Rose Pedals in the Snow

Wanderer

"Ouch!"

The little girl fell into the snow from the impact of Ruby's snowball.

"No fair Miss Ruby, you're too fast."

"Oh?" Ruby smiled and put her hands on her hips. "I suppose I could go easy on you, if you really want me to."

The girl pouted and turned her head. The rest of the children wandered over now that Ruby was the last man standing. The boys praised her for being "super cool and strong," which managed to drag a blush out of her. She had (sort of) won fair and square, though whether or not a semblance of speed was cheating was probably something worthy of debate.

"I demand a rematch," said one of the boys.

"Fine," replied one of the others. "But only if we play teams, and Miss Ruby gets to be on our team!"

"What? No way."

Ruby tried to calm them down, but to no avail whatsoever. She was barely more than a kid herself, after all. All the village children were having a snowball fight. Apparently to put Ruby to the test.

"Only if Matt gets to play too."

"No way he's joining, how about—"

The static from Ruby's two-way radio interrupted whatever that next thought was going to be. It was a cheap, old model, but the village couldn't really afford any of the nicer technology. Ruby's mobile wouldn't be so useful. Plus the signal was atrocious this time of the year anyways.

"Hun—...northeast, about—...—minutes—"

Ruby pushed the button on the radio. "Can you say that again please?"

"Hunter, there's a wolf approaching from the northeast. Five minutes."

"Hokay. On my way."

The kids looked up at Ruby, the expression on their faces more somber than they were just seconds ago. They had overheard the conversation which meant that Ruby couldn't play with them anymore. It also meant there was a substantial amount of danger in the area, but Ruby didn't know if the children really comprehended that level of detail.

"Sorry kids, duty calls."

"Can you play with us after?"

Ruby nodded and punched the air. "Of course I can."

She made her way north just as the adults started rushing towards to grab their children and get them safe. The village was small and didn't have much in ways of defenses, so they had to be really careful. There were dangerous things in the woods and the safety of the city was a long ways off.

At the north gate of the village Ruby found a couple of men holding spears and one holding binoculars. When he saw Ruby approach he handed them to her and she took a look to where he was pointing. Approaching cautiously was a Grimm. Similar in shape to a wolf, but it had no fur. Just black skin made of shadow.

Ruby drew her weapon and planted it into the ground, extending the barrel, flipping up the scope and loading in one of her special cartridges. The wolf approached steadily, but it was far off enough for Ruby to be able to aim. She lined the wolf up in her sights, made several adjustments, then drifted the rifle a good deal above and to the right of where the wolf actually was.

Sniping was always hard during the winter. The weather ruined everything.

—Bang.

A single shot rang out. A second passed before the screams of a dying Grimm echoed throughout the forest. Ruby looked up from her scope, and used the binoculars again. That seemed to be the only one.

"Is that it? Is it over?" Asked one of the men. Ruby shrugged.

"They travel in packs, so there's more in the area. If we're super lucky they'll take the loss of their friend as a sign to retreat."

"And if we're not so lucky?"

"Then they'll just get angry." Ruby handed the binoculars back to the man. "You should double up your watches for the next few days, if you can."

Ruby redid the scarf around her neck and pulled up her hood. It was getting colder and the snow started to fall again. It was just a light snowfall for now, but the clouds were dark and dismal. Ruby had seen these sorts of formations enough times before to know that it could easily turn into a blizzard.

The villagers themselves knew it too, probably far better than Ruby did. One of the guardsmen tried to catch Ruby's attention. She was spacing out looking up at the clouds. Winter was one of her more favorite seasons after all.

"Uh, Miss Hunter?"

"Hmm?" Ruby looked down. "Oh, I'm sorry, gah. What did you say?"

The man chuckled. "If you'd like, you're welcome to stay in my home tonight. I'll probably be on watch but the wife'll love to have ya. You shouldn't sleep out in that tent in weather like this."

Ruby waved her hand back and fourth. "It's really not a bother, I shouldn't impose."

