Pyrrha glanced upward as she heard a twig snap, drawing her out of her state of deep thoughtfulness. Cursing herself for her lapse in awareness, she closely surveyed her surroundings, checking for Grimm, or worse.

Nothing. Nothing moved, nothing except the tree branches as they swayed in the wind. The scarlet-haired warrior sighed and continued forward, hoping she could keep focus. Not likely, as her mind was already drifting back to her last interaction with her team. She winced as she remembered Nora's tears. The hurt look on Ren's face when she screamed at him. And Jaune. Poor, sweet, adorable Jaune. He hadn't understood. But he hadn't argued either, something she was grateful for.

Perhaps she'd see them again someday. But not as a Huntress. No, Cinder had promised she would have her power taken away, and so it came to be. Not as anyone expected, but effectively and thoroughly nonetheless. A great mentor and leader was dead, and she couldn't help but assume some of the guilt, enough that she could no longer look her classmates and friends in the eyes while naming herself Huntress.

So she left on a self-imposed exile, telling no one of her departure. Well, except her team. They deserved that much at least after all they had been through together. Maybe that was a mistake as well. Oh well. What was done was done, and all that mattered now was moving forward. Putting one step in front of the other until she found a reason for doing so.

Distracted as she was, the ex-Huntress-in-training failed to spot the furtive figure trailing her stealthily deep into the woods.

A/N: So yeah, this isn't a lot for the start of a story, but I'm not quite sure where I want to go with this. If it happened to pique your interest, feel free to leave a review!