"-right Sven, hurry! We need to get to Oaken's quick!" A male voice shouted as Weiss felt herself drift. She could barely remember what had happened before she'd lost consciousness, but she could remember the cold. It hadn't gone away, at least not completely. She felt as if it were still biting into her aura and sapping her strength. Even so, she could feel warm blankets wrapped around her as she was bumped up and down on the not-so-comfortable wood that lay beneath another similar fabric. The decidedly unpleasant smell was something she'd never experienced before but it was easy enough to simply drift as her mind slowly reminded her of everything she seemed to have forgotten.
"Weiss…" She turned her eyes to the whisper of her name to see Ruby laying next to her under the same blanket. The scenery was of dense forest that flew by as whatever was pulling them let out a guttural snort.
"Easy boy, we're here!" The man's voice shouted as the sleigh ground to a sudden, jerking halt.
"Woo hoo!" A higher pitched voice sounded from somewhere close.
"Good timing Oaken, we need to get these girls into the sauna to warm up!" The man said as Weiss felt a strong pair of arms scoop her and a fair number of blankets up. She was still so cold she couldn't even fight. "You get the other one."
"Ooh, a little oddly dressed for the mountain, don't ya think?" The higher pitched man said as he came into view holding Ruby with a few blankets draped over her haphazardly.
"Yeah, the one I'm carrying had this strange sword. The other one had some piece of metal that seemed like it does something but I just tossed them in the sled before bringing them up." The first man explained as Weiss felt a wave of heat wash over her.
"Put them on the bench for now. Don't want to hurt them with the sauna right away." The second man said. "I'll go ask my family to prepare some hot coco!"
"Good, you do that. I'll stay here and keep an eye on them." The first man replied. A couple of slapping noises rang out before he sighed and sat down. He started whistling some tune that reminded Weiss of her childhood before her mother had passed.
Slowly, Weiss felt a burning return to her limbs as they started to warm. She was thankful that her aura was fairly useful in dulling the pain while it passed. Any frostbite she'd gotten healed as she allowed her aura to run it's course through her body. After a minute of listening to the man whistle, she was completely fine, if a little cold.
She opened her eyes to find a blond man sitting on the floor, leaning against a shelf of what appeared to be a general store. In his hands were a small piece of wood and a sharp knife that he used to gouge out a pattern as he whistled.
Weiss thought back, but couldn't place his face to anyone she'd ever encountered. He didn't appear to be White Fang either, as he was missing the typical garb that marked the lower ranks. Although the way he simply relaxed, it was almost as if he had no idea he was sitting beside two huntresses.
"Ahem." Weiss cleared her throat to get his attention. He jumped to his feet in surprise. "Where are we?"
"Oh, um… hi." The man responded with an awkward grin that gave Weiss a little hope that they hadn't been kidnapped. "I'm Christoff, I found you freezing on the way back from ice harvesting in the eastern pass. This was the closest place that had heat."
"I see." Weiss looked over to her partner who seemed slightly better as she shivered under the blanket. "Would you give us a minute?"
"S-sure." He almost stumbled as he turned and walked a few isles over and disappeared through another door.
Weiss listened to the door click shut before she got up out of her blanket and started inspecting her partner. Ruby seemed to have had the same damage she'd sustained, but Weiss still worried as she carefully shared her aura with her love. Weiss watched as the color slowly came back to Ruby's cheeks and her eyes fluttered open. Weiss looked down to find Ruby's leg had already been set with a thick piece of wood and some rope, her aura most likely working on healing already. Ruby rested her cheek in Weiss's hand as she continued to provide support as Ruby grit her teeth against the pain of frost bite which her body had most likely ignored due to her broken limb. A minute later, Ruby sighed as she simply relaxed into Weiss.
"Weiss? Are we…" Ruby spoke up in a hush. Her eyes held a sadness but remained strong, as if she'd already accepted her supposed fate.
"No, Ruby. At least, I don't think so." Weiss replied with a slight smile. "I don't think we'd have frostbite or feel anything if we were dead."
"Yoo hoo!" A voice called from where Christoff had disappeared. "I don't mean to be interruptin' ya, but I've got some hot coco for you."
