Okay, second story. No big deal, It's fine. Totally not procrastinating on writing the Ballroom/Initiation chapter of Watching Rose. Nah, not me. Alright, FINE! I'm kinda bored and tired of what I currently have lined up for Chapter 4, so instead of forcing my way through it, I'm going to just write a second story alongside it! Expect chapter 4 in a week or two, and between then and now, I'll probably have 2 chapters of this new story out.

Anyways, this is The Crimson Dovah. Again, just like The Watching Rose, not going to be very heavy on the fighting, more focused on the misadventures Ruby can get up to in her predicament. I will probably write some light combat into this, but the main focus is on the unique situations Ruby will find herself in.

And, as always...

I do not own Skyrim or RWBY. Skyrim is owned by Bethesda, RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth.

Chapter 1

Our story begins with a day like any other. Birds were chirping, clouds were lazily drifting, and Ruby was running away from Weiss and her copious piles of homework. So, just like normal.

"No, I refuse to be tethered down by such mortal things as HOMEWORK!" Ruby screams at Weiss, rounding a corner and pulling another burst of speed from her semblance, leaving behind Weiss, who was in the process of summoning a Glyph to trap Ruby in.

"Argh! You insufferable dolt! I'm going to catch you eventually and so help me if it isn't in the next 5 minutes I'm throwing all your hidden cookie stashes out the window!"

"Pwwsh, you don't even know where they are! Anyway, why bother with homework? I mean, it's Professor Port's homework we're talking about. The only person who hands that in is you, Weiss, and he forgets he even set any homework! That's another thi-EEP!" Whatever Ruby was about to say was cut off as Weiss' strategically placed Glyphs pen her in, ensuring that no matter where she runs, she'll end up in a trap.

"Haa! Finally. Now, Ruby, just because he doesn't ask for it does not mean it's useless, quite the contrary. It matters not whether the work is graded by a teacher, since I will be checking the homework myself, so it's basically as good as doing the homework properly! Now, come on. The sooner you finish it, the sooner you can go and do...whatever it is you were originally planning to do. And, how does this sound, if you finish the homework without needing my help, I promise I won't threaten to throw your cookies out the window again?"

Perking up at this, Ruby vigorously nods, before making her way carefully to Weiss, avoiding the Glyphs that Weiss had placed.

"Okay Weiss, though I still think it's a waste of time that could be better spent on important matters. Like the fact that Vale is going through a cookie shortage! Or that Yang still thinks that the Achieve Men make good music, not noise akin to a dumpster being hammered on. I thought she'd grow out of them, but she still loves them." Ruby gags at this, before turning to face Weiss again. "So, what are you going to be doing today Weiss? Aside from hunting me down of course!" Ruby snaps with a sloppy salute.

Weiss pinches the bridge of her nose. "Ugh, put your hand down Ruby, seriously. I was meant to be going over my own notes, but since now I won't have time today, I'm going to go and meet Neptune in the Library. And no, that doesn't give you an excuse to slack off of doing homework." At this, Weiss stares at Ruby. "Ruby, promise you won't immediately just slack off and go to the workshop to play around with Crescent Rose. If you do, I won't be held responsible for anything that happens afterwards."

"Oh, I promise Weiss. I won't leave the dorm until the pile of...homework" Ruby deliberately makes a choking sound upon saying this. "is finished. I swear it upon Yang's hair!"

Arriving at the dorm, Weiss turns to face Ruby again. "Ruby, considering how much Yang values her hair, either you really don't plan on leaving the room, or you're just suicidal. Anyway, I'll leave you to it. And remember, you promised. Please don't just ignore the homework."

Spinning on a heel, Weiss strides off towards the Library, leaving Ruby to enter the empty room and slump down onto her bed, homework in hand.

'Okay Ruby, you can handle this. It's just a few dozen pages of boring homework, nothing serious. Question 1, what's the weakest point of a Deathstalker? Oh, that's the stinger joint! Huh, that wasn't actually that har-' Upon reading the next question, Ruby rereads it, eyes glazing over in anger."HOW AM I MEANT TO KNOW HOW MANY FEATHERS A NEVERMORE LAUNCHES ON AVERAGE?!" Sighing, Ruby slumps back down, thinking the question over several times. 'Who would even know that? I mean, Oobleck maybe, but why should I know that? I bet this is just because of that time I got pinned by one in Initiation. Stupid Port, stupid Nevermore feather. GRAH!'

With this, Ruby lies back, closing her eyes and reconsidering the question. Slowly, she drifts off, mind still considering the feathers of a Nevermore.

