In memory of Monty Oum

~~AAAND START!~~ (The Secret Quest)

It was just past dusk when Yang strode up to Rose's Runes with a bag slung over her shoulder and a grin on her face. Dead tired, she raised a hand and flung the door open with all the gusto she could muster. A very familiar face greeted her from behind the workbench at the far end of the store.

"Hello and welcome to Rose's Runes—Yang!" Ruby Rose, the store's sole owner and operator, ran across the room and flung her arms around her sister. "You're home!"

"Hey, Ruby," Yang said, eagerly returning the gesture. Just seeing Ruby was enough to give her some energy—it had been months since they'd last seen each other. "And, I got you something." Prying herself out of the hug, she set her bag down with a thud and began to rummage through the contents until she pulled a small sketchbook from its depths. "Take a look at this," she exclaimed, handing the book over to Ruby, who was nearly bursting with excitement.

"What's in it?" She flipped through the pages until she found the newer sketches and her jaw promptly fell open. "Is this… It is! Oh, Yang! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She flung her arms around Yang once again, then returned her attention to the drawings. There were pages filled with sketches of ancient ruins, and more importantly, the ancient runes that lined them. They were partially eroded by time, yet still remarkably preserved. "This is perfect!"

"I thought you might be able to use them. There's bound to be a new keyword in there somewhere." Yang pulled out a chair from underneath the workbench and sat straddling it. "So, what'd I miss around here?" Nothing seemed to have changed since she left… save maybe a few missing containers of Dust lining the shelves.

Ruby pried her eyes from the sketchbook for a moment to resume her position behind the workbench and scribbled a few notes down before looking off towards the storefront. "Well, you know how Vale's guard was looking for a new rune master?"

"Yeah?"

"I kinda got the job…"

Yang bolted up and almost fell out of her chair. "Really? That's amazing!" she cried, coming around the table to crush Ruby in another hug. "I'm so proud of you!"

Ruby winced. "Y—Yang, I can't breathe." After a few more seconds, she was finally released.

Yang looked at her with a playful smirk. "Make sure you don't rune this opportunity."

"Yang!"

She laughed. "What?"

"No puns, this is serious! The guard captain's coming tomorrow and I have no idea if I'm ready!" Ruby slumped her shoulders and gazed at the tools on the bench. "What if I'm not good enough? I don't know as many runes as others…"

"Aw, I know you'll do great." Yang put her hand on Ruby's shoulder. "If you weren't good enough, they wouldn't have chosen you. You've got the mind of a master and the skill to go with it." She lifted Ruby's chin, appraising her face. "In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd think you might be some wrinkly old elder trapped in a young girl's body," she mused.

"I am not some wrinkly old elder!"

"Could have fooled me!" Ruby growled and the two tussled. Yang quickly gained the upper hand and pulled her up by the hood. "You've gotten a little stronger, Sis, but you're still no match," she gloated.

"Yang, no fair! Put me down!" Ruby struggled to get out of her hood.

Yang did as requested. "Well, how about I stick around for your deal tomorrow?"

"You'd do that?"

"Of course? How could I not be there to watch my baby sister become the youngest official rune master in history?" That sentence seemed to return Ruby to her gloom. "No pressure," Yang added, but the damage was done. She changed the subject. "So, want to hear about those ancient ruins?"

"Yes!" Ruby said instantly, excitement returning. She happily hopped onto the workbench.

Yang sat next to her, and flipped to a page in the sketchbook depicting a hallway. Runemarks covered the ground. "The locals told me about this hallway, which leads to a room once filled with unimaginable treasure," she started. "It was said to be the last defense of an impenetrable fortress. The idea was, if an intruder got too close, the hall would cave in, collapsing onto them and sealing off the treasures forever… but it never did." She turned the page to show a sketch of a mostly empty room. "Now, the treasure is gone."

"Well, yeah," Ruby snorted, amused. "The rune runnings were too far apart to cause a reaction down the whole hall."

"Exactly. Years later, local historians investigated the ruins, and they found that the rune master who built the trap had stolen the treasure."

"It was planned!"

Yang nodded. "Pretty clever if you ask me." She stood up from the workbench, stretched, and yawned. "Well, I'll leave you and the sketchbook alone. Think you can make out a new keyword?"

"I think I already did... Not sure what it means, though," Ruby admitted.

"That's great! I'll be in my room if you need me. Don't stay up too late, okay?"

"Okay," Ruby agreed, rolling her eyes.