A large man, larger than any Weiss had ever seen before stepped out from around the door. His biceps were easily the width of her shoulders, and he stood easily six and a half feet tall. Even so, he held a look about him that spoke to a kind nature. Weiss couldn't help but nod as he looked at the two sitting on the bench.
"Here you are." He handed both of them a large metal tankard of brown liquid that let off steam even in the warm house. Ruby carefully sipped hers and mumbled a thanks while Weiss chose to carefully blow across her own. The large man was joined by the blond who appeared to be carrying a tray with bread.
"I thought you might be hungry." He shrugged as he set it down on the bench next to Weiss before turning back to the massive man. "I'm going to go put the sled in the barn with Sven. It looked like a blizzard was starting so I'll get the shovels on my way back."
"Good thinking." The large man nodded as he looked down at the girls. "I'm Oaken by the way. Owner of Wandering Oaken's Trading Post and Sauna. You two should warm up in there, yes?"
"I'll pass." Weiss replied as she watched the smaller man leave.
"Weiss? Where's Crescent Rose and Myrtenaster?" Ruby asked suddenly as she jumped, feeling the empty space at her back which had held her precious scythe for every moment it wasn't in use or being cleaned for the past five months.
"Oaken, where are our weapons?" Weiss asked, suddenly feeling defenceless now that Ruby had pointed out their absence.
"Ooh, your sword is in the sled, dear." Oaken responded quickly. "But I don't allow weapons into my shop."
"I need mine." Ruby said urgently, making the large man frown.
"Don't know what you'll be needin' it for, dear-" Oaken responded carefully, obviously hesitant to trust the two girls before him.
"I've never let it out of my sight for more than a minute in the past five months." Ruby replied. "I need my weapon."
"Some would call that an unhealthy attachment." He replied with a raised eyebrow. "But if you really need to, Christoff has it in his sled."
"Where-"
A loud set of howls echoed far too close for comfort, causing both Ruby and Weiss to jump to attention. The blankets hit the floor as they moved to follow where Christoff had gone.
"Best not to go out now dears, the wolves sound close." Oaken said as he followed the girls to the door.
A shout echoed and a group of what sounded like twenty wolves snarled, but the noise kept escalating. Weiss and Ruby went rigid at the noise that was so familiar. Wherever they were, the dark creatures of grimm were obviously attacking. And by the sounds of it, defences were minimal.
"Which direction is the barn?" Ruby asked quickly as she untied the now useless splint from her leg. She donned her hood and stepped out of the door as the large man jumped and grabbed a hatchet that had been hanging on the wall.
"It's that way…" He trailed off as he took in an army of giant black wolves that stood on their hind legs. Their claws were black as night and elongated into deadly points.
Weiss counted at least forty creatures all focused on the barn and the torch that the man named Christoff was waving. In his free hand he brandished a basic hunting knife.
"Weiss, support. Oaken, get back inside. You won't do anything with that toy." Ruby said quickly. "Make me a path and I'll get your rapier."
"Alright." Weiss focused on her semblance even as she felt the strain on her aura as she pulled up a number of glyphs forming a straight lane to where the blond man stood. All the beowolves were blocked from attacking except the one directly in front of the man which had gotten one of it's arms stuck part way through her glyph.
Christoff reacted quickly, sending his knife through the creature's skull. The wolf burst into smoke as it fell back, causing him to step back in surprise as he watched the white haired girl's eyes glow as her hands kept the energy walls up.
Ruby hesitated and whispered one last order to her partner before she departed. "Don't summon anything."
Weiss barely nodded as the girl with the cloak seemed to disappear from the steps beside her and reappear at his side.
"I need my weapon." She said impatiently as another rune like a snowflake appeared at her back and the others that had created the path disappeared.
"Right this way…" He breathed in amazement. He thought Elsa's powers had been strange, but these two seemed even stranger. And if they would brave going out with this many wolves around, he believed they could also be very dangerous. He considered refusing to get the weapons, but he knew if these giant wolves were anything like the normal ice wolves that roved over the mountains, then he'd have difficulty dealing with them when they attacked as a pack. Especially a pack as large as this one. He opened the barn and closed the door once they were both inside, barring it with the thick wood bar that was specifically in place for keeping wolves out. He didn't think it would keep these creatures at bay for long though.
