Chapter one: The Snow White Knight

Weiss Schnee

Many people in Vale ask why the symbol of Mantle, for its royal family at least, is a snowflake. This is an obvious thing to anyone who has seen an Mantlese winter. Mistralian wealthy take weapons like spears as their symbol, Valen nobles take powerful imagery like flaming hearts and bolts of lightning, and the wild peoples on the other side prefer flowers like lotuses and roses. They wonder why such a fragile structure, the snowflake, could seem threatening to those who raise banners brandishing an ursa or beowolf. That lone creature might kill a man, maybe even ten, but snowflakes, they can destroy nations. A bad snow can consume all of a country's food; can suffocate a city in grey death. It could devour a civilization. Mantleses know this; they are careful to watch patterns in the weather, record the history of the seasons, and monitor the herds of grimm with their acute sense of the seasons.

The Schnees respected the power of the snowflake, adopted it even. The Valens did not and were paying for it terribly in this unusually cold year. The fields Weiss Schnee rode through were barren, nothing growing right in the height of the harvest season. At night snow fell and mixed with the mud on the ground, forming a slug-like sleet that kept anything from thriving; while what frost stuck did melt by daylight that merely made rivers of mud that sapped nutrients from the soil and drained even more life from the fields. Vale was not prepared for a winter like this. Weiss couldn't save it either. She would share some Mantlese know-how on fishing and mining when she could, but her specialty was in an ancient art, one that was meant for arcane practitioners and rare heroes. Hunting, grimm hunting. Something too many farm hands out of work were trying their own attempt at it now.

As the moon went high, a shattered block of luminescent silver in the sky only interrupted by the lightest of snow clouds, the town was coming into view, the town that had called for grimm hunts. From the dozens of tents outside, the shouts, and campfires, all of Weiss' woes seemed to just be mockingly real. The sound irritated Rex, Weiss' baur, ruffling his black furs in annoyance. Though a domesticated breed and mixed blood and despite being taller, tamer, and thinner, baurs were still like the ursa they came from, grimm that disliked humans and faunus they did not grow close to.

Weiss shared his distaste for the most part, though perhaps not as violently. She still placed her left hand primed to take out her sword and checked the armored plates on her body to be sure they were tight. The snowy haired Mantlese knight wore a heavy chest piece, white in color with a snowflake carved on its steel front, something made just for her. Her arms were also covered in thinner steel scale from the shoulders down to a mailed glove designed to curve with metal scales around the fingers. It was lighter than it looked, but still just as snow white. Her boots were plated as well, but upper legs, to allow for freedom, were just a loose combat skirt armored only on the sensitive sides. The neck of the armor came up to shield her collar and was lined in fur, though the inside had a slight red hue. Her face, and sometimes her identity, was protected by a perfectly crafted white helm, her own silver ponytail acting as its plumm.

"So, uhh, I think we are late, Weiss," the young knight's squire commented. Jaune Arc was his name, a young boy, or at least it felt that way despite him being around Weiss' age. He came to them a well-dressed grandson of some up-jumped knight. Supposed to teach her Valen and how to fight, instead she taught him Mantlese and taught him to wield a sword… if not perfectly. He was armored lightly in some thin scale mail and chain underneath with just simple leather blue pants. Weapon of choice a long sword and kite shield, remarkably unremarkable.

"How many times do I need to tell you, do not call me that! I'm Snow as far as you're concerned!" Weiss replied agitated.

"And how many times do I have to tell you there is no one here?" Jaune countered, hands gesticulating nervously on his own much smaller and much less wild baur, "I mean it's just going to make us act like paranoid people."

"Weiss Schnee can't be in Vale. You know that!" He did better than anyone else. When it came time to escape Atlas, to escape home and look to a future in Vale, Jaune had been paradoxically useful. Together they escaped, and instead of going home like Weiss expected, the boy clinged around for reasons unknown.

"Then Weiss Schnee should have picked a better alter ego! I mean, Snow White, really?" Sometimes she just wished he would go home, "I'm not the only Valen who speaks Mantlese you know? Translating your name and flipping it is a really flimsy cover."

