Red Like Blood

by RavannaNest

A monster can disguise themselves as human, but it cant hide its true nature. Neither human nor Grimm, the Wolfborne stalks the darkest corners of the world to feed. And in one night its all gone, its home and territory stripped away by another one her own kind. Now she must live with what she once called prey as Ruby Rose, a wolf faunas from a small island off the cost of Vale.

The scent of rust and iron. A smell that sent the birds and careful fauna running in fear, but for her; it drew her like a moth to a flame. A grin spread across her face as her blood red eyes scanned from the tree line. A small group of creatures hovered over a bleeding corpse of a doe. She could smell their powerful souls wafting through the air. They talked loudly, and laughed to each other. She tilted her head to the side as she observed them. Her mother had always called these creatures as The Dustborne, an odd pack animal that could use its soul as a weapon.

She crept closer like a panther. Her mother had taught her well, she could almost hear her teachings echoing in her mind. Keep low and make each movement deliberate. Move fast to close the distance, then imperceptibly slow and wait for the moment to strike. She just had to scare away the dustborne, something a youngling would find trivial. Normally, a roar sent all that valued their lives away in fear. That wouldn't do here, these ones were armed with their metal firing rods. She needed to have patience; soon she would have a fresh corpse to feast on.

A large bearded one wandered closer to her. Her grin grew sadistic. it never saw her pounce out from the bush; she was as silent as a breeze. She sank her claws through his skull and into his brain. Her ring finger sank directly into the lower part of the skull below the ear: the motor cortex. It was now paralyzed. His brief convulsions ended quick, it couldn't even scream. It took her a few seconds to realize it was dead, her mother taught her well.

She hadn't eaten prey in so long, she was ravenous. The scent of his warm blood, the crunching sounds of her claws cutting through his skull; all these sensations rushed through her mind and filled her senses with bliss. She let out a loud roar, almost a scream. The other dustborne dropped their odd weapons and ran fast. Her scream turned to a manic laugh as she watched their forms vanish into the trees. She had secured two corpses. If only her mother could see it.

A thin knife grew from the bony plates on her hand. With precise movements and deliberate cuts, she sliced open the dustborne's rib cage and cut out its lungs, setting them aside, and with more surgical care, she cut out his heart. She held the organ in her hands, like a mother holding a newborn, she licked her lips and sank her teeth into the muscle. Blood sprayed over her hands, face, and onto the ground. She felt her hunger wash away in moments as the energy of the heart surged into her body. She quickly consumed the mans deflated lungs next, then she carefully cut open his skull and removed his brain. The heart and brain… the two most life rich organs a creature could have. The dustborne's greatest strength, their powerful souls, is exactly what made them the perfect prey. A single dustborne heart would give her enough energy to last weeks, with its brain and other organs, she may not need to feed again for another month, maybe longer.

One by one she cut out and set aside the man's organs in order of importance, no matter how minuscule the difference. The process of the removal was almost ritualistic to her, it was slow and calming. Remove the heart and lungs, than the brain, followed by the rest of the prey's innards, although she usually skipped eating the intestines due to their less than palatable texture. After the organs were removed she could skin and flay the corpse. Skin and muscles had many uses beyond food. Although there was still the deer to attend to, the dead human wouldn't be going anywhere after all.

She slowly got back to her feet. Her translucent red cloak spilling out behind her. Her black fur absorbing all light that touched it. Bony places covered her hands and feet like gauntlets and boots. Around her torso were more of these plates that were marked with red lines. A translucent red hood was pulled over her head, it wasn't clothing, but a part of her skin. Just under her hood were two wolf like ears growing from the top of her head. A white plate of bone covered the top half of her face, and under it a small canine snout protruded. Her red and black eyes scanned the area, no more dustborne, and she couldn't smell them in the wind.

She sank her claws into the dead dears skull and lifted the animal to eye level. She examined it closely for a few, starring into its cold eyes. She gritted her teeth in frustration; the dustborne had pierced the animals heart with their weapons. Most of the life force stored in its meat had melted away into the dirt with the blood. She growled in frustration and dropped the animal.

She could still find uses for the animal, while most of the life energy was gone, some would always remain. Drying the meat would make it practically worthless, the longer she waited to eat it the less energy would be stored in its cells. The rest of the animal served much more obvious purposes; the hide had thousands of uses other than light snacking while walking, and the bones could help patch a hole in her plates. Her mother always told her to leave a pile of bones around her sleeping area in case one of the dustborne's warriors wandered by. 'A warning in blood', she had dubbed it.

