I got an editor or beta reader as it is called on this website. He calls himself Recycler. One big applause for Recycler! Anyways, something I should explain.

"speech"

~thoughts~

'also thoughts, because Recycler edits my chapters this way and I forgot to change it'

December tended to be simultaneously one of the best and one of the worst months of the year for Sarah. The best because, obviously, it was Christmas time, and the air was full of holiday cheer. The worst because, at this time of the year, it tended to be very, very cold. And Sarah could never really stand the cold.

Luckily, right now she had the luxury of being inside the grocery store, as she was in need of a few things for herself. So now she was standing in front of a shelf, looking at a wide variety of Christmas cookies. At least half of them were probably made of the same ingredients anyway, with just a different brand name (and price tag, for that matter) slapped on the box.

At least they were nice to look at, even though that was part of the market strategy. Sarah picked up a peculiarly creepy looking cookie jar that had a picture of two smiling cookies on it. Two smiling cookies with chocolate sprinkles as very dead looking eyes.

~Who buys these things?~ Sarah wondered to herself, putting the jar back on her shelf. She looked around a little more, until she heard a beeping noise coming from her watch, noticing that it was nearly 9 PM.

~Oh, fucking hell! They're closing shop in an hour! Ugh, I don't wanna go out in the cold... Guess I better make full use of my remaining time. To the drinks!~

Unfortunately, her exhibition was cut short, because some clumsy twit somehow managed to knock over an entire shelf with hundreds of glass bottles on it, perfectly flooding the entire section. The girl sighed sadly. Seeing as she exhibiting the rest of the shop extensively already, she decided to finally pay for the stuff she gathered so far and leave.

She walked outside the building, where she was greeted with a cold gust of air. Shivering like a leaf in the wind, the girl pulled up the hood from her pullover, forcefully putting her ponytail under it and tightened the zipper on her jacket as she started on her way home.

Sarah decided to take a path away from the main street, since this would get her home quicker. The only downside was that there weren't any streetlights on this path since it lead through a park, which in return was directly connected to the woods near the town. The only light source there at night were the nearby houses and the moon (if she was lucky). It was just enough to distinguish the path from the patches of grass around oneself.

Despite it being so hard to navigate through, a lot of people actually used it at night because it was a convenient connection to the grocery store, not to mention a splendid place to go out with friends for a scenic walk.

And because so many people used it, the risk of a thug or mugger showing up were considerably low. In fact, no one around these parts had even seen so much as a pickpocket. Really, the biggest problem here was that some drivers didn't keep the speed limit of thirty kilometers an hour. Of course, as the old saying goes, there's a first time for everything.

Sarah hadn't been paying attention to the path, distracted by the nearly full moon and thoughts of her warm, cozy apartment when she accidentally bumped into someone.

She had been walking rather fast, and the force of the impact sent the girl to the ground. Sarah dropped her bags in the process, spilling the contents everywhere. The sound of glass shattering could be heard as well.

"Hey, watch it!" A gruff voice slurred.

"Sorry," Sarah squealed, her face flushing red from embarrassment as she picked herself up. ~Shit! Not only did I make a fool of myself, but now everything's on the ground. And of course, I forgot to recharge my phone-~

"Ah!"

Her train of thought was interrupted, when the man grabbed her arm and brutally yanked her, causing her to yelp in pain.

"Sorry ain't gonna cut it, girly!" He shouted, taking the girl hanging from his arm by surprise. Her surprise was very soon replaced with fear, because the man pulled her closer, making it possible for her to at least see his eye color: a dirty brown. "Ya made me drop my booze!" As those words left his mouth, Sarah could smell the liquor on his breath.

"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry!"

"Yeah, if yer're sorry, then ya gonna buy me a new one!" The man shouted directly at the girl's face. She flinched, instinctively trying to get away as she panicked.

"Let go of me!" She shouted, aiming a kick for his groin. However, due to the unfortunate position Sarah was in, namely half dangling from one of his arms, her aim was way off and all she managed to hit was his leg. The man let out a growl, but else he didn't show any sign that the hit actually hurt him.

"That's it, bitch.," he growled in a low tone. "Now, yer made me real mad."

Sarah let out a shriek as she felt being thrown through the air, rather clumsily. The girl landed on her left arm, groaning in pain upon impact. The man drunkenly approached her, pulling out a switchblade from his coat as Sarah tried to get up.

Caught up in their own situation, none of them notice the pair of glowing yellow eyes approaching their position. The eyes were fixated on the ground, moving left and right as if they were carefully trying to avoid something. Just as the man was about to kick the girl on the ground, the eyes arrived behind the man.

"HEY!" Came the sound of a furious voice.

"Ah! What the-" The man let out a surprised scream, jumping slightly. He turned around, and the yellow-eyed person socked him in the gut.

"ARGH!" The drunk bent over as the fist of the other person hit his stomach, causing him to drop his switchblade in the process. He then received a sharp, upward kick to the face, knocking out several teeth.