"Oh shut up!" Weiss retorted, not her classiest moment. She knew he was right, Snow White was desperate identity formed at a shipboard customs check, but now the "Snow White Knight" was starting to be a name of some repute all on its own. "No one will expect it to be so obvious!"

"You know when we met you would beat me up for calling you Snow Angel."

"Still would."

"You are not a nice person."

"I will be a lot meaner if you do not shut up."

The town was up ahead and soon people would hear. The settlement had no walls, least none that stayed up despite the woods around. The mine from which it extracted wealth was under a mound like structure near the center of the village. The rest of the buildings that covered the area were just sleet smeared thatch and logs that looked like it would catch blaze if anyone even thought about fire. Other notable structures were a light emitting inn surrounded by tents, a smithy of some sort, a game hunting lodge that had seen better days, a single stone lookout tower, and a large meeting hall made of well taken care of wood. Many houses were about, but they were dwarfed by the tents and makeshift stables packed with frustrated baurs, Vale's natural feathered riding animals bocochos, and oddly enough a single caribou.

The whole place smelled like filth, too many people in a packed space did that. There were no streets, what little that represented them was thick brown mud churned up by riders. No one stopped the pair as they entered town, the guards clearly tired of stopping every armed idiot that heard about the grimm hunt.

As they passed the inn, a fight was breaking out between a tall man of massive build and green armor as well as a few shorter gents in leather, one with a mohawk, the other with short fine hair. The bigger man lifted the skinnier one of the other two, the one with a mohawk, and tossed him into the bigger boy.

"Wow, that's not pretty," Jaune muttered, watching the local guards pull the fighters apart. They were able to do it with threats alone, anyone with any sense could tell these hunters could gut the town like a fish and drink whatever lien came out.

"We are just in time," Weiss replied, nudging Rex towards the meeting halls, light pouring out from the windows despite several drunken hunters and huntresses crowding them and the entrance. This was the decision.

"Jaune, bring the baurs over to the inn stables, get them a nice space, and see if you can get us a room for tonight." She descended Rex, the big baur looking angrily at the meeting hall, but eyes quickly turned softly at her. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. Go with Jaune." The creature nodded, the species, though more feral than most domesticated beings, was fairly intelligent, royalty breed ones especially.

"Buy them with what? All we have is useless Mantlese paper money!" Jaune cried out taking both the Baurs reigns in his hand.

"Be convincing," Weiss answered, not looking back. It was time to be the Snow White Knight, master huntress from a foreign land, the one who could beast any beast with her magic sword. The one lords would pay all the money they could muster just to see her might. The wandering princess she needed to be. With that thought, bravely she pushed past the unwashed, half-drunk crowds to the heavy door, doing what no one else seemed willing: opening the door and seeing what stood inside.

The first thing Weiss noticed was the heat. The hearth's fire had warmed the room to an uncomfortable hell like state, Valen seemed to always go overboard with the heat. The second most notable thing was the thirty or so pairs of eyes that latched onto Weiss when she stepped inside. These were the actual hunters and huntresses of Vale. Some of these famed slayers were reputable, even to an up and comer like Weiss. A girl in thick black plate with gold accents on every corner and edge in its design. Most notable a flaming heart made of gold, whether paint or metal, Weiss had some suspicion. Still, that fiery vestige named her Yang Xiao Long, the Yellow Knight, and the most feared huntress in Vale. Another famed member of this party was a Mistralian royal woman in unfitting summer gear. That was Pyrrha Nikos, someone Weiss once favored from afar as a little girl, but that was long ago and there was no way that little girl even existed still.

The rest were scattered mercenaries Weiss could not remember the names of even if she could recognize the face. A girl whom dressed in strap leather and over fashionable clothes with a massive clockwork crossbow for one. Her strange hat matched by rare eyewear only the most affluent could afford. Wealth enough marked her a better huntress than any legend did. A faunus in strange native armor made of weaved brown cloth and bits of bronze plates, her rabbit like ears sticking from the top of her head, making her overly noticeable. Such an odd species, the faunus. They worked in mines in Atlas, but very few in the city. Weiss had never studied or understood them. They had no kingdom, and father always worried it made them disloyal subjects. Weiss had no opinion, barring her own negative experiences.