She cut out a few sections of hide and set them by the organs, grabbing a kidney to snack on as she investigated the discarded dustborne weapons. She'd never gotten a close up look at a dustborne's weapon. She picked up a strange half wooden, half metal rod with a grip. Her first instinct was to use it as a club, but she'd seen the dustborne use them to attack from far away. She found a piece of curved metal by the grip and when pulled the weapon made a clicking noise. She tilted her head and set down the weapon to give it more attention.

She'd been fascinated by dustborne creations for as long as she could remember. It started with her mother gifting her a stuffed imitation of a bear she had taken from a dustborne child. The dustborne's ability to create had fascinated her since that day. She was clever, able to take apart and rebuild the dustborne creations with ease, but this weapon was proving to be a little more difficult. She eventually figured out how to rotate a sliding bolt and pull it out, causing the weapon to eject a brass cylinder. She caught it and examined it with intrigue. It was hollow and burnt, but still held its shape when she bit down on it. Looking back down at the weapon, a new cylinder sat waiting to be pushed forward by the sliding bolt, this one had a pointed hat on it though. Perhaps that is was the weapon used as its projectile, and the button that clicked was how it fired the projectile, making that painfully loud boom in the process. Satisfied with her investigation, she decided to take the weapon as a trinket, and slung it over her shoulder like how she'd seen the dustborne do when traveling.

Her ears twitched to a faint noise in the brush behind her. Her hair stood on edge as she turned around and scanned the dark void of the forest. Then she smelled it, a group of dustborne were approaching, and these ones smelled stronger, possible warriors or cadets. She growled and ducked back into the trees, using her claws to quickly climb up into a tall tree.

The group of dustborne, armed with weapons, stormed out of the tree line. They smelled like panic and fear, she'd normally savor the smell, but she was too busy growling as they examined her hard eared prey. They seemed horrified at her careful dissection of the dustborne she skilled, and she put so much effort into making it look nice…

"What happened to this man!" The supposed leader of the group called out. It was short and fat with lots of hair over its upper lip. Its smell was strong, it covered up everyone else. He was a warrior… the dustborne's butchers. They spent their whole lives hunting and slaughtering Grimm.

"A person came out of the forest!" One of the original group she had scared off had decided to return apparently.

She sighed, she couldn't understand their speech. The dustborne tongue was so hard to understand to her. She had an idea though… She reached out into the air, calling on the ethereal energy that was just beyond the veil. It opened to her and the Weave responded to her call. Invisible stands of energy collected all around her, she couldn't see them, but she could feel them in her mind. She willed the stands to her ears and focused on hearing the dustborne's speech, and suddenly she could understand them. Magic was a helpful trick.

"That couldn't have been a person!" Another of the dustborne yelled back. "It was a Grimm!"

"Grimm don't look like humans!"

She huffed in annoyance. She wasn't a regular Grimm, she was much more than that! She was a Wolfborne! The queen of the Great Hounds!

Her internal rant was cut short as her crimson eyes met the gaze of the warrior as he was looking through the trees. He quickly drew his firearm and sent a ball of fire hurtling towards her perch. The ball of fire exploded sending a rain of embers into the forest canopy.

She growled under her breath, lowering her singed cloak now marked with black soot. The embers had started to ignite the dry leaves and twigs in the canopy, the small fires growing rapidly. She shot the Huntsman a harrowing glare, and sank back into the darkness of the forest. The shouts of the dustborne and the crackling of the fire grew quieter as she got further away from her kill site.

She leapt from one tree to another with the practiced graceful skill she accumulated over her life. Push off with the dominant leg, catch with claws, pull forward, and push off once more. Her thoughts wondered further and further through the weave of her mind as she leapt from branch to branch.

The Dustborne... such odd creatures. They banded together to create massive above ground nests using stone they created and forged metal to make caves for themselves. The largest nests had caves the size of mountains. They gave their nests names like Vale and Forever Fall, but smaller nests must ally themselves to one of the four larger nests or be attacked either by a rival nest or the Grimm. They seemed so… uncoordinated and spread apart… but they were still able to control large portions of the land and drive the higher Grimm into hiding. Every High Grimm knew that when one Dustborne dies, a hoard comes for revenge. All this without even being able to access the Arcane Weave and use magic. How did the Dustborne even manage to spread as far as they did?

The Dustborne were so different from her kind. Scattered across the world, living solitary in their territories. Mothers raised the younglings for the first century of their lives, if that. They couldn't create their own energy, so they are forced to take it from creatures that could. The dustborne's powerful souls being the best source, making hunting them a dangerous but rewarding task. But even without souls, they could still access the ancient Weave and use it to alter and shape the world around them, with enough practice that is. Her arcane skills were still… lacking. She could only use minor spells to create embers and breezes, and make small protection wards that could survive a hit or two before breaking.