"Nonsense, I really insist."

"Right Jim," said one of the others. "And then the hunter will just happen to be around your wife in case anything bad happens."

"H-Hey, I never—"

"Now now," Ruby said. "I guess it can't hurt. Thank you for your hospitality."

The man named Jim puffed up his chest. "See? I'm a gentleman."

"Right."

Jim's wife was a lovely lady. She made Ruby a nice hot bowl of chicken soup, which wasn't particularly fancy in any way but was delicious all the same. Ruby had soup all the time but it was always out of a can. Such was the life of being on the road. When the ingredients were fresh though it was like eating something else entirely.

They didn't have an extra bed but Ruby was content sleeping on the couch. Considering her other option tonight was a sleeping bag in a tent. Plus when the blizzard started Ruby knew she made the right choice.

Not that she would really get all that much sleep. She wanted to do her part, and did patrols with the other guards looking out for Grimm. The type that had approached the village tended to hunt at night so it was most likely they would attack now if they would attack at all. Though Ruby wasn't sure if they would be willing to take advantage of the blizzard, or if they would rather take shelter from it.

"Bad news," someone shouted. Ruby turned around to see a frantic look on the face of one of the guards. "One of the children has gone missing."

"Do you—"

"We found tracks leading into the northern forest, but we lost the trail. We're organizing a search."

Ruby nodded and the guard led her to where everyone was gathered. It was decided to employ a sort of informal grid search where everyone would spread out and search a specific area. They would also try to stay in each other's line of sight but unfortunately the area was a bit too large to adhere to that.

Though Ruby had no problem searching on ahead. She rarely had the advantage of backup anyways.

"Hmm."

Tracking Grimm was similar to tracking animals, but there were some key differences. The guild mostly taught on following their "aura trails" with specialized equipment, but Ruby couldn't really afford said equipment. There were other more subtle ways to track them though. Grimm didn't hunt like regular animals and their paths were directly influenced by human movements.

It was still over an hour before Ruby found the boy.

She hid between the trees and stared at him as he sat in the middle of a small clearing crying. Three wolf Grimm surrounded him silently pacing back and fourth. The boy's cry didn't carry very far and was really more of a sobbing.

Ruby laid down her rifle in the snow and took aim, but didn't fire. Instead she just looked through the scope, adjusting it for night vision.

"C'mon..." Ruby whispered to herself. "Just leave him. He's plenty, there's only three of you..."

The wolves didn't move against the boy as the minutes passed. Ruby kept her scope on them ready to pull the trigger the instant she had to. But conditions were far from ideal and if she accidentally shot the kid—

Ruby shook her head back and fourth. "Nonono, don't think about that Ruby."

She adjusted her scope and continued to watch the Grimm feed. They weren't like normal predators, they hunted on emotion. The boy crying was their feast and the only trouble would be after. Would they leave him alone or finish him off?

"Crud."

A shot echoed through the forest and pummeled one of the wolf Grimm. Ruby had seen them change their stance and get ready to kill the boy. At their fallen comrade the other two fled into the forest as Ruby jumped out from her perch. She grabbed the boy and made sure he was safe.

Her shot brought everyone running toward her. They were relieved and one of the stronger men carried the boy back to the town in his arms. His mom came running out and hugged him.

"Thank you so much," she cried. Ruby's face went a little red.

"D-Don't mention it."

The guards and her extended the patrol a little bit and made sure that everyone in the village was safe and accounted for, but it seems that would be the only incident for tonight. After her shift Ruby decided to take up that man on his offer and go stay in his wife's house for the night.

She fell asleep within minutes of laying down.

"Good morning, Miss Hunter."

Ruby pulled herself up off the couch, rubbing her eyes. Someone was dragging open the drapes, letting an obnoxious beam of sunlight into the room to spill right onto Ruby's face.

"Would you like some oatmeal for breakfast?"

