Scratch what I said about trying to act my age. Why? Because it was practically impossible and downright awkward. And exactly what was awkward?

Breastfeeding.

There was nothing wrong with it. I was an infant and I needed the nutrients. That was normal. However, there was absolutely nothing normal about me. Being mentally aware that I, a mature adult, was being breastfed was just... Weird.

Oh how I wished I was normal right now, to be able to grow up with no recollection. But that was impossible. I have to live with a vivid memory of Summer directly giving me my sustenance.

5 Months Old Ruby

Summer hummed as she walked down the stairs, holding me tightly in her arms. From the few months that I had been here, life in some aspects was quite... Different.

Never in my life had I heard of huntsmen and huntresses. Were they a new undiscovered race? I don't know, it could be. Were they some sort of monsters? Probably not, because mom and dad were considered to be one of them. They didn't look like monsters to me. Was it a job title? Maybe, considering that they sometimes left the house from time to time, bringing back money and bruises.

What I do know was that huntsmen and huntresses were the main topic of everyone's conversation. They were always associated with something called grimm. And what was grimm? I don't know. Maybe a new undiscovered monster. Or perhaps it was a new guild, trying to make a name for itself.

But things didn't make sense to me. Huntsmen? Huntresses? Grimm? These were extremely foreign subjects to me. I had no idea what the hell they were or let alone heard of it. In fact, it was a severe blow to my pride. A good portion of my guild specialized in gathering information. Why?

Because knowledge was power.

Then many questions were answered when mom took Yang, my energy induced sister who was two years older, and I for an outside stroll. Nothing around my surroundings looked familiar in my eyes. For a race that had a high life expectancy, I knew majority of the lands like the back of my hand. It was quite hard to forget such a beautiful, peaceful small town when you lived for at least a century. Then a couple of days later, it suddenly dawned on me.

I wasn't in my world anymore.

Yang trailed behind mom down the staircase, gripping onto her signature white cloak, and steadily trying to balance herself as she walked down the stairs with her stubby little legs. Reaching down the stairs, Yang skipped pass Summer from the living room and into the kitchen.

"Yang, honey. What would you like for breakfast?" Summer asked, using her sweet motherly voice as she strolled into the kitchen.

She strapped me in my red high chair so I wouldn't fall... Again.

To my defense, I was still working out the kinks of my motor skills, which failed miserably. Luckily, mom used a weird supernatural speed spell. I never understood why couldn't she use magic like telekinesis. If she knew how to cast some kind of speed magic, then why not use telekinesis? That seems like an easy spell to use.

"Pumpkin Pete's Marshmellowy cereal!" The blond toddler happily exclaimed.

"Okay, but remember to not eat too much. We don't want to have cavities do we?" The adult wolf playfully wagged her finger, expressing her authority.

Summer grabbed a box of sugary cereal from the cabinet and handed it down to Yang. After grabbing my sister's food, mom went out of her way to get my breakfast. To my confusion, she didn't bring out my usual sustenance, an acquired taste that I had slowly developed. She brought out of a jar of... Something. A red bowl filled with yellow gloop was placed in front of me. I looked down confusedly at the bowl then back up to my mom.

"Guess who's a big girl now and gets to eat big kid food!" Summer coo'd.

I don't know what kind of stuff she had been eating, but this was not big kid food. Steak was a prime example of big kid food. This thing doesn't even deserve to be categorized as food. In fact, I don't even know what the hell this was.

I pouted and pushed the red plastic bowl filled with 'not real food' away from me. Summer frowned and pushed the bowl back to me, but that only made me push it away again. She slid it back to me and I giggled as we started a playful game of push the red bowl.

A frown still remained on the white cloaked woman's face, but immediately lightened up as an idea arise. She dashed to the drawers, picked up a plastic spoon, and scooped a spoonful of yellow gloop. She proceeded to slowly wave it around, while making dreadful noises that sounded like a dying goblin. I refused to open my mouth as soon as the spoon parked right outside my lips. Summer groaned in frustration and played her final trump card.

