"There" Mädchen Frau, said smiling at me while Corporal David Korporal smirked, I was just sitting there in the lady soldier's armour. My tail wagging slightly behind me as Mädchen carefully put her helmet on my head, the visor up and my ears down. "You look combat ready!" She chriped making me giggle, taking hold of the corners of my cloak and flapping it slightly. The bond woman clapped her hands while I inspected the armour, it wasn't too heavy and it felt like it could hold up to a few hits, the headvest and the strongest part seemed to be the helmet.
"Hang on" the corporal then said getting up as the scanners started to beep. I just sat confused on what's going on "lancers" he growled as an image of a giant wasp filled my mind... I'm scared of bees! Never mind giant wasps! I yelped when a massive hook made of bone penetrated the speedship's hull, speedships are ment to be faster then lancers! "You fly over anima and this is what you get" corporal Korporal growled charging into the cabin and grabbing a rifle to shoot off the stinger as three more penetrated the metal ship, at this point I could hear the humming of wings. I growled pulling out my concealed knife and sawing though as many of these annoying stingers as I could but as Mädchen pulled me away from the walls I got the message that it was pointless. "We're like a can of sardines here" he growled as the humming got louder, metal crunched and groaned as the engine failed to over come the Grimm. "Frau, hold her" he ordered just as the speed ship was ripped in two, cracking open like a very advanced and expensive egg. I screamed ducking into a tight ball to feel a stinger bounce off the helmet I was still wearing until a body gripped onto my shirt as my rushing decent quickened.
This stunt only lasted around twenty seconds as there was a horrible crack filled my ears, a cry of pain, and then an impact, a relatively soft impact that punched all the air out of me. I gasped, coaghing and I felt a lot of hay, in fact I was on top of a huge pile of it in a barn with a huge hole in the roof, that must cause a few leaks, whoever owns this barn should really get that fixed. "Ow~" someone groaned, it wasn't Corporal Korporal he was rolling about with gritted teeth holding onto his arm.
That means it must be... "Mädchen!" I squeaked clambering over the piles of hay as my shoulder ached and complained about movement, but I rather quickly found the soldier, who smiled looking at me.
"Well hello" she said pushing herself up and taking her helmet off my head. "Are you ok?" She asked as I nodded slipping off the hay pile and shivering, I really did hate hay, after that one time I sat with beast and I found a load of "not mud" I will never look at hay the same way again.
And then this weird sound reached my ears, it was like chirping but really low and not from a raven or even a crow. "What is this?" I asked crouching down infront of a fat bird thing that had small little wings and was brown, maybe it was some kind of duck, Weiss said that there was lots of different types of ducks not just the white ducks with orange mouthes.
"Its a chicken" someone else said, I looked to see a woman, who was about my mother's age, she was holding a pitchfork very much like the one my stepmother threatened the new teacher with accept this one was pointed at me, making me back up "be glad you fell in this here barn or you probably won't be standing" she said putting the pitchfork down "Where are your parents little girl?" She asked as I just stared at her, before scrambling back up the hay pile, pulling at the delirious Mädchen.
"Y-yeah I'm coming" she said holding onto her head and helmet while she slid down the side of the hay pile to meet with this woman. Mädchen almost instantly made eye contact with the scary lady "Atlas military escort, sorry about the inconvenience but we have appeared to have crashed into your barn" she said looking around as Corporal Korporal continued to roll about before finally slipping down the hay pile clutching his arm.
The woman just looked at us thinking before she sighed "do you want some tea?"
-{ line brake }-
"This is Ruby Rose, co ambassador of the Faunas free rights movement, she's under our protection until she's in Atlas with miss Schnee" Corporal Korporal informed motioning to where I was sitting munching on butter cookies, while Mädchen splinted his arm
"She doesn't look like much of a ambassador" the woman then said tapping her chin, I found out her name is achally Petra Pine, not that I would remember, achally I would, she gave me sweets.
