7Raven was sitting in her tent tired and exhausted after having given birth. She needed a strong heir for the tribe and she knew Taiyang could give her one. She never loved the man, he annoyed her but he was also strong. His moral, ethics, loyalty and even his personality is what made him weak, made her despise him. Even if she did hold any sort of feelings for him it wouldn't have mattered. The tribe comes first, not to mention his eye's had always been on Summer. Had she stayed she would have just been a consolation prize anyways, and Raven Branwen does NOT play second fiddle to anyone. At least she didn't have to worry about Summer having children that could be stronger than her's. After an accident at Beacon Summer was no longer fertile. How the woman managed to blow herself up with fire dust was beyond her, but then again Summer had a knack for being accident prone and getting in trouble.
Raven stood up and walked over to the crib after a cry started to echo making her head hurt worse. Looking down one child was content and not making a sound while the other cried and threw a tantrum. She had twins, something she didn't even know about until she was giving birth. They were nearly identical, one with red eye's and black hair and the other with lilac eye's and blonde hair. While watching them one of the members of the tribe walked in after being called for.
"The blonde one's weak, get rid of it." Raven told the man.
"Get rid of her how?" The man asked with hesitation, hoping she wasn't implying something.
"Give it to it's father." She answered after briefly pausing to think about her answer.
Raven was watching the remaining baby lay there in the crib. The child was still content unlike the other one. She seemed naturally happy and was practically glowing with energy. She could sense the potential and power in her, but there was one thing that had to be done. Placing a hand on the baby Raven focused, she was unlocking the child's aura. Unlocking someone's aura like this, or rather unlocking a baby's aura like this was dangerous. The child could die, as a baby especially a newborn's body wasn't mature enough to handle it. Not that it was impossible, just highly dangerous and considered taboo. Only the strong survive while the weak perish, so if the child died then it just meant that she was wrong and the baby wasn't strong enough to be in this world.
The baby wiggled around in the cradle from discomfort, pain and physical strain while on the brink of crying. After a brief glow that quickly disappeared the baby calmed down and relaxed. The child's eye's opened to look at Raven. They were as red as her own but glowed like a gemstone, which gave her the perfect name.
"Ruby." She said softly getting a smile out of the baby who was now reaching up for her. "I bet your hungry aren't you?" The baby grunted getting a small chuckle out of the new mother. "Let mother feed you, have to keep you nice and strong." Raven picked Ruby up as she slipped one of her breasts out to feed her. "So small and already so strong. So much potential, mother is going to make sure you live up to it."
She was a happy and innocent child for the most part, and was always needy for her mother's attention, especially as a baby. After awhile Raven seemed to grow more attached to Ruby than she expected to. However that didn't change the fact that Ruby was to be her heir and needed to to be put through the rigger's of life and training. When Ruby turned 5 Raven took her into the middle of the forest and left her there. She was to survive and find her way back to the camp, if she did then she would officially be a full member of the tribe. It was harsh, Raven knew this but she had her aura and she was smart.
Ruby was scared, more like terrified at being alone and in a grim infested forest. When it got dark and she couldn't see well it made her even more scared. Of course this drew in grim, she was young but smart and would hid and never stay still for long. She knew the general direction of the camp and just kept heading in that direction. She never noticed a red eyed raven following her the entire time though. She scavenged nuts and berries to eat and even found water to drink. Eventually she let her guard down and stopped to long to sleep and get out of the rain. An ursa attacked her, she ran as fast as she could but the grim was faster. It had already swiped at her with its claws leaving bleeding wounds on her back.
At one point it had her cornered on a small cliff where they both fell after the loose, wet soil and rocks gave away. The giant ursa and small Ruby tumbled down, the ursa breaking off a few of its bone parts and even a claw. Ruby despite her aura broke a finger and dislocated a shoulder. She was winded and dazed and didn't see that the ursa had gotten up first. When she did see it she tried to crawl away only to be dragged back by its sharp teeth. She tried so hard to struggle and get away but it was to strong, her 5 year old muscle's were just not mature enough. She felt around for something anything, the beasts broken claw, how did it get there though? The ursa landed further away from her, she didn't have time to think about it. Grabbing the claw she rolled over and stabbed it in the eye.
