Chapter Text
The snow in the woods glowed a brilliant shade of blue in the light of the moon, Weiss Schnee walked through the trees, her left hand clutching the hilt of Myrtenaster tightly as she advanced slowly through the dark labyrinth of misty woodlands. She was tired and cold; each step was like moving a boulder up a steep hill. She struggled to keep her eyes open, her breath grew more and more shallow with every step, and her mind was filling with fear, every waking moment was excruciating agony. She walked until finally her body and mind creaked from the strain, but still she pressed onward. Suddenly, she heard a sound that sent body trembling with ice-cold terror, a howl that made her blood run cold, and her eyes tear up in dread. She tried to open her mouth to call for help, but she was muted by painful sobs. She was alone, she had always been alone, and she always drove away anyone who tried to be her friend. The cold seared through her tired body only adding to the exhausting amount of pain that wracked her body in agony.
She could only watch as out of the shadows a large Beowulf advanced toward her, growling hungrily at her. Her mind went blank, as she fought with what will she had left to stifle her sobs of anguish. The black lycanthropic beast towered over her, raising one of its arms to strike. All seemed lost, and she hardly had the energy left in her to scream, she could only cry and huddle to herself, wishing for someone, if anyone would help her. Suddenly, from the tree above her, a growl echoed through the woods frightening the Beowulf, making it back up slowly from its quarry. The figure above her jumped down putting itself between the beast and the whimpering girl whose eyes were locked on the mystery man. The moonlight was dim, but she could make out two distinct wolf ears, the figure was a faunus, a creature resembling a human in appearance but had part of an animal. Weiss typically didn't approve of faunus, but this one was different. When she looked at him, she felt her tears fade away, and a warmth flowed through her, her pain dissolved. The figure turned his head, and a deep emerald-green eye met the pale blue eyes of the young woman. The eye was gentle and inviting, and yet so very familiar to her, where had she seen him before?
The figure turned their attention to the Beowulf, two sai popped out of the sleeves of the leather jacket he was wearing, he crouched and charged at the beast. Weiss gasped and shut her eyes. At that moment, she woke up sweating, her face warm and wet, her pillow was damp, her heart was racing, and her breathing was shallow. She looked toward her left and saw Yang Xiao Long and Blake Belladonna staring at her with concern on their faces. "Weiss?" She turned to see her bunk mate, Ruby Rose, who was clutching her dog, a black corgi named Zwei, with a look of deeper concern on her face. "Is everything ok?" she asked with bated breath.
The look on Weiss' face quickly changed, "Of course I'm okay, you dolt," She snapped, "why wouldn't I be?"
"Well," Yang said jumping down from her bunk, "the sound of you whimpering and nearly screaming in your sleep, the sobbing, the tossing, and then for the past half-hour you've been crying saying, 'someone, anyone, please, I don't want to die alone."
"Which woke me up, Weiss," Ruby said squatting down to be at eye level with her teammate, "you're not alone. You have me, Yang, Blake, Nora, Pyrrha, Ren, and Jaune." Zwei barked, "And Zwei too."
"You shouldn't be crying," Blake said with a slight groan in her voice, "you were the one who confronted me when I felt uneasy about the evening Sun, and I, faced the White Fang and Torchwick at the docks."
Weiss rested her head in her hands, "I appreciate the concern from you, my friends," she said, "it makes me feel slightly more at rest with my dream-based befuddlement."
"What?" Ruby co*cked her head slightly.
"I just had a crazy weird dream." Weiss reiterated, "I was attacked by a massive Beowulf, I thought I was going to die, it felt so real."
"A massive Beowulf," Blake sat up in disbelief, "where were you in your dream?"
"I don't really know," Weiss said, "I remember it was a black forest with fog and snow and unyielding cold."
"Sounds like it was the Blight," Blake said pointing to a book she'd been reading lately, "it's a dark forest that exists only in people's deepest nightmares. It draws people in only when they are the most vulnerable."
"Does it cause night terrors so horrific that they wake up the members of the victim's team?" Yang asked, her blonde her breaking Blake's eye contact with Weiss.
"It does, unfortunately," the amber-eyed girl laid her head on her pillow.
"There was someone else there," Weiss added, "a man, no, a faunus." Blake got up again putting her laying body's weight on her elbow, "I don't know who he was, but he felt so familiar. The wolf ears, the deep emerald-green eyes, the silver hair."
"The way you describe him," Ruby said, "he sounds like you knew him once."
"Well, my father's chief guard was a male faunus, and he did bare a resemblance to the faunus in my dream, all the way down to the leather jacket."
"Woah," Yang said sitting at the foot of her pale-skinned teammate, "you recognized what he was wearing?" She raised an eyebrow and put on her sly trademark grin, "I know what that means…"
"Shut up, Yang," Weiss growled.
"Someone's in the 'L word,'" Yang giggled.
