Chapter Text
Page 1 of the fairytale: The Faceless Queen
Once upon a time, there was a Queen.
She was heroic, brave, beautiful and loved by many.
One day, the Queen was to set out on a journey across the lands.
She bid farewell to the King and their two children, promising to return soon.
She then left with her most trusted knight to travel to beyond.
But one night, when the Queen’s loyal knight left to find firewood, tragedy stuck the royal.
A monster! It sprung from a bush and menaced the Queen who tried to fight back against the monster.
But before she could hit the thing or call for her knight, the monster reached forth and stole the Queen’s face!
…
DREAM
AERD
Hello. A pleasure to have you here.
I am… well not to sound cliché, but I am The Storyteller. I tell stories (self-explanatory, I know).
Now, first I’d like to tell you that there are many, many, MANY, other worlds out there, full to the brim with tales to tell. I myself come from none of them. I… come from a world between worlds, a world of dreams and thought, a world of can be – is.
A world called Flip.
I am sitting here, in my home, writing this story with what I must admit is a marvellous Peacock-feather quill. And, as I finish chapter after chapter, I will send each and every of them to you all to be read. I won’t explain how I’m doing it – proprietary secret, after all – but let’s just call it magic. Because it is.
I’m sure you’re just about ready to start yelling at whatever you’re reading this on (I’ll assume parchment or something, it’s what I’m writing on after all,). ‘Start the story already old man!’.
Well okay, okay. I’ll do that. Wouldn’t want to disappoint you all.
Now, a back ally wasn’t the kind of place where one would imagine a grand tale of magic and monsters to begin. Well, that may not exactly be true, with just how many tales there are out there. One must’ve started in a dingy alleyway before, right?
But I must digress. No matter who or how many have begun a story like such before, this too is where our story begins. However, the next part I am quite sure isn’t similar to the start of any story you’ve heard before…
A tiny plant, what one would describe as a weed at first glance, sprouted between the concrete pavement stones. The only abnormality visible to those without a particular kind of sense was a gently glowing oblong bulb, its weight causing the plant’s stem to droop. The abnormalities became far more obvious when the entire plant began to rapidly shudder. This movement then culminated in the plant growing far more rapidly in size and speed then anything ever should have been capable of. It began to turn tree-like as it curved and wrapped around until it formed a circle, standing up from its stem and head. Small branches shot off the main trunk and held their own collections of leaves, their colours an odd violet that faded to white at their tips. But the oddest thing of all was what happened next.
A rippling pool of liquid that was indescribably being held aloft, filled the frame of the ring-shaped ‘tree’. The colours were an ever-mixing and swirling combination of those found in a rainbow, spattered on an eggshell white background. Almost as if there was a thin sheen of oil over the substance, creating a kaleidoscope on the surface.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. There’s absolutely no way that this could get any stranger. You even said so! Yes… well… shut it.
Because out of the liquid burst a creature of indescribable proportions… that shall now be described. Its form initially displayed a great sense of lankiness, with its arms and legs being disproportionately long for its stout torso. Its hands were likewise disproportionate, being bulky, large, and tough. The creature hunched its back, deceiving just how small its head really was with its neck, which was even bigger. Altogether, it looked as if someone tried to make a small giant, but got all the pieces in the wrong sizes.
What’s next that came out of the portal, chasing the lank-man as the latter ran out of the alleyway, was a girl. A girl of no more than fifteen years of age, shortish stature, and dark brown hair that had a red gradient creep in from the tips if only subtly. She wore a simple robe-like top with a rose and vine embroidery, with breathable pants that bunched at the ankles, right before the arched sandals with a mechanism made of red metal on the heels that kept short, curved daggers retracted against the backs of her feet. But the most eye-catching piece of her clothing was the cape she wore. It was bright red, but that was only a small part of why it was so arresting in attention. The whole thing looked to as if it were woven out of flower petals.
This girl is Ruby Rose. She has many titles to her name, none of which will be shared with you now.
