Hello everyone! How are you doing? Hope you are all fine!
Chapter 73 is up and as always I hope you enjoy it!
Thanks a lot for following/ favoring/ reading the story! Love you all!
See you all next week with chapter 74; until then, have fun and be well!
Corn. Corn everywhere. Tall, green stalks with golden corn on their edges covered the entire valley- and Yang's field of vision for the last few hours they had been walking, her occasional glance at Weiss' back the sole reprieve her soul had from the yellow monotony.
"Oh boy" her voice interrupted RWBY's near-silent stride through the fields. "The sun is not that hot, there is no wind, but this place is damn dry! How's that possible?" she chugged down some water.
"Well, he have been walking for about half a day and this is the worst hour" Blake commented, checking the map once more. "We are getting close to the signal point, too. Do you want to take a break?"
Ruby gazed at Weiss; she had picked out a cocoa butter stick to take care of her chapped lips, but otherwise she seemed as fine as ever. Yang was fine if she could still complain and Blake was, well, Blake. Complaining about such stuff was not her style.
"Five minute rest to eat something. I want us to be done investigating before night falls" Ruby set her backpack down. Yang smiled, secretly happy for that- not that she would admit it to anyone of course.
Weiss sat next to her and quickly gave her a peck on the lips. "You are a little off-what's going on?" she asked. "It's the damn corn. It somehow aggravates me" the reply came.
"Going to scout a little!" Blake's voice was heard. "Don't go too far!" Ruby's reply came, earning a raised hand of approval from the faunus, barely visible as she moved between the stalks.
Weiss caressed her fiancée's cheek "I feel unsettled too" she exclaimed, making sure that Ruby could hear them as well. "We haven't seen or heard any animals around here for a while" Yang explained to her sis.
"Ish that sho" chewing heavily while holding a small metal box in her hands, the brunette replied. "I am not a farmer or a botanist, but this place is filled in food, Rubes. Remember Tomley's farm? Rodents and birds should be swarming in here- but there is nothing."
"Animals are afraid of Grimm and naturally avoid them if they can" the white girl commented, after swallowing her ration bar. "If this place is swarming with Grimm, it makes sense for them to flee away."
"But we still haven't met anything; not even the occasional Creep" Ruby noted, picking another piece of… "Rubes, please tell me you are not snacking on cookies right now" Yang's eyes narrowed.
The red reaper closed the box and put it away with lightning speed. "I have no idea what you may have thought you saw" she took a forced serious expression. "Oh, I think I can give you a proper idea-"
"Hey, you should come and see this!" Blake's voice cut off Yang and saved Ruby from a heavy sermon. "Is everything ok, Blakey?" the blonde asked in concern.
"Yes; I just found a scarecrow and I think you should see it yourselves too" she shouted again, as her teammates picked their stuff and ran towards her.
The black-haired beauty was standing in front of a scarecrow, indeed. But, as soon as her teammates laid eyes on it, their expressions turned sour in a mix of wonder and disgust.
It was a rather tall one, as far as scarecrows go, its body seemed to be made out of metal, covered by a long black cape. Its face was covered by a sack, leaving two empty holes for eyes and one for mouth.
A long, round hat covered its head, sending a tiny shadow over its form that highlighted its empty, void gaze. Its most distinct feature, though, was its long arms that ended in sharp claws, weirdly covered in-
"Is that blood?" Weiss asked, her gaze falling at the caked spats that were prevalent on the alarmingly long razor-sharp appendages. An additional stare, revealed there were some stains on its face as well.
"It would seem so" the cat-girl replied. "A really strange thing to find on a puppet designed to scare away birds." "Well, this thing could give me a scare for my money if I fell upon it in a moonless night" Yang said.
"Hey Blake" Ruby addressed her teammate "didn't you tell me once that most scarecrows stopped being used quite a long ago, because they scared kids and attracted Grimm?"
"My thoughts exactly" Blake answered. "It makes no sense for such a well-preserved scarecrow to be around next to a type-1 zone. As Yang said, this thing could creep out adults, let alone children."
A sense of uneasiness spread among them at Blake's words. "Let's get moving- it will do us no good to mull over this will it?" Yang said, to the surprise of everyone.
"Save for the surprisingly sane suggestion coming out of your mouth, I agree" Weiss commented. "I am taking a sample for analysis, however" she quickly scraped a few pieces of dried blood in a small vial.
"Yes, Ms. Crime Schnee Investigation" the blonde smirked, earning a low huffing sound as the team moved away from the puppet that continued its diligent, yet seemingly unnecessary work.
