fairytales at the fireplace (april 2- book/favorite story)
I’m quite sad I skipped three? days but I’ve been really busy. And now I’m posting April 2 on April 4. @rwbyrosegardenweek
Qrow settled down on the floor, while the others sat around him, near the fire.
It was dark in the room, save for the brightly lit fireplace. Weiss and Blake shared a blanket. Yang was on the couch, with a blanket of her own. She was to fall asleep any minute from now, but protested against falling asleep.
Ren, Nora, and Maria were settled underneath a large quilt Maria had knitted in her free time. Jaune was his infamous onesie and claimed “He was too fuzzy to need a blanket”. That left Ruby and Oscar, who had to share the only blanket left. How convenient.
“Where are the other blankets?” Qrow asked, eyeing Oscar with suspicion.
“I looked, I swear! They all had holes in them,” the boy replied, panickedly.
“A blanket’s a blanket, kid.” Ruby had glared at her uncle to quit pestering Oscar so the old bird cleared his throat.
“Ahem. Fine. So we’re gathered here to retell a story. One of Summer’s favorites. Never told this one to you two when you were younger,” Qrow said, a bit regrettably.
Ruby looked down sadly when she heard her mother’s name. Yang murmured a sleepy, “mom”.
Qrow sighed. “Yes. Well, here it is. I’m telling it from memory, so bear with me. Once upon a time...”
In two lands far, far, away, lived the Aurum and the Argenti peoples. They had been rivals for centuries, but no one really remembered why.
The Aurum people were of a noble and intelligent sort, many of them wizards.
The Argenti people were a smaller group, full of fierce warriors that destroyed the creatures of the night.
The Aurum typically had magical abilities that surpassed others. They had the ability to levitate, duplicate, and talk to to the dead, depending on their strength. Aurum people had golden eyes.
The Argenti people were not only a brave group of fighters, but some of their warriors possessed special silver eyes, a rare and wonderful power.
Who were stronger? Some said the Aurum; many of them had ancestors who were wiped out by the god of destruction. Some say the Argenti, who had many of their own destroyed by an ancient witch. Only a few of both tribes have survived.
Off in the Aurum land, there lived a young boy. He was the apprentice to the Great Wizard, the most powerful of the Aurum people.
The Great Wizard, from a very young age, was convinced that the Aurum and Argenti people could live in harmony one day. As time passed, however, that dream was never fully recognized.
The young boy thought his master was ridiculous. In fact, he thought him learning magic was ridiculous. He was one of the few Aurum people without magic.
Every day, the boy would ask his master, “Why am I your apprentice, when I have no magic?”
And the Great Wizard would reply, “You do have magic. It is only a matter of time.”
The boy would hear around town the rumors of the Great Wizard being crazy and nonsensical, and the boy felt embarrassed to be his apprentice.
He would go and ask again, “Master, why did you choose me? I have no magic.”
The Great Wizard would laugh. “You do have magic. It is only a matter of time.”
The boy, frustrated, stormed away. He considered running away, but returned dutifully the next morning to do his daily chores. Cleaning the hall, dusting the prayer mats, shining the portraits of all the Great Wizards before this Great Wizard. If he wasn’t cleaning, he was flipping through old spell books.
It was quite funny to the boy, all the Great Wizards seemed to have the same twinkle in their eyes.
Snapping out of his trance, the boy went back to work. He wondered if he was actually being trained to be a street-sweeper.
In the land of the Argenti, there was a young girl who was training to be a silver-eyed warrior. She was one of the lucky ones, whose silver eyes gave her the ability to wipe out the creatures of the night. She was no ordinary Argenti girl.
Her master, was a wrinkled elder, who was losing their sight.
“Master, I’ve been training day and night. My final test will to be to defeat the creature on the mountain. Am I ready yet?” she would ask.
“No, my child. I may be blind, but I can see that you are not ready yet.”
So the young girl would sigh, but continue on with her training anyway.
That’s how the days always went. The girl would practice with the other children, then go train with the elder alone. They were always so adamant about keeping fit, even though the girl believed her powers were enough to defeat anyone.
She was headstrong and loud, but could be compassionate at times.
“Master, may I complete the ritual on mountain yet?”
