[X] She shouldn't. She was tired, she might make a mistake, and she didn't have a spare soul in case she broke something.
Her soul in her hand, Yang took a long time to think.
Her left hand hovered for a moment, ready to go. It would be so easy. She just needed to reach out, shape it, change it. Otherwise, what had she accomplished today?
...Damn it, it was getting hard to think. There was too much odd here, too much she didn't understand. She wanted to get stronger, she needed to get stronger, but...
This was her soul in her hands. The very essence of her being. Her. Was she really willing to mess around with the core of her being?
...Well, yes, but not now. There'd be other times. Times where her head wasn't getting fuzzy. When Qrow was walking her through what she was and was not meant to do in regards to pulling this off.
Letting her left hand fall away, Yang sighed. She put her right hand to her chest again, feeling the ball of light entering her again, and the ground formed under her feet again. The sky went back into the sky where it belonged, even if it was still red, and Yang found herself on the dirt path once again. The sky wasn't pushing her down anymore, and it seemed unreasonably smug.
Asshole sky. She'd show it.
...When did she start attributing emotions and reactions to the sky?
She wandered down the road again, back the way she came. She needed to go home now, and she wasn't entirely sure how this place worked, so she'd want to be able to hopefully figure that out soon. Maybe that tree which she had entered in from would be a good place to start. Or maybe something else.
Looking up at the sky again, Yang thought about it for a moment, and decided that she wasn't wrong when she decided the red sky hanging over head was openly malicious. She wasn't sure what was wrong with it at a glance, beyond it being the wrong colour, but it made her skin crawl.
What the hell was up with the place, anyway? It was supposed to be some kind of nature based magic soul resonance thing, but it had an evil sky? Why was that a thing? On the scale of things that should be a thing and things that should not be things, it was very much a thing that should not be a thing.
...It was still hard to think here. She blamed the red sky. The red sky was clearly distracting her so she couldn't think. She should try to stop thinking about it, and think a bit more about how to escape metaphor dream land.
...What did Qrow do to get her out again?
Yang put a hand in front of her face. Maybe this would work.
Her fingers clicked, and nothing changed.
"...Well there goes all my ideas." She muttered beneath her breath. "Okay, think. Think, Yang think. Use that beautiful brain of yours. What did Qrow say about this place?"
He had to have hinted at something to do with how she could get out, right? Even if Qrow wanted her to only try it while he was around, that couldn't have been because there was no way out, right?
I mean, someone had to learn this for the first time, so it wasn't impossible to get out on her own. And she was fairly sure he had a different reason to want to be there whenever she was doing trips into metaphor world.
...Wait, it was a soul resonance thing, right? Maybe if she tried messing around with her Aura, and not any of the ball soul stuff, she'd be able to disrupt the process enough that the soul resonance thing failed?
...Or collapsed into a messy tangle of soulstuff of plants and wild animals and things went wrong and yeah Yang was starting to see why Qrow didn't want her doing this on her own.
Okay, maybe mistakes were made.
Actually, she got in here touching the tree. Maybe if she touched the same tree again, it'd work.
Or something.
...Now if only she could find it.
Looking to the side of the path, it occured to Yang that all the trees looked the same.
"...I don't supposed a way out would appear if I asked?" She tried. "Because I wanna leave."
A small rabbit hopped out of the trees, towards Yang's feet.
"...Huh." She mused. "That's... Huh."
She reached down to pet its ears-
The carrot was tasty. Delicious, even. Life was simply while eating the carrot. The blond human had given a carrot when he had seen the rabbit in the trees. This was a nice place.
Yang felt the ears slip out of her grasp and the rabbit bounce into the distance. She looked up, confirming a blue sky above her head, and looked back to see the waterfall behind her.
"...I should get home." She sighed. "It's getting late. I'll just figure it out next time I see Qrow I guess..."
Sighing and turning back down the river, Yang began the walk home.
Yang woke up early the next morning, before sneaking out of her room. The wooden door squeaked slightly as she tiptoed down the door and stairs. She saw her father exit his room as she passed, and he disappeared into his room to start grabbing some boxes after checking the coast was clear.
Yang sneaked down the stairs and towards the kitchen, ready to prepare breakfast for everyone before-
The light switched on, and Ruby was sitting at the table. The instant she saw Yang, she started vibrating, the chair rattling as it started to fall apart. She looked at Yang, excited and expectant.
Damn it, so much for being able to have a peaceful breakfast.
