[ III ]

Ruby hated night duty.

Her father and the council of elders came to a decision last night, and that was to station teams of two in certain areas around the village's outskirts when the night falls. They were to act as the watchers of the village who will warn the people if they spot the Undead advancing in on their territories. Ruby thought the idea was great. That is, until she was the among the first to be assigned by her father.

She couldn't say no. She didn't want to disappoint her dad who expected a lot about her.

"Ruby, are you alright?" Blake, the girl she was assigned with, asked. She saw two fuzzy images of Blake and it took a bit of effort on her end to fight away the weariness weighing her down. Her double vision stabilized and came together to form one clear image - the cat-eared girl staring at her with golden eyes that reflected the light from the campfire they lit. Blake sat on a rock opposite from her, watching her intently.

"Hmm? Yeah, I'm fine." Ruby answered and yawned deeply, stretching her arms above her head. It was satisfying somehow; feeling her muscle fibers and joints stretch. "Just sleepy, is all."

"Then you better get some sleep." Blake suggested, leaning forward a bit. Shadows danced upon Blake's features, the display created by the firelight mesmerizing. Or to her, at least. Weariness made her find most anything hypnotic. "I'll watch over you while you do."

"No, no." Ruby insisted, holding back a yawn. "I'm fine now. Fine..." Her head bobbed and her heavy eyelids drooped closed as she drifted off to sleep for a spell. Her sight blurred, unclear images dancing in her field of vision, and she felt like she was just floating in a body of water.

"You seriously need to sleep." Blake replied, jolting Ruby out of her micro-sleep.

"No." Ruby replied stubbornly, struggling to keep herself stable despite her entire body's desire to just collapse on the leaf-covered ground and fall asleep, not to wake until the sun's rays burn through her eyelids. She still had a duty to perform.

A soft humming sounded, the quiet melody slow and calm. It was oddly tranquilizing. "I already said it..." She continued, trying to keep herself awake. The song that now sounded a bit louder, almost annoyingly so - like it was trying its hardest to make her lay down and fall asleep somewhere comfortable, filled Ruby's ears. Consciousness struggled to slip from her, but she wouldn't allow that. "I'm not... going... to sleep..."

The last thing she remembered before blacking out was crashing onto a pile of leaves.

"Finally, she's asleep." Said Blake, her voice followed by the soft, muffled sound of feet hitting the soft ground. The sound of leaves crunching was also audible. Someone just put their weight on the sea of dead leaves. "Good night, Ruby."

"Cheater..."

"Yo, princess!" Yang called as they made their way to their destination. Leaves crumbled and twigs snapped under her feet as she walked at a nonchalant pace, making crunching and snapping noises that accompanied every step she made. She would've been concerned about making such noise around people who could hear a butterfly's wingbeat if she wasn't physically strong enough to send one of them flying with a well-placed punch. "Tell me again what we're doing here."

"To pass the time." Weiss answered, closely inspecting her rapier as she walked, turning the silver blade in her hands. She just cleaned the sword, revealing its beautiful luster and making the markings engraved into the blade even more visible. It looked beautiful, but she wouldn't mind having it covered with the blood of another Theriathrope. "And to carry out a mission. We're here to scout ahead, remember? We could also turn this into a little hunting game."

With one quick strike, she brought her rapier down on a field mouse scampering about. It didn't turn to a Therianthrope, the way they always do when they're killed in their animal forms. She was a bit disappointed at that. "Just a regular one... Be careful. They can be anywhere, taking any form." She fished a cloth from a pouch she had hanging from her waist and wiped the blood off the tip of the blade. She wanted it clean for when she had to execute a Therianthrope.

"Yeah, but just the two of us?" Yang asked, holding her hands behind her head. "We might get outnumbered out here, especially now that we're on their grounds. Couldn't we at least bring Emerald along for backup? It'd be nice to have someone who can hit from a distance."

"I don't think she'd want to be near you after last night's episode..." Weiss shuddered, remembering the time Yang's eyeball just popped out of her skull. Emerald looked greener than her own hair when she ran away. Others even say that she passed out in the bathroom.

"What? It wasn't that bad."

"Yang, it was disgusting."

"Well, I didn't think she didn't have the stomach for it!" Yang laughed out loud, clutching her abdomen. Weiss just looked at her like she was crazy, seemingly missing the pun. "It'd sound better if I could just pull my stomach out." Yang explained, pointing to the stitch in the side of her abdomen.

