Weiss and Cinder were having a war of attrition. It started when Cinder slowed her steps, presumably to fall behind the pack and then make a break for it. Weiss wasn't having it and kept her distance behind the older girl. Cinder took a half step forward, and Weiss copied the movement. A couple of seconds later Cinder would take another step and Weiss would copy the motion.
Yang had already gotten tired of this and wound up taking a nap in a pile of leaves several yards ahead, knowing that it would take all day before they finally go there. Ruby sat next to her pouting. "Can we go back for the bears now?"
"I'm telling you, the bears are probably fine," Weiss lied. She tiptoed forward. "And if they're not, It's her fault."
Cinder grimaced but said nothing. Ruby, turned over another brown leaf. "Where are we even going?"
"Home, I have to drop you two off before I can escort...er…" Cinder looked back at Weiss who seemed to be searching the treetops for the right words. Luckily Ruby interrupted.
"The house isn't this way."
Weiss blinked. "What?" For the first time that morning, Weiss took her eyes off the Cinder to instead consult her magic mirror. Sure enough, to backtrack to Daddy Xiao Long's House, they'd have to once again pass the cottage they just burned down, and there was no way Ruby was seeing that.
"We're not going the wrong way. We're just headed to..." Weiss zoomed out a bit more, "the yellow road up ahead. That will make the way home easier." Actually, the road didn't go too close to Ruby's cottage but it did lead right to the mansion that imprisoned Cinder. Besides, Weiss had had enough of forests for one new lifetime.
When Weiss looked up from the mirror again she saw that Cinder had abandoned the attrition but not the party. She was already by Yang, holding the groggy girl at her side. Weiss readied the rapier but saw Cinder was doing nothing but removing leaves from Yang's clothes. Weiss lowered the rapier.
Another minute or two of walking at normal speed and the four left the trees behind for a yellow-brick crossroad with a cornfield on the other side. Weiss consulted her mirror. It did not have a compass rose. Weiss tried turning around several times but the little marker on the mirror did not change. She was debating what kind of order she could give it when someone interrupted.
"You kids need directions?" came a voice that could only be described as simultaneously scratchy and smooth. Weiss looked up but they were alone at the crossroads. Just a forest on one side and a bunch of cornfields on the other. She looked up but there were no ships or flying monkeys. Just a scarecrow rising above the-wait a second.
The scarecrow was crucified on a cross slanting to one side so that it's left foot disappeared beneath the yellow and green waves. He didn't have hands, only countless straw fingers spraying out from his gray sleeves. His face was made from lined tan cloth, bound tightly to the crucifix by a red sash that matched his button eyes. His slash of a mouth opened like the parting of a frayed yellow sea. "You looking for the Emerald City?"
"What's that?" asked Yang, who seemed to have no problem with talking to a scarecrow. Which was fair. This was the first inanimate object Weiss had talked to, not including her mirror, but it still had nothing on the bear with the man's head.
The scarecrow gave a smile as lopsided as the cross that held him. "The Emerald City is where all your dreams will come true."
"Really? How?" asked Ruby.
"You're a smart kid. I can tell it just by looking at yea." The last couple words faded a bit, as if all they were hearing were an echo coming out of a straw-lined cave. The scarecrow stared at Ruby, for a second, then the smirk took up its old place on the felt bag he had for a face. "There's a wizard who lives there. He'll grant your wishes for you."
"Wishes?" Cinder walked up to the edge of the cornfield and stared at the scarecrow before her. "Can he fix my...eye and my voice?"
"And my arm!" Added Yang, waving her stump.
The scarecrow kicked his feet. "Umm...well, you see-"
"No thanks," Weiss cut in, "We're not looking for any city. We don't need a wizard. We just want to get home."
Weiss felt Cinder's eye burn through her back, but Weiss was more concerned with the fact the Scarecrow's smile just grew. "The wizard can help you get home."
Weiss scoffed. This city must've been much farther from either the cottage or the mansion. How would getting there be a shortcut? But before she could object on this basis, the scarecrow cut in. "Oh, you mean that home. I thought you meant your real one."
Weiss froze. For so long now she was playing by the rules of this world. Get Ruby and Yang to the man that she called mom and called Weiss daughter. Lock up Cinder in the mansion. Don't stop to talk to animals or inanimate objects, they only get you sidetracked. Weiss had almost forgotten that none of this mattered. None of this was real or at least as it should be. No one else acknowledged this, so why should she? How much did this scarecrow know?
Ruby pulled on Weiss's sleeve. "Sis, can we go to the Emerald City?"
