Authors Note: So I feel that I should clear up a few things that are going on in my story. First off the event in my story differ from cannon a little bit. What I can tell you now is that the battle at the dust shop happened first with ruby getting invited to join beacon academy... in six months time when the new semester starts. This doesn't change who is going to be attending that semester, merely it gives me time to have happen what i need to have happen in those six months for my story to develop. As for the thing that I can't tell you yet because it would ruin future plot point, well all i can say is regardless of were cannon RWBY takes it I have my own plans and view on the Grimm. Also not gonna lie i have a habit of starting stories and then just stopping them. that being said i have a month off of work with nothing to really do and i feel like i need something more to do in my life so i should be more dedicated to this story. Also expect delays when new video games comes out or destiny drops new map packs, but seriously, did you guys see the trailer for new destiny dlc. A-maze-ing!
Chapter 1: Healing Time
The first thing to come back to me was the memory of a Beowolf biting into my side and breaking my leg. The next thing to come back to me was pain... lots and lots of pain.
"OW". Also I needed to add dry mouth to my list of problems.
Opening my silver eyes to take in my surroundings I noticed that instead of a field stain with Beowolves and my own blood I was inside of a large cave with a big fire blazing in the middle of it. The cave was pretty big in the fact that the fire was just barely managing to light up the entirety of the cave. From what I could make out their was a small pool at the back end of it that looks like it was filled by a small stream of water that cut through the cave with the overflow of water leaving the pool through a small trench that lead to a hole in the side of the cave.
Bringing my attention to my more immediate surroundings I saw that instead of hard cave floor the whole bottom of the cave was cover in a thick layer of soft dirt, and on top of that was a ton of leaves. Looking at what I was laying on showed that there were tons of animal hides laid out around and on top of me. All of them were made out of some kind of thick black fur that was really warm.
Remembering what had happened right before I woke up here I rushed to check my leg and side to see what the damage was from the Beowolf. I took note that my leg was set in a splint and seemed to be bandaged with some kind of salve added to the bandages. The same could be said of the bite to my side, which was similarly wrapped and salved.
Taking all this in I came to the conclusion that whatever brought me here was human and lived here and didn't mean my any harm, at least it didn't yet. Still feeling weak and tired from everything and deciding that if whoever was watching me took the time to bandage me up they weren't an immediate threat, not that I could do to much if they were, I figured getting some more sleep wouldn't be a bad idea. Hopefully when I woke back up I could ask some questions to whoever saved me... and get some food.
Taking a break from hunting I took a moment to look up at the night sky and roughly guessed that it had been three hours since I left the cave to get food. Seeing as how it was winter the choices were small. Most of the plant that had berries were dead this time of season and a lot of the smaller animals were hibernating for the winter. Well it was a good thing that their was a ton of Grimm running in this forest, granted most of them tended to stay away from me, but that doesn't mean I couldn't track a few down. The two dead Grimm I was currently carrying were a testament to that.
Thinking that two was enough for now and that I should be their for little red in case she wakes up and freaks out I decide to double time it back to the cave and get started on prepare the food.
Making it to the cave in five minutes I decided to prepare the Beowolves outside to avoid making a mess in the cave and making it smell to bad. After A small bit of preparation I had ten nice trips of meat all ready to be cooked, along with two new pelts to add to my collection of furs. Say what you want about Beowolves but they have some of the most comfortable pelts out their if you manage to make them just right.
Peeking in on little red to see if she was still asleep, I saw that she hadn't moved from her spot on all of the furs. If she didn't wake under her own power by the time the meat was done cooking I'd wake her up myself. Too much sleep could be just as harmful as to little sleep, plus she had to be hungry by now and hot fresh meat always trumped cold any day.
Setting the meat over the fire to cook I decided to take another look at the bandaging around red and make sure that everything was in order. While going over her bandages I mused on how lucky she was that even with the seriousness of her injuries nothing got any more complicated beyond what you could plainly see. None of her wounds got infected, she didn't start to catch any type of fever or sickness, and to top it all off her break was just a plain straight break. Given the circumstances and what attacked her I'd say that she got off quite lucky indeed.
Deciding that nothing more could really be done at the moment, I sat back down by the fire to tend to our meal that was steadily getting closer to the perfect cooked point. All that could be done now was play the waiting game and see if I could find out what one little girl was doing way out in the middle of nowhere taking on Beowolves in the middle of winter, and if possible find out the name of my little red guest.
Something was trying to drag me back to the land of the conscious, and despite my best efforts whatever it was was stronger then my feeble attempts to stay in the land of dreams. With great reluctance I slowly shook off the last dregs of sleep, and opened my eyes to see what it was that was trying to rouse me.
