This is something new. Hurray, I'm writing again. This is an introductory chapter, just to get all of the Players and Pieces(hehe) onto the board. This is an AU and it might be a bit OOC. I'm not quite sure, so please tell me where I can improve on that. I'm not gonna promise any sort of scheduled updates because I know that if I set deadlines, I'll break them and continue to do so. Now, let's start the story.
Ruby pulled the coat closer around her neck and covered her mouth with her scarf to stop her breath from condensing. She had been tracking a herd of deer for close to two hours now, following a trail of footprints and the occasional broken tree branch. The cool and crisp mountain air was the perfect condition for hunting, creating good visibility and the moderate terrain only made the tracking easier.
She was getting closer to the herd - something her gut-feeling told her - when she heard the loud sound of a deer baying. She crouched down and scouted her immediate area. There was no sign of any deer in the vicinity. Nevertheless, Ruby slung her hunting rifle, a Browning A-Bolt 3, off of her shoulder and gripped the stock lightly. She started following the tracks again, staying low and moving slowly.
She crested a hill and saw the herd grazing in a small clearing. A quick count resulted in 7 visible deer, 3 bucks, 2 doe and 2 fawns. The wind was blowing against her, carrying her scent away from the animals. She could not have asked for a more perfect situation. The tree line she reached even had a thick growth of bushes for her to hide in.
She hid behind the bushes and went prone, only the barrel of her rifle sticking out into the clearing. Taking a stab at the distance, she aimed her rifle to penetrate one of the buck's hearts with one shot. She was focusing and taking aim when she noticed something shuffling beside her. She removed her focus from the deer to look over and see a girl with white hair in an offset ponytail crawl up beside her. The mysterious girl's eyes were intently on the deer, but that didn't stop her from addressing Ruby in a careful whisper.
"I'd advise you to adjust your aim about two centimeters upwards. With your current trajectory you would only nick that buck's heart." She said. Even though it was just a whisper, her tone conveyed a regal upbringing.
Ruby was frozen in place. She had never been very good with people, especially not pretty people like this girl. It was one of the reasons why she was such a good hunter. Most of her childhood had been spent in the forest, away from people and social interaction. Some would call her socially awkward. And they would be right.
"You wouldn't mind if I bag one of the other bucks, would you?" The pretty girl asked Ruby. She pulled out her own rifle, a Remington Model R-15 450 Bushmaster, and aimed it into the clearing. Trying and failing at forming words, Ruby just shook her head and put her attention back onto the herd. The deer she had been aiming at had moved, so she traced it and focused her aim. Remembering what the pretty girl had said, she adjusted her aim up.
"On three" The girl said. Ruby grew tense as the countdown started, not because of the pressure of hunting, but the pressure of being watched by this stranger.
"One…Two…Three" They both pulled the trigger. The two bucks collapsed on the ground instantly, while the rest of the herd scattered and disappeared into the opposite tree line. The two girls breathed out and stood to retrieve their kills. The white haired girl walked ahead of Ruby, and surprisingly went to Ruby's game first. She crouched down to inspect the kill. Ruby waited patiently for the girl to leave. After some time, the white haired girl stood up and turned to Ruby. Her face showed obvious disappointment.
"Nice clean kill, though it's obvious that you have shaky hands. Can I ask you a question?" She said. Ruby nodded in response.
"Why do you use a bolt action rifle? Had your aim only been a few centimeters off, you wouldn't even have mortally wounded the buck. You would lose your game before you could even chamber another shot. So why do you use it? It seems silly when we live in an age of semi-automatics like my R-15" She said and crossed her arms over her chest.
Ruby wasn't usually a confrontational person, but this girl's attitude was annoying her. Nevertheless, she had asked a legitimate question. It would be rude to respond with anything but a legitimate answer. With her newfound annoyance, she suddenly had control of her words.
"It was my mothers. It has…sentimental value" She said, her annoyance slipping away and being replaced with memories. The memories of the little creek by their house where she shot her first rabbit. Her nostalgic daze was broken when the white haired girl talked again.
"As far as excuses go, that's probably the best one. My condolences" She said. She never let the cold tone go completely, but there were traces of warmth and genuine sympathy in her voice. It made Ruby smile. Humans are complex creatures, she thought to herself.
