Chapter Two: Into The Woods.
The world was still dark as Ruby rose from her sleep. After the opening ceremony she and Yang had followed the other students into a large banquet hall where they would sleep before initiation. Opting to stay out of the crowd they had chosen a small corner to sleep allowing Ruby to finally stretch out and let her tail and ears relax. Yang had kept watch giving small alerts if anyone ventured over or started to look their way.
Unzipping her sleeping bag Ruby tucked her tail against her once again and made sure the stocking cap she slept in was still secure the wolf made her way to the girls bathroom to get ready for the day. A quick flick of an ear let her know she was the only one currently in the room. Claiming a stall on the far end of the shower area Ruby once again let her tail and ears stand. Placing her fresh clothes on the hooks Ruby let a small groan fall from her lips, she had left her shirt back at her sleeping bag.
Grabbing her scroll she opened the conversation with Yang, 'Forgot my shirt, far stall.'
'K' was all she received back. With a chuckle Ruby removed her clothes knowing the blonde had probably flopped back down in her sleeping bag and passed back out after sending her message. She would be there before the end of her shower so that's all Ruby cared about.
Pulling off her long sleeved black shirt Ruby jumped into the water letting it wake her up fully. She felt the liquid run down her shoulders and down her back waking her fully from the lasts bits of sleep that clung to her.
Letting the water run through her hair Ruby scrubbed the shampoo into her locks keeping clear of her ears with the soap until she had thinned it out a bit, direct contact with the soap irritated the insides and made her feel off balance. Washing her tail with the same shampoo, Ruby started to scrub her body clean.
"Rubes?" Yang called out.
"Here Yang." She replied.
"Sleep well?" Yang questioned as she placed Ruby's shirt in her stall before claiming the one next to the wolf.
Better than some of the other places I've slept, Ruby thought. "Yeah I was good, how about you?"
"Like a log, could have used a better curiously call from the front desk though." Yang laughed making the red head roll her eyes.
"Right well I'll see you at breakfast." Ruby called shutting off her shower and dried herself. Flattening her ears and tossing her hair over them she tucked her tail against her body and dressed in her usual combat gear.
"Okay." Yang called back. Ruby sighed knowing she wouldn't see her sister for at least another twenty minutes with her hair.
Walking back into the banquet hall a few of students were beginning to stir. Replacing her clothes Ruby glanced about, the boy she had bumped into yesterday moved groggily about dragging his shower bag in his hunched over form, Blake was nowhere to been seen leaving Ruby to suspect that the panther was already moving about the campus.
Following her nose the wolf found her way to a large cafeteria. The smells of cooking bacon, sausages, eggs and coffee filled the air as she made her way into the short line that had already started to form. Piling her plate full of the high protein food Ruby found herself at a secluded table away from people. "So much for breaking out of my shell." She muttered biting into her food. "Easy for Yang to say seeing as it's not her nature. 'Oh Ruby you'll be able to make so many new friend.'"
As the wolf muttered to herself she failed to notice the blonde approach her. "Ruby?" Yang asked making her choke; quickly she began to pat her sister on the back roughly trying to dislodge the obstruction. "Forget to chew there pup?"
Ruby growled when she finally was able to suck down a lung full of air, "No I did not forget to chew I was just a bit surprised by you suddenly showing up."
"So I finally snuck up on you?" Yang questioned a wide grin splitting her face.
"No." Ruby muttered looking away from her sister, the brawler hadn't been able to do that in years it was kind of embarrassing for the wolf.
As much as Yang wanted to press the matter that she had in fact succeeded in sneaking up on her younger sister past experience had helped her learn that it was best to not aggravate Ruby before she could let some steam off. "So you ready for today?"
Ruby nodded excitedly as she felt her tail twitch behind her, "You bet." She grinned at the brawler, "Finally I can let my sweetheart do the talking and then people are gonna be like holy cow that is one amazing Huntress in training." Yang rolled her eyes.
"Will all first years please make their way to the cliff for the initiation test." A voice drifted from above. Ruby's ears perked in excitement cause the hood of her cape to tent making Yang chuckle.
