Note from the future: Dates fixed so this happened on the 28th of Amethyst

Project 3:

Tale of the Two Hunters

The Brawler

Yang had been travelling for two years and some months now. Normally how much time passed didn't really matter to her. There were two dates she wouldn't forget however. The first was when her mother left. It was a warm summer day and they still lived outside of Patch, this was before her dad quit being a ranger, something she only vaguely remembered. The second was the day she left herself. It was the first of Garnet, the first day of spring, nearly two years and two months ago. It was the 13th of Amethyst now.

The moon was already coming out even though the evening sky was still a purple haze capable of lighting the way. It was a beautiful waxing half-moon.

Yang Xiao Long was near her destination. A small farming town by the name of Twin'brook. She hadn't been here yet, but this would be her first stop in the eastern lands of Vale. She had spent the last year in the city of Gemini in the south, fighting sailors and soldiers in whatever Inn or bar she found herself in. A girl had to eat after all, and she was a very talented brawler. This past year she spent between the City of Vale in the east and the northern border with Atlas. She considered going into Mantle to see Atlas, but rumors of vampires and the biting cold kept her away. So instead she spent the year fighting and brawling in taverns and inns and bars. Again.

She considered it all time well spent. It gave her time to think on things and plan her next moves. After all, while she looked like a fiery young spirit who simply loved to fight wherever she went, she was actually all of that on a carefully laid out path. Everywhere she went was for a purpose. Most were to earn her some coin and marks before moving on to a bigger destination, but in Gemini she had caught wind of her mother's whereabouts, and in Vale she even had beaten the info out of someone who was able to describe her perfectly. She was closing in steadily, but surely.

Twin'brook was just another stop along the way to her bigger goal. She was headed to East Gate. A massive city that sprawled over the wasteland it was built upon and watched both the cursed Black Forest inside Vale's borders, and kept whatever roamed the borderlands to the east out. It was a city of heroes and murderers as her father had described it to her. All of the information she had gathered and beaten out of people had been pointing her to go there. To the birth place of the rangers.

The fiery blonde brawler had a grin on her face as she approached the town. The woods were silent on her trip now. She couldn't help but shake the feeling that she was almost at the end of her journey. At least this portion of her journey. The thick oaks of the area were making it hard to see the half-moon through there freshly leaved tops. Nearly out of the woods, she could see a freshly planted field just beyond, she came across a clearing. Curiosity getting the better of the blonde, Yang investigated the opening.

Aside from the fact that nothing grew in this little twenty-foot by twenty-foot circle in the woods, it didn't seem too remarkable. When she stepped foot in it though her grin disappeared. The feeling she had of completion of replaced by a sinking feeling in her chest. The closer to the center she got the worse it got. "What in the hell is this," Yang muttered as she stood in the center of the ring. She couldn't move. The blonde felt a rising sense of panic and danger which only caused her heart beat to sky rocket. She tried everything she knew but her body wouldn't budge. She even tried bursts of her Aura, something she wasn't well versed in, and while this allowed her to make small movements it only increased her panic.

Then she heard the howl.

Claws and teeth came at her faster than she could react. If she hadn't been snared by this strange trap anyway that was. Yang felt herself be ripped loose from the snare she was in when the monster's claws ripped into her flesh. She was flung to the edge of the small clearing. She tried to move but was barely able to roll over. She looked down at her side which had blood pouring out of four deep gashes. She looked up to see the snarling face of a large grey wolf. It looked like it was smirking at her.

"Well hey there, puppy," she said weakly. Her head was spinning, or it felt like it. The wolf slashed at her again. This time Yang coughed out blood as she tumbled along the edge of the clearing. She didn't need to look to feel the wounds in her other side as well now. Just before her world went black she swore she heard someone call to her. This one is mine. It sounded feminine, but Yang couldn't tell. Then it was all over as quickly as it had started. Blackness like a moonless night.

