In the air, she started to question him. She was confused, tired, and a bit angry.
"Why did you do that?"
He was trying to stay serious, but he noted that Glynda was using her disobedient student in trouble tone.
"Because, the trees? That's not what I had re-".
"A trained hunter in an area that could have contained a sizable amount of Grimm chose to start running loudly with an unnecessary and significant Aura boost because… of writing."
Glynda was not impressed.
"Qrow. I'm not impressed."
Qrow was also not impressed, but he felt he had a right to hear.Ozpin. Did you tell her... nothing? This was really that urgent?
"Did you know everything before we got here?" Qrow asked.
"Ye-"
"A guard finds a corpse torn to pieces, and two years later a hunter walks in with thesame bodywithout any signs of damage?"
… "I… Did not know that."
Makes sense. I kept that from him.
"Where did you come from?"
"I was destroying a doll of the corpse's."
"W-"
"Ozpin told you the huntress's little poem?"
Glynda leaned back in her seat. This was a rather rushed evacuation, and he was sitting here asking her about poetry?
…
"Are you drunk at all?"
"Did our dusty old man tell you nothing unusual?"
The reply to her question was being thrown a fragment of folded paper pocked with needle holes.
She opened the paper.
….
...Maybe the first time I got her to stop getting annoyed at me for so long. Corpse, you did good.
She burned the paper.
"Qrow," she said, "what did you just cremate?"
He shrugged and made a questioning face.
"I don't know, but I don't think Grimm usually use axes, write moody poetry, and carry around dolls of their undead master-"
"Wife."
"-undead wife then."
…
DAM-
Qrow turned his sword arm to face his right.
The third passenger was sitting besides Qrow, looking dully at the sword pointed at her face. Her hair had small clumps of dirt making pockmarks in the grey. Her hands were playing with a white haired doll, making it do a small dancing shake.
Glynda spoke, glaring directly at Qrow.
She hissed, "Qrow! What are you doing? These people are already confused about what's going on and you decide the best thing to do is aim a weapon at one of them?!"
Qrow stilled, and sheathed his weapon.
…
"If you want to, you can introduce yourself to Qrow here. But, if you don't want to, you are perfectly fine to leave."
Glynda spoke softly after the trip sat in silence for an awkward moment. The girl was unchanged. She was positive the girl would try to leave, but was going to give Qrow ten seconds to apologize to their third passenger.
... although... this was an unintentional mistake. It's likely that any usable means of transportation was recommended to be boarded, and this child got this one by mistake.
A rough voice began, asking to the air. "Aren't you a bit old to be keeping a doll?"
"No."
"So you are…"
"23."
-Not a child then.
"You… have family?"
"A wife."
... she shouldn't comment.
...
Qrow's quiet. Is he going to say something incredibly blunt and disturb this ch- young woman?
...
He was trying really hard to not say something really blunt at Glynda.
Kid knows how to pull the ladies, eh Glynda?
The third passenger reacted.
"Did that hurt?"
Qrow had given a little glance at Glynda, who silently furrowed her face and threw a pointed clump of paper at him.
Now he had a paper cut. A small one in perfect straight line past his cheek.
What was that about wasting Aura?
He briskly continued with his interrogation.
Name?
"Woods"
First Name?
"Paige."
Home?
"None."
Partner?
"Cass Woods. Missing."
He looked at Glynda, and asked clearly, "Presumed dead?"
"Qrow!"
…
"Never."
"The doll. Who is it of?"
…
Glynda put her hand on his shoulder.
"How about you talk to the child when we land and all get settled down?"
….
She smiled while saying this.
The kind of smile that said "Do this or I suspend your nieces."
….
…Qrow sat back down. They went the rest of the night in silence.
The two sets of footsteps quietly strode through the hallways. They were heading towards an office.
"That was insane behaviour! I have half a mind to fire you for that!"
The male voice chuckled.
"Glynda. I'm not faculty."
"Qrow. My earlier threat was serious."
The chuckling slowed to a soft sigh.
"Explain yourself."
…
You know what? I'm perfectly fine with doing that.
"I shot that doll."
"… You did what?"
He enunciated it again, clearer.
"I."
"Shot."
"Tha-"
As the two turned a corner getting closer to their destination, the other person continued their conversation.
"I heard it clearly the first time. What does it have to do with finding Grimm? There's no conceivable way that that was part of the mission Ozpi-"
"He told me to burn it. So, I tied it to a sizeable amount of fire Dust, and exploded it with Harbinger a mile or so above the forest."
...
"Then I burned the corpse."
... There was a short period of silence that was only marked by feet moving on hall floors.
"Qrow. Wh-"
He grinned, "THEN, after I burned up the corpse, and exploded their doll, the writing on all the trees was replaced with BURN."
Glynda paled at that. "That is hard to explain, but does not explain why you decided to aim a weapon at a villager!"
"There!" he exclaimed like it was the solution to everything. "That's it!"
…
"She's not a villager."
…
Glynda looked incredibly tired, and Qrow slowed his pace to match.
"You're drunk."
"Glynda, Glynda, Glynda. You can go ask any villager about that thing. There's only two times they were ever seen."
He flourished a finger with great "I'm right Glynda, listen here" attitude. She could tell. He knew her silence spoke volumes.