Ruby kept her body close to the ground as she pursued the lank-man. The agility with which she moved with was undeniably incredible. It was like a blur of flowers was moving through the cluttered backstreets of Vale, dodging and weaving all the discarded items people were too lazy to go to the effort of taking to the dump. Unfortunately for Ruby, however, the lank-man was faring just as well.
Their long limbs made up for swiftness by covering more ground than Ruby’s own, far smaller legs. And despite being the size of an elongated gorilla, it bounced and swung about with the grace of a lemur. All while mocking its supposed pursuer.
“Can’t catch! Can’t Catch! Little birdie can’t catch!” The thing chortled, its slim vocabulary reflecting its intelligence.
“I’ll show you, eifrit! Little birdie can catch!” Ruby bit back. ‘WAIT! NO! Why did I call myself little birdie?! Stupid!’ she then immediately regretted in her head.
“Aahhahahaha! Try! Try!”
The ‘eifrit’ grasped a protrusion from a building and used it to swing themselves onto the rooftops. Stopping and grumbling to herself, Ruby backed up and gave a running start before speeding up the wall to join the monster and resume the chase. This act was immediately hindered, however, when Ruby’s body met the awaiting backhand the eifrit had prepared.
Perhaps not as stupid as it talks.
Ruby, credit to her training, twisted in the air and performed three backward cartwheels before skidding to a stop in the middle of the roof. Thanks to the extensive training she had received, Ruby had been able to transition an unnoticeable wrapping of thick long grass around her left arm, into a pole she grabbed with that hand whose wrist it was twined around. Still retaining the appearance of grass, except for the head which looked like the petal of a white flower, the object was held solid in her hand which was accompanied by Ruby’s left when it too grasped the formed handle.
Ruby flourished the weapon by twirling it around over her head, but as she did so the weapon grew longer and longer until the handle had extended to a deadly point where it had transformed from a completely unthreatening handle to an incredibly lethal polearm. Ruby ended the transformation by levelling the tip angled down slightly at the eifrit, one leg up and her grip flexible just like she was taught. Prepared to swing in any direction necessary.
Even if just for a moment, the jiggered-toothed maw of the eifrit twitch into concern. A welcome expression on its shrivelled head. But just as it had appeared, it was gone. Not only did it start grinning in its disturbingly wide way again, but it also somehow got even wider as its eyes flickered away from Ruby and her weapon.
Ruby’s training screamed at her to hold her position, for her attention to never waver from the enemy. But Ruby was an endlessly empathetic girl and knew full well that the reason for the monster’s grin was to be born of nothing other than malice. And so, Ruby’s eyes betrayed her training, leaving the eifrit for scant but a moment to look at the store it glanced to across the street. And a moment was all the eifrit needed.
Thrusting their arm into the ground, their open palm emerged right before Ruby. It lashed out as quickly and violently as a whip, striking Ruby with full force and sending her careening through the air and over to the next roof. Using the distance, the eifrit made its escaping leap over the street and to the store.
Ruby, cursing in a language separate from the one she had spoken previously, got up from where she had crashed and went to look over at what her quarry was up to. She was fairly confident of what it would do but still refused to think it would happen if she didn’t see it with her own eyes. Confirming her own horror, Ruby watched as the eifrit stole a mocking glance at her, and then slipped under the crack in the front door of the shop as easily as ducking under the branch of a tree.
Ruby gripped her hair tightly as her eyes widened in fear. ‘Ooooh noooo! I am going to get in so much trouble for this!’. Hurriedly stowing her polearm, Ruby backed up from the edge to give herself space for what was about to happen next. Taking a steading breath out, Ruby lowered her body and widen her stance.
“Andifae!” Ruby cried. And only a fraction of a second passed before the only evidence of the girl moving was the slipstream she produced, flushed with the petals of her cloak. With the absence of ground not stopping Ruby’s momentum, let alone slowing it, she rocketed off the building and easily cleared the street below. She may have overshot quite a bit, but nothing a rotation in the air and a wall jump off the side of the building couldn’t fix, landing perfectly on the ground. With one hand on the grip of her weapon Ruby hurriedly, but carefully, pushed the door open and barged inside.
