White-gold sunlight spilled into the hold as the cargo bay door whirred open. The gears locked, dropping the steel ramp the last few feet down. It landed with a low clunk against the blackened weather-worn landing pad, revealing a small group of townsfolk already waiting to board. Powerfully built men and women sporting light parkas in a veritable rainbow of colors filed in, offering passing smiles to the four huntresses that were far warmer than the icy draft breezing in from the outside as they began working on unclasping the cargo and hefting it away.
Always up for a bit of physical labor, Yang moved forward, just about to offer her aid in moving crates when a smiling elderly woman smaller even than Weiss emerged from behind one of the larger men boarding the vehicle. She came right up to the blonde brawler, clasping both of her hands in a deceptively powerful grip. "Welcome to James Point," she beamed up at Yang, sunlight catching her silvery shock of curly hair as she turned her head to smile at the rest of team RWBY. "You must be the team of huntresses I sent for."
Yang shot a curious glance at the solid hands gripping her own, canvassed with what looked like burn scars, before breaking into a wide grin. "Yes ma'am! Do you know where we can find the town leader?"
Lemon-yellow irises sparkled behind the wrinkles that formed around them as the old woman grinned right back. "You're lookin' at her." She released the startled brawler's hands as she glanced at each of the four huntresses in turn, her calculating gaze lingering for a moment on Weiss before finally settling on Ruby. "And you," she left Yang's side and strode over to the youngest person aboard the entire ship, "must be this team's leader."
"Oh!" Ruby jumped up from helping a guy in a pink coat undo a knot holding some of the cargo down so fast she almost overbalanced. "Um, you got me." she rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly.
Weiss, standing arms-crossed at Ruby's side, cleared her throat.
The younger girl remembered her manners and went into official team-leader-mode, coming alight with excitement as she extended a hand to the tiny director of James Point. "Right, I mean, I'm Ruby Rose, at your service. This is Weiss, and my sister Yang, and Blake. I hear you have some kind of bat problem?"
"That we do, Miss Rose," the old woman's right hand extended out from beneath her cream-colored parka, clasping Ruby's in a firm handshake. "Glad to meet you all. The name's Gale," her eyes scanned the cargo, taking note of the numerous damaged crates. "How was your trip? Chuck has been flying this route for us for decades," she added with a smile and a glance at the cockpit door.
"He plowed the ship straight into a pair of Nevermores," Blake crossed her arms, expression flat.
Gale blinked, then burst into laughter, bright and clear, "That does sound like Chuck, the old goat. Forgive me if he gave you a scare. I'll be sure to switch out a few of his red licorice sticks with black, as punishment."
"Ha ha," Chuck said, stepping low through the doorway and removing his flight gloves. He cupped his large hand on the back of Gale's neck and stooped to place a kiss on the top of her silver hair, "Now get off my ship."
Ruby snickered, enjoying the exchange while her teammates gathered up their belongings. She'd only brought a backpack herself, plus Crescent Rose and her ammo belt, of course. Her partner, however, had a pair of sizable hard-shell suitcases and a duffle bag, all of which were snatched up by an eager young man with red cheeks and a threadbare coat. He was tall, well-proportioned, and not unhandsome. The heiress tossed her snowy hair and allowed him to carry her things while she supervised.
"All right, but only if you come see me about a round of tea and cookies before you head out again. This bucket of bolts you call a ship isn't the only thing you need to keep refueled." Gale lightly patted the old pilot's stomach, throwing him a cheeky wink before turning back to examine the team of huntresses Beacon had sent her.
The quietest of them, Blake, had just shouldered her own small black duffle bag before picking up a matching brown bag and eyeing the distracted blonde brawler standing a few feet away. A small smirk flickered across the girl's features for a split-second, just before she tossed the bag right at the brawler's head, who swatted the incoming threat to the floor, realizing what it was seconds too late. A playful glare that promised retribution flashed behind bright amethyst eyes as the brawler bent down to retrieve her thoroughly smashed bag from the floor.
One silver eyebrow raised in amusement, Gale let her eyes roam next to the girl in white, her gaze lingering for a long while on the family crest she hadn't seen in person in decades painted boldly across the girl's petite back. "Well then," she finally turned back to Ruby, "is your team up for a small hike? This weather is simply too divine to waste stuck in a vehicle."
