New chapter for the New Year!
Location: Sandcaster, Vale
April 2nd
[Rain of Steel]
Iris is five years old now, and she was starting to test her boundaries.
No longer clinging to Weiss at the hip, she begins to grow curious about the world around her and often wanders off to explore, Weiss has to track her down and send her back to camp; they were currently living in a secluded clearing a little ways away from Sandcaster, Vale, far enough to remain out from the public eye, but close enough for them to travel in for food and supplies whenever they were running low.
The clearing they'd created a camp in has a small waterfall and a creek down behind them, formed around what appeared to be a collapsed bridge, making it a pretty decent place for them to freshen up and for Weiss to wash their clothes. The first few times she'd attempted at washing her clothes the old-fashioned way, she'd ripped and torn quite a few of them.
Her daughter has even made some friends her age within the little town, Weiss always makes sure to stop by and allows her to play with them whenever she is picking up supplies. Sometimes, she lets her stay for a few hours while Weiss takes hunting missions in an attempt to make some lien.
Nobody in Vale has mentioned Iris' eyes. Perhaps it was only a Vacuoan superstition… Thanks to them, Iris' speech has improved considerably since she's begun playing with other kids.
Iris often becomes frustrated with her mother because she doesn't allow her to do the same things that her friends' parents do, such as her friend Jewel getting a dog for her birthday last week; Iris wanted a dog, too.
If they weren't living in a tent in the middle of the forest, Weiss might've considered it. But she wasn't making near enough lien to be able to pay rent on a house…
Although, the ivory-haired child doesn't yet seem to notice the difference between her lifestyle and her friends'. To her, this was home, there was nothing strange about it. Then again, they've been to several different villages and or towns living in this tent.
Fortunately, clothes in Vale were much better made than Vacuoan rags and she was able to replace all of them.
It also took her a while to learn exactly what a growing child likes to eat, which leads to discovering Iris' sweet tooth. Not wanting her to become dependent on sweets, Weiss introduces her to other stuff and promises that she can have a treat if she finishes her food first.
Gods know how thankful she was that her daughter was now old enough to eat on her own...
Within the past few months, Sandcaster has struck a drastic food shortage, caused by a change in the Vale government. They were needing to be stingy with what they purchased and were forced to make it last as long as possible. Due to this, the prices also sky-rocketed and simple foods were out of Weiss' price range.
She purchases as much as she can, but allows her daughter to stay with her friends more often, wanting to save what little food they had.
That's currently where Iris is at, she's staying at Jewel's house with her parents. Weiss wonders whether or not the kids' parents were beginning to believe she was leeching off of them, which she was trying desperately not to do.
Weiss pulls her hair back and steps out of the tent, raising her head to look at the dark and cloudy skies looming above her tent.
It was time to pick up her daughter before the rains came; Iris loved to sit awake and stare at the roof of the tent, humming along as her mother sang Little April Shower. During nights when it wasn't raining, Iris would ask her to sing a different song and cuddle into her side, falling asleep to the sound of her voice.
However, there was a certain thing that the child had said that blemished her view of the rain, in a rather funny way.
"Mama?"
Weiss opens one eye to look at her daughter tiredly, unsurprised that the five-year-old has yet to fall asleep. She makes a noise of acknowledgment and the child sits up, staring at the roof of the tent. "How does it rain?" She asks curiously, sounding sad, "Is the sky sad? Is it crying? Did we do something, Mama?" She looks at her mother.
"No, baby," Weiss answers tiredly, "the sky isn't crying…" It was rather cute that her daughter thought like that, it means that, despite everything, she still sees the world as innocently as a well-loved child her age could.
"Then why is it raining…?" Iris asks curiously, looking at her tired mother in awe and admiration - as if she had all of the answers in the world.
Weiss sighs and rolls over on her back, listening to the pitter-patter of rain delicately dropping on the roof of the tent. Gradually, the sound becomes noisier, followed by the familiar whooshing sound that usually would put her to sleep. She loves the sound of rain at night…
Her voice is quiet, "It's just the water cycle," she can feel Iris staring at her, "the sky evaporates the water from the ground. That means that if you put a cup of water outside and let it sit in the sun for several days, the natural cycle is for the sun to heat and soak up that water, causing evaporation." She explains it as well as she can, "The clouds are formed from that water, and it rains when those clouds get too full… It's a never-ending cycle."