Weiss looked at the ten-year old that was once her friend. She looked at the little kid picking her nose who was once the team mom. She looked at the abused teen who was once a criminal mastermind. Then she looked at the scarecrow. She knew him, the drunkard who had stumbled into a fight with her sister and nearly cost her, her job. This entire time he had been staring at her with the same beckoning smile he gave Winter right before Ironwood showed up. "Which home do you mean, Qrow!"
The scarecrow furrowed his brow. "I'm not sure actually. You'll have to take that up with the wi-"
"Bullshit!" Weiss snapped. Ruby covered her ears and Cinder covered the laughing Yang's while slowly moving them both away. "What do you know?"
Qrow tensed, or maybe he just shrugged. It was hard to tell considering his rams were bound on a diagonal. Either way, his felt face was the definition of non-cholent. "Sometimes I say things I don't fully understand. I'm a bit of a birdbrain like that. But I'll tell you what. I like you. So I'll tell you that the Emerald City lies that way."
"You didn't point at anything." Yang blurted. Cinder covered her ears harder.
"My arms are tied! Bring me down and I'll show you the way. Though you'll have to do it quick. I think some other people are waiting to speak with you. Isn't that right ladies?
Ladies? Weiss was about to ask when something rustled in the grass. On the opposite side from the Scarecrow, the cornstalks swayed although there was no wind. Between the greener stalks came an even greener eye. Weiss raised her rapier. "Who are you?"
The corn parted and an emaciated Asian girl walked out. She had long black hair and a rough-spun dirty grey dress on to of surprisingly ornate stelettos. She raised her hand meekly and pointed at Weiss.
What was that supposed to-
"Sis Look out!" Ruby called.
Weiss flipped and parried the blade. Green eyes glared through her. Had the girl teleported? No wait, this one wore a faded pink dress instead of grey. And the grey girl certainly hadn't been wearing bladed claws on her gloves.
Which meant-
Weiss Reposted, then spun around using the Glyph to force her back out of the way of the pink girl's next clawed strike. Sure enough dirty grey had run from her stalk and was mid Flip trying to bring down her pointed stiletto on the kids. Ruby hugged Yang while the kindergartener looked up in amazement.
Shit, they can't fight!
Weiss flitted into the space pushing the children out of the way just in time as bladed heels dug into her back. Weiss screamed, feeling the heels slide through her like claws. Nothing major was cut, but weiss was gonna need another new dress. What a time to find out she didn't have aura.
The other sister approached on Weiss's left. Great. What a perfect time for her to get doubled up on. Her teamates were here but were more extra baggage than anything else. Still, Weiss had faced worse odds.
Pink slashed and Grey kicked forcing Weiss to black flip, just narrowly fitting her thin frame between over and under the weapons. She landed back on her heels using a glyph to stabilize her and flipped her cartridge to fire.
Except she didn't have dust. Right. This will have to do.
Weiss raised two more glyphs sending the twins in different directions. Grey was launched backwards while Pink leaned into the glph using it to sucker punch Weiss.
"Give it back!" The girl screamed.
"Give what back?" But the girl did not answer. Instead, she came in for another lunge of her claw blades. Weiss parried and riposted, but the girl caught it with her free and equally bladed hands while the first struck again. Weiss ducked under the parry and set up a circle of glyphs to springboard around her enemy, but before she could a bladed heel kicked her back to the ground.
Everything went dark but Weiss pulled herself back to the blue sky above. Then yellow bricks filled Weiss's vision as she pushed herself onto her elbows. Weiss looked around. Ruby, Yang, and Cinder were huddled underneath Qrow's cross. Ruby was screaming something about snow again. Above her were the two girls. God, they were identical! They both had the same dead straight black hair and eyes as green as malachite. Aside from the colors of their tattered dresses was that the girl in the pink dress looked at Weiss without emotion. The one in the grey dress, however, smiled ever so slightly as she raised her stiletto above Weiss.
"Who are you? what do you want?" Weiss snapped.
"I want to be myself." The girl in grey said. And brought her foot down. Weiss braced a glyph against the blade but it never came. Instead, the girl in grey kicked up at the last minute to avoid being hit by the tin fireball. Weiss got up and turned to Cinder.
"What are you doing?"
"Saving...you" came the throaty reply.
"By throwing fire at me?"
"It wasn't at you...it was at her!" Cinder pointed beyond Weiss and wound up sending another fireball at the recuperating twins. They separated and the pink one lunged at Weiss while the grey one kicked at Cinder.
"Who. Are. You?" Weiss shouted between lounges, but the girl in pink was silent.
"Oh I know who they used to be." Came a slick voice from above. Qrow.
"Who?" asked Ruby.
