The Reluctant Conquest of Ruby Snow Chapter Four

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Ruby

The godswood was always so pretty. Trees and vines hugged each other as they did everything they could to suck up all the sun, forming a thick canopy of green that was speckled with thousands of pretty flowers in endless bloom. Petals and leaves would fall to the soft and spongy undergrowth in a constant cycle as the air was thick with a billion competing scents.

Some people apparently found the godswood creepy. I suppose it was sort of like how some people felt super uncomfortable outdoors or how others could feel claustrophobic inside some buildings...

Agoriphobic! That was the word. Some people had averse reactions to particular environments, so I could imagine a place like the godswood would freak some people out. But it had always seemed nice and comfortable to me. A quiet place that smelled nice and had lots of pretty flowers. What more could you want?

It was hardly a surprise that the godswood was inside Winterfell's walls. If you were in a war under siege I would want somewhere nice to go and relax too. Bran the Builder clearly had the right idea when he made this place.

The rest of the castle was a bit of a hodge podge mess, a lot of different styles and structures that clashed. But that was in part due to Winterfell being built up over thousands of years. 

I slipped though the winding paths that the trees had left for us as birds let out pretty calls, likely complaints about some human stomping about their home. Sorry birdies! I just need to borrow the godswood for a little bit. I needed some degree of privacy for what I was up to, the birds could watch if they wanted. I didn't mind. 

Birds tended to be less judgemental, being labelled a Witch meant that people would treat you super weird and inconsistently. So anything that was sorta magic coded was best kept on the down low. I did not want people to come to me to have their fortunes told, I was not about that life!

And I would have to make up stuff and get people super upset with me. If I tried to tell people ‘Aura is not magic, Aura is Aura.’ they would just hear ‘blah blah blah magic magic magic’. That and learning I had magic would just give Catlyn another reason to hate me... ugh.

Now and then bushes or branches would try to grab onto my stylish red cloak but I was not in a rush so I would just stop and tease the cloth out of the grabby plants grip without hurting them and continue on my way.

The godswood was roughly three acres, but not really because it was a funny shape so it was a bit more than that actually. And it was also impossible to go though the wood in a straight line. You had to go where the trees wanted you to go so it would often take quite some time to get through the wild growth. 

I stepped out of the winding forest paths and shaded my eyes from the brilliance of the sun playing across a bone white tree with blood red leaves so brilliant it was as if the tree was burning in the light. No matter how the paths would change in the godswood or how wild it would become you could always find the Grumpus. 

“Good morning Grumpy!” I called out, annoying a raven that ‘cawed’ at me as I skipped though the clearing around the big Weirwood tree. All the other trees gave Grumpus space meaning that the area around him was the biggest clearing in the wood. “Looking handsome today.” I praised him as I strode up to the face carved into the tree and gave Grumpus a hug, taking care to avoid the blood red sap leaking from his face. 

I was still not quite sure how the Old Gods religion stuff worked but it seemed like a good idea to be nice to the god-trees. Never knew when they would turn out to be actual gods or something, Brothers knew the universe was strange like that. 

“Sorry to bother you so early but I need somewhere to practice, I’m sure you don’t mind do you?” I giggled and put down a basket onto his thick and winding roots. “Okeedokee, breakfast ready, privacy achieved, now... lets see how rusty I am.” I was dressed casually, comfortable leggings and a long-sleeved blouse with a skirt and light petticoat reaching my knees. Sansa loved my petticoats and included them in some of her outfits the thief! She was super pretty in them however so I forgave her.

It was never too cold in the godswood so I did not have any of my cute fur jackets on over the top. I did have my steel toe cap boots on however, I aint going in a root infested godswood without ankle support! No sir!

I walked into the biggest part of the clearing with the most flattish ground possible and spread out my legs and planted my hands on my hips.

Right.

Yes.

Aura, Semblance...

I should do a warmup first actually.

I began to run though a series of simple stretches to get the blood pumping all the while Mr Raven moved from branch to branch to get a good look at what I was doing. Before long I ran out of stretches and had to actually get on with what I was doing.

My Aura had been with me in this life as a tiny echo of what it once was before. But it had always been there and it had been growing more over time. I closed my eyes and placed a hand on my chest, taking deep and controlled breaths as I took greater care to try to feel the power inside of me as it flowed though my body.

It seemed easier than before, when I had experimented with my Aura over the years, it was reacting more quickly and seemed less... stagnant. But it was still super hard to get a grasp on like, how powerful it was.

Less than before, but how much less?

I wondered why exactly I was having such an easy time training my Aura now rather than all the times I had tried it before. I don’t think there was anything that had changed recently but something clearly had? Perhaps it was because I was almost fifteen... but I had been a lot more powerful when I was a lot younger in my first life.

Could I be impacting how my Aura was developing somehow? I did want to live a quiet and peaceful life without EVERYONE relying on me for everything and then blaming me when things went wrong because I had no idea what I was actually doing and no one would help me when I NEEDED IT!

I grabbed my hands to stop them from shaking and took a deep breath to calm down. Aura and Semblance practice, that is what I had to focus on for now. This was going to be fun! I would make sure of it. 