“No!” her master yelled, smacking the girl’s hand with a spoon. They proceeded to pat the girl’s back. “Not yet.” The elder looked out the window, where the floating pieces of the moon were gravitating towards one another.
“When then?” the girl asked.
The young boy woke up bright and early the next morning, and set to feeding the chickens around the temple. Before beginning his morning chores, there was a shout from beyond the temple grounds.
“Isn’t it quite boring being cooped up with the Great Wizard all day?” a boorish voice yelled to him.
The lad knew it was one of the burly boys who tormented him often. Becuase the bully possessed the ability to move things with his mind, he thought he was the cream of the crop.
“Hush. Don’t disrespect the Wizard on his grounds.”
“I wonder why he picked you. You don’t have any magic. Must’ve lost his mind after all,” the bully guffawed.
The boy trembled, the bucket of seed in his hand shaking slightly.
“Oh, are you going to send me flying? Oh wait, you can’t. But I can,” he smirked. Before the boy could run away, he felt himself floating above the ground. Suddenly everything was upside down as the bully burst into laughter.
The boy felt lightheaded. He was being tossed like a rag doll. When the bully couldn’t contain himself, the boy finally fell into a mud puddle.
“Serves you right! You, the Great Wizard? I don’t think so.”
The bully continued down the path, and the boy, angered, stood up and ran inside the temple, without cleaning himself or removing his sandals.
“Master! Master! Where are you? I demand you teach me magic! I have done nothing but clean and cook and clean and cook! Teach me!”
The boy roared fiercely, but there wasn’t a reply.
He ran frantically all over the house, tracking mud everywhere. He finally stopped inthe prayer room. There, on the ground in front of him, was a note, written hurriedly with fresh ink.
I have gone to the mountains to meditate. I will be back tomorrow morning. My intuition told me the temple might get dirty while I am away. Please make sure it’s clean.
The boy ripped up the note and sighed. He might as well get to work. The bully was right; he would never learn magic.
At the end of the day, he was exhausted and weary, but the temple was clean. He ate his meal and retired, waiting for the Great Wizard’s return the next day.
The sun rose and the boy continued on with his day, ignoring the taunts of the more powerful Aurum. His master was to be home soon.
Several hours passed. His master had not returned.
The Great Wizard had never broken a promise. Where was he?
But then the boy remembered that he was promised magical abilities and had yet to see them. Maybe the Wizard wasn’t so great after all.
Soon, it was evening, and the moon was beginning to come into view. It looked peculiar tonight, almost as if it was whole. The moon was never whole. Never.
Well, once in a millennia, he was told. But he couldn’t quite remember why that was significant.
Still, when his master hadn’t come back, he began to worry some more.
So, he packed a bag, stuffed with cheese, bread, and water. An invisibility charm. One could never know when it would be necessary. Ointment and herbs in case of an emergency. And his master’s stick.
His stick? The old, gnarled cane that the Great Wizard carried along with him at all times? He never left it behind... he could be in a lot of trouble.
Suited with his pack and the stick, the boy headed out of the temple.
Suddenly, a thought occured to him. There were no mountains in his land. The only mountains were in the land of the...
There was a mountain range, and the highest peak scraped the top of the skies. That’s where his master was.
So magic, or no magic, he was going straight into the heart of the deadly warriors. Thank the gods for the invisibility charm. It only lasted for small intervals at a time, so he would only use it when crossing the border into Argenti lands.
The young girl had finished her training, blasting wooden dummies with her eyes all afternoon. Exhausted, at night, she returned to her home.
Day after day, all she did was dummy practice. She wanted to be a fully-fledged silver-eyed warrior. But she was stuck with the basics. Again.
The old woman seemed to fiddling with something at the table.
She coughed when entering the home, starling the old woman, who hurriedly hid the object behind her back.
“What is that?” the girl asked.
“Nothing. The moon’s pieces have come together, have you noticed?” the sage muttered.
“What are you hiding from me?”
“How often do these pieces come together?” the elder asked instead.
“How often do they come together?” she asked again.
“Once in a millenium,” the apprentice grumbled.
“That still doesn’t answer—“
“You may complete your ritual tonight. Take nothing with you. You must spend an entire night on the highest peak and defeat the creature of night that lives there.”
“What?” the girl’s eyes widened. “Truly?”
