Hello again!
This is my second story, so I'm still experimenting with storytelling. This one's prompt was "Can I write an AU?". I'll let you be the judge.
Quick shout out to The White Rose of Vermillion, for the idea that medieval Ruby would be an archer/huntress. Also go read that fic, it's fantastic.
But anyway, here goes the first chapter. Enjoy.
1. Tulip Orchard
The air was quiet, as it always was. Light was becoming scarcer as the girl nimbly made her way deeper into the forest, peering only from between the occasional openings amongst the thick branches that covered the view above. She had left her home behind, venturing increasingly away from the crop fields that sat at the edge of the woods, forced by the strange lack of game in the outer region. It was much further than she'd ever been, but Ruby did not let the realization influence her steady progress, driven by the need to hunt something before nightfall. She couldn't let her sister be responsible for all the income in the household, now could she? Especially considering how that very same income was gained, Yang was adept of business practices that the she wasn't sure were completely honest and clean.
Shaking those thought from her mind, the huntress maintained the pace, trying to keep her footsteps silent all the while sharpening her senses for traces of a possible prey. The time passing by made the lack of fauna increasingly strange, particularly in the depths so isolated from any nearby human presence. There were no beaten paths amongst the bushes, nor any form of landmarks, understandably so since the populace were rather superstitious of the woods, and the dangers that lurked within them. Yet not a hint of a buck could be found, neither a cry of a bird within earshot. Unless she had stumbled upon the territory of some enormous and intimidating beast, one who could drive away every other form of life around, it was too quiet.
She suddenly stopped walking, upon reaching a clearing in front of her. The wide open space was an unexpected sight, especially due to being so clearly unnatural. There were no trees in a wide radius that drew a perfect circle on the floor, marking a border where the forest started once again. Inside, the ground was covered by short grass, the green carpet sparkled by a soft orange glow of tulips, distributed evenly throughout the space. One could even say they outlined some form of shape, a pathway marked towards the center by their absence. It was a carefully set stage, and probably the product of countless hours of dedication, but it created a mesmerizing view, and Ruby was taken aback, letting her silver eyes feast upon the splendor that surrounded her.
Moving forward, she noticed a statue sitting in the middle of this landscape, a small podium in which stood a stony figure. As she approached slowly, the silhouette became clearer, revealing a young woman immortalized in clear and smooth marble. She wore a long sleeved shirt underneath a short dress which ended mid-thigh, her legs were covered by stockings all the way to the brim of the dress, ending with a pair of modest shoes. The statue had a round and child-like face, which coupled with her height hinted she couldn't be much older than the huntress herself. A tilted bow topped her head, above the short hair that curled its edges at chin-length.
The archer unconsciously held her breath at the inert girl before her, a silent beauty draining all the air from her chest. She stood like this for a moment, unable to draw her eyes away from the hypnotizing life-like sculpture. There was something enthralling about the stone, white and glimmering under the spots of light from above. It almost looked vigilant, that within a moment's notice the closed eyes would open wide and the graceful pose would be replaced by sudden movement.
Minutes went by before the dark-red haired girl was awakened from her daze, at last detecting the ever so slight tonal shift in the lighting. Dusk was approaching, and with it the necessity to return home, so she reluctantly turned her back towards the garden, and headed on her way. But not before she made a mental promise to return, to not let this peaceful moment fade into memory.
During the next days, Ruby found herself following her promise more closely than was her initial intention. Whenever the hunt was going well, and she had gathered a reasonable prize to bring to the dinner table, she would spare the remaining time to come back to that garden.
The hunting was certainly improving, after she established that any prey would avoid the clearing even more solemnly than they did the outlying areas where humans could normally be seen. It made her job much easier, knowing where to find game, and where to bait them for a successful trap, as the tulip orchard acted as an invisible barrier the animals refused to cross, creating an easy weakness for her to exploit.
And so, day after day, the archer took recess within the silent embrace of the grove, which quickly became her preferred spot to rest and enjoy the packed meal her sister had sent her for the day.
It was so, that, one afternoon, whilst quietly eating, the silver-eyed girl saw something previously gone unnoticed.
Putting a strawberry in her mouth, a costly commodity that she had no idea how Yang had come across – not that she was going to complain, the rare fruit was easily among her favorite treats – the bliss of the taste forced her eyes shut, trying to conserve the sensation for as long as possible. Her absentminded state allowed a piece of her snack to roll away from the leather pouch she held on her lap. Faced with the prospect of losing such a delicious delicacy, Ruby snapped back awake and crawled towards the mischievous berry, who had made its way behind the statue.