"Apparently miss Schnee thought a wolven Faunas would be a better option other then a human who's heir to the SDC, and no better ambassador then the young miss' girlfriend" he said sighing slightly "initially the plan was to accompany her on a airbus to Atlas with the rest of the evacuation, but since wolven Faunas are incredibly hard to move when stressed we missed the busses so we flew a speedship Destin to Argus, but there is a lancer field above your farm"
"The lancer field is a few miles back, you must have dragged them a fair way, probably why your not right dead now"
"They did try and get this one, but luckily she had Frau's armour on"
"And you agreed with me, she looked cute" Mädchen chriped cheerfully, as she finished her neat splint "alright you next, you've been rather lame on that shoulder" she said pulling me over to her as I growled gripping onto the table, that is until she hooked her arm around the plate of butter cookies and pulled them infront of her. "Now your my friend" she smirked as I came over to her nibbling on the little biscuits while she poked and prodded at my shoulder.
"She did look very cute" Corporal Korporal agreed making Petra smile, sipping on her tea. "But she's not here to play dress up"
"What are your names?you know mine and I know her's"
"Ah, I'm corporal David Korporal, this is Mädchen Frau, we are wolven Faunas specialists, and military personnel"
"Corporal twice? Weird parents"
"No, you miss understood, my rank is corporal my last name is korporal with a K" he laughed.
"I struggled to understand that, let alone miss steal all my biscuits" she said almost scowling at me.
"They're good~" I whined making her scowl turn into a small smile, that is until I almost bit the person pokeing a massive angry mark on my shoulder.
"Let her go, your not going to get anything done with her like that" Petra then interrupted as Mädchen quickly let go. watching as I rolled my shoulder did the woman smelling strokingly of pine needles walk closer her eyes squinting "You need to recognise what kind of personality you are dealing with, otherwise you'll have an angry Faunas biting you, I highly doubt she will though, that jaw must be very sore"
I just looked at her half way between shock and annoyance, she just walked over to me rapping her arm under my arms and pulling me over to her side of the table, making sure to set the plate of butter cookies infront of me as I curled my tail around myself, feeling her rub over my shoulders. "Off" I said pushing at her before her arm rapped back around my chest squeezing me lightly.
"No" she just said rubbing along my back, almost making me melt into her arms "She did nothing too serious, it was just nocked the wrong way" she concluded before I started to nibble on her sleeve pulling at the fabric. "Look at you, I thought something was off" she smiled stroking over my ears as I huffed.
"She doesn't let me even get close to her" Corporal Korporal grumbled.
"What are you saying? She got pretty close to you when she tried to smash your head into the wall" Mädchen snickered as I giggled remembering his shouts of complaint.
"You soldiers are only trained for disaster control, my sister used to foster a wolf a while ago and I picked up a few things" Petra then said "But I have to say, I've never seen a wolven Faunas with such expensive clothing"
"She's Weiss Schnee's girlfriend, probably spoilt beyond end" Corporal Korporal sighed watching as I continued to pull at Petra's sleeve as I chewed it's hemp fibers. "Thank you for letting us stay here until your tractor is fixed"
"Yes yes, but your working off the bill for the barn you broke" she warned as the two soldiers sighed "my nephew will be returning from the fields in a few minutes, he'll fix the roof while you do his work and a bit extra for the expense." She instructed
"What about her?" Mädchen asked motioning to me.
"Wolven Faunas can be hard to wake up in the morning let alone get dressed, and besides I'm not prepared for a prison sentence for forcing a ambassador of a beloved minority group of a minority group into back braking work" she smiled rubbing my back up and down before giving it a few pats "You two are sleeping in the barn, that's where the spare room is"
"Ah, again what about her? You can't honestly be expecting us to leave her here unattended?"Corporal Korporal grumbled.