That taken care of, Yang ascended the stairs to her room. Sleep came easily to her that night. Despite the periodic explosions, there was a comfortable silence.

/-/-/-/

A sleepy Yang ambled down the stairs in her linen undergarments, leather overcoat and tasset forgotten. Stomach vocalizing a need for food, the scent of toasted rye kept her feet in motion. "Morning, Ruby." A final stretch woke her up and she blinked. And then blinked again. And once more, trying to take in the scene around her.

"Ignite!" A small explosion was brought to life. The flames licked at a slice of bread on a stick before dying out onto a metal plate on the wooden floor. Three whole containers of Dust lay empty next to a bucket of pig's blood and notes were carelessly scattered about, some even singed. Ruby—the cause of this mess—turned and grinned triumphantly at Yang. Great bags were under her eyes yet she showed almost no signs of fatigue. "Morning, Yang. Toast?"

"Uh, sure." Yang gingerly took the slice and bit off a small piece. It tasted of Dust but it wasn't altogether horrible. She'd eaten worse these last couple of months. "So, I take it last night was a success?"

"Yup! The runes read 'Ignite.' Actually, the hardest part was figuring out how to toast the bread with it…" She pointed to four whole loaves burnt beyond recognition behind her. "The spell's compatible with your fighting style, want me to put it on Ember Celica? I could fit four on each hand."

"Sure. Cooking toast over the fire takes too long, anyway," Yang joked. Ruby stuck out her tongue and almost bit it when she was pulled into a surprise hug. "I really missed this little genius."

"Yang… can't… breathe…" Yang's full strength had returned overnight. The cracking of Ruby's spine confirmed it. Then, there came a knock at the door. "That must be the guard captain!" Ruby re-adjusted her cloak. "What do I do? This place is a mess!"

"I'll stall them, you clean."

"Yang, wait, your clothes!"

"What about them… oh." Greeting the guard captain in her linens wouldn't be the greatest choice. "Well, what else can we do?"

"Ms. Rose? This is Captain Schnee of Vale's guard. Open the door, please." A light pounding came from other side of the wooden frame. Ruby began to panic and started shoving everything under the workbench. "Ms. Rose?" The knocking came again.

"I'll think of something, you just get rid of the bread!" Yang ran to the door and opened it, ignoring Ruby's shouts of horror and coming face-to-face with the guard captain's fist as she was about to knock for the third time. "Welcome!" She laughed nervously.

Weiss Schnee stood outside the door looking mildly perplexed, having heard the conversation. Almost instantly, her eyes bulged as she in turn came face-to-face with Yang's half exposed figure. Short shorts and a skimpy tank top that no worshiper of the Goddess would wear was not what she was expecting. Even if she was wearing a scarf, it did nothing to hide some rather… exposed areas of skin. "M—Ms. Ruby Rose?" she coughed, trying to maintain composure in the midst of mortification.

"Nope, I'm her sister, Yang. Nice to meet you."

Weiss took the hand offered to her.

"Ruby should be finished shortly. She pulled an all nighter so she's just cleaning up."

The smell of burnt bread wafted out of the house, leaving Weiss even more confused than before. Bread? All nighter? What kind of strange hobbies did the guard's new rune master hold? "I see... Well, I would like to start our business soon." Weiss narrowed her eyes at Yang. "What occupation do you hold?"

"Who, me? I'm an adventurer."

The lack of clothing made sense to her now. Drawing up her posture, she shouldered past Yang and into the house to see a younger girl with an oversized cloak shoving a box of strange, black objects behind the shop's door. "Ms. Rose?"

"Th—That would be me!" The door was quickly closed, resulting in a crash behind it. The sisters winced and Weiss sighed. How could someone little more than a child be capable of putting runes on weapons and armor? "And, Ruby's fine," she corrected once the noise died down.

"Now then… Ruby, I'm here to work out the details of our arrangement."

"Oh, anything's fine. Just tell me what you need and I'll get it done!"

"I've heard stories of your prowess; however, I would like a demonstration." Weiss was so far unconvinced that this girl could do what was asked of her. She brought a dagger over to the workbench.

Yang gave Ruby a thumbs up.

"Right…" Ruby nodded and took a seat, bringing out her tools. She quickly drew runes and rune runnings on the dagger with a paste made out of fire Dust and pig's blood. "Burn." The metal of the dagger began to glow red-hot and Ruby started pounding away. "What spell would you like?"

