Grimms' RWBY Tales #4: Slight Overreaction
Tai was walking through the woods towards his home, a pile of firewood under each arm, when he heard a child's cry from above him. Looking up, he saw a small child balanced on the branches. He quickly climbed up and retrieved the scared infant. When he looked around he saw a raven flying in the sky above them, and it was clear she had stolen the poor child from her mother. As he looked down at her face, he noticed her staring at him with wide silver eyes. He knew then that he needed to protect the child and decided to raise her as his own. He took her home, introduced her to his daughter Yang, and called her Ruby for the red blanket wrapped around her.
Years passed, and the children grew up together. They became inseparable, and each thought of the other as a true sister. However, their cook Cinder watched the two and felt hate growing in her heart. One day, Tai announced he would be going on a journey for a few weeks. The next day, Yang noticed that Cinder was retrieving a large amount of water from the river. Yang asked why, and Cinder explained that tomorrow she was going to boil Ruby. Cinder didn't even seem notice the horrified expression on Yang's face, and she started ranting to herself, "Cookies and strawberries. That's all she ever wants to eat, cookies and strawberries. I went to cooking school for eight years. I am a culinary master, and I'm stuck spending half my time like a two-bit baker!" Yang left Cinder to her tirade and ran to find her sister. Once she found her, she warned Ruby of the danger and they decided to run away together. They waited until the dead of night and ran to hide in the forest until their father returned.
The next morning, Cinder waited for hours for Ruby to wake up, but she never left her room. She went to wake Ruby herself, but when she pulled back the covers on the bed she saw the bundle of hay shoved under there and knew the girls had run away. Cinder was furious and ordered Mercury and Emerald, her two assistants, to find and retrieve the young girls. Fortunately for the sisters, the search party was terrible in the woods. They heard them coming closer in plenty of time to climb a tree and hide. They waited in there until they see Emerald and Mercury walking near them.
"That's weird" Emerald said below them. "That rose tree only has a single rose on it." She pointed to the tree right next to where they were hiding.
"Who cares, I'm bored." Mercury whined, "Let's just tell Cinder all we found was a weird rose tree and call it a night. Okay?" Emerald nodded her agreement and the pair strolled off. Once they were gone, the sisters got out from their hiding space and ran further into the woods. When the searchers returned to Cinder and told her what they found, she chastised them. "You idiots, clearly they turned into that rose tree. Tomorrow we will go and cut it down, and they will turn back to girls."
The next morning, the three set off to find the tree again. When they found it, Cinder had Mercury chop it down. However, the tree didn't magically turn into two young girls. Realizing her mistake, Cinder quickly tried to spin the situation. "Apparently they turned back to normal after you left. If you idiots had done your job, you would have found them already. Now come, they must have run further into the woods." They all set off walking deeper into the trees.
Again, the sisters heard them coming long before they got close and climbed into a tree to hide. The search party walked right past them, and eventually came to a clearing with a small pond. Cinder, wanting to take a break from searching, told Emerald and Mercury to keep going while she looked around in this area. Once they had left, she went to go get a drink from the pond before sitting down to rest. However, on the way to the pond she tripped and fell into the water. Cinder couldn't swim, and she tried calling out for help as she started drowning. Ruby and Yang heard her cries, and they started moving to help whoever was yelling. However, they were too far away and didn't arrive until after Cinder was dead. Seeing her body, they decided to return home knowing that they were safe once again. Emerald and Mercury eventually returned to the clearing to search for their boss. They also found her body and decided to give up their search for the girls. They didn't really have anything personally against them.
They all returned home and waited for Tai to return from his journey. Once he did, they all explained what had occurred to him. "Is that really the only reason she wanted her dead?" Tai asked incredulously. "She was mad about the variety of what she cooked?"
"No, there was also something more." Emerald explained. "Do you remember that time three years ago when Ruby said that her rabbit was a little bit overcooked?" Ruby shook her head.
"Cinder did."