The ground was blanketed in white as the evening snow fell down on the island of Patch. In spite of the cold weather, the market was busy with people buying food and clothes. A young girl walked along in a red hood that covered her dark red hair, her bright green eyes scanning the market until she saw the liquor store. The girl stopped before entering as she unhooked a folded scythe from her back, setting it down on the brick wall and stepping into the store. Inside the store were many adults looking over bottles of wines, brandies and spirits, some stopping to notice the child who made her way to the counter, clearing her throat to get the attention of the man standing behind it. The old gentleman turned from wiping specks of dust off a bottle to the little girl. "Well, hello there child. Are you lost? None of these drinks are for you, ya know." the counterman said with a slight rasp to his voice.
"No, I'm here to buy something for Professor Port. He's visiting my Uncle Crow and wanted something strong! Uh… I think he said he wanted something called…" the little girl said, trailing off to remember what the professor had told her to get. The shopkeeper smiled and headed off before she could fully remember, coming back with a bottle filled with murky black liquid. The red-hooded child though it was a bottle of ink.
"A bottle of fresh Hydra, straight from the barrel. That'll be 25 Lien." He said, the girl opening up her pouch and pouring out some coins. The man behind the counter took what he needed as she placed the bottle of Hydra into a larger bag, carelessly using the loaf of bread to cushion the ale. "Be careful out there, kid. Beowolves been around the forest and hunt at night. You oughta stay at the inn until the morning and-" he warned to what turned out to be an empty spot on the floor as the child was already rushing out the door.
The young girl kept up her pace, rushing through the streets and bumping into citizens of the town, occasionally knocking an unfortunate woman or child onto their back from her breakneck pace. She knew that taking the trail was a way home, but it would nearly be an 8-hour winding trail through the mountains, running through the forest was faster and more fun, according to her. So, she made her way into the forest, weaving her way through trees and jumping onto them, bouncing off one and onto the other. Her hood flew off, exposing her short crimson hair to the wind as her eyes twinkled in excitement. A shrill cry of joy echoed throughout the forest as she dismounted from another tree, leaping five feet off the ground and soaring through the air off the edge of a small cliff face.
The little girl made a flailing drop into a mound of snow, managing to not harm herself as she pulled herself out, still laughing while she brushed the snow out of her hair. Before she could check the bag to see if the groceries had survived the fall, she heard the sound of growling just over her shoulder, turning her head to see a pack of mahogany black wolves with glowing red eyes staring her down. Some had snow tipping parts of their fur while others had blood dripping from their sharp fangs but all had slowly advanced on the small human. She shakily unhooked the scythe from the strap placed over her shoulder to keep it still. She unfolded the scythe, putting herself into a fighting stance, her breathing growing rapid as the wolves began to circle her.
One went straight for the throat, but she ducked at the last second, spinning the light alloy scythe into both of her hands to lob it in half with a shower of black gore. Realizing she was in danger, she slammed the blade down into the ground, attempting to pole vault herself over the pack before realizing she wasn't able to get enough distance. So her light body took a spill on top of one of the wolves, knocking it onto its side. She struggled to stand, stumbling onto her feet and leaping into the air, using the inside curve of her blade to gain enough momentum to swing away with speed, though her light body was luckily not heavy enough to slash through the branch. She tumbled forward after landing, rolling onto her feet and breaking into her full gait. She could usually beat her sister in a foot race, but those short legs could only do so much. The large pack of 20 or more wolves took chase, dashing between the trees with inhuman levels of skill, the gap she made with her acrobatics only worked for a couple of seconds.
She gripped her handle and spread her legs wide, rotating her body to bring the blade back and land a wide, if desperate slash through a couple of wolves, though with the wave of red eyes glaring at her.. she realized then and there that there was no way for her to fight all of these on her own. She gasped and cried out for help, turning back to keep running away. Two more launched for her, which made her only just realize she tripped on a tree root, falling face first on the ground and watching as both of them miss. She turned onto her back, her cloak getting mud and snow on the red fabric as she looked at her doom, but one tried to climb over her, she planted a firm kick into its throat and used the moment to roll backward onto her feet and keep running.
She kept running, she didn't stop to look back, breathe or even think... she just took off as fast as her legs could take her. It felt like hours, or even days though all that has passed was just mere minutes as she blindingly ran into a tree in the middle of her panic. The wolves slowly approached her, none of them were even exhausted from chasing her so long. She pressed her back against the tree, feeling as if she couldn't even breathe from how frozen up in fear she was. A white wolf slowly walked in front of the pack, the other black wolves slowly acquiescing to their pack leader so it could make the kill. Its breath misted on her neck as it got ready to bite when suddenly a loud shout could be heard echoing through the woods, a yellow blur smashing into the white wolf and causing it to barrel away against the ground before smacking quite comically into a tree.
"Hands off, you bastards!" shouted a young woman with long blonde hair and matching green eyes, cracking her neck and slamming her gauntlet-clad knuckles together, a burst of fire emitting from the golden gauntlets.
"Y-Yang!" The redhead shouted from surprise. "How'd you find me?" She asked, though she couldn't get the details, the long blonde hair was obvious from the blur of her teary eyes.
"It's kind of obvious when you see a big red blur running through the snow, Ruby," Yang said with a smile as she ruffled her little sister's hair. The time was short to celebrate as she turned to fight some of them off, her heavy gauntlets smashing into the face of one of them to send it tumbling away before the loud blast of a large gun knocked another one backward.
"Save the reunions, children. We need to make it to safety!" came a gruff voice from behind. Ruby's eyes began to clear as she saw a man in a maroon jacket wielding a shotgun and sporting a quite magnificent mustache, He fired at another charging wolf as Yang picked Ruby back up by the hand.
