The mid-morning sun beat down intensely upon the students assembled at Beacon Cliff. Each student waiting with anticipation for the trial they would face as initiation. Kaldyr stood among these other students, just as uncertain as they all were, though his stoic expression did not mirror this. The other's were preparing by chatting with those they had met, likely to put off their own stresses. Kaldyr unfortunately hadn't really met anyone yet, so that option was nonexistent for him. The noise was insufferable close up, to him it was as if they were all yelling in an incoherent mess. His Faunus blood was the likely culprit of this, making their conversation sound much louder. Regardless it was distracting, he needed quiet, he needed to be alone with his thoughts for a moment. Swiftly, he made his way away from the talkative crowd and stood alone at the far end of the line of plates thinking to himself.

Why bring us here for initiation? There's something about all of this, the plates, the forest. Do they mean to weed out the weak? Cruel, yet effective. Then again, why would Beacon accept these people if they were unsuitable for huntsman training? There's a missing link in this somewhere...

His internal musings were cut short when Professor Ozpin began to speak.

"For years you have trained to become warriors. And today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

A test then? To see our capabilities for themselves? Makes enough sense.

He pondered this as Glynda spoke, not truly paying attention to her words. Yet when Ozpin spoke again, his train of thought made a screeching halt.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you work well. That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next 4 years."

This elicited mixed reactions from the group, some happy, some shocked. Kaldyr was quite worried about just whom he'd be partnered with, the wrong person could transform his life at Beacon into a living hell. The way that the next four years were going to go was about to be decided for him in, quite literally the blink of an eye.Partners are being decided TODAY?! Shit. I-I don't even know anyone here. They're honestly going to have such an important decision made by sheer chance? He could only hope that luck and fate would be kind this day.

His focus had been thrown off. Not good. For the remainder of Ozpin's instruction, Kaldyr was busy attempting to piece his composure back together, and so he only caught the explanation in pieces.

"-northern end of the forest, -opposition along the way, -destroy everything in your path, -instructors will not intervene, -abandoned temple, -containing several relics, -choose one, and return."

As the onslaught of broken phrases and thoughts ended, Kaldyr had successfully regained his calm. The others had all taken on a readied stance, and so he would follow suit. The Faunus boy drew Kvöld and Dögun from their places on his back, and looked them over for a brief moment. He'd filled the reservoir with dust mere moments ago, neither weapon was scratched, and the blades were honed to a keen edge. Honed, much like he had done with his own combat style through years of training at Sanctum.

He was ready in every sense of the word.

All that was left was to prove his capabilities to Beacon, and all the teachers there.

He took up a stance with Kvöld and Dögun drawn and ready, preparing to launch off of the hard, stony pad underneath him. Surely enough mere moments later, he could hear the rapid clicking of the launching mechanism underneath him. It quickly occurred to Kaldyr that he would be getting launched first. He took a deep breath and focused as he was catapulted into the air.

The wind surged around the wolf Faunus as he tore through the sky. Stabilizing relatively quickly as he adjusted to his new momentum, Kaldyr began scanning the forest below for someplace to land. Now if I could just find some way to land without shattering on impact, that would be perfect. His eye caught sight of a particularly wide looking tree that he was on course with. "Perfect" he said to himself.

In one quick motion, Kaldyr sheathed Kvöld within Dögun, and transformed the pair into the much larger Miðnætti Hylja. His plan was to use the axe's blade to catch himself on, and carve a way down the tree. "Just a bit closer..." he muttered to himself as he brought the gargantuan weapon into position. He would pass just by the left side of the tree, with any luck his plan would send him down the tree at an almost safe speed. Almost.

As the axe's head made contact with the tree, Kaldyr heard the satisfying sound of his weapon finding purchase in the tree's bark. He'd caught the tree just right, and begun his improvised descent, carving a large, ugly, vertical gash into the tree. Pulling Miðnætti Hylja out of the tree, Kaldyr took a moment to examine his handiwork. "Not the cleanest landing, but it worked." He reverted Miðnætti Hylja back to the twin forms of Kvöld and Dögun, as he listened and looked above. He could see the others fly past one-by-one, some were quite literally screaming their way through the skies. He let out a quiet laugh as he begun his trek northward, weapons in hand.

After roughly five minutes of walking, Kaldyr came to a wide clearing. He stopped for a moment and heard a shifting of leaves behind him. His ears twitched, more movement. This time it was on his right flank, branches creaking and brush being pushed out of the way. He took up a defensive stance and paced closer to the source of the sound. Looking into the undergrowth, his gaze was met by a large serpentine body, covered in a scaly, ebony-coloured hide with piercing red eyes. A King Taijitu was trying to sneak up on him. It had chosen the wrong prey.

Kaldyr quickly slashed the black half of the gigantic snake twice with Kvöld, before retreating back into the clearing. It was clearly in pain and pissed off. Ozpin mentioned that the instructors would be watching them, here was Kaldyr's chance to show off a little! The onyx serpent coiled its massive body in front of the lone student, angrily eyeing the boy standing before it. Kaldyr smirked as he activated his semblance and watched a blue projection of the snake rear back, and then dart towards him with unnerving speed. He pushed a button on the inside of Dögun, and the shield became a whirling blade, ready to wreak havoc upon the Grimm threatening its wielder. As the Taijitu propelled itself towards the Faunus, Kaldyr sidestepped and shoved the whirling Dögun into the side of its gaping maw, effectively sawing through a small part of the creature's mouth. Hah! Chew on that! The beast recoiled and gave the boy enough breathing room to stop his saw-shield, and coat his sword in thunder dust. The snake left it's side exposed as it attempted to coil itself behind its target, so Kaldyr rushed in and rapidly sliced the body of the colossal Grimm, each slash sending lightning coursing through the terrible snake's entire being. The Taijitu had collapsed, much to Kaldyr's surprise. He would take any opening the monster gave him, the boy rushed up to the pitch black head and impaled it with Kvöld to make certain of the beast's demise.

He took a few deep breaths, as he heard the all too familiar sound of shifting brush, and a lunging Taijitu. The Ivory half of the snake had caught Kaldyr by surprise, and was lunging for him. Panicking, Kaldyr tried to sidestep and bash the serpent's head, which half worked. The serpent instead crashed into a large tree, but Kaldyr had still taken a large part of the impact. Sick of wasting his time with the Taijitu, Kaldyr merged Kvöld and Dögun as he walked towards the dazed snake lying on the forest floor. "Not exactly polite of you to sneak up on me. Whatever, this will be fun. For me that is. " He said as he walked towards the stunned Grimm, Miðnætti Hylja in hand. He raised the gargantuan axe and brought it down upon the creature's neck with a satisfying *CRUNCH* The twin snakes turned to ash as Kaldyr pressed onward, to the temple.

It was at the temple when he finally encountered another student, a human boy a few inches taller than him, with black and grey hair, and crimson eyes. He'd introduced himself as Charon Fotiá, and so it seemed that Charon and Kaldyr would be partners for their time at Beacon. The ruined temple had a series of marble pillars cracked and ruined by moss and age, each one housing a chess piece on top. after looking the lot over, the pair decided on the white rook and made back towards Beacon Cliff. To complete their initiation.