In anger the grim bear swung its paw at her digging its claws into flesh. It clawed from the top of her lips and partially under the eye at a diagonal direction, down across the left cheek stopping just below the jaw line. Again she stabbed it but this time in the neck making the grim roar out in pain. This time it bit down on her shoulder and neck making Ruby scream, it hurt, it hurt so bad. With tears in her eye's and cry's of pain and fear she stabbed at it again and again and again. Blood poured out of the grims neck mixing with rain water and mud. With a final whimper the grim stopped moving, falling off to the side of the small child. The girl laid there for a few minutes crying before sitting up.
She was wet, cold, bleeding, and hurt, but she she had some idea of what to do. The memories of watching her mother and other tribe members collect plants and treat wounds. She still remembered her mom showing her how to skin an animal, which she thought was icky at the time. She collected the plants she thinks were the right shapes and color and smashed them into a paste with a rock. Putting it on some leaves she held them firmly on her neck and shoulder until they stuck on their own. Her shoulder still hurt and it was hard to move as was her broken finger but she pushed through it. Taking the ursa claw she plunged it into the grim's hide as hard as her young exhausted body let her. With every thing she could muster she dragged it like a knife skinning the grim bear. Ruby was glad she had actually paid attention to her mother for once, she was 5 so of course she didn't pay attention a lot.
The girl cleaned the fur skin as best she could before making a make shift blanket out of it. It kept her warm and dry so she no longer had to worry about freezing to death. Another advantage of the fur was that since it was still fresh and not properly scrubbed clean it still smelled of grim. This kept other grim for smelling her scent, so as long as they didn't see her she would be relatively safe. That claw she used, she kept it along with some of the other pieces of the bone plates as souvenirs. It took some real effort and almost hurting herself but she was able to pull the whole bone face plate off and in tact to. She wanted to show her mom, wanted her mom to be proud of her, wanted the tribe to be proud.
She did eventually make it back to the camp but it took her almost two weeks. Raven was impressed with her daughter, she not only made it back, but also got back quicker than she would have expected. Coming back with the bones and skin fur of a full sized ursa was impressive as well, the tribe as a whole was impressed. Raven of course had already known, secretly having kept an eye on her daughter. Even that claw Ruby used was her doing, having tossed it close to her to use. Raven felt a piece of herself break watching that grim tear into Ruby. She had never expected to become so attached to her.
After getting back Ruby had to be treated for wounds. Her arm was popped back into place but would need surgery to repair damage to it. Having gone so long being used while dislocated caused damage to some of muscle and started to heal awkwardly. It ultimately healed well after the surgery but they had to weave some synthetic muscle in. Her skin scared from the bites and claws but her face and neck was the worst of it. It was already going to scar reasonably bad but because it ended up with a bad infection it ended up much worse. The fur was turned into a proper blanket that Ruby came to oddly love. The claw was turned into a knife that she would ultimately use as a last resort in a fight. Ruby paid a lot more attention to things her mother showed her after all this.
As she got older Ruby only got stronger and more like Raven. She was cold, calculating and ruthless, never letting her emotions control her. She mastered her aura control by the time she was 6 and discovered her semblance at 8. She had been training in hand to hand with one of the tribes fight masters. She was always pushed hard in training and even education but this man was sadistic. He was a former Atlas military officer that had been dishonorably discharged. He was also facing court martial for the slaughter of an entire group of unarmed peaceful protesters. He had broken out of prison where he had eventually ran into Raven, who then brought him into the tribe.
