"Isn't this, I dunno... a bit overkill?"
"Nonsense. My job is to keep you safe, and that is what I intend to do."
"But still-"
"No buts please, Your Highness."
Ruby groaned, putting her head in her hands. "Fiiiiiiine. Just for the record though, I'm gonna remember this."
"Excellent. If you're able to remember this then that means you're still alive."
Ruby pouted as she slumped back in the carriage seat, her eyes trained on the woman across from her. Weiss Schnee, captain of the Queen's Guard, was nothing if not stubborn. Knowing she wouldn't win any sort of argument against her Ruby let the topic drop.
"You know, your tutor would probably throw a fit if she saw you like that. Were you not going over posture the other day?"
Ruby rolled her eyes. "I know, but it's not like Ms. Goodwitch is here right now. Besides, I'll sit properly and everything when we get to Vacuo."
"Very well. I don't think I have to remind you how important this is."
"You don't, Dad already made it really clear. Since he's busy I'm going in his place, which effectively makes me the acting Monarch. So everything I do and say is gonna reflect back on Vale."
Weiss nodded. "Good."
With that the two women fell into a comfortable silence. Ruby leaned back against the seat, tilting her head to gaze out the window. The only sound that accompanied the passing forest was the clot clot of hooves against stone emanating from the horse pulling their carriage as well as the many others which guards, some of the Queen's Guard and some regular Knights, rode upon.
Due to an increase in bandit activity, as well as the stirrings of a criminal organization the king of Vale, Ruby's father Taiyang, had decided to seek assistance from the neighboring kingdoms of Vacuo and Mistral. Due to how busy he was dealing with both of those very things though he didn't have time to go to both Vacuo and Mistral himself. So he had sent Ruby, and her sister Yang, to the two kingdoms in his place. While Ruby made for Vacuo to seek aid, Yang ventured east towards Mistral.
Had her mother still been around, she might have been able to help ease the burden of ruling. Ruby bit her lip a bit at the memory, turning her head a bit more so Weiss wouldn't see the sadness of the memory wash over her. Summer Rose... she was assassinated in broad daylight, at a ceremony the queen had been hosting to help raise morale and provide assistance to those who's homes had been destroyed by a recent bandit raid. She was loved by so many, even those from the other kingdoms couldn't help but admire the ruler. But she was taken from them, taken from HER, without a second thought. If they had discovered who was behind, they had yet to inform Ruby. She sighed, wiping at her eyes. Thinking about it wouldn't help matters.
They had decided against asking the northern Kingdom of Atlas for assistance primarily because of the... rather frosty relationship the two powers have had over the recent years. One of their intelligence officers had been able to track the organization to have it's claws in both Vacuo and Mistral as well, so they were betting on that information to help secure an alliance. Because of how dangerous the roads were though, between bandit raids and this shadowy organization, the King had made sure his daughters left with ample protection. Ruby was certainly grateful, but she could take care of herself. Well, not entirely but she didn't need THIS many guards.
She poked her head out the window of the carriage, surveying the formation of horses around them. In total she counted about fourteen, about half of that number she recognized as members of the Queen's Guard, with the lot of them being evenly divided between in front of them and behind them. Ruby let out a sigh as she pulled her head back in, running a finger along the outlines of the red dress she wore (she honestly would've preferred something easier to move in and don't even get her STARTED on the heels she had to wear, Oum knows how anyone walks in those things even though they weren't that big). Honestly, she just didn't see-
She blinked, turning her head back towards the carriage window. This wasn't right. "Something's wrong."
While she had been silent up until now Weiss snapped to attention. "What is it Your Majesty?"
"Listen? Do you hear that?"
She leaned out slightly again just to make sure she was right. All she heard was the cracking of hooves against stone.
Weiss blinked, craning her head to listen. "All I hear is the sound of the horses, maybe some small talk from the guards. What's the big-"
"That's the point!" Ruby was getting flustered. "I've been down this path with Dad I don't know how many times, and every single time we do there's always birds chirping, bugs buzzing around and stuff!"
Weiss frowned. "Are you sure?"
"Yes! I'm absolutely, positively, 100% sure this isn't right!"
