The Grimm Huntress

Coming Storm

A snow storm appeared at Brunswick Farms, making visibility highly difficult. The wind was howling outside.

Ruby sighed. "I don't get it. The empty towns I've passed through were all damaged or unfinished. But this place looks... fine."

They arrived at the porch of a residence. Weiss was shivering as she wrapped her arms around her to keep herself warm. Eclipse glanced at her and shrugged her jacket off.

"Here." She held it out to her. Weiss opened her mouth to object but Eclipse cut her off. "Just wear it."

Weiss sighed and took the jacket, slipping it on. It hung a bit low on her, nearly reaching the bottom of her dress, but at least she wasn't completely freezing anymore.

"Maybe everyone left in a hurry." she said. "Before things took a turn?"

Qrow tried to open the door, only to notice it was locked.

"Hmm. Stay on guard." he told them.

He kicked the door open, everyone proceeded forward with their weapons drawn. They cautiously looked around the place.

"Close the door already! It's cold enough in here as it is."

Maria walked into the house first. Afterwards, Blake and Oscar pushed a nearby drawer to block the door.

"I saw a chimney from the outside." Blake said. "Maybe we could get a fire going?"

"Please. I'll look for some blankets."

"Yang, go with her."

Ruby lingered by the entrance hall for a bit while the others looked around. Oscar could be heard opening a door.

"Looks like a study. Or, a library?"

Ruby walked forward to notice a group of pictures on the wall of the family that owned Brunswick Farms. Blake walked up next to her.

"What do you think?"

"Something doesn't feel right." Ruby said quietly.

"Let's look for some–"

Suddenly, a high-pitched scream was heard. They saw Eclipse rush past them and up the stairs.

"Weiss!"

Ruby and Blake headed up the stairs after her and ran into the room Yang, Eclipse, and Weiss were in. Qrow also arrived. They looked on the bed to see a pair of decomposing corpses.

•••

A fire was burning in the fireplace. Weiss watched it, still shaken from what she saw earlier, leaning against Eclipse who sat next to her with an arm wrapped around her shoulders. Blake wrapped a blanket around them before sitting on the couch Yang was on. The group heard the door open and close, and Qrow walked back in brushing snow off himself.

"It's the same in every house." he told them.

"What?"

"Bodies. Every bed in every home. It's like the whole estate just went to sleep and never woke up."

"Then we're not staying here, right?" Weiss asked hopefully.

Qrow walked over to the fireplace to warm up. "We don't have a choice. Storm outside's only getting worse. We'd freeze to death before we made it anywhere."

"Well, might as well get comfortable." Maria walked over to a bookshelf.

"Yeah, fat chance." Yang scoffed.

"Okay, then, let's do something. If this place wasn't abandoned it might still have supplies we could use."

"Hey, yeah. Maybe even a car." Oscar agreed.

"I'll do another sweep of the grounds. No one else goes anywhere alone."

"Yang and I can search the other buildings for vehicles." Blake said.

"Fine, whatever gets me out of this house."

Yang and Blake left, with Ruby moving the drawer to let them exit. Afterwards, Ruby looked over to see Weiss at the doorway to the living room with a melancholic look on her face. Eclipse still sat in front of the fireplace but looked up as she heard Ruby's voice.

"Food always makes me feel better." she chuckled nervously. "Just saying."

"Right..."

"Oscar." The boy looked up at the sound of his name. "You lived on a farm before, right?"

He nodded. "Uh- Yeah."

"Come outside with me, I'm going to try to find a fruit tree."

He nodded again.

"Could you get us a basket?"

"Hey, no way are you going out there!" Qrow said. "It's coming down hard, you could get sick or worse."

"It's not as bad as northern Atlas." Eclipse said, draping a blanket over Oscar's shoulders before doing the same for herself. "We'll be fine. It'll only take a few minutes."

"If you're not back in 15, I'm coming to get you."

She nodded and left the cabin with Oscar following behind her. He struggled to keep up with her long strides while also carrying the basket.

"Isn't it too cold to find any fruit?"

Eclipse's lips quirked up in a small smile. "Possibly."

She took the basket from him. He nodded in thanks but couldn't help but feel slightly embarrassed that she noticed his struggle.

They walked the path of Brunswick Farms for a while before either saw anything that could be a fruit tree. Oscar recognized the last of the leaves as those of an apple tree.

"Eclipse!" he pointed it out.

"Nice job, kid."

She placed a hand on the trunk and the lavender glow of her Aura traveled up the tree. Leaves started to grow and soon enough, large red apples hung from the branches.

"How did you..." Oscar trailed off as Eclipse handed him back the basket and jumped, grabbing hold of a branch and pulling herself up. She picked an apple and dropped it. Oscar hurried to catch it and placed it into the basket. "Is this part of some Aura technique?"

"Not necessarily." she dropped another apple down.

"This would've been nice to have back home," Oscar muttered.

He continued to catch the fruit she dropped down until the tree was almost barren again. As he dropped the last one into the basket Eclipse swung down and landed on her feet with ease.

"I'll take that." he handed the heavy basket back over to her.

With the cloak-like blankets billowing behind them in the wind the two made their way back to the house.

"If it's not a technique then what is it?"

"A Semblance of course."

Oscar stopped. "But you.. Two?"

"Just one."

"But the shadows and Ruby talked about-" he paused as he put the pieces together. "You're like Ozpin?"

"I'm not immortal or any sort of reincarnation but there is a similarity." Eclipse told him. "Now come on! You don't want Qrow to be in an even worse mood."

Oscar put a hand to the bandage on his cheek and rushed to catch up with her. Eclipse shot him a small grin.

She really wasn't as scary as he thought.
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Weiss and eclipse 🤝 punk x prep