The inn's interior was clean-looking and well-furnished. Five big dining tables with their respective chairs were spread around, all of them brand new and well- polished. The fireplace was lit, a gentle and warm flame slowly burning inside it. The walls were painted a pristine white and many flora-based drawings on them gave a relaxed atmosphere in the establishment; the total opposite of the outside impression they had so far.
A small bar was settled in the back, next to a carpet-covered staircase. A tall, bulky man with an oval face and a long brown beard was standing behind it, a large apron covering his clothes. An ornamental necklace resembling three pillars of white light falling to earth was hung from his neck.
"Good evening!" his roaring voice echoed through the empty place. "What can I do for you?" Ruby was the first one to walk towards him, looking directly at his round, brown eyes and the puffed red cheeks. "We are huntresses from Ozpin on a mission; Councilor Pale summoned us." The man opened his eyes in understanding "ah, team RWBY, right?" all girls nodded.
"Welcome, welcome. My name is Bistre Woodrock- owner of Yugure's only inn!" He offered his large, hairy hand to the girl, who shook it firmly. "I am Ruby Rose." "Weiss Schnee, pleasure to meet you." "I am Blake, and she is Yang." "What she said." "We would like to ask you where we can find the Councilman, or at least some local authority."
The man scratched his head, as if thinking of something. "Mr. Pale's mansion is next to the church, but you won't find him there; he is outside in the woods with sheriff Cloud, looking for his daughter. The only one you could talk to until they return is Mayor Abbey I think."
"That sounds great!" Ruby replied "can you tell us where we can find him?" He clicked his tongue, not answering for a few seconds, before finally replying "the mayor's office is at the central square, hard to miss it. Since the disappearance, he spends his time there."
"Thanks a lot!" Ruby smiled and turned around, Weiss and Blake bowed politely and Yang winked at him. "Oh one warning ladies" he shouted, stopping them before they left "the mayor has a bit of a tough personality, just so that you know." The blonde girl smiled nonchalantly "it's fine; we are here to help after all. I am sure he will understand."
-o-
"You just couldn't keep your noses out of our business, could you?" Mayor Joseph Abbey was a rather short middle-aged man, with short white hair and a well-shaved face. He was wearing a well-tailored gray suit and a necklace identical to Woodrock's hung from his neck too. His keen black eyes were literally poking holes at the four girls occupying his office at this point, their faces twitching in various states of confusion.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Weiss replied, not even bothering to conceal her displeasure at him. "He means we are not welcome here" Blake added from behind her. "Exactly what the lady means." "But we are here to help. There is no reason to be so hostile!" Ruby exclaimed, slightly raising her voice.
"You are here because Mr. Pale asked you to. The only reason I accepted you was to honor his wish." He narrowed his eyes "but that doesn't change the fact the rest of us don't want you around. We don't need Vale meddling with our village. Didn't need you before and won't need you any time soon."
"Now, you are just being rude. With no reason behind it" Yang gently brushed Ruby and Weiss aside, towering over the short man, her eyes narrowed- not having yet turned to red though. "Get back, you uncivilized-"
Weiss' hand got clenched into a fist but before she could even speak, Yang exhaled deeply. "Look, pal. I don't give a damn shit about you and your politics or everything. You are mad at us; that's fine. I can live with it."
She took off her hat, carelessly removing the snow- and letting it fall on the mayor's thick carpet. "But, unless you plan on kicking us out of this place on your own, you can't do anything to stop us investigate the area, am I right Rubes?" her sister gave her a quick thumbs up, grinning mischievously.
"Are you threatening me, huntress?" "NoPe. I am just saying that we are going to do our business and you can't stop us no matter what. So, drop the whole 'I am above you' act, because it pisses me off. And trust me, you don't want that."
To his credit, the man didn't flinch. He just stood there, eyes locked with the fiery blonde, before stepping back "all right, do whatever you want. Just don't mess around more than necessary."
-o-
"Well, that was a thing" Ruby turned around to look at her team as they all stepped out of the man's office building. "Do you think I got a bit overboard there?" her sister asked, only to receive a warm smile from Weiss "I think you were wonderful." Blake nodded "I agree with Weiss on that; I have seen my share of rude people, but this one could easily rival most of them. You did great Yang."
The blonde grinned widely, rubbing the back of her head. "So, what's the plan now that we are on our own? Wait for Pale?" "We could do that, or…" Ruby pointed towards their back; the central square was brilliantly illuminated by the street lamps and the light, slowly falling snow reflected it, giving off a deep, mystical impression.
Towards the place Ruby was pointing at, a small fountain resembling an angelic-like being was built, water normally pouring out of its arms and falling on the pond below. Now of course it was frozen, the figure standing there as a serene guardian in the dark.
"Am I supposed to understand something out of the fountain, Rubes?" Weiss rolled her eyes "she is pointing beyond the fountain, you idiot." Yang raised her head, seeing that her sister was actually trying to show them the church that stood half-illuminated at the end of the paved, snow-covered road, just at the outskirts of the village.
"I think there is no need to sit by doing nothing. Blake" she turned to the faunus "I would like you and Yang to go and wait for Mr. Pale. Talk with his wife while you are at it. Weiss and I will take a look at the church; we will examine the place Melia was last seen and meet you after we are done."
