Chapter 12

Time-skips, The First Of Four

AN: Hello all, welcome to the first time-skip chapter, this will cover some things but not all, not much happens, enjoy the chapter.

The first year of Rai's training was not easy, he would start the day waking up before the run raises because of Qrow pulling him out of bed. After waking up Rai would wash himself taking an hour, most of that time is spent washing his hair and tails. This was followed by both of them unloading the Bullhead of the cargo, which took until early morning of the first day, once that was done Qrow would cook them some food for breakfast while teaching Rai how to cook as well.

After that they would do several laps around the village wall for about an hour covering nine kilometres for the first few weeks each day, this improved gradually and after each run they would take a short break before going back to the boxes and unpacking them and sorting the items inside, after the first day Rai also started to wear the train weights in the box while he ran or did other exercises.

In the boxes, there were a lot of tools, several boxes of fresh dirt to put over the ash, a box of seeds, something to help remove burn marks from surfaces, weights for training, some building material and other miscellaneous items

They would first take the tools and take down to burned down builds that have a few walls standing, it took them three days to take down all the burned houses and make a suitable pile of the wood, once that was done they would that the dirt from the boxes and start to spread that around while also using the gardening tools to mix in the ash to make it more fertile, that took them the rest of the first week to complete, after that Rai asked if they could dig a large pond with a small island at the centre.

What came out from that was a small island about two dozen meters wide, with a four-meter empty moat surrounding it, the extra dirt that was dug up was spread around, the small lake/pond (not sure what it would be) is a few dozen meters away from the right side of the house. (the front of the house faces the gate)

Qrow suggested that they make a bridge to get to the island before it became inaccessible, they did just that and built an arched bridge made of wood to connect to the island, after that they made a pathway of wood from the bridge to the house and cleared the dirt from the front of the house to the main gate, all of this took over a week and a half to complete.

Once that was done they took the grass seeds from the box of seeds and spread those over the area, leaving a large square of dirt, the pathway from house to the gate and a foot-wide gap between the wooden path from house to bridge empty.

After that was down they couldn't do much else because it rained for three days straight not a heavy rain just constant rain and during that time Qrow started to teach Rai and quickly found how far ahead he was with schooling.

Once the Rain stopped Qrow gave Rai a small bag of random tree seeds and told him to put where he wanted them while he tilted the empty patch of dirt so they could plant winter foods.

With the tree seeds, Rai got he took four small pinkish pale seeds and planted them on the island in four corners, and with the rest of the other seeds he placed them in a roughly organized manner around the area.

They did have a hard time trying to get to shoot off the village walls as it was stubborn and it took them a full two weeks to get the wall done, they had also replaced the gate with a new one.

The one thing that Qrow did not forget was to train Rai in hand-to-hand combat as he feels Rai hasn't had the basics taught to him and lacks the form needed to use a weapon at the moment.

(For those wondering they put Cobalt's and Sapphire's swords in a display case in the living room next to each other)

Time passes like this until Christmas comes around where Ozpin, Glynda, Lilly and Alcatesh stop round for the holiday, they spent time outside throwing snowballs and did a little bit of ice skating on the moat that had filled up over the month and a bit, it had rained a lot over that time, they had fun for a few days until they others had to leave to continue with their work.

Soon spring came around with signs of the thick grass and saplings for the trees showing, it was a week after spring began that Qrow says to Rai "Rai, I'm heading off to Vale to buy a few items and food, I should be back tonight barring any weather problems"

Rai looks at Qrow before nodding and saying, "Okay have a safe journey uncle Qrow" while giving him a hug.

Qrow climbs into the Bullhead that they have moved onto a wooden platform for it to land on, soon Qrow was out of sight and Rai was left with little to do and decided to go to the centre of the island.

At the centre of the island Rai sat down cross-legged with his tails unfurled and started to focus on his Aura, by this point the amount of Aura that leaks out is at a suitable leave where he no longer needs to actively suppress it, he does this more to focus his mind.

While he is in the Soulscape as he likes to call it sitting in the tri-coloured orb, he feels something far of in the distance, opening his eyes in the Soulscape and looking round to try and find the source of the feeling, after looking for a few seconds he moves of the tri-coloured orb and closes his eyes and feels it once for towards the south-west focusing on that he feels, A cool warmth, full of new energy, joyful, free and distraught.

Rai exits the Soulscape and looks to the south-west and quickly exits the village or house gates and heads south-west, after a few short minutes of running Rai starts to hear the sound of combat and starts to use his Semblances to close the distance.

Rai very quickly comes to a small clearing and with his Speed Semblance increasing the rate in which he takes and processes information he sees a tall woman in light green clothes with a sky-blue cape with a small quiver with three arrows in it, wielding what looks to be a bow with that looks like it can split into two swords.

