The night was chilly and, although she didn't really mind the lower temperature, Ruby pulled her deep red cloak closed in front of her to ward of the wind. The young girl had just finished visiting her mother's grave and was now going deeper into the forest. The snow crunched under her black boots, while the moon shed just enough light for the Grimm-girl to see everything a clear as normal humans would by day.

She had to walk a while until he reached her destination, a decently big clearing, hidden in the deepest part of the forest, away from the few pathways humans had carved to traverse it. As Ruby reached the middle of the clearing, she threw her head back, and let loose a loud and somewhat commanding sounding howl, calling out to her pack.

One by one the Beowulfs arrived, sometimes alone or as a pair, but mostly in small groups of three from between the trees. When all of them had arrived, the wolf-eared girl stood before slightly more than a dozen Grimm. The last Beowulf to arrive didn't stop in front of her, but instead continued to charge at her, the short length of its spikes openly proclaiming the Grimm's relative young age. Ruby quickly realized what was happening, as her own, barely an inch long, spikes were hidden beneath her clothes and she was smaller than all other members of the pack, the young 'wulf thought it could take her leadership position away from her.

But she hadn't stayed leader of the largest Beowulf pack on patch for the last seven years without defending her position, so when she saw the other Grimm charging at her, the half Grimm lowered her stance slightly, ready to duck beneath her attackers first strike. When she did so, one of her hands reached up to grab its shoulder. Before the younger Grimm could realize what she was doing, Ruby used her remaining hand to push against her assailants Chest, applying the advantage in strength she had thanks to her higher age despite her looks, and flipped her opponent onto his back by simultaneously pulling down on its shoulder.

As the young Beowulf's back hit the ground, Ruby had already used her semblance to appear on its chest, pressing her claws into it throat, while she bit of an ear and spat it next to the grimms head. As both the rose petals she left behind, as well as the ripped of ear began to dissolve into nearly black red mist and black mist respectively, the alpha growled at the beaten foe beneath her and barked.

"[Yield or die]"

The young Grimm tried to escape her grasp, and despite nearly managing to push her away, in the end it had to accept its defeat. After all the times Ruby was forced to defend her position by force, she once again wondered how she had managed to take the position by staring down Eins all those years ago. As always she arrived at the came conclusion, namely that none of them had any idea what being an alpha actually meant or required at that time.

Just as she finished that thought, every Grimm in the pack noticed the sweet aroma of fear coming from a pair of travelers traversing the forest. Luckily for the travelers, there weren't many other Grimm on Patch thanks to the regular cullings performed by teachers and students of Signal, which Ruby's pack only managed to avoid because she kept snatching the schedule for those from her Dad. But even so her pack and to a lesser extend the half Grimm herself had to feed on someone's fear and similar negative emotions, so they began to move towards the part their prey was traveling on.

When the couple wandering the forest actually arrived where the pack was waiting for them, Ruby had already sent out 'wulfs to either side of the trail, keeping to the trees where human eyes wouldn't be able to pick them out clearly. As the first Grimm saw the Humans they began to growl and step on fallen branches, causing the poor souls to snap around their gaze with every new sound, becoming filled with utter terror at what they feared might come out of the tree's at any moment.

But the beasts never charged actually came at them, because as Ruby had observed a few years ago, if they were seen or harmed somebody, a few days later there would be a team of Huntsmen and Huntresses tracking down the Grimm responsible. But as harming and killing Humans and Faunus were just the easiest way to generate fear and hatred to feed on, Ruby managed to train her pack to raise their preys fears without giving themselves away, causing the pack to suffer even fewer casualties than they did before.

When every member had basked in the wanderers' fear long enough to last them for the next few days, they let them go their not so merry way and moved back to the clearing they had met at earlier. As they arrived, some of the newer members growled in dissatisfaction, but were quickly silenced by the few Grimm remaining from the original pack of seven, after all many of them would have been hunted down already if it weren't for their leader's way of sating their hunger, as evidenced by the ones that hadn't listen before and were now gone forever.

After waiting a bit longer at the clearing, Ruby decided that they would start prowling the forest, to find some humans on the paths further away from their hidden clearing. Despite them walking through the forest for some hours more, they did not encounter any more humans. But they did stumble across a small herd of sleeping deer, which Ruby stayed and watch for a moment, after all the scenery was surprisingly cute, and she was still a little girl who liked to watch cute things, at least half of her was.

As the moon began to near the horizon, the young alpha parted ways with her pack, and headed back home to be with her more immediate family when they woke up. When Ruby arrived at the edge of the forest close to her home, she was intrigued by the salty frustration wafting her way from the shed in the garden. Anxious to see what was going on back there, she used her Semblance to arrive at the workshops door in a blink, where her canine ears picked up the quiet, frustrated muttering of her uncle. Deciding to see what was troubling him and hopefully cheer him up, Ruby brought her gloved hand up to knock before she opened the door.

"Morning uncle Qrow, why are you up so early today?"

She asked with a curious tone in her voice, causing the Huntsman before her to turn around to face her, giving her a glimpse at metal gears and wooden parts, that lay on the workbench.

"Urgh, morning to you too kiddo. and well I woke up thinking I had a solution for how to make a wooden scythe to train you with but implementing it wasn't met with any success yet."

After finishing this explanation, Qrow let out a deep yawn, but he had managed to catch the young half Grimm's attention fully. After all she liked tinkering around with weapons as much as her dad and uncle would allow her, and helping work on something she would actually be allowed to use was a wonderful way to spent time for her.

"Can I help you with that in anyway?"

"Well I'll have to leave for Signal in a few hours but let's see how far we can get kiddo. First of all could you get me some coffee from the kitchen?"

"Yes can do."

The enthusiastic young girl said before leaving a trail of soon dissolving rose petals trailing from the shed to the coffee maker in the kitchen.

So as I may not be able to post tomorrow, here is the next chapter a day early. As before Critique and Comments are welcome and thank you everyone for reading.