Weiss went silent for a moment, her eyes becoming sharp. "Ten hells... you're right. It's too quiet. We need to-"
The knight was cut off by a pained cry emanating from the front of the carriage. Soon after a similarly pained neigh was heard as the carriage was suddenly pulled forward before crashing to the ground and skidding along stone. Ruby let out a yelp as the force caused her to get flung forward. She was expecting to hit wood, but it never came.
Instead Weiss had caught the princess, wrapping her in a protective embrace until they came to a halt. She pulled away, obviously not noticing the blush that had come to adorn Ruby's face. "Your Majesty, are you injured?"
Ruby drew away from Weiss and took a couple seconds to quickly check herself over for any injuries, using a method that Ms. Goodwitch had taught her for this exact sort of situation, and shook her head. "No, I'm fine."
Weiss nodded, letting go of Ruby and slipping over to the window. She peered out, her hand hovering carefully near the hilt of her rapier. Seeing the woman's eyes narrow made her curious, so Ruby leaned over and peeked out alongside her. The sight made a gasp slip through the princess's lips. The coachman had an arrow through his heart, hunched back and clearly dead. It seems the horse had also been let loose and a wheel was missing, leaving the carriage stranded.
The primary source of concern though were the people who the knights had engaged in combat. While the Queen's Guard had dismounted and fanned out around the now stationary carriage in a defensive formation, the remaining knights had moved forward to meet their assailants head on. They were wearing armor mainly consisting of leather, though Ruby noticed some wore metal over their more vulnerable areas. The most striking feature though were the masks they were. They were animal in theme, some wore masks resembling wolves while others wore lions or tigers.
Ruby looked to Weiss, her eyes wide. "They're-"
"White Fang." Weiss clicked her tongue, turning to the princess. "We need to move. Stay close to me, alright?"
Ruby nodded. The carriage was wooden, so even the black haired girl knew that all it would take would be some fire and it would become a coffin. The captain opened the carriage door, moving out and helping Ruby out before drawing her rapier. The Guard fanned out around them, though they weren't able to stay in formation for long. Another group of White Fang emerged from the trees near them, and around half the guard had to break away to cover the other's retreat.
As they backed away Ruby heard Weiss swear under her breath as she saw more White Fang breaking away from the Knights to assist their fellows that were fighting the guard. "Agravain, guard the Princess. The rest of you, let's show them the difference being a member of the Queen's Guard makes."
The others let out a battle cry as they charged into battle in formation, Weiss turning and sending Ruby a reassuring look before joining her Knights in the charge. That left Ruby with Agravain, the man raising his sword and shield defensively. "Let's go lil miss. Wouldn't want the boss getting all bothered that a hair on that head of yours was harmed."
Ruby frowned even as the two slowly began walking back. "But what about the others?"
Agravain chuckled, his golden armor gleaming in the sunlight. "Please. The boss is alone is worth at least half a battalion. They'll be fine."
Ruby let out a sigh, but nodded. She had faith in Weiss. She turned around, ready to flee, only to let out a yelp of fear. Another White Fanger member had sneaked their way around behind them, a mace raised and gleaming as it was swung down at the princess.
It was intercepted by Agravain, the man knocking the blow away with his shield. Using the time his foe was knocked off balance, the golden knight rammed his blade deep into the other man's gut, a groan of pain coming from behind the mask as he dropped his weapon. He pulled out the blade, a small stream of blood coming with it as he then smacked him down with the shield.
He let out a breath as he turned, Ruby seeing that their assailant now lied still on the ground in a rapidly growing pool of crimson. "Sorry bout that. Didn't really have time to take the killin away from ya."
Ruby shook her head. "N-no problem at all! You saved my life!"
The man chuckled. "Good, good. Now then, let's-"
His eyes widened, suddenly moving in front of Ruby. She gasped as she heard the sound of an arrow bouncing off his armor. He in turn raised his shield, scanning the tree line. "Give them bastards one thing... they're sneaky little devils."
Ruby gasped as three more White Fang agents emerged from the woods, one holding a bow and the other two holding blades.
Agravain swore. "Gods be damned... get a move on Your Highness. Keep movin so them archers have a hard time gettin a bead on ya."
Ruby frowned. "But what about you?"
The man responded with a grin, casting aside his shield and drawing a second sword he kept sheathed on his back. "This is my favorite kind of fight hun. No way I'm missin out."
