The Girl from the Sky

She was falling, the rain stinging her torn left wing membrane as she fell from the storm cloud, unable to fully stay aloft with just one functioning wing. Losing consciousness, she was running out of options and would end up nothing more than a big, scaly mess on the ground. She had to try at least. She opened her undamaged wing first which began to slow her descent and got to slowly opening her injured wing. She ground her fangs together and clenched her eyes shut as the sharp pain of just moving it into place began to take effect. When she finally got it opened, her descent started to get more controlled. However, she needed a place to land and recover... and fast.

Oscar Pines was just now rounding up the last of the chickens into his aunt's barn. He looked up toward the darkened afternoon sky and sighed in relief that he got the animals into shelter just in time. Having lived this long in Mistral's farmlands, the eighteen-year-old had seen his fair share in storms of such magnitude. And, while tornado season was over, he knew all too well about the early Autumn squalls. "Oscar! Are the animals safe?" his aunt called out.

"Just got the last of them into the barn, Aunt Maple!" the farm boy replied.

"Well, hurry back inside as soon as you can!"

"Okay!"

At that moment, the farm boy was nearly knocked off his feet as a gust struck him like a bullet. The young man had to close his eyes and close them shut to protect them from the stinging squall winds. Oscar was about to head back inside when he heard a rumbling sound. At first, his mind clicked to it being thunder... but thunder didn't sound like that. He looked up and noticed a large object falling a meter away from him which hit the earth, sending up clumps of dirt and grass and causing the ground to shudder beneath his feet.

Oscar opened his eyes once he noticed the winds had died down for the moment... and almost had them pop out of his skull. In front of him, was a dragon. The beast was easily the size of the barn if not a bit bigger. It had mostly black scales but its crest and underbelly had blood-red scales. A pair of black horns stuck out on either side of its blunt head while stripes of red scales hung above its closed eyes like mascara. Each of its four legs ended in curved, eagle-like talons; four on each claw and pitch black like its horns. A pair of bat-like wings wrapped around the beast's body like a red cloak while what looked like a red scythe blade rested on the end of its long tail. A silver, rose-shaped pendant the size of his head dangled from where its long neck met its body. Slowly, Oscar began to creep towards the fallen beast, both awestruck by the sight of a creature responsible for protecting human and Faunus settlements from the Creatures of Grimm... and saddened he may have seen it fall to its death. However, almost as soon as he reached out, the dragon's eyes snapped open and its reptilian head was now inches from his, its jaws pulled back into a savage, fanged snarl, and its wolf-like eyes, which he noted being silver in color, narrowed. Great, he thought, I'm gonna be dragon chow.

However, instead of feeling the fangs of the dragon digging into his flesh, he heard it groan in what seemed to be pain as it spread its left wing to investigate it. Oscar noticed there was a large, blood-caked gash in its membrane. The dragon raised its right foreleg to touch the wing and hissed as its claws met the wound. It then turned its gaze back toward Oscar and narrowed its eyes.

Oscar swallowed his fear just as the first flash of lightning split the sky. He then walked up to the dragon despite the growl either it or the thunder made. "I'm not going to hurt you." he told her in the calming voice he used when trying to calm down Big Bertha, his aunt's milking cow, when she was about to give birth and her temper reached fever-pitch. Except, he wasn't calming down a pregnant cow, at least cows didn't have teeth like daggers. He reached out his hand. "It's okay. You can trust me."

"Oh, can I?" Oscar nearly jumped out of his pants the moment the dragon spoke.

Oscar made note about the dragon, mainly in its growling, thundering voice.

"So, you're a girl dragon aren't you?" he asked.

The dragon scoffed, "Yes, I'm a dragoness. How very perceptive of you, human. Now, explain to me why I should trust you?"

Oscar tilted his head in curiosity, "Um, why wouldn't you?"

The dragoness gave out a low growl, "Because I find it very suspicious that a human boy would approach me moments after I crash onto the ground with a wounded wing; barely able to fly and so worn out I would be lucky enough to muster even so much as a spark. The only reason you would do so would be to kill me."

Oscar frowned, "Okay, why would I want to kill a beast that's been protecting the people of Remnant from the Grimm for centuries?"

The dragoness let out a hiss knowing the human before her had a good point, "Forgive me, I've heard stories of how early humans and Faunus would hunt dragons out of fear or sport before the Grimm appeared."

Oscar nodded only to notice the rain started picking up. "Umm, how about we get you inside, miss- uh... do you have a name?"

"What?" the dragoness asked.

"A name, y'know a name? Who you are? Like for starters, my name is Oscar Pines. What's yours?"

The she-dragon hissed and closed her eyes for a bit as if hesitating to reveal her identity. When she opened them again, she let out a sigh (or at least something close to one), "My name is Ruby," she replied, "Ruby Rose. Dragoness of Beacon, Daughter of Taiyang Xiao Long and the late Summer Rose, step-daughter of Raven Branwen, half-sister of Yang Xiao Long, niece of Qrow Branwen, and Leader of RWBY."