-ο—
"As I thought" Blake announced to the team, as they stepped inside the small opening in the middle of the fields. "Is this the place?" Yang asked her, staring at the sun that had started to turn red.
"Yes; and as I expected, there is no one here" the cat girl answered. "It wouldn't be that easy" Weiss commented. Ruby stared at the place- an empty circle, with very low grass, surrounded by tall corn stalks.
"Blake and Yang; take the south side. Weiss and I will take the east. We will search in a thirty-meter radius and rendezvous back here" she opened her flashlight. All three girls nodded and followed suit.
"I don't know what exactly we are supposed to find" Yang commented as she kept searching in the mud, throwing a stalk off her hair for the umpteenth time.
"Anything that shouldn't be inside a corn field would do" Blake said. "Buttons, pieces of metal, rags, even bloodstains will do" she added, making her partner huff her nose in dissatisfaction before continuing.
About an hour later, the last rays of the setting sun found the girls back in the opening, empty-handed and frustrated.
"Well it is safe to assume the rescue team would have at least searched this place and took any important information with them" Weiss commented.
"Which leaves us with no other choice but to go on- the sun is ready to set and the mill is about an hour from here" Blake announced, earning Ruby's approval.
"Hey, Rubes" Yang's voice made them all stop. "What would you do if you were suddenly attacked out in the open?" she asked.
"I would search for a vantage point" the brunette replied. "Correction. What would you do if you were an average university student and got suddenly attacked out in the open?" the blonde asked again.
"I would run to a safe place" Weiss replied this time. "And what would that be around here?" Yang asked again, but this time didn't wait for a reply "that would be the path taking you straight away right?"
All her teammates stared at the blonde in awe, as she continued. "We didn't check the place they would choose to flee if they were attacked out here- the north part, which sends them away from the zone. When one is scared, they instinctively run to the-"
"-opposite direction, or the one they believe to be the safest" Blake's expression was a mix of surprise and astonishment. "You are on a roll today!" Ruby commented, while Weiss looked elsewhere, blushing.
"I accept all sorts of verbal- or physical in some white haired girl's case- praise, thank you very much!" she announced. "Let's pick up the pace, ladies!" she strode forward.
"She is going to be bragging about this for the whole mission if we find something, isn't she?" Blake commented. "I will have Weiss deal with her if needed" Ruby replied, smirking at her still blushing partner.
"I found blood!" after a few minutes of walking and searching, the cat girl announced, pointing at a few splatters on some stalks. "Someone must have been running while wounded and rubbed it on them."
"It's a good thing we found something, but it never is good when that something is blood" Yang monotonously mentioned. "More blood here- it forms a trail!" Weiss shouted from ahead, Ruby running along the red path.
And to a much undesired result. "I found someone" she said, letting her friends understand what she meant by the sadness evident in her voice, as they got closer to her.
The body was tied and entangled among a few cornstalks, a pool of dried blood and a lot more unmentionables having dyed the ground and the stems dark red.
He had been a man; that was for sure. His torso and neck were sliced open and huge cuts could be found all over his body. His face had been frozen in a horrified expression.
Blake knelt to the ground. "Blakey are you sure you-" "This isn't the first and won't be the last time, so don't even bother finish that sentence" the black-haired girl grabbed a pair of plastic gloves and a small light.
"Hmmm… that's strange…" she said after a few minutes. "He seems to have died of multiple cuts and slices, but they are way too clean. They are jagged, but not messy" she turned to face Ruby, who sighed.
"In other words, this person was cut down by blades, not claws or any sort of spikes or teeth" the weapons expert commented. "Seriously?" Weiss asked in disbelief "he was killed so brutally by other humans?" "Or something with human weapons" everyone's mind went to the stains on the scarecrow and they shivered.
"Unless I am missing something" Blake turned back to the body "he is young; probably one of the students, if his lack of weapons and dust is any indication. Judging from the position of the body, he was, well…"
"Yes?" Ruby asked. Behind her, Yang had her back turned on them and stared away. There was something that bothered her about the place at this point, and she didn't want to annoy her best friend while searching.
"His limbs and face are filled in bruises and fractures" Blake explained, her light falling on one of the victim's wrist that seemed to be painfully thrashed, pieces of bone protruding through the skin.
"I am not an expert, but this are signs of struggle; whatever killed this poor fellow, either fought with him, or tortured him first" she said, her cat ears dropping in a sign of sorrow. "And was really brutal doing it."