Iris remains quietly, watching her with a bewildered expression on her little face.
Weiss lets out a breath, of course, it was too complex for her to understand at the moment. She looks back at the child and lifts a brow, "Pretty clouds drink water."
The child sits up and grins in understanding, proud of herself for the accomplishment. "Ohhh!" She says happily, now seated on her hands and knees, "So when it rains, that means the clouds are just peeing!"
The words cause a snort to rush out before Weiss can stop it, followed by several body-wracking convulsions of stifled laughter. Oh god, she can't breathe. Turning away from her daughter, she rolls over on her side and audible giggles escape, mirth flooding her body.
"Mama?" Iris asks, confused.
Weiss shakes her head, speaking through a coughing fit of laughter, her face and sides were beginning to hurt now. "Oh Gods, I'm never seeing rain the same again."
Pulling herself from her thoughts, she slides her red cloak off and sets it inside of the tent, zipping it back closed and scuffing dirt onto the fire she'd built right outside of it. Weiss waits until the smoke dies down, not wanting it to break through the surface of the tent and catch the woods afire.
Feeling the first sprinkle of rain, she decides it's safe to leave the fireplace alone and follows the worn-out path through the woods leading towards Sandcaster.
When the weather was good, Iris would be playing outside and wearing the grass down. There was a section of tall grass, reaching Weiss' waist, a little ways back into the woods behind their tent and Weiss often found Iris hiding there; she's created a 'den' out of grass that she seems to be extremely proud of. It was her little secret hideout that 'Mama doesn't know about'.
Little does she know, Weiss discovered it one night Iris was playing outside and didn't come inside when it got dark. Minutes away from panic, she located her daughter tucked underneath a patch of tall grass messily woven together, fast asleep.
She also has a little 'territory' to the east of the tent, made up of a large boulder amid a thicket she'd cleaned off with her own two hands; by cleaning off, she simply brushes all of the grass and leaves back to clear out from underneath the foliage.
She'd been proud when she wanted to show her mother but failed to understand why Weiss couldn't get in without laying on her stomach. It was rather cute. Iris could duck under the branches and turn the different sections between the bushes into 'rooms' based on Jewel's house.
It's also where Iris would go to play hide and seek, crawling beneath the thicket and tucking herself into a corner while Weiss searches for her. Sometimes, she would pretend not to know where the child was hiding, acting shocked when the five-year-old would burst out of her hiding spot after she won.
"Mama!"
Weiss' head jerks up to see Iris running towards her with a bright grin plastered across her face, her silver eyes practically glowing with joy. A small smile forms on Weiss' lips as the five-year-old embraces her leg happily, she wraps one arm around her shoulders. "Iris," she greets her softly, fingers playing with the long strands of her daughter's ivory hair, "what're you doing here?"
"Violet, right?" She looks up again to see Jewel's father approaching her with a hidden scowl on his face. A surge of protectiveness brews in Weiss' chest and she gently pulls Iris around behind her, holding an arm out to keep her there.
She didn't like the look on his face…
"Is it true that your daughter is friends with Faline?"
Weiss' eyes drift behind the man to see a familiar girl with dusty brown hair staring back at her from between her own mother's arms, her tail drooping as her bright blue eyes watch her in mild fear. Iris has a few faunus friends, Faline being one of the ones Weiss sees more often. She looks back to Jewel's father and her expression remains stoic, almost challenging. "Yes, she is. Is there a problem?"
The man's scowl deepens, "I don't want your kid encouraging my daughter to interact with faunus. They are dangerous, violent creatures!" Jewel peeks out from behind him. "If you continue to allow Iris to associate with those vermin, then she can't play with my Jewel anymore."
"But Daddy!" Jewel pleads from next to him, "She's my best friend!"
Weiss simply stares at him, her voice cool. "They are not violent at all, they are only tired of being pushed around by people like you."
His face is boiling with rage.
"Secondly, you're in no place to tell me who my daughter can and can't be friends with, Mister Sean." She tells him flatly, her eyes moving down to look at Jewel. Weiss smiles softly at her, "You can play with Iris any time you like, okay?"