"Mhhmmm." Ruby stared at the couch, trying to regain control of her faculties. "Do you have, uh. Coffee. Yes. That?"

"Sure thing."

The nice, motherly woman brought Ruby a cup of coffee. Ruby cradled it in her hands, sipping it slowly and letting the warmth flush over her. Even though the sun seemed to be out it was still just as cold as it was last night. Or at least that's how it felt to Ruby, though she did just wake up.

"Thank you," Ruby said after she had woken up a bit more properly and gobbled down a bowl of oatmeal. It wasn't a five-star meal but Ruby thought it was delicious anyways. "And thanks for letting me sleep here."

The woman smiled. "Oh, it's really no trouble. Especially after your help finding little Greg last night."

Ruby gathered her things and put on her outfit before bidding the woman farewell. The kids were being taught in the schoolhouse which meant that Ruby could talk to the adults alone. That was good, it would be bad for the kids to be present.

The guard presence wasn't half what it was the previous night. Ruby went to go find the man in charge.

"There will be a large-scale attack soon," she said. The guard captain looked mortified, as did all the others. "No no no, try to keep your spirits up," Ruby said quickly.

"B-But you just said—"

"Grimm are attracted to negative emotions. Hence their name I imagine. It's best to stay in high spirits even when there's no reason to be." Ruby smiled. "Fake it if you have to, it works almost as good."

"Is that why we're being targeted? The village is too unhappy?" The man scratched his arm. "We don't seem all that unhappy, no more than anyone else. Well, as happy as one could possibly be this side of the wall."

Ruby sat down on one of the nearby benches. "It's not your fault, not really. The Grimm have been unusually active in the past year. Events that usually wouldn't attract them are now causing a whole bunch to appear." She tightened her scarf, and pulled it up a bit to cover her mouth from the cold breeze. "It's too late to do anything now though, you're already in the sights of the wolf pack. So we're gunna have to kill 'em."

She decided not to mention letting the boy die would have likely prevented the attack.

"What do we do?"

Ruby smiled and brought her fist up to her chest. "That's what I'm here for."

Hunters were rather widely known for their prowess in defeating Grimm, though that wasn't a preventative measure by any means. Similar to the police their job was often reactive. They only showed up after the problem had escalated. As far as anyone could tell actually preventing Grimm attacks was as easy as keeping everyone happy and well-fed.

So although Ruby was great at killing Grimm, she couldn't even imagine how to keep a village's spirits up.

She helped the village fortify their defenses though there wasn't much they could do. They moved people around to different houses, leaving some vacant so they could reduce the area they needed to defend. The village wall was pitiful and wouldn't serve any real purpose so Ruby had no choice but to position herself around the center.

Grimm were smart. She could expect an attack from both sides. That was generally how these types fought.

It wasn't that night, but the one after when the pack struck. The night was clear, the broken moon casting its glow over the snow. Ruby positioned herself on a roof with her rifle steady in her hands.

"I see them coming from the Northwest," said a voice through the radio. Ruby twisted in that direction and tried to locate them. Even though the moon was out the forest still obscured the light. Add on top of that the Grimm's natural colors and it was near-impossible to spot them until they were already on top of the village.

—Bang.

Ruby fired a shot, then two more.

"There's more coming from the south!"

Ruby grabbed the radio. "You guys take care of them, I'll handle the ones on the north side."

"Roger."

She jumped off the building, the wolves a bit too close to snipe now. They were already over the wall. Ruby expanded her rifle into its alternate form, the blade folding out in slides to form a massive scythe as large as Ruby herself. She headed them off in the streets between two vacated homes.

There were seven. Three of them flanked her on the right, four on the left. For a brief moment no one made a move before two of the wolves suddenly leaped at Ruby from opposite directions, fangs bared ready to sink them into her soft flesh.

Ruby pulled the pump on the pole of the scythe, firing a cartridge at the wolf on the left. The recoil flung the scythe to the right, and Ruby used the momentum to strike at the other Grimm. It was a move she had practiced plenty before and the basic idea was fundamental to her fighting style.

