(gxg) Red Riding Hood (ON HOLD)

stranger's plea

"I am serious!" Ruby raised both her arms and shrugged defensively.

Sydney closed the distance between her and Ruby with every step, her face painted with shock and her mouth open. "No! You're not! You can't!" She was hardly just questioning Ruby by now, she was shoving her sentences down Ruby's throat, hoping that maybe that will change something.

Ruby, who had been shuffling back with every step the shorter took, now had her back against a tree and her eyes trapped in Sydney's. She was metorphorically handcuffed by the girl.

Sydney felt the world crash down on her as the realization dawned on her. This is real. She had one arm up against the tree, beside Ruby's neck. She shook her head again as she stared into Ruby's wolf-like eyes. "Of course. Of course I am. I'm standing infront of living proof! You're a wolf." She leaned in closer as she whispered the last part.

Ruby felt threatened initially, she honestly, for a split second, thought the girl infront of her was going to go insane for real. She let out a breath of relief after Sydney finished her sentence.

Something cracked behind them. Then, the sound of ruffling leaves travelled through the otherwise quiet surroundings.

Ruby's eyes flickered towards the source in a split second and growled inwardly as her nose detected a stranger approaching. She dived under Sydney's arm and advanced forward. The latter eyed Ruby's actions in fear.

"Anyone there?" The stranger pushed several branches out of the way with one arm and held a sword tightly with the other.

Ruby had an arm raised behind her, signalling Sydney to stay back as she answered, "Yes, identify yourselves." and displayed her teeth threateningly.

"Woah, woah, slow down." The stranger, who revealed himself as a man, jumped slightly at the sight of Ruby and raised both his arms in the air. "I'm Ethan, and-"

Suddenly, a shot was fired, fortunately missing Sydney by an inch and hit a tree instead.

Ruby let out a loud growl as she jumped infront of Sydney while her fangs started growing out.

"Shit, James, don't!" The man at the front put and arm back, stopping the other who had his finger on the trigger.

"She's one of them!" James turned towards Ethan and shouted apprehensively.

"Yes James, I know. Calm your shit, we don't want to get anyone killed here." Ethan put his hand on James' gun and lowered it down.

"Look, girl, I don't want to hurt either of you, but you have to understand-"

"Oh just shut up." James raised his gun again, which caused Ruby to flinch.

"James, for God's sake!" A woman came from behind and pushed James' gun down forcefully.

"Look, who the hell are you?" Sydney came up from behind Ruby-to Ruby's dissatisfaction- and queried with displeasure.

"I'm Ethan, he's my brother James and that's my sister Ethel. We mean no harm, unless you do." Ethan slowly put his arms down.

Ruby straightened herself and tried to compose herself as she turned to Sydney. "Sydney, stay-"

"I'm not a child, Ruby!" Sydney stated in amnoyance, shutting the girl up.

"Okay I just had a huge bomb dropped on me a few seconds ago, so what could be worse? What do you people want?" Sydney stated with a tinge of sarcasm as she shrugged.

"They've my girlfriend, Taylor. They didn't kill her like she did with the rest of our family, they just-they just took her." Ethan muttered.

Sydney sighed and shook her head in disbelief, apparently it was possible for things to get worser than it was already.

As much as she did not want to get herself more involved than she already was with whatever the hell that was going on, she could not just let something like this slip away, it could kill her with guilt.

Ruby looked over at Sydney and sensed that the girl was not going to say anything anytime soon, so she had to. "And that's our problem because?"

"Uhm, well, I mean we're pretty much under an invasion here and I think it'd do  us both good if we stuck together and maybe, possibly-" Ethan mumbled nervously as he stared at the half-wolf infront of him.

"What? Find your girlfriend? Hah, I would rather-"

"Yea, I think so too." Sydney said a little too enthusiastically as she quickly moved infront of Ruby, cutting her off before she could say something incredibly insulting to the trio.

"Great!" Ethan beamed and began walking deeper into the woods with his siblings trailing behind him, past a growling Ruby.

Sydney returned a smile quickly and then nudged Ruby with an elbow, while pulling a face, and proceeded to drag her along towards the three siblings.

Ruby cursed under her breath as she approached them. Not because she was a heartless person that hated helping humans, because that would make no sense would it not? Considering the fact that she is trying to save the world from an invasion.

That was actually why it was so hard for her to delay the mission, that only meant her father had more time to capture and destroy the humans. At least that was what Ruby wanted herself to think.

However that really was not why Ruby did not want to help Ethan. No, not even close, although it made up a huge part of the reason.

It was because if they did put a halt to the mission, that will only mean one thing, that she had to keep the secret about her family longer, and that could really kill her.

She was already struggling to act normal around Sydney, she wanted nothing but to tell her, but that meant losing Sydney's trust, which she was not even sure whether it exists yet. It also meant spending more time with Sydney, and that really could not be any worse.

Not that Ruby despised her, the total opposite, actually. She did not want to develop any more of a connection with Sydney, because that could only worsen hee guilt. Unfortunately resisting to do so seemed harder than ever, considering how attractive the "saviour" apparently was.

"Sit, down." Sydney said lowly to Ruby as she maintained her unbelievably plastic smile. She earned a low growl from Ruby as she sat down in a disgruntled manner, which oddly made Sydney smirk in satisfaction. It seems like she had the upperhand in this one.

"So," Ethan started as he placed both his hands on his knees.

Just like that, here begins their incredibly rocky road to saving the world.