"Ears Rubes." She pointed out making Ruby squeak in embarrassment before her hand shot up to the top of her hood holding down the bulging material, Yang doubled over in laughter as she clutched her sides. "Oh my God you're worse than a guy with a-"
"YAAAANNNG!" Ruby whined over her sister voice.
"Oh Ruby you're so innocent." Yang chuckled as she roughed up crimson girl's hair getting a pout from her. As the two sisters made their way to the cliffs they eyed the other first years. Ruby could tell that very few had seen any actual combat outside of an arena making her slightly worried for their safety.
"Yang." Ruby glanced up at her sister, who apparently had come to the same conclusion.
"Yeah I noticed too." Yang gave a slight nod. "Though I doubt that the teachers would purposely put their student's in harms way on the very first day. I mean they're not Dad or Qrow." She had a point Ruby thought, it's not like they were going through one of those training exercises so maybe they were going to be safe. Beside her Yang noticed that the wolf had gone quite. "You okay?" A quick nod from redhead was all she got.
Reaching the cliffs Ruby looked out over the vast expansion of the Emerald Forest was before her causing her breathing to speed up slightly, something deep down inside her wanted to run, to be set free and just run. A sharp taste of metal hit her tongue causing her trance to break; she had unintentionally sunk one of her canines into the inside of her lower lip. Pouting the wolf applied pressure to the spot with her tongue she was usually good about keep her instincts under control but lately it was harder to press it back down.
Professor Ozpin approached the now gathered group, "For years you have honed your skills and prepared to become Huntsman and Huntresses. Today those abilities will be tested."
"As you are aware all first years have to prove their skill to be here." Professor Goodwitch picked up where the headmaster left off, "Today will be considered your first test. Deep within the Emerald Forest to the north east is a temple with Relics, your goal is to retrieve a relic and return to the top of the cliffs." She motioned for each student to stand on metal plates that where lined up on the cliff.
"This is a task that you will not be able to complete by yourself so you must find a partner." Professor Ozpin continued, "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with will be your partner for the next four year." A shocked mummer spread through the gathered student.
"Finally Beacon only accepts the best students into its halls," Professor Goodwitch cut over the voices. "Only the first twenty pairs to return will be accepted."
"WHAT!" a voice rose out in protest, it was quickly followed by more each sounding desperate and heated. Ruby looked about, she had known about initiation before hand thanks to her Dad and Uncle it seemed that some of the prospects were not aware. There was a reason Beacon started before all of the other academies, so those that didn't make it could try elsewhere.
"You can't do that!" Another voice cried out, "I was accepted to come to Beacon you can't just kick me out before it even starts!"
Professor Goodwitch fixed her eyes on the complaining students causing all voices to die down. "The letter that each of you received was not a letter of acceptance to Beacon but a letter of approval to take the initiation test, those that fail this test will not be permitted to attend Beacon but may seek entrance next year or apply to another academy with a letter of recommendation from Beacon." Green eyes glared out over the crowed daring anyone to complain again, none came. "This test will be monitored by cameras through out the forest, you will have until sundown to complete the task or until all relics have been collected and returned."
"So how will we getting into the forest?" A voice spoke up, Ruby looked over to see the blond boy she had run into yesterday, his name was Jaune if she remembered correctly. "Are you like dropping us off or something?"
"No." Professor Ozpin replied taking a sip of his coffee. "You will be making your own way into the Forest."
"So climbing?" He asked looking about. A clicking sound below her feet caused the wolf to look down a smile pulling at her lips. Beside her Yang flipped on her aviators a large grin on her face.
"No." Professor Ozpin calmly replied, "You will be falling." The first student was launched into the air while Jaune was pondering his words.
"Falling?" Jaune asked even more confused, "Did you pass out parachutes earlier?" Ruby shook her head at the confused boy, he probably wouldn't make it past the first hour in the forest. Too bad really, the wolf thought, he seemed nice enough. More students were launched into the air.
"No." Professor Ozpin replied again, "Your landing strategy will be your own." Jaune had spotted the prospective students being launched into the air and Ruby heard him swallow hard. Beside her she heard Yang's platform click sending the blonde into the air at a rapid pace. A wide grim split Ruby's lips as her own platform clicked sending her flying.