The white haired girl extended her hand. "Weiss Schnee" She introduced herself. "Ruby Rose. Pleasure to meet you" Ruby said and they shook.
"I take it you received an invitation as well?" Weiss inquired and pulled an envelope from one of the front pockets in her white parka. Ruby recognized the envelope. "Yeah" Ruby said and pulled a matching envelope from one of the side pockets on her backpack. The only difference were the names of the people they were address too, otherwise the two envelopes looked identical, right down to the crest on the wax seal.
"Then I don't suppose you have a GPS handy? Mine broke on the way here and I've been wandering around, trying to find this log cabin ever since" Weiss said. Ruby only nodded, pulled out her GPS and told Weiss to follow her. They hoisted their respective deer over their shoulders and walked alongside each other. In the distance, the sun was peeking over the nearby mountain range.
"Do you have any idea what this whole invitation business is about?" Ruby asked after they had been walking for a while. Weiss pondered the question for some time before drawing a blank.
"Honestly, I know about as much as you do. I do recognize the crest though. It's the family crest of the famous Oz family. Their current head, Ozpin, is the director of the global Beacon Corporate Group. They own a lot of real estate in the corporate world. They even fund a little under half of my father's company" Weiss recounted. Ruby was a bit confused. While the explanation was simple enough, all this corporation business made her head spin. One little detail stuck out at her though.
"Your father owns a company?" Ruby inquired. At the question, Weiss' face scrunched up in a semi scowl. Seeing her face, Ruby got nervous. Perhaps she had pressed her acquaintance a little too far too quickly, never minding the fact that Ruby had already told her about her deceased mother, something generally considered very personal.
Weiss sighed deeply. "Yes-" she begun "-but I doubt that you would know it. Apologies for my assumption, but you seem like the sort of person who is very detached from worldly affairs." Weiss said with a hint of sheepishness. Ruby found her concern endearing, but she was technically right. Ruby was never one to follow the world news. She spent most of her time in the forest, disconnected from other people. This companionship was certainly something new for her. She liked it though.
"It's alright. You're right though, I haven't been following the world news lately" Ruby said with a chuckle. Her comment even made Weiss' scowl melt and be replaced with an endearing smile.
"Somehow I figured" Weiss joked back, eliciting another chuckle from Ruby.
They walked in silence for some time before Ruby felt something vibrate in her pocket. With some interesting acrobatics, she managed to fish her scroll out of her pocket without dropping the deer carcass. She took a look at the calling number and smiled before answering.
"Hey Yang – Why are you whispering? – Oh, okay – Yeah, I've found it – No, east is the exact opposite direction. You have to go west until you reach the lake, and then start moving north northwest – Okay, see you there – Yeah bye." Ruby hung up and slid the scroll back into her pocket.
"Sorry, that was my sister. She's coming too." Ruby said. Weiss raised a curious eyebrow.
"Your sister? What's she like?" Weiss asked with genuine curiosity. It had been long since she had been near normal people. For a change, this was probably a good one.
"Oh she is a great hunter, but she sucks with directions and she says that she doesn't believe in GPS'. She said she would bag some duck before she got there." As Ruby explained that, the sound of a 20 gauge shotgun shell rung through the forest and up the hill to them.
"That's probably her" Ruby said with a fond smile.
"Go Zwei, get it!" Yang commanded as the duck she shot fell from the sky and plummeted into the lake below. Zwei, the little black and white Pembroke Welsh Corgi, was happily bounding around until he heard the command and sprinted into the water. He swam as fast as his little legs could carry him and retrieved the duck within minutes. Happily strutting back onto land, Yang took the duck from his mouth and petted his fluffy ears.
"Good boy Zwei. You're definitely getting the leftovers after dinner tonight." Yang said, while walking back to her stool situated inside a lakeside blind. She propped her shotgun, a Winchester Model 12, up against the small table inside the blind. Setting the duck down on a chopping block, she started meticulously plucking the bird. After this she would cut the bird into manageable cuts of meat, remove any shotgun pellets or bone fragment, clean the meat off and finally store it in a zip lock bag.
It took time, but to Yang it was very rewarding worked, even if the parts of the work that required more finesse sometimes were annoying to do.
