"Are you sure we really should be out here like this, guys?" Velvet asked, obviously looking nervous about the hike they were on, though she was enjoying the fresh air that came with it.
Yang looked at the rabbit Faunus as the group started up the hill, her tail swishing through the air. "Don't worry, Velvet, like I said we'll be fine as long as no one does anything stupid."
"If you say one word about that to me, I'll-." Sun was stopped when he heard some rustling from a nearby bush on their right of the dirt walkway they were on. "Uh, was I the only one who just heard that?"
"Heard what, Sun?" Flynt asked, looking over his shoulder at the monkey Faunus.
Before he could answer, the rustling from the bush continued and out ran a raccoon, startling most of the group as it ran past Weiss' leg, making her yelp and hang onto Ruby, while Nora squealed in joy at how it looked. "Ren! Imma chase it!" She sprinted off towards it, and Ren groaned, following behind.
"Nora, don't get too far from the path! If you get lost, Momma will have a fit!" Ruby called out, near Weiss' ears causing her to wince.
"Ow…" Weiss' ears drooped and she blushed when she realized she was hanging onto Ruby, so she quickly let go, dusting her clothes off a bit. "W-We should get back to walking."
"I, um, yeah. Sorry about shouting, Weissy." The rabbit Faunus apologized, scuffing her boot a little in the dirt.
Yang smirked when she noticed Weiss' blush after what had happened, but she kept quiet about it since she knew teasing the snow fox would just delay their hiking. "Okay! While Nora is out chasing that little garbage bear, we can make our way up the path. Oh, and we should leave some things here and there to help Ren and Nora figure out where we go."
"Not a bad idea, Yang." Blake said, giving the lion Faunus a small smile as she removed a black ribbon she had tied her hair back with and tying it around a tree limb.
Sun raised an eyebrow. "You sure you wanna leave that there? What if one of those little trash pandas show up again? They might try ripping it down."
"If they rip it down I can always get another." The raven haired cat Faunus said with a shrug.
"Hey, if you're cool with it, then let me leave something too. Hmm," Sun started looking through his pockets for anything he could leave behind as a marker. "Uh, shoot. I don't think I have anything."
"It's fine, Sun. Not like we need to leave too much behind for them to follow. 'Sides, Ren as sharp as an eagle when it comes to looking for stuff." Flynt said, leading the group as they started back up the trail.
The walk managed to get the small group of kids to a circular clearing, surrounded by several trees. In the middle was a bundle of sticks and stones already laid out for use. "Huh? Was there someone else who got to this spot before?" Sun asked.
"Yup, the four of us actually. You think we'd let this sight go to waste?" Ruby replied, pointing toward the cliff edge with one of her ears as she looked around a little.
Weiss and Blake were the first to start pushing the logs that were near the camp closer to the middle, and once they finished up, the others took their own seats on them. "This is pretty nice." Velvet said with a smile, her worries long gone now.
"See? We told you we'd be fine out here." Yang said, smirking a little. At that moment the rustling in the undergrowth returned, as the raccoon jumped out of the bushes with Nora hot on it's heels.
As the animal ran it sprinted past the group and to the cliff edge, failing to stop, as it disappeared over the edge the group of kids cried out, a flurry of feathers and flapping wings dove from a nearby tree and went over the edge of the cliff. The raven returned swiftly with the scared raccoon in it's talons. "That is why you stay away from the edge." Raven cawed, as she let the raccoon go.
"Mom?!" Yang stood up from the log she was on and ran over when her raven haired mother changed back into her human form. "What are you doing here? Oh, and nice catch. Almost had a heart attack there for the little guy."
"I got the urge to stretch my wings and figured having a bird's eye view on you all while you were out here would be a good idea." Raven said, smirking a little.
Yang pouted, with her ears perking up in annoyance. "Mother!" She whined. "We can take care of ourselves. The only thing we've run into was that raccoon."
"I know, Little Cub. But you know how your mother gets sometimes. Though that raccoon reminds me, we need to get a fence up pronto." Raven said, scratching her daughter behind the ears, as she looked at the cliff edge.