"Is there any reason for that, Rubes? I mean, the local police must have checked the place out already." Ruby kept looking towards the church, as snow slowly fell on her raised red hood. "Yeah, but I want to check it out myself. I…"
She turned back to them again, her face turned serious "…there is something I really need to check." "And you can't tell us, because?" Blake pressed on, making their leader sag her shoulders.
"Since Ms. Goodwitch told us of this place, I have been thinking. We have only seen one place that repelled Grimm in the entire history of Remnant." Three sets of eyes opened wide "the pool of life" Weiss said. "I know our first priority is to save the girl- but I also want to make sure about this thing too. The last time the pool of life was used, Salem came to be. So…"
"Who knows what else the Gods may be hiding, right?" Yang added. "Yes" Ruby nodded back. "I wanted to tell you earlier, but this is the first time we have been alone, just the four of us, since then." "In the middle of a village square, surrounded by buildings" Blake exclaimed "Buildings full of people, who might be eavesdropping on the strangers who came to their place."
Two silver pools opening wide and a huge embarrassed blush followed by the girl's attempt to hide her shame into her hood were the only motion that accompanied her team's disappointed expressions.
-o-
The woods were as dark and ambient as Samuel Cloud, the veteran ex-huntsman and sheriff of Yugure remembered them. He stepped out of the trail, pistol and lamp in hand, reaching the opening where the search party was supposed to regroup. He groaned, rubbing his nose that had turned red and was running from the cold.
"Damn", he whispered. This was the third time today they had ventured into the woods looking for Melia Pale, along with her father, a few volunteers and one of his two deputies, Mason. He was tired, cold and pretty sure there was no way they would find out anything about the girl; if they had failed the previous two days, how were they supposed to succeed now?
He stepped into the outing, his dim light meeting two more- Councilor Pale with Cyril, his other deputy, had the first and Melon's three sons had the other. All of them looked tired and were tugged into their coats- especially Pale. He had been searching non-stop since dawn. Not that I blame the man, I would probably do the same for my son he thought.
"Did you find anything, Sam?" "Nothing, Mr. Pale. I think we should better wrap things up. We are all exhausted and we need some rest." "We may not have enough time, Sam. She needs-"
"Look, Sir" he cut him off "we have overstayed here already and even though Grimm don't come near the church, it doesn't mean the forest is safe at night." He wanted to tell him that if the poor girl had truly entered the woods and wasn't just hiding inside the village she was probably dead, but decided against it.
"Your huntresses are coming tomorrow; we can do a better search job then." Pale nodded and behind him, Cyril scoffed. "Is there any problem, kid?" the sheriff said. "Well, Sir. I don't think the huntresses will be able to do much more, to be-" "can it, boy" he cut him off, much to the deputy's dismay.
"I know what you guys around here think of outsiders, but at least they will be able to take down Grimm instead of just avoiding them; that will let us search even deeper." Seeing the reluctant nod of everyone around him, Samuel groaned. "Let's get back anyway; we need to rest and warm up." Pale raised an eyebrow "without Mason and Aero?"
The question made Cloud turn back to the man "I sent them back half an hour ago! Didn't they pass from here?" "They never checked with us, sheriff" Ray Melon, the eldest son, replied. "I will be damned!" he shouted.
"Cyril, get Mr. Pale back. You three, return home too." "Sir, you are not going in again on your own." "I am; let me remind you, I was a huntsman once. And I am probably the only one who can go out there without attracting Grimm too much."
"But-" "That's an order kid" he checked his weapon and loaded it "wait for me in the village's outskirts. I will be back in half an hour if those two morons didn't get lost too far away from their checkpoint." Before anyone could even reply or try to stop him, the man threw his cloak over his head and entered the forest once more.
Surprising even himself, he managed to reach the checkpoint quite uninterrupted. Forget about the Grimm, even wildlife was very rare in this place. Ever since he got assigned here about six months ago, he was constantly surprised by two things; the abnormal lack of hospitality all of them seemed to share and the lack of monsters even this late at night- or not.
He stopped, shoulder sagging with disappointment as his eyes saw the bloody, mangled corpses of both his young officer and the poor ironsmith. He lowered his cloak, letting down his lamp as he stepped closer to the bodies, pistol in hand, ready to fire, and flare gun on his belt.
Both men were spread over the ground, lying upon a pool of frozen blood that had dyed the snow a deep red color. They were in such a bad state, even someone with his own experience shivered for a moment. Poor guys… what happened to you? And why didn't we hear anything in such a silent place?
Samuel looked around, his boots splashing over the thick, semi-solid red stain, until his eyes found Mason's weapon, just behind his lamp. He turned around, picked it up and opened the magazine, his surprised eyes seeing it was full- the victim hadn't even manage to shoot once. This is no Beowolf or Creep work; what the heck attacked them? He sniffed his nose, barely feeling it any more.
Sheriff Cloud was truly exhausted that night. If he was in a better shape, he would have remembered to never turn his back towards the place he hadn't investigated yet while out in the open. He would have probably heard the subtle, yet audible sound of movement from his back. He would probably have the sharp mind to jump away as soon as his ears caught the heavy breathing behind him and run away as fast as he could.
The only thing the sheriff did right this night was not turning back his head, sparing himself the horror of seeing the unnamable thing that broke down his spine, preventing him from even screaming with his last breath.