Moonlit Conversation

There was a knock on Ruby's door. The young dragoness opened her tear-stained eye just a bit to see Oscar dressed in a patched together shirt and sweatpants for his pajamas. "Hey, just wanted to check on you." he told her.

Ruby sat up from her bed and tucked her legs in, sitting on her knees.

"So, um, are you feeling okay?" he asked.

"Um," Ruby mumbled, "yeah. I'm doing fine. Thank you."

"Good to know," Oscar replied, taking note of the shattered moon of Remnant from her window, "well, I'm gonna go get some sleep. I kinda need to help Aunt Maple turn that wheat into bread tomorrow."

"Um, okay," Ruby replied softly, "sure. Good night."

Oscar opened the door and began walking out. While he did this, Ruby bit her lip.

"Wait."

The farm boy turned to see Ruby's eyes wide, the moonlight reflecting off of them like silvery mirrors and glowing on the red tips of her hair.

"Can I talk to you for a little bit?" she asked softly.

"Okay," Oscar replied, taking a seat on Ruby's bed as she tucked her face behind her legs, twiddling her bare toes, and wrapping her hands around her knees, "what do you wanna talk about?"

The dragoness seemed to hesitate before she let out a sigh and started speaking, "Have you ever lost someone you cared so much about, you remember them even when you were young?"

Oscar's eyes widened as he looked down on the floor. "Actually," he replied in a soft, melancholic voice, "yes."

Ruby hummed, "I lost my mother."

Oscar listened to the dragoness' story.

"Her name was Summer Rose and she was my father's second wife and the leader of his team, STRQ. They married after the mother of my sister, Raven, left for some reason. She took the time to raise me and Yang correctly, even if Yang was only a half-daughter. She was pretty much Super Mom. She was kind, she was gentle, she was brave, she was the best mother I knew. I guess that's what really hurt the day my step-mom arrived to tell me, Yang, and our dad that she had died in combat against the Grimm and she would carry out her dying wish of taking care of us. I was only five-moons-old on that day. Raven may have been as great a mom as she could be, but I wasn't as close to her as I was my real mom."

At that moment, Ruby's eyes started to tear up again. As they did, Oscar looked at her briefly from the corner of his eye.

"I lost my father when I was young."

Ruby lifted her gaze slightly at his words.

"If anything, growing up in Kuroyuri, my dad was the closest to me. Closer than even my mom. While she would go out on official business, so to speak, my dad took the time to raise me. It's not like my mother was bad, far from it, she really tried but, her duties tended to get in the way. My dad was always there for me, thick and through. I think the best days of my life would be the rare times my mom didn't need to do anything and it would just be me, her, and Dad."

"What happened?" Ruby asked.

Oscar's face scrunched up as he dug into the memory of that horrible, awful day. "One day, Kuroyuri came under attack by a legion of Grimm. They slaughtered everyone left and right. My dad told me to hide and not come out, no matter what I heard, no matter what, I had to stay where I was. The last time I saw him, it was him with his rifle. For six hours, I waited for him to come back. When someone did, it wasn't my dad. It was my mom. She and the White Fang had actually been tracking the Grimm that attacked our village. She told me Dad was one of the many who didn't make it and that she was too late to arrive in time."

Ruby could feel her tears starting to develop again.

"But, after the attack, my Mom told me it's okay to cry. It's okay to mourn the loss of the ones we love. However, when all is said and done, they're not really gone. They're always with you, in your heart, and in your memories. As long as you hold on to those memories, they'll always be near, even when you can't see them."

Ruby then lunged forward and wrapped him in a big hug. Oscar, at first caught off guard, hugged the dragoness girl back.

"Thanks, Oscar." she murmured.

"Anytime." Oscar replied with a smile.

"Um, Oscar?"

"Yeah?"

"You mind sleeping with me tonight?"

Oscar sighed, "Sure. I guess so."

He stood up, walked to the other side of Ruby's bed and wiggled himself into the blanket on his right side and Ruby on her left so that both were facing each other.

"Goodnight, Ruby." Oscar whispered.

"Goodnight, Oscar." Ruby replied.

*Somewhere above the Infinite Seas*

"Are we there yet?" Nora asked for what had to be the twentieth time.

"No." Weiss groaned.

"Oh, okay."

And just like that it was silent with the only noise being the flapping of wings and the slithering of windriding-

"Are we there yet?"

-For about twelve seconds.

"Nora, we've been flying for ten hours," Pyrrha explained, "we're two hours away from Mistral."

"Two hours and forty five minutes, since we had to take a rest stop." Ren pointed out.

"We've still got a good while to go before we reach Mistral." Jaune added.

"I knoooow," Nora moaned, "I'm just so bored."

"Well, you can find a way to entertain yourself," Weiss replied, "possibly one that does not include stray showers over Vale."

"Hey, when a dragoness has ta go-"

"You should've gone before we left!"

"I didn't need to before, it just sorta happened!"

"Weiss, Nora," Blake spoke up, "do I have to separate you two?"

There was silence and the dragons continued flying. After several hours of flight, the dragons squinted their eyes as the sun began to peak above the horizon, its rays reflecting off their scales and setting the landscape of Anima aglow.

"So," Nora asked again, "are we there y-"

The dragons answered collectively, "Yes."

"Okay, just wanted to know," the pink dragoness nodded, "thank you."

"Alright, now we just need to find where Ruby last fell," Yang announced, "if I remember correctly-"

"Um, Yang?" Jaune asked.

"Yeah?"

"I think we might have other things to worry about than just Ruby," he pointed his talon to the ground, "look."

The dragons turned their gazes downward... and noticed what looked like a massive, seething, black tide. One that was not of nature but part of something much, much darker-

Grimm. And from the looks of it, hundreds.

"Yang," Weiss spoke up, "there's no telling how much damage those things could cause if they reach any of Mistral's larger cities. Besides, we already told Ozpin and the Council we were doing a search and destroy mission anyway."

Yang sighed in defeat, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

Sorry, Ruby, Yang thought, you'll have to wait a little bit longer.

"Alright," the young Xiao Long declared, banking her wings, "let's go kill some monsters!"

Soon enough, Yang and the rest of her comrades began their descent toward the tide of Grimm