A man dressed in steel plate with a bird for a symbol and a mace for a weapon seemed fuming, another with silver hair and a distant look stood in the corner with his back against the wall with shocking indifference. Another faunus woman of massive built and sword growled angrily, wolf ears twitching. A few more scattered around an old man, clearly the town elder with his fragile body, balding hair, and weary look. The most noticeable was a person definitely out of place.

A girl alone, her scythe as tall as her, an unwieldy and wild weapon. She had a cheery look to her, eyes of silver, something Weiss had not seen yet, and hair a mix of black and dark red. The would-be huntress dressed in winter clothes, a black and red combat skirt, fur lined hood and cap as crimson as the highlights, and bits of black boiled leather bands around her wrists and legs. Added to it was thick iron studded animal skin boots with some sort of mixed leather and fabric coat with tiny pockets and straps abound for bolts, vials, and other field gear. Every bit of armor was black, and cloth red. Fairly cheap though attractive dyes in Vale, though some bits of patchwork in cut corners and ruined bits could be seen tarnishing the presentation. All of that was not that irregular or perturbing. The thing that was disconcerting was the age. Of all the people in this room, Weiss should have been the youngest, an unusually aged huntress of eighteen just barely a woman, and here was a child, not a week past sixteen. She had a look of youthful optimism that needed some crushing, and had it not been for the scythe Weiss would have confused her for the elder's granddaughter.

"Like I was saying before someone decided to come strolling in, I'm not dropping my price. You want a legend, you pay for one. I'm Yang Xiao god damn Long!" the yellow knight started again. She punctuated with chuckles, something Weiss openly considered grating.

"Ten thousand lien is—"

"Ridiculous," the elder had started, but the barrel chested man with a bird buried on his battle armor cut in, "The Cardinal's Condottieri are your best option. Instead of paying your entire village savings for one self-styled legend, you get a team of the best all for an easy payment of one thousand lien, barring any injury fees or maintenance fees of course." He didn't punctuate with laughs like Yang did; instead someone else did it for him, the girl with the spectacles.

"Sure, if you want the same problem a week from now. No disrespect to Miss Knight in golden armor, but you don't need a famous girl with a famous price tag for some beowolf infestation, but, and I mean total disrespect to Cardinal's Con-Artists, you need something decent. Me and my crew will hunt for a flat five thousand lien, no extra fees, no nothing, and we don't leave till the forest is clear or all of us are dead." Weiss could see the perfect contract in that, this girl was rich for good cause: a sensible price, a tasteful offer, articulate reasoning, and, if they were as good as they say, simple deal. The Mantlese had to step in. She stepped forward, cutting through the crowd, going for it before the elder jumped on the deal. She had to undercut it.

"Or just two hundred and fifty lien, that's all I need." It wasn't Weiss making that offer, that mad offer; it was the girl in red, "I mean, maybe three hundred to replace the crossbow bolts. I don't see why they cost so much. Oh, uhh, maybe let me sleep inside here over for the nights 'cause it's kind of cold out and a nice warm room would be a benefit….but if it's a problem, you know we can, uhh, not…" The young girl's sentence petered out as everyone looked at her very unamused. No one would take that seriously, even if it did sound like a fantastic offer, some things are simply too good to be even close to being true. She either had no experience, of which meant her death, or unbridled desperation, which meant again, death more likely than success.

"Go home girl, your dad is going to need that scythe when the harvest comes. You are too old to play pretend," the wolf vocalized, earning a laugh or two.

"Young lady, are you having trouble finding home?" Pyrrha asked earnestly, famed for her exorbitant kindness. Everyone else thought it was the funniest thing in the world, making a jest out of the lady's sweet nature. She tried to get them to stop, but as the crowd of hunters and huntresses laughed themselves into a fit the young girl just got smaller and smaller. Red faced, embarrassed, and certainly fuming, the red cloaked teen bolted from the heat out onto the snow. Weiss was somewhat grateful for that. No one that woefully foolish should be in this business for their own sake more than any other.

"Well, we all had a laugh, but old man I think you've heard all the offers. What do you say, you want—"

"No," Weiss stepped up, cutting off the huntress behind the shaded spectacles, "I'm the Snow White Knight. I'm more than a huntress by trade; I am the best of the martial traditions in Atlas. All I ask is a fair thousand lien. No other restrictions, to be paid as soon as the forest is truly clear. I might be a small team of two, but we are equipped and ready. I have never let any patron down, save yourself the other four thousand and choose me." She spoke steady, didn't look anyone but the elder in the eye. This was a communication between the two, and no one else was part of the show.