"I know when we need to leave," Yang stated, before cracking her knuckles and turning to the large recovering white wolf. "But I'm not going without taking this one out." She recklessly declared.
"Yeah, get em' sis!" Ruby said while sort of hiding behind her. The wolves slowly approached Yang, but got scared back by another extremely loud two gunshots from Port's shotgun.
"Back, you damn beasts!" He growled out in his raspy baritone. "Don't get ahead of yourself, Yang. I don't want Ruby to lose a sister just because of your pride."He called out as Yang continued to charge the large white wolf, she swung a blow at it, though it swiftly dodged to the side. The blonde spun back and kicked it square in the jaw, though not as hard of a hit as her gauntlet, it did stumble on its feet. The wolf leaped forward, sharpened and unnatural claws cutting into the sleeve of her long trench coat and turning it into shreds. She sprung back onto her hands, making some distance with a backflip as the wolf snarled its teeth at her.
"Yang!" Ruby shouted, dashing as a red blur behind the wolf, her wrist wrapping around its tail and tugging it back. "Go get 'em!" she shouted, Yang smirking and ducking down for a huge uppercut to the wolf's jaw, launching it into the air and forcing it to pivot over Ruby's head, slamming it onto its back. Ruby grabbed her blade, cutting the tail clean off with a yelp of sheer pain coming from the inhuman beast.
Port fired another shot, the pack dispersing as Ruby ran off, bloodstained tail in her hand. Yang followed after her sister as they soon saw their uncle's wood cabin slowly come into view, a single lantern guiding them back as Port held the rear, keeping his ears open for anything else coming near them. The three soon made inside where Crow was waiting.
"Ruby! Yang!" Crow cried out with his arms outstretched, Ruby rushing to hug her uncle, Yang walking over to them. She was glad to see her sister was alright, moving aside to allow Port to step into the cabin.
"We were very fortunate to have gotten there before there was any serious damage. She'll be fine after a bit of rest." Port said, Crow nodding a bit.
"That's good to hear. Thank you, Peter. You didn't need to go out there when I could have." Crow said with a sigh of relief.
"And have them lose their beloved uncle? I wouldn't think of it!" Port said with a chuckle as Ruby let go of Crow, walking over with her head down.
"Mr. Port… I'm sorry about losing the ale…" Ruby said, digging her foot into the floor. In her panic, she had run off without her bag, leaving the groceries she had bought behind. Port let out a guffaw and pulled her hood over her head.
"The ale doesn't matter, child. As long as you're both safe, then I can handle not having a drink. Especially not after a battle like that!" he said in a reassuring tone before turning his gaze to Yang. "Now Yang, before we went to get your sister, I had asked you a question. While the trip back may not have given you much of an opportunity to think about it, I would appreciate an answer before we went to sleep. So, would you be interested in-" Port began, Yang raising her hand.
"With all due respect, Peter, I can't bring myself to go to Beacon. I can't leave Ruby alone when there are still Grimm out there that could hurt or kill her. We got lucky this time, but if I leave for Vale then that means it'll just be Ruby and uncle Crow, and Uncle Crow can't be there forever… so unless Ruby goes with me, then I won't go." Yang explained, grabbing onto Ruby's shoulder and burying the back of her little sister's head awkwardly into her chest.
"Hrm… she's a bit young, but her speed is not something that can simply be ignored. Very few could outrun a pack of Beowolves for that long…" Port contemplated, Crow walking over and patting his old teacher on the shoulder.
"Let's leave it up to Ruby. Well, Ruby, do you want to enroll in Beacon Academy?" Crow asked, Ruby's eyes lighting up. She had heard stories about Beacon from stories both her parents, her uncle and even Yang told her. That it was the greatest combat school in Vale and that those who graduated would become full-fledged Hunters. Every since she was little, she wanted to be a hero like the ones in stories she was read before bed, and while she was very happy for Yang to have Port, a representative of Beacon to scout her... going herself? It was a dream come true, so she squeaked in pure joy.
"Yes! Yesyesyesyesyes! YES!" she shouted, her pitch growing higher with each successive "yes" Port smiling and shaking her hand, which was already shaking enough.
"Then it's settled. I'll be seeing both of you at Beacon Academy soon. You can begin packing in the morning," Port said, letting out a yawn. "Until then, we should all get some rest."
Ruby nodded, ecstatically running up to her bedroom with Yang following her. Ruby quickly leapt onto her bed, scrambling to get her red cloak off. She quickly unbuckled it, tossing the cloth aside as it landed on the entering Yang. "Relax, Lil sis. We still need to sleep." Yang said, throwing off the cloak.
"But I'm so excited! I don't know how I can sleep when I know that tomorrow I'm going to Beacon!" Ruby shouted back, throwing her sheets up, which fell onto Yang like the cloak had.
"Okay quit it," Yang said as she threw the sheets back onto her sister and stepped over to her bed. The blonde sat on the bed, unzipping her boots as she contemplated whether to throw them at Ruby in revenge when she noticed that Ruby had gone from excitedly listing everything she was going to take with her to dead silent. Yang turned her head to see that her little sister had fallen asleep within seconds.
Yang smiled, walking over to the bookshelf where Ruby kept her stories that she'd been collecting throughout the years. She found a red and gold bound book named "Monsters and Where to Find Them; A Compilation of Remnant's Grimm Fauna." She softly strolled back across the smooth wooden floor in her socks, sitting back on the bed with a soft squeak of the springs. "G'night, Ruby." She said, opening the book and resting it on her sleeping face. Ruby had always read before bed and would always fall asleep with the book landing on her head. Yang turned herself around, pulling off her socks and turning her head to the window, watching as the snow continued its fall, covering the forest in white.