The person with the yellow eyes had apparently enough and decided to finish him off. Acting like a professional wrestler, the person picked up the man, held him above their head and then threw him a dozen feet away. Said man screamed in pain as his head slammed into the pavement.

He moaned in pain, his drunken mind having trouble registering what just happened. He tried to push himself off the ground, but before his body got as much as move an inch upwards, he felt something hard hitting the back of his head, turning his world dark.

"Damn, Blake!" A boisterously cheerful voice spoke from the darkness. "I'd say that's a new record."

"Yang?" The other voice came from where the yellow eyes were positioned. "What are you doing here? I thought you'd stay with Weiss and Ruby."

"Ruby was getting worried that you were taking so long," The other girl, Yang, explained, turning on her flashlight. Blake flinched, shielding her eyes with an arm until the other girl pointed with the light to the ground. "Did that guy give you any trouble?"

"No," Blake shook her head. "I just lost track of time for a bit. When I finally went back, I saw him trying to hurt that woman over there." Blake pointed with her thumb towards Sarah, forgetting for a moment that the other girl couldn't see that well in the dark.

Sarah, meanwhile, was still on the ground with wide eyes. She observed the flashlight and the pair of glowing eyes coming closer to where she was.

The latter particularly caught her attention, because they appeared to reflect the moonlight like those of a cat.

The lights moved towards her until Sarah was able to properly distinguish what they were wearing, which could best be described as wholly unfitting for the current weather conditions.

"Hey, are you okay?" The girl with the flashlight asked, crouching right in front of Sarah. Thanks to that, she was able to see the girl was wearing mostly yellow clothing with black short-shorts, and had a veritable mane of golden hair and violet eyes.

Looking upwards, she saw that the cat-eyed person was wearing mostly black and had black hair with a peculiar bow topping it off. The girl who had spoken to her, Yang, snapped her fingers to get her attention back.

"Hey, look at me for a second," she said calmly. "Did he hurt you at all?"

Sarah flinched and closed her eyes again. Just thinking about what that man would have done to her made her shudder slightly. It was one thing hearing about being mugged like she had almost been on the news, but experiencing it yourself is on a whole new level.

Even with the drunk currently unconscious, the girl on the ground couldn't think of anything else to do but hold her face in her palms and start sobbing.

"Hey, hey!" Sarah felt the blonde touching her back and slowly rubbing it, trying to calm her down. "It's alright. That guy isn't gonna cause you anymore trouble. I promise."

"Hey, Yang?" The other girl, Blake, spoke up. "How about you get her to the others? I'll help her with her things, just go make sure they're still okay."

"Got it. Wanna use my flashlight?"

"It's fine. I got my Scroll with me."

"Alright. Hey, come on," Yang spoke gently, getting closer to Sarah. "Let's get you away from here and out of the cold." The blonde gently grabbed Sarah's arm and motioned her to get up.

The girl on the ground nodded slowly and tried to push herself up. Yang helped her out, dragging her up as carefully as possible. Sarah let out an involuntary grunt, her arms and legs stinging a little from being thrown to the ground.

Yang gently grabbed Sarah's arm and lead her through the night, the flashlight constantly pointed at the walking path. "My other friend and little sister are nearby," Yang explained. "By the way, I'm Yang. What's your name?"

"..."

"Still thinking about that guy? Believe me, he's not going to get up anytime soon."

Sarah remained silent, deciding to just take things one step at a time. Her face was invisible to Yang, so she couldn't really tell how well the stranger was coping with the whole debacle.

Judging from how quiet she was, the woman was better than Yang expected her to react. Either that or it was going to be a delayed reaction. The blonde had seen both happen in her life, given the shady places she tended to visit.

It didn't take the two long to exit the snowy forest and enter a more brightly lit area. Two rows of small apartment buildings stretched across a road. Each building had three floors with two apartments on each floor, meaning one building housed up to six groups of residents. It was there that the girls were able to get a better look at each other than before.

In Sarah's book, Yang looked a remarkably odd. She wore a brown jacket, with a yellow t-shirt under it, showing a good amount of her cleavage, despite the cold weather. Not to mention her lower stomach was also visible. The orange scarf looked like it was there more as a fashion statement than to keep the girl warm, just like her two yellow bracelets (At least she thought they were bracelets).

As she had noticed before, she wore black short-shorts with a belt holding some brown clothing to make her look at least partially decent. Still, her legs were totally bare, with exception of the boots of course, the only thing that appeared to be appropriate for the weather. How she wasn't frozen solid yet was well beyond her.

What made Yang look even more bizarre were her violet eyes and her impossibly long, shimmering blonde hair. She looked more like a character from some anime than an actual person.

A thought formed in the back of Sarah's mind that maybe this girl was simply cosplaying instead of wearing her normal wardrobe, though that still didn't explain how she dealt with the cold.

As for how Yang saw her, she personally found the girl to be rather plain-looking. The girl wore a black jacket, along with a blue hood from a pullover underneath. The rest consisted of jeans and a pair of black shoes.

The girl's skin looked a little pale, though that might have been only the lighting of the area. Other features she noticed were her green eyes and strands of brown hair falling down in front of her face.