The scent of coal and sulfur wafted through the air, ripping her from her thoughts. She came to a stop, her claws ripping through the bark of a tree as she came to a stop. Why was she smelling fire? She was far from the warrior's accidental fire. Through the darkness of the trees a faint orange glow radiated, and the shattered moon was dulled by a wall of smoke. She leapt forward through the trees cautiously as she got closer to the source of the fire.

The cave she had been using for shelter had been engulfed in a roaring fire. At the mouth of the cave in a smoldering heap was her belongings. Animals parts and trinkets she had collected from her kills. She leapt from the tree tops and landed at her burning belongings, watching them dissolve into ash and into the wind. Her mind reeled through emotions as she watched her only safety and familiarity burn before her.

An explosion of the flames erupted from the maw of her small cave. She dove out of the way, landing with a skid on her back. Stepping out from the flames was another of her kind. Two wings of fire sprouted from their back, four blazing curved horns extended from their head. Their jaw extended across their face and up their cheeks. Their single red and black eye stared her down with absolute rage, the other half of their face was covered by bone plate decorated with burning red sigils.

"There you are~" They spoke in a soft feminine voice. "Rucar The Wolfborne."

She scrambled back up to her feet. "How do you know me?" She asked trying to recall her mother's teachings on handling members of their kind.

They flapped their wings and the fire roared brighter. "I've been searching for you for a long time Rucar. You're a sly little fox." It sounded like they was teasing her.

She grit her teeth and growled and she lowered her stance. "Fight or run?" The thought flashed through her mind like lightning.

The fire roared with wrath as their wings spread out wide. "Don't run." They started. "You won't get far." A sickening wide smile snaked across their face. They raised their clawed scaly arm and the inferno crescendod with ferocity as waves of flame and debris were sent hurtling at her.

Rucar felt an intense primal fear propel her legs backwards with frightening speed. All she heard was the backdrop of shattering trees, roaring flames, and the winged figure's maniacal giggling as the beating of her heart sounded through her entire body. The symphony of destruction grew louder as the orange glow of the flames got brighter and the heat of the flames could be felt on the back of her neck.

Rucar dove behind an ancient tree, narrowly avoiding a wave of fire rolling through her former path. The bottom of her cloak had been singed and darkened by the flames. It stung like hell. Her mind reeled and stumbled over itself. What is happening? RUN! Who is is? RUN! Where do I run too? JUST RUN!

She pushed off the ground and took off in a mad sprint, splinters and embers showering her as her former cover met a fiery end. Another shower of heat and dust erupted from her left, and another from her right. Her panicked mind pulled on a thread of arcane energy from the Weave, and her body surged with magical energy as it gathered in her legs and lungs. She was moving faster, her reactions quicker, and the world slower.

She kept sprinting, one foot in front of the other in an endless marathon for survival. The heat of the fires had long faded, and their lights disappeared in the darkness of the forest. The smoke from the inferno could be seen over the tree line, staining the moon a dirty gray.

The magic leaked from her muscles with each step, and her body could no longer take the stress of moving. She fell onto her stomach, sliding through the mud as the last of her momentum left. Her muscles were numb with white hot pain. Splinters had buried themselves in her legs, thankfully her plates protected her feet. Burns covered her cloak and back, the stinging was nearly mind numbing. Soot, ash, and mud caked her body, set on a matte bed of dried blood.

Liquid welled up in her eyes and trickled down her face. A mixture of the pain and the slow realization she had lost what little she had. That cave should not have meant anything to her, she called it a temporary shelter when she first found it. Yet as the weeks moved on, she wanted more and more to turn her temporary shelter in a den where she could grow her own territory. Just for to be ripped from her as she had become complacent.

Far off behind her an explosion of fire followed by a domino of trees echoed out. Fear struck through her as she realized, she was being hunted. That winged figure was burning down the entire forest to find her, and she was getting closer.

Her resolve and stubborn will bolstered, she crawled back up to her feet and kept walking. Her legs screamed in sharp pain as she moved, begging to rest, but if she stopped than that winged figure would find her. So she kept walking, limping, and stumbling through the forest. When her legs could no longer take it, she collapsed against a large tree.

"Where am I even going?" She panted under her breath. Her voice was dull and horse. "Should I just let that thing kill me?" The thought sent a cold chill down her spine and through her limbs. "No…" She panted out "There has to be a way out of this…" She turned her face towards the sky, it was just passed midnight. "Mother… help me." She begged towards the stars.

"Hello?"

