None of the girls knew how long they had been entrapped in the dark void they were forced into. They couldn't hear anything, they couldn't see anything but black, and only the wretched smell of sulfur was all they could make out while it burned in their nostrils. They felt it inside them too, though tasteless, it was in every way intrusive and going deeper until there was nowhere left the dark slime couldn't reach—that included their skin, which shivered to no end while their bodies gradually grew more and more numb to the sensation coursing through their veins. They thought they would be dead soon enough, and none of them would ever know they passed.

There were moments where they could all feel something else happening, something that felt very different from the other sensations, like something prodding at them and causing their heads to rumble. Something was being done to them. They knew not what, but it couldn't be good.

The feeling of air passing by them would come after a while, although the black void around them remained ever present during their apparent descent.

Ruby opened her eyes to a bright blue sky, just a blue sky. There was no sun, nor clouds, not even a hint of breeze. As she came to be more in touch with herself and her surroundings, she found she'd been lying on the...ground. It was definitely some kind of floor, but it didn't sit well with her that it was white as snow.

"H-hello…?" she called out, sitting up to look around and see if she could find anyone else. But there was silence. A sinking feeling came through her as she called again, "Hello?"

Still, no answer came.

Ruby let go a soft huff as she stood up on her feet. As far as her eyes could see, there was nothing around to be heard of. It was just a blank limbo, and she was the only outlier in the whole plain.

"Yang…? Blake…? Weiss…?" She called out next, hoping for any of them to appear and answer her. But just as before, nobody came present, and still no thing, living or otherwise, was to be heard.

She blinked, and when she turned around, she double-taked. Where there was a white canvas to call a ground before, now there was a whole field of grass at her feet.

"Okay...that's not weird at all…" she said as she furrowed her brow. Ruby took a step onto the grass, and was somewhat delighted to hear the sound of the little blades crunching under her boot. As soon as she took another step, she looked back and found the scenery behind her had given way to grass too. One more look back behind her would then bring her facing a tall tree. "Agh!"

She fell over, and looking around she saw more trees had appeared. Ruby suddenly began to panic as she tried to figure out what was going on.

"Whoever's doing this, it's not funny!" she cried.

Snap...the sound of a broken branch came.

"Who's there?!" Ruby snapped behind her.

The forest soon became darker as the branches and leaves overhead grew thicker. Ruby tried to run for any source of light that was left, but more and more the darkness of the forest had become seemingly endless.

Then, after running for what seemed like forever, Ruby felt a hand grab her arm. She turned around and screamed. "Agh! Let me go-let me go-let me go!"

"Calm down, young girl, I'm not going to hurt you…" the woman's voice carried softly. When Ruby brought up the will to open her eyes, she was face to face with a beautiful woman with blonde hair and bright blue eyes.

After a moment passed for Ruby to calm down, she asked, "Who- who are you? Where are we?"

"Are you alright?" the woman asked, seeming genuinely caring. She smirked as she told her, "I can walk with you if you'd like."

But Ruby wasn't so quick to agree, and she even fought against the woman's grip trying to break free. She took off running but did not get very far, for she had run into a tree before even noticing it was there. "Ow…"

The woman rushed to her side after the incident, helping Ruby up as she told her, "You should be more careful, it's dangerous to run without watching where you're going."

Ruby wasn't intent on listening anymore. She already knew whatever was going on was some kind of dream. It had to be. There was no other way she could describe it. But as she tried again to run away, she found herself not having the will to do so anymore as the woman placed a hand on her shoulder. A wave of calm passed through her with the warm touch.

The woman giggled as she told her, "I used to have a daughter who was just like you: she would run into the woods and play hide and seek, only to come running back for being scared."

"But...I'm trying to get away from you…" Ruby told her, rubbing her eyes after getting some wood dust in them. She was glad the woman let her go, but contrary to how she felt, she couldn't work up the nerve to walk away. And frankly, she didn't feel like she could if she couldn't see. "The story about your daughter sounds sweet, but I just want to get away from you."

"Why is that?" the woman asked. She seemed genuinely concerned for Ruby as she then added, "Would it help if I guided you to a place where there was more light?"

"I don't know you…" Ruby told her. "And I didn't see any light that you could take me too. Please, just let me go…"

"If I told you my name, would you feel better?" the woman asked, opting to continue offering to help her.

Ruby remained silent as she gulped, for her throat had run dry with fear still grasping hard at her. Even as the woman kept her hand on her shoulder to comfort her, she still felt very tense while unable to move away. After a long moment, she let go a shuddering sigh, knowing she most likely wasn't going to get out of this. She gave the woman a weak nod as she looked down, having given up.