"We're almost there. My sister and my other friend are just around the corner."

Sarah nodded silently and didn't complain when Yang pulled her sore arm, hastening their pace. The brown haired girl knew that around the corner was a bus station, one she used every day from Monday to Friday to get to work. Across the street would be another set of apartment buildings. She lived inside one of those.

When they crossed the corner, Sarah was convinced that she had accidentally stumbled across a group of cosplayers. Her previous encounter temporarily forgotten, she and Yang found themselves in front of two more girls, who were standing in front of the station.

One wore a bright red cloak, along with a black and red skirt, which had a small back attached to it, as well as several bullets hanging off her belt. They were probably made of plastic anyway, but wow did they looked realistic. The girl's legs were covered in stockings, along with some thick black and red boots.

The same girl also had blackish hair with red tips, small lips, and silver eyes. She was also shortest of the bunch.

The other girl wore a white and blue skirt, with frills and snowflake patterns at the end of it. She also wore a matching pair of white boots, though her legs were a little exposed. She also had a rapier strapped on her belt, though like the bullets it was probably plastic as well.

The girl's hair was dyed white, though she did a pretty good job of making it look natural. She was probably also the only one who didn't wear colored contacts since her eyes were a much more natural blue. Her cosplay also had her wearing some earrings and a snowflake hairpiece tying her hair into a ponytail.

"There you are!" The white haired girl spoke up in a slightly annoyed voice. "Where is Blake? And who is she?" she asked in a demanding tone, crossing her arms.

"Blake and I found her being attacked by some thug. Blake took care of him." Yang waved off.

Sarah couldn't help but eye the girl, as she spoke so casually about beating someone up.

"Oh, are you alright?" The smaller girl spoke up, approaching Sarah. The girl in question nodded.

"Y-yeah," she spoke softly, shuddering from a cold gust of wind. The cosplayers misinterpreted it as a sign of the girl thinking about what almost happened to her.

"Oh, I'm sorry." The black and red wearing girl bowed her head. "I didn't want to bring it up... Yang, where's Blake?" She asked, quickly changing the subject.

"I'm here," came a familiar voice from behind.

Sarah and Yang turned around and found the girl from before approaching. Now that Sarah had a better look at her, she could see her outfit better. Some kind of weapon or look alike resembling a katana was strapped on her back. The girl carried two familiar bags in each hand.

"You dropped those," she spoke, handing the bags over to Sarah.

"...Thank you." Sarah nodded, accepting her groceries back.

"I tried to find everything. I'm sorry if some things are missing."

"Th-thanks," the brown haired girl shivered. "You didn't have to-"

"Oh, it was no problem," Blake smiled.

"So, need any more help?" Yang, still holding Sarah's arm, spoke up. "Maybe we can take you back home, just in case."

"For once I'm inclined to agree with you," the white haired girl spoke approvingly. "Who knows how many more of those rascals are running around here..."

"Then it's settled!" The smallest and reddest of them jumped into the air, landing next to Sarah. "Team RWBY is going to escort...Uh, what's your name again?"

"S-Sarah," the girl said, shivering.

"Right." The girl nodded. "Team RWBY is going to escort Sarah back to her home and protect her from any danger that might befall her."

Sarah couldn't help but giggle at the kid's enthusiasm. It looked like she was trying to hold up character or something.

"Actually, I live over there." Sarah pointed in the direction of the apartment buildings. They were only a few hundred feet away from the bus stop.

"Oh," the smallest let her arm hang down, visibly deflated.

"I guess it's settled then," the white haired girl commented. "While you are still here, could you direct us to the nearest hotel?" The white one asked. "We're...not from around here, so to speak."

Sarah frowned a little, thinking. This question came kind of out of nowhere, but fortunately Sarah was able to answer. Unfortunately, it wasn't a good answer.

"The nearest hotel is in the city, which you can only get to by bus. At this time of the day they only drive every hour."

"The last one came five minutes ago," the small girl groaned. Her friends shared her sentiment, obviously not looking forward to waiting another hour in the frigid cold for the bus to arrive.

"Well," Sarah had an idea, though she wasn't entirely sure about it herself.

"Yeah, what's up?" Yang asked.

"My apartment is really small, but since you helped me earlier…"

"You're offering to let us stay the night at your place?" Yang asked, surprised and grateful at the same time.

"Mhm." Was Sarah's meek reply.

"Well, girls?"

"Thank you so much!" The red one said happily.

"As long as we finally get out of the cold," the white haired girl shivered.

"Wow, too cold for the ice queen? You know, maybe you shouldn't give me the cold shoulder-"

"Yang..." the little red one moaned. "That was bad, even for you."

"Well, I'm just warming up-"

"How about we get inside?" Blake spoke up, interrupting Yang before the blonde could go on one of her pun streaks. "The last thing any of us need is getting frostbite."

"You're right, Blake. Now then, I don't mean to sound pushy or anything, but could we please go to your home posthaste?" Asked the white haired girl.

"Yeah. Yeah, let's go," Sarah replied, checking the zipper on her jacket. "I live in this one."