Ahh, Such a peaceful sleep. Warm and soft, no danger in the world at all. If only time could stop like this...

"HEY THERE!" A voice screamed into Weiss's ear. She bolted up, almost flinging herself off the bed in a panicked flurry. She whipped her head around to try to pinpoint the source of the voice, and her eyes settled upon Yang, sitting at the foot of the bed while trying to hold in a laugh.

Weiss was a little more awake now, and once the sense of shock passed, she was furious. "Yang! What the hell?! Were you TRYING to give me a heart attack?!" She barked.

Yang shook her head, smiling like a kid who'd successfully pulled their first prank. "Just testing your reflexes! Aaaaand you passed! Great lets go!" Yang walked to the door and left the room. Weiss stared at the door. Yang opened it again, poking her head back in. "You need a few minutes to wake up?" She came back into the room.

"I... Uh." Weiss rubbed her eyes, remembering the past few days. Ruby wasn't here. A small jolt of panic sparked through her, but was mostly sated by the fact that Yang didn't seem to be worried in the slightest. She still wanted to ask though. "Where's Ruby? And, Blake?"

"I sent them on ahead, you looked like you needed a bit more time to sleep. Me and Blake both know where to go, we picked out an area in the forest to transform. We'll head there when you're ready." Yang sat on the bed again, and let herself fall onto it, sprawling her arms out.

"If I needed more sleep, what was that 'reflex test' you just gave me?" Weiss grumbled, shaking her head and standing up.

"Eh, you'd been sleeping an extra half hour. I was getting bored." Yang shrugged. She raised her head and looked at Weiss "Also me and Blake ate a little of your honey. Not a lot! Ruby said it was fine. Well, she glared pretty hard at us, so maybe it wasn't, but whatever."

Weiss held in a laugh at the thought of Ruby glaring at her sister as her and Blake tried a lick of the honey that SHE had got on her very own. Like a kitten mad that it had to share a dead mouse it caught with its litter. "We did almost die for it." Weiss joked.

Yang sighed. "Ahhg, you don't know the half of it. I could fill a book with tales of things she does that almost gets her killed. Granted, about half of those I was egging her on to do, but still." Yang flipped herself over onto her stomach and turned, resting her hands under her chin as she watched Weiss fiddle about getting ready to leave. "Are things going ok? Between you two?"

Weiss paused her movement for a moment, and gave Yang a confused looking. "Why wouldn't they be?"

"She did just slice someone in half in front of you, or so I was told. And the whole human with a tail and weird scale patches for a week thing, didn't freak you out too much?" Yang asked cautiously.

Weiss finished gathering her things, and answered. "I was to worried about her being sick to even register that situation properly, I think. And it was dark last night, so I didn't see much. Just heard things. It's not like I hadn't seen worse happening in my own castle basement." Weiss opened the door of the room, glancing back at Yang. "You coming?"

Yang followed. As they walked out of the city and into the forest, their conversation continued. "Thanks." Yang said. "For sticking with her. She's filled to the brim with puppy love right now, and it's nice to see its not unrequited." She paused for a moment, then let out a huge sigh. "I totally thought you'd bail when the dragon sickness thing happened! My uncle was seeing someone when his first time happened, and she freaked out and tried to stab him. Oof. Somewhere in the world, there's a traumatized bar maiden who thinks her lover was eaten by a giant black lizard."

Weiss raised an eyebrow. "Don't you have to try to turn into a dragon to have it affect you? Did he try to go dragon in an inn room?"

Yang shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe they were going at it in a cave or something and he wanted a flying break when she fell asleep afterwards. I just know what he told me. As much as he likes telling stories, he tends to leave out important details." She paused. "Or maybe he did what Ruby did, try to go dragon real quick in a confined space to get rid of a cold."

[[Hey Weiss!]] Ruby's voice suddenly sounded in Weiss's head.

"Speak of the devil, there she is." Weiss said, as Ruby's red dragon head poked out of the brush.

Yang grinned. "Aw, no fair! I wanted to show off first!" Ruby stuck out her tongue at Yang and puffed a tiny puff of smoke. "Heh, fine. Strut around for a little, have your moment."

Weiss stepped in through the brush with Yang, and saw it opened into the edge of a clearing in the forest. It wasn't exactly a small clearing, there was room for Ruby to frolic around. But it looked like no one would see them unless they were spying from the tops of the tall trees, or were in view of them all in the underbrush. Weiss scanned her eyes over the clearing, and saw Blake sitting near the edge, reading. Yang jogged over to her and started chatting. Weiss looked to Ruby, an saw she was watching Yang. A childish idea occurred to Weiss. She jumped at Ruby, as if trying to jump onto her back. Ruby startled a little, making an embarrassed screech at Weiss. Weiss smiled. "Your scales are so cool." Weiss said, as she ran her hands over Ruby's hide. Ruby's chest puffed with pride.