And there it was, a large gaping hole in the ground flanked by small pebbles, with short pieces of lumber sticking out from its edges, hinting at a ladder descending to the bottom. It was a peculiar contraption, mostly due to the fact that the girl hadn't realized its presence before. Not that she'd thought to inspect the back of the sculpture, infatuated by simply the sight of the front of it. Yang would've checked her rear, she thought, blushing slightly. Her older sister always had a way of being the most inappropriate person in the room, something that never ceased to be embarrassing.
Shaking her head, she dispelled the idea and peered inside the newly-found opening. There was a flickering light down under, foreshadowing the presence of at least a single torch. Figuring it was a man-made structure, the huntress determinedly grabbed onto the ladder and plunged forth into the cave.
The first thing that struck her upon arrival was the cold wind that ran through the wide open space. Her simple clothing, a dark-red corset over a grey shirt, with black pants and black sturdy boots, was suited for the amenable weather outside, but not even the red-hooded cape covering most of her body could shield her from the freezing atmosphere of her new surroundings. She shivered, feeling the heat dissipate from her skull, lacking protection from her short dark brown hair, with equally dark red tips. To this day Ruby still did not know if that color was natural, or if Yang kept dyeing her hair while she slept, as a sort of elaborate prank. It was exactly the type of thing her older sister would do
Locating a brazier at the center of the chamber, the huntress hurried towards it, trying to suckle all the warmth she possibly could. Reinvigorated, she allowed herself to drift her gaze over this new place she was in, registering all that inhabited it. It appeared to be a library, massive shelves towering towards the ceiling, covering most of the walls. Inside, neatly arranged books of all colors imaginable could be seen, and there had to be hundreds of them. On the further side of the room stood a long table with a mesh of sheets of paper, out-of-place books and complex metallic pieces on top, accompanied by one single wooden chair. Behind the table was a glass-doored cabinet, housing many more strange mechanical concoctions and some colorful stones as well.
The huntress hesitantly walked over to the desk, registering the thick layer of dust that covered it and all things within range. Whoever the owner was, they hadn't been there for a long time. The texts were in a language the girl did not know, far different from the vernacular she was still struggling to learn. The metal objects spoke much closer to the girl's heart, cogs and gears had always fascinated her, yet they still remained out of the grasp of her understanding. They were complex, composed of many different little parts, but were carefully decorated, engraved with shapes and runes all over the surface, some even built around small spheres of colored crystal.
There was, nevertheless, one object in the mess that she recognized, a small cylindrical locket with a shard of amber encrusted, held in the middle of a golden chain. It was a simple piece of jewelry, clashing with the scholar nature of the surrounding environment, although too flashy for Ruby's taste. Still, she picked it up, wrapping the chain around her wrist, with the intention of gifting her sister with it. It wasn't really stealing if it had been abandoned, right? The owner would certainly not notice one little trinket missing, and, besides, he was most likely gone for good, if the signs of prolonged absence were trustworthy. There were plenty of dangerous beasts lurking in the shadows, and the war brewing beyond the borders of their village certainly did not create many opportunities for a prosperous life. Missing most certainly meant dead.
The dark-red haired girl lost herself within, letting the hours fly by while she examined every inch of the cavern, engrossed by the sense of discovery warranted by this new magical place. None of it quite made sense to her, but the fascination for these peculiar objects and tools was stronger than mere logic. When she finally felt satisfied, tiredness along with the cold starting to creep into her mind, night had already long fallen.
The lighting inside prevented her from perceiving the passage of time, so it was only when the silver-eyed girl grabbed the bottom of the ladder that she realized how late it had become. She climbed intently to the top, wanting to return home quickly, to comfort her probably worried-sick sister.
When on solid ground once more, she quickly located her bearings, the hunting kit composed of a solid wooden bow, an almost empty quiver and a sharp single-edged hunting knife, her leather pouch with provisions, and the prize of that day's hunt: two wild geese skillfully tied by the feet. When the archer motioned towards the items, the huntress' sense she had developed over the years made her stop, with a gut-wrenching sensation of distress. Ruby scanned the area, trying to figure out what was out-of-place about the garden. Everything seemed normal, the orange flowers, the empty podium, the wide circle with no- Wait…
She barely had time to register her findings when a glimpse of white on the corner of her eye made her swiftly dodge to the side, just in time to see a stone fist hit the air where she had previously been.
The girl made of marble wasn't in her rightful place on top of the podium. It was right in front of Ruby, attacking her.
IT'S ALIIIIIVE!
Not a lot happened this time around, just some basic set up. This fic will run longer than my previous one, so I had to.
As always, please review with your impressions and thoughts, I could always use constructive criticism to improve.