Vengeance Is My Name
Chapter Nine
Yang awoke abruptly to the sound of clanging metal and the scuffling of feet. Instantly awake, adrenaline pounded through her veins as she clambered to her feet, hands searching the dirt around her for her sword. Incessant barking reached her ears, lending to her confusion.
"Yang!"
Blake's voice reached Yang's ears, increasing her panic and her disorientation as she tried to shake off the shackles of sleep. Yang was acutely aware of the panic in Blake's voice, and as she found her sword, she looked around to take in her surroundings as her heart pounded loudly in her chest.
Blake was currently surrounded by three armed men, each wearing a rag-tag mix of clothing that could only mean one thing: Bandits.
Yang wiped a hand across her face, her mind working furiously to figure out a plan of action. Quickly she took stock of the situation.
There appeared to only be three of them, and a quick glance around herself revealed no one else that she could see.
Three bandits versus two untrained travellers... this'll go over well. Yang thought, fear and anxiety festering in the pit of her stomach as she slowly approached the men, her sword held at the ready.
One of them broke off from Blake to focus on her, a deadly looking short sword held loosely in his grasp. He was tall, fairly skinny, with a long scraggly beard, and looked like he knew how to fight.
Yang tightened her grip on her sword as sweat ran down her wrists and pooled against the leather grip, making it slippery against her palm. She wasn't really sure how to fight, but she knew she at least had a small ranged advantage, given that her sword was double the length of his.
Taking in a deep breath, Yang decided that there was no point hesitating. As terrified as she was, it was now or never.
Yang lunged forward with a vicious roar, intending to catch her opponent off guard as she raised her sword up above her head.
Her opponent wasn't fazed, however, and having experience on his side, knew that he couldn't block such a heavy weapon with his relatively light sword. Being light and fast on his feet, he dodged to the left as Yang missed with her wild strike, and he circled around her, waving his blade at her tauntingly.
Yang cursed inwardly at the reversal of their positions, now with her back to the two men that were fighting Blake. From behind her, she could hear Blake's grunts of frustration and the clash of metal as she somehow held her own against the two.
Gotta finish this fast and help Blake...!
Yang swung her sword from right to left in a clumsy strike that was easily parried, her opponent stepping close and effortlessly running the tip of his blade up her side.
Yang bit back a scream as the blade opened up a gash along her rib cage, cursing loudly as she stumbled backward out of his range.
He had her on the run, however, and she knew it, as she backpedaled away from his advances. He wore a grin on his face as he realized she was out classed, and she could do nothing but wildly parry his strikes as he sussed her out.
"Drop your sword and give up your valuables and no one has to die." He said, his sword jabbing toward her a bit more swiftly than before.
Yang jumped back, nearly tripping as she fought to regain her balance. She could feel hot blood coating her skin along her right side, and she was rapidly losing strength.
Her teeth ground together painfully as she suppressed a scream of pain and frustration, and she risked a glance in Blake's direction to see how she was faring.
The glance lasted just long enough to see that Blake was unharmed and still standing, before Yang turned her gaze back to the man in front of her. She had to think of something before she bled out and became too weak to do anything.
Her sword was growing heavier by the second as she lifted it this way and that to parry his light, swift strikes, and her mind worked in overdrive as she tried to think of a solution. There had to be a way to use her swords length and her weight against him.
Her opportunity came when he swung his sword horizontally at her, and instead of raising her sword to merely block the strike, she poured as much power as she could muster into an opposing strike. Of course, two horizontally swinging blades could easily miss each other with no contact at all, but she kept her gaze focused on his wrist, and was rewarded with a loud clash of metal on metal as her sword met his.
Before he could react, she let go of her sword, letting it fly away as she swiftly closed the distance between them. Lowering her shoulder and driving her heels into the ground, she plowed into him with as much force as she could, planting her shoulder into what she hoped was his solar plexus in an attempt to knock the wind out of him.
Her hit was rewarded when he was knocked clean off his feet, and she carried the momentum forward as she followed him to the ground.
"Skinny bastard." She growled, scrambling to stay atop him as she raised her left fist up into the air.
With absolutely no hesitation, she dropped her fist into his face over and over again, each strike filling her vision with red and sending an unquenchable anger through her veins as she struck him over and over again.
When her fist began to ache too painfully, she switched to her elbow, striking him repeatedly as she ignored his yelps of pain and flailing arms.
"Get the fuck off!" Yang roared as his flailing hands managed to grab at her shirt, scratching at her face as his fingernails dug into her skin. Pausing in her assault, she grabbed his hands and bent his thumbs back ruthlessly, ignoring the feeling of popping tendons as he screamed in pain, his hands going limp in her grasp.
Forcing his arms down, she pinned them to the ground with her knees before resuming her barrage, her strikes slipping off his face and impacting the ground as his face became slippery with blood.
