CHAPTER TWO

Red Like Heartsblood Fills My Dreams

Weiss hadn't had a fall like that in years now, not since she had first mastered her gravity-manipulation glyphs. She had forgotten how befuddling it was.

Normally keeping herself oriented was the easiest thing in the world for someone who danced at right angles to the floor. Of course normally, Weiss had the room to herself, without any long-haired brunette girls to trip over. Apparently when they were introduced to the equation, a fall involved a lot of tumbling and skidding and bouncing. Her sense of direction did not survive intact. Good heavens, was there any girl at this school who was not a complete oaf?

Her new acquaintance seemed just as perplexed as Weiss, which did nothing to endear her to the heiress. She had come out of nowhere, stepping out from behind a tree like a genie from a lamp, and Weiss, who had taken a running jump to clear a small ditch and some tree roots that crumpled the ground beyond like warped plastic, hadn't seen her in time to dodge. Now they lay tangled together beneath a tree, Weiss draped over the girl's stomach and hips, Weiss' legs trapped beneath and between the newcomers', and her rapier wedged beneath the new girl's rear end.

Shaken, Weiss pushed herself up as much as she could. "Excuse you!" she said, bracing herself on the girl's shoulders in order to meet a pair of bright pink eyes.

"I think you'll find that you walked into me." It was a smooth voice, and the words were quite mild and without heat, but something about it seemed off for a girl. Dazed as she was, it took Weiss a few seconds to realise precisely what.

When it finally clicked, Weiss yelped and flung herself backwards. The boy sat upright as she did so, and after a few moments they managed to reclaim their respective legs. Then the boy clambered to his feet and began brushing down the sleeves of his green coat, not looking at her or offering to help her up.

Weiss was blushing even harder now, if that was possible, and that enraged her. She realised she was still sitting down, and scrabbled to her feet. "Why weren't you looking where you were going?" she demanded.

The boy gave her a level look that said more clearly than words ever could Why weren't you? "Are you injured?" he asked instead.

"No. I'm fine." She took a deep breath. "I – apologise. I quite obviously..." She hesitated, not sure how to finish that sentence.

"Think nothing of it," the boy said, looking away from her and back to the surrounding forest.

Weiss cleared her throat. It was a boy, and she had been draped across him like the heroine of one of those tawdry romances her mother liked to read. Hopefully she could suggest to him at some point that he never, ever, mention this to anyone. But at least it wasn't that hooded girl... "Let's start over. I'm Weiss Schnee."

He finally, finally glanced at her. "My name is Lie Ren." Then he gave her a courtly bow.

He had recognised her name, Weiss thought, and shoved down the familiar sting of irritation and regret. She propped her hands on her hips and stared openly at her new partner. His skin was smooth and soft, his hair looked even softer, and while most of the boys she had seen in this school were muscular and tall, he was shorter and slimmer. And a pink streak in his hair...was he some sort of delinquent? Weiss couldn't imagine any other type of person putting a streak in his hair like that.

"Well, Lie Ren. It would appear that we're partners."

Lie didn't respond for several moments. "Yes, we are. Forgive me. I was...thinking of someone else."

"Oh," Weiss said, so startled that she actually took a step backwards. So Lie Ren had had someone else he wanted as a partner as well. She tapped her lip with a manicured nail and debated her options, then she tried to force a friendly smile onto her face. "You know, I'm sure nobody would actually know."

"I beg your pardon?" he asked, turning his full attention to her.

"I don't think anybody would know that you're the first person I saw. If, for example, we wanted to find different partners..." She trailed off enticingly. All she could think of was Pyrrha Nikos, in the flesh, in the locker room, the strongest girl in the world, the Invincible Girl, walking through the forest and stumbling across a different partner...

Lie Ren's face had gone very still. "I think that would be an unwise risk to take," he said finally. "Since we know the teachers are watching us..."

Weiss's face hardened, but Lie Ren just watched her, his pink eyes level. "You don't know that they're watching us!"

"They told us they would be."

