RWBY: Forever Fall

Day One

Ultimately it wasn’t really much of a question at all. I was no Gryffindor to just run in with no plan or information like a loon. Nor was I a Ravenclaw, content to watch and wait and never bother to actually accomplish anything. I was a Slytherin, and Slytherins carefully chose their moments, then struck at the optimal time to achieve maximum results with minimum costs.

Step one was gathering information. I needed to know who these people were, why they were here, how long they planned to stay, any potential weak points and vulnerabilities, and so on. Were they criminals here for a secret deal or to retrieve some catch of illegal goods? Explorers searching for ancient secrets? Travelers taking a short break from a long voyage? Or perhaps something else entirely. Each required a different approach.

It was also important to assess how dangerous these people were. I was confident in my magical prowess, and having an expendable version of Zatanna with me was a large advantage as well, but two-on-thirteen were not good odds against even moderately competent opponents. And if they were wizards it was entirely possible they had some form of magic capable of stopping me from just apparating away or some method of tracking me down afterwards.

What came next would depend on what I found. If I decided it was too dangerous to approach, I may try to place a tracking charm on the vehicle or one of its passengers and see if they would lead me to somewhere interesting. If that wasn’t an option, perhaps I could try to keep following them on my broom. If I left Zatanna behind I was pretty sure I’d be able to keep pace with the craft without too much difficulty and I could always apparate back to retrieve her once they arrived at their destination.

I may also just end up heading back to that ruin I’d originally Planeswalked into. There was no guarantee that I could bond with it, but it seemed likely and I really did want to bond to a new land as soon as possible. If these were criminals, or perhaps jumpy travelers in the midst of a great voyage, it was unlikely that following them would be too productive and I could simply attempt to seek out civilization myself over the next day or two.

On the other hand, if they seemed like a good group to make contact with, my plans for the coming week could change drastically. I still knew almost nothing about this plane, so it was hard to make any concrete plans. Hopefully they would have interesting magic I could learn, and perhaps a few more novel magical creatures to acquire blueprints of.

And if they didn’t? I could always default back to bonding the tomb, then head home and try again on a different plane. It would still be some time till I felt fully comfortable Planeswalking again, but I was certain that Zatanna and I could find some way to entertain ourselves for that duration.

Zatanna and I moved cautiously towards the cluster of people. Neither of us were stealth experts by any means, but magic had a way of handling many such problems. We moved soundlessly across the leaves, our bodies blending perfectly into the background and Order magic ensuring even our barely-their outlines seemed to fade into the surrounding trees like we belonged here. It would take very, very keen senses or powerful magic to detect our presence. Even with my sixth-sense for her existence and my supersensory charm I could barely tell that Zatanna was following along behind me, and I knew exactly what I was looking for.

We stopped about twenty meters from where I’d felt the group and I peered at them through the trees, my head tilted towards them to help me hear what they were saying. My view was partially obstructed by trees, but I could make out a tall, shapely, middle-aged woman wearing glasses, a white blouse, and a black skirt facing a group of armor-clad young men and women that all looked to be about my age.

They were an eclectic group, divided evenly between young men and women. A few had relatively similar features and armor, while others wore completely different styles that set them apart from their fellows.All were armed or had weapons close at hand and those varied wildly as well. There were swords and shields, spears, odd-looking maces, and one of them––a short, pale skinned and dark-haired girl in a dress and waist cincher––had an enormous crimson scythe slung across her back.

It seemed as though Zatanna had been wrong. The people around here weren’t monochrome in coloration. There were certainly a few people amongst the group with very pale or dark skin and hair, but there was also a freckled redhead who could have easily passed for a Weasley or Prewett and another girl with bright yellow hair.

I could see no particular uniform or cohesive design choices among the group. Several of the young men wore similar-looking armor, but not all of them. A few of the girls wore similarly-cut skirts, but others had armored bustiers or completely differently styled dresses. That likely meant these weren’t any kind of soldiers or law enforcement officers, though perhaps there was some other commonality between them that I just couldn’t make out from this angle.

I put the thought temporarily out of my mind. The woman was speaking, her voice loud and clear like that of a trained and experienced orator. “––however, this forest is full of the Creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates. We’ll rendezvous back here at four o’clock. Have fun!”

The group began to break apart. Five of the boys––the ones all wearing comparable armor––went one way, while the other seven youths went another way. The older woman meanwhile stayed where she was, what looked like a riding crop held loosely between her hands.

I frowned in annoyance. Splitting up was going to make them harder to surveil and I wished I’d heard the rest of the woman’s speech. Still, there was plenty of time yet to learn more, and Zatanna was around so she could keep an eye on one group while I watched the other. Or perhaps it would be better to keep an eye on the woman? It was hard to judge.

Then there was that name. Creatures of Grimm. So it seemed as though the geists and sphinx I’d run into were not a one-off occurrence and such creatures were endemic to this area. Were there more types of Grimm than the ones I’d run into? Were such creatures common in other places as well, or only in this specific forest.