I focused and felt the familiar feeling of my Aura covering me like a protective blanket, I felt that super odd sensation of the temperature around my body becoming totally equalised and even some of my Aura seeping into my clothes slightly. I turned that off and opened my eyes, I would have to think of a way to measure out my Aura power. Perhaps dropping rocks from a set hight onto me until my Aura broke?

Wait no, that was dangerous. Ugghhhhh. 

It was so much easier to have a computer measure this stuff, Westaros was kinda lame with technology. 

I focused and let my body relax as I swayed forwards and backwards letting my arms hang at my sides before I threw myself forwards.

The world became indistinct around me as an unnatural momentum carried me forwards with my legs playing across the ground in a desperate attempt to keep stable. An attempt that was foiled by an unexpectedly bumpy root in my path.

In an instant I was splayed out in a thorny bush struggling to keep my eyes open as my Aura threatened to give out. “Aghh!” I shouted, my feet kicking up in the air as I tried to wiggle out of the bush and get my feet under me. I could feel the thorns scraping and poking but resisted the urge to let my Aura protect me. It was no good practicing if I used it all up on something like this.

“Okay, so the speed works, ow!” I untied my cloak and began the slow process of teasing it out of the poor bush that broke my fall trying to do as little damage to the garment as possible. “Thought that was going to be a bit beyond me at the moment.” I mused as I stalked back to the starting place while tying my cloak back on. The Raven was staring at me with his little beak agape so I winked at him and put a finger up to my lips with a shushing sound before I was ready for more practice. 

Once back in my position I relaxed and moved forwards again more carefully this time, my feet skipping across the ground as I circled the weirwood tree in just a few seconds, leaping across the dark mirrory pool that formed under Grumpus’ branches and staggering only slightly to reach my starting position. 

Dang, I was pretty slow.

Well, comparatively anyway. I hopped in place to bleed off the excitement going that fast as blood red petals covered Grumpus’ roots, rapidly fading away into dust carried on the slight breeze that worked across thousands of Weirwood leaves.

I felt my tummy grumble and decided to take a break, stepping over to Grumpus and my basket and settling on one of his more comfy roots. “Well, that worked out pretty well I would say. It’s nice to be able to use my Speed again, never know when you gotta go fast you know?” I glanced at Grumpus as I pulled out a beef and mustard sandwich from the basket wrapped in cloth and dug in as I hummed tapping my boots on his roots. 

“Ah, musterdy. You know I never used to like mustard that much, but when your pool of species suddenly gets super small you have to take what you can get.” I washed down my sandwich with a waterskin full of tasty super dooper minerally water. Winterfell being a water source with hot springs came with more than a few perks. 

With my sandwich finished I reached into the basket and produced a precious and delicious treat. A spongy glazed honey cake! I held the precious baked good in my hands and had to swallow to deal with all the saliva that filled my mouth as I opened my mouth with a loud ‘ahhhh’ before I bit down into the treat with a happy hum and a wiggle.

SO GOOD! 

It made up for there not being any chocolate chip cookies in winterfell. There were a lot of food items from the first life in this world, so I was sure that there was chocolate somewhere, but I had little doubt that I would have to go on a long and arduous adventure to bring the glory of chocolate to Westeros. 

I devoured my honey treat and cleared the crumbs off my clothes before washing everything down with the last of my water and getting up from my little food break. Well, I had to move onto my Semblance now, if I did much more with my Aura I would not have enough of it to power my Semblance after all. 

“Next...” Well, going full petal would be next. It was very difficult to tell just going fast apart from using my speed to go full ‘blob of rose petals’. The easiest way to practice with that aspect of my semblance was to sort of relocate somewhere I could not see but had seen before...

I looked at Grumpus.

He looked at me right back.

“You are somewhat obstacle shaped...” Besides I actually knew there was a clear space on the other side of Mr Grumpus, unlike the rest of the godswood where it was just a big tangle of trees and other plants. “If I crash into you, uh, super sorry, but you are a big tree so it will hurt me more than you anyway... yeah.” I assumed THE STANCE, and let myself relax as I allowed my aura to flow though me, fully activating it because I did not fancy getting a Grumpus inflicted concussion.

I closed my eyes and visualised the clear space on the other side of Grumpus as I took a deep breath and threw myself forwards. 

A thousand voices, screaming, crying, laughing, all suddenly silenced. I felt the world press down around me with incredible pressure as a million eyes turned to me. I could feel them even as there was no light to see. I felt myself sour though wet and cold faster than I had ever moved in all my lives until I staggered to regain my footing as bright light bore down upon me.

I staggered and felt my Aura shatter as I fell to my knees and vomited feeling an overwhelming sense of vertigo as my ears popped painfully from a change in pressure. I struggled to fill my lungs as I stared into my pukepuddle for a while, tears running down my cheeks as I felt my stomach threaten to add more to the grossness in front of me. But the feeling slowly passed and I carefully wiped the disgusting mess off of my mouth and onto the mossy ground before I got to my feet and looked around.

An angry, accusatory face glared at me from a bonewhite, scraggily branched tree. I looked to my side as a tree grinned at me, blood red sap oozing down his chin. Behind me a tree silently sobbed, another was frowning, and another simply stared with no discernible expression at all.

It was hot, unbearably so as I staggered in place, nausea and fatigue making the world hazy and indistinct. Before I fell backwards onto the soft loamy earth and felt my consciousness fade.

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