Phooey. He was right. "Fine," she said. "Fine. Let's go."

"You know where the temple is?"

"Of course I do! It's in the northern end of the forest." Weiss strode off into the forest, not looking behind her to see if Lie Ren was following her.

"If it's in the north," Lie said (Weiss flinched; he was walking right next to her), "Why are we travelling west?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"We're travelling west."

"No we're not!"

"Do you see the sun?"

Weiss peered up at the sky. "No."

"That is because it's behind us. The sun rises in the east. As it's at our backs–"

"I understand, thank you!" Weiss snapped. "Fine, which way is north?"

"That way," Lie said, pointing.

"Then let's go. We're wasting daylight." Weiss took off again, just as confidently as she had the first time. Again, she didn't look back to check if Lie was behind her.

Considering the undeniably quizzical way in which he was staring at her retreating back, this may have been for the best.

Ruby shifted from foot to foot as the girl continued to stare at her. "Uh...hi?" she ventured finally.

The redhead didn't respond. Her large blue eyes were wide and vacant and Ruby just couldn't look away from the hammer that was still held above her head with no sign of fatigue.

"So...we're...partners, now? I guess?"

Nothing. Nobody home.

"Heh...well, to be honest, I kind of thought you were my sister at first. Not that you look like her! But you sound like her. Not your voice! Because, y'know, you haven't said anything...but she blows stuff up too, and I heard the explosions, and I ran over, and then I ran into you! And you're looking at me...in the eyes...so we're...partners?" Ruby trailed off hopefully.

The girl lowered her hammer slowly. Ruby watched it go, but before it could brush the ground, the girl thumbed a button that converted it to a large grenade launcher, and raised it again. Ruby gritted her jaw, determined not to flinch, but the girl just tucked it away on a holder on the back of her shirt. Then her face rippled, she blinked once, and a huge grin broke out across her face. "That sounds so great!"

"It...does?" Ruby asked, nonplussed.

"Chyeah! I had to be partnered with someone, right? So what's your name? Ooh, what's your weapon? I like your hood, does it get hot? Does it get caught on things? It looks like it'd get caught on things."

"It doesn't get caught on things..."

"Well that's good! That'd be sooo embarrassing if it got caught on things."

Ruby considered mentioning a childhood incident involving her cape, a door handle and a particularly overloaded tray of cookies, and rapidly decided against it. She did, after all, want to leave this girl with a good impression. "It's fine." She struck a mature-looking pose. "I can handle it!"

So it wasn't Yang, and so she had seemed a bit weird at first; at least this girl wasn't giving her grief for getting into Beacon early. It could have been worse, imagine what a trainwreck being partners with that Weiss girl would have been!

The girl interrupted Ruby's mental back-patting to gesture around them. "So where do we go from here? Do you know?"

"Uh, no," Ruby admitted. "I've just been heading north all day, y'know?"

"Ooh, do you know much about forests? I don't. I mean, I can get through them, but after a while I just get bored and start trying to smash my way through in a straight line and then it's like just a total mess."

"Sure, I know about forests! My dad–"

"Awesome! You'll have to tell me where to go, I have nooooo idea."

"I can do that, that's fine, my dad taught–"

"Hey, how old are you?"

"What?"

"You look really young, how old are you?"

"Well, that's – I'm…fifteen?"

"Oh really? You look younger."

"Yeah, I kn–"

"So you never told me about your weapon! Is it red? You look like it'd be red, you know, 'cause of the cloak!"

Ruby stopped walking at stared at her. "Um…don't you care that I'm only fifteen?"

The girl cocked her head to the side. "Should I?" She sounded genuinely confused.

"Well…" Ruby shifted from side to side. "You're seventeen, right?"

"Pretty sure, yeah!" the girl said with a wide, beaming smile.

"Ok, so…I'm two years younger than you…"

She seemed to stop to think for a few minutes. "Yep! That sounds right."

"Well…" Ruby flailed helplessly. "Don't you care?"

"Nah!"

"Really?"

