Chapter Text
The great north winds roared across four-thousand miles of open ocean unabated before they struck land at Patch. The rocky coast sloped up into a long jagged crest, scoured bare by the relentless gusts. A natural wall that sheltered the harbour from the worst of the gales, it opened at a wide harbour mouth colloquially known as Funeral Cove.
Overlooking the treacherous pass was a white monolithic lighthouse atop an island of rock layered with uncut grass that rippled in the winds. Sheer concrete walls slanted up in an octagon shape before extruding out into the cylindrical light-room and domed iron roof, summited by a lightning rod. Its vigil kept safe the dust ships that sailed from deeper within the harbour, marking the rocks hidden beneath the waves and the shifting sand bars.
Even when the depths of winter arrived and the sun barely peeked over the horizon each day, the ships never ceased their work. And so, it fell on the lighthouse keeper to safeguard their passage.
Weiss heaved shut the metal front door, painted with a new coat of bright red, and headed down the gravel path along the lee side of the island. Menacing grey clouds smeared the western horizon, growing deeper as the day wore on. This might just be her last chance to visit the mainland before winter set in and the boats settled in.
Waves lashed along the stony shoreline where a narrow pier sprouted out of the island and bridged over the rocks into deeper waters. Weiss arrived right as the harbour's mail boat puttered in alongside the boardwalk. Its motor rumbled to a halt and a brunette woman leapt up, rope in one hand and secured her to the bollards before the small craft had drifted to a stop.
Weiss tucked her hands into the pockets on her navy blue woollen coat and strode along the old pier, boards creaking under her heeled boots. She stopped a few strides from the boat's skipper as she crouched by the bollards double tying her knots.
She glanced up with a startle. 'Oh! Mail's here! You don't usually come out to collect.'
'I want to go ashore,' Weiss said bluntly. 'Before the storm sets in. Will you take me?'
She stood up and rubbed the back of her head. 'Well, this is my last stop for the day, but I'm supposed to get the boat into dry dock before the weather comes in.'
'I'll be quick,' Weiss insisted. 'I only need to grab a few supplies, then you can drop me back.'
'Well in that case, I guess I can help.'
'Great.' She passed the skipper and stepped over the siding onto the boat.
As the girl moved between posts, hastily unfastening the moorings once again, she made quick glances up at Weiss, eyes darting away again each time she met hers. 'I'm Ruby,' she said at last as she loosed the final line.
'Weiss,' she returned the courtesy and glanced away to the dark brewing horizon.
'I know,' Ruby answered. 'I mean, you know--everyone knows. It was big news in town when you took over the lighthouse.' She gave the boat a shove with her foot and skipped aboard as it drifted away from the jetty. 'But, I think this is the first time we've ever spoken, so--I'm Ruby!'
Her awkward laugh trailed off and she ducked into the cabin room, firing up the engines. Sea water kicked up behind the boat, lurching forward and swinging wide around the jetty and the island before heading toward the town of Patch proper.
'So, why did you take the job?' Ruby leaned backward out the cabin door.
'Watch where you're going,' Weiss scolded. A flat bottomed boat like this had an easier time avoiding rocks below the surface, but wasn't immune. When Ruby focused forward again, she answered: 'I needed the money. I came down river through Shion and wasn't sure where to head next. But, this place seems like it's alright to settle down for a while.'
'Really, you'll be staying?' Ruby leaned back again, positively beaming.
Weiss shoved her back into the cabin. 'It's quiet enough that no one bothers me here.'
'You came from a really long way away, right?'
'From Atlas,' she said.
'Atlas!?' To someone who lived at the ends of civilisation that icy city might seem like a world away. But to Weiss, she still wondered if she'd gone far enough. 'What was it like there?'
'All money and politics,' she answered bluntly. 'And people butting into other people's lives, never a moment's peace. It's why I came out here in the first place, obviously.'
'Maybe I'll go there one day,' Ruby thought aloud, 'just to see what it's like.'
She slowed the boat as they approached the mariner. Patch was the first port of call for ships entering the harbour, though rarely their destination. Ruby manoeuvred around the stone wall breakwater and past the wooden boardwalks that housed the local fishing fleet.
Instead, she pulled up right alongside the concrete sides of the quay. The boat's side guards bumped against the wall and Weiss started her way over the side.
'Hold on!' Ruby rushed past her, leaping onto the quay and looping the mooring lines over the bollards. 'It's dangerous, wait there.'
Weiss huffed, tapping her foot as the skipper secured her boat and lowered the gangway.
'Right this way,' Ruby reached out and offered a hand, which Weiss promptly ignored, instead stepping up onto the quayside as the other girl watched dejectedly. 'So, where did you need to go?'
'I don't need a chaperone.'
'I just want to make sure you get back on time,' Ruby defended, now looking completely crestfallen.
'Fine, tag along if you want.' She turned up the quay street, ignoring the sudden elation in her excited tag-along.
With the sea wall on their right and a row of boat houses on the left, she made her way up the road. Dock workers criss-crossed the path, squaring away every stray thing. Lamps and signs were taken down, ropes and other junk cleared, and the tall rolling doors were chained shut.
This frantic activity continued further along as the cobbled road transitioned into the paved high street at the top of the mariner. Windows battened shut, signs taken in, chairs and tables stacked and stowed inside--the inhabitants of the town all seemed to be readying themselves for the end times.