Yang took in a deep breath. She shot up in place with glazed over eyes. Every fiber of he being screamed out in pain. She jumped to her feet nonetheless and raised her fists, ready to defend herself. She was alone. She looked around. The brawler was in a small clearing. A sense of warmth enveloped her. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary. The brawler found her pack which had ended up just outside the circle. She picked it up and strapped it. What happened, she asked herself. She couldn't remember. Just a weird place to rest and a bad dream, she agreed with herself on.

As soon as the fiery blonde stepped out of the circle and back into the woods onto the beaten path she had been travelling on the night before, the sense of warmth left her. It was a cool spring morning, the sun just barely peaking over the horizon. The first thing she noticed though was that the moon was still visible. For some reason she couldn't place this made her smile. It made her blissfully happy for a moment.

Crossing the freshly planted field was exactly as easy as she figured crossing a field would be. The only added danger was making sure she didn't step on any mounds of seeds or whatever it was. She wasn't a farmer, she didn't know. There was a clear enough path going from one side to the other so she took it.

She saw a man standing at the edge of the field watching her cross. "Good morning~" she sang happily to this man when she reached him. She felt bliss this morning.

"Good morn'n," the man said with a nod. "Picked a strange route into town," he said gesturing over to the woods she had just come out of.

"Oh, yeah," Yang realized it was strange. She saw a larger road leading from the east to the west that most people probably used. "I was just coming from the north though, so I thought it'd be quicker." Not technically a lie, she reminded herself.

The man hummed to himself. "Be careful if you head back that way. That's a dangerous place to be. Been a while since a ranger cleared it out."

Yang's interest peaked. "Oh," she said cocking her head to the side. "What's dangerous about it?"

"Wolves mostly, sometimes wolves bigger than they ought to be though."

Yang took the man's warning and bid him farewell after asking where the inn was. He pointed her in the right direction. Given how small the town was she surprised to find how large the inn was. It was three stories though the third was just from the main room which was large and open for late night gatherings. There were at least two good sized sections on the first two levels for rooms though. They had a decent number of travelers come through then.

"Hello, young lady," the innkeep said. She had a friendly smile, a requirement for her trade. "What can I help you with?" And a cautious gaze, a necessity to survive.

"Hello, ma'am," Yang said politely. "I'm on a rather long trip and am just looking for a place to stay and maybe work before moving on."

The innkeep understood. "Young woman on a trip to find herself or someone else?" Yang nodded. "Well you can stay here if you'd like, and you can earn your keep by working. I need a serving girl for the next few weeks and I'm sure if you need more work you look strong enough to help a few of the farmers."

"I appreciate it, ma'am, thank you," Yang said with her cheery grin returning. Just another relaxing stop on a long journey, Yang reminded herself.

When she tried opening her eyes, Yang Xiao Long was greeted by the burning sensation of the high sun. This of course was in addition to what she assumed was a hangover that rivaled being hit by a giant's club… or the one time she tried to drink a dark knight out from under the table. She had won, but it wasn't worth not being able to function very well the next day. So she screwed her eyes shut as tight as possible and rubbed her temples between her palms. "Oh for the love of fire dust," she cursed casually.

After a few moments with no change the blonde bombshell of a brawler fell back onto whatever she had been laying on in the first place. It felt wet. Not like someone spilled water or puked. It was wet like snow. Like a sort of slush was coating her make shift bed. She peaked out from behind her eyelids. Ever so carefully and slowly this time. Oh. She wasn't sure what she was laying on, but the source of light was now obvious. There was a sizable hole in the ceiling above her. It was in fact the sun she was looking up at. She closed her eyes again when the pain threatened to resurface.

She just lay there for how long she didn't know. Her sense of time didn't seem to be functioning very well, and with her unable to open her eyes for long she couldn't judge the light change. It could've been minutes; it could've been an hour. She didn't care though either. No one came running for her. No one was yelling her name. She obviously wasn't needed nor in any form of danger. What the hell did I have to drink last night? She asked herself through her slowly lifting haze. She honestly didn't recall the thought of alcohol last night, let alone consuming enough to get her like this. She knew she wasn't drugged at least. Thanks to her Aura, her terribly untrained and sporadic Aura, she was immune to most poisons and toxins. Thank for that at least, mom, the thought sarcastically.