He let out a battle cry as he charged into the fray. Ruby gulped before turning and running, though with where they had been ambushed at the only way to go was back towards the carriage. She noticed that while a few knights had fallen, the ones that remained had fallen back and were now fighting alongside the Queen's Guard, who Ruby notice hadn't suffered any casualties yet.
She let out a sigh of relief at that. She didn't want to see any of them die, especially not protecting her. She was snapped out of her thoughts when one of the White Fang soldiers noticed her running by, the woman raising a blade and giving chase. Ruby tried to pick up the pace (she was rather proud of her running skills) but wound up tripping and falling to the ground. She groaned as she pulled herself up. Darn heels...
"Your Majesty!"
Ruby whirled around, the voice sounding far away as the White Fang woman swung her blade down. Ruby raised her arms in a vain attempt to protect herself, but to her surprise she instead heard the clashing of steel against steel. She looked back up to see that Weiss was now in between them, her rapier raised and grinding against her opponent's blade.
With a grunt she turned the blade away, then spun around and stabbed the rapier into the other woman's chest. She then quickly pulled it back, stabbing it back in two more times before drawing it back to herself. The woman sputtered, blood dripping from behind her mask as she tumbled backwards to the ground. Weiss let out a breath, turning to Ruby with a concerned expression on her face. "I though I told you and Agravain to get out of here!"
Ruby blushed a bit. "W-we tried. But we got cut off and he told me to run."
She huffed a bit. "No doubt that loaf's battle urges got the better of him. I'll be sure to reprimand him later. For now..." Weiss looked around, obviously looking for some form of escape for the princess. "For now hide behind the carriage. Seems like we're not going anywhere for a while."
Ruby nodded, but frowned. "Is it really a good idea though?"
Weiss sighed. "It's not ideal, no. What cover there is is rather flammable. But it's better than nothing."
She raised her rapier once more, swinging the blade gracefully to throw off the blood that was still on it from earlier. Ruby nodded in agreement, running over to take cover behind the carriage and stay out of sight. Luckily it seemed that the knights were now commanding the Fang's full attention, so Ruby was able to get to her hiding spot undetected. While she wanted to just curl up and hide, her curiosity got the better of her as she peered out around the corner to watch the battle unfold.
While her intent was to watch the whole battle, Ruby couldn't help but find her eyes drawn to Weiss more often than not. She darted around the battlefield, stabbing into enemies gracefully even as blood spurted out the precise wounds that her rapier left. She twirled and stabbed, a whirlwind of death, yet her pristine armor stayed just like that. Only small specks of blood getting on it. Ruby remembered Weiss telling her she wore a lighter variant of the steel armor most knights wore, primarily due to her fighting style. She recognized that while she might not have the strength a man would, she more than made up for that in speed and dexterity. She parried the slash of another blade before sweeping around, running the man through the heart from behind. She followed that up with a twirl, dodging the swing of a mace as she severed her attackers hand from her body, silencing the resulting scream of pain with a stab through the chest.
Weiss spun around again, stabbing another man through the shoulder then slashing his neck, the soldier clutching his hands to his punctured throat in vain to try and stop the bleeding as the knight ran off to another foe. To the Fang's credit, they were quite persistent. The battle had gone on now for at least ten minutes, and for each minute that passed more emerged from the treeline. They even managed to take out all the Knights, the Queen's Guard being all that was left as they carefully avoided the corpses of their fallen allies. Honestly Ruby wasn't sure how they kept their footing. You could barely see the cobbled stone of the road anymore from the combination of bodies, blood and gore.
Off to the side Ruby saw Agravain, a look of joy and a mad grin on his face (even Ruby had heard of the fearsome battle-frenzy the man was known for) as he spun his blades around him, cleaving through four separate necks with one clean rotation, the heads flying off and bodies dropping to the floor as blood pooled around the now headless corpses. Ruby held a mouth to her face, still not used to the smell of this much blood. She fought down the bile rising in her throat as the golden knight stabbed both of his blades into the gut of another foe, ripping them out along some of the woman's intestines.