Her head whipped around to the source of the voice. She peered around the tree and saw a dustborne adolescent with long brown hair wearing a simple tattered and worn outfit. Strapped to the dustborne's back was a wooden tool with a curved metal head, a scythe. The dustborne had a bruise over her right eye and tear streaks running down her face. The dustborne fight each other for fun… maybe it was cast out? That would explain why it's out so late at night.

"Is… is someone there? I heard a voice." The Dustborne's soft feminine voice was quaking. Rucar could smell the fear coming off her. The smell almost made her start drooling.

Why would there even be a dustborne this deep in the forest? Rucar tried to remap the area in her mind. She lived in the deepest areas farthest away from any dustborne nest, she had only found the ones with the deer that night because she had been hunting for food closer to their nest than usual. Probably how that warrior got there so fast. She must have crossed more ground than she thought and gotten to the outskirts of the nest.

The mud squelched as the dustborne took an uneasy step forward.

Rucar's mind wondered as she became drunk on the pain. The dustborne world extended far beyond the village and across the ocean, far larger than any territory held by her kind. None of her kind had ever entered the dustborne's lands before, always staying along its outskirts and using the lesser Grimm to reclaim land for their territories. Her mother told her that the dustborne may be weak alone, but together they were more powerful than any other creature on the planet.

Another wet squelch from the mud as the dustborne girl took another step. "Is someone there?" it's voice barely more than a whisper.

She reached up and sank her claws into the bark of the tree, pulling herself up into a crouched position. A low groan escaped her throat, her muscles stinging with pain. The forest would never be safe for her again, not with that thing hunting her down like how the warriors hunt her hounds. She was stuck between the dustborne and her lost territory.

The dustborne girl's wet footsteps grew closer.

An idea grew from the depths of Rucar's mind. If none of her kind could enter the dustborne world, than it would be the safest place for her to hide. The Weave of magic could let her do a number of things, hiding as a dustborne may be one of them. If she was to use magic to disguise herself she would need-

The dustborne girl screamed as she fell backwards into the mud. Fear glazed over her eyes as she stared up at Rucar.

Rucar grinned. "Food."

Rucar lunged at the dustborne girl and pinned her to the ground. The girl made a desperate grab for her scythe, but Rucar nailed the palm of her hand into the mud with a bone dagger. She grabbed the girl by the hair and slammed her head into the ground. A loud crack and the stench of blood wafted through the air, Rucar salivated at the delicious smell of iron and fear. The girl's blood pooled into the mud as her eyes faded as the last of her life bled out into the mud. Rucar's teeth sank into her flesh and ripped out flesh in wet bloody chunks. She felt energy pour into her body as the blood dripped down her throat. The soreness melted away with each bite of the girl's organs.

Another explosion and the crackling of splintering trees drove her from the ecstasy of her meal. She wiped the blood from her chin and rose back to her feet. She stumbled away from the corpse, while her soreness was gone, the numb feeling remained.

She waded into a small creek and went down to her knees. The water was oddly warm. She took a long look at herself in the reflection of the water. Her glowing red and black eyes were bloodshot, black liquid filling her red irises. Her translucent hood blew over her shoulders with a breeze, her jet black hair tipped crimson blew freely in the wind. Two wolf ears twitched in the rapidly warming air. The bone plate that covered her eyes and nose was streaked with mud, blood, and ash. With a solitary breath, she closed her eyes.

She reached out into The Weave and pulled on as much energy as she could. A disguise. That's what she needed…

The form of a dustborne.

The air began to tingle as magic swirled around her in small invisible strands. Her skin felt like the threads of a knitted blanket as the arcane energy weaved its way under her skin and through her body. The water under her suddenly started to feel cold… no the water wasn't cold, she was getting hotter. Her body temperature started to rise at a rapid pace. She felt all the air in her lungs vanish in an instant, she gasped for air and fell onto her hands and knees in the creek. The water was so cold.

She felt pressure against the skin under her plates and the air start to get colder all at once. Her head started to pound with pain, she could feel the veins in her skull throbbing with her heart beat. Pain crashed through her body like a tidal wave. Her body trembled and violently spasmed while she gnashed at the air with her fangs involuntarily. She fell onto her back, the cold water sending a shock through her body.

The pain was gone just as soon as it came, and she was left there motionless and gasping for air. She braced herself for the soreness of moving, but was shocked by how fluid and energized her body felt. She rolled over onto her hands and knees, taking note of how warm the water felt again. She shook the phantom pain out of her head and opened her eyes.

Something between confusion and joy filled her spirit as she looked into her reflection. Staring back at her was an unfamiliar face.