Taking in the scene rapidly, Ruby noted the low shelves and the display cases of vibrantly coloured crystals. Not her preferred environment but she would make do. However, the most important feature to Ruby was the current location of the eifrit. Which, concerningly….
Was nowhere to be found.
Her entrance did alert the stork clerk, or maybe it was the owner, Ruby was unsure. He was an older man whose only cranial hair was on the sides, leaving a shiny bald top to gleam in the artificial light.
He turned around to look at Ruby with squinted eyes and then glanced (well, maybe he did it was hard to tell) behind her. With a considerate nod, he subtly motioned to some of the slightly taller shelves that had metals parts and paper magazines.
‘Oooh, he thinks I’m trying to get away from someone! Well, I am a girl out late in… the city? I think this is a city. It’d be weird to ask if I were in a city. Ah! Storekeeper! Right!’
Ruby did her best to fake the gratefulness in her nod and then scurried over to the racks of magazines that could partially obscure her from view, drawing up the hood of her cloak as she did so.
“*Okay,*” Ruby returned to her thoughts, ‘That jerk has to be in here somewhere. I bet he’s hiding under a shelf somewhere, or maybe he already got in the back. I’d have to distract that guy to check… Agh. I wish Zalfaunara was here, she is great with using the yatahakam technique! Oh well, better just to get started checking-’
“Hey kid!”
‘An opening!’
Ruby twirled, grabbed the arm that had tapped her shoulder and used her whole body to leverage her throw, crashing the arm’s owner into the opposite wall of the store. Ruby, noticing that it was just a regular man in a black suit, blinked stupidly twice.
“Egh… whoops.” Were all the words Ruby could find to formulate.
As if some kind of costume party was being held, five more men wearing identical outfits stepped into view, each brandishing a short, red sword.
Ignoring them, Ruby pointed an accusatory finger past and slightly above them. “Ah-ha! There you are you stupid eifrit!”
True enough, the eifrit had attached themselves to the ceiling. Most probably, they were scuttling about just outside of Ruby’s view to remain hidden until she had left to check elsewhere.
“Aww…” The creature slumped, sadly. “Game over. Little birdie find me.” Their posture and expression then jumped back to joy. “That means it time for new game! A new game! Get ready to play! Time to play!”
Ruby redrew her weapon, this time only letting it grow to the size of a medium-length sword of indeterminate type with the handle and guard being grass and the blade a flower petal. The fluid movement was entrancing and beautiful, smoothly adjusting to the perfect length needed to form a weapon. And yet, this still didn’t catch the eye of the men in suits that were between Ruby and the eifrit since their attention was firmly glued upon the latter with fearful intrigue.
Muttering a silent apology, Ruby made a standing jump no normal person could, and then proceeded to use the men’s heads as stepping stones as she approached the eifrit. With a thrust of the cutlass, all Ruby met was a wall as the eifrit somersaulted over everyone’s heads and landed where Ruby had begun the latest renewal of the confrontation.
“Heh-hah! Can’t catch if that slow, little birdie!” the thing mocked.
Ruby gritted her teeth in as much concentration as frustration. “Fine! I’ll just move faster then!”
Drawing her sword back up, Ruby held the weapon right up next to her head, the point trained lethally on the eifrit. Ruby took a deep breath of - what she now noticed as quite polluted - air. With one last stare at her target, Ruby approached again.
Faster.
“Yaqtarib!” Ruby cried as her sword was thrusting forth. And one moment, she was standing on a case of those colourful crystals, and the next her sword was buried halfway in the eifrit’s torso.
It took the eifrit a few seconds to realize exactly what had transpired, but when they did figure it out their face went through half a dozen different emotions before landing on agonized fury.
“AAAAAAAAAAGHGHGHGHGHSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” It screeched as it drew back, Ruby’s grassy sword making a wet squelching noise as it was drawn out of the beast’s chest. One of its meaty hands raised to cover the slew of dark purple – almost black – blood that was gushing from the fresh wound. It steadied itself on another display and growled at Ruby, all mirth and playfulness gone from its tiny face.