"Please don't." Weiss answered, curling her lip. She would just faint on the spot if Yang does manage to pull out one of her internal organs - much worse if it's a set up for a pun - but not before she loses her lunch. She'll just lie on a pool of her own vomit, and that prospect somehow sounded less disgusting than watching her partner show her viscera.

"What if I-"

"Shush." Weiss quickly put her hand over Yang's mouth. She assumed her stance, rapier ready to strike, legs ready to retreat. Whichever works best for whatever situation they may face. "You see that?" She whispered, pointing to a faint light in the distance. Yang nodded. "That's a fire. Do you think they're who we think they are?" Yang nodded again. "Ready for a fight?"

Yang cracked her knuckles and popped the vertebrae in her neck. "That sound like an answer?"

"Let's go." Weiss nodded and they quickened their pace towards the fire, ready to attack and kill whatever was waiting for them there.

Ruby... A familiar, ethereal, feminine voice called. It sounded like a chime: melodic, beautiful, calming. Ruby's head swiveled, trying to locate the source of the voice.

Ruby... The voice called again and Ruby turned around. She saw a tall figure in a white robe, the hood covering her face. Rose petals were suspended in the air around her, moved by a gentle, unfelt breeze.

Ruby... Captivated, Ruby approached the figure. There was just something about this individual that made her feel at peace somehow.

Ruby approached the hooded figure and the one in the white robe turned to face her. She couldn't see the figure's face, nor make out any definite features. Just a blank, white slate in place of a face. The figure gently placed her hands on Ruby's shoulders, gently nudging her. Ruby, it's time to wake up. The voice called again, but Ruby didn't want to wake up. She felt tranquil there. She never wanted to leave. She wanted to stay there, even if it meant never waking up again.

Ruby, wake up... The voice repeated, the nudging from the figure gradually getting stronger. Ruby...

"Ruby!"

Ruby snapped awake to find a pair of hands on her shoulders and a shadowed figure standing over her, golden eyes staring into hers. It was Blake. The fire they lit was snuffed out and not even a single ember remained glowing red-orange. Their zone was drowned in total darkness. "Blake, what?"

The cat girl pressed her finger onto Ruby's lips, shushing her. "They're here." She said, her voice barely higher than a whisper. "They're close. I can hear them."

Ruby raised her nose and took a whiff of the air. The scent of death hung heavy in the atmosphere and the sound of leaves crackling barely audible, but it was there. And it seemed as if the noise was headed in their direction. Ruby stood up gently, being careful not to make the pile of leaves she was lying on rustle. That might alert the Undead to their presence. "Blake, you ready to fight?" The cat girl nodded and her golden eyes, the only parts of Blake that she can see in the darkness, went lower, taking on a more rounded shape. They looked like two orbs hovering closely together a short distance above the ground. Blake has assumed her feline form. Without making a single noise, the cat ran off.

Ruby knew what Blake was planning and she decided to go with it.

With one mental command, fur began to sprout out all over her form, her claws and fangs extending from her digits and gums. Her snout elongated and so did her ears as she went down to stand on all fours. In a short period of time, the Ruby who stood before on two legs as a humanoid now stood on four legs as a wolf. She ran towards the direction opposite to where Blake went, preparing for the famous tactic Blake was known for executing all the time.

Approaching from both sides.

Two girls went into their small, abandoned encampment. One of them was tall with blonde hair with fair skin that stitches of all shapes and sizes scattered all over her person, making her look like she was just a jumble of body parts put together. The other was someone Ruby recognized. White hair in a side ponytail secured by a tiara, pale skin that stood out against the dark background, and startling, light blue eyes that looked like they could give a piercing glare and stare into someone's very soul.

It was that girl she saw the night before.

"I could swear they were here." The shorter girl said and looked around, her brow furrowed, her eyebrow raised. "They were just here and... these ashes are still fresh."

Out of the corner of her eye, Ruby saw Blake's reflective irises bobbing up and down - the signal for her to begin their attack. "Can you hear that?" The taller blonde asked confusedly, lilac eyes darting left and right, fists clenching, stance preparing for a fight. "It sounded like something was..."