"I said-" Sean starts.
Weiss cuts him off almost instantly. "What are you going to do if she continues to play with her?" She asks in annoyance. In any other situation, she would accept it and bring Iris home, but she wanted to set a good example for her daughter, teach her to stand up for those who can't protect themselves, especially against people like this man. Perhaps it would help Jewel as well.
Sean remains silent, his face twisting into one of rage and bewilderment. Without saying a word, he grabs Jewel's arm and leads her down the road.
She closes her eyes and allows her nerves to settle before turning to approach Faline and her mother. Iris pulls at her hand behind her, "Mama?" She asks in a quiet voice, her silver eyes wide and afraid, "What's a faunus?"
"They're people like Faline and her Mom," Weiss answers, smiling at her as an attempt to cheer her up, "they're not any different than us, okay…? If you treat them nicely, most of them will be nice to you too…" She looks up at the other woman and her expression becomes one of sympathy. "I'm sorry you have to deal with that," Weiss says apologetically, "are you both okay? Is there anything I can do to help?"
"We're fine." Faline's mother, Ena, murmurs as she wraps an arm around her daughter's shoulders. She clears her throat and gestures inside of her little shack, smiling as kindly as she can due to the situation only moments prior. "Would you like to come in?"
Weiss hesitates for a moment, wanting to be back at camp before the rains hit. She looks down at Iris, who smiles brightly at her expectantly. She sighs and nods in response, following the woman inside the rather cozy-looking hut.
Ena grins as she quickly strolls over to the kitchen counter, lifting a pan of cookies. Iris' face lights up and she rushes over to the woman, reaching for one as Ena kneels to allow the little girl to grab one of the chocolate chip cookies. "She has a sweet tooth, I see!" The other woman chuckles, "Would you like some?"
Weiss shakes her head, "No thank you, I'm not fond of sweets." She answers politely as Iris follows her friend into a room towards the back. "Iris!" The child stops with a cookie hanging from her mouth, "We can't stay, we need to go home before it starts raining."
Iris frowns at her and crosses her arms in a pout, stubbornly standing as stiff as a board in the doorway. "Iris," Weiss scolds, "don't act like that. You know we have to go home." The five-year-old only sticks her tongue out at her.
"Haven't you heard?" Ena asks worriedly, grabbing Weiss' attention and allowing Iris to bolt off after Faline now that her mother was watching her. "There's bad weather coming!" Well, she knows that much just by looking at the skies, "Don't you live towards the East?" Weiss gives an affirmative sound, "That's where it'll come in! High risk of flooding! You are safer here."
That was even more of a reason for her to return to camp, she couldn't leave anything behind. Then again, she doesn't want to put her daughter in the way of harm…
She sighs, "Okay, I'll fetch our belongings and return as soon as possible." She murmurs, watching as concern crosses through Ena's eyes. "Watch Iris for me?"
Ena nods and Weiss thanks her.
When she steps outside, she sees that the rain has already picked up into a fast drizzle; a terrible rainstorm was brewing and heading towards the east. Ena was right... Had she brought Iris home when she previously intended to, they would've been trapped in the middle of it. The tent was lightweight, the winds could pick it up effortlessly, disregarding whether or not people were inside.
She has to get everything before it's too late. She can't lose any of it. Weiss quickens her pace into a run, wanting to reach the camp before the rains become worse-
"Mama!" Weiss stops and grimaces when she hears Iris' high-pitched voice crying after her, she twists her body to see Iris running towards her with tears in her silver eyes. "Gobo's mean! I wanna go home!" Gobo was Faline's older brother, and from what Weiss could understand he was an arrogant child. Weiss sighs and drapes her arm across Iris as the sobbing five-year-old buries her face into her abdomen.
"Iris, go back inside!" She scolds her.
Iris glares up at her, "No! I wanna go home!" She answers stubbornly.
Weiss groans, not having the time to deal with her daughter's temper, she lifts the child's chin to look at her. "Fine, we're going home to pack everything up, alright? Then we'll head back to Ena's, you can stay with me if you don't want to play with them." Iris just nods, probably not fully understanding what Weiss is saying. All she hears is 'go home' and she's on board. "Let's go, quick."