After Yang sighed and let out a small smile, the two walked back over to the logs and sat down, while Flynt decided he wanted to talk with Weiss again. "You know, seeing her saving that raccoon like that could help us come up with funny lyrics to a song or something." He said with a chuckle.
"I'm not really sure how that would go. Any ideas?" Weiss asked, arching an eyebrow.
Ruby mumbled something as she watched the two music enthusiasts trade words. "Ruby, didn't you wanna tell us a story about how you and your sister found a bird here." Velvet said, bringing Ruby out of her angry mumbling.
"Hmmm…? Oh, yeah, it was a hawk actually. That bad storm a few months back got it lost, we found it at the base of that tree over there." The rabbit Faunus said, pointing to a large oak.
Raven let out a smile when she thought back to when they had found the bird. "I remember you and Yang running to your mother and I. It was quite a surprise that you two had found a hawk that easily."
"Scratched me up pretty good too." Yang interjected, thinking about all the bandages she'd ended up swathed in.
Velvet gasped. "You got scratched by it?!"
"Yes, she did. And the hardest part about that was keeping Yang from scratching her bandages while her aura healed her." Blake said, frowning slightly, tail twitching in annoyance. "Weiss and I had to hold her down for a few hours."
"What?!" Velvet was in shock at how serious it gotten in her eyes, but when she felt Blake holding her shoulder, she calmed down a bit. "T-That sounds… Scary."
Looking at her guest, Raven replied, "It wasn't all that bad actually. Truthfully all nature is scary at times, I should know, but as long as you respect it you'll be fine no matter where you are."
Ruby nodded in agreement. "Yeah! You'll be okay out here, Velvet. And maybe we can take a few pictures of the animals here." Ruby smiled, but only because she wanted to assure Velvet that things were going to be okay, while on the inside she would hear Weiss and Flynt talking with each other more and more.
"T-That would be fun. And I did bring my camera." Velvet said, opening up a small bag and pulling out a camera with a roll of film.
Ruby took a breath and thought about one thing, so she turned in her seat and tapped Weiss' shoulder. "Um, Weiss. Do you… Do you wanna come with me and Velvet to take pictures of the animals?"
Well that would be fun. Weiss, thought looking at Ruby, But at the same time I don't really want to be rude to Flynt. Before the snow fox Faunus could reply Flynt answered for her.
"Go on, Weiss, I'll be fine here. My mind is buzzing right now so I need to think a bit about that song idea." The jazz enthusiast said, with a small smile.
"Well, since it seems that Flynt is okay with ending our conversation there, I wouldn't mind going on a short walk around here with you both." Weiss held back her joy a bit, since she didn't want it to be so obvious that she liked spending time with Ruby.
"Awesome! Let's go then!" The red dressed rabbit Faunus said, grabbing both girls by the hands and dragging them off.
Yang chuckled a bit, watching them go. "You sure you don't wanna watch over them, mom? They might go a little too far."
"They should be fine, besides I'm not the only pair of eyes that came out here." Raven said, her sharp eyes picking up the almost silent movement near the edge of the small camp.
Nora jumped up and ran over to Blake. "We saw your bow on the tree, Blakey!" She then pulled the bow out from her pocket and handed it to the cat Faunus. "Thanks for leaving it behind for us. At least that's what Ren told me it was probably for."
"It was, I was hoping you'd find it before a raccoon or something else did. Glad to see I was right." Blake chuckled, as she tied her hair back with the ribbon again, her tail wrapping loosely around herself.
Nora giggled at how she tied it and sat back down. "So about that hawk. Did you guys like, help it out? Or was it just flying around the area?"
"After it healed up we let it loose outside, it took off like we launched it from a cannon. I've seen it flying around a few times, so chances are it's probably got a nest in the area." Raven said, ruffling the feathers a little on her neck.
Ren rested his hands on his knees as he listened to the story. "I wouldn't mind spending a day out here when we visit another time then. It sounds interesting with the idea of finding its nest after all."
"I have an idea of where it could be but that's just based off what I know about birds. Basically anywhere within ten miles or so of here." Raven said, with a shrug.
The others looked excited about the idea of going out to find the nest, but they would save it for another time as Yang brought out a bag of s'mores and reached for some sticks. "Something to do another time. For now though," She jabbed the s'more and raised it up high. "Time for s'mores!"