The woman smiled as she took Ruby's chin, gently bringing her face to meet hers as she told her, "My name is Salem."

Ruby suddenly felt a sense of numbing ease as Salem took her hand and led her through the forest.

"So, what's your name?" Salem asked.

Ruby took her time before answering while Salem helped her step over a large group of roots. Her throat was dry as sand, and for a moment she croaked before she worked up the will to tell her, "Um...I'm Ruby…"

"Ruby…" Salem echoed, her smile continuing to radiate with calm. "That's a wonderful name."

"Um...thank you…" Ruby muttered. She really didn't want to make small talk, but she figured if she was going to be walking in the company of someone she just met, she might as well. "So why are you here?"

"I was just enjoying a walk in the shade," Salem told her. "When I heard your voice, I thought you needed help."

"Well, I...sort of…" Ruby didn't quite know how to put her words together to help Salem understand. How was she to explain that she woke up in a world of white one moment and then running in a forest the next? She asked, "Would you believe me if I told you none of this felt right?"

"Life never feels right," Salem told her, helping Ruby under a branch. "We could go through days feeling like we weren't all there, or maybe there's something about the world around you that feels off—something like that?"

"Yeah…" Ruby said.

"Well, why don't we go to that spot I told you about, and then we can talk all about it?" Salem asked with a warm grin.

Again, hesitation kept Ruby from answering. Though she knew she'd probably get nowhere fast declining and walking away from her. She more than likely wouldn't get very far. It seemed going with Salem to wherever this place she was talking about was going to be the thing that made the most sense in this strange place.

After finally making up her mind, Ruby gave a soft nod and told her, "Alright."

Weiss had woken up in the middle of a cold tundra. She hugged her arms and shivered while looking around, but the snow was so thick she could hardly see a thing. Her breath froze into a small plume of ice with every breath she took.

"He- hello!?" Her voice echoed in the wind. She couldn't tell if there was anyone around to hear her, but she wasn't going to wait to find out.

She got on her feet, gasping when she fell knee deep into the snow beneath her. Already she could feel the surrounding fluff melting and seeping into her boots, working its way down to her feet before freezing again. She knew she had to move quickly if she was going to find shelter to wait out the storm.

The walk was utterly treacherous. She'd only made it what she thought to be a hundred yards and she already felt the desire to stop and sit down.

"Hello!?" Weiss called out again. "Is anyone out there!?"

But still, no answer came back, just her own as it echoed back at her in the wind.

"Ugh…" Weiss groaned. She pressed on forward through the snow, growing less and less caring about whether anyone would find her or not.

Hours would go by, and soon her whole body began to feel numb; she had already lost most sensation in her feet. She tried to use her hands to dig her way through, but her hands would begin to ache in short order, pain shooting through her arms like cold spikes had been run through them. By then, she'd only made herself waist deep in the snow.

Weiss then tried to crawl over the snow. She bent forward and laid on her stomach, putting her arms in front of her to attempt to pull herself along. And it worked, somewhat. She tried to use her legs, but they were already so numb she couldn't tell where they were; pushing them against the snow was going to be a hard thing to gauge.

But even crawling would prove futile after a while. Though Weiss managed to get some distance crawling, it was for naught. She'd only managed to speed up what was already happening to her, and now there was no part of her she felt that had once been warm. She curled up and hugged herself, trying to warm back up so she could keep going, but when she saw her hands, she grimaced to see they were deathly pale and coating over with frost. She tried to move her fingers, but all she got was a needling sensation.

Weiss looked down to her feet and tried to move her toes, but beyond the feeling of ice in her boots, she felt the same numb sensation there too. Even her knees felt useless.

She began to cry, wincing at the feeling of her tears freezing on her face. She felt like it was hopeless, that she'd die here and be buried in the snow, never to be seen again.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaagh!" she screamed, as loud into the sky as she could. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

But she wouldn't be able to scream for much longer. When she tried to scream again, she only managed to let out a croaked howl from her exhausted lungs.

Soon, she'd be unable to hold herself up. When she fought to retain her balance, she lost the strength in her arms shortly after. She'd grunt after landing face first in the snow.

She could feel it, her heart growing weaker, throbbing slowly in her chest as it tried so hard to keep her freezing cold blood moving. Bump...bump...bump...bump...she heard in her head, the weak pounding of a soft drum, like death was slowly knocking on the door to her soul.

