Happy Halloween! You know, it's now officially been a year since I've started writing on this site, and I thought I'd make sure that I have a chapter out there to celebarate that! So here it is! Have a happy Hallow's End everybody! Hope you got your Horseman's Reins!
Hallow's End
"I fought for you... I fought in vain... Now scatter, scurry, shriek in pain! No mercy on this night abides, on Hallow's End, when the Horseman rides!..." - Sir Thomas, The Headless Horseman
Varimas, Ravarth, and Wrath all stared blankly in their drinks, each listening to the surrounding chattering occurring around them as the three sat at a small table in the corner of the Goldshire Inn, various off duty soldiers and adventurers milling about around them.
"Hey guys?" Wrath finally spoke up.
"Hmm?" Varimas hummed, glancing up from his drink.
"You ever get the feeling somethings not quite right with this inn?"
"What're you on about?" Ravarth spat out before taking a long swig of his ale, grimacing slightly at the bitter flavor. Even after years of drinking the stuff he still couldn't stomach it's taste.
"I'm not sure... I just feel like I need a scrub down whenever I've been in here."
Varimas shrugged, leaning his elbows against the table. "You're probably just paranoid."
"Yeah, yeah you're right..."
A moment later, a loud crash suddenly echoed outside of the room, causing everyone in the inn to jump at the sound. Several paintings in the bar area were launched off of the wall at the impact, with most, aside from one that struck an unlucky gnome, bouncing harmlessly off the floor.
Several soldiers glanced at each other in confusion as they all seemed to silently debate whether or not to go and check it out, or to remain in their ignorant state for as long as possible.
Ravarth was the first in the crowd to finally speak up. "What in the hell was-..."
"Ruby, you brainless baboon! When you said 'take us to the inn' I didn't think you'd actually slam us into the side of the building!... No, sorry isn't enough, look at my hair!"
"...Never mind."
A few moments later the members of Team RWBY entered the main room of the inn, with Weiss angrily fixing her ponytail as she glared daggers into the back of Ruby's head.
"Queen Wrynn!" Every soldier present yelled as they shot out of their chairs, all saluting proudly as Ruby's eyes widened in surprise at the gesture.
"O-oh! Uh! Greetings, uh... Men!" Ruby fumbled into a lazy salute, nearly smacking herself on the forehead in the process.
"You're not supposed to salute back you dolt..." Weiss muttered as she covered her face with her palm.
"Wait, really?"
Weiss only sighed at her leader's naïveté whilst the soldiers all chuckled at the scene before turning back to their drinks.
"So what are you all doin' round here?" Ravarth asked as the members of Team RWBY made their way over to the table in the corner that he and the elves had occupied.
"We wanna go see what Halloween on Azeroth is like, duh!" Ruby replied.
"You mean Hallow's End." Wrath corrected, using his powers to trace a ring of frost around the lip of his mug.
"Hallow's End? Not Halloween?" Blake asked, leaning her hip against the table.
Wrath shook his head. "No, though the two holidays are essentially the same bar a few key differences."
"Exactly, and we want to go see those key differences!" Yang affirmed, to which Ravarth let out a snort of amusement.
"Right... And you're sure it's not just because that one wants all the chocolate she can possibly stuff into her gob?" The Worgen asked as he jabbed an accusatory finger in Ruby's direction.
"You know now that I think about it, this was Ruby's idea..." Blake hummed in a bored tone, glancing over at her team leader.
Ruby seemed to shrink down for a moment at the faunus' words. "But, what's Hallowee-... Hallow's End without having any candy?..."
Before anyone could take another verbal jab at the reaper Varimas let out a small laugh. "Well if you do plan to go out tonight, just be wary of the Him. You never know where he could appear."
Ruby tilted her head at Varimas' words. "Him?"
Varimas sighed before turning to the Death Knight seated across from him. "Wrath, you never told them?"
"Uh... No? Why would I?"
"Because now that I've hinted at it you'll never hear the end of it until you tell them."
Ruby nodded vigorously in agreement to the Warlock's words.
