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The next morning, Ruby got to work on the second part of her survival training - surveying her campsite, and making it more comfortable.
The spot she'd picked out for them was a wide, flat spread of bare dirt up enough of an incline from the river to be safe enough from flooding. The ground was firm, too, and the fact there was dirt instead of bare rock meant that the water didn't flood often. Or, at least, that's what she'd been taught in class.
She just… Had to trust that.
The next step was shelter - even something basic to keep the weather and sun off of them.
For that, she climbed the trees along the beach, stripping them of their fronds and dragging them up to the camp. Using the ruined blouse and the pant-leg she'd cut off so Ruby could treat her leg, Ruby made strips of cloth and used them to tie the dozens of fronds into a pair of wide, green platforms. She used one of them for the floor, laying it out in the shade of a handful of trees close enough to the water to be convenient for Neo, but far enough to stay dry even if the water level rose, with a nice view of the beach in case they saw someone they could help, or a big lizard to fight.
Then she tied the other to each of the handful of tree-trunks at the back of her little spot, using what was left of the cloth strips she'd made, and what she could make out of her stockings when she resigned herself to sacrificing those. Which sucked a lot… She loved those stockings.
At least she still had her spats…
She braced the other ends up on more limbs from the forest, tied to the palm roof at the top and jammed into the ground at the bottom, with rocks stacked around it for added support. With that done, she got back to work collecting more fronds and used what was left of the cloth she'd harvested from her stockings to make a few thin walls that she leaned against the three sides of the shelter that faced the forest, with more limbs stacked along the bases to keep them secure and a few spots where she tied the roofs to the wall-fronds.
Inside, they were off the dirt - if not the ground - and they had three walls that, while Ruby could see through a dozen holes in each of them, at least blocked the worst of the wind. And would block the weather, too. Inside, they had enough space to sit with a foot between them, and enough to lay without touching. It was a bit short though - you had to crawl in, and you couldn't really sit all the way up.
Primitive, not too sturdy, and would not last more than a month, but…
"That'll do! Well, for now at least." She smiled, standing barefoot in the sand of the beach barely ten feet away and looking at her work. She turned and gave the woman sitting at the edge of the river a smile and asked, "Need help getting in?"
She only scowled and rolled onto her hands and knees. She pitched her sword into the shelter and crawled after it with a tense, pain-filled face. Ruby didn't stop her, but she watched the whole time, waiting to help her if she needed it, but…
Well, you couldn't force someone to let you help them.
Kneeling at the edge of the little shelter, she said, "Can I borrow your sword?"
Neo raised an eyebrow and cocked her head, shuffling in one corner to get comfortable.
"I'm gonna look for crabs or something." She explained, "Maybe chop down some coconuts. We have water that should be fine, but... Variety, ya know?"
Neo glared at her for a long time, clutching the thin sword to her chest. Finally, though, she sighed and rolled her eyes. Ruby squeaked when it slammed end-first into her stomach, only her Aura between the razor tip and her insides. Glaring back at the woman, Ruby stood and stalked away, out onto the sand.
At least the water lapping at her knees felt nice…
Now, she just had to find a crab, or a fish, or just - Something edible!
The water was beautiful and clear, coming in with a warm breeze over gentle tides as she walked along the shoreline. Every time she saw a fish, she lunged for it, disintegrating in a shower of petals to close the distance and reforming mid-thrust to catch the fish right at the base of its skull. Nice and painless, just like her dad had taught her.
Each fish was as long as her forearm and just a bit thicker, with long, stiff, barbed whickers and a wide, 'O' shaped mouth filled with needle-like teeth. Thick, bone-like scales the size of her palms ran down its back like armor, but its belly was soft and fleshy. Their bony scales were each colored a different shade of blue from dark, watery colors to almost twinkling sapphire hues.
They were so pretty, it sucked to have to eat the little guys…
But a tummy had to be filled up!