"She will be here, my nephew occupies the only other room and I don't think any of us would be willing to share, the barn only has two beds and no heating, and I will warn you now, she will not take well to the cold, a few blankets and a pillow on the sofa will surfice"
"Fine" he muttered crossing his arms, as I wiggled a bit trying to get free from Petra's arms before she reached over pulling the cookies back to me as I almost rapped myself around the sugary treats before cramming a few in my mouth.
"How come I'm not allowed any more then three?" A male voice then said from the door way as my eyes grew wide, it was the boy! I don't know his name but he's the boy who was in my disturbing deams!
"Because she's all skin and bones" Petra smiled moving round for the boy with a dirty once white shirt suspenders, sepia hair, freckles and a colourful hankacheif, to then sit down and start making himself some tea. "And that's the only way she's going to stay still"
"Who are these people?" He asked while the two soldiers dissgused something in atlestian, a language I only understood to a point, and that point was very limited.
"Atlas specialists, they fell through the barn, this one is an ambassador, apparently" she said as I then whined at the fact I ran out of biscuits, she sighed her grip loosening as she let me go "hold on" she sighed walking away with a noticeable limp, before coming back with another plate of butter cookies. I smiled my tail wagging as I continued my absent munching, my legs swinging over the edge of my chair from where I
.sat Petra dropped herself down, massaging her leg as I then looked down at my own.
"My leg used to hurt too" I then said looking at her as she gave me her attention "and then it got cut off" I grunted, reaching down and pulling back up the shiny metal leg I need to walk, run, and stand.
"How in the world?" She asked running a hand over the tinted black and red limb.
"A while ago, one of my teammates was stabbed and a mean guy tried to hurt my big sister, I pushed her out of the way" I said remembing the moment vividly, I shook the moment off a few moments later before grabbing my leg and strapping it back on, giving it a quick Bend and then shovelling more biscuits in my mouth.
"I didn't know you had a big sister"Mädchen commented reaching over a little to take hold of my hand.
"Yeah, she's super cool" I smiled my tail wiggling behind me on it's own accord. Mädchen just smiled as I then yawned loudly, that signalled bed time, I just watched as the two soldiers where ushered out of the house while I cocooned myself in all but two of the blankets in this house. A suitable nest, but I would much rather have my sister or Weiss or someone to sleep next to me.
-{ line brake }-
*bang* *bang* *bang* *bang*
"Nail" Corporal Korporal requested holding out his splinted arm for me to pass him the little metal stud. Apparently I'm not allowed to used the hammer after I threw it at a tree and accidentally killed a bird, and then pine over it's lost life, it was a crow ! Poor birdy shouldn't have died so young! "Nail" he asked again as I gave him another one from where I sat on top of the roof with a little sun hat on to keep the mid afternoon heat off my head, it's been around three days now and Corporal Korporal was still trying to fix the roof of the barn. Or should I say the roof roof of the barn barn?
No matter, it has been fun with the pines, Petra was nice, her nephew was weird but fun, and the two soldiers where... interesting to say the least, but I was missing my parents. "Hey, you two up there, your going to need another bored!" Oscar shouted as Corporal Korporal rapped his arm around my waist and climbed down the ladder.
"Hold on" he advised as I gripped onto his shoulder waiting for him to then drop me onto the floor quickly grabbing my shirt when I stumbled backwards "alright let's get that wood" he said.
"Yeah!" I chriped looking around the dusty court of the farm finding nothing but Petra collecting water while the other pine was leading a massive black and white patchy weird horse with four dangly things underneath it "What's that?" I asked tugging at Corporal Korporal's sleeve.
"Err that's a dairy cow" he said while trying to manoeuvre a huge plank of wood one handedly "You go, I need to find Frau" he sighed walking off as I wandered over to the large animal munching on hay.