Deciding to turn back to watch Weiss, since her display of martial violence was less likely to make Ruby barf, she noticed the flow of White Fang beginning to lessen. Which was good, since the princess could see that the Guard were starting to tire. Even Weiss as she wasn't moving as quickly as she had been before. Ruby let out a breath. At least all this killing would be over soon. It may sound strange, but she held no particular ill will towards the people attacking them. They were simply activists, peacefully fighting for what they believed in. But then one day one man, a demon in wearing human skin and the mask of a bull, spurred them onto this path of blood and hatred. HE was the one who held the focus of all Ruby's hate.
Weiss paused, taking a breather as she seemed to have found a lull in the fighting. Ruby couldn't help but admire the knight, sweat lining her brow and blade hanging at her side. The rapier, Myrtenaster, was the only thing more valuable to the knight than Ruby's safety. At least, that's what Tristan had told her. She had overseen the entire forging process herself, gathering the materials and being very particular with the method of forging. She had supposedly insisted on using a certain forging method from the east to increase the blade's sharpness, mixing it with western smithing to solve the resulting fragility. The result was a one of a kind blade, one that Ruby rarely saw away from Weiss's side. Ruby was still fairly new to the smithing scene (despite claims from many that it wasn't 'princess' material) but even she knew how impressive the blade was.
Ruby's eyes widened, the glint of an arrow snapping her out of her thoughts. A ways behind Weiss stood another White Fang, a bow raised and arrow nocked. It wasn't hard to determine who the target was either. Ruby debated shouting out to Weiss, but that might just make the soldier fire sooner, and even then there was no guarantee Weiss would immediately know what Ruby was trying to say. She let out a breath. Only one thing to do then.
Using a nearby stone that was about the size of her clenched fist she smashed the stupid heels off her shoes, letting out a sigh of relief as her feet now stood firmly planted on the ground. Turning and taking a scant second to psych herself up, she broke into a sprint straight towards Weiss. It wasn't that far away, so why did Ruby feel Weiss was suddenly a thousand feet away? Out of the corner of her eye she saw the man let loose the arrow.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl, Ruby's eyes widening in horror. "Weiss!"
She dived forward, tackling the Knight to the ground and out of the way of the arrow. In the process though the felt a searing pain shoot through her left shoulder, causing her to let out a yell of pain. Weiss was caught off guard by the tackle so it seemed to take her a second to realize what was going on.
When she did, her reaction was very immediate. "Ruby!"
From what Ruby could see through her half lidded eyes (Oum why did getting shot have to hurt so much?) a look of shock and fear was plastered on the captain's face. It was quickly replaced with rage as she traced the shot back towards it's source.
If looks alone could kill, Ruby was sure the stare Weiss had could kill an army. "Tristan!"
"Aye!" A masculine voice answered back, and Ruby could just barely make out the sight of an arrow shattering through the man's mask, planting itself into his skull with such force it knocked him to the ground. Her eyes fluttered shut fully, though she fought to stay conscience. She felt herself be let down, wincing at the pain still seething through her shoulder, before more footfalls found their way towards her.
Forcing her eyes opened she saw Weiss standing nearby, talking to the Queen's Guard even as the resident medic, Guinevere, was examining Ruby with an expert gaze. It wasn't exactly orthodox to follow the paths of war and medicine (In fact from the princess's limited knowledge one of a doctor's oaths was 'do no harm'), but Ruby was extremely glad the woman had decided to do it. She groaned, her right hand instinctively moving up to pull the arrow out.
Guinevere clicked her tongue. "Not so fast ma'am. It's better to leave the arrow in, at least for now. It'll staunch the blood flow a bit and stop you from bleeding out till I get things in order to get you patched up."
Ruby slowly nodded, her arm moving back to rest against the warm stone. She let out a breath, trying to remain calm and not panic, trying her best to ignore the arrow sticking out of her flesh. She turned her head slightly as she heard someone approaching.
A small smile formed on her face as she saw Weiss. "Hey..."
A frown formed instantly on Weiss's face, Ruby recognizing both anger, worry, and some other emotion on her face. "You dolt! Why in the ten hells would you do that?! If that arrow had hit somewhere else-"
"I'm sorry... but I couldn't just... sit back and watch you die..."
"Yes you could! It's my job to protect you! You can't go risking your life just to save mine!"
"Weiss..."
Next to them Guinevere cleared her throat. "I'm sorry to interject, but I need to get this wound looked at. You can talk to her after that Captain."