Weiss brought her head out of the snow, looking out to the blizzard-filled horizon while her eyes ebbed to close shut. Another tear fell down her face, freezing over the next moment in a fruitless effort to reach the ground.

"He-...help…" the one word she could utter. But it was so weak even she couldn't feel herself saying it.

Then it came, the long, shuddering breath she'd been dreading. As she dropped her head down she felt her lungs letting go the last remaining pocket of air she had, escaping her frozen blue lips in a long trail of mist fleeting into the wind.

She closed her eyes, letting the bitter cold finally embrace her wholly.

But then, something began to appear through the harsh winds, a dim light pierced through the snowy wall, coming near to where Weiss laid. And as the winds softened and faded, the light revealed a figure draped in white carrying a lantern. Her steps graced over the snow as if she were walking on solid ground.

The woman caught sight of an unconscious Weiss, and she went over to her. As she knelt down next to her, the winds and snow gradually slowed their hellish gusts.

She brought her hand over Weiss's head. The poor girl's face was covered in light frost, and her skin was as white as the snow she rested on. It appeared she was still breathing, though her breath was faint and cool.

"Look at you…" the woman told her as she brushed a strand of Weiss's hair behind her ear. "Lost and alone, trying to fight that which cant be tamed."

Weiss couldn't hear her, nor could she feel the woman turning her over onto her back. The woman set down her lantern and opened the cover, letting what little heat it gave off warm Weiss back up.

The lantern wasn't the only source of heat though. At the next moment, the woman brought her hands together, and her palms began to glow a soft orange taking them apart. She'd hover her palms over Weiss's chest, and the frost dissipated instantly; same for her head as the woman trailed her hands up, then she'd go to warm her arms and legs last.

After a few minutes of gentle warming, Weiss's eyes began to flutter open. Though her eyelids were still heavy. Once she was able to keep her eyes open long enough, she squinted at the sight of the sun in the clear blue sky. She looked over to her left, and there she spotted the woman who came to help her.

"Looks like I came just when you needed me," the woman told her as she leaned Weiss up. "You looked like a goner for a moment."

"...I felt gone…" Weiss muttered, grasping her head as she endured a massive headache. Her hands still felt like they'd been stuck in buckets of ice, now stinging more than numb.

"There's a cave I know of that isn't too far from here," the woman told her. "I can take you there if you wish."

At first, Weiss was hesitant, but the desire to tell her no had been outweighed by the feeling of gratitude for saving her life. After all, what choice did she have anyway?

"Um...yeah, I guess…" Weiss told her. But before she would go with her, she asked, "Wait, what's your name?"

After the woman had helped Weiss onto her feet again, she smiled and told her, "My name is Salem."

Weiss nodded, allowing her hand to be taken as Salem led her along the path. Out of habit, she told her, "I'm Weiss."

"Weiss, that's a beautiful name," Salem told her.

And so the two went on through the tundra valley, walking along the snow like it was solid stone. Weiss had so many questions, but she'd keep them as they walked to find shelter.

Blake woke up to the sounds of water droplets falling to the ground, echoing through a large cave. Although it was lit by torches, it was still very dark within, and there was no natural light to be seen. Moreover, she was stuck in a cage.

Blake crawled over and gripped the bars, looking around and trying to see if anyone was there to help her. "Hello?"

Then she heard the faint sound of shuffling, and she tried to look past the bars to see what it was. It turned out there was another cage next to hers. She couldn't see who it was, for the cages only had bars on one side, while everything else was solid plate.

"So the beast caught you too?" a feminine voice spoke up.

"Beast? What be-" Blake gasped and rushed to the corner of the cage as she heard the sounds of growling and large hooves clumping against the ground.

Coming in from another part of the cave, Blake was witness to a colossal monster as big as a house. A true behemoth with a bull's body and head connected with the torso of a man.

The beast knelt down to look into the cages, and Blake sat petrified against the wall pretending to not be there. After letting go a loud huff, the beast went and looked at the prisoner in the other cage. It would leave the same way it came moments later.

Once it was gone, Blake let go a sigh of relief, not even realizing she had been holding her breath. She started trembling as she crawled back over to the bars. With quivering in her voice, she asked, "W-what w-was that...thing?"

"Our warden…" the woman told her. "It doesn't do anything but stomp around and check on us."

"Why are we here?" Blake asked.

"I don't know," the woman answered. "I was taken from a road through a forest, but that was a long time ago, I don't even know how long anymore."