"Hey there" oscar then greeted reaching for my head but I leaned away, just very curious with this so called dairy cow. "Her name's dolly, doesn't bite if that's what your worried about" he smiled as I reached out for it's nose, much like I do with beast, but instead it did nothing just sniffing my hand for a second and that's it. "Cows are a bit boring, but do you want to know something cool they came do?" He asked as I nodded curious to what he was implying, before he then put his hands under my arms and lifting me up onto the bovine's back I giggled "their really strong" he smiled making the big spotted animal go in a circle I smiled my tail wagging as I slipped off the animal "maybe later you can come with me into town, I need to get some more strawberries for pie later" he said as I nodded my head vigorously.
"Strawberries!" I cheered making him smile.
-{ line brake }-
"All I'm saying is that I can't imagine how you could have trained for so long for one profession"
"I only trained for five years before Beacon, big sis was training for seven" i informed watching the two large bulls pull our cart.
"How though?! Hunting is such a dangerous profession and you can snatch a fly out of the air with chopsticks"
"Its really not all that hard once you get your semblance, my semblance allows me to turn into rose pettles, but it also speeds me up a lot, so everything is really slow for a little bit"
"You have a semblance?"
"I wouldn't be a very good team leader if I didn't" I answered smartly as I can with a brilliant shining pearly white smile.
"Did your mother teach you how to use your semblance?" He asked as I nodded
"Mummy and mummy raven both taught me how to fight, I was really bad and now I'm all like howar cha yar jap jap" I said making fighting movements and making the younger boy laugh.
"I could never be able to fight like you, apart from the odd" he said before picking up a pitchfork and spinning it about, that is until it hit the side of the cart and event flying, signalling for him to stop the two cows.
"If I did that in battle I'll be made to run ten laps around the school" I commented slipping down and picking up the pointy stick, doing a few lunges and then going through a few rythums and then scareing the heck out of Oscar.
"Alright then" he declared, pulling the pitchfork out of my hands and helping me back on the cart, and then away we went, very slowly. cows are just slow, if this was beast he would be racing about and it would take forever for him to get to the actual destination, not because he's slow too, but because he's so excitable he will run all over the place. " My mother wasn't a huntress like yours but she did help defend the village"
"Mummy does that too! She defends vale" I smiled my tail hitting the wooden backing of the chair with a few loud thumps at the valued memory of my mother slicing down bad guys.
"Isn't your mother a wolf Faunas?" Oscar asked as I nodded
"Yeah but everyone says she's really weird and let her do loads of stuff that I can't and it's really annoying" I pouted not very happy about my mother's apparent advantages. To be fair, she is oddly normal, but still super awsome, and I love her for it all the same.
"You do a lot of things that I'm not allowed to, your two years older then me, why are you not allowed to do things?"
"I don't know, mummy said it was because sometimes things can be scary and I would be too scared of it, but I fight Grimm without being scared! They can be scary!"
"Well, Grimm are scary, but things can be scaryer" Oscar commented before squinting ahead "hold on" he smiled whipping the rains of the two cows and making them both charge ahead, making me squeak at the sudden increase of speed, and then gripping onto the young boy's side.
I complerely missed his smile as the old wooden cart trundled along the dirt road, bumping up and down on the occasional rock. As it sped into a small town my ears where filled with people calling other to market, animals crying for food, the sound of metal being pounded in the blacksmiths. I looked around curiously as my nose started to twitch at the scent of blood from the butchers, but there was one thing that captivated me, the bakery.
"Hey Oscar! How's your aunt?" Someone asked as I continued to stare at the bakery, my nose wiggling and I was already half way out the cart. "Who's the girl?"
"This is Ruby, she fell through the roof of the barn" Oscar smiled taking hold of my hand to help me down, but I was fixated on the bakery. "We can get some pastrys later if you want but not now" he said as I nodded letting him pull me down.
"Little thing isn't she?" The large man with a big black heavy apron said rubbing his thick furry beard.
"Yeah, not sure why" Oscar then said patting my shoulder as I stroked the big head bull at the front of the cart.
"What's your name little girl?" The large man asked as I looked at him, taking note of the two goat ears on his head.
"Ruby" I answered simply my tail curling around my leg with nervousness as I stuck close to the young boy watching as he payed for some hay to then be loaded onto the back of the cart.
