Eventually, the little Faunus stopped biting down on Blake and settled back into a general cling. This was only after Ruby had slipped the dirty knit hat back over her quivering ears, though, and it was clear the kid had no intentions of letting go.
More accurately, she had no intentions at all. She simply clung, hazel eyes blank of anything but a deep, instinctual fear that sprang to the front when the others talked too loud or moved too fast in her direction.
"We can't just stop and wait for her to recover," Weiss pointed out. She and Ruby had finished loaded the sled half an hour ago, and very little had been accomplished in the cleaning of the kid. "Other people are counting on us to get help."
"Weiss is right," Ruby put away the handful of tools she'd brought to keep the sled in working order. They'd salvaged ammo and a few useful pieces of sheet metal from the way-station, but that was about all. She and Weiss had managed a poor burial for the Faunus guardian- just a split in the frozen ground a ways off they filled with rocks and stones and marked with parts of broken crate. Ruby looked over to Blake and the little girl curled against her shoulder. She brushed gentle patterns in the dusting of snow beside their packed-down path. "We should go. We can finish getting her fixed up when we make camp tonight."
"Drei's all hooked up and ready!" Yang called from the sled. Drei let loose with an enthusiastic bark, already straining at the ropes in his eagerness to run.
The shout from her partner had Blake blinking back to reality. She'd spaced out a while back, quietly waiting for the little girl in her arms to calm down enough to let go, simply listening to small racing heartbeat pressed against her, wondering what kept it going at such a breakneck pace, slowing only for a few moments here and there. What had happened to her? What had she seen?
Shaking the wandering thoughts from her head, Blake looked to her team leader, having completely missed what she'd said. Though, by the looks of things, it was time to leave this place. It took a bit of effort getting to her feet with the girl holding to her so tightly, but once she managed, she nodded to Ruby, whispering to the little Faunus as she made her way to the sled, "Hang on tight, we're going for a ride."
Traveling by sled dog was tricky work when you'd never done it before. Ruby found herself constantly checking her map, doubling back, coming across cliffs and rock-slides that must not have existed when the James Pointer's map had been drawn.
Drei was big, and had taken to the harness readily enough, but pulling all five people now was way too much, so they took turns (all of them but Blake) running beside the sled as they went. If they hit a particularly good hill, Ruby used Crescent Rose to give them a kick on the way down and that usually carried them a ways, but in general keeping moving was exhausting work.
Partway through the day, the little girl fell asleep in Blake's arms. When they'd made most of their planned miles and the sun had sunken low among the peaks, they picked a sheltered slant of rock near the base of some cliffs and set up camp.
"Okay, so this has been nice and all," Weiss indicated the tiny Faunus snuggled up in Blake's arms, "but the temperature's dropping, and I just want to be clear that she is not sleeping in my sleeping bag."
"I doubt she'll want to sleep with anyone but Blake," Yang chimed in from afar as she finished rolling out the aforementioned sleeping bags.
"Well, I doubt we can fit all three of us in ours," Blake pointed out, scooting just a bit closer to the fire they'd built.
Yang uttered a long, thoughtful hum, giving Blake and the little girl a quick visual appraisal as she moved to stand beside Weiss. "Yeah no way, it was super tight even with just the two of us." At this, Yang threw an arm around the heiress, positively beaming. "Looks like you're gonna have to share with me!"
"What!?" Weiss ducked to get out from under Yang's arm, "No! Absolutely not."
"Ooh, that works out great," Ruby yawned, stretching her arms by the fireside and feeling more worn out than usual, "You and Yang can have watch duty for the night."
"Roger that!" Yang saluted her little sister, spinning around to grasp Weiss's hands. "You hear that princess? Leader's orders," she winked.
Blake smirked at the exchange, sad that she would be missing out on Yang's warmth for the night, but always happy to watch Weiss throw a flustered fit.