"You brought stuff for s'mores?!" Nora exclaimed, as she lunged for a stick.
"Hold on there, if we're doing this I need to make a fire. Can't have a s'more without a fire." Raven said, as she shooed Nora back.
About twenty minutes had gone by and after hearing some footsteps getting closer to them, Yang and Blake looked over and saw Ruby on Summer's back, while Weiss was walking on her left, and Velvet on her right. "There you all are." Summer said with a smile as she brought the other three over. "Okay, Ruby, time to get off of your taxi."
"Awww, I was having fun, wait… Are those s'mores?!" The ruby red rabbit Faunus, asked scrambling from her mother's back and running to the firepit.
Yang snickered and handed her sister the stick with the s'more on it. "Yup. Here ya go, sis. Don't poke yourself when you eat it though."
Weiss let out a smile as she watched her crush happily taking the stick and nomming on the s'more carefully. "I suppose I'll have one as well."
"Go for it, Weiss, and Ruby go easy now. The last thing we need is for you to have a sugar crash and fall asleep early." Summer said, passing Weiss a stick and selecting one for herself.
Velvet sighed happily as she sat down next to Sun. "I'm really glad we came out here. I was nervous at first, but this was really nice."
"It was a good idea wasn't it? Oh, I have an idea how about we tell a few ghost stories?" The monkey Faunus suggested.
Nora squealed in excitement for the second time that day. "Ooh! I love telling ghost stories! Ren can so~ tell you how many I've told!"
"You've told three, Nora. Though they did give me chills each time." Ren said, humoring his ginger haired girlfriend.
Flynt chuckled and lightly elbowed Weiss' arm to get her attention. "You down to listen to these kind of stories? They might get pretty scary."
"I'll be fine, Flynt. Besides I've been living with Yang for months now. You think we haven't told a few ghost stories?" Weiss said, a little annoyed.
Ruby scooted over, not wanting to be left out any more. "Yeah! We can handle a few ghost stories! Right, Weiss?!" She raised her hand up for a high five.
Weiss, smirked a little, shaking her head as she returned the high five, "Sure we can. But can you handle them, Flynt?" The snow fox said, turning the question onto Flynt.
Flynt rubbed the back of his head and chuckled. "I mean, if a story gets to me, it'll get to me. Oh, I forgot to ask," Ruby thought for a moment that the boy was going to talk to Weiss about something, but she was surprised by his next question. "Ruby, did you get any good pictures out there?"
"I, uh, yeah we did. We even found a badger den too and got a few pictures of them." The red and black haired rabbit Faunus said, nudging Velvet to get her attention, "Mind if we show them the pictures we took before we get too far into storytelling?"
Velvet smiled and nodded, handing her the camera. "I can make you all copies later too if you want."
Weiss squealed, as she saw the photos of the badger family for the second time, "The babies look so cute!"
Ruby's heart fluttered a bit as she enjoyed seeing Weiss so happy, but then she watched as Flynt looked happy with the pictures too, so something about that set her mind at ease about the boy.
He really is just a good friend. Weiss is right about me being a dolt sometimes.
The ruby red rabbit Faunus let out a sigh of relief and continued showing her friends the pictures they took, while Summer and Raven were sitting next to each other on one log. The wolf Faunus leaned over and rested her head on Raven's shoulder, blissfully unaware of Nora's soon to be sugar fueled ghost story telling.
A/N:
Shadow: Back with the pack. You get mad at me for saying that, I sit there and sip my water like nothing is happening.
Cmdr: …Anyway. So we did a few changes in the last chapter after posting for continuity issues. Cause we actually posted out of order, which lead to this second part.
Shadow: Our bad. Still, we're not screwed out on posting a chapter. It'll just take some editing. Besides that, this is probably getting another part. The sleepover I mean.
Cmdr: That sounds about right, after all how could we not do one more chapter on it? We didn't mention it but, Blake doesn't wear a bow to hide her ears, she uses it more as a hair accessory and to tie her hair back. Also apparently, nomming, is actually a word. Thank you Sesame Street for coining it.
We hoped you enjoyed chapter 8. Remember, reviews are welcomed, but not required. See you in chapter 9.