"That's a very nice name, my name is (random whatever) I'm a friend of Oscar's" he smiled as I gave him a little smile of my own, but I Still stayed very close to the boy, too many people where around and I really didn't like the crowd. I don't know if it's about my nature, or if it's the fact I'm about four foot tall, but I just don't like crowds. "She doesn't say much doesnt she?"
"She wasn't like this on the way here" Oscar said scratching his head before rubbing my ear smiling as I leaned into his hand.
"She's so short, the crowd is probably a little too much" the man concluded, he patted one of the cows uncuppling it from the harness "put her up here" he said patting the animal's back, before then dusting it off.
Oscar nodded looking down at me as I looked up at him, that cow is huge, if you think I can get up there then I'm worried if you got kicked in the head. That is before he awkwardly lifted me up and sat me on the huge cow that flicked it's ear not bothering at all. I smiled at my new advantage point, I could see clear across the whole market from up here!
"See, she looks a lot better up there" the tall man laughed patting the bull as I smiled my tail wagging a little as I rubbed the furry warm mass of muscle, skin and fat before I layed down on my stomach on the bull's back my tail swishing happily. As even laying down I was at shoulder hight to Oscar, it was fun. "Aright, I'll leave you two to it, go easy on her Oscar" he said patting the boy as I lounged on the huge cow's back, liking the warm sun against my own back, but I didn't like it in my eyes.
Oscar seemed to get the message and whent off to get the list which Petra requested, leaving me to bask and "defend the cart"
-{ line brake }-
" Yeah it's too hot for her" Petra then said as I layed about on a deck out front of her house, Corporal Korporal was still up on the roof trying to get a board in place, Mädchen was working on fixing the tractor and Oscar was off feeding the cows the hay he bought. " Come on, come inside and I'll get you something cool to drink" Petra smile crouching down and stroking my cheek with her finger I grunted, flicking my ear slightly before sitting up, a dazed look on my face, in vale it is winter, here it's Summer! It's hot it's dusty it's annoying, its frigidly cold at night and blistering hot in the day, I suppose I could go inside, I suppose I could get something to drink, but I really couldn't be bothered to get up.
*CAWR CAWR*
Was that what I think it is?
"Birdie!" I cried, shocking Petra who took a step back while I activated my semblance and intercepted the raven mid flight, giggling happily when it nuzzled into my cheek. And as I was caught by a frantic Mädcheni I beamed up at her, looking at her oil covered face with sheer joy.
"What have you go there?" She asked as I smiled incredibly happy with my catch, especially if it's what I think the nice red eyed bird is.
"Birdy!" I chriped holding up the black feathery thing holding it properly like my mother told me to.
"Did you catch that? That's very nice Ruby, but you have to let it go" she advised as I shook my head hugging the bird close to my chest.
"No" I staited, as she then stood me on my feet, giving me a stern look I then shook my head again. "My birdy!"
"Ruby, please let it go" she said very nicely, but I stood firm refusing at all costs to let the bird which was currently pecking through my hair and pulling out bits of hay.
"No, special birdy" I smiled letting go as it hopped onto my shoulder pecking at the edges of my ear and flicking away a bit of gravel.
"Fly away!" Mädchen said trying to shoo the bird which hissed at her, fanning out it's grate black wings and tail in a defensive display. I giggled grabbing the bird as it struggled but it all stopped as I hugged it, and then it pecked at my bad shoulder making me let go. "Fly now! Go!" Mädchen said to the bird that shook of a load of dirt from it's feathers before as I suspected it transformed in a column of feathers.
And there stood my very tattered stepmother who charged forwards at once, swooping me up in her arms. "Oh my baby girl, mummy's missed you so much" she muttered into my ear while I clung onto her like my life depended on it.
"Birdy" I mumbled into her shoulder, her hand running circles over my back, her own face nestled into my hair muttering a string of appologies one after another about why she just couldn't find me.