"I figure you either got in 'cause you earned it, or you snuck in and that is sooooooo cool that I don't even care! You know what they say, if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere!"

Ruby felt like her heart could burst. "Really?"

The girl with the hammer slung a companionable arm around Ruby's shoulders. "Sure! 'Sides, it'll be fun, I'll get to be like your big sister!"

"I can't wait for you to meet my actual big sister," Ruby said enthusiastically. "You'll really like her! Maybe we'll all get to be on a team together!"

"Oh…yeah, you mentioned her…" The girl's arm slipped from around Ruby's shoulders. "We should keep moving!"

"Sounds good!" Ruby said happily. This was shaping up to be the best friendship ever!

"Hey, by the way," the girl added.

"Yeah?"

"What's your name?"

Pyrrha dodged the beowolf and brought her shield up in time to intercept its mate. This was bad. This was not good. She needed her weapons to properly fight Grimm, and she had let herself get surrounded like an absolute fool. She backed away, trying to keep them all in view. There were three, it seemed, a big one, a smaller one, and a smallest one. Were they a family? Did Grimm form family groups?

The beowolf made a deep growling noise and reared up to roar at her. Classic predator behaviour: look at me, look at how big and scary I am. Don't cross me, because I'm tall. Pyrrha almost turned to face it, before a flicker of movement at the corner of her eye made her throw herself to the side. She hit the ground as the smallest beowolf pounced, landing where she had been seconds ago. Pyrrha scrambled to her feet, and let out a grunt as the middle beowolf lashed out, clipping her shoulder, spinning her, almost making her lose her grip on her shield.

This was not good.

She took a deep breath, then flung her shield. At the same time, she kicked out at the middle one, catching it in the muzzle. She twitched her fingers and her shield bounced off the smallest beowolf's face and into the largest one's stomach, then back to Pyrrha. The redhead caught it, then leaped off the ground to land on the back of the largest beowolf. Then, slinging her shield onto her back where it would hopefully catch any random attacks, she bounded to the ground and broke into a full-on sprint, battering leaves and branches away as she ran.

The forest flashed past. She could hear the beowolves behind her, panting and howling, chasing her, gaining on her. She vaulted logs and dodged trees, wary eyes on the ground so she didn't trip and break an ankle. The beowolves were gaining, she could feel the forest floor tremble beneath their pounding feet.

She needed some new terrain, she needed something to give her an edge, she needed...

A clearing! She could see the gaps in the trees up ahead. She sped up, running faster than she had ever thought possible, and broke through the underbrush. At the last second Pyrrha saw a massive yellow object hurtling at her face, and she dropped to her knees and leaned back out of sheer instinct, sliding forwards under the attack. As the adrenaline stretched the scene out into action-movie slow-mo, she could see that what had looked like a golden comet was actually a gauntlet, and it was attached to an arm that led to a body, above which a familiar face hovered. It was that blonde girl, who looked as confused as Pyrrha, especially when a beowolf followed Pyrrha out of the forest and ran right into the fist.

The girl's gauntlet fired with a noise like a shotgun, sending the beowolf flying back into a tree. The tree snapped; the beowolf did not move again. Before Pyrrha could yell a warning, the other two emerged from the trees. The blonde threw herself into a backflip as Pyrrha rolled to her feet, facing the Grimm, shield in front of her. The beowolves charged without hesitation, and the girl landed on her feet, then amazingly she fired both gauntlets, launching herself forward to meet the largest beowolf head-on. She slammed her fist into its jaw in a brutal uppercut, then she turned, ducking under its flailing paws as it fell back, and elbowed it in the stomach. The blow, augmented by another blast from her gauntlets, lifted the beowolf into the air and sent it crashing back to the ground.

The blonde turned to face the third beowolf, but it was already lifting its paw to swipe at her. Pyrrha sprinted forwards and lifted her shield, catching the blow with a grunt of effort and redirecting it, sending the beowolf staggering to the side. Behind her, the blonde leapt into the air and fired two blasts at the beowolf over Pyrrha's head, slamming it against the ground. Pyrrha shifted her grip on the shield, launched herself into the air for some momentum, and then with a yell of effort, she brought her shield down onto the beowolf's neck.