Sheltered from the wind by the steep mountainsides, the valley stretched out before them, a wide, sun-bright bowl beneath the stark blue of the winter sky. Gold-brown and weedy, pale green grass that had sprung up in the wake of the summer's crops rippled gently in what little breeze reached them. The packed dirt path from the airfield followed the curve of the hills on its way to the village itself.
"Yeah, we're ready," Ruby hefted her bag over her shoulder. Petals scattered the cargo bay floor as she raced to the door, pausing to wait for the town leader. "Hiking is one of our specialties, after all. Right up there with killing monsters," she unslung Crescent Rose, holding her half-way extended in sniper-rifle form, "Are we going to see the bats now?"
"I should hope not," Gale laughed, thoroughly pleased at Ruby's enthusiasm, "I've been doing my best to keep them out of the town proper," she flexed a tiny, scarred arm, eliciting raised eyebrows from Blake and Yang. "But perhaps once you go down and inspect the mines..."
A muffled grunt sounded over the background noise of townsfolk shuffling crates about, coming from the young man struggling to carry three white and apparently very heavy bags at once. "...You can leave your luggage here if you like. We'll have it transported to town along with the cargo."
Blake nodded, dropping her bag at the young man's feet, barely sparing him a thankful glance before heading to stand beside Ruby. Yang followed suit, tossing her bag down beside her partner's with a grin and quick salute to the poor boy they were slowly burying in luggage.
"Don't drop them, jostle them, or stack anything on top of them," Weiss ordered, watching to make sure he didn't knock her suitcases against any of Yang or Blake's bags before she turned to follow the others up the dirt path towards the village.
"So you guys have mines?" Ruby matched her pace to Gale's and looked every which way for signs of caves. It was hard to tell what might be concealed among the tough scrub clinging to the slopes that rose up at the valley's edges. "What do you mine? Dust?"
Weiss, as heiress to Remnant's leading Dust company, scoffed, "Here? The Dust in this area is both scarce and poor in quality. You may as well mine dirt."
"Haha Weiss I bet they mine something just as awesome," Yang tried to counter her teammate's dire lack of social skills with a bit of charm, hoping the elderly town leader's silence wasn't the calm before a storm.
Yellow eyes regarded the Schnee heiress for a long moment before finally returning to the dusty road ahead. "Actually," Gale swept an arm out in front of her, "these mountains contain some of the highest grade iron ore you can find in all of Remnant. Your very weapons are likely forged from it," she added with a wink and smile at Ruby.
That smile vanished as her gaze flickered momentarily back to Weiss, eyes hard as the very steel her town was renowned for. "The Schnee Dust Company has tried to buy us out numerous times, but I sincerely doubt they would treat the surrounding land with as much care," Gale gestured to the wide open fields surrounding the edges of the town, bordered in turn by a storybook sprawling forest of pine.
Blake muttered a quiet noise of agreement before throwing a quick apologetic look to Weiss.
"But," Gale folded her arms behind her back, expression softening, "I must admit, you are the first generation of the Schnee line that I've seen with any interest in a position that entails serving the people, rather than the reverse."
"Excuse me?" Weiss stopped dead on the dirt road, bristling at the backhanded compliment and the insult to her family name. "My grandfather started our company to assist in providing humanity with the means to fight Grimm after the war, not to have some backwater mmgggn mmmfff-!"
Ruby kept her hand clamped over the heiress's mouth as they scuffled. When they broke apart, Ruby had a new bruise on her shin and Weiss's cheek was smudged with grease leftover from the pre-landing once-over the younger girl had given Crescent Rose. Weiss spat repeatedly in the grass off the side of the path, wiping her face while Ruby talked fast, grimacing and making frantic 'later, I promise' motions to her, "Okay, so there's not much Dust here and we're all good guys, keeping people safe. Uh, are we sleeping in town? 'Cause we brought camping stuff if we need it, but it's not really made for snow and I'm not sure if we have cooking gear so we might have to borrow some things..."