Another unknown amount of time passed. Yang shook her thoughts into focus. She felt like she had just drifted back into a slumber, though it felt brief. She opened her eyes. Weary of the potential pain. This time it didn't come. She was staring up at the sky again, through the hole in the roof of wherever she was sheltering. The sun had moved a significant distance this time. Guess I slept the morning away at least. The sun was out of sight and the afternoon sky had a light purple haze to it. It looked like lavender peaking about from behind hapless clouds.

The blonde brawler sat up carefully. Her hands slipped on that strange slushy goop that was covering her resting spot. She pulled herself up by her knees instead. Her eyes screwed shut and she swallowed back the urge to release the contents of her stomach immediately. She refused to move now. She just sat holding her head tightly against her knees and the palms of her hands. Happy place, happy place, happy place. Yang hated vomiting. It was disgusting and it never made her feel better. Not once.

Soon her stomach was settled and she risked opening her eyes. She ruled out standing up though. She looked around. Shocked was the simplest way she would've described how she felt just then. The room she was in was a mess. A wreck. A disaster. What had obviously once been the master room of the Inn she worked at was now a shambling wreck of what she could only describe as a blood bath of a fight. The furniture was smashed. Blood was splashed everywhere, though she saw no bodies.

Her hand touched the slush on the floor again. She pulled her now shaking hands up in front of her. They were stained crimson. She looked down. Her earlier attempts to remain calm and steady were for naught. She hunched over and let her stomach loose onto the floor. "What the actual fuck," was all she could think to say. "What the actual fuck. Holy fuck. Fuck." All over the floor were pieces and pools of blood and flesh. Chunks of bone here and there. "What the fuckin' hell. Holy fire dust. What the flaming lumber hell." She wasn't sure what she was saying or seeing anymore.

Tears made their way down her face. When they fell they were stained red like her hands and the floor and everything else. She let her stomach go one more time before forcing herself up. She stumbled over to a dresser that had a chair with enough legs to be stable and fell into its embrace. The sturdy wood wasn't comfortable but Yang's mind was elsewhere. She studied the room in as much detail as her guts let her. "The hell," she continually muttered. The brawler noted that the bed was completely demolished, like a large creature had used it as a board to beat someone to death on. Which given the staining and splatter on it, was exactly what happened.

She picked up a piece of mirror that no doubt came from the now shattered one that had been above the small dresser she sat by. She angled the piece around checking herself. She was covered in blood. Her lilac eyes peered out from behind a red and black mess of dried blood and a fresh trail of tears that only washed away streaks of the dried crimson. Her hair was matted and pressed with clumps of whatever dried in it. She assumed safely it was the same as what was on the floor and walls and bed. She checked over her legs and arms and torso. Aside from being stained and covered like her hair and face, the brawler's body was free from harm. "What the hell did this. Why am I okay?" She asked to no one. The only thing she could find wrong was that her clothes were ruined. Torn, shred, and not fit for polite, or even impolite, company.

"What happened here," the brawler asked no one again. After doing her best to shake her shock she decided to check the rest of the Inn. No one had come looking for her. She knew she had been there for more than a few hours. She had to have been. So why hasn't anyone come by? She stepped out of the master room and into the hall that separated the sleeping areas from the main gathering hall of the tavern. She noted the blood trailed through here. She peaked in every door only to quickly duck back out into the hall each time. The rooms were in better condition than the one she had been in, but here she could see what had been the full bodies of the victims of this whatever it was. She still wasn't certain.

