Blake couldn't help but be concerned for the crimsonette as the journey went on. For the past couple of nights she could hear her thrashing around as she's asleep, and recently the effects are kicking in as bags began to form under the younger girl's eyes. As they crossed the border and entered the plains that separate the Kingdom of Vacuo from Mistral, the young medic hasn't said anything since they left Signal. Every opportunity that she had she would steal a glance towards Ruby and everytime she did she always would see the same thing, fear in those silver eyes of hers. Blake's attention drew back at to what was at hand, at a steady pace they were coming up on another village and if she was correct they would arrive before nightfall.
"What was the village's name again?" Blake turned towards Saber Rodentia, who fell back and matched her pace.
"I believe it was Burghley, Miss Belladonna." He replied.
"No need for formalities Saber, Blake is just fine."
"Very well but if I may have a word." He said as he glanced around towards the others.
She said nothing but nodded as he got closer.
He spoke loud enough only for her to hear, "I think we should part from the other clans as soon as we arrive at Burghley."
She raised a brow as she looked at him, "Why? What happened?"
"A couple of our warriors overheard the other clans talking about her," He said coldly. "Do you think that they'll make a move?"
"Maybe, I'm not sure. Have a couple soldiers keep an eye on them until we reach the town."
He nodded in reply before making his way back towards the others, she didn't move from her spot as she watched the younger girl once again. Sun accompanying Ruby but her face still hasn't changed from before, even with the monkey Faunus trying to strike up a conversation with her. She sighed as she turned towards the path ahead, silently hoping that the trip would be quick to Burghley.
…
She didn't know how long she had walked, everything felt like a blur as they past several forests and plains. The environment around her shifted from a forest to an open plains, the grass blew with the wind and the sight of trees disappeared along with the sun above. They arrived at a small rural village as the sun began to set, she didn't need to look up to know that most of the villagers were staring at her. She can hear the hushed whispers and the fear present in their voices as some tried to keep prying eyes from falling on her. They arrived as the sun began to set, she felt herself stumble forward as the bonds in her hands was pulled sharply.
"Get a move on scum." Her captor said with a growl.
She followed behind them through the heart of the village, she occasionally glanced around spotting some humans mixed among the local Faunus although the former outnumbered the latter. She pulled her hood down further hoping that it would cover her face from the crowd, she never liked being put on the spotlight to begin with.
Just as they were about to pass the town square she heard someone coming up behind her. He pushed past the guards and walked straight up to the crimsonette.
"Tsk, human scum like you should show your disgusting face to the rest of the world." He said as he reached out to pull on her hood.
…
"Ruby?" Was all she registered as she looked around, she didn't know what had happened but she was on top of the Faunus from before with his arm trapped between her bonded hands while she kept her foot against his shoulder. All of the surrounding guards had drew their weapons and pointed at her direction as the villagers watched in horror plastered on their faces.
"G-get off me you wrench!" The man below her shouted.
She turned to face him too quickly, as she turned she forgot about his arm twisting it in the process.
A loud snap echoed alongside a cry of pain, Ruby quickly stepped back untangling his broken arm from her bonds. Soon after she felt herself on the ground as several guards tackled her.
"You human bitch, you're going to pay for that." One of the guards said as they pressed down on her.
She didn't struggle as she stared absentmindedly towards the ground, soon afterwards she felt herself be propped up facing towards some of the Taurus Clan members. She felt the wind get knocked from her lungs as one of them delivered a right hook to her chest.
"Stand her up," He said as his voice remained cold.
Ruby was propped up again, this time starring towards the ground instead of at him.
"Look at me you human filth. I said look at me!" He raised his voice along with his hand. He was stopped as he heard a sword slip from its sheath along with the another sword pointing towards his throat.
"What are you doing you savage?" Saber kept his blade steady as he address the man before him, "Need I remind you that you cannot touch her?"
"B-but?!" Was all that he could stammer as Blake walked up behind him.
"Your services are no longer needed, as we agreed back at Signal you and Khan are to return back to the front lines as we escort the prisoner." Blake kept her monotone voice as she spoke. She watched the other Faunus scowl then took his leave with the rest of his clan following behind, leaving Blake and the rest of the Belladonna Clan. Ruby slumped to the nearest wall, using her arm as a support while facing Blake. The cat Faunus extended her hand out to the crimsonette, Ruby looked at the hand hesitantly before she brushed past it as she pushed herself off the wall.
"I can walk just fine by myself." She muttered.
Blake dropped her hand as she watched the younger girl follow Saber to the village tavern, just as she was about to follow she felt someone tap her shoulder.
"Can I have a word Miss Belladonna?"
"Mata, what is it that you need?" Blake turned to face the goat Faunus.
"You saw it right?" He asked nervously while glancing around.