"Yes, well that is a fine offer," the elder delayed, scratching his balding head, "but a lot of offers here are fine."

"Just pick already," one of the crowd mumbled.

"My people and I called for grimm hunters." There was a pause, an irritable pause that hung on words that knew themselves to be unwanted. The whole room knew what this would entail and the entire entourage entitled to regret felt so immediately. It was time for a grimm hunt.

"So I say we have a grimm hunt. All of you know the rules?" And they did. A set hunt, at a set time, with a main prize and with the concessions to the losers turning whatever grimm bone masks they could turn in for small percentage of value. For high cost parties it was a nightmare of work for low wage. For cheap parties like Weiss it could mean, granted they got the leading kill, the best wage. Still, they were dangerously chaotic and even with set times and the unspoken promise to respect kills, they dissolved into madness too easily. It was not the preferred method.

"The beowolf alpha for one thousand, all other bone masks for fifty, barring pups for ten. The hunt starts at dawn at the forest's edge. Any questions?" There were none, for they wouldn't have mattered. A grimm hunt was on, and there was no changing it now. All that could be done was to step out into the cold and await the charge at dawn.

"You can't have no rooms," Weiss said, agast.

"I believe I can. Unless you built more without telling me."

"Your rooms are a hundred lien a bed, you can't have no room. That's not even fathomable."

"For one person maybe, but the hunters have decided to start sharing beds. Divide a bed between three people and it's just thirty three lien."

"An inflated rate."

"Very."

Weiss had predicted trouble finding a place to sleep, a lot of trouble even. Inns had often turned her away, mocking the value of Mantlese money, not understanding the advanced brilliance of paper notes over silly metal trinkets. The Snow White Knight didn't even get that far. Instead, she was turned away at the door where only a prince's fortune could pry open and only if that fortune was in coin.

The innkeeper and bartender, despite being a painfully opportunistic, seemed delightful enough Weiss so couldn't be mad. He was a very slim man in a green dress like robe from a style Weiss had never seen before, likely from one of the islands or other kingdoms. The man, Lie Ren was his name, had the luck to be rather good looking, the most notable physical attribute being a violet touch to his eyes matched with a dyed streak in his long hair.

Despite simple life as an innkeeper and obvious lack in local family ties, he was the place's sole proprietor. It has a pleasant interior, seemingly older than himself. Weiss had an unique childhood, one that lead to being aware of points of assassination. As such she had scanned the building, finding it to be comprised of a front door, a massive over packed foyer full of tables, chairs, fireplaces, idiots with too much to drink, a bar that ran along the back with a staircase and main hearth to the left, side exits that went towards the stables where Rex and Jaune awaited to the right of. Behind the bar was storage and perhaps private quarters, where above were the rooms where the Yellow Knight and Pyrrha were likely staying. Weiss herself opted to sit on the far right of the bar. One, it put her away from the mass that crowded the lower bar, idiots from the Cardinal's surrounded by also ill reputed teams while only the spectacle girl and her crew sat on the left. Next was partially due to the first, the smell was less sour of soil and alcohol. Last is that the exit was just a few steps away. Bars were filth that attracted filth, no offense meant towards Ren.

Despite training, loud noise was still dampening and made soft steps silent.

"Evening, Sir Snow would it be?" Gently, but uncomfortably a light touch spun Weiss around, her hand reaching right for her sword. Behind her was the rabbit girl, eyes soft brown and a smile showing no hostility.

"I'm sorry for scaring you," she added, taking a seat at the bar.

"And I'm sorry, do I know you?" Weiss asked, though not as respectfully as she meant. This faunus girl seemed to take it in strides, however, barely noting the rude address.

"We worked together last spring, your Valen was terrible," it was a funny thing to say considering how foreign the girl's accent was, "We were on the same hunt, though we never spoke or actually fought. Our employer asked us to attack a village, both of us left. My name is Velvet Scarlatina, huntress and woman of other arcane practices."