He saw Sven hiding in a dark corner and motioned with the hand that was out of sight to stay where he was. Christoff was greeted with silence, meaning his friend had understood the message as he made his way to the sleigh.
"So I'm guessing this sword is yours?" He asked as he carefully picked it out of the many items he had stored. He kept a strong hold on it as the girl approached him.
"No, mine's the scythe." The hooded girl replied. But nevertheless, she took the weapon from him and took a piece out before nodding and sliding it back in. "This is my partner's."
"Right… this thing?" Christoff asked as he lifted the metal block that looked nothing like a scythe.
"There's my baby!" Ruby smiled as she grabbed it out of his arms with one hand and pulled back a lever he hadn't noticed. A small piece of metal fell out before she pushed it back making a click noise.
Christoff bent down and picked up the piece that looked gold, but was a little off, like a combination of gold and some other metal.
"I'm Ruby by the way." Ruby remembered as she placed Weiss's weapon at her hip. "And I'm going to ask that you stay here."
"What are you going to do?" He asked with concern heavy in his voice.
Ruby hefted the weapon to her shoulder and smirked. "I'm going hunting."
Christoff rushed to the door as the caped girl disappeared in a flurry of rose petals. He looked out to find the wolves in a state of disarray as they focused on the white haired girl standing on the steps of the Trading Post who was sending attacking wolves flying with snowflake-shaped runes. While he'd seen Queen Elsa's magic before, these two girls seemed to have a different sort of magic to them. It was somewhat terrifying to watch the girl with the red cape seemingly disappear from one spot only to show up in another with her body leaping gracefully over the razor claws of a wolf. And the strange runic plates the white-haired girl kept summoning seemed to only be enraging the beasts even more.
Oaken was back inside his shop, watching restlessly from the doorway as he allowed the two girls, who seemed to wield magic like it was second nature to them, handle the abnormal wolves. The one with the cape returned and handed the one summoning snowflake runes the silver sword with the thinnest blade he'd ever seen before disappearing in a flurry of rose petals that fell to the ground. The white haired girl shook her head in defeat as the beasts all turned away from her as she backed up to the building while keeping a rune protecting herself.
A loud echo like the initial bang from the thunder of a nearby stroke of lightning echoed from the middle of the field as the red haired girl flew up into the air. The odd metal block in her hands spat fire as she pulled at the metal latch. The weapon thundered again and again, and the dark wolves fell one by one as their heads exploded and bodies were cut in half. Their bodies burst into smoke which was caught on the wind as it passed, leaving black streaks across the field of snow.
The girl rolled out of the way of one wolf's swipe as she spun her block of metal which transformed into a very deadly version of what Oaken and Christoff both recognized as a farming tool. The girl swung it down and kicked the wolf that had tried to slash her with its claws, sending it flying into another before she landed back next to the handle which she pulled out of the ground as if it were as light as a feather.
Christoff didn't bother to hide his shock in the form of his slacked jaw, instead mesmerized by the girl who killed wolf after wolf with seemingly little effort. They attacked only to be fell by what he assumed was an incredibly sharp blade, and the girl didn't even seem to be putting on a sweat.
Ruby smiled at the mild workout as she took out the countless wolves that seemed to be coming from the shadows of the nearby forest. It didn't take long though, to thin the numbers to a reasonable amount and then gave Weiss the signal to join in to finish them off. She watched as Weiss jumped out into the fight, in a high arc. She landed perfectly on the shoulders of one Beowolf, sinking her rapier through it's skull and rolling off it as it fell to the ground. She came up and gutted another wolf without barely a glance as she blocked the strike of another and cut the offending arm off with a slight smile.
Weiss had enjoyed the initial show Ruby had given her but had been thankful to join in. She didn't know how many wolves there would be, but she hoped they had finished coming out of the forest as Ruby would undoubtedly need to reload her dust cartridges before long. Her weapon was much easier in that regard, since she could just pour the raw dust into the empty chamber. She cut down her last opponent to find Ruby leaning on her scythe as if she'd been there for a while.
