"What an interesting character," Weiss noted as she and Ruby walked out of Tree's earshot.
Ruby gave no response, too deep in her own thoughts to even hear her partner.
I suppose it was a lot to take in, thought Weiss. After all, she's still young. It could take her some time to come to terms with with our circumstance.
The pair continued their trek towards the desert in quiet, Weiss considering herself quite gracious for it.
"Do you think Tree is a he or a she?" Ruby asked suddenly.
Weiss gave her a dumb stare. "That's what you've been thinking about? This whole time?"
"Well, yeah," responded the younger girl. "I mean, if we're going to be talking about him - err, it? - in the future, I want to know how to refer to… it. See? Like right there. It's so confusing!"
Weiss blinked once, before straightening herself. "Well, technically, many trees are both male and female. It looked to me like a giant oak, which would be one of those many…"
Ruby made a face. "Ew. That doesn't help at all, Weiss. I'm going with he."
"I'm… glad we have that settled," her partner replied, inwardly sighing at the fact that that conversation had just happened.
Ruby gave a cheeky grin. "Anyways, he said that this place was made after the First Great War. I don't remember anything like that from our history classes; all we talked about was the origin story, the war between Humans and the Faunus, and the ongoing war with the Grimm. Where does this "Great War" fit in?"
Weiss smiled at the question, but then frowned when she realized she didn't know the answer either. "I'm not sure. It may have some connection to the origin story, but that has always been very vague. Essentially all we were told was that the world was an unforgiving place, seeking to wipe us out, but that doesn't explain who we were fighting against. It's possible that there were other races here before us which sought to eliminate the competition, but I feel like there would be remnants of those civilizations…"
"Maybe it's literal," Ruby interrupted.
"What do you mean?"
"Maybe it was literally the world that was trying to kill us off."
"That is literally the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
"Hey, that's not nice," Ruby said, offended. "At least let me explain myself."
"I'm all ears," replied her partner sardonically.
"Alright then, here we go. So Tree mentioned a Beast that roamed the woods, and it wasn't Grimm. We don't have anything like that back home, and we also know this place is where we sent our enemies when we won, so that beast was likely one of those unkillable enemies. Imagine it, Weiss: animals as big and fierce as Grimm, but so much more dangerous!"
"Why would they be any more dangerous than the manifestations of darkness and evil?" Weiss challenged.
"Because animals have souls, Weiss! They could potentially use their auras in battle!"
Weiss was momentarily stunned. "That… actually makes a lot of sense."
"Right, so these animals were here before us and wanted us out. Tree also mentioned Wind, as if it were a person or something - but I bet it's exactly what it sounds like. Wind as a force of nature, bent to destroying mankind, would be super scary. Windstorms are pretty rare, but they're some of the most deadly things when they do happen at a bad time; imagine a storm that would actively seek people out and try to kill them."
"Okay, that's pushing it a little bit," Weiss said, waving her hands about in front of herself. "I can see animals being banished to another world, but wind isn't even a physical object. It's an idea, an action, something that happens - how do you just get rid of that?"
"Well, I don't know! Maybe you should try coming up with something instead of just shooting all of my theories down?"
The older girl sighed. "You're right, Ruby. It's a good theory, and it works pretty well with what we know. It's better than anything I could come up with."
Ruby beamed. "It's okay, Weiss! We'll be there pretty soon anyway, and probably run into some guy in the desert named Wind who'll try to kill us. Or something. I was just trying out an idea."
"Thanks," her partner smiled. "I suppose there's no harm in making guesses."
About two hours later, the yellow-gold sands of the desert came into view.
"We're here," said Weiss.
Ruby looked at her with disappointment. "Really, Weiss? Can't muster up a bit more excitement for the first change of scenery in ages?" She shook her head at her partner, and then took a deep breath. Weiss placed her hands over her ears and closed her eyes.
"OOOOHH YEAH! WE'RE HERE!" Ruby howled, making a mad dash for the sand.
Weiss' jaw unclenched and she let out a sigh. "Here we go again," she muttered to herself.
When she caught up with her hyperactive partner, she found the girl dancing happily, barefoot, in the sand.
Ruby relished the feeling of the grains between her toes. Visits to the beach had been a frequent event in her childhood, thanks to her sister, but it had been far too long since she'd felt the sand under her feet and the sun on her skin. She found herself wishing she had brought her swimsuit, despite the fact that there was no water to be seen. Ruby yelped, suddenly, as something sharp pierced her skin. The teen promptly fell over backwards and pulled her foot in close to her face. She found a fragment of rock lodged uncomfortably deep into it, the cause of her pain.
Weiss cringed as she watched the younger girl delicately pulled the offending shard out. Ruby bit her lower lip to avoid any further noises of pain.
Ruby looked up at Weiss and attempted a smile. "I guess I should put my shoes back on, huh?"
Her partner ground her teeth, deciding not to dignify that question with a response, as Ruby stood and donned her shoes.
A sudden gust of wind knocked both girls over. As the wind rushed past them, words seemed to enter the girls' heads unbidden.
You do not belong in this place, fleshlings.
The duo looked at each other. Ruby blinked. "Are you Wind?" she shouted out into the desert.
A more gentle breeze flowed by. I am flattered that you know of me. The breeze abruptly became a hundred times forceful, knocking the girls down once more as they stood up. Now leave.
"We need to pass through your desert to make our way home," Weiss called out. "If you allow us passage, we will be sure to keep our time here as brief as possible."
The desert was quiet for several seconds, before another light breeze blew past. Let me tell you a story. When your kind trapped me here, centuries ago, this place was not a desert; it was a mountain. They were taunting me - leaving me with something that I could have no sway over. They grossly underestimated my strength.
As the tale continued, the force of the wind was steadily growing.
I have destroyed this monument to their egos, as I laid waste to their cities and their soldiers in the war. Do you understand? You are nothing to me! You are even more pathetic than they - and I will not suffer your WEAKNESS in MY DOMAIN!
In conjunction with this ultimatum, the wind became a howling gale, drawing up sand with such violence that the girls could feel tiny cuts all over their skin as they scrambled back into the safety of the forest.
They sat panting on the grass, completely caught off guard by the ferocity of the assault.
"So… it looks… like I… was right," Ruby wheezed. "We should probably… have listened to Tree."
Weiss nodded her agreement, still breathing heavily. A couple minutes and some deep breaths later, she finally spoke. "How are we going to get past that?"
"Well, I don't think it'll listen to anything we have to say," said Ruby. "He doesn't seem to like us much."
"He doesn't seem like he'd be very friendly to anyone."
Ruby had to stop herself from making a quip regarding her partner's similar frostiness when they had first met. Instead, she sat back against a tree to brainstorm ideas.
"Okay, Weiss," she said, a few minutes later. "I have a plan, and you're not going to like it."
A/N: The idea that large animals do not exist in the world of RWBY comes solely from the fact that we haven't seen any, yet. It is entirely possible that this entire premise will be destroyed in volume 2 or just by something Monty says, but that's not stopping me from writing this - if something like that happens, this story will just became somewhat AU. That wouldn't bother me terribly.
Review, please! I didn't run this chapter through my beta reader, SilentVex, so there might be some errors in need of pointing out.