She scratched that one spot behind my small red tipped wolf ears.

Oooooh yeeaaaah, that felt great. My mouth propped open in pleasure. Not missing her chance, Summer shoved the spoon into my mouth, feeding me that wretched garbage.

Curse you animal instincts, I've been tricked.

I swallowed the yellow substance which didn't taste either too awful nor too good.

"See, that wasn't too bad right Ruby?" Summer chuckled and wiped that nonexistent sweat from her brows.

I continued to hungrily scarf down the meal, trying to enjoy that so called 'food'. It was like eating apple sauce, but worse. My breakfast came to an abrupt end as my spoon accidentally nudged the plastic bowl to its side, rolling it down from my table.

Damn it, foiled by my baby motor skills once again.

The bowl clattered against the tile floor, leaving a yellow spluttered mess. Wolf ears flattened on my head and I unconsciously gave my mom the saddest look.

"Don't worry my little pup. I'll get you a new one and clean that up." She ruffled my hair, turned around, and she did.

2 Year Old Ruby

Blood trickled down my skin as his knife slowly made its way down in a slow endless torture. The pain stopped, but then reappeared when the sharp edged weapon found a new spot to make its scars.

"Now isn't this fun? I call this... Art," grinned the cloaked torturer.

I tried to struggle free, but my arms and legs were shackled down on a ragged stone table. Screams of agony exited my mouth as I felt another sharp stab against my thighs.

"Ah Ah Ah." The cloaked torturer shook his head. "This is art, not choir. Art doesn't require...Singing." He dragged his knife down my thighs, creating his so called 'art'. More painful screams escaped from my mouth. Displeased with the sound, the mystery person stopped his drawing.

"Now, what did I say earlier?"

As punishment, he plunged his weapon deeper into my lower thighs and twisted his knife. Squelching noises echoed within the musty chamber. But that didn't stop my screams. It was the exact opposite, it grew louder. Streams of tears flowed out from my eyes as I begged him to stop. It was no use. He was hysterically burying his knife at every spot his knife could find.

"Hah! The great Sword Angel pleading for mercy. What an ugly sight." He spat venomously. "That white hair brat would've been a better sacrifice. After all, he is the demon lord. I'm sure he would have done less...Screaming. Oh, but do you know who would have been an even better idea?" He smiled and left his torture tool imbedded into my stomach. He brought his face closer to my ear and whispered, "I think your mother would look lovely covered in her own bl-"

Before he finished his sentence, I woke up screaming.

Tai and Summer busted into the room looking for an intruder, but glanced around only to see me wailing. More tears crawled down my face and made its way onto the bed. As a way of comfort, Summer picked me up and held me tight.

"Hey, shh... Shhh. It's okay. It's only a bad dream," she planted kisses around my face while one hand caressed my hair and the other rocked me in her loving arm. Sobs and more nonsense came out of my two year old mouth as I attempted to explain what happened.

"Only a nightmare my little rose. It won't get you, I promise. Me and your dad will always protect you."

"Mom? Dad?" Yang immediately sat up from her bed and rubbed her eyes. The girl's blond locks were strewn in a mess, some were even trapped in her mouth. "What's going on?"

"Ah, your little sister had a nightmare," Tai answered. The bigger man sat down onto Yang's twin size bed and hugged her.

"What?!" The four year old eyes widen with concern. Her overprotective sister switch had been flipped as she freed herself from Tai's lesser bear hugs. She rushed by my side and threw herself onto mom and I, giving us the biggest bear hug her little body can muster up.

"Are you okay, Ruby?" Yang asked tentatively. I nodded my head as I tried to settle down my cries.

Rules a great guild leader must follow: One, never show any weakness and endure everything. Two, leave no man or woman behind. Three, death must be an honorable battle. And four, my own personal rule, protect and help those around you whether they are strong or weak.

And I just broke the first rule.