Only when she ran out of breath did the haze of anger fade from her mind, the red tint that seemed to fill her vision slowly disappearing as she gulped down air.
She had no time to recover though, and she scrambled to her feet unsteadily as she glanced around for her blade. Finding it in the dirt some feet away, she bent over and picked it up, trying her best to ignore the way bursts of light seemed to explode in her vision as she did so.
"I'm coming Blake!" Yang yelled, moving toward the remaining two enemies as Blake ducked a swift slash aimed at her head.
Blake wasn't so quick to dodge the next strike, however, and Yang's heart shot up into her throat, immediately fearing the worst as a sword struck her in the side of the head.
A pained cry from Blake told Yang that she was badly hurt, and Yang could see that Blake's bandanna had been knocked askew, blood pouring from a wound on the side of her head.
Hearing Yang's approach, one of the remaining bandits broke off from the fight with Blake, turning instead to deal with the blonde.
It was a one-on-one fight now for the both of them, and Yang was determined to skewer this bastard as quickly as possible.
"Leave us, and never come back, and we'll let you live." Yang spoke, attempting to ward them off without further fighting. The man in front of her, a bit shorter than her previous foe, merely shrugged.
"Ah cannae do that now."
Yang copied his gesture, lifting her left shoulder in a half shrug as her right side cried out for a break.
"It's your death, then."
Without waiting for a response, Yang charged in, intent on separating his head from his body with a mighty horizontal swing.
He stepped back and narrowly avoided the strike, however, and Yang feared the worst as she momentarily over-extended, leaving herself vulnerable.
He didn't take the opportunity to attack, however, merely studying her as she readjusted her stance.
"Ye've not held a sword nary a minute." He said, though there was no trace of taunting or condescension in his speech.
"Long enough for the likes of you." Yang shot back, trying to hide the wound on her side even as blood began soaking her clothing.
He was about to respond, when a squelching sound followed by a dull thud caught their attention. Glancing over, they saw Blake pulling her sword from her enemy with one hand, while the other reached up to cradle her bleeding head.
"Two on one now, still can't run?" Yang asked, as Blake approached from behind. He glanced from Yang to Blake, then shrugged once more.
"I s'pose these aren't fair odds for me, aye. Best takin' mah leave."
With that, before Yang or Blake could react, he turned tail and took off into the forest, disappearing swiftly into the brush. Yang stared after him for a moment, sword at the ready in case he returned. When it was obvious that he had no intention of returning to an unfair fight, Yang slowly relaxed, tension bleeding from her shoulders as they drooped. Her fingers ached painfully as she clenched her sword too tightly, and she had to force her fingers to relax on the handle.
"Is yours dead?" Blake asked, her weapon clattering to the ground as she dropped it. She followed it a second later, collapsing roughly to the dirt as she cradled her head in both hands.
Yang glanced over to the body she'd left lying on the ground, and for a moment she wondered if she had actually punched a man to death. Then she saw his chest move, just the slightest amount, and she shook her head.
"Nope." She replied, "He's still alive."
"Want me to finish him?" Blake asked, pain evident in her voice as she looked up pitifully at Yang.
Yang's stomach turned at the sight of so much blood coating Blake's face, matting her hair to her skull in disgusting, dark red clumps.
"I think we'd better tend to your wound first." Yang spoke up, dropping to her knees in front of Blake and setting her sword aside. "That looks really serious."
Blake whimpered in pain, unable to contain it anymore even as she shied away from Yang's outstretched hands.
"I'm fine, Yang." Blake said, her voice catching in her throat.
"You're not." Yang replied, confusion coloring her tone as she shuffled closer to Blake.
"It's-It's nothing." Blake's voice broke, and Yang's lilac eyes widened in concern as she saw tears begin to form in the corners of her eyes, spilling out and cutting a path through the blood on her cheek.
"It's obviously not nothing." Yang growled, impatience setting in as she reached up to forcibly wrench Blake's hands away from her head.
Another whimper of pain, however, had Yang hesitating, unwilling to cause more pain and damage to her friend. Blake was trembling violently beneath her touch, and Yang had to choke back the feeling of fear and despair that pulsed through her, the kind of despair that made her feel like Blake might not actually be okay.
"Blake, please." Yang softened her stern voice into a more soothing tone, hoping it would get Blake to listen to her.
"Blake, baby, I'm your friend, okay? I'm here to make sure you're okay, and whatever is hurting, we can't let it go untreated. Please, show me your wound, or else I can't make it all better."
Blake opened up wide, terrified golden eyes, looking to Yang as her bottom lip trembled.
"Whatever it is, you won't be mad?" Blake asked.
Yang's brow wrinkled in confusion. "Won't... be mad?"
Blake breathed in deeply before exhaling a shuddery breath, blood leaking out from between her fingers as she shifted.
"Just promise me, okay?"
