She sat in the tree quietly, contemplating to herself as the moon shone overhead, illuminating her small figure as she watched her charge through the small window, taking in the young woman's beauty, how her long white hair seemed to cascade down her back.
At her waist gleamed a silver and red machine of death, folded up and sheathed for the moment, hanging from her holder, but ready to be wielded at a moments notice, ready for anything that might come to harm her current charge.
A small rustle in the bushes below her caught the girl's attention, and one hand gravitated quickly to her weapon, as she looked down, trying to pinpoint where the sound had come from, and whether or not it might be a threat to her or the girl within the dorms.
Her eyes darted through the black miasma beneath, until finally, she saw a small gleam in the darkness, and her bright silver eyes trained onto it quickly, able to make out the figure of a tall, gangly man, and several more shadows surrounding him, which she couldn't identify.
Hesitating for a moment, her hand eased off of her weapon, until she caught sight of a symbol upon the man's black blazer, which had her grabbing fully onto her weapon, and holding her breath, trying to confirm if it was who she thought it might be.
confirmation came as the man turned slightly, and she got a full view of the symbol, which made her eyes narrow to slits.
The moon overhead illuminated the young woman, as she disappeared into a trail of rose petals, and the hunt began, as the image of the symbol engraved itself into her mind.
a wolf's head, twisted and distorted, with two horizontal slits where it's eyes would be, and dozens of spikes protruding from the silhouette.
the creatures of Grimm.
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The men had been camping out in the forest, far away from the school, until nightfall, as per instructions from their employer, and then begun to move in towards their target, keeping to the shadows as much as possible, until they were finally at the confirmed location their target was said to be staying.
It was a simple search and destroy order, but their beneficiary was offering a large sum of money to pull off this mission, thus it had been a backbreaking ordeal to receive the contract.
In the end, their lord had managed to nab it, and had immediately signed up his top men to the job, wanting to make sure it got completed quickly, and quietly, since this was a high-risk operation, in a very dangerous part of the world for people like them.
They had also been given a warning just before lift off, about possible protection that could be in place for their target, but they all scoffed at the thought at the time, doubting anyone could touch them, and seeing this as an easy meal ticket.
Oh how wrong they would turn out to be.
The whole group had spread out to surround the dormitories as the night dragged on, and it was only as the moon reached the highest point in the sky that they waved the go ahead, and began to make preparations to strike the room of their target.
Unfortunately, that was also when things began to go wrong.
First it was team E, the farthest from the target's main entrance. Their communicators crackled to life for but a moment, before they were all silenced, and failed to respond to any call-signs given, which began to unnerve some of the other groups, but were put back into progress by team A.
Then, methodically, the other teams began to get picked off, one by one, with no information given about what was attacking, until only teams B and A remained., still unaware of what was disabling or killing their team-mates.
The first thought was a huntress. This was the famous beacon academy, thus hunters and huntress would be the logical choice. but this was quickly thrown away, and they hadn't heard any kind of magical attacks being used, and most hunters relied on at least some magic.
Finally the comms. crackled to life once more, as Team B came under attack, but they had much more to say than their counterparts.
"This is team B, we are currently engaged with an unknown target, we've lost two already, both knocked unconscious by a large bludgeoning weapon, and..." there was a cry, and the comms. turned off for a moment, before the connection was re-established, "correction, three down, two remaining, no information available, only that it's sticking to the shadows and picking us off."
Team B quickly went quiet, and thus team A was all that remained in the forest, with their view through the open window, and a sight on their target.
Spurned into action by the report of team B, they began to set up for a silent, long-ranged kill, instead of the assassination they had originally planned for.
It took far too long for them to set up the guns, the leader thought to himself, as any minute now this unknown beast could be on top of them.
Hearing movement behind him, it was only years of experience that helped him save his neck from the large, crimson, silver, and black scythe that threatened to split his head from his body.
Seeing that the initial target had managed to deflect the attack, the figure disappeared back into the darkness, the leader barely managing to catch a glimpse of what he thought was a scarlet cloak, and a shower of rose petals, before everything was quiet once more, though from the shaking down his arm, this attacker was quite strong, if the size of the scythe weapon he had deflected had anything to say about it.
Everything was quiet for several seconds, everyone waiting with bated breath for the next attack to come, and cursing this figure for having the element of surprise over them.
becoming impatient for being a sitting target, one of their professional sharpshooters hefted up the customized hunting rifle he had brought along in case of the plan changing, and began to take aim at the target, wanting to at least complete the mission.
He would never get the chance, as just as he began to depress the trigger, the scythe came up from the darkness, first knocking away the long-barrelled weapon, and then sending the man flying backwards into a tree, knocked unconscious with one blow by the butt-end of the punishing weapon.
The four remaining members of the team were all high-strung at this point, and one, equally impatient, took aim into the forest, and began to unload the entire clip of his light machine gun into the darkness, the loud noise cutting through the silence of the night.
Everyone else shouted at him to stop, for fear of alerting a patrolling hunter, but he continued to unload, slicing down trees with his relentless assault of bullets, hoping to at least wound their new threat, and give the rest a chance to either escape, or take out their prey.
No one noticed as the figure in red appeared behind them, and knocked out another member of their team with two deft swings of the large scythe, first crippling him from the waist down before knocking him unconscious.
Three remaining, the leader finally managed to get their heavy weapon specialist to stop, and took notice at last of another member of their team out for the count, raising the hairs on the back of his neck as if a slavering beast was breathing down his collar, and the clammy cold of the night finally seemed to react with his skin.
No one dared to react, and all three went back to pack, to try and deter this hunter from picking them off further, the heavy weapon specialist taking the time to reload his spent weapon, smoke wafting away from the barrel of his gun.