Weiss heads back to camp as fast as she can, stopping every few moments to make sure Iris is still following closely behind her. The rains are picking up, beginning to soak the two of them from head to toe. She needs to get her daughter out of the weather before she catches a cold…
Reaching camp, Weiss nudges her daughter into the driest spot she sees under an evergreen tree. "Stay here," she tells her as Iris tucks herself against the trunk, "don't move until I come back for you."
Confident that Iris would be okay for a few minutes, Weiss rushes over to the tent and her feet are instantly soaked by the already rapidly pooling water beneath her. She unzips the tent and the first thing she grabs is the red cloak, running it over to Iris and wrapping it around her securely before returning to the tent.
It takes her a few minutes of mild difficulty to get it down and into the bag, which was thankfully fifty-percent waterproof, thanks to Atlesian tech.
It is raining hard now, she can barely see anything…
"Okay," she groans as she lifts the heavy, wet bag over her shoulder and brushes her fading purple hair out of her eyes, she approaches the tree to fetch her daughter. "Iris, let's go-"
Brushing the limbs back, she notices that the little girl was no longer there. The ground was sloppy and muddy, little handprints and shoe prints scrambling around and leading away from the base of the tree, the red cloak had been discarded. Weiss' heart nearly stops.
"Fuck!" She swears loudly as she swings the bag under the tree, grabbing the cloak and tying it around her shoulders. She quickly starts for the river.
Weiss lifts a hand to her eyes, blocking the icy cold rain from pelting at her face. She could hardly see a thing in this storm; winds weaving white drops into a veil of water, thick enough to blind the Schnee.
Still, Iris was out there.
"Iris?!" Weiss cries loudly, her voice picked up by the wind and carried away. She pauses and strains her hearing for a moment, waiting for a call back to help soothe her rapidly beating heart. Her only response was total silence.
Wind cracks whips of ice against her skin as she runs, terrified light blue eyes darting around for any signs of her daughter.
"Iris!?" Weiss screams louder in desperation, her throat burning as she reaches her vocal limit. She runs out towards the collapsed bridge, where the river banks were lowest. This was where they would take baths when the waters were low, surely Iris would be here, right? She didn't know where else to check, she can't have gone far.
She already hears the rushing water and the sound of rain plummeting into it; her breath comes out as panicked gasps, her heart twisting with dread as she reaches the river. Out of the corner of her eye, she spots a small, blurry figure near the water's edge, clothes stuck to her body and pristine ivory hair whipping in the wind.
Weiss feels a sigh of relief escape her and she runs over to the banks. Iris was at the very edge, her hands stretching down towards the rapids; she could fall… she could drown.
"Iris!" She calls again, her daughter's head snapping up in her direction. "Get away from there!" The ground was slippery and unsafe, the water had already risen to a dangerously high level, sticks, rocks, and bricks rapidly rushing through the muddy waters.
"Mama?" Iris murmurs as Weiss grasps Iris' forearm, pulling her behind her as she is tugged away from the floods. Frightened silver eyes turn to face her mother, the painful resemblance making Weiss stop in surprise.
For an instant, she saw Ruby.
Then her foot slips.
Weiss lets out a yelp in surprise as she falls backward, releasing Iris in her fall and summoning a glowing white glyph that holds her daughter in place as Weiss plummets. Her back hits frigid water, the rapids immediately pulling her under into inky blackness. Weiss' mouth opens in a silent scream and fills with putrid water, causing her to choke and rise to the surface.
She coughs agonizingly, already noticing how far the river had drawn her from Iris. She splutters as the water rises over her head again, rising as the Schnee struggles to get a foothold in the tides. She is dunked under again as a brick smashed against her stomach, forcing her weakened body beneath the water's surface with a cry. She twirls in the water, black glyphs flashing and dying under her feet as panic overrides her focus.
She claws her way back to the surface again, painfully attempting to swim to the banks. She temporarily raises her head, seeing Iris racing along the ridges, desperately searching the water for her drowning mother. The cold had shocked the woman's body, and any motion hurt her dramatically. Bricks and branches smacked off her body, digging into her unprotected skin and kicking her off course, dragging her deeper into the depths.