Soft pale skin now replaced her jet black fur and bony plates. She ran her hand over her new face. It was incredible how smooth and soft her skin was, it felt incredible. Her crimson and black eyes were gone, and staring back at her were brilliant silver eyes that seemed to sparkle in the moon light. Her hair fell down in front of her face, unlike her eyes and face, her hair seemed to have barely changed. It was still black with tips of blood red crimson. Two wolf ear protruded from the top of her head and wiggled in the warm air. She felt something twitch on her back, just over her rear. She looked over her shoulder and past the dustborne weapon she stole, and saw a small furry tail swaying with her breath.

She looked back down at her reflection and smiled at herself, her smile quickly turned to confusion when she caught sight of her teeth. She pulled back her lip with her finger, which still had bony claws at the end, and leaned in to inspect her teeth closer. Her fangs were gone, they had shrank down into canines. Her snout was gone too… her face was flat and her nose moved up her face.

Her cloak had separated from her body and become a garment she could take off, it felt weird, and not in a good way. The spell had seemingly turned her fur into a shirt and pants for her new form.

She stared at her new form in awe. The spell worked perfectly. Any dustborne would be fooled by this new form.

Another explosion, much closer than the last one, broke her trance. Rucar shot upright and looked behind her into the forest. The fire wasn't far behind her, and was only getting closer. The embers were being carried by the wind and landing in the tree tops, spreading the inferno towards the sky.

She couldn't waste anymore time. She grabbed the scythe from her impromptu meal and slung it over her shoulder with the other weapon. The girl came from past the creek, and the wind was carrying the smell of more dustborne from that direction. It was scary and against everything she had ever been taught, but she started walking towards the dustborne nest.

This new form moved differently, It stood more upright and took longer strides than her Wolfborne form. Rucar didn't have the luxury of testing this form and learning how to optimally move, she just had to keep running. Her stamina and endurance seemed to carry over from her Wolfborne form. She reached out to the weave to test if it would respond, and thankfully it did, the invisible strands of magic ready to be threaded into the physical world. She closed herself to the weave, satisfied she could still call on it if needed.

As she kept running it became more and more obvious to her that this plan to hide with the dustborne was… a little half thought. How was she supposed to hide with them if she didn't even know their language? Or their culture? Or even how to act like one!

Her doubts grew even louder as the faint glow of the dustborne nest came into view. The girl ran pretty far… Rucar came to a stop at a wooden creation just outside the nest. The creation was flat and upright, and had painted markings covering its surface. Was it writing? She had once seen her mother use magic to translate dustborne writing to find paths they traveled on. She'd preformed crazier magic this night… Rucar reached out to the weave and willed the strands to the writing. She watched as the markings glowed and a ghostly visage of their meaning in her tongue appeared.

Welcome to the Town of Flare

Home of Signal Academy

The smell suddenly made sense, there was a warrior training facility in this nest… well the words didn't call it a nest, they called this a Town. Rucar had never heard the word before… maybe it was what the dustborne word of nest? She tightened the ranged weapon and scythe on her back and pulled her cloak tighter around her body.

Curiosity got the better of her. She took the scythe off her back and scanned it for any more words. Scratched into its wooden shaft was another word, using the same spell, the word Rose hovered over the scratch marks. She scanned the other weapon, but there were no words on it. The little voice in the back of her head told her she had wasted enough time and needed to keep moving.

She slowly walked into the town, the feeling of anxiety building inside her with each step as she got closer and closer into the town. The smell of dustborne was thick as stone in the air with an underlying layer of panic as people were running out of their homes and looking out at the fire growing on the horizon.

Rucar could hear their chatter and panicked whispers. It would make her hungry if it wasn't for the anxiety. A dustborne made its way up to her and spoke to her in its tongue.

"Are you okay little girl?" She couldn't understand a word. All she could do was make small whimpering noises as she tried to string together the sounds to mimic his language. No… if she could use magic to hear and read dustborne, she could also use it to speak it.

She reached out out to the Weave, it willed its strings into her mind and ears. She coughed as a tingly feeling came over her throat. "W-Where... a-am… I-I?" her voice was much softer than she was expecting. The words felt alien. She knew what she was saying, and didn't at the same time. She knew the meaning in her own language, but had never heard the actual dustborne word before.

The dustborne looked over her with pity in his eyes. "Did you hit your head out in the woods?"

"I-I… uh… D-don't know…" She stammered out her response. The fear and anxiety kept rising inside her, and this dustborne could clearly sense it.

It soothed her and got down to her eye level. "Listen, that fire is getting really big and the Huntsmen are ordering an evacuation until the fire fighters can get here from the mainland." It felt weird knowing exactly what all the alien words meant institutionally. "There's a Huntsmen at the docks helping people onto the boat that will take them to the city. You need to get to him."

