Ruby felt Dusk push her aside as she jumped out of the way of the Deathclaw's nails at the last second of its charge. However the Alpha Male ignored Dusk as he turned towards Ruby raising one of its claws in a downward strike. For the first time in a while Ruby felt fear boiling up in her insides as she quickly rolled under the beast narrowly avoiding getting impaled. As she saw the monster's exposed belly she pressed the barrel of her M4 against the leathery flesh and fired hoping she struck anything vital. The beast roared in pain as Ruby yelled "Dusk! Go get my sword! Or my Gauss Rifle! Anything to fight these things!" She couldn't see Dusk as she heard her footsteps running down the hill and into the camp where the chaos had already ensued.
That was when she heard the Deathclaw attempt to bend over trying to pull her out from under him as she heard teeth chomping close to her head. Finally it seemed to leap off of her to in an attempt to catch her as she got up. Ruby quickly reloaded as she saw blood dripping from the beast's wounded stomach. "Heh at least you can be hurt." She said with a grin as it roared in anger charging at her again with renewed speed. She quickly dived off to the side keeping her eyes on its horns and claws. She quickly fired again at its exposed flesh striking some hits along its back as it backpedaled onto a rock and jumped at her, arms open brandishing its claws in a fatal hug. "Oh how sweet!" She said giggling as she danced away from its claws again attempting to fire at its exposed flesh again.
This time the beast was prepared as it jumped out of the way, the bullets impacting the rocks themselves. "Ooooh" Ruby whistled; "Clever Boy" She said as she fired at it again trying to aim for the eyes. This time it seemed to duck as it ran towards her the bullets chipping its horns, hitting its shoulders and impacting the mind control module on its head. It roared in agony as it stopped and stumbled backwards grabbing for the damaged device. Ruby watched with fascinated interest as the metal device was ripped off of its head. "You certainly weren't acting like yourself were you Big Boy?" The Deathclaw alpha shook its head in a huff recovering its original primal state of mind and then looked towards Ruby. The human female before her smelled so strange, her flesh looked human but at the same time her scent was something else. From where he stood he could tell her body was excreting the liquid humans called "sweat" as her body trembled with something he had come to understand with most of his prey. At the same time it almost seemed as if she was enjoying herself, like she knew she would defeat him.
Who was this human? What was she really? The alpha decided to brush this aside as he brandished his claws growling; more focused now that the silvery mount was off from his head. He got down on all fours as he growled ferociously; assessing its opponent…its prey…and its predator. "Seems like you aren't done yet are you?" Ruby said as she shouldered her rifle aiming at the creature that was more alert of her now. "Ruby!" She heard Dusk yell out as she came running with Ruby's sword in her hands. Ruby smiled as she caught the sword putting down her rifle. "Hell yes! This is going to be fun!" She twirled her beloved blade down around in her hands and then readied herself in a fighting stance she had created during her sessions of practice back home.
As the Deathclaw alpha saw this he knew this would be the final strike, the one who missed would be the one to die. So it mustered its remaining strength ignoring its bleeding wounds and ran at her; claws at the ready. As it jumped at her it swing its left claw upwards and the other downwards. Ruby saw this and knew she wasn't going to walk out of this without a scratch. She ducked and thrust the blade upwards. What happened next ended in a splash of blood as Ruby's sword pierced through the Deathclaw's throat as she felt his claw cut into her thigh. She gritted her teeth enduring the pain as blood jetted onto her face from the creature's throat as it gazed at her growling; its eyes slowly losing life.
In its last moments; the deathclaw alpha saw the girl's eyes glowing like beautiful red jewels. At that second it realized; if this girl were a female deathclaw like him, he would see to it in courting her as his mate. It gave her the closest a deathclaw could to a grin on its face as she released the metal stick from its throat and it fell to the ground dead.
Ruby smiled as she gazed down at the corpse of the deadliest beast she had ever faced in the Capital Wasteland. "Fuck that was amazing…." She whispered as she stared at it. As she heard the blood dripping from its body she could feel a familiar lust beginning to overcome her. "Well…it's not like I'm devouring his flesh raw is it?" She crouched down and began attempting to turn the body over. After several minutes of trying; and seeing that Dusk had returned to the camp to help the others. She was able to turn the dead Deathclaw over on its back where she could see where her sword punctured. She gently licked her lips as she gazed at the fresh blood flowing from the wound. "For some reason…that blood smells so amazing…" She mumbled as she opened her mouth and bit into the wound.
Her eyes went wide as she fed; the sensation she felt rush through her body was so intense she had to fight herself to keep from swooning. "Whoa…" She heard someone say causing her to come out of her pleasure-induced trance and quickly sit up as she saw Dusk staring at her. As blood dripped from her lips the two young women gazed at each other. "Dusk I-""You are really into some fucked up shit Ruby." Dusk said with her usual grin. Ruby chuckled nervously as she looked down. "Yeah…it's a long story…" she said fighting back the tears she knew were rising up in her eyes.