Her hands grasp blindly for something, anything, to stop her from drifting further down river away from her daughter. Beneath the surface of the water, she found a rock, still miraculously rooted into the soil despite the flooding water rushing around it. She clings to it and painfully drags her body to the surface for air. She coughs and sputters, coughing up filthy water that had settled in her lungs.
Weiss held onto the boulder for dear life, praying to whatever gods were above watching her would help her, her limbs were becoming too heavy for her to be able to move.
Iris finally spots the exhausted-looking body barely holding herself above water, the waves splashing and forcing them back off her ledge.
"Mama!" She cries, catching Weiss' attention. Panic surges through Weiss as Iris cautiously tries to make her way down the ridge, her feet already slipping in the mud.
"Stay!" Weiss moves on instinct, lifting her hand to summon a glyph that flings her daughter back and away from the river. If Weiss was going to die, there was no way Iris was coming with her.
Unfortunately, lifting one hand off the rock had cost her. Her grip slips, dunking her back underwater with a yelp. She falls deep, her back cracking off the riverbed with a thud. Weiss cries out, bubbles screaming from her lips. Another chunk of wall crashes above her, narrowly missing her arm and moving forwards in the currents.
The red cloak tied to her shoulders catches around something and drags her down, she fights desperately trying to free the cloth as her lungs burn in protest. Whatever it was hung on, it was heavy and it wasn't going to let go. 'No, no no!' She screams internally, her senses beginning to fail her. Reluctantly, she reaches up and rapidly tears the red cloth from around her neck, freeing herself.
Weiss turns in the water, pressing her hands to the surface before pushing off. She got some leeway upwards, the faint light of the surface close enough for her fingers to just peak out of them. Her muscles were sore, so much so that she was beginning to doubt her survival.
Suddenly, a sharp pain pierces her side, a pained scream escaping her beneath the waves as she curls around the white-hot agony. Her lungs were beginning to burn as she pressed her hands to her side, feeling a warmth spilling from her side that shouldn't be there. She desperately kicks and swims to try and breach the surface, but with the water dragging her, and the blood seeping from her side, she could feel herself slipping.
'Iris.' The little voice in her head murmurs desperately, her chest aches momentarily. Her thoughts were becoming foggy, her lungs burned, and her consciousness was fading.
Her daughter was waiting for her to come back up… She needed her. A brief spark of adrenaline raced through her body, giving her the strength she needed to move downwards in the water, her lungs tight.
Her hand reaches down to the ocean bed and she forces all of her remaining strength into the summoning; it only takes a moment of contact with the glyph before a white glow erupts from above her and an armored hand suddenly shoots down into the raging water, scooping Weiss into it and pulling her from the river; breaking the surface tension with a splash and gently setting it's summoner to the bank safely.
Weiss remained still for a moment, shivering pitifully and wheezing to try and clear the water from her lungs before she got enough strength to cough. Water trapped in her lungs splashes out into the mud, mixing with the icy water and the blood that was staining the grass. Her aura is flickering, faint, but it was there. Well, at least it isn't broken. She remains still, breathing in shaky breaths as her aura regenerates.
"Mama?" Iris murmurs timidly, crouching down next to her worriedly. Weiss lifts her head to examine her daughter; she was soaked to the bone, ivory white hair clinging to her clothes and her back, she was trembling from the cold and from the fear of seeing Weiss plummet underwater.
Ignoring her injuries, Weiss pushes herself to sit up, grimacing and swallowing the pain when her body tenses with pain. "What the hell have I told you about the water?!" She snaps, irritated. The little girl cowards away, resembling a puppy that had just been kicked.
Weiss lets out a heavy sigh, "I'm sorry, baby… I'm just frustrated… I didn't mean to take it out on you…" She reaches up to touch the child's cheek, brushing back her ivory hair and looking her over again for any wounds.
Had she been a second too late, Iris would've been the one to have fallen into the river… Weiss pulls her daughter close to her as her heart aches, unwilling to imagine the results if she hadn't made it in time. She could've lost her.
"Let's go..." Weiss whispers weakly, voice raspy. She stands to her feet and dismisses the severe ache in her side and the feel of her lungs tightening. "Come." She says simply, walking back towards the village despite every muscle in her body protesting against her.