Wrath let out a silent curse of annoyance before directing his full attention to the entirety of team RWBY. "It's just a legend that the citizens of Azeroth have been telling for the last decade or so, give or take a few years. Nothing other than that."
"Legend?" Blake asked.
"The Headless Horseman."
With those two solitary words the entire Inn suddenly fell into silence, with every soldier and civilian now glancing over with a visible mix of fear and curiosity as to what was being discussed.
The silence was eventually brought to an end by a question from Weiss. "Wait... So when you say 'Headless' Horseman, that's just a title right? He's not Actually-..."
"It means he has no bloody head." Ravarth confirmed. "It's pretty self explanatory Priss..."
"So you're saying there's some guy just roaming around on a horse without a head?" Yang inquired, attempting to imagine how exactly one would ride a horse if they had no head.
"Well he's supposed to be dead." Wrath clarified, though judging by his tone he was less than thrilled at the prospect of the Horseman.
Not afraid. No. He sounded... Bored. Saddened even.
"Supposed to be? As in he's undead?" Blake guessed.
"As in the whole story is a load of garbage." He confirmed, still coating the rim of his mug with a thin layer of ice.
The inn fell silent again then, with every set of eyes suddenly training on the elven Death Knight as he finally glanced up from his drink in confusion.
"What? Did I say something strange?"
"No offense Lord Duskblade," One of the many young stormwind soldiers who had been listening finally interjected. "But you're a Death Knight. Wouldn't you be the one who'd be most willing to believe this legend out of us all?"
"Which should just go to show how ridiculous it is." Wrath shrugged.
"Come on! What's the fun of Halloween without a scary monster?!..." Ruby cried out in dismay.
"Didn't she just say the exact same thing about sugar?..." Ravarth offhandedly muttered into his mug.
"I already said it's called Hallow's End, not Halloween. And you'll have fun, 'scary monster' or not. The Headless Horseman is no more than a myth, and he's going to stay that way, so put it behind you."
Ruby seethes for a moment before her face suddenly adopted an innocent smile. A smile so innocent that the males at the table glanced at each other in genuine confusion for a moment.
"Come on guys..." Ruby said, turning to make her way out of the inn.
"What? Where're we going Rubes?" Yang asked.
"To find the headless horseman, what else?"
"I really don't want to do this..." Blake quietly complained. She had wanted to go spend her night at the royal library, not hunt fairytale monsters!
"No choice! Let's go!" Ruby replied as she sped out of the door, with the rest of Team RWBY following a moment later, leaving behind a stunned inn full of soldiers and civilians.
Once the inn's patrons all seem to go back to their respective drinks and conversations Wrath turned to Varimas, a smile also on his face, though his was much less innocent than that of Ruby's.
"Var, I need some help with something, follow me would you?"
"This should be interesting..." Varimas chuckled as he and Wrath pulled themselves to their feet and began making their way to the entrance.
"Ravarth, you have the tab, right? Right. Thanks!" Wrath called back as he and Varimas disappeared out of the doorway, leaving a confused Worgen in their wake.
"Wait, what? Tab for wh-..." Ravarth trailed off as he glanced down at the table to find the still unpaid tab for their drinks that night laying in front of him. "YOU ELVEN BASTARDS!"
"I can't believe we're doing this..."
"Stop being such a grouch Weiss! This is just step 1 in the best Halloween you've ever seen!" Ruby insisted, twirling Crescent Rose idly around. "Think of this like a Grimm Hunt!... Expect we're hunting a supposedly imaginary Headless Knight with an unknown level of skill and power, and an almost certain intent to kill anyone he comes across."
"Have you actually considered what we'll do if this guy turns out to be real and we run into him?"
"Of course I have!" Ruby insisted, sheathing her scythe. "Come on Weiss, have I ever charged headfirst into a situation without a plan before?"
"YES!"
"Regardless, I happen to have the best plan ever this time!"
"Oh? And what plan is that?" Blake asked, genuinely curious to know what sort of hair brained scheme the little reaper could have possibly come up with in the time between now and when they had left the inn.
