RWBY: Beacon's Bloody Bull

Chapter 11

"Yes, students, the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful," Professor Peach, a dark-skinned woman in a lab coat with pinkish-orange hair tied back in a bun, said as she led the first-year students of Beacon through a crimson colored forest, with red leaves blowing through the breeze and thick gray tree trunks standing tall as far as the eye could see. "But we are not here to sight-see. All of you are to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest, and I am here to make sure none of you die while doing so." The class came to a halt, allowing her to hold up a large glass jar she had been carrying with her, and which each student had been given as well. "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!" The students began to disperse. As Team RWBY headed off into the forest, their silver-eyed leader turned to look back at Team ALPN.

"See you around, guys!" she called to them. Pyrrha smiled and nodded, and Nora waved enthusiastically to Ruby. Adam waved too, but unfortunately at that moment, Cardin Winchester stepped in front of the small girl. Seeing the bull Faunus waving at him, Cardin spat and flashed an obscene gesture, before leading his teammates off. Pyrrha glared after him, before sighing and shaking her head.

"You know, I really will break his legs," Pyrrha told Adam half-jokingly, who rolled his eye in response.

"Let it go, Pyrrha," he told her, before leading Team ALPN into the crimson-colored forest, before pulling a tree tap out of his pocket, which all the team leaders had been given before boarding the Bullheads earlier that morning. "Okay guys, this looks like a good place to start," the bull Faunus said, coming to a halt in front of a tall, healthy tree, whose auburn leaves rustled softly in the gentle wind. "Nora, come over here. We'll fill your jar first."

"Can do!" Nora said cheerfully, skipping over to the tree to stand next to Adam. The bull Faunus nodded at her, then gripped his tree tap and jammed it into the smooth, gray trunk with a loud thunk. a few moments passed, before a small stream of purple sap began to slowly ooze from the tapper and drizzle down into Nora's jar, as Team ALPN stood watching in silence.

"...So we just wait here, then?" Ren asked after a while, watching as sap continued to slowly drip from the tap and into the jar, which was barely a quarter of the way full.

"It would seem that way," Adam said, not sounding particularly enthused himself.

"Man, this is totally boring!" Nora groaned, puffing her cheeks up in a pout. "Would it be too much to ask for a pack of Beowolves to attack, or something?"

"You do know you'd still have to continue filling your jar if that happened, right?" the bull Faunus told her. "You wouldn't get to fight them yourself."

"Aww, phooey!"

"Well, we could always find another way to pass the time," Pyrrha pointed out. "Like 'I Spy,' for example..."

"Ooh, ooh! I'll start!" Nora declared. "I spy something... red!"

"Is it the trees?" Ren asked flatly.

"Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!"

***************

"Hey Blake, if I'm wrong about this, feel free to correct me, but did you know Adam before Beacon or something?" Ruby asked Blake, as Team RWBY congregated around a tree, where Yang was currently filling her jar. The raven-haired girl's amber eyes widened, as she turned to look at her team leader in surprise.

"W-What? N-No, of course not!" Blake said quickly. "What gave you that idea?!"

"I don't know, it's just, you two kind of seem kind of familiar with each other," the silver-eyed girl explained. "Which is kind of surprising, because I've known him for over a month now, and I still feel like I don't know anything about him..."