Qrow hit the ground with a slam, his knives clanking as they scattered amongst the rocks.
His twin sister, Raven, towered above him with her fist extended. Slowly, she lowered it, but remained scowling deeply at her brother.
"You were armed, you had your knives out, Qrow." She growled.

The boy looked down in shame, averting his eyes. He knew Raven would continue her melodramatic pausing until she was done her petty jab of the day.
"And yet I, the unarmed girl, took you down in one minute. You should be absolutely ashamed." Raven said. There wasn't pride in this statement, she was quite genuinely disgusted at his weakness.

She glanced up and over Qrow's shoulder, towards the chief's tent, where her father Corvid stepped out, made eye contact with Raven, and gave a beckoning gesture.
"Keep practicing. I have to speak with Father." Raven stated, in her usual low tone. She strode past Qrow, across the rocky pathway to where the man stood. When she came in range of her father, Raven bowed her respect, but Corvid shook his head in disapproval. Raven's mouth went dry.

"No time for bowing. I will tell you how things will be, and you will listen." His voice was rough, tainted by whiskey, tainted by injury, tainted by age.

"Yes, Father." Raven felt her shoulders raise involuntarily, bracing to be hit by him as so often occurred. But Corvid didn't hit her, he moved into the tent, and Raven followed.

Inside the biggest tent in the bandits village, were lush pillows, bloodstained maps, and of course, swords, guns, and everything in between. Raven leaned over the center table, where an empty goblet was laid next to an engraved silver knife. Someone had just made a blood promise...or...someone was about to make one. Raven glanced sideways at Corvid but he was facing away, rummaging through papers. His long black hair was not unlike hers, nor was anything about the two of them very different, looking so much like her dad, Raven could hardly form an image of her mother in her mind. She had left so soon.

"I know I didn't get anything for your birthday, but maybe I can make up for it now." Corvid claimed. He placed a white envelope onto the table in front of Raven. Father seemed more proud of this simple paper than he ever had been of his own kids. Raven reached out and cautiously tore it open.

An acceptance letter. A Beacon Academy acceptance letter. Raven dropped the letter as if it were a venomous plant about to snap closed. It fluttered sadly back to the table and Raven stared at Corvid with wide red eyes.

Corvid was the one who hated Beacon, hated everything they stood for. Teaching bratty kids to be hunters and huntresses, all those kids left Beacon either in a used wood coffin, or thinking they knew right from wrong, thinking it was their job to drive poor bandits away from their land.
"Your first mission. Your brother will join you for freshman year at Beacon." Corvid stated.

"Father...why Beacon? if you don't mind me asking, sir. What is the mission?"

"As much as I hate those Huntsmen kids...they learn all forms of combat at their little school. That is the training you will need to take my place when death comes for me." Corvid nodded at his own statement, sitting on the pillows across the table from Raven.   
"That is, if death comes so soon. If not, I could have you as an assassin. Raven...wouldn't that be such delicious irony? You hunt the huntsman! The hunter...becoming the hunted..." Corvid laughed at the image in his own mind before returning to a state of dead seriousness. 
"And Qrow. He'll screw up and kill us all if he's left unchecked. Take him to Beacon and his bad luck will curse them instead. Then, you can kill him too. That'll be a weight off your shoulders."

Raven only stared, hands gripping at her worn jacket, palms beginning to sweat. Killing Qrow...Raven couldn't stand him most of the time...but murdering her twin was no fantasy of hers. Regardless, father was right...Qrow's semblance -his only power- had to be bad luck...the people closest to Qrow fell ill, or died in battle, or tripped off a cliff. It was destroying the village. Qrow and his luck had to leave the camp as soon as possible.

"When you're done...come home, Raven, love, with a huntsman's heart in your hand." Corvid said, snapping Raven out of her thoughts. "And Qrow's eye, if you don't mind. You can bring all of him back if you can make a cover story, though." He made it sound like either of those options were good things. Regardless of Raven's opinion this mission was happening. Corvid knew people in high and low places, and Raven was sure by the dark glint in his one eye that he'd have everyone know where she and Qrow were supposed to be.

"Yes, father." Raven answered.

He glanced to her, then to the goblet and knife on the table.
"This can't be settled with 'yes, father', this is a promise."

Before he could clarify, Raven spoke. "A blood oath."

Corvid smirked and gave a nod, he knew his daughter had seen this done before, and if she were truly loyal, she'd hardly hesitate.

Raven picked up the knife and felt the cold, elegantly carved handle beneath her fingers. She looked to her father, their scarlet eyes meeting.
"I will learn the ways of a huntress." Raven promised, lifting the knife to her lip. She cut through her top and bottom lips in a straight line and felt the warmth of blood drip down her chin, she held out the goblet and it caught one solitary drop. She bowed her head, reciting like a mindless robot.                                                                                     "And so, as my vow exits my lips and joins the world, It will be made true before my own eyes, no matter how long the wait and the work. I shall live for my word, die for my word, now, I bleed for my word. Let truth envelope my being, lest more blood shed." she looked up at her father.                                                                                                    "Thank you, sir, I won't let you down."

Raven stood up, and when her father didn't stop her, she left the tent, rubbing her cut lip absently. She expected Father to summon Qrow to his tent next and have him make the same oath, but he never did. Raven and Father's bond was special. Something Qrow just couldn't understand, there were a lot of things he couldn't understand, he was stupid.
But maybe Raven wouldn't even have to kill him, he'd run into the wrong person, or trip down the stairs, really, when luck is against you, death will come sooner than you wish, it's just a question of how.

Qrow was up off the ground now, and his black hair and jacket were fixed as though he hadn't in fact been thrown to the ground. He was speaking with a girl -fat chance, brother.

Looking at him, Raven remembered what her father had taught her when she was young.

Raven, maybe seven years old, had stumbled upon a bird with a broken wing, it's ebony feathers were twisted uncomfortably and it cried out for support of another from its nest. But no birds came to help it. Raven wondered why, but as she waddled over to tend to it, Corvid grabbed her hand and tugged her back.                                                                   "Quiet!" He whisper-shouted as he yanked on his young daughters arm.                             
"Can't you see this bird can't fly?"

Raven gave the squeaking creature a sympathetic look.
"I hope he learns to fly soon, so he can catch up with the other birds..."

Corvid laughed gruffly under his breath.
"Raven, these are the birds we hunt first! They can't escape, it's...it's practically an invitation to kill it. It's bringing its flock down, for heavens sake!"

...Father killed that innocent bird. In front of Raven. She took a break from hunting after seeing that mess. But we all have our follies, and Raven's was that she was born for the hunt, and she lived for it, and she could never leave that.

Raven glanced up from her boots to watch her brother again, and she knew she had to hunt a bird who simply couldn't fly.