Kalt Diplomacy
Metal reins clang together, horses neigh and grunt as they trot forth on worn earth traveled by hundreds before their shoes come to beat the ground further. Their hooves faithfully keep the "Clip clop, clip clop" as if a conductor keeps them in time, no hoof out of sync with another. The hot sun beats down on the freshly dewed covered landscape, causing a brilliant shine to radiate from the hills. A beautiful melody of trills sung by robins, sparrows and the occasional caw from a crow accompany the horse's hooves steady beat. The brisk breeze weaves through the dense evergreens as if to fluff the branches causing the leaves to dance. This simple sight is often overlooked by thousands if not millions who have traveled, and will ever travel this road.
"How many people do you think truly appreciate the beauty of this land?" Pyrrha wonders out loud, stopping her horse for a moment to take the view in. The once rhythmic sound of the horses traveling comes to a halt.
" Please...please… stop…ugh" Ruby grumbles to her horse leaning on her saddle in an attempt to speak with her mount. "OHHH nuuuu!" THUD! The commotion that follows filled with the unmistakable sound of chaos.
The sound of horses whining as Yang and Weiss tug on their reins turning their horses to see Ruby hanging upside her foot stuck in the stirrup. "Oh uhhh." Ruby gasps as she attempts to get loose to no avail.
"hehe….a little help please…" Ruby briefly chuckles before she goes limb.
"Ruby…what are you doing?" Yang giggles making fun of her sister as Weiss just pinches the bridge of her nose. Ruby struggles to get out of her current predicament as the remaining members of the guard quickly catch up to witness their leader struggle to ride a trained steed.
Pyrrha and Nora hop off their horses throwing the reins to Ren, who watches guard. Nora takes the woman into her arms lifting her so her foot releases from the stirrup. "Maybe you should ride with Yang?" Pyrrha suggests as she adjusts both the straps on Ruby's horse and her weapon, seeing that the weight of Ruby's weapon helped keep her saddle beneath her steed.
"NO WAY!" The sisters shout simultaneously, Weiss shakes her head at the quarreling pair.
"Ruby, I don't understand exactly how it is that you have never spent any time on horseback." Weiss rubs her forehead down then she goes back to pinching the bridge of her nose.
"She can ride with me. We can tie her horse to Ren's since he is holding up the rear." Pyrrha offers climbing back on her mount. The Redhead holds out her left arm to help Ruby get on.
"Excellent. Shall we continue?" Weiss turns her steed, not evening bothering to look as the rest of the group follows. Ruby takes Pyrrha's arm and is promptly slung in front of the warrior.
"Thank you Pyrrha… though I feel a little out of my depth without my scythe with me." Ruby worriedly looks back to see her beloved Crescent Rose now properly strapped to her horse.
"You will be fine and I can give you support if you need it until you can retrieve your weapon, you still have your short sword though correct." Pyrrha keeps her eyes vigilant, taking the reins and catching up to the Princess taking her place on the left hand side of her.
"Uhh…yes." Ruby's face red as the older warrior's arms enclose the young woman. Weiss looks over to see the expression on Ruby's face as a sharp pain is felt in her heart.
Why is that...why is she blushing….
Nora and Ren's horses trot beside each other as they bring up the rear with Ruby's horse following Ren. "SO we are going to this village to do what exactly?" Nora wonders out loud.
Weiss smirks, "we are going there as a diplomatic mission, Lord Ozpin got word that this village has been having a lot of attacks from the Grimm lately as well as bandits." The Princess catches another glance of her Captain blushing causing her face to sour.
"Everything okay Princess?" Yang notices the Princess' face as well as what she is looking at. The brawler tugs on the reins to get up closer to the Princess, "Ruby is never the best when it comes to riding…but she looks quite comfortable with Pyrrha don't you think?"
Weiss grinds her teeth, noticing that Yang is poking fun at her. "Ruby will have to learn to ride, I…could teach her." The Princess whispers softly.
"Well that is such a gracious offer." Yang chuckles tugging on the reins, "I am sure she would love that…as much as you would." Weiss smiles and tries her best to keep her eyes forward to avoid seeing Ruby so flustered.
"That gift the King gave you is lovely." Pyrrha mentions noticing that the Princess' gaze is glued to the road before them.
"Father picked the perfect gift for you Princess." Ruby adds watching the Princess' new rapier sway at her side.
"That he did." Weiss responds as she runs her hand across the rapier, the guard shaped to resemble the Schnee emblem various dust crystals embedded into the handle and just past the hand guard. While the Princess takes a few moments to admire her father's choice in weapon and the craftsmanship put into each detail, even the pummel was made into the shape of the Schnee family crest. Yang continues to chuckle knowing that the Princess is flustered seeing Ruby blush in the arms of another.