When he trained her he was brutal, never pulling his punches both physically, verbally and mentally. Many of the tribe and even the young Vernal who was only a few years older than her was concerned, but it's not like anything could be said to Raven. During the day she unlocked her semblance he had been even more sadistic and brutal than before. She had started coughing blood after he completely beat her down. Then he taunted her, calling her some of the most disgusting things. Ruby had always put up with it, she had to be strong and knew it would only stop once she proved herself. But when he started calling her a failure, weak, a disappointment and even going as far as saying that her mother should have left her to the grim as a newborn, she snapped. Her aura flared, her eye's glowed, her hair seemingly caught on fire as she lunged at him in pure anger. In his surprise he didn't have time to react and her fist connected with his face with a loud crunch. He was thrown several feet colliding with a tree snapping it and him in half.
She didn't stop after that as she started destroying anything she could get her hands on. She was out of control and seemingly berserk from all the adrenaline, and when others tried to stop her they couldn't. So they resorted to attacking her, but she seemed to absorb what ever they threw at her returning it back with double the damage. That's when Raven stepped in gaining her attention. She just dodged and parried all of Ruby's attacks which frustrated Ruby more and more until she was exhausted and passed out. Her tormenter was dead, his body broken and his face all but caved in. Ruby's suppressed anger finally boiling over was the key to unlocking her semblance. Having snapped like that after so long of bottling things up she started to have a bit of a temper problem. Sometimes her semblance would flair up when she was mad or frustrated. It was powerful but she needed to learn to control her anger or it would become a weakness to be exploited. There was a catch with her semblance though, despite absorbing damage she could still feel the pain of every hit.
At 10 Ruby made her weapon, it was a pair of gauntlets with shotguns in them that primarily shot fire dust, not that she didn't use other types, she just preferred fire. She named them Scorching Infernum, a bit of a play on words since infernum was another word for hell. She had thought about a katana similar to her mother's but she didn't want to be her clone. Besides, she liked hitting things, the feeling of caving that mans face in was a rush she never got with any other weapon upon making a kill after that. She did still have a sword though having been a gift from Raven. She was proficient with it and she would use it if need be but that wasn't often. And she did still carry that ursa claw she turned into a knife but kept that hidden.
By the time Ruby was 15 she was already extremely dangerous, having already killed plenty of grim, faunus and humans. Not only was Ruby a force to be reckoned with in combat but she could also be just as fast and quite when need be. Personally the teen preferred a straight up fight over the stealthy approach, but she did what ever mother ordered her to. Raven gave her plenty of orders she didn't like but she was always the good soldier and obeyed. So if Raven asked her to take someone out stealthily, she did, normally with a broken neck. Being paid a share in what ever the tribe brought in was nice, the girl had a pretty good sized amount of lien put back. Not much of the lien she had was ever spent, when it was it was on things like strawberries, cookies and other sweets. If not treats then it was the thing that smelled like roses or the occasional book. Her favorite book was called "The Man With Two Souls". There was also "Ninja's of Love" but she kept that one hidden. Couldn't have people knowing she was a closet pervert and romantic.
She was mostly with her mother or on her own when in camp, she didn't have many friends, closest person to a friend she had was Vernal. Vernal was her mother's right hand and became Ruby's lover after she turned 16. It wasn't romantic or anything, just a way to relieve some stress and occasionally have fun. Making friends wasn't something you did in the tribe, it was considered a waste of time. On top of that it was considered a weakness, attachment's give you're enemy something to use against you. Even though she was surrounded by people she was still alone. Ruby had no one, there was her mom but as the chieftain of the tribe she was always busy. Honestly Ruby sometimes wondered if her mom even cared about her, but she WAS her mother so she had to love her right? To tell the truth a part of Ruby hated her life and everyone in it, and even people in general.
The stealing, plundering, and sacking of towns and villages was fun, the killing and brutality even more so. However, a part of her knew how wrong it was, knew she shouldn't do it, and even regretted much of it. But might makes right, the strong survive while the weak perish, it was the law and philosophy of the tribe, of her mother. She was a Branwen just like her mother, as well as the heir, she had to live up to that, it was her obligation, her destiny, regardless of what she herself may or may not want. She wasn't in some fairy tale where she got to be a hero, her life was nothing even close to a fairy tale. She was Ruby Branwen, the hellish fire of the Branwen tribe.
