Dream of an Emerald Forest

Chapter One Arrival.

"Alright, it's official: we passed it." Weiss had been pacing back and forth in front of Ruby in an attempt to get her bearings for the past few minutes. Being launched from a cliff to start her initiation had thrown off her sense of direction, and the dense trees of the emerald forest meant her vision was limited to only a few metres.

She'd still never admit that she had no idea where she was going in front of Ruby, though.

"Weiss, why can't you admit that you have no idea where we're going?" Ruby stood up, trying to mask her annoyance.

"Because I know exactly where we're going! We're going to... to... do you hear that?" Ruby cupped a hand over her ear. Among the sounds of the wildlife, she heard several very distinct snaps, followed shortly by four muted thuds.

"Yeah, branches breaking. Maybe someone else landed near here. Let's investigate!" Before Weiss could react, Ruby had vanished through the bushes, leaving a trail of falling petals in her wake. Weiss sighed in exasperation before setting off after her.

It was only a few minutes before she caught sight of her partner again. Ruby was standing still for once, looking between a pair of trees at something Weiss couldn't see.

"Ruby, who is it?" Weiss knew that it was unlikely to be anyone Ruby had met before, but it seemed to be worth a try. Ruby, however, did not respond. "Ruby?" she asked again. Walking a bit slower than before, Weiss felt the urge to be cautious. She'd heard a Nevermore overhead while she was chasing Ruby, and she didn't want to draw its ire. Coming up beside her, she realised what had caused Ruby to freeze.

Something inhuman was already in the clearing.

They weren't Grimm. She knew that much, but beyond that, she had no idea what they were. While the strange bodies in front of her had the same basic shape as a human, Weiss couldn't dispel the thought that the armour-clad sleepers in front of her were from somewhere beyond Remnant.

"I'm pretty sure that this isn't part of initiation," She broke the silence, shaking Ruby out of her stupor. The ice-cold heiress was not usually prone to stating the obvious, but the four unconscious humanoids they had encountered had shocked her out of her normal, stoic persona.

"What should we do?" Ruby asked. "We can't just leave them here. What if a Grimm shows up?"

"Well, what would you suggest? We can't exactly carry four people. We'd be too burdened to fight even if we could!" Weiss countered. Cold logic beat altruism in her eyes, but Ruby had an alternate solution in mind.

"Then we wake them up." she said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Are you insane? We don't know what these things are!" Weiss wasn't keen on the notion of being outnumbered by potentially hostile creatures, especially when she wasn't sure of their origins. A lifetime of conflict and betrayal had taught her to always know about any possible threats.

"It would solve us having to carry them," came Ruby's optimistic response. "And if they've got weapons, we'll have four more allies to fight with!"

"Maybe so, but I still think we should be cautious about this. If we're going to do this, we should only wake them up one at a time." Weiss' suggestion seemed like a good compromise to Ruby. Only waking one up meant they would outnumber it if it turned out to be hostile.

"So… which one do we wake up?" There were four bodies, and each one seemed more bizarre than the last. The first appeared to be male, if the lack of "curvature" was any indication. It was mainly blue, with muddy browns and glowing red dots arranged in patterns down its body. Its shoulders had several rings jutting out perpendicularly to its arms, and its hips were partially covered by a skirt that stretched around the back of its legs. Most bizarre was the helmet, which resembled a snapping turtle with a small crest on the back and a spike where a human's nose would be.