Before the blonde could finish her sentence, Blake jumped out from the undergrowth in the form of a black cat. A blue flame lit the tip of her tail and balls of ghostly fire floated around her as she moved, following her everywhere she went. She pounced on the white-haired one and set the tip of the Undead's ponytail on fire using her burning tail. The white-haired one screeched and the blonde puched Blake, sending her flying. "You're not getting away!" The blonde yelled and gave chase to Blake while the other one was frantically trying to extinguish the fire consuming her hair.

Ruby saw their separation as a chance for a divide-and-conquer strategy.

She leapt out of her cover of leaves, claws extended and fangs bared, ready to maul the white-haired girl apart. She landed a few feet away from the girl, whose icy gaze was now transfixed on her. She snarled and the Undead girl laughed, her hand moving to the hilt of her weapon. "You think you, a little mutt, could defeat me?" Ruby growled as menacingly as she could, trying to intimidate the girl, saving the fighting as a last resort if the Undead weren't able to take a hint and retreat.

"Is that all you're going to do?" The white-haired girl challenged, her rapier pointed at Ruby. "Snarl at me? If that's so, then I'll just end you before things get boring!"

Ruby raised her snout to howl, but before she could do so, a loud crackling sound came from behind the Undead girl she faced. The white-haired girl's expression went slack, wide-eyed and mouth hanging open as she turned around. Ruby saw the carnage going on. The trees and bushes were alight with intense blue flames, two sillhouettes duelling in the middle of the blaze. One of them was the blonde girl, and the other was... something else.

It was tall, almost as tall as the blonde, its fur jet black and its claws menacingly long and sharp. It stood on two legs, its entire body slender and feminine yet well-built and toned. Two large, pointy ears stuck out of its head and an intense blue flame burned brightly at the tip of its tail protruding from its back. Ghostly balls of fire floated around it, approaching the blonde and setting everything on their path on fire. The creature was Blake, but now she had assumed her true, Therianthropic form.

Ruby couldn't see twhat was happening behind the raging wall of flames, but she could hear the sounds of the intense battle going on behind it. Roars and screams sounded from within the fire, trees falling and collapsing as the heat consumed them. "Take this!" The voice of the blonde yelled, the scream followed by frantic footsteps and the noise of leaves crackling under heavy feet. A log emerged from the wall of flames, headed for the white-haired Undead Ruby faced.

It hit.

An invisible barrier around the Undead broke and fell apart, and the girl fell to her knees unconscious.

This was Ruby's perfect opportunity.

She approached the fainted girl, teeth bared and ready to tear apart her throat.

But strangely enough, she found that she couldn't do it.

She stared into the girl's fainted face and more subtle details came into view: the scar over her eye or that somehow-adorable look on her unconscious face. Blood dripped from her forehead and her nose. Ruby couldn't bring herself to kill the Undead, even if they were enemies. It was against her honor to kill a helpless, fainted girl.

She decided that she'll instead wait for her to recover before she tries to kill her.

Ruby clamped her jaw down on the collar of the Undead's top and dragged her to a secret spot away from the scene, away from the battle going on within the raging, blue flames.

She just hoped Blake would be alright.

One well-placed punch to the beast's face was all it took to get her a victory.

The creature snarled and shrunk, taking the form of a little, black cat and ran away, burning tail between its legs. "What?" Yang yelled after the retreating Therianthrope, "is that all you got?!"

The intense, blue fire crackled and a tree branch fell from the canopy, the burning piece of wood and bark nearly hitting Yang over the head. "I have to get out of here." She decided and ran towards the wall of flame, body tucked in, head bowed down. She charged through the fire, the searing heat making her feel like she's in an oven, being cooked to perfection like a roast turkey.

Yang just laughed at that thought. She was already perfect and smoking hot.

Or at least, she thought she was.

"Princess!" She yelled after she burst through the flames, seemingly unscathed. There was nothing in that area but dead leaves and dry twigs. "Hey, princess!" She looked around, scanning the ground for anything that might indicate what had happened while she was busy with the big cat. "Weiss! Where are you?"

She found a trail on the ground, seemingly made by something dragging something big. A burning log lay on the start of the trail, a few drops of blood gleaming in the fire of the burning wood. Her hand flew to her mouth as she stared wide-eyed at the scene. It could only have meant the worst.

"I am so double-dead."

A/N: Blake was actually based off a Bakeneko, a Japanese Yokai which is believed to originate from a cat. That explains all the fire and stuff.