Ruby Rose
How many emplyees would have trouble getting a vacation? How many people would have to argue with there employer for time off work to go spend a holiday with there family?
Ruby had the opposite problem.
The Blood-moon was an important holiday in most canine cultures, which included her father her sisters Hellhound blood. Unfortunately, Ruby also technically had that blood so she didn't get a choice in whether or not to join them. The Blood-moon was never consistent, its date changed constantly but one happened every single year... apparently there was an instance a few hundred years where one fell on new years eve of one year, and new years day of the next.
Ruby had used this excuse as to why she hadn't gone to Patch for the event. Saying that Ozpin wouldn't let her go for the holiday...
Thus back to her problem. Weiss was a good boss. Like... a really good boss. Too good. So when Yang told Weiss about the holiday, Ruby suddenly didn't have a choice in the matter, any complaint was met with a solution.
"I still haven't finished going through the dictionary!"
"Penny can continue where you left off, and once you return you can go through her notes."
"Don't I need a body guard?"
"You'll be with Yang and Blake... not to mention whatever other powerhouses will be there."
"I... I'm scared of airships...!"
"Oh. In that case you can use my personal private airship. It's a third generation, nothing like those glorified balloons Vale mainly uses."
And that was how Ruby, Blake, Yang and there kids, were flying to the dingy isle of Patch... in a Third generation airship... for free...
"This is so cool!!" Sun was running around the ship with the biggest grin on his face, his sister was much more reserved, sitting next to Blake and trying to emulate her mother's calm coolness. Yang however was trying her best to not be obvious on checking on Ruby every five minutes...
Ruby was reading, not anything related to her research unfortunately, Weiss had literally searched through her bags to make sure she wasn't going to be working while away. The book was a historical retelling of the last great war between Vampires and Werewolves. The two species seemed to share a mutual hate for the other, but they eventually came to peace after the rest of the world had frankly had enough of there bullshit. So, for once working together, they came up with a new way to compete, the Vytal festival. A serious of events and activities with a tournament as the main show, what had started as a showing of there need to compete with each other had grown into a festival that all cultures took part in. Nowadays Vampires and Werewolves actually tended to get along pretty well.
"Hey, Rubes?" The girl in question sighed and looked up from her book. Yang smiled as she say next to her. "You doing ok?"
"I'm fine Yang... just..." She glanced at Sun, still running around. "Guess I'm a little stressed... there's gonna be a lot of kids there... who knows how many of them have met a human before..." Yang shrugged.
"Dosent matter. Either me or Blake will be with you at all times. You'll be safe, don't worry. Plus, worst comes to worse?" She leaned in closer to whisper. "Sun and Celica have finally gotten it, so your niece and nephew might scare off some kids for ya" The thought was rather cute... if a little embarrassing.
Sun was pretty naturally strong like his mother, and Celica was frankly very dangerous if she decided to use spells. Ruby would probably be very safe... most of the people there would probably be aware she was human and make there kids behave... she didn't have anything to fear.
Which sucked... there was no way outta this.
She glanced out the window and everything in sight was blue. No clouds to be seen, all that could be found was the blue sky, and the blue ocean they were flying over.
The airship was beautiful. It was an aerodynamic shape of steel, powered by two gravity dust engines in both wings. The main frame of the ship was nearly indestructible to any non-magical attacks, this thing could crash into a mountain and probably burrow half the way through it taking no damage... at least to the main hull and the passengers.
It was a far cry from the first generation airships that still saw use everywhere baring Atlas and lightly in Vale. Those were wooden framed and used air magic to keep themselves afloat, resembling boats with the sails removed and large balloons stuck on instead. As far as Ruby was aware, there wasn't actually a second generation of airships, rather the leap was so large that everyone just skipped over two... she should probably ask Weiss about that when she got back... they were staying here for three days and leaving on the fourth.
"Showing up in this swanky ship is gonna get us some attention huh?"
"What?" Ruby looked at her sister in horror.
"Oh come on Sis, tell me you hadn't thought about that." Yang looked at her with a raised eyebrow and Ruby groaned as she pulled her hood over her head.