It let out a confused little whine, and then its head dropped free of its body and rolled to bump against the blonde girl's foot.

They stood there for a few moments, looking around them as the Grimm began to disintegrate. Pyrrha readjusted her shield and turned to the other girl. "I believe we are safe for the moment."

"That was fun," the girl said conversationally. Then she looked down and gave the disintegrating head a vicious kick. "Gotta ask, though, why didn't you just shoot it?"

This was so embarrassing... "I'm afraid I don't quite have my weapon with me," Pyrrha admitted.

"Really? You drop it?"

"Something like that."

"Well, whatever. This was much more fun anyway." The blonde girl propped her hands on her hips and gave Pyrrha the once-over. She had the sort of figure Pyrrha had once longed for, curved like a violin, with long legs and longer hair. Her eyes – hadn't they been red before? – were a deep, startling amethyst. "I'm Yang Xiao Long, by the way."

"Hello! My name is Pyrrha Nikos."

"Sure, I've seen you fight before. On television." She glanced around the clearing, and scratched her head. "Uh, sorry for almost punching you in the face."

Pyrrha smiled briefly. "No harm done." Yang would have to move a lot faster than that before she came close to punching Pyrrha Nikos in the face.

Yang grinned at Pyrrha. "So we're partners now, right? I mean, I looked you in the eye when I almost took your block off."

"Of course! It will be an honour," Pyrrha said, smiling so that there was warmth in her voice. It had been one of the earliest interview tips she had received and one of the only ones that had consistently paid off.

Yang laughed. "You bet!"

That was – not the usual reaction. Even less common were the blonde's next words: "Guess I'll protect you. Just until we find your weapon. You remember where you dropped it?"

"I didn't quite drop it," Pyrrha hedged.

"So you know where it is?"

"Not quite." She had gotten very turned around in the flight from the beowolves.

Yang looked impatient. "So what gives?"

"I threw it at another student."

Yang gave Pyrrha a long, long look. "Okaaaaaay... Whhhhyyyyy?"

"Do you know Jaune Arc?" Pyrrha began.

"Oh, okay, say no more," Yang said immediately. "That is all my questions answered."

Pyrrha blinked. "Oh. Well...really?"

"Well duh. I mean, I think I saw him talking to you and that snooty white-haired girl this morning, right?"

"I threw my javelin at him because I thought he needed help," Pyrrha said. "I would never assault someone over a simple conversation!"

Yang gave her an irritated look. "It's not assault if it's just a threat."

Pyrrha bit her lip, then said rather tentatively, "I believe it still is."

"Huh. You learn something new every day," Yang muttered.

"I'm sorry, I misunderstood you," Pyrrha said in a conciliatory tone. "It seemed to me that Jaune's landing strategy was not optimally suited for the task at hand, and I was attempting to assist him."

"That's nice of you," Yang said, back to being sunny. "So I guess he'll have your spear, don't you think?"

It was a javelin. "I believe so, yes," Pyrrha agreed.

"So let's find Jaune!"

"I believe it might be more efficient to head for the ruins that Professor Ozpin mentioned. After all, if that is the target then–"

"Yeah, ok," Yang said cheerfully, cutting Pyrrha off. "Let's boogy! I'll take point!"

"As I have a shield–" Pyrrha began.

"Where's the fun in that?" Yang strode off into the forest, calling out behind her in a far-too-loud tone, "Come on, partner, we got artefacts to find and ruins to make!"

Pyrrha looked at the beacon of gold. She didn't know how she felt, but she knew Yang was right. They had artefacts to find and ruins to – wait, what?

Jaune pushed at the tree branch. It didn't bend, so he pushed again. It broke, and he stumbled forwards, hitting the ground, tree branch clutched securely in his free hand.

"Ah, heheheh," he mumbled nervously, tossing it aside and trying to look like that's what he had been planning to do the whole time.

