Set post volume 5. Content warning for vomiting, blood, and injuries. Inspired by a couple of ffxv fics I read about characters getting caught in bear traps. Enjoy!
Sometimes, it's the most innocent, harmless-seeming things that end up being the most dangerous. Like a simple trip to the store that's about to be robbed, or someone pretending to be a classmate and friend who turns out to be your enemy.
Or a simple walk through the woods ending in disaster. They'd taken a simple mission, hoping to get their bearings as a team now that they're back together at last. Haven is in desperate need of hunters and huntresses to take on missions due to the sudden shortage, so it hadn't been difficult to find something similar that would allow them to get a fresh start.
The mission had been a success for the newly reunited team RWBY. They've killed the Grimm, collected their reward, and now they just need to make it back to the house they've been staying at in Haven. Spirits are high as they make their way through the forest on the outskirts of the city. Ruby leads the group, talking excitedly with Weiss, who is hurrying to try to keep up with the younger girl. Not far behind them, Yang and Blake bring up the rear, content to walk in companionable silence.
Between the rush of satisfaction from completing a successful mission and her happiness at having her team at her side, Ruby is perhaps a bit less focused on scanning her surroundings than she should be. It's probably not a big deal though, since they're close enough to the city that there really shouldn't be anything dangerous lurking in these woods. She's already thinking about how they'll be getting back just in time for lunch. Maybe she can convince Ren to make them pancakes in celebration! Pancakes are an any time of day food in her opinion. And today definitely warrants celebrating.
It happens so fast that Ruby struggles to process it. One moment she's glancing back at Weiss, walking through the brush covering the forest floor-and the next thing she knows, she hears a loud snap and a sudden sharp pain in her leg and she finds herself sprawled on the ground. Someone lets out a yelp of pain.
"Ruby?" Weiss asks, sounding concerned. Belatedly, Ruby realizes that she's the one who screamed. She tries to right herself and sit up, but that only exacerbates the pain in her leg.
"What the-" Ruby is only vaguely aware of Weiss rushing to her side as she tries to get a better look at why her leg hurts. As soon as she sees it, she immediately glances away, wishing that she hadn't looked.
It's a trap, a sharp piece of metal that's meant to clamp onto any Grimm unlucky enough to stumble into it and keep it away from nearby settlements. They're pretty common in Mistral. Ruby has seen them before on their journey to Haven. But instead of catching a Grimm, this time the trap is caught on Ruby's leg.
"Ruby? What's going on?" Abruptly, Weiss is crouched next to her, practically shouting in Ruby's ear.
Swallowing hard against the urge to throw up, Ruby gestures frantically to her leg. "Weiss, my leg," she manages to stammer out. "Please, you have to help me get out."
"What are you talking about?" Weiss asks, her gaze following where Ruby is pointing. It's pretty obvious when she spots what the problem is; Weiss claps a hand to her mouth, the color rapidly draining from her face. "Oh my."
"Please, Weiss," Ruby begs again. The pain in her leg is getting worse, and she can feel the blood soaking into her clothes.
"Ok, um, give me a second," Weiss says, clearly at a loss for what to do. "We should be careful about this, there must be some way to undo it and get it to open-"
"What's going on?" Blake and Yang's arrival is a welcome interruption.
"Help," Ruby pleads softly, trying to keep her voice from shaking too much. Normally she'd be embarrassed to be begging for help like this, but right now all she wants is to get out of this trap and to go home.
"Ruby," Yang breathes, her eyes going wide. She crouches next to Ruby, taking Weiss' spot. "I'll keep her still," she tells Weiss and Blake. "You guys figure out how to get that thing off her already."
"Hang in there Ruby," Yang says, trying to be reassuring. "Just try to stay still, okay?"
"I've seen this kind of trap before." Blake's voice sounds like it's coming from far away. "There should be some kind of mechanism to open the jaws and hold them apart."
"Ruby? Are you still with me?" Yang's hands are cool on her face as her sister sweeps her bangs aside. She can feel sweat beading on her forehead. "You're shivering," Yang murmurs, frowning.
Her sister drapes her jacket over Ruby's shoulders. She immediately curls into its warmth; every time she shivers, she can feel the metal cutting into her leg even sharper. "Am I gonna lose my leg?" Ruby whispers hoarsely, her stomach twisting at having to even ask that question.
"No," Yang assures her, in the tone of voice that Ruby knows means that she's trying to sound more confident than she actually is. "No, you're going to be fine. We're going to get you out of this and get you home and then Jaune is going to heal you up, okay?" She slips her arm around Ruby's shoulders. "What, you trying to prove that you're more hardcore than me?"
Ruby laughs weakly at the joke, choking on her laughter when she feels the jaws of the trap pulling apart, ripping back out of her leg. She grits her teeth, trying to muffle the sounds of pain as Yang pulls her into her chest to keep her from flailing around too badly.
At some point, she loses track of time, because she blinks to find Yang shaking her gently, calling her name. "Ruby? You still with me? Guys, I think she's going into shock. We need to get her out of here pronto."
Her leg still hurts, but she's free of that awful trap and someone has wrapped a makeshift bandage around the wound. Abruptly, her stomach lurches again, and this time she can't swallow back the nausea. Ruby leans over to avoid puking on her sister and throws up on the forest floor.
"I'm okay," she mutters when she's finished, wiping the back of her hand across her mouth. Suddenly, it's a real struggle to keep her eyes open.
"You will be," her sister assures her, gathering Ruby into her arms. Yang is careful to keep her injured leg as still as possible. "Just hang in there a little longer, okay?"
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