She is surrounded by two dozen Beowolf Grimm (That's the RWBY owned one) Rai taking a closer look sees that the lady is short of breath and looks to have been fighting for some time, thinking fast Rai, runs in as one of the Beowolves tries and pounces on the woman from behind.

Rai stops behind the woman, jumps and puts his hand out and stops the Beowolf taking all its Physical energy and before he lands he punches out with his other hand smashing into the mask of the Grimm shattering it and sending it flying way and colliding with another one taking both out of the fight.

Rai lands softly on the ground and asks the lady "Are you okay"

With slightly heavy breaths she replies, "I'll be fine" before asking "But what are you doing here?"

Rai is about to answer but four Grimm charge at them and Rai quickly says "Hold that thought" as he charges lighting in his arms and legs creating an electrical field around them and uses his Speed and quickly darts to the Beowolf on his right planting a fist into its mid-section and launching it back while it is being shocked by electricity, Rai then moves to the second Beowolf and rushes it before doing a low jump and spin kicking it in the head stopping all of his momentum and sending the just the head of the Beowolf into the third Beowolf that is charging taking it out as well as the head carried a lot of force and electricity, as Rai lands the sound of a bow firing and a thud with the fourth Beowolf falling.

Rai quickly stands behind the lady once more and says, "I was meditating and felt something that felt like spring but was dis-dis in trouble, so I came to help"

The lady's lips curl into a small smile and says, "Thank you, the names Iris"

Rai smiles and drops into a battle stances and says "Rai Zilar, now let's take them down"

The lady Nods and the twist her bow and turns them into to swords, they both dash off towards the Grimm, Rai runs and vanishes from the Grimm's sight before reappearing in place of the Beowolf that was standing there seconds ago before he charges other and send six consecutive strikes to the main body of the Grimm before upper cutting it.

Switching to Iris, she charges towards her set of Grimm with her swords in hand they also charge her when she reaches the first she slides under it while slicing at its legs, coming to her feet she uses one sword to block a claw and uses the other to cut off its head, she looks around quickly and sees Rai quickly taking out his group.

Iris closes her eyes before breathing calmly and opens them with a lime green Aura flowing of it, the wind starts to pick up and circle around her swords, giving a small hop, she dashes forward and cut clean through the Grimm sliding to a stop she spins and slash out at them sending a wave of air which cuts through most of them.

Thunder rumbles in the sky as she raises her swords, and as quickly as she swings her swords down six bolts strike the Grimm reducing their numbers.

The Grimm not wanting to lose more of them all charge the two, Rai and Iris dodge the Grimm and land back to back, Rai asks "Got any more tricks you can use?"

Iris smiles and says, "If you can buy me sometimes I have one"

Rai nods as a Grimm slowly circle and close in, with a quick kick off Rai starts to dart between each of the Grimm and hitting them but jumping back before they can strike at him keeping them at bay.

"Rai, Get Down!" Iris shouts and as Rai rolls from a dodge a sharp thin wave of fire flies over his head and cuts through all the Grimm burning them away, standing Rai looks around and sees all the Grimm dissipating and Iris unsteady on her feet, Rai quickly rushes over to her catching her as she falls and hears her say tiredly "I'm out of energy" before her eyes closed falling asleep.

Rai picks her up in a more manageable position and runs back home, it doesn't take more than a few minutes using the energy he got from blocking the attacks and he Speed.

After reaching the house Rai opens the front door and takes her to the downstairs guest room and pulls back the cover before putting her on the bed with her weapons and quiver on the table in the room before putting the covers over her.

Rai leaves the room and closes the door before heading outside to the gate and closing it, and goes to cheek on the plants that they are growing seeing them all healthy but not ready to be picked, afterwards he moves back to his island and sits in the middle and enters the Soulscape and feels the spring-like energy behind him in the house, he feels that it is very week.

Rai is broken from his thoughts by the sound of thunder above him, opening his eyes in the real world and looking up he sees dark grey clouds covering the sky and mutters "Uncles not getting back today or tomorrow" with a sigh he stands and moves back into the house and on more flash and thunder goes off and heavy rain starts to pour down.

Rai moves over to the bookshelf and pulls out one of the weapon books he hasn't read yet and moves to the room that Iris is resting in while bringing a chair with him, after setting the chair to face the bed Rai climbs up and sits down in the chair and wraps himself in his tails with his arms and head outside of the cocoon.

He sits and reads while listening to the rain for a few hours until his stomach demands food, sighing and getting off the chair while putting the book on it he goes and makes himself some food and eats it in the dining room before washing what he used, and grabs another random book before he goes back to the chair and continues to read his current book.

After a few short hours he finishes the weapons book and switches to the second book titled 'The Forgotten fairy tales' that contains many fairy tales that people have forgotten, he reads them happily with three stories catching his eye, the first is called 'The Eyes Of Silver' which talks about silver-eyed warriors, the second story is called 'The Eye Of Gold' which speaks about the golden eye of the Kitsune which Rai already knows about because of his family and the third story is called 'The Full Story Of The Seasons' this one tells the full story of the four maidens unlike the current books do now as they have lost a lot of what happens.