"Why him, though?" Weiss asked. "Why only him, to be precise. There were five students and two professors in total, what happened to the others? I don't think they are scattered around here in a similar-"
"Hey guys!" Yang cut Weiss off. "Correct me if I am wrong, but did you see those things here while running to the place?" she pointed towards her front with her lamp, Ruby's flashlight joining at once.
The bright light of the dust-powered equipment crossed the field and cut through the rapidly-falling darkness, showing the brown-black and silent figures of three scarecrows standing a few dozen meters away.
Blake gulped. The shadows created as the torches' light fell on the long limbs and the pointed hats highlighted the empty eyes and mouth, sending a shiver down her spine. For a second, she thought she saw a reflection of the dust-based energy on the sacks' void holes.
"I am not sure…" the cat-girl heard Weiss reply "but we were running after Ruby, so I didn't exactly check. I may have missed them."
"All of us?" Ruby's professional voice replied, as the sound of Crescent Rose unfurl followed the rhetorical question. "You thing all four of us didn't notice three distinct figures in a bland, repetitive field, Weiss?"
"This is as scary as your use of 'distinct' and 'repetitive', Ruby" the sound of Myrtenaster's chamber accompanied Weiss' bad joke.
"Are you done with the body, Blake?" the brunette asked, eyes not leaving the three scarecrows. "Yes; I got his ID card- Daniel Pastel, age 19" she replied, drawing Nightfall and going to stand next to Yang who already had assumed a boxing stance.
"Ok, then we retreat quickly, but keeping- what the hell!?" the curse leaving Ruby's mouth as she turned around to start their tactical retreat made her teammates send a quick glance- and shiver at what they saw.
Four more scarecrows were standing, a few meters closer than the other three, on the very same path the team had used about half an hour ago while searching.
Their figures were still motionless, yet an eerie aura seemed to fill the area, making the cool spring night seem a lot colder than usual. "Did we really get surrounded that easily?" the pale girl asked, drawing Crown.
"Blake!" Ruby's voice, as calm as always in the mid of battle, snapped the two girls out of their confusion "which way is the millhouse?" she asked.
"On our seven, if my memory serves me right" the yellow-eyed girl told her. "Let's go then" their leader's eyes narrowed. "Yang!" "On it, sis!" the brawler cracked her fists and dashed to the direction mentioned.
A quick jump and a powerful fist was the opening, allowing Yang to gain momentum in order to defend- the scarecrow was tossed away, a loud 'thud' the sound that accompanied its fall to the ground.
"Huh?" a rather disappointed expression donned the blonde huntress' face. "Run!" but Ruby's orders came first no matter what, so she sprang into action again, charging forward to clear any obstacles.
There were no obstacles, however. Following their vanguard, team RWBY made a mad straight dash through the corn fields for about ten minutes and only stopped when the enemies were nowhere to be seen.
"Huff… huff…" Weiss was panting next to Ruby who was trying her best to catch her breath. "I think we lost them" Blake commented. "If there was something to avoid, to begin with."
"There was something, Blakey. You can't deny that. Scarecrows don't exactly 'pop' like… this?" her voice trailed off, as her lilac eyes opened wide, unable to comprehend what had just happened.
And how could she? It took less than a second- merely a blink of her eyes- for more than a dozen scarecrows to appear, creating a huge circle around the panting huntresses.
"This is…" they all exchanged a confused stare and got their weapons ready. "How did this happen? What are those things?" she straightened her hat and got her bracers ready.
The figures, however, stood there, cloaks waving in the non-existent wind, motionless like towering dolls made of wood, cloth and metal. The very creepy sort of towering dolls made of wood, cloth and metal.
"Why are their cloaks waving like this, without any wind?" Ruby asked, not sure she wanted to know the answer. "We have to move, Ruby" the faunus commented. "What are your-"
"Take them down. And be fast doing it" the brunette shot two bullets at them, while Weiss conjured a series of ice shards. Blake picked up her gun and showered them in gunfire, while Yang stood; keeping up a defensive stance in case they wanted to try something funny.
The ice shards crashed on their bodies and all bullets just bounced off, the scarecrows themselves not moving, save for the continuous image of their capes billowing in a wind that didn't exist to begin with.
The situation was intense; they didn't even flinch or react to the attacks at all! "What about a more powerful one then?" Yang took a couple steps forward. "YANG, NO"!
Her fiancée's voice stopped the blonde on her trails. "We have no idea what those things are! What exactly are you trying to do? Get yourself killed!?"
Under normal circumstances, this would be just passed as Weiss being really protective of her lover. But, to Yang, there was again something off. Something that made her hair stand on edge; Weiss sounded weird.