This was the moment the hunter struck again, using several swings of the now recognizably sharp blade to make short work of the belt of bullets in his hand, before equally destroying his weapon, and sending him flying away into a distant tree.
both training pistols on the place where their hunter had just been, the remaining members of Team A opened fire, hoping to wound and incapacitate, and grinned as they heard a short cry, and the sound of a bullet meeting skin.
Thinking the threat was over, they strut back to the weapons case they had brought along, and rummaged inside for the sniper rifle, wanting to kill the target, collect their allies, and get out of there.
Unfortunately the threat was not over, as no sooner had they turned their backs, the figure struck, a small wound in their side that was weeping out blood, but otherwise appeared to be fine.
The leader just managed to save his skin as the scythe came flying at them, knocking his other partner away with a loud cry that was silenced by the tree he impacted with at an angle.
pulling out his blade and activating the razor sharp magical edge, he parried the large and cumbersome scythe away, and tried to thrust his sword into the wounded target, but it jumped out of range before re-engaging.
he was more than surprised that the scythe managed to stand up to his blades strikes, as his own weapon had been known to cut straight though solid steel before.
He was also greatly surprised at just how mobile the figure was with the otherwise large and unwieldly weapon, under normal circumstances he didn't know anyone that could spin something so large so easily to continue countering his attacks, even some of the professional mercenaries he knew.
Just as he thought he saw an opening in the figure's guard, his weapon was parried wide, and the head of the scythe was shoved into his stomach, making him deathly aware of the gun barrel at the end of the long rod, and the way the figure was holding a trigger halfway up the grip.
now that the combat had ended, he began to notice some things about his opponent. most importantly, was just how small they were.
standing and what could be no more than 4'6", he could almost not believed just how nimble he was with the weapon, the scythe having to be over 6' tall, more than two feet taller than his opponent was.
any other things he could glean about his opponent were lost as he found the wind knocked out of him, and he fell to the ground in a heap, knocked unconscious by the small figure in his moment of distraction, a rookie mistake.
Sighing in relief, she let her scythe collapse back into it's portable form, and slipped it back into the holster hanging from her waist, before wincing as the pain from the bullet wound at her waist made itself known to her.
bringing a hand up to apply pressure to the wound, she cursed out her stupidity for even getting hit in what should have been a simple disabling fight, but now long where she was for her foolish mistake.
Limping away from the group of unconscious men, she sent up a signal for the hunters of the school, just as she had for the last four teams she had found roaming the forest, and deigned to return to her room, needing to deal with the new hole in her torso before morning, and at least try to get a little sleep.
tomorrow would not be an easy day, she could already tell from the pain in her gut, but that could be the bullet wound talking.
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Ruby groaned to herself as she came back into reality that morning, hearing a loud banging from the door to her dormitory room, the scattered clothing on the floor reminding her that she needed to make time to clean up some time after classes.
lifting herself from the bed, the young 15 year old winced from a small pain in her hip, and brought a hand down to hold her side, where some bandages were wrapped, peeking out from beneath the white tank top she had worn to bed that night.
stepping out onto the carpeted floor barefoot, the girl hobbled towards the door, rubbing sleep from her silver eyes, dressed in only the white tank top, which failed to hide much of her pale skin, and a pair of red and black shorts.
Opening the door just as a yawn snuck out through her lips, the girl practically yawned into the face of the blonde haired girl the stood there, lightly glaring at her for something she was unaware of.
"Ruby finally! I've been knocking at your door on and off all day, and Schnee has been absolutely livid!" Yang shouted, though her face softened at just how cute the younger girl looked in just her sleeping clothes, the cute yawn only adding to the picture, as well as her slightly dishevelled dark red hair.
"Yang, what are you talking about?" The younger girl asked, still trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes while attempting to pay attention to her blonde friend's answer.
"What am I talking about!" The older girl started, but quickly calmed, her face breaking out into a large smile, "I'm talking about the fact that you've slept away all morning, and missed all of your morning classes."
"W-what!" The younger girl exclaimed, and quickly slammed the door shut in her elders face before she could explain the message to her, beginning to scramble around her room in search of suitable clothing for the day.
Unimpeded by the slammed door, Yang let herself into the room, and took a quick look around at the mess of the floor, as well as all of the small trinkets scattered around her desk, nightstand, and headboard, barely paying attention as her so-called little sister began to change, uncaring of the older girl watching.
"Wow little sis, you could stand to clean this place once in a while," The blonde commented casually, keeping her eyes away from her little sister pointedly, knowing that the younger girl was rather easily embarrassed.
"I know, but we've been so busy with classes, and Weiss is a slave driver when it comes to practice, and all out team training and I just don't have enough time," the excitable younger girl replied, and Yang winced as she heard the girl hit the floor, groaning.
"Maybe you should calm down, before you really hurt yourself little sis," Yang added, and though she couldn't see it, she was sure Ruby was nodding back at her.
finally the 15 year old was fully dressed, and rushed out of the room with nary a thought, Yang still standing in the middle of her room, tapping her fingers on her arm and waiting patiently.
When her sister came dashing back into the room, Yang was already ready, holding up the belt and holder for the girls beloved gun scythe, and was unsurprised by the strong hug she received from the red-haired girl.
"C'mon Yang, we need to go and meet Blake and Weiss, before she yells our ears off again!" Ruby shouted, once more dashing out of the room.
Yang was slightly more leisurely leaving the room, but she stopped for a moment, a feeling in her gut causing her to turn towards her self-proclaimed little sister's bed, and noticed a roll of bandages peeking out from underneath, mostly hidden in the inky blackness beneath.
Finally leaving the quarters and turning off the lights, Yang had one final thought in mind 'who are you really Ruby Rose, and what haven't you told us so far?' But these were thoughts for another day.
Right now she had an adoptive little sister and two team-mates to harass.