Darkness greeted Ruby when she woke up. Waiting for her eyes to adjust, Ruby frowned when she realized two things simultaneously. Firstly, wherever she was, it was dark enough that, despite sitting in darkness for a good minute, she had yet to actually see anything. And, more worryingly, Ruby realized that she wasn't lying on her comfy bed anymore. In fact, it felt distinctly like she was lying down on pavement, or stone, or something made out of material which shouldn't be found in a dorm room.

Shaking her head, Ruby raised her arm in an attempt to feel her way around wherever she was, only to realize that she couldn't move her arm. Trying again, Ruby felt something shift, and panicked when she realized that she was moving, but she wasn't moving her arm. It was entirely in the wrong place and felt wrong, almost cold.

Sighing internally, Ruby then had her epiphany, that she was simply dreaming.

Smiling to herself, at least as much as whatever her new form was would allow, Ruby decided to make the most of this dream, now that she was lucid. Shaking her oddly-shaped head, she began to nose her way around, feeling for any indication of an exit, a door perhaps, or simply a thin wall she could attempt to breach her way through.

After bumping into walls a few times, and carefully running whatever passed for her arm along the wall, Ruby came to the conclusion that she was encased in something. What, she had no idea, but it seemed like she was trapped for the time being. So, curling in on herself, Ruby resolved to wait until the dream had enough and either ended, or let her actually do something.

'Waiting is over-rated.' Ruby thought to herself, after what she felt like a good 10 minutes had passed.

Groaning, Ruby decided to look for an escape again, despite already nosing her way across every square inch of the perimeter of her newly-dubbed cell.

After making her way around the perimeter, or what she thought was the entire perimeter, a few times, just to be safe, Ruby began curled back in on herself, when suddenly, with a flash of light and some kind of strange language being yelled, one of the walls simply ceased to be, along with a good portion of the ceiling.

Spending a good long while in perfect darkness, the new light blinded Ruby, and she couldn't make out what had caused the sudden hole to appear in her room. However, after a few seconds, and some very rapid blinking, Ruby gained enough vision in a short while to see a few things.

One, a man was stood on the rubble that the sudden hole had strewn into the room. Two, said man was wearing some very unique equipment, looking more like one of those Atlesian 'Barbarian' fighters in those weird fighting games, despite Atlesians actually being better-equipped than pretty much anybody else, as Weiss seemed happy enough to say whenever Yang would bring out one of those games. His armor looked like a mesh of old knight equipment, similar to what Jaune wore but with less white and gold and more unpainted iron and leather, and animal parts, as seen by the necklace around his neck being decorated by fangs, and the large horns protruding from his equally strange helmet.

And third, said man was staring at Ruby as if he were staring at a ghost, causing Ruby to curl more into herself, before then realizing that she was curling into herself, and then took a good look at herself, causing her to open her mouth and let out a very squeaky "Huh?" which came out more like a squeak than actual words.

Positioned above her forearms, she had wings. In place of her regular body, she had scales. In place of her normal limbs, which should come from the bottom and sides of her torso, instead, they protruded outwards from her scaly chest. And, most importantly, she had a massive tail.

Massive in scale to her that is, since, after glancing back at the man, she realized that either the man was absolutely gigantic, which seemed unlikely, or she was rather small, about the size of a cat, which seemed slightly less unlikely.

"A...Baby Dragon?" The man suddenly let out quietly, slightly lowering the sword that Ruby only just noticed he was wielding, whilst simultaneously noting the lightning currently wreathing its way across his other hand.

"Uhm, h-hello?" Ruby tries to say, only to realize that the man was unlikely to even understand her, considering that, for lack of a better word, she was now some kind of baby 'dragon' as the man so eloquently put it.

Suddenly, the man narrows his eyes, as if she'd said something particularly offensive about his mother, grasping his sword tighter and raising his lightning-shrouded hand towards Ruby, causing her to swiftly back up into a wall and wrap her tail around her front instinctively, somehow surprising the man with this action.

"A-aren't you going to attack me?" The man says, cautiously stepping forward into the room, hand still raised, but pointing slightly away from Ruby, sword in a ready but casual guard, attempting to be both ready to fight, but also non-threatening at the same time.

"Why would I attack you!" Ruby yells, hoping that at least she can make some kind of noise that the man would hear. All she succeeds in doing though, is a throaty, almost yawning sounding whisper of sound. The man notices her agitation attempting to speak and kneels down, looking carefully towards her eyes, seemingly trying to be as un-imposing as possible.

"Okay, look. I'm going to put my sword away and cut my lightning off, but you have to promise to not attack me, okay? If you can understand me, shake your head up and down."

