This was unbelievable.
As in he literally could not believe the response.
… It took him a moment to look at the armed individual who had responded. Fennel was, as they said himself, the only person curious enough to explore the forest extensively.
Qrow stood in shock, "This isn't one of our villagers," he echoed.
"Really? Are you positive?"
"Yes. It was roughly two years ago. Found them in my early guarding days."
They stopped.
For some pinched their nose, tilted their head a few inches away, and leaned slightly back. Qrow noted their armour was quite worn. It looked far older than a couple of years old.
It seemed the other people didn't know this. Or, if they had, they didn't believe it back then. Qrow glanced at some of the shuffling sounds. The source was a few of the villagers with weaponry trying to back away from the centre of the grouping, only to falter against the wall of the others.
"… Continue?"
"… I had found writing on trees repeating the you described, and I used the carved seating locations to defeat some weak Grimm from a vantage point."
…and? For some reason you are not continuing.
"There were only five carved alcoves."
… They stopped moving, and breathed very consciously through their mouth. Eyes darting rapidly was giving the impression they did not expect to be i the centre of their entire village, but they ended the story succinctly.
"I saw this body a week or so after first encountering what seemed to be a person making hidden places in the forest-
-and it was in pieces."
At this point, voices started to murmur in the shuffling eddy around the hunter. Some young voice called out in a complaint, chastised most likely by their parents. winced slightly at the inevitable sleeping problems the parents would inevitably face.
… Well damn. That's one of the creepiest things I ever had to contemplate.
Qrow did not expect he'd be on undertaker duty at the start of his journey, but he was willing to take a day or so to help.
Qrow was already beginning a plan to try to do a small investigative watch to locate the object of this person's messages. He also had to explain that there's an insane guard here that was partially responsible for a ridiculously dangerous Grimm hunting technique. He had no idea why they chose to have extended this absurdly risky technique for years, but he could safely go with his original hypothesis now.
He requested to bury the body in the town.
"If, of course," he added, "you all possess a graveyard inside this village, and if you are all amenable to it."
…
…
…
I take the silence as a sign of unwillingn-
"Excuse me, Hunter. I can bring you to an excellent location!"
What a chipper kid. Fennel appeared to have some solution to his current situation. He found the joy emanating from the guard to be comforting. It was good that they hadn't killed themselves. Yet.
Now I should just try to convince this guard to stop risking their life sitting in trees. By all means, he liked easy ways to get a Grimm down as much as any other person that faced them—but this seemed to be a step too far for someone that seemed to not be well versed in… sane methods of combat.
As soon as they completed their cry surrounded by the crowd, Qrow blinked and noticed the other villagers moving to their homes. They were all sequestered before Fennel did anything else, peering from windows or door-gaps, all equipped in various objects they had with them to give themselves protection. It was like the young guard's voice heralded some Grimm attack with how fast they went. Qrow noted with a small amount of humour that the other guard members were edging closer to the houses as well, watching the guard who remained still in front of the town's visiting huntsman.
The guard in question made a small noise, quickly darted into the dimness, most likely taking some shortcut through the town. With a "Ho!" and a "THANKS!" calling out from somewhere, followed by increasingly louder impact sounds, Fennel returned having borrowed a shovel. The other guard members who had remained began to disperse, and the lone guard escorted Qrow out of town.
This might be a problem later…
Qrow… had never thought he'd meet someone unluckier than himself. This Fennel managed to have bad luck in spades, barely catching themselves repeatedly as they fell over various roots and… Qrow couldn't keep avoiding the topic now.
They were walking over the maybe-burned region of ground in the forest, and it was incredibly flat. There was nothing TO trip over. Although, despite all the flailing, he noted that they kept looking directly at every overhead branch or flat ground they then hit.
"Cat?"
"It would be funny, since I DO always land on my feet!"
…
Seriously.
Qrow was supposedly walking to Fennel's "excellent location", which turned out to be burying the young woman under the tree she had been in when Qrow found her. Qrow brought along the shovel the young guard borrowed, and Fennel. Fennel brought along a very obvious lack of stability, and two other shovels.
"Semblance?"
"I have a semblance of being incredibly clumsy!"
…
Qrow glanced to the side.
It turned out the endless punning was only good with blood relations.
The guard didn't seem to notice, and continued.
"-but, honestly, here I was thinking I was bad!"
… Wait. She knew about his-
He turned to see them staring with a slightly cocked head, seeming a sliver less chipper.
"You drink."
…
"I jest."
… Qrow looked up into the forest as he briefly nodded.
Fennel walked alongside him, shovels stabilising into the ground as they went.
… They were nearly there. Qrow felt this was as good a time as any to get everything prepared. He began by removing the doll from the corpse's jacket, and a small paper the two of them found sewn into the coat's pockets during the walk. He held them in his hand while trying to lay the body down. A scroll would have been better to find, but the paper at least gave the dead's final wish, despite it being annoyingly poetic-
His scroll made a notification sound.
Fennel, can I get the kid to start the digging while I take this?
"I'll start digging, but I'm going to read that paper now."
Wow. She's good at that.
…
"Qrow. I have noticed you're up unusually late. Do you care to explain this?"