“I think I like this game.” Ruby smiled.
“Little bird not even know how to use toothpick.” The eifrit spat. It was mainly more blood than saliva, but the effort was there. “Sleepwalker not allowed such sanctified thing.”
Ruby’s smile only broadened. “Wanna bet?”
The eifrit roared, spittle and blood flying off jagged teeth, and then the battle was on. Ruby and the eifrit bounced around the store, exchanging blows as they passed one another. Ruby was able to get in more shots than the eifrit, her nimble form and agile sword outdid the clumsy if not powerful and fast swipes of long-nailed hands on the eifrit’s even longer arms. Thankfully for Ruby and unluckily for the eifrit, Ruby’s padded robe was lined with a metal mesh on the interior, thus dulling the hits. The storekeeper had hunkered down behind their island-style counter, quivering as he tried his best to shield his head with his arms.
The other men weren’t so lucky, however. In their rapid movement, both the eifrit and Ruby had crashed into the men and either sent them into unconsciousness outright or collided them into walls where they wished they had been knocked unconscious. There was actually one man who stood out from the rest, wearing a white coat, black bowler hat, and no sunglasses. He didn’t last long when Ruby kneed him in the face whilst performing the wind-up leap for a dropkick. It completely ruined the attack and Ruby blamed the man fully for it not working.
A good deal more of the store was crashed into, smashed up, and broken before Ruby had managed enough lacerations to subdue the eifrit enough that it was just about ready to keel over. Ruby, having taken a fierce blow that saw her shatter a display to secure her victory, got to her feet and dusted of the smaller glass shards that remained on her clothes. Keeping the weight off of her bruised and tender left leg, Ruby hobbled with as much grace she could muster until she stood over the eifrit, who was kneeling on all fours and trying to gain a second wind.
Ruby levelled the bladed blade of grass with the blunt side pointed towards the eifrit’s neck.
“Okay, guy, two choices.” Ruby panted, exhausted. “Either you submit and let me take you in, or I end it here. Now, I’ve been chasing you for the past three hours, so I’d really like you to choose one of these more than the other.”
“End now!” the eifrit answered immediately. “Shall never be taken for judgement!”
“Okay. This is your choice then.”
And Ruby raised the sword, turned it in her grip, and then let it swing back down like an executioner’s guillotine.
With the eifrit taken care of, Ruby wiped down her sword, and let the blade slip back around her left wrist. Next on the agenda was the need to clean up the mess she made.
Well, not physically clean it up, that’d be too much work. Ruby began by dragging all the unconscious and semi-conscious men and lining them all up. Next was the storekeeper. Looking over the counter, Ruby found the man still cowering in a small space under the register.
“Hi!” Ruby said brightly.
The man whimpered in response.
“Ah, don’t worry! It’s all okay now! I took care of the monster! It’s fine to come out now!”
Moving back so that the man had room, Ruby watched as he tentatively got up and looked around the store. It was battered, but still standing much to his relief. At least there was insurance. The shopkeeper turned to Ruby to try and find more answers as to what had happened but only got a face full of a glittery powder in response. The man coughed and spluttered as the powder invaded his senses before a great drowsiness overcame him and he lay back down in gentle slumber.
“Okay, on down. Now for the rest.” Ruby declared, turning around to administer the same amnesiac powder to the rest that had witnessed her battle with the eifrit. Such dealings weren’t meant to be known by people like this, and it was Ruby’s duty to keep it that way. She knelt down and had gotten through most of the men when the front entrance to the store burst open and five men in uniforms came through, followed by a singular woman who looked very out of place with the rest of them. And all of the men had weapons trained on Ruby.
“Hands in the air!” one of the men cried.
“Uhhh… I… Umm…” Ruby floundered. This wasn’t supposed to happen! Ruby had no idea what she should do in this scenario! It’d never occurred before! She could try and use the Andifae fast-move technique, but there was no guarantee that these people wouldn’t be able to catch her before she got outside and used the more long-ranged movement from the Khutwa technique. There was also the Yukhfi stealth technique, but the vibrant colours of the crystals would make it incredibly hard to use it properly. AGH! Why couldn’t Zalfaunara be here?!