A moment of pause followed while Blake sat down and hugged her knees. She was almost about to cry.

"Where were you taken from?" the woman then asked.

"I-..." Blake paused. She tried to think of where she was captured, but anything before waking up in the cage was blank. "I don't know…"

The woman could be heard letting go a deep sigh. "It's probably best not to think too hard on it-what's important is that we wait for an opportunity to break out, if such a moment were to come."

"I hope you're right," Blake said, her ears folded down with her despair. After a brief moment, her ears folded up part way as she told the woman, "I'm Blake."

"It's good to meet you, Blake," the woman replied. Then she introduced herself, "My name is Salem."

"So how did you get captured?" Blake asked.

"Taken by surprise, blindfolded, knocked out...it doesn't matter," Salem told her, bluntly at that. "All I know is I was supposed to be returning home, but I wound up getting stuck here instead."

"I'm sorry to hear that…" Blake said, leaning the back of her head against the wall. "I'm sure your family is worried."

A pause followed. But before it grew unsettling, Salem said, "Maybe."

That made an ear perk up, as did one of her brows as Blake asked, "Maybe?"

"Suffice to say life at home wasn't always great," Salem confessed.

After a moment of pause, Blake then told her, "I sort of know what that's like—would you like to talk about it while we count the hours to our lives?"

A chuckle could be heard from the other side of the wall, for which Salem would say, "Sure, why not?"

Yang had been walking through a thick forest for a little while now, unsure of where she was going or if she was getting anywhere. Part of her thought she wasn't getting anywhere at all. Everything looked the same, both forwards and backwards on the trail, and the treeline on either side of her.

"Helloooo?" she called out, like she had the past fifteen or so times before. She'd been looking for Ruby, but her sister was nowhere to be found.

Looking up, she noted that the sun had not moved even a little bit that she could tell. It's heat filled the air in the forest as she walked. She ended up wiping a few beads of sweat off her brow before long. She was used to the heat though, there hadn't yet been a day where she wasn't.

Beyond the occasional rock she'd kick, there wasn't much else to see or do, unless she wanted to venture into the woods and see if she could get lost-at least then she wouldn't be stuck following the same trail for hours on end.

"Ugh…" she groaned, kicking another stone into the treeline.

She paused for a moment, stopping in her tracks as she looked to the woods beside her. She looked back at the trail ahead, then she shrugged. "Screw it, it's not like I'm getting anywhere fast anyway."

And so, Yang stepped off the path, walking towards the trees until she was dredging through thick grass, sticks and roots. She could contend with the harsh terrain thanks to her boots, but beyond wanting to go anywhere that wasn't the trail, she didn't want to spend the entire time walking through the forest either.

A couple hours would pass, and still she was no closer to anything than when she started. It was just nothing but forest for miles around it seemed—she even lost track of where she came from.

Then, her foot got caught in an arched root.

"Woah! Oof!" With a solid thud, Yang found herself face first on the ground. But she was tough, a little fall wouldn't bring her down, only she still managed to get a large gash on her arm. She thought she might've scraped it against the tree on her way down. She touched it and winced, "Hsss- ow, great…"

Yang opted to deal with her arm later. For now, there was still the matter of where she was going, and frankly she was tempted to make the blind walk back to the trail if she could find it again.

But then, after a little while longer of navigating the dense forest, Yang finally made it to a clearing that featured a small lake and cottage.

"Huh…" Yang said, raising her brow. "Okay, not what I was expecting, but I'll take it."

She made her way around the lake, marveling at how clear the water was, spotting a couple fish swimming around. There were also a grand assortment of water lilies and other aquatic plants growing over the water like its own kind of garden. It was a beautiful spectacle.

So much so, in fact, that Yang picked up one of the water lilies, looking at the bright red flower that bloomed on it. It was a perfect bloom. She went on to gently remove the flower from the lilypad and stick it in her hair, and after playing around with it for a moment, she looked at her reflection in the pond and said, "Yep, perfect."

Then her attention went to the cottage, which seemed to be fairly well kept. Perhaps the owner was there? There was only one way to find out.

She made her way over to the front porch and looked through the windows, only there were no occupants to be seen in either of the rooms she looked into. She went around to check another window, and nothing there either. And there was no one to be seen through the opposite side window as well.

Making her way back around to the porch, Yang thought from where she stood that there wasn't anyone home. But when she went to check the door handle, she was surprised to find it unlocked.

Yang looked around for a moment, trying to see if there was anyone coming from a place she didn't know where, but after a moment's hesitation she finally huffed and went into the cottage.