She nodded in reply, "I think everyone has."
…
Blake was watching from behind as she saw the male Faunus walk up to Ruby, she was about to call him off until she saw his hand pulling on her hood.
"Hey! What do you think you're-" She saw Saber approach the man but it was too late.
"What do you think I'm doi-" The male's speech was cut short as the air was knocked out from his lungs. Ruby brought her elbow down against his chest and followed it up with a knee. He hunched over in pain as Ruby got her bonds stuck along with his arm, she kicked his legs from under him and quickly placed her foot against his back. It happened so fast, no one knew what was going on until it was all over with Ruby over the Faunus with his arm sticking upright.
Blake stood there in awe, throughout her time over the border even with spending time with the young crimsonette she'd never seen Ruby even like this. Everyone else around her had the same reaction as no one dared to step forward towards the red clad girl. She hesitantly stood forward, keeping her face stoic as she approached her.
"Ruby?" She said trying to get the young girls attention.
…
"D-do you think it's safe to keep on transporting her?" He asked nervously.
"We have to regardless, just relax Mata we're spending the night here before we continue with the journey."
"If you say so boss." He slightly bowed before he went into the tavern.
Blake stood outside for a while as she gazed towards the shattered moon above, she sighed to herself as she stepped inside of the tavern.
'I hope she'll be alright'
When she entered she heard a couple of cheers going her way, she looked towards the comotion to see some of her clansmen were drinking and enjoying themselves in a couple of the booths. She spotted Sun among the crowd of soldiers who gestured her to sit with them.
"H-hey Blake! Come over!"
She rolled her eyes as she sat next to the monkey Faunus, she didn't need to guess that he was already drunk along with the other light weights. She ordered a Mistralian green as a waitress came over with several meads.
"Hey Sun, where's Ruby?" She said as she looked around in the booths for the familiar shade of red.
"Saber took her to her room," He slurred as he chugged another mead.
"Why? Did she upset the owner or something?"
"It's just that everyone's skeptical of what happened earlier, they almost refused to serve us but she promised them that she wouldn't cause trouble." He set down his mug and pointed towards the stairs.
"I feel bad for poor Saber, watching the prisoner rather than drinking this delicious mead." One of her fellow soldiers spoke up from across the table.
"It can't be helped, I never thought she could pull something like that." Another shouted from the opposite booth.
"Seriously, have you seen the look on Servi's face?! The man could've shitted himself with that stunt!"
The booths around them erupted in laughter as a Faunus stepped out from one of them. Blake just sat there swirling her drink as she constantly eyed the stairs, she snapped out of her thoughts as Sun jabbed her.
"Thinking about little red huh?" Sun said, at least what she was able to make out with his slurs.
"Easy to tell huh?" She said as a she took another sip.
"It's fine- Saber probably is just watching her, she won't do anything."
"I hope you're right Sun, we still have a job to finish when this is all over."
"I hear ya Blake, I hope that this was worth it."
"You know you can return to your friends right?" Ruby said through the door as she laid on the bed in the corner. "I mean that you're just wasting your time just by standing guard."
"I will not leave you unattended so that you'll escape while everyone's tipsy." Saber replied coldly as he leaned against the wall behind the door, "I will I know that you won't jump out the window as soon as I leave?"
"Because A, you'd probably hear it before I can make ten feet away. B every Faunus can hear it too and that they'll scream if they see me, and C I haven't been here in a while so I'll probably get lost before I try to escape."
He stood at attention at that remark, "What do you mean by that?"
"I don't follow, I mean you have more knowledge of your home turf than I do an-"
"No, I mean you haven't been here in awhile. You been to Vacuo?" He said as he stood up from the wall.
There was a long awkward silence between the two, Saber kept looking at the locked door as Ruby didn't reply after that statement. Saber was about to knock on the door until the crimsonette quietly spoke up.
"I-it's complicated Saber."
"It can't be that bad, were you raised here in Vacuo?"
"N-no, I was born somewhere else but my- mother took me here to Vacuo for a while. She kept on saying how important it is to learn about other people's cultures and eventually we started to move around the kingdoms."
He barely heard a sigh that came behind the door.
"-but after staying a while people started to chase us. We couldn't stay in one spot for too long and eventually we drifted across all the continents. Vacuo was the last place I saw my mother, I would be lying if I said I'm over her death but... never mind about that I'm just rambling." Her voice trailed off.
"I'm sorry for your loss."
"Don't be, I know you weren't responsible for her death and we aren't anywhere near it."
"If you don't mind me asking, how did your mother die?"
Another long pause grew between them, but it didn't last as long as the first.
"She- we were hunted." She gripped her sheets as she tried forcing the words to form in her mouth, "We were hunted by both Humans and Faunus alike. They caught us at Forever Fall Cliffs and thought we both had died."