Ruby gutted four of the fish a dozen yards up the beach from their little camp, scooping the innards they couldn't eat out and burying them deep in the sand. The pretty scales, it turned out, grew over a smooth layer of fleshy scales like its stomach. Their heads joined them - she knew you could eat the eyes and stuff but she didn't know how to cook them - and their tails followed suit. She buried them and gathered the short flanks of pink and white, bony meat up in a palm frond to carry it.
A few coconuts to drink and eat later, and she was back at their camp and working on a fire.
While Neo watched…
And only watched.
Sure, her leg was hurt, but she could still do something. Even just… Helping start the fire, or opening the coconuts. Or anything, really, except sit there glaring at Ruby's back. She wasn't even being subtle about it! Just staring daggers at Ruby's back while she worked on the fire. It was weird, even for an enemy…
"Ah!" Ruby blinked as the embers finally caught, the little bundle of dry fibers she'd been using crackling to life and setting off the teensy amount of Red Dust she'd added to it. Feeding it tinder, she laughed and said, "Me make fire! Unga bunga!"
She turned, expecting a smile, but Neo was just staring at her, face the absolute picture of confusion.
"I-" Ruby blinked, "It was a joke?"
Neo huffed and shook her head, but didn't do much beyond that but shrug. Then she cocked her head and made a few shapes with her hand, snorting and looking away as she did.
"I was just trying to lighten the mood! Geez." She snapped irritably, "I don't know what your problem is-"
Neo cut her off with a loud, derisive snort and waved a hand at her wrapped up leg. Which…
Okay, that was fair, having a broken leg had to hurt. And pain could really put a damper on someone's mood at the best of times. Which this definitely wasn't… But that just made the point stronger! Ugh...
Ruby sighed, turned around, pinched the bridge of her nose and forced herself to calm down. Then she turned back and asked, as kindly as she could, "Is it hurting? I have more stuff for pain."
Neo grimaced tightly, gave Ruby a long, suspicious look, and then sighed silently. Finally, she nodded and held a hand out sheepishly. Ruby turned and scooted over to drop the pack into her hand and Neo blinked, looking at it in surprise.
"Take them as you need 'em." Ruby shrugged, turning back to feed the fire. "They're your kidneys. It's kidneys, right? That get messed up my too much medicine?"
She turned around and Neo shrugged, grimaced, and pointed at her sword and the coconuts Ruby had gathered. She shrugged and turned, rolling them to the edge of the shelter and pitching the thin sword onto the frond floor. Neo gave her a look, a nod, and then set to work shucking one of the coconuts with hands that were obviously as inexperienced as Ruby's own when it came to shucking coconuts.
But hey, if Ruby didn't have to do it…
With the fire burning hotly, Ruby stood and went to the river, kneeling in the shallow, but fast running, water and digging for a flat, smooth rock. She found four of them, all as small as the kinds of plates Weiss used with her tea, and used the running water to wash them off. Once that was done, she brought them to the fire and set them around it, pushed down into the dirt and angled a bit to face into the fire. Then she fed the fire more, even pitching in some of the coconut husks to get it hot, and watched the stones sear dry.
Then she started laying out the fish flanks on them, and listened to them sizzle and pop alluringly.
While it cooked, and Neo worked on the coconuts, Ruby relaxed against a tree near the shelter and spread her collection of colorful scales out on the ground. They twinkled and reflected the light from the sun as she ran her hands over them, and Ruby smiled. Reaching around her waist she pulled out her little kit, meant to let her maintain Crescent Rose - more or less - in the field. Nothing more than tuning - replacing wires, damaged plates, opening up its casing and replacing controller units.
But the tools she kept on hand for that were plenty for what she wanted...
Picking out the first scale, she pinched it in a pair of pliers to keep it steady and pressed her needle-point screwdriver down at the top of the scale, where it had connected to the skin of the fish. Carefully, she twisted the screwdriver, pressing the needle point through and using the slowly widening length of the tool to open the hole up further, boring a hole barely half an inch wide.
Once she was satisfied, she held the scale up and peered through the hole at the leaves above. Satisfied, she looped the wire through it and moved on to the next scale.