"Hey guys!" Nora shouts as Ren looks behind, taking his reins as if he is about to stop on his horse. Suddenly a savage roar shakes the trees, birds flutter away and the Earth begins to vibrate. Shadows dart all around the group as the echoes of ursai fill the once peaceful valley.
The horses begin to buck and stand on their hind legs nearly throwing everyone off. Pyrrha and Yang allow their animals to buck as they jump off, Ruby quickly follows. "Protect the Princess." Pyrrha shouts while Yang and her go towards Weiss who has miraculously remained on her unbelievably calm horse.
"URSAI!" Ren yells as he gets off his horse trying to calm it down, grabbing the reins while he tries to tie his horse off to a tree. Ren goes to Ruby's horse unstrapping her weapon, once the massive scythe is free from the horse it hits the ground it's blade digs into the soft dirt below as the handle angled upward. The frightened horse takes off yanking so hard it nearly burns Ren's palms. "RUBY!" Ren calls to the young leader as he watches her horse fade into the distance.
Nora's horse runs past Pyrrha and Yang, "Their coming, and fast!" Nora calls gripping her hammer tight. Turquoise eyes narrow watching the shadows dance around in the woods, light flickering with the movement of something malicious lurking and watching from the distance. A tall oak just behind the tree line topples over and another roar finds its way to the warriors.
"Yang, Pyrrha stay by with the Princess! Nora, Ren with me." Ruby commands as she feels the familiar leather of Crescent Rose's handle in her hands. The young leader tears her scythe from the ground and runs into the tree line. The three of them chase the noises into the forest as the sun begins to dip below the forest.
"Where are they going!" Weiss shouts as she watches the red cloak disappear into the forest. Pyrrha and Yang attempt to help Weiss off of her horse, "I can do this by myself. Thank you though." Yang takes a step away from the horse.
"Of course, we just wanted to help the Princess." Yang cracks her knuckles as she adjusts her gauntlets. Pyrrha takes her shield off her horse.
"It would appear that Ruby is heading out to take out the potential Grimm threat." Pyrrha answers the Princess' first question. "We should be careful even though the Grimm sounds like they are deeper in the forest; I sense we are not alone here." Yang and Pyrrha keep their eyes on the now dimming landscape.
"We are going after them." Weiss orders as she walks in the direction that Ruby disappeared at.
Yang puts her hand on Weiss' shoulder stopping her. "No, Ruby said we were to stay here, there is something that isn't right if we go after them we could be walking into a trap."
"Ruby said to stay with the Princess." Pyrrha corrects the brawler. Weiss smirks as she continues. "But we should stay put Princess, Yang is right."
Weiss takes her rapier out of its sheath, "I can fight, and I don't need you to babysit me. We came here to help this village and that is what I will do." The Princess sharply turns causing Yang to chuckle.
Clap…Clap… Clap CLAP, Pyrrha and Yang rush to either side of Weiss who raises her weapon at the noise. A shadow shifts before them as two dart behind them, Yang follows the two shadows with her eyes and turns so her back is to Pyrrha.
"Well isn't that noble of you!" A voice mocks from in the dimming light. "Princess hmm…sounds like we hit the Jackpot with YOU!"
"RUBY! There more Ursai coming we should regroup with the others!" Ren shouts as he pulls his daggers out of a fallen ursa. He turns and sees Nora smashing her hammer into an incoming Ursa flinging the massive beast into a beowolf. BEOWOLVES when did they get here?! "Nora watch out behind you!" Ren quickly gets behind the woman and catches the fangs of a beowolf with his daggers, sweat drips down his chin.
"Thanks Ren…" Nora sighs as she slams her head into the beowolf's skull putting the beast into a daze just long enough for Ren to bury his daggers into his chest.
"OOOOOWWWWOOOOOO" The beast howls as it hits the ground the other beowolves slowly back into the darkness.
Ruby somersaults over an ursa catching her scythe deep in its neck, "We have to finish the last of them off or else we will lead them right to the village!" The red cloak flutters past the fallen ursa darting into the air as the crescent of her scythe arches straight into another and another beast. We have to stop them from getting to the village. Wait for us…we are almost done…
"She's right Ren!" Nora huffs as she wipes the sweat from her forehead, "We have to clear these stragglers out." Ren nods, cutting the air sharply to clean his daggers before attacking the closest beast to him.
"If I were you I would just leave now" Pyrrha yells at the voice, her eyes adjusting to the dim lighting can see a silhouette of a man leaning against a tree.
"You're surrounded. Just hand the Princess over and we will make this painless for everyone." The man pushes off the tree. The glint of a sword can be seen.
Pyrrha grips her spear, "Yang will you be ok?" the redhead turns her head slightly.