She hadn't thought of that.
The airship port was... well, exaclty what you'd expect from an island that had no major exports. There was barely two stations, and the third generation airship had a hard time manoeuvring into it at first. Not because the pilot was bad rather... well, some people had decided it would be a good idea to stand on the platform to get a better look at the fancy vehicle.
After Yang had literally leaped from the airship to yell at them all to move, they were able to land.
Ruby carefully exited the ship, she was a bit shaken by crowd that had gathered. The girl wasn't the best with...well... crowds. People. Being looked at? It didnt help that she froze at the top of the ramp as she went to exit, it made her feel like she was on a stage as dozens of people looked at her. She nearly ran back into the ship before Yang made all of them leave by waving them off and yelling, to which Blake chuckled as she stepped around Ruby, moving down the ramp first.
"Sometimes I swear your sister is a sheep dog." Ruby snorted.
"Is that racist?" Blake simply shrugged.
Following her down the ramp, the second her foot touched the ground she felt something latch onto her side. Looking down, her neice was hugging her tightly while scanning the area around them. Though, tightly was subjective. It was tight for a hug, but not an uncomfortable tight, more comforting then anything... it was surprising.
"Watcha doing?" She patted the girls head and Celica looked up at her.
"Making sure no one's gonna hurt you!" Ruby's heart melted and she immediately kneeled down at wrapped the girl in a hug, looking up at Yang with teary eyes.
"Yaaang!"
"What?"
"She's so cute!!" Celica was writhing around in her grasp, yet once again, she was applying practically none of her true strength. Ruby let her go and the girl pouted.
"I'm not cute!" Ruby booped her nose and giggled.
"Woah! Fancy ride girls!" That voice... Ruby frowned immediately and stood, sighing as she was prepared for what was to come.
"Hey dad!" Yang walked over and gave the man a big hug. It looked more like they were competing in a very complicated wrestle to be honest, Ruby even saw part of the ground crack under Yangs tensed leg. They broke apart in a laugh and he turned to Blake.
"Blake! So happy you and the kids could join us!" He hugged her, an actual hug this time rather then whatever Yangs was.
"It's a pleasure to have been invited Tai." Next he turned to the kids and his grin was all the invitation they needed.
"Grandpa!" They yelled out in unison, tackling him and nearly knocking him over, but Ruby knew better, he let them almost take him down, he was almost as strong as Yang afterall...
She had experienced that fact first hand.
Finally... he turned to Ruby. He smiled still, but looked unsure as he approached. He was a tall man, her face just reached his chest, and he was big too, his build was that of a brawler, and Ruby knew how strong he was.
"Ruby. It's so good to see you." He opened his arms but didn't hug her, Ruby took a step closer but... she couldn't do it, she took a step back again and gave him the best smile she could.
"It's great to see you too... dad." She had nearly forgotten to add that part.
He looked hurt, but he understood. Dropping his arms he turned to Yang and Blake and smiled once again.
"How about we head home?"
The cart was interesting. Well... odd. The wooden frame looked surprisingly durable, no roof but that was to be expected. The strange part was the harness attached to the front that rested on the ground. It was pure metal, and not a delicate metal either. This looked to be magically enhanced steel, runes glowing up and down its expanse... but... why?
"Where's the horse?" Celica thankfully asked that before Ruby, to which Tai chuckled.
"Well, I'm no horse, but right here!" He pointed his thumb to himself and grinned and Blake sighed as Yang laughed.
"Figured you still had this." She added as she turned to Sun. "You hop on with your mother and Aunt Ruby ok?" He nodded and the three climbed onto the cart, it actually had seats thankfully. Yang then turned to Celica. "You wanna run with me and Grandpa? Or do you wanna join them on the cart?" Her voice was a soft tone that you would expect any mother to have while asking there child to try something new without pressuring them into it.
"Ooh! Can Celica fully transform now?" And here was Grandpa Tai to throw that out the window. "C'mon Celica! It'll be fun!"