"Happy Birthday, Rubes." Yang said, trying to play it off casually.
Ruby pushed forward a bowl that Yang was fairly certain wasn't there before.
"Here, I made you some breakfast." Ruby said. "Didn't want to slow things down. Hey, where's dad?"
Yang considered things for a moment.
Ruby was excited. While happy Ruby was a good thing, this was Ruby on Ruby's Birthday. She wasn't just excited, she was ecstatic. She'd stop being so pushy if she knew people wanted her to slow down, but that'd make her less happy and that was the opposite of what Yang wanted.
At the same time, she didn't want to be rushed while eating and end up almost choking again. Thrice was bad enough...
Which gave raise to the question. Sell out where her father was and let Ruby start moving all the presents into prime unwrapping position, or withhold the information and be rushed while Ruby waits for her to finish so they can go off together, thus giving Taiyang time without being rushed to prepa-
"He's in his room up the stairs getting all the hidden presents." Yang immediately sold out without shame. There was a red blur, and Ruby was gone.
Yang walked over to her bowl of cereal, ignoring the crash from upstairs.
"Oh." She noticed. "Schnee Bubbles. That's..."
She paused. "Wait, Ruby made this, there's probably more sugar than milk in there. This is acceptable."
She sat down and started eating her sugary cereal, even as Ruby continued running up and down the stairs, repeatedly, carrying a box each time. Her father, a defeated expression on his face, slowly picked up two pieces of toast that were prepared in advance, and wanders off to supervise Ruby.
"You would've done the same to me." Yang justified herself, at his judging stare.
He turned his gaze silently, as he left the room.
Yang shrugged. "Well I'm happy, at least."
Today should be a good day. Ruby would be happy enough that it'd be easy to just forget the context of the year so far and just enjoy Ruby's happiness. After the year she'd had, Ruby's happiness was far too fragile for Yang's liking.
It reminded her too much of a time long past. So far in the past that Yang's recollection of those days were vague, when Ruby seemed to have an aura of melancholy about her. A lot like Yang's father had carried after her mother had disappeared. Today wasn't as bad, but even the vague memory of that day, when Ruby was quieter and sadder, was enough to give Yang the motivated she needed.
Ruby was a good person. One who should never look sad. That was supposed to be how it worked, after all. People with high hopes are supposed to be in high spirits.
Yang finished her cereal, put her bowl on the sink, and quickly rinsed it. Then, as she felt the wind move slightly behind her, she let both go and took a step back.
Ruby' arm caught Yang's a split second later, before the wind nearly made her stumble. Then Ruby pulled her into the living room, by the couch.
"C'mon Yang!" She cheered, as her father stacked the presents on the table, a small smile on his lips. Yang noticed there was one shaking box in the middle, isolated from the rest.
Ruby pushed Yang into a seat, and sat in the middle of the couch, jumping up and down a bit in front of the presents.
It was nice, seeing her so happy. Birthdays were nice like that, really. One specific person got to be really happy, and that happiness was contagious.
With all the presents stacked, Ruby reached for the big, shaking one in the middle.
"Not that one." Her father suggested, resting on the side of the couch and letting his right arm dangle off the side, out of view. "Save the best for last."
Ruby looked at it suspiciously. "What's in the box, dad?"
"Nothing."
There was a muffled barking sound from inside the box, and Ruby's eyes went wider than saucepans. Yang herself looked at it in surprise for a moment.
"It's a dog?" Ruby asked.
"It could be anything." Taiyang noted, as the muffled barking continued. "We'll find out when you open it last."
Ruby gave a long, loving look towards the dog box, before sighing and reaching for a smaller present with a card on top.
"It's from Uncle Qrow." Ruby noted. "I'm going to guess this is the obligatory socks and underwear present?"
"When you think about it." Taiyang mused. "He's really more of a Mother Hen... Need to work that into a pun later..."
Ruby groaned, putting the soft package behind her, and moved on to the next present. "Oh hey dad, it's the one you got me!"
"I wonder what it could be?" Taiyang asked.
Ruby's quick fingers opened the package in a jiffy, before coming to a cardboard box. Ruby opened the cardboard box, and pulled out another wrapped package.
"...Yang, can you get me the scythe blade in the training room?" Ruby asked. "The really sharp one."
Taiyang sighed. "Kids these days don't appreciate the good jokes..."
He reached out to take the package, quickly unboxing another ten layers of box to wrapping paper to box, before passing it to Ruby.
