Years Ago - Ruby

Running footsteps could be heard through the alleyways of Vale, it was accompanied by series of shouts of anger and hate. The young girl of nine years old was trying to get away from the Faunus haters, her crimson colored hooded scarf flowed behind her as blood red rose petals and deep black feathers trailed along the path she was taking and almost as they metrilized, they disintegrated into nothingness. For two years she has been alone, her family has casted her out with only clothes that she had on that day along with the bruises and cuts that were inflicted by the ones that she had called 'father' and 'sister'.

XXX FlashBack XXX

They weren't like this, they were all loving and caring until the day that her mother had died, the only thing that was left was the silver emblem of a rose and a crimson colored cape was left behind. They were both given to Ruby as momentos, the cape was torn beyond repair and completely stained red, but Qrow was able modify it into a scarf that still contained the hood with the soft dark black fur on the inside and was somewhat curled on the hem.

After that everyone that was her family, her 'father' started to get drunk constantly and when he would arrive home he would insult the young rose about her heritage and that it was her fault that his wife had died. The similar happened with her 'sister' but it was a few days when she had heard that her mother figure had died, ever since she would beat the young wolf faunus and berate her. Her uncle was the only family that had cared for her after Summer's passing, but it soon came to an end when Tai had told the less drinking adult that he cannot see Ruby anymore. After that everything had started to go even more south, they had thrusted every responsibility to her, and would also be used as a punching bag for Yang's training.

After a few years they had decided to toss the young girl out from her hateful home, of course to the scarlet faunus it was a blessing that she was able to leave that horrid home, but she knew it would be difficult to live on her own. Thankfully she had somewhat already prepared for something like this to happen, and so she walked away from the house and towards the woods that out produces the town of Patch. When she had arrived to a certain point by a stream of water she crouched down by a tree that was hollowed out underneath, it had contained some food, water, matches, tons of Lien that she 'borrowed' from her father, and lastly a combat knife to protect her from people and Grimm.

When she was all good and checking twice that everything was there, she had left towards the islands docks and waited until morning to get a boat to Vale, this was not her destination for she knew that if Tai went to look her and not find out that she was no longer in Patch, he would search all over Vale or Vacuo. And so she had already check when the next boat or bullhead was to leave into Mistral, the next boat wasn't until two days while the bullhead was tomorrow. Unfortunately the bullhead wouldn't be a wise choice because it had costed more, though she would still have some Lien left, even though it would take her to Mistral faster. The Boat was cheaper due to the food costs onboard, luckily it wasn't overpriced, and not only that she would be able to sleep on a proper bed for almost a month, unlike the thin blanket and a over used pillow she has to sleep with.

In the end she had decided to go with the boat, the other thing about using the boat to get into Mistral is that there wasn't really a need to show identification, Ruby was a really smart girl her age and she had also checked online about it. When morning came the first boat was ready to go, it didn't take long to get into the Vale kingdom and also not long after to get a ticket for the S.S. Volcano, deciding that it would be a better choice to stay on board then to look around town and possibly run into Vale's Police officers. After that everything was went okay, sure there was some humans that were on board that didn't like Faunus but couldn't do anything about it due to several other Faunus's that were also on board along with some of the crew members and co-captain.

When she had arrived on the outer ports of Mistral, the girl was in a ecstatic like state due to being away from the people that she calls family, except for her uncle, she will always be her family no matter what. Upon arriving she noticed that it was more warmer then Patch and that there was a diversity of clothing that entails that it was more comfortable to wear in Mistrals climate. And so the young rose had set off to a second hand store to get a new pair of clothes, which to her luck it was somewhat easy to find and was even more lucky as it was runned by a Faunus. When entering into the store, 'GOODWILL' (1), she noticed how worn down some of the clothes were but didn't heed them. While wandering around she had gotten a pair of black velcro sandals, tan cargo pants that can be changed into shorts, a red short sleeved shirt that luckily has a rose embroidered , and a black jacket that can change into a sleeveless jacket and lastly a dark tan plain baseball cap that was made for eared Faunus's.

After a while Ruby had noticed that there was a Raven bird that has been following her since she had the Xiao Long residence, her uncle had shown her the differences between a Crow and a Raven. Ruby put it at the back of her mind as she remembered that her uncle also said that they were a more common than any other bird due to the Nevermore grimm.

XXX End of FlashBack XXX

The chase didn't last long due to the people being regalure citizens and her having wolf like traits, such as extended stamina, strength, eyesight, and many other things. Even though they were no longer chasing her she still ran, all the way on the outskirts of Mistral, easy to enter the city and exit with minimal watch. She soon arrived a rundown house, it wasn't exactly good but it wasn't bad either, as long as it could out the majority of the rain and snow when needed.

"Ahh~! What a nice jog!" Red said, as she stretched her back, her dark red undershirt was raised against her small body, if anyone was watching her they would be able to see some visible scars that were inflicted from her family several years ago. If it were another Faunus that had seen them, they would go ballistic and try to adopt her, it has happened to her several times. She would always run when the adult Faunus's would try to bring her to their homes, sometimes they would follow her but even if they have lived in Mistral longer than her, she would still be able to lose them.

She went towards a perch that held the Raven that was following her from that time, for some reason it did not want to leave the child alone. It had made it clear to her several times as it would always peck her forehead if she mentioned as to way it wouldn't leave her, and one time Red had left it outside to see if it would leave but the bird stayed.

"Hmm, wonder if Shiro(2) would want to stargaze tonight." The girl had said out loud, even though there was only her and the deep black bird in the room. In response to her question, the Raven had glided towards her right shoulder, nestled down and leaned a bit towards the child's head. The young girl had only giggled at the action of her bird, sometimes she would think that Shiro has the same intelligence of a human, and it was somewhat true. It had helped multiple times, sometimes it would somehow bring books her the child to read, the majority of them would be old textbooks containing history, math, science, but could hardly do any experiments, weapons design, dust theories and a few others.

She walked out of the house, while doing so she had taken of the blood red scarf and began to wrap it around her waist, turning it a sash with a makeshift bag from the hoodie. Looking up at the sky as it began to fade into a mixture of yellow orange and dark blue, taking a left towards one of the many cliffs that was inside of the kingdom. Not really paying attention to her surroundings she didn't notice that there was someone else walking towards her, who was also now paying attention to where she was walking. At a sound of a screeching bird, it brought them out of their daydream in time before they had bumped into each other, but it had hurt their ears. Red had used her left arm to cover her Faunus ears and attempting to soothe them from the bird that was literally right next to her, the other person wasn't so good either as she to was a Faunus that had the ear trait.

"GAHH MY EARS!"

"SH!T MY EARS HURT"

XXX End Of Chap XXX

(1) An Actual Place

(2) Another meaning of White, originated from Japan

Hope you guys enjoyed the read!