At first glance, the cottage appeared to be quite cozy. There were a lot of handcrafted furnishings in the living room that seemed to have been built along with the home. A kitchen stood at Yang's right at the door. And there was a staircase which led to an upstairs area, which was odd because Yang saw now windows up there, she thought it was one story with an exposed ceiling.

Regardless of its appearance on the inside, Yang merely wished to stay and rest for a little while. She first went to the kitchen and sought out something she could use to wipe off her arm.

She grabbed a small towelette and dipped it in some water, dabbing her scratch until no red could be seen anymore.

Once she finally dealt with her wound, Yang thought she'd go into the living room and take a nap in one of the chairs or maybe the couch. She ultimately ended up choosing the latter, knowing she couldn't stand to be coddled up in a chair.

The couch was especially comfortable. It's fur lining was exactly what Yang hoped for as she removed her boots and laid down. She stretched out her arms and legs, splaying herself out shortly afterwards, and once she was comfortable, she closed her eyes and went to sleep.

But Yang was like a rock when she slept, and a couple minutes after passing out, soft footsteps came from upstairs, then the telltale sign of creaking wood as another person walked down the stairs. Yang heard none of it, and she remained asleep as the woman who lived there came into the living room, taking a seat in one of the chairs facing her.

The woman cleared her throat and said to her, "Didn't your mother tell you to knock?"

"Wha-huh!?" Yang shot back awake, startled by the woman's voice. She scrambled back up and started putting on her boots, skipping her way to the door. "I'm so sorry! I was just on my-" thud! "Woah-oof!"

The woman just stared at Yang after she tripped and fell, contemplating whether or not she should get up and help or watch as she struggled out the door. Though as inclined as she was to go with the latter, she chose the former and went over to help.

Yang didn't pay attention to the hand that had been put out to help her, much less ignoring and more not seeing it, as she hurried to get her other boot on. "I'm really sorry...I would've knocked, but the door was open and…"

"So you think that means it's right to enter another person's home?" the woman told her, though she wore a sly grin on her face, as opposed to a frown that Yang would've expected. Then the woman told her, "Come with me."

Yang was hesitant, wanting to just turn and run away, but she got herself into this, there wasn't any point in trying to get out.

She followed the woman into the kitchen. She heard her let out a huff, picking up the lightly bloodied towelette she cleaned her wound with.

"Well it's good you know how to take care of yourself," the woman told her. She put down the towelette a moment later and reached for a basket full of various produce, then picking out three apples to place on the counter, each of their own kind. "Pick one."

"Um...what?" Yang asked, confused by what she asked.

"Pick an apple," the woman told her. She didn't appear impatient, though there was a prudence in her voice Yang couldn't ignore.

It was an odd request, but Yang did as she was asked. She walked forward and looked at the apples the woman placed down: there was a dark red one, a bright red one with yellow splotches, and a bright green one. Not knowing what the point of it was or caring otherwise, she chose the yellow-splotched apple in the middle.

"Ah, the honeycrisp," the woman marveled aloud. "Not too sweet, not too sour, but just right."

"So...is there a point to this or…?" Yang asked, still confused.

"You're a girl who is both sweet and sour, a difficult balance-though I imagine you wind up on the sour part a lot," Salem told her. Then, to confirm, she asked, "Am I right?"

Yang still didn't know how to respond. She might've been right, but that still didn't change the fact that she was still an intruder in the woman's home and she felt obliged to get out. Part of her started to feel very nervous about not being allowed to leave.

Then, the woman told her, "My name is Salem. What's your name?"

Yang blinked, not expecting the introduction or the continual warm grin on Salem's face. She felt like there was either something off about her, or something else was going on she wasn't aware of yet.

In either case, Yang cleared her throat and told her, "Yang...thats my name."

"That's a strong name, Yang," Salem told her. "Name of your father, I take it?"

"Yeah, Taiyang," Yang said with some emphasis. But then she told her, "Look, I'm really sorry, I should just-"

"No-no-no," Salem cut her off. "I insist you stay and rest for a while. I was just about to get ready to make some lunch-you can help me if you'd like."

Yang wanted to refuse and be on her way, but she couldn't help but wonder why Salem wasn't mad at her for coming into her home; she had every right to be, but instead she was so calm and composed. Now she felt trapped, but then she began to wonder...Maybe this is all about manners?

Now willing to at least try, Yang nodded and said, "Um, yeah, sure, I guess."

And with that, Salem nodded and led Yang through the door and around to the garden.