Gale held a hand up in a gesture of peace, looking towards the cluster of polished wood and stone structures that made up her town. They were finally nearing the first building - a sizable white warehouse, doors wide open and bustling with activity, but the elder's gaze was focused elsewhere. "You four will be staying at our guest house, right over there," she pointed to a small wooden cottage at the town's edge, "near the amaranth fields." A tiny flicker of humor danced in her eyes. "Even a small 'backwater' town like this would never dream of leaving our esteemed guests to sleep out in the winter cold."
"Aw, it's not that cold."
"Says the walking furnace." Blake shifted nearer to her partner, trying to use the blazing blonde as a human shield against the gentle-but-frigid breeze cutting right through her standard combat outfit. She could have punched herself for thinking shorts would be okay in the mountains - she really should have worn her outfit with pants.
James Point, instead of being laid out along the rim of the valley, rose up with the mountainside. Curved flights of stairs carved directly into the rock led to a second tier of houses whose foundations were nearly level with the roofs of those below. Much of the construction was in stone that matched the color of the nearby boulders and cliffs. Folks called friendly greetings to one another as they lugged packages or sacks of wool- things to refill Chuck's cargo bay on his flight back to Vale, while others cast inquisitive or suspicious glances at the newcomers.
A handful of kids peeked out of windows and around corners, giggling and whispering or chasing around as Team RWBY followed Gale up the street to her town's main hall. A couple of boys, brothers by the way their dark hair and eyes matched, perched in a high window and plucked at Blake's bow as she passed by.
Blake's hands instinctively flew to protect her bow just as a pair of powerful arms yanked the boys from their perch. Yang whisked the kids high in the air, one held in each hand. "Curious little guys, aren't you?" She smiled up at the pair - they couldn't have been much more than 6 or 7 years old. She set them back on the ground with a smile and patted their heads. "Remember, you have to ask a lady's permission before you go poking at them. Huntress's orders."
Weiss hmphed at Yang's display and kept her eyes on their destination.
The town hall was a modest building that seemed to have received the designation simply by being in the right place at the right time. A couple of its shingles had blown off in a recent storm, and the double doors set in its front were in need of a new coat of varnish, but inside it was spacious and warm.
Ruby shuffled her feet on the black mat at the entrance to get the dirt off her boots. She had a million questions. Were they going to look at maps, or talk about how the problem started, or eat dinner, or what? Gale seemed to have a reason for bringing them here first, but if it wasn't to fight Grimm... Ruby rubbed her arm and looked to the tiny woman, all of her questions distilled into a drawn out, "So...?"
"This way," Gale ushered the team into what looked far more like a dining room than a conference room, with a rounded table of solid pine set with cups of tea at each seat and a shallow woven basket filled with small whitish cookies at its center. The floor creaked as she sat in one of the high-backed carved oak chairs and waited for the others to take their own seats before speaking again. "Firstly, thank you all for coming such a long way to lend us a hand." Her eyes fixed on Ruby, "What has Beacon already told you about this mission? I can fill you in on any missing details."
Ruby paused mid-reach, her fingertips inches from the cookie plate. She fell back, clearing her throat, "Well, they got a message from you all that you've been running into Liliac, and since they're kind of new around here-well, er, I guess they're kind of new around everywhere..." she shifted, sitting up a little straighter, "Anyway, you wanted someone to come and check it out."
"The request itself was classified as a 'search and destroy' with a minor research component," Weiss contributed, hands wrapped around the warm cup of tea before her. She otherwise ignored it in favor of bolstering her team leader's explanation. "The first encounter occurred several months ago, but attacks have been increasing in frequency without discernible cause... which seems to be a running theme with Grimm these days."
Ruby recalled the extended missions of Team CFVY and their other classmates. Reports of large packs of Grimm and resurgences of types thought long-extinct had risen in the past few years. But then, they'd been rising for pretty much all of Ruby's decade-and-a-half of life anyway. Unfazed by the harrowing trend, she perked up, "So that's why we're here! To take a look and clear things out if we can. Other than that, we are a little short on details. Did you, um," here she cringed, "Did you say you were mostly seeing the bats down in the mines?"
After the whole Grimm Rats incident, no one on the team was particularly fond of caves or underground tunnels.