"Lima beans?" Ruby asked.
"No." Blake sighed.
"Lasagna!" Ruby guessed again.
"She means love!" Weiss half-shouted, her team leader was taken aback. "And the more I think about it, the more I know it's just a dream, but thinking of that silhouetted faunus clad in leather, those warm emerald eyes, that gentle look in his eyes. I don't know, my heart's all atwitter about this." She started feeling a love-struck grin come over her now reddening face. "But it makes me more conflicted, I can't remember about my rescuer, but I know I've seen him before, I just can't place where it was though."
"Are there any faunus that you spent a lot of time with before you started at Beacon?" Blake asked.
"There were a few; I wasn't particularly close to them, though." Weiss replied.
"Were there any who were particularly smitten with you?" Yang asked. Weiss threw her pillow at the obnoxious blonde as she giggled like a schoolgirl.
"How in all of Remnant could you ask something like that?" Weiss asked feeling slightly annoyed.
"Because it's an important question," Yang said inquisitively, "sorry I pushed your buttons too hard."
Blake looked at the clock and then over to Weiss, "Well I think we need to get back to sleep," She said, "If you want to have a good night's sleep without returning to the Blight, just focus on something good, like that mysterious faunus boy."
Weiss huffed and laid her head on her pillow, "Thank you, Blake, we may have had difficulty agreeing when we first met," she shifted in her bed until she was facing her teammate, "but recently you've been like the sister I wish I had, and for that…," a smile ran across her face, "I thank you."
With that, Ruby put Zwei down on the floor, and the corgi yipped and jumped onto Weiss' bed and curled up at her feet, Weiss looked at the little dog who only a week ago helped her team and other teams as well as three professors defeat the White Fang organization and an army of Grimm who entered Vale's borders from an underground tunnel from an abandoned town in the southeast corner of the kingdom with a look of reassurance, I was wrong in the dream, she thought, I guess I'm not alone, not anymore. She sat up looped her arm around Zwei and lay back down with him nestled in her embrace. She finally felt soothed enough to drift back into a deep slumber and closed her eyes.
Weiss slipped into another dream; this time it was different. What Blake had told her was true. The Blight preyed upon the misery of the dreamers and thinking of something comforting prevented the Blight's dark power from drawing her in. But the comforting thought Weiss had set her mind on was nowhere to be seen. It didn't matter to her anyway, the place she was felt as warm and inviting as the emerald eyes of her rescuer in the Blight. It was a large white ballroom with a beautiful spread of food. She looked at the light pink curtains in the windows and to the floor, to her surprise she saw the tiles had been arranged in the shape of her family's crest, the emblem for the Schnee family. "This is so incredible," she said.
"It is, isn't it?" a mysterious voice said.
Weiss turned in the direction of the voice. There, she saw a familiar sight that took her completely by surprise. A faunus boy, with wolf ears, brown and silver hair, and a fur collared light brown leather jacket with Weiss' family crest carved into the back. He turned to face the girl clad in white, the sight of his emerald eyes brought tears to her eyes. She finally remembered the name of this boy. She hadn't seen him in years, but she knew his name and it filled heart with long forgotten joy as she said it. "R-Rowan," She asked as she stepped slowly toward him with a tear rolling down her cheek, "Rowan… Whitemane?" she was hesitant to advance any further until the boy responded.
"Yes, my princess," Rowan replied with a soft warm smile appearing on his face, "it's me."
Weiss couldn't hold back her joy anymore, "Rowan!" she cried as she ran and hugged her childhood friend. Feeling him return her embrace made her burst into tears of joy, "It's been so long, I've missed you so much," she sniffled with joy, "but how are you here?" She looked up into his eyes wanting never to be without them, "And why were you in the Blight when that giant Beowulf attacked me?"
Rowan chuckled, "It's all part of my semblance," he said, "it allows me to enter the dreams of those I care about." Weiss' eyes widened, "And there's no one in the world I care about more than you. Like the Grimm, I could feel the negative energy flooding out of you, even in the icy grip of the Blight. I couldn't bear feeling your misery any longer, every inch of me wanted to protect you."
Weiss' eyes clouded up even more. She buried her head in Rowan's chest and embraced him tighter, "I wish this wasn't a dream," she sobbed, "I can't stand another minute of being away from you."
She felt Rowan's finger tilt her head up until their eyes met, "Could you wait a few more hours, then," he said with a reassuring smile on his face, "I'm on my way to Beacon in an airship with my team, from Atlas, and they're all ecstatic about meeting you and your team."
Weiss heart was all aflutter with excitement, "I suppose I can wait, if it means getting to see you again in the flesh," She said. She hugged him one more time as she heard her teammates' voices echoing through the ballroom, "I'll see you at the landing bay soon."
She felt Rowan kiss her forehead ever so gently, "Until then, my princess." He said as the dream world faded away and they woke up.