"Showoff." Weiss couldn't help but smirk as Ruby's grin fell and she opened her mouth to explain. "Good job, Ruby. Let's see if we can contact the others."
"Alright, you do that, I'm going to make sure these two are okay." Ruby replied with a nod to the rather stunned looking Oaken before she approached the barn where Christoff seemed to be frozen with his mouth hanging open. The man seemed too shocked to speak, so she just pulled his arm and he followed her back across the field of smoking wolves to the trading post.
"You two are really something, ya?" Oaken asked as he pulled Christoff in and sat him on the bench.
"Just doing what we always do." Ruby shrugged. "It's no big deal."
"You two are like sorceresses." Christoff's awed voice spoke up. "With the Queen, you'd think I'd be used to stuff like this by now."
"Please!" Ruby snorted in laughter, drawing the two men's eyes. She realized it would help to provide a little context. "Sorceresses sounds like we're in some sort of fairy tale. We're huntresses, thank you very much."
"Well, you're not like any huntresses I've ever met." Christoff conceded. "And those wolves… what were they?"
"You mean the beowolves?" Ruby asked in confusion. She didn't think anyone didn't know about one of the most common types of grimm. "They're grimm."
"Beowolves? You mean like Beowulf from that famous poem translation that came from England a few years ago?" Christoff asked in confusion, remembering stories from the visiting ships that had stopped for supplies before heading on to some distant war.
"Uh… no?" Ruby asked in confusion. "They're a weaker species of grimm-"
"Those were weak?" Christoff asked in shock.
"Now, now, let's all take a break, ya?" Oaken spoke as he patted the other man on the back. "What is this grimm you speak of?"
"Well…" Ruby honestly didn't think anyone was ignorant enough to know nothing about grimm, seeing as it was one of the largest plagues on Remnant. So she thought back to the lessons she'd had in signal when she was first starting her training to become a huntress. "Grimm are creatures of darkness. Not much is known about them, other than they are attracted to negative feelings. Fear, hate, anger, all that kind of stuff. When those emotions are concentrated in an area, it tends to attract them, and the ones you saw outside were weaker than most of the creatures that exist. Actually, there's only really a couple you could argue are weaker."
The door opened and Weiss walked in again, interrupting the explanation. "There's no signal from any of them, and I don't know where we are. With the CCT network down, I can't do anything else. I couldn't find any of the landmarks around here on our maps either. Last I know, we were nowhere near a forest or a mountain."
"I have a map here." Oaken waved her over, leading her to the trading post counter. Ruby remained with a still shocked Christoff, wondering exactly what was going on.
"So… um… where did these things come from?" Christoff asked, worried about what would happen if he hadn't been at the trading post when the wolves had attacked. And what would have happened if the girls hadn't been there to defend it.
"They've always been here." Ruby replied with a cock of her head as a possibility occurred to her. She shook it off as being preposterous, but everything seemed to add up to the idea that they weren't on Remnant anymore. At least, not the remnant she knew.
"I've been all over these mountains for the last twenty years of my life, and not once have I seen something like that." Christoff pulled his hat firmly over his ears as he stood up straighter and started to walk to the door.
"Where are you going?" Ruby asked, confident that if the man ran into any grimm, he was almost certain to die.
"I need to see my family. They'll know more about this." He replied.
"Ruby? I need you to see this." Weiss called uneasily from next to Oaken as the two pored over a large piece of paper which Ruby assumed was a map.
"Hold on." Ruby told Christoff before approaching her partner. She looked down to a crudely drawn map of the area. But what caught her attention was the equally crude map of the continents that occupied a corner of the large map. "That's not Remnant."
"No, it isn't." Weiss agreed. "What do you think this means?"
"I don't know Weiss, but Christoff said his family might know more about where the grimm came from, because they apparently haven't been here for a long time. Maybe they can help us too?" Ruby asked, talking loud enough so Christoff could hear where he waited by the door.
"I don't know if that's a good idea." Christoff replied hesitantly as he sized the two girls up. After a moment of silent deliberation, he sighed. "But you did save us, so I owe you. Come on."