Iris quietly approaches her, "Mama," blue eyes glance down at her, "I'm sorry…"
Weiss lets out a sigh, fixing her attention on the path before her, thankful that the forest kept them mostly protected from the softening rains. "How many times have I told you not to leave without me?"
The child looks down, avoiding eye contact with her. "A bunches of times…"
"And what did you do?"
Iris shrinks away from her, "Left without you…"
Weiss brushes her soaking wet hair out of her face, clearing her burning throat. Great, now both of them would catch a cold… Her aura can only do so much, and it was shattered now, leaving her vulnerable to the weather. "Why did you leave anyway?" Weiss asks hoarsely, forcing the words out and ignoring the stinging pain in the back of her throat. "I told you to stay."
The ground beneath them is soggy and wet, her feet sinking into the soil.
"Hands dirty…" Iris whispers. She was shivering; she was going to get sick… A flash of green grabs Weiss' attention and she follows it, Iris staying a few feet behind her. Coming to a washed-out section of the forest, something Weiss assumes used to be a little creek, she notices a familiar faded green bag floating through the murky brown water.
"Stay." Weiss glares back at her daughter, who has taken shelter under a pine tree, using the cracked limbs to shield herself from the rain. Guilt twisting at her gut, Weiss reluctantly steps into the cold water and finds it to be knee-deep.
Praying she wouldn't lose her footing and be swept downriver again, she starts walking and keeps her feet firmly planted against the squishy riverbed. Pushing through the coursing waves, she maneuvers over to her bag that had caught on an uprooted tree dipping into the water by the straps.
Snapping the limb it was hung around off, Weiss lifts the water-logged bag up and over her shoulder. Hopefully, everything inside wasn't completely ruined; it was partially waterproof for a reason, right? Weiss returns to the bank, pulling herself up with some difficulty, and she lifts her head to the skies. It was still raining hard, and it wasn't going to die down any time soon…
The river was rushing towards Sandcaster, so she knows it isn't safe down there. She needs to get her daughter out of the weather now. "Come on, Iris," she whispers with a trembling voice, wishing she had something, anything, to shield Iris from the rain, "let's find shelter to wait out the storm…"
There should be a few abandoned houses a little way uphill.
Down in the village, evacuation has begun as the raging waters have taken a turn. The rain is heavy and it's getting harder to see, the water is already ankle-deep and too dangerous to drive in.
Finding it difficult to evacuate the town as one group, the teams split up; Ruby, Blake, and Yang start with getting the people closest to the river out and to safety. Nora, Jaune, and Ren are responsible for the people uphill, persuading them to move into the mountains
Ruby is in charge of alerting everybody and encouraging them to get to the safer ground while Blake fetches as many lifejackets, flood rafts, or inflatable kayaks as she can. Yang is the one leading everybody to the other side of town, where the other three will take over.
"We're out of rafts!" Blake calls as she pulls the last two over, her boots sloshing through the water unsteadily. Her ears were pinned back as an attempt to shield them from the icy cold rain pelting down upon them. They hadn't had time to gather raincoats from the other side of the town.
"We'll make it work!" Yang calls in response, pulling an empty kayak back and discarding it to Ruby, who leads it over to another house. She kneels and begins looping the rope through each raft, securing them and tying them close together. "Jaune gave me some rope to tie everything together, but I'm going to need help taking everybody back."
The water is becoming deeper and it's proving to be difficult for them to keep their footing with the rushing water around them.
"Comfortable?" Ruby asks, grabbing the handle of the inflatable kayak as two young faunus children and her mother seat themselves in the four-seater float. The child's bright blue eyes stare back at her silently, she sighs and begins towards the next house. She makes sure her feet are firmly planted against the cement with each step and keeps her posture as stiff as possible. The weight behind her is already making it harder for her to navigate through the waters.
It's knee-deep now, sticks and other objects already rushing through and colliding with her legs and the kayak. She can only hope that it'll hold up. Ruby finds the next family huddled on the porch, the father inside the vehicle, and attempting to start it up. If his frustrated shouts were anything to judge by, the vehicle wasn't going to start.