"Any is fine." Weiss raised an eyebrow at the skill displayed thus far. Perhaps she was wrong about Ruby. "I've already received a list of the keywords you know."

"Got it." The clang of metal continued. After a while, Ruby grinned and plunged the blade into a bucket of water, effectively cancelling the spell and returning the blade to a normal temperature. There was a single keyword written near the tip of the blade that Weiss had never seen before. Next, Ruby lined the grooves of the runes with a thin layer of wet clay and more fire Dust. She Burned it again to harden the clay. The whole process had taken only an hour. The speed at which the rune master worked was incredible. "Here you are," Ruby nearly sang as she handed the dagger over with a brush dipped in pig's blood. "The spell reads 'Ignite.'"

"I wasn't aware that you knew a spell like this."

"I just learned it," Ruby grinned triumphantly.

Weiss simply took the brush and painted a line across the runes. Examining the blade up close, she spoke the name of the spell. "Ignite," she commanded, and the dagger blew up in her face.

/-/-/-/

Weiss had lost her composure and had begun to yell at Ruby the minute she wiped the soot from her eyes. Yang, who had put on the rest of her outfit in the past hour, was too busy trying to contain a laugh to step in, leaving Ruby to fend for herself. For the last five minutes, Ruby had been stuck between wanting to cover her ears and not wanting to anger Weiss any more than she already was.

"Unbelievable! Would it have hurt to at least tell me what the spell did first?"

"I'm really, really sorry…" Ruby looked like she wanted to disappear as she toed the wooden floor.

"Ugh, you complete dolt! What are you even doing here? Aren't you a little young to be a rune master?"

"W—Well, I…"

"This isn't just some game! People's lives will be depending on these spells. It's not just for fun or practice, you know! Vale's guard fight monsters, so… So at least tell us what kind of spells we're going to be using!"

"Hey, I said I was sorry, princess!" Ruby had had enough. She knew as well as Weiss did what was at stake.

Meanwhile, Yang had recovered enough to defend her sister. "For the record, you never even asked what kind of spell it was, so isn't it your fault? And, at least now you know she's capable of doing her job."

"Wha—How dare you—The nerve of… Ugh!" The guard captain thrust a roll of paper sealed with Vale's crest at Ruby and walked off in a huff.

Ruby, elated that she hadn't been fired before she was hired yet still sorry, called after Weiss. "I promise I'll make this up to you!" She sighed when the door closed. "You were right, Yang. I runed it."

"That's not true, you just got off to a bad start!" Yang tried her best to console her sister. "With these things, it's better to start with a bang than go out with one." The pun wasn't helping.

"I blew up Vale's guard captain, Yang. A bad start's a bit of an understatement." When Yang broke into laughter again, Ruby shot her a dirty look. Then, shaking her heard, she began unrolling the piece of paper. "So, I guess I should get to work, huh?"

"Yeah, and, speaking of work, I have to go turn in my quest and look for a new one."

"Alright, see you later, Sis."

Yang grabbed her bag and headed outside. "See ya, Rubes."

/-/-/-/

Bartholomew Oobleck's house stood off a dirt road in a secluded area near the edge of the kingdom. The man seemed perfectly content to live alone, as he never developed any particularly close relationships, and spent nearly every waking moment researching as a historian. Whenever an unexpected knock came at the door, he looked out the window to see if it was worth answering. If he did answer, he actively shortened the conversation so as to get back to work faster.

When Yang approached the door, it opened before she could even raise a hand to knock and she was immediately pulled inside. "Whoa?"

"Ms. Xiao Long, it's good to see you in one piece! I've been expecting your visit. Have you brought the artifact I requested?" Oobleck spoke rapidly. His disheveled clothing looked windblown, but he hadn't set foot outside all day.

"Uh… Yes, Sir, I have it right here!" Yang proudly pulled a small statue-like object from her bag. Shaped into a small Beowolf, the stone sculpture stood forever snarling at the people who dared to touch it.

"Wonderful! It's in marvelous condition! With this, I should be able to finish my manuscript on the children of ancient times. It seems these toys' designs ranged from town to town, depending on the Grimm in the area." Oobleck zoomed with an unnatural quickness towards his desk. He deposited the object and brought back a small pouch. "Your payment, Ms. Xiao Long," he announced, extending the bag of Lien towards Yang.

"Thank you." She smiled politely and put the pouch with the rest of her items. That done, she slung her bag over her shoulder. "I don't suppose you have any other quests?"

