Ch 34 The Surprise.

The night passed quickly, filled with laughter and shouts. It was a little weird to start off, but Vyr made quick work of lightening the mood by sacrificing Artorias.(once again.)

(Vyr POV)

The mood was weird and awkward. People wanted to talk or just do something about the atmosphere but no one could think of anything to say.

"so, Vyr. You uh… you take any good contracts while you were away?" Josh asked, biting the bullet.

I quickly shot him a thumbs up and said " Now that you say, i did have a good hunt or two. Thats actually where I met Artorias, Ciaran, and Kal."

Artorias eating down the table shivered as he had a bad feeling listening to vyr. He just could tell why.

"Oh it was memorable for YOU? it must have been something special then." Vesemir said in a surprised tone.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!"

"Nothing, nothing. Tell us about this contract."

I shot him a glare but let it go and said" well it started with Geralt's favorite thing, Portals."

Dad grunted while the witchers around laughed.

"What's funny about portals? I think they're neat." Yang said with a confused face.

"Geralt hates portals. Won't have nothing to do with them." Josh answered. This got a few nods of understanding before vyr continued.

"So I got this contract to clear out some beast that had destroyed a city."

Vesemir whistled as asked "a whole city?"

"Yeah. it was some kinda city for certain magic users. They were supposed to be really good at light magic. The kind to do with lights and illusions, things of that nature. Apparently they were expanding this underground prison and busted through to a cave. Of course in said cave was an evil magic beast that ruined the place with some kinda dark poison corruption stuff. Not fun. So the neighboring kingdom that was allied(?) with the city sent some knights. Not just any knights though, they sent the …"

(A/n I'm not writing the darksouls arc a third time. So a quick TLDR Vyr tells the pretty much full true story of what happened at Oolacile, leaving out the god stuff and the system entirely. I'm just going to skip to the part I wanted for this chapter.)

"Wait. That bastard impaled you with his sword?" Geralt asked, rising to his feet and reaching for his blade as he gave a furious glare at Artorias. The other witchers quickly followed his example, well all but vesemir. He was just sitting there eating his food.

"Yep. left a bigass scar on my stomach as well. That shit hurt." vyr said, popping the p with a smug grin as she watched artorias run from geralt. Ruby heard this and connected the dots, before whipping out crescent rose(her scythe) and joining the chase as well.

"Are you not worried about him?" Vesemir asked, looking at artorias dodging the multitude of blades being swung at him, all while he pleaded for help.

"Nah not really." Vyr said, the thought of all these people caring about her brought a smile to her face.

"But he could be hurt. Didn't you say he was your friend?" Yang asked, keeping an unusual amount of calm at the situation.

"I also said he practically killed me when he was half dead. Man, I'm more worried about ruby and geralt. Though to be fair Ruby will be fine. I'm surprised you didn't join them Yang. What's up with that?"

"You said they were your friends. And you don't really seem mad or anything. It should be fine." Yang said with a shrug.

"Could you please help him. I think it would go too far soon." Ciaran asked, looking worriedly at the chase. The chasers had started working together and soon Artorias might have to fight back. On a side note Sif had joined in and was now acting as ruby's mount while trying to pin the escaping knight down.

"Yyyyeeeaaahhh~. You're probably right." Vyr said before yelling "Oi! Calm down already the foods getting cold."

"You're ok with him after he hurt you?" Geralt asked.

"You don't have any ground to stand on in that argument or should I start counting which scars you made?"

"But he is the one who left that scar!" Ruby said.

"Yeah but i won the fight so it's fine. Besides,technically Sif is his wolf. I just stole him."

That ended the argument quickly and soon everyone was once again at the table. This time the conversation was united in topic.

Soon the day started fading into night and they had to figure out sleeping situations. Or at least Vyr thought they would have too. Turns out Vesemir had been taking full advantage of the elves' magic. They had put expansion charms on pretty much all of the keep. This led to many new rooms being available. CIiaran and Artorias took a shared room in the keep along with sif. While Team RVBYS (besides vyr and ruby) took a separate room each.

Back before vyr left, Josh and Trey had claimed rooms in the keep for themselves as well. But Vyr didn't want to stay in the keep and had built a small cabin along the trail between where she used to stay at kaer morhen and the lake. It was close to the forest on the right side of the lake so she could keep an eye on the animals and plants she put there.

The cabin wasn't anything extravagant or crazy. It was just a small two floor box. The bottom floor was mainly a kitchen and living room with a wall separating into a small bathroom as well. Up the stairs it was just a bedroom and closet. There wasn't anything past that really. It was simple and did its job well.

(A/N fun fact, the cabin is based off a cabin I know IRL.)

Said cabin is where Vyr and ruby were headed right now. Vesemir had offered a room in the keep to Ruby but she said she wanted to stay with Vyr. Vyr of course was more than ok with that and happily took ruby away.