"Princess please just stay close, don't get into too much trouble." Yang smirks rolling her shoulders. "Well come on then!" Yang starts running to where the shadows hide.
Weiss follows Pyrrha's lead as they wait for the leader to come after Weiss. "Pyrrha, what about the others?"
The sound of rapid footsteps charging at the pair causes Pyrrha to step in front of the Princess. "We can't worry about them, Ruby is a good leader. They will be fine." A whistling is heard shooting past the pair. THACK an arrow vibrates as the feathered end comes to a stop in a tree trunk just a few feet away.
"I….I…W-w-W-w WON'T MISS NEXT TIME" A shaky voice stutters followed by the sound of another arrow scraping against a bow.
"Princess!" Pyrrha crouches behind her shield, "Stay behind me…Yang!" The redhead calls to the brawler.
THAWK THAWK "Come now why were you hiding in the shadows." Yang asks loudly as she pummels her captive, "tell me where they are. This can end peacefully if you tell them to surrender."
The man spits blood out as he smirks, "As if we would surrender, you're surrounded just give up." Yang's eyes lower and she pulls the man close to her and WHAM. She lets go of his tunic and the man slides to the ground, "if you weren't going to tell them, then I will show them that they should have surrendered when they had the chance."
"YANG!" Weiss calls as Pyrrha defends her from an onslaught of arrows. "Can you see the archer?!" An arrow flies towards the blonde who tilts her head to the left, the projectile grazes past her check but catches a locket of hair.
Yang watches in horror as a locket of her golden blonde hair floats slowly to the ground. "IT DOESN'T MATTER IF I CAN SEE THEM OR NOT! I WILL FIND THEM?!" The brawler vanishes before the pair all that is left is the lone locket of blonde hair whisked away in the breeze.
A volley of arrows cascade from the darkness, without a second thought Pyrrha grabs Weiss and holds her shield towards the sky. None of these seem to be directed in any particular direction unlike just a moment ago. "What is Yang doing?! Running off like that she left us defenseless." Weiss mutters to herself as splinters fall beside her.
"Yang took the archers attention off of us." Pyrrha takes Weiss' shoulder, pulling them behind a tree. "There are still at least two other bandits here." Ducking her head out from behind the tree, emerald eyes see the silhouettes of two people searching.
"WHERE did they go?!" A deep voice shouts, "They were just here!"
"They can't have gotten far." A woman mentions, as she tosses a knife into a bush close to the pair. "What about the blonde?"
"Focus if we can get the Princess, and ransom her back to whichever Kingdom she belongs to we will be rich." The man exclaims, "we have orders to kill everyone else."
Pyrrha holds her finger up to her lips as she waves with her other hand to follow. "As long as we stay hidden we can surprise them and take them out one at a time."
"How did the Bandits know that we would be here?" Weiss whispers, out of the corner of her eye she sees the shadows searching the bushes near the trail.
"Not sure, but they were lucky that Grimm attacked nearby just as we…were…" Pyrrha stops mid-sentence. "That doesn't matter, let's just take them out, I am sure these are the same bandits that are attacking the traders to the village."
"ARGGGGGGG STO- STOO-PP!" THAWK! Birds shoot into the sky,as a third figure appears on the trail. "Who is that?" The pair question as they slowly approach the dark figure, "you're no-" the man starts then plops to the ground. "YOU-" The woman gasps as the sounds of bone crushing blows echo through the forest. The last shadow figure turns towards the pair, its blood colored eyes seem to change to a familiar lilac color with a blink.
"Pyrrha? Weiss? Come out it's safe now." Yang calls as she drags the unconscious pair towards the last two remaining horses. The two come out from hiding as Yang lights a torch smashing her gauntlet into a flint stone, to examine the faces of the people she has captured. "Hmm"
Weiss and Pyrrha walk up and notice that both of the bandits are Faunus. "Do you think they could be White Fang?" Weiss wonders out loud as Pyrrha helps Yang tie up their prisoners. "Also who said you could call me by my first name!?" The Princess exclaims.
"They could just be bandits, not every Faunus is part of the White Fang, dear Princess." Yang scoffs tightening the knot. "Also we may want to use Princess a little less with bandits about they will target us more if they perceive us to have wealth…"
Weiss looks over at Pyrrha who nods in agreement, "it is a good idea for now." the warrior whispers as she goes to take a closer look at the bandits.
Weiss exhales loudly, "I know that Yang! But…" the Princess takes notice that before the attack there were six noble steeds and now there are just two remaining. "Where did all the horses go?" Pyrrha rubs her chin and Yang pinches the bridge of her nose.
"You don't think that all the other horses ran off do you Pyrrha?" Yang groans, one of the unconscious captives groans. Pyrrha squints her eyes in the darkness making it hard to tell if Ren's horse is still tied up.
