Chapter 28

I awoke again sometime later. Qrow was gone and the windows were dark. I looked at my scroll. It was eight in the evening. The sound of the door opening startled me. I shrieked and fell out of the bed, hitting my head against the hard wooden floor. Qrow came running to my side and kneeled next to me.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

I nodded and rubbed my head. "Yeah. I just fell."

He helped me up and kissed me gently. "Sorry I left so suddenly. You were sleeping so peacefully and I didn't want to wake you."

"Where did you go?" I asked.

"I was in Ozpin's office. He has a mission for me."

I blinked. "What mission?"

"Just a scouting mission. I'm just going to be scouting the outside of the kingdom," he explained.

"Oh. Can I come with you?" I asked.

"Ozpin didn't really say. You could ask if you want."

I grabbed my scroll and dialed Ozpin's number.

"Yes, Miss Rose?" his voice asked from the other line.

"Hello, Professor. I have a question about Qrow's mission."

"And what might that be?"

"I was wondering if I could accompany him. I don't like the idea of him going outside the kingdom by himself," I said.

Ozpin was silent for a moment. "It was originally meant to be a solo mission. I wanted to have you stay here so I could train you. But... I suppose you could go with him. You are his partner after all."

"Thank you, Professor! I won't let you down," I said, hanging up.

"So... I'm assuming he let you come along?" Qrow asked, smiling hopefully.

I nodded and grinned. "Yep!"

"That's great! I didn't really feel comfortable with leaving you alone," he admitted.

I kissed him. "I'm capable of taking care of myself, you know."

Qrow sighed. "I know. Sorry if I'm coming across as overprotective."

"It's okay. It shows me that you care."

Qrow smiled. "I do, you know."

"So... when is this mission supposed to start?" I asked.

Qrow shrugged. "Whenever I guess. Ozpin didn't really say. But it has to be done today."

"Can we head out now? We've got nothing else to do," I said.

Qrow nodded. "If you want to."

We packed a few things and headed outside of the school. As we walked farther outside of the kingdom, Grimm started to appear. Qrow took care of most of them. I was about to help him with a Nevermore, but my scroll started to buzz. I looked at the caller ID and saw it was Raven.

I looked over at Qrow. "Can you handle that Nevermore? Raven is calling me."

He nodded. "Yeah. I got it."

"Hello?" I asked.

"Hey, Summer. Miss me?" I heard Raven ask.

I smiled at the sound of her voice. I felt so relieved she was safe.

"Yes, of course. Have you made it to your tribe yet?"

"Yeah. I can't stay on long though. I've got a few raids to do."

"Oh... Well have you called Tai? He called me a little while ago. He seemed a bit worried that you haven't contacted him," I said.

There was a brief moment of silence. "I should probably do that... I'll talk to you later."

"Yeah. Likewise."

I ended the call and noticed that the sounds of Qrow's sythe had fallen silent. I turned to see him standing quite a distance away kneeling next to something. At first, I thought it was the Nevermore that he had fought as I started to walk closer to him.

"Hey, Qrow. Raven just called—"

I stopped dead in my tracks when I got a good look of what he was kneeling next to. It wasn't a dead Grimm. It was a body of a huntsman. He looked older than me and his body was twisted in an odd way. There were gashes and deep flesh wounds all over his chest, arms and legs. They looked recent too. The sight made me sick. I had never seen a dead body before. I understood that death was a natural part of life, but I never thought I would actually see something like it myself. At least not this soon. My legs failed me and I collapsed to the ground. I felt my head hit the ground pretty hard. Then everything went black.

I awoke laying in Qrow's bed. My head was pounding. Qrow was sitting in a chair next me.

"Summer... are you okay?" he asked.

I nodded slowly. "I think so. What happened?"

"You collapsed. I'm guessing it was because you saw that body?"

"Yeah... I didn't expect to see something like that..."

Qrow took my hand gently. "I'm sorry you had to see that. I should've warned you."

"You seemed almost unfazed by the sight. Does this not bother you?" I asked.

"I wouldn't say it doesn't bother me. It does. I'm just used to it. Back when I was with the tribe, I used to participate in raids. The older tribe members would invade small villages and kill off most of the population. Me and my sister were too young to do that, so we looted their bodies. It used to bother me when I was younger, but as I got older that feeling faded because I had seen so much death already."

I was silent for a long time. "That makes sense I suppose," I said. "Is that what you meant when you told Raven that your family were killers and thieves?"

Qrow nodded slowly. "Yeah. That's why I didn't want to do that anymore."

"That's crazy. How can Raven live with herself? Knowing that she's killing people and taking from them? They had lives too..."

"Trust me, I've been wondering that same thing. I guess since she's doing for her tribe, it doesn't bother her," Qrow replied.

"I don't want to believe that Raven is a bad person. I don't think she is."

Qrow sighed and then smiled. "You always try to see the best in people, Summer. I love that about you."

I smiled back. "I try. I believe there's good in everyone."

Qrow kisses my head. "I'm going to report to Ozpin. You try and get get some rest, okay?"

I yawned and closed me eyes. "Okay. See you soon."