With no other reliable option, Ruby raised her hands in defeat.
DREAMAERD
It was sometime later that Ruby found herself ‘locked’ in what she recognized as an interrogation room. Not the first time she had been in one, but the first where she was interrogated.
‘Locked’ was a loose term considering Ruby’s repertoire of abilities she had either been taught or created herself, but she knew that there would be an opportunity to escape eventually. And then Ruby could put all this behind her and never return.
The door unlocked to admit the stern-faced blonde woman who had been present when Ruby was arrested. She was still wearing the blouse and high black dress skirt, decorated by a black cape with a purple inner lining and intentionally tattered rim. She pushed up her glasses and approached the opposite side of the table to look down at the sitting Ruby.
“You, are in a heaping amount of trouble, young lady.” Was the lady’s form of greeting. “Property damage, vigilantism, unlicensed possession of weapons – which you have still yet to relent, operating without a Huntsman license…”
Huntsman? Wait, that couldn’t mean-
“…and I could clearly tell you were about ready to add resistance of arrest to those charges too.” The woman glared at Ruby. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
“That I had to stop the monster before it hurt anyone?” Ruby offered weakly.
The riding crop the woman held firmly, came down to snap on the table and caused Ruby to flinch back.
“Whilst I will begrudgingly admit you possibly saved lives there, there are many people who would like to ask some pointed questions about that.” The lady paused to sigh deeply in a resigned manner. “Luckily for you, the one who will be asking is a little more impressed than others by your abilities.”
The lady stepped out of Ruby’s line of view to the door, just in time for the young girl to see a silver-haired man in a fancy and likely expensive suit to enter the room. In one hand he held a cane that Ruby’s eyes were drawn to and in the other a plate of cookies.
“Miss…” the man began.
“Ruby,” Ruby answered.
“Ruby…?”
“Just Ruby.”
The man nodded understanding and continued. “A pleasure, Miss Ruby. Apologies if this seems a little odd, but I must comment on your eyes.”
Ruby flinched. It was small, barely noticeable, but still the other two in the room picked up on it. “What about them...?” Ruby responded defensively.
“They’re silver.”
He couldn’t know, could he? No. No that wasn’t possible. The man was possibly just interested in them, they must not be a common colour here.
“…Yes?” Ruby tried to fake confusion in her voice. She thought she did a pretty good job.
“So! Where did you learn…” He held up a tablet device the woman had passed to him, “this?”
Ruby looked at the tablet and her eyes grew wide when she saw a security camera’s perspective of her bouncing around the store as she fought the eifrit. The eifrit, Ruby thanked, was not present on the camera, so it looked as if Ruby was fighting the air. This made some of her movements particularly odd at the points in the fight that she had made jumps off the eifrit.
“…Family?” Ruby answered vaguely, doing her best to answer honestly but also giving as little away as possible.
Seeming satisfied enough with the answer (unlike the lady), the man set the plate of baked treats down with but a simple nod.
“I see.” He said.
Ruby sniffed the aroma of the cookies. She was all for sweet treats, but the hint of processed sugar she could detect in the scent had her wrinkling up her nose. She politely brushed the plate to the side and returned her attention to the man, who seemed mildly surprised by the action.
“I’ve never encountered such a fighting style like yours before, it almost looks like a dance when inspected.”
Ruby nodded. “It’s based on dancing, yes.” The longer she could avoid the subject of the eifrit, the better.
“The grimm you fought is like something I’ve never heard of before, and I’ve certainly heard a lot.”
Dammit.
And double dammit.
Grimm – that just confirmed to Ruby where she was, giving her all the more reason to get out of there and back home to the Aviary. If she just kept answering the questions as briefly as possible, they were sure to let her go quicker. Or, at the very least leave her alone long enough to formulate a plan to get out of the building.
“It looked kind of like a weird orangutang with a tiny head,” Ruby said.
“According to the men who were robbing the store, they remember it speaking.”