Some time passed and she was well into picking pellets out of the meat, when she heard a very familiar sound. The sound of a fishing line being cast. It was definitely close by, since she could hear it so clearly. She walked out the door to the blind and looked around. Something along the lake caught her interest. About a hundred meters away from her was an old rowboat, with its tail end in the water, which was tied to a nearby tree. When she had gotten there, there wasn't any sign of the boat being used but now it sure was. At the back of the boat, sitting with her legs crossed, was girl with long flowing black hair. Even though there was quite a distance between them, Yang was somehow enticed by the beauty of this girl. Enough to leave her previous work to walk over and greet her.
Walking up, Yang's heavy footfalls gave her away and the girls head shot around to meet Yangs gaze. She had beautiful eyes, piercing the bland desaturation of the forest with their strong gold color. Yang waved and the girl nodded back at her. Yang walked up and got into the boat with her. The girl was nice enough to scoot over so that Yang could sit down.
"Hey" she said in a hushed tone, trying not to scare the girl's fish away. "Hello" The girl said, not needing to talk in a low voice. Her voice was already hushed. It was deep and smooth. Yang thought her voice sounded lovely.
"Bait or lure?" Yang inquired. Silence spread amongst them again as the girl wound her line back in and recast it. The soft clicking of the reel made Yang take a deep breath and calm herself down a bit. She hadn't realized how stressed the duck hunting was making her. This little digression calmed her down and made her tense muscles relax.
"Well, seeing as I would like to harm as few living creatures as possible, I hand make my own lures. It's all the more rewarding that way" The girl said and settled back into silence as her line pierced the water surface. In the midst of the silence, Yang retrieved a thermos from her belt bag, popped the lid open and drunk a mouthful of her still warm coffee. After a while, the girl herself initiated the conversation.
"You have quite heavy footfalls, yet you managed to sneak pretty close. Where did you come from?" She inquired. Yang swallowed another mouthful of coffee before pointing in the direction of the blind. "There's a blind right over there. My gear is still over there. That reminds me…" Yang said before sticking her thumb and index finger in her mouth. A large breath intake later, a high-pitched whistle pierced the silence.
"No, that's alright, I was not planning on catching anything anyway…" The black haired girl said in a sarcastic tone while removing her hands from previously covering her ears. Yang realized her mistake and offered a sheepish "Sorry…" before she looked back to see Zwei bound out of the blind and run towards them.
"What is that" The black haired girl said, suddenly sounding very serious.
"That's my dog, Zwei. Well actually it's my sister's dog, but she went deer hunting, so I took him duck hunting." Yang explained. Zwei covered the distance between the blind and the boat fairly quickly before jumping into the row boat, making it rock slightly. He then proceeded to jump onto Yangs lap and curl into a fluffy little ball of comfort. Yang started scratching his ear. She looked back at the black haired girl to find her scowling intently at the dog in her lap.
"What, you don't like dogs?" Yang asked. The black haired girl chewed on the question for a bit, never letting her gaze leave the dog.
"Dogs…don't agree with me …" She explained vaguely. Yang would normally press the matter, but decided not to. This girl had already put her defenses up.
"Well, to each their own, I guess" Yang said. Silence spread amongst them again, but this time it was tinted with an awkward hue. Still, Yang was not going to give up on making friends with this girl.
"Hey, do you know where I can find this area perhaps." Yang suddenly inquired, remembering that she needed to meet up with Ruby at this supposed log cabin. She showed the girl the envelope invitation she had received in hope that maybe this girl knew the lay of the land. The black haired girl stared at the envelope before chuckling a little to herself.
"How fortunate to come across a companion this soon into my travels" The black haired girl spieled before pulling a matching envelope from inside her fishing vest. Yang looked at the almost identical envelope and noticed the name on the front of the invitation.
"Blake Belladonna, huh? Cute name" She said, hopefully being flirty. She never knew with these aloof types. Blake did smile though.
"Easy there tiger. Why don't you tell me your name and we can be on our way" Blake said and stuffed the envelope back into her inner pocket.
"Yang Xiao-Long. Nice to meet you Blake" Yang said before and they shook hands. "Can you give me ten more minutes though? I'm not done with the duck meat just yet." Yang said. Blake smiled.
"Are we in a hurry" Blake quipped earning herself punch on the shoulder from Yang. "Thanks Blake, see ya in a bit" She said while running back to finish her work.
