By The Edges

Disclaimer: RWBY and the world of Remnant belongs to Rooster Teeth Studios. The idea of this story is taken from the in-universe fairy tale "The Shallow Sea." I do not own that, allusions to RWBY-verse events, classical mythology, or fairy tale tropes.

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Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, in a time long since gone, lived an ordinary boy who fell in love with an extraordinary girl.

By all accounts, their story should have faded into dust. As it happens, however, they knew someone who knew someone, who told someone, who told someone else...

The boy was destined for a normal life on a normal farm in the middle of a very normal field with extremely normal knees. He had seven sisters, one named after each day of the week and each with a different color of hair. Monday's was red, Tuesday's was white, Wednesday's was black, Thursday's was yellow, and so on and so forth. The eight siblings lived together in a small jewel-shaped hut planting corn, pumpkins, and maples. Their parents had been farmers, so the ordinary boy expected to be a farmer or something, too.

After all, he was quite ordinary and expected to be so all his life.

It just so happened that the Ordinary Life Fairy thought differently. One morning, as she was fluttering among the meadow behind the jewel-shaped hut, she noticed his shiny golden hair and, with a clap of her wings, immediately summoned the Extraordinary Life Fairy. "Sis! Look! Here is the perfect partner for your golden girl!"

The Extraordinary Life Fairy examined the newest candidate with an appraising frown. She trusted her sister's judgement, of course; it was just that Ordinary made this pronouncement several hundred times already, and each time the perfect partner had been a little too perfect. This one wasn't...at all. If anything, this one was so very, very painfully average. Neither too tall nor too short, too courageous nor too cowardly, too strong nor too weak, too handsome nor too ugly. The boy had a shy, hesitant manner, a thin and bumbling voice, and crooked, looping stance that reminded Extraordinary of a bumblebee after one too many sips of ambrosia.

Satisfied, the fairy clapped her hands in delight, causing sparks of light to dance among the early morning dew. "How delightful! He is The One!"

Oblivious to the magic whizzing through the air, the ordinary boy continued to hull the grain. Huh. Weird. It must be raining gold, he thought. By the time Saturday and Sunday came to help with the chores, the sprinkling had faded into the afternoon haze, and, at dusk, the ordinary boy went to bed dressed in blue footie pajamas, still as oblivious as ever.

The sisters debated extensively about how to introduce the boy to the girl, who had been destined to live an extraordinary life in an extraordinary castle in the middle of a very extraordinary kingdom with extremely extraordinary knees. Though she had many acquaintances and admirers, they all seemed to like her for what she was and not who she was. This one liked the spectacular red hair, that one liked the nurturing aura, and still another liked the award-winning pancakes. They all liked the idea of the extraordinary girl more than the girl herself, and day after day the she would gaze morosely into the sea and ask for a friend who saw her are more than a paragon. She was just as a person, flaws and all, and that was all she ever wanted to be.

Now legend has it that the oceans around this particular kingdom housed a mighty and mystical power capable of granting such wishes. Of course, the sea happened to be the home of the Extraordinary, Ordinary, Somewhat-Ordinary, and So-Extraordinarily-Ordinary-It's-Like-Any-Other-Piece-of-Lint Fairies. Part of the Great Wizard's enchantment was that humans remained unaware of their existence; yet despite the secrecy, the myth of the wishing-granting ocean spread throughout the kingdom. Everyone thought that the extraordinary girl already had everything she could ever wish for, but only the fairies knew how lonely she felt surrounded by people who adored but didn't really know her.

So, late one night, Ordinary and Extraordinary moved the boy, still in his footie pajamas, from his blue and yellow bed to the bushes of the small island a few leagues away from the extraordinary girl's window. They left him with a fishing rod, some salt, and a fire stick and parted the sea clouds between the island and the shore. When morning came the ordinary boy was very confused by the seagulls nesting in his hair, though he did figured out fairly quickly that he would have to get to shore in order to meet the extraordinary girl living in the castle by the sea. The fairies left enough magical dust to find all the necessary food, shelter, and supplies and, slowly, he began to build a small arc.

Curious, the extraordinary girl observed his progress from the balcony above. Though she couldn't swim and he was too far away to hear, she cheered him on throughout the week. The ordinary boy made the bottom of the boat the first day, the sides the second and third days, and a sail of banana leaves the fourth day. She watched as he slathered coconut oil to waterproof the boat on the fifth day. His cleaning and sanding of the inside of the boat on the sixth day brought a smile to her face, as did his gathering and drying mangoes and pineapples on the seventh day. On the eighth day he set sail on the S.S. Hopeful, only to sink after only a few minutes.

Sputtering, the ordinary boy brushed the water from his eyes and glared at the remains of wood splinters and banana leaves dragging on the bottom of the ocean floor, shapes of fruits and leaves floating beside them.

How was he ever going to shore without his boat?

Floundering, he sank into the sand in frustration. Then he frowned.

The water was only waist deep!

Grumbling, the ordinary boy picked the sea creatures out of his hair and walked towards the shore, where the extraordinary girl was waiting. Here was someone who wasn't afraid to fail and get back up again, someone who didn't mind laughing at himself, who didn't mind being the butt of a hilarious joke. Just an ordinary boy trying his best, and to her that was as extraordinary as can be.

And so they lived happily ever after by the edges of the shallow sea.

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Please let me know what you think?

So...yeah...still sobbing over Volume 3 in a corner...RIP S.S Arkos.