The first thing to register in my mind was the fire and more importantly the thing on the fire that I know was the thing trying to wake me. Delicious slow cooked and succulent looking meat was hanging over top of the fire on some kind of homemade spit. These thoughts and smells quickly rallied my stomach to its side, my stomach making itself known with an earth shattering roar demanding it be sated by the delicious morsels in front of it.
The second thing (and it probably should have been the first thing) was the man tending to the slowly cooking meal.
He wasn't very tall by my guess, maybe a head taller then me tops. The second thing about him was his hair was a beautiful shade of black, that came down to his should blades. It didn't really seem to have any kind of style to it, seeming to just go wherever it pleased. The only other thing of note that he was dressed mostly in black. His pants looked like some kind of combat style, while his top was a simple loose fitting plain black shirt.
He currently had his back to me, and it stood to reason that he was the one that had dragged me away from all the Beowolves and bandaged me up. Wanting to speak up to thank him for saving me and to get a look at his face, he beat me to the punch by speaking first.
"Ah, it seems that my house guest had finally awoken. It seems you have good timing as the meat is just about cooked and I was getting ready to wake you myself. Careful when moving by the way, I had to stitch your whole side shut after that Beowolf got hold of it. Good thing I was passing by the area, another hour or two and you could have bleed out."
I let that statement wash over me a few times to let it really sink in. If this man hadn't been nearby I could have died, all from one surprise attack from a Grimm. I never would have been able to become a huntress, and... My family! They would have most likely never found me out here. Yang and my father would have been devastated by the news. I feel my gratitude for the stranger in front of me skyrocket as it sets in how much I owe him.
"Thank you very much sir. I don't know how I can thank you for what you've done for me but from the bottom of my heart thank you. My name is Ruby by the way, Ruby Rose. And your name would be..."
Ruby rose uh, that goes really well with her clothes. My early name of little red might not have been as far off from the mark as I thought.
Turning to face her as the meat is mostly done cooking, I give her my name in turn.
"Nice to meet you Ruby, as for me you can call me Shadow Fang. Also it was no big deal. I saw someone who needed help and I had the means to help them, so I did. If you don't mind me asking though, what exactly were you doing taking on a pack of Beowolves by yourself, in the middle of winter with no supplies no less?"
Shadow Fang, that sounds more like a title then a name. Also he looks quite nice.
It turned out that his hair wasn't as long in the front as it was in the back. It stilled had that untamed look to it but it didn't go much farther then to cover his ears and give him some bangs that sat just out of his eye level. Which brought my gaze to his eyes, and what eyes they were. They didn't have a normal pupil but instead seemed to shift from a normal pupil to slitted, like they couldn't decide on were they wanted to stay. The color of the eyes was this amazing shade of blue that seemed to have a subtle mix of gray to them.
"I had supplies. I just had to drop them when I started to fight the..."
It was at that moment that I realized that the one thing that I valued most in my life was not with me.
"AHH! Crescent Rose! I have to go back out their and get it!"
Right before I can rush outside to frantically begin my search for my favorite, and only weapon, I'm stopped in my tracks by a surprisingly strong hand keeping me pinned to the ground.
"If your talking about that huge scythe thing that you were wielding, then you can relax. I brought it with me when I picked you up. Didn't want to leave something like that just lying around out their. That and the way you handled it spoke of years of practice."
Feeling much calmer then I was a second ago I lay back down on the furs that I was on and try to calm my heart.
"Once again thank you. It seems like your like my guardian angle or something. So now I need to thank you twice, once for saving me and once for saving my weapon."
"Think nothing of it. I know from experience that warriors have a certain type of bond with their weapon and that to just leave it behind, forgotten it quite a tragedy."
Unbidden memories come to mind of a certain blade, forsaken and alone. Shaking off the past a smile at my guest and repeat the previous question to her about why she was in the woods.
GROWL!
We both took a moment to look at our stomach seeing as how both of our bellies decided to make their demands known at the same time. Laughing at the timing of our stomachs I ask her to regal me with her story as we feed on the meat which is now fully cooked and cooled off.
And what a story it was. Apparently she had single-handedly stopped a shop from being robbed in the city. If this weren't enough then the headmaster of the school that she wanted to attend offered her a spot in said school, with the only stipulation being that it was when the next semester started in six months. Following this she asked me what I was doing in an area like this and how I came to find her.