Ruby Rose. Oscar thought, how very fitting.

"Okay, Ruby," Oscar spoke up, "how about we get you inside. I think I can squeeze you into the barn, though of course I'd have to explain you to Aunt Maple-"

Ruby growled in anger and she shot her face inches from Oscar's to the point he could see his own reflection in her silvery eyes, "Do I look like a beast of burden!? I am a dragoness, not some lowly farm animal! I refuse to step claw into something as demeaning as a barn!"

Oscar sighed, "Look, I can't leave you out here in the rain. For one thing, I don't want you freaking out my aunt because then she'll tell my mom and she'll freak out. Second, you might get sick and who knows what that storm will do to that wing of yours." He even pointed at the wing in question to emphasize his point.

Ruby narrowed her eyes and looked at her injured wing. She then looked at him with what could only be described as a smirk. "Or, I could do this, even if it means sapping the last of my strength." She then stood to her full height and folded both her wings like a cloak. "Oscar, wasn't it? Could you carry me inside when this is over?"

Before Oscar could say anything regarding carrying a dragon that probably had the same weight as his barn as she did its size, Ruby's body began to glow brighter than the sun, so much Oscar had to avert his eyes. When the light finally died down, he got a good glimpse of a body collapsing into the crater. It was Ruby, but instead of being a dragon, she was now a girl possibly his own age. She had pale skin which contrasted with the night-black/wine red scales had in her dragon form. Her face was topped with neck-length, black hair which gradated into red tips. On top of that, she was naked as a newborn baby with the only article of clothing being the same pendant she wore in dragon from only much smaller. Blushing, Oscar quickly took off his red rain hood and wrapped it around her as he helped her to her toes only for her to stumble. She moaned, though it might have been because she was tired and not out of pain. She looked at him from the corner of her barely open eyes; still silver in color and the only sign of her still intact from being a dragon. "Maybe this'll make things a bit easier for you." she whispered softly, her voice now higher-pitched without the growl before she closed them again.

Oscar huffed and puffed as he got Ruby into a bridal carrying position, her dangling, bare feet dripping with rain as it began falling in sheets. He noted that she was a bit heavy, but not too much. He then rushed toward his aunt's house. "Aunt Maple," he called out over the torrential rains, "get the door!" He then looked down at the unconscious form of Ruby and swallowed. Aunt Maple is gonna love this. he thought sarcastically. The door opened as he carried Ruby into the house. Inside, the TV was on as the weatherman explained how the storm in question had managed to leave thousands of people without power and caused plenty of damage to trees and houses. "Um," Maple started, "who is that?" Oscar was about to reply until the lights and TV turned off, leaving its occupants in the dark.

"Oh, Oum-Dammit." Maple cursed under her breath. "Oscar, wait right here, I'm going to get the generator up and running." Oscar heard his aunt grab a flashlight, made sure it was working correctly, and headed to the basement with a large canister of powdered Electricity Dust in hand. This allowed him to place Ruby on the couch, propping her head up with a pillow. There was the muffled sound of pouring Dust and a running motor before the electricity in the house came back on. He then heard Maple coming back up the stairs, the canister half empty in her right hand.

"Well, that ought to get us through the rest of the day until the power company comes around." she commented, noticing the girl on the couch. "Now then," Maple started, "care to explain that girl?" Oscar sighed, "How about over dinner."

"Oscar. Jameson. Pines," Maple started slowly as the two ate their Fire Dust cooked lasagna dinner, "let me see if I've got this straight: you're telling me, this girl is actually a dragon that fell from the sky with an injured wing, took on a human form, and is named Ruby Rose?"

"...Yes." Oscar replied as he scooped up a nibble of his comfort food and put it in his mouth.

"And you're not making this up?"

Oscar sighed, "No, Maple, I'm not making this up."

Maple sighed, "So, how long is she going to stay?"

The farm boy shrugged, "I really don't know, until her wing's healed, I guess."

Maple nodded before standing from the table and walking over to the kitchen counter, a notepad in one hand and a pen in another.

"What are you doing?" Oscar asked.

"Writing down possible ways I can explain this to your mother when she calls to check up on you," Maple replied, "so far, I've got 'dragon crashlanding on our farm and transformed into a naked girl carried by your son in the house during a storm'."

After dinner, Maple and Oscar gathered up various items which they placed in the house's guest room; clothes, extra blankets, and more before Oscar carried up Ruby onto the bed, still wrapped in his rain cloak and set her down, tucking the blanket over her.

"Do you think I can sleep with her tonight?" Oscar asked. This earned a stern frown from his aunt, which turned her from youthful aunt, to stern mother-figure.

"It's just to make sure she's okay." the farm boy exclaimed.

"She'll be fine, Oscar," Maple told her nephew, "she just needs some sleep is all. Though, we can check up on her every hour just in case she isn't."

Oscar nodded and cast one last look at the sleeping dragon-turned-girl before closing the door, unaware she was watching the door closed through her barely open eyes which finally shut and let sleep take over.