"Yes, I think that's right," Weiss did remember that, but the girl. She was a huntress now, killing people in protection of Mantlewas a knight's duty, but for some lords change was not something she considered herself low enough to do, "I'm sorry I forgot your name." She wouldn't again.

"No, no, it's alright, no worries," Velvet responded with a smile, "Ren, gent, would you please cash me out, I believe I owe you some pay on drinks."

"No problem. Are you leaving?" Ren asked, pulling out his book of sales, a massive tome that marked him a good man of business.

"Yes, I believe tomorrow will not go well for my sensibilities." Some amount of lien, perhaps twenty or so in drink charges was laid out, though Ren looked at it oddly.

"Why are you leaving?" Weiss asked, thinking nothing of it, "Dislike grimm hunts?"

"That's twice the recorded bill," Ren answered overlooking the cost.

"The rest is for Snow, let her have a drink. Prices are inflated right now, correct?" Gratuity made Weiss nervous as did other's generosity, earning Velvet an odd look from her as well as Ren. "Oh, and yes, you could say that. Just one more thing." The Faunus lowered herself down, face nearly brushing against Weiss'. She wanted to recoil, put a sword between them, but sense and context stopped her. This Velvet had a secret to share, one she wanted to whisper carefully as to block it from all other human ears.

"The little red in the hood. She didn't go home, I watched her. She walked into the forest with that Scythe-crossbow. If she is no huntress then it's one more dead girl I don't want to see, but say she is a huntress, say she started a mess and howls start going off," chaos, "The hunt will start in a bit, but if one person breaks the rules, like her, then everyone will. They'll lynch her for killing, but once they kill one person, why not get the next." Velvet stood back up and smiled, taking back steps away from Weiss and towards the exit. "I'm leaving before this turns into a man slaughter like last time, thought you'd share the sentiment. Goodnight, Snow. Goodnight, Ren." It's strange how quickly a girl with rabbit ears could disappear, but the panic of one of the Cardinal's, the one with a mohawk from before, busting into the scene out of breath and filled with hysteria that aided the faunus exodus.

Weiss could hear the horns. The decision was being fought over in Weiss' head even before this mohawk bastard let the words slip from his mouth. "The hunt, it's on!" This was bad, extremely bad. So bad Ren knew it as well as anyone else, the thin barkeep bolting to the back of his tavern.

"Russell, what the hell do you mean the hunt is on!?" Don't say it.

"The red girl, she cheated! Beowolves are screaming out there. She left god damn early!"

They will kill her.

The bar didn't have any collective words to say, only panic, only an explosion of motion, shouts, curses, and movement. Weiss was struck almost immediately with a decision, go now, leave this town to burn as drunk hunters who will have lost money, friends, and their temper before this hunt is over, join in and hope that not only did she get to the alpha first, but whoever killed that poor girl would not be Weiss, and lastly to save an idiot child while coming out of this poorer and with a little bit of blood on her hands.

Father had trained Weiss to be a queen, decisions were the purpose of rule, and as such indecision was the greatest sin. The Snow White Knight made her choice before the first hunter trampled over this so called Russell at the door.

Instead of joining in the stampede of simpletons and dunces, Weiss bolted out of the side entrance to run directly towards the stables. The outside air was sharp, the coldness from the heavy fall juxtapose to the heated tavern. Riders from the stables at the town's entrance were already bolting down the main street, banners and torches aflame as the heavy sounds of hooves and pawns on the mud passed Weiss.

"Jaune, helmet now!" Weiss shouted, the squire throwing over her steel plate. Weiss caught it easily as she slid onto Rex's back. There was no time to untie, Myrtenaster was unsheathed and cut the tie restraining the beast.

"We've got to move! Head to the burned out farm we passed with our stuff and whatever you do, don't come back or into the forest no matter what!" There was no need to wait for an answer, or more correctly there was absolutely need to not wait for the blonde boy to get his beast ready. The knight felt the cold steel press against her face, the thud of her baur riding into the mud at full speed, and then, the hunt became real.

This ordered column was an illusion, the line splintered to pieces into the trees each of the baurs following scattered scents. Weiss didn't let Rex stop for a scent; she knew exactly where her target would be. She had a far better trail, a trail of dead beowolves.