"Here you go." He said. Ruby took it, looked at the much smaller package suspiciously, before unravelling it.
Yang looked over Ruby's shoulder, and blinked when she saw the present.
"Is that the new Lionheart novel?" Yang asked, looking at the brazenly printed letters of the title, The Lion, The Witch, and the War Drone. "I thought it wasn't coming out for another few months."
"That's just because the author's manager wanted to release it a bit after the movie comes out." Taiyang noted. "She was happy to send out an early copy when I asked."
Ruby blinked. "Wait, you know-"
"Don't tell anyone this." Taiyang whispered. "Buy the name Adnylg isn't just an alias, but it's a really bad one if you know who she really is. She works with Qrow most of the time. We usually meet up whenever Qrow gets too drunk and she needs someone to lock him in his home."
Ruby smiled. "You're the coolest, dad."
"Factually untrue, if anything my body temperature is several-"
"Nevermind I take it back." Ruby said quickly, putting the book down on the table and looking towards the shaking box. "And I don't wanna wait anymore!"
Yang smiled, as Ruby tore open the cardboard box that was shaking and making barking sounds, revealing-
...A walkie talkie attached to an alarm clock?
Yang blinked. Ruby blinked.
"Just as I said." Taiyang nodded sagely. "It could be anything."
The walkie talkie made another barking sound, and Yang tilted her head in unison with Ruby's.
"...Why?" Yang asked, after a moment.
Ruby's question interrupted any real answer, however. "Where's the barking coming from? I mean, there has to be another end on the walkie talkie, right?"
Taiyang seemed to consider that for a moment.
"That's a good point." He decided, before lifting the arm hanging off the side of the couch and pulling up a small furry thing. "Hey puppers, know where the walkie talkie is?"
The fluffy thing barked and gestured downwards, and Ruby made a squeaking sound as she used her Semblance to suddenly be next to it. She pulled it off of her dad, and started looking at it.
Yang looked at the, quiet frankly, adorable dog that Ruby was cooing over for a moment.
"She seems happy." Taiyang noted. "And the joke worked!"
Yang chuckled a bit. "You enjoyed that way too much."
Her father shrugged. "Hey, Ruby's happy now and that's all that matters."
Ruby paused suddenly while nuzzling the puppy's cheek, and pulled away.
"...I mean..." She stammered, before putting it on the ground and starting to talk in a voice that sounded like a child in a candy store trying to be casual. "You're a cute little puppy. My little puppy. The cutest wittle puppy doggie in the whol- No, Ruby, focus."
The dog tilted its head, and Ruby scratched it behind the ear.
"Why didn't I get a pet when I was Ruby's age?" Yang asked suddenly.
"Would you hit me if I said she was the favourite?" Taiyang asked.
Ruby gave Taiyang a glare, and the dog jumped up to lick her face.
Yang laughed a bit, and briefly considered answering her father's joke about also liking Ruby better than Yang, but decided that was getting a bit too close to touching a topic Yang didn't want to discuss.
Today was a happy day.
"So what kind of cake did you get for later?" Yang asked.
Her father froze.
"...Dad?" The yellow haired teen asked.
Taiyang turned to look at his older daughter. "...I knew I was forgetting something..."
Ruby looked up, away from the dog. "Did someone say something? I got a bit distracted by cute little Zwei-"
"Why Zwei?" Yang asked, before reconsidering. "No, nevermind. I, uh, I just remembered, I need to run down to the shops because dad, uh..."
"Forgot to buy milk?" Taiyang tried.
"You can admit that you forgot to buy a cake, you know." Ruby sighed. "I know I get overexcited, but I'm not going to eat you just because I wanted a cake immediately..."
"But that ruins the joke, Ruby." Yang smiled. "Anyway, I'll go cover for him. If you have to eat dad, give some of it to the dog, okay?"
"I feel opposed to that idea." Taiyang objected.
The new dog barked.
"Three against one." Yang translated. "Sorry, dad. I'd pick which limb I'm least attached to."
And with that, Yang started skipping towards the front door, off to buy a cake.
While on a quick run to the shop, Yang has an interesting encounter. While on the way to the store...
[X] She notices Ren and Nora walking down the street, with Nora looking sadly at two pieces of a broken weapon.
[X] After running into a dead end that Yang could have swore was a shortcut, her wallet and scroll disappears.
[X] As she passed an electronics store, she noticed a woman wearing green watching a news report on the White Fang.