Weiss stood with a huff, stomping off back towards the others seemingly in anger. Ruby, however, had noticed the tears the knight had been fighting desperately to hold back. The princess let out a sigh as she closed her eyes, resigning herself to speaking to the knight after the resident medic took care of the arrow.
"You know, she does kind of have a point. What you did certainly wasn't that logical." Guinevere mused as she began laying out the content of her medical kit, mixing together some herbs Ruby didn't recognize.
Ruby sigh. "I know, and Dad and Yang are gonna grill me about it for weeks, but... when I saw her in danger... I just stopped thinking. The only thing on my mind was that she was in danger.
The princess noticed a smile form on the knight's face as she seemed to finish brewing whatever she was working on. "I can understand that. Happens to the best of us sometimes. Though I think I'll leave the 'why' of that to you. Best you discover things like that on your own."
Ruby frowned, about to say something in return when Guinevere held a cup to her. It must have been the result of the herbs.
"Here, drink this. It'll make things easier for when I deal with this arrow."
Ruby tilted her head up just enough to let the other woman pour the drink into her mouth. She gulped it down quickly, noticing a faint taste of strawberry before her eyelids started feeling heavy. She rested her head back against the ground, which luckily didn't have any blood on it besides some of her own, and let her eyes slip closed.
She woke up later to the shaking of her shoulder. "Normally I'd let you rest, but we don't have the time. Can you stand, Your Majesty?"
Ruby groaned a bit as she opened her eyes, slowing moving up to a sitting position. She immediately noticed the fact that her left shoulder didn’t feel like it was trying to kill her anymore.
Honestly she was rather impressed. It seemed like Guinevere had bandaged and wrapped the wound, the perpetrator lying off to the side. Besides the the bandages and fact that her dress had been torn someone, probably from a combination of the arrow and being in the way of the medic’a work, you couldn’t even tell an arrow was in there earlier.
Another reminder came when she tried to move the arm. She hissed, a bolt of pain flaring through her shoulder. Looks like she wouldn’t be using that one for a while. Good thing she was right handed...
Guinevere seemed to have read her thoughts. “I’d recommend against using that arm for a while. Honestly you’re rather lucky. It hit just shy of rendering the arm unusable.”
Ruby winced, nodding. “Yeah, guessed as much. Looks like Lady Luck favors me today.”
The knight chuckled, offering her a hand up. “Not the first time I’ve heard that one. Though if I might recommend something, a cast would help.”
Ruby graciously accepted the help, grunting only slightly as she stood up. “I’ll consider it. Could you get one ready for me?”
Guinevere nodded, a small smile on her face. “I’ll do that Your Majesty. You go talk with the Captain.”
Ruby blushed. “Was I that obvious?”
She chuckled. “No, I just have a good eye for this sort of thing.”
She softly patted the Princess’s good shoulder before beginning to pack up her medical kit. Ruby took a breath, turning her gaze to try and find Weiss. It looked like the Queen’s Guard was busy gathering the bodies and moving them off the road. A mass grave then. Not ideal, but Ruby surmised they didn’t really have time to bury them individually. A shame, but it couldn’t be helped. Her sight finally landed on the white hair she had been searching for.
“Seriously!? You couldn’t have tried to at least be a little neater with things? Have you any idea how annoying it is to have to gather up organs?”
“In my defence you lopped off a good few hands yourself.”
“Hands, Agravain. Exactly how many people’s heads did you cleave off?”
A bellowing laughter followed. “23! A new record!”
A groan. “Then get to work gathering them up. And you’re on cleaning duty when we get to Vacuo.”
“A small price to pay. Now then, it seems you have a visitor.”
Ruby took this as the chance to intervene, clearing her throat just loudly enough for the group of three to overhear her. Weiss turned around, eyes widening when she spotted the Princess. Agravain, meanwhile, just let out another laugh as he walked off. The third, the navy coloured knight Tristan, took up his bow and followed after him.
Ruby gulped, stepping towards Weiss. “Sooooo... how is clean up going?”
Weiss faltered a bit, but looked around. “Good, all things considered. We’ve made a mass grave off to the side of the road, since we’re short on time. They should be close to finishing now.”
