The Grimm Huntress

Forever Fall

Eclipse woke up feeling more refreshed than ever even though she had been sleeping on the floor. She got up and stretched her arms and after hearing a satisfying pop in her back, set off to do her morning routine.

She came out of the bathroom only to find Ruby searching the room for something. "Um, what are you doing?"

Ruby gasped surprised. "ECLIPSE!"

Ruby launched herself into the taller teen's arms and squeezed her as tight as she can. Her yell was loud enough to wake the others up.

"What on Earth has you yelling so early in the morning?" Weiss asked irritably. She took her sleeping mask off and was now able to see what was so exciting.

Once Yang saw Eclipse awake, she bolted out of bed and pushed Ruby out of the way to get to her 'other sibling'.

"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?! Are you hurt?! Why were you asleep for so long?! Are you okay?!"

"Yes, Yang I'm completely fine!" Eclipse assured the panicked blonde. She gave her her signature lazy smirk, making the blonde calm down a bit. "I guess now you can call me Sleeping Beauty."

"Another glorious nickname for my favorite heterochromic friend!" Yang exclaimed dramatically.

"I'm your only heterochromic friend." Eclipse reminded her. "How long was I out for?"

"3 days," Blake finally said. "Are you sure that you're okay?"

Eclipse nodded. "Sleep deprived, maybe."

"Eclipse tends to need a bit more sleep than the average person." Yang nodded as Ruby informed their other two teammates. "Has something to do with her Semblance, or something..."

"Just how much more than average do you need?" Weiss questioned her.

"I need like fourteen hours," Eclipse answered.

"You should've told one of the professors, you dolt!" Weiss reprimanded.

Eclipse gestured toward the bathroom and then the door to their room, holding her hands up in a surrendering gesture.

"You want us to get ready for the field trip..?" Blake guessed. She had been trying to get better at understanding her silent gestures.

Eclipse nodded.

"Promise me not you won't scare us like that again!" Yang said.

She nodded again.

Everyone had gotten their stuff for the day except for Eclipse and Weiss. Eclipse smiled nervously as she awaited the oncoming lecture.

"Y'know Weiss, you're going to need to get ready soon," Eclipse said trying to get out of her situation. "So why don't you go ahead and—"

Weiss narrowed her eyes, silencing her, and pointed at Eclipse who still had a small smile on her face. "We are not done with this conversation."

Eclipse let out a sigh of relief as the small girl went and grabbed her toiletries, she climbed up to her bed and lied down dreading the conversation that would without a doubt happen later that day.

•••

After a lengthy telling off from Weiss ("Never do that again! I'm not dealing with you when you're practically drunk and speaking some language that I can't even understand-!"), team RWBEY was walking with the rest of the group through the forest of Forever Fall.

"Yes, students, the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful. But we are not here to sight-see. Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest, and I'm here to make sure none of you die while doing so."

Goodwitch continued instructing her group, holding up a full jar of their objective. "Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of red sap. However, this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates. We will rendezvous back here at 4 o'clock. Have fun!"

Yang and Ruby smiled at one another before heading off with the rest of the team to another area of the forest. Minutes later the roar of a giant Ursa was heard by the members of Teams RWBEY and JNPR, still collecting sap on the other side of the forest.

Ruby got up, concerned. "Did you guys hear that?"

Suddenly, three members of Team CRDL were seen running the other way from the roar through the other students.

"Ursa! Ursa!" Russel yelled running into Yang accidentally.

"What?!" Completely unfazed by his collision, she picked him up by the front of his shirt. "Where?"

Russel struggled, still running in air, but pointed back from where they came. "Back there! It's got Cardin!"

"Jaune!" Pyrra gasped, dropping her jar of sap.

"Yang! You and Blake, go get Professor Goodwitch!" Ruby instructed them. Dropping Russel, Yang and Blake nodded before following the orders.

Pyrrha continued to instruct Ren and Nora as she and Ruby activated their weapons. "You two, go with them! There could be more!"

Cardin was attempting to run from the following Ursa, but it leapt over its prey and clawed him away. He tries to get up and crawl away.

"Crap! Crap, crap!" He yelled as Eclipse, Weiss, Pyrra, and Ruby came on to the scene.

"Oh, no!"

They watched as the Ursa leaned over the helpless victim, raising its paw and swiping it down... only to be blocked by Jaune's shield. He struggled to defend a stunned Cardin from its attempts to lean on him, but Weiss lifted Myrtenaster as she prepared to go help.

"Wait!" Pyrra said to Weiss.

Jaune took the shield out from the Ursa's paw and slashed at its stomach, causing it to lash out and try to crush him. He rolled out of the way and jumped over its swipe at his feet, but he was unprepared for when it launched a claw at him in midair. He landed far away, yet was immediately back on his feet and passing Cardin as he charged again. The Ursa knocked Jaune behind it when he tried for a leaping attack, and he looked at the Scroll in his shield to find out that his Aura level was in the red. He grew angry again and started to run at the Ursa as it also began to dash towards him.

As they were just about to clash in slow-motion, Pyrrha saw that Jaune had left himself completely open to the Ursa's attack, and lifted her hand out to him, gathering dark red energy in her arm. Just as the Ursa was about to hit him, the glow surrounded Jaune's shield and made it lift up to block the swipe. Jaune used the surprise defensive move to lean on the ground, push his shield back up, and swing his blade right through the Ursa's neck. The head fell to the ground as the body slammed onto the ground.

As Pyrrha's hand stopped glowing and she smiled, Ruby turned to her thoroughly confused. "Uhhh... What?"

"How did you...?" Weiss asked, equally amazed as Eclipse tilted her head like a confused puppy.

"Well, Ruby has her speed, you have your glyphs. My Semblance is polarity." Pyrra told them.

"Whoa, you can control poles..."

"No, you dunce! It means she has control over magnetism!"

"Magnets are cool, too..." Ruby whispered.

"It means she has control over certain metals," Eclipse said softly, leaning down to Ruby's height.

"Woah!"

Before Weiss could insult Ruby further, she noticed Pyrrha start to leave. "Wait, where are you going?"

"Yeah! We gotta tell them what happened!"

"We could... Or perhaps we could keep it our little secret?" She walked away again as Ruby and Weiss smile to each other in understanding and a bruised Jaune sheathed his weapon.

"Come on guys," Eclipse called to the remaining two. "I need to eat!"

"You can eat when the assignment is finished."

"Weiss! Don't be so mean!"