Before she stepped into the main hall she took one important note. The smell of the dead wasn't there. Or maybe it was, but it wasn't bothering her. She had been around the dead a few times in her journey, normally from hunting with a few wanderers as she went from town to town, on two occasions human bodies, but she knew something was off here. Why can't I smell it? A rumbling in her stomach only told her she was hungry. It did nothing to help her. She knew this should be making her sick still. Maybe it was just the shock… she pondered, becoming sick at herself rather than the travesty around her.

At the bottom of a short flight of stairs she stepped into the main hall. She knew the sight here should've made her double over. It didn't, but she knew it should have. There was the similar scene of splattered piles of blood and gore that were once humans or Faunus or whatever else lived here. Then there was the unsettling pile of bodies that were still relatively whole. There was at least a dozen in the pile which was set off to the side, away from the cooking fire that normally warmed the social hall. That fire was currently as dead as the bodies in the room. Yang felt a fire of rage rise up inside her, mixed with something she didn't recognize nor understand. Hunger?

She limped out of the Inn. She couldn't take it anymore. She practically fell face first out of the door. Desperate to find something normal to cling to. She rolled out onto the front porch of the decent sized Inn. She balled up and tried to let the tears she desperately wanted out go, but they refused to come. "Dust it all to hell," she cursed under her breath. "What the hell is happening," she again asked no one.

The blonde brawler was slow to push herself into movement again. Eventually she sat got back up and began to wonder around the town, searching for some sort of answer. Everywhere she went she just found more of the same. Brutal attacks had happened all across the town. No one was spared. Every man, woman, worker, guard, blacksmith, shop keep, every… child. She shuddered thinking about that last group. The children. She shook her memories of them, now tainted by what she had found, out of her head.

After wondering from house to house and shop to shop in the small three street town for what must've been two hours she made her way back to the Inn where she woke. It felt like just last night she had been serving drinks and meals, earning a little scratch for a few weeks before she set out again on her never ending journey. "Think, Yang, think," she said out loud to herself. "What happened?" She tried in vain to go over her last few days. She had to remember.

Two weeks ago, the moon was waxing still. She remembered the night sky as it was clear and spotless of clouds, the moon had come up before the purple-hazed sky had set completely. The stars were able to shine through without hindrance. The moon was bright and growing, halfway to a full moon. It was easy to remember as the moon above Vale always seemed to glow extra bright when it was in its waxing phase, and seemed ever dull when it was waning.

She was on her way to this town. Twinbrook, the small farming town north of the main route to between East Gate and Beacon she was at now. It was a steadily growing place. So full of life and potential. When she ended up at the town she had been beaten and scarred. Something had attacked her. She hadn't fully remembered what but she had her fears. She only thought it could have happened to her, she had only heard of it in stories. She enough it did happen though. She only wished she could've seen it coming.

Yang was walking through the woods along a beaten but well-travelled path. The woods were silent, but this didn't unnerve Yang. Now she had realized it should've. Then, it was just a normal night. Dust she wished she had payed attention to Ruby's little lessons when she visited home. She didn't though. Too angry at her sister for leaving to be something more than her.

The silent woods were watching her. She had unwittingly become something else's prey. When the night was at its height, an hour after midnight, she was attacked. She had found that cursed and peaceful little clearing. Claws and fur came at her in a fury. She was caught off guard after being caught in some sort of trap. A bar fight or ring fight was one thing, one thing she did all too often. A fight for literal survival, almost never.

It didn't kill her though. The beast that attacked her maimed her and did more than just bloody her. Yet it didn't kill her. She awoke the next morning with a broken arm, a pair of cracked ribs, and a feeling that she and her head had been well acquainted with the ground and a few rocks the previous night. She pulled her Aura together though and set her arm and moved on to the town she knew was nearby. The blonde was simply grateful to be alive.

She didn't realize what the consequences of surviving a mauling by a werewolf were though. Whatever reason the beast had for not killing her, it had left her with a curse she didn't fully realize.

So for the next two weeks she lived among an unsuspecting town. Unaware of the danger living in its midst serving them drinks.