"Yes," Gale subtly shifted the cookies closer to Ruby with an encouraging smile, "Our miners were following a particularly rich vein of ore, and came across a series of natural caves that lead upwards. Ever since, the miners have been seeing Liliac on an almost regular basis, in ones or in pairs, in just about every part of the mines. No matter how many I've taken down, there doesn't seem to be an end to their number. And, as you said, the attacks have been growing more frequent - more persistent. They've even started coming out as far as the town now, at night, of course."
A long drawn out sigh escaped pursed lips as Gale finally allowed herself to look wearily at her own hands clasped in front of her, "It was one thing when it was simply a matter of guarding the miners as they worked... But the whole town - I can't be everywhere at once."
"That's what we're here for!" Yang framed her blinding smile with a pair of thumbs-up.
A small smile returned to Gale's face at the familiar burst of enthusiasm from the blonde brawler. She glanced between Yang and Ruby - it was easy to see the family resemblance. "Yes. I was hoping you girls would explore the caves and the mountainside, see if you can find out where exactly these Liliac are coming from. From there, we can figure out a proper course of action."
Ruby helped herself to the cookies with gusto, pausing to swallow as Gale finished speaking. "Um, I guess this might be kind of a dumb question, but I don't know anything about mining, so... why can't you just seal up the caves? Not that living next to a big, Grimm-filled mountain would be fun or anything, but wouldn't that stop the attacks?"
"We certainly sealed up that first opening we found to the natural caves," Gale took a cookie herself and bit it in half, chewing thoughtfully. "But they just keep coming. We have no idea where from. Sealing off the caves as a whole... well, that isn't really an option. Our crops and wool trade are hearty enough to get us through the slow spells we occasionally hit with mining, but that ore really is the heart of our town's economy."
"Oh right," Economies were important. Ruby planted her fist in the palm of her hand, "Okay, so we have mysterious Grimm from a mysterious source in a mysterious mountain. Let's go see what we can find," she pushed away from the table, upsetting her cup of tea so it spilled across the table. "Whoops. Oh. Uh, well, let's go after I clean this up. Do you have some paper towels or something?"
Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger, shaking her head.
It only took a few minutes to clean up the spill, and with the meeting ended, plan of action decided and agreed upon, Gale sent the team on their way, down the town's winding main road to the cottage where their luggage had already been sent. By the time they reached it, the sun was already starting to dip behind the ridges of the surrounding mountains, casting long shadows over the valley. From the outside, the small building's age was apparent - missing shingles, a crack in one of the windows, rickety stairs that led to a weather-worn porch with crooked floorboards. But the inside...
"Uh, is this the same place?" Yang glanced back out the front door at the beaten down porch.
Blake rolled her eyes, smiling at the spotless, brand-new interior. Polished wood flooring and walls enclosed the cozy space, complete with a plush couch in front of a brick fireplace, a small dining area and kitchen towards the back, and stairs that led up to a loft. Blake's smile faded a bit as her mind subconsciously estimated the loft's size. Curious, she broke away from the group to head up the stairs. Yang trailed up after her, finding the Faunus rooted in place and staring.
"Hey Blake, what are you... oh."
Blake's gaze was focused on the beds. Their deep mahogany frames stood out in stark contrast to what looked like white satin sheets, each covered in a mountain of the most colorful assortment of pillows the brawler had ever seen. Yes, Yang had to agree, the beds looked absolutely luxurious. All two of them.
They were twin sized.
Ruby, her hope of immediately setting out to locate the source of the bats thwarted by both Gale and the rest of her team, made a bee-line for the kitchen. She flicked on the overhead lights and started exploring drawers and cabinets, "Hey, they left us a bunch of macaroni and cheese!"
"Oh how wonderful. That completely makes up for the way their protector insulted my entire family line," Weiss scowled at the luggage pile next to the door. Someone had stacked everything on top of her suitcases. Idiots. It was the work of a moment to relocate Ruby, Blake, Yang's bags to the floor, but still.
Speaking of her teammates, the latter pair was being awfully quiet up in the loft. Weiss marched up to see what the problem was.
"What are you two..." she saw the beds. A brief mental calculation ensued, at the end of which she strode in, snatched a pillow, and stalked back down the stairs, announcing, "The couch is mine."