She had so many questions, what was a Huntsmen or a city? "C-city?" Her broken speech was something the spell couldn't fix. She'd have to learn to speech Dustborne on her own to sound proper.

"Vale." The dustborne responded, and her eyes went wide. Vale was one of the 4 biggest dustborne nests in the world. Every Higher Grimm knew to stay far away from them. This spur of the moment plan had already started to blow up in her face. Where was she supposed to get food in Vale? Or let this form slip and return to her Wolfborne form? Holding a spell for this long would strain her energy levels and she'd risk… A cold chill went down her spine and through her new tail.

The dustborne must have seen her rising panic and put its hands on her shoulders. "Hey everything is gonna be okay! Just go talk to the man at the docks!" It then pushed Rucar off in the direction all the other Dustborne were retreating. She raised her hood over her head and quietly melted into the crowd. Their smell was suffocating, and this new body had just as sensitive hearing as her Wolfborne form, every noise was deafening. It felt like every thing was closing in around her. She felt as though what was once her prey was going to trample her and leave her for dead. It was hard to breath in the mass of dustborne. She was suddenly stopped in her tracks by a Warrior looking down at her, what was the word the other dustborne used? Huntsman?

"I'm gonna need a name if you're gonna bring that rifle and scythe with you." It sounded calmer than she was expecting with all these creatures around. "Hello? Faunas girl?" She just stared back up at the warrior with fear as she made random stammered noises. "I just need your name kid."

Name… a dustborne name… the word on her scythe could be a name… She took a deep breath and speak in a voice barely above a whisper. "R-Rose…"

"That your first or last name?"

Panic washed over her again. Dustborne had two names!? "Uh… l-last?"

"Then whats your first name…?" The huntsman seemed to be loosing its patience.

She panicked and just said her real Wolfborne name aloud, but something odd happened… her spell translated her name into dustborne. "My name is Ruby-!" She blinked in surprise… why was there a dustborne word for her name?

"Alright Ruby Rose, take this ticket and show it to the guys in Vale." It tore off a piece of paper and handed it to her. She nodded and stepped up onto the boat without another word.

The boat smelled like the ocean as she expected, but the smell of dustborne had been baked into every surface. She sighed as she reluctantly accepted that this would be her life for the foreseeable future. She only had to spend a little bit of time in Vale before she could find a new territory to rest. Maybe she could move closer to a town, it would have more stable food, and she could hide among them.

She found a quiet corner near the front of the ship to curl up inside her cloak. So much had changed in just a few hours… Her home had been lost, burned to the ground along with the forest she had been hunting in. Where did that High Grimm come from? How did she find Rucar? She said that she had been searching for Rucar for a long time, what did that even mean?

A sharp stinging pain radiated through her entire body making her recoil and pull herself into a tighter ball. She felt her magic leaking out of her body like needles being forcefully being ripped out of her skin. She focused as hard as she could through the pain to keep as much of it insider her as possible. Her adrenaline and fear had given her a greater control over the weave than she had ever expected capable of her, but as her body and mind calmed, the magic she could use lowered and it started to leave her body. She growled through the pain as she sat upright again, fatigue setting over her body like a suffocating blanket.

Using magic for so long put considerable strain on her body, draining it of energy fast. If she ran out of energy than her dustborne disguise would start to fade and if she ran out then… another cold chill went down her spine. She'd have to find a balance of using her powers and keeping her energy levels up. She immediately dispelled her translation spell, and kept her hearing translation up. Listening to dustborne conversations could prove useful. If she was going to spend any amount of time in or around Vale, she'd have to learn the dustborne language so she wouldn't have to rely on magic.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a hard leather object hitting her square in the chest. She panicked and looked up, and saw three dustborne younglings had thrown something at her. The tallest laughed at her expression and pointed at her, "You get out of your cage faunas?"

She blinked in confusion. What was a faunas? The huntsman at the dock called her that too. Was a faunas somehow different than a regular dustborne? The children kept yelling things at her, referring to her as an animal. But she wasn't an animal, she was a dustborne, or she appeared as one at least. A dustborne adult came to the children and started to scold them and they all left her alone after that.

Rucar looked down at the object that was thrown at her. It was a book. She used her magic to read the title. The Man with Two souls. She looked around to see if she was alone and opened the book out of curiosity. Maybe it would help her understand the dustborne world better. She only got a few pages in before her head started to hurt. Having to end and recast the translation spell on every page got tiring very quickly.

She set the book aside and started to look at the dustborne walking around the ship, and from what little she had read, the dustborne call themselves Human. It was weird trying to change how she referred to them in her head but she had to try. She didn't want weird looks for calling someone a dustborne later.