Internally face-palming at her stupidity at not showing that she can understand him through gestures, Ruby hastily and vigorously nods, garnering a slight smile from the still-wary man, who carefully sheathes his sword and makes his lightning hand switch off, causing no small amount of confusion to erupt in Ruby's mind, since she couldn't see dust anywhere on the mans gauntlet, meaning he must be rather skilled with dust to manipulate it like...however he's doing it!

"Okay, so, we've established that you aren't trying to be a threat and that you understand me. Do you know where you are?" At this, Ruby shakes her head. "Hmm, okay. Well, do you know...what year it is?" Again, Ruby shakes her head, internally getting a bit frustrated at his lack of actually providing information.

Pursing his lips, the man seems to consider Ruby for a moment, before shaking his head and muttering something that sounded suspiciously like "By Talos, why me?"

"Okay, here's the deal Red," Ruby bristles at this, hating the little nickname Roman gave her, apparently not visibly enough though, as the man continues, "If you want to get out of here, you'll have to stick by me, and I've got a few rules for ya. First, no attacking people except in self-defence. Second, no trying to sneak off unless I tell you that you can go do something. Third, if I tell you to do something, you do it, even against the other two rules, since there will come times where you might have to attack some people first. It won't be self-defence, but to most people around here, they don't care if you attack bandits first. Now, if those sound acceptable to you, nod. If they don't sound good, shake your head from side to side, and I'll happily reseal the stone I blew open and be on my way, and you can go back to...whatever it is you were doing in here."

Ruby nods at this, quite happy that she'd finally be able to go outside, even if it is with this strange, slightly aggressive man. Trotting over to him, Ruby raises her Dragon-y head up towards him and stretching herself out, giving her new crimson wings a good flap, accidentally raising herself off the ground slightly, prompting both her and the new man to let out a slight yelp of surprise. Glancing back at the man after giving her wings a quick look-over, she notices that his hand is on his sword, and faint sparks are visible on his hand again.

"Okay, new rule. No flapping your wings around like that, especially near me. I don't want to have my helmet constantly flying off my head!" The man yells, slightly red-cheeked at the fact that a baby dragon managed to scare him slightly. Ruby simply looks at him, twisting her head 90 degrees to the side like a puppy, then jumping when she realized that she could actually do that. Looking over herself one final time, Ruby then begins trying out things like twisting her head around to look behind her using only her neck, wrapping her tail around herself defensively, and various other things which would be impossible for her normally, while the man simply sighs, and pulls out a folded piece of paper from somewhere under his armor.

"Hey, Red, you know how to read a map?" Ignoring the new nickname, Ruby nods, trotting over to where the man had carefully laid out his paper, revealing it to be, surprise surprise, a map. But, upon close inspection, Ruby could only think one thing.

'I don't think I'm on Remnant any more...Even my imagination isn't good enough for this...' Ruby thinks to herself as she looks over the clearly different map, unable to link it to any map she'd ever seen, fictional or not, before slightly panicking at the thought that she might, in fact, be awake, actually here, next to this man, looking at a map of somewhere that Ruby had never seen before, in the body of a dragon, with no sign of how she got there, nor how to get back.

At this, Ruby suddenly yelps, drawing the mans attention from the map, a sudden realization dawning upon her. 'What happened on Remnant? Did I die? Did I just vanish? Oh no, no no no, what do the others think happened?!'

Lost in her own thought, Ruby barely even noticed the man now staring at her with interest, noting to himself how this Crimson-Red Baby Dragon was seemingly internally panicking at something. Admittedly, considering the tomb he found it in had been sealed since Alduin was first recorded, making it the first time in over 4000 years that the tomb had been inhabited by anything other than this dragon, only being opened today thanks to his pyrotechnic skills, but it still seemed as though this dragon wasn't panicking at something like that. Besides, the dragon looked healthy enough, as though it had been there a day at most, despite that being very improbable, considering the only entrance is the hole he was now standing in.

Plus, the dragon was able to understand his speech, which was an enigma in itself, considering the dragon shouldn't have been able to understand a language developed after the tomb was created. Thus, the only logical explanation for this would be that this dragon was in fact freshly born to this world, trained to understand human language, then somehow sent to this Tomb to wait for Alduin to come along and bind it, just like Kynesgrove. Well, as the Dragonborn, surely taking this young dragon from where Alduin could find it and bind it to his will, and instead raise it to be useful would be an action befitting the Dragonborn! Perhaps he could even train it to fight against Alduins will, and use it as a fighter and scout against the damnable world-eater.