The girl’s smile reached from ear to ear. “Thank you, master.”
The girl began to turn away when the old woman stopped her. “Take this.” Her palm stretched open to reveal what she was hiding: a simple gold band.
“Gold? There’s no gold here,” the girl asked in confusion.
“I had a friend in Aurum. The band is magic, so it will fit your finger nicely. Guard it well, it is my prized possession.”
“Thank you, master. I won’t let you down.”
The girl slipped the ring on and disappeared into the night. It was her first step to become a real silver-eyed warrior. Nothing or no one would stand in her way.
The young boy slipped through the Argenti forest. He had managed to evade the bazaar where flaming swords were being sold, arrows were being thrown about, and warriors were sword-fighting. Though he was invisible, he was still liable to getting injured.
Being magic-less was quite hard. He wondered how the Argenti survived. Well, they did possess a sort of magic. A magic of their own, their brute force. It was only a small population of theirs that had the ability to completely decimate everything around them. He didn’t want to come across any of those.
He soon reached the mountain and began to climb up.
Qrow broke from the story to say this. “It’s a fairy tale, so it takes, like, minutes to get up the mountain.”
He soon reached the peak, and expected to see his master there. But he wasn’t. Instead, there was a cave, where a menacing glow shone from. Scared, the boy paused at its entrance.
Suddenly, he swallowed his fear. All he had left for him was the gnarled staff. If he needed to, he would fight off any beast to save his master. Great Wizard or not, the being was getting quite old. He could’ve been... kidnapped by some bear... lion... thing.
So with a final inhale, then exhale, he plunged into the cave.
The girl was one of the fastest people in all of Argenti land. So she reached the peak quite quickly. It wasn’t as chilly as she thought.
She saw a cave as she reached the top. The wind whistled. Something seemed off. The milk was big, round, and white. Never in the girl’s life had she seen something quite like this. It was quite mesmerizing.
It felt as if someone else was here with her. But she didn’t have time to get nervous. There was a wail from inside the cave, thunderous and booming.
She had her eyes, her master’s ring, and her dagger that she secretly hid in her left boot.
The boy couldn’t believe his eyes. Before him, was a large creature, made of shadow and darkness. He could see it because of the fire that was lit in front of it. It took the form of a dragon, but it was all wispy shadows. It wailed and thrashed around.
Why did it cry like that?
He soon got his answer. As he peeked into the cave’s end, he saw a bright flash.
That was the yell of the Great Wizard. The man was trying to fight the beast by himself!
The boy had never seen a beast quite like this, and had never seen the Great Wizard in action. His robes were torn and his face was dirtied with mud and blood.
The dragon-beast shrieked again, clutching the Great Wizard in its claws. The shadow creature seemed to glide across the cave, shaking the earth wherever it touched.
He felt the rumbling. He was frightened. Terrified, actually.
But he had to. He had to save this man, who had denied him magic for all this time. Some part of him couldn’t leave him alone.
It was insane for a non-magical person to fight something like this.
But people already thought of the boy as insane for being the old man’s apprentice anyway.
He crept into the cave, and realized that he was invisible. He could do anything he wanted now!
“Hey, you oaf! Let him go!” he shouted, throwing the chunk of cheese at the beast. It completely went through it. Of course.
He heard his name, weakly, and saw that his master was looking at him, within the grip of the beast.
“Master!” he called. Wait. How did he know it was him?
The beast’s glare answered that for him. Guess the invisibility had worn off.
“What are doing here? It’s too dangerous!”
“No, master! I’m here for you!” the boy yelled, holding up his staff.
“Go home! Save yourself!”
The girl watched as the foolish boy argued with the geezer in the beast’s clutches. She had to admit, she had never seen a shadow creature like this. It was huge.
She wondered which silly Argenti boy found himself up here. With his silly master, too.
She blinked a few times. Showtime.
She entered the cave. She shouted out her name. “I am a silver-eyed warrior of the Argenti people and I will destroy you on this fateful night!”
With that declaration, the one she had memorized countless times, she closed her eyes, in preparation to blast them at the creature.
The wind was knocked out of the girl’s lungs as she fell to the ground. Something... or someone had landed on top of her. Very heavy too.