The full moon shone brightly that night. She gave it a lover like gaze. Yang Xiao Long had wondered out of the town of Twinbrook and into the woods nearby across one of the large wheat fields that had been recently planted. This was a familiar spot to her. She had been attacked two weeks prior. She had visited this place every night, hoping to understand what had attacked her. She still didn't. She did understand how lovely the full moon made her feel though. It was only when the moon was full that you were able to see the two smaller ones that orbited the large white one. She felt a certain bless and calling.

She waited here. Then, when the towns church bell rang out midnight. One strike, two strike, all the way to twelve, she heard familiar footsteps and growls. A pair of large wolves, upright like a man, but overly muscular and looking ready to rip into flesh, came into her little clearing, her little sanctuary in the full moon. She smiled at them, her mind was in a bliss. "I was wondering when you'd show," she thought she said. It was all a haze though, maybe she had simply thought it.

One more look at the moon. The two wolfmen, or wolfwomen, she didn't know, looked at it with her. They all howled to it. First separately. The larger of the two, then the smaller, then Yang. The brawler let out fierce howl. She felt like she was giving that beautiful white piece goddess in the sky her heart.

The hunt was on. All three werewolves made their way from the clearing. The one with lighter fur, a blonde color, lead them across the wheat field to the small town of Twin'brook. She argued in her mind that maybe the townspeople wanted to know how beautiful the moon was as well. She hopped that dead maiden of the sky was watching her with a smile.

Yang was sitting in the Inn now, at the bar. She had long since waking tuned out the gore around her. She sat with shaking hands as she remembered every detail of the slaughter she brought here. Some things were still hazy but she was relatively sure of what happened. The blonde checked the calendar behind the bar. It was the 28th of Amethyst. The full moon was just last night. It was the 28th of every month without fail. Her heart was racing. Her hands shook uncontrollably. She had to leave.

A/N: Chapter 4 here! If something seems disjointed about half way through this chapter, I apologize, that's my bad. This is the fourth version of this chapter. It's much different than the original direction I was going to go with it. Anywho, I hope you enjoyed it. Next time we'll be getting back to where Jauny and Rubes are.

As a quick taggon, I don't have a specific amount of time between releasing chapters for this story, which will be receiving most of my focus. It'll happen hopefully every four to six days, but I've begun rewriting and changing chapters alot halfway through and making them slightly longer each time.

Reviews:

G3r1k, you're just a peach.

Yaksh34, you are too. *insert a heart that would've been easy to put in*

Guest, (sorry I have a disdain for responding to people without names, it's a hooah thing, so don't take this hard if it sounds hostile) Ruby is meant to be a little bit bipolar here, reasons will be seen later, but she's essentially meant to switch between her child like wonder state and a cold machine like killer. As for Qrow, this is an AU, being which, it was also stated many time that Darth Vader killed Luke's father, womp womp. Just because it's said one thing is one, doesn't mean it isn't another. If Qrow couldn't handle being her father in the real-RWBY-verse, him referring to them both as his nieces would make it easier, as would Tai Yang, who raised them, calling them both his daughters. In reality, ans in my professional opinion, it's merely a tool to be used to make a story more or less interesting, and even though it would have zero effect on the real story, the fandom gets their panties way to twisted about it, because, it wouldn't matter in the end. You are most certainly correct with how they reference each other though, but again what I just said above about it.

SirSpangler, I can't handle your name, Just oh my goodness, it's great... You're reading my thoughts though on the matter and thank you for being a peach.

The Grimm Reqper, genetics, am I right? You're in my mind too apparently. Yes, I hate being obvious, but I also don't intend to show Cinder too often right now, so it was a weak way to make an idea stick. Also a lot of Redbull was probably involved. You hopefully won't see too much of of that. Good call there.

Please drop a review of what you like or hate so far, when you see some of the pairings that'll happen I know you will, and boy it won't be popular. Mwhahaha. (Nothing weird, just uncommon.)

-Hotel Juliet, always here, always watching