"So I guess we've got to go to that welcome thing tonight, but after that, we're pretty stocked," Ruby emerged from the kitchen with a big cardboard box packed with packages of hot chocolate. The marks on the box indicated that it had come over on the plane with them. To be honest, she would much rather have gotten down to business, but food was nice and you couldn't exactly turn down an invitation from the people hosting you, "Sounds like it'll be a small dinner anyway, what with the Grimm out at night and all, so... uh..."
Weiss was in the middle of collecting her bedroll and duffle bag and setting up camp on the couch.
Ruby shifted the box in her arms and leaned to look up through the railing into the loft, "Guys?"
Yang poked her head over the side, "Hey sis! You down with sharing a bed?"
Blake appeared beside her. "You can also share with me, if you don't want to be deafened by snoring."
"Hey!" Yang crossed her arms, "I do not snore!"
"I've slept directly underneath you for over a year now - you snore."
"So... there's only two beds?" Ruby looked from Blake and her sister to Weiss, who was busy adjusting her bedroll on top of the cushions and who would be all alone down on the first floor if Ruby slept upstairs. The young team leader set her box of hot chocolate packets near the hearth, "That's uh... that's okay. I was thinking I'd maybe sleep down here by the fireplace." A flash of red and rose petals later, she was laying out her sleeping bag caddy-corner to the couch. Ruby gestured to the yawning mouth of the fireplace as she did so, "I mean, it's huge! And hey, remember that fireplace at Uncle Qrow's and how he'd always tell scary stories? Sounds like we kind of already have monsters prowling the night around here, but well. Blake, you probably know some great stories, right?"
"Yeah, the fireplace, that's what you want to be nea-" Yang took an elbow to the face.
Blake rubbed her arm, smiling down at Ruby and Weiss as Yang uttered muffled swears on the ground, "Actually, I do happen to know a handful of frightening tales."
Ruby leaned back on her palms to look up at her teammate, "Like, little kid-level frightening, or adult-level frightening? Because I'll have you know I'm immune to kid-level."
The Faunus paused, looking thoughtful, "I've never been asked to place my stories into levels of fright before," her eyes held a curious glint, "Maybe you could help me rate them."
"Can we talk about how it's almost dark and we're supposed to be going to that welcome dinner?" Weiss broke in, brushing her hair back over her shoulder, "Not that I'm particularly looking forward to it after today, but it could be nice to meet some of the other people we'll be working with."
"Yeah, but mayyyyybe we can leave early and come back here," Ruby smoothed out her sleeping bag a little more at the corners. Her initial excitement had seen her through the introductions with Chuck and Gale, but as the shadows grew she was starting to feel more and more tapped out. "Ooh, we could leave because we have to send a report back to Beacon to let them know we've made it and all. Super important, right?"
"You haven't done that yet?" the heiress turned from pulling a somewhat heavier coat from her duffle beside the couch, "Also, you never apologized for attacking me in the road earlier."
"Oh, uh, yeah, I…" Ruby wilted under her partner's glare and mumbled apologies as she pulled out her scroll and hunched over to the window to get better reception. Weiss joined her at the windowsill to proofread.
Shortly after that, a knock sounded on the door.
Yang was already halfway down the stairs on her way to grab her bag, rubbing her jaw. As the closest to the entrance, she took it upon herself to answer whoever was knocking, swinging the door open with a smile.
A young woman with startled brown eyes stood on the rickety porch, hand still raised to knock. She wore a skirt and blue winter coat and hat, stood a couple of inches shorter than Yang, and was quick to recover herself. "Oh. Um, I'm here to escort you to dinner? If you're ready to go, that is."
"We're ready," Weiss straightened as Ruby hit send and tucked her scroll back into her pocket.
"Right," Ruby ran her hands through her hair a couple of times in an effort to make herself more presentable, but she still just wanted to hide out by the fireplace or shoot Grimm.
"Let me just..." with a devilish grin, Yang grabbed the black and brown duffle bags and tossed them upstairs at Blake, who deftly dodged both flying projectiles, much to the brawler's dismay. The half-smirking Faunus then trailed down the stairs to complete the group, and with everyone present, the team followed their guide out into the receding daylight.
A/N: Awkward social situation ahead. I'm sure there won't be any violence at all. Nope. Not even a little.
Thanks for the reviews!
- Fiercesomest