The bodies were visible in brief moments as soon as one reached the tree line. Here the sun barely reached the ground and the slush was more powder as the snowfall had continued into the dead of night. The first Weiss had seen was one of those monsters nailed to a tree, a bolt shaft caught it right between the eyes, making a permanent vestige of the forest, its blood soaked into the bark. The red cloaked huntress was a good shot, better than most for such an idiot.

Deeper in, the light from the moon faded out; it could not puncture the leaves or the snow on top. Now the only visibility came from occasional torch wielding ride in the distance, the beacons appearing and disappearing between the willows and twisted foliage. It was a dark place and it made Weiss endlessly uncomfortable as she trudged through it, the baur's heavy pace leaping over the twisted roots and diving under limbs. These things were dangerous enough in the day, between the vibrant sun beams of dawn. In the dark it was damnating. There was a devil's choice whether or not to light a torch herself. The benefits of sight were endless, but the evils it could attract, evils that saw in the dark far better than Weiss ever would.

Things were getting dimmer, the clumping sounds of a big beast behind her. The trumpets to the side, the screams and roars were enough. Weiss grasped her blade, the enchanted blade of her family, Myrtenaster, pulled back the hammer, the red glow of a stone a dim light, and took it from the sheath. It was sudden, the flood of light, the red enchanted runes on her glorious family heirloom aglow, and fire spread from the edge a vibrant crimson. It was bright, bright enough to let Weiss catch the man following her on a massive bococho, the silver haired man from the bar. Even more alarming, a blackness that reached out for her throat, its eyes a red glow that matched her sword, but blood just as crimson poured from its throat when a column of flame separated its head from the neck.

When that grimm's body fell to the earth so did chaos onto the hunters of Vale. One rider who only appeared for a moment let out a wail as a wolf from the trees brought him down. Light suddenly burst from the left, far in the distance. She could swear someone breathed fire into the trees, starting a blaze. To the right, the wolf that was feasting on the fallen huntress was struck by a mistralian javelin through its blood soaked mouth. It only took a few moments for the forest to break down like this, smell of blood and smoke was prevalent already and the more and more intense both got, the harder a trail of monster corpses would get to follow.

And then there was the hunter following. Rex was faster than almost any baur, but his bear like form was suitable for combat and not as quick as that feathered steed, its rider chasing her. Weiss needed to get to this crimson girl, needed to find her alone, and this little scavenger was not good news.

A tree held its body precariously angled in front of her. Rex tried to steer to the left farther out of its way, but Weiss forced it right, right under its low hanging body. The sword, still burning, did all the work; its fire runes torching the bark before the blade even touched the fiber. It came crumbling down, and the close following fool failed to pull away and smashed right into it. There was no time to check on the rider; she just chose to believe he was fine.

Alone now, Weiss picked up the pace, urging forward between the thick of the forest. The hunters were already fighting each other, that much she could tell by the screams and shouts. The beowolves the crimson girl had so clumsily forgotten to finish acted as a shield and descended the hunt into madness. The forest, unlike the trail, was getting thinner now. Passing by two beowolf corpses, both decapitated, there was a clearing, just a wild patch of snow and winter roses. Three maybe four grimm here remained, including one covered in red scars, twice the size of any man and easily bigger than a simple ursa: the alpha. Stark in comparison to them was a little girl, her cape red, her scythe transformed, reloading some sort of automatic crossbow.

"Run!" Weiss shouted, though that dissuaded not the beowolf nor the girl, it did alert a hunter, some skinny lad with short hair and a halberd, riding the much faster Valen steed. No!

The serenity broke from there in a flash of winter rose petals kicked up by the scarred beast. The man with a halberd threw his spear into the alpha's shoulder, delaying his charge in time for the red girl to finish reloading. Her crossbow emptying bolts into two of the charging beta's, taking them out. She turned her bolts to the alpha. It was not stopped.

Weiss in the middle of Rex's fury charge jumped into the snow, the baur heading straight for the other two betas that stood no chance against her favorite pet. She darted for the alpha that seemed thirsty for child. Myrtenaster, still on fire, the Mantlese knight pulled back the hammer, the center crystal wheel spinning till it came to white, silver white. Glowing like the moon, the blade only had to nick the alpha to make him roar in anguish. The small leg wound bubbling up, the silver rune's purifying effect a potent thing.