'What in the brothers' names is going on?' she muttered.
'They're getting ready for the storm,' Ruby answered, apparently sticking close enough to overhear.
It all seemed an over the top reaction compared to last winter. At least her favourite shop hadn't boarded up the door. She turned up the stairs, the shop bell ringing as she entered and the cold salt-ridden air made way for the warmth of paper and old leather.
Overstocked shelves lined each wall and across the shop floor in even intervals. Books were stacked on every available surface, even on the floor when necessary.
Behind the counter, a faunus woman looked up over the round glasses perched on her nose, the round ears on her head twitching. 'Good afternoon, Miss Weiss.'
'Afternoon, Gialla.' She unbuttoned her wool coat and pulled out three books from the pockets hidden within, stacking them on top of the counter without pausing her stride. 'New stock arrived?'
'Just yesterday. I was wondering if you'd make it before the storm rolled in.'
'Thanks.' Weiss stopped at the shelf facing the window with the "New Release" sign displayed over the top. She perused the spines for catchy titles and familiar authors.
'What are we doing here?' Ruby asked as she followed her along the shelf.
'I told you, I'm getting supplies for winter.'
'I guess that makes sense. You'll be on your own for so long you need something to do. But, don't you get lonely?'
'I'm quite content in my own company,' she said. 'Prefer it, in fact. Why do you think I signed onto this job in the first place?'
'Well, if you're ever in need of someone to talk, you could always radio me. My boat will be in dry dock for winter, so I'll be home most evenings. And I have a radio in my room!'
'You're a kind soul.' Weiss said; a noncommittal answer. At the very least she'd prefer to maintain good terms with everyone in town. She selected a book from a romance author she recognised titled Cold Heart, Hot Love and handed it to Ruby. 'Hold this for me.'
Ruby gasped at the cover and darted her gaze from side to side. 'Is this okay?!'
'You're an adult, aren't you? No one cares what you read.' Really, she shouldn't expect much else from a simple country girl.
Regardless, Ruby held the book at arms length like it was about to jump up and bite her, until Weiss dropped another book on top of it; a far more modest mystery novel to calm her panicking chaperone. 'Just have to choose one more.'
'How about this one?' Ruby pointed at one book.
'This?' She pulled it out and recognised the title, The Girl Who Fell Through The World. Fantasy bedtime stories weren't really her preferred genre.
'Yeah! I used to read this book all the time when I was younger. I had no idea they were still printing copies.'
Weiss sighed, 'fine,' and headed out of the shop, bell ringing behind her.
'Don't you have to pay?' Ruby asked.
'I have a deal with the owner,' she answered and stared at the book in her hand. Why did she take this?
'First winter, eh?' An old woman passed by the shop front, giving her a wily smile from over the thick fluffy scarf wrapped thrice around her shoulders. 'Be careful you don't catch a cold.'
Weiss frowned, watching the strange woman walking off. 'What was that about, some kind of joke?' She'd assumed everyone knew who she was after two years wintering here.
'Ah,' Ruby came down the stairs behind her, 'they might mean it'll be your first real winter. C'mon, I'll show you.'
She followed up the road two stores to one with a display of televisions stacked up on top of each other. Each of them were playing the weather channel showing a report of a vast storm system rolling in from the west.
'You see, the last two winters have been pretty mild. It's not uncommon for a storm to last two weeks here, and one time when I was really little it lasted the whole winter! The oldies always know when a winter is going to be a bad one, somehow they can feel it coming.'
Ruby glanced over as Weiss stared at the report, frown deepening. Those dark grey clouds hanging over the ocean out west suddenly seemed all the more threatening, looming ever closer to the town. 'Maybe we should get you back to the lighthouse,' Ruby said. 'When the storm rolls in, none of the boats can safely cross the harbour--only the really big ships still sail. You'll be completely on your own.'
'Take me back then.'
They hurried back down the high street and along the harbour road. By the time they got back to the boat the swells in the harbour were already intensifying, bobbing the little vessel against the quay wall. Weiss boarded and Ruby untied the boat, shoving off the quay before running to the cabin and starting her motor.
Past the breakwater wall the waves were even worse. Weiss had to sit and hold on tight across the pass. Each crest sent a sea spray over the deck followed by a downward jolt. By the time they crossed the harbour she was thoroughly salty with a bruised tail bone.
Ruby guided her boat into her lighthouse jetty at speed; Weiss clung on white-knuckled, but the skipper laid the boat up expertly alongside the boardwalk. She stayed seated this time until the boat was properly secured. Ruby offered a hand onto the jetty, which was ignored for a second time.
'I had my doubts, but I'll admit it: I'm impressed,' she said while stepping off, earning a beaming smile from the other girl.
'Oh!' Ruby jumped. 'I almost forgot your mail.'
She hopped back onto the boat, opening the cargo stack at the stern and retrieving a pile of parcels--the townsfolk often sent her care packages for the winter.
She handed them up the gangway to Weiss. 'Thanks. See you in the summer.'
'You're welcome!' she waved as Weiss turned headed up the road to her lighthouse.
The wind caught a piece of paper on top of the stack of parcels, fluttering into her face. She pinned it down and on inspection found a radio frequency and a message from Ruby: call if you ever need to talk!
Weiss stopped in her tracks, turning and watching the little boat sailing away. 'Why would you give me this?' How annoying.