"No, the items you have amassed for me thus far will suffice." The historian sat back down at his desk and began to write so quickly, his hand was little more than a blur.

"Okay, well, thanks for the business." Yang decided to leave the man in peace and walked towards the door.

"Ms. Xiao Long?"

"Yes?"

"Do read the manuscript when it's done, hmm?"

Yang smiled playfully. "We'll see. If you make it a quest, I might find it appealing."

Oobleck spared a smile and a breath of laughter.

When the door closed behind her, Yang took out the pouch of money and began to count the coins inside. One hundred Lien exactly. She would receive six times that once the manuscript was approved and bought by the Church. Coupled with the other quests she completed on her journey, the total would come to around 2,400 Lien. It was enough for three month's rent. Of course, Ruby brought in a more stable income, but much of it was lost to food and supplies. To supplement, Yang sent rent money home with her letters when she could.

After putting away her money, Yang walked her favorite tavern. She was greeted with a cheer.

"Yang's back," Nora Valkyrie, the bartender of The Valkyrie's Drinking Grounds, yelled from her position behind the bar counter.

The drunkards around the tavern tables roared. "Blazing Blondie!"

Yang raised her fist as she sauntered through the bar. A charge was in the air, as if they half expected her to get up and do something wild, but no. She was in for regular business today.

"So, Yang, what can I do for you? Let me guess, mug of ale? Finest in Vale," Nora baited. There were murmurs of agreement from around the tavern.

"Sorry, Nora, no can do. I'm just here to see if you have any quests," Yang said.

"It was worth a shot. What kind of quests are you looking for?" Nora slid her a glass of water.

"Anything you got, I'll get it done." Yang lifted the glass towards her in thanks, then downed it.

"Well, in that case…" Nora leaned in and lowered her voice. "I need someone to do a job for me, but it's got to be a secret."

"I'm listening…" In Yang's experience, secret jobs tend to pay well.

"You know Forever Fall?"

Yang inched closer, ready for one hell of a job description. "Yeah?"

"I'm going to need you… To collect some sap from the trees."

"What?"

"Shh!" Nora looked around skeptically before continuing. "No one can find out! It's the secret ingredient to Ren's special pancake syrup, and I ate the last jar of it! I didn't mean to eat it, it just tasted really, really good and I couldn't help myself! So, I need you to get some more jars before he finds out." She leaned in closer. "And, I hear it makes a mean sweet ale."

Yang thought about it. She could turn in the quest by tomorrow if she traveled on horseback, meaning it would be easy to get it done and look for other quests. The Grimm in the area weren't particularly tough, either. All in all, it seemed doable. "How much sap do you need?"

"Hmm… about sixty jars."

"Excuse me?" Yang raised her voice again.

"Yang, shh!" Nora was completely serious.

"Isn't sixty jars a bit much? I don't know if I can carry all of that."

"Don't worry about it! I'll lend you my cart and all the jars you need. You just need to make sure it gets back safely!" Flipping a glass in the air, she added smoothly, "I'll pay you two hundred Lien and three bottles of the best sweet ale in Remnant."

Two hundred Lien and three bottles of fine ale was hard to pass up… but Yang had enough experience to know when she was being underpaid. The sap of Forever Fall trees took a notoriously long time to drip, meaning she would have to defend herself and the cargo for a week minimum while waiting for the jars to fill up. "Make it three hundred and you have a deal."

"Two fifty."

"Two seventy five."

"Well, Yang Xiao Long, you drive a hard bargain, but we have a deal," Nora relented. Just after she said that, someone started a fight over a lost wager. With a grin, she took out her war hammer and politely asked the two drunks if they were going to fight outside.

They took one look at her smile and decided they were.

~~AAAND STOP!~~

AN: Hey, everyone! Hope you enjoyed the first chapter. Please review and all that good stuff! Here's some info:

Rune system: Runes are like letters that are strung together to form keywords. Once filled with Dust and brushed with blood, all one needs to do is speak the keyword, and the spell will activate. Any type of blood will activate the keyword.

Rune runnings are used when expanding the spell over large areas. They're basically lines filled with more Dust, but they don't need to be brushed with blood. Runes appear in many forms based on where they come from, and mastering techniques to understand and use them takes time and skill.

Any questions? Please ask!

One-time disclaimer: I do not own RWBY. I will continue to not own it even after this story is over.

Also, thanks to my plot editor and all the people who supported this idea.

NEXT: The Girl in the Forest