Of Yellow and Black

They were running as fast as they could, neither of them knew for how long or how far exactly. The road they ran so desperately changed into a thin forest path already a long ago. Now their escape became more difficult, as with each step both of them risked falling on the ground because of wet and slippery mud that was all over the place. Their legs were barely able to serve them in this escape anymore; their lungs were on fire. Yet the idea of stopping now was completely out of the question.

She was ahead. Her long hair shining brightly, giving of a golden glow that fought alongside silver rays of full moon against the pervasivedarkness, which seemed like it was reaching out for them with thin yet long arms. Her sharp eyes were carefully inspecting every inch of this dark forest, every corner of every tree that spread out in front of them as they ran. She knew they were closing in, silently creeping from one shadow to another, following them as a shadow of dread, waiting for the right opportunity to strike. She wasn't afraid of them a single bit, she wanted them to attack, one by one or all at same time, she didn't care. That way she at least would be able to teach them a good lesson or two. However, at same time, she was hoping they will never peak out from nearest shade, for it was not her who they were after, not at this moment at least, but other girl, whose hand she was holding so tightly ever since they fled from blood covered battlefield, leading her now through blackness of the night, protecting her, so far successfully.

She was doing her best to attract all the attention on herself instead of raven-haired girl but fresh blood that was dripping from wounds on her body, leaving a long blood trail behind them, was way more appealing for those hidden in shadows than anything she tried. Squeezing girl's hand a bit more, trying to assure her that everything will be alright and that she will never let them take her, she speeded up a bit more.

Yet suddenly it didn't matter anymore. They fell into the trap just in the moment when black clouds covered the sky and moon again. In the blink of the eye, darkness hid everything in its cold embrace. What remained visible was just a swarm of countless red glowing eyes watching two girls from almost every direction. There was no way to run anymore. Finally, the horde of bloodthirsting Grimms succeeded to capture their prey. God knows how many of beowolves, ursas and other vicious beasts were circling around two of them, playing with them, some loudly roaring and other just barking or panting hungrily.

Raven-haired girl fell on her knees. Despair already swallowed her whole. She lost all her hope she got left in an instant; this was the end for sure. No one will save them now. Her shining guardian turned around, trying her best to calm down her broken friend, but it was pointless.

A sudden rustling caught her attention. She swiftly turned around, just in time actually and with a powerful punch she broke the head of the beast that dared to get a bit too close to them. Loud explosion, hearable across the forest, illuminated the surroundings with bright yellow glow. Glaring at monsters all round them, she then immediately got back into her battle stance, daring them with simple hand gestures and confident smirk.

A few more of them, mostly beowolves, fell for it and furiously charged toward blonde guardian. Two of them were quickly and easily taken care of. First beowolf, the one on the left, was send flying with powerful uppercut and the head of the second beast, which belonged ursa actually, shattered on the muddy ground after she punched it so hard with her right hand soon after she recovered from previous attack. A wave of warmth washed over her and an excitement started building deep inside of her body, filling her with incredibly warm feeling after each successful strike, which was greatly boosting her confidence. With all this warmth deep inside that burned like a fire she thought for a while that she can actually win this battle. She wanted to be victorious just as much she wanted to kill them all. Come at me! All of you! I'm not sacred! All of this was running through her mind. They deserved nothing more than death anyway and she was willing to deliver it to them all! Here and now!

When another barking of beowolf came from behind of her, she quickly turned around, prepared to smash into pieces another vile monster that was begging so loudly for her attention... then it hit her like a slap across the face. What was she doing? How could she forget so easily? It wasn't her own life she was fighting to protect.

Seeing werewolf-like beast charging at raven-haired girl instead of her, the guardian realized her mistake and quickly snapped out of the battle excitement, rushing toward her at full speed. Calling out her name no matter how loudly was utterly pointless for she wasn't listening anymore. Only few short steps were between them when sharp claws of the beast pierced through the chest of the raven-haired girl and sprayed the crimson liquid all over the other's face.

Drops of cold water started falling down from black clouds yet again like if they were imitating tears that began rolling down the guardian's face. She stopped moving completely and after a while her hair stopped giving of a sun-like golden glow; her eyes turned back purple too. This time it was she who fell on her knees in desperation while looking into blank yellow eyes of the dying person in front of her. Person she swore to protect yet failed.

In the end the lifeless body was roughly tossed aside, splashing in the puddle it landed into, by the same creature that stole the life so precious for the blonde girl. And when the beowolf made its way slowly toward her too she didn't move an inch nor she fought back when it violently grabbed her by neck and picked her up from her knees, squeezing the air out of her with all its might. The last thing she saw before all faded to black were wide open jaws with long, rotten and blood covered teeth slowly approaching her face and then snapping shut…


Yang woke in an instant and rose up in shock of her terrible nightmare. Her whole body, covered in sweat, was shaking uncontrollably; the heavy rain and thunderclap were silencing her husky gasps. Her eyes were wide open and sharp, yet her vision was still very blurry.

"It was a dream…" she whispered silently, "… just a bad dream…"

It took Yang few minutes to recover from what happened. All that time while she was sitting there, alone, pictures of her nightmare were torturing her mind, wounding her mentally like stabs of sharp dagger. She was so tensed that she twitched each time a thunder roared furiously. Once she recovered, Yang shook her head from side to side and turned toward the digital clock at her bedside table. It was nearly 11 p.m. already too late to do anything other than continue on sleeping.