Oh, so they were robbing the store. That made Ruby feel a little better about knocking them out. But also:
‘AHHHHHH. THIS IS NOT GOOD.’ Ruby’s mind screamed. The man had backed her into a corner with this question. Ruby abhorred outwrite lying to people, but it was just about at the point that it was just about the only option she had left bar telling them everything. And that was beyond a choice she could make.
Ruby opened her mouth to reluctantly deliver the lie, but the man beat her to it with a dismissive wave of the hand.
“Then again, all those men were knocked out. It is most likely they were not recollecting everything… accurately.”
Ruby would have let out a sigh of relief if she wasn’t sure that it’d give her worry away. She would take the out and run as far as she could with it. Which, was to say, play along enough to get out of there.
“So, tell me, Miss Ruby – with skills like these, what is it exactly that you wish to do?”
This question blindsided Ruby – not just because she hadn’t been expecting this man to ask it, but because also it wasn’t a question she had thought about in a long time.
“I…” Ruby faltered. She tried to remember what her answer to such a question was. She had already been living so much of a life for the past eight years, that Ruby had begun to forget such reasons as to why. But despite the time passed and the answer hidden in the back of her mind, Ruby remembered. “I… I guess I just want to help people…”
The man smiled warmly as if she had chosen the correct option on a spelling test.
“A good answer. Now, Miss Ruby, do you know who I am?”
“Would it be weird if I said no?”
The man chuckled.
“I am Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon Huntsmen Academy.” Professor Ozpin said.
“Um, hi. I probably should have asked for your name sooner, shouldn’t I?”
“Not to worry, Miss Ruby. But to get down to business; I’d like you to attend my school.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Ruby thought she could see the lady almost collapse via stroke then and there from the Professor’s request.
“Not to sound ungrateful, sir, but why me?” Ruby asked.
“Because, Miss Ruby, I would feel it a terrible loss not to nurture such young talent. And deny it all you like, but I know true talent when I see it and will go to considerable lengths to see such skills soar. I’m sure I can convince the upstanding officers here to overlook your… encounter.”
This was it! This was the out Ruby was looking for! All she had to do was say yes, get out of here, get back to the Aviary, and then never come back here again! Foolproof!
“Well then, sir, I’m not sure how I could refuse.” Ruby lied. Well, half lied at best. She didn’t see any other way the man was giving her other than being imprisoned, but he wasn’t to know Ruby had other ways out. The truth streak still going.
Ozpin stood, dusting off his already immaculate suit. “Well then Miss Ruby, how about we shake on it and settle the whole affair?”
Ruby began panicking again.
“Oh, that’s okay Mr Ozpin, there’s no need. I haven’t washed since the fight and wouldn’t want to get your hand dirty.” Ruby deflected.
“That is completely fine. I was a huntsman myself back in the day, so a little grime won’t put me off. It certainly hasn’t been the worst thing I’ve been covered in.”
Ruby needed to avoid shaking on the deal. If she did, then she would be forced to stick to the deal lest she risk banishment from the Aviary. After all: A deal made in hands, is a deal sealed on the lands. If a pact of the land is broken, it will see its betrayer woken. The man had once again backed her into a corner and wasn’t offering a way out this time.
Ozpin was holding out his hand, still waiting for Ruby to come and shake it. His smile was genuine, as far as Ruby could tell. But all the same, it felt a little… victorious. As if he had just bested someone at a game the other didn’t know they were playing. Had he been playing Ruby? Did he actually know about her home and the people there? Did he actually know that Ruby would be forced to commit to their agreement if they shook hands, and that was the reason he was doing it?
Ruby resolved herself then and there. She would go through this dumb charade and consign herself to this, probably dumb, school. At least there she could gather information on what Ozpin really knew, is what was just unfortunate happenstance, and find a way out of this deal without breaking it.
Ruby raised her hand to meet Ozpin’s and shook it firmly. A pact sealed.
“Very good Miss Ruby. I’ll be looking forward to seeing you in two days when the new school year starts.”
Ruby blinked blankly twice as she processed the words. “Eh?”
‘TWO DAYS?!’