Ruby nodded, shifting her weight to her right leg. “How are we getting to Vacuo now? The carriage isn’t exactly in a travelling state.”
“True, but the horses still are. One of the Knights horses stuck around, so there are enough for all of us. It’ll let us ride faster as well. For all we know another wave of White Fang is on their way as we speak.”
That made sense. "Well, if we have some time before that..."
Weiss nodded, an unreadable look in her eyes. "We do."
Ruby sighed. This wasn't going to be easy. "Look, I'm not going to apologize for what I did. I'm not going to say sorry for saving you."
A flash of confused anger washed across Weiss's expression. "With all due respect Your Majesty, you shouldn't have done that. You should have stayed where you were safe, and my knights would have eliminated the remaining White Fang without me."
"But if I did that you would have been hurt! Or..." The sentence ran off, both woman knowing exactly what words died in Ruby's mouth.
"I know, but even so you still should have stayed away. If you had died then everything would have been for nothing! It's like I said: I'm replaceable, you're not."
Ruby frowned at this, a wave of anger starting to bubble up within her. "I don't care! You can say it all you want, but you're not replaceable Weiss!"
"Yes I am! Any knight could-"
"No they couldn't!" Ruby all but shouted, the captain going silent at Ruby's unexpected outburst.
She took a breath before continuing. "You're strong, diligent, kind, smart and caring. And maybe there was someone else who had those things... but they're not YOU, Weiss. While your skills did play a part, I picked you for the Queen's Guard because of who you are Weiss. Not for what you have or what you can do."
She paused, trying to collect her thoughts. Why did words have to be so darn hard sometimes? "Mom... she told me something once. She had asked me what I thought a human life cost. I was stumped, so she told me. She told me that a human life is a priceless thing. That It's value was so far removed from any currency we could imagine. I didn't really understand at the time cause I was young, but now... I understand what she meant now."
Ruby took Weiss's hands in her own, her silver eyes staring deep into twin pools of cerulean. "You aren't replaceable Weiss, because there's not a single person or thing in the whole world that could replace YOU. Maybe I might be more important objectively, but to me you're even more important."
Her sudden speech seemed to have caught her off guard, and all Weiss did was stare at the princess. A crimson glow had come to adorn her cheeks, and Ruby couldn't help but smile at that. So even the infallible Weiss Schnee could get embarrassed. She'd have to remember that for later.
It was after a few moments more that the knight finally spoke. "I... I made an oath. The day your mother was killed. An oath to both her, and to myself. To her I swore that I would protect you with every fiber of my being, that I wouldn't let you come under any harm. To myself... I swore I wouldn't fail you like I failed your Mother."
Ruby tightened her grip on Weiss's hands. Rely on the white haired girl to suffer in silence like this. "Weiss..."
The knight continued on. "I know there are many who blame me for not being able to protect the Queen. I failed the crown that day..."
Ruby interrupted. "It wasn't your fault Weiss! You couldn't have known it was going to happen any more than the rest of us. Blake even said whoever did it they covered their tracks reeeeeeeally well. She couldn't even figure out how they got in, and you know how good she is at that kind of thing."
Weiss let out a sigh. "I know, but... I failed. Because I did your mother died. And if we're being honest she was more of a parent to me than my own were. I just... I can't lose you too."
Ruby smiled, letting go of the Knight's hands only to wrap her in a hug. The metal was cold, but that didn't bother the Princess. "You won't. But don't you see? I can't lose you either Weiss. So please... don't give up your life just for mine. I don't know if I could recover from losing you too."
She could feel Weiss tense up a bit, but relaxed as she slowly returned Ruby's hug. The princess hummed happily as one of the other woman's hand wrapped around her waist, the other going up to hold and stroke her head.
She couldn't see her face, but she could tell that the girl was blushing. "Alright. I'll do everything in my power to keep us both alive, Your Majesty."
Ruby frowned, pulling away. "Didn't I tell you what to do?"
Weiss blinked, obviously confused. "What do you mean?"
"When we're alone, you can just call me by my name."
Weiss blushed, looking down. "But that would be unbecoming-"
"Ahp! No buts. When we're alone, you are just to call me by my name. Understand?"
Weiss looked like she wanted to argue, but Ruby could be just as stubborn as the Knight when she wanted to be. Knowing this Weiss relented. "Very well... Ruby."