Humming an old song, she kept on like that for twenty minutes or so, threading the pretty blue scales onto the length of wire and occasionally pausing to check on the fish. She was about a quarter of the way done with her necklace when the fish was almost done, so she hung it on a niche coming off one of the limbs she used to support the front of the shelters and took a turn working on the coconuts. Neo had at least gotten one open, and another unshucked, so…
Well, it wasn't that bad.
"Careful." Ruby warned as she handed over the bony, thin slabs of fire-fried fish. "There's little bones in it, I couldn't get 'em out."
Neo gave her a thumbs up and offered one of the coconut halves, full of coconut milk, to her. Ruby smiled and took it, sipping at the fresh drink and sighing contentedly. The river flowed fast enough it should be safe, but coconut milk was just… Guaranteed, and somehow, that made it even tastier.
The fish-meat was sweet but tough and all… Stringy, coming off of the dozens of little bones in strings, sometimes, as Ruby pulled it apart. But between the handful of fish, there was plenty of meat, not to mention the coconut flesh, to eat.
"Save the coconut halves." Ruby said once she was done eating, casting the bones off into the fast flowing river which carried them down through the beach and out to sea.
Neo gave her a look, head cocked to the side and eyebrow raised, 'Why?'
"You can use 'em as bowls once you eat 'em out." Ruby explained, walking over to one of the halves she'd already cleaned out and holding it out like a normal bowl. "See? Soup, water, whatever. S'a bowl!"
Neo nodded, made a little 'Ah' with her mouth and set hew finished coconut halves on the dirt beside her. One of them was filled with the tiny, bare bones from Neo's fish meat and Ruby sighed as she came over to collect it, and then walked back to the river to pitch the remains into the water. Why she couldn't have asked her to tos it out on the FIRST walk, Ruby wasn't sure, but…
It wasn't like it was that long a walk anyway!
Ruby sighed and laid out on the ground beside the shelter, spread eagle and staring up at the leaves drifting in the breeze. It was beautiful, with the golden glow of the sun filtering through the leaves…
"I wonder where Yang is…" She sighed, laying there and chewing on a lip.
She felt a finger poke her hand and turned to look at Neo, who looked no more friendly than she had since Ruby found her but made a gesture with her hand. It was flat, her middle finger touching her lip, and then she brought it towards Ruby and down. Ruby's brows furrowed, and Neo pointed at the ground beside her, where the words 'thank you' had been written in the dirt.
"Oh." Ruby blinked and sat up, then repeated the gesture back at Neo and asked, "This means 'thank you'?"
Neo nodded, scooting away from her and looking her up and down apprehensively. After a second, she nodded her head again and raised a fist to her shoulder, bobbing it down and pointing from it to her nodding head until Ruby connected the dots.
"Okay so…" She repeated both gestures in order, feeling them out, and said, "That's 'thank you' and 'yes'. What's 'no'?"
Ne just shrugged, pointed at her head and shook it 'No'.
"There isn't one…?" Neo sighed irritably, rolled her eyes, and pursed her lips, staring up at the ceiling as if she was looking for help. Rolling her own eyes, Ruby sighed and grumbled, "I'm just trying to understand you. Gods, I don't know what your problem is…"
Neo wheezed a laugh, the first sound beside a grunt Ruby had heard from her, and gave her a look that asked the obvious, 'Are you serious?'
"Am I serious…?" Ruby blinked, then guffawed and went on hotly, the rage of the last few days bubbling up in her throat like bile from her stomach, "Yes! I'm very frickin' serious! Back in Vale, yeah, we fought and stuff. But, like, you seem so fixated on me! And, just- Why? Because I tricked you on that ship?"
Neo's glare could have melted steel and she bared her teeth, hands weaving complex signs Ruby didn't understand before she snarled, fisted her hair, and yanked Roman's hat off her head. She jabbed a finger at Ruby, then at her sword, then at the hat and stared at her, shoulders heaving.
"What- I don't understand." Ruby shouted, "What are you saying?"
