Silver Rose

Chapter XI - Forever Unfallen

"Okay, remember to stick together," Qrow said as he led the excursion to Forever Fall along with Penny, his administrative assistant.

"You don't wanna get eaten by a giant Ursa!" Penny added.

"So, our objective is to collect this, uh, sap?" Leon said.

"Mm-hmm!"

"Does it taste good?"

"Not sure. I've never tried some."

"I'll report back to you, then."

She giggled. "Try not to attract too many bugs with your escapades, Leon."

He winked before heading in another direction with Team LILY.

"You try too hard," Ingrid said.

"Psh, you don't try hard enough," Leon said.

"The hell is that even supposed to mean?"

"This looks like a good one!" Lilly said as she ran to the base of a large tree, looking up at the red leaves covering the branches. "Ohh, it's so pretty!"

"So, hey," Leon said, crossing his arms and leaning against the tree to face her. "What's a pretty girl like you doing under a pretty tree like this?"

She giggled before embedding her spile into the tree. She watched for a bit before the red sap slowly seeped out. She quickly uncapped her jar and set it down to collect the fluid. Leon stuck his finger in the flow to try some of the sap.

"Jeez, that's super sweet," he said.

"I wanna try!" Lilly said, doing the same thing. "Yeah, goodness, it's like eating pure brown sugar!"

"If you guys get diarrhea," Ingrid began, "don't come crying to me."

"It should be perfectly safe," Yuan said. "My mom regularly ate pancakes with this stuff instead of maple syrup."

"Yeah, but that's probably processed stuff, isn't it? Or did she eat it raw like these two are doing?"

"Raw, I think," he said as he joined the two in stealing some of the sap as it flowed into the first jar. "Yup, this is the stuff she liked. This jar's almost filled. Get ready to switch out."

"Affirmative!" Leon said, saluting and uncapping another jar.

"You guys are ridiculous," Ingrid said.

"C'mon!" Lilly said. "Try some! It's good! Just, don't get too much or you'll get all hyper like Leon."

The only Faunus of the team rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Oh, I get it," Leon said, sticking his finger into the flow. "You don't wanna get your hands dirty. Here, I'll take one for the team."

"No!" Ingrid said, pushing his hand away before acquiescing and collecting some sap for herself and trying some. They weren't lying about it being sickly sweet, but behind the syrupiness was a subtle hint of other things, which probably only her Faunus senses picked up. Then again, Lilly's palate seemed to be quite sophisticated as well. She might be able to detect the slight traces of mint and wood as well.

"Hey," Yuan said, uncapping his jar as the second filled up. "Why don't we grab some dinner later as a team? After we finish studying, of course."

"I'm down," Leon said.

"What were you thinking?" Lilly asked.

He shrugged, turning to Leon and Ingrid. "Any suggestions? You two are sorta from here."