Ruby squealed a bit, hugging the knight again, an act she begrudgingly (Ruby knew that the proud Weiss would never admit to liking their hugs) returned. It only lasted for a couple minutes before they were interrupted by someone clearing their throat. "I hate to interject, but the burial is done. We had best be moving."
Both woman shot apart, a blush on Ruby's face while Weiss was fighting one back as they turned to look at the source. Guinevere had come over, her silvery armor glinting in the sun. Behind her Ruby could make out the other knights packing supplies from the carriage into bags on the other horses. One stood off to the side, neighing as Tristan fed him a carrot. Obviously that was the spare that had stuck around.
Weiss cleared her throat, her face returning to the resolute look she normally wore. "Good. Get the others prepared. We're living within the next few minutes."
The woman nodded, a strange smirk on her face as she turned to go rejoin the rest of the guard.
Ruby turned to Weiss. "Best not keep them waiting then."
The knight nodded, taking Ruby's hand and leading her towards the horse Tristan was near. He nodded respectfully before retreating to his own horse, preparing a few things for their departure. While Weiss climbed onto the saddle of the horse, Guinevere brought a cast over for Ruby which she also helped put on the silver-eyed princess's injured arm. With helping hand from Weiss Ruby also climbed onto the saddle and sat behind Weiss, her good arm wrapped around the Knight's waist.
She looked back, concern in her eyes. "Are you sure you'll be okay with just one arm?"
Ruby nodded. "Yep! It's my good arm, so I'll be able to hold on super tight!"
"You better. I'd hate to tell your sister you survived an attack from White Fang only to perish by being throne off a horse."
This elicited a laugh from the younger girl, leaning into Weiss's back. Weiss smiled a bit too, though she turned away when Ruby looked back up. Seeing an opportunity, Ruby laid a feather light kiss against the girl's exposed neck. This elicited the cutest gasp from Weiss, who whirled back around with a blush and shocked look on her face.
Ruby just played innocent. "What? I didn't do anything."
Weiss huffed, turning back around. Ruby giggled, being able to figure out Weiss wasn't actually that mad. When you're around someone enough you learn their tells. And with how much time the two spent together it was pretty easy for Ruby to determine the knight's mood now.
"Let's move! I want us to reach Vacuo before evening!"
Weiss's voice was music to the princess's ears as the rest of the guard let out a cheer of agreement. Then Weiss gently tapped the horse's sides and they were off. The horse Weiss and Ruby were in the middle, the other seven forming a defensive perimeter of a slightly incomplete diamond around them as they galloped down the road. As the wind blew through her hair and the scent of the shampoo Weiss used floated to her nose above the smell of blood and sweat, Ruby smiled.
She would have to convince Weiss to give her some lessons in swordplay. Or maybe she could ask Uncle Qrow. She always did find the Scythe he used to be REALLY cool, despite it simply being modified farming equipment. She giggled, leaning more into the Knight in front of her, gazing up at the back of her head as the slightly off center ponytail she wore blew in the wind. While she couldn't see her face, Ruby was absolutely sure she had a smile on her face.
They rode for what felt like hours, and soon the dense forests made way for a sweeping desert. While the sand slowed their horses down some, the frequent travel between Vale and Vacuo was cause for a sandstone road to be built into the sea of sand. All they had to do was follow that yellow brick road and it would lead them straight to Vacuo. Ruby hummed a soft tune as thoughts whirled around her head, her gaze turning to her injured shoulder. If she was as important to Weiss as the knight was to Ruby, she would have to reconsider some things. Namely the fact that she had to rely on others to protect her.
Now don't get her wrong. She trusted that Weiss would protect her, just like she always had. But she really did need to get some combat training. Yang had some, but that was mainly punching things, and Ruby didn't really like the sounds of that. She was sure that people would ask why she needed any training when she had such a capable guard, but the answer was simple. When you have something important to you, you want to protect it. The thought rolled around Ruby's mind playfully, bringing a grin to her face. Just like the soldiers who fought in wars, just like the gallant Knights all around her who protected their Princess, just like the woman who she had her arm wrapped around, she had something she wanted to protect too.
And to protect her beloved Knight? The Princess would do damn well near anything.