"I'm glad you asked! So since this forest is easily big enough to hide a hundred horsemen, let's split up." Ruby explained, ignoring the multiple attempts at protest from her teammates. "Weiss and I will take the east. Yang, you and Blake take the west!"
"Got it sis," Yang said as she and Blake turned another direction deeper into the woods, the Faunus giving a silent farewell wave as the two disappeared into the dense sea of trees.
"Wait, but what's the plan if we find him?!" Weiss called out to Ruby once Blake and Yang were gone.
"Ohhh, you wanted to know That part." Ruby hummed, snapping her fingers in realization.
"Yes, that's what I asked in the first-..."
"I haven't actually gotten that far yet."
"Wait, wha-..."
"ONWARDS!"
"So do you think we'll actually find anything out here?" Yang asked as she and Blake silently strolled through the forests of Duskwood, with only Blake's night vision and the brief breaks in moonlight to keep the two huntresses on their path.
"Hmm? No, of course not." Blake replied, still obviously uninterested in the whole affair.
"Why? I mean after all that's happened it's kinda plausible." Yang rightfully reasoned.
"Because Wrath told us so."
"I'm startin' to think you believe everything that elf says." The brawler exclaimed, poking her partners shoulder, causing the faunus to flinch away in annoyance. "You know he could have been Lying."
"Why would he lie about something like that?" Blake asked, glancing back at Yang.
"Because maybe he-..."
Blake's hand suddenly shot up, silencing her friend as the feline ears on her head suddenly began to twitch violently.
"Blake? You o-..."
"Shh!..."
Blake clamped her eyes shut and attempted to block out any auxiliary stimuli in an effort to focus in on the sound, only for her eyes to shoot open again in horror when she realized exactly what that faint sound was.
The unmistakeable sound of the hooves of a horse
"Yang! Duck!" Blake cried as she whipped around to face her friend, the outline of an armored figure appearing through the trees behind the brawler.
"What? Why-..."
Yang was cut off as a dark armored horseman suddenly burst through the sea of trees, seizing Yang by the back of her head.
Before the brawler could react a surge of shadowy energy suddenly rushed forth from the riders hand, forcing its way into her eyes and ears, all while she screamed out in a mixture of surprise and pain. Only a few seconds later she was limp, falling to the ground unceremoniously as the rider released his hold on her.
With his first foe dealt with, the rider glanced up to focus his full attention on Blake, Gambol Shroud in her hand, ready to defend against whatever he may attempt against her.
However, instead of the hesitation that Blake had assumed the rider would have, it instead rushed forwards and attempted to strike her with his armor plated fist, which was skillfully parried by Blake, who used the momentum she had gathered to flip back and land on the rider's horse.
She quickly used all of her body weight to yank the rider by his shoulder plates, throwing him off of the horse and landing on the ground with the Faunus, who rolled over to the downed knight and attempted to knee him. However he grabbed her leg before it could make contact and twisted it, causing a surge of pain to run through her as she bit her tongue in an attempt to hold off a scream.
Knowing that she had a clear strength disadvantage against the knight, Blake quickly made to grab Gambol Shroud, which had been knocked several feet away from the two in the struggle.
Before she could make it even a foot Blake felt someone grab her waist, and before she could even turn to face her attacker she was suddenly flung back away from her weapon, slamming into the side of a large tree.
Suddenly, as Blake was attempting to shake off the previous hit, she let out a silent curse as she felt herself being lifted into the air, a dark tendril of energy coiling around her neck like a snake around its prey, rendering her voice useless.
She quickly attempted to use her semblance to escape the clutches of the tendril, only to have most of the muscles in her arms and legs seize up as whatever mysterious force holding her by the throat seemed to suddenly hold influence over her entire being, paralyzing her.
The Faunus could only watch helplessly as the rider lifted his other hand, an orb of shadowy energy coalescing out of the very darkness that surrounded them.
Then, nearly without warning, the rider violently yanked Blake towards him, the tendrils around her neck replaced by his throat crushing grip.
Blake then grabbed the riders arm, desperately attempting to dig her nails into his arm, only for her nails to uselessly glance off his armor as his other hand latched onto her face, his palm covering his mouth as she attempted to let out one last futile cry of horror, shadowy energy forcing its way into any orifice on her face that it could find.