While the heiress wrestled with Yang, Ruby nudged Blake with her shoulder, indicating the little sleeping Faunus girl, "I'll get a brush and some food. Need anything?"
Blake shook her head. "I'm fine," she paused for a moment, noting the fatigue shining in those gunmetal eyes. Her brow quirked, matched by a quirk in her lips, "With those two sharing, does that mean you'll be spending the night with us? It'll be close, but I bet we can manage."
"That's good, 'cause otherwise I was going to try to use the ripped one," Ruby gave a sheepish grin. An un-weatherproofed sleeping bag in the mountains of Vale made for a cold, cold night.
"We're not actually sharing," Weiss had managed to get out of Yang's playful hug and was pointing at her from several arms' lengths away, as if it would ward her off, "I'll be on watch, and then you'll be on watch. We'll be using the same bedding at separate times, and I swear if you don't clean the dirt off your clothes and take your filthy boots off before you get in I'll make you wish you'd stayed out in the cold."
"Oh don't worry, I can handle the cold," Yang's grin was ever-widening, "I'll be sure to leave everything nice and warm for you~"
"Yang," Blake took pity on Weiss and waved a hand to get her partner's attention, "Get those eyebrows under control and come warm up some water. This little one needs a bath before she's getting into any sleeping bag."
"Sure sure," the brawler made sure to throw one last parting wink at Weiss on her way to retrieve the pot from the sled and fill it with snow.
Weiss suppressed an infuriated scream as she threw her gear down to get ready for the night's watch duty.
Ruby snickered at the show. From the sled, she scrounged a hairbrush and some of the leftover fish they'd packed after one of Blake's more fruitful fishing endeavors.
She looked up, over the other side of the sled to the peaks high overhead. She could still see the deepening blue of the sky between them and the trees on their slopes. The woods near the cliffs were stunted and snowbound, and thick enough to hide Grimm. But they'd worry about that when they needed to.
For now, Crescent Rose remained a comfortable weight at her back as she crunched back through the snow to Blake and Yang and the little Faunus girl, who was just waking up.
The little girl leaned on Blake, rubbing her eyes.
"Hi," Blake greeted her with a soft smile as she held a hand out to Yang, who supplied her with the piece of torn cloth from earlier, now warm and dampened. The brawler kept her distance this time, holding a pot of melted snow in her lap, expelling just enough heat to keep it at a pleasant temperature. The excess leakage of heat had lured Drei to curl up by her leg - he was already snoozing, tuckered out from the long day's run.
Gently, Blake ran the warm cloth across the little girl's cheek, "Did you sleep okay?"
The little girl ducked from the cloth and held onto Blake's coat, though not as hard as before. She blinked hazel eyes at Yang and Ruby and hid her face shyly in Blake's shoulder.
Ruby grimaced and glanced at Blake, whispering, "Is she biting again?"
Blake glanced at Ruby and shook her head, hoping to keep it that way by keeping the girl distracted. Unable to reach her face, she settled for wiping down what little of the girl's neck wasn't obscured by hair or sooty clothes, "Are you hungry?"
The only response she got was a tightening of the small fists on her coat.
Ruby scooted in close, side-by-side with Blake, one of the tin plates with that leftover fish on it. Belatedly, she realized it was kind of frozen and passed it to Yang.
The brawler snapped her fingers, setting her hand aflame and holding the tin from the bottom, content to simply watch Blake, slightly in awe at her apparently endless patience with children. She definitely would have resorted to tickling and possibly a bit of playful wrestling by now.
As the smell of thawing, cooking fish permeated the air, Blake continued up the girl's neck, dabbing at the smears of soot on one of her human ears. The scrap of cloth was almost blackened already. "Do you have a name? My name is Blake."
The little girl watched Ruby and Yang, and more importantly the food. She made a tiny whining noise and hid her face again.
"I think that was a hungry sound," Ruby grinned, hugging her knees to her chest in an effort to stay small and not startle the little girl.
