It was a beautiful Saturday morning, sunny with few clouds. In the forest, orange leaves drifted trough the breeze before smoothly landing on the ground. All of the trees were variety of red yellow and orange, the leaves of said trees decorated the ground. It was quiet, and peaceful. At least it was, before a certain short haired huntress-in-training ran through the forest, kicking up dust and leaves in every direction. The girl, Ruby Rose, gleefully skipped about before coming to a stop next a very large tree, waiting. Waiting for what? Well her teammates of course.
"Ruby!" An annoyed voice called to her. The owner of the voice was the first of the team to arrive; a white haired girl named Weiss Shnee, Ruby's partner. "I can't believe you would just run ahead and leave us like that." She continued, catching her breath.
"Sorry!" Ruby said with a grin on her face. "I'm just so excited."
"Would you mind telling us why we're here, and why you're so excited?" Another voice asked upon arrival. This one belonged to Blake Belladonna, who was followed by her partner (and Ruby's sister) Yang.
"Yeah, little sis." The bright eyed blonde agreed. "Why'd you drag us all the way out here?"
Ruby's grin never faltered as she pulled out and unfolded a piece of paper. "We're gonna find the Struthio!" She exclaimed as she pointed to the drawing on the paper. The drawing depicted a bird creature that was three times the size of an ostrich. It's body was light blue but it's folded wing were decorated with hues of purple and green. The legs, which (along with its neck) made up most of its hight, were pure white. To top it off, it had a large goose like nose. "I heard someone say that they saw one in this area." The teammates studied it carefully.
"It doesn't look like a creature of Grimm." Blake observed aloud.
"Well, that's the thing." Ruby informed her. "No one is sure if it is or not. People keep trying to catch one to study it, but they always get away!"
"So are we gonna catch it?" Yang asked.
"Nope." Ruby answered.
"Are we going to kill it?" Blake questioned.
"Nope." Ruby repeated.
"Then why are we here?" Weiss asked, clearly not amused with the little guessing game.
"Because we're gonna ride it!" The whole team was quiet when Ruby told them her answer. The short haired girl sill held a look of excitement. Her teammates, however, all held puzzled expressions. All except Weiss, that is.
"We're gonna what?!" Weiss yelled, anger clear in her voice.
"Just here me out!" Ruby pleaded. "Struthio's have long legs that make them super fast on land, and they can fly really fast too! So I figured, if we could befriend one of them, we could ride it around everywhere! We wouldn't even have to capture it, because if we whistled really loudly it would just come to us! Imagine how cool that would be!" Ruby was jumping up and down she was so happy.
"I don't know Ruby," Blake said. "No one really knows anything about these birds. Creatures of Grimm or not, they could sill be dangerous."
"I think it sounds pretty fun." Yang interjected with a smile.
"Fun?!" Weiss cried. "Why should we waste our time with something this idiotic?!"
"It's not idiotic!" Ruby defended her plan. "It's awesome-otic!... That's a word right?"
"No, no it's not." Blake answered her. Ruby merely shrugged.
"But still, please Weiss? Will you please help us search?" She asked her, after her other teammates seemed to accept her plan.
"You might as well say yes Weiss. You know she won't let up until you do." Yang advised. Weiss let out a loud aggravated sigh.
"Fine." She grumbled quietly. Ruby jumped for joy.
"Yay!" She exclaimed, her red cape flying every direction. "Ok, lets split up. Yang and Blake, you guys go that way," she pointed to the left. "Weiss and I will go this way." She pointed to her right. "If you find anything yell really loud. Annnnnd go!" Ruby yelled, grabbed Weiss's hand and dragged her in their assigned direction.
Yang watched her sister run off with an amused smile. "Ruby you little dork." She said with a small chuckle.
It had been almost two hours since they had started looking for the large bird, and Weiss's complaints were steadily getting louder.
"I can't believe this." She began again as she pushed through some bushes. "I could be back at the training halls right now, or studying for my tests. But nooo, I'm out here, looking for some stupid bird!"
"Weiss!" Ruby called from a few feet away, completely oblivious to her partners unhappiness. "Look! I found something!" Weiss walked over to Ruby, who held up a large blue feather. "It must belong to the Struthio! That means were close, right?" She asked excitedly.
"That feather could have fallen hours, or even days before we got here." Weiss said grumpily, diminishing her partners hope. "Although it is rather pretty..." She observed as Ruby twirled the feather around.
The caped girl thrust the feather forward. "Here! Do you want it?" She offered. Weiss quickly jumped back.
"Ew! No! Diseases!" She exclaimed. Ruby raised an eyebrow before glancing back at the feather.
"Feathers carry diseases?" She asked curiously.
"Of course they do, you dunce!" She yelled, using the insult she always used when it came to Ruby. "Stop touching it!"
"But its so soft..." The team leader said as she stroked it.
"Put it down!" Weiss demanded. Reluctantly, Ruby released the feather and watched as it sailed to the ground. "Good." Weiss said, satisfied. "Now use this." She handed her leader a square of white fabric. Ruby took it from her and looked at it questioningly.
"What is it?" She asked. The fabric was wet and smelled of soap.
"It's a baby wipe. Use it to clean your hands." Weiss instructed.
"Oh, thanks." Ruby said genuinely and began to wipe off her hands. "But, why do you carry baby wipes around?" Weiss rolled her eyes, as if the answer were obvious.