"That must've been rough for you, how did you escape?"
"I jumped, no one expects an eight year old to survive a fall like that."
"You jumped? No one in their right minds would ever think of jumping off the Forever Fall Cliffs."
"Well my mind wasn't exactly stable at the moment. Besides the several broken ribs and cuts I survived and made it over the border."
"Faunus I can understand but Humans? Why were they involved?"
"..."
"Rub-"
"I don't want to talk about."
Saber stood outside the door, hesitant at unlocking the door.
"Is something wrong Saber?" A voice called out from behind him.
He turned to face the new speaker and stood to attention when he saw Blake.
"Nothing ma'am, although I may have overstepped my boundaries."
She raised a brow at him, "And what do you mean by that?"
Blake caught him glancing towards the door before facing her, "I tell you later, as for right now I think it's best that we leave her alone."
She nodded in agreement, "I can take your post for the night, why don't you relax with the others downstairs?"
"I'm not much of a drinker but sure I'll head down."
Blake took the keys from him and watched him walk towards the stairs, just before he went down completely he turned around towards her, "You care a lot about her huh."
She made eye contact him before continuing, "She saved my life, I owe her this much at least."
He gave a small smile before continuing down. Blake stood outside of the door contemplating to enter or not, after a while she decided to check up on Ruby at the very least to see if she was okay after what Saber had told her earlier. The room was quiet as she stepped in, the candles were already blown out and the window drape was blocking out the moonlight. Ruby was asleep on one of the beds with her hat on still, one of her hands were still clutching it as if she was scared to lose it as she slept. Even without the lack of light Blake easily made her way towards the spare bed next to the sleeping crimsonette, just as set her belongings off to the side her ears picked up something next to her.
"... don't go mom."
Blake stood to attention as she faced the crimsonette, Ruby was still fast asleep but up close she noticed the faint tear streak on her face. She got closer to the younger girl but stopped herself before she got too close. She noticed her damp bangs from where she stood, uncertain of how to help the younger girl. Eventually she sat next to the crimsonette in a nearby armchair and hummed a soft tune. The ebony haired girl recalled how many times her mother would help calm her down whenever she was younger. She virtually relaxed as she saw Ruby's breathing ease, she continued for a little longer as she made her way towards her bed. Soon after she threw the covers over herself and drifted away to sleep.
The sun has long went away with only the moon hanging in the dark sky, she sat at one of the many desks writing away with keeping a small candle near her for illumination. She sighed as her eyes wavered from the letter to her sleeping companion in the far corner of their shared room. It's been rough for them for the last couple of days from their return from Atlas. Her musing was halted by a small knock at the door, quiet enough not to disturb her friend but loud enough for her to hear. She made her way towards the door only to find turquoise eyes staring back at her.
"Hey Weiss, is Yang okay?" Nora kept her voice quiet, which slightly surprised the heiress as she wasn't known to be… well quiet.
"No, to be honest I don't think Pyrrha is either."
The orange haired girl sighed before she continued, "Yeah, I think Jaune was shocked when we brought the news back.
The warlock recalled the image of the blonde knight physically deflating when they came back from Signal, although it wasn't as bad as Yang when they first arrived at the charred town.
"Do you think Yang is going to be okay?" Nora said in between pauses, as if she was scared of offending her.
"To be honest, I have no idea. I've never seen her like this… so… defeated."
She recalled the trip to Signal, everyone was looking forward to seeing Ruby after all this time. Nora was practically bouncing up and down on the carriage while Yang and Pyrrha were leading the horses. She sat with the energetic hammer user in the back going over all of her dust crystals until the carriage was abruptly stopped.
Yang stopped the carriage right next to a couple of people who were telling them to go the other direction. At first she thought they were bandits but on closer inspection she noticed that they were villagers. Penny quickly realized that they were from Signal and as soon as they explained why they were out there she saw Yang's expression darken. The next couple of minutes turned into a blur as they hastily made their way to Signal, Yang barely said a word aside from the occasional grunt or nod and Nora's happy-go-lucky attitude disappeared. When they arrived Yang jumped off before the carriage stopped completely with the redheaded Amazon following behind her, Penny stood up and took in the sight of the destroyed town as Weiss and Nora searched around for any signs of life that was still present.
She walked past the burnt debris and the scattered wood cracked underneath her as she searched. Nora wasn't too far from the warlock when she heard the shouting, both the white haired and orange haired girl ran to the source, only to find Yang kneeling down clutching the remains of a very familiar bow.
"Y-yang that doesn't belong to who I think it does... does it?" Nora spoke up.