"D-d-do y-you really stay out here?" Ruby asked, pulling her cloak around her tighter.

"Yeah. it's not too much further. It will warm up a good bit as we get closer to the forest. The plants there are a bit special and can only grow in warmer weather so we put up special magic to grow them. Till then here." Vyr said, pulling Ruby close to her.

"Mmh. How are you so warm? It's freezing out here." ruby asked snuggling closer to vyr as they walked.

"Hehe. nah it's not that bad right now. Normally it snows pretty bad this time of year. It's only 5 or 6 inches right now. As to how I'm warm, perks of being me." Vyr said with a smile. She thought about telling ruby the igni sign would help as well. But then again holding ruby while out on a walk was nice as well.

Soon they arrived at Vyr's cabin. And like she said it was warmer the closer they got to the forest. This left the cabin pretty accessible, thankfully. Walking inside Vyr headed to the small hearth* in the living room and started it up. Since everyone usually ate at the keep, it normally sat unused as Vyr is very resistant to cold having long since adapted to it, being a prototype and all. The only reason it was here at all was for if someone else was visiting or staying the night. That or if Vyr wanted some hot food and didnt feel like going all the way to the keep.

"Here give it a minute and it should heat up. Take a seat here and ill go and clean up." Vyr said moving to the upstairs.

Ruby being the curious girl she was, started to look around the place. On the walls different drawings were pinned up. Some were of beasts from nightmare and others were of sword stances. A big section seemed to be various alchemy formulas that made ruby's head hurt when she looked at them. The kitchen seemed to be more of afterthought at this point. It was covered with bottles, jars, jugs, and different containers. A large part of the counter was taken by something like a chemistry station.

But the thing that interested Ruby the most was a jug that had a lightning bolt symbol on the side. It had wires running from it to a piece of the chemistry station.

Right as she was about to touch it, vyr came down the stairs with a load of foul smelling furs.

"Sorry about this. It's been awhile since i've been here and it seems no one cleared it out while i was gone. I guess the elves forgot or something. Whatever, not the point, I gotta toss these. So just try not to touch things. Some of that stuff is dangerous."

"I'm not a kid. It's fine." ruby said with a pout.

"I didn't say you were. But I did happen to see a hand reaching towards those bottles." Vyr said with a chuckle.

Ruby blushed a bit at this and asked "whats in it anyway?"

"Which one? Most of them are alcohol, but some of them are herbs and a few are monster parts."

"I'm gonna ignore the monster option for now. What about the one with the wires and lightning bolt?"

"Oh that? That's my homemade attempt at white lightning. It's an alcohol but i took it a tiny bit too far and now its also a really good battery."

"I-I i don't want to know."

Vyr said "tell you what, why don't you come with me."

"Uh, no thanks. I've had enough cold for now. It's hard to imagine we were just about to go to the vytal festival and now i'm here in a cabin surrounded by snow."

"Ha, you'll get used to it. Plus we are only going to be here for a week or so. Now come on, i want to show you something special."

"Just for a bit, ok?" Ruby said with a small smile as they walked back out into the cold.

The sun was finally setting and with it Vyr and ruby entered the forest. A few feet outside the tree line you could see the snow taper off and melt leaving a muddy area. But inside the trees it was as if summer had come. There was no snow to be found and the air was just shy of being humid.

Before entering the woods Vyr tossed the furs and pulled out a torch she had hidden inside them and lit it. As they walked ruby began noticing the plants here were nothing like what she had seen so far. Not just the trees and leaves, there were even flowers and large leafed bushes. When they walked deeper Ruby began to hear noises of animals and some kind of hissing.

Soon deep in the woods they came into something akin to a clearing. It was all under a large branching tree that had long vine-like tendrils hanging below.

Before walking under it Vyr stopped Ruby and said "hold on a minute."

Ruby was about to ask what was wrong but Vyr motioned for her to be quiet and listen. Ruby quickly realised what was going on as the bushes around them started moving and making noises like the ones she heard earlier. Around them some kind of animals started darting through the bushes too fast for her to keep track or even get more than a glace. Right as she was about to get her weapon Vyr dropped the torch and pulled ruby into her chest. The smell of huckleberries and metal surrounded her. A scent she had come to love as she spent more time with it. The smell of Vyr.

"Vyr what are you doing?!"

"SHHH. You trust me right?"

"Now i-"

"Do. You. Trust. Me?" Vyr asked, stressing each word.

Ruby nodded with a faint blush on her face, not that Vyr could see.

"Then close your eyes and don't look."

Ruby did as told and closed her eyes. She could hear vyr stomp on something and the heat of the torch died out. Then ever so slowly vyr let her go and slowly moved them both away from where the torch was. After getting far enough vyr started to gently pull Ruby to the ground and say "here get down, but stay quiet." Ruby once again followed vyr's instructions and slowly sat down with vyr guiding her..