[[Wait till you see Yang, she's like gold!]] Ruby insisted.

"Hey Weiss! I'm doing it!" Yang yelled from across the clearing. Weiss and Ruby turned to look, just as Yangs human form turned into a huge golden dragon. She wasn't twice as big as Ruby, but she was almost there. In a pinch, it looked like she could carry Ruby in her dragon form if needed. Yang's scales sparkled in the sunlight, making it look like her entire body was littered with gold coins. Her neck, head, back, all four of her leg... All four... All, three? She was, missing a leg. One of her front legs, her right front leg was half gone. A stump.

Ruby made a strangled squawk, and trampled over to Yang, nudging her nose at the leg in a panic. Yang looked at Ruby and tilted her head in a shrugging motion. Ruby stomped on the ground and screeched at her some more. Weiss wandered over to Blake, and leaned close to whisper. "Sooo, she's missing an arm in dragon form, but not human form? Do YOU have an explanation?"

"Just wait, she'll figure out in a moment it'll be easier to explain it with a voice then to each of us by thoughts individually." Blake chuckled. "As convenient as the telepathy is, we really shouldn't broadcast it to everyone within a mile radius."

It took another moment of Ruby pestering Yang, but both girls finally went from dragon back to human. Yang didn't have her right arm, it was cut off a little above the elbow. Ruby put her hands to her head and screeched again. "OH MY GOSH IT'S GONE!"

"I told you, it's fine! Jeez!" Yang huffed, blushing a little.

"Does limb removal not transfer to your human form most of the time?" Weiss said coolly. She was indeed curious. Was Yang's arm from before an illusion?

"Right, right. Well here, look." Yang held out her arm, and its lower half materialized from thin air, thousands of tiny glowing orange particles combined together and made her arm look normal again. Like it had never been gone. Ruby grabbed it and inspected it, confusion just oozing from her frantic movements. "You know I'm a 'fire' mage right? I shoot and punch things with fire. Well, after my arm got cut off, I figured... I'm a dragon, I've got excess magic. Especially in human form. So I used a little of it to experiment, and make a sort of, living prosthetic. Fire is basically a living thing already, it wasn't that hard. And as long as I don't overexert myself, I can just automatically keep my 'fake arm' on."

"So, it's made of fire? But it doesn't burn everything it touches? And you can still feel from it?" Weiss asked rapid fire questions.

"Uh, yes, yes, and yes. I kinda use like, a sheildy thing? Or something? It's made of fire, fire that I can feel through, like an extension of my own body, cause it's my own magic. And I covered it in extra magic to shield it so it wouldn't catch things on fire by accident, and so that it would look 'human' and not like my arm was made from literal flames. Which it is." Yang flexed her fingers on the fake hand.

"Did it come off in human form or dragon form?" Weiss wondered out loud.

Yang lowered her gaze. Blake stood next to her, and put a hand on her shoulder. "... In, dragon form." Yang said in a quiet voice.

"Wait wait wait. So, some dragon bit off your entire arm?! That's awful!" Ruby put her hand to her heart, clutching the fabric of her cloak.

Yang looked away from Ruby. "It wasn't a dragon who did it." She mumbled. She turned away fully, and folder her arms. "It was a human. A faunus."

"So a HUMAN has your severed arm full of golden scales?!" Ruby looked ready to faint.

"This is why I didn't tell you earlier! You'd worry to much..!" Yang yelled and turned back to face Ruby, a small tear forming in her eyes from frustration.

"Of course I'm worried! You can be tracked by your scales!" Ruby shouted back at her.

Both Ruby and Yang looked ready to burst into tears. Weiss leaned over to Blake and whispered into her ear. "You knew about this I suppose? You didn't look too shocked."

Blake whispered back. "Ever wonder how I found out she was a dragon in the first place?"

"Oh, do tell. I think they need a moment alone." Weiss said, giving Yang and Ruby a soft glance.

Blake nodded. "Yeah. They do. Let's take a walk." Blake turned to Ruby and Yang and called to them "Me and Weiss are going over there! You two, talk, or something."

"Be back later!" Weiss called out as they walked away. Though from the looks of it, Ruby and Yang didn't even realize Weiss and Blake had said anything.

Blake spoke as she walked. "I'll try to keep it short. So basically my... ex, had just stabbed me and was going to kill me, but suddenly a giant golden dragon crashed into the building we were in. And he cut off its arm. I ran from that city, didn't see Yang for a while. Next time I DID see her, she had a severed arm. That was the first thing that tipped me off. Second, well, I followed her into the forest a few weeks later and saw change form. But she was normal enough otherwise. I stuck with her out of guilt at first, but then grew rather fond of her. She didn't know I knew she was a dragon. She only found out recently due to you and Ruby."