She spotted an interesting dust- human man wearing clear crystals on his face attached to his ears by metal frames. She asked him and he said they were glasses and they helped him see. That gave her an idea. She went back to her small spot and cast her translation spell, not on the book, but on her eyes. When she opened her eyes she could read all human text as clear as day. It was still draining to use for a long period of time, but it was better than the alternative.

She picked the book back up and kept reading, she savored each and every word. The humans were far more intelligent than she ever thought. The book not only taught her things the humans would consider common knowledge, but it was also very enjoyable! She was disappointed when the ship docked and she had to stop reading to get off. She followed the crowd off the boat and was hit with the overwhelming amount of new smells in the city. It wasn't only the familiar scent of human souls, but metal, and smoke. The smell alone was extremely overwhelming, but the moving crowds weren't giving her a second to adjust to the environment as they kept pushing her forward. She was pushed down a ramp and onto a hard stone path with the human made caves on either side… there were probably better words for these things that she didn't know yet.

A man at the bottom of the ramp stopped her and puller her aside. "You have papers for those weapons?" His gaze was narrow and sharp. Rucar gave him the paper the huntsman at the port gave her an hour ago. He took it and looked it over. "All right get out of here." He crushed the paper and tossed it aside and went back to the ship. She shrugged and followed him back to the people offloading from the boat, but the man stopped her again. "I said get out of here, I'm sure there's some faunas nest near by you can hide in."

So the spell gave her a faunas form and not a human form, but what was the difference? She looked the same as the man harassing her. Were the faunas lesser than the humans? More primitive in some way? That would make her disguise even harder to manage.

The man pulled a blade from his back and pointed it at her. "I said scram!" His voice made the other humans on the ship weary. The attention made her nervous so she pulled her hood over her head and walked away.

The scent of human souls only grew stronger as the salt from the ocean got further away. The streets of the city were completely empty with only the occasional rodent to break the silence. She tried to ignore them, but her hunger got the better of her as she lunged at a large rat, catching it in her claws. She licked her lips as she bit down into the rodents body. The energy in its body was minimal, barely enough to consider a snack, but after the night of stress she had been through it felt like she had found the only water for a hundred miles in a desert. She swallowed the rest of the rat whole and got up to her feet, now able to think a little clearer.

This was a massive city and with dustborne infesting it like maggots in a corpse. She needed a place to call safe, somewhere to retreat to if things got dangerous. She'd also need to know how to defend herself. Her mother used a scythe and taught her to use one very early on, but she also taught her to be a master of every tool at her disposal. That would mean she'd have to learn how to use the… what did the huntsman call it… the rifle she stole from her pray. That already felt like a lifetime ago…

If it was a weapon, then there must be a place that barters them. She could go to one to learn how it operated and if it needed maintenance. She looked up at the moon, it was past its apex, the odds of finding a person awake bartering rifles was low, but what choice did she have.

Navigating the city was difficult. The signs at the corner of each road meant little to her without reference, and they didn't give any hint as to where her theoretical location might be. She found several caves, which she quickly learned were called buildings, open but she was met with varying levels of hostility for being a faunas just as she had at the docks and on the boat. It didn't help her search that she kept getting lost. Eventually she came to a building with its light on and a big sign that read From Dust Till Dawn.

She nervously entered the shop and looked around. An old human man stood behind the counter unpacking some boxes. He smiled when he saw her and waved at her to come closer. Rucar nervously approached the man. "Y-you aren't going to kick me out for being a faunas?" She was a little surprised, the hatred to faunas seemed universal in her brief experience.

The man behind the counter looked shocked and offended. He pointed to a sign on his counter that proudly read in bold font. 'Proudly serving all customers, both human and faunas'. She nodded and smiled. "Thank you sir. I have some questions about this weapon." She carefully placed the rifle on the table and slide it over to the man. He picked it up and nodded to himself as he looked it over. He set it down with a faint grunt and walked to the back of the store and came back with a manual. Rucar smiled, "Thank you sir." She picked up her rifle and the magazine and turned to leave. He tapped her on the shoulder and pointed at a machine next to him with an odd symbol and some numbers after it.

Rucar read about this in her book! He wanted money for the magazine, but she didn't have any money to pay him with… Her face flushed red as she set the manual back down. "I'm sorry… I don't have any money. My home just burned down with everything I owned and I was brought here on a boat so I don't have anything to trade you for."

The man looked at her with sympathy, it wasn't a look she was used to. He ran back into the aisles and returned with a small box of things. He gave her ammo for her rifle, a scope, a sharpening stone for her scythe, several vials of crystal powder, and a satchel to hold it all in.