Yang nodded mutely, wondering if Blake was going into shock. She wasn't making any sense, and had suffered a severe head wound. If she didn't get help immediately, she might not survive.
"I-I promise, Blake. Now let me see."
This time, Blake let Yang gingerly pry her hands away from her head, the tattered, bloody remains of her bandana stuck to her fingers. Yang sucked in a breath as she laid eyes upon a bloody, torn section of flesh, and for a minute she couldn't make sense of what she was looking at.
Had the sword split her head open? What the hell am I even looking at?
Yang's eyes slid to the undamaged side of Blake's head, and there, pressed flat against her skull, was an odd, triangular protrusion, covered in bloody fingerprints and tangled in messy strands of hair.
"What... am I... ?" Yang squinted as she moved closer, then it suddenly dawned on her what she was looking at. Eyes widening in surprise, she jolted back, realizing that she was looking at two distinctly non-human ears attached to Blake's head, the one on the left side of her head nearly sliced completely in half.
Yang felt her stomach flip at the thought, and she suppressed the urge to dispense the contents of her stomach onto the ground. Blake- whatever she was- desperately needed her, and throwing up now would not be helpful in the slightest.
Still, Yang thought, as she gingerly picked at the matted, bloody hair surrounding the nearly severed appendage, she had never seen so much torn flesh before.
Steeling her nerves in an attempt to quell her shaking fingers, she gently raked back as much hair as she could from Blake's distinctly inhuman appendage. The part of her mind that was slowly realizing that Blake was a demon was being silenced by the part of her mind that knew she had to administer help fast, or else Blake was in serious trouble.
Pushing down her doubts, fears, and questions, Yang bit her tongue as sympathetic pains shot through the top of her head as she gingerly picked up the nearly severed ear that laid atop Blake's skull. Doing her best to ignore the raven-haired girl's whimpers of pain, Yang attempted to set it back upon the ragged base.
"Sorry, Blake... " Yang whispered, biting the tip of her tongue between her teeth.
Blake reached out and grabbed Yang's shirt, fists clenching the fabric as she whimpered pitifully.
"I've gotta go get some stuff from my pack, Blake. I'll be right back."
Blake nodded, reluctantly letting go of Yang. As Yang let go of Blake's ear, it flopped over lifelessly, tearing a bit more flesh and making Yang feel like she was going to throw up as blood oozed slowly to the surface.
Tearing her eyes away from Blake's trembling form, Yang hurriedly pushed herself to her feet, closing the short distance to where she had stashed her travel pack in seconds. Grabbing it, she nearly dropped it as it slipped from her blood-soaked fingers, and she hissed in pain as she lurched down to grab it again, her side protesting painfully.
"Fucking bastards." She muttered, turning back to Blake. Making her way back over, she took a more comfortable seat in front of Blake in preparation for the task that could end up taking a while.
Ripping open her pack, she ignored the way she was leaving bloody fingerprints across all of her belongings as she hunted for her first aid kit.
Finding it at the bottom, she pulled it out and opened it up. Immediately she sought out the needle and thread, and heaved a gentle sigh of relief as she saw that she had plenty.
It took a few attempts, but she got the thread through the needle. Pulling off a long ream, she took care not to tangle it as she glanced around for a suitable stick.
Finding one not too far away, she leaned over and picked up the small stick off the ground, brushing it off on her pantleg before offering it to Blake.
"You're gonna want this."
Blake nodded slowly, before parting her trembling lips and leaning down toward Yang.
Yang gently placed the stick between her teeth, watching as her sharp fangs sunk into the soft wood with ease.
"Im sorry for what you're about to endure Blake, but it's for the best."
Blake had no time to formulate a reply before Yang sunk the needle into the base of her ear, pulling a long trail of thread through her ear before repeating the process with her torn appendage.
Again, Blake's hands found refuge in Yang's lap, desperately clutching her shirt as Yang worked as swiftly as possible.
It was some time later when Yang was finished, and having cleaned up as best she could, she now lay against the base of a tree with Zwei at her side and Blake's head in her lap. Yang took extreme care to not brush up against the sliced up ear, instead choosing to run her fingers through Blake's bangs and hum soft, soothing tunes as Blake trembled against her.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Yang eventually asked, breaking the silence as her curiosity got the better of her.
"... Tell you what?" Blake asked after a moment of silence, her tone betraying the fact that she knew exactly what.
"That you were-are-" Yang corrected herself, "A demon."
In her lap, Blake smiled shakily despite the pain.
"Because I'm not, Yang."
"Huh?" Yang asked, her nose scrunching up cutely, her face the very picture of confusion.
"I'm... " Blake sighed. "I'm not a demon. I'm a half demon, which is worse. And I didn't tell you because... because there was no reason for you to know."
