Here's chapter 18, everyone.
A strong wind and sparks of lightning surrounded the area the Strom walked in. Lucky for Ruby she was outside of the radius, though she was out cold. Just seeing her knocked out made Weiss growl in anger as she held her blade in her teeth as tight as she could.
"How dare this creature hurt her!"
Weiss dashed towards the Strom, using Myrtenaster as a conductor for her dust. The one she used was ice, keeping the wind back with her own blizzard that emitted from her blade. Another howl from the Strom however sent a lightning strike down, but Weiss jumped to the right, landing on all fours as she swung her blade horizontally, sending out fire that time.
Due to the howl, the barrier that the Strom had set up before wasn't out and the fire hit it, making to creature growl in pain, but that wasn't enough to take it down.
Weiss decided to not waste any time and spun around, sending a small tornado of fire at the wolf creature. Instead of letting it hit, the Strom summoned up a strong wind current, blowing the fire back.
With a growl, Weiss looked over at her downed friend, feeling angrier at that point. The Strom didn't care for emotions though, so it charged at Weiss, aiming to take down the other wolf. Weiss used her teeth to swap the chamber in Myrtenaster, getting it to earth dust. When she slashed in front of her, a stone wall appeared in front of her, keeping the Strom back so she could think of a way to deal with it.
"What was it… I know of a way to keep their elemental attacks from being used."
Her eyes widened when she remembered, so she reared up and jumped up as high as she could, landing on the top of the stone wall she made. Once she looked down at the Strom, it stared up at her with its dark black eyes, growling at her, so Weiss pounced at it, aiming for its tail.
The Strom tried to claw at her, which it managed to, cutting the white wolf on her side a bit, but she endured the pain as she sliced its tail right off, making it howl in pain, but that time no lightning was called down.
Weiss panted a bit in pain, as some of her blood dripped from the cut she received. While it did hurt, the white wolf did her best to continue to ignore the pain, watching the Strom slowly backing away.
"You don't get to run for what you did to Ruby!"
Weiss dropped Myrtenaster as she dashed at the wolf creature. It tried to swipe at her, but Weiss already pounced on it and bit into its neck, making the Strom cry out in pain as she bit harder, wanting it dead. After feeling it kick a few times, Weiss could tell when it went completely limp, it had been killed.
She slowly pushed herself off of the creature, tasting its blood on her lips as she gasped, realizing what she had done. Weiss spit up the blood of the Strom, shaking her head a bunch as she knew she must have blood on the front of her face too. "W-What did I do…" While she was afraid of what she had done, the white wolf remembered that her partner was still knocked out.
Dashing towards her downed partner, Weiss didn't care to remember to change back. When she looked down to inspect any damage, she gave a sigh of relief when she could tell she was breathing normally.
"Thank goodness."
Ruby started groaning as she felt something nudging her, so when she opened her eyes, she looked around, gasping when she met the face of a white wolf in front of her. "Gah! Don't eat me!"
Weiss' eyes widened when she realized that she forgot to change back. "W-Wait… R-Ruby, it's me." She blushed a bit, looking for something to clean the blood off of her. When she noticed a lake, she quickly ran to it. "O-One second." She dipped her snout into the water, doing her best to get the blood out before it could dry up.
It was shocking, truly and utterly shocking to Ruby that her friend's voice was coming out a white wolf, but then she remembered what she saw before blacking out. "I-It really is you." She slowly got up, holding her arm in pain since it still felt numb. "Weiss…"
As she walked over to the white wolf, she saw her tense up. Weiss took the moment to turn away from Ruby, hoping the blood on her mouth washed off. "I… I wanted to tell you… But I just couldn't."
Ruby took a few steps forward, reaching out to the white wolf. "Wait, so, this is your semblance? I thought… I thought your family's semblance was glyphs though." She placed her hand on Weiss' back, feeling that her fur was real.
Weiss blushed at the contact, not letting anyone besides her mother touch her fur. "M-My mom told me that semblances work with our personalities, and that I was able to break free of the hereditary semblance my family has had for years to grow into my own."
"Weiss," The white wolf braced herself for what she might say. "That is so cool!" Weiss looked confused, turning around to look at her partner.
"C-Cool? You don't think it's weird? I'm… I'm a wolf right now, Ruby." Weiss stated, while Ruby simply smiled at her.
"Well duh! You broke out of your family's semblance and have your own! Don't you know how awesome that is?! I mean… I've never even heard of a semblance like this, Weiss!" Ruby was overly excited, but she couldn't be blamed as the new information was too good to be true to her.