She slightly turned her head, to be able to look both at her team and the enemies- and gasped. Blake, Weiss… even Ruby! Despite still having their weapons on, they were ghostly white and shivering in fear!
Time stopped for her. There was nothing in the world that could terrify her more than seeing the same people who stood in front of Salem and firmly resisted her accursed magic, cower in fear like freshmen!
Her mind went back- when had something like this happened before? When did-
'I just saw a brief image; and then I just fell on Weiss. I felt so mad, so furious that I didn't even realize I was strangling my precious friend' Blake had told her when she recalled the events in Yugure tunnels.
'I knew it was fake- I knew she couldn't be there. But I also knew that Cinder was about to kill me, drown me in this murky water' Ruby's dreams of Grimmwater made Yang cuddle her to sleep for many nights.
'What I felt inside the cave- that resonance when I activated my glyphs. It was painful- but also euphoric. Stop looking at me like this- I didn't mean it in a sexual way! I felt a presence; like some powerful being was looking at me and masuring my very soul!' Weiss had admitted.
"SNAP OUT OF IT!" Yang jumped next to her friends and punched the ground. A huge shockwave was created, violently shaking all corn stalks around them- and not only them.
"Huh?" the blonde let a huge sigh of relief as she saw color return to her sister's cheeks. One by one, all three girls blinked and rubbed their heads, like waking up from a shocking dream.
"What- why are we standing here like sitting ducks?" Weiss was the first to complain, her and Blake instinctively assuming defense positions around their leader, behind Yang.
"I don't know the details" the brawler said "but it seems like you were hypnotized or something." "We'll discuss it later; let's take them down and move away from here!"
As if reacting to Ruby's words, the scarecrows, for the first time since they came across them, moved. Their heads hung forward, like barely standing- and then tilted sidewise in a puppet-like motion.
All RWBY members gritted their teeth, as they saw fourteen pairs of gleaming red eyes stare at them, reflecting the moonlight under the sinister shadows created by the flashlights.
Immediately, the corn stalks started to swing. The dryness of the night and the lack of wind didn't seem to matter, as the field pulsed, moved and throbbed like being ravaged by a fierce storm.
"Back-to-back formation!" Ruby screamed. At once, the girls moved and formed a rectangle within four square meters, covering each other as they tried to deduce where the attack would come from. As soon as they repelled it, they should be able to make an opening and escape.
And then, suddenly, the scarecrows vanished. As fast as they appeared, they left the field, as if vanishing into thin air. The furious wave stopped and the stalks returned to their motionless state under the pale moon.
Yang was dumbstruck and she didn't even have to check that the rest had the same expression. "What the Dust just happened?" Weiss was evidently tired, but even more frustrated.
"At this point it doesn't matter- we have to reach the mill and rest; then we can discuss about this" Ruby pointed to their south. "I am curious too but Ruby is right; let's go" Blake moved first, eyes and ears in alarm.
The old millhouse was a rectangular two-story building, made of wood. It had a triangular tile roof and, other than the ravage of time, it looked like it was in a pretty decent shape.
A large, mechanical mill stood just outside the entrance, covered in the first trees the girls had seen since they stepped their feet in the area. A tall ladder provided access to its tallest parts.
Blake took a peek in the floor room, her eyes peeking through the huge two leafed doors. "It seems like a storage room. Looks abandoned" she turned around and informed them. "Ok" the crimsonette answered.
"Blake and I will check the interior; Yang and Weiss will make a camp for us on the top floor. Do not-" "I would never make a campfire in a wooden building; who do you think you are addressing like that, Ruby Rose? Your sister or your boyfriend?"
Weiss raised an eyebrow on the ridiculousness of the statement. It was exactly the confirmation Ruby needed to make sure her partner was feeling better.
"Excellent; let's get to business then everyone. The night is still young and I am already tired like Zwei after he has run a marathon."
One after another, the girls stepped inside the millhouse and started doing their duties, blissfully unaware of the forms that suddenly appeared around the building.
Dozens of red eyes gleamed under the moon, as sack-covered heads tilted, long black capes blowing under a wind that didn't exist. The corn stalks swung violently, ready to witness one more tragedy take place.
To both who commented the previous weeks about liking the plot; I would like to thank you for your kind words. I was really happy to hear them. Hope I can keep up with this!
To the dear guest who commented last; trying to not spoil you, I will only disappoint you a little, since this is not Yang's Arc. Our blonde girl will have an important part in this arc, as you correctly guessed, but her own one is coming later. I hope you will enjoy it nonetheless!