He was pretty sure he was lost, to be honest. He had been heading north all day – he thought – but the forest was so big. How did anyone know where anything was? Luckily he hadn't come across any Grimm.

Was this normal, for highschool? Monster hunting highschool, to be fair, but – launching your students off the top of a cliff, into a forest full of monsters, and telling them to get their hands on something or die trying? Was that, like, usual?

He had been expecting classes, in classrooms, and training simulators.

"Guess this is a pretty good simulation," he mumbled to himself. "Heh…a map that's so useful as to become the terrain ceases to be the map, right?"

Something rustled in the bushes next to him, and he spun around, backing up, trying to remember all he had read about combat against Grimm. He fumbled his shield out, and it unfurled with a mechanical 'click!' "Who – whoever's there, I'm armed!" he called. "And I have a shield!"

The forest fell silent. He hesitated, then took a tentative step forward, and then another.

The wind blew, settling the leaves on the tree dancing and swaying. He paused, then glanced up at the sky. Yep, still going the right way. He started to look back ahead, then a flicker of movement caught his eye.

It was a butterfly, a beautiful black and orange butterfly. "Aw," Jaune said, beaming at it. "Pretty." A metaphor, or a simile – he was never clear on which was which – but the message was clear: even in the wilderness, there was beauty and tranquillity. He could learn a lot from his little butterfly friend. The butterfly twitched its wings idly, and he took a swift step back so that it would have plenty of room to take off.

There was a whirlwind of movement out of the corner of his eyes and something massive landed in front of him. A thunderbolt hit his shield, and he fell back with a startled cry. Jaune hit the ground and scrambled back, trying to draw his limbs up behind the shield.

A massive old ursa rose up and let out a disgruntled snuffling noise, then turned slowly and ponderously towards him. Jaune groped for his sword, realised he was still holding Pyrrha's javelin, and went to drop it. Before he had a chance to do anything, though, the ursa straightened, let out a puzzled grunt, and slowly, like a tree under the weight of snow, it toppled to the side.

Jaune stared at the downed ursa, then a flicker of movement caught his eye. A fine black ribbon was leading out from the ursa's skull, into the bushes. He hefted his shield carefully; the bushes rustled again and another black and white shape stepped out. Jaune flinched back, but it was just a pale girl with black hair, dressed in black and white.

"Oh thank Oum," he blurted out before he could stop himself, adrenaline making his voice high and thready. "I thought you were a Grimm!"

The girl took a slight step back, her eyes widening and her lips thinning, and Jaune realised what he had just said. "Oh, Oum, I'm sorry!" Jaune exclaimed. "Sorry, sorry, that was a really dumb thing to say. You just – uh, thanks! For the ursa. And, uh, for not clobbering me for calling you a Grimm." He gave her a rueful grin, and to his relief, after a moment she returned it, a tiny little smile. It made her cold, beautiful face a little more lifelike, but it vanished almost instantly.

"It's fine," she said. "You're welcome." With an expert flick of her wrist, she freed her weapon and caught it in the same movement. Then she looked at him, her head tilted to the side.

"I'm Jaune. Jaune Arc." Jaune considered adding his 'short and sweet' line, but decided against it at the last minute. This girl was going to be his partner, and besides, something about her did not invite levity. Maybe it was her level golden eyes, or maybe it was the stillness of her face that suggested that smiling was not her first impulse on most occasions.

"I'm Blake," she said. "Belladonna."

"Nice to meet you," Jaune said. "I think I saw you last night, reading, right?"

"Perhaps." She gave him an appraising look. "You know you're bleeding?"

"Oh, really?" He reached up and felt his cheek. Sure enough, there was a cut there, and a thin trail of blood making its ambling way down his face. "Oh, gross, I'm leaking. Sorry."

She raised an eyebrow. "You don't have to apologise to me. Are you alright?"