"What…where am I?!" The woman wakes up from her stupor in complete shock, instantly wriggling to try to escape.
"Nice to see you even if it is only with torch light." Pyrrha says crouching before the woman. The surprised woman growls when her eyes meet with Yang's who sticks her tongue out in response.
Weiss takes a step towards the woman, "Who sent you after us?" she asks sternly.
"Sent us?...Hehehe you think too highly of yourself Princess." The woman laughs staring right into Princess' eyes. "No one sent us…we just happened to be here when those ursai appeared."
"PYRRHA, YANG! PRINCESS!" Ruby shouts from deep in the woods. Nora and Ren follow close behind the young leader. Though since they ran straight into the woods without noting where they were, the trio became lost on their way back.
"RUBES we are over here!" Yang calls back to her sister swinging the torch in an attempt to help Ruby find them in the darkness. Weiss and Pyrrha watch Yang signal to the others then look down at the captives.
Weiss lowers her gaze, her lip twitches as she says. "We are not done with you yet." The prisoners narrow their eyes then look down.
"I see a light over this way." Nora picks up Ruby and Ren on both her shoulders. "Nora! Put us down." Ren shouts instantly.
Weiss shakes her head as Nora jumps out from behind a bush with Ren flailing about while she gently puts Ruby down. "Ren calm down." Nora reassures pointing to the trio before them. "It looks like they were fine, though…" Nora walks up to Weiss, tilting her head, "hmmm?" The display takes everyone's attention off the captives for a few moments.
"What are you staring at!" Weiss shouts, Nora smiles and removes a twig out from the back of the Princess' hair. Nora twirls the tiny branch about as she spins around.
"This little fellow." Nora places the twig into another bush, the energetic woman giggles
"Well, we should discuss the missing horses." Ren mentions pointing to the remaining two steeds.
"Where did your horse go Ren?" Yang holds the torch out in front of her to get a better view down the road but the darkness is barely pierced but its dim light. Pyrrha takes a hesitant step towards the rest of the squad. The captives use this moment to cut through their restraints and quietly slip into the darkness from which they came.
Ren holds out the slashed remains of his reins, "looks like your prisoners had friends and they took my horse while we were fighting off the Grimm."
"I volunteer to walk." Ruby happily adds, causing the group to laugh. Even Princess Weiss emits a giggle at the young leader. Even after just defeating dozens of Grimm and facing bandits the five young warriors could make light what others would consider a terrible situation.
This was supposed to be an easy mission, the bandits and the Grimm we knew there were near the village. Why does it seem like the bandits are using the Grimm to lure the warriors and they pick off whoever is left… Pyrrha wonders as she goes to retrieve the remaining horses.
"Uhh where did the prisoners go?" Yang stands where the pair were tied up just a moment ago and all that remains is the cut ropes used to hold them.
Weiss sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. "How did they escape…?" With the light of the torch dimming everyone exchanges worrying looks.
"We should move and camp further down the trail…They will be back and with friends." Ren states as everyone else looks about for any odd shadows.
Ruby takes a knee in front of Weiss. "Princess we have to continue on for a while longer for your safety you and Pyrrha shall use the last remaining horses, the rest of us will follow on foot."
Pyrrha gets on without a second thought; Ruby gets up to walk Weiss to her horse. Weiss stops before getting on, "Ruby what if they come back…are you saying Pyrrha and I should go on without all of you…" the cerulean eyes lower in the dim light of the torch.
"You are more important than any of us." Nora shouts as she lights another torch handing it to Pyrrha.
Yang walks up and places her hand on Ruby's shoulder; Ren and Nora come up behind the young woman, and says "We aren't going down that easy, Princess. You can bet even if you and Pyrrha have to go on without us, we will catch up, don't worry about us." Yang tilts her head smiling, causing Ruby to smile as well.
"We already drove the Grimm away once and you three captured some of the bandits. There is nothing to worry about." Nora laughs, latching her hammer onto her back.
Weiss takes her hand and gets onto her horse, her eyebrows lower and she nods. "Okay, let's get going the faster we get out of here the sooner we can make camp."
"Yeah!" Everyone shouts then Yang and Pyrrha hold their torches up to illuminate the path as best they could. Ruby and the rest of the group circle close to stay within the dim lights glow, as they continue down the road.
A/N Hello Travelers! I hope everyone is well, safe and still enjoying the story there is still so much left. I can't thank everyone enough for all the support. Thank you all! Feel free to leave a like, comment, favorite the story and let me know your thoughts. It has been over two years of writing and there is still so much left. I hope everyone still loves it as much as I love to write. Thanks again and see you all in the next chapter. \\(^,.,^)~