"Hey!" She calls to them, grabbing the mother and her three kids' attention. "It's dangerous to drive during a flood, you could be swept downriver!" The father steps out of the car and slaps the door shut, "There's room for you if you squeeze in, we're eva-"
The man interrupts her, "We are not going with you!" His wife glares at him and she grits her teeth together, "Last time we put our lives in the hands of you huntsmen, my brother was killed!"
Ruby keeps her demeanor as cool as she can. "Even we huntsmen have suffered from the loss of those we care about," she can feel irritated bubbling to the surface, "but you are within a flash flood zone. If you don't come with us, you will die." She wasn't going to bother to sugar-coat anymore. "If you want to see your family again, you'll listen."
As she says this, his wife moves to step into the kayak, faltering and giving her child over to the next lady. She supports her other two youngsters into the float and looks expectantly back at her husband. He stands still, watching her with an unreadable expression. The woman sighs and seats herself next to her daughter. "Let's go."
Ruby waits for a few moments before summoning the rest of her strength and dragging the kayak over to Yang, who takes the handle and ties it to the rest of them.
"Is that everybody?" Yang asks, grabbing one end of the rope and handing the other to Blake.
"Should be." Blake answers.
"No," Ruby mutters under her breath as she grabs the last rope. "Some people are too stubborn to-" She's cut off by the sound of sloshing water and she turns to see the father rushing towards them. She lets out a sigh of relief and pushes the kayak back for him to climb in as the faunus woman moves her youngest daughter into her lap, scooting over to make room for him.
He seems to hesitate for a moment before climbing in.
"Ma'am," the younger woman turns to Ruby with worry in her eyes, "there's another lady somewhere out there. She's a huntress, just like you all." A cold feeling settles inside of her stomach and she lifts the rope, already knowing her inevitable request and dreading the answer. "Do you think you can find her?"
Ruby sighs again, looking the woman in the eyes. "If she's a huntress, she'll do whatever it takes to survive."
The lady's eyes widened, "W-wait! She has a child! They could die!"
She can't turn back to search for somebody who has probably already fallen victim to the incoming flood… "Even more so of a reason to survive." She answers reluctantly, facing away and giving the signal. Yang and Blake exchange a quiet look and the three of them tread through the rising waters and towards the other end of the town.
Ruby feels her aura flicker, faint electricity cracking through her body, and Ruby suddenly stops dead in her tracks, the rope falling from her hands.
"K-keep going." She murmurs to Blake and Yang, who sends her a worried nod and continue trekking through the water. Ruby falls behind them and quietly follows, lifting her hands to see webbed red flashing across the skin of her palms and spreading through the rest of her body.
She wasn't activating her aura, but it was flickering as though it was damaged… Sometimes, it feels like a chunk of her aura was being activated elsewhere, but it never broke, and it never lessened. It never hurts.
This wasn't the first time this has happened…
Hearing a tree snap somewhere up in the forest, rushing down the approaching flood, Ruby's nails dig into her palms and she breathes a shaky breath. She would need to figure this out later. Right now, they need to get these people to safety.
Questions/Insults:
"Why haven't they met up yet?!"
They will, they will! We have a few more chapters to go! Here, I'll add a count down at the end of the notes! However, I won't reveal any major spoilers.
"Ruby totally would've went after the Huntress/Weiss, this is stupid. What is she doing?"
She's putting the people in the village first, she has matured and has learned/accepted that she can't save everybody. After learning the woman is a Huntress, she reassures herself that she probably received the same training and will be able to save herself, especially if she has a child.
"Five years?! Why such a long time skip!"
I was honestly going to lessen the timeskip to a few months, but there's several scenes in future chapters that will require Iris to be older. You'll see why soon!
"This fanfic has gotten old, too many missed encounters. Stupid author is purposely dragging it on just for the heck of it. Unfollowing."
It actually isn't! The time Weiss is missing/presumed dead has a reason, and a huge impact on Ruby. Not to worry, if you've read the summary of this fanfic, Weiss will eventually come to realize it was stupid to run away.
PS: I kinda need someone to help me with punctuation? ^^'' this would be much appreciated. Please don't be rude about it, I'm a self-taught writer.
Countdown to Whiterose Reunion:
17/31 - *sobs loudly* PREPARE YOURSELVES
20/31 - :3