Nightmares were terrifying unconscious thoughts plaguing around in the realm of sleep. They were intangible, they were fake. They were incomparable to all the murderers that I had fought who sadistically kill for their own enjoyment. But out of all the nightmares I had, why did the water dams break now?

Perhaps I changed.

No, it was most definite that I changed. The streets never played nice, so I had to grow up fast. Not just physically, but mentally and emotionally. I had to cast aside everything that was consider childish to survive the dog-eat-dog world. For the better or worse, living with such a doting family and experiencing the motherly love that I never once had, broke down my strong walls that I built during my childhood. I couldn't pull off the strong facade any longer as I gradually succumbed to my childlike desires.

I burrowed my face into Summer's neck with Yang hugging me from behind. Summer hummed a soothing song in response.

Maybe it's not bad to show weakness once in awhile.

3 Year Old Ruby

" 'aaaaaaannng," I drawled in my high pitch voice. "No fair! Can't do that!" Colorful blocks of lego collapsed, surrendering to that yellow mass of destruction.

"Rawr! I am Yangzilla!" She puffed her chest and made an adorable loud roar. Yang marched through the legos and massacred everything in her path. Small lego pieces scattered all over the polished wooden floor and under the couch.

Before I can strangle my sister with my tiny hands, a rap on the door reverberated in the house. Yang and I looked at each other. Mom and dad constantly reminded us to never open the door. They explained that jealous weird people will kidnap us because we were too cute, and they also wanted to be our parents. Of course, I never believed that silly reason, but I abided because I loved my family and wouldn't want to depart from them.

"Tai, can you get the door? My hands are kind of full here." Summer's voice echoed from the kitchen. Tai quickly climbed down the stairs, unlocked, and opened the door only to see his brother-in-law.

"Qrow? What are you doing here?" Tai questioned in bewilderment. He held the door for Qrow to walk in.

"Is it a crime to see my nieces?" Qrow sarcastically huffed as he accepted Tai's kind gesture. "Where are the little monsters anyways?"

Yang and I popped our heads right above the couch with wide smiles across our face. Uncle Qrow didn't visit often. When he did, it was like Christmas, but better, even though he didn't bear gifts.

"Uncle Qrow!" Yang and I shouted in unison.

We tumbled over the couch and raced towards him with each of us clinging onto his legs. I looked up meeting his gaze with my twinkling silver eyes.

"Did you miss us?" I asked quietly.

"Nope," he responded with a smile as he stretched the 'p' in his answer.

He trudged across the living room and into the kitchen with the two of us still holding onto his legs. Summer turned around and frowned at the sight, while holding onto a metallic tray of freshly baked cookies with her pattern colored oven mittens.

After setting the hot tray onto the table, she placed her hands on her hips and cocked her head to the side."Girls, I'm pretty sure your uncle would like to feel his legs at some point," the mother wolf said as her ears sharply pointed straight up.

Taking her hint, we let go of our uncle's leg and sat on the kitchen chairs, eyeing those delicious sweet smelling treats.

"Relax Sum," Qrow chuckled. "They're not doing any harm." He grabbed a cookie from the tray and immediately popped it into his mouth. Unfortunately, the cookie got the better of him as it burned his tongue. Bits of cookies fell from his cursing mouth as he tried to pry off the small chunks from giving him a third degree burn. Yang and I giggled as we were quite amused with the sight.

"Did a grimm eat Qrow yet?" A masculine voice now joined the conversation. A blond man walked in hoping the answer would be a yes, but still sees a living and breathing Qrow.

"Ha. Ha. Ha. Very funny, Tai." Qrow muttered sarcastically as he sat down with his arms folded across his chest. He was cursing like a sailor under his breath about how the cookie wanted to kill him.

"Qrow. Language," Summer scolded. She flicked her furry ears in front of Qrow.

"Oh right... Sorry."

"What's a g'imm?" I eagerly asked trying to probe for more information. Grimm came up a lot during the adult's conversations but I could never asked as I was barely relearning how to physically talk.

