" She asked shyly before tucking some of her hair behind her ear.

"Looks that way," he nodded to her with a smile, "Let's go then, we got a relic to find right?" he said happily, grateful he had been able to find one of his few friends before finding anyone else. As he began to walk she stumbled after him, following close behind him as they walked deeper into the forest.

"So...why were you hiding behind that tree?" She finally asked as they walked along.

"Well I figured since I can hear people coming I'd try to pick a partner that I wanted, instead of it being completely random," he answered.

"You...you waited for me?" She stopped, stunned by his words.

"Well, Bronzine went on ahead so ya," he smiled back to her. "Figured you'd make a nice partner," he added as he kept going into the brush. She continued following him again, feeling as if she was walking on air. Like she was in a daydream. As they pressed on her mood never soured, and true to form, as they kept going they became more and more surprised at the fact that they weren't running into any Grimm. Mydnight could hear a few in the distance but they seemed to be following students who were more nervous and in worse moods over receiving partners they didn't want.

Eventually, the pair found their way to a clearing in the trees, which gave way to a long stone pathway. It seemed to be the ruins of some sort of structure. The main structure seemed to be a large circular room, and in the background far ahead of them they could see what looked to be the skeleton of a fort or castle of some kind. As most of the other students had been held up by the creatures of Grimm or indeed by becoming lost in the woods temporarily, the pair arrived before anyone else, heading for the open circular stone structure. Upon closer inspection, they found the relics that Ozpin must have been referring to in the form of oversized chess pieces on stone pedestals, one white set, and one black.

"So...what are we supposed to do with these?" Ambur wondered aloud as she walked up to one of the pedestals and looked over the piece in front of her. "Think they are booby-trapped?" She joked quietly, raising a small laugh from Mydnight. She had stopped in front of the black rook piece and was looking it up and down.

"I guess we just pick one," he chuckled before walking to her side and pointing to the one she was studying. "Want that one?"

"Oh uh...I mean we don't have to take this one," she stood back up straight and stepped over to the side to give him space. "You can pick if you want I don't...really know chess," she admitted.

"Well you must be able to read minds," he laughed before placing his hand on the piece and picking it up, both going silent for a few seconds to see if any sort of trap had been sprung. When they realized nothing was going to happen he tossed the piece up into the air before catching it again and handing it to her to hold on to.

"Why do you say that?" She asked him quietly as she looked down at the piece and back up into the eyes of her new partner. She watched as a smile spread across his lips before he shrugged and turned around, walking away from her slowly.

"You picked my favorite piece," he admitted as her cheeks flushed bright pink in surprise, looking down to the piece in her hand.