Speed.

She hopped to the right following the arc of her weapon. It wasn't about hitting hard, it was about being fast. But that lack of strength meant sometimes Ruby had to follow the direction her weapon was already going, rather than where she wanted it to go.

—Bang—

Unless she changed that momentum drastically. A bullet slammed into the same wolf she had just sliced, splattering it against the wall of the nearest house and sending herself back to the other flank of wolves.

She repeated this tactic until the wolves figured out the pattern to what she was doing, but by that time there were only two of them left. Despite them learning the trick and taking measures against it, it was too late. Ruby fought with speed. Her opponents didn't have time to plan against her.

Another wolf had its body sliced in half and dragged through the snow by Ruby's scythe when the last one decided it would run away. In a single motion Ruby rammed her scythe into the ground and pumped the trigger. Three shots and the deserter was down.

But the battle wasn't over yet. Ruby made sure there weren't any other threats nearby and then headed to the other side of the town where the other wolves had attacked. It wasn't more than a mile, but with Ruby's speed she could make it in under two minutes.

She found a graveyard of Grimm corpses, only two still alive surrounded by several spear-wielding guardsmen.

Ruby changed her scythe back into a rifle, and decided to take a position as backup. The guards managed to kill one of the other wolves, and the attack gave Ruby an opening to fire into the other one from a distance.

"Woo, hell yeah," exclaimed one of the men. There was a round of cheering before Ruby clapped her hands too. They probably hadn't even needed her, and there was a tinge of regret of her having wasted the Dust to use her weapon.

Then again, it was always cause to celebrate when no one got grievously injured or died or any of the other many horrible things that could happen when fighting Grimm.

"Is that all of them?"

Ruby nodded. "Probably. You're in the clear, for now."

Someone cracked out a case of beer, though Ruby was a little too young to really enjoy it herself. She urged everyone to celebrate though and the rest of the villagers even got out of their homes and started to grill some hot dogs. A makeshift little festival.

Ruby gladly grabbed a dog and munched on it while some of the kids—who were up way past their bedtime—fiddled with her weapon. Ruby tried to tell them to at least wait until she cleaned the Grimm blood off it, but they only thought that made it so much cooler.

"So, Miss Hunter." One of the older men in the village sat next to her. They didn't really have an 'elder' but he did have some sort of authority. "I assume you'll be leaving us then?"

"Yup, sorry." Ruby took another bite of her meal. "Mpphf fjsls mppfff..." She swallowed after the man looked at her funny. "Er, Sorry. I actually have somewhere to be, so I'll leave in the morning."

"Where are you going? The least we could do is accompany you some distance for all of your help."

Ruby pointed north. "The railway."

The man nodded and looked into the bonfire that somebody had started up. It hadn't reached its full glory yet but logs were being thrown into it. Some of the kids were playing around it, the others still holding Ruby's weapon. She had made sure to lock all the functions so they couldn't accidentally kill themselves.

"How do we prevent this from happening in the future?" The man scratched his chin. "Everything worked out this time, but it seems the Grimm grow more numerous every day."

"This." Ruby waved towards the people huddling around the barbeque, chatting and laughing about their good fortune. "Just live peacefully, be happy. Try to solve problems and keep things simple. The Grimm that attacked were pretty weak, I think they were desperate. They won't always be."

"But what caused this? What do we do?"

Ruby waved her arms back and fourth. "No idea. Your guess is as good as mine."

The older man laughed, and drank from his bottle. Ruby opted for juice instead. The festivities lasted for about an hour before the parents decided it really was time for their children to go to bed, and everyone else went to bed not to long after that. Only a few guards stayed up and vigilant, just in case.

But morning came, and Ruby waved goodbye to the children as she headed out of the village. A few of the men walked with her for an hour before bidding her goodbye and returning home. Leaving Ruby alone, wandering through the Grimm-infested woods.

Such was her station.