Neo snarled silently, shaking her fists in the air and miming choking something. Then, slowly, she repeated the gestures and stared at Ruby. Waited for her to piece it all together. Finally, frustrated beyond reason, Ruby stood, fished her Scroll out of her pocket, and hurled it at the woman. Neo caught it with a hand and a confused expression, looking from it to Ruby.
"Tell me what you are trying to say." Ruby snapped hotly, pacing at the front of the shelter irritably. "I can't understand you, but- But I need to know why you did all of- Why you did all of that. I-I need it."
And that was true too…
Ruby needed to know why everything had happened. Why Neo had come all the way to Atlas, and come straight for her. Through so many people…
God, so many people…
Ruby sank to her rear and tucked her knees up into her chest, suddenly so exhausted and hugging her legs to herself just so she could hold something warm. Quietly, she murmured, "Please, I have to know…"
For a long moment, Neo just stared at Ruby, her face twisting from anger, to disbelief, and finally… To confusion. Silent as always, she flicked Ruby's Scroll open and searched for something. Eventually, she settled on something, and turned the little device around to show Ruby he rown IM app, opened to message Jaune of all people, with a simple message.
'You murdered Roman.' It said, 'You tricked me and killed him.'
"I…" Ruby blinked, then shook her head and scoffed, "No, I didn't. He was… Beating me, with his cane, I mean, a-and a Grimm landed and ate him before either of us could react. I didn't help him- I couldn't, it was too fast. But I didn't kill him, either."
Neo scoffed, but her face was… Confused, and she turned away to stare at the wall for a few long moments, eyes flicking as her mind raced. Finally, after a while, she typed out another message and turned the Scroll back to her.
'Why should I believe you?'
"I saved you because a Huntress doesn't just kill people, or let them die, if she can help it." they did kill, she knew that, and they did let people die. The White Fang in the train tunnel had certainly died, and Yang and Blake had killed Adam, too. But, "If we have another option, we take it. Even if it's hard. If I could have, I would have tried to help him."
'Why should I believe you?'
"I… Can't answer that for you." Ruby shrugged, standing and dusting the seat of her pants off. "If you don't believe that, then try and figure out why I ran up against a lizard the size of a house, without Aura or my weapon, to save you."
She could tell that got to Neo, but right now, Ruby didn't care.
She turned, walking out towards the ocean without a backwards word for the woman.
So many people, dead…
Because Neo thought she'd killed Roman. Cinder must have used that, too, whether Cinder knew it was wrong or not. Twisted Neo around, somehow, to get the woman to help her. Which… Well, it helped, since that meant it wasn't really Ruby's fault. And the relief she managed to get out of that was almost overwhelming.
But…
She couldn't let herself be overwhelmed, by it or anything else.
For now… Maybe she could look for some more fish? Or something else to eat. The sun was getting low, and it'd be nice to have food in the morning.
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So, to start off with, a wee bit of survivalism. What Ruby is doing is a combo of what I learned growing up when I was forced into the Scouts - 'thats what real boys do', ugh - little tidbits from military friends I have, some reading on tribalist art - of which the scale thing Ruby is doing is only a tiny fraction - and reading online. I know in some circles it would be advised Ruby keep the fish-bones, but she has a small amount of tools on her for Crescent Rose's field maintenance, which I put in a pouch she canonically wears, so no need.
The rest was dialogue, to START working out the problems at hand. For the record, no, Neo doesn't fully believe Ruby yet. Mostly because she doesn't trust her, but also for reasons of Neo's own actions. De Nile isn't just a river in Egypt, as they say.
Anyways, hope you enjoyed!
Oh! And the fish wasn't based on anything, I let myself just make that up. But for the dinosaurs, I'm doing research!
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Rwby ladybug enabler white-rose :
Oh, that fucker is alive and well. Fun fact, her name is Tina, and she's based on a BITCH from the one time I played ARK. Lots of tweaks, of course, but yeah.
Seklarian :
Oh, no worries.
There are PLENTY of issues. XD