The beast spun around, melting snow tossed up as he turned to slice Weiss open with his claws, the knight only hoping to parry in the small window of motion she had.

She didn't need to.

A spinning scythe caught the under arm in a flurry of motion, its own blade lined with a similarly potent silver, or something akin to it. The alpha watched his arm fall onto the snow before it felt the pain, but when he did it was awful and drove the beast mad. The young rider was still circling them, whistling to catch the furious grimm's attention. It worked, lunging forward and past the family sword, adding another far more fatal scar to the creature's side.

Watching the blood boil off the blade, Weiss was absolutely sure it would not survive to see dawn, but it did not stop the alpha from going into a berserk. A flailing mess of blood, limbs, and groans, it came for the Snow White Knight, at least it tried. Catching it by the leg, the red girl's scythe robbed it of another limb and the final beowolf crumbled. Missing an arm and leg, impaled by halberd in the back and by bolts in its front, the creature growled into the snow.

"We did it!" the little girl started, though Weiss didn't look at her, she looked right at the rider, the man slowly approaching the dying beast. Pulling back the hammer, Myrtenaster spun again until the blood crystal glowed and the older huntress let it go. The runes turned blue and ice formed around the blade. Rex was eating the other two dead beowolf's behind them all, but his eyes turned to the rider as soon as he started to move. "I'm sorry to drag you guys into this. I mean I'll be happy to share my fee with you, though it's not much sorry. I didn't think I'd need to divide it, but I promise we'll all get a cut. Everything will be completely fair!"

The man rode right up to them, pulling out the halberd. Even closer to stab it again in the back of the head till it stopped twitching. Acceptable. A few more steps forward was not.

"You girl. Are you the one that started this?" the rider asked moving even closer to the cloaked teen. Weiss moved to intercept, the other hunters not even bothering to look at her.

"Yep! My name is Ruby Rose, nice to work with you!" She finished by sticking out her hand. The rider answered by sticking out his halberd, right for her throat.

Neither expected Weiss to do anything, but she did. Catching the pole, its point never touched the girl, but this hunter, eyes full of confusion felt a point in him. Myrtenaster's tip nicked his neck, the jugular's blood turning to ice as it came out, the only thing that kept that nick from being totally lethal. Rex pulled his mount out from underneath him with his teeth and soon the hunter was in the snow right next to his prey in the snow, those pale blue eyes of his so full of fear. He would have screamed, but the shock was already setting in.

"The ice is slow to melt. If you breathe and don't touch it, you'll have enough time for the hunters to find you and patch you up."

"Why?" he moaned, barely convulsing from the cold.

"Mantlese knights protect the young. That's all I need to know." Weiss ended it with a whistle, taking Rex away from the meal he was making of that bococho. Ruby, who was silent in all of this just muttered, confused, her silver eyes darting from her prized kill, to the man on the ground with a hole in the neck, to the foreign woman had just saved her.

"Who are you? What even just—"

"I'm Snow White, and if you have any intention of hunting ever again dunce, you'll shut up and call me ma'am."

A/N: Hi guys, Elfen here. If any of you haven't been aware myself and LazyKatze have been working really closely on our separate fics Layers of Ice and Choice basically forever now. In lieu of that awesome friendship, we introduce the first of fully collaborative efforts, The Snow White Knight and the Red Rose.

It's a sort of middle fantasy A.U. as you probably noticed by now set in the equivalent of the medieval period of Remnant and personally from my end very witcher-like (barring sleeping with women for collectable cards, though if anyone could it'd be Weiss). I'll be writing odd chapters while LazyKatze does even while we both edit the others and concept stuff together. As such thank you LazyKatze for editing this chapter and working with me in general 'cause she is awesome. Check out both Layers of Ice on her profile and Fighting a Beautiful death, a collab of hers and A-rav's on the latter's profile. :D

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, all the cameo and character introduction, even Lark getting jabbed in the neck, poor guy. Where we continue from here is up to the wonderful and illustrious Katze :D Later!

Edit: In light of new lore Atlassian was turned to Mantle and Ruby's scythe and crossbow were combined