After a few hours of flying, the plane finally landed by the edge of the Napier Forest. The pilot, an older man named Gamboge, wished team RWBY luck. "I don't know what's in there," he shouted over the sounds of the engines "and I don't really want to find out. You got everything? Enough water? Food? Bedrolls? Your weapons?"

"Of course, you… already made sure of that." Weiss said. She was so used to stupid questions she had forgotten that she was not talking to her teammates. She grabbed three extra packets of peanuts to go, opened one, shoved them all in her mouth, and followed her teammates. The plane took off loudly and departed.

"So what do we do now?" Blake asked, looking at the trail leading into the forest.

Yang smiled. "Well, the mission was clear. There was supposedly a Grimm attack on a small settlement in this forest. We need to find the survivors, if there are any."

"Well, Blake, you lived outside the kingdoms before," Ruby commented. "I think you know the most about looking for people in these situations."

"Yeah," Blake replied, a bit hesitantly, "but the reports for our mission were not exactly clear. How large was the settlement? What types of Grimm were here?"

"I dunno," but whatever comes in our way will get bullets in their gullets! Eh?" Yang said, pumping her fist.

Weiss facepalmed. As Ruby and her teammates entered the dense forest, there was a strange chill in the air. There was a faint sound from inside the forest towards the east. Weiss loaded Myrtenaster with fresh Dust and gave Blake a small supply just in case; Ruby refilled Crecent Rose with bullets.

Ruby looked around carefully, trying to figure out a good course of action. "Yang, you take the lead," she said after a few moments. "If we see something in front of us, you will be the best to take it down. Blake, go in the back. If something follows us you will be the first to hear."

There was general assent and the gang began to move. The trees were getting thicker, the ground was getting more uneven, and despite being early afternoon, the sky was getting darker. A small roar from the East alerted the gang to what they assumed was a small pack of Ursai. Heading in that direction, everyone was ready for a confrontation. When they reached a small clearing, they saw five Ursai, two of them relatively small, two average sized ones, and a large one. They were all surrounding what appeared to be a dead body. Everyone drew their weapons. With a shot from Crecent Rose, the Ursai all shifted attention to team RWBY.

Blake was ready for the two small Ursai. With her semblance, she managed to keep moving between the two, distracting each one. They were clearly young and did not have any notion of survival and working as one. Using the Burn Dust Weiss had given her, Blake created a shadow and moved behind the Ursa to stab it as it flew back after hitting the explosive entity. The second was equally unlucky. After a few bullets hit its head, it fell over and moved no more.

Weiss and Ruby teamed up against the average-sized Ursai. These were a little more adept at fighting but were still no match for two battle-hardened Huntresses. The two fought and made the two Ursai stand back to back. Weiss created a circle of glyphs on which Ruby could run. With a few slices with Crecent Rose, the Ursai fell apart.

Yang took on the largest Ursa. With a quick roll under its feet, she punched it in the stomach and sent it up into the air. As it fell, it flipped and managed to hit her. Despite minor injuries, Yang was completely fine. With a few more punches, the Ursa fell backwards. It was still alive and clearly angered.

Ruby saw that Yang was still fighting. "Yang needs my help! YAAAAAAHHH," she yelled, getting ready to charge.

Weiss managed to grab Ruby before she got anywhere. "She will be fine. Don't attack out of turn. Don't take away your sister's fun!" reprimanded Weiss.

Indeed, Yang was just smiling as she kept fighting. She was getting tired but the Ursa was clearly hurt. As Yang was knocked back again, her eyes turned red and she sped towards the big Ursa, jumping on its back, punching it in the back of the neck, and dislocating its head. It fell with a loud thud.

Ruby looked at her sister with awe. Her eyes widened as she said "nice job sis."

Blake looked at Yang with a mixture of being scared and being impressed. "Remind me not to make you angry," she said a bit slowly.

Everyone smiled giggled, but soon the looks on their faces turned to horror. Right in front of them was a small clearing. Near the center of the clearing was a body, clearly femake.

Yang was the first to snap out of the shock. "That person over there! We have to help her!" she shouted, shocking her teammates back to the present. They ran towards the body, a middle-aged woman. She had streaks of purple in her hair. Her leather armor was covered in blood. To their relief, she was still breathing.

Weiss knelt down next to the woman's face and asked her "What's your name?"

The woman sighed harshly. She had a deep wound in her chest and her legs were bent at angles that were not possible for a healthy human. "I… I… Iris," she groaned weakly.

Ruby knelt next to Weiss. "Listen, Iris," she said, her voice breaking, "You will be fine. What happened?"

Iris took too long to answer. "A Grimm… came from nowhere. " Iris coughed. "Village destroyed. I think… there is nobody left."

Ruby grabbed Iris' right hand, a tear in her eye.

Blake looked around, listening for any sounds. "Are there any more?" she asked.

Iris tried to raise her free hand to point, but could not. Realizing she could not do so, she reached for her left side and grabbed a small purple knife. She handed it to Yang, who was on her knees on Iris' left.

"Find if anyone survived," Iris said slowly, with her voice fading. "Take… the… knife…"

Ruby was tearing up even more. "Listen to me Iris!" she yelled. Her breaking voice desperate, "You are not going to die. We're going to help you. Stay awake. Please!"

It was to no avail. Iris' hand became cold and it was clear Iris was dead. Weiss closed Iris' eyes, stood up, and looked determined at her teammates. "If there is anyone alive left then we have to find them before any more Grimm find them and…" She stopped mid-sentence. She saw Ruby was still holding Iris' hand, her eyes closed and facing the ground. "Ruby, what's wrong?" Weiss asked sympathetically.

Yang explained. "Death has always hit my sister very hard. When Summer Rose died, she could barely believe it. She spent some days just waiting by the door waiting for her to come home."

Weiss and Blake had a sympathetic look on their face.

"I guess that would make things painful. Were they very close?" Blake asked.

Yang just nodded. She walked towards Ruby, bent down, and put her hand on Ruby's shoulder in a reassuring manner. Weiss and Blake walked towards each other.

"We need to keep moving," Weiss said determinedly. "The more time we stay here, the worse it is going to be."

Yang gave Weiss an angry look – how dare Weiss force Ruby to just get over it? However, the angry look became a fearful one. She saw the same look on Weiss and Blake's faces. Even Ruby, torn as she was, lifted her head as they heard words coming from where they entered the clearing. A man's voice, deep and serious. It only said four words: "You shouldn't be here."