"She dosent have to if she dosent want to dad-" Celica grabbed Yangs sleeve and tugged a little, to which the mother kneeled down so she could talk with her in whispers.
After a minute, Yang nodded and turned to Tai.
"How long is the run again?"
"About an hour." Yang hoisted Celica into the cart after the response.
She shuffled in her seat to be next to Ruby and the girl smiled.
"Don't like long runs kiddo?" Celica shook her head, Ruby actually couldn't relate, she hadn't gone running in a while...
"Oh God am I out of shape?"
Thankfully she was distracted from that thought process as she heard a sound almost akin to a spark exploding into a roaring flame. She turned and was greeted by a giant creature.
The figure was the size of a very large horse, it had fur that ended in flames and it filled out the shape of a wolf. It's eyes glowed with a hidden fire and it's pelt was a glowing yellow with flicks of orange and red. The heat was making her eyes water and she turned away, another similar sound from near the Hellhound and Yang transformed as well.
Somehow Tai managed to get the harness on himself in that form, Ruby was genuinely impressed. They took off moving quite fast and Yang followed behind. Looking at her sister, she noticed a few differences to there father.
Yang's form was somehow both less bulky and more intimidating then there father, it had an aura of control that Tai had lacked, and her flames were no where near as prominent. Ruby could actually look into her eyes, seeing the purple iris. It was always a strange feeling, she knew this was her sister, but the raw power and magic that leaked out from a full transformation was always a shock to witness.
Then Yang winked at her while they sped down the road and Ruby was back to knowing for a fact that this was her sister.
The road hadn't been very busy, most people had already arrived for the holiday... surprisingly most people were excited to spend time with there families and wanted as much time as possible.
Celica and Sun watched the sights with joy as they passed by. The many different buildings and shops, all holding mysteries that the kids would no doubt want to explore, Ruby was sure Yang would have to take them into town for some of that or they'd run out on there own, not that they were in any danger if they did.
Patch was a close community, in no small part thanks to there mostly canine population. The whole island was like one giant pack, and nearly all of them gathered to celebrate the Blood-moon at the same party.
And of course, Tai nearly always hosted.
His place was out in the woods, a massive clearing nearby that was generally where the party was held. They'd set up food and games, using as much of the clearing as they could, with a giant bonfire in the middle. The party lasted from when the Blood-moon rose to when the sun rose and replaced it in the sky.
Ruby wasnt really looking forward to it... she also wasn't looking forward to not being able to drink. She didn't usually partake in much alcohol, only really going for it in social situations were it replaced her anxiety with false confidence. But here... well, most of the community would view her as a child, so probably no drinks for her without people sending Tai and Yang glances.
Finally, they reached the house. Ruby looked up at her childhood home... well... childhood home of roughly four years, but it was the closest she had come to having one. After the... incident... her mother had taken her out of the house and they had stayed with Yang and Blake In Vale until... well... the other incident... then it was Just Yang, Blake and Ruby.
Tai parked the cart and turned back into his human like form before stretching.
"That feels good." He groaned out, Yang laughed after returning to her human like form as well.
"Getting up there in the years huh old man?"
"Yang your father is literally over ten times your age."
"So?" Blake sighed and smiled as they all stepped off the cart.
"No one to welcome you home dad?" Yangs words were a tease but... Honestly Ruby had expected some young looking woman to welcome him back.
"Nah... haven't really been back into that life for a while to be honest." He laughed awkwardly and Ruby tilted her head, perhaps it was more obvious to people with magic as to how old her father actually was... to her the man looked in his thirties at most.
Blake cut into the conversation.
"Tai, can you show the kids there room? I need to have a talk with Yang."
"Uhh... what about me?" Ruby turned to Blake and the faunas blushed.
"Um... s-sorry... umm... can you go with them?" Great... Blake thought Ruby was a kid too... She sighed and followed Tai into the house with Celica and Sun. She hoped her room at least had a lock...
Tai led them all to the same room... as in... the room Ruby was sharing with the kids.
This was gonna be a long three days.