Ruby loved the feeling of the wind whipping past her face, the fresh scents of the forest filling her nose as she sailed peacefully over the greenery. A small nevermore crossed her path and Ruby flinched as she felt the feathery body impact her shoulder definitely killing the Grimm. Deciding she had sailed long enough the crimson girl deployed Crescent Rose into its gun form. Firing at a downward angle Ruby slowed herself down enough to begin dropping. Entering the tree line Ruby flipped fully deploying the massive scythe hooking it around a limb of a tree before dropping to the ground.
Returning her weapon to her back the wolf took a deep breath. The scents of the forest were all around her, she could smell all the fellow prospects that were around her. Taking quick glimpse around to confirm that no one was close she pulled back her hood allowing her ears to stand. With the combination of her hearing and sense of smell she was able to place every person with in a five mile radius of herself, if she could mark it down on a map she was sure she would be accurate of the position within a fifty foot error, Uncle Qrow wouldn't be please she should have it with in twenty or less.
"Well I haven't really had to worry about that lately." Ruby muttered to herself as she lowered her ears and replaced her hood. "Still I should probably work on that before he decided to make a surprise visit." Orienting herself to the north east Ruby started running. "Right gotta find Yang, gotta find Yang, gotta find Yang. Yaaanng! Yaaaaaannng!" She started to call out hoping to find her sister who was probably a good distance away from her knowing the blonde tendency to wonder aimlessly. Sure she wasn't totally worried about working with a different student that wasn't her sister it was just she really didn't want to have to hide her Faunus features from her partner right off the bat.
Before Ruby could call again a figure dressed in white crossed the path of the wolf. Going to fast to slow down the crimson girl tackled the unfortunate white person to the ground.
Propping herself up Ruby shook her head clear trying to dislodge the daze, "Ow." A musical voice groaned below her making her look down. Below her was the same girl that she had nearly blown up yesterday and the same girl that had lectured her for the simple mistake, gulping slowly Ruby watched as Weiss Schnee opened her eyes and looked up.
She could see the confusion forming in the ice blue orbs before they quickly filled with heat, "YOU!" Weiss snapped, "What on Remnant are you thinking? Do you just have to cause a disaster where ever you go?" Even with the heat that flooded the Heiress eyes Ruby couldn't help but admire their beauty. "Are you even listening to me?" Ruby snapped out of her daze.
"Uh sorry." Ruby muttered quickly getting off the Heiress. "I guess this makes us partners." She offered her hand out to Weiss to help her up off the ground. "Nice to officially meet you Weiss, I'm Ruby Rose."
"The pleasure is yours I assure you." Weiss sighed taking the crimson girl's hand. "Do not slow me down I didn't spend twelve years training just to fail because you can't keep up." With a flip of her hair she began to walk away, in the opposite direction of the temple.
A grin pulled on Ruby's mouth before she flashed in front of the Heiress causing the girl to jump, "I'm not slow as you can see." Weiss narrowed her eyes at redhead "And you're actually headed the wrong way. The temple will be in that direction."
"And how do you know that?" Weiss questioned her. Something deep down in Ruby wanted to lash out at the girl standing before her to prove her dominance at first she was shocked at the sudden urge but quickly suppressed her Alpha nature.
Taking a deep breath Ruby looked at the girl in her eyes, "I've also been training for this day for a long time, part of that training was orienteering so I know how to navigate through forests. Professor Goodwitch told us that the temple is north east of the cliffs which were facing west and that's also the direction that we were launched, since it's now noon it's hard to tell exactly which way is east but with what time of year it is the sun is slightly to the east so with all of that combined I can find north east which is that direction." Again the wolf pointed over the shoulder of the white haired girl with a large smile.
"Fine." Weiss huffed turning on her heel and marching in the indicated direction. "Just do not fall behind." Shaking her head Ruby followed after the white haired girl. Well so much for not hiding my features, Ruby sighed inwardly. She was a Faunus with extremely noticeable features and now she had partnered with probably the worst possible choice, a Schnee.