Weiss' tail actually swayed a bit, making Ruby giggle. "T-Thank you, Ruby… Um, are you doing okay? The lightning strike hit you pretty hard."
Ruby moved her arms around, nodding happily. "They were a little numb, but I'm gonna be fine. I'll let my aura fix me up a bit, but… We should probably rest a bit. Both of us have been electrocuted today after all."
"T-That is true." While Ruby was praising her before, she was still nervous about some things. "Should we rest here or find somewhere else?"
Looking around, Ruby couldn't hear or see anything around them. "Well, I think we should be fine. You never know though… Uh, how about we find a cave with a wall we can see?"
Weiss understood what she meant and nodded, walking next to Ruby, but she blushed heavily when she noticed her clothes in a pile where she had transformed.
"Hey, isn't that your… Clothes… Weiss…" Weiss' blush reddened and Ruby had begun to blush as well. "Wait, why is there another set of your clothes sitting there?" She knew she was lying to herself.
"Ruby… Could you please just grab those?" Weiss requested, looking away from her friend as she didn't want to have that discussion.
Instead of saying something, Ruby simply nodded and walked over, still blushing as she picked up Weiss' clothes. She did spot her partner's weapon too, so she went over and grabbed that as well, but she accidentally dropped the wolf pendant that was still on the pile of clothes. Luckily Weiss noticed and ran over, whimpering as she tried to pick it up.
"Huh?" Ruby heard her whimpering and saw the white wolf trying to pick up her pendant with her teeth. "Wait, I'll get it." She walked back over and leaned down, grabbing the necklace. "I'm sorry, Weiss. I didn't mean to drop it."
"I-It's okay. I saw a cave that way… We can check if it'll work as a resting spot." Weiss responded, but Ruby didn't move immediately. "Ruby, come on."
"Hold on." Ruby set Weiss' clothes down for a moment and knelt in front of the white wolf, making her blush a bit as Ruby wrapped the necklace around Weiss' neck, making her gasp. "There, now you won't lose it."
Weiss felt her heart racing, and she nodded a few times, not noticing her tail was swaying and the two partners made their way to the cave Weiss had spotted.
Once they got to it, Ruby made sure to look inside, seeing that it wasn't that deep of a cave, so they had no risk of something sneaking up on them. "Looks like this is a good one to sit in, Weiss." She called out to the white wolf.
A few moments passed and Weiss slowly walked in, making Ruby gasp when she finally noticed the cut on her friend. When she ran over, Weiss yelped and stopped walking towards her.
"Weiss, what happened?!" Ruby cried out, moving her hand over to where the cut was located. "D-Did that Strom do this to you?" When the white wolf whimpered and nodded to confirm her suspicions, Ruby bit her lip and almost teared up. "I wasn't able to help you."
"S-Stop it. Please. I don't want to go back and forth on who can protect who, Ruby… I just… I want some rest." Weiss pleaded, feeling her partner's palm pressed against her cut. "We have our aura…"
Ruby sniffled a bit. "But what if it breaks, Weiss… You won't be able to… Wait, why… Why didn't you have your aura?"
Weiss whimpered a bit when she felt Ruby putting a bit too much pressure on her wound, so she backed away a bit. "It's the amount I used when I tried healing the paralysis, then to top it off, my semblance uses a lot of my aura to transform."
"That was too much of a risk, Weiss!" Ruby expressed her concern, kneeling by the wolf to hug her, but Weiss backed away. "Weiss?"
"Ruby, I watched you get hit by a lightning bolt. That terrified me, and… I couldn't do anything without my semblance. I froze on the spot, Ruby!" Weiss yelled, shocking the girl. "And all because it was a Strom… A wolf…" She sniffled, wishing she could rewind the clock to shake herself out of the stasis of fear she had been trapped in.
It was heartbreaking to see her cry, so Ruby sat down and chose to instead of reach out to Weiss, she would wait for her. "Weiss, I don't think you were scared. It was just… Different. Something hard you had to face, but you did in the end. So be proud of that."
Weiss lifted her head up, looking at Ruby's open arms. It reminded her of her mom, and how anytime she'd be sad in her wolf form, she'd hold her arms out as wide as she could for the white wolf to nuzzle into. Slowly, the white wolf took a few steps forward, but after a moment, she sprinted onto Ruby and cried into her, as the rose girl fell on her back, gasping but still holding onto Weiss as best she could.
"I-I'm sorry for lying about my semblance… I'm sorry for freezing up like that… And I'm sorry I was reckless with my semblance and worrying you." Weiss said as she nuzzled into Ruby, who simply did her best to rub her fur, smiling a little as she let Weiss cry into her.