And also because it'd be pretty cool to have a crimson dragon as a companion. Lydia is nice, but she could do with being a bit more assertive, instead of muttering about burdens constantly. And don't even get started about Sven. Lydia at least is competent in fighting, Sven just wildly swings his weapon at whatever comes close. Speaking of competent fighting...

"Hey Red," Ruby snaps herself out of her sorrowful thoughts about her friends to gaze at the man. "Do you actually know how to fight?" At this, Ruby thinks for a moment, before twisting her neck back and forth, tipping her head one way, then the other. Repeating this a few times, she continues looking at the man, who is simply staring, trying to figure out what she wants to tell him, before snapping his fingers together. "Oh, you mean that as a so-so answer, right?" Ruby nods again. "Alright, so, how do you mean, so-so?"

Burying her head in the rubble around, Ruby lets out a quiet roar of annoyance at her lack of communication skills, wishing she knew more about that pink-haired mute that Yang fought since she seemed quite good at conveying her thoughts to people. Though, she was human, so she had facial expressions to help with that. All Ruby had now were scales. Upon un-burying her head and looking back at the man, Ruby thought for a moment, before walking forward and nudging his sword, then glancing back up at him expectantly.

"Hmm? You want me to...draw it?" Nodding, Ruby then spins around, hearing the sound of a sword drawn from its scabbard. Bouncing a few steps away, Ruby takes a few moments to unlimber her new limbs, get a feel for how she can now move, before spinning on the spot and facing the man again, then unfolding her wings from her back and gently flapping them a few times, looking at the man all the while, who, after a few moments, realizes what she's trying to say.

"Okay, fine, you can use your wings. Just, try to avoid blowing my helmet off. So, what do you want to do, I'm guessing you want to do a practice spar?" Nodding vigorously, Ruby settles into what feels like a decent stance, still trying to get used to her new reptilian body, mentally planning her attack on the man in front of her, everything else shut out.

"Well, I can safely say I never thought I'd get into a practice spar with a baby dragon, probably be worth a good mead or two as a story. Well, whenever you're ready I guess Red." He said, settling himself into a guard stance, one hand holding his sword the other out, ready to balance himself against his opponent. Considering it's size, he decides that the dragon will probably attempt to use it's small frame to get in close and avoid sword swings using speed, then maybe go for the back of the knees, knocking him down far enough that it could then leap up and maul him.

Imagine his surprise then, when the little red dragon zips forward at lightning speed, unfurling its wings and blasting towards him in mid-air, suddenly wrapping around his throat like a python, before headbutting his jugular in a clear display of lethality. In a live fight, he knew that the little red dragon could have easily clamped down on his jugular and safely fled before he could even get a revenge attack in. After the headbutt, the dragon then unwraps itself, settling on his shoulder, before considering its position, and apparently deciding that a shoulder is a comfortable place, wrapping its tail under his armpit for stability, nestling itself comfortably on his shoulder, whilst it's head cranes away and back towards him, looking at him in an expectant gaze, a mischievous glint in its eyes.

"W-Well, definitely fast there Red. Okay, I can see why you said so-so. I could imagine that against an opponent covered in heavy armor with no spots you could easily bite or scratch, you'd be pretty useless," The dragon lowers it's head slightly and does the best impression of a sulk that a dragon could do. "but against someone with any kind of opening not covered in leather or chainmail, so people like me, you'd be the perfect little assassin." At this, Ruby has the dragon equivalent of a blush, before nudging his cheek and wrapping her head around herself.

"To be fair, while it's quite odd, it'll definitely be faster and easier for us if you travel on my shoulder since it means you won't have to eat as much, and we'll move at my pace. And, surprisingly, you aren't that heavy, so it's not like I'm gonna be moving slower or be very sore after having you on my shoulder for hours."

Ruby just nods, happy to not have to worry about walking around, content to simply rest and examine both the man she's now riding on, and also check the scenery out, all from the safety of the surprisingly comfortable shoulder.

"Oh, that reminds me, since it wouldn't be fair for me to constantly refer to you as 'It', and I'm sure you wouldn't appreciate me checking, do you have a gender?" At this, Ruby once again has a dragon-blush, before nodding and looking at him, waiting for him to realize that he needs to actually pose it as a question.

"Oh, right. Well, are you male?" Ruby shakes her head. "So, you're a female dragon?" Ruby nods, before wrapping her head back down, making it clear she doesn't want to talk about that any further. "Well, let's get the pseudo-introductions out of the way. Hi there Red, I'm Halva Stoneheart, Dragonborn, Thane of Whiterun, Companion, Dwemer Expert, Vampire-Hunter, and other various titles. Nice to meet ya!" Halva says, placing a hand out for the dragon to shake, only to remember that she doesn't exactly have hands to shake with.