There was a pause and for a second Weiss was worried the answer was lost under the sound of her glyphs. Then she heard Qrow say, "I can't remember right now. It's hard to think with this knot around my tiny little birdbrain. But hey, maybe if you untie it I'll be able to think and tell you."
"What!?" Weiss screamed, forgetting her opponent for a second to sneer at the drunk scarecrow. This proved a mistake when the girl in pink wrestled her back to the ground with Weiss's chin hitting yellow bricks. She even grabbed Weiss's arms and held them behind her back. At least from this angle could keep track of Cinder.
Cinder was on fire, literally. Her eye was burning as he evaded all the grey girl's kicks, occasionally putting a still fireball in the way so the girl would have to change her direction at the last second, and leave herself open for a counter-attack. Cinder obliged, striking the girl in grey with a pair of black short swords she somehow got a hold of. A few more moves and the fight would be over. The girl on top of Weiss grunted, then punched Weiss right in the back of the head.
The world blacked out for a second but Weiss could still hear the throaty scream. She then heard one of the girls say to the other, "Forget about her. Get them imposter." Weiss opened her eyes long enough to see a pair of girls in red dresses with black hair locked in combat while another grey blur charged two smaller figures, with their heads peeking out of the cornfield. Ruby and Yang. Weiss's vision swam but she could not move.
"No!" came an ashy voice. Weiss's vision cleared in time to see Cinder pull a bow to shoot the sisters. When did she even get a bow? The girl in pink raised her blades at the tattoo on Cinder's back but a glyph stopped it in time for Cinder to turn around and continue the fight, against both sisters. Weiss smiled and blacked out.
When Weiss came to, the twins were gone. Yang was cheering about how someone named ''Rella' chased them away. Ruby said nothing but stuck close to Qrow who now lay among the corn and away from Cinder. Cinder tried to thank Weiss but Weiss walked past and to Qrow.
"Congrats on taking down those two but they'll be back."
"Who were they?"
Qrow's head rolled to the side, presumably because he had no bones or muscles to support it with, only straw. "They aren't anyone."
Weiss's ribs ached, her chin was bruised, and she wasn't gonna take any of this. "That's not an answer."
"Sorry, it's the best a birdbrain like me can come up with. But hey at least I'm good with directions." He threw his limp arm out to the right, which immediately fell. The gesture also caused his head to roll down and hang from the front. Something was moving under the grey cloth that made up the back of his head. "The Wizard lives in the Emerald City down that way. Just follow the yellow brick road straight to it. Don't turn off it, otherwise you'll probably wind up at some of the mansions or castles that make up the suburbs. Some of them are real monsters. Imprison ex-lovers, enslave or eat stepchildren, the whole shebang. The gods might help you out if pray or something but save your breath if you run into those two and their friends again?"
"They have friends?" Weiss asked. "Whom?"
"Mr. Scarecrow!" Called Ruby, clinging to his limp arm. "There's something in your head!"
Cones rose and fell from the back of Qrow's head in rapid succession, but still hadn't noticed them. "I told you already kid, they're nobody. Not anyone."
"That's still not answer!" Weiss snapped, too furious to care that one of the cones pierced Qrow's head. It was black and was slowly starting to split.
"Sorry…" Qrow said, the voice muffled by straw of his mouth. "...bird...brain."
The thing that was once a cone let out a sharp caw. It pushed its way further out, followed by a small black head with beady red eyes. Ruby started crying as she watched the thing slowly pull wings out of Qrow's limp head. It tested them once, twice, and then soared far above the crooked cross it had been tied to.
They all watched in amazement as it slowly flew above the yellow brick road. Soon it was a dot on the horizon.
"Where's the bird going?" Asked Yang.
"Emerald City," Weiss answered. "And so are we."
"We?" Asked an ashen voice. Cinder's one eye was staring at her.
Weiss counted to ten before turning to face her. "I still don't trust you. You're too destructive. But, since I rescued you, you haven't tried to kill us.-"
"-which is more than can be said for you," interrupted Ruby.
"And," Weiss said, holding onto the word for as long as possible. "You did protect them. And you were...useful in the fight. So we're still not friends, but you can come with us if you want."
Cinder was standing a yard or two way one second and was wrapping her arms Weiss the next. "Thank you...so much!"
Cinder was squeezing Weiss's already bruised ribs but Weiss said took it. She just looked down at the mirror she snuck out of its bag before talking to Cinder. The map did show many mansions within a couple of miles, from the city, including the one that Weiss stole Cinder from. It would be one the way.
It was a bright and beautiful day in the emerald city when a dusty grey crow landed on an emerald rookery in the tallest tower. It pecked at some bird seeds absentmindedly until atlast a figure approached it.
"What did you learn this time, Muninn?" came a voice.