A 20 gauge shotgun shell going off in the near vicinity would most likely wake any poor soul up. Jaune's eye fluttered open to just hear the last remnants of the shot rolling through the forest. He listened until the forest went silent again and snuggled back into his sleeping bag. The wind was gently pulling at the tent around them, the soft sound slow coercing him to go back to sleep. He wasn't a morning person, never had been, though that was starting to change when he lived the hunter lifestyle.
It was worth being woken to see her cute sleeping face. She had always been a heavy sleeper, so something like the distant sound of a shotgun was nothing to her. Her flowing crimson hair framed her face perfectly, enough for him to notice her flushed cheeks. Perhaps she was having a good dream. Maybe it was about him.
Sometime he was still in awe of how beautiful a girlfriend he had. He felt the urge to caress her cheek rise inside him. He pulled his arm from the warm confines of his sleeping bag and extended his hand to slowly run his thumb down her cheek and over her lips. While doing so, he stopped and looked at the band around his wrist. While the band was a simple black wide strap with camo painted padding that gathered in a point that pointed into his palm, what was attached to the point was something very special.
Last years on his birthday, Pyrrha had given him a brand new trigger release for his bow. The thing meant so much to him that he practically never took it off. Mostly when he bathed.
Looking at the release always made him smile. It was a testimony to the hard work and determination he had put into learning to hunt with the compound bow. All for her sake, he though while looking back onto sleeping face. As he did, her lips stirred under his thumb. He removed his finger from her lips and looked as her eyes opened heavily. Her tired gaze settle on him as her eyes blinked sluggishly.
"Good morning" he whispered, receiving a muffled grunt in return. "Coffee?" He asked. She grunted affirmatively before rolling over and trying to go back to sleep. He only chuckled as he zipped open is sleeping bag and dressed warmly to enter the cold air outside the tent.
The cold wind was like a jackhammer slamming against his face, making him tear up ever so slightly. He pulled the thick coat closer around his shoulders and got started on getting the campfire going. The wind made it hard to light a match, but eventually he got a fire going. They had leftover water from yesterday's meal, so he filled a kettle with it and hung it over the fire on a rack made out of sticks and small pieces of string.
While the water slowly heated to a boil, he pulled his compound bow, a Bear Cruzer RTH package that he had used for some years now, from his nearby hiking bag. While never really a very meticulous person, Jaune had made a habit out of checking his bow for errors every morning, to make sure that he kept it in good condition. A slip up due to bad maintenance had become unacceptable to him. Not while she was watching. He checked the string to note that perhaps he needed to wax it before they left. The brushes on his whisker biscuit where mostly intact, although some previous slip ups had bent and cracked some of the brushes. He made a mental note to look for a replacement once they return from this trip. The peep sight tubing was relatively new and the rubber was still in excellent condition. The pins on the sight were all set to his preferences, so nothing to fix there. All in all, apart from a standard waxing, everything seemed to be in order.
He stood up with the bow and fastened his release on the d-loop on the string. To warm up his arms he practiced his form by drawing the bow to full draw, and then slowly letting the string draw back. After a full few draws, He grabbed one of the arrows from his quiver and nocked it. After a quick and smooth movement to full draw, the cams let off the draw weight. He lined the peep sight up with the highest pin and aimed for the closest tree. Taking his time, he let his breathing slow before placing his finger ahead of the trigger on his release and finally firing. He paused for a few seconds after the arrow embedded itself in the tree.
Everything was very much in order. He felt good today, like he could actually bag some game. For once, maybe he was the one to bring home dinner.
The tent flaps beside him flew open as Pyrrha stepped out and zipped up her crimson red track jacket. She danced a little around herself to locate her own hiking bag.
"You left it inside the tent Pyr" Jaune reminded her. She sighed and crawled back in. A few seconds later she dropped her bag on the ground next to the campfire. She quickly zipped the bag open to get her usual things out, a small black hair tie to set up her ponytail and her soft fur fingerless gloves. Those had been Jaune's gift to her on her last birthday. In his mind, they didn't really match up to her gift, but she wore them all the time, so he assumed that he had done well.
Jaune finished brewing the coffee and filled both their thermoses. "One order of lovely joe for the hot lady" He said as he handed her her thermos. She gave him a crooked smile that shouted "really?" before chuckling lightly. "Fine, one order of hot joe for the lovely lady then" Jaune joked as he sat down beside her on one of logs surrounding the campfire.