Dusk stepped around the corpse and held out her hand. "C'mon… reinforcements showed up five minutes ago so let's get going." As she took her hand and stood up she took hold of her sword and lashed the blood from the blade as it splashed onto the ground. She refused to look at Dusk as they began walking back towards the camp. That was when the tears began falling. Ruby felt so terrified that she had disgusted Dusk or scared her after she saw her feed on the Deathclaw. As they walked that was when the pain from the wound on her leg returned. "Ugh fucking damnit!" She growled in frustration as she looked down at it. As soon as Dusk saw it she gasped. "Oh shit…" she said and then looked towards the camp where a squad of Brotherhood of Steel soldiers was tending to everyone.
"Kodiak we need your medic over here fast!" She yelled as one of the soldiers looked over towards them seeing Ruby limping and called over to one of his comrades as they ran over to them. She sat Ruby down on a rock as she took off her cloak. When the two soldiers arrived they both stared at Ruby for a moment. "Well I'll be damned…" One of them said as he took off his helmet; revealing himself to be an African American male looking to be in his early 30's. "Is this our new recruit Dusk?" He asked as the medic quickly opened his kit. Dusk nodded as she stared at Ruby's wound with concern. As the medic tended to the wound Ruby took off her boot to help him work as he began cutting off the pant leg. She winced in pain as she saw the man who she assumed to be Kodiak ask Dusk. "Why the hell does she look like she took a blood bath?" Dusk looked at Ruby for a moment making her feel uneasy seeing what Ruby had done to the Deathclaw's corpse only moments ago. "She fought the Alpha male of that Deathclaw pack the Enclave sent after us and killed it after stabbing its jugular."
Kodiak looked down at Ruby; surprise written all over his face as he whole-heartily laughed. "Wow we got another badass in the Brotherhood!" He said as he smiled at her. Ruby's face went red or more specifically as visibly red as it could be beyond all the blood on her face. "Thanks for the compliment…" she said nervously. Kodiak then went over to where she and the Alpha male Deathclaw had fought as she heard the medic gasp. He looked at Ruby for a moment; and as Ruby was unable to tell the emotion the field medic was feeling on his face. The medic patted her shoulder as she heard the voice of a young woman. "You're going to be okay." She said and began wrapping the wound in a bandage after applying a dosage of Med-X to the wound.
She helped Ruby back on her feet as she put her cloak back on. "You should be alright in a few hours just don't put a lot of weight on that leg alright ma'am?" She asked staring at Ruby for a moment. Ruby slowly nodded and looked over at Dusk. Concern and worry was painted all over the woman's face. Ruby sighed as she turned and began limping towards the camp and felt Dusk grab her hand in a tight squeeze. "Hey I told you to quit kicking your own ass didn't I?" Dusk said. Ruby looked at her as Dusk gave her the usual cocky grin. "Look I don't give a fuck what you are, what you do, or even who or what you like having sex with. We are friends Ruby; I'm not going to demonize you just because I saw you doing ONE unusual thing." That was when Ruby smiled as she quickly rushed to wipe the tears that were now flowing from her eyes.
"There you go again Dusk; being all sappy and getting us both emotional." Ruby said giggling between sniffles. She also couldn't wipe the smile from her face as she silently thanked her for not being hating her. "Hey you guys I got something for you!" Kodiak said running back towards them with Ruby's M4 in his hand. "I believe you dropped this little pup." He said smiling as he gave her the weapon. Ruby smiled at him as she slung the weapon back over her shoulder. "Thanks sir, I'm Ruby Hanson." She said introducing herself with the cutest smile she could manage. Kodiak smiled as he shook her hand. "Greg Bear, but my friends call me Kodiak." He said nodding towards Dusk as she playfully punched his arm lightly.
The rest of the trip back home was a breeze as Kodiak's squad of Initiates loaded Ruby and the other wounded onto field stretchers. When they finally arrived at the elementary school in Springvale where other Brotherhood members stood waiting for their return. "There are our conquering heroes!" one of the guards said waving over at them. "Hey Knight Captain Dusk bag any government-spewing shit bags?" Dusk laughed as she said. "Yeah we'll be spewing stories about it in the mess hall!" He laughed as she sighed following the medics as they took Ruby to the patient room. As they moved her to a bed she grinned at Dusk. "Oh you got me a fresh clean comfy bed for me to sleep in? Oh dearest Dusk you spoil me so!" Dusk grinned laughing as she sat down next to her. "Hey treasure it; it's one of the only few in the Wasteland so get used to it okay? Get some rest and Sarah will come give you a debriefing on our adventure tomorrow." Ruby giggled as she covered herself in the blanket quickly undressing herself of her wet bloody clothes.
"I'll see you in the morning then…" Ruby said as she began drifting off to sleep. As Dusk began walking away Ruby stopped her. "Oh and Dusk…?" She stopped and looked at her; Ruby gave her a sweet smile and said. "Thanks…for backing me up out there." Dusk smiled and nodded before leaving the room. As Ruby rolled over she saw Thorn smiling at her licking blood from her own lips. "Considering certain events I would say today was an acceptable day…" She whispered and snuggled up against Ruby's chest. "Yeah….I agree" She said and finally went to sleep.