"Shh, it's okay, Weiss. You don't need to apologize anymore. I'm here." Ruby closed her eyes, slowly rubbing Weiss' fur some more as she felt the white wolf pull away. She stared up at her, still in awe that the wolf she was looking at was her friend. "Feel a little better?"
Weiss nodded, nuzzling Ruby's cheek a bit. Once she was a bit more calm, she backed away to let the girl sit up. "I hope… I hope I didn't ruin your outfit."
Ruby looked down to see the tear stains and chuckled. "No worries here, Weiss. Now come on and let's rest up. We still have plenty of time to find that relic, but your aura needs to recharge first."
The white wolf couldn't ignore that, so she nodded and walked over, laying down next to her partner. "Thank you, Ruby… For accepting what my semblance is, and for forgiving-."
"Weiss, I told you that you don't have to apologize for everything. There's nothing to forgive about." Ruby smiled and ran her hands through the white fur of the wolf, giggling a bit. "It's really soft."
"D-Don't say stuff like that." Weiss said in a flustered tone as her tail swayed on its own, enjoying the feeling.
Ruby was actually a little curious about something and moved her hand away. "Hey, how come you don't turn back, Weiss? I mean, if this is your semblance, how can you still be like this if your aura ran out?"
Weiss' ears perked up and she looked down at her paws. "It's… Confusing to me too, Ruby. Aura let's us use our semblances, so at first I thought I'd revert back to normal. The first time it happened… I don't know, I sort of freaked out and thought I was stuck like this."
"So you eventually turned back?" Ruby asked, intrigued even more than she thought she'd be.
With a nod, Weiss thought back to when it first happened. "My mom had to keep me calm that day, and she told me that once my aura recharged, I'd be able to change back. She wasn't lying either." Weiss smiled. "After some time, my aura was back up and I just focused on my semblance to turn me back."
"Ohhhh. I think I get it. It's like your semblance is the ability to let you change, so if your aura is out of reserves, then you can't go back to the other form." Ruby assumed.
"Yes, something like that, but… It's still odd to me. I'm not a wolf, Ruby… Well I mean I am right now, but… Ugh, this is so confusing. I just wanna rest and get my aura back up." The white wolf lowered her head and closed her eyes.
The cut on the white wolf had stopped bleeding, but even so, Ruby still frowned at it. A thought came across her mind though as she slowly took her cloak off and draped it over the white wolf, who was still deep in slumber to react, except for a slight sniffle she made when she moved a bit in her sleep. When she saw her cloak was covering up the cut enough, Ruby felt relieved.
After a few moments, Ruby looked out at the cave entrance, making sure nothing would walk inside to try and attack them. She did smile when she heard Weiss snoring a bit, so she rubbed her fur some more, giggling quietly when she saw her tail slowly swaying. "Hehe. Sleep well, Weiss."
Willow was taking a few short breaths, watching them appear in front of her from the cold. It wasn't as easy to train without Raven supporting her when she would end up almost passing out.
"Come on, Willow." She said to herself, panting a bit as she sat down on the log next to the campfire. "I hope my snowflake is doing okay…" Willow shook her head. "I shouldn't be so worried. I need to have faith in her." She got up and closed her eyes, focusing on her aura again.
At first it was still just flickering. It would've been easy for her to just think of her children and use that to call forth her aura, but she refused. It was the easy way out, and if she wanted to make more than one glyph without passing out within two weeks, she'd need to find another way to access her aura.
Unbeknownst to her though, Raven watched from inside the cabin, making sure Willow wouldn't be able to see her through the window by peeking around it. "What is that idiot doing… She shouldn't strain herself this much."
Willow wiped her nose, sighing as she only could get it to flicker still. When she felt her body betraying her though, she would stop and take a few breaths, relax and try again after waiting a few minutes, all while Raven watched her from inside of the cabin.
And finally, Ruby knows what Weiss' 'semblance' is. 18 chapters felt like a good bit of time for that, and I do like my slow burns, so be prepared for a long story, everyone. Maybe even as long as Snow Fox was.
To JJ- I'm glad you like the Grimm here I've worked on making. And personally, I'm just a fan of RT, so I don't think I'd be involved in any of their things. Thanks for the vote of confidence though. Also, when Weiss changes, her clothes don't actually shred. It's not that she grows into a wolf, the light shines and pop, she's a wolf with clothes going off her.
I hoped you all enjoyed chapter 18. Remember, reviews are welcomed, but not required. See you all in chapter 19.