"And she always knew you were a faunus, because of her sense of smell." Weiss said.

"Hah. Yeah. I should have figured, she did always ask for extra fish on my stuff whenever we got food. I don't even remember ever telling her I liked fish." Blake paused. "Did I tell her?... No, no she just figured it out on her own. I'm sure of it." Blake sighed. "We had a loooong talk together that night you two made us realize we each knew each others secret. Thanks for that." Blake said that last part rather shyly. Huh, she had a strangely cute side.

"Do you think they've made up yet?" Weiss asked.

"Who knows? Yangs emotions are quite fickle sometimes, she held a grudge against some guy for accidentally stepping on her foot at the guild for months, but a different guy accidentally shot an arrow at her that same day and she forgave him instantly. With said arrow still sticking out of her side."

"Woah." Weiss said. Was Ruby like that? Actually, now that Weiss thought about it... "I don't think Ruby's ever talked directly to another person without me there, except for her trying to buy honey from a cart."

Blake made a half shrug. "She was stuck in that room for a week."

"Yes, but still... Have you seen her interact with anyone?" Weiss asked.

Blake thought a moment, and shook her head. "It took her 3 days of being alone together for her to finally speak to me enough to communicate that she wanted to play a card game."

Weiss thought back on all the times she'd been out with Ruby. She'd seemed pretty normal, but, Weiss really couldn't remember Ruby talking to anyone of her own violation unless weiss was somehow involved or nearby. Even the guard when they got her ID, that was just cause Weiss kinda pushed her into it. Would Ruby be able to talk to someone on her own, without Weiss, Yang, or Blake as support?

Blake spoke again. "Oh I just remembered, were you two near the fire last night?"

Weiss's thoughts froze. "...Why do you ask?"

"I was gonna ask earlier, but the whole 'covered in blood' thing got me sidetracked. It's why Yang was so worried and pacing by the front of the inn, she thought you might have started the fire or something." Blake pushed aside a branch in her path, keeping her hand on it until Weiss walked by as well. Weiss looked away from Blake guilty. How much had that fire spread..? Weiss had basically forgotten about it until Blake brought it up just now. Blake gave Weiss a suspicious glance. "I know that look. What did you two do?"

Weiss spilled the beans.

And to her surprise, Blake laughed. "I can't TELL YOU how many times me and Yang have had to leave a town because she set some random building on fire. Its weird, Yang's fire. It only hurts people when she wants it to hurt. I can stand in a pillar of flames she's made and be perfectly fine! I thought it was that she just had expert magic control, but, maybe its a dragon thing. If there's no malicious intent, there's no need to kill."

"That just makes all the burned victims in a dragon attack even worse." Weiss winced. "I guess some dragons just really want to hurt people."

"Dragons want to hurt people, people want to hurt people. People suck. Everyone sucks! Uhg." Blake stretched her arms, and folded them on top of her head as she walked.

Weiss was silent a moment. "Does that mean, no one was hurt in our fire?"

Blake nodded. "That's another reason Yang was so worried. She was so convinced it was you two, and you'd gotten caught or something."

"You didn't believe her?" Weiss asked.

"Yes and no? I had her stay at the inn and I checked the jail cells near the area of the fire. You weren't there."

Weiss nodded. The two gradually walked in a circle, tuning to head back to Ruby and Yang. Hopefully they had calmed down a bit. Weiss and Blake would be alone for a few more minutes, weiss realized. Now would be a good time to ask her that question...

"Hey Blake? Can you teach me some of your... Fighting style?"

Blake stopped. "My what now?"

Weiss folded her arms. "I can fight general beasts, that I'm good at. Normal ones, low level shadow ones. But the past month or so has taught me that, I'm VERY bad at fighting people. I get caught to easily. With a wolf or something, I can outwit them. But I can't do that to a person. Not most of the time anyways." Weiss sighed. "I really would have died last night if Ruby hadn't shown up. And I don't want her to blame herself if she shows up 'too late' in the future. That'd be my fault for not having trained enough."

"Ok but, you haven't even seen me fight. Why me?" Blake asked quizzically.

Weiss looked to the side. "You're the only non-dragon friend I have..."

Blake winced and gave a half smile "Yeah, they've got different biology down to the core. I bet Ruby would offer you a lava bath or something to strengthen your skin if you passed a volcano."

"She has more sense than that!" Weiss argued.

Blake gave her a look. "Does she?"

Weiss turned away and pouted. A few minutes of silence later, Weiss and Blake arrived back at the clearing.

Ruby and Yang weren't there.