"Do you hear that?"
Ruby strained her ears, forcing Cinder to stop, the older woman tensing at the question. Birds had been fluttering throughout the trees throughout the day, a good sign that Grimm and other predators weren't close by.
A new sound had introduced itself though, faint at first, but unmistakable as Cinder whipped her head around to meet Ruby's eyes.
The two of them took off as best they could towards the sound, moving through brush and foliage before finding a stream that cut through the forest, the bubbling sound of salvation nearly bringing the two of them to their knees.
Hobbling towards the river, Ruby fell to her knees, taking in greedy mouthfuls of water, her throat screaming initially in protest, before the water fully quenched its protest. She could hear Cinder next to her doing the same thing, spotting the woman doing her best to ladle water one handful at a time. Before Ruby could react, Cinder plunged crisped arm into the water, letting out a brief, strangled cry as she did so.
Like a woman possessed, the other woman stood up, pulling her tattered dress and bandages away before walking into the knee-deep water, kneeling to try and completely submerge herself in the slow-moving stream.
Initially scandalous at the scene, Ruby bit her lip, watching the relief on Cinder's face as she practically laid herself in the middle of the river, letting out a sigh of relief.
There was more deliberation on Ruby's end, but every second her idea of modesty slipped further away, imagining the ability to strip away the past two and half days of grime and dried blood from her body. She could feel the knots in her hair, and the almost abrasive feel of her clothes on her body at this point.
"Screw it," Ruby relented, pulling her socks and boots off, stripping down to her underwear before walking into the stream as well, letting out a small yelp at the temperature of the water. Knowing it would be worse to prolong things, Ruby plopped the rest of her body into the stream, wheeling a bit at the tugging currents and letting a gasp explode from her lungs as the cold of the stream wrapped itself around her lungs.
The next minutes were a blur as Ruby tried her best to clean her body from the last few days, unable to help letting out a small giggle as the tension melted somewhat out of her body.
Sure, she was stuck in the middle of nowhere with a broken leg and little to no Aura. Sure, she was relying on the help of her sworn enemy who was in a worse condition than she was. Sure, after she stepped out of the river, her body's going to remind her of exactly how much pain she was actually in. Sure, it was more likely for her to die than to live through this experience. But at this moment in time, she was CLEAN.
There was a yelp of surprise as she saw something dart through her legs, making her fall over with a splash.
Fish!
There were fish in this river!
The mere mention of potential food was enough for her stomach to remind itself that it was severely underfed, and her headache returned, albeit to a lesser degree now that she had some water in her and was marginally cleaner than before.
Eyeing the stream again, Ruby put her sniper's vision to good use, timing a lunge for a darting fish, which slipped away with ease and sent the girl off balance with a panicked cry, throwing up another splash of water.
"What are you doing?" Cinder's voice was amused as Ruby turned to see the woman pull out a fist full of wet clothes, draping it over a low branch. Ruby pointed at the water's surface.
"Fish."
Cinder nodded slowly, catching onto the idea.
"Right. That would be our best hope." Casting a glance at the water's surface, she gave Ruby a doubtful look. "You weren't really thinking that trying to catch a fish with your bare hands was the best option, did you?"
Flushing a little, Ruby gave the woman a look. "It's kind of hard to think up an elaborate plan to catch fish when you're starving." She snapped.
Wading through the waters, Cinder examined the stream, watching a few fish dart back and forth past their legs.
"I assume that you can't fashion a fishing rod with your weapon, can you?"
"What? No! I mean, I could, Crescent Rose can be anything... but no way!" Ruby glanced over at her baby, imagining tying a string onto the end of it to try and catch fish. The indignity.
Crescent Rose was a Grimm killing machine!
Cinder caught the expression on the younger girl's face. "Never mind. I can see that's not an option."
The two of them fiedled a few ideas, before settling on Milo, Cinder hefting the broken javalin with her good hand and heaving the weapon into the water. With the state of her body and the recent change in depth perception, it was a miracle that the two of them were able to recover Milo before it was swept away in the currents.
"Okay," Ruby pannted, limping back from the soaking form of Cinder, who was pulling herself up from the stream after tripping on a loose rock. "Maybe we don't throw our one of our two weapons away like that."
It couldn't have been less than another hour before they managed to catch a fish, taking turns jabbing the water as best they could before Ruby gave in and used what little Aura she had recovered to gain a burst of speed with her semblance, awkwardly catching the creature on the side before panicking and flinging it out of the water, the injured fish flopping in the dirt in an attempt to return back before Cinder lifted it, bashing it against the side of a tree to put the thing out of its misery.
The two women looked at each other, the feeling of accomplishment overshadowing the constant underlying tension that they carried between them, if only for a moment.
Okay, amnesiac Cinder isn't the worst person I could've been stuck with, Ruby thought begrudgingly.