"The first one is easy as I choose to live out here. The second one is a little more complicated as it involves me sensing that there was a large build up of Grimm in the area. Figuring if it got any bigger that problems might start to occur I went to go see what it was all about. I got their just as you started to fight them. You put on quite a show you know. It is a rare treat to see someone so young to fight with such grace and dedication, which given your dream you must have been working on for quite a while."
Feeling my face and ears burn red at the praise of the person who saved me, I wonder what he meant be sensing Grimm. I knew that I need to ask at least one more question before I drifted back off in sleep land, which was slowly entrapping me in its net.
"Not that I'm not ungrateful for what you did for me, or for putting me up in your cave, but how long will it be before I can travel back to my house?"
Knowing that this was important to her and me both, I decided to tell her the truth of the matter, or at least as much of it as I could without messing my secret up.
"Well the thing is with it being winter getting to town is quite difficult. Also the fact is you need to let that leg and side heal or the Grimm will be all over you thinking your an easy meal. Because of all this it will probably be a month before you can start to head to the nearest town."
"A month? Will it really need to take that long? Isn't their anyway you could help me to the next town? My family will start to worry about me if I don't check in with them."
"I really am sorry About this Ruby but I'm actually kind of hated in that town and I try not to aggravate them by forcing me presence on them any more then I need to. If your just worried about your family I do have a bird that I use to send messages to the town that then send them to the post office for me. If you want I'd be more then happy to take any message you write to the bird and have the post office send it to your family so you can easy their worry."
I was hoping she would buy this because my other options weren't looking to great at the moment and she really was a fine person. I just couldn't have people coming to my location, heck having her here was already a bad idea.
"I guess that wouldn't be to bad. I do have to let this heal, and I don't want to make it worse then it already is. As long as I can send a message to my family then this should work out fine for me. I do have two condition that I must have meet no matter what."
"That's great. As long as the request ins't outrageous I should be able to make it happen. What is it that you need?"
"The first condition is you totally have to get me one of these fur before I leave! Its the comfiest thing I've ever held!
Sweat-dropping A little at the somewhat childish first demand I ask her what her second demand was.
"Seeing as how I can't train for a whole month could you possibly teach me that Grimm sensing thing you were talking about?"
I think long and hard about what it is she is actually asking me to teach her. Once I truly wrap my head around it I can't help but to let out a long and loud laugh.
"Hey whats so funny? I'm a good learner you know."
"Its not.. ha ha... that. It's just its been so long since I taught anything, and the thing that you want to learn is nigh impossible to learn."
"Well I really don't have much else that I can be doing with a broken leg and all. So come on whats the harm in letting me at least try."
Thinking on it I guess that there really is no harm in letting her try to learn the technique. She would most likely just get bored after a hour or two and call it quits. she didn't really strike me as the patient and quite type anyway.
What if she does learn it though?
Pushing the small troubling thought aside I figure that it will give her something to do to keep herself occupied.
"Alright. If you really want to I can try to teach you this technique. Why do you want to learn something like that anyway?"
"So what happened to me doesn't happen again." she said, gesturing to her leg and side were the bandages are clearly visible.
Wincing at the remark, realizing why she wants to learn this technique, I try to think of something I can say to apologize for laughing early.
"I'm sorry about laughing at you then. I should have realized that you had a perfectly good reason for wanting to learn this. I'll try my best to teach you this, just don't be disappointed if you can't learn it. I wasn't kidding when I said it was really hard to learn."
Seeing her spirits lift slightly at my apology and promise to teach her she smiles at me, which morphs into a yawn a second latter.
"Well I think that's enough for one night don't you. I think some sleep will do us both some good. It was a pleasure talking to you Ruby but I think the sandman has our number."
"Alright then I guess I do need to catch some sleep. I'll send that letter in the morning if its all right with you?"
Nodding my consent I move over to my own fur which lays on the ground preparing to catch some sleep of my own, but right before I do I hear one more thing drift over to me from the other side of the cave.
"Thank you Shadow Fang, for everything."
I can hear so much in that tiny little sentence and it makes me feel something that I haven't felt in a long long time, happiness.
"I told you, it was no problem. Talk in the morning. Night."
"Goodnight."
And their you have it folks chapter two. i have to say three reviews for just the first chapter, with it being only 700 and some odd words long. Must say that I was some kind of impressed with that. I myself don't read stories until they get to the 10k word mark. so thank you for those who reviewed. I currently have no beta so it all comes to you with what little grammer knowledge my poor brain held on to from school. (which isn't much, thank you internet!) I hope everything is to your guys liking. Anything that jumps out at ya as wrong or i'm missing something let me know. Gotta say I like were this is going though.