To say that Tai was shocked when a baby was shoved into his arms after answering his door was an understatement. All the man would say was that it was his kid. Tai didn't even know Raven was pregnant, but now after almost a year after disappearing she just has the kid dropped off, and not even doing it herself. He was ticked off and rightfully so, but at least he could give her a good home. On the bright side at least he wasn't alone, he had Summer and Qrow to help. Unsurprisingly it didn't take him long to jump into bed with Summer after Raven left, they were even engaged already much to Qrow's disappointment. He was happy for them really, but they moved way to quick, and coming from a drunk pervert that's saying something.
Since Summer couldn't have kids and Raven didn't want the child, she became the blonde girls mother. Her and Tai decided to name her Yang. She was a fussy baby and prone to tantrums the older she got. Much to Summers dismay the girl also became more and more like her father in personality. She could handle Tai and his puns but now there was two people making them, and that was on top of Qrow's frequent shannigans. Aside from her temper Yang was a good child, happy, social and caring, always willing help others. She came to love video games and games in general. The girl was part tomboy, part girly girl, or as she called it the perfect combination.
At 5 they went camping at a safe and protected camping site in one of patches forests. Yang absolutely loved it! The hiking, and especially the campfire's were here favorite. Making s'mores had her ecstatic and became one her favorite things to eat when camping. At 6 Yang started school and made her first official friend. The blonde was already a social child but in school became a real social butterfly. She was popular and well liked by most of the other children. Sports was something she ended up excelling at while also enjoying it.
When Yang turned 8 her aura unlocked and at 10 her semblance activated. She had been training with Qrow, he kept dodging her and it was frustrating Yang. She got angry and like Ruby her eye's glowed and her hair seemly became fire. Qrow was surprised and caught off guard, if not for his experience and quick thinking the kid would have probably knocked his head clean off. Yang did always seem to have anger issues and get frustrated easy, along with her tantrums as a child. The semblance would flair up when she got mad or frustrated. Turned out her semblance could absorb damage and dish it back out two fold while not feeling anything from the attacks. Her weakness though was that her semblance became useless if she couldn't hit her opponent. Plus it's not like she could indefinitely use it either, as no one could do that. She could also be overwhelmed in some circumstances as well, just like the sister no one knew she had.
At 15 yang was at the top of her class at signal combat school where her dad was also a teacher. Yang was popular with the boys as well as the girls. The blonde didn't care about gender or race, to her love was love, or sex as she was caught by her dad in bed once with a boy. He chased the kid out of the house and didn't stop until the kid was at home. Qrow had to keep him from burning the kids house down, and Tai wondered where Yang got her temper. Seriously the father and daughter were to much alike and it was scary, she was his damn clone. She might as well have been Tai had he been born a woman. Tai used to be one of her teachers but the principle decided to separate them after a pun off that lasted an entire period. A pun off that also lead to an argument and then a fight that almost burned the school down. Qrow could have stopped it since he was around at the time but found it to funny to stop, plus he didn't want to risk his liquor. Summer grounded all three of them for a month.
When it came to her studies she was a bit of a slacker, often being caught asleep and drooling on her desk. Yang just wanted to hit things, not sit behind a desk doing homework. Just tell her where the grim was and she would just punch it to death, she was a simple girl. She had made her babies back when she was 13, they were a pair of yellow shotgun gauntlets. They mostly used fire rounds but she did use others but honestly fire was just cool and made things go boom better. She named them Ember Cecila, a play on words meaning Heavenly Fire. When she turned 16 her dad and uncle helped her build bumblebee, a yellow motorcycle that she freaking loved. Not that her mom was pleased with her husband and their friend. Summer didn't think she needed it at this age as it was dangerous, despite the fact she was training to be huntress. Really Summer was just being a typical worried mother.
She was Yang Xiao-Long, the Sunny Dragon of the Xiao-Long family. She was a beloved daughter, niece, student, friend and future huntress. She loved her life, loved her family, loved her friends and loved her sweet adorable corgi Zwei.