Yang's face was streaming with tears as she looked back towards her companions, she couldn't speak with the lump in her throat but nodded in reply. Weiss torn her eyes away from the sight, gazing at anything but the sight before her. Her eyes caught something in the distance, she slowly made her way towards a torn piece of fabric underneath some rubble. She carefully pulled out the damaged cloth and immediately felt her insides tightening up. She was holding a piece of a cloak, one side donned black while the other red. Weiss saw the hole in the middle along the edges were traces of blood, she felt her knees go weak at the sight as she held on to the tattered cloak tighter. She knew who it belonged to even with her trying to deny it.
"Weiss? Are you okay?"
Weiss shook her head as the orange haired knight broke her out of her trance, "S-sorry, what were you saying Nora?"
"Jeez, never took you for spacing out like that. What I said was you should probably get some sleep, Ozpin wants to speak with us in the morning."
"Right, thanks Nora." She watched the hammer user exit the door, closing it quietly on the way out. Weiss looked back towards the letter and sighed, she took the candle in hand and went over to the sleeping blonde. She sat next to Yang and blew out the light before wrapping her arms around her lover and falling asleep.
Silver eyes cracked open as the sun began to rise. Unlike most nights she was surprised that she had gotten actual sleep this time than before. She glanced around the room only to see Blake asleep on the nearby bed, she quietly got up from her bed and silently opened the door. She saw Blake's ear twitch at the sound but didn't wake up, Ruby sighed as she closed the door. Everything felt weird early in the morning, the sun had just started to rise and some of the villagers were active. She went down the flight of stairs and sat at the bar counter, she ignored all the stares thrown her way as she fixed the hat on top of her head. Now more than ever she didn't want to lose the last possession that her mother gave her before her passing. A cough broke her out of her trance as she saw the owner was right in front on her with his hand on his sheathed sword.
"I hope that you don't think you can escape just because everyone's hungover, the captain paid me to stop you if you were trying to leave."
Ruby flashed a small grin at the bear Faunus, "Don't worry, just came down here for something to eat."
He raised his brow before taking his hand off the sword, "Can't get food without money."
She took a couple of lien coins from her pocket and set them on the table. The owner took the coins and went to the kitchen, she kept on getting stares from the other patrons in the tavern while she patiently waited.
He later came back with two plates, one with toast and the other with eggs and bacon. She thanked him as he placed the dishes in front of her and dug in, she ate in peace until someone took the chair next to her and cleared his throat.
"Soo- you from Atlas?" He said as he ordered a shot.
She didn't answer nor acknowledge his presence as she continued to wolf down her food. He sighed as he downed the shot, soon after Ruby finished the plates and handed it back to the owner.
"Are you like this to all the girls you meet?" She asked as she faced him.
He shrugged, "Only to foreigners, besides you didn't answer my question earlier."
"Not from Atlas but did come from there if that's what you're implying."
"Ah, so you did come from Atlas." He said as he waved for another shot.
"Isn't it early to be drinking?" She said with a brow raised.
"It is but what happened last night I need it." He said as he downed another.
"What? Just rejected or something?" She heard a small chuckle come from the man next to her.
"No, it's just... lately there's been rumors floating about in Mistral and now recently Vacuo. I asked if you came from Atlas to know if the rumors were happening over thee too."
That caught her interest, "What kind of rumors we're talking about? An assassination attempt? A deadly plague sweeping the towns? Ooh Red Reaper spotting?"
"No, no, and no. Do you know about the creatures of Grimm?"
"I don't think anyone doesn't, creatures of the night that are black as shadows with bone masks with red eyes."
"Well, there are rumors arising saying that they spotted one. Some said that they saw it stare right at them and others showed claw marks or dead cattle and blamed it on them."
"But aren't they fictional creatures? You know, made up to scare children into behaving like the bogeyman?"
"Yeah I thought so too until I saw one, it felt unreal but at the same time I couldn't believe it." Another shot was passed to him.
"Hey don't get drunk on me yet, what happened?"
"I was out fishing by the lake when I heard something behind me, of course me being me I went to investigate and what I saw terrified me. There were small pools of black scattered with bones sticking out of them. Soon after claws rose and there I saw it, the infamous Grimm, the fairytales that scarred young children and superstitious men."
Ruby closely inspected the man, she now noticed the bags under his eyes and faint traces of red in his eyes.
"What? You interested in me now?"
She let out a small chortle, "Sorry, not my type. But thanks for the story."
Ruby stood up and threw a couple of lien on the table to the man before returning to her room. She quietly opened the door and closed it just as fast, she noticed that Blake was still asleep as she made her way towards her bed. She took one last look at the rising sun before slipping under the sheets closing her eyes and relaxing herself.
'Do they exist?'
I wonder how many other Fairy Tales exist? Have a good day/night ~SomeRandomFicWriter