Making a vaguely greeting-like noise, Ruby simply turns to face him, butting her head gently against his hand, then going back to watching the scenery. After a little while of walking, her head tilts up towards the sky, where a large bird flies by, seemingly without a care in the world. Rustling her own wings, Ruby eagerly thinks about what proper flying must feel like. Sure, she'd flown in a ton of Bullheads before, but there's a difference between flying by bullhead, and being actually free like a bird.

Noticing his new companions attention being drawn to the sky, Halva shrugs, the gesture jostling Ruby, who tilts her head back down to look at him again.

"Hey, don't forget the rules. Once I'm sure you aren't going to go pillaging wagons of food or stealing sheep you can go off flying, but for right now, I'd prefer if you stayed on the ground, or only on short hops, like gliding up to my shoulder. I don't want you flying around like a bird. Plus, if any guards saw you, they might mistake you for a regular dragon, and I'm sure that you don't want to be turned into a pincushion of arrows, do you?"

Shaking her head vigorously, Ruby casts one last glance at the sky, before lowering her head and looking towards the small camp that Halva is approaching. Once they get near, Ruby has her attention drawn towards the woman currently tending the campfire. Seemingly clad in similar armor to her new...owner? Travelling buddy? Ruby decides to settle on simply companion, before returning her attention to the woman, who has a quiver of arrows on her back, a large shield strapped over the top of then, with a sword sheathed at her hip.

A sword, Ruby notes, which is being pulled out of the sheath by a now wide-eyed woman, who regards her with a mix of fear, suspicion, and curiosity.

"Lydia, sword away. This one isn't like other dragons."

"B-but my Thane, I thought all the dragons were-" Before 'Lydia' could say more, Halva raises his hand to stop her, before continuing. "No, just the ones we've met. From the fact that little Red here both had the speed to beat me in a spar, and the fact that she understands speech, it's clear that she doesn't wish us harm, and that she's probably just as confused as we are." Ruby nods along, agreeing silently with everything being said, and preening just a little at the slight praise given to her about her speed.

Then, Ruby notices a little red stone on one of the rings attached to the fingers of the new woman. Nudging Halva, Ruby then looks back between him and Lydia, trying to get him to understand that she wants to go over to her.

"Oh, Lydia. I think Red wants to approach you. Please don't attack her. And yes, she is female."

"B-...As you command, my Thane." Lydia sheaths her weapon, still keeping her hand on the handle, watching while Ruby hops off Halva and makes her way towards Lydia, staring at her hand all the while. Once within touching distance, Ruby looks up at Lydia's face, then back at the hand, before slowly and gently, wary of the few small spikes atop her head, pressing her nose against the ring present on her finger.

Halva, meanwhile, simply stares at Red, who seems to be trying to tell them something, from the way she keeps nudging Lydia's hand, and looking between them expectantly. Suddenly, Lydia lifts her hand up, startling both him and Red, before taking her ring off and presenting it to the dragon, who regards it for a moment before glancing around, as if looking for something.

Lowering her head, Ruby begins dragging her nose through the dirt, realizing that she has a rather irritating but still effective way of communicating in a very basic way, by just digging letters into the ground. She slowly scrapes out dirt, occasionally stopping to raise her head up and shake dirt away from her nose and eyes, forming letters as she goes. After a good few minutes of scraping, she manages to make enough of a dent in the dirt to be vaguely readable as 'name'. After this, she then runs over to a bushel of roses, gently butting her head against them before returning to Lydia and nudging the ring.

After reading the letters, then glancing back at Ruby, who seems to be alternating between pressing her nose against the ring, nudging a bushel of roses, and staring at the two of them. Halva then realizes what Red was trying to tell them.

"Oh, so you're name is Rose Ruby?" Jumping on the spot, Ruby vigorously twists her head, repeating the same motion for so-so, hoping he gets the damned message. "So-so? Oh, so Ruby Rose? 'Finally' Ruby thinks with a sigh as she nods her head, glad that she could finally tell them her name.

Rubbing his chin, Halva nods. "Well, Ruby Rose, I suspect we're going to get up to some very fun adventures..."

Shaking her head again, Ruby simply trots over to the fire, curling up next to it and enjoying the warmth, while her companions quietly talk away from her. Thinking about Beacon and what could have happened, Ruby can find nothing out of place about the day, nor anything to suggest why she was suddenly both a dragon, and in some new world.

Deciding such philosophical questions aren't worth thinking about until she's nicely settled in, Ruby places her head on her new tail, and drifts back to sleep calmly.