"Sure! I'm fine, thanks to you." He pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and carefully dabbed his cheek, then folded it neatly and put it away. Blake's eyes followed his movements, and he fancied he saw a look of curiosity or surprise on her face. "What?" Jaune asked, defensive.

"You carry handkerchiefs?" He couldn't decide what her tone was, but he was pretty sure there was some incredulity in there.

"Sure, don't you?"

She stared at him for a moment. "No."

Jaune shrugged at her. "They're more useful than you think."

"Ok..." she said, not sounding like he had convinced her at all.

"So, we should head for that temple, right?" Jaune asked hastily. "Go get that artefact?"

"I suppose so," Blake said, sounding unenthusiastic.

"Not that I think we'll have any problem finding it," Jaune said. Women loved confidence, right? Right? "I know a bit about the woods" – from books he had read – "and you're clearly an amazing fighter, so I think we'll be fine."

"I'm not that amazing."

"Are you kidding?" Jaune asked. "You took that ursa down with one strike. If that's not amazing, then I don't know what is."

A startled, pleased look came over Blake's face, for just a moment, so quickly that Jaune wondered if he had imagined it. Before he could decide either way, she turned and looked out at the forest. "Guess we should get started."

"Sure. Let's go, partner." He beamed at her, and to his pleasure, she smiled back, a small, fleeting smile that this time lingered in her eyes.

Ren and Weiss had been walking in silence for almost an hour when the heiress finally spoke again. "So, Lie, tell me something about yourself."

"Well, most people call me Ren," Ren said.

"And you can call me Weiss," she said benevolently.

"That's very kind of you," Ren deadpanned.

Weiss shot him a suspicious look, but before she could say anything a rumbling growl sounded.

Without another word Ren and Weiss stopped. Ren took a quick step to the right to place his back to Weiss's, and drew his weapons. Weiss did the same.

"That sounded like a beowolf," Ren said softly, eyes scanning the forest.

Weiss pressed herself against Ren's back and took a deep breath. Remember your training, Weiss. You can do this. Just remember what you've learned.

"Beowolves rarely travel alone," Ren added. "We should be prepared for at least five of them."

"That's assuming it's a beowolf," Weiss snapped.

She felt Ren's shoulders rise as he took a long, deep breath and then released it. Oh, he's nervous, Weiss thought, feeling a rare surge of affection. How endearing. "This will be fine," she said in an encouraging tone. "We can handle a clutch of Grimm."

The trees rustled and parted, and at least fifteen Beowolves prowled into the clearing, their eyes on Ren and Weiss, their ears twitching.

Weiss took a deep breath of her own, and her hand tightened on Myrtenaster's hilt.

"I think we're lost," Ruby said to Nora.

"Nah," she replied confidently. "We're heading north."

"How do you know?" Ruby asked, jogging a few steps to keep up with her.

"I always know what direction I'm going."

"But how?"

Nora shrugged. "I just do."

Ruby sighed. They were making good time – Nora's energy seemed endless – but she still chafed at the slow pace. "This forest is more boring than I was expecting."

"I know, right?" Nora exclaimed. "It's like, where are all the Grimm? I thought this place was going to be fun!"

"I know!" Ruby agreed. "They gypped us!"

"Ooh, we should seek revenge. We could steal the headmaster's coffee cup, or, oh! We could dye that crabby professor's skin green, or maybe, what if we told all the newspapers that Beacon was actually run by Grimm?"

Ruby burst out laughing. "Let's do the last one, let's definitely do the last one!"

"And then we'll smuggle an ursa into the headmaster's study, and put a pair of glasses on its nose and we'll pretend that Ozpin turns into a Grimm!"

"Uh huh," Ruby said a bit distractedly, leaning back to look at the sky. "Hey, Nora…"

"Yes?"

"Is that birdie following us?"

"That's a nevermore, so, probably!"

The two girls watched the massive Grimm circling overhead for a few minutes. "Bet that thing knows where the temple is," Nora added a bit wistfully.

Like a spark in a drought-stricken forest, an idea blossomed in Ruby's mind. "You know what, Nora? I'll bet you're right..."