"One: Fennel saw them torn to pieces."
Qrow heard someone choke.
"Two: When I asked the villagers today, and was told They're not one of ours."
Glynda had stopped moving. Qrow waited for her.
"Are you seriously saying that we just had an argument in front of a corpse this flight?"
…
"And the corpse commented. Pretty succinctly, in fact. We also have an interrogation with said corpse… so I think we should actually get Ozpin there already?"
...
The two of them ignored the aching and proceeded to sprint the rest of the way.
….
"Qrow. Glynda. Everything went well with our evacuation? I also assume your investigation was successful in the end?"
Glynda didn't know how to ask the question at the moment.
Unluckily for her, Qrow knew exactly what he was going to say.
"Ozpin."
He turned to them, and asked "Yes?"
Qrow smiled, and gave the appearance of giving very good news, albeit not entirely mission related.
"The investigation was solved, and the evacuation went well."
Ozpin gave a small look of surprise.
"What… if I may ask, are the results of your investigation?"
Glynda had a very bad suspicion of what would be said next…
"If you're open for it at such a late time, you can talk to who's responsible for it all directly. They're in one of the large meeting rooms."
… That… wasn't as bad as she thought.
He nodded, then returned to his desk. "So it was a group effort. I'll get some tasks bookmarked then head over in a minute."
Glynda stayed as Qrow turned to the door.
"Ozpin. What did Qrow talk to you about on that call?"
She heard him stop.
"I just reminded him that, being liable to forget things, that he has a kid that writes poetry, and has a cute little doll."
Glynda suspected she might get an aneurysm from all this. That girl is his KI-
"-and I should add that she's waiting for us right now. Parental visitation for children is a thing, you know?"
Ozpin looked up from his pages.
... Nobody spoke a word.
The three of them went for the door.
"Hey kid! How was the wait?"
She knew worse.
The grey cloaked man sat in front of her.
... He sounds so cheerful right now. He must be terrified. After all, he's the one that lit the fire.
Qrow. Ill omen, bearer of supernatural powers welding a scythe. She liked his choice of a shotgun as a side. He also showed proper respect of her armaments. His aim was excellent, for one thing, as she had to pick out a few pellets that were now littering the floor. All these were some good points in his favor.
Weapon name? 10/10 marks. He called it Harbinger. He had the wit to give such an impressive weapon such an equally impressive name. Cass would have loved this man. The look, the exuding of competent violence, the weaponry, the name, all near perfect Reaper material.
... But he tried to burn Mini Cass alive. It was in such a good way that Cass would have a nasty time trying to track down where she died, so if he intended to throw off the trail, he aced it. But, still, Mini Cass injury is a forfeit.
So, she blasted him off the contenders list. Back to reality she goes.
He had re-entered with the blonde woman, and a new man.
She recognised the third one from the silver sliver of the screen she had noticed.
Ozpin. He had wanted her little Cass burned.
He held his hands together and started to talk.
"Hello, your name is Page Woods. Correct?"
With an I, but close enough.
"Ah. I said it wrong," he whispered.
... She hadn't moved. He noticed that? How much else can he detect?
"You have been living in the forest for how long?"
Years.
"Not a long time. Interesting."
"Why are you killing Grimm?"
Habit.
"You want to..."
"Would you call yourself a hunter?"
…
This isn't working that well. Too much lost in translation. Man sure is a freak though.
...
The girl, Page, looked up at that.
"Yes, Ozpin."
… Interesting.
Ozpin continued, asking what the girl's semblance was. It was good to check. This also had the added bonus of proving if she was a Grimm.
She smiled at that.
"I have a semblance of clumsiness."
How... unusual. Qrow has a similar one... but how would that fit into her surviving all this?
Qrow choked on air at that.
"Is something wrong, Qrow?" remarked Ozpin.
"Yes."
"The guard that helped me bury her said that," he explained to the other two.
… Ah. That was a pointed message. So they were conscious even when "dead".
"How do you have that doll?"
My wife made it for me, obviously.
But they wanted the practical response.
…
She held out the insides of her arms, and pointed at the very faintest pink.
"Burns from me grabbing the doll."
She then turned to Qrow. "Pretty clever move, though."
Ozpin resumed his questions. That was going to be explained later.
"Your wife. She looks like that? Your poetry seems to suggest that is a version of her appearance."
...
"It's what she looks like no-"
...
That... was the wrong answer. He's suspicious now.
...
… Ozpin was trying to throw her. He was waiting slightly too long.
Annoying.
…
"How many times have you died?"
They laughed, echoing throughout the room. "Wow! Really cutting to the end!"
-Then her face went to stiff formality. "Define dead."
"A lack of life."
Her face, if it could have, became even more empty.
Fine. I probably deserved that.
"Can I answer later?"
"… That's perfectly fine, as long as you do answer it."
The blonde woman, Glynda, flinched slightly. "Ozpin. Are you seriou-"
He held up a finger.
"That poem was inspired by?"
A unique point of her history. A slight paraphrase, but it was meant for her wife. She'd know.
"Not inspired. Just poetically worded."
"What's your favorite fairy tale?"
…
They stared at Ozpin.
…
Page raised her eyes, saying "I assume you want me to tell it?"
"Only if you want to."
…
"Get me a pen and paper."
…