"Scary monsters that will eat you without mercy," Uncle Qrow answered in a low husky voice as he scratched the air with his hands, pretending he had claws while snapping his mouth like a turtle.

Well... That wasn't exactly helpful, but it was something.

"Qrow!" The cookie baker furrowed her eyebrows graced with a frown.

"What? It's true." The reaper deadpanned and turned his attention towards me. "But dont worry kiddo. Let the grown up handle it. You've seen my bad ass weapon and our semblances."

"Again Qrow. Language"

"Right... Sorry."

Uncle Qrow did have a gigantic badass wielding scythe that would work great as a guillotine. I internally drooled as I pictured myself swinging an obnoxiously large scythe, snipping The Creator's head off. Quickly, I snapped back from my gory fantasy as I remembered Uncle Qrow mentioning a word that I never heard of before.

"What's a s'mbal'n?" I fumbled on the word 'semblance' as I bit my tongue in the process to sound out the bigger vocabulary. I internally cursed to myself hoping my tongue wasn't bleeding.

"It makes you go pow! Slice! Stab!" Yang vaguely but enthusiastically explained as she motioned a bunch of karate moves with her hands and arms.

Tai chuckled at the sight of his flailing daughter attempting to mimic his martial art moves. "Well honey. A semblance is a special power that is unique to everyone. You can only have one. For example, your mom's semblance is speed." He points his thumb to his chest proudly. "My semblance is more power. And Qrow's..." He now casted his attention to Qrow who raised an eyebrow back at him. "Well, you can ask him yourself."

Yang and I turned our attention to our uncle hoping to get an answer, but he only shrug and said 'rainbows and candies' with a weak smile. Everyone with a past had their own secret. It wasn't my place to probe Uncle Qrow for answers or to judge him for hiding them.

Then occurred to me.

A semblance? Was there no such thing as magic in this world? Is that why mom always used her speed semblance and never anything else? And how about the grimms? Were they the only creatures that terrorized people? Are there no such thing as dragons, demons, or any other mythical creatures that roamed in my world?

"The cookies are cooled and ready to eat now. Come on girls, dig in!" Summer said, snapping me back from my series of questions. She poured two tall glasses of cold milk, one for me and the other for Yang.

I wasn't exactly a person with a sweet tooth. But after living here for so long, my diet had extremely changed. No more eating wild monster meat and no more eating wild vegetables. My diet was mainly whatever my mom cooks, and cookies and milk.

"Yaaay!" Yang and I cheered in unison. Yang, being the older sister, threw herself onto the table and seized a couple of cookies. She then passed me one because I was too short to reach.

She was a great sister.

I dipped my cookie into the milk and happily munched on it.

4 Year Old And 3 Months Ruby

Green leaves began turning into different shades of color, indicating the start of autumn. Mom planned a family picnic out in the forest for a nice change in scenery. However, Yang had to stay back home as she suddenly caught a horrendous fever. Her body was burning up abnormally compared to most typical fever that children experienced. Doctors couldn't figure out why, so dad stayed back to take care of her. He told mom and I to go have a picnic without them since we were already prepared.

Mom and I strolled into the forest with her hand in mine and the other on the basket. From the bits and pieces I picked up, Patch was fairly safe from grimm. It wasn't entirely safe as there were a few that dwelled in specific parts of the forest, but grimm normally kept to themselves. Even if they did accidentally strolled into town, it wouldn't be a big deal considering I have two grimm hunter extraordinaire as parents.

"I think here would be a nice spot don't you think?" Summer smiled at me.

"Mmm," I nodded in agreement. I caught on to language pretty quickly. Even though a handful of my vocabulary were choppy, it surprised both of my parents. Mom stuck her nose high in the air and said I got it from her, while dad said the opposite. I only can shrug and watch them both playfully bicker. They were both wrong because I learned it from myself.

Mom gently placed the basket onto the tall green grass right next to a tree. Birds were humming in the air, bees buzzed around wild flowers, and leaves whispered as the wind blew by. We sat down on the patch of grass, admiring the scenery happening before us.