Ruby was aware of the Schnee family name, it was actually quite hard to be a Huntress in training and not be familiar with the name as they were the largest supplier of Dust with some of the largest mines spread all across Remnant. It was harder still for a Faunus to unfamiliar with the name. Even before Blake had ripped into the company Ruby was well aware of what the Schnee's had done to Faunus around the world. They were still the leaders in discrimination of her race and still pushing for heavy segregation of the two races.
As she watched the white hair girl stride ahead of her, familiar words of her mom drifted through Ruby's head, "Don't judge a person based on their name little wolf. Just because a person comes from a family doesn't mean that person is their family." Smiling at the words the wolf decided she would not let Weiss' name define her as a person but rather what she was like. She'd still hide her features for now but if Weiss proved to be a good person then she would reveal her ears and tail to the Heiress.
The clicking of a hammer brought Ruby back from her thoughts, someone was about to fire and judging from the sounds she and Weiss were the targets, "Get down." Ruby called as she tackled Weiss to the ground as a large caliber shot went flying over their heads. Pulling the girl closer Ruby rolled both of them into cover behind a large tree.
"Ruby what the hell was that?" Weiss snarled looking up at the girl.
Ruby placed a hand up silencing her, "Someone just shot at us." She explained, her voice barely above a whisper just in case the shooter was a Faunus. She glanced over her shoulder at the tree that the projectile had impacted, a hole the size of a softball made the entry hole while the exit had blown off the entire back of the tree. That's a big gun, Ruby was mildly excited at the idea of a weapon that big but the concern that that gun was pointed at her was far greater. "Looks like it's in the cannon category from the shot, which limits the melee possibilities to heavy maces, knight lances or great axes." She strained her hearing with her ears still pinned to her head to try to locate the shooter.
"How do you know that?" Weiss whispered harshly as she watched the crimson girl.
Ruby let out a small chuckle before smiling at her, "I'm a bit of a weapons enthusiast so I've studied combinations of gun mechanics and melee variations. It's simple really when you think about it even with the help of expanding and collapsing components you have to keep the combustion chamber of the weapon the same and with how large the shot is it has to be a large weapon to house it." Weiss nodded in agreement at the logic.
"So what do we do?" Weiss asked trying to sit up against the back of the tree.
Ruby hesitated, sure she could use a burst of her speed to easily subdue the attacker but given the possible distance the shot could have come from it would take her wolf senses to accurately track the person, "We could run." Ruby suggested hopping Weiss would go for a hasty retreat.
"A Schnee does not retreat." Weiss' ice eyes bore into the the crimson girl making Ruby groan inwardly, of course they don't.
"You might as well come out now!" A voice yelled out, Ruby recognized the voice of the boy that complained about being kicked out if he failed to secure a relic. "I've got my weapon set to full blast and it can take out a massive amount of these trees. If you don't show yourself I'll just start firing and might kill you."
"Yeah all we want to do is tie you up and take you out of the running," A second voice joined the first. His voice just as jeering as his partner's.
"That's a dirty way to eliminate the competition." Weiss whispered harshly, Ruby nodded in agreement, "Though I guess this should have been expected."
"Come on out girlies, we only want to play." The first chuckled out again this time much closer, Ruby felt the heiress shudder below her at the implication of his words.
Time to do something, Ruby thought peering around the tree. The two boy's were just over a hundred feet from them looking around for where they might be hiding. "If you can distract them I can take them out." Ruby whispered looking back down at Weiss; the Heiress nodded reaching for her rapier Ruby noted the dust cylinder attached to the narrow weapon.
"A small flash bang should get their attention." Weiss muttered as she drew the sword, "Let me know when."
Placing her feet securely on the ground Ruby focused on her senses, the world around her started to slow, every detail becoming sharper. "Now." She watched as Weiss flicked her rapier out like a conductor baton, a ball of light flashing from the tip before impacting fifty feet away. The boys slowly turn towards the noise, activating her semblance the world slowed to a crawl.