Ozpin straightened his grey hair, and prepared to translate a small amount of drunk speech.
"We regret to inform you of the death of your child in combat against the Gri-"
"Qrow."
Qrow then gave a slight smirk, and then clearly explained that he was busy assisting in a burial. "-I'm working with Fennel, one of the town's guards, to give them-"
"Qrow. What was that about my child?"
…
Qrow's eyes flicked off screen for a moment.
"You see, the hunter looks incredibly similar to you."
What hunter?
As Ozpin waited for Qrow to stop his obvious thinking to plot down his story, a voice called out "You didn't explain the hunter!"
That must have been the guard named Fennel.
…
Qrow listed what he had learned.
Firstly: The dead huntress most likely killed Grimm by hiding in trees and defeating them from above. Fennel proved the tactic was at least partially viable, as they explained they briefly did it themselves.
Secondly: The huntress was supposedly waiting for someone, carving messages to the now better identified person. At some point between now and two years ago, someone repaired the corpse, and carved more traps.
Thirdly, after having to briefly explain to Fennel how healing with Aura worked, the body is relatively undamaged. Qrow didn't explain why that was relevant, so he noted down a reminder. Maybe he can have someone else get him to explain that.
So he didn't find out why there were no Grimm sighted in the forest.
…
Better identified? How?
"How did you identify who the deceased was writing to?"
At this, he noticed that Qrow… froze.
"I need you to send a bullhead to me. Preferably as fast as possible."
He furrowed his brow. "Please explain why? This seems quite sudden if some danger isn't imminent."
…
Qrow turned to someone else present, and asked them to read out the paper.
The scroll's camera turned to show a small person with eyes slightly red in the light, holding a small paper.
… Ozpin didn't entirely know what to expect now.
"Ahem…"
"This idol of her from the tower,
Whom Death hastens to ever so soon.
To you reading this poem,
If these words do not ring true,
Leave her sitting stalwart with the woman now dead.
Keep me with thee and the Deathless one will come for you."
…
Qrow held the doll, and waited for Ozpin to respond with the obvious question.
Fennel walked back towards them, since they were already done with the digging.
…
"Qrow."
"Show me this idol."
Qrow held up the black dressed doll, the white hair shifting slightly, and waited for the reaction.
…
"Burn it. I'm sending a bullhead now."
Okay. We're going double-time then.
Ozpin, for some reason, kept calling. Normally he's heading off after giving the orders.
"Guard Fennel."
Qrow turned to Fennel, the scroll turning with him, giving extra light to the guard standing still in front of a mostly filled depression in the ground.
Qrow spoke softly.
"Fennel. What's wrong?"
"… Nothing. It looked…wrong for a second. You wanted to ask me something?"
She watched the eyes of the grey haired man in the scroll. Qrow was right. He did look like the girl. He spoke in a calm voice of gentle surety.
"I would like you to not tell anyone you know about exactly what happened here. However, please tell your village to prepare for an evacuation. I have something to ask of this man privately."
Fennel nodded once, and began to run back to the village.
As the sounds of iron on wood and dirt became fainter, Ozpin resumed his talking to Qrow.
"Burn the body as well, after you destroy the doll."
So itisher. Qrow didn't really want to know why some young girl in the woods had a connection tothem,but he was probably going to have to find out wether he wanted to or not.
…
Qrow burst through the forest, barely managing to avoid dropping the felt deathtrap in his hands. With a quick grunt of effort, he threw it as far into the air as he could, watching it arc in a lovely parabola until it was an invisible spot in the night.
Kiddo would have loved to see this.
He started his trek back to the pickup site, removing his weapon from his back, and pulling a trigger once while sprinting.
Two.
One-
Qrow noted with some confusion that the fire dustshouldhave been hit by now…
-Flames billowed out of the sky behind him, and he gave a small nod in satisfaction.
… Ah. That was it. No explosion sound, so he assumed his shot missed, but he was just too far away. That could be expected.
He took a slight detour on his return back.
"Why…"
"Glynda. You're up late."
"-Are you carrying a torch?"
He went leisurely over to the burial site, now illuminated by his torch as well as the bullhead.
Qrow paused for a second. The grave did look strange. He quickly thought a prayer for the nameless huntress and laid the contents of both hands down on the grave.
…
"Everyone is evacuated, if you were wondering."
Wow. They did that fast.
"It was only forty people."
…
"Hmm?" Qrow murmured. "It felt like more."
…
The two of them went to the bullhead in relative quiet. Some comments was made by Glynda on the carved text.
"You chose to cremate them because of their writing?"
"Yes. It wa-"
… His walking became stilted, like he was a clock that ticked too fast and became off course.
"What writing?"
Glynda was confused, but kept walking, now while pointing out the trees with text that Qrow had went past earlier that day.
Qrow looked behind at each tree. Each tree was heavily scarred, and Qrow was able to barely make out the text he had read before. Above each and every pre-written text was one word.
BURN
BURN
BURN
BURN
BURN
BURN
BURN
BURN-
Qrow stopped everything he was trying to do in order be quiet.
"Glynda. Run."
…