Having exhausted her list of camp set-up chores, Weiss joined the others at the fire, sulking as she cleaned snow crystals from Myrtenaster's grip in preparation for her sword maintenance routine. "Ruby, shouldn't you be planning tomorrow's route?"
"Yeah, but later," Ruby almost took the plate when Yang offered it back, but felt the heat coming off of it and decided Yang had better just hold it.
Yang took the hint and killed her flames. Setting the pot of water aside for the time being, she scooched closer to Blake and Ruby. Making absolutely sure there wasn't a single bone in the chunk of fish she selected, Yang held her hand out to the little girl, taking a cue from Blake and holding very still. "Heeeeeey, you like fish?"
Ruby watched as the little girl peeked out, her face part dirty part clean. The fear was still there, but she wanted the food so much. So much, there were suddenly tears. The tiny girl hid her face in Blake's shoulder again, whining and crying.
The sight stirred even Weiss to concern.
"Put it on a plate or something so she can eat like a normal human being- Faunus," she corrected herself with a defensive glance at Blake that would have been a lot fiercer if she hadn't gotten her glove caught in Myrtenaster's revolving chamber.
"Right - right yeah," Yang shrank back and set the tin plate down atop of small pile of snow just long enough to cool the flame-touched metal to a reasonable temperature. "Here," she handed it back, boneless piece and all.
Blake traded the blackened cloth for the plate, flashing a smile of thanks to both Weiss and Yang. She then pressed her face to the top of the little girl's head, speaking softly as she could feel through the knitted hat that she was right between her Faunus ears, "It's okay, no one is going to hurt you."
Ruby got up and moved to perch next to Weiss on the rock by the fire so the little girl would have some more space.
A handful of seconds passed, and then a handful of minutes. The little girl sniffled against Blake's coat and didn't seem to be able to unwind her hands from the thick fabric or do anything else besides stay curled up and scared in her lap.
Ears flat with worry, Blake bit her lip, trying to think of anything that might help this little girl relax before she stressed herself into starvation. Soft words weren't working, hugs, nuzzles, not even purring. She was at a loss. Until she looked to Weiss. A desperate idea formed in Blake's mind, but at this point she was willing to try anything.
"Weiss..." she hesitated for a moment, but steeled herself once more with a glance down at the teary-eyed little girl pressed into her shoulder, "Do you think... you could sing something? It might help her calm down."
"What?" Weiss looked up from her weapon, frowning, "Why me? She likes you. You can sing."
"I don't know if you'd want to hear that," Blake dodged Weiss's eyes, cursing her backfired request, "And it seems to be you three she's afraid of... She needs to know you're not a threat and... and anyway I don't really know any songs."
Yang raised her hand, looking between Weiss and Blake. "I am one hundred percent on board with either of these options."
"You don't know any songs?" Ruby fumbled her pencil, dropping it in the snow. She'd gotten the map out to look at where they were headed and to see if there were any settlements on the way. There were, but they wouldn't be close for a couple of days. If the settlements still existed. She fished the pencil back out, silver eyes on Blake, "Not even like, row, row, row your boat?"
"Oh that's a great song to sing someone who's just seen her entire family get brutally murdered by Grimm," Weiss leaned to add another branch to the fire and noticed Ruby gaping at her, but she had no intention of taking the scathing comment back. "Don't make that face at me. Besides, she's most scared of Yang. If we're trying to make her less terrified by singing, Yang should go first."
Yang looked crushed at the thought of being scary to a little kid, but it was soon swept away by a look of cautious determination. "Well, there is a song I used to sing to Ruby when she was little," one she had learned from Summer. "I guess I could..." Yang hesitated, looking to her little sister.
"We could both sing it," Ruby suggested over the beaten up map. She'd been little, but she still knew the song by heart.
"Okay. Okay yeah!" Yang brightened up, posture straightening, "So, we learned this from mom and uh, I guess, do I just... go for it?"