Blake and Jaune stared at the cave mouth. "You think this is the temple?" Blake asked, sounding doubtful.

"Sure," Jaune said confidently. "I read about those old ruins in a book a couple of years ago, and all the ancient civilisations built in places like this, so the Grimm couldn't get 'em!"

"I've read about those civilisations too," Blake said. "Recently. This still doesn't look like a temple to me."

"It has to be, it's the only thing we've found," Jaune said. "Plus, look, they've built an entrance, right?"

Blake had to admit, the stone had definitely been worked...

"And it can't hurt to check it out, right?" Jaune added cheerfully.

"I suppose not," she said, letting him lead the way into the dark cave.

The floor was rough and uneven underfoot, and Jaune stumbled several times. Blake followed him in silence, her doubt growing. This did not look like a temple...

A meaty thud from ahead made her wince. She stopped when Jaune did, and watched him bend over and clutch his head. "Eugh...Guess we should have made a torch, huh?"

Blake hesitated, torn between her desire to offer to lead and her fear of what he might realise if she did so. Before she could do anything, though, a dim glow suddenly rose up in front of them, from around an outcropping of rock. Jaune straightened, and turned to beam at Blake. "See! I told you this was it!"

Blake's instincts were going crazy, and she hesitated again. Would he listen if she – But it was too late, Jaune had already strode confidently towards the light. She followed him around the outcropping, then without another word she turned to run.

Humanity hadn't built a temple here; they had built a prison.

"This place is so quiet," Yang complained, swinging her arms.

Pyrrha didn't bother responding. As far as she could tell it hadn't been a question, and at least one of them needed to be paying attention to the forest. As the member of the team without a weapon, she felt that was her responsibility more than Yang's.

"I mean seriously, I've seen like three Grimm. I thought this place was supposed to be fun!"

"I heard gunshots earlier," Pyrrha volunteered. "I believe our comrades have engaged the enemy."

Yang perked up almost instantly. "Gunfire? Why didn't you say anything? We could've gone to help!"

"It was earlier this morning. Before I found you."

"Before we ran into each other, you mean?" Yang asked, turning around and walking backwards for a few paces to see Pyrrha's face.

Pyrrha just gave her a blank smile, wondering why Yang was grinning; it was an accurate enough description. Yang sighed and turned to face the front again.

"Maybe there'll be Grimm at this temple thing. 'D you see those pillars we passed?"

Pyrrha blinked. "No, what pillars?"

Yang shrugged and gestured over her shoulder. "There were some pillars about half an hour back. They were pretty overgrown, I think one was actually holding up a tree. Anyway, pretty sure they mean we're heading in the right direction."

Pyrrha eyed her partner with new respect. She hadn't noticed anything. "You'll have to forgive me. I feel very foolish for missing them."

Yang shrugged again. "Don't sweat it."

After a few minutes of walking in silence she began to hum tunelessly. Pyrrha gritted her teeth; part of her wanted to complain, but after the pillar-revelation, she didn't entirely feel she had grounds to. Instead, she continued scanning the forest carefully. Trees, moss, boulders – boulders?

"Look on the ground," she said swiftly. "Those are more pillars, aren't they? They've been knocked over."

"Yep," Yang said, bending over them. "Carved like the other ones are." She reached down and ran a hand over the rock. "But these were knocked over recently. Look at the grass under them, these've only been like this for a little while."

Pyrrha's grip on her shield tightened. "So the question is, what knocked them over."

Yang's eyes gleamed red. "Something fun, I bet."

"I must confess, I would prefer to avoid Grimm at this point," Pyrrha said apologetically. "Since I only have my shield..."

"Ah, don't worry about it! I told you, I'll look after you," Yang said confidently, clapping Pyrrha on the shoulder.

Pyrrha staggered, and for an irrational moment she found herself wondering how strong Yang was. Then she staggered again, and this time noticed Yang doing the same. Both girls looked around as the ground thumped a third time. The trees rustled, and parted, and a massive Boarbatusk bounded into view.