Her ears, nose, mouth, and even eyes were suddenly assaulted with a wave of dark energy seeping into her skull, filling her senses with nothing but the cold feeling of the darkness.
A moment later her eyes rolled into the back of her head and her arms fell limply at her sides, her now unconscious form held aloft only by the grip the rider had around her neck.
Realizing his victim had fallen unconscious, the rider brought one hand under the back of her legs, while repositioning the other under her neck, making sure he had a sure grip on her before he carried her off into the forest, his steed following closely, carrying Yang by the collar of her jacket in its teeth.
"We've been walking for nearly twenty minutes now Ruby! Just admit it, you have no idea what you're even doing out here or where we are!" Weiss hissed angrily as she jabbed Ruby's shoulder with a manicured nail.
"I know where we are! Look, see?" Ruby pointed at an old sign, the words upon it rendered nearly illegible due to the rotten wood. "It says that Darkshire is just a mile south of here."
"Darkshire?! Oh, wonderful! They might as well have just named it 'murder-death village'!"
"Come on Weiss! Would you just try to have some fun for once?!" Ruby cried, whipping around to face her partner.
"Fun?! We're in the middle of the forest, looking for some magical headless man that probably doesn't even exist, all so we can play along with your asinine idea of a successful holiday!"
"I'm not an ass-a-mime!"
"Asinine is a-... Ugh, you're impossible sometimes!" The heiress shrieked, throwing her hands up in exasperation.
"Well at least I know how to have a little fun! All you do is sit around all day and stare like a dope at-..."
A haunting laugh suddenly echoed in the distance, silencing both Huntresses as a wave of dread shot up their spines.
"Ruby?..." Weiss asked, fumbling for Myrtenaster. "What was that?..."
"What was what?" Ruby asked, giving a small laugh as she turned around and continued walking down the trail, though at a significantly quicker pace than before. "I didn't hear anything!"
"Ruby!" Weiss cried out, hurriedly attempting to catch up to the reaper.
"We heard nothing!"
"Please tell me you've been thinking of a plan while we've been searching!"
"It's covered!"
"Ruby! I'm seri-..."
"Weiss?" Ruby asked as she turned around, only for another spike of fear to run through her when she realized no one was there. "Weiss?... Partner?... Where'd you go?..."
Another scream, this one from a female, suddenly broke out throughout the forest, causing Ruby to deploy Crescent Rose as she silently debated whether or not to make her way towards the source of the noise.
Eventually, after commanding herself to be brave, the little reaper trailed the source of the scream, arriving at the edge of a small clearing, her view of the area blocked by a large bush.
Taking a moment to breath, Ruby gripped the shaft of her weapon tightly before she broke through the clearing, only to stop cold at the sight that lay before her. "Ohh... Ohhh no..."
Ahead of her was her team, all bound several feet above the ground to trees by thick looking rope.
"Are you guys alright?!" Ruby asked as she began to make her way over, only to freeze once more at the sound of her sister's voice.
"No! Ruby, stay back!" Yang cried, shaking around as she frantically attempted to free herself.
"Why?!"
"He's coming! Get out of here quickly Ruby!" Weiss ordered, only to let out a scream as she seemed to spot something, or someone. "Ruby behind you!"
Ruby whipped around in a panic just in time to find the sight of the armored horseman climbing off his steed, laughing softly.
"Not good, not good, not good..." Ruby muttered, raising her scythe in preparation for whatever attack the rider planned to launch against her.
Realizing that Ruby would also be putting up a fight, the rider slowly drew both of his swords, their icy cold surface hissing as they met the cool autumn air.
However, just as the rider drew within melee range, Ruby lowered her scythe, the look of confusion clear on her face. "...Wait... What?"
When she did lower her weapon the rider to seemed to hesitate, which gave the reaper all the confirmation that she needed.
"Wrath? What're you doing?"
"Wh-what?" The Horseman sputtered, finally speaking for the first time. "Who is this Wrath you speak of?!"
