Ruby and Weiss had been walking for about half an hour, it was generally silent except for when Ruby would break the silence with mindless yet friendly chatter, or when Weiss would snap at the younger girl for purposely bumping her shoulder. They had been sent out to find a Nevermore that had been terrorizing a small city on the outskirts of a forest.
"I swear Ruby, if you bump me one more time..." Weiss cursed through gritted teeth, yet despite her bitter tone, Ruby giggled. The two had started dating near the end of long, wonderful summer. The two had been inseparable over the time off from school, Ruby forcing Weiss to relax and enjoy the time off and Weiss making Ruby keep on top of her training.
Ruby reached over and grabbed the Princess' hand, interlocking her fingers within her own. The brunette felt the flush of her cheeks and the butterflies in her stomach that always accompanied holding her partners hand. Weiss' clenched jaw relaxed and her grip on Ruby's hand subtly tightened.
The two continued walking, it was slightly past noon, and they were almost at nest of the Nevermore. The two stepped towards the edge of a small clearing, giving each other a quick glance, as their hands split and went for their weapons. They readied to attack the large pile of slowly heaving feathers, that was the slumbering Nevermore.
Ruby nodded and they both launched forward into action. Their teamwork as a pair had increased incredibly with a summer of training under their belts now. They both hit the side of the large bird and it instantly awoke, flinging them both back as it's large wings unfurled in a startled panic, launching the dark creature up into the air with a loud shriek.
"Weiss! Freeze it!" Ruby called to her partner, who was already one step ahead of her, spinning the revolving piece in her sword and preparing to strike and greatly immobilize the large ravenesque grimm. She lunged forward to deliver the strike but had to sidestep out of the way of a large feather that the bird had flung at her. The dodge put her too far to the right and the large wall of ice she had created did nothing but lock the branch of a tree in place.
"Damn" Weiss hissed under her breath, as she turned to her leader "Well Ruby, any ideas?" Ruby looked up as the grimm began to turn back around. "Launch me up, I might be able to catch on, and force it down" Weiss stared at Ruby for a second, as she stood stoic and ready, until she realized Weiss hadn't cast her glyph. "Weiss, come'on!"
"Ruby, this is a terrible idea! How are you going to get down? How do you plan on killing it by yourself? This has to be-" Weiss was cut off by a very determined Ruby "WEISS, NOW!" despite her better judgment she spun the part, and cast the large dark snowflake under he partners boots.
Ruby readied Crescent Rose to fire her up into the air as the Nevermore came closer and closer.
With a quick leap, and the firing of her rifle the young girl was propelled up into the air, she spun, ready to bring her scythe down on the Nevermore as she fell. As she was coming down, scythe at the ready, she saw the large shadowy bird starting to come under. Her timing was off, and she immediately knew it.
Weiss could see it too. Ruby had launched only a second too late, and had barely caught the tail of the Grimm.
She held onto Crescent Rose as she re-oriented herself with her current situation. She looked at were her scythe was caught into the Nevermore, right at the base of it's tail. She brought her feet down onto it's strong tail feathers, gathering enough force and strength to remove Crescent Rose and quickly bring it back down, higher up on the grimm's back.
Weiss was still on the ground watching her partner, biting her lip, helpless to do anything. Multiple times she thought of ways the her semblance might help, but she was interrupted by a small rustling coming from behind her. She quickly turned to see a lone Ursa Minor, stumbling out of the bushes towards her. She quickly drew Myrtenaster and took her stance, and prepared to strike.
Meanwhile Ruby had slowly been climbing her way up to head of the Nevermore, clinging on despite it's best attempts to fling her off. The brunette readied her weapon, and swung, firing a shot that as she brought it down drove it harder into the back of the grimm's head.
She immediately felt the result of her hit, the creature wings faltered and it was quickly starting to loose altitude. She decided to ride it down to where the clearing was, quickly removing Crescent Rose, spinning it fancily before driving it down into the left wing, pulling hard and forcing the large grimm to turn towards the small opening. As soon as she saw clearing she also saw Weiss, and the Ursa.
"Weiss!" Ruby called from the back of the plummeting Nevermore "Weiss look out!"
Weiss quickly turned at the shrill sound of her partner's yelling, her eyes widening at the sight of the nearly dead bird caring her partner and hurdling towards her. She quickly tried jumping out of the way, the Ursa also lunging at her, but missing. She felt the heavy impact of the Nevermore's wing colliding with her body.
Ruby opened her eyes, the bird had finally stopped sliding forward, she looked around seeing the bird had crushed the Ursa as well as about 3 or 4 large trees.
"Weiss!" She called out excitedly "Weiss, did you see that!" She turned looking around the clearing, but heard nothing but silence. "Weiss?" Ruby was suddenly worried, where was the normally scornful banter she normally received after doing something so impulsive? "W-Weiss?!" She was trying as hard as she could not to sound worried, as she started climbing down off the corpse, leaving Crescent Rose sticking up out of it like a grave marker. "Weiss, where are-" She cut herself off as she saw something laying on the ground.
A small bluish white jacket, stained by a large amount of blood that spattered the dirt as well.
"Weiss?!" Ruby yelled, no longer able to hold back her worried tone, as she went over to the small bloodied jacket.
"Weiss!" The shrill scream woke the white haired princess, and she slowly sat up. She felt unusually cold for this time of year. "Ruby?" she mumbled to herself, her vision blurring as she stood up looking around her, a sudden sharp pain in her right shoulder. Weiss stumbled, uncharacteristically ungraceful in the direction she heard the scream. She stopped clinging to a tree, and looking into the clearing where she could barely make out her partner through her blurred vision.
"No no no no no..." Ruby murmured into the jacket, holding back tears. She breathed in the scent of the jacket, that of a winter day, and yet, reminding her of the summer the two girls spent together. Ruby sunk to the ground, clutching the jacket as she tried to keep from crying out. She was so caught up in her own sadness that she didn't hear the shaky footsteps coming from behind her.
"Ru... Ruby" although weak, Ruby instantly recognized the voice of her partner, and spun her head, her heart stopping the second she saw Weiss. "Ruby, you... " Weiss trailed off, unable to finish her sentence and she started to tip forward, Ruby quickly jumping up and catching her. "Weiss, don't say anything, just- just calm down, it's ok" Ruby was saying this more for her own behalf, as she noticed a large gash in her partners right shoulder.
Ruby gently sat down with Weiss in her arms, she started wrapping the jacket around Weiss' injury, she turned her face to look into her eyes. "H-How are you feeling?" Weiss smiled meekly "You're going to be the death of me Ruby Rose..." Ruby was reaching for something on her belt "Not today... I'm going to get us out of here..." Ruby used her Scroll to send a message to Ozpin, requesting a drop ship to come pick up the two huntresses in training.
"Don't worry Weiss, they'll be here soon" Ruby smiled worriedly at her partner, who sighed. "when we get back... you're getting a long lecture on battlefield communication" Ruby smiled, glad to hear her partner sound so normal. She kissed her on the forehead, between her eyes. Now all they had to do was wait...