The past few days were something of a blur for Marina.
She could remember the airship ride to Beacon – she’d stood apart from the other students in an attempt not to hurt any of them. Her height was a bit intimidating at first glance; she’d inherited it from her father, and her strength got away from her sometimes which had resulted in more than a few bruising handshakes over the years. The giant girl swore that she’d actually seen someone who was barely waist-height on herself wiggling their way through the crowd at one point.
She could remember dinner – not what she ate, as it was pretty standard fair especially for someone used to eating military meals growing up, but rather the scuffle that’d occurred as some of the students were arriving. The same brightly-coloured midget she’d seen earlier attacked a purple boy in the doorway, kicking him while he was down before another teen intervened. Marina was tempted to get up and interfere, but seeing as the small person seemed to switch to food mode almost instantly she decided against it. The purple boy had the other teen to look after him; he would be fine.
She could remember a sleepless night, worrying over the Initiation in the morning, worrying whether she was doing the right thing by becoming a Hunter or whether she should just return home and join the Atlas Military like her parents wanted, worrying if she was even good enough to be at such a prestigious school. What if she failed? Her wants for the future dashed against the rocks like sea-spray, disappearing beneath the dreams of other people and slinking back home to face her parents’ smug faces as she joined the military like they wanted. No, she couldn’t do that – she’d come so far. She just had to go all the way.
She could remember a brilliant morning, the sun shining so brightly in a cloudless sky as the applicants gathered at the top of the cliff, lining up on the strange metal plates installed just for hopeful Hunters. Ozpin’s strange speech was so different to the ones she had heard all her life from other officials like her parents that it stuck in her mind in a way none of the others had.
She could remember thinking a brief
‘What?’ as the plate beneath her feet snapped open, launching her into the air alongside the other teens.
And then the world literally was a blur.
“Holy-!” The tall girl half screamed before swallowing her words.
‘Now is not the time, Marina,’ she thought to herself as she stared at the rapidly approaching forest below,
‘Freak out once you’ve landed.’The blonde pulled on every ounce of training she’d had in the military academy back home in Atlas before steeling her nerves and grabbing Fortior from its place on her back. It converted to shotgun mode almost immediately and the armoured teen fired three times in front of her to slow her rate of descent, before reverting her shotgun to shield form and curling up behind it. She pounded throw the trees heavily, crashing through them like a cannonball as she focused her aura, and each impact slowing her fall even further. A few splinters scratched at her clothes but Marina ignored them in favour of rolling with the force of hitting the ground, leaving a small hollow in the ground behind her. The Atlesian girl transformed Fortior in shotgun form once more as she righted herself, checking the forest around carefully as she reloaded the firearm.
“Coast is clear,” she murmured to herself, switching Fortior back to shield form and drawing her mace.
“Oh man, oh man, that was intense. Okay. Pull yourself together, Marina. Have to go…north? Yeah, north to the forest temple and pick up a relic. Then back to the cliff, hopefully picking up a partner along the way and not dying in the process.”Marina carefully ran her eye over her surroundings once more before tilting her head back to check the position of the sun.
“Sun is there and it’s early morning, which means that’s east so north should be…that way!”With a triumphant smile, she strode in the direction she had picked, lightly swinging Velocius by her side. Hopefully she would be teamed with someone she wouldn’t hurt just by shaking their hand.