He was halfway through reading the part with the summer maiden when he heard Iris stifle out a pained moan, setting the book down Rai got off the chair and walked out to the kitchen and filled a glass with water and carried it back to the room, setting it down on the table next to the bed.

Rai looks to the lady and sees that she is slowly waking up and decides to move back to the chair, and continue to read until she fully wakes up, Rai manages to finish the story before he sees Iris push herself up against the backboard of the bed with one hand on her forehead, Rai speaks up at this point saying, "There's water next to the bed for you"

Iris jumps at the sound before looking around the room to see Rai sitting in a chair wrapped in silver and red tipped fur, her weapons leaning against the table and a glass of water on the table.

She reaches out and picks up the glass and while bringing towards her she loses grip and the glass slides out of her hand, Rai quickly moves and catches the glass before it fell too far and hands it back to Iris.

"Thank you," Iris says before drinking the water, after drinking some she hands it to Rai who puts it back on the table and asks, "Where am I?" as Rai moves back Iris sees the multiple tails Rai has.

Rai sits back down while wrapping himself in his tails and looks at iris who is looking at his tails, Rai sighs at himself for slipping up and says, "For the first question, you're at my house, and for the second I have many tails because of what Faunus race I am"

Iris shakes her head and says "Sorry" Rai smiles and shakes his head before Iris continues "Where are we, as far as I know, there isn't supposed to be any buildings out here and looking out the window I can see a wall, so where are we?"

Rai's smile fades a little and answers "Your right, this place isn't on any maps and won't be, this place was once a lively village…" Rai's voice trails off.

Iris sees the sadness in Rai's eyes and speaks "You don't need to say anymore, from what little I can see you're fixing the place a little" Rai nods and Iris asks, "Do you live here alone?"

Rai shakes his head saying "No, I live here with my uncle, not a blood-related uncle, but he went to pick up surplus from Vale this morning, he going to be back tonight but with this weather, I don't think he'll be back for two more days"

"So just you for now then?" Iris asks and Rai nods and Iris asks, "What time is it?"

Rai thinks for a few seconds before saying "Give me second" and hops off the chair and leave the room to find the clock to see the time and returns and answers "6:48 pm"

Iris nods and is about to speak when her stomach growls, blushing from embarrassment she asks, "Can I have some food?"

Rai smiles and answers "Give me a few minutes" and leaves the room, after fifteen minutes Rai returns with two plates of sandwiches and says, "Sorry it's not much but we are running a little low and I can't cook well enough yet" while placing one of the plates on Iris' lap and the other on his own once he has sat down in the chair.

They eat in silence for a little bit before Rai asks "Iris, why do you feel like spring?"

Iris stops eating a looks over at Rai and asks in turn "Why do you ask?"

Rai shrugs and answers "When I meditated earlier I could feel what you could call what everyone describes spring as, the first time was when you were fighting the second was when you were asleep in the house"

Iris thinks for a few seconds before asking "What do you know of the story 'The Four Seasons'"

Rai smiles and points the book on the table and says, "In there are the forgotten fairy tales, open it to page 1..3..5 for the story"

Iris put the plate down next to her and reaches over to the book and opens it to the right page and reads the page title 'The Full Story Of The Seasons', Iris send a raised eyebrow towards Rai who answers her unspoken question "'The Four Seasons' story right is missing a lot from it and that has the forgotten parts as well"

Iris sits and reads the story from start to end before closing the book and asks, "Why do you think I feel like spring?"

Rai thinks for some time before answering with a question "You're the Spring maiden?"

Iris smile and nods while speaking "Your right" before staring out into the rain and continues "But I have to keep it secret"

Rai nods and says, "I understand what it's like having to came such a secret" Iris looks over to Rai confused as he asks, "what do you know of the Kitsune war?"

Iris' eyes go wide as she asks, "You're a Kitsune?" Rai nods his head sadly and Iris continues by asking "How many know about you?"

"Five others, Mister Ozpin, Aunt Glynda, Aunt Lilly, Aunt Tesh and Uncle Qrow, those are the only ones that know," Rai says counting them off on his fingers

Iris looks at Rai for a few seconds before giving a small laugh while saying "If Professor Ozpin knows about you, you must be a good kid, it is getting late and I think we both need some sleep" before letting out a small yawn.

Rai nods and walks to the door while say "Goodnight miss Iris"

Iris chuckles and says after him "Goodnight Rai and I'm only twenty"

AN: Well here's the end of the first time-skip, for those who have guessed it yes, I won't say what it is but you may be right, before you leave for the rest of next week there WON'T be any updates the reason is because I need to use that time to write out a few extra chapters, Well until next time.