Yang nodded slowly. "I see." Even though she didn't quite see, not even close. Yang winced as she shifted slightly, leaning to her left to take pressure off the assortment of bandages that had been used to close up her wound.
The cut on her side had ended up not being as deep as she had thought, despite the fact that it stretched from her hip to just beneath her right breast. That was little comfort however, as pain began to set in, the adrenaline having long ago worn off. There was little she could do now about the sore muscles and torn flesh other than resting until it got better, and she could tell that Blake was as unhappy about it as she was.
"So is that the deal with your weird eye color, then?"
In her lap, Blake tilted her head back until she was looking up at Yang. She narrowed her eyes and pouted a bit, causing Yang to chuckle.
"It's not weird." Blake said, sounding slightly hurt.
Yang shrugged, careful not to jostle Blake.
"Sorry, poor choice of words. It's... different. Unusual, even. I've never seen that color of yellow before."
"Uhh, gold."
"Hmm?"
"Gold." Blake repeated, her tone indignant. "The color of my eyes is gold. Not yellow."
Yang glanced down and stared into Blake's eyes, studying the color for a long moment. As Blake stared back unblinkingly, her shallow breaths tickling Yang's blonde strands, Yang became acutely aware of just how vibrant Blake's eyes were.
At first glance they appeared to be a monochromatic yellow, devoid of any other characteristic other than the sharp black diamond shaped pupil in the center of her eye. Right now they were fully dilated, almost round in appearance, but Yang vaguely remembered catching glances of them shrunk down to diamond slits, almost swallowed up by her irises.
Her irises themselves were a deep gold, and caught the light like a multi-faceted diamond. There seemed to be flecks of actual gold embedded in her eyes, making them appear to be endlessly deep pools begging to be dived into. The way they caught the light made them appear lighter or darker, lending her eyes a depth that Yang had never noticed before.
Finally Blake blinked, looking away. Yang leaned back away from Blake, realizing that she had been slowly dipping her head toward Blake without noticing.
"Uhh... " Yang cleared her throat nervously, feeling a heat rise to the back of her neck as embarrassment colored her cheeks.
"Seems- it seems they are gold after all, my mistake." Yang said softly, looking away for a moment before her gaze was pulled inexplicably back to Blake's face.
Blake nodded, the back of her head rubbing against the inside of Yang's thigh.
"They're... really pretty." Yang offered, before mentally kicking herself.
"Thank you." Blake's voice was demure, and she refused to meet Yang's eyes.
"You're welcome." Yang said softly. 'Just shut up before you get any more lame and awkward!' Yang chastised herself, closing her eyes and tilting her head back as she silently berated herself.
"No, I mean... thank you. For everything you've done. Risking your life fighting for me, cleaning me up, and... for everything else."
"Oh." Yang realized what Blake was implying. Still, she had to ask. "Did you expect me to hate you for being a demon?"
"Half demon, and yes."
"Why?"
"Because I deceived you. I'm not who you thought I was. Because a half-demon chasing the Weiss Schnee has to set off some sort of alarm bells in your head. I'm not safe to be around."
Yang shrugged.
"Did you deceive me? I never asked if you were anything other than human, I don't think."
Blake folded her arms across her stomach, and tilted her head back to glance up at Yang. Yang bit her bottom lip as Blake's head once more pressed against the inside of her thigh, but she did her best to ignore it.
"Remember when you asked me how I survived being stabbed in the stomach? I told you I just got lucky. The truth is, we're a bit more robust than our human counterparts."
Yang hummed quietly, her mind on a different track of thought.
"Is there anything else you'd like to ask?" Blake asked quietly, tugging Yang out of her thoughts. Yang blinked, then looked down at Blake.
"Uhh, I'm sure I'll come up with lots of questions. For now, though, not really."
"Okay." Blake fell silent, and Yang took the opportunity to stare down at Blake uninterrupted as she attempted to block out the pain.
"When do you think we should try to move again?" Blake asked after a moment, interrupting Yang's thoughts.
"The second we feel up to it."
"Are you able to walk in your current condition?"
Yang shrugged. "As long as it doesn't worsen, yeah. Although I'm thinking it wouldn't hurt for either of us to stay put until tomorrow morning."
"Should we really?" Blake asked. "That one bandit we let go knows where we are. The one you beat the life out of may regain consciousness. You wouldn't let me kill him."
Yang hummed quietly.
"Think we could make the push to town, find someplace safe to bathe and rest?"
Blake nodded. "We aren't too far, really."
"I do like the sound of a bath and a bed in a town." Yang conceded. She breathed in deeply before sighing. "Whenever you're ready, then."
"Few more minutes." Blake murmured, turning onto her right side and nuzzling into Yang's lap as her bandaged left ear stuck straight up out of her tangled mess of bloodied hair.
"Mmm."
Closing her eyes, Yang gently ran her fingers through Blake's hair, fingertips caressing the back of her neck.