Suddenly, a monstrous growl disrupted the peaceful silence.

Summer giggled to the hideous sound that escaped from my stomach. She opened the picnic basket and handed me a sandwich to saturate my hunger. I happily stuffed the sandwich into my mouth, not caring of what it was.

Even from my world, I wasn't a picky eater to begin with. When I was living on the streets, I get what I can get. If food was sort of identifiable, then it should seem safe to eat. After all, beggars can't be choosers.

The mother wolf smiled at me, brushing the crumbs off my face.

If there was something I never picked up on, it was most likely proper eating etiquette. Other than a fork and a knife, everything else was alien to me. I never tried putting any effort to bother learning because it wasn't technically necessary.

Besides, when will I ever use it?

I wasn't trying to impress any of my guild members. Dinner meetings with neighboring guild leaders were pointless to me. They said it was beneficial because it could help strengthen relationships. But I called that suicide. Food could be tampered with, ambushes could be sneakily planned, it was a like back stab waiting to happen.

"Mom?" I asked with food in my mouth. Crumbs flew out from my lack of manners.

"Yes my little rose?" She wiped more crumbs off my mouth.

"When can I get my semblance?

She paused to think of an appropriate answer. "Whenever you're ready, sweetie." She brushed my hair with her hand and kissed my red tipped ears.

"But mooom," I drawled. "What if I am ready." My little ears drooped back, giving her the most adorable puppy look. What was considered ready to get my semblance in this world? Was my previous life not deemed as enough?

"If you think you're ready..." Summer drifted off. "Then you should be able to stop this attack!" Mom launched a ferocious assault using her bare hands. Ten fingers rained down from above, wiggling in a merciless manner.

She tickled me on my stomach, causing an endless suffering of laughter.

"MOOM," I laughed, trying to wiggle my way out. "Stooop!"

She released me from her barrage of tickles and ruffled my hair. To think that the great Sword Angel would raise a white flag from tickle attacks. That would be a blow to my reputation.

"Okay, my little pup. Let mom pack everything up and we then can head back home." The corner of her lips pointed upwards, giving me the biggest smile ever.

And that smile was worth more than my thousand weapons.

4 Year Old And 9 Month ruby

It was suppose to be a short mission.

Rain drops tapped against the glass window smothering it with moisture and condensation, preventing me from seeing through. I sighed and leaned my head against window, pressing my small cheeks against the frosty glass looking like a love sicken puppy.

I missed mom.

Her mission was suppose to end last week, but she still never came home. I constantly bugged dad of her whereabouts, but he always gave me a weary smile, reassuring me that she'll be home soon.

Shivers ran through my body from the cold weather. Tugging tightly on my new red cloak, I wrapped it around my body absorbing as much warmth as I could. Mom sewed me a similar cloak to hers to remind me of her presence whenever she left the house for her assigned missions. Of course, mine was red and the new fabric gave a soft glow compared to her overly worn white cloak.

But it didn't matter, because I missed mom.

The next day, we were visited by strange people. They were wearing tacky uniforms and shiny badges. Dad ordered me and Yang to play upstairs so the adults could talk. Thanks to my so called faunus traits that my mom gave a brief lesson on, my hearing abilities were enhanced.

To put it in simple terms, I was great at eavesdropping.

"I'm terribly sorry sir. We searched the perimeter of that location and we couldn't find anything. No weapon, no blood, nothing. We might have to end our investigation as there are no clues." A male voice said.

"What? No.. nonono. You guys can't stop looking. She's a huntress! Graduated from the top of her class! Someone worth spending years to look for!" My ears twitched to a desperate voice whom I recognized as my dad.

"Sir, the best we can do is label her as M.I.A. Our deepest apology for your loss sir." A now feminine voice replied back to my dad's response.

Sound of footsteps became faint as the two officers left the premise of our home. I overheard a thud on the floor and the sounds of weeping. That only meant one thing.

Mom was dead.