The comment also raised a number of other questions. That sphinx I had run into was a large, powerful creature, and yet these youths seemed perfectly at ease with the idea that such a monster may be lurking nearby. Was their relaxed attitude brought by certainty that they’d be perfectly fine fighting such a creature alongside their ‘teammates’, or by ignorance of the threats they faced? It was hard to say one way or another, but I would make sure not to underestimate them if things did turn hostile.

Zatanna and I spent the next half hour watching the two groups and listening to their conversations. The woman––whose name I learned was ‘Goodwitch’, a rather bold choice––ended up disappearing inside the vehicle the group had arrived in which was sitting in a small clearing less than a minute’s walk from where she’d been speaking with the youths. I ended up casting a tracking charm on the big metal machine and then leaving her be since it was hard to surveil someone inside a small metal box without being found out and I doubted she would be talking to anyone since she was along inside the craft.

I learned a lot in that time, most of it pieced together from context clues and off handed remarks. These youths were students at a nearby school for ‘Hunters’ called Beacon and they were in this forest on a field trip to collect some sort of valuable sap from the surrounding trees for one of their Professors. I made a mental note to gather some of the sap for myself as well––it seemed easy enough to harvest.

The woman with them was another professor at their school, one who taught some sort of combat-related class. Students at the school were split into teams of four––which made the five-seven split seem particularly strange––and the twelve that had come on this particular field trip were all first years, though I didn’t know if that meant one year out of two, four, seven, or perhaps even longer.

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I was starting to consider how to introduce myself to the group, ideas flying through my head, when a perfect opportunity arose. It seemed there was some division amongst the two groups. Cardin, the leader of the five boys, had some kind of grudge against Pyrrha, the red-headed girl with the spear and armored bustier and mini-skirt. It seemed as though he’d lost to her in some kind of duel or spar? I wasn’t fully clear on the details.

In any case, he’d come up with a plan to get back at the girl which had ended up going wrong when the fifth boy, a member of her team, decided he wasn’t willing to go along with things and the two got into a physical altercation. No weapons were drawn, but the boy threw a jar of sap at Cardin’s chest and then they began to fight and argue. Cardin was doing quite a number on the boy––Jaune––and seemed to be threatening him with some sort of blackmail, the details of which eluded me unfortunately.

And then their brawl was suddenly interrupted by what I assumed was another Grimm. It certainly looked like the other two I’d seen. It was a massive bear-like creature, its face covered by a bone-white mask with red lines around the eyes. Dangerous-looking spikes of the same material grew from its back and its arms and legs were protected by the occasional craggy armored plate. Its claws were massive, each one the size of a butcher’s knife and looking more like spikes strapped to its fingers and toes compared to what I’d expect from a bear.

The creature roared as it rushed into the clearing, its jaw open to reveal a mouth filled with sharp teeth and gums the color of dried blood. It huffed and briefly reared up onto its hind legs, then came down with a crash, its beady red eyes glued to the sticky sap covering Cardin’s chest.

For all that their professor had told them to stick with their teammates, Cardin’s didn’t seem keen on following that advice. They took one look at the creature and fled, one of them shouting “That’s a big Ursa!” as he vanished into the underbrush.Ursa. I rolled the name in my mouth. Ursa of Grimm. That certainly seemed like a fine addition to my growing collection of blueprints.

A moment later, only Jaune and Cardin remained in the clearing, Jaune laid out on the ground and Cardin standing directly in front of the creature. Saving these students seemed like a good way to buy myself some favor from the locals. First though, I wanted to see what the students could do. Hopefully they didn’t die before I could save them. It would be even better if some of the other students arrived before I had to step in––it was always best to be seen by as many people as possible when doing something heroic.

The ursa swiped its paw through the air, an almost lazy motion that still sent Cardin flying ass over teakettle across the clearing. My eyes widened and I raised my wand––that blow could have easily shattered the arm and ribs of a muggle––but then I noticed the flashes of color just above his armor when the Ursa hit him and each time he bounced against the ground.

Though he’d been sent flying and was now lying prone, he didn’t actually look hurt. Some sort of magic shield or enchantment had protected his body from the blow. I lowered my wand slightly and leaned forward with interest. So they weren’t just muggles with mundane weapons. Even if they weren’t wizards and witches themselves, it was clear there was more going on than what I was seeing.

Jaune stared up at the Ursa in terror, his arms held in front of his face as though to ward off a blow, but it seemed content to ignore him for the moment, turning to where Cardin lay prone and loping towards him across the carpet of leaves. For something so large, the Ursa moved with impressive speed, covering the distance between it and its target with just a few swift steps.

Cardin, for all that he looked rather terrified and clearly had the air knocked from his lungs, was not beaten yet. He drew his weapon, a rather odd-looking flanged mace with a seemingly hollow head, and brandished it at the ursa, but the creature simply knocked his weapon aside, slapping it out of his hand and sending it spinning through the air away from him.