The next step was to try and find a way to cook the fish. Blake might have been able to stomach raw fish, but Ruby firmly believed in a nice, thoroughly cooked meal. Just looking at the limp fish made her feel a little queasy.
"Ah ha!"
Cinder popped the end of Milo off, drawing out a wince from Ruby as the bottom simply fell apart, a few dust rounds tinkling onto the ground. Three rounds, with dust volatile enough to spark a reaction and send a bullet flying.
Enough dust to start a fire, Ruby thought.
Hopefully.
Cinder picked the rounds up, examining them before tossing one towards Ruby, who fumbled with the bullet for a second.
Working with weaponry all her life, it didn't take too much longer to pop the shell open, revealing the glimmering dust hidden.
The fire came together shortly thereafter, Ruby drooling as she turned the fish carefully, trying to distract herself by watching Cinder, who was doing her best to try and catch another fish.
Unfortunately, with all the commotion that they had caused, it looked like the rest of the fish had learned their lesson, steering clear of their part of the stream. Coming back soaking wet and practically naked, Cinder dropped to the ground, chucking Milo to the side with a rasping sigh, letting the fire dry her body as Ruby kept her attention on the rotating fish. There could be no distractions, no mistakes.
Who knew when they would have their next meal?
"So, we'll have enough to start another two fires at least, but then after that, we'll have to figure something else out. Do you have enough rounds to cover us if we need it?"
Ruby shook her head at Cinder's question.
"I'd rather keep these Crescent Rose primed for an emergency. Fires are good and all, but we can figure something else for them too. I'd rather have some protection from the Grimm if they decide to attack. Unless you want to get close to fight them in our condition."
Cinder snorted at the question.
Even without seasoning, even with the fish more charred than cooked, the meal was delicious, being the first thing that the two of them had eaten in more than forty-eight hours. The paltry meal was enough for Ruby to give another go in the river, waiting in hopes that fish would gather in a place and lunging forwards as best as she could with a broken leg to try and catch the fish unawares. But it seemed like their first catch was more of a fluke than anything else, Ruby walking away from the stream wet and frustrated.
She found Cinder staring at the dying embers of the fire, sitting with a faraway expression on her face, her dead arm resting on the ground with her knees pulled up to her chest.
It was at this moment that Ruby was reminded that Cinder couldn't have been much older than her. Probably early twenties at the oldest.
Why would someone like that try and attack Beacon? Destabilize Remnant by attacking Huntsmen and pulling Grimm into the heart of Vale? Surely there was a reason, even if Ruby wouldn't be able to get an answer out of her in this state. What led a young woman to those sorts of depths?
As if an invisible bell had rung in the distance, Cinder's captive gaze shattered like glass, and when her eye sought to meet Ruby's, there was a brief second where she could have sworn the embers were still reflecting off of her iris, a rage and heat that made Ruby's shoulders rise.
Just as quickly the illusion seemed to fade, Cinder raising up on her feet slowly, her bad arm trailing up like an anchor of a ship.
"Are we ready to move?"
The two of them gathered their things, the fire helping to dry the rest of their clothes enough to wear for now. Ruby wrinkled her nose at her ruined stockings, using them instead to delicately wrap the last two rounds that they had salvaged off Milo, throwing the precious package into one of her empty satchels. Cinder took the time to examine her dress, which at this point barely covered anything with how ragged and ruin as it was, but there was a sort of determination in her eye that discouraged Ruby from telling her not to bother.
Watching the slow process seemed agonizing enough that even Ruby couldn't help but feel some empathy.
In the end, Ruby had enough pity to tear her stockings in half, fashioning a rudimentary sling for Cinder, reasoning that the arm held and out of the way would be better for both of their survival.
The two of them decided that the best path forward was to follow the stream forward, knowing that at the worst they'll continue to have a steady supply of clean water and more chances to catch food.
The good news seemed to improve morale, the two of them making better time today, Ruby doing her best to ignore the pain of her broken leg, and the ragged gasping of the woman supporting her.
Plopping down onto the grass on their third day journeying together in good spirits, Ruby decided to extend an olive branch.
"I can take first watch again today, if you want?"
Cinder raised an eyebrow at that, but recognizing the gesture for what it was, the woman nodded and, in an offer to repay Ruby went to work, briskly started to form a bed for the two of them. Ruby once again had to remind herself that Cinder was a cold-hearted killer (even if she didn't seem like it while she was jumping for grab branches and leaves) and tried to spend some of this time fiddling around with Crescent Rose. Her baby was never going to be able to perform a hundred percent without a few hours at a workbench with some decent tools, but Ruby could maybe get that annoying squeak to go away every time it shifted, and maybe she could rezero her scope while that was happening, and her fingernails were already dirty and cracked so they might as well be used to try and shift some of the dirt out of the seams.
By the time Crescent Rose was in a good enough condition for Ruby to stop obsessing over it, Cinder had curled into the makeshift pile of leaves, doing her best to fall asleep.