"Wait, hold up!" Yang called out as an amused smirk crept onto her face. "Wrath?! What are you doing dressed up like a weird demonic knight?"
"Be-... Because I am the Headless-..." The rider growled loudly when he realized Ruby was snickering. "Aren't you scared?!"
"Nope." Ruby replied, accentuating the 'P' for good measure.
"And why not?!"
Ruby merely pointed to Icebringer and Frostreaper. "Those are pretty hard to miss."
The knight glanced down and sighed, sheathing the swords before removing his demonic helm. "Damn it..."
"Where'd you get all that stuff on such a short notice?" Yang asked as Wrath placed the strange helm upon the ground.
"Oh, just had Varimas help me portal it in from somewhere. He didn't know what it was for though." He explained with a chuckle.
"Ohh, gotcha. I thought-..."
"Wrath..."
Everyone turned to gaze at the stone still form of Blake, who's eyeshadow had run down her face, which only served to momentarily distract from the large patches of dirt across her body that she had gained from the previous struggle.
"Are you saying that it was You who choked me and knocked me out with dark magic?..."
"Uhhh... Maybe?"
Blake fell silent, her eyes still trained on the ground below.
"Oooh, you're in trouble Frosty!..." Yang clicked her tongue, shaking her head. "Makin' your girlfriend so mad like that, for shame!"
"Ruby?..." Blake asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Yeah?"
"Please cut me down."
"Can do Blake!"
"Wait! Wait Ruby don-..." Wrath cut himself off as he watched in horror as Crescent Rose cut through the rope binding Blake effortlessly, freeing the Faunus.
Blake landed on her feet, barely even taking the time to re-establish her bearings before she slowly began making her way over to Wrath, flexing her fingers in a claw like manner.
Wrath slowly began backing up, his hands held up in front of his chest as he chuckled nervously. "Now now... In my defense, I did prove that the whole Headless Horseman thing is a load of garbage... And in quite the spectacular fashion as well!..."
Blake said nothing, only drawing closer, the look of murder in her eyes.
"You know, you really did put up quite the fight. More than anyone else. I'm sure you would've ended up beating me had I not used any magic, so can we call it even?..."
Still, no response was given. Only the methodical sound of Blake's nails clicking against each other as she rubbed them together, as if trying to sharpen them.
And in that moment Wrath did something. Something he would come to regret for weeks to come.
"...Have I ever mentioned how captivating you are in the moonlight my dear?"
Wrath silently strode through the empty halls of the Scarlet Monastery, his face adorned with three long slashes across across his face, so fresh some appeared as if they could still draw blood if touched.
He traveled through what seemed to be mountains of bones and old discarded armor, ravaged by a combination of battle and time. A battle long passed, when their wielders still fought in the name of the light. In the name of the living.
Eventually the Death Knight came upon a decrepit old graveyard, with many of its headstones also ravaged by battles past. He strode past each and every grave, silently reading the names that he could, while only staring blankly at those he could not.
Eventually he halted in front of a small mausoleum, it's gates rusted shut, with a small cylindrical alter standing before it.
Wrath silently pulled out the helm he had been wearing only hours prior, placing the headwear onto the small alter on which lay a small holy symbol, it's silver surface marred with dirt and ash.
With that Wrath turned away from the alter and began waking back towards the entrance, only to stop after only a few steps.
"Oh, right..."
Wrath quickly whirled back around, placing a small paper bag alongside the other objects that lay upon the alter, ripping it open to reveal a small handful of candy.
"...For your kids."
Then the Knight backed away from the alter, before turning around and walking away, whispering one last thing as he strode away from the graveyard, the echo in his voice whispering across the seemingly endless headstones like a spirits call. "Light guide you Sir Thomas..."
He was gone a moment later, disappearing into a waiting Death Gate that faded into little more than purple smoke soon after.
The serene quiet returned to the Scarlet Graveyard once more, with only the near inaudible sound of the echoing laughter of children, along with the sound of a candy wrapper slowly began pulled open, saving the area from the deathly silence reigned throughout the rest of the monastery.