I raised my wand again, mentally judging the distance, angle, and force of the creature’s blows. I was pretty sure an Aspidano shield would be able to hold up to one or two blows, I’d just need to position the relatively small shield correctly.

Cardin scrambled to his feet and began to run. The ursa seemed amused by his attempts to flee, chasing after him at what was clearly not its top speed. When Cardin had made some distance, it leapt after him, landing just behind him instead of crushing him under its bulk and then sending him flying with another swipe of its paw.

Cardin pushed himself off the ground and tried to crawl away, but the Ursa was right behind him in an instant, giving him no room to breath or stand up. So far I was rather unimpressed by both of their performances. The Ursa was playing with its food and Cardin was doing nothing but running for his life.

In the distance, I noticed three of the girls from before appear on the other side of the clearing. The pale-skinned, white-haired one drew her sword––some sort of elaborate-looking rapier––but the red-head, probably Pyrrha, stopped her and the scythe girl with a raised hand and a quiet word. Oh, what was this? Was someone trying to blamelessly rid themselves of a rival? Very interesting.

The creature reared up and raised a paw, its bone-white claws flashing. Well, at least I had an audience, even if it seemed as though saving this boy’s life may not please his classmates as much as I would have liked. It took an impressive amount of dislike to have four of your fellow students just stand around with their weapons drawn as you were torn apart by a giant black-and-white bear.

Unfortunately, it seemed as though only three of Cardin’s classmates were willing to let him die, and not the ones I would have expected either. Jaune, who had at some point climbed to his feet and drawn his sword and shield, dashed forward and interposed himself between the Ursa and the boy’d he’d been getting slapped around by less than five minutes earlier.

He caught the ursa’s blow on his shield, a flash of gold showing signs of the same magical shield that had protected Cardin from the beast’s first few strikes, then slashed at it with his sword. The ursa reeled back, then slashed at the boy once with each paw. He rolled out of the way of the first blow, jumped over the second, and promptly got sent flying by a third hit that got him clean in the chest.

Breathing heavily, he sprang to his feet and charged at the Grimm, only to get sent flying again, this time in the other direction. The ursa gave Cardin a parting look and turned to lope towards its new target, who had scrambled to his feet and was staring determinedly at the approaching Grimm.

Then the two charged at each other. Jaune raised his shield to block the ursa’s swing, but even from a distance I could see the angle was all wrong and I remembered Cardin’s magical barrier had flickered out after less punishment than Jaune had just endured. Plus, that sword looked sharp and I didn’t want to risk killing the creature before I could get a blueprint.

Well, this seemed as good a time as any. I let the disillusionment charm around me drop and slashed my wand. “Flipendo Tria!” I poured magic into the spell, pushing it far beyond the schoolyard jinx that was its base version.

A whirlwind emerged from my wand, tearing through the air between the ursa and me. A tree between us was torn partially out of the ground in the spell’s wake and it slammed into the ursa’s shoulder side like a battering ram, sending it flying the same way it had launched Jaune and Cardin.

Jaune stopped mid swing, surprise written all over his face. The three girls began to look around and black-haired one with the scythe called out, “Professor Goodwitch!”

Before they could attribute my work to someone else, I charged out of the trees and towards the ursa, Zatanna following closely behind me. “Stand back!” I called out in the language I’d heard the students using, “Are you hurt?”

Jaune blinked at me blankly and I decided to ignore him for the time. I waved my wand again and ropes flew from my wand, wrapping around the ursa’s arms and legs and binding it to the ancient trees around it. It struggled mightily, roaring and clawing at the trees, but a weaker flipendo to the side of the head seemed to disorient it and gave me enough time to wrap its limbs in layers and layers of rope.

The trio of girls began to move towards the bound ursa, their weapons raised, but I managed to beat them to the creature and did my best to casually brush a hand across one of the armored plates on its hind leg. “Is everyone okay?” I called out loudly, scrambling to mentally reach for my Spark and pouring a thin trickle of magic into the bone-like armor.

The redhead was the first to reach me. She stared dispassionately at the grimm and, even as the Blueprint appeared within my Spark, stabbed her spear through its neck. I mentally gave a sigh of relief––just in time––then watched curiously as the creature’s body slowly began to dissolve into black mist.

I smiled charmingly. “Thanks for finishing it off. I didn’t think it was going to be so tough.”

She gave me a complex look. It was not a particularly happy look. She was clearly upset that I hadn’t given the ursa enough time to finish off that Cardin boy, or perhaps it was something else?

Regardless, my smile didn’t waver as the other girls approached the dissolving Grimm. I turned to face all three of them, Zatanna a step behind me. “Hey, I’m Hydrys, and this is Zatanna. I heard the fighting and it looks like we got here in the nick of time. It's a pleasure to meet you all.”