Sprinting forward Ruby made a beeline towards their attackers, not wanting to kill either one she didn't draw Crescent Rose choosing instead to deliver a quick blow to each of their unprotected sides. She may not be as strong as Yang but her hits still packed quite a punch. Releasing her semblance Ruby watched the results of her attack. The lights faded from their eyes as the boy's dropped to the ground with a soft thud. "Okay, their out. You can come out now." Ruby called out with a slight giggle.
Weiss came around the tree and surveyed what had transpired, "If you can move that fast why on Remnant did you need me to distract them?"
"I needed them to expose their middles," Ruby shrugged grabbing the long rope from the second boy's side. "Even at the speeds I move at it's possible they could have defended themselves so with the distraction it left their cores open." Propping them together she quickly looped the rope around their middle several times before tying it off in a quick knot, satisfied with her work the wolf nodded, "That should hold them for a while."
"Right well we should be on our way then." Weiss said glancing about for anyone else that might be lingering around. "We don't want to fall behind." Ruby nodded in agreement and started back in the direction of temple the Heiress quickly drawing even with her.
"If I'm right we're still a ways off." Ruby informed the white haired girl breaking the few minutes of silence that had settled between them. She wanted to get the icy girl talking to see if she could get a better read on what type of person she was. A simple hum of acknowledgement and the girl picking up her speed was all she got in return. Okay Ruby operation get this girl talking is a go, the wolf thought as she too picked up her pace. "So your rapier seems pretty cool, don't see to many MADR's around, most people go with larger weapons if they are going to do Dust cylinders. I actually thought about adding a Dust function to Crescent Rose at one point but I'm not really that good with Dust so it was kinda pointless for me to do that. I mean understand the concepts of Dust use but when it comes to the actually control of it I can't seem to get it to do what I want or I put to much Aura behind it and then I cause an even bigger explosion that what I intended. I mean I know that Dust is like a Huntress's best friend cause it has a lot of uses and it can get you out of a sticky situation in a pinch if you need it-"
"Do you talk just to hear yourself?" Weiss snapped over Ruby causing the redhead to jump. "We are walking around a Grimm infested forest where any number of Grimm could be hunting us not to mention we were just attacked by two fellow prospects who were trying to take out everyone they came across. There could be any number of threats out here and with your incessant blabbering you could lead anyone of them straight to us." Ruby blinked in surprise at the sudden out burst from the Heiress, anger rose even higher in the icy girl as she glared at her. "Do you even know what you're doing here? You said you were training for this day for a long time and yet you're ignoring all of the basics when in enemy territory."
A heat started to rise in Ruby yelling at her to put the white haired girl in her place. No one questions her abilities when it came to her training. She had been training for this day for much longer than she had ever been surely and this frail looking girl was questioning her? How dare she? How dare she question an Alp…
Ruby shook her head free of the thought. She had just told Blake the other day that she didn't want to give into her Alpha nature and that she wanted to be a better person than an Alpha so why was she having these thought?
"Sorry I just tend to ramble." Ruby chuckled looking away from Weiss. "And it's not like the Emerald Forest is teeming with Grimm this close to the campus so we should be…" She let her words trail into the air as she watched a massive feather fall to the ground behind the Heiress.
"What?" Weiss snapped again seeing the silver eyes become distant in the middle of the girl's thought irritated her to no end. "If you're not going to finish that thought then we need to keep moving."
"Yes we do." Ruby smiled in agreement, "And I just found our ride." Weiss blinked in confusion until a loud roar came from above them. Looking up Weiss had just enough time to see a large shadow descending on them.
A/N: So apparently I did something right? Neat that never happens. So here's chapter two, still slow and still following close to episode sorry bout that but in this what I have been calling the 'Annoying set up arc' that's how things are going to go but things will change I promise. Anywhoo if anyone reading this on the fence about what I've written, cool tell me it lets me know what others are thinking and how soon I should start explaining a few things. I can't promise that some explanations will come within the first ten chapters but I will start to work them in if people need more clarity.
With that: thanks all for reading, see you next week. Follow/Favorite, drop a dime if you're inclined and most importantly: stay beautiful everyone.