"Just start," Blake urged, curiosity driving her to impatience. She hadn't even thought to ask Yang to sing, even though in retrospect it now seemed painfully obvious.
"Right," Yang nodded, took a deep breath, and did just that.
"They see you as small and helpless. They see you as just a child. Surprise when they find out that a warrior will soon run wild..."
The melody was slow, haunting in a way that Blake wasn't quite expecting, but somehow, when Ruby joined in, the sisters managed to bring a distinct warmth to an otherwise dark set of lyrics. Honestly, welcome to a world of bloody revolution? Is this what Huntress mothers sang to their children?
Subconsciously, Blake hugged the little girl a bit closer.
"... this explains a lot about your dispositions," Weiss looked between the sisters, eyebrows raised as they finished.
"You're not allowed to complain if you don't sing," Ruby crossed her arms, lifting her chin in a Weiss-ish manner, still feeling warm and happy from doing a duet with her big sis. Then, remembering the little girl, "How is she? Does she want to eat yet?"
The little Faunus nuzzled into Blake's shoulder with a tiny sigh, not paying attention to the food, but also not shivering in terror.
"I... I think it's working," Blake nuzzled right back, gratefulness shining in her smile.
Yang was practically giddy with pride. "C'mon Weiss," she nudged the heiress's foot, "you heard her, it's working. Keep it going, miss world renowned vocalist."
"Pleeeeeeeease?" Ruby leaned into Weiss's shoulder.
"Oh, fine," Weiss huffed, replacing Myrtenaster at her hip as she rose from her seat beside Ruby, "Don't expect anything concert worthy-I haven't sung in a long time."
"Um, we can all hear when you sing in the shower back at Beacon," Ruby pointed out.
Weiss glared at her, flushing red enough for Ruby to tell even by firelight.
"Anyway," she crossed her arms. "I didn't really specialize in upbeat songs, but I do know some lullabies, if you think that would help."
"That sounds pretty much perfect, now quit stallin' and sing already," Yang leaned her head in her hands, beaming an expectant smile up at the heiress.
Blake offered her own nod of encouragement, excited to hear one of Weiss's songs without a bathroom door muffling the sound.
Ruby fidgeted with her gloves while the distinctly ruffled Weiss took a seat near Blake.
The heiress cleared her throat and shifted so she was facing the campfire. With a quick sideways glance to the little girl snuggled up to Blake's shoulder, she took a deep breath and began to sing, "Long ago, before we met, I dreamed about you. The peace you'd bring. The songs we'd sing. The way you'd make things new..."
A frozen mountain breeze tugged at the edges of Ruby's cloak, but she didn't pay it any mind as she listened to Weiss. The higher notes seemed to come effortlessly for her, and the lullaby hung like a crystal in the night air. Ruby felt like if she closed her eyes and leaned a little closer, she might be able to catch it and hold onto it, right next to her chest.
"I will cling, I will clutch," Weiss sang softly to the fire, "I'll hold onto you, I won't turn away. I won't leave, I won't go, I will stay with you all our days."
Silence blanketed the small camp as Weiss's final note drifted with the campfire's embers up into the stars. It was peaceful, a silence Blake didn't particularly feel like breaking.
Yang on the other hand... "Dang, Weiss. What do we have to do to get you to sing more often?"
Though Blake's eyes had drifted shut about halfway through the lullaby's second verse, she could still recognize her partner's voice, even softened in awe as it was.
Weiss shot her a glare, then, softening, she shrugged, "Let's just make it back to Beacon."
Ruby shook her head to tear her gaze away from Weiss and look over to the little Faunus girl. She was still a tiny, dirt-encrusted mess, too frightened to speak or eat, but at least she seemed to be asleep in Blake's arms.
Maybe… even if things went badly at James Point, maybe they could at least help this one girl.
A/N: OK but, I would also like Weiss to sing me a lullaby when I'm stressed... please? Pretty please?
Until next time ;3
HUGS,
D