Dream of an Emerald Forest

chapter 4

Ruby was feeling a mix of anxiety and irritation. As soon as she and her newly-named team had reached their dorm, she had explained what had happened before they'd met at the temple. Specifically, the four creatures that had gored the Beowolves. Blake had found them intriguing, but Yang had something else on her mind.

"So… were they hot?"

Ruby rolled her eyes at her sister's antics, while Weiss seemed to be trying to catch flies.

"We told you about some dangerous, inhuman beasts, and the first thing you ask is if they're hot!?"

"Well, inhuman may be a bit of a stretch. From the way you describe them, they seem to just be Remnans in armour." Blake's observation brought a series of enthusiastic nods from Ruby, which quickly died down when she realised that no one else was nodding.

"Well, if it is armour, it's not like anything the SDC has made. They almost appear organic. They also didn't speak, even when fighting." Weiss crossed her arms. "Furthermore, they were supposed to be here by now. We gave them directions."

"Yeah! We gave them directions to… the… school." Ruby trailed off. An awkward silence followed. "We didn't give them our room number."

"We didn't know our room number!" said Weiss. "They'll probably just head to the courtyard and wait. We can find them in the morning."

"You're right. It's too dark for us to be searching for them, and I think we all need a rest after today's fight." Almost as if to drive the point home, Blake let out a small yawn before getting into her bed. Yang soon did the same, climbing into her own and lying face down. A few seconds later, snoring began to emanate from her pillow.

Ruby and Weiss shrugged, before getting into their own respective beds. Putting on her sleep mask, Ruby looked across at the rest of her team, before lying down fully.

"Goodnight, Team RWBY." She whispered, before drifting off into a peaceful sleep.

:-:-:

Meanwhile, near the school's boundaries, there was a small group of Tenno. The girls' directions would not actually lead them to a suitable meeting point, so they had taken the precaution of tagging them with a waypoint. Once her location had settled in the direction of the city, they had set off towards their meeting. Climbing up the outer walls of the castle, they saw a placard identifying it as a school: Beacon Academy.

The waypoint was in one of the buildings, so they moved through the shadows towards it. If there were any security systems in the courtyard, they would see little more than a blur as the Tenno sprinted toward the dorm. Coming up to the dorm, Mirage climbed up the smooth walls to reach the girls' room. The window was slightly ajar, which was all she needed to get in. Gripping the windowsill with one hand, she teased her fingers under the window, pulling it wide enough to peek her head through.

There were four beds, all of them occupied by sleeping figures. A cursory glance showed that her intrusion had not roused any of them. She slipped into the room without a sound, before leaning out of the window to give the all clear to her siblings. The three outside climbed up in sequence. First, Volt sprang up into the room with a few short jumps, his skirt billowing in the wind. Next, Equinox started climbing the nearby tree, walking across its branches into the room as though they were solid ground. Finally, Atlas took the direct route, simply climbing up from window to window until he rolled into the room with a quiet thud. The four glanced around at the four slumbering girls, before they each knelt down at the foot of a bed.

:-:-:

Sitting in his tower, Ozpin watched the external security feed for the dorm rooms. Closing the feed, he let out a sigh before bringing out his scroll. On it, he typed a single message, to be sent to his colleagues.