She opened her eyes, blinked them twice and saw that it was no Argenti boy who was in the cave. It was an Aurum boy. She should’ve been able to tell by his weirdly-colored attire.
“What are you doing on Argenti lands?” she roared, pushing him off of her.
“You were about to kill my master!” he cried, pointing to the beast.
“And? You deserve it as a punishment for crossing the border. How did you even do it?”
The boy didn’t get time to answer, as the beast flung him to the other side of the cave. It let out its horrible wail again.
The girl stood up, prepared to use her eyes again.
Then the old man caught her eye. He looked wrinkled, frail... weak.
What if that were her master? The sage? What if they had been kidnapped by this very same beast?
She eyed the boy, who was trying to avoid the beast’s jaws by throwing... bread at it?
“Stupid! Do you not have any magic?”
“Unfortunately, no!” the boy yelled back.
The girl groaned. Weren’t Aurum people good at levitation magic?
She apologized to her master and pulled off the ring. “Beast! Look! Instead of Aurum flesh, what about real gold?”
The girl tossed the ring to the opposite end of the cave, and the beast went after it, unfortunately, without letting go of the old man.
The boy was free and the girl ran over to him. She helped him up. Touching an Aurum person was not on her to-do list for the day.
His hand was warm at least.
The boy picked up a staff, with a bright green gem within it. “I’m sorry, no.”
“Then how do you expect me to save your master alone? My magic will only destroy the beast. Which is why I’m here.”
The boy snorted. “Well, my master is in trouble, so if you’ll excuse me,” he murmured.
“No!” she shouted, stopping him.
“If we have to fight it, it must be defeated with magic. Not cheese and bread. Is that staff of yours powerful enough?”
“I don’t know what it does exactly...”
The girl groaned; the boy was hopeless.
Suddenly, the girl began to feel tingly all over.
Her eyes started to glow of their own accord.
“Uh... what’s going on with you?” the boy echoed.
“I... I don’t know! I can’t control it!” the girl yelled.
The boy inched away from the girl, just as the beast whirled back on him. Its shadows swirled more and more, as if it was not satisfied with the gold that was thrown at it. The boy glanced at his master, who he found was unconscious. It broke the boy’s heart.
“Let him go!” he shouted, holding out his staff to the beast. The Argenti girl was in her own zone, and his master could be as good as dead. He was the only one left.
As the words escaped his lips, he felt his body begin to glow. The beast screeched and began to move back.
“You’re golden!” the girl yelled.
The boy turned back to her. She was covered in silver light. “Your eyes glow too. Like mine.”
He finally got his magic. Grinning, the boy turned back to the beast. He pointed the staff at his master and willed the beast’s claws open. As his master fell, a glow overtook him, and the boy settled him gently on the ground.
Now the girl could destroy him as she wished.
As he turned back to face her, the beast gave another bellow, but it was harsher this time. His magic wasn’t enough.
“Give me your hand!” he yelled.
“What?” she screamed back.
“We can only defeat it together. I read it an old spell book that two magic users are better than one!”
The girl knew this was her mission, but the strength of her eyes was too much, even for her. She couldn’t even focus her vision at the beast.
The two then joined hands. Argenti and Aurum. Wizard and Warrior.
Eyes directed at the beast, on the count of three, all their strength was poured towards the beast.
The next morning, the air was quiet. The girl woke up, and found the boy next to her. Her head hurt, and around her, the boy’s pack was strewn around, and the old man was still lying in the corner.
Moving away from the Aurum boy, the girl shifted around in the dim light until she found her ring.
She whispered a relieved thanks under her breath and pushed the ring down her finger.
“You have their ring?” a quiet voice asked.
The girl whipped her head back around to see the old man, standing near her. She jumped up.
“Yes. I gave it to them a long time ago.”
The girl was in shock. The frail man from last night suddenly towered over her, his skin had some color to it (a bit dirty) and his eyes were bright gold.
“Legend says that the Argenti and the Aurum were friends long ago. Do you even know why our lands hate one another?” the man asked.
The girl thought. “No... that’s just what we were raised to know.”
“Exactly. I don’t think our lands will be friends anytime soon...” the man trailed off, looking at his apprentice, “but this is a good place to start.”
“Argenti and Aurum? Friends?” the girl scoffed.