Once she sat down she realized she was in Vyr's lap and Vyr was wrapping her arms around her. This left her confused as she could still hear the steps of whatever was in the bushes as they got closer. Right as she was going to say something whatever it was walked right past them.

*ba-bump*

*ba-bump*

*ba-bump*

*ba-bump*

When she strained her ears all she could hear was the steady rhythm of Vyr's heart, the footsteps seemed to almost vanish in comparison.

"Alright don't shout and you can open your eyes." Vyr said whispering into Ruby's ear making her entirely too aware of where she was sitting. With that smell becoming almost dizzying to Ruby.

Opening her eyes Ruby couldn't help but to gasp. All around her it was like the world had become something entirely new. The entire forest was practically painted in glowing neon colors. Everything from the grass to the huge tree they were sitting under had taken on a new color. The tree in particular was something special as it was a spectrum of purples and pinks.

Vyr rested her chin on Ruby's shoulder as she watched the emotions (mainly awe and excitement) play out on her face. She was especially happy when Rubys unconsciously leaned back into her embrace.

This whole place was something Vyr had made back when she trained in Kaer morhen. It came about after she couldn't get the James Cameron Avatar movie out of her head. So one day she just made it here. That day she decided while music magic may be OP Bullshit, the system was OP Bullshit Hax on steroids. Provided you had points, otherwise it was just a ephemeral garbage can to trade in unwanted items. Sure most of the time she uses it as an over glorified convenience store, but Vyr was fully aware it was the most powerful tool she had to use.

Back to here and now though, it seems the Viperwolfs had enough sitting around and wanted some attention from their master. Ruby jolted in shock as the viperwolves circled back around in front of the two.

Vyr gave out a muffled laugh as she said "don't worry they wont hurt you. They're more or less friendly, 'specially when I'm around."

"Wait so we weren't in any danger?" Ruby asked shocked.

"Of course not. I would've told you if we were in any danger." Vyr said with a smile.

Ruby was about to get angry when one of the wolves walked over and started making noises at the two. She shrunk back into vyr's arms as Vyr reached out and pet the dark blue viperwolf.

"Its good to see you too ula, has Eskel been nice to you?" Vyr asked as the snakedog made happy(ish) noises.

"Hey where is fridge? I thought she would've been the first to come greet me." Vyr asked looking around.

Ula made some hissing noises before some kind of wolf howl. Not long after the ground began to shake as a great big beast rushed over to the two and picked vyr up in its teeth.

It was a lean and agile cat-like creature, its musculature pronounced and impressive, providing power for protracted runs and leaps. The speed of its neck and jaw strike was swift. In addition to conventional ripping and tearing, it also had a lethal looking thin armored tail.

It also had ten sensory quills that sprout from sections of armor plating that encircle the rear of its skull. It also has an armored neck and back, a massive distensible jaw, and twenty-three centimeter long sharp teeth.

The creature had burnished black skin. Its ten quills were colored bright red and yellow. It was approximately 20 feet (6 meters) long. It had six long legs, and two sets of opercula on each side of its neck.

(A/N thanks google-chan. TLDR big black 6 legged cat thing from avatar)

"Hahahaha, Fridge put me down. You're gonna scare my friend to death." Vyr said happily, hanging from the Thanator's mouth, and patting its head.

"It's not a monster?!" ruby yelled at vyr in disbelief when she saw the big cat thing put her down gently.

"Who Fridge? Nah she's nicer that ula most of the time." Vyr said, waving Ruby off.

"Wait you named them all?" Ruby asked with even greater disbelief.

"Yeah I named them. See that's ula, she likes Eskel so they often go on hunts together. That one is Fridge, over there is Microwave. Oh! And those two with the little one are Fork , Spoon, and the baby is Spork." Vyr said point in to each of the viperwolves coming close to them and throwing her thumb back at fridge who was nudging her from behind. As she went down the list she began laughing harder and harder, till she was rolling in the glowing underbrush.

Ruby thought Vyr was teasing her again, at least until she saw Vyr call out "come here spork!" and the baby viperwolf actually came to her.

Eventually she calmed down and tossed some food from her inventory to all the animals, before walking over to the pouting ruby.

"So, how do you like the view?"

"Dont think ive forgotten how you scared me. You're not getting out of this that easily." Ruby said as she pointed a finger at Vyr's face.

"Oh come on~, you have to admit it was kinda funny."

"You scared me!"

"It's fine~ I wouldn't let you get hurt."

"Fine. but i'll get you back." ruby said with a smug look.

"Fare is fare. But you never answered my question."

*sigh* "yeah alright, i admit it. I like the surprise. As weird as it is it fits if it's you."

"Hey, I never said this was the surprise. This is the surprise." Vyr said as she leaned in and kissed Ruby on the lips.