Blindly reaching for the blanket she tossed aside in panic, Yang first wiped her sweaty forehead with left hand but before she could lie back down through the room echoed a ringtone of her cellphone.

"Ruby?" blonde whispered as she looked at the picture of her happily grinning sister above 'Accept call' button on the display of her phone, "what could she want this late at night?"

And after a quick 'beep' noise: "Hello? Yang?!"

"Ouch!" blonde hissed, quickly throwing phone into the right hand and using the left one to cover hear ear afterwards.

"Hello~ Yang?!" came from the phone again.

"Turn it down, Ruby! You're being way too loud!" she snapped at her before her sister could cause any damage to her other eardrum.

"I'm so-so sorry, sis! But this is an ultra-serious emergency!"

"What happened? Are you alright? Did you get hurt or anything" Yang worried, still rubbing her left ear slowly.

"No-no-no! I'm fine! But there's no time to explain it you through the phone call! My battery is running low! I forgot to charge it and I realized how bad it is after I arrived to the city. I kept it off till now and I'm so glad I can still talk to you, but I don't know for how long it'll least so I…"

"Ruby, slow down," Yang quickly cut her off, before she could waste all the time explaining, "now, back to important stuff, please." she added.

"Oh, right, sorry!" Ruby cleared her throat before she continued, "So~…"she trailed off, "are you free right now? You won't be heading out to some parties, right?"

"Huh, you got that one right, sis," Yang answered, moving close to the window to get a quick glance at a horrible storm that was raging outside. She was worrying about Ruby even more, because of the horrible weather. "There's no way I'm going to leave my house tonight."

"That's perfect! He'll be so happy to hear that!" girl on the other side of the phone squeaked happily, "We'll wait at our place until you arrive, then. You still remember where it is, right?"

"Wha- of course I do! I was the one who did the most of the actual moving part that day!" blonde reminded her sister angrily, her mussels went numb for a while when she's recalled all events of the big moving day, "But wait, that's beside the point now,I told you I'm…"

But Ruby cut her off again with a quick laughter, "Oh, Yang. You don't need to be worrying about food, you silly; everything'll be prepared once you arrive!"

"You are not listening to me, Ruby, I…"

"I love you, too!" she interrupted her loudly yet again as if she didn't want to give her sister any opportunity to refuse her request.

"That's not what I was about to tell you!"

Ruby gasped in so obviously faked awe, "So you don't love your own little sister?"

"I never said anything like that!" Yang yelled to defend herself. Even though she knew that Ruby was just playing this all up, she felt kinda bad. And that tiny bid of guilt was all Ruby needed.

It was time to finish her already weakened sister off with a weapon that even great Yang Xiao Long couldn't resist. With a sly smile across her face, that Yang possibly couldn't see, she started: "Yang? Did I ever tell that you're the best older sister in the whole universe?"

"Here we go again…"

"But you are! Best ever! I couldn't wish for a better older sister! If there'd be a contest of who is the bestest older sister you'd automatically and undoubtedly get the very first place! And you wanna know why?"

"Will you even…"

"Because you are super strong older sister that would protect her much younger and weaker sister anytime she'd need that awesome and always welcomed help of yours. You are also super funny older sister; your sole presence makes all doubt, fear and sorrow just fade away. AND, you are also super caring and super nice older sister that'd never ever let down her much younger sister when she so desperately needs you!"

"Oh, stop it you…" Yang sighed in defeat with a deep red blush across her face from all the praising, "Alright, you got me. I will be there in a few minutes."

"Promise it!" was Ruby's immediate reaction.

"I promise."

Ruby just squeaked happily again and silently celebrated her flawless victory over her beloved older sister. "Awesome! You can't even imagine how happy he'll be once I'll tell him you are coming over! Thanks you s…" a 'click' suddenly silenced joyful voice of blonde's sister.

"Eh, Ruby?" Yang asked, but answer to her question was just repetitive beeping after few seconds followed by complete silence with a red blinking 'call over' sigh on display of her phone. "Guess her battery has just run out." she sighed and threw phone on the bed, "I only hope she is fine."

Turning her head to the side and looking into the night through the big window again, Yang's stomach tightened a bit. The idea of going at her sister's family place during such a bad weather seemed again like an annoyance. Above all the reasons why she though so was the fact that she was really tired form the extra weekend she was forced to substitute for Nora in JNPR team during their hunts.

Needless to say that she did most of the job herself though maybe it was her own fault for going too far ahead from the rest of the team. But that's the way she hunts, going straight into the action, expecting the support from plans her team members will make up. Ruby and Weiss always make sure no one will surprise her from behind and Blake… she is just there, looking out for her. Yang quickly turned her gaze from the window that got all foggy form her breathing on it up close.

But even with new hunting style of team JNPR, Yang was able to cooperate well with them and their missions were success. In the end, she even got extra payment and next three days off during which she planned to regain some of that lost energy.

But promise is a promise and even if she would have the heart to call her little sister and tell her she changed her mind in the end it'd pointless, because Ruby can't answer her calls now, which actually seemed like a part of Ruby's strategy to Yang, making her utterly unable to refuse in any possible kind of way, now when she played with that though in her mind while changing clothes.

And one never knows, maybe spending a night with her sister will be just as refreshing as a sleeping would be. One thing she knew exactly was that it's gonna be fun, and that's maybe something she needs now as well after that horrifying dream. After all, Ruby said he'll be really happy to see her…

"Wait," she paused after she locked the main door, "who the hell is he anyway!?"