That’s when the boy woke up.
“I mean, he just got his powers yesterday? He’s supposed to be a Wizard?”
“Actually, he’s supposed to be the Great Wizard. The next one.”
The girl’s eyes widened. “You’re telling me... you’re the most powerful Wizard of all time? And you couldn’t defeat this creature?”
The man chuckled, and snapped his fingers. Before her eyes, her master appeared before her.
“I could’ve. Let’s say... it was a test,” he grinned.
The Wizard smiled at the sage, who in turn glanced at their pupil.
“You’ve done well. You’re a true silver-eyed warrior. But I’m glad you realize that Argenti and Aurum can be friends.”
“You two... are friends?” the Aurum boy piped up.
His master turned to him. “I see you have gained your powers. Congratulations.”
“So this was a whole set up to test us?” he asked, bewildered.
“No... the creature was very real. But I chose to not fight it in hopes you two would get here in time.”
The boy could hardly believe what he was hearing but more importantly, he was glad he could zap a bully when he needed to.
“So. How do you two feel?” the mage asked.
The girl stared at the boy. Really looked at him. His eyes were a pretty gold. Silver was still better.
“Is there something on my face?” he asked, patting his face frantically.
“Who are you calling an idiot?”
The Great Wizard turned to his old friend then, who chuckled.
“It’s been a long time, hasn’t it, old sage?”
The apprentices started bickering. Until the elders broke them up.
So the Grand Wizard, the sage, and their apprentices left the cave, and the mountain. And strolled right Argenti grounds. It took a flash of silver eyes to get people to disperse.
“We’re friends! Friends!” the girl said before slamming the door.
Inside, the Great Wizard blinked, and the gold band ended up in the palms of the sage. The Wizard and the girl went to go make tea, as the sage stopped the boy in the hall.
“She dropped this. Give it to her, will you?”
“Isn’t it yours?” the boy asked.
“It’s now hers. A symbol of her new Aurum friend.”
“I don’t really think she meant what she said out there...” he started, but the elder was already down the hall.
He found her in the kitchen, pouring tea into cups on a tray.
“Uh... this is yours,” he said, holding out the ring.
“Oh... thanks,” she murmured, lifting the tray. “I’ll get it in a minute.”
“Actually, here.” Quickly, he floated the tray with his mind. “It’s easier.”
“Wow, you have magic for a day, and you’re already showing off,” the girl laughed.
The boy thought her silver eyes were kind of cool. But they weren’t gold, of course.
The boy took her hand, and she didn’t protest. He slipped the band onto her ring finger, watching it fit on her finger.
“Gold’s nice on you,” he commented.
“Really? Still like silver better,” she smiled. “Let’s bring the tea to them before it gets cold.”
So moving his magic along, the boy left the kitchen with the girl. The girl took the opportunity to snake her hand into his. He didn’t shake it off.
This didn’t mean that the two lands would be close anytime soon. But the two apprentices, the next Great Wizard and the silver-eyed warrior began to see their masters differently. And each other.
Qrow yawned, before looking around. Yang was comepletely asleep, as was Weiss and Blake, who were slumped up against each other. Maria had disappeared, most likely into her room. Ren had most likely retired too, leaving Nora and Jaune, who were at odd angles on the floor. The only other people awake were Ruby and Oscar. Oscar was a bit sleepier, but he was still awake. Ruby looked at her uncle.
“You said you’d tell the story from memory. All I heard were exact details. This is a fairy tale?” Ruby murmured.
“Well, there’s a condensed version, obviously. But Summer never cut corners. She had the original copies, the long versions that no one liked to read anymore. I thought you’d appreciate it.”
Ruby glanced at Oscar. “I do. It was a nice story. Thanks, Uncle Qrow.”
“No problem kid.” The old bird stood up, and dusted himself off. “Get some sleep. Both of you.”
“Goodnight,” the two murmured to him.
Almost everyone else was sleeping in the living room, so Ruby had no problem doing the same. Her mind raced with stories of magical eyes, kidnapping, and friendship. It reminded her of so many things. Her mother, herself, Oscar... it was nice.
Ruffling his hair, Ruby pulled them both down for the night. The floor was hard, of course, but they were too tired to care. Content, they fell asleep together.