Rucar was stunned by his generosity. After all the hostility towards her dustborne form and her entire childhood of learning to fend for herself, this felt odd, almost like a trap. "I couldn't possibly take all this-…"

The man opened his mouth to insist, but a voice at the door cut him off before he could speak. "Well if you won't then it'd be a shame to let it all go to waste." She turned and was greeted by a human man in a white suit with bright orange hair flanked by five other men in black suits. "Take the dust." He ordered the men behind him. The 5 humans smiled to each other as they started breaking open the glass displays and taking the colorful crystals inside. Rucar could smell the fear wafting off the kind old man.

"Whats happening?" She asked stepping in front of the orange haired man.

He sighed and leaned against his cane, checking his nails superfluously. "Its a robbery sweetheart. Stand to the side and I'll maybe let you live."

Anger swelled in her. How could this man rob an older member of his kind? And one so generous to others. "You can't! I won't let you!" She raised her voice, her tone slipping into a growl.

"Oh really little Red?" He sounded unamused. "What are you gonna do?"

He got his response as she grabbed him by the collar and threw him through the door, shattering it into splinters. The man tumbled in the streets and came to a stop in the middle of the road missing his hat. He looked at Rucar with a stunned expression. "What are you idiots doing!? Kill her!"

The five men still in the shop pulled out swords and charged at Rucar. She jumped up onto the counter letting the five men run into each other headfirst. She grabbed her scythe from her back and swung down at them. The blade caught the first man and threw him into the others like a wrecking ball. She used the pommel of her scythe to crush that man's knee, even in a dustborne's body, she still had her supernatural strength.

She grabbed the rifle from the counter and pointed it at the next man. She pulled the curved metal piece and it let out a loud boom that rung in her ears. He toppled over clutching his stomach, a crimson stain spreading on his black suit. The smell of blood entered Rucar's nose and she started salivating.

She was pulled back to reality as another one charged at her swinging his sword. She grabbed his arm and flipped him over her head twisting his arm the wrong way with a satisfying snap and scream. The sound made her smile with joy, but the moment didn't last long as she was grabbed from behind by the fourth man and wheels around to meet the blade of the fifth. She growled as she kicked upwards at the human's arm, making him drop the blade while she headbutted the one holding her. She heard his nose crack and the smell of blood filled her head again.

Her voice left her as her growls took over. She slashed the dustborne's face with her claws, ripping out its eye. She turned and lunged at the other one ripping open his chest with her claws. Drool rolled down her lip as she took in the lovely metallic smell of aura rich blood. She bore her fangs, ready to sink into the dustborne's neck, when an explosion ripped through the front glass window of the store.

"You are one annoying little bitch Red." The man in white commented as he lowered his cane.

Rucar came back to reality just in time to gather herself. Now isn't the time to feed. She grabbed her scythe from the floor and pulled the strands of magic into her legs as she took off with explosive speed towards the man outside. She cut him clean in two with one slash, but when she expected to get sprayed with blood and gore as humans normally did when cut in half, he exploded into shards of glass. She looked around confused as to what had happened, but saw no trace of the man anywhere.

She let out a low growl of frustration as she went back into the shop. She found the old man cowering under the counter. "Are you alright kind man?" She asked as nicely as she could for not knowing the language very well. The man looked up at her and nodded. "Is it alright if I still take the things you wanted to give me?" The man smiled and nodded again. Rucar bowed and began gathering the things into the bad.

When she stood up she bowed to the man again and turned to leave. She had barely made it onto the street when a new voice yelled at her. "You there! Stop!" It was a feminine human voice. Rucar turned and saw a stern looking woman in white with a purple cape and riding crop at her side giving her a death glare. Rucar could tell by her scent she was a Huntress, and a very powerful one. She bent her knees getting ready to run, if she was so powerful then she might have seen through her disguise after nearly feeding on one of those robbers.

The huntress started walking towards her and Rucar took off running. She didn't make it far, she ran right into a human man and she fell to the ground. The man had silver gray hair and a dark green suit. Rucar couldn't smell his aura… maybe it was covered up by the huntress and blood. What she could smell off him was… old… very very old. The man smiled down at her and held out a hand to help her up.

She reluctantly took his hand and stood up. "Who are you?" her entire body was on high alert.

"My name is Ozpin." He responded with a calm and soothing voice. "What's your name?"

Rucar had a brief moment of panic again. Now was the time for her to decide, was she Rucar The Wolfborne, or would embrace embrace her new spur of the moment identity. She didn't think for long and looked back up at the man. "My name is Ruby Rose, sir."

Ozpin nodded and took a sip from a cup he was carrying around. "Ruby Rose…" He let the name hang in the air for moment, as if he was pondering its meaning and origin. "You have… silver eyes."