"Thank you sweetie" Pyrrha said and pecked him on the cheek.
"So, how much further?" Jaune asked as he sipped his coffee and burned his tongue, making him flinch. Pyrrha chuckled again before fishing her GPS out of her bag and turned it on. It had been tuned to the coordinates of the log cabin, specified within the invitational letter, since the day they left. The journey had only lasted for about a week so far, but going it slow, traveling on foot and setting up camp for the night was a much more enjoyable experience for the both of them.
"Let's see…" She began as she pressed a button to zoom the map out and give and distance estimate of a direct route. "Only fifteen more kilometers to go actually. Should be their within the next few hours" she said with restrained cheer. While she was sceptic about the whole invitation thing, the adventure part of it was fun.
Jaune, on the other hand, wasn't much of a hiker. Her loved camping, camping was great, but hiking with the big backpacks was not his thing. Pyrrha had once asked him about this. "I love walking. I hate hiking" He had said. She looked at him with a confused look and asked what the difference was "There's always big stupid hill in the way" He had said, effectively ending the conversation as Pyrrha had to clutch her stomach from laughing too hard.
After sitting around the campfire, watching the flames dance over the firewood while the sleep was gently blown from the bodies by the crisp wind, Jaune finished waxing his bowstring and they decided put out the fire and pack up. The promise of only a few more kilometers actually made Jaune more enthusiastic about hiking.
"Squirrel!" Nora exclaimed loudly as she ran between the trees of the forest, trying to keep her eyes on the squirrel she had spotted. A few meter behind her stood Ren, waiting for her to eventually return. Nora was like a boomerang on speed. She would go absolutely everywhere, but would always return to the starting point, provided that you had the patience to wait for her. Fortunately for Ren, patience came naturally to him. Wonder why.
Nora was keeping pace with the squirrel that went from jumping along high branches to scurrying under the leaves of the forest underbrush. In a swift movement, she bent down and picked up a small blunt rock. She whipped out her slingshot, a Pink Barnett Cobra, and fitted the wrist braced. She then loaded the small rock into the slingshot, drew and took aim.
Clearly tracking the squirrel, she released and waited with held breath as the stone was flung through the air. A small squeak some meters ahead of her sounded and she pumped her fist in victory. She jogged up to the place where the squirrel was downed. It had managed to break the tree line and sprint into a clearing, so finding it wouldn't be that hard of a task.
As she walked into the clearing she saw the dead squirrel just down in front of her and picked it up by the tail. "Score!" she yelled as she put it into a bag and then the bag into her belt pouch. She stood up and dusted herself off and was just about to head back to Ren, when she spotted something extraordinary.
Back with Ren, he was checking on his chosen hunting tool, a Remington Model Seven SS. The bolt action had been bothering him lately and not operating as smoothly as he would have liked. He was interrupted in his musings, when he heard Nora's voice call through the forest.
"Reeeen, I found a thing!"
The only exception to the Nora Boomerang Rule™ was when she called out to you, saying that she had found something. It didn't have to be anything big, just that she had found "Something" was enough. Ren left his action worries for later and slung his rifle or over his shoulder to jog up to her. Her broke the clearing and saw Nora excitedly bouncing up and down.
"What did you find Nora?" He asked as he stopped next to her. She smiled and threw her arms up to present the thing. My, what a thing it was.
On the rolling hillside facing them was log cabin. Although, perhaps calling it a log mansion was more accurate. It was at the very least three stories tall and looked like something out of a fantasy film.
"That is quite some thing" Ren agreed. He was not easily surprised, but it was easy to be wowed by such an architectural wonder.
"It's not just a thing Ren! It's the place we're looking for. I just know it" Nora yelled again before she sped off over the clearing in the direction of the log mansion.
While she was getting a head start, Ren pulled out his GPS and looked at the coordinates. Sure enough, these were the coordinates from the invitation. This left him with only one question.
"Who the hell sent out these invitations?
A note to all of the people waiting for the a new chapter for My Chair and the New Years Promise. I'm afraid to inform you that there won't be another chapter. It's been too long for me to write anything resembling what it should have been, and the motivation to write it is close to zero. I apologize profusely and can only continue to do so. As of this new fic release, the story is abandoned. I'm terribly sorry.