"Because I care about proper hygiene." She began. "I don't think you understand just how important hygiene is. The diseases on that feather could of killed you if you didn't wash your hands." Weiss continued to rant, unaware that her partner had tuned her out.
Ruby pretended to listen as she used the baby wipe to clean her hands. But really, she had effectively tuned her teammate out and was looking at the ground. She watched as a few of the leaves beside her feet flew away, and a bug landed by her foot. But something scared the bug and it flew off. A giant shadow loomed over them. Ruby looked up and was surprised at what she saw.
"Uh, Weiss?" She tried to get get her partners attention. But Weiss was too concentrated on her speech to be bothered. "Weiss?" She tried again. No good. Finally she yelled. "Weiss!" The snow haired girl glared at her.
"What?!" She growled. "What is so important that you felt the need to interrupt me?" Ruby pointed behind her. Slowly, Weiss turned around. Standing in front of them was the thing they had been searching for; a Struthio. "Oh my god. It's huge." Weiss whispered.
"Woah! It's way bigger than it was in the picture!" Ruby exclaimed with excitement. "This is gonna be so awesome. And he looks so friendly!" The bird towered over the two, it's head cocked to the side as if it were observing them.
Weiss wasn't quite sure what to do. The bird hadn't attacked them, perhaps they could get away unscathed. "Ruby, what should we-" Weiss cut herself off when she realized that her partner was no longer beside. "Where did she go?"
"Woooo Hooo!" As she looked up, Weiss got her answer. Ruby had climbed a tree, jumped off and landed on the Struthio's back. The bird, clearly not happy about having a rider, let out a loud squak.
"Ruby! Get down from there!" Weiss yelled.
"No, it's ok!" The leader called to her. "He's really frien-" Ruby silenced herself when the bird twisted its elongated neck so that its head was right above her. "Uh oh." The bird bit and held onto the girls cape, picked her up, swung her around then tossed her far out of view.
All was silent for a few moments. Weiss was waiting, waiting for some sign that Ruby was ok. As much as her partner annoyed her, Weiss hated to see harm come to her.
"I'm all good!" A far off voice yelled, definitely belonging to Ruby. Weiss let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding in. Her gaze then drifted to the Struthio, who looked extremely agitated. Almost as agitated as her.
"You'll regret that!" She growled at the creature and unsheathed her Myrtenaster. The creature didn't seem to care about her sword, it was only focused on her. Weiss went through her mental checklist; her stance, head up, wait for the right moment to strike...
... There! Weiss lunged forward, her sword's blade was glowing red and it greedily reached out to meet its target. But the bird dodged. It dodged so easily and quickly, Weiss didnt have time to stop. The tip of her blade collided with a tree trunk, effectively burning the whole tree to ash. The girl was still for a moment. How did he dodge that? She asked herself.
Weiss quickly turned around, not wanting to take her eyes off her enemy for too long. But she was too late. In milliseconds the bird was beside her. But instead of killing her, it bit her. Right below her right shoulder. It didn't use full force, it didn't even use all if its beak, only the tip. Weiss was alarmed to feel teeth in her arm, but within seconds the bird had released her. Now it stood several feet in front of her, just staring. Weiss was confused. She looked from the bite marks in her arm then to the Struthio. What did it just do? Was it being merciful? Was it trying to tell her that it didn't want to fight?
Both if them stood silent for a few minutes, just staring at each other. Suddenly, Weiss's body felt heavy and the world around her began to spin. The next thing she knew she am was lying on the ground.
I can't move.
The only thing she could move was her eyes, and even they were beginning to grow heavy. Her eyes searched for the Struthio, which had mysteriously disappeared. And then he was there, bending his neck down so that his head was facing her. His previously black eyes were red. And and almost sickening grin stretched back from its beak. That's when Weiss knew.
It doesn't matter what it looks like. This disguising bird it a creature of Grimm.
Seconds felt like years as they stared down. The bird's greedy eyes up against Weiss's cold blue ones. She was sure that the bird would kill her. But it didn't, for some reason it backed up and scurried away.
"Weiss! Where are you?!"
Oh, that's why the bird ran. It was afraid of being attacked by Ruby again.
"Weiss?!"
'I'm here.' Weiss wanted to yell. But she couldn't speak. Her mouth wouldn't move. She could hear footsteps in the distance, but they gradually got closer, as did Ruby's calls.
Ruby bent down to avoid being hit by a low hanging branch. "Weiss!" She yelled. She had been thrown really far by the Struthio, and luckily all she ended up with was a bruise on her face and a bruise or two on her extremities. But now she had lost her partner. She was beginning to get worried because Weiss wasn't answering her calls.
She pushed past some bushes, and was alarmed to see her partner lying on the ground. "No, Weiss!" She cried and ran to her partners side. She couldn't see any visible wounds but her breathing was shallow. "Weiss! Wake up!" Ruby begged.
Weiss opened her eyes, only to close them a second later. But that had been long enough. Ruby had seen them. They were different. They were completely black, except for the iris which was gold.
"What the.." Ruby mumbled. She then disregarded what she had seen and assumed it to be her imagination. She then lifted Weiss up and supported her by wrapping Weiss's arm around her shoulders and holding into her wrist.
Ruby began walking, while supporting Weiss, towards the school. As she walked, she called out Yang and Blake's names, hoping to prevent them from being the Struthio's next victims.
((Well that's all for now. Whether or not I continue this story will depend on the feedback I get from it. I might throw in some RubyxJuane, but this isn't really a romance story.))